Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Week of Entertainment Pt.2

My week of entertainment PLUS! continued. It stops at Wednesday the 28th, so don't get too excited.

Wednesday the 21st I met up with some people in Livu laukums and saw folklore group Vilkaci perform. Figures our friend Edgars would be in the group - there seem to be very few folklore groups that he's not a member of. It was a laid-back performance for the "grand opening" of Zelta filings, this beer-garden restaurant bar that basically changes its name every few years. The evening consisted of Vilkaci performing a few songs, then the increasingly more inebriated Host talking and then talking about how "if no one else wants to say anything theeeeeen I guess it's back to me!" Vilkaci is the folklore group that's supposedly known for not only singing, but also for gearing up and having old-time one-on-one combat shows. The first two guys fighting had a couple of clean rounds, finished with a truce handshake-hug. The next to guys fought like little monkeys. Swords and shields swinging all over the place, cheap shots to the head and groin. They finally went with the handshake-hug, but not before slamming each other in the helmet with the butt of their swords.

Thursday... Thursday I went and visited the relatives I had stayed with last fall (Agra & Co.), had a nice chat and some tea, then went home. It wasn't so much a night of entertainment, but a night of unwinding with some dog-therapy included (they've still got Doro).

Friday I don't remember what I did. There's nothing written in my calendar, so there's a good chance that Ilze, Julija and I met up like usual and decompressed after another hellish week. By decompressed I mean cocktail hour.

Saturday was Eurovision. This year I have surprisingly little to say, only that I'm a little disappointed that Dima Bilan won, considering his performance was... not really that spectacular. I'm sure the song is wonderful on its own, but how can the guy NOT be reaching for points when he has three-time Olympic figure skating champion Plushenko twirling around next to him? I have to say that Bilan's 2005 Eurovision song was actually better than this one. Maybe next year more than four countries will get themselves in gear and put out an act that they think has a chance at winning. I have to agree with the consensus that this year's contest was pathetic.

Who knows what happened Sunday. I think I did some work and then went to buy dish soap.

Monday nothing happened. Monday night I realised it had been a week since our dog Kimene had died and I spent my final hours awake in a crap mood.

Tuesday I once again headed out to Vienibas gatve and saw the daughter of the relatives with whom I stayed perform in the year-end recital of her music school. Another low-key and heartwarming concert, with free admission to boot :)

Wednesday was the big night for "Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat". I've never seen the performance in any language before, but Julija assured us that it was exactly the same, choreography included, except the words were in Latvian. The musical was enjoyable enough and an interesting change from ballets and operas.

Week of entertainment ovah.

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