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| The City. |
DELICIOUS spicy ramen at Totto. They are notorious for long wait times, but since i was (forever) alone, i only had to wait about ten minutes! To be honest, the broth and noodles weren't as transcendental as i had made out in my mind; i prefer my own trademark spicy instant ramen recipe that i make whenever excusable. The highlights, though, are definitely the spicy sauce and tonkatsu pork - the sauce is peppery and full, and the pork is SO tender and juicy... my only regret is that i should have ordered more pieces of it!
After a long metro ride (where i saw Gala Darling's husband! I had to pinch myself!), i made it to Brooklyn for, finally, Stop the Virgens. We walked through a black tunnel, where a thin layer of gauze separated us from multitudes of moaning, whispering girls clad in white. As i passed by one of them, she mouthed in my ear, "The scum runs deep." I nearly peed myself. ANYWAY, the psycho-opera is no longer running, but i just want to put it out there that it was extraordinary (as in, so much more than ordinary). I honestly had trouble paying attention to the opera as a whole sometimes, because i was either shamelessly gaping at Karen, or at Brian or Chase playing their instruments on either side of the stage (i had no idea they'd be there!). There was a loose plotline involving a not-quite-human grand maternal figure (Karen) nurturing a young band of girls clad in white. She eventually starts treating them more like sweatshop workers than daughters, so they rebel and overthrow her. ...Umm, after that, i'm not quite sure what happens. But she comes back at the end, and there is love. And a lot of blood. I did pick out themes of destroyed innocence, naive cruelty, and tumultuous mother-child relationships, but honestly, for the most part, i just stood back and gaped. It goes without saying that Karen's voice sounded so so so beautiful live - although admittedly, i think i prefer YYYs songs to those that she wrote for Stop the Virgens.
Now, the COSTUMES. The virgens were, unsurprisingly, pure white - white wigs, eyes lined in white, clingy white strips of clothing wrapped around them. Karen wore the most PHENOMENAL outfits throughout the show - multi-layered tulle and silk crimson capes with gold tassels dotted on the inside, warrior dresses made of what looked like yak hair, puffy and pleated white dress trains that needed to be held up by several girls as she walked, fur erupting out of flowers and crab claws....
My own photos are of the stage set-up before the the show:
After the show, i dragged my dazed little self out of the theatre to wander around NYC for a few hours until my bus arrived....
Ginger tangerine sencha tea from Kyotofu, a tiny Japanese dessert and tea bar. I hung out there for a few hours, sipping tea, writing a few songs, and marveling at the milky bluish greyness of the sky. I had such a wonderful waiter - he was so kind and friendly. It also turns out that one of the lead actors in Stop the Virgens is his close friend! Small world.
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| Fresh ginger crème brûlée with green apple sorbet and vanilla bean tuile. I was planning just to get tea, but that waiter is good. He also didn't charge me for the tea because it apparently took an inordinately long time to arrive (which i didn't notice), so how could i say no? |
Alas, eventually, Kyotofu closed for the night and i spent the next hour huddling at a street corner, waiting for my bus to arrive. It eventually did - i boarded and sat down next to a nice old lady who waxed about the merits of a acetone and witch hazel skin regimen to me. The lights were totally dimmed inside the bus - is my could-be-better complexion really that obvious?!
It was such a great trip - not only did i get the opportunity to be surrounded by multiple priceless works of art, but i also realized for the first time that some of my idols are, in fact, real and human (as for the others, well, i'll just have to meet them sometime in the future, eh?). I didn't buy any souvenirs, save for a mini quince, rose, and cinnamon cheesecake from Victory Garden:
I gobbled it during the height of my customary post-trip depression. Ahhh.
With love,
Sia
