Mariela in the Desert

Mariela in the Desert is a wonderful play.

Jose Salvatierre is dying. He has diabetes, and the doctors have given him only a few weeks to live. His wife, Mariela has sent a telegram to their daughter, Blanca, to try to get the young women to return home before he is dead.

Jose and Mariela were Mexican painters. They were friends of the other famous painters of the Mexican Renaissance: Kahlo, Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros, and Tamayo. They worked and partied with these people. Jose wanted to start an artist commune in the desert; he moved his family to the desert, but the others had not followed. Mariela gave up her painting to take care of the family. While Blanca was bright and talented, her brother, Carlos, was developmentally disable; he frequently had emotional episodes that required all of Mariela's time and attention.

Blanca returns home with Alan, who is older than her. He is a art history professor, who is doing a book about the painters. He wants to do a chapter about Jose.

Jose career has had one high point; one of his pictures had been chosen the bast painting in a exhibition of the painters. The problem was the painting that won the prize was not his painting. When he had failed in producing the required number of paintings for the contest, Mariela painted the last one, and it was the winner. When he returned to the desert, he was depressed, and expressed his mood by burning down his studio. However, Carlos had been hiding in the studio, and was killed in the fire.

This is the situation Alan discovers. The prized painting is in the house shrouded by a heavy dark cloth. Jose in his decline has defaced it, but it is still a presents.

Yetta Gottesman is a strong presents as Mariela. She does not over do the part. Vivia Fant as Blanca is spunky presents, showing the strength of Mariela, while rejecting the situation that has entrapped her.

Again it is wonderful play.

Noodles and Company

Noodles and Company

1502 S. Colorado Blvd.

Denver,CO 80222

http://www.noodles.com/

Noodles and Company is another fast food place that lets you build your order from a variety of items. Strangely for me I do not have a usual thing that I seem to always order here. They let you choose the pasta, sauce, and meat. You can order any combination of things, there just are somethings that seem to go together better, and there are some very tasty combinations.

Tokyo Joe's

Tokyo Joe's

1001 16th St.

Denver, CO 80265

303-825-1437

http://tokyojoes.com/index.html

Tokyo Joe's is another fast food place. Its main claim to fame is its rice bowls. When ordering you get to select the type of rice or noodles, meat, veggies, and sauce. I usually have the brown rice, beef, veggie mix, and teriyaki sauce. MMMM

They also have made to order sushi. There are also salads and their own special bowls.

Finally, a note needs to be added about their staff. They seem to find a lot of the young goth people in this town. They are very nice and helpful. Just different.

Chipotle Mexican Grill

Chipotle Mexican Grill

745 Colorado Blvd.

Denver, CO 80206

303-333-2121

http://www.chipotle.com/#/land

Chipolte is a fast food place. You get to build your own burrito (at least you get to tell the person taking your order what you want on the thing). You get to start with rice, and a choice of beans (I like the black beans). You then have a choice of meat (beef, pork, chicken, veggie). Then comes the salsa (I always have the medium corn). Then there are a couple of other things that you need to decide. It is then rolled and wrapped in foil. It is not as cheap as McD's, but then it has better flavor, and might be better for you.

Smiling Moose Deli

Smiling Moose Deli

727 Colorado Blvd.

Denver, CO 80206

303-333-3354

http://www.smilingmoosedeli.com/

The Smiling Moose Deli is mainly a sandwich place. In this neighborhood there are 6 sandwich places,and since the CU Med Center has moved, there is really not that big of demand for them (actually two others have closed). The Moose is the bast of the remaining. First, they have a couple of sandwiches that are a little different from the run of mill. There are two hot sandwiches that are good: 1) The Mighty Mo is a grinder cheese burger. It is ground beef, melted cheese, banana peppers, etc. and 2) The Parisian is a chicken breast with Brie, avocado, sun dried tomato, and pesto mayo.

You can construct your own sandwiches with a variety of breads, meats, cheese, and veggies. Finally there are a variety of breakfast sandwiches to start the day (is there an oxymoron in there?).

They are a cut above.

Mama Hated Diesels

The Denver Center Theater Company frequently primers musicals, which are not traditional dramatic musicals. They are pieces that are developed around an idea or a group, and feature the music associated with it. One musical that recently came to mind with the Massey coal mine explosion was Fire on the Mountain about West Virginia coal miners and their families.

Mama Hated Diesels is in that genre. It is about long haul truck drivers. Through the stories told by the actors the experiences and problems of long haul drivers are presented. Such pressure as families,drugs, lifestyles,and company practices are all presented. These are presented with pieces of country western music.

I loved this small piece. I have some small contact with drivers through my job, and this play has captured many of their stories. It might be a little sentimental, but many of the issues presented are real to these men and women.

Also the music was very good. I must admit that I am a fan of jazz and classical music, but I have a spot in my heart for country western music. Jazz and classical music are musics of the mind, while good country western music is of the heart. The music here hits the heart strongly.

Finally, included with the music and stories were a collection of wonderful photographs. Many of them are of roads in lonely place; the high plains were well represented. I grew upon the high plains,and love their solitude. I loved the photographs.

This was a wonderful piece about a group of people who are disappearing. Nice evening.

Zaidy's Deli

Zaidy's Deli

121 Adams St.

Denver, CO 80206

303-333-5336

http://www.zaidysdeli.com/

Zaidy's Deli is a great place to have a great cheap breakfast or lunch. Their latkes are good when used instead of bread in a sandwich with their pastrami. The Labels Special is special: latkes, eggs, lox, cream cheese, onions and tomatoes with a side of slaw---a real breakfast. This is non-kosher Jewish deli---all the good Jewish food plus ham. What can I say. it is good

Othello

I have a problem with Shakespeare. It is that while I love the stories of the plays, but I do not really care for the language which is used in the plays. I think the language is beautiful, but it interferes with the audience understanding of the story.

With that said, Othello is about relationships between races. This idea maybe more of an issue in the current age than it was in Shakespeare's time.

Othello is a Moor, who is a general in the Army of Venice. He has secretly married Dedemona, a daughter of a Venetian Senator. He has a strong enemy is the person of Iago, who has been passed over for promotion.

This performance was particularly good. Othello was played by Robert Jason Jackson. He brought a strong, but controlled dignity to the character. He did not over play the character.

Iago was played by John Hutton. In the past I have frequently not been a fan of John's depiction of various villainous characters. However, his performance here was believable. He brought an understated evil to the character that added force character.

Over all this was one of the better Shakespeare performances I have attended at the DCTC.