Tapas and Theater

Saturday night, my friend Caroline was in town from D.C. We met a friend of hers for drinks at a cool pub on West 4th, the Four Faced Liar.

Bellies full of Blue Moon, we walked a few blocks to a tapas placed called La Bota on Greenwich Ave. I'd strolled by it a few times and thought it looked appealing.

It was even better on the inside! It's downstairs and feels warm and cozy like a cave...



(Photos from Yelp)

We had some tasty tapas -- patatas bravas, empanadas with spinach and manchego, dates wrapped in bacon and fried cauliflower with aioli. Then we split an order of paella negra. All washed down with a pitcher of cava sangria -- maybe too much! I spent much of Sunday in bed. Oopsie.

Another little nugget I forgot to post a few weeks ago...for a birthday treat, I took Neil to see Other Desert Cities with Stacy Keach, Stockard Channing, Judith Light and Rachel Griffiths from "Brothers and Sisters."

Here's how the show's website describes it:
In Jon Robin Baitz's OTHER DESERT CITIES, Brooke Wyeth (Rachel Griffiths) returns home to Palm Springs after a six year absence to celebrate Christmas with her parents (Stockard Channing and Stacy Keach), her brother (Thomas Sadoski), and her aunt (Judith Light). Brooke announces that she is about to publish a memoir dredging up a pivotal and tragic event in the family's history - a wound they don't want reopened. In effect, she draws a line in the sand and dares them all to cross it. 

(Photos from New York Times)
Favorite line: "Families get terrorized by their weakest member."

Neil and I agreed afterwards we loved the way the play presented all of the characters with richness and complexity. There were no simple good guys and bad guys. Indeed, the daughter's character -- with whom I thought I'd sympathize most -- annoyed me with her insistent need for her family's stamp of approval on a project that exposed their most painful chapter.

The play made me think about the ways we all create very different narratives from the same events. I was particularly glad to see it the week before I started two writing classes. Funny enough, one is a memoir class...the play would have made a great field trip!