Brief Note: Shrove Tuesday

I’m on my way down south on Shrove Tuesday morning. This is an old English name for what is the last day of Carnival, among other things. This day is known in some parts of the Christian world as a day for consuming pancakes (owing to older strictures of Lent where fat was banned), but the term itself refers to the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation by individuals, whereas Ash Wednesday would be a day for public penitence.

An older friend who lived both in Venezuela and Spain for many years noted the definite change in public mood the second Ash Wednesday set in. I might not be surprised that this is no longer the case there or even here, where we share a common religious culture with those two countries. Nevertheless it is worth recalling that the term Lent comes from the Latin to “slow down.”

Always a cautionary note to sound, I fear, and ever more ignored.

Strip down: after viewing DopeLoco’s neo-burlesque show

(This article does not feature pics, though I swear that it happened.)

A friend whom we’ll call Maven told me about the burlesque show that would be held in early February, whose motif was based upon the last completed Stanley Kubrick film Eyes Wide Shut. I was not initially planning on catching it, but I was a bit curious. What Maven emphasized was that this was very much less about what was at the end than the process of revealing. So it was when she let me catch the very first show that my curiosity was mildly satisfied.

The show was pretty interesting if only because it was exactly how my friend described it. Some numbers were more entertaining than others, including one involving Maven and the only male member of the troupe. What this experience had in common with its source material was its mild air of mystery that it exuded, and I’ll better keep up that air by not showing but telling. 

I understand that this show, in its current form, will run twice in the next two months. Perhaps what could keep this going is word of mouth. Which brings me to a conversation I had about an hour after the show finished, over in a watering hole where a video launch was being held. I met an acquaintance I hadn’t seen since last year, and then told her companions about the burlesque. One of them knew about such things and was surprised that there was a small group starting to do it. I let them know that there would be a show next month.

Details to follow, of course.