I wanted to have a drink with a friend a couple of nights ago. But I didn't much care where we went, and I didn't want to spend a bunch of money.
So what did we do? We went to the bodega near my house, bought 24-oz. Coronas, cut up some limes, chilled on my couch with our classy, classy beer, and had a chat about King Lear (no, really, we did--and if you have any thoughts about what King Lear is really about, leave 'em in the comments).
And it was awesome. And it so often eludes me, really: wanting to have a drink with a friend does not necessitate a bar, purveyor of markups and facilitator of late-night snacks and taxi rides. A big fat $3 bottle of beer in your own house can be just as much fun. And even if you drink two 24-oz. bottles of beer, that's only $6--about what it would cost for one 12-oz. bottle & tip in a bar. Hard to argue with a 75% savings.
I intend to put this lesson into use more often in future.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Drink at Home. Duh.
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11 comments:
I too love drinking at home sometimes with my BF instead of going out and spending $5-$10 a drink at a restaurant/bar.
Also, we started this thing where we have a "grill-in." It's so much better than going out-and cheaper. We go to Central Market and get a big juicy steak, marinated chicken breast(s), plump veggies, crackers/cheeses, honey crusted cashews, fresh fruit, and a dessert. Then we bring it all home and munch on the appetizers while grilling the meats on his nice indoor grill. We eat at the table with a bottle of wine and then enjoy the evening indoors with a movie, football game, etc.
It's a very fun tradition--usually occuring on Sunday nights. We cook together, talk, eat like grown-ups at a table, and don't spend much money. I highly recommend it!
I'll take hamartia for $500, Alex.
As for the beer, Mr. Micah and I love to go to Borders and get coffee for a total of $8 or so. Then we read and browse and use the library to borrow any books we like. Evenings at home are good too, but it's nice to have a cheap way to get out. :-)
Bronx Chica..drinking at home is the best! I love to buy 2-4 bottles of Seagrams over a weekend. Add friends, food, and entertainment
Lear is so odd in that it has what resembles a traditional Shakespearean tragic ending when Edgar is on stage teaching us all a valuable lesson and ushering in new order(as and Macduff each do in their own way), but then Lear essentially interrupts it, declaring that it can't end that way, it can't be so pat, that really it's all completely awful. Kind of a downer.
Coronas on the couch sound really good right now. :)
Yeah, I need to start drinking at home more often. Drinking out at night really adds up. We have a nice rooftop on our condo building that is perfect for an at-home happy hour...maybe I'll start organizing those!
why not try brewing a big pot of coffee? Its cheaper with no hangovers.
story girl, that's an interesting take on the ending. It reminds me of the ending of Measure for Measure, kind of, the way in which generic expectations are gestured at and not quite adhered to (much is made critically of the fact that Isabella never actually responds to the Duke's marriage proposal before the end of the play).
I've seen two mediocre productions of Lear lately, both put up by extremely eminent companies (the Public, the RSC) with extremely eminent actors (Kevin Kline, Ian McKellen), and I wonder what it is about the play that makes it so difficult to do well. Partly I think there are a lot of dramatic obstacles, but partly, I wonder if people struggle with the point of it all, which is still eluding me. Is he really a man more sinned against than sinning, or is he, as Cordelia and Kent tell him in the first scene, a foolish old man who brings disaster on himself? What's the relationship of the Lear-and-daughters plot to the Gloucester-and-sons plot?
There's a lot there, obviously.
Ms. M&P, that sounds ideal. Get on it, girl!
really? i loved the rsc's lear last night. i waxed poetic about it just this morning! but i'm not at all well versed in shakespeare, and lear was only the 2nd shakespeare play i've ever seen, the 1st being 20 some odd years ago in high school. seeing the play made me want to read it, sometimes it was hard for me to follow what the hell was going on. sadly, i skipped shakespeare in college and i'm always looking for classes in the city. i think lear is both, sinned against and sinning, not more one or the other. that's one of the many things that makes him so tragic, no?
and bodegas rock. you could throw the best rooftop party with a bodega and a stereo.
piggybankblues, I think one reason you had difficulty following the play is that either the sound design was flawed or the actors were all mumblers--there was a definite preponderance of unintelligibility. I'm inclined to fault the sound.
My problem is as much with the play as with the production, so if you're surer of your feelings on Lear than I am, many of my quibbles with the production may not be relevant. Partially, too, I think for me this production suffered in comparison to the recent Public production--both because in parts it was so similar, and because I think a couple of key roles (Kent, Edmund) were better-acted in the Public production. I was also struck by how extremely similar the characterizations of Goneril and Regan were between both productions (in fact, I briefly thought that Regan was being played by the same actress who did it at the Public).
I'd also like to reread the play!
That's funny, a friend and I talked about how much bars gouge the price of alcohol AND we talked about seeing King Lear at UCLA (where Ian Macewan will be playing Lear).
As far as what the play is about, hard to say just one thing. But if I had to, I'd say it's about the powers of age and greed, falling and rising, while the rest of us live on.
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