6-20-10

OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL

ASHLAND CREEK

THE ART OF DR. SUESS

GOTTA GOOOOOOO

BEER SAMPLER

LISTEN TO THE MUSIC

STANDING STONE BREWERY

WHAT'S ON TAP?

LOCAL ORGANIC MICROBREWERY

WE BOUGHT A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES
WRITTEN BY FLANNERY O'CONNER HERE

COOL, COOL RIVER

I HEAR A SYMPHONY

One of the most wonderful things about WWOOFing is how it allows us to travel inexpensively from city to city. Rural life is awfully inexpensive, but once in a while we treat ourselves to some local culture in town, and today was such a day. We drove into Ashland, which is less than 10 miles from where we are staying, but it took over and hour because there is a great big mountain in the way. We made the big loop around it and cruised into town late in the morning. The main draw of Ashland is the Oregon Shakspeare Festival. The OSF is celebrating its 75th anniversary of theater in Ashland, and it puts on thousands of performances every summer. We purchased tickets for the comedy, The Merchant Of Venice at 8:30pm and so, had an entire beautiful sunny day to kill.

We walked the streets visiting local shops and looking at art work. We also stopped in several book stores, and left with River Jumper/The Traveling Library even more packed to its gills. We read some short stories in Lithia Park while getting our behinds soaked from the wet grass. With wet tushes we walked around and visited to Co-Op, and two local breweries for a pint of IPA, while we listened to live jazz. We found a nice dinner spot at a river cafe serving Thai food where we enjoyed some noodles. A fellow patron at a nearby table had the worst face lift and hair dye job imaginable. Note to all readers: PLEASE NEVER GET A FACE LIFT! But a day in a local town wouldn't be complete without a visit to the local chocolate shop, where we indulged on dark chocolate thin mints, dark chocolate coconut haystacks, dark chocolate covered salted pretzels, and milk chocolate covered macadamia nut chunks. The coffee went down nice and warmed us up...we would need it.

The performance at the Elizabethan Stage was al fresco, and in our balcony seats the whipping wind chilled us to the bone. We mutually agree, in an ideal situation, we would see a Shakespeare show, then read the play, then re-see the show. In theory, this way, we'd have the most complete understanding possible. In reality, we mostly understood the story line, but were a bit confused by some of the details. Neither of us were familiar with the story, and some of the take-away messages made us scratch our heads. The princes who chose the gold and silver boxes chose so based on what one desires and based on what one thinks one deserves. Falling victim to the trap of desire, or thinking you deserve anything, is risky business, for greed looks unattractive on everyone. This message was fairly easy to decipher, however, the fact the Jessica abandoned her father and religion but still ended in love and with lots of money was peculiar. What message should we take from this? And the outcome of the bond between the Jew and the Merchant was most confusing; in the end, did they truly get what they deserved? We're not sure. Regardless, we're glad we attended the performance.