This morning I read an obituary in the New York Times for a man who rowed across oceans. Here’s a snippet:
At 9, he settled a dispute with a pistol. At 13, he lit out for the Amazon jungle. At 20, he attempted suicide-by-jaguar. Afterward he was apprenticed to a pirate. To please his mother, who did not take kindly to his being a pirate, he briefly managed a mink farm, one of the few truly dull entries on his otherwise crackling résumé, which lately included a career as a professional gambler.
I hope this makes you feel inadequate and unsatisfied with your normal Monday routine. Happy Presidents Day. And speaking of presidents and people connected to a television show about a fictional-yet-awesome administration, Aaron Sorkin’s stageplay, The Farnsworth Invention, gets its Monday night opening performance at Theatre Three. I like Sorkin, and I want him to script my life. He broke his own nose while writing dialogue (so he says, anyway). And while The Farnsworth Invention isn’t necessarily one of his most critically well-received scripts, I’d take potentially sub-par Sorkin over pretty much any other writer any day of the week. The play chronicles the all-out battle between young Philo Farnsworth, the Mormon who invented television, and David Sarnoff, the president of RCA who stole his design.
Otherwise, Ailey II, the younger arm of the incomparable Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, performs tonight at Bass Hall. Ailey II spotlights young, emerging talent on the stage and behind the scenes. This is one of your last chances to see the company perform under the artistic direction of Sylvia Waters, personally appointed by the late Alvin Ailey himself. (Waters retires in June.) You can still snag tickets.
For more to do with what is hopefully your day off, go here. And don’t forget, Best of Big D shopping voting starts today. You can vote once every 24 hours.
