Written 10-28-19
We went out to a show and dinner yesterday, then we just stayed out all night, and morning too. We just now got back home later this afternoon.
In between, we:
- Enjoyed one of our favorite Italian Operas, Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini.
- Feasted on an epicurean Brazilian dinner at Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse. Red light, green light, luxurious meat extravaganza!
- Partied, then rested, then partied, then rested the night away in our King Suite at the Kimpton Hotel Monaco Portland. When the distinguished Lipman Wolfe Department Store opened in 1912, it was an architectural marvel. Now, more than a century later, it’s a historic architectural marvel, and the proud home of Kimpton Hotel Monaco Portland. With whimsical and vintage touches everywhere we turned, we felt like we spent the night inside an Alice in Wonderland story book.
So this is how the bourgeoisie do it every night. We can see the appeal!
Before our night out I made a point to skip my scheduled haircut last week so I could arrive everywhere with longer opera hair and bushier eyebrows. I purposely turned my head quickly all evening to have my scraf and hair fly everywhere.
With everything just blocks apart, it was an evening that shouted out for wearing topcoats or capes drapped across our shoulders like authors do as we moved from one event to another. But, atlas, we have no topcoats or capes. Nonetheless, throughout the evening we often mouthed “bravo” while we waved to strangers as they entered cars that quickly drove away. We imagined the implied questions in the cars. “Who was that?” “I don’t know but he sure had great opera hair, didn’t he?”
This is also how we imagine how the one-percent bourgeoisie live every week. As they often arrive at theater events, they might pre visualize a portion of the show ahead of time. In between greeting their friends, they might view across the street and see a one of the upcoming show’s actors talking or singing their lines. They look back at their friends and lovers, then back across the street. The dialogue or singing is exquisite but the image of the actor is faint or translucent.
After the show, with everyone leaving to attend different parties, they look back across the street again but now the actors are vivid and smiling before they repeat their lines or songs. There’s nothing missing now. They’re colorful, standing in the best light, and happy to perform over and over and over again until, in time, they may start fading away all over again.
These theatrical bourgeoisie lifestyles — we are sure the bourgeoisie invented air kisses, shuffle steps, extended gestures, and parade waves too. We used them all throughout the evening and this morning right up until the moment we checked out of the hotel, and drove back to the suburbs.
We’re safely back home relaxing now but, you know, at some point we’re going to start some serious shopping for those damn topcoats and capes!
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