Flight of The Conchords

We saw The Flight of the Conchords in concert last night at the Ellie. We were late getting there for a variety of reasons, mostly that the DCPA parking structure was full -- something that I am usually too paranoid about being late to avoid. We had to park at the convention center, with its endless, winding ramp. None of that matters, of course, at a comedy show. It's just that I am so programmed to be on time at the Ellie because of the opera tradition that prohibits you from being seated after the doors have closed. (Once, when we were at Central City, we saw our friend, JW, slip in through the side door on house right just as the orchestra was beginning the overture. The main doors had been closed. We didn't realize it at the time, but JW had just pushed his way passed an usher who was standing there to prevent his last-second arrival). But there we stood, ten minutes after curtain and the lines for the bar were twice as long as they are at the opera. Another miracle: you could take your drink in to the theater with you. Not so at the opera where we are downing our wine as if it were a frat party just as the doors are closing.

The clientele was decidedly younger than when we usually go to the Elie by an average of about thirty years.

Last night we were seated in the parterre section, farther back and house left of our opera tickets. J was just happy to be away from "Norman," the old money, fifty-year old, bachelor patron who apparently accompanies "Mother" to the opera when he's not sitting in the seat next to ours. He once suggested that J might prefer to be watching football than opera. J nearly got into the second fight I've seen almost break out at the opera.

The seats were good, though, the wine made me warm, and the boys obliged me with a Turandot joke -- I might have been the only person in the theater to get it. I am really a nerd.