Last year at this time, I was a very sad puppy. I had just broken things off with a guy who had seemed to have a lot of potential ~~but right before Valentine's he really broke my heart. I ended up making endless black Valentine cards with band-aids on them, bites taken out of them, ripped paper ones, one covered in skulls etc... all chronicled in the depths my gallery.
That really did the healing trick. I usually make some kinda art when I am hurting, and it helps me work through it. Often it's poetry that does the trick.
Diametrically, this years Valentine's was VERY LOVELY. I decided to create a perfect 'event' myself instead of classically leaving it up to my amor. (I did this for New Year's Eve, also, and it worked beautifully too.) For New Year's I found this trendy list of restaurants in my area that were perfect for NYE to pick from which apparently put me on a permanent list of groovy spots for holidays and online reservations! Weeeeeeeeee! How easy!
At New Years, I picked this wild Korean Bar-b-que that had dancing in the front late at night, had a DJ blasting tune for a surreal hip ambience and the interior was very cool and futuristic. Best of all we had never been to this type of dining before, so we were like little kids at Christmas as the wait staff brought out more and more tiny bowls of bright ingredients which we had to ask about. hehehe
Now for Valentines, I picked this dinning place~~ very RED, tres hip and very HOLLYWOOD called the Geisha HOUSE, with a 4 story fire place! We ordered a large gold plate of tiny tastes of everything on the menu: sushi, spicy pork loins, crab legs, tempura lobster, red velvet cake...
What was different this time from New Years Eve, was I decided to add a play after diner. So, I hunted around via Goldstar (why do all your research alone when there is so much help on the web!) I settled on a Rock Opera getting Rave review called (LOL) Linda Lovelace, the Rock Opera. It was NOT what I expected. I thought it would be this sexy, breezy thing but instead it was very heavy and intense. But I liked it better this way. L. Lovelace lived a very horrible life of bondage to a abusive husband after a childhood of a abusive mother. The play was very intense and the music was excellent. It was very informing about this seedy underground, and I really loved the actress who played the main role. Evidently, Lovelace broke away from her 1st husband after "Deep Throat" which she performed often at gun point, and she never saw a penny from. But, she wrote her story, and cleared up any mysteries about her role in the movie. She died young but after she married again, a good man and finally got to have a daughter. (She had conceived a child earlier that her mother had ripped away from her for adoption without giving her any choice, or consent.)
Yes, it was a very "heavy," intense play but Lovelace was portrayed as someone who could never be brought down for long, and in the end she is still not broken but happy and she gives the audience members that happiness!
So, all in all, I was very pleased with my choices for my Valentine's Eve. So was my date!