Sunday I did an 8-mile loop from Skyline Drive. The trail (#27 in Potomac Appalachian Trail Club's Circuit Hikes in Shenandoah National Park booklet) is a typical SNP triangle: following Jones Run, it drops 1200 feet to its junction with Doyles River; it then climbs out of the Doyles River valley, passing two good-sized waterfalls; then it returns along a gentle, relatively level 3-mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail.

As it's late summer and dry, the falls aren't showing themselves to best effect. The AT follows the Drive rather closely, so traffic noises can be off-putting.

It's also a slow time for birding, so I worked on learning my butterflies. I found Appalachian Brown (Satyrodes appalachia) and Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme), as well as some swallowtails and individuals from genus Polygonia. I also found a box turtle and a garter snake. No rattlers on this trip.

posted: 9:16:06 PM  

Michael Russotto does excellent work as Lou in Lenny & Lou, Woolly's latest offering of taboo sex and comic violence. Lou is a nebbishy Queens-resident accountant who is beset by Lenny, his never-was punk-rocker older brother, and Fran, his mother on the verge of senility who has banana issues.

Lou sees himself as a loser at life and love, and he has a good second-act monologue to describe Cheryl, the girl that got away. Russotto has scenes that call for a range of emotional responses, from bottled-up career guy, to helpless and lost little brother, to a murderous rage triggered in part by a runaway who's-on-first sequence.

If the play drags in the second act, perhaps it's because when Lou talks about his dreams, they're no more interesting than escaping his nutso family. But a scary-funny sequence with a gun and a plush bear perks things up again.

Michael Kraskin's dynamic sound design and score (performed by Dylan Ris) is first-rate. He incorporates a cheesy New York Mets fight song into scene changes, and he has a limitless collection of ambient city noises—mufflerless motorcycles, disgruntled neighbors banging on the wall, busses with squeaky brakes.

Anne Gibson's set uses a backdrop of a slightly stylized subway map painted with black-light-sensitive colors: you gotta love it.

posted: 9:01:28 PM