Being Cultured While Broke

The Height of Culture. Source

I like the opera. A lot. My first semester at UWF, I was score tickets to La Traviata for the low, low price of $15. I sat in these nosebleed seats that were too small for a 5th grader for hours in rapt attention watching these people moving around the stage singing in a language I didn't understand. Thankfully, there was a small scrim at the top of the stage that displayed the English translation. It didn't really matter though. You could pretty much surmise what was going on. It didn't hurt that La Traviata is more or less the same story as Moulin Rouge. Just about everything great is based on something classical and greater. For some reason unknown to me, I was never able to make it to another show while living in Pensacola. No matter, I had been bitten by the opera bug.

I joined an opera Meetup group while I lived in Raleigh, which allowed me to get a healthy dose of culture for free. The organizers were these two middle aged "roommates" (I asked no questions, I was drinking their wine and eating their cheese) who had pretty much ever opera DVD known to man in their home library. They had an entire wall inlaid with bookshelves. Very tasteful. Full of Opera. Sadly, I discovered this group about a month before I had to move, so I only got together with them a few times before moving to Savannah - the black hole where culture goes to die.

I don't want to really get into a city bashing rant at the moment, but I will say this: Savannah offers a very good illusion of culture. A non dairy culture substitute, if you will. I am not impressed. There's a lot of history here, but that's about all the place has got going for it in my opinion. There's so much "diversity" that it's really not diverse at all. It reminds me of a circus. I like the circus, don't get me wrong, but I like it because it's novel. If that was all there was it would be boring and trite. That's Savannah.

But there's hope! There's hope! j^C and I went to the movies on Friday; a rare occurrence these days. I will be so happy when That Sprout is old enough to go to the movies. So. Effing. Happy. Anyway, while I was standing in line to buy a soda that I never got, I noticed an advertisement on the huge screen in the lobby.

THE MET: LIVE IN HD

WAGNER'S RING CYCLE ENCORE

I didn't think much about it until this morning, but now I've decided that I am going to go. Fandango told me that it's going to cost me $15 per show. So, I'm going to be shelling out a total of $60 to basically go to the movies. Alas. It will take all the quarters in my crab cup and all of next week's allowance to pull it off. I am going to the theater this afternoon in order to buy my first ticket. In quarters. That oughtta be fun. I feel so sophisticated. I also feel like they're going to turn me away as though I were freakin' Freddie the Freeloader trying to get a Christmas Dinner.

I'm goin' to the Opera!