As I sit here, it’s 8:51 pm and I’m tired. I haven’t spoken to my father in over a week. I spent the better part of 4 hours yesterday mowing when it was over 95 outside. I was up last night until midnight waiting for my daughter to come home from a concert.

Who cares? It’s a FORMULA ONE WEEKEND!!

F1

The Formula 1 logo

This year, sparked from the Brad Pitt “F1” from last fall, I bit the bullet and subscribed to “Apple TV+”. I’ve missed watching racing, and it’s apparent that F1 hit a new level of global popularity in the 2 decades since I watched regularly.

In any case, the weekend takes-on a regular rhythm:

  1. Friday: Free Practice 1 and 2.
  2. Saturday: FP 3 (maybe a Sprint race) and Qualifying
  3. Sunday: Actual Race

The handy thing of the above: Since the races are in Europe, these all occur during mornings, Central Time. Coffee + 2 hours of racing? Yes, please.

The 2026 year began with utter Mercedes dominance, then some flashes from others like Max, Ferrari, and McLaren. The 19-year-old phenom Kimi Antonelli will almost certainly win, but the manufacturers’ title remains up-for-grabs.

Hadestown

Whitney invited me to see the professional cinematic recording (“ProShot”) of Hadestown.

Hadestown poster

They brought the original cast from 6-7 years ago back together:

  • André De Shields — Hermes (Tony Award, Featured Actor in a Musical)
  • Reeve Carney — Orpheus
  • Eva Noblezada — Eurydice
  • Patrick Page — Hades
  • Amber Gray — Persephone

If you’ve never seen Hadestown, it’s a retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, framed as a 1930s train station, a place where people flit through, “Any way the wind blows”. The staging brings the ragtime band on stage and makes them part of the action. And the central narrator is Hermes himself.

I mean, they give adequate warning in the first number, “Road to Hell”

[HERMES]
It's a sad tale, it's a tragedy
It's a sad song

[Chorus]
It's a sad song!

[HERMES]
We're gonna sing it anyway

We see the beats of the myth: The meet-cute, Orpheus’s gift as son-of-a-Muse, seeming bliss when Persephone returns, Eurydice’s tragedy, the descent, the song for freedom, the flight…the turn.

What stands out in this ProShot is the ease of the main cast, the genuine chemistry everywhere. Carney and Noblezada married in real life, and (famously) in one performance Eurydice actually made it back to Earth.

Everything hits: This smaller theatre, the perfect turn-table usage, the ascending/descending platform, the music, the dance numbers. Standout moments:

  • The interplay between Eurydice (the ingenue) and Persephone (the distant, jilted wife) plays out as subtext. With a look, Amber Gray conveys pity, hopelessness, and steely distaste.
  • A monumental performance from De Shields at 80 years old as Hermes. In the finale, he stops the entire theatre with an exact reprise of his opening: “A’ight. It’s an old tale. It’s a sad. Song. It’s a tragedy.” What’s it like to have every cell in a room focus on you, André?
  • S/O to Patrick Page for playing it on a ruptured Achilles tendon. Dancing in a boot?!
  • Eurydice steals everything. She’s the protagonist. She’s the one struggling with the decisions, the reality, the CONSEQUENCES. Orpheus is a naive idiot who can sing. Eurydice is a real person anyone can find relatable.
  • Amber Gray subtly changes in Act 2 from the narcotized victim to a damned goddess. She re-asserts herself as Hades’s equal, “Let him finish, Hades!” She rediscovers her love. It’s a subtle, powerful performance after so many broad, boozy numbers until the 3/4 mark.