Unexpectedly, I also got the chance to see Spring Awakening this weekend. And what a great, great show it was.
Is.
No wonder this won the Tony Award back in June for Best Musical — and Best Direction, Score, and five others.
Spring Awakening is so full of energy, so full of passion, so full of life that it’s hard not to be moved or shaken to the core while watching it. I haven’t liked a new show this much in, oh, I don’t know how long. Continue reading
Mitzi, Fetus, and I went to see Young Frankenstein on Broadway Thursday night. The show’s been so heavily hyped and it has such a great pedigree and it’s based on such a classic movie … so how could it not be a disappointment?
I don’t want to go into too much detail, but I’ll say the conventional line that while YF is entertaining, it’s no The Producers: it’s not as funny and none of the songs are as memorable.
That said, the sets are huge and impressive, as are the special effects, and Andrea Martin, who plays Frau Blücher, and Christopher Fitzgerald, who plays Igor (pronounced “eye-gor,” of course), are both really good. And Roger Bart … Continue reading
On Monday you’ll find out what’s on this year’s A Very Marty Xmas CD. Ooooh, I can’t wait to share it with y’all. But until then, I’m still trying to figure out if it’s possible to copy a CD on a Mac without using iTunes. But that’s my problem, not yours (unless, of course, you have a solution for me and then I’d be more than happy to hear it). Thanks!
I’ve been away from the computer for a couple days, but I wanted to acknowledge that Amy Winehouse earned six Grammy Award nominations on Thursday, and I say yes! yes! yes!
I’ve been listening to “Rehab” and the rest of Back to Black for just about a solid year now and the CD hasn’t gotten old or tiresome yet. It’s far and away my favorite album to be released in 2007. Continue reading
So it seems my alma mater was named the fourth ugliest college campus in America by a Web site called Campus Squeeze. (Drexel University is number one.) Jeez … when I was there we were named one of the unsassiest colleges by that leading authority on such things, Sassy magazine. This one hurts even less.
I didn’t really think I was going to like Charlie Wilson’s War. After all, I’m sort of over the whole “Tom Hanks Is Holier than Thou” thing, and I can’t get too excited about Julia Roberts anymore either.
Plus, I’m skeptical of a major studio movie that’s billed as Oscar bait based on pedigree alone.
But I’ll admit, Hanks is real good here in the true story of a Texas Congressman with questionable ethics, and he won me over. And generally, I was entertained by the movie, which documents how Charlie Wilson raised money — $1 billion annually — in Congressional funds to support Afghanistan in its war with Russia in the 1980s. (Those are your tax dollars at work, folks!) Continue reading
Jeff Wells, one of my favorite film columnists, is in town for a month. I know this because he’s mentioned it on his site in recent weeks, but Tuesday night at the critics screening of Charlie Wilson’s War that I was at, I saw him in person for the first time. It’s funny, because you read a blog like Wells’ — or David Poland’s — and you get an idea of what these guys must be like. And then there he is, and it’s sort of cool — like he’s some minor, D-level celebrity or something. (And yes, I have read the article in Los Angeles magazine that ran last year.) (And no, I didn’t say hello or introduce myself.)
The reason I’m mentioning this is because Wells went on a bit of a rant Wednesday about one of my least favorite movie theaters, the AMC Boston Common. Regular readers of this blog know I had a bad experience there a couple months back when I went to see In the Valley of Elah. And I’ve long thought the presentation quality there is subpar — especially compared to the Fenway 13, which is my favorite area theater, despite its awful parking garage. At the AMC, the sound is never right. It’s either too loud or too soft, and it’s never mixed right; instead of coming out of all the speakers the way surround sound is supposed to work, it seems to all be coming out of the front ones. Basically, it’s like they just don’t care about the movies there. They just want your money, and the ushers can’t be bothered to actually ush, or make sure the films are unspooling properly, or get rid of inconsiderate customers. Which, of course, sucks for those of us who hate that kind of crap and just want to enjoy a movie without being distracted. And don’t even get me started about the frequency that the fire alarm goes off. Blah blah blah …
So anyway, I appreciate Wells writing what he did — that the critics’ screening of Sweeney Todd was ruined due to shoddy presentation — because he does seem to wield some form of influence in the film world, but I think it’s worthless, unfortunately. That theater is a lost cause, and it gets worse every year. When I have a choice, I’m going to keep on going to the Regal Fenway 13, where the sound and the screens are bigger and better. But thanks anyway, Jeff. Nice try.
Well, at least Shaw’s isn’t this clueless. According to a New York blogger named NancyKay Shapiro, the supermarket Balducci’s is displaying ham as “Delicious for Chanukah.” Next thing you know, they’ll be featuring matzah and saying it’s “Perfect for Easter.”
(Thanks to Farrah for the tip.)
Because I have nothing better to do, I’ve been doing a bit of thinking lately trying to decide what the worst thing about winter is.
Is it the bitter cold temperatures, and the winds that seem to make it even colder, and the fact that it seems to become cold right away without a slow drop in temperature?
Is it the iced up sidewalks that taunt me and almost dare me to walk on them and not fall? I include the parking lot outside my building, which I have no choice but to cross every day if I want to go somewhere; half of it is a sheet of ice right now.
Is it the over-crowded and less frequent T cars? Every year, same old story.
Is it dangling on the edge of being sick, and trying ever-so-hard not to catch a cold from everyone around me who seems to have something already.
Is it the fact that everyone’s so bundled up that they look almost unfriendly and unapproachable?
Is it not wanting to go outside to do stuff because it’s so much nicer on my couch in my warm apartment?
It may actually be a tie between all of those things. Winter just really sucks. There’s absolutely nothing good about this time of year (other than the holidays, of course). Brrrrrrrrrr…!
I was thinking about the best way to observe Hanukkah on the blog, and I decided that the most appropriate thing would be to write a post and see if it, too, could last for eight days. So here goes. I hope you enjoy it. Now go put on a yarmulke, tell your friends Monica and Veronica, and rock out on your harmonica while you listen to the LeeVees or Adam Sandler’s “Chanukah Song.” Whatever you do, I hope you have a happy, happy, happy, happy Hanukkah!
(And don’t worry, I’ll be back with new posts real soon. I’m not really taking an eight-day vacation.)
