Phantom of the Opera was the first show I was obsessed with. My dad was an Andrew Lloyd Webber fan, so he bought the records pretty soon after they were available. For years I was dying to see it, but tickets were unpossible to get. I can't tell you the number of hours I spent in the basement of our house acting it out. The records came with a libretto, which helped immensely (particularly during "Notes," which has, like, 20 people all singing different things at the same time). I actually had those notes written out. That show taught me what the word "queue" means. ("But Andre, have you seen the queue? Oh, it seems you got one, too." It took a while before I realized that the word didn't mean "letter.") Seriously, a good 7 years or so, it was all about Phantom with me.
Of course, by the time I actually did see Phantom, I was deep into my Les Mis period. Also, my seat was such that I couldn't see the top half of the stage, much less the chandelier when it was more than, say, 10 feet off the stage. But anyway.
Phantom was love for me for quite some time, and today marks its 21st anniversary. Tonight is performance 8,732. Crazy, huh? And now, thinking about all that, I kind of want to see it again.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Oscar nods 2009
Let's take a look at the Oscar nominees. Obviously, the most important aspect is how many nominees have I seen?
Best Picture: 4/5 (not Benjamin Button)
Best Director: 4/5 (ditto)
Best Actor: 2/5 (Langella, Penn)
Best Actress: 1/5 (Winslet)
Supporting Actor: 3/5 (Brolin, Ledger, Shannon)
Supporting Actress: 0/5
Animated: 1/5 (Wall-E)
I'm not sure whether I'm going to see Benjamin Button. I hear it's like Forrest Gump, which I enjoyed fairly well. And, if nothing else, the special effects look pretty cool. But I really have no desire to see it. So I may just let it go. It really doesn't seem like it'll be a big winner. Of course, this is where is wins all 13 awards it was nominated for.
The thing that surprised me most was the almost total exclusion of Revolutionary Road. I though both Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio were really good in it--though I did internally yell at Leo to get out of the water when they went to the beach. And may have also been like, "I'll never let go, Jack!" a few times. It was instinctive.
I'd give the Oscar to Penn over Langella (as I'm still bitter at Michael Sheen getting shut out; he was just as good as Langella!), and Ledger over Brolin and Shannon (I would've preferred James Franco to get a nomination for Milk).
For Best Picture? I don't know. I thought the four movies I saw were all quite good, though perhaps The Reader less so than the others (honestly, the end just seemed to go on). So that leaves Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, and Frost/Nixon. I'm leaning toward Slumdog because it managed to be something of a feel-good movie even while being about some very dark topics. Though the acting and writing for all three were just superb. I'd probably be happy if any of them won, honestly.
Though I do want Kate Winslet to get an Oscar. I love her. I want her to be my BFF. The nod for The Reader over Revolutionary Road was a surprise, though she certainly was a lead in both. I think they made the right choice, though; her character in The Reader is unlike any I've seen her do before.
Best Picture: 4/5 (not Benjamin Button)
Best Director: 4/5 (ditto)
Best Actor: 2/5 (Langella, Penn)
Best Actress: 1/5 (Winslet)
Supporting Actor: 3/5 (Brolin, Ledger, Shannon)
Supporting Actress: 0/5
Animated: 1/5 (Wall-E)
I'm not sure whether I'm going to see Benjamin Button. I hear it's like Forrest Gump, which I enjoyed fairly well. And, if nothing else, the special effects look pretty cool. But I really have no desire to see it. So I may just let it go. It really doesn't seem like it'll be a big winner. Of course, this is where is wins all 13 awards it was nominated for.
The thing that surprised me most was the almost total exclusion of Revolutionary Road. I though both Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio were really good in it--though I did internally yell at Leo to get out of the water when they went to the beach. And may have also been like, "I'll never let go, Jack!" a few times. It was instinctive.
I'd give the Oscar to Penn over Langella (as I'm still bitter at Michael Sheen getting shut out; he was just as good as Langella!), and Ledger over Brolin and Shannon (I would've preferred James Franco to get a nomination for Milk).
For Best Picture? I don't know. I thought the four movies I saw were all quite good, though perhaps The Reader less so than the others (honestly, the end just seemed to go on). So that leaves Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, and Frost/Nixon. I'm leaning toward Slumdog because it managed to be something of a feel-good movie even while being about some very dark topics. Though the acting and writing for all three were just superb. I'd probably be happy if any of them won, honestly.
Though I do want Kate Winslet to get an Oscar. I love her. I want her to be my BFF. The nod for The Reader over Revolutionary Road was a surprise, though she certainly was a lead in both. I think they made the right choice, though; her character in The Reader is unlike any I've seen her do before.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The pressures of modern entertainment consumption
I've been a little stressed out lately. What's causing this pressure? Work, perhaps? Well, a bit. I am pretty busy there, and I've been working on a couple freelance projects, too, that have been taking up quite a bit of time. No no. I've been stressed out by the books that need to be read, television shows that must be watched, and movies that have to be viewed.
It's kind of crazy that some many of us do feel this pressure. Your Tivo fills up, and shows sit there, projecting guilt onto you whenever you check out your recordings. You hear that a show is great, but when are you supposed to watch it? So you add the DVD to your Netflix queue, which is already 250 titles long, and you've had the same 3 movies sitting on your entertainment center for weeks now. But the queue keeps growing! You really should just cancel your subscription...but you do want to see those 250 movies eventually. And really, where else has that sort of selection?
So maybe you'll just take a break from that and read a book. Which you need to do, anyway. You have that book for book club--and the meeting is rapidly approaching--that you're only halfway through. Plus, you have a library book out that's due soon. You can't renew it, though, because you were on the hold list for it for, like, ever, so if you return, to get it back, you'll have to go on the end of the hold list. And you can see that you're about to get another book.
Really, it's enough to make a person want to crawl into bed and hide from it all.
It's kind of crazy that some many of us do feel this pressure. Your Tivo fills up, and shows sit there, projecting guilt onto you whenever you check out your recordings. You hear that a show is great, but when are you supposed to watch it? So you add the DVD to your Netflix queue, which is already 250 titles long, and you've had the same 3 movies sitting on your entertainment center for weeks now. But the queue keeps growing! You really should just cancel your subscription...but you do want to see those 250 movies eventually. And really, where else has that sort of selection?
So maybe you'll just take a break from that and read a book. Which you need to do, anyway. You have that book for book club--and the meeting is rapidly approaching--that you're only halfway through. Plus, you have a library book out that's due soon. You can't renew it, though, because you were on the hold list for it for, like, ever, so if you return, to get it back, you'll have to go on the end of the hold list. And you can see that you're about to get another book.
Really, it's enough to make a person want to crawl into bed and hide from it all.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
2008 in Review: Theatre
A bit belatedly, here are the plays that I saw in 2008, including venue.
Book Club Play (Round House, Bethesda)
Kiss of the Spider Woman (Signature)
Sunday in the Park With George (Broadway)
Macbeth (Folger)
A Little Night Music (CenterStage, Baltimore)
Hairspray (Touring company, Warner)
Comedy of Errors (Oregon Shakespeare Festival)
View From the Bridge (Oregon Shakespeare Festival)
Rabbit Hole (Olney)
Les Miserables (Signature)
Book Club Play (Round House, Bethesda)
Kiss of the Spider Woman (Signature)
Sunday in the Park With George (Broadway)
Macbeth (Folger)
A Little Night Music (CenterStage, Baltimore)
Hairspray (Touring company, Warner)
Comedy of Errors (Oregon Shakespeare Festival)
View From the Bridge (Oregon Shakespeare Festival)
Rabbit Hole (Olney)
Les Miserables (Signature)
And it includes the Big Bird/CJ scene!
I've been on a bit of a West Wing kick, ever since around the election. Anyway, here's a fun compilation of the physical comedy on the show, set to Chumbawumba's immortal "Tubthumping."
Saturday, January 10, 2009
On authors and the Lincoln assassination
Last night I went to see Anthony Pitch at Politics & Prose discuss his new book, "They Have Killed Papa Dead!", which is about the Lincoln assassination. (Of course I spent part of my Friday evening going to hear an author talk about the Lincoln assassination. And I was far from alone, actually; it was standing room only.) It was interesting, in that the book itself looks good, but the author rubbed me the wrong way. Which took talent, as he's British.
Overall, it was that he struck me as...not arrogant, really, but a bit show-offy. If that makes sense. He kept talking about how he used primary sources, like journals and letters. Is that supposed to impress me? Dude, you're a historian writing a book. I would certainly hope that you used primary sources. I mean, I used primary sources extensively when writing my undergrad thesis. And he went on about how he uncovered all this new stuff, and I'm sure he did, but he talked about uncovering stuff about torture of the conspirators. And when he talked about it, it was stuff that I already knew (i.e., the conspirators wore tight hoods with only a slit at the mouth). But their cells were really small! Like, OK, dude. It was interesting hearing how small they were, and that a doctor wound up advocating for the prisoners to get exercise time, but still. It seems like he found out some interesting details, but nothing earth-shattering. And I'm not knocking that--I'm all about details.
And one of his big new stories is about Benjamin Brown French, who was at Lincoln's second inauguration and wrote a letter to his wife including this story of how at the inauguration, there was this man who was all wild and crazy and trying to get to Lincoln, but French stopped him as Lincoln passed by. And that crazy man? Was Booth. Dun dun dunn! Which is an interesting story, but I'm wondering if it was at all exaggerated, seeing how the letter was written on April 24--10 days after the assassination. French apparently recognized the pictures of Booth in the newspaper. What's interesting is that he didn't know who Booth was at the time, because Booth was pretty darn famous. Obviously the incident didn't leave much of an impression. It could've happened; Booth was certainly at the inauguration. And French certainly could've seen him. But who knows if that's actually how it went down.
Part of my problem was that Pitch wasn't that great a speaker. He was captivating when he was telling a story that he had obviously told many times before, like the story of the night of the assassination (logically, as he actually gives assassination tours), but not that great an extemporaneous speaker. He got lost of a few times. Plus, he gave a lot of general information about Lincoln and the assassination. If people are there to hear him, it's probably safe to say that they already know the general assassination story. Get into the interesting details, dude!
And what I found frustrating was that he never said why he wrote the book. He talked a lot about why he likes Lincoln and how great Lincoln was and why he wanted to write about Lincoln, but never about why the assassination, except that it was so sad. Which, yes. But that doesn't really clarify anything for me.
The best, though, was when someone asked him what he thought of the success of Manhunt, the book that is partially to blame for my interest in the Lincoln assassination. He was all, "Well, there are some authors in this area who like to bash each other. And I'm not one of them, but I will tell you a story that illustrates that I think he's a bit of a hack, but I'll make it OK by saying that it's just that all of us have different takes on the story." In flipping through my copy of Manhunt, I can't find the passage he was referring to. Doesn't mean it isn't there, but it was a bit of a strange interlude.
Anyway, I am looking forward to reading the book. I asked Pitch what he thought about Mary Surratt, and he said he found some new information about her (...), so we'll see. If nothing else, he wins bonus points for including my absolute favorite Lincoln assassination illustration, which is a poster of the conspirators. It has their pictures arranged in a circle, with a large picture in the center. That big picture? Is of Mary Surratt.
Overall, it was that he struck me as...not arrogant, really, but a bit show-offy. If that makes sense. He kept talking about how he used primary sources, like journals and letters. Is that supposed to impress me? Dude, you're a historian writing a book. I would certainly hope that you used primary sources. I mean, I used primary sources extensively when writing my undergrad thesis. And he went on about how he uncovered all this new stuff, and I'm sure he did, but he talked about uncovering stuff about torture of the conspirators. And when he talked about it, it was stuff that I already knew (i.e., the conspirators wore tight hoods with only a slit at the mouth). But their cells were really small! Like, OK, dude. It was interesting hearing how small they were, and that a doctor wound up advocating for the prisoners to get exercise time, but still. It seems like he found out some interesting details, but nothing earth-shattering. And I'm not knocking that--I'm all about details.
And one of his big new stories is about Benjamin Brown French, who was at Lincoln's second inauguration and wrote a letter to his wife including this story of how at the inauguration, there was this man who was all wild and crazy and trying to get to Lincoln, but French stopped him as Lincoln passed by. And that crazy man? Was Booth. Dun dun dunn! Which is an interesting story, but I'm wondering if it was at all exaggerated, seeing how the letter was written on April 24--10 days after the assassination. French apparently recognized the pictures of Booth in the newspaper. What's interesting is that he didn't know who Booth was at the time, because Booth was pretty darn famous. Obviously the incident didn't leave much of an impression. It could've happened; Booth was certainly at the inauguration. And French certainly could've seen him. But who knows if that's actually how it went down.
Part of my problem was that Pitch wasn't that great a speaker. He was captivating when he was telling a story that he had obviously told many times before, like the story of the night of the assassination (logically, as he actually gives assassination tours), but not that great an extemporaneous speaker. He got lost of a few times. Plus, he gave a lot of general information about Lincoln and the assassination. If people are there to hear him, it's probably safe to say that they already know the general assassination story. Get into the interesting details, dude!
And what I found frustrating was that he never said why he wrote the book. He talked a lot about why he likes Lincoln and how great Lincoln was and why he wanted to write about Lincoln, but never about why the assassination, except that it was so sad. Which, yes. But that doesn't really clarify anything for me.
The best, though, was when someone asked him what he thought of the success of Manhunt, the book that is partially to blame for my interest in the Lincoln assassination. He was all, "Well, there are some authors in this area who like to bash each other. And I'm not one of them, but I will tell you a story that illustrates that I think he's a bit of a hack, but I'll make it OK by saying that it's just that all of us have different takes on the story." In flipping through my copy of Manhunt, I can't find the passage he was referring to. Doesn't mean it isn't there, but it was a bit of a strange interlude.
Anyway, I am looking forward to reading the book. I asked Pitch what he thought about Mary Surratt, and he said he found some new information about her (...), so we'll see. If nothing else, he wins bonus points for including my absolute favorite Lincoln assassination illustration, which is a poster of the conspirators. It has their pictures arranged in a circle, with a large picture in the center. That big picture? Is of Mary Surratt.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
2008 in Review: Movies
Admittedly, I didn't get to do as much movie-watching this year as I would've liked. And though I didn't include tv shows I Netflixed, it still was most likely a bit of a waste of money. Again, no cheesy tv movies included (no rewatches, either). Well, hopefully I'll watch more this year! (Says the girl who is going through a friend's West Wing DVDs instead of watching either of the DVDs sitting on her entertainment center.) Anyway, movies I particularly enjoyed are in bold.
Theater
Sweeney Todd
Juno
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Priceless
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
All Together Now
WALL*E
Wanted
Sex and the City
The Dark Knight
Pineapple Express
Man on Wire
Mamma Mia
Role Models
Slumdog Millionaire
Netflix
Wit
L4yer Cake
Warm Springs
Kung Fu Hustle
Shaolin Soccer
I Love You, Don’t Touch Me
Grey Gardens
Alfie
Casablanca
Catch-22
Mad Hot Ballroom
Almost Strangers
Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
TV/Rented
Hush
Holes
The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Just Friends
The Manitou
Theater
Sweeney Todd
Juno
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Priceless
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
All Together Now
WALL*E
Wanted
Sex and the City
The Dark Knight
Pineapple Express
Man on Wire
Mamma Mia
Role Models
Slumdog Millionaire
Netflix
Wit
L4yer Cake
Warm Springs
Kung Fu Hustle
Shaolin Soccer
I Love You, Don’t Touch Me
Grey Gardens
Alfie
Casablanca
Catch-22
Mad Hot Ballroom
Almost Strangers
Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
TV/Rented
Hush
Holes
The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Just Friends
The Manitou
Saturday, January 3, 2009
2008 in Review: Books
I admit to being something of a compulsive list-maker, which means that I keep track of what I read and watch in any given year. Well, not totally for the "watch" part; I only track movies that I've seen for the first time, and don't include tv shows I've gotten from Netflix or bad tv movies I watch on Sunday afternoons. I also keep track of plays I see. (And all the actors, so I can cross-reference. Yes, I am that insane, but it's really helpful!)
Anyway, here's the list of books I read in 2008. Asterisks indicate it's a book I've read before, and I've bolded the ones that stood out for me. I read 61 books, down from 66 in 2007.
Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks (Hample)
Arthur & George (Barnes)
Witch Week (Jones)*
Something Borrowed (Giffin)
Something Blue (Giffin)
Ghosts of Everest: The Search for Mallory & Irvine (Hemmleb, Johnson, Simonson)
High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places (Breashears)
Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro)
Then We Came to the End (Ferris)
Thursday Next: First Among Sequels (Fforde)
Holes (Sachar)
Good Omens (Pratchett & Gaiman)
She Went All the Way (Cabot)
Northanger Abbey (Austen)*
Macbeth (Shakespeare)*
Nineteen Minutes (Picoult)
Bonfire of the Vanities (Wolfe)
The Callendar Papers (Voigt)*
High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed (Kodas)
Goodnight Nobody (Weiner)
Booth: A Novel (Robertson)
The Road (McCarthy)
The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank (Feldman)
Stet: An Editor's Life (Athill)
I Was Told There'd Be Cake (Crosley)
Neptune Noir: Unauthorized Investigations into Veronica Mars (Thomas)
The Chocolate Lovers' Club (Matthews)
Certain Girls (Weiner)
Revolutionary Road (Yates)
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (Roach)
The Monk (Lewis)
Queen of Babble Gets Hitched (Cabot)
Bitter is the New Black (Lancaster)
Living on the Black: Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season to Remember (Feinstein)
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches From the Unfinished Civil War (Horwitz)
Remember Me? (Kinsella)
Baby Proof (Giffin)
Five Things I Can't Live Without (Shumas)
Catch-22 (Heller)
Ella Minnow Pea (Dunn)
Invisible Cities (Calvino)
The Ghost Map (Johnson)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Shaffer & Barrows)
Bright Lights, Big Ass (Lancaster)
Chain Letter (Pike)
Last Chance to See (Adams & Carwardine)
Slam (Hornby)
Murder at the Palace (Roosevelt)
Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (Andrews)
I Love You, Beth Cooper (Doyle)
A Few Seconds of Panic: A 5'8", 170 lb, 43-Year-Old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL (Fatsis)
Ready or Not (Cabot)
Teen Idol (Cabot)
Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About Baseball Is Wrong (Baseball Prospectus)
The Watchmen (Moore)
Someday My Prince Will Come: True Adventures of a Wannabe Princess (Fine)
Literacy and Longing in L.A. (Kaufman & Mack)
Such a Pretty Fat (Lancaster)
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (Wallace)
Cruise Confidential: A Hit Below the Waterline (Bruns)
Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (Powell)
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