Celeb-ration

Wow--the bad puns seem to be pretty much automatic these days. It actually works pretty well as a title for this post, though.

As we drove into Manhattan from the Airport last Saturday, a couple of the kids started talking about how they hoped to see some celebrities. Right. A city of 8 million+ and we're going to bump into famous people.

I mean, sure if you pay to see them in a show you'll be within a certain distance of the genuine article, but otherwise, I told them, don't expect it.

The next day we went to Lincoln Centre. At the end of the tour, we finished where folks were milling about during the intermission of a performance by the National Chorale. Christopher Lloyd walked right by me--only I and another student recognized him. I remember him best from Taxi, while students know him as "Doc" from Back to the Future.

On Tuesday night we went to Hairspray. "Norm" from Cheers--George Wendt--plays the mother. Once again, the performance was great. Sure, if you're talking celeb spotting, you probably can't count a show you paid to see, but we had good tickets and it was a great show, so whatever.

Wednesday afternoon we were in the NBC Nightly News studio during a tour and in the studio next to us--glass between us, except for a door-sized opening--was Kevin Spacey, there for an interview. That impressed the kids more than Christopher Lloyd.

So maybe celeb spotting isn't all that difficult.

When our flight to Toronto got cancelled going home--this was in Laguardia--I went to the desk to find out what we were supposed to do next. I had noticed sitting across the way a woman who looked strangely familiar--I was sure I'd seen her in something.

She ended up behind me and came over to the counter with me, asking if it was okay with me if she eavesdropped--she wrongly thought her flight had been cancelled. After, I asked her if she was a performer, because I was sure I'd seen her in something. She looked a bit sheepish and said she hadn't performed in the past three years, but yes, she'd done a bunch of theatre in New York, as well as some commercials and was on a soap opera for a while.

Later, I chatted briefly with her again, still trying to figure out what I'd seen her in. She hadn't been out to the west coast or in any of the musicals I'd seen, nor had she worked with the production company whose director had come to my class and shown us stuff from her lesser-known Canadian films.

She told me her name, and I think I got it right when I 'Imdb'd" it, but not much other than one movie credit showed up.

I'll figure it out eventually.

Another foot

Back in February I posted a link to a story about the third right foot that had washed ashore on the BC coast:
http://herrdirektor.blogspot.com/2008/02/this-is-creepyweird.html

Seems a fourth one just showed up. All right feet, all in shoes. Read about it here.

If this had come from an episode of CSI I'd have mocked it for being too farfetched. Really creepy.

the play's the thing

This post is from New York, where I'm sort of adapted now to the time change.

Tonight we saw Rent; it was my second time seeing it after having gone to it when we were here about two and a half years ago. Once again it didn't disappoint.

I'm writing more about Spring Awakening, though, which we saw last night. Some have suggested it will take Rent's place as the new edgy rock musical about the disenfranchised. I'm not so sure.

It's an odd experience to see the Broadway musical version of a play only two days after I attended the non-musical version back in Victoria. I think it was kind of helpful in understanding the plot and characters a little more quickly. I had studied the play back when I was an undergraduate, but that was centuries ago...

We got the tickets from the TKTS 1/2 price booth--which is still in its temporary location at the Marriot. Some of our group went to Avenue Q, and quite enjoyed it. Another friend from the internet world once told me all about that one, but I have yet to see it.

Six of us, though, chose Spring Awakening. They were described as "obscured view" seats, but really, they were quite good--four and five rows back but on the side.

When things got going, though, we were very puzzled by the behaviour of the crowd. As soon as the actors ran out on stage, they got a very enthusiastic standing ovation. This made no sense, yet the whole audience was doing it. I felt like I was at a cult rally or something.

Then someone in front of us who was also confused asked a nearby "ovationer" about it and was told it was the lead actress (Lea Michele)'s last night in the show. Later we heard it was the lead actor (Jonathon Groff)'s last night as well. The story is here

It was a very emotional performance. One song, titled "You're Fxxxed" (x's inserted to protect the tender sensibilities of my readers) ends in a freeze with the performers all giving the audience the middle finger. The audience stood and gave another loud ovation at that point and kept on going. The actors, therefore, had to hold the freeze. The lead girl began sobbing during this, and some others were laughing and crying. It was kind of a magical moment.

What was surprising was that we actually got tickets. I did a little internet research when we got home and even back in February some were saying that night was getting close to sold out. It was probably the "obscured" label on those seats that made them available.

The whole show felt more like a love-in with family and friends (and a lot in the audience were family and friends) and I did the verboten (yes, an homage to the German origin of the show)

I pulled out my camera and caught a bit of the afterwards. It's jumpy 'cause I didn't want to watch it through the viewfinder, just held it about where I thought it should be. Not great footage, but you get a bit of the idea:



Prior to this, the edgiest show I'd taken kids to was probably Rent. This one challenged the limits even more--some nudity at the end of act I and the scene repeated at the beginning of act II, a gay makeout scene, a masturbation scene as part of a song, and of course the song mentioned above.

And to think I rejected the idea of Equus during the London trip last year. Of course, that was partly because I knew the play well enough to know most of my kids wouldn't have enjoyed it, despite the thrill of seeing Harry Potter in the altogether.

The show was good--but I don't think it's as good a show as Rent--well, maybe not as good at doing what Rent does. Part of what is amazing about Rent is that it really touches broadly on the human condition, while Spring Awakening deals with an issue, if the difference makes sense. Also, I get goosebumps hearing the harmonies of "Seasons of Love", and the harmonies throughout Rent are amazing. Spring Awakening just doesn't have that complexity in its vocals--lots of unison.

I have a more detailed critique to offer sometime, but must be off to bed--it's an early start down to the ferries to Liberty and Ellis Islands tomorrow, then the Met Museum in the afternoon.

*I recently posted that I'd be moving all "personal" posts to another more secure spot. That's still the plan, but I think some posts like this I'll put here for a little while then move them there before search engines and random folks get to this one.

busy times

Last night's variety show--completely organized by a student who's going off to work at an orphanage in Guatemala after graduation and wanted to raise money not for her trip but to bring to the orphanage--was a great success. Admittedly, the crowd was small as it began, but more came and donations totalled $400.

What was nice was that I got to just sit and watch--didn't have to tech, organize, film or anything. Congrats to the one participant I know who reads this sometimes.

Today it's off to see Spring Awakening which is a little more serious project. I remember studying the play at university years ago, and it's being performed by a very good local theatre company which features high school students. They take on things that often wouldn't be typically done in a high school.

Funny to see Milly tech-ing that one.

Then, crazy early tomorrow, it's off to NY for most of a week. I'll try to post from there at some point if I have internet. What sucks is it's supposed to be 27 here tomorrow (81) and so we're getting our first nice warm weather of the year, and the forecast in New York is for rain.

Meh, it's still New York. It will still be warmer than when I was there in March.

Downsizing

I've moved some of the "personal" posts to another place. I'm going to use this blog for writing I do for fun, but I think I won't put things about work, family or friends here.

Reading Camila's most recent post was the final push I needed to help make the decision.

If you're a regular reader here and want to be added to the other list, drop me a note. If I don't want to add you, it's nothing personal, it's more that I'm trying to keep some boundaries between different parts of my world for the moment.

I'll still be posting stuff here, though, if you want to bother to look.

rethinking

I'm contemplating a reorganization of the blogs. Recently, discussing the whole world of personal online journaling with friends both local and elsewhere, I realized I am not entirely comfortable with lack of control of who reads what goes here, or the resultant self-censorship such uncertainty can cause.

Gone are the heady days when I'd get over 2000 "hits" in a month--mostly due to the promotion of a couple of the career posts on a popular site elsewhere. Now, according to the counter, I get around a dozen visits per day on this blog.

It's mostly the same folks, I suspect. Most I know, while a few returnees, such as the one from Egypt or the ones from England and Ireland, I don't know at all. (not that you're any less welcome)

A friend was telling me a bit more recently about the fallout of a relative stumbling across her blog and reading posts from back when this writer, now 20, was maybe 15 years old. Honest venting about family stuff was not intended for this or other relatives to read, and five years later, the feelings are no longer the same--but the words are still there.

I delete a lot of posts. Every so often I go through and wipe out the majority of those which have personal information--leaving only the "writing" ones I do for fun. I think I may just make this the blog where I do that--put the things I write for fun, or make occasional observations or comments on news stories, youtube videos, sports results and the like.

The "other" place I write would be where I put the personal stuff. Most of what you see right now below this post would fall into that category, with maybe the exception of the "quotes" post, and the Dythandra poem.

The audience of the other place is defined, and part of the deal is they know I write whatever I feel like there and if it's boring or annoying or stupid or offensive--it's my place to be self-indulgent. (Though all blogs should be that, to some extent, I suppose.)

Thus, if you don't feel comfortable with that, you won't be asking to be added to the readership. Also, it's easier to keep local (people who deal with me in real life) readership out of that blog, so if I were to go on a rant about something at work I wouldn't have to worry about some student or colleague having that inside perspective on how I really feel about something.

So, I guess what I'm saying is, if you see things change here, I haven't joined a cult, I've just become a little more circumspect. I may move some of the more recent posts below to the other site and delete them from here soon.

I could just write a journal, but as a young friend said recently, it's nice to know that someone could be reading what you write, even if nobody is.