too fast to live, too old for facebook

So, I just got on to Facebook and honestly? I think I am too old for it. There's stuff on there like "Buy your friends" and I'm like huh? I've gotten some friend requests, and most people I know from high school and I'm happy to hear from - like, oh, I wonder what so-and-so's been up to. But today, I got one total surprise from someone in grade school. I haven't done anything with this friend request because I was like, really? It was junior high torture. Friend? I think not. And some I'm like who ARE you? I only created a profile because my friend Beth told me she'd done one and the only way I could see hers was to create one myself.

As any of you who visit me here know, I'm not the best with updating this blog, and I haven't done anything with my facebook page at all. Like I really need two places on these interwebs where I don't update stuff?

++ Update: Well, I went over to Facebook and updated my stuff. I still don't really get it, but it is kind of addictive...

Oh hell to the yes...

It's coming, people. The Mamma Mia! sing-along!

Brush up your ABBA and let's go!!

advancing art is easy, financing it is not

My life lately has turned into a Sondheim musical number. Naturally, I would be played by Bernadette Peters. Haa. My new job position requires a lot of writing and a lot of shmoozing - after all, what's a little cocktail conversation if it's gonna get us our foundation?

Here she is, boys...

The Gypsy cast recording came out yesterday! But since I pre-ordered mine at the theater on post-Tony Tuesday, it came straight to my door on Monday afternoon, so for a while at least, I was the first kid on my block to own it. I can't stop listening to it. Makes me want to go again, like right now. I did the same thing in the car when the overture started that I did when I was sitting in that darkened theater, waiting for the show to start, I bounced in my chair, clapped my hands and went "wheee!" (Yes, I know. Easily entertained. But give me a break here. I got kind of a promotion last week, although this basically means a new title and more work. I am taking my entertainment where I can find it, these days...)

I was intrigued especially by the added tracks that have not been recorded before - songs that got cut along the way. My favorites of these are "Small World/Momma's Talkin' Soft" "Nice She Ain't" "Smile, Girls" and "Who Needs Him." I would really like to see a few of these put back into the show, but when you listen to them, it is kind of understandable why they got taken out in the first place. But they do kind of add a whole new dimension to Rose's character.

Back to school!

It seems that summer is well and truly over - it is the first day of school in my home town district 219, our short Friday summer hours end this week, and it's time for me to start thinking about new boots...

I am obsessed, for some reason, with back-to-school supplies. It was always my favorite part of going back to school - new clean spiral bound notebooks, reams of filler paper, pens(!) #2 pencils, trapper keepers, chandler's assignment notebooks, backpacks (and can I just ask WTF is with the kids now lugging around backpacks on wheels?? I carried all my crap for 12 years on my back, and I'm totally fine. Toughen up, already) all of that good stuff. Even now, I can happily spend a good solid hour in Staples or Office Max, just looking at all the great stuff. This doesn't mean I want to actually go back to school or like, have kids or anything. It probably just means I am very easily entertained.

I was also thinking about my first day as a high school freshman. I don't remember a lot about it - I had a good locker location B275, which is of course critical. There was a lot of ice-breaking going on that first day. I remember specifically having Spanish class mods 2-4 (oh, yes. We were on a mod system. Something else to throw the freshmen completely off track.) and our teacher, a young enthusiastic guy with a ponytail, got up on his desk and did a trust fall, backwards, onto us. Stop and think about this for a minute. Asking a bunch of freshmen, first thing in the morning, to catch you as you tumble backwards off your desk? That takes a LOT of trust (or foolishness?) Good thing he didn't try this move at the end of the year, as I think we all would have let him just fall. Seriously. He this kind of crunchy granola touchy feely, 'I'm THERE for you' kind of teachers. Really really earnest. I remember looking around at my classmates thinking nobody told me THIS was going to happen in high school. Are they ALL going to do this?? Fortunately, the other teachers just stuck to regular kinds of ice breakers and nobody else threw themselves bodily off of any furniture.

Thank you, Peter Gelb!

Since I can't actually go to New York City to see the dazzling Ms. Renée Fleming in the Metropolitan Opera's Opening Night gala on September 22nd, it looks like I will have to settle for the next best thing... the Met in HD, coming soon to a theater near you (& me!). Seriously, I think this is one of the best ideas anyone has ever had, ever. I get to see the Met's gorgeous productions, have some popcorn and milk duds if I want, and not have to leave the state.

In other news, since I can't let an entire year go by without actually physically going to the Met, I've bought a ticket for Thais in December. It is all part of my 30th birthday blowout extravaganza. This will also hopefully involve another trip to see Patti in Gypsy (stay open, please!) and maybe a few other shows...

You can't make this shit up...

1. I'd like to formally apologize to my colleague, as I thought she was lying about trampolining being an Olympic Sport. But it really is! I didn't believe it until I saw it last night with my own eyes. It's oddly fascinating, and I like it MUCH more than beach volleyball. You know how most people like jumping on the bed as kids? This kind of reminded me of that - jumping on the bed with no danger of hitting your head on the ceiling, no chance of getting yelled at by mom, and being able to do triple double sommersaults and cool stuff like that. There is also apparently synchronized trampoline and I am super curious to see that. Strangely though, this seems to be a sport where the US is not smashing the competition. I wonder why not?

2. Was at Ravinia this past weekend. Can someone please explain to me why on earth anyone would buy lawn tickets to a dance event?? The music wasn't really that great, and if you go spread a blanket or whatever way the hell back by the special event tents, you aren't going to see anything, either. So what's the point??

TGIF!

Well, I don't know about all y'all, but I am SO ready for the weekend! Some happiness that added to my Friday:

1. The purchase of tickets to see Ms. Patti at North Central College in Naperville (yes, it's in April. I am all about planning ahead)- front row seats, too, holla!

2. A new beverage at Argo tea - the Carmelotto Macchiato - it's coffee! It's chocolate! It's caramel! It's full of caffeinated deliciousness! Can you tell I'm still kind of on the caffeine buzz??

3. A lunchtime visit to my happy place - AKA the Art Institute where I spent most of my time in front of the Seurat. I am considering membership over there, should this become a serious habit.

4. Tomorrow night I get to see a certain bunch of talented dancers at Ravinia and the weather is supposed to be beautiful.

5. Tonight I am planning to get scrappy with my friends - I have not done anything remotely crafty in a very long time.

6.

Authorized Patti at Les Mouches recording... I have a not-s0-authorized one... which I love... but the real thing?? Woo!

Happy happy Friday! I am outta here!

the 'twilight' zone (thanks a lot, Heidi)

I spent most of this past weekend lost in a little town called Forks, Washington, where vampires and shape shifting wolf men roam free. Yes, I finally got with the program and read Stephenie Meyer's four book Twilight saga. I started on Friday with the first book, Twilight, and I finished the fourth book Breaking Dawn last night. That averages out to about a book a day, and they are not small books. I would have been done with them all sooner, I think, but I kept getting distracted by the Olympics... first the opening ceremonies and then non-stop swimming, diving and gymnastics (but set your DVRs, people, trampolining is set to be aired this coming Saturday!)

See? I'm distracting myself even now. The books are lots and lots of fun, and I enjoyed reading them, so here's my public shout out to Heidi my home girl and fellow member of Team Jacob, for telling me about her obsession and helping me to feed it by loaning me a few of the tomes so that I didn't even have to leave the house in order to finish the series. You were right, once again. And thanks.

So my book pile is sadly depleted again... any ideas??

thinking ahead...

Well, ohmigosh, were you all watching the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Games on Friday night?? Despite some initial misgivings I had about Chicago's hosting the Games in 2016, I admit that I got extremely beligerant watching the ceremony and hearing about some of the other candidate cities for 2016. I mean, what does Rio have that we don't?? And keep dreamin' Madrid, it is all about Chicago! Does it really matter that we don't have the space, the transportation system OR the infrastructure to host a major international event? Not so much. Daniel Burnham once urged the city to "make no small plans" in the creation of the World's Fair and now, generations later, we are carrying the torch of his legacy.

And speaking of carrying the torch, the clock is ticking. We've got 8 little years to start planning a completely awesome opening ceremony, and I'm thinking we've gotta start like, yesterday. Chicago has a rich history that can be used to create some very strong imagery. I don't have details worked out just yet, but for instance, the White City would be kind of cool to bring back to life, opening-ceremonies style, glistening and glittering and lit up by lightsticks.... past, present and future, all in one....

And of course, maybe the most famous Chicago story, the Great Chicago Fire, would have to be incorporated somehow, and I think I've got a Plan. As the Olympic flame is relayed into the stadium, passed from hand to hand of various famous Chicagoans, the last runner runs up many many stairs to a gleaming white platform and there's a cow standing there. Not a real cow, a sort of dancing cow, Mrs. O'Leary's cow, to be exact. And she's smiling and dancing and she's so happy to see the runner she sort of knocks the torch out of his hand.... and into the Olympic cauldron below them, which lifts high into the air above the stadium. Welcome, children of the world!

Come on, it would be fantabulous.

because sometimes, it's about dancing...

To find out more about this dancing fool, check out http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

guts 'n glory

So, I am not really athletic. Argh, I hated gym class. Like, when we played baseball, I always went and stood as far back in the field as I possibly could. Too many people shouting at me, it always freaked me out. Volleyball is my idea of pure hell. I was always like, what? You want me to hit the ball with my bare forearms? Um, ow. And I think not. The two years when we had swimming was also not my idea of a good time. Fortunately, the last two years of high school, we could pick what we wanted to do in gym class, and I always chose things like cross country skiing where we went out maybe twice if we were lucky - the rest of the time we played silly team games like pillow polo or scooter ball, things like that, and archery (no changing into manky gym clothes!) and step arobics etc. In junior high, my gym teacher hated me. I wasn't one of her star players and so was nobody. When I was made volleyball captain in class and got to pick a team, she yelled at me for picking my friends. Uh, right, because I am sure I was the only one to do that?? In high school, the gym teachers felt sorry for me, I think, since I am so hugely uncoordinated. They always thought I was "trying" and so I got pity A's for effort. Ha.


All this is really building up to say that despite all that, I really really really love the Olympics. It makes me wish I was athletic just so I could go there and compete and win (naturally). During the Olympics, I watch stuff on tv that I would never ever watch otherwise. During the Torino winter games, I found myself watching a cross country skiing race, and curling, and strangely, the gold medal hockey match (but that was mainly because the Swedish goalie was totally hot). I love the opening ceremony and the torch lighting and all of that rah rah, USA! USA! stuff. I will be glued to the swimming and diving and gymnastics in the coming weeks, and then not think about it again for another 4 years. And I love all the crazy stuff that qualifies as "Olympic Sports" - in particular, my coworker swore up and down this week that trampolining was an Olympic sport. I totally did not believe her, but I just looked it up and it's true. It was introduced as a discipline in 2000 in Sydney. They will probably televise it late at night...

I am conflicted about Chicago's Olympic bid, but if the games were to come here, you know I would totally go, just to get my Olympic junkie fix.

Opening Ceremonies are tonight! Well, actually, they are probably happening even as I type this, but whatever. Let the games begin!!

Another Friday, Another Patti YouTube....

The voice! The drama! The hair! Love it! Happy Friday!