this ain't yo mamma's musical, punk

So yes. American Idiot. I had been curious about it, which fueled my desire to see it. It's kind of an interesting idea, marrying punk rock with musical theater. It's been done before, of course, in shows like Rent, Spring Awakening, Hair. What interested me the most though, was the idea that this show is about our own time and our own issues, not about living in America at the end of the millennium, or during the 1960s or 1890s Germany. The concept here is inherently relatable to our lives today since we're living it. Aside from that, I know of and like Green Day, and it sounded like fun in a loud and angsty sort of way (how could someone not love a show that was called "Hair's sullen, cynical grandchild"?)

This is, essentially, how I summed it up to someone a few days after I saw it. It was good. Good, not great. Was it the best thing I've ever seen? No. Would I see it again? Yes. Would I recommend it? Also yes.

Plot? The time is now. The show follows three young men (introduced early on, but names promptly forgotten, at least by me) coming of age in our own turbulent times, confronted by a sea of conflicting messages constantly being blared over the airwaves by the media. And boy, are they PISSED OFF about it. An hour and a half and 21 musical numbers ensue, following Johnny (an excellent, excellent John Gallagher, Jr.) who struck out to the big city to play in band (maybe?), met Mimi (whoops, I mean, well, actually she's called "whatsername") and does some serious drugs doled out by "St. Jimmy". Johnny's friend Tunny goes with him, decides to join the army, goes off to fight and comes back wounded. Their other friend, Will, is all set to go off with them but finds out his girlfriend is pregnant. Time for him to get off the couch and grow up.

All of them do a lot of growing up, actually, in this fast-paced show. Green Day's music is like poetry (no, seriously) and although I went in knowing a handful of songs, I have had several of them in my head since we've returned (damn it). My friend Heidi is well-known in our circle for reading her Entertainment Weekly and therefore knowing her shit, and she told me that the album American Idiot was written sort of like a rock opera, with a theme running throughout. The transition of this music to the stage seemed like a natural progression, and the music actually lends itself to this kind of dramatization and aggressive, physical, non-jazz hands style dancing.

So - what worked for me? The amazing cast and their tremendous energy. Every one of them gave 110% for the entire show- especially the girl in the opening song, who made her entrance upsidedown on a trapeze like thing. She hung there for a good long time, bopping and head banging along with the music. Then she came to the ground, got off and started dancing. Dude. I can barely headbang standing up without getting dizzy, after doing all that, I would have fallen down or something. I also now have a serious crush on John Gallagher Jr. I loved at the end (SPOILER ALERT HERE, people!) the curtain had gone down and came back up on the whole cast holding guitars. They played and sang "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" which is one of my absolute favorite songs. Also loved the voice of "Whatsername" Johnny's love interest, played with serious awesomeness by Rebecca Naomi Jones.

So what didn't work for me?? Oh, I don't know. I didn't hate it or anything, I'm just kind of lukewarm about it, I guess. I had issues with the "plot" such as it was. I didn't feel a strong connection with the characters. I remembered "Johnny" but not really any of the others. If you don't know their names, how can you be expected to care about them and what happens to them?

I remember reading somewhere that it was a good idea to listen to the cast album prior to attending the show, to really hear and understand the music and what was happening. I mean, I'm not a dummy and so it wasn't like I didn't understand what they were saying, but there was a lot going on and it was really LOUD. And I think sometimes they could have gone further - this music has strong messages in it, you have tvs all over the set, just go for it. I left with kind of an "oh" feeling, not quite knowing what they wanted me to get out of the show. Although, I have been sitting around pondering it since last Tuesday, so maybe it did something right after all?? I just didn't know though - Is it a call to action? A call to awareness? Am I supposed to leave happy? Sad? Pissed off? Should I go off and start a revolution? Is the answer that maybe there ARE no answers and maybe I'm an American Idiot myself??

Afterwards, we went to Junior's for some post-show discussion and snacks. I had cheesecake (strawberry shortcake cheesecake, in the interest of full disclosure) and Heidi (surprise!) had soup.

just one look and i can hear a bell ring...

We arrived in NYC last Monday and stayed until Thursday morning. I wanted to cram the visit as full of stuff as possible, including shows. I was a little worried, because although I personally see no problem with spending my days in darkened theaters, my dear friend might not have agreed with my plans. As I planned the trip, my list of must-sees dwindled - mainly because so many of them closed in the meantime - A Little Night Music (we were a few weeks too early to see Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch take over in this show.), God of Carnage and Sondheim on Sondheim were a few on my list that closed before we got to town. I also wanted to see American Idiot, La Cage, Promises, Promises and Everyday Rapture. The nerd in me wanted to go to the Addams Family to see what had been changed since I saw it here in Chicago. So much to see, so little time. In the end, we decided on two - Mamma Mia! (one of the rare shows open on Monday) and American Idiot.

I love, love, love, love, love, Mamma Mia! I've seen it twice here in Chicago, the first time was at the Auditorium Theater and the second, last January, in Rosemont, and I just love it to pieces. I'd been wanting to see it on Broadway, just because I thought it would be a great evening of big, splashy fun.

And it was. The cast was wonderful, the best I have seen, and included Beth Leavel as Donna. She was amazing. She sang her face off, she was hilariously funny. The rest of the cast was good as well and included John Dossett as Sam - he also played Herbie in the Bernadette Peters Gypsy - I was so sure I recognized his voice from somewhere, and after a phrase in "Knowing Me, Knowing You" I was like "Herbie!!" I had been a little nervous about our Sophie, as her bio indicated she'd been on the recent national tour - and the Sophie we saw in Rosemont SUCKED a whole bunch - but it was not this girl, Natalie Gallo, who was a fantastic Sophie.

The plot, let's face it, is completely ridiculous but WHO CARES? The music is happy, cheery froth, and there is nothing better than standing up at the end and singing "Waterloo" with the rest of the audience and the cast in their awesome metallic 70s gear. The thing that still bothers me, that I notice every single time, is the line in "Thank you for the Music" which is the original and goes "I've been so lucky, I am the girl with golden hair" when Sophie is not actually golden haired. I just sit there and go, no, you're not. The logo bride isn't golden haired either, so I'm not sure what's up with that. Is she singing "Thank you for the Music" as a song that she learned from her mom? But it seems to be delivered like the rest of the songs, as the character's dialogue, and the rest of it seems to fit - "mother says I was a dancer before I could walk..." etc. So I don't know. I guess it is not one of those things that we are supposed to think too much about.

It is such a feel good show, I left the theater on a cloud of ABBA-induced euphoria. How can I resist you, indeed.

NYC or Bust!

Even though I'd been to NYC (many times) before, Heidi had not. I wanted to be sure we did all of the great stuff that one needs to do on a first visit. Fortunately, I had some assistance in planning the itinerary:

"lemme see... first stop, fish market, nom, nom, nom... next stop, stachoo liberty, and den I am finking bwoadway show. Whaddabout Cats? Dat my favwite."

(Oh yeah, he was a big help, all right!)

ask not what top model can do for you....

So. I heard that Fuerza Bruta is set to close on July 11, considerably earlier than anticipated. I mentioned this to my friends in the car yesterday and none of them had heard of it. "What's it about?" they asked "Is it a musical?" and I was at a bit of a loss, not having seen it myself. I said the audience stood and... stuff... sort of happened above them.

Then it occurred to me - I said to them: do you remember that photo shoot on America's Next Top Model? Where the girls were on that plastic thing in the water? Tyra saw Fuerza Bruta in New York and that's what inspired the photo shoot.

And the lights went on - my friends totally remembered that (it is, in fact, the reason I had originally heard of Fuerza Bruta - right after that photo shoot, I saw an ad for it in Time Out New York and was like "So that's what she was on about.") and said that I should have told them straightaway that it was from Top Model. I mean, duh. As Angelea from the 716might have said, bitch, please.

So, Fuerza Bruta, here is a tip for you, and I'm giving it to you for free: people here don't seem to get you. It's all like "forza whata?" and your ads (and lukewarm reviews) don't seem to be helping your case. I have heard great things about you, and would totally go except you are too rich for my recently returned from New York City vacation blood (and I missed my chance to go for free!). So you've got to step it up in the final days of your Chicago existence. USE YOUR TOP MODEL LINK. People might not know their performance art, but I guarantee you, they know their Tyra. People all over the place will have the same epiphany as we did in the car: "Oh, the thing from Top Model?? That looked cool! You should have SAID!"

It will totally work....

billy elliot in chicago

I'm back!! New York was fabulous, as always and watch this space for photos and details of all of our exploits. Last night though, it was Billy Elliot at the Oriental Theater back in sweet home, Chicago. It was my second time seeing Billy (the first one was in NYC a year or so ago - I did a double show day with a matinee Billy and an evening Road Show) and I was eager to see how the Chicago production measured up to the Broadway one. I remember liking the show immensely, laughing, crying, etc etc (and also being stuck in the middle of a row in the balcony and missing the intermission bathroom dash but whatever. The show was good.) but I wondered if it was just a combination of being-in-New York excitement and emotionality? Seeing it again, would I have the same responses?

Happily, this time I was with my friends (Heidi had gotten two tickets as a Christmas gift and I was her plus one - thanks, Heidi!!!), I was sitting on an aisle and made the intermission run smoothly (but hello? the restroom in the loge in the Oriental Theater has THREE STALLS. Three. Is that nuts or what?) and the show was just as good as I remembered.

The action of the show is set against the miners' strike of 1984 and young Billy's father and brother, indeed most of the men in his town are on strike, fighting for their jobs, their community, and their way of life. PM Margaret Thatcher was intent on breaking the union and dismantling the state-owned mining industry. The playbill synopsis says that in 1984 more than 300,000 men worked in mines in Britain, but now there are less than 1,000. Most of the coal used there now comes from abroad.

Amidst all this turmoil, is young Billy Elliot (played last night by JP Viernes who was just so adorable, I wanted to dress him up in corduroy and put him on my bookshelf). His dad sends him to boxing lessons which he hates and he inadvertantly ends up in a ballet class, where he shows some potential. Through training with Mrs. Wilkinson he is able to audition for the Royal Ballet School in London. This is his ticket out of this town, a chance to be more than a miner and he is able to take it.

This show is wonderful for so many reasons - it is about a kid, but the show is not necessarily for kids. The first time we see Billy, his friend asks him a question about the strike, the response to which is "Fook if I know!" There is a hard edge here - my favorite scene is "Solidarity" where the striking miners clash forcibly with the police sent to "keep the peace" and Mrs. Wilkinson's ballet class dances around them. It is a powerful scene - the innocence of youth combined with the brutality of the circumstances of the miners. I cried again - during that scene, the letter scene with Billy and his mom, "He Could Go and He Could Shine" when his father realizes that Billy's talent could give him real opportunities, and becomes a scab, breaking the picket line to try and provide for his family, Billy's song "Electricity" where he answers the question "What does it feel like when you're dancing?" I am crying now, just typing this. Seriously. It's a serious show, set to great music by Sir Elton John (and no, Crocodile Rock does not sneak in to the proceedings. It is all original music) with an uplifting story, lots of heart, and killer dance numbers.

On to the cast. The role of Billy is being shared by four young actors. We saw JP Viernes, who, as I mentioned, was absolutely adorable. He danced his face off last night and I enjoyed his overall performance very much. His father was played by the excellent Armand Schultz, Grandma Cynthia Darlow was imported from Broadway and her "We'd Go Dancing" was "Loovleh." I'd been very excited about Emily Skinner's Mrs. Wilkinson and - gosh, do I love her voice - but I had a little trouble understanding her through her northern dialect accent. I barely caught a word of her first song "Shine" and I couldn't avoid a mental comparison with Haydn Gwynne, whom I'd seen on Broadway and listen to on the cast recording. Still, she was good in the role, and it must be kind of hard to sing out full blast and try to keep the accent in place too, if it's not your native one. It also all seemed kind of loud, like they were all shouting all the time - maybe it was where I was sitting??

I didn't notice many changes in the actual show from the Broadway production, although there were a few places where I felt vaguely like I remembered an extra scene or two before - like I was sure Billy's dad confronts him about not going to boxing "Where have you been going?" "Boxin' where do you think?" etc. but that didn't happen - he wasn't caught lying to his dad (and I was sure that he had been and that maybe? His dad slapped him or something? Did anyone else see the Bway show? Did this happen or did I just make that up??)

The one thing I DID notice was the cut of the final verse of "Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher" and I only noticed this because it happens to be one of my favorite verses in a show possibly ever. The ballet girls sing "Oh my darlin', oh my darlin', oh my darlin' Heseltine, you're a tosser, you're a wanker, and you're just...a...Tory... SWINE!" and it made me laugh very hard the first time I heard it. Although I think I was the only one laughing, since I'd followed the strand of who "Heseltine" was and also knew the meaning of "tosser" "wanker" and "Tory swine". The cut is a little puzzling, because yes, it is offensive, if you know what all those things mean, but it wasn't cut for language, since there is ample use of "fook" and "shit!" and "bastard" and it's not like anyone would be mad that Heseltine was insulted, and it's not like they needed to do it to make the show shorter. Anyway. If you want to hear it, get the OCR because it's on there. It is also on a special short Elton John disc of songs that he sings from Billy Elliot, including Electricity, Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher and the letter. And I am telling you, it is worth the price of purchase/download/whatever to hear Elton merrily singing "You're a tosser, you're a tosser, and you're just a TORY... SWINE!!!" at the end of the song (he leaves out the "you're a wanker" part, but whatever. It's still worth it.)

Billy Elliot will be at the Oriental Theater for the forseeable future so go if you can.

How 'bout a midnight Patti party?

Patti's book! In September! Some serious Diva Dish involved, from what I understand. Now here is my problem, y'all: to pre-order or not to pre-order?? Because I like the feeling of going to the bookstore right as it is opening (easy too, because it is conveniently located across the street from my office) and finding what I want, having it in hand and taking it home. With the pre-ordering, it is easier, I guess, but not as satisfying. I remember I did NOT do the pre-order thing with the Harry Potter series, I always got them at the store the day they came out. Except for the last one, which I DID pre-order, and then I ended up going to NYC (to, funnily enough, see Patti in Gypsy at City Center) and I decided I couldn't wait and bought a copy of it there. I even stopped off at one of the midnight party things, I had just seen the show at City Center -- I was wandering around, looking for a taxi, didn't find one and decided screw it and started walking. I ended up by Columbus Circle where there is a bookstore (Barnes & Noble, I think). I was curious and it was almost midnight, so I went in. There were so many people (in costume!) and it was so nuts, I went back out again and found a cab there. I bought the book the next morning at the Barnes & Noble across from Lincoln Center and spent the morning reading it over waffles at Nice Matin. I read up until the matinee of Grey Gardens that afternoon.

I did not lug that tome around the city with me - although, come to think of it, that was the night I met up with Sarah, Kari, Sally, Bob and Gator and we had dinner and saw Gypsy (so I saw it three times when I was there. You are not allowed to judge me.). One of the Ugly Betty cast members and her boyfriend sat in front of me and totally obstructed my view - the book might have come in handy then because I could have either hit them both over the head with it (just kidding!!) or SAT on the damn thing so that I could see. I remember by the stage door that night there were people reading the book. I mean, really??

Sorry, that was a bit of a digression. The point is though, I have two copies of Harry Potter and the whatever the last one was called, because I couldn't wait to get home to my pre-order. What to do? Pre-order Patti and hope it comes early? Go to the store first thing? What if they (gasp!) don't have it??

Do you think any stores will be having midnight parties? Dress up as Reno Sweeney/Evita/Mrs. Lovett and sing showtunes?? Wouldn't that be awesome? Maybe in New York... sigh...

"You're the Top": Sutton Foster to Star in Broadway Revival of Anything Goes - Playbill.com

Oh hell yes!!! New York, I'm coming to see you next year, that is for sure. And I am looking forward to seeing Ms. Foster when she comes to Chicago - although to me she will always be Coco the sign girl who dated Brett on Flight of the Conchords.

"You're the Top": Sutton Foster to Star in Broadway Revival of Anything Goes - Playbill.com

powerless

Friday had dawned sunny, sticky and humid. I had the day off, did some shopping, met a former colleague for lunch, bought some shoes, sat in traffic in the huge construction-y mess that is now Golf Rd by Old Orchard Center. Around 3:30 it started getting dark and stormy looking. I didn't mind, I like a good rain storm, so I was contentedly watching Jeopardy in dark coolness. 4:00 it's getting darker and darker. Like scary dark. I have a sudden realization that I'd left a pair of shoes outside to dry in the sunshine after I'd stepped in a massive puddle earlier in the week, and that if the dark sky opened up they'd be soaked once again. Sprinted outside to grab the shoes. The wind had picked up, so once back inside, I went straight to the tv to see what was up. Just as I was thinking "Wouldn't it suck to have your power go out and have no air conditioning on such a hot sticky day" we heard a loud explosive sound.

And the power went out.

Frantic calls to ComEd ensued, as the wind whipped and the thunder clapped and the rain poured. I figured out how to use my iPod radio (yay!) to try and find a weather report. Without tv or any other radio, how were we supposed to know when to take cover? There could be a tornado under my nose, for all I knew, and no way to know if I should grab the cats and go to the basement.

The storm subsided, but we were still in darkness. You know how you hear on the news about areas that lose power in big storms and the newscasters say something like "power won't be restored to these areas for several days" and you think (from the comfort of your brightly lit and air conditioned home) "Sucks to be them!!" Well, now we were them. It was our whole block.

It's so strange, isn't it, the things you notice when something like this happens. Each time I went into the bathroom, I automatically flipped the lightswitch before I realized oh, yeah, lights are out. You can't read or watch tv (unless you use a flashlight or candle light) you can't go online (well, I couldn't anyway, because I don't have wireless on my laptop). We couldn't open our refridgerator. We ordered out, ate by flashlight and kept a look out for the ComEd guys. They did come, actually pretty quickly. But it was the same thing each time. They'd park, look at the pole, get out a big rod, do something, get in the truck and go away. Late Friday evening, they came back, put a guy in a cherry picker and had him up there, fussing with wires. Then it started raining and storming again, and they went away. Only thing to do was go to sleep, and even that was weird. I do this thing in the morning where I turn over and pick up the alarm clock so I can see what time it is. I did that Saturday morning and was greeted with darkness. I had hoped that I would wake up and everything would magically be restored, but alas.

More frantic calls to ComEd for status updates, and the message was different every single time I called. No news. No estimates on restoration times. At one point I spoke to a person and she said that the estimate was "several days" without power. Eventually we decided to get a generator to save the contents of the fridge (my cheese curds!) and freezer. No sooner had we gotten the thing hooked up and running when the ComEd guys showed up again. They thought everything was fixed (uh, no, guys, sorry) and had to see what was up. We went out to pick up some lunch and when we were back --- the lights were on! The clocks were flashing!! I've never been so happy to turn on a light in my entire life.

rainy days & mondays...

So the weekend didn't turn out to be as crazy as originally projected (except for Friday, which was MORE crazy than I could ever have even dreamed. In a good way). Because it was raining and cold on Saturday, we didn't make it to the Botanic Garden. And there was a bit of a hiccup on the David Sedaris front as well. I had thought that the tickets were for Sunday, had written in my calendar that it was Sunday, had mom convinced that it was Sunday, would have sworn under oath that those tickets were for Sunday. Late Saturday afternoon, it occured to me to get the tickets out and make sure all was in order. Opened the envelope, looked inside...

Yeah. Tickets were for Saturday, that very day, at 3:00. It was, at that point, almost 4:30.

So, yeah. I am a moron, and we should always check the tickets, is the moral of that story. But no David Sedaris. Boo.
Went to Superdawg with Heidi instead, and then we planned our TRIP TO NYC at the end of June (WOOOOO!!!!). It will be awesome - I need a vacation, Heidi's never been to NYC, and yeah. Pretty much awesome.

Was late for the Tony watching - I came in about half an hour after it started. I wasn't very attached, since I hadn't seen anything (except for the Addams Family, which was pretty much shut out of all the major categories. I think it is weird about Kevin Chamberlain getting the featured actor nod over, say Nathan Lane, since I thought you could cut out all the Fester stuff easily...). I mean, I do follow the shows and stuff like that, but I wasn't invested in anything. It looked like a bunch of duds this year, if I am honest. None of the musicals really appealed to me (although, full disclosure here, we did get tickets for American Idiot. I'm curious). And the performances were underwhelming. Is Catherine Zeta-Jones always so god awful??? Or is it just because she lost her voice?? Anyone?

And don't get me wrong here, you all know I love me some Glee, but Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele were essentially pointless filler. Hunktastic filler, in Matthew's case, but really?? That could have been left out completely so that, oh, I don't know, some of the winners could actually make speeches? All the major categories are always left to the end, when they are hurrying to wrap up the show. So they get to say two words or something like "SHUT UP! It's been 29 years!" which is hardly fair to them.

Anyway. Happy Monday - and don't forget your umbrella (ella ella).

chicago celebrates

So lucky for me I had the day off - allowing me to go to the Blackhawks parade!!! I didn't want to take my usual 7:04 am train (FOOL) instead opting for the 8:29 which would, theoretically, get me downtown by 9:00. Plenty of time to grab breakfast and score a decent spot for the parade. See any flaws in this plan yet?? Yeah, a million other people had the same idea. The trains were running late because of all the people in Hawks gear packed onto them. When my dad dropped me off, there was a train pulling up (it was 8:20 and I can only assume the train was the 8:15 running late). Dad thought maybe I could catch that one, and if it was merely a timing issue, I may have been able to make it. But no. Packed.

Whatever. Eventually I caught a train. I got downtown at 10:00. Parade allegedly to start at 10:30. No breakfast, no leisurely strolling to score a good spot. I grabbed a vitamin water and a snickers and joined the red and black shirted throngs on the street. Originally headed to Wacker and Washington but got nowhere. Turned around and walked on Madison instead. I was aiming for Daley Plaza, but just like FORGET IT. There were people everywhere. I was not surprised or anything but the original plans were out the window. I ended up on LaSalle and Washington, across from City Hall, and I wedged myself into a pretty decent spot. Much experience in this regard, from weaseling my way into spots at concerts, etc. It's a good thing I am little, is all I can tell you.

There were people everywhere - standing in windows in their (airconditioned) offices, sitting on top of bus shelters and newspaper boxes, climbing up street lamps, sitting in parking garages and leaning out the open parts. The crowd was friendly and excited - at one point an inflatable soccer ball appeared and made the rounds of the crowd (mainly on my side of the street). I even got a hand on it once (after it hit me in the head). There were chants of "Let's Go, Blackhawks!" and confetti showered down on us (and sometimes whole newspaper pages).

It was hot - we were packed in like sardines and all of a sudden it was 70 degrees and humid. Originally, I'd planned to bring an umbrella but was not able to find one small enough to stick into my bag. I figured I'd pick one up downtown (ha). I didn't but it didn't much matter - it didn't rain and also there wouldn't have been any room to open it anyway.

And then there they were!!!!!! On top of double decker buses, there was our team! And there was the Cup! We cheered and hollered and clapped and gave those boys the party they deserved when they won the thing in the first place.

When they finally passed, the crowd started streaming into Washington Street after them. I attempted to make my way to the rally and actually got to Wacker. It was pretty near impossible to get to the corner of Michigan and Wacker from where I ended up - it was all stanchioned off. Did I mention it was hot? And that I was wearing my red Hawks t-shirt with number 31 on it (Niemi!!) and jeans?? So I attempted to get to Michigan Avenue via Lake St. and it was just hugely crowded. So I never did get to the rally, I went and bought a cold drink and something else to wear instead. What? I was supposed to meet a friend for lunch and museum touring, and I didn't want to go all smelly and sweaty and gross.

But I was there, joining the city in the biggest celebration we've had, I think pretty much ever. And it was unbelievably exciting and wonderful. It was great to see the city come together, and a once in a lifetime "you've gotta be there" kind of event.

Now, I am exhausted. I will post pictures tomorrow.

action packed weekend!

Tonight: Sex and the City2 with my girls

Tomorrow: I am planning to attend the parade/rally for the Blackhawks and then go to MSI with a friend and her darling little girl.

Saturday: allergy shot and the Botanic Garden (what a lovely pair!)

Sunday: David Sedaris at Steppenwolf and also the Tony's!!! I haven't seen any shows this year, as I have not been in NYC since 2 Decembers ago (BOO) but I've been following via Playbill, Broadway World, etc etc etc so I know about the shows and I'm excited, as always, to watch. I wish there was more than one day and one telecast celebrating theater but I guess I've gotta be happy with what I've got for now, right?

here come the hawks, the mighty blackhawks....

Well, how awesome was THAT?? What a great time, I was on the edge of my seat throughout the game. Honestly. It must be so hard to be a commentator for hockey, it is so fast-paced, half the time I didn't even know where the heck the puck was. Sometimes like in football, the commentators go off into lala land and they're not even talking about the game, but in hockey, something is happening every minute. Wow. Just wow. I got SO into it, I was yelling at the tv, making up rude nicknames for the Flyers players and saying things like "Penalty box for you, bitches!" etc. Where does it come from? I don't know. I thought I was going to pass out from the anxiety and then it went into overtime, and I sat with my hands clasped. I probably have bald spots from where I was tearing my hair out.

I am only sorry that they didn't win while they were at home, so that we could give them the proper celebration when it happened. On the other hand, I am not sure I could have sat through another game like that, with all the suspense. The parade and rally is tomorrow and I conveniently have the day off, and I am going to try and go. In the meantime, celebrate, Chicago!! Wheeee!

Glee Update: here comes the dentist...

Gleek Alert! Just read that John Stamos will be cast as Will's rival for Emma's affections - her dentist.

insane or inspired??

Oh what a circus... Evita's coming back to broadway (in 2012)!
Ricky Martin Will Join Elena Roger for Broadway Revival of Evita - Playbill.com

Glee-cap: Journey to Regionals

Remember how last week everybody was in a funk? It got worse with the announcement that Sue Sylvester was going to be on the panel of "celebrity" judges for regionals. See, Will? I TOLD you it was a bad idea to mess with Sue's emotions. Hell hath no fury like the fury of Sue Sylvester scorned. Plus, there was the ultimatum delivered by Principal Figgins, namely, place at Regionals or the club is disbanded. At a meeting to decide their set list for regionals, everybody pretty much sat around crying instead. The situation was so futile even Will cried - in his car, as "Don't Stop Believin'" played on his radio.

But wait!!! That gave him some inspiration. "JOURNEY" he wrote on the blackboard the next day. It's not just the winning that matters, he told the dejected crew, but the journey they have taken to get there. What better way to express that than through (wait for it) the music of Journey?? New Directions' Regionals setlist included "Faithfully" "Anyway you want it/Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'" and of course, "Don't Stop Believin'". They came, they sang, they conquered. But was it enough??

Quinn went into labor just as Vocal Adrenaline took the stage. Jesse rocked out to "Bohemian Rhapsody" - and Quinn was rushed to the hospital. Yeah, "Bohemian Rhapsody" rocked (Jonathan Groff, I kind of love you now). This is serious competition. There was one other group (called "Oral" something or other. I keep wanting to call them "Oral Fixation" but that's not what it was.) which was kinda odd because it was supposed to be Midwest regionals. Where was Chicago, huh??? Did we or did we not just bring the world the most recent American Idol??

Rachel talked to Shelby and tried to convince her to come co-direct New Directions with Mr. Shue. But alas. Shelby told her she wanted a life, a house, a dog... a family. Jokingly, I said, as Shelby, "I'm going to adopt Quinn's baby!!" And later, she DID. I am pretty sure you can't just walk into the hospital and adopt a baby like in one day, but whatever. She adopted her and named her "Beth" just like Puck wanted. At least she didn't go with Jackie Daniels.

The regionals "celebrity" judges were Sue, the news guy, Josh Groban and Olivia Newton-John. Olivia wanted to vote for Oral whoever, because they did a mashup of Olivia and Josh songs. She disparaged New Directions for their ragtag appearance and lack of production values, only to be defended by... Sue. Cut to the stage for the announcement. Oral whatever was announced as the runner up, leaving New Directions face to face with Vocal Adrenaline (another perfect moment for a West Side Story style dance rumble, yes?)

And, the winner is....

Do you need to ask?? This show follows the Whedon model of not allowing any of our beloved characters to be too happy. So naturally, the winner was Vocal Adrenaline. New Directions did not place at all, and so was disbanded. Emma went to bat for the kids with Figgins. "Some things are worth fighting for," she tells Will, and she is totally not talking about their relationship, either (maybe). Will tells her he loves her (then you shouldn't have been slutting it up, Shue) and "dentist or no, this is not over." The kids call him to the auditorium before this conversation can go any further.

They sing a very heartfelt rendition of "To Sir With Love" and who is that lurking around in the background?? Sue Sylvester, of course! She confronts Will in the choir room, as he is packing his stuff up (which is weird, actually, because he has an office somewhere else, doesn't he?). She tells him she came mainly to gloat, but that really, although she had won, she was not sure she wanted to live in a world where she couldn't make fun of his hair and try and thwart his every movement. Because of that, and because what Olivia Newton-John and the others said back at judging really hit home, Sue convinced Figgins to give the Glee club another year.

Which we really pretty much knew, since the danged show is renewed for two more seasons. Still, hooray! One more year! Will tells the group the news, and broke out his ukelele to sing "Over the Rainbow"in the style of the Hawaiian singer Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. Rachel takes instant charge, telling them they'd better start rehearsing for sectionals, but Will tells them to take the summer off and enjoy themselves.

One more thing though - when Sue was talking to Will, she said during judging, it was easy to make the decision over who should win and it cut to her filling in her ballot. Her choice for #1?

New Directions.

Happy summer, Gleeks!

Don't Stop Believin'!!!

It's Tonight, Hawks Fans, It's Tonight!!!

if Glee had a year book...

Glee-cap of last night's Journey to Regionals to come later, but first, a year book entry homage to Glee, inspired by some of my actual year books:

Dear Glee!!
OMG, I loved sitting next to you in choir this year. I hope we have some classes together next year (with that cute Mr. Shue!) Have a great summer. See you at the pool. Hope you get some guys.
Don't Stop Believin!!!

Have a time, xoxoxo,
Kristen

Hawkey 101 :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Blackhawks

Everything you need to know about da game but were afraid to ask!!
Hawkey 101 :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Blackhawks

Puckin' A (or, I suppose, Puckin', eh?)

I'm sorry, but it's going to be pretty Hawk-centric around here until the Stanley cup finals are over (ONE. MORE. GAME!). It's weird, I know, since I am not (usually) a crazy sports fan, but I've now become obsessed with this game and our team. It's kind of like Jane come March Madness time. I sat in front of the tv yesterday, watching the game. When we were at the rehearsal dinner on Friday night, the game was on, and I was keeping an eye on it while I was eating (love you, Jane!).

I knew it was pretty bad though when my dad said yesterday that he was going to watch a movie on tv (I think it was 'Entrapment'). I just stared at him, askance. "But the GAME is on," I said. I've even gone to Wrigleyville Sports in Macy's to gear up. I went back there today, and the guy greeted me like an old friend. Oh, dear.

But whatever, right? It's so nice to have something to cheer about in Chicago, even though I still think it's nutty that they're playing ice hockey in June. Like, it's a zillion degrees outside and hockey seems like such a winter sport to me. Anyway. It seems like everyone in the city is pretty excited. I took a walk bright and early this morning, to bring y'all the following:

The fountain in Daley Plaza has gone red in support of the Hawks!

The Picasso is also a big fan...

As are the Art Institute Lions...

isn't it rich???

Night Music Will Soar Longer: Peters and Stritch to Join Broadway Cast - Playbill.com

Ooooohhh, I was so mad that I was not going to get to NYC in time to see Angela Lansbury & Catherine Zeta-Jones in this... looks like I will have to start planning a July trip!

i think it's a sign...

Jane had arranged for a trolley to ferry her guests from the church to her reception. Unfortunately, since the weather turned nasty, we had changed the reception from its original location to inside the church. No need for the trolley. It was still hanging around outside the church when we left, though (I have no idea what it was doing there. Taking people to find their cars??) and this was on the front of it:

The trolley was named after Antti Niemi - the Hawks goalie who'd shown up in that dream I had earlier in the week!! I think it's a good luck trolley and that they will definitely WIN the game tonight!

wuv, twue wuv!!

Jane's wedding was yesterday!! We were up VERY early so that hair could be done (and mimosas could be had...) The only hiccup was the weather. They were predicting a monsoon style wind and rain scenario - not good, considering the reception was to be a picnic and therefore outdoors. We had to move it all inside the church. But it was all very very beautiful, and most beautiful was lovely Jane, the bride.

I have known Jane since high school, although the funny thing is, I don't remember when we actually met. Freshman year sometime??? My earliest memory of our friendship was sophomore English class, Jane and me and a bunch of our friends were all in the same class (I don't think that ever happened that way again...) and we teamed up on a kickass final project. I think we really became friends after that, and I remember a great sleepover at Jane's house with everybody (especially our extra-fun pictionary game. Anybody??) and I remember our AP European history class that we had together with Mr. Schwarz... "the trench game" and our class successfully avoiding WWI (we had been split up into countries, and I believe Jane and I were France - the point of the exercise was to see how futile negotiation was and the inevitability of WWI, but instead we all struck up deals with each other and... no war. Hooray!), and working on our final project in Jane's basement... on prom night.

So, so many memories of spending time with Heidi and Jane, my two best friends in the universe - concerts and trips (rock boat!!! wis dells and the sauna phones!), just hanging around, hitting things with spoons (like you do), stealing cheese graters (just the once), shopping (hee!), watching top model and the occasional basketball game (usually in March...) and lots of other stuff. For the shower, I created several scrapbook pages using pictures I had, and let me tell you, there were lots of great ones to choose from. And I know there will be millions more.

And now, Jane is a married lady. I am so happy for you, my friend. The ceremony was beautiful, and the reception was lots of fun. Someone told me once - "It takes a willage." Long story, this one, but the quote comes from someone with a very very heavy accent. I am happy and proud to be in Jane and Brian's collective "willage" (whether you like it or not!!!) . Congratulations!!** May you both truly live happily ever after (if not I will get the Big Bad Wolf, aka Pacey to come and blow your disco Florida Room down!!)

** Someone told me recently that it is not proper to say "Congratulations" to a bride - that it is more correct to say "Best Wishes." I have never ever heard that and think that she is nuts. But is this a thing?? Seriously??

Thanks, Patti!

So, this is how I learned that back in the day, hockey players used to not wear helmets. So that the other day, my dad was telling me that such-and-such a player didn't wear a helmet, I said, well, it was a thing for a while and lots of them didn't wear helmets and I totally sounded like I knew what I was talking about, but it was all because of my obsession with YouTube videos. Whatever.

office fridge in revolt

Our fridge in the office has stopped cooling things. Yesterday, we were able to use the freezer (so I threw my lunch bag in there, only to have a frozen-ass turkey and cheese sandwich for lunch) but then the repair guy came and we had to turn it off, and clean it out, and I lost my new bottle of milk, salad dressing, jelly and possibly other things I left in the fridge and forgot about/got lost in the fridge vortex.

Apparently it needs a new defrost panel, so it has to stay off and open for the next few days. This is such a home away from home for me, I guess I never thought about how much I just stash in the fridge. I got in this morning and started to make breakfast, but our water cooler thing is on the blink as well, so I put regular water in my oatmeal bowl and chucked the whole thing into the microwave - but I left it too long (less than 1 minute 30 sec) and now it is a solid blobby mass. I have no milk to thin it out, as I have nowhere to keep it, and I tried putting more water in, but still. Solid, blobby mass. I went out to Argo for my morning cuppa tea (I am trying white tea now, as it is supposed to have less caffeine) and I am going out for lunch today.

At least I am taking tomorrow off and by the time I come back on Monday, order (and the fridge) will be restored (hopefully).

two really weird dreams...

I guess I have been sleeping really soundly these past few nights, because I've been having some CRAZY vivid dreams. So bizarre that I have to share them with you.

The other night I had a dream that I'd gotten off my train from work and started looking for my car, a red honda crv. I looked around for it and found it... with two people sitting inside. The people were two girls that I'd gone to junior high and high school with and I haven't seen either of them for years (except on facebook). We had a discussion - they were sure it was their car but I pointed out that my key had worked, so therefore it was probably MY car. I agreed to help them look for their car (another red crv) and they started driving around. I told the driver that since it was my car, I felt more comfortable driving and all, so we pulled over so we could switch, and the car started spinning around, all by itself. Weird. As it was spinning around, I noticed that the places were from Washington State and that there were Greece stickers and stuff on the back (the girls in the dream were Greek. They are Greek in real life, too.). Uh oh. Not my car. They drove off, and I was stuck looking for my car. I called my mom, who told me it must have gotten stolen and she called the police. The police sent Miss Jay Alexander (from America's Next Top Model!) as their representative (!) and I don't remember much else, except that Miss Jay was advising me to take the insurance money and get a new car. Then I woke up, quietly freaked out that my car had been stolen - it was that vivid of a dream - and I was all like "you don't even HAVE a red crv!!!" I drive a silver honda civic. But my friend Heidi drives a red crv, and her car was not stolen, but totally stopped working when we got home from Wisconsin on Sunday. I talked to her yesterday - it needed a new battery, but red crvs were apparently on my mind...

And then, last night, I had a Blackhawks-related dream. I don't usually have sports dreams, for obvious reasons, but I guess I was anxious about the game last night. We don't have cable and they didn't broadcast the game on NBC, so I didn't get to watch it. I had a dream where the goalie, Antti Niemi, was hanging around outside the goal, looking sort of out of it. For some reason I was able to talk to him and I was all like, "Dude, what's up? Get back in the goal, because they're coming for you!" and then, woosh, the puck flew in and the other team scored. Apparently, he had missed out on having his favorite pre-game meal (some kind of elaborate dream-pasta that he usually got right near the stadium. It was very detailed. I don't remember a word of it, though.) and so was off his game. Then suddenly, I was somewhere else and I asked my mom (still in the dream) if they had won the game, and she said no. So I woke up, totally convinced that they had lost the game, and sure enough, they lost last night. Maybe somebody better get Mr. Niemi his pre-game pasta for Friday's game...

I haven't had any really good dreams like this for a while, I don't know what's causing them, but if I have any others, I will keep you posted...

Glee-cap: Bring in da funk

This week, New Directions found themselves in a funk. First of all, their arch-rivals from Vocal Adrenaline showed up in their auditorium - and the lying, scheming, but at the same time totally cute Jesse St. James was back among their ranks. Uh oh. It's a regionals smackdown, friends, and these guys mean business. They did a great number to psych out our Gleeks, and also TP'd the choir room. In retaliation, Puck and Finn and some of the guys busted the air out the tires of V.A.'s range rovers. Yes, it's true. After they won sectionals, each member of V.A. got their own range rover. As Shelby explained to Will and the delinquents "we've got a big booster group." Can I get a DAMN and also a BAM JIGGY. To pay back the damage, Puck and Finn get jobs working for the ex-Mrs. Shue, Terri (just when we all thought she was off the show, dang it).

The gang is depressed and it does not help when Sue comes in to measure the choir room as a storage space for the Cheerios' anticipated new Nationals trophy. Then, Will gets depressed too. In a funk, which turns out to be the answer to his show-choir based questions. He tells the group that since funk is all about soul and anger, it is beyond the skills of Vocal Adrenaline who are just a bunch of soul-less automatons. Yes. They need a funk number to add to their set list for regionals and the world will make sense again.

They decided to make Quinn pregnant again this week and show off some of her baby mama rage, in a weird-ass rendition of "A Man's World" backed up by a group of fellow pregnant students. Is it me, or are really pregnant people probably not supposed to do funk dancing? Weird, so weird. I don't think that's the way to win regionals, personally.

There's a whole thing where Will flirts with Sue, in a misguided attempt to take her down. Dude. The point is to mess with the person to get her off her game at Nationals, not to flirt with her, tell her you were just being mean and then making her hate you. William - you will never, ever, ever, ever, win at this game with Sue Sylvester. After Will's rejection, Sue took to her bed (in her track suit, of course) clutching one of her Cheerios trophies. Will, feeling bad, goes to visit her. He chats with her maid in espanol, reminding us, once again, that he's a Spanish teacher!! He apologizes and she tells him he would have made a great trophy husband, noting from her decor that "I like me some trophies." And I like me some Sue Sylvester!!! She makes a recovery and leads the Cheerios to Nationals victory. Reporter: you're like the Michael Jordan of cheerleading! Sue: Yes, I am!!! The highlight of their routine? Kurt, sinigng a 14 minute medley of Celine Dion hits - in French.

Jesse shows up again in bastardly fashion, asking Rachel to meet him in the parking lot. She agrees, even though she KNOWS he's been a V.A. SPY with the plan to mess with her mind before the competition. She floats out there, runs up to him in slow motion, etc, only to get egged by members of Vocal Adreneline. He cracks the last egg, on her face. Lovely guy. Glad he doesn't want to see her get hurt and all.

The guys vow to get revenge - Kurt pointing out "Rachel's one of us. We're the only ones who get to humiliate her!" They are on their way to re-arrange Jesse's (hunky but assholic) face when Will stops them. They call up Jesse and tell him to have V.A. meet them back in their auditorium. Well, they end up singing a funk song and rocked it. Personally, I think it would have been cooler for them to have had a West Side Story style rumble, with each team facing off in an epic and fierce singing/dancing number.

Anyway. After watching this funky number, Jesse grumbles to a cohort "They did a funk number. We've never been able to pull off a funk number." Her reply "Because we're soul-less automatons." He sighs, slumps into his seat. "I'm sooo depressed!"

Psych!

POWER PLAY

Go Hawks, 2-0!!! It is so nice to have a winning team in Chicago!!! I watched the game last night (isn't it kinda weird to be watching ice hockey when it's 90 degrees outside?), even though I could hardly stand the suspense. I really just like it when the game happens and someone tells me the outcome, so I don't sit there, biting my nails during the whole thing, just watching and waiting to see what happens.

Hockey has always been one of my favorite sports, we played it in gym class (not on ice), I remember, and it is one of the rare sports that I didn't suck at. One of my favorite parts of the game last night (besides the winning!) was at the begining, when they showed the Blackhawks being introduced and the stadium going wild. But they didn't televise the other team (whoever they are)coming out. It was like Here Come the Hawks... oh, yeah, and these guys too. I don't think it was a local Chicago broadcast, either, but a national one from NBC Sports, so you'd think they would have introduced the other team as well. Do we finally have a winning team who is not an underdog??

Go Hawks, I hope you go ALL THE WAY! I can't wait for the next game in PA. Maybe there, that team will get the big deal intro and the Hawks will be "and also those guys"???

one more thing

I didn't say much about Jane's beautiful wedding shower on Sunday - possibly because I was in a bit of a comatose state after all of our shenanigans on Saturday night and have needed 2 full days to recover.

We had the shower at Walker Bros. Pancake House in Lincolnshire (where else for our breakfast loving Pancake Queen?) and it was a lovely party - the favors that I worked on on Friday (with help from my dad!) turned out SO CUTE and survived the trip to Wisconsin and back. We had a 1950's rock and roll theme, so the favors were these little coke glasses that I filled up with different kinds of candies to look like soda and topped off with "foam" - aka shiny, pearlized, personalized M&Ms that said "Jane & Brian" and "June 5, 2010" (I had trouble placing my order online and had to call them - I got the best and most friendly service. I mean, they work at Mars and must get free chocolates, yes? I would be pretty friendly too, if I had access to so much deliciousness on a daily basis. At any rate, I highly recommend the personalized M&Ms.)

Funny story - our friend Kim had bought the cake. It was lovely, but she'd had some problems. First, the cake people asked about the bride's colors for the wedding and Kim told them that she knew the bridesmaids were wearing black and purple. They told her that they couldn't use black on a WEDDING CAKE, it was better for funerals (because they do such a booming funeral cake business? Do people even have funeral cakes? What do they say?) but eventually they backed off because the frosting was black and purple (it looked and tasted great!) So she picked it up, paid and was walking out to her car when she saw that the cake said "Congradulations" on it. Now, I know that sometimes people will do that for graduations, because it puts the word "grad" in it, and it is also kind of the way that we say it, but no. Back inside the shop she went and told them the word was spelled wrong. They told her no, it wasn't and that "we use a dictionary here" - finally she spelled the word out and they were like "Oooohhhhh. We fix." You'd think that since it is also graduation season that they'd be doing many "Congratulations" cakes, but I guess not.

Anyway...

what happens in Lake Geneva...

My friend Jane's wedding is next week (!!)and so this weekend was her bachelorette party and shower (thank goodness this is a long weekend, I have also taken tomorrow off to fully recover!). A few of us from the bridal party kidnapped the bride and took her up to Lake Geneva for a girls' day - they have been running those Wisconsin tourism commercials for a while now, you know, the ones where there is a guy who tries to tell us that "fun" originated in Wisconsin, which is not a conclusion that I would ever draw for myself, but many many of our fellow statespeople (Illinoisians? Illinoiers?) must have been brainwashed by this idea, because Lake Geneva was PACKED with cars bearing Illinois plates.

We stopped to fortify ourselves with cheese curds at the Brat Stop in Kenosha (because no party can ever really kick off without a whole bunch of fried cheese!) before continuing on to Lake Geneva. Even though it is relatively close, this was my first time there. When I was little, my family and I would go to the Milwaukee Zoo (where they had a stunning white tiger that I was absolutely in love with) and then to Port Washington. But we'd never gone to Lake Geneva. And, personally, I am a little reluctant to go to a state that refers to their neighbors as "FIBS" (effing Illinois BASTARDS) just because we call them "Cheeseheads". Why so hostile, Wisconsin?? We speak the truth in the Land of Lincoln (mostly) and anyway, if you don't like the name, stop wearing the damn hats, okay? Don't call me a bastard just because I like to partake in your delicious cheese. Wear your cheese hats with pride!

Anyway. Lake Geneva is a GORGEOUS place! It has a cute little downtown area with little shops, restaurants, tourist tat, all of it. After driving around a lot (so many people + a long weekend = zero places to park) we got out and hit the town. We walked along the water - there was a pretty beach that they charged 6 whole dollars to go to, but right after that, there was a place to walk, and benches and grassy knolls to sit on and everything. Free of charge. So we walked there, poked around some of the shops, got new shoes at a place called the Bootery (I HAD to. After a very very poor packing plan on my part, I found myself in these really cute but sorta uncomfortable Steve Madden gladiator sandals that zip in the back. They were tearing my ankles and heels to shreds and I needed some open back shoes. Found the cutest pair - on sale!) We also stopped for ice cream where we got Jane a flavor called the "Fat Elvis" with bananas and peanut butter and I don't know what else. Little did she know that her shower the next day had a 1950s rock and roll theme, complete with big posters of Elvis. Very perfect, no?

Found our hotel - the Lodge at Geneva Ridge where the rooms were large and lovely and had little sliding back doors out into the big back yard of the resort, kind of like a community patio. Very pretty. Dinner at the resort and some other amusing, bachelorette party-style hijinx - but look, what happens in Lake Geneva, STAYS in Lake Geneva.

PattiFlash

In today's Sun Times:

TAKE A BOW: Just got the scoop the one and only Patti LuPone will receive Chicago's longest-running theater honor, the Sarah Siddons Award. Also being feted at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel gala Aug. 2 will be actress Mary Beth Fisher, who will receive Chicago's Leading Lady Award for her many outstanding performances on Windy City stages.

idolatry

I skipped most of the bloated American Idol finale last night - two hours of crap, when all you really need is about five minutes to tell everyone what they really need to know - who the winner is. I did tune in for the last 20 minutes or so, in time to see Mt. Prospect's own Lee DeWyze get the American Idol crown.

And I like Lee. I do. In fact, last week, I predicted he would win (I've had good reality-show prediction karma this year, accurately predicting Idol, ANTM AND Dancing with the Stars). After seeing Tuesday's show, I would have given the title to Crystal though, because she really brought it and stood out more than Lee did. Such is the nature of the American Idol votership though, the tween girl and cougar vote carried the evening. Just like last year, when it was pretty obvious Adam should have won, but Kris Allen (another nice guy with a good voice) pulled the upset. But who has the bigger career and more buzz? Adam. Kris? Doing car commercials. I mean, really??

This year, I think is another instance of it not really mattering a whole bunch who walked away with the crown of "American Idol" because Crystal is going to have a great career anyway.

I don't understand, either, why they picked "Beautiful Day" for his first single. It's already a (vastly superior) single by U2. It's a U2 song. I have never liked any of the songs written for the winners to perform that become their first singles (last year's, written by Kara, was totally dreckitude, to borrow some top model parlance), but at least they were original songs. Why they would pick such a well-known song for Lee's first single, I have no idea. So sorry, Lee, but I won't be listening to or downloading that single (not for nothing am I called "Bono's Boot Bitch" in certain circles).

love & a rocket ship v. 2

According to a blurb I read in the Red Eye yesterday, Bono "suffered from severe compression of the sciatic nerve and a herniated disc and was in intense pain with partial paralysis in his lower leg" which sounds pretty horrible and our boy won't be getting on his boots anytime soon. Which makes me truly brokenhearted over the cancellation of U2's north American tour, set to hit Chicago in July. Given the circumstances though, I understand, but still, it's disappointing.

It's been in the back of my mind, and as we are creeping into June, every so often, I would think "YAY! U2 in July!!" It was a future goal, something to look forward to. Those shows are pretty amazing, and I've been lucky enough to see them many times when they've come through Chicago. I've had a handful of other amazing, life altering theatrical experiences, and the U2 shows are right up there at the top of the list. How can a stadium show feel intimate? I don't know, but those guys work huge, cavernous places like the United Center and Soldier Field like they were as cozy as your living room. Something about their performances draws everyone in, and it really is a shared, almost religious experience. With the gods of rock.

I still remember the show last year, it was a party atmosphere that started in the parking lot. People were tailgating (hell, it cost us 45 bucks for the privilege of parking there, I think most people wanted to get everything they could out of it), with the band blasting from car stereos. Inside, everyone was mild mannered, until the guys hit the stage. Then, everyone was on their feet, singing along snapping pictures, calling their friends so they could hear favorite songs, holding their phones towards the stage so that Bono could see the lights from everyone in the darkened stadium. Like our own little constellation. It was one of those perfect moments, perfect evenings, that you file away carefully in your heart & mind, to recall on later occasions and look back on with fondness.

So I am sending love to you, Bono, and positive, healing vibes. As someone told me once, no stress, only love. Love and a rocket ship. The tour is going to be rescheduled for sometime in 2011 and I have been instructed by Live Nation to hold on to my tickets because they will still be good for the new dates. So I have something else now, to look forward to.

In the meantime, we will just have to make do with videos... turn this one up, it's my favorite.

Glee-cap "Theatricality"

(image from Glee's facebook page!!)

I don't have a lot of time for a blow-by-blow of last night's episode, which means that you should just go and watch it and then we can talk about it.

But here's what I got:

1. Oh, Rachel. You would have been better off with Patti as your mom... I don't understand why they even threw that in there (except Idina and Lea look like they could totally be related?) - first, I don't think the audience knew enough about Rachel's sadness over her mom, so when the introduced it, it was like, oh, okay. Well, that's good, she found her mom. But then Shelby was all like I want to meet my daughter, but then she was not really ready to have a teenager, so she set the whole thing up for Rachel to hear the tape and find her and then she just decided that she didn't want to be in her life after all. That's so mean!!!! Shelby told Will that Rachel didn't need her anymore, well, actually, she DOES. Now things are back to the way they were before, so what did this whole "Rachel, I am Your Mother" thing accomplish in the first place?? Oh, except it gave them a chance to sing a funky slowed down "Poker Face" together. Which is a weird mother-daughter duet song but whatever. It sounded cool.

2. Statement that made me super depressed and old - Shelby asked Rachel how her two dads came up with her name, and she said "They were big Friends fans." That means she was born in the 90s sometime, when I was in high school, watching Friends. That means there is a generation of people who won't get Friends references, Ross and Rachel! How YOU doin'?? all of that. It is like an old time tv show to them. I needed to go and lie down for a while after that.

3. The Lady Gaga inspired outfits and "Bad Romance" number were AWESOME. I especially loved Quinn's pink outfit (although she looked completely un-pregnant again), and Kurt's crazy lobster shoes. He could have just kicked those asshat jocks with one of those suckers. He would probably have fallen down, but I bet a kick to the junk with those shoes would have hurt.

4. Loved Kurt's dad standing up for Kurt when Finn was being a bonehead. I mean, look dude, I know you are all of a sudden being made to live somewhere without even getting to voice an opinion in the matter, but that's no reason to be a jerk to Kurt.

5. Finn did redeem himself in the end though, when he showed out all Gaga-fied in a skin tight red dress and spangly red eyes (you must know the outfit I mean...) and threatened to beat those football players up for taunting Kurt. Why do those football players look so OLD anyway??? All the players at my high school were like scrawny guys. They didn't look like Bears linebackers.

6. I also loved how Principal Figgins made an example of Tina dressing like a goth and referencing Twilight (which her mom wouldn't let her watch because "she thinks Kristen Stewart looks like a bitch") when she wasn't even INVOLVED in the incident Figgins brought up with kids dressing up like vampires and attacking the nerd boy. And yet, he had no problems with the Gaga-wear OR with the Kiss style pyrotechnics in the auditorium.

7. Every so often they remember that Will is a teacher, and this week showed him in his office - not grading papers or doing lesson plans, but doing internet research on Lady Gaga. They also had him using a Spanish word (I don't remember what it was) as if they were like "Oh, yeah! He's a Spanish teacher! Let's have him say muy bien!"

8. Bad ass Puck wanted to call Quinn's baby "Jackie Daniels" but eventually had an epiphany and asked Quinn if they could call her "Beth" instead, and if he could be present at the birth. She said yes.

letters to juliet

Yesterday was a busybusy day, full of bridesmaid business. Lunch, makeup for the bride (oh heck, and for me, too. Curse you, Sephora!), some ceremony decor items, chilling, dinner, and a romantic girly movie, Letters to Juliet. Before the movie started, there was mucho squealing after an Eclipse preview was shown. Lots of "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob" exclamations. Can this end now, pleasepleasepleaseplease? The books were all right, okay? They weren't particularly well-written and most of the characters are MORONS. Especially Bella. I have not seen either of the other two movies and I'm not planning on it (even to see a bunch of teenage werewolves without shirts on.) Arrrgh.

Sorry, where was I? Oh, yes, the movie. Well, it was your predictable rom-com fare. Sophie is engaged to a moron, and invites her three dads to the wedding ceremony - oh, wait!! Wrong Amanda Seyfried movie. In Letters to Juliet, Sophie is engaged to a moron and they go to Italy on a pre-wedding honeymoon. That is not as awesome as it sounds - he is on business (he is a chef)and spends his time dragging her around to wineries, looking at old cheese and so on. She says no, she wants to sightsee, and he can look at smelly cheese without her. Right on, girl!

She goes to Juliet's house and discovers a strange phenomenon - heartbroken women write letters to Juliet, asking for love advice (uh, why exactly? Juliet didn't have such a brilliant track record, if you think about it...) and some ladies take the letters down and respond to them. Sophie finds a really old one, hidden away and answers it. Claire Smith (one of the Redgraves - Vanessa, maybe?) gets the letter and comes back to Verona to find her long lost Lorenzo, bringing her crabby (but hunky) grandson along with her. Sophie joins them on Lorenzo-quest, which crabby grandson heartily disapproves of. and, oh, I am sure you can figure out where this is going. She believes in true love and he thinks it's all "bollocks." She writes down her experiences and magically gets published in the New Yorker where she had been employed as a fact checker.

As I said above, predictable rom-com fare, but sweet, adorable and really nice to look at. The leads are pretty and all the shots of Italy made me think of my travels there a few years ago. I just couldn't stop smiling at the scenes of lovely golden sun drenched fields, tall sunflowers, the piazza in Siena, all with an Italian pop music soundtrack (an Italian version of "I'm a Believer" was my favorite). We had a fun audience who went "awww" and clapped every time there was a happy development (which was often). That made me smile, too. It was just a cute little happy romantic movie, and it was a nice way to spend an evening.

Sidebar here though - when did the Village Crossing theaters become so skanky? There was a cop hovering around in the lobby (he held the door for us). Given the fact that the main attraction there was the new Shrek movie, filled with parents and kids, what did they think was going to happen? We passed another cop on the way out (maybe it was the same cop?) which was kinda weird....

day off!!

Well, friends, I've gotten myself into quite a PTO-related dilemma. That's "Paid Time Off" by the way, just so you aren't thinking I've gotten myself mixed up with a parent-teacher organization, because that would make no sense at all, being neither parent nor teacher.

Anywho. I have 20 some odd days to take off between now and June 30 (the end of our Fiscal Year and alas, alack, I can't carry any of them over. I must be the only fool on earth who feels GUILTY taking days off as in "Oh, I have so much to do, I just can't take off willy-nilly," etc. So now, I have a zillion days to take and no idea what I'm going to do with them all. AND, I'm going to have to be much much better about taking days off in the coming year, because it seems like I am always stuck with this problem. Better planning is in order.

In the meantimeI've started by taking Fridays off, which will be nice. I took one off today. It was a lovely, quiet day. I did a lot of reading - The Carrie Diaries and also Russell Brand's Booky Wook.

Also, ALL of my Ravinia tickets arrived today!! YAY!! I'm so excited about all of those events and also about the upcoming warm weather -- summer must finally be here!!

Glee-cap "Dream On"

If last week's episode was about finding one's mojo and being true to yourself, this week's episode was about dreams. This week was exiting for the guest appearance of Neil Patrick Harris and the fact that it was directed by Joss Whedon.

Enter Will's nemesis, Bryan Ryan (NPH!! NPH!!) who, will tells us in voice over made his life a living hell in high school, getting all the girls and worse, all the glee club solos. Now he's back, as a macho school board asshat with an anti-Glee Club streak. After a career singing on cruise ships and lounges, he now sells used Hummers (Stop making that face, he tells Will, "Global warming is a myth") and has since found "Jesus" - no, not Him. A central/south American therapist. He also now hosts a Glee Club support group. Glee Club kills, he tells a motley assortment of Glee Club has beens (including Molly Shannon - I am not sure how I feel about her addition to the cast...). His mission now is to make an audit of all of the school's extracurricular activities with a view of making some budget cuts. He tells Will that he wants to speak to the students. Will says no, but he has no choice. It's high school all over again.

Bryan Ryan speaks to the Glee kids, telling them to write their dreams on a sheet of paper. He brutally rips Artie's page from his notebook and tells all the kids that their dreams will never come true. They will spend the rest of their lives in Ohio (YIKES) and never amount to anything. Will throws old Peppy McPep Talk out of the room after all of the students look troubled and Tina starts to cry.

Rachel's dream? Being a star of course. But Bryan Ryan has shaken her confidence. She takes to the dance studio. Jesse comes back (hooray!) from his spring break (with another school. I don't get it either.) They make up and he tells her that she has nothing to worry about - her playing Evita on Broadway? An inevitability. Still, there's something missing - her mom. Jesse encourages her to try and find out her mom's identity. After some research, Rachel has her answer. Her mom, naturally, is Broadway star Patti LuPone. The year of her birth was a big year for "mother", Rachel tells Jesse, as she has just finished starring in Pal Joey. BUT - she also made a tour with Mandy Patinkin to Ohio just after that (and there is the fly in your ointment, Rachel - as everyone knows that the two of them had not toured together after Evita until just recently. Because yes, that's the only problem with this scenario) and this is when it all happened. Jesse looks bemused "Wow," he said. "Did Mandy Patinkin have anything to do with it?" Rachel knows this is a dumb idea but it does not stop her from offering to present research on why Bernadette Peters is her mom.

But ACTUALLY - Idina Menzel is her mom!!! Okay fine, her character, Shelby Corcoran, coach of "Vocal Adrenaline" is her mom. And Jesse knows it! While helping Rachel with some "CSI" style research into her past, he "finds" a cassette (in his pocket) that says "From Mother to Daughter" Rachel freaks out. "What if she sings on the tape?" she asks Jesse. "What if she's terrible?" Then a worse thought "What if she's better than me??" She's not ready to know. Jesse meets with Idina/Shelby in her car and promises that he will have Rachel listen to the tape. Here's my question - what if Rachel hadn't brought up her mom? How would Jesse have worked that in otherwise?

Artie's dream? Is to be able to get up out of his wheelchair and dance. And in one, brief and beautiful dream sequence, he gets up out of his chair and starts to dance to "Safety Dance" in the middle of the mall - it becomes a bit of a flash mob scene, with everyone joining in to his dance (I gotta tell Pierre!!). But this is a dream that won't come true for him.

Back to Will and Bryan Ryan - Will takes Bryan out for a beer "for old time's sake" which is weird because they didn't like each other. Bryan tells Will he's been living a lie! He misses singing, and he goes secretly to New York to see shows. He's got a box of Playbills in the basement he tells Will "like porn!" Will goes to the jukebox and cues up "Piano Man" - they both sing. It turns out Bryan's secret dream is to return to the stage. Will convinces Bryan to audition for the community theater production of "Les Mis" - they both show up to audition for Jean Valjean. Will says he's going to sing "The Impossible Dream" Bryan says he is, too. Will says actually, he's going to sing "Dream On" and Bryan says, oh, that's right, he is too. The director tells them to sing it as a duet (he also runs the dry cleaner and can only leave for 30 minutes at a time). They sing "Dream On"

Bryan has a change of heart, slashes the Cheerios budget (and has a tryst with Sue in her secret upstairs room) and buys the Glee club new stuff (denim jackets! dancewear! sheet music!) But Sue comes down to congratulate Will on his new role as Jean Valjean. Bryan also gets a part - a townsperson with one line "Hooray!" Bryan is furious, declares he's cutting the Glee Club and stomps out, taking all of his bedazzled denim with him.

Will needs to act. He makes an impassioned plea to Bryan about the importance of the arts to these kids. "They may not be stars," he tells them "But they shine like stars." They get labeled when the walk in the door as freshmen, but Glee allows them to be who they are. By cutting the club, Will says, Bryan is dimming their stars and creating 13 black holes. Bryan is not moved. Will offers to give his Jean Valjean role to Bryan (which frees up his schedule for, I don't know - teaching?). "You give me the role and I save the club?" Bryan sneers. Will says yes. Bryan cheers up and agrees. The club lives to sing another day. Dreams really can come true.

Rachel finally listens to the tape from her mother, which promises to "explain everything" but is really just her singing "I dreamed a dream" (note the Les Mis and tie to Rachel's almost mother, Patti LuPone, the original Fantine) which was pretty but explains nothing. Because Fantine DIES, right? How does that offer Rachel any clues??

Next week - the club goes Gaga - Lady Gaga, of course! The teaser promises extreme Gaga style wardrobe and music, and also Rachel putting something together and approaching Shelby and saying "I'm your daughter!" Maybe she's psychic??

my morning tea party *

* No fear! I have not turned into a conservative wackadoo! I am talking about a thing with actual tea. Like the Queen drinks. You know?

This morning I went to the post office in the Thompson Center. It is always, always, always better to go first thing in the morning, because there are no lines. Later in the day there are huge lines and usually only one person behind the counter. So I like to go early and take care of business.

On the way back, I stopped at Argo. Since I am attempting to be good after the whole I-had-a-blizzard-for-lunch fandango on Monday, I got a plain black tea and asked them (twice) to leave room so I could add cream. The girl asked me if I had the black tea and I said, yes with room. She didn’t hear me but there was an employee guy standing next to me who did, and so he corrected her when she didn’t leave any room in the cup. So I said thanks. I was standing at the condiment station adding cream and sugar and I couldn’t get the cream to come out of the pitcher thing. so I traded it for another one. no go. The same guy helped me figure it out and now I am pretty sure he thinks I am a moron. Whatever. It wasn’t even 8:00 yet.

Glee-cap

This episode was all about regaining lost mojo. First there's Puck, who had to shave his mohawk (although, seriously, he did not look that different than before?) and was suddenly in dweebland, getting tossed in a dumpster. As he told Santana, he felt like that guy who lost his mojo after getting his hair cut (no, not Samson - Agassi). To increase his cool points, he decides he needs to date someone popular and sets his sights on Mercedes, now a Cheerio and hugely popular. The fact that they have nothing in common does not bother Puck at all. After a few attempts at getting rid of him, Mercedes is finally woo-ed after singing a duet with him to "The Lady is a Tramp"

The Glee club has also lost its mojo - poor Rachel is popping vitamins constantly in her efforts to keep carrying the group with her awesomeness and solos. It's not working. She bugs the choir room (with the help of the AV Club - no way Glee is dorkier than the AV club??) and creates a "Glist" of her own - her fellow Glee-clubbers who aren't carrying their weight. It is half of the group. Mr. Shue gives them an assignment - to find a song that captures who they are today, their story, their voice. Rachel goes first - her song is "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus because it is all about overcoming obstacles. Rachel's obstacle? The rest of the club. She starts to sing but it's all coming out wrong. Oh no! She has... a sore throat.

Finn goes to the doctor with her. Her fear? Being told that she will never sing again. Which the doctor tells her. No, wait, he's just kidding (and sorta mean). She can take antibiotics but really really needs to have her tonsils out. She does not want the operation because who is she without her voice?? Mope, mope, mope, mope. Finn is still pining away for her even though she is "Jesse's girl" Jesse is conveniently away somewhere and Finn sings that song as his Glee assignment (I was wondering what took them so long to toss that song in there). Finn eventually takes her to meet a friend of his - a football player who lost his mojo - and his mobility - in a football accident.

Poor Kurt is so confused this week - his dad is lavishing baseball tickets (or is it basketball?) and hogies on Finn, doing some father-son bonding that makes Kurt feel left out. He gets a pep talk (of sorts) from Coach Sylvester. She tells him only one person can put a label on him "Me?" he says smiling. "No" Sue replies. "ME. Sue Sylvester." She tells him he's not gay just because he likes showtunes "that just means you're awful." and then she checks out of the conversation and vows not to spend time talking to students. He takes matters into his own hands and decides to sing some Mellencamp and don some plaid to get closer to his dad. He even makes out with Brittany (thus completing her perfect record of making out with every guy in school). But all his efforts come to naught - and he busts out with Rose's Turn which was completely awesome. Gosh that guy can sing.

Mercedes and Santana duel it out over Puck coming to vocal and physical blows in a duet of "The Boy is Mine". But Mercedes sees Puck back in his dumpster tossing glory and decides that she doesn't want to be with that kind of guy. She even quits Cheerios, making Sue wonder what she's going to do with the Mariah Carey number that Mercedes would have been singing (damn, that would have rocked). She decides she will probably take to the mic herself with a diatribe "probably about immigration."

Rachel gets better! And visits the paralyzed football player, offering to give him singing lessons. They sing "One" (best.song.ever) which leads into a whole ensemble number of the song, with everyone decked out in denim on denim (still not okay! ever!) Quinn mysteriously does not look very pregnant in these group numbers. What's happening there??

Mojo is restored to all. The world makes sense again.

mother's day, 30 Rock Style

Oh 30 Rock, you make me smile. It was touch and go for a while, since last week's storyline with Jenna and her Jenna-impersonator boyfriend was a little too bizarre for me, but this week - it's all good! In a Mother's Day homage, we had appearances from Jack's mother Colleen, Frank's mother - Patti - I don't know the character's name, Jenna's mother, Liz Lemon's mother and her secret affair with Buzz Aldrin (before she married Mr. Lemon) and Tracy's mother, the pajamall lady, and we learned that poor Danny appears to be adopted.

Liz shouted at the moon with Buzz, Kenneth forgot his name (well, Elaine Stritch IS kind of intimidating - I would probably forget MY name, too.), Will Ferrell popped up on NBC's latest show "Bitch Hunter" (DO IT, NBC!! For the love of GOD, do it!) , and at the end, they all sang a song.

Happy Mother's Day!

stand up for the arts

In today's Sun Times:

ARTFUL ACTION: Ravinia's CEO, Welz Kauffman, has been tapped to lead a team of Illinois decision makers at a multistate Education Leadership Institute organized by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The July 26-28 conference seeks to create strategies to strengthen arts education. ''As the son of two teachers, I think of myself as a lifelong student,'' says Kauffman, who hopes they will shape a new ''generation of leaders who won't have to apologize for the arts, but can embrace them as part of every day.''

Not to get all soap-boxy about this, but I think we need more leaders like Welz who will stand up for the arts. When I was in school, all the way from K-8,I had an art class as part of the curriculum (it was called "CASH" - computers, art, shop and home economics). We also had music class, I think every day. We learned the composers, we learned about different kinds of music, we went on field trips to the Art Institute, the CSO and Lyric Opera, as well as the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry. It was part of my life, it was the rule and not the exception. When has it started to become the exception??? And why does it have to be this way??

There is a perception out there about arts education - that it's not as important as the three Rs. Not true. I was not athletic. Gym class was awful. I found my place in school by being in choir (and on the choir board in high school - woot!) and I know that's true for so many people.

So many of our arts organizations have community engagement (a fancy name for outreach) programs in the community to bring music, dance and opera back into classrooms. I know that Ravinia has started a youth orchestra, modeled on El Sistema, the Venezuelean music education system that fostered the talents of conductor Gustavo Dudamel.

Joffrey has a great dance program for middle school kids, using dance to teach them respect, team work and self confidence. I attended the spring concert where all of the kids came together (about 400 kids from 22 schools) to show off the choreography that they created. It was dances from the 1960s and it was so much fun to watch.

I hope that the July conference is successful - I only wonder why this information was buried in Bill Zwecker's column???