Current events

Ok, I'm trying out something new. As I normally post in the morning, my brain never functions well enough to think of witty titles for each post. So, I'm going to try doing one long post per day with everything I want to say, regardless of how it all fits together. To start with, the Sun Times had a nice profile of Diana Ross in today's edition. Aside from a couple of snarky comments that I didn't appreciate, it was a really well written article that provided her with the best press she's gotten in the Chicago area in the past 7 years. I'm a little disappointed that the show's only going to be 75 minutes as opposed to the 2 hour Supremes concert and 2 and a half hour 2004 concert, but it sounds like it's a tight show that provides a good overview of her career. I also found out from my Tivo that The Wiz is going to be on one of the HBO channels next week, so I'm going to record it and finally try out my recordable DVD player that I got last Christmas and have so far only used to watch DVD's. The Tivo has a save to VCR feature that can be used to record saved movies onto video, and hopefully if I connect the Tivo to the DVD recorder instead, it should record the movie to a DVD. Since the movie's showing on an HBO channel, it will probably be full screen (another one of the differences in the viewing experience this time was getting to see it in a crisp wide-screen presentation as opposed to the fuzzy full-screen of VHS when I watched it all those years ago), but it should be a good way to keep a copy of the movie for those moments when I want a guilty, not really good for you in a cinematic junk food way, pleasure without having to spend money on what really is a bad movie. If it works, I can then copy the 1936 James Whale directed Show Boat that was on TCM while I was in Vegas. I snagged that on the Tivo, and since that is not yet available on DVD (yet the horribly inferior 1951 version is), I haven't been able to bring myself to delete it yet. Hopefully I can give myself a permanent copy of it. I'll let you know how it works.

Next, this is a question I've had on my mind for the past few days: Who the hell is Don Imus? I've been posting faithfully here for almost 4 months now without anyone providing a single comment, and some no-one coming out of nowhere makes a mildly humorous comment on radio and the whole world's in an uproar? What do I have to do to get some attention here, start actually printing what I've been saying in private about LaChanze since last June? Seriously though, we've got a 4+ year war dragging on in Iraq with no end in sight, terrorism rearing up in northern Africa and threatening to spread to Europe, Iran being crazy, and the topic dominating the national discourse is a supposed shock jock's offhand comments? No wonder the world's so fucked up.

One week from today and Ravinia tickets go on sale. At first look, I wasn't that excited about the overall programming; the CSO is notably absent for some reason this year. However, there are several guests and special events that have me salivating. First off is Philip Glass and his ensemble premiering a new work. I saw them with the US premiere of Orion two years ago and it blew me away (as well as introduced me to the work of the fabulously cute Ashley MacIsaac). I have such an idol-type crush on Glass, I'm very excited to hear his new work. Then in July we have a staged concert production of The Most Happy Fella with George Hearn. At first it seemed like a bit of a letdown after 6 years of Sondheim (actually 5 years of Sondheim and one year of Jule Styne with lyrics by Sondheim), but it looks promising, and I'm always happy to have a lesser known show come back into the spotlight. Maybe next year we can have Darling of the Day? Hearn is always fantastic (I've seen him in Ravinia's productions of Sweeney Todd and A Little Night Music, and he was the Wizard in Wicked when I saw it in New York in 2004), and after hearing two of the songs on the Broadway Scene Stealers CD's, I'm excited to see the full production. The Sulzer Library has both the original cast recording and the 1992 revival recording, so I'll pick one or both of those up sometime and familiarize myself with the entire work. August is the best month, starting with Heather Headley performing in the Martin Theatre. Right now tickets are only available if you get a subscription to all 4 Martin Series concerts, and I really don't care for the other 3, but if they do what they did last year, after the first one, they'll open up single ticket sales for the remaining three. Hopefully she'll do her Broadway stuff and leave the R & B crap behind, where it belongs. Then we have Deborah Voigt, who is always good. I've seen her in a couple productions at the Lyric and have her Obsessions CD, and while Renee Flemming really has the spotlight, I think Voigt is the better singer. She cancelled a performance there a couple years ago, hopefully this time she'll make it and I will be there. Then, last, but absolutely not least, is the event of the decade: Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald together in concert on the pavilion stage. I will spend whatever money it takes to get as close as possible. I've seen them together before in the productions of Passion, Sunday in the Park with George, and Anyone Can Whistle, and then Patti showed up to perform Happy Days are Here Again with Audra at Audra's Lincoln Center concert last fall that was broadcast on PBS and it was so fabulous I almost had another naughty reaction in my pants! I can't wait for that one and you can bet I'll be getting my tickets first thing when I get in to work next Thursday.

Lastly, speaking of tickets, my companion brought up the possibility of another New York trip in May. I told him we need to go after the 23rd so that I can see Xanadu, and he'll try to arrange what he can. The problem is that Chita Rivera is going to be in Milwaukee for Memorial Day weekend, and that's the closest she's getting to Chicago, so we need to be back for that, and then he said he will probably only need to go for 1 or 2 days, not the marathon that we had last month, which means I get less shows. I was kind of counting on another 6 show streak since I want to see A Chorus Line, 110 in the Shade, Frost/Nixon, Deuce, Lovemusik, and of course Xanadu. If we have to go for a shorter time, then Xanadu and Lovemusik will probably be the ones that get shed. Since Xanadu is only in previews until late June, it won't be that hard to give it up and hopefully go back in the fall to catch the finalized show, and while I'm ecstatic about all the shows, Lovemusik is the weakest one, I want to see it more for Michael Cerveris, Donna Murphy, and Harold Prince's production (and god that man needs a hit in the worst way) rather than for the music. I'm not the biggest Kurt Weill fan, particularly after seeing the horrid production of Threepenny Opera last year. I really only like Ute Lemper's contemporary take on his works on her Punishing Kiss CD. So, we'll see how that plays out. Of course, given that 2 trips already didn't happen prior to the March trip, we'll have to see if this even becomes a possibility at all. Otherwise, I'll be waiting for Light in the Piazza and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels to get here in July and August for my next Broadway fix.