Falling In Love With A New Computer. . .

. . . is such an easy thing!!! It's official, despite the mediocre DVD playback, I do love my new laptop after all. Being back on land, my internet connection has been back to normal, the problem was with the cruise ship's connection (and the fact that they charged 55 cents a minute I'm sure did not give them any incentive to provide fast service), not McAfee screwing with my connection speed as it did when I first set it up. Fortunately, my McAfee trial is almost up and I will be switching to the tried and trusted ZoneAlarm anti-virus instead, putting any potential future neuroticism (over this aspect anyways) to rest. I upgraded the memory last night from 2 GB to 4 GB, and that clinched the deal for me. It was fast before, but it was flawless last night. And, it was easy enough to do. I've been wanting to do it since MLK day a couple weeks ago, but ran into a roadblock when it turns out we didn't have a small screwdriver in the house, and the regular sized one we did have was way too big and wouldn't work. So, I went to Sears the next day and got a small screwdriver, and while it unscrewed 2 of the four screws on the memory compartment cover, it still was too big for the other two, which I found odd. So, instead of continuing to buy tools and taking them to the computer, I thought it would be easier to take the computer to the biggest tool warehouse I know of and see what would work, and that warehouse was my dad's basement. I had to go home anyways to pick up the rum I had sent home with my parents (they were driving back from the cruise and I felt it would be safer to send most of the rum with them instead of trying to pack it all in my suitcase and risking them all breaking while being handled by the airlines), so I made the trip out last weekend to get rum and a screwdriver (and not the fun kind of screwdriver I like to get whenever I'm at a bar). My dad took a look at it, played around with a couple screwdrivers, found one that worked, let me borrow it, and voila, last night I got upgraded memory. Now I just have to not loose it and remember to take it back the next time I go out there. While I was out there I stopped at the library and copied I Do! I Do!, Big River, and Do I Hear A Waltz, all excellent recordings. I also hooked up to my parents' wireless and logged into emusic (which, BTW, when I installed it on the new computer, it gave me the choice if I wanted the old download manager or the newer emusic remote, so of course I chose the download manager and so far, knock on wood, it hasn't forced me to upgrade), and finished getting Christine Ebersole & Billy Stritch's In Your Dreams, Victoria Clark's Fifteen Seconds of Grace, and started the Seesaw cast recording. That's right, while they still didn't have 2 of the tracks available for download, amazonmp3.com now offers the entire CD for download at $.99 a track, so I bought the two that emusic does not offer and got and additional 8 tracks before I hit my limit. Next month I'll finish it up and start on Lauren Kennedy and Andrea Burns. Now, if they could just offer the one track from Grey Gardens or if amazonmp3 would add the GG cast recording, I'd be ecstatic. Then, after upgrading the memory last night, I hooked the laptop up to my printer/scanner and scanned the pictures I bought on the cruise (I know, they're so tourist-trappy, but they turned out really good and I'm usually not particularly photogenic, so I sprung for them). I'll get those posted hopefully tomorrow night, as you may recall, I can only post via email at work due to the internet filters (of course, in order to combat people fucking around online during work time, it probably would have been better for them to actually give us stuff to do rather then spend a buttload of money on internet filters, but that's what a functional employer would do, and mine is anything but). The email posting though does not support pictures, I actually have to log in to the Blogspot interface to do that, which I'll do when I'm at my private practice office tomorrow night. I really don't want to do it from home because with my dialup connection, or even the cell phone modem connection, it would take forever to upload the files, the office has wireless so I'll do it there. Look for them soon. Anyways, the other big thing I did yesterday was to go to Target during lunch and pick up Sarah Brightman's and Idina Menzel's new CD's. It's funny, after I just wrote about how Sarah hasn't done anything anywhere near as good as Fly (although Harem does come close) just a couple months ago, here she is with something that finally is in Fly's league. Fly is still a little better (it's just a little more rock-based, giving it such an eclectic, undefinable sound), but Symphony is close, and the if the booklet artwork is any indication, this is going to be a kick-ass tour. Hopefully I can finally get to see her. She came through twice on the Harem tour, and for some reason, which I can't really remember, I wasn't able to go to either show. They did sell out though, which means she's got enough of an audience that touring should be worth her while, so hopefully she'll be back and this will be the tour to see. The CD definitely starts 2008 out right. Idina's was also good, but definitely had a little more of a crunchy folk element that I was hoping she'd avoid, although it's not nearly as bad as Heather Headley's R&B impulses on her solo work. However, it's short, so it doesn't wear out its welcome and on most of the tracks she really does shine. I am surprised that Target actually had it, and even was promoting it with a sticker on the cover that says "Tony Winning Star of Rent and Wicked!". How crazy is that? Do they really think anyone is going to care besides me? Still, it's so much more respect than any other Tony winner has gotten with a solo CD in years, even Audra can't make it onto the Target CD rack. In addition to that, I got the last copy of Sarah's CD, so I expect to see her on the Billboard chart next week. After spending the rest of the day at work, I went home and (in addition to upgrading the laptop memory), I found a letter from Circuit City in my mailbox. Curious to see what they had to say, I opened it, and found a letter from their corporate council stating that they were replying to the complaint I filed with the Virginia Department of Consumer Affairs (Virginia being the state they're incorporated in), which I had cancelled two days after filing since they finally refunded my money. Funny how they responded to that one but have yet to respond to the letter I mailed them on the same day as I mailed the complaint to the Virginia Attorney General. Basically it said that they apologize (but still offered no explanation), they refunded my money (duh) and were willing to show their appreciation for my understanding with a $25 gift card, but I have to contact them to get it. Since I'm not planning on shopping with them again, and I really didn't complain in order to profit (I'm still somewhat guilt-ridden about the Banana Republic card I got, but then my experience redeeming it helped me get over that, I so deserved that card), I have no intention of contacting them. I just want nothing more to do with them, and in fact I haven't even looked at their weekly ad in the Sunday paper since this whole debacle. I'm a little curious to see though if they'll send me another letter in a couple weeks responding to the complaint I filed with the Illinois Attorney General (and again cancelled, but only after they forwarded it to Circuit City) and see if they up the offer, although I still won't take it. I'm just done. Lastly, while I'm still a little miffed at the Academy for ignoring the 3 best movies of the year (actually 4 best, I saw Harry Potter over the weekend and how it didn't get any nominations for special effects or an acting nomination at least for Imelda Staunton is completely beyond me), I read an interesting article on msnbc.com that they're planning 2 shows for Oscar night, one that they'll do if the strike isn't settled and they don't get a waiver, and the regular show. They said the replacement show is the one they don't want to do and the regular show is the one they want to, but is it just me, or does the replacement show actually sound way better than the usual drivel they put on every year? They're planning a dignified (although their definition of dignified and mine are very, very different) look at the past 79 winners, film history, and other historical stuff while interspersing announcements of this year's winners over about 2-3 hours, but only if the strike is still on and they don't get a waiver (although since the Grammy's finally got one, there's a good chance now that the Academy will). I think this sounds far more interesting and much more in the spirit of the Oscars than a special effects choir, contortionists, bland musical performances, and unfunny monologues. Who's with me? Let's start a letter writing campaign and see if we can't convince the Academy to go with their second choice no matter what happens. Anyways, it's about time to go, we're getting a blizzard moving in and I'm leaving early so that I can get home at my normal time. If they're not going to give me anything to do here at work, I'm certainly not staying when it means getting home late. See you all later.

And Justice Is Served

It's been a good couple of weeks for lovers of quality musical theare. Right on the heels of Rent's closing notice, it was announced today that The Color Purple will be closing one month from today. Now, what can we do about Jersey Boys?

It's Chita's Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Chita Rivera! I'm not going to say how old she is, but she's a diamond in the crown of musical theatre history, and she looks nowhere near her age. Granted, she's a big part of the reason Patti lost the Tony in 2006, but I won't hold that against her, she's immensely talented and had a wonderful career, and if the Tony Nominating Committee wanted to inappropriately use the Leading Actress category to recognize that fact, the blame rests squarely on them. Happy Birthday Chita, may there be many more performances, and maybe another Tony award in your future.

Nominations

Well this is a little later than I wanted, but I had to see how many references to Xanadu Boston Legal was able to work in. It has officially become the gayest show on TV, and of course I mean that in the best way posible. Now, on to the big news. While most of the major Oscar nominees are decent choices (except for Juno, as much as I loved Ellen Paige in Hard Candy and Michael Cera & Jason Bateman, I can't get into that one, 16 year olds are not that precocious, it comes across as a cross between an after school special and Dawson's Creek), and I am thrilled for the Michael Clayton love, overall it's a big disappointment. Only 3 (granted, all well deserved) nominations for Sweeney Todd and none for Best Picture, Director, or Alan Rickman as Best Supporting Actor (or Jamie Campbell Wright for that matter?). Here's hoping Johnny Depp wins, although he's not a frontrunner. Then, only one nomination (also well deserved) for Once (Best Song)? And lastly, Jennifer Fucking Hudson can win an undeserved Oscar for the horrible Dreamgirls but not even a nomination for Nikki Blonsky? She's got a way better story than Jennifer, have you seen that utube clip? Not even a Best Song nom for New Girl on the Block? No nominations for Keira and James, or a director nomination for Atonement? Disgraceful all around. Still, while there aren't any truly thrilling and exciting nominees, except for the Juno nominations, they're all solid in most categories, and with no frontrunners, it should make for an interesting night. Look for my predictions the week before the ceremony.

Not willing to let the Oscars dominate the headlines, the Tony Awards committee made some more eligibility announcements, really shaking up the race. They decided to make Max and Laura eligible in the leading categories while demoting Rosie Perez to featured, although to be fair, Rita Moreno won in the supporting category for that role in 75. Max's promotion won't really change the race. I'm still predicting Lin-Manuel Miranda to win, but there's plenty of time for that to change, and Boyd Gaines could easily take it if Gypsy steamrolls the awards. Max's departure though from the featured category leaves it wide open for Matty to finally get an overdue award for South Pacific. Laura's promotion could help Patti win as she now splits the pro up and coming bloc (which propelled LaChanze to a win when Chita and Patti split the pro diva bloc, more on that tomorrow) with Kerry Butler, Kelli O'Hara, and Sierra Borgess. She also leaves the featured field open for a long overdue award for Sherri Rene Scott, although Laura Benanti could take it if Gypsy steamrolls.

Lastly, is everyone as shocked as I am about Heath Ledger? I wasn't a fan of most of his movie output other than Brokeback (and he did deserve the Oscar way more than Phillip Seymour Hoffman's overly affected performance in the dreadfully dull Capote), although Cassanova had its moments. Still, he seemed like a decent guy and had a lot of potential. With a moment of silence, I'm signing off for tonight.

When It Snows

Go figure, when I'm down in the Caribbean, it's 50-60 degrees here in Chicago, but when I get back, it's been a week of blizzards and sub-zero temperatures. It was supposed to be like this while I was gone, what's the point of going somewhere warm in the winter if you can't gloat about it t everyone else stuck in the cold? So, the big closing announcement I was expecting actually came the day after I got back, so it really looks like I didn't miss anything. Rent will be closing this summer, and I say good riddance. That show contained every cliché imaginable and was so overhyped but underwhelming, no wonder it was such a hit. At least it gave us Idina Menzel, otherwise it can be relegated to the dustbin of theatre history. Hopefully there won't be a revival sometime next year. Speaking of revivals, it looks like I'll get my next chance to hit New York in April, just in time for Gypsy. Given the dismal reviews for Mermaid and November, I think I'll probably do a weekend of revivals and finally catch Chorus Line and do South Pacific. Maybe if I can squeeze one more in I'll then do Young Frankenstein, I don't think Megan would leave before at least the Tony Nominations. Speaking of nominations, the Oscars announce theirs tomorrow, you know I'll be sharing my thoughts. Lastly, am I mistaken, or hadn't Grease. . . YTOTIW started by this time last year? At the very least I know we were inundated with commercials for it. Where's this year's casting show? Are they waiting until later to fill programming time once all the current shows run out of episodes? I want my weekly Broadway fix! Anyways, that's it for now, see you tomorrow.

It Sucks To Be Me

Ok, so it doesn't totally suck, but I am having such a hard time adjusting to the cold and almost blizzard force snow tonight after only being in Florida just yesterday. For those of you who might have forgotten, the reason I've been out of touch is because I've been on a cruise since the 6th. Initially I had intended to post something while I was on the ship, but the wireless internet was $0.55 a minute and the connection was slow, so I just stuck to checking my email and the classrooms that I'm teaching in. I took my new laptop and while it didn't pass with flying colors, it wasn't a disaster either. It kind of passed with washed-out colors, which was the biggest issue. For some reason, and I don't know if it's because it's an LCD screen or if it's Toshiba's Tru-Bright technology, the DVD playback was very low quality, almost like watching a TV show that had been Tivo'd at the lowest quality. I made some adjustments to the brightness and contrast of the screen and that improved it, but then caused the picture to hesitate whenever there was a rapid on-screen motion. I still have to fiddle around with that, and was a little disappointed. The internet connection was also slow, but hopefully that was due to the ship's internet connection and not McAfee still fucking up my connection. Most worryingly, there have been 3 times now that when I've turned it on, some application has crashed during startup, and I've only had it about 3 weeks. Still, there hasn't been a major disaster like there was with my piece of crap Gateway, so maybe just ok is the best you can hope for with laptops. So, back to the cruise, it was wonderful. I'll post some pictures as soon as I scan them. Once we got past Florida into the Caribbean, the weather was gorgeous, although it rained in St. Maarten as I was waiting to begin the zip line/ropes course, so my shoes got all muddy which made it very slick, and everyone that went before me got their mud all over the ropes and wires, making for a precarious experience. Still, I've never done anything like it and it was quite a rush to make it through. There were 32 platforms that we had to get to through a combination of zip lines, rope swings, tightrope wires, bridges, etc. The first 16 went upwards, and then the second 16 brought us back down, each set of which had it's own challenges. Going up I was pulling myself, but going down I was locking my arms to keep me in place. If you're ever in St. Maarten, I highly recommend you try it. I brought back a lot of rum and had some great drinks on the boat. Not only was there a wine bar, there was also a Champagne bar, and I ended up spending more time there. Royal Caribbean definitely deserves their reputation for fabulous service. Everyone on board was very friendly and helpful, it really was service with a smile no matter where we were. Everything went smoothly getting there, but coming back yesterday was nerve wracking. The bus taking us from the pier to the airport stalled 4 times during the hour long drive, and then our flight got delayed at the last minute due to bad weather, it was almost a perfect repeat of what happened coming back from New York in July. Fortunately, it was only an hour delay instead of 2 and a half, and we made up half an hour of that in flight. As soon as I got home I logged on and went to playbill.com to see what I missed during the week. I was worried that something would suddenly close and I wouldn't know about it, like Tarzan did, but it seems like it was an uneventful week. I know I tend to ignore the Golden Globes, but that press conference format really suited them much better given that they're meaningless anyways, and I was pleasantly surprised that Sweeney got Best Picture (although in the less-taken-seriously musical/comedy category) and that Johnny Depp got Best Actor (again in the comedy/musical category). Hopefully these wins will propel Sweeney to multiple Oscar nominations instead of turning it into another Nurse Betty. I would have liked to see Nikki Blonsky win, but from what I've heard, Marion C. would have been tough to beat. So, I believe the nominations come out soon, and you know you'll hear my thoughts as soon as they do. There's not much on the schedule for the immediate future. We have Traviata with Renee on Sunday and Music of the Baroque on Monday, but that's it until early Feburary, and then it will be busy for 2 months with operas, Linda, and Mandy, plus Mika and hopefully at least one of The Little Dog Laughed, Shining City, or Les Miz, and then there's Nine and the Broadway in Chicago Trifecta to look forward to in the spring.

Happy New Year

Well, my first resolution this year was to get this final post about the trip done. I've been putting off writing it because it acknowledges that the trip is over and I had such a good time that that is hard to do. We ended the trip 3 for 3 on shows (or 4 for 4 if you count the opera). The Receptionist was truly wonderful. Jane Houdyshell gave a terrific performance and Kendra Kassbaum (who I saw play Glinda in Wicked here a few years ago) was pitch perfect as the neurotic co-worker who drives everyone crazy with the details of her personal life instead of working. I've been in a few offices like that, although we never tortured our "clients" or had to take a trip to the Central Office when a co-worker failed to show up for work. It was a great play that will hopefully have a long afterlife in regional theatres across the country. As a special added perk, the Playbill had a photo spread of Ceyenne Jackson in several of his recent roles as well as his new headshot. If I hadn't already dedicated my bedspread to a silkscreen of Matthew Morrosion's new headshot, I'd be running out to get Cheyenne's. I'd scan the photos for you, but I think that would be a copyright violation, so instead I'd recommend going to see The Receptionst this week and getting your own playbill to ogle. Afterwards we went back to the Holiday Inn to get our luggage (which was a lot more complicated thn it was dropping it off, they were not organized with that at all, which put a slight damper on the entire experience) and hopped in a cab to LaGuardia. We were able to get there early enough to bump up to a 5:15 flight, which was nice because I really was not wanting to get back to work and have to scrape my car off at 10:30 at night. Instead, we were able to do it at 7:30 and were home by 8:30. As I was unpacking, I pulled out the books I bought at Broadway New York and starting flipping through one of them, which was Broadway Musicals Year by Year. In the store it appeared to be kind of a "yearbook" of all Broadway musicals. However, at home, I flipped to 1986 to see Carrie's entry, and there wasn't one. There was also no entry for Kelly, Darling of the Day, Hallelujah Baby (even though it was a Best Musical winner), Nick & Nora, The Rink, The Act, Jerry's Girls, Skyscraper, Tovarich, or Merlin, and Bring Back Birdie was only briefly mentioned in the last sentence of Bye Bye Birdie's entry. Plus, it ended in August 1997, so there's no mention of Ragtime, Dance of the Vampires, Aida, or Hairspray, although the silver lining is that there's no mention of Contact, The Producers, or The Colour Purple. You'd think they would have updated it by now since that was already the 5th edition. They must have been trying to get rid of it. Still, for what it is, it's definitely interesting and it's still one of the most comprehensive listings of Broadway show history that I've come across. I finished unpacking and that was that. It was a terrific long weekend, and I can't wait to go back, hopefully around April so I can catch Sunday in the Park with George and Gypsy as well as finally getting around to Chorus Line, Young Frankenstein, and The Little Mermaid, as well as maybe Catered Affair, November, and The Farnsworth Invention. There's a lot to look forward to this year!