Seasons

Well, I've figured out why Ravinia decided to crap out on its season this year; the Edens construction project. In rush hour traffic, it could easily take 3 hours or more to get to Ravinia from downtown during the week, and weekends aren't going to be much better. People are not going to want to put up with that. I think that's why we're seeing many, many more pop concerts this year, which encourage use of the train due to the insufficient parking, thereby bypassing having to take the Edens altogether. With that realization, I'm totally skipping BSB, as well as Donna Summer and just sticking with the Martin series (and I may even see if I can just sell the Gershwin queen ticket, although god knows who'd want to buy it) and the Browns. With two of the Sunday Martin concerts being at 4, I should be able to get up there fairly easily taking Sheridan all the way, and that only leaves one at 7. The other Martin concert is on a Wednesday as is the Browns, so I can just go up locally from work on 41 and then take Sheridan back home afterwards. Tickets are onsale tomorrow.

Broadway in Chicago also announced next year's season, and while most of it's a snooze (Spamalot, again???, Mary Poppins, Bronx Tale, Cirque du Soleil), there are two very exciting events: Xanadu (presumably with original Sonny James Carpinello, but no casting announcement has been made yet), and A Chorus Line. It'll be interesting to see how well Xanadu plays in a larger house since Chicago's smallest available possible space is still going to be larger than the Helen Hayes (only the Apollo would be close, and I can't imagine them using that, it's too out of the way). Plus, with A Chorus Line coming here, I can cross it off my list for the next NY trip (hopefully in June either the weekend of the Tony's, although it would suck to be on a plane back here while the Tony's are going on, or the weekend after), and make room for Gypsy, South Pacific, Young Frankenstin (got to catch it while Megan's still around) and Glory Days. Sunday probably won't happen b/c my companion hated it when Ravinia did it, and Mermaid will just have to wait until I can catch a Wednesday matinee without my companion. November, as well as off-bway's Little Flower of East Orange and the Diva show are also on standby if one of the first choices is sold out.

I mentioned earlier that a lot of cast recordings are coming out in the next couple of months (although still no word on Gypsy), and I realized, it's been way over a year since the Legends of Broadway CD's came out, where's the next batch? I had thought they said it was supposed to be the start of a series, and how can you have a series of legends and not include the Merm, Carol Channing, Robert Preston, or Mary Martin, just to name a few? Let's get moving on that Sony. With the complete collapse of your crappy Connect music store (that I still blame for fucking up my old laptop altogether), you've got plenty of time to devote to creating new collections.

Speaking of laptops and crap, have you heard about Blockbuster's proposed buyout of Circuit City? The two companies I hate the most consolidating into one, it's kind of poetic. Blockbuster just sucks on so many levels, but I personally hate them because in early 2000, the one in Hyde Park (which really sucked more than your average Blockbuster to start with, you'd think being in U of C's neighborhood they'd have a more intellectual collection, but no, it was actually even more dumbed down, I guess in deference to the surrounding neighborhoods), kept trying to tell me I was returning movies late, or not at all, which was totally not true. I'm so neurotic about that, I can tell you the exact date and time I've returned every movie I've ever rented from anywhere, including Netflix. They also kept trying to screw me over on their Blockbuster rewards program, saying I didn't have all the credits towards free movies I knew I did every month and trying to get out of having to give me free movies. Their shadiness knew no bounds, and the second time they called me and said I had a movie two weeks or more overdue that I had returned the day after I watched it, I was done. I complained vociferously to their regional headquarters and after ripping them new ones, got them to clean my account so it didn't look like anything was missing and that I didn't owe them any money, and have not gone back since. Then, the less said about Circuit City, the better. However, it's been a year and I'm forgiving the Bannana, as soon as I need a new pair of khakis, I'm there.

Lastly, Melrose Place Season 4 came out yesterday, and this time all Best Buys in the area had it in stock. It's very strange the way Season 3, which was the most popular, and the best, season got swept under the rug (they still don't have a picture of it with its listing on BB's website), while Season 4, the season that started the show's long decline as it crossed the line from high drama to over the top, causing a massive hemorrhaging of viewers, is getting VIP treatment. Oh well, bad Melrose Place is still better than good OC, One Tree Hill, or any of the other wannabes from recent memory. We're at the median now, three previous seasons out, this one, and then three more to go and I'll have it all. Of course, then they'll release some sort of deluxe collector's edition with the real music in all the episodes or something, but we'll see how well I can resist temptation or not.