I'm Alive

Good morning readers. Yes, as the title states, I'm not dead or ill or disinterested, just very busy. Over the past two weeks I've seen Stone Temple Pilots in concert, The Ballad of Emmett Till, Avenue Q, and eighth blackbird in concert plus had exasperating car troubles and school projects. Fortunately, the term ends a week from Sunday and I can celebrate by toasting Patti's long overdue win with a cold glass of Galena Cellars sparkling. However, that doesn't mean the business ends anytime soon. In addition to two papers I have due by Tony time (which have not been started yet), I've got my first Ravinia concert this Sunday, Fiorello to schedule, a new car to buy, and a trip to New York.

The Gershwin queen's concert is Sunday at Ravinia and I'm a little miffed at them. Apparently, there were two Martinis in the Martin packages, one for the queen, Betty Buckley, and Barbara Cook, and one for Betty, Barbara, and Carol Lawrence. This information was not on the website, it arrived in a flier the day after tickets went on sale. Apparently the package does not include all four tickets as I logically assumed from the information presented on their website. So, I could have just gotten tickets for the concerts I wanted, but instead I'm stuck with the Gershwin queen and have to wait until after Betty's concert and can then buy a ticket (for another $75) for Carol. I always like to get my tickets as soon as they go on sale, but next year I'm waiting for the flier.

Fiorello has been extended again until July 20, which means that I may actually be able to catch it if I can get my companion to pull out his calendar and schedule it. However, we'll have to work it around our trip to NY. Since I need a new car sooner rather than later, I'm going to go home and get it the weekend of the Tony's, so we're pushing our NY trip to the last weekend of the month. It coincides with Pride weekend, but after having way too much to drink last year, I'm not too upset about missing it, although I am already starting to get a little miffed about having to deal with it in NY. At least we've got plane tickets and a hotel room, so I'll just have to avoid the Village, which shouldn't be too hard, although we may have to trek through it to catch Adding Machine Saturday night. I'm going to try to do Gypsy on Friday night, June 27, Young Frankenstein Saturday matinee (hopefully Megan will still be around), Adding Machine Saturday night, and South Pacific Sunday matinee, which works out well because we're staying at the 57th St. Holiday Inn again, so we can quickly rush back to get our bags and get to the airport. The best part is, I finish classes on the 15th and don't start again until July 7, so the entire time in NY is my time. Matt, Cheyenne, Max, and Kyle, here I come!

Of course while I'm there I'll have to stop at Colony Records again and see what I can get. eMusic has In The Heights, which will be my download on the 16th when they refresh, but it does not have Catered Affair, so I'll probably pick that up along with the Annie 30th Anniversary double disc with songs from Annie 2, and hopefully Little Mary Sunshine, I Remember Mama, and maybe something else. We'll see if they have The New Girl In Town, although since they didn't have How Now Dow Jones or Woman of the Year, I doubt they'd have that. I'm sure they'll have something though, maybe the Evening Primrose soundtrack.

Alright, that brings us to the important topic, awards. Since I've got two papers due next week, I may not be able to do my extensive predictions, so in case not, I'm shorthanding it here. South Pacific and August: Osage County will sweep most of their categories, although my money is on Patti for Best Actress this time. However, it looks like In the Heights may end up getting Grey Gardens-ed this year after all as Passing Strange has been on a Spring Awakening-like roll. Lin-Manuel is now the underdog in the acting category to Paulo Szot for South Pacific, and he may end up losing his music awards to this Stew guy as well. The one ray of hope is that after having voted for Spring Awakening last year, voters may be wary of another offbeat show and decide to go more traditional. While In The Heights is hardly a fully traditional musical, it does make a nice alternative to Strange's edginess, which may be too out there for most voters. Of course, in a truly just world Xanadu would win, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards. See you next Sunday.