Happy Thanksgiving 2017!

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope everyone is having a terrific day, filled with friends and family and yummy food.  I'm a little bummed I can't be with my family this year, but it was too hella expensive to get there - I'm thankful I'll be going home for two whole weeks at Christmas, though!  And I’m a little bummed it’s not LAST Thanksgiving, when I was with so many dear ones - we had a tour of a winery and a cooking lesson in Tuscany!  But being thankful for that trip reminds me to get in gear for another trip in 2018.  My frequent flyer miles are slowly but surely getting back up to where they need to be (thank you, work trips!), so I’m hoping to get out of town some day soon.  You'll see photos of the towns I'm seriously considering for next year at the bottom of the post.

Thanks to my new therapist (who will make an appearance below), I remember that I do have some things I’m thankful for this year, even amongst all the things that bring me down.  Thinking about thankfulness is always a good way to raise the spirits.  Oh, and hey, that reminds me - I’m thankful for YOU!  I would never have imagined so many people would read my silly thoughts!  Please always remember how much I appreciate you…

So, in no particular order, I present the stuff I’m supremely thankful for in 2017 (hey, it's  a pretty long list this year, woo hoo!):

• my wonderful family, most especially my superspecial nephew;
• my aunt Brenda's improving health;
• my other/chosen family – darling GNO + 2 and the Coterie;
• my co-workers, who put up with all my nonsense;
• watching my Roger win the Australian Open and Wimbledon;
• Paula Vogel and Indecent;
• margaritas;
• tennis week;
• the Seamless app;
• Street Theater;
• dark chocolate Reese’s peanut butter cups;
• Facebook birthdays;
• Charles Busch;
• egg and cheese sandwiches;
• producing events that honor people/writers I love;
• my friendly neighborhood drop-off/pick-up laundromat;
• getting back to teaching (and the students who make it worthwhile);
• TDF;
• my Nook;
• my beautiful goddaughters;
• AIDS Walk NY;
• the NY Times crossword app;
• Restaurant Week;
• Big Gay Ice Cream;
• watching dear ones win awards;
• Febreze plug-ins;
• old boyfriends who have remained friends and can still make me feel special;
• expressing my political views on Twitter;
• my new work office;
• Murray's Cheese stand in Grand Central;
• Facebook photos of all the adorable new babies in my extended family;
• avocado toast;
• Summer Fridays;
• my therapist;
• hugging so many of my dear Fellows at their shows/readings/concerts;
• Snoopy memes;
• my Roku;
• generous Tony voter friends;
• ginger beer;
• the My Favorite Year original Off-Broadway cast album;
• getting to go on so many fun work trips;
• finding La Spinetta wines at my neighborhood wine stores;
• Starbucks chocolate-covered madeleines;
• my superspecial nephew (he deserves two mentions because I love him so much)

last Thanksgiving!

he's a pip!

Thoughts on Junk, Describe the Night and Once on This Island

I'm in a theater-going frenzy at the moment - I don't know why I do this to myself, but I'm again seeing too many shows in a short frame of time.  I saw three shows last weekend , one last night and I have two more coming up; I'll offer a few thoughts on just a few...

I'm very grateful to a Tony-voter friend for taking me to see Ayad Akhtar's Junk at Lincoln Center.  I enjoyed Akhtar's play Disgraced (you can remind yourself of my review HERE), though my overall favorable impression got me into some hot water with another Tony-voter friend.  Ah well.  I had a vague idea of the plot of Junk, but I had purposefully stayed away from reviews, figuring I'd get to see the play eventually.

Junk takes place in the 1980s, in the world of high-states finance and junk bonds.  It's pretty heady, with talk of investments, takeovers, debt ratios, and insider trading.  Among other financial things.  I will admit that I know next to nothing about anything relating to finance, so when details of the illegal money transactions were being described, it was as if the characters were speaking Greek.  I mean, it was very clearly laid out, but it was still utterly foreign to me.  Such greed and venality is of little to no interest because it is so utterly distasteful to me, so although I was relatively engaged by the high production values, committed acting and smart dialogue, I was ultimately left with a 'why'.  Why this topic, why now?

photo credit: T. Charles Erickson

Why are seeing a play about so many rich white men?  And why was it a play and not a movie?  I'm just unsure as to what current human experience is illuminated by this play.  It may be there and I'm just not seeing it.  But I will say the production is attractively presented, very neat and tidy in its execution.  Well, I found one thing untidy: similar to the theory 'if you see a gun onstage, somebody better use it,' there was one plot point that kept coming up, a question that was continually asked of one of the characters.  AND IT WAS NEVER ANSWERED.  That was annoying, especially since I wasn't completely keen on the play anyway.  But the guys in the row in front of us LOVED IT.  In fact, after the show was over, and they stood up for a standing ovation (my friend and I did not indulge), one turned around and said, "Did you like that?"  I smiled politely and said "Yes, thank you," with little enthusiasm, which seemed to dampen his spirits.  Perhaps he was considering asking my friend and me to join him for celebratory drinks or something.  I don't know.  It was pretty funny.

Other in-theater occurrences:  there was a set or sound cue malfunction right at the top of the show.  I was unsure if it was part of the play or not, but I guess it wasn't.  And in the second act, there was a dreaded cell phone.  I heard a noise and thought, "That's an odd place for a sound cue," but the noise just kept happening, pretty much through the entire second act.  The audience around the perpetrator kept rumbling and making noise, so it was a constant, low-level disruption that was an annoyance, but not a total disturbance.  I do wonder how the actors can maintain their focus when a third of the audience is focused on a cell phone, but that's why they're the pros, I guess.

Sunday, I had to go into the office most of the day to finish up a project that I just never seem to have time to finish during the week, so I decided to treat myself after work and went to see an early preview of Rajiv Joseph's Describe the Night at the Atlantic Theatre.  I believe you all already know how much I admire Rajiv's work (you can remind yourself of a few of my reviews HERE and HERE).  He's such a favorite playwright of mine that I actually have a ticket for a performance later this month, but I guess I just couldn't wait to see what was going on.  I saw the third preview, though, so I'll only offer a few thoughts.

Here's the official description of the play, from the Atlantic's website:  "In 1920, the Russian writer Isaac Babel wanders the countryside with the Red Cavalry. Seventy years later, a mysterious KGB agent spies on a woman in Dresden and falls in love. In 2010, an aircraft carrying most of the Polish government crashes in the Russian city of Smolensk. Set in Russia over the course of 90 years, this thrilling and epic new play traces the stories of seven men and women connected by history, myth and conspiracy theories."

borrowed from the Atlantic's Facebook page

Exciting, yes?  Big, big stuff.  The description even uses the word 'epic.'  So my first thought is that the ushers shouldn't be telling all of the patrons, sometimes more than once, as they walk into the theater, that the show is three hours long.  I heard every person around me, as they were sitting down, say "Ugh, three hours," in a negative-sounding way.  I'm not exaggerating, every person who sat down after me said it.  That bothered me - these people already had a negative feeling, almost like defeat, about the play, even before it started.  I totally get the impulse for the ushers to tell people they should use the bathroom early and often, but I could just feel people's deflation as they sat down to watch the play.  It was frustrating for me.  I read the synopsis, so I figured this wasn't a short piece, and when I hear "it's three hours," I'm usually excited, because I love a three-act play!  I just do, whether it's in perfect shape or not.  I love the time used to build the structure, I love the way I can get to know the characters, and live in the world more freely, without being rushed.

Not that Describe the Night is in perfect shape yet, I don't think it is.  It's smart, it's interesting, it's bold and has a lot of humor.  Most of the acting is terrific.  But I'll be honest and say I didn't have the powerful emotional response I usually have after one of Rajiv's plays (though my pulse did quicken as the third act hurtled to a conclusion).  But, then again, there were some scenes where I honestly thought I could listen to those characters talk forever.  And there's one mental image that is still in the front of my brain, two days later.  So I think it's on its way to something pretty special, it just needs some time to get there.  I love a big play with big ideas and stories I don't hear anywhere else.  I'm looking forward to seeing Describe the Night again, to see how it's grown and changed, so I'm glad I went to see it early.  I'll report on my feelings more in-depth after I see it again.  But you should probably go ahead and get tickets anyway, since based on track record, you won't regret it...

Finally, I've already told you the story, multiple times, about the first time I saw Once on This Island, blah blah blah.  Well, the handsome friend with whom I saw the original Broadway production is in town this week, and last night he very generously took me to see the revival of this perfect little jewel of a musical.  Again, we saw an early preview, so I won't say a lot, because there may be changes and because I don't want to spoil anything for you.

I LOVED IT OH MY GOD I LOVED IT PLEASE GO PLEASE GO PLEASE GO.  Ok, there are most of my thoughts.  When I say I started crying sometime during the opening number, and just kind of kept sobbing (happily) throughout, I'm not exaggerating.  Oh, and I was making ugly cry noises by the end.  I was nervous that nothing could ever live up to my memories of that original production, but oh, my expectations were met and more.  This revival of Once on This Island is simply glorious, filled with love and joy and hope.  It was exactly what I needed to see and I can see myself returning many times.  The cast is spectacular, the concept is terrific, and honestly, just everything is beautiful.  There were so many wonderful things, I can't even single any one thing out.  The cast is working beautifully together and it was just a joy and delight to see this show with my dear old friend.  After our standing ovation, I probably embarrassed him by throwing my arms around him for a big hug - I just had to share all the happiness I was feeling.  Please, everyone, go see this.  It must run forever.

Happy Throwback Thursday, Italy-style!

Hello, all!  I have quite a few shows coming up, thanks to some generous friends, so keep checking for those updates.  But today I just wanted to pop by and do a fun photo post.  It's almost a year since I went to Italy with my dear dear ones, so as a Throwback Thursday sort of deal, I present the photos from my Google Photos album called 'Tutti.'  You've seen some of these group photos already, but some of them are new to you.  I'm just feeling my Thanksgiving thankfulness a little early - I'm thankful I could go to Italy and have such an amazing experience, and I'm thankful to have such special wonderful friends to have shared it with.  We don't get to hang out nearly often enough and I miss their faces.  They're also wonderful photographers, so of course I've stolen their pics for my post (the pics are in location order, I think, if not necessarily exact chronological order).  It's been fun to look at them today and smile...

Review - The Red Shoes

I think it's probably pretty apparent that since I'm a ballet superfan, I'm also a superfan of the film The Red Shoes.  I've seen it many times over the years and find it to be so beautiful - the colors, the dancing, the music.  Moira Shearer is just exquisite in the lead role and the idea of a battle of love vs art is an exciting one to me.  When I saw that choreographer Matthew Bourne was working on a version of The Red Shoes for his dance company, I was thrilled.  Ever since I saw Bourne's take on Swan Lake, I've been a huge fan.  Luckily, most of his productions have been filmed, so I've been able to check them out on tv, if not in person.  But when NY City Center said they would be presenting The Red Shoes, I immediately emailed my IHBB (Impossibly Handsome Ballet Buddy) and begged him to go with me.  I'm grateful it didn't take much begging.

I also heard that my favorite ABT danseur, Marcelo Gomes, would be performing!  Double, triple, quadruple woo hoo!  I simply adore Marcelo.  At first, he had been announced as dancing the role of Craster (the composer) at all performances, but that was amended and unfortunately we didn't get to see him dance last night.  Sad face.  But the show was still wonderful, whether we saw Marcelo or not.

When I first read about the piece, I assumed that they would use the music from the film in this new show.  But in reading further, I see that they couldn't really cobble together an entire score from The Red Shoes' movie music, so Bourne instead decided to use film music by Bernard Herrmann.  I love Herrmann's music!  So that was exciting to me.  It was very cool to pick up bits and pieces from recognizable film music inside this new work of dance.  I mean, hello, the score to The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is one of the most memorable, romantic, yet eerie, film scores ever!  And I felt very smart last night to pick out some of the music from Citizen Kane.  One piece of music, though, drove me nuts until it came to me in the middle of the night where I first saw it (yeah, yeah, it was a Shirley Temple movie, sue me).  

photo credit: Johan Persson

So, anyway, after all that blah blah blah, I had a terrific time at the theater last night.  I thought much of Bourne's The Red Shoes was gorgeous.  The set, with its revolving proscenium curtain, so we always knew if we were watching people on-stage or backstage, was genius, and the costumes were fantastic.  They were very evocative of the period and also of the film, but weren't slavish copies, which I appreciated.  To quibble a bit, I could see how people not familiar with the film would be confused about the story, and how it unfolded via the choreography, but I didn't have a problem and everything was so beautifully danced, I could forgive the ambiguities.

Matthew Bourne's company is not a ballet company, per se, but I thought the ballet choreography was lovely, especially in the stand-alone "Red Shoes" ballet that ended the first act.  It didn't try to copy the movie, but had an energy and passion all its own.  And I really loved how the scenery and projections enhanced the movement.  We saw Ashley Shaw as Victoria Page and I thought she was perfect.  Her dancing was so airy and light and her choreography was differentiated from every other ballerina, so she looked even more unique and special and apt to stand out.  Her poignancy at the end was also very striking, in the repeated movements of wanting the red shoes off her feet.  Instead of Marcelo Gomes, we saw Dominic North as Julian Craster, the composer who falls in love with Vicky.  He had a youthful elegance in his dancing and I especially liked his solos where he was dancing while 'conducting' the orchestra.  Sam Archer was the ballet impresario Boris Lermontov, who fought Craster for Vicky's soul (well, for her artistic soul).  He cut a very dashing figure, but it was hard for me to see him as a suitably imposing third part of the triangle since he did very little dancing.  I did enjoy the duet he had with Vicky after he cast her in his new "Red Shoes" ballet, but he mainly moved to the side of each stage picture and was a still presence, watching people's every move.  I mean, that worked well enough, but maybe a little more dancing would've helped even more. 

photo credit: Andrea Mohin

I especially liked Liam Mower as the lead danseur of the company, I thought his character and personality were wonderfully portrayed, both in his on-stage and backstage personas.  He seemed a very unique dancer to me, not quite like any other I've seen, so my eyes kept moving towards him.  But, really, everyone in the company was first-rate.  Bourne is expert at casting dancers who are also wonderful actors, adept at creating memorable characters with a minimal amount of stage time.  There were a few charming little dance scenes that were good for setting time and place, and for the company to establish characterizations, in between the big emotional duets between Vicky and her two masters (love and art/Craster and Lermontov).

yikes!  where's the stage?!

As you probably expected, I had a grand time at The Red Shoes, even sitting behind a VERY TALL man (thanks, dear IHBB, for trading seats with me for the second act!).  And I would love to be able to go back and see how the other casts dance the roles, especially Marcelo Gomes and NYCB ballerina Sara Mearns, but I don't think it's going to happen this week.  Time and money are currently in short supply.  I can only hope that the production comes back to New York sometime soon so I can enjoy the lush music (though I selfishly wish it had been played by live musicians instead of via a recording, though the sound design was quite rich and full) and the lovely dancing again.  And I think my weekend may include repeat viewings of The Red Shoes and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir - I've been inspired...

First Trip to Austin

I always enjoy heading to locales that are new to me - work sent me to the Austin Film Festival last weekend and I enjoyed myself, though I don't think I really experienced Austin.  But it was a good-kind-of-busy few days and I got to spend time with a dear friend from the old days, so thumbs up from me.  This will most likely be a really long post, sorry, because I don't think I'm going to want to break it up into two parts...

I am putting this in writing so that I don't ever forget:  I WILL NOT GO THE BARGAIN BASEMENT PRICE ROUTE AGAIN FOR BUSINESS TRAVEL.  I really mean it this time.  I have the very bad habit of just picking the lowest-priced airfare and the lowest-priced hotel, regardless of their convenience to me.  I shan't be doing that again.  The flights were just stupid annoying (I had to be at the airport on all legs at 4am and had three-hour layovers in between) and the hotel, while clean, didn't feel completely safe to me.  I hope I have finally learned my lesson.

The Dallas and Austin airports are quite nice and well-appointed with different food options, so that was good.  When I finally got to Austin, my very pleasant cabbie was telling me about places I should check out, which was nice, but then he asked me if I was married, which I never enjoy.  But all in all, it was fine.  When I arrived, I texted my dear friend and met him at the Driskill Hotel, a very lovely old hotel that was the film festival's headquarters.  I checked in, got my badge and swag bag, and went with my pal to a restaurant nearby that advertised itself as a margarita bar, which sealed the deal for me.  Had I known that other events would be there over the weekend, however, I may have picked a different place for my first meal.  The smoked chicken quesadilla was tasty, though, as was my Mexican Mule (ginger beer, tequila and lime).  I had a few of those over the weekend.

After our meal, we wandered over to the opening night cocktail party, which our badge level would get us into.  It was a little bit of a hike, during which a gal walking near us asked us if we were screenwriters.  We said no, and asked if she was.  She said no, she was a producer, and her documentary would be screening the next afternoon.  I asked what her doc was about and she said the Detroit Institute of Arts.  Hey!  My pal and I went to grad school in Detroit!  So we promised her we would check out her movie the next day.  It was a good thing we did, because there was so much going on in the festival schedule, it was nice to have something to anchor our day.  Anyway, once at the opening night cocktail party, we ran into another friend, which was cool.  We stood around and watched a fun band, we stood in line for a tasty free cocktail featuring a local bourbon, then we went up to the patio and stood around some more.  It was crazy crowded and lots of people were pitching themselves and their movies, which was fun at first, and a little bit exhausting.  It's easy to feel rejected when so many people walk away from you when they realize you're not ACTUALLY a producer, it just says that on your badge.

We wandered out of the party to head to the beautiful old Paramount Theater to see the opening night film, Lady Bird, written and directed by Greta Gerwig.  I'd heard a lot about the movie, mostly raves, so I was excited to see it.  Getting in line to see the movie was a riot - we kept walking and walking to try to find the end of the line.  Every time we thought we found the end of the line, we were wrong.  We were just laughing all the way.  I think we were finally in line about three blocks away, but my ticket number was 334, so we got in easily, thank heavens.  I enjoyed the film, but I didn't think it was the best movie I've ever seen.  It was interesting to hear Greta Gerwig speak afterwards about how her movie features scenes she'd never seen before.  I thought that was interesting because a lot of the scenes felt familiar to me.  But that's ok.  The acting was stellar, the dialogue was enjoyably quirky and there were some drop dead funny moments in there (one in particular will probably make me laugh for the rest of my life when I remember it), plus some very touching moments.  And Laurie Metcalf was stop-the-presses brilliant.  So I'm glad I saw it, I just wonder what I missed since I didn't adore it, like so many others have.  Ah well.

Friday was a day of panel discussions, which were interesting, and movies, which were mixed.  My pal and I did go to the documentary about the Detroit Institute of Arts in the afternoon - we had to take a 20-minute car ride out to the movie theater, which was strange.  It seemed odd to have a festival venue so out of the way, but when we got there, there was already a line to get in!  I hope the producer we met the night before was pleased to see so many people at her movie.  It was called Beauty and Ruin, and it was about how the art in the Detroit Institute of Art became an issue during Detroit's bankruptcy issues in 2013.  As I mentioned before, I went to grad school in Detroit and enjoyed my three years living there.  I went to the DIA all the time, to look at the art and to see movies (they had a foreign film series that was fantastic), and had no idea about the provenance of the art or how it fit into Detroit history.  I thought the documentary was terrific (it was my favorite of all the films I saw at the festival) and I hope it gets a wide distribution so more people can see it.

We had to hurry back to the regular conference venue to get there in time to see a reading of one of the finalists for the Playwriting Award.  We made it just in time, thankfully, and settled in to enjoy the play.  After the reading, we went to a nearby restaurant for a quick dinner (I enjoyed my chicken sandwich and margarita), then we were off to a church for a screening of the film Wild Honey, starring Rusty Schwimmer.  I liked that this movie had as its focus a woman-of-a-certain-age-and-certain-size as a sexual being.  It almost felt a little aspirational to me.  Rusty Schwimmer plays a phone-sex operator who falls for one of her phone clients and she decides to find him to meet him in person.  Her optimism and courage was really terrifically portrayed.  The movie was funny in places, though a little dead in other places.  I liked it, though, for the most part, probably because I could really relate to the lead character.  I was sorry we didn't have time to stay afterwards and hear the Q&A with the director and cast, because we had to run out and get in line for ANOTHER movie at the Paramount.  Most of the weekend was spent standing in line for a movie.  I probably won't see another movie for the rest of the year.  Oh, and I was also disappointed because I'd heard so much about the food truck culture of Austin and the producers of Wild Honey had a food truck outside the venue after the Q&A, but my pal and I didn't have time to check it out.  Drat.

We got back in line at the Paramount to see Permanent, starring Patricia Arquette and Rainn Wilson.  It was described as an off-beat comedy about a 13-year-old girl and her bad experience with a perm.  I think it was trying way too hard to be off-beat and quirky, and ended up being all over the place and silly (not in a good way).  It felt like it portrayed southern people as stupid and mean, and nothing really felt earned.  I did laugh a couple of times and the young girl was an appealing lead, but most of the time, the movie just sort of laid there and I didn't really enjoy it, on the whole.

Saturday was my day of panel discussions - I was on two panels myself, which I think went well.  I met a lot of nice people and I think I presented some helpful information.  Later, I had a tasty watermelon and feta salad for lunch, then went to another reading of a play, this time by the gent who ended up winning the playwriting award.  Then after I did another panel, I had dinner with my pal and some other friends at that same margarita bar and enjoyed my cheese enchiladas, though I do wish I could've explored other cuisines.  After dinner, we went to get in line for yet another movie, this time it was Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.  This is another movie I'd heard a lot about - I'm not normally on board with McDonagh's brand of humor, the violence in his plays is a real turnoff to me, though I did enjoy his film In Bruges.  I adore Frances McDormand, though, and she was simply spectacular in this movie.  Angry, hurt, funny, vengeful - she played it all.  She was fantastic.  As was Sam Rockwell, who I always enjoy, and Woody Harrelson, who I frequently do NOT enjoy.  This was a wild ride of a movie and I never knew what was going to happen next.  Thankfully, the violence didn't turn me off too much, though I did have to close my eyes a couple of times.  On the whole, I enjoyed seeing the film and hope Frances McDormand wins all the prizes this year.

My dear pal had to leave on Sunday, so I did the festival by myself, which was kind of boring.  I was so happy spending time with my pal, who I don't nearly see enough.  But I took myself out for a walk around the Capitol, then a tasty brunch, then went to a keynote conversation by Kenneth Lonergan.  He was terrific, very funny and informative, though I wish the interviewer (or the audience asking questions) had asked a little more about his playwriting.  I had my hand up to ask a few playwriting questions, but I never got called on.  Oh well, he was great to see regardless.  I saw a panel discussion moderated by another friend, which was great, then I did a little shopping around town.  I picked up a couple of souvenirs and holiday gifts, which was fun, and then met a bunch of people at the margarita bar for one last Mexican Mule.  Very tasty.  Then I got in line to see the last movie of my weekend, The Current War, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.  When I got inside the Paramount, though, there was an ad for a new Denzel Washington movie showing on the screen instead of the film festival logo.  Hm.  When the host came out to introduce the film, she said please enjoy this new Denzel Washington movie, and I was confused.  They apparently switched films!  I hadn't gotten that note, though I found out later that the producers of The Current War have decided to release it next year, so I guess it was fortunate that the film festival could find a replacement movie.  So I saw Roman J Israel, Esq instead.  Uh.  I didn't enjoy it.  At all.  I could get into why, but maybe it's still being edited, so I'll just say I didn't enjoy it and leave it at that.  Hopefully, it can be made better before its wide release.

So ended my time in Austin.  I wish I could've seen more of the city and tried more of its food, but I would like to go back, so...next time.  The weather was colder than I expected it to be, so I couldn't wear all my cute warm-weather clothes I took.  Ah well.  For your enjoyment, I'll put some photos of the food I ate at the bottom of this post - hopefully, I'll be getting back into the blogging groove now that this trip, and a big work event that happened last week, is over!  Stay tuned!