Tarzan

In my first adventure at The Muny in a couple of years, I went to see Tarzan last night.  E and I were enjoying her last afternoon here at the Saucy Soiree (more on that later) when I got a call from P inquiring whether I would like to go see the show with her that very evening.  Luckily, the timing worked out just right -- after running E to the airport, I met P at the Muny and we got our butts in our seats just minutes before showtime.

I have never seen any of the Tarzan incarnations or iterations that have been floating around in the last several decades.  Apparently this production was based on the moderately recent Disney movie, but I have no idea whether that is substantially similar to all the previous productions or not.  I would imagine so, but I'm pulling that idea out of nowhere.

The show was light and fun, with a number of lovely duets and some excellent work by the child actors.  The woman who played Jane Porter, Kate Rockwell, had a lovely voice, and Ken Page (famous for his work in The Nightmare Before Christmas) played her father.

And thankfully it was short!

I checked my phone during intermission to discover that E's flight out was cancelled!  The minute the show was over, before the curtain call for the actors, P and I dashed out to our cars so we could beat the traffic rush and I could get back to the airport to rescue E from an overnight of unfortunately George-Clooney-in-Up-In-the-Air-less lounging and pacing of the airport terminals.  Whew!

Goal #26

Goal #26: deal with one box of stuff.

I have a corner in my apartment that, if you looked at just that, would lead you to believe I moved in yesterday.  I did not move in yesterday.  This week, one box will be gone.  (As E says, "make it manageable.")

Recap of goal #25: we had a great time!  Stories to follow, in various posts.

Random Links

Too bad the people who most need this are businesspeople.  Why only open M-F 9-5?  Because it's the TSA, that's why.

Sir Anthony Hopkins composes a waltz.

How to get it all done in one day.

The Brits win the day again.

How brave are you feeling?

Competitive classical like you've never seen it.

John Butler Trio

A couple of weeks ago, John Butler Trio played at the Pageant.  I hadn't heard of JBT until R, my boss, sent me a link to a YouTube video of a very grungy-looking dude playing some killer 12-string.

Shortly thereafter, I get another email saying JBT will be playing in St. Louis, and would I like to go?  You bet I would.

The show was killer.  Most of it was more rock-y than the video above, but still great.

 Some good, old-fashioned banjo. 

He played nine different stringed instruments during the course of the show.  And towards the end, the other two cleared the stage and left JB to jam away at "Ocean" for a full 15 minutes.  That was pretty stunning.

The awesome left-handed picking.

Wowzers.

Henry V

Last Saturday, I saw the second (or third, depending on how you count) part of this year's Shakespeare Festival performance.  That particular day was reserved for one of their two double headers, though the first one had been rained out.  However, since I had seen Henry IV on another night, I was only in attendance for Henry V that night.

The amazing thing is that the same cast puts on both shows!  Can you imagine being out there in the summer sun, in all that Elizabethan costume, for 6 hours?  Holy hell.  It certainly didn't detract from the performance though!

I can safely say that I find the Henry V story more entertaining than Henry IV, though that says nothing about the actors.  It just seems more interesting to me.  And this version was every bit the show that I hoped it would be.  A classic Shakespeare performance, in the fresh air, on a beautiful night.

And there was funnel cake.

Goal #25

Goal #25: fun and visitors!

E is coming to town this week for the last opera of the season, and K is coming too.  I'm not sure what all the evenings hold, but to be sure, they'll be busy!

Recap of goal #24: I did a pretty good job cleaning up!  Cleaned the bathroom, cleaned some of the kitchen, vacuumed.  I also cooked lots of food to keep me fed during the week!

What I Watched -- Fed Up

I went with T to see Fed Up, the latest docu-drama to attack America's agribusiness system of mass food production, which is, if the whole collection of films is to be believed, going to kill us all yesterday.

Perhaps that's overstating it a little bit.  All this "food" won't kill us yesterday, and probably not even tomorrow, but without a doubt it will make us fat, diabetic, lazy, and stupid.  Wait, no, that's Google that makes us stupid.  So just fat, diabetic, and lazy.  Oh, and cancerous.

Enough with the joking around.  Fed Up is the story of sugar in the American diet, and it is a serious problem. There is nothing about consuming sugar in the quantities that we do which is good for you.  Obviously.  We need some sugar for fuel, but we waaay overconsume it.

What I like about this movie, other than its nutritional truths (I think, although I don't know the science that well), is that it doesn't demonize one political party while canonizing the other.  Government is in the pockets of corporations.  True.  And that's true of virtually all politicians.  Thanks for pointing that out.

What I also liked about it was the rather short segment where they compare foods side by side.  Can of soda? 140 calories, 39g sugar.  Same quantity of OJ? 153 calories, 29g sugar.  Cranberry juice? 165 calories, True, you get more vitamins and minerals from the juice than from the soda (which is basically water, sugar, salt, and chemicals), but not enough to make it a healthy go-to beverage.

Bottom line: nothing particularly revelatory, but an excellent reminder.  As Michael Pollan says, "eat food, not too much, mostly [vegetables, although whole fruits are okay]."

What I'm Reading Now -- Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michaelangelo, and Me

My favorite book podcast, Books on the Nightstand, is not (as you might guess) making my reading list any shorter.

I haven't read many graphic novels, but the few that I've read, I have very much enjoyed.  See here, here, and here for some earlier reads.

Michael, one of the BOTNS hosts, is a big comics-and-graphic-novels guy. He recommended Marbles on a recent podcast, so I've decided to give it a whirl.

Henry IV, Parts I and II

It's Shakespeare season again in St. Louis, and this year we get to see three plays rather than the usual one.  For whatever reason, the company decided to put on both Henry IV (Part I and Part II, condensed into one show) and Henry V, and there are a few days that they did a double-header of IV/V together.  Think how hot that must be in the 4:30 sun!

Not that sitting through six straight hours of British history wouldn't be wonderful, but I decided to see the plays on two days.  And not to take my history out of order, I went to IV first.

As with all of Shakespeare's work (even the comedies), there's drama.  Henry IV has just become king by deposing Richard II.  He's now trying to quiet those pesky Welshmen and Scotsmen, who just will not settle down.  The appropriately-nicknamed Hotspur is the source of much trouble, as he just will not do what the king says, and kings don't like that.  Prince Hal (whom we will meet again as the next monarch in Henry V) is more or less good for nothing until the real fighting begins.  Apparently swords can make men out of boys, because when the going gets tough, he finally gets his act together.  (And I mean actual swords and fighting and death, that's not a euphemism.)

And it's a good thing he does, because Papa Henry IV falls ill and dies at the conclusion of the fighting, leaving Henry V to take on the French, if Prince John is to be believed.

The Elixir of Love

The second opera of the season was The Elixir of Love, and I went to this one with my traditional opera date, Grandpa.

Elixir is another light-hearted piece, although a bit more rooted in reality than the fantastic world of The Magic Flute.  It's the simple tale of a boy in love with a girl who plays hard to get.  That's about all.  Oh, and some ice cream.

The setting of this particular production is the town square of Anytown, USA, and there are a handful of kids in the performance, children of the townspeople.  The jilted lover, Nemorino, is an ice cream man, and each kid probably has three ice cream cones throughout the performance.  Their real-life parents must be so pleased.

Donizetti's composition has numerous multi-voice pieces, and Grandpa and I discussed the wonder of those in the car on the way home.  A soaring aria is lovely, but there's something so fun and fascinating about duets, trios, quartets, and rounds that's absent from single-voiced or simple choral pieces.  Nemorino, Adina (his love interest), and Dr. Dulcamara (the snake oil salesman who sells Nemorino the titular elixir) were all fantastic!

Goal #24

Goal #24: Clean for visitors.

I have two very important visitors coming soon, and my place is the pits.  Must fix.

Recap of goal #23:
- Plane tickets: check
- Hotel reservations: check
- More plane tickets: not quite
- Be my own sponsor: not yet

Other things I forgot: rental car reservation, still more plane tickets.  Must add those to the list.

The Magic Flute

I took T to his very first opera a couple of weeks ago.  We went to see the season opener at Opera Theater of St. Louis, Mozart's classic but goofy The Magic Flute.

It is the tale of the daughter of the Queen of the Night, Pamina, who has been captured by Sarastro, the evil sorcerer.  The three attendants of the Queen of the Night send the lost prince Tomino on the trail of Pamina, along with his sidekick Papageno.  Trials and tribulations ensue.

The performance at OTSL was designed, directed, and produced by Isaac Mizrahi.  He is a fashion designer by training -- and it shows.  The set and costumes were colorful and fanciful, almost to the point of being a child's fairy tale.  Probably the only truly serious character in the entire show is the Queen, who also happens to have one of my favorite arias of all time.  You can listen to a version of it here, although it appears to be from a much darker performance of the show put on by the Royal Opera in London, and it's not in English.  (All performances at OTSL are translated into English.)

It was a bright and enjoyable kick-off to the season.

Quote of the Day

"I'm running in a race that's not worth running."
  -- The Falls, "Into the Fire"

Happy Birthday, K!

Goal #23

Goal #23: plane tickets, hotel reservations, more plane tickets, be my own sponsor.

My life has gotten to that point again where my goals are really just the things I absolutely must get done.  This is no fun.

Recap of goal #22: two out of three is better than any MLB player can do, so I'm counting it as a win.  I made the chai banana cake and the V8, but did not get to the chocolate cake.  Maybe this week?  Also I have some delicious dried cherries that I got from Mom yesterday, which may go into cherry almond biscotti.  Thoughts?

What I Watched -- Before Sunset

It took me forever to get around to watching this movie.  I probably had it for two months before I finally gave it the attention it deserved.

I'm not sure why it took me so long.  For starters, it's a short movie (running time: 80 minutes), so it wasn't much of a commitment.  Second, I enjoyed Before Sunrise when I watched it not too long ago.  And finally, I started this whole Ethan-and-Julie project because I wanted to see the newest movie in the trilogy, Before Midnight.  I've already seen the first two (years ago, both), but my whole goal here is to remind myself of the details so I can get to the new one.

The movie is filmed essentially in real time, which adds a sense of immediacy to what is otherwise a plotless story.  We've picked up our same two characters from Sunrise nine years later.  They meet again, the chemistry is still there, and the next 75 minutes are like enjoying a conversation with old friends: easy, rangy, pleasant.

Bottom line: simple but elegant.

Happy Birthday, R the Wonderdog

In light of all the sad pet events in our family of late (we're like the Kennedys for pets, apparently), I thought I'd take a moment to remember my little guy.  He would have been 15 today.

Doing one of his favorite things: snoozin'.

What I Watched -- Spiderman 2

T and I hung out for Memorial Day weekend, and one of the fun things we did (and they weren't all fun - we accomplished a lot and ran a bunch of errands too!) was to go see The Amazing Spider-Man 2 at the theater.

It was exactly what you'd expect out of the 3,282th Spider-Man movie in 5 years.  Andrew Garfield plays the man in the suit, and my best actress friend Emma Stone is his love interest Gwen Stacy.  He does the usual Spidey things, swinging between buildings in the Big Apple, rescuing the innocent and the obligatory child, and wondering about his past.

And of course, we're left set up for the Incredible Stupendous Fantastic Spider-Man 3! (Action figures sold separately.)

Bottom line: summer fun.  Nothing more, nothing less.

What I'm Reading Now -- Tabloid City

I'm pretty sure Mom sent me the audio of Tabloid City.  And just to be clear, that happened many moons ago.  As with most audio books, onto my computer it went, just waiting for its moment in the sun.  Well, that moment is here for Pete Hamill's latest!

Much, if not most, of Hamill's writing - fiction and nonfiction - is set in and around the Big Apple, and this one is no different so far.  I'm just a few tracks in, and we have (as the title might suggest) some newspapermen, and presumably the people they write about.  We shall see.

Goal #22

Goal #22: homemade V8, chai banana cake, chocolate cake.

These are three simple things, and I would like to make them this week.

Recap of goal #21: didn't happen.  All the CDs are right where they were last Sunday evening. Maybe next time.