getting to know all about you
it has been a ridiculous (and ridiculously awesome) couple of weeks. new york was so much fun, even after the disaster that was my first evening. forty minute wait for a shuttle compounded with a two hour ride to a hotel on ten hours with no food is no one's idea of a good time, i'm sure. and the i wandered the neighbourhood hoping to find a place to eat and ended up going back to my hotel empty handed and calling in (free!) delivery from a hamburger place i'd walked past five blocks away. and oh my god how good was that burger? (SO GOOD.) and then i spent wednesday watching shows (and eating terrible food but whatever) and something rotten! was worth every (expensive) penny and then some! such a hilarious, hysterical, lovely play, and all the meta tickled me pink. and then there was christian borle, holy crap, i forget about him until i see him again, and then he always blows my mind. for a hell of a good time and an even better show, this is definitely the one to see. and i saw it shoulda been you in the evening, because i've seen neil patrick harris, so his husband deserves some love too (though probably not very much more of it... suffice to say there is clearly a more talented member between the two of them). i had partial view seats, which led to me getting to sit in the box for the first time ever, and it was the most awful seat i've ever had in a theatre, but the lovely gentleman in front of me moved his chair all the way over to the left so that i could watch part of the stage in the space he created between himself and his wife. people are so lovely.
and in between doing all that, i got to wander around the village, which is now officially one of my favourite new neighbourhoods in the entire world. and it's a good thing i did, because i had all the marvellous (asian) food in the village (UNCLE BOON'S SERVES WHAT IS PROBABLY THE BEST THAI FOOD I HAVE HAD OUTSIDE OF THAILAND) (AND CHOMP CHOMP IS NOW A THING THERE IS ACTUAL SINGAPOREAN FOOD IN NYC OMG), and my sister had the best coffee she's ever had (her words) and the best macarons she's ever had (after she joined me at 6am on thursday morning), so all in all, it was a huge hit.
later on thursday we went to see beautiful, aka the carole king story, and that was fun and light and fluffy, but i don't think i'm a big fan of musicals that are basically person x's songbooks. especially if the songs aren't used as part of the story (i just saw on your feet two days ago here in chicago and, okay, i'm not the biggest gloria estefan fan, but even that used the music better than beautiful did, idk). ANYWAY.
the other highlight of the trip was getting to see the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime on friday. MOST BRILLIANT ACTING I HAVE SEEN IN A LONG, LONG TIME, oh my gosh, that kid. i haven't seen a performance like that since leo in what's eating gilbert grape. you did so good, julliard. i wept all over the place. idk what i was expecting when i went in, and i'm so glad, because i would've had all kinds of expectations and it would've probably ruined it for me, but ugh, it turned out to be one of the best things i've seen in ever, even with the partial view seats, and only something rotten! gave it a run for its money (although i overheard the people in the row behind me say they saw fun house as well, and something rotten! definitely deserved best musical, which made me excited). it's one of the few standing ovations i've felt were really deserved. (in comparison, the standing o something rotten! got in the middle of the first act on a weekday matinee was more deserved than the standing o it got at the conclusion of the musical.)
on saturday we got to go to see darren do hedwig, and aodjsdogjsdg I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT THIS. i wrote them all in an email to mette (that i have yet to send) but basically I HAD A LOT OF FEELS. uncomfortable feels, some, BUT ALL THE FEELS. BECAUSE HE SNUCK A CHRIS COLFER REFERENCE IN THERE AND I ABOUT DIED?!?!?!?! IT CAUGHT ME COMPLETELY OFF GUARD AND WAS JUST THE MOST FABULOUS THING EVER. and apart from that he was so delightfully SASSY and yet somehow still the sweetest hedwig of all and "of all" to me encompasses only darren and neil but it was so true i can't even explain it he just *___________* and he kept interacting with the audience and making hilarious little jibes and HOW IS HE SO GOOD AT IT WHEN HES USUALLY JUST A FREAK BALL OF LOVELY SUNSHINE I WILL NEVER KNOW
AND!!!!!! his singing was the most fabulous thing. i genuinely had no idea he'd be able to carry it all on his own, but he DID, and he was just amazinggggg. AND HIS VOICES!!! ALL HIS VOICES AND HIS ACCENTS AND HIS CHARACTERS JFC HE DESERVES ALL THE AWARDS EVER!!!!! because let's be real i love nph but darren is the superior actor by far! (WHO KNEW) BUT I MEAN HE EVEN SANG IN CHARACTER *____________*
THAT SAID. darren is very much aaaaaaall boy. like he is so ridiculously completely boy that it's hard to fully buy into the drag WHICH IS BY NO MEANS HIS FAULT. he has the mannerisms and the gestures and the voice down PAT but his body and his energy and his spirit is so raw BOY. nph was the more convincing queen by farrrr. plus darren's jaw is so gorgeously square that no amount of makeup ever made you forget he was all boy. but ugh i love him so much for trying this and putting himself out there. and at the end he came out and was the SWEETEST and high fived the dudes he gave lapdances to and licked and also the girl he made out with who seemed a little freaked at first but then got really into it after.
ALSO IF I'D JUST REACHED A HAND UP I COULD'VE GOTTEN HIS TOWEL THAT HE'D JUST USED TO WIPE HIS FACE THAT'S HOW CLOSE I WAS OMG. fourth row seats worth every penny!!! but I'm too old for that now and seriously that's just kind of gross like what would i have done with it after idek so. unfortch, as many feels as i had about the show, overall it was only my third favourite thing i saw because darren was great but the rest of the cast was less great and nph had the incomparable lena hall with him, who was MINDBLOWINGLY AMAZING, and so far out of her replacement's league that it wasn't even funny. i felt zero compassion and sympathy for her, which basically took away from the heart of the show, but it is what it is. darren was lovely and charismatic and so made up for it in every way he could, but overall nph's run was better. still! i'm so glad i got to see him do his thing on broadway. that was a total blast.
and then that night i got to see ken watanabe in the king and i. we had fucking ridiculous seats for that show as well, but kelli o'hara was out sick, so i'll never know if her performance elevates the show or not. it was just okay overall. i've mostly forgotten what the movie was like, so i don't have any standard of comparison, but it felt like there was so much potential and it never quite hit the notes that it needed to. it was definitely fun, though, and i'll have getting to know you stuck in my head for the longest time! unfortunately, getting to eat late night korean barbeque was definitely the best part of the day on saturday. SO DELICIOUS O M G and it was just fun to take a trip to k-town at 11 at night and still see all the businesses beckoning you in. ALSO NOTE TO SELF THERE IS A GONG CHA IN NEW YORK CITY AHHHHHHHHHHH. excuse me while i weep. hopefully it's only a matter of time till it makes its way to chicago. (a girl can dream.)
sunday was spent eating all the delicious food on bleecker street, and seeing jurassic park, and just hanging out with my sister and wishing the week hadn't gone by quite so quickly.
but then if it hadn't, i wouldn't be back in evanston with my cousin, running around town and checking out all the awesome joints in chicago i haven't had to chance to check out in the past nine months. we hit up trader joe's and whole foods for grocery shopping on monday, and we had pie and lou malnati's and THEN WE WATCHED THE BLACKHAWKS TAKE HOME THE STANLEY CUP FOR THE THIRD TIME IN SIX YEARS AWWW YEAH :DDDDDDDDDDDD
i wish i could be more invested in the hawks than i am; being a part of a crazy fandom still appeals to me and every time i see people in their hawks jerseys going to or from hawks events, or squee online, i'm like I WISH I WAS MORE A PART OF THAT. i'm definitely participating a little more, and it's very exciting to be cheering for a winning team again, but my heart's not really in it. it wants to be, so badly, but i'm just not really the kind of girl who can go all in when it comes to sports beyond cheering during the actual sporting event. it's so exciting to see it all happening around me though! i miss that kind of excitement. i feel so adrift without it. full time real life is hard.
but it does mean that i've gotten to explore a whole new part of chicago. we spent all day hanging out on the loop on tuesday, and watching mad max for the second time, and almost accidentally saw the stanley cup in a restaurant. we walked up and down the magnificent mile, because i love tourist traps (THEY ARE TOURIST TRAPS FOR A REASON OKAY AND EVERYONE SHOULD GET TO SEE THEM) and saw on your feet. wednesday we spent all day walking from millenium park to grant park (and we got to stop at buckingham fountain which was GLORIOUS - we have such a gorgeous skyline i don't even know) and then on to the shedd for jazzin at the shedd in the evening. it was so much fun, and so much quieter because there weren't as many people around, and the jazz was quite lovely, even though we didn't bother staying for the fireworks.
today we walked from belmont to lincoln park zoo, with a bunch of stops along the way. we had ann sathers for breakfast, which was so delicious, and then stopped at molly's cupcakes for a sweet treat after. and then we took advantage of free admission thursdays at the nature museum, and had a gander around the zoo and the conservatory. we wound up at uncle julio's for tea - tableside guacamole and strawberry guava lemonade are going to be my go-to orders from now on - and then came home to laze around (and rest our exhausted feet). tomorrow we're going to go see inside out and give ethiopian food a whirl, before heading to the pier (ha ha ha) and going on an architecture tour. i'm bummed that i have to go back to school in three days, but i'm sure as hell going to make the most of it before that!
and in between doing all that, i got to wander around the village, which is now officially one of my favourite new neighbourhoods in the entire world. and it's a good thing i did, because i had all the marvellous (asian) food in the village (UNCLE BOON'S SERVES WHAT IS PROBABLY THE BEST THAI FOOD I HAVE HAD OUTSIDE OF THAILAND) (AND CHOMP CHOMP IS NOW A THING THERE IS ACTUAL SINGAPOREAN FOOD IN NYC OMG), and my sister had the best coffee she's ever had (her words) and the best macarons she's ever had (after she joined me at 6am on thursday morning), so all in all, it was a huge hit.
later on thursday we went to see beautiful, aka the carole king story, and that was fun and light and fluffy, but i don't think i'm a big fan of musicals that are basically person x's songbooks. especially if the songs aren't used as part of the story (i just saw on your feet two days ago here in chicago and, okay, i'm not the biggest gloria estefan fan, but even that used the music better than beautiful did, idk). ANYWAY.
the other highlight of the trip was getting to see the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime on friday. MOST BRILLIANT ACTING I HAVE SEEN IN A LONG, LONG TIME, oh my gosh, that kid. i haven't seen a performance like that since leo in what's eating gilbert grape. you did so good, julliard. i wept all over the place. idk what i was expecting when i went in, and i'm so glad, because i would've had all kinds of expectations and it would've probably ruined it for me, but ugh, it turned out to be one of the best things i've seen in ever, even with the partial view seats, and only something rotten! gave it a run for its money (although i overheard the people in the row behind me say they saw fun house as well, and something rotten! definitely deserved best musical, which made me excited). it's one of the few standing ovations i've felt were really deserved. (in comparison, the standing o something rotten! got in the middle of the first act on a weekday matinee was more deserved than the standing o it got at the conclusion of the musical.)
on saturday we got to go to see darren do hedwig, and aodjsdogjsdg I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT THIS. i wrote them all in an email to mette (that i have yet to send) but basically I HAD A LOT OF FEELS. uncomfortable feels, some, BUT ALL THE FEELS. BECAUSE HE SNUCK A CHRIS COLFER REFERENCE IN THERE AND I ABOUT DIED?!?!?!?! IT CAUGHT ME COMPLETELY OFF GUARD AND WAS JUST THE MOST FABULOUS THING EVER. and apart from that he was so delightfully SASSY and yet somehow still the sweetest hedwig of all and "of all" to me encompasses only darren and neil but it was so true i can't even explain it he just *___________* and he kept interacting with the audience and making hilarious little jibes and HOW IS HE SO GOOD AT IT WHEN HES USUALLY JUST A FREAK BALL OF LOVELY SUNSHINE I WILL NEVER KNOW
AND!!!!!! his singing was the most fabulous thing. i genuinely had no idea he'd be able to carry it all on his own, but he DID, and he was just amazinggggg. AND HIS VOICES!!! ALL HIS VOICES AND HIS ACCENTS AND HIS CHARACTERS JFC HE DESERVES ALL THE AWARDS EVER!!!!! because let's be real i love nph but darren is the superior actor by far! (WHO KNEW) BUT I MEAN HE EVEN SANG IN CHARACTER *____________*
THAT SAID. darren is very much aaaaaaall boy. like he is so ridiculously completely boy that it's hard to fully buy into the drag WHICH IS BY NO MEANS HIS FAULT. he has the mannerisms and the gestures and the voice down PAT but his body and his energy and his spirit is so raw BOY. nph was the more convincing queen by farrrr. plus darren's jaw is so gorgeously square that no amount of makeup ever made you forget he was all boy. but ugh i love him so much for trying this and putting himself out there. and at the end he came out and was the SWEETEST and high fived the dudes he gave lapdances to and licked and also the girl he made out with who seemed a little freaked at first but then got really into it after.
ALSO IF I'D JUST REACHED A HAND UP I COULD'VE GOTTEN HIS TOWEL THAT HE'D JUST USED TO WIPE HIS FACE THAT'S HOW CLOSE I WAS OMG. fourth row seats worth every penny!!! but I'm too old for that now and seriously that's just kind of gross like what would i have done with it after idek so. unfortch, as many feels as i had about the show, overall it was only my third favourite thing i saw because darren was great but the rest of the cast was less great and nph had the incomparable lena hall with him, who was MINDBLOWINGLY AMAZING, and so far out of her replacement's league that it wasn't even funny. i felt zero compassion and sympathy for her, which basically took away from the heart of the show, but it is what it is. darren was lovely and charismatic and so made up for it in every way he could, but overall nph's run was better. still! i'm so glad i got to see him do his thing on broadway. that was a total blast.
and then that night i got to see ken watanabe in the king and i. we had fucking ridiculous seats for that show as well, but kelli o'hara was out sick, so i'll never know if her performance elevates the show or not. it was just okay overall. i've mostly forgotten what the movie was like, so i don't have any standard of comparison, but it felt like there was so much potential and it never quite hit the notes that it needed to. it was definitely fun, though, and i'll have getting to know you stuck in my head for the longest time! unfortunately, getting to eat late night korean barbeque was definitely the best part of the day on saturday. SO DELICIOUS O M G and it was just fun to take a trip to k-town at 11 at night and still see all the businesses beckoning you in. ALSO NOTE TO SELF THERE IS A GONG CHA IN NEW YORK CITY AHHHHHHHHHHH. excuse me while i weep. hopefully it's only a matter of time till it makes its way to chicago. (a girl can dream.)
sunday was spent eating all the delicious food on bleecker street, and seeing jurassic park, and just hanging out with my sister and wishing the week hadn't gone by quite so quickly.
but then if it hadn't, i wouldn't be back in evanston with my cousin, running around town and checking out all the awesome joints in chicago i haven't had to chance to check out in the past nine months. we hit up trader joe's and whole foods for grocery shopping on monday, and we had pie and lou malnati's and THEN WE WATCHED THE BLACKHAWKS TAKE HOME THE STANLEY CUP FOR THE THIRD TIME IN SIX YEARS AWWW YEAH :DDDDDDDDDDDD
i wish i could be more invested in the hawks than i am; being a part of a crazy fandom still appeals to me and every time i see people in their hawks jerseys going to or from hawks events, or squee online, i'm like I WISH I WAS MORE A PART OF THAT. i'm definitely participating a little more, and it's very exciting to be cheering for a winning team again, but my heart's not really in it. it wants to be, so badly, but i'm just not really the kind of girl who can go all in when it comes to sports beyond cheering during the actual sporting event. it's so exciting to see it all happening around me though! i miss that kind of excitement. i feel so adrift without it. full time real life is hard.
but it does mean that i've gotten to explore a whole new part of chicago. we spent all day hanging out on the loop on tuesday, and watching mad max for the second time, and almost accidentally saw the stanley cup in a restaurant. we walked up and down the magnificent mile, because i love tourist traps (THEY ARE TOURIST TRAPS FOR A REASON OKAY AND EVERYONE SHOULD GET TO SEE THEM) and saw on your feet. wednesday we spent all day walking from millenium park to grant park (and we got to stop at buckingham fountain which was GLORIOUS - we have such a gorgeous skyline i don't even know) and then on to the shedd for jazzin at the shedd in the evening. it was so much fun, and so much quieter because there weren't as many people around, and the jazz was quite lovely, even though we didn't bother staying for the fireworks.
today we walked from belmont to lincoln park zoo, with a bunch of stops along the way. we had ann sathers for breakfast, which was so delicious, and then stopped at molly's cupcakes for a sweet treat after. and then we took advantage of free admission thursdays at the nature museum, and had a gander around the zoo and the conservatory. we wound up at uncle julio's for tea - tableside guacamole and strawberry guava lemonade are going to be my go-to orders from now on - and then came home to laze around (and rest our exhausted feet). tomorrow we're going to go see inside out and give ethiopian food a whirl, before heading to the pier (ha ha ha) and going on an architecture tour. i'm bummed that i have to go back to school in three days, but i'm sure as hell going to make the most of it before that!