Birthday
Yesterday for my birthday, we went out to dinner at Delancey Street Restaurant downtown. The waiters are always super nice - unbelievably polite and attentive and quick, without being pushy or nosy or annoying - they make you feel at home. And the food is great, with many interesting and creative healthy options (including an entire heart healthy menu filled with delicioius options cooked without fat), perfectly proportioned at very low costs for such a nice restaurant. I especially love the potato latkes! - with sour cream and apple sauce, YUMMY! Furthermore, you feel good for eating there because you are supporting a good cause. Delancy Street Restaurant started in New York as a rehabilitation program for ex-cons who just messed up and want a second chance. They live in aparments built above the restaurants and work for their keep downstairs. It helps them get back on ther feet and become productive members of society again.
Then we drove around a bit and got to see the lights up around downtown. Surprisingly it was the financial district that was particularly interesting, looking through the big windows of the office buildings and seeing some of the spectacular decorations they had going on in their, whether the hanging of ginormous ornaments, or a huge-ass model of the Golden Gate Brige decked in garland and lights. The windows were also active in Macy's again, and though we did not have time yesterday evening, at some point I want to go back and see the kitties.
Then, we went to see Phantom of the Opera. I think the last time I saw it I must have been eight, and I had forgotten how AWESOME it was. Of course I remembered the raising and falling of the chandelier - that's kind of hard to forget. And I remembered the powerful ending. But the whole thing was full of special effects beginning to end. The sets were familiar, but I do not recall them being quite that impressive. I especially loved the moment after Christine gives her aria, "Think of Me," and is bowing to the audience and all of the sudden it is reversed, and you see her from the back bowing to another audience, between the legs of a different set of curtains, to a different conductor, with a different set of footlights and everything - it looked so real! I had definitely fogotten that. It was a lot funnier than I remembered too - Firmin and Andre were great! They got some good actors, even though Firmin was an understudy. What a relief after putting up with Gerard Butler all these years too to hear such a powerful voice for Phantom. The Phantom was amazing - that high note at the end of "Music of the Night" just boomed so that I nearly cried when I heard it it was so beautiful. I admit I didn't like Christine so much - she hit all the notes, but I think Dad hit it when he said she lacked heart - there was a lack of conviction to lend force to her voice. So she just sounded like a musical theater singer forcing vibrato, trying to sound like an opera singer, only without an opera singer's control. There were moments when she connected, and all of the sudden the vibratto sounded more natural, especially when she was belting out a high note hear and there - though her big high note at the end of the title song was sadly brief - a peck and nothing more. Otherwise, it was quite a spectacle, and the best birthday present ever.
The weirdest thing, though, was having the Phantom, after bows, step forward and, in mask rather than full on scary face makeup, discuss the Broadway Cares' campaign against AIDS, asking for donations and explaining the various gifts to be had for certain levels of donation. It was vary disconcerting to watch the man we had come to know as the character come forward and calmly discuss these things - way to break the mood. The best was the gift for the first donation of two hundred or more. The Phantom wasn't sure what it was when the conductor held up his baton and began waving it around, the response of the Phantom being "are you kidding me?" (he was full of humor and jokes, this one, and quite witty with it too). Yes, the first donation of two hundred or more was rewarded with the baton used to conduct that night's performance. And one would want this because this was such a special, historic performance? Anyway, the whole thing was pretty funny, to me.
By the way, I heard on Facebook about attempts on January Fourth to get people to wear a black shirt, preferably one of those black shirts you can buy at performances, in honor of all the shows closing on Broadway in January, especially on that particular day. I'm doing it! For you Broadway fans out there you may want to also.
Current Book: Climbing the Beanstalk
Quote of the Day: "You had a smooth and easy career of felicity and glory laid open to you, beyond anything recorded in the history of the world; but you have shown that difficulty is good for man." Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
Then we drove around a bit and got to see the lights up around downtown. Surprisingly it was the financial district that was particularly interesting, looking through the big windows of the office buildings and seeing some of the spectacular decorations they had going on in their, whether the hanging of ginormous ornaments, or a huge-ass model of the Golden Gate Brige decked in garland and lights. The windows were also active in Macy's again, and though we did not have time yesterday evening, at some point I want to go back and see the kitties.
Then, we went to see Phantom of the Opera. I think the last time I saw it I must have been eight, and I had forgotten how AWESOME it was. Of course I remembered the raising and falling of the chandelier - that's kind of hard to forget. And I remembered the powerful ending. But the whole thing was full of special effects beginning to end. The sets were familiar, but I do not recall them being quite that impressive. I especially loved the moment after Christine gives her aria, "Think of Me," and is bowing to the audience and all of the sudden it is reversed, and you see her from the back bowing to another audience, between the legs of a different set of curtains, to a different conductor, with a different set of footlights and everything - it looked so real! I had definitely fogotten that. It was a lot funnier than I remembered too - Firmin and Andre were great! They got some good actors, even though Firmin was an understudy. What a relief after putting up with Gerard Butler all these years too to hear such a powerful voice for Phantom. The Phantom was amazing - that high note at the end of "Music of the Night" just boomed so that I nearly cried when I heard it it was so beautiful. I admit I didn't like Christine so much - she hit all the notes, but I think Dad hit it when he said she lacked heart - there was a lack of conviction to lend force to her voice. So she just sounded like a musical theater singer forcing vibrato, trying to sound like an opera singer, only without an opera singer's control. There were moments when she connected, and all of the sudden the vibratto sounded more natural, especially when she was belting out a high note hear and there - though her big high note at the end of the title song was sadly brief - a peck and nothing more. Otherwise, it was quite a spectacle, and the best birthday present ever.
The weirdest thing, though, was having the Phantom, after bows, step forward and, in mask rather than full on scary face makeup, discuss the Broadway Cares' campaign against AIDS, asking for donations and explaining the various gifts to be had for certain levels of donation. It was vary disconcerting to watch the man we had come to know as the character come forward and calmly discuss these things - way to break the mood. The best was the gift for the first donation of two hundred or more. The Phantom wasn't sure what it was when the conductor held up his baton and began waving it around, the response of the Phantom being "are you kidding me?" (he was full of humor and jokes, this one, and quite witty with it too). Yes, the first donation of two hundred or more was rewarded with the baton used to conduct that night's performance. And one would want this because this was such a special, historic performance? Anyway, the whole thing was pretty funny, to me.
By the way, I heard on Facebook about attempts on January Fourth to get people to wear a black shirt, preferably one of those black shirts you can buy at performances, in honor of all the shows closing on Broadway in January, especially on that particular day. I'm doing it! For you Broadway fans out there you may want to also.
Current Book: Climbing the Beanstalk
Quote of the Day: "You had a smooth and easy career of felicity and glory laid open to you, beyond anything recorded in the history of the world; but you have shown that difficulty is good for man." Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France