What the Haps Are
You know how I've been trying to put together posts about various things, some of which happened many months ago? Well, I've decided that I'm not going to bother with them any more. No posts about conventions or the time I lost my purse (which I may not have mentioned at all here) or anything else that you may or may not have heard me talk about sometime in the past year or so. I just don't have the energy, and I've decided that I'd rather keep this blog reasonably current than let it languish as I attempt to pull together my thoughts about something that may be only a vague memory by this point.
There are some things that I really wish I'd posted about earlier because that would have forced me to upload the pictures I took of them, and now those pictures are lost forever (unless I magically find a way to read my old hard drive--I'd love for that to happen, but I'm not holding out hope).
Anyway, let me tell you about some recent stuff in my life.
On Saturday I saw The Book of Mormon. I love this musical. Going into it, I'd already memorized the soundtrack and read the script, so there wasn't anything story-wise that could surprise me about it. The one thing that I didn't have prior knowledge of was the staging, so the staging was the only thing about the show that really had a chance to surprise me.
And it turns out that the staging is really, really good. There were times when it did surprise me. Like, I knew there was a tap number in the middle of "Turn It Off" but I never would have expected the visuals that came out of the tap number. There were dozens of unexpected, beautiful little touches, and there were a few moments that were done in a way I absolutely never would have seen coming.
I already knew that I loved the music and the story was solid, and of course I expected the performances to be phenomenal. But the staging is what I was paying attention to, because with the quality of the rest of the show, it didn't have to be spectacularly staged. But it was.
When the Tony Awards happened in 2011, The Book of Mormon cleaned up, but it didn't take set design or costume design. It was nominated in those categories, but didn't win. At the time, I assumed that the sets and costumes, while perfectly suited to the show, didn't have as many requirements as those for other shows on Broadway at the time. It seemed that they could be reasonably simple for the purposes of this show, so other shows that had more elaborate costume and set requirements took the prize. (I can't remember which shows won.) But having seen The Book of Mormon, I'm shocked that other shows won those awards. That there were shows out there with better costumes and/or sets than The Book of Mormon just blows my mind. Seriously, this show is amazingly put together.
I'd tell you reading this blog to see it, but at this point if you're not already planning on seeing it you probably won't get a chance to. The touring company is sold out well into the future.
After the show, Krystal and I met up very briefly with our friend Pam. Fun fact about Pam: She bears a passing resemblance to Whoopi Goldberg. Not to the extent that anyone I know who also knows her has ever noticed the resemblance (as far as I know) but enough so that, if she's walking in Hollywood and passing by throngs of tourists who are desperately searching for famous people in the crowd, many of those tourists assume that Pam is Whoopi Goldberg. I kind of didn't believe it until I saw it happen. As we walked along Hollywood Boulevard, people were staring after Pam, and some tried to engage her in conversation, and it was totally surreal. Especially since she really doesn't look all that much like Whoopi Goldberg. I mean, a little bit, but if you lined the two of them up I'm pretty sure even I would be able to tell them apart, and as far as I'm concerned Johnny Depp and Jude Law are pretty much interchangeable.
Saturday night there was a birthday party, which was a lot of fun. Some of the people there had been to see The Book of Mormon the previous night and I got to talk about it with them.
On Sunday, this year's "Treehouse of Horror" was shown. It was pretty early but still better than having to wait until after Hallowe'en to see it. I liked it. I think a few years ago the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes were in a decline, but now they're getting back to being funny and somewhat spooky and not just being broad parodies of whatever's hot in popular culture at the moment.
Yesterday was Amara's birthday. She's been celebrating by being at Disneyland. My schedule is such that it wouldn't have really made sense for me to actually buy admission, since I wouldn't be able to spend a full day there, but I did meet her for lunch yesterday. After we ate, we saw Frankenweenie. I liked it a lot, though I don't think it's as good as The Nightmare Before Christmas or Corpse Bride. It's fun, it's a pretty simple story, but there are a lot of cool things about it. I recommend it. There are some parts of it that might be scary for little kids, but probably only the kids who are really sensitive to that kind of thing. For example, it will probably be a while before Finn watches it. (According to TVTropes, Tim Burton tried to get the rating down to PG from PG-13, and the MPAA told him there was nothing he could to to get them to change the rating. In this case, I agree with the MPAA: Parents should not feel free to take any and all children to this film. It might really get to some kids. But I also feel certain that most kids can handle it just fine.)
After I got back to campus, I had a really hard time finding a parking spot. I don't know what was going on. I've parked on crowded days before but never encountered anything like yesterday. There wasn't a single spot in the residents lot where I usually park. That's the first time I've ever been unable to park there. After close to an hour, I found a spot... Which turned out to be in a Faculty/Staff only area. I didn't realize it was Faculty/Staff parking until I was walking back to my car and I saw the sign. I was parked there for about three hours before the crowd began to ebb away and I moved my car back into my habitual parking area. During that time, I got a ticket. D'oh!
Okay, that pretty much brings this blog up to date with me. I'll try to post more frequently. Let's see if I succeed.
There are some things that I really wish I'd posted about earlier because that would have forced me to upload the pictures I took of them, and now those pictures are lost forever (unless I magically find a way to read my old hard drive--I'd love for that to happen, but I'm not holding out hope).
Anyway, let me tell you about some recent stuff in my life.
On Saturday I saw The Book of Mormon. I love this musical. Going into it, I'd already memorized the soundtrack and read the script, so there wasn't anything story-wise that could surprise me about it. The one thing that I didn't have prior knowledge of was the staging, so the staging was the only thing about the show that really had a chance to surprise me.
And it turns out that the staging is really, really good. There were times when it did surprise me. Like, I knew there was a tap number in the middle of "Turn It Off" but I never would have expected the visuals that came out of the tap number. There were dozens of unexpected, beautiful little touches, and there were a few moments that were done in a way I absolutely never would have seen coming.
I already knew that I loved the music and the story was solid, and of course I expected the performances to be phenomenal. But the staging is what I was paying attention to, because with the quality of the rest of the show, it didn't have to be spectacularly staged. But it was.
When the Tony Awards happened in 2011, The Book of Mormon cleaned up, but it didn't take set design or costume design. It was nominated in those categories, but didn't win. At the time, I assumed that the sets and costumes, while perfectly suited to the show, didn't have as many requirements as those for other shows on Broadway at the time. It seemed that they could be reasonably simple for the purposes of this show, so other shows that had more elaborate costume and set requirements took the prize. (I can't remember which shows won.) But having seen The Book of Mormon, I'm shocked that other shows won those awards. That there were shows out there with better costumes and/or sets than The Book of Mormon just blows my mind. Seriously, this show is amazingly put together.
I'd tell you reading this blog to see it, but at this point if you're not already planning on seeing it you probably won't get a chance to. The touring company is sold out well into the future.
After the show, Krystal and I met up very briefly with our friend Pam. Fun fact about Pam: She bears a passing resemblance to Whoopi Goldberg. Not to the extent that anyone I know who also knows her has ever noticed the resemblance (as far as I know) but enough so that, if she's walking in Hollywood and passing by throngs of tourists who are desperately searching for famous people in the crowd, many of those tourists assume that Pam is Whoopi Goldberg. I kind of didn't believe it until I saw it happen. As we walked along Hollywood Boulevard, people were staring after Pam, and some tried to engage her in conversation, and it was totally surreal. Especially since she really doesn't look all that much like Whoopi Goldberg. I mean, a little bit, but if you lined the two of them up I'm pretty sure even I would be able to tell them apart, and as far as I'm concerned Johnny Depp and Jude Law are pretty much interchangeable.
Saturday night there was a birthday party, which was a lot of fun. Some of the people there had been to see The Book of Mormon the previous night and I got to talk about it with them.
On Sunday, this year's "Treehouse of Horror" was shown. It was pretty early but still better than having to wait until after Hallowe'en to see it. I liked it. I think a few years ago the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes were in a decline, but now they're getting back to being funny and somewhat spooky and not just being broad parodies of whatever's hot in popular culture at the moment.
Yesterday was Amara's birthday. She's been celebrating by being at Disneyland. My schedule is such that it wouldn't have really made sense for me to actually buy admission, since I wouldn't be able to spend a full day there, but I did meet her for lunch yesterday. After we ate, we saw Frankenweenie. I liked it a lot, though I don't think it's as good as The Nightmare Before Christmas or Corpse Bride. It's fun, it's a pretty simple story, but there are a lot of cool things about it. I recommend it. There are some parts of it that might be scary for little kids, but probably only the kids who are really sensitive to that kind of thing. For example, it will probably be a while before Finn watches it. (According to TVTropes, Tim Burton tried to get the rating down to PG from PG-13, and the MPAA told him there was nothing he could to to get them to change the rating. In this case, I agree with the MPAA: Parents should not feel free to take any and all children to this film. It might really get to some kids. But I also feel certain that most kids can handle it just fine.)
After I got back to campus, I had a really hard time finding a parking spot. I don't know what was going on. I've parked on crowded days before but never encountered anything like yesterday. There wasn't a single spot in the residents lot where I usually park. That's the first time I've ever been unable to park there. After close to an hour, I found a spot... Which turned out to be in a Faculty/Staff only area. I didn't realize it was Faculty/Staff parking until I was walking back to my car and I saw the sign. I was parked there for about three hours before the crowd began to ebb away and I moved my car back into my habitual parking area. During that time, I got a ticket. D'oh!
Okay, that pretty much brings this blog up to date with me. I'll try to post more frequently. Let's see if I succeed.