New York, I Love You

You know, I really do need to move to New York. I go there enough, I love it, and there is always something to do. People have always said "why don't you just move there", and I've always given the "oh, I don't know...it's so expensive" when I really think that the reason I haven't moved there is that I don't want to "ruin" what New York, in my mind, is. I think that it's kinda like how I felt about Southwest when I was at UMass...a nice place to visit, but I'd think long and hard about living there. Plus, it's ridiculously expensive. Anyways, as you may have surmised, I did spend the weekend in said city. Checked out an exhibit at AMNH on Friday afternoon and then saw the revival of Ragtime that night.

The original production opened in 1998 and ran for about two years. It was a massive physical production, that cost somewhere around $750,000 (yes, 3/4 of a million) to run each week. It was nominated for 12 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Another show opened that year, The Lion King, maybe you've heard of it. Anyways, there was always debate about which was better (Ragtime won book, score and orchestrations (the musical award) and Lion King won all the technical awards) and that Ragtime was robbed of Best Musical, blahblahblah. I didn't see the original production, but read the book in high school and listened to the cd quite a bit. This production played the Kennedy Center last spring and significantly paired down the production design. A unit 3 level Gothic-looking set replaced the opulent (and no doubt expensive) original set pieces, and the focus was shifted to the music and characters. Overall, it worked really well for me, but I kept having this nagging in the back of my mind "wow, that must have looked incredible in the original production". The cast was uniformly excellent, but (and this is a major but) the two weakest characters were two of the most important ones, Coalhouse Walker and Sarah. While the both had decent voices, their overall performance was just kinda meh, and they're pretty essential to the story. The major highlights? the opening number, "New Music", the guy who played Mother's Younger Brother, and "Back to Before". I would definitely recommend this, the music is excellent, as are most of the performances. Try and get tickets on discount though, and sit in the first few rows of the center mezzanine. sidenote: I HATE the logo for the show. Gross.

Saturday afternoon we saw Hamlet with Jude Law, and it was exhilarating. I feel like it's the one Shakespeare play that everyone reads in high school, has the most quoted lines ("something is rotten in the state of Denmark", "Get thee to a nunnery"), and everyone is familiar with. The Lion King is even loosely based on it! I'll be honest though, after the first 15 minutes, I didn't think that I was going to like it. Shakespeare can be difficult to follow, and it takes some time to get into his rhythm. However, once I became accustom to it, the production was thrilling. Law was nothing short of sensational, and when ever he wasn't on stage, you wanted him to come back. Two things (besides Law's performance) stuck out to me; the incredible design elements (phenomenal lighting, the massive unit set, and the interesting costume choices) and two actors who played Rosencranz and Guildenstern, Hamlet's bffs. Another thing I enjoyed? Tickets were $25. This particular production came over from the Donmar Warehouse in London, and they're big on accessibility. For every performance of the 12 week run, every seat in the last 3 rows of the mezzanine is $25. I got our tickets the day they went on sale in July, and a week or so later, every $25 seat was sold out. And they were actually pretty good seats, right in the center, and had a really good view of the stage. Two things I didn't care for, Ophelia (she was beyond awful) and the guy who played the ghost of Hamlet's father and doubled as another character later on. He made no difference between the two. I hope that this is remembered come Tony award time, I could easily see this scoring Best Revival of Play, Best Actor and design nominations. Hamlet was some of the quickest 3.5 hours of my life.

I was able to score seats on TDF (Theater Development Fund) for $33 to on Saturday night. TDF is a non-profit that you pay a yearly membership fee ($30) to, and you're able to buy EXTREMELY discounted tickets to shows. The catch? You pay $33-$37 per ticket, but you don't know where they are. They could be great, or they could be awful. Our tickets to Finian's Rainbow turned out to be excellent. They were in the 3rd or 4th row of the mezzanine, right on the aisle. Unfortunately, that was pretty much the only good thing about the show. I can't really give you a rundown of what it was about, because there were about 6 different storylines, only 2 of which actually got resolved. The book was beyond hokey, but the score was pretty good, so that made up for it. The cast also did the best that they could with the weak material that they were given, so that's also a plus. We were definitely the youngest in our section, and it was probably only half-full. I can't really see this show surviving much beyond the New Year, is there really an audience for it? I don't really think so, and especially not at $120 a pop for tickets. The geriatric crew that was around us seemed to love it, so maybe they knew something about it we didn't...

Also caught two movies this past week, Precious and The Men Who Stare at Goats. I had heard a lot about both, and was anxious to see them both, Precious more so than Goats as it's being touted as a major awards contender and has tremendous buzz.

Precious, based on the novel Push by the poet Sapphire, is is a vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome. Set in 1987 Harlem, Claireece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) is a 16-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. She's pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother (Mo'Nique), a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write. Precious may sometimes be down, but she is never out. Beneath her impassive expression is a watchful, curious young woman with an inchoate but unshakeable sense that other possibilities exist for her. Threatened with expulsion, Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, Each One/Teach One. In the literacy workshop taught by the patient yet firm Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), Precious begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination. Yeah, tough stuff. There were more than a few times during the film that I felt like I had been punched in the gut, but, as difficult as it was to sit through at times, it was an extremely powerful and satisfying film. Sibide is sensational as Precious - you cannot take your eyes off her whenever she's on screen. And that's really difficult to do, considering the absolutely jaw dropping performance Mo'Nique turns in as her horrible mother. The buzz around her performance was insane, and I'll admit I wasn't 100% ready to believe it. Believe it. She really is that good. She comes in from the streets and brings the grit and grime with her. Her scenes with Sibide are incredible and heartbreaking, both of them deserve acting nominations. The supporting players are excellent too, notably a severely de-glammed Mariah Carey as a social worker - who'd of thought that the girl had it in her after the beating she took for her performance in Glitter. I will be anxious to see how this film plays outside of major cities, even though it ultimately is an uplifting story, it's a long, graphic road to get there. Even more heartbreaking? Knowing that this really isn't that much of a work of fiction...
GRADE: A

The Men Who Stare at Goats on the on the other hand, completely different type of, um, animal. ha. A somewhat hard-to-believe-this-is-really-based-on-actual-events story, Reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is in search of his next big story when he encounters Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a shadowy figure who claims to be part of an experimental U.S. military unit. According to Cassady, the New Earth Army is changing the way wars are fought. A legion of "Warrior Monks" with unparalleled psychic powers can read the enemy's thoughts, pass through solid walls, and even kill a goat simply by staring at it. Now, the program's founder, Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), has gone missing and Cassady's mission is to find him. Intrigued by his new acquaintance's far-fetched stories, Bob impulsively decides to accompany him on the search. When the pair tracks Django to a clandestine training camp run by renegade psychic Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey), the reporter is trapped in the middle of a grudge match between the forces of Django's New Earth Army and Hooper's personal militia of super soldiers. Confusing and convoluted? Yes. Entertaining? You bet. I was a little surprised at how terrible some of the reviews were (Entertainment Weekly gave it an F), I think it was meant nothing more than to be a fun, nice piece of fluff film. Clooney and McGregor were excellent, they had a really great on-screen chemistry, and I thought most of the dialog was pretty sharp. It came and left from theaters pretty quickly, but definitely worth a spot in your NextFlix queue.
Grade: B

The other recent exciting news, which I posted briefly about last week, is that I'm going to Las Vegas for New Years! It was a little weird the way it happened, I had already made plans to go to Philly/NYC to visit one Rachel Weiner, and before I knew it, I was on the phone with Southwest changing my flight from Philly to Manchester to Philly to Vegas. I'm really excited to go, and it should be a really good time. Making a list of things that I want to do; debating about taking one of those bus day trips to the Grand Canyon (readers who have been, care to comment?), a Cirque du Soleil show, maybe see the Vegas production of Phantom (yes, it's no longer The Phantom of the Opera, it's been shortened for Vegas in both time (95 minutes) and title) and see some topless show because, I mean, what trip to Sin City would be complete without boobies? Also might stay a night in a hotel, either Bellagio or Palazzo. I got a guidebook (I know, I'm a loser) from lonely planet that I started reading last night, and I'm super excited.

Finally, after seeing Precious, the two movies left in 2009 I'm really looking forward to released some really cool stuff this week. First, the French theatrical poster for Avatar (yeah, I know, it's in French, but I'll bet the US poster will look identical)


and, the new trailer for Nine. I'm pretty sure that I might explode when I see this...

Waking up in Vegas...

That's right! I'M GOING TO LAS VEGAS FOR NEW YEARS! HUZZAH!

Longer update tomorrow with more details...

'tis the season....

It's late October, and Oscar season is ramping up. How can I tell? My viewing schedule (don't judge) is finally starting to fall into place, release dates are being solidified, trailers are being released, and I'm going to be spending the last few weeks of the year at Kendall Square and Lowes Boston Common - hooray! Two huge trailers hit the internet the past two days, Invictus and Avatar.

The Avatar teaser came out a month ago and I'll admit, I was less than impressed. It's James Cameron's follow up to Titanic (seriously that came out 12 years ago, James Cameron where have you been?!). Plot rundown - on an alien planet, an ex-marine falls in love with a blue-skinned warrior and sides with her people against mankinds encroachment on their planet. I know, sounds like something that I totally wouldn't be interested in (I thought that about Star Trek...look how that turned out, I've already pre-ordered the 2 disc set), but after seeing the full trailer, I'm very much intrigued, almost giddy:

Yeah, the dialogue sounds ridiculous (a screenplay nomination wasn't among Titanic's 14 nominations), but it "looks" incredible, and could be a really fun action adventure. I think I want to see this one in IMAX. Release Date: December 18

Invictus is the latest directorial effort from Clint Eastwood. Set in South Africa in the mid 90's, President Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman, natch) knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s underdog rugby team (headed by Matt Damon) as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match:

IMO, Clint is either really great (Unforgiven is a masterpiece, and Million Dollar Baby is quite good too) or really terrible (I wanted to scratch my eyes out Gran Torino was so predictable) and I think this one might be somewhere in between. Morgan Freeman looks and sounds great (let's face it, this is the role the man was born to play) but I don't know if I can handle Matt Damon and that accent. This doesn't really excite me as much as some of the other films being released around then, so it's not very high on the priority list, I doubt I'll rush to see it. Oscar season is a Marathon, not a sprint, so I need to pace myself. Release Date: December 11

The handful of other films that I am looking forward to, and you should be too, however:

November 6
Men Who Stare at Goats
Precious

November 13
The Messenger

November 20
Broken Embraces

November 25
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Road

December 11
The Lovely Bones
A Single Man

December 18
Avatar

December 25
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
Up in the Air

On the TV front, this could quite possibly be the best season of Mad Men yet (see last weeks episode for proof), I'm anxious to see how this season wraps up. I've also been watching Modern Family on ABC which has taken me by complete surprise. I usually don't like network sit-coms (save for 30 Rock, which is off to a rough start this year) but I really like the quasi-docu style of it. The cast is outstanding (Ty Burrell especially, he gives a fantastic, Emmy worthy performance as Phil Dunphy), and the dialogue is razor sharp. My liking a new series on ABC or NBC seems to be its death knell though (see: Eli Stone, Dirty Sexy Money, and Southland), but I think that Modern Family will be an exception, it was well received by critics and has pretty good word of mouth/viewership. Best episode yet? "Come Fly with Me", the scene where Mitchell "discovers" Costco is hilarious - watch it on abc.com

The Phillies took game 1 last night and made a statement with their 6-1 win, and Cliff Lee also made a statement, pitching a complete game and allowing only 1 unearned run. Game 2 is tonight in NY, and then the action shifts to Philly for the weekend. Jay-Z is giving a pregame performance tonight, and the cast of Glee is singing the Star-Spangled Banner Saturday night in PA. GO PHILLIES! BEAT NY! (shout out to Rachel Weiner - feel better! The Phillies knew you were sick, they won for you!)

Addendum

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post -

After our HP viewing, we went to the Similans for dinner. As we were sitting there talking, whatever, Anthony happened to notice the guy sitting alone at the table next to us had the jacket of the company that he worked for, so we invited him to sit with us. He was pretty cool, from North Carolina, worked for the company for a long time, and was in Boston on business. I learned all about Pegasus stock options (the company he and Anthony worked for), and he told us that he has a photo book at home with all of the drinks that he makes, so that when he has parties, he pulls out the book, people pick out which picture they like, and then he makes the drink...never even thought to do that, so smart!

Food, Glorious Food

I decided to experiment on Tuesday night for dinner. I had pasta the night before and didn't want to make it again. I asked my favorite culinary queen, Meggin Elizabeth, if she had any suggestions to make. My condition was it needed to be easy. Without hesitation she proclaimed taco salad. I stopped at Shaws on the way home to get the necessary ingredients and lo and behold, this is what came out:

I'm pretty pleased with myself, and the presentation also gets an A+. Apologies for the poor quality, I took it with the blackberry. Other good news? It tasted pretty damn good too! Next time you come to the College Ave Mansion, maybe I'll make it.

Last night was the MOS staff preview for Harry Potter: The Exhibition. Miss Alison Hay, Quack and Anthony joined me for the sneak peek. I'd probably classify myself as a casual HP fan, I've read the books, seen most of the movies, but that's pretty much it. The exhibit focused solely on the films, and is a collection of costumes, props, and sets (yes, I know, no science whatsoever). It's a visually stunning exhibit, and the design and layout are excellent, and it was cool to see some of the props and costumes up close. The most fascinating thing? Seeing how Ron, Harry and Hermione grew up during the course of shooting the 5 films. There are some costumes that look like they're from the kids section at Old Navy, and then Harry's quiddich uniform which looked like it could fit me. If you're a huge Harry Potter fan, this is a must-see exhibit. It opens on Sunday and runs through February.

Today I went to the Garment District in Cambridge with a co-worker, he was looking for something "unusual" to wear to the event tomorrow night. I'd never been there before, seen it advertised on tv, and it was essentially the Salvation Army for hipsters. I did, however, score a new winter coat for $20.

Tomorrow is the first annual Museum signature event, entitled The Science Behind..., even though we really wanted to call it we have the East Coast premiere of Harry Potter so come pay $500 to party and see the exhibit. Everyone has been really busy, so we'll be glad once it's over and we can relax a little.

Last band competition this weekend (hooray!) and then a little over a month until Disney (double hooray!).

A Week at the Movies

I saw three films last week, and they were meh, huh and excellent, in that order.

First up, Bright Star, Jane Campion's new film that chronicles the three year romance of 19th century British poet John Keats, and his muse, Fanny Brawne. It was a return to form for Campion (Oscar-winner for her screenplay of The Piano in 1994) after her last main stream film, In the Cut, was, despite Meg Ryan showing her boobies, cut up by the critics. There were a lot of lingering shots that were beautifully composed (the cinematography and set design were incredible) - there was a particularly lovely shot of Fanny's younger brother and sister in a field catching butterflies...if only the world was really that quaint. Well, maybe it was in Britain in the 1820's, but I digress. The real reason to see this film, however, is because it announces the arrival of Abbie Cornish (yes, that Abbie Cornish, the tart who allegedly broke up the seemingly perfect marriage of Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe) as a serious, and damn good actress. Her Fanny Brawne is excellent, a layered performance. She has that perfect balance of vulnerability and smarts, her love and affection for Keats is genuine and heart wrenching. Too bad their chemistry is almost non-existent. Ben Whishaw plays the doomed poet, but he doesn't have nearly the same spark that Cornish does...he just kind of mopes around and doesn't do much else. The supporting cast is also great, with a fantastic turn from Paul Schneider as Mr. Brown, Keat's best friend. I wouldn't rush to see this in theaters, but it's definitely worthy of a spot in the netflix queue. I also wouldn't discount Cornish for some notices come awards time. Grade: B

Wednesday brought the Cohen Bros new film, A Serious Man. Set in 1960's Minnesota, the film follows thirtysomething physics professor Larry Gopnick as his life seems to crumble around him. His wife leaves him for another man, his son is about to celebrate his bar-mitzvah, his daughter is a kleptomaniac and raging bitch, and his brother has taken up residence on his couch. To complicate matters, his attractive neighbor enjoys sunbathing topless. As his life spirals out of control, Larry seeks the advice of three Rabbi's, all of whom give him, of course, different takes on his situation. I was not into this movie at all, and it seemed a little "too Jewish" for me...there were points in film where audiences were laughing, but I wasn't quite sure why - was it something I didn't get? I felt like I wasn't really in on the whole thing. The saving grace, however, was Michael Stuhlbarg's tour-de-force as Larry. I saw him a couple of years ago on Broadway in The Pillowman, and he was excellent, I'm glad that he's finding success on screen. His slow breakdown is mesmerizing, and he most certainly deserves a Best Actor nomination for his work in this. I've decided that the Cohen's are hit or miss with me (hits: The Big Lebowski, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, misses: Burn After Reading, Intolerable Cruelty, The Man Who Wasn't There), and the critics are raving about this, but honestly, I don't get it. Was it entertaining? Yeah, I guess...was it one of the best of the year? I don't think so. GRADE: C

One of my most anticipated movies of the year is An Education. I've been reading about it for months, the buzz around it was deafening, and I jumped at the chance to see it the day that it came out in the Boston area. Set in 1960's London, An Education is the story of 16 year old Jenny (played by the magnificent Carey Mulligan) who is at a crossroads in her life. All of the authority figures in her life want her to continue with her studies at Oxford. She meets and gets swept away by the mysterious David, and older man who loves art, culture, music and has fabulous friends, and takes her to Paris for her birthday. Thing of course are not what they seem, and the title has multiple meanings. The performances in this film are nothing short of incredible, most notably the already mentioned Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard as David, who finally gets a chance to shine and show was a truly great actor he is. Director Lone Scherfig has handled her cast with great care and expert direction (sidenote: what a year for female directors! at least two of five nominees have the potential to be women!) and has crafted one of the best films of the year. Mulligan and Sarsgaard have incredible chemistry, watching the two of them together is great, and their side trip to Paris is wonderful. The supporting cast is also quite good, with stand out turns from Alfred Molina as Carey's uptight father and Emma Thomas as the headmistress of Jenny's school. My only problem with the film (and keeping it from being perfect) is the pacing. We are voyeurs on all of Jenny and David's adventures and witness their blossoming romance, but the film takes a sudden and abrupt turn, and ends, almost as if someone was watching a clock and said "oh, it's been an hour and half, we need to wrap it up". The ending comes a little too quickly, but it doesn't make it that less satisfying. Everything about this worked, the performances, the writing, the fantastic period designs, the soundtrack. I think that I need to see it again to appreciate it even more. GRADE: A

The Harry Potter preview is tomorrow at the Museum, and then the last big weekend for band stuff (hooray) with the last USSBA and MICCA shows. Might go to the NME retreat with the bros on Saturday night since I'll already be in Connecticut.

I'm currently rooting for the Phillies to go and win it all and be the first back-to-back World Series winners of the new century (isn't it weird to think about it that way?). Wish the Sox could have gone further, but it wasn't their time. There's rumblings that Theo is going to move some major folks (Lowell, Varitek, etc), which could prove to be interesting. I've already got Opening Day 2010 circled on my calendar vs. the Yankees. I'm hoping they're not the "world champion" Yankees, but the way they've been playing lately, the just might be....

Where are We Running?!

Through the Emerald Necklace, that's where! That's right, dear readers, today was the 9th Annual B.A.A. Half Marathon, my second half marathon this year - I told you, they're addicting. I know, putting your body through an insane amount of pain, but the few seconds of glory crossing the finish line knowing that you just ran 13.1 miles is pretty awesome (not quite as awesome as running a full marathon, but awesome none the less).

Loyal readers will know I was fairly nervous about this one - I hadn't been training as hard as my first, and I was dealing with a bout of shin splints this past week. Good news to report, the race went very well!

Kim, Nick and I were at the course bright and early (7am), started in the Back Bay Fens and ran along the Riverway, Jamaicaway and Arborway. It was an out and back course and the turn around was in the Franklin Park zoo - so that was pretty cool. I cruised for the first 10 miles (there was this one hill that I'm pretty sure was a mile long, gross, and I had to stop in Franklin Park for a pee break, so I can probs take off a minute or 2) and then started to get tired. I got to mile 11 and hit a wall, so I walked a fairly good amount between mile 11 and 12, and then picked it back up at mile 12 and finished strong. The last mile was kind of a tease, because we ran the perimeter of the Fens, and even though I could see the end of the race, it was still a mile away. Awful. Here's a map of the course (disregard "October 2008", haha)

It was a really good run, and an absolutely beautiful course. So on to what you're all wondering, my unofficial time is 2:22, official times will be posted later on today. (Breaking news: Official time: 2:21.06 - 2 minutes slower than my first race, but with the lackadaisical training and my shin splints, I'll take that)

Thanks to everyone that came out - Katie, Druface, Rusty, Andy and Molly - it was great to see you along the way and give me the support.

Speaking of which - the race is over, but you can still donate! I'm almost at my goal, and thanks to all of you that have helped out so far!

So the Sox had the game with 2 outs in the 9th, and Papelbon blows the save, Angels score 3 runs in the 9th with 2 out. Good for the Angels, they simply played better. I hope the beat the Yankees in the ALCS...