Friday, September 29, 2006

Apparently, This is me.

My Personality
Neuroticism
83
Extraversion
66
Openness To Experience
42
Agreeableness
5
Conscientiousness
70
You are neither a subdued loner nor a jovial chatterbox. You enjoy time with others but also time alone. You can be very easily upset, even by what most people consider the normal demands of living. People consider you to be extremely sensitive and emotional. A desire for tradition does not prevent you from trying new things. Your thinking is neither simple nor complex. To others you appear to be a well-educated person but not an intellectual. People see you as tough, critical, and uncompromising and you have less concern with others' needs than with your own. You set clear goals and pursue them with determination. People regard you as reliable and hard-working.
Test Yourself

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Life of Pi


Everyone, I must share this book with all of you. I LOVED this book. It was so very good. The protagonist Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi) is a 15 year old boy, who in an attempt "to just love God," finds himself practicing 3 religions. He's a Muslim, Catholic & Hindu. Through his stream of consciousness we find him finding God in everything and applying it to his life. Particularly his life growing up in a zoo as his father is the Head Zookeeper in one of India's largest zoos. As the story progresses we find Pi and his family moving to Canada with some of the animals from the zoo on a cargo ship. The ship sinks killing Pi's entire family, the ship's crew & most of the animals. Through a strange series of events Pi finds himself on a lifeboat along with a tiger, hyena, orangutan & an injured zebra. The book takes on it's own life once the cargo ship sinks and what a great story. Pi uses his intellect and common sense to stay alive fighting both the elements upon the Pacific Ocean as well as the wild animals that ended up on the lifeboat with him. I can't urge all of you enough to pick up this book. It's an easy, quick read. The type of book you gobble up. Once again, run, don't walk and read this. I'm still thinking about it. What a good story.

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Monday, September 25, 2006

The Illusionist


Scott, Mr. Adam & I went to see this film this weekend. It was good. Scott & Mr. Adam seemed to have taken to the movie a little more than I did. I always wonder during these period pieces how clean these characters are? I mean, I worry that they may have 'unclean' bodies and/or clothing. It just concerns me to the point where I imagine them having to wash before anything. Especially and including sex. Dirty - wash that! Anyway, the movie was good, not spectacular, but good. The costumes were fun and the actors were great. All in all we've all seen the TV show where the magician uses his illusion to fake something so he can get away from the bad guy. Same thing, only an evil Prince is involved. It's that simple. No biggie - wait for DVD.

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Thursday, September 21, 2006

What Muppet Am I?




What Muppet are you?




You are Miss Piggy.
You are talented and the center of attention.
At least you'd like to think you are.
You're really just a pig.
FAVORITE EXPRESSIONS:"Moi", "Moi" and "Moi!"
LAST BOOK READ:"Women Who Run With Frogs And The Frogs Who Better Wise Up Quick"
FAVORITE MOVIE:"To Have and Have More"
DRESS SIZE:If it's expensive, it fits.
BEST FEATURES:Eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes, nose, cheeks, hair, ears, neck, shoulders, arms, elbows, hands, fingers, legs, knees, ankles, feet, toes and so on and so forth.
SPECIAL ABILITIES:Singing, Dancing, Directing, Producing, Writing, Starring, and Being Famous.

Take this
quiz!






Jay Johnson: THE TWO and ONLY!

I was lucky enough to escort my friend Michael to see this show now playing on Broadway - Jay Johnson: THE TWO and ONLY! It was very funny. Good clean family humor. Now you may all remember Jay Johnson from his days on Soap. He played Chuck & Bob, the ventriloquist & his dummy. Yes him! Well, he's in the Helen Hayes Theatre now and the show is really, really cute.
First, I must tell you that Michael & I sat in the second row of this 600 seat theater. I warn everyone not to sit this close because you're just a little too close for the illusion. That being said, the show was both a historical and autobiographical account of Jay's life in ventriloquism. I found the historical facts fascinating. Who would think that fanatical, religions killed people for ventriloquism. Everyone knows they should have killed the mimes. But Jay's personal accounts of people and his experiences pull the piece together and lift it up from a novel nod back into Vaudevillian days. Of course, while telling you his story, he tells you how he came to acquire his performance ("Squeaky" & "Bob") puppets. By the time the story is going I couldn't wait for him to pull them out and show them. My personal favorite character that he performed was a vulture called "Nethernore." Really fun.
So if you're looking for something different that the whole family can enjoy you should check this out. I know I wouldn't have, but I'm glad I did.

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Tuesday, September 19, 2006

MONSTERS the musical

I went back to Boston, MA to see the world premiere of my friends' (G. Phaneuf book & E. Lijoi music) musical MONSTERS being performed. Now I've seen the show grow through two staged readings, several score changes up to and including this current incarnation of their story of a woman, who on her 40th birthday is confronted by her demons, er, monsters. Get it? Now I am going to try to be both fair and just in my review, but forgive me for any bias, as many of my friends from undergraduate school had lent their hands in many, many aspects this production.
First of all, although the story goes down the dangerous path of self exploration during a mid-life crisis it handles the topic with fast paced wit and charm. We meet our heroine "Samantha" & her mother on the morning of this monumental birthday. As the show moves forward, we meet Samantha's "monsters", "Apathy, Body & Fear." They're personified as characters. The show winds up with Samantha confronting her monsters and deciding that she can be the person she wants to be; or better yet - she IS the person she wants to be....inside. Now that is a gloss over of the storyline, but I don't want to go too far into it as I would spoil such a fun show for everyone who still wants to see it.
As for the production value of the show. I'm so proud of Gail & Ernie for pulling this together. The set was a great, multilevel thrust (3-sides) of a living room-kitchenette combo. Well done & thought out. The costumes were good, except for one character... "Fear" - Fear's costume stuck out like a sore thumb. It didn't work and pulled the eye. The direction of the show was decent. I found the blocking a little in-organic and little bit too much of "stand here because the director told me to stand here" happening on stage. At several points in the play I swear every character was standing around center stage just waiting to deliver their line(s). Now here is where I'm torn, shall I review the performances or shouldn't I? For the sake of brevity and keeping my friends I'll chose not to say anything bad. Lisa who played Samantha did so with the most flair and the best singing I've ever heard her do for this piece. I enjoyed her performance but I feel as though her "I can climb mountains" number was rushed and she didn't connect with the audience. However, she sang the song lovely. I wouldn't even have mentioned this except that this song is the turning point of the show. It's where Samantha goes from being haunted by these monsters to confronting them. Apathy, portrayed by Patti was the most energetic lazy person I've ever seen. She was full of life & laughs. A seasoned pro whose performance wheels are greased and ready. God I want to do a show again! Another highlight was the Mother, although I have to say I didn't know her, I sure would like to. She was the best I've seen play this Mother role in any of the incarnations so far. Super job. As for the other characters, Body - was fine as the decidedly sarcastic, uber-queen. Normally I love the high-camp characters in shows, but I felt that this one was playing gay, not being gay. There is a difference. Fear, well, first off I must say that her performance was the best of all the 'Fears' yet. The past two Fears that I've seen have come up short. This Fear was much better. However, this character, although important to the storyline, isn't quite fleshed out. Either the actress or the director needed to make some serious decisions and stick to them. Both Fear & Body had no obstacles to play against which means their stakes for acting were too low.
Overall, I think this show was great. I really enjoyed the 90 minute show (no intermission) and it was certainly a break from CATS. Gail & Ernie have put a lot into this piece. I highly recommend this. See it while you can. The show is playing at the Boston Center for the Arts Thursday through Sunday for the rest of the month of September. Go to the web site for tickets!

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Exile in GUYVILLE

I picked up this book thinking it would an interesting read. It was. I enjoyed the author's (Dave White) sarcasm and wit. This book is about the first year he spent in Hollywood, California after living in Texas his whole life. This book started as e-mails Dave sent to close friends who in turn sent these "amusing" e-mails to others and so on and so forth until he had a blog. That blog became so popular that he started to write an article in Instict magazine called "Exile in Guyville." And this is it. The book does read like it's made up of magazine articles. But there is a cohesiveness that pulls it together. The short chapters make this book brilliant to be reading on the subway and on short jaunts. It's a quick, easy read. I liked it. I'll have to check out this blog now. hmmmm.

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Monday, September 11, 2006

A Million Little Pieces


I loved this book. I really enjoyed it. I know, I know - you're all thinking "Ryan Charisma, didn't Oprah come out against James Frey for lying in this memoir?" Yes, my petit puddles of love, she did. But it's almost irrelevant if you've read the book. I mean really, do you care if his "girlfriend" killed herself via hanging herself or by slitting her wrist? Does it matter that he spent 5 months in jail or 5 weeks? The story truly is about James' battle to gain control over his addiction, body and health. At times I found the book excellent, I really enjoyed the story and his narrative voice. Other times, the junkie parts, I just wanted to smack some sense into his "oh woe is me" attitude. Poor junkie, poor poor junkie. It's true, I'm not exactly the most sympathetic to the addicts plight, but then again, I'm not sympathetic to anyone's plight. But enough about my lack of empathy for my fellow human beings. I really, really did enjoy this book. So even though this memoir may have some fictional details in it - it very much worth the read. It really makes you wonder who we deal with day after day and if they're normal, whatever that is.

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Thursday, September 07, 2006

John Travolta - GAY?


I know you're thinking. Let me in on that! Is Mr. Travolta gay or is he Europeanish? Well, let's just let this picture speak for itself? Now, what would his wife and his fanatical religon think of this?

Celeb-Retard - Paris Hilton

Is it me or does someone need to smack up this bitch? Drunk driving now? Oh good lord, nevermind smacking her up, her parents failed. And badly. Both her parents obviously have no right raising anything but hotels. I long for the days when celebrity came with talent. Now look anyone can be a celebrity as long as they have a fat checkbook. If you see this woman on the streets do not try to speak to her. She's a drug addicted, alcoholic with bad taste in men, clothes, music, hair and friends. Just throw things at her and her overpriced clothing.

The US Open Sucks Balls!

I have had it being tortured by the US Open. I have been held hostage to it on television & in public. I can't do it anymore. I try, God knows I do, but I can't....I simply can't. It's boring and really, I don't know these people. These people don't know the meaning of getting up early, hanging your soul up and going to work behind a desk. Why should I care if they're winning thousands and thousands of dollars hitting a stupid ball with a stick? I don't. Not to mention how dull and absent of any entertainment value this is. Televised sports is the "rice cake" in the salad bar of life.
Mr. Adam has been methodically torturing me with this damn US Open since it began a week and a half ago. I beg him to please watch something, anything else on television. He hasn't changed the channel yet. His response is "it's only 2 weeks" - well, yeah - but two weeks ago I had to endure the Australian Open. And weeks before that ...Wimbeldon. For those of you that don't know, somewhere in the world there is always some major tennis match which is usually televised in order that I will be miserable. But I digress. Now I don't mind Mr. Adam loving tennis, in fact that's great. But I'd rather he play tennis. That I fully support 100%.
And it doesn't end when I think we're going out somewhere. We go visit our friends Evan & Jeffrey and guess what's on at their home? Everyone say it with me together: "TENNIS." Yes children, tennis. And lucky us, Jeffrey orders the tennis channel so even when there is nothing playing - we can watch vintage matches. Hurrah? As a matter of fact, I spent a lovely Labor Day afternoon with Mr. Adam, Evan & Jeffrey doing guess what? Watching the US Open outside of Rockefeller Center in the American Express seats. I read my book and enjoyed the lovely weather.
It's never ending and it's torture. Oh woe is me.