An Hour and a Half of Belly Laughs

I guess my blog is turning into a series of Movie Reviews. That's so strange because I'm so NOT a movie guy. Maybe that's why I find that the rare times I DO go, I need to blog about them. There's probably something psychological in this phenomenon. There's got to be a particularly compelling feature to get me to go see a film, and this one certainly qualified. The subject matter screams my name and I'm a huge fan of Bill Maher anyway. Last night I found myself in a cinema with no one under 30; that alone was refreshing.

I was at a seminar recently where we were asked to write down our own personal top 10 accomplishments. One of mine was successfully extricating my life from religion. That was particularly huge for me considering how completely and fully I believed. I was a faithful and obedient evangelical with my life, my mind, my heart, my time, my money . . . my everything. It probably took a good 10 years to completely detoxify. It’s that background that makes this film appeal so much to me. It presents a point of view, but it’s not polemic in the least AND it’s extremely entertaining. There’s nothing there that you won’t get from the dvd but I couldn’t wait to see something smart and brash and very funny. This is definitely NOT an escapist movie; you need to bring your brain and your wits.

Bill brings to light the silliness of many doctrines of the world’s major religions. The documentary is basically a series of interviews with people from these religions and Bill’s frank and honest reflections on them from the mind of a non believer. It' so hilarious you have to time your handfulls of popcorn carefully. But it’s all fun and games until someone pokes an eye out. The last few minutes of the movie he sums up how dangerous it has been in the past, and more importantly how dangerous it is now and can be in the future to have Church in your State. That was enlightening.

Anyway – this one was defiantly worth seeing.

Not your typical Chick Flick
Mamma Mia the movie

Oh a chick flick it is, and that’s for certain. Unless you happen to belong to the sick and twisted group of people who owned every ABBA 8 track ever put out, AND you played them nonstop at high decibels in your 68 Mustang all through your salad days; then the demographic for this film shifts firmly in your direction. But I can’t imagine there are a lot of peeps out there like me.

It blew me away in Sweeney Todd that such non singers could pull off the main roles in a movie musical. But Mamma Mia proves it even more. Star power and good credible acting (along with great music of course) is more important that a quality voice. Who’d a thunk. Meryl Streep could simply NOT carry this role on stage. She can sing, and sing pretty well, but not well enough to carry the audience in a theatre. The audience in a cinema is a different story. If you’d have put a Broadway Belter in that role in this movie who could tear up those tunes, they wouldn’t have even touched the amazing performance Streep put in here—it’s simply her star power and the command she has over her tools. Here’s arguably the best actor of our time, at her peak, and doing what very well may be termed her signature performance. If she doesn’t win another Oscar for this, the academy needs to reboot.

This beautiful image of Paula and what appears to be her moron husband was shot by Sean Capshaw http://www.resolusean.com/

Did you know that there are vineyards in San Marcos? I sure didn’t, but last Sunday night I found out that they do indeed exist when we had an amazing meal at a table set up between two vines under the night sky, awash with wine and candles and attended by lovely people and lively conversation. The setting was at the steps of the Vintner’s home overlooking a lovely valley of grapes and upscale homes. Paula and I got invited to this very mysterious dinner and we’d no idea what we were getting ourselves into. But we’d do just about anything that the very good friends that invited us told us to so, up we dressed and off we went. What it turned out to be was an opportunity for a caterer to show off what he can do for lots of current and potential clients and to do so in a very special location.

Talk about ambiance. I can’t imagine a more tranquil setting or a better atmosphere for an event such as this. Excellent service by some very good and very nice waiters that had to put up with an awful lot; there is not a lot of room between a couple of vine rows to put a table with chairs on both sides and still find a way to move in to serve and service, but these pros did it and did it well.

If only the stuff we were putting in our mouths was better. Don’t get me wrong, it was good. There were terrific words like watercress, quail egg, confite and sweetbread and there was a taste of wine for each course. The food was good but there was nothing I’d have again and the wines were, hmmm shall we say disappointing. You expect that getting served wines from a winery at the winery at a shwanky shindig like this that your high expectations would be fulfilled. The first three wines they served us were hardly drinkable, then they brought us a Cabernet that was good enough, and they ended with a Syrah that was quite wonderful; a great way to end the evening.

So I count the dining experience we had as a great success, mostly because the ambiance was so hugely and so unexpectedly wonderful that it made everything else less important. I would certainly do this again, and still hope for a more pleasant proffering for the palate.

Phantom, the longest running show on Broadway since . . .

April 10th, 2008 by Tim Heitman

Check this out. On December 2, 1979, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (July 14-19, 2009) lost its title as the longest running show in Broadway history. It fell to the perennial favorite GREASE. GREASE (March 3-8, 2009) was the longest running show on Broadway till it was knocked out of the top spot by A CHORUS LINE (August 12-17, 2008) When CATS (June 3-8, 2008) hit 6138 performances, it overtook A CHORUS LINE as the longest running show in Broadway history–and on January 9, 2006, PHANTOM (July 16 – August 10 2008) became the undisputed king of Broadway, and it’s still running today.

In the next calendar year and a half, Broadway/San Diego and the San Diego Civic Theatre will house the top 5 record breaking Broadway shows of all time. So what makes PHANTOM so great? Romance, mystery, drama, and the aura of higher art ‘Opera’ are typical responses. Of course the great music is always the first and foremost reason. But then there’s that amazing set that transforms time and again, just when you think you’ve seen it all it does one more amazing thing. And the costumes? It’s a great period piece and the production takes full advantage of that fact – the costume designers put ALL the money on the stage. And what about the lighting? Or the props? Or the . . .

Because PHANTOM has such universal appeal, it has become somewhat of an entry experience to the theatre. Many people when asked “what was your first show” will reply “PHANTOM”. The show has been responsible for so many people getting ‘hooked’ on theatre. The numbers on this show in terms of attendance, dollars earned, performances worldwide et cetera are staggering. Its just such a phenomenon and I’m really looking forward to the return of the show to San Diego.


Oh and by the way, before FIDDLER it was HELLO DOLLY, and there’s no production of that on the horizon. Oh well, you can’t have everything.

And also by the way, there have been other shows that ran longer than those that I’ve mentioned above but they didn’t break previously set records. They ran or are running while another show was or is the title holder.

Click this link: Playbill for the list of longest runs in Broadway history as listed in Playbill. See where YOUR favorites fit in.

The World is Focusing on

Torrey Pines

I had the rare opportunity to take a day off work and focus on it myself yesterday. I've had very few experiences where I was able to experience first hand the transformation that happens to a place when it becomes the center of Major Media Attention. Some of the 49er football games were like that; the playoffs at Candlestick Park in the late 80s. The Earthquake was like that too but there was an awful lot of other more important things to think about then so I wasn't quite so aware. The US Open is an event that's on the World Stage -- pretty heady stuff. Paula and I went to the practice round on Monday and checked it out.

They closed the North Course entirely and are using it to service all the needs of the open. Play is on the South Course exclusively. Parking, corporate tents, lots and lots of generators, little carts of all shapes and sizes, all of this is on the North Course. I'd never parked my car on a fairway stratling the ruff before, now I can say I did it at the US Open. I'd played the South Course once before so I was a bit familiar with the layout but I didn't recognize much at all; grandstands everywhere, scaffold towers, cranes with cameras, and who knew the traffic would be so bad -- not the foot traffic, we expected that, but you couldn't spit without hitting a golf cart (and the variety of them was staggering) and it was usually right on the bumper of another cart. I'm guessing that this will thin out during competition and that there's just so much to get done that they are pushing it to the very last possible moment. There were quite a few crews painting things and that is certainly something I'd have thought would be done long before.

The big stars had already had their practice rounds early and I got there late so I didn't see any of them, but it was still very impressive to watch the pros that were there. Over 8000 golfers apply to be in this thing each year. The ones that make it are the elite from around the world. I really had no idea how much of an international event this thing is.

Here's the really cool part. I just found out that I'm likely going to get some tix for Sunday. If I get them, pics to come.

Attend the Tale of

Sweeney Todd

Go see it, but be prepared. It’s a horror film, no question about it. How much fun to watch a treatment of a show that I’ve known and loved for decades in its stage form, get all of that Hollywood glitz and glamour. And then to get the amazing artistry and point of view of the best sick and twisted director of our time, Tim Burton, is just gravy. This movie is cinema as high art catapulted into high pop. I haven’t enjoyed a film this much since Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet. Chicago was great, Dream Girls was a joy, but this is something else altogether. It’s new and fresh and deeply disturbing. It is also deeply satisfying.

I have to admit I went into it with a little trepidation. I’d been listening to the soundtrack and the thin and reedy voices of the leads was quite a departure from the power and character I’d been used to from the stage performances and recordings. But I also knew going in that film is its own medium and that the requirements for a quality performance on celluloid are quite different that those for an actor on the stage. And as it turns out yes the voices of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are indeed thin and reedy but it doesn’t matter. Even at the point where this weakness is most obvious, when Mrs. Lovett is singing a duet with Toby, this kid with an obviously very well trained voice who sang circles around her, the disparity just didn’t matter. The power of her performance as a veteran of the screen, and the balancing of the sound in the editing room made up the difference . . . and the result was poetry.

There are a lot of obvious limitations that are just the nature of the film beast. Directors call the camera the “one eyed idiot” and that’s pretty appropriate. You can’t recreate the sweeping power of a stage full of actors singing the Ballad of Sweeney Todd on a screen. And the split stage action and choral intricacies that are what makes Sondheim, well . . . Sondheim are completely lost in the two dimensional world of cinema. But the beauty of a film is its utter repeatability (all of us can have a nearly identical experience watching it wherever we may live) and the way it can be so literate in everything it is trying to relate. When you talk about the seaside, you can be right there at the seaside. Then instantly when you are cutting someone’s throat with a razor, you are there in close up gore with speakers screaming the orchestral decibels and assaulting all your senses. When it’s done right, it’s a visceral experience.

Don’t wait for Netflix for this one. Catch it while its hot.

Our Furry Children

This is our entry into the Papillion Picnic Club calendar. They spelled Fiyero wrong on this initial picture but they fixed it when they put it into the actual calendar. They made page one -- January -- as well they should have.

Paula and I just came back from a trip to Palm Springs where we stayed at a timeshare with some friends. We took the cable tram up to the top of the mountain. I'd never done it before and the others that had, had never done it since they changed the cars out for the new rotating cars. The trip alone was worth the price of admission, but once you are up there, there are lots of great, easy walking trails to take, amazing vista points, a restaurant that smelled of heaven, and a bar that served a verry jazzy bloody mary. If you ever do end up doing Palm Springs, that tram is a must do.

We also did the Palm Springs Follies, and what to our wandering eyes did appear but a friend of ours at the far stage left of the chorus line. Surprise surprise. The show was very fun, very long -- over three hours -- and a bit kitchy but all in all a very good time. There was nothing you could fault with the production values of that show. The costumes, sets, lights, sound all were top notch, as good as anything you'd see on Broadway or in Vegas. And the talent certainly consisted of the most seasoned veterans you'll ever see assembled on a single stage. Guest star was Kay Ballard, you remember from the old sitcom Mothers in Law among others. She's as big as a house and older than dirt but she sang really well and told a good joke. They had a pretty darn good impersonator too. He did a couple of impersonations of people I'd never heard of or seen but even they were funny.

We struck out hard in the dinner department. We tried two different restaurants and both were failures. The breakfasts were winners (Elmer's and Mimi's, the former is a Palm Springs institution and the latter is a chain but always very good). Next time I go to Palm Springs I'm definitely getting some recomendations from some locals. I do know a few of them that I could have called but didn't.
Looks like we are spending most of January at the cabin. I'm doing to try telecomuting and coming down the mountain only for VERY urgent biz that requires my presence. I'm also going to try using an IP phone through my computer so I'll still seem local to my coworkers. We'll see how THAT turns out. But I'll be in the crisp clean stress free mountains and I'll have lots of time to do lots of projects on the cabin. That will almost be like a vacation!

But first I've got to survive High School Musical and Jesus Christ Superstar, both are selling extremely well, thank goodness. We are also cranking up for next season. We've got a new venue, The Balboa Theatre is finally coming back online next year and we are going to have some events in that space. It's a brand new renovation and the experience in that place is going to be without comparison. I'm really looking forward to it. Especially since I was that last person to direct a show in the space before it was renovated. That was the show Closer Than Ever back in 1997ish and was a gala for the Balboa Theatre Foundation.

So they are keeping me hopping like usual and I'm loving it as much as ever, or at least I keep convincing myself that I am. And that's all that I really need right now.