152 insights into my soul

For the annual Christmas show, saw "Once On This Island" with isabel79 and TC and her friend D. Took Uber for the first time because TC felt we were running late, and while I refuse to use it myself, I have no qualms about riding along in someone else's Uber. Its a good thing we did though, because coming home, we found out that the 30th ave station was torn down for renovation! Man, I woulda been so pissed if we walked in the cold to find a closed subway stop!

Went to the Downton Abbey exhibit first, and now I know a lot more about the show! Like Rose's scandalous love life! Or that the mom was American!

Its funny, because they have exhibits for hot and the other one, but wayhot doesn't get her own display! Also, at a least two different exhibits, they quote Mary as saying, "I'm going upstairs to take off my hat!" So I was asking E, is that like her catch phrase or something? But she'd never heard of it, but then I googled it, and apparently it was a thing!

Also, they had a staff quiz to show what position you'd be most suited as. I predicted valet, and I was correct!

Had lunch at City Kitchen. They had some cool restaurants in there, though I was kinda annoyed it took like 15 minutes for the burger place to open up. Its like, how are you not ready when everyone else was? Their peanut butter and bacon burger was good tho!

Onto "Once on This Island"- Hmm, despite Lea Salonga being like the pride and joy of my people, at least when it comes to musicals, I'd never seen her in anything live. But now I have! While we were waiting, I guess there was a last minute casting change for the lead female, because the actress came in through the lobby all eggcited saying this was her first time getting to play this. She did end up doing well, so good on her!

I mean, it was a nice production, with a talented cast, but I'm a little iffy on the story. So Ti Moune (I had to look that up, I totally thought it was "Timun") was some girl who survived a big storm thanks to the gods. She was raised by a kindly old couple, but falls in love with Daniel, some kid from the rich side of the island whom she doesn't even know beyond seeing him drive around in his car.

One day, he gets into a crash, and while her father makes the dangerous trek to inform Daniel's dad so they can get him, Ti Moune watches over him. She even makes a deal with the goddess of death to keep him alive in exchange for her own soul. He lives, the guy's family comes to retrieve him, and despite her parents' objections, she takes the dangerous journey to his side of the island to be with him.

She gets there, sneaks into his room, and he's all, "Who are you?!" She informs she's the one who healed him, and they need to be together for him to fully recover. I guess we're supposed to think that's romantic, but its like, here's some beautiful young girl who totally wants to be with him, he's not going to turn her away!

Indeed, she spends weeks in his room helping him to recover, but I think we all know what that's code for. I highly doubt she spent all that time changing his bandages and fixing his ankle!

Anyways, he has his fun with her, but then its revealed he has an arranged marriage, and even though she has dreams of them being together and making a family of their own, he sticks with his fiancee.

And its weird, because the goddess of death comes to her all, "Ha, you traded your life for his and this is what you get! Here's this knife, I'll give you your life back if you kill him!" So she sneaks up on Daniel, but eventually can't do it. But what's weird is, she drops the knife, does a poor job of explaining herself, and Daniel just picks up the knife and walks out of their all, "Gee, that was odd!" not, "This girl tried to kill me!"

I mean, she does get kicked out, and waits at the gate for him, not eating or sleeping. And then he shows up after his wedding, because the tradition is for these rich folks to toss their change at the poors for good luck. And he like sees Ti Moune, and is all, "Here's some change, seeya!"

And for some reason, she still loves this a-hole! And her love touches the gods, so then when she dies immediately afterwards, they turn her into a tree, which cracks the wall between the rich and poor so the gate can never be closed again, and she can watch over him. And its like, why does she want to watch over that jerk!? It does not make cents!

But like I said, it was a good production, even if the story didn't resonate with me.

TV commentary:

The Librarians- Well, that was resolved rather quickly! ( spoiler cut )

So, went into Manhattan tonight with sparkyboy to see Dear Evan Hansen. Had dinner at Friday's- I know, I should've tried something non-chain, but since it was a Friday night, I didn't know how busy other places in the area would be. So I figured a chain was the safe bet.

Big mistake! Talk about the shittiest service ever. I mean, went in early, so its not like it impacted us getting to the show, but yeah, the wait staff sucked. And not just for us, but for all the other tables around us. Like it was so bad the managers had to come out and apologize to some folks- there was like a big table who were seated before us, and they got kinda miffed that we, and another guy who sat even after us got our food first. (Amusingly enough, that guy got his food before everyone else, but still couldn't eat because he lacked silverware and it took a while for himm to get soome)

Anyways, the management tried to give some excuse, "Oh, sometimes in the case of big stories, their orders get lost in the mix because they're waiting on all of them to be done before they send them out, so smaller orders get put out first!" Which I can see that's possible, but its also kinda bullshit. Its like, the waiter/waitress in charge of that section should know who and who hasn't gotten their stuff yet, and shouldn't check on why a table hasn't gotten their stuff until after they're prompted by the customer.

Heh, I complain, yet my way to show dissatisfaction is to just pay the standard 15% on the pre-tax total, than my usual 20% on the post-tax total.

Anyways, Dear Evan Hansen was friggin amazing, I loved it! The only thing I hate is that I'll have to wait more than a month for the cast recording to come out. Like I pre-ordered it so I do have "Waving Through a Window", but I really would love to have "You Will Be Found". ( spoiler cut )

TV commentary:

Grease Live!- Weird, what's with the extra songs? Didn't know if some of those were from the original production that weren't in the movie. Also odd, that Patty Simcox and Eugene have slightly bigger roles. Like during the Hand Jive, she was dancing with him instead of Tom. And Eugene helping the T-Birds out to win the big race by installing a sort of nitrous system thing and being made a T-Bird.

Speaking of the Hand Jive, instead of Sandy being chased off by some drunk guy, she was scared to be on camera because she lied to her parents about going to the dance and didn't want to get caught. Oh, also, since Julianne Hough is not Australian, instead of making her Australian, she's from Utah (although I guess the original production Sandy wasn't Aussie there either).

Also, in the big race, instead of Kenickie accidentally getting hit in the head with the car door by Putzie, Kenickie was freaking out about the race, so Danny purposely hits him with the door so he can save face. Danny is all, "Oh, Kenickie is no chicken! He wants to race, but is concussed, so I'll have to take over!"

One thing annoying about the show was the sound production- in the bigger group numbers, I swear the music drowned out some of the singers so you couldn't hear what they were saying.

Also, something went weird with the recording I was watching- the audio cut off during part of Hand Jive, and then it somehow cut back to Greased Lightning, and then it turned into commercials, and came back part way through Hopelessly Devoted to You.

Galavant- Hey, at least this ended in a satisfying way if this was the series finale! ( spoiler cut )

So, they're doing a revival of Spring Awakening in LA next month:



I'm amused Lindsay Pearce is playing Wendla, since it was Lea Michele's first big role, and Harmony is Rachel 2.0. But it looks like Mona from PLL is also in this. And is it me, or is that one blond kinda cute: (Also it me, or do the girls in this look kinda jail-baity? Though I guess it is a coming of age story)



Anyways, I've always been kinda disappointed I never got to see Spring Awakening on or off Broadway. Too bad I can't see this one either, since its only in LA.

Woah, didn't realize the Broadway cast recording for the new Godspell came out today on Itunes. The CD wasn't coming out until the end of January, so I assumed it wouldn't be digitally available until next year. So this was a pleasant surprise. Sounds like isabel79 might not be free during the break to see Godspell, so I'll have to settle for this.

So I just downloaded it and am listening to it. I like it. Compared to the movie soundtrack, so far the new Broadway version has a lot more acoustic guitar in it. "All Good Gifts" is playing as I type this, as done by the Asian Warbler from Glee. Its not bad, I still think the movie version of the song is the best, but I would also put it over the original Broadway version. And now my player is on "Beautiful City", as done by Silas from Weeds. I like it, its a really nice piano version. This one I'm having a harder time judging which one I like better, this or the movie version. Same with their version of "By My Side", its a different take, with the acoustic guitar and all. Actually, one song I do like in the new Broadway version over the movie version is the finale. I don't know what they do differently, but the first part sounds better than it did in the movie. And interestingly enough, the second part does a medley of more of the songs, not just "Prepare Ye" and "Day By Day" (I can't remember off the top of my head had "Beautiful City" in there as well)

Also out today? DW7: XL DLC. Some new levels and new costumes for Guo Jia, Pang De, and Wang Yi. I was hoping that the Fantasy Costume DLC wasn't mentioned in the official XL DLC page, because Koei said they were going to make the fantasy costume set available to people who just own DW7 (on the Xbox and PS3), obviously they just wouldn't get the costumes for the XL characters. But I don't see it mentioned on the offical DW7 DLC page either. Boo!

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention about the new Sherlock- the first movie, the one thing I found weird was they'd have Sherlock play a fight out in his head in slow-mo, and then they'd play the fight all over again. I guess they were trying to go for a Midnighter thing, where he's playing the battle out in his head, and then we get to see it play out in real life. I think its utilized better in the second one. ( spoiler cut )

Finally, some AC comments. I'm sitting on a lot of treasure items right now, because I have no idea what's safe to sell. Like I know there are a few things unlocked in the shop that require random things you find, so I don't want to end up missing out! I don't need the money right now anyways, I'm making decent bank currently, I have no qualms wasting time killing folks and then lowering notoriety to pass the time to wait for deposits to be made to my bank account.

So, since I've been a musical kick as of late, got the soundtrack to "Book of Mormon". Its actually incredibly catchy!

TV commentaries:

Vampire Diaries- I'm amused that I feel Katherine can fool me into thinking she's Elena, since this is a TV show where the characters are played by the same actress. But like I said, its a credit it to Nina Dobrev that when she does Katherine pretending to be Elena, you can believe Katherine was just doing a really good job of playing Elena, as opposed to Nina just playing her as the Elena character.

But poor Anna, Jeremy shutting her out like that there in the end. Of course, throughout the ep, I was thinking the Germ was practically cheating on her the way he was hanging with Anna.

Other developments. ( under the cut )

IASIP- Okay, I forget which one of them tweeted last night that this is prolly the darkest ep they've ever done, and they even outright said on the show, this is the darkest thing they'd ever done, and it kinda was!

So isabel79 tweeted about Priscilla Queen of the Desert musical coming to Broadway next year. Am I ghey for being incredibly excited to see this after looking it up? I saw the preview of the NZ production has "Don't Leave Me This Way" and CeCe Peniston's "Finally", which is totally awesome! But then I looked up the song list on Wikipedia, and for the American audiences, they've replaced the Kylie Minogue songs with Madonna! Way to make me want to see it more! Heh, I noticed the American version also has "Its Raining Men", which I say is a catchy song and there's nothing wrong with straight guys having it on their ipod!

But argh, looks like it doesn't start on Broadway until next year, well after I'm up there for the holidays. Its definitely on my musicals to see list, hopefully they'll put out a cast recording.

After finally listening to the Glee Cast version of Queen's "Somebody to Love", I just have to say "WOW!" An incredible version of such an awesome song. Some may disagree, but I think that its as good if not better than their rendition of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" in the pilot. And does everyone have a part in this one? I mean, I think all the songs released so far are mainly Rachel, Finn, Mercedes, or Will on lead. But on this one, besides Rachel, Finn, and Mercedes, I can definitely pick out Artie, possibly Quinn and/or Tina too?

As for "Taking Chances", I liked it as well. I wanna say Lea Michele is my favorite performer on the cast. (Amber Riley is pretty good too, but I prefer the songs they have Lea do) I definitely like what she did with this song, and also Rihanna's "Take a Bow". As I've said before, I'm not a fan of the original song (its overly dramatic Rihanna, though not nearly as melodramatic as "Unfaithful", whereas I prefer her more upbeat songs), but I love Lea Michele's take on it. And to think, when I first heard her on the Spring Awakening soundtrack, I thought she was outshone by Lauren Pritchard.

While trying the new Prime Rib Thick Burger from Hardee's (I was actually wanting some Taco Bell, but was annoyed when I pulled into the local Taco Bell/KFC and saw it was closed for renovations, so I went next door to Hardee's. But I digress) for dinner, caught the second half of that American Mall movie last night. While I'm glad Autumn Reeser is still getting work post-OC, and Nina Dobrev is getting to do something outside of Degrassi, its certainly no "High School Musical". I mean, was it me, or was the song at the end kinda off? But getting back to Mia, its interesting she and Darcy (played by Shenae Grimes, who'll be Brenda Walsh 2.0 in the upcoming 90210 re-vamp on the CW this fall) are the two out of the Degrassi cast getting work in stuff that's non-Canadian, but I guess they are two of the better looking girls in the cast. Though I guess Paige has been in a couple of things, and Sean was in Juno.

Ah, I didn't realize someone had put up the teaser for that new G.I.Joe Resolute cartoon (not the live action movie) last week. Wish there was a direct feed version, but it looks cool nonetheless. The crowd was awed/shocked at the end of that Snake-eyes slaughter of those Cobra troopers when he stabs the one baddie he took to the ground with his sword and does the twist thing, but did Duke like shoot that one guy in the back? That's not very American Hero like!

Yesterday, on the entertainment blogs, bikini pics of Disney teen Selena Gomez were floating around. And I noticed in the comments some people were all, "who the eff is Selena Gomez?" What are they, living under a rock, who doesn't know who Miley Cyrus rival Selena Gomez is? Of course, I say that, but you could mention to me some famous politician or scientist or athlete and I'd be all, "Who?" I used to think Warren Buffet was the Margaritaville guy, and before the Olympics coverage, the first time I ever heard of that Phelps guy was from that one cellphone commercial.

But speaking of pics of underage teen actresses floating around, saw these pics of little J from the set of Gossip Girl, and I'm amused that while they still have her in the jumper type uniform (why does that type seem more jailbait-y than normal school girl outfits?), as opposed to the buttoned up blouse she used to be in, now she has this low v-cut shirt that would show off her cleavage if she had any.

Argh, I've got that "Popular" song from Wicked stuck in my head, and I've never even seen it. I first heard it when I saw it used in some Avatar AMV last week on youtube, but apparently Wicked is coming to the Fox soon, and that's the one song they play in all the radio commercials. So that's been ringing through my head all day, or at least the chorus has been.

Today was laundry day- ended up finally watching Rent over lunch. As readers of this journal would know, I had already seen the actual theater production back in NY with psyched_out and his wife a couple of years ago, but had my cellphone stolen over dinner right before, so that was hanging over my head and precluded my enjoyment of it. Watching the movie though, I stand by my assessment that its pretty good. Happy at times, sad at times, but altogether very touching. I'll also say my like of the soundtrack is much stronger. "Seasons of Love" is awesome, but there are plenty of fun songs, plenty of sweet songs. I was also surprised about how much of the soundtrack I knew. I mean, I have the soundtrack, I just didn't realize how well it had stuck in my head. Plus, I find the songs more relatable. Well, not that I'm anything like any of the characters, but I'm in that age range, lived through that time period. As for Rosario Dawson playing Mimi? Honestly, when I first saw the play, I thought the character's looked reminded me a lot of Rosario Dawson, so I thought it was apropo. Oh, and I can totally see Doogie as Mark.

Speaking of musicals, Buffy's "Once More with Feeling" didn't know what it was talking about. Things would totally rule if life was but a song. I've mentioned here countless times how awesome it would be for it to be a normal day with normal things happening, and then people started breaking into song! (Oh, and to clarify- I like group song, particularly when you have multiple distinct parts. Its one of the cool things about rap. Oh, and singing in rounds is also cool. Group dancing, though, is totally lame!)

Of course, breaking into song is not the only way to enjoy music. Cranking up the stereo while driving is also awesome. Its my favorite part of driving, in fact- finding a cool song on the radio, turning up the volume, rolling down the windows, and its just you, your car, the road, and the music. Its particularly awesome (I need a thesaurus or something) when you flick through the stations and get a whole block of rockin' songs to rawk out to. I remember coming back from church a few weeks ago, had Sean Paul's "Temperature" and Boston's "More Than A Feeling" and some other song (it might've been a Killers song) come on in succession. Sure, one could just put a mix of their favorite mp3s on a disc or an internal hard drive, but its more fun when you randomly get cool songs on the radio. Heh, of course, my definition of "rocking" prolly differs from others. While most people would accept cranking up Heart's "Crazy On You", Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield" is kinda fey (even though it has a rocking beat!)

Heh, ever since that Lily Tomlin incident in I Heart Huckabees, what's with all these takes on it? Judd Apatow and crew have a supposed "outtake" from Knocked Up from when Michael Sera was originally in Seth Rogen's role. I think its hilarious! He's pretty good at playing it straight (like he did as George Michael on AD) and still being incredibly funny. I was actually watching an ep of Arrested Development during lunch yesterday, and its still definitely one of the funniest frickin' shows ever. The fact that it was cancelled shows that people in charge (and I guess the viewing public as well) are stupid.

Oh, I was looking at some pics of Kristen Bell in a bikini, and I've always thought she had a tight little body on her, but it had me thinking, with GG, VM and the OC cancelled, that's a lot of lost babe-age! Sad. I haven't been checking up on the specimens on the new shows coming out this season yet. I'm iffy on the new Bionic Woman chick- some pics I've seen she looks attractive, others, I think "eh". Gossip Girl does have Sweet Knees. I just looked at the cast of Hidden Palms, talk about another show with OC and VM connections- Zach, Oliver, Jackie Cook, and Jake Kane? Though I saw a commercial saying it was by the guy who brought Dawson's Creek, and indeed it looks like Kevin Willamson is one of the producers. So is this show like the DC guy trying to do the OC?