Listy Listy List

[toosuto]

1. secret_hippie made her official statement apparently it was a secret before. Oops. There are still a lot of things that need to come together for it to happen but that leap off the cliff has been made. Or maybe we're just running towards it at this point, I dunno.

2. Saw squid_pro_qou last weekend when he played at CSz with me. It was good times and we even drank some beer at the bar afterwards. Like grown ups or something. (And now after Dec. 8 here in Wash. if we do it we won't come home reeking of cigarette smoke!)

3. I've been uncharacteristically positive lately. Just happy. It's weird but true. Some part of me wants to say it's inexplicable but the truth is that it is very splicable: I decided that things were going to be Awesome and they pretty much have been. Sure I have my off days but most days are spent on the side of mountawesome.

4. My parents sent secret_hippie and I to the Lion King last night. I liked a lot about it actually. I loved hearing the kids reaction to the puppets and costumes (especially the opening number) but oddly enough the adult reaction irritated me. While the kids were all "Wow! Cool!" or "Elephants!" Adults near me were "Look puppets! Frank those are puppets!" Yes lady they are puppets, they certainly did not bring in a real elephant into the theater, especially one that has a semi-transparent body, now stop pulling me back from my childlike delight already. As spectacle it was fantastic, as theater it was disappointing since what I disliked about the film was magnified: the "Can't Wait to be King" number and the meerkat and warthog which both seemed out of place in the movie were even more out of place in the stage production. Where the rest of the show had actors dressed up in beautiful abstract representative costumes, both Timon/Pumba and the musical number stuck out from the production like tacked on Disney touches rather than fully incorporated ideas/characters. We also went out for shwanky appetizers and drinks before hand (firecracker salmon rolls, coconut-macadamia nut crust prawns and teriyaki steak strips followed up with super rich chocolate cake in a bed of raspberry syrup covered in an Amaretto cream sauce).

5. Got to sort of sleep in today because there is no school. I can't wait to go back to 8 am alarm again.

Anyway good times. School has got me busy as I head into the final stretch and work has got me busier as they try to transition me into my new position without yet hiring the new calendar editor. There are 12 applicants so I hopefully they new guy should start soon.

Comments

[0nce-and-future.livejournal.com]

Your response to TLK was similar to mine - great spectacle, and the closer they got to the movie - the worse it got.

It made me angry becuase I wanted to "make it better"

Mostly by adding more DRUMS!!! And get rid of the farting pig and the screeching thingamabob sidekick while you're at it.

That and some of those songs BADLY need new lyrics - the sun never rises, I'm an angsty teen, it's always night, my life sucks song in particular.

It's a feast or famine show - great and terrible mixed indiscriminately together.

[toosuto.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, YES!

More choral pieces, less Disney, more *art*

I loved using the ensemble as plants, and grass to changed the landscape of the stage. I hated the moving strip of grass (whose mechanism I could hear all the way up on the balcony): don't pretend to walk somewhere as a set piece passes you, WALK THERE! We'll believe you, it's theater for god's sake.

The stampede was cool, the grass dancers were cool, not-young simba was way hot (even from the balcony), the dream of mufasa was fantastic — the most gigantic hastily assembled puppet evar. secret_hippie made the observation that T. and P. were the only supporting characters that didn't get the cool costume/head piece treatment, they were also the only ones not to scale (all of the puppets/costumes were nearly dead on 1-1 scale, althought he hyenas were a bit large but I won't quibble. I would have loved to see more complex dance choreography, parts of the fight scenes were so much dance and others were so much like there was little to no commitment to the fight. The arial ballet was cool, could have been longer and could have *not* during a musical bridge in the Elton John song.

[toosuto.livejournal.com]

secret_hippie made the observation. I'm not sure where i screwed up that tag.

[thedragonweaver.livejournal.com]

badjeebus and I have both seen real African dance. (Can't remember if it was northern or southern.) If they'd used THAT kind of choreography (particularly in the foo-foo fight scenes), it would have been awesome.

[toosuto.livejournal.com]

I also like that Zazu was both the puppet and the actor (if the actor but not the puppet was on-stage).

[0nce-and-future.livejournal.com]

And the Cheetahs!

Those ruled.