First, a while back I posted a review of “It Came From Beyond“, a delightful 1950s camp musical that we saw with shutterbug93, starring Kevin Earley. Music and lyrics by Norman Thalheimer and Stephen Michael Schwartz. Christianson and Thalheimer are known for their new musical Wicked City Blues; Stephen Michael Schwartz is well known for being a member of Parachute Express, doing the music for Jay Jay the Jet Plane, and being a member of Temple Beth Hillel. The author of the show, Cornell Christianson, has just posted a few clips from the show on YouTube, so I figured I would take advantage of the new embedding feature…
Tag: scheduling
Add Another To The Mix
Saturday evening, I wrote:
Next up on the theatre calendar: The Last 5 Years at the Pasadena Playhouse on July 29th; “The Music Man” at Cabrillo Music Theatre on August 5th; Curtains at the Ahmanson on August 26th, and Fences (starting Laurence Fishburne and Angela Basset) at the Pasadena Playhouse on Sept. 23rd. I thought about tickets for Lucky Stiff at the Fullerton Civic Light Opera, but we can only do a Sunday matinee on 7/23, and that’s not on Goldstar (only the 7pm performance). I also am thinking about tickets to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in Orange County in early September, but that might not pan out either (it depends if Goldstar puts them up). We might see something on vacation, depending on what is in the Sacramento or S.F. Bay area on Goldstar. Is anyone aware of half-price ticket outlets for Sacramento, as Goldstar doesn’t cover that area?
Well, thanks to Goldstar, I have another to add to the mix: Black Comedy and The Real Inspector Hound at the Rep East Playhouse in Santa Clarita on Sunday, 8/6 at 2pm.
The Real Inspector Hound is a short play by Tom Stoppard. The story line follows two theatre critics that are watching a ridiculous set-up of a country house murder mystery, in the style of a “whodunit”. By accident, they become involved in the action causing a series of events that parallel the play they are watching. It is a parody of the stereotypical “whodunnit” thriller as well as of the critics watching the play, with their personal desires and obsessions interwoven into their bombastic and pompous review.
Black Comedy is a one-act play by British dramatist Peter Shaffer (Equus). The play is a farce set in a London flat during an electrical blackout, and is written to be staged under a reversed lighting scheme: that is, the play opens with a dinner party beginning on a darkened stage, then a few minutes into the show “a fuse blows”, the stage lights come up, and the characters are seen shambling around apparently invisible to one another. The play is, suitably enough, a black comedy in which the effect loss of light would have on a group of people who all hold things from each other is explored; as such, its title is a pun.
Busy, busy, weekends.
Weekend Update
- Last night, we watched the series premier of Psych. Very, very good. Why can’t these shows (Monk and Psych) show up on the broadcast channels; instead, we get Americas Got Talent. Least Common Denominator, and all that rot…
- This is a quiet weekend in some respects. NSS&F is down in Orange County visiting her aunt. Up here, it’s just the two of us. Although that does have some advantages, it does lead to an awfully quiet house. No, don’t send your kids.
- So what are we doing today? The usual: cleaning the house, doing laundry. Given the predicted heat (105°F), we might go swimming.
This evening, however, we are going to be outside in Newbery Park at Drums Across The Pacific. The line-up is: Blue Devils B (Concord, CA); Blue Devils C (Concord, CA); Dream (Irvine, CA); Esperanza (San Diego, CA); Hawthorne Gold (Hawthorne, CA); Impulse (Buena Park, CA); Jester (Phoenix, AZ); Mandarins (Sacramento, CA); Mystikal (Newbury Park, CA); Pacific Crest (Diamond Bar, CA); Renegades (Palo Alto, CA); River City Regiment (Sacramento, CA); The Academy (Tempe, AZ); Vanguard Cadets (Santa Clara, CA); Yamato (Riverside, CA/Kyoto, Japan); and the Edmonton Sabers Marching Band from Edmonton-Alberta, Canada. These are mostly B and C corps (smaller, younger), although there is at least one Division I corp (Mandarins). It should be a good show. If folks want to join us, it is $20/ticket, cash, at the gate.
- Sunday morning we’ll likely go to the Encino Farmers Market. Last week, the fruit we got there was *wonderful*. We also want to pick up picnic stuff. Why, you ask…
Sunday evening we’re going to a free Concert in the Park (at least, if the weather isn’t too hot). This Sunday’s concert is one we regularly go to: Preservation Hall Jazz Band. It can be a nice evening, if the weather cooperates. Of course, for this, the more, the merrier. If we get a group, I’ll bring a game or two to play as we listen.
Planning for Next Year
Well, June isn’t even over, and I’ve already ordered my calendars for next year. What have I ordered?
| On Broadway! Theater Posters from the Library of Congress 2007 Wall Calendar. My “main calendar” at work. | |
| Jewish Celebrations: Paintings by Malcah Zeldis 2007 Wall Calendar. This is our main calendar at home. | |
 |
Red Cars, Yellow Cars 2007. Now published by Tide-Mark (as Cedco went belly-up), the classic calendar with picture from the museum. However, due to size differences, this will be my “next month” calendar at work. I’ll note that Tide-Mark appears to have picked up much of Cedco’s old train calendar catalog… but it’s unclear, as Charles Ditlefsen may be publishing them himself at MyCalendarDepot. |
I should note that I’m old fashioned. No PDA for me. My calendars are up on the wall, with cut-up pieces of Post-It notes on the days to mark events. At work, I have two calendars: this month, and next month. At the beginning of the month, I move the Post-It notes from the “next” to the “current” month calendar.
It’s never too early to start planning. I know that at home I have events beyond the end of the calendar (the Jewish Celebrations calendar is Jewish-year based, and thus ends around September), and I know I’m already thinking about dates in Summer 2007.
What The Hell…
Life’s too short. We now have tickets to Tick Tick Boom on Saturday afternoon, June 24th. Looks like a busy, busy summer.
It’s Friday. Woo-Hoo
This has been an incredibly busy week. Other than my shoulder still bothering me, I’ve been going like gangbusters. So what’s going on:
- I’ve just completed the process of bringing all my journal entries into the tag space. Next is refining the tag space.
- Wednesday night we had our first Bar/Bat Mitzvah parent’s round robin. ’twas quite interesting, although I was a bit of a show-off due to my knowledge from the FAQ. I do like Rabbi Jim’s approach to having the kids to a lot of the service and coming out feeling good. He recommended that we all see the movie Keeping Up With The Steins. Luckily, we’ve got a head start on the Mitzvah Project… it looks like NSS&F will be helping our good friend Jolie revamp the webpage for, and work with, the Los Angeles Radio Reading Service.
- Last night, I did some more rearranging in the garage. We’re getting closer to being unpacked. We only moved… almost a year ago!
- This Saturday I’m going to the No Ho Arts Festival, a two-day festival of theatre and the arts in North Hollywood. Hopefully the weather will hold up for this. It should be fun, but I’ll be going by my lonesome: ‘da wife and kid will be at the CDF Annual Conference and Food Faire, ellipticcurve will be gaming, and venedotia will be working. Is anyone reading this going to NoHo on Saturday? Perhaps we could meet.
- I’ve been having a bunch of fun communicating with some family members back east whom I’ve never met (Weinbaum branch), who might be coordinating a family reunion in the Nashville area sometime next year. See what happens when you put your family tree online.
- Early next week is the California State Science Fair at USC. Monday afternoon I’ll be taking NSS&F to view all the projects–she’ll then write a report for her teacher on what she saw. Tuesday I’ll be a judge and panel chair for the Jr. Division Math and Software Panel. I’ve already looked through the projects a few times: there are some that are quite good, some that I’ve got good questions for, and some that I just don’t quite understand (J1218…and this is her 4th year on the same related subject [2005, 2004, 2003]… she started in 5th grade). I’m always amazed, reading the project summaries, that these are 6th – 8th graders (Jr. Division). The projects are just amazing.
- I’ll likely be doing my Stash Tea Order over the weekend. If you’re local and want to jump into the order, let me know and we’ll see what can be done.