This has definitely been a fun past few weeks. I've also gotten back into my habit of seeing a different show every weekend :) It makes me very happy. So as I've already mentioned two weekends ago my name was called for the lottery for Newsies, one weekend ago my name was called for Book of Mormon. And this weekend, get this, my name was called yet again! My friend and I decided to try our luck for Peter and the Starcatcher. I had picked up the book that this show is based on a couple weeks ago at a used bookstore and the book was so cute and I had heard such good things about the play that I really wanted to see it. My friend humored me and went too even though she literally knew nothing about the show.
The basic plot of Peter and the Starcatcher is that it's supposed to be the prequel to Peter Pan in that it explains how this boy became Peter Pan and how Neverland came to be. As I said, it 's based on a book, but the play is actually fairly different. It's very tongue in cheek and at times very cheesy, but it was really funny and really well done. One of the things the play does it that it takes a very minimalist approach to the sets, props, costumes, etc. The actors become different props and you definitely have to use your imagination, but the actors and the staging is so brilliant that it still really comes alive. One of the actors from the tv show Smash was also in it, and he was hysterical.
The only awful thing about the show is that there were these people sitting behind us who had THE MOST ANNOYING laughter in the history of laughter. It was extremely shrill, loud, and constant. But other than that the show was fantastic!
It's hard to find good clips from the show, but this should give you a good idea:
We also ended up going to the Hell's Kitchen Flea market. There is just about everything you could imagine there. Mostly, though, it was nice to walk around in the sunshine and look at the various knick knacks people are selling.
The beginning of the flea market
We stopped for slurpees on the way home
And on a random side note, my other friend is moving to a new apartment soon and we went to go see it today. I took a picture of the across the hall neighbor's door tag because it amused me.
No, I don't think she actually lives across the hall from Matthew Broderick...but wouldn't that be awesome!?
My friend was in town visiting this weekend (I know, I seem to have a lot of friends who visit but I guess when you live in an awesome city people are more likely to visit hehe) and so we were playing tourist and a couple of awesome things happened!
First of all we decided to try the lottery for tickets to see Book of Mormon. And, against all odds, MY name was pulled!! We got to sit in the front row too. The show was just as amazing as the first time and now I'll probably have to obsessively listen to the soundtrack again.
Me with the winning ticket!
After the show we were just walking around Times Square and we stumbled upon where they were doing a promotional campaign for Dove soap. They gave me a flier and asked if I wanted some free samples and would like to be in the campaign so I said sure! Basically they have this slogan about real women real skin or something like that so their latest ad campaign is to get women to send in their photos, or have their photos taken and then they put the photos up on their billboard in Times Square. So we went up there and I got some free soap and they took my picture!
The picture of the billboard isn't very good because basically there was a screen where they had a live feed of what the billboard looked like since there wasn't enough time to run back outside after your photo was uploaded. But you can get the sense.
I also don't know how often they change this but if you go to Dove.com/ShowUsYourSkin my picture is there as well! I took a screenshot though in case they change it up.
The Dove homepage. The arrow is pointing to my picture!
My picture that they took
Besides getting free soap they also gave me a free t-shirt. So, all in all, it was pretty cool!
And then on another side note, on Monday we will be moving desks around in the office. Basically they were doing construction on one half of the office and on Monday they are finally finished and are opening it up. My department is one of the departments moving to the new side so we had to pack up all of our stuff and label our computer/chairs/monitors etc so that they can move everything to the new desks over the weekend. I was amused so I thought I'd share a picture I took on Friday:
We've been very excited at work recently because the newest season of Top Gear just premiered and in its first day on the iTunes store it is already at the #1 most downloaded season! It even beat out Downton Abbey for the top spot, which is awesome because that has had the top spot for just about forever. So yay!
On a side note, this week has been dragging on and on and on and I will be very happy when Friday rolls around. I have a friend staying with me this weekend so we'll see if I have any fun stories to post about on Monday!
I realized something the other day when I was reading the comments on iTunes. The average person has absolutely no idea how digital distribution works. When iTunes users want more of a show they appeal to iTunes in the comments section to put up more or the next season of their favorite show. iTunes has practically nothing to do with it though! It all has to do with rights issues and the channel that is putting out the show. Just something I was thinking about!
This weekend was so awesome! First of all the weather was (and actually still is) gorgeous so that was wonderful. Plus Monica was down visiting and we had a great time hanging out and playing tourist in the city.
Highlights of our wanderings:
Going to Central Park and walking by the Imagine mural and Strawberry Fields.
The Imagine Mural
We also went into the International Center of Photography, which is actually right across the street from my work. They were having an exhibit on a photographer named Weegee who I guess was a famous tabloid and newspaper photographer in the mid-1930s. It was a pretty interesting exhibit even though it was a lot of pictures of dead bodies, which was kind of weird.
We also found this super awesome used bookstore called Book Off on 45th. About 3/4 of their books, I swear, were $1! They also sold DVDs and CDs for ridiculously low prices since they were used as well. I bought a couple of books and I am definitely going back there!
And last but certainly not least, we got to see Newsies!!!!!
First I'll tell how we got the tickets, then give some more info about the show :)
So Newsies doesn't have a standard rush ticket policy, they follow in the same vain as Wicked and Rent and Book of Mormon and instead do a lottery rush. So basically you show up a couple hours before the show and if they draw your name out of a hat you are allowed to buy up to 2 tickets for $30. Monica and I tried 4 times over the weekend (2 shows on Sat and 2 shows on Sun). And then the evening performances Kari joined us. We didn't really expect to get tickets, especially Sun night when Kari was with us. If you're following the math, if you have 3 people but only one person's name gets called, only two people can go :( So we were waiting for rush anyway, just for fun, and of course Kari's name gets called! Kari being the amazingly nice person that she is had decided that she didn't really need to go and that if her name was called she would just send me and Monica to the show instead. The sweetest thing ever, right? So when her name was called we were really happy, but felt really bad because I'm sure she wanted to see the show too and I was definitely gonna get ready to say for the two of the them to see the show and I'd try to catch it another time. BUT....a few names later....MY name is called! So we were super super excited because that meant all three of us could go!! And then, in an amusing turn of events a few moments later...Monica's name was called! Haha. We still only bought the 3 tickets but we were so amused that all three of our names were called during one lottery draw. Oh, and the show was AMAZING.
Now on to the show itself. Newsies is based off the Disney movie of the same name that came out in 1992. It was more or less a flop when it came out but then went on to become somewhat of a cult classic. The show is about the newsboy strike in 1899 when the head of the newspapers wanted to raise the price of newspapers so the newsboys would have to sell more to make the same amount. They weren't going to have that though and formed a strike.
The trailer for the original movie:
The plot is not the reason to see this musical, haha. But the dancing and the singing is. The talent in this show is seriously unbelievable! I kind of geeked out when I saw it too because there are several dancers in the ensemble who were on So You Think You Can Dance. And a couple of them were some of my favorites :)
Here is the cast performing on The View. If you watch it you'll see what I mean about them being ridiculously talented:
And after the show we stopped for autographs :) All of the cast were really nice and seemed genuinely happy to come out to sign autographs and talk to everyone. I got several comments on my hat, which I suppose is in Newsies style ^_^
Signed playbill
The majority of the cast also have these little playing cards which are really cute. I only got Alex Wong's though (He was on So You Think You Can Dance)
My roommate saw a mouse several weeks ago, but since I hadn't seen it I was mostly pretending it didn't exist for my own sanity. But on Thursday when I was home sick it ran into my room! I was sitting on my bed and I saw it slip under the door and behind by bookshelf. I was home alone, but Ice was home! So, after screaming bloody murder, I got Ice and some mouse traps and tried to force the mouse out from behind the bookshelf. It ran under my bed, but Ice was on it. He shimmied under my bed so quick and I'm yelling and trying to move boxes and things in my room so Ice has more space to go after the mouse. Ice then managed to chase the mouse out of my room and into the bathroom. I pointed Ice in the right direction and he chased the mouse out of the bathroom where it ran through my roommate's open door...ooops. I tried to get Ice to go into his room to try and fish out the mouse from there, but he lost the scent I think so that was the end of that adventure.
But! last night (monday) I was again sitting at my computer and it again ran in and behind the same bookshelf! I, of course, screamed again. At least now I know that if I'm ever in mortal peril my roommates will come out of their rooms to make sure I'm ok :) But anyway, we all knew where the mouse was and so we started frantically trying to come up with a plan of action. Clearly the mousetraps we have all over the house do not work so we went a little old school. We lined up shoeboxes in a path so that we could direct the mouse into an open box where we would then scoop up the box so it couldn't escape. So after we made our path, I moved the bookshelf around and hinged it so that the mouse could only get out on one side. It didn't really want to come out and for a second we thought it wasn't there anymore, but Ice managed to chase it out and right into the waiting box!! Actually it was a pretty fast little mouse and at first my roommates didn't see that it went in, but since I had the best vantage point to see the mouse I yelled that it was in the box, so they scooped up the box and inside was the mouse! I should have taken a picture, but I was a little preoccupied with making sure the mouse didn't get out of it's temporary trap.
So anyway, we took the box outside and released the mouse in the park across the street and came back inside.
And THAT, dear readers, is the saga of how I once had a mouse in my apartment but now no longer.
Last night my roommate invited me to come see a screening of a movie with her and it was actually quite cool! Turns out one of the guys that she sees every so often at the dog park when she walks Ice teaches film and so he invited her to see a screening of this movie called Thoth that he was showing to one of his classes. It's a short film documentary that actually won an Oscar in 2002 and the producer was there as well and she answered questions after the screening.
The film itself was interesting, it's about the life of this street performer who calls himself Thoth. He performed for a long time in San Francisco and then he moved to New York to live with his mother basically when he ran out of money. His performing is...well, to tell you the truth if I saw him on the street my first reaction would be "why doesn't he get a real job?" But it was an interesting story nonetheless. I think after seeing the documentary I have a little bit more sympathy for his plight...but at the same time, his performance art is really freaking weird.
On the other hand, if you just want a glimpse into what his performing is like, you can watch a clip of him auditioning for Americas Got Talent in 2007:
So like I said, very strange fellow, but it was cool to hear the producer talk about what it was like creating the movie. And it did win an Oscar, so there you go.
