A Rhode Island Weekend

Yes I know, I should be working on my thesis.  This is what I plan to do starting after I finish this post ^_^ Oh well.  It'll get done, right?...right????

Anyhooserwhatsits,  last weekend I got to go with my friend to see where she grew up in Rhode Island!  It was such a fun and relaxing weekend and now that I'm back I feel rejuvenated and ready to work on my thesis.  (Why does it always seem to come back to my thesis?)

We arrived on the train on Friday morning and left Sunday night.  So it was a quick trip but we managed to cram some awesome adventures in there.  Friday was spent eating (my friend's mom is an awesome cook), visiting my friend's high school and college and going to the mall.  The weird thing about the mall...it's in Massachusetts.  That's right, the better mall is not in the same state!  Oh, the east coast.  Anyway, this mall was huge!  It had 3 floors!!!!!!  Some of you will understand why I am so excited by this.  Yes New York is awesome and I love it here but there's no real mall!  There's just something about a mall thats so amazing.  But I digress.

Part of my friend's high school.  Isn't it a pretty campus?

Inside her high school :)

Dunkin Donuts...the mecca of New England

Saturday we went to Plymouth to see the infamous Plymouth Rock.  It was...small.  Well, not as small as I actually thought it would be.  They also keep it in this vault type cage because people used to be able to chip parts off of it and it got smaller and smaller until they decided they needed to do something to keep it safe.  But as it looked like from my perspective, they clearly had to keep the rock caged up so that it wouldn't escape in the middle of the night and terrorize the villagers.  Plymouth itself is a really cute little beach town.  You can see a recreation of the Mayflower (we didn't go on it but we saw the outside) and there are tons of cute little gift shops.  We also walked on the original street that existed when the pilgrims were here and got a tour of their first church and also toured the court house.  The best part was that the weather was GORGEOUS!  That night we also got to go to a Portuguese restaurant, which was really yummy, but I forgot to take pictures so oh well.

The Mayflower II

Two little gift shops by the Mayflower

Where they keep Plymouth Rock

The Rock!

The rock inside its cage

Famous Pilgrim

My feet

Cool statue that also acts as a sundial

The church at the top of the hill

The old courthouse

They have it set up like it would have been set up when it was still a courthouse
(view from the back)

Courthouse view from the front

Looking down at the original Pilgrim street

Inside the church

The stained glass was really cool

It depicts historical events

There's a cemetery behind the church that has some of the oldest gravestones in the USA 

The oldest gravestone from 1681

View of where the rock is housed again

I just thought it was funny that this restaurant was called Al's

Basically the weekend was really awesome and it really was nice to get out of the city for a few days.  I do enjoy coming home to New York though :)

Dressed up to go to the Portuguese restaurant 

Hanging out before the train ride home

My Weekend

This is how I have spent/will spend the majority of my time this weekend:

New Shows!

Two posts in one week?  Now that's just crazy talk!  I'm currently getting geared up to spend several hours (and by several I mean a million hours!) (and by a million I really mean just most of today and this weekend) working on my thesis.  My first draft is due October 21st!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH THESIS!!!!!!!!!!  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH....*pant* *pant* *pant*...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH....

hehe ^_^  I kid, I kid.  I have total confidence in myself that my first draft will get done.

But firsssssst.  An article came out of all the shows that will probably be nominated for Tony Awards in 2012 so I thought I would share the list, with my comments of course :)

So here goes:

The Fall Season

Spider-Man Turn off the Dark  - Already saw it, it was awful.Opened June 14 (Foxwoods Theatre)
The long-awaited, much talked-about flying spectacular about a guy from Queens who acquires superpowers when bitten by a spider. Music and Lyrics by Bono and the Edge, Book by Julie Taymor, Glen Berger and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, and starring Reed Carney and Jennifer Damiano as the romantic leads and Patrick Page as the villainous Green Goblin. 

Master Class - Guess I missed that one.  Oh well.  From what I heard it was good but I don't really care that much about Tyne Daly so I'm not too broken up about it.Opened July 7 (Samuel J. Friedman Theatre) CLOSED
Past Tony-winner Tyne Daly (Gypsy) channeled Maria Callas in a revival of Terrence McNally’s loving tribute to the great opera diva known to many as “La Divina.”

Hair - Saw it.  It was awesome!
Opened July 13 (St. James) CLOSED
The “tribe” of 2009’s Best Revival of a Musical winner were back on Broadway for a summer return engagement to once again let the sun shine. Music by Galt McDermot; Book and Lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni. 

Follies - AMAAAAAAZING!!!!!!!
Opened September 12 (Marquis)
The Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman musical about “Weismann Follies” showgirls reuniting on the verge of their theatre’s destruction. This 1972 Tony-nominee for Best Musical returns to Broadway starring two-time Tony-winner Bernadette Peters, four-time Tony-nominee Jan Maxwell, two-time nominee Danny Burstein, Ron Raines and Elaine Page.

Man and Boy - Why do plays always have to sound so depressing and dramatic?
In previews.
Opens October 9 (American Airlines)
In time for the centennial of English playwright Terrence Rattigan (The Winslow Boy,The Deep Blue Sea, Separate Tables), a revival of one of his lesser-known works. Past Tony Award-winner Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon) plays a Depression-era financier who is not above using his own son (played by Adam Driver) as sexual bait to snare an investor who could save his tottering business.

The Mountaintop - I heard this was really good, I'm not sure if I'll get around to seeing it though.
In previews. Opens October 13 (Bernard B. Jacobs)
Playwright Katori Hall’s fictional account of a late-night encounter between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a mysterious woman. The action takes place in 1968 on the night before King was assassinated in Memphis.  Samuel L. Jackson plays the great civil rights leader and Angela Bassett the nocturnal visitor.

Relatively Speaking - More plays?  At least this one advertises itself as a comedy.
In previews. Opens October 20 (Brooks Atkinson)
An evening of three one-act plays by Ethan Cohen, Elaine May and Woody Allen. The trio of comedic writers dissect family insanity, death and a wedding in their own inimitable styles. The cast includes Julie Kavner, Steve Guttenberg and Marlo Thomas.

Chinglish - This one looked pretty funny but who knows if I'll get a chance to go and see it.  
Starts October 11, opens October 27 (Longacre)
A new play by David Henry Hwang, winner of the 1988 Best Play Tony Award for M. Butterfly. Hwang explores Sino-American (mis)communication and (mis)information is a comedy about a businessman from Cleveland who travels to a small provincial city in China in the hopes of reviving his family-owned signage business. Written to be performed by actors fluent in both English and Mandarin.

Other Desert Cities - I keep hearing about this show without quite understanding what it's about.  Didn't realize Stockard Channing was in it though.  Isn't she really really old?
Starts October 12, opens November 3 (Booth)
Stockard Channing plays a staunch Reagan-era Republican in Jon Robin Baitz’s play about a family harboring a secret, which transfers from an Off Broadway run last season.  The cast includes Stacey Keach, Thomas Sadoski, Judith Light, and Rachel Weisz.

Godspell - Oh I am sooooooo here.  One of the actors is also the kid who played Wes on the Warblers in Glee.  Awesome, right?Starts October 13, opens November 7 (Circle in the Square)
A 40^th-anniversary revival of the joyous musical, based on the Gospel of St. Matthew, from composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz (Wicked) starring Hunter Parrish (“Weeds”) in the role of Jesus.

Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway - If they do rush tickets for this I definitely want to see this show (along with the majority of my friends haha) but I don't think I would pay full price to see it.
Starts October 25, opens November 10 (Broadhurst)
The title tells you all you need to know. Besides thrilling movie fans as X-Men’s Wolverine, Australian superstar and three-time past Tony Awards host Hugh Jackman has previously starred on Broadway in The Boy from Oz (Tony Award, Best Actor in a musical) and the gritty police thriller A Steady Rain.  Jackman performs some of his favorite musical numbers in concert. 

Private Lives - Yay another comedy!  Also seeing Kim Catrall could be kind of fun.  Now if only I can get myself motivated to actually see a play or 2 this season...
Starts November 6, opens November 17 (Music Box)
Sex and the City’s Kim Catrall and Paul Gross (Slings and Arrows) play a dueling divorced couple who still find each other irresistible. They meet on adjoining balconies in a hotel while on honeymoon—with their new spouses—in this effervescent 1930 romantic comedy by Noël Coward.

Seminar - ALAN RICKMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I don't care what it's about, I want to see Alan Rickman perform live!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Starts October 27, opens November 20 (Golden)
This world premiere play by Theresa Rebeck (Mauritius) is a dark comedy about a famous writer played by two-time past Tony-nominee Alan Rickman who unscrupulously exercises his power over the four students in his private writing class. Also starring 2011 Tony-nominee Lily Rabe (The Merchant of Venice).

An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin - I saw Patti LuPone sing in January during a showcase so I think I'll live without seeing this unless I happen to find myself with some free time and some cheap tickets.
Starts November 16, opens November 21 (Ethel Barrymore)
The Tony Award-winning original stars of Evita reunite on Broadway for a concert performance billed as a “unique theatrical love story” celebrating some of the greatest songs written for the stage.

Venus in Fur - Sounds....odd? 
Starts October 13, opens November 8 (Samuel J. Friedman)
In the Broadway debut of David Ives’ comedy, Nina Arianda (a 2011 Tony-nominee for Born Yesterday) plays an actress who pulls out every stop in her determination to land the lead in a new play based on a famous erotic novel. Co-starring Hugh Dancy.

Bonnie & Clyde - This sounds interesting, but it could be just another horrible movie turned musical adventure.
Starts November 4, opens December 1 (Gerald Schoenfeld)
Laura Osnes and Jeremy Jordan play the infamous Depression-era bank robbers. This new musical boasts a score that combines rockabilly, blues and gospel music.  Music by Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlett Pimpernel), lyrics by Don Black, book by Ivan Menchell.

Stick Fly - A comedy of manners...hmmmm
Starts November 18, opens December 8 (Cort)
A comedy of manners by Lydia R. Diamond about an affluent African American family spending a summer weekend at their home on Martha’s Vineyard.

On a Clear Day You Can See Forever - Harry Connick Jr?  Score!  I guess since I never really knew what the traditional show is like I won't really know how the new one differs, but apparently they are making very big changes in this revival.
Starts November 12, opens December 11 (St. James)
The 1965 Broadway musical by Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner gets a makeover in a “reconceived” version that enhances the score with Lane’s music from the 1970 movie adaptation (which starred Barbra Streisand) and the 1951 Lane-Lerner movieRoyal Wedding; and a new book by playwright Peter Parnell.  Harry Connick Jr. (a Tony nominee for his performance in the 2006 revival of The Pajama Game) plays a psychiatrist who is helping a patient to quit smoking through hypnosis. The patient is now a young gay man who regresses under treatment into a past life as a female jazz singer from the 1940s.

Lysistrata Jones - I am not quite sure what to think about this show, but the description sounds intriguing. 
Starts November 12, opens December 14 (Walter Kerr)
A pop-musical comedy with musical and lyrics by Lewis Flinn and a book by Douglas Carter Beane (Tony nominee for Xanadu and The Little Dog Laughed) that transfers from an Off Broadway run.  In this contemporary version an Ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, a group of female cheerleaders try to reverse their college basketball team’s 30-year losing streak by forcing their athlete boyfriends to “give it up” until they win a game. 

So that's it!  There will be more shows opening in the spring but of course less details currently exist about those shows.  And now that this blog post is taken care of I am off to live in thesis land.  

Voca People

Hey all!

I just realized I haven't done a post in a while.  I don't see why this semester seems so much busier than previous ones, but I think it's just the stress of thesising.  (Is that a word?  Well it is now!)  I'm still completely loving my sign language class.  As of the time of this post I can have a conversation with someone about colors, feelings, and personalities (with some other random comments thrown in there).  I really hope I'll be able to continue practicing and maybe even taking classes after this semester is over because it is really really fun.  It also helps I think that the class instructor is amazing.  She's so much fun and so expressive when she's teaching us.

So anyway, I did get to see a show over the weekend so I figured I'd give my opinion about that.  On Sunday I went to see a matinee of Voca People.  Voca People is an off-broadway show that is basically about these aliens who land in NYC and need music to energize their spaceship so they can get back to their home planet of Voca.  Oh, and they sing acapella.  So basically it's an acapella show with a vague plot attached to it.  All in all, it wasn't a bad show.  They had pretty good voices and I enjoyed a lot of their song selections.  The only weird thing is that most of the time it seemed like a show for kids.  There were definitely lots of kids in the audience, the voca people spent the whole time talking in a broken english mixed with their jibberish language, and they definitely acted quite silly.  On the other hand, there were quite a few adult jokes peppered in there and while I thought it was a funny show there were a couple of points where I couldn't help but look out in the audience and think to myself..."did they really just say that?  There are kids here!"  Also the music selections didn't seem to be ones that kids would recognize or really enjoy.  So that was the only dilemma.

The songs were pretty good.  It was mostly medleys.  For example, the first medley they did was kind of a history of music which was pretty cool.  They did a couple love song medleys (another point where I was a little shocked that kids were in the audience), they even did a medley of operatic songs.  Oh and there was definitely a ton of audience participation.  It was the kind of audience participation that is hysterical because it's not happening to you, but also makes you kind of slink down in your seat as they come wandering into the audience hoping they pick the person sitting next to you and not you.

So anyway, the point is it was an entertaining show.  Perhaps it isn't a multiple viewings kind of show, but I enjoyed myself.

I looked quite a bit for a good youtube video.  This one is kind of long but if you skim through it it should give a good idea of the kind of show it is.  The first medley is the history of music one.  The second medley is the love songs one that the guys sing.  The girls do their own in the show as well.  Also I've been informed that the language the talk show is in is Brazilian Portuguese, just in case you were wondering.

A New Semester

Well the semester has finally started and even though I'm taking less classes than in the Spring I can already tell it's going to be a busy few months!

I'm only taking one official class this semester which is American Sign Language.  I had my first class last night and it was so much fun!!  I think it's going to be a little bit challenging because I have to practice and remember what I've been taught but I'm definitely loving it.  We learned just some simple things like the alphabet, colors, and a few expressions including "I like" and "I don't like".  The instructor is really nice and I think this class is going to be very cool.

Here's a cute youtube video I found of the alphabet in case anyone is interested. :)

The other thing I have to work on this semester is my thesis.  I'll try and keep my loyal readers updated with my progress.  Basically right now I just have a proposal written out and soon I need to flush out an outline to work with.  Basically I'm going to be creating a tv show for kids that will be distributed online that will teach simple signs and give kids the motivation to be interested in American Sign Language.  So basically I'll be doing research on pedagogy, the deaf community, and what other similar things are already out there.  My eventual thesis has to be around 30 pages I think in the end.

This weekend I'm going to try and get caught up with things and make sure I'm ready for my last semester of graduate school!

Fun Pictures and Fun Adventures!

The week that Kari was here I definitely played tourist with her and had a blast!  But I think she ran me a little ragged.  I swear we did so much stuff that I don't even know where to being.  So I'm going to take my usual cop out method and post my favorite pictures with subtitles of what they are and let you piece together our adventures from that.  Huzzah for laziness!  ^_^

Aaaand here we go!

Inside Toys R Us

Also inside Toys R Us

Our dessert pizza at Dylan's Candy Bar

At the Stardust Cafe

Inside the M&M Store

Walking around after the hurricane

Hurricane aftermath

At the Museum of Natural History

Walking around in Central Park

Getting ready to take the ferry to Staten Island

We had a really good view of the Statue of Liberty!

Sitting on the red steps in Times Square

Flying with Mary Poppins!

Why yes, I'll go to another show please

It has certainly been an interesting last couple of weeks.  First, there was the earthquake (yes, I was completely fine, the building swayed for about 30 seconds and just as I could figure out what was going on, it had finished) and then my friend Kari was visiting (we had a lot of fun!) and during her visit there was the crazy hurricane (again, all is fine).  So that leaves little time for posting :)  Today I shall fix that!  While my friend was visiting she wanted to see a bunch of shows (a girl after my own heart) so we did just that!  I ended up seeing 4 shows with her and then she saw another 2 on her own (that I had already seen). Also...I'm apparently very into parentheses right now.

Anyway, here's my little blurbs on the shows I saw and in another post I'll write about the other adventures we had.

First show:  Cirque de Solei's Zarkana!

This is your typical Cirque de Solei show.  It was at Radio City so that was a cool venue to see it in for sure.  I think this is the first time I've actually seen a real cirque show besides on TV and it was really entertaining.  The whole thing is mesmerizing and they use some really cool special features throughout the show.  I was also vaguely aware that there was supposed to be some sort of plot happening during the show but I have no idea what it was.  Apparently this is typical of cirque de solei shows.  At any rate, it was such an amazing show to experience and I'm really glad I saw it!



The second show I saw was something I probably wouldn't have ever seen except that the timing was correct. I saw a show called Hero the Musical which was playing for a short time at Lincoln Center. Here's how I ended up seeing it. When Kari and I were wandering around we ended up going on the tour of some of the Lincoln Center theatres and she saw the poster for the show and wanted to know what it was about. I knew I had heard of it but really didn't know if the plot sounded that interesting. We ended up touring the theatre it was playing in and inside the theatre they had a preview for it playing on the televisions in the lobby. Actually seeing part of it, it looked like it could be a really good show. I looked on TDF (the website I belong to where I can get discount tickets) and they happened to have tickets listed on there. So Kari and I decided we would go and check it out. I also asked my friend Ju Yeon who also invited her friend. Oh, I should mention this musical is entirely in Korean and was performed with English subtitles. Also my friend Ju Yeon is Korean.

This will probably be a terrible synopsis of the show but basically about 100 years ago when Japan was trying to take control of Korea, there was a revolutionary who shot the Japanese president and was caught and executed in jail. The musical is telling his story. The musical was of course very patriotic towards Korea but it was also an extremely well done show. The special effects were really cool, the music was captivating to listen to (it had 34 musical numbers!) and even though I was reading subtitles I felt myself being drawn into the story and the characters.

Anyway, I'm really glad everything worked out and I got to see this show because it was really great. Also, I forgot to add that it won a bunch of musical awards in Korea.

Here's one of the songs from the end of the show where the main character is getting tried.



The 3rd show I saw was Spiderman the musical. Sadly, all the reviewers have been correct about this show. It was a train wreck. The music was not memorable at all, the story and dialoge was silly and lame, and it was just an awful show. The only cool thing was when Spiderman and the Green Goblin flew out into the audience. But even that was made not as cool by silly voice overs of Spiderman saying things like "sorry I'm late!" and stuff like that. Oh, and even the actors were not that amazing. So basically except for a couple moments where you're like "ooo, how did they do that?" (and by a couple moments I seriously mean like 2 moments in the whole show), the show was pretty awful. I wouldn't say it isn't worth watching if you feel intrigued to see it, but certainly don't pay full price for it or you'll be kicking yourself.

And, since I don't really want to show the trailer for the musical (because of course it shows it as an awesome and wonderful show) and it's my blog so I can do what I like, I will instead provide you with a spoof from Sesame Street. Enjoy ^_^



But, on to the 4th show, and it certainly makes up for how awful Spiderman was. The last show I got to see was Follies. This is a limited run of the same show that was playing in DC at the Kennedy Center. It starred many acting greats such as Bernadette Peters and Elaine Paige. It was such a beautiful show. It's not the happiest of shows because it's mostly about how everyone is unhappy with how their lives turned out. But it was a wonderful show just the same. I feel so lucky that I've gotten to see Bernadette Peters perform live twice now (the other was when I saw A Little Night Music with my mom). She's so incredible. The rest of the cast was amazing as well. I'm so happy I saw this show!

Here's the broadway.com preview of the show.



And there you have it, my week in shows. I'll do another post with random pictures of our fun week :)

The Museum of the Moving Image

Yesterday I went with some friends to The Museum of the Moving Image.  The museum is in Queens and is one of the places I can get into for free with my Columbia ID.  This is an awesome museum.  It's probably not one that I would have gone to normally just because it is a little bit farther away, but it was such a cool museum that I'm definitely planning a return trip.

Probably the best part of the museum is that currently they have an exhibit all about Jim Henson and The Muppets!  I love muppets!!  They had a lot of his drawings and storyboards from his earlier career as well as video displays with clips and interviews from his work.  I've read quite a bit about him and I still learned a lot!  They even had a Kermit the frog on display as well as some of the other muppets.

Some of their permanent exhibits include a collection of old cameras, and tons of movie props and costumes.  They even have this booth where you record a 5 second video of yourself doing something and then in the gift shop they can make it into a flip book!  There are other interactive displays where you can make your own stop motion animation film, you can re-dub over the audio of different movies, and change the sound effects.  They basically take you through the different processes of creating a movie.

If you like movies and TV, this is definitely a good museum to visit! ^_^