Old Friends, New(ish) Cities, and Halloween! (Oh and Thesis Update)

So...two of the items in the post have really nothing to do with each other, but since it took me so long to post this, they are just going to all go in the same post.

Last weekend (not the one that is currently finishing up, but the previous one) I went to Washington DC for the weekend!  I went down because my friend had a conference there and I wanted to go see her.  I hadn't seen her in like 2 years!  Now, this is kind of a big deal because we've known each other since we were 5 years old....that's 19 years!  Crazy, right?  Anyway, I also got to see my other friend who's going to law school there which was also fun.  Somehow I didn't take any pictures with her though.  But anyway, DC was very fun, I got in on Friday, spent Saturday doing some touristy stuff in DC, and left Sunday evening.  On Saturday we walked alll over!  We went to the museum of natural history, the museum of the american indian, and then pretty much walked the length of the mall and looked at the various monuments.

I have a lot of pictures of myself now with the Washington Monument...

19 years of friendship!  Now would you believe I'm actually older than her?
(Ok, by 4 months...but still!)

We had Smores at Cosi hehehe

This was my dinner at the Spanish Tapas restaurant...I miss Spain!

So that was DC.  It was definitely a fun break.

Oh, I promised a Thesis update so I'll do that now.  I successfully turned in the first draft of my thesis to my advisor (yay!) and she sent it back with comments.  So far it is roughly 13 pages double spaced.  I'm going back through it now and reorganizing some of the elements and figuring out what should go where and all of that.  It's looking good though!

On another side note, it snowed here yesterday!  It seems super early for snow, but the weather will do whatever it wants to do I suppose.

Snow!!

Last night I also went to a Halloween party for a little bit thrown by some friends which was fun.  I didn't have a costume because I just didn't bother this year.  I didn't have the time or the energy to organize a costume.  But that's ok.  I ended up just wearing a Halloween shirt I had and went for the "Halloween Chic" look.

I guess that's all for now.  I'll try and update a little bit sooner next time :)  Especially because I have some fun shows coming up I'm planning on seeing!

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!