Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope that everyone is able to go home and visit their families, have a huge amount of food, and fall asleep to the sound of football. Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday, my favorite of the year. It's not about buying people things or patriotism, but about family and food and...well, giving thanks. This year we are able to have Thanksgiving, despite Mom's surgery (hurray for Fred & Murray's Catering Service), so I'm heading home for the day.

I have a great deal to be thankful for this year - mom's health, my new job, us sticking it out for 5 years, the apartment holding up, and having great friends. Also the two composing wins are nice. Also this site's redesign and podcast! I'll thank myself for starting those.

But really, I'm most thankful for the kind, understanding people in my life, the ones who get me even when I try not to let them, the ones who listen and help me when I'm down. Because of them, I can actually let myself be optimistic! So thanks to everyone, and happy Thanksgiving.

Labels: holiday

Check out the first song in my Song-A-Week podcast, "Breathe".

I woke up this morning to find 3 inches of snow on the ground, blanketing the trees and cars. Snow is this beautiful silence, deadening the sounds it falls on, replacing them with that crunch beneath your feet. I bundled myself up, and as I walked to work I heard less chatter and car horns than I had in ages. I stuck out my tongue to catch a snowflake (yum!) and despite the cold, I felt very calm, and warm.

Winter is a wonderful time of year. The cold brings us together, huddled under blankets, or drinking hot chocolate by a glowing fire/Wii (take your pick!), or maybe eating soup at the table. Things seem to matter less in the winter, you're just happy to have your health, something warm to wear and eat, and a loved one by your side. Snow really puts things in perspective.

I am a stressed out person, I find it near impossible to relax most of the time, but a fresh coat of snow does me wonders!

Labels: reflection

As a huge "The Producers" fan, I highly anticipated Mel Brooks' new musical, "Young Frankenstein". While I wasn't wholly disappointed, there were certain aspects of the show that I felt could have used some tweaking.

For those who haven't seen "Young Frankenstein" the movie, the premise is pretty hilarious. Victor von Frankenstein (yes, that Frankenstein) has recently passed away, and Transylvania's only fear is that his sole relative, his grandson Frederick, will return to Transylvania, only to reenact his grandfather's most infamous experiment. Frederick is a professor at a medical school in New York. He is called back to Transylvania to settle affairs and of course, hilarity ensues.

Note that the movie (and the musical) is one big penis joke, the best being the ending - "If the monster received your intelligence from the brain transfer, what did YOU get?" Classic. The musical's main problem was that it was simply too over-the-top - the "Puttin on the Ritz" bit was extended (like "Springtime for Hitler" was in "The Producers"), the final dance number at the end of Act I felt like filler. Hilarious filler, though.

The cast was great. Roger Bart made for a very likable impersonation of Gene Wilder, though his Wilder "scream" was too garbled. The real star (for me anyway) was Megan Mullaly, who was absolutely hilarious. The best part - her "surprise" trip to Castle Frankenstein, where upon she descends from a staircase under a spotlight singing "It's ME!". Fantastic. The choreography was top-notch, but again, there was a bit too much of it.

All and all, "Young Frankenstein" was very funny and a very good time, just a bit too long, a bit too ragged around the edges. I wondered how Mel Brooks could even make a musical out of this movie, and I think they did the best they good. It's definitely worth seeing, even if the movie version is just plain better.

Labels: review