Tavie blogs i like:
amy | ? |
Saturday, March 06, 2004
Did you ever see the word "Osama" and misread it as "Ozma"?
Me neither. The Bright Young People tricked me into agreeing to go with them to some bar tonight in midtown. No one is letting me back down, but Gina gets to stay home because she's apparently very Old and Withered. Gotta stay home and take care of the ole rheumatiz, Granny does. I'm feeling surly. Also paranoid and vaguely threatened. So this is what it's like to be my dad. Why are you in Tavie's head? 7:38 PM | shower me with attention
Gina and Steph and Kitana have been apartment-hunting. They want to move from Mint Manor into a smaller apartment where I don't get to have my own room anymore. They can do it too because The New Tavie is nicer, more fun and has a job (read: can pay rent). They're going to get a dog. They're going to name it "We Hate Tavie".
(I'm being a shit. Don't worry.) Why are you in Tavie's head? 4:09 PM | shower me with attention
Two solid hours of sleep before dawn. What more could a girl hope for?
So, the great thing about Sweeney Todd was that I am now a grownup. The show itself was okay. The production was fine, almost unchanged, I think, from the original. The first act moves terribly slowly, the second act seems rushed, but is more exciting. The music is immensely unhummable. This must be the musical where Sondheim got his reputation for that. And, oh, way too operatic. Horribly operatic. I really do hate opera. The only songs I felt at all stirring were "Pretty Women" and the second incarnation of "Johanna" (Act II). Not that I remember them, but I'm sure I enjoyed them at the time. Elaine Paige was very good. Everyone else was just too opera-singer-y. No, the great part came at the end, where I was able to applaud honestly (thinking, I'm applauding for _Sweeney Todd_) and, as the final door slammed and the spotlight dropped, I thought, There's one demon put to bed. Because I can't really be afraid of high melodrama like that anymore. It was very creepy and gross, to be sure, but this was something like Mom snapping on the light to reveal that the monsters are just heaps of clothes. Although I can totally see why I was afraid of it as a 16-year-old. There's this whole subplot having to do with asylums, and anything remotely mental-institutiony used to utterly traumatize me. Plus, I don't like it when people are shoved into ovens. So there was the whole Hansel-and-Gretel element. Furthermore, I'm scared enough of people who cut hair for a living without them having to go make a big production out of it. It played on all my worst fears-- perishing in fire, mental asylums, haircutting, complex carbohydrates-- certainly I was terrified! It was lots of fun having the whole Night Out at the Theatre thing with Andrew. Most excitingly, he was compelled to come out and spend the night at Mint Manor-- he's asleep on the BRAND NEW COUCH right now! It was either that or spend the night the sole and captive audience of my father. I believe he made the wise choice. A smart boy, my Andrew. Why are you in Tavie's head? 6:15 AM | shower me with attention Friday, March 05, 2004
So, my sister has backed out of seeing Sweeney Todd at the last minute. Leaving just me and Andrew and an extra ticket.
If anyone wants to get down to Lincoln Center (except my stalker, please) in the next hour and a half, free ticket to scary musical! If not, extra seat for us to put our coats on! Kirsten, you suck. Why are you in Tavie's head? 6:31 PM | shower me with attention
Marijuanalogues, directed by Jim Millan, comes to NYC!
I'm there, baby. It's just so damn fitting. Why are you in Tavie's head? 6:24 PM | shower me with attention
In lieu of anything interesting to say, I'm going to play The Game again:
(The Rules are: Step 1: Open your Winamp or other MP3 player. Step 2: Put all of your music on random. Step 3: Write down the first ten songs it plays, no matter how embarrassing.) 1. Fifteen Birds - The Hobbit (Soundtrack) 2. Grass (Home Demo) - XTC 3. If We Can Dream It (Theme from "Horizons") - EPCOT 4. Sharkey's Day - Laurie Anderson 5. Sit Down, John - 1776 Original Broadway Cast 6. You Could Drive a Person Crazy - Company Original Broadway Cast 7. Losing My Mind - Tim Curry 8. Midnight Radio - Hedwig and the Angry Inch Original Off-Broadway Cast 9. Moon Shadow - Cat Stevens 10. Friends of Mine - Zombies Why are you in Tavie's head? 3:53 AM | shower me with attention Thursday, March 04, 2004
Finally finished that girly sweater last night. (It's for a boy due in April. I've already nicknamed the boy Oz. I hope his mother, my friend-from-junior-high Amanda, doesn't mind.) Poor Oz is going to have to wear a very girly little sweater. That's what they get for not finding out the sex until late! To make up for it, I'm knitting him a very simple cap (no hearts!) in matching yarn, and some very simple booties to go with it.
I must say, it's a very cute little sweater. Perhaps we should stop ascribing gender stereotypes to clothing, hmmmmmmm? Boys can wear feather-and-fan-lace if they want to... Why are you in Tavie's head? 10:54 PM | shower me with attention
Tomorrow is the Big Day. By the Big Day, I mean it is the day that I finally see Sweeney Todd at City Opera. Which I'm afraid of. I've been afraid of this musical since I saw the 1979 version with I taped it on the same tape as The Purple Rose of Cairo and I haven't been able to watch that movie since then because I'm too scared of that tape. I had them hide that tape. Like when Joey has to put The Shining in the freezer. It scared me so much I couldn't eat meat for at least a week afterwards. And I'm a big meat-eater. I'm talking major trauma. You couldn't even say the words "Sweeney Todd" around me for years. It still makes me cringe. Ask anyone in my family what's meant by "the scary musical". They'll know. Why am I going to see this thing again? Oh yeah. It's Sondheim, and it's free (from Tante Joan.) That's all it takes with me, apparently. I'm scared. *Proof that no one who reads my blog knows or cares what I'm talking about. ;) Why are you in Tavie's head? 10:45 PM | shower me with attention Wednesday, March 03, 2004
Can't stop thinking about The Triplets of Belleville. I want to own it and watch it over and over.
I liked the little jabs at Disney, although the Mickey turds were over-the-top. And the Fleischer-esque beginning terrified me as Fleischer-esque things always do. (I can't take that kind of grotesquerie. It's a waking nightmare for me.) But still I loved this movie. It can't all be the timing-- the throwback stuff in the age of the Tyranny of CGI. The computer effects were perfect accents, the way computer animation should be. Michael Eisner (or his successor, hmm? ;) needs to take note of this. (Hint: Rescuers Down Under: gooooooood; Dinosaur: baaaaaaaad.) Movies that rely on the fluidity-- the gracefulness-- of hand-drawn while still allowing computer animation to add to the atmosphere, that brings in touches of technical perfection to offset the real stuff-- that's what they need to go for. More Iron Giants. More Triplets of Belleville. Why are you in Tavie's head? 11:11 PM | shower me with attention
Someone remind me to buy In Touch Weekly tomorrow. Please.
I went to see The Triplets of Belleville tonight with Steph and Kitana. It blew me away. I adored it. It was like a big gulp of Swedish country air. (The film isn't Swedish, of course, but that's my favourite kind of country air.) Oh, see what traditional animation can be? What the fuck what the fuck, is that Big Bird on The West Wing? What the fuck??? Why are you in Tavie's head? 9:47 PM | shower me with attention Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Oh crap!
President Jennifer J. Raab and the MFA Program in Creative Writing invite you to the launch of the Hunter College Distinguished Writers Series with a reading of The Designated Mourner by Wallace Shawn. REUNITED: Wallace Shawn with his longtime friends and collaborators Larry Pine, Deborah Eisenberg, and André Gregory (director) for a rare public reading of The Designated Mourner. Please join us for an evening that will make you laugh, squirm, and keep you at the edge of your seat. You will wonder how Shawn could have known, years before, what it might be like to live in 2004. Tuesday, March 9, 7-10 P.M. (with one intermission) The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College (East 68th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues) Tickets: $10. Free for Hunter College students, faculty, staff and alumni. Valid I.D. required. To purchase tickets, please call 212.772.4448. The Hunter College MFA in Creative Writing, directed by Peter Carey, is a highly competitive program that offers promising writers the opportunity to study and practice the art of writing in small, intensive workshops and seminars in literature. Goddammit, I love Wallace Shawn. Although I've never read any of his plays. But I really WANT to. Anyway, I love him on film and in interviews. Dammit, why does it have to be during my Latin class?? Why are you in Tavie's head? 4:36 PM | shower me with attention
Yesterday would have been my grandma's 98th birthday. I reminded my parents, because I am cursed to remember dates like that. We joked that we should all boil a chicken to death in her honour, and make 3 cups of tea with one tea bag amongst us. Then we realized that we never had her tombstone engraved, and felt bad. I think we should do that already. It's been 8 years. Miss you, Grandma.
On March 17th my other grandma will have been... I don't know how old. She died 14 years ago. I like to celebrate each year by having a delicious meal of corned beef and cabbage, although she wasn't remotely Irish. I just found out that her name was actually Regina. Everyone always called her Eva, so I had no idea. I said, "Where the heck they'd get Eva from then?" and apparently they just pulled it out of nowhere. Well, damn. That's cool. I said, "So it doesn't have, like, a cool story behind it, like 'Goose' or anything." I think that's the first time I ever compared my grandma to Goose. I'm glad I had grandmas, as it was a very nice experience. I've always regretted not having experienced a grandpa. I think it would've been quite excellent. Also, cousins. Never had any of those. (Except for that jerk who's a cousin of my father's, who doesn't at all count.) Sometimes I like to ask about my dad's father, and hear stories about his old hardware store in Chinatown (the building where Pearl Paints is now) and what life was like in the Bronx in the 40's. I don't like ask about my mom's father very much, because he died when she was just ten, so it's a little too sad. All I know about him, really, is that he liked to catch and fry his own eels, and that he looked a lot like John Goodman. I wonder if John Goodman would like to be my adopted grandpa. Probably very insulted, as he's way too young. I have just fixed myself a meal of parmesan-crusted chicken strips and fried jicama, julienne, with lime juice and chili powder. I am quite the cook now, thanks to Dr. Atkins. Also I have a waist. Tango, tangere, tetigi, tactus-a-um. To touch. Facio, facere, feci, factus-a-um. To make, to do. Pervideo, pervidére, pervidi, pervisus-a-um. To realize. Why are you in Tavie's head? 4:57 AM | shower me with attention
Nope. Four hours, still. And not in time for Roseanne. Why are you in Tavie's head? 2:56 AM | shower me with attention Monday, March 01, 2004
The misery of my insomnia. I was so exhausted last night coming home from Mint Manor at 2 am that I fell asleep on the subway. That was after days of no more than 4 hours of sleep a night, you understand.
But when I got home, nothing. Nada. Exhausted but unable to sleep. Just a lot of coughing and it being too hot in here. I finally nodded off around 8 am this morning, six hours before I had to be up for school. The pain when I did manage to wake up and get to school on time-- this was a Valiant Triumph of the Human Spirit. I made it to Satire, handed in my paper, skipped Woodcutting, came home. Now I feel myself crashing. I could crash hard any second. I can barely type this. And this is very dangerous because I have a Latin test tomorrow night that I absolutely have to study for. I will not pass it if I don't do some serious studying. Furthermore, all I've had to eat today were 2 string cheeses and a small piece of jicama. If I crash now, I'll wake up nauseous from lack of food. So, when I desperately need to sleep, I'm not tired. And when I'm desperately tired, I'm not allowed to sleep. It's fucking misery. I'm sure you've all experienced it. Hold me. Learn my Latin for me, eat my dinner for me. Let me sleep. Why are you in Tavie's head? 8:13 PM | shower me with attention
And now it works again. The fuck? Why are you in Tavie's head? 8:12 PM | shower me with attention
I can't get connected to any Airport network. I'm using dial-up. Someone please fix this for me.
This is urgent. Why are you in Tavie's head? 7:04 PM | shower me with attention
Wow, Aimee's version of "Observatory"-- featuring backup by Glenn Tilbrook-- from the extended Lost in Space (ALBUM) (WHICH I STILL DON'T OWN) is so much better than Glenn Tilbrook's (solo) version from The Compleat Glenn Tilbrook (which I do own.)
Much better. Appropriate amount of production can do so much for a song. Goddammit I need that album. Also, I need the DVD of A Mighty Wind. Poll: Best part of the Oscars: a) Mitch & Mickey singing "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow". b) Jack Black and Will Ferrell singing about how people's speeches are boring. ("STING!") c) When Bill Murray stood up and clocked Billy Crystal for drawing attention to his extremely offensive loss for Best Actor.* d) Obligatory choice: LOTR being declared best movie in the universe, which it is, taken as a whole. (Don't pick this one.) *Didn't actually happen, consarnit. Why are you in Tavie's head? 3:42 AM | shower me with attention
Bill Murray not winning best actor was the worst bullshit I've seen in a long time. Why are you in Tavie's head? 12:16 AM | shower me with attention Sunday, February 29, 2004
I finally watched my Muppet Show DVD yesterday, and it was so very good. So very good. I can't get this song out of my head now.
Way down south way down in Borneo there's a wild man called the Borneo way down in Borneo Bay. I see that everyone has had a marvelous weekend without me. But I'm not bitter. No, Buckley's Cough Mixture is bitter, but not me. When you see them dance the borneo you'll put all your jewels in pawneo way down in Borneo Bay. Why are you in Tavie's head? 3:41 PM | shower me with attention
Ha. I just saw myself on Comedy Central. Sitting in the front row of Scott Thompson's Pulp Comics special. I haven't seen this in years.
I just noticed that Scott looked directly at me when he said, "The ugly best friend of the pretty girl". (I was sitting next to Erica and erin at the time.) Hmm. Was he insulting me? Ah, but he also looked at me when he talked about his boyfriend growing out his hair: "One day it'll look really, really good". I remember that because he looked into my eyes when he said that and I felt a glow. And there's erin laughing at the Cher jokes. We used to be in a lot of audiences... Why are you in Tavie's head? 3:25 AM | shower me with attention |