All Shook Up – MTW

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This show is just so much fun.  Set to the music of Elvis Presley, it’s traditionally described as James Dean meets Shakespeare (specifically Twelfth Night and A Midsummer’s Night Dream) and it’s a very enjoyable romantic jukebox musical. I have no complaints about any of the performances.  I get to hate old people again because there’s one song that takes place in a “statue garden” and then it breaks into this musical number and the statues move about (they’re really people).  The audience decided to applaud for the statues after their first movement.  I GOTTA stop going to matinées…. There was also a really weird 4th wall break that happened midway through the second act….Chad (the Elvis/James Dean character) says something and a group of people behind and to the left of me (rear house left) shouted/screamed an affirmative answer and he broke the wall to go, “Yeah!”  It was … Continue reading →

The Last Jihad by Joel Rosenberg

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That’s right I’m still awake. Why? Because Joel Rosenberg write a book you can’t put down when you get to a certain point. Sure he abuses the classic foreshadowing techniques of great fiction (if a character swears to let nothing interfere with his family’s upcoming vacation, you know that character will die), but the way Rosenberg writes…..I mean I read The Ezekiel Option about a year ago and I can vividly remember having to just stop what I was doing, take the book and go lie on the couch and read for several hours. Joel Rosenberg’s claim to fame (aside from being a phenomenal fiction writer) is that he’s somewhat of a prophet through his books. The Last Jihad is his first novel and was nearly completed before 9/11 happened. And in the book a hijacked plane attacks the President, who discovers it’s an Iraqi plot and charges into a … Continue reading →

Talking Plants, Fire Showers and Zombies

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Botanicalls Twitter DIY Your plant can have a Twitter feed…..Feed me, Seymour! 5 Works of Art That Can Probably Kill You | Cracked.com Because performance art is all about risk…. Clinton: McCain Has More Experience Than Obama – Politics on The Huffington Post Apparently Clinton is going to get even more negative in order to beat out Obama…and she’s willing to do it…I really don’t want this woman near the button that launches nuclear missiles….really…. Red vs. Blue · PSA “Planning To Fail” One of my FAVORITE Red Vs. Blue Public Service Announcements. How many zombie plans do YOU have? 😉 Great Movie Line I shared this with my friend Scott on his blog, so I thought I share the wealth…this gets emailed around every once and a while as an actual file, but people should really just be emailing the youtube link instead….so much easier/cleaner/neater/whatever… The Living Room Candidate … Continue reading →

Iron Man, When An Engineer Lies and D&D Legend Dies

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Another Full Iron Man Trailer Launches – Holy Sh*t! « FirstShowing.net Featuring Back In Black by AC/DC and Cochise by Audioslave and (of course) Iron Man by Ozzy Ozbourne, this trailer is very exciting…I think it ratchets up to number 3 on the excited summer movie list (1 = Indiana Jones 4, 2 = Dark Knight). Revelation A highly amusing original music video by some of my girlfriend’s church buddies… HBO Films: John Adams Definitely worth checking out! I’m so excited! Betrayal Of Trust: When An Engineer Lies – Wolfe’s Den Blog – InformationWeek How often does a white lie or a cut corner result in death? Should one accept full responsibility for that death? Jobs: Flash Not Good Enough For The iPhone – Mobile Blog – InformationWeek Damn you Steve! PvPonline » Archive » PvP #43 A brilliant image from Scott Krutz PvPonline » Archive » A moment of … Continue reading →

Vantage Point

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A very enjoyable political thriller. What I was most impressed with was the concept and their execution of it (forgive the pun). Revolving around a terrorist attack on the US President in Spain, the story is patched together from (roughly) 6 different perspectives, shown one at a time with rewind montages at the end of each until we tie everything together at the end. They did a really good job taking care of continuity – although with anything of this magnitude, little bits and pieces will always slip by, but it’s very negligible in the long run. The main set piece they filmed in was an old square in Spain where the President is arriving to make a speech and is subsequently assassinated. What really incredible about this portion of the film is that it’s almost hard to imagine the number of cameras they had set up to tell the … Continue reading →

Twelve Angry Men – OCPAC

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Featuring Richard Thomas (who?) as Juror Eight. Fascinating 90 minute courtroom drama with no intermission that takes apart individual beliefs while exposing public schools of thought for their shoddiness and hypocrisy. And it’s only a first degree murder charge. After the performance, a panel featuring 3 professors of law and 3 of the actors was conducted by somebody from the educational department at the OCPA (Yeah, they changed their name by schmooshing Arts and Center into one big, hard-to-say word, Artscenter!). Unfortunately at least 3 questions were wasted by older folk who chose to voice their opinion that yes, it is incorrect form to stab downward with a switchblade knife and that they know because they were trained in the usage of switchblade knifes by their parents or by the military. Oy!

Daily Comics and Amusing Videos

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“I’m F*cking Ben Affleck” music video This is hilarious and starts with the video below which was really Matt’s payback for Kimmel being an all around prick to him (last video). Sarah Silverman “I’m F*cking Matt Damon” on Jimmy Kimmel Matt Damon gets angry as hell at Jimmy on Jimmy Kimmel Live Penny Arcade! – The Alien, The Mutant, The Heretic A valuable insight into why sometimes consoles are better… WE THE ROBOTS » Archive » Some Good Things Comics – Explosm.net – Cyanide & Happiness HAHAHAHAAH! PvPonline » Archive » What to wear xkcd – A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language – By Randall Munroe title=You can identify them ahead-of-time — they lead with their left foot when the music starts.

The Little Mermaid FINALLY Released (what?), Phillip Pullman Explains Himself and What Happens When An Engineer Gets Snowed In

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Jim Hill : Tune Thursday: There’s big fun to be had at “The Little Mermaid” Yes I’m re-hashing this article, but the soundtrack was “officially” released today (although Amazon downloads had it available since February 5th?) and I’m really enjoying it. And reading through the article again, it’s Johnathan “Jafar/Bert Barry” Freeman portraying Grimsby which is freaking awesome. You can check out the entire cast list here at IBDB (Internet Broadway Database). Oh and I’m also officially endorsing Amazon MP3’s because it’s far slicker than the iTunes store AND IT’S COMPATIBLE! AS THE SONGS DOWNLOADED, THEY WERE ADDED TO ITUNES AUTOMATICALLY! FilmChat: Philip Pullman — the extended e-mail interview Barnes & Noble.com – Interview: Philip Pullman on the Storyteller’s Art I only got through the first article, but I am very interested by what Pullman has to say about His Dark Materials. What Happens When An Engineer Gets Snowed In … Continue reading →

Defying Gravity: A Tribute To Stephen Schwartz – Curtis Theatre

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Starring Scott Coutler & Debbie Gravitte accompanied by John Boswell Act 1 Overture (included Morning Glory from Pippin) – John segued into Magic To Do from Pippin – Scott, Debbie and John Summer Night from Rags – Debbie Just Around The Riverbend / Corner of the Sky from Pocahontas / Pippin – Scott In Whatever Time We Have from Children of Eden – Scott and Debbie Extraordinary from Pippin – Scott Colors Of The Wind from Pocahontas – Debbie Out There from The Hunchback Of Notre Dame – Scott It’s An Art from Working – Debbie Act 2 Entracte (including No Time At All from Pippin) – John Turn Back, O Man from Godspell – Debbie Dreamscape from Reluctant Pilgrim (Schwartz’s standalone album) – John with Scott and Debbie God Help The Outcasts from The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Debbie What Is This Feeling? from Wicked – Scott and … Continue reading →

The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman

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As I said in my reviews for The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife, I’m still missing the thing that’s so uproariously anti-Christian in these books!  The trilogy is a fantastical vision of multiple worlds so close together yet so far apart, of two children coming of age and falling in love, of men striving to set right the wrongs of the universe, of women realizing the debts they owe their children.  Here’s where the story concept deviates so differently from our world view and why (I think) Christians are so afraid of it.  In the worlds of the trilogy, there is no explicit Christ figure.  Mediation between God the divine Authority and man was left up to God’s agents on earth, the Church.  So all of the really evil things you hear about the Church doing so that human kind is redeemed (think Inquisition) are apparently God’s will for … Continue reading →