Summertime

Posted by Yasmin on June 2nd, 2009 filed in Sports
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One of the biggest things that people like to see in the summertime is a Shakespeare play. There are a lot of cities and towns that have Shakespeare outside during this time of year. It becomes warm and then you can have a great play in an outdoor stadium which is a lot of fun. Even some of the major professional companies will do their best shows outside this summer. It’s going to be a lot of fun every time you see one of these shows, because they are so entertaining and because the weather is great. They play tragedies as well as comedies outside and it is great either way. There’s really nothing like seeing Shakespeare outdoors at dusk!


Jonas Brothers Staying Home

Posted by Yasmin on May 11th, 2009 filed in Sports
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Because of the swine flu concerns, the Jonas Brothers have announced that they will be rescheduling their shows in Mexico. They were supposed to go perform in Monterrey next week. But in Mexico they’re still avoiding putting large groups of people together for now. They have been playing their professional soccer games in empty stadiums for the last several weeks and that will probably continue for a few more weeks. The Brothers will play instead on July 31st, for which all the tickets for the original date will be honored. Those who can’t make it one the 31st can get their refund from the box office.


History Lesson

Posted by Yasmin on April 24th, 2009 filed in Sports
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The newest production of 1776 is a real winner with several different players performing very well. John Adams is good in all his angry stubborn glory. Franklin is good with his little witticisms and everything. Jefferson is a little bit quiet and not as good as some of the others, but his wife Martha is good. The only problems that this reviewer found with it was with the writing in general, with the first half of the show being a little bit tough to watch. But let’s not say that this is a bad musical. Perhaps the cast didn’t bring the right energy to the first act? Perhaps the reviewer didn’t quite get it? The second half is always an exciting performance to see and it’s hard to imagine it being dull. See this show!


Decembrists in March

Posted by Yasmin on March 23rd, 2009 filed in Sports
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The Decembrists just released a new album, called Hazards of Love. In fact, now that I look it up, it wont be officially released until tomorrow. But I heard a great review of it this weekend on the radio, and they said that people should buy it. It’s a great outing from a band that keeps getting better and better. This time, they have released a “concept album” with folk story-based songs. It’s a little bit like having a troubadour on the album. These writers are really into lyrics and making sure that the words are as deep and meaningful as possible. In this particular album, they have hit the ground running and it’s a very nice presentation for them.


Back to the Past

Posted by Yasmin on March 2nd, 2009 filed in Sports
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There is a series of concerts going in NYC, in which they perform music and musicals by the year. In this case, it is 1924, which was a fun year. It was the year of Gershwin and Hammerstein and the Charleston. Irving Berlin was another of the biggest songwriters of the era. This concert does a great job of presenting all these parts of that time. It’s quite fun to see what they do with these things, because they are of course trying to sing it the way it would have been back then. But it’s also going through the lens of the present time, because you need to present it to people now. It’s a nice nostalgia trip to an era that’s a lot more like the way things are now than we usually think of it.


Forever Young

Posted by Yasmin on February 27th, 2009 filed in Sports
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We are still interested in Neil Young. I’m pretty sure we wrote about this performer before, but we just can’t get enough. I found the Neil Young blog today which will tell you all kinds of different things about him that are interesting about his life and times. I certainly am happy to see that there are lots of other Young fans out there. One of the recent posts is about farmers and that we, as a country, should support farmers with legislative money and other kinds of things. It’s a bit of a complicated issue. One interesting question though: Young is Canadian, still has Canada citizenship, and cannot vote in our elections: why does he care so much? Because he’s lived here for so long that he has as much advocacy right as anyone else! Agreed Neil!


Oscars Part 2

Posted by Yasmin on February 23rd, 2009 filed in Sports
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Well Kate Winslet finally got her Oscar last night. Last year was a year when they were working hard to get her a Best Actress Oscar, being nominated for two different movies, playing the Holocaust film card. That tends to work, and it certainly did this year. Yes, she’s beautiful. Yes, she’s a really good actress. But goodness, it seemed like a big marketer kind of thing to do. It’s like a lot of these pop singers now who get their personas from some marketing team that puts out a T-Shirt and a few news stories to precede an album and a concert tour. The same thing seemed to happen with this odd campaign to get Kate Winslet her Oscar. She got it, but I hope it doesn’t become a habit to award Oscars that way.


Oscars

Posted by Yasmin on February 20th, 2009 filed in Sports
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 The Oscars are coming up this Sunday, so it seems like a good time to talk about it. Since there are some tickets involved, it seems like we can think about different aspects of the show. Just like we could talk about the Grammys a few weeks ago, now we will discuss the Oscars. The question is what the ceremony is going to look like. Hugh Jackman, a man of Broadway and movies, is going to be the emcee this year. And the question is who will get the most Oscars. With movies like the Reader, Slumdog Millionaire, Benjamin Button, and Milk. It’s a battle of the persecuted this Sunday, but perhaps it will be the audience that will be the most persecuted in the end.


Buckley

Posted by Yasmin on February 16th, 2009 filed in Sports
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 Betty Buckley is back on Broadway with a fun new show called “Broadway by Request.” It is, in fact, one of those shows that you would most like to see your favorite actor or actress do. Before the show, all the visitors fill out a sheet where they put down either a song request or a question for the star. Any question is allowed. And then the whole show is full of her pulling these requests out of the jar and singing them or answering the question. It’s a lot of fun and you get to hear one of Broadway’s biggest stars in action again. You can usually guess most of the songs, but every so often you get a real specialist in the audience who will ask for the song that you’ve never heard of. If you get a chance, see this show!


Blago

Posted by Yasmin on February 13th, 2009 filed in Sports
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Rod Blagojevich Superstar! has opened in Chicago. The Second City troupe has quickly put together a show that makes fun of the former Illinois governor in a great way. The actors get the characters exactly right, while only needing to slightly exaggerate their characters. It’s quite a bit of fun to see this show, complete with cursing and hilarious work. The show has no major plot, but it doesn’t need it. It’s a short show, with some musical numbers too. Blago is a great character for comedy that will last for a long time. This comes on the heels of “Between Barack and a Hard Place” from last year during the primary season. It’s a fun show.