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Shakefest 2k15
For the third time over the last nine years, I made my way west to drink deep the delights of live theater at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. I first attended in 2006, the week of the Lumos HP fan convention in Las Vegas, and saw a serviceable Merry Wives of Windsor, a thoroughly charming H.M.S. Pinafore, an INTERMINABLE Antony and Cleopatra (ugh, ( Read more... ) -
Hamilton
Okay, let me get one tiny nitpick out of the way. The first roughly 60-90 seconds of the show didn’t 100% work for me, and I’m not sure why. Possibly I’d gotten too used to hearing first lines done by Lin-Manuel Miranda and no one else (from the 2009 White House video). Also there seemed to be an issue with how people were mic’d (or maybe just ( Read more... ) -
Straight Outta Compton
I’m probably one of the last people you’d expect to be into Straight Outta Compton, or indeed know anything about N.W.A. Admit it, you’re laughing right now at the idea of me sitting my nearly-40-year-old cracker butt down in a theater to watch this. But this movie is seriously amazing and might be one of my favorites of the year so far. It ( Read more... ) -
Trainwreck (2015)
Boy, I haven't written on this thing in ages -- on any topic, not just movies. I started going through my list of what I've seen so far this year, and struck me what an awesome summer it has been for ladies. Mad Max: Fury Road, Pitch Perfect 2 (which was ehhhh, but an important box office success story), Inside Out (*still not over it*), and now ( Read more... ) -
Last Minute Oscar Predictions
I'm planning some movie-themed food for consumption during tonight's Oscars -- drumsticks for Whiplash, chips/queso for Boyhood, and a Crumbs cupcake for Grand Budapest Hotel. I don't often do a full list of predictions, but here goes. These guesses are highly influenced by Oscar blogs I follow, namely In Contention, and they reflect likely ( Read more... ) -
Mark Does Stuff, NYC
Had a lot of fun at the Mark Does Stuff event, which took place at the Museum of NYC. I was pleased that he hadn't forgotten about The West Wing in the onslaught of Star Trek and Supernatural over the past several months (he even gushed about Donna Moss, which made me immeasurably happy). He read a chapter from his novel, which sounds quite good ( Read more... ) -
VAN DAMMAGE 2015
This weekend I went to the Alamo Drafthouse in Yonkers for their VAN DAMMAGE marathon - four Jean-Claude Van Damme movies in 35mm, with accompanying trailers and clips. I won't go full-on BNAT style memoir on this one, but I did want to chronicle it because it was a lot of fun. And I was glad I was not the only female in the room (but I very ( Read more... ) -
Film Discoveries of 2014
Since I don't do as many reviews on here anymore, I wanted to write a bit about my favorite "new to me" movies (vintage flicks that I saw for the first time) from this past year. Rupert Pupkin Speaks does a series of posts on this topic, with a bunch of guest contributors, and I was inspired to make my own list. It's a top 10, but I cheated a bit ( Read more... ) -
(Red) Dragon Sickness
A couple of my fandoms have had exciting reveals this week. First, though the show is long over, I still follow the actors from The West Wing, and there's been a good bit about some of them in entertainment news in the past couple of days. Bradley Whitford is going to play Jake's dad in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Janel Moloney is going to be on ( Read more... ) -
My 2014 in Movies
Alright, here's my 2014 rundown of new releases. I'm also planning to do a "discoveries" list of vintage stuff that I saw for the first time this year. As always, there are movies that slipped through the cracks. I try to see as much as I can, but there are always things I just can't get to, whether due to time or money constraints. So I ( Read more... )