Jeopardy!

Liberal and Proud
by xeces

Thanks to Petulant for the video!

Ani Performs "November 4, 2008"

She played this last night at the concert at the Trustees Theatre. One of a few times that I was just barely holding back tears. It was a terrific show. I just wish it had been promoted better. I hadn't heard about it until a week before, when I saw a Facebook Ad!
The opening act was Toshi Reagon, a fierce singer/songwriter who sang with her guitar only. I had a terrific time, and I was home just after midnight.

Jack on SNL!!!!!

Relevant Trivia

The events of November 14, 1959 inspired what "non-fiction novel"?


Leave your answers in comments. Bonus points if you can tell me why it's relevant (this one is geared more toward Glynn County residents, where relevance is concerned). Google if you must, but where's the fun in that?

Cross posted at Blog Brunswick

Happy Birthday, Tad!

Merry Christmas Tad!

We miss you. All the best to you and Claudine. Be careful on that ice, and try to stay warm!

Robyn: "Dream On"

I really like this video. I like how it messes with perceptions and stereotypes. Just thought I'd share.

Wednesday Night YouTube

All this talk about Tropical Storm Fay got me thinking about another Fay. You know the one. She's referenced in Rocky Horror. The original Scream Queen died in 2004. It's almost too bad there was never a Hurricane Fay screaming through town. I'm fine with a non-event this week, though. Too much to do to be derailed by weather.

Wednesday Night YouTube

Contrary to the lyrics, I might wanna be a Canadian Idiot. I love my country, and I'm doing all I can to make sure Barack Obama is the next POTUS. Nevertheless, if McSame manages to worm his way into the White House, I'll be lookin' to hook a Canuck!

Classic Movies are a Girl's Best Friend!

Tonight at the Ritz. Only $5! Doors open at 6. Short Subjects begin at 6:30. Feature at 7. Door Prizes! Bring your own Popcorn!
crossposted at BlogBrunswick

Wednesday Night YouTube

"La guerre est absurde," indeed!

Jack McBrayer is nominated for an Emmy!

Ok, so Kathy Griffin would call it a Schmemmy, and it's not the category I was hoping for, but Jack is listed as a nominee:

Outstanding Special Class - Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Programs

Battlestar Galactica - Razor Featurette #4 • Sci Fi Channel.com • Universal Media Studios in association with R & D TV
Ronald D. Moore, Executive Producer
David Eick, Executive Producer
Harvey Frand, Supervising Producer

Friday Night Lights: Spotlight On Austin • NBC.com • NBC and Pyro Creative
Carole Panick, Producer
Howard Borim, Producer
Talbot Kanae, Producer

Lost: Missing Pieces • ABC.com • ABC.com / ABC Studios
Damon Lindelof, Executive Producer
Carlton Cuse, Executive Producer
Barry Jossen, Executive Producer

Sarah Silverman Program Nugget • Comedycentral.com • The Valley Pals in association with Comedy Central
Dan Sterling, Executive Producer
Sarah Silverman, Executive Producer
Heidi Herzon, Executive Producer
Rob Schrab, Executive Producer
Vatche Panos, Producer

30 Rock: Kenneth The Web Page • NBC.com • NBC Production
Carole Panick, Producer
Andrew Singer, Producer
Jack McBrayer, Producer
Eric Gurian, Producer
Josh Silberman, Producer

It's Funny Because It's Truthy

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency
HT: Jeff at Shakesville

In Memory of George Carlin

shit piss fuck cunt cocksucker motherfucker tits

liveblogging the Tonys (from Mom's house)

Ok, so it's not exactly live, but I will continue to update this post as I watch the Tonys on CBS, starting at 8 PM eastern. Mom and I got ready by watching Legally Blonde: The Musical, as shown on MTV last year. Sure, it's not up for anything this year, but there was nothing on TV, and it was just sitting there on the DVR, staring at us. Mom and I did see a nominated show, but Cyrano is only nominated in 1 category: Best Costume Design of a Play (they were fabulous!). We were only able to see 3 shows when we were in NYC in December. Just going on instinct for the rest of the nominees. Honestly, South Pacific gets major nostalgia points, but how can you not root for In the Heights? You can check out all the nominated shows here.

7:55 PM: Just biding our time, watching Andy Rooney talk about how he's not really rich. Oh, for heaven's sake, he's finally done. Tony time!

Why are they opening with Lion King? Guess Whoopi's decided she's gotta do some Swahili singing?!?

Nope. She didn't get the memo, and came out doing her best Sebastian.

Original company of Rent! Woohoo! And ten years of Lion King, which explains it.

Featured Actress in a Play

Mom's & My pick: Martha Plimpton (because I played Angie back in the day)
Winner: Rondi Reed (not surprised, really)Plimpton can't be pissed, since she's a Steppenwolf member, too!

John Waters, Yeah!

Cry Baby Performance

Best use of license plates: Cry Baby!

Featured Actor in a Play

Mom's pick: Conleth Hill
My pick: Jim Norton
Winner: Jim Norton (Woohoo!)

Passing Strange Performance

Best use of call and response (also props to the tech who finally put Stew's mic back on the stand)

And the count at the commercial break is . . . Kelly: 1, Mom: 0

Best Direction of a Musical

Mom's pick: Sam Buntrock
My Pick: Thomas Kail
Winner: Bartlett Sherr (there's that nostalgia!)
Speech: Way to sneak the politics in there, Mr. Sherr!

Gypsy Performance

Best use of consonants: Patti LuPone! (and her vowels ain't bad either)

Phantom bit

Not bad singin' Whoopi! Much better than that Brightman hack!

Regional Theatre

Chicago Shakes (woohoo!)

Orchestrations

Mom's pick: Jason Carr
My pick (& the winners!): Alex Lacamore & Bill Sherman, In the Heights

Choreography

Mom's pick: Christopher Gatelli
My pick: Rob Ashford
Winner: Andy Blankenbuehler, In the Heights

Book of a Musical

Mom's & My pick: In the Heights
Winner: Passing Strange

Revival of a Play

Mom's & my pick (& the winner!): Boeing-Boeing

Original Score

Mom's pick:Cry Baby
My pick (& the winner!): In the Heights
Speech: Best Evah!

South Pacific Performance

Thought fer sure she was gonna wash that man right outta her hair!


And the count at the break is . . . Kelly: 4, Mom: 1 (Guess it pays to read the New York Times online)

Featured Actress in a Musical

Mom's pick: Loreta Ables Sayre
My pick: Olga Merediz
Winner: Laura Benanti, Gypsy
Speech: Awwww! Tall brunette gets a Tony!

Grease Performance

This should be familiar, since we watched the reality show religiously.
Yeah, they really haven't grown since the reality show. I can see why the reviews were so bad. Bor-ing!

Well, they only gave away one between breaks, and neither Mom nor I got it right, so the score's the same.

Featured Actor in a Musical

Mom's pick: Danny Burstein
My pick: Robin de Jesus
Winner: Boyd Gaines, Gypsy (4th Tony!)
Speech: Way to thank the stage managers!

Little Mermaid Performance

Bo-ring!

A Catered Affair Performance

Faith Prince is a delight, as usual.

Young Frankenstein Performance

Megan Mullally takes up the mantle with moxie. Although she reminds me a bit of Molly Shannon (which is not necessarily a bad thing).

So, again, only one award given, and we both missed it. We have obviously underestimated the appeal of Gypsy. We should have known better.

Best New Play Highlights

I love Rufus Sewell! Wish I'd talked Mom into The Seafarer when we were in the city, but Curtains was good.

Best Direction of a Play

Mom's & my pick & the winner!!!: Anna D. Shapiro, August: Osage County (not bad for a Broadway debut!
Speech: She's so young! Great speech!


Well, Mom and I each got that right, so . . . Kelly: 5, Mom: 2

Leading Actor in a Play

Mom's & My pick: Patrick Stewart
Winner: Mark Rylance (I almost picked him!)
Speech: WTF?!?

Leading Actress in a Play

Mom's & my pick: S. Epatha Merkerson
Winner: Deanna Dunagan (Broadway debut!)
So many good roles for women this season!
Speech: They shoulda let her go on a little longer!

In The Heights Performance

Best use of a Cole Porter reference! How would they ever take it on tour? Lin-Manuel Miranda's shoes would be very hard to fill! That shit was off the hook!


So, Mom and I were both 0 for 2 on those.

Play

Mom's pick: The Seafarer
My pick & the winner!!!: August: Osage County
Speech:The entire Steppenwolf Theatre Company is on stage

Scenic Design of a Play

Mom's pick & winner!!: Todd Rosenthal
My pick: Peter McKintosh

Scenic Design of a Musical

Mom's pick: Sunday in the Park with George
My pick: Robin Wagner, Young Frankenstein
Winner: Michael Yeargan, South Pacific

Costume Design of a Play

Mom's & my pick: Gregory Gale, Cyrano (only one we saw!)
Winner: Katrina Lindsay, Les Liasons Dangereuses

Costume Design of a Musical

Mom's & my pick & winner!!!: Catherine Zuber, South Pacific

Lighting Design of a Play

Mom's pick: Ann G. Wrightson
My pick: Howard Harrison
Winner: Kevin Adams, The 39 Steps

Lighting Design of a Musical

Mom's & my pick: Natasha Katz
Winner: Donald Holder, South Pacific

Sound Design of a Play

Mom's pick: Simon Baker
My pick: Adam Cork
Winner: Mic Pool, The 39 Steps

Sound Design of a Musical

Mom's pick: Sebastian Frost
My pick & the winner!!: Scott Lehrer, South Pacific


Ok, time to catch up on the count . . . Kelly: 8, Mom: 4

Sunday in the Park with George Performance

Nice speech from Sondheim, via Mandy Patinkin. It's hard not to compare them to Peters and Patinkin (and find them lacking).

Revival of a Musical

Mom's & my pick & the winner!!!!: South Pacific!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Speech: Way to thank the House Managers and the Staff!

Xanadu Performance

Have to say, I loved that movie back in the day. After all, it had Gene Kelly!
Best musical on roller skates since Starlight Express! As Mom said, "He's got an awesome voice." To which I replied, "Not a bad body either!" Call me Cheyenne!

Count stands at Kelly: 9, Mom: 5
And we are so sick of the pharma ads!

Rent Performance!!!!!

I love that the audience of stars seems as psyched as I am! Singing along. Beautiful tribute.

Leading Actor in a Musical

Mom's pick & the winner!!!!: Paulo Szot ( Mom is so excited!)
My pick: Lin-Manuel Miranda
Speech: yeah, Liza's unbelievable, alright! Happy Birthday Mom, indeed! Nice sneak of politics in there.

Leading Actress in a Musical

Mom's pick: Kelli O'Hara
My pick & winner!!: Patti LuPone (only her 2nd Tony?!?)
Speech: She's not bitter . . . much! She thanked her Thelma Ritter. Love any All About Eve reference. How dare they try to drown out Patti LuPone. Never!

Count stands at Kelly: 10, Mom: 6

Musical

Mom's & my pick & the winner!!!!!: In The Heights
I still think Miranda should have won the Actor Tony, too.
Speech: Shortest speech of the night?!?
Oh well.

Love the Theatre indeed. Good night. I'll try to clean this up at some point.
Oh, and the final score . . . Kelly: 11, Mom: 7

RIP Tim Russert

Tim Russert died today, but I don't have to believe it if I don't want to.

The video is an episode of Charlie Rose. The first segment is an interview with Russert about his book, The Wisdom of Our Fathers. As someone who has spent more years without her father than she had with him (he died when I was 15), my heart goes out to the entire Russert family, especially Tim's son. And to Big Russ, Happy Father's Day. I know it must suck to outlive your son.

John Cusack talks about Bush-McCain

I just love him. Always have. Say Anything, Better Off Dead, and now this!?! Love that guy!

At what temperature does low country boil?

So, I've been busy lately. I'm still determined to post about the events of the last week or so, even if I am a little late. Last Saturday (September 8) I joined other Brunswick readers at the Kick off event for the Big Read. It was a low country boil, and local and national big wigs were there. Cap Fendig made a proclamation on behalf of the county commissioners. Mayor Bryan Thompson made a proclamation on behalf of the city. Superintendent of Schools Michael Bull was there dressed as Catcher in the Rye. I came as the happy Medium from A Wrinkle in Time. The NEA even sent a representative from Washington to little old Brunswick. Please enjoy the following photos:

Mountains are pretty!

This is a view from one of the overlooks on the Blue Ridge parkway (the area near Mt. Mitchell, I think). I'm sure you're all (like I have so many readers) wondering, "Where all the political posts at?" Well, since the big political story of the moment involves accusations of interest in sex in a public bathroom, and I have an unfortunate connection to Mayor Robo-potty, I'm staying away from all things political at the moment.

You see the most interesting buildings in Appalachia

Yes, for those of you who were wondering, those rusty signs are advertising Royal Crown Cola.