Jim Caruso's Cast Party

A little video I shot and edited for Jim Caruso's Cast Party.

You should go. Every Monday night. It's amazing. Seriously. Go. What else are you doing on a Monday night anyway?

Jim Caruso's Cast Party from castpartyvideo on Vimeo.

Helen Thomas

I find the "retirement" of Helen Thomas unfortunate. She's stopped her incredibly long career (reporting from the White House since the Eisenhower administration) and for reasons mostly controversial given statements she said about the Jews and Israeli-Palestini conflict. Maybe I don't look at her opinion as so angry and jaded as I should and I think excuse it or at least attribute the words to age.

Nevertheless, I was fortunate (yes, I say fortunate) enough to meet her when I was in high school. Prior to college application time, I was stuck in a limbo between pursuing the arts (which I did) or attempting something slightly more practical like journalism. Helen spoke at a reporter's panel when I attended the National Young Leaders Conference (waste of money, in my opinion). A majority of the audience was either from Texas or pretty right-wing.

Each reporter (I don't remember who they were now) introduced themselves, what they specialized in, and who they reported for. When it came to Helen, she didn't even introduce her name. She openly criticized Bush administration and US' push into Iraq - all this in lieu of introducing anything about herself, drawing uncomfortable moans from the majority of the audience. She cared little though and persisted with her opinions as the other reporters attempted to remain moderate. And though I'm not always a fan of particularly outspoken people, I had to applaud her (in my head...those kids were crazy) for being outspoken. I had seen her on television before and her reputation was no secret to me.

Helen was escorted with practically no interruption. I went right up to, introduced myself and told her I was thinking about college and journalism. It wasn't that I wanted to meet someone oppossed to the Bush administration or someone simply outspoken. I knew that there was a reputation and almost a legend behind her. She spoke to me simply, kindly, and earnestly. She smiled at me and told me how nice it was to hear what I said and then told me. I regret to say that her exact words after that escape me, but I remember more or less what she said.

Do it. And if you're passionate, do it and don't stop. Get a good education and learn as much as you can. Always be learning.

Is this why I can't find a job...

I smell movie

I'm considering a career as a casting director...

Return

It may be nothing short of laziness that I've stopped blogging. I can make the excuse that it's because I'm busy, but I hardly think that's the reason. I did, after all, create this blog to motivate myself or at least attempt to - hence the name of the blog. To push myself to keep writing or sharing or whatever it is that I do, I need to tell myself that it's not necessary to write extensively. It's okay to share a link, or a thought, or whatever and I do something with this space more regularly.

Cooking for a Shoot

In case you were wondering what it's like to cook for a student shoot...from scratch....

Skylar and Ruth at Costco...in aviators.

Loading up the elevator to my apartment (Chicken potpie belongs to Ruth):

Making marinara sauce:

Prepping Chicken Parm:

Prepping chicken enchiladas:

Couldn't find canned green chiles...so went completely from scratch:

The fridge...so far. Everything packed in Ziplock freezer bags after prep.

Prepping sausage and peppers (batch 1 of 6):

My pots weren't big enough to mix all the ingredients. So buy a clean bucket (reclean it) and use.

Ran out of counter space:

Love Never Dies (incomplete pre-review)

A Little “Research” Background

There have been a few people who have asked me about my opinion on the newest Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Love Never Dies. I think I’ve been the likely target of my friends for this question because it’s no secret that my guilty pleasure is musical theatre. That’s right, to everyone who doesn’t know, I’ve got an enormous soft spot for musical theatre. Painful, I know. The fortunate side of it is that I can suppress the giddy theatre-going side with me and balance it with, what I think are, practical observations and opinions. This comes from more than just enjoying theatre or observing theatre and truth be told, I haven’t had any proper theatrical education. I took a musical theatre history course in the first semester of my senior year at New York University, but I have been studying the subject matter on my own for a number of years. Instead of reading fiction growing up, I spent middle school and high school reading plays, librettos, biographies on composers and lyricists, and books on musical theatre history. Does that make me particularly qualified? Probably not, however I was determined to do something with this “research” in college. And of course as things turned out, my major requirements for my B.F.A. in Film took over and musical theatre took a back seat until my sophomore year when I began studying sociology. I found the course and the professor particularly interesting and continued my year with another course under his tutelage, The Sociology of Opera. With my interest in theatre returning and with Opera under my belt, the professor encouraged me and accepted me into New York University’s Berlin abroad program, which focuses primarily on German language and sociology. For me, this was also the perfect opportunity to embrace to go abroad and to see musical theatre in Germany, which I had taken an interest in years prior.

I suppose what I’m getting at in a very length, roundabout way is that I’ve spent a decent amount of my time dedicating attention to an art form that interests me, but in one that I’ve received no formal education in. The central idea that I’ve started to form or develop could very well be something along the lines of “The Sociology of Musical Theatre,” but I’m not even sure if that’s exactly the track I’m trying to hit. I think it may very well be more along the lines of a very broad interpretation of the word “adaptation.” I’ve taken that meaning to study the adaptation of productions from their different mediums (stage, screen, book, history, etc.), and their interpretation into different languages, different casts, and different countries and cities.

Love Never Dies: The Buzz

For the past week the buzz of Love Never Dies has been wracking my brain and I’ve been trying to soak up information about the production like a sponge. I have been holding myself back from absorbing too much information about the production. I don’t necessarily want all the spoilers or know all the changes the show has undergone, at least not yet.

So to those unfamiliar with the basic plot of this new show, the story picks up ten years after where The Phantom of the Opera left off. We are transported to New York City (Brooklyn) where the Phantom has fled to and has aided in the creation of attractions at the new and exciting Coney Island. The memory of Christine still haunts him and he anonymously invites her to perform at one of park’s attractions. Christine, Raoul, and their son, Gustave arrive in New York only to discover from whom the invitation came from.

I will confess that I am hugely skeptical of the idea of Love Never Dies and have been ever since the original rumors of the show came out nearly ten years ago. After a conversation with the late Maria Björnos, who expressed that she was never fully satisfied with the ending of Phantom, Webber started to conceptualize what happened after his story ended.

She was very excited about a New World location. We felt the key to the piece could be setting the story in New York and that this time the Phantom lived above his realm, perhaps in Manhattan’s first penthouse. But where in America could the Phantom have first gone to? Where could he have been unnoticed and yet been a part of the community?

I saw a documentary about Coney Island. Here was the Phantom’s new home among the freaks and the oddities who were such a part of Coney.

I stumbled on a two-dollar copy of The Phantom of Manhattan at my library’s used books for sale section about nine years ago and picked it up with my pocket change. It was a quick read even then and I don’t know if there was anything about it that stuck out to me. The Love Never Dies buzz will more than likely make me pick it up again.

What I’d like to do is to tackle or discuss several elements about the new show namely story, music and lyrics, and theatrical opposition and press.

Story – Possible Spoilers

I’ve been careful not to read too much into the production or the scene breakdowns provided by those who have seen the preview. I want to know about the production, but I don’t want to know it. There are certainly layers to the story and changes in relationships, but I’m going to talk about the main storyline. I am also not going to talk about the ending.

I received a copy of the cast album and I have been delicately selecting pieces to listen to and skipping over sections that I think may ruin too much of the show for me. I know that the argument against that from a lot people will be either “Why not listen to it? It’s not good anyway,” or “Why bother listening to that junk?” That is, of course, from the production’s opposition. My answer is that I am now genuinely interested in the show. I also know from past experiences that I if I see the show, I’m more likely to have a better-sculpted opinion of it if I go in fresh. Knowing all the music and the plot beforehand will force me to anticipate what’s to come during a production. I can only provide what I know at the current moment.

To elaborate a bit on the plot I started with earlier: The Phantom has left for Brooklyn where he has acquired a fortune building up Coney Island with the help of Mme. Giry and Meg. He is still unable to forget Christine and anonymously invites her to Coney Island to perform. Christine arrives in New York with her now-husband, Raoul and son, Gustave. Raoul’s boyish charm is forgotten and he has been drinking and gambling away the family fortune. The decision to perform at Coney Island, which he despises, is for the money. Christine soon discovers the identity of the man who invited her to New York. It is soon revealed that Christine and the Phantom made love just prior to her marriage to Raoul bringing the paternity of Gustave into question. Christine is soon faced again with the choice to choose between Raoul and the Phantom: Should she decide to sing, she stays with the Phantom. Should she not sing, she stays with Raoul and the Phantom agrees to pay off all of Raoul’s debts. Raoul, of course, accepts the bet.

I think what strikes most people about the new production is the decision to go to Coney Island in New York. The most obvious is that it gives a perfect excuse for the Phantom to flourish. With freak shows and oddities, a man in a mask is no stranger. He’s hiding in broad daylight. It also gives the writers of Love a new “playground” to explore. In some ways the move also heightens the melodrama by putting characters in a more sultry setting. Things are more scandalous and Coney Island has the ability to overwhelm the character’s senses and maybe even the audiences’. But theoretically speaking, it’s no different than the original production where we go from onstage to backstage to below the opera. Coney Island is the new stage, the hotel is backstage, and the aerie is below the opera. Does the new setting? It’s hard to tell without actually seeing the production. In theory does it make sense? To an extent. The use of this particular locale is really a ploy to give the Phantom some financial background. If the show had to be set in New York, I’m more inclined to believe the audience would have been more inclined to lean towards the Metropolitan Opera or the Manhattan Opera House (the opera house referred to in The Phantom of Manhattan and constructed by Oscar Hammerstein I).

The producers, reviewers, and publicity coordinators have been forcefully bridging the imagery of Coney Island’s rollercoaster to the story as an “emotional rollercoaster.” And it makes sense. The story is draws more on melodrama than drama with elements of the lost love, the jealous lover, the drunken husband, and the question of the boy’s paternity.

Music

Does Webber sounds a bit like Rodgers in this recent composition? I think he does, but whether he is mimicking or not is not apparent. If so there’s always the argument about the originality of Webber’s material. I think despite originality, Webber is an immensely talented composer whose music has transformed musical theatre. It’s something that I hate admitting for some odd reason. If the decisions were more conscious than unconscious, I think there is a way to look at this as tribute to the American form. The story takes place in the States and there the Rodgers-esque music is a tribute to the traditions of American musical theatre. To me, it’s more tradition than cut and paste styles.

A few observations or musical consideration:

Song comparisons:

‘Till I Hear You Sing

Lonely Room – intro (lyrics as well)

Soliloquy – ending

I Have Dreamed

Look In Your Heart

Homage to Whistle a Happy Tune? (context)

Coney Island Waltz

Carousel Waltz

At least the grandness and fullness of most Rodgers overtures

Particularly focused on the crescendos

Non-Rodgers song comparisons:

Beneath a Moonless Sky

Cellblock Tango music by John Kander

‘Till I Hear You Sing

A New Life music by Frank Wildhorn

In between/Transition songs are similar to that of the original Phantom (obviously) and Les Miserables. It’s generally the speak-sing idea. Ex. Giry Confronts the Phantom (Meg) vs. Castle on a Cloud (Mme. Thenardier)

What I do appreciate is Webber’s weaving of music from Phantom despite the fact that he says that Love is a stand-alone show. Despite this statement, those who are loyal to the show will find the bridge between the two worlds a bit easier.

The finale is one of the numbers that I have purposely skipped over and that’s for two reasons: 1. Listening to the finale of the show would be like reading the last paragraph of a book. 2. In my opinion, the finale of Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera is probably the production’s best number and one of the best I’ve seen in theatre in general.

Lyrics

Opposition

Conclusion

Education and G-Chat

G-Chat

Gibson

When the public knew that Mel Gibson lost it:

His new friends:

His stache-style

Oh yeah...and that getting drunk and cursing Jews thing.

I love music and cameras

Family Guy - genius

I don't know if anyone else caught the season premiere of Family Guy, but for the first time in a long time I found the humor almost refreshing. That's not to say the comedy was anything truly different, but the latest gag was animation styles. A particularly amazing segment was a piece called, "The Pie Song," in which everything is animated to look Disney-esque. Wonderful. Awesome.

still looking...

Was sorting through pics on the computer and found a better pic of my bike...damn.

I miss grillwalkers

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/world/europe/24bratwurst.html

September 24, 2009

BERLIN JOURNAL

Grills With Legs Beckon Germans to Bratwurst

By NICHOLAS KULISH

BERLIN — Jürgen Stiller regularly stands outside Berlin’s historic Friedrichstrasse train station with a four-pound canister of flammable propane strapped to his back. But if a police officer approaches him, it is only to buy one of the hot bratwurst sizzling on the flaming grill suspended from his shoulders.

Mr. Stiller works as a Grillwalker, a one-man mobile sausage-cooking machine. He and his colleagues can be seen around the capital, turning their browning bratwursts with tongs and tempting pedestrians with the scent of cooking meat wafting from their grills.

The itinerant sausage salesman is so successful here that copycats have sprung up, leading local newspapers to talk of a “War of the Wursts,” at locations like the famous Alexanderplatz, heavy with foot traffic and therefore potential customers, where they compete head to head.

It is also a sign of how seriously Germans still take their sausages, in a country where records show the Thuringian bratwurst dates from at least 1432, and in a city where an entire museum opened in August dedicated to the other local favorite, the spicy Currywurst.

They are a hit with local commuters thanks to the low price — an inexpensive $1.75 for a bratwurst in a roll with mustard or ketchup. Tourists unaccustomed to seeing a kitchen stroll around on two feet gawk, gape and take pictures. Mr. Stiller estimated that he is photographed more than 30 times a day.

Grillwalkers like Mr. Stiller stand out under their bright orange umbrellas, which protect them from the harsh summer sun and the chilly raindrops that already fall here in early autumn.

“Oh, it makes them so happy. They think it’s funny,” Mr. Stiller, 37, said of the tourists. But other passers-by object to what they see as inhumane working conditions. “They say, ‘Man, put it down. Think about your health,’ ” Mr. Stiller said.

But Mr. Stiller said he considered himself lucky to be a Grillwalker, having come to Berlin because there were no jobs in the East German town of Eggesin, where he grew up. He said he carried much heavier burdens than the grill, which weighs 44 pounds fully loaded, when he used to work on construction sites, and he said he made a lot more money now.

Germany is known for both its innovative engineering and its sausages, so the technical leap could seem almost inevitable. But it was the high hurdles put up by the city’s bureaucracy that fathered the invention of these unusual contraptions that are now as much a part of the city’s sights as the television tower in Alexanderplatz or the cathedral, outside of which Grillwalkers also hock their sausages.

After losing his job in hotel management in 1997, Bertram Rohloff wanted to open a stand to sell sandwiches, but found he could not get the necessary permits to set up shop. So instead he envisaged an evolution in food-preparation technology, a step beyond the rolling hot-dog cart, because without the necessary permits, neither the grill nor the sausages could touch the ground.

“You couldn’t get an A-1 location like Alexanderplatz for all the money in the world,” Mr. Rohloff said in an interview recently in the company’s home base in the Friedrichshain neighborhood in the former eastern part of the city. And the salesmen’s mobility allows them to follow the crowds, with Grillwalkers popping up outside nightclubs on busy evenings, at major parades and even at union demonstrations, which Mr. Rohloff said were among the best places for business.

As he worked on the invention, Mr. Rohloff considered everything from burning charcoal to hooking the grill up to a car battery — which he rejected because it would run down in just 10 minutes — before settling on propane. He designed it with an automatic cut-off mechanism for the gas, to ensure that it was safe in the event of an accident.

Mr. Rohloff was the first person to don his invention and sell bratwurst on the street. He now has 15 employees selling sausages around the city in teams of two; they take turns wearing the grill and reloading the sausages, rolls and condiments.

But his ambitions extend far beyond the German capital, and the 17 to 30 cents in profit made on each sausage. In all, the company has built 73 Grillwalkers, including the newest one, which sits in his office, sharing space with towers of jumbo buckets of mustard stacked against the wall. He has subcontractors renting them in cities around the country, from Hanover to Karlsruhe.

And Mr. Rohloff has sold the equipment, at $7,100 a piece, to customers in Bulgaria, Colombia, South Korea and elsewhere, including one to a man in Nebraska. Just this week he sold one to a client in South Africa, which next year will host the World Cup soccer tournament.

Mr. Rohloff patented the design, though that has not discouraged imitators, like the company that appeared on the scene in Berlin last year operating under the name Grillrunner, with yellow umbrellas instead of orange. Mr. Rohloff has hired a lawyer to try to crack down on the competition, but they have not gone to court yet.

Out on the street, an uneasy truce has developed between the rival salesmen, who stand eye to eye at the entrance to the Alexanderplatz subway station. “At the beginning, there were some pretty serious arguments, but today we keep our distance,” said Hendrik Zickert, 27, a Grillwalker salesman.

Not everyone is a fan, particularly not the competition from complete stands with a broader selection but higher fixed costs and thus higher prices. “We often ask ourselves how people can buy their sausages from them,” said Petra Schöbs, who on a recent afternoon was working at an Alexanderplatz stand advertising “original Thuringian bratwurst” for just under $3. “Our selection, our quality is much higher, and with us its much more hygienic,” Ms. Schöbs said.

But one Grillwalker customer said she thought there were advantages to watching the sausages getting cooked, if not made. “I don’t think it’s unhygienic,” said Lydia Eiglsperger, 41, a vacationing Bavarian who bought a bratwurst for each of her children. “Standing out there, they can’t hide a thing.”

Victor Homola contributed reporting.

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