Hedwig - Two Shows left!

We've got two shows left of Hedwig, tonight and Saturday. 8:00 each night at the SOTA Theater. Bring your gummi bears.

Here's a link to the Horatio page for Hedwig with a short clip and photos.

Rosemary Ponnekanti reviewed the show for the Trib. Steve Dunkelberger has his review in the Volcano and wanted more "pep," but also said, "Overall, the show was entertaining. It’s worth a look if you are scoping out something different."

Hope to see you there!

The Top 100 Films

About a decade ago the American Film Institute put out the Top 100 American films. I set out to watch them all. Before I could get to the end, though, what did they do but change the list! Not just a small amount either. 23 films were dropped off the 1997 list and replaced.

Ah well. I've seen more of the films they added than the ones they dropped, so it got me closer to seeing them all (76 1/2, to date. I couldn't stomach finishing A Streecar Named Desire which might be heresy to some, but the play really is a lot better).

Anyway. Some of the films they dropped off just didn't have the chops to stick around: From Here to Eternity? Boring! Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Does a movie where Richard Dryfus sculpt his mashed potates really deserve to be on the list? Dances With Wolves? Good, but c'mon, Top 100?

At least two films should still be on there: The Manchurian Candidate and Fargo.

As to the new films, I'm glad to see The General, Shawshank, In the Heat of the Night, 12 Angry Men, and Toy Story make the list. And as must as I love LOTR: Fellowship of the Rings (best of the trilogy and best that came out in 2001) it feels a little soon to put it on the list. I think The Sixth Sense will drop off by the 2017 list. Titanic will stay (remember, cultural significance is weighed into the ratings, too).

Now that Ebert's back writing again (2007 really has been a good year, hasn't it?) I can quote him:

To read over the film institute's list is to remember spine-tingling
moments in movie theaters. The ballet of space ships in "2001." The soaking-wet
dance in "Singin' in the Rain." The scary perfection of Astaire and Rogers, the
perfect anarchy of the Marx Brothers, the anarchic warfare in "Apocalypse Now,"
the warfare of obsession in "Vertigo."

...

So in the last analysis, it doesn't really matter what movies are on the
list. What matters is the movies on the list, voted by 1,500 above-average
moviegoers who don't think "Citizen Kane" has aged one day.

Thanks, Rog.

Short "Hedwig" Video Clip!

During the packed showed of "Hedwig" in Seattle on Sunday night, I caught a short clip from the back of the room. It's not the greatest sound or video quality but it's pretty cool.

We still have tickets available for Friday and Saturday's shows at the SOTA Theater in downtown Tacoma! Come check it out!

The BCPA

If you haven't seen Rosemary Ponnekanti's feature on David Fischer and the Broadway Center in today's Trib (and it's on the front page, so I hope you've seen it) check it out.

They're doing some very cool things down there.

Kiss and Tell

There's more in the Tribune today about the administrator who showed footage of two girls kissing to one of the girl's parents which I wrote about earlier this year.

A few interesting items:

First, Nelson burned the footage to a CD, took it home, and showed it to the parents of the girl (who were also his neighbors) at home. I don't know if the Peninsula School District has policies about teachers or administrators taking home footage of students, especially when it is footage of two girls kissing, but to me this is beyond the pale.

To be clear, I'm not trying to insinuate anything bad about what Nelson did with the CD (he told the investigators he destroyed it). But if there is not a policy about staff taking footage of students home, then there should be one tomorrow. It should be unacceptable to all parents, including the 50 or so who are supporting Nelson and threatening action against the school board.

Second, Nelson showed other parents footage of kisses "several times" according to him (although never at his home).

The good news is this:

School Board President Geoffrey Baillie said last week he couldn’t talk about
Nelson’s status because it is a personnel matter. However, he said the school
board might produce a policy that clarifies student and parent rights by the
fall.

I am glad to hear the school will be formalizing student rights. It is clearly needed.

"The Blind Side" by Michael Lewis

If you enjoy football to any degree, I highly recommend Michael Lewis' book "The Blind Side."

His previous book Moneyball (which I also greatly enjoyed) felt very academic, more economic treatise than sports-fan fodder, although again, it really was very good.

But "The Blind Side" is just awesome. At its center is a young man named Michael Oher whose story is compelling and makes for some of the best non-fiction reading I've done in awhile.

Surrounding his story is a mini history of the development of football and how the position of Left Tackle has become so important in modern football. It sounds dry but it's really not. Lewis is a very gifted writer and the story is top notch.

If you hate football, you're probably not going to like this book. But if you have even a passing interest in the game, I think this will make you sit up and take notice of the sport even more. It did for me. Now I don't have to pretend that I know what people are talking about when they refer to a West Coast Offense.

David Minikel, 1941 - 2007

David Minikel, a local civil lawyer and civil rights activist, died over the weekend.

I first met David in 2004 when he sat on the hiring committee of the Grand and brought me aboard. We worked pretty closely together during my first year at the Grand when he was Treasurer of the Board.

David seemed to be working all the time, going from his work to the Grand to a legal fight against the City. He was very passionate, whether he was talking about open government or film (a favorite topic, as you might expect, at the Grand).

So long, David.

All Over The Sound

Happily, I was all over this weekend.

Friday we journeyed west and spent the evening at Mason Lake, which is always nice. Saturday it was lunch with the family and then a trip across the water from Bremerton to Seattle by ferry, followed by seats with friends to see Griffey and the Reds lose to Seattle 9-1 (clearly I chose a better day to go than Friday night's 16-1 loss).

And today it was breakfast at PSP where we bumped into the good folks at ZestyEnterprise. And this evening, it's off to Seattle again for the Hedwig show at Neumo's! Hedwig will be back in T-town Friday and Saturday night down at the SOTA Theater, so hopefully I'll see you there for that!

"Going to the Candidate's Debate"

Like the groovy song says, I'm going to the Candidate's Debate tonight. Position 8, Tacoma City Council, that is, hosted by Exit133 down at the Broadway Center. To be fair, it's a Candidate's Forum, not a debate, but that doesn't fit in the lyrics for Mrs. Robinson, so I'm sticking with "debate."

Koo koo ka choo if you don't like it.

To be quite honest, I'm not sure I've ever been to something like this. I imagine it will be something like the live debate on The West Wing last year between Matt Santos and Arnie Vinick. Except no East Coast Feed. And I'm guessing nuclear power won't come up and then come back to haunt one of the candidates.

And these four candidates will be real, which is a nice difference, too.

Two Quick Restaurant Notes

Last night it was The Matador and tonight Europa Bistro.

This was my first time to The Matador in nice weather. We sat outside, enjoyed the sights and sounds of Pacific Ave, and had a great time in the warm shade. Still good food, too, although it's very spicy, and good tequila. I've thought about it as a winter place for awhile, but it was very nice in a summer month too.

And Europa tonight started with an ill-conceived walk from my condo to Proctor, which took way longer than we thought it would. But we had a good dinner with Angela, formerly of Yale Divinity School, but back home in T-Town for the summer. Loved the mozzarella, loved the pasta.

Beautiful night to be out in Tacoma!

'Bond' gets high class treatment

The next Bond movie (number 22, if you're counting) is hopefully due out at end of 2008. Paul Haggis (who wrote Casino Royale, but also wrote Crash, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of our Fathers, and Letters from Iwo Jima) will co-write with the director, Marc Forster.

Forster has never made a movie like Bond. His recent directing credits include Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland, Stranger Than Fiction, and the upcoming The Kite Runner.

And this is the team for James Bond? Actually, they might be able to make it really awesome. I'll start the countdown for November '08 (I guess there's some sort of election going on that month, too).

Tacoma blogging for tourists

DavidS has noted in the Exit133 forums that the Hotel Murano has a blog going called "The Looking Glass" on their new website. The blogger is Josh, a valet at the hotel and a metal sculptor.

Unlike most of the Tacoma blogs, his is pretty clearly aimed at people who don't know the city, which makes for a slightly different voice. Putting a blog out there is good thinking on Hotel Murano's part, I'd say.

News of the Day

It's worth point out two stories, one local, one not. Pierce County will be considering giving benefits to domestic partners. Good show from the folks in the County on that one. I hope it goes through.

Second, the big news is that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has withdrawn from the GOP to become an independent. Some people think he might run for President in '08 (meaning we'd have two New York mayors and a New York Senator in the race, which would be interesting).

I should say that from everything I know about Bloomberg, he's been an excellent Mayor for the City. The New York Times endorsement of him was positively glowing. His sustainability and environmental plans for the city are fabulous. When it comes to the Presidency, I'm still all about Obama, but I think Bloomberg withdrawing from the Grand Ol' Party is a very sure sign of the weakness in the Republican Party and their inability to be the "Big Tent" Party they tried to be for so many years.

Boomsday, by Christopher Buckley

I've never read a Christopher Buckley novel before, although I greatly appreciated the film version of his book "Thank You For Smoking," which we played at the Grand last spring.

The man knows satire, that's all there is to it.

Boomsday, the word, refers to the date when Baby Boomers start to retire and put a huge financial strain on social security. Buckley also paints a federal government catering to the huge demographic of Boomers and passing the burden on to the kids of the Boomers (like me).

The novel is good fun, thanks to Cassandra, who suggests on her blog that Boomers voluntarily kill themselves at age 70 in exchange for waiving the estate tax and some other benefits. Of course, Washington being Washington, by the time the proposal is actually considered (and it is) those benefits include a 2 week all expenses paid vacation and full tax write-offs for Segways and mausoleums.

It's a funny read and I think I'll try out some more Buckley soon.

Carleton and the Environment

Carleton has long been into worrying about energy and pollution. Apparently they and St. Olaf compete for a week in the spring to see who can save more energy than the other school. Students will camp in the Arb, classes are taught with the windows open and the lights off, they really get into it. Carleton even built a windmill to produce energy (St. Olaf later followed suit).

Their conservation has spread to Reunion weekend. Everything we used to each lunch of dinner with either recyclable or compostable, including our silverware which was called spudware because it was made from potatoes. No foolin'. We used potato cutlery (suprisingly strong, by the way).

So thanks for introducing me to Spudware, Carleton. Your biodegradable cutlery was very fun.

Live from Minnesota

As it happened, my 5 year Carleton reunion conflicted with the opening weekend of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch." I chose the one I'd already bought the ticket for.

Save for the 10:00 hour each night as I fretted about how the show was going, it was good to be back in Minnesota. I've been back something like once a year since I graduated, but this was different because there were so many people I recognized there with me (roughly 270 from the class of 2002, or around 50%).

That said, I did find myself missing T-Town, if for no other reason than it's not crazy humid and hot there. When I arrived late at night, I remember thinking "Yeah, I could see myself living in Minnesota again." That beautiful thought went away around 9:00 the next morning.

Air conditioning! I need air conditioning!

The Big Show: Hedwig

If you're in the mood for a good glam rock musical, check out Hedwig tonight! It's going to be pretty dang awesome. Downtown Tacoma at 1118 Commerce (the SOTA theater). $16/person, $11 for members of the Horatio.

There's some other fun summer projects coming up too. I'll keep you in the loop.

A Streetcar Named Destiny

Go streetcars!

Great article today in the Tribune about the feasibility of streetcars in Tacoma. Take it away folks! Congrats to Morgan, a frequent commenter at Exit133, for his advocacy and backing of such a cool project.

With all this train activity in town, it looks like we'll really start living up to our old moniker of "where rails meet sails."

Party of the Year ... and I missed it.

Sounds like a rockin' party at Pacific Grill last night.

Jenny over at zestyenterprise has pictures. Derek at Exit133 has a good review plus lots of friendly commenters.

This Love Tacoma thing seems to be taking off.

As for me, Mary and I raided Dave's Meat and Produce again and barbecued up some marinated chicken with wasabi mashed potatoes and a great salad brought by a couple friends. I was feelin' the love for Tacoma and all -- it's hard to miss out on the deck -- but still ... party of the year ...

Hopefully I'll be in attendance for the Swiss Kiss.

Hedwig ... and the Prisoner of Azkaban?

Just kidding.

The title, of course, is Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a glam rock musical about Hedwig (previously Hansel) whose attempt at a sex change operation in East Berlin was botched (as many East Germany operations probably tended to). It's got awesome music and crazy makeup and costumes.

The Horatio is working with a great cast, and we'll open the show this Friday, June 15, at 8:00 pm at the SOTA Theater off Commerce. We'll have three more shows (June 16, and then June 29 & 30) in Tacoma, as well as a show in Seattle at Neumo's Sunday, June 24.

That's right, baby, the Horatio is producing in Seattle! Get tickets on-line and rock out with Hedwig.

A short note on Paris Hilton

Over on the News Tribune's editorial blog, Patrick O'Callaghan asks: Everyone I know is reveling in the fact that she was thrown back in the slammer – screaming hysterically ...

Do any of you – does even one of you – think that Paris doesn't deserve this? Do you even know anyone who thinks the judge ought to let her keep on partying in her Hollywood Hills home?

I should say that I think Paris Hilton deserves every day of the sentence, no question.

For some reason the Trib's comments aren't allowing me to post anything there, so I'll just post it here.

I feed bad for Paris Hilton. There, I said it.

Paris has broken the law and thrown gobs of money around to try to get out of the punishment. She was even able to temporarily con her way out of it. These are good reasons to revel in her 45 day stay.

But I'm not totally feelin' it.

Because, when we get right down to it, Paris Hilton is still 14. I feel bad for the 14 year-old girl who was just grounded, but doesn't totally get why, or what she really even did. I feel bad because her parents let her drop out of high school before becoming a slutty 19 year-old New York socialite.

I feel bad she's going through such an important adolescent moment--her first time ever being grounded--in front of the whole wide world, and she's doing it at the age of 26. I feel bad that she's encountered an iron-fisted parent for the first time in her life, even if it's in the form of Judge Michael Sauer. She's worth tens of millions of dollars, does anything she wants, but now has gotten the first real 'no' of her life and she's powerless to stop it. Welcome to the real world, dear. Most of us have been there since we didn't get the ice cream cone we wanted when we were 5.

And I feel bad because I don't believe for a second she's actually going to learn anything about it, which means she's got a very rough 40 days in front of her without any lesson at the end.

That's not a defense of the young heiress. Or sympathy or empathy. I just feel bad because I think she's going to stay 14 for a long time.

Fun in the Ocean

Let's get this out of the way: "Ocean's 13" is way way better than "Ocean's 12." If I'd been a blogging man back in December of Ought Four, I would have written something along the lines of "What were these people thinking when they made this movie?"

Thinking back on it, there were a few big problems with that movie. The entire plot was just so uncool. They were returning Terry Benedict's money? What gives? They were in boring ol' Europe? Half of the 12 was hardly mentioned. Julia Roberts played herself playing Julia Roberts? C'mon!

Every big problem with "12" was fixed with "13." It had its own difficulties and problems, but the movie was good fun. Back in Vegas, no Julia Roberts, a fun bad guy, the cast well uniformly well used, I thought.

Just good wholesome fun throughout. As long as it's set in Vegas, I'm totally OK with an "Ocean's 14."

Bob Newhart in Tacoma

Journeyed this evening to Bob Newhart down at the Pantages.

First, it's been awhile since I've been to a sell-out at the Pantages, so that was particularly cool.

Second, there was a pretty great moment of Tacoma pride. A large swing band played a few numbers before Bob Newhart came out. After their first little ditty, the band leader made the colossal mistake of telling the audience, "It's great to be here in Seattle." All 1,169 people in the audience shouted back in something close to unison: "Tacoma!" Awesome.

Third, Bob himself was good fun. I've listened to a number of his routines with my dad on car trips and enjoy his comedy. Perhaps the loudest and longest laugh came when he was complaining about country-western music. He told people he didn't want to denigrate country-western music, and then "for those of you who like country-western, 'denigrate' means to put down or make fun of ..."

I can already see that it's not as funny here, but that's OK. Fun night at the theater. Things seem to be running very well down there these days. I'm officially impressed.

"Rome"

I made a rule for myself last week that I wouldn't want television from June 1 through August 31. Of course I made plenty of exceptions:

Mariners Games
Debates, or other big events
and DVDs

The main thing was to stop myself from getting sucked in to the many many reruns of Scrubs, Simpsons, and South Park that inhabit my TiVo. I will certainly miss Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, but I think it's going to be a better summer without all that.

Why DVDs though? Well, because part of the problem with television watching is how easy it is to just keep watching. One Scrubs to another and then a few South Parks and suddenly a evening is wasted.

But DVDs are more active--at least as active as sitting on a couch can be. They have a start and an end, and you're not watching a Seinfeld you've seen three times before so it's a little more active mentally speaking.

So with that in mind, I decided to try out HBO's "Rome" on DVD. 2 episodes in so far, and it's surprisingly good. It feels like a pretty realistic picture of the time and the characters are well drawn.

I find it's certainly reassuring about the time we live now. Ancient Rome sucked whether you were a slave, a plebe, or a noble. But that doesn't mean it's not good television.

Mr. Blue

I first met Daniel Blue a few years ago when I was working at the Grand and he was (I think) starting up his Loyalty brand.

He's a cool fella, so it was a lot of fun to see him this weekend when we got footage of him for Exit133's new video of him reading his poem "OK, Tacoma." (That was when we ran into Thrice All American's very own Jamie and Trish from Embellish and DMG).

Check out the video. Also Daniel's myspace page. He's got a killer address: myspace.com/downtowntacoma.

Dave's Meat and Produce

Yesterday I visited Dave's for the second time and I left once again a very satisfied customer. They were quite a help with the entire menu: two great sirloin steaks (served 4, they were so big); asparagus for grilling; fresh avocados, a lime, and cilantro to make some homemade guacamole (my new passion in life); and huge and wonderful strawberries they provided for the rhubarb-strawberry crisp.

All in all, it was a fresh and absolutely awesome dinner. Go Dave's. You're fabulous!

Sweet and funny "Knocked Up"

A few nights ago I went to see Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up." He's the same director of "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and he's found a winning recipe: raunchy comedy combined with very sweet characters with good ol' fashioned morals.

Knocked up was very very funny and it was real and heart-felt, too. Katherine Heigl (the movie star I saw in Hollywood last summer by the way) was actually pretty good, as was the rest of the cast, Paul Rudd especially.

Just good fun all the way. I highly recommend.

Go Lions!

My high school alma mater (Bellarmine, for the uninitiated) just won "Outstanding Overall Musical Production" for its spring musical "Urinetown."

After working on all four musicals (including a dancing gig in My Fair Lady my senior year) when I was at Bellarmine, this is pretty cool. Congrats, guys!

More at Exit133.

Apple iPhone comes June 29

If you're like me, you'll be drooling over these ads for the iPhone. I am in love with this phone, and yet I have my fingers crossed and I am chanting, "Please don't break when you're dropped, please don't break when you're dropped, please don't break when you're dropped."

While I'm good with the price of the phone, I'm not so good with it if it breaks the first time it falls out of my pocket.

Seriously, check out the ads. Especially the "calamari." It's about the best demonstration of all the features of the phone I've seen.

It's a cooker

Last night we enjoyed a fun trip to Seattle again. First, a watefront mansion on Lake Washington, complete with an inclinator down to the water. It was pretty awesome. And second a good walk through U. Village, which is actually a pretty cool place I've decided.

And today it's been sweltering. Ran into a bunch of people today downtown, which is always nice when it happens on a Sunday.

I also checked out Dave's Meat and Produce over where I turns into 21st. It's a pretty cool place, I thought. I'm going to attempt to make guacamole with the avocados I bought. We'll see how that goes.

Obama in Seattle

Missed Obama's visit last night, but I'm sure there will be more.

Here's the story in the Trib.

Go Obama! I'll mention again that if you're a left-handed person you should check out www.leftiesforobama.com. Because there's no better reason to vote for a candidate than whether you are the same "handed" as him.

Weekend in Town

I was gone last weekend for the big trip to Las Vegas but this weekend I'll be around doing a lot of work on the ol' place as well as some good hanging out time. Tonight it's a trip to Seattle, too, and last night it was a great dinner at Primo Grill to celebrate Mary's big b-day.

Lots of fun planned. More blogging after the weekend, or maybe even as the weekend progresses...