Sad news and wacky news

Do you want the sad news or the wacky news first?

The sad news, okay, grab a box of tissues.

No seriously, get some tissues.

In the Heights is closing on Broadway.

I never thought much of In the Heights until I saw it this summer. I always thought of it as "that rap show." That's not what Broadway's about.

But then I saw it. Go back a few posts and you can read more. And my mind did a 180. This show is amazing. The dancing, the music, the comedy, the drama, everything is extremely well done. It tells the story of the people living in Washington Heights and how their lives change when someone among them wins the lottery jackpot of $96,000. It's heartfelt, hilarious, and visually dynamic. I have the soundtrack in my car stereo right now, and I play it on loop all the time.

Now I'm very sad it's closing on Broadway in January. I feel a little better knowing that there will be a movie version starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show's composer/lyricist and orginal star as Usnavi. Which brings me to another point.

Miranda will be returning to the final two weeks of In the Heights on Broadway to close the run as Usnavi. I'm very happy to hear that because Usnavi replacements have been fine, I was especially impressed with Corbin Bleu when I saw him as Usnavi, but no one quite embodies the part like Miranda, and this show is his baby.

So go see In the Heights while you can and maybe we can pull a RENT and prolong the run a few more months!

Now that we have the sad news out of the way...

Remember that wacky 80s musical I also saw on Broadway named Rock of Ages? You can read more about it by going back a few blog posts to my Broadway review this summer. Long story short its a miniscule plot, big hair, musical with 80s songs and Constantine Maroulis. They're making a movie of it and here's where it gets good...

They're approaching Tom Cruise to be in the cast. No word yet on which role, though we know its a supporting character of some kind, especially since the lead character will be played by Constantine in the film. But wouldn't that be hysterical? Especially if he's the gay narrator Lonny or sex symbol Stacee Jaxx?

Dog Drama Part 2

Update on the doggie drama- still have puggle fever, and still want one when I graduate. However, talked to my dad today and he gave me some very sound advice. He said I have my whole life to have a dog and I may want to wait a while to make sure wherever I wind up living and working is semi-permanent so I don't wind up stuck in a situation I don't want to be in (bad job, bad apartment, etc) because I have a dog to care for. What do you think?

Dog Drama

So here's the thing. I have lived with a dog my whole life, mostly Dobermans (don't believe the stereotypes- they are the sweetest dogs ever).

We currently have a puppy and another dog in our apartment and I like this arrangement. I get to play with the dogs without having to take responsibility for them or pick up after them.

That was all fine until this weekend, when I saw these pictures...

NOTE: I do not own these pictures, but since they were up on Google images, I didn't think the owners would mind...

The first dog is a Puggle (Pug and Beagle, all the cuteness of both breeds without the annoying Beagle bark). The second is a King Charles Spaniel.

Something about seeing these dogs totally awakened my inner dog lover and now I need one. But here's the problem...

Since I'm a college kid until graduation in May, I still don't know where I'm going to work or live next year. I don't know if my lifestyle after graduation would allow for a dog. And I want to be fair to the dog and give him or her the good home he/she deserves...

So I'm waiting. At least until I know where I'm working/living next year. Then, if at all possible, I'm snatching one of those cute fuzzballs, probably one over 1 year old so I can avoid some of the puppy madness.

Until then I have Puggle fever.

You ever notice...

how certain songs immediately elicit an emotional response from you?

I'm sitting in a lobby before a class and Lisa Loeb's "Stay" (the one that starts "You say, I only hear what I want to...") comes on and I'm immediately overcome with nostalgia. This is an old song, and isn't associated with a particular memory for me, but it does take me back. And the weird thing is this occured BEFORE the lyrics even started. Just the guitar strums at the beginning got my mind going. Isn't that weird and kind of cool? What songs do that for you?

Worth a Blog Post

At first this was just going to be a facebook status, but I think I need to comment more on it, not just see what you all think.

Steven Tyler is going to be a judge on American Idol.

This may not seem like a big deal, I personally haven't watched Idol in ages, but I think it's interesting for a few reasons.

1. It's Steven Freaking Tyler.

2. He's the lead singer of Aerosmith. Aerosmith is absolutely EPIC, and they still rock harder than any group I've ever seen, even though they're all getting a little old. So on the one hand, I'm tempted to say I'm disappointed that he would stoop to that level (let's be honest here, after Kelly Clarkson American Idol went downhill from there).

3. But my disappointment is quelled because, if he takes this seriously, he could give some amazing advise to aspiring artists. When the official announcement is made, his advice to contestants was "Sing like you do when nobody's watching." Maybe a tad corny, but I thought it was solid advice.

4. This may also be a good move personally for Tyler. He's been in and out fo rehab for ages, due to drug addiction and pain medication addiction from performance related injuries. Perhaps the slower pace of Idol will be just what he needs to make some healthier choices. I'd hate to see a legend like him overdose because he just couldn't stop rocking. And let me be perfectly clear, Steven Tyler should NEVER stop rocking, but perhaps rocking at a slower pace would do him some good.

NYC tips and Broadway Show Reviews!

So I am spoiled, therefore I went to NYC for a few days. I spent a fair amount of money, but got a lot accomplished. Here are a few tips if you want to go to NYC without going broke...

1. Go by bus- The Bolt Bus and Megabus are amazing to get from DC to NYC. You get free WiFi, comfy seats, a bathroom, and the tickets are usually $20 or less, so you're paying at the most $40 to get there are back, which is much less than you'd spend on gas or a plane.

2. Finding cheap housing- honestly this one is a bit difficult, but try and find a friend willing to let you crash on their couch for a night or two and you'll save tons.

3. Grocery shop- my friend and I bought some milk and a box of cereal and spent much less than if we'd gone out to breakfast every day.

4. Raffles/Student Rush- If you're like me, one of the huge benefits of NYC is Broadway, and Broadway takes pity on the poor. Many shows reserve discount tickets and raffle them off, and entering the raffle is free! If you go for a matinee/not busy night the raffles become even easier to win. Also, if you're a student many shows have student rush tickets where you can get discount seats.

Broadway Show Reviews

My friend and I arrived in NYC on a Sunday afternoon, too late to catch a matinee but not too late to enter a raffle for a night show (you have to show up 2 hours early for the raffle). We decided to try and raffle our way into Alice Ripley's last night in "Next to Normal", but many other people wanted to do that as well so we didn't win. We still wanted to see a show though, so we looked at thes shows with student rush tickets and went to "Rock of Ages" for just under $40.

"Rock of Ages"- This show is goofy. Take the most stereotypical, thin plot of boy meets girl, add 80s rock music, and you have "Rock of Ages." It's biggest star? American Idol's Constantine Maroulis. Sounds terrible, right? Actually it's not. What saves RoA is that even the actors don't take the show seriously. They invite you to drink in your seat, sing along, and have a good time, and it is a good time. It's more of a concert than a Broadway atmosphere, but it's fun if you don't try and take it seriously. The best part? They give you a fake lighter to wave during slow songs, and watch out for "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", it just may be the funniest part of the show.

The next day my friend and I decided we'd do whatever it took to see "In the Heights". I'll admit, I was skeptical about seeing this show at first. It seemed like a lot of rapping about the Hood, and the lead role is now being played by High School Musical's Corbin Bleu. However, my friend really wanted to see it and I was intrigued so we went to the raffle- and WON. We each paid less than $30 for our seats.

"In the Heights"- I said a bit ago I was skeptical about this show. I was wrong. It was fantastic! The storyline revolves around Usnavi and his neighbors in Washington Heights, and what happens when one of them wins $96,000 dollars playing the lottery. Needless to say, this made us even more excited about winning the "lotto" for our seats (which ended up being in the FRONT ROW). The music is beautiful and the dancing is intense. I can't stop playing the soundtrack in my car, and I'm in love with the Piragua Guy.

Since we went to "In the Heights" for my friend, we decided to go to whatever show I really wanted to go to next. I picked "The Lion King". It's been my favorite film since it came out and I'd been meaning to see the show for a long time. We almost didn't get to go though, because "The Lion King" doesn't have student rush or raffle tickets. But my dad had seen the show in the West End and loved it so he helped us out so we could see it.

"The Lion King"- It was everything I dreamed it would be and more. They overwhelm you with "Circle of Life" and the animals parading down the aisles, and they never lose that intensity. The costumes are brilliant, the acting is great, and they had all my favorite lines from the movie. The only downside- the song "Morning Report" has been cut from the show. I don't mind the song being cut, but I did wish they'd left the pouncing scene in the show. Overall though this show knocked me off my feet and brought tears to my eyes once or twice.

Due to funds and timing those were the only shows we saw, but we did one more fun thing I have to mention, we went to the Met.

The Met- I'd never been to the Met before, and I like museums, but they're not usually my favorite thing ever. I also really didn't know what to expect of the Met. When I realized in this museum I could look at Renoir and Monet paintings up close, not to mention countless others and a great Egyptian artifacts section, I was delighted. When you add in the great Medieval Arms & Armor section, I got a great deal for my $10 student ticket. I highly recommend going, especially if you've never been before. You also never know how long those paintings will be around, I'm pretty sure they get shifted from museum to museum.

Well, sorry I haven't written in a while. Hopefully I've made up for it with this super-long post. Enjoy and, as always, feel free to comment.

Wait, cooking is fun?!?!

I'm a college kid. When I'm not eating at the dining hall I subsist mainly on a diet of mac and cheese, chicken & prosciutto tortellini, tuna fish, and of course, ramen noodles. Not the most nutritious or varied menu.

I've spent three years doing the same thing because cooking for one is expensive and time consuming. But I'm heading into the "real world" soon (unless John Mayer is right and there is no such thing...) so I need to know how to make some meals. Now don't get me wrong, just because I'm currently reading "The Undomestic Goddess" by Sophie Kinsella doesn't mean I can't cook. I can cook basic dishes, mostly pasta, and baked goods (I made some awesome chocolate chip cookies the other day). I'm not going to starve. But, with the help of my mom, I'm taking this to the next level.

My mom suggested I pick a new recipe and cook dinner once a week. It's a win-win because she pays for groceries and gets dinner made for her, and I discover new recipes that are delicious and easy to make on my own. Take last night for example, I made Artichoke Chicken for the first time and it turned out very well!

Also, through a weird twist of fate, I wound up with a free book to write my recipes in! I went to go visit my sister Renee' on Tuesday to watch gLee (wasn't it soo wonderful?!?!) and as we were enjoying some lovely Northgate Apple Wine she mentioned she had some various books and things she needed to get rid of. I mentioned that I had been collecting some clothes I never wear to donate to goodwill and would be happy to take her things with me. Fast forward to today.

I have my errands all planned out- go buy a book to write my recipes in, drop things off at goodwill, and get some groceries. I peek in the box of things from Renee' and I find a never-been-used book for recipes and a mexican recipe book (yes, I am going to attempt to make sopapillas at my earliest convenience)! So now I have many new recipes to try, and a place to save the ones I like!

If you're anything like me, and I suspect most of you are, you don't cook much. Kick it up a notch, it's easy and delicious!

Here's the recipe for Artichoke Chicken in case any of you want to try it!

Artichoke Chicken

Prep Time: 10 Min Cook Time: 30 Min Ready In: 40 Min

Original Recipe Yield 4 servings 

Ingredients

1 (14 ounce) can quartered artichokes, drained and chopped

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

3/4 cup mayonnaise (reduced fat or fat free not recommended)

1 dash garlic powder

4 (4 ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (I recommend cutting these into strips for faster and more thorough cooking)

Directions

1. In a bowl, combine the artichokes, cheese, mayonnaise and garlic powder. Place chicken in a greased 11-in. x 7-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Spread with artichoke mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until chicken juices run clear.

Ke$ha is annoying

I'm sorry, I know her songs are catchy, but I can't stand Ke$ha. Her songs are mindless, immature, and don't make much sense.

Just take "Tik Tok" for instance. Catchy- yes. Quality music- NO.

Here's a great "analysis" of her Tik Tok lyrics

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOYMU15bjlA

A wonderful parody of Tik Tok courtesy of collegehumor.com

www.collegehumor.com/video:1935457

Amazing Female Comedians

There are some truly gifted female comedians out there. Here are some of my favorites...comment and share your own!

Top Five Female Comedians

1. Julia Roberts- because she's great as a comedian AND a serious actress, watch her in My Best Friend's Wedding if you don't believe me.

2. Jane Lynch- she cracks me up every single week as Sue Sylvester on gLee

3. Cameron Diaz- consistently funny, great facial expressions

4. Molly Shannon- also consistently funny

5. Tina Fey- gotta love her, started regularly watching SNL

honorable mention for best freak-outer- Diane Keaton (watch her I'm sorry speech in First Wives' Club to see what I'm talking about)

FINALLY! A role I approve of Natalie Portman in!

I'm not a Natalie Portman fan. I wasn't a huge fan of her in Star Wars or V for Vendetta. I'm told I can't truly make a judgement on her acting until I see her in Garden State, which is apparently her best role so far. Fair enough, I reserve final judgement until then.

But there is a movie coming out I know I'll approve of her in. Natalie Portman is slated to play Elizabeth Bennet...in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

This makes me happy for several reasons.

1. Turning Pride and Prejudice into a zombie story is so wrong and yet so genius.

2. I haven't read the book, but I'm assuming Elizabeth either starts as or is turned into a zombie over the course of the film, therefore Natalie Portman will become a zombie, which is a win in every sense of the word.

3. Zombie are gross, undead beings. The only thing that would make me happier is Kiera Knightley as a zombie.

Poll Results!

- fmylife.com- 0% Either I don't have enough pessimist readers or this website has become "so last year"
- mylifeisaverage.com- 0% This surprised me. I like MLIA, most of the time. It's worth a laugh, and is a great way to procrastinate. Again, maybe I'm just behind the times
- collegehumor.com- 40% Sometimes this website is over-the-top with explicit sexual references. More often than not it's easy to avoid those articles/videos and skip to the good stuff. I recently discovered the wonderful videos of Jake & Amir and I LOVE them
- youtube.com- 60% This was slightly unfair. All of the other websites are limited in what they put up. Youtube has everything. So I wasn't surprised it won, but the deck was stacked against everything else.

gLee tour: genius or disaster waiting to happen?

For those of you like me that can't get enough of gLee, they've decided to do a tour. They'll sing lots of favorites from the show and they have hired the same set designer Lady Gaga uses. Sounds wonderful, no?

I'm a little skeptical. Apparently this tour is going to have a plot, which worries me. The plot will have some variation of New Directions preparing to battle Vocal Adrenaline. Why not just sing songs? People will still pay oodles of money for it, and a plot attached to a tour could be downright laughable if not put together incredibly well.

There also have already been jokes made about lip syncing. I hope this is not true. gLee is doing so well, last week's Madonna episode was great, they do not need to become the next Ashlee Simpson. It's completely understandable that they pre-record the music for their episodes, but if they're going to bother to do a tour, they should be singing for real.

Would I still go if I had the time/money? Absolutely. Am I little worried about gLee becoming too much like High School Musical? Absolutely.

Great Song Lyrics

Some song lyrics make me cringe. But some are really well done. Here are a few I love...can you tell who my favorites artists are? :-P PLEASE comment with your favorites!

- "You're just a product of loveliness"- Michael Jackson, The Way You Make Me Feel

- "She never gives out, and she never gives in, she just changes her mind"- Billy Joel, She's Always A Woman

- "And every time I've held a rose, It seems I only felt the thorns, And so it goes, and so it goes, And so will you soon I suppose"- Billy Joel, And So It Goes

- "Don't go changing, to try and please me, you've never let me down before"- Billy Joel, Just The Way You Are

- "I am not a hero, I am not an angel, I am just a man, a man who's trying to love her, unlike any other, in her eyes I am"- Josh Groban, In Her Eyes

Nicknames for Short People and gLee Poll Results

I'm "vertically challenged." I'm 5 ft, 1/2 an inch tall. I've always been short and I've learned to love it. I'd much rather be too short than too tall, and I'm tall enough to do all of the necessary things like driving.

What still gets on my nerves sometimes is the nicknames. I've decided to list a couple acceptable nicknames for short people, at least based on my personal experience, and nicknames to steer clear of.

Bad nicknames

- shawty- don't even go there

- midget- offensive

Good nicknames

- short stuff- sometimes cute, depends on my mood

- little one- I actually like this one

gLee poll results!

I had to do this poll because I LOVE gLee. I was a bit disappointed by the episode last Tuesday, but I have high hopes for the Madonna episode tomorrow! I also realized that I could have included Kristin Chenoweth, because she's coming back on the show to reprise her roll as April Rhodes, but this way all the guest stars in question are brand new!

Olivia Newton-John- 0% Guess we have no Grease fans out there...should be interesting to see her and Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester) remake the "Physical" music video.

Jonathan Groff- 20% At first I was shocked by this. He's a Broadway star, and did you HEAR and SEE him performing "Highway to Hell" last episode? AMAZING. But then I thought about who he was up against, and I didn't feel so bad. Jonathan Groff, you're wonderful, but you simply don't have the following of either of our top stars.

Idina Menzel and Neil Patrick Harris- 40% each. I was happy with this. I have been a fan of Idina ever since I discovered Wicked, she has some amazing pipes! Unfortunately, I grew a little jaded with her because of her excessive and sometimes distracting breathing while she sings. I know she has asthma, but shouldn't a Tony-winning Broadway actress know how to breath correctly when singing? I have no qualms whatsoever with Neil Patrick Harris, though I don't know much about him. Most of my experience with him is limited to watching him host the Tony Awards, and if that's any indication of him as a performer he's going to be hysterical and a perfect match for gLee.

Top Five Uplifting Songs

These songs always inspire me and make me feel really good about myself, if you're ever just having "one of those days" and you need a pick-me-up I highly recommend them.


1. Free to be Me- Francesca Battistelli


2. Don't Stop Believin'- Journey


3. Just the Way You Are- Billy Joel


4. You Can't Hide Beautiful- Aaron Lines


5. You Are Loved- Josh Groban

The Pros and Cons of Nostalgia

Sometimes nostalgia is great. You get to look back on all the fond memories you've had so far- that crazy play you did, that high school dance, etc. You wish you could do it all over again because it was so much fun.

But not all nostalgia is good. I mean, who hasn't looked back and wished they'd done some things differently? I went through a VERY angsty phase my senior year in high school and if I could, I would walk up to my senior self, shake her by the shoulders, and say "Stop being upset for no reason! Enjoy life and the great experiences you're surrounded by."

Does this mean we should supress bad memories so looking back isn't as painful? I'm not sure. What I do know is that you can't change the past but you can learn from it, and dwelling on embarassing things that happened to you isn't healthy or helpful.

Moral of the story- let it go. Address your issues, learn from them, then move on. It's not easy but it is necessary. Life is about living, moving forward and not being caught up in the past. And you can't do any of those things while letting your baggage weigh you down.