I learned an important lesson last night..."Phantom of the Opera" is not for me. Only one other time (unfortunately it was previous to this so it made for two in a row) have I experienced anger at a theatrical experience. This show put me in a miserable mood although it was not entirely the fault of the show itself. I was locked in for the first 25 minutes or so. Then the coughing started. It came at a constant clip of about 28 coughs per minute, one cough at a time from every nook and cranny of the auditorium. I thought we were under a biological attack. Needless to say, this was rather distracting. As for the actual show, the music, to me, was utterly unmoving. The show-within-the-show sections were pointless and ran way too long. Also, and I guess this is just a function of the genre, I can't stand when every word the characters utter is done so in "song," especially when this so-called music is a bunch of disconnected, seemingly random notes that have no discernible melody or direction. If this is what opera is, I guess I'm just anti-opera. I hope not though. I always thought I would enjoy opera. We did have a really good time though, up until the show started.
Got a real nice-looking weekend ahead. Tonight or tomorrow, I will be entering the bottling phase of the debut batch of my home brew experiment, or as we in the business call it, secondary fermentation. :-) Saturday morning, we head up to Big Bear where eight (or so) of us will cram into a cabin with food, booze, and board games under the threat of a massive snowstorm. We've got a Corrolla with chains. Should be fun. Sunday, we return home with an 80% chance of heavy showers waiting for us when we get there. The old man is going to be making an unprecedented February batch of his famous winter stew and he's going to teach me the trade as he does it. I tried to make it once before back around Christmas and, while it was decent, it paled in comparison. Now I will learn from the master. That should be an all-day affair with a good rainy-day movie (something epic) squeezed in between. I think I might just break out the apple whiskey too.
And on Monday, we embark on that most enjoyable-yet-still-somewhat-queer of wedding traditions, we register. I say queer because, although I completely understand why it's necessary, it's an awkward thing to create such a list, complete with quantities desired and prices. But hey, you only do this thing once*, right?
*(God willing)
18 comments:
Well to be fair...we were pretty generous with the stew praise :) Looking forward to the finely crafted seconds though!
You were indeed. Wait, did you just admit that you were exagerrating it a bit?!
Some of it might have been vino induced
Phantom was the first musical I ever saw. I was 7-- it was here in previews before going to Broadway. I was in awe. I'd never seen anything like that. That was when I decided I wanted to sing.
I heard it was returning to LA and decided against buying tickets. I was afraid it would not hold any magic for me anymore. I am glad now, reading your post, I skipped it! LOL.
Don't listen to him AJ. The show is the same show you saw, if not better with EFX and new staging. His post said nothing about the quality of the show, just his Seinfeld-like awareness of the coughing and his dislike for Opera.
That's what Opera is John. Words being sung, not always in song format. You might like Opera in foreign language since you can't understand the words and will think it is a song.
I hope you're right. Although what I said about the show-within-the-show and the music is entirely about the show and not about the audience or opera-ness.
Yeah, but my thing was she had already seen it and liked the music before and the story of it. That's like me remembering I like vanilla ice cream, but since you just had some and didn't like it, then I'm not gonna have some.
Boys, please, let's not fight!
I hear ya...
I warned you.
I wonder if that's the Jason Kissen I went to elementary school with.... Is your mom Karen?
Ummm, ya. That would be me. Who is this?
(Now everyone is reading this, right?)
You might not remember me, Jason but we went to VBS together. I think I'm a year ahead of you.
Our moms were friendly. We always seemed to run into her at Topanga Plaza. LOL.
-Amanda Feuerman
Now is this a small world or what?
John, how do you and Jason know each other?
Sure, I remember you. Wow, definitely a small world. John and I become good buddies through another mutual friend of ours. How are you doing? So we don't bore everyone with endless posts hit me up with an email at jkissen@mac.com and we can catch up.
and you both went to U of A!
Now that's uncanny!
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