What Is Going On?

Sorry it's been so long. I have not even been particularly busy. I really have no idea what is so important in my life that I can't update this thing more often. Okay, rant over . . . On to the good stuff!

It's TV Turn-off Week. And I hate it. My family is forcing me into it. But it's only one week. I imagine I'll be better for it, but how can I be expected to miss quality programming like Great Performance's South Pacific Concert featuring Reba McEntire and Alec Baldwin (Wednesday at 9)? How? How? I suppose I'll survive, with or without Alec Baldwin doing Rogers and Hammerstein, but I am certainly missing some quality entertainment. And a lot of advertisements. A lot a lot of advertisements. I need to know the specials this week at McDonalds! Especially since I never go there! Sorry. I just hate commercials.

I have not seen any good movies lately. Over my brothers birthday I went to see The Benchwarmers which was a terrible movie that really doesn't deserve the italics formation I just gave it. It was pretty much the same few jokes over and over and over again. How many times can Jon Heder throw a bat and have it be funny? (Answer: zero) The only funny person in the whole movie was Jon Lovitz (What do you know, to Jon's with no h's in one movie!), who is always a stitch, and he had a fairly interesting character to work with. Avoid this movie at all costs. You know you are in for a bad time when the first joke involves a kid farting into another kids nose, and that the best actor of the 3 leads is (shudder) Rob Schneider. My brother, however, greatly enjoyed it, and it was his birthday after all. I suppose the movie is just targeted towards 14 year olds.

Wow. I just had 2 more rants when I promised my first one was over. All right, now I promise to move onto good news.

I am in a staged reading of The Crucible by Arthur Miller this Friday. And I am extremely excited. I play Giles Corey and we are being (extremely well) directed by EJ (last name left off to protect the innocent), as her Independent Study Project. It is this Friday at 7:30 at Brighton High School. And it is free. If you are in the Rochester area you should come see it. Its going to be awesome. However, it is very untraditional, as it is just us standing on stage, reading from music stands and acting from there with very little action. While it is still interesting and very good don't come expecting a full on production with scripts in our hands.

I saw The Lion King at the Auditorium Theater a couple of weeks ago. I really enjoyed it and I think it is one of the best shows I have ever seen. Not that I have seen many. It's really expensive to go see a live show, so we only go if we can get some kind of discount, or even better for free. I really love being in the audience and seeing something happening on stage. I am not sure whether I like performing or watching more, but they are very different experiences and it is really hard to compare them. One you are participating as a creator, and with the other you are only an observer. Both are important. You need both people to do a show and people to watch a show. One without the other feels really stupid. Anyway, I had great seats at the performance (first row balcony) and it was a wonderful evening, even if I did have to get up for school the next day.

The only other thing I've seen recently is Working: The Musical at the high school. It was okay. Excellent performances all around, but the material was not the best. Nobody really learned anything or developed as a character, as it was just a bunch of shorts taken from real interviews from Studs Terkel's book. It was definitely the worst production of the year, but both Razzle and WSS were outstanding and they set the bar really high.

A ton of stuff today! Wow, I can write a lot if I wait months in between posts! Well, I'll try to give shorter, more frequent posts. Whenever I do something remotely interesting, I am going to work on thinking "I should blog that." Not that I'll actually do it, mind you, but it's a start.

Peace to All (And Happy Belated Easter!)
Andy