Bear Droppings

We have been trying to get into the Christmas spirit here at home, and it hasn't been easy. We did see a show on Friday which we had specifically chosen a year ago to put us in the spirit. It was "Christmas with the Five Browns" performed at Popejoy Hall. They are 5 siblings who have trained professionally at our country's top music schools. They perform together on 5 grand pianos. They also play in different configurations. Sometimes solo, sometime 2 at the keyboard, sometimes 3, sometimes on separate pianos. It was supposed to be a Christmas show, but they wandered into different areas like a "Star Wars" medley or an encore of Grieg's "Hall of the Mountain King." It was nice just to get out and see a live show.

In terms of Christmas lights, I have no desire to set any up. I have been contemplating setting up the inflatable polar bear, but the apathy is winning. We have been having such strong winds it has been a blessing that I haven't set it up.

I have finally started playing my collection of Christmas jazz that I have accumulated over the years. That has been nice. I even congratulated myself that I got Alexa to play "Mele Kalikimaka."

We went to Costco today to buy Christmas dinner. Our go-to has become prime rib. I have no qualms about dishing out $70+ for a good hunk o' meat. We expected a shitshow, and we were not disappointed. We got there when the store opened, and there was a line that brought back memories of the earliest days of the pandemic. But we got in and out with no major issues. Kitty got her booster shot yesterday at Sam's Club and said the checkout lines were apocalyptic. Oh no! Everyone is so concerned about inflation!

When our season tickets for the 2019-2020 theater season arrived a few months ago, I saw that we had purchased tickets for The Swingles. At first I was puzzled, but then I remembered that when kitty and I were poring over the list of acts, we wanted to attend some sort of holiday show. We're pretty sick of "The Nutcracker" (except for the mice and the Rat King), and we really don't want to see A Mariachi Christmas. The Swingles sounded interesting. It's a 7-member a cappella singing group kinda like Pentatonix. They performed last night and we really enjoyed it. It was another little nudge to put us in the holiday spirit. They mostly did Christmas songs, but they threw in a few that were just more folksong-y. I'm still a little torn about a technique they used to enhance their sound. 7-part harmony is pretty damn impressive as it is, but they also use looping/sampling which could turn it into 14=part or even 21-part harmony. So someone can start a beatbox rhythm, and then mimic some other percussion while the first one continues. Then they could run both percussions while he switches to vocals. Now repeat that for possibly the other 6 members. You end up with a great sound, but I would much rather dispense with the audio trickery and just have them perform 100% "live". *shrugs* It didn't bother me all that much, but I felt it was just unnecessary.

Last night Kitty and I went to see the Blue Man Group for the 3rd time in 13 years. How she found it, I don't know, but Kitty found the LJ post from the last time we saw them in '15. Like I posted that last time the act is the same yet different. They still do a lot of audience participation. They still do the marshmallow throw and catch. And they still have that wonderful, driving percussion. The stage setup was pretty elaborate with screens and lights everywhere. It's the performance version of Meow Wolf. Good times. I would definitely go see them again the next time they pass this way.

Saturday marked the ending of the 2018-19 theater season. The last musical was "Beautiful" which was the life story of Carole King. It was a "jukebox musical" in that all of the songs were previous-released hits just repackaged with a story. Think "Jersey Boys," and to a lesser extent "Mama Mia." Since King was a prolific songwriter in the 60's who scored a bunch of hits with her co-writer husband, there was a plethora of material to fill the musical bill. To add even more musical availability, their best friends were also song writers, so those tunes could be added as well. The show concludes with the release of her solo album "Tapestry" which ranks as one of the Top 100 albums of all time. So there's lots of familiar music to be heard. I'm still on the fence about the whole "jukebox musical" concept, but the show actually worked.

It wasn't even a complete "date night" since we had a big lunch earlier in the day and decided to just graze in the sponsors' lounge as our dinner. So now we await the arrival of our tickets for the 2019-20 season. We found out that "Hamilton" won't be here until '21. But we'll be one of the first "smaller" cities to get it.

Last year when we were picking out shows to see over the course of the next year, I saw something called "Che Malambo" which looked interesting. It's an Argentinean dance troupe that incorporates drumming, latin guitar, and bolas. We went to the show on Friday night and we were blown away. Kitty was not sure about the whole thing. We've seen a lot of different dance groups over the year and she seemed pretty "meh" about the whole idea. As we were leaving the theater, however, she was gushing over how awesome the show was. Here's a sample of what we saw:

It seems that our new modus operandi for our social calendar is to subscribe for the Broadway series where we see the traveling musicals, and then tack on a few extras that are offered. The extras can include dance troupes, Chinese acrobats, Mariachi Christmas specials, etc. Then we fill in the rest with concerts as they pop up at various venues like Indian casinos. Before you know it we have a full year of fun experiences. One of the extras we included was something called "Piano Battle" where 2 pianists do various classical and pop tunes and the audience gets to decide who puts on the better show. That sounded kinda fun. Several months ago I posted that I had scored tickets to Death Cab For Cutie, a pop/rock band that I have been following for about 15 years. They were one of my first discoveries when I started subscribing to satellite radio. Over the years I have downloaded many of their songs so I was more than just a casual listener. The problem happened when I booked the Death Cab tickets without checking the calendar. We now had that show AND Piano Battle on the same day. But Fate smiled upon us and Piano Battle was a matinee performance while Death Cab was in the evening. We could see both! It would just be a long friggin day.

Piano Battle was a lot of fun. The 2 pianists were German and their humor was a little stiff/forced (IMHO), but what they lacked in yucks they made up for in their playing. They performed Debussy and Rachmaninoff as well as Star Wars. Overall it was a fun performance. We then had a few hours to kill before the concert, so we did a little shopping and had a romantic dinner of chili cheese fries and a strawberry milkshake. It was then off to the Convention Center to see Death Cab. Their opening act was "My Brightest Diamond" whom I have never heard of, but the lead singer had a set of pipes that rattle the rafters. She reminded us of Evanescence. Finally Death Cab came out and did a solid 2-hour set. Fortunately we had been listening to their latest release online in the weeks leading up to the show, so we were familiar with a lot of the new stuff they played. But it felt so good hearing all of their "hits" that I have been hearing for the past 15 years. It seems like most of the acts we have been seeing are "has beens" who had their moment 20-30 years ago. These guys are still hot as the younger audience can attest to. At the Grateful Dead concert last year we actually felt young. Here we were surrounded by millennials. But it was all good. The soundtrack of your life doesn't stop at 40 or 50.

It was another date night to see a Broadway musical and I guess it was a bit of a culture shock for me in a good way. Of course I have heard about this musical, but I have never seen it in its entirety. I know it was performed live on network television just a few weeks ago. I tuned in for a few minutes, but since I had no context, I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. And judging from the reviews I read by critics and fans alike, I'm glad I didn't watch it because the consensus seems to be that it was a shitshow. I have seen a bit of the movie (and we even own it on DVD thanks to Kitty), but once again I have never watched the entire thing. So it was the first time I have ever experience it in its full stage glory and I must say that I was impressed. I was not prepared for all of the Rent junkies in the audience, but I guess that's a thing. There were many of teh gheys in the audience because I guess the embracing of drag queens and confronting the AIDS epidemic back in 1999 was such a breakthrough moment. There is a bit of local pride because one of the themes in the musical was leaving New York City behind and finding freedom in Santa Fe. I said it was a culture shock because most of the musicals we have seen were pretty much mainstream ("Wicked") or rehashed oldies ("Sound of Music") so it was great to see what could be considered a modern masterpiece. I only knew the one hit song "Seasons of Love" which is truly a showstopper (even though it leads off Act 2 as opposed to happening in the middle of an act). So I'm very happy to have had the opportunity to see the show on the stage and performed by professionals.

I should also mention a bit of "drama" that happened before the show started. We were sitting in our seats when a woman came up to us and said we were in her seats. I whipped out my tickets and we just happened to have someone from the ticketing department in the row right in front of us. I panicked when the seats were identical. But the ticket person immediately focused on something else. She said, "Ma'am those were for the matinee this afternoon." The woman looked at her tickets and muttered, "Oh, shit." I hope she was able to see the show because the house was packed.

Sounds like a horror movie post! *lol* Actually it's about Kitty and I seeing "The Sound of Music" on stage. I must say that I enjoyed it better than the movie version. This was the first performance where we had our "premium" seats of 12th row dead center. We both decided that even though we had seen many of the plays/musicals before in some way or another, just the act of going to the theater on a date night is totally worth it.

Last night Kitty and I went to see a performance by the Imago Theater Group called "Zoo Zoo." We saw the Imago Group back in 2005 or early 2006 with their show "Frogs." They had a few routines that used animal costumes. Zoo Zoo was supposed to incorporate anthropomorphic bits from that show with bits from another show.

If you're a fursuiter and the show comes to town, you should definitely check it out. It's a learning experience to see professional actors/performers/mimes bringing anthro characters to life. With that being said, however, I was a bit disappointed in the show. First off, it was very short, clocking in at only 75 minutes. It was billed as a family-friendly show, so they must have wanted to keep things short for the kiddies. The kiddies were another problem. Once again parents insisted on bringing children who were not ready for the theater. For every child I heard thoroughly enjoying the magic of the show, there was a screaming baby who had no idea what the heck was going on. Other problems with the performance included skits that went on for way too long and a couple of non-anthropomorphic skits that, while entertaining, should have been left out of this particular show.

The good parts about the show were that we were only 7 rows from the stage. I was able to get a wonderful up-close look at some of the masks/costumes. During the polar bear segment where there were 4 actors in quad suits, one actually climbed from the stage over the seats into our row. The maske/heads were pretty creepy looking, but the body suits were actually very nice. I was studying how they moved in the quad suits. They had the same problem I do when I perform in Quewe. Your butt tends to rise up as you walk which gives an unrealistic appearance.

With everything said and done, it was a lovely night out. We enjoyed a lovely dinner before the show, so it was a wonderful pre-Valentines Day date. We were also pleased to see dragoncrescent and eaglem16 there. Furs with class! *raises a pinky*

I went to see the musical "Cats" yesterday with tenax and furrysparkles. My Kitty was supposed to go but is still finishing her move. The performance was wonderful! This was no little college theater production but an actual Broadway touring company. The thing about "Cats" is that it is so physically demanding. I was amazed at the actors as they did wonderful dance routines while still being able to sing beautifully. The costumes were, of course, very nice. I fell in love with Mr. Mistoffelees' black sparkly spandex. Murrrr. I had joked that I should have worn my new spandex tiger suit and Sparky had said he had seen a little girl on the way in that was wearing a cat suit. Next time I will! And then I will be invited on stage and show everyone my moves which will look even worse than The Star Wars Kid.

Oh! I just found a cool website that has T.S. Elliot's poems on line. Yay!

I'm pretty psyched for next season's offerings. I saw that the Imago (video link) group will be coming. I saw an ad for them 20 years ago when I was in college and wanted to go so badly! I saw the "fursuits" and drooled. Unfortunately I was a flaky college student and didn't go.