Apparently my dorkiness makes me memorable.

Tonight, my friend decided she had had enough of the subway and the cold weather (I know, I know), so I struck out on my own for the evening. I decided to follow up my Billy Elliot experience (the Tony winner for Best Musical) with the Tony winner for Best Play: God of Carnage. It’s about two sets of parents that meet for an afternoon to discuss a fight their children had. As the title suggests, the polite meeting descends into chaos. Also hilarity. It stars Jimmy Smits, Christine Lahti, Annie Potts, and Ken Stott. Funny and wonderful and everything good. Also, Annie Potts' character literally barfs onstage, so that alone is worth the price of admission.

But! The best part of the evening happened prior to the play. I decided to have dinner at Junior’s since it was near the theater. While I ate, I noticed a man a couple tables over looking at me. I thought he looked a little familiar, but I didn’t think anything of it. When I started to leave the restaurant, the guy and his companion also stood up to go. As I walked past he said, “Excuse me, were you in the front row of Billy last night?” I was stunned, but I squeaked out, “I was.” He said, “I thought so. I’m in the show. This is my brother. I saw your smile and I remembered you.”

I could not believe it! I mean, the night before I had sat there with a look of utter delight for the entire show, but still. I told him that I had had a wonderful time and that he and the company had done a fantastic job and then I left, elated.

Pretty much only good stuff happens to me when I'm here. The entire city is my Tiffany's.

They say the neon lights are bright...

Just so you know, I had the most fantastic,

Broadway-lovin'-freak, crazy-awesome time tonight.

First let me say that my friend from work now thinks I'm the luckiest person in the world. (So someone agrees with you, Chris.) Not only did I win us Rock of Ages lottery tickets but we had another stroke of Broadway fortune at Billy Elliot tonight. The role of Billy is shared by three young performers (because of child labor laws and all that jazz) and the three boys who originated the role won a shared Tony this year. Only one of those three boys is still with the show and he's the one who performed tonight. He was spectacular. And so adorable I wanted to hop on stage and pinch his little cheeks.

But! Here's the best part: Carole Shelley is also in the musical. If you are a Wicked freak, I will only say: Madame Morrible. Madame. Morrible. If you aren't a Wicked freak, I'm not sure what can be done for you. Anyway, there's a part in the show where a dude dressed as Margaret Thatcher is shooting nerf balls out of a tank (it has nothing to do with drag and everything to do with a coal mine strike) and people in the audience were catching the balls. Well, I'm always keen to grab an extra souvenir so I was sad not to catch one of the balls. What happened next was unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe. Carole Shelley herself walked over to the edge of the stage, winked at me, and said, "Would you like this?" and handed me a nerf ball. I took it from her hand and gushed, "I love you!" because that is how dorktastic I am.

Also, I touched a piece of the Titanic today. Touched it with my own hands. It spent 73 years under water and now it's on 44th street. So very cool.

I've been waiting for a musical like you to come into my life.

Well, I'm in NYC and it's business as usual, meaning: Broadway! Tonight I won the Rock of Ages lottery and we had so much fun at the show. They even gave us little flashlights shaped like lighters so we could wave them during the ballads. Two and a half hours of eighties music, I'm still picking confetti out of my hair, and I can't remember the last time I had so much fun at the theater.

I'm trying to understand how Billy Elliot beat this show out for the Best Musical Tony, but I'm seeing that one on Thursday so maybe I'll figure it out then.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go listen to some Foreigner with a Survivor chaser.

Start spreadin' the news...

I'm working in Manhattan next week with a friend from work. She's been to the city before, but was reluctant to go exploring on her own, so she hasn't really seen much. I want to show her all the best sights and fun stuff to do. On the list already: a show (or several), pizza at John's, shopping in the Village/SoHo, cupcakes at Magnolia, Belvedere Castle in the Park, perhaps the Met if she's interested. We're also taking an evening to photograph cityscapes.

So, my question to you all is, what have I forgotten? What awesome, wonderful, very New York thing that we always do should I be certain to include?

The Golden Globes

The Golden Globes were on tonight and it's the official start of the movie awards season. Hooray!

My thoughts:

Ricky Gervais: Hilarious. Especially the Mel Gibson intro. Liquor him up and let him host the Oscars. (Ricky, not Mel. Obviously.)

Robert Downey Jr: Charming, charming, charming.

Julianna Margulies: Charminger, for slamming NBC on the 10:00 drama business. Love her.

Yay for Mad Men!

Yayer for Glee!

John Lithgow: You can place that one next to all the Globes on Jeremy Piven's shelf that are labelled "Rightful Property of Neil Patrick Harris."

Once Neil Patrick Harris pointed out the gargantuan size of his forehead, I couldn't notice anything else. He suddenly looked like one of the spacemen from Mars Attacks.



And finally, I guess this means I'm going to have to force myself to see Avatar. Liz, I hope you're right.

Four day weekend

Sleeping in, playing pinochle, taking naps, playing Trivial Pursuit, eating cream puffs, playing the I Love the 80s board game...

I love lazy winter weekends.

Let your thumbs do the donating

If you want to do a tiny bit to help out the people suffering terribly in Port-au-Prince, it's easy as anything. Text "Haiti" to 90999 and you'll donate ten bucks to support the American Red Cross relief effort there. The charge will show up on your next phone bill.

Beneficence made simple. Love it!

Winter Wonderland

I took an hour off this afternoon to drive up to the summit of Laurel Mountain and see a magnificent frozen wonderland. A winter lover's delight!



You can see more shots on my photo blog.

Second chances are a rare thing...

Okay, so you read on my blog how awesome the show Southland is, and you've been kicking yourself ever since that you didn't catch the seven episodes of season 1 when NBC re-ran them because you know what fantastic taste in TV I have. And really, who could blame you for chastising yourself?

Well, here is the rarest of all things: a second chance. The lovelies over at TNT picked up the show when NBC, in a fit of what I can only imagine was syphilis-induced insanity, cancelled it. And now TNT is showing it from the beginning, kicking it all off with the pilot, commercial-free and with extra footage. Whee! It all happens tomorrow night on TNT at 10:00 PM. (Because TNT has open spots at 10:00 PM for shows like this because they didn't foolishly sign Jay Leno to a ridiculous contract that ate up all their slots for quality dramas. But I'm not going to discuss that any further because rage is bad for the complexion.)

I don't want to give anything away, but I can tell you this much: These guys will be your favorites:

A photo every day

So James challenged me to do the photo-a-day challenge this year. The idea is both to document your year and make you a better photographer. I also like the stuff you can find out about people when they comment on their mundane photos, which is why I think more people in the family should hop on this bandwagon. There are, like, 17 people with D-40s. Let's see what you can do.

I'm posting my photos here. Thus far, they're really only documenting my wretched laziness, which is a hallmark of my January each year. Hopefully they'll get a little more interesting.

This is clearly awesome.

These are from book illustrator Sophie Blackall. She illustrates the missed connections that she reads on Craigslist. Her personal website is an illustrated delight as well.

Shining

Ever seen The Shining? Jack Nicholson with a big old axe and the creepiest pair of twins this side of the Olsens. It is unsettling.

Or is it maybe just a sweet family comedy? You be the judge.

I (heart) sleeping in.

Three days back after Christmas and I've logged three 2-hour delays and one early dismissal. I honestly don't know what I'll do with myself once we have to come to work at the normal time. There will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

So, I'm watching Gigi...

...which I DVR'ed off of TCM, and it's creeping me out. Has anyone else ever seen this movie? This is one creepy-butt movie. You know, like in the same way that The Major and the Minor is totally creepy and could never be made today? Yeah, like that.

Oh, and that flipping "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" song isn't making anything any better.

Thanks, Turner Classic Movies.

Is this making anyone else uncomfortable?

Happy New Year!

Make it a good one.