It Was A Good and Bad Day

Good morning everyone!!

Yes, my loyal and faithful readers out there in the hinterlands, Saturday was a good and a bad day for Billi Pod, so let’s get right to it by starting with Billi Pod’s report cards on what went down yesterday ... the good and the bad ...

Let’s begin with ...

AN EVENING WITH PATTI LUPONE AND MANDY PATINKIN==>A+

In this two-act production, these highly professional and talented actors perform songs from Company, South Pacific, Anyone Can Whistle, Into the Woods, Roberta, New Faces of 1956, Gypsy, Follies, Merrily We Roll Along, Evita, Little Shop of Horrors, and Carousel.

Folks, this was heaven for musical theater-lovers like moi. The obvious chemistry between Patti and Mandy takes their performances to even a higher level. Billi Pod was transfixed through the entire show, which sped by.

Billi Pod is happy to report to you loyal and faithful readers that his comp. seat was awesome. Yes ... awesome ... and it wasn’t in the upper nosebleed section as he anticipated but rather in the orchestra, row J, far house left.

I left the theater thinking==>WOW! Over a 4 day period you have seen Hugh Jackman, Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkin. It can’t get better than this!!

But, I am happy to report ... the day got even better. At 6:00pm I walked over to Sardi’s, the legendary theater district restaurant, to meet up with my dear friend David Huddleston and his wife Sarah Koeppe.

As I posted yesterday, they are in town for about a week to participate in the 40th anniversary of The Homecoming, a tv film that became the pilot for the Walton's. Unfortunately they are being sheltered in the remote outpost known as Newark.

With David and Sarah was their friend, Judy Haskell, a retired theater director and choreographer.

We had a great time and the food was excellent, as always. Thanks David and Sarah!!

On a personal side note to David==>Yes, David, there are actually two iHop restaurants in Manhattan ...

240 W. 35th Street

2294 Adam Clayton Powell Junior Blvd. @ 135th Street

You are welcome!!

OK, now you know what is coming next ... but I have to keep on because of my responsibilities as a fair and unbiased reporter ...

When dinner was over I raced back to PHC to catch the remainder of the GATOR/HALF ASS U game. I checked my ESPN app and the ‘Noles were leading 7-0.

Damn, just as soon as I turned on the tube John Brantley threw his second interception leading to another ‘Noles TD.

At half-time it was 14-0 and in my gut I had a feeling that the game was over. The Gator offense was inept, putting it mildly. The defense held the ‘Noles to 30 yards rushing and 95 total yards. Most of the time those numbers would reflect a victory. In this game they just made the loss even more painful.

It was an embarrassment for a program to look this inept for 60 minutes.

Here's the good news==>Billi Pod doesn’t think it can get any worse.

Things were so great around The Swamp for 20 years, but this nose dive from the top of the mountain has been amazingly rapid. No one (except perhaps Urban Meyer) saw it coming.

Last night was the low point, the bottom of the barrel of despair. At least Billi Pod hopes and prays it is. It can only get better ...

And ... please guys ... do not ... repeat ... do not accept any invitation(s) for a bowl game ... let’s just put this puke-inducing season to bed and move on.

So ... moving on to other things ... like Billi Pod’s next doubleheader ...

2:00==>MESSIAH: REFRESHED @ Avery Fisher Hall. “Jonathan Griffith leads the Distinguished Concerts orchestra and chorus in Thomas Beecham and Eugene Goossens's re-orchestration of Handel's holiday classic.” ($9.00 TDF ticket)

I am looking forward for the concert to lift Billi Pod out of his funk.

The weather today is beautiful so after the concert is over I will walk back to PHC, a distance of a bit over a mile.

Then for tonight is ...

7:30==>MAPLE AND VINE - “Katha and Ryu have become allergic to their 21st-century lives. After they meet a charismatic man from a community of 1950s re-enactors, they forsake cell phones and sushi for cigarettes and Tupperware parties.” (Off Broadway - complimentary ticket)

This is playing at a theater on my block.

I hope that all of my Worker Bee friends out there in the hinterlands have a great end of the weekend in preparation for returning to their jobs at 8:00am tomorrow morning. Don't be late!!

GO WORKER BEES!!

Billi Pod

“Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.”

ALEX-95