Monday==>a bright but cold and windy beginning to the week here in The Big Apple, The Greatest City In The World - 28º @ 8:30am.
I hope that all of you loyal and faithful readers and followers had an awesome weekend because your favorite blogger certainly did with his three consecutive doubleheaders.
So ... why don’t we get this back-to-work Monday started with Billi Pod’s report cards on yesterday’s entertainment doubleheader ... starting with ...
MUSICAL OLYMPUS FESTIVAL CONCERT @ Carnegie Hall (Zankel Hall)==>totally enjoyable.
The performers:
Signum Saxophone Quartet (Germany)
Yunpeng Wang, Baritone (China)
Yi-Ping Yank, Percussionist (Taiwan/France)
Daniel Kharitonov, Pianist (Russia)
are all prior winners of international music competitions.
Everyone was majorly excellent but the performer who received the loudest applause and then a standing ovation was 15-year old Daniel Kharitonov, who performed works by Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff.
This amazing young man, who looks even younger than his picture, has won multiple international competitions (against adults) and performed concerts in 16 countries. He was simply amazing!!
You classical musical buffs==>write this name down because you are gonna hear a lot more about him in the future, trust Billi Pod on this.
Oh ... I found Zankel Hall to be a very comfortable venue and I left the concert with a nice smile on my face.
It was a little after 5:00pm when the concert was over so I knew that I wasn’t going to return to PHC for my usual fruit and cheese plate. Instead, I took the subway downtown to Astor Place where I found a nice little cafe and had coffee and something sweet.
Wow!! This was only my second cup of coffee in about 6 months and I really felt the caffeine jolt.
My second show was at The Public Theatre ...
NEVA, about Anton Chekhov’s widow rehearsing ‘The Cherry Orchard’ amid the growing unrest in 1905 Russia that became known as Bloody Sunday==>C+
It has an interesting storyline and decent acting but the final 30 minutes is dominated by screaming, yelling and barely comprehensible monologues and that got old and tiresome. The running time is 80 minutes, without intermission. I really wanted/expected to like it more.
Also ... the small and cramped stage is on a high riser and that made much of the blocking difficult. Often one of the actors was delivering lines with his/her back to the audience ... something that has become the norm in this particular venue and something Billi Pod finds extremely annoying.
In the name of fair and unbiased reporting==>I have a gut feeling that I may be in the minority with my semi-negative thoughts. We will just have to see what the critics have to say once the show opens on March 11th. Its scheduled run is through March 31st.
Moving on ...
Tonight’s entertainment event is a staged reading of the classic ...
7:30==>OUR TOWN - “Thorton Wilder’s 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of life in the small village of Grover’s Corners, an allegorical representation of all life, has become an undisputed stage classic.” (Off Broadway - discounted ticket)
This staged reading is an Actors Fund Special Benefit Event in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the play’s Broadway opening. Featured in the cast will be Blythe Danner, BD Wong and S. Epatha Merkerson, who will share the role of the Stage Manager. The rest of the cast is stellar.
This production is playing at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College in the Upper Westside.
“Our Town” is one of my all-time favorite plays. I performed the role of Dr. Gibbs twice, once for Bartow Performing Arts Council (BPAC) and then years later for Plant City Community Theatre (PCCT).
OK my loyal and faithful readers and followers ... I will post this and then begin the usual Monday errands and stuff.
Yesterday’s Pedometer mileage==>4.01 miles (or, 8,773 steps)
Total mileage for week==>25.49 miles (average 3.64 miles per day)
Total mileage since 7/1/12==>1,199.42 miles
GO GATORS AND GO YANKEES!!
Billi Pod
“Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.”
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