Friday, November 14, 2014

It Is Cold - The Erlkings - New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra - Saturday Plans.



Friday==>This TGIF morning is the coldest thus far for this Fall. At 8:30am it was 37º and the brisk wind coming off the Hudson River brought the wind chill down to 27º.

It is so misleading because it is also bright and sunny. Oh well ... at least it isn’t nasty, rainy and windy as it was for most of yesterday afternoon and into the evening hours.

Yeah ... the nasty weather kept your favorite blogger in the cozy confines of PHC, resulting in one of the lowest walking mileages in 2014==>1.03 miles.

In yesterday’s posting Billi Pod reported that he was uncertain what his entertainment event for the evening was going to be ... either a movie or theater. Well ... guess which one won out ... of course you know ... it was theater.

Yep, this was my show, luckily playing at a theater only a few steps away from my apartment ...

8:00==>THE ERLKINGS - “15 years after the Columbine High School Massacre, this drama, taken from public records and private journals, explores the inner lives of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold in the days leading up to the shooting that took 13 lives and injured 25.” (Off Broadway - complimentary ticket)

Billi Pod’s report card==>C.

The show’s title comes from Der Erlkonige, a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, about a father who dismisses his child’s warning of danger, with fatal consequences. It was found in Eric Harris’s school planner, with a note to memorize it.

The two lead roles are Em Grosland as the 18yr. old Eric Harris and James Scully as the 17yr. old Dylan Klebold, and they do an acceptable job ... but ...

Frankly ... having said this ... I did find that the casting of Grosland, a female, in the role of Harris to be very distracting during the entire course of the show. 

Yes, I understand color-blind and racial-blind casting ... but ... gender-blind? Not so sure about this. Gonna be interesting to see how the critics address this issue, if they have the balls to do so.

Anyway ... 

On a positive note ... the set, props and staging are the best I have seen in a long time.

Of course the story line is very troubling, but I knew this going in. The author states that he is trying to understand why this tragedy occurred, without attempting to forgive them or empathize with them. And, this is where the play falls short because I left the theater in a emotionally drained mood without the slightest understanding of why Harris and Klebold hated the world and everyone in it and why this motivated them to kill.

Billi Pod says==>see it and draw your own conclusion(s) and then share it with us/me.

The show is playing at The Theatre Row Complex on my West 42nd Street block, is in previews, opens on November 16th, has a running time of 2:15, with intermission, and runs through December 12th.

Moving on ...

Tonight’s entertainment event is a classical music concert ...

8:00==>NEW AMSTERDAM SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA @ Symphony Space - The program is:

Wagner - Siegfried: Forest Murmurs;
Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto (performed by Kevin Lin); and,
Dvorak - Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”
($9.00 TDF ticket)

I totally love “From the New World” so I couldn’t pass this up when it showed up on TDF for $9.00. The New York Philharmonic is also performing it in December and it is part of my season subscription series. Yes!!

This concert is being performed at The Peter Norton Symphony Space @ Broadway and West 95th Street.

The venue is right across the street from the 1 train subway station which means my exposure to the elements will be minimal and that is good.

In closing==>this will serve as an advance warning to all of my loyal and faithful readers and followers ... your favorite blogger plans to spend all of Saturday, morning, noon and night, in the cozy confines of his apartment, PHC, in front his 42” flat screen TV in a total couch-potato mode watching college football. So ...

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!!

Yesterday’s Pedometer mileage==>1.03 miles (or, 2,270 steps)

Total mileage for 2014==>1,290.03 miles (average 4.07 miles per day)

GO GATORS==>BEAT THE LIMPCOCKS!!

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

No comments: