Good Morning!!
Happy New Year’s Eve to each and everyone!!!!
It is bright, cool and brisk==>47º @ 8:30am on this final day of 2011.
In response to your emails and texts ... no, Billi Pod will not be in Times Square tonight for the dropping of the ball, saying good riddance to 2011 and ushering in 2012 - been there done that.
Instead ... he has a terrific doubleheader scheduled ... beginning with ...
2:00==>LYSISTRATA JONES - “A musical about Lyssie J. and her girl-power posse who won’t “give it up” to their basketball playing boyfriends until the boys win a game.” (Broadway - complimentary ticket)
This will be my second visit to this Broadway musical that has received very mixed reviews. I saw back in November and gave it a grade of A.
Unfortunately, it has failed to develop an audience and I have my doubts about how much longer it will remain open and that is sad because it is a lot of fun with an extremely talented young cast.
Then for this evening is ...
8:00==>NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA @ Avery Fisher Hall - New Year’s Eve Gala. The program is:
Bernstein: Overture to Candide and Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; and, Gershwin: “Rhapsody in Blue” and Concerto in F - each performed by pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. (full price extra ticket)
This has become a New Year’s Eve tradition for Billi Pod. I have done this event for the past 7 years and it has always been a very enjoyable evening.
It will be carried live on PBS stations nationwide.
When the concert is over I will come back to warm and cozy PHC, grill a steak (with baked potato and grilled onions), watch everything on the tube and then toast the New Year with my favorite libation==>Fresca.
Before I give you my report card on last night’s entertainment event, the Off Broadway show HOW THE EARTH BEGAN, I want to share a bit of drama about the event.
What, you are no doubt breathlessly asking ... well ... I had recorded on my log and reported in this blog that the show had an 8:00pm curtain time. It is playing at a theater directly underneath my apartment building, so I didn’t dress in layers as I usually would, just a light sweater and my trusty windbreaker.
I knew that a couple of my theater buddies were also going to the same performance so I had decided that I would leave PHC at 7:30 so I would have time for a brief visit.
As I was gathering my stuff, including my voucher, I noticed that ... OMFG ... the curtain time was 7:30, not 8:00 ... OMFG!!
OMFG! I knew that the actual starting time, as is theater custom in NYC, would be between 7:35 and 7:37. Could I make it? Was it even worth the try? OMFG!!
Yes, said Billi Pod ... and ... out I went ... got on the elevator, watching the time on my iPhone. Of course, the elevator made 3 stops. The lobby was packed. I rushed out of my building and arrived breathlessly at the ticket booth at 7:34. OMFG!!
Got my ticket ... row A, seat 15 ... not good for a late arrival. The ticket booth guy called up to the theater. The theater was on the 4th floor, of course. OMFG!!
It was 7:36 when I got off the elevator and was at the theater entrance. An usher was waiting for me. The show had just started. Luckily there was a seat available in the next to last row near the aisle so I didn’t make a scene getting seated
Thank goodness I hadn’t layered because I couldn’t have taken anything off without creating a big disturbance.
OMFG!! I had made it. Billi Pod took a deep breath ... briefly thanked the Theater Gods ... and settled in to watch ...
HOW THE WORLD BEGAN, a drama about a high school biology teacher who leaves Manhattan for Kansas and becomes engulfed in controversy over an offhand comment about the origins of the universe.
Billi Pod’s report card==>B+<==excellent acting, especially from the young guy who plays the protagonist.
The only reason it didn’t receive an A is that I thought it had a kinda formalistic story line but it doesn’t “neatly” wrap up everything at the end, and that works.
I recommend the show and think it will receive good reviews.
Let me close this end of year posting with something that I copied from a FaceBook posting that I think is very thought provoking ...
WHO ARE WE?
“Your car is German. Your pizza is Italian. Your falafel is Lebanese. Your democracy is Greek. Your coffee is Brazilian. Your movies are American. Your tea is Tamil. Your shirt is Indian. Your oil is Saudi Arabian. Your electronics are Chinese. Your number's Arabic, your letters Latin. And you complain that your neighbor is an immigrant? Pull yourself together!”
GO YANKEES AND GO GATORS!!
Billi Pod
“Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.”
ALEX-129
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