Filling you in...Ashley's visit, "Piazza" (3), "WIW," T'giving, HP4, Rent on film, movie rentals, and Jim and Dave Defeat the Masked Man, Semester #2

**Warning: Long, Long Update Post**

Confused by the title? You should be. A lot has happened since I last wrote on this Blogger. I'm ashamed of myself, frankly. Often, I tell myself: "Ricky, you should write on that blog thing you started." But then, as Oscar Wilde once said about the desire to exercise, "I always lie down until the feeling passes."

November 12-13 - Ashley's Visit, or Everything Goes Wrong but Fun Ensues

So, on November 12th, Ashley came to town to visit me here at NYU. We had planned to go uptown to visit Christina at Barnard and then go to MoMA together with Christina and her boyfriend, Richard, who we were meeting for the first time. Anyway, it took us a very long time to get up to Barnard, so we scrapped our ideas of going to MoMA so we wouldn't have to rush around trying to get somewhere. Anyway, after we had hung out around Christina's campus for a bit, we went down to the Village to go to H&M, eat at Pizzaria on MacDougal St., and go back to my dorm. Richard went off with a friend of his from NYU (he goes to Columbia), and Christina and Ashley and I went back to my dorm to plan our "gay club night." Anyway, that didn't work out. We ended up going to this little place called The Boiler Room, which was seedy, had nowhere to sit, and was populated entirely of old men. Ah, oh well. Ashley fell asleep watching Desperate Housewives, and then she left Sunday morning.

November 13 - The Light in the Piazza (time number three)

So, as part of the Freshman Dialogue program, I saw The Light in the Piazza for the third time. Anyway, I love the show and think that it's the most beautiful show on broadway. However, this being the third time and my being intimately familiar with the storyline, I was ready to doze off part of the way into Act One. Luckily, Act Two held my attention better, and I felt all right with myself as I left the theatre. Almost falling asleep during a musical makes me feel inadequate like an impotent man.

November 20 - The Woman in White

So, on November 20, I went to see The Woman in White, the latest Andrew Lloyd Webber musical on Broadway. The show is playing at one of my least favorite theatres, the Marquis, and the lobby looks a bit like a mall. My seat, in the back row, was about as good as anyone could ask for a back row seat -- excellent sightlines. Anyway, I had heard the music before and thought that it was pretty good. I went in expecting not to be blown away but to enjoy myself, and that's just about how I came out. I really enjoyed a lot of the music, but Andrew Lloyd Webber can rarely achieve anything special (that rare distinction lies with Evita alone in my mind). The highlights of the experience for me were Maria Friedman in the lead of Marian (performing only days after undergoing surgery for breast cancer), Michael Ball, Angela Christian, and Jill Paice. They were all very nice after the show and signed my Playbill for me. The lowlight of the show for me were the projections used as sets. The entire show takes place on a rotating platform encircled by a circular wall on which images are projected as the set. Sometimes things worked out fine, but other times, the transitions seemed sloppy and didn't quite work. Also, the images were occasionally fake-looking. Projections simply can't compare with real stage magic. Some people in the theatre seemed to love the projections, saying that was the way theatre was heading, and I was about ready to cry at the thought of that.

Thanksgiving

This past week was pretty fun. I went home on Tuesday night with Ally, and her mom picked us up in Trenton.
On Wednesday, I went back to visit Upper Darby High School, my alma mater. I got to see how the school newspaper was running (relatively smoothly) and see some of the old faces from last year. On Wednesday night, the bunch of us went to see the Rent movie, but I'll get into the details of that soon.

On Thanksgiving Day, I went with my parents, grandparents, and uncle to a really nice restaurant, William Penn Inn, for a buffet. They had just about everything you could imagine there, and I had roast duck, turkey, and sweet and sour chicken, not to mention amazing desserts. It all seemed very nice to me, but I couuld sense my grandmother missed cooking the turkey and having our quiet family dinner.

It was so very nice to see my family again. I was afraid I would have a bad time at home, but things were quite delightful, really. It was nice to be back for longer than a few days and to have time to really settle in a bit.

Rent, or Measuring Up to a Year of Expectation

So, on November 23, the day of Rent's release, Ally, Christina, Ashley, Leah, Carli, Dave, Eugene, Steve G., and myself all went to see Rent at Granite Run. I was full of anticipation but also full of fear that this, perhaps the one creative work that I hold dearest to my heart, would lay at my feet, ruined on screen forever, leaving me with only the stage show to redeem my soured feelings.

Alas, all is right with the world. Chris Columbus, whose choice as director scared the bejesus out of me, came through. It was genius to cast the original Broadway cast (with the exceptions of Tracie Thoms and Rosario Dawson, both of which fit right in with the veterans). For the most part, things seemed just as I invisioned.

Rather than going into all of the amazing things about the movie, which could take me some time, I'll point out only a few of the flaws or inadequacies that I found.

1. The cutting of "Halloween" and "Goodbye Love," which were filmed and edited out after test screenings, really hurts the plot of the film. Columbus cites emotional reasons (too much built emotion after Angel's death) for cutting out these confrontations, but the movie really suffers for it. Luckily, this cut isn't irreparable, as, presumably, these scenes will be included on the DVD (can't wait!).

2. It was very jarring the first time seeing the movie to see some of the songs turned into dialogue using the exact lyrics that used to be sung. (For example, "You Okay Honey," "Happy New Year," various tune-ups and voice mails, and various other snippets from the show). This problem is alleviated after seeing the movie again and expecting that this is what's going to happen. If you didn't know the show already, you probably wouldn't even realize the dialogue used to be sung, as most of the lyrics don't rhyme.

3. Inaccuracy! The Life Cafe in the film was not the real Life Cafe. Why would they use a bar located on E. 7th Street and Avenue B to be the Life Cafe when the real thing is located only three blocks away on 10th Street and Avenue B and looks more interesting. That seemed like an odd choice. Also, there is no subway stop located on Tompkin's Square Park as depicted in the "Santa Fe"/"I'll Cover You" section. Anyway, for the most part, these are forgivable. No one would notice for the most part.

Overall, great film. I'm so glad that the story is now preserved forever for posterity.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

I saw the latest installment in the Harry Potter franchise the week before Thanksgiving and again on the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend, and I must say that The Goblet of Fire is by far the best movie in the series. Mike Newell, the latest director (after Chris Columbus of Rent and Alfonso Cuaron). I won't go into it too much but I highly recommend the film. It did a great job of balancing the action elements with elements of character development.

Renting Movies

Over break, I rented Bewitched, Kicking and Screaming, and The Color Purple. I've already seen Bewitched, and despite the fact that it would be hard to make a case for it as a good movie, I still find it charming and funny -- perhaps because it was written/directed by the Ephrons of Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail. Kicking and Screaming was passable and quite funny at times. The Color Purple, on the other hand, was a masterpiece. I wanted to see the movie, because the novel is being made into a musical on Broadway now, and it was definitely a riveting story. Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey (who was hardly recognizable) were amazing.

Jim and Dave Defeat the Masked Man by David Lehman and Jim Cummins

So, tonight, I called out of work (rescheduled for Friday) to go see my teacher, David Lehman, read poems along with the coauthor of his latest book. This one consists entirely of sestinas (which use patterned end words almost like a villanelle). Their sestinas felt very effortless. It was definitely quite fun. The event was held at the KGB Bar on East 4th Street, which isn't too far away from Hayden, so I walked over close to the start of the event, but there wasn't any room to sit when I got there. Anyway, three of my classmates, Haydn, Sofie, and Shayne, were there, and we all stood together in the back. It felt pretty artsy and cool (oh, God, can you feel the pretension oozing from me?) going to a bar to hear poems read.

Anyway, I bought the book during the break between two halves of the reading, and I can't wait to give the poems a closer read.

Calling All Gay Men at NYU

If you are a reasonably unugly NYU student who at least enjoys attending musical theatre on a periodic basis, please contact me via Facebook (the name's "Richard Pattersson"). I'm getting desperate for a significant other. Some time soon, I'm going to have to become assertive.

The End

Well, I suppose that concludes the summary of my last few weeks. I hope the typos aren't too numerous, but, by now, I've tired so of writing that I don't really feel too keen on going back and revising my post. Also, after this endnote is a list of my schedule for next semester, in case anyone was wondering.

______________________________________________________

Spring 2006

Mon.:

Natural Science II: Brain and Behavior (Lab, 9-10-40)

Tues.:

World Cultures: Chinese/Japanese Tradition (8-9:15)
German Intermediate I (9:30-10:45)
Contemporary Central European Drama (12:30-1:45)
Natural Science II: Brain and Behavior (2-3:15)

Wed.:

World Cultures: Chinese/Japanese Tradition (Rec., 8-9:15)
German Intermediate I (9:30-10:45)

Thurs.:

World Cultures: Chinese/Japanese Tradition (8-9:15)
German Intermediate I (9:30-10:45)
Contemporary Central European Drama (12:30-1:45)
Natural Science II: Brain and Behavior (2-3:15)

Long time no post

So, it's been almost a week since I last posted, so I figured I should write something.There aren't a lot of developments really.

This week went by pretty quickly. The grad students are on strike, so I had two of my German classes cancelled and one of my Writing the Essay classes held in a Starbucks, which was sort of distracting, considering we were reading each other's essays.

I got my first paycheck yesterday for $160, but I haven't been able to deposit it yet, because I just found out this morning it was Veteran's Day, and the bank is closed. It feels so good to be able to not pinch pennies again. I'm still going to try to be pretty conservative with my spending, though, because I want to accumulate a sort of savings just in case I lose my job or need to buy something significant.

My good friend Ashley is coming to stay today through tomorrow, so I'm quite excited. David is visiting his boyfriend back home, so it'll be sort of nice, though they'd probably get along pretty well. I've spent all of this day doing some cleaning. I vacuumed and took out the trash. I also put up a few more things on my wall since I didn't feel like doing my homework.

Anyway, I'll post another update probably after Ashley is gone. Tonight, we're supposed to go uptown to visit Christina at Barnard, and, tomorrow Christina; her boyfriend, Richard; Ashley; and I are probably going to MoMA and to a club or something. Then, Sunday, I'm going to see The Light in the Piazza for the third time. Should be an exciting weekend. Of course, I should probably also be doing homework.

Well, I'll post another update soon.

My first pledge, "See..."

So, today has been a neat day so far. I woke up around noon, had breakfast for lunch, and then went to see See What I Wanna See with Jaron.

The show, playing at The Public Theatre, was spectacular, one of my favorite things I've seen so far this season. The cast features Idina Menzel (Wicked, Rent on stage and film,The Wild Party off-Broadway), Marc Kudisch (Assassins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Thoroughly Modern Millie), Mary Testa, Aaron Lohr (soloist in the Rent movie), and Henry Stram. So, I saw that some of the people were there mainly to see Idina because of Wicked. However, if this was the case, they deserve to be sorely disappointed, because the show was not all about her. Every actor had an integral role in the story, and I loved each of their performances.

The show is an examination of faith that incorporates three different stories into one show.

The first story is told through two scenes, one in the beginning of each act. In the first act, the woman kills her lover. In the second act, the woman's lover kills her. This was probably the weakest of the stories to me, because it had less of a clearly defined theme and purpose.

The second story was about a murder in Central Park. The story of the murder is told from four different perspectives: a thief, who says he killed an actress's husband after raping her; the actress, who said her husband killed himself at her request, leaving her unable to kill herself; a psychic, who channels the husband's spirit, claiming that he killed himself after the two had passionately made love; and the janitor, who is too jarred by the incident to give an accurate account. This portion of the show is a comment on the truth and its variability.

The third story was about a priest who, having lost faith after September 11th, makes up a miracle in Central Park -- he says that at 1 o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon a miracle will occur, and Jesus will rise from the pond. He then encounters a former CPA who has made his home in the park after leaving behind his old life, assuring him that, if he has faith, God will see him on the "Gloryday." He then encounters an actress, whom he has sex with and assures the same thing -- with faith, she will see the miracle. The priest's aunt, a Communist atheist for most of her life, changes her views on faith toward the end of the story when, as she's dying, she proclaims that there will be a miracle. The priest also speaks with a reporter without faith. The priest, having given up on faith and condemned these believers and the masses huddled to see the miracle for their follies, finally glimpses the miracle for himself despite the fact that no one else is watching -- rain began to fall and the followers ran for cover. What an interesting story!

Well, it was a really great show. Michael John LaChiusa, who wrote the score, usually writes really lofty, intellectual music, and this show seemed much more grounded. I can't wait for the CD, as I really liked a lot of the sequences (there weren't a whole lot of "songs" persay; it was mostly recitative). I very much recommend the show to anyone who is into intelligent modern theatre. It was great -- even down to the exciting lighting, particularly during Act One, and the sparse settings that really added interest to the show, particularly the park background during Act Two. I can see where the show has its flaws, as many of its detractors would point out, particularly in the scenes opening each act with the lovers, but it's definitely better than about 90% of the shows out there. It was a great afternoon at the theatre. And, by the way, the Anspacher Theatre in the Public Theatre is a very nice, intimate space and a very beautiful room with a nice atrium.

After the show, I waited and got Aaron Lohr's and Marc Kudisch's autographs. Idina Menzel didn't come out, and I think she was who most people were waiting for. One girl was even crying, and I took pity on her, for she had missed out on the joy of theatre. The joy is not to get an autograph from your favorite star after the show. The point is to open up your mind and experience something new. I really urge people who are only into Idina because of Wicked and who only want to go to a show to see her and to get her autograph to just stay home.

After waiting for the cast in the lobby, I walked home through Washington Square Park, lingering to listen to one of my favorites of the singers in the park sing a few songs, including "Harmony" by Elton John, which he was pretty flat on.

What a nice day!

Oh! Last night, at the Phonathon, it started out as a pretty rough night, but, toward the end of the night, I got a $250 pledge! My first pledge and such a high amount! Yay! They had moved me into pools of people who had given in the past but not in very recent years, so it seems like it's much easier to convince someone who has previously given money to NYU over the phone, no matter what year, to give this year than someone who has never given and may have graduated far more than 20 years ago. So, the job is going relatively well, I'd say.

Halloween, Rufus, Phonathon

So, it's been quite a while since I last wrote on this, so I figured I ought to put up some updates.

First, Halloween was pretty fun. I took off from work to go to the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade with the 12th floor. It took a really long time for the parade to get going, but it was pretty massive. I went as John Lennon, which was a pretty big cop-out of a costume, but it was still fun. John, the RA, went as a middle-aged redhead woman with fairy wings, and he was working the crowd on the sidelines of the parade. It was hilarious! There were a lot of drag queens, which was interesting, and there was a really amazing guy dressed as Angel from Rent who I got a picture of. There were so many creative costumes -- one guy was dressed up as an iPod with big earbuds on his hands, and he took pictures with people that were really amusing. He was even backlit, and the song playing on him was "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. After the parade, I went back to my room and took a nap, but then I went to visit Ally at University Hall, where she was hosting Christina. They're fun kids, but the streets of New York were like mayhem to have to navigate on the way up there. The whole park was closed, and I missed being able to cut through.

The day after Halloween (Nov. 1), I went to see Rufus Wainwright with David, which was quite amazing. I really love Rufus, and he did a helluva job. He has a song called "Gay Messiah" that's really good, and, during the concert, he did a mock crucifixion, complete with costumed Roman guards and a garish blue dress. It was very amazing. It was a really great concert, and our seats were very good. Apparently, Ruthie saw four of the cast members of Lennon when she went last night, and they talked about the concert (Julia Murney, Marcy Harriell, Michael Potts, and Mandy Gonzalez were the ones who were there).

This has been a relatively busy week. Homework has been stressful, and I've had stuff to do in the evenings every day (Halloween Monday, Rufus Tuesday, work Wednesday and tonight). Finally, I get a day off from classes tomorrow, but I still have work at night. I can't wait for Saturday and Sunday, when I have the day off completely.

Oh, on Tuesday, they were also filming a movie in Washington Square. It's a romantic musical comedy directed by Julie Taymor, who directed The Lion King on Broadway; it's called Across the Universe, and it utilizes the songs of the Beatles to tell the story. After checking out the huge Vietnam protest in front of Washington Arch, I checked out another area that's being used as a set on Rivington downtown. There's a whole block that's been redone to look colorful and psychedelic, including a corner store, which has had its awning redone to read "Psychedelicatessen." It looked sort of cheesy, but I'm still interested to see the movie.

Anyway, tomorrow is a relatively relaxed day, and Saturday is See What I Wanna See at the Public Theatre with Jaron. The show is a more artistic show, written by Michael John LaChiusa, that stars Marc Kudisch, Idina Menzel, Mary Testa, Henry Stram, and Aaron Lohr. I'm very much looking forward to it.

I really want a paycheck. I'm pretty damn close to broke -- and I really want to buy some more tickets. Oh my.

The Phonathon is going all right. I've worked two real days so far, and I haven't gotten any pledges yet. I feel sort of bad bugging people on the phone, and the people I've been assigned to call this early on are the grumpy non-donors, many of them older. One guy that I called said his experience at NYU was bad and that, if he had to redo his NYU experience, he'd hire more hookers. When I asked him for a $100 donation, he said, "For hookers?" Oh my. Sometimes calling people is trying, but it also pays well, so I'll grin and bear it.

Good evening.