Love Is What I Do

Two weeks ago, Nick's good friend and college roommate, Kevin, the "swing" for several of the show's principle characters, got to play the lead role in the Wedding Singer while the usual Robbie Hart was on vacation for the week. He's been on Broadway and off-Broadway for the last 10 years in Les Miz and Altar Boyz, but I had never seen him perform, and neither had my Mom. She drove down to NY last Friday, looking almost more excited than she did on Nick's wedding day, and a bunch of us- me, Mom, Nick, Emily, and Krister- went to see Kevin play the title role on Friday night.

The show was a lot of fun, and it was a thrilling experience to see Kevin up on stage for two and a half hours. The play itself was a lot better than I expected, thoroughly entertaining and never boring. Watching Kevin, I had a smile on my face for the whole show, so much that I gave myself a headache after a while, but I couldn't help it.

The big surprise of the show, though, was Konstantine from last year's American Idol. I never saw any of that season since I was in Turkey the whole time, but he really impressed me playing the role of Robbie Hart's best friend.

After the show, we got to cut through through the velevet rope, walk through the actor's door, and check out the stage. Here's a shot of me, Kevin, and Mom on stage, though it was so dark you can barely tell where we are.



The most staifying part of the evening was seeing Kevin come outside afterwards and greet all the fans who wanted to talk to him, take a photo, and even get his autograph.



Here's another shot of Mom and I outside the theater before heading home.



With Mom's limited mobility, we couldn't walk to a less crowded area to hail a cab- we must have stood on the corner of 9th Ave. for about 20 minutes before we flagged down a free taxi.

Noooooo!

Now that the Red Sox have been out of the playoff race for a while, the Pink Hats have decided to descend upon the Patriots and Foxboro Stadium this season. I guess it was only a matter of time, but it still hurts.

The Wire on Critical Fire

The Wire has been getting rave reviews and pleas of "Please Watch This Show!" for the past few weeks, leading up to its season 4 premiere last week. A lot of critics and writers are calling it the best show on TV, ever. I don't think they're too far off on that assessment.

I didn't even know about the show until season 2 was already over. I had read some great reviews in EW and elsewhere, but it wasn't a show a lot of people, at least that I knew of, were watching. On a lark, I bought the first season DVD right before I left for Turkey, thinking I'd need some good, dense TV shows to watch while I was overseas. Best decision I ever made. I started netflixing season 2 as soon as I got home in the summer of '05, and I just finished watching season 3 on DVD a few days ago. Season 4 just started up last week and for the first time, and it feels strange, I'm watching it in real time.

A friend of mine is having twins in the next few weeks, and he invited all his friends to a baby shower this weekend. Us guys, we didn't know what to get them- did they really need more baby clothes and kids' books? Krister came up with the plan of having a bunch of us pool our resources and buy the father-to-be the first 3 seasons of The Wire, since we all know he's going to be on serious lockdown once the kids arrive. He was ecstatic when he opened up the gift this past Saturday, although I don't think his very-pregnant wife was as thrilled as he was.

World Trade Center misfires

Seems like they fumbled up the facts surrounding the rescue in World Trade Center and missed out on some of the more interesting plotlines and backstories.

United 93 is now out on video and, if you can stomach it, I highly recommend seeing it. It's the best movie I've seen so far this year.

Nick and Em on Wikipedia

Nick pointed out to me last week that a picture of he and Emily shopping for vegetables accompanies the Wikipedia article for the Union Square Farmers Market. Pretty random, huh? Some NY lawyer and wikipedia maven snapped the photo and wrote the article sometime last fall apparently.

Homework

I read this Slate article about elemtary school homework and outside reading, and it brought back a funny memory from 3rd grade.

My class was given an assignment to read for 30 minutes over the weekend. My teacher passed out little forms where we could fill in our name and have a parent sign on the bottom stating that we did, in fact, read a book for half an hour. On Friday night, with my whole family sitting in the clubhouse at the Raynham dog track, watching greyhounds run around in circles chasing a white motorizied bunny rabbit, it hit me that I had forgotten the form and left it in my desk at school. Oh the terror! Sound the alarm!

I was terrified- I wouldn't be able to complete my homework assignment, and I wouldn't be able to watch the "Fun Film" on Thursday afternoons for those kids who hadn't forgotten to do/bring in their homework all week. My stomach was too busy doing somersaults to realize that, DUH!, I could have had my Mom just write out a note herself saying that I read a book for 30 minutes. Where was that "outside the box" thinking when I truly needed it?

After sitting there watching the dog races while my stomach churned with dread and worry, a bright idea finally hit me- have my Mom actually follow me into school on Monday morning, come to my classroom, and sign my little reading form. Yeah, that'll solve all my problems! After that 20-minute panic attack, I could go back to enjoying quality time with Mom, Dad, and Gogo at the dog track. I still wonder why my mom didn't think of writing a new form from scratch for me, but she went along with my plan and came in with me on Monday morning nevertheless. My teacher, Miss Mavilia, told me she was impressed that my Mom came all the way to the classroom just to sign a sheet of paper.

A third grader should never be that worried over a homework assignment. I don't know what I was thinking...

The Speedy Fung-Wah

Yesterday a Fun-Wah bus en route from New York to Boston rolled over onto its driver's side when it drove too fast on an off-ramp.

Was I surprised? Not really. Since my car expired earlier this year, Fung-Wah (and occassionally Greyhound) has been my primary way of getting back and forth from Boston to New York. It's hard to tell how fast the bus is driving when I'm in the back, it's dark, and I'm sleeping for most of the trip, but I was startled when one late trip from Boston to New York clocked in at 3 hours and 15 minutes. Sure, it was late and the roads weren't heavily trafficked, but when 4 hours or a little bit more is the standard, 3:15 is a little to rapid for my taste.

I took the Fung-Wah back to NY on a 9pm bus from Boston and arrived at 12:30am on the nose. It's nice to get back earlier than expected, but at what cost? I don't care which shortcuts the bus took- a trip that short in a full-size motor coach is a difficult feat if you're driving at the speed limit, or even a few miles over it.

I'm sure I'll use Fung-Wah again in the future- after all, they have buses going back and forth between NY and Boston all day, every day, and two incidents in the last 2 years where nobody's gotten seriously hurt isn't that horrible a record, but if it's a more convenient, I may spend the extra 5 bucks and add an extra 45 minutes to my trip and take Greyhound.

Jerome Jerome Jerome

How many times can Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker mention his departing pitcher's first name in a single interview? The answer? A lot.

"It didn't work out," manager Dusty Baker said. "We were trying to wait on Jerome to work out. I know Oakland had probably been coveting Jerome for a while. They got a bird's-eye view of Jerome. … They have a very good idea of Jerome. I have a pretty good idea of Jerome, but I didn't see the Jerome that I had hope to see, or we had hoped to see."