Greetings from Boston

Typing from iPod is slow so this is brief.
We are in Boston as of yesterday and loving it. We is Dad and me.
Weather is 65 and overcast. Have taken some neat pics to post later.
If you wanna see what we did today, google Freedom Trail. Also check outna cool street performer at yoyoshow dot com.

TONY Awards

Writing my comments as we go:
Opening - CBS, fix your sound issues. You're embarrassing yourselves if we getting more laughs and coughs from the audience than vocals from the stage.

Shrek, the musical - Thumbs down. While some of the greatest Broadway shows of this decade have been seemingly unlikely adaptations of smash-hit animated films - this is not one of those. Music is unoriginal, old-fashioned, predictable. A far miss at the parody achieved in Spamalot, Curtains, and other shows that take themselves 1/2 seriously in order to allow for jabs at other shows.

NPH is a funny host.

33 Variations - Intriguing. I would like to see or read this one, but the preview wasn't much to know what it's about.

West Side Story - Doing this show with a bi-lingual reminds me of the "Big River" revival (2002?) when the entire show was done in English and ASL. I love it! I love that you can understand everything being discussed even if you speak not a work of Spanish (so say the reviews)! They chose to perform one of the big dance numbers - I would have to ask one of my dancer friends to comment on the quality of it - but it's not the same shark/jet 1970s Afro Carribbean style we saw in the traditional production.

Rock of Ages - Still don't know what this show is about - but their cast performance was hilarious. Catching Liza off guard was akin to the cast of "25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" pulling a confused-looking Al Sharpton onstage in 2005. I'm gonna guess that this is one of those shows that's a fun concert for fans of the music they cover, but probably lacks a compelling story that pulls you into the characters. Again, I would love to be corrected.

Guys and Dolls - Thank you for fixing the sound, stage crew. Vocally, this is the most musically "tight" performance we've heard thus far tonight. I like this new orchestration and vocal backup parts - gives an already classic number fresh propulsion. One question about the revival: Is it any shorter than the original? Since the first time I saw this show (and the 2nd, then 3rd) I've been of the opinion that the best thing for it would be a 25 minute cut in the overall length.

Note: John Stamos in "Bye Bye Birdie" should be a lot of fun. I hope it tours and does well.

Next to Normal - The number started dull and I was thinking "there's not anything here" but it picked up with the third person came in. Fun music, probably an intense story, but I honestly don't think there's anything memorable in it. I think this show will not stick around.

Billy Elliott - I don't know this story, but I'm sure this number makes more sense in context. I wish they'd chosen a number with more lyrics than "Aaah!" But Elton John always writes an exciting score.

Legally Blonde - I feel like I should hold some grudge against this show. Two of my friends have come very close to winning leading roles in this show, and not gotten it. If you've seen the movie, as I have, and not the show, as I have not, then you're probably thinking "has the Broadway audience sunk this low?" and granted, this is no Les Mis or Rent, but the stage adaption, from what I can tell or have been told, plays more to the idea of a modern - strong, woman. More along the lines of Thoroughly Modern Millie, we see a girl whose beauty is seen as an excuse or a setback to the world, who proves herself professional, adequate and a force to be reckoned with. Not just the movie's comedy of shopping bags, vanity and princess-gets-everything.

Lifetime Achievement to Jerry Herman - my only question - Why did it take until 2009?

Irony = Anne Hathaway + Hair

Hair - nothing new. Keep whatever opinion of "Hair" you already had.

I always enjoy watching the Tonys in order to get a preview of what's new on Broadway, but this year nothing stands out. This is the first one in awhile where I'm in no hurry to save up and buy soundtracks. Maybe next year.

Summer is Heeeeeere

I am so glad summer is here! Yesterday was the last day with students, and I spent the rest of yesterday and most of today rapping up grades, putting away music, setting classes for next year, etc.
Finally, I am getting to CLEAN OUT THIS ROOM! I will have to work on this throughout the semester, but it's hard to get much organizing done during the year because it takes all day long just to do the day to day stuff, and anytime you go through things, you have to put everything back in time for the next day.

Both in college, and with teaching, I find that a full day of school takes up all of my brain juice. It's hard to get into books, or anything intellectually stimulating after a 12 hour day of school. Instead, I get home and all I can think about is unwinding and resting my mind.

Now I'll still be going to school pretty much every day for the foreseeable future, but instead of teaching and practicing (which I love, seriously, I do, it doesn't stress me out at all, it just uses up all my energy) I'm moving things around and sorting them. Now my mind feels free to think about other things.

I reserved some books at the library earlier this week, and this afternoon swung by and picked up the ones that have come in. I'm going to read "The Soloist" as per Aunt Jean's recommendation and so that I will have read the story before I see the movie.
I'm also reading "Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man". I would really like to teach some Copland music to my Orchestra kids over the next couple of years, and this will help to make me qualified to talk about it.
In preparation for my trip to Boston with Dad at the end of this month, I got a DVD documentary on the Kennedys. I want to read "John Adams" by David McCullough, but it's not in yet. Similarly "Cambridge Conductor's Companion" caught my attention and I have a place in the reservation line to read it later.
"Primary Justice" is a legal thriller by William Bernhardt. I'd never heard of either of them, but the online review said he writes similar stories to those of John Grisham, and I have enjoyed several of Grisham's books.
I don't know if I'll finish all or any of these, but that's what I love about the library, you can take 10 books, try them all, finish the handful you like, and go back the very next week, day, whatever, and get a fresh set!

Also in the summer kick-off spirit, I went for a swim in my apartment complex's pool this evening. It felt great (3rd floor apartment BAKES! I will be finding out-of-house places to be every day this summer, this is ridiculous). The pool is nice, but I'm hoping that by going first thing in the morning the lap lanes will be less obstructed so I can use pool time as exercise as well.