Hairspray and Anniversaries

I knew I was going to like Hairspray as soon as the heroine gives a cheery wave to a friendly local flasher in the midst of the schmaltzy opening number, "Good Morning, Baltimore." That brief moment (which is also a quick cameo of John Waters, who wrote, directed, and co-produced the original 1988 film) made it clear that this version of the musical wasn't going to take itself too seriously.


I went to see the live musical version of Hairspray when it came to Toronto and didn't care much for it; it seemed flat and too saccharine for me (yes, even for me) so wasn't motivated to see the movie until I heard others rave about it.

Jodi and I decided to upset Urban Tapestry tradition and eat at Agra instead of the usual Frog & Firkin; Agra is an Indian restaurant in North York where Jodi has dined before. We shared the special for two, and it was excellent. I'll have to go back sometime and take some pics so I can do a proper review.

But back to Hairspray...

I enjoyed the movie version of Hairspray MUCH more than the live version. A lot of the music seems to have changed, either completely rewritten or bits of lyrics revamped.

My favourite character: Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad. She was FANTASTIC, and I was surprised to hear later that this was her first professional acting job. She was wholesome without being saccharine, able to delivery ironic lines with clear-eyed sincerity. She made the movie for me.

My least favourite character: John Travolta as Edna Turnblad. Yes, I know that it was tradition to have a man in drag portray the character, but I found his character kept pulling me out of the movie; he was so obviously JOHN TRAVOLTA, at least to me. Seems like most others didn't mind him so much.



Hairspray was charming, exuberant and hugely entertaining. I am hoping to see this at least one more time in the theatre and am already lusting after the soundtrack and DVD. [Update: I caved and bought the soundtrack from iTunes.]

After posting about my Movie Theater Pet Peeves and also reading your comments, I am relieved to report that Jodi and I had a great audience experience. Part of that was due to the fact that that we had no one sitting near us for at least half a dozen rows in all directions.

Today is Jeff's and my 16th wedding anniversary. We've known each other for far longer, though neither of us can remember exactly when we met...at least 25 years ago. Our first contact was on a BBS hosted on a TRS-80 at my family's house; we didn't actually meet in person until a couple years later. How nerdy is THAT? :-D





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Movie Theatre Pet Peeves

Going to see Hairspray this afternoon with Jodi; I'm looking forward to it, and hope we get a good audience. Don't know about the rest of you, but I've found audience behaviour getting worse over the years. Or maybe I'm just turning all crotchety as I get older.

My pet peeves in theatres these days:

- Sticky floors. Sticky with pop, I assume; I try to avoid considering other possibilities.

- People who kick my seat repeatedly.

- Ringing cellphones.

- Overpriced concession items. If I think I'm going to be hungry, I smuggle in food (unwrapped ahead of time to avoid becoming someone else's pet peeve).

- Kids who snicker and laugh through the kissing scenes.



- Fashion divas who insist on keeping their hats on during the movie, no matter how much it may obscure the view of the person behind them. NO ONE CAN SEE YOUR HAT IN THE DARK, YOU SILLY GIRL.

- Crackling candy wrappers.

But my number one pet peeve in theatres focuses on:

PEOPLE WHO TALK THROUGH THE MOVIE. In particular, those who talk in a normal conversational tone of voice as if they're in their own living rooms instead of a public venue where OTHER PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO FOCUS ON THE MOVIE. Whisperers are also bad, though, usually because they assume that just because they're whispering, no one can hear them.

Sometimes I say something but often I don't because I find it often makes things worse, especially when a group of kids take it on as a challenge to defend their image of coolness and rebellious independence. Jeff and I have changed seats in the theatre in some situations.

What about the rest of you? What are your movie theatre pet peeves?




Inkygirl has been updated with a new comic: Blackberry thumbs.

I posted about Mikado Japanese Restaurant in blogTO yesterday, for those interested. The photo above was taken at Mikado. I'll be posting something soon (either in Blatherings or blogTO) about Hashimoto soon; Jeff and I went there with his sister and her husband earlier this week. It was our Christmas present to them but between everyone's schedules, our gift had to be delayed.

In any case, the wait was well worth it. More in a future post.



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Surfacing (and a mini-rant)

Feeling semi-human again, for the first time in about a week. Thanks so much for the get well wishes, everyone. My cough still lurks like an unwelcome house guest, hiding around corners and leaping out at me at inopportune moments, particularly when I have to talk out loud. Fortunately I work at home all day and do most of my work communication by e-mail.

I've spent most of this week in a slug-like state: sleeping, reading, watching videos, and sleeping some more. In this manner, I've read or watched the following:

- Watched the first season of The Tudors (thanks, Reid!). I've been fascinated by King Henry VIII since reading Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII, and that led to my obsession with Elizabeth I (and several biographies and movies about her). I would love to do a Tudor-theme book for young people someday, except there have already been so many.



- Read through my Canon Rebel XTi manual several times. Since getting my camera, I haven't been well enough to go out for a good long photo shoot yet, so have been comforting myself by reading technical specs instead. I did take a brief walk through a cemetery earlier in the week (see above) but was somewhat feverish at the time so couldn't properly enjoy it. Once I catch up with work and my cough eases up, I'm hoping to take a longer walk later this week.

- Re-read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

- Read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which arrived at 2:03 pm on Saturday. I think I scared the postman.

I had already seen a semi-spoiler in a newspaper headline last week (what were they thinking?!?); it's hard to avoid them when I have to research publishing news for Writersmarket.com every day. Anyway, I LOVED the book. I won't say more about it for fear of spoilers but also because there are already so many interesting discussions going on online already. If you've finished the book, do check out my friend Allison's interesting observations, for instance. Sherman Dorn has also started a Facebook group called Harry Potter Loose Ends, for those interested.




Above: freshly picked chocolate mint leaves, in prep for making tea.

Link O' The Day (and a mini-rant)

Why Harry Potter Won't be a Bestseller by Michael Glitz: excellent piece. Do read it!

It SO galls me that the New York Times has decided that kids' books don't count when it comes to their (main) national bestseller list. Yes, there's a separate list for kids' books, but why not have a separate "adult books" list as well? And keep the bestseller list for, well...the BESTSELLERS, regardless of genre or age range?

Once I've caught up with work and e-mail, I plan to write up a proper rant about this for Inkygirl.

Thanks to Ray for pointing me to Michael Glitz's article.

By the way, this isn't an excuse for you Harry Potter haters out there to do your usual rant about the quality of the book, etc. The New York Times bestseller lists aren't a reflection of any particular book's quality; they're about hard numbers/stats.

As Glitz points out in his article:

"This isn't just about bragging rights for J.K. Rowling. This is about accuracy and fairness...and about the next Harry Potter. One major reason the books became a phenomenon in the first place was because they broke onto the New York Times bestseller list."

I'm working on a letter to send to Clark Hoyt at the New York Times.





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Looking for audiobook recommendations

Although a technonerdboy, Jeff is also Mr. Handyman at heart as well. His Mr. Handyman soul was frustrated back when we lived in our condo but has done many happydances now that we're in a house where things constantly need fixing and building.



He recently came into my basement office and asked if I wanted anything. After confirming that he can't force Peter Jackson to make a movie of The Hobbit and that there's nothing he can do to get the new Harry Potter book for me before July 21st, then I ask if he could possibly add some shelving.

Yay for handyman-technonerdboy husbands! Not only can he fix my computer, but he builds shelves, too! Now I have to figure out how to best make use of the space. Somehow, I don't think I'll have trouble filling it up.



I bought The Kite Runner from iTunes just before Relay For Life; it was read by the author, Khaled Hosseini, and was excellent -- engrossing and moving, very well read. Now I've started listening to audiobooks on my iPod, sometimes when I'm out for a walk or when I'm doing household tasks.

But then I discovered Apple has advises users NOT to buy audiobooks from iTunes since some won't play on iPods. It looks like Apple's releasing corrected versions, though.

I tried signing up for Audible.com, but I had problems with their database...apparently only five other customers have had the same problem, which has not yet been resolved. I was on the phone for about 10-15 minutes with them before I gave up and asked them to cancel my trial membership. To Audible's credit, they did try a number of fixes and also let me have the free audio novel I originally wanted (A Thousand Splendid Suns, by the author of The Kite Runner) for no charge.

Anyone out there have other suggestions about about where else to get audio novels? I'm mainly interested in current releases, and am willing to pay for them. Also, can you recommend any good audiobooks?



Above: this week's Cartoon Caption Challenge. Please post your suggestions in Inkygirl, thanks.

Interesting links

Looks like the MOO card people are coming out with stickers. I love my MOO cards but wasn't as enthused about their notecards, which seemed a tad pricey. I'm curious about what MOO stickers will be like and how much they'll cost, especially since it's relatively easy for people to print their own stickers these days.

Here's another benefit of working at Google: apparently they recently had a gourmet chocolate tasting table, where employees were invited to sample the chocolates and then rate them.

My friend Scott Snyder is in a new band! Do visit the Captains of the Chess Team Web site.



Check out Blaise Aguera y Arcas: Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo. "Using photos of oft-snapped subjects (like Notre Dame) scraped from around the Web, Photosynth (based on Seadragon technology) creates breathtaking multidimensional spaces with zoom and navigation features that outstrip all expectation." Thanks to Beckett for the link.



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My Denis McGrath interview on blogTO

I have two new posts up on blogTO, for those interested:

My interview with Denis McGrath

Denis McGrath is a Toronto screenwriter whose writing credits include episodes of Blood Ties. McGrath worked at CityTV and Chum Television, and helped start Canada's science fiction channel, Space: The Imagination Station. His series, Across The River To Motor City, premieres soon in Canada.

If you have comments to post about the interview, I urge you to do so at blogTO instead of in my Livejournal. That way my editor will know people are reading my posts, thanks. :-) You can post without having to register.

Read the interview here.

(Photo to right courtesy Denis McGrath.)

A brief plug for Relay For Life

With your help, I've raised $1265 in pledges so far! The Relay is this Friday. If you'd like to make a pledge, you can do so on my Relay For Life page. Thank you! I'll be covering the event for blogTO.

Read my post here.







From the all the comments in response to my post about musicals, it's clear that a LOT of you like musicals, though may not share the same tastes. :-) Thanks for the reponses; I've added to my list of musicals I know I still need to see.

As you can see from the photos above, Jeff and I are so pleased with our Squirrelbuster feeder that we decided to buy another. The squirrels, of course, immediately had to investigate. Heh...I'm amused to see that searching for "Squirrelbuster" on Google right now turns up one of my Blatherings as the #1 result!

Speaking of squirrels...my friends Tony and Leslie have pointed me to yet more proof of Evil Squirrel World Domination plans:

Rampaging squirrel injures 3: "An aggressive squirrel attacked and injured three people in a German town before a 72-year-old pensioner dispatched the rampaging animal with his crutch."




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