Trivia Saturday - Surprise!

So somehow, not entire sure it wasn't due to a mathematical error, we made it to the Trivia semi-finals again.  That meant a super fun Saturday edition of Trivia.  However there are some downsides to that...

~ Semi-finals are always at a larger bar than the one we usually go to so they can fit up to 25 teams.  This meant we were forced to drive into the city and visit the Horeshoe Casino.  The restaurant - Guy Fieri's something (I'm still not sure what the actual name was) - was inside the casino.  That brings us to point #2...

~ We regularly get the best service at our weekly trivia games because it's always the same 2 servers on Tuesday nights and they're wonderful people.  We apparently take them for granted, because when receiving terrible service at Guy's place today, we had no idea how to act.  Sometimes you do have to ask for a soda 4 times before you receive it.  The same goes for the trivia host.  Our weekly host's name is Phil and he's a lovely human being with a great sense of humor.  I'm not sure what today's host's name was but he was an awkward human being who needed to stop eating the microphone if he intended for anyone to understand what he was saying.  Please refer to these points when you wonder how we did so poorly - the servers and the host threw off our mojo.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it... : )

~ Boxing is a sport that no one on our team watches, wants to watch or has even seen in passing.  To reinforce our lack of knowledge the trivia host gave us an entire 3 questions having to do with boxing - a round in which we didn't get a single point.

~ When the first 2 categories are marketing and training, and the entirety of the team are either marketers, training specialists and teachers, you may wrongly assume you've got it made in the shade for the rest of the game.  You will be very, very wrong.

~ While some may argue pulling obscure Star Trek facts out of thin air makes you "smart" or "cool",  our team has decided that coolness is so not based on star trek - even though the 2 that pulled the facts were on our team.

~ To make us feel better - that's my assumption anyway - after the whole boxing round fiasco, the host decided to present a movie themed round.  Easy right?  Nope, yet another round where not a single question was answered. 

~ Alan Turing created the enigma machine.  The enigma machine is located at the cryptologic museum in Maryland.  He was the father of modern computer science.  He was gay at a time that you could be arrested for being so.  There's a prestigious computer science award given in his name.  There's a fabulous movie about his life starring Benedict Cumberbatch, that I saw and loved. It made me cry.  All of this information floating in my head, and we get asked for the name of the stinking movie! Couldn't come up with "The Imitation Game" to save my life...

~ Somehow knowing that "Non Sequitur" was a two word Latin phrase for "it does not follow" and it's a comic strip made me feel just a little better, after getting every single question I attempted to answer, wrong.  

~ It was a bad day for my brain.  It might have had something to do with the $12 margarita I was surprised to find I had ordered.  

~ In Words with Friends, there are 101 two-letter words that you can play.  Starting out attempting to answer that question by counting on our fingers didn't really help at all.

Friday Five

1. Among all the fabulous Hamilton news this week (Phillipa Soo is going to star in Amelie, the documentary is out in October, the original cast is filming the show!!!), the best news of the week was that when Lin Manuel Miranda leaves in July, his standby, the lovely Javier Munoz will be taking over the role.  Since I knew Lin would be leaving before I got to see it, this is the best possible outcome.  I can't wait to see "#Javilton"!

2. When I finally find Prince Charming, this will be the way we tell our friends and family we're having a little prince or princess.  This is by far the cutest birth announcement I've ever seen!

3. There has been some really fantastic reporting and commenting on the Orlando disaster over the last week.  Even the late night hosts have had some really insightful and kind things to say about where we are and where the US needs to be.  But my favorite quote came from Seth Myers in the wake of Donald Trump's insensitive tweet regarding the congratulations he's receiving for being right about the radicals.  Seth Myer's said:

"I'm not sure who the congratulations are coming from but maybe you should save them for the first responders and those lining up to give blood."

4. Seeing as the Tony awards were just so wonderfully wonderful, can you blame me for wanting more?  I mean, this awesome video of Sean Hayes, James Corden and Jake Gylenhaal singing a song from Aladdin is pretty amazing.  But where in the world are the other videos of all the other commercial break karaoke performances?  I need these to show up on YouTube, post haste!  Get on this theater gods!

5.  Yet another Disney animated movie to get excited about!  Though, it's up in the air if it will be better than Finding Dory (which while I haven't seen, can't be anything but perfect!) 

Count Me Out

One of my dream destinations has always been Australia.  It just seems like such a magical place full of beautiful sites and wonderful people.  Of course the cost and length of a flight to Australia has always been the downside.  It's so very expensive and I get antsy on my way to Texas.  I can't even imagine 17 hours in the cramped quarters of a jet.  But one of these days, I've always said it was going to happen.  

That is until I read an article today, and started thinking of that myth about Australia that everyone quotes - Everything in Australia wants to kill you.  That's not entirely true I know, but it is home to some of the scariest insects, marsupials, and some of the other most ridiculously heinous animals known to man. Up until today I had sort of placed that fact out of my mind and focused on the good of this beautiful island.  

But today, scrolling my way through Twitter, much to my chagrin I discovered this picture.  

What's this you may ask?  Well this picture is a monitor lizard.  Some poor unfortunate couple on the island of Thailand discovered it on their front port attempting to get into their home.  Now if that doesn't haunt your dreams, the video of the giant swooping tail will, I promise you.  If I were one of the poor unfortunate souls that discovered this on my front porch, my house would no longer be mine.  I would write off the house, everything inside of it and the island as well.  I would jump on the first plane to the other side of the globe and never, ever look back.  I'd create a new life in some land-locked country far from the reaches of this foul and terrifying creature.

Now you may wonder what this has to do with Australia.  Well, after some research, (Google is not always your friend) I've learned of all the deadly and terrifying creatures they have there, the monitor lizard also calls Australia home. I'm sorry, up until today I didn't even know what a monitor lizard was.  But I'm now ready to mark entire continents down as no-fly zones just to avoid them.  Nope, Nope, Nope - I'm out.  There is no reason on god's green earth why a lizard should be as tall as I am.  Geckos, Newts, I can take, but lizards that are this creepy and may eat me just to show their lizard friends they can, not so much.  I mean really, I was under the impression that dinosaurs were extinct... 

June in Theatre

In the month of June, I was lucky enough to see 2 shows I hadn't seen before and another I had seen twice before.  Let's just say it was a very good theatre month.

First up was Matilda.  I'm still not exactly sure how I feel about this show.  For starters, I was quite excited to see it with Christopher Sieber, knowing he'd been killing it as Mrs. Trunchbull for the last year or so.  However, when word came down his last show would be June 5 and we were seeing it on the 7th, I was pretty bummed.  Then it came the story line.  I've actually never read Matilda nor have I seen the movie so I had a vague idea what it would be about but I wasn't exactly sure.  

The production itself was fabulous.  The stage decoration was colorful and fun and perfect for a kids show.  All of the actors and actresses were fantastic - particularly the little girl that played Matilda.  I even liked the actor that replaced Christopher Sieber - he was a riot!  My problem was more with the story line.  It got dark - like super dark.  I know Roald Dahl has a sort of history with dark stuff, but I wasn't expecting it to go that dark.  For a kids show, I was expecting light and breezy - not so much creepy teachers bumping off their sister and brother in law.  Also after 2.5 hours, the ending seemed just a bit rushed.  The ending was at least happy I guess, but it got happy in about 30 seconds.

Survey Says: It wasn't my favorite, but my theatre partner in crime loved it so it was definitely worth it.

Second was Something Rotten! for the third time.  It's ridiculous how much I enjoy this show.  It's just fun and funny, and makes me smile.  Unfortunately, Brian d'Arcy James just left last month, but the rest of the cast was pretty much the same.  Fortunately, Brian's replacement, Rob McClure, is just as funny in the part.  He even looks a bit like Brian, so at certain times, I had to do a double take because I thought I was seeing Brian.  

Survey Says: Still a fabulous way to spend an afternoon, as well as the perfect way to sit out a nasty thunderstorm. Also, my theatre partner in crime laughed a whole lot so I'm assuming she loved it as much as I did!

Last was the King & I, which I will gladly admit to only wanting to see because I'm a fan of Daniel Dae Kim. Shallow yes, but at least I'm honest.  It was also going to be my first show at Lincoln Center.  This one was a huge success.  First, the venue is perfect!  I'm not sure there's a bad seat in the house, and with the enormous stage, we got to see some gorgeous set decoration.  At one point a boat rolls onto the stage and the entire stage moves to cover the orchestra pit.  It was amazing!

I will admit also to not being a huge classic musical fan.  I'm a bigger fan of the new stuff. But I did enjoy this one quite a bit.  This was another case of having the general idea of a storyline, but not knowing the particulars.  Marrin Mazzie was perfect as Anna, and her chemistry with Daniel Dae Kim was spot on.  He was just as dreamy in person, and wonderful in the part.  He's not a fantastic singer, so he sort of talked his way through, but it still sort of worked for the part.  It truly was a gorgeous production - everything from the costumes to the set pieces were chosen perfectly.

Survey Says: Probably wouldn't seek out the show itself again, but thoroughly enjoyed getting the chance to see it with such a great cast!

Trivia Tuesday

~ Unfortunately, Pluto is still not a planet.  While this fact unfortunately cost us points on the very first question, it did create hours (ok, at least 2 hours) of fun, while thinking of Pluto jokes we could add to each slip we turned in.  Because while it may not be a full blown planet, it's still a dwarf planet which technically still makes it the farthest planet from the sun.  My favorite joke of the evening came during the borders category - "Neptune is bordered with Pluto."   My other favorite was googled during half time "How do you throw a great party?  You planet."  Heehee!

~ I know nothing of any type of music that is popular today.  Who knew Justin Timberlake had a new song and who knew it was on the top of the charts?  Answer - everyone at my table except me.

~ So grossed out that the question on anatomy was about teeth.  That must be why we got it wrong.

~ We knew an entire round based on sports figure's nicknames was going to be rough.  But at least we were able to get one right.  Thankfully, we remembered that Gordie Howe passed away last week, so he was most likely Mr. Hockey rather than Wayne Gretsky which was who we were going to go with.  However, I have NO idea why Roger Federer would be called the Swiss Maestro or Fedex.  He's not Swiss.  Tennis doesn't rely a lot on time, nor does Federer "deliver" in the clutch (Tennis doesn't really have a clutch, right?)

~ The word "dilatory" is misleading.  Wouldn't you expect that a word having the route of "dilate" would mean to expand?  Apparently not.

~ Whenever a Shakespeare question is asked, it's always an easy one.  No fun!

~ Contrary to one opinion at the table Nairobi is a country not the capital of Libya.

~ Eros is Cupid's counterpart to the God of love.  Seeing as I guessed Aros out of thin air because it sounded like the name of something Greek, I'm pretty proud that the mythology expert at table who was struggling, confirmed that "Eros" was correct.  Sometimes you get an answer right and you don't even mean to.  That was my only success for the evening.

~ During Tony's week, when the category is "Musical Founding Fathers" don't put all your eggs in the "It's going to be about Hamilton" basket.  It might be about a singer/songwriter/producer who created some crazy band you've never heard of.

~ John Amos' name on Good Times was James.  Because we were told his son's name was JJ, choosing a J name at random (assuming JJ stood for something Junior) was surprisingly a good theory.  

~ Two of the four people that played this evening are visiting Mt. Rushmore this summer, 1 of the 4 has already been there.  And yet none of the 4 could answer what order the darn presidents are in on the dumb rocks.  (For the record, I'm the last one of the 4 that could care less about seeing giant heads of presidents...)

Focus on Love not Hate

I have to get something off my chest.  It's something I say a lot but I haven't written about it in a while so I feel it's time.  I hate Donald Trump.  I hate him so much.  There I said it - I do admit to feeling a bit better.  

I just don't get it.  I don't understand how a person so full of hate and bigotry be so far ahead in the polls.  Do people not see that there's not a fully working brain in that head? How else can you explain away his comments regarding the horrible tragedy in Orlando?  Thoughts, prayers, love - that's what everyone else is sending the families and loved ones of those involved.  Not Trump though. 

He congratulates himself for being "right about ISIS."  Funny thing is that this wasn't an ISIS attack.  The FBI and Homeland Security has confirmed this.  The shooter has been on the watchlist for quite some time, but he acted alone out of hate. Much the same hate that Trump is displaying when posting such a heartless message in the wake of senseless tragedy.  He does go on to say that he's planning to outlaw "all immigrants from nations that have a history with terrorism."  Do you know how many nations that really is?  Pretty much all of them.  Not to mention, the shooter wasn't an immigrant at all.  He was a US citizen that was allowed to buy an assault rifle legally even though he was on a watchlist.  But why consider banning weapons and weapon sales like this at all, when you can attack immigrants and an entire group of people that had nothing to do with the attack? Therein lies his strategy, I suppose. 

Then there's the matter of his "problem" today with the Washington Post, one of the most well-respected papers in journalism.  Trump has decided to "revoke their credentials" for "phony" reports. First of all, how exactly is that going to work?  This isn't communist Russia. You can't stop them from reporting just by saying so.  Second of all, he sounds like a 5 year old who's angry that someone took his toy.  Honestly?!  How is this man going to be a respected President who can stand up to other nations, when he's so easily offended by journalists? And most importantly, how is he going to be a president when he can't even be a decent human being?  Isn't some bit of compassion necessary?  He's clearly lacking that, as well as a host of other skills to get the job done.

Ok, now after that rant. I'm done.  I want so very much to not give him any more screen time or air time that he already gets - which isn't deserved. I want to focus on the good and not the bad and hope that by doing so, the world will become a little nicer. So I'm vowing now to follow the words of Trump's polar opposite - Lin Manuel Miranda.  "Love is Love is Love is Love is Love." That's what I'm focusing on and that's what will get us through this difficult time. Focus on the love, and Hate (and hateful people like Trump) will never win.

Tony Awards Live!

Some people go crazy for the Emmys, while others go gaga for the grammys.  Meanwhile, I'm a Tony's girl.  It's like a national holiday.  So tonight, I'm trying something different and live-blogging my thoughts - as well as I can while fan-girling, that is.

~ The opening speech about last night's heartbreaking news out of Orlando, was pitch perfect.  I thought they may pre-empt the ceremony in honor of the victims, but I agree with going on.  The theatre community has always been about diversity and spending the evening showing what diversity can accomplish and celebrating it, is a perfect response to the hateful act. #HateWillNeverWin

~ I LOVE LOVE LOVE the opening act.  James Corden is now my most favorite host ever.  The songs, the cutest little boy ever, the love and inclusion message - every single thing was perfect!

~ "Welcome to the Tonys, which are sort of like the Oscars but with diversity!" and "There's so much diversity here tonight that Donald Trump is thinking of building a wall around the theatre tonight." HAHAHA! 

~ Jane Krakowski, and Renee Elise Goldsberry's dresses are gorgeous!

~ The live Ham4Ham outside the Beacon is genius!

~ Ok, Audra McDonald's dress is my new favorite.

~ Love Renee Elise Goldsberry, but Jane Krakowski was amazing in She Loves Me!  She deserved the award for the splits she does, alone. (Hamilton award count: 1)  However, the fact that the cast of Hamilton is crying because she Renee won, is very very sweet.

~ Audra McDonald is pregnant, belting and tap dancing - clearly she's super woman!

~ I had no desire to see School of Rock before tonight, but now I'm thinking it might need to happen.

~ Titus Andromedon (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) auditioning for Hamilton was awesome! This would be me if ever I got enough guts to audition for anything.

~ Daniel Dae Kim is just as dreamy in a tux as he was yesterday in his Kingly duds in The King & I.

~ ~ Hamilton Award Count: 3 (though I was hoping for a 3 way tie between Groff, Diggs and Jackson)

~ Do any of the nominees up against Hamilton actually think they might win?  

~ Lin! getting a standing O from his family - too cute!  He wrote a sonnet for his acceptance speech because of course he did.  I just want to have dinner with him and have a little of genius wear off on me. (Hamilton award count: 4) "Fill the world with music, love and pride!" Yes!!!

~ The set design for She Loves Me looks just as beautiful digitally created as it does for real on the stage at Studio 54. Seriously, how does she do a split like that?! Where can I get a pair of pj's like that?  Too cute!

~ I still have NO idea how Jesse Tyler Ferguson wasn't nominated for Fully Committed.  Memorizing 40 different characters and performing them in 90 minutes is a feat of super-human talent.

~ Not the Humans!?  That's a big upset!

~ Hamilton Award Count: 5 (Yay Tommy Kail and fabulous speech!)

~ To Life! L'chaim! - Ha! Josh Groban in Fiddler - so fantastic!  His reaction was priceless!  "Oh, that just happened on the Tony's" Yay, arts education!

~ In the words of Something Rotten! - "Who is this fiddler and why is on the roof?"

~ After a little more than an hour, I'm ready to announce that this may be my most favorite Tony award broadcast ever!

~ Who stole Neil Patrick's Harris's hair?

~ I'm adding the female accountant's dress to my list of faves.  The orange is beautiful!

~ Yay Andrew Rannells!  He'll hopefully be nominated for Falsettos next year.

~ If I could be sure I wouldn't cry, I'd really want to see The Humans.  

~ How does one decide to take up the Banjo?  Not that he's not fab at it, but it's just so odd to see Steve Martin playing it. "To be on Broadway you have to study and work really hard, or you can do what I did, and already be famous." Ha!

~ The Moana trailer is out!  Woohoo!

~ The Law and Order bit is fantastic - since L&O is one of the few shows that shoots in NYC, most of Broadway has been in it.  

~ Hamilton Award Count: 7 (I'm feeling bad for the set designer who is the only HamFam that hasn't won yet.  Do you think he'll be voted off the island since he lost?

~ Still not really into seeing The Color Purple but Cynthia Errivo has an absolutely gorgeous voice!  Much deserved standing O!

~ Nathan Lane!  It wouldn't be Tony's night without him. "Winning means everything, is the first lesson I learned at Trump University." Ha!

~ Emilio Estefan is the sweetest. Yay Gloria!!  You go girl!  The woman playing her in the show looks and sounds just like her - that casting director is fabulous at his/her job!

~ Carpool Karaoke!!!  This has me grinning from ear to ear! Even if some of it is a repeat, I'm in love!  I just want to be a fly on the windshield of this car.  I have this idea in my head that Lin looks like this on a daily basis in his own car.

~ Sad Jeff Daniels lost to Frank Langella.  From what I hear, he's a powerhouse in Blackbird.  However, he just gave a beautiful speech.

~ The Oscars couldn't even see fit to include more than one race in their nominations and telecast, but the Tony's are not only including all races, genders, sexual orientation, but also disabilities as well.  This version of Spring Awakening looks so amazing!

~ Hamilton doing Rent!!  Oh my god! Way to make me cry.  Such a gorgeous sentiment for today!

~ I love how CBS has decided to Broadway-ify all of their commercials for the evening...

~ I'm not sure how I feel about all of these awards being given off stage. I mean I love having time for the performances but these artists deserve their moment in the sun as well.

~ Why is the music playing so loudly over Diane Lane's speech?

~ Blair Underwood is dreamy.  That is all.

~ The woman that just won the special award missed her chance to give a kiss to Blair Underwood - she's gonna regret that tomorrow.

~ Why is James Corden wearing that awful suit?

~ Who better to intro Hamilton than Hamilton's number one fan boy and girl - President and Mrs. Obama.  So great!  

~ Hamilton - here we go!  Moment of silence for awesomeness!  How in the world did that not warrant a standing O? So, So, So Brilliant!  Such a great song choice too.  They were able to include everyone in the cast.  

~ Christian Borle is my fave!  He is also dreamy but is not wearing a ribbon.  Really Christian?

~ Yay Humans!  Eli's daughter from the Good Wife is in it which is admittedly the only reason I wanted it to win.

~The crazy red suit is now gone.  Will we ever know why he was wearing it?

~ James Corden's parents are adorable.

~ Ok, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and spend the money.  Waitress looks great!  I wonder how not so fun it is to wear a pregnant belly for a whole show?

~ I'm seeing ads this evening for independent movies I've never heard of before.  Is that an assumption that since we like theatre we'll like them?  

~ Hamilton Award Count: 9 (they can only tie The Producers not break the record)

~ Andrew Rannells in The Book of Moron, Glenn Close in A Clinton Line - HAHAHA!

~ Go Bebe Neuwirth!  Yet another show I've never seen live.  I'm going to have to fix this.

~ Sad to see She Loves Me lose out to the Color Purple.  She Loves Me was fabulous!

~ Oh my goodness, Seasons of Love for the In Memoriam segment?  Perfection!

~ HOLY COW!!!  The fact that Leslie won instead of Lin is HUGE!!!  His speech is so uplifting.  This cast is like a set of the most amazing people on the planet.  

~ Second shock of the night, no Phillipa Soo.  Yay Cynthia though!

~ Wow, that sparkly green jacket James is wearing is a lotta look.

~ I just don't get the Streisand thing.  She's cool, but really a standing O for just walking on the stage?

~ Why does Streisand's outfit look like it was taken from the cast of Hamilton?

~ Surprising almost no one - Yay Hamilton!  Though, I'm still not sure she actually opened the envelope before announcing the win...Why is the cast not on the stage too?   Lin's on verge of tears face is my favorite.  I swear that's his natural state. "Look around, look around, how lucky we are to be alive right now." Awesome!

~ And Hamilton to close the show!  Awesome! Yay Schuyler sisters!  The perfect ending to a perfect show!

And so ends one of the greatest Tony telecasts ever.  Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!