110 In The Shade, 240 In The Sun

Last night, Asha and I went to see 110 In The Shade, the Roundabout Theater's revival of this somewhat dated musical starring the lovely Audra McDonald and the dashing John Cullum. This show, with music and lyrics by Tom Jones (no, not that Tom Jones) and Harvey Schmidt, is based on The Rainmaker, a book by N. Richard Nash. If you're looking for a fun campy show, look no further. The story is simple..."In the middle of a heat wave in 1930's Texas, when everyone is longing for rain, or a breeze, Lizzie Curry (McDonald) is on the verge of becoming a hopeless old maid. Her wit, intelligence and skills as a homemaker can't make up for the fact that she can't find true love. Even the town sheriff, for whom she harbors a secret yen, won't take a chance. However, when a charismatic rainmaker named Starbuck (Kazee) enters the town and her family's life, Lizzie's world is turned upside down" (Roundabout Theater Website. Starbuck claims he can make it rain. Is he telling the truth? Can he indeed make it precipitate? Will it rain? Yes, yes it will, and the rain will get a lot of applause. Most of the dialogue is very cheesy but one has to expect this going in. Audra McDonald is simply amazing and her voice is just so pleasurable to listen to. The other leads couldn't compare and I was shocked that at many points during the show, many of them sang noticably off key.

Today is Strawberry Fest at NYU which means free strawberries, strawberry shortcake, ice cream, popcorn, cotton candy, toothache....

About a Bean

First a hooker, now baked beans.

Malaria Mania

I'm sure you've seen this footage of George Bush busting a move yesterday at a Rose Garden Event to mark Malaria Awareness Day, but this is worthy of multiple viewings. While George was shaking and playing the bongos, George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton were attending the funeral service for Boris Yeltsin. While they were attending the funeral, Rosie O' Donnell was announcing her departure from The View so she can spend her days in Miami and open up a Koosh Factory.




Today is Take Your Child to Work Day...I wonder if Alec took his daughter to work. He has said that he asked NBC to let him out of his 30 Rock contract so he can devote his time to the issue of "parental alienation". Baldwin is scheduled to appear on The View on Friday where he will call Rosie a big pig, sparking a huge brawl and Starr Jones will make a guest appearance as she and Rosie are put into a cage with wild Bengal Tigers.

I'm feeling Clammy

Here's Boaz's interview with Ken Marino and Paul Rudd for their new movie, Diggers, a coming-of-age story about four working-class friends growing up in Long Island, New York, as clam diggers. Check out the Official Site!

Judd Apatow

The internet never ceases to amaze me. If you know Boaz, he always has a scheme. His most recent one involves Judd Apatow, the brilliant screenwriter, director, television producer, and film producer. Boaz had heard that Judd often googles himself as we all tend to do from time to time, so he decided to start mentioning Judd's name in the blog everyday in hopes that Judd would come across it. Who would have thought that approximately 5 days later, Boaz would receive an email from Judd. Isn't that a great story? I think so, and I encourage you to follow along on the Clips and Quips Blog. Be sure to catch Judd Apatow's new movie, Knocked Up which opens in theaters June 1st. I would love to have been able to set up a screening here at NYU and have Judd come to do a Q&A. Maybe it's still possible??

This weekend I will be heading to Brown with my parents to see my sister's one woman show which she wrote for her senior final. I am really looking forward to seeing this and I will be videotaping it for the archives. There will be many trips to Providence in the coming months as my sister is graduating and has a role in a summer production there as well. She's Über-talented and if any of you out there need a strong actor who has the most amazing voice, definitely contact me. I'm seriously considering becoming her agent.

In the style of Sunday Morning, I leave you with some photos of Manchester, Vermont.

Don't eat the melon, just look at it!

The summer is fast approaching and that means one thing...no, not the beach, not the corn, not the humidity...I'm talking about MELON CARVING! I usually just eat the watermelon, but Elissa shared with me the below images of melon art.









So the next time you buy a watermelon, you can eat it or carve it! I also wanted to share the following video with you in case you haven't seen it. Now I'm not a big cat person but apparently this video is the new blockbuster on YouTube. What do you think? Nora will probably get a record deal.

Expect highs in the 80's dropping to about 45 degrees this evening

People are definitely friendlier when the weather is nice. All of a sudden, the sun comes out and people flash their brights, letting me pull out ahead of them in my car. People smile and say "hello" and even let you cut in front of them on the deli line. The weather does strange things to people. This weekend could not have been more beautiful. The grass is a brilliant green after much rain, and the daffodils and trees are in bloom.

Saturday, Jon and I worked on a project for his grad school class. We ran around from store to store looking for movies for this project. I think we went to about 5 stores trying to find Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I thought I knew what I was doing and that I could easily copy scenes from the DVD to my minidv camera, but apparently this isn't possible. Luckily, my mac came to the rescue and we were able to rip the dvd scenes to my computer and burn them to a disc. We spent most of the day doing this and I hope his presentation goes well tonight. Later that evening, Elissa and I had dinner with Jon and Justine at a greek restaurant in Edgewater, the name of which escapes me. I want to say Greek Village. The food was good despite our having to drink from paper cups because they ran out of glasses...busy night.

I had another training session with Dean yesterday. We worked my back and did some bent rows. I'm noticing a big difference and I can even say that I enjoy going to the gym now. We'll see how it turns out when I get through my next 10 sessions. After the gym, I went over to Elissa's where we made dinner (lemon-pepper shrimp with asparagus) and played each other in tennis, bowling, and baseball with the Wii. It was a lot of fun!

Okay, I have to get my day started. Boaz is coming to help out with this video shoot I've been working on for our office. I am trying not to say anything about the Judd Apatow incident until Boaz posts about it, so check out the Clips and Quips Blog to learn more.