Chicago: Become Familiar with its Distinctive Neighborhoods

I did like 25 puzzles from that Tausig book over the holiday.

Hi. I woke up at 8:45 and panicked b/c I thought I had to be at work. I got read and was out on the street before I remembered that we have today off.

Even for a musical Sweeney Todd had WAY too much singing in it. Or it may have just seemed that way b/c the songs weren't that catchy.

More singing than a musical and not as catchy: sounds like opera.

No shit it's a musical! I just don't really care for musicals, particularly of the Sondheim/ALW variety. (I do (generally although not universally) like opera, though, go figure!)

I know, I know. I DO care for Johnny Depp, however, plus the dark atmosphere of the movie appealed to my inner goth, who was rebelling in response to all the sweet twee Christmasness surrounding me.

Also I did sort of wonder how the movie might have been if he'd just told the story straight, reworking the original play or one of the previous Sweeney Todd movies. Probably there was a nice balance between the lurid gore and the campy music so I could see where taking the musical element out of the story would make the movie less interesting.

Also:

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t306/shakesville/hasselhoffian-recursion.gif

I'm going to see Alien vs Predator (vs Hassellhoff) tomorrow.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/710956,crash122307.article

Guy plows minivan into Channel 7 studios. On purpose. Cuz he's a jerk.

http://media1.suntimes.com/multimedia/122307crash1.jpg_20071223_23_39_40_34-282-400.imageContent

Haha

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=5854592

Video.

i miss chicago

I guess I'm mostly interested in Sweeney Todd for the Sondheim (I love A Little Night Music but don't know much else), although I've heard (from my dad and brother, who went to see the movie the other day) that Helena Bonham Carter's voice is weak.

I heard that, too, but it honestly didn't stand out to me.

I have a hard time judging the quality of a person's singing unless it is *really* great or *really* terrible. While I can't imagine her having the pipes to project for an amphitheatre or something, she seemed fine.

For Christmas my brother gave me a collection of academic essays on The Sopranos, including "'Black Guys, My Ass: Uncovering The Queerness of Racism in The Sopranos."

I wonder if it's by the same person who wrote "Desire and the 'Big Black Sex Cop': Race and the Politics of Intimacy on HBO's Six Feet Under."

We saw Sweeney Todd last night, I would guess that a solid third of the audience walked out about 10 minutes into it (most of them high school age). The trailers giving no indication about the level of singing are partly to blame, but uh... do people not even try to understand the movie they are paying to see before plopping down the ten bucks? To be fair, the majority of the walk-outs left during the painful as hell scene of Johanna singing out her window. Beyond that, I loved it. The casting was phenomenal. I noticed more than a slight hint of Bowie in Depp's singing voice too.

Actually, John, the other book my brother gave me was a collection of academic essays on Six Feet Under, including "Fisher's Sons: Brotherly Love and the Space of Male Intimacy in Six Feet Under" and "Politics, Tragedy, and Six Feet Under: Camp Aesthetics and Strategies of Gay Mourning in Post-AIDS America." (He knows that I was working on a TV spec script a year ago and so thought of these for me.)

Jesse, most 'catchy' musical theatre songs of the last 45 years absolutely suck.

do people not even try to understand the movie they are paying to see before plopping down the ten bucks?

by all evidence, NO. tipsy mothra posted a pre-I'm Not There overheard conversation whose theme was "Who's this about? Bob who?"

speaking of musical theatre i can not wait until jersey boys closes and i don't have to be greeted by frankie valli as soon as i come up from the blue line subway every morning.

Chicago needs its own version of Jersey Boys.

"The story of how four everyday guys from Rockford made it to the top!"

And you will be greeted by "Surrender" every morning.

hi guys

i am looking out at beaver lake, n.c., as i work from my parents' house. also there is a french broad river here

I don't really like any musicals (notable exceptions being Hedwig and... something else I'm sure) but if they're gonna happen, they need to be memorable. One review got it right when they criticized the songs for not being hummable.

I have dipped my neck in the French Broad River.

hummable and memorable are different things.

ie are you complaining that the songs were boring or that they weren't catchy or both or neither

haha, who was that critic? Sondheim is recognized as the living king of musicals, hummable or not. That "Memories" song from Cats is "memorable" for all the wrong reasons...

I prefer them screechable, like Angela Lansbury's version of "The Worst Pies in London."

I don't know/care what I meant. What I do know is that I like to have a tune that I can later sing to myself in the shower. Even though I don't like the plays Oklahoma or Singing in the Rain that much, I still can sing a couple of the tunes from them.

I think hummable and memorable are pretty similar things.

i guess they could be, but something like a glenn branca composition or a free jazz freakout is memorable without being hummable. it depends on how you're defining memorable, really

And you will be greeted by "Surrender" every morning.

change it to "Dream Police" or better yet, "Daddy Should Have Stayed in High School" and i'd sit outside the box office like one of those chubby high school girls.

also, i woke up with the nick lowe song "i knew the bride when she used to rock 'n' roll" in my head this morning but the lyrics were replaced by "mauled by a tiger at the san francisco zoo".

now i can't stop singing it.

Whence this weird anxiety that is hovering around my head? I feel like something bad is right around the corner.

i hope you work in a circular office.

It's this whole Pakistan thing, Jesse.

For a bachelor party a few years ago I saw Dream Police, a Cheap Trick tribute band, out in Downers Grove. They had the outfits just right.

Thanks, that sentiment has greeting card potential.

Kevin's I meant.

I would like to borrow that Six Feet Under book from you, Eric, once I'm done with the show. We just started Season 5 (the final season) last night.

I remember shortly after I first moved to Chicago checking out a book of academic essays on Twin Peaks from the library and reading a few chapters at Uncommon Ground.

also, i woke up with the nick lowe song "i knew the bride when she used to rock 'n' roll" in my head this morning but the lyrics were replaced by "mauled by a tiger at the san francisco zoo".

Yesterday I was singing Depeche Mode's "Blasphemous Rumours" to the tune of and in the style of "Papa Was a Rolling Stone."

currently eating: delta airlines biscotti, or as they call it "biscoff"

my dad made some waffles

i have been eating way way too much food and have been sleeping bad from eating too much sugar

Those Biscoff or good. I knew a guy who liked them so much he ordered a case of them.

Then he married them.

or as they call it "biscoff"

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/Bios/bischoff.jpg

fuck, i have a gig the night roy haynes is playing in town this summer. :( i really want to see him, he's like 107 years old.

did you guys ever fly midwest express when they would give you fucking fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies?

No. But we stayed at the Doubletree in Bay City, MI over Christmas. They gave us fresh-baked oatmeal raisin cookies when we checked in.