Earlier Each Year

Forgive the grainy look of the pictures. But when you're on the go and don't have a proper camera, the cell phone will have to do.

Is it just me, or does Christmas seem to be coming earlier and earlier? Way before Hallowe'en, stores began displaying rows of Christmas-oriented cards, ornaments, gift wrap, snowflakes, reindeer, and everything else you can think of. Except for Christmas tress; at least that was a good sign. Then, I stopped by South Coast Plaza on Wednesday -- a full week before Thanksgiving -- and their tree was already up with toy trains rumbling through the trunk.

And then there's the matter of Disneyland. Of course, the only Christmas decorations up were mixed with Hallowe'en times thanks to The Nightmare Before Christmas. And yet, even now, they have lighted trees in both parks, a Christmas parade, snow falling, garlands, ornaments, stockings, and other yule tidings up.

I feel as though I'm being rushed into the holidays, that I need to drop everything and buy Christmas presents for the family and friends, start watching It's a Wonderful Life three times a day, and listen to carols on the commute to work.

Can't I at least enjoy Thanksgiving first?

Spring Awakening Redux

Last night, we treated our friend MM to Spring Awakening. Caesar and I saw it last year so I won't re-hash the whole show, but it was just as good as that first time. Fantastic music, a shocking and surprising story, wonderful acting. One thing I've noticed about touring productions is that sometimes the song lyrics may have been subtly updated or changed. It happened with a touring production of Hairspray that we saw earlier this year, and I caught lyrical changes once again last night with the finale song, The Song of Purple Summer. (I only mention it because this is my favorite song in the show.) Perhaps the original lyric "The grey fly choir will mourn" was bit archaic, but I liked it within the context of the song...and every time the changed lyrics popped up last night, it stood out to me, a little jarring.

I also wondered how the show would go over with Orange County audiences. The crowd tends to be quite a bit older and crusty and conservative, and the subject matter of the show deals with teens and sexuality, sometimes a bit graphically. I expected at least one-third of the crowd to disappear during the intermission, but most of the crowd returned to enjoy the second act. So perhaps the OC Mindset is changing....though an older gent behind us gasped loudly when Hanschen and Ernst locked lips.

We're Walking, We're Walking....

My lunch hour during the work week used to consist of buying a lunch from the food court across the street, bringing it back to the office courtyard, and sitting at a table with a book in one hand and usually a roast beef or tuna sandwich in the other. Since August, though, my routine has changed: I know spend 30 minutes walking around the area, then eat a lunch brought from home (a sandwich or soup, apple slices, diet drink). And so far, I'm down 10 lbs. Today I decided to try a different route for my walk and couldn't help myself when I saw these trees. Probably because no one really believes that the leaves change during the Fall in Southern California much as they do back East. Granted, it's not on as grand a scale, but we still get the beautiful colors. By tomorrow, the trees will most likely be bare, with their crinkly, brown paper bag colors drifting across the street.

But for today, what a nice sight.

Random Long Beach Moment



Saw this on the morning walk: one of the apartment buildings down the street topped and shaved a few palm trees in their front yard and began carving tikis into them.

Book Review: The Resort

Lowell Thurman decides to try something different for a family vacation: an exclusive spa located in the Arizona desert known as The Reata. For five days, he wants to do nothing but enjoy the pool, the five-star restaurants, the peace and quiet, and everything goes according to plan until they return from dinner the first evening to find someone else has been given their room. Not too big a deal, as the management finds them a different, bigger room almost immediately. But Lowell, his wife Rachel and their three kids soon notice other strange things, like the Reata's activities coordinator who almost bullies and threatens the resort guests or the spot at the bottom of the pool that looks too much like a dead body or the creepy ruins of an old resort not too far from The Reata. As their vacation nears its end, the strange incidents become more frequent, more violent, and the Thurman's find themselves fighting for their lives against an ancient evil.

As a fan of horror stories and novels, I'm kicking myself for not learning of Bentley Little sooner. The Resort is the kind of twisted tale I enjoy reading. The nature of the resort and its workers is revealed in small doses, the terror and unease slowly building with glimpses into the true horror of events to keep the reader off kilter and not completely trusting all the characters. The story itself is also very original so I never quite knew what to expect. (The scene with the Thurman family's first -- and only meal -- in The Grille restaurant and what happened afterwards in the Thurman's room comes vividly to mind.) By the last 100 pages of the book, I found myself reading and faster and faster because I wanted to know how things would turn out.

My one gripe has to do with one character -- Patrick Schlaegel -- whose story mixes in every chapter or so. Staying at The Reata while covering a local film festival, he encounters a wild, loud party in the vacant room next to him, a gigantic spider-like creature hunting him in his own room and other hard-to-explain happenings. But toward the end of the book, Patrick's captured, and that's the last we see of his character. Not sure if he died, if he lived, if he wandered across the forty miles of desert to salvation. I would have preferred some kind of resolution to his part in the story because I enjoyed following his character.

The Resort delivers a chilling horror tale, sure to cause shivers to run up and down any reader's spine. A good book and highly recommended.

Image from Fantastic Fiction.

A Capella

Browsing the CDs at a Barnes and Noble listening station last night, I happened upon a CD of a capella music from an L.A. group known as SONOS. Some great music here: covers of Imogen Heap, Depeche Mode, Rufus Wainwright, Björk, the Bird and the Bee, and many others. Here's a sample of their work:

I Want You Back by SONOS.

I hate that I can't embed this video!

Meet Me at the Fair

Geez, I started writing this on Tuesday, but distractions (a.k.a., procrastination) had other intentions. So with any further ado (fingers crossed), on with the post....

Sunday evening, Caesar, myself and two friends took advantage of discount tickets offered by Musical Theatre West ($10 tickets!!) to see the stage version of Meet Me in St. Louis. Shows based on movie- musicals, especially one as well-known and loved as this one, always seem risky. The show creators must overcome what everyone already knows and expects to create something new yet recognizable. This production of Meet Me in St. Louis managed to do that.

A quick synopsis of the story: in St. Louis circa 1903, the Smith family enjoys the months leading up to the St. Louis World's Fair. Oldest daughter Rose is expecting her beau to propose; her sister Esther's heart pines for John Truett, the boy next door; their mother and father deal with the ups and downs of raising four girls at the turn of the century.

It's a show filled with nostalgia, which translated well from screen to stage, bringing the joy and heartache of the music and family lives to wondrous life. Cassie Silva was saddled with the task of filling Judy Garland's shoes as Esther, and performed wonderfully, bringing much warmth to The Boy Next door and much heartache to the classic Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas as she comforts younger sister Tootie. Sarah Bermudez did a fine job as the prim and proper Rose, with Grace Kaufman and Alexa Freeman equally as fun as the two youngest smith girls, Tootie and Agnes. In fact, the entire ensemble was fantastic, with Mary Gordon Murray (who we recently saw in Putting It Together as Anna Smith, Norman Large as Alonso Smith, Cathy Newman as the stout Irish maid Katie, and Kevin Cooney as Grandpa Prophater, to name a few. The set wowed us, too, with a large Victorian house that opened like a doll house to reveal a quaint family home, and the trolley car which drove about the stage while the actors danced and sang across its platform. Oh, and not to forget the ice skating rink at the beginning of the second act!

Meet Me in St. Louis turned out to be a great show, filled with classic songs and great performances. The four of us left the theater in such good spirits that we headed to Hof's Hut for some pumpkin cheesecake to extend our cheery mood.

Image from Musical Theater West.