i'm pretty sure this is a 'murder she wrote' episode, too...

"An actor narrowly escaped death after slashing his throat on stage with a real knife, instead of a blunt stage-prop blade.
...
The audience is said to have applauded what they thought was a stunning special effect, and only realised something was wrong when the actor staggered off stage to receive treatment."

Full article here.

scary!!

i admire the lady

"I know that a lot of people look at me and think, 'Why doesn't she do something to that face?' But I made a decision. I do yoga and I hike, but I won't do Botox … I know if I start doing things I will get insecure."
--Diane Von Furstenberg as quoted in British Vogue

update

i'm all finished up with summer and smoke and am now working on chick habit. and once that is done i'll be directing my show, one for the money. once this semester is over, i will not have gone one week without rehearsal of some kind! it's so busy, but i have to say, i love it still. :)

and in a little over a week i am going to see the seagull on broadway!! i have been waiting for this for quite a while, and i am so incredibly excited. the play itself is great, and i can't wait to see what this production is like.

and a few of my current obsessions:

au bon paini can't get enough of their hot chocolate, brie cheese and crackers, or fruit. it is the most amazing little chain cafe ever.

time out new yorkthis magazine is so great, i recently got a subscription to it. every week there is a different theme for the mag, and it's just such a must-have for anyone in new york city. i like their 'small talk with big people' section at the end, they always interview someone really intriquing.

i want sandyno one would believe me if i said i have my own personal assistant, but actually i'm pretty close. at www.iwantsandy.com, you can sign up for an account and have sandy remind you about...anything, really. birthdays, homework assignments, meetings, whatever. i'm still pretty new to the whole thing, but from what i can tell, it's a nice, useful tool.

so

i looked at my blog just a moment ago, and my last three posts have all begun with the word "so."

conan o'brien

so i reserved tickets about a month ago to see conan today! awesome show, too...julia louis-dreyfus (the low point of the show, actually), michael cera, and a really funny comedian whose name i forgot. :P

feeling sick, btw, which CANNOT happen. i do not want to be sick :(

super busy, going to bed sooooon!!

good stuff

so i snatched some FREE tickets to see equus last wednesday (thank you, school!!), and i couldn't have been more excited!! i hadn't been to a broadway show in such a long time. the show was fantastic...i'd heard great things about it before i even walked into the theater, but i refuse to give in to the hype for anything until i see it for myself (dark knight for example...good, not great). everything was perfect, from the set that looked almost like a temple to the acting. i was impressed with the entire show, but i have to say that the most creative part of the show was the group of 6 horses. i love that they had metal heads, which was so incredibly eerie, but more than anything, their acting was great. most of them didn't even speak, but just to watch them was so unbelievable, because they moved just like horses. every step and tilt of their heads, you could see where it was coming from. seeing a great play like this just makes me love theater even more. amazing.

also, guess who bought tickets to see the seagull? tickets were only about 40 bucks, which is incredibly cheap to me considering the fact that it is such a classic. this picture below (of kristen scott thomas as arkadina) is enough to make me want to see it. 'nuff said.

sorry!

so i've got no excuse, but sorry for the lack of...anything, really, the past few weeks. just been busy busy busy!

the main thing is that classes have started, and unfortunately i have to head to pace monday through friday for usually just one class. but i've got work scattered here and there, and of course rehearsal until 11:00 usually, so i've just been busier than you could ever imagine. i haven't even entirely unpacked yet! there are still boxes clumped in one corner of the bedroom of our new apartment, but overall...it's looking good. except for the fact that the plant my parents bought is pretty much dead already. oops. i watered it this morning in hopes that it might be revived. we'll see.

other than that, just been going here and there with barely any time to even eat. now is actually one of the first times in a long time i've gotten a bit of a break. i think i'll take a nap...

'bout time someone looked into this!

here's a link to an interesting article regarding the chinese gymnastics team.

"All the good work China did to put on these Olympics could be forgotten because of an unnecessary, arrogant move by the government. Why risk everything to put a 14-year old in the competition when they could have replaced her with an of-age 16-year old gymnast? Sure, He is a better gymnast than the Chinese gymnasts who were eligible to compete, but with the judges they had at the Olympics, would it really have mattered?"

so true! i'm glad i'm not the only one who felt the coaches generously scored the chinese gymnasts. and while a different/not-so-talented chinese gymnast in he's place may not have bumped the usa to gold in the team competition, at least i would feel that china is being a fair competitor. something is definitely up, though, because china has been so defensive about the whole thing. it's about time there is an official investigation!

<3 youtube

so i ran across this video, which is pretty amusing. enjoy!

the working title

so cat and i got to the knitting factory friday night and after hanging out on the main floor for a while, decided to go upstairs to this little balcony thing they had. it was a little colder up there, but the view was pretty good and i knew we wouldn't have to worry about tall people standing in front of us. so we were up there for the first two bands and while the second one was playing i look over and there is this guy tuning a guitar and i think he looks kind of like the lead singer from the working title. so i just kind of stare at him and stuff and act a bit like a creeper and cat says i should say hello and see if it's him. and after much convincing and much creeper-like behavior, i shuffled over.

me: um, are you from the band 'the working title'?
man with guitar: yea.
me: YOU'RE JOEL.
joel: yea.

and there was a little more to the conversation than him just saying 'yea,' but you get the idea. he was supernice and i even got to talk to him a little after the show. here's a pic:


anyway, they started with one of my favorite songs, 'the crash,' and played a bunch of new stuff (good, although i would have liked to hear more of their oldies). here's a clip of one of the newer songs, called 'wolf' i think. this was my favorite new song of the night.

can't wait!

snagged some tickets for tomorrow's show at the knitting factory...one of my favorite bands of all time will be there: the working title. vvvvvveeeeeerrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyy excited!!

the only reason i want to see "dark knight"

heath ledger is most definitely the only reason i want to see dark knight, opening next week. he looks unbelievably creepy and mesmerizing.

and get this! oscar buzz already for him. i kind of saw this coming, we'll see if people are just being generous in his memory or if the performance is actually just that good.

hm.

kudos to my sister for informing me of this. the long-lost footage from fritz lang's metropolis has been found in argentina.

"In the 1980s, Argentine film fanatic Fernando Pena heard about a man who had propped up a broken projector for "hours" to screen "Metropolis" in the 1960s. But the version of the film he knew was only one-and-a-half hours long. For years, he begged Buenos Aires' museum to check their archives for the man's longer version."

obviously it's pretty dern cool that they found the footage, but...um...it was in a cinema museum. not too exciting. like, you'd kind of expect it to be there, right? i was hoping it might be found buried under some ex-nazi's house. oh well.

rant

dear new yorkers,

i used to believe what the majority believed about new yorkers: that you all are some tough cookies, that you've got that new york attitude. you know, fugeddaboudit and whatnot. you all brave the unpredictable new york winters, which i can't even begin to tell you how much i respect. it's fifteen degrees outside, and i see half of you running around in a windbreaker and nothing else. cheers to that. but after living here for nearly two years, and more importantly being here right now during the "heat wave," i've come to see what new yorkers really are: a bunch of wussies.

first of all, 70 degrees is not hot. maybe those new york winters have made you unfeeling to temperatures that aren't below freezing. once the temperature reaches 70, it just seems that you go into complain mode. "it's so hot." "i hate this humidity." "can you BELIEVE how hot it was in the subway this morning." it's perfectly fine to feel hot, but i don't understand the incessant complaining. are you really so miserable that you feel you have to share that misery with everyone around you? it's like you think the heat only affects you. "janice, it is just sweltering out there." "well, mary...why, my god, it IS sweltering! i'm so glad you told me or else i never would have known!!" and by the way, if it was hot yesterday, chances are it's going to be hot again the next day. uncanny, i know! but really, i don't need a daily update of exactly how warm it feels to you, how awful it is that your workplace doesn't have air conditioning, or how much your panties stuck to you when you just went to take a piss.

and am i the only one who knows about central air conditioning? seriously, what is with those silly little ac's you stick in the window? not only do they do basically nothing for the interior of an apartment, but they emit heat onto the streets. but i guess you all like that, because then you think it gives you even more of a right to complain. my main beef with those things, though, is the water that drips from them right on to innocent passers-by. i must be the only one who finds it totally repulsive to have nasty water drips from an air conditioning unit fall on me. central air doesn't drip on people. central air can't fall out of a window and crush someone. central air cools an entire apartment, not just one room. seriously, new yorkers, save some of your money and invest in it if these summers get to you. thank me later.

i just don't get it, new yorkers. i lived my entire life thinking you were so tough, so strong, and it turns out that's only the case november through march. once the temperature rises, you go into ritual complain mode, somehow thinking that if you do bitch enough, maybe, just maybe it might snow or something and then you'll be saved from the heat and humidity. so here's what you should do: invest in some central air conditioning for your home (and suggest it for the workplace), buy a personal fan to carry around (no one said anything about looking cool while beating the heat), purchase some non-stick panties, and stop complaining, please.

thanks.

boston

i was in boston, massachusetts one time only in 2006 for my brother ben's graduation. so this past weekeend (memorial day weekend...no work monday!!) i headed up there with cat. we stayed at my brother's girlfriend's apartment (rhiannon).

friday: we leave about 7:30pm on the fung wah bus from chinatown (fifteen dollars, huzzah!) and get to boston around midnight. we're tired, but we stay up until about 2:30 in the morning playing guitar hero. teehee.

saturday: after a tasty homemade pancake breakfast, we take a quick walk through faneuil hall, grab some fantastic smoothies and head to the aquarium. **i don't like zoos. at all. they make me sad. but aquariums are different for some reason. i think because humans can provide the space that sea life needs in a tank, while 10 monkeys in one small cage doesn't seem to make sense. anyway.** there are no dolphins, much to cat's dismay, but we see seals, jellyfish, penguins, sharks, and big fishies. after that we go to the north end (aka little italy of boston), have dinner, and grab dessert to go. we head back to rhiannon's apartment and play more guitar hero and other wii games: no more heroes, mario strikers charged, lego star wars, etc etc.

sunday: we go to fire and ice for breakfast and make our own pancakes/omelettes. mmm. i love pancakes. anyway, after that we walk around on newbury street. cat finds a pretty cool non-bakery called johnny cupcakes, go in if you get the chance (but don't expect tasty treats). after that, we stop by a park and then we head to the prudential center and head back to rhiannon's. more video games follow.

monday: we only have time for one thing today, the museum of fine art. we only spend a little over an hour there, but it is super nice. after that we hop onto another fung wah bus to go back to nyc.

anyway, it was a great weekend! here are some pics:

best game ever.


scary jellyfish!


me in the park.

check this out. it's about this french explorer who is going to spend 10 months on a deserted pacific ocean island with only a camera, solar-powered charger, and a swiss army knife.

kind of interesting, but lame for the most part. it will be like an unending episode of "survivorman," which i can really only stand to watch until he kills something cute (like a bunny or something).

on the other hand, i have to say that living on a nice, clean beach for a while is quite appealing. 10 months is overkill, but i think i could manage for two weeks or so with the following:

1. sunblock--cancer is no funsies, so this is a must. at least spf 50 as well. can you believe people actually use like spf 10 sunblock?! that works for about five minutes.

2. flowy dress, like this one from victoria's secret:

i actually just got this in the mail (thanks, mom and dad!) and cannot wait to wear it. :)

3. sunglasses--spf for the eyes. i adore the humongo-oversized sunglasses that are in right now.

4. hammock--there's nothing nicer than laying out under some shady trees.

5. veggie burgers--since nature really won't offer me too much to munch on except like berries and stuff like that.

6. bathing suit--of course!

full frontal feminism by jessica valenti

i just finished this book, and it's the first one i've gotten through in a long time. it basically shows that most young women, or women in general, are feminists whether they'll admit it or not. the author, valenti, shows how messed up the world is for women in regards to sex, repro rights, politics, pop culture, men, and so forth. i usually dog-ear pages in books that i like, and there were quite a few in this one. here goes:

"as it stands now, the government is spending $178 million a year to tell women they're big whores if they give it up, and various other untruths. most (80 frigging percent) abstinence-only education programs give out false information about sex."
--scary!

"feminism tells you it's okay to make decisions about your sexuality for yourself. because when it comes down to it, what's more powerful and important than being able to do what you want with your body without fear of being shamed or punished?"
--agreed! if there's anything i feel that valenti really pushes, it's that young women have their right to make decisions taken away. their parents assume they can't make smart decisions about their bodies. essentially, feminism is about having the information and making your own decision.

on rape and victim-blaming: "a writer for the wall street journal, naomi schaefer riley, wrote a piece on the rape and murder of new york college student imette st. guillen. riley wrote that the student 'was last seen in a bar, alone and drinking at 3 am,' and that 'a twenty-four-year-old woman should know better.' i guess guillen wasn't aware of the woman-only curfew and alcohol prohibition."
--so true! women shouldn't have to constantly be on guard (although we are, which valenti also talks about) to not be raped. just because someone goes out for a drink does not mean she is asking to be raped. it's not just a woman's job to stop rape--it's men's jobs, too.

"women (and men) have to know that there is nothing you can do that warrants being raped. nothing. i don't care if you're a naked, drunk, passed-out prostitute."
--there's really no way to elaborate on this one. it's such a great point in itself.

on marriage: "and marriage is still being positioned as the 'natural' thing people (women, especially) should want to do. we should want to get married and have the wedding; we should have been planning this since we were little girls and playing 'bride' with pillowcases over our heads like veils. and if it never really occurred to us to get married, well, clearrly something is amiss."
--indeed. i love those couples in the spotlight that are just perfectly happy not being married but being with a long-time bf or gf. like johnny depp (although he recently announced his engagement to whats-her-face...hmm). but it is so frustrating when people just naturally expect something of you. one of my pet peeves.

"for the life of me, i will never understand why a woman today would change her last name. it makes no sense whatsoever. you want future kids to have the same last name as you and your hubby? hyphenate, bitch! or do something, anything, but change your last name...it epitomizes the idea that you are not your own person."
--this, too, is just kind of something women are expected to do: when you get married, you take your husband's name. i like her point, although i don't know if i generally agree with it. i totally see where she's going with this one, maybe i'm just a little too old-fashioned.

"women are supposed to want to have babies. it's our 'natural' inclination. several of my friends...decided a while ago that kids just aren't for them. but whenever they express that sentiment to anyone in their lives, the reactions are insane. they're generally pooh-poohed with an, 'oh you'll change your mind,' or just incredulousness that anyone would decide not to have kids. (never mind that men who don't have kids are just charming bachelors.) it forever bugs them that despite the fact that they've made an informed decision that's right for them, they're constantly being judged for it."
--puh-lease, don't even get me started on kids. but i agree entirely.

"nearly one in five moms said she felt less valued by society since becoming a mother."
-- :( i hope my mom doesn't feel that way.

"the new cool is this 'bros over hos' mentality that seems to be inundating our culture. just think of all the commercials in which perpetual boyhood is the ultimate...and girlfriends and wives are annoying, nagging, distractions from fun."
--i think i'm too young to know how the 'ultimate manhood' used to be portrayed--great family, house, etc etc. this is all i've ever been exposed to, and it's strange because not only do i buy into it all the time, but i expect that my bf buys into it, too. which he doesn't, thankfully. i think this is because he is european (honestly). different kinda guys over there... :P

on war: "'the use of rape as a weapon of war is perhaps the most notorious and brutal way in which conflict impacts on women.'"
--usually, we think of men as the ones fighting in wars, but women are affected just the same. this kind of punishment is just awful. suggested read: eve ensler's necessary targets.

on politics: "party quotas are voluntary; political parties guarantee that a certain percentage of women will be selected as election candidates. political parties in austria, finland, germany, iceland, mozambique, norway, sweden, and south africa use this system."
--i love it! we should totally use party quotas. the fact is, it is so unbelievably hard for women to climb up the ladder in politics. sure, you're kind of handing them positions, but only qualified women would take the seats, duh. i mean, how great would that be? more women in politics, better women's rights, more role models...such an awesome idea.

the book is fantastic, i think everyone should read it, guy or girl. it gives so many fantastic statistics that really show you how messed up the world is for women. and even better, it tells you what you can do about, small and big things. read it!

i is done!

so i am now finished with my second year of college. i can't believe i only have one more to go... :) but i'm not really even thinking about my final year at pace, i'm more concerned about this summer.

1. i must get to the beach as much as possible--i have come to realize that i am a beach gal. i love walking on the beach, laying on a towel and reading, shark-tooth searching...i just don't like the whole swimming in the ocean deal. only because you can't see your feet.

2. i will go shopping--i shouldn't i know, but i will. and i will buy the cute little dresses, the unnecessarily large sunglasses, summery flip flops, cute tops, and purses. many purses.

3. i must work out. maybe i will start running. ha! okay, i won't go that far, but i'll figure something out.

4. i will apartment-hunt. sigh. the idea of looking once again for an apartment kind of appeals to me now, but i know after seeing about 2 1/2 places, i wont' care anymore. and moving? blech! not looking forward to it one bit. but i'll just have to remember that all the work will result in a nice, new apartment somewhere closer to manhattan.

5. i want to travel!! for some reason, i have this desperate need to get out of nyc and go somewhere. i'm thinking boston...

this semester is never-ending

first and foremost: in case you didn't know, i am officially the understudy for the role of Alma in next semester's "Summer and Smoke" by Tennessee Williams, directed by my all-time favorite, grant. yay! :D i'll be in the chorus for most performances, and i get one performance as alma. exciting stuff!

just finished up my business exam, which i studied for but really didn't study for. i looked through the powerpoint slides from my professor and basically rewrote them, then looked over my notes once, and prayed that something would stay stuck in my head. and i think something did. i know the four p's of marketing : product, price, place, promotion. this was actually on the exam, what luck! so anyway, i can honestly say i didn't get an a+, but i didn't fail. and i'm master of using too many words to make something sound like an answer that isn't really an answer. cha-ching.

anyway, i still have various bits of school left in the next week. performance on thursday, monologue on tuesday, paper due tuesday, grant proposal due thursday, etc etc.

rant: can i just add that nannies are very stupid people sometimes? i was at work the other day teaching my class at the gym and there was this kid just kind of sitting and watching us, not doing anything. and then the nanny comes over to me to explain why he's doing this, and she laughs and says, "he's trying to make a poop." okay, 1. i really don't care that much about your child, let him sit and waste his parents' money, and 2. do you want him to ever be potty-trained? evidently, you'd rather teach him it's okay to just crouch in a corner and go. end rant.

WHOA

i forgot exactly how i stumbled upon the Reduced Shakespeare Company on youtube, but i've watched a number of their videos and they are sooooo funny. here is the first part (of four!) for hamlet. enjoy.

okay so

so i just finished one performance of "medea" for today, one more to go!! i am so tired and exhausted, though, i think i'm going to take a nap soon.

btw, saw "once" yesterday, and i suggest everyone go out and see the film and get the soundtrack. you will want to sing along with every song while you watch it.

and totally weird: i have about 1 1/2 weeks left of classes. this semester was soooo short! i am definitely ready for it to be over, though, especially since we've had such nice weather these past few days.

i can't wait to go to the beach.

i've been thinking about this one all week

this was a clip from last week's snl, and it's so clever. loves it.
t

last schoolyear i stayed at the dorms across from this grocery store, gristedes, and someone told me today about a fire there. thus i newsgoogled gristedes and found the best article ever, which stated:

"Unconfirmed reports indicate that the fire's origin was electrical, starting near the donuts just to the right of the shop's entrance; but the fire looked under control by 6:30-6:45 p.m., as some of the NYFD began to disperse."

it was the donuts!!!

it must be nice

it must be nice to be a cat. all you do is eat, poop, and sleep. and now matter how annoying you are or how much you ignore people or how much you claw things, you're still just too darn cute for people not to love you. lucky.

michael clayton

i just watched 'michael clayton' and whoa.
1. tilda swinton is one creepy person. i don't think she actually has an iris, just two really big pupils in her eyes. whenever i see her, i can only think of the ice queen from narnia.
2. george clooney is fantastic. i didn't know what was going on half the time, and normally this would bother me, but i really just wanted to keep watching. whatever was going on was good.
3. what is it with clooney's character and horses? it reminded me of that disturbing play 'equus' that harry potter was in. why horses, george/michael? i do not understand!!
by the way, i will see brooke shields and mr. lipton for 'inside the actor's studio.' exciting!! i wish we were going to have...like a real actor maybe, but i am still excited. i just wiki-searched her and she's the one who talked about her post-partum depression, which tom cruise criticized because TOM CRUISE IS SUPER LAME. that is all.

the academy awards

so i watched the academy awards...and i mean i actually watched it, not just saw a few things here or there. i hate awards shows for the most part. they are boring, drawn out, not funny, and i hate how you have presenters who present the presenters of awards. so silly. but i was pretty proud of myself for watching the whole thing, even though overall ratings were considerably low...

"They also suggested that the low ratings could have been partly because most of the nominated films were somewhat downbeat, even depressing..."

ha! 'oh, no, i don't want to see the movie about the killer with the funny haircut because it would make me sad.' seriously?

jon stewart did, in my opinion, a pretty good job. however, one thing that really bugs me about celebrities and awards shows is how they're all politics-y. just because you are famous does not mean i care about your political stance. so shut up.

and by the way, i've seen jon stewart in person and i actually rolled backwards into his legs once.

anyway, after seeing the show my excitement for films and netflix has greatly increased. i returned the netflix movies we had laying around (the number 23? did i really want to see that? no.) and the new one should be coming tomorrow or the next day. yay! until then...

on the GRE

bill (my honors adviser): do you know what you have to do for some of these mfa programs?


me: well, one mentioned the GRE so i'm taking a practice test next friday.

bill: oh, good.

pause

me: what's it like? i mean, i don't even know what it is...

bill: it's like the SATs on speed.

oooooooh man!!

ohmigod!!

it is FINALLY snowing in new york city. it's about time! everything is so white and cold and snowy. :D and not only that, but classes are cancelled for today and i'm going to cross my fingers for tomorrow. :D woohoo!!

i had some important things to write, but i have forgotten them all because of the snow.

on tropicana grape juice

matt alford: that stuff is delicious.

me: yea, it's crazy good. (pause) i wish real grapes tasted this good.

matt alford: oh, i know.

new year, new blog!

yet another attempt at keeping a blog...

my 2008 began in france, at cat's cousin's house in flers. you can see the photos on my photo site...it was a nice little vacation, and i got to see paris as well (quite nice), so yay for france.

since i got back, these have been my concerns:

1. work. i have been working lots at the gym, and our new semester at the gym starts next week...and next semester i won't be working as much, so that is why i'm also worrying about
2. finding a second job.
3. the vagina monologues (opening february 20th woot woot!)
4. going back to class, which i'm definitely NOT looking forward to. (and i also had that little freakout last week when i got an email all in spanish for one of my classes, and i only speak german and english...but that was taken care of, thank god, so no worries)

and today i saw the movie cloverfield which i liked a lot...quite interesting film although i got a little nauseous at the beginning because of the shaky camera (think blair witch project all boozed up). but i liked the idea behind it. and i found this and i think this actress is an idiot:

http://www.blackbookmag.com/features/comments/lizzy/

that is all.