(below, Trish and I excited to see the Jim Henson exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image and temporarily blinded by the stark white walls of the lobby).
With the summer dwindling away, Trish and I decided to cram a month’s worth of fun into a single weekend. Friday night we did a double feature of Planet of the Apes and Cowboys & Aliens. And no, we didn’t pay for both, we did the ghetto thing and snuck into Cowboys. Put that accusatory wagging index finger away and stop giving me that "oh-no-you-dih-ih" look. We made it perfectly clear to anyone watching us that we were checking out other movie times. After exiting the first theatre, we literally walked up and down the hall, stopped at each digital display and then discussed if we had missed too much of the movie to make it worth crashing. And besides, my $130 soda and popcorn combo more than covered the price of two movies.
As far as entertainment value, Apes was the far better movie - stronger plot, better actors, interesting script, good pacing. Cowboys had its moments, but even a shirtless Daniel Craig couldn’t push it above your basic summer action fare. I found the pacing a tad slow and (spoiler) the sexy female alien thing a bit too ridiculous.
Saturday morning we hightailed it to TKTS to try and grab Anything Goes matinee tickets. TDF has this faboo new app that gives you real-time ticket availability at the half-price booth. Unfortunately, by the time we got to Times Square tickets were no longer available. We settled instead for the off-Broadway revival (um, didn't this just close on Broadway, like, yesterday?) of Rent now playing at New World Stages.
If you’re a Renthead forgive me for blaspheming, but I think the revival production is far better than the original Broadway production. Whoa, I think a rotten tomato just flew past my head.
Here’s the thing, they’ve fixed the balance between the singers and the band so that you can actually understand the lyrics! I know, what a concept. And the direction has been focused so that characters actually interact dramatically with each other rather than just screaming unintelligible lyrics at the audience. Also, instead of the original industrial-chic wasteland of a set, the new designers have created a more flexible, multi-tiered unit that retains the industrial look but more clearly defines various locations through the use of movable platforms and (minimal) projections. So what does all that mean to the average audience member? If you haven’t memorized the cast album you can actually make out what the hell is going on.
Surprisingly, the revival director, Michael Greif, also directed the original Broadway production. It’s interesting that he could have such a different take on the same exact material.
As much as I do love the score and appreciate the tragedy of the composer’s early demise, I have just three words for those rich-kid characters playing at Bohemian life - get a f*kin’ job already! Okay, that was five words, but you get the idea. When I moved to New York as a starving young artist and couldn't pay the rent, I sucked it up, tossed my dignity out with trash and became a lowly Gap-girl, folding jeans and kissing up to obnoxious teenagers wielding mommy and daddy's credit card.
Seriously, the whole show rests on your ability to feel sympathy for a bunch of free-loading hippie wannabees. Oh well, I guess that's why they threw in a drag queen. I mean, who doesn't love a sassy drag queen, right? Sorry for all that bitterness. I guess I still need to work out some issues with my therapist. I still give the revival a solid B+. Moving on.
If you haven't yet paid a visit to the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, get your lazy ass on the N train already! I know, "That's all the way over in Queens!" you're saying to yourself. Suck it up. If I can commute to midtown everyday, you can drag your spoiled Manhattan attitude out to Astoria for one day. You'll be rewarded with the coolest exhibit ever, Jim Henson's Fantastic World.(right, Trish and I outside the mirrored museum doors)
On Sunday morning Trish and I actually managed to crawl out of bed before 10 AM so we could beat the afternoon museum rush. First, we made a stop down the block at Brooklyn Bagel. I always feel a pang of guilt upon entering the calculated quaintness of the franchise-perfect store. When it first opened, I swore never to support the evil corporate machine. Instead, I'd patronize our cute (but shabby) local mom and pop bagel shop. "Screw 'the man'!" I exclaimed. But alas, why does "the man" have to make such delicious bagels?
Seduced by Brooklyn Bagel's incredible reviews on yelp, I gave in to temptation one day and...well, as they say, the rest is history. Damn you, yelp!
I do occasionally stop by the old mom and pop store to purchase a pity bagel. Nothing like carbs and cream cheese to appease a guilty conscience. Anyway, after a scrumptious toasted garlic-poppy seed Brooklyn bagel with sun-dried tomato and artichoke cream cheese, we were off to the museum.
For all my fellow 70s-babies, this exhibit is not to be missed. The retrospective has original Muppets on display (including Miss Piggy in her wedding finery, left) plus storyboards, sketches and artwork by the one, the only, original Kermit, Jim Henson. For you non-Muppet fans (i.e. soulless commie pinkos), the museum also has tons of movie memorabilia, set pieces, costumes, make-up and prosthetics on display.We ended our museum sojourn with a free screening of Jim Henson's trippy movie, The Dark Crystal. For those of you too young to have seen it in the theatres, it's like a fucked-up Muppet version of the Lord of the Rings except with a much simpler plot. Henson and his cohorts must have been smoking some seriously strong doobage in the 70s and 80s.
The movie viewing also gave us a chance to see the museum's cool, new, state-of-the-art movie theatre outfitted with seats and carpeting in our official conservatory color, Pineda teal. As always, the Pinedas are on the cutting edge of fashion and technology. Not.
For anyone interested, this Saturday and Sunday the museum is offering free screenings (with your $10 admission fee) of The Muppets Take Manhattan. I'll be there with bells on!
Our summer-in-one-weekend ended at Five Napkin Burger, just across the street from the museum, where we were seated by the most mis-matched couple on (we think) was a second or third date. Actually, now that I think of it, I bet it was totally a post one-night stand meal! One was super cute and put together while the other was a bit on the grungy side and sporting a homeless chic look (unshaven, worn t-shirt full of holes, etc. a la Derelicte). They obviously weren't complete strangers, but they didn't really know much about each other from what I could overhear from their conversation. And yes, if you sit next to me at a restaurant, I will totally eavesdrop on your conversation. (left, Trish's eggs benedict sliders and my breakfast burger).
I almost forgot about the delish new cupcake place Trish and I discovered near New World Stages on our way to Rent, Donna Bell's Bake Shop. It opened only a few months ago and bills itself as a Southern bakery. Trish and I are on opposite ends of the cupcake icing spectrum. She likes butter icing (i.e. a stick of butter with food coloring) and I like the sugary, almost crunchy, wedding cake type icing. Donna Bell's has the latter. So while I have a new favorite, Trish is still a staunch Cupcake Cafe supporter. Yes, Cupcake Cafe's cupcakes are much prettier, but hey, looks aren't everything. Oh well, more Donna Bell's cupcakes for me.
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