Wilson Cat

I'm returning to NYC, to the old stomping grounds, for a 4 day 4 show Broadway Blitz this month. If you really DO care about seeing a particular show the best way to get tickets in advance is to go to the direct website for that show. And it can be tricky, because the ticket brokers can make it look like they are the show. Anyway, tickets in the orchestra for most of the top shows should not cost more than $150. You'll see a few that are higher, but go over to the side of the orchestra a bit and they will be a lot less per seat. I'm going to be seeing "Something Rotten", "Fun Home", "Matilda", and one more. Wanted to see Dr Zhivago but the reviews were bad. So perhaps On the Town or An American in Paris. Have decided to skip seeing Megan at the Cafe Carlyle (<sniffle>) because it is just prohibitively expensive and then they tack on a minimum $75/person food & drink on top of the admission price. Will do a little report when I get back about what we see and how we love the shows. Anyone in the Seattle area really should make it a point to see Jacques Brel at ACT/5th Avenue with Kendra Kassebaum. It is simply wonderful. Seeing Phantom of the Opera on Thursday at the Paramount, and a new musical being developed in Seattle, Jasper in Deadland on the 12th. And won two tickets to see Jacques Brel again on Sunday, the 10th. May is turning out to be a crazy theater month for me.....love it!!!

Peter Outerbridge plays Bob Corbett a wounded veteran of WW I in 'Bomb Girls'. There is another role, that of Marion/Kate's crazy-with-religion father who might have been an eerie parallel with Outerbridge's role as the head of the Prolethians.

Must admit I am not a huge Ruth Wilson fan. Her demeanor, that semi-constant sullen bereftness....sorry can't put it in words....just turns me off. Am watching old episodes of Luther. She's exactly the same in that show. At least to me she is. I just find her lacking in the full dimension of emotions that makes some actors truly great. She's good at grief, at sullen, at 'mysterious', seductive, at conniving, but lacks spontenaity or joy or silliness. Can't help but think of Megan Hilty as Ivy Lynn in Smash. She did it all. Anyway, Wilson is fine. Good. But, IMHO, far from great. Maybe I need to see her in more......

Just began watching an excellent British police drama, Line of Duty. Nurse Jenny, Jessica Raines, is a featured actor in the 2nd season. There's a lot of Nurse Jenny Lee in her Line of Duty character....obviously the qualities and quirks of the actor. I rather enjoyed Jenny on C the M, and didn't find her boring. Just another 'type', apart from the other midwives. She was the staid, somewhat reserved one. But I wouldn't have minded having a midwife like Nurse Lee as opposed to the obtuse and distant doctors who delivered my first two.

Please please PLEASE post the minute any of you sees tickets go on sale for this show. Queen Anne....we'll go together!! I'm actually going to be in NYC just before this and at this point plan to see Megan at her May 2015 stint at the Cafe Carlyle while there. But if I have to ride Amtrak across the country for 3 days I vow to be back there again in June for this show. LStar, where are you. You need to go too. You, too, dbklmt. Wow. I'm stoked.

crashdown wrote (quoting me, then quoting her...) I will accept the genuine emotional connection, crashdown. It's just that I define love as a series of decisions that lead to a series of actions. After a gazillion years being married I guess I long ago decided that love is something I decide to renew each day, and long ago ceased being about emotion. So it really is all in our individual definitions of that word, love.

This show should have simply been titled: "The Narcissists". Because there are a slew of them on hand. Athena, you definitely get the big crown with your 'archetypal loss'. But really Noah, you come in a close second, well....if not for Alison. Really. I kept pondering if I was supposed to be feeling something in that scene where she goes through the treasure chest, but decided that Alison had all the feelings for herself. This show is a series of monuments to the first person pronouns: My, mine, me, myself, I, me, me, me, and a little more me. About the only person I still like is the detective. Whitney puking was perfect, because by the end of the episode that's pretty much what I felt like doing. The Rashomon approach is merely magnifying how completely self centered are the two main characters in this affair. And that "I love you." "I love you, too" was a bastardization of the meaning of the word "love". That's not love, you two.

Have been re-watching Season One with a friend who is watching for the first time. She grew up in Toronto and I've been there many times. Both of us wish we could recognize the city once in awhile...is there some reason why TPTB are keeping it such a secret where the action is taking place? Note that the accents of most of the supporting actors, the city 'residents', sound like west-coast or PNW Americans. Definitely not the distinctive accent of Ontario. Maybe that's what they want, for it to be anywhere...Seattle, Vancouver, probably not Portland (too big a skyline for that city). Vancouver's east side definitely has some Felix-worthy architecture & graffiti. But it really is Toronto, eh? So I'd love for them to just say so.

terrymct said: So true. And without any pronouncements, judgments, or lectures on what is or isn't 'good Catholicism' (since I haven't been to mass in a gazillion years) I will never forget a conversation I had with my French Basque father many years ago. He'd left the Church (capital C) as a twenty-something over a dispute with his parish priest over a pet turkey (and no, that story isn't interesting enough to share...) But he seemed to be sort of looking for some faith community, or something, so I suggested that he check out some denominations and see if it worked for him. To which he simply replied "Once a Catholic, always a Catholic." It's your family, your culture, your tradition, just as terry said.

In the Sunday NY Times Magazine, there is a weekly column entitled "Modern Love". And while usually the pieces there are journalistically excellent, they sometimes do seem based upon fights with significant others. However.....I still can't stand Hallie.

marsha wrote: I know it isn't sensible to argue with someone's opinion, because god knows I have zillions of opinions that others probably find nonsensical. That being said, I don't know how Megan's (Ivy's) '2nd Hand White Baby Grand', 'Crazy Dreams', or 'Never Give all the Heart' could feasibly be described as shrill. But then I'm a ridiculously over-the-top Megan Hilty fan-girl, have seen her many times in concert, and find her irresistible. In the episode 'Let's Be Bad', that drunk Ivy at Derek's door (and eventually into his apartment...) was so vulnerable and believable. I don't know. To each his/her own, so I'll agree that everyone is entitled to their opinions and mine are no more valid than anyone else's. (But Megan Hilty rocks. Ooops)

Some of your comments here, forum peeps, makes me re-think the whole Ruth Wilson role. Because I really haven't liked it at all, but admit I have not seen her in anything else. For me the compelling characters in this series have consistently been Helen and Cole. That counting story by Cole brought tears last night. Who wouldn't love him? Who wouldn't love Helen. Not only is she funny and likable, frisky, sexy, and grounded, she is just so incredibly decent. The way she raised her arms in the air to ward off Noah when he professed how much he loved her, that's exactly what someone does when they have been deeply hurt by a partner. You long for the words, 'I love you so much', at the same time every protective instinct in your entire persona is screaming 'stay away from me, you traitor. You beast.' If the intent in this show was to sell The Affair as plausible, they met a low standard for that sale as far as I am concerned, but failed big time in selling it lasting as long as it did. I wouldn't want to spend 8 evenings, let alone 8 weeks with either Noah or Alison. A couple of self centered, self absorbed jerks. And yes, Alison has her own sad 'reason'.......but it still didn't ring true to me that Noah offered her solace from her grief and anguish. After that scene on the sidewalk in Brooklyn (and as a former New Yorker, no.......a waitress in Montauk doesn't have that apartment, and even nasty Bruce would have a hard time ponying up for that amazing brownstone, but anyway....) I think Alison should have been turning to Cole, not tired old Noah.

lucindabelle wrote: (Yay! We're both cats, at least in our avatars....) My grandson has a deadly tree nut allergy and crikey, it is a medical emergency, not just some little swollen tongue that makes it hard to "pronounth your wordths." But I love Sloane. Olivia Munn is exactly the same in her real life role on Showtime's "Years of Living Dangerously"....funny, sharp, kind of irreverent as she is as Sloane. And the whole Don/Sloane thing works well for me. He was awful with Maggie. And someone up thread mentioned how much they appreciate a show that hews to "Show, don't tell"....yes! That doomed the should've-been-good SMASH (aka the Karen Is Awesome hour.) In that regard I really liked Maggie nailing her first on-air appearance, and Jim's quiet happiness at her success. Does anyone else wish Hallie would go back to Africa or wherever she was headed as Angelica Heuston's daughter in the fore-mentioned Smash...? I can't stand her. And didn't she (Hallie) describe herself as 'blonde' last season? No.

Must admit I didn't watch it. But I loved this from the television critic with Chicago Sun Times: "Note to TV Producers: Please stop trying to make Katharine McPhee happen."

Viola Philomena Gallagher arrived on September 18 @ 12:01 PM. 6 lb 9 0z. Mom, Dad, and baby girl are all great.

How dare they....BASTARDS!! I keep going to On Demand and nope. Nothin'. WTF.

Back from Provincetown, and words fail to do justice to the two amazing evenings of concerts with Megan. Night one was with pianist/Sirius radio personality Seth Rudetsky who did kind of a quasi talk show format with Megan. It was lots of fun.....100% Broadway themed. Night two it was Megan with Brian Gallagher on acoustic guitar and Matt Cusson on piano, her regular small-venue trio, and they were fabulous. The Art House is tiny. Under 100 seats. And both nights my friend and I had front row 'VIP' seats on a cool love seat about 12 feet from the stage. Megan looks beautiful. There is a lot of baby there! And believe me, that baby has NOT dropped an iota. She's sitting right under Megan's diaphragm and it's semi-miraculous she can sing. But wow. She can sing. She was great. From Smash she sang Moving the Line, White Baby Grand, That's Life (with Matt doing the McPhee part, including the annoying "Ivy" aside), and one of my very favorite covers from the show, 'Crazy Dreams'. She did Suddenly Seymour (from Little Shop of Horrors) both nights in duet with Brian. You'd love the way he looks at her when they sing that sweet song together. It is crystal clear that he adores her. After the show Megan signed CD's in the lobby and was a delight. This was a concert (concerts) of a lifetime for me. Well worth a trip of over 5000 miles back and forth, and I am so glad I tossed caution (and $$$) to the wind and did this. I will eventually not miss the money. But I will forever remember those two magic evenings. These were her final two concerts before she has her baby girl next month. And she finished out the evening Monday night asking us to videotape her serenade of Rainbow Connection, which she sang to her unborn daughter. It was beautiful, and touching, and lovely. Wish all of you could have been there with me.

Still finishing up Season 1 Ankai. I am loving this series just as I have loved everything that David Simon does. Back in the day, I woke up happy on Friday nights when I knew that Homicide would be on later that night. The Wire may be the best television in the history of television.....just my opinion. And now I'm hooked on Treme. The funny thing about seeing "Cal" show up on this show is that he looks exactly the same as he does in Orphan Black. I'm always blown away when an actor I see somewhere later turns up as a musician or dancer. It gives some perspective of just how much talent is out there. A surprising number of these multi-talented actors seem to have come through the Carnegie Mellon Fine Arts program.

TooMuchCoffee: indeed!. I've been bingeing on a serendipitious 'gift' of HBO (Comcast owed us for sins committed......repeated sins) by watching good stuff On Demand. Finished all 5 seasons of The Wire, now am working my way through S1 of Treme. And there was Cal, playing guitar and singing on the sidewalk in Baton Rouge. And, sorry to be totally off subject, but there were Freamon and Bunk from The Wire, too. Lots of my favorites showing up on Treme.

I agree with all who complain that Sud's weakness is writing any kind of coherent story line for a crime and the resulting police procedural to solve that crime. That weakness was so stark that, at least for me, her pathetic conclusion to S3 pretty much poisoned S4, as the only segue was to do the whole elaborate lie this season and watch that skein of lies rapidly unravel. I disliked everything about the wrap-up to this season's 'Killing' almost as much as the Skinner fiasco last season. There is nothing remotely believable about Richmond wheeling into police headquarters and putting the kibosh on the truth about who murdered all those girls. And there was nothing remotely believable about the rationale for why Kyle killed his entire family (especially Nadine, who he what.....forgot was still alive, while he's miraculously playing the piano, still all splattered with the blood of the rest of his family, the piano with every string cut...) But.....what Sud can do is write compelling human connections. Holder became one of television's most memorable characters. The relationship between Holder and Linden was what kept me watching. They were shitty police. But they were true friends, and the ending of Season 4 redeemed everything weak in four seasons of silly plot devices. I hope Linden and Holder live happily ever after.

This episode was totally a mixed bag for me. Shall we start with the negatives? The old bad news/good news which do you want first, ok, the bad news? I felt that this episode was the epitome of what went all to shit with the way Season 3 ended. Nothing made sense about Skinner being the pied piper, and then since he WAS the pied piper Sarah kills him while he's handcuffed and on his knees, and therein laid out Season 4 as a cluster fuck of poorly executed lies (totally predictable since Sarah Linden and her partner are two really awful homicide police who would have benefited had they perhaps ever watched Lester Freamon or even Bunk in The Wire to get a clue about what actual homicide police work entails) and so we are stuck with the Season of Lies instead of any kind of coherent story about the killing of a family of four. Really? Sarah, a homicide detective, drives out to the lake house where she murdered her boss-ex-partner-lover, taking with her the said murdered boss-ex-partner-lover's smart phone, all to toss it in the lake in front of his family cabin?!? OK....that's all too bad because there was some really good stuff going on in this episode.

Oh shit. It is (ala Season 1) mid-western just totally downpour raining, like not drops.....just one giant pour out of the sky, in drizzly Seattle again at the beginning of this episode. Has Veena Sud EVER been to Seattle? Seriously, you can walk between the raindrops most of the time around here, and the predominant winter weather pattern is depressing grayness, not cloudburst style rain. And then they get to the funeral and it's partly sunny and dry. What? 10 minutes later? This is Memphis weather. Not Seattle. Crap. These things bother me.

Oh Holder, and this is why I still watch The Killing: "I think Boo Radley over there is one sunny day away from cutting his ear off." "It's like with lions. Once you tame 'em you got to put them up on a pedestal."

I should never have marathoned The Wire this summer before tuning into The Killing for season 4. Because there ain't no real police work being done by Holder and Linden. They are the most pathetic police ever. Kima and Freamon and Bunk....even McNulty would put them and their sorry ass angst style policing to shame. Not sure I'm going to enjoy this truncated season built around covering up a lie instead of built around what should have been a fascinating murder?/attempted suicide?/amnesia?/whatever?

Thanks Ms Lark. I thought I'd entered the Magical Monarch of Mo or something. But indeed it turns out simply to be not so simple FX logic at work. This scheme does stretch the concept of spoiler rules "OK to post re: an episode once that episode has aired in any time zone" because On Demand and 'airing' are not precisely synonymous. So I'll continue to refrain from discussing plot points for now......