Posted by Kim on February 27, 2009
Who doesn’t love huge trucks? Monster trucks are some of the most impressive machines that have been designed. Most of the time, you can’t see them anywhere but in Monster Jam events. Monster truck shows have a mixture of different activities. But by far the most exciting parts of the event are the races, where the trucks see who is fastest and how well they can navigate the obstacles involved. There is also a freestyle part, where the drivers give you a show. It’s like figure skating with huge machines! They will do donuts, wheelies, and jumps; the driver can decide for himself what moves he’ll do and what obstacles he will work with. It’s all incredibly fun, and the season has already started! You can get Monster Jam tickets from this site!
Posted by Kim on February 23, 2009
When you think of a play called “The Jazz Age” you would expect that there would be jazz involved in the show somehow. But, alas, titles deceive sometimes. Instead, this show is about F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda, and Ernest Hemingway. It purports to be an account or a microstory of the 1920s, showing the “lost generation” and so on. But it’s almost too focused on the little things. A lot of the old stories are recycled, some of them wrong, and it’s kind of tough to see where the 1920s are hidden in there. The story of Fitzgerald and his odd interest in Hemingway, which he didn’t really respond to. But that isn’t all that instructive in the history of the time. It is predictable and not that great. Next time, guys!
Posted by Kim on February 20, 2009
Il Trovatore is playing at the Metropolitan Opera at the moment and it is one of the best versions of it that the reviewers have seen. Usually, it’s a little bit toothless without much of interest to say about it. But this time around, the opera has been changed ever so slightly so that it fits a little bit better. Its setting was changed to take place in the 19th century, giving it a more immediate feel that it normally has. The performers are also amazing, with the female lead being especially strong. The heroine is almost hysterically crazy instead of just being a pawn in the struggle for love. This is a sign of the times for many opera performances, where the actors are really looking at the characters a lot more than they used to.
Posted by Kim on February 16, 2009
Maggie Gyllenhaal is currently starring in a production of Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov. The show has been reviewed by several groups as being one of the best of the season. There are some problems with the set, but the acting is good, the script is good and the overall production fits what Chekhov may well have had in mind originally. He wrote this fun show that seems to make fun of the upper crust of society in his native Russia. And Maggie Gyllenhaal does an impressive job in this particular role, where she gives real life to the character and with the rest of the cast makes the cast of characters perfect to the script.
Posted by Kim on February 13, 2009
There is a play running in England called “England People Very Nice” and it is not the best, apparently. Obviously, I’m not in England, but I’ve been looking into this show to see what it’s about, and is seems to be very interesting. The show is about immigration in the UK and it deals with the topic in a somewhat flippant way. There is a play-within-a-play about the lives of immigrants, which the immigrants have put together during the 6 months they’ve been held, waiting for immigration and asylum claims to be worked through. It’s a confusing concept and it would be better if it were a little quieter and a little bit more toned down generally. More subtlety would have been much better.
Posted by Kim on February 9, 2009
The Grammy Award winners are interesting people. The big winners last night were Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, who are not what you would have expected in a normal combo group. Krauss is less known than some of the other winners and nominees last night. She is from Illinois and learned the Bluegrass violin style when she was a kid and became a really good player during the time. She is probably most known for her work in the “O Brother Where Art Thou” soundtrack. She has working on several other soundtracks and some other albums have been very well received. Congrats to her!
Posted by Kim on February 6, 2009
TicketMaster got into trouble this week when they were trying to fill people’s desires for Bruce Springsteen tickets. Apparently, when the primary market got flooded, and there weren’t anymore tickets available, customers got sent off to TicketsNow, Ticketmaster’s main connection in the secondary market. It is kind of a problem for them, because suddenly some customers were able to get the original prices, and then others were getting them on the secondary market, which includes a bit of a markup. They issued an apology to Springsteen and Co. this week after the situation had happened. An investigation by the New Jersey Attorney General continues.
Posted by Kim on February 2, 2009
The Swedish group ABBA’s show Mamma Mia! has been playing all over the place for nearly a decade. It opened in New York right after the 9/11 attacks and seemed to fit in just the right way for everyone at the time. They needed something hokey and fun to take their minds out of the stress of that time. Now, the show is still going on. It’s nothing really special. The group itself was made to be hokey and silly. Let’s not be picky about that now; it’s been several decades since they were really in the music world. But it’s a fun show, with choreography that seems easy, a rather silly script. Nothing special, but definitely fun.
