I Heart the Hard Rock Cafe

When I was in Las Vegas over fall break, I had to visit the Hard Rock Cafe on the Strip.  Even though Las Vegas is known for its many famous restaurants, I always seem to end up there!  I guess it started in 1990 when I was on a study abroad trip.  I visited London for about a week and near the top of my wish list of places to visit was the London Hard Rock Cafe because it was the very first one and it has a lot of fabulous Beatles memorabilia.

I wanted a souvenir from the HRC but I didn't have a lot of money and the shirts were quite expensive.  I decided to get a pin instead and thus began my pin collection.  Whenever I am in a city with a HRC, I try to get a pin and I now have hundreds of them.  It is a fun tradition to have when traveling.

Berlin

Denver

Barcelona

San Diego

Rome

Note:  My favorite HRC is the one inside the Rogers Centre.  Go Blue Jays!

Jersey Boys in Las Vegas

Ever since I saw the Midtown Men (the original Broadway cast of Jersey Boys) perform at Abravanel Hall last spring, I have wanted to see Jersey Boys again!  I decided to see the Las Vegas production while I was in Southern Utah over fall break (Las Vegas is about two hours south of St. George) and, once again, I absolutely loved it!  I am fairly certain that I was one of the youngest people in the audience but I knew every single word to every single song and there were many times when I had to stop myself from singing out loud!  The musical tells the true story of how Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons became rock and roll legends from the perspectives of each of the four members. All of the main actors, Graham Fenton as Frankie Valli, Jason Kappus as Bob Gaudio, Jason Martinez as Nick Massi, and Daniel Robert Sullivan as Tommy Devito, are incredible performers who sing and dance just like the Four Seasons.  I loved all of the great music, especially when they performed "Sherry Baby" on American Bandstand, "Dawn (Go Away)" on The Ed Sullivan Show, and "Rag Doll" at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.  The staging is incredibly clever.  They would often begin singing a song around a piano then move set pieces to depict recording the song and then they would put on jackets to perform the song on TV or on stage.  As the cameras filmed them, the footage would be projected on screens which I also thought was really clever.  There were three actresses who played multiple parts simply by changing costumes and wigs.  It was all incredibly seamless.  It is a very entertaining show to watch, although there is quite a bit of profanity, and I had such a great time.  After the bows, the cast came out once again to sing "December, 1963 (Oh What a Night)" and the entire crowd danced in the aisles!  It was so much fun and definitely worth the drive to Las Vegas!

Note:  Jersey Boys is performed at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino.  It made me wish that I was really in my favorite city!

Zion National Park 2015

Over fall break I took a quick trip to Southern Utah.  Zion National Park is one of my very favorite places on Earth and it had been more than a year and a half since I had been there last.  That was much too long!  There is something about those red rocks that just calls to me and I spent a lovely day wandering around.  It was incredibly peaceful even though it was quite crowded and I needed a bit of peace after a crazy couple of months!

Pawn Sacrifice

Last Thursday night I went to see the film Pawn Sacrifice at the Broadway.  It tells the true story of the epic chess tournament between American Bobby Fischer and Russian Boris Spassky during the height of the Cold War through the filter of Fischer's mental illness.  Tobey Maguire gives an incredibly nuanced performance (one of his best performances in years) as Fischer, a man who becomes incapacitated by his own paranoid delusions as government officials use him to score a victory over the Soviets in the wake of the Vietnam debacle.  Maguire portrays all of Fischer's eccentricities, such as demanding a match be moved because he can hear the sound of the television cameras, trashing his hotel room because he is certain that it is bugged, and battling reporters at the airport, without overshadowing the pathos of his isolation.  I was particularly struck by a scene showing Fischer cowering in a corner of his apartment tormented by the sound of the footsteps of people coming and going in the hall.  I also enjoyed Liev Schreiber's performance as Spassky because he was able to show both vulnerability and respect for Fischer's ability, especially in Game 6 when he concedes the match to Fischer. Their strong performances as men who were, themselves, used as chess pieces by their respective governments were compelling enough to make me invested in the outcome of a match conducted in near silence.  I, like many people in my screening, cheered when Fischer won!  The constant use of actual footage from coverage of the matches (there is a Forrest Gump moment with Dick Cavett) got old and the pop culture montages (especially the one with Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit) interspersed here and there were a bit cliched.  However, I would definitely recommend this film as a compelling biopic about a complicated man.

Utah Opera's Tosca

Last night I went to opening night for Utah Opera's Tosca with my cousin John.  Not only is Tosca one of my favorite operas but this is a marvelous production so it was an incredible evening!  Floria Tosca (Kara Shay Thomson) is a fiery and passionate singer with two men in love with her:  her lover, the painter Mario Cavaradossi (Dinyar Vania), and the Police Chief, Baron Scarpia (Michael Chioldi), who wants to possess her at any cost.  Scarpia arrests Cavaradossi for aiding a political prisoner and sentences him to death.  He tells Tosca that he will release him if she submits to him, promising her that the firing squad will be a ruse.  She agrees but when he embraces her, she stabs him with a knife.  She visits Cavaradossi in the Castel Sant'Angelo to tell him that he must pretend to die and then they will run away when the guards leave.  However, Scarpia has betrayed her so Cavaradossi is actually killed by the firing squad.  Knowing that she will be accused of Scarpia's murder and unwilling to live without Cavaradossi, Tosca leaps to her death from the parapet of the Castel Sant'Angelo.  The music is so beautiful and the three main actors give wonderful performances.  A scene in the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle at the end of Act 1 where Scarpia reveals his plan to execute Cavaradossi and possess Tosca while a procession sings the Te Deum is absolutely breathtaking.  I also loved Tosca's aria "Vissi d'arte" at the end of Act 2 where she asks God to help her.  But my favorite moment of the entire opera is in Act 3 when Cavaradossi sings the aria "E lucevan le stelle" reminiscing about his love for Tosca as he awaits execution.  Vania sings it so beautifully (and there is an amazing theme played by the clarinets) that I had tears in my eyes!  I really enjoyed the addition of the Choristers of The Madeleine Choir School singing the Te Deum as well.  The sets of the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, Scarpia's study in the Palazzo Farnese. and the Castel Sant'Angelo are very elaborate and added to the overall dramatic feeling of the opera.  I thoroughly enjoyed this production (I love the tragic operas where desperate lovers die for love) and I would highly recommend it.  Tosca runs at the Capitol Theatre until Oct. 18.  Go here for tickets and more information.

Note:  It now takes me less than 15 minutes to drive to the Capitol Theatre (instead of the usual 45 minutes it used to take me from South Jordan)!  Moving into my new house was the best decision I have ever made!