Fall Bucket List

Fall is my very favorite season and I am determined to enjoy it to the fullest this year!  Here is a list of things I want to do during the month of October!

• Go on a fall camping trip.  I can already cross this off my list because I am currently sitting on the porch of my KOA cabin.
• Go on a fall drive.  Go here for five of my favorite fall drives near SLC.
• Make a fruit cobbler in a dutch oven.  I haven't done this for a really long time and I'm thinking that it needs to happen this year.
• Go to a corn maze.  Sean might think he's too cool to go with me this year.
• Carve a Jack-O-Lantern.  Marilyn and I do this with Sean and Tashena every year except the year we procrastinated buying pumpkins until the day of Halloween and then couldn't find them anywhere.
• Watch the movie Young Frankenstein with donuts and apple cider.  This has been a tradition ever since I moved out on my own and I look forward to it every year.
• Watch a horror movie in the theater.  I'm thinking of seeing the new Halloween movie.
• Eat a caramel apple.  This was the number one thing I wanted to do after I got my braces off!
• Eat chili in a pumpkin bread bowl. My Mom has made chili on Halloween since I was a little girl.  It is one of my favorite traditions.
• Attend ODT's Thriller.  I have been attending this Halloween dance extravaganza for the past 20 years.  It just wouldn't be Halloween without it!
• Make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  We'll see if this actually happens!

There you have it!  I'm so excited for all of it!  Do you have any fall traditions?

Waitress at the Eccles

A few years ago my friend Esther and I went on a quick theatre trip to NYC.  I chose to see the revival of She Loves Me and Esther picked Waitress.  I wasn't really that keen on seeing Waitress but I am so glad that Esther picked it because I ended up loving it!  The original Broadway cast, especially Jessie Meuller, was outstanding and the song "She Used To Be Mine" brought me to tears!  Needless to say I was really excited for the chance to see it again at the Eccles Theatre last night and I loved it just as much as the Broadway production.  It tells the story of how Jenna (Desi Oakley, in her final performance in the role) uses baking to cope with her dead-end job as a waitress in a diner and her unhappy marriage to an abusive husband (Nick Bailey).  When she learns that she is pregnant, and then begins an affair with her gynecologist (Bryan Fenkart), she expresses her hopes, dreams, fears, and frustrations through the names of the pies she bakes each morning for the diner: Deep Shit Blueberry Pie, Berry the Bullshit Pie, A Little Wild Wild Berry Pie, In the Dark Chocolate Pie, etc.  Whenever she is overwhelmed everything freezes and she tells the audience the ingredients for her latest pie, always beginning with "Sugar, Butter, Flour."  In the end, the ingredient she needs is courage!  The songs, written by Sara Bareilles, are fabulous and I especially like "What's Inside," "Opening Up," and "It Only Takes a Taste" because, while they are about baking, they are also metaphors for life!  So clever!  My favorite song is, of course, "She Used To Be Mine" and Oakley performed it with so much passion that I had tears once again!  While I did cry, I also laughed and laughed in many parts of the show, particularly "Never Ever Getting Rid of Me" and "Bad Idea" because the choreography is absolutely hilarious!   It is also really fun to see the live band playing in the diner and to watch the cast actually make the pies on stage!  I really enjoyed watching this show again and I highly recommend it!  Waitress runs at the Eccles Theatre until Sunday and tickets may be purchased here.

Rebel Without a Cause

I have never seen Rebel Without a Cause, the ultimate movie about teenage angst, so I was really excited when I found out that it was part of the TCM Big Screen Classics series this year.  I had the chance to see it yesterday and I'm glad I can finally cross this classic off my list.  This movie is about three teenagers who are alienated from their families and are getting into trouble as a reaction to their discontent.  Jim Stark (James Dean) lives in a home with an overbearing mother (Ann Doran) who emasculates his father (Jim Backus).  Jim is embarrassed by his father and gets into fights to prove that he is not a chicken.  Judy (Natalie Wood) hangs out with the wrong crowd in order to get her father's (William Hopper) attention.  John "Plato" Crawford (Sal Mineo) longs for a connection with someone because he has an absent father and a disinterested mother.  After Jim participates in a drag race that results in the death of a gang member, the rest of the gang goes after him because they think he has ratted them out to the police.  Jim, Judy, and Plato hide out in an abandoned mansion (which was also used in Sunset Boulevard) until the gang finds them leading to an epic showdown at the Observatory.  I understand that this movie was groundbreaking in its portrayal of adolescent unhappiness but, to me, it seems extremely melodramatic.  There was even a moment early on when Jim tells his parents that they are tearing him apart when I laughed because it reminded me of the same line in the movie The Room.  Everyone ridicules Tommy Wiseau for his delivery of that line but I didn't see a difference between his delivery and Dean's.  However, I did enjoy Dean's performance in this movie much more than his performance in Giant because I found him to be incredibly appealing.  My favorite scene was the field trip to the Observatory because the presentation about the destruction of the Earth profoundly foreshadows the characters' feelings of hopelessness (it also reminded me of the Observatory scenes in La La Land).  I'm glad I had the chance to see it on the big screen!

Oslo at PTC

I made several different plans to see Oslo, the Tony Award winning play opening the 2018-2019 season at PTC, but they all fell through for one reason or another.  I finally had the chance to see it last night with my friend (we both have rush passes) and I thought it was absolutely brilliant.  I wish that I had time to see it again.  It tells the behind-the-scenes story of how the Oslo Accords, the first ever agreement between Israel and the PLO in 1993, came to be.  Terje Rod-Larsen (Jeff Talbott), the Executive Director of the Fafo Institute, and his wife Mona Juul (Kate Middleton), an official in the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, witness a riot while traveling through the Gaza Strip in Israel.  Terje is forever changed by the incident and, believing that the current model of negotiation will never work, decides to get low-level representatives from the PLO, Ahmed Qurie (Demosthenes Chrysan) and Hassan Asfour (Thamer Jendoubi), and Israel, Yair Hirschfeld (Neal Benari) and Ron Pundak (Max Woertendyke), to meet in secret in Oslo.  He believes that if they get to know each other as men they will learn to trust each other and this provides a bit of comic relief.  The story details the back and forth between the two groups as they work towards peace and it does involve lots of dialogue rather than action.  As a former world geography teacher I pay close attention to world events, especially in the Middle East, so it was really easy for me to follow what was happening but my friend found it very compelling, as well.  The pacing kept me engaged (although I thought it was over before the second intermission) and the actors give outstanding performances.  I also really liked the staging, which is minimal to allow for quick transformations.  I highly recommend this production which runs through next week (tickets may be purchased here).

Ode to Joy

If you were not at Abravanel Hall last night you definitely missed out on a magnificent performance!  The orchestra began with a new piece by Andrew Norman, Composer-in-Association with the Utah Symphony, called Suspend.  The composer was there to introduce the piece which was commissioned by pianist Emanuel Ax.  He explained that he wanted the piece to represent the freedom that comes from solitude and that theme really resonated with me because I crave solitude.  Soloist Jason Hardink began by softly playing notes, seemingly at random, and then continued in an almost improvisational manner.  Different sections of the orchestra gradually joined in as the piece escaped from the pianist's mind to become a composition.  The piece ended as it began with the just the pianist, alone once again, playing a few random notes.  I was fascinated by the percussion section because they used bows on different percussion instruments instead of mallets (I'm sure there is a proper term for this) and the effect was quite otherworldly.  I really loved it.  After the intermission the orchestra was joined by the Utah Symphony Chorus, the Choirs of the University of Utah, and soloists Joelle Harvey, Kirsten Chavez, Issachah Savage, and Patrick Carfizzi for Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 "Ode to Joy."  This piece is simply amazing and it was performed brilliantly!  I loved the timpani in the first movement, the jaunty theme played by the woodwinds in the second movement, and the beautiful melody played by the strings in the third movement.  Then the stirring and life-affirming fourth movement just blew me away.  The instantly recognizable theme began softly with the cellos and then it was repeated, in turn, by different sections of the orchestra and, finally, by the soloists and the choirs.  I was absolutely overcome!  During the thunderous standing ovation the little old lady next to me turned and said, "I don't think you have really lived if you haven't heard that played live!"  I agree wholeheartedly and suggest you get a ticket (go here) to hear it when it is performed again tonight!