It is a silly place

Various and sundry went to Spamalot at the Colonial Theatre; I went to the 2 PM today. Several friends and associates went to either the 8 PM last night or the 8 PM tonight: this is what you do when you have a party of twenty-plus and a )(&*(^ Ticketmaster monopoly.

I liked the show. I don't think it's an immortal work of theatrical or musical genius to last the generations-- I don't think it even comes close-- but I do think it's a nice balance of material from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, occasionally-obscure material from other Python, and the totally new. They play with changing some of the most well-known things around, which I appreciate, and they get in a few good digs at the Broadway musical, though in my opinion not as well as Forbidden Broadway.

( Spoilers, I guess... can you have spoilers for a musical that's been running for years? )

Afterward nearly everyone attending all three showings went to a nearby Chinese restaurant whose name escapes me, especially since they had one name on the outside, a different name on the menu, and yet another painted on the windows. The important thing about it was that it had insanely large dining rooms and so could accomodate a party of rather more than twenty on absolutely no notice, and the food wasn't bad either.

I have to say, Thrud's organizational capacities are never going to cease to amaze me. As I recall, sometime a couple months ago she said 'We should go to Spamalot', and this simple sentence turned into contacting the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association and then coordinating three sets of ticket prices, a set maximum number of tickets which could be purchased by one person for any given show, a sold-out run, a Ticketmaster fuck-up of colossal proportions involving giving us a fair number of tickets for the wrong night entirely and then refusing to fix it, and the usual minor disasters. As far as I'm aware, not only were all tickets used and all provided with Chinese food who wanted, but Thrud's got her ticket-outlay money back because she somehow keeps people from doing that thing where they say they'll pay you sometime.

It's probably a good thing she has no interest at all in taking over the world.

At least, I'm pretty sure she doesn't.

It is a silly place

Various and sundry went to Spamalot at the Colonial Theatre; I went to the 2 PM today. Several friends and associates went to either the 8 PM last night or the 8 PM tonight: this is what you do when you have a party of twenty-plus and a )(&*(^ Ticketmaster monopoly.

I liked the show. I don't think it's an immortal work of theatrical or musical genius to last the generations-- I don't think it even comes close-- but I do think it's a nice balance of material from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, occasionally-obscure material from other Python, and the totally new. They play with changing some of the most well-known things around, which I appreciate, and they get in a few good digs at the Broadway musical, though in my opinion not as well as Forbidden Broadway.

( Spoilers, I guess... can you have spoilers for a musical that's been running for years? )

Afterward nearly everyone attending all three showings went to a nearby Chinese restaurant whose name escapes me, especially since they had one name on the outside, a different name on the menu, and yet another painted on the windows. The important thing about it was that it had insanely large dining rooms and so could accomodate a party of rather more than twenty on absolutely no notice, and the food wasn't bad either.

I have to say, Thrud's organizational capacities are never going to cease to amaze me. As I recall, sometime a couple months ago she said 'We should go to Spamalot', and this simple sentence turned into contacting the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association and then coordinating three sets of ticket prices, a set maximum number of tickets which could be purchased by one person for any given show, a sold-out run, a Ticketmaster fuck-up of colossal proportions involving giving us a fair number of tickets for the wrong night entirely and then refusing to fix it, and the usual minor disasters. As far as I'm aware, not only were all tickets used and all provided with Chinese food who wanted, but Thrud's got her ticket-outlay money back because she somehow keeps people from doing that thing where they say they'll pay you sometime.

It's probably a good thing she has no interest at all in taking over the world.

At least, I'm pretty sure she doesn't.

Megan Whalen Turner

Dear iTunes:

It was a touch of diabolical brilliance to play Tori Amos's song 'God' while I was reading the second-to-last chapter or so of Megan Whalen Turner's lovely book The Queen of Attolia. I appreciated it all the way to the bookstore, where, fortunately, they had The King of Attolia, so that I merely had to bite my tongue and pay hardcover prices instead of running screamingly mad.

Mind you, the bookstore trip was not your fault. The bookstore trip was entirely the fault of the author and the people on the Internet who recommend me books. I wasn't that fond of The Thief, which is the first of these-- I mean, it was a perfectly reasonable and entertaining book, but not necessarily something I'd rave about and make others read-- but the second one managed to do everything I've always wanted a Judith Tarr book to do less overdramatically and that I've wanted a Tamora Pierce to do with more subtlety and fewer friendly animals to be the protagonist's mascots, and I'm very, very happy about that.*

Therefore I am not actually going to have the computer exorcised, especially since I doubt Tori would respond to exorcism in any case, unless it in some peculiar way involved popcorn and snow-globes and everyone dressing in teal, and then she'd only leave the computer to come to the party.

But I am holding it against the universe in general that hardcovers are so madly expensive these days.

Sincerely,
Me

*Actually, I quite like Judith Tarr and don't object to Tamora Pierce; it's just that I have a vague subtle sense that I would prefer something a little different aesthetically about both of them. Turner hits whatever it is, as does Elizabeth Wein's The Winter Prince. Uh... 'grit' is not the word I'm looking for, because it can be very pretty. The sense of real wounds?

Megan Whalen Turner

Dear iTunes:

It was a touch of diabolical brilliance to play Tori Amos's song 'God' while I was reading the second-to-last chapter or so of Megan Whalen Turner's lovely book The Queen of Attolia. I appreciated it all the way to the bookstore, where, fortunately, they had The King of Attolia, so that I merely had to bite my tongue and pay hardcover prices instead of running screamingly mad.

Mind you, the bookstore trip was not your fault. The bookstore trip was entirely the fault of the author and the people on the Internet who recommend me books. I wasn't that fond of The Thief, which is the first of these-- I mean, it was a perfectly reasonable and entertaining book, but not necessarily something I'd rave about and make others read-- but the second one managed to do everything I've always wanted a Judith Tarr book to do less overdramatically and that I've wanted a Tamora Pierce to do with more subtlety and fewer friendly animals to be the protagonist's mascots, and I'm very, very happy about that.*

Therefore I am not actually going to have the computer exorcised, especially since I doubt Tori would respond to exorcism in any case, unless it in some peculiar way involved popcorn and snow-globes and everyone dressing in teal, and then she'd only leave the computer to come to the party.

But I am holding it against the universe in general that hardcovers are so madly expensive these days.

Sincerely,
Me

*Actually, I quite like Judith Tarr and don't object to Tamora Pierce; it's just that I have a vague subtle sense that I would prefer something a little different aesthetically about both of them. Turner hits whatever it is, as does Elizabeth Wein's The Winter Prince. Uh... 'grit' is not the word I'm looking for, because it can be very pretty. The sense of real wounds?