~ firefly-dreaming a virtual home to learn (or teach!) alternative methods of solving problems we find facing us each day. By sharing ideas & knowledge on living with less stress, more joy & embracing tolerance & compassion we are working towards building a sustainable future for all living beings.
Portraits of George Washington by three different artists all resemble the artist. In each case, the President's lips and chin, and sometimes the nose, change to match the artist's.
Left: detail of "George Washington at Dorcherster Heights" by Gilbert Stuart
Right: detail of "Gilbert Stuart" by Charles Wilson Peale and Rembrandt Peale
The bus is Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and she comes to the legendary Palace Theater on Monday, in a musical adaptation of the cult film from 1994, about three friends - two drag queens and a transwoman - on a road trip through the Australian outback.
Over the course of the past few decades sing-along Messiahs have become a holiday tradition all over the world. Here in San Francisco we have another way of marking the season: the Dance-Along Nutcracker, which turned 25 this week.
I WOULDN'T dare to venture an opinion as to who is the greatest actor to appear on Broadway in the past decade or so. Most accomplished diva? Definitely won't touch that. But the greatest entertainer? That one is easy: Nathan Lane.
I don't mean to slight Mr. Lane's skills as an actor. (Or, for that matter, to imply that he's no diva.) For evidence that he is a very fine actor, just check him out in the new musical "The Addams Family." Mr. Lane looks as if he's having a very good time, his impish way with a joke as appealing as ever, even with that Desi-Arnaz-with-a-head-cold accent.
snip
Mr. Lane's particular combination of gifts - a sterling skill with a wisecrack, the grace necessary for physical comedy, a mug that's malleably funny (and I mean that in a nice way), a solid set of singing chops - has always been a rare package. And yet somewhere in the vast maw of YouTube there must be evidence that at least a few American youngsters are proficiently making like George M. Cohan in front of the Mac Book...
Last night I went for the big bucks and spent another evening under the Grand Chapiteau at Randall's Island for a night at the circus, the Circus of the Sun. "Ovo" is Portuguese for egg but first Parlez-vous Français?
There is a still of the freeze-frame in the video above at Yelp. It has the caption "The firefly had lightning fast hands using up to three diabolos on one string." An interesting caption for this community, the firefly portrayed as juggling "the devil on two sticks."
Someone asked me to go either to a play or a concert. He asked me today (Monday) but meant it for in the future: this month. I said I have a problem with concerts: the sitting & concentrating on the orchestra gets to me: but that I'd LOVE to see a play.
Haven't seen one since I left NYC, where even the bad plays can be interesting.
What followed was a very long conversation about plays, the arts, black-box theaters, why we need a black-box theater in this small city...well, I do tend to go on, don't I? (shaddup, peanut gallery!)
