Return To The Opera House

Last Friday my wife and I went on an overnight trip to Lexington. The main reason for this quick one night getaway was to go see the road company production of the play "Cats" at the Lexington Opera House.

We were excited about going back to this theater because between us we'd been there twice in the last year. We saw "Beauty & The Beast" together last May. In January I went with my sons to see "Spamalot". Both very enjoyable and memorable experiences.

We left home about 1PM with plenty of time to check into our hotel and get to the theater by 7PM. We stopped at the Cracker Barrel in the town just a few north on I-65 for a quick lunch before starting toward Lexington.  

As with any road trip I take with my wife it was a very enjoyable ride. This in spite of having to drive on my least favorite stretch of road in Kentucky, the Bluegrass Parkway. It's a long and boring stretch of highway that has virtually nothing interesting anywhere near it. But that's a subject for a different post.

We got to our hotel, a Sheraton, with about 90 minutes before we had to be at the theater. It was just a 10 minute drive to West Short street in the downtown area.

We arrived at the door about 6:20. That's when the ticket taker told us that the "house" would open for seating about 7PM.  I realized that the curtain went up at 7:30 not 7PM. We had an hour and ten minutes to wait for the show to start.

I apologized to Paula for my mistake and we took a seat in the lobby to wait. We talked with several of the other patrons as we waited. The conversation included: past theater experiences; visiting New York City; and, the ultimate subject for me, Walt Disney World.

When it came time to be seated I discovered my 2nd mistake of the night. I thought I'd purchased seats in a lodge box on the side of the theater. Instead our seats were in the front row of the left side of the balcony. I was really embarrassed about this mistake. I'd been bragging about the locations of our seats for months.

We passed the time before the play started by chatting with a very friendly older woman sitting next to us. She enjoyed telling us about her experiences as a horse owner. At about 7:30 the 3rd mistake of the evening would come to our attention...the play started.

Now let me step back and state that our experience with "Cats" may very well be mostly our own fault. We decided on seeing the play based on the fact that it's so well known.

Its 18 year run was the 2nd longest run in the history of Broadway when it closed in the year, 2000. We didn't do any research about the plot or the nature of the production. That was our mistake. We had no idea what to expect. We assumed (always a bad thing) that this would be a typical Broadway style play. It wasn't.

As soon as the lights went down we realized there was one big production problem. There was no live orchestra, so the music was played back from a recording. The volume level of the music was much louder than the level of the actors' microphones. You couldn't understand what they were saying, or should I say what they were singing.

The "cats" came on stage and began to sing. There was nothing unusual about a show opening with singing. After the first song, they continued to sing. For the entire first act they sang. There was no dialogue whatsoever. The story was told through the music and the lyrics, which we couldn't hear well enough to understand. When the characters weren't singing they were dancing. Why were they dancing? I had no idea.

From what I was able to surmise from the printed program, and what I was seeing on stage, the show was based on a collection of poems by T.S. Elliot. It was a series of stories of about different types of cats. Out of the cats, whose stories were being told through song and ballet style dance, one would be "chosen" to be reincarnated into a new life.

The first act was a style of theater that's was not what I expected or could possibly enjoy. It was unpleasant and confusing. I was miserable until the first act was over.

Paula was confused as well but understood what was going on a bit better than I did. This helped her get a little more out of it but she still found it difficult to follow.

At intermission we stood in the lobby and discussed how "lost" we were in regard to the story and what an awful time we were having. The couple who sat next to us (the "horse lady" and her husband) left as soon as the house lights came up.

In the 2nd act the story continued in the same style as the first. But the audio levels had been adjusted so the words were a bit easier to hear. My bewilderment continued as I watched actors dressed like cats dressed as pirates and singing operatic style arias.

But after that scene was over the play changed. There was actually some dialogue. It was in the style of poetic recitation but for all intents and purposes it was spoken, not sung.

Next the cast started singing "Magical Mr. Mistoffelees" a song that extols the feats of a cat who is a master magician. Some special effects, purposeful dancing and "tricks" were taking place on stage. Just that quickly the play had changed and became rather entertaining in a way that could be identified as your typical Broadway style.

From then on the show was good. It ended in marvelous way with some drama, a signature ballad ("Memory", which is considered modern musical standard), a transformation of the set, and some special effects.

At the end I was more than willing to stand up and applaud with the rest of the audience. The play had redeemed itself in the last half of the 2nd act. We left the theater with a good feeling.
I didn't completely hate it. I wouldn't want to sit though the first act ever again. But all's well that ends well. "Cats" ended well.

In an effort to try and understand "Cats" a bit better I did do some research about the show online and confirmed its plot. But even after reading the detailed story on Wikipedia I'm still a bit confused.

In a slow drizzle Paula and I drove back to our hotel. There was a Cracker Barrel at the end of the road. We decided to go there and have some breakfast for dinner. As we ate our meal through the windows we saw the drizzle turn into a downpour. We were glad we were inside. Even though it was our 2nd Cracker Barrel meal of the day it was good.

We spent the night in Lexington and drove home the next morning. We were back at our house by 1:30 in the afternoon.

It was a fun trip because we got to spend some time together relaxing and enjoying ourselves; for the most part anyway.

And even though we were back home, the best event of our weekend was still to come. But I'm saving that for the next post. Come back next time to find out what we did on Saturday night. Here's a hint: it was a "magical" evening.

Extended Spring Break

Well it's that time of year again. For the 2nd straight year I've been "laid off" from my job. Now because of the company's strict and restrictive Internet policy regarding what employees post on any and all social media I can't go into details. Just let me say that starting March 20 through April 30 I am not working. I will be eligible for unemployment during this time though; so that's good. 

What am I going to do with my time off? Well I haven't decided yet. I have been planning to go to Wrigley Field to see a Cubs game this year. But going to Wrigley Field in April doesn't seem like it would be a good idea. The weather will be cold and I won't enjoy it. I'll wait until summer.

I guess I'll just be doing things around the house and working on some of my personal projects. I have a Rewind show that I'm about ready to start recording. I'll be working on that for sure.

With Spring arriving today I'm sure the weather is going to improve. I've had my eye on buying a bike this year so that may be a possibility as well.

One thing I'm sure that I'll be doing is going to church on Sunday mornings. I've been asking to have my schedule changed so that I'll have Sundays off for a while. But that hasn't happened. This time off gives me at least 6 Sundays to go to church with Paula. I'm going to take advantage of that for sure. I may even try and help out a little bit in children's church.

This time off is a major event in my life and I just wanted to let my readers know what's going on. I'm sure I'll be posting about what I do and what happens to me over the next 6 weeks; so you'll find out what I've done on my extended Spring break then.

Pop Century Discovery

Now from the title and picture above you may think that this post should be on my Goofy Guy Off World Disney blog. But this post is a supplement to my March 8th, Show N' Tell Programs post.

While looking through the pictures I took on my Disney World vacation last September I discovered a shot I didn't realize I'd taken.

The lobby of the Pop Century resort, where we stayed, has on it's walls a lot of shadow boxes filled with pop culture items from the 50's through the 90's. Each box has a theme like television, top 40 music, hobbies and more.

The shadow box dedicated to a combination of the Mickey Mouse Club and Disneyland contains a copy of a Disney's Cinderella Show N' Tell program. It's at the bottom left hand side of the display.

Now I didn't own a Cinderella program but I do remember having one about Disney's Lady & The Tramp. I knew the popular dog tale from watching it on the Show N' Tell before I ever saw the movie.

It was a pleasant surprise to find two of my favorite things, Disney and the Show N' Tell, intersecting in the display that pays homage to a part of the era of pop culture I love.

Just thought I'd show you my Pop Century Discovery.

Instant Entertainment

Every once in a while a technology comes along that changes the way you enjoy things in life. The GPS changed the way I navigate on a long road trip. Facebook changed the way I communicate with family and friends. The DVR in our cable box changed the way we watched TV. The latest technological discovery in my house is instant video streaming of movies directly to our TV. This is done through NetFlix.

This is not Netflix first game changing service. The idea of choosing DVDs to rent over the Internet and having them delivered through the mail revolutionized the video rental industry. The "no late fee" aspect of the relatively inexpensive service also set a new standard in home movie rentals. 

A couple of weeks ago we downloaded Netflix software to our Wii game system. It gives us instant access to movies and TV shows. We've watched several movies but have really taken advantage of the availability of TV shows.

I've caught up on the show American Dad. I watched the entire 4th season. But my use of streaming video pales in comparison to Paula's.

Because she's at home on medical leave my wife has alot of time to watch TV. She's discovered the Fox TV series, Bones starring David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel. Over the last month she's watched 5 seasons. All by streaming them to our TV through Netflix. She really likes the show. I've enjoyed myself. We also have a lot of other movies and shows in our instant queue as well.

Netflix instant access technology has changed the way we watch TV shows and  movies at our house. I'm sure as more of the movies we never got to see at the theater come out on DVD we'll watch them instantly. It will save us lots of $$ in rentals. Sometimes technology is wonderful. Thanks Netflix.

Show N Tell Programs

  
A little over a year a go I posted about one of my favorite toys growing up, the General Electric Show N' Tell. I won't go into a detailed description of the record player/ slide projector and how it worked. You can read about that in the February 19, 2010 post.

Over the last year I thought about the Show N' Tell and how much I enjoyed it. Primary in memory is the music and narrations on the records that came with the film strip in the Show N' Tell program pack. I decided that I really wanted a copy of some of my favorite Show N' Tell records.

I searched Ebay and found a lot of programs were for sale by auction.But they were bundled with together in groups of anywhere from 4 to 40 titles. But I wanted specific programs and didn't want to have to pay for others that I never owned and didn't want. 

Throughout 2010 I continued to search for the programs I wanted to be offered by themselves or in a group small enough to make it worth buying. Finally last month I found what I was looking for.

The 2 programs you see pictured above are the 2 that I remember the most from all those I owned. These were my favorites to the degree that I can recite the narration and sing their songs that I haven't heard in over 45 years.

The program entitled "Clocks" taught me a lot about how time is measured in different ways and methods of timekeeping throughout history. But to me the "Time" program is the most valuable of all the Show N' Tell programs. That's because it was the one that came with my came with the projector when I opened it on my 5th birthday.

Also on the flip side of the "Time" record is a story about a little boy named "Bumpy Brown". In the story he helps the town band participate in the annual Bing Town parade. I knew the story about Bing Town was on the "B" side of one of the program records I had owned. But I didn't know which one it was.

When I found out that this story was on the back of the record I was twice as excited to have the "Time" program.

Now I have to convert the program records to a digital file so I can put them on my Ipod. Having these will provide me with tangible means of sharing some of my best memories childhood memories with Paula and other members of my family.

I know you can't go back in time but these records and filmstrips will serve as the catalyst to unlocking the recollections of the hours of fun I had in my bedroom watching that little TV screen on my Show N' Tell. 

The $600 Baseball Tickets

It's March and Major League Baseball spring training is in full swing in both Florida and Arizona. The season starts in less than a month. Late last year when this season's schedule for the Cincinnati Reds was released I discovered a series of games that are of great interest to me.  For the first time since 2003 the New York Yankees are scheduled to play 3 games at Great American Ballpark this June.

I haven't seen my favorite baseball team play in person since the last time they were in Cincinnati. I waited anxiously for the day single game tickets to go on sale. That happened on February 26th.

It was a Saturday and I had to work. But when I got home I went online to get my tickets. I quickly discovered that I'm being blackmailed by the Reds. Well maybe "blackmail" is too harsh a word but my options are very very limited. Let me explain. 

The Yankees are the most popular team in major league baseball. They sell out games not only at their home stadium in the Bronx but on the road as well. They are the goose that lays the golden eggs for all the other 29 teams.

So it only makes business sense that when the Yankees come to town the marketing departments of the teams they visit get the most revenue as they can from their Yankees dates. That's good for the club's bottom line but not for the fans whose pockets are the source of that extra cash. 

Now back to my online ticket buying experience. As I said I called up the Red's website and looked for the availability of tickets for the Yankees games in June. Much to my dismay the Yankees tickets could only be purchased as part of a season ticket package. The smallest of them are 4 games. 

If I wanted Yankee game tickets I'd have to commit buying tickets for 3 other Reds games. The least expensive tickets for the packages were $75 per ticket. That means to get tickets for my wife and me to a Yankees game at Great American Ballpark would cost me $600 ($300 per plan). 

Now you could say that it's not $600 for one game it's for 4. But if I don't buy at least 4 tickets I can't get the ticket I want. My alternative is to go to a place that resells tickets. Stub Hub is my website of choice. But the price of the tickets for the June games are extremely inflated. You can't get a ticket in the lower deck for less than $90. That's a lot less than the season ticket package but still more than I'm willing to pay for a ticket to one game. The highest upper deck "nosebleed" seats are $46. Too much for too little.

Let's put this in perspective. At it's most expensive the price for one day at a Disney Park (a one day non-park hopper pass) is $82. That's good for admission for the entire day to one of the 4 parks. Even with the shortest of operation hours you'd get at least 8 hours of entertainment for that price. A theater ticket for a live performance may cost $75 or more but that's for a seat that's very close to the stage in a venue where the actors don't look like "blips".

A baseball game, with only a few exceptions, usually lasts 4 hours at the most. That means at $75 a ticket to the games in question are twice as expensive as a day at Walt Disney World.

If I had to sum what I'm trying to say in a single phrase it would be "price point." That's a marketing term I learned from watching the current season of the cable show "Pitchmen". Now this is not an "official" definition but here's what I've come to understand "Price Point" means. Its the maximum at which the price of a product or service can be sold and still be considered of high value to the buyer.  

Now I would really love to go see the Yankees play in Cincinnati in June. But I am not going to be forced to spend $90 for a ticket or $300 for 4-game season ticket package. It's very a poor value to me. I won't be going to a Yankees/Reds game this year.

That's a decision the Reds have forced me into. That really makes me mad. I'm tempted to boycott all of their games this season. But I've promised Paula I'd take her to her first major league game this year. The closeness of the Red's ballpark makes it the obvious choice. Perhaps alternatives would be St. Louis or Wrigley Field in Chicago.

So now that I've complained this much I must admit that I realize that nobody cares about my dilemma. But this is my blog and I"ll cry if I want to. I'll also have to face the fact that if I want to see the Yankees play the Reds this year it's going to have to be at home sitting on my couch watching on my TV.     
 

Bedtime Story Book

If you go back through this blog you’ll come to understand that I’m all about finding and reacquiring toys I had when I was a kid. Having these things remind me of my childhood helps bring back memories that make me feel closer to a time; a place; and, most importantly; people that are now gone.

The picture above shows my latest acquisition. Something I hold dear from my childhood: The Golden Book of 365 Stories.

My original copy of the book was a Christmas present from my mom & dad when I was 5 years old. I remember my dad reading it to me before I went to bed at night. The book has a story or poem for each day of the year.

Nearly 45 years later I still remember a couple of stories from this book. I’ve never forgotten them. One of them about lion who moves from Africa to New York City and another about a boy that loses his golden coin in the snow. The memories of these stories are so engrained in my mind that I can picture in my mind’s eye the illustrations that went with them.

I’ve been telling those stories to people for years and even used the one about the little boy and the coin in a ventriloquist show at a local library.

But as often as I’d mentioned these stories to people there would be an accompanying lament about not remembering the title of the book. The omission of this important fact from my memory has, over the years, limited my ability to find another copy. You can’t find something when you don’t know the name of what you’re looking for.

A couple of weeks ago I was telling the 365 storybook stories to my friend, Brent, and his children. Again I expressed my frustration about finding the original book. He suggested that I look on Ebay using the words “365 stories” as search criteria. For some reason I had never thought of that before.

One night soon after that I was searching Ebay as Brent had suggested. Several different results came up. But not knowing what I was looking for I had to do some investigation. This meant reading the item description and looking closely at the pictures.

The details focused mainly on the name of the book, year it was published, and its condition. There weren’t any details about the stories. If I bought one I’d only be guessing that it was the right one.

But then I clicked on the pictures for “The Golden Book of 365 Stories.” The first one was the cover; which didn’t seem familiar at all. The second one (pictured above) was a cartoon landscape of a tree, a cave, and a barn. The setting was at night and you could see animals inside their habitats in their pajamas reading a bedtime story.

As soon as I saw that picture it triggered a very vivid memory. There was a reason I didn’t recognize the cover of the book was because I remember it without the cover. At some point the cover came off the book, or I pulled it off. The cartoon landscape with the animals ready for bed was the “cover’ I remembered.

I felt an excitement that a person in psychiatric therapy must get when they’ve had a “break- through.” I was 90% sure that this was the book I had wanted for so long. I purchased it at the “Buy Now” price, under $20. It was a bit of a gamble but if it paid off it would be worth it.

A week later on what I refer to as “Terrific Tuesday” (see February 22 post) I received the book in the mail. I was extremely excited to open the package, flip through the pages, and find out that it was the book I wanted it to be. I can’t explain the feeling. It felt like I’d reached back into my past and pulled into the present a symbol of my childhood.

I called Brent and shared my excitement with him. I thanked him for his search suggestion. I promised I’d bring the book to show him next time I came to visit; so I could share it with his kids.

So now I will enjoy reading these stories. As I said, there’s a story or a poem for each day of the year. As I skimmed through them I realize they are rather simple stories; written for children about kindergarten age.
The same age I was when I first owned the book. After all these years I still treasure this book. I will enjoy having it again.