Looking back/Looking ahead

Since I am substitute teaching today, I have the opportunity to actually sit down and write a little review of the New Year's trip. It was great fun...Melissa and I spent 3 days each in London and Paris. Saw The Producers and The Woman In White in London, both of which were wonderful. London was, as always, glorious. There was a threat of a tube strike while we were there, but nothing came of it. The weather was dreary, but somehow even the awful weather in London seems warm and fuzzy to this anglophile! I discovered a new BBC comedy series, Little Britain, which is hysterical. It's definitely on the "must find a DVD" list. Did a few of the usual things...Harrods, the West End, British Museum, etc. as well as the usual walking around and just taking in the city.

Paris was nice, but I have officially decided that the stereotypical French snottiness has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I almost wonder if the Parisians behave with a certain hauteur because they think the American tourists expect (and perhaps even want) to be sneered at by the locals. As usual, my smattering of French was good enough to get my point across when I had to use it. Saw the Eiffel Tower light up at midnight on New Year's, which was fun. The high point was the Louvre, where we pretty much spent an entire day and still only saw a tiny fraction of the collection. The Mona Lisa is still there, right where she's been for some time. Also saw Sacre Coeur and the Paris Opera, and ate several crepes from the ever-present street vendors. All in all, a fun but somewhat exhausting week.

South Pacific continues apace. Great cast, fun people, and an overall feeling of goodwill only slightly marred by a couple of instances of what I consider most inappropriate and duplicitous behavior by the adopted director. Won't go into details as they are not important. Enough said. The set by Ben Boyer is amazing, enhanced by a new projection-type lighting gizmo which projects crystal-clear computer imagery onto the back wall of the stage. In a word, cool. The actors and singers are doing a wonderful job, and I predict a tremendous hit. I am enjoying the Captain Brackett role, having a blast thundering and blustering through the scene work. Costumes are also top-notch, due to some pretty extensive background research by Kim and Mary, the costumers.

We have our read-through for The King And I this Sunday, and I am excited to be getting started on it. It's a HUGE cast, which is both exciting and scary at the same time. Many posts are sure to involve K&I over the next two months.

My other big project right now is doing some more writing on mental health for WBHM. I have enjoyed working on the stories I have done, and I have REALLY enjoyed the paychecks, so hopefully I will be able to knock out a couple of those next week.

Almost time for the bell.

FLT3