farewell reaper

Alas, another show that ended too soon. I'm sure you've heard of Reaper -- the show backed by Kevin Smith, the writer of Clerks and Dogma, who supported it so much that he directed the pilot episode himself. I initially wanted to watch it because Missy Peregrym (Stick It star) plays the love interest. It was a little boring at first but then the character development of the 3 best friends and the awesomeness of Ray Wise as the devil sucked me in. It was a great mix of drama, comedy, and a tad bit of action. Usually the action is dumb luck but it made for great entertainment. :)

At least the show lasted for two seasons -- one more than Wonderfalls, another show that met a premature demise. But I won't talk about that any time soon. Or Pushing Daisies. *tear*

There's too much good television on nowadays. I give up trying to watch things weekly. I'm only going to watch episodes on DVD or online. :)

matt doyle, i love your voice

I love it when I find out about talented performers before they get really big. Matt Doyle is one of these guys. He's been on my radar since I heard him on the recording for Bare. His voice is silky smooth and I fell in love with it the moment I heard him sing track #3. That was in 2007. Two years later, he's managed to snag a role on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning Spring Awakening (sadly, now closed in NY). He's also a recurring guest star on Gossip Girl. And he's ready to star in a new Broadway musical called Bye Bye Birdie with John Stamos a.k.a. Uncle Jessie. Matt recently had his very first solo show in New York at Joe's Pub. If I lived in NY, I'd frequent this place as much as possible. It attracts the best talent, known and unknown, in the city.

Here's a song from the show, Falling Slowly from Once, sung by Matt Doyle and Alice Lee (also a Spring Awakening alum):


And one of the songs from Bare, the musical:


I can't wait to see what else he'll do in the future!

Oh so far...

Did anyone ever watch the new Leave It To Beaver TV show? It starred the original Beaver and Wally but grown up and with a family of their own. I had to look it upon imdb to make sure I wasn't making this up: Still the Beaver. I know it sounds lame but this is what happens when you don't have cable TV growing up. I remember one of the episodes fast forwarding to the future where they had a molecular transporter just like the ones in Star Trek. (Don't ask me why I associate the transporter with Beaver instead of Captain Picard...) I wish we had those now! That way I could travel to New York and back in milliseconds. It would be glorious. I could buy tickets to Broadway shows all the time. Or go to the lotteries. Man, that would be so great! And it'd be good for the environment and stuff if people didn't have to drive or fly anywhere...See? I love the planet too.

I've started subscribing to RSS feeds with Google Reader more nowadays since I realized that I regularly peruse 6-8 sites a day...at least that. (Aside: also, it's not worth it to check someone's blog every day when they only update it every so often with a post that they started a month ago. Who could I be referring to...? And if you're checking my blog every day, well you should use Google Reader too! I make no guarantees on updates if you haven't already figured that out.)

One of the sites that I like to read up on is playbill.com. I had no idea how many updates they made until I subscribed to the feed. They easily overshadow all the other sites I subscribe to with their 40+ entries a day. Most tidbits build up my resentment and jealousy towards all the New Yorkers and the easy access they have to the theater. Why do I torture myself so? Sometimes they do have news that's relevant to the Los Angeles area. And when that rare gem turns up, I am happy. :) But most times I sit there reading the gazillion updates and wish that whoever is going to invent the molecular transporter will hurry up!

Lakers 3 on 3 Day 2

We had to wake early for day numero dos of the Lakers tournament. First game was an easy win but it was fun. The game ended at 9:30am. Championship game wasn't until 1:30pm so we had some time to kill. We settled on walking two blocks north of Staples, briefly considered eating at the Pantry until we saw the long line to get in. Melo says it really isn't all that anyways. So we ended up eating at Denny's where we all ordered the same thing for breakfast, the ultimate omelette, and had some fun with sunscreen.


Afterwards, we checked out the Nike vertical leap contest. Jen, Linda and Melo had to try it out again. The result? Linda moved up to first place with a 26" vertical! Crazy! Imagine how high she could've jumped before she ruptured her Achilles. She claims it was because she lightened her load immediately before by taking a dump. Haha. Jen increased her vertical by 1" to top out at 24".


Top 3 get free shoes! And the Nike man hooked us ALL up with the shoes. Granted, they're the shoes that everyone wore to do the vertical leap but still, that means the shoes have only been used for 2 days. Free shoes? Sweeeet.


Championship game was against the second team we played yesterday. It was a hard fought battle, but Jen managed to juke one of the girls so hard that she broke her ankles. The ref wanted to give her an extra point for the play. Haha. Yay for champs!


In the end, this tournament was well worth the fees. In total we left with:
- 15 t-shirts
- 4 Nike drawstring bags
- 5 bottles of sunblock with carbiner fasteners
- 3 packs of bandaids (albeit with USC logos)
- 5 pairs of 2009 Nike Hyperize sneakers
- 4 tickets to Anita Baker (I still don't know who that is but Jen does!)
- many free food and drink samples

Definitely a great weekend. :)

(more photos can be found on my dropshots account or you can probably see them on Linda's facebook account)

Lakers 3 on 3

I signed up for the Lakers 3 on 3 pre-torn ACL, but I went today to cheer on my teammates and see how this inaugural event turned out. It's pretty cool that you get to play outside the Staples Center at Nokia Live. I don't know if I can appreciate playing outdoors in the sun though. Spoiled, I know.

First game was at 9am which was really early but it made for cooler weather and easy parking. The opposing team obviously hadn't played organized basketball. They weren't up to the JV Freshman level that our bracket supposedly housed and we won easily. The ref told us we should be in a higher division and the scorekeeper kept looking at us and giving us questioning looks. But man, the second game was against a team of really big black girls. They were much better than the first team and they were also much bigger. It was a hard fought battle, but in the end, their size couldn't make up for our skill. So we left today victorious and ready to take on more teams tomorrow.

When we weren't playing games, we amused ourselves by checking out the other events. They had a vertical jump contest. Jen and Linda tied for second place with 23" hops! Crazy! That's almost 2 feet -- go volleyball players! There were celebs playing 3 on 3 too. I was the most excited to see Zachary Levi play because I wanted to know if Chuck had some hidden baller skills. The man is very tall but he doesn't really have much basketball ability. Camping in the key and turning the ball over left and right, he showed a lot of frustration and not a lot of enjoyment in the game. Probably because his team was getting trounced. So I figured he wouldn't want to take a pic and we went home before the game was over.

Be back tomorrow. Maybe we'll see more celebs!

JRB, SA, K fail

This morning I heard a horrible cacophony coming from the TV. The morning news was playing in the background while I got ready for work. Midway through my preparation I paused when I realized that the commercial for Bandslam was playing a Jason Robert Brown song. (Click on the link if you want to know what Bandslam is about.) Now, unless you're a musical geek like me, you won't know who that is, but this is a brilliant Broadway composer who has 2 or 3 shows under his belt. I absolutely love his song Someone To Fall Back On. There's an acapella group called Reverse Osmosis who has one of the best renditions I've heard. This rendition sung by Aly (a Disney channel star), on the other hand, is blasphemy. It made me want to cry. I am excited for JRB that he managed to get his song in a non-Broadway audience but I was really hoping it would be to a more sophisticated audience than this High School Musical, Vanessa Hudgens-loving demographic. Ugh.

I couldn't find a good quality recording of the acapella group but I do love this version too. It's a medley mixed with True Love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDNPeDqYADU. Oh, and it's sung by cast members from the touring Spring Awakening. *heart*

Speaking of musical composers, I caught a show in Los Feliz earlier this week, featuring the music of Scott Alan. I heart this man and his music. He didn't even know how to read music before he wrote his first song. (I'm assuming he learned how to eventually.) Scott Alan can sing (was part of a boy band called Ricochet) but his songs are best when sung by up-and-coming Broadway singers. His show included multiple guest singers, all of whom had impressive musical resumes. One of the performers said it best: "There's something about Scott's songs that reach out and grab you." It's true. Watching the actors perform his pieces make you forget where you're at. When he tells you the back story to the song, you'll want to go find him and give him a hug. That being said, his show was sold out in his first concert in Los Angeles. Next up: London. And they scheduled two more shows for him at the end of September in LA. With all the guests that he knows, that alone makes me want to buy a ticket. I highly recommend his show. As long as you don't mind hearing some cussing and a lot of gay jokes. Cute man, very gay. Flaming. And spectacular.

Danny Gurwin performing West -- Doris, you'll remember this guy as the one opposite Sutton Foster in Little Women


****
So I wrote the above entry while waiting for the orthopedic doctor at Kaiser. I actually started with the snippet below:

The first time I visited the waiting room for Kaiser orthopedics, there were only two other people in the room. Today the place is hoppin'. One of the other patients said that the doctor was out for back surgery. Welp, that doesn't sound like it'll bode well. We'll see what happens...

45 minutes later, I got up to ask the reception ladies if my name was called. They directed me the nurse's station where the nurse was getting ready to call it a day. I asked her about my doctor and she gave me a surprised look. "I already sent the last patient his way." Then she proceeded to look up the doctor's schedule and oh, there's MY name. *sigh Kaiser forgot me. FAIL. :(