Eataly, NYC

I met up with a friend for lunch a few days ago at Eataly, Mario Batali's market/restaurant at the Flatiron District.  I like going out with her as she loves to eat and knows a lot of restaurants in New York that are affordable but tastes ridiculously rich, luxurious and delicious.

We ordered the ravioli with lemon butter sauce and pistachio and the Napolitano pizza with mozzarella cheese, olives, various herbs and anchovies.  Of course, dessert will not be forgotten.  We skipped our regular, much-beloved French crepes for Italian hazelnut gelato.

 

 

Casting God's Spell

Another night at the theater, I was out with a friend to see Godspell at Circle in the Square.  Being just a few steps away from my place of employ, one or two members of the cast and the musical director Stephen Schwartz frequents the restaurant for drinks after their last show of the day so some of the faces were familiar.

One other face, though, was familiar but for a different reason altogether.  I can sense a Filipino from a mile away.  They don't even have to speak.  Plus, I've read about Anna Maria Perez de Tagle debuting on Broadway in several Filipino TV shows and news articles.  I immediately pointed her out to my friend and saw several Filipino faces in the audience

I was so ready to see another musical after watching a depressing play a few weeks ago.  What better way to banish all negative thoughts than to see a frenzied, bubbling-over, highly-caffeinated, culturally diverse bunch of young 'uns bouncing and trampolining across the stage playing Jesus' disciples.  Even Jesus, played by Hunter Parrish, was a kid himself too. 

We had front row seats and from John's baptism of Jesus, we were bombarded with several things going on at once and didn't know where to look.  Then, I felt uneasy and a tad impatient.  In spite of all the contemporary jokes and over-the-top, makes me tired just looking at them antics of those young people on stage, they still managed to sound olden days, Ten Commandments preachy.  It's not just because most of its language was adapted straight from the Bible.  Of course, I don't know how anyone can do a show about Jesus and his disciples without sounding preachy and homily-like.   One can't help it, I guess, but they lost me there.  I'm going to hell.

And while I enjoyed certain parts like Telly Leung's take on famous movie lines and Anna Maria's Day by Day, I found some of the contemporary jokes referencing Donald Trump, Lindsay Lohan, Facebook and Occupy Wall Street way too corny and forced.

Wit or Without You

I have just seen one of the most real and the most depressing plays on Broadway.  Wit, which stars Sex and the City's Cynthia Nixon, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a demanding professor of 18th century poetry who is diagnosed with stage four cancer.

I wasn't convinced about seeing the show but I wasn't about to waste perfectly free tickets to a play no matter how dramatic and depressing it was.  So I soldiered on and saw it with a co-worker who was dying to see it, pardon the pun.  

Several times during the show, particularly when Dr. Vivian Bearing was nitpicking John Donne's poems to a group of teenagers, I felt myself rolling my eyes.  One of the students was right, why does Donne have to make everything so complicated? 

But of course, we were both wiping away tears by the time her college professor laid on the hospital bed with her and read her uncomplicated bunny tales of Beatrix Potter.

My goodness, I needed a chocolate cocktail after that.  Mocha Love, anyone?

Eyes Will Roll

I went to see an off-off-off-OFF Broadway show called Frogs at the Fault Line Theater on 4th Ave. between 2nd Ave. and Bowery a few nights ago.  The comedy is by Aristophanes and oh my goodness, I'm too stoopid for these Greek plays.  It was way too corny for me and spoiler alert, it wasn't about amphibians at all.   

The only thing that left me laughing all night was the almost transparent groin area of the men dressed in frog-green spandex suits.  I have pictures of it but posting it would be distasteful. 

The Goddess

So, I just got home from my pole dancing class and I'm sore all over, it's not even funny.  It's been years since I've done stretching and my legs are jello.  But!  But I loved it. 

The studio is located in Chelsea on 23rd St and the room was dark, seductive and intimate.  Channeling my inner goddess was even funnier and took a lot more concentration for me than any of the other girls.  Twirling on a pole was harder than I thought. 

The class of 8 girls and one instructor started out with warm-ups, stretching, rotation of every part of the body with emphasis on the hips, all the while being encouraged to touch our bodies like...  Hold up, my dad reads this blog.  Anyway, I did my climb and spin and that's all there is to it.  Awesome.

Follies at the Marquis

Tell me, how could I leave when I left long ago?

I went to see Follies at the Marquis Theater.  I've always known I don't know shit about critiquing musicals since I don't really know the technicalities, the songs and it was all I could do to keep up with the storyline.  My co-workers were asking me how I liked it, all I could say was that I loved it, which wasn't exactly true.  I read up on this particular show before I went to see it but I'd much rather see joyful, funny musicals.

It's a story about two couples undergoing some mid-life crises, regrets, past loves, past lives, past glamour.  It was a heartrending seeing older people on stage wistfully reminiscing about their past lives as Weissman showgirls.  As usual, I'll only mention my favorite musical number.

My favorite was Phyllis' (gorgeously played by Jan Maxwell) number "Could I Leave You?" where she and Ben confronted each other about divorce.  All the while I was thinking, "Exactly!"  I've been through signing out, zoning out, mentally and emotionally preparing myself to leave, days spent in different parts of the room, ignoring each other, not seeing each other.  The torture of a passionless and comfortable relationship is like bleeding to death by paper cuts.

The Joshua Tree

I've always laughed at people pretending to know the lyrics to a song.  They look like actors in a Mexican telenovela being dubbed in Filipino.  Is it that bad not to know the words to Where the Streets Have No Name and to just bob your head to the music without mouthing random words?  

I went to the U2 360° Tour at the New Meadowlands Stadium last night.  It was absolute hell getting there for the 95,000 people who wanted to see those four, somewhat oldish Irish guys, the alienic structure The Claw and reminisce about their own rock and roll past. 

 

Penn Station in Manhattan had signs that read, "If you're going to the U2 concert, line up here."  It was World Youth Day 1995 for me all over again.  I kept wishing for Platform 9 3/4 so I could just disappear and get away from these already drunk U2 fans.  

I was never really into U2 while growing up and not surprisingly, I didn't see a lot of Filipinos there and not much black people either.  Why I noticed that, I don't know.  I didn't know any of the songs in the concert except Elevation and With or Without You.

Of course, my favorite part was when Arizona Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords' hubby, Mark Kelly, appeared on the huge screen with a message from space, an awesome segue to "Beautiful Day".  Gabby Giffords was shot in the head earlier in Arizona.

What time is it in the world?  Showtime!