Who are 12 people who have never been in my kitchen?
- Thread starter Norm
- Start date
Shows (2 of 12)
As mentioned last night, shows won't be a problem. Forgot to mention in reply to @Carson - 12 new beers in a year is almost too easy. With @soundz pumping out 2 new beers a week from Other Half, it wouldn't be much of a challenge. Honestly my beer reviews would be in the realm of:
Good: I'll have another one
Bad: I'll try something else
As much as I can talk about a restaurant I think there is a lot more going on when you go out to eat as opposed to when you write a beer review. I had a beer tonight. It was good.
Not That Jewish
Don't ask, I have no idea what's up with the lobster. After sitting through this ~90 minute one-woman play I still have no idea what the point of the lobster is. Maybe someone who is Jewish could enlighten us. I don't really even have a guess.
As to why I picked this? Well I was looking for something different and the reviews seemed decent. I mean we all know about the big ones on Broadway but now and again it's nice to go to a smaller theater and see something non-mainstream. Both the theater and the show were certainly not mainstream. New World Stages is home to several small theaters and there were several shows going on at the same time as ours.
We got our seats pretty much at the back which is still pretty close when there are only ~20 rows in the place. Even at the MPAC in Morristown you are never too far away even if you're 80 rows back. It was a "cozy" theater which I like. Not really crowded (as that word often means) just not really immense.
The play is a single woman (Monica Piper) show in which she talks about her anecdotes of her life of being...well, not that Jewish. To be more accurate, the show is a series of real-life events that happened to Piper through the years and sort of collates under the banner of her Jewish heritage. Or more accurately, her lack of strong Jewish heritage. More than being Jewish the show was about her being human and the ups and downs that goes along with that. I think many of us can relate to things in life not always going as planned.
Not my picture (you're rarely if ever allowed to take pics during the show):
In all he show was good, not great. The first 5 minutes was more or less my coming to terms with the idea that well, you know, not all shows can be winners. In those first few minutes I was wondering how rough this might get. But it picked up from that slow/rough start and had some legit LOL moments. I think there was a split in some of the material she delivered. Her authentic stand-up material was good. Her acting was not as good. In all I would give it a passing grade but I probably wouldn't recommend you go out of your way to see it.
I do think that shows like this can really bring you some gems but it can also bring you some duds along the way. If we lived in the city I imagine we would go see something every week, for better or worse. And if nothing else you can appreciate the effort it takes to write this and go on stage to perform it. I think at the end of the day it was worth it, and I would certainly go back to this theater to see more of the caliber of things it had to offer. I will certainly be looking into more offerings from New World Stages. Having said that, if you go, get the merlot at the bar.
In all this was a decent end to a great day.
As mentioned last night, shows won't be a problem. Forgot to mention in reply to @Carson - 12 new beers in a year is almost too easy. With @soundz pumping out 2 new beers a week from Other Half, it wouldn't be much of a challenge. Honestly my beer reviews would be in the realm of:
Good: I'll have another one
Bad: I'll try something else
As much as I can talk about a restaurant I think there is a lot more going on when you go out to eat as opposed to when you write a beer review. I had a beer tonight. It was good.
Not That Jewish
Don't ask, I have no idea what's up with the lobster. After sitting through this ~90 minute one-woman play I still have no idea what the point of the lobster is. Maybe someone who is Jewish could enlighten us. I don't really even have a guess.
As to why I picked this? Well I was looking for something different and the reviews seemed decent. I mean we all know about the big ones on Broadway but now and again it's nice to go to a smaller theater and see something non-mainstream. Both the theater and the show were certainly not mainstream. New World Stages is home to several small theaters and there were several shows going on at the same time as ours.
We got our seats pretty much at the back which is still pretty close when there are only ~20 rows in the place. Even at the MPAC in Morristown you are never too far away even if you're 80 rows back. It was a "cozy" theater which I like. Not really crowded (as that word often means) just not really immense.
The play is a single woman (Monica Piper) show in which she talks about her anecdotes of her life of being...well, not that Jewish. To be more accurate, the show is a series of real-life events that happened to Piper through the years and sort of collates under the banner of her Jewish heritage. Or more accurately, her lack of strong Jewish heritage. More than being Jewish the show was about her being human and the ups and downs that goes along with that. I think many of us can relate to things in life not always going as planned.
Not my picture (you're rarely if ever allowed to take pics during the show):
In all he show was good, not great. The first 5 minutes was more or less my coming to terms with the idea that well, you know, not all shows can be winners. In those first few minutes I was wondering how rough this might get. But it picked up from that slow/rough start and had some legit LOL moments. I think there was a split in some of the material she delivered. Her authentic stand-up material was good. Her acting was not as good. In all I would give it a passing grade but I probably wouldn't recommend you go out of your way to see it.
I do think that shows like this can really bring you some gems but it can also bring you some duds along the way. If we lived in the city I imagine we would go see something every week, for better or worse. And if nothing else you can appreciate the effort it takes to write this and go on stage to perform it. I think at the end of the day it was worth it, and I would certainly go back to this theater to see more of the caliber of things it had to offer. I will certainly be looking into more offerings from New World Stages. Having said that, if you go, get the merlot at the bar.
In all this was a decent end to a great day.
Kids (1 of 12)
It is somewhat debatable if this falls under the umbrella of kids adventures. To be honest, while this singular event falls under some umbrella I am not sure where it belongs. And you could probably argue that it's just as much an outdoor adventure as it is a kid adventure. But again, being honest, I put this as a kids adventure because I think it will be one of the harder 12s to hit. So be it. It's my game I make the rules. You know I'm really in trouble if I'm saying that using an outhouse is an outdoor adventure in September. Or that watching an entire season of Lemonity Snicket is a kids adventure (we watched 6 of 8 this weekend).
The Warren Bonfire
If you remember a few months back, I was appointed to the Warren Rec Committee after a few months of them deliberating about it. The signature event for the committee is the yearly bonfire. The idea is this. Everyone in town brings their Xmas trees down to the municipal building and they make a big stack of trees over the course of a few weeks. Then they set them on fire. They also build a small festival around this fire and end it with fireworks. Fire & fireworks sounds like a damn fine signature event to me.
Being part of the committee means I more or less have to volunteer for it. I mean, I don't HAVE to volunteer for it. But it's hard to justify going to it and not volunteering. Plus, being the new guy I kinda gotta represent. So anyway, I represented on Saturday.
My official job was to man the tub ride. I'll talk about that more later but first I helped the girls make approximately 70 gallons (not an exaggeration at all) of hot chocolate. I wonder how much of this was left over in the end.
The snow kept a lot of people away for the official start of the festival, which was at 4:00. They had moved the slot it from 5-8:00 to 4-7:00 this year, which may have had something to do with it. At 4:00 not much was going on, but at 4:30 they started setting shit on fire. We all know ho popular setting things on fire can be. Let's get this party started...right. Let's get this party started...quickly.
So my job on the night was to man the tub ride. The guy who brought the tub ride was supposed to also put up a blow-up slide, but the snow more or less meant that wasn't going to happen. He said that snow is worse than rain. He claimed that for every kid that makes it down safe, 10 get hurt in some way. Personally I think he was just being lazy which was later shown to be the case when he spent the entire 3 hours of the festival in his heated truck and did not help with his ride until it was time to shut it down. But that was fine because he was kind of a hard ass.
No matter, he has 2 younger guys to help and they were a lot easier to talk to than this guy. In theory the night was supposed to go like this:
* I meter out & direct people to the "tubs"
* The 2 guys put people in, make sure they are strapped in, and unlock them (so they can spin around)
* 1 of the guys turns it on, then off
* The 2 guys lock the tubs, then let people out
* I help usher them out of the exit then start at step 1
The tubs:
The ride is really geared for kids, like little kids. This sounds all well and good and boring and you are probably thinking this is a lame station and it would be way cooler to burn stuff. But let me say this, this was by far the most fun & rewarding place to be for the day. First of all, the job kind of more or less went like this:
* I help with everything but 1 thing
* They start & stop the ride
At first I was hesitant to get involved with the people getting on & off the ride. I am sure their insurance didn't cover me putting people on the ride nor taking them off. But the guys working didn't care and it quickly became an enjoyable thing to do. The little kids lining up getting excited about this seemingly simple ride was really awesome, very rewarding. When a group of little kids would come up and excitedly ask if they could all go on together, it was rally-super-awesomely rewarding to think about it...look curious...then suddenly say YES. The excitement they showed was just absolute enjoyment.
The night was cold but I could have stayed and done this all night. It was really that enjoyable. Every little kid had a story to tell.
Eventually the family showed up and enjoyed the event. I wasn't really able to spend much time with everyone but we did eat a really unhealthy dinner of chicken tenders and french fries.
After we had dinner I went back to the ride to make sure my "relief" was still there. Turns out she lasted about 10 minutes then took off. So I stayed there until the end. Eventually the fire burned out.
At 6:50 the tub ride dude got out of the truck and declared the end. I would have kept it running but that wasn't my call to make. Shortly after 7:00 they set stuff on fire violently in the sky.
And that wraps up the 2017 Warren bonfire. In hindsight I should have posted this was happening earlier so maybe some of you could have some out for the event. Next year.
It is somewhat debatable if this falls under the umbrella of kids adventures. To be honest, while this singular event falls under some umbrella I am not sure where it belongs. And you could probably argue that it's just as much an outdoor adventure as it is a kid adventure. But again, being honest, I put this as a kids adventure because I think it will be one of the harder 12s to hit. So be it. It's my game I make the rules. You know I'm really in trouble if I'm saying that using an outhouse is an outdoor adventure in September. Or that watching an entire season of Lemonity Snicket is a kids adventure (we watched 6 of 8 this weekend).
The Warren Bonfire
If you remember a few months back, I was appointed to the Warren Rec Committee after a few months of them deliberating about it. The signature event for the committee is the yearly bonfire. The idea is this. Everyone in town brings their Xmas trees down to the municipal building and they make a big stack of trees over the course of a few weeks. Then they set them on fire. They also build a small festival around this fire and end it with fireworks. Fire & fireworks sounds like a damn fine signature event to me.
Being part of the committee means I more or less have to volunteer for it. I mean, I don't HAVE to volunteer for it. But it's hard to justify going to it and not volunteering. Plus, being the new guy I kinda gotta represent. So anyway, I represented on Saturday.
My official job was to man the tub ride. I'll talk about that more later but first I helped the girls make approximately 70 gallons (not an exaggeration at all) of hot chocolate. I wonder how much of this was left over in the end.
The snow kept a lot of people away for the official start of the festival, which was at 4:00. They had moved the slot it from 5-8:00 to 4-7:00 this year, which may have had something to do with it. At 4:00 not much was going on, but at 4:30 they started setting shit on fire. We all know ho popular setting things on fire can be. Let's get this party started...right. Let's get this party started...quickly.
So my job on the night was to man the tub ride. The guy who brought the tub ride was supposed to also put up a blow-up slide, but the snow more or less meant that wasn't going to happen. He said that snow is worse than rain. He claimed that for every kid that makes it down safe, 10 get hurt in some way. Personally I think he was just being lazy which was later shown to be the case when he spent the entire 3 hours of the festival in his heated truck and did not help with his ride until it was time to shut it down. But that was fine because he was kind of a hard ass.
No matter, he has 2 younger guys to help and they were a lot easier to talk to than this guy. In theory the night was supposed to go like this:
* I meter out & direct people to the "tubs"
* The 2 guys put people in, make sure they are strapped in, and unlock them (so they can spin around)
* 1 of the guys turns it on, then off
* The 2 guys lock the tubs, then let people out
* I help usher them out of the exit then start at step 1
The tubs:
The ride is really geared for kids, like little kids. This sounds all well and good and boring and you are probably thinking this is a lame station and it would be way cooler to burn stuff. But let me say this, this was by far the most fun & rewarding place to be for the day. First of all, the job kind of more or less went like this:
* I help with everything but 1 thing
* They start & stop the ride
At first I was hesitant to get involved with the people getting on & off the ride. I am sure their insurance didn't cover me putting people on the ride nor taking them off. But the guys working didn't care and it quickly became an enjoyable thing to do. The little kids lining up getting excited about this seemingly simple ride was really awesome, very rewarding. When a group of little kids would come up and excitedly ask if they could all go on together, it was rally-super-awesomely rewarding to think about it...look curious...then suddenly say YES. The excitement they showed was just absolute enjoyment.
The night was cold but I could have stayed and done this all night. It was really that enjoyable. Every little kid had a story to tell.
Eventually the family showed up and enjoyed the event. I wasn't really able to spend much time with everyone but we did eat a really unhealthy dinner of chicken tenders and french fries.
After we had dinner I went back to the ride to make sure my "relief" was still there. Turns out she lasted about 10 minutes then took off. So I stayed there until the end. Eventually the fire burned out.
At 6:50 the tub ride dude got out of the truck and declared the end. I would have kept it running but that wasn't my call to make. Shortly after 7:00 they set stuff on fire violently in the sky.
And that wraps up the 2017 Warren bonfire. In hindsight I should have posted this was happening earlier so maybe some of you could have some out for the event. Next year.
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So true
Every family event I used to hook up the wagon on lawn tractor and do laps around the property. They never want me to stop, then bicker who goes next. They even asked at Christmas if I would be having rides.
Pleasing those sweet innocent children will never get old it keeps getting more awesome especially when their your grandchildren.
rlb
Well-Known Member
I did have the pleasure of waiting in 3 minutes of traffic on my way to Rt 78, so it's almost like I was there! Sounds like a good night for the kids. Maybe I'll swing by once I have a few.
The Squirrel
Well-Known Member
I just love it. It seemed like a blast.
Damnit. You beat me to both of those things.Awesome stuff. 2 questions...1) did you offer anyone $20 to video setting the trees on fire to post here? 2)Does this mean you and D are gonna chase the Carney lifestyle this summer? Inquiring minds want to know
That's what I get for drinking beer and watching football.
Movies (1 of 12)
While having dinner with Jolene & Rodney a few weeks ago (see previous entries), at some point we ended up talking TV & movies in the course of the normal conversation. At one point, we mentioned we liked the TV series Limitless, and we explained a bit of what it is (was?) about. They listened and suggested we watch Lucy. So it ended up as the first on the list. As it turned out, this past Sunday it was on FX so we didn't even have to buy it.
Lucy
When the movie Lucy had first been suggested to me I immediately thought of the 3.2 million old mother of man from archaeological fame. As it turns out, this was a bit in the film though to be honest, I do not exactly remember where and why, at least not more than a faded sort of image. You see, while I did find the movie entertaining, it wasn't as good as I was hoping and what started out as intriguing lost interest for me as the movie would towards the end. With about 20 minutes to go, I asked D if this was going to be over at 10 or 11, and she said 11. We were both surprised the movie only had 20 minutes left. I think when it would down, there was just too much left on the table.
This is how much of the Lucy skeleton was ever found in 1974:
Not really a ton to go on, but I guess for something 3.2 million years old, you have to be happy with what you can dig up. Anyway, I think it would be fair to rewind a bit and explain Limitless. It is a series about a guy who takes this drug and it opens up his mind in ways that give him incredible mental facilities. The premise more or less ends there, with him having really amazing learning & reasoning abilities. I think the sense of humor in the show appeals to us both. But overall, it is (was?) a really good combination of an idea, clever writing, and not going overboard.
It appears that Limitless is...well...it appears that it was. We both enjoyed season 1 and it got decent reviews and decent numbers, but like pretty much every oddball network TV series we like, it got canned. Rather, it did not exactly get canned but it did not get renewed. There was some talk of Netflix or Amazon picking it up, but it seems that hasn't materialized.
So we saw the preview of Lucy and it seemed interesting to us. Basically it was billed as this woman who increasingly uses more and more of her mind, plus it had Morgan Freeman. It's really hard to go wrong with Freeman.
I have no idea where this scene came from in the movie. Like I said, what had initially pulled me in started to lose me as logic gaps in the story started to build up, and my ability to suspend disbelief faded through the film. I probably should have reviewed it right away, as I can't remember anything specific at the moment. But I remember thinking that there were some real head scratchers while we watched.
I have been a long-time reader/watcher of science fiction, so you kind of have to learn to suspend disbelief. We are currently following the series Timeless (not Limitless, but Timeless) and I find myself constantly proclaiming the illogic of the show, then sort of ceding that I had agreed with myself not to do that. Time travel shows are almost impossible to wrap your head around.
Anyway, like I said, Lucy started to erode my ability to suspend disbelief and by the end I didn't really find myself into it more than a passing "thing on TV", which we have countless versions of these days. Some of the reviews out there are pretty harsh, which is a lot further than I would go. If you saw the preview you had to see where the movie was going, at least in terms of it's ability to "defy logic" so to speak.
I don't think it was terrible. If you are stuck on the couch one day with 2 hours to spare and it comes on, I would say to watch it. There are far worse things on TV than this.
While having dinner with Jolene & Rodney a few weeks ago (see previous entries), at some point we ended up talking TV & movies in the course of the normal conversation. At one point, we mentioned we liked the TV series Limitless, and we explained a bit of what it is (was?) about. They listened and suggested we watch Lucy. So it ended up as the first on the list. As it turned out, this past Sunday it was on FX so we didn't even have to buy it.
Lucy
When the movie Lucy had first been suggested to me I immediately thought of the 3.2 million old mother of man from archaeological fame. As it turns out, this was a bit in the film though to be honest, I do not exactly remember where and why, at least not more than a faded sort of image. You see, while I did find the movie entertaining, it wasn't as good as I was hoping and what started out as intriguing lost interest for me as the movie would towards the end. With about 20 minutes to go, I asked D if this was going to be over at 10 or 11, and she said 11. We were both surprised the movie only had 20 minutes left. I think when it would down, there was just too much left on the table.
This is how much of the Lucy skeleton was ever found in 1974:
Not really a ton to go on, but I guess for something 3.2 million years old, you have to be happy with what you can dig up. Anyway, I think it would be fair to rewind a bit and explain Limitless. It is a series about a guy who takes this drug and it opens up his mind in ways that give him incredible mental facilities. The premise more or less ends there, with him having really amazing learning & reasoning abilities. I think the sense of humor in the show appeals to us both. But overall, it is (was?) a really good combination of an idea, clever writing, and not going overboard.
It appears that Limitless is...well...it appears that it was. We both enjoyed season 1 and it got decent reviews and decent numbers, but like pretty much every oddball network TV series we like, it got canned. Rather, it did not exactly get canned but it did not get renewed. There was some talk of Netflix or Amazon picking it up, but it seems that hasn't materialized.
So we saw the preview of Lucy and it seemed interesting to us. Basically it was billed as this woman who increasingly uses more and more of her mind, plus it had Morgan Freeman. It's really hard to go wrong with Freeman.
I have no idea where this scene came from in the movie. Like I said, what had initially pulled me in started to lose me as logic gaps in the story started to build up, and my ability to suspend disbelief faded through the film. I probably should have reviewed it right away, as I can't remember anything specific at the moment. But I remember thinking that there were some real head scratchers while we watched.
I have been a long-time reader/watcher of science fiction, so you kind of have to learn to suspend disbelief. We are currently following the series Timeless (not Limitless, but Timeless) and I find myself constantly proclaiming the illogic of the show, then sort of ceding that I had agreed with myself not to do that. Time travel shows are almost impossible to wrap your head around.
Anyway, like I said, Lucy started to erode my ability to suspend disbelief and by the end I didn't really find myself into it more than a passing "thing on TV", which we have countless versions of these days. Some of the reviews out there are pretty harsh, which is a lot further than I would go. If you saw the preview you had to see where the movie was going, at least in terms of it's ability to "defy logic" so to speak.
I don't think it was terrible. If you are stuck on the couch one day with 2 hours to spare and it comes on, I would say to watch it. There are far worse things on TV than this.
Sci-Fi never appealed to me even when the original Star Wars came out I skipped it. To this day I never sat and watched the whole thing. Bits and pieces which I end up saying oh I remember that from space balls.
Though I did watch a lot of a-team knight rider and mcgyver. Also throughly enjoyed lost in space as a spry youth. Oh dear!
Though I did watch a lot of a-team knight rider and mcgyver. Also throughly enjoyed lost in space as a spry youth. Oh dear!