Words by Rice, building by Piano

Magnet #1050 - Times Square/42nd Street

I once fell into the N/R/W/Q subway tracks in the Times Square/42nd Street station. This is not that magnetpost.

I'm just using it for today, because I just got back from Times Square, and seeing the Sir Tim Rice and Friends performance.

I've been looking forward to this event, mostly because of my obsession with watching all of those (very late to the U.S.) BBC/BBC-A, Andrew Lloyd Webber reality shows casting parts in the West End's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Sound of Music, then Wizard of Oz, and now Oliver! So when I didn't see any of Rice's work with ALW on the program, I was a little sad.

But, it was quickly explained by the funnier than I'd have expected Tim Rice, that the evening was being devoted not so much to him, but to Disney on Broadway's songbook. Being a Disney fan, color me sooo not disappointed!

And it was so much fun!

After Sir Tim did a tongue-in-cheek reading of all the not-so-great NYTs reviews of Disney shows, we were treated to fantastic numbers sung by seven original cast members of Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, AIDA, Tarzan, Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid, and King David (which you've likely never heard of, but the two numbers from it were fabulous, so I hope we will hear of them again).

The first song was Be Our Guest, and all I could think of was that it sure did not sound like when my sisters and I play Wii Disney Sing It. And for the whole song, all I could think was man, I bet that dude would rock out on Wii. What? It's true.

From then on, it was quite amazing watching these Disney vets as they performed their songs without sets, without costumes, with a two-piece musical accompaniment...and still they managed to place us in every single show. Maybe because it was on such a small stage, and we were all so close up, but it was truly uncanny how I felt like I was watching Belle and Mary Poppins and Rafiki and Ariel, and shoot, even Tarzan. In street clothes.

And now I finally understand what ALW and all the judges were trying to teach all those reality contestants - how to act out a song, feel the emotions, connect with the words. I had pooh-poohed that criticism, before but honestly, I got a little goosebumpy listening to several of the songs tonight. I guess that's how the pros do it.

But wait. There's more!

Last week, I used a magnetquote by architect Renzo Piano, where I surprised myself with all of the Piano museums/additions I'd been to. Tonight's NYTs Arts & Leisure Weekend event was held at TimesCenter, at Piano's New York Times building just off of Times Square.

I've been to TimesCenter before, but hadn't realized just how ingeniously multi-use they've managed to make this building. While I was sitting in the audience of a state-of-the-art, 378-seat auditorium, through the stage backdrop glass, I was able to see New York Times employees leave their office space across the indoor courtyard, dinner patrons dining at the gorgeous Montenapo Restaurant, and a chick shopping at supercool Muji.

All that, and, it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the incredible performances of Sir Tim Rice's merry band of friends.

Pretty. Damn. Cool.

Hitsville, U.S.A.

Magnet #1049 - Hitsville, U.S.A.

According to my parents, I've been to Detroit. Being as I can't remember it, I'm guessing it doesn't count.

But, my friend dropped by Detroit on a work roadtrip to Canada, and brought back a magnet set for me from the Motown Historical Museum.

The museum's housed in the original building where Berry Gordy, Jr., began Motown Records, the label that gave us greats such as the Temptations, the Four Tops, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Diana Ross and the Supremes, and the Jackson Five, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder.

Sounds like a pretty cool place to visit, because you can see visit the control room and the echo chamber and the infamous Studio A. Talk about standing where greatness stood!

Gorge-ous New York

Magnet #1048 - Watkins Glen State Park

It's funny to have magnets of places in New York State that I haven't been to, but my sister and BIL brought this magnet back for me from upstate. Thanks!

Watkins Glen is one of the most well-known of the state parks in the Finger Lakes region - check out their virtual tour, it does look gorgeous. The park has several miles of trails lined with gorges and waterfalls to hike through. Which, if you think about it, is probably the reason I've never been there - I'm definitely not known for my proclivity toward hiking. (Or camping. Or biking. Or outdoor recreation, in general.)

Although, the other reason we probably skipped the park the last time I was in the Finger Lakes, was because cold enough for people to be ice fishing on Canadarago Lake.

Still pretty cool, though.

The force is strong

Magnet #1047 - Read, You Will.

Confession: I wasn't a Star Wars girl. Sure, I saw all the movies, but when I was little, I never hearted Han Solo or wanted to be Princess Leia, or played with lightsabers (real or pretend).

In the late 90s, I ended up working a very short stint on the production side of the Ace imprint at Berkley Publishing Group. I was surprised there was a healthy list of books that continued the Star Wars saga, and ended up with a whole set of them. Which remained unread on my shelves for several years until I finally gave them away.

Cut to early November last year, when Harrison Ford was doing his Morning Glory press rounds and said that Han Solo should have died in Return of the Jedi. And early December, when the giant Millennium Falcon was like the coolest toy in the Salvation Army Toy Shop.

Both got me trying to remember Solo's storyline in the Original!Recipe!Star Wars. And of course, I couldn't rewatch O!R!Star Wars, without watching the prequels. And thus began my own saga...of going to sleep while watching every single one. Bad move to watch them late at night. Nevertheless, I made it through each one in chronological order, finishing Return of the Jedi this morning.

The original movies stand on their own - to this day, they're still pretty good. Simple stories, simple aliens, simple effects and all. And, though it may be an unpopular opinion, I do think the prequels, even with their overexposition, and zillion stories, civilizations and wannabe memorable characters thrown in, made a decent backstory for the original.

Second confession: Even if I spent New Year's with my hair in not-quite-Princess Leia braids, I'm still not a Star Wars girl. But, as someone once told me, you don't have to be a fan. But you have to respect the fans. And I do. You have to. They're the ones who have been keeping the saga alive for the last 34 years.

Oh! And hell no, Harrison! No way should Solo have died in Return of the Jedi! He and Princess Leia should live happily ever after!

Of course, now, I'm totally sad I gave away all those books I had, because now that I know who he is, I totally want to go back and read the Wedge Antilles series right now...

Yoda says I should.

Designing tomorrow

Magnet #1046 - Chicago World's Fair

Three. That's how many times I went through the Designing Tomorrow: America's World's Fairs of the 1930s exhibit at the National Building Museum in DC.

The first time I went through in just over an hour, a tiny bit rushed, only because I was in rush to get to through the gift shop to buy this magnet and then join the hour-long docent tour through the exhibit. A week later, I ended up spending two hours wandering through the eight halls or so, reading the fine print.

I swear, if I didn't start recognizing the volunteers manning the exhibit and the security guards and the guys behind the store register, I probably would have gone a couple more times.

There's some sort of magic surrounding World's Fairs that I've never been able to figure out - most likely, it's a sense of nostalgia, having been to the Knoxville '82 fair twice and then New Orleans fair in '84. But nostalgia's not the only reason, because ya'll know how I love heading out to Queens to see the old structures, buildings, and markers of the 39/40 and 64/65 fairs held there. So much fun.

What I didn't realize was that the 39/40 New York fair was just one of six World's Fairs held across the nation in the 30s, the others being Chicago's A Century of Progress International Exposition (1933–34), San Diego's California Pacific International Exposition (1935-36), Dallas' Texas Centennial Exposition (1936), Cleveland's Great Lakes Exposition (1936-37), and San Francisco's Golden Gate International Exposition (1939-40).

And the Designing Tomorrow exhibit (and accompanying blog) was just amazing, delving into each fair, the exhibitors, but mostly the design components - architecture and building materials, lighting and landscape, transportation and innovation, etc. The breadth and depth of the exhibit is truly remarkable.

My only complaint is that most of the oldies (and me) were bending down too far (indeed, on my haunches a lot, I was) to read the incredibly fine-print captions in like 8-point type (for some of them). But I didn't want to miss an inch of what they had to teach me!

Besides those captions, the exhibit itself is fabulously art deco-ily designed, coupled with giant sweeping images of each fair, gorgeous posters and wall hangings, great artifacts, displays, and videos.

I totally got lost in the wonder of all the fairs, and the 1930s walking through the halls. I loved it. But, I'm sad there's not a Designing Tomorrow catalog, because I would have totally bought one, or two.

When you go see the exhibit for yourself (as you must), definitely spend as much time as you can roaming through it - by yourself, and then take the really good docent tour. For example, without that tour, I never would have known that the first year of the Chicago fair, all the buildings were multicolored, as this magnet suggests. People didn't take to the garish technicolor(y) approach, and so the next year, they painted everything white...which is why Erik Larson's book is not called The Devil in the Multicolored City. Neat, huh.

Anyway, when you're done with the World's Fair exhibit (and the Palladio one and the Lego one and the others), go spend as much time as you can at the museum gift shop...it's one of my faves in DC, and just in general. Fantastic book section, incredibly dangerous for me and my wallet, so I have to avoid it.

They do have a good World's Fair tchotcke section, where I bought a few stickers to turn into magnets...at $10 for two, I couldn't justify (or pick between) all three sets. Hence the stickers, annnnnd maybe one additional one.

So yeah. In all, I'll eventually have seven magnets for one exhibit. Huh.

That New Year's Resolution to take it easy on the magnets is working out so far, I guess. Oops.

Toot, toot, Tweetsie

Magnet #1045 - Tweetsie Railroad

For all the places I've been all over the world, and for all the time I've lived in North Carolina, and shoot, and for all the times I've been to and through Blowing Rock, I've never been to Tweetsie Railroad.

I know! It's crazy! Especially given how much I love trains.

I've heard about it all my life, and had friends and family who have gone to the wild west theme-y park, indeed, one of them brought back this magnet for me. But I've just never been able to go.

My mother (who I think raided a toy shop this Christmas for us) gave my BIL the Polar Express model train, which made me superjealous that I never got a train growing up. I'm sure it's because only boys play with trains in their heads, so no train for baby Joy. Sniffle.

It's probably a good thing, though. There are just some things in this world, I have to keep my distance from, so that I don't totally geek out on them. For example, I know I can't read Harry Potter, because I have the potential to get sucked in too hard and become obsessed and suddenly wear invisibility cloaks and carry around magic wands...thinking they really will work.

Model trains for me is probably another one of those things. Like, I know if I start building model trains, I'll start building like a crazy person. No. Like, then I'll know the difference between O- and F- and G-gauge model trains, and start building little villages with lots of people, and the villages would have to be from all over the world, and every kind of environment and terrain, and then I'd have to find some sort of room somewhere to build my giant model towns, and then I'd go completely broke, and have only my trains and villages to show for it. Kind of like how Carrie Bradshaw had hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in her shoe collection.

What? You've seen the magnet collection. You've read joy magnetism.

You can not be surprised that I have the potential to be a model train chick.

eta:
Oh. See? Even the cat likes playing with the model train. Errr, or maybe not.

Hello, 2011!

Magnet #1044 - Gangbusters

My sister got me this Mad Men magnet for Christmas, let's hope it's true.

For some reason, I thought that 2010, with its even number, would be the most terrifical year, like ever. Since that wasn't true, I'm determined that 2011, with its odd number, will be the most terrifical year, like ever.

See you here next January 1!