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« June 2007 | Main | August 2007 »
Friday, July 20, 2007 - 14:39:35
IT IS TIME!
It's here, it's finally here, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, tonight at midnight....it's here, the end is nigh...HARRY 3:16......
I pre-ordered, but now I wish I had done the rush at the store again, just for old times sake....one of my friend's kids is going as Malfoy....she's 18, I love it....
PLEASE NO DETAILS ARE TO BE SENT TO MR. RICKEY!
Happy reading!
Thursday, July 19, 2007 - 10:31:40
What in the hell?
Note this entry was typed a few months ago, this recall is not recent and was for over heating not China Lead Paint stuff, anyway, I forgot to publish it, but here it is now...
So this is how my mind and then my day work, I got to read Yahoo! News stories as I drink my coffee and resign myself to another day at "the job" with "the new woman", who's the worst. I read a story about a recall for Hasbro Easy Bake Ovens. A toy, which all of you should remember and love. My neighbor Kathy had one and would make me vanilla cakes because she knew I didn't dig on chocolate. No, not the best cake in the world, but cake made by a kid your age always tasted good, it was part of our independence...and she made me eat it, her mom babysat me sometimes...memories, water colored memories...anyway, I got to the Easy Bake sit to check it out, looks like it's been redesigned, their also pushing somekind of My Little Pony Sno Cone maker, when we all know the only sno-cone maker you need is the Snoopy Sno-Cone maker, hello?
Anyway, after getting my fix of Easy Bake nostalgia, and can I just ask, when did everyone become concerned with wheat and gluton and eggs and stuff in these mixes, when I was kid, you just ate it, if it made you sick, you didn't eat anymore, whatever... so I go on to the Hasbro site to check out toys, because theI shake my fist at Hasbro and their product line of "Baby Alive" dolls. Have you seen these things? Are you purchasing these ingenius money traps for your kids? First off, they are disgusting, this is the actual description from the website: "Originally introduced in 1973, the much-loved BABY ALIVE doll is back to play with a whole new generation of little girls.
She still "eats" and "poops", and now she's more “life-like” than ever. Best of all, your little girl is sure to love playing "mommy” to this special doll as much as you did years ago."
Uhhh, negative ghost rider, the pattern is full. First of all, what's with the Japanimation eyes? Scary.... Furthermore, what in the hell is it "pooping"? Some sort of paste concoction from the junk they sell to put in it's mouth? And how does one clean this doll so mold doesn't grow inside it? And what happens if your child forgets to put the doll's diaper on? Well, I suppose it craps everywhere, huh, like a real kid. Wow, I don't know, teaching you 4 yr. old to care for a "baby" seems dangerous. I mean what if they want to change little brother while you're out of the room... Why can't kids just be kids and, I don't know, pretend they are changing a dirty diaper.
WHY? Because that would let them sell you replacement diapers and food for the TOY! It's such a gimmick, just like a real baby.... JK, JK, I kid, I kid, but still, wouldn't these be better for teenagers to keep them from having unprotected sex? Look what you get, poopy baby....
I wonder if there's a colic add-on kit?
Oh, Oprah...
Apparently, Oprah's "dog walker" was walking her dog with several other dogs that may or may not have been hers and it choked on a small plastic ball that belong to Oprah's cocker spaniel. This tragic event has impressed upon Oprah how she needs to enjoy life, and I qoute: "This dog lived every moment as though it were her last."
I have yet to meet a dog that was "working too hard" and never had anytime to "enjoy life and relax". My dog doesn't seem to be really stressed out about sleeping on the back of the couch or eating linguini from the side of the table. I know she's been a little concerned about killing her "Squeka", after the first squeaking device, that was expertly killed after two years, was replaced. Now, she has reduced the new squeakers ability to squeak, but it is still in need of killing. She's also very concerned about the backyard squirrel problem, I think it's on her "to-do" list. Oh and "going", she needs to go everywhere the van goes, if the van is going somewhere, she needs to be in it. However, I don't think she's taught me to slow down a smell the roses, maybe urinate on them and then eat some grass by the pine trees.
So do you think she had the dog walker "dealt with"? Oh Oprah...
-Mr.Rickey
Wednesday, July 18, 2007 - 11:23:06
Theater ROCKS!
Lot's of "rocking" shows this summer, get out there and see them:
For Adults Only:
check out The Weekend Theater website for more details including COSTUME CONTEST, AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION GUIDE and ONLINE RESERVATIONS! This show will knock your socks off!
For Kids and Adults:
It's here! Community Theatre of Little Rock launches it's summer musical this Friday night! "Schoolhouse Rock Live!" runs July 20th thru 22nd and 27th thru 29th, at Woolly Auditorium on the campus of the Arkansas School for the Blind. Show times are 7:30 pm Fridays and Saturdays, and 2:00 pm on Sundays. Tickets for this production only are $14 adults, $10 students and seniors over 55, and free Admission for children 6 and under. Tickets may be purchased at the door, but reservations are recommended. For reservations, call 663-9494.
"Schoolhouse Rock Live!" is based on the popular ABC Saturday Morning educational cartoons, in which multiplication, history, grammar and science lessons are set to catchy lyrics and tunes. Songs from the animated series that are performed include "Conjunction Junction," "I'm Just a Bill," "Lolly, Lolly,Lolly (Get Your Adverbs Here)," "Three is a Magic Number," "The Preamble," "Inter-planet Janet," "Mother Necessity," "Figure Eight" and many more.
Directed by Tricia H. Spione, choreography by Lisa Luyet, musical direction by Jeannie Smith, the ensemble cast includes Sharon Cound, Paula Gribble, Charles Holloway, Jeremy Matthey, Lorraine Maxwell and Brandon Nichols. Chorus members are Audrey Boswell, Cynthia Fontenot-Harp, Andrea Garrett, Amanda Homan, Carla Koen, Matt Teed, Georgette Sims, Mark Troillett, Greg Wirges and Debbie Wright.
Please make plans to attend one of the performances, and share this reminder with those you think would be interested! It's going to be a great time!
Support Live Theater People!
Thursday, July 12, 2007 - 09:49:53
Stop! Potter-time, oh-oh,oh-oh, oh
And what am I doing tomorrow, you might ask? That's right, going to see HP and The Order of the Phoenix, which has already had a write up by Arkansas Times fellow blogger, Belinda over at Ninjapoodles Local. I don't care what she says, I'm still going, and I can't freakin wait!!!!!!!! One of the dudes I work with, his wife and daughter went to see it yesterday...twice...in a row, they just got right back in line....and then went back last night to the late show...I guess it's a matter of taste, who knows, I will report back on my like or lack there of what is supposedly "the darkest Potter film yet." That's what I keep reading when I inadvertently see something about the film on the en-tra-nats. Hmmm, well, let's see, if you read the book, reviewer person who gets paid way too much money to state the obvious, then you would know, yes, the on-going saga of Harry Potter gets increasingly darker....BECAUSE THERE IS A WAR COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! What is wrong with these Squibs?
Anyway, that's not what this post is about, this post is about me re-reading Order of the Phoenix, all 870 pages this week when I should have been doing things like, I don't know, sleeping? And once again, I have realized that J.K. Rowling is a literary crack dealer. I don't know how she does it, but I really have to force myself to put the book down at 1 AM. I have an alarm set so I will remember because I start reading the thing and it's like time stops, but of course time doesn't actually stop, we all know that sillies, it's what that would be like if that did happen. Suddenly two hours and about 200 pages have slipped past me and I'm in a complete stupor filled with visions of the Voldemort....oh for heaven's sake Ron... and the trio and Hagrid and Dumbledore and the myriad of details each book let's you marinate in.
I don't know, since perhaps the LOTR tri-logy and the Hobbit, have I been so immersed in a fictional world. It's the little things, the little tidbit descriptions of things and the little jokes in mid sentence and, one of my favorite aspects, the descriptions of things like Professor Mongonagall's...
[Sorry this just in when I went to search for the correct spelling of the Professor's name...sweet Lord, I'm referring to ficitional characters as if they are teaching, this very minute, at Harvard or something, totally losing it...anyway, what pops up on the Yahoo! front page as the featured story of the minute? "Heavy Kids Face Big Stigma" which if the title and the truth behind the story aren't bad enough, it is accompanied by this picture:
which is definitely from one of those stockphoto places, so this means they did a casting for a "heavy kid in a pool looking sad" and then turned other heavy kids away saying things like, "nope, not fat enough, too fat, too ugly, too red headed..." Wow, classy Yahoo! classy. ]
(and we're back!) things like Professor Mongonagall's (I was forgetting an a in there) facial expressions, especially whenever she's around Umbridge. I love me some Minerva, she's strict, but fair; classy, but not prissy; she's all business on the outside, with a heart of gold on the inside and loyal to that school and those kids! She reminds me of my second grade teacher, Mrs. Lincoln, who taught me to write in cursive with "some pinache". Anyway, love Minerva, and she's an animagus, which is insanely cool [does anyone else think that Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, is also an animagus that has been cleverly disguised these many years? There's something off with that cat, methinks, just a personal theory, nothing to back it up...]
Well, I suppose I could go on and on and I know there's no way that the movies can ever truly encompass the books... OMG, I met someone the other day who said, and I qoute, "The movies are awesome, I've never read the books, but I can't imagine how they could be any better." After I recovered from the dizziness and the nausea of what this grown-up, who I know is literate, had said at me, and it was at me, not to me, no one would say something like that to someone, right? I almost, almost, exploded into a rant about how movies are never as good as the book and in this case even more so as so many details and sub-plots (hello, S.P.E.W.) and "loads of stuff" had to be left out rather than have each movie be six hours (WHICH I WOULD TOTALLY GO SEE, I WANT THEM LINE FOR LINE!), I thought better of it, knowing that this MUGGLE, which is what I call anyone who either refuses to read a "kid's book", "doesn't get why everyone loves them so much" or, and this is the worst, "just sees the movies, it's so much faster." Uhhh, and some of them have children that they are raising with this kind of attitude, there goes America's future, down the drain in 2hrs 18 mins.
Anyway, lost focus, I merely said that while the movies are good and do some justice to the books, there is no substitute for one's own imagination and the intimacy of living the story out in your own mind on your own time with the ability to stop and re-read something or ponder on why centaurs abhore humans so much, though I could likely guess, but still, in the movie, you don't have this luxury of time, because it keeps going no matter what. This fell on deaf or more likely dumb ears. So I give up. I don't care if people don't like my taste in film or literature. If they think I'm stupid or unrefined. All I know is that any actor worth anything in England has been recruited along with might be the luckiest and best child talent casting since the Wizard of OZ (though she wasn't much of a kid I suppose), the talent in these films is at a level comparable to the material that J.K. Rowling has created, and if nothing else, should be remembered for the ambition and truly English sense of tradition and independence in creating them. I'm sure the billions of dolalrs they created didn't hurt either, but still....
So, to recap what is a mishmash of ideas, opinions and gobbly-gook on The Order of the Phoenix. GREAT BOOK! It's like my heroin right now, I just need another fix. I really don't know what I'll do in a new era where there isn't another HP book to look forward to. The movie, we shall see, but THE CAST, the cast is insanely good, insanely good, I don't know if you people realize that Alan Rickman should have won an Oscar by now for portraying Snape, seriously, it's a little scary how good he is... but the whole cast, I mean the kids are the weakest links and they're good, Radcliffe and Thompson, especially, should have thriving careers for years to come if they stay off the Lohan tract. Well, I'm done, HP doesn't need me to tell you to go see this movie, it made 12 million dollars on the midnight shows alone, that's like 1.2 million people going to see it, at midnight (at an average ticket price of $10, which I thought was fair). That's like a fourth of the population of Arkansas going to a movie at midnight... I think they're gonna do okay. Funny story, I saw Radcliffe on MTV TRL UCVBDSKDXX#(R, whatever, one of those shows in the Times Square studio filled with screaming teenagers and sub-standard pop rock, and he was like, "I don't have to ask people to go see it, it's going to do pretty well, but by all means, please go see it, please..." He's got a good attitude in public, I hope he keeps it, yes, I think of that one we can expect great things....perhaps terrible.....but great things......AHHHHH! YES! Do you remember the wand guy, Mr. Ollivinder, played wonderfully by John Hurt, he's on screen, what, like three minutes tops in the first movie, and has one of the most important lines of the entire seven book/ seven film series, getting Harry's wand and connecting it and Harry's future, etc. with Voldemort...Ron, seriously, keep it together...he was so good, surpassing my own imagination of that scene in the book, it is truly one of my favorite scenes in filmdom, if I taught a class on film, that would be a clip I would show, "this is magic on the screen people, he's doing it, watch and try to learn." I love that guy!
Okay, for real, I could go on and on and on, I'm stopping, I've again, lost all track of time, damn you J.K. and your addicting children's literature! (Not really, J.K. if you are reading this, I was "jk"ing with ya, LOL, hee hee, please don't have my book revoked...please....thanks......)
Confidentially excited, Mr. Rickey
PS: As I was re-reading the mess above, the FedEx guy, who just brought in some stuff, and "The New Woman", who is the worst, get into a conversation about the weather, because she has to have a conversation with everyone who walks through the door about the weather, and then gets in a philosophical and scientific argument (of which neither should be allowed to engage in) about global warming. The FedEx guy doesn't believe in global warming being a phenomenon that is largely influenced by green house gases etc. Apparently the Discovery Channel he watches, which is apparently Discovery Fox News, says that the earth naturally goes through these periods of increase warming and strange weather conditions every 100 years, (which I think he means 100,000 years or maybe 1,000 years) and there's nothing to worry about. To which "The New Woman", who is the worst, retorted that global warming killed the dinosaurs and it could kill us by raising temperatures to 200 degrees F. I was under the impression that everyone was pretty certain the dinosaurs died out due to a lack of vegetation, which killed the herd animals, which in turn killed up the food chain, leaving smaller animals, i.e. mammals and the like, to survive with their lesser dietary needs all due to the "nuclear-like winter" caused by a huge collision from an asteroid, probably creating much of the Yucatan Pennisula.... are we not under that impression? I didn't say anything, I just went back to the break room for coffee under the hope that when I returned, FedEx would be off to deliver things by noon and "The New Woman", who is the worst, would return to calculating things on her old fashioned adding machine that I always have to special order ribbon cartridges for because she just can't do the same thing in Excel, which is ludicrous.... shoot me now....
Auditions, Auditions, Auditions
Just so y'all know, The Weekend Theater, 7th & Chester, will be holding auditions this weekend for the fall plays, here's the vitals, or head on over to http://www.weekendtheater.org/news-events/ for more details and while you're there, make reservations to see : THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW!
Auditions Announced
Saturday July 14 at 10 a.m.
Sunday July 15 at 7 p.m.
Show(s) -- Show Director -- Who We're Looking For
Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Ralph Hyman, Director, Reader's theater production, nine men, two women)
Triangle Factory Fire (Frank Butler, Director, five men, four women)
Wit (John Haman, Director, three men, three women and four other characters who can be men or women)
Keely and Du (Ralph Hyman, Director, two men, three women, three extras)
These auditions are for characters who are age 18 and above.
Rehearsal & Performance Dates
Trial of the Catonsville Nine:
Rehearsals: Aug 25-Sept 13
Performances: Sept 14-15
Triangle Factory Fire:
Rehearsals: Aug 25-Sept 28
Performances: Sept 28-Oct 13
Wit
Rehearsals: Sept 29-Nov 1
Performances: Nov 2-Nov 17
Keely and Du
Rehearsals: Nov 3-Nov 29
Performances: Nov 30-Dec 15
Notes:
If you cannot attend all dress rehearsals, brush up rehearsals and performances, please respect your fellow actors and tell us so you will not be cast. This does not mean don't audition, as auditions are great experience for any actor even if one does not intend to do the show. But please remember to tell the director you will not be available to actually be in the show as you have other commitments.
If you have any questions about these four productions, please feel free to email me at ralphhyman@yahoo.com. We look forward to seeing you at auditions! You do not have to bring anything except yourself. You will be asked to read from the scripts of the shows for which you want to audition. Unfortunately we do not have the scripts available prior to the auditions. And please be prepared to stay for four hours for the adult auditions as we are auditioning for four shows. We will read each play for about 30 minutes, then switch to the next play, etc. and then after two hours we will start all over again for the second reading of each play. Whew! But think of all the fun we will have! And you do not have to come to both days of auditioning! So, choose which audition you want to attend, come on down and bring your friends. There are lots of parts for lots of people! Thanks and see you soon!
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - 11:23:39
I'm postin, I'm postin....
Well, I don't have a lot of time these days, I've got work, and "my hobby" (which is totally innocent, for the most part, but would give away whats left of my annymity), and family stuff, and friend drama, and re-reading the Harry Potter books, 6&7.... so I haven't been posting as often or energetically. Plus, I loathe movable more and more. Anywho, some things that caught my fancy:
San Franscisco, the city that says, "yeah, why not? we do everything else first, take that NYC, in your face!" has banned bottled water (individual and water coolers) from all public offices. Apparently this is a move to be more green friendly and fiscally responsible by city hall, and I applaud it. There's nothing wrong with tap water, that's actually one of the greatest things about our country, the public water works and the level of purity they offer. I know you know what I mean if you've been to Mexico, especially off the beaten path, you don't take for granted American water supplies when you get "Montezuma's Revenge" from taking a shower or brushing your teeth.
What also kills me, KILLS ME!, is that there are calls to add flouride to bottled water. First of all, that's the point of bottled water right, that it doesn't have anything in it, just the "pure" water of some spring somewhere that is "a protected source". You know that those protected sources are drained with pipes that take it to a factory where they fill the bottles, I mean, unless they're out there dipping the bottles in some virginal pool, it's not gonna be pure anyway and I'm sure they filter the mud and crawdads out of it... anyway, I digress, add Flouride? Uhhh....idiots... I mean parents, just let your kids drink tap water, make lemonade from tap water (do people even make lemonade anymore, or kool-aid?)... why is your kid drinking bottled water? Tell them to fill up their bottle at the tap. And don't get one of those Brita filters, they probably (I'm not looking it up, I'm tired, so sue me, I said probably) filter flouride out too. (Speaking of Brita filters and pitchers and stuff, I used to think they were a good idea, but now I'm all about tap water and stuff, but I had to install one of those filters on a kitchen sink for my friend's fiancee, yes, not mine, no there was no significant other needing Mr. Rickey's help, it was my mechanically challenged friend's fiancee who needed my expertise. Well, anyway, as installation goes, that's like one of the easiest things in the world. Unscrew the faucet cap, screw on the filter, etc. Well they just couldn't get it to work, so I did it and they were amazed, but skeptical, how did I know it was going to work. I turned the water on, it comes out. Again, amazed. I asked how they tried it. "Oh, we tried with the water on, but it kept spraying everywhere."-sigh- really, and I'm single, that must mean I'm a freak...) and we're back, where was I... oh yeah, don't add flouride to water you just took stuff out of...and don't add flavors, all flavored water tastes awful, like they only put half the flavor they should have in your drink and now it has that sitting in the sun and all my ice melted in my drank, taste. "I don't like the taste of water." WHAT!? You people kill me. Water doesn't taste like anything, it's just water, your body is 80% water, get used to it...don't like the taste of water...stupid....danged....argh......
Well, anyway, I applaud San Francisco's city government for showing pride in the world's best public water system, fiscal responsibility and environmental concern. Think Little Rock will follow suit? Yeah, right...
Rocky Horror is resurrected!
That's right, The Weekend Theater has revived The Rocky Horror Show, opening this Thursday, for another run of four long weekends. If you saw the show last year, you know it's a hoot. Word on the corner of 7th and Chester is most of the original cast has returned, with the major additions being a new Frankenfurter and a new Janet, but the ridculousness and good times should be even better. $18 for Adults, $12 for students and seniors, this show contains lots of sexual innuendo, etc., don't bring your little kids. For tickets, call 374-3761 or make Online Reservations at www.weekendtheater.org.
Has anyone seen the billboard, I see the one on 430 between Woodrow and MLK exits going east, which may not be up anymore now that I think of it, of the giant foot with the "wound" on the big toe that's an ad for St. Vincent Wound Care Center? Ewwwwww..... I mean I'm glad the center is there, I've had some friends with surgery wounds that swear by that place, but seriously, too graphic y'all, too graphic... that's why I'm not a doctor, I get grossed out too easily.
And is anyone watching Traveler, Wednesdays, 9PM, ABC? Is it me or is this summer show sorta good? The acting is decent, the storyline is compelling, lots of intrigue and a great budget, they are blowing stuff up left and right (save the pilot where they blew up a museum with some of the worst CGI I have seen to date on network television). Anyway, check it out, I think it's worth a watch. But don't forget to watch RESCUE ME, 9&10PM, FX, Wednesdays. That is the best show on right now, hands down. Trying to get into Jericho, Fridays, 8PM, ABC, but haven't had the time because I'm addicted to my TIVO! Sorry, I got one about two weeks ago after my buddy did and let me tell you, it's crack. Seven episodes of Little People Big World, well ya, I'll watch 'em. Oh, four episodes of Making the Band 4, yes please! (That is so much better than any of these other Next Model, Top Fry Chef things, Diddy does not play, he'll just cut fools off the show for no reason, bring on twenty new people, no reason, and dang, some of those guys can SANG, like that open your mouth and pure bliss rings out sing. And Diddy always cracks me up, like on an episode I watch this morning where one of the two white guys on the show (who can both sing their buts off) got done doing his second audition to stay in the house to which Diddy says something like, "shoo, he didn't sing a wrong note," and Michael Bivens, who's one of this years judges/ artist developement reps at Bad Boy replies,"man, he ain't had a wrong note since he started singing, in this whole game." They crack me up. And that kid can sing, he's just a pudgy white guy from Boston, but he rolls up on some R&B and it's like, oh dang, you must have some soul in ya. I gurantee he'll be signed by Bad Boy, and if they're smart to an individual developement deal.
Yeah, so watch that too, it's entertaining and there are probably 12 guys that Bad Boy will sign to developement deals even if they don't make the band.
Well, that's some randomness for now, more later... oh wait, funny story, so this fool come into the office to ask for my boss, obviously on a cold sales call, and I tell him, and it's actually the truth, that my boss is in a meeting with corporate people today and tomorrow and is probably unavailable. The sales dude is all like, can you ask him when he might be available to talk to me? Like we called him to come in and try to sell us some stuff, like I was wasting his time, like he was selling eternal life in a field of strawberries and freakin cream. So I asked him, "Let me see if I have this straight, you want me to interrupt my bosses meeting, the guy you want to buy whatever you're pushing, and tell him you are out here, without an appointment, to pitch him? He said, yes, I would appreciate knowing what time he could meet with me. And I said, "And you expect that he's going to see you and there's a chance he'll want to buy....what's that, light fixtures or something?" He was all like ya. "Ummm, well there's not, he's going to tell me to tell you to leave, but probably not as cordially so....here's his card, you give him a call, I'll make sure he gets your information. Leave him a message and set up a time." What an idiot, do not cold call in person, ever, it's rude.
keep it on the confidential, mr. rickey
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