it's a magical world

Okay. So for those of you who don't know, I was born and raised in New York City. In downtown Manhattan, to be specific, but that's neither here nor there. But, yeah. I also had the very great fortune of having parents who were avid theatergoers, and who instilled a love of theater in me from a very young age. (Since theater is currently my career, I owe a pretty huge debt of gratitude to them.) And they devoted a pretty huge chunk of their disposable income to the arts -- opera for my dad, ballet for my mom, and Broadway shows for the whole family. Starting at about age eight, my big birthday or Christmas/Hanukkah gift every year would be tickets to the Broadway show of my choosing. THIS WAS MADE OF AWESOME, no lie. And ever since then, I've been collecting every Playbill to every show I see. Primarily Broadway, but any professional production anywhere, I try to save the Playbill. Some people collect stamps. I collect theater memories. This is my career, this is my life. I haven't counted in a while, but I'm probably about up to a hundred by now -- and I've been slacking off on saving them in the past couple of years. My parents are moving out of my childhood home this summer, so I've been salvaging any of my old stuff that I still want, and my Playbill collection has only recently joined me in my current apartment.

Anyway. Back to theater. In particular, my mother raised me to believe that there is one God, and his name is Stephen Sondheim. (This is only sort of a joke.) For those of you who don't know much about musical theater, Sondheim is The Major composer/lyricist of the second half of the 20th century. He wrote the lyrics to West Side Story, for starters -- and that was just his first professional show. Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, A Little Night Music, Company, and a whole bunch of others -- all of these are Sondheim shows. I love his music LOTS AND LOTS. (The guy just turned 80 this year. This was a Big Deal for Broadway devotees.)

So when I was about 14, there was a show running on Broadway that was a revue of Sondheim's music, called "Putting It Together". That was my birthday present that year. I haven't thought about it in YEARS -- it was a fun show with some major musical theater legends performing in it (Carol Burnett, George Hearn), but being a revue, it doesn't stand out in my list of Awesome Shows I Have Seen (I prefer proper plotlines). But this afternoon, I was browsing wikipedia (like you do) and had a minor revelation moment. When I got back to my apartment, I dug through my Playbill collection and found it.

Guys.

GUYS.



-

I SAW CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS LIVE ON BROADWAY WHEN I WAS FOURTEEN AND I DIDN'T REALIZE IT UNTIL TODAY.

!!!

This does not quite top the fact that I have seen Neil Patrick Harris performing Sondheim live twice -- once in "Assassins", once in another revue. I was at least aware of it at those times. Also, twice. BUT STILL.

IRON MAN 2.

HOMG.

I DO NOT HAVE WORDS TO DESCRIBE THE AWESOME.

Now I need to go to bed so I can get up for work in four hours, but SO WORTH IT.

Also, like Merlin, this is apparently a fandom in which I ship OTEVERYONE. Jesus christ, there is no bad here.

(Also, as anyone who has seen the first movie already should know: stay through the credits.)

Science fiction FTW: Kepler Spacecraft Will Search Cosmos for Earth-like Planets. (NY Times)

"In my 25 years of working with NASA this is the most exciting mission I’ve worked on," said Dr. Fanson, who will step down as project manager after the launching. "We are going to be able to answer for the first time a question that has been pondered since the time of the ancient Greeks. Are there other worlds like ours? The question has come down to us from 100 generations. We get to answer it. I find that tremendously exciting."

When a reporter departed from journalistic objectivity to venture a hope that other Earths are out there, Dr. Fanson happily joined in. "I hope the answer is yes," he said. "I hope the universe is teeming with planets like Earth."

How cool is that, seriously?

The twenty-first century is when everything changes, and you've got to be ready. /torchwood

Last night, I went to a party at a friend of a friend of my former housemate's place. It was an Evil League of Evil party -- so, pretty much guaranteed to be awesome. I only had a day's notice for costume purposes, so I went in traditional evil black -- black corset, black button-down shirt, black pinstripe slacks, kickass new black heels -- and accessorized with two VOTE SAXON buttons.

That was the most amazing and incredibly geektastic party EVER. I only sort of knew two people there going in, which normally would daunt me horribly, but it was ridiculously easy to fit myself in with Joss Whedon as the obvious icebreaker. We had a Dr. Horrible and a Captain Hammer, one of Bad Horse's henchmen, an excellent Spike and Drusilla, Count Von Count, the Grey Lady, assorted mad scientists, a pirate, a Republican (heh), Fidel Castro, and so on, and so on. And a LOT of people got my "costume", which was awesome. I have found my people!

Also, wound up making out with Captain Hammer for a while at the end there, which was also quite nice. ;)

I'm going to Obama's final rally in Virginia tonight.

OMGWTFSQUEE.

MICHAEL PHELPS FTW!

That was awesome. Watching that in a crowded sports bar with people yelling and clapping and shrieking for the entire race and then they WON was SO AWESOME.

JONATHAN COULTON IS MADE OF PURE AWESOMETASTICNESS.

I hurt from laughing and cheering and flailing so much. Oh my goodness. And the opening band, Paul & Storm, were all kinds of spectacular and hilarious as well. I don't know what was more fun, the songs themselves or the banter and wisecracking between them. And Coulton came out and sang back-up for one of Paul & Storm's songs, and then they came out and sang back-up for a bunch of his. And, I mean, Code Monkey! and Re: Your Brains! And so many many more!

I am not a big music fan (I like music, but I don't get fanatic about it and I don't follow bands and I never go to concerts), but now I get it. And the audience was full of utter, utter nerds, and there was a battle between pirates and wolves (don't ask), and we made Coulton crack up in the middle of his song, and RICKROLLED HOMG.

CODE MONKEY LIKE YOU. A LOT.