The book doesn’t promote sex with anyone but sex with love which I liked. The differences between the two are obvious as the story unfolds. Slowly but surely Tessa, checks off the items on the list. You get to undergo each one with her. The book is a really quick read. I almost read it in one might but decided sleep might be a good option and to finish the rest of the book the next night. The story made me laugh and cry. Heartbreaking yet full of life. Makes the reader realize how life is worth living to the fullest, any day.

I am definitely giving this book to Jessica and Emily to read. It is a great book for a teenager but I loved it as an adult. Worth the read. A really beautiful book.

Fast forward, many many years, Hairspray comes to the live theater. Jessica and I go on a date night and go see the musical/play. Glad I saw it but didn’t love it. I have never been a big fan of the actual script. I like the premise of Hairspray but it never rocked my world.

For all of you who have never seen Hairspray, the story takes place in 1962. The world is changing. Integration is changing the world. Heavy girl who lives in Baltimore and loves to dance and loves the brothers is enamored with the local dancing TV show (think Soul Train with white people). She tries out, makes the show. The TV manager is aghast that a fat white chick named Tracy Turnblad who doesn’t fit in could actually be on her lily white show.Not only that, Tracy, who is absolutely full of life and adorable wants to integrate her TV show because not only is she a good soul, she doesn’t think color should make any difference. A do good story with funny songs and bizarre characters who in the end prevail.

Hairspray, the movie, just hit the movie theaters this week. There has been a lot of good early press. Rotten Tomatoes was giving Hairspray a 95% which is pretty incredible since the ratings are all user generated. How could we not go?

Keep in mind that I am not a fan of musicals, at all. But, regardless, we went. As I said earlier, I never loved the script but I really adored Hairspray the movie. Why? For an endless amount of reasons. First of all, it is beyond well cast. Everyone is talented, they sing, they dance and they look damn good. The songs are funny. There are a lot of one liners that are so quick that you have to pay attention to hear them. First time on the silver screen actress, Nicole Blonsky, lights up the screen. Michelle Pfeiffer plays the ultimate bitch. Christopher Walken, who would have thought he could sing? I love Amanda Bynes and Queen Latifah belts it out and as we all now can act. I could go on and on but my all time favorite is John Travolta. I have loved Travolta since he swung those hips as Vinnie Barbarino on Welcome Back Kotter. Then he went on to dance his heart out on Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Travolta, acting as a large insecure woman, was brilliant. He made me just laugh out loud. Grease, which, in my opinion is the best musical ever to come to the screen has met its match with Hairspray. Travolta was in both, quite impressive.

Would I tell everyone to run out and see Hairspray? I am not so sure because musicals are tough. But as I said, the casting was brilliant, the choreography was fantastic, the costumes were right on, the songs kept you entertained as they cut back and forth to different people singing them in different shots, the movie was less than 2 hours, the colors were bright as they should be for this film, it was so campy that I couldn’t help but enjoy myself.

This film could easily end up being a classic that is watched again and again by teenage audiences everywhere. Bravo to Adam Shankman, the director and New Line Cinema for putting this out. Huge risk but it appears that the pay off is going to be bigger.

On Chesil Beach is a small novel. A five part book that follows the lives of 2 characters who marry in the early 1960’s at the young ages of 23. The story unfolds on their wedding night. Both characters who are young, naive and uneducated about sex. McEwan takes the reader back to how they met, their lives growing up and how they come to meet. Each comes from a completely different life style (class differences) and environment.

The story captures a time. The gap between the 50’s and 60’s. The couple wasn’t part of the free love of the 60’s yet they weren’t their parents of the 50’s. Their disastrous attempt to consummate their marriage on their wedding night leads to an explosive event that changes their lives forever. There is no doubt that they both love each other but their views on sex are dramatically different. Then they finally say what they have been thinking all along.

Short and sweet but deep. A wonderful read for a lazy afternoon.

The book is a year long self discovery of Gilbert’s. She finds herself at 31 living the life people dream of. Married for years, doing the suburban/city thing, and getting ready for the next step, a baby. She is semi-depressed realizing that this life that she is supposed to have, isn’t the life that she wants for herself. She is miserable.

She goes through a nasty divorce which she starts, picks herself up and decides to takes a year to regroup and find herself. 4 months in Italy (Rome), 4 months in India (an ashram) and 4 months in Bali (Indonesia). An interesting journey.

What drew me into the book is her writing. My guess is Gilbert writes exactly like she talks. Clever, witty and insightful. Even while meditating she writes about other things she is thinking about which made me laugh out loud. Reading her is like chatting with your best friend.

Rome was an eating extravaganza, India was about praying and Indonesia was about finding love and herself again after coming full circle.

Besides the fact that Gilbert draws you along on her journeys, the book made me think about expectations. Here is a woman who supposedly came from a nice upper middle class and was doing everything that was presumed she would do. Get a career, marry young, get a nice house and then have a family. But for Gilbert the thought of living that life was like being trapped. She wanted to bust out, travel, explore, meet people, have a completely different kind of life. And why shouldn’t she? Why shouldn’t anybody. She instinctively knew what was going to make her happy through self discovery.

I am thrilled with the life I chose and the path that has led to me to where I am but after reading Gilbert, I just wanted to applaud her. She figured it out on her own terms and that is the perfect reason to pick up this book. Also, reading about her eating her way through Rome is quite appealing.

The exhibit takes places on 2 floors, I wish they had taken 4 floors over like they do with the Biennial. Conceptually the idea is great. A walk back into the 1960’s highlighting the Summer of Love in London, New York and San Francisco. Psychedelic art, drugs, music, rebellion, politics, war and just change. Everything was covered. These are big topics but you can’t cover a lot over two floors. I would have loved to see a whole floor on music alone.

Highlights were photos of musicians and Woodstock, a fantastic collage by Rauschenberg which covered every 60’s figure that was killed. Also, a booth where you peered in and saw a kaleidescope which went on forever and the ultimate den that was a huge box with an indoor cave of fabric covered seating. It would have made a great den of iniquity in the 60’s. [This picture is of my daughter Jessica in the "cave".]

Glad we went. The kids loved it but for me, it came up a little short.

Eurydice is the new play by Sarah Ruhl currently playing at the Second Stage Theater on 43rd Street. As a whole, I have really enjoyed the majority of the plays put on by Second Stage this season. I am definitely signing up again to be a patron again for next year.

Eurydice is a Greek tragedy. Set in a more modern setting with contemporary characters. Fred and I went with the girls (they are patrons too). The girls really hated it. I was not as harsh. The acting was really excellent but as I am consistently partial to new plays not old plays with new takes.

Eurydice meets and accepts Orpheus’s hand in marriage. Her father, who is no longer on this earth, has watched her from afar in the underworld. On her wedding day, she reunites with her father as he tries to help her remember her lost love. The ending is somewhat like Romeo and Juliet.

The best part of the entire play was watching Maria Dizzia on stage. She embraces her character yet she is absolutely adorable and full of life. I am looking forward to seeing her in other productions in the future. Unfortunately, this play just didn’t do it for me.

In essence, it is architectural art. Taking large structures of steel, creating spaces with them, molding them into pieces of a long winding statue which stands on its own although weighs many tons. Conceptually quite cool. Ok, ok, I still really don’t get it but that sounds good right? Regardless, it is essential to get to the MOMA and see the exhibit.

The enormity of these pieces can only be felt standing next to them. A huge maze of iron in the expansive rooms of the second floor and inside the garden leave you in awe. I didn’t get as much out of the sixth floor with his smaller structures. It is the large overwhelming pieces that blew me away.

This is probably a one time opportunity to see these pieces in the middle of New York City. Don’t miss it.

Fred and I definitely connected with music. We made tons of mixed tapes for each other. I remember that he had hitchhiked out to see the Dead at Red Rocks in Colorado and I made a special mixed tape for the journey. When I lived in London, Fred sent me mixed tapes. Each tape reflected the moment and had underlying meanings. It was important to have the right fade in and good flow. Each tape had a different title and generally were given the nod to either Wilson Productions or Solomon Productions. We would also interject stuff into the tapes that we recorded or said. Unfortunately our car got broken into when we first moved into the city and a tremendous amount of our tapes were stolen. Although we still have a bunch that we listen to at the beach every summer, I pine for the lot that was stolen. The ones we have bring back a flood of memories.

The book, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rob Sheffield definitely called out to me. Not only is the book well written, it is funny and heartbreaking at the same time. Each chapter starts with a mix tape that he made for that particular moment. He met his wife at an early age. She was as into the music as he was. They worked radio and wrote for music mags. Unfortunately their time together is brief. One afternoon she dies from a brain aneurysm. As Joan Didion wrote in The Year of Magical Thinking, in a moment, your life changes. And for Rob, it did and way too young.

The book is a celebration of music but also a friend who helps him grieve and continue through life. He is music and music is him.

For anyone who has music in their life, read this book. It is about life and the road it sometimes takes but at the end of the day, it is all about the music.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect. It is literally a Tupperware party in the setting of an interactive theater drag queen performance. Absolutely hilarious.

Dixie is a brilliant actor. Quick on her/his feet. Trashy mouth. Great sales person. Her idol, is Brownie Wise, the original single mother who in the 1950’s took Tupperware to another level by creating the in home concept of Tupperware parties. Dixie, probably sells somewhere in the range of $15-$20K a month of Tupperware. We even get to see a webcam of her supposed children who she really needs the money for, especially her son Duane who needs surgery. Yeah, right.

The show is original to say the least. My mother and I were participants last night. We were brought on stage to compete in a tossing and rimming (sealing the rim) contest against two other guys. Unfortunately my Mom wasn’t paying much attention to the rules of the game and we lost. As she knows, I hate to lose but it was all in fun.

Clever show, totally kitschy, you get the gist after 15 minutes but the show lasts an hour and a half with no intermission. You can buy Tupperware while you are there or send in your form later which is what I plan on doing. She deserves the commission.

I saw the preview for Once a few times. It completely appealed to me. Two people meet on the street, both musicians, they make beautiful music together. They also become really good friends. Do they stay together?

The movie is a bit like a long music video of indie musicians. The two main characters, Glen Hansard of the Frames and Marketa Irglova actually made music together prior to the film.

The movie was given an award at Sundance this past year. The film is really all about the music. The collaboration of musicians, the love for music. The music people write and why. It was well done. A true indie film. The entire budget was only $150K which is quite remarkable.

A real slice of life film. It is sticking with me especially the song Falling Slowly. I am listening to it as I write.

After Richard Nixon resigned from office, David Frost was the first person to interview Nixon. Eleven interviews were conducted on the topics of Vietnam, Nixon the person, Foreign Policy and Watergate. The country was a mess, Nixon was pardoned and the American people needed some type of closure.

The story behind the interviews is one that I knew nothing about. Although we all know in the end, Frost was able to get Nixon to admit that there was a cover-up and tell the American people how truly sorry he was that he put a stain on not only the Presidency but politics as a whole.

On a side note, the entire interview only cost $600k which was unheard of at that time. Mike Wallace offered $250K. The total amount of ad revenue ended up generating $2M. That seems like a mere pittance to today.

What was also interesting to relive this event now is not only the timing (our current administration) but how at that time TV was changing politics. Frost and his group understood that. hey understood the importance of the close-up and how to use TV to their advantage. Frost wasn’t a journalist, he was a talk show host, one of the highest order. He got TV and he also had a bit of luck. In many ways, these interviews were part of a healing process for not only America but for Nixon. He never returned to politics and to this day corruption in Government is equated with his Presidency.

The acting is superb. Frank Langella is Nixon and Michael Sheen is Frost, literally. Their mannerisms, their body language, their accents, everything. Impressive.

Behind us was an elderly couple who kept commenting throughout the play. They were incredibly loud to the point that I would find it hard to believe that the actors did not hear them too. But, their comments were funny. “He is really good”, “I don’t remember Nixon that tall”, “Good actor”, “Did this really happen”, “This is just like Bush”, etc. They absolutely enjoyed the play, as it was apparent so did everyone after the long standing ovation.

If you get a chance to get a ticket, grab it. One of the best plays not only in this past year but over the past few years. Very memorable.