Jesus is Magic

We went to see "Sarah Silverman in Jesus is Magic" on Friday. It was a stand-up, musical, short skit movie and was pretty entertaining. What I really loved about it was the fact that she really doesn't care what she says; she's willing to cross any line. The movie is about, in her words, the holocaust, AIDS, and race...but it's funny! She jokes that every 30 seconds a black man will stand behind a news reporter on camera and jump up and down and make faces. This was particularly funny because the night before, Yvonne and I were watching the news and a black man was standing behind the reporter jumping up and down and making faces. Another joke goes "I was licking jelly off of my boyfriend's penis, and all of the sudden I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm turning into my mother!'". Although some of the jokes are pretty raunchy, it is not stupid comedy. She jokes about real issues, including issues rarely joked about, namely 9/11. Again, she's not afraid to cross any line. Even though she touches on some sensitive subjects, I didn't cringe at all. I think it's because she's smart about her punchlines. Her joke about 9/11 didn't focus on the tragedy itself but instead on the fact that it was especially devastating for her because it was the same day that she found out that a soy chai latte was like 900 calories.
Here's a clip from the movie.

Well, It Wasn't a Total Loss

With all of the precincts now reporting, I respond to the results of the November 8, 2005 election with mixed emotions. On the one hand, I am very disappointed that Donna Frye did not succeed to her rightful position as Mayor of San Diego. I mean, how many times do we have to vote to get her into office?! It was clear that she won the first time, but noooooo, that wasn't good enough. Because some people forgot to fill in that stupid bubble, we had to vote again. The second time around, she still led Sanders at the polls. But noooooo, that was not good enough, either. RUNOFF! So, maybe people just got sick of seeing her name on the ballot and decided to give the other guy a chance. Perhaps they thought that maybe this time, the vote will stick. And it appears as if it will. I guess I'm willing to give Sanders a try, if he really does what he says he will (unlikely if he is a true politician).

Despite this loss, the good news is that ALL of Arnold's initiatives failed. At least most Californians have their heads on straight. The initiatives I was most concerned with were Props 73 and 74. Prop 73 would have required doctors to notify parents 48 hours before their teenage daughters had an abortion. It was leading early on but the margin narrowed and ultimately failed with 52.6% of the voters saying NO. Prop 74 would have lengthened the time for teachers to become a permanent employee, from two school years to five. The measure failed with 55.1% saying NO. The remaining 6 initiatives also failed.

Where does this leave Arnold? The voters are obviously saying that his "rebuild and reform" California plan is not the correct solution for our state. Will his failure impact his bid for re-election next year? Only time will tell.

Blood! Love! Madness!

We ventured off to LA on Saturday to see Beth perform in the Actors' Gang production of "Blood! Love! Madness!". It was definitely a trip worth taking. The play was unlike anything I have seen before in the theater. Before we headed in for the show, we had the chance to see a group of elementary school students playing the drums outside of the theater. This was not an ordinary musical production. The kids, ranging in ages from around 8-11, were amazing. Their skill and energy really set the mood for the night. This is definitely something I want my kids involved with.

The play was actually three short plays. The first, called The Razor, portrayed an older man living as a barber and his struggles with his chosen profession and life with his wife. It was very dramatic and intense. The actor playing the man was so focused on his character's raging emotions and could portray all of his feelings through his eyes. It was creepy at times.

The second play, called Madman on the Roof, was a comical portrayal of a family with a mentally disabled son. They persistently attempted to get the son off the roof and called in a Priestess to rid him of the "evil spirits". I laughed so hard it hurt.



The third play, called The Dressing Room (starring the beautiful Beth Tapper), portrayed an aging actress struggling with the cruelest fate, her age. At the beginning of the play, we see three women in a dressing room, putting on makeup. We later learn that two of the women are actually ghosts that are waiting eternally for their chance to get on stage. Beth played the aging acress and was truly phenomenal. The Variety's review of her performance said "as the central character, Beth Tapper projects a maniacal, unrelenting anger restricted only by the limitations of her lung power." I have seen Beth perform in other productions, but I have to say that this role really exhibited her amazing talent.

I am very disappointed that they don't have a press release photo with Beth in it

New York, To That Tall Skyline I Come

That's the song I started humming to myself as we landed in NYC. It was mostly to ward off that bit of irrational nervousness I felt as we circled the city a few hundred times before touching down. But it was an appropriate tune (except we didn't fly in from London). Although it wasn't the best of occasions to see the family, it is always nice to see them. We gathered this weekend for my grandfather's unveiling. This is where we mark the end of the mourning period, one year after death.

Brooke and I stayed at Grandma's house where we automatically began our ritual closet raiding. Although the stuff hasn't changed since we started our tradition many years ago, that is the first thing we think of when we get to Grandma's. But now Grandma's attic is no longer, replaced by a cold unfurnished room. So sad. But alas, she still has several other closets full of clothes that can now be described as "antique". Brooke took back a dress that Grandma wore to my father's Bar Mitzvah. Let's see, that makes the dress almost 50 years old! I snapped some pictures of the room I stayed in.

This was my Aunt Cheryl's room and has probably stayed the same since she moved out long ago. I accidentally deleted the picture of the bed but the bedspread, curtains, and wallpaper all match identically. I don't think I have seen any other room with this design choice. What I love about Grandma's is that no matter how many times my surroundings change throughout my life, Grandma's always, always stays the same.

On Friday, Brooke and I headed to the city to do some shopping. Here she is at Grand Central Station.

We walked got some food and coffee and walked around a bit before meeting up with Cheryl at Starbucks.

This is where we were having a nice conversation between the three of us when an older gentleman started chatting with us. Turns out he was from Chicago and had a thing for Cheryl.

She's so cheek-squeezing cute

Not sure which NYU building this is, but I had to snap a picture in case Mary Kate or Ashley were hanging out outside.

Our initial plan was to go vintage shopping but decided that we had to find a place where we could eat, drink and play pool. I had to see Brooke's new pool playing skills. We stumbled upon this little pub that had one pool table and had to go in. It turned out to be an interesting a fun afternoon.




Brooke kicked some serious pool ass! We played with a bunch of guys that kept buying us shots of whiskey (I just threw up a little thinking about that whiskey). They weren't creepy guys and were actually pretty entertaining. It was a great way to spend a Friday afternoon.

After that, we met up with Jenni at her apartment and headed for dinner.

We had some good sushi and it was nice to find out that there are other good sushi places in the world aside from Ono Sushi.

After dinner we went for a drink before I had to head back to Grand Central to meet the folks for the train ride back to New Rochelle. Brooke stayed the night in the city and went to a Misfits cover band show.

On Saturday we had lunch at a diner (I think we ate solely at diners the whole weekend). Then Mom, Kathy and I went into Tarrytown, aka Sleepy Hollow, to check out the Halloween festivities.




Sleepy Hallow was a cute little quaint town. We did some shopping and then headed to the mall after it got too cold for us.

Sunday we went to the gravesite. It was sad, as expected. But I won't get too much into the depressing stuff. After that we ate again (because that is what we do best!) and went to Grandma's. The we ate again at Cheryl's.

And then Meredith got her cell phone! She was very excited about that. She was even so nice as to "bling" out my phone with her pink and white gems. That's right, I got my phone pimped.








It was a nice trip...I wish it wasn't such a long travel!