mymix 3.28

i make a new on-the-go mix just about every morning. here's what i'm listening to, shuffled, today

wolf parade: modern world
the strokes: ize of the world
hot chip: keep fallin'
sonic youth: teenage riot
death cab for cutie: president of what?*
shout out louds: never ever
the roots: double trouble
rogue wave: salesman at the day of the parade
led zeppelin: the ocean
kanye west: crack music
the killers: all these things that i have done
a tribe called quest: vivrant thing**
bloc party: this modern love
the diabeleros: sugar laced soul
nine black alps: cosmopolotin
terence tent d'arby: wishing well
the frames: happy
the dandy warhols: boys better***
coldplay: twisted logic
ll cool j: headsprung
arab strap: if there's no hope for us
weezer: perfect situation
the decembrists: on the bus mall

* dglass scalped tickets (!) and took me and her daughters to see these guys at hammerstein ballroom last month and--despite my shorter companion's seeing-the-stage issues in the venue's big, crowded, standing-room environment--we had a blast! thanks again cutie.
** how had i never heard this before seeing it on mtv 2's monster mix the other morning?! it's on their 1999 anthology cd, and totally kicks it.
*** one of my favorite moments of one of my favorite shows of the past few years was when they played this song at the bowery ballroom: loud, drunk, sexy, funny, total rock and roll.

ps: i totally bit "mymix" (get it?) from some blog i can't remember. so... thanks blogger i can't remember.

she's the man

ok, if you have tweenage girls in your life, grab them right now and go see amanda bynes in she's the man. seriously. scoboco went on friday night down on the deuce, and the theater was packed with laughing, squriming-in-giggly-embarrassment, happily cheering girls, boco definitely included. and, honestly, the crowd was even older than you would imagine... plenty of pairs and crews of 16/17/even 20s-year-old young women. not to mention me, cracking up more often than i expected, but mostly just totally loving how much fun my kids were having.

ostensibly a "remake" of twelth night, this is the story of how cute, SUPER-goofy viola (played by amanda b, and in pretty much every scene), masquerades as her twin brother sebastian in order to play on his new boarding school's boys' soccer team. the plot mechanics matter little, but needless to say much misunderstanding and gender-silliness and falling in love and truimphant soccer ensues.

though at times frustrating in its laziness (characters include the nerdy girl wearing the night brace; the clueless, ditzy divorced parents who seem about to get back together just because they sit next to each other at the big game; the spoiled-brat debutante, etc.), and always completely predictable, she's the man is nevertheless an enormously appealing comedy getting RAVES from the 4th to 8th grade set. and the 42-year-old dad set.

munch at the moma

dglass and i went to the museum of modern art a few weekends ago and saw a couple of good shows.

on site: new architecture in spain offers an extensive overview of the explosion of interesting, innovative architectural design coming out that country in recent years. this is a big room, with lots of those cool, intricate models, which is why i'm definitely going back with boco at some point. and though i wished more of these projects had actually been built, and so could you compare the final result with the creativity and thinking on display, it's definitely worth checking out to see where the art of achitecture is heading.

we spent most of our time that day at the huge edvard munch exhibit, which includes over 130 pieces and spans his entire career. his early stuff is absolutely brilliant at capturing life's most unpleasant feelings: fear, despair, depression, discomfort, anxiety. he has this way of imbuing far-away, blank-faced figures with an enormous amount of expression. his landcapes/backgrounds are totally captivating: the roads shoot straight back into the horizon, the sky is filled with menace. his colors are pretty much perfect. i loved every painting in the first few rooms--maybe my favorite was (possibly) called "the kiss", of two lovers faces melting into each other... and it STILL seemed incredibly passionate--and could have spent much longer taking it all in. a show not to be missed, in my opinion.

what's bizarre, we thought, was that as his career progressed, his work got less and less interesting. more traditional. questionable color palettes. mundane subjects. with few execeptions, nothing in the exhibit's second half even approached the power of the work in the first half. in the humble opinion of me and dglass, the guy totally lost it.

spelling bee

scoboco did broadway on saturday night--enjoying part one of k's super generous christmas present (thanks again!)--and we had a blast. the show was the 25th annual putnam county spelling bee, and though it certainly had it weak points (like, unfortunately, all the songs, which are used for unnecessary backstory and character development), all three of us laughed loudly and often, the whole way though.

by far the best and funniest lines are delivered during the actual bee... especially the banter surrounding the words the "kids" are asked to spell, the definitions of these words, their language of origin, etc. the bee's "official pronouncer" is particulary good, with dead-on comic timing. the kids try to get a little too much mileage out of the "we're such nerds" jokes, but mostly it works. and the show makes terrific use of four audience members who stay on stage for a good chunk of time as contestants. these people are teased mercilessly (but good-naturedly) about their clothes and such, and they couldn't get this one guy off the stage! he spelled these two obscure words correctly, so they had to call him right back up for a "special lightening round." very amusing and well-handled. and the set works hard and well, as does the lobby, at evoking the feel of a elementary/middle school. most important, bo and co absolutely LOVED it... with co giggling so hard at one point that all the people around her were just staring at her and smiling. my only regret is that we didn't go when it was off-broadway, in a smaller venue, for half the price.

our pre-theater dinner was at vnyl, on 9th avenue between 50th and 51st. this place is hyper but fun (well, bo and co thought it was fun), overly-designed as a tribute to music stars. here's what it's like: there are four bathrooms--elvis, dolly, nelly, cher--each with different music blasting, each with a large tile mosaic portraits and a smaller, built-in diorama of your "host." the food was mediocre but inexpensive... actually, our lightly fried calamari appetizer was pretty tasty--especially the dipping sauces--as was the fudge cake dessert, and the entrees (sesame chicken and meatloaf sandwich) were pretty bad, so i guess on average it was mediocre. i do still love the restaurant's exterior, which is why we went in the first place! next time (we're seeing wicked on july 1... thanks k!) we're going to "the centro."

david smith at the guggenheim

the spectacular weather saturday made it the PERFECT day for a guggenheim visit. the museum's size and design makes any show there totally manageable; bo co and i walked through the park to get there, and walked through the park again to get back home (it always strikes me how PACKED the park can get around bethesda fountain and the boat pond... meanwhile it's totally empty up near the north meadow); AND there's always an ice-cream guy right outside AND he has the increasingly rare choco tacos!

anyway, as for the art...



david smith: a centennial is big, beautiful, brilliant. really, it's one of those shows that actually moved me, especially his later stuff. it's pretty much all sculpture (there are some drawings in an annex, i think, but we didn't go in and look), with some huge pieces, but mostly mid-size and smaller. it's prett much all made from industrial scraps and steel. it's pretty much all so dynamic, and sensual, and organic, and witty, and just flat-out gorgeous. and as my friend fred pointed out, it's also one of those exhibits where the physical art works perfectly with the place, with basically each piece getting its own little nook. bo and co also enjoyed it a lot (the guggenheim is always fun, especially when you start backwards, at the top, as we do), both for the sculptures themselves and playing the "this looks like a..." game.

the show runs through may 18, and there's much more intelligent discourse on the ieces and the artist here.