729th Friday Blog Roundup
I remembered to watch Rent! We treated it like a three-hour sing along, which was probably annoying for the ChickieNob, though she didn’t say anything. Rent is sort of like pizza; even bad Rent is still better than no Rent. And this wasn’t bad Rent. It was totally enjoyable with solid performances. A night well spent.
But it kicked off trying to recapture how it felt to see the show in the 90s. So first we tried to show the ChickieNob the film. I didn’t realize (1) how many songs they skipped and (2) how much they spoke instead of sang. But at least she got to see the original actors that we saw on stage. Next, we’re moving on to Rent Live in 2008. They filmed the stage version with that cast, so it’s the actual play without changes and the audience is behaving like an audience. I was a little thrown off by the audience cheering during the Fox performance as well as the actors singing to the audience rather than each other. So I’m hopeful about this one.
What did you think of last week’s Rent event?
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Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.
Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.
As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.
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And now the blogs…
But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:
- “The First Follow Up” (R. Sativus)
Okay, now my choices this week.
I’m kicking things off with two non-IF posts because they’re both so good. The first is Her Royal Highness (yes, the ChickieNob) warning about believing the faux royal feud. I love this because she came downstairs to ask if she could read something to me before she posted, and it contained this nugget: “These are real people who you keep spreading rumors about.” We often forget that as we scroll through social media; that what is written for our entertainment comes at another person’s expense. So… go ChickieNob!
The other is The Skinny Black Girl writing about the primaries. Again, a very smart way of seeing the world: “I’m listening. Because that’s what primaries are about. Have questions. Hold leaders accountable for their records. That’s part of a healthy, engaged democracy. But also: hear them out. That’s the point. To meet and learn the candidates.” Skinny Black Girl for President because she’s literally that smart. Go read the whole post.
The Road Less Travelled has a post about discovering the next selection at book club: The Mothers. She explains, “I’m trying to tell myself that this is part of the reason why I’m joining a book club, to be exposed to books & authors I might not otherwise look at. Who knows, I might wind up enjoying it. But seriously — the next read just happens to be a book called The Mothers?? What are the odds, right? Just one more reminder of what I am not.” Yes, book clubs push you onto new reading paths, but this is the flip side of that; when it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go.
Lastly, Res Cogitatae captures what love really is. It’s not the big romantic gestures. It’s not the wedding or the anniversary celebrations. It’s 5:45 am in the snow. Yes, I’m going to make you read the post to get the story.
The roundup to the Roundup: All Rent is good Rent. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between January 25th and February 1st) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week? Read the original open thread post here.
6 comments
Don’t judge, but I have never seen any version of Rent, and I haven’t been a big fan of any of these live TV productions, so I didn’t tune in for this one, but I did hear reviews that it sort of was a cluster. I get live TV has hiccups, but if you are going to do it, and I’m going to spend time watching it, it needs to be done properly. I get you can’t do anything about an actor breaking his foot during dress, but some back-up plan should have been in place. Or these people who make so much money could have found a better way to deal with it…???
I though ChickieNobs post (which I read earlier in the week) was so smart. Kids are way smarter than us adults, for sure.
And I totally agree with the big romantic gestures thing. I know of so many who do these over-the-top, showy things, but are really just giant douchebags behind the scenes. I’ll take 5:45am in the snow any day.
I am sooo sad I missed Rent! I’m usually able to catch a commercial or something but I didn’t see anything! Glad you enjoyed and I’m going to watch Rent Live 2008 tonight!
When Q and I were dating, I had the Rent soundtrack as something I’d always put on in the car. Q. finally had to tell me that, since he had never seen Rent, the CDs were not fun for him to listen to. I was totally obsessed with it as an undergrad.
Thanks for the shout out!
Thank you for the shoutout! 🙂 I watched the first hour of “Rent” and then switched over to “Three Identical Strangers” on CNN, which (to be frank) I was more interested in seeing. I PVRd it to watch later, as well as the latest episode of “Victoria,” which was also on at the same time. I have to admit, I’ve never seen “Rent,” although of course I am familiar with the story and even a few of the songs. I wanted to see it when it was here in Toronto (& it played for quite a while), but the tickets were hard to get, and dh was lukewarm on going. I did see the cast do a lunchtime concert in the concourse of an office tower near where I worked. I notice a lot of people now in their 40s (who would have been in their teens or 20s back then) are big fans. I was already 35 when “Rent” debuted on Broadway and almost 40 when it came to Toronto a few years later. (Dh was not interested in the live TV version, although in the hour that I watched, he did ask me why the audience was screaming & complained that they were making it impossible to hear what was going on — I had to agree there.)
The musical that’s always had an emotional grip on me is Les Miserables. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie or stage version (musical or non) where I haven’t bawled my eyes out. 😉 We saw the Toronto production with Michael Burgess as Jean Valjean on our 5th wedding anniversary (1987). Very powerful.
Some great posts lately from the CNBC (childless not by choice) corner of the community on the taboo subject of menopause, including this gem from Bamberlamb (which incorporates references to some of the other posts):
https://inconceivable.wordpress.com/2019/02/02/menopause-its-not-a-musical/
I loved watching Rent the other night! The ending had me singing along gleefully. I recorded it and may have already replayed it once or twice.
Chickie Nob is so wise.
I meant to enter this post from JJiraffe in last week’s second helpings. https://jjiraffe.wordpress.com/2019/01/23/a-millenial-and-a-genxer-discuss-burnout/