Double Birthday

March 22 is the birthday of two of our best modern day composers: Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Happy Birthday, gentlemen. Thank you for all of the wonderful music.

The Who Super Bowl Halftime Performance

The Who rock!

My TV is still busted but there ain’t nothing you can’t find on youtube. Here is The Who’s halftime show.

Enjoy.

An Italian Christmas

I love listening to Christmas music. I started months ago. Here are some of my favorite music purchases for this holiday season.

New for this year, Andrea Bocelli brings his earthy operatic tones to Christmas.
Andrea Bocelli: My Christmas

King of the High Cs, Luciano Pavarotti’s Christmas music is a classical treat.
Luciano Pavarotti: O Holy Night

Image you are walking through a snowy Italian village at Christmas. This instrumental CD is dripping with atmosphere.
Christmas in Italy

Becoming Obsessed

I’m becoming obsessed with musical theatre on youtube.

Not sure if it’s because I’ve been watching Glee, or if I just miss New York this time of year. Everyone back East is wearing sweaters and coats and scarves. I love coats. And I’m sitting typing this in L.A. in a short-sleeved tee shirt. It’s not natural.

I’ve even been listening to “On Broadway,” the satellite radio channel in the car. That’s how I found Seth Rudetsky. I love his deconstruction videos.

If you have any recommendations, please leave them in the comments section.

Phanatic

The Yankees may have won the World Series this year. But the Phillies have the greatest mascot ever.

The Phillie Phanatic:

40 Years of Monty Python

Happy Anniversary, Monty Python.

The best way to celebrate is with a sketch. No, it’s not. Heh.

Contest: The Girl Who Played With Fire

Book giveaway time. Yay!

I have one hardback copy of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second book in the international best-selling trilogy.

Courtesy of Alfred A Knopf marketing, I will be giving the book away for free to one lucky reader who can answer the following three questions:

1. What is the name of Lisbeth Salander’s corporation?
2. What beverage do they drink constantly in these books?
3. What is the name of the magazine where Mikael works?

Email your answers to derosadm@yahoo.com.

The first respondant to answer all 3 questions correctly will win the copy of the book and 5 temporary tattoos similar to the one on the cover of the first book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

I have 20 additional tattoos to give away, so the first 20 participants will get a copy of the temporary dragon tattoo just for playing, so act quickly.

I will not share your private information with anyone and I will delete your info from my records after I have mailed your prize.

Good luck,
Grace

Remembering Patrick Swayze

Dancer, actor, and all-around-cool-guy Patrick Swayze died today after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

Let’s remember him at his most beautiful.

Two Books I’ve Read Recently

I’ve been obsessed lately with a missing Shakespeare play. Apparently, in Shakespeare’s day, the King’s Men performed a play called Cardenio. It was written by good ole’ Will with his successor as playwright-in-chief John Fletcher.

Cardenio was performed twice but never made it into the First Folio. Will’s friends chose not to include plays that he collaborated on. (Let that be a lesson to all those writers out there who think they need a writing partner.)

Well anyway, Cardenio was based on a segment in Cervantes’ Don Quixote. But a legitimate copy of it has never been found. Digging around, I found two mystery novels that use the missing Cardenio as the basis for their plots. Neither book was a work of art, but they were both entertaining.

Looking for Cardenio by Jean Baxter

Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell

Can you imagine finding a long-lost play by William Shakespeare?

Tokyo Storm Trooper and Dance Vader

This makes me smile.