Wicked Awesome!

Meghan and I had a great "date night" last night and went to see Wicked. And it was amazing!

We had heard the buzz for over a year now and tried to get tickets the last time the show was in town but couldn't. This time (thanks to Ivette) we got in on tickets before the general public and got great seats!

I didn't know what to expect. I had heard it would be the story of the wicked witch and the good witch before Dorothy showed up in Oz. I think I had in my mind that the story would be much darker with more "good vs. evil" type of a story. To my surprise the show was very modern and updated, humorous, and well done as a musical!

I won't spoil the plot, but it is amazing how engaging the story is and how well the weave it with the Wizard of Oz as we know it. You get so much "back-story" on the Wizard of Oz, it's fantastic. Glinda the good witch couldn't have been a better role, she was a very entertaining "legally blonde" type of good witch. Hilarious! Elphalba, the wicked witch, was a very well done outcast due to the color of her green skin. I loved the way they made you like both the good and the wicked witch and you can see how things happened the way they did to make one "wicked". You end up feeling for both of them.

My takeaways are I love Phantom for the music, Lion King for the costumes, and now Wicked for the story line. It is a great story, and you won't look at the original Wizard of Oz the same way again.

Wicked gets a definite "A" and a must see if you are at all into theater. Even folks who would balk at seeing a musical will really enjoy this one.

Shelby Photo Shoot!

OK - so it's been a while since Shelby got a blog about her. So here's the start of her modeling career - a photo shoot!

Sleeper Movie - Arlington Road

Very few movies have delivered for me like Arlington Road. Whenever movies come up over a lunch conversation, I can count on 2 things:

1) Very few people have heard of or seen Arlington Road

2) Almost everyone I recommend the movie to comes back and tells me how much they loved it.

Since I was just reminded this week how good a reco this movie was, so I figured it was worth a blog. The movie is rated R and not for kids.

Arlington Road was made in 1999 however the movie has only become MORE relevant with time as Tim Robbins suspects his neighbor of plotting a terrorist attack. If you are interested in a suspense / thriller this is it! I highly recommend seeing it without doing much more digging on the movie, you will enjoy the twists and turns.

I did find a "safe" review on IMDB.com

"Arlington Road" is the perfect example for how thrillers should be made.

A good story, a good atmosphere, good actors and voila! you have got a good thriller. "Arlington Road" has got it all and it's a near perfect movie that is a must see for the thriller fans.

The intense beginning sets the mood for the rest of the movie. It's atmospheric and tense right till the good ending. I'll admit that there are some slow moments and some distracting plot lines but it doesn't take away the tension or ruins the atmosphere in any kind of way.

The movie is very well casted with Jeff Bridges as the more and more paranoid getting Michael Faraday and Tim Robbins as his neighbour that he begins to suspects of being a terrorist. Both main actors pull of really well and help to created the good thriller atmosphere that this movie has.

Good thriller with a great atmosphere, story, actors and ending that will stay with you forever.