There Goes the Neighborhood

Broadway is on the move and may be coming to your neighborhood!

THE MUSICAL PRODUCTION:

Wednesday’s all grown up … and in love.  Although the Broadway edition of the cult classic “The Addams Family” was a runaway audience sensation, the show has been reworked and is hitting the road to tour the United States, Brazil, Scandinavia, and Australia.

Morticia, Gomez, Uncle Fester, Grandma, Wednesday, Pugsley, and Lurch are back full throttle and ready to sing, dance, entertain, and humor the masses in their one-stage antics and vamped-up-from-Broadway performances. While nobody could ever replace our beloved original television cast, a breath of life has been brought to the stage with the current touring production lineup.

THE PLOT:

Childhood goth-sweetheart, Wednesday, has fallen head over heels in love with a straightlaced, intelligent, and respectable guy from the “wrong” side of the tracks.  Gomez becomes aware of her heart-flutterings and decides Morticia need not be made aware of the “small” details.  But his little secret will come tumbling down upon him when the Addams family hosts a dinner for Wednesday’s heartthrob and his family.  Truth, deceit, darkness, and love collide when two seemingly opposite older couples come together for the anticipated union of their children.  Time will tell if little Wednesday makes it down the aisle.

The musical comedy is created by Jersey Boys authors Marshall Brickman & Rick Elice, Drama Desk Award winner Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party), choreographer Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys), and Olivier Award-winning director/designers Phelim McDermott & Julian Crouch (Shockheaded Peter), with production supervision by four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks.

So grab your coat and hat … the curtain goes up today in East Lansing, Michigan, followed by the tour’s next stop at Boston’s Shubert Theatre, February 7 through 19.  The full tour schedule can be found HERE.

“The Addams Family” Musical – Official Website:  HERE.

THE PLEDGE …

Here’s a great way to start a topic of conversation with your kids on the importance of acceptance and tolerance.  For too many years, labels have been attached to one’s appearance … labels that will forever follow an individual.  Or for what may seem like “forever” to a child.  The time has come to accept individuality … to encourage it … to let creative expression and freedom take hold of our youth.  We haven’t been cookie-cutter molds of each other since The Beatles took to the stage with their long hair.  Since that time, each decade has brought about revolutionary waves of music, of style, of talent.  The time has come to formally celebrate the uniqueness of the human spirit.

“No Snap Judgments” encourages people to look beyond first impressions and discover how our commonalities outweigh our differences. Through the lens of The Addams Family Musical, the “No Snap Judgments” program empowers us to engage others with openness, respect and acceptance.

Click HERE to join the social acceptance initiative by proclaiming your pledge.  (Come on, do it!  It even comes with an Addams Family Certificate!)

 

Goths breed successfully in the wild

If you’re looking for a few humorous moments, go read THIS article.

 

“…The stock market was in heat and big-timers made money out of it…”

Looking to invest all that spare change jingling in your pockets?
 
Contact Goldman Sachs TODAY for their latest hot commodity!

Click here for more…

 

Top 10 of drugs not to do while driving a car

I found that video too funny so I thought of sharing it with you.

Enjoy.

 

Fun Video Day

It’s a lazy, hazy Saturday … completely braindead … and in search of mindless entertainment …

Here’s a video of how 1,500+ CPDRC inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, Cebu, Philippines spend their days.  This isn’t the completed version and we do hope you enjoy the teaser.

And if your Saturday is as lazy as mine has been, thus far, here’s a 20 minute documentary of the prisoners at the maximum security prison of Cebu.  They are considered the most dangerous offenders in the Philippines … murderers, rapists, violent drug criminals … but because of the four hours they dedicate to dancing each day, their behaviour has been transformed.

“Previously, Cebu prison was a wretched place ruled by rival gangs. But when the warden introduced dance lessons, everything changed. ‘Everyone became friends’.  Now the prisoners spend most of the day practising new routines.”

Produced by SBS/Dateline
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures

Sending you our wishes for a relaxing and humorous weekend!

 

Not about the EC elections

 

EC elections

 

All Hallows Eve

Laurie Cabot - Official Witch of Salem, Massachusetts

The moon on this All Hallows Eve will most certainly appear a different hue as I reflect on the sights and sounds I have tasted over the past month.

Normally, this would be the night little goblins and fairies appeared on my doorstep in the hopes of gathering forbidden treats which are limitless on Halloween.  Instead, I shall have 13 cats and kittens sitting on my stoop in the hopes of acquiring a bellyful of leftovers.

I will miss the festivities of living next door to Salem, Massachusetts … the chill of the autumn air … the leaves falling into massive heaps of gold, red, and orange … and the moon … I’ll miss the chill quivering up my spine as I search for the moon in the sky above. 

A full moon on this evening has always brought a little more drama to the flavor of the festivity.  Quick flashes of childhood fears with false images of witches beckoning spirits while hovering over a boiling cauldron of magic.

For the first time ever I won’t be “next door to Salem, home of the witches”.  I’ll be sitting in the land of the gods, gazing at the sky which covers my heritage with the Parthenon only steps away.  

Instead of witches and thoughts of the hysteria which swept through the town three hundred years ago, I’ll be wondering how many great-minded philosophers, poets, statesmen, scientists, and mathematicians wandered these exact streets thousands of years ago.

Salem, Massachusetts – Witch Trial

It has been an amazing journey for me, thus far.  I saw not one but TWO shooting stars.  I saw a bat commit suicide as it dove into the sea.  I experienced the “thrill” of a hospital after getting stung by a bee (more on this in my next posting cuz I do have an ax to grind). 

I’ve also had the opportunity to experience things never imagined.  Within a time span of five days I:

• attended the 10th International Panorama of Independent Filmmakers in Patras, where Vlad the Demon (directed by Michael Pougounas) won the top award in the short-film category. 

Vlad the Demon (Directed by Mike Pougounas)

• sat in a recording studio watching the process involved in making a CD (a most amazing event for me — where I also managed to resist the temptation to touch the buttons on the console).
• witnessed the creativity of much-adored artists as they tweaked and fine-tuned songs during rehearsals for an upcoming gig.

And most amazing of all has been the opportunity to finally meet with people I’ve grown to love from afar.  Each soul a true reflection of what I imagined … warmth and smiles overpowering me.

I guess this a good place to end this posting, for if I keep thinking back upon the past month’s events I’ll never get back out into the real world and will continue writing till the end of time.  (I’m beginning to miss my computer and reflections just a tad bit too much right now.)

Sending my wishes for a spectacular weekend to all … and if you happen to be in the neighborhood of Piraeus, be sure to stop in for a sizzling pizza at my favorite restaurant of all:

Lechmajoun in Pasalimani (Piraeus, Greece) - Ph: 210-413-6425

Further information:

Vlad the Demon:

www.myspace.com/VladTheDemon

10th International Panorama of Independent Filmmakers in Patras:

http://www.independent.gr/english/tainiesShort-films.htm

Laurie Cabot – Official Site:

http://www.lauriecabot.com/About_Laurie.html

 

Four months in two suitcases

Sunday morning, almost 5 am. 

… and why am I not sleeping?  Because I have to figure out how to shove four months worth of living into two suitcases.

In less than two weeks I’ll be setting off on a new journey into the unknown.  I’m thrilled.  I’m scared.  I’m overwhelmed with emotions.  I can’t wait, but yet, it seems to be creeping up so quickly that I doubt I’ll have time to do all I need to do before embarking onto that first plane.

Flying alone.  Shoved into a cylindar with wings … a bunch of strangers off on their own journeys as my nameless companions.

So why am I telling you this?  Because I’m not sleeping.  Because I should be sleeping but I’m too excited.  Because … e, because you are now my companion as I set off on this journey to a distant land full of history and sites and sounds unknown to me.

Over the course of time I’ve been told that everything I’ve been taught and believed is not reality.  The time has now come to taste the true birthplace of my heritage.  To explore the tiny nooks which tourists overlook.  To find Hellas as an inhabitant and not as a passerby.  To revel in her majesticness.

Growing up Greek in America most certainly had its advantages, and disadvantages, as well.  We marched to our own drummer as traditions and customs were intertwined with a society from all walks of life. 

We don’t mind celebrating the Easter holiday a week or two (or four) later than the rest of the country.  We bought Easter candy and baskets at clearance prices.  Ok, so maybe you ended up with a bunny with no ears or Peeps that were as hard as a rock.  It was all part of the laughter.

And a humorous lot we are. 

We all have at least one relative who still has plastic on their furniture to protect it … the dreaded ”furniture condom” that we stick to during the hot summer months.   We have all attempted to recreate the Parthenon by having columns scattered throughout our homes and have embraced the women of yesteryear by having a collection of needlepoints dotting our walls.  And let’s not forget all those Greek vases whose number rival any museum collection.

But in the middle of all this, we also grew up blinded.  Not through any fault of our own or of our caregivers. 

There’s a world of music unknown over here.  If it is known, it’s by the random chance of stumbling upon it during a ride through the world of the internet.  MySpace has truly bridged a gap which an industry failed to fill in for all of us.  When you think of music from Hellas … face it … you picture a bouzouki player and maybe a man with a table in his mouth as he spins on the dance floor. 

Punk, goth, industrial, rock, metal, prog, and all the other genres in between have fallen by the wayside.  The music industry neglected to inform us that this great land produced some of the most amazing musicians — artists — pure talents. 

And I’m highly pissed about this. 

Because in between all the other falsehoods I’ve been taught … I missed out on a hell of a great show.

I hope you’ll come share the journey with me and please, by all means, point me into the right directions by letting me know where to go, what to see, what to experience, and with what to tantalize my tastebuds and my eardrums.  I’ve missed out on a whole world of stimulation which was silenced by the invisible walls surrounding my motherland. 

I can’t wait to taste it all. 

 

THE BUTTON THAT GOES BANG

The following is a translated repost from ακυβερνητες πολιτείες (Click the link to read in Greek):

“I said sit properly in your seat and fasten your seatbelt, you wicked child.”

“But Ma, it’s uncomfortably tight and this popcorn is stale.”

With a heavy sigh she proceeds, “I damn the day your father told me to cut a ticket to come with you on this educational interplanetary excursion.  In the old days, everything was easier by just going to the planetarium.”

Standing at the front of the ship, one could hear the voice of the schoolmistress proceeding with the tour: 

“… and we continue our tour through the wondrous solar system, past the monstrous red planet and her magnificently hot sun. 

The black hole you see in front of you was once a blue planet overwhelmed with tense life and movement.  We tried so many times to make contact with this planet’s most advanced form of life, the ones who called themselves “humans”, but either their phone was busy or they would hang up on us.  Our agents informed us that one warm day in September of their year 2008, for some unexplainable reason, they decided to press the button that goes BANG …”

“… Miss, Miss … I see some spaceships moving close to us …”

With that, they all moved to the left side of the spaceship to have a closer look.

“These”, their teacher explained, “are the ones remaining from these lovely creatures, the ones with a huge curiosity, with weird religions, and with suicidal tendencies.  Look at them now … the ones who survived have a moon base where they farm turnips.”