"True Colors"

OK, I know, this week has been very Phil Collins heavy. It's just worked out that way.

This week's episode of "Glee" featured the song "True Colors", a song originally sung by Cyndi Lauper. I did like the version they did on the show, but my favorite version of the song was sung by Phil Collins and his backup folk during his First Final Farewell Tour. It wasn't quite as a capella as I recalled, but it's pretty minimal in music so you can really hear and focus on the vocals and the harmonizing. It was absolutely beautiful to listen to live.

Grandpa Phil, singing the Motown hits

Yesterday, I got a blip of news that Phil Collins had become a grandfather because his oldest daughter, Joely, had given birth to a child.

Here's an article with all the news.

I'm amused that Phil's granddaughter already has more hair than he does!


There's also a bit in there about Phil's injury that's impeding his ability to drum, and new information that he's working on a new album of Motown covers. I'm happy about that, but I'm a bit disappointed that he won't be putting a slightly different spin on them. Having him sing them exactly the way they were done doesn't sound as inspired as it could be. But, I'll wait to hear them to pass full judgement. I'll admit that I'm not that crazy about his cover of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A'Changing", so there's no guarantee I'll love them just because it's Phil. However, I do love his cover of "You Can't Hurry Love", so you never know.

sending out sympathy

I was going to write a restaurant review today, but before I had a chance to do that, I was made aware of a situation that has pretty much taken away any desire I have to write about that experience.

Instead, I'm offering the video below. I don't know what's appropriate, but that's what I came up with. There's a particular situation that I'm sending this out for - to parents, siblings, spouse, children, friends - with the hope that prayers, good thoughts, and best wishes from this stranger, added to those coming from a lot of other people, can help those in need in some small way.








May God be with those who need Him the most right now.

"Jennifer's Body" - spoiler movie review

I've previously mentioned how I became interested in seeing this film. However, when I actually went to see "Jennifer's Body", I decided that bringing Gloomy with me was more appropriate than bringing Teddy. And boy, was I ever right.

The film was a lot more bloody than I even expected, so there were bits I did not watch. (And even though in the one scene in the abandoned house, ripping apart of the one boy was done as a silhouette behind a white sheet, I still didn't watch it.) Generally, I thought it was a decent film with an interesting premise. I had thought from the trailer and such that Megan Fox's character, Jennifer, was born a demon, so I was surprised when during the course of the film, it was revealed that she became a demon because she was used as an inappropriate virgin ritual sacrifice by members of a band hoping to gain success. Ooops. I thought it was interesting that she wasn't necessarily completely evil - she really just killed when she needed to feed to keep herself alive, every couple of days. I loved the make-up job on her, making her pale and gaunt when she hadn't fed in a while.

I'm definitely a fan of Amanda Seyfried, and I really enjoyed her performance in this film. They did dress her seriously down to make her look bookish and dowdy, but she was really pretty in "Mamma Mia". She's probably not considered as hot as Megan Fox, but I think she's got a very different look, that innocent "girl next door" thing going for her. But that horrid formal dress they put on her? Ugh!

And yes, the teenage boys at the screening that we went to were hooting and hollering during the kissing scene between the two girls. OK, guys, put in back in your pants and settle down.

There was one scene early on that was made all the funnier for the husband and my friends because I was there. Needy and her boyfriend were talking about bands, and I think it was Needy who said something about there being no well-known drummers. The boyfriend mentioned Don Henley and then mentioned Phil Collins, which made me really happy - and then in the next second, Needy said "who"? I hadn't even had the chance to really enjoy Phil being mentioned in a movie when he was totally slammed by the character not even knowing who he was. The husband and friends laughed at me REAL HARD. Oh well, it was funny.


I probably wouldn't recommend the film for those who are squeamish, but I thought the story was decent for a horror film. However, I will say that it's not an appropriate film to bring toddlers and small children to, something that several parents in the audience thought it was ok to do.

a Genesis reunion - what I wouldn't give to go

I'd seen the article last week that Genesis was on the list of nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I know that the Hall has its detractors and that it really only means so much, but I still think it would be cool.

Well, then I saw this article today that they're at least working on stuff in case it happens and they're inducted. All the boys AND Peter too. That would be cool.

As much as I loved seeing the "Turn It On Again" tour, seeing Peter with them would be awesome.

musical interlude - "Oughta Know By Now"

So, did you know that I really love Phil Collins' music? Yeah, I think I might have mentioned that one or twenty or a billion times. Well, I've been rediscovering my iPod lately, realizing that it will play me music I really like as I'm driving. Yeah, I know, not exactly breaking news, but I've been really weird about music the last couple of years, so using the iPod in the car is actually a good thing.

Anyway, Phil Collins' second-to-last studio album was "Dance Into The Light", which has a nice mixture of different kinds of music, and there are actually quite a number of songs on the album that I really love. I was listening to the album the other day, and I remembered how much I absolutely adore a particular song called "Oughta Know By Now". There were a couple of songs on the album that immediately hit me, upon first listen, and that was definitely one of them.

It's a little hard to describe exactly why it affects me so much - it's really just the perfect mixture of everything. The rhythms and tempo in the song are so sensual and sexy - that kind of gets you into it. And then the mix of drums and keyboards and guitar - that draws you further in. And then you get to the lyrics themselves - alluring and powerful. And then to top it all off, you get the driving passion with which Phil sings the songs, especially when he punctuates certain words. Oh my.

I think it's the "torch song" quality of the song that really gets to me. I can totally see Phil singing this in some little dive of a nightclub on a tiny stage, smoky atmosphere, not very many patrons, with just a couple musicians behind him, and him just singing his heart out, right at the person he's directing this song to. Wow. (And yes, in case you were wondering, the husband does read this blog, but it's not like it's any secret to him how much I like Phil.)

So I don't know if I'm simply imagining that scenario or if I'm channelling. I believe he did do a music video for that song, but I can't remember, and that might exactly have been the setting. But no matter where the imagery comes from, it's still just as potent.

So, for your listening pleasure, here's the song itself, "Oughta Know By Now".

Is it getting a little warm in here?

Disney: The Music Behind the Magic - exhibit review

I've previously mentioned that an exhibit called Disney: The Music Behind the Magic would be coming to Southern California, and the husband and I drove out to Hemet last Saturday to check out the exhibit.

Hemet itself is kind of out in the boonies, and when we arrived in Hemet, we followed the GPS as it was telling us where to go to get to the Western Center for Archaeology and Paleontology. And we drove through the main section of Hemet. And we kept going. The husband said that we were being sent out to the boonies. I said that we were already in the boonies. His response was that we were going to the boonies of Hemet. That's really way far out there.

We kept driving, with me wondering where exactly we were being sent to. We turned on a street that I recognized as the name of the street that the museum was located on, so that was a good sign. And then I saw the building that looked like the picture I'd seen on the website, so we headed there.




It was a bit confusing because there weren't really any signs, and the signs that were there mentioned some other thing that was not where and what we were going to. OK then. We then drove toward the further end of the building and finally saw some signs that had the Western Center name on it, so at least we knew we were in the right place, so we parked.

As we walked up to the building, I noticed a sign in the ground mentioning something about the prevalence of snakes in the area and to be careful, and there was a drawing of a snake to emphasize the point. Me. Not happy.

We finally found the main entrance to the museum and went in.


The Disney exhibit is located inside the museum, so you just have to pay the museum entry price to get in, which is $8 for adults, $6.50 for seniors (62+), $6 for kids 5-12, and $6.50 for students (13-22 with a current ID). The museum is free for members, children under 5 and active military with current ID. The exhibit is located at the back of the museum, down the main hallway. The person at the front desk had mentioned that pictures were allowed everywhere else in the museum, but not in the Disney exhibit, so most of the pictures you see included here are taken from the website. I'm not really sure of the reason for not allowing the pictures, and I wasn't happy about that, but their rules, so we abided by them.

The entire exhibit is located in a large room where things are located on walls and in divisions in the middle. It's not too large so that you can't keep track of what you've seen and what you haven't, but because there was a group of people to the right when we walked in, we decided to go clockwise through the exhibit.

Here's a summary of most of the various stations inside the exhibit.

There's a section about the Silly Symphonies, and there are several devices which kind of look like giant Viewmasters that each show a different short.



There's a music trivia quiz that can accommodate four people at a time. You can choose to be Mickey, Ariel, Davy Crockett or Goofy, and it starts off with a couple of questions where you have a bit more time to answer by pushing either "A", "B" or "C", and then there's a speed round where you have less time to answer the questions. At the end of each round, it shows you what everyone's score is and then who the overall winner is. The questions range from classic movies to Broadway to theme park to records to current pop sensations.



There's a little room where you learn about foley using the Silly Symphonies short "The Band Concert". It's the concert segment itself, and there are a few items in the room that can simulate the noises that would be heard on screen. I thought there would be visual cues on screen to tell you when to do stuff, but instead, you're supposed to look at each item and see what picture is posted next to it. That shows you what part of the segment that noise should happen. There was a door you could slam, a machine that simulated the wind sound, and a few things that you had to hit with a mallet to simulate other sounds. You get one test try, and then during the real thing, a microphone is turned on to hear the sounds that you're making, which means it also records any talking going on during that. It was a bit confusing at first but still fun.

Right outside that room is a section on sound effects and how ordinary items can be used to make sounds that aren't what the item itself is.

The barker bird from the Tiki Room is on display with some information about where it used to be and what it used to do. Very pretty.

Belle's peasant dress from the Broadway musical "Beauty and the Beast" is on display. I only saw the show once, with a touring company version that I wasn't very enamoured of. I heard the larger production was quite spectacular. Her dress was very pretty, but much more sparkly and fancy than Belle's peasant dress in the film.

A couple of costumes from the Broadway musical "The Lion King" are on display - Mufasa, Sarabi and a wildebeest. When we were in New York a few years ago, we had done the backstage tour of the New Amsterdam Theatre when "The Lion King" was still being performed there, and they had the Mufasa and Sarabi masks that we could see and feel, and it was amazing how light they were. The entire outfit looks very cumbersome to maneuver onstage while you're actually trying to perform.



There is a section that has memorable music scenes in certain movies, and they show the scene first with commentary about why that particular music fits very well into the scene, and then they show the scene again as is. We watched the "Bella Notte" scene from "Lady and the Tramp".

There is another section about Walt Disney Recordings and their development and the 50 most significant releases they've had. They also had a few tracks that you could listen to. We listened to the opening number from the Broadway recording of the musical "The Lion King" (which is still amazing) as well as Walt Disney narrating a trip down Main Street in Disneyland.

There is a machine where you can experiment with mixing sounds using the song from the attraction "Pirates of the Caribbean". There are multiple levers, each of which controls one particular item, whether it's an individual singing voice, a harmonizer, the singing dog, the music, and so forth. By moving the levers up and down, you can make one part more prominent or more in the background. It was actually interesting to listen to the song as an a capella version with just the singers.

The costumes for Bert and Michael from the "Jolly Holiday" segment of the film "Mary Poppins" are on display, complete with stains and all. Guess they didn't wash the costumes back then.

The costume (dress and shoes) for Vanessa Hudgens from "High School Musical" is on display.

There is a wall of information and pictures and achievements of the most famous Mouseketeer of all, Annette Funicello.

There is another wall with information and pictures and such of the Sherman Brothers.

There is a section with merchandise and information about the Mickey Mouse Club, both its original incarnation and the later version. I had no idea Lisa Whelchel was a Mouseketeer.

There's a little section about a couple of Disney's animated movies which includes the original cassette containing the demo songs for "The Little Mermaid" and Phil Collins' hand-written lyrics for "You'll Be In My Heart" from "Tarzan".

There's a wall section about storyboarding using the "I Got No Strings" segment of "Pinocchio".

There is a wall with the original poster for "Bambi" and another wall with the original poster for "Fantasia".

There is a section about the song "When You Wish Upon a Star" and how popular a song it is and contains recordings by a number of different people that you can listen to.

There's another section about various popular Disney songs and how they've been covered by different people, and there are covers of different songs that you can listen to.

All of the sections mentioned above (except the foley room) include the use of headphones to hear the various elements, so that there's not a cacaphony of sound in the exhibit room. There are also four stations with continuous running video that is simply broadcast, no headphones required. There's a little bench in front of each so that you can sit and watch the video. The four videos are: legacy of Disney music, Disney's animation renaissance (beginning with "The Little Mermaid"), Disney's early animation, and the film "Mary Poppins".


The website has a video preview tour of the exhibit which gives a great overview.




After making our way around the exhibit, we decided to check out the rest of the museum since we were there anyway. There are a couple of smaller exhibits in the hallway that leads to the Disney exhibit, but the focus of the museum is the main exhibit hall which is where the mastodon and mammoth fossils are located. They have fossils of other animals as well. There is also a re-creation of a dig where some of the fossils were discovered. As I mentioned, pictures are allowed in this area, so the following few pictures are actually ours.







There are a number of separate displays and sections in the room with lots of things to learn about.

I liked this little domed re-creation.

This is another section that's particularly geared towards discovery. There is a little section that simulates the finding of fossils, where you can use different things like a brush or an air blower to clear sand to reveal what's underneath. The part I particularly liked was when it would re-set, shaking the sand to cover up the fossil again.

There's another section where you could solve a puzzle about one of the prehistoric creatures, and you're given a dossier card with clues and information.

Derail: this display looked incredibly like the information sheets we received for a competition that we participated in during the fall of 2008.


There's a theatre that shows two different short movies. We sat down to watch "Echoes of the Past, which transports viewers to a time when giant creatures roamed the area", as explained on the website. It was a decent enough little movie and gave us a few minutes to sit down.

Oh, and fyi, the restrooms inside the museum are located in the main exhibit hall, in the back towards the middle. There aren't too many signs, so we had to ask to find them.

We had arrived at about 11am, and it took about 2 hours or so to make our way through the entire Disney exhibit. We didn't listen to every single recording or study every single section, but we did most of what was available in that time. It wasn't very crowded when we first got there, but as it got later, I noticed more people come so that sometimes, you had to wait for a particular section.


After we were done with the museum, we headed over to the gift shop, called the Mastodon Trading Company, which is located outside the museum.



I wanted to see what merchandise might be available for the exhibit, but there wasn't much. I thought they might have a book of the exhibit, but after thinking about it more, since it's an exhibit about music and so much of it is interactive, a book really wouldn't be able to capture it. They had a magnet and a bunch of different apparel, both for kids and adults.

The logo used for most of the adult apparel was the one with the record, which I didn't think was as cute.



The logo I really liked had Mickey in a conductor's pose, but that logo was used only for the kids clothing and the jersey and sweatshirt for adults.



I'm not fond of jerseys, and I so don't need another sweatshirt, and they were a bit more expensive than I would have expected. They were having a sale on the Disney exhibit items, but because the logo wasn't on an article of clothing I wanted, I didn't end up buying anything.


I enjoyed the exhibit, and it was fun to see the various sections and play with the different things. Is it worth going to? Well, you can't beat the low-priced entrance fee, but it's really a matter of where you'd be coming from. Hemet isn't exactly centrally located, and there's really nothing else of note to do out there, so it's not even like you could really make a day of it. We drove out, saw the exhibit, found a place for lunch afterwards, and then drove home, about an hour and a half drive each way. The exhibit is nice, but I wouldn't say that there was anything in it that was spectacular enough to say that everyone should go no matter what. Of course, if there's something specific in any of the sections that I mentioned that particularly appeals to you, then it might be worth the drive out there from wherever you are. I'm a little confused as to why they chose that particular location to have the exhibit - archeology and paleontology don't really have an automatic easy connection to an exhibit about Disney music. Also, I would figure they would have many more visitors if it was somewhere a bit easier to get to or closer to a Disney location.


The exhibit runs through May 10, and the museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, from 10am to 5pm.

Western Center for Archeology and Paleontology
2345 Searl Parkway
Hemet, CA 92543
(951) 791-0033

Disney: The Music Behind the Magic - new exhibit coming to Southern California

I found out about this exhibit from the discussion boards of a Disney-based website.

The exhibit is called Disney: The Music Behind the Magic and will be at the Western Center for Archaeology and Paleontology in Hemet, CA.





Here's some information about the exhibit from the website:

Discover the magic of Disney music at the Western Center Museum February 6th – May 10th, 2009. Disney: The Music Behind the Magic (organized by the Experience Music Project, Seattle) is the first museum exhibition to tell the story of how Disney has used music to engage audiences, drive its timeless narratives, and succeed in cartoons, television, theme parks, live-action films, on Broadway and the Billboard charts.

Here's a link to more information about the exhibit. Sounds cool, doesn't it? There is a lot in the description that interests me, but can you find the two magical words that REALLY caught my attention? Yeah, thought you could.

We're going out to the Palm Desert area in about two months for a show, and the husband suggested maybe going to see this exhibit on that same weekend. That might end up being too rushed, so we might just make a separate trip out to exciting, fabulous Hemet just to see this exhibit.

"Tarzan" in San Jose in February 2009 - EPIC FAIL

So I've known since the beginning of the year that I will be going to San Jose in February of 2009 to see the revamped stage version of "Tarzan". I've had it on a post-it in my calendar to check monthly to see when single tickets will go on sale. Finally, the magical date was published - December 4, 2008. OK, great. Then, additional details were published - ticket sales start at 12:01 AM on December 4, 2008. OK, that means I have to stay up until midnight on Wednesday night to buy tickets. Fine.

So I talked to the husband about when would be the best time for us to go and first, second and third choices of show dates so that I could look for the best seats available.

At about 11:30pm Wednesday night, I went to the tickets page of American Musical Theatre of San Jose to make sure I had the right page up on my browser when tickets went on sale. I'd gone earlier in the week just to check it out, and it had all the right links for the "Tarzan" show. This time, I was confused because on the "buy tickets now" page, there was no listing for "Tarzan". Hmmm, that's odd.




I browsed around to their schedule, and they still had the information for "Tarzan" listed on the "on our stage" section.




OK. But that's still odd. So I had remembered that when I'd gone to the tickets page earlier in the week, it had sent me to Ticketmaster, so since I knew Ticketmaster was selling the tickets, I went there and did a search for "Tarzan". What I found was not what I expected to find.




The show was supposed to play in South Carolina and Atlanta before coming to San Jose, and all the South Carolina and Atlanta shows were listed as cancelled. Whiskey.Tango.Foxtrot. This was still before midnight, so the San Jose dates were still listed as going on sale at 12:01 AM on December 4, 2008. OK, so I clicked on one of those links. That would usually take you to the purchase page which would say that tickets aren't yet on sale, but it would have the show information and sale date up. Instead of going to that page, though, the link took me back to a page on American Musical Theatre's site that said there was no further information. Not good.

So I went to Google and looked for news. And boy, did I find news.

I had thought that the revamped version of "Tarzan" was being done by Disney, but from what I've read now, it looks like the property was licensed by Disney to outside vendors, and the financing for the show was shared among Atlanta's Theater of the Arts, American Musical Theatre of San Jose, and Dallas Summer Musicals, which was supposed to have gotten the show after its run in San Jose.

Somehow or other, the show didn't materialize. Monies were advanced from the San Jose and Dallas groups to the Atlanta group, but the Atlanta group seems to have unilaterally decided to shutter the show. Oh, sure, they're claiming that the show has been "postponed indefinitely", but that's like saying it's being put on "hiatus". The CEO for the San Jose group is claiming that the Atlanta group used the advances to pay for other underperforming productions, and if that's true, I can't imagine a theatre group doing that sort of thing. But if you're in a partnership with two other groups, how do you fire all the actors and show personnel without even consulting your partners, without letting them know that you've even considered taking the move of firing everyone, without going to them as soon as you knew something was wrong?

So I'm sad that I won't be seeing "Tarzan" after all. But I'm really sad about the further fallout from all this. With the loss of "Tarzan", the American Musical Theatre of San Jose is closing down.

This information from the article is what's most striking to me.

Tarzan was the tent pole for American Musical Theatre's season. By losing it, Miller said, his theatre lost its $225,000 down payment, $800,000 in advance ticket sales, and a projected $500,000-$600,000 in additional ticket sales.

Tickets for the show have already been available to subscribers, which is what I presume "advance ticket sales" means, and the "additional ticket sales" would be people like me who were waiting for single tickets to go on sale. A hit of more than $1.5 million would be hard for any organization, but for a smaller theatre company, that's devastating. And to me, it's all the more difficult to absorb because a partner theatre company is at fault.

Here's a story about how Atlanta's actions directly contributed to the demise of the American Musical Theatre.

Here's another article about American Musical Theatre's closing, but this article says they're filing Chapter 7, not Chapter 11 as the other articles say.

I love theatre, so to hear that a 73 year old theatre group is going out of business is sad indeed. American Musical Theater has posted a statement about the closure on their website. In case it's taken down in the future, I'm duplicating it below.

Dear Friends,

It's with a heavy heart that we inform you of the demise of American Musical Theatre of San Jose. We are sorry we were not able to talk to all of you personally but time does not permit us to at this time. It has truly been an honor and pleasure to work with all of you and we sincerely hope our paths cross again soon.

On behalf of all of us here at AMTSJ...warmest regards,

Michael Miller
CEO & Executive Producer




American Musical Theater of San Jose Ceases Operations, Effective Immediately

The American Musical Theatre of San Jose today announced that it is ceasing business operations, effective immediately. The theatre's upcoming productions of Tarzan and 42nd Street have been cancelled although the touring production of Chicago will be performing as scheduled, all tickets will be honored. We are currently in communication with the producers of Avenue Q, to achieve the same result as Chicago.

"We received a telephone call a few days ago from our co-producer for Tarzan, which was the Theater of the Stars in Atlanta, Georgia basically telling us that they used the funds that we had paid them towards the production for other things," said Michael Miller, CEO and Executive Producer of AMTSJ. "In essence, they cancelled the show without giving us any warning, and we discovered that the funds we had paid for Tarzan were spent on another production of theirs, which lost a significant amount of money," Miller continued.

Added Robert Nazarenus, AMTSJ's Chief Financial officer: "The cancellation of Tarzan meant nearly a two million dollar loss to us. The disappearance of the six figures that we paid to Atlanta's Theater of the Stars in good faith coupled with the huge loss of revenues we anticipated from Tarzan was just too much to overcome, particularly in these economic times." Nazarenus went on to say "Despite the harsh economic times, we were operating prudently, and had a solid strategic plan in place. We have always found a way to succeed, with quality productions, patron loyalty, and community support. This season was no different. But, when you in essence lose nearly two million dollars, it is impossible to recover. What makes this even more frustrating is the fact that this is caused by the wanton actions of another theater company."

AMTSJ's local attorneys, coupled with strong legal representation hired in Atlanta, are pursuing aggressive action against Atlanta's Theater of the Stars. Miller and Nazarenus indicate that they will pursue AMTSJ's claim to its successful conclusion. "We are devastated for this community, our staff, and most of all for our loyal patrons," Miller said. "It is especially frustrating because of how hard we have worked, how sound our plan going forward has been, and because of the history and heritage of the American Musical Theatre of San Jose. This is a sad moment for all of us. We will aggressively pursue our claim against the Theater of the Stars to recover whatever money we can to pay the City of San Jose, our vendors and our loyal patrons for their good faith investment in AMTSJ."

What a loss to the people of San Jose and anyone who has gone or has been considering going to a show there.

magical memories - Disneyland tickets for May 4, 2005

Disneyland's 50th birthday was on July 17, 2005. In true Disney style, nothing lasts for only a year, so the actual kick-off of the 50th birthday celebration was May 5, 2005, and it had been announced that the park would be closed on May 4, 2005 to prepare for the opening. As May 4 drew closer, it turned out that it would mostly be a media event day with a party in the evening to which celebrities had been invited. Non-media and non-celebrities had a few different ways they could obtain free tickets to attend the daytime festivities. Annual passholders could register on Disneyland's website for a lottery to win tickets for May 4. I really wanted to go, so I dutifully signed up - and I didn't win the ticket lottery. But I had a backup plan.

There were a number of radio stations that were giving away tickets for May 4 as well. At the time, I was a listener of the Mark and Brian radio show, based out of KLOS-FM in Los Angeles, and they were giving away tickets. I had my plan in place. I had been listening to them long enough to know when the best time might be to call and what the best chance of winning tickets would be.

Mark and Brian always had a call-in game at 6:30am which would take up all their phone lines, but after the game was over, many of the calls would drop off, which meant that was the ideal time to call and have the best chance of getting through. The game ended, and I dialed. And the phone rang. And Preva, their call screener, picked up. I told her the game I had made up, and she said that it sounded like fun and that they'd not had anyone do that before. She said for me to be as upbeat with the boys as I was with her. She didn't know that I sounded so excited and upbeat because I was nervous as heck, and when I'm nervous, I tend to talk fast, which actually was going to work in my favor.

What I had made up was a Disney-related trivia game - I would give them the name of a famous actor and they had to name the Disney animated role the actor played and what the animated movie was. I knew that Mark and Brian liked trivia games, but I also knew that their attention would drift quickly, so I picked big-name actors that they'd know and recent well-known movies, not obscure actors in minor films, both of which they'd be disinterested in. If they didn't know the answer, I would wait a second and then just give them the answer. I'd heard other people just press them to guess when it was obvious they didn't know and weren't going to know and didn't care anymore and just wanted to move on in the game. I knew to just jump into the game and keep it moving along.

I ended up getting on the air at about 6:45am.

I started easy, with Craig T. Nelson, and Mark knew that he played Mr. Incredible in the movie "The Incredibles".

Next was Ellen DeGeneres, and Mark got that she was in "Finding Nemo" but couldn't remember her character name. No, Mark, she didn't play Nemo.

Next was Billy Crystal, and Kelli (their news person) got that one, that he played Mike Wazowski in "Monsters, Inc."

Next was Kathleen Turner, which Brian got, that she was Jessica Rabbit in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" I then tried to stump them with Amy Irving, but Brian got that she was Jessica Rabbit's singing voice in the film. Afterward, the husband mentioned to me that Brian *loves* that movie. Oh well.

Next was Robby Benson, which I threw in because there was a running joke about the crush that Frank (their board op) had on Robby. I believe Mark and Brian actually asked Frank to answer that question, that he was Beast in "Beauty and the Beast".

I knew that Brian liked Minnie Driver, so she was next, but they didn't know the movie, so I gave them a big hint - "think Phil Collins". They got that the movie was "Tarzan" and that she obviously played Jane. It was the only question where I had a hint prepared to give them, and I knew they liked Phil, so I figured giving them that hint would be enough for them to guess the film.

And then I ended the game with a Disneyland-related question: where in the park could you hear Patrick Stewart's voice? They were surprised and had no idea, so I told them that in the then-current "Snow White" stage show, he played the voice of the Magic Mirror. Mark seemed to really enjoy the answer to that question, and I even got a signature "huh" out of him. I was quite pleased with myself.

After the game was over, for some reason that I can't remember, they ended up talking to Preva about her hair, so I just remained silently on the line as they had their chat. Then Mark said something like, Cindy, do you know what you'll be doing on May 4, and I said hopefully, "Going to Disneyland?", and he said yes, congratulations, I'd won the tickets. I was so happy!

I have rarely called into a radio show before, but in this case, I knew the reward would be worth it. I think all of the other radio stations' contests were to be the right numbered caller, which is totally random. I also called in about mid-April, still some weeks away from the actual day, when they'd have lots of tickets left. As they got closer to May 4, they had fewer and fewer tickets, so you had to do bigger and bigger things to get them. I also figured that having my trivia question be Disney-related would make sense, especially given the tickets I was trying to win. All in all, it turned out perfectly - I got the tickets I wanted, and I like to think that I amused them for a couple of minutes doing something fun that they liked - trivia.

May 4, 2005 at Disneyland was an amazing day, and it was the start of an amazing weekend at Disneyland, since we were also there all day on the 5th and part of the day on the 6th. Here's my report from that weekend that includes a ton of pictures - and be warned that it's a long report.

I no longer listen to Mark and Brian, but I will always remember fondly the one time I was able to talk to them on the radio, and I will always be thankful that because of them, I was able to go to Disneyland on May 4, 2005.

Roma, Italia - 14 July 2007

June 10, 2008 marks the United States and Canadian release date for When in Rome 2007, a 3-disc DVD set chronicling the "Turn It On Again" Genesis tour of 2007 that includes a documentary of the entire tour process as well as the final gig of the European portion of the tour - a free concert that Genesis played in Rome for 500,000 fans at Circo Massimo. (And while I get why they probably picked that particular show to release on DVD, I also laugh because you know that most of the people who were at that concert are *so* buying the DVD, especially since there are a lot of crowd shots, so many of them will be able to see themselves in the video. I can't imagine how long many of them would have had to wait to get into the concert, especially the ones at the front with the great views. And there were no seats - it was all standing room only.)

In conjunction with the release of the DVD, screenings were held in a number of theatres across the United States of the concert portion of the DVD.





Luckily, there was a screening in Los Angeles at The Bridge, so I went to see the show tonight. Yeah, I was going to be able to see the concert footage once I bought the DVD, but it wasn't going to be on a giant screen with awesome picture and sound. I wasn't sure how much of a crowd to expect, so I was pleasantly surprised that the theatre was about a third full by the time the screening started.


First of all, it was really cool to see the amazing stage set-up. Most of the concerts on the North American portion of the tour were indoors and so used the indoor setup, and while the Hollywood Bowl is outdoors, there's the shell and limited space to contend with. One of the tour drivers that I ended up talking to for several hours in Hartford on the afternoon of the first concert I saw was telling me about the massive outdoor stage, and he was trying to convince me that I needed to go to the East Rutherford, New Jersey concert at Giants Stadium, where they'd have the set-up. I'm wondering if the setup used in Rome is what they used there, and if so, I'm sorry I didn't take his advice and somehow arrange to go to that concert as well. That would have been amazing to see in person.

Overall, it's a very good concert film. It gives you a lot of balance between the bigger shots, so you can see the stage and projections and the like, and the closeups of the band members. I did notice quite a bit of distortion during "The Cinema Show" and "Duke's Travels", and while I like being able to hear the music really well, I think they had the sound turned up too loudly, not realizing how loud those two songs are. It was almost painful to listen to for that length of time, but it wasn't a problem during other instrumentals, so I'm not sure what the problem was.

It was funny that Phil told a translated version of the intro story to "Home By The Sea". In some of the other countries, he didn't necessarily give any of the intro because of the language barrier, but using a combination of English and Italian (usually in the same sentence, which I laughed at), he told most of the beginning of the story. It stopped after he talked about the scary people living in the house, so I don't know if he didn't tell the rest of the story about the scary people being in everyone's houses or if they cut that out of the video. In "Second Home By The Sea", it was nice that there was so much footage of Tony on the keyboards. It was also cool to watch Daryl doing his solos on "Firth of Fifth".

During "I Know What I Like", I liked being able to see some of the montage pictures/video that they showed on the screen. It was also fun to see Phil playing with the audience - they seemed really receptive, and he seemed to have a great time with them.

I happen to love the album version of "Mama" anyway, but the live version they did on this past tour was just amazingly incredible. I was really surprised when I heard it was on the setlist because I can imagine how much it tears up Phil's voice to do some of what he needs to do in the song, but he sounded great, and the rhythms of the song were just amazing. And followed up after that was "Ripples", something I never thought I'd be able to see them perform live. Yes, the album version is terrific, but with the full sound and maturity, it's really an incredible experience to see and hear, especially since Phil sings just amazingly on this one, so sweet and sincere. Even though musically and thematically, "Mama" and "Ripples" are almost polar opposites, it's really a good match having the two songs together, and I think it's the most powerful section of the entire concert, with the pervasive sensuality of "Mama" followed by the movingly beautiful innocence of "Ripples". Yeah, I know, I'm gushing, but I know I'm not the only one who feels that way about "Ripples". In all of the concerts I went to, that was the one song (during the chorus portion) where you could hear the most people singing along to a song.

I was a little surprised that Phil did do the "Domino" intro, which he did need translated in parts, and boy, when he talked about the "tiny people in the back" (I also laughed when he said the Italian translation), they were seriously tiny, given the spaciousness of the venue.

And then came the part where I realized I must be the biggest idiot on the face of the planet. With as many times as I saw the show, I never realized that at the beginning of the drum duet, or "Conversations with Two Stools" as they call it, that it was actually two stools that they were initially playing on! I had just thought they were two different drums. But it was nice to be able to see close-up shots of both Phil and Chester during that entire segment.

I have to say that I just laugh at the people who are so shocked when Phil drops an f-bomb during "Invisible Touch" - NEWBIES!!!!! But the fireworks at the end of the song in this venue were INCREDIBLE!

I had loved that the last song of the concert was a re-done version of "The Carpet Crawlers". What a terrific song to end the night with, something that's so classic Genesis.

And how frickin' appropriate is it that during the end credits for the concert DVD, they have "Fading Lights" playing over them? That was so awesome because that's what they played as the exit music in the venue when the concert was over and the people were leaving, and it was the perfect song to play in that instance as well.

I can't wait to get the DVD to see the documentary and other special features.

If you're interested in reading my full report of the "Turn It On Again" tour, click here.

magical memories - Phil Collins in Las Vegas

Last year, during Genesis' Turn It On Again Tour, I travelled to such exotic places as Hartford, San Jose and Sacramento to see them, but I still remember the first time I travelled out of town (out of state no less!) to see Phil Collins.

This was in 1994, in support of the album "Both Sides". The album didn't do as well in the States as Phil's prior releases - it was darker and more introspective and sounded the least like what casual fans of his expected. And the darker, more introspective, and unexpected nature of the songs is probably the reasons why it's one of my favorite albums of his.

On that tour, he played The Great Western Forum in Los Angeles on two nights, and I'm sure I must have gone to one of them, even though I don't remember it. But I do know that about a week prior to his L.A. dates, I saw him at the Grand Garden Arena at the MGM Hotel on July 30. I don't remember how or why I decided to see him in Las Vegas. I hadn't been visiting Las Vegas much back then, and I certainly wasn't travelling to see concerts or shows. I do remember that I had mentioned wanting to go to a friend, and she was coincidentally going to be in Las Vegas with her family that same weekend, and she wanted to see him too, so she suggested that we go to the concert together. I said ok, but that I was going to be wanting the best tickets available, so if there weren't two good seats together, I'd be buying two separate seats, and I was going to keep the better seat. She knew how much I liked Phil, even back then, and I wasn't about to have a conversation with her anyway during Phil's concert, so she agreed. I did end up getting two separate seats, about 4 rows apart but in the same section, with the closer seat on the aisle, so I was going to take that one.

I ended up driving out to Las Vegas with a different friend, and we hung out except for the night of the concert. She spent the evening doing her own thing, and I met up with my other friend for dinner before the concert. When we walked into the arena, we found and took our respective seats. I looked around, and I remember thinking it was a pretty good seat. I was at a level where I had a good view of the stage - not too high, not too low - and I was relatively close. And I was on the aisle, so I had a little more room.

The tour had travelled west in the States, and I had been following the tour and reading reviews on a Phil Collins mailing list, so I knew how the concert would proceed. When the concert started, the house lights went off and the lights on the stage went on, as well as moving spotlights everywhere, and then Phil started singing. I knew from reading the reviews that he would appear at the top of the arena somewhere and then make his way down to the stage. As everyone looked around for him, I finally saw him - he was making his way to the stage via the aisle right next to me. Oh my goodness. How amazing was that? It took him maybe 30 seconds to get to me. As he was walking down, people were patting him on the back or touching his arms, which he probably expected since he was walking among the general audience. In that 30 seconds, I had to think about what I was going to do. Was I going to touch his arm or pat his back? Could I touch him at all? Normally, that would be rude, and I'm not prone to being intrusive to celebrities, but this was a case where it would be totally acceptable. My mind raced in those few seconds, as he sang and came closer and closer. And ultimately, I couldn't do it. I was a stranger to him, and it wasn't like I was introducing myself and shaking his hand, and even though he was presenting himself for the opportunity for strangers to touch him, I couldn't do it. I don't regret it - I don't see that it would have made any difference in my life if I *had* touched him. But just having him walk down the stairs RIGHT NEXT TO ME was the thrill that couldn't be topped.

It was a great concert, and I had a great time. After the concert, the friend and I talked about the concert a bit, and then she went back to her room and family. I was too wired to go back to my room or go to sleep, and I just wanted to relive the concert in my head, so I tried to find somewhere just to hang out. I remember that trying to find somewhere just to sit - not gamble, not drink - at the MGM that Saturday night was near impossible. I think I eventually found somewhere, though I can't really remember much else. The next day as we were driving home, I know I talked off the ear of the friend that I'd driven to Las Vegas with, and she very graciously indulged me by asking questions and actually being interested in everything, and I do mean *everything*, I was telling her about the concert. She said it was actually fun to listen to how excited I was as I told her the stories.

I did see Phil at the Grand Garden Arena again, this time during the "First Final Farewell Tour" in August of 2004.

But I will never forget the feeling I got when I first saw him and realized he was going to be coming down my aisle on the night of July 30, 1994.

programming your own radio station

When I'm at work, I like to have something on in the background. I'm not always paying attention to it because I have people coming into my office or calling me on the phone, or I might be working on something where I'm either concentrating enough that I don't hear anything else or I might even need to concentrate enough that I have to turn off all distractions. But generally, having something on that I can enjoy makes the work and day go by better and faster.

During the early part of the day, I listen to Frosty, Heidi and Frank, an FM talk show that also streams on the web. That usually takes me through lunch, but then after lunch, I'm not sure what to listen to. I used to listen to KFI, but most of their topics used to get me upset, so I gave that up. I have of late resorted to listening to ESPN streaming online, but since it's not football season, it's not nearly as interesting as I'd like it to be, though I do enjoy getting news and bits of information and opinion about sports topics that I don't follow as closely.

But sometimes, I just want to listen to music. I haven't been able to find an online streaming radio station that I like, and I do have an iPod, but then I have to remember to bring it and carry it around and plug it in at work.

And then a friend told me about pandora.com, where you can basically program your own personal radio stations online. The idea is that songs can be grouped into categories not based on genre per se, but rather, based on structure and components. The presumption is that if you like a particular song that has specific structure and components, you might enjoy other songs that have the same qualities. They refer to this as the Music Genome Project.

It's pretty easy to start. The main screen asks you to type in an artist or song, and then it takes it from there.





Of course, I typed in "Phil Collins".

It came back with an analysis something like that I liked music with a strong solo voice and strong defined notes, so that was going to be the basis of the music that it was going to offer to me. It randomly picks songs that it thinks fits the criteria, and you can click on the song to tell it whether you like it or not. If you tell it you like it, then it adds it to your playlist. If you tell it you don't like it, then it immediately stops playing and gives you another song. If you don't give an opinion at all, then it seems to keep it on the playlist, though not playing as often. You can also do other things to manipulate the playlist.

It's a free service, but it only lets you listen to a certain number of songs before it requires that you register to continue listening.

So for my "Phil Collins radio station", it has given me songs from the following artists:

Genesis
Peter Gabriel
Mike and the Mechanics
Fleetwood Mac
The Cars
Sting
Johnny Hates Jazz ("Shattered Dreams")
Chicago
Bryan Adams
Journey
U2
Cyndi Lauper
Don Henley
The Police
Elton John
Paul Simon
Steve Perry
John Waite ("Missing You")
Peter Cetera
Don Henley
Hall and Oates
Foreigner
Heart
Starship


Some of the artists, like Genesis and Peter Gabriel, are probably not surprising choices to offer me, but I was amazed at how much of the other stuff it offered me was stuff that I really like, even stuff that I haven't listened to in a while. And it's not offering me every song in Phil Collins' catalog, but only particular ones that fit the set of criteria it initially came up with. I expect that if I put in a particular Phil Collins song that doesn't conform to the criteria of the Phil Collins songs it is already giving me, it might generate a whole different list of songs, though perhaps from the same artists.

It has given me some songs that I've rejected from the playlist. It gave me one Pink Floyd song that I listened to a couple of times, but it's not one of their songs that I know and to me, it didn't fit the criteria, so I eventually took it off the playlist. It has also given me some specific country songs and other genres and artists that I'm not fond of that I've said no to.

I'm a little surprised that it hasn't given me anything of Dire Straits, since I also really like them, and some of their songs would seem to fit the criteria. I figure at some point, I'll start other radio stations with Dire Straits as the lead-in and with Pink Floyd and other artists and songs that I like to see what comes out of those.

Here's a little more information about the background of pandora.com, and at least it seems they do understand the significance of the name they've chosen for their website, though they've conveniently ignored one fact. Yes, Pandora was curious, but that curiosity led to her releasing all the evils onto the world - that was one thing that made me hesitate to even try the website. Things are going to be fine for a while, and then what evil nefarious thing is it going to do to me or my computer? So far, so good. But I really wish they'd picked a different name.

Someone I know told me a story about a company that was comparing themselves to the wizard in "The Wizard of Oz". Yeah, well, you might not want to use that as an analogy unless you know what the wizard does at the end of the story.

The answer is me!

Since for the next year, I will be the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything, I'm having a Phil-fest as a gift to myself.


"Wear My Hat" - I love this song, which is about the interaction that a famous singer can have with fans who are fanatical in the true sense of the word. Oftentimes, people can be invested in a celebrity's work and be knowledgeable about their personal life and then project a relationship with that celebrity, one that doesn't actually exist. I love the humour with which this story is told, and it's also a really peppy song and has great infectious music. When I saw Phil in concert singing this song, he and the rest of the band had such a great time with it, passing hats back and forth with each other, so it was so much fun to watch. The following video mixes music video footage with concert footage.





"Separate Lives" - This is one of my favorites from earlier Phil. The song is actually written by Stephen Bishop, and it's a duet by Phil and Marilyn Martin and was used in the film "White Nights". Lyrically, musically and vocally, it's an amazingly moving song. I love the recorded version, but the first time I saw this in concert, and it was staged so that Phil was singing lead alternately with two of his backup singers, one male and one female, I was blown away. Normally, it's a great song of broken love between a man and a woman, but when you add the third-party dimension to it, it just makes the story of the song that much more complex and heart-breaking. The concert footage below doesn't have the physical triangle staging that is done sometimes for this song (now if only "The Phantom of the Opera" would bring that staging back for the "Wandering Child" section of the show when Christine is at her father's grave, but I digress), but the voices are still terrific. After all, it's Phil with Amy and Arnold.





"Against All Odds" - Another one of my earlier Phil favorites, this time actually written by Phil himself. This was the title track of the film of the same name, and again, a song that I love lyrically, musically and vocally. This is the official music video which incorporates footage from the film (starring Jeff Bridges, James Woods and Rachel Ward) with footage of Phil singing.





And then we get to a blast from the past. I loved watching "Miami Vice" from the very beginning, for its story, acting and the cinematography and editing of the show. This was a Friday night ritual when I was in college. One of the things I loved most was their brilliant use of just the right music and images, not to mention that they used music and artists that I liked. The show exuded the very essence of ambience and mood. This is the segment from the pilot episode that uses "In The Air Tonight". Brilliant. I was hooked.




Hope you enjoyed that Phil-athon as much as I did!