Mygazine

Keeping Busy During the Long Weekend

I don't know about you but by the time I made it to last Thursday morning, I was so ready for the long weekend. The true "holiday season" hasn't even started and I'm ready for a break. Looks like I'll need to pace myself. Anyway, this weekend, in between plenty of couch time, we found all kinds of things to do—some worth the time and some not.

Thursday afternoon, the boyfriend and I caught an afternoon showing on Bobby, the new film by Emilio Estevez that tells the story of 22 people who were at LA's Ambassador Hotel on the day RFK was assassinated. The cast is definitely star-studded. In addition to Estevez, the cast list includes Sharon Stone, Demi Moore, Elijah Wood, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Martin Sheen, Harry Belefonte, Lindsay Lohan (yes, even Lindsay Lohan), Laurence Fishburne, and Freddy Rodriguez (of Six Feet Under Fame). While Stone and Moore both give great performances and Lindsay Lohan proves that she can act, even if she can't sing, the story is far too convoluted and difficult to follow for this to be the big hit that many thought it could be.

Thanksgiving was a quite day at home. In the morning, I hit Fort Greene Park with one of our dogs, Zoe. That was the extent of the day's physical activity. That night, though, we braved the icy rain for an outstanding Thanksgiving dinner at Wallse, one of my favorite holiday dinner spots. Since Dave made the reservation a couple weeks ago, I had been mentioning our plan to friends. Considering the restuarant has been open on its quiet corner in the West Village for a few years now, I was shocked by the number of people who hadn't even heard the restaurants name, let alone darkened its door. All I can say is plan a dinner there asap. It is a wonderful experience from beginning to end.

Friday was a bit of a wash since we spent it traveling back and forth between our vet dealing with a small medical emergency for our other dog, Angus. He is fine now and recovering nicely, but that night we couldn't stand to leave him by himself all groggy on pain medication.

Even though we live in Brooklyn, until Saturday neither of us had been to the Brooklyn Museum. The Annie Liebovitz exhibit running late January gave us a good excuse to make the trip. Obviously we weren't the only people who had this idea. Even when we arrived not long after noon (the museum opens at 11am on Saturdays) there was a healthy line to get in. Having be a big fan of Liebovitz's work for a long time, I was excited to see he photos up close and personal. Strangely, the exhibit is a mix of her personal and professional work. As she puts it, "I don't have two lives. This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it." Whatever. The combination of the two made the exhibit a bit confusion and hard to follow. And the museum could manage the flow of people much better so that it is easier to see and enjoy the exhibit. If you decide to give the museum a try (and judge for yourself) you can also catch "Looking Back From Ground Zero," an engaging exhibition of works from the permanent collection that includes paintings, photographs, prints, and drawings of the Lower Manhattan area around the World Trade Center site before, as well as after 9/11, and an installation of the hyper-real sculputure of Ron Mueck.

Then Saturday night, we join a full house of fans for a showing of For Your Consideration. Continuing the theme of the day, though, the film didn't deliver on its positive hype. I'm still a huge fan of Christopher Guest and what has become his house ensemble of actors but this isn't their best film.

Bond is Still the Winner in My Book

It was a close race at the box office but it looks like Happy Feat beat out the smokin' hot new 007, Daniel Craig, by just over $1.5 million to take the number one box office spot in the US this week. But, you never know. Things could change once the actual numbers are in tomorrow.

Not to worry, though. This showing, which puts Casino Royale in the number two opening weekend position in the Bond franchise, proves that Craig can carry a film. The penguins may be cute, but Bond has a great looking lead, a hot new bond girl and international intrigue on its side.

Madonna Comes to NBC This Wednesday Night

Catch a quick preview of the Madonna concert scheduled to air this Wednesday night on NBC. I can't imagine why she chose to have it air on NBC instead of a less restrictive outlet like say...HBO or Showtime. Either way, you know I'll be watching.

 

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Who is Michael Urie Anyway?

If you haven't already added Ugly Betty to your Thursday night must-see list (or at least your DVR record list), then your are missing out. The show is a clever skewering of the magazine and fashion worlds and is bringing quite a bit of attention to several once up-and-coming actors.

My personal favorite is Michael Urie, aka Marc. As the conniving, hilarious assistant to MODE magazine Creative Director Vilhelmina Slater, Urie is bright star in an already stellar cast. Just a couple months ago we saw him in the indie film WTC View. Now his great comedic timing and bitchy wit are being beamed into our living rooms on a weekly basis. The Dreamgirls inspired scene in last week's episode was one of my favorites to date.

I am also happy to Eric Mabius, aka heir apparent to the Meade Publishing fortune Daniel Meade. He was a favorite of mine on The L Word (returning to Showtime January 7) and he is still looking great and burning up the screen.

Vanessa Williams, America Ferrera, Alan Dale (who you might recognize as Caleb Nichol from The OC) and many others round out the cast. Like I said, if you aren't watching this show, start.

Virginia Gentlemen

Besides having a great time hanging out with my sister, we had a chance to check out a great concert by the Virigina Gentlemen while we were in town. The VGs as they are known are UVA's 14-member, all-male acappella group that was founded in 1953. Their roots may be deep in Virginia history, but their repetorie for this concert, and most of their recordings, couldn't have been more contemporary. The guys performed an evening of amazing arrangements of songs from artists including Panic! At the Disco and Imogen Heap to an old James Taylor favorite.

Do yourself a favor and check out the group's site or maybe even one of their concerts.

O Shenandoah

 

A couple weeks ago we made a trip to Charlottesville to visit my sister who recently started grad school at UVA. While we were there, I could resist taking an afternoon to drive an hour over the mountains to my alma mater in Lexington, Washington & Lee University. Here we are hanging out on in front of Lee Chapel on the Colonnade.

If you haven't visited Virginia in the fall, I highly recommend it. You hear so much about New England at this time of year. It has nothing on Virginia. Click here for a few more photos from the trip.

A Few Things You Should Know About UVA and W&L
1) Show that you are in-the-know and refer to UVA's Grounds not the campus.

2) Washington & Lee was founded in 1749 as Augusta Academy and claims both George Washington and Robert E. Lee as former presidents.

3) Both schools have very strong Honor Systems. I can't speak for UVA, but at W&L that means students can schedule their own final exams, most of which are unproctored, and that classrooms and the library are open 24/7. The realities of modern living have caused the school to tighten security on the dorms and administration buildings, but the other buildings remain open.

4) The University of Virginia was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and is consistently ranked as one of the top public universities in the country.

5) Both schools began as all-male institutions. Washington & Lee was a single-sex university until it admitted the first class of female undergrads in 1985. (I was a member of the second coed class.) UVA began admitting women in 1970.