Proof of my continued existence.

Hello internet.

It's been a while, as usual, so I'm just going to hit the big stuff as I can recall it. First order of business is, of course, my amazing girlfriend. Tabitha and I are sickeningly cute still and that doesn't look to change any time soon. We've done a few nice dates though that has slowed since I no longer have money. most of the cool stuff I've done in the past month has been with her by my side since we can't bear to be apart too long.

The Art Institute of Chicago
http://www.artic.edu/
This was a wonderful date. We went to exercise our mutual love for fine art. The impressionist exhibit was lovely though not as extensive as I would have expected which is too bad sine it was %50 of the reason for going. The gallery did not disappoint overall though. Their collection is massive and wide ranging. Their collection of tapestries was truly incredible, though not very varied. There was a lot of work from the same few artists and while they were excellent I would have liked to see more variety. We quite enjoyed their statue garden and their, in process, Chinese collection. The Egyptian artifacts and religious jewelry they had tucked into the passage between the big galleries was also quite lovely. Overall we had a grand time and got to be really cute in the vicinity of some truly great works of art.

Repo, The Genetic Opera
http://www.repo-opera.com/
This movie seems to be largely the product of blogging so I should probably have added my salmon to the run before now. That said we watched this movie a few wekks ago as part of it's first national tour. The film is trying to gain support so that Lions Gate Films will make a larger release later.
Repo is an interesting film combining a dark latex vision of the future and a goth-rock sound not unlike Evanescence. The basic premise is that in the future a organ plague will bring modern society to its knees in response a biotech company finally perfects man made organs and offers payment plans to those who cannot afford the transplants in time to save their lives. The downside is that as time goes on it becomes fashionable to attempt to overcome ones own genetics and not only perfect one's cosmetic appearance but to perfect one's internal structure as well. designer organs become the vogue The natural train for this is, of course, when you have financing options for high ticket items which are in demand there will be people who promise more than they can pay and repossession becomes an issue.
But how do you repossess an organ though, you might ask. You call the night surgeon, played by Anthony Stewart Head. He's a legal assassin with the singular task of tracking down debtors and forcefully removing the unpaid merchandise from them without anesthetic or sanitary measures. When on the job he is known as the Repo Man. This isn't just a dark gothic slasher flick though. Nor is it just a musical. It is also the story of the Repo Man's other life. His daughter, who he raised alone has a dangerous genetic blood disorder and cannot be allowed out of the house. His love for her overrules all else in his life and his devotion and desire to keep her safe are his only concerns. Throw into the mix the family running GeneCo, the company responsible for the organs and the repo man's employer, who are nothing more or less than classic operatic archetypes albeit viewed through a looking glass darkly.
It was enjoyable though I found some of the music to be noticeably sub par and many of the characters to be almost entirely superfluous. It was a fun show but I would wait to see it in a second run theater or wait until it comes out in a, no doubt extra sanguine, DVD release.

Now, of course, we in America celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday. For those unfamiliar it's the day we celebrate some people having dinner a long time ago. We celebrate by having dinner every year. Sure, you can talk about overcoming the troubles of early colonization and peace between the colonists and the natives they were soon to destroy. When you get down to it though, this is a holiday about our country's love of eating dinner.
That said, it was great. Tab and I watched the Macy's parade together and got to see the balloon hitting the NBC booth and the national rickrolling perpetrated by Cartoon Network's submission. We will be making sure to watch the NBC coverage from now on. as we mistakenly watched the CBS rubbish for about half of the parade and didn't get to see most of the floats or their performances.

After a little while with Heather we all three of us headed out to the Barrett's house for Thanksgiving dinner. The assemblage of misfits and family had a lovely time though I'm sure I don't remember half of the names thrown at me. I look forward to making their dinner a part of our tradition for the years to come. For the facebook crowd there promises to be photos coming soon.

There was something special about the "first holiday" with Tabitha. I found myself often thinking about how as the years go on I'd like us to grow as a couple. I'm so glad I got to share this first holiday with such friendly, welcoming people. That said, I get to meet the parents next weekend in a similar setting, I can only hope that I make a good impression.

Today's Gems are from Repo-

I found a really cool cache of videos on YouTube. They are from the original stage version of Repo. What makes this cool is that you can see just how far the material has come since it's inception as what looks like a pretty low budget art house piece. For most of the songs available from the original the change was very much for the better. I've chosen to give you the one song which, aside from much better orchestration, might have been better in the original.

This is a copy of the song as it appears in the film, sadly no video was available. So you get to watch the thrilling performance of the logo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT2aLJmS_48

And this is how it appeared in the stage version. I think the song is more effective as a soliloquy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saCfVhAUP0I

Sadly, my favourite song was abysmal in the original version.
Thrill to the logo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm5FBc906qY

And now see the finest father daughter confrontation scene in the film as it was without the daughter. I'm not sure if this came from the same part of the show or if it was moved but it seems a lot weaker without Shiloh in the picture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvaaAXR_vGY

I believe that's all I have at the moment, I know I missed a lot of material like Heather's performance in "I Ain't Stingy", Leslie's performance in "A House With No Walls" and my own performance in "Queen Elizabeth's Dwarf". Hopefully there will be another post next week with all theatre content. I'm only waiting so I can lump them all together as well as including Heater's performance in "The Right Answer" this weekend.

If anyone would like to come support Heather the show is at the Gorilla Tango Theatre in Bucktown.
http://www.gorillatango.com/chicago/index.htm
Saturday at six and Sunday at five. Tickets are $20 and seating is general.

-That will be all.-