Rose Trees Never Grow

I've been getting ready in the past month or so for my post grad life, and one of the things that is required in that is job interviews. So far, I've had two, which I know is a low number. (I spoke to one of my girlfriends who graduated last year and she talked about 40 interviews before she got any offers) The interviews themselves I don't want to talk about, suffice to say either job (both entry level internships) would be an absolute dream come true, one in fashion and one in theater. But that's not what I'm talking about here.

Both interviews have been in New York City. I don't know exactly when I fell in love with the city, but I know when I'm away from it too long I get sad, restless and feel disconnected. Even in the deepest, darkest moments of my depression, the months that I have next to no memories of, the trips to the city are memorable. A day at The Met Museum's Clostiers and a Broadway perfomance of Pygmallion with the rest of my English department, taking my cousin's then fiance, now husband to see the tree at Rockefeller Center for the first time, (Tyler walked around exaggerating his Alabama accent the whole time, "Wowie, Meag! Look at all the PURRRTTTY la-iii-gg-hts!" it's a pretty tough memory to lose, regardless of mental health).

My only two "real" jobs have been in the city. An internship with the biggest department store ever. (You know the one, trust me.) I hated a lot of the job but loved my lunch break, wandering around midtown. My other job, working as a customer service rep for a website that sold shoes. (BEST JOB EVER! And nicest people ever. BUY SHOES FROM THEM!) It was a wonderful six months. I loved commuting, I loved the occasional Happy Hour in the Chelsea or midtown bars after work, our office was nicely nestled in between the two areas. I loved meeting my two best girlfriends after work during Fleet Week and flirting with sailors in Times Square. I loved the cute boy who worked at the Pret A Manger around the corner from my office and always winked at me as I bought my iced coffee and croissant in the morning. (I nicknamed him Taylor, as in "The Latte Boy.") I loved everything about it.

What's the point of this, do you ask? The point is I miss The City. Every morning that I wake up in my little single bed, in my college town apartment, and walk two blocks to campus to go to the gym, I wish, just for a minute that I was stepping not out of an old converted house into apartments onto a small city street, but off of the escalator at Penn Station, my I-Pod in my ears, Midtown waking up to go off to work and feel a real connection to who I am.

I've applied to jobs other places, both in Northern New Jersey, which will always be home, no matter what, and in other cities, God help me, but I know what I want. I want to be back in NYC. So how do I cope with missing it? I watch movies and TV shows about the city, (Arthur being my latest favorite) I've created an I-Pod playlist of all New York songs to make me miss the city less.

Like Frank said, "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere!" I've already made it there, and I'm just hoping to make my way back...

I'm Black and I'm Proud

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In continuing with my series, which I'm tentatively calling "Random Pop Culture Crap My Family Loves" I'm going to discuss today one of our most obscure (on this continent at least!) obsessions. The Irish film The Commitments.
The Commitments is the story of a bunch of young Dubliners who start a soul band that plays in some bars and changes their lives, but not by making them rock stars, just by giving them something to do, for however long they want it.

Come to think of it, there's a little bit of Jimmy Rabbitte (the band's manager) in myself, seeing as I started my theater group on kind of the same principle.

The music of The Commitments is what got me first, since I'd practically worn out the film's soundtrack years before I was allowed to see the movie. My brother and I clocked it once and the say the "F" word once every minute and a half, which is pretty amazing considering it's only about two hours long and at least forty minutes of that is singing, where there are no "F" words.

The movie is sharp funny, and very Irish. The nation's history is summed up in a quote by Jimmy, when one of the other band members question whether they've any right to sing soul:

"The Irish are the blacks of Europe, and Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northsiders are the blacks of Dublin. So say it once and say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud!"

Once, following that same logic my brother and I decided that we had every right to blues, because our family are farmers from Roscommon, so if Dublin is urban black America with soul, Roscommon is the Delta.

Built on Their Shoulders

Glee was fantastic tonight and not just because the two original songs New Directions did at regionals were actually good. Which they were. Also Kurt and Blaine finally got together and had a super long boy on boy kiss which I'm pretty sure included tongue. My friends and I got REALLY excited about it. But let's not forget that Blaine and Kurt didn't get there by themselves. There are a few specific examples of characters that in my opinion paved the way for our two favorite blazered acappella guys:

Jack McFee: Dawson's Creek

In Season 2, after Joey and Dawson's romance totally imploded, she started dating mysterious new guy Jack McFee. About three episodes later, Jack wrote a revealing poem about his feelings and yelled at his dad about how he was gay. He then moved out of his family's house and in with Jen and Grams creating possibly the most functional family unit on that show. (Yeah, I know!)

After he came out Jack could get kind of preachy, and occasionally annoying...but um, well, if you've seen any of Dawson's, you know he wasn't alone there. They all got that way occasionally. But Jack was also a star wide receiver for the Capeside Minute Men, went through a douchey frat guy phase, and eventually settled in to life as a teacher, living with Pacey's older brother Doug, and the couple raised Jen's baby after she died. (CRY FOREVER! One of the best finales ever)

Marco Del Rossi: Degrassi: The Next Generation

Sure, it's a Canadian basic cable import, but Marco's storylines were always the best on Degrassi...with the possible exception of the EPIC Ash/Craig/Manny triangle, or that time Shawn and Peter were street racing, or when Emma got gonorrhea from going down on Jay in that van...anyway, Marco came out in season 2, but just to Ellie who then pretended to be his girlfriend for a while. Then in the season 3 premier Spinner figured it out, and they got into a big fight and Marco got beat up.

Then he dated Paige's brother for a long time, then he was a hustler in one episode. Also that time that Darcy's mean Christian friends tried to take him down and he shoved his cross in their face and talked about going to Mass every Sunday was awesome. And Marco wasn't the only gay teen on Degrassi, there was also Paige and Alex, but they just weren't as ground breaking.

Calvin Owens and Heath: Greek

I've been rewatching Greek, and really, Cal's awesome. A bit insecure when he first gets to CRU, he hooks up with closeted KT bro Heath. Then he dates TA Michael, but he's still got feelings for Heath, who's coming out remains one of my favorite moments on the show. Heath takes a deep breath and says he has something serious to discuss with pledge brothers Cappie, Beaver and Wade, and reveals his sexuality. The trio exhales, relieved, because they thought this conversation was about Beaver's hitting on Heath's 15 year old sister (Heather, who became a mini Rebecca, but that's a completely different story) at a family event. The brother's are supportive.

Additionally, when Cal gets past his initial insecurities, he comes out to best friends Rusty and Ashleigh, and his brothers at Omege Chi are mostly OK with it too, until he starts dating that douchey other gay Omega Chi, who's name I don't remember. But then he got back together with Heath, thank God!

So yes, Blaine and Kurt are exciting, but let's not forget that they didn't get there overnight.

Our time now

3rd Post of the day...I'm going to have to cut back.

But I couldn't not discuss the end of something great.

Last night was final episode of ABC Family's completely awesome Greek. Yes, after four seasons, the guys of Kappa Tau and Omega Chi and the girls of ZBZ are gone forever. Except that they're on Netflix instant, and I think I'm going to have to watch the whole show from beginning to end again.

If you don't know Greek, I'm sorry for you, because it's one of the smartest, funniest bits of fluff to come out in a while. I've recently come up with a good way to view fluff. A lot of the stuff I like is literary and performance junk food. But it doesn't have to be the processed from a can or a bag kind. It can be hand crafted deserts, which while they don't exactly have nutritional value, are still delicious. Greek was like a Magnolia Bakery cupcake. Yummy as can be, but totally fattening, empty calories.

It centered around the lives of mainly eight members of the Cyprus Rhodes University Greek System. (Cyrprus and Rhodes are Ancient Greek cities. See, the show was already smarter than you thought!) There were the girls of ZBZ, the "number one sorority on campus," with every cliche that goes with it, Casey, Ashleigh and Rebecca, the preppy boys of Omega Chi, Evan and Calvin, and finally the misfit party animals of Kappa Tau, Rusty and Cappie. Plus, Rusty's nerdy roommate, and eventual Omega Chi pledge Dale.

What made Greek great was the way its characters were never exactly what they seemed. Casey seemed bossy and determined, but it turned out to be a compassionate soft touch. Evan appeared to be only the bad guy in a John Hughes script, but was actually an intelligent, conflicted young man. Cappie seemed only a stoner lay about, but was really a philosophical genius who would do anything for the woman he loves (Casey, btw). The love triangle between these three was the catalyst behind the show, but stayed away from the cliche of others because the three characters all also were fun to watch by themselves. Ashleigh could have been a throwaway sidekick but instead outshone Casey on several occasions. Rebecca's bitchiness stemmed from her desire to fit in. Rusty and Dale were nerds with hearts of gold, who didn't always do the right thing. Calvin was the most obvious twist, a gay football playing preppy, with a desire to change the world.

The element of Greek that I always loved was the realistic portrayal of the relationship between siblings Rusty and Casey. They had their insecurities about each other, Casey felt always intimidated by Rusty's high intelligence, and Rusty by Casey's golden girl status, but they always had each other's backs.

The finale did that thing that I love when finales do, it brought about closure while still giving a distinct sense that this world will continue. Casey and Cappie left CRU for Washington, after he graduated by accident, and we learned after his diploma that "Cappie" is in fact short for "Captain" which is his first name. Ashleigh and Rusty began a new relationship (not a storyline I was rooting for) Evan and Rebecca saw that they could maybe have a future together, Calvin headed abroad to do volunteer work with boyfriend Heath, and Dale began a real relationship with longtime fling Laura. Satisfying conclusions for all. Although the destruction of the Kappa Tau house was sad and did get me teary, I was thrilled that they brought back season 1 bad guy Jen K, and that Kappa Tau Pledge Peter "Spidey" Parker was actually good all along.

Goodbye Greek. I will miss you!

You make my heart sing...

OK, I was planning on staying out of the fray, but it's starting to get impossible now...I don't want to seem a completely out of touch pop culture blogger so it looks like I'm going to have to comment on the antics of Charlie Sheen...

I'm a Sheen fan. And I don't just mean Charlie, I mean the whole freaking brood. True, I've never been as much of a fan of Charlie as some of the others. After all, he never lead a scrappy group of preteens to ice bound glory 3 times, like his brother did. Or inspired to nation with two little words like his dad, but he does throw a helluva fastball. And Two and A Half Men was funny for like, a season and a half. (Why people kept watching is beyond me, except that it had a good lead in for a while, between Everybody Loves Raymond, and How I Met Your Mother.) I think he's an immensely talented and clearly very troubled individual.

So here's my comment. Dude's been in some of my favorite movies, it makes me sad to see anyone so clearly in need of help and not getting it, or accepting it, whichever the case may be.

I am grateful that this means that show's gonna be off the air finally.

You're growing up like flower

So, after how much fun I had writing about Starlight, I decided to report on some of the other random crap that my family loves but it seems like other people ignore. Obviously, I asked my family for suggestions, and my sister, the ever wise, and totally rock star Mary, brought up American Dreams.

OK, so American Dreams was on for 3 seasons. Which means logically, our household could not possibly have been the only one watching it, but it occasionally feels that way. Since anytime I bring it up to other people, they look at me like I'm insane.

American Dreams chronicled the lives of the Prior family, a working class Irish-Catholic family from Philadelphia in the mid 1960s. Father Jack, who owned and operated a TV and Radio shop, Mom Helen, who became bored with her housewife status so went back to school, oldest son JJ, a football star who harbored dreams of being an astronaut, Meg, the good girl daughter who defies her parents by dancing on American Bandstand, genius second daughter Patty and baby Will, who was his brother's reason to dream. Also included were JJ's longtime girlfriend and later wife, Beth, Meg's rebellious best friend Roxanne, Jack's assistant Henry and his son Sam, and Meg's revolving door of boyfriends. (The best being Chris, Milo Ventimiglia on a motorcycle!)

American Dreams was kind of innovative and ahead of its time. Aside from covering the same time frame as the now massively lauded Mad Men, it also featured current reinterpretations of classic songs, since the guests on Band Stand were often played by modern stars, singing the songs, including Kelly Clarkson as Brenda Lee, Usher as Marvin Gaye, Jennifer Love Hewitt as Nancy Sinatra a la Glee. Plus it introduced the world to Brittney Snow, who played Meg quite adorably. Even though Meg was often really unlikeable, Brittney made her feel real.

The show covered some pretty heavy issues, including JJ's stint in Vietnam, were he went MIA, as Beth found out she was pregnant, Sam and Meg being continually attracted to each other, but knowing that even their friendship was taboo, because he was black and she was white. Also, Helen went on the pill after multiple miscarriages, had a gay coworker and helped a classmate after she had an abortion.

Every Sunday the Nayden family gathered for American Dreams. And really, sometimes it did feel like we were the only ones watching.

Which was unfortunate, because MILO on a MOTORCYCLE! With a Beatles haircut. Yeah, you're sorry you missed that.

I am the Starlight...

"What's scary about Starlight Express isn't that Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote it. He is insane. We knew this. What's scary to think about is that there were men in suits in an office somewhere that gave him money to do it." - Allison Andresini, 2004-ish

Ollie: You do know that this is a singing play right? Because one time, Daddy went to go see a singing play and then everybody was on roller skates.
Gertie: Cool!
Ollie: Daddy didn't think so.
-Jersey Girl

"It's just like Joseph but on roller skates. And instead of characters from the Bible, they're all trains. But other than that, it's like exactly the same." - Mike Nayden, anytime he tries to explain it to people who don't know what it is beyond that sketch on Family Guy

"I had this dream, that instead of doing Annie Get Your Gun, Mike convinced us to do an outdoor version of Starlight Express...I'm not sure what that means." - Katie Wiegl, Summer 2009

"Well, I don't know if I can take a whole night of ABBA and it doesn't sound like that subject is appropriate for my 9 year old. This is Andrew Lloyd Weber! The kids liked Cats, they'll like this too." - Irene Nayden, Summer 1999, London, England, Justifying her decision to take her children to see Starlight Express instead of Mamma Mia! (Good Call Mom!)

So, my earlier post today, about Joseph got me thinking about what may be my ultimate guilty pleasure...the musical Starlight Express. If you're unfamiliar (most people are) it's a post Cats pre Phantom of The Opera Andrew Lloyd Weber musical about trains.

Yes, you heard me right. Trains. And all of the characters are on roller skates. Does it sound bizarre? That's because it is. It's also fantastic.

And when I say I love Starlight, I don't mean it in an ironic, it's so kitschy, isn't that funny kind of way.

See, it all started in the summer of 1999. My family took a trip to Ireland and drove around the country for two weeks in a van. Lots of stories there. We ended the trip with four days in London. I was 11, I was in a foreign country for the first time. I was naive. My parents decided to indulge their burgeoning theater geek children by taking them to see a show on The West End, London's answer to Broadway.

Everyone was talking about this revolutionary new show, that took the music of an already established band and built the musical around it. Apparently, this show was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Unfortunately the band it was built around was ABBA, and my parents believe that disco came from Satan. Plus it was about a girl with 3 possible father's and my mom thought it would be inappropriate. So that was out. (In the future, I would often grumble about how I didn't get to see Mammy Mia like four years before anyone in the US had even heard of it)

Instead they got tickets to some show that my dad saw in the 80s and remembered vaguely enjoying and that the concierge at our hotel assured them, "the children would enjoy."

And enjoy it we did. This show had everything! Singing, dancing, roller skates, laser lights, power ballads, spelled out curse words in a a country song, a flimsy plot about a train race, a rap song, a convoluted and illogical love story, jokes about Sylvester Stallone movies...I think you get the point.

And we continued to enjoy it for years. We bought the CD and listened to it over and over and over again. Then high school hit and we got realllllllyyy into theater, and it turned out that this show which we loved, was actually considered a joke. A big stinking turd of a joke. I had many conversations with people who tried to convince me to change my mind, and my response usually went something like this:

"But, but, but, roller skates! And lasers! And...OK, yes, the trains are stupid, but it's for kids! Who cares?"

OK, so before writing this post, I read the Wikipedia article for Starlight Express. Um, it's turns out it wasn't supposed to be for kids. The original plot was way darker, and totally weirder. And then it got edited and changed around and became family friendly. Also apparently, Electra, the electric train, (Nobody sprained any muscles naming these characters, Rusty is an old steam engine, Dinah a dining car etc.) is supposed to be bisexual. Which is what his first song "AC/DC" is about. My 11 year old brain did not process that.

Also, although Americans think that Starlight is a big turd, Europeans love it! It's like the longest running show in German history, and it ran for 7,000 performances or something on the West End. So there.

I did listen to the CD again before writing this too. And I still think a lot of the songs are really good. But yeah, most of it is pretty awful.

Plus when you're just listening, you can't see the lasers.

And almost 10 years later, when we went to go see Mamma Mia! my mom totally loved it.

Any Dream Will Do

It's funny how the simplest offhand comment can set your mind going...

Yesterday, my horoscope was about dreams, and how great leaders often looked to dream interpreters as the wisest, and honored them...

Which prompted my mother to comment, that my horoscope recounted the story of Joseph, from the Bible. Or um, if you're me and my mother, (who both love the Bible, don't misinterpret!) from Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice's Pop Opera Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

My CD copy of the 1993 Canadian Cast Recording, featuring Donny Osmond as Joseph (Don't let the words, "Canadian" and "Osmond" automatically put you off, it's widely regarded as the best version) went missing ages ago, and I can't find any downloads of it, legal or otherwise. Which means I'm probably going to have to place an Amazon order for a new hard copy, since I doubt I'll be able to find it out in the real world either, so I've had to rely on Youtube clips to assuage my craving.

Anyway, if you're not familiar with the show, get yourself familiar. It's easily some of Weber's best music (written while he was still in school, I believe) and Tim Rice's lyrics are as always flawless. Even at my snobbiest theater geek levels, I remained a staunch Weber apologist. Sure, he can you know, go astray. (*cough* Starlight Express *cough* whichialsokindoflovebutthatsanentirelydifferentstory *cough*) and the show has some pure camp moments that can get kind of cringy...but it has two of his best ballads, "Any Dream Will Do" and "Close Every Door" as well as the camptastic but awesome "Benjamin Calypso" and "Song of The King" where an Elvis impersonating Pharoah tells Joseph his dreams.

Just a little slice of life and thought that I've been having...

Bringing The Pretty

I was fourteen I started falling in love with vintage clothing. The thing is, I have a build that isn't always suited to vintage. I have what's called a "curvy" build, I've always been a little overweight and I'm five feet seven inches tall. Most vintage clothes that survived are for girls about half my size, so as much as I love the stuff, I've been forced to wear "vintage style" clothes not the real originals.

However, I do check out EBay occasionally to see if the rare real vintage dress in my size can be found. This weekend I was lucky enough to find one, and I won the auction and the dress is to die for. It also doesn't hurt that I've been running at least two miles a day for the past month and stopped eating between meals so I'm down a size.

Here's a picture of the dress:
I'm hoping to wear it for my graduation in May, although two of my cousins are currently engaged, so I figure there will be plenty of functions to wear it to. I got the dress from Trendy Hip Buys, and her eBay store is a wealth of larger size vintage goodies! I had to restrain myself from bidding on some of her other auctions and I'll definitely be keeping an eye on her stuff!