FORWARD!

Saw this on Facebook today and it made me smile:

Love their enthusiasm! 

Now I'm off on a long weekend. Hope your's is lovely and long as well.

MICHAEL MCLEAN BENEFIT CONCERT

Fun little benefit concert announcement if you are a fan of Michael Mclean and/or The Center for Story: Saturday, February 4th, 7 PM at the Orem Public Library (Just $15). 

Also, if you are interested in Storytelling, Timpanogos Storytelling's Midwinter Conference and Concert is coming up February 9th through the 11th--I highly recommend the concert on Friday the 10th at 7:30 PM (cause we get Donald Davis and Bil (one "L") Lepp!) Tickets for the concert are available here and general information about the conference is available here.

St. Patrick's Day

Cause I am lame (and consumed by basketball), here is the same clip I gave you last St. Patrick's Day:

Of course, my fondest and most sincerest best wishes still go out to you on this most important of holidays.

Music and Movies

I am listening to this

and this

(the packaging is just to die for)

and have this to watch

but am going to see this today instead

and as a result am feeling rather happy and full of holiday cheer.

Les Mis in Concert

aka a plethora of YouTube clips

Last night I had the singular opportunity of attending the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert (originally performed in London and broadcast in movie theaters throughout the US last night) and can I just tell you that there are simply no words to express how wonderful, extraordinary, magical, powerful, etc. the performance was. To just give you a hint, I've placed a couple of clips from the show (sadly not official clips so the sound and the camera work is not exactly stellar but just imagine sitting in a theater with surround sound and then triple experience you are imagining and you will just about be there)--both clips are from the encore. You may also notice one Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers performed in the show (and did a really fine job--I am now repenting for questioning his casting), Lea Salonga, and a few other recognizable cast members. However, who I really want to draw your attention to is one Alfie Boe who plays Jean Valjean (the 4th Jean Valjean in the first clip), is a part-time resident of Salt Lake City (his wife is from Salt Lake City and they have a home here), and is now on my Christmas list as well as my list of people to see perform live before I (or they) die--Dame Judi Dench being the only one on my list that I have actually been able to see perform live. The last clip is of him warbling in a friend's kitchen--how cool would that be?

You'll notice in the above clip, the fantastic Frances Ruffelle is only shown from the waist up which is a kind gift from the recorder of the clip as Ms. Ruffelle appears to have forgotten her pants (possibly in both the American and British sense of the word "pants") to say nothing of her choice in shoes!

If you are British or live in Britannia you can purchase the DVD on November 29th. No word yet on when us Yanks get our chance but if you missed this in the theaters then you must, must, must purchase or rent or borrow (I would almost say steal) the DVD, find a large screen with surround sound, and sit back and enjoy! 

In an unrelated note, I saw a local musical production of The Scarlet Pimpernel and for the first time in my entire life (including that one unfortunate time that I endured an entire 30 minutes of the A&E version) I was rooting for Chauvelin--extremely bad casting (the actor who played Chauvelin would have made a charming Scarlet Pimpernel!)

Jazz at the Library

Dixieland Jazz to be more specific. There was no shushing that night--even if there were you wouldn't have been able to hear it. I know some people in the library thought it was odd to have a loud jazz band playing, but I thought it was a perfect combination. After all, a library is a place that preserves ideas and jazz music is the idea of America set to music.

I love my library!