Marshalls on a Tuesday

I have a great job where I can work from home one day a week so most Tuesdays I work from the loft in my condo. It is great to not get interrupted and to really be able to focus on a project. It also means I can do chores at lunch very easily or I'm stuck watching daytime TV while eating microwave food.

Today found me at Marshalls looking for a few clothing items for an upcoming camping trip. I realized that there aren't too many men in Marshall on Tuesday at lunch. Of course, I'm not sure how many men there are there on a Saturday. I almost never shop during the day, so I felt very out of place.

Server Migration

Good news for your blog readers! We're going to migrate to a new and improved computer with twice the processing power!

Please tolerate any network downtime and we'll see you from a much more powerful machine.

Very happy for Karen Olivo

In our family trip to NYC this year, we went to see the Broadway revival of West Side Story. Quite possibly the greatest of all American musicals, it moves "Romeo and Juliet" into a singing 1950's NYC. The movie won the Oscar. This year, the revival tried to again modernize the earlier production by adding a lot more Spanish Language components and using real Latinos in the key roles. They took the best actors from In the Heights and used an updated book. It didn't really work out because while the Jets were still in the 50s, then Sharks were in the 2000's.

What did work was Karen Olivo, who was the best thing going by far in the musical. Here is her singing the show stopping "America" on Letterman.



Here is her doing one of my favorite numbers from "In the Heights": In the Club. This is her dancing and this number was completely different with here non-dancing understudy.



Finally, if you want to hear her sing, here is a short clip of her singing, "It won't be long now":



Here is her with Amy and Jake!

Is it Fenway or Dodger Stadium?

I spent a fantastic week in Boston and one of the better experiences was going to see the Red Sox play the Rangers on a cool Friday night. The old ball park is a great experience and the Sox have done a great job giving it a true "throwback" flair. The signs are crisp and clear but still have a 50's decor. The brick is pretty and the Monster looks good as new. I'd been told the ballpark felt really old and was quite dirty, but other than the fading paint on my wooden chairs, it was very well maintained and a fun place to watch a game.

However, I was disturbed by the sense that this was another Dodger stadium:

1) They both have organs. I still can't get behind these things. Old timers love them, but I'm clearly not an old timer. I just don't get excited by hearing "When you're happy and you know it clap your hands" at a baseball game. I love churches with organs but not ballparks with them.
2) They both have beach balls bouncing up the stands (but not onto the field on Friday). It seems like every Dodger game has a few 1 minute beach ball stops.
3) They both have the wave (some view this as cool for football, but clear a mistake in a baseball stadium)
4) Fans come late and leave early in both places. I was surprised how many empty seats there were at first pitch and last pitch. Granted, it was raining and the Sox lost 5-1 in a game that wasn't as close as the score would make it sound.

Fenway had a lot of vendors, selling everything from chowdah to hot dogs. We were on the aisle, and it was hard to see past all the people running up and down the walk way. I loved the walk ways on the roads leading into the stadium and the positive vibes all the Sox fans had. They cheered passionately for slumping star David Ortiz every time he came up to the plate. Barry Zito doesn't quite get the same positive support. The scoreboard in the Green Monster is seriously cool.

To be honest, I also love Dodger Stadium (other than the 4 points mentioned above), so any true baseball fan needs to make their pilgrimages to both ballparks.