The Rocky Horror Show at the Maverick

Posted on October 29, 2007 by Bullfrog117

The best part of Rocky Horror Show (on stage) is audience participation. While they were selling “Prop Bags” which added some audience element, it’s the callbacks that really do it. According to one of the box office girls, there are enough in existence callbacks that you can just talk throughout the entire show (which is just annoying). Luckily last night’s callbacks were just the tasteful fun ones.

Anytime Brad mentions the castle and its “phone”, say “Castles don’t have phones, asshole”

Anytime Brad says, “Brad Majors”, say “Asshole”
If Brad takes off his glasses, say “Super asshole”

Anytime Janet says, “Janet Weiss”, say “Slut”

When Frank-n-furter pauses on the word anticipation during “Sweet Transvestite”, shout “Say it!”

Ask Frank-n-furter:
    “What’s your favorite color?” (Act 1)
        Last night’s response: Magenta
    “Where do you get your drugs?” (Act 1)
        Last night’s response: Columbia
    “What do you put on your cornflakes?” (Act 2)
        Last night’s response: Cum

Frank-n-furter: It’s not easy having fun!
Callback: Try Disneyland!
Last night’s response: I work there!

The Narrator is very funny, especially since at the Maverick, he’s the bartender. So he stood behind the bar the entire time, mixing drinks. Beautiful.

Also, last night’s audience included a family of five. That’s right! Mom and Dad took their three 9-year-olds to see Rocky Horror. WTF is wrong with this country?

In conclusion, if you’re a Rocky virgin and are at all amused by graphic…well everything, definitely try and check out Rocky Horror Show at the Maverick Theatre in Fullerton.

Stuff and Nonsense…

Posted on October 22, 2007 by Bullfrog117

Myspace.com Blogs – Craigslist Meets WallStreet – Tommy Gun MySpace Blog
This is hilarious!

William J. H. Boetcker – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should be doing for themselves.

This quote is often misattributed to Lincoln courtesy of Reagan.

Jekyll and Hyde and Why I’m Pathetic

Posted on October 19, 2007 by Bullfrog117

Jekyll and Hyde is a fascinating musical adaptation of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novel featuring the schizophrenic, “chemical”-addicted Victorian doctor trying to destroy the “Duality of Man”. I don’t remember ever reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but somehow the concept has always been present in popular culture. Anyone know why? I mean it can’t just be The Pagemaster (featuring Leonard Nimoy as Jekyll and Hyde), can it? Anyways. T. Eric Hart did a fascinating job as the aforementioned Doctor, but the real star of the show is the music. Frank Wildhorn is an incredible composer. His music has this indelible movie-soundtrack quality that makes it so much fun to listen to.

Yesterday at my singing lesson, I briefly talked with my vocal coach about the upcoming Sweeney Todd adaptation and I voiced my opinion how in the beginning of the trailer, Johnny Depp sounds a LOT like Jack Sparrow, and how I hoped that that was just his generic English accent. But then today I’m watching the trailer again and it hits me why I think that. Something my coach had mentioned was that they started out with generic trailer music (before transitioning to Stephen Sondheim’s delicious treatment of Stephen Sondheim’s music), and guess what? It’s the music from the Black Pearl trailer. Therefore I conclude that by tying the two together, they are not only saturating our conscious mind (as if all the Pirate lovers aren’t already going to see Sweeney JUST because of Johnny), but also our sub-conscious mind with the thought that if you loved Pirates, you’ll love Sweeney Todd. Which reminds me of how after Wicked became popular, when Rent the movie came out, all the teeny-boppers who loved Wicked became Rent-heads because of Idina Menzel, despite the fact that they had NO CLUE what being a Rent-head is about (then again, neither do I since I’ll never be a true artist working in New York…I just hit puberty while singing along to the soundtrack). I guess I don’t mind since it’s a sound marketing strategy…maybe I’ll just have to make sure that I either catch a midnight showing of Sweeney or at a time when I won’t be surrounded by swooning girls who don’t get it or think it’s too violent.

Jedi Vs. Sith Application on Facebook RULES!

Posted on October 14, 2007 by Bullfrog117

You can play a trivia game to boost your Jedi/Sith knowledge stats. Some of the questions are really poorly written, but sometimes they just get downright haughty. And this one REALLY pisses me off.

A parsec is actually a measure of what?
Answers: distance. – relativistic adjustment. – time. – weight.

It has that nasty air of superiority that tries to highlight Lucas’ supposed gaff over the line “made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs”….there’s a cannon answer to why Han makes that claim.

“The [Millennium] Falcon is often connected to the Kessel Run, a pathway from Kessel past the Maw Black Hole Cluster used by smugglers to transport precious Glitterstim spice.^[3] Solo in A New Hope brags that the Falcon made the Kessel Run in “less than twelve parsecs“, referring to his ability to move the ship closer to the Maw’s black holes and therefore cut the distance traveled.^[3] On the A New Hope DVD audio commentary, Lucas comments that, in the Star Wars universe, traveling through hyperspace requires careful navigation to avoid stars, planets, asteroids, and other obstacles.^[4]
Since no long-distance journey can be made in a straight line, the “fastest” ship is the one that can plot the “most direct course”, thereby traveling the least distance.^[4] Solo’s twelve-parsec Kessel Run is depicted in Rebel Dawn by A. C. Crispin.^[5]
In a Dark Horse Comics issue, “The Kessel Run,” the Kessel Run that Solo mentions is a scam that Lando uses to win money back from Solo after losing the Falcon to him. Lando and his friends trick Solo into thinking if he did the Kessel Run quickly, he would gain notoriety among smugglers. Ultimately, it is a scam and a kind of initiation for new smugglers.” (Wikipedia).

If we can’t accept this scriptural gaff from a fictional universe based on this, then we can’t move on as a society. Let’s get to it people!

Recap! Sure It’s All About Atomic Ballroom…

Posted on October 14, 2007 by Bullfrog117

…but it’s my home away from home, so why not!

Last Sunday was Video Game Night at Atomic Ballroom. While under publicized, it was still a tremendous success and a blast. If only I didn’t have 9am classes keeping me from playing video games until 3 in the morning! Grrr.

We had 4 gaming stations set up:
on the atomic screen with tim’s projector we had an xbox 360 with halo 3, dead rising and only 2 controllers
on a bed sheet in front of the disco ball with charlie’s projector we had DDR with a real metal pad on my playstation 2
on a tv brock brought we had an xbox with halo and 4 controllers
on the studio tv (behind the bar) we had guitar hero: rock the 80s with 2 wireless guitars and a wii with 4 wii-motes, mario party 8 and wii sports

A lot happened during the week especially since I was SOOO tired. I’m just not suited for staying up to midnight and then waking up from 9am classes and it’s so damn frustrating, because I have to take these classes at the only time they’re offered in order to graduate. When did school become such a chore? Anyways.

Friday night was the first night that Atomic Ballroom started teaching the Thriller choreography for an event called Thrill the World. Basically, this dance instructor got it into her head to break the Guinness World Record for “most number of people dancing simultaneously” with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. She put together a DVD that very effectively teaches you the dance. She also uploaded the DVD in sections on YouTube. I started watching them Friday afternoon and actually got pretty far in the time allotted. Oh, and when I say the Atomic Ballroom started teaching it…I mean I started teaching it. I wasn’t the only teacher up there, but I was the primary instructor. I basically fed the class the YouTube bits I’d been watching, but there’s always more to it than that. When I had first introduced the OC Team Leader (Tom, a friend from college) to Atomic Ballroom, I hadn’t been influenced negatively or positively by the concept. I’d never really watched the music video or listened to the music that mush, so I was just kind of “eh…” But now having done some of it, it’s really fun!

Yesterday was the Richard Simmons High Hair Hop at Club Slimmons in Beverly Hills. The gig had been on the calendar for a while (Jerry did it last year), but all of a sudden on Sunday night, they asked us to do a number to music from the movie/musical Hairspray to coincide with the theme of the party. So the teams got together, created a medley of three songs, choreographed a number and mastered it in time. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun. But the best part of the whole gig was the after party. We drove up to Burbank for a late dinner at Bob’s Big Boy. At some point, we lost a birthday card from Richard Simmons and spent a lot of time looking for it (going so far as to dig through the trash with our waitress). Eventually it was found inside a menu at another table. Since the other party that had found the menu had graciously reported and returned it, we decided (as a dance team) to honor them with a free performance. We caught them on their way out the restaurant, lined up on the sidewalk in front of Big Boy and performed one of our routines. We didn’t have music, so we sang along. It was so much fun. This was why I joined the Atomic Swing Teams. It’s not just about swing dancing…it’s about having as much fun as freaking possible!

The Weekend To End All Weekends (so far)

Posted on October 5, 2007 by Bullfrog117

Brief run-down

Friday
school [grumble]
Atomic Ballroom’s Frankie Manning Weekend 2007

    Harlem Lindy Variations with Jerry and Aubri
    Big Apple with Frankie Manning and Audrey Wilson
    Friday Evening Swing Dance (left early)

Saturday
5:30 AM wake up call, arrive at Disneyland at 7 AM, Cruzin’ Disney’s California Adventure Tour (Flickr: Bullfrog117′s photos tagged with segwaytour)

This was a lot of fun (mostly because I didn’t get rained out like last week*). The tour takes about 3 hours. The first half hour is a talk through about the Segway I-2 and it’s various features. During the next hour, you go inside California Adventure and do a training course in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot (drive in a circle, duck, uphill, downhill, around poles). At 8:45 the tour of California Adventure begins. First stop: Condor Flats. Dedicated to the history of aviators in California (Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier at 2:20 something…the time is frozen on the clock inside Fly’n'Buy). Next stop, Grizzly River Rapids and Redwood Creek (most of which is surprisingly Segway accessible…that was really cool). Next we headed to the Fine Arts Palace replica that houses Golden Dreams for a brief talk about that. Next was the two hidden mickeys near Burger Invasion and a bathroom break. Next we were allowed to tool around all along the front of California Screamin’. This was rather frustrating as we were in “Turtle” mode, which only allows you to go 6 miles per hour max, and I couldn’t figure out how to maintain that speed. So I’d ramp up to 6 and the Segway would push back on me saying, “Oh no you don’t!” and then it would start all over again. So that was frustrating, but it was still fun to just tool around for fun. After that we headed around the pier to that ampitheatre for pictures. Then it was through the Pacific Wharf area and into A Bug’s Land. Then we went backstage (where there’s an exterior door on the second floor of the animation building…bizarre) to get back to the Hollywood Backlot and that was it. We got a special pin and a printout of the picture. The only real downside of the tour was the fact that even though the park is all dressed up for Halloween, all the guides did was talk about DCA as it was originally constructed. That and the fact that it was California Adventure. I mean, all that really matters is that you’re on a Segway for about an hour and a half and walking sucks afterwards.

Atomic Ballroom’s Frankie Manning Weekend 2007

    Frankie’s Favorites I with Frankie and Audrey
    Shim Sham Variations with Jerry and Aubri
    Real Bar-B-Que Lunch
    Frankie’s Favorites II with Frankie and Audrey
    Charleston and Tandem Variations with Jerry and Aubri
    Meet Frankie’s Story Time
       This is probably the thing that is MOST worth your time. Frankie Manning was one of the first innovators for lindy hop and he has shared so many unique experiences with so many great people in swing dancing that it is a hoot to hear his stories. So much fun. That and the underwater lindy hop clip he showed us. Oh and the clip of Bill and Hillary watching a private performance of lindy hop. I need that clip…prime material to roast Hillary with!

Disneyland Swing Dancing featuring Jumpin’ Joz
Atomic Ballrom Vintage Night Swing Dance Featuring The FABULOUS ESQUIRES Big Band Orchestra until 1:30 AM

Sunday

Atomic Ballroom’s Frankie Manning Weekend 2007

    Frankie’s Favorites III with Frankie and Audrey
    Aerials I with Jerry and Aubri
    Pat and Oscar’s Lunch (aka nap time and food)
    Mystery Class with Frankie and Audrey
    Weekend Wrap-Up (Puttin’ It All Together)

* Last week, Laura and I tried to take the tour, but we went outside for the training just as it started to rain. We got on and off the Segway’s, but at that point, they officially canceled the tour on account of the weather. So we whined and moaned and then went back to the “briefing room” to get refunds/reschedules. Had I known what the tour would be like, I would have argued a bit more because by the time we put the Segway’s away, the rain was finished. The Segway’s aren’t waterproof and the puddles wouldn’t be a problem – on the tour, we drove through puddles all the time. SOOO depressing, but oh well.

Unfiltered

Where randomness is king (it’s a word!)

Monthly Archives: October 2007