ctinabina

Last night, I had the pleasure of going to see The Richest Deadman Alive, an original play presented by a local company here called Theater Grottesco.  It was also “pay as you wish” night, which was nice because I’m a cheapskate.  :)

The comic play is actually quite funny; I even laughed out loud at several points.  I rarely laugh out loud when watching  TV shows or movies, so take it from me that it was funny.  What happens is a hapless man, plagued by severe allergies, is accidentally locked outside of his home by a well-meaning but dim delivery man.  Because the outside world is full of asthma-inducing things, the hapless man dies from exposure to pollen.  His wife and friends mourn his passing and lay flowers on his casket.  Enter the twist.  Apparently, the hapless husband had been paying on a life insurance policy for many years unbeknownst to his wife.  The insurance agent comes to the wake, cuts the wife a giant check, and leaves.  Enter the second twist:   the flowers laid on the casket muster up some crazy-strong allergic reaction that sneezes the husband back to life.  There is rejoicing… and scheming.

The husband and wife blow all of their money on a vacation.  They return home, wondering what to do now that they are broke.  Unwilling to get a job, they decide that insurance fraud is the way to go and they start cooking up plans to fake the hapless husband’s death again.  Hilarity ensues. 

The end is a little strange and contains some social commentary that is uncharacteristically poignant (and a little jarring) for this slapstick comedy.  It was rushed and abrupt.  Also, there was a some over-acting that caught me in an eye roll or two, but for the most part it was appropriate for the play which contained a good bit of physical comedy and puns.  On the whole, The Richest Deadman Alive gets 2 thumbs up. Oh, the stage and set design is simple but genius.

The Richest Deadman Alive was great.  It was entertaining and an all-around good time.  I recommend going.  It’s playing at the Armory of the Arts (on Old Pecos Trail) and is running until October 18th.

Ok, so here's the review I promised.

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not familiar with the Batman comic books.  I know they exist in the general sense but I've never read one myself.  I preferred to pilfer my sisters' Wonder Woman comics, personally.  So I come from a place of ignorance.  

I thought the movie was "fine."  Hey! Quit throwing tomatoes! Allow me to explain.

The Dark Knight has that same super-cool feel of the acclaimed Batman Begins.  I really liked Batman Begins, actually.  Gotham City is a skeevy place where everyone seems to be a corrupt, tortured soul.  I dig.  From this evil ooze springs The Joker, a role that was masterfully played by Heath Ledger.  The Joker was, hands down, the BEST part of this movie.  Ledger creates a funny yet deeply disturbing picture of The Joker, complete with a unique voice, consistent body twitches, and a sick sense of humor.  Seriously, The Joker was fantastic.

The story is about how Batman sees hope in Harvey Dent, the new DA.  Harvey isn't corrupt and vows to clean up Gotham.  Batman realizes that Harvey can do what he can never do, because Harvey can be the face of change that everyone needs as Harvey doesn't have to hide behind a mask and fly around in the dark.  Very emo, I know.  Harvey also happens to be in a serious relationship with Rachel.  As we know from the first movie, Batman pines for Rachel in a strange, sixth graderish way.  Like, Batman thinks that if he reveals himself as Bruce Wayne Rachel will respect him or something, but he doesn't want to reveal himself, so he instead acts like a jerk towards her.  My eyes just can't roll enough in disdain for the Rachel-Batman subplot.  But, to get back on track, Harvey and Rachel are an item.  This results in Batman being conflicted over his need for Harvey (because Harvey will clean up Gotham) and his hate for Harvey (because Harvey's gettin' with his love interest, Rachel.)   The Joker appears on the scene suddenly and without backstory.  The Joker is essentially hired by the Gotham mobsters to take out Batman.  The mobsters, however, didn't really understand The Joker and his motives.  It becomes clear that The Joker isn't really out to kill Batman.  He just likes anarchy, chaos, and to prove that people are really all evil, deep down.  There is also a short but significant appearance of the villian known as Two Face.  I don't really want to get into it because it will give away too much.

So, that's basically what's going on.  The reason I only gave the movie a "fine" rating (on a scale of  boo, meh, fine, good, and super rad) is because of the following:

1.  It's really long.  We're talking looooong.  But more than it, it was needlessly long.  I found myself eagerly waiting for the movie to end because, well, I was getting bored.  Too many plot twists and extraneous characters can do that to a movie goer.  

2.  Rachel.  I already talked about this above.  I don't like her preachy, holier-than-thou attitude.  She also serves no purpose but to be an object of Batman's pathetic pining and, eventually, and object with which to manipulate him.  She's superfluous and all-around lame.  

3.  Batman's voice is laughably contrived.  Bruce Wayne's voice is normal while Batman's voice is excessively gruff and deep.  Oh, and spoiler alert- Bruce Wayne is Batman.  They're the same person.  Everytime Batman would speak my eyes would start rolling again.  It was just that terrible.  

4.  There's too much stuff going on.  This ties in with #1 above.  There's the Rachel subplot, The Joker subplot, the Harvey Dent subplot, the Two Face subplot, the Police Commissioner sublot, the guy who makes all of Batman's stuff subplot, the convicts on a boat subplot, the Wayne Enterprises employee who threatens to expose the real Batman subplot, the mobsters getting played by The Joker subplot, the guy who steals the mobsters' money subplot, and the copy-cat Batmans subplot.  Not to mention the random appearance of the Scarecrow for three minutes.  

However, all of this negativity is neutralized by the strong positive points of the movie.  These include:

1.  The Joker.  For real, his character is just that good.

2.  Morgan Freeman's short appearances as the guy who makes all of Batman's gadgets.  He seems like a real person.  He also engineers cool stuff.  When he's on screen, you will be entertained.  Also, Freeman is part of the "Wayne Enterprises employee who threatens to expose the real Batman subplot" and has a very funny couple of lines.

3.  The convicts on a boat subplot that mirrors The Prisoner's Dilemma.  In the movie, there are two boats.  One has a bunch of convicts on it and the other contains regular citizens of Gotham.  At a certain time, both boats will blow up.  The only way to save your boat is the blow up the other boat.  There's a cameo by Tom Lister, Jr.  who I really like.  He's best known for his portrayal of Deebo in the Friday movies.
 

So, there's my review.  Has anyone else seen it?  What do you think?

Stuff is good in the good ol' City of Holy Faith.  I just spent a lovely birthday eating Spanish tapas, throwing a riotously fun BBQ at my house, playing obscene amounts of Wii sports and Super Mario Galaxy, and checking out the wares at the International Folk Art Market.  We bought a couple of cards and a nice wood block print by Jose Borges.  We're getting it framed.  Those of you who will be visiting us can check it out.  I also got a couple of pillow cases that are embroidered with strange looking animals.  The only animal I can identify is an elephant.  The other animals look like some sort of jaguar/pig/horse combination.  Scary and perfect for our new, as of yet unpurchased, sofa.  I'm not even sure what country these pillowcases originated from as I bought them at a multinational UNESCO table.  Based on the animals, though, I'd have to say it was sewn by Umberto Eco.  

In fact, the birthday party is still going strong.  K and I may check out famed local storyteller, Joe Hayes, at the Wheelwright Museum on Friday.  Then, we're off to see Radamisto at the Santa Fe Opera.  Radamisto is an Italian opera written by Handel.  It's described as "a musico-military spectacular" that celebrates the power of fidelity in marriage.  O...K.  I'm sure it will be great (how could it not at the awesome opera house?) despite it's off-sounding description.

That's all that's fit to print!

For those of you concerned about my lack of photos on my post, it's because I permanently misplaced my camera at a drinking establishment several months ago.  This is extremely strange considering I never lose things.  Seriously.  I'm very organized.

Ok, I know I've let my LJ languish for a month.  It's inexcusable, I know.

So, let me tell you about what I've been up to in a concise bullet point list.

- K and I went up to Boulder for Memorial Day.  We ran (I walked) the Bolder Boulder, which is gigantic 10K race.  We saw a bunch of pals and had a fantastic time.  

-  We adopted Frank the Tank, our new african pigmy hedgehog.  He's somewhat malcontented; he's always huffing and trying to spike us.  That silly Frank!

-  We've made some progress on our floors.  As many of you know from my incessant whining, K and I are replacing our wall to wall carpet with engineered hardwood.  It's only about 700 square feet of work but it's been a painfully slow and annoying experience.  Let me just say this, I will NEVER buy from Home Depot again.  

-  We went rafting in Taos 2 weeks ago.  One of K's pals is a rafting guide, so we got to live it up with a *private* trip.  That makes us practically celebrities!  The river was flowing very well because of the copious amounts of snow we got this winter.  

Ok, that's about all I can think of right now. 

Sorry it's been so long since my last post.  It's been a crazy month.  

1.  Kevin and I moved into our new house!  Yay! Even though I despise every aspect of moving house, I'm very happy that we're in our house now.  If you need my new address, email me or message me here.

2.  I went to Hobbs for a week and I got to fly on a really small plane.  I actually have pictures of this.  I'll post in more detail later.

3.  I went to Washington, D.C. on a work-related boondoggle.  I saw my fam and friends.  Can you believe that Cheeky McGee is already 8 months old?!?

4.  We had our first home disaster.  Of course, it happened on a Sunday evening.  A valve connecting to our water heater broke causing water to flood the garage.  Luckily, nothing was damaged except some carpet that is soon going to be torn out and replaced with nice wood.  Once the wood is in, though, it better not happen again.

5.  We had a joint garage sale with the in-laws.  It was very successful and sort of fun, actually.  If only it hadn't snowed the day before.  Brrr!

6.  Kev had a birthday!  We went on a train ride from Santa Fe to Lamy.  It was  ton of fun.  I have pictures of this, too, and I'll post in more detail later.  Perhaps I'll do another photo montage post in the near future.

7.  Two words: stripping wallpaper.  Time consuming and not fun.

So, in sum, we've been busy little bees!  We also don't have internet at our house yet and I happened to have lost my camera recently.  I'll get back on the livejournal bandwagon soon, though.

I'm a very proud dog-mom!  Lucy graduated from Beginning Dog Training class yesterday.  She did *very* well and she even got a diploma.


She had the largest crowd of supporters (maybe even larger than at my college graduation... hmmm.)  All of the commotion made her a little distracted and she refused to perform her roll-over trick, but all of her other tricks and commands she performed 100%.  

After the graduation, Lucy (and Ginger, too, because I couldn't very well leave out the Old One) went for a walk around the neighborhood and received some extra special treats.  

Good dog!

K and I saw Cloverfield last weekend.  Cloverfield is a newly released movie in which an alien monster attacks New York City.  No, it's not Godzilla.  The movie is entirely shot with a camcorder from the viewpont of a participant - something like The Blair Witch Project.  My opinion?  Thumbs down.  The "avant garde" camera work was not only vomit-inducingly shaky, but it was also a cheap trick.  I mean, hello?  It's been done before... in The Blair Witch Project!  Seriously, though, it was so shaky and jarring that K and I both felt nauseated for the remainder of the evening.  Boo, hiss!

The past work week, however, was productive and totally un-shaky.  K spent the week doing some auditing in El Paso, TX.  Yes, this is the same El Paso of "Pass the Old El Paso" salsa.  K seems to like El Paso, contrary to every other person I've ever met.

I spent the week here in Santa Fe.  I slaved over an oral argument on a Motion for Summary Judgment.  I prepared, practiced in front of the dogs, reviewed case law, and all that jazz.  Then, mere hours before the hearing, it was canceled.  Boo, hiss!  Which means I'll likely have to do this all over again when the hearing is reset for a few weeks from now.  

In other news, I plan on spending the day in Albuquerque today.  I rarely go down to Albuquerque.  This is because it's an hour away and far inferior to Santa Fe.  That being said, I decided to tag along with K today (he's doing some kind of financial statement training at work) and hit up a museum or two.  Maybe get some lunch, too, in the Vietnamese part of town.  Maybe check out Talin Market for any bento box materials.  I'll let you know how it goes.