Fun and Games Dept

It’s been a little over 30 years since I first saw “Shear Madness” in the Theatre District, back in the day when I lived in Boston. My first experience with the show was a solo adventure. I remember being enthralled with the idea of a stage show having a variable ending and being so up-to-the-minute with current event references in the dialog. I’ve seen the show a few times since, the most recent being the late 1990s in the same theatre in Boston.

“Shear Madness” is playing at the Mercury Theater around the corner from us here in Chicago. The four of us enjoyed the show very much and all of us were laughing throughout.

There are several important ingredients in this show, the most vital being an ensemble that works well together, and the performers in tonight’s production worked the stage wonderfully as a team.

The production, the set, the approach, all echoed the productions I saw back in Boston, mind you with all the Beantown references removed and replaced with Chicagoisms. Part scripted production, part improv, part stand-up, all of the performers were up to the task of a great performance. Not to give too much away, but there’s a part of the performance where the audience participates (“Big deal, I took a whole place setting.” “Not now, MA!”*). The four of us all contributed (not that there was a test or anything) and even outside of the audience participation portion, I still felt quite engaged with the show.

I’d like to give a special shoutout to Brittany D Parker as Barbara DeMarco and Mary Robin Roth as Mrs. Schubert. The whole cast was very good.

If you get the chance I highly recommend seeing “Shear Madness”. It’s a great escape and a fun time for all.

* Props to those who get that reference from another whodunit scenario.

The first escalator I remember riding was at the Woolworth’s in Watertown, New York. The escalator took shoppers down to a lower level where you would find a selection of small shops, sort of like a mini-mall. I remember riding the escalator down and then back up and then being told by my mom that one ride was enough. We then ate lunch in the Harvest House restaurant.

My husband and I did a little bit of shopping today. One of our stops was at a recently opened Menard’s (insert banjo music, “Save big money at Menard’s!). I was a little tickled to see it was a two story building, with bridges across a big opening and nifty escalators that could accommodate carts and wheelchairs and everything.

At the top of the escalator was a woman playing a grand piano. I kind of thought she should have been playing banjo music but the grand piano was a nice touch.

I’ve been watching a mid-1970s Saturday morning show called “The Secrets of Isis”. I’ve been a fan of the show since it’s first run when I was in elementary school. Paired up with “Shazam!” as the latter half of an hour long presentation, I must admit I was always more interested in Joanna Cameron’s “Isis” than I was for Jackson Bostwick’s, and later John Davey’s “Captain Marvel”. I never had a thing for Billy Batson or Jackson’s portrayal of the superhero, but as a bumbling young gay I thought John Davey was kind of cute in a math teacher sort of way.

I really enjoyed Joanna Cameron in the role of teacher Andrea Thomas who could turn into Isis. To this day I find her speaking voice spellbinding and her kind-hearted ways in the show always made me feel comfortable. As both Andrea and Isis she would occasionally break the fourth wall and wink at the viewer, knowing we were in on her secret as everyone on the screen couldn’t recognize that this chemistry teacher was a superhero.

It’s amazing to see how many familiar faces guest starred on the program, and the “teenagers” always seemed like they were finishing college instead of navigating high school.

In one episode, Miss Thomas takes the science fair winners to explore a ghost town, where the bad guys are hiding stolen goods. They are kidnapped.

While they’re getting moved around by the bad guys, Andrea loses her magic amulet and is unable to turn into Isis. What to do? She gets the students to run distraction and then she runs in the other direction, looking for her amulet, which was lost when she fell down some stairs.

To not upset the young viewing audience, she finds it less than 10 minutes later in the episode.

Finally, she is able to turn into Isis and save the day!

But the young man, who earlier in the episode, beat himself up for coming in second place with his amateur radio presentation saves the day by reaching the police while Isis catches the bad guys.

Rick and Cindy Lee hear the calls on the radio and able to pick Andrea and the students up in the ghost town. Isis is still running around when Rick and Cindy Lee arrive and mentions something about keeping gas in the car.

After Isis leaves and the cops and bad guys are gone, Andrea nonchalantly appears and joins the others. Rick is confused and asks what happens. The students fill him in and then Andrea says the exact same line as Isis, mentioning Rick should keep gas in his car. Rick is stunned but doesn’t figure out that Andrea and Isis are the same person.

But the viewers know and in typical fashion, Joanna Cameron breaks the fourth wall and winks to the audience, bringing us in with a smile as we eat our way through a box of Lucky Charms on a sunny Saturday morning in 1976.

Back in 1976 I may have made headbands with the Isis amulet to wear while “flying” around the front lawn. But I don’t have them 45 years later.

And I didn’t lose them when I fell down the stairs.

I know I’m showing my age here, but I’ve been in a nostalgic mood as of late. Yesterday I asked Spotify to play a “great tune for Valentine’s Day” and it surprisingly came up with “We’re All Alone” by Rita Coolidge.

I was instantly transported to the back seat of my father’s 1971 Heavy Chevy, listening to 62 WHEN, riding with the rest of the family up Interstate 81 between Syracuse and Watertown, New York. Mom in the front seat, me sitting behind her, my sister to my left behind Dad as he drove us home from my grandparents’ home in the city to our mobile home next to my grandparents’ farm in the country.

Listening to Rita sing this track through headphones was an amazing journey. I was struck that I immensely miss the sound of music delivered through analog means and the experience of listening to an entire album, instead of random songs selected by algorithm.

I tried not to think about what a cover version of this track on “American Idol” or “The Voice” would sound like; any youngster (there’s my age kicking in) singing this song today would over-emote, engage in very unnecessary ‘melodic’ acrobatics, have pains of overwrought emotion and bad singing on their face, and make shrieking noises while an engineer backstage undoubtedly applied AutoTune¹ to make it sound ‘perfect’.

Rita’s version is nearly perfect as it was recorded in 1975.

The complexities of the control required to sing this song properly are evident in later performances of this song by Rita; as she got older her voice lost some of its’ shine as age is wont to do. I stopped her Farm Aid performance of this song in 1986 about a third of the way in; I didn’t want to put tarnish on the memory of her sheer brilliance of the original performance. Watching this video from sometime in the 1970s (which sounds like it was a lip sync to the original track), I can’t help but admire the sheer beauty of Ms. Coolidge and of the song itself. Rita always presented herself as a very classy lady in her performances at this point in her career, and I found her to be a beautiful woman.

From 1975, here’s “We’re All Alone”, by Rita Coolidge.

https://youtu.be/OvNdPewuXAQ

¹I stand by my opinion that AutoTune is absolutely the worst technological advancement of the late 20th century, and one of the worst crutches known to musical performances.

I’m always amazed at what Google Photos can do to a photo with a little stylizing. The colors are amazing!

I believe tonight is the first time during this winter season that it’ll get below zero Fahrenheit. I was hoping we’d get through the season without temperatures dipping that low but Mother Nature seems to always accomplish her plans despite the increasing amount of interference from the humans running around on her planet.

I’m taking the expected cold temperatures tomorrow morning as a signal that I should workout inside and focus on my strength training with my resistance bands instead of going outside and burning of cardio through a lively walk. I’m not in the habit of trying to freeze my face off just for the heck of it, even if it means the chance of a lower number on the bathroom scale.

I’m sure the workout tomorrow morning will be quite dandy. And cozy warm.

I’m finding the political talk on Twitter exhausting so here’s a photo of some fish. They’re in the Pacific. Near Oah’u.

Remember when we were going to solve all the world’s problems once our computers were all connected together in this “Information Highway”?

Instead we’re all spending the evening making our brooms stand up without support because of a “planetary tilt”.

We are on the final leg of our trip home from Hawaii. We are onboard United flight 705 from San Francisco to Chicago O’Hare. It’s a beautiful night to fly; the air is smooth and the sunset is beautiful.

Our flight from Honolulu to San Francisco was aboard a United 777-200 “version 4” with the same amenities as I wrote about on our trip out. The experience was great, the service was great, and the WiFi worked better over the ocean than it did last time. The only thing I missed was live radio feeds from the cockpit, they were not turned on for that flight. We also went through some impressive turbulence for about 90 minutes of the flight.

This 757 is comfortable. We are in the first class cabin again. As a narrow-body aircraft we don’t have the pods or lay down seats but there’s plenty of leg room and the seats are comfortable. Some of the crew on our last flight are also on this flight.

Food choices are a hamburger on a pretzel bun or ravioli. I opted for the hamburger which apparently relieved the FA as she said they had plenty of those and 1K passengers always get their first choice.

I need to become a 1K passenger. Someone please let my husband know.

The WiFi and entertainment server is having issues, according to FA Ryan’s announcement. When in doubt, reboot, and they did that. It’ll take a few minutes for it to come back up.

It’s running Linux and it’s locked down pretty well. (grin)

The 757-300 is showing a few signs of wear but overall it’s a comfortable airplane and we are having a pleasant flight. As I recall, pilots certified to fly the 757 are also certified to fly the 767 as the cockpit configurations and handling characteristics are very close. I find that rather cool.

The passengers in 1E and 1F are very high maintenance. Jamie helped them with their luggage and getting it into the overhead bin. It’s too hot. It’s too cold. The coffee is too strong. The tea is weak. Where is the washroom. The list goes on.

I just smile and thank the flight crew. They all work hard and I feel like they’re under appreciated more than they should be.

The WiFi is now up and running and there is much rejoicing.

I have finished my warm nuts, I’m enjoying a 312, and I’m going to sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight.

If you’re not the pilot, it’s the only way to fly.