Haines His Way

I'm a big fan of soup -- and of nuts --- so the TOD is one I like. I shall consider it tomorrow/today because right now I'm tired.

Good Evening!  Good Morning!

Yes, indeedee, it was a great show and a great audience tonight/last night.  And after the "Coming Attractions" sections, as BK mentioned, I had to hold a bit longer than usual.  It was one of those times where each time I started to bring my fingers to the keyboard, the applause, hoots, hollers, etc., would get louder... Then I would try a few seconds later, and "it" would get louder again... And so on, and so on... I eventually started the intro for the next song, but I had even come up with a "alternate" intro just in case the applause kept going.  

RE: "Testosterone" - As DR Jay mentioned, we saw this movie yesterday.  And, yes, Jennifer Coolidge's line toward the end of the movie is priceless!!! -And I can't wait to hear him use it!!!  I, too, was puzzled by the ending, but I think I've come up with an "explanation".  Who knows?  I may have to go out and get the original book now.  Ah, well...

RE: Soup - Hmmm... There are some days when nothing but a can - yes a can! - of Campbell's Chicken Soup or Campbell's Tomato will do.  Otherwise, I also like the Vietnamese "pho" in all it's variations, seafood bisques, minestrone (especially the "northern" style which does not have tomatoes in it), chowders, stews, etc.  There's a Filipino soup called "chicken mami" - it's basically chicken soup with garlic and noodles with fried garlic chips on top for crunch and flavor.  And I got hooked on this homemade black bean soup recipe a few years ago.  I made batches of it week in, week out.  It was sooo good.   Hmm... I wonder if I can track down the recipe on-line...

Otherwise, the classic soup recipe:

1- Open can...

<ba-doom chick!>

-If not me, someone else..

Goodnight.

OH!  And DR PennyO posted this yesterday:

So I'll fly to LA next Thursday to have Rosh Hashanah with the family, back to Seattle Friday, head down to LA in the car with all my stuffaround the 20th, hang with the parents, then whoosh! I'm off the NYC Sept. 29!!! Oh, JOY!!!!!

So which performance of What If? will you be attending?  

Oh I'm so excited, my bed is in town.  I just checked on the UPS website.  I don't think they deliver here on Saturdays. But I will call now to find out.  Either way I will have my bed by Monday!

DR MattH asked if I could explain the end of Joey.  Okay let me see what I can remember.  So Joey asks his new neighbor to dinner. And she says she's married, "didn't you notice the ring?".  And of course he says, "yeah but it wasn't on your left hand" (and points to her left hand which is on HIS right)

We then see Nancy O'Dell (sp?) from Access Hollywood saying what a success the show Nurses was (that Joey turned down). And they are interviewing the lead saying "i wasn't the first to be offered the lead, some guy named Joey Tribani (saying his name wrong) was".  And then Nancy repeats his name, saying that guy must be mad.

At some point Joey's sister decides to let her son move in with Joey.  But now Joey has no job.  He goes to see his agent (Jennifer Coolidge) (not sure if you saw this part). And he gets an audition for a game show I think. But they are just having him read news type stuff from a prompter.  WEll from 3. ANd every time the light goes on Joey has to switch where he is looking (which he can't do).

Now I'm trying to remember the ending. I know Joey's nephew is at joey's place and joey starts saying what  a nag is sis is. And then she comes out (and joey says to his nephew "we need to find a signal for when she's here).

And then joey's sister pulls his ear and makes him say that he has a gay crush on david cassidy.

Also at the end joey screams out accidently that she was a single mom at 16 (she had told her son 22) and then the smart son/joey's nephew says, "how did i not figure that out?"

I don't remember the exact ending. But it was just more of the same.

Hope that helped.

If I'm in a restaurant and order soup, it's almost always French onion if I have a choice. I just love it.

Around the home environment, however, it's canned soup all the way. My local grocery store carries a line of soups under their own label that are among the best canned soups I've ever tasted. My favorite is called Tomato Garden, and it is so chocked full of vegetables that it's mind-numbing. The cans are tall and about half of the can will fill an average sized bowl to the brim. If I didn't have to watch my weight, I'd crumble crackers or bread into the soup, but, alas, one must eat it as is.

I'm sure that JOEY pilot episode will be rerun sometime in before the holidays since show rarely have a totally rerun-free string of episodes before Christmas. At some point I'll see it.

No doubt promoted with a tag line along the lines of "Relive the Magic."

Now, might I ask where in tarnation IS everyone on this Saturday morning?

MMM, French Onion Soup w/chewy, stringy cheese! I love it.

Soup: Their used to be a wonderful place on Sunset near La Cienega whose name I never remember (it starts with a "B") which had the best cream of mushroom soup ever.  It was a garden-like setting (south side of street, down some steps) and I used to go there on Sundays occasionally and have a big bowl.  

The restaurant was called Barrymore's, as it was housed in the guest house of the old John Barrymore estate.  The setting was exquisite, the food was wonderful, the service friendly and the prices reasonable.  I do believe it was the House of Blues monolith that went up next door that rang its death knell.  It was a wonderful place and THE number 1 restaurant to bring out of town visitors to.  I obviously lament its demise to this day.

For those who watch the Apprentice, yes NBC is re-running it tonight. But it's a 2 hour episode with some new footage.

Any time (oh - an Eddie Fisher reference for those DRs old enough to remember) I make a ham I always use the bones and remnents to make pea soup.  It comes out better than any restaurant or canned pea soup I have ever had.

***

KRISTIN CHENOWETH AT CARNEGIE HALL was an entertaining evening despite a couple of faults.  On the positive side, she was in excellent voice and looked beautiful.  Her between-song-patter was a delight.  On the negative side, her selection of songs left much to be desired.

Ms. Chenoweth is obviously trying to remove herself from her Broadway roots, and therefore most of her selections were not showtunes, to mixed results.  A couple of attempts at c&w (which will be on her next CD) came off as a diva slumming and a number by her conductor Andrew Lipa’s musical in progress BETTY BOOP was also an error, and the one time she and the orchestra weren’t at the same tempo.  However one non-showtune --- a  Stephen Foster song, no less --- was one of the highlights of the show, as was “Taylor”, a song she had made her own until John Tartaglia started doing it.

In STEEL PIER, Kristin showed she could dance as well as sing, but it was not apparent last night.  Despite choreography by Kathleen Marshall and two Broadway back-up dancers ((David Elder and Seán Martin Hingston), the dancing was very weak.

Two other problems… Carnegie Hall has excellent acoustics, so there was no need for such loud amplification.  I’m not saying that she should have done the concert off mike, but not only was it loud, when she moved across the stage the sound stayed the same instead of coming from the area she was in.  Also, a 24 minute intermission after only 42 minutes was not needed.

However when she sang a Jerome Kern medley, and especially an encore of “Glitter and Be Gay”, all was right with the world and you knew why this pixie from Oklahoma had made it all the way to Carnegie Hall.

Amusing thing of the day: The very nice Hispanic man putting on the new door to the garage is humming Terry's Theme from Limelight.  

I'm here, but not for long.  I have a very busy day:  I have to help my sister (what else is new? ) put up some shelves in her garage (she's getting it ready so that she can have a garage sale in a few weeks...of course, she's not selling the garage itself).  Hopefully, if that doesn't take too long, I want to go to work to make up a few hours.  I don't have much vacation time and I tend to take long lunches and leave on time, so that I have to either use vacation time or come in on Saturdays.  I like the option, though...just not when I have so much to do!

Then tonight, whether I work or help my sister or not, I'm ushering for a local production.  It's an annual event presented by Wrinkles of Washington.  This year it's called "A Gathering of Wrinkles." They are "Puget Sound's Premier Senior Citizen Entertainment Troupe!" (members have to be at least 55 years old) and they put on a show every year.  It's actually quite enjoyable!  So that's my day.

Today DR Sandra and I are going to see the touring "Oliver." We always park the car early and walk somewhere for lunch -- usually Chili's, since it's the closest to the theater. Isn't that exciting?

And on that note (E-flat),