Mynee's Musings

Aida

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the last show of the season last night because it was rained out.  The weatherman was predicting rain but we hoped he was wrong because, you know, he usually is. LOL.  It was sunny when we left the house but there were clouds to the west and by the time we got to the Muny, it was mostly cloudy and pretty breezy.  

We ate dinner at the Culver Pavillion.  They had chilled berry soup, salad, assorted cheese (I love cheese), pasta salad, fruit, hummus, seafood dip, breads and muffins, grilled veggies, chicken and waffles, giant Italian meatballs and pasta and boneless ribs with pecan pie for dessert.  The food was great and we were absolutely stuffed.  We enjoyed all three meals that we ate there this year.  

After dinner, we waited for about 15 minutes for the gates to open, watching the sky the whole time.  It didn't look too bad but we were actually on the east side of the Muny so once we entered and were able to see the western sky, we knew that there was no question that it was going to rain.

About 5 minutes after the above picture was taken, it poured.  

Keep in mind, this was about 7:45 pm and it looked like it was nighttime.  At about 8:30 pm, the stagehands started squeegeeing the stage.  It was still raining so it was sort of like trying to bale water out of boat with a hole in the bottom. At 8:40 pm, we decided to head home because the weather radar showed continuing showers.  Sure enough, they cancelled the performance at about 9:00 pm.

I'm so glad The Muny posted videos of each show this year because I was able to see what we missed...

 

This was perhaps the best season ever!  I loved every show and I'm so looking forward to next year.

A Day in Hermann

Since they were predicting wonderful weather for the weekend, we decided to drive to Hermann yesterday.  Hermann is in Gasconade County and t’s about 60 miles from our house.  We haven’t driven to Hermann in years so I was really glad that we went.  We talk about going almost every Spring and Fall and something always comes up.  Well, this year, everything worked out.  The weather was gorgeous the trees were beautiful…

Our first stop was Stone Hill winery.  We bought tickets for the wine tasting and were able to sample about 6 different wines and made notes as to which ones were were planning to purchase.  We then decided to eat lunch at Vintage Restaurant which is the German restaurant at Stone Hill.  Oh my goodness, did someone say spaetzle?  I don’t usually take pictures of our food (OK, sometimes I do...hee hee hee) but I just had to share this…

After lunch, we walked around downtown Hermann to check out all of the little shops before heading home.  Great weather, great wine, delicious food, cute shops, perfect day.   

Addams Family

We saw Addams Family at The Muny on Friday and oh my goodness, was it good.  It’s our favorite show so far this season.  We saw it at The Fox in 2012 and it was good but this production was even better.  Rob McClure played Gomez and Jenny Power played Morticia.  They have both starred in previous Muny shows, he as Lord Farquaad in Shrek last year and she as Mary Poppins, also last year.  The set, acting, singing, everything was great.  Oh, and need I even mention Uncle Fester and the moon?  Bwahahaha…I’m sure I could explain it here and it wouldn’t sound as funny as if you actually see it.  It just cracks me up!

Just a note regarding last weeks show; a lady seated in the row behind us was talking about it during intermission on Friday and she said that when the actress who played Bess sang, she couldn’t understand her.  I guess Bill and I weren't the only ones!  

The weather was beautiful.  It was only 82 degrees and low humidity so we were finally able to enjoy a picnic in Forest Park; great food from St. Louis Bread Company (known to most of the country as Panera) and some wine.  Yum!

Next week is Seussical which also features a returning actor.  Stay tuned…

Mary Poppins

We saw Mary Poppins at the Muny last Friday.  It's such a cute story and I love all of the songs.  Rob McClure who was the Prince in Shrek played Bert, the chimney sweep.  He flew over the chimney tops, slowly summersaulting through the air.  Jenny Powers was Mary.  She actually flew over the audience.  it was really cool.  My favorite dance number was Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.  It's hard to explain but each person had a letter and then they would spell different words from the song like atrocious, precocious, etc.  Each one had to move into place correctly or else the word would be misspelled...hee hee hee.  Anyway, like I said, it's hard to explain but it was so cool to see. 

The temperature was perfect, almost a little cool actually.  It was 73 degrees at the start of the show and people were actually wearing sweater, jackets and hoodies and I even saw a few people with blankets.  It would have been perfect for a picnic but it was cloudy and the weatherman was predicting rain so we ate at Six Row instead. 

Next, and final, show of the season...West Side Story.

Matchbox 20 & Goo Goo Dolls

Goo Goo Dolls and Matchbox 20 performed at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater on Tuesday.  It was the hottest day of the year so far, 96 degrees, and very humid.  We survived though, obviously.     

Goo Goo Dolls setlist:
1) Last Hot Night
2) Naked
3) Slide
4) Here is Gone
5) Rebel Beat
6) Black Balloon
7) Now I Hear
8) Second Time
9) Let Love In
10) Come to Me
11) Name
12) Bringing On The Light
13) Give A Little Bit (Supertramp cover)
14) Better Days
15) Stay With You
16) Iris
17) Broadway

Matchbox 20 Setlist:
1) Parade
2) Rent
3) Disease
4) She’s So Mean
5) How Far We’ve Come
6) 3AM
7) Real World
8) If You’re Gone
9) Our Song
10) Long Day
11) I Will
12) Unwell
13) Radio
14) So Sad So Lonely
15) English Town
16) Bright Lights
Encore:
17) Don’t Change (INXS cover)
18) Back To Good
19) Push

We sat next to a young couple.  She was 19 and he was 20.  How do I know this?  Well, she started talking to me as soon as we sat down and she was so excited because it was her first concert.  She was very talkative but in a nice way.

Upcoming shows at Verizon Wireless that I would love to see are: Maroon 5 and Kid Rock.   The Maroon 5 concert sold out before we remembered to buy tickets.  Kid Rock is here on July 24 and we already have Cardinal tickets.  No way would I give up my Cardinals tickets, well, unless Captain & Tennille were performing...hee hee hee. 

Nunsense & Mike Shannon Bobblehead

We saw Nunsense at the Muny on Thursday.  We had bought tickets for the Cardinal game on Friday so we needed to trade our Muny tickets for another night.  We originally tried to trade them for Wednesday but the only seats available were in the side sections so we opted for Thursday and had excellent seats.   Phyllis Smith, a native of St. Louis (Lemay to be exact) and a star on The Office, played Sister Julia, Child of God who is the cook who killed 52 nuns in her convent by serving tainted vichyssoise.  There were quite a few St. Louis references throughout the show, hense the words "Muny style" in the title. 

The weather was absolutely beautiful.  We decided to eat an early dinner at Blueberry Hill and then we went to Urban Chestnut to enjoy a beer in their beer garden.  A great way to spend the 4th.  We both had to work on Friday but that was fine. 

We went to the Cardinal game on Friday night.  The "give-away" was a talking Mike Shannon bobblehead and boy, is he cute!  He sits on a medicine ball while announcing the game and his bobblehead is also sitting on a medicine ball.  The bobblehead actually looks like him too.  There is a audio chip inside which plays Mike's commentary of David Freese's game winning Game 6 World Series home run.  Very cool.  Anyway, the Cardinals beat the Marlins 4 to 1.

Next week...South Pacific.

Easter 2013

I hope you are all enjoying a nice Easter Sunday.  It's beautiful weather here.  Much different than the 12 inches of snow we received last Sunday.  What?  Did I forget to mention that?  Silly me.  Yes, we had 12 inches of snow in about 12 hours last Sunday.  It was the largest one day snow in St. Louis since the blizzard of 1982.  Here's a picture when we had about 8 inches...

By 8:00pm, there was 12 inches on the ground.  It really was pretty and it didn't last long.  By Thursday, it was all gone with the exception of some of the huge snow mountains in parking lots.

So, on to Easter.  Here's the Easter card I made for my mom and dad...

Ingredients: 

Card Stock - Wisteria Wonder, Very Vanilla and So Saffron by @Stampin' Up

Ink - Soi Saffron, Certainly Celery and Wisteria Wonder by @Stampin' Up

Images - by @Stampin' Up

Accessories - embossing folder and dies by @Stampin' Up 

The card base is really pretty shade of light purple.  I think it looks more blue in the photo though. 

Happy Easter

 

Cardinals & Taste of St. Louis

As I mentioned yesterday, we went to the Cardinal game on Friday night.  They played the Nationals and won 9 to 2.  The Cardinals scored 5 in the 1st and 4 in the 2nd, including a homerun by my man, Yadier Molina.  Yes, I was wearing my Yadi jersey so I'm sure that helped...hee hee hee.  Anyway, it was the last game in our 5 ticket pack in the Bank of America Club.  We are definitely going to buy these tickets again next year.  

There was a group of 4 young people sitting behinds us; three guys and one girl.  The girl's name was Jordan.  How do we know that?  Well, it's because they must have said it 500 times during the game.  I told Bill that we should take a drink of beer every time they said Jordan.  Well, we did that about 5 times and then figured that we wouldn't be able to drive home if we continued...hee hee hee.

Earlier in the week, the weatherman was predicting a wonderful weekend so we decided that if he was right, we'd go to Taste of St. Louis.  Luckily he was right and it was a beautiful day, sunny and about 75 degrees so we put the top down on the Miata and headed to the Metrolink station in Brentwood and then rode downtown, ready to eat!  Here is a list of the tasty treats we sampled...

• Torradinhas from Yemania Brasil Restaurante (Melanie) - toasted french bread with a blue cheese and parmesan onion cream sauce
• Beat and goat cheese salad from Harvest (Bill)
• Mexican street corn from Milagro Modern Mexican (Bill & Melanie)
• Chorizo quesadilla from Tortillaria Mexican Kitchen (Melanie)
• Tenderloin slider from Ruth's Chris (Bill)
• Arancini from Vito's (Bill & Melanie)
• White truffled popcorn from Bistro 1130 (Bill & Melanie)
• Double chocolate cupcake from The Cup (Bill & Melanie)

After the sampling, we headed to Bottleworks to sample their newest brew, Tasmanian IPA.  Yum!  Oh, and their porter is also on tap.  Porter and IPA, my two favorite beer styles.

We have tickets for the Cardinal game tomorrow against the Reds.  I hate the Reds (and the Phillies, Cubs, Astros, Brewers, Braves, Pirates and Mets).  Just sayin'.  Our magic number is 2 so we could clinch the wild card spot tomorrow.  Here's hoping...!  

2012 Muny Recap

OK, so here is my annual recap of the Muny season.  If I had to use one word to describe the weather this season, it would definitely be "hot."  It was by far the hottest season we've ever attended.  There is usually one show where it is hot so, this year, when it was 106 degrees on the day we had tickets for Chicago, we figured that that would be the hottest show and we'd have smooth sailing for the rest of the season.  Ha!  Four of the 6 shows we saw (we gave away our Chicago tickets) were 105 degrees or above. Yikes.  Oh well, the humidity has been unusally low this summer so we survived.

The shows in order of my most favorite to least favorite are as follows:

• Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat AND Aladdin (tie)
• Thoroughly Modern Millie
• The King & I
• Dreamgirls
• Pirates

It was a tough call between the top two.  I actually loved both of them equally.  Thoroughly Modern Millie was a very close second.  I really didn't care for Pirates.  I'd have to say that Pirates is in my bottom 3 of all time along with Brigadoon and Camelot.

Since Paul Blake retired last year, there was a new Executive Producer by the name of Mike Isaacson.  I think he did a great job on all of the shows.  He actually used the turn table thingy in the middle of the stage, something that Paul Blake hadn't used in years! 

A large LED screen was installed this year.  When I first read about it before the season started, I thought that it would detract from the scenery.  It wasn't distracting but I don't think it really added anything either.  I think that they should have taken whatever they spent for this screen and bought a huge tree to replace the one that was behind the stage that died a few years ago.   

I was disappointed that we didn't get to vote for next seasons shows on the last night.  They handed out a ballot on the 5th show as usual (we didn't have a pen with us so we didn't vote) but there wasn't a final ballot on the last show and I even took a pen with me so we could vote!  Oh well, it's not like we even vote every year because we usually don't have a pen with us and in the years that we do vote, only 1 or 2 of our picks are chosen but it all works out in the end. 

The 2013 shows are scheduled to be announced in October.  Stay tuned...

Dreamgirls and Cardinals

We saw Dreamgirls at The Muny on Thursday.  We had Cardinal tickets for Friday so we traded our tickets for Thursday.  It was 103 degrees but it really didn't feel that hot.  Maybe I'm getting used to it.  We didn't have a picnic in the park though because we didn't want to sit outside any longer than we had to so we ate at Bottleworks.  Anyway, Dreamgirls was great.  Jennifer Holliday played Effie White, the same roll she played on Broadway when Dreamgirls debuted in 1981.  Wow, it's hard to believe that it was over 30 years ago!  

The Cubs came to town on Friday.  Ugh, there were even some Cubs fans in the stadium and they cheered for every strike by a Cardinal.  Seriously, I guess they have to cheer for something, poor dears.  Anyway, the Cardinals beat the Cubs 4 to 1.  Oh, and on Saturday, the Cardinals won 12 to 0, scoring all 12 runs in the 7th inning, tying a team record set back in 1926.   Oh yeah, and the Cardinals won 7 to 0 yesterday.  OK, so I know I've posted this before but it's just too funny not to post again...

Sorry Cubs fans.  Oh wait, no I'm not...hee hee hee.