The Touching Story of Christian the Lion

Perhaps you saw this on the Today Show, of footage that has come out from over 30 years ago about 2 guys who bought a lion cub in London, and eventually released him to the wild at a rehabilitation center in Kenya. They visited Christian, their lion, a year later, and he still recognized them--in a very touching scene.

Watch the news clip below: (Click here to see the YouTube video they are referencing)

Not the Messiah!

Well, Eric Idle is at it again...musicalizing his old Monty Python movies into stage plays. We saw Spamalot a couple of years ago at the National Theatre, his collaboration with composer/conductor John Du Prez to modify "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" to the stage as a musical. Now, he decided to put the story from "Life of Brian" (which I've actually not seen BTW, but am familiar with the storyline) as an operetta of sorts, only sung by a tenor, baritone, soprano, and mezzo-soprano, with Idle performing also in the baritone-ish range. If you didn't listen to the words, it was actually very well performed. A couple of things I noted, though, while watching: Did the Master Chorale of Washington and the National Symphony Orchestra see playing this as the time of their life, or one of the dumbest things they ever performed? Also, I thought that the purple-haired, tattooed mezzo-soprano was an operatic goth chick at heart in the midst of the otherwise very formal event. Very spontaneous but well-performed overall. Apparently, Washington is only one of 3 venues in the US that Idle is "testing" the market to see how well this show might go...

Eric Idle adds an orchestra to Monty Python comedy

Thursday, July 17, 2008 7:30:39 AM

In Eric Idle's world, a leaf blower is part of the orchestra.

The Monty Python star and "Spamalot" writer is bringing his silliness back to the stage with "Not the Messiah," a musical comedy hodgepodge that features a full orchestra and the occasional leaf blower.

"Musically we've put it in," Idle said.

After putting on the production in Toronto and Sydney, Australia, (and a one-off performance in upstate New York), Idle and composer-conductor John Du Prez are bringing the show stateside for a limited run.

"Not the Messiah" gives a musical stage treatment to "Life of Brian" the way "Spamalot" did for "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

"In many ways, 'Spamalot' made it possible for us to do this sort of thing," Idle said. "People take us seriously that we'll put it on, but also it means that we're not so obsessed, we don't have to make a fortune out of it, we can just make it work for its own cost."

Backed by a 104-piece orchestra, Idle and his comedic crew will perform "Not the Messiah" at Wolf Trap National Park in Vienna, Va.; the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles; and the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia.

The Los Angeles show will also feature fireworks and a 32-member bagpipe band, Idle said.

The 65-year-old actor, writer and composer, who has crafted more than 300 comedic songs over the past 30 years, said he's always been moved to set his comedy to music.

"Orchestras and choirs love it," he said. "They don't often get to wear miners helmets and do doo-wop."

Thursday, July 24 at 8:15 pm at the Filene Center

Ticket Price: $20 to $55

Not the Messiah!

(He’s a Very Naughty Boy)

Starring Eric Idle

John Du Prez, conductor

Master Chorale of Washington
Donald McCullough, Music Director

Move over, Handel...the team that unleashed Spamalot has schemed up their newest adventure—a comic oratorio inspired by Handel’s famous oratorio Messiah and Monty Python’s hilarious Life of Brian.

Join Python superstar Eric Idle and his Spamalot Grammy and Tony Award-winning co-composer John Du Prez and a cast of thousands—well, an audience of thousands, plus the NSO, chorus, soloists, bagpipers, and a sheep—as they tell the tragi-comic story of a man mistaken for the Messiah. This new work for 100 musicians is an attempt to create a new form—the comic oratorio—from the Pythons’ most admired movie. Idle—singing baritone-ish—reprises some of his best-loved roles from this legendary movie that reminds you to “Always Look On the Bright Side of Life”!Join Python superstar Eric Idle and his Spamalot Grammy and Tony Award-winning co-composer John Du Prez and a cast of thousands—well, an audience of thousands, plus the NSO, chorus, soloists, bagpipers, and a sheep—as they tell the tragi-comic story of a man mistaken for the Messiah. This new work for 100 musicians is an attempt to create a new form—the comic oratorio—from the Pythons’ most admired movie. Idle—singing baritone-ish—reprises some of his best-loved roles from this legendary movie that reminds you to “Always Look On the Bright Side of Life”!

Pretty much spot-on about this year's election....

Time for Some Campaignin'

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Happy Birthday to Me!

I had a lot of fun today, especially because Weird Al came to DC to perform his concert on my birthday! That was awfully nice of him.... ;-)

He sang several of my favorites of his, including classics like Eat It, Fat, and Smells Like Nirvana as well as more recent gems such as The Saga Begins, Amish Paradise, eBay, and White and Nerdy.

See the slideshow from some of his concert:

We are now officially houseowners!

Well, we've been homeowners for a while, since the condo we live in has been owned by my husband since 1993. But we've been relatively cramped as a married couple in the one-bedroom condo for more than 7 years, and have been wanting to expand. Unfortunately, after the market started skyrocketing after we got married, we had little chance of affording a single-family home. However, since we've both received promotions recently and the market has gone down, we thought we'd poke around the real estate a bit. We started looking around our neighborhood, but everything was more expensive, very small (i.e., same or less square footage than our condo), and usually quite old. So we expanded our search a little bit, to find a place that felt more in the country while still remaining in the city, and came upon the house that we just bought and closed on today. I think we got a good bang for our buck on this house. :) Now we'll have some room to breathe. Aahhhhhhh.

Click here to view more pictures of the house.

Guillermo del Toro Talks Hobbit

For a long time, fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy—or, more accurately, Peter Jackson's film adaptation—were full of speculation as to whether the trilogy's precursor, The Hobbit, would ever come to the big screen; then, after the film was announced, over who would direct it. Now that Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro has officially signed on for the project—reportedly to be filmed as two separate movies—speculation shifts to exactly what the films will look like compared to Tolkien's vision, and Jackson's standard-setting trilogy.

Del Toro joins in the speculation himself in a new Q&A with Middle-Earth fans, posted at the MTV Movies Blog. Of particular interest to Christian moviegoers is a question about whether del Toro will be "exploring any theological or spiritual themes" in the films. Del Toro answered: "I believe The Hobbit is a narrative that contains characters that are very symbolic of certain human traits. Obviously, pride and greed are easily found in Smaug the Dragon. Then the humble, sort of a sturdy moral fiber that Bilbo has very much represents the idea that Tolkien had about the little English man, the average English man. The dwarves represent other qualities, the elves represent other qualities and, like, in any fairy tale or fantasy narrative that is worth it, all these characters conform to a view of the world that is spiritual, ethical and moral. I think that this morality, this spiritual tale, will play a [large] part in the movie."

The director also notes the enthusiasm he has for working with actors Viggo Mortensen, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, and Orlando Bloom—though he can't say anything for sure at this point. He also notes his desire to make Ian Holm—who played Bilbo Baggins in the trilogy—to be involved with the new films in some capacity.

In an interview with The Defamer, however, del Toro makes clear that there will not be two Hobbit films unless a substantial story can be devised to bridge Tolkien's novel with the Lord of the Rings storyline. Says del Toro, "we believe there is a second movie … if we find it, we will shoot it."

Happy Independence Day from DC!

Watch the entire fireworks show on the Mall below, set to patriotic music: