A Bag Full of Meat Pies

I must say I have always been a fan of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. I have never seen it live but I have seen the terrible quality taped video of it’s original run in the 70’s. Quality or not, nothing, absolutely NOTHNG beats Angela Landsbury! Really. Anyone else playing Mrs. Lovitt is in for a sorry time of being compared to the theatrical legend…In cleaning out my closet yesterday- I found the backpack that I got in the army surplus store in Chicago on Belmont. I loved/love it. It’s my comfort bag. It’s very Bohemian. It’s military green and it holds my books, my journals, my cds- and my IPod touch. I carried this bag everywhere I went in the windy city. To work, to rehearsals, to performances, out all over Lakeview, the Loop, and yes- even the dreaded west side- where after one night’s rehearsal at the top of a bar for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In this bag that had seen many people and many places so far since 1998- I had a bit of a downfall last Christmas time with a bleeding ulcer (another souvenir from Chi town and three jobs at one point back here in Nebraska) then the onset of Encephalopathy-which I am slowly recovering from slowly, very slowly thank you very much.Well I had, of course forgotten about it since my memory of that era is kinda blurred because of that neurological infection- and found the movie soundtrack to Sweeney Todd way in the bottom of my bag- the Tim Burton fiasco. It was still a pleasant surprise. Don’t ask me were or when I got it. I think I remembering buying it at the Barnes N. Noble at the mall of the theatres that day- but who’s to know except my higher self at this point. I shrugged it off to another fortunate find and will listen to it later thinking I may like it this time without the visuals.Merry Christmas to me!The month of the ‘ulcer event’ I went WALKING into the Oakview Theatres to see the movie of the musical I LOVED and as it was made by a director I LOVE so- do the math- I was sure to be bound for a great time. Little did I know I was never really feeling well and my mind was slowly going downhill anyway, then- I found the movie while at times visually beautiful- sucked hard. Very hard. I was livid. It was so vulgar and disgusting and ghastly- which is what the play is all about- BUT Sondheim achieved that in his brilliance & musical genius without the gratuitous gore! Keep in mind I passed out at Pulp Fiction- I know… I so despise Tarantino!!Well, I walked out of Sweeney- my eight bucks be damned. I also almost got into a fender bender with some bitch who wasn’t looking where she was going, and looked at ME like I was the fool. Grrrrr, I HATE that.So… It wasn’t a “good” day really.Flash forward to that afternoon; I thought, “well, I’ll pop that CD in. I got nothing new to listen to- why not. I was just in a bad place then- it might be different now that I’m getting better and I may even add it in my queue on Netflix to give it another chance.” So I played it. AW geeeez it was just as bad as I remember. THEN I missed the old richness of the story and put the ORIGINAL CD, and aaaaaaaaaaah- sweet familiarity! Hearing Landsbury’s Mrs. Lovitt was comfort food for the artistic heart. Bonham Carter, while lovely and I am a fan, didn’t have a chance. Plus all the parts they left out was a travesty- much like Rent’s movie- I didn’t like how they spoke some of the originally written singing lines!! That’s just wrong! Merry freakin Christmas.So… I went in to this computer to burn my original soundtrack for later importing that to my future ipod- the movie soundtrack can sit and rot in my cd case while my bag of many experiences can carry my future ipod and forget all about the hell that is Johnny Depp’s interpretation. He needs to keep his job of playing Keith Richards playing a pirate. No doubt they’ll make about ten more of those silly pointless nonsensical pirate movies. Which brings me to the merits of the Pirates of Penzance!!!!! Is it just me or is it just sick and wrong that Willy Wonka is indeed really a throat cutting barber? Okay- I’ll shut it now.