I just found out something horrible that happened 6 years ago. Gregory Hines, tap dancer and actor beloved by yours truly diedof liver cancer in 2003!
Once upon a time, Meghan told me she was going to a comedy show at Carnegie Hall. I have always wanted to go there and keep forgetting. So that very moment, I started to look at the upcoming Carnegie Hall events. Not really liking any of the summer events, I decided out of nowhere that I would like to see some tap dancing at the Hall for my first visit. So, I looked up the tap dancer, Savian Glover and he is not currenlty on tour. Then I looked up Gregory Hines and was sad to discover that he had died 6 years ago and that it was brand new information to me.
Only Meghan can describe to you fully how upset I was as she witnessed it. I’m not sure why I was so bothered, but I really really was. I mean, I love this guy! He was an awesome dancer and acted pretty well (see Waiting to Exhale, Bojanges the mini-series for which he won an Emmy, Will and Grace, his Tony award winning musical performance and numberous Sesame Street episodes) and an all-around nice guy.
I really hate it when you find out years later that someone you liked has died. It makes me wonder who else I love is no longer with us? And how will I find out? And when will I find out? It’s a rather bummer topic, I know. It’s like at the Oscars when they do that montage of people who have died that year and there’s always someone in there that I didn’t know about, but at least that happens within the year, not 6 years later!
Yes friends, it was time once again last week for our annual Shakespeare in the park outing. This year Meghan and I waited in line next to some very annoying private school pre-teens. But, after several hours of being annoyed, we realized that the best way to get them to stop talking to eachother was to invite them to play a game with us, thus distracting them from their irritating conversation. I’d like to claim the credit for this stroke of genius, but it was a Meghan brainchild and really saved the day.
After getting the tickets, Meghan and I tried to make it to meet Lisa for an IMAX viewing of Transformers. Sadly, by the time we got there we had missed 20 minutes of movie. And I mean 20 minutes of movie, not 15 minutes of previews and 5 minutes of movie. So, lovely Lisa came out of the IMAX version and waited a whole hour to see the regular version of it with us. It was not as good as the first one, but still good-as most action movies are.
Then we three met Maren at Lisa’s for a Thai food feast. We ordered way more food than any 4 people needed and did some good work to eat most of it. In case you weren’t sure-it was yummy.
Then finally back to the park for Maren’s first ever Shakespeare in the park. And boy did she pick a good one. It was the best in the park production I have seen in the 4 years we’ve been going. It was Twelfth Night and starred Anne Hathaway and Julie White.
It was so funny (as is the play when you read it) and so well acted and the music was so good I wished that you could buy the soundtrack.
The only thing to muck up the glory of this great work was that Erica, long missed and much loved Erica, was not there as she usually is to enjoy it with me. I was, however, slightly comforted by her twin sitting two rows in front of Maren. She was wearing an Erica outfit, used Erica hand movements (which, if you know Erica, are very distinct) and even had her hair done in an Erica fashion (buns). It made me feel a little better to have this visual trickery Erica to look at who seemed to enjoy the show. Needless to say, while a great time was had by one and all, we missed our Erica and talked about how bummed we were to have her gone this year.
