Sunday, October 01, 2006

Diverse Seattle weekend entertainment

It was a fantastic weekend of entertainment as diverse as can be imagined. On Friday I saw Paul Simon in concert (see previous entry). Saturday was a touring stage musical and an unusual movie.

"Bombay Dreams": The Broadway musical based on Bollywood turned out to be far better than I had imagined in the show I attended to open the season at the Fifth Avenue Theatre. Maybe it was just my own unfamiliarity with the show, let alone with the Bollywood genre, but I really liked this musical. The story moved along, for the most part, at a good clip, the songs were upbeat and well-performed, and the staging was nice. I wish the sound quality and timing could have been a bit better, but you can't expect perfection. All in all, I will be humming "Shakalaka Baby" for a afew weeks to come, that's for sure. I bet if the song were released with a major performer involved, it would not only skyrocket to the top of the charts, it would revolutionize pop music today. I think I need to give the Bollywood genre a closer look.

"The Science of Sleep": I saw a trailer for this film a few weeks ago and thought it looked interesting enough to go see. The show at the Egyptian on Saturday night was pretty full, even though the film has been playing a week or more. The audience really seemed to enjoy Gael garcia Bernal's performance, and he played the character to the hilt. He rivals Johnny Depp for number of quirky characters and his ability to bring a special personality to each. The movie, though, takes a lot of effort to follow. It is exceptionally creative with beautifully designed special effects and sets to capture the dreams and imagination inside Stephane's (Bernal) head. This film belongs alongside "Eternal Sunchine of the Spotless Mind" and "Being John Malkovich." Crazy stuff, but interesting.

-- Issaquah, Wash.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Bombay makes me think of Gordon Bombay, who is a great man. He used to be a lawyer with a perfect record in court of 30-0 (or 30-1 if you count that time he scored with the court reporter). Despite his success, he was fired by his boss, Mr. Ducksworth, because his friend's son was supposed to be on Gordon's pee wee hockey team, the Ducks, and Gordon refused to withdraw his protest. They made the state playoffs with a record of 1-10-1, then somehow dominated throughout the playoffs and eventaully won the state championship against the Hawks. This was a big accomplishment because the Hawks had won state for the last 30 years in a row except for the year that Gordon missed a penalty shot. He cost his team the game, and Coach Riley was pissed.

Inspired by his team's performance, Gordon decided to try out for the NHL. His famous triple deke allowed him to dominate in the minors. He was on the cusp of NHL greatness when some guy took a cheap shot and ended my dreams. Gordon returned to Minnesota without a career or a shot at professional hockey. Basically, he was screwed. Luckily, a guy from Hendrix Hockey showed up at his friend Jan's store and offered him millions to endorse his brand. Charlie got the Ducks back together to compete in the Junior Goodwill Games.The Ducks dominated until they faced Iceland. They destroyed the Ducks. In the end, however, the team rediscovered its identity as the Ducks, not team U.S.A. They won the championship in a slow-motion shootout against Iceland. Wolf "the Dentist" Stansson still owes Gordon a beach ball.