Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Things That Were Awesome in 2016

I think we can all agree it's been a bit of a terrible year yeah? But here are some things that were pretty neat.

1. Lady Gaga's Joanne. The queen of crazy remained a tour de force with this excellent collection of slightly stripped back but still utterly Gaga jamz. If John Wayne ever comes on in my car, you know it's going down.

2. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. If you had told me that wizards putting New York back together in a beautiful sun shower would reduce me to a big ole mess.....I probably would have still believed you but still it was totally awesome.

3. Dirk Gently. I literally just finished this show in like two days and it blew my mind. It's the craziest of crazies. Bonus points for cute dog!

4. Wrassling. Yep. You read that correctly. WWE. Wrassling. The greatest soap opera story on television right now is the breakup of Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho, not even lying (them getting back together was pretty good too). Wrassling is live theater performed every week for realsies (but also not for realsies). And it's completely amazing. (Getting to see it live this year was pretty neat too.)

5. Similarly to last year's inclusion of Dole Whip, I would like to add Be Our Guest's Gray Stuff to the list this year. Finally getting a chance to eat here (five days away from my eighteenth birthday!) was a total dream come true, and the gray stuff was indeed delicious, as the dishes had told me.

6.Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. Seventy pages of War and Peace (which I'm reading right now and will probably never finish) all put on the stage as an electropop opera starring Josh Groban. You didn't know you wanted it, but trust me, you do.

7. Sushi. Anyone denying themselves the joy of a spicy shrimp roll is truly missing out. Eat the wasabi you weirdos!

8. Season 2 of Unbreakable Kimmy Schimdt. My Netflix tastes vary wildly from the gothest (see next post), to the madcap comedy of the brilliantly written Kimmy. Any day can immediately be made better by the comedic stylings of Ellie Kemper, Tituss Burgess, Carol Kane (why are you not my weird aunt?), and Jane Krakowski. I especially enjoyed all the Broadway shenanigans this season.

9.The Crow. Bless you Netflix, for having this be the very last thing I hadn't yet seen on my watchlist, but keeping it on til I got there anyway. I am kicking myself for not checking it out sooner. All behind the scenes tragedy aside, it pretty much does not get better than this film. And the soundtrack is fantastic as well. (Weird story: I had a lovely conversation with David Patrick Kelly, who is in this movie, after seeing him perform in Once on Broadway. Lost my mind when I saw his name at the end of the credits).

10. The Cincinnati Art Museum. Seriously one of the best museums I've ever been to, AND it's free. It's always amazing to see a Van Gogh in person, and seriously some of the best curated galleries I've ever seen. If you're ever in the area, don't miss it.

11. Jeff Buckley. Yeah I know, behind on the times, but if you haven't taken a listen to Buckley's only full studio album, Grace, stop reading this and go do so immediately.

12. Lin Manuel Miranda. If it was anyone's year, it was Lin's. This dude can do pretty much anything. Moana, Hamilton, it's associated mixtape, were all completely fabulous. And shoutout to hometown hero Michael Luwoye for being the first dude to play Hamilton and Burr!

13.The touring company of The Bridges of Madison County. I was lucky enough to see this show in May and it was absolutely amazing. When you have people like Kelli O Hara and Steven Pasquale setting the standard in this show, there are a lot of expectations to rise up to. Andrew Samonsky and Elizabeth Stanley both more than rose to the occasion and really made it something special. Also thanks for letting me be a dork and chat with you after the show.

14. Cannoli. I don't know, is it ever a bad time to love cannoli?

-Randi