Author: Lara

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When Books Become Movies

One of the coolest, unexpected perks of my job is that we have partnerships with many local businesses and non-profit organizations, one of which is The Little Theatre – a five-screen independently owned movie house in downtown Rochester (near the Eastman School of Music) that pours real melted butter onto their popcorn, serves fine teas and treats from local bakeries and candymakers at the concessions stand, hosts local musicians in their cafe, and shows excellent independent, foreign, artsy, and cultural films – in addition to classic movies, really good mainstream movies, and filmed plays, ballets, operas, dances, and documentaries. And because of my company’s partnership with The Little, we receive free movie tickets there on Monday-Thursday nights. And it’s really, really awesome. Full disclosure: Ted and I haven’t paid to see a movie in theatres in months. And we probably see 3-6 movies a month. We live on a strict budget, so we feel lucky and thankful that we can still go to the movies when something we want to see is released. Otherwise, we’d never go because $8 movie tickets is a luxury we (and, unfortunately, so many others) simply cannot afford. Needless to say, we’re grateful fans of The Little and this ‘little’ arrangement.

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Most recently with The Book Thieves, the coed young professionals book club I am a part of through Writers & Books (another awesome local non-profit Geva occasionally partners with and where many of my non-Geva friends work), we read and discussed The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. So, on Tuesday night a group of about ten of us went to go see the movie, which was released earlier this month, at The Little. Overall, we liked it.

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It’s always a bit scary to see the movie-version of a book you really liked. Awful thoughts of how ludicrously they’re going to screw up the plot or misrepresent the mood or the characters (pleeeeeease, for the love of all that is holy, don’t mess up the characters!) or the intention of the book nag at you, and you really don’t want that to happen because it’s a good book. But on the other hands, it’s a good book and it would be so moving to see those characters and that story brought to life – it could be wonderful! We were pretty excited to see The Book Thief, assuming they would do an acceptable, if not good, job (which they did), but we came to the consensus that we’d be much more nervous if (but really, when) a movie version of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern was (is) produced. So much of that book relies on imagery and imagination to create the beauty and magic of the circus that I would be a ball of nerves for days about how they might potentially ruin all the wonderful pictures this book painted in my mind. Or it very well could be stunning. It’s a toss-up. I really want it to be made into a movie, but I also don’t, you know? I feel like movies can mar the wonderful, beautiful, creative images of your imagination and that books offer so much more detail and a much deeper personal connection to characters, mostly because you create them, but movies can also open up your mind to a location or character or take on the story you hadn’t considered before – and make it even more real. I’m torn! Both The Giver and The Fault in our Stars are being made into movies in 2014, and I plan to see them both, all fears aside.

Here are three lists of books being made into movies, in case you’re curious about what’s coming your way: 1, 2, 3

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Anyway, I wasn’t disappointed by The Book Thief movie. Despite the fact that, if you’ve read the book, you’ll notice there were some pretty significant plot omissions, a small handful of moments added, and several things changed or the order of their occurrence switched (I won’t discuss any of them here to avoid spoiling it for folks) – I actually liked the movie. Ted did not read the book, but he enjoyed the movie as well. Book or movie, the merits of the story still stand. The story is still a good story – which comes across clearly, I think, regardless of whether you read the book or not – and the cinematography was lovely too. It’s just a different experience depending on whether you’ve read the book or not. There’s more detail in the book, which I appreciated and liked and I think added something special to the story, and it was somewhat easy for me to notice the differences (and – okay, one mini spoiler! – I really missed the frequent use of Himmel Street, saukerl, saumensch, arschloch, and the narrator’s ever-present voice in the movie), but these changes and omissions didn’t necessarily upset me. Had I not read the book, I still would have appreciated and enjoyed the story and not felt like I was jipped out of anything life changing. My recommendation: Read the book and go see the movie. They’re both worth your time.

Other movies Ted and I saw in November and December at The Little:

  • The Book Thief
  • Dallas Buyers Club
  • Philomena
  • 12 Years a Slave
  • Wadjda
  • Last Vegas
  • Enough Said

My favorites were Philomena, The Book Thief, and Enough Said, followed by Wadjda and 12 Years a Slave. Next week we’ll be seeing Saving Mr. Banks followed by August: Osage County the week after. I’m excited for both!

Have you seen any of these movies? How often do you go to the movie theatre? If you read The Book Thief, what did you think of the movie? Are there any books you do or do not want to be made into movies?

 

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A Fezziwig Party (near) Christmas Eve

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Our theatre-wide holiday party was Sunday night. This qualifies as yet another event in which I was too engrossed in merriment to take even one singular picture. And what a shame too because there were quite a few moments I would have liked to capture and, for once, I was dressed up in something fancy (like wool skirt and sequins top with tights fancy!) and photo-worthy/presentable for the occasion. What a rarity for me to crawl out of my thermal waffle tops, cuddlduds, jeans, and flannel for even four hours during the winter – and we have no photographic proof of this monumental occurrence! I’d say this year’s party, though very well-received and incredibly well attended by staff, crew, one spectacular playwright, and all three casts in the building, was just ever so slightly less spectacular than last year’s hard-to-beat cornhole and karaoke, ugly sweater contest, and feuertzangenbowle (mulled wine firebowl) party.

That’s certainly not to say that it wasn’t a grand holiday party, because it really was. Picture this: The sky was a deep midnight blue and it was snowing big, white, soft, fluffy, picturesque, snow globe snowflakes outside, which was a simply beautiful backdrop to be seen through all the tall windows in the cafe, and there was warmth and light aplenty inside with a well-stocked bar of chilled wine and beer for all, about 120 friendly faces to cuddle up to, sparkly and evergreen Christmas decorations galore, a booming soundtrack of festive holiday music and laughter, nearly 50 excellent and exciting free raffle prizes in the form of gift certificates to places and events around Rochester up for grabs, sweet winetini and chocolate gifts for the company, casts, and crew, and a steaming hot buffet featuring a cheese sampler, salad, bread and butter, chicken French, eggplant parmesan, fresh vegetables, roasted red potatoes, carved beef brisket, and the most mind-blowing lobster and shrimp mac n’ cheese. It truly was our very own ‘Fezziwig party on Christmas Eve’. I may or may not have eaten my weight in lobster mac n’ cheese, for which I have no shame and feel no need to apologize.

I spent most of the night running around with a glass of sweet red wine, a plate of cheese, and a length of raffle tickets on my wrist, chatting up and enjoying the company of each and every person in attendance so I could make sure everyone was in possession of a prized raffle ticket. It was wonderful to have my husband and so many of my great friends and all-around lovely and talented co-workers all in one location, and the food and drink was divine!

I’m already dreaming up potential ideas to bring to the table for next year’s soiree – maybe some holiday/theatre/Geva/Rochester trivia, a DIY snow globe photo booth setup, a festive contest, more fun games, a merry playlist, the return of my feuertzangenbowle mulled wine, and more! Who says office parties have to be boring? And, really, theatre parties hardly ever lack personality to begin with. Maybe next year I’ll even remember to take a picture or two! ;)

Does your office host a holiday party? What is it like? Do you have any recommendations from your own office holiday parties of late to share?

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On Snow and Shopping and Lights and a Show

Snow, snow, snow.

Really, that’s pretty much all that we’ve got.  Lots and lots of it. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday…

It’s beautiful and peaceful…when you’re inside. But, what a mess! So, we basically spent the entire weekend brushing off our vehicles every hour and trying to avoid a lifetime’s worth of accidents on the roads.

Saturday morning we hit up the outdoor public market, which was pretty desolate and blustery – sadly, our lovely market just isn’t as fresh or abundant in the depths of the winter as it is during the rest of the year. So we walked around for twenty minutes then piled back into the truck and crawled on over to the Rochester Brainery’s holiday bazaar where lots of local artists and business owners were showcasing their wares. Oh man, I love shopping local. If we had the money, I’d love to support local business all year long! They had tons of neat things to share. We strolled past Get Caked, which makes the most divine cupcakes. Breze Teas is owned by a really nice lady who makes all her wonderful black and green teas in small, fresh batches and hand-delivers them right to your door herself. Shop Peppermint had an awesome colorful cardigan and fox scarf I completely fell in love with, Thred has an amazing blue lace dress with a pretty v-back that I adore, and Little Grey Gils had several cool throw pillows and a clever mug that Ted and I liked right away. Also, the Rochester Brainey itself is awesome. They are impeccably decorated and offer all these really fun, affordable, neat, single-session classes on just about anything you can imagine! What a way to explore the world and learn new skills. I really hope I can scrape together the money to take a few classes there in 2014. I also think they’d make a great girls night activity! Check out their January calendar here.

After I fell in love with absolutely everything at the bazaar, we grabbed a big, warm and filling pancake and omelet lunch with a gift card we had to Ihop then headed off to the mall because I had a gift certificate to a particular store that I needed to use by the 20th. Of course, the mall was a terrible idea a week and half before Christmas, but because we don’t really do any Christmas shopping, I completely forgot that others do partake in Christmas shopping (with a vengeance and a fury) and I didn’t realize how awful and mobbed it would be until we got there. I found what I wanted with my gift card (yay for adorable free things!), we waited for 15 minutes in a line that snaked around the store, and we got out of there ASAP. And that will be our last mall trip until February. The older I get, the less tolerance I have for anywhere shopping related around the holidays – with, of course, the exception of online shopping and local businesses, which don’t tend to be nearly as busy and far more awesome anyway.

Following the mall was more treacherous snow driving, a stop at Dairy Queen for ‘buy one get one free’ blizzards (you should definitely try the Peppermint Oreo right away!), mass at a new church, and a drive around a few nearby neighborhoods to enjoy the Christmas lights, and finally, an evening at the Blackfriar’s Theatre to see my lovely friend Mary in a performance of It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play – which was a sweet, fun show and, as always, a great classic holiday story that I’m so very happy we were able to see this year. And who doesn’t love a good radio play?

How was your weekend? What fun and festive Christmastime activities did you enjoy this weekend?

 

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The White Elephant in the Room

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Last Friday was one of those weird days with a million little discombubulated things going on. The impending snow storm set the mood for the day as I took one of our actors out to a school in Lima, about 30 minutes south of Rochester, to share theatrical process and artistic conversation with a class of high school students who had attended one of the student matinee performances of A Christmas Carol earlier in the week. He treated us to some warm drinks from Starbucks and good conversation for the ride there and the teacher had baked carrot walnut cupcakes for our visit. Not a bad morning! The snow storm arrived right as we left the school, which made for a slow, white, slick, and cautious drive back into the city. But we made it! This Texan is learning a thing or two about snow driving at last! Back at work I spent the next several hours frantically gathering final preparations for our staff holiday party and wrapping the staff gifts with help from a few of my co-workers on the mezz before Ted picked me up for a mid-afternoon eye appointment – over the canal and through the snow – in Fairport.

Eye appointments. Oooff. That one day of the year where I am guaranteed a huge helping of humble pie. That one day of the year where I am shocked to find that, contrary to my own belief, my eyesight can, in fact, get worse. That one day of the year when I struggle to read a line of black letters on a white lit wall, only to take my contacts out and have the black letters disappear entirely, and all I can see is a glowing white light coming from across the room and I find myself, once again, utterly perplexed that my uncorrected vision really can be that bad. That one day of the year where they drop yellow dye into my eyeballs and I am told, yet again, that there are no numbers in those little lines of black text – only letters, which I clearly can’t see anyway if I thought they were all numbers. On the plus side, it all turned out to be slightly less expensive than we thought it would be, including the exam fees and a year’s supply of contacts, and I got a nifty new pair of prescription spectacles with a sweet frame for only an additional $15. Of course, I feel awful because Ted is the one who really, really needs new glasses to replace his from seven years ago that are an outdated prescription and scratched to all hell – and somehow, I’m the one who ended up with new glasses. It just doesn’t seem fair, you know?

For a special treat, we hit up Five Guys for a terrible and wonderful, quick and cheap dinner of the the best fast food cheeseburgers and fries (seriously, so delicious) and then we headed off – through the snow (sensing a theme?) to my friend Tate’s for her White Elephant Party…which was amazing!

Tate made this incredible gin punch, which was just off-the-charts delicious. I am desperate for the recipe (which includes something like apple cider, ginger beer, gin, lemon juice, sugar, and cranberries) and downed several cups of the stuff…it was that good, and beautiful too!

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Clearly, the gin punch was very important to me considering that’s the only thing I got a picture of the whole entire night before my phone died. There were plenty of other picture-worthy things – a whole buffet of delicious food and desserts, beautiful Christmasy decorations, handfuls of lovely people and good friends, and – of course – the most odd/offbeat/weird/horrendous/utterly amazing white elephants gifts that were selected, unwrapped, laughed at, explained, and traded (not limited to three curtain panels, cricket lollipops, an assortment of hilarious books, hideous ornaments, microwaveable socks, nonsensical handmade Christmas cards, horrendous poney-tale holders, and inappropriate origami – just to name a few).

All of that goodness and I walked away with one picture of gin punch.

Priorities, right?

I was the lucky (and legitimately thrilled, all kidding aside) recipient of a pair of microwaveable socks (which are fantastic, because I obviously tried them on immediately and have wondered how I have lived without them for so long) and a bible accompaniment book that was previously gifted to a friend who is Jewish. Ted walked away with a pair of poney-tale holders (yellow St. Patrick’s day pom-pom balls smoking pipes? We’re not sure, but needless to say, I gained custody of them pretty quickly, as evidenced by the photo below) and a Halloween beer mug that someone borrowed from a bar down the street last year.

1481283_10153615100800343_607511375_n{Credit for this gem goes to Tate}

It was a ton of fun and we are eagerly awaiting next year’s party. We’ll probably also spend the entirety of the next 365 days scavenging for the most obnoxious white elephant gifts around, so everyone, you have been warned.

How do you feel about White Elephant parties? Have you been to one yet this season? If so, what treasure did you receive?

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Bouncing Away the Blues

Oh my goodness this has been such an eventful weekend – trampolining, white elephant party, a Christmas show, the Geva holiday party…plus a million little things in between.

Really, the entire past week was just completely crazy and busy and exhausting with really wonderful (but slightly overwhelming) work events like a packed Magic in the Making, three very exciting – for many reasons – student matinee performances of A Christmas Carol, an actor visit to Lima in a snowstorm, and a huge hunk of time spent planning the staff holiday party in addition to all my normal work and home responsibilities. By the time Thursday night rolled around I was beat, but my friend Kristin and I had scheduled a long-standing and way overdue date to do…something. Tapas at the art museum? The wine bar? Grub at the English pub? And I wasn’t going to pass up girl time no matter how drained or overwhelmed or “blah” I was feeling…or how hard it was snowing.

By some stroke of excellent luck, on Thursday morning as we were putting together our evening plans, I logged on to Facebook and saw that the brand new Sky Zone Indoor Trampoline Park in Greece (that I had been Facebook stalking the building progress on for the past three months) was due to open for the first time the next day and was offering a sneak peek event on this very Thursday night for its social media fans where you could be among the first to flip to your heart’s delight – for a whole hour – in a brand new and toally pee (and other bolidy fluids) free foam pit and bounce yourself silly on highly buoyant new trampolines, all for free, between 3 and 8 p.m.

Free trampolining!?

Yessss.

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And I am so glad we braved the snow and went. It was an absolute blast and the exact pick-me-up I needed. It was awesome fun, instantly boosted my steadily waning energy levels, was an incredible work out (bouncing, flipping, and crawling out of that foam pit for an hour is not for the weak of mind or body), and had us laughing in no time. This was far more wonderful, fun, and beneficial than tapas and wine ever could have been.

I would suggest you try this place with friends or family immediately and then unwind with a warm and frothy beverage on a snowy night Starbucks date, like we did, to discuss our favorite books and authors. Between this awesome date with Kristin and my wonderful Vietnamese pho and “Call the Midwife” date with Shawnda a few weeks ago (a show you should totally be watching, by the way), I’m feeling lucky to have such incredible friends who are so willing to try new, fun adventurous things with me (also see: the time I dragged my Rochester friends to an aerial arts circus class).

****Normal admission is around $14 for 1-hour of play (or $15 for 2 hours on Saturday nights) plus $2 for the super grippy no-skid socks (which you really want on those slippery trampolines – they’re worth it!)…so if you can score a free deal like we did, don’t hesitate to jump right in! Also, bring a hair tie, chilled water bottle and wear flexible layers – like stretchy leggings or yoga pants and a cami or short-sleeved tee. It may be 7 degrees outside, but it definitely was much toastier inside and we wished we had more layers to shed! Other helpful hints:  leave all jewelry at home, and bring a bag you can store your shoes, coat, and other personal items in. They will have lockers you can pay to rent, but they hadn’t arrived when we went. In addition to the foam pit and trampoline court, they also offer trampoline basketball, trampoline dodgeball, and trampoline group workout classes! Bounce, bounce baby!

 

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‘Tis the Season for Comfort & Joy

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After checking out a few excellent Christmas books at my beloved library to enjoy this season (and not all of them for adult readers either!), picking up some delicious stuffed-crust carry out pizza, watching a couple episodes of Parenthood (our new addiction), and playing a few rounds of Wheel of Fortune on the Wii on Friday night, I hunkered down on the rug beneath the twinkling blue and white lights of our Christmas tree, swaddled myself in my favorite cozy blanket with a toasty and relaxing lavender hot wrap around the back of my neck, a plate of cranberry orange bread, and a steaming mug of hot tea nearby, and dug into a Christmastime mystery novel that takes place in a NYC bookshop. As far as chilly Friday nights go, I would call this winning. It’s in these moments of quiet reflection that I look around and remember how thankful I am to live in a home full of love – warm, safe, healthy, and dry – with a roof over my head, food to eat, a job I love, and a family I love even more. Things aren’t always easy, but the abundance of blessings never cease to amaze me.

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On Saturday we visited a Christmas festival packed with gorgeous wreaths, freshly-cut trees, glittery ornament making stations, a lights & sound display, model train exhibit, and petting zoo of sweet animals. Ted most appreciated the model trains and I could have pet the alpacas all day. After our fill of free merriment we took off for an outdoor Christmas celebration of more of the same plus a toasty fire, hot drinking chocolate, some business-to-business carolers, and local shop browsing in the South Wedge. It’s always nice to just, simply, enjoy the season together. A hand-in-hand walk in the chilly air bundled in warm coats, the refreshing smell of pine, a free sample of drinking chocolate, an earful of carolers…it doesn’t have to cost much, or anything at all, to enjoy being together this season.

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The rest of our evening wasn’t quite as great as we’d hoped when an unexpected surprise came our way, but as always, we found ourselves simply thankful to be safe and healthy and together. To make up for the chaos and frustration of a less than ideal evening, we made some comfort food – chicken pot pies with tall glasses of milk and wine, checked into our pajamas, bundled up in blankets, turned on The Incredibles, and promptly fell asleep in the living room for some much-needed rest.

In the coming weeks we are looking forward to more holiday merriment – enjoying a few drive-in or walk-around light displays, a small handful of Christmas parties with friends and co-workers, calling our families often, some cookie baking and milk drinking, eyeing pretty holiday crafts and ornaments, sending and receiving holiday cards, taking whiffs of fresh pine from trees and wreaths, partaking in joyful Christmas movies and music and books, enjoying the follies of playtime in the snow, peppermints and hot cocoa, roaring fireplace fires, nuts and nutcrackers, church, spreading peace, cheer, and goodwill, and quiet Christmas reflection – a holiday season that doesn’t thrive on commercialism or shopping or crowds or money, but that only requires love and joy and gratitude.

I think this might be a good place to start:

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(The Christmas Wish by Lori Evert – available at your local library or independent bookstore – and Christmas in Paris tea by Stash – available on Stash’s website…thanks mom!)

What are you looking forward to the most this holiday season?

 

 

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Have Yourself a Merry…

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Book Thieves: The Book Thief

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Most people are under the impression that our young professionals book club, The Book Thieves, was named after The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. That, actually and sort of surprisingly, is not where our name came from, but we figured if we were going to be mistaken for it, then we probably should at least read the book anyway so we know what it’s all about. And I have to say, after spending some time with it and giving it a thorough read, I don’t mind at all if people want to liken us to Liesel Meminger, the book thief herself. It’s a really good book.

There were many things we all liked about it (there’s about 15-20 of us, male and female, in our 20s and 30s, for reference). Great story, great characters, touching and funny. I think the book is technically labeled as a young adult book, but we all agreed that it doesn’t necessarily read like one, even though the main character is a young girl. There are plenty of older characters and mature topics to contend with. But, truly, a wonderful story. One that you most definitely wouldn’t expect to love or find much humor in, but there it was. We met in November to discuss the first half of the book, and again last night to discuss the second half. We will be seeing the movie together in theatres on December 16th and we’re pretty excited about it! It’s a great book, so here’s hoping they made the film with integrity and didn’t ruin it like The Great Gatsby!

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Of course, we also feasted. At our first meeting there was split pea soup and a loaf of olive oil rosemary bread (very appropriate, if you’ve read the book), and this time we paid a little homage to German heritage with soft pretzels, beer cheese muffins, a cranberry orange loaf, bread pudding, and champagne (also very appropriate, if you’ve read the book). There was also dark chocolate and sea salt covered graham crackers, veggies and dip, awesome Christmas sugar cookies (another book appropriate food item), white chocolate pretzel bark, wine, and brownies.

As always, I do so love book club nights!

Up next: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

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Have you read The Book Thief? What did you think? What is your book club reading this season?

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The Last of Fall

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Leafin’

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Crisp and tart (a.k.a. the best) Crimson Crisp NY apples & incredible homemade pumpkin donuts from Herman’s Farm Market

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Soupin’ – chicken tortilla, broccoli cheese, creamy tomato, cauliflower, black bean and pumpkin, lentil, and a soup potluck at work with soups, soupy lava cakes, and grilled cheeses

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Fall at the park

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And then comes winter…and snow in November

What a beautiful final weekend of fall to usher in our chilly winter!

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Cider & Friends

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Early last week our sweet blue crayfish Ace unexpectedly passed away. She was born in our tank as a teeny tiny, microscopically small and nearly translucent little baby to our first crayfish, Maverick, over a year and a half ago in Cincinnati and, like a champ, both she and Gigi survived the 10-hour move to Rochester (a rare and impressive feat in the cray world). It’s always hard to say goodbye to any pet, big or small. She saw a cool little girl and we’ll definitely miss her, but we are also happy to welcome a new little girl and her six fishy friends (and possibly a few yellow and orange mollies we may be inheriting soon) into our aquarium family.

Meet Cider!

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Cider is a 6-9 month old orange clarkii crayfish. And she’s pretty spectacular as far as crayfish go. She’s our first not blue crayfish, so that bright pop of orange in the tank is quite a change and really stands out. She’s very inquisitive, likes to be out in the open, and isn’t much of a hider, which is good because she’s not that great at blending in.

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But she is great at several other things, namely eating all.the.time (she was halfway through a large fish at least half her size when we first saw her at the aquarium shop…and she hasn’t slowed down since. We feed her multiple times a day and she’s absolutely mastered the art of begging for food. You thought crayfish didn’t beg? Wrong.) Cider is also an expert at detailed exploration, climbing everything in sight (plants, rocks, the tank walls…), continually relocating gravel in her tank to suit her personal tank decoration style, trying to squeeze into places she doesn’t fit, and quietly sneaking up on and terrorizing the six harlequin rasboras who share her tank. She’s actually very entertaining to watch and we’re so very happy to have her!

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Like the proud parent I am, more to come later…

 

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