This past Friday, the 6th, Jerbs and I went down to Phoenix to see the musical The Book of Mormon, and it was absolutely fanfreakingtastic. We've wanted to see it pretty much since it hit Broadway, and Jerbs bought tickets like the second the tour dates were announced, so we'd been looking forward to it for awhile. (There was a little SNAFU a few days ago--we'd decided to go to the show on a Friday so I didn't have to take a day off work (going to 2 out of state weddings pretty much killed my PTO), and last Monday, Jerbs looked at the tickets and realized she'd bought them for Thursday, the 5th. Fortunately she was able to exchange them without much trouble, thank goodness, and we got to go as planned).
The drive to Phoenix wasn't bad, and we made good time (like I've said before, the drive to SLC makes 3 hours in the car feel like nothing). We got down there and had dinner with Betsy (at this Mexican place that I really would like to go to again, BTW); after dinner we wandered around the mall where the restaurant was for a little while. Then we headed over to Gammage and oh my gosh the traffic right around the theatre was a nightmare. I got cut off and almost hit a few times, and by the time we parked I was beyond irritated. Thankfully we made it inside in time, but just barely--we literally sat down at 7:29 (I saw that while I was turning off my phone) and curtain was at 7:30.
It was well worth the stress, though, because the show was amazing. It was hysterically funny (laughed so hard I cried more than once) and perfectly over the top offensive. Not as in I was offended in by it, more in a how did they get away with that kind of way. (Side note--I know the tour was heading to SLC sometime after AZ, because Jenna and Theresa tried to get tickets and the whole run had sold out--I enjoy imagining the Mormons leaving early because they didn't do their research). And the cast was really good as well, the female lead apparently went to ASU for her undergrad, which I thought was cool. It was pretty much a full house, I've never seen Gammage that packed. The bathroom line at intermission was INSANE. (Another side note--Gammage actually has donation envelopes in the bathrooms so you can give money to the "Golden Gammage Initiative," which is an initiative to build more bathrooms at Gammage. Seriously, Golden Gammage. I was so entertained by that). We found out after the show that Gammage has already booked the second national tour for their 2017 season, and while I hope I won't still be in AZ by then, if I am I'll totally see it again.
After the show I spent way too much money at the merch table, as I always do at shows, but oh well. I got good stuff so it was worth it! And I also, as always, donated to Broadway Cares, because that's something that's really important to me.
Anyway, it was definitely a fun and memorable trip, and it kind of reminded me how much I like going to live music things. I need to do more stuff like that in the future, for sure!
Showing posts with label Phoenix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Phoenix. Show all posts
11.08.2015
6.30.2013
Worth The Phoenix Heat
I don't think it would surprise anyone who reads my blog or knows me to know that I hate Phoenix in the summer time. In general I don't go to Phoenix very often but I especially try to avoid it between April and September.
BUT this past Wednesday, Neil Gaiman(!) made a stop in Phoenix on his book tour, and of course, Jerbs and I agreed that a reading and signing with him was way worth the trip and the potential heat stroke. We actually found out about and bought tickets for this even way back in, like, February, so we'd been looking forward to it for quite awhile. (Plus I got to take a random day off work AND I got paid for it! First paid day off ever in my life).
Overall, it was a pretty quick trip. We got to Phoenix around lunch time and met up with a good friend of ours from college, B, and hung out with her for a bit. We had lunch and stopped at this awesome nail supply store that sells mostly to salons but is open to the public; they have high end polish for dirt cheap. I may have ended up leaving with 5 bottles of polish . . . it was awesome. (And also, B apparently reads this, so hi B!!) After that we stopped at a Barnes and Noble because I needed to buy something for the signing, since all of my books are still boxed up back in Kingman (which ended up being more depressing than expected as the book I really wanted to bring was out of stock at every B and N here and in Phoenix). I bought his new book, the one he's on tour for.
There was a MASSIVE amount of people at the signing. By the time we got to the high school where it was taking place there was already a gigantic line to get in. And we were there about 5 minutes before they even opened the doors. We were still able to get decent seats, though. The reading and Q/A portion were absolutely fantastic. My favorite part of these things (we've been to 2 tour events for him before) is the reading. Neil Gaiman is a fantastic reader, and when he's reading his own work, there is something about it that is just mesmerizing. Plus he's a genuinely kind and funny guy, so the Q/A session was very entertaining. My personal favorite was him telling the story about how his book Stardust was actually inspired/conceived in Tucson. I didn't know that, and it was cool to hear.
The signing part of things was less awesome. The way they did the signing was in alphabetically assigned groups; each ticket had a letter on it and that was the group you were in for the signing. Jerbs and I were Q. (Which actually wasn't so bad, considering that there were so many people there they'd actually gone through the alphabet once and had to start on double letters after, and the guy we were sitting next to had CC as his group). The signing started around 8, and the people running the event kept saying things were going to go really quickly and blah blah blah which . . . wasn't really the case. By 10 I was starting to panic a little, because I didn't want to get home super late and then have to work in the morning. At 10:45 Jerbs and I left, hit a drive thru for dinner, and came back. Finally at 11:30 they called Q and we got to get in line. We both got our books signed but they were really rushing things so neither of us got to talk to Neil or anything, which was disappointing.
Honestly, though (and I know this sounds creepy, probably) it's incredibly inspiring for me to just stand in his presence. Not in a stalker way, because I'm definitely not stalking him. It's more like an admiration thing. This is a man who is a truly great writer and storyteller, who does what I want to do--he writes beautiful things, and because of the things he writes, over a thousand people are willing to pile into an auditorium and wait hours on end for him to scribble his name on a book for them. It is truly amazing to me, and it makes me want to work on my own writing and hope that I can be a fraction as successful as him.
Anyway. By the time we got gas and got on the road it was after midnight. Then about 60 miles out of Flagstaff we hit some kind of construction (a blast zone, I think, because they're widening the road) and were literally just stopped for about 20 minutes. We finally got home at 2:45 AM, and I think we were both asleep by 3 AM.
Which made my alarm going off at 6:30 AM about the worst thing that had ever happened to me. Not really, but damn, it felt that way at the time! I don't even know how I survived work, but I do know that I drank 2 bottles of Starbucks frappuccino (they brought back the caramel flavor in the bottles!) and 2 cups of coffee from the pot at work, and came home too wound up to crash.
But it was worth it. Well worth it, both for getting to visit with an old friend and, of course, for Neil Gaiman.
BUT this past Wednesday, Neil Gaiman(!) made a stop in Phoenix on his book tour, and of course, Jerbs and I agreed that a reading and signing with him was way worth the trip and the potential heat stroke. We actually found out about and bought tickets for this even way back in, like, February, so we'd been looking forward to it for quite awhile. (Plus I got to take a random day off work AND I got paid for it! First paid day off ever in my life).
Overall, it was a pretty quick trip. We got to Phoenix around lunch time and met up with a good friend of ours from college, B, and hung out with her for a bit. We had lunch and stopped at this awesome nail supply store that sells mostly to salons but is open to the public; they have high end polish for dirt cheap. I may have ended up leaving with 5 bottles of polish . . . it was awesome. (And also, B apparently reads this, so hi B!!) After that we stopped at a Barnes and Noble because I needed to buy something for the signing, since all of my books are still boxed up back in Kingman (which ended up being more depressing than expected as the book I really wanted to bring was out of stock at every B and N here and in Phoenix). I bought his new book, the one he's on tour for.
There was a MASSIVE amount of people at the signing. By the time we got to the high school where it was taking place there was already a gigantic line to get in. And we were there about 5 minutes before they even opened the doors. We were still able to get decent seats, though. The reading and Q/A portion were absolutely fantastic. My favorite part of these things (we've been to 2 tour events for him before) is the reading. Neil Gaiman is a fantastic reader, and when he's reading his own work, there is something about it that is just mesmerizing. Plus he's a genuinely kind and funny guy, so the Q/A session was very entertaining. My personal favorite was him telling the story about how his book Stardust was actually inspired/conceived in Tucson. I didn't know that, and it was cool to hear.
The signing part of things was less awesome. The way they did the signing was in alphabetically assigned groups; each ticket had a letter on it and that was the group you were in for the signing. Jerbs and I were Q. (Which actually wasn't so bad, considering that there were so many people there they'd actually gone through the alphabet once and had to start on double letters after, and the guy we were sitting next to had CC as his group). The signing started around 8, and the people running the event kept saying things were going to go really quickly and blah blah blah which . . . wasn't really the case. By 10 I was starting to panic a little, because I didn't want to get home super late and then have to work in the morning. At 10:45 Jerbs and I left, hit a drive thru for dinner, and came back. Finally at 11:30 they called Q and we got to get in line. We both got our books signed but they were really rushing things so neither of us got to talk to Neil or anything, which was disappointing.
Honestly, though (and I know this sounds creepy, probably) it's incredibly inspiring for me to just stand in his presence. Not in a stalker way, because I'm definitely not stalking him. It's more like an admiration thing. This is a man who is a truly great writer and storyteller, who does what I want to do--he writes beautiful things, and because of the things he writes, over a thousand people are willing to pile into an auditorium and wait hours on end for him to scribble his name on a book for them. It is truly amazing to me, and it makes me want to work on my own writing and hope that I can be a fraction as successful as him.
Anyway. By the time we got gas and got on the road it was after midnight. Then about 60 miles out of Flagstaff we hit some kind of construction (a blast zone, I think, because they're widening the road) and were literally just stopped for about 20 minutes. We finally got home at 2:45 AM, and I think we were both asleep by 3 AM.
Which made my alarm going off at 6:30 AM about the worst thing that had ever happened to me. Not really, but damn, it felt that way at the time! I don't even know how I survived work, but I do know that I drank 2 bottles of Starbucks frappuccino (they brought back the caramel flavor in the bottles!) and 2 cups of coffee from the pot at work, and came home too wound up to crash.
But it was worth it. Well worth it, both for getting to visit with an old friend and, of course, for Neil Gaiman.
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