Family Get-Togethers

This past weekend I took a trip up to Massachusetts to see family and celebrate my nephew's 2nd birthday. The weather was beautiful so we were able to party outside in my sister's backyard. We did the usual bbq fare of burgers, dogs, beer and lemonade. It was interesting to see the new dynamic in the family though now that there are so many kids. I noticed it is a challenge to have a conversation with someone because everyone is trying to concentrate on where their kids are and entertaining them. You get in the small talk and catch up a little, but relaxing and chatting is not really a part of life anymore. I guess that's what email, texting, Facebook, Skype and the phone are for.

The Suburbs

Having lived in NYC for about 10 years now it's always a huge change of pace when visiting the suburbs. I do enjoy the quiet, the trees and the ability to just jump in your car and go. But finding something to do to entertain yourself besides the mall or the movies is always a challenge. So on Saturday night while visiting family up in MA, my father decides that we are going to go see a play. Now a play in Boston would be great, but a play in Arlington, MA is another story. The town itself is quaint with it's make your own pottery stores and cute restaurants, which then makes me wonder what will this play be like. The play was called "Drop Dead!", which is what I would have liked to have done after about the first 10 minutes. Since my family knew two of the actors in the play we had to sit through it unfortunately. The irony of it all is that "Drop Dead!" is a play about the making of a bad play with bad actors, oh and there is some murder mixed in there. So I saw the comedy in it all and stuck through it, even when they turned the heat off at intermission (yes, there was even an intermission). I am generally impressed by any person who is willing to have the guts to get up on a stage and perfom in front of a crowd - that is if there is a crowd. This audience was about 40 people in a huge theater and I think 10 of them left at intermission.

The best part of the whole show was the opening act, Dave Russo, comedian. I should have realized that if there's an opening comedian to get the audience in a good mood before the play, that the play itself probably can't stand on it's own. Dave Russo, who had won the Boston International Comedy Festival, had some pretty funny and relatively clean jokes that made the first 1/2 hour all worth while. And when he was heckled by a 103 year old man in the front row after having his mic go out, I thought this was a pretty funny night in the suburbs.