Weekend Update 1 -- Museum Visit

First, big birthday hugs to stripedtiger on this Mother's Day :)

Mike (mikiedoggie) showed up late Thursday for the weekend, but we got up early Friday for breakfast at Panera and a visit to the Contemporary Arts Center in downtown Cincinnati.


The "UnMuseum" floor of the Contemporary Arts Center -- photo by mikiedoggie
The museum had some pretty neat exhibits going on, from home design to the stylings of an art group from the 1960's-70's called the "Ant Farm." Mike and I came to the conclusion that the Ant Farm guys were pretty much stoned often (there is even a video with the swivling camera angles like "That's 70's Show"). Still, the exhibits were pretty good, I highly recommend the visit.

The top floor is the children's museum which is a lot of fun, very hands-on with lots of things that make noise and flash lights. There is one area with a parbolic floor, a music cube, a stand for conducting music, and the pink area near the art stations. Mike took a lot of photos, but I'll let him post those, especially my more embarrassing ones. Some are icon-worthy :)

Weekend Update 2 -- Chess

Friday night was seeing Derek (_decibel_) perform in a great production of Chess.

We met up with Brian (cincycub) at Union Station for dinner, followed by a quick walk to the Aronoff Center for the show where we ran into Derek's honey Chris. We were in the very front row, in front of the orchestra pit, with a grand view of the stage.

I'd never seen the show or knew the story and had only heard three of the songs. It was a nice steady build, the lady who played Florence was amazing as were the two main leads. Derek was quite dashing in his suit (I refrained from whooping and hollering as my hillbilly roots encouraged). Derek not only looked good, but he got to dance with the hot dancer in the show, who also played the Russian wife (sorry I'm bad with character names). She is an incredibly striking woman, thick full lips and expressive eyes, with an amazing voice. There were some nice looking fellers in the show too :D

The show had rather minimal sets, but they were very versatile and the changing between scenes happened very fast. The 2 1/2+ hour show flew by pretty quickly too. Even Chris, who had seen the show twice, said that it flowed much quicker than before. The final performance was last night and I'm sure it was amazing. I only wish I could have taken photos.

Weekend Update 3 -- Kinky Boots

Ladies, Gentlemen, and those of you who have yet to make up your mind...
On Saturday morning, Mike and I had more Panera bagels and then met up with a very tired Chris, Derek (_decibel_) and Brian (cincycub). Derek was up late at the Chess wrap party (held a night early due to set clearing after the final show) and Chris got stuck in the garage elevator for an hour after the Friday night performance. Needless to say they both were pretty tired.

After a nice filling dinner at ZA, we hit the Esquire Theater for a matinee of Kinky Boots. The story centers around a British shoe factory who is nearly out of business until the owner runs into a drag queen with badly made heels. With the help of Lola the performer and a sassy factor worker, the owner takes a daring step to create new boots for the drag queen niche.

The movie stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Lola. He played the soft-spoken assassin in Serenity. The movie also stars burly Nick Frost (Ed from Shaun of the Dead) as one of the factory workers. The movie is a good mix of comedy and drama. Ejiofor performs many songs in the movie, including a medley containing "These Boots are Made for Walking"...

After the movie was Graeter's... soooo goooood (Hi Heather and Dave!)! Chris and Derek took off to get ready for Chess and other things. Brian, Mike and I made our way for an evening of shopping at Kenwood Towne Center. A busy day, but a good one.

On Kinky Boots:
Did I enjoy the movie? Yes, it was great.
Would I see it again? Definitely.
Buy the DVD? I plan on it.