Culture Corner – February 2014

As promised I have a lot to talk about this month and I’m still excited about next month’s culture corner knowing what’s coming! This past month has been a busy month culturally speaking from an awesome winery tour and tasting to another theater production and a book talk to a sing-a-long movie I did so much. So onward!

To start the month off (not really), but culturally speaking, I went to the Wheelock Family Theatre production of Hairspray and it was fantastic! I usually go opening night as I work for the school and get free/discounted tickets. From the opening number to the closing the entire show kept the audience (me) completely engaged. Even though I felt that Jenna Lea Scott did a great job as Tracy Turnblad, I felt that Jennifer Beth Glick, as Penny Pingleton upstaged her and everyone else in the production. From the way she chewed her gum to the interactions with Seaweed I couldn’t take my eyes off her, she is one of those actors that acts the entire time they’re on stage even when they’re in the background (similar to Celie from The Color Purple in last month’s Culture Corner).

That very next day my friends Caroline and Nick (of the we broke in and decorated their apartment fame) had an extra set of tickets for a winery tour and tasting at Zorvino Vineyards in southern New Hampshire and invited me and another friend to tag along and it was so much fun. We got a tour of the winery and could see the vineyard still covered in snow. This was a small vineyard and it was a fascinating tour! We tried 11 wines in total (or Caroline and Nick did, Caitrin and I were both allergic to various types so didn’t drink them) and every one I tasted was really good.

Adorable sign at Zorvino Vineyardsin the bathroom.

I spent WAY too much money on wine, but it was TOTALLY worth it.

My favorites were the 100% fruit wines we tried a blueberry and a pineapple. I bought blueberry and green apple and then I got two hybrid wines a cranberry and white (SO good) and a cherry and white. After the tasting we went for lunch and ended up shopping for a few hours and I’m pretty sure Nick wanted to kill us but overall I think we had a great day 🙂 If you’re ever in the area you should check out the winery, the staff were super friendly and they make some great wines! I can’t wait to go back and try a few of the ones they were just starting to make.

That following week Caroline, Nick and I went to see a talk about the new book put out by The Moth, The Moth: Fifty True Stories. It was an interesting night at Trident Booksellers (another local bookstore here in Boston), but I seriously enjoyed it. There were three people (Artistic Director Catherine Burns, RAdio Hour Producer Jay Allison, and Producing Director Sarah Austin Jenness) from The Moth there to talk about the book and to provide feedback to the three individuals who shared a two-minute pitch for a story. The pitches were good and two stood out as significantly better than the third and the staff feedback was interesting and always focused on make it personal/where were you in this story. The best part of the evening were the two stories told by Moth StorySLAM champions Tricia Rose Burt and Matthew Dicks. Both of their stories solidified my need to check out one of the StorySLAMs held here in Boston bi-monthly so keep an eye out for a future Culture Corner mentioning that! (If you don’t listen to The Moth podcast or Radio Hour you should and can find it on iTunes here.)

And the last thing I did before this post was I FINALLY got around to seeing Frozen and I’m so happy I did. I’m not sure I chose the best time/showing to see, a couple of friends invited me to go and I knew if I didn’t see it then I wouldn’t until it was out on streaming, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

If you look closely on the ticket stub you’ll notice that it says ‘Sing-a-long’ and they’re not lying. The lyrics to the songs were on the screen and there was a bouncing snowflake and it was a different experience. I found that those singing the loudest were 1) not small children; 2) not that great at singing; 3) sang louder because they weren’t that great (or thought they were); and 4) probably had an awesome time. I think it’s a testament to the film/story that I enjoyed it as much as I did even with the distractions of the bad singers.

I clearly enjoyed it enough to purchase the soundtrack the next day and controversially I actually really like the Demi Lovato version of Let it Go just as much and probably a little more than the Idina Menzel version (both below) mostly because it was a pop version and not a broadway/stage version, but they’re not even the same song! Some/most of the lyrics are the same but they’re definitely different enough. However, the animation for the Idina Menzel version is one of my favorite moments of the film.

Bottom line, if you haven’t seen it you should check it out! The greatest part of the story is that anyone can put whatever they want into Elsa’s story and I think that’s an amazing opportunity in today’s society.

Can’t wait to share next month’s! I’m looking into seeing more stage productions this year and I’m going to a live podcast taping at the end of the month which I’m beyond excited about!