Tag Archives: nbc

pop culture

“Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking” + Other Bombshell Faves

Leave a comment

I have been going through some kind of Broadway Show phase, which includes updating my “Status of Musicals” rankings to include the last few shows we’ve seen…as well as putting the fictional Bombshell musical from NBC’s Smash.  I absolutely love the music from the show and would happily see a real production of it.  I know that in a post from years ago when Smash was still airing, I posted the Hulu or NBC.com link to the video of “Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking” but it went away after a few weeks as content providers don’t want you to have endless access to content for free, they want you to consume it while ratings can be derived from it.  But fortunately, someone has posted it on Vimeo, and I’m happy to include it here…along with other performances I loved from the series.  And it must be pointed out that the chorus boys in this number are damn fine.

Next up, “20th Century Fox Mambo,” which is an absolute blast to listen to on its own but when you factor in this great staging of it, it takes it to the next level:

This next track is another of my favorites from the series but in the plot of the show, it was kinda dropped as they were going to have a Nat King Cole number but then decided against.  I just love this song to pieces though.  So, here’s “Let’s Start Tomorrow, Tonight“:

“History is Made at Night” is probably my favorite song from Bombshell though, as I can just imagine seeing it performed on a Broadway stage and it being the number that brings the house down.  The chorus just blows everything away and has one of those hooks that you can’t get out of your head for the next day.  MAN!  Someone bring this show to reality!  (Sorry about the attached video – it cuts out for some reason in the middle and there’s no other video I can find of the performance…)

I know that Smash had a bunch of contemporary songs too, but those performances were typically my least-favorite part of the show.  I also didn’t care all that much for the other musical brought in during the second season, The Hit List, as I really was invested in seeing what they did with Megan Hilty’s character, Ivy, and what was done to bring Bombshell to Broadway.  Le sigh.  The show has ended but the soundtrack and Youtube videos keep the show going on!

pictures

A Holiday Party Unlike Any Other

Leave a comment

Last night, NBCUniversal threw a holiday party for all its employees out here on the west coast.  It was pretty great as they held it at the Universal Studios Theme Park and we had the park to ourselves.  Pretty awesome, and to make it even better, all the food was complimentary.  No alcohol was served, but in Citywalk you can take care of that as we ended up doing. Had a great time spending most of the night with the gang, going on various rides and such.  Probably the highlights were getting to ride on the Studio Tour at night (the Bates Motel was pretty awesome to see at night; we finally saw life at the WhoVille set too!) as well as finally going on the Minion Mayhem ride.  What’s awesome to see is all the construction going on which is eventually going to be the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!  But that’s not for a while still.

Anyway, here are the pics I took!

December 10, 2014 – 2014 NBCU West Holiday Party

This was a building right on the lot
The entry into Universal Studios
One of the restaurants in Citywalk
With Bart and Lisa
On the Studio Tram Tour
Creepy always
With the minions
just a post

Buzzfeed Provides a Parisian’s Guide to Paris

Leave a comment

The list of things to do in Paris posted in Buzzfeed all look spectacular.  I’d certainly want to do stuff more off the beaten path when going back (and it will be a WHEN, not an IF).  I have visited a few of these previously (Visiting the Musee D’Orsay, Pere Lachaise Cemetery) but many I haven’t.  I’ve linked to the Buzzfeed article if you click on the picture below, but I’ve also listed out the things they recommend just in case the link dies in the interim before heading back to Paris!

buzzfeedparis

  1. The Marché des Enfants Rouges
  2. The Jardin du Luxembourg (did it!)
  3. The Arab World Institute
  4. The Jardin des plantes
  5. The Great Mosque of Paris
  6. The Coulée Verte
  7. Les Déserteurs
  8. The Palais de Tokyo
  9. The Communist Party Headquarters
  10. Saint-Ouen Flea Market
  11. The Aligre Market
  12. Du Pain et des Idées
  13. The Canal Saint-Martin (I remember this from Amelie)
  14. The Comptoir Général
  15. The Parc des Buttes-Chaumont
  16. The Church of Saint-Serge
  17. Rue Crémieux
  18. Rue Montorgueil
  19. Le Bon Marché
  20. Passafe Jouffroy
  21. Le Grand Rex
  22. The French National Library and its Neighborhood
  23. Breizh Café
  24. The Musée d’Orsay (did it!)
  25. The Palais Royal (did it ….in Assassin’s Creed Unity)
  26. Merci
  27. The Galerie Vivienne
  28. The Passage des Panoramas
  29. Jacques Génin
  30. The Opéra Garnier
  31. Pére Lachaise Cemetery (been there!)
  32. The Riverfront (of course I’ve been there)
  33. Molitor
  34. L’Avant-Comptoir
  35. Villa Léandre

h/t to Buzzfeed as I clearly would have no idea what these are on my own.  I so want to though!

Also, in other news, NBCU is throwing a West Coast company-wide Christmas party at the Universal Studios Theme Park tonight.  Here’s hoping it’s a fun night where we get free reign in the park!  Pictures to come tomorrow.

on life

Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight

Leave a comment

This twosome from the Beatles on Abbey Road is possibly my favorite Beatles “song.”  It’s an emotional punch of sentimentality as well as hope – and will always have a huge bit of memory for me.  I was listening to it once while walking to work in NYC.  I think I had gotten off the NY Waterway bus as something must have pissed me off about that day’s commute?  Anyway, the headphones were on and I had this on and it gets to the “Carry That Weight” portion of the song, and that’s when I realized it was beyond time to be out at work. I hadn’t explicitly told anyone besides Arielle and Joe at that point, and while I’m sure most of my coworkers were quite sure about my sexuality, I still kept myself in a closet of sorts.  Who knows why?  It’s just when you are still afraid of being rejected by coworkers/friends (for clearly no real rational reason), you can decide to put up dumb walls.

So hearing these lyrics from “Carry That Weight” resonated like hell with me that day. I was carrying an enormous weight of keeping this “a secret” and it was draining me.  Especially since there was so much additional stress of the job alone!   So yeah, that day at work, I was ready to stop evading any questions.  I still remember that for lunch, I had gone downstairs to the Rockefeller Plaza concourse to get a chicken katsu plate at the sushi place downstairs and the very friendly staff there yet again tried to sell me on the wonders of Jesus Christ.  I nodded politely and sat down to wait and messaged Sharon that it was hilarious that I was getting proselytized yet again at the sushi place as they’d probably flip out if they knew I was gay.  She ‘lol’d’ via the message and then pointed out that I had just come out to her.  She was happy, I was happy, and that’s that.  It really is a miraculous weight to remove when you do that.  After that, it was never an issue and never a problem to talk about my actual life.  Just remembering how that felt and then remembering having to not have a personal life while in the Air Force still makes me cringe. What a waste.