Good morning and Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend! After last weekend's rain-o-palooza, this weekends clear skies and sunshine (and 70 degree temps) was definitely welcome!

We started off the weekend by seeing "Funny Girl" starring Lea Michele on Broadway. We all know the show has gotten rave reviews since Michele joined last autumn and I have to say, those raves are well deserved.

I haven't been to a Broadway show in years, not just because of the pandemic, but for some time before that - I mostly got tired of being annoyed over the glare of everyone using their cell phones as well as people arriving late, people talking during the show, and, in one case, a woman next to me eating soup out of her purse (on one hand I admired her ability to keep it all balanced, but on the other hand, must she slurp SO loud?? lol). 

Anyway, during Friday night's show, three people in front of us arrived during the first scene and promptly spent the entire show frantically texting; then a person behind us spent the show crinkling some plastic wrap (by the middle of the second act, the Mister could no longer stand it and turned around with a sharp look and a  "do you mind???").

There was also the incident a couple rows in front of us - a woman, who had been seated on the aisle, took it upon herself to re-assign her seat. We know this because when the two people whose seats those actually were showed up, the woman complained LOUDLY how inconvenient it was for her to move back to her actual seat. The two people insisted on sitting on their assigned seats, clearly confused why this is even an issue, and the woman harumphed her way back to her own seat and then we saw her COMPLAIN to her friends. That was some world class gaslighting going on there. 

BUT you know what? Michele (and the rest of the cast) is SO GOOD that none of that really mattered. Lea Michelle is frikkin BRILLIANT as Fanny Brice - her rendition of "Don't Rain on My Parade" was so magical that it elicited applause BEFORE SHE HAD FINISHED and the excitement generated in the audience at the end elicited the type of reaction reserved for a sporting event - I felt like a straight guy watching Monday Night Football! ;) What a treat!

And what an honor to have been in this room watching her performance - Michele is clearly having the time of her life and she generously shares her joy with the audience. I am so grateful. Days later, just thinking of that number, well, I get chills!

And, Lea, if you are reading this (I know you're not, but, my friends, humor me, please! lol) - pitch someone a sketch/music variety show ala Carol Burnett - your comic timing is amazing and the Mister and I both agreed that very few people could pull off a revival of the genre - and you are at the top of the list!

Also: we are looking forward to the day when you are at a point in your life when you can play Mama Rose and/or Dolly. I know those days are a bit far in the future :) 

As mentioned above, the rest of the cast, the costumes, the staging, the set - all brilliant as well.  Thanks to all involved for a fabulous theater experience! 

On a semi related note, if you know of Fanny Brice, you also know that she created the character of Baby Snooks. We looked Fanny up on You Tube and, wouldn't you know it? Someone posted a Baby Snooks radio program from 1951 - it's hilarious and 100% holds up. 

Michele's run in "Funny Girl" ends on September 3, 2023 - if you have the chance it's 100% worth your time and $!

Good morning and happy Monda--- errrrr Tuesday. Yeah, these four day work weeks always throw me off. lol :)

As the year winds down, I've put together one of those "art vs artist" graphics that get posted at this time of the year. 

2022 was not a high output year - I started the year with high hopes - that I could conclude the Lone Apple/Squeeze story that I started in autumn 2021 (yikes! that looks terrible when I write it out). I hadn't been 100% happy with the strips and felt that I could expand a bit and I did. So I re-did the original strips and added some additional bits to expand the story. My favorite part of the 'expansion' was the whole series of "bib" strips. One of those is included in the "art vs artist" graphic below and you can see the whole saga (so far) in the gallery to the right. 

Unfortunately due to an extended grueling time at work (this went on for nearly 10 months) and a house hunt, I had to put MEMO aside. I was pretty bummed about it but did what I could when I could. Thankfully, once I started to shift some things in my life, I had a little bit of a renaissance this autumn and came up with some really terrific stuff. It's been more sporadic than I'd like, but am just happy that I'm creating again! And, on top of it, I got a little freelance design work - two neat projects that I was VERY happy with. :)

Anyway, it's anyone's guess what 2023 will bring, but I hope you'll come back to find out what's new in the wonderful world of MEMOs! :)