Saturday, December 13, 2008

If you want to see Jersey Boys you'd better get your tickets TODAY, it's about to sell out!

Mary and I saw it last night, and it's really true big songs don't die!

Dramatic spectacle shows both the strength and character flaws of 4 New Jersey boys who decide to get out of the neighborhood, "Back then there were three ways to get out: join the military, get mobbed up, or become a star-- up and out!"

Strong emotions are on display from start to dramatic finish. "Sell 100 million records and see how you handle it." There is never one drowsey moment in the electric musical story.

Song after song, 27 in all, we're shown the 45 year career, how Frankie Vally became Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons with a brass section! From Sherry and Big Girls Don't Cry, to Working My Way Back to You and Rag Doll, each song is a brush stroke that paints the story: "You can't buy this, it's from the people."

Josh Franklin (Bob Gaudio), Joseph Leo Bwari (Frankie Valli), Steve Gouveia (Nick Massi) and Erik Bates (Tommy DeVito) are too good to be true.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

"To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first, and, whatever you hit, call it the target," and "I'm not getting paid much for staying alive but it's good experience."

From Potshots by Ashleigh Brilliant, whose birthday is today.

Monday, December 08, 2008

Q: What's the best political book you've read in the past year? Bonus: Suggested reading for Bush in retirement and Obama in the White House.

A: Amar Bhide's "Venturesome Economy" -- annihilatingly good since it is so much at odds with the current, brows-knitted, anxious attitude toward the economic future. Bhide points out that multiple players move the economy forward. To him consumers are important, too. But his consumer is not the dullard multiplier so much discussed in all the infrastructure spending projects. The Bhide consumer is the one who takes the risk of deciding at designer handbag is worth the money -- along with the designer himself of course. A better explanation of the Kate Spade phenomenon and many other parts of our creating/shopping culture will be hard to find. Bhide is the undiscovered Malcolm Gladwell.

Amity Shlaes, a Bloomberg columnist and senior fellow in economic history at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the author of “The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression”, Harper Perennial, a national bestseller. On http://www.politico.com/arena/bio/amity_shlaes.html
The most read article on DenverPost.com this morning is an article from last week about media companies across the country being put up for sale. It's worth reading for the comments alone. http://www.denverpost.com/popular/ci_11142071