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Imagine an R-rated “Sesame Street” or The Muppets OD’ed on Viagra.
Add a fantastic score and some terrific staging, and what do you have?
It all depends on your tastes and your tolerance for raunchy dialogue.
It’s safe to say there has never been a show quite like Avenue Q in Wharton Center. The Tony Award-winning musical had patrons laughing and singing on their way to the parking ramp.
It also produced one of the strangest reactions I’ve ever seen in a curtain call.
Some leaped to their feet the second the final notes ended. The song was “For Now.” The show was for them.
Others stood at various stages as the puppets and people took turns taking bows.
And more than a few stayed seated, perhaps wondering why they had come.
As Kate Monster had tried to explain, “There’s a fine, fine line between love and a waste of time.”
Or as Christmas Eve sang, “The more you ruv someone, they more they make you clazy.”
It helped to have heard the soundtrack before. If you did, you understood the appeal of a show that beat Wicked for best-of-Broadway honors four years ago.
It also helped if you checked all hints of prudishness at the door. Avenue Q isn’t for kids and isn’t for everyone.
But those who liked it could be heard from the last row of the balcony. Many will be back there between now and Sunday.
There’s plenty to see. The puppeteers are brilliant. The music is memorable. And the lessons to be learned are timeless.
At the intermission one woman within earshot asked her companion, “Does the program say anything about ‘adult content?’”
I had to smile - a clear case of “Schadenfreude.” For non-Germans that’s taking immense pleasure from others’ pain.
Imagine calling the outcome of an election with 7.4 percent of the vote.
Or naming an NCAA basketball champ after 2 minutes, 58 seconds of play.
That’s what disillusioned Detroit fans were doing Monday afternoon when they said the 2-10 Tigers were the worst team in baseball.
That impression didn’t improve much a few hours later when their team trailed Minnesota 9-4 entering the seventh-inning stretch.
Suddenly, the bats stopped looking like limp linguine. And the Twins must’ve borrowed two pitchers from Detroit’s sorry bullpen, better known as “Gasoline Alley.”
Don't believe me? Join Bill Moyers and You Tube for the next ninety minutes to get a forty year post-World War Two history lesson on American foreign policy. Then ask yourself if the same jive isn't going on today.
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While watching the pristine teal green water waves of the Gulf of
Mexico roll up on the sugar sand of St. Pete Beach Beach from my cabana chair
here on Spring Break, I have been pondering a couple of these powerful
thoughts:
How did my vision of a 35-5 start for this 2008 Detroit Tiger
campaign (ala 1984) get crushed so abruptly? Finally we have one glimmer
of hope following Wednesday night's 7-2 romp over the Red Sox, after the Tigers
scored just 15 runs in its first 7 outings. At least it's not as bad as 2003,
when the Tigers went 0-9 to start things off en route to 43-119. OK, behind
these potentially potent bats and the much needed return of Curtis Granderson in
the not too distant future, maybe the Tigers can creep back above .500 and make
a 1984-type run. I can only hope.
How did Chris Douglas-Roberts get through this
week, overcoming the glaring thought "if I could have just hit that second
free throw," his team (the Memphis Tigers) we could have won a National
Championship. The NCAA Tournament Final Four and Title game has some glorious
moments for select players (like Keith Smart, Michael Jordan and Lorenzo
Charles), but, man, it can have some horrific memories as well. Just ask
CDR, Chris Webber and Fred Brown and many others.
Jack 
Imagine an R-rated “Sesame Street” or The Muppets OD’ed on Viagra.
Imagine calling the outcome of an election with 7.4 percent of the vote.
Do you have opinions and like to share them? Do you have knowledge that others don't have? Is your expertise or passion politics, entertainment, sports,
automobiles, food, the arts or anything else? If you fit the above criteria, we want you to share your knowledge and thoughts with the rest of Mid-Michigan.
While watching the pristine teal green water waves of the Gulf of
Mexico roll up on the sugar sand of St. Pete Beach Beach from my cabana chair
here on Spring Break, I have been pondering a couple of these powerful
thoughts: