I had my first trip to the opera on Tuesday night. The Minnesota Opera is staging Il travatore (The Troubador) and TC Daily Planet was nice enough to ask me to go and review it.

Check out my opera musings here.

The truth is that I was a bit blown away by the whole thing. The Ordway was packed and people were extremely into it… yelling “BRAVO!” with gusto…

I think I will go again. The Barber of Seville is coming up soon – could this be the beginning of opera geekdom for me?

Categories: Steppin' Out In The TC
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I recently bought Betty Crocker’s Cake and Frosting Mix Cookbook from 1966. This was a time when cakes from a mix were still considered a big deal – although mixes had been on the market for awhile, Betty Crocker believed women might need some coaching in order to get the most out of them. Because mixes are complicated.

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Categories: General Weirdness, Trends
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Oh Grey Gardens, how I love thee! The Broadway musical is finally coming to St. Paul – the Ordway Center for Performing Arts, March through May of 2009!

Anyone who is up for a trip to see it (tickets might be expensive so prepare to shell out), I will have a Grey Gardens party the day of our trip to the show! Do people go to this in costume? Like Rocky Horror Picture Show?

I think at one point I may have been down on this production but now that’s it’s coming I am jazzed.

Categories: Steppin' Out In The TC, Uncategorized
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I would want it to be called something like Stars and Infinite Darkness. Click your way over to a super cool site featuring work by independent clothing and jewelry designers. There is an inordinate amount of jewelry you would actually wear for years and years.

These kinds of sites are popping up all over but the recipe for a good one is to have many different ways of viewing the merchandise (by designer, by product, by what’s new, by what’s on sale) and having kick ass stuff at various prices. Stars actually has an option in Women’s clothing where you can select what you want to view by price, which is handy if you know you want to spend under $50 on a t-shirt. It also helps a site like this to have just the right amount of merch. I quickly become overwhelmed by choice on sites like Etsy (which I also enjoy and see the value in but just don’t visit that often) so I appreciate a site where some editing is going on.

Categories: Fashion!
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A gender-bending horror film from 1983 with no budget. They spent the money they had on an old summer camp location, some make-up effects and probably craft services. It manages to be hilarious all the way through and then get creepy for the final scene. Angela, take a chill pill!

Categories: 50 Words Or Less
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We said good-bye to our cat, Ella, last Thursday. Ella, also known as Big Brown, E the C, Ella Bella and Big Michigan, is missed greatly. Her presence and willfulness just took up so much room at our house that it now feels empty. My catharsis in the last couple of days has been shopping. Not retail but antique malls and garage sales.

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Categories: Sewing, Trends, Uncategorized
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I don’t go out to clubs. I am not a clubber. The thought of donning something sexy and going out to dance at 11:00 on, say, a Thursday night rarely, if ever, enters my mind. What does enter my mind? When is The Office going to be on? Should I eat all these M&Ms? I should go write something but this InStyle Magazine is just too compelling to put down.

But this weekend all caution was thrown into the wind that blows over Brainerd, Minnesota. Or was it Nisswa? No matter. It was a girls’ cabin weekend in celebration of a friend’s wedding, what in modern parlance has come to be known as a Bachelorette Party.

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Categories: Travel: The Ins & The Outs
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So horrible, crass, hilarious. Surely this must not be an accident? I contemplate what this twisted fairy tale means. My favorite scene is in the swimming pool – is she having sex or getting electrocuted? Every time I watch this I reach another level of appreciation. Not for literalists or Evangelicals.

Categories: 50 Words Or Less
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I kept meaning to buy some of those fall editions of fashion magazines. I have to admit they are a bit intimidating – as big as phone books and full of ads with snarling or unhappy women. Even the fashion editorial, when you get to it on page 354, is weak. Get the “bohemian look” for $600 a pop? Doesn’t that undermine the very meaning of the word “bohemian?” I looked it up. Bohemian refers to a person, such as an artist or writer, who lives and acts free of regard for conventional rules and practices. Just like Keira Knightley!

Just kidding.

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Categories: Fashion!
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A successful recipe for a romantic comedy: hunky but humble guy, precocious but endearing child, quirky woman, sexy woman, wholesome woman. Maybe too many women? But it worked in the end. One of those movies where you can shut off your brain and have guilty-pleasure fun. Ryan Reynolds is hot.

Categories: 50 Words Or Less
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