Aladdin

One of the main reasons we went to New York City was to see Disney's newest Broadway play, Aladdin. The last time we were in the city, we saw The Lion King and Mary Poppins. I know what Disney can do with a stage so I was very excited to see what they would do to the Aladdin movie.

For those of you that haven't seen the movie, Aladdin is the story of a poor street rat who rubs a magic lamp and becomes a master to a genie. He uses the genie's powers to help him win the heart of the kingdom's princess. Meanwhile, the Sultan's royal vizier is trying to get rid of Aladdin and the princess so he can take over Agrabah.

When the movie was first scripted, there were more characters. Aladdin had a couple of friends and his mother had recently died. Due to time constraints, those characters were cut. Aladdin's only friend (before Genie) was a pet monkey named Abu. The musical does cut out Abu (and Raja, for obvious reasons) but brings back the three friends and the parental storyline. With these changes came the reinsertion of a couple of songs that were cut from the movie. If you had the 1994 CD release The Music Behind The Magic, you will recognize the new songs.

The musical is absolutely amazing. Despite having a fairly small cast, they are able to bring so many different characters to life. (Let's put it this way: The 21-member ensemble actually brings the entire parade into the castle during "Prince Ali." So. Many. Quick. Costume. Changes. It is mind-boggling.) Adam Jacobs, who plays Aladdin, is adorable. Not only does he bring the non-threatening wittiness of the character to life, he also has a wonderful singing voice. He did not disappoint with "Proud of Your Boy." Courtney Reed also did a good job with Jasmine. Unfortunately, she isn't really the highlight of the show. She is very pretty and has a lovely voice but it seems like she doesn't spend a whole lot of time on stage. The evil Jafar is played by Jonathan Freeman, who also voiced the character in the animated movie. Much like Jasmine, he was good and it was awesome to hear the voice we all know coming out of Jafar's face but he still seemed lacking somehow.

I think the reason everyone else seemed so small is that the Genie has such a huge stage presence. James Monroe Iglehart plays our beloved Genie and he is amazing. He is somehow able to bring Robin William's manicness into reality. During "Friend Like Me," he slips in a few verses from "Beauty and the Beast," "Under The Sea," "Colors of The Wind," and a few more. I was just stunned how easily he moved between all of the songs. He has been nominated for a Tony, which he richly deserves to win.

If you can get to New York City to see the show, please do. You will not be disappointed. You will be awed, you will laugh your pants off, and you will be left wondering how the magic carpet actually flew. But you will definitely not be disappointed.

The View

During our first night in New York City, the three of us ate dinner at The View Restaurant & Lounge. We also had their Sunday morning brunch. The View is a revolving restaurant on the 48th floor of the Marriott Marquis. The center area of the restaurant, where the kitchen and hostess area lies, is stationary. However, the outside area, where you are seated, slowly turns to allow you to see many of the gorgeous sights that New York City has to offer. Thankfully, the drink napkins feature a mini-map so you can try to discern which building is which. (Hint: It is not that easy to figure out, even with the map!) While the view from the restaurant is nice, the food is the star attraction. I had the Spring Lettuce prelude (that's a fancy word for 'appetizer') and a center cut tenderloin as my main dish. As I have noted here before, I have a bit of a weakness for salads. The spring lettuce salad featured a line of whipped gorgonzola cheese underneath the vegetables that made the entire dish delightful. My daughter had the same prelude but she didn't like the vinegar-based salad dressing as much as I did. (What can I say, she's 12.) My tenderloin was quite juicy and cooked to perfection. It was accompanied by baked steak fries (basically sliced pieces of baked potato), glazed onions, thyme roasted carrots, and soft truffled camembert cheese. The only reason I didn't finish everything on my plate was dessert.

But first, let's discuss brunch. Brunch handled buffet style. Every adult gets 2 breakfast mimosas then you are sent off to pick whatever you would like. And there are a ton of choices. There are three main stations. The first holds the cold selections. There are a variety of Italian meats and cheeses, as well as breads, pastries, and salads. The second station is hot selections. This is where you find omelettes, Belgian waffles, deep dish pancakes, applewood smoked bacon, eggs benedict...it really is difficult to list everything you would find there. The sheer amount of food is amazing. The final station holds the desserts. The main feature is the chocolate fountain but there are other items, such as mini-cupcakes, cookies, biscuits, fruit, cups of chocolate or strawberry mousse, and much more. I'm generally not a breakfast person but this was an awesome way to start off the day. At $59 per person, the price is a little steep for brunch. It is well worth it though.

And now dessert. My aunt had told the restaurant that we were there to celebrate my daughter's birthday. As a result, we received a dark chocolate mousse cake at both meals. Each cake was almost identical. The only difference was the chocolate piece on top. At dinner, it read "Happy Birthday." There must have been a mix-up at brunch because there is read "Happy Anniversary." (That is the picture below.) Not that the wording mattered much. My daughter gobbled both of them up. The cake itself was a bit big for one person to eat so we shared it. As expected, it was absolutely delicious. It was so delicious that, for our dessert with dinner, we took home two of the smaller mousses as well as a cheesecake. (The dessert came with the dinner so there was no reason to leave it behind.) If you like dark chocolate, I highly recommend the mousse.

I fully enjoyed both of the meals we ate at The View. Since it is New York City, expect the prices to be a little on the high side. However, if you can fit it into your budget and schedule, it definitely is one of the "must visit" places in the city.

Marriott Marquis

I went to New York City with my aunt and my daughter this past weekend. Over the next few days, I'll be giving you reviews of the places we visited. I'm going to start out with our hotel. We stayed at the Marriott Marquis right on Times Square. This is the same hotel we stayed at the last time we visited New York City back in August 2010.

Our room was nice. We were on the 12th floor with a corner room. It was a pretty standard hotel room with two double beds. I was a little surprised to find that the room did not have a refrigerator but it wasn't a deal-breaker.

If you follow me over on Instagram, you would have seen a picture of the view from our hotel room. This was the view on Saturday morning. See the Sony screen almost in the middle of the top of the shot? If you follow those billboards straight up, that is where the New Year's Eve ball hangs. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good shot of the ball from our hotel room due to the massive amount of brightly lit billboards under it. Towards the center of the shot, next to the building roof and near all the orange construction cones, is where all of the characters wander around begging for people to pay them for pictures. (No, we didn't take pictures with any of them.) On the left-hand side of the picture, under the Bachelorette's face, is Toys R Us.

One of my favorite things about this hotel is the elevator system. All of the elevators are located in a circle in the center of the hotel. You go to a number pad and enter the floor number you wish to go to. The number pad then tells you which elevator to get on. The elevators are each given a letter. So if you push in floor 12, it might tell you to get on elevator J. It is much easier than having everyone pile into one or two elevators then having to wait for each floor, especially when you are on a higher floor.

The down part of the elevator system is the way the hotel is organized. The lobby/concierge/registration desk is located on the 8th floor. If you want to eat at the hotel's rooftop restaurant, The View, which is on the 48th floor, you have to go to the 3rd floor to get the only two elevators that go to the top. But if you want to leave the hotel, you need to go to the 1st floor. So if you have a question for the concierge before you leave the hotel, you have to take an elevator to the 8th floor to get your answer before going down to the 1st floor to go outside. And if you have dinner reservations at The View, which we did, you have to go down to the 3rd floor to go all the way up to the 48th. It's a lot of work.

With that said, I do highly recommend the hotel. If you are willing to pay for a room with the view of Times Square, the view is pretty amazing. All of the hotel staff that we encountered were extremely nice and eager to assist. And, best of all, it is right in the middle of everything you would want to do in the Times Square area. I am very likely to stay there again if we can manage another trip to New York City.

Favorite Friday

As you read this, I am on my way to New York City to see the new Disney Broadway play, Aladdin. My daughter, my aunt, and I will be spending three days roaming around the city. While I won't be blogging over the weekend, there will probably be some new photos on my Instagram account and I will be posting about our travels next week. Until then, enjoy this preview of the show.

Subscription Box: Loot Crate - April 2013

We received this month's Loot Crate subscription box in the mail yesterday. My daughter always gets so excited when these show up on our doorstep. They come in a fairly plain black box with LOOT CRATE on the top in big, bold letters.

April's theme is DRAGONS. This is the cover of the booklet that comes in every box. The booklet gives a little bit of information about the month's theme and it tells you about the products you received. There is also a small button that features the month's theme in every box but it is difficult to get a good picture of it.

We like opening the figure boxes first. This month's box came with two figures. The first we opened was from Dragon Age Elder Scrolls and the figure we received was The Nord. While I am not familiar with the game, my husband has played it so he was happy we received that one out of the lot. Both the sword and the helmet are removable, though the guy looks a little weird without his helmet.

The second figure we opened was from Game of Thrones. We received Jon Snow's dire wolf, Ghost. I think he is super cute.

Next up were two 20-sided dice. The smaller one is a real die that you could use to play games while the larger one is actually a stress ball. I spent way too much time squeezing the thing. It's fun!

Then there is a Dragon Slayer dog tag necklace. I'm not sure if I'd ever wear it but it is kinda cute.

Finally, there is a bag of dragon jerky. This was made specially for Loot Crate. Now, I am a pretty big fan of jerky. However, I'm not sure if I would eat this. It is actually greenish-colored. While that is kitchy, I'm not sure I want to eat green meat. Maybe I'll make my husband try it :D

I really love Loot Crate. The monthly themes are always something we debate about in my household. As soon as they announce the month's theme, we start discussing what we think will be in the box. We usually get the main pieces (you can't have a dragon theme without Game of Thrones) but there are always surprises that keep us on our toes. We have loved all of the themes so far and we have received some awesome products from them. I can't wait to see what they have coming in the future.

Top That!

Today is the 25th anniversary of the spectacular 80s movie, Teen Witch. Man, that makes me feel old. If you haven't seen this movie, you are seriously missing out.

Teen Witch is the story of Louise Miller (Robin Lively), a nerdy 15-year old girl. One day, she meets Madame Serena (the amazing Zelda Rubenstein) who is amazed to find out that Louise is a reincarnated witch. On Louise's 16th birthday, her witch powers return to her, giving her the ability to grant all of her wildest dreams. Of course, what you dream isn't always what you really want.

I fully admit that this movie is completely hokey. Don't believe me? Watch this:

Not only is that a really real scene in the movie, it is the best scene in the movie. You will now be rapping Top That for the rest of the week. You are welcome.

And, look, Mental Floss even did a "Where Are They Now" bit on the cast last year: http://mentalfloss.com/article/48799/cast-teen-witch-24-years-later

I think the movie is (sadly) DVD-only on Netflix. But if you can get yours hands on a copy? Watch it. You'll love it.

Bubble Blabber

I have an announcement to make. In addition to writing various reviews here on The Geek, I will also be reviewing some television shows on Bubble Blabber. (Here are my reviews.) Don't worry. It won't affect the reviews here. I am currently reviewing certain cartoons on the Disney Channels. (Disney, Disney XD, etc.) Shows that I most likely wouldn't discuss here anyway. I currently have a review of the latest Mickey Mouse short and a review for last night's Gravity Falls short should be posting soon. There will be a new Gravity Falls short every night through Thursday so make sure you check back at BB to read my new reviews of them.

I am super excited for the opportunity. I hope that you will stop by BB once in awhile to check out my reviews and maybe leave a comment telling me what you think. Let's make Bubble Blabber awesome.

The Wind Rises

Despite being released theatrically in the US way back in February, my family just got the chance to see The Wind Rises this past Saturday evening. I have to admit that I had written off being able to see it in a theater and was very surprised to see that a local art center was screening the movie. It was an extremely lucky turn of events since this coming Thursday (April 24) is the final showing before they switch to a different movie.

The Wind Rises is a fictionalized biography of airplane engineer Jiro Horikoshi. It begins with Jiro as a young boy, dreaming of soaring in the sky on a custom airplane. He is abruptly awoken when he is bombed mid-air by a huge airship above him. Undeterred, he borrows an English-language aviation magazine from a schoolteacher and, with his trusty dictionary, finds out about an Italian designer named Caproni. While reading, Jiro falls asleep and meets Caproni in a shared dream between the two enthusiasts.

The movie then skips ahead to a time when Jiro is in university. During a train ride back into Tokyo, Jiro meets a young woman, Naoko, and her maid just minutes before a huge earthquake hits. (This is the Great Kanto Earthquake that took place in 1923.) As the passengers disembark in a frenzy, the maid breaks her leg. Since Jiro is such a good guy, he carries the maid on his back through the mass of people, past the massive fires in Tokyo, and into the relative safety of Naoko's family. He leaves without even giving anyone his name so he can fight to save the books at his university from being burned to ashes.

Fast forward again to Jiro and his friend, Honjo, working at an airplane manufacturer. The two are working on a fighter design, which ends in failure. The company loses the contract and sends the two engineers to Germany to do technical research. During this time, he once again meets Caproni in a dream, where they have a philosophical conversation about the beauty of aircraft. Shortly thereafter, Jiro is promoted to chief designer for a fighter plane contract from the Navy. This also ends in failure. Jiro heads off to a summer resort in order to get his mind back on track.

While at the hotel, Jiro once again meets Naoko. As the two spend time together playing with paper airplane designs and taking walks, they fall in love. However, Naoko has tuberculosis and refuses to marry until she is well again. Jiro returns to Tokyo to once again design a fighter plane for the Navy. This time, the secret police are searching for him so he is forced out of his apartment and into the home of his supervisor, Kurokawa. Naoko, meanwhile, has holed herself up in a sanatorium in order to recover from her condition until she can no longer bear to be away from Jiro and travels to Tokyo to join him. Kurokawa refuses to let the lovers stay under his roof unmarried so they have an impromptu wedding ceremony.

The newlyweds live with Kurokawa even though Naoko's condition is deteriorating. Jiro must finish the designs on his latest creation. Despite his long workdays, they enjoy their time together.

I don't want to spoil the ending of the movie so I will end the synopsis there. Everyone in my family enjoyed the movie. I didn't expect my daughter to like it very much since she prefers movies like Kiki's Delivery Service or Ponyo or Spirited Away. This one is a little more...boring compared to the previous Miyazaki works. There is no real antagonist. No one to root for or against. It is just the story of a boy trying to make his dream come true. There are some very emotional scenes but they are handled very well. Not your typical Miyazaki fare but a good movie nonetheless.

Favorite Friday

I am a big fan of Rhett & Link. They are some pretty funny guys. As today's Favorite Friday video, I am giving you their latest song, I'm A Textpert.

Time for braces

My daughter got braces put on her teeth yesterday. I had braces back when I was in 7th grade but that was a millennium ago. I have vague recollections of wires being tightened and my teeth hurting but what I mostly remember is that my orthodontist had a Dig Dug cabinet in the office that we could play for free. Dig Dug was awesome. I think there was also a Ms. Pac-Man table but I didn't play that nearly as much as Dig Dug. Needless to say, I went into this whole braces thing with a little bit of knowledge but not a ton.

The whole thing started back in the beginning of February. Braces, nowadays, are fitted by computer. They take computer scans of your teeth. From these scans, custom brackets are made just for you. It takes approximately seven weeks for the orthodontist to get these custom brackets back from the manufacturer. Once the brackets arrive, those computer scans tell the orthodontist where on your teeth to place them. Depending on what all you are getting, that can take anywhere from one to two hours. My daughter's appointment took just under two hours.

And that is that. You get instructions on how to brush your teeth properly and about a hundred different devices to make sure both your brackets and teeth are clean. My daughter got a new toothbrush and a mini toothbrush-like tool to use at school. There were two different types of floss and a little mint-flavored stick-thing that helps in between teeth. Lots of little do-dads to help keep your teeth awesome.

Then there is a list of types of food you shouldn't eat. Chewy things, like caramel or sour patch kids, aren't good because they can dislodge brackets and they are difficult to clean out of crevices in teeth. (Honestly, they aren't good for non-braced teeth either.) Biting into fruits like apples is a no-go because you can rip the brackets off your front teeth. These foods need to be sliced up. To this day, I still slice all of my fruit. Popcorn is another snack that isn't great for braced or regular teeth due to the kernel shells that get stuck in between teeth and gums. There are probably a ton more than I can't remember off the top of my head.

Yeah, it will suck having braces for awhile. (My daughter is supposed to have them for about 22 months.) But it will be better in the long run when your teeth function properly.