So, statistically speaking, how many people named Dorothy Gale should there be in the United States? Let's take a look on howmanyofme.com/:
I was searching for something else, and ran across this article from the Seattle PI of Monday, January 29, 2001. Heh. I think the best part of the article is right at the end:
With his dark curls, puppy-dog eyes and Toto-like energy, Gjovaag is kind of like a big, overgrown kid when it comes to his hobby. And why not?Heh. You think the reporter fell for my husband? Heh.
"The vast majority of Oz fans grew up with (the books) and loved them as kids," Gjovaag said. "This is just a way of keeping one foot in childhood."
We forgot to mention that we had an Oogaboo Rendezvous on Saturday. It was moderately attended, 14 people and a cat. We had a quiz, a good discussion of favorite Oz moments, a wonderful potluck, and even some costumes.
Oogaboo Rendezvous are the approximately quarterly meetings of the Northwest group of Oz fans. Meetings are generally hosted by different members at their own homes. They are open to any Oz fans who want to show up, but we generally like having a bit of advance warning when new members are coming (so we can warn them about the Oogaboos, too).
The next Oogaboo Rendezvous is New Y'Oz, and will be hosted by Eric and I at Eric's parents' house in Seattle. If you live in the NW or will be in the area at the end of December, please feel free to drop me a line for more information.
Oz and Ends has written a six word Oz story: "Lost. Made friends. Bested Foes. Home."
Wired printed six word long stories.
Gregory Maguire contributed quite a few.
And the last one is Ozzy.
But watch out for naughty language.
Want to see them? Read on!
Today's edition of Herb and Jamaal has a nicely Ozzy commentary on the changing of the seasons. (As usual, this should be up for about thirty days.)
This story has absolutely nothing to do with Oz, except that it's by Sherwood Smith, the author of The Emerald Wand of Oz and Trouble Under Oz, and it says a lot about our society today in a very entertaining yet thought-provoking way. So go and read it, already!
(Thanks to my wife for finding this and linking to it.)
The Calendar is a Go! I'll link to the pre-order link once it's up. It looks good, too.
Despite disagreeing with at least part of his article, I thought folks might want to read Erik Larsen's take on Oz and why Image is publishing a translation of a French adaptation of the Wizard of Oz.
As a counter to Larsen's limited vision of Oz, I'll direct folks to Dorothy of Oz, where folks can learn the sad news that Diamond cancelled the solicits for the Dorothy calendar, but Chapter 7 is still on track and will be out soon.
This is an interesting list. Take a look at who's in at #91. And it also appears that this is also a forthcoming book.
The Dorothy folks have a problem with their 2007 calendar. They need to find someone to print it for them, since they didn't sell enough pre-orders through Diamond to make a go of it that way. So, if you can help, read the details here and drop them a line. I know I, for one, am looking forward to a non-MGM Oz calendar that I can actually use at the beginning of the year for once (hint, hint, IWOC).
Not a lot of really Ozzy stuff going on. I've had a little time, so I went ahead and re-updated my inventory. In the course of cleaning up my Oz room, I found several items that hadn't been put in earlier, including a complete run of the Oz Club's calendars from 1979 to 2005 (and 2006 is on the wall). So now I have 871 items, and more to enter in once I've read them.
Speaking of which, I'm currently working my way through a not terribly Ozzy book, River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams. It's part two of a series, so already it's a little confusing, although there's a decent summary of book one in the front. It's also 634 pages, so it's taking a long time to get through. It also has multiple plot threads and characters, so it's a little hard to keep track of everything and everyone. But at least I'm over halfway done now. Maybe I can finish by Thanksgiving. The book is set in the future (late 21st century, I believe), and virtual reality has come a l-o-n-g way. Mosts of the characters are trapped in Otherland, the best simulation that money can buy. It's so good that one character doesn't even realize he's in a simulation for a very long time, and he just thinks he's nuts until he's straightened out. There are many, many realms in Otherland, including many based on history and literature. Guess what one of them is? Yuop, the Scarecrow is the King of Kansas! Huh? Yeah, something's going wrong in Otherland, and scenarios are not playing out the way they're supposed to. Oz is not the only place that needs fixing. I will probably finish this book, but I doubt I'll read any others in the series. Come on, people, you don't have to say so much!
I've been waiting and hoping for this for a little while now. The recent French comic book adaptation of the first Oz story, Le Magicien d'Oz, is coming out in December or early in 2007 in an English translation. It's listed in the current Previews catalog, it's coming from Image Comics for $9.99, and you can probably go to your local comics store and order it now. It's order number OCT061850. I hope we all enjoy it!
Tom Toles is, in my opinion, one of the best political cartoonists out there today. Like most other cartoonists, it's no surprise that he'd use Wizard of Oz imagery in today's political cartoon. So go, look, enjoy.
Thanks to everyone for putting up with all the "go read Dorothy" posts last month. It's paid off! I won one of the not-first prizes, a 2007 Dorothy calendar. Not only that, Laura also won one. Of course, we've already ordered our own copy anyway! Oh, well, I know I can find good homes for them all.
And I promise not to urge you to read Dorothy anymore, at least for a little while. But we'll be sure to post about upcoming issues, as well as the calendar when we get it.
Just in case you were wondering what the local press thought of Wicked, here's the review from The Seattle Times, and another one from The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. (Read Dorothy.)
(Let's get this bit out of the way first: Read Dorothy!)
So, yeah, I finally saw Wicked on Thursday. It was a lot of fun! Okay, where to start?
How about the cast? Yeah, we lucked out and got who some consider to be two of the best, Shoshana Bean as Elphaba and Megan Hilty as Glinda. We got them as they're both from the Northwest, so they joined the tour in Portland, came to Seattle, and will move on to Toronto. They were both terrific. (Disclaimer to fans of other Elphabas and Glindas: Hey, these are the only two I've ever seen, all right? I'm sure there are many other good actors for both parts, and I make no claim that Sho and Megan are superior to Idina, Kristen, Kendra, Ana, or whoever your favorite is.) Okay, Shoshana couldn't quite hit the high notes in "Defying Gravity" the way Idina Menzel did, but I'd be surprised if anyone could. These two were funny, touching, and everything they needed to be. Megan Hilty is a babe, I might add.
Ah, but what of the rest of the cast? Yup, more good stuff. The other big part that stood out for me was Sebastian Arcelus as Fiyero. After listening to the cast album for years now, and seeing Norbert Leo Butz perform on the Tony Awards a couple of years ago, Arcelus was not at all what I was expecting. He was young, dashing, handsome, sweet-voiced, and overall not much like Butz. But he sure seemed to be enjoying himself, and sold me on a young, dashing, curly-headed Fiyero. The Wizard — and we got one of the understudies, and I'm sorry to say I forgot to take note of who it was — was also great. It's a more complex Wizard than in the books or any movie version, but he pulled off both the avuncular imp and the conniving manipulator equally well. Jennifer Waldman as Nessarose did the best she could in a too-small part. And there really wasn't a weak performer in the whole show.
The staging was terrific. Laura and I both noticed the lighting, particularly in the Emerald City (well, that's hard to miss, it hits you so hard). No wonder it won a Tony. The sets were just right, not being overwhelming yet giving enough feel to what was going on. I was particularly impressed by the bridge. I know enough about stagecraft to know how touch it is to make a practical bridge that much of the cast can walk on, and I wonder what they must have done backstage to get people up there. The rain was also effective. The costumes were great (and I greatly appreciate all of those quick changes Megan Hilty had to go through), especially the intertwined "O-Z" motif in some of the Emerald City outfits. We fans of the books appreciate it.
Oh, the story? Well, I'm not going to give too much away. It certainly is not the same Oz of the books, and it even has enough differences from its source material that it's not even the Oz envisioned in Gregory Maguire's novel. There were a few bits towards the end, when the story gets intertwined with The Wizard of Oz, that didn't quite gel in the broader sense, but on its own, it worked fine (just don't think too much about how it all fits into The Movie). The twist ending sure threw me for a loop, and Laura managed to keep that a secret from me for some time now! Overall, I enjoyed it, and Laura and I are looking forward to it coming to town again. Yes, we're probably going to see it again some time. And twenty years or so from now, I'd love to be part of a community theater production. Hmm, I'll be old enough by then, maybe I could pull off playing the Wizard. Oh, wait, I'd have to learn to sing...
