On Sunday, I saw Wicked at the Orpheum. According to my parents, who are so old that they had to go into the side door and sit in the balacony of the Orpheum when it was a movie theater[note: they are black], the Orpheum looks now as it did back then. With a chandelier, wallpaper so opulent I thought it was carpet and a huge seating area with a balcony, a mezzanine, and tons of seats on the bottom, it's an amazing sight. Uniformed ushers guide you to your seat.

The play was very nicely staged. There was a large moving dragon on the top of the stage, athletic dancing monkeys, and costuming that both brought the Wizard of Oz to mind and was original as well.

The story was quite different from the book, but it was understandable. The world of Oz in the book is gigantic, with many different religions, peoples, and beliefs. Having everything connect back to Elphaba and Glinda wouldn't make sense becuse the world is so big. However, the musical has a smaller scale. There's a love triangle, the scarecrow,lion and tin man now all have something to do with Elphaba's[and sometimes Glinda's] actions, and even the Wizard is tied in at the end. There was a popular girl/nerdy girl high school dynamic added as well.

The music was amazing, as well. All in all, worth the ticket price.

Support local businesses this website says. There's one fallacy here- online business can be local business. Today I did some supporting of local business. I went to Muddy's Bake Shop, which I had heard about on twitter. The lemon rosemary cookies were unexpectedly delicious, so I bought one. I also bought a lemon cupcake, which was very good. I expended $2.10 or so. The ambiance is nice with little tables outside, and in the back, I could see someone doing something to a pie that probably causes deliciousness. I also saw a sign promoting some sort of lunch. There is also a community pinboard, so I left a card.

After that, I ended up stuck behind two geese and three goslings in traffic. The goslings were yellow, like long necked ducklings.

I also went to El Metzcal and bought two tacos. I enjoy their strange white cheese and general taconess. I expended about $4 on this. I also put some cards on their front desk.

Amazon.com is expanding into another market during this downturn. It's the casual games market. Gaming is a recession resistant market and casual games appeal to a wide range of gamers, so I applaud them. I'll probably still stay with big fish games, but I will of course take advantage of their free game downloads.[available until the 10th]

The downloading is not notably more difficult or buggier than bigfish. The market is crowded, but I think amazon can stand out.