Michelle and Mom: The final chapter
On our last night together my mom decided to treat me to one last show. Although I had already seen it, I recommended that we go and see "Aladdin." "Aladdin" truly is a wonderful show that up until that point in time did not have the best memories attached to it. If you would like to read more about my previous "Aladdin" experience check out my latest book "Surviving Singlehood Hopefully Not Forever" in the chapter "No Silver Spoon for Shellster." This time around the whole show experience was excellent. It's truly a magical experience with brilliant choreography, glorious spectacle, beautiful music, wonderful sets, and a magic carpet to boot. At one point in the show the genie states that he'll throw in a magic carpet to sweeten the deal and says to Aladdin, "Trust me, you'll need it."
What I enjoy most about anything produced by Disney is that it keeps the hope alive that one day true love will conquer. Aladdin provides its audience with an untraditional approach to the whole fairy tale scenario. Instead of having a rich and handsome prince to aspire towards, in this case Princess Jasmine is rich and longs for a normal life outside of the palace walls. Instead of the female aspiring to win the heart of the prince, Aladdin (a commoner) struggles to win the heart of this seemingly unattainable princess.
Initially after seeing the true spectacle of "Friend Like Me" broadcast on the Tony awards, I kind of wrote "Aladdin" off as being too full of glitz and glamour for me, but after having seen it for the first time, I found that I was easily converted into an appreciator of this musical. The fact that you are able to watch the money practically pouring out of the set during "Friend Like Me," I find that it is necessary to keep to telling yourself that this is the big spectacle of the whole show and instead of having an 11 o-clock number, this family show brings this feature to the audience at a more appropriate time.
Well my mom ended up loving this show, however "Beauty and the Beast" remains to be her all-time favorite, but Disney really knows how to assemble a talented team that is able to create a sure-fire hit. The story of "Aladdin" does not speak to her as strongly as "Beauty and the Beast" did, however when they bring out the magic carpet it is impossible to stop smiling from ear to ear.
In addition to going to several Broadway shows, we also made it a point to go to a few museums. Well, my friend Jennie Herreid from Fairbanks, AK is a manager at the "Shed," an art gallery around Chelsea and I went online to see about buying tickets, because I thought this would be a fun activity to do with my mom. Come to find out I was able to get my hands on some free tickets and then we were able to go to this gallery. Here's a picture of me pretending that this large work of art is an elaborate sprinkler system.
Another museum that we went to was the "Museum of Moving Images" or "Kaufman Studios." It's hard for me to believe that a film studio is practically in my back yard, but alas such is the case. This museum was a lot of fun, it had many hands on aspects such as creating your own dialogue when it came to famous movies. They also had a wonderful exhibit on the works of Jim Hensen. Here is me pictured next to a Kermit the Frog puppet. I consider myself to be fairly open-minded and imaginative individual, however I couldn't help but be astounded by how committed and creative he had to be the accomplish his unique vision.
One of the last things that we did together was put together a clothing rack. No matter how innovative my poor man's closet seemed, it was not incredibly effective. My mom described the sensations of knocking one of the items off the shelf as causing an extreme avalanche or the domino effect. Well now that the rack is up, I am very grateful to have it. My mom's visit brought forth countless improvements to my place as well as much comfort to my life. It was nice to have her around, but life has to go back to normal at some point.
