Get ready to feel old…..
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the cult teen film Clueless. You may remember a time, back in the mid-90s, when Cher Horowitz and Dionne Davenport ruled as queens of the fashion scene. You may remember envying Cher’s plaid skirts and Dionne’s endless supply of hats. You may remember answering every question with an “As if!” and a hair flip. And Cher’s virtual closet computer program? I’m still waiting for that technology to this day.
Well, once again a season of Game of Thrones has come and gone. And once again the show leaves us scrambling for hope that our favourite characters are okay, that a certain duo survived that fall, or that so-and-so might not actually be dead—or stay dead, anyway (please let it be true!). The Thrones-less year ahead stretches long; we’ve got our own winter to go through before we’ll hear the immortal words “winter is coming” again. So, what to do in the meantime? Well, you could sit around obsessively reading fan theories and bothering everyone you know like I’ve been doing, or you could suck it up and move on. But if you’re not quite ready to leave the fantastical world of George R.R. Martin (but have exhausted your Song of Ice and Fire materials), you might want to check out these books.
Guy meets Girl.
It’s a story we’ve heard a thousand times—and yet it never seems to get old, does it? Once is the story of a down-on-his-luck Irish busker known to the audience only as Guy, and an exuberant young Czech musician known as Girl. They meet one day in a Dublin bar, where Guy tries to sing away his recent heartbreak. Girl is drawn to his music, and together they hatch a plan to win back the woman Guy loves.
Based on the 2007 movie of the same name, Once is a Broadway smash hit now in a limited run in Toronto. It won eight Tony Awards in 2012 including Best Musical and Best Actor. Touted as “a new musical”, it really is a musical for modern music fans. Full of folksy numbers—both Irish and Czech—the music of Once is vibrant and heartfelt, and just a little bit twee. The musical numbers, the characters and the colours of the show have all been amplified from their original forms. Where the movie (an indie project with a modest budget) stays quiet and contemplative, the stage show explores its themes of artistry and unrequited love with humour and flair.