Tour Update

I am adding the following dates to the schedule:

Tuesday, October 18 - San Francisco/Palo Alto, CA

Monday, October 24 - Irvine, CA

Friday, November 4 - McLean, VA/Washington DC

Hopefully more to come.

You and Me and the Bottle Makes Three

As I interview with various firms this season, I would like to share my experiences here, but I will be somewhat vague in identifying the firm. I will instead refer to each firm as DPME, an acronym formed by combining letters from a few firm names.

Thursday morning baby and I were kidnapped from our warm beds by the airport shuttle man at 4:30 in the morning. Of course baby woke up the second I got him out of his crib and stayed awake the entire ride up to the airport and the 1.5 hours we waited for our flight, which was fun. Luckily I got him to fall asleep as we took off, and he stayed sleeping for most of the flight. But as he is wont to do, baby pooed a big poo about an hour before landing. By then he had woken up and was playing in the area beneath the seat in front of me and between my ankles. My legs created a chimney, piping airborne poop particles which proceeded to perforate my proboscis and pervade the proximity. (The on-board movie was Mr. Popper's Penguins). I was then faced with the dilemma: Is it more of a bother to the two gentlemen next to me to let me out to change him, or to sit two feet from a fresh, steaming, reeking pile of poo? As I pondered that imponderable, the seat belt sign came back on. Decision made.

So Thursday was quite busy as I sherpa-ed baby through the shuttle/airport/airplane/airport/rental car shuttle/rental car along with my backpack, carry-on, baby's diaper bag, stroller, and car seat. At least I checked the car seat. While I managed to feed and change baby throughout the day, I didn't get a chance to eat anything until dinner that night. When I got to the dinner at The Cheesecake Factory with two professionals and three other candidates, they were eating appetizers. Now I know that when you're interviewing, the meals aren't about the food, but are about opportunities to get to know the professionals and ask questions and not make a fool of yourself and such, but it's The Cheesecake Factory - How can it not be about the food? So I sat there politely taking appropriately small portions of the appetizers and bread while holding back horrible urges to bend the menu into a funnel and down everything on the table in one breath.

I was lucky enough to have great family and friends in the area that were willing to watch baby during my dinner Thursday night and during my interview on Friday. Unfortunately I was late to the breakfast portion of my interview on Friday due, in equal parts, to the Ritz-Carlton's clock being 10 minutes slow (a ploy I'm sure so that hurried patrons are more likely to use bellhops or other guest assistance), VA traffic lights lasting forever, and getting stuck in the elevator at the office (and then getting off at the wrong DPME floor and being trapped in that awkward elevator room with the glass doors that you can't get through without a swipe card).

There were some great parts of the trip though:

- Since I had the baby with me, I didn't have time for the eternal debate as to whether I should go to bed early the night before the interview, or stay up and watch trashy shows on HBO.

- The bathtub at the Ritz-Carlton was huge and the bathrobe was soft and comfortable.

- I visited the Wegmans in Fairfax, VA and it was awesome. I know it's just a grocery store, but there's something wonderful in familiarity. For Mormons it's like traveling to a city/state you've never been to and walking into a church building on a Sunday. It's a small piece of home wherever you go. That's Wegmans.

- The closet light at the Ritz-Carlton turns on when you open the door. That's convenience. (Unlike the mini-bar which automatically bills you for items upon their removal from the electrical sensors underneath.)

- Seeing family Thursday night when I dropped off/picked up baby.

- Dinner Friday night with some dear friends at the Sweetwater Tavern.

So that was trip #1. I'm supposed to do a few more before this recruiting season is over and we haven't yet decided if baby will be joining me on any others.

Theater Review - Hale Centre Theatre's My Fair Lady

Last night was the opening of Hale Centre Theatre's My Fair Lady at their beautiful theater in West Valley. My wife and I were lucky enough to get two comp tickets from a member of the cast and to have a family member willing to babysit so that we could enjoy a lovely evening.

We are regular patrons of the Hale Center Theatre in Orem, but this was our first trip up to their sister theater in West Valley. While we were impressed with the theater and its opulence, we were absolutely spellbound by the mobility of the staging in the show.

The show starts with a gazebo-type framework on a round stage, and in the course of 2.5 hours, the framework disappears into the ceiling, a professor's study appears from beneath the stage, an embassy ballroom descends from the ceiling, the entire stage rotates 360 degrees, actors appear from (and disappear into) the basement of the theater, and street lamps, plants, chandeliers, and the original gazebo framework descend from above. It is amazing what they do with the space that they have.

The show is directed well and my wife loved the costumes. (Especially the shoes). The one drawback of this type of theater is that there is no room (and probably no budget) for live musical orchestration, so the actors really need to be on top of musical cues since there is no room for vamping and no pit conductor to look to. Generally the music was good, though there were a few instances where the delivered lines were a bit behind the accompaniment, or where a chorus wasn't exactly together on a phrase. It being opening night, these types of mistakes are common and understandable; they will disappear later in the run.

As far as individual performances are concerned:

Justin Kennington in the role of Henry Higgins grew on me throughout the play. At first I wasn't sold on his professorial position or supposed command of the proper English language, but as the show progressed, I liked him more and more. He handled Henry's quick-witted and sharp verbal assaults towards Eliza very well.

Kelly DeHaan was excellent in the role of Colonel Hugh Pickering as a balancing influence to combat Henry's cynicism. When Henry was rude, standoffish, and otherwise horrible, Pickering was kind, inviting, and delightful. Pickering's accent and intonation were fun to listen to and were complemented by a number of quirky actions/motions that rounded out his character.

DeLaney Westfall was adequate in the role of Eliza Doolittle. I didn't love her singing (she hits the right notes, but her voice doesn't have much body to it), and her accents were a bit muddled. Admittedly, this is a very difficult role to play and generally she did a good job. I noticed however, three accents throughout the play: cockney, proper British, and angry. Her angry accent was a muddled mix of cockney and proper British. Unfortunately Eliza spends much of the play in an agitated, perturbed, or otherwise upset state, so the angry accent came out pretty often. I also didn't buy her anger. In other performances of My Fair Lady, I've always been able to relate to both Henry and Eliza, but in this I could only relate to Henry. Eliza, it seemed, was always too emotional, too angry, or too in love. There was no middle ground here; she was in a word, bi-polar. She went from Just You Wait to I Could Have Danced All Night in a split second.

David T. Glaittli was superb in the role of Alfred P. Doolittle. He managed to be absolutely drunk and lovable at the same time, while providing necessary comedic relief. He was quirky, funny, and memorable.

Lee Cannon was perfect in the role of Freddy Eynsford-Hill. My Fair Lady is an interesting show, as it has many great songs, but not many great male singers. While I'm sure all the male actors were accomplished singers, their roles in this show did not let them showcase that talent. After an hour and fifteen minutes of Alfred and Henry bumbling and grumbling through songs, the musical highlight of last night's show was Freddy's breathtaking performance of On The Street Where You Live. It's almost a shame that Freddy and Eliza don't end up together; they would sing beautifully together.

Other notable performances included those of Diane Dabczynski as a dignified and proper Mrs. Eynsford-Hill and Logan Bradford or Tanner Rampton (not sure which) as a Servant with excellent aim. He threw a top hat across the stage (at least 10 feet) which landed squarely on the head of a sculpted bust to end a scene, which elicited "oohs" and "aahs" from the audience.

All in all, My Fair Lady at the Hale Centre Theatre is an engaging show with beautiful music. You'll definitely be humming the score for the rest of the night... and beyond.

Fall 2011 Tour Update

As I mentioned here, we (like ESPN's College GameDay) are "coming to your city."

Our trip to Seattle was awesome and we have confirmed a trip to San Antonio on October 27-30 to see the BYU/TCU game at the "neutral" site of Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Additionally, baby and I are going on a fathers and sons business trip to Washington, DC this weekend. Thanks to some generous friends and family in the area, baby will have excellent supervision while I interview with an accounting firm in McLean, VA. We'll leave on Thursday and come back on Saturday just as the BYU game is starting. It's a pretty quick turnaround for us this week, so unfortunately we will not be able to see everyone in the area we'd like to.

As luck would have it, I will be interviewing in DC at least once more this fall (and once in NYC to boot). As those trips are planned, I'll update the tour schedule.