Rainforest Café just across from the theaters. The line boasted a 45 minute wait, but instead of turning away, we grabbed a table in the empty bar. Within minutes, we had menus in our hands and drinks on the table.
S ordered a Jungle Wrap -- scrambled eggs, sausage and cheese wrapped in a flour tortilla and smothered in a Jamaican Jerk sauce and black beans. (I could smell the sauce from across the table!) I ordered Tonga Toast, which is 3 thick slices of cinnamon French toast (or, is it Freedom toast?
) smothered in sliced bananas, strawberries and walnuts. Like I said, so much for the diet because I ate the whole thing. With full bellies, we ambled over to the AMC.
The movie? Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy starring Will Ferrell. We laughed the entire time.
I even had tears at some points because it was so funny. Ferrell and Christina Applegate are great, but I think Steve Correll as weatherman Brick Tamland stole the show. Plus, the "gang fight" among rival TV stations is hysterical!
! I don't want to say anymore so as not to spoil it for anyone else. But watch for the actors playing the rival anchormen.
Instead of hanging around Disney after the movie, we headed straight hom so S could work on eBay listings. I also had plans for the evening. My friend C was given two tickets to see Men Alive, the Orange County Gay Men's Chrous, and asked if I'd like to join him.
Neither of us had ever seen the chorus perform, and it was the last show of the season so I said yes. The theme for the concert was "Legends Divas," highlighting the music of such artists as Cher, Elton John, Aretha Franklin, Céline Dion, and Barbra Streisand (of course), among others. The music was incredible, the voices meshing perfectly together, and they even threw in some campy humor with drag queens (the Elizabeth Taylor was hysterical) and dance numbers.
Michael Quintos brought down the house with his performance of "Respect," filling it with all the attitude of a pure diva. Matt Jankowski hammed it up as Lola in the dance troupe for "Copacabana" but really rocked when he belted "You Raise Me Up." The whole night was glorious, listening to all those voices in harmony, watching the audience having a ball.
(I wish I had continued with singing through high school and college.) Oh, and they performed two encores, the last of which was Madonna's "Vogue" complete with dancers. Sometimes, I feel so left out of the gay community.
I never go to the bars or clubs anymore, and events like the Chorus don't come around too often. Unless you want to trek the 50 miles to West Hollywood, but who wants to continually do that? That's why I enjoyed Men Alive so much, that feeling of community.
Having that sense of freedom to be themselves. I miss all that. posted by Greg at 11:47 AM Rainforest Café just across from the theaters.
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