Backyard Renovation in DC

Our backyard of our row house in DC is teeny tiny and up until recently not in very good shape as you can see by the photo above. Further damage was done when our neighbor decided to chop down his huge pine tree, some of which landed on our fence, along with the other neighbor's cable TV wire. So we had the fence replaced, along with the deck, and the bricks relaid (which were so wavy and uneven from the tree roots that you could barely walk on them).

Below are photos of the result. One side of the fence is our other neighbor's (the dark fence in the second photo below) and we think they are going to have their fence replaced too. It is currently being held up by a rope tied to our crepe myrtle. You will also notice the cactus is blooming like crazy and we added a small flowerbed.

Update: One of the blooms open wide at night.

Rumor of Revival of Carrie the Musical

There are rumors that they are going to do a Broadway revival of Carrie the Musical. The original broadway musical, based on the Stephen King novel, was one of the biggest flops ever on the Great White Way. Even the poster for the show (above) was bad. Judging by the clip (bottom of this posting) showing a review of the original show, it is easy to see why this show was such a disaster. The dancing in the prom sequences looked laughable (sorry Debbie Allen).

However, I have heard some of the music from this show and I like what I've heard. The first clip below is the audio of a studio recording from the show by Betty Buckley called When There's No One. I LOVE that song. It is haunting and beautiful. The next two clips are scenes from the original show with Buckley as crazy Momma and Linzi Hateley as Carrie. I think it deserves another chance. They could try to fix its problems and Patti Lupone would kill in the role of Carrie's mother.