This Week: Yankee Stadium, It: Chapter Two, Hercules, and more.
Hey! Elazar here. I run this site – though I haven’t written for it in a while. And now I’ve started college, so who knows if there’ll be time to keep up with this? So I figured in lieu of the traditional articles we do here, I would jot down this journal of sorts to recap the past week of NYC events. Each of the things mentioned here could really justify their own post, but perhaps this “unprofessional” format could be a way for me to keep TV and City content coming. I’ve also fallen behind on assigning TV reviews, so be patient! There’s a lot of good stuff coming.
Labor Day Weekend provided a relaxing start to September. On Monday, I headed to the Yankee game some friends. We got there around 1 when the game was scheduled to start, but a rain delay postponed the first pitch until almost 4. This was annoying, but on the bright side, I now have seen all of Yankee Stadium! To pass the time, I walked along every level all the way through. Turns out, each floor has plenty of interesting statues, plaques, and activities. There’s a Yankees museum and free photo booth to make a custom trading card. The Yankees ended up losing to the Rangers that day, but it was good fun.
Tuesday, I attended a panel talk with Bari Weiss about her new book, How to Fight Anti-Semitism. It was interesting in theory, but I disagree with a lot of what she said, so the less I write about that, the better.
On Wednesday night I hopped on the subway to the AMC in Times Square for an advance screening of It: Chapter Two, which I loved. Just like the first installment, Chapter Two perfectly blends horror, humor, and compelling characters. Bill Hader’s performance had the entire audience cracking up. It felt a little like a full circle moment; the press screening for It back in 2017 was one of the first I attended. Now two years later, I’m more used to these kinds of events, but still feel incredibly lucky. The movie is almost three hours long and I’m predicting negative reviews. And yet, it was everything I wanted and the series will forever be one of my favorites.
To wrap up a busy week, Thursday night I had the privilege of seeing the Public Theater’s production of Hercules. I was anticipating this all week since winning the online ticket lottery. And the show was really good! Nothing spectacular, but I’m rarely blown away with theater. I thought it was cool to see community theater actors get to play around with a Disney property. The costumes and staging were very creative. Alan Menken’s new songs were the highlight, the one for Hades was the standout. It’s pretty crazy that they might never be heard again. Maybe they’ll use them in a live-action remake of the movie? In any case, just knowing that this was the hottest ticket in town that so few people got the chance to see made Hercules a special experience. I have a lot more thoughts on the show, so you might see a more detailed review pop up here in a few days.
I’m a little hesitant to move TV and City away from the traditional reviews and recaps we’ve been doing for years, so this might be a one-off kind of post. I’m still warming up to idea of a more personal blog.
Thanks for continuing to read TV and City! Let’s go with the flow and see where this endeavor ends up.
Movies I watched this week:
- Rocketman – Pretty solid, if I was an Elton John fan I might have enjoyed it more.
- It: Chapter Two – Discussed above.
- Hercules – Rewatched after the stage version. Underrated Disney flick.
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Another Disney rewatch, this time because we were discussing 19th Century Paris in one of my classes. A lot more adult than I remembered.
- Late Night – Charming but forgettable.
TV and City 