Friday blog-droppings

Well, Mouseketeers, Friday is Talent Round-Up Day, and I've gathered a few interesting bits and bobs for your reading, watching, and listening pleasure(s).

Let's start off with the biggest news in the world today, which is the premiere of Broadway's revival of Sweeney Todd. It was always a creepy show - Angela Lansbury's eye makeup alone left me sleepless for years - but from all accounts this new rendition with Michael Cerveris and Patty LuPone is sparse, intimate, and scarier than the original. Michael Cerveris (I saw him in Assassins last year) looks not unlike Uncle Fester Addams, and Patty LuPone has always been kinda scary-looking, so I don't doubt the stars plus the German Expressionist treatment of the sets and costumes have upped the creep-factor exponentially. "Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd . . ." Priorities is priorities, after all.

What's not to love about a good cookbook? Even when I'm not in a cooking mood, I enjoy flipping through cookbooks or Bon Appetit/Gourmet-type magazines. Well, reader - meet Heaven. NYU's Fales Library has amassed (and continues to amass) a comprehensive 20th century American collection of "cookbook, chefs' letters, and other artifacts of eating," according to the New York Times. (And who doesn't want to get their hands on "Cooking for Orgies and Other Large Parties," hmmmm?)

Seems the great Marlene was a poet who left behind quite a body of work, according the The Times of London. Marlene "Legs" Dietrich spent out her reclusive years battling insomnia by churning out poetry, much of it directed at directors, stars, writers, and old flames. Pounded out on Noel Coward's old portable typewriter, the poems let in a little light on the last years of the legend. So pull on that fedora and man's suit, and dive in -

The most popular girl in the class this year appears to be Penelope, Odysseus' wife. (See, if you wait long enough, you get to the A-list.) Much has been made of Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad, a view of the famous Odyssey as seen through the eyes of the wife stuck at home. But children's novelist Adele Geras has also published a grown-up-people's tome about Penny called Ithaka. The Guardian has an interesting story about Geras' attempt to contact Atwood to discuss the books. Ah, Penelope! They also serve who only stay home and take care of everything while the guy's off galavanting with Sirens.

And one more fun, little thing making the internet rounds right now. The turkey version of "I Will Survive." It's hilarious (and that turkey's butt looks remarkably like my own . . .).

That's gotta be it for now. I'm nursing a sore throat and all this typing is making it worse. If only I could learn to type without talking to myself . . . Get out there and round up some talent of your own!