Is the world really filled with wonderful things?

Have you ever felt like you would dig ditches for the rest of your life just to have one truly wonderful day?

With everything going on, it's easy to feel like there aren't a lot of wonderful things in this world. But what if it was true? What if the world really was full of wonderful things?

Could that be?

For the answer to that, you'd have to see Broadway's beloved musical, "Hello, Dolly!", which is going on tour. And you should go.

I saw Hello, Dolly! on Broadway last month in NYC, just before it closed its ecstatically successful run. Since then, it's never really left my mind. You know when something just captures your heart?

For me, anything that is audacious enough to look at the world and choose to see the good is something that I think is worth sharing.

It's so rare to leave a theater feeling delighted that you get to live life, and better equipped to do so because of what you've just seen. It's not preachy (heaven forbid). It was just simple and fun and had such a heart for the silly little schemes of humanity. It looked effortless. But that's what made it powerful.

I could tell you that it's a hilarious show, or that it has a rich history in the theater, or that the choreography is perfect, or that they don't make shows like this anymore. All of that would be true. I could even tell you that the touring cast is surely going to be fabulous, or that the songs are endlessly memorable, or that it's even better than the movie that came out in 1969 (which is also considered one of the greatest movie musicals ever made).

But I think what I'll do is tell you that if you've ever felt like you wanted to believe that the world is full of wonderful things, then this is a show you can't miss.

See the full schedule of tour dates and locations here.

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MY GLORIOUS RETURN TO THE INTERNET

Things are looking just PEACHY, friends.

I've moved to the Peach State to start my PhD in film studies, so with all the coursework and technologies and jargon, the urge to write about movies frivolously - every once in a while, just to stay sane - has been with me like the drip of a faucet.

Attempting to "fold in gently" to this new time of my life has been...

... not altogether unproductive. Moving cities, times of transition, big changes.... all of those things are the times when the stories that have shaped my life are at their thought provoking. So I've come to this new place with lots of thoughts, lots of fears, and a whole lotta movie trivia in this blonde noggin.

But really.. isn't it exciting? There's so much I can't wait to learn more about.

Movies! Theater. Musicals. And TV!

All around, I'd call it a general interest in art and storytelling that is now, for me, stronger than ever.

My glorious return to the internet (which is really more of a small wave from a person on a distant balcony who you can barely see but, what the heck, they still made the effort) is just to say - hey! I'm here. It's a new season. And there's lots of things to discover.

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Wes Anderson's "Isle of Dogs"

If one thing was going to bring this blog out of hibernation, you can bet it would be the new Wes Anderson movie.

Somehow, it has already been four. entire. years. since The Grand Budapest Hotel opened in all of its candy-colored glory.

Although it's only in limited release right now (I guess living in NYC has to have some advantages), we got to see Wes Anderson's latest fantastical adventure yesterday and I was not disappointed. The wider release opens across the USA on April 13, I believe.

The fact is, I'm just going to see a Wes Anderson movie no matter what it's about. The style of his storytelling is so unique that I'm just as charmed by the way he tells the stories as I am by the story itself.

Seeing one of his movies also feels like being in a little club where you get badges for all of the Wes Anderson-y things you can identify (or maybe I'm using this comparison because I'm thinking of Moonrise Kingdom's khaki scouts).

The feeling of being a part of this club is especially apparent as the cast appears in the movie. Bill Murray. Badge. Tilda Swinton. Badge. Edward Norton. Badge. One after another, all the frequent collaborators appear, and by this time, I know who to expect. It makes me smile.

Every time you see someone show up in one of his movies (or, in the case of the animated Isle of Dogs, when you hear their voice), it's like another person has arrived at the Christmas party that you host every year, and every year, they come.

It's very wonderful to me that, although his style as a filmmaker is so uniform, his color schemes vary with each movie. My personal favorite palette is the sugary pinks and purples of Grand Budapest, with the 1960s-style burnt oranges, teals and woodland greens of Moonrise Kingdom as the runner up.

After one viewing, the colors I see after Isle of Dogs are white, tan and reds. It's much more monochromatic than some of the other bright films and has more natural colors, but after all, most of the movie does take place on a place called Trash Island. But don't worry, it's far from boring. Yes, you're going to get the colors of trash and of dogs and secret labs, but you also have the colorful array of test tubes, mansions, political rallies and a metropolis, all in Wes Anderson style.

Something that never fails to amuse me about Wes Anderson movies is that absurd humor, like all of his characters have been picked up off the street and, unlike all the other glossy characters we're used to seeing on the big screen, all of the eccentricities of his characters have been left in. The humor is in those moments when one dog asks another dog if he's heard the rumor about so-and-so, and you laugh because this dog just loves gossip.

I can't wait for everyone to get a chance to see this enchanted world, with all of its strange bits and bobs, brought to life. If you love Wes Anderson, then you will love his new movie.

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