All things waiting to be written . . .
Well, I haven’t really caught up with my schoolwork (actually am feeling pretty stressed), but I’m going to send out an entry anyway.
I guess the first thing on the agenda should be London and “Wicked”. The show was amazing (even being about five rows from the back wall of the house). The highlight was the fact that Idena Menzel was playing Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West for those of you who don’t know the story). Besides having a voice that could knock both your socks AND your shoes off, she originated the role of Elphaba and the role of Maureen in “Rent” (a musical I practically know by heart). For those of you who are into “Harry Potter”, Madame Morrible was the actress who played Prof. Sprout in the films. The rest of the cast were people I’d never heard of, but they were all quite good. It was a little strange having some with English accents, some with American accents, and even one with a Scottish accent, but, hey, it’s Oz. I did notice that Madame Morrible didn’t really sing so much as speak in time, so I thing Prof. Sprout (forget the actresses name- Miriam something) was cast for her acting and star power, not her voice.
What was nice about the story (once you’ve gotten past how it’s completely different from the book by Maguire) was that the music doesn’t give it all away. I have listened to the music time and again in the past six months or so and I was still surprised by some parts of the show.
Warning: Spoiler!
I loved how Boq (the munchkin in love with Glinda at University) becomes the Tin Man and how Elphaba’s lover Fyiero becomes the Scarecrow. The Lion’s origins I figured out from the lyrics. Also, I was so pleased that Elphaba gets a happy ending in the show, though I think a tragic ending is more appropriate for the book.
Spoiler over.
Besides the show, Helen and I had a Thai dinner and I went to the National Gallery on Sunday. I rented an audio guide and wandered around half-randomly for a few hours. I’d seen part of a TV Carrivagio (sp?) biography not too long ago and it was nice to see a few of his pieces in person. He did a lot of religious work and I like his pieces better than many other bible-derived paintings I’ve seen because he uses physical expression- his biblical figures seem like real people, not statues of Gods.
I also took a quick peek at the National Portrait Gallery and saw several modern-day portraits: J.K. Rowling, Michael Cain, Mick Jagger, etc. The one of J.K. Rowling was odd. It was 2D and 3D at the same time. Her portrait and the objects in the room were all on flat pieces of board, but they were set up in a box at appropriate distances from you. Like I said, odd. Another “odd” thing is that I’ve seen at least two pictures of her in the last few weeks and she always looks depressed to me. Maybe that accounts for the 5th book . . .
Trip over it was back to real life and more schoolwork than I seem to be able to do. Granted, I find the time to distract myself with TV movies (remake of “The Italian Job”) and virtual reality online. Anyone heard of Second Life? I read an article/review of it in the Observer and decided to try it out. I haven’t found the world to be particularly engaging yet, but you use sliders to design how you look and what you wear. And, since my favorite part of role-playing is designing the character, I easily spent two to three hours on that. Right now I’m stuck in the middle of the ocean (you can’t drown) because I managed to walk off a cliff and be carried out by the current. Normally you can fly and teleport, but I have no teleporting locations in my file and flying isn’t working at the moment. Not sure what I’m going to do.
In the world of gravity and stress, I have an essay due in a week and I CANNOT figure out how to focus it. I have to take a document (policy/strategy/plan) and analyze it in a historical (events/philosophy/etc.) context. Problem is, I would go and pick a 33 page document and one from 1973. The document has to be from before 1990, but it seems that there’s been a lot more writing on development in the 80s than on development in the 70s. Argggh. What makes it worse is that this is worth 35% of my grade for that unit, so if I screw it up, it makes a huge difference.
Thankfully, it’s reading week, so I don’t have class until the day it’s due, but I did have work all day today. I work Thursday and Sunday too, so that significantly cuts down on my research and writing time. The best part is that this is a small essay (1200 words) and the big ones (four of ‘em) will all be due about four weeks from Monday.
Like I said: arggggh!
Okay, I’m done complaining about school.
Now I shall complain about cold. Sorry.
My lips were turning blue a couple days ago. I don’t use that as a figure of speech. Granted, the color was more purple-ish, but you get the idea. It’s been freezing here and we only have the house heated 6:30-8AM and 8-11:30PM. So cold. It’s been getting better in the last day or so, but we might need to think about having the radiators on more. Ah, the age old question: to be warm and poorer or cold and richer?
Okay, enough gloom. Something good . . .
I read a mesmerizing book called “Four Corners” by/about a twenty-four year old woman who, without really any planning, traveled across Papua New Guinea in 1992. She hiked through the jungle, rafted a river (raft in question being boards strapped to two canoes), and met with revolutionary soldiers exiled from Ira Jaya (sp?). Through all of this, she questions why she feels compelled to put herself through these things and comes off as both incredibly tough and very vulnerable (to readers, not to people she met in PNG) at the same time.
Now I’m reading a book by/about a woman who cycled from Ireland to India in 1963 (through Persia/Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan). Aren’t people amazing?
I don’t know if I’ll ever have the guts or the physical strength to travel like these women, but I’d sure like to work on making it possible.
On a completely different note, I now have functioning wireless broadband and MSN messenger. So, if you want to chat online through MSN, I’m generally on in the afternoon and evening depending on the day. I’m 8 hours ahead (except for Kyle), so that’s 6 AM-ish to 4 PM-ish your time. Obviously, this means I’m unlikely to connect with anyone during the week, but I would love to catch people on the weekend. ( :
I should finish up, eat, and try to wrestle my research into something meaningful.
Hope everyone is great, good, fantastic, etc. Remember, I want to hear what’s going on back in the States and write if you have time.
Oh, I almost forgot: We got a mini-book version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” in the shop where I work and I was amazed at how many of my co-workers had never heard of it. Interesting, huh?
I guess the first thing on the agenda should be London and “Wicked”. The show was amazing (even being about five rows from the back wall of the house). The highlight was the fact that Idena Menzel was playing Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West for those of you who don’t know the story). Besides having a voice that could knock both your socks AND your shoes off, she originated the role of Elphaba and the role of Maureen in “Rent” (a musical I practically know by heart). For those of you who are into “Harry Potter”, Madame Morrible was the actress who played Prof. Sprout in the films. The rest of the cast were people I’d never heard of, but they were all quite good. It was a little strange having some with English accents, some with American accents, and even one with a Scottish accent, but, hey, it’s Oz. I did notice that Madame Morrible didn’t really sing so much as speak in time, so I thing Prof. Sprout (forget the actresses name- Miriam something) was cast for her acting and star power, not her voice.
What was nice about the story (once you’ve gotten past how it’s completely different from the book by Maguire) was that the music doesn’t give it all away. I have listened to the music time and again in the past six months or so and I was still surprised by some parts of the show.
Warning: Spoiler!
I loved how Boq (the munchkin in love with Glinda at University) becomes the Tin Man and how Elphaba’s lover Fyiero becomes the Scarecrow. The Lion’s origins I figured out from the lyrics. Also, I was so pleased that Elphaba gets a happy ending in the show, though I think a tragic ending is more appropriate for the book.
Spoiler over.
Besides the show, Helen and I had a Thai dinner and I went to the National Gallery on Sunday. I rented an audio guide and wandered around half-randomly for a few hours. I’d seen part of a TV Carrivagio (sp?) biography not too long ago and it was nice to see a few of his pieces in person. He did a lot of religious work and I like his pieces better than many other bible-derived paintings I’ve seen because he uses physical expression- his biblical figures seem like real people, not statues of Gods.
I also took a quick peek at the National Portrait Gallery and saw several modern-day portraits: J.K. Rowling, Michael Cain, Mick Jagger, etc. The one of J.K. Rowling was odd. It was 2D and 3D at the same time. Her portrait and the objects in the room were all on flat pieces of board, but they were set up in a box at appropriate distances from you. Like I said, odd. Another “odd” thing is that I’ve seen at least two pictures of her in the last few weeks and she always looks depressed to me. Maybe that accounts for the 5th book . . .
Trip over it was back to real life and more schoolwork than I seem to be able to do. Granted, I find the time to distract myself with TV movies (remake of “The Italian Job”) and virtual reality online. Anyone heard of Second Life? I read an article/review of it in the Observer and decided to try it out. I haven’t found the world to be particularly engaging yet, but you use sliders to design how you look and what you wear. And, since my favorite part of role-playing is designing the character, I easily spent two to three hours on that. Right now I’m stuck in the middle of the ocean (you can’t drown) because I managed to walk off a cliff and be carried out by the current. Normally you can fly and teleport, but I have no teleporting locations in my file and flying isn’t working at the moment. Not sure what I’m going to do.
In the world of gravity and stress, I have an essay due in a week and I CANNOT figure out how to focus it. I have to take a document (policy/strategy/plan) and analyze it in a historical (events/philosophy/etc.) context. Problem is, I would go and pick a 33 page document and one from 1973. The document has to be from before 1990, but it seems that there’s been a lot more writing on development in the 80s than on development in the 70s. Argggh. What makes it worse is that this is worth 35% of my grade for that unit, so if I screw it up, it makes a huge difference.
Thankfully, it’s reading week, so I don’t have class until the day it’s due, but I did have work all day today. I work Thursday and Sunday too, so that significantly cuts down on my research and writing time. The best part is that this is a small essay (1200 words) and the big ones (four of ‘em) will all be due about four weeks from Monday.
Like I said: arggggh!
Okay, I’m done complaining about school.
Now I shall complain about cold. Sorry.
My lips were turning blue a couple days ago. I don’t use that as a figure of speech. Granted, the color was more purple-ish, but you get the idea. It’s been freezing here and we only have the house heated 6:30-8AM and 8-11:30PM. So cold. It’s been getting better in the last day or so, but we might need to think about having the radiators on more. Ah, the age old question: to be warm and poorer or cold and richer?
Okay, enough gloom. Something good . . .
I read a mesmerizing book called “Four Corners” by/about a twenty-four year old woman who, without really any planning, traveled across Papua New Guinea in 1992. She hiked through the jungle, rafted a river (raft in question being boards strapped to two canoes), and met with revolutionary soldiers exiled from Ira Jaya (sp?). Through all of this, she questions why she feels compelled to put herself through these things and comes off as both incredibly tough and very vulnerable (to readers, not to people she met in PNG) at the same time.
Now I’m reading a book by/about a woman who cycled from Ireland to India in 1963 (through Persia/Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan). Aren’t people amazing?
I don’t know if I’ll ever have the guts or the physical strength to travel like these women, but I’d sure like to work on making it possible.
On a completely different note, I now have functioning wireless broadband and MSN messenger. So, if you want to chat online through MSN, I’m generally on in the afternoon and evening depending on the day. I’m 8 hours ahead (except for Kyle), so that’s 6 AM-ish to 4 PM-ish your time. Obviously, this means I’m unlikely to connect with anyone during the week, but I would love to catch people on the weekend. ( :
I should finish up, eat, and try to wrestle my research into something meaningful.
Hope everyone is great, good, fantastic, etc. Remember, I want to hear what’s going on back in the States and write if you have time.
Oh, I almost forgot: We got a mini-book version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” in the shop where I work and I was amazed at how many of my co-workers had never heard of it. Interesting, huh?