It doesn't suck in Camelot
made by my friend Alicia
Since it has been so long since I've posted, I have a lot that I want to cover in this entry. Schol continues batshit crazy. Or, rather, it did until recently. This semester totally kicked my butt, but it's now pretty much over. I have one final on Tuesday, and then I'm done. I go home for Christmas on Thursday, and I am super-excited about this. But seriously, this semester... BAAAAD. There was a lot of stress from various quarters, and I'm glad it's almost over. ALMOST OVER! WHOOOO!
I did have a meeting with Dr. Battles, my professor/boss, the man for whom I am a research assistant, and he is still pleased with my work. We're waiting for our grant to get renewed, which hopefully it will be. These meetings always come when I haven't been able to do anything for the project in a couple of weeks or (in this case) a month because of the craziness of school. He did not blame me at all for this. He's really accommodating of my schedule, actually, and is still happy with the work I've been doing. We talked a lot about grad schools, too, which was a little scary, but his apparent confidence in me was very gratifying and flattering.
Over Thanksgiving, I saw three movies. One was bad, one was weird, and one was good. The good one was Stranger Than Fiction, which I recommend to any and everyone. It's really funny and sweet and good and it has Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, and Queen Latifah all together in the same movie. The bad movie was Babel, which I went to see with Michael, Marten, Nathan, and Jonah. I really loved seeing them all again, but here is a piece of advice: Don't see Babel. The weird movie was The Fountain, which was SO WEIRD. The best description I have heard of it was on Not Ebert and Roeper the next day. It went something like this: "In the fifteenth century, Rachel Weisz is Queen Isabella of Spain and Hugh Jackman is Tomasino, a conquistador trying to unlock the secret of eternal life. In the present, Rachel Weisz is Izzi, a woman suffering from cancer, and Hugh Jackman is her husband, a scientist desperately trying to find a cure. In the future, Hugh Jackman is bald and Rachel Weisz is, unless I am mistaken, a tree." And that leaves out the half hour at least spent just watching Hugh Jackman floating through space and glowing like Darth Buddha Jesus.
Here are a couple of Office-related icons I made recently.
Life imitates art. A Christmas icon.
I am now going to give a belated description of my trip to see Spamalot in Cincinnatti. I was so excited to get to go! Especially since the show will be in Indianapolis in May, which is when I will be in England (I just finished paying for the trip yesterday). Our seats were in the last row of the theater, but it was a well-constructed theater, and I could still see everything pretty well. SPOILERS AHEAD!
The show is HYSTERICAL. If any of you ever havea chance to see it, please do. It begins with the historian's prologue-- the historian reminded me of some of my professors-- and then the Finland fish-slapping number. This was exactly as ridiculous as you would expect it to be. All of these people in bright colors and wigs made of yarn come out and sing and dance around, and then they whip out fishes and start slapping each other. "I said ENGLAND!" "Oh..." And the Finland set is quickly wheeled off to leave us with the castle from the beginning of the movie. There was a lot of incidental music in the play I liked which isn't on the soundtrack, and a lot of it involves fun Arthurian reference. The one I can remember right now is Arthur's introduction of himself: "I am Arthur, King of the Britons/ And I am the ruler of all/ Of England and Scotland/ And also little bitty bits of Gaul!" Then they do the whole coconut- swallow conversation, which got a great response and was great to see acted out live, just let me say.
Then they move on to He Is Not Dead Yet. This was also really funny and involved a lot more movie dialogue than is on the soundtrack. There is a whole cart full of "dead" people being rolled around, who jump up and turn into the back up singers/dancers. When the do "kill" Fred, his body just lies there throughout the whole number, and they sort of dance around it, and something about that is hilarious. They do not do the "burn the witch" scene, but that's okay. Arthur picks up Robin and Lance, and then they come across Dennis Galahad and his mum digging around in the mud. Galahad, naturally, refuses to believe in the Lady of the Lake, so Arthur summons the Lady and her Laker girls. Galahad is so blow away that he not only joins the Knights, but undergoes a complete transformation-- his clothes are clean, he stands up straight, he has shiny hair, and he has a posh accent. Arthur comments on this, and Galahad says something about how it's because he is a better person now for having thrown himself wholeheartedly into feudalism. Arthur calls him a prick or something like that, and Galahad proclaims that, yes, he has released his inner asshole. The Song That Goes Like This is really funny, and Galahad and the Lady start yelling into the orchestra pit when the song goes on too long. A chandelier comes down out of nowhere and breaks at the end.
The Camelot sequence is very elaborate. There's a huge round table/ roulette wheel hanging overhead that is in neon colors and lights up. The Laker Girls' outfits are exceedingly skimpy. The Lady played her part as a drunken lounge singer. Then God manifests himself as a pair of cartoon feet and the voice of John Cleese to order everyone to find the Grail. "Are we given to understand that Almighty God has... misplaced... his cup?" And they discuss how it is really a metaphor, and then Find Your Grail is sung and they walk up and down the same mountain several times, in an act of purposeful cheese. The seasons pass out of order as various knights come on with buckets of "snow," "leaves," and "flowers."
They arrive at the French castle. One thing I love is that, just as in the movie, the roles are double-cast, and they don't even try to explain it when Lancelot, for example, is not there for the entire scene. They really launch a cow right onto one of the servants in very admirable and well-choreographed fashion. The rabbit crashes via an animation on a screen which is lowered immediately prior to intermission. And you know those funny faces the French Taunters make? Even funnier in person. And the French people who come out? One of them is dressed like Eponine from Les Mis.
The Dark and Very Expensive Forest looks, indeed, very expensive. When Arthur and Patsy sing Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, it is "raining," and the backup knights come on and sing and dance with smiley face umbrellas, which is awesome. Something about seeing fully armored knights dancing with smiley face umbrellas... is the sort of silliness which my icon of today is made of. The Knights Who Until Recently Said Ni now want Arthur to put on a Broadway musical for them. Robin does do the three-headed giant scene, and then he finds Arthur and they sing You Won't Succeed on Broadway, which is exactly how you would imagine it to be. They do, in fact, bring on a piano. Also, I seem to remember a giant light-up Star of David. Arthur and Robin set off on their new quest to find a Jew.
The Diva's Lament takes place, according to the program, in A Hole in the Universe. She just comes out in a robe and sings and roses are thrown and it rocks. I believe this is the part where they are getting rid of the Dark and Very Expesive Forest and replacing it with Swamp Castle. Lancelot's scene with Concorde rocks. As does absolutely anything involving Herbert. His Name is Lancelot... okay. They do infact remove Lancelot's tabard, and... There is a neon sparky unitard time thing. With a really sparkly thong/codpiece dealy over it. And there is a lot of color, and Lancelot no longer has sleeves or a helmet and... he was pretty hot, actually, from what I could tell. And the whole number is simply beyond words, it is that awesome and strange.
I don't remember that much of I'm All Alone. It was pretty much like I imagined it would be, I think. I remember that I laughed straight through it. The Lady of the Lake comes on to tell Arthur that he's not alone, because she has been there to give him the sword... make him king... give him a quest... He wants to know how to succeed in the quest since they don't have any Jews. The Lady explains that they have been doing a Broadway play the whole time. And Patsy chimes up that he is, in fact, Jewish. "Not exactly something you'd want to mention around a medieval king famous for being a Christian..." But how do they end the play? Well, with a wedding! But Arthur wants to know who would marry him. The Lady suggests maybe someone who has been there for him... who gave him a sword... made him king... give him a quest... So now all they have to do is find the Grail!
Tim the enchanter comes on on a spark-spewing broomstick. It is very... "impressive." Caer Bannog is a piece of scenery painted to be a "hill" which is brought on to the middle of the stage, and the bunny is a puppet, which appears looking very sweet, and then... wow, I almost forgot about this part. And the Black Knight part, actually. They do amazing things. In the Black Knight scene, they manage to cut off the fake arms, and then the Knight is stabbed to a wall at which point the actor inside somehow climbs out of the costume so that the legs can be cut off. In the bunny part, I think somebody else loses an arm and blood squirts. Maybe a head is lost, actually. Something. It's very cool. The bunny reappers, this time revealing his sharp, pointy teeth. Still a puppet. With scary teeth. Then they move aside the hill setpiece to reveal the knight-costumed guy with the rabbit puppet on one hand, who looks sheepish and then walks away. I was laughing. So. Hard. The engraving on the cave says that you will find the Grail at "D101." "Doi?" they wonder. "As in, an expression of stupidity?" "Duh?" "No, doi." Then they realize that it is actually Seat D101. The Grail is actually under a seat in the audience. So they all troop down to the seat and get the Grail and the woman who had been sitting over it and bring her onstage and sing her a song about how she will now be famous in Cincinnatti. It was really awesome.
So then they do Hallelujah! A Broadway wedding! Arthur figures that, since he's marrying the Lady, he ought to know her name, sine he can't just call her "Lady." She tells him it is Guinevere. "Doi!" one of the knights exclaims. The wedding sequence takes place, and it's shiny and pretty. Lancelot and Herbert are barely recognizable because Herbert's in a dress. And Robin's in a white tie and tails. And that is their show that ends like this. The words to Always Look on the Bright Side of Life show up on the overhead screen so the audience can sing along. Which we do.
The show went really, really fast because I was enjoying myself so much. YAY FOR SPAMALOT!
I have to go ice skating now!