Yay weekend!
So this weekend was one of the most awesome weekends I've had in a while. Not that my weekends have been bad recently or anything, but this one was just so good it blew everything else out of the water. :)
Saturday was dress rehearsal in Eminence, and the show looks (and sounds!) fantastic. I think we're going to have a good crowd of people to carol, so I'm terribly excited for next weekend. Then we drove up to Winchester for hms_ennui's show at john_kathy's house. Kathy and I opened the show, and we didn't crash and burn, although there was some slight turbulence? :) Lance's show was stellar as always, and it was a great time to just hang out and see everyone again and sing-along. (And drink. Did I mention drinking?) We almost didn't let Lance and Regan (pallid_regina) leave, we were all having such a great time.
Sunday morning we slept in (at least, I did), and after a while kismets_kiss and Capt_Amos and I headed back to Louisville. We went to see Golden Compass, which I was excited about, but sort of worried, because it had been getting pretty mixed reviews. Luckily, I loved every minute of it. I finished the book about two weeks ago, and yes, the movie wasn't quite as good as the book, but I still can't imagine thinking that GC was an awful movie. I'm starting to wonder if maybe there are two different versions of the movie, and we just happened to be in the theatre showing the good version. :) (That's not to say there aren't things I wish they had included. The End of the book would have been nice, for instance. I tried explaining it to people who haven't read the books, and all I can come up with is it's like what they did with Fellowship of the Ring. You went in, expecting certain things to happen, and then the last five chapters are missing-- where big things happen! And the end of Golden Compass is such a kick in the stomach anyway, I was just stunned when they ended the film without it. I'm sure it will be in the beginning of the next film, but jeez, that's a long time to wait knowing that something awful is getting ready to happen. Also, I am sad that they didn't play up how shocking it is to see someone without a daemon. One of the most powerful parts in the book for me was the idea that grown men were afraid of this little boy, all because he had been separated from his Daemon. And as for the people who complained that the story's (anti-)religious overtones have been too diluted in order to appeal to a children's audience and/or placate Christians, I think I would argue that the books really don't start getting into any terribly heavy themes until very late in the first book, and early in the second book. I was actually very surprised after the first book that people were making such a big fuss over the series, and while I still think a boycott of the series is a silly idea, I'm starting to see how the second book is touching on deeper issues than the first, and knowing how it ends I can see how it is going to continue to escalate. Give it time guys, I wouldn't write it out just yet, because the full series has coloured the way you read/remember the first book.
And that was an awful lot of writing for me. I think I just filled my LJ word-quota for the next three months.
Saturday was dress rehearsal in Eminence, and the show looks (and sounds!) fantastic. I think we're going to have a good crowd of people to carol, so I'm terribly excited for next weekend. Then we drove up to Winchester for hms_ennui's show at john_kathy's house. Kathy and I opened the show, and we didn't crash and burn, although there was some slight turbulence? :) Lance's show was stellar as always, and it was a great time to just hang out and see everyone again and sing-along. (And drink. Did I mention drinking?) We almost didn't let Lance and Regan (pallid_regina) leave, we were all having such a great time.
Sunday morning we slept in (at least, I did), and after a while kismets_kiss and Capt_Amos and I headed back to Louisville. We went to see Golden Compass, which I was excited about, but sort of worried, because it had been getting pretty mixed reviews. Luckily, I loved every minute of it. I finished the book about two weeks ago, and yes, the movie wasn't quite as good as the book, but I still can't imagine thinking that GC was an awful movie. I'm starting to wonder if maybe there are two different versions of the movie, and we just happened to be in the theatre showing the good version. :) (That's not to say there aren't things I wish they had included. The End of the book would have been nice, for instance. I tried explaining it to people who haven't read the books, and all I can come up with is it's like what they did with Fellowship of the Ring. You went in, expecting certain things to happen, and then the last five chapters are missing-- where big things happen! And the end of Golden Compass is such a kick in the stomach anyway, I was just stunned when they ended the film without it. I'm sure it will be in the beginning of the next film, but jeez, that's a long time to wait knowing that something awful is getting ready to happen. Also, I am sad that they didn't play up how shocking it is to see someone without a daemon. One of the most powerful parts in the book for me was the idea that grown men were afraid of this little boy, all because he had been separated from his Daemon. And as for the people who complained that the story's (anti-)religious overtones have been too diluted in order to appeal to a children's audience and/or placate Christians, I think I would argue that the books really don't start getting into any terribly heavy themes until very late in the first book, and early in the second book. I was actually very surprised after the first book that people were making such a big fuss over the series, and while I still think a boycott of the series is a silly idea, I'm starting to see how the second book is touching on deeper issues than the first, and knowing how it ends I can see how it is going to continue to escalate. Give it time guys, I wouldn't write it out just yet, because the full series has coloured the way you read/remember the first book.
And that was an awful lot of writing for me. I think I just filled my LJ word-quota for the next three months.