Update time!
Part I: Glasgow
'cause the Hollywood Heroines movie didn't last for five bazillion years, unlike Perils of Pauline which could have stood some major editing. I mean, come on, how many times can you get tied and gagged and manipulated before you figure out that your guardian is trying to get you killed and steal your fortune? Not that he would really need too, considering, except for the part where he'll be broke after paying for you to get tied and gagged and manipulated. Honestly. Everything from Indian goddesses to leaking yachts, all against an grating, repetitive soundtrack. But fun, for the sheer silly that was the dialogue. Three screenings a week is great and all, but between very early Hollywood and depressing, twisted satire all about ageing actresses who go nuts I might have to start watching Shrek every week just to keep sane. As it is I'm already looping Avenue Q.
Sooooo...been awhile since the last update, as usual. Time to blather about Scotland and spring break! Wow, I sound like Matz and his little outlines for class: "So first we're going to look at how people thought the Angry Young Men were rather worthless after a year so that we can watch spastic running, then we'll talk a little bit about Orwell and how he is so NOT DRY, then..." Gotta love Matz.
: The trip was a bit of a mess to begin with, mostly because we were leaving in the middle of what was technically finals week-most of us done, some staying behind, others carrying over. Stress point number one: Starting to Write exam hanging over my head. Still, Matz and Bowman managed to remain chipper, as usual, and the flight (flight!) was quick and pretty; most of the UK looks very similar from above, but I had never actually gotten to see it without cloudcover and severe I've-been-traveling-for-approximately-eighteen-hours-and-I-want-to-go-homeness. Patchy green and glimmery lakes every once in awhile, even up nearer Scotland where I rather expected it to be snowing. It was windy, but the sun made what might otherwise have been a slightly ungainly city worth the watch from our ever so spiffy Scotlandmobile (mini bus type thing) complete with heavily accented driver. All I could think of driving in is, "Hey, this is where Gerry Butler's from! Bwahaha!" Yes, I am going into Phantom withdrawal after last semester. Shh. Nevertheless, if it were up to me I probably would have chosen Edinburgh to grow up in, probably because I'm only touring Scotland in tourist capacity...and yet Edinburgh was extremely walkable, historically interesting from the castle-on-the-hill type perspective, and had a beautiful windy hill within sight and climbing capacity. Yup, I've definitely got my priorities straight. Perhaps it was partially because it felt Irish, that story beneath the blood type connection to landscape and memory that emerges in moments. Glasgow had a lot to recommend it, though, mostly of the architecture and creepy cool variety. Mackintosh was the big name there (and not the Cameron Mackintosh I've produced every musical ever made), one of the Glasgow boys who with his wife and friends implemented a new, very modern style of highly uncomfortable looking chairs and carefully decorated and schemed furniture and buildings. His most famous achievement: the Glasgow School of Art, still functional, though invaded regularly by tourists and no-touchy rules concerning the library (brilliant space, I thought, with the whole forest effect and atmosphere). That particular venue was one among a bajillion we had to track down, the others various museums and galleries (Gallery of Modern Art, The Lighthouse, The McLellan Gallery [Matz blamed my last name for the mispelling in class]). We never quite made it to the House for an Art Lover, a Mackintosh designed but belatedly built structure a little too out of our time crunched and physically exhausted way. I found the McLellan Gallery fascinating, partially for the Mackintosh stuff (tall backed chairs, overindulgence in heart and flower motifs, elongated women with a curious draw about them), partially because some of the other exhibits featured sculpture and pre-Raphaelite paintings, which I'm always up for. And the gift shop was shiny.
More to come when I can concentrate and have gotten some work done. Still need to sort through pictures of the Sharmanka theatre and the cathedral. And get my chance to poke at Leave to Remain and Look Back in Anger before they go completely out of memory. For the sake of Matz's plea if nothing else. Now, however, I've got to go give the pony on the hill some love...and possibly those carrots that aren't getting any younger...
Current Music : Forbidden Broadway. Bwahaha. Also echoes of Avenue Q.
Current Nonsense : Er...I think we took care of our nonsense quota yesterday, what with cross-dressing as each other and confusing the heck out of the professor twins, eating suspicious salami-pepperoni pizza, and exclaiming over the cuteness of the little furball monster Fizzgig from Dark Crystal (I want one, too!). Creepy muppets. Perfect for Peziverssary. Boys? What boys? Oh, except for vicarious boy-appearance for Prez in the form of a hugeish box of roses, which she shared out...mine is currently residing in the silly horse mug from Christmas. Crimson. Pretty.
Current Book: Trying to get through The Illustrated Man, but it's rather slow going for some reason. Need a fast, funny read to break up all of this satire and coal mining stuff.
'cause the Hollywood Heroines movie didn't last for five bazillion years, unlike Perils of Pauline which could have stood some major editing. I mean, come on, how many times can you get tied and gagged and manipulated before you figure out that your guardian is trying to get you killed and steal your fortune? Not that he would really need too, considering, except for the part where he'll be broke after paying for you to get tied and gagged and manipulated. Honestly. Everything from Indian goddesses to leaking yachts, all against an grating, repetitive soundtrack. But fun, for the sheer silly that was the dialogue. Three screenings a week is great and all, but between very early Hollywood and depressing, twisted satire all about ageing actresses who go nuts I might have to start watching Shrek every week just to keep sane. As it is I'm already looping Avenue Q.
Sooooo...been awhile since the last update, as usual. Time to blather about Scotland and spring break! Wow, I sound like Matz and his little outlines for class: "So first we're going to look at how people thought the Angry Young Men were rather worthless after a year so that we can watch spastic running, then we'll talk a little bit about Orwell and how he is so NOT DRY, then..." Gotta love Matz.
: The trip was a bit of a mess to begin with, mostly because we were leaving in the middle of what was technically finals week-most of us done, some staying behind, others carrying over. Stress point number one: Starting to Write exam hanging over my head. Still, Matz and Bowman managed to remain chipper, as usual, and the flight (flight!) was quick and pretty; most of the UK looks very similar from above, but I had never actually gotten to see it without cloudcover and severe I've-been-traveling-for-approximately-eighteen-hours-and-I-want-to-go-homeness. Patchy green and glimmery lakes every once in awhile, even up nearer Scotland where I rather expected it to be snowing. It was windy, but the sun made what might otherwise have been a slightly ungainly city worth the watch from our ever so spiffy Scotlandmobile (mini bus type thing) complete with heavily accented driver. All I could think of driving in is, "Hey, this is where Gerry Butler's from! Bwahaha!" Yes, I am going into Phantom withdrawal after last semester. Shh. Nevertheless, if it were up to me I probably would have chosen Edinburgh to grow up in, probably because I'm only touring Scotland in tourist capacity...and yet Edinburgh was extremely walkable, historically interesting from the castle-on-the-hill type perspective, and had a beautiful windy hill within sight and climbing capacity. Yup, I've definitely got my priorities straight. Perhaps it was partially because it felt Irish, that story beneath the blood type connection to landscape and memory that emerges in moments. Glasgow had a lot to recommend it, though, mostly of the architecture and creepy cool variety. Mackintosh was the big name there (and not the Cameron Mackintosh I've produced every musical ever made), one of the Glasgow boys who with his wife and friends implemented a new, very modern style of highly uncomfortable looking chairs and carefully decorated and schemed furniture and buildings. His most famous achievement: the Glasgow School of Art, still functional, though invaded regularly by tourists and no-touchy rules concerning the library (brilliant space, I thought, with the whole forest effect and atmosphere). That particular venue was one among a bajillion we had to track down, the others various museums and galleries (Gallery of Modern Art, The Lighthouse, The McLellan Gallery [Matz blamed my last name for the mispelling in class]). We never quite made it to the House for an Art Lover, a Mackintosh designed but belatedly built structure a little too out of our time crunched and physically exhausted way. I found the McLellan Gallery fascinating, partially for the Mackintosh stuff (tall backed chairs, overindulgence in heart and flower motifs, elongated women with a curious draw about them), partially because some of the other exhibits featured sculpture and pre-Raphaelite paintings, which I'm always up for. And the gift shop was shiny.
More to come when I can concentrate and have gotten some work done. Still need to sort through pictures of the Sharmanka theatre and the cathedral. And get my chance to poke at Leave to Remain and Look Back in Anger before they go completely out of memory. For the sake of Matz's plea if nothing else. Now, however, I've got to go give the pony on the hill some love...and possibly those carrots that aren't getting any younger...
Current Music : Forbidden Broadway. Bwahaha. Also echoes of Avenue Q.
Current Nonsense : Er...I think we took care of our nonsense quota yesterday, what with cross-dressing as each other and confusing the heck out of the professor twins, eating suspicious salami-pepperoni pizza, and exclaiming over the cuteness of the little furball monster Fizzgig from Dark Crystal (I want one, too!). Creepy muppets. Perfect for Peziverssary. Boys? What boys? Oh, except for vicarious boy-appearance for Prez in the form of a hugeish box of roses, which she shared out...mine is currently residing in the silly horse mug from Christmas. Crimson. Pretty.
Current Book: Trying to get through The Illustrated Man, but it's rather slow going for some reason. Need a fast, funny read to break up all of this satire and coal mining stuff.