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timerippleWednesday, May 23, 2007
Just did some last-minute section-switching and paid for summer classes. History of American Film and Beginning Keyboarding. Summer’s looking shinyyyy, y’all.
Apparently the pain in my jaw is caused by stress, quoth my new dentist. I find this ironic since this is the least stressed-out I’ve been in years. Unless boredom counts as a source of stress. Got loads of that. My proof: I am sneaking looks at The Black Swan in my spare few minutes of library time. It is not especially good, but I want to see how the prince will get his comeuppance.
THE BLACK SWAN’S AUTHORIAL PERSONA: Behold, I re-write Swan Lake! And I am sarcastic! I upset expectations! I am ironical! SARCASM! This is awesome! This is revolutionary! This is... fantasy from the perspective of the bad guy, with sarcasm!
ME: This is totally unsubtle. Self, take note.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Last-minute Classical Society tickets to the Getty Villa? Count me in! I carpooled with a couple of Very Protestant Malibu Barbies wearing expensive little dresses and killer heels. (Who wears killer heels to a museum, I ask you?) They were relatively nice, but I ditched them as soon as possible and went to ogle the Lansdowne Heracles and some other marble dudes, including The Victorious Youth, although he is in fact bronze not marble.
I kind of fell in love with the grave relief of Phanokrates. Specifically, with his mouth. Not only was he young, handsome, rich, and educated, his mouth- I... just... It was like he was a little bit amused, and couldn’t work out whether he should smirk or smile, and was just starting to do one or the other, and BAM. I am smitten. Sadly I could not find even a postcard. I shall return, my beloved Phanokrates! Hmm. Doesn't really have that ring to it, does it.
There was also a really cool krater with chariot-battle scenes around the outer rim and top, and sea-battle scenes along the inner rim, so that when it was filled, you would have seen ships on the wine-dark sea. AWESOME. I am constantly amazed by cool stuff like that. Sometimes I forget that these people actually could be incredibly whimsical. So cute little duck-shaped oil-flask thingies, for instance, come as a bit of a pleasant shock. I have to admit that I’m not really a vase-painting person though. Statues and reliefs are more in my line of “aesthetically uneducated” appreciation. I like the textures, the expressions, motion scenes and filled spaces. But it was a really cute duck.
The gardens were absolutely beautiful, especially the Outer Peristyle. I rounded off the visit by purchasing my very own The Victorious Youth poster. In case he does go back to Italy, it’s nice to have my own.
This week’s Ye Olde Movie Reviewes:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Movie. AHAHAHAHAHA. Oh, 1992 and your residual ‘80s stuff. And Pike was cuter before he got cleaned up for Ye Olde Highe Schoole Dance.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Er, what? I haven’t even read the graphic novel and I still thought it was kind of bad. But the costumes were nice.
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934). Um. Not nearly as good as the 1982 remake. Still good, but proves that sticking too closely to original plot can be... not the best decision. Sadly it did not include the trick with the pepper-pot, which is the best part of the entire book and has not been in any adaptation that I’ve seen. That, and the Scarlet Pimpernel Fanmerchandise.
Girl, Interrupted Er, what? Watching the Token Saying Farewell at End of Movie scene was difficult for me though. Miss you guys.
Under Milk Wood. Um. I totally don’t remember all that random pointless narrator!sex being in the script. I think the play actually worked better live on a minimalist set. There’s just no way to visually do “the sleep of birds in Milk Wood” well, at least not if you can’t keep your lighting consistent. It kept bouncing around, like, sunrise! 9 am! 4 am! 9 am again! Still sunrise! Also the livestock bits (“Donkeys angelically drowse on Donkey Down”) made it seem like a documentary about Welsh farm animals. And Bessie Bighead is supposed to be a tragic character. I didn’t improvise heartbreaking music for comedy, damn it.
Snow White, the version with what’s-her-name from Smallville. It is less horrifically bad than I remember it being when it aired on television a few years ago. But only slightly.
The Little Mermaid. Unh. I forgot that this is Disney and therefore ends happily, and I kept waving my arms and yelling “No, no, bad idea!” and “Read the fine print, dammit!” and “He’ll only leave you in the end!”. Good songs though.
And then I went back out and bought pie.
ETA: Not the best picture, but: Phanokrates!
Just did some last-minute section-switching and paid for summer classes. History of American Film and Beginning Keyboarding. Summer’s looking shinyyyy, y’all.
Apparently the pain in my jaw is caused by stress, quoth my new dentist. I find this ironic since this is the least stressed-out I’ve been in years. Unless boredom counts as a source of stress. Got loads of that. My proof: I am sneaking looks at The Black Swan in my spare few minutes of library time. It is not especially good, but I want to see how the prince will get his comeuppance.
THE BLACK SWAN’S AUTHORIAL PERSONA: Behold, I re-write Swan Lake! And I am sarcastic! I upset expectations! I am ironical! SARCASM! This is awesome! This is revolutionary! This is... fantasy from the perspective of the bad guy, with sarcasm!
ME: This is totally unsubtle. Self, take note.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Last-minute Classical Society tickets to the Getty Villa? Count me in! I carpooled with a couple of Very Protestant Malibu Barbies wearing expensive little dresses and killer heels. (Who wears killer heels to a museum, I ask you?) They were relatively nice, but I ditched them as soon as possible and went to ogle the Lansdowne Heracles and some other marble dudes, including The Victorious Youth, although he is in fact bronze not marble.
I kind of fell in love with the grave relief of Phanokrates. Specifically, with his mouth. Not only was he young, handsome, rich, and educated, his mouth- I... just... It was like he was a little bit amused, and couldn’t work out whether he should smirk or smile, and was just starting to do one or the other, and BAM. I am smitten. Sadly I could not find even a postcard. I shall return, my beloved Phanokrates! Hmm. Doesn't really have that ring to it, does it.
There was also a really cool krater with chariot-battle scenes around the outer rim and top, and sea-battle scenes along the inner rim, so that when it was filled, you would have seen ships on the wine-dark sea. AWESOME. I am constantly amazed by cool stuff like that. Sometimes I forget that these people actually could be incredibly whimsical. So cute little duck-shaped oil-flask thingies, for instance, come as a bit of a pleasant shock. I have to admit that I’m not really a vase-painting person though. Statues and reliefs are more in my line of “aesthetically uneducated” appreciation. I like the textures, the expressions, motion scenes and filled spaces. But it was a really cute duck.
The gardens were absolutely beautiful, especially the Outer Peristyle. I rounded off the visit by purchasing my very own The Victorious Youth poster. In case he does go back to Italy, it’s nice to have my own.
This week’s Ye Olde Movie Reviewes:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Movie. AHAHAHAHAHA. Oh, 1992 and your residual ‘80s stuff. And Pike was cuter before he got cleaned up for Ye Olde Highe Schoole Dance.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Er, what? I haven’t even read the graphic novel and I still thought it was kind of bad. But the costumes were nice.
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934). Um. Not nearly as good as the 1982 remake. Still good, but proves that sticking too closely to original plot can be... not the best decision. Sadly it did not include the trick with the pepper-pot, which is the best part of the entire book and has not been in any adaptation that I’ve seen. That, and the Scarlet Pimpernel Fanmerchandise.
Girl, Interrupted Er, what? Watching the Token Saying Farewell at End of Movie scene was difficult for me though. Miss you guys.
Under Milk Wood. Um. I totally don’t remember all that random pointless narrator!sex being in the script. I think the play actually worked better live on a minimalist set. There’s just no way to visually do “the sleep of birds in Milk Wood” well, at least not if you can’t keep your lighting consistent. It kept bouncing around, like, sunrise! 9 am! 4 am! 9 am again! Still sunrise! Also the livestock bits (“Donkeys angelically drowse on Donkey Down”) made it seem like a documentary about Welsh farm animals. And Bessie Bighead is supposed to be a tragic character. I didn’t improvise heartbreaking music for comedy, damn it.
Snow White, the version with what’s-her-name from Smallville. It is less horrifically bad than I remember it being when it aired on television a few years ago. But only slightly.
The Little Mermaid. Unh. I forgot that this is Disney and therefore ends happily, and I kept waving my arms and yelling “No, no, bad idea!” and “Read the fine print, dammit!” and “He’ll only leave you in the end!”. Good songs though.
And then I went back out and bought pie.
ETA: Not the best picture, but: Phanokrates!
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-27 03:41 pm (UTC)Yeah, you can't watch Disney hoping for retellings of the actual fairy tales. But this is a very good thing. Do you know how traumatized children would be if the movies ended the same way as the original stories? They'd never recover. And Walt Disney was much less concerned with accuracy than with making children happy. And adults too, of course, if they were receptive.
I love "The Little Mermaid." Sebastian, Flounder and Scuttle are funny, and Rene Auberjonois does the voice of Louis the cook ("Les Poissons" is awesome), and Ursula is so, so evil. Not even the woman who voiced Maleficent and Cinderella's stepmother had a more sinister voice. And I think Maleficent is the scariest Disney villain.
As for Buffy, or what finally became the awesome tv show but is best forgotten in the process... I liked Donald Sutherland. But the rest of it... agggh. Especially vampires levitating. *eye roll*
no subject
Date: 2007-05-27 04:56 pm (UTC)Oh, THAT'S who he voices! I saw his name in the opening credits and flipped out with glee.