Les Miserables is Still My Favorite Musical

I went to see Les Miserables with my sister the other day, and I have to say, it was pure perfection. It was my favorite musical before the movie came out, and I'm proud to say, it still is. The movie made me favor it even more. It's just so hard to describe how happy it made me. I cried within the first three minutes of the first scene. I don't really know why, though, because nothing particularly sad or depressing happened right away.

I thought they cast the characters perfectly, even Cosette, who still remains to be one of my least favorite people, but she wasn't as annoying in the movie; Amanda Seyfried did an excellent job of depicting the sweet and innocent person Cosette is, but she didn't sugarcoat the role at all, and her voice wasn't too vibrato-y or annoying. in other words, she didn't make me want to puke. I was pleasantly surprised. Marius, whom I didn't like much either, has also climbed the ranks and joined my favorites. Eddie Redmayne is the actor who portrays Marius, and again, I was pleasantly surprised at how strong and soothing his voice is.

At first when I heard Hugh Jackman and Russel Crowe were cast as two of the main characters, I was a bit hesitant. Actually, it was more like, "Wait...they can sing?!" But they both did an outstanding job and the emotion of their characters shone through their singing. Colm Wilkinson, who was the first and original Jean Valjean, made a cameo appearance as the bishop who helps Valjean after he is released from prison. I think it's neat that, twenty-seven years after the first showing of Les Mis, he was able to remain a part of it.

The only part I didn't like is that my sister, who didn't even know the story before we went to the theater, thought she was an expert on the musical a day or two after we saw it. I find it highly annoying.

At any rate, it's worth it to go see it once...or twice... or three or four times...

Have a fantastic Friday, and a safe weekend!

Movies I'm Excited For

I am excited for many things this year. OK, mostly I'm excited for movies, but some of them look excellent.

First off, Les Mis is supposed to come out the 25th of December, I believe. The trailer looks phenomenal. I guess we won't know for sure until it actually comes out, but the trailer gave me shivers.
We played a Les Mis medley at one of our band concerts last year, and so I decided to watch the 25th anniversary concert on YouTube. I was hooked instantly. I planned on reading the book during the summer, but unfortunately, that didn't happen. I was happy to learn that the actress who played Eponine in the 25th anniversary concert, Samantha Barks, also plays Eponine in the movie. I still detest Cosette, though. I find her character annoying.

The other movie I'm excited for that hasn't come out yet is The Hobbit. I saw the trailer when I saw Life of Pi with my friends, and it looked outstanding. The actor (Martin Freeman) who plays Watson in the BBC show Sherlock plays Bilbo.A promotional campaign I've never seen before is a restaurant creating a menu based around a movie, but it happened at Denny's. I was at Denny's last week with my family, and they have a Hobbit-themed menu there. My whole family ordered off that menu. It was a good day.



I'm also excited to see the Lincoln movie and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, neither of which I have seen yet, but both are out in theaters already. My grandma saw Lincoln and liked it a lot, so I know it'll be a great movie.

Have a fantastic Friday night, and go see these movies! But try to read the book first before you see them!

NaNoWriMo is a Scary Thing

November is a lot of things, including National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. I told myself last year that I should do it this year, and I was going to do, but I didn't for a couple of reasons. 

1) It's intimidating. This sounds silly, I know, but other people can read your stories, and I don't want mine to suck. I know it's not the end of the world if someone (or everyone) thinks my novel is awful, but I just feel like there's a lot of pressure involved here. I feel like everyone else's novel will be super fantastic, and then there's mine, just sitting there...lonely and stinky...forever... 

2) November is almost over. By the time I decided to participate, it was already about a week or so into  November. I thought, "Yeah, I'll be able to catch up, I'll be fine." Which is true...if I'd actually started writing. It's not even that I had no ideas; I actually have several no-so-bad stories in my head. I just procrastinate. That, and life happens, you know? I guess I still have like, four days...

Now, don't get me wrong, the program is fantastic, and I think it's a great way to motivate people to write more, (I think there's prize money involved? I don't know for sure, but that tends to be a great motivator.) it's just really...scary.

Maybe I'll have enough courage to do it next year...or in the next three or four days...

Have a magnificent Monday!

 

Favorite Moments in History

I enjoy history quite a lot, especially the really random little tidbits. For example, Andrew Jackson apparently decided to have a cheese party at the White House. Just another reason why Andrew Jackson was a BA president. Maybe I actually did learn something in AP U.S. History...  
Anyway, here's a list of my favorite moments in history in no particular order:

1. The Caning of Charles Sumner  
Charles Sumner was an Antislavery Republican from Massachusetts. He had delivered a speech on whether Kansas should be admitted as a free state or not. Apparently, he decided to mock two of his fellow senators- Stephan Douglas of Illinois and Andrew Butler of South Carolina- basically saying they were jerks and shouldn't senators. Plus, they were Democrats. (That was probably part of his speech). The other senator from South Carolina, Preston Brooks, walked in during Sumner's speech. Brooks was so enraged at what Sumner was saying that he took  out his cane and started beating Sumner so much that he started to bleed profusely. Eventually, Brooks resigned and Sumner recovered from his flesh wound. Sumner went on to be a U.S. senator for the next eighteen years. Makes today's opposition tactics (mainly "threatening" to filibuster; don't threaten to, just do it!) pale in comparison, eh?

2. Andrew Jackson's Cheese Party

OK, first of all, Andrew Jackson liked to party a lot. In 1835, a farmer thought it was a Gouda idea to send the president 1,400 lb cheese wheel. Since President Jackson had no clue what to do with all that brie-licious cheese, he just left in the entrance hall for two whole years. Now our cheese expert of a president thought two years was plenty of time for the cheese to age. So, he did what any party-cheese-loving guy would do, and he opened the door to the public so they could eat some cheese, because having a half-ton of cheese is a grand reason to throw a party, right?. It was gone in two hours, and it left a grease stain the size of the moon on the White House carpet. Imagine how much WD-40 that took to remove the stain.

3. Newsboy Strike of 1899

This picture is actually from the recent Broadway production of Newsies, so what? The musical is based on the 1992 movie of the same name which is based off the newsboy's strike of 1899. It's 1899 and William McKinley is president of the United States of America. The Spanish-American war just ended, and there's been a slump in newspaper sales. So what do newspaper giants William Randolph Hurst and Joesph Pulitzer decide the best course of action is? Raising the prices of The New York Journal and The New York World clearly the best option here. Except, they didn't raise the consumer price, they raised the price the newsies had to buy it at. See, if you were selling newspapers in 1899 and you weren't hired by the newspaper company to do so, you had to buy your papers from the newspaper company and sell it on your own. If you didn't sell all of them, then you were out of luck because the newspaper company wouldn't buy them back. The newsies were poor enough already and thought this price raise was ridiculous in every way. The newsboys of New York banded together to strike against those pesky newspaper giants Pulitzer and Hurst to get them to drive the price back down. Pulitzer and Hurst refused to lower it, but they did agree to buy back any unsold papes the newsies had at the end of the day.

And now, for a musical number from the 1992 musical, Newsies!

4. Martin Luther Burns Papal Bull

Yes, I realize this isn't really a part of American history, but I never said it had to be, did I? Anyway, in Martin Luther's day, the Catholic church was doing things, like selling indulgences and doing church services in Latin. OK, so speaking in Latin isn't bad in and of itself ,but it was already a dead language by the Renaissance period, and only the church officials knew it anyway. Luther wasn't down with many of the practices of the church, so he wrote the 95 Theses and nailed them to the Wartburg Castle, which was a church. This would be the present day equivalent of posting an ad for private tuba lessons at Panera or Coburns, or it wasn't weird at all. Anyway, the pope caught wind of what Luther was up to, and he didn't like it, so he sent him a papal bull. Basically all it said was "Recant your teachings or you'll be excommunicated from the church." What was Luther's response to this? Burn it. It was his way of "sticking it to the man" and saying he wouldn't take back what he said. This is one reason why Luther is BA, because one does not simply burn a papal bull.

Also, here is a rap someone did about Martin Luther. I enjoy it a lot.

      
 Have a Super-Schmawesome Saturday!!

Life of Pi...and What Happened After.

Last night, my friends and I went to see Life of Pi. We've been stoked for this movie to come out because we read the book last year in our AP Language and Composition class, and we all really enjoyed it. Well, I didn't appreciate the ending very much, but the rest of the book was grand. The movie was phenomenal, but we got more than we bargained for.

Let me start at the beginning. My friends picked me up, and we thought our other friend, Sara, was following  us because she had no clue how to get to the theater. We looked for her a little bit, but we just decided to go to the movies. We were late for the previews, but somehow, Sara and the people in her car made it to the theater fine. Whatever. After the movie is done is when the real adventure begins.

We got into our cars, and my friend who was driving was like, "Hey, let's follow Sara!!". Here's the thing about Sara; she has no sense of direction whatsoever. So, she turned onto the freeway, which was in the complete opposite direction of the way we were supposed to be going. We decided it would be best to follow her and stop her; otherwise they'd end up somewhere in North Dakota, and they wouldn't even realize it. So we're on the freeway, and we pass Sara's car. We all wave at her like, "What are you doing?! You're going the wrong way!!!" she waved back, but we found out later she had no clue it was us.

Right now, you're probably thinking, "Why didn't you call them?" We did, but they didn't answer. We tried calling them again after we passed them and, this time, they answered.  We told them to take the next exit off the freeway, and we'd meet up with them later. Thing is, the next exit didn't come up for a long time. But when it did, we finally met up with them. We told Sara, "Just follow us back home, OK?"
About an hour later, everyone ended up home safe and sound.

The movie was really good, but if you go see it, read the book first!! There were parts that would be confusing if you hadn't read the book. So, do yourself a favor and read the book first.
You can read more about it here:
Life of Pi. Pie? Pi. Either way, It's Delicious.

Also, don't end up on the freeway like we did (unless that is the way to your house...).
And, if you  do go see it, you should see it in 3D. It was phenomenal.

Have a fun and fantastic Friday!!!

Break, Books, and Blogs (I Like Alliteration...Just Sayin'...)

I'm really excited. First of all, I don't have school for the rest of the week, secondly, Thanksgiving is on Thursday, and thirdly, I started another blog. I know. You're probably thinking, "But you just started this on. Why start another one?" Well, quite honestly, my new blog is different from this one.

I enjoy reading a lot, so I decided to make a blog where I can write about books, give my opinions and such. This blog I am writing on right now is more of a personal one where I can really write about anything. The other one is more literary related. Plus, I'm trying WordPress. Not that I like it better than Blogger, but I just wanted to have the experience with different sites, and how they work. There's nothing of too much importance there yet, but I plan to update it soon. Most likely tomorrow sometime, but that's not a guarantee. The link is in the side-bar thing, but I suppose I could add a link in this post, too.

My literary blog of semi-coolness. But probably not.

There. I hope you enjoy it, and check back soon for new posts there!

I hope the rest of your is Tuesday is terrific!!!

Talking Minnesotan

Watch this video. Yes, I realize it is 25 minutes long, but it is probably one of the best things I've seen in awhile. Pretty much, this video is about how to talk Minnesotan. You'd think it's a mock video, but it's not. Apparently, it first aired in 1992 on Twin Cities Public Television (TPT). My father even remembers watching it.

I love this video very much. Not only is it (semi) accurate, but it was made by Minnesotans who were essentially poking fun at themselves, and they were a-ok with that. The thing I love most, however, is the whole seriousness of it all. It's as if the host is trying to teach you Spanish or Mandarin Chinese or... Ojibwe, even. They treat it as if Minnesotan was a language all its own, which I suppose it sort of is.

I also enjoy that the title is "How to Talk Minnesotan". Not, "How to Speak Minnesotan", "Talk". Apparently, you may speak Dutch, you may speak Jawa, but you talk Minnesotan.

At any rate, I love this video. Please watch it, or at the very least, a part of it. And thank you to my brother for spending his time in the obscure corner of YouTube. I prefer the educational corner, but to each his own.

Have a bright and marshmallow-marvelous Monday!

Narnia (Camp) is Where the (My) Heart Is,or "We're All Mad Here"

I miss camp. That sounds really lame, but there's something you need to understand. I've been going to the same camp since I was six years old. I love everything about it. I love meeting new people, and really, the whole summer camp experience in general.

Summer camp has always held a special place in my heart. It's my "Narnia", if you will. Whenever I tell someone about how awesome it is and how much fun I have there, the person I'm talking to never fully understands how much I love camp, or how special it is to me,or why I miss it so much. People like my sister  or my camp friends, however, know exactly what I mean when I say, "I miss camp!" They know how much it hurts to be away from "home", and it truly is my home away from home. I remember the first year I joined marching band, I told my friends, "I don't know,I'll have to think about it and see when I'm going to camp" and I distinctly remember one of my friends saying, "Easy. Just don't do camp." I was about ready to smack him in the face because no one, I repeat no one, talks about camp like that. I don't just "not go to camp" one summer, that's out of the question.

Just like Peter Pevensie struggles with the fact he's not a king in the real world, it's hard to come to grasps with the real world when I'm not at camp. At camp, I can be as ridiculous as I want,and no one would think I'm one bit crazy, because everyone is mad at camp. Not necessarily to the degree the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland is, but let's be honest; you have to be a least a tiny bit insane to go to camp in the first place. But when I come back from camp, there's suddenly so much more to worry about. I have to balance between marching band, chores, and who-knows-what-else. I have to be quiet and rational. Apparently, breaking out into random bursts of "I Have Been Chosen," or, "Froggy" is not socially acceptable.

I've been having a bunch of weird dreams about camp lately. That's how I know when I miss camp the most is when I dream about it the most. There's one I remember very specifically from a few years ago that was particularly strange. It was probably the most terribly horrific dream I have experienced. I was at camp (given), and someone had given me a French horn. Of course, I was extremely excited because I love French horns a lot. However, this one did not work at all. And I was so sad, I started to cry. There was also a clown present for some unexplained reason. He was probably there to bother me because I have a strong disliking for clowns. And the person who gave me the horn was laughing at me because I was attempting to play a horn he knew would not work. It was traumatic.

Anyway...

The dream I had the other night was more normal than the previous dream I described. My friends and I were hanging out, and we were having a grand old time. That's what made me realize what I miss the most about camp: all the friends I've made throughout the years. I really hadn't made any lasting friendships at camp when I was a camper, mostly because I was only there for a week, and I never saw any of them again. Except for, of course, my friends who went to camp with me, but I guess that doesn't really count because we went to school together. Actually, I don't think I ever went to camp alone until my sophomore year in high school. The reason for that is, my freshman year in high school, I became a Youth Servant Leader (YSL). Apparently, this position is the equivalent of what other camps call a "CIT" or a "Junior Counselor" or whatever. Anyway, my freshman year, I met a bunch of really cool, enthusiastic people, who were just like me. When I came back the next year, a bunch of the same people I met the previous year came back. It's like we're a family. No, we ARE family. And I wouldn't have it any other way.