Thursday, October 1, 2009

"Life is short, and it's here to be lived."

Emma Thompson said that.^ I suppose I’ve fallen a little behind, no? Not that anything worth reporting has really happened. But. Um. . . it’s been pretty boring, because this is the point of the school year when everybody just falls into the rut of doing the same thing over and over and over and over, day after day after day after day. . . (That was an example of polysyndeton, for you English nerds out there like me. This is what I’ve learned in school.) I forgot over the summer how routine school is. I remember why I’m always ready for it to end now. I don’t particularly enjoy doing the same thing every day. I’m one that enjoys excitement and interesting things. Needless to say, school does not fall under either one of those categories.
However, we still have 30-something weeks left, so I suppose that means I’ll just have to suck it up and find something else to be excited about. . . . . . Like theatre! I’m in a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (by Andrew Lloyd Weber, so if you’ve seen any of his shows you know exactly what the music sounds like in this one) with a local community theatre group. This is my third show with them, and even though it’s often a bit disorganized, it’s always a blast and the people are just fantastic. They always make new people feel very welcome, even though everybody that’s done it before is a pretty close-knit group. I love theatre, particularly the non-musical variety. I love musicals, don’t get me wrong, but they’re much harder for me to get a part in because I’m much better at acting than at singing. But I love the idea of being on a stage and entertaining the people watching. I love getting on stage and having the lights be so bright in my face that I can’t see anything past the first row of the audience. And I love being in the center of attention in situations like these. Theatre is a great way to stay on one’s toes, because in theatre there’s no way to redo it. There's one chance and that's it. And when you mess up, the hardest thing (and the most interesting thing) is to pretend like it never happened and keep going. Part of acting is making everyone believe you know what you're doing even though you're clueless. That's what I love about it. My high school is also putting on Oliver! and I tried out and got into the chorus, but I'm not doing it because of Joseph. I think I might play in the pit orchestra, depending on when the practices are. I played in the pit last year when my school did Sweeney Todd, and that was a fantastically fun experience. So I might do it again this year since I can't actually be in the play. Performances for Joseph are in November, so practices haven't really started up completely yet. More on that when something happens. In completely unrelated news, Bert is still hanging around. He comes and goes when he pleases and eats lots of food. His foot is much better and he can put a little weight on it. He limps around on the table outside when he visits. There was some other random pigeon that showed up one day, but we never saw that one again, and we're not really sure what happened to Bernice. In more very unrelated news, Netflix is perhaps the most wonderful thing ever!!!! We've finally gotten it and I could spend hours just looking at movies on the website. My mom and I have already streamed a couple of movies to the computer that's hooked up to our TV and our queue is already up to 9 or 10 movies after 4 days. So far we've seen:
  1. Then She Found Me, which is this really random chick flick with Helen Hunt, Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick, and Colin Firth (we had to watch it because both Matthew Broderick and Colin Firth are in it). I really, really liked it. I usually don't like chick flicks that much because they're all the same. But this one was very different and particularly excellent.
  2. Murder by Death, a murder-mystery spoof by Neil Simon. It had a bunch of really old comdey actors in it like Peter Sellers (he played a Chinese guy, true to form), James Coco, and Peter Falk, and it also had Maggie Smith (whom you might recognize as Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter.), Elsa Lanchester (who was Katie Nanna in Mary Poppins; my mom and I had quite a debate over who she played. I was right.), and Truman Capote, who is a very, very strange man.
  3. Ed Wood, which I've been dying to see for quite a while, because I'm a HUGE fan of both Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. It was a very strange movie, but then, it was Tim Burton. I had no idea that Ed Wood (or Edward D. Wood, Jr.) was a real person, but he really was called "The Worst Director of All Time" and he really did have an obsession with angora sweaters. It was much darker than I expected, because Ed was good friends with Bela Lugosi and Lugosi had serious problems. But it was very, very excellent. I liked how Johnny Depp played Wood; think of how he played Willy Wonka and you've pretty much got it, only I liked Ed Wood better than Charlie. But he talked in a very similar way and he had that same sort of attitude.

So. That's what I've seen so far. Now I'm waiting on Psycho, because I have to watch it and write an article about it with my friend for the school newpaper. Hardship, I know. But seriously, I'm probably not going to feel safe in my shower for a while. But, anyway, I am very much enjoying Netflix.

So. . . That's really all I can report as of right now. ~ Snooty Crumb P.S. Sorry once again for the lack of pictures.

1 comment:

  1. Oh Snooty...you know how we love pictures!:)

    Keep on slogging through the school thing remembering better days are ahead!:) Time to start checking out colleges!!!:)
    xo

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