Rich has gone to work today!!!

Now I can tra la la and enjoy my last day in California...

I wonder if mama has a duffel bag i can borrow...let's go find out, shall we?

We finally saw Princess and the Frog!

And guess what?

It was really good, yay!

Had lots of pretty parts
Had good songs
Had parts where I definitely laughed
Had parts where I ALMOST cried...

And had interesting plot developments and interesting characters!


Bradach liked it too!!
(Athrylis also liked it, but she had already seen it...she liked it again)


Regarding Rich:

So it turns out he just, like, ISN'T going to work this week, or something, I guess...
Which is the dumbest thing ever.
Mama was WAY too sick to drive home yesterday (which she did anyway).
She had a fever of 102 and her family all said she should stay in bed and leave the next day, rather than driving eight hours when she had a fever...
But she said no, no, we can go home, because she was under the impression that Rich had to go to work on Monday.

WELL, it turns out that the real reason that Rich wanted to get home was that he thought he would go Skiing by himself instead of go to work today.
He wanted to go skiing. He got his boots already.
(He would have been going by himself. He never invites anyone else skiing with him. He would have just expected mama to stay with Bradach, with her 100 degree fever)

But as it turned out, his BACK hurt too much to go skiing today...
...even though he didn't do any of the driving, he just rode in the passengers seat
With nothing in his lap or on his legs
Mama drove
And those of us (three) in the backseat were holding our dog Tobi on our laps the entire way...
And Bradach, mama, Athrylis, AND myself all felt near to throwing up at some point during the drive because WE were all actually ill...

For some reason, RICH is the one who is feeling sore today, so he did not go skiing after all, so he was in the house the entire day (save for twenty minutes when he drove to the post office)


...we leave this house tomorrow, and it will hopefully be an entire year until I have to talk to him again.

...why isn't Rich at work?

It's 10:36 on a Monday.
Why isn't he at work?

I only ask because I formed a direct correlation between the fact that I didn't get to go to Disneyland yesterday and the fact that Rich would have work on Monday. So I ask again.


Why isn't he at work?

Oh, I also ask because I'd like to be able to go up and hang out with mama and Bradach in the living room at some point today, which would be made a lot less unpleasant with his exiting it.

I have been waiting for about 4 years for this miniseries to be made and subbed in English, and now it is here! (Albeit my диск is defective and needs to be returned. I have still been able to watch several episodes.)

In the main, I am very impressed. The obvious point of comparison is the 1968 film, which is played much higher, much more theatrically. This new series is enormously understated in comparison, and there are good and bad things about that. Good: it feels very realistic and lacks the "silent movie" emoting of Pyriev's film. Bad: at worst, there is a loss of emotion, inflection, and even style that still makes Pyriev's film so fantastic.

A brief breakdown of the characters:

Dmitri: very good (very cute). He strikes a nice balance in being frenetic without being as theatrically stylized as his 1968 version.

Ivan: No one can compare with Ivan in the above icon. Sure, he was too for the role, but his mix of humor, seriousness, cool, and raving was perfect for the role. Now, in the new mini, I have not yet seen most of Ivan's big moments, but so far, he is falling flat. He has a tough act to follow.

Alyosha... should not make me think of Yagami Soichiro from the live action Death Note. Between the two of them, they have two facial expressions. I am disappointed, and I figure it's not the actor; it's the directing. It's always the directing. People do not know how to present Alyosha in the same way they don't know how to present Ophelia. These characters are not stereotypes; they are complex. But with William Shatner, we got nothing but "I am a severe monk staring at you severely." With this fellow, we get nothing but "I am a virtuous monk looking a little dippy and confused." I hate to say it, but 1968 Alyosha is winning, in spite of his silent movie big-eye emoting ("OMG, you mentioned a strumpet!" and now I will fall comically headlong in the grass to exciting music of spiritual distress). At least he had more than one expression.

Papa Karamazov is bewilderingly young (as are many of these people - is this a Hollywoodizing thing?). He is very good, less histrionic than 1968 Papa, who was also very good. He conveys a real person who is an absolute dick yet also has real feelings, some intelligence, and sometimes thinky thoughts.

Smerdyakov keeps looking less comic with every adaptation, which is right and proper. This fellow is fine. He comes off as intelligent and put upon and entirely primed to be a murderer.

The women in general are much better in the mini than in the 1968 film. Both Grushenkas are awesome; 1968 Grushenka seemed older; 2009 Grushenka really could be 22, a self-made woman with hard years behind her but still very young and filled with adolescent passion.

Katya is actually likable in the mini, unlike her very annoying 1968 counterpart, who said everything way too fast and way too haughtily; 2009 Katya seems to be trying so hard to be good, which is exactly Katya's virtue and vice.

Lise! Lise exists, and that puts her 100% ahead of any other Lise I have (not) seen. Not only that, but she is a perfect cast: weird, outspoken, odd-looking, juvenile, yet extremely complicated and smart. She is Lise; it's just a damn shame she doesn't have a better Alyosha opposite her.

I am proud of this series. I am proud of it for making a 45-minute episode consisting of almost nothing but one scene of some guys in a room grilling a guy about the details of whether he killed his father. I didn't think they made TV like that anymore, even in Russia. All in all, the series is pleasantly true to the book. I look forward to seeing all of it when I get my discs replaced.

We are in Mama's now

Things are better here

Something is making my nose run and my eyes water. What?? Is there something oniony around here?

I spent some time over the last few days wondering whether I am becoming allergic to dogs...
But there might be something else wrong. My throat looks terrible, one way or another.

We watched Yellow Submarine.

Lots of love from Angelica

( Reaction post for 'The End of Good Writing I MEAN Time, Part 1.' Warning: I did not like it, and this is not nice. )

Ugh. I'm so angry. I'm going to go watch some "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" (lskdj;alr Corynn got me season 2 on DVD for Christmas. My friends know what I like, and what I like is naked Billie Piper) so I don't get angry. ("Piderman, why did you get green?" "AAAH! ...I don't like cereal anymore.")

So uh, in other news, I did actually ask out the cute guy at work. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure he thought I was joking. It's hard to explain since the whole thing was based on an inside joke that we have going on, but we were talking on Christmas Eve and he goes "Man, you're always breaking up with me!" So I was like "Aw, ok, I'm sorry. Would you...like to maybe go out sometime?" And he said "Haha, yeah," and then it was awkward for a while and we went back to talking. Ahahahaha I clearly win at everything. Not sure where to go from here -- I want to get him alone and be like "So, I was actually serious about maybe going out sometime," but with my luck he doesn't remember me saying that and the whole thing will get ten times more awkward. I DON'T KNOOOOW.

And in other OTHER news, I got a camera today. YAAAAAAY. I've only needed a new one for a million years now. It is a Canon Powershot and so far it seems lovely, though it still doesn't take pictures as quickly as I'd like. I have no life, so so far all I've photographed is my cat, but nevertheless enjoy his prettiness:

( Mika Mika Mika. )

We are watching poirot.

And such.

Athrylis will finish this entry:

I wanna watch Poirot right now. It's a very intriguing one, and we're just getting to the part where Poirot will tell us who did it and why and how.

Meanwhile Bradach is naughty and Rich is unmanageable.

So... nothing unusual. Even at Christmas.


Edit from Angelica: The poirot turned out to be horrible in the last twenty minutes. Nothing made sense and the characters didn't act the way we thought they would, and nothing was really explained...so we looked it up on IMDB and all the comments said that the movie was faithful to the book...up to the last twenty minutes, where in they literally changed people's familial relationships (made one character another's mother), made one man promiscuously gay, made one character recklessly suicidal, and made two characters switch places with each other so that the one who should have lived died, and the one who was supposed to be the bad girl turned out to be innocent. Gee, NO WONDER it made no sense...

The latest issue of Newsweek (Dec. 28-Jan 4) beautifully encapsulates the bizarro parallel universe of American politics I find myself puzzling today. Time was, I knew what was going on: the “evil” people (about 80% in the Beltway) were in charge, and then there were a few, like Kucinich and, yes, Obama, quietly crying sensible things into the wind. Now, I’m inhabiting a county where “health care reform” means forcing Americans to pay exorbitant amounts of money to private corporations (a plan Reagan Republicans would have joyously rubbed their hands over), and its imminent passage is hailed as a “Democratic victory,” whilst the Republicans rail that the plan is far too liberal???...?

( Read more... )

Happy Gauda Prime Day! And thanks to sallymn for her excellent fic, which reminded me. I tried to remember GP Day last year but forgot, so now I have made up for it:)

It was good

Now I am tired and lacking in...brain.


Maybe more on this later when I am feeling less -__-

Thank you to everyone who came and performed

It snowed! Or, rather, is still snowing. A lot. It started in the wee hours of the morning (and I know, because I was awake -_-) and it's supposed to continue well into the night. I think they're saying 12-20 inches? Par for the course in Oberlin, but certainly not in south Jersey. Wow. White Christmas ahoy!!

Speaking of Oberlin -- I got an email today with some more information for the coming semester. I'm apparently in Johnson 103. I spent about 5 minutes going "WAIT WTF IS JOHNSON I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THAT" before I figured out that it's Hebrew Heritage House. Awesome! It's honestly a little farther from the "heart" of campus than I'd like to be (all my classes last year were within a block and a half of my dorm, and my dining hall was right across the street), but it's not like being in Tank or Firelands or anything. I'm slightly concerned because the e-mail mentioned nothing about a roommate (or rather, said "Your roommate(s), if applicable: [blank]"). I did specifically request a double, preferably a divided double. Not because I like sharing my space (quite the opposite), but having people all up in my grill does actually force me to present some kind of normal facade on my life. Which I guess I sort of need. So I'll have to look into this.

It's really only kind of hitting me now that in thirteen days, David Tennant will no longer be the Doctor. I know it may be stupid to be upset about that, but there you go. I just...I really adore him in that role. He's meant so, so much to me over the past two and a half years (which is when I started watching) and I'm going to miss him more than I care to admit. I'll admit, I'm scared about the regeneration scene. It's going to hurt me.

Uhh ok loser much Carolyn?

I've been in a huge funk for the past three or four days. Can't seem to shake it. All I do is sit around and cry and feel like the worst person in the world. But that's for another entry, or maybe not for any entry ever because no one wants to hear all that.

As you have probably gotten from my posts

So excited for our concert tomorrow!!!!! :-o

Taylor and a2 and I played together today and it was totally decent


So who's going???

I am really hoping that someone in the audience will be able to get videos and/or pics, but I dunno, I am just hoping someone will!!

Eeeeee

We have lots of practicing still to do tomorrow. Lotsa.

LOTSA.

...and we're gonna get sushi.

Because I really enjoy making these.

The Omega Factor: it is the My Dinner with Andre of paranormal science fantasy--and I mean that as a compliment. It consists largely of people sitting in rooms having deep, very naturalistic conversations... about ghosts and psychic murder. I have only seen the first two episodes, but I am enjoying it. It's nice that in 1979, the BBC was able to make shows that have 5-minute long conversation scenes and dwell for a full minute over a guy going into his flat, putting on quiet music, and sitting there doing absolutely nothing. For all it is supposed to be spooky, I find it very restful. In fact, it may well be a cure for ADHD.

And I do find our hero, Tom, compelling. I'm glad that his wife's death is not just a ploy to make him look sympathetic but actually has long-term meaning in the series (including the presence of her ghost). Louise Jameson scored a better role with Leela, but if she has to play sidekick again, she could have done much worse.

District 9: After Joel (a.k.a. Elek) praised this film to high heaven, I got Boyfriend to kindly show it to me. It is very depressing--and I mean that as a compliment too. As an allegory of the treatment of refugees (and other undesirables, and, indeed, anyone who can be exploited for profit or stands in the way of it), it rings brutally true. The way you can't find a single "good" person, the pervasiveness of the "dehumanizing"; it's all common. And it's not, of course, because the individuals involved aren't "good" at home with their friends and families or in a myriad other circumstances. It's just that power corrupts, and when you routinely give someone the power of life and death over someone else (whether that power stems from directly from a gun or from "national security protocols"), they will treat that someone as a slave. It's such basic human nature that it's rather amazing that thousands of years of civilization haven't taught us to avoid those social constructions. And yet, what else can you do, for example, with a large influx of refugees who don't speak the language, don't know the culture, don't have money, don't have jobs or relevant skills? You can't immediately assimilate them. What an you do but place them in a camp? Place them in several camps? Maybe look for volunteers to put them up as individual families. (That's the best solution I can think of, and indeed, one that was used when our family's Afghan friends fled to the US in 1980.) Scary movie.

Part one: Waaah, scotto and I are having a fight. About things that we consider important. Those are the worst kind. I really hope we make up tonight, because if we do, I will get to see him tomorrow.

Part two: CONCERT COMING UP GAAAH SO NERVOUS!

I didn't go to seattle today after all so I didn't get to see torrey.

Fooey fooey fooey stupid angelica.

Also I don't even think it's raining out there.

FOOEY!

ALSO there is this class that (oddly enough) fits into my schedule and cinema majors guy recommended we add, but I can't register for it because it's friggin---I have holds on my account because I owe the school money!

Well excuuuuuuuuuuuse me, school! ...I don't have money!



Grumble grumble grumble disappointments everywhere grumble

At least I THINK that's what's going on.

I keep just sitting around and staring into space and thinking I should be doing something. Or nothing. Or not wanting to do anything.
And I keep looking at my phone and checking and re-checking my email even though he TOLD me a list of all the things he had to do today and TOLD me he probably wouldn't have time to talk to me until tomorrow...even though I know all that I just keep checking and rechecking.

I leave tomorrow for seattle, at least I plan to, and instead of cleaning and getting my stuff together, I keep just flopping around...and watching episodes of Next Gen.

I miss my boy.

And then of course, I feel like the world's whiniest whiner!
There are several people on my friendlist who have lovers who are actually VERY far away from them for significant periods of time!!!!!
I mean, look at Jovanie right now in Disneyworld!
What about Vixy, with fishy so far away?
My room mate becca's boyfriend lives in Utah for cryin' out loud.

I am certainly in no position to be Whiney, no sir!! It's been what? About one day?!
I have just gotten spoiled from him being one 20 minute straight shot bus ride away.

Maybe it will only be a few days til I see him. Blah...
Either way, I must try and enjoy getting to see my good sweet seattle friends!
Winter vacation this year is and shall be fabulous.

And I will try and do SOME sort of packing before I pass out tonight...