Ok! I'll Attend the Tale!!

So...a review. To clarify, this is a semi-joint review: a review of the movie (based on a musical) and the original cast recording (of a revival of the original musical).

Anyway.....Sweeney Todd. (quick synopsis borrowed from here: "A barber who slits people's throats has a neighbor who makes meat pies....... you do the math.")
I have to say, I didn't expect to like it that much. I knew my best friend really liked it, and my tastes usually coincide, but in this instance, I thought....well, never mind with what I thought. I think I LOST my train of thought... (haven't had my cup of tea yet this morning.) Spoilers probably follow.

So ANYWAY again....my friend gave me the soundtrack, but because I hate listening to showtunes without knowing the story, I put the movie on hold at the library. Because I'm in a scatter-brained mood, I'll do this part of the movie review list-like:
CON: Blood....for some of the more....let's say, 'dramatic' scenes, I just closed my eyes. Yes, I know the subject matter, but Tim Burton didn't need to be THAT graphic.
PRO: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Alan Rickman. They each were AMAZING in their roles, and they all sang very well, I thought.
CON: They didn't use the Ballad of Sweeney Todd and all its reprises!!! That song was an integral part of explaining what the musical was really about!! (but more on that later)
PRO: Costumes, make-up, and overall look of the movie I thought fit very well with the story and characters.

Moving on from the movie to the music and show in general, it really has grown on me. Yes, it's dark, but it's dark for a reason. Sweeney Todd was motivated to slit throats because he wanted to avenge the supposed death of his wife. Yet ironically, in getting his "revenge" he actually kills his wife! We can despise Sweeney or pity him, but we are not immune to what led him to such dark deeds. Just as the Ballad said, "Perhaps today you gave a nod to Sweeney Todd" and "To seek revenge may lead to hell, but everyone does it if seldom as well."

If I had anything else to say about this subject, I forgot what it was, so I'll just leave y'all with two of my favorite songs from the musical, one version from the original cast the other from the movie. Enjoy!

Award? Really?

The most delightful Q passed on the Kreativ Blogger award to me!!

The Rules
1. Kopy the Kreativ Blogger picture and post it on your page
2. Thank the person who gave it to you and link back to their blog
3. Write seven things about you that we don't know
4. Choose seven other bloggers that you would like to give the award to
5. Link to the bloggers that you choose
6. Let the winners know that they have the lovely award.

Seven things you may or may not know about me:
1. I have waaaay too many books I need to read on my shelf for un-read books. I also have waaaaay too many books I'm borrowing that I haven't even started reading yet.
2. I think the three ideal literary men are Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre, Faramir from Lord of the Rings, and Colonel Brandon from Sense and Sensibility. Despite my preferences for those gentlemen, they are each taken, so my boyfriend is Racer X. Really.
3. Despite some drama that has gone on (so to speak), I love my theater immensely and have some awesome friends I've made through it that I want to stay close to the rest of my life.
4. I wasn't even done with my first stage managing stint before I was asked to stage manage again. Go figure.
5. Because of my techie status these past couple months, I took the advantage to go nuts with my hair again and have dyed it and messed with it at least four times.
6. I love editing pictures.
7. I am a paradox.

All right, time for the real fun. I pass this award to:

Costume Queen
I thoroughly enjoy her posts about her theater happenings.

Miss Erin at Backstage Musings
Who is actually in a MOVIE.

PMF Superman
Who needs to post more often....(*mutter, grumble, facebook, mutter grumble*)

Kendra Logan
Who has two blogs, each is awesome.

Emily, previously known as MismatchedSockGirl
Always a pleasure to read.

Bethany
Whose randomness is a delight.

Vicki over at Lessons From the Phantom of the Opera
Who has actually published a book of her musings.

Once again, many thanks to Q for such a lovely award, and I hope to have inspiration for more posts now that the Foreigner is over. Farewell for now!

A Post About Theater! No, Hair! No, Piano! No, EJC! No, ALL of Them!!!

I find myself in the same position as last time...I really want to post, but nothing interesting comes to mind.... With all the rehearsals and stuff I've been doing, whenever I do have an idea for a post, I'm busy, but whenever I want to post, I have no ideas....
Well, I guess I'll discuss
The Foreigner...
We have a trap door device now!!! Yes...I am happy. No longer does our Ellard have to yell, "Aah!" then just climb into the hole. Now we have this thing that I have to pre-pump, stick a crate on, then kick off as he's coming down so that there's room for him. This week I'm not supposed to let the actors call line anymore, so this should be...interesting. The Foriegner is a really difficult line memorizing play because many of the lines are, "What?" "Uh-huh" "Charlie!" "Ril good!" "Yes'm." and things like that.
Let's see...what other topics can I discuss....
Hair...
I finally got the tips of my hair dyed purple, yay!!! After the...let's see...fifth attempt over the past year??
Piano...I'm getting better! ("No, you're not! You'll be stone dead in a moment.") Showtunes and Titanic music are basically all I've learned so far by the way of pieces. Well...I take that back. I'm *attempting* to learn My Immortal, but I've only learned the easy last page...
Film....
OH! Film! Right.... New EJC film up called

The Balcony Scene.

One of our sillier films, I must say, which serves to answer the question what if there were no trellices or vines for Romeo to climb on? What will he resort to? Yes...this film is the second in our Stream of Consciousness Unscripted Film Series. We bascially made this film because we walked past that area and my friend said, (paraphrasing) "Hey! How's this for a film idea? Romeo and Juliet balcony scene in which Romeo makes a fool out of himself trying to get up there!"

Hmm...while I'm shamelessly promoting our films, I may as well shamelessly promote our best past films.
So here they are:
Outwitted ~quite possibly our best film
Eye of the Beholder ~our attempt at a mystery/thriller (the director has a thing for Shyamalan/Hitchcock type endings...I don't understand it.)
The Fireman Song ~parody of the Lumberjack Song with a Fahrenheit 451 theme
A Film About Amnesia ~basically what it is. This film was inspired by my saying, "We should really do a film about amnesia." The silliness that is this film resulted.

And while I'm on the subject of EJC, I can shamelessly tease our upcoming films! Next on the schedule we plan to shoot a parody type film about a film crew who shoots vignettes of musicals. But you know with EJC there has to be more than that... It feautures the return of the Famous Producer!
After that, we plan to shoot a sequel to Eye of the Beholder, which is still in the script writing phase, so I'm not at liberty to reveal anything.

Well...I feel that y'all can only take so much of Lady Brainsample being so random, so I will depart...Dancing with the Stars calls to me....

Theater Exploits and Sequels on Mini-Review Day

So I wanted to post something profound...or intelligent...or along those lines. But nothing of that sort came to me. Instead I've been drowning in the prop list for the Foreiegner. Ah, yes. I've been sort of absent from the blog world as of late, so I haven't mentioned the news. I am stage managing my very first play! It has been completely awesome for many reasons, but one of the more humorous ones has to do with my age... See, I'm the second youngest person in the cast/crew (the only younger person being the sound operator) yet I get to boss around (nicely, of course...) a bunch of adults. It's awesome...

Books...
I have read and finished three sequels, so on Lady Brainsample's Mini Review Day, I'll discuss sequels in the Hunger Games series, Oracles of Fire series, and Ender's Game series.

.

Bones of Makaidos: Took me a while to get into, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. Bryan Davis tied up all the loose ends I can think of from the series very well.

Catching Fire: Took me in on the first page and kept me in its clutches to the very end. Very, very frustrating ending because it completely sets itself up for the next one, but very enjoyable nonetheless.

Children of the Mind: I really love how after Ender's Game and the Shadow series, Orson Scott Card focused less on action and more on character and philosophy. But...(spoilers follow) Ender dead?? What?!?!?! And how can this be the conclusion when there are so many other things that need to be explained such as whatever happened to Bean and his kids? Orson Scott Card takes too long in writing....

With all: I highly recommend reading each of the previous books in the series before taking on either of these books, especially for Bones. Each of them are great series, so it's worth reading them all.

Final bit of news: two new EJC films up. One of them made to showcase my friend with an amazing Gollum voice, the other completely unscripted to showcase each of my dear friends who play the piano very well.
Without further ado, presenting

Gollum's Present (the Remake)
and
Piano Problems

PURPLE!!!!!

So....I'm in total geek out mode right now because of these:

Click here for the best part!!!!