EJC's most ambitious project to date is finally complete!!! What starts off to be a serious filming of Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again soon turns into a fiasco in this two-part piece featuring the return of the Famous Producer, Les Mis, Phantom of the Opera, and lots of humor!
Enjoy!!
EDIT: My films are filmed in widescreen, so they may show up squashed on the blog. Clicking again on the video to view it directly on youtube is recommended.
In other news, whilst accomplishing the above project, we finally had the Official EJC convention, which was the first time that all of the current members had ever gotten all together. We also got a cool picture....
Well, recently I had the amazing privilege of seeing The Phantom of the Opera live on stage, and there are many words that come to mind to describe it: amazing, fantastic, gripping, tragic, beautiful. But a review that just describes something in such pithy undescriptive tones would be boring, so I'll try to think better ways to relay my awesome experience. As always, spoilers are a constant presence, so beware. Also seeing the musical makes me even more suspicious of the sequel, as I posted about earlier.
Times I cried in the whole show: four.
Three times in Act 1 and once in Act 2, though that time was rather...extensive, we'll say.
Favorite scenes:
Chandelier going up:
We were in the mezzanine, so we had a spectacular view of the chandelier and how it ascended from the stage, over the heads of the orchestra pit and people in the first few rows, then all the way up the theater.
When Christine and Meg were singing Angel of Music:
The ballet chorus girls kept making hilarious mistakes. There is always the constant question of whether art imitates life or life imitates art: I think in this case, art imitates life because I've made many of the same silly mistakes those girls have made when dancing.
Title song:
Ohhh......my.........gosh...... There are no words sufficient enough to describe this scene. This one in my mind was the thing I had anticipated the most, and it did not disappoint. Think of how the movie version had an elaborate set, then stuff it down to moving platforms, fog, candles that come out of the stage, moving boat, and the Phantom himself. With a hat! I'm so used to the movie, I always forget that he has an awesome hat in the musical. Add to that the music itself and the actors singing it, and... ugh! I'm flabbergasted trying to explain, so I'll just move on... Well wait, before I go on I have to say something: I was obsessed with Spamalot before I was obsessed with many other Broadway musicals, Phantom being one of them. But seeing "Phantom of the Opera" (individual song) on stage made me completely get how brilliant "The Song that Goes Like This" was in parodying it in its staging. I don't think I'll ever be able to choose my favorite musical.... It's either Spamalot, Phantom of the Opera, or Les Miserables...such a decision...but moving on.
Music of the Night:
Rocked. His high light note literally made me and a friend I was seeing it with gasp in amazement.
All I Ask of You and its Reprise:
This Raoul actually wasn't annoying! It's amazing how this has happened two times in a row... the Lovesick Tenor in love with the Main Soprano usually never fails to annoy in movie versions or soundtracks. In both Les Mis and Phantom, their Marius/Raoul and Cosette/Christine were not completely annoying!
Phantom lowered down on the statue: completely amazing.
And of course, the Chandelier Crash.
Really, it crashes. Right back onto the stage. And it rocked.
Past the Point of No Return to the end:
I'm really coming up with nothing descriptive that wouldn't completely ruin the musical for someone who hasn't seen it, so I'll just say this: it made me cry pathetically.
Overall, I had an incredible time, and I was so blessed in that I got to see it with some of my dearest friends and family, which made the time even more amazing.
To leave y'all, here is the condensed title song and Music of the Night as performed in the Tony Awards in 1988, by Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman, the original Phantom and Christine. This'll give you a tiny taste of the awesomeness of the set, especially the title song.
Ok, a mini-speech... I always find it interesting how as an actor, I've always been taught never, Never, NEVER to turn my back on the audience, yet in shows like Les Mis and Phantom, there are times when a performer has his back on the audience for long stretches of time... I just find that amusing...
For the first time in my life, I'm not angsty and depressed the day after an audition. Why you ask should I ever be angsty and depressed the day after an audition? I'm glad you asked. Normally, after an audition day, I have to wait at LEAST a week to find out if I made it/what part(s) I got.
Consider my Annie audition. That was a week and a half ago, yet I'm still not supposed to find out until Friday, almost two weeks after I auditioned. This has resulted in a refusal to listen to any of the Annie music and a need for chocolate. So why am I so happy? We're supposed to find out about My Fair Lady auditions TOMORROW. Hence my mental thought process for the title. I auditioned yesterday, but I find out tomorrow. So now that I have that ecstatic announcement out of the way, I can actually talk about the auditions.
The Annie audition, I think, could have been better than it was. But that's because the stupid karaoke track for Little Girls messed me up. (Jr. adaptations often cut the songs in a weird way) Other than that, it went great. I read for Miss Hannigan more than once and read for Grace more than once. I think I'm more likely to get Grace, mainly because out of the three teenage girls there, (this was a "kid's" production) I was the only one who put Grace as my second part to audition for.
My Fair Lady....I have only one regret about that audition in the way of temperature. I should have worn my sweater the whole time, but no. So I was shivering while singing Wouldn't It Be Loverly and I Could Have Danced All Night. I read two scenes as Eliza, and I was among the people they asked to do the high G from the end of Danced All Night. (I didn't squeak, woo hoo!!!) Despite such a great audition, I don't think I'll get Eliza, but I'm perfectly ok with it. I didn't expect to be able to audition for her in the first place, especially because I haven't done anything with this theater before, and there were people there that I think were better than I was in the singing department.
So there you have it. Within two days I will know my fate for both musicals, and through that, the fate of my summer.
EDIT: I got in to My Fair Lady! They had the cast list in ONE DAY!!!!! That is unheard of!! I'm just a chorus, but with a show like My Fair Lady, I'm sure I'll have plenty to do. I'm really excited...
"Music and silence, how I detest them both. The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end. But I admit we are not yet loud enough, or anything like it. Research is in progress. Meanwhile you, disgusting little-
[Here the MS. breaks off and is resumed in a different hand.]
In the heat of composition I find that I have inadvertently allowed myself to assume the form of a large centipede."
This is a book that all C.S. Lewis fans should read. It's far different from any of his other books (at least, the ones I've read) The whole book is a series of letters from Screwtape, a senior demon, written to his nephew Wormwood who is a young tempter. Thoughout the book, Screwtape corrects his nephew's naive or misguided attempts to keep his Patient from Heaven. Shortly into the book, the Patient becomes a Christian. This is atrocious is Screwtape's eyes, but all it does is cause him to suggest different tactics to win the Patient over to "Our Father Below."
The only other thing I have to say is that I wish I could find the version read by John Cleese on sale somewhere...
PS I got the main actor I wanted for the upcoming project. Hmmm....I need a secret name for it. Here we go: Bookmark of Doom. Right. So I have my leading actor for Bookmark of Doom, and as soon as we get our agents together, we should have a schedule for principal photography.
Tasha lives! She can dance and sing because she took the PSAT today, and thinks she did pretty well on it! Even though we won't get scores back until December, I'm counting 51 as a completed goal now, because, as Dad said, "It's no use talking about anymore until December." Thank goodness...
I finally can read for real again! And just in time, cause Erustan lent me Inkdeath, which just came out! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the cover.
On the 101 front, I changed some of my stuff because alot of the goals were really vague...so if you see me complete a goal you didn't realize was there, it probably wasn't.
Scholastically, today has been a great day. I took a practice PSAT and got 80 and 73 on the reading and writing. Only downside to that is a 54 in math.
Also, I finished last year's math...yeah, finally....
~
I have a completed goal because of my awesome acting class right now. I now have two more audition monologues that I didn't have before. One from An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde, and one from Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte.
~
Final piece of news, I got my copy of Eternity's Edge this past week, and it is AMAZING so far. I'll try to have a review on it as soon as I finish.
~
Yes, I know my picture has nothing to do with anything in the post, but I put it because it shows how I feel right now...very, very happy.
The book was fantastic. Yes, I was biased in favor of it before I read it because I'm a huge fan of the movie. (still haven't seen the musical yet!)
Gaston LeRoux begins by saying, "The Opera ghost really existed. He was not, as was long believed, a creature of the imagination of the artists, the superstition of the managers, or a product of the absurd and impressionable brains of the young ladies of the ballet, their mothers, the box-keepers, the cloak-room attendants or the concierge. Yes, he existed in flesh and blood, although he assumed the complete appearance of a real phantom; that is to say, of a spectral shade."
The story that follows is LeRoux's investigation as a journalist that proves the Phantom (Erik) really existed. As in the movie, the story really kicks off with the arrival of two new managers who must abide by Erik's "house rules" which include Box 5 reserved for him and a salary of 20,000 francs. The managers staunchly believe that it is a joke by the previous managers and refuse to pay Erik or reserve the box.
Many tragedies and incidents take place over the course of the book, roughly matching the movie. Madame Giry plays the same part, but there are other characters such as the Count Chagny himself (not Raoul, his elder brother) and the mysterious Persian who play no part in the movie.
Another thing that was interesting to me was the higher stakes at the end. If Christine didn't choose Erik, not only would Raoul and the Persian die in his torture chamber, but the whole opera house would get destroyed in a rigged explosion.
Alas, I will not give away the end, though some of you can guess it if you've seen the movie.
Poll results: My Lost poll got nowhere......four people voted that I should make a separate blog for my Lost stuff, but four other people voted that I should keep it all together.....if anyone who voted or hasn't voted cares to expound on his opinion on the subject, please leave a comment.
My "would you rather" poll had quite a large margin. NINE people voted that they would rather write a bestselling book, as opposed to three who wanted to be in a movie, three who wanted a record label cd, and two who wanted a successful theater career. Again, anyone wishing to expound on their vote, please leave comments!
101 business....I've decided to change my classic movies thing. I will still watch fifty classics, but alot of times I don't have much to say on a movie except that I like it....so I'll review it if I particularly like or dislike it, but if it's a moderate like, I probably won't go into it at all.
So, I'll go ahead with my review of Three Men in a Boat! This is an excellent book. Jerome K. Jerome writes somewhat in the style of Douglas Adams in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but instead of aliens and spaceships, you have three men on a boat going down the river in what seems to be the most horribly gone wrong holiday ever. I was ready to read this book. Everyone in my family has read it, so they would talk about the different stories in it. Unfortunately, we didn't have a good copy. Mom had a copy, but it was so old and delicate, she wouldn't let me read it! But finally she found a new copy and I was free to read it as I wished. What else can I say about this book? The stories are hilarious. I especially love the story of J. looking in a book and finding out he had EVERY malady known to man except housemaid's knee. That and the swans attacking Harris. Final word: read this book. You will enjoy it immensely.
39. Update my resume~done. I've added all of my shows since my last update. One thing I'm not sure about is hair color....do I put my natural hair color or my dyed color? hmmm........
40. Ask Mimi to take a new headshot of me~We got a good one at the Lake, but I don't have it on my computer yet.
48. Watch all of Animaniacs in order~I LOVE this tv show. Yes, it's silly. Yes, it's "meant" for young children. BUT it is extremely intelligent and has so many references to pop culture, history, and all sorts of things like that. There's slapstick humor, but there's also humor for adults. If I had to choose my favorite segment....I couldn't....but I have to say that Slappy the Squirrel and the Goodfeathers would be high on the list along with Minerva Mink. Good Idea, Bad Idea is a favorite....the list goes on and on.....
67. Play some competitive solitaire with Grandpa~We played some earlier today to pass the time. Waiting for this storm is excrutiating. We did have an odd string of games...I only went out twice out of seven games. Usually it'd be more even.
As some of you may have already seen on Tricia's blog, we have our business up and running! Please visit us at our blog and at our Zazzle page! We will be selling through both the store and the blog, so check both. And for those who wish for products other than political shirts, we will be adding more designs soon. For those wondering about the name, we got it from 1 Thessalonians 1:3b, "Constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father."
Last night was a crazy game of Clue. (funny how we didn't get this to happen until vacation..) It started out with six of us playing, (Mimi was busy, Grandpa was cooking) with Martin and Paulie sharing a person. Then Martin quit cause he thought he had messed something up, then Paulie quit cause he got bored. Sooo.....I won...ha ha....Mickey was zapped into the Twilight Zone from the Lobby with the Room Key. Yes........I love my Tower of Terror themed Clue. That puts two of my favorite things together.
Coming Soon:#47: Get up on a slalom at the Lake (waterskiing) We are at the Lake. As soon as I recover from being sick and we get some smooth water, I will start the attempt to slalom. Coming Soon: Continuation of #21: I watched the classic Chinatown with Mom and Dad the other day, so a review will come soon.
So, because people liked my poem it seems, I thought I'd give y'all a couple more. These I don't consider to be as good (I wrote them a long time ago) but I think they're nice.
Stars in the Heavens
Look into a clear sky and what do you see? Stars like diamonds twinkling in the midnight sea, When one shoots by, you must look fast for when You turn around it will be gone again.
*~*
Sunset
God sets up his canvas, And his colors He picks carefully, Wanting to show His glory must be Planned properly.
He takes up his paintbrush, And dips it in deep red. He brushes it over part of the sky And His beauty is aptly fed.
He adds more colors, Orange, maybe yellow, Because His eye is always perfect, None of them are ever mellow
When He looks back at His work, He sighs contentedly, And says, “I think that should give Them a good example of my glory.”
~*~
Singing Psalm 95
Sing for joy to the Lord! Shouting joyfully to the rock of our salvation, With a joyful heart and dedication,
Sing for joy to the Lord! Coming before His presence with thanksgiving, To Him, we sing Psalms and from Him, we find forgiving.
Sing for joy to the Lord! He is a great God where we find our peace, He is the Great King over all other gods that our thought to them must cease.
Sing for joy to the Lord! His hand is in the Earth, and His breath upon the air, The mountains are His, and because of Him, they are fair.
Sing for joy to the Lord! For He is the one who formed the seas, And the land, His hands brought forth, and that it is good, He sees.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
99: I've left my Phantom graphic up for more than a week now, and because I'm feeling lazy, it'll stay for awhile, ha ha.
21: I watched the old black and white version of And Then There Were None the other day, and I will do the review right after this post.
Wellll, yesterday Mom finally had her procedure. After 20+ years of having that bump on her arm, she had it removed. It was quite a day. This is the bump, its mere hours being numbered.
We rode into town with Mimi, and as soon as we got there, Mom went charging over to the door, and she broke the door handle!! We couldn't stop laughing for a long time, especially when Mimi said, "I've never seen her so excited to get into a doctor's office!" because as most people know, my mother hates about 98% of doctors. ("to be fair" she says)
So we finally got someone to let us in, and Mom is still super excited. After years of people saying, "Ewwww, what happened?" or "What is THAT on your arm?" she was finally getting that thing out.
This dermatologist was really cool. He had a Scottish name, so I envisioned him as a Scottish warrior in a kilt on the Scottish highlands, hee hee.
Then Mom got called in, and we all went trooping back there: Mom, me, Mimi, and Princess Geo.
Then she got the procedure done...I got it on video, and might post it on youtube but I haven't researched that yet. Let me tell you, it was disgusting. It was bigger than we thought it would be....oy........
So she finally got it out and there was much rejoicing. (yaaaaay............) To celebrate (and calm our stomachs...) Mimi treated us to Baskin Robins right across the road. It was delicious...
And as one final bonus, I've completed goal #32. I've worn alot of funky socks recently, including these:
(who says you can't wear knee socks with shorts? ha ha)
In other news, I went to the Geopalooza exhibit (80, I believe) which was AMAZING. There were tons of incredible geodes, most of them amethyst. There were rocks that looked like they were painted because of their color. There were rocks that glowed in florescent light. And finally lots of fossils. Definitely worth seeing.
Then, we hung around in the energy hall and we saw one of the pins being knocked down by the pendulum. Isn't it fascinating how that thing works? They get it started, then it keeps swinging because of the weight, and it swings (albeit slowly) in a revolving circle because of the Coreolis affect. For those who don't know what that lovely effect is, is is also the effect that makes water swirl around and makes people walking around in circles inadvertantly make the circles smaller. Basically, it swirls because of the speed of the earth's rotation. And I feel like a total nerd being so excited about the Coreolis affect....
In Process: 99: Fighting the urge to make a new graphic.... 70: I'm at Tom Bombadil! 30: I have weak arms!! Weak, weak, weak!!!! 20: I have so many half read books.... 15: See Ghost of the Past 12: Numbers....oy..... 7, 3, 2: these'll continue to go
Completed: 19! I saw Highlander last night. As Dad said, yes it was an adolescent boy's movie, but it had some interesting story to it. Actually, come to think of it, it partially resembled a story that Princess Geo and I used for a pretend game one time...not the "there shall be only one" but the sword fighting in a modern city. I did love all of the kilts... I'll probably rate this one a three on Netflix.
EDIT 12/28/08: I can't make up my mind ever what my goals are, so don't be surprised if you see one that wasn't previously there.
In other news, I think I'm going to do the 101 in 1001 days, I got this from my friend Tricia, who got it from another friend, so I'm guessing it's one of those internet things that gets passed around. Basically, one thinks of 101 goals whether big or small to fulfill within the next 1001 days, which is around 2.75 years. Some may happen, some may not, but it also gives material for blog posts. By my calculations, I have until May 14, 2011.
So...here I go to try to make a list. Completed tasks are in purple, in process tasks are in italics. 1. Make the list 2. Memorize the elvish beginning of Lothlorien 3. stretch every day to keep my splits 4. Write more EJC scripts 5. Go to the Renasseince (not looking it up right now....) festival 6. Audition for at least 2 theater productions (2/2) 7. Spend MORE time in prayer than I do now every day
8. Watch the old (good!) Original Series Star Trek movies. (Wrath of Khan, Search for Spock, Voyage Home.) 9. See Phantom of the Opera live
10. See Spamalot again (whether it be on Broadway or on tour here) 11. Wear my wig 12. Read all of the books of the Bible I've never read
13. Go camping again
14. When camping, if with Princess Geo recreate the pic of our moms camping 15. Start writing more poetry16. Do more hair experimentation
17. Read something by G.K. Chesterton 18. See Les Miserables 19. See Highlander (there shoulda been only one!) 20. Finish all of the books on my unread shelf that have been sitting there for ages
Ok, this is hard! I'm going to come back to it later.....
41. Attempt to dye the tips of my hair 42. Have a Willy Wonka/Charlie and the Chocolate factory marathon 43. Get through Level 1 of German on Rosetta Stone 44. Have the official EJC convention
45. Visit each of my friends up north (if not up there, then get them to come down here) (1/2) 46. Watch past seasons of NCIS 47. Get up on a slalom at the Lake (waterskiing) 48. Watch all of Animaniacs in order 49. Re-read Jane Eyre 50. Visit my friend in San Antonio 51. Get a good score on the PSAT 52. Get a good score on the SAT 53. Get good scores on whatever other tests Dad wants me to take 54. Get my driver's license
Gee, this is hard! I'm coming back to it tomorrow......
****the next day****
55. See Hamlet 56. Read Much Ado About Nothing 57. See the movie Much Ado About Nothing 58. Read A Midsummer Night's Dream
59. Watch Chariots of Fire 60. Start voice lessons 61. Eat some Baked Lays
62. Memorize to-be-determined passage of the Bible
63. Memorize to-be-determined passage of the Bible
64. Memorize to-be-determined Psalm
65. Memorize to-be-determined Psalm 66. Get my family to play Clue with me 67. Play competitive solitaire with Grandpa 68. Look for better audio editing software for short films
69. Pay my library fine 70. Finish LotR on audiobook 71. Make some good short films 72. Pay off my computer 73. Make my five dollar dress wearable 74. Come up with a new alias that I like (I've never been able to beat Lady Natasha E. Brainsample of the planet Skyron....ever) 75. Transfer all EJC Productions videos to digital 76. When I get a laptop, transfer everything 77. Read Mere Christianity 78. Buy some new geeky t-shirts 79. Finish memorizing the Raven by Edgar Allen Poe 80. Visit the Geopalooza exhibit at the museum 81. Get a solo part in a musical 82. Improve my precision with Mom's Glock 83. Write a short story that I think is worthwhile 84. Watch Annie/My Fair Lady to prepare for the auditions
Stupid list!!! It's going to take me 1001 days just to make the list!!! ARG!!!!
PS Mom and I ate some Baked Lays while we were trying to come up with stuff, so I get to cross that off!!! YAY.
PPS Classic Movies watched:
1. And Then There Were None~1945
2. Chinatown
3. Around the World in 80 Days
4. Thomas Crown Affair, The
5. Raiders of the Lost Ark
6. 42nd Street
7. Fiddler on the Roof
8. Breakfast At Tiffany's
9. Singin' In the Rain
10. Footlight Parade
11. Casablanca
12. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
13. The Pink Panther
14. Rear Window
15. To Catch a Thief
16. The Great Race
17. My Fair Lady
18. The Sound of Music
19. The Princess Bride (I don't care what anyone else says, it's a classic)
20. Psycho
21. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
22. The Breakfast Club
23. Star Wars
24. Empire Strikes Back
25. Return of the Jedi
I conform to non-conformity. I am myself because everyone else is taken. I am a paradox wrapped in an oxymoron smothered in contradictions in terms. I am who I am and say what I feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
