He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

-W.B. Yeats

I Am Insanely Happy

I've been really, really happy for no reason for the past few days, and it has come to a climax today.

Why, you ask, is today so special?

Well, anyone who knows me well knows that I can't cook. With few exceptions. Very, very few other than box dinners, rice, pasta, canned chili, and things that you throw on the steamer or into the oven.

Recently, I've been thinking about what I want to make on a regular basis when I go off to college next year. Today, I attempted and succeeded at making one of my favorite things in the world....

.....potato soup.

To be specific, a wonderful creamy potato leek soup.

And so I am insanely happy.

I Wish I Were More of a Ferris Than a Cameron.

That is all.

Well, not really all. How awesome is the new Hunger Games trailer?!

Also, I'm thinking of having a discussion on Jerry Maguire, one of the greatest non-sports sports movies ever made.

In the mean time, enjoy Tom Cruise's genius in the flip out scene. I'm a DANCER, and I don't know how he contorts himself like that, ha ha... If you wish, skip the rest of the clip, but please watch him FLIP OUT!! It will make your day more hilarious.

I feel better already.

Processed

"I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that." -John Cusack as Lloyd Dobbler in Say Anything

Efficiency

Pretty in Pink and Say Anything: A Discussion about Love Transcending Class Lines in Teen Movies of the 1980s

I watched one of my favorite movies yesterday, Pretty in Pink, and while watching it, I was struck with a number of similarities in subject matter and theme to another one of my favorite movies, Say Anything.
If this were a proper literature paper, my thesis statement might be something like "Pretty in Pink and Say Anything are perfect examples of 1980s coming of age movies about romance across class lines."

Just as a tangent, I find it funny that MOST 80s movies I watch instantly become favorite movies. Well, other than Sixteen Candles. I liked it, but not like I like The Princess Bride, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Say Anything, Pretty in Pink, Overboard, The Lost Boys, Back to the Future, Dirty Dancing, The Goonies, and Ghostbusters.

Anyway, watching Pretty in Pink again, I'm still among the camp that thinks Andie (the Molly Ringwald character) should've ended up with Duckie. (Jon Cryer) Now, don't get me wrong, to make a movie that will make money, I understand what they mean when they said in the bonus feature, "Ya can't make a movie where she doesn't get the cute guy in the end."
Also, they discussed how if you make a movie about romance across class lines and then have the lower-class heroine end up with the lower-class guy, that doesn't send a good message about love conquering all and stuff like that.

The big problem with that in Pretty in Pink is the lack of character on the part of Blane (Andrew McCarthy), the rich kid Andie falls for. I just don't find him interesting and lovable like I do Duckie. Yes, he at first thinks he can go out with Andie despite backlash for it from his rich friends and possible backlash from his parents, but he loses any respect I had for him by backing out on taking Andie to the prom and making up the excuse that he had "asked someone else earlier and forgot."

Duck, on the other hand, though he acts a bit like a jerk when he finds out Andie is going out with Blane, he only does so in an overreaction. He truly believes that Blane is only going out with her to use her and finds that disgusting when Duckie himself has been devoted to her for so long and loves her so much.

Now turning to Say Anything, I believe this movie also is thematically about love over class lines, but in a much subtler way. In Pretty in Pink, there is very obviously a divide in the town: a literal wrong side of the railroad tracks. Andie at the end of her first date with Blane doesn't want him to take her home because she doesn't want him to see where she lives.

In Say Anything, the "class line" isn't so much about physical address and/or amount of money, but about education and prospects, and this I believe is more likely to be realistic in today's world.
While in Pretty in Pink we have Andie, the "lower class girl" and Blane the "rich guy," in Say Anything we have Diane Court (Ione Sky), the valedictorian and Lloyd Dobbler (John Cusack), an intelligent and sweet but underachieving guy. Diane has been accepted to a prestigious study abroad fellowship in England, while Lloyd has no concrete plans for the future and what plans he does have include trying to become a pro in kickboxing "the sport of the future."

In Pretty in Pink, we have pressure placed on the couple from their social groups and on Blane's side, his parents if they knew about what was going on, but Andie's father encourages her that if they love each other, they should forget about their friends.
In Say Anything, most of the action takes place after graduation. At the party Lloyd and Diane go to as their first date, Lloyd's friends all like Diane (though they all wish they could have known her before graduation. It is explained that she took classes at the college in their town as well, so wasn't involved heavily in the student body.) After graduation and the final party, social groups aren't much of a force over the summer, so pressure on the couple in this movie comes in the form of Diane's overprotective loving father. (John Mahoney)

Diane's father doesn't object to him based on money; (Lloyd at the time is living with his grown sister and his parents are working in Europe.) he objects to her dating him because of his lack of prospects, saying to him, "You're not a permanent part of her life. You're a distraction."


In both of these movies, we have an absent mother and a father who wants to take care of his baby girl the best he can. In Pretty in Pink, the father is still bereaved from his wife leaving, so he's more...how do I say this?...sympathetic to his daughter's happiness in the way of love. 
In Say Anything, the father also wants his daughter to be happy, but he sees that goal as being accomplished by urging her to get the best possible education and preparing for the future. He sees anything (or anyone) that takes even a little away from that as a distraction and a waste of time.


And so, you ask, what is to be gleaned from all this? 


I'm not sure. In Pretty in Pink, the ending is left hazy. Andie obviously chooses Blane, the rich kid, and we're left to hope that things worked out for them in the end despite potential criticism from his parents and being ostracized by his friends. We know that Duckie gains respect for Blane for coming alone to the prom and tells Andie to go after him so that they can be happy. Her father wasn't much of an issue. And so we have a fairy tale type ending.


In Say Anything, we also have a happy ending, but this one is a bit more bittersweet. Diane's dad is conveniently convicted of embezzling money from tenants of his nursing home, and so put away into prison and not much of a driving force in his daughter's life. She forgives him and visits him before she leaves for England, but decides to be with Lloyd even though from prison, her Dad still disapproves of him.
I'm left to wonder what happened when (or if) they came back from England. I'm sure they were happy together and Lloyd got his act together to take care of and eventually marry Diane, but assuming they ever went back to America and Diane's dad ever got out of prison, what kind of family dynamics would they have?
Would he still be angry for her choosing to be with Lloyd or would he see that he was unreasonable and accept them? And would they care if he did or not? We know that she forgave him for what he did with the money, but would she still want to have a major relationship with a man who stole most of what they had and caused so much unhappiness for her and Lloyd over the summer before they got back together?


Who knows.

A Visual Representation of Lady Brainsample's Life Right Now

Photo Credit.

How's everyone else's Monday going?

Why Exactly Is Calculus Required for Business Majors Again??

Thank the Lord for take home calculus tests. Thanks also abound for calculus teachers who will understand my motivation for this blog post.
My motivation? The solution my teacher himself gave us to fix the problem we're having trouble with isn't working. I've tried it three times and checked my work each time, but the stupid integral won't cooperate and give me the x bar for the center of mass.
Long story short, ("Too late!") I've given up on that problem, so that frustration is going to be channeled into a blog post.

The problem?

Whatever shall I write about?!?!

And so, in perfect irony, the frustration of not being able to think of anything to write is simply being added to the frustration of calculus.

[Insert Pithy Title about Angst and/or Disney Pictures Here]

So, I was going to favor y'all with a post yesterday about how I had post show depression, but that it was going to be all right and I had positive/humorous ways to deal with it, but then I got a terrible grade on an online test which made my mood plummet.

Today, I'm not so depressed, so I will attempt to blog again.
I'm very pleased with coincidental timing that really helped me yesterday. I got a book from the library a few weeks ago about...I guess the way to describe it is how to deal with being a first born. (whether you're first born because of actual birth order or by being functionally first born.) At some point after the debacle of that business law test, I picked up reading where I had left off a couple weeks ago and was barraged with admonitions that you DON'T NEED TO BE PERFECT. It's NOT the end of the world. So that was good.

Today, I wish to share with y'all some really cool pictures I found on the internet today.
This graphic design student for fun decided to manipulate Disney animated characters to where they looked like real people. The results (I think) are absolutely stunning. I especially love the Jasmine and Esmerelda pictures. And there are more on his website.

I'm Not Normally a Huge Fan of Music Videos...

....but this one is awesome.

Truth in Webcomics

Wherever you'd put actor/spy, I'd still be in that stage.

You can also substitute likelihood to speak with proper grammar and how much your mother/teacher made you diagram sentences with this same graph.

Hee hee...

Thank you, calculus. I now sufficiently know what most of that means. Well, other than the heart variables of course. I'd love to be able to take the square root of love.

"Who is more foolish? The dork or the person who marries the dork?"

This one's for my AD.

I need to get myself a Spinal Tap shirt...

This one goes to my mother. Thanks for passing that gene down to me, not only for the student's angst dreams, but also the director's, actor's, and stage manager's.

Credit goes here and here.

Things Lady Brainsample Is Pondering Over These Days Based On Her Current Reading Material

"As physicians, psychiatrists have the right to prescribe drugs or electroshock, to hospitalize patients, and to treat people against their will. They are the only mental health professionals who routinely exercise these powers." -from Toxic Psychiatry, by Dr. Peter Breggin

"It is remarkable, Hardin, how the religion of science has grabbed hold." -from Foundation, by Isaac Asimov

"There is indeed a peculiar charm both in friendship and in eros, about those moment when Appreciative love lies, as it were, curled up asleep, and the mere ease and ordinariness of the relationship (free as solitude, yet neither is alone) wraps us round. No need to talk. No need to make love. No needs at all except perhaps to stir the fire." -from The Four Loves, by C.S. Lewis

"The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, 'What? You too? I thought I was the only one.'" -from The Four Loves, by C.S. Lewis

"For it is the very mark of Eros [Lewis' classification of romantic love] that when he is in us we had rather share unhappiness with the Beloved than be happy on any other terms...Eros never hesitates to say, 'Better this than parting. Better to be miserable with her than happy without her. Let our hearts break provided they break together.' If the voice within us does not say this it is not the voice of Eros." -from The Four Loves, by C.S. Lewis

"Maybe we are not such fools as we look. But though we be, we are well content, so long as we may be two fools together." -from Lorna Doone, by R.D. Blackmore

Two of My Favorite Things Rolled Into One

In my angst about whether the new Muppet movie coming out in November will be good or not, I remembered this little beauty from one of the tv specials that came out some years ago.
My favorite part is probably when Miss Piggy yells something to the effect of, "Can everyone stop singing different songs?!" Oh, Baz...

What Really Irritates Me/Things that Make Me Happy (Current List)

*Those who do not pay attention when a stop light turns green.

*Getting up at 6 in the morning to get ready for class.

*Almost falling asleep in class because of above statement.

*Mitt Romney.

*Accounting homework that won't balance. (It balanced eventually, but it took me five sessions of checking it to find my mistake.)

*Classrooms that are too cold.

And finally, last (DEFINITELY not least) *THAT ONE PERSON WHO KEEPS STEALING MY SPOT IN ECONOMICS CLASS!!!!

Now, the positive side.

*Driving my stick shift.

*Seeing the fog in the morning.

*Feeling the not-quite-as-hot weather in the morning.

*Ron Paul.

*Accounting homework that balances on the first try.

*Remembering to get/wear my Battlestar sweater at later classrooms that are also cold.

And that's it, because I can't find a positive side to that PERSON WHO KEEPS STEALING MY SPOT IN ECONOMICS CLASS....

That is all.

Why is it...

...that when I need new music, the library catalog is being updated, ergo I can't put anything I want on hold?! Well....for consolation, I'm going to go to the bookstore today. So there.

In other news, the first rehearsal for my show is tonight...I'm very excited. After much rigamarole, we have a cast again. In order to get a replacement for someone who had other commitments, I had to brush up the phone voice again. I called...what was it?...four people before I got someone who could do it that actually had an interest.

Lesson learned: Don't count your cast members before the first rehearsal.

And so this post isn't completely lame, I leave y'all with a song I'm really loving right now from a musical called Curtains.



To make up for the angst of that song, and because I told myself I was going to be HAPPY today, I'll also leave y'all with links for Muppet Show songs I'm also loving right now.

Old Fashioned Love Song

She Loves You

"There's not a word yet for old friends who've just met."-Gonzo

"We're alike, me and cat."

"You know those days when you get the mean reds?"
"The mean reds, you mean like the blues?"  
"No. The blues are because you're getting fat and maybe it's been raining too long, you're just sad that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?"
"Sure."
"Well, when I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there. If I could find a real-life place that'd make me feel like Tiffany's, then - then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name!"

"We're alike, me and cat. A couple of poor nameless slobs."


"I'll tell you one thing, Fred, darling... I'd marry you for your money in a minute. Would you marry me for my money?"
"In a minute."
"I guess it's pretty lucky neither of us is rich, huh?"

"It's useful being top banana in the shock department."

Things Learned from the Second Audition Session/Casting Process

1. For as many gut reactions for casting certain people that were right (four) there are going to be at least two that will blow your original perceptions out of the water.

2. There are going to be certain people you really want to cast in a certain role, but if they just don't have enough intuition or maturity or whatever to be able to handle it, it's disappointing.

3. Alpha-numeric system for distributing scenes = better than system used on Sunday. Yelling out "Who has B-3?" is much easier than "Who has the Kennedy-Sally-Russell-Schultz scene?"

4. Easy, "this is your person" casting decisions are incredibly awesome. I had one of those.

5. Learning that someone you cast in your show in a part that they were great for can't actually be in your show is frustrating. No hard feelings toward the person, of course, but they were going to be PERFECT and UGH!! Anyway...

6. Directors shouldn't be surprised when they have to alter the schedule...again...

7. Good mentors are absolutely wonderful.

It's really strange coming to a show from this angle. I'm used to waiting for the cast list with bated breath, wondering who's going to play which character and stuff like that.
This time I've released the cast list; I know who's playing who; and now I'm wondering what kind of flack (if any) I'm getting behind my back for the decisions I've made. Not that I should get any argument; I followed all of my impartial casting person's advice, but still.

I'm glad that casting is over. I think that's probably the thing I was most worried about.

Things Learned from the First Audition Session

1. Just because you're super organized with scenes and lists and things like that doesn't mean it all won't fall apart when everything gets going.

2. You can learn more about directing in one two-hour session with a mentor than by reading ten books on the subject.

3. For those who don't like talking on the phone to those they don't know well, a good phone voice = A. A shield when talking to said people they don't know well and
B. Entertainment for those they do.

4. When conducting scene readings, directors should not be afraid to stop a scene in the middle to ask for the auditionees to try something different.

5. Having a casting advisor much more experienced than yourself is a BIG BIG BIG advantage. He can see things about people you've known for years that you never thought of.

6. Comfortable (yet still eccentric) director's outfit + green eye shadow + favorite perfume = happy director.

7. It's good to have an abundance of pens and pencils but only have one on the director's desk at a time because otherwise, they'll get in the way.

And finally,
8. Being in charge is pretty awesome.

Philosophical Thoughts for the Day

All credit goes here.

I'm Really Loving The Smiths Right Now

Take me out tonight
Where there's music and there's people
Who are young and alive
Driving in your car
I never never want to go home
Because I haven't got one anymore

Take me out tonight
Because I want to see people
And I want to see life
Driving in your car
Oh please don't drop me home
Because it's not my home, it's their home
And I'm welcome no more

And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten ton truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well the pleasure, the privilege is mine

Take me out tonight
Take me anywhere, I don't care
I don't care, I don't care
And in the darkened underpass
I thought Oh God, my chance has come at last
But then a strange fear gripped me
And I just couldn't ask

Take me out tonight
Oh take me anywhere, I don't care
I don't care, I don't care
Driving in your car
I never never want to go home
Because I haven't got one
No, I haven't got one

And if a double-decker bus
Crashes in to us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten ton truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well the pleasure, the privilege is mine

There is a light that never goes out
There is a light that never goes out
There is a light that never goes out
There is a light that never goes out