The sporadic ramblings of Emily C. A. Snyder - devoted to God, theatre, writing, and much randominity.

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Location: New York, New York, United States

Host: "Hamlet to Hamilton: Exploring Verse Drama" | Founder: TURN TO FLESH PRODUCTIONS | Author: "Cupid and Psyche" "Nachtsturm Castle" & Others | Caitlin O'Sullivan in "The Ghost Ship" (Boston Metaphysical Society)

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Aaaaaaaaah

...now I feel like I've got a play.

Mood: Happiness, Miss Piggy
Music: Nutcracker, duh
Activity: About to block for tomorrow
Thought re: activity: Geesh, blocking for drawing room scenes is a little staid. Ah ca.
Thought redux: Gonna make it gonna make it

Friday, September 23, 2005

I Hab a Code im by Doze

Although I sincerely hope it isn't a cold - not this early in the year! Utterly spiffy cast. Mucho funno. And - family.

Spent an hour in adoration, all by my onesies in church yesterday. Much needed. Meeting Fr. Jonathan tomorrow morning to just recoup. Lost and Dancing with the Stars are better than tonic.

Must remember to bring renderings in for Monday. Brain completely shot at the moment. However, apple cider is from God - a sign that Autumn is finally here.

Mood: Shadowplay
Music: Vanity Fair
Question: "Whether 'tis nobler...?"

Sunday, September 18, 2005

To paraphrase Jack

"That's what a theatre is, you know. It's not just a stage and some chairs and props and a curtain: that's what a theatre needs. But what a theatre is...what the Academy really is, is freedom." ~ Kinda Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, were he of a more traditional theatrical bent.

Mood: Tres, tres bon
Music: None, but I can hear my tea's ready
Happiness is: Learning to polka barefoot

Saturday, September 17, 2005

It is done

And it is good.

And how right that it should end just before the stroke of midnight.

And how good it is to write my first play with a female protagonist. And to be able to have her say this line, just before the end: "...safe? Is that such a good thing, I wonder? What happens if we never take risks? Never wake up?"

"A Window to the Past" from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on - a blessed beautiful peace after listening for at least an hour and a half to the Boston Pop's amazing but spooky rendition of "Carol of the Bells."

Life is good. This is good. All is good. And all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.

Mood: Grace of God-ed
Music: Regarde en haute
Thought: I like quiet scenes at the end of plays, rather than big numbers. Huh. Never end on a ballad? Pshaw. *sigh* Beauty.
Sigh: 145 on Julie's quiz. I'm a scallywag. I'm evil.

Precissement

Stop blowing holes in my ship!!!



Courtesy of Jacksparrow.moonfruit.com.

Mood: Yeah - that about says it all
Music: The violin solo from Last of the Mohicans courtesy of the website page
Thought: Good taste in music, that.

Continuing Hymns

To mediocrity leave me baffled. Once again proving Catholicism via Pratchett (probably himself via Chesterton who is via - you see): "Down there...are people who will follow ay dragon, worship any god, ingnore any iniquity. All out of a kind of humdrum, everyday badness. Not the really high, creative loathesomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass-produced darkness of the soul. Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality. They accept evil not because they say yes, but because they don't say no." ~ Guards! Guards!

At some point I'll have to write an essay commenting on Joss Whedon's commentary track for "Objects in Space" from Firefly as well as the teeny-bopper audience reaction last night to the trailer for Saw II.

Mood: Still baffled
Music: "You cried/I wiped away all of your tears/You screamed/I fought away all of your fears/I held/Your hand through all of these years/You still have/All of me" ~ Evanescence, "Haunted"
Quote du Jour: "Do I need to give you the lesson about peer pressure?"

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Evanescence On

Oh.yes.

Mood: I'd forgotten....
Music: "Wake me up inside/Save me/Call my name and save me from the dark"
Memories: Ahhhhhh.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

To rectify past wrongs

Done to this journal of anything blogworthy, I shall attempt to write some thoughts that might attain blogworthiness. (And, frankly, I simply wanted to write blogworthiness. Try saying it - it's fun! Perhaps more fun cranially than orally. Smock is more fun to *say* than to think. And, alas, this, ma chere, is how we come up with very unblogworthy posts.)

  • Yesterday, my wonderful wonderful family who had already gotten me this wonderful desk (the one I'd rescued from the dumpster had to be redumped because it had been - we discovered - originally dumped due to moldy drawers. A moment for our dear, departed desk), and a lovely green reversible bodice from the RenFest (parentals and Julie respectively), surprised the heck out of me by actually having presents for me yesterday. Mostly chocolate. Because the know their daughter. (Or in the case of Johnny who got me four Godiva truffles [!!!], sister.) But Jules and Pete decided to make the presents bit not just a "Surprise! We have presents! Stick 'em all on the table" affair, but an all-out Easter-bunny-worthy Present Hunt. Replete with clues - most of which I needed Jules and Pete to spell out for me because although I am smart I am NOT clever. Upstairs, downstairs, and in my lady's chamber they sent me - and the very fact that they'd taken the time while I was out yesterday morning to make up such an elaborate game for me was present enough. But lo and behold! Among the presents was the first season of Lost (which I was going to get for myself from my music lessons money that afternoon because I knew my family couldn't afford it)!!! And, from darling, darling Sharon who is capable of remembering dates - Firefly! A perfect birthday. Because it isn't about the presents, really - it's about the fact that people are saying: "Hey, Ems. You're swell and neat and we really like you." That's all anyone wants, really.

  • But this brings me to thoughts re: series TV. First: all honour must go to Sharon who introduced me to Alias (and by that show, Lost), and ergo who opened my eyes to the wonders that series TV can be. She's quite right (surprise, surprise - she's a cinematic genius) - the thing about series TV is that it can be a novel in video form; that character, plot, thought, world, mythology can develop to its fullest extent in series TV. The only difficulty, as Stephen King pointed out in last week's Entertainment Weekly issue, is that TV stations have a tendency to try to wring every cash cow to its gruesome death, rather than knowing When A Story Ends. So that shows either are cancelled before their final chapters can unfold, or they're extended far past their plot. Regardless, I'm beginning to think series TV - at least lately - is simply far better than the movies we've been getting (and there's more of it, too!).

    So, why is series TV doing better than the much-touted movies slump? The articles I've been reading lately say that most folk say that they don't care for the movies not so much because of content as because of other audience members. Personally, I *like* having other audience members there - I've only had a handful of bad audience encounters - it's part of the whole package deal. What I *don't* like are the rising ticket costs. I'm a movie fiend - I'll go watch something that's probably C-rated if it looks like it'll afford a chuckle or two - but no more. I literally can't *afford* to see half-baked movies because of the prices. Honestly, I can't afford to see fully-baked movies as frequently, either. Or, if I do see a good movie, the chances of me seeing it again are almost nil because of said movie prices.

    BUT, spend fifty dollars (the equivalent of five movie tickets - gah!) on a season of excellent TV? The same $50 that would let me in to see five movies (we'll presume five great movies) for a total of about ten hours of enjoyable entertainment, will get me thirty hours of series TV...plus a TON of bonus features. More to the point, although I was generous with presuming my $50 if spent at the cinema would be on GOOD movies, in going into a movie I have no idea if it'll be WORTH my money at all - whereas I can watch the TV initially for a very low fee, and then I'm buying a produce I know I already love. Even more to the point, we all know that movie studios generally put out schlock. They've been doing it since the dawn of cinema. That's why that Oscars are in many ways so easy to predict: there really only are about five to ten worthwhile movies coming out per year. And frankly, even those crop of worthwhile movies are still only two to three hours long (or in some cases shorter). And none of them - with the exception of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter - connected to one another.

    So this leads to the Aristotlean (sp?) thought that what audiences are yearning for is not only a good plot (Red Eye had a good plot, but could have been so much more), but also characters one wants to live with for extended periods (Samwise Gamgee, Sawyer, etc.), and an overarching message - "thought" as Aristotle calls it. A mythology. A mystery that drives both character and plot and is so intertwined with the story that it becomes its own character. Lost: why are all these specific people on this island? Angel: Is there redemption even for a fallen creature? Buffy: How do you balance authority and normalcy? Alias: Who are we really? And actually, upon reflection, I would say that all four of them deal with the nature of redemption - some dealing better than others - the same question in LOTR.

    Perhaps, then, the box office slump is tied in, not so much with monetary matters or with questions of comfort or those (#@%&*# ads even before the trailers!!!, but with the need we all feel - that all men have always felt - the need for redemption, for mystery, for myth, for religion - for a savior.

    Mood: Twenty to mass! Better get myself together!
    Music: Emma - because I'm not playing Freecell, I'm blogging, rather than figuring out the next line in the C/C scene - which is finding its shape....
    Dear Lord: Reach down and save me from myself!

  • Saturday, September 10, 2005

    In honour of Lost

    Which new season cannot begin too soon - I have made this icon:



    But who's counting?

    Mood: Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day!
    Music: Vanity Fair - fantastique
    Irony du jour: The name for the icon is "lostaim." *snort*

    Friday, September 09, 2005

    Wishes, Dreams & Visions

    Clara is finally falling into place! Hurrah! Lyrics to "When You Are Seventeen" (aka The Waltz of the Flowers):

    Sophia: When you are seventeen
    When you're an elegant lady
    In a satin gown
    With a flowing train
    Dancing, laughing and whirling
    And drinking champagne

    When you're a lady grown
    When you will be someone's sweetheart

    Clara: And if perchance
    I should find romance?

    Sophia: Then he'll hold you in his arms
    And dance!

    [She pretends to be Clara's suitor.]

    "Mistress Clara, please
    Your hand I do beseech
    My heart beats just for you
    What else can I do?"

    Clara: Kindly sir, you'll find
    I am not your kind
    My heart is given to
    A prince of my dreams
    But not to you!

    Sophia: And his name is?

    Clara: I don't know it
    But I've dreamt he's waltzing with me.
    And it's foolish -
    And I know it
    The world outside is cruel.

    Sophia: But I've heard that
    On occasion
    When God is smiling on us
    Things we've dreamt of -
    Things we've longed for
    Have a way of coming true

    Clara: (cutting in on her angrily)
    Wishes, dreams and visions!
    Fancies fade to grown decisions
    Stories stay within their pages
    Hope's abandoned with the ages

    Could time now be shattered?
    If tonight were all that mattered?
    Stop the clocks, if you're clever -
    Stay inside this night forever....

    Sophia: (pretending to be the suitor again)
    "But the moon is
    Shining bright, dear
    And I see the morning light, dear
    So before we two are parted -
    Will you put your hand in mine?"

    And then we have the rip-off scene from The King and I where Sophia teaches her cousin to dance! At the end of which, Christian cuts in (holding Clara from behind - so that Clara isn't aware of the change at first). Tra la tra la! "Fa la! I love the spring!" Hip hip hoorah!

    Mood: It is goooooood, to praise the Looooooord, and make muuuuuuusic, to Your Name, O God, most hi-i-i-iiiiiiiiiiiigh! To proclaim Your love and faith-ful-neeeeeess...all the day and through the night! Lai lai lai, etc.
    Music: None at the moment, unless you count the above on repeat for the past twenty-four hours on the brain...!
    Tomorrow's Birthday Will Include: Cantoring for Mr. Vuong's funeral - God bless his soul and give peace to his family, amen; first music lesson for the new school year with Gr.; Chinese food and chocolate-frosted cake. Curioser and curioser.

    Wednesday, September 07, 2005

    Not Lord of the Flies

    But Lord of the Teeny Weeny Annoying and Impossible to Catch and Kill Dust-Motey Buggities! Gaaaaaaaaaaaah! Allez allez allez!

    Just call me the High Imperial Mistress of VCR-to-DVD cords. Bwahahhah! Take that, ye scurvy colored nasties! (Ooooh, and just killed one of the two bugs. HA! "Noah?" "Yes, God?" "You've got two male mosquitos, Noah." "Aaaaaaarugh!")

    Hrm, Crimson Pirates' Putrid and Disgusting CD might *not* be the best inspirational music for finishing up Nutcracker. Drat.

    Mood: Cautious
    Music: Cannya nicht raid wot Oi raight?
    Satisfaction is: Killing the second bug! Ha HA!

    Tuesday, September 06, 2005

    Dreaming of a Blue Rangel!

    Although, frankly, I have no idea where to get a copy of the Squirrel Nut Zippers CD's, but regardless, swing music is fantabulous.

    Bed in a minute, but before I lay me down to sleep:

  • The Labor Day Parade evokes in one a sense, not merely of civic pride, but also, I suppose, a sense of human sympathy, comraderie, and mirth. Strange, and Chestertonian, too, to see the Clydesdale (sp?) horses - as well as the teeny ones - and to realize that but for "modern learning," we might retain a sense of awe around such strange and massive monsters. Alas, that all our learning should be used for no greater purpose than systematic de-imagination!

  • School is good. Gossip mills are not. Syllogisms, false or true, at this hour escape me.

  • God bless the soul of Mr. Vuong. Amen!

  • And now the blessed bed (Lord, how great is Your abundance!) calls me, and I must obey. The weather turns; a single blanket does not suffice. Somewhere in there is a poem.

    Mood: I'd write more, but....
    Music: Pure by Hayley Westenra - exquisite
    Thought: They began rapelling in today. Amazing!

  • Saturday, September 03, 2005

    Pride and Prejudice

    So, whilst chatting a bit with Mum, I realised why I was so stuck on the whole Clara/Christian scene: I had both of them liking each other from the beginning. Stupid, stupid Emily-Author! What's the first rule of Drama? Conflict, nummy! Anywho, so I decided to go P&P-y for their relationship - and Clara certainly has plenty of reasons to think ill of him from the outset. Of course, that means that I had to go back and take a look at what I've already written - I've given the camel-on-the-creche (flagrantly stolen from HH brother Steven!) line to Clara, rather than Sophia - but I'm in a muddle over whether it's Sophia or Clara who knows that Christian is a Highness.

    Regardless, have now gone through The Importance of Being Ernest, Emma and (currently) Vanity Fair soundtracks to keep me in the right state of mind. I've also managed to up by one my running streak on Freecell. Because writing always includes Freecell. QED. But the Clara/Christian scene stares at me and I must write it. I'm tempted to simply stay up until a ridiculous hour until I get a better version of it. But I cannot go on with the play (the dream section) until I've figured out Clara - and Clara won't be fully known by me until I write her crucial scene with Christian. Gah!

    So in the meantime, like any good procrastinating author - who's just given herself another week grace period by pushing off auditions until the 20th rather than the 13th - I took a quiz. We swears it, precious - we did not try for Spike. We even said "Hell no" to the "Slayers are Sexy" question. (See the quizzy thingy at the bottom of this post.)

    Looking forward to school. Do need to put more stuff up on the far wall, though - it is bare. But the room is so neat and clean right now - and now good-smelling, too (rather than new carpet smelling which is not good smelling pas de tout!) - that it's really a shame to think of it mucked up during the course of the year. Ah ca.

    New desk ought to be coming in tomorrow as part of the Great Desk Swap. Of course I write this as the desk that I'm working on which is also part of the GDS (as in the desk going out to make room for the one coming in) is simply swamped in stuff. Meh. Deal with it tomorrow. Meh meh.

    Mass tomorrow and then RenFest Sunday. Making up tests, curriculum guides, copies of prayers, etc. Monday in prep. for Tuesday. Oh der Schoene! Oh der Schoene! Oh der Schoene Schnitzelbank! Lalala....

    Mood: Pas mal, maintenant - mais je suis desolee quand je lis les journals et mes amis sont tres bete. Dieu, aide-nous! Merci!
    Music: The lovely, lovely Vanity Fair
    Niceness is: Finding music one's forgotten in one's Uber-Large CD Collection (ULCDC)
    Spikiness is: Voila

    You scored as Spike. You are the strait up you knew what I was type what did you expect. There maybey some surprise personality quirks you have you. You try to control your emotions and sometimes fight so hard to deny them but when you do give into them you go all the way for what you want.

    Dracula

    83%

    Spike

    83%

    Armand

    75%

    Marius

    75%

    Blade

    75%

    Lestat

    75%

    Akasha

    67%

    Angel

    50%

    Louie

    50%

    Deacon Frost

    17%

    Whose your Vampire personality? (images)
    created with QuizFarm.com


    File this under: It's funny because it's true

    Doctor Unheimlich has diagnosed me with
    Obeautyunattemtped's Disease
    Cause:thinking too hard
    Symptoms:extremely scaly skin, slightly orange stools, glow-in-the-dark blood
    Cure:take two pinches of snuff every day for the rest of your life
    Enter your name, for your own diagnosis: