I thank Jennie

(and I'm sure she thanks herself)

Am totally in sweet innocent romantic writing mood - aka the unicorn story. I think, since I am furious with certain parties, that I will not edit but rather see what can be done about writing - since I have not done so in a long, long time. Yay for the innocence of the Twelve Kingdoms - I'd forgotten. (Oh for Tamerin and Isllel! Better not read what I have of theirs - I won't write, then, just get frustrated that I haven't finished that story. C'est ca.)

Mood: At odds
Music: Loreena McKennit's Book of Secrets
Prayer: Lord, please - amen.
Oh, for more innocent romancey, check out my old Austenesque novels as well as the short stories. They're not fabulous, but they're fun.

Withoutness

Is strange. I don't care for it. QED.

Mood: Curious
Music: None - thoughtfulness
Goodness is: the dancing is looking AMAZING. Fosse, eat your heart out!

Gaudete Forever

Gaudete Academy has an easy-to-use URL at YouTube now: www.youtube.com/gaudete. Go there to check out what latest video is up and running for your happy perusal!

Latest video, No Bedroom Me Deny (alternately known as "Jaws") from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Wedding of maternal cousin yesterday. Goodly. Had one brilliant dance, so there one is.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley has a blog! Because he is simply amazing. Cardinal Sean recently - just yesterday! - went to Padre Pio's monastery and celebrated mass for Padre Pio's feast day. Yay for Capuchin Franciscan Friars! Check out all the pictures and stories there.

Doing up application. And am going back to finish it up. Alleluia for confession, mass, and quiet singy time with Him. Amen!

Mood: Mieux
Music: Hamlet CD. Currently it's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" which isn't quite fitting my mood, but there one is.
Goodness is: Knowing He is in charge and not myself.

About to slumber

But thought I'd first let all know that the Via Dolorosa to "This is the Air I Breathe" from this past Lent's Passion is up on YouTube.

Freshman day tomorrow, as well as the bell-skit rehearsal. Pooh rehearsal tonight went well. Walk in the park - tiddelypom! Still at odds a bit. C'est ca. C'est commencement d'annee d'ecole, n'est-ce pas?

Anywho, off to sleep and slumber....

Mood: Pas mal
Music: Above song on mental jutebox
New Song! I almost forgot - I think I finally finished up the last verse of the song that was going to be sung by Christian in Nutcracker and which may still find its way into the next revision of the play, if it doesn't insinuate itself into either Snow Queen or Little Matchgirl instead. Anywho, lyrics are as follows:

It was snowing the day that my father said,
"Son, it's time that you became a man."
And he opened the door to a glittering world
And I never looked back again

For those things I had longed for, like shifting Northern Lights -
Honor, wealth, reknown, glory and fame -
They were mine in abundance like frost at first light...
And frail as the frost in the first summer rain.

It was snowing the day when my childhood died
And I stepped in the steps he had trod
And he called out my name as he raised the champagne
And he spoke of Country and God

And he called me a man, put a sword in my hand
And bravely I answered the call...
But it's strange that such love should be bound up in blood -
Or to rise, other men must fall.

So you ask if I miss all the things in this room,
Or if knowledge was worth the cost.
Well, honor and fame can be pawned and regained -
But an innocence sold, is an innocence lost.

It was snowing today; it's still snowing tonight -
But perhaps it will light with the dawn.
So I turned back to see what remained of me...
And I saw all my footprints were gone.

How long had I lingered inside of this storm?
Where it's white - and it's pure - and it's cold.
And I dreamed of a time when my heart was still warm -
And a place where we'd never grow old.

Arrrr

No, not upset just celebrating rather late "Talk Like a Pirate Day." Seven Ages is cast - going to be a good show. Excited about it. Pooh tomorrow night. Doing up final scheudle now.

Oh, and Rogue and Peasant Slave is up on YouTube for your enjoyment.

Mood: Bof - edging really close to heureux
Music: One of Cass's fantastic CD's
Goodness is: Getting back into the swing of real life

Old Friends

Moments before mass.... I was working on a song on the piano, surprisingly in the key of C that begins with an equally surprising ninth, and so was in a contemplative mood when I glanced at my CD's for which would accompany my morning movements. My eye lighted upon the 10th Anniversary CD's of Les Miserables which I haven't truly listened to in years. I've stuck it on in the past several years, true, but I haven't really savoured the music in years. Oooooooooooooooooh, rapture. I'm doing the good parts version (aka the arias) and, beginning on disc two, listened to Lea Salonga's well-dictioned "On My Own" (I'd forgotten how beautiful and heartwrenching that song is), her duet with Michael Ball on "A Little Fall of Rain" (one day I will direct this!), and just now Colm Wilkenson's "Bring Him Home" and the post-barricade clarinet seranade of the same theme over the most delicate pizzicato strings. Loveliness.

Mood: Le sigh
Music: Have you missed the above?
Amusement is: Being woken by Mum and Jules harmonizing to the "Gloria" very nicely over a very-not-so-nicely dying casio. Aaaaugh. Must needs get a better sounding upstairs instrument...!

Some Wisdom from the Emerald Isle



Jules took the photo in Dublin. So very, very true.

Dance went well, despite some...unforeseen curiosities. Drama begins Monday night. Watched the fast-forwarded version of Stage Beauty with Mum, Jules and Pete today - the latter two of which are studying Othello (Jules for official college course; Peter for unofficial vicarious college course in homeschooling high school). Movie made all the more interesting for having seen the Abbey Theatre's all-male cast of The Importance of Being Earnest last month. (See picture right.)

At breakfast discussed whether the Macbeths ever truly loved each other, why the Early Church can't quite be called a form of Communism but perhaps of Distributionism, and the Muppets' take on both. (In Pete's words: It's time to write a Manifesto! It's time to kill a King!) Ye olde merrie typical Saturday morning for the Snyder family!

Was supposed to see The Last Kiss today for trailer checks, but Johnny ended up taking my place, which was just as well. So instead I betook me to Borders' Cafe (whatever it's being called this week), where I bought a journal (having left mine at home - and it's such a pretty journal!) and then took out my copy of Macbeth (which I had taken with me), read through the surprisingly good literary criticism at the end, taking notes and underlining as I went, flipping through the standard editor explanations at the beginning, and then reading the first two acts and thinking about how to stage the whole thingummy. My brain keeps coming back to something resembling Ian McKellan's take on Richard III which set that despotic regime in a Hitleresque world. Perhaps it's because Hitler and his dancing browncoats remain such a vivid image of pure evil in our times that the language of his imagery remains so potent on-stage as well. Or perhaps I'm simply eager to rip-off the images I saw of Sean Bean's Macbeth (although looking more closely at the pictures it looks all a little plastic - I prefer my dictators to seem a bit more lived-in... ;P).

Am finishing up "Rogue and Peasant Slave" before I pop in Olivier's As You Like It and finish grading essays. The Jack Sparrow chair has apparently found the rum, making it entirely impossible to sit in. Johnny thinks that the letters in the Beatrice Letters by that infuriating but tantalizing - a word here which means money-making - Lemony Snicket, spells out "Beatrice Snake" but the conspiracy theorists over on Wikipedia beg to differ. In greater news, the official Lemony Snicket site declares that The Gothic Archies are releasing an album featuring all their music for the Unfortunate Events on one CD to coincide with the release of the 13th book, The End (a fitting if non-alliterative title). I am MORE than thrilled that the Count Olaf song will be on the CD!!! Hurrah hurrah!

Anywho - miles to go before I sleep. Alles gut. To finish with A. A. Milne:

Christopher Robin: Will you promise to never forget me, Pooh? Even when I'm a hundred?

Pooh: How old will I be then?

Christopher Robin: Ninety-nine.

Mood: Pas mal, inching towards heureux
Music: "Creating Governing Dynamics" from A Beautiful Mind
Thought: Tiddely-pom
Oh, and in case you missed it: The poster for the latest play is to the left. In larger size and sans dates (Nov. 17 & 18 at 7 p.m. at HCH), behold the one-sheet for The Seven Ages of Man.

Fine, fine

In a fit of commanded solipsism (a la Lauryl ;P), some Ireland photos, avec moi et ma soeur. You can see the whole album here: Ireland 2006. I'll put the photos I like best below.

Had the first official drama meeting today. Or shall I say, melee? Am getting fairly excited about one-acts - it's nice in some cases to do just the "good parts versions" of plays (those scenes that one does the play for). Am also completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of new faces. And yet, still, I keep feeling as though I'm missing folk - I am, of course, missing folk. But it's rather like an amputation where the shadowlimb is still very present and seems tantalizingly tangible. Dancing in prep for Frosh dance tomorrow - Lord save us! And thanks to all for the prayers concerning recent events. And a special shout out to Krissy-tina and Sharon for well-wishes.

Mood: Bof
Music: Philip Glass - reflectiveness
Going To: POTC:DMC tonight with Jules. She wants to see it in the theatres again before it's gone from the big screen.
And now for something completely different: Or simply long-awaited - Ireland photos.



Jules being beautiful by a Holy Well.



One of my favorite places, Glendalaugh. I could have stayed there for hours, simply being.



And here you can see why I wanted to stay!



Although Dublin wasn't bad, either! Me and my boy, Oscar Wilde.



Except for the silly statuary. "Do you see yonder a statue that's almost in the shape of a camel? Methinks it is like a weasel. Or like a WHAAAAAAAALE." Jules is being a weasel. I'm being a whale. So is the statue.

And this one's for Maureen, and this one's for Ryan, and this one's for Mrs. Kane via Kristen, and this one is for Sister Kathleen thanks to Julie.

And the remainder are simply because I'm theatre obsessed. The luminous Audra as the Player Queen and the ever-eventful Rosencrantz and tolerant Guildenstern with who else but the trigger happy Hamlet?

Heureux

Tres, tres heureux. Life is so very, very great. Alleluia. (And aaarrr? Honestly, nearly jumped out of my skin...!) Happiness, Miss Piggy!

And in the interest of the ever expanding photoblog (phlog? sounds like a rare disease) we've gotten from top to bottom. And you're welcome, Canoodlers, for posting a suitable Canoodling photo.















Mood: Surpurb
Music: "The Attic" from Hamlet via A Little Princess by Patrick Doyle
Thought: Cherish the moment
And one more from the prologue - because it's just pretty....

The photo does not do justice

To the actual painting. The photo is, alas, flat, while the painting is vibrant and full of life. But for better or digitally worse...voila, Jules' latest Madonna!



Mood: Meh - bon
Music: "Run" by SnowPatrol
Tomorrow is: Mary's birthday! (Two days before T-minus...always so nice!)

Is it still abduction

When you not only ask first, but go in the abductee's car? Anywho, abduted Jules to B&N for meandering, listening to CD's, purchasing the Beatrice and Snicket Letters (better and better!), settling down in Starbucks for pumpkin bread and conversation (surrealismsurrealism...sadness, sadness, heartfelt pain), then back home by the incredibly circuitous route that brings us by way of Sudbury and Westborough, all the whilst listening to punk remixes of 80's classics (and discovering the milieu for As You Like It). All good, good, good.

Was going to edit tonight, but may curl up with the end of The Fourth Bear, the Snicket files and Entertainment Weekly instead. Chorus at lunch tomorrow - good times. Poetry for obscurity is required. Watching from underwater - tin can voices and the sensation of flyfalling.

Oh. And I'm nearly done with Act I. Finished up through "O all ye hosts of Heaven" last night. Good stuff. Yay for amazing videography esp. the final night - fantastic shots. A few video captures for kicks and giggles.













Mood: Sleepy. (Dopey! Doc!)
Music: "Torn"
Excuses, excuses: Jennie - tried to get Jules' painting on web, but networking computers are being a pain. Will come eventually!

Yet another update

Have just finished I.4. and am about to begin I.5. That is, I've finished the first two (yay for dances! even got in "the king takes his rouse tonight") pictures and am about to begin the third. Yay for screen capture technology!







Mood: Bof
Music: Buffy: The Musical
Quote: In this world, Elwood, you can be smart or you can be pleasant. Well, I've spent years doing the first, and I recommend pleasant.

Who said OCD was out of fashion?

Finished an acceptable rough cut of I.3. - also known as this scene:





AKA: Ophelia with her brother Laertes, before he leaves and...what her dad, Polonius, is like when Laertes isn't around. As for the next scene - hwell, school tomorrow. And the next scene has dancing. We'll see.

Mood: Triumphant
Music: Chicago - refound the soundtrack, said "Hmmmm"
Prayer: Lord, for charity, amen.

Men in Kilts

And clown suits...and Colonial outfits...and military uniforms...and Shriner fezes (what is the plural of fez? Fezi? Fuzzy? Fozzi?) - aka, the annual Marlborough ginormous Labor Day parade.

In other news, am thinking of giving Macbeth a meat cleaver as his main weapon. It's a butchery show - nothing as neat and clean as a bullet wound, or as gentlemanly as a sword. And I'd be afraid of a psychopath coming at me with a meat cleaver. Yes, I would.

In happier news, I've decided that Sylvius and Phoebe from As You Like It ought to look something like the picture to the right. The picture that is, in fact, of two people and not of a meat cleaver. Am beginning to go through music in the brain for possibilities, as well - am considering using "Material Girl" or "If I Was a Rich Girl" for Phoebe. Would love to have a baby tee for Phoebe that proudly declares, "I only shop at Wal-Mart" or something similar. Must needs find a way to really show the difference between country and city life....

But not at the moment. Must needs get last minute things together for tomorrow. Hoopla! And then on to I.3. of Hamlet editing! Yes, precious!

Mood: Bon
Music: Frou-Frou's Let Go
Impressiveness is: Julie's red car. Which also counts as slightly surrealistic experience to not be the one driving. Verily, 'tis good.

Oh, Happy Day

15 minutes of Hamlet more or less satisfactorily edited! That's approximately 1/12 of the *play* (not the DVD - extras take FOREVER) finished! Yay! Have just finished "O that this too too sullied" and am about to have Hamlet say to Horatia, "Would that I had seen my dearest foe in Heaven" - but I need a long shot and I don't seem to have one. Must needs look at rehearsal footage. Otherwise, went back and redid all the sound - redubbed for Mom's footage with Courmier's sound half the time. Am still of two minds about crunching the blacks (level) on Mom's video to approximate high def. of Courmier's equippment.... Need to see it on something other than a computer screen.



I am somewhere around the above. And now, precious, we sleeps.

Mood: Pas mal, merci
Music: None - Hamet-brained. Howsomever, I dug out my Frou-Frou album Let Go and played that quite a bit. Mostly because....
Drumrollworthy: Jules has painted this gorgeous Madonna on her wall. The only stinky part? It's on her wall. It's non-displayable except to herself. Oh, it's digitally photographable, sure - but the real deal is so full of vibrancy that a photo will be insufficient. J'aime ma soeur!
Explanation: The reason why Jules' latest portrait and Imogen Heap go together is because Jules had the Narnia soundtrack on, and it was on the aforementioned artist's (Imogen, not Julie's!) contribution to the ending credits, which made me say to myself, "Myself, why have we not dug out and listened to the Frou-Frou album in a while?" Which is why I dug out said album and listened to it for a while. And then I found five dollars.

Mass is from God


(And the winner for this year's most redundant statement is....)

"The Accolade" by Edmund Blair Leighton

Anywho, going to mass, receiving graces, really being able to worship - thank.God. And I mean it, thank You, God. Had an interesting image during communion. "We Are One Body" from the Denver World Youth Day was played and - I must admit, I'm not a fan of the song - but suddenly I got this image of the whole host of Heaven, and every sort of tribe and nation from every time period dancing in their particular style to the music - each completely unique and yet in total harmony. Viennese Waltzers next to Noh Dramatists next to African and Maui Tribalists - next to GI Lindyhoppers! All celebrating together. Beautiful.

Have purchased another external harddrive (I've found my memory! ;) to try to move around things that need to be moved around. Have yet to set it up, though. Finished watching Season 2 of Veronica Mars - where I was pleased to learn that the writing has improved *significantly,* and where I had much fun watching Buffy alumn, including Joss Whedon, frolick about the set. Howsomever, it has led to some rather nasty dreams, so...there.

And on that note (but a moment to tangent - RANDOM! - Apocalypta's cover of Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" is on. Sooooooooooooo good - but no pun on "note") - I'd like to take a moment to discuss the...

Perennial Problem of the Bad Boy Beloved by Good Heroine Plot Point
Being a Brief and Rambling Demi-Rant on the Uses and Abuses of This Character and His Recent Story Arcs

There's an old phrase that Good Girls Love Bad Boys. Heck, there's an entire sub-genre dedicated to this particular plot. And the satisfactory plots go one of two ways.

The Set-Up: Good Girl meetscute Bad Boy; Bad Boy, after much amusing and tittilating non-wooing-wooing gets Good Girl.

Comical Ending: Through relationship with Good Girl, Bad Boy is redeemed and, after struggling with one last inner demon, Bad Boy saves the day and Girl and Boy live happily ever after; or

Tragical Ending: Bad Boy nearly is wooed over to the light side by dating Good Girl, but in the end his one last fling with the Sith lords of that particular universe tragically at least his romance if not more frequently his life; with the additional collorary

Cautionary Tragical Ending: That sometimes Bad Boy rubs off on Good Girl and Good Girl goes bad, joins Bad Boy in his one last fling and they both die.

Han Solo took the Comical Ending, which made him more lovable because then he was just a delightful rogue and every good girl's dream bad boy (which is to say, a redeemable bad boy - all of the fun with none of the damnation). Spike was trying to follow the comical, but made the fatal error of being more interesting than their increasingly whiny Buffy and so was given the tragical ending rather than the comical ending which he deserved. Hence his story felt wronged.

Now, we've got two more Bad Boys on TV whose stories I fear for. We've Logan Echolls on Veronica Mars who the writers keep on forcing towards Tragical Ending, but they keep dangling the comical (and to my mind, far more satisfactory) ending in front of us. Same goes for the makers of Lost who seem to feel somehow that they're obliged to keep Sawyer from any sort of path of redemption.

My latest theory is that those authors who are trying to keep their females the heroines get very nervous around the Bad Boy gone Good plot, and think that by keeping their interesting bad guys bad, they're somehow helping keep the girl front and center. But all they're really doing is confusing the trajectory of their own plotlines! Giving secondary characters a full plot themselves doesn't detract from our heroes, but makes them stronger. And if the danger is that either the Bad Boy is becoming soppy or the Good Girl is becoming disinteresting, the solution oughtn't be to weaken the Bad Boy and to toughen up the Good Girl, but rather to really delve in deep to learn how to portray Goodness in all its complexity and tribulation and struggle and excitement.

So c'mon, Hollywood and NYC - learn how to be good and to write *ahem* Good, too. QED. Thus spake Zarthrustra. $5 pizza calls my name, which makes it not only a Sunday cheap pizza, but an impressive pizza, too.

Mood: Mieux, merci
Music: Acts I & II of Hamlet - currently "Earth" from Gladiator
Thought: How could I have forgotten my brothers, those soldier in Heaven fighting on our behalf?

Bullet(in) Update

My brain is on Muppet's Update Anchor Man - y'know, the fellow who always has something/one/cow fall on him just as he's in the middle of announcing rogue things/ones/cows are on the loose. Anywho...!

The classroom is looking spiffy, which is wonderful. There are (drumroll please) actual bulletin boards, and I've expanded my reach (cue swirling black vortex) to the bulletin board outside my classroom as well. The board by my desk is for myself - complete with Sacred Heart, Shakespeare and St. Julian of Norwich quote, pre-Raphaelite rendition of Mediaeval times, and pink roses. The drama/music board is up, and several pieces of play memorabilia are strewn tastefully throughout the room. I'm actually liking the room more and more. Certainly, I think it may be larger than the last, and is not carpeted, which will help with staging/choreographing Guys and Dolls.

Watched with mia familia The Producers tonight - the movie of the play of the movie. While it's hardly a perfect musical, and some bits were edited for Mum, we all got HUUUUGE laughs out of it - esp. in re: identifying ourselves within the context of the show. Poor Mum - folks don't know, really, what she goes through to get these productions up and running. Of course, we probably trade off being Leo and Max, but it's all good. Happy day.

Am cantoring at the 11:30 and then lectoring at the 5:00 tomorrow. I guess I need it! Hopefully, if all goes well, after next week's five, we'll all be going out to Outback - which will be nice, and present enough. (Genug - curious that that word does seem like its English counterpart. And the randominity just keeps coming.)

Am in a slightly dilemma (for Jules: Dilemma! DEEELEEEEEEMMAAAAAAAH!) re: the visuals vs. the sound in the tapes I have of Hamlet. Sometimes the best take is night one, when I only have crummy sound, and all the other nights I have to do all sorts of finagling to take the sound from one and the visual from the other and cue it all together and...sigh. C'est ca. What can one do? Have the main camera closer to the stage, apparently. La.

Everything continues slightly surreal. I thank God for Wednesday evening. And for colleague neighbors who are becoming more and more delightful to chat with. And for brothers who help move things from here to ridiculous there by the most stairful and circuitous route possible.

Mood: Ponder-y
Music: Mental "We Can Do It" from The Producers
Hope: And all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well....