1. “Take Me or Leave Me” from Rent

Yeah, let’s just call this one what it is: The Lesbian Song. It’s great and all, but I would just feel wrong asking my own sister if she “wants her girl hot.” I mean, in front of an audience. We sing this I’m the car allll the time.

2. “Light My Candle” from Rent

This one is slightly better but again, wickedly inappropriate–especially if my grandma comes to the show. I don’t do drugs literally or figuratively, and my sister complimenting my ass while I search the floor for my stash would only lead to awkward family moments later down the road.

3. “What Could be Better” from BABY

Yeah, so if you haven’t heard this song WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU WHY DO YOU HATE THEATER? Go listen to it now; this blog will be here when you return.

Now that your back you can understand my dilemma with this wonderful tune. Sure it is catchy, but singing about the detailed process of a sperm traveling towards an egg is not something I would like to sing in detail to all of those fathers out there in le audience. (Hi dad!!! Hope you’ve stopped reading this by now!)

4. Anything from Avenue Q

It’s Avenue Q. They have a song titled “The Internet is for Porn.” Enough said.

Despite of these songs (which we would rock, by the way), I’m fairly sure no matter what we sang we would bring the house down. In tears. And tears because we are good.

So hello to you all! Yes, yes, yes I KNOW, I haven’t been on this thing in quite some time. Whatever! It is the new year! Let us forget the fact that I haven’t properly blogged in months, and let us remember that I am blogging RIGHT NOW.

Yeah, so things haven’t changed; I’m still here, still not blogging, but hopefully going to change that. And how to we bring in the new year on improbablefiction?!? With pictures, of course!

My New Year’s picture two years ago (2010):

Cheers! I was in a dark hotel; waiting to go to New Zealand

My New Year’s picture one year ago (2011):

Last year I was alone (well, there was my cat) and I made this horrible face.

My New Year’s picture this year (2012):

This was supposed to be another picture of me and le cat....but then she decided to lick my face right when the picture snapped. I can't be bothered to get her to pose for a real one.

So there was that. A lot of things happened this year that are quite memorable. Shall we discuss? Let’s begin with my resolutions from last year. If you look here you will see that I created ELEVEN resolutions. I don’t know if I did this because it was 2011 or I was going CRAZY. But I did, and let’s just say I didn’t keep them. A few, yes, but yeah. no. Things did not go so well in the resolution department. So before I introduce my new resolutions, let’s rewind and look over a few important events from my life this year:

1. Why not begin with a historical moment in my life….MY APPENDECTOMY.

In January of this year, I experienced a pain like no other; I thought I was dying…it was like WWII going on in my stomach. Disgusting, no? YOU HAVE NO IDEA. Quick! An excerpt:

So remember that time I made  resolutions, and like, actually wanted to keep them? Let’s look at the ones that have already kicked the bucket:

5. In 2011 I will go on a hike. Somewhere. Somewhere that involves real nature.

8. In 2011 I will do more things outside, and fewer things on internet.

10. In 2011 I will not wallow in self pity, but do something adventurous and new.

See, I had big plans. I was going to go on a hike on Saturday, I was going to start on my new novels I purchased (all 500 of them), I was going to finish my lesson plans, I WAS GOING TO EAT FISH FINGERS AND CUSTARD!

I had DREAMS!

I had ASPIRATIONS!

I HAD AN EMERGENCY APPENDECTOMY!

Yes, yes, all my dreams and aspirations were shot to h-e-double-hockey-sticks because I had to go and lose an internal organ. Well, not lose as in I can’t find it, lose as in get ready for a long and tragic story involving the removal of an organ whose purpose I am sure does not exist. (Seriously, what does an appendix DO besides hurt a WHOLE FREAKING LOT?)

Yes, it is true. You can read all about it here and here. What a way to begin my semester of student teaching! Seriously– I do not recommend having one of these procedures preformed upon your person.

2. And then….I graduated college!

So things have happened since January. Um, I student taught which was great, and oh yeah I FREAKING GRADUATED. WHAT WHAT WHAAAAAT. I’m a little more than excited. But before that I finished student teaching, and my darling students sent me out with a lovely party. And the main course at said party was….EGG ROLLS. I was all, “Could this get any more amazing?” And then it did because I was able to watch that one kid, the health nut who only eats lean turkey and protein, chow down on seven homemade snicker-doodle cookies in a row. He was so ashamed of himself he said he was going to have to spend hours at the gym. I told him that, seeing as he was in 9th grade, I think he could let it go, just this time. He laughed in my face. KIDS!

It was definitely a high point in my life. Graduating college was so extremely important to me, personally, and saying that I’ve achieved that goal is remarkable. I can’t even believe it!! I graduated college! It was so painfully long and difficult and fun and exciting and amazing and UNBELIEVABLE and I can’t! stop! using! exclamation! points!

3. I met Arron Tveit and Norbert Leo Butz (again)

I’m just now realizing I never blogged about going to NYC this summer and seeing Catch Me If You Can. (I saw the show TWICE; one of which was the closing performance, and I saw the cast perform in Barnes and Nobel in NYC.) And that makes me incredibly sad because those were two of the most amazing experiences of my life. I really, really, really thought I blogged about them. But what is done is done and I promise to do a better job blogging next year. Anyway, I met Norbert (for the millionth time) and Arron smells just as good as you think he would and it was amazing and perfect and I really miss that show.

No, seriously, he smelled amazing. And his face, was like, very nice.

4. I got a proper job.

This is pretty self-explanatory. I was hired by the same school at which I student taught. I’m currently teaching 9th and 10th grade. And!! AND AND AND I get to keep the BLUE in my hair and the administration doesn’t have a problem with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5. I GOT LASER EYE SURGERY

Yuuuup! No more glasses! No more contacts! No more problems! Yay for modern technological advances! I can haz sight!

6. I went on a Disney Christmas Cruise

Yes, yes it was amazing! I’m hoping to get a blog up fairly soon about this cruise, but it was remarkable! I really enjoyed being with my family for Christmas. (Have you noticed these descriptions are getting shorter? Oh well….I must get back into the groove of blogging.)

S0 there you have it. Six important things that happened to me this year. MANY MANY more things happened, but I can’t seem to recall them right now so they don’t make the cut. I’m quite excited for 2012 and I’m really hoping that it will be a million times better than 2011. So here are my 2012 resolutions:

1. Get in shape!

2. Get serious about God.

3. Become a better teacher– try new things, experiment more, etc.

4. Get accepted into a graduate school program and work towards my masters.

And there you go! Four short, sweet, and to the point resolutions. I think I’ll be able to keep four better than eleven! Happy new years to everyone reading this! Stay safe xoxo

Anyway, the point of this holy post is to basically show some pictures I took from a recent photo shoot I did with some coworkers. Now, I’m in no way saying these are perfect, but one of my coworkers is starting up an Etsy shop (I will link when she gets it running) so I took pictures of gals modeling the clothes she is going to sell. Here are a few of my favorite shots:

Sometimes it is just so fun to get away from grading papers and making projects and all of that bureaucratic stuff

Hogwarts House Psychoanalysis

Gryffindor
True Gryffindors have a very strong sense of what is right and what is wrong, and this is a part of what gives them such strong opinions. Depending on the person, this may be taken to a Borderline degree, and they may see people as either good or evil, not in between and no chance of redemption for those on the darker sides of things. Alternately, Gryffindors may see all people as being initially good, and only making the wrong choices take the down the wrong road. Both of these behaviours are why Gryffindors and Slytherins can easily clash. Gryffindors are usually incredibly intelligent, but they tend to be slackers, more focused on getting a taste of something new than sticking to responsibility. This can be their downfall from success, or quite the opposite, bringing them a rise up into something they love. Once they find their true place in the world, Gryffindors will often use their accomplishments to the benefit of others in some form or fashion. Actors, singers and athletes can often be classified as Gryffindors. Despite their good intentions, they can also quite often be ill-tempered and overly emotional, which is their Achilles’ Heel in most instances. A darker Gryffindor may become out of control because of this, hurting those they love or holding a grudge for many years.

Hufflepuff
Essentially, Hufflepuffs see the world and their people as ultimately good, and only the darkness of the inevitable turning them away from what they think is right. Because of this, they tend to treat everyone fairly and with sympathy, trying to put themselves in the other person’s shoes before judging them, if they judge them at all. Hufflepuffs are almost always maternal or paternal types, ready to take care of anyone who may come to them. They are dedicated to what they do, and are very focused on making sure everything is done properly, leaving no room for error. Mostly, Hufflepuffs think what they do is right, and Ravenclaws who doubt them may annoy them, but Hufflepuffs hate conflict, so they tend to ignore their irritation. Hufflepuffs are very passive aggressive, doing little things subconsciously when someone makes them angry. This is usually the farthest they will go so far as revenge, as they rarely want to participate in any form of violence. Hufflepuffs are healers in nature, wishing to care to the needs of others. Many nurses, cooks, teachers or counselors are Hufflepuffs.

Ravenclaw
Intelligent and insightful, Ravenclaws are not ones to classify people under any certain category. Instead they often ponder on humanity, what is good, what is evil and why we should classify people as one or the other. Ravenclaws are very philosophical, and often you may see them simply staring off into space, but this is not in some brainless manner, in fact they are exploring the gears of their mind and trying to figure out how the world works. Ravenclaws are focused on their work, but they often don’t need effort. They tend to pick up on every detail and remember it without even trying, something that others may be skeptical of or be jealous of. This can give some a sense of superiority and the idea they should tell everyone the right way to do something, which can easily make others, especially nervous Hufflepuffs or emotional Gryffindors, very irritated. Ravenclaws are very analytic, and this can be very good or very bad. For the kind-hearted this will be a way to help others, for the dark they can use this to twist and manipulate. Ravenclaws are not every emotional, instead they tend to put up a wall and not let anyone in except for perhaps their closest friends or family. Instead they pick at the minds of others, trying to figure out how they work and to see if they themselves are different, or just the same as everyone else. Psychologists, professors and investigators are often Ravenclaws. 

Slytherin
Slytherins have a more cynical view on the world, and believe that there is darkness in the hearts of all, some are just unwilling to accept it. They think anyone who doesn’t realize this is naive or perhaps even stupid, and because of this they can easily clash with Gryffindors or laugh at Hufflepuffs. This said, Slytherins are absolutely in no way evil, some are actually very good. They simply have a drive that carries their life, and if you get in their way you better watch out. Slytherins have an almost bloodthirsty craving for success, and if they don’t think they can achieve this then they can easily fall into a darker place of  self-loathing and take this out on others. Love and accomplishment are the two things that mean the most to them, and they do not understand that the need for the latter can drive away the former, and when the feeling of pride fades or they fail at something, their possible lack of something dear and close to them can hit, and when it hits it hits hard. Slytherins are very emotional, however unlike Gryffindors they very rarely show it. Instead they bottle it up, using it in other ways, some of which may be artistic. Slytherins can very easily connect to art or music. Slytherins usually pick one subject they feel for and stick with it, rather than focusing on them all. This can be an issue academically, and some Slytherins may even drop out of school, but despite this their ambition will drive them to doing something they love, or they will have a downward spiral into depression. Lawyers, doctors and artists are often Slytherins.

Season One

The good:

The most obviously recognizable song from not only season one, but I’m sure the entire series (however long it runs) is “Don’t Stop Believin“. And it is a very well done song– I love their cover of it. That aside, there was a lot of good music in season one. And I do mean A LOT. About 136 songs. Granted, not all of those were full out numbers, but enough bars were sung to include them in the final song count. I think there was a nice enough mixture of pop music, oldies (though there could have been more), rock, rap, etc. Looking at a list of all the songs performed, season one seems a bit more Broadway heavy than I realized, but I will never complain about that.

A few (there are too many to list) of my favorite performances from season one are: “I Wanna Sex You Up” (I LOVE the Acafellas), “Taking Chances”, “Push It”, “Maybe This Time”, “Jump”, “Don’t Rain on My Parade”, “Hello”, “Like a Prayer”, “Run Joey Run”, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, “I Dreamed a Dream”, “Dream a Little Dream of Me”, “Beth”, “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “To Sir with Love”.

The bad:

With the good comes the bad, and by bad I mean two words: kidz bop. When Glee music is off, it is really off. There is no middle ground. Either it rocks your socks off, or you feel like you are listening to a bunch of kids who think they are better than they actually are sing along to a badly covered song. Case in point: “My Life Would Suck Without You” from the finale of the first half of the season. I simply can’t listen to that song anymore!

Also, may I just say that while Amber (Mercedes) has an incredible voice, they just let her go on and on and on and on and fifteen minutes later you realize she is still screeching out the same four notes. I can never listen to most/if not all of her songs to the end because it just gets so noisy and my ears begin to bleed. Case in point: “Proud Mary”.

And in season one I know Madonna gave them her whole catalogue to use and yay! Wooohoo! But there was no point to the Madonna-themed episode, and I feel like the majority of the themed episodes are written simply to show off their newly acquired music rights. I like when there is a variety of songs in each episode because the themed episodes feel like they are written around the songs, hence the plot makes no actual sense. [Although, to be fair to yesterday's post, when does it ever?]

Some of my least favorite performances are: “Hate on Me”, “My Life Would Suck Without You”, “You Keep Me Hanging On”, “Crazy in Love/Hair”, “Express Yourself”, and “One Less Bell to Answer/A House is Not a Home”.

Final comments:

Overall, I like the music in season one. As said before, there seems to be a nice balance across all genres and it really does carry the show along. If I were grading this I would say somewhere in the high B+ range.

Season Two [**Note-- I have not seen the following episodes: Rumors, Sexy, and New York so I'm not including those songs into this post.]

The good:

I think the music in season two is much stronger than season one. Maybe it is the introduction of the Warblers? I’m not sure. I think they picked some great songs to cover, and a lot of the cast’s voices have become much more polished and refined. As before there was a nice blend of genres and while there were themed episodes, it didn’t bother me as much as the Madonna one did. [Well, the Rocky Horror one didn't bother me as much. I still do not understand the Brittney Spears episode other than to show off Heather Morrison, but whatever.] I actually really, really enjoyed all of the Rocky Horror songs and listen to the soundtrack all of the time (just ask my sister).

I really enjoyed the introduction and constant music from the Warblers. They always did a fantastic job and always picked such good songs! As for New Direction’s songs– I liked the original songs well enough, but I like when they cover songs. I don’t know why, but I just feel like that is what being in show choir is all about. Then again, I’ve never been in a show choir so maybe someone who actually has can offer their opinion.

Some of the songs I like from season two are: “Empire State of Mind”, “Telephone”, “What I Did for Love”, “Toxic”, “River Deep- Mountain High”, All of the “Rocky Horror” songs, “Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag”, “Singin in the Rain/Umbrella”, “Valerie”, “When I Get You Alone”, “Silly Love Songs”, “Don’t You Want Me”, “Headband”, “Trouty Mouth”, “I Feel Pretty/Unpretty”, “Somewhere Only We Know”, and “Friday” (I can’t help that one).

The bad:

Season two’s music was bad in the sense that the majority of plot lines were so inappropriate that the songs just added to it. Take, for example, “Toxic”. Even though I liked the cover, there is no, and I mean NO reason 1) they should have sung that song at the assembly and 2) Will should have performed it with them. And again, as much as I loved the Rocky Horror songs, what on earth was Will thinking? (Oh yeah, he was thinking with his *other* head, all to make Emma jealous.) So while I think there was far fewer kidz bop songs than season one, the majority of the bad comes from the inappropriateness of song selection.

Songs I do not like from season are: “Le Jazz Hot”, “Sing!”, “Need You Now”, “I Know What Boys Like”, and “Candles”.

Final comments:

As you can see, there are far fewer songs I disliked from season two compared with season one. The music was stronger to me, the song selections were better, and the music really helped carry a non-existent plot.

Mashups:

Glee is not the first to do mashed versions of songs, but darn it all they know how to do them right. I think out of all the mashups they’ve done, I have disliked….two? However, I do think that if they would do them less often, they would be even more enjoyable. But I just like them so much! Sooooo basically keep on keepin on with the mashups.

Favorite mashups: “I Feel Pretty/Unpretty” (not only my fave mashup but probably one of my favorite Glee songs), “Thriller/Heads Will Roll”, “Don’t Stand So Close to Me/Young Girl”, “Any Way You Want It/Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’”, and “Singin in the Rain/Umbrella”.

Least favorite mashups: “One Less Bell to Answer/A House is not a Home”, and “Crazy in Love/Hair”.

Reception from McKinley High:

And here is my biggest problem with Glee music, which really goes back to plot. Because all of the problems in Glee go back to the FREAKING PLOT. [I digress...]

So they sang “Push It” in front of the entire school. And the other kids loved it. I mean, they just went crazy. And then they sang “Toxic” and there was a freaking “sex riot” and the kids just went crazy. And then they sang “Thriller/Heads Will Roll” and not only the kids, but the parents went crazy. YET EVERYONE STILL SEEMS TO HATE THE GLEE CLUB. I do not understand it!!!! I mean, I understand that they are the underdogs…………in season one. But I think it is high time for them to become something more than that. Going into the third season with everyone in the school still hating them? It just doesn’t make sense. They get fantastic reception from everyone when they are at assemblies and whatnot, but then they forget all of that and go back to hating them. If it was just the football team who continuously bullied them or mocked them then I would be okay with that. Well, not the actually bullying, but you know what I mean. I just find it so hard to believe that they are still hated by everyone in the school (with the exception of Jacob Ben Israel) even after the “cool kids” joined the club.

I don’t know….is it just me? Don’t you think SOMEONE else would like them by now?

Final thoughts:

Overall I enjoy the music. There is more good than bad which actually made this post harder to write than the first one. I can’t (and won’t) deny that I have a lot, if not most, of the music downloaded to my computer and I must admit that it is predominately what we play in the car when traveling to long distance places like NYC, or Florida. I will give Glee another chance for season three and come back for the music, though I read in an article (I don’t know where, so I can’t link it, sorry) that they were considering cutting down on how much music was used in each episode. If this helps develop an actual plot line- I’m okay with it. However, if it cuts down on music and the plot still sucks as badly as it does right now, then I will have no problem walking away.

Thoughts? Comments? Leave them below!

The first half of the season had spunk and heart and relatively good story lines. Yeah, the writing was a bit shaky and there was no real depth to the characters. But we had the rest of the season! It could only get better from there. OR SO I THOUGHT. I’ve been avoiding writing this post because I can’t really pinpoint what it is exactly that I dislike about the show; it is mainly just a lot of smaller things. But let’s begin with, to me, the biggest disappointment of the show in what I call Why I dislike Glee, Part 1: Character arcs and character/plot development.

I completely understand how the Glee kids find Rachel annoying. But, I mean, COME ON. We are going into the third season and they are still major hating on her. At the beginning it was because she was shallow and stole/hogged the spotlight and was a diva, but in my mind her character has changed…somewhat. She is still an attention hog (she sent a girl to a fracking crack house because she was jealous) but she has become less selfish, even if it is minor. And they still treat her like crap. Finn throws her emotions around, always pitting her against Quinn. I could understand them hating her for the entire first season but seriously, they like her for about ten minutes at the end of an episode and then are back to hating her. Ryan and Marissa’s relationships lasted longer than the Glee club’s friendship with Rachel, and that’s saying something.

Along with that, the other characters are just as shallow as they make Rachel out to be. I would even argue that Mercedes is more of a diva than Rachel. I see that she is upset Rachel gets a lot/the majority of the solos in the first season, but that has changed. Mercedes has been given a lot more spotlight recently and 1) does not seem appreciative at all and 2) still whines about Rachel getting everything. What about Tina? What about Quinn? What have they gotten in terms of solos? Why not give them more than a few bars in a group song? (I really, really dislike Mercedes.)

But even more than Mercedes, I hate, loath, and despise everything that Lauren Zizes is. If I could actually kill a television character, I would choose her- no thought about it no questions asked. She is a horrible, horrible character. I know she is supposed to be on the “evil” side, maybe even a softer villain than Sue. But that does not excuse what she really is: a bully. There is no other way to describe her. She is a bully. And for a group of kids who are constantly being picked on by others, being called losers, etc. they sure are quick to let someone in that continuously feeds into the hate, gossip, and bullying of the Glee club. She starts fights and disagreements, she enables Mercedes to be a diva (and charges her for it), and completely humiliates Quinn. I teach high school students and sadly, I have come across bullying in my own classroom. It was terrible and I saw my own student cry and shut down in class, which only propelled the teasing. Everything Lauren does, I have seen a small form of and the fact that she is supposed to be…helping Puck? Yeah. Right. [And I believe that most of this applies to Santana as well.]

I think most of the adult characters are simply astonishing, and not in a good or positive way. As previously stated, I am a teacher. I’ve been training for the past five years about what to and what not to do in the classroom. We would actually have discussions in my seminar classes about how terrible Will is, and how he would have been fired (if not taken away by the cops) by now. Yes, he does some redeeming things like helping Emma start to recognize/treat her disorder but I just don’t think he is right to be the Glee club sponsor/teacher. For as much “good” as he does, he does far more bad. And Sue is the villain of the show, I get it, and while she has quite a few funny moments, I just don’t even understand how she gets away with saying over half the stuff she says. Yes, I know, this is a television show and there are going to be unrealistic elements and I should just get over it, but Sue is mean. Although she does pleasantly surprise me through her relationship with her sister, and she has shown moments of sincerity and general niceness, so I am definitely willing to give her that.

The other characters who have not been mentioned here I don’t really have too much trouble liking. I’m on the fence about Kurt (please stop screaming at me) because yes, he has had difficulties with people accepting his sexuality, but Kurt is relatively mean to a large majority of people. I’m not saying you should change who you are to please others, and I’m not saying that Kurt should stop being who he is [though what I'm about to say is going to be misinterpreted/attacked by someone I'm sure] but Kurt throws his sexuality in people’s faces, and then gets mad when they don’t immediately love him regardless. Take the prom episode. I was pretty shocked at the results of prom king/queen, and yes, that was horrible. But when getting ready, Kurt wore an outfit that clearly made Blain uncomfortable. He didn’t care- he wanted shock, he wanted wow, and he wanted to be bold. Again, you shouldn’t change who you are to please others, but for Kurt getting mad about others apparently shoving God or religion in his face (like when his father was in the hospital) the same can be said about Kurt shoving issues such as homosexuality and whatnot in other characters’ faces.

As far as plot development, let’s first look at Quinn. She spends the whole first season pregnant and then gives away the baby and then acts like nothing ever happened. Yeah, she references the pregnancy thing here and there, but for building up such a huge story line, even bringing in Idina Menzel (don’t worry- we will come back to her in a later post) to actually adopt the baby, it kind of just fizzled out. Rather upsetting really. There is no way Quinn is that fine after being ridiculed and teased so much whilst pregnant.

Quite a few plot lines last for four or five episodes, but everything sort of drops off. I don’t feel like there has been much continuity. (If you disagree, compare plot lines, continuity, and character development of season one of The O.C. to season one of Glee.) Actually, the only story to have any sort of arc and continuity would be Kurt’s story line and honestly, that has been done to death. I mean, the poor kid cried in almost every episode. Rightfully so, but they’ve focused on one story arc so much that it has lost its luster for me. Time for something new and fresh. My Twitter friend Heather (find her here) agrees with me. She said, “I think the idea of Glee is cool–following a HS glee club that nobody thought could make it as they defied odds, etc. However, there is SUCH a huge focus on the music that there’s not much time left for character development, which does little for plot development as well. If characters can’t grow, neither can the story. What’s left is a flat image of flat characters that sing. And it’s good singing, but if there were no songs, the show would tank.” And I completely agree with her. If there was no music, I would not watch Glee. At all. In fact, that is really the only reason I’ve stuck around (though, to be honest, I’ve never finished the last two episodes of season two).

Overall, Heather has done a nice job at summarizing part one of my posts about Glee. I do really, really like the music which makes it hard to stop watching Glee (therefore making me feel like a hypocrite for watching it). But like I said, without the music I would have stopped watching a long time ago.

I look forward to your comments, but please keep it civil. We may have differing opinions but that is no need to be nasty. And keep a lookout for post two coming soon!

Let’s start with the musicals:

On Broadway

Catch Me if You Can

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Chicago

Beauty and the Beast

The Lion King

Mary Poppins

The Producers

.

West End

Hairspray

Spamalot (x2)

The Sound of Music

Wicked

.

Toronto

The Phantom of the Opera

.

National Tours

Wicked (x2)

The Phantom of the Opera (x4)

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (x2)

Rent

Fiddler on the Roof

Evita

Cats

Oliver

.

High school/University Performances

The Last Five Years

Urinetown

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

And then we have the plays:

NYC—Broadway/Off Broadway

Is He Dead (Broadway)

Through a Glass Darkly (Off Broadway)

.

West End

Hamlet

Rain Man

.

The Globe Theater

Midsummer’s Night Dream

Timon of Athens

.

National Tours/Festivals/Etc.

Peter Pan

Romeo and Juliet (x2)

A Christmas Carol

Hamlet

Two Gentlemen of Verona OR Merchant of Venice  [I can't remember which one]

.

High school/University Performances

The Importance of Being Earnest

Arsenic and Old Lace

Much Ado about Nothing

Little Women

And lastly, miscellaneous performances:

Broadway

The Rockettes

Blue Man Group

.

National Tours

Blue Man Group

The Nutcracker

Hercules

.

University Performances

Cosi fan Tutte (Opera)

.

I have many on my wish list so hopefully I can update this quite soon!

A couple of years ago my family went on a cruise to Mexico. I chose seven of my favorite pictures that I took, and I’m going to post them below. Please note: all of these images are my own personal images. I took all of them and they have only been slightly edited (in terms of sharpness, etc.)

In case you are wondering, I shoot my pictures with an SLR Nikon D60. I have two lenses I use: 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor and 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED AF-S DX VR Zoom-NIkkor. To see the full set of pictures, here is a link to my never updated flikr.

Click on any image below for a larger view.

A Mexican Sunset

Contrasting Skies

Shadows

Lovebirds

A giant chess board in the middle of the ship

My horse Captain

My brother, the giant

Now for SPOILERS.

As far as my thoughts and concerns with the film: I really enjoyed it. I think it is a great adaptation for the portion of the book that was primarily filled avec war-related things. I am extremely sad that Fred’s full death was not in the movie (though I hear through many an internet rumor that it is going to be on the deleted scenes) and OH MY GOSH WHAT THE ACTUAL  FRICK! LAVENDER BROWN! EATEN BY A WEREWOLF! (Which I thought was Greyback but I’m not certain. Guess I will just have to go see it AGAIN. Darn.)

There wasn’t too much I remember being changed from the book. Except for the whole Harry grabbing Voldy by the neck and throwing themselves off the bridge. That made me slightly laugh just a little (most things Voldemort do). I am quite certain that when I reread the book I will find other things that were left out, but honestly I knew this is what was going to happen– I mean there is just no way that they would be able to have such a faithful adaptation concerning all these battles and whanot. But this was definitely much better played out on the big screen than it was in my head whilst reading the book. So mad props for that.

ALAN RICKMAN FOR ALL THE AWARDS. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. THEM.

I did like all of the humor that was added in, especially anything McGonagall and the awkward hug between Draco and Voldemort. I also love all the little Ron moments (“that’s my girlfriend you numpty” and “frankie first year” etc) and of course the kiss that everyone has been waiting for. Our audience cheered!

And of course there was the BADASSMOFO NEVILLE LONGFREAKINGBOTTOM. That’s all that needs to be said on that.

And lastly the best line of the night: “NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH” Our audience also cheered for that one.

And things I did not like so much: the epilogue. Like, the entire thing. And Harry was supposed to FIX HIS ORIGINAL WAND WITH THE ELDER WAND AND THEN DESTROY IT AND THEN DESTROY IT NOT NOT NOT NOOOOOOOTTTTTT DESTROY THE WAND WITHOUT FIXING THE ORIGINAL WAND booooooo writers.

Other than that slight error, it was fantastic. And I’m going to see it again this weekend. Yay!!!!!

Bella-trix-not-swan

The girls who asked to take our picture

Baby Her-me-on-ee

More costumers

Dumblydoor photobomb

secret lovers

The most AMAZING Dumbledor EVERRR

For favorite professor, I am going to have to go with Horace Slughorn. For these challenges I’ve been trying to strictly stay with the books and not let the movies influence my opinions, but I have to break that rule with this one. I adored Slughorn in the books and while he wasn’t as…..”plump” as I would have liked, the movie version of Slughorn is one of my favorite portrayals of any character. I mean, he is such an outrageous man, clearly collecting and showing off favorite students, and an awesome potions teacher (from love potion to Draught of Living Death on the first day of class! wowza!). Can you see Snape teaching the students to make a love potion? Me neither. Living Death? Yiz. Let’s not forget the funeral for Aragog and the kind words he spoke….before taking his venom and most likely selling it in Knockturn Alley.

Despite accidentally teaching Tom Riddle about horcruxes, Horace steps up to the plate and helps in the final battle of Hogwarts. Fav-o-rite.