adiva_calandia

1. I am having a deal of trouble picking between two beat poems for Speech class: St. Margaret Stepping From the Belly of the Dragon, by Margaret Randall, and He Prepares to Take Leave of His Hut, by Lew Welch.

2. I . . . may have been challenged to a cagematch with a guy twice my size yesterday? >.> (Well, not by him, but by one of his friends who wanted to know if I could beat him up. However, he did say that he thought he would win in a fight with me -- "The question is whether training can ever overcome insurmountable physical odds." "Do you think you're insurmountable?" "*patient* I think I'm twice your size." -- so that's kind of the same. He was very gentlemanly and good-humored about it all, though. It was fun.)

Mt. Redoubt has been erupting for the past -- week or so? There had been a wind from the southeast blowing the ash cloud away from Anchorage, but apparently the wind is shifting and it's headed for the city now. Stay safe, Anchorage peeps!

In news of broader interest, Patrick Wilson -- yes, that Patrick Wilson, CMU Drama class of '95, aka Raoul, and Joe Pitt, and motherfucking Nite Owl -- is speaking here on Friday. Evidently I will have to skip some class to go see the panel he's on. (He's also leading musical theatre workshops with the seniors, those lucky sons of bitches.)

I freaking love my school, man.

ETA: Aaand just sent a thank-you e-mail to Naomi Wallace that I hope won't come across as too fawning. And now, to go turn in my timesheet and make ze monies!

Things to Do Today:

1. Go to library; pick up a hard copy of The Revenger's Tragedy for ease of reading, and The Empty Space.

2. Work out, to offset all the awesome food my parents have been taking me out for.

3. Dinner with Doc and parentals.


So we read The Duchess of Malfi over break and have been discussing it, and I cannot tell you how in love I am with this play. I just. So good. Not quite as UTTERLY INSANE as The White Devil -- nobody gets shot and then trampled on -- but still with plenty of wacky Websterian hijinks like Ferdinand trying to throttle his own shadow. YES. GIVE IT TO ME. And the Duchess herself, oh man. I am busily learning one of her monologues to keep in my back pocket as a classical dramatic audition piece.


Roomie's parents were also in town this weekend, and they brought her electric bass and amp with them. Which of course meant I immediately begged roomie for lessons, and now I can play a couple of scales with some level of proficiency. Can stardom be far behind?

1. I'm alive! I made it through midterms alive!

2. WATCHMEN MIDNIGHT PREMIERE YESSSS. Only marred slightly by my roomie's snobbery about fandom. Roomie's a hardcore DC fan and has been for a long time. She called much of the audience "casual fans," insisted that because I only read the novel a month ago I shouldn't dress up (I didn't, but for the better reason of me, uh, not having anything to wear), and derided the one guy who showed up in our theater with his upper body painted blue.

Guys, come on: the point of fandom is not to bemoan the fact that newbies are coming into your fandom because of the latest movie. It's a jerky move to stick up your nose at people who have wandered in just for the explosions and haven't yet discovered the brilliant politics and meta writing and world-building. The point of a movie of your favorite fandom is to celebrate the things it gets right, bemoan the things it got wrong, and welcome the new generation of fans.

tl;dr: a) Why can't we all just get along? b) WATCHMEN OMG.

3. It was a gorgeous day today, up in the 60s, so rather than do my taxes and financial aid I ended up in a playground in Squirrel Hill with roomie and two other friends, swinging, merry-go-rounding, sliding, and climbing all over fences and steep rocky hillsides. It was awesome. There are pictures.

Now I am sleepy and rather grimy from running around outside, but it was so worth it. Tonight we're gonna go to half-price at Joe Mama's! Tomorrow we're gonna go to the zoo! (And I'm going to pack and do my damn financial stuff!)

4. Did I mention we're going to Chicago for spring break? CHICAGO. YAAAAAY. (Psst, Chicago guys, what's the weather been like? How heavy a coat should I pack?)

I have nobody to blame but myself for the fact that I'm having to scan all these articles for my actors' packets rather than copy them, since I'm the one who broke the Drama copier yesterday.

I am still frustrated.

I have vague ideas for a short theatrical piece for next year's Playground based on Alice in Wonderland, drawing on Jefferson Airplane and Escape Key and Go Ask Alice and Disney and maybe Charles Dodgson's photos of Alice Liddell. I'm not sure exactly what form all this would take; I expect the narrative would mostly follow "The Cheshire," same as "Girl Who's Never Been." That's all I've got at the moment, though.

Haaaaa shit I just sent my final cut of the script to the cast for the performance tomorrow. It better clock in at 30 minutes, because if Rico tries to stop it before the last two minutes I will punch him in the FACE.

Playground kicked off with six sophomore boys singing, and me, quite literally, front and center watching them. And they started with "Man of Constant Sorrow." Nguh. I music-gasmed. Noticeably. (I saw one of them backstage afterwards, and he laughed and gave me a high-five and said "You were loving that first one, weren't you?")

Tomorrow is also Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog LIVE, and you have no freaking idea how excited I am about being a henchpoke. The costume is GREAT. And holy crap Dr. Horrible looks great, and so does Captain Hammer, and the singers are all so good, and GAH. It's all almost enough to make up for the fact that we had to cut "So They Say" for time.

Having just watched The Jazz Singer, which inexplicably ends with Al Jolson's blackface act, I feel like I ought to say something profound about the cultural appropriation kerfluffle . . .

But 1) lord do I not want to get involved right now, and 2) I have rehearsal.

So. That's life.

daniidebrabant:

Thank you thank you thank you for World War Z. It has made wandering through the airport much more bearable and will probably help with the upcoming 7-hour plane ride. :D

Unrelatedly, new self-portrait default icon courtesy dormmate Jessica, the photographer, and lienne, the iconner.

ETA: YESSS A IN FEMINIST LIT CLASS. *VICTORYARMS*

So let's see.

Thursday roomie, friend, and I went to see Changeling, which I think I'll just call right now as at least nominated for Best Picture, with an Oscar for Angelina Jolie for Best Actress and a nod to John Malkovich for Best Supporting Actor (not really deserved -- not because he was bad, just because it wasn't a challenging performance). In a perfect world, Jeffrey Donovan and Jason Butler Harner will get nominations. (In a truly perfect world, so would Eddie Alderson, who's starting his career off right. Holy hell.)

Thursday I also came down with a cold over the course of the day.

Then on Friday I finished a ten-page paper on The Blair Witch Project and the way its cinematography interacts with Laura Mulvey's theory of the narrative cinematic male gaze, three hours before deadline and with enough material that I could have written another five pages at least. It is a kickass paper, dude.

Friday my cold got better, mostly; I don't know how that happened but I sure as hell am not complaining.

Friday, roomie and I also started marathoning the last two-thirds of SPN season 3. We made it almost to the end -- but when we hit 4 AM and we still had two episodes to go, we called it quits.

Instead, we finished those two episodes today (tangent: I just don't like the last few episodes of s3 as much as the rest of the season. I mean, s3 has some fantastic eps, and the last few just don't measure up, I feel) and watched the first few minutes of 4.01. (We made plans to get in touch with each other on IM and watch the rest of s4 that we currently have handy, which I think is up to 4.05.) Then we went out for crepes, and now roomie is winging -- well, rolling -- her way back home with her mom, leaving me the room to myself until I leave on the 17th. As ever, I feel vaguely like I ought to be tracking down some attractive boy or other and taking advantage of the empty room, but instead I'm probably just going to spend the next few days watching movies, writing, vidding, and possibly doing some thrift-storing with a friend.

And roomie's mom is one of those generous moms who will not only buy you lunch, but give you a freaking ginormous basket of organic cheese, crackers, fruit, and chocolate, with a few bottles of HonesTea to help it all go down, so I'll be well fed, too.

Mmmm. *stretches* Life is pretty decent.

Unrelated to anything question: A friend has recently started a blog on Blogspot, and I've been thinking about following her example. There's a way to publish entries simultaneously on LJ and Blogger, right? Or am I nuts?

MY ROOMMATE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PUTS ALL OTHER ROOMMATES TO SHAME.

Why?

Because she got be freaking Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage starring Jared Padalecki and Peter O'Toole for Christmas.

Jared Padalecki in a HORRIBLE MOVIE in a RED SCARF, with the promise of watching it and making fun of it 'till the end of time.

The defense rests.

Christmas is gonna be AWESOME.

(CROSSOVER FIC Y/Y?)