Some women...

I may be just a little obsessed with men's fashion

Now he's cute...

Feeling the Christmas Spirit!

Thanksgiving hasn't even passed and yesterday I officially started listening to Christmas music.  The "Fishbowl" (a windowed room off of which all the theater professors' offices are located) even followed my lead by displaying its Christmas Spirit.

My favorite rendition of the Christmas story told by kids in New Zealand.

Frogs

There are instructions that go along with this blog post.
1. Press play on the youtube clip.
2. Scroll down and look at the pictures.
3. Enjoy!

"I heard about this frog..."

"and blue becomes red..."

"and red becomes blue..."

"and everything looks like a giant cupcake..."

"and you keep laughing and laughing and laughing..."

"its time to turn into a frog yourself..."

"do you want to play with me?"

"and in the bathtubs..."

"it would be great, right?"

Horray for Free Range!

You'll ne...ver...walk...alone!

So I've finished the Harry Potter series and I'm slightly disappointed in the movies, but that's how it usually always is with the book going to the movie.  The picture in my head of the story just doesn't add up with what  is on the screen.

So now that HP is officially read, I am now reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Don't worry, its the more than complete one.  Pretty awesome book so far.  Not the best book to read while running lights for a show though.  I almost busted out laughing when Eddie the computer started singing You'll Never Walk Alone.

"Impact minus twenty seconds, guys..." said the computer.

"Then turn the bloody engines back on!" bawled Zaphod.

"Oh, sure thing, guys," said the computer.  With a subtle roar the engines cut back in, the ship smoothly flattened out of its dive and headed back toward the missiles again.

The computer started to sing.

"'When you walk through the storm...'" it whined nasally, "hold your head up high...'"

-Quote from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams (read it!)

Kinda loving this song in this moment right now.  The color in the music video is kinda trippy.

Stairs

I have a strange fascination with stairs.

Dainty Birdwatching

Daintily watching for birds.

Fake English

Half the time when you're watching it actually seems like they are saying legit words!  I sometimes have trouble understanding people because I hear the sounds that they are making and it doesn't register as words. I blame it on the fact that I've been to so many different countries where I don't understand the language.

Delayed Harry Potter Obsession

I have a delayed Harry Potter obsession.  I did not start the first book until the beginning of this semester AFTER seeing the last movie.  I probably would view Snape differently if I had not seen the movies.  I can't seem to hate him with as much passion as Harry.  I cried when I learned about Snape and Lily in the movie.  I've been reading as fast as I can just to get to that chapter.  Talk about motivation.

I find it rather interesting that Alan Rickman played a similar role in Sense and Sensibility as Colonel Brandon.  He is absolutely wonderful in that role.  Also as a person he has a mystery about him which is so intriguing.

The role of the silent lover is so beautiful to me.  For a person to love without any knowledge of being loved in return within literature is "terribly romantic."

Spoken Poetry

I watched Sarah Kay on TED and I have been inspired.  Spoken poetry sounds amazing!  There is something about the spoken word so different from the written word.  The written word has room for interpretation.  This is why texting sometimes drives me a little nuts.  You never know if someone is being sarcastic or not.  The voice of a person carries an emotion along with the words.  Taking speech class and being around a ton of actors has taught me the importance of inflection on certain words.  The same phrase can mean many things if said differently.  Poetry has had a reputation on being very emotional.  How can it not be when the people who write it are so damn emotional?  An English teacher of mine recommended reading poems out loud in order to understand them better, and not just once but many times.  The more I said the words out loud, the more I understood them.  Sarah mentions within the clip from TED that spoken poetry incorporated her two loves: poetry and theatre.  I live in the world of theatre every day and know firsthand how people can be influenced by what is said on stage.  I don't claim to know everything about theatre, because who can fully know an art that dates all the way back to the Greeks?  Though I believe that a catharsis happens to the audience when they both hear and see.  Shakespeare is universally known as an amazing playwright by those in the theatre profession to those who have no knowledge of the master except, "to be or not to be, that is the question."  The flow of poetry has a wondrous effect on people.  A person will remember poetry.  This is why I find spoken poetry so fascinating.
Anis Mogjani is one person who I have somewhat familiarized myself with and I find rather amazing.

The Movable Horse

I need a horse puppet for a show that I'm props master for.  I want the legs to be able to move realistically so it doesn't look terribly fake.  Its fine if the head doesn't move.  I'm praying that the director doesn't want one this big.  The life sized puppet in this clip is giving me a great amount of inspiration never the less.  The horse above is the puppet from War Horse on Broadway.

Test Footage for Alice in Wonderland

I've always found anything with my name very interesting.  Alice in Wonderland is one book that I can't seem to get enough of.  Film is also of great interest to me.  Being in theatre, I am surrounded by actors and they all act different.  Actors incorporate parts of their own personality into the characters.  I love how animation takes what the actors do physically and create a whole character from that.

The Winner Stands Alone

I'm currently reading "The Winner Stands Alone" by Paulo Coelho.  This book has changed my whole view of the those that have money.  Paulo Coelho is an artist with words.

"Fashion" is merely a way of saying: "I belong to your world.  I'm wearing the same uniform as your army, so don't shoot."

Quote from The Winner Stands Alone

Water

Buttercups

I know this sounds a little crazy, but one of the reasons I miss Alaska so much is the fact that Mississippi does not have any buttercups.  Switzerland is one of my favorite countries because... wait for it... it has buttercups. When I was little I was told that if you held a buttercup under your chin and you could see yellow under your chin that meant you liked butter.  I quickly found out that it was just the reflection of the yellow from the buttercup.

Anton Chekhov

I never knew that Anton Chekhov was this handsome.

See more attractive men from way back when at My Daguerreotype Boyfriend

The Smile of Death Becomes the Ideal of Feminine Beauty

In the late 1880s, the body of a 16-year-old girl was pulled from the Seine. She was apparently a suicide, as her body showed no marks of violence, but her beauty and her enigmatic smile led a Paris pathologist to order a plaster death mask of her face.

In the romantic atmosphere of fin de siècle Europe the girl’s face became an ideal of feminine beauty. The protagonist of Rainer Maria Rilke’s 1910 novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge writes, “The mouleur, whose shop I pass every day, has hung two plaster masks beside his door. [One is] the face of the young drowned woman, which they took a cast of in the morgue, because it was beautiful, because it smiled, because it smiled so deceptively, as if it knew.”

Ironically, in 1958 the anonymous girl’s features were used to model the first-aid mannequin Rescue Annie, on which thousands of students have practiced CPR. Though the girl’s identity remains a mystery, her face, it’s said, has become “the most kissed face of all time.”

From the Futility Closet

Inner Monologue

"As I'm sure you guys know by now, it is extremely difficult to stay alert and attentive instead of getting hypnotized by the constant monologue inside your head."
by David Foster Wallace

Eye Candy

Sony "Eye Candy" from Süperfad on Vimeo.

Sony hired Superfad to create a video for their "make.believe" campaign.
I am just amazed at how smoothly they transitioned from one thing to another.  So beautiful!  I think I'm in love.

Baby Bird

I almost caused a baby bird to be run over.  I was on my way to the grocery store when I see a little bird sitting on the sidewalk.  I got closer to it so I could snap a quick picture, when he "flew" towards the street.  "NO, BABY BIRD!" I yelled.  I couldn't bear to watch him get run over by a car, so I ran into the grocery store.  When I came back out I searched for his little body along the side of the street expecting to see him ground into the asphalt.  I found no body run over by a car.  The little bird was now cuddled next to the wall of the grocery store scared out of his wits.  I was very happy that he had not been run over and proceeded on my merry way.

Books

I went to Barnes & Noble yesterday.  I walked in and the smell of new books hit me like the perfume of a beautiful garden.  Though for some odd reason bookstores always make me feel heavy.  I keep thinking of how many writers put themselves on the pages of the books.  All of them so desperate to be known.

Sally Mann

I stumbled upon Sally Mann, an amazing American photographer.  She started out taking pictures of her children then transitioned into landscapes.  Her style has a strange beauty.  I'm quite enamored.

White Wine and Roses

Today is May Day.  I went on a walk and saw a lady sitting on her front porch.  She didn't even look up as I passed.  In her hand was a glass of white wine and strewn in front of her were pink roses.