You are Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)
You love your significant other and
you are a tough cookie when in a conflict.
Click here to take the "Which Serenity character are you?" quiz...
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Firefly, We Hardly Knew Ya...
You are Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)
You love your significant other and
you are a tough cookie when in a conflict.
Click here to take the "Which Serenity character are you?" quiz...
Monday, March 26, 2007
Well, duh...
Drama, Musician and Gamer run pretty neck and neck and neck.
| What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Drama Nerd You sure do love the spotlight and probably have a very out-going and loud personality. Or not. That's just a stereotype, of course. Participation in the theatre is something to be very proud of. Whether you have a great voice for musicals, or astounding skills for dramas/comedies; keep up the good work. We need more entertainment these days that isn't television and video games (not that these things are bad, necessarily.) | |
| Literature Nerd | |
| Musician | |
| Gamer/Computer Nerd | |
| Social Nerd | |
| Artistic Nerd | |
| Science/Math Nerd | |
| Anime Nerd | |
| What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace | |
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Kate, Kate, Bo-bate! Banana-fanna, Fo-fate!
Anyone who can identify the quote in my blog post title gets brownie points.
I am very happy to be identified as Kate, since I've always LOVED this character and Elizabeth Taylor's performance (as pictured) with Richard Burton.
I'm also very happy that I haven't completely forgotten all of my HTML knowledge and was able to troubleshoot and fix the code. There was a problem with the text not showing up. Oh, yeah. I'm good!
I am very happy to be identified as Kate, since I've always LOVED this character and Elizabeth Taylor's performance (as pictured) with Richard Burton.
I'm also very happy that I haven't completely forgotten all of my HTML knowledge and was able to troubleshoot and fix the code. There was a problem with the text not showing up. Oh, yeah. I'm good!
| Which Shakespearian Leading Lady are You? Katherine: The Taming Of The Shrew You are a woman to be reckoned with. You are not only strong willed but are extremely emotionally involved as well. This combination is volatile and could lead to violence. Nothing standing between you and your wants is acceptable. Therefore, it is important to remember the difference between wants and needs. As Kate inevitably does, channel your energies into a healthy relationship. Play with your partner; you’re the master at it anyway!
|
| Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests. |
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
The Cat's Out of the Bag
I've been waiting to post this for a couple of weeks. It had taken so long to get what I wanted and needed that I was afraid I'd jinx it with a premature announcement. So without further ado...
I got a job. A good one. A real, honest-to-goodness, regular full-time employee type job with decent pay, good commute, great co-workers, casual atmosphere, and nice benefits. A job where people say please and thank you. A job where my boss doesn't track me with a stop watch and asks for my opinion. A company that's been around for 33 years and grown exponentially in the last 10. A company that has employees celebrating 25-year anniversaries.
And I even like the work.
I'm a Technical Writer / Trainer in Product Development for a Twin Cities-based incentives company. In a nut shell, my company helps other companies keep employees feeling happy and appreciated through incentives and loyalty programs.
More later. I'm still writing freelance on the side occasionally and I'm up late tonight to meet a deadline.
'night, all...
I got a job. A good one. A real, honest-to-goodness, regular full-time employee type job with decent pay, good commute, great co-workers, casual atmosphere, and nice benefits. A job where people say please and thank you. A job where my boss doesn't track me with a stop watch and asks for my opinion. A company that's been around for 33 years and grown exponentially in the last 10. A company that has employees celebrating 25-year anniversaries.
And I even like the work.
I'm a Technical Writer / Trainer in Product Development for a Twin Cities-based incentives company. In a nut shell, my company helps other companies keep employees feeling happy and appreciated through incentives and loyalty programs.
More later. I'm still writing freelance on the side occasionally and I'm up late tonight to meet a deadline.
'night, all...
Saturday, March 10, 2007
One Brief, Shining Moment... It Ain't
The most recent revival of Camelot at the Ordway in Saint Paul was the victim of a school yard bully: pushed in the mud, nose bloodied, snicker-snagged on... and had its lunch money taken away.
One look at the the masterminds behind this desecration of classic American musical theater and we can see why. The book for this production has been "reimagined" by Michael Lerner, son of the original lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, for a contemporary audience. Gone are musical numbers "The Jousts", "Fie on Goodness", and "I Loved You Once in Silence". "Guenevere", that tells the tale of Lancelot's escape, Guenevere's trial and sentence, Arthur's heartbreak, and the destruction of the Round Table has been virtually reduced to a chorus of 6 voices and 60 seconds of everyone running about.
Scenes have been swapped around. Songs moved or removed. Lines added or changed. New one-liners dropped in to lighten the tone of the second act. Old jokes, that may be offensive to our more enlightened modern tastes (read: whiney-ass cry-babies without a sense of humor) have been cut and replaced with awkward, apologetic comments.
Does Michael Lerner actually have a background in daddy's grand profession? Oh, no! This is his FIRST theatrical attempt. Prior to this he was a foreign correspondent for Newsweek magazine. No joke.
Michael's sister, Liza Lerner, is the Producer. And - who'd have guessed it - this is the FIRST show she's ever produced! What's the daughter of an American theater icon been doing for a living? She's the president of her own interior design firm. That explains the just-passable sets and the what-were-they-thinking costume choices.
From the moment the curtain rose, I knew we were in trouble as a young lad in silhouette rushed onto the stage and pulls a sword from a stone. I guess they had to remind us what show we came to see.
Then there's Michael York. Yup. There he is. An accomplished actor whose career spans over 40 years of stage and screen. And he was awful. I mean, really awful. Instead of a powerful but thoughtful and tragic king, we get an amiable, oafish Wart. York takes the man who never intended to be king, and runs with that interp through the entire show. Flat, one-note, and lifelessly mellow, Arthur bumbles bemusedly through most of the darkest moments of the play like a Zoloft-addicted koala bear.
Poor acting choices aside, York's physicality was completely distracting. We've all seen amateur actors who pose or have no clue as to what do with their hands to make their movement look natural. All night, York's elbows seemed to be tied to his waist in some sort of constant rock'em-sock'em-robot pattern of gestures. What's almost worse, is that he was the only actor on stage doing it. If I hadn't known better, I'd have said that this was opening night or his first stage show after years of film, but that's not the case. It was just sadly disappointing.
Rachel York, however, was surprisingly stunning. Her Guenevere had a vitality and intelligence often missing from this ingenue role from the moment she set foot on stage. James Barbour, in the role of Lancelot, lended his sonorous voice and musical theater acting chops to a role too often portrayed as a simple, self-centered, religious fanatic. Add in Time Winter's endearing Pellinore and Eric Anderson's pagan Merlyn, and you have several talented performers hog-tied into a frighteningly-disastrous train wreck aimed right at the terrified and unsuspecting audience.
We won't even get into the silliest dance move for knights a-may-ing -- ever, Lancelot's silver lame' go-go boots, nuance-nullifying amplified sound, the joust cut to a 2/3 version sword fight, a faster tempo for every tune, turning a classic tragedy into an upbeat romp for the the text-messaging generation, or the thoroughly uninspired blocking and stage pictures.
I mean, wow. This was a stinker. Ever seen audience members walk out of the middle of performances at the Ordway?
I did.
Yes. It was that bad.
We listened to one of the Richard Harris versions on CD in the car. Popped in the DVD of the 1967 film version when we got home. Ordered the 1982 Showtime version from Amazon before we went to bed. Had to get the bad taste out of our mouths.
I love Camelot and I have for years. I've read "The Once and Future King" by T.S. White many times and even Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur". I don't want my children's only exposure to this timeless tale to be this butchered travesty. Time to right the wrongs before they end up in therapy.
* out of * * * * *
One look at the the masterminds behind this desecration of classic American musical theater and we can see why. The book for this production has been "reimagined" by Michael Lerner, son of the original lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, for a contemporary audience. Gone are musical numbers "The Jousts", "Fie on Goodness", and "I Loved You Once in Silence". "Guenevere", that tells the tale of Lancelot's escape, Guenevere's trial and sentence, Arthur's heartbreak, and the destruction of the Round Table has been virtually reduced to a chorus of 6 voices and 60 seconds of everyone running about.
Scenes have been swapped around. Songs moved or removed. Lines added or changed. New one-liners dropped in to lighten the tone of the second act. Old jokes, that may be offensive to our more enlightened modern tastes (read: whiney-ass cry-babies without a sense of humor) have been cut and replaced with awkward, apologetic comments.
Does Michael Lerner actually have a background in daddy's grand profession? Oh, no! This is his FIRST theatrical attempt. Prior to this he was a foreign correspondent for Newsweek magazine. No joke.
Michael's sister, Liza Lerner, is the Producer. And - who'd have guessed it - this is the FIRST show she's ever produced! What's the daughter of an American theater icon been doing for a living? She's the president of her own interior design firm. That explains the just-passable sets and the what-were-they-thinking costume choices.
From the moment the curtain rose, I knew we were in trouble as a young lad in silhouette rushed onto the stage and pulls a sword from a stone. I guess they had to remind us what show we came to see.
Then there's Michael York. Yup. There he is. An accomplished actor whose career spans over 40 years of stage and screen. And he was awful. I mean, really awful. Instead of a powerful but thoughtful and tragic king, we get an amiable, oafish Wart. York takes the man who never intended to be king, and runs with that interp through the entire show. Flat, one-note, and lifelessly mellow, Arthur bumbles bemusedly through most of the darkest moments of the play like a Zoloft-addicted koala bear.
Poor acting choices aside, York's physicality was completely distracting. We've all seen amateur actors who pose or have no clue as to what do with their hands to make their movement look natural. All night, York's elbows seemed to be tied to his waist in some sort of constant rock'em-sock'em-robot pattern of gestures. What's almost worse, is that he was the only actor on stage doing it. If I hadn't known better, I'd have said that this was opening night or his first stage show after years of film, but that's not the case. It was just sadly disappointing.
Rachel York, however, was surprisingly stunning. Her Guenevere had a vitality and intelligence often missing from this ingenue role from the moment she set foot on stage. James Barbour, in the role of Lancelot, lended his sonorous voice and musical theater acting chops to a role too often portrayed as a simple, self-centered, religious fanatic. Add in Time Winter's endearing Pellinore and Eric Anderson's pagan Merlyn, and you have several talented performers hog-tied into a frighteningly-disastrous train wreck aimed right at the terrified and unsuspecting audience.
We won't even get into the silliest dance move for knights a-may-ing -- ever, Lancelot's silver lame' go-go boots, nuance-nullifying amplified sound, the joust cut to a 2/3 version sword fight, a faster tempo for every tune, turning a classic tragedy into an upbeat romp for the the text-messaging generation, or the thoroughly uninspired blocking and stage pictures.
I mean, wow. This was a stinker. Ever seen audience members walk out of the middle of performances at the Ordway?
I did.
Yes. It was that bad.
We listened to one of the Richard Harris versions on CD in the car. Popped in the DVD of the 1967 film version when we got home. Ordered the 1982 Showtime version from Amazon before we went to bed. Had to get the bad taste out of our mouths.
I love Camelot and I have for years. I've read "The Once and Future King" by T.S. White many times and even Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur". I don't want my children's only exposure to this timeless tale to be this butchered travesty. Time to right the wrongs before they end up in therapy.
* out of * * * * *
Friday, March 09, 2007
Whiskey or Beer?
You scored as Irish.
Which European nationality should you have been? created with QuizFarm.com |
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