Thursday, July 28, 2005
Friday, July 22, 2005
It's not a crime!
In reference to the post below: for those that don't know me so well; I am an optimist. I always find the bright side of things, and I am always the first to stand up for something in order to give it a second chance.
It helps put into context just how bad Christine and the Phantom were in the movie.
It helps put into context just how bad Christine and the Phantom were in the movie.
The Phantom of the What Now?
Deb and I have finally sat down to watch the 2004 version of the Phantom of the Opera. Before I get into my story, let me give you a little background. To start off with, the Phantom of the Opera has always been my favorite musical, and is pretty much what got me into them in the first place. I first heard it when I was 16 (or there abouts) when I bought the highlights CD from the original cast recording. I thought that such songs as "The Music of the Night" were some of the most amazing songs ever writen (in english anyway). When I went to New York in '97 I was able to see the musical on Broadway, and I loved it. There were a couple of places where I cried because of how beautiful the music was (heck, I'm crying now just thinking about it). There were bit where the Phantom was singing and it was just so pure. I think that was part of the appeal that allowed it to rise above the crappy techno score. The actors and actresses were so talented that they were able to make a musical that was about the purity and perfection of music, and its abilitiy to transfix one's soul, stand out and appear to have true meaning.
Now, fast forward to right now. We are sitting here watching the 2004 version (as I before mentioned) and I crying yet again; at the appalling representation of the original that the scam artists that they like to call writers have tried to pull off on us. The singers are unbeliveably horrible! The only main charecter that can come close to being able to sing on the level that is required is Christine. Unfortunately, even she cannot pull off the role. Her music is flat (as in unemotional, not off key) and does not pull you into the part. In the Angel of Music, her singing is supposed to represent absolute purity, and she is walking around with a bemused look on her face singing from the back of her throat. Meg's part is even worse; in fact I won't go in to it as it is so bad. She tried hard, but something is just not there. Now, let us move on to the part of the Phantom. His voice is supposed to be so entrancing that it would cause Christine to leave all sense of reason behind, but in this movie, he is slaughtering the part by singing from the back of his throat as well. It is completely unbelievable when he leads Christine down to his lair, as she is supposed to be practically hypnotized with his voice. I would have ran away screaming even before she took off the mask. The "Music of the Night" is one of the most beautiful peices of music ever writen in the english language, and it made ME want to run away screaming. Sigh... I can't go on. If you have not seen this travesty, please don't unless you have first heard the original.
Fortunately, the supporting cast was quite excellent. Minnie Driver as Carlotta was brilliant. Raoul was fairly competent as well. Unfortunately when it comes down to it, the heart of this musical is the music. If the main charecters can't sing worth a highschool education, then it just isn't worth watching.
OK, wait for it, we are just getting to the most emotional part of the movie for me (end of the first act). Let us see how it plays out...
Ok, Raoul can still sing, Christine can't, and the Phantom... (wait for it...)
Oh, nope, Raoul messed it up, (haven't got to the Phantom yet) in the part where he sings, "Christine I Love You", he was sadly lacking in emotion.
This just in, the Phantom ruined it. While he was quite emotional he still just cannot sing. He did the whole emotion thing very well. He really is quite the good actor. He just can't sing.
That being said, the cinamatography was for the most part very good. There were a couple of cheezy parts where they tried to emmulate the play, instead of starting from scratch for film, but besides that I enjoyed it; especially the flash forward parts.
Sigh... That is all... I'm off to languish through the second act. I'll let you know if it improves.
Love you all.
Now, fast forward to right now. We are sitting here watching the 2004 version (as I before mentioned) and I crying yet again; at the appalling representation of the original that the scam artists that they like to call writers have tried to pull off on us. The singers are unbeliveably horrible! The only main charecter that can come close to being able to sing on the level that is required is Christine. Unfortunately, even she cannot pull off the role. Her music is flat (as in unemotional, not off key) and does not pull you into the part. In the Angel of Music, her singing is supposed to represent absolute purity, and she is walking around with a bemused look on her face singing from the back of her throat. Meg's part is even worse; in fact I won't go in to it as it is so bad. She tried hard, but something is just not there. Now, let us move on to the part of the Phantom. His voice is supposed to be so entrancing that it would cause Christine to leave all sense of reason behind, but in this movie, he is slaughtering the part by singing from the back of his throat as well. It is completely unbelievable when he leads Christine down to his lair, as she is supposed to be practically hypnotized with his voice. I would have ran away screaming even before she took off the mask. The "Music of the Night" is one of the most beautiful peices of music ever writen in the english language, and it made ME want to run away screaming. Sigh... I can't go on. If you have not seen this travesty, please don't unless you have first heard the original.
Fortunately, the supporting cast was quite excellent. Minnie Driver as Carlotta was brilliant. Raoul was fairly competent as well. Unfortunately when it comes down to it, the heart of this musical is the music. If the main charecters can't sing worth a highschool education, then it just isn't worth watching.
OK, wait for it, we are just getting to the most emotional part of the movie for me (end of the first act). Let us see how it plays out...
Ok, Raoul can still sing, Christine can't, and the Phantom... (wait for it...)
Oh, nope, Raoul messed it up, (haven't got to the Phantom yet) in the part where he sings, "Christine I Love You", he was sadly lacking in emotion.
This just in, the Phantom ruined it. While he was quite emotional he still just cannot sing. He did the whole emotion thing very well. He really is quite the good actor. He just can't sing.
That being said, the cinamatography was for the most part very good. There were a couple of cheezy parts where they tried to emmulate the play, instead of starting from scratch for film, but besides that I enjoyed it; especially the flash forward parts.
Sigh... That is all... I'm off to languish through the second act. I'll let you know if it improves.
Love you all.
Monday, July 18, 2005
Wow... It worked!
People commented! How exciting! So what if it was a little bit of an obvious way to get people to post...
To answer peoples' questions (I'm putting it here since nobody actually goes back and reads comments):
I am a Computer Systems Analyst. In other words I make the computers in my company work. I am working on becoming a professional photographer and plan to begin advertising very soon.
Blogs are not on their way out. Their current conception may be a fad, but they will continue to evolve. How can something be a fad if I only just started doing it?
Get DSL.
I hate it when people are put off by fighting words (-=
It wasn't supposed to be a porn museum. I thought it was dumb and a total waste of time.
I guess I shouldn't ask for comments when my mother reads my blog (-=
To answer peoples' questions (I'm putting it here since nobody actually goes back and reads comments):
I am a Computer Systems Analyst. In other words I make the computers in my company work. I am working on becoming a professional photographer and plan to begin advertising very soon.
Blogs are not on their way out. Their current conception may be a fad, but they will continue to evolve. How can something be a fad if I only just started doing it?
Get DSL.
I hate it when people are put off by fighting words (-=
It wasn't supposed to be a porn museum. I thought it was dumb and a total waste of time.
I guess I shouldn't ask for comments when my mother reads my blog (-=
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Does any body love me?
I don't get as many comments as I used to. I bet it is because I was going so long before posts. In order to encourage the free exchange of ideas (or just because I want attention) why doesn't every one answer this question for me...
Do you prefer rambling stories about my every day going ons, or does you prefer rambling rants about how stupid this world is?
Speaking of which... Jen, I totally forgot to buy you ice cream while I was out. Now you really do have to come visit. (I didn't forget Amanda either).
Do you prefer rambling stories about my every day going ons, or does you prefer rambling rants about how stupid this world is?
Speaking of which... Jen, I totally forgot to buy you ice cream while I was out. Now you really do have to come visit. (I didn't forget Amanda either).
I am not a nerd
I was driving with Deb to Dan's house tonight and passed one of those speed limit things on the side of the road that tell you how fast you are going so that you don't hit poor innocent children in a school zone at 7pm on a Saturday night. It was off, so I said, "Oh no! I don't exist". Then Deb said, "No actually..." and then I said, "I just know exactly where I am". So next time we pass one that is working and someone is in the car with me I'm going to freak out and say, "AGHH! I don't know where I am!".
Its funny. Really. If you don't get it, it is OK. Albert Einstien thought it was dumb.
In other news...
Oh who am I kidding, I don't have any other news.
Its funny. Really. If you don't get it, it is OK. Albert Einstien thought it was dumb.
In other news...
Oh who am I kidding, I don't have any other news.
Friday, July 15, 2005
They're coming to take me away lalalalalala!
Yesterday I drove up to Visalia for the framing inspection for our house. It went very well. I am pretty happy with the construction and I got good video and pictures of where all the wires and stuff will be. It should not be to hard for me to go in and add all the speaker wiring that I want to do. One nice thing that I found out is that every room that has a phone jack will have two CAT5e cables running to the jack. CAT5e is the same cabling that you use for networking computers. So we will be able to take one of the lines (like we are ever going to use the 8 telephone lines that two CAT5e cablees will support) and use it for networking the whole house (except for the rooms that don't have phone jacks). This makes me quite happy. The one thing I didn't notice and I need to go back and verify is that it didn't look like they are putting a phone jack in for the tech center. That would border on extremely annoying.
Now for the fun part....
After we were done with the inspection and as we were on our way out the door (my parents met me at the house, Deb had to work) I asked if they had a firmer date set for the house getting finished ("sometime in November or December" wasn't quite specific enough for me). The house builder guy said, "oh, we should be done in late August/early September". This was rather astounding to me, so I went by the office to verify. It looks like we will be closing escrow about the middle of September. This means that we will probably plan to move September 30th.
So now we are freaking out. We had pretty well layed out plans for how everything would work assuming that we would move in December, including coming up with money for closing costs, moving costs, and having a buffer for if we had to go without work for a bit while we found jobs in Visalia. Now, I have about two weeks to frantically come up with the bare minimums, plus deal with finding a loan. It isn't anything that can't be done (in fact I am confident that we can), but I soooo do not want to deal with the stress of it right now. So my two week plan is:
Find loan
Find job (can take two months)
Find money for closing costs (not an issue if we go with the builder's lender; which we probably will end up doing)
Pay deductable for car wreck (assuming that it was my fault since they STILL don't know for sure)
Pay State income tax
Pay for nose surgery (stupid insurance)
Find money for moving costs (like I'm going to move a $4000 piano down the stairs)
Fortunately all our credit cards are in order (not completely paid off, but we are in a good place, with only one with a remaining balance) so that isn't so much of a worry. Actually, when it comes down to it the only thing I am REALLY stressed about is the job. Since I realized that I absolutely hate my job I had decided that I was definitely going to just find a new job. That was not such a big deal when I had 5 more months to deal with it.
Ya, so anyway, please pray for us to have patience and confidence in God's blessings. I know things will work out, but like I said, I'm stressed.
Now for the fun part....
After we were done with the inspection and as we were on our way out the door (my parents met me at the house, Deb had to work) I asked if they had a firmer date set for the house getting finished ("sometime in November or December" wasn't quite specific enough for me). The house builder guy said, "oh, we should be done in late August/early September". This was rather astounding to me, so I went by the office to verify. It looks like we will be closing escrow about the middle of September. This means that we will probably plan to move September 30th.
So now we are freaking out. We had pretty well layed out plans for how everything would work assuming that we would move in December, including coming up with money for closing costs, moving costs, and having a buffer for if we had to go without work for a bit while we found jobs in Visalia. Now, I have about two weeks to frantically come up with the bare minimums, plus deal with finding a loan. It isn't anything that can't be done (in fact I am confident that we can), but I soooo do not want to deal with the stress of it right now. So my two week plan is:
Find loan
Find job (can take two months)
Find money for closing costs (not an issue if we go with the builder's lender; which we probably will end up doing)
Pay deductable for car wreck (assuming that it was my fault since they STILL don't know for sure)
Pay State income tax
Pay for nose surgery (stupid insurance)
Find money for moving costs (like I'm going to move a $4000 piano down the stairs)
Fortunately all our credit cards are in order (not completely paid off, but we are in a good place, with only one with a remaining balance) so that isn't so much of a worry. Actually, when it comes down to it the only thing I am REALLY stressed about is the job. Since I realized that I absolutely hate my job I had decided that I was definitely going to just find a new job. That was not such a big deal when I had 5 more months to deal with it.
Ya, so anyway, please pray for us to have patience and confidence in God's blessings. I know things will work out, but like I said, I'm stressed.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Feeling So Real
Title brought to you by the random song of the day by Moby.
First, a rant. Why isn't there any easy direct way to create a new post from your blog when you are logged in (heh heh, I think I just logged on to my internet)? The best way I have found is to click on your profile, then edit your profile, then click on dashboard, and then click on whatever you have to click on next. If you aren't logged in (why doesn't it remember me half the time?) then you have to go to the blogger home page and log in. It is actually faster to create a new post if you are not already logged in. I just thought of one other faster way to do it, but I am done ranting now, so tough.
We had a great time on our vacation. I already wrote about the stuff that happened for the first part of it, so I won't go into that again. We went out to see Jen and Todd for a couple of days to make sure that they were putting their guest room to good use. Their house is quite cute and fits them well. They are making great progress in getting it fixed up the way that they want it. All I can really say to describe it is "purple". I think we decided that the only criteria Jen uses to determine to buy something is if it is purple or not (-= only kidding of course. It all looks very nice.
We spent the majority of the time sitting around and going to scrapbooking stores. I know that you are thinking, "WHY DID JEFF GO TO SCRAPBOOKING STORES?!?". Well, I had fun, and I had a bunch of great ideas for presentations of photographic material. Deb bought a bunch of cool paper, and I think I am going to learn how to make our own patterns, and maybe consider selling them. I'm pretty good at creating graphic art in photoshop at this point, so maybe it is something worth pursuing. Should we open a scrapbooking store in Visalia? Here are some examples that I made real quick:
Hmmm... so know I know that I don't like the way that blogger uploads your pictures for you. I am going to go back to how I have done it before from now on.
Well anyway, we are back in LA now, and we are back in the normal swing of things. I am going up to Visalia tomorrow (Thursday) for our house framing inspection. They called on Monday and told me that I had to come up by the end of the week. Pretty messed up if you ask me.
That is all for now.
First, a rant. Why isn't there any easy direct way to create a new post from your blog when you are logged in (heh heh, I think I just logged on to my internet)? The best way I have found is to click on your profile, then edit your profile, then click on dashboard, and then click on whatever you have to click on next. If you aren't logged in (why doesn't it remember me half the time?) then you have to go to the blogger home page and log in. It is actually faster to create a new post if you are not already logged in. I just thought of one other faster way to do it, but I am done ranting now, so tough.
We had a great time on our vacation. I already wrote about the stuff that happened for the first part of it, so I won't go into that again. We went out to see Jen and Todd for a couple of days to make sure that they were putting their guest room to good use. Their house is quite cute and fits them well. They are making great progress in getting it fixed up the way that they want it. All I can really say to describe it is "purple". I think we decided that the only criteria Jen uses to determine to buy something is if it is purple or not (-= only kidding of course. It all looks very nice.
We spent the majority of the time sitting around and going to scrapbooking stores. I know that you are thinking, "WHY DID JEFF GO TO SCRAPBOOKING STORES?!?". Well, I had fun, and I had a bunch of great ideas for presentations of photographic material. Deb bought a bunch of cool paper, and I think I am going to learn how to make our own patterns, and maybe consider selling them. I'm pretty good at creating graphic art in photoshop at this point, so maybe it is something worth pursuing. Should we open a scrapbooking store in Visalia? Here are some examples that I made real quick:
Hmmm... so know I know that I don't like the way that blogger uploads your pictures for you. I am going to go back to how I have done it before from now on.
Well anyway, we are back in LA now, and we are back in the normal swing of things. I am going up to Visalia tomorrow (Thursday) for our house framing inspection. They called on Monday and told me that I had to come up by the end of the week. Pretty messed up if you ask me.
That is all for now.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
So its been a while...
I could solve half the world's problems if people would just listen to me. The problem is that they don't because I am wrong half the time.
I thought that up tonight over dinner. All by myself.
So let me see... What has been going on... I guess it has been like a month since the last time I wrote. In the mean time I've been sick, my Brother got married (now I have two sisters, yay!), I hurt my back playing volleyball, my Dad broke his leg playing volleyball, my back got better, I got in a car wreck, I hurt my back, I missed two weeks of work because of my back, I played lots of Halo, and now I am on vacation.
Let's see more... also, I hate the company I work for (but love my work and the work I do for my country), can't wait to move, am having issues with misc. friends, appreciate people I know in the military (Dan, Kyle, Dave, Tim) who risk or will risk their life for our country (Dave is the only one that probably won't be going to Iraq, but I hear sitting in a chair all day can be bad for your health. It is OK, the stuff he does is so cool that it makes up for it).
Sunday we went to Hollywood blvd. It was everything I thought it would be (its a pretty junky place and I'd been before.) We took the metro to the Hollywood and Vine stop and walked to the Hollywood and Highland stop to get back on. We went to misc. clothing stores and a couple of museums. For reference, don't bother going to the Fredrick's of Hollywood museum or the Erotic museum. Both are a huge waste of money (and the FH one is FREE). The Erotic museum I thought would be interesting due to my hobby of studying the sociological aspects of sex. They had a "history of sex" exhibit that I really wanted to see because it was, well, you know, a history of sex. To make a long story short... it wasn't a history of sex, it was more like 40x50in depictions of current cutting edge sex acts. Total waste of time. We found a mediteranian resturant which somewhat made the day better.
Monday we just hung out, ate at P.F. Chaing's, watched Buffy, and went to the 4th of July celebration at the Hollywood Bowl. Here are some pictures. It was a Disneyland 50th thingy too.
Conductor Mauceri getting a ride to the center stage.
The whole LA Phil.
Mickey making the conductor an honorary cast member
The Dappppppper Dans.
Fess Parker reading the words of President Lincoln.
OK, so for those of you who don't know (which should be pretty much everybody) Davy Crockett was my favorite show when I was a child. Seeing Mr. Parker was a very huge treat for me.
Alice.
Dancing Cards.
The Rabbit.
The Maaaad Hatter.
Spooooky Ghost Girl #1 (sung to the tune of the "Haunted Mansion").
Spooooky Ghost Girl #2.
Hitch-hiking Ghosts.
Composer Richard Sherman.
Richard Sherman, his brother, and none other than mister Disneyland himself.
Mr. Sherman singing "its a small world after all" with children(Yes, he wrote it. Yes, it is his fault).
Main Street Light Parade Creature #1.
Main Street Light Parade Creature #2.
Main Street Light Parade Creatures.
Cinderella and Prince Charming.
Beu Sisters.
Fess Parker singing the Davy Crockett theme song.
Ibid.
Patriotic Mickey.
Irate Pirate.
Pirate Mauceri.
Ewww...
Something...
Fess and Donald.
Pluto ogling Beu sister. (i'm sure that pluto is a girl)
What is Rabbit looking at?
Fess and Mickey. (I love this pic.)
Mr. Sherman.
Fess and Mickey again.
So there you have it.
On Tuesday we got up early and met Mary at the airport with Deb's family and Tim. Then we went to Fullerton for our chiropratic appointment, picked up some clothes from home, fed the cats, stopped by the car repair place (buggers were closed), went to Deb's parents house, and then went to see the Tut exhibit at LACMA. It was a very fun treat, but I was pretty disappointed. They put us through 45 minutes of crowded rooms before we even saw anything of Tut's, and then when we got to the end, there was only one room of stuff, and Tut was mysteriously absent, as was his sarcophogas. I think it was a blatent case of false advertising. They said he'd be there.
Today we just relaxed, ate leftovers, and watched Buffy all day. Then we had dinner with Deb's Family and misc. people that I don't really know.
Tomorrow we fly out to Pheonix to see Jen and Todd. Hurray!
That is pretty much all for now. Our house is almost finished with the framing stage, but we have not been contact for the framing inspection yet.
So long for now.
I thought that up tonight over dinner. All by myself.
So let me see... What has been going on... I guess it has been like a month since the last time I wrote. In the mean time I've been sick, my Brother got married (now I have two sisters, yay!), I hurt my back playing volleyball, my Dad broke his leg playing volleyball, my back got better, I got in a car wreck, I hurt my back, I missed two weeks of work because of my back, I played lots of Halo, and now I am on vacation.
Let's see more... also, I hate the company I work for (but love my work and the work I do for my country), can't wait to move, am having issues with misc. friends, appreciate people I know in the military (Dan, Kyle, Dave, Tim) who risk or will risk their life for our country (Dave is the only one that probably won't be going to Iraq, but I hear sitting in a chair all day can be bad for your health. It is OK, the stuff he does is so cool that it makes up for it).
Sunday we went to Hollywood blvd. It was everything I thought it would be (its a pretty junky place and I'd been before.) We took the metro to the Hollywood and Vine stop and walked to the Hollywood and Highland stop to get back on. We went to misc. clothing stores and a couple of museums. For reference, don't bother going to the Fredrick's of Hollywood museum or the Erotic museum. Both are a huge waste of money (and the FH one is FREE). The Erotic museum I thought would be interesting due to my hobby of studying the sociological aspects of sex. They had a "history of sex" exhibit that I really wanted to see because it was, well, you know, a history of sex. To make a long story short... it wasn't a history of sex, it was more like 40x50in depictions of current cutting edge sex acts. Total waste of time. We found a mediteranian resturant which somewhat made the day better.
Monday we just hung out, ate at P.F. Chaing's, watched Buffy, and went to the 4th of July celebration at the Hollywood Bowl. Here are some pictures. It was a Disneyland 50th thingy too.
Conductor Mauceri getting a ride to the center stage.
The whole LA Phil.
Mickey making the conductor an honorary cast member
The Dappppppper Dans.
Fess Parker reading the words of President Lincoln.
OK, so for those of you who don't know (which should be pretty much everybody) Davy Crockett was my favorite show when I was a child. Seeing Mr. Parker was a very huge treat for me.
Alice.
Dancing Cards.
The Rabbit.
The Maaaad Hatter.
Spooooky Ghost Girl #1 (sung to the tune of the "Haunted Mansion").
Spooooky Ghost Girl #2.
Hitch-hiking Ghosts.
Composer Richard Sherman.
Richard Sherman, his brother, and none other than mister Disneyland himself.
Mr. Sherman singing "its a small world after all" with children(Yes, he wrote it. Yes, it is his fault).
Main Street Light Parade Creature #1.
Main Street Light Parade Creature #2.
Main Street Light Parade Creatures.
Cinderella and Prince Charming.
Beu Sisters.
Fess Parker singing the Davy Crockett theme song.
Ibid.
Patriotic Mickey.
Irate Pirate.
Pirate Mauceri.
Ewww...
Something...
Fess and Donald.
Pluto ogling Beu sister. (i'm sure that pluto is a girl)
What is Rabbit looking at?
Fess and Mickey. (I love this pic.)
Mr. Sherman.
Fess and Mickey again.
So there you have it.
On Tuesday we got up early and met Mary at the airport with Deb's family and Tim. Then we went to Fullerton for our chiropratic appointment, picked up some clothes from home, fed the cats, stopped by the car repair place (buggers were closed), went to Deb's parents house, and then went to see the Tut exhibit at LACMA. It was a very fun treat, but I was pretty disappointed. They put us through 45 minutes of crowded rooms before we even saw anything of Tut's, and then when we got to the end, there was only one room of stuff, and Tut was mysteriously absent, as was his sarcophogas. I think it was a blatent case of false advertising. They said he'd be there.
Today we just relaxed, ate leftovers, and watched Buffy all day. Then we had dinner with Deb's Family and misc. people that I don't really know.
Tomorrow we fly out to Pheonix to see Jen and Todd. Hurray!
That is pretty much all for now. Our house is almost finished with the framing stage, but we have not been contact for the framing inspection yet.
So long for now.
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