Did you know that RM has a..Dragon's Heart Gaming Club... what?? I saw the ad in the upper English hallway. It sounds like a D&D club or something. You know it has to be when the ad reads "bring a love for fantasy and adventure" and written in that really campy "medieval" Diablo font.. Either that or Magic.

BTW, speaking of ads, I think that when we're considering what plays to put on, we should come up with plays that have titles that aren't easily turned into obscenities. Sort of how last year there were a bunch of drama posters for the nonexistant plays, "Fags," now we have a bunch of posters promoting, "Splendor in the Ass." I don't know who these people are.. while I was rather offended by the first conversion, this year I sort of admire their ingenuity.

New Fine Lines ads are up with photo-realistic outlines of people I know. It's creepy. I went to Fine Lines yesterday for the first time. Like English class, it seems rather pretentious.

Oh, what a beautiful day. I've never seen the sky so blue in quite a while.

The Fall Concert went quite well. Amazing, CC didn't look as bad in the outfits as I thought we would. I think that everyone, madrigals included, thought their outfits were really bad, but nothing was really that ugly. It was my first choral concert, so that was interesting. Much like Becker was at plays, Frezzo is really spastic...

Madrigals were awesome, but Testostertones were the life of the party. Much to do with Seth quasi-stripping. I think they'd make an awesome boy band, because they're cute and have this thing called... talent.

Went to Music Club, which was just Madrigals rehearsing. Despite my ever-present urges to strangle them, I honestly do respect them wholeheartedly. At risk of sounding like Emma, they're among the few performers I've heard that can stir up (septic waste from) my wells of emotion. There's something in the collective sound of human voices that makes me want to expand beyond myself, and something that in more superstitious times, and still now, made human beings think of God and believe. As Meg brought up, Amazing Grace for the bagpipes does it too (though she never mentioned the God part). I think maybe our generation misses out from not listening to live music anymore.

And Testostertones. Don't forget the Testostertones. I was listening to them, muffled, through the door.

Andrew recanted his statement from last Monday's rehearsal, saying he never once claimed to have played the bagpipes. Jen and I having both heard him say it, we ladies didst protest too much. We finally came to the compromise that he said "yes" to one of my incessant questions without actually knowing what he was giving his affirmation to.

Book weirdness continues as, after I had borrowed ALex's AROOO and then lost it, causing me to give him my copy to use, he has lost his copy of River Between, causing him to come to my house to get my copy. If he loses it, we'll be even.

I have this reverse anti-Semitism thing going on. I respect Jews a great deal more than I respect Christians.

Although it is essentially the same thing, I view female circumcision with a great deal more horror than I do castration.

It may just be my gender bias, but female circumcision is not so similar to castration as it is like scraping out the inside of your rectum with a rusty screwdriver. With castration, you go CHOPPY! and it's done.

Much as I dislike Christianity and imperialism and The White Man and everything, I must say...
No pity.

IA. German youth resistance to the Nazis. First choice. Condolences to people who have to redraw.. Rob, with his oh so popular topics of Mustafa Kemal, Vidkun Quisling and Nazi Norway, and the Soviet Purge Trials. (He was rather bewildered by this.) And congratulations to Hank who got the amusing "The Role of Iceland in World War II."

Our English orals were quite catastrophic today, being inhabited by Willis and Frank (two boys who don't talk), to the point where Ms. Barret asked (tactfully) if anyone would like to join the discussion group. I do feel sorry for Willis though because he seems to have some strange discussion-phobia thing going on- common sense would dictate that when a teacher asked you, "Would you like to comment on (such and such)" you'd at the least decline the offer, instead of sitting in mute silence for a few minutes. Maybe it's just really hard for him; he was going through the same discussion anxiety in physics today that I was going through in physics on Tuesday. The discussions are a lot harder than presentations because you can't really prepare what you're going to say ahead of time; it's like your own private seminar hell, or like someone's pitching baseballs at you for 45 minutes straight and you have to scramble to catch each one, or like balancing a pitcher of water on your head.

You know what? I still can't spell "incandescant." E... Angie.. e...

Gaaaarrrrrrr....

Apparently I have left Alex's copy of Room of One's Own at F. Scott Fitzgerald, and he is now entitled to my copy of ROOO unless he'd like me to buy a new one for him that's the same edition. My own copy is brand spanking new anyways, but it's just not the same.

I also owe Ranwa $6.

I feel like such a leech.

Acting is not such a great an art relative to reacting, that amazing ability of good actors to stand there with appropriate expressions on their faces while their co-stars are emoting. Anyone with decent hamming abilities can shout in anger or cry in despair, but it takes great(er) acting ability form an expression of utmost terror or the profoundest sympathy all while never saying so much as a word.

I have finally gotten my cummerbund and shirt for concert choir. Through some miracle, the first one (both shirt and cummerbund) I tried on actually fit, saving me the embarrassment of needing to order things in extra large.

At least we have no bow ties this year.

On the Top Ten Most Recently Updated Blogs:

Nick, the Irrepressible Bastard.

Congratulations! I've yet to see a peer on the list up till now.

Ideas rejected by medieval romance novelists:

Ivan Hou: The story of Sir "I Kirr You, Blian de Bois-Guirbelt! " Wilfred of Ivan Hou, the Chinese Saxon. God, just the prospect of a Chinese man named "Wilfred"...

Shuck n' Jive-n'-Ho: A medieval ethnic epic comedy about a young ghetto knight and the honey who loved him, and the mysterious man only known as the fun-loving, carousing Black Knight... wait. That already does exist. Please shoot me.

Wilfred's Game: the sci-fi adventure of a genius boy who is sent to a space station where he trains for knighthood in a zero-gravity jousting room and inspires loyalty and comaderie among his fellows. Written by the famed Sir Walter Scott Card. Hoo-ah. Oh, and he also battles aliens known as Buggers, which is much more profane because this is an English novel. Featuring a stirring rendition of "Jews in Space" by Isaac of York.

Ivan's Hoe: A Communist tract featuring Robin Hood and romanticizing the simple agrarian ways of medieval England. Oh yeah, and Russians. Lots of Russians. Ivanhoe becomes an unwitting agent of the Man, as, in the name of Richard the Lion-Hearted, he misreads the name "Plantagenet" as "Plant-a-Genet," resulting in the deaths of many a rodent stifled in the mud, hence exposing the academic snobbery and callous treatment of the proletariat, represented as rodents, by the elitist aristocarcy.

Um.

I think that this can be classified as one of those, "She is delirious and knows not of what she speaks" type blog entries.

Concert Choir rehearsal was a major waste of time.. spent most of the time sitting around in the lobby with other CC people while the other groups were rehearsing in the auditorium. Talked to Andrew about what he looks for in a girl, and he apparently looks for a carbon copy of himself, but female. Figures. Alex confided later that he thought Andrew was lying but I didn't see any reason why he would be or anything weird about the response. We spent our time bemoaning the lack of food, and making Jen squeak.

I need sheet music, because I spent most of the actual rehearsal time not knowing what to sing and just burning up under the stage lights.

Concert choir is so sucky, myself included. (Sopranos are distracting and have all the melodies and need to be strangled.) It's rather discouraging, because I joined for the social aspects, but it turns out that mostly everyone I know is in Madrigals anyways, meaning that I have different music, different rehearsal days, and I can't even join in with people when they're spontaneously singing in physics. (start rant here) We have to wear the stupidest outfits, we stay at rehearsal the longest, and suck donkey balls to boot (musically, not literally). (/end rant here)

"Paul and His Hens" was stuck in my head. Goddamn clucking..

cluck cluck cluck cluck....

Make it stop!!!

King Kong (which I saw on tv last Friday) is not a movie that ages well, though it is, admittedly, funny.

A stegosaurus is charging us! Let's shoot it!
Death by brachiosaurus! (I find all the scenes of men being chased and eaten by a large, water-based, lumbering herbivore to be quite amusing. What is this, stop-motion Jurassic Park?)

I was hoping that any day now the people hoping to save Anne would wake up, thwap themselves and go, "Damn, she's so not worth this." I mean.. let's see... the whole rescue expedition gets killed except Jack... the tribal village is destroyed and many people stepped on and .. eaten.. by King Kong (ah, the indiscrimant dietery habits of monsters)... New York is ravished, people in train cars get crushed inside the cars, planes get swatted down.. I mean.. and for one dumb blond screaming actress. (This is honestly all she does for the whole movie. Scream herself hoarse.. okay, and faint. Why on Earth Kong wants her, I can't even imagine. After half an hour of dragging her through the island jungle, musn't he be thinking, "Can't I get a goddamn minute of peace and quiet??") And it's not like Jack didn't know it was going to happen too. It's like, "Oh, let's take away the ONLY thing that's keeping King Kong placated!"

Being taken care of and adored by a giant gorilla. It doesn't seem to be a half bad life in any case, though one might begin missing human company.. but she could most likely stand to wait a while until the next screaming chick is tied to a pair of pillars and abducted. Besides, you deal with people every day.. but placing yourself in the care of adoring gorillas is a once in a lifetime experience. Jane Goodall spent years digging this type of thing.

Maybe it's a fetish or something.

I feel sorry for Kong, man. All he wanted was a friend...

It's also rather violent. I didn't know old movies could get this violent. The way the T-Rex dies.. ironic (live by the tooth, die by the tooth), but rather painful. (Let us say.. dislocated jaw). People falling off buildings and going splat, being eaten by Kong, being crushed under his feet. It's a bit bizarre.

Ah, yes, tis movie review day.

Saw Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail last Friday. It was... unfunny. I think it was because I've heard it quoted so many times, and was so familiar with it even to the point of having heard sound clips, seen clips/parodies/allusions to it/read scripts of some of the skits/seen the trailer. The few skits that were totally unfamiliar to me were fairly amusing, but the other ones weren't funny so much as random. It was really prettily filmed though with an awesome score and at times I even regretted all the jokes and such getting in the way of what would otherwise be an awesome medieval film.

Nonetheless, I want some coconuts.

Saw the Count of Monte Cristo over the weekend on DVD, and it's a kickass movie. I thought it would be crappy, but it wasn't. Oooh. James Caveizel is hot. Yay. Also starring Guy Pearce and the now late Richard Harris. :( They're all excellent actors except for that guy who plays Denglars who can't seem to do anything but scowl a lot and ham it up. You all need to watch it so that I can make fun of it with you. Well, watch it once in English, then watch it again in French with English subtitles. Try to figure out rational explanations for Alexander Dumas' ridiculous plotline. Go. Amuse yourself. But not in that way, Alex.

Ah, yes, tis movie review day.

Went to "Big Fat Greek Wedding" at the Regal with Nick, Ranwa, Lili, Stevie, and Anika.. actually, they went to the theater first, but I had rejected myself because Ranwa couldn't cram so many people in her car (since Barry had been wanting to go at first), and since I had already seen the movie and since I was broke. So I tagged along after Alex wondering if I could mooch a ride home from him but he was feeling sick and tired and cranky so no. Went to the lobby but GreekCo had left already so I walked to the Regal in the pouring rain without an umbrella and a moisture-absorbing jacket, but thankfully with a hood. Couldn't find anyone in the theater lobby, went downstairs without passing the TicketMaster or whatever you'd like to call the guy at the bottom of the escalators but still couldn't see anyone in the food lines, went back upstairs, checked the time on the big clock outside which said 12:35 and cursed myself for walking slow since BFGW started at 12:25, and camped out on the Regal benches to dry. But I realized that the clock probably hadn't been set for Daylight's Savings, asked a random person in the theater for the time and confirmed this. Figured GreekCo was probably around somewhere and checked the surrounding restaurants and found them at CalTor. Ranwa was nice enough to buy me a ticket- I owe her $6, though I could theoretically just give her my Emergency Pass.

Cleaned off Nick's salad (you unhealthy non-veggie eater) but on the downside had the aftertaste of onions in my mouth for the rest of the afternoon. Found RM dominating the theater, including Chris Lee who was complaining about the cold due to his shaved head. Liberally mooched off of peoples' popcorn and chocolate, watched the single movie trailer there was, and the first hour or so of BFGW, which was better the first time around but still funny. Was interrupted in the middle of the movie by fire alarm, forcing us up the stairwell with much cursing by the small number of non-RM people at our showing at us for prodding them to move. (Honestly though, how much of a safety announcement do you need to listen to? The gist is.. get out!) And out. When we left the exit it turned out we had come out from that small outhouse-like building across the street from the Regal, so at a loss for what to do we simply walked back into the Regal where throngs of people were (disobediently), coming up into the lobby on the escalators. This mass mingling of everyone in the theater was actually a pretty good social occassion, since a good deal of people were RM people like Mike Correll and I bumped into Erika N from Eastern, who I didn't recognize at first because she keeps her hair short now, but she recognized me. Noted with a bit of smug/selfish satisfaction that she isn't as pretty as I thought she was before. Though she wasn't ugly. Just .. different... looking. This was before the theater workers made us go back outside again. The firemen came, went inside, talked to the theater employees, went downstairs, came back up, and came back outside to the loud, though probably overzealous applause of the throng massed outside the doors for their brave heroism. I heard from random people that the cause of the "fire" was most likely burnt popcorn.

We were supposed to trade our ticket stubs for Emergency Passes (aka free tickets when we come next time) but I couldn't find my stub so GreekCo went down without me. I found mine eventually in my coat pocket, which is where Ranwa told me to look in the first place. Bah. Went downstairs, couldn't remember which auditorium to go into and went into the The Transporter by accident, and also felt a strong urge to wander into Veggie Tales, but was a good girl and asked for directions and finally ended up in Auditorium Number 8 where people were wondering if I was still alive. Yes, we did finish the movie despite Nick saying he was fated never to watch BFGW all the way through.

More perceptive people may notice that I've added Meg, Josh and Andrew's blogs to the links above. I also added Josh's AIM to my buddy list so that I can harass him on occasion.

I think it's amusing that The Snipers were a conglomeration of everyone's opinions. A bitter male war veteran sympathetic to 911 terrorists and a violent teenager...