Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!!!

I hope everyone has a great holiday that is filled with lots of love, fun, and presents!

Phantom Outing

The time has finally come. After waiting nearly 10 years, I will be seeing The Phantom of the Opera again. Why so long you ask? Well honestly, the show has never come by where I live again...until now.

The first time I saw Phantom, I was a young child. I don't exactly remember my age. I'm guessing between 8-10 years old. I didn't even know what a musical was then. I was young and naive. My mom took my sister and I along with her friend and her friends kids. I don't even remember knowing what I was about to go see. But, my mom made me sit there in this vast theater, with a nice dress on, and those dumb tights I always had to wear, but the minute the overture began to play, I was hooked.

("Look at your face in the mirror. I am there, inside.")

It was one of the best experiences ever. I loved ever minute of it. I don't remember much of the show, but I do remember the large chandelier dropping and breaking, and I remember coming out of the theater completely enthralled with what I had just witnessed. My mom even bought the CD of the show, and I would spend hours listening to the soundtrack and "performing" it for my mom and her friends. It was love at first note.

("In sleep he sang to me, in dreams he came...")

Since that performance, and since I was able to really use the internet, I've checked every couple of months online to see if my first and favorite musical would ever come near me again. Each and everytime I'd look online I was greeted with disappointment as the show was never coming to South Florida again. But, my luck changed my freshman year of college, 4 years ago, when I was in school in Boston and the show was coming to Rhode Island. I tried my hardest to find someone to come with me and a way to Rhode Island. But, back then I didn't know those states like I do now, and eventually I missed my opportunity. That missed opportunity has been bothering me since then.

("Floating, falling, sweet intoxication. Touch me, trust me, savour each sensation")

4 years later, here I am at home, as I am doing my monthly check of the Really Useful Group website to see if Phantom is coming to South Florida. After years, and years, of seeing it everywhere else, there, right there in front of me, it said South Florida. To say I was estatic would be an understatement. I was elated, overjoyed, just overall happy that my show, the show that made me love musicals, my first ever musical experience, was coming back to me. The tickets were, of course, overly expensive, but I knew I HAD to go. This was the one shot I had of seeing it and I wasn't going to let this opportunity pass me by like it had before. So, I promised my mom it would be my only Christmas present, and she bought them for me. When I actually recieved my tickets in my hands I thought I was going to cry. I was just so happy.

("Who was that shape in the shadows? Whose is the face in the mask?")

Now the day has arrived. I go see the show tomorrow, Christmas Eve. What a wonderful present. Definitely, the best present I will be recieving this year. I don't know how anything else can compare. I'm doing the usual and posting some of the songs I like from the musical. I didn't want to be a bother and put them ALL up. Haha. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

(Start at 2:44 for the song)

Do you have a favorite show or musical that you just love? If you like Phantom, which songs are your favorites?

Christmas Favorites Part II

One of my favorite things about christmas time is being able to watching The Nutcracker. It is one of my favorite ballets and it helps me get into the holiday spirit.

The Nutcracker was written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky between 1891-1892 and premiered on December 18, 1892 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. The story is about a young girl named Clara (sometimes credited as Marie) who is given a toy nutcracker by her godfather named, Uncle Drosselmeyer, at her parents Christmas Ever party. Her brother Fritz get jealous and breaks the nutcracker. After the party, Clara goes downstairs to see it and hears mice. Suddenly, her toys and nutcracker come to life and begin to fight against the mice and specifically the mouse king. Clara helps the nutcracker defeat the mouse king, and he turns into a prince and takes her into the Land of the Sugar Plum fairy. There, the people of the land perform for Clara and the Nutcracker.

The music is just impeccable throughout the entire show. You really can't hear a song from it without recognizing it. I enjoy most of the songs played in the ballet, but my favorite has to be the Pas de Deux performed by the Nutcracker and the Sugar Plum Fairy at the end of the show. The music is just so moving, and when I saw the ballet last Christmas, I was literally enthralled by it. I could not take my eyes off of both dancers. It was absolutely beautiful.

I've embedded several of the songs I like so that you all my enjoy it also.

Christmas Favorites Part I

Well everyone, Christmas time is upon us. I've decided to share with you some of my favorite things that only really happen around this time of year. I like all types of movies, and shows, but what I really enjoy is the music. Everyone has their own favorite song they like to hear around this time of year, and I also have a few.

The first song that I love is Last Christmas. It was originally sung by Wham and has been redone several times. I've embedded the latest version of the song that I love by the cast of Glee.

The next song that I just love listening to during christmas is Little Drummer Boy. Here's a classic version with David Bowie and Bing Crosby.

I also just love the song The First Noel since I had to sing it in chorus in middle school. This version is by none other than Frank Sinatra.

Do you all have a favorite Christmas song that you like to listen to?

Greek Myths

I have always had a soft spot for Greek myths. They have always been really intriguing to me. Greek myths are what made me fall in love with history. In 5th grade my class did a Greek festival where we all dressed up as a god or goddess (I chose Demeter, goddess of the harvest, to not be like every other girl in my class who dressed up at Aphrodite, goddess of love), and we all had to make some type of Greek food. In preparation for the Greek festival, we learned all types of Greek myths. Well, after reading those stories, I was hooked.

Since that Greek festival in 5th grade, I've been self-educated in Greek myths. There isn't really any classes in middle school or high school you can take to learn about this stuff. So everything I know about Greek myths, I taught myself. That was until college that is. Finally, in my last year of college, in my last semester, I took a classical mythology english class, and it was wonderful. Every week we'd learn about a new myth and then we had to analyze it with an essay. Some of the myths I knew already, such as the Minotaur, and some were knew such as learning about Dionysus, god of wine. Overall, it was a very enlightening class, and was really interesting. So, I have decided to share one of my favorite Greek myths with you all.

The myth I wanted to share with you is that of Orpheus. The myth of Orpheus is one the most popular Greek myth to be written or painted about. His story seems to resonate with artist, writers, and poets. The story begins with Orpheus, the most talented lyre player and poet in all of Greece. His music was so moving, they said it could tame wild beast. Eventually he marries Eurydice, the love of his life. But, their happiness was short lived. One day while in a forest, someone tried to abduct Eurydice. As she ran away, she was bitten by a poisonous snake, and died. Orpheus was so overwhelmed with grief, that he decides to get Eurydice back, and traveled to the underworld to do so. Orpheus began to sing and play his lyre for Hades, and the song was so heart-breaking and so sad, that Hades decided to let let Eurydice go. With this deal, there was one condition. Orpheus was to lead Eurydice out of Hades, but he was not allowed to look back at her until they reached the land of the living. Orpheus obeyed, and began to lead Eurydice out of Hades. When Orpheus was nearly at the the land of the living, he could see the light, he began to have second thoughts. So, he turned around to make sure Eurydice is there. He sees her, and just like that, she disappears back into the underworld. Orpheus was so devastated at losing Eurydice twice, that he shunned away from society and just aimlessly walked around the forest playing sad songs on his lyre. One day, Orpheus was playing such a sad song when a group of maenads heard him and were so overwhelmed by his song that they asked Orpheus to stop, but he did not. So, they then ripped him apart and killed him.

"Orpheus Leading Eurydice Through the Underworld" by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot

"Orpheus and Eurydice" by Christian Kratzenstein-Stub

Definitely not the best way to go, and I'm not entirely sure how legal it is to just rip someone apart because you don't like the sad songs they are playing, but this is one of my favorite myths. I just love how Orpheus will do anything to get his love back, and how upset he is after he loses her both times. I like also how this shows that even though you may have it all, i.e. the gift of music suited for the gods, life does not always turn out the way you wanted. But, that is Greek tragedy for you.

Story Time

This is a story I made up with black and white photography that I found. Enjoy.

Once upon a time there was a girl....

....and she wanted to get away. She longed for some excitement in her life. So she packed up her things and left.

There was also a boy...

...who loved life and wanted to have an adventure of his own. So he packed up his things, and left too.

Both of them ended up in...

...Rome. One day while site-seeing they ran into eachother and...

...fell in love. They spent the rest of their vacation together and...

...it was the happiest both had ever been in their entire lives. But, they could not stay together forever. So...

...they said their goodbyes. While at the train station, she saw him. He ran to her and said that he could not live without her. They promised to never part from each other again...

...and they lived happily ever after.

The end.

Perfection

Matthew MacFayden as Mr. Darcy

One of the most wonderful men in literature, Mr. Darcy. Absolutely perfect. Men don't get any better than this. We should all strive to try to find a man like Darcy, I know I do.

"I beseech you by all that is sacred, I implore you..."

When I was in college, for the most part, I would go to class and not really pay attention. My ipod and the sudoku in the newspaper were my best friends. I know, I am a bad role model for kids. Oh well. I just don't really have much of an attention span for finding the beta for a finance portfolio, or figuring out the interest rate if I invest in a specific bond. But, there are those few times I was in school when the teacher would teach us, and I would actually listen, take it all, and like it. One of these instances was when I was a freshman in my English 102 class.

At my school, English 102 was a requirement for everyone (even though I was a business major). Most business majors I knew didn't like classes in the college of arts and science, I was different. I actually loved my class. My teacher was young, adorable, and really smart. He made the class interesting, and the fact that he was really cute did help me want to go to class and pay attention. One day we were assigned to read a story in the textbook we had, and for some reason, I actually read it. It was a short story by the Russian author Anton Chekhov and it was called "The Lady with the Pet Dog".

A Woman with A Dog (Portrait of Madame Renior) by Pierre-Auguste Renior

I had never even heard of this so called "Anton Chekhov" but I decided to read it none-the-less. And I was completely blown away. I actually loved the short story. Now, 4 years later, I still find myself re-reading the story of the bitter, misogynistic, 40 year old, Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov. In the story, Dmitri decides to take a holiday to Yalta, a city in southern Ukraine near the Black Sea, to get away from his life in Moscow, where he hates his life, and his over-bearing wife. While on vacation, he meets the young Anna Sergeyevna. Dmitri begins talking to Anna and decides that he just wants to use her for a one night stand, she seems pure, and unhappy in her marriage also. Since he has somewhat of a hatred for woman, he thinks it would be good to use her. Once he is done with her, they both go their seperate ways, but Dmitri finds it odd that he still thinks about Anna when he returns home to Moscow. Then...well, I think you should read the rest.

I highly recommend the story to everyone. Here is a copy of the text online for free. It is quick to go through. Read it, and let me know what you think. Hopefully you'll be as mesmerized by this story as I have all these years.

Hottie Of The Month: December

For the December hottie of the month, I chose Robert Downey Jr. Not only is he undeniably sexy, he's also a great actor. I just love how he does that whole sexy sad serious face in some of his pictures. It's so hot! But, Robert can also be goofy and make fun of himself. You can see from his pictures and movie roles that he has so much talent, and is deserving of this month's hottie award.

I first realized who Robert Downey Jr. was when I saw the music video for "I Want Love" by Elton John. The video basically has Robert walking around a mansion lip-synching the words to the song. It's such a cool video, and it is shot in one take. The video is from 2001, before Robert made his comeback. When I first watched the video, I remember thinking, "Who is the hot guy?" Ends up it was Robert Downey Jr.

From them on, I had heard rumors and read the tabloids about his drug addiction problems, but I never paid much attention to him. Then, in the summer of 2008, he came out with the movie Iron Man. The movie was great, and it made Robert a star again. He followed that movie with a role in Tropic Thunder, playing the hilarious Australian method actor Kirk Lazarus, who goes so far to get into character that he dyes himself black. He was even nominated for an Academy Award for his role.

This month, Robert is coming out with a new movie, Sherlock Holmes. To say I am excited is an understatement, I can not wait! The movie looks awesome and Robert looks great. Robert plays the title character, Sherlock Holmes, and he isn't your regular detective. This Sherlock boxes, is a bit arrogant, very eccentric, and kinda crazy. So cool. His sidekick Dr. John Watson is played by Jude Law, and his love interest Irene Adler is played by Rachel McAdams.

(I had to add a picture of Sherlock and his violin bow. You all know my love for musicians, especially violinist.)

Sherlock Holmes comes out December 25, 2009. Go check it out! You know i'll be there!

Photo Shoot Greatness

Empire magazine recently did a photo shoot that had actors re-creating scenes from some of their most famous movies. This is absolutely amazing! Definitely made my day!

Mel Gibson - Braveheart

Laurence Fishburne - The Matrix

Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman - Unforgiven

Matt Damon - Good Will Hunting

Tom Cruise - Minority Report

Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster - The Silence of the Lambs

Gerard Butler - 300

Sean Bean and Viggo Mortensen - Lord of the Rings

Christian Bale - American Psycho

Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint - Harry Potter

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost - Shaun of the Dead

Jack Nicholson - The Shining

Keira Knightley and James McAvoy - Atonement

Ben Stiller - Zoolander

Kevin Spacey - Seven

Michael Sheen - The Queen

Arnold Schwarzenegger - The Terminator

Sam Neill - Jurassic Park

My personal favorites are Sean Bean with Viggo Mortensen, Keira Knightley with James McAvoy, and Sam Neill. This was such a great idea for a photo shoot! Which are your favorites?