La, la, la! Life stinks. Many changes have occurred since my last post. If I wasn't so lazy in these last weeks I would have updated more often. But here I am, having weathered the storm. That is for now only. I haven't been doing much fun stuff. My last fun romp was from Thursday and Friday. Today was a bunch of crap at work. Let's start with Thursday; I saw Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet which was more funnier than the words I could possibly use to describe it. I think Ann-Marie MacDonald did a great job of twisting Othello and Romeo and Juliet around. The main premise around the play is that the main character Constance Ledbelly (played by Ann-Marie MacDonald herself) is an associate professor at Queen's University who is a little kooky and off the wall, that has this theory that Shakespeare's Othello and Romeo and Juliet are comedies rather than tragedies. While drowning in her misery, magically she gets transported to the times of both plays and gets to redirect them a bit. Though the rendering of Othello wasn't very successful in my mind even though I'm not familiar with that play, Juan Choiran as Othello was pretty damn good. He manipulated his voice well to convey his emotions and threw it out in the audience. Or maybe it was just because I sat in second row. But anyway, he was really good. He could play serious or in the case of the Romeo and Juliet portion be lecherous and hilariously funny. He played Tybalt and of all roles, the nurse. Imagine a nurse with a mustache and beard! :) A memory I have from that portion was when Constance stopped his killing of Mercutio but then discussing sexual things with Romeo and Mercutio, he did some pretty interesting things with his sword. Not to mention, his interpretation of Professor Claude Knight was very well done. He had the whole priss, snob thing down cold. Including being oblivious to Constance.

Another interesting thing about this play was the crossplaying of roles. They had Cara Pifko who was Juliet play a male soldier in the Othello portion and the woman who was Desdemona play Mercutio. That I was happy to see. It was odd seeing Mercutio being played by a woman but I got used to it eventually. I guess it was more convincing for men to dress up as women in the early ages of the Bard.

Moving on, another memorable actor was Andy Velasquez. He was at Stratford last year like Juan Choiran of whom I saw in Hamlet. He was in The Importance of Being Earnest, The Three Musketeers, and other plays I forget. But, in my opinion he stole the show. Maybe because he had so much other roles. He played the Ghost, Iago, and Romeo. But I think I'll stick with the stealing the show bit, because he was after all the first person you see on stage before Constance. He was very vile and evil as Iago but he was more memorable as the crossdressing Romeo and of course, my favourite, as the supposed Yoric/Yorit in the slight allusion to Hamlet. Now, giving the plot away a little. In this play, both Romeo and Juliet act more like their age, 14 and 16. They fight and find themselves bored with each other. In comes Constance/Constantine. Yes, Constantine, because at first Romeo and his buddies thought Constance was a man. At first he was quite willing to experiment and woo Constance as Constantine, then he dressed up in Juliet's dress because alas, Constantine wanted a woman. Now, when Juliet meets Constance at the masquerade ball, she's convinced she's found a better man. When she in turn finds out that Constance is really a woman, she decides to dress up in Romeo's clothing and woo her. Etc. Nevertheless, the audience was amazed and highly entertained. We laughed our heads off. Now, getting to the allusion to Hamlet. There's this one scene where Constance has to go through a graveyard to get to Juliet and she runs into something that pops out of the ground. From there we have the "Alas poor Yoric" scene from Hamlet (ACT V SCENE I.) She kept on saying, "No, it's alas poor Yoric", remembering Hamlet, but in essence it was a clue for herself. She was brought back to the times of the plays to find herself and the true author. Etc. But the skull keeps going, "Alas poor You're it, you knew it well once." Etc. I probably quoted that wrong. My brain hates me right now. I should get more sleep.

To conclude, it was a funny play and there were ever so much quotes that were hilarious and inspiring but I CAN'T REMEMBER ANY OF THEM! I think the only other one I remember was from when she was reminiscing and wallowing.

My appendix...I had it out the summer of 1976. My family went to watch the Montreal Olympics and I was in the hospital. The doctor gave it to me in a baby food jar to try to cheer me up.

I probably misquote that again, messing up a word here and there. But oh well... Alas, poor me, it closed tonight. Sniff, sniff.

Friday was fun because I saw Bridget Jones' Diary. Now if you have a chance to see that, I highly recommend it. Renee Zellwegger was really good even though she isn't British and many people weren't happy about that. I get that they were upset that Britain's famous singleton wasn't played by one of their own but alas, Renee could pass for one. I think she captured the essence of Bridget adding a little twist of her own. She had the cute clumsiness coupled with that special Bridget quality. Plus, what actress gains weight for a role! Especially up to a size 12. Hugh Grant was great too as Daniel. I was glad that he played Daniel. At first there was speculation amongst my friends and I that he would definitely be in the movie and that he might be Mark Darcy. I think Daniel the badboy was a much better role for him and I was equally thrilled that Colin Firth plays Mark Darcy. It just fits and works out. When I first read the book, I had noticed the similarities between the book and Pride and Prejudice. Not just the whole Darcy business but also near the end when Mark Darcy helps Bridget's mom out with her own fiasco just like Mr. Darcy helped Elizabeth Bennet when Lydia ran away with Wickham. Upon further thinking, I noticed that the Daniel Cleaver character was very much like George Wickham. In the movie, they changed it as they always do with adapting books, but there were more similarities. For instance, their publishing company was called Pemberley Press and the house in which Mr. Darcy lives in is called Pemberley.

And so, before I get too carried away it was a darling and hilarious movie. The ending though different slightly than the book, with changed situations was nice and gooey sweet but endearing all the same. Out in the snow coupled with the usual Bridget in an embarasssing moment. Okay, I'll shut up without telling too much. Another great line was I like you the way you are; something you don't usually hear these days in our very MATERIAL world. But anyway, something else I noticed, I had heard that the guy who was Bingley (Crispin Bonham-Carter) from the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice had a tiny bit role in the Bridget Jones movie and he was the guy holding the sign in the office when Bridget quit. I was quite delighted with myself for noticing that. Okay, before I get caught up again, Hugh Grant played the perfect jackass, Renee Zellwegger was darling, and Colin Firth was quite dashing as Mark. The cooking scene was quite cute with him taking charge. Okay, now I'll shut up. I just have to say one last thing: YAY FOR BLUE SOUP! See the movie, okay! :)

Back to a little obsession stuff, Les Miz. Sadly, I am not allowed to go to Kitchener to see Les Miserables. I am very upset about that and nothing will ever make up for it even if I'm seeing The Full Monty in July or how many times I see Mamma-Mia! I love Les Miz! But my parents don't understand. Alas, I will have to get my friend to buy me a brochure again. And maybe if he's up for it, be so kind as to get a cast member of two to autograph a playbill. He did that in Montreal in 1999. Tim wrote something sweet as did Regan. The stage door video of oh say, 5 minutes was amusing. Sutton's little, "Hi Mark, we're Les Miz. Woohoo! And cut!" Or Tim's funny face for the camera. The picture on the side here is of Tim (before he left Les Miz) and Diana Kaarina. Diana's sweet as Eponine. She holds her own and although I didn't get to experience it that time, powers her way through On My Own. I remember her having a lot of spunk even though on that particular day being her first weekend as Eponine, she had to just get used to doing it everyday as opposed to occasionally. Sniff, sniff :(, I want to see it again. If there was such thing as magic powers, I wish I had the power to teletransport. I could transport myself to wherever Les Miz was playing and see it. But alas, poor me. It isn't possible aside from in my dreams.

I leave you now sore from work despite only four hours but a busy one it was. Evil customers who'll become more evil when Home Depot extends their hours. Our Harvey's has to follow their darned weekend extension. We close at ten and I have less time to do homework. GRR! Dream your dreams, the bigger the better. And if possible don't work at fast food joints. :P