often

I havn't been posting as often as I'd like to, but I'm so busy most of this week. Tomorrow we start finals at school. I have my CP CHEM final and my INT. CHORUS final. My seconde block final will be so much easier than my first block final. I took piano for about three years and everything I learned doing that is what I will be tested on in Chorus.

I gave out Christmas gifts today. I gave Amanda a big, plush bendy cat. I gave Gretchen a candy iPod. Phill got a giant pen called a Sumo Pen (the look on his face was priceless). I gave David a pencil that is a normal #2 pencil, except that instead of wood, the lead is surrounded by bendy rubber. Janet got a plush cow (her favorite animal). I gave Suzanne a card, and since she reads this, I'm not writing what I got her until after I give it to her (I know it's mean of me, but it's worth the wait).

I really should be studying for my final in Chemistry, but the fact that it's multiple choice, we will have a chart of formulas, and a Periodoc Table make me feel a lot better. I'll pass. I never fail (KNOCK ON WOOD).

I'm ripping my Broadway CDs to RealPlayer's library and making playlists. It's a good idea to do this for backups if your discs get screwed up. I'm currently ripping Sunday in the Park with George. It's quite good. I love the opening title number.

I only have 9 CDs that could be called "Broadway/Movie Musical" CDs. Any others in those categories are wither on cassette (2x), vinyl (9x), or burned copies (too many...x). I plan to get legal versions of all of my burned copies, though. With musicals, a lot of tracks are connected w/o pauses, and burned CDs tend to put pauses (a real bitch with shows like Evita and Sweeney Todd). Legal CDs also have great liner notes with pictures and other stuff.

Now I'm ripping Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. It's an awesome show. I think I have a link to the official site of the Broadway revival. If not, it's www.sweeneytoddonbroadway.com. I highly reccommend you check it out, and also see the video with George Hearn and Angela Lansbury. I got the hilights CD for christmas from Suzanne. I have the full version on vinyl, but the full versions of CDs are often too expensive, so I like the hilights albums for their good selections and lower prices (the only full recording I have is the Premiere American Recording of Evita that I bought at the show. Sometimes I wonder if I would've been better-off buying the hilights version. Cash-wise, that is.

another post

I really do love The Phantom of the Opera. The music is just so beautiful that no matter what language the lyrics are in, you are still moved (and besides, most phans don't listen to a cast album of another language w/o first knowing the lyrics from their regular version by heart). I really pissed off a friend of mine today. She's more or less fluent in Japanese, so I'm going to burn her a CD of the few Japanese Phantom clips I have. Might brighten her mood to know that I may not give a damn about her miseries, but I'm still her friend and do give a damn about her.

Why do I love Phantom so much? I suppose it's the music. And the voices of the Original London Cast Recording. Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford make that album what it is. My language arts teacher last year is a big phan, and she would play the highlights album every morning when she got there. One day I heard a song with a really cool, almost pop, beat to it, and I asked her if I could borrow the CD. I listened to it when I got home and within the hour I was in love. Then I found out there was going to be a movie, and I almost wet myself!

I have now seen the movie multiple times and the stage show once. Both of them are wonderful productions, and each one really has both good and bad points to it (okay, the live show has no bad points).

MOVIE:
--Does an awesome job of expanding upon the things which were confined to a small space on stage (especially Notes/Prima Donna).
--Takes so much more than the libretto from the show (look at the chandelier and the windws and you will see the harps from the stage show's chandelier, which in turn were based on the design of the chandelier in the 1925 silent version with Lon Chaney.)
--I didn't like the absense of Notes II and the rehersal for Don Juan Triumphant. I also hated that they cut the fourth verse from the title song, but it works well enough that I don't always notice, though I never forget.

SHOW:
--Beautiful designs! Costumes and sets by Maria Bjornson are perfect!
--The Overture is cooler here. All those curitans and sets and backdrops suddenly appearing, and all the while the chandelier steadily rising off the stage and overe the house (which at the Fox ATL means over the heads of the first few rows of the orchestra section b/c the cieling is too high for it to go all the way).
--Fireballs and high flames in graveyard are better than swordfight.
--Candles. Lots of candles.

There's so much more I could write, but it would take forever and that is just time that I do not have.

I discovered that I can't burn the Japanese Phantom tracks to a CD. Therefore I shall upload them to www.YouSendIt.com and simply email her links to the files. I hope she still enjoys them, despite not being on a CD.

I'm not dating anyone. I don't plan to for a long time. Right now all I want to do is concentrate on my career. Once I'm settled, perhaps I'll start looking for someone in the busines. My first girlfriend was in the business, so she understood rehersal schedules and the time and energy put into a show. My last girlfriend was not in the business, and bitched and moaned about me never calling here, even though she knew damn well that I was always at school rehersing. Therefore, I willget settled, date someone in the business, and be happy with someone who understands everything that goes on behind the scenes.

My first girlfriend (who is still one of the best friends I have) said something in an email she sent me a while back that I absolutely love andhave decided to put here as a sort of closing statement.

Often the people who are the most loved are the people with the least friends.

nothing really

Just posting so people know I'm still alive. I've just had very little time to write, and even now isn't the greatest moment in time.

I'll type something later perhaps.