| Notice of impending absence |
[Oct. 8th, 2008|09:08 am] |
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) fyrie has already abandoned me. This is probably a good time to note that I'll be absent as well, Thursday evening to Monday morning, so should anyone require me online, now's the time to say something :) |
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| Oh dear. My Tanz der Vampire love is back |
[Oct. 3rd, 2008|07:29 pm] |
Jan Ammann. Krolock in Oberhausen, a month from now.
JUST what I needed after a 60-hour work week :D |
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| AU meme, and Phantom |
[Sep. 22nd, 2008|08:57 am] |
Phantom of the Opera season opener was on Saturday. The Phantom has clearly been working out, which means he's now of the proper Phantom shape, but leaves his trousers hanging like sacks over his legs :> The Amazing Vampire Raoul got carnations with a card with vampire fangs drawn on it, which he promptly displayed to the rest of the cast. Ooops. Should have drawn a smaller card ;)
I'm also trying very, very hard to kickstart my ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) x2009 story. I hope this meme helps me get my creativity on, if I have any takers *bats eyelashes*
The Hypothetical AU Meme: Take any one of the fandoms you know I write in (or think I should), and give me a type of AU (space opera AU, pirate AU, superhero AU, Ancient Rome, etc). I will then explain what story from your chosen fandom I would write for your chosen type of AU. |
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| Krolock squee!!! |
[Sep. 13th, 2008|10:18 am] |
Muahahaha.
Jan Ammann is Graf von Krolock for Oberhausen. This would Mr Yamaguchi-Voice Male Model. And the guy I saw as Beast a year ago and went, "if he doesn't play Krolock I'll kill someone."
And um. There may be a direct train from Warsaw to Oberhausen. I believe I may just go and see how Westphalia looks when covered in snow. |
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| Scotland |
[Aug. 29th, 2008|09:52 am] |
Am safely ensconced in Edinburgh in fyrie's custody :) Needless to say, online presence will be scarce until Tuesday, and inexistent between Tuesday noon-ish and the morning of the next Monday (lakes! finally!).
Now, shopping :D |
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| IBARW: Writing characters with a different background to your own |
[Aug. 10th, 2008|07:34 am] |
I was meaning to write this post for ibarw (International Blog Against Racism Week) last year, but other matters got into the way. The advice is still valid - I saw the discussion in Elizabeth Bear's LJ on a similar topic: how do you get around to writing those same characters of colour/ethnicity/religion etc and not commit the same mistakes everyone is chastising commercial media for?
The following is a roadmap of sorts to a character of a different background than your own.
( Disclaimers at the end; non-US-centric ) |
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| Romeo es Julia: clips |
[Aug. 2nd, 2008|08:05 am] |
And as a follow-up to yesterday's post: Rómeó és Júlia in sound and motion.
Verone - or why Attila Németh should wear capes more often.
Les Rois du Monde - watch the boys being boys :D
C'est le Jour - Tybalt and his Epilepsy of DRAMA. (Obligatory material for anyone who would think Szilveszter Szabo cannot act.) |
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| DVD review: Romeo and Juliette, Hungarian version |
[Aug. 1st, 2008|10:12 am] |
After much prodding from fyrie, I got around to watching the Hungarian version of the French musical I adored.
And I adored it even more.
The French version had stellar ballet-like choreograpy, but casting was spotty, and you just can't beat the Hungarians for sheer joy of performing. Especially not with the stellar cast they assembled - not one weak actor, and the leads perfectly cast.
( More coherent remarks underneath )
End verdict: Like. Lots. With bells on. And look, you can buy it!
(And clips upcoming when I can access Youtube.) |
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| Last Phantoms of the summer |
[Jul. 21st, 2008|09:17 am] |
Despite having already seen it a few times, I'm not that fond of the Warsaw production of Phantom of the Opera. It's simply the only decent show in town at the moment, and I am fond of some of the actors. And the sets, because they're gorgeous; as moe_almanthea recently remarked, they're really built for a stronger cast than the one we have.
Still, this weekend I had two opportunities:
- to finally see someone other than Damian Aleksander as Phantom
- to see the final summer show, in a theatre with a long tradition of making a fine mess of final shows
( Tomasz Steciuk, or what a real Phantom looks like )
( Half a green show, and half a normal one - featuring vampire!Raoul ) |
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| Remember that part where I'm an anime fan? |
[Jul. 17th, 2008|07:39 am] |
It's been close to two years since I last saw an episode of an anime series.
*snickers madly* Lina Inverse! You haven't changed at all! :D
(I need a Lina icon. And a Xellos one.) |
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| Elisabeth in Budapest, with pictures! |
[Jun. 30th, 2008|05:21 pm] |
Where to start? I saw four excellent shows, two each of Tanz der Vampire (Vámpirok Báljá) and Elisabeth. I saw them with roughly the same casts. In the case of Tanz, it was the first cast, which I've seen many times and have reviewed extensively. In the case of Elisabeth, while comments from the last time still apply, there was one notable exception. One muscular, blond, Hungarian exception with a rockstar voice and a charisma bigger than the stage.
After two years of fangirling the man, I have finally seen Máté Kamarás in person. And now I really understand the Japanese fangirls who travelled all the way to Budapest to see him. The man is that good.
( Elisabeth, or the Death who stole the show )
And on top of all that, I've finally figured out how to get photos of actors in costume. Curtain calls!
( Death (times 4), Elisabeth, Lucheni, plus Krolock and Herbert for good measure ) |
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| Budapest update |
[Jun. 28th, 2008|11:21 pm] |
My brain is mush. This has a lot to do with the fact I saw the git in my icon today. And then he stole the show.
Full review once I'm home. For now, let it suffice that I am grinning so much, my cheeks hurt. |
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| Budapest trip, again |
[Jun. 25th, 2008|10:10 am] |
Life has interfered with blogging, alas. On the upside, I'm off tomorrow evening for three days in pretty, pretty Budapest, with pretty, pretty musicals to watch. And a certain blond Hungarian to try and kidnap ;)
I'm taking the train this time, night trips both ways, and between that and the fact it's Budapest, I've about as much nerves as with a trip to the seaside that I take every summer. Sure, I don't speak the language, but no-one expects me to speak it, and the city's so nice. I have my favourite bakery, my favourite pancake place, and among my plans are stocking up on a Hungarian hand cream and spices. It's not a strange city anymore.
And once I'm back, expect more squee about musicals :) |
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| Beauty and the Beast, seaside edition |
[Jun. 16th, 2008|03:18 pm] |
I saw the Disney musical Beauty and the Beast for the first time in Berlin, with Leah Delos Santos, Jan Ammann, Uli Scherbel and Kevin Kraus, a truly magical cast. I had vague memories of the movie, but the show clinched it for me; not an oh-my-gods, but a lovely musical that I saw twice (mainly on account of Jan) and that the cast loved to bits.
Yesterday, I saw the new production in Gdynia, Poland. Huh. Looks like we've got another international-class production on our hands.
( Except for Belle, but who cares for Belle when you've got an emo Johnny Depp villain? )
All that on top of a very well-translated show, and I think we've got a winner on our hands :) |
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| Jesus Christ Superstar, or why musicals need direction |
[Jun. 12th, 2008|09:55 am] |
There's a cycle of open-air musical theatre performances running at an amphitheatre in town, and I took the opportunity to catch Jesus Christ Superstar as performed by the Teatr Rozrywki w Chorzowie. Hey, it was free :)
( Remarks on the musical and this particular production )
I'm wondering whether to give the same theatre a chance and go to Katowice to see their Jekyll & Hyde. It's another show with lovely songs and stumbling plot that requires careful direction, so I fear the end result might be the same frustration. |
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| Sporty stuff |
[Jun. 9th, 2008|08:53 am] |
For yay: last year during the Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix, Robert Kubica managed to total his car and the general consensus was that he was lucky to be alive, never mind intact. This year, same Grand Prix - he won his first-ever F1 race and took the lead in the overall drivers' ranking. Yay :)
For boo: Football... what football? Poland-Poland 2:0 :P I just pity Lukasz Podolski - not his fault the German national team drafted him first. |
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| The joy of writing (and a Discworld fic) |
[Jun. 5th, 2008|07:32 pm] |
Sometimes, life makes me feel like stabbing someone in the gut. Since that would be unprofessional, instead I have to withstand the same sensation from my own body as it gives under the stress.
At times like these, I find it calming to think that nothing lasts forever, and that I always have writing to turn to. I've been worried over the past year or so, as my creative output all but dried up and I could not even get the motivation to write on request. I'm amazingly grateful to penknife and mireille719 for lgbtfest, which dealt with my fears nicely.
There's nothing like finding that a fresh issue to explore and toy with (and one that has interested me for half a lifetime - genderqueerness and gender identity). And most of all, there is nothing like writing stories for an audience that is 100% disparate from my LJ acquaintances - and getting positive reviews. It makes me believe that I can go somewhere with my writing; that apart from style, I have substance, original characters and emotional arcs.
(Plot will be the next thing I'll work on. I promise :P)
I missed two deadlines for this fic, but got it in just under the wire once I stopped fighting the characters about its direction:
Marching Orders - Discworld, Polly and Maladicta - The next war, and where they take it
(3,000 words, 2 days. Yes, I've still got it.) |
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| Kitten pictures, by demand |
[May. 22nd, 2008|01:00 pm] |
As demanded, here are photos of my new lodger. As far as I've been able to determine, he is very much in looks and behaviour (squeaking) to a Norwegian Forest Cat, which means he'll be about 10kg when grown - right now he's 0.6kg of fluffy hairball. Oops?
( Monsieur Fluffy ) |
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| *facepalm* |
[May. 21st, 2008|09:18 pm] |
Found a kitten on my doormat. Fluffy brown thing, six weeks old. Hellion on paws.
*eyes Tanz der Vampire collection* Can I call him Sanyi?
(Three cats. Argh. Gonna have to get a car.) |
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| DVD: Romeo et Juliette, Gerard Presgurvic version |
[May. 17th, 2008|07:12 pm] |
And in the continuing adventures of Beth versus actual commercially available DVDs of musicals, I've finally watched something I've had for a while - Romeo et Juliette, the Gerard Presgurvic version, as recorded in 2001 in Paris. I have to say that even with all the pop music, this is one of the most artistic musicals. The French seem to have a gift for them.
( Amazingly fun musical. Why did no-one tell me it had Death in it? )
Unfortunately, this DVD is out of print at the moment. But the good news is, enterprising people have uploaded all of it to Youtube :) Between them, "selenityrose" and "faelivrinen" have all the tracks. Some samples:
Verone (first song of the musical
)
J'ai peur (originally a Mercutio song, given to Romeo because he's the only one not noticeably shorter than Death)
C'est pas ma faute (Tybalt angst) |
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| Ukrainian gold |
[May. 16th, 2008|10:55 am] |
It's been three weeks, but the exhibition is still ongoing, so those currently in Warsaw can still go see the Ukrainian gold from the PLATAR collection on show at the National :) It's an amazing exhibition - perfectly preserved ceramics and jewelry from the least-known cultures that wintered in Ukraine and Poland before the current era began. Scythian motives run to stylised animals, and they traded extensively with Greeks, so the craftmanship is astounding.
More images in my gallery of the exhibition. Forgive the poor framing at times - I only had the Panasonic TZ3, not the best camera for indoor photography, so I concentrated on sharp pictures. |
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| *sporfle* |
[May. 7th, 2008|09:19 pm] |
Apparently on a talent show on ZDF this spring, they had a musicals theme and Uwe Kröger as a judge. This makes for entertaining clips of him making faces as people torture German and English musicals.
But this is something else. They had Villazon as a guest star, because apart from being Caruso Jr, he's also done Man of La Mancha. Which he did admirably - guy's got a siege weapon of a voice on him.
And then he and the host went and did Always look on the bright side of life. Yes, from Spamalot. Monty Python. My brain!
(Video under cut, because I refuse to be the only one traumatised.)
( Bad and wrong and yay ) |
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| Elisabeth in Berlin |
[May. 5th, 2008|12:20 pm] |
I saw two shows in Berlin, May 1 and May 2. The cast was almost the same - the only exception was Sophie, with the understudy the first time and Christa Wettstein (first cast) on Friday. The shows, however, were dramatically different, mostly because on Thursday, Bruno Grassini (Lucheni) was phoning in his role, while by Friday he had recovered.
( Detailed review )
End verdict: I'm glad I've gone, for reasons of Uwe (and to a lesser extent, Annemieke and Oliver), but this production is craft rather than art. And I'm very happy I have tickets booked to Elisabeth in Budapest next month, with the full second cast (Máté, Bernádett and Nikolett, Ádám Bálint and Tamás Szaraz) confirmed for both shows I'm attending. |
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| *falls over* |
[May. 4th, 2008|08:24 am] |
Got back yesterday near midnight and was so exhausted I fell into bed without even touching the computer. Reviews will be up tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime, highlights of my Berlin trip:
- seeing Uwe Kröger, twice. No Pia, but oh, UWE. No more watching certain Hungarians for you, the set'll fall apart!
- Spargel - height of the season, and oh, they were delicious
- lovely Roman-inspired sandals and a jacket that cost far too much
- stuffed alligator O.o |
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| Missing in action |
[Apr. 29th, 2008|08:13 pm] |
I'm off on Thursday morning for Berlin, back on Saturday night. Have decided not to lug the computer around, since it's just two nights and a rather busy schedule of shopping and two shows to catch. If anyone has anything urgent, speak now, or hold your peace for four whole days ;)
Incidentally, this will be the first time in three years or so that I'll be incommunicado from e-mail for over 24 hours - even when I was net-less, I monitored things via mobile phone. Wish me luck! |
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| Sometimes, a voice makes you flail |
[Apr. 25th, 2008|09:17 pm] |
I'm watching the Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert (more on which, and the book, later), and after Act 1 I made the mistake of looking up Michael Maguire on Youtube.
His voice in Music of the Night has left me spellbound
There's something about his emotion... oh gods, why doesn't this man act more? |
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| Meta: Live performance fandom versus media fandom |
[Apr. 21st, 2008|02:33 pm] |
I started out in media fandom, where by media I define books, series, films, comics – any creative work that is performed once and communicated via media, a one-to-many single-time-point form of creation. For the past two years, my primary fandoms, the defaults I scribble about in my free moments, have been live performance fandoms. Involvement in the two is a very different experience.
( Media fandom versus live performance fandom: an analysis )
And now, I should probably write another analysis for the fascinating in-between creature that is Takarazuka fandom ;) But at 1,700+ words, this will be enough for now. |
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