| Panto |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|11:36 pm] |
If I'm totally clueless about fairy tales and can't tell the difference between Snow White, Rapunzel and Cinderella, would I enjoy watching a panto? Would I have any idea what is going on? |
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| Valmont |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|04:12 pm] |
The other night I watched Valmont for the first time. It's a couple of years ago that I read Laclos' novel and watched Dangerous Liaisons for the last time, but Valmont came across as quite different. Still, I rather liked it in its own right although I still haven't decided yet what to think about the changed ending. It's not as dark as the one in the novel.
I really enjoyed Colin Firth and Annette Bening as Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil. They seemed more human than John Malkovich and Glenn Close did in the respective roles. I wasn't too happy with Meg Tilly as Madame de Tourvel as long as she still resisted Valmont. She appeared very subdued and willingly repressed, but when she finally gave in, she became much livelier and more emotional.
I will have to rewatch Dangerous Liaisons sometime, but I think I prefer the look of Valmont. It seems to me that the settings were brighter. Not to mention that the film was quite funny at times. |
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| Being an Actress is Hard |
[Nov. 6th, 2009|03:58 pm] |
I went to the casting the local theatre had organised because they are looking for extras for a production next year. But I don't know yet whether I've passed.
In groups of five women, we had to approach the set and costume designer and make him feel as if we confronted him. We were supposed to act as a group and react as one, not as individuals. This turned out to be more difficult than I would have thought. At least in my group, we managed to all start walking with the left foot.
As for the dates of the rehearsals and performances, the set and costume designer and the head of the extras were even more clueless than we applicants. So we now have to wait whether we will be needed in the first place and then find out what the dates are and whether we will have time then. |
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| Better late than never |
[Nov. 3rd, 2009|09:00 pm] |
For many years I've been a huge fan of the TV series Frasier. In Germany it used to be aired shortly after midnight, which meant that there never was a huge fan community. Still, the show had it fans who were truly pissed off when the TV channel skipped the tenth and last but one season. That's several years ago, and to the best of my knowledge the season has never been shown on free TV. Until now. According, to my TV magazine some obscure channel will air it from 17 November on - at midnight, but I will watch it anyway. Actually, I know some of the missing episodes because someone copied them for me when they were aired in Great Britian, but I'm still missing parts of that season. So, finally I get to see the entire season. |
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| Entering the Stage |
[Oct. 22nd, 2009|08:49 pm] |
The local theatre is looking for extras for a theatre project next year. I sent a short application and was told in reply that the casting will take place in a couple of weeks. I don't know yet when the rehearsals will be so that I might need to bow out right away, but I'll definitely attend the casting to see what they have to tell us about the project. I can't imagine what the potential extras might have to do during the casting, though, because they are looking for women for a dumb Greek choir. |
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| Vanity Publishers |
[Aug. 28th, 2009|07:08 pm] |
I've never understood why some people decide to pay for publishing their books. Agreeing to the terms a vanity publisher offers has always seemed like a bad and desperate choice to me, but I never expected things to be as bad as they are described in this German article from Spiegel Online.
Some real authors sent in a faked and very badly written exposé, using a pseudonym, and all six vanity publishers accepted. Five of them also accepted the 842-pages-long manuscript that was cobbled together from copyright-free books and therefore made no sense at all. Depending on the publisher, the author should have paid between 3,000 and 30,000 Euros.
I realise that the fact that a real publishing house accepts your book also doesn't mean that your book is any good, but those publishers intend to make money by selling your book. Therefore, someone there has to believe that it's at least sellable if nothing else. A vanity publisher doesn't even believe in you this much because you've already paid him. |
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| Why didn't I watch the first series? |
[Aug. 16th, 2009|02:00 am] |
When Life on Mars was shown on TV here, I somehow wasn't interested (probably because I thought it was some kind of fantasy series), but when the second series started some weeks ago, I gave it a try and was instantly hooked. That 70s look, Gene Hunt's politically incorrect behaviour and of course John Simm as Sam Tyler, what's not to like? Now I could kick myself for not having watched the first series.
I have a question for the Britons on my f-list: What does Gene Hunt say in the sound file that's called If you don't answer this phone call??
I understand "If you don't answer this call I'm going to come over to your house (?) and stamp on all your ... (?), got it?" but apart from the fact that I can't make out that one word at all, I'm not entirely sure this is correct in the first place. |
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| Raphael Marley Severus |
[Aug. 12th, 2009|02:45 pm] |
There's an advert in today's newspaper announcing the birth of a boy with this name. Hmmm, are the parents fans of Roman history or did they read the Potter books? For the boy's sake I hope the parents know how to pronounce the name. That seems to be the main problem nowadays. Parents love to give their children exotic names but often fail to properly pronounce them. |
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| African Folktales |
[Aug. 6th, 2009|11:23 pm] |
Some days ago I received my copy of the audiobook Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales. I didn't have to the time to listen to all of the stories yet, but I'm working on it. Of course I listened to the one read by Alan Rickman, which is, I'll have to admit, the reason I bought the audiobook in the first place. He does an excellent job of reading "The Ring of the King". He doesn't just read the story, but makes it seem as if he tells you a secret.
But I've also enjoyed the other stories I've already listened to very much. It's very interesting to catch a glimpse of the African culture, and to see how these stories explain the world. For example, last night when I listened to "King Lion's Gifts", read by Ricardo Chavira, I learnt how the animals got their horns, stripes, tusks etc.
Edit: I just had a look at the pdf booklet that's included on the final CD. It contains the most gorgeous paintings, one for each story. |
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| Granger(-)Snape |
[Aug. 5th, 2009|04:38 pm] |
What are the chances that Amy Miller who marries a Mr Smith would become Amy Miller Smith in Britain?
I can't count how many times I've come across Hermione Granger Snape in fanfics or discussions, and I always wonder whether that is actually something that many British women do. Wouldn't she rather remain being Hermione Granger or become Hermione Snape?
Sometimes, I also read Hermione Granger-Snape, which doesn't seem to be more likely to me. I know there's Justin Finch-Fletchley in the HP books, but I always understood hyphenated family names to mean that it's a posh family and that therefore all family members are called like that. |
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| What the fuck? |
[Jul. 28th, 2009|09:33 pm] |
On some board someone told me they hoped I was sterile because I dared to mention that I didn't think that children were traumatised by seeing naked people.
I don't have children and don't plan to have any, but right now I think it would be great to start having as many as possible and teach them that nudity isn't unnatural, ugly, horrible or disgusting. |
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| Danke, Herbert! |
[Jun. 7th, 2009|01:03 pm] |
(Note: This is not my photo. I didn't take a camera with me.) |
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| I'm not particularly fond of muscials ... |
[May. 15th, 2009|01:37 am] |
I've never seen Fellini's 8 1/2 ...
This trailer looks more like a porn film than anything else ...
But I'm going to watch it anyway ...
... because when has Daniel Day-Lewis ever looked better? |
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| The Winter's Tale |
[May. 13th, 2009|11:52 am] |
I went to see William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. I just can't resist if it's Shakespeare and if it's an English-speaking production performed somewhere in the vicinity. Apart from that it meant an opportunity to see Simon Russell Beale again, whom I had seen as Guildenstern in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead 13 years ago.
This production was directed by Sam Mendes and starred Rebecca Hall as Hermione, Sinéad Cusack as Paulina, Ethan Hawke as Autolycus and Simon Russell Beale as Leontes.
( What's my verdict like? )
In case you're interested in a professional review here's one from the New York Times, published when the production was shown in New York a couple of months ago. It very much expresses what I thought as well.
A few production photos, which offer an impression of what the production looks like, can be seen here. |
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| "You play, I dance." |
[Apr. 17th, 2009|07:06 pm] |
Either British pupils are really careful when it comes to handling books, or they don't care for Truly Madly Deeply. I couldn't resist and bought a copy of Anthony Minghella's screenplay, which a German antiquarian had on offer. It's in an astonishingly good condition for a book that once belonged to a school library - to that of St George's English School in Cologne, to be exact.
There's an inscription that reads "and (name I can't make out), with love and hugs Anthony". I have no idea whether it's for real, and the antiquarian didn't advertise it as Minghella's autograph either.
Anyway, I'm happy to own it now and look forward to reading it. Seeing how thin the book is, it won't take more than 30 minutes, but I'll make sure to cherish them. |
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| A Matter of Perception |
[Apr. 5th, 2009|12:22 am] |
I've been following a SS/HG WIP, which I've enjoyed quite a bit. There were some obvious Americanisms but they didn't really distract me. The latest chapter, though, struck me as rather unbelievable, and I had trouble recognising Severus Snape and Hermione Granger. They have come to admit that they care for each other but Snape doesn't want a relationship because 1) he's a bad man and 2) he believes that Hermione, despite the fact that she is 20, has no idea what sex entails and would be shocked to know that he desires her.
I have to admit that I groaned when I read those paragraphs, and I'll also admit that I thought that this stage of mind appeared to be more American than British to me. Of course, that's not a nice thing for me to say and I might be horribly wrong, but then I had a look at the reviews for the latest chapter and saw that someone had commented by saying that it all was terribly British. I really had to laugh at reading this. It seems it's all a matter of perception. |
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| The meaning of "quite" |
[Mar. 12th, 2009|10:33 pm] |
I always thought that I knew the meaning of the word "quite". I always heard and saw it used in the sense of "rather", and that's how I used it as well. Along came internet and fanfiction, and I had to realise that many people – mostly Americans as far as I can tell – use the word in the sense of "very". Imagine my confusion. What confused me even more was that no one remarked on it. I have come across so many posts and discussions about the subtlest differences between British and American English, but no one seems to discuss the use of the word "quite".
But now Alan Rickman of all people confirmed that there is a difference, indeed. In this article about Bottle Shock it reads:
Rickman says filming Bottle Shock made him more aware of the differences between the English and Americans.
“If Bill were to say to me, ‘you’re quite good’, I would be so insulted by that. But that’s a compliment for an American. To an English person, it’s like saying ‘it’s ok’.
So, is the word "quite" something that is at least sometimes used differently, but no one is confused by it (apart from me, that is)? Does everyone know about the difference and therefore knows how to interpret it when Snape tells Hermione that she's quite beautiful or when a review reads, "This was quite enjoyable."
( By the way, Alan Rickman also talks about the use of the word 'snob'. ) |
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| Congratulations... |
[Mar. 1st, 2009|02:11 am] |
... to Shohei Tochimoto, Takanobu Okabe, Daiki Ito and Noriaki Kasai for winning the bronze medal in the ski jumping team event at the Nordic World Championships in Liberec, Czech Republic. That result was a bit unexpected, but they certainly earned it. |
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| Congratulations... |
[Feb. 15th, 2009|07:54 pm] |
... to Dimitry Vassiliev, Ilya Rosliakov, Denis Kornilov and Pavel Karelin. I know it was "only" the second place, but what a great success it was. (I'm talking about today's ski flying team competition, which took place in Oberstdorf.) |
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