This will probably be of interest to exactly 3 people on my flist, but I feel like sharing anyway.

Douglas, our director, who is dead smart and studied Shakespeare and everything, has mentioned on many occasions that ALL direction is in the script, and every time I find that to be true, it absolutely floors me, and makes me fangirl Shakespeare more than ever.

One of the things Douglas taught me is that one uses 'thou and thee' if one is being affectionate, informal OR speaking to someone of lower rank. 'You' and 'Your' are used when being formal or respectful.

I'm playing Lady Anne in Richard III and in the beginning he basically seduces her over the corpse of Henry VI. (Not her husband as some people think. That'd be weird.)

Thoughout most of the scene Ann says 'thee and thou' to Richard. As she is basically telling him to DIAF, it's her deliberately indicating she thinks he is below her. (also they'd probably known each other for years) Richard, meanwhile, says 'you'; being respectful and charming. (and, you know, evil)

Toward the end of the scene, Anne falls for his charms('My woman's heart grossly grew captive to his honey words', I say later)and suddenly she's calling him 'you'. Richard, meanwhile, starts saying thee and thou. It is a clear indication that she's fallen for it, and he KNOWS it.

It's just such a neat, subtle thing, and when I noticed it, I was just so exicted, because it's just so...well, nifty.

Been meaning to do this for awhile now. Below is the autograph of Jon Pertwee and Elisabeth Sladen that I got way back when.



( the story of the day I met the Doctor )

This was the #1 UK hit from the month I was born. The Tremloes, whom I'd never actually heard of. Well, I was only an infant at the time.



Doesn't really sound like a song from the late 60's. Maybe it is counter-counterculture? I missed the Monkees by a few months.

And just for fun, here's the UK #1 from the month Charlie was born - September 1997. Unsurprising, as Princess Diana died the week before Charlie was born. He funeral was held the day after his birthday. Someone actually asked if if that's why I named him 'Charles'. I was like...er...no? Don't think Diana would've appreciate it if I had.

We're supposed to get hella snow any minute now. I bought a shovel yesterday, so it's probably going to pass us completely by.

So the other day, writer/blogger Ken Levine wrote this really good essay about how hard it is to be cast in a sitcom, and Felicia Day tweeted about it, resulting in him getting more comments than usual.

Whenever that sort of thing happens, there always appears the one person who misses the point and gets shirty over something that is clearly meant to be tongue in cheek.

In this case, Ken, in talking about all the hoops actors go through during pilot season, he makes an aside 'ready to go back to Michigan to teach 5th grade yet?'

I would think that most people aren't assuming he means that teaching is EASIER than anything else, it's just a bit less shaky, as far as careers go.

But as I said, there is always someone eager to take offence, and this one person left this long, but not impolite, thing about how people don't understand how hard teaching is. Which would be all well and good, but she felt the need to include this ridiculously long, extremely glurgy, chicken-soupy type story about a teacher who smacks down some guy for disparaging the teaching profession.

At the end of this diatribe (which, according to another poster, is actually taken from someone else's poem), the 'teacher' says "Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money isn't everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant.... You want to know what I make?

I MAKE A DIFFERENCE. What do you make Mr. CEO?"

Then someone posted below this woman, writing:

And then he responded with, $2.5 million a year plus stock options.


Well, it made me giggle


*Subject line blatently ripped off from my friend's Facebook post.

Last night Charlie was telling me about the book Holes that they read in his language arts class. He was telling me about a lizard that was yellow with spots, but it wasn't a real lizard, but if it bit you you would die. These are direct quotes.

'It's like a vampire,' he said, 'except it doesn't bite your neck.' He paused for a moment, 'And you don't turn into a vampire. And it doesn't drink your blood.'

'So,' I said, while trying to keep a straight face, 'in fact it's nothing like a vampire.'

'The biting part is the same.' he replied.

I was trolling through TV Tropes (slow morning) and wound up on this page, the Not Making This Up Disclaimer.

On it was mentioned Anna Russell's disclaimer for her synopsis of Wagner's Ring Cycle.

'Gosh,' I think, 'I wonder if that is same thing my professor* in college played for us way back when!'

Understand that up until this point I couldn't have told you at gunpoint anything other than it was an old record, (an actual, vinyl record, thank you so very much) and that it was a posh, British female doing the talking. And it was hilarious. (At the bit where, if memory serves, Tristian meets Isolde, she says 'this is the first woman he's met who isn't his aunt.')

So naturally I Google Anna Russell, and now I am certain that it was she I heard on that record all those years ago.

It's like a minor mystery of my life solved.



*Who's name I cannot for the life of me think of. He was this fabulous little old man who had been a professional pianist of some note back in the day and studied under someone famous, possibly Rachmaninoff, but I'm not completely certain about that.

Does anyone else on my flist watch Psych on the USA channel? If so, I'm curious about something. ( spoilers for last week's episode )

Oh, in other 'I have no life' news, I got the 'series 5 DVDs today! The last David Tennant episodes. Has over 7 hours of extras, it says on the box. I would hope so, considering there are only 5 episodes.

Right. Back to work.

Fifty million hours of rehearsal, that's what!

We're in the final stretch of our epic show, Wars of the Roses.

And when I say 'epic', I mean EPIC.

Shakespeare wrote 4 plays that covered the time period of the Wars of the Roses - Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, and 3, and Richard III, which is less about the war, but is basically the end of the Yorks/Lancasters and the beginning of the Tudor period.

Our director cut these plays down so all 3 Henry's are done on two nights - our Parts 1 and 2, and Richard III is the 3rd part. (That's the bit that has my big role, BTW. I'm Anne Neville)

It's really coming together, amazingly enough. I had my doubts, but the battles and the swordfights look amazing, and the cast is fantastic.

AND, we're getting a bit of press about it, which is sort of awesome, too.

However, February is literally nothing but rehearsals, which is going to be draining. Rewarding, but draining.

So, for anyone of you within shouting distance of the Philadelphia area, I hope you consider coming to see the show! (At least the 3rd part!)

Or, if you really want to test your endurance, you can come see our 'War-a-Thon' on March 7th, when we do all three parts at the same time.

A comment in my earlier post reminded me of a Sesame Street cartoon that freaked me out as a kid, and dang if You Tube didn't have it! Wasn't even hard to fin


This thing freaked me out as a kid. Seriously, the late 60s/early 70s were some weird times.

This TV Tropes page brought up a memory that I haven't thought of in awhile.

When I was very little I remember going to some sort of Disney Ice Capade type show. I don't remember much about it, but one sequence absolutely terrified me.

Goofy was being chased by a Volkwagon bug, and the hood (bonnet) of the car would open and close, revealing teeth. At the end Goofy gets eaten by the car!

It was supposed to be funny, I guess, but it terrified me. It's funny how things like that stick in your mind.

I was a kid in the early 70's, too, and 'psychodelic' was all the rage, so some of the cartoons I was subjected to where also unintentionally horrifying. To this day I'm not overly fond of surrealism because of it.

What about you? Any weird unwhitting traumas in your memory?

Was going back through my old entries, as I am want to do when I am trying to kill some time, and realised that this Thursday will mark the one year anniversary of my divorce.*

It makes me think of that 'interesting times' curse. In the year since my divorce, my life has been pretty mellow; I work, I go home, I hang out with my friends, tend to Charlie, occasionally act in a play, and I'm generally quite happy that my life is quiet and seemingly in a decent sort of a rut.

I mean, odds on something to disrupt that rut being something bad, so I do not want to rock the boat by wishing for 'something to happen', right?

That said, I do hope, in the times to come, I figure out what I want out of the rest of my life and set out to get it. I would like a man in my life; well, sometimes I do, but I seem to be god-awfully picky about what sort of man that is. Sorting that out is key.



*for narrative reasons I should have probably waited and posted about it ON the anniversary, but knowing me, I'll probably forget.

Charlie, as I've mentioned before, likes Hoops.. He says they taste better than 'Spaghetti-Os. I wouldn't necessarily expect him to tell the difference in a blind taste test, but, as a card-carrying Anglophile, who am I to argue when my son prefers a British product, right?

Wegman's used to carry them, but they stopped. There is a British shop in Haddonfield, The English Gardener that carries them, most of the time.

They know me at that shop. Is anyone surprised?

Recently the owner of the shop, when he ordered more Hoops, ordered an extra case for me and Charlie. Seriously. I bought the case, and got a 10% discount for doing so, so as of yesterday afternoon I was the proud owner of 24 cans of Hoops.

Well, 23, as Charlie had some for dinner.

er...22, he had one for breakfast, too.

Make that 21, since he just made himself another bowl.

This is all Gene Hunt's fault.

WAAAY back when I was a senior in High School, I took a class called...well I forget what it was called, but it was kind of like an independant study English class.

Turned out it was more for people who needed extra help but me and this one other girl took it because English (Language Arts it's called nowadays, I think) was our favourite subject. The teacher, this amazingly awesome woman, took that into consideration and basically let me do all kinds of awesome things; poetry, short stories, etc.

At one point she let me and the other girl go to the AV room for a couple of days and watch Ian McKellen's 'Acting Shakespeare'.

To say I loved it would be a major understatement. I was pretty much a Shakespeare fangirl at that point already, but this just pushed it into a whole new realm. The teacher had us write an essay about it, and then her boyfriend said he could send them on to Sir Ian himself. Whether or not he ever got them, I'll never know, but for a few weeks I was sure he'd be phoning me to tell me how awesome and intelligent I was.

Anyway...I just found out that the show is finally being released onto DVD. I'm so pleased.

According to BBC News, Gunsights' biblical references concern US and UK forces.

Apparently Coded references to biblical passages are inscribed on gunsights widely used by the US and British military in Iraq and Afghanistan, it has emerged.

The markings include "2COR4:6" and "JN8:12", relating to verses in the books of II Corinthians and John.

Which I just find passing strange. But what really gets me is this: Trijicon, the US-based manufacturer, was founded by a devout Christian, and says it runs to "Biblical standards".

A 'devout Christian'. Who makes parts for guns. Am I wrong or is that just a little...what's the word? Oxymoronic, maybe?

And Biblical Standards? There are standards for gunsights in the bible?

The quotes being referenced are rather innocuous, actually - "When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." and "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."

Wouldn't you think they'd be more of the 'smite thine enemies' variety?

We live in a strange world.

OMG Castle was so good!

Yes, I know it was on Monday, but my friends and I watch it together on Tuesday. Its a thing.

Hey Seamus Dever approves.

Anyway...OMG, seriously, if you are not watching this show...why? It's so well done. It isn't groundbreaking or mind blowing, but it is good storytelling.

Also...Nathan Fillion. Just saying.

I'm sure I've seen quite a few 'worst' movies in my day, but the first one that comes to mind is 'A Night In Heaven' starring the blond kid from Blue Lagoon.*

It was, I think, cashing in on both the success of Blue Lagoon (in and of itself a 'bad' movie, but more of the 'so bad its good' variety, and it did make a gazillion dollars because Brooke Shields was artfully naked in it) and the sex comedy craze that was, at the time, making its mark. Unfortunately for the movie (and those of us who saw it) it didn't have any money or, you know, talent, to actually make it any good.

The plot, as I remember it, was this guy who was a male stripper has an affair with a married woman. I can't remember much else except at the end the husband forces the Blond Kid From Blue Lagoon** at gunpoint to strip naked. And then leaves him there. And that's how the movie ended.

Not sure, now that I think on it, if it meant to be a comedy, but I'm pretty sure it was advertised as such.

We didn't walk out of it, but I do recall sitting there at the end realising, possibly for the first time, that Hollywood doesn't always hit it out of the park.

-------
*Eariler in life I saw a slasher movie; again, a low budget thing cashing in on the new slasher craze started by Halloween and/or Friday the 13th, both of which I'd never seen. It was bad, but probably not by the standards of low budget slasher films, so I don't really count that one.

**Yes, I know I could IMDB the thing, I just don't feel like it right now.

My college roommate just emailed me this photo of us when we were Sophmores. It was Christmas break - I went home with her for the holiday. Home for her was Curacao. Whenever people met her, the questioning inevitably ran thus:

Them: Where are you from?

Her: Curacao

Them: Where is that?

Her: It's an island in the Carribbean, near Arauba.

Them: Why are you in New Jersey?

Things I learned tonight:

1. Everything is better with Neil Patrick Harris singing

2. House writers obviously pay attention to its fandom

3. Charlie likes to come up with the most metaphysical questions at the oddest times.

Example: we're in the car, coming home from a rehearsal.

Charlie: It's the time of night when vampires come out. *pause* Are there such things as vampires?

Me: No, they're just pretend.

Charlie: Is Jesus real?

There's a bit in one of Terry Pratchett's book, can't recall off hand which one, where he points out that humans have this thing against boredom, - 'oh look today is the same as yesterday, how boring, I wonder what would happen if I hit that head with this rock?'

I bring this up, because I've been feeling kind of lost recently. And been sort of 'feeling my age', which doesn't help.

I mean, I'm quite content with my life as it is right now; no major problems, my bills are paid, my car works, my job seems secure, etc.

Still, I can't help but feel like just a bit stagnated. I'm starting to think, 'is this it? Is this the rest of my life?'

It would be nice if I could be sure that the something new was also something good, though.

We're so weird, us humans. I mean really. Why can't I just be in the moment and be glad of what I have? I'm trying, I really am, but these last few weeks I'm just longing for some indefinable something or other.

One of the things that possibly started it off was I was speaking with a fellow cast-member who wants to direct a play for the CSC in the fall, and he made this comment about how nice it was we have a bunch of 'young actors and actresses' now, and I just felt like that meant I was never going to get cast ever again, because there's these young ingenue types to choose from. I'm not quite ready to be the nurse.

Anyway...I guess I just need some jollying from my flist. What've you got? :)

Those of you on Facebook have probably seen this meme:

"Something fun is going on...........Just write the color of your bra in your status, just the color, NOTHING ELSE!!! and send this on to ONLY WOMEN , no men.....It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before the men will wonder why all the women have a color in their status! .... ha ha"

It's one of the many, many things on Facebook that make a person feel like they're making a difference, when, really, they're not. I joined quite a few of those groups on FB myself, so I'm not pointing fingers here, but this one, for various reasons, is annoying me.

I think by this point we're pretty aware of breast cancer. It ahs a month dedicated to it, it has 3 day charity walks, it has various products being coloured pink. Numerous weepy books and Lifetime For Women movies have been made about the subject.

It doesn't need any more awareness.

It needs a cure.