I emailed Mrs. Ripley each night of my senior show, because she was in China. I’m posting the three emails here because I feel like I should have documented my last musical at Gowanda somehow. So here they are.

THE WIZ: EPISODE ONE

We had fun tonight. Well, this afternoon. We did the energy circle thing (Taylor and I didn’t really explain it that well, though– we will tomorrow, since we instigated it). Bobby and Kris didn’t participate, but they’re losers. (Not really, but they’re lame boys and I’m sure that with the proper friendly persuasion they’ll do it tomorrow…ha).

The whole thing went pretty smoothly: there were a few instances where mics cut out; Glenn wasn’t there, either. I don’t know why.

I, um, may have gotten my only laughs from the crowd as soon as I walked on. Phoebe didn’t walk in a straight line and I had to try to scoot her out on stage twice-ish before she actually went, and even then it was kind of in a circle. So I picked her up and bopped across the stage, scrambling for the appropriate lines (obviously I couldn’t say “Come back here, Toto” if I was holding her) and I may have rammed into the house on accident with my shoulder.

Yes, I have a bruise.

Yes, the house off-kiltered a foot or so.

But it was funny, and even though I cracked up when I got off stage it ran nicely.

The makeup all looked really good; Zach and Kruszka and Taylor all got a lot of laughs; Chelsea and Dakota did too. Obviously my character isn’t funny, so they didn’t cheer so much for me, but that’s ok. I got home to Kansas and remembered to click my heels and it was all good.

I saw Kiener and Emma and Hannah, and that was pretty weird considering that in a year it’ll be me coming back to watch my friends. I don’t know if I’m okay with that yet. Stephen told me, “Well, this is it, this is your last show.”

And I could only smirk at him and reply that no, I had two more.

I just can’t think about this being “My Last.” It doesn’t sit well with me at all, so I think if I just don’t spend any time dwelling on it, it won’t affect me as much. I don’t want to get all watery and miserable on Tuesday.

But! All in all it was a good show and so far that’s what I’ve been hearing in reviews. “Great job,” “Good show,” “GREAT show,” keep being repeated. Some kids came back to us after and we (leads) talked to them and even got a picture or two with them (at parents’ insistence). The Lion, mostly, and (surprisingly) me were approached individually and greeted by toddlers and their parents, so that was cute. Mrs. Propp’s nine-year-old daughter Morgan had us all sign her program.

I think that tomorrow and Tuesday I’ll have more energy. I was thinking, by “Y’all Got It,” that I just wanted it to be done with so I could go home. I know that’s awful, but I was so so tired. The “easing on down the road” part of my job is straight up exhausting. I can’t dance anyway, so put singing and dancing together and I’m almost out by the time the Kalidahs get us.

Oh! And “Be a Lion” was good. Pretty darn good (the best time we’ve done it). I talked to Ms. Fried at intermission and she was really happy with it. Ms. Stoffel and her mom were really excited at the end, and so was Mrs. Hales. I think Mr. Wesley disappeared– we didn’t have notes and I didn’t see him at all after the production.

…and that’s all I know. It went really well. Tomorrow and Tuesday will be good also, I hope.

THE WIZ: PART TWO !

“AND JUST MAYBE I CAN CONVINCE TIME TO SLOW UP” — FINALE.

Invece basta un esamino, un’analisi semplice semplice, un prelievo di buonsenso: come certi bambini coraggiosi ma segretamente gracili manchiamo di calcio, e anche un po’ di fosforo.

Un peccato, perché i metatarsi raffinati, quelli di Wilkinson, di Carter, di Steyn, nel rugby di oggi contano ormai quanto i polpastrelli.Gli Springboks, i campioni del mondo, quelli degli uomini macigno in mischia e dell’uomo ghepardo, Bryan Habana, all’ala, siamo riusciti a reggerli fisicamente, a pressarli per tutta la seconda metà del primo tempo, e all’inizio del secondo, prima che la folata di du Preez e la terza delle quattro mete sudafricane ci tagliasse le gambe.

Nell’economia dei se e dei ma fanno 12 punti in meno, da sommare all’insufficienza nei calci di spostamento.Nel bilancio ci sta un’Italia che si è confermata d’acciaio in mischia e che ha mostrato (finalmente!) qualche lampo in attacco.

In quei 20 splendidi minuti finali del primo tempo Zanni è arrivato a un metro dalla meta, e poco dopo oltre la linea si è tuffato Garcia, liberato in un delizioso incrocio da Gower, uno che viene dal rugby a 13: la fotocopia del giochetto che contro gli All Blacks aveva quasi mandato in meta Canale.

Fonte:
http://www.lastampa.it/sport/cmsSezioni/rugby/200911articoli/23818girata.asp

4/5 — Heartwarming, but way too fast.

Midori no Hibi
Episode 13: “The Days of Two People”
Wherein the anime draws to a rather rapid close.

So, at the outset, Midori is back home, and Sawamura is back to being Sawamura. Sawamura, as you may recall, has just been confessed to by Ayase. He tells Ayase he’s sorry, and without really meaning to explains that it’s complicated. She puts it together and tells Seiji that the girl left him because what he felt was love, but because he couldn’t see it, the girl didn’t feel like she could stay. This is probably one of the more poignant things said in the series. It’s sentimental and honest. Ayase thanks Sawamura for being direct because now she can give up. As it turns out Midori has no memory of ever being Seiji’s right hand. Kota doesn’t know what to do because he thinks if he tells Midori the truth she’ll go back to being Sawamura’s right hand. Meanwhile, Seiji finds Midori’s diary, and runs into Kota near Midori’s house, asking him to return it to her. Kota explains the situation and Seiji decides it’s best not to give it back to her. Midori realizes Seiji is outside, and Kota tells her to chase after him — of course, Kota inadvertently reveals himself as well, Midori becoming aware of his feelings for her. Regardless, she chases after Seiji for the duration of the day. Throughout the day Midori tells herself how this time she’ll be strong, and Seiji continually encounters things that make him weepy about it all. Seiji gets a visit from his sister, which only serves to make things worse.

In the end, Midori and Sawamura meet up by the water fountain, and with some difficulty, she confesses to him. He says he knows how she feels and he feels the same way. The series pretty much ends there, at the beginning of their relationship.

It’s a good episode, but it does feel as though they crammed way too much into too small a space. The pacing was really good right up until the end, and then it just sorta fell apart. The episode also doesn’t bring closure to a lot of things and creates additional problems — Seiji’s sister is now pissed at him for Midori being gone, the relationship is just starting and we assume we’ll know how it’ll go though we don’t get to really see any of the future togetherness after they’ve asserted their feelings, etc. It doesn’t feel like that much closure, but maybe I just don’t understand shojo anime.

Hier soir, dans le cadre splendide du palais Brongniart (place de la Bourse à Paris), se déroulait la finale du championnat national de course en escarpins.

Cet événement proposé par les équipes de DECONTRACT et SARENZA a été un succés.

Une centaine de filles réparties dans 32 équipes se sont affrontées sans relâche pour monter sur les plus belles places du podium. Ainsi les finalistes ont pu en fonction de leur ordre d’arrivée se partager les 15OO ou 3000 euros de chaussures (budget offert par SARENZA)

Plus d’infos sur les résultats et l’événement :

http://www.sarenza.com/course-escarpins

Mainz – leidenschaftlich wissenschaftlich!

Ob “Deutschland sucht den Superstar”, “Das Supertalent” oder wie die Dinger alle heißen… Jeder hat erstmal nur ein Ziel: Recall! Was dem Künstler der Recall, ist den Teilnehmern des Wettbewerbs “Stadt der Wissenschaft” der Finaleinzug. Zum sechsten Mal sucht der Stifterverband der Deutschen Wissenschaft die “Stadt der Wissenschaft”. Mainz bewirbt sich in diesem Jahr um diesen exklusiven Titel. Die rheinland-pfälzische Landeshauptstadt hat am 15. Oktober 2009 ihre Ideenskizze abgegeben. Mit Ihrem Motto “Mainz – leidenschaftlich wissenschaftlich / Stadtlandschaft voller Kreativität” bewarb sich die Stadt um die begehrte Auszeichnung. Am 20.11. traf der Stifterverband eine erste Auswahl und schickte Mainz nicht nur zum Recall, sondern gar ins Finale. Okay, diese Hürde war zugegeben nicht gerade die höchste, denn von nur vier Städten (Lüdenscheid, Bielefeld, Chemnitz und Mainz) zogen gleich drei ins Finale ein. Lüdenscheid hat es dabei erwischt. Für Sie war der Traum vom Finale vergangenen am gestrigen Freitag ausgeträumt.

In Mainz bereitet die Stadt gemeinsam mit der sog. “Mainzer Wissenschaftsallianz” (Stadtverwaltung, Universität, Fachhochschulen, Max-Planck-Institute, Universitätsmedizin, Museen und zahlreiche Institutionen aus Kultur und Medien) für das Wissenschaftsjahr 2011 mehr als 100 gemeinsame Projekte vor. Schon heute genießt die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Wissenschaft und Stadt hier in Mainz einen hohen Stellenwert. Projekte und Veranstaltungen, wie der jährliche „Mainzer Wissenschaftsmarkt“ auf dem Gutenbergplatz vor dem Staatstheater oder wie zahlreiche Vortragsreihen, darunter die „Universität im Rathaus“.

Die Entscheidung für die “Stadt der Wissenschaft 2011″ fällt im März 2010. Die vom Stifterverband eingesetzte Expertenjury fordert die Finalistenstädte auf, ihre eingereichten Ideenskizzen nun zu vollständigen Bewerbungen auszuarbeiten. Für ein Preisgeld von 250.000 EUR legt man sich dann doch gerne mal ins Zeug. Fünf Städte hat der Stifterverband bisher mit dem begehrten Titel ausgezeichnet: Bremen_Bremerhaven (2005), Dresden (2006), Braunschweig (2007), Jena (2008) und Oldenburg (2009). Mal sehen wer 2010 an der Reihe ist.

Inanity, Intrigue and Inigo Montoya

November 20th, 2009

In the promos for the season finale of Season Six of Project Runway, Lifetime uses dramatic music and a deep-voiced announcer to try to build suspense for the big reveal. However, in their language, they have something wrong: they create anticipation for the reveal of who is “the next big name in fashion,” and my immediate response is “who cares?”

See, what works about Project Runway is that it transfers the aesthetics of the fashion industry into terms that are unrelated to the fashion industry. I know nothing about fashion, but I know a lot about what Nina Garcia likes to see in fashion, or what the series values in terms of creativity. It’s created an audience that, even if they have no knowledge of the fashion industry, have gained knowledge of what Project Runway considers fashion. As such, rather than caring about what these young designers do in the context of the fashion industry, we care about how they situate themselves within the show’s cast of characters from seasons past. For a viewer like me, Bryant Park is the setting of the finale of Project Runway, not a global fashion event, which is why Lifetime language is demonstrative of the season’s failures: I don’t care if they’re a big name in fashion, I want them to be a big name for Project Runway.

And I can confirm that Irina, Althea and Carol Hannah will not be names to remember, a fact which has more to do with the way the show treated them than it does with their individual personalities and talent. And while we’ll never know if this season would have been more interesting if it were in New York, and if the production company hadn’t changed, what we do know is that Season Six failed to provide both the next big name in fashion and a single memorable name for this franchise.

[A few more thoughts on Project Runway, and then some thoughts on both Top Chef and Survivor, with spoilers after the jump...]

I won’t spend any more time identifying what went wrong this season, as Linda Holmes at NPR has pretty much done that for me, but I want to say that Irina is about the perfect winner for the season. She had the most sense of character and the most interesting point of view, but was still ultimately uninteresting and lacking in identity, fitting the season perfectly. I didn’t think her collection was actually that interesting, but compared to Carol Hannah’s (which lacked cohesion) and Althea’s (which lacked clarity – there’s a difference) it was about as close to a winning collection the season could get.

And while some eliminations this season have been impossible to predict thanks to the confusing mismatch of judges, this one was really easy to see coming based on the judges’ deliberation. You could sense the judges were struggling to come up with something to say about each designer: these final critiques are always more positive than negative, and yet you could sense that the positives were all more dull than you could imagine. You could sense the judges trying to pretend as if there was ever a sense of consistency in the design aesthetics: my favourite was Heidi describing Carol Hannah, which I’ll now quote for you.

“You do see Carol Hannah, you see her point of view, and she loves dresses, and she’s impeccable in her tailoring…I mean that’s…what has…made her get this far, because she’s always been very good at that.”

So her point of view is dresses and impeccable tailoring, and the reason she got this far is because she was very good at it. Right there, with all the stammering pauses intact, you have the problem: she had no point of view except making acceptable clothes decently. Michael Kors had a similarly laughable moment when he described Althea as “very plugged into the street,” which made me guffaw. None of these designers could possibly be street-smart, and it was as if they were so desperate to distinguish these designers from one another that they needed to pigeonhole them into one idea. It made for a really hilarious sequence as you could sense things unraveling, and yet they could do nothing but plug on through and pretend that this really was the most dramatic finale of all time.

What’s interesting about Survivor (yep, this is a segueway) this season is that, for a show that often creates drama where there is none in an effort to make the final tribal council interesting, the producers have been able to sit back and watch people self-destruct over the past three weeks. Never before has a merge created quite this much chaos, and I’m sure Mark Burnett is giddy about the whole thing: I’m not sure I can remember the last time I’ve sat through the last quarter of this many episodes in a row. I fell into a pattern a while ago that I would effectively stop watching the show in its entirety after the immunity challenge, knowing that (because of how common pecking orders are, and because of how rarely the immunity idol was in play) the result was inevitable, and there were only a few occasions where something surprising happened during my fastforwarding that would result in me going back to see how it went down.

But after the merge, the self-destruction within the Galu tribe (who were dominant early on) has been a joy to watch – as Erik, sitting on the jury after being the victim of the first set of bizarre circumstances, said last night, “Man, this is some good shit.” After last week saw the Galu tribe fail to listen to Monica and plan some sort of contingency in case Russell managed to find the hidden immunity idol (which he did), resulting in Kelly leaving the game, this week was all about the Galu tribe running around like chickens with their heads cut off. When things finally get to tribal council, the sides are tied at 5, and when John eventually switches sides in order to avoid the drawing of rocks (which could send himself or anyone else home) it’s yet another moment where Galu realizes that they are not, in fact, a tribe anymore. What’s interesting about John is that he is really part of the problem here: I think that Galu would have simply picked off a Foa Foa member in that first week if he hadn’t first suggested taking off Monica, which was the information Erik got burned on as a messenger, so he’s sort of the one who set this all in motion. As such, it’s fitting he puts the final nail in the coffin in what was a really engaging final tribal council. The first merge episode had the frantic switchover that got rid of Eric, last week had Russell’s cagey Idol play, and this week saw John kill Galu for good – a very eventful, and very strong, period for Survivor.

Top Chef, meanwhile, sort of had an off week. This isn’t to suggest that I didn’t like the end result, which has the always likely Final Four come together after Jennifer manages to throw off her demons to win the Quickfire and place respectably in the Elimination Challenge in earning a spot in the Napa Valley finale, which sees Eli sent home. The episode was about the camaraderie of the chefs, as they seemed to all get along and there was a whole lot of emotion to be found in the final sequence was Eli basically admits that he’s okay going home at this stage considering the people who are going on instead (which was especially sad after Eli had turned himself into an Inigo Montoya figure for his mentor Richard Blais earlier in the episode). I didn’t particularly like Eli, but the rest of the chefs did and as a result I found his departure interesting.

However, I think that (to bring this all full circle) the actual challenge suffered because I really had no idea what this supposed “Culinary Olympics” was really about, and more problematically the show couldn’t actually judge based on that sort of criteria considering the amount of time given to the chefs. I understand that they wanted to try to capture the spirit of the event, but while Project Runway has turned Bryant Park into a life long goal that everyone aspires to this competition came out of nowhere and had too little meaning for me to be all that excited about. It also created a strange scenario where the judging was supposed to be based on who best captured the spirit of the event, and yet because nobody really went wild with zucchini baskets or anything similar it ended up coming down to whose food tasted the best, which is why Kevin was ultimately named the winner even when many judges felt Bryan had the most potential within the context of this type of competition. I don’t doubt Kevin deserved to win based on some criteria, but considering the nature of this competition he himself admitted he didn’t show enough technique, so the judges seemed to ignore that aspect of the challenge in favour of simply feeling Kevin best-executed “food” and thus wins the $30,000.

It just goes to show you that there’s only so much you can do in an hour of reality television: sometimes you try to make an exciting season sound interesting, sometimes you have everything go perfectly and barely need to touch a thing, and in another instance you have a big idea that just never translates well into the competition (unless my lack of knowledge of Thomas Keller in some way destroyed my ability to see the challenge as a really big deal).

Cultural Observations

• My favourite thing about the Runway finale was that we had the prior knowledge of the fact that, since this was taped during the period of legal limbo for the show, nobody knew who the designers were and thus they couldn’t actually be seen by the crowd and the media. What this means is that any time you saw any of the contestants watching the show, or saw the families, or saw the designers on the runway, that was all staged either before or after the fact (note how no one but the other designers comment on any contestant by name). What I loved is how, even if I hadn’t known that, the awkwardness of the introductions would have tipped me off: they were clearly uncomfortable with the charade.
• Does anyone have any verdict on Models of the Runway? I stopped watching after about two weeks, and I found that the models were total non-entities for me as a result – I can’t imagine watching another 30-minutes of this terrible season every week, but I did miss not caring about Irina’s model in any capacity when she won.
• My one complaint with Survivor is that they “gamed” the game too much in terms of trying to turn the “Immunity Idol” scavenger hunt that Russell invented into an actual part of the gameplay setup. It was way too easy to find when they were given a visual clue, and while it resulted in the “chase through the woods sequence” and got a good moment out of Dave being oh-so-close to finding it, I thought that it was a bit cheap and sort of took the spontaneity out of Russell’s genius.
• I’ve had no issues with Kevin’s beard on Top Chef this season, as I believed it to be awesome, but then this week we saw what happens when he doesn’t spike his hair at all. It totally makes the beard look about 5x mangier, and the longish greasy hair he had in the preview for next week made it look even more ridiculous. The different hair at Napa (Padma had bangs, Jennifer’s was curly) totally took me out of the show, which really does say something about me, doesn’t it?

Tim Bennett, the president of HARPO, just released this statement:

“Tomorrow, Oprah will announce live on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ that she has decided to end what is arguably one of the most popular, influential and enduring programs in television history. The sun will set on the “Oprah” show as its 25th season draws to a close on September 9, 2011.”

The end is near. Obviously.

I’m sad.

Tonight was the season finale of Project Runway, in which a collection of vibrant, diverse, and innovative clothing was passed over in favor of a parade of unimaginative black sweaters and felt helmets. I am of course speaking of the shocking defeat of Carol Hannah Whitfield, with the PR judges instead selecting Irina Shabayeva instead as the winner for Season 6.

The third finalist, Althea Harper, produced what was in my opinion an all-over-the-place collection of boring separates and knitwear. The clothes themselves were nice, but they didn’t go together on the models and really looked like something you could buy at Target. What is most infuriating about Carol Hannah’s loss was the way in which the winner was announced. Instead of Althea being told she was going not the winner first, and having Carol Hannah and Irina as the last two standing, Carol Hannah was sent home first. This made it seem as though Althea’s collection was better than Carol Hannah’s, which it patently was not. The judges’ comments even backed this up. The main – and really only – critique of  Carol Hannah’s collection was the lack of “common thread”, a quality that was far, far more present in Althea’s line. Carol Hannah was complimented on her designs and fabulous use of color. Irina’s line, on the other hand, was almost entirely black, with repeated motifs of armor and metal. It was dark-on-dark and much the detail was hidden from easy view. It honestly seemed like Irina had become fixated on the idea of a black sweater with metal accents, for that is what she gave us model after model. Even her gown had the same accents, with what seemed like the same strips of metallic fabric done in almost exactly the same way. Overall, a major upset that will surely have mouths flapping for weeks to come.

Here’s a taste of Carol Hannah’s line:

And here’s some of Irina’s line:

To see all 36 designs by the three finalists, visit the Elle website. They’re all jumbled up in an attempt to keep the winner a secret pre-finale, but essentially if it has a headband or is a non-black sweater with long sleeves, it’s Althea’s. If it has a felt helmet, a high ponytail, or is black and ominous, it’s Irina’s. If it’s perky, colorful, and wearable while still being high-fashion, it’s Carol Hannah’s.

Una partita si divide in 3 parti:

1. apertura
2. mediagioco
3. finale

Apertura

L’ apertura è la fase iniziale del gioco, sulla scacchiera ci sono ancora quasi tutti i pezzi, tranne qualche pedone centrale che è stato cambiato.

Mediogioco

Il mediogioco è la fase di mezzo della partita. I pezzi in gioco sono ancora molti, ma, dati i cambi, alcune case e pedoni sono deboli e quindi diventano punti di attacco. Nel mediogioco avvengono la maggior parte dei tatticismi

Finale

Il finale è la fase conclusiva. I pezzi in gioco sono pochi, ogni mossa assume minor importanza perchè i tatticismi in gioco sono minori (a causa della mancanza di pezzi), ma non per questo è una fase da sottovalutare. Chi conosce la teoria in questa fase possiede un grande vantaggio. Sapere come 3 pedoni possono vincere contro 3 pedoni è fondamentale. In questa fase la parola d’ ordine è promuvoere!

Baltimore’s Got Talent fell short in the dance category.

“Honestly I am very shocked at the lack of dancer turnout,” said Dinesh Ramlogan, Brown Entertainment host, event coordinator and creator of Baltimore’s Got Talent.  “Brown Entertainment called almost all of the dance studios in the Baltimore Metro area to offer them the opportunity to participate in auditions. We were mostly greeted negatively when we told them about our talent show.”

The event this Saturday will only be able to showcase both five youth dance acts and five adult dance acts.  This is compared to the 10 singing adult acts that will be competing against each other.

Why is it only 5 acts came out for an opportunity to win $1,000?

“It is the first year and people are not quite sure what to expect,” said Jenny Aries, mother of  youth contestant Veronica Ramirez.  “People always want to see what happens first before they commit to something new.”

What do you think? Why didn’t you take the chance?

Tonight was the stomp off between Laura and Nicole for the America’s Next Top Model finale.  I have to admit when I look at the two of them they are not the ones I would picture as the finalists.  Personality-wise Laura seems to be the more likeable one but when we look at the pictures I think Nicole looked so much better.

We started off seeing the girls shooting their Cover Girl shots and commercials.  Laura seemed to do really well but Nicole looked like she stumbled.  Jay even said she sounded snooty.  On the other hand Tyra said she thought she was likeable.  For the Cover Girl shot I thought Laura’s was better but neither was as good as past finalists shots.

The Runway

At the fashion show the girls find out several of the other girls are returning to also walk in the show.  I kind of wonder if it was a cost cutting measure so they didn’t have to hire more models since you rarely got to really see the other girls.  On the runway Laura looked better to me.  Nicole’s walk was kind of hulking but the judges said at least it’s a signature walk.

So it looks like everything was leaning towards Laura.  Usually they seem to try and throw you off so I was wondering if Nicole might end up winning.

Yup, America’s Next Top Model is Nicole!

Die junge R’n’B-Queen hat in den letzten Wochen für zahlreiche Schlagzeilen über ihr Privatleben gesorgt – genauer gesagt über die „Prügel-Attacke“ ihres (mittlerweile) Ex-Freundes Chris Brown. Jetzt will sie wieder mit ihrer Musik auffallen und uns ihren neuen, etwas düsteren, rockigeren Sound präsentieren. Ihr viertes Studioalbum „Rated R“ wird am 20.11. veröffentlicht und die aktuelle Single „Russian Roulette“ ist bereits überall zu hören. Rihanna entwickelte ihren Sound wieder weiter und wurde bei der neuen CD tatkräftig von Stars wie z.B. von Slash (Ex-Guns’n'Roses-Mitglied) und Will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas) unterstützt!

© Universal

Vor kurzem wurde Rihanna zur “Woman of the Year” gewählt und ist zurzeit auf Promo-Tour. Am 11.11. besuchte sie Stefan Raab in seiner Late-Night-Show „TV Total“, wo er sie als „geile Sau“ betitelte. Stefan sang Rihanna das Lied „Joanna“ und ersetzte den Namen kurzerhand durch Rihanna. Die hübsche Sängerin aus Barbados lachte und sah verdammt heiß aus – es scheint ihr nach diesem schweren Schicksal wieder besser zu gehen.  Sicherlich hilft ihr die Musik sich abzulenken und das Ganze zu vergessen. Der neue Song „Russian Roulette“ (den übrigens Ne-Yo geschrieben hat) überzeugt auf jeden Fall durch einen feinen Beat und einer starken, aber dennoch zerbrechlichen Rihanna.

Rihanna ist bekannt für ihre ständigen Style-Wechsel und so hat sie sich nun auch pünktlich zur Veröffentlichung ihrer neuen CD optisch wieder verändert. Wilde Haarfrisur, rockige Klamotten, usw. präsentierte sie auch beim Foto-Shoot für das unglaublich sexy Album-Booklet. Ein „Behind-the-Scenes“-Video zeigt Rihanna bei diesen heißen Shootings:

Die zweite Single aus dem „Rated R“-Album wird wohl der Song „Wait Your Turn“ sein und das Musikvideo dazu kann man jetzt unter anderem schon auf ihrer Homepage bewundern. Die Spannung auf den neuen Longplayer steigt, bei mir jedenfalls und die Erwartungen an Rihanna sind sehr hoch, denn was sie bei ihren letzten drei Album geliefert hat, war schon sensationell!

P.S.: „Rated R“ erscheint übrigens zuerst in Europa und dann erst in den USA!…UND…Rihanna wird beim “Popstars 2009 – Du & Ich”-Finale am 10.12. live auftreten!

Gisteravond was het alweer zover, de finale van Benelux Next Top Model.

Ik ben een trouwe kijker van dit progamma (ik zat bij de eerdere seizoenen aan de buis gekluisterd) en ik moest dus absoluut de finale zien. Ik zat dus netjes om 20:30 klaar voor de tv en toen begon het..

Allereerst viel me op dat de zaal stukken kleiner was dan bij de vorige finales, de aankleding was een stuk leger, het publiek was flink uitgedunt en het hele plaatje zag er gewoon niet zo uit als alle andere keren, toen werd er een grote show van gemaakt met een hoop glitter & glamour maar ik vond het deze keer echt tegenvallen!

Mijn voorkeur ging al uit naar Rosalinde, al vanaf het begin vond ik haar 1 van de leukste meiden die erbij zaten. Lekker nuchter, geen kapsones (zoals die vreselijke Lianne, wat was ik blij dat ze er op het laatste moment toch niet in de finale zat!) en een leuke meid om te zien. Maxime vond ik in het begin ook wel leuk maar op een gegeven moment begon ze wel heel hooghartig uit de hoek te komen en aan Denise had ik al vanaf het begin van het nieuwe seizoen een ontzettende hekel. En misschien is ze wel in het echt hartstikke aardig, zo is ze bepaald niet overgekomen op tv.  Dus Rosaline was terecht de winnares!

Ik vond de show voor de rest best leuk, niet opwindend spannend, vooral de optredens vond ik niet om van uit mijn dak te gaan ( vooral het optreden van Di-rect was niet zoals het altijd was, nu hebben ze dan wel een nieuwe zanger maar ik vind nog steeds Tim erin had moeten blijven! ) en ook de ontwerpen die de drie finalistes droegen tijdens de finale vond ik vre-se-lijk. Vooral het roze Pino pak die Rosalinde op het laatste aan had vond ik lachwekkend! Het was net alsof ze Pino uit Sesamstraat hadden ontvoerd, hem roze hadden gespoten en van zijn lijf een enorme roze washand hadden gemaakt en die bij Rosalinde hadden aangetrokken. Sorry hoor maar als je dit verstaat onder mode en dit mode moet worden dan bedank ik bij deze alvast!

Ondanks alles heb ik me weer goed vermaakt en wens ik Rosalinde alle succes toe! En die andere twee die komen er ook nog wel!

So, my dear friend Jean and I, at a lovely dinner at the Olive Garden, while slurping up yummy parmesan noodles and finishing off dinner with a super deluxe decadant chocolate mousse cake, started talking about the season finale of Mad Men. And of course, when you’re talking about Mad Men, a huge focal point of the conversation is always gonna be, who sucks worse? Don or Betty?

don likes to tap a lot of different ass

princess for life!!!!

At first I was actually defending her, and I feel that as a woman perhaps, ignoring the extreme hotness of Don and how we wish we were Betty just so we could get him in bed, we all sympathize, some of us even empathize with her situation. We think, God, I feel so sorry for her, I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes. I mean, here she is, stuck with three kids, and when she actually has the guts to confront Don about his infidelity, she finds out she is pregnant and has to stay with him. And Don isn’t just having one affair, he is sleeping with women ALL over New York. And yes, I am aware that Betty committed adultery also, but not until she found out who Don was, and in any sense, her one indiscretion does not compare to Don’s likely hundreds.

But then I suppose the question is, is Betty really trapped in an unhappy marriage? Or was it her choice? Does her denial of Don’s numerous betrayals make her less sympathetic? Or more precisely, did Betty only become “unhappy” in her relationship when Don’s infidelity became apparent to others?

I myself, usually have a bias against women in denial. Most likely because I have been the other woman. (Sorry it is kind of fun. Oooops?) Also, if there are signs of infidelity, it could even be catching my boyfriend in a lie, I’m out. People say that ignorance is bliss, but the idea of being in a relationship, knowing that my lover is cheating on me (yet demanding that I stay faithful and I remain so), and that everyone is laughing at me behind my back is something that I cannot stomach. I have weird philosophies about relationships, but I feel like, if you are gonna be in a marriage, and you wanna fuck around, at least let your partner fuck around too, otherwise it is just selfish. So yeah the fact the Betty didn’t do anything about Don’s numerous affairs made me dislike her. And a woman knows when she’s being cheated on when she’s being cheated on the way Don cheated on her. Beside the obvious signs, not coming home, weird phone calls, inaccurate stories, there is the different sex style which Betty describes to her therapist as an indication of infidelity.

And I am sure a lot of you are thinking, well actually, she did confront Don about his adultery. However, let’s analyze the events surrounding that situation. Betty’s neighbor’s husband had an affair and Betty’s first reaction was to tell her friend not to say anything about it. In turn this was her philosophy about her marriage. We see her having anxiety attacks in the beginning of the first season, and we all attributed these attacks as a reaction to Don’s absence. But when I think about the instance in which she did confront him about his affair, it seems she did so for all the wrong reasons.

In “The Comedian” When Betty finally confronts Don, it is instigated by Jimmy Barrett. He tells her that Don and his wife have been having sex. And she knows that it is true. She probably knew it was true for a long time. But instead of asking him, what are you talking about, how do you know this, how long has this been going on, are you serious? She tells him to stop talking about it and to go away. And it is really interesting if we parallel this to when Sterling tells Don about Betty and Henry’s relationship/affair. Even though it is a masculine reaction, Don is at least inquisitive about the details of the affair and if it was based on fact. Betty seems more concerned with the fact that someone knows about it, and may shatter the image of her picture-perfect marriage. And the worst insult to Betty was that the gossip came from a comedian. Nobody likes to be laughed at, but Betty really doesn’t like it. Recall when she got pissed off at Don for not telling her that at the dinner party he predicted she would buy Heineken.

I feel as if she is more preoccupied with the exposure of her flawed image to others. This is ironic for two reasons. 1. She used to be a model, which is a business built on making things prettier than they seem, as it is in advertising. 2. The fear of her flawed image being visible to others is why she is unsympathetic to Don’s painful life story.

When you see an alpha-male like Don cry, you pay attention. I have only seen my father cry three times in my life, and they were at funerals. And likewise, this was Don’s time to mourn. It was the first time he could really be himself, reclaim his own name, mourn his brother who committed suicide, and really mourn the death of his former self. And Betty….well….. Betty listened to the story but she didn’t really care. I mean, she gave him the “there there” pat. As Jean pointed out during dessert — that chocolate really got us going “Betty left Don because he no longer was the picture perfect, upper class man who came from old money that she thought she married.” – Jean/Ledefile

wait, come again, you used to be...POOR???!!!! ICK!!!!!

Don-  “I gave you everything you wanted – EVERYTHING! And you loved it! And now I’m not good enough for some spoiled main line brat?!”

Betty- “That’s RIGHT!”

It is also interesting to note that when she broke into Don’s hidden box and found out he was married, she was more concerned with the deed than the divorce. Most women would be wondering are my children illegitimate, and Betty is jealous that Don bought his ex-wife a house and she didn’t have one of her own yet. She also asks her lawyer if what Don did, (taking on a different identity) is “something he could go to jail for.” Of course she doesn’t want to be associated with that. She ain’t gonna be visiting Don in prison. But I was even thinking, it really is a good thing that Don decided not to fight her, cuz I bet she would have blackmailed him with that information, the same way Pete did, if she didn’t have her “life raft,” aka Henry.

But then again Betty is the trophy wife. She is beautiful, and a nice person, but also self-centered and uninteresting. She doesn’t have very many complex thoughts. And in analyzing the women Don had affairs with, it seems he was using them to fill Betty’s non-stimulating void. The Jewess, Rachel Menkin was loyal, exotic, a feminist, and a true business woman. Midge was not very attractive but had a passion for music,culture art, and drugs and gave Don an escape from his monotonous life.  The comedian’s wife Bobbie Barrett was overtly masculine and business-savvy.  And although the scene near the restaurant bathroom could be interpreted in many ways, he may have penetrated her in the restaurant (when he put his hand up her dress) to establish himself as the more dominant male/the Phallus. Bobbie stops demanding extra money for her husband’s apology after that. The schoolteacher was very philosophical and her job itself demands the ability to be selfless, caring, and giving to children. Betty had none of the qualities these women possessed. I mean how many times, are we gonna have to hear Betty say, “GO PLAY IN YOUR ROOM” to her children? And her apathy toward her daughter mourning the grandfather? Atrocious. And clearly, Sally loves her father more.

So what else should Don expect? He married her for image alone, so why should he be so pissed when she wants to leave him when he presented a false image to her, and not just his identity, but the adultery as well. He doesn’t even stop after she catches him.

Well, I feel as if some characters can be redeemed if they have the ability to grow and change. And in their situation, I feel that they had already established love as possession because Betty was the trophy wife, and Betty by virtue of marriage possessed Don’s material assets. Clearly they have experienced love as an illusion as I have described in the aforementioned reasons. Yet, love between Don and Betty could not exist outside of illusion. When Don and Betty got into fights, usually to end the fight, instead of addressing the problem at hand Don would ask, “What do you want me to say?” This clearly shows that Don is aware that Betty doesn’t really want the truth, she wants his words to be a reflection of what she innately wants. However, I feel as if Don was ready to take the next step in exposing his true character, and Betty even commented on the fact that “he wouldn’t have left the box in the house unless he wanted her to find it.” Clearly, Betty is the one who is incapable of loving a person who is not a projected reflection of hew own desires. And in sum, this is why she runs into the arms of a politician, a man whose profession yet again revolves around misrepresentation.

So….I still think Betty sucks. I mean she has children, a newborn, and we see her leaving her two kids behind and flying off to Reno with a man she hardly knows. She would rather ditch the people she loves than be associated with a scandal. Not only is this exemplified by her leaving Don, but when one of her married friends admits to her that she slept with the engaged horseback rider, Betty dismisses her good friend from her life. She shows that she is oblivious to the plight of others when she says “it really isn’t the right time for Civil Rights” in front of her hardworking black maid. And the entire first season focuses on her being self-indulgent in the therapist’s office. And I am in no way saying therapy is self-indulgent, some people need it, but the way in which those specific scenes are shot, Betty lying on a chaise, not talking about anything important when she knows what the problem is (the affair) while wasting Don’s money on psychiatric help that she doesn’t need. The visits stopped after the first season. I mean it’s just sickening. So, yeah, Betty sucks.

Thoughts?

you know you want it...

P.S. I am really excited for Season 2.  Jean and I were discussing the fabulousness of the possible Don-Joan-Sterling triangle. And while the love triangle might be a cliche move…it would be HOT! Tension between Don and Sterling, Joan and Don, Joan and Sterling, Joan and her fiance, Sterling and his new wife. It would be a lot more nuanced than the tired, using a woman as an outlet for male aggression. I mean you know something is gonna happen in that tiny ass hotel room! Fingers crossed.

…vor einem der ganz großen des Tennis-Zirkus. Am 11.November 2009 hat Marat Safin endgültig seine Karriere beendet. Schon Anfang des Jahres hatte der 29-jährige angekündigt, dass das Tennisjahr 2009 wohl das letzte seiner Karriere sein wird. Er sollte Wort halten. Und auch einen Rücktritt vom Rücktritt wird es von ihm nicht geben. „Das wars’s für mich. Es wird Zeit ein neues Leben zu beginnen. Es gibt keinen Rücktritt vom Rücktritt.“

Mit einer Niederlage gegen den US-Open-Sieger Juan Martin del Potro verabschiedet sich der Russe. Ich persönlich habe mir immer gerne die Spiele von Marat Safin angeguckt. Bei ihm wusste man nie so recht woran man ist. Safin konnte an guten Tagen jeden Gegner schlagen, aber ebenso auch gegen jeden Gegner verlieren. Er war einfach unberechenbar. Dieses Manko an Konstanz und sein aufbrausendes Temperament auf dem Platz (Wutausbrüche und zerbrochene Schläger) wurden ihm häufig zum Verhängnis. Deswegen muss er sich wohl oder übel den Vorwurf gefallen lassen, dass er aus seinem Talent viel zu wenig gemacht hat. Aber vielleicht wollte er es auch einfach nicht anders. Marat Safin war beim besten Willen kein Profi, der alles dem Sport untergeordnet hat und gerade das macht ihn in meinen Augen auch so sympathisch. „Ich bin kein Typ, der in eine Schablone passt. Und Tennis konnte nie mein ganzes Leben sein“, hatte Safin gesagt, der am 20. November 2000 erstmals Weltranglistenerster wurde. Insgesamt war er zwischen November 2000 und April 2001 insgesamt neun Wochen die Nummer 1 der Welt. Zum Ende seiner Karriere wurde er im Ranking auf Position 65 geführt.

Trotz seines nicht ganz so professionellen Lebensstils, Feiern und Frauen gehörte für ihn halt zum Leben dazu, gelangen ihm insgesamt 15 Turniersiege, darunter 2 Grand Slam Siege bei den US-Open 2000 (vs. Pete Sampras) und den Australien Open 2005 (vs. Lleyton Hewitt). Zwei weitere Male stand er bei den Australien Open im Finale (2002 und 2004). Mit dem russischen Team gewann er 2002 und 2006 zwei Mal den Davis Cup. Erfolge die ihm niemand mehr nehmen wird.

Nun folgt ein Leben nach der Karriere und dem Rampenlicht. Ich wünsche ihm auf seinem neuen Weg alles gute und verneige mich vor einem der ganz großen…Chapeau Marat Safin!

I spent the entire evening arranging and transposing a piece for choir and orchestra because 1) the choir director couldn’t do it AND apparently didn’t want to look for a piece that was already written for choir and strings, 2) I’m a sucker, and 3) my kids wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to just find and read their part off the score (plus, asking them to transpose it themselves would be like asking a man to bear children – it would be physically impossible, and would most likely incite raucous laughter and/or blank stares).

But now it’s done.  Five hours of my life I’ll never get back.  And still…so much music to do.

I can’t decide if I’m just too Type A for my own good, or if this really is the best plan of attack for all my students.  It’s just that every piece of music I find for some sort of string group never seems right for my kids.  So I figure, if I write/arrange all the pieces, I can tailor the parts for each individual player.  Too anal?  I thought so.

(Sidenote: This would all be far too difficult a task for me to even entertain, had my friend not won and given me a free copy of Finale at WMEA in October.  That’s right…Finale!, a copy of which costs $300.  AWESOME.  I know you’re jealous.  I don’t blame you.)

And now it’s 11:30 on Sunday night and I feel like I should stay up and get things done.  Except I know that’s the sort of decision I always come to regret on Monday morning, when I’m trudging into the 7 a.m. faculty meeting, bleary-eyed and all sour and angry about the four hours of sleep I barely managed to get.  So instead of moving on to the next piece, I’m choosing sleep…for the sake of all my first set orchestra students, who have an INTONATION PERFORMANCE QUIZ tomorrow morning.  I need a good amount of sleep, along with an unrealistic amount of patience, in order to be forgiving and understanding when listening to and grading these quizzes.

Which, come to think of it, is so sad.  The overall attitude of the high school orchestra is PLEASE, LADY, I  can’t be prevailed upon to play in tune.  Intonation?  Be serious.  I will put my finger down on this fingerboard wherever I so choose, and you and everyone else around me will just have to deal with whatever note happens to be produced.

But really, it’s tricky business, being a string player, so if I were to be a generous teacher, I would say I can understand why it’s so difficult to play in tune.  Every piece of music I give them to learn is challenging for them in one way or another, because even though there are times I’m tempted to just order all Grade 1 orchestra music and call it a day, I know in the end, forcing them out of their comfort zone will make them better musicians.  But because they’re constantly being called upon to play difficult music, it just adds one more level to their thought process, and that’s stressful.  So not only are they thinking about WHERE to place their fingers, they’re thinking about WHICH finger to use, sometimes which position to play in, what bowing to use, how much bow, etc.  It’s difficult to take care with every note that’s produced, because there’s so much that goes in to that ONE note.  I know.  I know, I know, I know.

And for the most part, I’m sufficiently pleased with the progress they’ve made even in the few short months of school.  Their sight reading is still atrocious, but their intonation is significantly better than it was when I first got ahold of them, and their ensemble work is tighter and more fluent in general.  These are all good things.  Hopefully by the end of the year, we’ll be able to play Level 2 music without breaking into a cold sweat.

Okay, so I’ve just talked myself through a full circle…from frustration and irritation to acceptance and generosity.  Pretty impressive, I know.  Here’s hoping I can maintain that positive attitude through the entire day/week/semester/year.

Photo : Googled, Hayley Warner.

Hayley Warner has been one of my favorite contestants of Australian Idol ever and I just finished watching the top 2 of this years Australian Idol (the final two) and I can safely say it’s the best Idole finale ever to appear in any given country. If Hayley don’t win I’m all ok with it ’cause Stan Walker is awesome as well and to be honest I think his single is better than Hayleys.

Here is from top 3 where Hayley sings Bitter Sweet symphony by Verve (I had to go to iTunes to download verves version after I heard her sing it cause I just love that song).

Also I chose Hayleys version of funhouse cause it’s so her. Plus the intro video gives you an impression of her as a person.  I’d definately buy her first album.

Of course this blog post wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t take any videoes with Stan Walker, he is just amazing too…

And this post wouldn’t be complete without my favorite Idol made song (tailor made for Stan and will be a single if he win… which isn’t fair cause I want Hayley to win but now I want Stan to win so I can get my hands on this single). Crossing my fingers for Hayley tho ^.^

Vom 19. bis 21. November 2009 präsentiert Comedy in Gummersbach mit dem COMY 2009 den 2. Gummersbacher Comedypreis. Mit dabei PopKabarettist Holger Edmaier. 10 Künstler treten in zwei Vorrunden im Bruno-Goller-Haus gegeneinander an. Die Nominierten haben je 10-12 Minuten Zeit, das Publikum mit Auszügen aus ihrem aktuellen Programm zu überzeugen und für sich zu gewinnen. Aus jeder Vorrunde gehen durch Publikums- und Juryentscheid je zwei Sieger hervor. Die besten 4 ziehen dann am 21.11.2009 ins Finale ein. Wir drücken Holger Edmaier die Daumen!

Wer live dabei sein möchte und Holger Edmaier im Publikum unterstützen will, kann sich hier Tickets für die Vorrunden oder/und das Finale sichern.

Watching Project Runway has been one of my guilty pleasures these last few months. I know, I know, it’s a cheesy reality show. But for a reality show, I think it’s well done. Inter-contestant drama is kept to a minimum, and unlike shows that ask competitors to eat bugs or seduce each other, Project Runway actually calls for real talent. I like the show because I like seeing the garment-making process: sketching, choosing fabric, constructing, fitting, and styling. Watching always inspires me to go out a sew something! The season finale is next week, and I’m looking forward to it!

Here are a few of my favorite looks from this season. For the first two looks, the contestants had to create a garment out of newspaper, and for the second two, they had to design a costume for a genre film.

Hallo zusammen,

heute melde ich mich nun zum letzten Mal. Denn JANA hat ihr definitives Ende gefunden. Ich danke allen, die die Serie gelesen habe und hoffe, dass sie euch wenigstens ein wenig gefallen hat. In meinen Augen ist sie immer besser geworden und das lag nicht zuletzt an den beiden, die mir richtig ans Herz gewachsen sind und deren Liebe so einiges überstanden hat – JANA und WILLOW.

Und so will ich im letzten Video diese Beiden noch einmal ehren, bevor ich gleich die Staffelbox hochlade.
Die Seite wird erhalten bleiben, doch es gibt keine neuen Updates mehr.

Das Video zeigt noch einmal alle Höhen und Tiefen der zwei Hexen und vllt kann sich der ein oder andere an bestimmte Handlungen oder Szenen erinnern.
Alles Liebe, eure Samra.

Hi my people! Gotten lots of lovely requests from fans, and now we’re back on track ;3

Okay, so Nightmare’s at it’s finale, and it’s kick-ass beyond words. So amazing, words can’t describe. Nightmare was truly one of the best EI’s ever, considering it evolved through only a few stages. It would’ve been interesting to watch it go further, though. Hidden Ace also looks amazing as always. You have to love those little sprites, they’re adorable.

And, the plot ended! S.I.N. won! Woot. I was always supporing S.I.N but I joined the Overseer on a mis-click. So everyone behind the Sentinel got to keep their skin, and the clams… Well, out skin is really underground now. You’ll see what I mean in good time.

Now to mention Shop Updates! They’ve finally given legwarmers in more colors, and very cute patterns at that. Coats and hats are in, also a superb job. You also have to love the new accessories and skirts, which come in almost every color of the rainbow. I’m still not too fond of the new glasses, though. Just something about tinted shades…

Well, I guess that’s all. Feel free to comment or contact us via P.M. Peace.

-Michiru, out.

IRINA’S COLLECTION
Inspiration: Memories of Coney Island