A Small Rant

Dear My History Class (most of you),

Whilst I appreciate that you, and your peers, may find the Tudors insufferable. I appreciate that you may find old history slightly more challenging. I appreciate that you may not be filled with joy at having to do the Tudors next year.

BUT.

I will not be made to feel guilty for refusing to sign you letter demanding that we change the course. We all made our decision to study History at A-Level knowing the course syllabus. I have been on the course website and looked up the course that you wish to replace our current one with and it is exactly the same as our GCSE course. Whilst you may feel that this strengthens your chances of passing your A2, it will also strenghten your chances of getting incredibly bored (again) when you realise that you have already done the work.

So no. I will not be signing your petition. Because I personally think that studying Mary Tudor will be really interesting. Plus we get to look at politics. Yes please.

Yours sincerely,
Amy

I Know A Song That'll Get On Your Nerves...

I'm busy beavering away at my coursework plan (which is currently 3 pages long), I thought I would give you guys proof that French music is not all that great:

This Week

Wednesday

This, my dear friends, is London School of Economics & Political Sciences (phew) library. Isn't it amazing!? I didn't manage to see it in person on Wednesday, due to timing etc, but it's pretty darn impressive in picture form. LSE itself was pretty darn impressive, I attended talks on Government (which is so-called as the founders intended the course to be for people that want to govern) and Social Policy (which was fascinating), as well as one on applying (75% academic and 25% extra-curricular information in your personal statement).
I really loved the place. It's in pretty much central London, you can walk to Covent Garden. It's near some of the most presitigious law firms in London, as well as being in easy reach of the City and of Westminster, with internships avaliable for all of those places. It has it's very own Waterstones [where I bought The Master & Margarita], and the accomodation I saw in Holborn was suprisingly big-but expensive.
LSE isn't my favourite course wise, but it was a great place, and the fact the lecturers kept stressing the academic quality of it didn't bother me so much-my school spends a lot of time reminding us how academic they are (I should be writing my English coursework now, but hey). I sort of felt like I'd fit in there...Next up is Warwick on the 8th May and Birmingham on the 25th June.

Thursday

I was hoping to get hold of one of my friends' huge collection of photos (which featured London Tourist, Policeman-Holding-Machine-Gun, London Business Man, BBC Man), but she hasn't uploaded them as of yet. So this is stolen from Google-but it has the right weather...
We went off to a French Conference in a church (for some reason) in London, very very close to Westminster. Lots of very important (and some handsome) suited guys walking around-using free newspapers as umbrellas. Ate too much chocolate. Learnt how to play 21 (the serious way) and Irish Snap on the train. Was served by a very pierced barista in Cafe Nero. Came to the conclusion that London is more fun with friends.
I don't really remember much from the French conference, apart from the fact that French music is awful and French men are really exuberant. Oh, and private-schooled London teenagers are brilliant at French.

Tonight? I'll be spend time with my Mum, popcorn, Ben & Jerry's and the first disc of the first series of The West Wing.
Weekend? Extended Project presentation and English coursework on Hamlet and Duchess of Malfi

Ice, Ice Baby

(from pudontour on flickr)

Yes, I mean the delicious sweet stuff, not the awful song. I ate my first coconut ice in ages today, with my friend, as it was on special offer in Thorntons (£2 for a whole bag!) and it was delicious!

In fact, for the majority of the day it felt like spring had finally come, and I felt a little stupid in my hoodie and jeans combo (although they did come in handy when my bus was late this evening and it had gone horribly grey). I cannot wait for the day when the sun stays out and the temperature soars. That will be a happy day indeed.

(from chrismartinez on flickr)

ps. Tomorrow is the LSE open day! I'm so excited and yet so scared, it will be my first university I've properly looked around (I've visted the old College in Durham and had a Spanish conference at Lincoln Uni...but...not the same)

Till I Hear You Sing-Love Never Dies

So, I've been playing the Love Never Dies album on pretty much a loop for the past few days. And I'm falling more and more in love, and haven't actually watched the Making Of DVD. Andrew Lloyd Webber's music is gorgeous, cancelling out the occasionally god-awful Glenn Slater lyrics (who contributed to The Little Mermaid on Broadway, and apparently will help Lloyd Webber aid new songs to The Wizard of Oz [I know...])



But, the performers are wonderful...particularly this guy:

Mmmm...

And as well as looking lovely, Ramin Karimloo (who gets kudos for living with that name) has one helll of a voice, enjoy it here with Till I Hear You Sing (with cameos from Sierra Boggess)

Forgive Me Blogosphere...

I have been a Bad Blogger (note the capitals) of late. Indeed, I haven't posted since I was 16! (though, that was only a couple of weeks ago).

So what on earth have I been up to?:

Good Things That Have Happened:

• I turned 17! Recieved lots and lots of lovely things. And a giant balloon, which is still floating around my room
• I saw Alice in Wonderland and it was wonderful (: Stephen Fry is brilliant just voicing the Cheshire Cat, and Helena Bonham-Carter & Johnny Depp do their thing as The Red Queen and The Mad Hatter respectably. The only mild disappointment was Mia Wasikowsa as Alice, but that may generally be down to the fact that I grew up with the Disney version, so am used to a little girl Alice
• I got my paws on the Love Never Dies original cast recording, and I like it (: Plus, it has taken me back to my First Ever musical soundtrack The Phantom of the Opera
• I didn't at all fail General Studies AS-Level. In fact, I got 100% on one of the papers!
• I didn't totally fail French mock (: I'm sitting on 91/110 so far, but awaiting Speaking mark (which will probably bring it downn-due to my lack of revision of Why I Would Not Want to be on Reality TV)
• Finished Hamlet in English Literature (: just got the final bit of Duchess of Malfi to go...and then two volumes of Pride & Prejudice to go with my other (far less brilliant) teacher
• CHESS IS COMING TO NOTTINGHAM IN NOVEMBER. And me and my friend are definitly going (: yayy.

Not-So-Good Things That Have Happened:

• Lots of people didn't do so well in their AS-Level modules, which made me feel sorta bad about my good mood that day
• Lots&Lots&Lots&Lots of evill deadlines are creeping up, most notably my Extended Project, which I need to have done this weekend *sobs*
• Also, quite a few hours at work...think money...but think also lack of time and also wondering around town for hours on Wednesday after my French mock-having a coffee alone....*sniffs*

Things Coming Up:

• London School of Economics Open Day-24th March
• French Conference, also in London-25th March
• Last Day of Term (:-1st April
• Holidayyyyy-3rd April-10th April
• Night of 1000 Voices & General London Fun-2nd May-3rd May
• Warwick University Open Day-8th May

Tim Burton Loving

I love Tim Burton films. Though I haven't seen all of them; these are some of my favourites:

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Launching Johnny Depp's collaboration with Tim Burton, Edward Scissorhands is the story of a boy created with 'scissorhands' by an inventor who falls in love with a pretty local girl (Winona Ryder) in a sheltered suburb.

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (2005)

Tim Burton had a difficult job following the popular 1974 adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel which starred Gene Wilder (which terrified me when I was younger). In my opinion, Burton definitly succeeded in creating a wonderful version. Mixing more humour with darkness than I remember in the Wilder version, Burton's Charlie & The Chocolate Factory starred Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka (seemingly giving off a hint of the late Michael Jackson) and Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket. Helena Bonham-Carter, Burton's wife, also had a brief cameo as Charlie's mother.

The Corpse Bride (2005)

This is honestly one of my favourite films, that I only saw because I recieved the DVD from a friend. The wonderful contrast of grey and colour between the land of the living and the dead is one of many things that I adore. The crazy hair styles, the musical numbers, even the costuming on animated characters is wonderful. The voice-over cast is also incredible: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Emily Watson, Richard E Grant & Joanna Lumley among others.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleetstreet (2007)

Okay, so I haven't actually seen the film-I'm not a fan of throat-slitting and Sweeney Todd is a musical that I don't love-though I do own the soundtrack. Really, I'm including it to praise to Burton for his successful integration of musical numbers and the plot. Rob Marshall's Chicago heralded the revival of the movie-musical, yet kept the musical numbers separate from the acting unless they had to be integrated, like 'All That Jazz'. Previously to Sweeney Todd, musical adaptations that kept the songs in the plot had not done well (Rent, The Producers, The Phantom of the Opera [though they weren't well directed either....]) and it was refreshing to see some of the songs remain. The cast starred Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall and Sacha Baron Cohen-none of whom were particuarly known for being singers. Burton also took the chance to cast theatre performaners but film unknowns, such as Laura Michelle Kelly (who originated the title role in the musical of Mary Poppins) as The Beggar Woman, Jayne Wisener (who played Mary Phagan in the OLC of Parade) as Johanna and Antony Campbell Bower as Antony.

I am super excited about Alice in Wonderland, which I will be seeing on Saturday. Doesn't the trailer just look amazing!?