Finalement!

(Picture from emzooo)

The past few days have been dominated by French revision for my mock (this early, it's mental). Thankfully, it paid off and the essay question I picked was fortunatly on 'les avantages et dangers d'internet', and I don't think I've totally failed (yay).

Also, got emailed my LSE stuffs. It looks like it will be a veryyy busy day (no time for the kind-of-awful-sounding Love Never Dies-but I'll be buying the soundtrack) but it's all very exciting. If a little scary.

On another note, it's my birthday next Saturday (I'm 17 [!!]) and I'm planning to go see Alice in Wonderland Tim Burton-style with the friends after work. I'm hoping the birthday fairies will give me Topshop vouchers and New Look creme brogues.

Off to check up on what I've missed dans le blogosphere the past few days

x

Small Things

I've been thrown back into the mix of AS-Levels and stacks of homework again, even my week off wasn't really enough to have some true chill-out time.

Anyway, some small things have been making me smile these first few days of the week, which I find tough, by Wednesday it's nice to know you're near the end of the week.

• People liked my home-dyed hair and trimmed fringe-courtesay of my Mum and some nail scissors
• People also liked the 60s-style dress that I've had for years from Tescos (!), and wore for the first time in probably months
• I recieved a card from a friend in Northampton, who was one of my childhood best friends, to restart our penpal relationship

Also, I *think* I've been made permanent at work now, due to the fact I haven't been paid the last few weeks and it goes from weekly to monthly when one is a full time member. This is good (: but it does meen I need to get my skates on and book off my jollidays (Week in April, 2 Weeks in August) but I don't actually know how much I get!

In other news, a trip to Love Never Dies seems unlikely, my biggest fear with the plot has been realised and it has lots of additional HUH moments from the sounds of things as well. Maybe I should go see Phantom 1, but then perhaps seeing LND will be like seeing a part of history, not to mention my first original cast-not counting the 2006 Revival of Evita...

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

(courtesy of...er...Google)

As part of my English Literature AS-Level course, I'm reading Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper alongside Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice (yeah, I have no idea why the two link either).

The Yellow Wallpaper was first published in 1892, and raises the issues of women trapped in a patriachal society. At face value, it is the story of an unnamed woman having been taken to a house in the country to recover from an unnamed 'nervous disposition' by her husband, John. Underneath, however, it is a tale that's message is that the seeing the reality of women's oppression can send someone mad or that the only way of seeing reality is by going mad.

Gilman herself had a very interesting life. She was born in July 1860, and during her early childhood her father abandoned her mother with Charlotte and her older brother, leaving them in poverty and the occasional care of her intelligent and liberal aunts. When she was five, Gilman taught herself to read, although her mother forbade the reading of literature. She was also a great student, although she studied just to the age of fifteen, with her favourite subject being (apparently) physics.

In 1884, she married an artist, Charles Stetson, with their child Katharine being born the same year. Upon Katharine's birth, Gilman suffered from a bout of post-natal depression, although many people viewed this as just hysteria and her complaints were mostly ignored. Four years later, in 1888, Gilman and Stetson split in order for Charlotte to get better. Charlotte moved with Katharine to Pasadena, where she became involved in radical feminist movements, becoming involved in groups like the Pacific Coast Woman's Press Association and the State Council of Women, as well as writing for the Bulletin, a feminist newspaper.

After her official divorce from Stetson in 1894, Charlotte sent Katharine to spend some time with her father and his new wife Grace Channing-a close friend of Charlotte's. Upon the death of her mother a year later, Charlotte moved back east and came into contact with her cousin Houghton Gilman, a lawyer, and they soon became romantically involved, and married in 1900.

Houghton Gilman died suddenly in 1934, causing Charlotte to return to Pasadena. Having been diagonsed with terminal breast cancer in 1932, by 1935 Charlotte decided to end her life painlessly with a lethal dose of cholorfom.

One of the most fascinating things about Charlotte Perkins Gilman is the fact that she had such a radical life. She seperated from her husband, and held views surronding issues like Euthanasia that are still talked about today. The Yellow Wallpaper is a stunning work; and it is obvious that she drew on her real-life experience of Charlotte's post-natal depression on the woman in the novel-she has recently had a baby who she rarely gets to see. In my opinion, she seems to be almost an American Virginia Woolf-esque author...

Avatar

Yes, I realise I'm about a few months behind most of the population of the planet in seeing Avatar but I finally finally have.

Basic story if you too haven't seen it: Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a disabled ex-Marine, replaces his dead brother on the Avatar scheme on a planet called Pandora. Essentially, certain scientists take the form of natives of the planet in order to explore it. The scientists are lead by Dr Grace Augustine (wonderful name, played by the wonderful Sigourney Weaver) and Sully is joined on the ground by the trained Norm Spellman (Joel Moore) and in the air by the pilot Trudy Chacon (Michelle Rodriguez). However, whilst the scientists are wanting to explore, the army-under the control of Colonel Quaritch (Steven Lang)-are working for a company (managed by the weedy Parker [Giovanni Ribisi]) who are after resources from the planet of Pandora. Sully agrees to help them, but once on the ground falls in love with the planet, the beliefs and the people-especially Neytiri (Zoe Saldana).

James Cameron seems to be making a huge point about people destorying cultures-especially references in my view the Native Americans, the people of Pandora even make similar cries. However, in all honesty, the message of the film plays second fiddle to the incredible effects. I saw it in 3D and the immersive impact of the experience was wonderful, you almost felt like you were in the film.

The graphics also take away from some fine performances, especially by Weaver and Saldana, but also allows for some not so great performances-although the character is probably meant to be so, Lang just seemed to be playing stereotypical navy man. Even Ribisi got more out of his character, and he was only in a few scenes. Speical mention also goes to Laz Alonso as Tsu'tey the usurped (kind of) tribe leader and Neytiri's intended match.

Avatar is favourite to win the Academy Award & BAFTA for Best Film. Whilst it didn't really feel like an Oscar winner to the likes of There Will Be Blood or No Country for Old Men (I've seen neither but they strike me as 'best film' contenders) it may just be a nod to the stunning work that must have gone into make it.

Theatre News

London seems to be getting some pretty awesome productions coming up:

Paradise Found (Menier Chocolate Factory: 19th May-26th June)
Directed by Harold Prince (She Loves Me, Cabaret, Company, Follies, Evita, The Phantom of the Opera etcetcetec) and Susan Stroman (The Music Man, The Producers, Young Frankenstein) Paradise Found is a new musical, featuring music by Johann Strauss II (who granted, has been dead quite a while), lyrics Ellen Fitzhugh (who wrote something called Grind which starred Ben Vereen but flopped) and a book by Richard Nelson (Broadway version of Chess)
It's the cast for this that is getting me so excited though:
Kate Baldwin, whose voice is just a.m.a.z.i.n.g on the 2009 Finian's Rainbow recording
John Cullum, who has a GAZILLION Broadway credits (check the link) but has most recently seen as the missing patriach in August:Osage County
Shuler Hensley, who scared the HELL out of me when I went through my addicted to the National Theatre's Oklahoma film phase in which he played Jud Fry and recently been performing as the Monster in Young Frankenstein
Judy Kaye, who was the original Carlotta in Broadway's The Phantom of the Opera
Mandy Patinkin, who was the original Che in Broadway's Evita, and the original Archie Craven in The Secret Garden & is in the awesome The Princess Bride-currently appearing in Compulsion at Yale Rep-read about that here

The dates are a little scary (I'd been done with all my AS-Levels) but I woud lovelovelovelove to see this. SO MUCH [even if the plot sounds a bit like Kismet]. *Crosses fingers*

La Bete (Comedy Theatre: 7 th July-28th August)
La Bete is having a season in London before it transfers to Broadway with an amazing cast. Now, I'm not much of a play person myself but the combination of Mark Rylance (Jerusalem, Boeing-Boeing and apparently the man of the moment), David Hyde Pierce (Fraiser, Curtains) and Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous) is pretty damn cool!!

Aspects of Love (Menier Chocolate Factory: 3rd July-11th September)
Okay...so...I'm not a BIG fan of Aspects of Love. I've never seen it live, but I do have the really long cast album and it's the only Andrew Lloyd Webber album, aside from The Beautiful Game (now known as The Boys in the Photograph or something I think) that I just CANNOT sit and listen to. The story is also pretty disturbing-the Forbbiden Broadway parady 'I, I sleep with everyone' is pretty correct.
But hey, casting could be WONDERFUL, you never know. The Menier tends to seem to get that right.

In other Andrew Lloyd Webber news, the world has been ROCKED by the fact that the first preview of his new musical, Phantom sequel Love Never Dies has been cancelled. I don't get the SHOCK HORROR about it all....I mean, MANY MANY MANY productions cancel previews. Previews are not to be confused with performances. If the first performance was cancelled, sure, I get the anger. But a preview is really just a very polished rehearsal with an audience in front of it. Surely its better to have the show and all the sets and stuff run smoothly and safely for the actors than to open and risk an accident.

Anyway, Love Never Dies is hugely intriguing to me. POTO was the first musical I really fell for, followed by Les Miserables, and I am yet to see it on stage. However, I've seen the film and listened to the soundtrack a billion times and have seen enough photos/videos of it to feel like I have seen it. I'm hoping to get the schedule for LSE's open day within a few days so I can try and grab tickets for a LND performance. I'm am just PRAYING that it isn't a wish fulfillment, with Christine ending up ditching Raoul (who apparently now has a drink problem & is played by the rather handsome Joseph Millson) to marry the Phantom with whom she actually has a son (cause call me crazy, but unless the Phantom did something horrible between 'Music of the Night' and 'I Remember/Stranger Than You Dreamt It' that is pretty much impossible.

Then, this is ALW. Anything is possible ;)

A Thousand Splendid Suns

'Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry the troubled and bitter Rasheed, who is thirty years her senior. Nearly two decades later, in a climate of growing unrest, tragedy strikes fifteen-year-old Laila, who must leave her home and join Mariam's unhappy household. Laila and Mariam are to find consolation in each other, their friendship grow as deep as the bond between sisters, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter.'

This book is stunning. Hossieni (best known for The Kite Runner) depicts Afghanistan in stunning detail, almost as though you are actually there, watching the-at times-horrifying events unfold before you. Certain instances, like a scene where Rasheed forces Mariam to eat a handful of stones because that it is apparently how her rice tastes, stay firmly with you.

The bitter patriachal society is perfectly shown-in the above instance-the appearance of a burkha within the first few days of Mariam's marriage, the violence released when Rasheed realises that his second wife and mother of his survivng son Laila loves another man and the hideous unfairness of the court proceedings against one of the characters, ending in a hideous punishment that was grossly unnecessary.

Whilst I, and many others, are unsure of the real reasons for the UK's (and USA's) involvement in Afgahnistan and Iraq, having read this novel, I can only hope that the future for the young women now holds far more promise than when they were under the control of the Taleban.

Lundi-Gras, Mardi-Gras & Mecredi-Pas-Gras

So; it was Pancake Day yesterday-probably the only day of the year my Mum actually makes pancakes.

But now I can make them myself, and I can provide myself with yummy pancakes whenever I wish. As me and my friends got together chez moi to celebrate Pancake Monday (or Lundi-Gras). The reason being that one of my friends, Anna, is in Bath for a few days for holiday and university examining. So, we piled into the kitchen and made pancakes from scratch on a gas oven (which they didn't really know how to use. Something called electricty is apparently now all the rage!)

I was pretty happy with the results, after the first couple of rather skinny disasters-impossible to flip over. Anna came armed with blue food colouring and made herself a 'smurf pancake'. Tasted the same, only bluey-green in colour!

On another note, my Valentine's gift to myself arrived today. A pair of New Look creamy-pinky courts that I've been mooning over since last summer-thankfully they're still in stock and lovely. I also picked up a pair of white framed sunglasses-which are whiter than you think, but for £3 were an absolute steal.

I am however loving the denim shirts. But what does one wear them with? I have a pair of brogues coming for my birthday (I hope) and it would seem that they'd go nicely. It just seems bizarre that double denim has been such a NO for so long, and now its acceptable again.

(Blogger's playing up and refusing to add pictures. Grr.)

Also, finished Extended Project plan, typed up every piece of French writing I've done and started History revision mind-maps.

Happy half-term 'holiday'