School starts today, and I am about 75% ready. More importantly, though, I’m requiring one of my classes to blog every week, so I figured I better get back into it myself post haste.
Here’s what happened since my last update:
1. I won the lottery to see the touring production of Frozen, which means I got to see it for $29 (once the fees were added in). My seat was to the side of the stage so some of the action was cut off, but for $25, I have so few complaints. It was a lot of fun, and it was interesting to see how they changed the production to make it work on stage (rearranging scenes, adding scenes, more songs, different ways of getting the characters in the same room, etc.). The biggest change was that they made Elsa and Anna’s dad less terrible than he is in the movie, though he’s still not great. Oh, and Elsa’s motivations and fears are just a little bit clearer.
The best part was probably the young woman behind me who LOST HER MIND when “Let It Go” started. The gasp of joy she let out when those first few notes started was just such a highlight. (It also helped me forgive her for singing along with the other songs prior to that–just a little.)
1. I went to a panel with the Jane the Virgin showrunner as well as several members of the writing staff. They played the clip of Jane’s reaction to the major spoiler that happened at the end of last season and then answered questions from the moderator (who was the show’s narrator!!!) about the process.
Two fun facts: (1) The whole season is planned in detail from the beginning. (2) They always reveal secrets instead of having characters keep them.
I have reached the stage of my life where my body literally rebels against me trying to work on Saturday. I had plans to finish grading Saturday, but instead I took not one, but two naps. Two! I was just exhausted.
It’s cool, though. I finished grading this afternoon and will write up an assignment sheet before I go to sleep tonight–unless I fall asleep first. We’ll see how it goes.
This week on the blog, I started the A to Z Challenge, so it has been pretty busy around here. I posted some things, basically:
1. March was all about the Slice of Life challenge. I posted every single day in March, and, if you missed any, you can find them all here.
If I were still doing the challenge, I might have posted yesterday about going to the NCAA regional semifinals for gymnastics which was pretty cool. I would have complained about the lack of distinctive leotards and how bars seemed to be every single team’s nemesis and also the awful, awful music used for some of the floor routines. Also the price of stadium food. I would have gloated about spending time with a super cool lady friend and that our team made it to the finals. But then I would have possibly made a sadface as I described how me and my friend figured out there’s no way we can make it to the finals.
“As my colleague Yoni Appelbaum pointed out on Tuesday, citing the work of the Yale history professor Joanne Freeman, it was, in the United States’s antebellum years, typical for violence—duels, even—to attend almost every session of Congress. The telegraph, and its attendant ability to send information to far-flung places, almost instantly, changed that.” — The more things change, etc: ‘Nevertheless, She Persisted’ and the Age of the Weaponized Meme
Oh, so I finished some books since the last time I participated in IMWAYR. I haven’t really had time to post (even missing the Top Ten Tuesday I was most excited about–ten random facts about me) because I bought a house on July 1, and my life has been pretty hectic since. So this will cover all the books I’ve finished since June 20. I mean, it’s not that big a deal since I only finished one other book in June anyway. Continue reading “It’s Monday! What are you reading? (7/18/16)”→
So I realized I did the thing where I read comments and thought about what I was going to reply but never actually replied but thought I had actually typed up my replies. So I’ll be getting on that later this week. My summer class is almost done, so who knows what wonderful things await me. I mean, besides answering comments, obviously.
No, seriously. I still have ten left in the stack that I want to get to before the move, and I don’t think it’s going to happen. Also, reading them is starting to feel like work now–probably because I am trying to read them in a specific order. It might be time to start jumping around the stack.
The best stories were the title piece, the first story, and “Chocolate Pudding.” But these are all honest, real, and raw and, as someone who will likely be a spinster, I appreciated the last story a lot.
I forgot to mention that I went to see Love & Friendship, which is based on the novella Lady Susan by Jane Austen. I am not a huge fan of Austen’s books, but I think they translate really well to screen. I should state up front that I’m also not super into period pieces. However, I liked the humor in this, and I loved how Lady Susan was always ten steps ahead of everyone else. This movie is very talky-talky, so if you don’t go in much for that, you might not like it. I am generally a fan of talking movies, though, so this worked for me.
Also, I haven’t read the book but the movie kind of makes me want to and, as I said, I’m not a huge fan of Austen’s books, so it definitely has that going for it.
I do have to say that I don’t get the title at all. It didn’t seem to match the movie. Maybe I’m missing something, though. I think Lady Susan would have worked just fine. I mean, it is all about her and her machinations after all and not really all that much about friendship and Love & Friendship is so darn generic (I kept mistakenly calling the movie Love & Acceptance, for example). Ugh. Anybody else who saw it have an opinion on the title? (ETA: Duh, the title is meant to be ironic. But still, generic and bland, especially given the rest of the movie.)
As of today, I’m reading:
I was feeling kind of slumpy (and it’s almost time for The Cursed Child), so I decided to reread Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. (I mean, it’s only been a little over a year since my last reread of Prisoner of Azkaban, so. It might be time is what I’m saying.) I’m about 1/3 of the way through, and I can tell you right now that the beginning of the book needed way less Quidditch. Also, there’s a lot of great foreshadowing and framing in all of the opening scenes when they head to the World Cup and before they get to Hogwarts. You know, minus the Quidditch match descriptions.
My plan was also to sign up for the Potterhead July Blog Festival, but I (a) totally missed the sign up AND (b) will be moving in July so it’s probably not the best time to commit to anything. I am looking forward to reading the posts, though.
Daniel José Older is one of my favorite people on Twitter, and my colleague highly recommended his book, so I finally decided to read Shadowshaper. I’m listening to the audiobook, and Anika Noni Rose narrates. I’m digging it so far.
I’m participating in a blog tour for Stepping to a New Day by Beverly Jenkins at the beginning of July. I’ll be starting this one later today.
2. I would also like to visit the Kingdom of Cello from The Colors of Madeleine series by Jaclyn Moriarty. But only during one of the nice color storms, please. And if I get to tour the palace, Jagged Edge, and the Farms with my girl Princess Ko and the rest of the Royal Alliance.
3. I would love to visit Camp Half-Blood and/or Camp Jupiter from the Percy Jackson series, but only during one of the down seasons when no campers are disappearing or being chased by monsters. So this may actually be one of those worlds I would want to observe from a distance since those poor demigods are never safe–at least not the Greek ones.
4. I also want to visit Crab Claw Key from the Summer series by Katherine Applegate. (Of course when I read the books, they looked like this, but that’s neither here nor there.) (I can keep up with the times is what I’m saying.) But that’s because it’s SUMMER and I am always in need of a beach day. Beach! Beeeeeeeeach. If I were in Crab Claw Key, my life would be this:
Legit the most memorable scene from Modern Family for me (source
It would be GLORIOUS.
As for worlds I don’t want to visit, the first one that came to mind is Panem and the districts from The Hunger Games, which…obvious reasons are obvious. In fact, most of the fictional worlds I encounter and wouldn’t mind visiting have a great big old asterisk next to them anyway–simply because there’s usually a lot of strife and conflict happening. Otherwise, why would there be a story?
The Englishist 