12th January

Now playing: Vanessa Carlton - Heroes and Thieves

I'm blinded by these Heroes and Thieves at my door, and I can't seem to tell them apart anymore. Just when I figured it out; darling it's you I'm without. Well I'm stubborn and wrong, but at least I know it. I keep movin' along, and hope I can get through this

So, it's time for some writing. I haven't really done much recently, and tonight when I stumbled across a website full of six-word-long stories I decided to have a go at some for myself. they're great fun, and a decent way to just write whatever comes to mind, making it fit the six word framework.

Here are some of the ones I wrote tonight, for better or worse, posted live:

1. When she awoke, she saw him.

2. Don’t you know I miss you?

3. I don’t know you any more.

4. This is the best of me.

5. I can’t find you. Reach out?

6. I need you to need me.

7. A flicker of light behind you.

8. Give me time. I need it.

9. I think I lost something. Help?

10. Do you know I hate you?

11. A shot in the dark. Bang.

12. Pianos and prostitues line the streets.

You should try some yourself. It would make me happy if my blog comments were full of six-word stories? Anybody?

You know you want to.
:O

xoxox

... I'm without your comforting logic like, these days are the ones I'll miss, and I seek a solitude that I can't find without you

10th January

Exams, Romeo & Juliet and current news here we go! :D

So, I know my updates aren't particularly close together any more, but give the small amount of time I have to myself to actually write these updates, I think it's amazing that I'm even updating at all.

So, anyway, in one of my last updates I think I mentioned that I was going to see Romeo and Juliet performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, and that went ahead on Thursday night, so I can update about it here. Firstly, though, Thursday was also the day of my first General Studies exams (one and two, both an hour and fifteen minutes long - so we were under exam conditions for two and a half hours). They had to move the exam forward for half an hour so that we could sit the exam before going on the trip to see R&J performed (because there were a lot of sixth formers on the trip), so we started at 1:30 and finished at 4pm. The exam was easier than I thought it would be, but that doesn't make Monday look good - they'll probably make it harder just to spite us, and that's the Maths and Science paper. Oops.

Anyway, as soon as the exam had finished we all had to rush out to our coach, and then travel to Startford. The show was due to start at 7:15, and we got there at 6:45, so we had plenty of time to wander around Stratford town. We (Sarah, Becky, Georgie and Hannah) went into Sainsbury's, bought some sweets and chocolate brownies, and then headed to the theatre. We were in the Courtyard Theatre because both the Swan and the other one are undergoing renovation at the moment. It's a nice theatre, though.

We arrived there at about 6:30, and so wandered around the gift shop for the rest of the time. I bought a pencil which says "2B or not 2B" on the side - I thought it was rather funny - and a programme. Then, when the teachers started to arrive we went and stood outside. There was a momentary panic when we realised that the teacher who had our tickets had not yet arrived (and this was literally two minutes before the show was due to start), but she arrived just in time, gave us our tickets and we went into the theatre. Sarah, Becky, Georgie, Hannah and I had seats in the stalls, on row C. We were so close to the stage (one of the round horse-shoe type traditional Shakespearian stages) we could see the actors really well. Some of the drama students were up in the circle, which looked pretty cool too.



The show was awesome. Romeo could have cried for England; the way he could turn his tears on and off was pretty damn awesome, and the setting was 1940's, so all the costumes were pretty damn sweet. All sombre colours, red lipstick and neat hair, haha. Benvolio was damn hot. I seemed to be the only one who found the dirty jokes funny - possibly because I was the only one to understand them - and a great source of amusement all night was the fact that the actors were spitting like camels. XD Because of the lighting, and the fact that they didn't have microphones and so had to talk really loudly, meant that you could really see the fact that the actors were all spitting at each other. In fact, one actor even managed to spit when he wasn't talking! It was pretty damn hilarious, especially when Romeo could be seen to fire this great GOB of spit into the air. We could see it on the stage for ages afterwards.

Mercutio was fantastic, and we were all GUTTED when he died. Peter, the comedian of the show, was adorable. I loved him, especially when he burst into great sobs. It was so exaggerated, it was awesome. Romeo was good, but he didn't show too much emotion in his eyes. Juliet was alright, though the death scene was over a little too quickly for my taste, and she wasn't really that dramatic. Bah, I loved the whole show.

It was clever, as well, how they did the whole show with such limited props. Basically, all they had was a bed which they wheeled on for Juliet's bedroom scenes (and which they walled off with a cage-like thing for the death scene in the mausoleum), some knives, some bar stools and the costumes. Very clever. :)

Afterwards, we swiped some of the confetti from the stage (like the geeks we are) and went to go and stand outside. We were all buzzing, but we got even more excited when we saw Benvolio (Daniel Percival) cutting through the crowd. Like the crazy fan girls we are we squealed, and ran after him. We managed to get him to stop, and then we got him to sign our programmes. Omg. It was EPIC. XD Two teachers caught up with us asked "Why have you stopped?" saw Daniel and were like "Ooooh, okay. We'll meet you at the coach". LOL. It was wonderful.

We then headed back to the coach, still buzzing with excitement, and headed home. We didn't get back home until about half twelve, so at school yesterday I was practically dead. Never mind, though, it was worth it.

Annnnyway. Other news...

OMG YEAH. Tonight I booked tickets for Wicked again. I'm going with my sister and Becky on May 9th, for the 7:30 performance. You know what that means? :OOOO

I'LL BE THERE FOR KERRY'S LAST SHOW! Holy shit, it's going to be awesome. We'll go down to London in the morning, shop during the day and then see the show. I reckon it'll be pretty cool. Especially because Becky hasn't seen Wicked before - I'm not even sure if she's been to the West End before... I'm already looking forward to it.

Also, because I feel guilty about not blogging about writing for a while, I've been getting some really good feedback from somebody on FictionPress. I started writing a new story randomly (something I can just write on for the shits and giggles while doing exams) where I'm rewriting the story of Sleeping Beauty, and this person really liked it. Since they read that they've been giving me really positive feedback on a lot of my pieces of work that are posted on there, so I'm pretty pleased with that.

Other than that, I have little to report. Exams are taking over my life, as they do twice a year, so I'd better go and do some revision, since other than buy birthday presents and spend three hours playing pool with Alex, Joe and her friends today, I haven't done anything productive - and I've done nothing to do with school... >_>;

3rd January & We Will Rock You update

Pretty damn awesome show. I knew I was going to enjoy it, and I did. Very much so. I have to confess that Wicked is still definitely my favourite musical (not hard when I've only ever seen two musicals live, but whatever) but WWRY was still pretty damn awesome. I took a picture of the theatre (and a picture of us ouside the theatre, but we won't go there because I'm way too ugly to be on the internet).


I also have a picture of the Wicked theatre I feel the need to upload finally.... >_>


Anyway! On to the update about the day. :D

We started our day quite early today, but it wasn't early enough that it was painful. Up at eight, leave the house for half nine ready for a 10:18 train from the midlands to St. Pancras in London. We had first class tickets, everything was incredibly smooth-going, and we ended up in London direct on time at 12:05.

From St. Pancras train station we slid through the tube part, got on the Picadilly line and headed for like... the second stop along, and then from there on the District line to Tottenham Court Rd., where the Dominion theatre is located. We arrived there at perhaps 12:30, and after some wandering around Tottenham Court Road we finally decided that we were going to eat at Burger King, opposite the theatre. How original. We couldn't pick up our tickets until an hour before the performance (which started at 2:30), so we didn't have much else to do. So, we ate. XD

Then to the theatre, where my sister and I bought programmes for the show and glow sticks for the finale. We fought over the blue ones, and then headed into the theatre, where we found our seats. We had seats Z 26-30, and they were actually pretty awesome seats. They were about three or four rows from the back, right in the centre of the theatre (I was on the end of the row, which was great). We could see the whole stage, and there were actually no other people in front of us for the next four rows so we didn't have any tall people in front of us. Being as short as I am, that can get incredibly annoying... We could have moved forward a couple of rows, but we were actually very comfortable where we were, so we stayed in our assigned seats, haha.

The performance was wonderful, I have to say. The woman who played Scaramouche (Sabrina Aloueche) was very good - I was actually worried about her, since Scara seems like quite a challenging role to play - and I was particularly impressed by the Killer Queen (Mazz Murray) whose songs were almost flawless and whose voice was like a powerhouse. She had a lot of raw energy in what she sung, and she was great with the quirky sex jokes. Sabrina, I have to say, pulled off the sarcastic Scaramouche very well. I also enjoyed the performance displayed by both Khashoggi (Alex Bourne) who did very well as the smarmy-I-wear-sunglasses-inside-control-dude, and Meat - who was originally played by Kerry Ellis. Meat was actually played by Rachel Tucker who made it to the semi-finals of I'd Do Anything on BBC, and who was Mum's original favourite to win. XD With her following Kerry I was a little worried about her performance of No One But You, but she performed it very VERY well, and her costume was super cool. x3

I think what made the performance even more memorable, though, was the fact that they had a few technical difficulties with Britney Spears' microphone. The poor guy playing Brit (I think it was Ian Carlyle) had problems getting his face-mic thing to work, and so his first song/words were a little shaky. One of the techies had to come across stage, hand him a microphone as he went, and then when Brit went to sing into THAT one, it also didn't work. XD Second microphone later, he was there on stage trying to perform 'karate' moves, dance AND sing all the while holding a hand-held microphone. The other leads on stage at the time were really trying not to laugh. The audience found it hilarious.

What the cast got at the end of the show was what I'd call a half-theatre standing ovation. There were a few very enthusiastic fans at the front who were on their feet well before the finale, and a few kids behind us doing the same, and by the end of the show mostly the back half of the room was on their feet. It was a great atmosphere (but I have to say, definitely more of a Rock N' Roll type thing than a magical Wicked type - I guess that's to be expected, duuurrr).

The show finished at around 5:15, and from there we headed back to the tube, and to St. Pancras following the lines we'd followed on the way. We hit a massive queue of people in the station at Tottenham Court Road though, and in one of the tubes we were so packed in like sardines that you couldn't even turn around. It was actually very funny. I loved the atmosphere. XD

And, of course, from there on home. We got back around half eight, and I've been home ever since. I'm tired now, rather sad about my lack of revision (or any kind of studying) over the past few days, and running out of things to talk about. I think we're done here for the day..

Or not!
Here's a list of all the shows I currently want to see. I'll probably bold the ones I've seen once I see them, and put how many times I've seen them, because then I can keep track of everything and I want to one day be able to say I've seen all the shows I really want to see. XD

Wicked (3)*
We Will Rock You (1)
Mamma Mia
Chicago
Phantom of the Opera
Les Miserables
Avenue Q
Lion King
The Sound of Music
Blood Brothers
Oliver!
La Cage Aux Folles
Grease
Hairspray
39 Steps

I also wouldn't mind seeing (if they ever come to the UK):
Urine Town
9 to 5 (a new production!)

Hell I still want to see Wicked again. >_>

Eh. Knowing me I'll probably add more. Even so, my list is looking a little bare of completion at the moment. How sad. I need to get a job so I can afford all of this. =S

Anyway. I think it's bed time. Or something.
G'night.
x

2nd January

Holleeeeeeeyyyyy shiiiiiz.

Fifteen hours until we see We Will Rock You on stage. =D I'm super excited, because I don't really know what to expect. I've seen a good portion of the first half of the musical on Youtube, sure, but that was over the internet which is obviously slightly different, and it also had the original cast (Kerry Ellis included). I've also got a copy of the soundtrack, also with the original cast, and I love what they've done with all the songs - but still. I hardly know anything about the musical. Unlike Wicked (which we all know I know far too much about...) I don't know anything about any of the actors starring in the show right now, nor do I know if anything has changed since the original production. I'm also super excited, because while I have been to see Wicked three times, this is in effect only my second ever West End musical. =O

And we all know how much Kitty likes musicals, eh? Dad says we have good seats, since they were the most expensive ones, and I hope he's right. It would be awesome if we were somewhere in the middle, near the front in the stalls (I know we're in the stalls, but I don't know where abouts yet since we're picking the tickets up on arrival tomorrow), but if it's anything like Wicked even sitting behind a pillar will be awesome.

I really am excited.

Oh! And, because the theatre isn't in Victoria, we also get to go someplace else to see it. I mean, it's not far away, but to go inside another theatre will be pretty damn sweet. Especially since I've only ever seen one West End theatre. And, if I'm right, I think the theatre has got a big statue of Freddie Mercury on the roof thing, which is pretty epic.

A summary of the show from the theatre website:
We Will Rock You is set in the future, on a place once called Earth. Globalisation is complete. Everyone watches the same movies, wears the same clothes, and thinks the same thoughts. A safe, happy Ga Ga world. The Company Computers generate the music and the kids download it. All musical instruments are banned. But resistance is growing. A hero is needed. Is the one who calls himself Galileo that man, and can he help them Break Free...?



See? Looks pretty awesome, huh?

Of course, I love the Wicked theatre (what fan wouldn't? - look, it's all shiny and green, and Elphaba-ised, ish, whatever. Anyway, both theatres are cool.)



but I think this actually sets the scene for the show quite nicely - from what I've heard/seen.

... Whutageek. Talking about THEATRES now? Holy carp, I really am insane. >_o

I think it's time I called it a night. No doubt there will be a fairly extensive update about tomorrow some time soon - there will probably be less to report than last time, since we're going with Dad and Cath, seeing the show and coming home. There'll be none of this hanging out in London business. T_T

Ahem.
Bed time.
Gooooood night.
:)

1st January, 2009

Happy New Year everybody!

Let's make it a good one, right?

Also, I'm going to see We Will Rock You on Saturday, in London, as part of my Christmas gift off dad. I can't wait. :D
Mum got me some truly awesome gifts, but to write a post dedicated to them now would be rude, since I think I've still got something of a hangover. XD

Maybe some other time.
x