Fan Snark, Rydell High Style

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Nate And Deb's Guide to "Grease"

This movie is not family friendly.  If you think otherwise, one viewing of the number "Greased Lightning" will change your mind.

Rizzo and Kenickie are loads cooler than Danny and Sandy.  Lets face it: Mr. Greasy Hair and Ms Australian Barbie spend most of the movie whining.  Kenickie, on the other hand, carries a switchblade and worked all summer to buy himself a car.  And Rizzo is..freakin' Stockard Channing. <3

At Rydell High, none of the graduating seniors have learned anything.  This is demonstrated in the ensemble finale number, in which they all talk like preschoolers (Ex.: "Ramma lamma lamma ka dingity ding da dong, Shoo bop shoo wadda wadda yippity boom da boom, Chang chang changity chang shoo bop, Dip da dip da dip do wop da dooby do").

Said finale number ("We Go Together") is a totally unnecessary filler.  The movie should have ended with the leather-panted awesomeness of "You're The One That I Want." 

Frankie Valli's hair looks like a bush.

Cha Cha has an unsightly rib cage that shows through all her costumes.

The main messages to be gleaned from this movie are that happiness is achieved through conformity, and not going to college is cool.

To be continued!  We're obsessed with this movie.  I plan on acquiring a Pink Ladies t-shirt, and Nathan wants a T-Birds jacket.  (The beginning of our obsession is documented here.  We also attribute a bit of recent inspiriation to Sadako.)

Also, watching Nathan mouth the words to "Hopeless Devoted To You" is infinitely more entertaining than singing along myself. ;-)

Comics About Food...Kinda.

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The one about Organic Food and the people who buy it also cracked me up. 

Still An Emo Kid

Many moons ago when I was a different girl, I discovered a band called Straylight Run.  I think it was via similarly-mind emo* friends who had SR lyrics on their Live Journals that I became familiar with this band.  Many of us were attached to a particular song called "Existentialism On Prom Night" that has a haunting piano intro and poetic, repetitive lyrics.  I haven't heard that song or thought of that band in at least four years.  Then Nathan sent me a song by Straylight Run that was featured on one of our favourite television shows.  I listened to "Hands In The Sky (Big Shot)" thinking, whoa, this isn't the Straylight Run I remember

So I decided to reacquaint myself with them, and now I can't leave their presence!  "Existentialism" is still as haunting as ever, and I discovered a new favourite, "It's For The Best."  Even though my personal philosophies aren't as bleak as those described in the song, I feel like this song was written for me.  It describes the dark side of my heart perfectly.

"It takes more time than I've ever had,

Drains the life from me,

Makes me want to forget,

As young as I was,

I felt older back then,

More disciplined,

Stronger and certain,

But I was scared to death of eternity,

I was saved by grace,

But destroyed by naivety,

And I lied to myself,

And said it was for the best,

And now faith is replaced with a logic so cold

I've disregarded what I was,

Now that I'm older,

And I know much more than I did back then,

But the more I learn,

The more I can't understand,

And I've become content with this life that I lead,

Where I drink to much and don't believe in much of anything,

And I lie to myself,

And say it's for the best,

We're moving forward,

But holding ourselves back,
And we're waiting on something that will never come"

*= I don't know that my crowd back then truly fit into the emo category.  However, acoustic guitars, funky hair, skinny jeans, bad poetry, obsessive love of the local music scene, and lots of angst were our main characteristics, therefore it's the best description I can offer. :-p

Woodstock Action

These make me smile!  Aren't we cute, in an epic kind of way? :-p 

 (Don't yell at me for posting these, Boyfriend.  At least I didn't steal them all and post them to Facebook!)

Fireworks and Other Stuff

*squeals* I love, love, love fireworks!  They are one of my favourite things about summer, and probably what makes the 4th of July my favourite holiday.  

This evening the local fireworks fest was being presented a day early.  Nathan, Bethelle, and myself camped out on the big hill at college about two hours before the show, and amused ourselves by playing hangman and taking pictures.  I was very sleepy, and at one point Nate and I had laid down on our blanket, snuggled up together.  Two men near us were having a conversation that jumped from topic to topic, and we were amused to overhear this part of their dialogue:

"It's the Catonsville lovefest out here!"
"Yeah, we got ourselves some Woodstock action!"

Since we were in no way being inappropriate, we quietly giggled, ignoring them, and stayed as we were. 

Tomorrow I am attending a cook-out at the home of some of Nathan's relatives, and meeting his extended family for the first time.  I'm a little nervous.

Now it's past due time to try to sleep, which I am also nervous about.  I'm experiencing some withdrawal from the steroid I was temporarily on, and my eczema is flaring up.  Keep me in your prayers.  I felt so awesome for two weeks, and I'm disappointed and depressed at the thought of going backwards from the progress I was making.

Happy 4th of July! 

P.S.  My first-ever guest post debuted on Nathan's blog today!  Do Your Thing was written for Arts Appreciation Month.

Opera Outing

(This post is in partnership with "Arts Appreciation Month", hosted by Why Men Can't Cry)

Last weekend I went with Mara to the Baltimore Theater Project to see the operetta "Cendrillon".  This French version of Cinderella was written by female composer Pauline Viardot in 1904.  The play lasted about an hour, and was presented in a lighthearted style with minimal set and dresssings.  Three of my friends from college were involved as crew and cast.

Pauline Viardot

Reading about Viardot on Wikipedia is incredibly fascinating.  She was beautiful, she lived in Paris at the height of its fashion, she was wildly talented in the arts, she had famous and talented friends, and she lived a long life with a prolific career.  I wonder if she was unusual for women of her culture and era, or if the life she lived was more common for European women than that of American women?  She wrote 30 compositions, including vocal arrangements of works by Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, and Joseph Hadyn.  Viardot wrote "Cendrillon" when she was 84 and it was her last work.

Opera is not really my thing, but the cast was entertaining enough to keep me engaged and clear enough in motivation to not lose any part of the story in the music.  The actress playing
Cendrillon moved with delicacy but had a strong and lovely voice, and the actor playing the chamberlin Barigoule was hilarious!  Their talent made me feel slightly daunted about the work I have to accomplish in voice training if I'm ever to perform music in theatre.  Random note- the role of fairy godmother in this opera is for a coloratura soprano, which is a style of soprano that is within my voice range.

Summer Hibernation

This week has felt really long.  I didn't sleep much last night.  While out shopping today my mom said something that hurt me.  While going home from work my best friend said something that annoyed me.  I've been worrying about and annoyed by various random issues at home all week. 

So today after work I was excited to come home to an empty house.  I made and ate a huge dinner, and then climbed into bed for a nap.  I do not take naps.  Like, I just can't.  But with A Fine Frenzy flowing soothingly into my ears and the summer breeze blowing in the window, I fell asleep almost immediately and took the loveliest little nap one could wish for. 

I decided that I am hibernating until tomorrow.  I have a lot of things on my mind, and I am still very tired.

"And the rangers scream out to the cabins
They are the hunted
We are the rabbits
Maybe we don't want to be found
Maybe we don't want to be found"

-Rangers by A Fine Frenzy

~edit/P.S.~  Today the "I-need-a-vacation" syndrome set in.  Anyone feeling me?

"Arts Appreciation Month"

Today kicks off a month's worth of blog posts honoring the arts at Why Men Can't Cry.  Boyfriend has been gearing up for this ever since the play we worked on together in April.  There will be guest posts from me and other arts-minded bloggers, and posts from Nathan on many different art mediums.  If you are involved in the arts in some way and would like to write a guest post, he would be thrilled to hear from you.

Have fun learning about and celebrating the arts with us!  I have an arts post (opera-themed) debuting tomorrow, and I'll be trying to write a few others in support of Arts Appreciation Month.

P.S.  I designed the buttons for this event! :-D