Pit of Hell

DVD: Romeo et Juliette, Gerard Presgurvic version

Sat, 17 May 2008 17:49:18 GMT

And in the continuing adventures of Beth versus actual commercially available DVDs of musicals, I've finally watched something I've had for a while - Romeo et Juliette, the Gerard Presgurvic version, as recorded in 2001 in Paris. I have to say that even with all the pop music, this is one of the most artistic musicals. The French seem to have a gift for them.

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Ukrainian gold

Fri, 16 May 2008 09:10:20 GMT

It's been three weeks, but the exhibition is still ongoing, so those currently in Warsaw can still go see the Ukrainian gold from the PLATAR collection on show at the National :) It's an amazing exhibition - perfectly preserved ceramics and jewelry from the least-known cultures that wintered in Ukraine and Poland before the current era began. Scythian motives run to stylised animals, and they traded extensively with Greeks, so the craftmanship is astounding.

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sporfle

Wed, 07 May 2008 19:24:04 GMT

Apparently on a talent show on ZDF this spring, they had a musicals theme and Uwe Kröger as a judge. This makes for entertaining clips of him making faces as people torture German and English musicals.

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Elisabeth in Berlin

Mon, 05 May 2008 10:20:36 GMT

I saw two shows in Berlin, May 1 and May 2. The cast was almost the same - the only exception was Sophie, with the understudy the first time and Christa Wettstein (first cast) on Friday. The shows, however, were dramatically different, mostly because on Thursday, Bruno Grassini (Lucheni) was phoning in his role, while by Friday he had recovered.

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falls over

Sun, 04 May 2008 06:28:47 GMT

Got back yesterday near midnight and was so exhausted I fell into bed without even touching the computer. Reviews will be up tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime, highlights of my Berlin trip:

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Missing in action

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:22:54 GMT

I'm off on Thursday morning for Berlin, back on Saturday night. Have decided not to lug the computer around, since it's just two nights and a rather busy schedule of shopping and two shows to catch. If anyone has anything urgent, speak now, or hold your peace for four whole days ;)

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Sometimes, a voice makes you flail

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:20:26 GMT

I'm watching the Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert (more on which, and the book, later), and after Act 1 I made the mistake of looking up Michael Maguire on Youtube.

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Meta: Live performance fandom versus media fandom

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:34:39 GMT

I started out in media fandom, where by media I define books, series, films, comics – any creative work that is performed once and communicated via media, a one-to-many single-time-point form of creation. For the past two years, my primary fandoms, the defaults I scribble about in my free moments, have been live performance fandoms. Involvement in the two is a very different experience.

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FIC: Blood of Salmacis (Greek Mythology, gen)

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:39:49 GMT

Fandom: Greek Mythology

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I need more Phantom icons

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:43:25 GMT

Apparently there was a promotional event for the Warsaw Phantom of the Opera recently. This would be the lovely Raoul, with the third Christine (the one I saw the second time).

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Laptop shopping

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:30:44 GMT

Out of curiosity, has anyone had any experience with a Lenovo ThinkPad R61?

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Phantom of the Opera, Roma theatre, take two

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 06:55:33 GMT

On Wednesday, I found myself in the possession of someone else's media passes to Phantom. It would have been somewhat foolish not to go, even though it was Damian on again as Erik. Mind you, the rest of the cast was entirely different - I think only Madame Giry was the same one I saw the first time.

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Dracula: Entre l'amour et la mort

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 08:32:28 GMT

I first noticed Bruno Pelletier in Notre Dame de Paris, as recommended by fyrie, about two years ago. On Youtube, there were clips of him doing various things, including appearing in something that looked... strange. The music was great, the French lyrics had vivid imagery, but the costumes? The flames? I googled it and came up with Dracula: Entre l'amour et la mort.

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LiveJournal support

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:22:43 GMT

For the past week or so, I've been toying with volunteering on the LiveJournal support board. It's fun, it lets me practice formal business English, and I've already learned a lot about LiveJournal.

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Phantom of the Opera - Warsaw Roma theatre

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:12:35 GMT

Obligatory pre-review disclosure: I like Phantom of the Opera, a lot. I adored the small stage version put up by the Palladium Stage theatre (clips available here), and after the first two rounds of auditions for the full Roma theatre non-replica production, I was overjoyed to hear that my favourites were also the judges' favourites for Erik and Raoul. Then they were abruptly cut, due to in one case "not enough acting ability" and in the other, current engagements keeping him from attending the audition. On top of that, I heard a lot of rumours that the musical's main sponsor fancies himself a director and meddled immensely in both casting and directing.

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Meringues

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 20:51:00 GMT

For some reason, I've always regarded meringues as something fiendishly difficult; consequently, I rarely bought them and hunted without much success for something that was not 90% sugar.

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The wonder of creativity

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:00:50 GMT

Half the fun of visual design, for me, is getting sidetracked in all the little things. After a whole day devoted to layout (conclusion: width fixed in ems, single-column, sidebar widgets in a horizontal container between the banner and the main layout), now it's colour choices and colour theory. For the LJ redesign I'm considering, I've promised fyrie that I'll have a Maki Ichiro layout to match her Saki Asaji one. To match the picture, I'll need colours a little more varied than my current black and white. Cue way too much fun with online Pantone swatches.

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Black Ships: review proper

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:08:14 GMT

I've finished reading Black Ships by jo_graham for the third time. I've a feeling it won't be the last.

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CSS Nostalgia

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:18:48 GMT

I've been reading A List Apart, because at some point, I do have to do something about my website. The fanfic portion is fine, but the code could use a cleanup. The Discworld site will stay up as-is, for non-link-breaking, but I should add a disclaimer that it's no longer updated. Main index, of course, needs updating. Additions

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Oh look. LJ's at it again.

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 08:26:37 GMT

In the interest of doing the community thing and spreading the word - it is no longer possible to create a new Basic (free and ad-free) account on Livejournal. Existing Basic accounts remain ad-free, existing Plus accounts can be degraded to ad-free Basic.

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Pre-review: Black Ships

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:23:57 GMT

Since the Amazon US publishing date was yesterday and jo_graham's first reading and signing is coming up, I think it's time to post this. Or at least the first part ofit. I've read the book twice now, once piece-meal as it was created and once in its whole bound form, but now that I've sat down to write about it, I see I'll have to re-read for a proper analysis.

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Writerly musings

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:02:41 GMT

The gendertwist story for imaginarybeasts is kicking my arse. Therefore, I swiped this writers' survey off caraloup:

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Travel plans

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:30:31 GMT

Two weeks ago, I had no plans for the summer at all. Now it turns out I'll be out of the country two, possibly three times between May and June:

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Cats and war

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 07:55:05 GMT

I've been following ru_cats_daily for a while now, because the artistic quality of the photos is stunning. This is today's, and oh, the story just writes itself:

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Elisabeth in Berlin

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 09:38:24 GMT

So, cast for Elisabeth in Berlin is all but set. It's less dreadful than what I was fearing, but again they went for people who know the musical by heart.

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Pit of Hell

DVD: Romeo et Juliette, Gerard Presgurvic version

Ukrainian gold

*sporfle*

Elisabeth in Berlin

*falls over*

Missing in action

Sometimes, a voice makes you flail

Meta: Live performance fandom versus media fandom

FIC: Blood of Salmacis (Greek Mythology, gen)

I need more Phantom icons

Laptop shopping

Phantom of the Opera, Roma theatre, take two

Dracula: Entre l'amour et la mort

LiveJournal support

Phantom of the Opera - Warsaw Roma theatre

Meringues

The wonder of creativity

Black Ships: review proper

CSS Nostalgia

Oh look. LJ's at it again.

Pre-review: Black Ships

Writerly musings

Travel plans

Cats and war

Elisabeth in Berlin

sporfle

falls over