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This is where you stick random tidbits of information about yourself.
Age 23, living in sin in Twickenham with Cheesy
Likes
Movies
Books
Writing
Theatre
Hugs
Kittens
Chess
Scrabble (mostly beating Cheesy's butt)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Dislikes
Vegetables
Arguments
Cleaning
Trashy TV
Pretensions
Public Transport
Pets
Rabbits-Bambi, Fern, Sooty, Pippa-all deceased
Dog-Sammy-deceased :(
Fish-CatFlap-recently (and finally!) deceased
Cat-Tiggy-still scratching
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Technically Rachel
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Saturday, June 26, 2004
So... had a Gastroscopy the other day. About as pleasant as one might imagine. Although I did get to experience the joys of sedation, which made me pleasantly unconscious until the last few minutes when I started retching on the sodding tube. That was pleasant, I can tell you. Still, at least finally after seven years of complaining about my stomach they finally decided to take a look inside. Predictably, I have Gastritis - though what the cause of that is I shall have to wait till the tests get back. It's a times like this I wish that genetic cloning would hurry up and get sorted so that someone could grow me a new digestive system. One which I won't spend a childhood poisoning with Coca Cola and additives.
Also of late been listening quite intentley to the new Broadway musical Wicked. And to my surprise I actually really like it. This is a weird conflict for me. The musical is based on the novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire, and basically is the life and times of The Wicked Witch of the West (as in Dorothy's victim so she can get home from Oz). The book is brilliant, I cannot recommend it enough to anyone and everyone, whether you love the Wizard of Oz, or have never seen a reel of it, this book is truly fantastic to read. It is dark and political, and by no means a cheery affair, especially since the title character is doomed to only one ending. The musical is, of course, none of this. From what I can tell, they have stripped the story of it's human complexities, political environment and dark disposition, and transformed it into a skeleton of a story, focussing mainly on the relationship between Elphaba (the "Wicked Witch") and Galinda (the Good Witch of the North) in the school days. And is also totally cheesified (and not in the monger's way). In other words - American.
In all logic, I should loath this production with all my heart and hope it dies a well deserved death. Instead, I have found myself utterly charmed by it. A very strange state of affairs. The story elements they have used are funny and interesting, and although no where near as complex as the novel, it does still capture the main crux of things - it's not who you are in life, but how people view you - for that is how you are remembered.
And in the end, this musical will at least achieve one truly good thing - it will cause a whole load more people to pick up the novel and read it, and experience something far superior.
For me this conflict is akin to The Phantom of the Opera. The situation was somewhat different, since I actually saw the musical first when I was a lot younger. I worshipped that show then. Now I'm older I am somewhat more subdued towards it - certainly from a music point of view. But I was obsessed with the story and the darkness on it. My love for that musical caused me to read the original masterpiece by Gaston Leroux, and also the later novel "Phantom" by Susan Kay (another brilliant book). The musical strips away a lot of the rich darkness and realism of the events and turns most of it into drippy nonsense. By trying to imitate the voice and work of the Phantom they immediately create a ridiculous production - the whole point is that no one can create music or make it sound like him, so when Andrew Lloyd Webber's typical mainstream musical meoldies come pouring out, it's almost a mockery. The two are so far apart - but I do love them both.
Wicked I think will work in the same way. I'm sure I will see the musical when it comes to England, and no doubt adore it - but the original book will remain proudly on my shelf, to escape into when the crassness of the musical wears thin. The book never will.
I would like to finish this long thought by proclaiming that musicals actually really aren't my thing. Except there are those cursed few that I still love and can watch or listen to again and again. Little Shop of Horrors I love to pieces, and can actually listen to the soundtrack purely for entertainment. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers forever remains one of the most endearing pieces of fluff I've ever seen. Anything with Marilyn Monroe in it is made fantastic by her mere singing prescense (the same goes for Audrey Hepburn), and two Disney movies affect me even today - Aladdin, and The Little Mermaid. Here endeth my shame.
9:22 pm
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