On the road

"The road is life."

-Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Yesterday I walked 12.6km or 7.8 miles allllll the way to... well, I don't exactly know where. It was kinda the middle of the highway. But it was a beautiful middle-of-the-highway!

I had heard that it quickly becomes countryside outside of Aix, so I walked to Parc de La Torse and kept on walking! I passed lots of driveways and not may houses; it was so quiet! It was so peaceful, too, with the fall colours, and birds, and the afternoon sun and... ah! Lovely!
Here are some pictures, enjoy :)

 rue d'école militaire

 near la torse

 entering la torse

 first view of mount sainte-victoire

 getting closer

 olive grove

 bam! check out that view!

 random bench

 très colorado

 i walked down a side street and by two houses

 peeking at their private olive grove

 view from their house

 woman clipping olive branches

 neighbour walking his bike

 view from la torse

 burning garbage at the park

 sunset near my street, back in aix

xxo, S

Dracula

:[` (<-- vampire)

Happy Early Halloween!

To celebrate the first day of the greatest supernatural month of the year, my FSEM went to see Dracula at the Denver Center last night, opening night. Preceding the performance, we went to a "talk" with a panel of people from the production team: props master, director, vocal coach, lighting designer, and set designer. They told us all about their hard work in putting together this version of the famous novel and gave us a lot of insight about what we were seeing so that when it came time to see the performance, we (at least I did) noticed a lot that we might not otherwise have noticed.

For example, the set was very simple, yet very genius. There were no set drapes to speak of, but the lighting projected scenes of the castle walls, daytime skies, and a blood-red moon. The rest of the set was intricate moving parts (the floor opened and small tables, chairs, and desks would rise up) that helped provide a more tangible sense of the world. Also, the costumes were beautiful and (from my knowledge) accurate to the time period (1892). Of course I would notice the costumes ;)

Having never read the novel or seen the original movie version, I cannot say how well this play followed the storyline. But I can say that the story I saw was very in-depth. The actors did a great job at being vampires, or doing vampires' biddings; playing a "mentally ill" patient (I put this in quotes because this character has more insight into the events than the sane characters); being hypnotised or possessed by vampire thoughts; and even just staking the undead. There were a fair number of humorous scenes and even some scenes that I'm sure were intended to be serious and spooky, but at which we all laughed at. I hope the company wasn't offended by this!

If I could give one criticism to an overall splendid play, I would say that several scenes in the second act (and even the first) could be shortened or simply cut out because they slowed down the mounting plot line to the point that the climax scene is nearly anti-climactic. Also, being a lover of crimson corn syrup (or stage blood), I was disappointed in the frank lack of blood in a vampire play.

Afterwards, my friends and I all came home (via light rail of course; I am beginning to know the RTD system very well) and settled in early.

More blood next time please!

xxo, S

A promise is a promise

My overly-wonderful drama teacher and director, Mr. August*, promised the costume ladies (me and my two friends Katherine and Purple) that someday he would take us to see the costume room at NYU (because he used to work there). We were first promised this in seventh grade. Five years later, and we finally made it to NYU's theatre department... except they were under construction and the costume room was unavailable for visitation purposes :( Instead, we got a lovely tour of the theatre department - and experienced a fire drill along the way.

In the end, it was a great way to spend a Friday (we had no school last Friday), especially in such beautiful weather. South of Union Square is such a cute place! Although, I could never pick a "favourite" part of New York. Katherine and I picked up some noodles and cute buttons in Union Square when we were done at NYU. I'm working on covering my trusty canvas bag with buttons; so far I have twenty three, including a storm trooper, "what would Buddha do?" and Andy Warhol's face.

xxo, S

*all names have been changed to protect the privacy of those described.

Twofer Thursday

Hey, sorry for the double post today. My life is sometimes more interesting than I think.

Anything Goes ended on Saturday with the cast party but we still had to sign posters for each other the way we did for our director, conductor and coreographer. There was no power on Saturday so we ended up not doing it. Instead we extended the fun by signing posters today! I got my last poster ever :( filled with lovely comments from all my fellow thespians.

Shows pictured: top left: Pirates of Penzance (2003), Guys and Dolls Jr. (2004), Fiddler on the Roof Jr. (2006), Little Shop of Horrors (2007), Macbeth (2006). middle left: House of Blue Leaves (2007), Into the Woods (2008), Witness for the Prosecution (2008), Urinetown (2009). bottom left: A Flea in Her Ear (2009), Anything Goes (2010).

When I went home, I read all the comments on all my posters since sixth grade (above). That's eleven posters! I want to get them framed some day. Maybe for a graduation present...

xxo, S

"Anything Goes"

This past weekend my school put on a production of my favourite show, Anything Goes. As usual for the winter musicals, I helped out with costumes (I act in the fall plays). Two of my best friends also do costumes... We're like a super team. I don't know what the school is gonna do without us next year because it will be the first year in seven years that costumes have have happened without us at the helm. We did, however, train two girls to take over for us. Hopefully they'll be up for the challenge alone next year.

This is also my last high school show! *tear tear* Like I said, I've been at this for seven years and I can't believe it's over! I've met some of my best friends and had some of the funnest times of my life doing theatre at my school. On closing night (Saturday), our director spoke about how meaningful this year's seniors are because we were his first class when he came to teach here. I cried remembering what a great, influential, and important person he has been throughout my school career. Next year is sure to bring new stuff, but I'll always remember where I got my start.

Traditionally, seniors paint their names on the walls backstage and list their graduating year and all the shows they've done. We're going go paint on Sunday I think... It's a little intimidating, knowing that my name is soon gonna be up on those walls, too.

Despite the sentimentality of this show, and the incredibly rigorous schedule Costumes had, it was one of the most impressive shows I've ever been a part of. I'm glad we did it my senior year! Every single person did an amazing job and the end result was simply gorgeous!! Congratulations to the cast, crew, orchestra, and production team of ANYTHING GOES!

xxo, S