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(04/10/13 2:02pm)
I have a secret obsession with ballet. I watch a lot of documentaries and movies like “Center Stage” far too often. Because of this, I was thrilled when I heard that the Russian National Ballet was coming to The Grand Opera House with Prokofiev’s “Cinderella”.
Reading the program notes, I was excited about how the story differed from the Disney version that I was so used to. Basically, an old beggar woman comes and asks for something to eat, and while the stepsisters and stepmother scoff and turn her away (while handing her the only remaining picture of Cinderella’s mother), Cinderella gives her some bread. In return, the beggar woman gives her back the picture, and then reveals her true form as the Fairy Godmother. The rest of the story is basically what you’d imagine.
There were a few highlights of the show. The first was the fairies. The Fairy Godmother brings the fairies of the seasons, and as each fairy dances, the season changes with her. They even get to go to the ball! They dance with the ambassadors from Spain, China, Russia and Mauritania before the ambassadors bring out the princesses of their countries to try to win the Prince’s heart.
Another highlight was the comic relief in the show. Ballets are known to be stuffy and pretentious, but this one had the audience laughing. It helps when your dance features a dance master who is being chased by the (cross-dressing) stepmother, a jester who likes to make fun of the stepfamily (he also played the clock, which was unintentionally hilarious) and stepsisters with such distinct personalities that they could never be missed.
Sadly, I was disappointed with parts of the show as well. The ballet was cut down, maybe because The Grand didn’t believe that Macon audiences could deal with three hours of ballet, but all of the parts of the story that I was excited about seeing (the beggar woman, the picture, the kitchen transforming into a magical glade) didn’t happen. I watched the Disney version, just danced.
Another disappointment was Cinderella. Most of the parts in this ballet are double cast, including Cindy, so I’m not totally sure who I’m disappointed with. Of course, she was a great dancer and was probably just having a bad night, but she made every move look so difficult. The audience could see her arm shaking, or her turn breaking. Also, almost every dancer (with the exception of the Prince) wound up their turns. It was such a pretty performance, with a beautiful set and costumes, that lost a lot of its zest because of the dancing. During the duets with the Prince and Cinderella, I found myself watching him, which is not what ballerinas are going for.
All in all, I’d give it a 3.5. I had a great night, it was pretty and it kept my interest for two hours. That’s already saying a lot.
(03/27/13 2:08pm)
Located at 994 Maple Street, the Bro’s Den has everything Mercer students Vince Cooley, Evan Manning and Matt Huston (and Maconites Kevin Mosby and Mitchel Wachtel) could possibly want out of a house.
“We chose that location because it was a large house and we have plenty of space,” Cooley said. He said that he also chose it because of how close the house is to Mercer’s campus and so he could live with his friends. Huston walks to school everyday, while Cooley and Manning like to bike.
The Bros decided to name their house after The Bear’s Den, which is just down the street.
“The best things about the house are the lofts in the bedrooms, the highline slack lining setup in the backyard, the flat roof for climbing up to read or hangout on, and the large rooms for having folks over,” Manning said.
The platform lofts are built into each bedroom. The Bro’s landlord had a lot of kids, and the only way they could have room for sleepovers was to build beds in the air, according to Wachtel.
The lofts house the Bros’ beds now, but the largest loft, located in the master bedroom, used to hold a home theatre. “We had a projector with a big screen and a stereo system, complete with pillows and beanbags,” Cooley said.
Under that same loft is now what the boys fondly refer to as The Futon Forest. “There are two futons and a television. We have our computer hooked up to it so that we can stream videos and things, and it has its own surround sound,” said Cooley.
The highline slack lining in the backyard is “basically like a tight-rope, but the width of a seatbelt, and slack instead of tight,” Cooley explained. “We used it probably two or three times a week. We also had it set up as a low-line as well.” The lining was set up by Mosby and Mercer alum Andrew Conner.
Huston said that one of his favorite parts of the house is the porch swing Mosby welded and built out of old golf cart parts. “It feels like you’re sitting in a golf cart, but it’s a porch swing,” Cooley interjected.
Though the house is convenient and fun for the Bros, there are some downsides. People knock on the door to “ask for money sometimes or ask for a ride across town at some inconvenient times, like three in the morning,” Cooley said. “Also, while it’s nice to have a lot of visitors, sometimes the house gets a little crowded, and it isn’t always the cleanest.”
“I’d say the good things outweigh the bad, though,” Cooley said.
(03/27/13 1:59pm)
Anyone who has ever seen a play performance at Mercer knows about the Backdoor Theatre. In the basement of Willingham, a 67 seat black box theatre is the only performance space students in the theatre department have.
It has roaches, mold and it floods so often that Scot Mann makes that a joke in his curtain speeches.
The last flood happened a month ago, but, seeing as I am heavily invested in theatre here (I’m the President of the Mercer Players and have been in twelve shows in the past three and a half years), it took me a while to cool down about having to cancel one of my senior performances because the only space we have was covered in three inches of water.
I always heard about actors having to shove antique furniture and ladders up in the house when it rained, but I honestly thought it was a joke until an inch of water crept in during the second act of “The Seagull.” Because it kept raining that night, we had to cancel the next night’s performance.
The one and only space that actors have to use floods. I realize that I’m being redundant, but I need to emphasize how ridiculous this situation is.
There are theatre majors at this school. There is no reason that we should be performing in a space that is not suited for our needs. Our options for what shows we can do every year are limited by our space, and that’s without the little things like mold and floods happening.
Chemistry majors are not using broken test tubes. English majors are not reading books with pages ripped out.
It is the responsibility of Mercer University to give students the facilities and equipment that we need to succeed.
If you’re in the know, you realize that we are getting a new theatre.
If we get an arts grant from the city of Macon, the construction will go a lot faster. But there are problems with that as well.
The theatre would still be a black box, and hold about as many seats. There is talk that there would be limited, if any, classrooms. And the new space is a block away from campus.
Some shows tend to have minimal audiences anyway, and now you’re going to make students walk a block to get there? We will have no one.
I realize that the best way to solve this problem is to find alum who can donate a lot of money in the name of Mercer Theatre. But the problem is, a lot of people who graduate with a theatre degree go on to perform, which is not always the most lucrative profession (though it is incredibly fulfilling).
And I realize that things like the bear statue, the football stadium and Cruz Plaza are being built because people have donated for them. But Mercer, how about you accept my tuition as a donation for a theatre? I’m sure a lot of other Mercer Players would say the same.
I once read an article about the top five facilities that a university needs to be competitive for perspective students.
Number three was a performing arts facility. Sure, we have Fickling, but that is not conducive for theatre - can you imagine getting typical Mercer Theatre set pieces in throughout the whole music building?
We also have The Grand Opera House, but that houses problems of an entirely different variety. Because Mercer Theatre isn’t treated with the respect that we deserve (in my not so humble opinion), we don’t get a lot of money, which means that we cannot afford to be at the Grand for more than a few days.
My freshman year, we held a meeting between Mercer Players and President Underwood and he said that he would make the Grand more available to us, but so far, that hasn’t happened.
Also, if students aren’t willing to walk the block to the new theatre, you can bet that they aren’t willing to drive the mile to the Grand.
Besides, some shows we would like to do REQUIRE a black box theatre. But not every show does. It’s really tough to find a musical that can be done in the Backdoor Theatre - we got lucky with “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.”
What we need are differing spaces. If we had a larger theatre, not Grand scale, but maybe Theatre Macon scale, we could do so much incredible work while smaller productions were going on in the Backdoor.
Student directed shows (think “Ye Gods” and “The Colored Museum”) have done wonderfully recently. Imagine more shows a year, thus more awareness of the theatre department here.
I’m not saying that theatre students should be the number one priority on everyone else’s agenda.
I realize that is impractical and stupid, since most students don’t even come to shows. But if we want to make sure that this school thrives, and I think most of us do, then we need to give some kind of priority to the arts programs.
The best way to get over a bad day is to go into someone else’s world for two hours, so why are you limiting all of the coolest and most accessible worlds?
(03/27/13 1:58pm)
E.L. James, author of the best-selling “Fifty Shades of Grey” trilogy, is writing a new book called “Fifty Shades of Grey: Inner Goddess (A Journal)”. The book will be a writing guide for new writers as well as an instructional guide on how to find your “inner goddess.” Though the book isn’t out yet, here is my best guess on what will be featured in it.
Chapter 1: Start your work from your fanfiction of another series
As most of my readers know, I started “Fifty Shades” as a “Twilight” fanfiction. Though, yes, Christian Grey is an awful lot like Edward Cullen and Anastasia Steele is an awful lot like Bella Swan, I totally changed them around once I decided that it was my story. I mean, there are no vampires in my book, and there’s so much sex you won’t even know how to deal with it. That’s totally different from “Twilight”. Also, that other series didn’t include that the heroine has this inner self, “Lizzie McGuire”-style. I did. That was my idea.
Chapter 2: Don’t you dare research anything
So I’m a Brit, but to challenge myself, I decided to make Grey and Steele American. That proved to be a bit of a challenge, but nothing I couldn’t handle. So sometimes they use British slang or make obscure references, but hey, I think my audience can handle it. Sometimes I write sentences like “I hadn’t reckoned on this,” because DUH ALL AMERICANS SPEAK LIKE COWBOYS. Even us Brits know that. Also, make sure that they call bathrooms the ‘powder room.’ Sometimes I have to class up my smut.
Chapter 3: Stream of consciousness is always great
“The drinking, oh no the drinking, the phone call, oh no the phone call, the vomiting, oh no the vomiting. Jose and then Christian. Oh no.” Guys, this a direct quote from my best-selling novel. So obviously everyone needs to write like this. Also, write things like “I’m going to be sick…no…I’m fine,” because everyone needs to know exactly what goes through a character’s head at all moments. Don’t believe me? Imagine a “Harry Potter” where you read about every lusty thought that Ron has about Hermione. Maybe then that series would have actually sold some books.
Chapter 4: Always use as many verbs as you can
Verbs are a writer’s best friend. I use them all the time, even when they don’t really fit, because verbs. Sometimes, my characters do things out of the ordinary like jump, yelp and bleat timidly – basically, I just wanted to make sure that everyone knew that Steele was secretly a sheep without having to come out and actually say it. Verbs help do that.
Chapter 5: Sex
Always sex, man. Always. As much as possible.
For tips like this and more, look for the book on shelves starting May 1.
(02/20/13 3:15pm)
Disney is kind of my life. I’m fully aware that as a 21-year-old woman this should not be true anymore, but hey. I worked there for nine months, so I think I’m allowed.
I follow Disney news pretty religiously, and because of that, I saw that the princesses were getting a redesign (or an update on their original looks) late last year.
When I first read the news, I was ecstatic. Walt would have loved that! Keep moving forward! Most of them need a bit of a sprucing up anyway! And then I saw the art that would be put on merchandise and how the costumes in the park would be updated.
I can sum up the new looks in two words - sexy glitter. The princesses all look like they just got out of a Ke$ha concert and for some reason, they all lead with their hips. These are not princesses that little girls should want to emulate.
We’ll go in chronological order, so Snow White is first. Besides the fact that her dress is ridiculously sparkly, there’s not much to disagree with. Her bow is now pink instead of red and on the side of her head, but that kind of makes sense. No one wears a bow on the top of their head anymore, so it is easier for little kids to rock Snow’s look. I’m okay with this one.
Now Cinderella I have a few issues with. Not only were her costume and hair completely redesigned, but also her face. She looks nothing like her movie counterpart. And her dress only reinforces the fact that it has been blue in marketing since the dawn of time, even though in the movie it is clearly a silvery white. Cindy is the only princess that has had a costume redesign at Disney World so far, and I don’t hate it in person. In fact, her shoes are fabulous (which I promptly told her. Don’t judge).
Aurora is a travesty. While her dress makes sense now, and looks way less weird where the sleeves and collar meet, these silly new marketing people MESSED WITH HER HAIR. Aurora’s hair is her best attribute! Yeah, she had weird bangs, but the most beautiful blonde curls in the world. Now she just looks silly.
Ariel. I have issues with Ariel. When her grotto was torn down a few years ago, and she had to be a human instead of a mermaid in the parks, they gave her a dress that was never featured in the movie. Even though we see her in about six outfits in the movie, Imagineers just keep creating new looks for her. It seems unfair. Other than that, her new look isn’t terrible, she just looks like a soccer mom. A really pretty soccer mom, but all the same.
Belle’s new look just appeared at Disneyland this month, and while it is way better than the last look, I still hate it. They’ve made her hair curly and sexy for some weird reason and completely changed the color of her dress. Plus, the way the new bodice is made is going to make her look bigger than she really is, which I assure you, is going to cause a big stir in the costuming department. As for the “merchandise” looks, Belle looks awfully coquettish for the princess in a movie about how appearances don’t define a person. She also has weird “come hither” eyes and her hair is all tousled...let’s just say it looks like Prince Adam is an awfully happy guy.
Jasmine’s new design really isn’t that bad. They’ve bejeweled her outfit, which isn’t terrible and changed her earrings, which just seems a little weird to me, but her hair. HER HAIR. At first I thought that was the exact same Jasmine we all know and love, with the full ponytail, but it isn’t! It’s just one ponytail! Normal! Like she’s going to the mall! There are no little pillows of hair that we all know and love, and for some reason, there is one piece of hair that sticks out of it now. Ummm...what?
Poor, poor Pocahontas. Her redesign is one of my two least favorites. Besides the fact that Disney gave her way too much blush, they’ve also given her ugly earrings, glitterized her dress (which is also some weird high/low dress that she wears with weird fringe boots) and changed her mother’s necklace. Poca runs through the forest all day, painting with the colors of the wind. She has no time for ugly feather earrings that get caught in Grandmother Willow’s branches or glittery dresses. Moving on, her mother’s necklace is kind of an important plot point. It’s her most prized possession. Why would you change that, Disney? Also, they whitened her skin. I have a big problem with that as a person, and they’ve moved around her features on her face, as well as lightened her eyes and hair. They’re trying to make her look white, and guess what Disney, she isn’t. She’s Native American and proud of it.
Mulan is my other least favorite. She looks incredibly feminine, with long hair and a gold dress. First of all, Mulan always felt most like herself when she was dressed like a man. She cut off all of her hair with a sword. Even in the terrible sequel she has short hair. Makes no sense. But my main problem with Mulan is how much they’ve changed her face. Her eyes are blue (really?) and her lips are much fuller - but the bigger problem is how much Disney has white-washed her and changed her face to be much more oval shaped. You can argue that she’s just wearing powder, but she hated that in the Matchmaker scene. Why make her wear it all of the time?
Tiana and Rapunzel both basically look the same. Good for you guys. Only complaint there is that Rapunzel’s hair should be chopped off. Come on, Disney, we all saw the movie. We know how it ends. Her long blonde hair is kind of symbol you made for her oppression. No need to make her wear it forever.
So Disney, I get it. You need to update. I don’t disagree with you. But this is not the way to do it. Let’s go back to the drawing board.
(02/06/13 3:17pm)
February poses two problems for most college students - Valentine’s Day and a lack of money. For crafters with someone to celebrate the holiday with, its nice to have a cheap, if not, free alternative to the typical Valentine’s gifts. Personally, I’m a fan of baked goods. Baking is tough in a dorm, though, so there is the ever-present need to improvise. Enter microwave fudge.
What you’ll need:
3 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup chopped nuts
(I didn’t use chopped nuts, and instead put in a tablespoon of cinnamon.)
Lightly grease a square dish (the disposable ones found at grocery stores work perfectly) or line with wax paper. Set aside.
Place powdered sugar and cocoa in a microwave-safe bowl and stir. Add milk and butter to dry mixture. No stirring required yet.
Heat in microwave uncovered for two minutes. Stir to combine. Add vanilla and nuts. Pour into dish; refrigerate for an hour. Cut and serve.
If you’re like me, you can add sprinkles and cut out little hearts to make it more festive. If you have someone to celebrate with, they’ll appreciate the effort and the tasty snacks. If you don’t, then bring it to a girl’s night or eat it all yourself. It’s Valentine’s Day, and I assure you, this fudge is way better than those conversation hearts.
(02/06/13 3:10pm)
Like just about every other NFL fan this year, I was disappointed by the Super Bowl. The two best teams lost in fluke games, so the teams that actually played were mediocre at best—not to mention controversial (my favorite quote of the night was “I hope someone checks around Ray Lewis after the lights come back up to make sure they’re aren’t any dead bodies”).
The bright hope of the night was Beyonce. After enduring lackluster halftime shows for the past few years, I was trying not to get my hopes up too much in the work preceding the game. But I watched an unedited iPhone video Jay Z took in the recording studio of her just singing, and I got excited. Maybe she won’t lip sync. Maybe she’ll dance. Maybe she’ll do the whole “Single Ladies” dance.
My expectations were blown right out of the water. Beyonce is probably one of the most gorgeous women alive, as well as an incredible singer and dancer. When she winked and blew a kiss to the audience, I felt like we were best friends and that it was directed toward me.
She didn’t sing quite as much as I thought she would have, but dancing is hard work, and she performed well enough that I didn’t even really notice. And when she did sing, her voice was fantastic. It has to be so hard to perform in front of the crowd of the Super Bowl, especially in a lace-lined monokini. But she did it, and she did it like a goddess.
When she brought out the other members of Destiny’s Child, my inner 12-year-old squealed. She was still obviously the star of the trio, but she shared the stage like a pro. She even told Michelle to sing at one point.
The show looked cool too. I mean, it was kind of weird. There were a lot of Beyonces around, but as you can probably tell, I didn’t mind much. The face-shaped holes with streaming hair made me wary, though. I’m still not sure I really understand that part of the show. But the projections on the stage itself and behind it were really cool.
I hope that it really was Beyonce’s performance that caused the lights to go out in the Superdome, and I’m so glad it happened after she performed. She gave me the burst of energy that I needed to not just stop watching after the first half. All in all, lackluster game, glowing halftime performance. Bravo, Beyonce.
(01/23/13 4:02pm)
Sometimes, the musicals that I enjoy most are not widely loved. I love them for their original Broadway casts or the music, and they get slammed for their plot and scene design. Or the musical wins Tony awards but isn’t successful at the box office. “Catch Me If You Can” is one of those musicals, so I was stoked when it came to the Grand Opera House last month.
The musical is based on the autobiography of Frank Abagnale, Jr., who ran away from home at the age of 16, became a pilot for Pan American Airlines, then a doctor, then a lawyer, wrote bad checks and conned a lot of people out of $1.4 million. He is chased all over the world by Detective Carl Hanratty, who wants to put him behind bars for years. Frank uses fake names in every job, which turns out to really hurt him when he finds the girl of his dreams, Brenda Strong.
I was ready to be disappointed by the tour because the original Broadway cast was so spectacular. Aaron Tveit portrayed Frank on Broadway, which is one of the most difficult tenor parts in a few years because of the range and the dance intensity. Norbert Leo Butz portrayed Hanratty, and won the Tony for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical.
The first song, “Live in Living Color”, had me even more worried. Stephen Anthony, who portrayed Frank in the tour, cracked about three times during the song and it did not go unnoticed. Luckily for the audience, he just used that song to warm up and was delightful for the rest of the show. Merritt David Janes, Hanratty in this cast, was not quite as eager to dance around the stage as Butz had once been, but was still fantastic in the role.
Apparently this show took an extraordinary amount of time to move into the Grand. The set was a scaffold that held the band and could also be used as a playing space, located directly in front of a huge projection screen. Besides that utilitarian set, the other set pieces were extremely minimal: a bed here, a bar there. Each would get pushed on for a scene and removed when it was over. I’m not normally a fan of such minimalist scenic designs, but it was perfect for this show. Because projection screens are so much cheaper than hiring a crew of people to build a huge, elaborate set, a lot of shows are utilizing them, whether or not it fits with the style of the show. The use of the projection screen in this tour was perfect. There was no room for a “proper” set because of the sheer number of huge dance sequences in this show, which made the perfected use of a screen imperative.
My favorite scenic choice was this: whenever all of the detectives were together in their office, the lighting changed and everything looked like it was in black and white like in old detective movies. All of the actors spoke like the characters in old detective movies too, which was pretty neat.
I’m really glad that I went to see this show, even with my original qualms. Of all the shows I’ve seen it was one of my favorites, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who gets the chance. Looks like me and “Catch Me if You Can” are stuck together, which is strange but true.
(01/23/13 4:01pm)
It takes a special “rom com” to be my jam, and I mainly like that kind of film if it has elements that are atypical of the genre of romantic comedies. “Silver Linings Playbook” was, without a doubt, one of these films. Yes, there was love, but there was also mental illness, hospital breakouts, urban dancing and the song “My Cherie Amour” as a trigger to violence.
I knew that I wanted to see this movie, though admittedly that was only because I love Jennifer Lawrence and the Hunger Games franchise. I wasn’t sure what place a romantic comedy had at the Golden Globes or the Oscars, and I thought that it was just the token girly movie that wouldn’t win any awards.
I was wrong. The plot is tragic: a substitute teacher named Pat (Bradley Cooper) walks in on his wife cheating on him with the history teacher to their wedding song, causing a violent rage that forces him into a mental institution instead of jail. He gets released and spends the rest of the film trying to get his wife back, because he knows that deep down, she still loves him (despite the restraining orders that both she and her school have gotten against him). He then meets his best friend’s sister-in-law, Tiffany (Lawrence) who is just as mentally unstable as he is, and they learn about themselves together.
I’ve never been a huge Cooper fan, but this movie changed my mind. He was electric onscreen and had chemistry with everyone else in the film. Robert De Niro plays his father, from whom Cooper’s character gets his OCD and violent outbreaks. Little things, like Philadelphia sports (especially the Eagles) and wedding videos, are triggers to these broken people, and it makes the audience’s collective heart break.
Lawrence is flawless, and anyone who says that she didn’t deserve the Golden Globe is wrong. She plays broken and hurt just as well as humorous or action hero, and she isn’t afraid to look silly. She plays a “slutty” twenty-something widow who cries wolf about harassment more than once. When Tiffany and Pat meet, they have a conversation about all of the medications they have both been on that seems more genuine and friendly than most moments in film in recent years.
The film is ultimately about self-acceptance—even accepting the unwanted parts of yourself—and that is such a refreshing message after years of seeing hate and lies in movies. Tiffany says, “There’s always going to be a part of me that’s sloppy and dirty, and I like that. With all the other parts of myself. Can you say the same about yourself?” It’s such a good message for the main audience of this film.
We all know that Oscar season is upon us, and this film is nominated for all of the major awards: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director, along with two others. If you’re like me and didn’t believe that this film actually deserved all of the accolades, do yourself a favor and go to the theater right now. Learn to love yourself and hate “My Cherie Amour”.
(11/07/12 11:00pm)
Mercer Opera recently produced Seymour Barab’s opera, “The Toy Shop.” It is a one-act opera aimed at children, so all of the words are in English and the subject matter is a little more toned down than what typical opera-goers are used to. As I sat in the audience, this was evident before the show even started: it began an hour before typical shows do on this campus, and the set was wild with toys and primary colors.
The story tells of a childless Toy Maker (Eric Medlock). He has created two dolls that stand in as his children, Paul (John Jenkins) and Pauline (Leah Parris). The Toy Maker is a typical father figure, and Medlock did well to make the character endearing. He has a fantastic voice, and was a great performer to start the show.
The Toy Maker tells the dolls that, because it is their birthday tomorrow, he is making them a new friend: Paulette (Lizamar Nieves). He then leaves the room to continue work on the new doll, and Paul and Pauline come to life.
It is Paul’s dearest wish to stay with his father and be loved for eternity. Jenkins did a great job of taking a very one-dimensional character and turning him into someone that the audience loves.
Pauline, on the other hand, wants to travel. She wants to be a real girl and emote, but realizes that there isn’t much of a way to do that. She also becomes increasingly jealous of the new doll and begins to think that her father doesn’t love her anymore. Parris won my heart as Pauline. She was the perfect mix of cute and sassy, and had great moments of emotion as well as the comedic “bits” that both dolls had. Parris also choreographed the show, and the dance the dolls performed was cute.
As The Toy Maker is busy in the back room, in comes the magician, Aaron Blunder (Ryan Kirkconnell). He is the villain/comic relief in the show, and as anyone who has seen Kirkconnell can tell you, he fit the bill perfectly. He has the kind of physicality and comic timing that the part requires, and looked rather dastardly in the cape/tuxedo combination of his costume.
Through a series of hijinks and misadventures, the opera concludes happily and surprisingly. Paulette is a gorilla doll that hugs instead of dances. She chases the magician through the audience (to the great delight of the children), and eventually everyone gets their happy ending. The cast and crew had a talk-back with the children after the show, which I thought was a great touch, and I can’t wait to see the next opera in January.
(10/10/12 4:00pm)
There is a town in Maine where every storybook character you’ve ever known is trapped between two worlds, victims of a powerful curse. Only one knows the truth and only one can break her spell.
ABC’s “Once Upon A Time” had me hooked from the pilot. Basically, every fairytale character you grew up loving has been cursed into forgetting who they are for the past 28 years. There is only one woman, named Emma, who can break the spell (incidentally, she’s Snow White and Prince Charming’s kid). The Evil Queen is the mayor of this new town, and she is the only one who actually remembers who she is. (Or is she?)
I am in love with this show. Granted, I’m a Disney geek and am always up for a reinvented fairy tale, but this show’s appeal doesn’t come solely from legend. Yes, when the characters are in “Storyland”—the world they have been cursed to forget—their stories are the central focus. But when they are in the real world of Storybrooke, Maine, the focus goes to Emma and her son Henry.
Henry brings Emma to Storybrooke because she is his biological mother and the Evil Queen (real-world name Regina) is his adoptive mother. After his teacher, Mary Margaret (aka Snow White), gives Henry a book of fairy tales, he becomes convinced that he knows the true nature of the town and that Emma is the only one who can save them all. The relationship between mother and son is endearing and starts to look more real as the first season progresses.
From a technical viewpoint, this show is weird. The fairytale sets are very badly green-screened, but I honestly think it’s kind of charming. It adds to the effect that this is a world separate from our own. The magic that you think you know, like fairy godmothers and true love’s kiss, is replaced with that of Rumpelstiltskin, whose mantra is that “all magic comes with a price.”
Also, if you expect the fairy tales to be exactly like your favorite Grimm story or Disney movie, you’re sorely mistaken. Snow White is forced to become a thief after her evil stepmother threatens to kill her. Prince Charming was engaged to someone else. Belle and Rumpelstiltskin have a romance (he’s the Beast—get it?). The reinvention is enough to keep it interesting to both those who love and hate the original stories. Also, the Evil Queen is hot and has the best closet of any fictional character I’ve ever seen.
As is the case in all television shows that have been told they will have a second season, the first ends with a cliffhanger. Basically (spoiler alert for the rest of the article), Emma figures out that Henry is actually right and these people that she has come to know actually are fairytale characters. She really figures this out because Regina gives her an apple turnover (right?), which Henry eats and falls into a Snow White-like sleep. Emma then has to get a love potion from the heart of Maleficent (in dragon form) and bring it to Rumpelstiltskin so that she can get Henry back—which works—and then Rumple brings magic into our world.
The new season has only had two episodes so far, one of which features Mulan and Princess Aurora, along with a wraith (which, let’s face it, is actually a dementor). The show’s writing is just as good as it always was. (Snow White telling Prince Charming that she had a one-night stand because they were cursed? Classic.) The second basically gives us more of Regina’s backstory and establishes Prince Charming as a source of unlikely power in a basically lawless town. We’re promised more of Emma and Mary Margaret in the next episode, along with Ogre Wars. I’m just hoping that they don’t try to integrate Shrek.
It’s going to be an interesting season, and seeing how magic reacts in the real world along with how these people can integrate the two lives that they’ve been forced to live is an interesting concept. Lana Parilla, who portrays Regina, says that magic will react kind of like the way it does in “Bewitched”—she’ll try to make a birthday cake appear on the table and an elephant will show up instead.
Also, episode five is called “The Doctor” and we’ll FINALLY get to know who Dr. Whale is. So far, all we know is that he was in Regina’s pocket, he leads the pack trying to kill her when the curse is broken and he tells Prince Charming that he isn’t “his” prince. The suspense is killing me! But I guess that’s the point, isn’t it? All magic comes with a price, and in this case, it’s waiting a week between episodes.
(08/29/12 4:00pm)
This summer I became somewhat obsessed with an author named John Green. He has only written five novels and I only have two left, so I know I’ll be devastated when I’ve finished his entire body of work. And this obsession started with one book: ‘The Fault in Our Stars’, Green’s masterpiece.
TFiOS (as it is known to its Internet fan-base) is about a Hazel Grace Lancaster, a 16-year-old girl with cancer (“Thyroid originally but with an impressive and long-settled satellite colony in my lungs”). She meets Augustus Waters at a youth’s cancer support group and they strike up a friendship. And then a courtship. And then love.
You know from the first page that this is a book about children with cancer. You know that Hazel is terminal. You know that the story of these two young lovers cannot have a happy ending. So why do I pick this book up over everything else in my collection when I need a pick-me-up? It might be because I fall a little bit in love with Augustus on page 17, but more likely it’s because of John Green.
Green writes for a young adult audience, but his voice is so unique and accessible that I didn’t feel that TFiOS was dumbed down. I felt like it was written from the perspective of a smart, snarky 16-year-old, which, since the book is told from Hazel’s perspective, makes sense. Because I was a smart, snarky 16-year-old not too long ago, I relate to her. I know what young love feels like and anyone can relate to disappointment and loss.
Even though these kids have cancer, this isn’t a cancer book. Hazel has a penchant for thinking that she’s sicker than she is and watches a lot of America’s Next Top Model when she isn’t rereading her favorite book. Augustus deals in metaphors and plays a lot of video games with his best friend (and fellow cancer kid) Isaac. Sound like regular teenagers? That’s because that’s what Green makes them. He doesn’t want the reader to feel sorry for his characters. There’s no teary conversation about donors and who can be saved. There are hardly any tears at all, actually. The characters are incredibly strong. No one is weakened by his or her own mind, and if they become weaker because of their bodies, then they fight until fighting is no longer an option.
The characterization is pretty incredible too. Yes, it focuses on Hazel and Augustus, but I get excited when other characters get in on the action too. Sometimes Hazel hangs out with Isaac. Sometimes she’s just home with her parents. All of the characters are so well fleshed out that they become real people. You want to get to know them better, and luckily, Green lets you by injecting them into the story in natural ways.
Green also deals in quotes. Anyone who has read this book has a favorite quote. Personally, mine is “You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope she likes hers,” followed closely by “Okay.” Seems like an insignificant little word, but Green forces you to reconsider just who you say it to.
As I write this I’m just sitting in my room flipping through this book, and tears are welling in my eyes. I’ve barely even read any of it in my browsing, but it’s one of those books that decides it needs to seep into your emotions. It’s so witty and so smart, but so sad. I cry every time I read it, and I couldn’t ask for a better reaction.
(08/29/12 4:00pm)
I’ll come right out and admit that I’m the president of the Mercer Alliance for Reproductive Freedom.
I believe that women should have the choice about what happens with their bodies. Now that that’s out of the way, I think that it’s time to talk about Senator Akin and what he deems “legitimate rape.”
In case you aren’t aware of Missouri senator nominee Todd Akin’s controversial statement, I’ll fill you in. He said during an interview with a television station that he opposes abortion rights even in the case of rape because victims of legitimate rape have biological defenses that prevent pregnancy.
Let’s just start with the surface of that statement. The fact is, Akin is wrong. If women actually could do this, then the multi-billion dollar hormonal contraceptives industry wouldn’t be necessary.
Maybe Akin was just confused about what species he was talking about. Ducks do have the superpower that he’s speaking of.
In fact, female ducks are constantly evolving ways of not getting pregnant. But that’s because at least a third of duck sex is rape.
The males are constantly evolving ways of getting around the female’s defenses, basically at the same rate. So maybe if the rape rate keeps going up, then human females will be able to develop the same powers. But currently, it’s basically a one-way valve.
The nuances of Akin’s statement are really the most disturbing ones. One out of six women will be victims of completed or attempted rape in their lifetimes.
So Akin is basically telling 17.7 million women that what happened to them is probably not legitimate and isn’t really all that traumatic. That the depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal thoughts are unnecessary...women are just being overdramatic!
Even though victims of sexual assault are 13 times more likely to abuse alcohol and 26 times more likely to abuse drugs, there aren’t really consequences, unless it was legitimate and you got pregnant, and even then, you shouldn’t be allowed to have an abortion, because it punishes the fetus and not the rapist.
According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), in 2004-2005, 64,080 women were raped. About five percent of those rapes resulted in pregnancy, which equals out to about 3,204 pregnancies. But you have to remember that some women that get raped are on the pill.
Some rapists use condoms so that DNA tests can’t be run. There might be medical or age reasons why a pregnancy can’t happen (about 15 percent of sexual assault and rape victims are under the age of 12. Try telling a twelve year old that what happened to her wasn’t legitimate.)
Akin later came out and made a statement that he misspoke. But he certainly had no problem going on Mike Huckabee’s radio show to talk with Huckabee about how rape has created some great people.
Huckabee said, “...yet even from those those horrible, horrible tragedies of rape, which are inexcusable and indefensible, life has come and sometimes, you know, those people are able to do extraordinary things.” Umm...what? If this isn’t the silliest rationale that you’ve ever heard, let’s think about it the other way.
Yes, rape has created people who grow up to be productive members of society. Consensual sex, on the other hand, has created people like Hitler and Stalin, so we should probably outlaw that and only allow rape, right?
I’m a strong believer of “no uterus, no opinion” in politics, and I really think that these people must have skipped health class in high school where the teacher goes over what reproductive organs do.
Politicians claim that there isn’t a War on Women being waged, but with comments like Akin’s, it’s obvious that that just isn’t true.
It’s a sad truth that men are the majority of the people that are trying to govern my body, telling me that if I get raped, I’m either asking for it or it wasn’t legitimate if it didn’t result in a child.
If men had the ability to get pregnant, I seriously doubt that this would even be an issue, because all men have the rights to their own bodies, but women are still seen as second class citizens in the eyes of many of men.
We may have gained the power to vote in 1919, but we still aren’t equals. That much is perfectly clear.
Comments on this opinion can be sent to suzanne.m.stroup@live.mercer.edu
(08/15/12 4:00pm)
I am the first to admit that I am a literary bandwagon hopper. I read the Harry Potter series in elementary school because it was cool (a good decision), “Twilight” in high school (not such a good decision) and this summer I finally succumbed to “Fifty Shades of Grey”.
I heard bad things about the series from friends who had read it but still needed to see for myself. Forty million copies of the book have been sold, so how bad could this mommy porn be?
The answer: very bad. “Fifty Shades” is about a college graduate named Anastasia Steele who blushes way too much and has no real thoughts of her own, except the occasional “oh my”. She lives with an aspiring journalist named Kate, who apparently is Ana’s best friend, but you would never know by reading the book. It seems like the two girls hate each other. Kate gets sick and asks Ana to go interview Christian Grey, Portland’s rich playboy entrepreneur. She goes to his office and, to make a very long (1,625-page series) story short, the two fall in lust and then in love. They engage in a (tame) BDSM relationship which, apparently, is vastly appealing to older women who read the book.
E. L. James based her novel off of her Twilight fan fiction written under the pen name Snowqueens Icedragon (I can’t even go into that), so the resemblance to Stephanie Meyer’s characters is uncanny. Grey is overbearing and manipulative over Ana, and hates her friend Jose who once tried to hit on her in front of a bar. “Twilight”, however, was at least remotely readable. Fifty Shades makes its mother series look like Dickens. James uses certain phrases over and over again to the point where I sat literally laughing at this book in the middle of a “hot” scene. If I read “I died a thousand deaths today,” “Stop biting your lip, you know what it does to me” or “Laters, baby” ever again, I may throw the book across the room.
Repetition is not James’ only problem. She also uses words and phrases that were popular two centuries ago and never again after that. She uses the word “gamine” on the second page of the book, which was the word of the year in 1899. On page eight, she uses the expression “If this guy is over thirty, then I’m a monkey’s uncle,” which was popular in the 1930s, which is one of her most modern sayings. My favorite is when Ana calls Grey “very high-handed,” which was basically a way of burning someone in the 1800s but also comes from a translation of the Bible.
I did not plan to read this whole series when I picked up “Fifty Shades of Grey” at Target. But by the end of the first book I knew I was going to be hooked into the other two, even though I was completely aware of how bad it was. The plot, though convoluted, is interesting enough with revenge and murder and betrayal—basically all of the elements that would enthrall a middle-aged stay-at-home mom. The whole story line just keeps getting interrupted by these weird kinky sex scenes that last for at least ten pages each. (And by kinky, I mean not that kinky. Bad would be a better word.) I would find myself reading over that aspect of the series as fast as I could, possibly skipping words along the way so that I could see whether Ana was about to get murdered like I hoped she would. That sounds heartless, but I just wanted her to die because none of the characters are relatable at all. At least dying would make her mortal. I can relate to that.
To sum it up, these books are bad. There are moments of intrigue, yes, but they aren’t worth wading through the rest of the muck. If you want a laugh at some British author’s expense or a mediocre—at best—erotic novel, then “Fifty Shades of Grey” is for you.