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30 January 2011

An IPA Poem for Kristen

I am in Voice for the Actor 3 with Diane Timmerman right now.  I am so beyond glad for this, because it's been a while since I've had a performance class with Diane (my favorite) and this semester I have two.

(Okay, speaking of Diane, she's the one shooting at Gene Hackman with a machine gun in this clip.  Yeah...you heard me right.)



Anyway, first what we're doing is learning the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).  Then we will use that knowledge that we have acquired in order to master the art of dialects.  My first dialect will be Received Pronunciation (or RP), which is basically proper English.  My second dialect will be Irish.  Then I shall have a third, but I don't know what that one will be yet.

Anyway, in this class, as we are learning our phonemes, we are going through a workbook called Bringing Speech to Life: A Companion Workbook to Louis Colaianni's The Joy of Phonetics and Accents.

This evening, on page 30, I was prompted to:

"Write a short poem using / I / and / i / words."

And so I did.

Ahem...

My  sw/ i /t  b/ I /g  s/ I /ster  and m/ i  /
Ch/ I /t-chat  when  w/ i /  are  fr/ i /
G/ I /v/ I /ng  advice v/ i /a  the  phone
Skype  dates  't/ I /l  w/ i /  don't  f/ i /l  alone
I've  got  Sw/ i /t  S/ I /ster's back
And sh/ i /'s got m/ i /.

Maybe not the most brilliant thing ever written, but it's a step up from my sentence that I wrote on page 29 that had to contain four or five words with / i /:

"One must eat one's peas or one's brain cells will freeze, so pass them to me, if you please."

(Too tired to put that last one in IPA.)

Speaking of being tired...I have Voice with Diane in the morning...at 9:00 AM...which means I have to get up at 6:00 AM to take care of Genevieve...which means I'm wrapping this blog up and going to bed.

Peace Guys,
Stay Classy,
LT

P.S.  I love you, Sis.

23 January 2011

Thrilled Squared

I love the arts.
If you know me, you know this.
If you've ever read this blog, you probably know this too.
My life, my love, my hope, and my dreams are in the Lord.
I have been blessed with the opportunity to express my life, my love, my hopes, and my dreams through the arts.

When I was a kid, it was music.  There was a little fork in the road (but I've recently decided to strive towards blowing that fork into smithereens and getting back into music) and I've found myself in theatre, and am very happy here as well.

One thing that thrills me is to see amazing art, of all kinds, that pushes the boundaries.  Art that takes something that we know already and simultaneously respects and transforms the original.

Music thrills me.
Drama thrills me.  (Not social drama.  Can't stand that.)

This video was both of these thrills in one.  I feel it would be terribly inappropriate, after being so taken by this video, to not share it with all of you.  Please enjoy.

10 January 2011

Gross...Just Gross

On a note very different from my post earlier today...a commercial that I just saw has all but forced me to create the second post in the growing (it has doubled, just today) category of posts entitled The Critical Corner.  To see this category's first post, click here.

Anyway...I really have nothing clever or funny to say about this.  It's just disgusting.  I don't think it's funny.  You may think it's funny...and if you do...that's fine...but the fact is this...in my world...frequently referred to by myself as "reality," this is not funny at all.  It's stupid...gross...and a poor excuse for an advertisement.  Gross, gross, gross.  (Note...there are three "grosses"...not four...because this does not deserve four.)



So there you are folks...

I just...there are really no words.

Stay classy...or at least classier than these guys.

Peace,
LT

I Dropped the Ball on Dropping my Nets

This morning, I already had a Bible Study related blog post planned out...but I've decided to drop that, at least for the time being, and just go with the flow.

So this morning...I was doing my Bible Study and found myself in Matthew 4.  While I was roaming around in good ol' chapter 4, I ran into that story that I know by heart, the one where Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John run into Jesus when they're out on the waves, doing their jobs...and at the simplest invitation from Jesus these dudes are like "Forget this gig...I'm going to go fish for people instead!"

In case anyone is unfamiliar with this story...or has read my paraphrased version and is left wanting...here's the NLT version.


Matthew 4 
18 One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. 19 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” 20 And they left their nets at once and followed him.
21 A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too.22 They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.

So that's the deal with the first disciples.  In the present...when we read this...or at least when I read this...I think: "well, duh!  It's Jesus!  I mean, yeah, they're leaving everything that they know, everything that they've worked for, and everyone that they love...but...IT'S JESUS!  Who would turn down a personal invitation from the Son of God?!"

Anyway, for those of you who know me...when I say something like..."I think," and then there's a quote following...there's a lot more to it, but seriously, who wants to read absolutely EVERYTHING that I think?  I know I don't.

Anyway...yes looking back, it seems obvious that the right thing for them to do is just drop their nets and go.

I apologize...this is a scattered blog post.

But it's not just about dropping our nets, now is it?  No.  There's more to it.  It's kind of like the "Bend and Snap" maneuver from Legally Blonde.  (Okay...no it's not really like that at all...but when you can tie in a really goofy movie...not to mention a really goofy movie that was turned into a guilty pleasure musical...how can you pass it up?)

Okay...so dropping our nets is like the "Bend and Snap" (oooh, I'm making another connection, prepare yourselves).  Ir's a process with steps.

1.  Drop your Nets.
2.  Take those newly empty/unoccupied hands and grab on to Jesus.

Side note...this is kind of where the next connection came from.  So when I was reading this passage, I thought of the following song.



...and the words really hit me.


If You say go, we will go
If You say wait, we will wait
If You say step out on the water
And they say it can't be done
We'll fix our eyes on You and we will come

Your ways are higher than our ways
And the plans that You have laid
Are good and true
If You call us to the fire
You will not withdraw Your hand
We'll gaze into the flames and look for You


When I was younger...I did my own personal net dropping.  I had plans for my life.  My initial plans were thwarted...so I came up with new ones.  But then I felt Jesus telling me to drop those nets.  And I did.  I dropped my plans, grabbed onto Jesus, and basically told him that I was along for the ride and He could take me wherever He saw fit.

But then I found myself in Indianapolis.  And at times...more often than not...I was very unhappy.  I think that I frequently felt abandoned.  I wondered why, when I had given up my former plans to follow the plans that God had for me...when I moved 160 miles away from everyone that I knew and loved...I wondered why I wasn't getting it.  Why would God lead me away and then step out of the picture?  I had plans already...and knew how to achieve them.  These were not my plans...these were His plans...and how was I supposed to figure out what they were and how to fulfill them on my own?!

Ah yes...there is the key..."on my own."  I was playing the role of Eponine in my own life...(if you don't know Les Miserables...get the soundtrack from the library and listen to it...or youtube it I guess...but you should really hear the whole thing)...singing the song "On My Own" with every breath that I breathed and every step that I took.

I felt alone...but I was never alone.
I thought I was suffering for God...but in reality...I was suffering by my own hand.

I dropped my nets, grabbed onto Jesus, felt alone, and slowly but surely loosened my grip on the Lord.  It was, of course, not God who stepped away...it was me.  I didn't gaze into the flames and look for the Lord...I saw the flames, remembered how "certain" things seemed for me before God lit His fire in my heart...and I felt as if I were alone in a burning house.

I have come to the conclusion that this is more like "Wash, Rinse, and Repeat."

1.  Drop your nets.
2.  Grap onto Jesus.
3.  HOLD ON TO JESUS.
4.  Repeat.

Maybe it's inevitable that we will continue to pick up new nets along the way...but each net that we grab on to takes up space and time.  It's good to know though, that if we've dropped our nets before, we can always do it again.

I think that I always looked at my net dropping as the end of a story.

"Well here's what I wanted to do...but I gave it up for God...The End."

Pretty backwards.

It's a beginning...just like it was for the Disciples.

"I had plans.  Human plans.  Unenlightened plans.  Then I dropped them, as they were no longer needed, and followed Jesus Christ.  I dropped my plans...my nets...and I picked up my life."

That's all for now, guys.  Peace, Love and Happiness!

SC,
LT

05 January 2011

"Noah and Friends" or "God and Loneliness"

Genesis 6:9, 17-18


9 This is the account of Noah and his family.  Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God.


17 "Look!  I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes.  Everything on earth will die.  18  But I will confirm my covenant with you.  So enter the boat - you and your wife and your sons and their wives.


I feel as if this passage can show us that loneliness, grief, and loss are very real feelings.

There is being alone...and then there is being lonely.

When God created Adam, the Lord saw that things were good, but there was still room for more goodness.  God then created Eve, a counterpart to Adam, with whom Adam could share life and creation.

Later, when God's creations took a turn for the worse, there was one blameless person in the whole world.  The Bible tells us that Noah was that person.  And yet, God saves not only him, but also his wife, their sons, and their sons' wives from the flood as well.

The Bible does not tell us that Noah's family is blameless.  But still they are saved.  Why is this?

Is this because God did not want Noah to be lonely?  I think yes.

But God has already created Adam and Eve "from scratch," if you will, could he not do the same for Noah and create for him a new wife?  I think yes.  I believe that God can do absolutely anything.

But that's not what God did.

God saved the blameless and the blameworthy.

Is this because God not only did not want loneliness for Noah, but also loss and grief?  Could be.

(I think that this also shows us that we needn't be perfect specimens to be saved by are Great Lord.)

I believe that God understands loneliness and does not want it for us.  If we believe in Him, trust in Him, follow Him, and allow ourselves to be fully, deeply, and unabashedly loved by our God, I believe that he will lead us to a place where loneliness does not exist.