Meh....

So here's the deal "readers" (i.e. Kristen).  My bad.  Sorry I haven't blogged in forever.  I know...I am super unreliable when it comes to doing personal blogging stuff.  Here's my list of excuses.  Many are real.  Many are fake.  Guess the right ones and you win a cake.

1.  my life is pretty boring, and nobody wants to hear about it
2.  my life is actually not at all boring, and I'm so busy living a cool life that I forget to tell people about it
3.  I've been super busy
4.  I have a real like "hey I'm a professional artist" website now...so sometimes blogging seems moot
5.  I've stopped listening to audiobooks because they were lulling me to sleep in transit during my super cool life...so I didn't have anymore audiobook adventures
6.  When blogging...sometimes I found a million friends (obviously not entirely true) that had blogs and I felt like a bum if I didn't read everyone else's too
7.  My Jedi training has been super intense

Okay, done with excuses now for clarifications.

1/2.  Now...the first two, could actually both be true, depending on who you're talking to.  And like...you could be talking to me...just on different days...or moments.  Seriously.  My life is weird.

3.  I HAVE been super busy.  Not a lie.

4.  "hey I'm a professional artist" website <-- Check it out, yo!

5.  Audiobooks.  True.  I was listening to Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and nearly snoozed right off of the road..

6.  Other people's blogs.  True.  I feel like if I'm acting like other people should care about my life then I should show that I care about other peoples' lives too.  And I DO care.  But sometimes I don't seem to have the time to show it by reading blog posts.  If Emily Post knew about blogging etiquette...she'd probably tell me that I'm an unfortunate miscreant with no prospects for marriage.

7.  Lastly, false.  I finished my Jedi training like...years ago.

Anyway, I'm trying my hand at this again.  Why?  I'll tell you why.  Alaina's Blog.  The end.

So...yes, I guess I have like 7 months to catch you multitude of readers up on...but I'm going to wrap this up.  I'm either going to go read my book or watch Thor.  Yes, I've been told is pretty awful.  No, I don't care.  I like to decide these things for myself.  And I want to go watch something else because my brother is enforcing the "Tuesday is Deadliest Catch Day Rule."  I don't mind watching the show.  I actually like it.  But I'm not in the mood for it right now.  So I'm going to do the "mature" thing and pick up my ball and go home.  Haha.

But it's also almost 9pm.  And tomorrow morning is my third day teaching theatre to 7-11 year old kids.  It's awesome.  I love it.  Yet it does take energy.  I may just read my book and turn in early.

Oh the endless possibilities.

Night all, stay classy.

LTVlog_07: Waiting for my Owl to Come

This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection by Carol Burnett

"We sent penny postcards to every producer and agent in town inviting them to our show, the postcard being their ticket.

They came.

After our two evenings, three of us got agents.  It was right out of a Mickey and Judy scene in Babes in Arms, and I thanked my lucky stars that I had seen all those joyous movies growing up, telling me no pipe dream was impossible."

~Carol Burnett in  This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection


I dont' know where to begin...both when talking about this book...and this marvelous woman.  Ready for a stretch?  I'm going to try to make this all connect.  Okay here we go.

So, like I said...I don't know where to start.  Well...as one of the most iconic characters in musical theatre (that just so happens to have been played by Carol's best friend in the timeless film adaptation of The Sound of Music) once said..."Let's start at the very beginning.  A very good place to start."

(For those of you who did not follow that, the character is that of Maria von Trapp [technically Maria Rainer, because at the time that she sings this particular quote, she has not yet married Georg Von Trapp], and Carol's best friend...Julie Andrews.)

Anyway...the beginning to my story with Carol Burnett begins thusly:

My dad, who loved Annie, had bought the VHS of this movie for my brother and I when we were on some road trip as kids.  We were hesitant to watch it...it was probably some weird old movie...but we watched it in the backseat of the van on the little TV from the kitchen...and our parents may have experienced the first bout of peace and quiet on the whole trip.  Ever since then, I have never been the same.

My pre-acting childhood was, as you can probably guess, filled with impressions of people who WERE actors.  Most notably from this time period were Miss Hannigan from Annie and Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof.  I remember vividly numerous times when Kyle would ask me to do my Miss Hannigan impression for our friends (this was before me doing impressions became old hat...though I've made a comeback with him with Dr. Zoidberg from Futurama).

I absolutely loved the movie.  But in all honesty, I cared much more for the villain (Burnett) than the spunky little orphan girl with the dog.  I could start rattling off Miss Hannigan lines right now.  No...not could...will.

"If this floor doesn't shine like the top of the Chrysler Building your backsides will!"

"But it's in the middle of the night!" (Mocking Annie complaining about cleaning in the middle of the night.)

"Not even a nickel for the subway."

"She hadda go bafroom."  (Mocking Molly who is lying about Annie's whereabouts.)  I kid you not.  Kyle and I would rewind this part and watch it over and over and over again.

Okay, sorry...you probably didn't sign up to read transcriptions of a few of the millions of amazing lines that Carol delivered to perfection as Miss Hannigan....

Anyway...that was the beginning of Carol Burnett for me.  Then I watched her variety show whenever I could.  I watched her in anything that I could get my hands on.  This woman is just plain funny.  But then if you read this book...you learn (if you didn't know already) that not only is she funny...she's just plain solid.

This Time Together takes the reader (at least a reader starved for any stories from Carol) through a wonderland of tales from Carol's experiences, not only as a world class comedienne, but as a woman in the world that we all live in together.  From the beginning of her story...to where she is today in 2010.

The audiobook is read by Carol herself and the format is similar to the last audiobook adventure that I went on.  But while Carol's life did and still does have its ups and downs, I came away from this book much more uplifted than I did from Carrie Fisher's autobiography.

When I heard the passage that I began this post with...it just floored me.  It's so awesome to me to be reminded that the people who are living the dream now...were once dreaming a dream just like I am.  In the same way...it's awesome to be reminded that the people that I look up to have people that they look up to too.  The first chapter of this book is about Jimmy Stewart and the whole time I was thinking "Oh Carol, if you only knew.  You are my Jimmy Stewart!"  Where a lot of people might brush that off or be like "whoa, back off, I don't know you," I'm pretty sure Carol would be thrilled about that...and maybe a little taken aback at first.

Anyway.  The book.  This book shines a light on one of my most favorite spotlight dwellers of all time.  From The Carol Burnett Show, to Annie, to Mama's Family, to Stephen Sondheim's Putting it Together and many more...Carol has been lighting up my life and the lives of countless others for years.  And now, she can just sit and chill, and enjoy her life.  Knowing that she's done a billion jobs well done and deserves to make other people do the work for a while she'll probably just slow down...oh wait...what?  My sources are telling me something...what was that?

Oh I totally forgot!  (That's a lie.  I could not forget this.)

Carol is on Glee next week (as Sue Sylvester's Nazi hunting mother, no less)!!!!

If I haven't convinced you to read or listen to the book yet...do it.  If anything...it's worth it just to hear about how she got away from a mugger in New York!  Yeah...that's right...I'm not telling you...now you have to read it!

Stay Classy Guys,

LT

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher

Photo from bookcoverarchive.com.

"Happy is one of the many things I'm likely to be over the course of a day and certainly over the course of a lifetime. But I think if you have the expectation that you're going to be happy throughout your life--more to the point, if you have a need to be comfortable all the time--well, among other things, you have the makings of a classic drug addict or alcoholic." - Carrie Fisher in Wishful Drinking

Thanks to my friend Patrick's blog, Reading Under the Covers, I happened upon a read that was equal parts entertaining and eye-opening in Carrie Fisher's recent memoir, Wishful Drinking.  Check out Patrick's review of the same book here!  He's awesome so keep checking his blog.  You'll be glad you did.

For those of you that have happened upon this blog post during your first excursion out from under your rock (no offense at all...I find myself between a rock and a hard place all the time), Carrie Fisher played Princess Leia in the ORIGINAL Star Wars Trilogy.  Princess Leia, in her infinite wisdom and amazingness, takes the bull by the horns in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and famously puts Han Solo into his place by saying:

"Somebody has to save our skins.  Into the garbage chute, Flyboy!"

Now that's what I'm talking about.  Pure woman power!

Anyway, yes, I grew up watching Star Wars.  My brother and I know absolutely every word to the original trilogy, I think, and I'm pretty confident that we're pretty close with the prequels now too.  In fact, after finishing Wishful Drinking in the car (audiobook of course) on my way up North this past week, Kyle and I watched episodes 4 and 5 together this weekend.  Unfortunately we did not get to Return of the Jedi which has always been my favorite, but there will be other times.  But yes, it can be argued (it doesn't even need to be, as there really isn't much of a rebuttal) that I've always been a pretty huge dork.  I've never really been of the loud and proud persuasion of dorks...but at the same time, I've never succeeded when trying to hide it either, at least not to my knowledge.

So yes, onto business.  Aside from playing one of the biggest female science fiction icons of all time Carrie Fisher also became a rather iconic addict (oh, she was also in When Harry Met Sally...a personal favorite...check it out, for sure) among other things.  Wishful Drinking chronicles some of the deepest and darkest times in Fisher's life.  The memories that she has written about are ones that remain available to her after electroconvulsive therapy.  This being the case, this book acts not only as a window into an interesting life for the reader but also as a journey of rediscovery for the author.

The reclaimed fragments of Fisher's life are simultaneously hilarious and haunting...and I do not say this lightly.  Wishful Drinking is a fascinating read (or listen...the audiobook being read by Fisher herself) but it is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.  God bless her, Carrie Fisher is a riot...a truly rowdy woman...and I mean this only in the best ways possible.

Mentions of her feelings toward George Lucas and of the frantic call about Carrie's use of LSD made to Cary Grant by Fisher's mother, Debbie Reynolds, are just two out of a myriad of highlights that make this tale both cautionary and comedic.

So to sum things up...the book was great and I'd definitely recommend it, with the minor caveat mentioned already.  Check out the video below, where Carrie herself promotes her one-woman-show by the same title.  If you see the video and think "my life may very well be incomplete until I read this book"...then I'd recommend picking it up and giving it a chance!

That's all for now, but more to come soon!  If you like reading my random rants and feel like clicking that "Follow" button...by all means, go for it (but no pressure)!  (Quick shout-out to the newest follower among the ranks, anchorman0718!)

Peace out, all!  Stay Classy!

LT

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Photo from Elizabeth Gilbert's website.

“Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.”

 The above quote from Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, resonated with me so much that I pressed the skip-back button of my car's CD player simply to hear it again.

For anyone who doesn't yet know, Eat, Pray, Love is the true story of Elizabeth Gilbert's search for everything across Italy, India, and Indonesia, and that being the case, the book is quite properly subtitled.  Elizabeth Gilbert, an American author and journalist, having found herself unbearably unhappy in both her marriage and her life, fought her way through a devastating divorce (with a side order of an affair) and then traveled the world in search of...well...everything.  I want to sound well-versed and thoughtful here but honestly, there is no need to try to reword what Gilbert has already written so beautifully and succinctly.

The book is divided, conveniently into 108 chapters, reflecting the 180 beads of the Japa Mala used in a few different forms of meditation.  I was thrilled by this.  Not only in the everyday-Lauren-OCD way but also as I have been using my very own mala from Tibet in meditation for around a year now.  Anyway, it was just cool to read (hear) about Gilbert's personal experiences with various forms of meditation, both Indian and Balinese.  So, the 108 chapters were organized into 36 chapters for each country.

Gilbert uses her incredible skill as a writer to illuminate the characters that she met during her travels without overpowering them.  She successfully acts as a vessel for their individual personalities to come through.  It should be noted that the audiobook (the way that I have experienced this book) is read by the author.  I found that this gave the reading a nice touch.  No need to search for the correct interpretation when the words are one's own, right?

However...the chapter where Gilbert essentially tells Ketut Liyer's story (Liyer is the Balinese Medicine Man whose palm reading practically convinces Gilbert to go to Bali in the first place) is a little much.  I only say this because the author voices all of the individual characters in her book...and it was just kind of annoying when I was listening to her speak for this man for what seemed like forever.  It unfortunately got to the point where I stopped listening to the stories that Liyer was telling because of my personal aversion to the way that Gilbert was voicing them.  That's not to say that I literally stopped listening to the CD...I just kind of zoned out.

All in all this book is an absolutely fantastic read (or listen, as was my case).  I bought the book a couple of years ago for one of my parents for Christmas (I maintain that I bought it for my dad but he thinks that I got it for my mom).  Anyway, neither of them have read it yet.  I've told them both that they should do so.  It's simply a fascinating look at religion, spirituality, and life from the eyes of a woman who became confused, frustrated, and saddened by the whole rigamarole and then took it upon herself to search for the answers and meet God halfway.

If you have the time, check out the video below.  It's 20 minutes long but totally worth it.  It is Elizabeth Gilbert speaking about the creative process, the creative mind, and the cognitive rejection of that undying question that plagues artists once they have brought something really great to life..."What if everything else that I create never lives up to this?"

Alright guys, that's all for now.

Stay classy!

LT

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange

Photo from Amanda Grange's website.

¡¡Beware:  There may be spoilers (i.e. there are) for at least the true, original, fantastic Pride and Prejudice in the following post.  so if you haven't read the real P&P, don't read this post.  Here's the summary.  "I didn't like the book."  Go read the original and report back when you've finished!!

So...I am fully aware that because of the title of the book, I will probably get very little pity from any of my readers when I tell you that "this book is a waste of time."  And yes...I do understand...it's kind of an iffy title.

I know, I know.  Now, just hear me out.

Here's at least part of what I was thinking as I was browsing around in the audiobook section of the central branch* of the IMCPL.  I thought at least three things.

1.  Mr. Darcy.  Wow.  Well...I love him!  The classic "not-actually-so-bad-bad-boy."  Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favorite books, thanks to the recommendation from my dear friend Annette.

2.  It is not a secret to really anyone who knows me that I'm obsessed with one of the best TV shows ever created, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  So this could quite possible be an amazing book.

3.  Vampyre.  What a fancy way to spell vampire.  I wonder where on earth that spelling comes from (I researched it for this post [WIKIPEDIA!  WOOT WOOT!] of course, and it turns out that it is French).  The author must be really learned and creative.

So I grabbed the audiobook after very little deliberation (which is strange for me) as I thought that I had nothing to lose and went speedily to the check-out station, not wanting to be charged extra for accidentally staying in the garage for 1 hour and 1 minute.

I begrudgingly paid my dollar to leave and put the first disc into my car's CD player.  Initially, it was simply beautiful writing.  Loved it to begin with.  It begins with a prologue, in which Lizzie is writing Jane, fearful for her life, due to some unknown circumstances (though with the title of the book, one can surmise what those circumstances are).  Very interesting.  Chilling.  Got me all excited to hear what was happening, but then chapter one begins right after the double wedding of Jane and Bingley and Elizabeth and Darcy.  Sorry if I just ruined Pride and Prejudice for anyone.  Um...yeah, never mind.  That doesn't happen at all.  Okay yes it does, there's no hiding that I've messed the book up for anyone who hasn't read it.

I'll go put a spoiler disclaimer at the top of the page right now.

Okay it's up there.  With special punctuation for Kristen.

Now...onward and upward.

The writing is at times fantastic, very lyrical.  But when the words are beautiful...nothing much is happening.  Then, way way way way way way way way into the book, when things actually start happening, the writing begins to lack simultaneously.  If I remember this correctly, The Ancient says to Lizzie at one time, "You're so...bloody."  Seriously.  I laughed out loud when I heard that.  Part of that was probably because of the awkward way that the woman reading the book, Elizabeth Jasicki, said the line.

Anyway...when it was just beautiful writing, it was beautiful, but when the supernatural got introduced, it became clear that there was really not a single solitary original thought within the pages of this book (or the CDs, in my case).  Now I'm not going to tell you how all of these things tie in, just incase anyone still wants to read the book after all of the high praise that I've given it, but here's pretty much the ingredients to Mr. Darcy, Vampyre.

1.  Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2.  Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
3.  Buffy the Vampire Slayer created by the incomparable Joss Whedon
4.  Harry Potter by J.K Rowling
5.  Indiana Jones created by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg

All of these things, save the second one in the list (which is at least very catchy and enjoyable, I will give you that), are friggin amazing pieces of art/literature that rock my world.  But the way that Grange has combined them is somewhat akin to a preschooler cutting the faces out of old antique pictures in your family album and then making them into a messy collage.  It's kind of sweet...you want to tell her "Good job, Honey.  That's beautiful.  You've put everyone we love into one big picture."  But at the same time...she totally ruined all of the original pictures.  Know what I mean?  If you're going to make a collage, you either need to be reallllllly good with scissors and glue, or know Photoshop like the back of your hand.

Grange is unfortunately a preschooler with safety scissors and Elmer's glue.

Now, that's not to say that there weren't good parts to the book.  There were some really good parts.  But it was not put together well and had enough bad parts that, in the end, it just wasn't an enjoyable experience.  I listened to the entire thing, not wanting my maiden voyage (kinda) into the world of audiobooks to begin with a shipwreck that never made it back to shore.  I am now listening to another book.  Which I will probably write about when I'm finished.  I can already tell the mood of that blog post will be a lot more positive.

Please keep in mind, that these are just my opinions.  If you have the spare time and want to read the book, by all means, do it!  I salute you.  This is just what I think about it.  And also, Ms. Grange, if you are reading this (though surely you are not), I'm sure you are a lovely person and maybe your book just wasn't my cup of tea.  Keep on keepin' on, Girlfriend.

Stay Classy Guys!
LT


* Incidentally, the rules of the parking garage for the central branch have changed.  No more can I, a poor college student, park in the garage for free so long as I am in and out in under thirty minutes.  Oh no.  Now, if I enter the garage and that yellow and black automated gate lowers itself behind me in my trusty Honda CRV (lovingly referred to by most as Clark), I cannot leave the garage without paying at least $1.00, no matter how quickly I check my items out and leave.  They of course informed me of this, by way of a new sign, after I had already entered and unwittingly kissed one of my hard-earned dollar bills good-bye.  Now surely, this change is due to governmental cut-backs or something devastating like that.  I could be understanding of this, and support my library, which I love so much, but that costs money now.  I support them with my smiling face, do I not?  Suffice it to say that I have changed my routine and now go to the Nora branch which, as it is not downtown, has no need for a parking garage.  Just a free and friendly parking lot.  Now...aesthetically, it's not the same as the central branch.  I don't feel like I'm walking into some fantastic hybrid of the awesomest airport and the coolest children's museum...but...I guess that is just the price that I have to pay to not pay the price to park.  (Oh, I slay myself!  Ha-Ha!  Good Lord...how apropos considering the book that I just finished.  I didn't even plan that.  I swear!)

Family Support

Kyle and my dad just got home from Washington D.C. last night (the Spring Break vacation that I had to stay home from to do makeup work).  It was great to have them back.  Now Kyle and I can work on homework together some of the time and veg out watching movies some of the time.  Anyway, that's not the point.

They got gifts for both my mom and myself which was really sweet.  Firstly, I got this fascinating new Tea Tumbler from Starbucks.  Kyle said, as he was handing it to me, that it really had nothing at all to do with D.C. but they wanted me to have it anyway.  It's honestly really neat.  When filled with tea (or another hot beverage) a design appears on the exterior...and...the interior is coated with a certain kind of porous clay from China that absorbs the flavor and aroma of whatever you put in it.  (For that reason you're supposed to use it for either coffee or tea, not both.  Also, I think I might need to pick my favorite flavor of tea and just stick to that.  At the moment, that would be Teavana's Samurai Chai Mate...so I think I'll go with that once I'm back in Indy this coming week.)

Thoroughly interested in my new tumbler, I was reading the card that came with it...researching...planning which tea flavor would receive the honor of being the exclusive tea for that cup, then Kyle reprimanded me for focusing on the tumbler when I had something else to focus on.  I wasn't aware that I had another gift, but I did, and the story behind it touched me to the core.

Once I put the tumbler on the coffee table, Kyle pulled a book out of one of their bags from D.C. and handed it to me.  The first two words on the cover were George and Washington so I was a little apprehensive...history is not my thing...AT ALL.  My mom loves historical biographies, and maybe someday I would enjoy them, but I'm still jaded from primary school social studies.  Being the strong person that I am though, I pushed through the pain of this being a potential history book and read further.  Upon doing so, I found that this was hardly a history book, but a collection of Letter's written by George Washington's adopted daughter, Eleanor Parke Custis, to her best friend, Elizabeth Bordley Gibson.  The letters span from 1794-1851.

So I was pretty excited about this to begin with...I opened it to read some bits and pieces but was told to wait as there was a story behind the gift.  Kyle and my dad bought me this book, George Washington's Beautiful Nelly: The Letters of Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis to Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, 1794-1851, after seeing an actress somewhere in D.C. (in some important building, I'm sure) portraying Eleanor.  They spoke to the actress, who said that she had used this book as research for building her character.  They thought knew that I would be really interested in this...and they were right.  They got me the book thinking that maybe I could turn it into a one woman show.  I was so touched that I seriously almost started crying.  I am so beyond blessed to have such a supportive family that is emotionally and intellectually (not to mention monetarily) invested in my career.

After we talked about that prospect for a while, my dad added on this invaluable piece of information:

"Plus, we figured you could play her because she had hair similar to yours."

"Like curls?" I asked.

"Yeah, and color, too" my dad responded.  When I asked if she had red hair or my natural hair color, my dad, without even pausing for one moment, answered "both."

"Wow," I said, Kyle and I smirking at each other, "that's some hair!"

We laughed and went on with the evening...I must say that I'm really looking forward to reading these letters and seeing what comes from them.  Surely something thrilling...I mean...two-tone hair...in the 18th and 19th centuries?!  LEGIT!