It's ten minutes til midnight. Can't believe Christmas is nearly over. Yet...it was pretty quiet. A nice breakfast of waffles in the morning and some well-fitting earphones (finally!) as a present. The trip to the bookstore was a real treat though. After at least two or three hours, my family and I came out with "Justice" by Michael Sandel, "Moon Over Manifest," and a copy of "100 Successful College Application Essays." Although they weren't the books I were looking (or hoping, for the sake of the line) for, it's still a great gift.
About a week ago I received a piece of paper with Spongebob on it...signed by its very own designer. Yes, the designer of the character of Spongebob! Not being a huge Spongebob fan, I wasn't as thrilled as the "fan next to me" might be, but it was pretty interesting receiving the signature. It was written in Korean, but in such way that I had trouble making out any characters. Goodness. Why are all signatures so hard to read?
Recently saw both Mission: Impossible 4 Ghost Protocol and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
My first thought about M:I 4 after I left the theater was "action action action." No space for even a comma at all. Amazingly placed action with the combination of stunningly positioned camera angles and great acting and...and...well, it was pretty awesome. What else can I say about it? I wouldn't want to spoil it for someone. I did manage to see the prior movie, and I was not disappointed. However, I still don't exactly understand what the 'rabbit's foot' was. Perhaps I should watch the whole movie throughly (hint hint).
Sherlock Holmes was also a great movie. I'm not a great critique, but I'm positive many others would agree with my statement. I thought it could use some more depth at first, but everything eventually would come to a full circle, with the usage of the idea of urban camouflage coming right back at the end. The ending of Sherlock Holmes was definitely stunning. Very well placed indeed. It even impressed the whole audience in the theater I was in; the audience proceeded to break into "ohhh's" and "OHHHHHHH's." Which is pretty darn impressive, because that doesn't happen very often in South Korean theaters. Other than, as my friend Sarah pointed out, during various horror movies, where screams probably ring out much, much more than often compared to other genres. I've seen American theaters cheer at certain endings of movies, but that never seemed to happen here. I prostrate you, Sherlock Holmes!
Colonel Sebastian Moran - "That's not fair..!" - When Watson, being shot by Moran with a rifle, finds a cannon near his hiding spot and turns to aim it at the lighthouse where Moran was shooting from.
Tis the time to be jolly! The new year is almost upon us! Merry Christmas everybody!
12/10/2011
Story Outlining
There's a story I've been outlining for a friend that takes many different elements from many different stories I've read over the year(s)…and a South Korean drama. Ever heard of 'Iris?' Yeah, that's what the plot for the beginning of the story is pretty much about. I found it repetitive while outlining it at first, so I skipped that whole section and began the next 'book.' I guess I'll have to outline here. So, from the beginning:
The main characters in the first part of the story start with a teenage girl named Sarah and a celebrity she adores named G-young. The beginning is a quick spoof on our video chatting. The two characters talk to each other through video chatting, staying in a friendly relationship. But when the media finds out that the celebrity has this little 'friend' of his by accident, G-young is forced to break the law to protect her, and the government, already furious about their cultural celebrity being used as a media tool, uses this opportunity to claim that G-young needs to be put down and brought to justice. After managing to meet each other, G-young and Sarah are forced to go into hiding, aided by an online guardian that saves them continuously as they attempt escape the government forces’ clutches. The story continues (and G-young and Sarah...sort of fall in love with each other?) until one day they venture underground to hide and discover a whole new (technically old) race living beneath the surface ('Artemis Fowl,' anyone?). At first, they are imprisoned and mistreated, for the fairies are very advanced and hate the humans for destroying their original home aboveground many eons ago, but soon, they discovered that the government had followed them and were making their way to the fairy capital, with the fairies having no way to stop it. But Sarah, after realizing that the fairies must survive to hold the balance of the earth in check, and already knowing the plans of the government and their usage of their multiverse techniques ('Timeline'), is enlisted by the fairies to help them stop the human invasion (Me thinks needs more detail). With G-young, she manages to freeze the invasion in time, effectively freezing all the communication systems aboveground as a result.
It's not complete. But I'm not sure how to continue...suggestions please? Or if you want spoilers, I'll just say that G-young is gone afterwards. :3
I'll try to continue this part after my break starts. So for the rest of the week...Ciao!
12/04/2011
11/27/2011
Okay...hello. again.
Don't blame me for taking the iMac's opening line for its MacWorld announcement. I'm reading Steve Jobs. The question is, are you? It's quite a book. But anyway.
Last week, a couple hours ago from now, I finished my third and last performance for the drama production at my school, "It's a Wonderful Life." As George Bailey, the main character. I found out later, or well, a couple hours before our first performance, that I had 333 lines in the script. Don't bother asking why I don't write it out completely. But anyway, quite a shock. . . Not. The people who I told were shocked, but with all the rehearsals I had done over the past months, I felt fairly good about the whole thing. Of course, the last performance was the best. Most of the errors we had made before were fixed, most of the lighting was still the same (It's on you Robs :) ), and although I wasn't able to punch Bert for all three performances, that last performance had been our quickest performance yet. With the cast also in charge of moving the props AND taking care of the turn table (yes our stage has a working turn table! It's pretty freakin awesome. Totally.) AND making sure of their costumes and make-up AND just about everything else, they did a incredible job. To everyone who helped to make the whole play work. I'm sincerely thankful for everyone and everything that was part of our play, and also am thankful for the audience. The audience is what the play is aiming for and can also be the actors' source of energy. When I saw the numbers we had in our auditorium and compared it to the first day...well, I was actually jumping up and down, just exhilarated about the amount of people already sitting down. I'm just sad I wasn't able to work with the whole acting team as a good leader. I think I showed myself being tired way too much. It was my first experience handling as much stress I had during the rehearsal periods, with all the homework and due dates being mixed in. But thinking back, it truly was a growing experience.
Sadly, our good friend Eric left us that day, on the last performance, transferring to another school in north Seoul. He was a dear friend, even though he was two grades higher than me. He was my Uncle Billy (but does the name 'Billy Bailey' seem right?). His acting debut in GSIS was the first play I saw, which was called 'Who Poisoned His Meatball?,' a mystery drama production that involved the murder through, yes, a meatball. That was two years ago. Last year, we made the comic duo of the March Hare and the Mad Hatter in 'Alice in Wonderland,' and together, we enjoyed drinking out of over-turned tea cups. We definitely bonded through our experiences. It's very sad to see him leave...he was the nicest person on the planet. The uncle of our play. Our great uncle. I am honored to have known and met him. I sincerely hope everything goes great for you, Eric!
I'm still having second thoughts about joining the next production, which is around March. It's supposed to be a musical called "Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat," and it's about the story of Joseph from the bible, and how the coat of his given by his father was ________________ (c'mon, you don't expect me to dish out spoilers, do you?) and he was sold to slavery (Okay, I have no idea about the plot. Cheers.). It's still pretty way off, but I'm hoping to see June, who did a fantastic job performing with an Italian accent as Luigi in 'Who Poisoned His Meatball?' and the stripe-faced Chesire Cat in 'Alice in Wonderland,' act, sing, and dance in the new play. I also hope to welcome lots of new actors and actresses and give the position of the main character to someone new for him or her to experience (even if I would keep my namesake when Mr. Blanck calls me by our character names). I think it's important to try many different roles, and it's not fair to hog the role of the main character two times in a row. Also, I do want to try singing on stage, since it will be the first time I've sung while acting. I anticipate quite a challenge...but I'm definitely excited for it.
PS: I use apostrophes.
Quote of the post?
I think it would be pretty nice to have a quote on each post. If I keep my resolve to continue posting.
"I'm changing the world one keyboard at a time." - Steve Jobs.
I found it pretty funny. And encouraging in a way.(From his bio, word by word:)
[Jobs's] frustration with Apple [after he was ousted from the company] was evident when he gave a talk to a Stanford Business School club at the home of a student, who asked him to sign a Macintosh keyboard. Jobs agreed to do so if he could remove the keys that had been added to the Mac after he left. He pulled out his car keys and pried off the four arrow cursor keys, which he'd once banned, as well as the top of F1, F2, F3… function keys. “I'm changing the world one keyboard at a time,” he deadpanned. Then he signed the mutilated keyboard.
Last week, a couple hours ago from now, I finished my third and last performance for the drama production at my school, "It's a Wonderful Life." As George Bailey, the main character. I found out later, or well, a couple hours before our first performance, that I had 333 lines in the script. Don't bother asking why I don't write it out completely. But anyway, quite a shock. . . Not. The people who I told were shocked, but with all the rehearsals I had done over the past months, I felt fairly good about the whole thing. Of course, the last performance was the best. Most of the errors we had made before were fixed, most of the lighting was still the same (It's on you Robs :) ), and although I wasn't able to punch Bert for all three performances, that last performance had been our quickest performance yet. With the cast also in charge of moving the props AND taking care of the turn table (yes our stage has a working turn table! It's pretty freakin awesome. Totally.) AND making sure of their costumes and make-up AND just about everything else, they did a incredible job. To everyone who helped to make the whole play work. I'm sincerely thankful for everyone and everything that was part of our play, and also am thankful for the audience. The audience is what the play is aiming for and can also be the actors' source of energy. When I saw the numbers we had in our auditorium and compared it to the first day...well, I was actually jumping up and down, just exhilarated about the amount of people already sitting down. I'm just sad I wasn't able to work with the whole acting team as a good leader. I think I showed myself being tired way too much. It was my first experience handling as much stress I had during the rehearsal periods, with all the homework and due dates being mixed in. But thinking back, it truly was a growing experience.
Sadly, our good friend Eric left us that day, on the last performance, transferring to another school in north Seoul. He was a dear friend, even though he was two grades higher than me. He was my Uncle Billy (but does the name 'Billy Bailey' seem right?). His acting debut in GSIS was the first play I saw, which was called 'Who Poisoned His Meatball?,' a mystery drama production that involved the murder through, yes, a meatball. That was two years ago. Last year, we made the comic duo of the March Hare and the Mad Hatter in 'Alice in Wonderland,' and together, we enjoyed drinking out of over-turned tea cups. We definitely bonded through our experiences. It's very sad to see him leave...he was the nicest person on the planet. The uncle of our play. Our great uncle. I am honored to have known and met him. I sincerely hope everything goes great for you, Eric!
I'm still having second thoughts about joining the next production, which is around March. It's supposed to be a musical called "Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat," and it's about the story of Joseph from the bible, and how the coat of his given by his father was ________________ (c'mon, you don't expect me to dish out spoilers, do you?) and he was sold to slavery (Okay, I have no idea about the plot. Cheers.). It's still pretty way off, but I'm hoping to see June, who did a fantastic job performing with an Italian accent as Luigi in 'Who Poisoned His Meatball?' and the stripe-faced Chesire Cat in 'Alice in Wonderland,' act, sing, and dance in the new play. I also hope to welcome lots of new actors and actresses and give the position of the main character to someone new for him or her to experience (even if I would keep my namesake when Mr. Blanck calls me by our character names). I think it's important to try many different roles, and it's not fair to hog the role of the main character two times in a row. Also, I do want to try singing on stage, since it will be the first time I've sung while acting. I anticipate quite a challenge...but I'm definitely excited for it.
PS: I use apostrophes.
Quote of the post?
I think it would be pretty nice to have a quote on each post. If I keep my resolve to continue posting.
"I'm changing the world one keyboard at a time." - Steve Jobs.
I found it pretty funny. And encouraging in a way.(From his bio, word by word:)
[Jobs's] frustration with Apple [after he was ousted from the company] was evident when he gave a talk to a Stanford Business School club at the home of a student, who asked him to sign a Macintosh keyboard. Jobs agreed to do so if he could remove the keys that had been added to the Mac after he left. He pulled out his car keys and pried off the four arrow cursor keys, which he'd once banned, as well as the top of F1, F2, F3… function keys. “I'm changing the world one keyboard at a time,” he deadpanned. Then he signed the mutilated keyboard.
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