Category Archives: Entertainment

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Ou tinte la clochette des charmeurs

I love opera. I have for a long time. I’ve been watching clips on YouTube from some of my favorite arias and favorite sopranos, and since I have a spiffy new YouTube plugin, I’m going to slap some up here.

Il dolce suono, from Lucia di Lammermoor, soprano Anna Netrebko

Ah! je ris de me voir si belle, from Faust, soprano Angela Gheorghiu

Welche Wonne, welche Lust, from Die Entführung aus dem Serail, soprano Lucia Popp

Ruhe sanft, from Zaide, soprano Lucia Popp (again, because I love her, and how she sings this aria)

Der Hölle Rache, from Die Zauberflöte, soprano Sumi Jo (possibly my all-time favorite aria)

Ach, ich fühl’s, from Die Zauberflöte, soprano Elisabeth Grummer

Où va la jeune indoue, from Lakmé, soprano Lily Pons

Les oiseaux dans la charmille, from Les Contes D’Hoffman, soprano Sumi Jo (I love her)

Barcarolle, from Les Contes D’Hoffman, soprano Anna Netrebko and mezzo Elina Garanca

Addio del passato, from La Traviata, soprano Renata Tebaldi

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What I’m Watching

Or have been watching.

“Sherlock”, the new BBC series. It was good, I enjoyed it very much. Sherlock portrayed as a sociopath with entertaining eccentricities was fun – I particularly loved when he was watching daytime tv. Watson was well-cast. Overall the move to the 21st century worked quite well.

“The Young Victoria”, the movie about young Queen Victoria. I’ve been wanting to see this for ages, so I almost leaped for joy when I saw it at Redbox. The costumes are beautiful, the actors playing Victoria and Albert both well-cast and talented, and the story was lovely. Highly enjoyable movie. Squee-worthy love scenes, in that corsets and petticoats kind of way, which I love. Lots of lovely actors: Paul Bettany (who I often recognize by his voice first, because hair and makeup often make him look so very different), Jim Broadbent, Mark Strong, Miranda Richardson, Harriet Walter. They do gloss over historical events, in the way film and tv always does, and invent one in particular, but I still really enjoyed it.

“Warehouse 13″ on the SciFi channel (I’m sorry, I refuse to use their ridiculous new misspelled name). Quite like this show. My mother is really into it, and I’ve caught a few episodes now. May have to go back and watch from the beginning.

Zahi Hawass’s “reality” show. This one cracks me up. He’s a well-known dickhead among archaeologists, and it’s hilarious to see him faking archaeology (seriously, no one believes you popped that out of the ground so easily, and by the way, you’d be wearing gloves if that were real) and yelling at fake grad students (who all have acting credits on IMDb) such gems as “You will never work for me again!” The fake grad students ask the dumbest-ass questions. The whole thing is just so very stupid that I think it’s awesome. The sheer weight of epic fail tips over into win, much like the Black Pearl righting itself to emerge from Davy Jones’ Locker.

The other thing that’s been on our tv (constantly) is the original Star Wars trilogy, which my kids are currently obsessed with, especially the AT-ATs, AT-STs, the Battle for Hoth, the Battle for Endor, exploding Death Stars, exploding AT-ATs/AT-STs, exploding X-wings, exploding speeders, and the Ewoks. They lay in their tauntaun sleeping bag (Husband’s bestie gave it to him) and watch. Over and over and over. I’m so tired of hearing about AT-ATs, y’all. And so tired of being lectured about Darth Vader. “He Luke’s dad, but now he a bad guy. He used to be a good guy, but then he was angry and did bad things, and now he on the Dark side of the Force.” There are Lego Jedi dying in my kitchen (Hoth) as we speak. Someone please make it stop.

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Photo Dump: Universal Orlando

So last month I went to Orlando with some friends, to go to Infinitus and the Harry Potter theme park at Universal Orlando. They really should stop calling it the “Harry Potter theme park” and go ahead and admit that it’s “the small corner of Islands of Adventure that we set aside to be Harry Potter, consisting of three stores, a restaurant, and three rides”. If you’ve been to Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Islands of Adventure is roughly the same size, with the HP area about the size of France or Ireland. But I digress.

I took a lot of pictures. Here are the ones that don’t involve other people’s face who may not want to be posted on my tiny unknown blog. Some are of Infinitus, some of the park and other Universal environs, some of our hotel (the Portofino Bay, which was totally ricockulously awesome).

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Wanted: New Author

Liking pina coladas and getting caught in the rain is optional, but must be prolific. An author who wrote one lovely book doesn’t do me any damn good.

I read fast. And I read a lot. I’ve now read every book in my capacious library (and half the public library) at least twice. Some quite a bit more than twice *cough*Discworld*cough*. And I need some new books.

I don’t like heavy literary crap. I don’t want to read about someone else’s depressing life wherein their child was born handicapped/parent died/they were widowed young or other assorted tragedies. That’s nice if you like that stuff, but I want humor. I like humor. If it’s served with a side of Regency romance involving various invented aristocratic titles, even better.

I’ve been poking around on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books for some new authors. I think I’m going to have to branch out from Regency for a while. I did read a pair of books in Florida the other weekend that were quite cute, although not on par with my favorite Regency authors (Julia Quinn and Loretta Chase, I’m looking at you): “Just Perfect” and “Too Perfect” by Julia Ortolan, which I picked up in the library’s book trade area. The skiing one was definitely superior to the exotic-beach-island one.

I favor romance and lighter fantasy or mystery – the longer the series, the better. I’ve got every Amelia Peabody book in existence along with every Discworld book. Also everything Julia Quinn’s ever written, quite a bit of MaryJanice Davidson, all of Amanda Quick’s early stuff (I stopped liking her new stuff around 1997, but her books up to that point were excellent. “Ravished” continues to be one of my all-time favorites), quite a lot of Julie Garwood (another author who went downhill in the late 90s) and Loretta Chase.

There are two new additions to series I already have been reading which I need to pick up somehow – waiting for paperback to buy them, I think, but I might have to try to get them from the library to read straightaway – the latest in the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs (of which I own all previous books and spinoffs) and #16 in the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich.

Maybe those two will keep me busy for a few days. Maybe even a week if I stretch it out. I really need a few new authors, though.