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[19 Jul 2008|05:17am] |
Ah-HAH! I finally found it.
The most unique use of google maps I've ever seen was a fiction story told by using its features, and I finally found it again.
Take a gander at 21 steps.
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| Notice of Being Away |
[19 Jul 2008|12:37am] |
Dear friends, readers, and others,
Tomorrow begins one of the most potentially beneficial weeks of my early career life. I will be going to the Colorado Vocal Arts Symposium and staying there for three whole weeks in what is going to be a sheer avalanche of training, coaching and ultimately performing. I am not nervous about going, but certainly excited.
Among the things I am going to learn in the program are:
* Breathing techniques (including the Alexander technique)
* Tone Quality
* Voice Production
* Tension release
* Legato line
* Flexibility
* Expansion of vocal range
* Character development
* Body movement
* Improvisation/Interpretation
* Audition Techniques
* Managing Anxiety (I have very little, actually)
* Finding an Agent
* Audition Dress
* Audition Repertoire
* Networking
* Resume/Portfolio Advice
And among the things I will be participating in are:
* Staged, Costumed Opera Scenes (Three nights in a row, and I have a role in each night as well)
* Liederabend (I'm singing in it)
* Light Opera
* Final Concert ("Salute to Disney", I'm in it too)
The gist of it, though, is that for three weeks I will be more or less incommunicado: Every day apparently starts early in the morning and goes all the way to 6 pm, and sometimes even 10 pm. Therefore, don't expect to see me online too much--- I'll be blogging about my experience day-by-day on my Livejournal blog (http://maus-merryjest.livejournal.com) and my wordpress blog (http://mausmerryjest.wordpress.com/) if anyone is interested in reading what my experiences are like--- I'm thrilled that I'll be able to meet Martile Rowland who, aside from being the founder of the Opera Theater of the Rockies and the organizer of the symposium, had a notorious international career as a dramatic coloratura soprano. I haven't met her, but I've talked to her on the phone three times- my voice teacher met her during the Opera America conference and she says she is an amazing and delightful woman. Well, enough about me gushing-- this is going to be hard work, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
I know I'm going to find out a lot about myself as a singer in these three weeks. Gotta put my best foot forward and my most professional attitude.
This means I'm probably dropping off the map for the next three weeks, but I am FAIRLY certain that I'll have some sort of internet connection there and that I'll be able to will myself to check account before passing out ;), So do e-mail me or message me, just be aware that I'll be a little less agile with responses than usual!
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| Go see it!!! |
[18 Jul 2008|11:22pm] |
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I'm sure folks have been seeing a lot of Dr. Horrible, Act 3 is out for the weekend so if you haven't seen it, go do so. It is made of awesomeness...
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| Why So Serious? |
[18 Jul 2008|11:54pm] |
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N/A |
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Boy is that movie ever. Its such a serious downer. Its good, don't get me wrong.
I wanted to eat my own face everytime Batman spoke. Looks like Christian Bale had rocks with a side of broken glass for lunch during that film.
Oh yeah! Best Joker EVER! That sumbitch, Heath had to die. Now no more Joker. Its like if Daniel Radcliff died after the first Harry Potter, what would've happened to the franchise? In the toilet *flush*
Maggie Gyllenhall looks like a fuckin' frog. Katie Holmes couldn't act, but at least she didn't look like a fat-faced frog.
Aaron Eckart...a believable Harvey Dent/Two-Face. Perfect.
Morgan Freeman, this man needs to be in more awesome lead roles. Superb skills, it
just feels like this role is way beneath him.
*EDIT* The new Spirit trailer is off the meat rack. The visuals for this movie are more than I expected it to be. It's like Frank Miller took a 90 lbs. weakling and shot it up with Great White Shark testosterone! When I first heard about it, it was lame. Now, I'm all moist for it.
Also, Sam Jackson in a Nazi Officer Uniform! Awesome!
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| . magic trick . |
[18 Jul 2008|06:38pm] |
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 HAHAHAhAHAHAHAHAHAHA |
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. batman forever ost . |
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i can make a pencil disappear. :D
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[18 Jul 2008|05:16pm] |
I continue to make little bits of progress in Persona 3. I also continue to stare, slack jawed, at the oddity of this universe. I recently made a monster called an Incubus, and he looks like the little critter in the top right corner here. I promptly used him as fodder to make another monster. SKREEE. Plus the whole shoot yourself in the head to summon your monster still freaks me out. Then we got a dog who can summon their monster too. I'm trying to decide of the dog has a little suit that shoots him in the head, or if he's just special. Said dog, by the way, carries a knife in his mouth. You'd think he'd bite things. But no, the dog carries a knife. In his mouth. Um... buh.
Things have been pretty mellow here. I finally got my hands on an .ISO of The Phantom Edit. If you ever get a chance, I highly recommend bitorrenting it and downloading it. It's very subtle in the changes it makes, but they're there. JarJar is just a young clumsy kid as opposed to a blithering idiot. Anakin is actually a pretty impressive character, edited properly he comes off as more of an extremely bright and determined young boy as opposed to the kid that things that the whole movie is his fun ride. Also the droids had their dialog muted a lot and actually come across as killing machines as opposed to stupid versions of C3PO. And a lot of the redundant 'Okay, we assume that our watchers are stupid so we're going to point big flashy things at all the obvious plot point' bits were removed. I have Attack of the Phantom, the edited version of the second movie, but I need to figure out how to burn Video_TS files before I can watch it.
Sunday I'm hooking up with ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) fiskblack and catching The Dark Knight. Normally I'd see it tonight, but the shows are already sold out. Plus I want to see it on the IMAX screen, and there's only one place to do that. Thankfully even though Pointe Orlando is sort of falling to the dogs, the movie theater is good. Plus, they validate parking!
I'm going to focus on art this weekend. I've been doing the comic last minute (by my standards. I've YET to find myself at 11:30PM madly trying to finish a comic) and trying to build up a backlog. I also FINALLY found the queue option in Semagic. I swear if it were a snake it would have bitten me.
Our yearly beach party thing is in about three weeks. We have our room reserved. We have alcohol purchased. We are ready!
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[18 Jul 2008|01:40pm] |
- So, I be pissed. For years now I've been keeping a list of various quotes, sayings, and even unusual names that I liked. I called the whole list Sweetwords and, like I said, started it a long time ago and have kept adding things to it for years. And now it's gone. I opened it up one day to add something else to it and POOF, it's empty. Corrupted file? Gremlins in my computer? I don't know, and I don't care. I can't figure out how to recover it and the fact that it's not simply deleted (which is easily recoverable) but has been somehow replaced with a completely blank document of the same name just burns me up. So, I be pissed.
- I'm also slowly going out of my mind. There's only a few things I can think about lately and it's getting to the point that it's whittled it's way down to a few subjects; Bill, my apartment (20ish days to go), what type of dog I may get, and what's planned for me this week. I've been doing a pretty good job of distracting myself with thoughts of WoW, or reading comics, or sketching in my lil notepad, but there's only so much you can do on that end, you know?
- As far as the pet idea, I'm leaning more and more twords the idea of having a dog. The unconditional love and affection and adoration of a dog is obvious no matter where you look or who you ask, and I could really use something like that right now. I love the idea of playing with the dog, or going on walks with it, cuddling and brushing it, all that stuff. I'm well aware of the behavioral problems that may crop up and I've been doing tons of research into how to avoid it and how to train those habits out, and I've been looking into various breeds as well. Right now it's a short list; my beloved corgi, of course, german shepherds, and golden retreivers. I took a test that matched me up with the dog breed that best suited me but it keeps matching me to the type of dogs that I don't like, so not quite sure what that means. Either way, getting a dog is something I won't be doing for months yet, anyway.
- I'm very, very tired. I haven't been sleeping well for the past couple weeks, for various reasons. I'm considering getting some sleeping pills and seeing if that'll let me sleep through the night, but I'm hesitant to try them for a couple of reasons. One, being that if I do use them I may end up sleeping through my alarm and being late for work, and Two, people will jump to conclusions about me using sleeping pills and think they need to keep me on suicide watch or something. True, I'm very depressed lately, but I also know that it's not the end of the world and I'm strong enough to live through the emotional turmoil of things. I'll be fine, just give me a little time.
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| Go Go Avatar week! |
[18 Jul 2008|12:54pm] |
Hope you're all as stoked as I am! Finally a never before seen episode last night! But now I must counter your Zutara overdose XD
Explode Zutara shippers! EXPLOOOOODE!!
I'm also now a fully fledged Narutard. I have caught up on the manga x.x WTF.... Naruto's learning about the force from Yoda Frog!
I guess if I was really a Narutard I'd be cosplaying Jiraira at Otakon instead of Rose from Full Metal Alchemist. I can't pass up Rose! She's got pink bangs! I've commissioned the first episode dress and the ball gown ~_~
I'll only be at half of Otakon because my green belt test is that Saturday morning. I'll have my otaku friends come watch my test before we drive off. Then there's NY anime fest in September! What other anime conventions are you all going to?
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| A whole different universe |
[18 Jul 2008|10:55am] |
As a leggiero tenor, I have to say I am glad I will never sing Wagner.
Why?
How can I put this... Wagner seldom leads to beautiful singing. It's usually more along the lines of "bigger, louder, better" when you are dealing with, and trying to sing over, a 200+ piece orchestra. VERY few voices have the size to sing through that without sounding... well, horrific. Listen to the clip above and you'll see what the poor sopranos and mezzos have to do to deal with Wagner's vocally inhumane score. One or two have the natural power to still make a beautiful sound, but the others... specially that Rhea Perlman lookalike, well, it's not pretty.
Anna Russell once said that Wotan had 9 daughters…and they were the noisiest women!!! Anna was right.
I don’t think he treated all of his daughters as equals. Brunnhilde looks better fed than any of her sisters.
(And speaking of not pretty, look at the gowns they're wearing. It's like they raided a thrift store... and just wait until Brunhilde arrives fleeing from Wotan--- is that TARZAN? Who's been letting Karl Lagerfeld run free in the costume department?)
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| This Apperatus Needs To Be Unearthed |
[18 Jul 2008|12:38pm] |
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Eritakara - Mars Volta |
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Well, it's Heath Ledger: The Movie for me and April sometime this weekend. Hopefully we can get a friend of ours and his girl to double date with us. If not, it'll be just me and April.
I could say a lot of things, but whatever. It just hurts my soul to see her upset. Even if I don't see the need in crying over spilt milk. Clean cup, move down. People can treat me like that, I can deal. I don't give a shit. April doesn't deserve it, though.
It's you and me kid, against the world. I love ya and I wouldn't have it any other way.
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| Happy Birthday calikat! |
[18 Jul 2008|11:17am] |
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<3
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| Warcraft post |
[18 Jul 2008|08:57am] |
My current goal in this game is Zul'Aman and so i need some pretty kick-ass gear. To this end, I have slogged my way thru countless battlegrounds and earned enough points to purchase the world's most ridiculous helmet.
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31962
Ugh, like some heavy metal album cover designed by 13-year-old boys :P HIDE HELM!
But at least now my armor is mostly purples, as you can see:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Eldre%27Thalas&n=Toothache
So tell me fellow players, what else do I need before I can attempt Zul'Aman? Be honest.
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| Counting down the days |
[17 Jul 2008|08:34pm] |
Wow, three days before I depart for the 'Springs and face... well, the Symposium.
This is going to be very interesting. Very very very interesting.
Merry Widow? No problem.
Serail? Not THAT problematic, I just need to brush up on Frisch Zum Kampfe and I think I'll have the role down.
La Rondine? Now that is a little difficult. Not range-wise, no, Mozart is the most demanding in tessitura... I have just never sang Puccini before. As a tenore leggero, Puccini is usually never in the panorama... of course, unless you do Prunier in "La Rondine". Puccini's approach to recit. is radically different from Donizetti or Mozart or Rossini, it's ebullient and it is, of course, integrated into the music so there is no dramatic break. It is not so much difficult as slightly alien to me. But I'm going to get it right, of course. La Rondine captivates me. It is a pity that it ends in tragedy--- but we're only doing act I, so that's alright.
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| BBWchan is back! |
[17 Jul 2008|05:21pm] |
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Between The Sheets - The Isley Brothers |
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Hot Damn!
Also, Batman can eat my ass! LOL!
Now back to your regular programming.
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| Ahh a discussion of our future.... |
[17 Jul 2008|01:47pm] |
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A discussion of gun control and how stupid our world is getting
kiranlightpaw: wtf do people blame crime on an inanimate object. i guess that's just easier than blaming the person.
crazywlfmp: guns are dangerous and people should not own them.. and the funny part is 2 was talking about something on the video and got it all wrong anyways
kiranlightpaw: i didn't realize we had become nanny state england. a hammer is dangerous. i guess i should not have those either. :P
crazywlfmp: yeah you hear about the up roar over the knife
kiranlightpaw: no
crazywlfmp: in Britain
kiranlightpaw: ?
crazywlfmp: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4318462.ece
crazywlfmp: then read the comments and prepared to be floored
kiranlightpaw: well, i guess the emo band "stabby death stab stab" has no future there.
crazywlfmp: i figure they will ban bats next
crazywlfmp: and golf clubs
kiranlightpaw: and fists. you can kill with those.
crazywlfmp: and feet
kiranlightpaw: You know I really don't understand banning knives. Even though I'm against banning guns, its not like everyone has a gun. Every fucking person on this planet has had a knife at some point. We put them on our dinner tables at night. I have two in my pockets right now.
crazywlfmp: you criminal
kiranlightpaw: lol yeah
crazywlfmp: your gonna stab someone
kiranlightpaw: Of course. I can't be a law abiding citizen. I have a knife.
kiranlightpaw: Stupid British.
crazywlfmp: i think we are trying to return ourselves back to the stone ages before the time of tools
kiranlightpaw: Well fuck cavemen were sharpening stones. Can't have spear chucking anymore either.
crazywlfmp: nope, back to the trees and poo throwing
kiranlightpaw: Shit I bet you could make a sharp point out of hardened poo. :P
crazywlfmp: damn no pooing either
crazywlfmp: id say kill ourselves but we have nothing to kill ourselves
crazywlfmp: with
kiranlightpaw: Fling ourselves from the trees. Or go get eaten by lions. :P
crazywlfmp: I'm sure heights will be made illegal to
kiranlightpaw: I wonder if knives include animal teeth. Hell probably cant even kill yourself by getting eaten.
crazywlfmp: probably, besides it might harm the animals so we can't have them eating us
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| Joe made a Font! |
[17 Jul 2008|09:06am] |
Joe used Fontographer to plug his own comic-book handwritinng into a font we can type and MAN is it cool!
http://us-p.vclart.net/vcl/Artists/Megan-Giles/fishblank.gif
It's a small example, true--but I also wanted to show you my latest Blank Page insert for North American Fur.
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| 20 years ago today, 7.16.1988.Tokyo |
[16 Jul 2008|02:55pm] |
July 16th, 1988. Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira hit theatres in Japan, and changed the face of animation on both sides of the globe.
</lj-embed>
Happy 20th anniversary to one of my favorite films. More to come later.
~F
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