#t: poland summer 2017

[coffeebreakstatement]

Poland Summer 2017 #8: Excursions

Last weekend we had our final excursion of the summer school. It was bittersweet because although it was the one I was looking forwards to the most, it was the last one. This excursion was also longer than the previous ones since it was two days instead of one.

On Saturday, we went very early in the morning to Oświęcim (Auschwitz). I had visited this place last year as well, but it was a different experience because last year when I went all the interiours were closed so we could only walk around outside. Still, it was a haunting experience then as it was this time. Our guide was fantastic and had an amazing way of narrating the tour like a story and I really learned a lot from him.

Before I went to Auschwitz last year, my grandma told me about their visit to Auschwitz and how the most striking part for her was seeing the room where they have thousands and thousands of shoes piled up. Since she had told me about it, I was anticipating that part of the tour. It was shocking to see the vast number of shoes collected in one location, each with an owner who didn’t know they would be parting with them. Even though the number of shoes they have is incredible, it is only a small fraction of the shoes that went through this camp. Most of the shoes were grey and worn out, but there were a few that stuck out because they looked almost fancy, as if they were reserved for special occasions. They undoubtedly danced their last dance unaware of their fate.

As we continued on the tour, there were many staircases that we had to ascend and then descend to see new exhibits. I was struck by the fact that each step had two distinct dips, one on the right and one on the left, where so many people had walked that each visit was marked on the stone. It almost made it difficult to walk up the stairs.

Another poignant part of the tour for me was when we went into a hallway where on either side there were photos of people that were taken upon their entry to the camp. They all had shaved heads, striped clothing, and empty faces. Each photo had their birthdate, the reason there were there, and the day they died. One man only lasted one day. There were twin girls with their pictures side by side near the end of the corridor. It stuck out to me because it made me think of my sisters. I wish I had thought to remember their names. Every face on that wall was an individual with a favourite colour, foods they disliked, and dreams for the future. As I have reflected more on the tour, this part stood out to me the most.

Another important moment on the trip was seeing the starvation chamber where St. Maximillian Kolbe stayed during his time in Auschwitz. For anyone reading this who does not know who he is, Maximillian Kolbe was a Catholic priest who volunteered to take the place of a stranger who had a family and had been chosen to die in Auschwitz. He lasted for two weeks in the starvation chamber before he was killed by lethal injection because he had lasted too long.

My roommate was in the same tour group as I was and when I saw her crying as we walked around Birkenau I went to talk to her. She didn’t speak any Polish before coming to the summer school and was here because she got a scholarship and thought it would be an interesting experience. She told me that while she had studied this in school, she had never imagined that she would be in the place where it all happened. Even when we are standing in the same place that other millions did it is so difficult to comprehend the magnitude of the atrocities that happened at this place.

I only took a couple photos in Auschwitz of things that I really wanted to remember and show my family when I return home. Even then, I always had a sinking feeling in my stomach every time I hit the shutter. Our guide kept encouraging us to take photos if we wanted to, but something about it just doesn’t sit right with me. I won’t post any of the photos I took online, which is why I am not including any of the pictures here.

When our tour was over, a number of us took a bus to Kraków instead of going back to the University. My friends from France, Cyprus, and Taiwan were there. It was strange getting off the train in the main train station and having such a familiar feeling. We passed the McDonald’s where the son of my friends worked when I stayed with them last year. As we reached the Rynek (the main square in every city in Poland), the number of people grew exponentially and it was almost overwhelming how many people were milling about. There was some kind of festival with live music and a market happening at that time.

We were really hungry so we went to eat some traditional Polish food (I really wanted to eat something authentic). After we ate, we walked around the market to buy some souvenirs. Last year I bought a calendar for 2017 when I was in Poland and this time I bought the same calendar but for 2018. Maybe I can make this a tradition every time I go to Poland. There was a Hungarian group playing folk music on the stage that was really amazing. I took a video to show my Hungarian friends because they weren’t there with us.

I took my friends to the Leaky Cauldron café in Krakow. My friend from Cyprus is also a huge Harry Potter fan, as evidenced by the plethora of Harry Potter related t-shirts she owns, so it was really great to share my favourite place with pals who appreciated it. They have really improved their decorations and the menu from the last time I was there so I was very impressed. I got the Iced Butterbeer, which is my favourite, and I am happy to say that the recipe for this was not one of the changes they made (since it was already perfect).

After sharing this magical experience, I hopped on the tram to go to my friends’ house for the evening, whom I met last year because they were my host family in Kraków during WYD. Everything was exactly how I remembered it so it was a weird experience. It almost felt like no time had passed since I had been there last. I even slept in the same room I did last time. I ate pierogi (which were heavenly) and fresh plum cake (which was even more heavenly). We drank tea and beer and ate some snacks and it was just so lovely to have a really good conversation.

They speak really good English but I showed them some of my Polish and they said that my accent was really good which made me very happy. Sometimes when we are speaking they do this thing where they can’t agree on the English translation of a Polish word so they get competitive to see who has the correct translation. It’s very amusing to watch. They always say “Czekaj”, which means “wait” when they are trying to think of the English word, and it was very appropriate that we learned the imperative, which is the verb tense of that word, that week in class.

They also introduced me to “Discopolo”, which I had heard before at our university parties but I didn’t know the name. Apparently, it is the kind of music that no one actually likes (and you are shamed for actually liking it), but everyone knows the words to when it is played at a wedding. Kind of like “The Last Saskatchewan Pirate”, except no one is ashamed to say they love that song.

I really feel so blessed that I was able to meet this family last year because they really are the kindest, most generous people. I don’t have the words to explain how amazing they are so you will just have to take my word for it. I love just talking with them about their experiences and my experiences and learning from each other. In some ways, I have a bit of a home away from home here in Poland. I’m hoping that I will be able to see them again in the future (soon I hope!) and that my Polish will be better so we can actually have a conversation in Polish. Maybe then I can help translate words between English and Polish.

In the morning after breakfast, it was just me and the younger daughter of the family. She doesn’t really speak English, so I got her to teach me all of the words for the things on the table. We moved onto the living room when we were done. I need to make a list of the words she taught me so I don’t forget them.

I met up with my school that morning and we took a tour of Wawel castle. I was there for three days last year and since it was so busy, I didn’t really get anything new out of it. We had free time later, but since we didn’t have a lot of time, my friends and I just walked around. 

I took them to Kazimierz, the Jewish quarters, which is in my mind a short walk, but not so in theirs. Thankfully, I knew a really good ice cream place in Kazimierz so I think I was redeemed. 

We took the tram back to the centre so we didn’t need to walk more and then we spent our time buying souvenirs, taking photos, and enjoying our time together. It was raining all day which I think made it difficult to really enjoy the city, especially for those who were there for the first time, but I was really glad to be back in my favourite city.

[featheriee]

Rules of the Game: Answer these questions and tag blogs you’d like to know better. (thanks to @crowleysin for tagging <3)

💬 Nickname(s): Winn, Winifred

♍ Zodiac: Aries

📏 Height: 5′3

🕗 Time: 10PM

🎧 Favorite Band/Artist: (too many) Epica, Dreamcatcher, Chungha, Gfriend, Ramin Karimloo, Within Temptation, Lynn Hilary, BTS, Ciara, Nissy, Hyuna, Il Divo, Ariana Grande, 2Cello, Lovelyz, Libera, Bill Douglas, Sierra Boggess, Sunmi, CLC, Hayley Westenra, Celtic Thunder, Derek Klena, Laura Michelle Kelly, and more but let’s move on or we’ll be here all day

🎶 Song Stuck in my Head: Prayer by Hayley Westenra 

🎞 Last Movie I Saw: Baby Driver (2017) 

💻 Last Thing I Googled: “doxycycline side effects” 

📝 Other Blogs: tiaras-and-rosy-hearts (aesthetic/personal therapy/happy place blog)

❓ Do I get asks?: lmao no

😍 Why this Username?: The original username was “bloodstainedfeatherwings” back when I was at the height of my sad and edgy days (the aesthetic still remains, but not as morbid as it once was). During late 2017 I stumbled upon “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson, which was around when I realized I need to get my shit together and stop being an #idiot and a depressed little shit. Because of that poem, I changed all of my online usernames to Featherie (featheriee) to give myself a new and more hopeful start. 

❤ Following: 426

💤 Average Amount of Sleep: 6 hours during school year, 9 during summer 

🍀 Lucky Number: uhhh I kinda have dyscalculia so idk (I regularly confuse 4 and 7 for each other, and 2 and 6 for each other, so what are numbers I don’t fuckin know)

👕 What am I Wearing: a Black Widow t-shirt from UNIQLO and black biker shorts. 

🌍 Dream Job: storyteller (singer, actress, dancer, writer), cafe owner, music producer

✈ Dream Trips: the UK (SCOTLAND), Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Poland, Czech, Italy

🍽 Favorite Food: Straight up rice with soy sauce, Pasta, sushi, donburi, pizza, Taiwanese street food, steak

🎼 Instruments: Flute, piano, guitar, piccolo, my vocal chords

👁 Eye Color: Dark brown

💇🏻‍♀️ Hair Color: naturally dark brown and black, currently with blonde highlights 

🌸 Aesthetic: Lux Aeterna , Roses, tiaras, lace, ballet, period architecture and clothing, and classical music. Majestic music pieces with an orchestra and a choir. My cats. 

🗨 Languages I Speak: English, Mandarin, and Taiwanese

🎤 Most Iconic Song: As of June 2019, Snapping by Chungha, Noir by Sunmi, Godzilla by Bear McCreary (Feat. Serj Tankian), Past the Point of No Return by Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess, You and I by Dreamcatcher, and Me by CLC. 

🐞 Random Fact: I used to be able to drink 3 to 5 cups of pure black coffee and still sleep like a baby at night. 

tags: @confessionsofateenagefreak​ @unclecrungle​ @sophielitner​

[coffeebreakstatement]

Poland Summer 2017 #6: One Day

My day typically begins at 6:30 or 7:00 when I wake up and start getting ready for school. I make sure my bag is packed with water and a snack and I check the weather so I know if I need to pack a sweater. I usually study in the morning to review what we did the day before so I am prepared for class. Sometimes I help my roommate review for her class as well. She didn’t know any Polish before coming here so often she has questions. I remember how it feels to be overwhelmed with a new language so I like to help her as much as I can.

Breakfast begins at 8:00. The cafeteria is just down the hill from the dormitory so it only takes a couple of minutes to walk there. Usually my roommates and I go together to the cafeteria to eat. Breakfast is a selection of meats, cheeses, vegetables, bread, cereals, yogurt, jams, and usually a hot option that changes every day. There is always coffee and tea with breakfast. Every morning I eat two open-faced sandwiches with ham, cucumbers, and tomatoes and a coffee. Sometimes I switch it up if they have naleśniki (which are like crêpes) because they are really delicious. The coffee is always really hot so I have to chug it at the end of breakfast to make it to class on time.

The main university building where all our classes are held is right next to the cafeteria so we can leave breakfast between 8:50 and 8:55 to get there right on time. Our first class runs from 9:00 to 10:30 and my teacher for this class is named Sabina. We have a short break until 11:00 so usually my friend in my class buys coffee from the vending machine (which is surprisingly good coffee) and we try to talk in Polish to practice. Our next class runs from 11:00 to 12:30 and my teacher for this class is named Tomek. They are both really nice and really good at making sure the concepts they are teaching us stick with different activities. We have a lot of small group work in pairs or groups of three and sometimes we also have to go and write on the board to check our orthography.

We talk a lot about ourselves, especially about our countries. The other students in my class are from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Cyprus, Hungary, Scotland and Moldova. This is one of the best opportunities to learn about other countries because every day we talk about things like where people go on vacation in our country, what musicians and actors are popular, and our national foods. It is so wonderful that although we all come from very different backgrounds and speak different languages, we can share our experiences with each other because we are all learning Polish and have a common language to speak.

Class here is a different experience from Polish class at home. At university, we don’t have enough students taking Polish classes so I am used to the class having people with drastically different competency levels in Polish. It is a much more comfortable here because we are all on fairly equal footing. The only caveat is that nearly everyone in my class speaks Russian except me which makes it a little easier for them to learn Polish because of the similarities in the languages.

When our last class is done, we return to the cafeteria for lunch, which is the largest meal of the day. We usually start with a soup and some bread, and then we have some kind of hot dish. I have enjoyed most of the meals we have eaten, though some are definitely better than others. I prefer the more traditional Polish meals, but we get a variety of different dishes. We always get kompot at lunch, which is a drink made from cooking fruit in water.

After lunch, we can decide what we want to do with the rest of our day. There are seminars and other activities offered every afternoon that we can elect to do. We need to attend at least 12 in our time here. I want to learn as much as I can so I try to attend as many things as possible. There is usually a seminar in English from 2:00 until 3:30 on different topics related to Polish culture or the language so I have gone to those every day.

After the seminar, I usually go to the student lounge to study or my room to take a nap. I only get homework from one teacher so I don’t usually have very much but I try to study even if I don’t have an assignment to complete. During class, I write in the margins of my notebook when I hear a word I don’t know or a phrase I could use later. After class, I go back through the notes I took and the activities we worked on to make sure I understand all the words. I often review the grammar rules we talked about in class that day and write the rules down again so I remember them better.

I should confess that I am not a diligent student like this every day and sometimes I just end up doing things with my friends. On a couple occasions, we have been studying together and then ended up making conversation and talking about our countries or learning Croatian and Hungarian tongue twisters. I tell myself that even if I am not studying Polish, I am still learning something and too much studying will make me too tired anyways.

Supper is at 7:00. This meal has about the same spread as breakfast, but with a hot meal more appropriate for the time of day. The best dish we have had so far is the strawberry pierogi, but I ate them too fast and didn’t take a picture. There is always a lot of tea at this time.

After dinner, there is some kind of evening activity planned. The most common activity is a movie (in Polish with English subtitles), but sometimes we have language games or other fun, cultural events to help us practice Polish in different ways. We had a talent show one night and soon we will have the “Night of Nations” in the centre of the city, where we will all present something about our countries.

I really enjoy the movies because it is hard to find Polish movies with English subtitles and a lot of the movies so far have been about topics that I know nothing about so it is a good learning opportunity. The movies lately have been really heartbreaking so we usually leave the cinema emotionally drained and we have to discuss the film to make sense of everything.

In comparing Polish films to American films, I find that American movies in general are a lot less graphic than Polish films (i.e. Polish films contain a lot more full-frontal nudity), which isn’t necessarily what I expected. In addition, I find that Polish movies tend to force you to fill in the blanks yourself and revel in confusing the audience, whereas American movies “tell” you more and hold the audience’s hand through the plot line.

The evening activities usually end between 9:30 and 10:00 so I go back to the dormitory at this time to take a shower, finish my homework, study, and do some writing (like I am doing now). My friend has been sending me a lot of Croatian music and I am obsessed with this song so I usually listen to it on repeat when I study. I like listening to music in a language I don’t understand when I study so it doesn’t distract me and this song is perfect for that. I usually go to bed just after midnight.

The next day, I do it all over again.

[rageprayer]

get to know your followers 💕

i got tagged by @plutosmoons, thank you so much! ^___^

Rules: Answer the questions (which you can change if you don’t feel like answering certain questions) then tag 20 followers you want to get to know better!

1. Nickname? i've never had a cool nickname but people in school used to call me gluten (or any variation of rye/wheat/oat boy) because my surname in my language literally means 'an ear of wheat' :') i actually liked it just because it was a running joke between all of us

2. Gender? male. i'm trans too

3. Star sign? taurus sun scorpio moon leo rising

4. Height? i'm 164cm which is like, almost 5'4 i think? i'm a smol boy

5. Favorite feature? i'm just gonna list some things i like about my body ok are you ready - my pupils are always slightly asymmetrical, and noone knows why. it happened around the time i started getting migraines and my right one is constantly slightly more dilated than my left. it's just a neat random thing that looks cool - my nose. i have hands down the best nose from my entire family and i'm damn proud of it, it's cute - my hands and lower arms in general, i've always liked them but i have like. visible veins on there now which is.. my kink tbh. i have really small wrists and my forearms are covered in scars which i used to hide but i love them now and i'd never get rid of them, even if i could. i also really like the shape of my nails. - i've been on t for so long that my midsection/hip area and neck/shoulders/arms actually have some definition to them now and ngl, it's kinda hot. i constantly stare at myself in mirrors @__@

6. Favorite plant? i fucking love plants, all of them. BUT my favourite ones are any that have purple leaves instead of green, they're like the goths of the plant world and i want some in the epic garden i'm gonna have someday. in terms of flowers i am obviously in love with roses and anything that blooms dark purple or black, but also dandelions! they are rays of sunshine and the fact that they're so common just adds to the magic. joy really is everywhere my favourite trees are pine trees - they smell amazing, and poland is covered in pine forests so they just really remind me of home and i feel connected to them. my favourite plant of mine that i'm growing (i love them all equally though, they're my children) is currently my tomato bush because like, it's turned into an actual bush. it's only in a box on the balcony but i had to put a stick in there to support it because of how big it is. and i grew it from seed too :o

7. Favorite animal? dogs! i will always have at least one dog, i love dogs with my whole heart and i want several when i have my own place and space for them all :D some other animals i really like are rats, bats, spiders and ants

8. Favorite Bands? What have you been listening to lately? i'm changing this because i suck at picking favourites. i actually haven't been discovering much new music lately; in terms of albums, it's been type o negative's october rust and bloody kisses, and this fabulous remaster of depeche mode's violator (i am IN LOVE with what they did to personal jesus at the end, seriously. so good. if you scroll down the comments far enough there's some people hating on it but honestly? i don't know music and it all sounds gr8 to me so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) i'm not religious at all, but i discovered this collection of russian hymns and it's one of the most haunting and beautiful things i've heard in a while. the fact that i can kind of half understand the words just adds to the mysterious magical feel it has. i really like the first one on there, and it kind of makes me wish i could sing in any way because like, it's SO beautiful, i actually had a dream about it. also lots of adam lambert, placebo, some random fifth harmony songs from the reflection album and helena by mcr because it was stuck in my head all day yesterday >__< (yes, i am perfectly aware that there is no coherency here. i thrive on chaos)

9. Dogs or cats? dogs all the way, but i can apprecieate a good cat. i'm not one of those weird cat haters

10. Number of blankets you sleep with? two, and i hug pillows because i'm l o n e l y

11. What’s your dream trip? somewhere warm because i am so. tired. of whatever the heck this is and i need the sun. i'm thinking warm but not too tourist-y? if i do go somewhere, i want to see interesting things but also be surrounded by nature. honestly take me anywhere though. surprise me. i love going places and i have no expectations show me a big rock or something and i'll be like !! WOW

12.  What’s your dream job? i have no idea .___. i know i want to be self-employed eventually because the perspective of having to arrange my entire life around strict work hours is depressing at best, but i don't know what i actually want to do

13. When did you make this account? i don't remember precisely, i know it was a few months before i started using it so i'm guessing sometime in summer 2017

14. How many followers do you have? i'm choosing to keep that a mystery, but my follower count is actually quite close to the number of people i follow so that's cool

15. How many pets do you have? I HAVE A DOG i love him so much he's an angel <3

16. Best places to visit in your town or country? my town isn't the biggest or most exciting place to be, but we do have a very nice central area with some impressive views over the river, a very old cathedral, some good cafes poland is mostly fields and forests, we have the sea up north and mountains at the bottom, and a cool lake region too

17. Favorite ice cream flavor? mint chocolate chip, pistachio, coconut and lemon sorbet. anything fruity is good too

18. How often do you read? not nearly as often as i used to. i read things on the internet all the time but i haven't touched a book in a few months, and i don't really have the attention span for it anymore. which is sad because i used to regularly take things out from my school's library and i loved reading so much, my brain just doesn't work like that nowadays. it's also really hard to find interesting books without some hetero bullshit in them, but maybe i'm just looking in the wrong places

19. Favorite study locations? this is irrelevant because i'm not in school anymore lmao

20. Favorite book series? Favourite movie? yes, i’m that bitch that chooses films over books. fight me about it. i’m sure you’ve all seen me post about it, but my current obsession is the lost boys. i actually wasn’t that impressed by it the first time i saw it, but it really grew on me when i realised just how gay it was. gay vampires are like. My Thing and the tension between david and michael is SO there i just can’t unsee it. it was filmed in the 80s too so it has that sligthly odd vibe to it and i love the idea of a group of vampires on motorbikes so much, it’s so cool

Now tag 20 of your followers! i'm tagging 13 of you because i do what i want (no pressure though, you absolutely do not have to do this if you don't feel like it)

@sinistergouache @bugzrule @cerise-cutie @gendermenace @bitchinpoison @softvamps @necrocomicon @garbage---rat @sableyesmaw @queer--cryptid @gutlessghostboy @killrot @that-spooky-boy

i'm also officially tagging any of my followers who aren't mutuals but see this and want to do it anyway, go for it!

[captainwondyful]

Love, Simon at the Box Office

Hello, Tumblr.  One of my idiosyncratic fandoms is box office tracking and results.  If you’d indulge me for a hot minute, I would like to make a plea for you to go see this in theaters.

The following is a long post about box office numbers, life hacks for cheap tickets, and overall gay crying.

I have seen this film twice in the past 24 Hours, and I’m still struggling to find the exact words to properly describe how it profoundly affected me.

I’m somewhere between:

Love, Simon is a paint-by-numbers rom-com released by a major Hollywood Studio (Fox 2000).  Only the lead protagonist is a gay teen.  As Peter Travers of Rolling Stone states in his review:

A seemingly ordinary coming-of-age tale that looms large because of its inclusive romantic embrace, Love, Simon wins you over by capturing your heart without pushing too hard for the prize. ...  Yes, the plot mechanics tend to lean toward the disappointingly slick and sitcom-ish. But what redeems the film and makes it such an exuberant gift is the sincere joy Berlanti and the actors take in celebrating its protagonist's growing self awareness…. Love, Simon is a John Hughes movie for audiences who just got woke. And for all its attempts not to offend, it's a genuine groundbreaker.

I love this critique.  In Love, Simon no one dies, contracts HIV/AIDS, or is the victim of a violent hate crime.  The characters face complications and angst -- coming out in 2017 still is a huge undertaking with monumental stakes.  Yet in the context of this film, we understand that everything will be okay.  The genre makes it safe.  The audience knows that the homophobic bullies will get their comeuppance. The friends will make up.  The main protagonist will find love.

Love, Simon might not be perfect.  It might not be everything to everyone.  But it deserves its praise, and we (the LGBTQIA community) deserve to have more films like it, because everyone deserves to escape into indulgent, cotton-candy media where they can see themselves proud and happy.  Love, Simon is important; just as films like Black Panther, Girls Trip, Wonder Woman, and A Wrinkle In Time are important.

And we need to financially support it:

Money Makes The World Go Run

The film business is a business first.  Movies that don’t make money, don’t get sequels or start trends.  So I know, I know, I’m asking for a lot, but we need to embrace capitalism for just a second.

Love, Simon opened to a $11.5M Opening Weekend (OW) from 2,402 theaters.  

According to Deadline.com

Love, Simon drew 58% females, 42% males with 59% under 25. The movie over-indexed in the west, Northeast, and Midwest; slightly under-indexed in the Rockies; and under-indexed in the south and southeast. Top 20 markets that over-indexed include LA, NY, SF, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Minneapolis. Top grossing theaters came from LA, NY, SF, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, St. Louis, Dallas, and San Antonio. Canada repped 5.6% of the weekend’s take.

Tumblr, you are driving this movie.  You are going to make it a success.  You have the power.  We need to get this film to bring in a total domestic box office (DOM) of 50M+

Love, Simon’s budget is between 10M - 17M, plus P&A (Print & Advertising) Marketing Budget.  I don’t have the P&A numbers.

There is a general rule of thumb in Hollywood called the 3X Rule.  It states that a film is a box office success if it makes 3X its production budget.  If a movie costs 50M to make, a 150M box office is a success.  This rule is NOT exact, because it does not factor in the Print & Advertising (P&A) budget of the film, or that a movie can do terrible at the box office but still be considered a financial success because of X-factors like merch sales (I’m looking at YOU Pixar’s Cars)

Love, Simon will need 51M to pass the 3X Rule.

It’s not impossible looking at the comps:

Everything, Everything 34.1M OW / 64.6M DOM (1.89X Multiplier)

Paper Towns 32M OW / 85.5M DOM (2.67 Multiplier)

The Fault Is In Our Stars 48M OW / 124M DOM (2.58 Multiplier)

But it won’t happen if we don’t get that multiplier up to a 4X+

Multiplier = The total DOM divided by the OW.  So for example:

Justice League (2017) 93.8M OW / 229M DOM = 2.44 Multiplier

The Greatest Showman (2017) 8.8M OW / 169.7M DOM = 19.04 Multiplier

We need to pull another run of legs like The Greatest Showman and keep it keep it theaters until Avengers: Infinity War (April 27, 2018).  Once IW shows up, the summer box office season kicks off, and, realistically, the jammed packed release schedule will push Love, Simon out of theaters.

We have Five Weeks - to go see this film, to tell everyone we know to go see this film, and support the cast and crew as much as we can.

The best way to do that is a positive Word of Mouth and Legs.

Word of Mouth: TALK ABOUT THIS FILM.  RAVE ABOUT THIS FILM.  Post on Twitter, on Facebook, on Tumblr.  Get a Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB.com account and post reviews.  You can NOT underestimate a good grassroots effort to get the word out.

Legs = Tied to the multiplier.  It’s how much a movie makes AFTER the opening weekend.  Movies like Justice League are front-loaded; meaning most ticket sales are opening weekend and in the first week. Other movies, like The Greatest Showman, have much stronger legs, where they earn a decent amount every weekend for a large total.

Weekend Drops: The percentage that a movie drops from week to week.  For example, Black Panther has had amazing holds with its (as of writing this) 5 Week Run: Weekend 1 242.1M Weekend 2 111.6M (-44.7%) Weekend 3 66.3M (-40.6%) Weekend 4 40.8M (-38.4%) Weekend 5 (26.6M (-34.7%) Even though it’s making less money every week, we can see that Black Panther’s domination over the marketplace is consistent.  Solid audience retention is why Black Panther is not dropping many theater screens, despite being out for over a month. This is the same reason why The Greatest Showman (which came out before Christmas) is STILL playing in 700+ theaters.  TGS actually had FOUR weekends out of its seventeen where it went UP from previous weekends, and had an average of a -20% week to week drop.

It is CRITICAL to Love, Simon’s success that this weekend only drops between 20% and 30%.  Some on the Box Office Forum I’m apart of are speculating that the next week will be CRITICAL to the success and failure of Love, Simon’s domestic box office run.

So, let’s go to the movies!

Cheap Ways to See Films

Going to the movies is expensive.  Here are some life hacks for discount tickets

MoviePass

Like Netflix or Spotify, you can sign up with MoviePass, and for $9.99 a month, you can see a movie a day.  Yup.  A movie a day.  It is a steal of a deal and pays for itself after the first month.   The only drawback is it takes a couple weeks for the company to send you your MoviePass card.  I think it took three weeks to get mine.  Still!  This is A VALUE.  And you can go see Love, Simon once a day for a month for only $9.99

Discount Tuesdays

Most movie theaters offer discount tickets on Tuesdays.  You will have to check with your individual theaters, but Tuesdays are the most common day across the US and Canada.  Our theater is $5 on Tuesdays.

AT&T Ticket Tuesdays

Do you have AT&T as a mobile carrier?  They offer Discount Tuesday Tickets.  Buy 1, Get 1 Free.  You can read the fine print here

Dealflix.Com

Check Out this site for discount tickets.

Groupon Has A Banner for Discount Tickets

in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, Denver, and Washington D.C.  In the past, Groupon has also offered discounts on Fandango, MovieTickets.com, and DealFlix gift cards or vouchers.

Student, Seniors (65+), and Military Tickets

Many theaters offer current discounts to these three groups.  So check your local theater’s website, grab your grandma, friend in the military, and/or student ID, and head out to Love, Simon.

Group Rates

Often times buying tickets in bulk results in getting a discount.  So get 10 or 20 of your friends, and call the theater to see if they offer group rates.

Go To a Matinee!

Remember!  The early shows before 4 PM (6 PM at some theaters) are always less!

Wait! I Don’t Live in the US or Canada

You’re going to have a wait a little bit, but PLEASE go see this once it's released.  Foreign Box Office is a HUGE part of a film’s success, sometimes it even saves it!

So, Save the Date:

March 22, 2018 - Brazil

March 29, 2018 - Australia

April 6, 2018 - UK, Ireland

May 3, 2018 - Argentina, Singapore,

May 4, 2018 - Finland, Taiwan,

May 9, 2018 - Philippines

May 10, 2018 - Hong Kong

June 14, 2018 - Czech Republic, Netherlands, Slovakia,

June 15, 2018 - Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Sweden

June 21, 2018 - Hungary, Portugal,

June 27, 2018 - France

June 28, 2018 - Germany

June 29, 2018 - South Africa, Spain

August 30, 2018 - Italy

Even if you watch (or have already watched) a CAM online, please still consider seeing this in the theater when it comes out it in your country!

The more we can show Fox/Disney that we are willing to put our money where our mouth is, and go support this movie, the more likely it is that similar films will be made. Hollywood is constantly searching for the next big thing, so if they see a hit or potential trend, they going to try and figure out how to copy it.

I Just Don’t Have the Funds or Means to Get to the Theater

The goal of this post is drive box office success.  I get that sometimes you just can’t get to the theater; or, because of the nature of the film, it might not be safe for you to attend.  You can STILL help out with Word of Mouth

Fox is checking Social Media.  Keep tweeting and posting about how much you love this movie, and how much it means to you.  Make sure to use the Hashtag #LoveSimon.  Reblog this post so others can get the information.  Tell your friends to go, and RAVE about it.  Post positive/rave reviews on Amazon, Rotten Tomatoes, and IMDB.  All of those things help Love, Simon.

If you’re still here, I know that was a lot, THANK YOU, and I hope you get a chance to enjoy and love this movie.

[coffeebreakstatement]

Poland Summer 2017 #5: Side Effects

Two days ago we had our first excursion of the summer school. There are trips like this one planned every weekend to different places and they give us an opportunity to see different parts of Poland and take a break from classes (all of which I appreciate immensely!).

For our first stop, we went to Tarnowskie Góry. The silver mine in Tarnowskie Góry is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Though the mine is no longer in operation due to resource shortage, we were able to visit the underground “river”. The “river” is part of a water management system that allows water to drain from the underground extraction zone and be used to supply nearby towns and industry. After this visit, we were able to walk around the centre of the city, but in all honesty, there wasn’t too much to see and we only stayed for a little while.

Later, we went to another city, Koszęcin, where we learned about traditional Polish outfits and to dance the Polonaise, which is the oldest Polish dance. I was in the very front of the group for the dance so my partner and I were always under constant scrutiny from our dance teacher to make no mistakes. Even so, it was a lot of fun! There were a lot of people walking past that stopped to watch us learn the dance. It was nice to see that our dancing, even with many mistakes, could make people happy!

On our excursion, I sat with a girl I met from France on the bus so we talked in French almost the whole day. I was able to keep up well enough with the conversation but my comprehension skills are definitely better than my speaking skills so I really need practice (I made a lot of mistakes but I told her to correct me, which she did). Even so, we were still able to have a lot of great conversations so I was happy my skills were good enough for that!

Many people here speak three or more languages so there is a lot of switching between people talking amongst themselves in their native language and talking with other people in their second, third or fourth language. On the excursion, I had my first experience switching between three languages and it is definitely an exhausting task. I have so much respect for everyone here who has to do it all the time to talk in English, which is in some ways the unofficial second language at the summer school. I feel really bad that I am always speaking in my native language when I know it is really tiring for other people speaking in English all the time to communicate with me and other people who only share English as a common language (obviously in addition to varying degrees of Polish competency). 

This week in class I keep starting or ending my sentences in French when I am talking to my friend (in Polish) because I have been speaking in French so much this week. My friends often speak to me by mistake in Hungarian or Croatian or Chinese because they are switching languages all the time, but this was my first experience of it. A side effect of too many languages overcrowding the brain!

After the excursion, I intended to sleep early because I hadn’t slept much the night before (we had a movie marathon that was a little more than 5 hours long). My roommates and I showed each other our passports and we looked on Google Maps to show each other exactly where we live. I got to see pictures of where my roommates live in Belarus, Morocco, and China. It occurred to me when we did this that we do not only live in different countries, but also different continents: Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. This was especially poignant when we would zoom out on the map and have to drag the globe such a long way to find the next country we were going to look at. It is somewhat of a small miracle that we all crossed paths in search of the same goal: learning Polish.

On the 15th of August, we will have an evening in the centre of the city where all the students will present our respective countries. I have been feeling very nervous about this because I am the only Canadian at the school so I will be the only student representing Canada. The French girl I met invited me to join France for their presentation. There is a girl in my class from Cyprus that studies in France and she is also going to join us. We will talk about our own countries and present songs and dances from all three countries together. For Canada, I chose Dégénération by Mes Aïeux, which is one of my favourite French Canadian songs. I feel much more comfortable now that I won’t be on the stage alone.

Yesterday we had a party where we got to eat kiełbasa, drink beer, and sing Polish songs: a classic Polish party. We have all been learning Polish songs in class this week so each class got to present the songs they have been practicing. My song was definitely the most lit but there were a lot of really good songs. A few of them were added to my playlists. 

Today some of the Japanese students were teaching me some Japanese phrases (very important things like “I am hungry” and “handsome man”). In exchange, I was teaching them some more advanced English phrases, which mostly ended up being idioms. It was a lot of fun all around. I really try when I ask someone to teach me something in their language to pronounce it correctly but I am learning that there are a lot of sounds in other languages that my mouth has a lot of difficulty forming! I will come home knowing random phrases in so many different languages, but I suppose this is a side effect of being around people from all over the world. 

[im-obsessed-help-me]

Alphabet Tag!

Tagged by @aerigom THANKS this is so cute!

Rules: make a new post answering the questions and tag people you’d like to get to know better

A: Age | 18

B: Birthplace | Maryland USA

C: Current time | 6:27 pm

D: Drink you had last | Tea!

E: Easiest person to talk to | my sisters- we’re really close and have the absolute best relationship

F: Favourite song | WHY DO YOU MAKE ME CHOOSE THERES TOO MUCH MUSIC ! Right at this very second probably Universe by EXO but it literally changes every minute. anything exo is amazing so they end up at the top a lot. I also love musicals and a bunch of other British and American artists and listening to soundtracks

G: Grossest memory | the time when I fell off the monkey bars in kindergarten and pierced my lip open on the mulch on the ground and had to go to the emergency room.

H: Hogwarts house | It’s either Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. I see myself as Gryffindor, my friends will bet their lives I’m a Ravenclaw, the test has given me both answers.

I: In love? | in a complicated way

J: Jealous of people? | Rarely

K: Killed someone? | came close after exo was disrespected at MAMA but nope. (this is a joke don’t arrest me pls)

L: Love at first sight or should I walk by again? | depends on the person. Since I haven’t fully fallen in love yet I’m not sure. But the romantic in me thinks I’ll believe in love at first sight.

M: Middle name | Catherine

N: Number of siblings? | 3

O: One wish? | to live a life that makes a difference

P: Person you last called | My sister

Q: Question you are always asked | “why do you spell your name weird?”

R: Reasons to my smile | EXO, my family, sunrises, music, sleeping in, books, ice cream, coffee, midnights, sparklers, stargazing, new pens, paint, new canvases, good food, rain boots, cute things, colors, marble, castles, fancy dresses, my friends, laughter, animals (especially baby animals), the list goes on. I get sad a lot but I do love smiling.

S: Song you sang last | Everglow by Coldplay

T: Time you woke up | 9:30 am

U: Underwear colour | white

V: Vacation destination | I would go literally anywhere. I’m the textbook definition of a wanderlust. But top of my list are St. Petersburg, London, Poland, SouKor, Thailand, Montreal, and Machu Pichu.

W: Worst habit | I dwell on the little things and they make me sad. Once I’m sad I have a tendency to want to stay sad.

X: X-rays | had one when I got my wisdom teeth out but not really any others. I don’t hurt myself that much (which is surprising considering how clumsy I am and the trees I’ve fallen out of).

Y: Your favourite food | I love rice and I could probably eat rice for the rest of my life. Also chicken. And spätzle (which is German and delicious) and pierogi (which are Polish and delicious).

Z: Zodiac sign | Capricorn

Ultimate Bias: Jongin

Ultimate bias wrecker: Junmyeon and Jongdae

Favourite kpop song: There are wayyy too many but Monster, Sweet Lies, Miracles in December, Lights Out, Forever, and El Dorado by EXO, Nosedive by Chen and Dynamic Duo, My Love by Lee Hi, Gee and Into the New World by SNSD, Red Flavor, Peek-A-Boo and Kingdom Come by Red Velvet, Black Suit by SuJu, Ring Ding Dong and Why So Serious by SHINee, and so many more

First kpop song: I heard Fantastic Baby by Big Bang when I was like 13 but had no idea it was kpop so it doesn’t really count. Technically my first kpop song was Monster by EXO.

Favourite kpop album: The War by EXO

Favourite kpop ship: asldkdosjwkd don’t make me choose this

Hard or soft stan: soft soft soft soft soft soft

Favourite Kpop company: i have my issues with SM but they have all my fav artists and all the SM artists are awesome and friendly and beautiful so ima say SM

Backstory of how I got into kpop: It all started back in summer of 2016 when I was messing around on YouTube and stumbled on EXO’s Monster mv (it was like a week after it had released) and I remember thinking “this is creepy but the blonde guy is hot the dance is amazing and these vocals are insane”. Fast-forward a year and I had completely forgotten about this, but I was having a really bad day earlier in summer 2017 and I texted a friend of mine and asked her to recommend me some music to cheer me up. She isn’t a big kpop fan but listens to EXO now and then, so she was like “you like different languages and dance and beautiful voices, so listen to this album that came out this morning the boys have good voices and are all really great people”. I listened to it straight through and was Shook ™ and then literally did not leave my house for like 4 days straight while I watched every exo MV in existence and spent so much time learning their names (I remember when I found out that they had names other than their stage names and thinking I’d never remember them all lol). I distinctly remember watching Monster again the second time with knowledge of who I was watching and being sooooo amazed and getting filled with this intense and beautiful deja vu- the beat drop at the refrain came and that was the moment I was like “these boys are gonna change my life”. And then right after that I sobbed while watching Miracles in December and I realized that I had been blessed- very blessed- to find these boys and their healing words. I don’t regret this or the family I’ve found thanks to EXO:)

Tagging: askskdksnwkekss I have no idea who to tag uhhh @penguinsoo0112 (who needs to be thanked because she taught me the ropes of being an exol and is the literal best) @royalnini @hannermax and anyone else who wants to do it- just say I tagged u and go for it!

Thanks so much this was super fun!!!

[findiary]

August 27, 1991

Estonia has tried to leave the union for a while now, and about a week ago he declared, that from now on he´s an independent country once again. Estonia wasn´t the first one who managed to leave, and Latvia followed him almost immediately.

(A lot has happened in recent years: the wall doesn´t separate the brothers anymore, there was a revolution where the participants sang, no violence was used, even more countries are becoming independent again etc.…)

Oh... and Estonia is currently a bit angry with me because I didn´t support him enough. My boss wanted me to be careful, I still have my treaties with Russia.

Previous - Next

More info:

- The wall doesn´t separate the brothers anymore - In 1989 a series of revolutions in nearby Eastern Bloc countries - Poland and Hungary in particular - caused a chain reaction in East Germany that ultimately resulted in the demise of the Wall. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin.

The Wall's actual demolition did not begin until the summer of 1990 and continued until 1992. The "fall of the Berlin Wall" paved the way for German reunification, which formally took place on 3 October 1990.

- The participants sang - The Singing Revolution is a commonly used name for events between 1987 and 1991 that led to the restoration of the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The term was coined by an Estonian activist and artist, Heinz Valk, in an article published a week after the 10–11 June 1988, spontaneous mass night-singing demonstrations at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds.

- Estonia wasn´t the first who managed to leave - Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare itself independent, resulting in the restoration of an independent State of Lithuania (On 11 March 1990). There were actually quite violent attempts to suppress the secession.

Estonian independence was restored on 20 August 1991, but the Estonian Sovereignty Declaration was issued already during the singing revolution.

Latvia on August 21, 1991. Ukraine on August 24, 1991. Belarus on August 25, 1991. Moldova on August 27, 1991… etc.

Russia renounced the 1922 Union Treaty on December 12, 1991, and the last one to leave was Kazakhstan, on December 16, 1991.

(The Warsaw Pact was declared at an end already on 25 February 1991.)

- Estonia is currently a bit angry with me because I didn´t support him enough - The Finnish leaders firmly thought that Finland shouldn´t rock the boat, or well, anyone shouldn´t rock the boat, but proceed cautiously.

Especially the Finnish president Mauno Koivisto faced harsh criticism for not supporting Estonia's bid for independence more openly. Koivisto actually disguised aid to Finland's southern neighbor as cultural cooperation, to avoid the ire of Moscow. He kept quiet about it until his death (25 November 1923 – 12 May 2017).

Iceland was the first one to recognize the re-independent Baltic countries.

[wsmith215]

Coronavirus and 5G: New devices are coming, but will networks be ready?

Everything with COVID-19 has turned out to be more complicated than it initially seemed. Originally downplayed as little more than a flu variant with a short gestation window and a narrow ability to cause fatalities, the coronavirus has instead lurked in unknowing carriers for weeks, attacked victims of all ages, and all but shut down entire nations. Three of those countries — the United States, South Korea, and China — were among the world’s first to adopt 5G cellular technology, and their companies are critical to enabling device and network rollouts elsewhere in the world. What does that mean for 5G?

Like COVID-19 itself, the pandemic’s impact on 5G isn’t easy to summarize. Pushed by major brands, smartphone and component factories generally resumed production quickly enough to guarantee 5G device supplies, but some testing and R&D initiatives were set back by months. On the network rollout front, some carriers and countries have suggested that nothing has changed, while others have at least modestly delayed individual or national rollouts.

As the U.S. workforce becomes increasingly mobile, with work from home as a viable option for more users, 5G is going to be a key enabler of both high-speed portable communications and wireless home broadband. Here’s what businesses and consumers can generally expect from 5G device and network rollouts over the next six months.

Devices: Expect modest delays

The two primary categories of 5G devices that are already in the marketplace are smartphones (“mobile 5G”) and home broadband modems (“fixed 5G”). Most currently available evidence points to uninterrupted releases of both sorts of devices this year, though some key products in each category are likely to arrive a little later than might have been expected.

VB Transform 2020 Online – July 15-17: Join leading AI executives at the AI event of the year. Register today and save 30% off digital access passes.

On the smartphone front, the components for 5G Android phones have been in testing and production long enough that the coronavirus appears to have had relatively little impact on their supply. Samsung launched the Galaxy S20 series in the early stages of the pandemic, and though sales have reportedly been down sharply for various reasons, there haven’t been complaints about scarcity. Many other Android vendors have continued to hold launch events and ship 5G phones — more in the first quarter of 2020 than all of 2019 — though quite a few have been targeted towards China, where 5G network rollouts have been robust and demand remains high.

The only major laggard is Apple, which was expected to release its first 5G iPhones in September. Supply chain reports suggest that their iOS operating system is two weeks behind schedule due to corporate work from home adjustments, and the devices are now more likely to arrive in October, potentially as late as the first week of November. While that’s a little late, it’s not without precedent, as Apple’s then-flagship iPhone X didn’t hit stores until November 3, 2017, more than a month after the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus on September 22 — still in time for holiday gifting, though supplies were initially constrained.

On the fixed 5G front, vendors of fixed 5G broadband modems are currently awaiting deliveries of Qualcomm’s next-generation QTM527 millimeter wave antenna system, which promises to expand the transmitting range of the fastest 5G devices to a mile (absent physical impediments). Carriers will be able to deliver up to 7Gbps speeds with these modems, seven times faster than the most deluxe home broadband customers use today, and 60 times faster than the current U.S. average. Modems with QTM527 are still planned for the “2020” and “second half 2020” release windows Qualcomm and carriers previously announced, but Verizon said this week they’re arriving in the fall.

Although multiple countries are in the process of allowing retail stores to reopen, “post-pandemic” (or, if you’re skeptical, “mid-pandemic”) consumer demand for new devices is emerging as a concern for some companies and carriers. As of today, there are valid questions as to whether people will engage in the traditional summer and back-to-school shopping seasons given massive disruptions to employment and physical returns to school. But there’s little doubt that companies will do everything possible to have compelling new products available for the all-important holiday season.

Networks: Carriers try to move forward, with or without governments

Without getting stuck in the weeds of individual cellular carrier decisions, it’s fair to say that the coronavirus pandemic has had different impacts from company to company, and country to country. On a positive note, carriers don’t appear to have been as financially devastated by bans on indoor gatherings or actual COVID-19 infections as many other companies. Some carriers have even reported that their outdoor 5G tower installations are proceeding rapidly during the pandemic, as tower climbers have been able to work without interruptions to place the large and small cell equipment required for 5G networks.

Network launch and expansion disruptions appear to be modest in the United States. T-Mobile has suggested that its 5G rollouts are full steam ahead, and that local government permitting delays — a problem well before the pandemic — are the key roadblock it’s now dealing with. AT&T has cited similar permitting issues, as well as challenges in hiring enough 5G tower climbers, though it still promises to offer “nationwide” 5G this summer. Verizon reiterated that it’s on track to offer mobile 5G service in parts of 60 cities by the year’s end, though it’s waiting on the aforementioned Qualcomm parts to expand its fixed 5G offerings in those locations. That said, U.S. carrier executives have hinted that sales have been hurt at least somewhat by the shuttering of their retail locations and massive layoffs affecting millions of their customers.

Outside the U.S., the carrier stories become more interesting. On a macro level, the cellular industry saw its biggest annual event — MWC Barcelona — abruptly canceled due to early coronavirus fears, after which 2020’s Tokyo Olympics were postponed until 2021, a one-two punch to major international 5G marketing efforts that had been planned for years. Canadian carrier Bell said last week that although its 5G network was ready to launch, it was delaying the debut because it couldn’t effectively market new offerings during the pandemic. In the U.K. and Australia, carriers have also been threatened by conspiracy theorists targeting network hardware installers and cell towers.

In China, government coordination prevented the pandemic from stopping 5G network rollouts, which were already well underway before the virus broke out in Wuhan. The country’s top three carriers already have over 50 million 5G subscribers, and Nikkei expects China to have 70% of the world’s total 5G customer base by year’s end. Smaller but still significant South Korea had 5.77 million subscribers as of April, nearing 10% of its own population, and its top carriers are continuing to pour billions of dollars into network expansion.

Both Asian countries’ governments have been aggressively pushing for 5G network deployments, enabling each to boast a variety of 5G “world’s firsts” over the past two years, while carriers in regional neighbors Japan and Thailand only recently turned on their 5G towers. European 5G network deployments were already spottier, in large part due to governmental delays, and COVID-19 outbreaks have only made them worse. Austria, France, Poland, Portugal, and Spain have all delayed 5G spectrum auctions due to the pandemic, while Germany’s United Internet blamed the closure of government permitting offices for delaying its 5G network launch.

This isn’t to say that 5G networks aren’t or won’t be available in some of these countries this year, but that the steady march towards much faster cellular access will be a little slower and more uneven in some places than originally expected. While it would be easy to blame the pandemic for these problems, spectrum allocation and permitting delays predate the pandemic by years. So if your neighborhood or country doesn’t have at least some form of 5G service by year’s end, that’s most likely due to slow-moving government officials, not the coronavirus.

There hasn’t been much good news since COVID-19 began to spread, and there are still good reasons to doubt that 5G will fully deliver on its ultimate promise this year. But those of us who have been waiting for 5G networks to improve — say nothing of a worthwhile 5G device to make use of them — will almost certainly have multiple reasons to be joyful before the end of 2020, assuming we’re lucky enough to be in areas where 5G rollouts are continuing without major interruptions.

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[jonathangroffcentral]

Jonathan Groff Signs on for SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM at The Hollywood Bowl; Cast Complete!

The Hollywood Bowl has announced that Sarah Uriarte Berry, Philip Boykin, and Jonathan Groff will complete the cast for a benefit performance of SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, conceived and directed on Broadway by James Lapine.

The production also features previously announced Lewis Cleale, Carmen Cusack, Claybourne Elder, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Ruthie Ann Miles, Matthew Morrison, Solea Pfeiffer, and Vanessa Williams, and will have one performance only, on Sunday, July 23, 2017 at 7:30pm. The Hollywood Bowl production benefits the LA Phil's flagship program, Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA), and other LA Phil educational initiatives.

SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM will be directed by Sarna Lapine with Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic and YOLA, who will join the show to perform "Children Will Listen" alongside the LA Phil. The production will be choreographed by Michele Lynch with lighting design by Ken Billington, in addition to new orchestrations by Michael Starobin, arrangements by David Loud and video created and designed by Peter Flaherty.

From Follies and Into the Woods to A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd, Stephen Sondheim's umpteen Broadway masterpieces assure him a permanent spot among the very top creators of the American musical. Audiences will not want to miss this "funny, affectionate and revealing tribute to musical theater's greatest living composer and lyricist" (USA Today), a musical revue-style journey through the extraordinary life and career of Stephen Sondheim.

SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM will have one performance only at the Hollywood Bowl this summer - Sunday, July 23, at 7:30 PM.

Sarah Uriarte Berry Broadway: The Light in the Piazza - Lincoln Center Theater - OBC recording (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations), End of the Rainbow, Next to Normal, Taboo - OBC recording, Beauty and the Beast, Les Miserables. Other NY includes Cinderella (NYC Opera); Encores! The Boys from Syracuse, Encores! Tenderloin - (cast recordings). National Tours: Carousel (Drama-Logue Award, Ovation nom.), Sunset Boulevard, Les Miserables. Regional includes Show Boat (Goodspeed), Master Class (Paper Mill), A Little Night Music (Kennedy Center and Baltimore CenterStage), Bernstein's Mass at Carnegie Hall - cast recording (Baltimore Symphony) and with Philadelphia Orchestra, My Fair Lady (Symphony Silicon Valley), Just Judy(Cape Symphony). Soloist with symphonies across the U.S. Film/TV: Frontera, Pretty Bird, The David Letterman Show, Six Degrees, Law and Order Criminal Intent, The Light in the Piazza (PBS Live from Lincoln Center).

Phillip Boykin is a 2012 Tony Award, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards Nominee for his work in The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. He is the 2012 Winner of a Theatre World Award as well as the International Reviewers of New England Awards and The Distinguished Alumni Award from The Hartt School. Phillip is a native of Greenville, SC who now resides in NJ. Other performances include the Broadway Revivals of On the Town and Sunday in the Park with George, the roles of Joe in the National Tour of Show Boat and at several Regional theaters including Sacramento Music Theater, The Pirate King/Samuel in Pirates of Penzance NY City Center and Barrington Stage, Ken in Ain't Misbehavin', Crown/Jake in the opera Porgy and Bess, Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia, Caiaphas in JCS, and Jesus Christ Superstar Gospel, the Harlem Gospel Singers, Fred in Smokey Joe's Cafe?, and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, to name a few. Phillip performed as Booker T. Washington in the Anniversary Concert of Ragtime at Lincoln Center. He also made his Carnegie Hall debut in Broadway Classics. Boykin portrayed the role of Big Hand in the movie Freedom starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Sharon Leal. Recently The Driver in Top Five, a movie starring, written, and directed by Chris Rock, Caiaphas in John O'Boyle's Easter Mysteries, and he was featured as the cover story of Classical Singer magazine. He's a graduate of the University of Hartford's Hartt School of Music in CT; he also studied Jazz and Vocal Performance at SC State University, Howard University, and the NC School of the Arts. Phillip has toured throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, Russia, Poland, and North America.

Jonathan Groff Since Jonathan Groff's award-winning breakout out performance in Broadway's Spring Awakening in 2006 (Theatre World Award winner; Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Drama League Award nominee), his resume has not only expanded in theater, but also memorable performances in film and television.

This fall, Groff will star in David Fincher's highly anticipated new series Mindhunter, which will launch on Netflix in October. Last July, Groff reprised his starring role as Patrick in HBO's Looking: The Movie, alongside Murray Bartlett, Russell Tovey, and Derek Phillips. In the summer of 2015, Groff originated the role of King George III in the Pulitzer Prize-winning production of Hamilton on Broadway. He received a Tony Award nomination in the category of "Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical" for his performance. The musical, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, won 11 Tony Awards that year, including "Best Musical," and also won the "Best Musical Theatre Album" Grammy for the original cast recording.

On screen, Groff voiced Kristoff, the male lead in the Disney animated film Frozen. The film won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for "Best Animated Feature Film." He also appeared in American Sniper alongside Bradley Cooper. The film earned an Academy Award Nomination for "Best Picture."

In 2010, Groff appeared as the recurring character Jesse St. James on the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning show Glee, created and produced by Ryan Murphy.

Groff's additional theater credits include: Encores! Off-Center: A New Brain(City Center), The Bacchae (Delacorte Theatre); Hair (The Public Theatre); The Submission (MCC Theatre); Craig Lucas' The Singing Forest (The Public Theatre) and Prayer for my Enemy at Playwrights Horizons (Obie Award winner); Deathtrap (West End); and Red (James Bridges Theatre, Los Angeles). Other film credits include: C.O.G., The Conspirator, Twelve Thirty, and Taking Woodstock. Other television credits include: Boss, The Good Wife, The Normal Heart, and Looking.

James Lapine has collaborated with Stephen Sondheim on Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and Passion. Along with creating Sondheim on Sondheim he also directed the HBO documentary Six by Sondheim. He has been the recipient of the Obie, Drama Desk, Tony, Olivier, Evening Standard, and Peabody Award, as well as the Pulitzer Prize.

Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), The Frogs (1974), Pacific Overtures (1976), Sweeney Todd (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Into the Woods (1987), Assassins (1991), Passion (1994), and Bounce (2003), as well as lyrics for West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965), and additional lyrics for Candide (1973). Side by Side by Sondheim (1976), Marry Me a Little (1981), You're Gonna Love Tomorrow (1983), Putting It Together (1993/99), and Moving On (2001) are anthologies of his work as composer and lyricist.

For films, he composed the scores of Stavisky (1974) and co-composed Reds(1981), as well as songs for Dick Tracy (1990). He also wrote the songs for the television production Evening Primrose (1966), co-authored the film The Last of Sheila (1973) and the play Getting Away with Murder (1996), and provided incidental music for the plays The Girls of Summer (1956), Invitation to a March(1961), Twigs (1971), and The Enclave (1973). Saturday Night (1954), his first professional musical, finally had its New York premiere in 1999. Sondheim is on the Council of the Dramatists Guild, the national association of playwrights, composers, and lyricists, having served as its President from 1973 to 1981.

Subscriptions and single tickets for performances during the Hollywood Bowl 2017 summer season are available at HollywoodBowl.com, or via credit card phone order at 323.850.2000, and in person at the Hollywood Bowl Box Office. For further details or questions, call 323.850.2000 from 10am - 6pm daily, or visit LAPhil.com.

One of the largest natural amphitheaters in the world, with a seating capacity of nearly 18,000, the Hollywood Bowl has been the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since its official opening in 1922, and plays host to the finest artists from all genres of music, offering something for everyone. It remains one of the best deals anywhere in Los Angeles; to this day, $1 buys a seat at the top of the Bowl for many classical and jazz performances. In February 2017, the Hollywood Bowl was named Best Major Outdoor Concert Venue for the thirteenth year in a row at the 28th Annual Pollstar Awards. For millions of music lovers across Southern California, the Hollywood Bowl is synonymous with summer.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride

[coffeebreakstatement]

Poland Summer 2017 #7: Goodbyes

I used to be really afraid of change. I used to mark the boundaries my comfort zone and stay well within them. I have always admired people who are motivated to try new, different, and even scary things. In my admiration, I have been working on becoming this kind of person. I have been trying to push the boundaries of my comfort zone and make myself uncomfortable because all the best experiences of my life so far have begun with some sense of uncertainty and fear. I don’t want my fear of what could go wrong to eclipse the possibilities of everything that could go right.

Maybe I am still a bit afraid of change, even if I try to embrace it at every opportunity. Change and I have come to an agreement, but it is still something that I am working on and we are not yet the best of friends. The worst kind of change is goodbyes. I don’t think I will ever get over my aversion to saying goodbye. This week, I had to say a lot of goodbyes.

My teacher left this week to return to Katowice so we got a new teacher who will be with us for the remainder of the summer school. There needs to be a certain level of trust built up between students and teachers for them to work well together, especially language teachers since constant communication is an essential teaching tool. It takes time for both the student and the teacher to learn how they can best help each other and for me, it takes time for me to get comfortable speaking freely with a teacher and speaking up when I don’t understand something. I was afraid for my teacher to leave because it would mean starting from scratch again with a new teacher. It was difficult to say goodbye to my wonderful, kind teacher. Fortunately, my new teacher is also very lovely so the transition has been easier than I thought it would be.

The biggest goodbyes I had to say this week were to my two friends from Croatia who left on Wednesday morning. They were only staying for half of the summer school and even though we were all anticipating it, saying goodbye was really hard. On their last night, after we had all said goodbye to the girls who were leaving and started to go to our rooms, my friend and I just starting crying in the hallway together outside our rooms. The next day was the worst because I was trying so hard to not cry all day. During the break between classes before they left, we would always sit on the benches in the hallway and talk. The first break after they left I came to the bench to find my friend crying there alone. We all hugged and ate chocolate to comfort her (and ourselves).

I spent a lot of time with the girls who left because we would study, go to the afternoon activities, and eat meals together. I was really afraid of doing things alone once they left. I got so used to them always being around all the time that since they have been gone, I keep expecting to see them when I go the cafeteria to eat or sitting on the benches in the hallway during our break. Beyond being sad that they wouldn’t be here anymore, I was sad to say goodbye to them because I didn’t know when I would see them next.

When I left Vancouver, I had made friends from all across Canada and even though we had a two-day sob-fest leading up to our departures, it didn’t feel like we were saying goodbye forever. We live in the same country and we knew we would get opportunities to see each other (and I have already gotten to see a number of my friends since then). Goodbyes are easier when you are saying “see you later”.

I am already bracing for the end of the summer school because now I have friends from all over the world. There is no guarantee this time that I will see any of them again since most of them literally live halfway around the world. I have met some of the loveliest people here and it is hard to imagine that in two weeks we will all be scattered throughout the world again. I don’t want to have to say more goodbyes.

I think you get the picture. This week was really sad. But even though a lot of goodbyes were said and tears were shed, a lot of good things happened too.

Earlier this week, it was the birthday of a guy in my class. He organized a party and invited the whole class. We sat outside at a picnic table with food and drinks and we talked. Bear in mind that in my class we are not completely fluent in Polish so we often have difficulty communicating ourselves clearly. However, everyone in the class can speak either English or Russian so we still have some commonalities. Two students in our class (one a native Russian speaker and one a native English speaker) are fluent in both Russian and English so they worked really hard as translators to keep everyone involved in the conversation.

I learned that Russians don’t have something like “cheers” to say when you’re drinking. For occasions like birthdays, everyone at the table takes a turn to make a toast and everyone drinks after each one. Everyone speaks from the heart and offers their birthday wishes; it is definitely more sincere than the simple English “cheers” and it was a really beautiful thing to be a part of. Since the birthday boy doesn’t speak a lot of English, my toast had to be translated into Russian.

Later in the evening, our teachers even came to join us for the birthday celebration. They spoke to us in Polish (which they do almost all the time), but in any case, our translators had gone home so we needed to speak mostly in Polish for everyone to communicate. I learned that my professor from Edmonton had emailed to check up on me and hear how I was doing so I was touched by that.

This week we also had the Wieczór Narodów (trans: Evening of Nations), which was an event where all the students at the summer school had the opportunity to present our countries to the school and the residents of Cieszyn. It was held in the main square in the centre of the city and I was really surprised at how many people were there! I performed with France and Cyprus and even though I was really nervous to read my speech about Canada (my hand was visibly shaking even if my voice was not), I was proud of myself for speaking in front of such a big crowd for 3 minutes entirely in Polish! I also helped my friends from Korea with their performance. There are only two of them, but they wanted to dance Gangnam Style and needed a larger dance team so we were all recruited. I was nervous because we didn’t have a lot of time to practice and I didn’t know all the steps, but nevertheless it was really fun! People really got into dancing along with us. We even got to dance the Polonaise a couple times which I really enjoyed.

Last week, we wrote our first test, which was essentially the mid-term exam. Most people I know got the test back earlier, but my class didn’t get it back until yesterday. I received the highest mark in my class, which I was very happy about because I studied a lot for the test. I know that I am good at Polish grammar and orthography (which is why I can do well on tests), but I still struggle with speaking. We have been doing a lot of speaking exercises so I have noticed improvement and I feel more confident when I speak because my vocabulary is much bigger. It’s still my biggest weakness in Polish so I know that when I go home I need to find more opportunities to practice listening and speaking.

Yesterday was a really good day. For the first time since I have been here, I skipped the afternoon seminar so I could dedicate a few extra hours to studying. I worked on translating a poem and reviewing some new grammar rules we learned this week. Two students from my class came into the student lounge while I was studying so we started to study together. After studying with them, I had a consultation with my teacher because we had a lesson this week that I didn’t really understand. Although I was the only one who had talked to him about coming in, I kept running into people from my class who were also interested in more clarification so almost half the class ended up at the consultation.

My friend had decided earlier in the day that she really wanted pizza so my friends made plans to eat pizza together and hang out in the evening. It was a nice break from all the studying. Pizza toppings continue to be a contentious issue because apparently it is weird to put pineapple on pizza (not that I eat it like that but I guess it is mostly a North American thing). I don’t think Poland has much room to talk because they put corn on their pizza.

There were a lot of sad things this week, but also a lot of small blessings and beautiful moments. Goodbyes are still hard, but life keeps moving forwards. There is even a happy ending to this story. I didn’t have a plan for what to do after the summer school ends so my friend and I have decided to tag along with our Croatian friend as she goes home. I will be fulfilling my childhood dream of going to Croatia (which is a long story involving a coin, a book of flags, and a school project) and I will get to see the country that gave me the best gift of the most wonderful friends. I guess that not all goodbyes are forever.

[groupiesmusic]

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