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rocknvaughn · 4 years ago

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Why does it seem that (materialistically) that Colin's career hasn't taken off like some of his other co-stars? He was the star of Merlin, yet he's not capitalised on his Merlin fandom, apart from Humans, which was really good. A lot of us cannot afford to travel to another country just for a play 😭

I really feel you with regard to how difficult it can be to be a fan of Colin’s work, when much of it never leaves the UK.

From reading several of his interviews over the years, one thing stands clear in my mind (and yes, this is my own interpretation):

Colin is not in the business of being an actor in order to gain fame and riches. He wants to make art, and the best damn art he can make. He uses his art to push himself, stretch himself, to constantly improve his craft.

In an interview he gave in the Evening Standard in 2018, a couple of passages stand out:

He warns me that a film he’s attached to about the Easter Rising is having “a difficult journey”, but getting films made in general is a battle. “Some of the best scripts I’ve ever read aren’t getting made.”

He’s not sure what’s next, but his hunger for great work is palpable. “People are taking risks. I think there’s a real war against mediocrity right now,” he says.

Another interview from the London Times earlier this year (2020) sheds a bit more light on things:

Looking back on the early days, when Merlin took off, he is thoughtful. “You are not really equipped to deal with these things. I was used to going into the theatre each day, doing the show and going home. I still feel like that’s my job. Then you realise that when you do other things, you have to be there for the promotion. That was the big adjustment. I don’t enjoy it.”

Therein lies the rub. Most blockbuster films and television shows are not good art. Their storylines tend to be mediocre and predictable...all the things that Colin dislikes about acting. Add to that the fact that shows/films like those require lots of promotion, which is another thing that Colin has said he’s uncomfortable with.

Colin has said several times that projects he chooses must speak to him, challenge him, scare him a little. He has standards, and he sticks to them.

From his interview with Edge magazine earlier this year:

EDGE: How do you select the roles you play?

CM: I guess they select me in a way. I can’t play a role unless it speaks to me and provokes me in some way, but ultimately it’s the characters that I have a fear about playing, not knowing how I’m going to enter into the process of living them, when I don’t have all the answers it’s a good indicator of a character I must play. If I have all the answers, there’s less scope for exploration and discovery which isn’t as interesting for me.

And as frustrating as it can be for a non-UK based Colin Morgan fan, Colin’s first love has been and will always be the stage, which means he’ll always be doing it.

From the London Times interview:

Yet theatre holds his heart. “I will never, ever not do theatre,” he says firmly.

But there will be other projects in other mediums as well.

From the Evening Standard interview from 2018:

He’s also looking to write and direct his own work in future.

From the Radio Times interview, March 2019:

After working with Amstell and Everett on their passion projects, Morgan has the film-making bug. “We’ll see what the future brings, but there are quite a few stories that hopefully I will get to tell.”

From the London Times again:

He was off and running in an unbroken line of work that has taken in film — he recently starred opposite Rupert Everett in The Happy Prince — TV and the stage. “I want to do that juggling act my whole life if I can. I never want to be just the one thing.”

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picsofsannyas · 4 years ago

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Interview with Veereshwar.

The Shadow of the Whip. Wednesday. 1 December 1976

Veereshwar talks about how he came to know of Osho and the changes he feels he has gone through as a sannyasin in the last month.

Maneesha: Can you talk about your relationship with Osho? Often people feel that initially it was of a certain nature and that it evolves over a period into something different.

Veereshwar: Yes, I would say initially.. He’s always, always been really wonderful with me. I mean, he’s always given me lots of energy, a lot of love-energy, and I don’t know why that is. The first time I was here-and I was here just for the ten-day camps-I experienced, in a way, that he was courting me. Courting is a less auspicious word than I would really use, but he was drawing me to him and giving me a lot of consideration.

I didn’t come to India to find a teacher or to see Osho or anything, I wasn’t coming out of need.. I didn’t feel need at the time. So I think he was aware of that to-you know, that he wasn’t talking to someone who was in a lot of pain and distress. Then in the year and a half that its been since I was last here, I think that a lot of the structures that had been holding me together when I came the first time started collapsing more and more. This time I came out of need and it was a real struggle for me to come. I was definitely coming to see Osho.

I felt this time, although he’s been very loving with me in many ways, that he was much harder on me. He started with, instead of, “No, that’s all right-things will be okay,” he really came down very hard on some very fundamental aspects that he wanted to see reduced-out of the way.

For instance when I first came I just told him that I really felt I had lost all my self-confidence, I had lost my sense of authority, and I was presenting these things to him in a negative way. He was feeding them back to me as positive things-that that was really the beginning of movement for me.

So I feel a little more this time that he’s been like a Zen Master. And I see that when one comes here seriously, the best way to come here is as absolutely nothing, because that’s what is going to happen to you here anyway. And any expectations you have about being something will soon be eliminated.

I also have the sense that the more deeply involved I get with him, the harder it will be. Somehow the closer you come to him, the harder and more fundamental the issues are. So I feel a little less comforted, and I feel a little bit more frightened in a way about my commitment to him because I see that it involves this.

It’s absolute in a way. There’s no kind of way out. I mean, if you’re going to be with Osho, that’s what’s going to happen-you’re going to get more and more immersed, and then you’re going to come to a deeper level of your resistance all the time.

There has always been, in my relationship with him, a level in which I was not relating to a person-I was just relating to a source of truth and I’ve always related to that source of truth. So when I came to Osho for the first time, I had no resistance to becoming a sannyasin even though I was involved with Arica. I’ve never created any problems for myself about that because I just felt like he was a source, and I had no resistance. I mean, I had a deep attraction to that source within myself, a priori, before Osho, but Osho somehow is the mouthpiece of it.

Another thing was that Osho was really concurrent with the development within myself. When I came to India the first time, I had no reason to come and I decided-I made a conscious decision for the first time in my life-to do something without a reason-and also I had a distinct feeling that my heart was drawing me to India. This was before I even knew anything about Osho. So I came riding on my heart and with no reason... which was a really appropriate way to come, and that’s of course the first message that he gave me.

I guess I have a fear of being really dependent upon him as a person in the world because he might die. Next time I come he might be in a glass case and you won’t even be able to speak to him at all, and I don’t feel like I can rely on my own personal contact with him at all. Firstly I can’t rely on that; secondly, I can’t rely on him being around very long. So I had this feeling that I want to get more deeply involved with him and, at the same time, be more autonomous from him.

Maneesha: See you feel that you’re learning that balance?

Veereshwar: Yes, that balance, in the West. I mean it’s incredibly difficultly in the West. People go through a lot of things here, but in the West the whole mentality is so antithetical to what’s happening here.. To what he’s propounding.

Another thing which he talked to me about was my need to improve-which is present in almost every moment of my existence. He put me in touch with that and told me to drop it. If I really could drop it, it would drop a lot of my ego. But that’s just totally intrinsic in the West, because their so caught up in it. I mean, it’s fundamental in the West, and particularly to the American mentality-progress, improvement.

Maneesha: See you don’t feel aware of him, or relate to him, as a personality?

Veereshwar: Oh, I find him incredibly beautiful, but that’s not a deep part of my attachment to him. I was looking at his hands last night-how fine.. He’s just an incredible looking man.

I’ve always had a feeling about him that, “Wow! I recognise this man from somewhere!” There’s a deep recognition. I’m sure it has something to do with past lives or something because it feels at that level, at that depth. I mean, it’s almost as if it’s me or something. It’s difficult to me to say..

There’s something in me that defends against a personal attachment to him. I’m in love with him at a deep level, but being personally attached..

There’s a story that he relates in one of his lectures about when the Buddha died. There was one of Buddha’s disciples who was just sitting there who wasn’t weeping-everybody else was freaking out and crying, and there was this one who didn’t cry.

He said, “Well, he’s not gone. He’s still here.” Do you remember that story? He said, “The Buddha is not gone. He’s not any less with us now than he was before“.

That really stuck with me-that I want to be that kind of disciple. When he goes I want it to be all right with me. That two may contain some elements of resistance, but somehow I have this feeling that though I love to talk to him-even though I am greedy about talking to him as you know-I don’t want to base my relationship with him on that.

To me he’s a medium for relating to my own source, and I want that relationship to my own source to be strengthened through him, and not become dependent upon my relationship with him.

Maneesha: Can you talk about the way you see Osho working on you indirectly-ways he uses other than when he is talking to you directly?

Veereshwar: I see him setting up a lot of things. For instance, with Amit.. I’ll be very careful about what friends I bring from now on! (Laughter). Because I feel that he used Amit, he used our relationship to instruct us. Quite literally he did that, and he also did it in many ways that I was barely aware of, by making me see a lot of things.

I have been living with Amitabh and Amit and in a sense I feel their extremes and their processes and that has made It almost possible to not have to go through the same things for myself. A lot of things that they are going through, because they are going through them, I don’t have too. So there would be an example of Osho working indirectly.

Veereshwar said that waiting for three months for Osho’s reply to a letter he had written him from West had put him through a lot of changes-first thinking Osho was Ignoring him, and having to make his own decision about the issue on which he had written to Osho. He felt that was another way Osho had worked on him indirectly.

I hear a lot of people talking about certain significant points and coincidences and synchronicity’s, and one person will say, “Osho is doing that.” But my sense of it is that it happens around him as a function of where he’s at.. But it’s not controlled. People want to say that he’s controlling things, but somehow it’s where he is that creates what’s happening.

Teertha was telling me the other day that he felt in some deep way I lacked trust in my self. I feel what Osho gave me to do in those workshops is a distinct way of getting more.. relying more and more on that trust. (In a later Darshan, Osho told Veereshwar to be a vehicle for him, to be empty and allow Osho to work through him.)

Veereshwar went on to talk about what kind of therapy he does

Veereshwar: I’m really a teacher rather than a therapist and I teach in a lot of universities and adult education programmes. I tend to teach a process and in an evening I’ll put people through a certain process. But there are many processes-not just one. It’s like Osho gives many different lectures and in one lecture he will give one map of evolution and in another lecture it will be another map, and so I work with many forms.

Veereshwar was involved with Esalen and Arica at different times, and had taken part in co-counselling. Before that he was a university professor of philosophy, and earlier still, involved in acting and the theatre.

Veereshwar: When I studied comparative religion I somehow knew that there was one religion, and many scholars have tried to formulate what that one religion is. I mean, the problem is not whether there is one religion but how to formulate it.

As far as that quest has been concerned-a purely academic quest-Osho was kind of a getting in touch with the state being manifest.. The stat at which religion is one.

Maneesha: So when you met Osho, was there no doubt in your mind from the beginning that he was the source of truth as you have said?

You immediately recognised him?

Veereshwar: Yes and I just glided in.. I mean, I just rejoiced. I took sannyas because I wanted to establish a real connection.. I wanted to manifest the connection that I already felt.

Maneesha: Did the ashram seemed very different to you coming back this time?

Veereshwar: Yes, it did. It’s just bigger, more complex.. The ways of it are more fixed on the whole. I feel like it’s becoming more and more ritualised, the whole thing-of being around him. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when he goes, because he has so explicitly forbidden any kind of religious ritual being built up. It’ll be Interesting to see how we deal with that-with the fact that we’ve been told not to create an institution.

Maneesha: Do you feel that the presence of the groups has added something to the energy of the ashram?

Veereshwar: Yes, definitely. One thing that attracted me so much to Osho was that all of us in the West who are working in these directions are kind of groping for something that we see “through a glass darkly“, and I felt that Osho was on the other side of the glass. That he really sees it, or that he really illuminates what’s on the other side of the glass-what all this growth work is moving towards.

I mean all of us are intuitively moving in that direction, and I think that it’s totally right on of him to bring all those things that are moving in that direction and to give them clarification.

That’s what I loved about Teertha’s group-that this wasn’t just an encounter group; it was an encounter group with a really viable sense behind it of what enlightenment is. Not just a kind of groping but it is really going someplace.

I see all the group work as very important. It’s the kind of median, it’s the half-way point, and it’s necessary for Westerners to have it. I love it. I think it’s the ultimate growth centre-to have the enlightened one there with all the sophistication of the techno.. Osho wouldn’t like that word.. but the existential technologies or whatever they are, around him.

That takes a lot of the strain off him, because when I was here a year and a half ago, he was the only group leader. Now people get threaded through these processes, and then when they come to him, a lot is already accomplished.

A long time ago when I was in India I envisaged a kind of world university, a centre, an existential university, where people could come to grow. Arica was like that to me in a way, and this is even a little closer to that vision because of Osho.

Maneesha: Can you talk about your experience of the Encounter group?

Veereshwar: I would say that basically it threw me into complete confusion.

Maneesha: (laughing) You mean you weren’t in complete confusion before?

Veereshwar: (grinning):No, not in complete confusion.. Incomplete confusion! I got in touch with a lot of things that I know about, having done a lot of work on myself and knowing the mind in a very subtle way. I knew that more or less hypothetically, but I had it really laid on me.

Also a lot more in touch with defences against feelings, and ways that I prevent myself from really being who I am. Actually I thought I was further along.. I thought I was further along than I am, but I also knew that things weren’t right. So to know that things aren’t right in way’s that I thought they were, is a step, a good step.

It was one of the most unpleasant experiences that I have ever had. About half of it was really a nightmare for me. I was hoping that at the end of it I would suddenly emerge feeling wonderful, and that didn’t exactly happened either. Deep in my mind is the sense that it is appropriate, or the best thing is to reach some sort of plateau of feeling good. Again at a different level I realised that that’s not the case.

I got in touch with a lot of violence and aggression in myself of which I wasn’t aware. I used to have temper tantrums as a child and had done some co-counselling where there was a lot of pillow fighting, but I experienced it in a raw way this time, that it was very difficult for me to jump across the barriers-the barriers that keep me from experiencing those things. Sometimes I felt I should have done more in that way, but I just was the way I was and I certainly had the chance to look at it.

Maneesha: Do you think there is anything about the group that makes it different from a group in the West-the fact that group members are all sannyasins, the group is run by a sannyasin and Osho is nearby?

Veereshwar: Well, one has the sense that the ultimate cosmic order is nearby.. That though there is the chaos-as bad as it may be in the proximity of that little cell where you’re working-still the cosmic order is. So I think that it allows you to go further. It allows you to take a bigger jump.

Maneesha: So it felt to you to be a safer environment?

Veereshwar: Ultimately safer, though I felt I spent a lot of time feeling very unsafe! Just Osho’s presence, you know, and the discourses every day-very soothing and even a kind of nourishment of your essence, and then your ego is freaking out all day! It’s a different kind of balance and juxtaposition of elements from anything I’ve ever experienced In West.

Maneesha: What do you envisage in the future about what is happening through Osho? Do you think that it’s really going to have ripples and expand out all over the world?

Veereshwar: Yes, definitely.. especially through his books. I can see it happening in California. When I first went back there, people hadn’t heard about him very much at all, but more and more people are turning on to him because he’s the real thing. There are a lot of things that catch on in California, but I feel that Osho is the real thing. I mean he is really enlightened and he’s an infinite source.

I do have this hope that someday Indira Gandhi will become so obnoxious that he’ll have to come to Santa Barbara or something! I Think if it happened it would be incredible. On the other hand I see that his being here has a certain poetry to it-that you have to come all the way round the world to see him.. But he’s so remote, he’s a kind of distant star.

Osho is a master of theatre. I’m a theatre person myself and I refer to it in my letters to him as this God theatre. I mean, it’s immaculate.

Maneesha: But what’s drawing people from California who are deeply saturated in gurus and spirituality already?

Veereshwar: That he’s a real star.. Because he is really enlightened, because California is tantric. A spontaneous tantric philosophy is happening in California, and people recognise it immediately when they read what he says. Corresponding to that is Osho’s upfront, no-bullshit way of dealing with sex. That’s the first thing that hits people. “Well, he’s someone who is not brushing it aside.” Everybody is deeply confused about sex because they have passed beyond the conventions and the formalities, everybody has done it and they’ve done everything, and still it doesn’t make sense, but he is somebody who is copping to all that and taking it further.

So that’s what he is known as in California-as the tantric master, and people vaguely associate Tantra with sex. So that’s the gross attraction that he has. But it’s good-Osho is Infinitely more than that, but even that is really something. Osho is the only one who is not in confusion about it or putting it aside.

That was my sense of him-he really sees that sex is an energy, and we are as ignorant of this as we were in the 17th century before the understanding of steam energy.

Then as people get more and more involved in him, it doesn’t stop. He’s not just a sex therapist. You get in on that and then you discover another facet of him and another facet.

Maneesha: So you feel that people involved in growth will find their way here as a natural culmination of the work they are doing?

Veereshwar: Well, the thing that I described to you before is that we are all working toward something intuitively, and that we see that thing “through a glass darkly“. What we see from Osho is a light coming from the other side of that, so the thing that has led us into growth techniques and has made us what we are, is drawing us closer to Osho. It’s just totally natural.

I mean I have three or four totally genius friends who are just here with me whenever I’m here, because they are here! This is absolutely what are doing. They’ll be here too, I imagine.. More big egos arriving from the West! (Laughter)

#osho #darshan diary #interview #veereshwar #spirituality #meditation

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myhauntedsalem · 4 years ago

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The Fox Sisters

In 1848, strange ‘rappings’ were heard in the Fox family’s Hydesville, New York, home. The rappings were capable of answering questions, through the number of knocks and taps they made.

It was soon believed that the Fox sisters, Kate and Margaret, were communicating with the dead.

March 31st, 1848 is a date many Spiritualists will cite as the beginning of their movement. On this date Kate/Cathie (12) and Margaret/Margareta (15) Fox began a series of communications with spirits through ‘rappings’, and relaying messages from a spirit who was said to haunt their home.

The Fox family lived in a small house in the hamlet of Hydesville, New York – now a part of Arcadia, Wayne County (Hydesville no longer exists). The house was said to be haunted, and several previous tenants later stated they had vacated the premises due to mysterious noises.

In mid-March, the Fox family began to be disturbed by strange noises and activity in their house. At first, John Fox (the father of the girls) believed the noises to be natural, the floorboards of the house settling in the changing seasons. The children did not take to this explanation, and soon would be found in the morning, sleeping in their parent’s bed, having fled there during the night.

The Fox’s had heard strange sounds in their pantry, and footsteps on the stairs leading to the cellar.

On March 31st Kate decided to challenge the unseen creator of the sounds, by asking it to repeat the snapping of her fingers or claps of her hands, to which the noises complied. Margaret then had a try, referred to the unseen entity as “Mr Splitfoot” – a nickname for the Devil, and challenged it to other mimicking of which, once again it did.

After the sounds completed the counting out of numbers, the eldest of the Fox sisters was too afraid to venture further. However, Kate tried to explain it all away as someone trying to fool them, as April Fools Day was to take place the following morning.

Mrs Fox decided on one more challenge, asking for it to sound out the ages of her children. Once again, the request was answered with each of the children’s ages rapped out, a gap in between, but what shocked Mrs Fox was the final, seventh set of raps, numbering three, the age her youngest child had died.

More communications were made that night, and it was finally discovered that it was the spirit of a 31 year old man, who had been murdered in the house, his body buried in the cellar. He had living children, but his wife had since passed. Finally, he agreed to keep creating the raps for witnesses.

Mr Fox went to get some neighbors to witness the rappings. The first, Mrs Redfield, was expecting it to be a joke, but upon seeing the terrified family, took the events seriously. The spirit rapped out her age, her husband’s age, and soon the house was filled with many from the local community. Still the rapping continued, answering questions.

Before the night was ended, the present living were able to ascertain how the murder took place and where. The spirit was that of a peddler named Charles Rosna, and he was murdered, throat cut, for his money (about five hundred dollars) in one of the bedrooms a few years previous. He was taken down the cellar and was buried quite deep.

On April 1st the cellar was dug out, till the workers hit the waterline, at which point they gave up. No bones were found, and that day and night no rappings were heard. Perhaps it was an April Fools Day joke after all?

However, the sounds did return, and this time, on the following Saturday, over three hundred people crammed in the house, and overflowing outside. The rappings began to be heard the following day as well.

Although much of the community was mystified, there were a select few who considered the communications as witchery and trickery. The Fox family were asked to leave the church congregation, due to being seen as engaging in unholy practices.

The sisters were moved – Kate to her brothers house, and Margaret to her elder sisters house. The Rappings were heard at both locations, so it was determined that it was the girls themselves the spirit realm wanted to communicate with.

It was suggested that an alphabet be developed and used to communicate with the spirits, a kind of spiritual Morse code. With this new, more in depth way of communicating in place, the sisters received the message that they should not hide “this truth” from the world.

The Quaker community (The Religious Society of Friends founded by George Fox in 1650) in Rochester, where the girls where now living with their siblings, invited the Fox sisters, and were soon convinced. It was this Quaker community that formed the inner core of what would become the spiritual movement.

By 1850 the sisters were performing public séances in New York, their elder sister Leah being the official interpreter of the raps, which became very popular and as their fame spread, so did the rise of many other people declaring they too could communicate with the spirit worlds through the ‘rapping’ medium. Many people attended the séances in the hopes of getting financial tips, love advice, seeking truth about their partners and many other quite frivolous things.

The timing was perfect; with the publication of several books looking into the notion of spirit, there was a massive boom in those flocking to see such wonders for themselves. Undoubtedly, and as can be expected, it proved to be quite lucrative, not just for the mediums, but also for the owners of the locations playing host to them. It was not all dark dingy back rooms, but also theatres would be booked out, filled to capacity.

However, as always, there were the critics who investigated these claims. Dr Charles Page from Washington DC booked himself in to a few of the Fox sister’s séances, in order to closely investigate what was happening. He finally came to the conclusion that it was the girls making the noises, the rappings seemingly coming from under their dresses. Even though he published such findings, it was not conclusive and still the sisters popularity grew.

They began to move through high society circles, and also married into them. Margaret married an Arctic Explorer, and Kate a London Barrister. Soon they engaged on ‘missionary work’, sitting for high class and high financed people in order to provide a spiritual aspect to their lives, making them more complete.

Several influential religious leaders at the time also turned from the church to embrace spiritualism, a fact that alarmed many.

However, it was soon to come to an end, at least for the Fox Sisters. In 1888 the two sisters had developed drinking problems and quarreled at large with the rest of the spiritual community. They also quarreled with their sister Leah, and began to travel for their séances without her. It was on one such occasion, October 21, 1888, while in New York City, that Margaret appeared at the New York Academy of Music and shocked all who were present, and the world.

She demonstrated how she had faked the rappings, and other phenomena throughout the years, by cracking her toe joints. She could do this at will and repeated how the ‘spirits’ would answer her questions. She also explained how it all began –

It started as a prank the sisters formulated to scare their mother, all those years ago. They used apples attached to strings and raised and released them to create the rhythmic rappings heard throughout their Hydesville home. They also soon learned they could cause further sounds, by snapping their fingers while placing their hands against a solid wooden object.

They attempted to end it by suggesting it as an April Fools Day Joke, but had messed up when they/the spirit agreed to continue with the neighbors present.

They felt if, at that point, they came clean, they would be in a lot of trouble with their mother. It was when they moved to Rochester that they confided in their sister Leah the truth of the matter, and she helped them develop their skills by teaching them to snap their toes and other joints. They got so good at it they could use either feet, swapping one from the other.

She also explained that no one was touched by spirit during the séance, but rather it was an effect of the noise. At times people could hear the noise, and that by feeling the slight vibration, they may feel it in their shoulder and exclaim to that extent. None of it was real.

The confession ran in the newspapers, much to the spiritualists dismay and the rejoice of their critics. The sisters then made statements against the spiritualist movement, denouncing the entirety of it as a falsehood. Kate Fox was especially damning claiming “I regard Spiritualism as one of the greatest curses that the world has ever known.” for the New York Herald.

However, one year later, Margaret Fox recanted her confession, saying that although she could crack her toes so can many other people, it was not a skill she developed for fraudulent purposes, but was a way of falsely explaining spiritualism as a trick. She was down in her moods, an alcoholic and when she was offered $1500 (A very large sum of money in the day) for an exclusive exposé, to appear in New York World, how could she resist?

She also wanted to hurt her sister Leah, whom she had been quarreling with. The damage had been done, and Margaret Fox died, largely from her alcoholism, on July 1st, 1892. A Mrs Mellon visited with Margaret Fox during her final days, and claimed to have heard the rappings. Margaret could not have performed them, as she was essentially paralyzed. They came from the ceiling and floor. Mrs Mellon was not a supporter of the spiritual movement.

Leah had died a few years previously, and Kate died the following year in 1893.

One final note. If you visit the Lily Dale museum, there is a large tin box on display. Inquiry will reveal it was found in the cellar of the Fox home in Hydesville. A false wall was discovered, and in the space was a ‘skeleton’ and ‘The Peddlers Box’. Unfortunately the discovery is dubious at best, many of the bones belonging to a chicken, and the space it was found in an extension of the cellar, rather than a walled in section.

#The Fox Sisters #paranormal #ghost and hauntings #ghost and spirits

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chiyohsrifle · 4 years ago

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Got tagged by the marvelous @hvnnigram and I can't wait to bare my soul to you guys. this is a long one, so let's go!!

Rules: Tag people you want to get to know better 🖤

Your name and then what you would've named yourself: My full name is Montserrat (I'm Mexican, in case you couldn't tell. Well Mexican-American but anywho) but I typically go by Montse. Mainly cuz people struggle to pronounce my full name hehe but I also just think it's less of a mouthful. Idk, I honestly really love my name and don't think I'd change it given the chance. Maybe something shorter just cuz paperwork can be a bitch. I like Rene but otherwise, I'm pretty attached to my name lol.

Astrological sign (sun/moon/rising if you know them): I'm a sun Pisces, a moon Aries, and a rising Virgo, I believe :)) All in all, I'm an emotional, empathetic bitch

When did you join Tumblr and why?: Was going through my emails yesterday and I've been here for a year?? apparently. So yea, I joined Aug./Nov. of 2019 and I'm almost certain it was cuz I wanted to see more Good Omens fanart lol. But I got more active this year cuz quarantine do be forcing me to have some wack coping mechanisms. Also BBC Merlin had me reeling and I needed somewhere to scream.

Top 5 fandoms: Hannibal (obviously), BBC Merlin, Killing Eve, Good Omens, and The Umbrella Academy 😊

Top 5 favorite films: (oh Lord, the cinema buff in me is Panicking rn) God, there's so many I love but I'll try to give varietyTM. But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), Parasite (2019), The Wind Rises (2013), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), and Hector and the Search for Happiness (2014).

Go to song when you wanna Feel something: if we're talking like emotionally charged, TALK ME DOWN by Troye Sivan always sends me reeling. Endorphins wise, Ahora Te Puedes Marchar by Luis Miguel always makes me wanna jump and move around. And La Vie Boheme from RENT, just pure serotonin

What's your religion or faith, if you have one?: I was raised with a heavy Catholic background but I'm agnostic, I believe is the term. Basically, I don't think there's not a God or higher power(s). I just don't align with anything specifically. But I do believe there's something running things, whether that be spirits, the stars, gods, etc. I can't say.

A song that makes you feel seen: Not to be a theatre kid on main but, Breathe from In The Heights. That song and whole musical hold such a special place in my heart, esp with Nina's character cuz I'm Nina. Every part of that song just Gets Me and i ugh, can't articulate it but yea, that song be me.

If you could pick a career: A writer or painter. Anything creative/artsy really cuz crafting is just so calming to me.

Do you have a type?: ngl, I'm kinda the 'falls in love with their best friend' stereotype but beyond that, not really. I kinda just see attractive people and mentally short circuit

What does your soul/heart yearn for?: Not to sound like a character from Hannibal, but to be understood. To be cared for and feel supported. To allow myself to rest and be comforted/loved. Just to feel safe ig. Whoop, that got personal, anywho

If you had to describe yourself in 5 words to someone who doesn’t know you: intelligent, caring, awkward, Very Queer, and chaotic

Favorite subject in school: English and History!! I think they're absolutely fascinating and I'm gay so obviously I connect way too much with literature

Where does your soul feel most at home at?: Close to someone that I love, in comfortable silence. Or any situation where I have wind blowing in my face, it's super comforting and idk why

Top 5 fictional characters: Rowena from SPN, Bella Crawford, Beverly Katz, Eve Polastri, and Jack Crawford

Top 3 moments in a show that made you ugly cry:

1. The ending of Your Lie In April. Idk if any of yall have experienced that, but let me know if you have cuz shared trauma. I was crying so hard, I couldn't breathe. Dry heaving and everything, it was Not Pretty

2. Like literally all of One Day At Time. I know, it's cheesy but that show means a lot to me and I get so emotional watching it cuz I connect to the characters so much. Anything with Elena makes me sob cuz like she's me but also my baby, ya know

3. Um Queer Eye in general but specifically the episode with the gay pastor. That hit close to home on so many levels and boy, was I sobbing the entire time.

(Before y'all ask, honorable mention to Mizumono, TWOTL, and the ending of BBC Merlin cuz I may have been too tired to cry, but trust me, I was emotionally wrecked after all three)

The earth, the sun, the moon, or the stars: Ooh, I'm gonna have to go with the stars but I love that lesbian space rock too

Favorite kind of weather: Thunderstorms, rain, cloudy, grey weather. Fall, I love the fall, give me autumn pleASE

Top 3 characters to kin you with: Guinevere Pendragon from BBC Merlin, Vanya Hargreeves from TUA, and Abigail Hobbs from Hannibal

Favorite medium of art: I love all art very much but I guess drawing and film especially

Introvert/Extrovert/Ambivert: Gonna say ambivert cuz I can be shy but buckle up, cuz the second I'm comfortable around you, it's absolute chaos. You will learn too much about me and that's okay 😌

Favorite literary quote: If poetry counts, it's something like "And if the devil was to ever see you, he'd kiss your eyes and repent". Idk who wrote it but it's an Arabic love poem. Actual book quote tho, "But I'm tired of coming out. All I ever do is come out. I try not to change, but I keep changing, in all these little ways." from Simon vs. The Homosapiens Agenda cuz damn me too.

Some of your favorite books: Simon vs. The Homosapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, the Carry On series by Rainbow Rowell, When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, All The Bright Places by Jennifer Lee, Autoboygraphy, and Copper Sun

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?: Europe or New York. No real specifics for Europe, defiently leaning more towards Western Europe and the Mediterranean cuz they just seem so pretty. And NY cuz I want a studio apartment hehe and also I adore NY. I went a couple years back and just fell in love. Although live is a loose term cuz I've always thought of moving around a lot. I like traveling and settling down isn't really convenient for that so these are kinda just ideals lol

If you could live in any time in history, when would it be?: Oh, defiently 60s/70s. Also, anytime matriarch societies were common cuz I wanna see what that looked like

If you could play any instrument masterfully, it would be: the acoustic guitar and piano. Maybe violin, but those two for sure

If you have one, which god or goddess do you feel more connected to?: I've always really vibed with Athena so her. But also Diyonuses cuz man's is the ideal.

And finally, your favorite recent selfie in your camera role:

(Excuse the eye bags and look in general, I was sleepy when I took it)

Whoo, that's all folks. I'm just gonna say that any of my followers/mutuals who want to do this, feel free to say I tagged you. Thanks for tag, once again, babe!!

#thanks for the tag!#luv u babe #mwah <3 #get to know me #about me

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enthusiasticmusicalfeelings · 6 years ago

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Introduction: My Theatre Journey

Introducing my new musical theatre blog! Here, I'll be talking all about #theatre, #musicals, and more. Check out my journey here.

Hi everyone.

Some of you may know me from Tumblr, some of you may know me from real life, and some of you may not know me at all. No matter how you know me, I want to introduce myself. My name is Stefani, and I want to share my love for theatre with you through this blog. Below, read about how my love of theatre got started.

60’s Girl

I would have to say that my journey started back in 2006,…

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#billy elliot #broadway #dreamgirls #hairspray #Hamilton #hamilton musical #how to succeed #how to succeed in business without really trying #jekyll and hyde #musical theatre #musicals #theatre #theatre journey #wicked #wicked musical

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miguelmarias · 6 years ago

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Innisfree

Perhaps the most uneven, together with his first (Los motivos de Berta [1983]), of José Luis Guerín’s features, Innisfree is also, probably, the most unexpected and unlikely film for a young Spaniard to make. The idea was to revisit the places – several villages including Cong in County Mayo – where, almost 40 years before, John Ford had shot The Quiet Man (1952), creating the mythical Innisfree from a composite of a number of locations in the area. Guerín’s aim was to look for the “tracks”, traces and memories that the filming had left behind – revisiting the sites used in the film remains a minor tourist attraction – as well as to search out the actual places that had materialised on screen. Ford’s vision, made up of his own recollections and fantasies of Erin, created an image that has seduced moviegoers around the world for decades and has spurred an otherwise unexplainable attachment to the green grass, ever-changing light and folksongs of Ireland for many long before they set foot in the country.

It may now seem strange for a filmmaker to be compelled to research his chosen roots, but that is precisely one of the features that make Guerín stand apart from much of Spanish cinema. He’s the kind of director that the mainstream “industrial” or “commercial�� cinema pushes to the side and keeps at a distance, because the “establishment” rejects automatically anyone who wants to make movies driven by desire and curiosity, that are created with patience, endurance, time and freedom rather than money, stars or any kind of luxury, and who wonders about what cinema is and should or could be today. Most of Guerín’s colleagues do not understand or even fathom the motives that drove him to make, despite many difficulties, such an un-Spanish film, defying a very Spanish distrust towards anyone interested in things foreign. The very idea of going with a small Spanish crew to Ireland to shoot for several months, exclusively in English (and even a bit of Gaelic!), without actors or a plot, vaguely dealing with a very old American film based on an idea of Ireland passed onto its director by his homesick immigrant parents – and comparing it with the quite different present day reality of that same territory almost 40 years later – seemed utterly pointless and wholly unprofitable at a time when commercial success had already become, for many, the single criteria for judging films. Apart from his inner personal, affective motives, I can easily understand that Guerín, a filmmaker fully aware of the past and his place in the history of cinema, and who consequently feels grateful to the work of his forebears, must wonder why he has chosen such masters instead of others. He wants to acknowledge his debt even if those “masters” are dead and buried and there is no other way to do it than by taking a roundabout path. He achieves this not by emulating or aping them, much less aspiring to take their place, but by conversing with them through the “tombstone” (a medium through which so many Fordian characters have talked with to dead loved ones) of one of Ford’s most personal films.

On the other hand, Innisfree marks the real starting-point of Guerín’s persistent, many-sided exploration of the unseen part of each shot, of the space off-camera, of what is deliberately or unconsciously left outside the frame – but which for him is, nevertheless, implicitly, also a part of each shot. This covers what is in front, above, below and to both sides of the camera and frame, as well as (particularly in Tren de sombras [1997]) what lies not only behind the camera itself but also beyond the actors/characters being filmed. Unable to use excerpts from The Quiet Man(the then new owners of Republic Pictures did not understand the project at all and seemingly feared Innisfreemight damage further exploitation of Ford’s movie in theatres and on video), Guerín had to evoke it through roughly reconstructing some of its more emblematic images, a few stills, and by filming the present-day reverse angles of the shots he could not visually quote. This all has the haunting effect of somehow summoning the spectre of Ford’s film, especially when accompanied by snatches of dialogue, noises, or the musical score from the its soundtrack.

In this regard, Innisfree goes far beyond a mere but deeply felt tribute to The Quiet Man and Ford’s memory. It is a somewhat random exploration of the image-making and myth-making powers of Classical Hollywood cinema (particularly when one of its best and most personal filmmakers was at the helm), and of the lasting impact and memory that the filming of a Hollywood movie left all over the area in which it was made. It is also, and on the other hand, a documentary about County Mayo in and around the year 1990, and the effect of a screening of The Quiet Man on the young inhabitants who had heard about it but had never watched the film before. The result is a loosely-constructed film (not as tightly and carefully structured as Tren de sombras, for example), which does not require a prior knowledge of the film it evokes (although, certainly, it is much better to bear it in mind, and The Quiet Man and Innisfree would make a most appropriate double bill). Innisfree can stand on its own as a rather peculiar documentary showing that, however oneiric and idealised the country depicted by Ford might have already been in 1951, the director succeeded in capturing something of its essence, a spirit that remained in its people, old or very young, for several decades afterwards.

Miguel Marías

http://sensesofcinema.com/2009/cteq/innisfree/

#Miguel Marías #innisfree #josé luis guerin #john ford #senses of cinema

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haveclotheswilltravel · 6 years ago

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The Museum of Cosmonautics

When it comes to must-visit places in Moscow, Russia, the Museum of Cosmonautics generally doesn’t make the same lists as The Kremlin, St. Basil’s Cathedral or the Bolshoi Theatre…however, does that mean it’s not worth adding to your Moscow itinerary? This post will explain!

What is the Museum of Cosmonautics?

The Museum of Cosmonautics is a museum dedicated to space exploration. It charts the history of the Russian space race and famous Russian astronauts and has an impressive variety of space equipment, suits…and even some famous taxidermied dogs (more on that in a second). The museum itself is actually located at the base of the monument “To the Conquerors of Space,” which is a 100-meter titanium obelisk erected in 1964 to celebrate the achievements of the Soviet people in space exploration. (Pictured below.)

Note: The Museum of Cosmonautics is not the same as “Star City,” which is the Russian space training facility. Star City is where cosmonauts still train today, and it’s home to the world’s largest centrifuge! You can tour it, click here for more info, but you have to apply for a visitor permit at least 45 days before you intend to go. (We did this before my brother-in-law visited and were denied because the cosmonauts didn’t want to work over their holiday break. Can’t blame them!)

Monument to the Conquerors of Space

Take a Look Inside The Museum of Cosmonautics!

There are a lot of interesting things to see in the Museum of Cosmonautics – even if you aren’t that big of space exploration buff. Likely the first exhibits you’ll notice when walking in will feature two taxidermied dogs. These are “Strelka” & “Belka’ and they are the first dogs to ever go to space and return. Strelka went on to have 6 puppies, one of which was given to President John F. Kennedy. This dog ended up having puppies with the Kennedy’s dog, Charlie. JFK jokingly called the pups “pupniks.” (I thought that was funny, personally!)

Strelka & Belka

There are a lot of space suits in the museum! I personally found this interesting. Some are replicas and some are originals. The two I found most interesting (that were original) were the first space suit used to exit a spacecraft into outer space and the suit worn by Michael Collins during the Apollo 11 mission (the moon landing)! I couldn’t really find any info on how Collins’ suit ended up in Moscow, but hey, it’s here! Also, the space suit of Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (the first person to go into outer space!)…I believe is in Washington, D.C. at the Smithsonian? Not at this museum in Moscow (although, there appears to be a replica). I do apologize if this is incorrect…however, I couldn’t find any information on this and there were no signs indicating the suit was actually Yuri Gagarin’s.

Space suits!

Michael Collins’ space suit from the Apollo 11 mission.

The first space suit used to exit a spacecraft into outer space!

Yuri Gagarin’s suit? I don’t believe so…

I also like seeing the various equipment that the cosmonauts used to train before launching as well as the bicycle they would get to use to stay fit once they were in space!

Space training equipment

You can also see the original descent module that the Soyuz 37 crew used to get back to earth with! Soyuz 37 was a 1980 Soviet manned space flight to the Salyut 6 space station.

Soyuz 37 Descent Module

You Can Buy Space Food

You can buy the same stuff the cosmonauts eat at a vending machine near the entrance of the museum, haha. It costs 400 rubles. I couldn’t resist buying a tube of “space food.” I have yet to taste it as I’m waiting to do this when we’re home with family – so, everyone will get a taste!

So, Is It Worth Visiting The Museum of Cosmonautics?

Honestly, I really enjoyed my time at the Museum of Cosmonautics. I’m grateful I was able to see it! However, if I was on an incredible time constraint visiting Moscow, such as, maybe only 1 or 2 days…I wouldn’t say you have to kill yourself trying to visit it. (You can’t leave Moscow without seeing the Armoury, though!)

However, you only need about 2 hours to see the highlights of the museum. It is also quite easy to get to using the metro (and it’s right next to the VDNKH metro station). Or, it’s about a 600 ruble cab ride from the Red Square area. So, if you have a couple extra hours to spare while in Moscow, you won’t regret visiting even if you’re not into space exploration! (I mean – you can buy space food!)

Also, if you don’t do a tour, I suggest paying for an audio guide (only 150 rubles). This is because not all of the signs throughout the museum are translated to the English. If you plan to take photographs as well, there is a 250 ruble fee for this too!

Click here for more information from the official website. And click here to book a tour of the Museum of Cosmonautics.

*Click here to see all my travel posts from Russia. *Click here to see my outfit post from the Museum of Cosmonautics – it’s the awesome galaxy dress pictured below!

Would you be interested in visiting the Museum of Cosmonautics if you were in Moscow? Let me know in the comments!

*Feel free to click on the photos below to make them full-sized and to read any captions.

“Zhulka” This pup went into space and survived a crash landing coming back. She went on to live for another 14 years

Real size replica of one module of the Mir Space Station

My husband & Strelka – he has aunts & uncles whose last names are “Strelka.” 😉

The capsule Strelka & Belka came back in! It had an automated feeding machine, toilet & ventilation system.

Used for space trainings

Photo of Belka and Strelka

If you liked it – Pin it!

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The Museum of Cosmonautics - Is it Worth Adding to Your Moscow Itinerary? When it comes to must-visit places in Moscow, Russia, the Museum of Cosmonautics generally doesn't make the same lists as The Kremlin, St.

#Moscow #moscow itinerary #space history #The Museum of Cosmonautics #Travel Tips

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gramilano · 6 years ago

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George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Act 1 snow scene, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018

Balanchine’s The Nutcracker is new to La Scala, in fact, new to Italy. And how the Scala regulars were relishing in the opportunity to grumble and mutter “humbug” during the interval. It’s certainly different from the Nureyev production which was seen in Milan for many years, and light-years away from the strange version by Nacho Duato that the theatre endured four years ago but which has already been consigned to La Scala’s extensive bin in the sky.

Balanchine’s version is danced less than Nureyev’s in the first act, and it has a less original storyline than Peter Wright’s versions for The Royal Ballet and the Birmingham Royal Ballet, but if you accept that it starts with lots of mime, and group ‘walking’ dances, and slowly moves its way toward the pas de deux finale — the dancing only kicking in with the snowflakes — it is a beautifully crafted piece of theatre. And if the acting scenes are handled as well as they were at La Scala, with charming and not vomit-inducing children, with realistic interactions among the guests, and subtle background stories being played out, it is an absolute joy to witness.

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Valerio Lunadei as the Soldier, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Paola Giovenzana and Vittoria Valerio as Harlequin and Columbine, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018

There are, of course, two dancing spots in the first scene when Drosselmeier – here sporting a bizarre Harpo Marx wig — brings Harlequin and Columbine, and the Soldier, out from their boxes. Tempi throughout were often slower that at the New York City Ballet, and that took the wind out of the sails of the Harlequin and Columbine number, but Valerio Lunadei was exciting as the Soldier as was Mattia Semperboni in a second cast.

Designer Margherita Palli has largely followed the spirit of the NYCB production in the first scene with some ravishing costumes for the guests, especially for the little boys in a dark palette of velvet knickerbocker suits; her snow scene is dazzlingly bright and crisp; but her land of the sweets was disappointingly flat. Where her designs in the programme show a shopfront inspired by Vienna’s Apotheke zum weissen Engel (here called “La Gourmandise”), which I imagine was to fade in transparency to reveal the shop behind as the gauze was raised, we were immediately in the shop as the curtain opened. And while her shop design was full of predominantly pink and green goodies — blancmanges, cupcakes, gateaux, bowls of fruit — all in enticing detail, there was a wall of pink. The elements were all there, and La Scala has some excellent scene painters, so I suspect the look may have been down to overenthusiastic lighting by Marco Filibeck which didn’t let the designs speak for themselves. Oddly — though maybe someone knows an historical reason for this — the ‘throne’ for Marie (not Clara in this version) and her Prince to sit on was a scallop shell decorated with a starfish a conch shell with two pearls as seats… in the land of the sweets?

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Act 2, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018

Palli’s elegant colouring of the first act costumes was thrown to the wind in this act which sees groups of costumes for hot chocolate, tea, marzipan, candy canes and so on go from stylised (marzipan) to feebly commonplace (tea) with colours ranging from almost fluorescent to subtly shaded pastels, so that when they all shared the stage it looked a real muddle.

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Nicoletta Manni as the Sugarplum Fairy, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018 01

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Nicoletta Manni as the Sugarplum Fairy, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018

The first night Sugarplum was Nicoletta Manni, who was as calm and assured as ever, notwithstanding the difficulty of the role. Timofej Andrijashenko, poised as her Cavalier, doesn’t get much chance to shine but was dashing and dignified. Beatrice Carbone was radiant as the mother, Frau Stahlbaum, possessing a face that easily projects to the whole house. Andrea Crescenzi as Tea was magnificent with each grand jeté à la seconde seeming ever-higher and easier, Nicola Del Freo was confident with his hoop as Candy Cane, Vittoria Valerio made Marzipan’s steps seem effortless, and Samuele Berbenni hit just the right tone as Mother Ginger in Palli’s glorious, mouth-watering costume.

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Samuele Berbenni as Mother Ginger, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Nicola Del Freo as Sugar Cane, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018 01

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Andrea Crescenzi as Tea, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Maria Celeste Losa as Coffee, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Vittoria Valerio as the Marzipan Shepherdess, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Nicola Del Freo as Sugar Cane, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Francesca Podini and Massimo Garon as Hot Chocolate, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018

It was Martina Arduino, though, who stole the show as Dewdrop, being the only one to really capture the Balanchine style. Her off-balances were daring, her epaulement and stretched-back neck opened up her dancing to the gods, and her port de bras was ample and extreme without being excessive. She’s either been doing secret classes in New York, shrewdly studying videos of the great Balanchine ballerinas, or has stumbled on a technique she just happens to be perfect for.

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Martina Arduino as Dewdrop, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018

Less than 24 hours later, Arduino found herself as the Sugarplum Fairy and showed off brisk turns before a deep and pliable cambré during the final pas de deux, with little head movements keeping the upper body free and supple. She also has great charm and has become a firm audience favourite. Her Cavalier was Del Freo whose pirouette sequence was musical and exuberant.

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Martina Arduino as Dewdrop, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018 02

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Martina Arduino as the Sugarplum Fairy, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018

This second cast found Crescenzi this time as Candy Cane and he caught the spirit of the solo perfectly with the cute wiggle when jumping through his Hula Hoop, and he was literally bent double in his leaps through the hoop for the ballet’s finale. Riccardo Massimi as Dr Stahlbaum maintained his period elegance during his good-humoured play with the children and Gaia Andreanò made a convincing debut as Dewdrop.

Company Director Frédéric Olivieri’s approach to casting seems to use the occasional reduced price performances as an opportunity to test out new talent. It worked marvellously well with Don Quixote before the summer last year, and he got it right again with the third cast which debuted in the first performance of this year.

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Act 1, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018 01

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Act 1, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018 02

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Act 1, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018 03

Caterina Bianchi and Mattia Semperboni took the two main roles. Both have had notable successes during 2018 — Bianchi as the Queen of the Dryads in Don Quixote and Semperboni as Alì the slave in Le Corsaire. They appeared wonderfully confident and glided through the technical difficulties without a hitch. She is a musical-box ballerina with perfect proportions and must be a joy to partner; he has grace combined with impressive pyrotechnic thrills. La Scala has a new pair of leading dancers.

Massimi and Emanuela Montanari were delicious as Hot Chocolate in their dreadful costumes — good on paper, horrendous on stage — Crescenzi repeated his crowd-pleasing Tea, Andreanò was a near-perfect marzipan shepherdess and we’ll surely see much more of her in coming seasons. Regrettably, Lunadei came into trouble with his hoop a few times and it remained trapped under his feet for the final pose, but as they say in Italian, “Non tutte le ciambelle riescono col buco”, literally, “Not all doughnuts come out with a hole” or rather… things don’t always turn out as planned.

As with all good meals I’ve left the coffee until last. All three casts offered supple, graceful dancers as Coffee. Maria Celeste Losa and Francesca Podini were both superb, but the first cast’s Paola Giovenzana was sensuous as well as sinuous and she’s another name to note.

The best Marie/Prince pairing — the children Chiara Ferraioli and Edoardo Russo — were whisked off into the sky in a giant gingerbread sleigh with, unfortunately, all its supporting cables clearly illuminated, as was the rope pulling up the Christmas tree transformation in the first act. Come on La Scala, nowadays the magic can seem real.

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Andrijashenko, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018 01

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Andrijashenko, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Act 1 snowscene, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Act 1 snowscene, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2018 02

In Balanchine’s Nutcracker at La Scala the magic is almost real – three casts reviewed Balanchine’s The Nutcracker is new to La Scala, in fact, new to Italy. And how the Scala regulars were relishing in the opportunity to grumble and mutter “humbug” during the interval.

#Frédéric Olivieri #La Scala #Martina Arduino #Mattia Semperboni #Nacho Duato #Nicola Del Freo #Nicoletta Manni #Timofej Andrijashenko #Vittoria Valerio

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trip-downtheriverstyx · 6 years ago

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BDRPWRIMO: A mock application- disclaimer that I did this as an exercise for my OC story aha but it’s still connected enough to Swynlake so!!

OPAL ACHERON;;

ABOUT THE CHARACTER; NAME: Opal FACE CLAIM: Mackenzie Foy PRONOUNS: She/her AGE: 18! SEXUALITY: Straight-ish. True Generation Z Straight, aka she mostly likes boys but won’t rule out ever liking a girl lmao sexuality is fluid JOB/SCHOOL: Pride U—Theatre! Scriptwriting at this moment. RESIDENCE: Belle’s house! WHY YOU’RE APPLYING FOR THIS CHARACTER (5 SENTENCES MINIMUM):

I’m just gonna use this space to talk about why I love Opal. She’s such a bright, upbeat, artistic character who has lots of dimensions to her. She’s driven first and foremost by an intense love and delight for life—for making each day unique and figuring out how to express herself or “make her mark.” She’s had a happy childhood with parents who love each other and are very passionate themselves, and that passion rubbed off on her and onto everything she touches and does. Because she was taught early on to never give up and to tackle problems head on (very Hades and Belle truly), she isn’t a pessimist or a cynic. She wants to find solutions to her problems. She wants to succeed and triumph. And so when her illness strikes, it never really occurs to her to be depressed about it. I mean, sure, that’s part denial right there but it also speaks to the iron of her will. She’s resilient and why wouldn’t she be? She grew up in Swynlake.

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR CHARACTER CAN ADD TO SWYNLAKE (5 sentences minimum): She is the kind of girl to get into trouble and bring people along with her! She hears about something mysterious in the forest? Absolutely she wants to check that out. Student body elections? You betcha Opal wants to run. She’s more of a ‘leader’ than a follower, though at the same time, I think she operates in this middle space between “mom friend” and like, I dunno, cool aunt friend—like, part of Opal getting into trouble will be on behalf of some of her closest friends sometimes. (If you’re thinking to yourself, is Opal a Gryffindor??? I don’t know. I’m between Raven v Gryff v a very friendly Slytherin because I think she gets attached to persons over groups but I’ll let u know where she lands lmao.)

LIST THREE GOALS THAT YOU WANT TO ACCOMPLISH WITH THIS CHARACTER/THAT THIS CHARACTER WANTS TO ACCOMPLISH:

None of these are gonna make sense to you guys here we go— 1. Come to terms with her chronic illness—her ghostliness is sort of a metaphor for this. Opal desperately wants to be normal but she isn’t normal. She needs to accept she has certain limitations…but those limitations don’t have to necessarily LIMIT her “life” experience. 2. Have a YA-worthy romance probably—Opal is definitely too romantic for her own good, while simultaneously being pretty sensible about it and probably a little persnickety. She’s definitely had boyfriends in the past, but does fear true commitment in a way because of how much she values independence and doing things her way. She’s like her mum in that sense ahah. And I’d love for her to really learn how to be in a relationship. 3. Hijinks with her brothers related to “fixing” her condition—which maybe culminates in a visit to the underworld?! Mostly because I need a fucking plot for this thing. But it would be funny if Hades is still Lord of the Underworld and this is like the equivalent of going out to a 21+ strip club or something lmfao.

WHAT IS YOUR CHARACTER’S VIEW ON MAGIC? (3 SENTENCES MINIMUM):

Opal grew up around magic so naturally she loves it. She also depends on magic to make her life livable. While magic is vilified by others, magic lifts up Opal’s own life—and so she sees lots of good with it and is a true magic advocate. She also realizes she’s in a really unique position (like a lot of white upper-class kids with a chronic illness) in that the nature of her family’s magic means she GETS the care she needs, even if that care is through magic. BIOGRAPHY (300 WORDS MINIMUM, 3RD PERSON):

Opal Acheron is not dead yet. Opal Acheron is a lot of things besides dead (ish.) She is the daughter of Belle Acheron, a very successful Magick Rights Lawyer, and Hades, the ambassador to the Underworld. She’s an artist. She’s an actress. She’s a big sister who takes that job very seriously, even when her twin brothers annoy her. She’s a wicked horse rider and she also plays a mean game of chess, taught by the Lord of the Dead himself. And when she was just 12 years old, she scripted her first petition with the help of her mother, advocating for an Undead Appreciation Day. She is a Swynlake Native and it’s in her very blood. She wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. And yes. She’s just a touch dead. Soon after Opal’s eighteenth birthday, she developed a very inconvenient heart tumor that would certainly lead to her untimely end. But her father intervened before her soul could pass through the veil. He bargained with the Fates—Opal would live frozen in time, a ghost during the day, and a girl at night, for as long as she wanted…or at least, until the Acherons found some kind of solution, magic or medical, that might give Opal more time. Now, Opal has to learn a different way of living, a life between things, and just in time for her first semester of university. But Opal considers herself a very optimistic girl, even if she’s a ghost one. She’s determined not to let her condition get in the way of her dreams. Why should she— Opal Acheron is not dead yet.

ROLEPLAYING SAMPLE (500 WORDS MINIMUM, 3RD PERSON):

Opal sees a cute boy.

He sits in the back of Hatter’s café, trousers the colour of mustard and rolled up so she can see his ankles. She likes his ankles best of all, or at least, she likes them best from where she stands next to her brother who is waiting for his peppermint mocha. She wants to get closer to decide about those ankles. And whether or not those glasses he wears—the thick, clear plastic kind—are real or just a fashion statement, and what she thinks about that, too. Either way, she knows he is cute enough to ask.

Unfortunately, she’s a ghost, which makes these things slightly more complicated.

If she were still alive, Opal would not hesitate to go over and introduce herself. If she were alive, she’d already have made eye contact with him across the room-- like in her favorite classic movies, with women in splendid pin-up skirts and perfect curls, who flirted over the tops of books, speaking whole poems with a flutter of their eyelashes. If she were alive, maybe she’d even entice the skinny-ankled stranger to buy her a coffee too. But because she is not alive, she should turn away and mind her business-- her flirting days behind her now.

But that sounds terrible. So instead, she informs her brother, who is a medium: “Bell, I see a cute boy.”

Bellamy is reading and not paying attention to cute boys. He doesn’t look up from Frank Herbert’s Dune, only turns a page and says, “Good for you.”

She presses her lips together. “Bell, you’re not even looking. I need you to go over and talk to him for me.”

“No thank you.”

“That wasn’t a request.”

“Ah, well, then you should say please.”

“I said it wasn’t a request.” Opal stares owlishly at her brother, who has officially started ignoring her, as though she is little more than a gnat buzzing around his ear. Well, she can buzz much louder if she really wants to. Opal has no qualms about being an annoying older sister. In her opinion, being annoying is in the job description of an Older Sister, and especially an Older Sister Who Is Also A Ghost.

And so she reaches out with those ghosty hands of hers and levitates Dune right out of Bell’s hands. A few eyes in the queue slide their way and follow the book as it floats above her brother’s head. Bell stares at his hands still, like nothing happened.

“This is rude,” states Bell with his eyes on his empty hands.

She wiggles the book in the air, pages fluttering. “Please,” she says.

He finally looks up and regards her with a blank face. “You’re so immature.”

“I’m a ghost—emotionally stunted by nature,” says Opal. “Now, please, talk to Cute Boy for me.”

PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING ABOUT THE CHARACTER (MINIMUM OF THREE WITH 2-3 SENTENCE EXPLANATIONS): FAVORITE (OR LEAST FAVORITE)… COLOR(S): “It’s not fair to the other colors to have a favorite.” WEATHER: She loves thunderstorms. They’re so dramatic and she likes to pretend to be scared or like it’s gonna blow the house down. MUSIC: Musicals of course! Lots of classics and old jazz singers. She does like pop music too but only a tune here and there. MOVIE(S): oh OLDIES again! Musicals! Black and white classics! Got really into silent films at one point. She also loves old historical dramas and she wants to start in an Austen revival. Loves Shakespeare theatre. Sexual awakening when she saw DiCaprio in Romeo + Juliet SCENT(S): Um…flowers. Understated scents, probably doesn’t wear perfume unless for special occasions. BEVERAGE: is she an ice coffee bitch—Yes also flavored lattes and herbal teas. FOOD(S): vegetarian :3 She really loves coconut in things. Her favorite meal is probably like a vegetarian coconut curry or something—kinda sweet n spicy at the same time. She loves Indian food for that kinda reason too. Oh and vegetarian sushi like with avocado and mango and stuff. ANIMAL(S): Horses! Belle would have Opal start riding as soon as she can walk (despite Hades probably being overprotective.) Opal would be a true blue horse girl. She’d read all the horse books and goes to feed Philippe with her mum and probably wants her very own horse too! Horses are the best! 100 percent horses! Also, the humble caterpillar. OR 3 HEADCANONS (3 sentence mimimum): -Opal has one of those weird girly phobias about cutting her hair. She only ever trims it and she loves it as long as it can go. She also taught herself how to do extravagant braids and updos—definitely self-taught when it comes to that and also make-up, all through Youtube tutorials, since Belle isn’t exactly savvy herself. (I bet she’s done Belle’s hair tho isn’t that cute.) - Despite absolutely loving to dress up, her day to day look is pretty practical. She likes boots because they can be cute but she can still go trudging through Enchantra and they don’t get too uncomfortable.

#bdrpwrimolauryl

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smtraxler · 6 years ago

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Hello Mother! Hello Father! Here I am a Camp Granada!

We didn’t sing the song at camp but I actually attended a camp with the name of that amusing camp song.

After some Internet searching, I was unable to find anything about the camp and I have to assume it has closed. I attended Camp Granada for 2 weeks every summer for 4 years; from the time I was 12 to 16. I was fortunate to have a family who was able to send me to horse camp. My brother attended one year, but it really wasn’t his thing.

Two weeks out of the year, doesn’t seem like a lot of time, but those 8 weeks of my life gave me some of my best memories.

Our day would start out with mucking stalls in the morning, then breakfast, then our morning ride. The ride included going to the pasture to get our horses, then taking them to the arena to properly groom and saddle them. We would generally ride around the arena, learning the proper way to work the horse from walk to trot to canter. They would teach us formations and would practice a routine that would be shown to the parents on the last day of camp (I think I still have the VHS, yes VHS tapes of these rides from those sessions). My favorite was when we would go out on trail rides and get outside.

Ghazid is the horse on the bottom left side of the picture.

The first year, I rode a horse whose nickname was Beans (you can imagine why, he was quite gassy), I can’t remember what his real name was but It was entertaining to a group of young girls trotting along and a horse letting out loud farts. Beans was a gentle, tubby bay for a girl who didn’t have a lot of horse experience. The second year I rode a horse named Ghazid, his main feature was that his tail was extremely short, for an unknown reason and when he would trot he would lift his tail and it would look like a streamer.

The third year, I started out with a pretty paint named Moon Beam, she was a mean tempered bitch, and that is the only description for her. Needless to say, she bit me in the shoulder while I was grooming her before one of our morning rides. Like I said, mean tempered bitch. Moon Beam was then replaced with Khalid, who was the exact opposite. He was a very mild tempered horse, and I ended up riding him for my 4th year as well. My final year, I tried an English saddle and wound up flying over Khalid’s head and onto my butt on the ground and switching back to a Western saddle.

The camp had a bunk house where the campers would sleep. A boys side and a girls side, but there was rarely any boys. In my 3rd year, the camp hosted a group of Japanese girls; we got to spend time learning about them and ended up making friends. At the end of camp we exchanged gifts from our home lands; I received a pretty pair of chopsticks, which I still have. That year we also signed t-shirts for each other and the girls signed them in Japanese, again, I still have mine.

Each year we would go on field trips. One year we went to Rogue Community College Amphitheater, where each summer they put on 2 musicals throughout the summer. That year had been Oklahoma and at the beginning of the performance they had a stagecoach with horses come from the hill behind the grass seating down to the stage. I thought it was amazing. The other interesting part of this particular performance was that Kevin Hagen, the actor that played Doc Baker on Little House on the Prairie played Ado Annie’s father. He had moved to the area and began acting in the local theatre.

Another year, we went to Historic Jacksonville and to the Britt Festival. I can’t remember what we saw but I recall that the owner, Carmen, and my best camp friends and I had one of the Old Time photos done. We did so many other things, but these are the one the have stuck in my mind over the years.

Top Left to Right: Michelle, Me, Andy & Kara Bottom: Dan (counselor) & Mari Carmen (camp owner)

A wooden mask hung in the dining room of the bunkhouse and legend was that it was cursed and the ‘witch doctor’ would get you if you touched the mask. Of course, we all dared each other to touch it. The closest we would get would be to put a hand in its open mouth (without touch the teeth, of course) and making faces.

There was swimming in the pond on the property or pool (which was closer), bonfires, story telling, sitting in the bunkhouse playing cards (we generally played one called Speed) and listening to music. We also watched movies…

I’ve never been a fan of scary movies, and one year we watched Poltergeist. Probably wouldn’t have been a big deal except one thing, when we had to go to the bathroom that night. The scene where the clouds are roiling over the house just before all Hell breaks loose…. (I will come back to this after a short explanation).

The bathrooms for the campers were in the barn. At night, the barn doors were open for the paddock horses to run back and forth into the arena and the paddock and we had to go through one side of the barn around the back and down the other side of the barn. During the day we were able to cut across between the paddock and the barn. The night we watched Poltergeist, we walked out of the bunkhouse and down one side of the barn, when we got to the other side of the barn we looked across the yard and the sky above looked just like the one we had just seen in the movie. Of course, as girls will do we squealed and ran to the other side and walked quickly (no running in the barn!) down to the bathroom and did the same on the return trip, all the while giggling and freaking each other out more.

The first year I was there, Carmen’s mother, had just moved to the U.S. from Spain. She was sadly unable to participate in the following years, due to age and health. However, that year, she cooked a traditional Spanish meal, which I have searched for, for 30 years now and have not been able to find anything like it. All I remember was that it contained chicken and a Spanish rice, sounds pretty simple but there was much more to it and for the life of me I haven’t been able to duplicate it.

Finally, there were my camp friends, I made quite a few over the years, but there are 2 that were my camp besties. I lost track of them after I went to college and started moving around but due to the invention of Social Media, I was able to find them again, and even got to meet up with Andy about 5 years ago and introduce her to my children.

Andy & the Witch Doctor

Kara & Amy

Khalid

Flame (watched his gelding my first year…)

Camp Granada Hello Mother! Hello Father! Here I am a Camp Granada! We didn't sing the song at camp but I actually attended a camp with the name of that amusing camp song.

#Fun #girly #horses #summer camp

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myhauntedsalem · 5 years ago

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The Fox Sisters

In 1848, strange ‘rappings’ were heard in the Fox family’s Hydesville, New York, home. The rappings were capable of answering questions, through the number of knocks and taps they made.

It was soon believed that the Fox sisters, Kate and Margaret, were communicating with the dead.

The Fox’s had heard strange sounds in their pantry, and footsteps on the stairs leading to the cellar.

Several influential religious leaders at the time also turned from the church to embrace spiritualism, a fact that alarmed many.

They attempted to end it by suggesting it as an April Fools Day Joke, but had messed up when they/the spirit agreed to continue with the neighbors present.

Leah had died a few years previously, and Kate died the following year in 1893.

#The Fox Sisters #paranormal #ghost and hauntings #ghost and spirits

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gianprod1 · 5 years ago

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Week 3

In today’s reading, the text describes in detail the horrific mass shooting at Virginia Tech by Seung-Hui Cho. Seung killed 32 people before shooting himself in the head. Now I’m not surprised by these kinds of shootings, it’s not a coincidence the United States has so many shootings since they don’t want to get rid of their guns. Also, these kinds of shootings happen quite frequently at universities and honestly, it sounds bad to say buts its almost normalized at me, but I’d be kind of surprised if it happened at Brock. What did surprise me was the text explained the possible motives for Seung’s actions was his history of playing violent video games. The chapter assigned for this week explains how individuals are affected by media negatively and explore these concerns when film and radio were the main sources of information and entertainment.

The text explains that the early 20th century was the era in which industrial change flourished in the United States and around the world. Watching films in the cinemas was established as a common-leisure activity amongst families, and youth. When television was introduced, families that owned T. V’s now had the option to watch programs in the comfort of their own homes, including their children. Television in the early (20th century) was nothing like it is today, with realistic special effects, blood and gore, and CGI; most of these aspects are a given when watching a big-budget action flick. However, when T.V was first introduced many aspects we see in most action now was revolutionary back in that time. So, when television started its increase in popularity scholars, politicians, and progressive reformers started to raise some concerns about the number of television people are consuming, especially in young children. Charles Horton Cooley, a professor at the University of Michigan “outlined that the significance of “communication” in giving societies a sense of themselves, beginning with observation and imitation process that children adopt as they mature.” (p.27) He also described that communication as “the mechanism through which human relations exist and develop” (p .27) this includes facial expressions, attitudes, tone of voice, words, and writing. Hügo Munsterberg a Harvard psychologist also examined the perpetual processes that were found amongst the audiences when looking at moving pictures on a screen. “In order to understand and engage with a film’s plot and character’s, he argued, the audience must first place themselves within the conceptual world of visual images on the screen.” (p.28) This part of the reading really stood out to me, because I believe this is necessary when you really engage with a story, whether it be a movie, book, or video game. Video games have become more and more story-oriented, and unlike a book or movie you control the character's movements and decisions, thus making Münsterberg’s argument even that more interesting. Münsterburg suggests that unique cognitive and emotional states audiences experience during a film screen leaves audiences vulnerable to forms of psychological suggestion and doubt. Basically, what Münsterberg is saying that after a movie’s audiences become vulnerable to forms of psychological suggestion and doubt. I can relate to this almost entirely, after watching a film or finishing a series, there are specific characters that people tend to grow an attachment with. Whether it be there personality, presence on-screen, appearance or their philosophies. One of my favorites shows House of Cards created by Beau Williom tells the story of Congressman Frank Underwood. Frank is a power-hungry, sociopathic, smooth-talking official who lets nothing, and nobody gets in his way. One of the aspects the show includes is small segments where Frank addresses the audience and is aware that “we” are watching him. In most cases Frank likes to spew a bit of wisdom to the audience before or after a major scene. One line that stood out to me was, during the show the President depended on Frank to carry out an education bill to end the rallies of teachers striking across the United States, Frank is struggling to come to terms with the senators however he is sure of his plan and when the President tells Frank to pull the plug he answers “No, Sometimes the only way to gain your superior’s respect is to defy him”.

By 1935 about 70% of Americans owned a radio and became a medium of information, entertainment, and comfort just like today. However, Harvard psychologist and Hadley Cantril – former graduate argued that “rhetorical conventions of radio radically oversimplified many complex issues, reducing them to “black or white” dichotomous terms” (Pandora, 1998). They were worried that radio was taking over the lives of the listeners, with content that would tell their listeners how to live their daily lives, and they had the right to be. When CBS broadcasted “War of the Worlds” in 1938 people ran out of their homes in fear thinking that the U.S was under attack by Martians. “In all, an estimate of 1 million people out of the several million who turned into the broadcast were frightened by what they heard.” (pg. 35) When the world turned into a battlefield in World War 2, American scholars looked into the perfectiveness of Nazi propaganda and how they were able to persuade the citizens of Germany to support their regime. So, the U.S military hired Hollywood director Frank Capra to create a film to counter the propaganda and educate the U.S soldiers and citizens of the Nazi party. Capra produced Why We Fight (1943) and it was a success, the film was screened in lectures and in theatres all across the United States. This is not a coincidence, the film happens to be one of the most popular mediums in the digital age today, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be effective then.

After the war Carl Hovland a psychologist at Yale University “wanted to carefully isolate and explore the mechanism through which humans made decisions about their environment.” (pg. 40) Hovland’s research led him to create “consistency theory” “argued that the human being’s drive for cognitive consistency (the mental agreement between someone’s beliefs about an object or event) was the prime motivator for all human behavior.” (p.40)

Now coming into the digital age video games are a huge part of today’s world. Video games are so popular in fact that it’s almost considered a sport. Like the film, video games come in a serious of genres such as action, adventure, role-playing games (RPG), fighting and shoot-em-up. As video games began to become more and more realistic with real-world settings, blood and gore, and facial expressions, scholars are concerned that the amount of violent video games youth is playing has an effect on their mental state. Some scholars and my dad believe that the reason why youth are committing mass murders and killing sprees is directly linked to the prolonged exposure to violent video games such as “Call of Duty”, “Grand Theft Auto”, and “Mortal Kombat”. Now I purposely put my dad next to the scholars because I played a lot of these games growing up and as a small kid still maturing my raging hormones mixed with violent video games sometimes didn’t bring the best out of me. As a kid, I had a video game addiction, which meant I neglected my daily responsibilities, school-work, and other duties to play video games. This did not stand with my parents and lead to years of grounding and discipline and strategies for me to get off video games and do other things to spend my time. As a more mature young adult, you learn to control your emotions when playing these games because.... well it’s a game, and games are meant to be fun.

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