Bethany here! In our Creative Writing Club our teacher showed us this really cool thing and I thought, "Hmm, that would be a really neat thing to put on our blog!" We each took a line from one of our previous pieces, put them in a hat, drew one, and then wrote on it! Sometimes it wasn't exactly what it was supposed to be about, but we wrote what it meant to us. Like a response letter. Obviously for the blog it wouldn't work quite like that, but it will be similar. You guys can write your line or statement as a comment on one of the blog posts or you can email them! Take lines from a previous writing, make a statement about a topic, or heck, ask us about something! (Views, Advice, etc.) You can also specifically say which writer you want to write on your line but if not, I'm sure one of us will pick it up.
Example:
Dear: "Girl, I'm a teenager, I don't know what love is, but I want to find out with you."
Love. Does anyone even know what that is? I know I don't, but I guess that's the point isn't it? No one starts out knowing anything. You learn through your experiences. If you don't take a chance with anyone or anything then you would stay ignorant.
I respect that someone can be so honest about not knowing what love is. Whenever someone says they're in love and then a week later, they're in "love" with someone else, I just want to punch them in the face.
It's not that I don't believe in love, because I do, and I think that when you find it, you'll know, but I guess I'm still a little skeptical.
-Bethany.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Guys, I went to an opera!
For a field trip, mind you. I was forced to go! I mean, I sure as hell wouldn't want to go to one willingly! I’m a man! Men don’t go to operas!
Or, so I like to tell myself.
But yeah, I went to an opera today, and decided I was going to write about my experience. Some may say that is a review, but I don’t think this counts, as I am not an opera connoisseur, and don’t have much prior experience with the form of art.
Art? Art. Sure, why not.
I’ll start from the top. We saw Così fan tutte at the new Kauffman stadium, and man, that place is beautiful! We sat on one of the highest floors of the auditorium thing, and I almost threw up when I first looked down at the stage. It was pretty intense at first, grew accustomed to it. Which may have been unfortunate, because I would have had an excuse to not actually watch the thing.
I can honestly say checking out the new stadium was my favorite part of the trip. Everything was so white and clean! The seats were relatively comfortable, I had a nice view of the stage, and each seat had it’s own screen where you can read the subtitles of the opera on it! And let me tell you, when watching an opera that isn’t in English, you watch that screen almost as much as you watch the stage.
Which is going to bring me to my first complaint of the actual opera. It wasn’t in English. While I know that isn’t an actual valid complaint, it wouldn’t have been such a problem if the subtitles weren’t so inconsistent. Sometimes during a song or scene, the subtitles would just cut out and stop translating the action. It’s very frustrating trying to keep up with the story when every now and then you have literally no idea what is happening or what anyone is saying. This happened near the end for me, so I’m not even 100% sure of how it concluded.
Which is a shame, because I thought the overall story was interesting enough to keep my interest. It was very over-the-top, which I think suits the opera format quite well, as I find operas to be kind of ridiculous in a sense. There were actually parts where I laughed at the dialog and the hammy acting.
While I did find the story to be interesting, the actual pace of which it was told is monotonous. I have never seen such a story so drawn out in my life. Having a character talk to themselves for 10-15 minutes about how bad she feels for cheating on a loved one or something is insufferable. I’m not even exaggerating, I pulled my iPod out and started my stopwatch each time a character had a solo or a monologue.
But maybe that is par for the course with opera’s. Hey, I don’t know! But if it is, I can say that I would never want to attend another one ever again. While I’m not saying things shouldn’t have a very deliberate and slow pace, which can be very effective if executed well, I’m just saying I would like if the story kept moving, and had some momentum to it.
Do people go to an opera for the story, though? It’s for the singing and stuff, right? It seemed fine and inoffensive. Maybe one of the setbacks of being so far away from the stage was I sometimes had trouble hearing things, but from what I heard, it was fine.
I loved the live orchestra they had! The acoustics in the stadium were amazing, and how the sounds echoed around the auditorium was really cool. Playing some silly music to go along with the hammy acting was nice and funny too. If we went there for a live orchestra concert instead, I would have enjoyed myself quite a bit more.
But, I don’t know, I had fun. While if I had the choice, I wouldn’t go to another opera, but I don’t regret going to this one.
Or, so I like to tell myself.
But yeah, I went to an opera today, and decided I was going to write about my experience. Some may say that is a review, but I don’t think this counts, as I am not an opera connoisseur, and don’t have much prior experience with the form of art.
Art? Art. Sure, why not.
I’ll start from the top. We saw Così fan tutte at the new Kauffman stadium, and man, that place is beautiful! We sat on one of the highest floors of the auditorium thing, and I almost threw up when I first looked down at the stage. It was pretty intense at first, grew accustomed to it. Which may have been unfortunate, because I would have had an excuse to not actually watch the thing.
I can honestly say checking out the new stadium was my favorite part of the trip. Everything was so white and clean! The seats were relatively comfortable, I had a nice view of the stage, and each seat had it’s own screen where you can read the subtitles of the opera on it! And let me tell you, when watching an opera that isn’t in English, you watch that screen almost as much as you watch the stage.
 |
My view of the action. And yes, my camera and photo-taking skills are quite amazing, thank you. |
Which is a shame, because I thought the overall story was interesting enough to keep my interest. It was very over-the-top, which I think suits the opera format quite well, as I find operas to be kind of ridiculous in a sense. There were actually parts where I laughed at the dialog and the hammy acting.
While I did find the story to be interesting, the actual pace of which it was told is monotonous. I have never seen such a story so drawn out in my life. Having a character talk to themselves for 10-15 minutes about how bad she feels for cheating on a loved one or something is insufferable. I’m not even exaggerating, I pulled my iPod out and started my stopwatch each time a character had a solo or a monologue.
But maybe that is par for the course with opera’s. Hey, I don’t know! But if it is, I can say that I would never want to attend another one ever again. While I’m not saying things shouldn’t have a very deliberate and slow pace, which can be very effective if executed well, I’m just saying I would like if the story kept moving, and had some momentum to it.
Do people go to an opera for the story, though? It’s for the singing and stuff, right? It seemed fine and inoffensive. Maybe one of the setbacks of being so far away from the stage was I sometimes had trouble hearing things, but from what I heard, it was fine.
I loved the live orchestra they had! The acoustics in the stadium were amazing, and how the sounds echoed around the auditorium was really cool. Playing some silly music to go along with the hammy acting was nice and funny too. If we went there for a live orchestra concert instead, I would have enjoyed myself quite a bit more.
But, I don’t know, I had fun. While if I had the choice, I wouldn’t go to another opera, but I don’t regret going to this one.
Power Outages! Fun! Fun!
Right now I am surrounded by darkness; the only light available is from the glow of my laptop screen. Have you tried to guess why yet? Yep, you are correct! Power outages!!
Most people don’t like power outages and normally I would agree with them, but I’ve been thinking about it, and I decided that I like them. Obviously there are things about them that suck. You have to do everything in the dark! It’s harder to see things, everything in your fridge goes bad, finding entertainment is... considerably more difficult.
I know that there has been a time where every single one of us… have LOVED power outages, at least when we were kids right? It had a sense of adventure! Creeping around the house in the dark, a few candles spread out, everyone actually sitting around together… Thinking about it now, isn’t that potentially romantic? Come on, I know you guys were all thinking the same thing.
Maybe it’s just my inner child, but I can’t help but love when things like this happen! It’s almost like Halloween all over again but better! A scary movie that you actually get to be in yourself! For me, the best part is everyone else getting scared. When my sister can’t even go down to the basement without another person, I find it hilarious. But I think we all love the feeling of being scared and feeling like a kid again. Obviously, experiences like this are better WITH someone else. It’s like a roller coaster… who wants to do that kind of thing alone? I’m not sure how I’ll manage waking up in the morning without power for my alarm clock, but you won’t hear me complaining, because I’m having tons of fun.
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