This Parade reminds me of the time KU won the championship and their triumphal return to Lawrence.
"Buckingham Palace has become the People's Palace" lol #thingsannouncerssay...Allen Fieldhouse is the People's Palace
I like all the capes
Friday, April 29, 2011
I bet Prince Bill is going to be late
Is the best man Prince Ted?
Is that Elton John on the Organ???
No dancing down the aisle? How do they ever hope to make this wedding a youtube sensation? The Royals are soo out of touch...
This doesn't sound like the King James version....
The Arch-Bishop could use some JustForMen
I think they based this on the Princess Bride.
I'm sure Elvis is looking down with pride.
I hope someone is repping a KU hat.
I'm surprised they got married on casualfriday.
I think i see SLUGGER in attendance! (for those non-sports fans, he is the mascot of the Kansas City Royals)
Sources say that Rev Joseph Lowery (of Obama's inauguration) will give the final benediction
The ending is kinda like the last scene of Star Wars: A New Hope....Prince Harry is kinda like Chewbacca
Is the best man Prince Ted?
Is that Elton John on the Organ???
No dancing down the aisle? How do they ever hope to make this wedding a youtube sensation? The Royals are soo out of touch...
This doesn't sound like the King James version....
The Arch-Bishop could use some JustForMen
I think they based this on the Princess Bride.
I'm sure Elvis is looking down with pride.
I hope someone is repping a KU hat.
I'm surprised they got married on casualfriday.
I think i see SLUGGER in attendance! (for those non-sports fans, he is the mascot of the Kansas City Royals)
Sources say that Rev Joseph Lowery (of Obama's inauguration) will give the final benediction
The ending is kinda like the last scene of Star Wars: A New Hope....Prince Harry is kinda like Chewbacca
Glimpses of Princes
5:20--Woke up to the sound of trumpets in my head.
5:28--I've got a hankering for sausage #breakfast
5:32==There are some really tight shoulder epaulets at Westminster Abbey
5:40--Prince Chaz is on his way
5:43--It must be a special occassion--Camilla and Charles appear to have visited the dentist last week!
Prince Chaz has a weak handshake
There's just a wreck of pageantry!! Prince Chaz has 9 badges of merit! That's even more than Andrew WK!
The Crown Prince of Swaziland is here.
Here comes the Queeen! I hope she sings Bohemian Rhapsody at the reception.
I hope Prince Bill comes on a Royal Segway...that would show he's a 21st Century Prince.
The Queen kinda looks like the bumble bee lady from Blind Mellon No Rain video
There's even more pageantry than a miss america contest!
And it's Waitee Katiee! Soon to be Her Royal Waitress!
They have midget bridesmaids!! Oh wait, they're just kids.
More coming soon...
5:28--I've got a hankering for sausage #breakfast
5:32==There are some really tight shoulder epaulets at Westminster Abbey
5:40--Prince Chaz is on his way
5:43--It must be a special occassion--Camilla and Charles appear to have visited the dentist last week!
Prince Chaz has a weak handshake
There's just a wreck of pageantry!! Prince Chaz has 9 badges of merit! That's even more than Andrew WK!
The Crown Prince of Swaziland is here.
Here comes the Queeen! I hope she sings Bohemian Rhapsody at the reception.
I hope Prince Bill comes on a Royal Segway...that would show he's a 21st Century Prince.
The Queen kinda looks like the bumble bee lady from Blind Mellon No Rain video
There's even more pageantry than a miss america contest!
And it's Waitee Katiee! Soon to be Her Royal Waitress!
They have midget bridesmaids!! Oh wait, they're just kids.
More coming soon...
Sunday, April 10, 2011
The Hunchback of Mantua--A Review Of Verdi's Rigoletto
Given my tendency to move every 6 months, I tend to lose things, but so far I've kept my mind (though others may disagree lol). For this reason, I think that memories make better gifts than objects, so for Christmas last year I arranged a trip to the New York Metropolitan Opera for @alison. Since I'm classy, we took the train and stayed at a hotel next to Madison Square Garden (where I thought they'd have a good farmers market on Saturday morning!)
The train ride was tight, but the hotel left a bit to be desired. But, we didn't spent much time at the hotel, since we had an Opera to attend! This was my first time at the Met, and I can confirm that the chandeliers (sp?) rule. They're huge, intricate, and provide just the right lighting. They're on my home wish list (though I'd rather have a big screen tv...hint hint). There's also good people watching at the Met, and the women wear so much fur that its like a trip to the Natural History Museum at the same time! That's what I call a New York value!
So we get to our seats, the chandeliers dim, and the subtitles appear on the screens (the libretto is Italian, obvi). Rigelleto gets off to an awesome start. The first scene is at a ball hosted by the Duke of Mantua--the scene kinda reminded me of an 80s night at a happenin' club, cause there were just a wreck of people wearing goofy outfits drinking, dancing, and generally having a good time. But then the Duke comes out, and I think he's a bit insecure, because all he talks about is how he woos every non-dude in his dukedom. His first song is Questa o Quella, which means "this chick or that, they're all the same to me, and I want them all". The other noblemen aren't too keen on the Duke's philandering, but they don't really do anything about it. Now, I didn't think the duke was a great dancer, so my advice to the noblemen would be to get onstage and boogie, but they didn't have any confidence, so they let the Duke woo their wives.
The noblemen resent the duke for his suaveness, so they don't take too kindly to the titular Rigoletto, who is the hunchbacked court jester. Rigeletto's job is to hang out at parties and be amusing (kinda like me, except much less suave and jovial, and more biting and bitter). Rigoletto provides amusing commentary on the Duke's succesful attempts to mack on the Countess of Monterone, much to the chagrin of the Count of Monterone. The Count tells Rigoletto to shut it, which prompts Rigeletto to make some "your mamma" style jokes at the Count's expense. Rigoletto then convinces the Duke to arrest the Count, prompting the count to put a curse of Rigoletto.
All this drama puts a damper on the party, so Rigoletto makes moves home. On his way, he gets kinda freaked out about this curse, but what'er you gonna do? On his way home he bumps into some assassin named Sparafucile, which is a tight name for an assassin. They chit chat for a while, and then Rigoletto finally gets home.
The town knows Rigoletto as a hunchbacked dwark jester with an acid tongue, but he's also a loving and protective father--so protective, in fact, that no one knows that he has a daughter Gilda. The story takes place in the 16th centure, before Mendel invented genetics, so Rigoletto's daughter is quite the babe. She and Rigoletto are quite close, as the mother died some time ago, but Rigoletto is pretty extreme and doesn't let Gilda leave, except to go to Church. Gilda is in her late teens, and she's getting pretty antsy to escape her house (keep in mind, this is before the internet, so there's really nothing to do).
So Gilda's only outlet is at Church, where she develops a crush on a "student", who is actually the Duke out cruising for chicks (apparently Church back then was like band class in a contemporary high school--the place to meet sheltered chicks). As we know, the Duke is a bit of a creeper, and hangs around outside Gilda's window (he doesn't know that she's Rigoletto's daughter). When he hears Gilda confessing to her nurse that she loves a student, the Duke rolls up to the window and says that he loves Gilda too. They sing about this for a while, which is a bit boring.
Meanwhile, Rigoletto has gone out for some errands, probably to get aspirin for his back or something. While he's out, some noblemen come to his house seeking payback for all the smacktalking Rigoletto does as court jester. They notice Gilda in the house, but they think she's Rigoletto's mistress. They want to kidnap her, but as they're preparing their latter to the window, Rigoletto comes back. This next part doesn't really make any sense to me, but they somehow convince Rigoletto that they're kindapping some annoying countess and want his help, but that for some reason he needs to put on a blindfold to do the job. This doesn't make a bit of sense (why would a blindfold help with the kidnapping), but Rigoletto is a dipass and puts on the blindfold--the noblemen then kidnap Gilda and take her to the Duke's house.
At first Gilda is scared that she's being kidnapped, but when they take her to the Duke's bachelor pad, it's like she won the lottery. She discovers that her crush is not a poor student, but actually the Duke, and she didn't even have to write him an embarrassing note or otherwise ask him out. Score! The Duke is pretty pleased too, because he gets to "hang out" with Gilda and he won't even need to go to Church and pretend to be a poor student anymore. Everyone's happy, except Rigoletto.
So Gilda and the Duke spend the night together, but in the morning Rigoletto has gotten wise to the situation and comes to the palace demanding his daughter. The Duke doesn't particularly feel like making her breakfast, so he lets Rigoletto reclaim Gilda. Rigoletto is rightous pissed, and takes Gilda and leaves town. On their way out, he runs into Sparafucile, who happens to own an inn on the road from the palace. Rigoletto knows that the Duke will probably be out galavanting that night, so he pays Sparacule to lure the Duke to the inn, and then kill him. Sparafucile agrees--apparently his sister is quite the looker, so he has her woo the Duke.
So Sparafucile's sister gets the Duke back to the Inn. Sparafucile is about to kill the Duke, but then he and his sister have a pow-wow. The sister fancies the Duke, and suggests that Sparafucile just kills the next person who comes to the inn, and pass that body off as the Duke. Sparafucile doesn't want to argue, so he says that if someone else comes by before midnight, then he'll just kill that person. Gilda overhears this conversation and, even though she knows the Duke is hooking up with someone else, she still fancies him. So, she decides to sacrifice herself for the Duke, and so she knocks on the door. Sparafucile and his sister kill Gilda.
Rigoletto comes back later to collect the body of the Duke. Sparafucile gives him a body in a bag, but Rigoletto wants to confirm that it is the Duke's body. He opens it up and sees that Sparafucile took his money to kill his daughter. Rigoletto then remembers the curse of the Count of Monterone.
This is one screwed up Opera, but I guess a lot of tragedy is pretty crazy. It's weird because it starts off pretty funny, with the Duke's hijinks, Rigoletto's smacktalking, all at the expense of some lame noblemen. But it turns really dark at the end. The music is pretty good too. Overall I give it a B+.
The train ride was tight, but the hotel left a bit to be desired. But, we didn't spent much time at the hotel, since we had an Opera to attend! This was my first time at the Met, and I can confirm that the chandeliers (sp?) rule. They're huge, intricate, and provide just the right lighting. They're on my home wish list (though I'd rather have a big screen tv...hint hint). There's also good people watching at the Met, and the women wear so much fur that its like a trip to the Natural History Museum at the same time! That's what I call a New York value!
So we get to our seats, the chandeliers dim, and the subtitles appear on the screens (the libretto is Italian, obvi). Rigelleto gets off to an awesome start. The first scene is at a ball hosted by the Duke of Mantua--the scene kinda reminded me of an 80s night at a happenin' club, cause there were just a wreck of people wearing goofy outfits drinking, dancing, and generally having a good time. But then the Duke comes out, and I think he's a bit insecure, because all he talks about is how he woos every non-dude in his dukedom. His first song is Questa o Quella, which means "this chick or that, they're all the same to me, and I want them all". The other noblemen aren't too keen on the Duke's philandering, but they don't really do anything about it. Now, I didn't think the duke was a great dancer, so my advice to the noblemen would be to get onstage and boogie, but they didn't have any confidence, so they let the Duke woo their wives.
The noblemen resent the duke for his suaveness, so they don't take too kindly to the titular Rigoletto, who is the hunchbacked court jester. Rigeletto's job is to hang out at parties and be amusing (kinda like me, except much less suave and jovial, and more biting and bitter). Rigoletto provides amusing commentary on the Duke's succesful attempts to mack on the Countess of Monterone, much to the chagrin of the Count of Monterone. The Count tells Rigoletto to shut it, which prompts Rigeletto to make some "your mamma" style jokes at the Count's expense. Rigoletto then convinces the Duke to arrest the Count, prompting the count to put a curse of Rigoletto.
All this drama puts a damper on the party, so Rigoletto makes moves home. On his way, he gets kinda freaked out about this curse, but what'er you gonna do? On his way home he bumps into some assassin named Sparafucile, which is a tight name for an assassin. They chit chat for a while, and then Rigoletto finally gets home.
The town knows Rigoletto as a hunchbacked dwark jester with an acid tongue, but he's also a loving and protective father--so protective, in fact, that no one knows that he has a daughter Gilda. The story takes place in the 16th centure, before Mendel invented genetics, so Rigoletto's daughter is quite the babe. She and Rigoletto are quite close, as the mother died some time ago, but Rigoletto is pretty extreme and doesn't let Gilda leave, except to go to Church. Gilda is in her late teens, and she's getting pretty antsy to escape her house (keep in mind, this is before the internet, so there's really nothing to do).
So Gilda's only outlet is at Church, where she develops a crush on a "student", who is actually the Duke out cruising for chicks (apparently Church back then was like band class in a contemporary high school--the place to meet sheltered chicks). As we know, the Duke is a bit of a creeper, and hangs around outside Gilda's window (he doesn't know that she's Rigoletto's daughter). When he hears Gilda confessing to her nurse that she loves a student, the Duke rolls up to the window and says that he loves Gilda too. They sing about this for a while, which is a bit boring.
Meanwhile, Rigoletto has gone out for some errands, probably to get aspirin for his back or something. While he's out, some noblemen come to his house seeking payback for all the smacktalking Rigoletto does as court jester. They notice Gilda in the house, but they think she's Rigoletto's mistress. They want to kidnap her, but as they're preparing their latter to the window, Rigoletto comes back. This next part doesn't really make any sense to me, but they somehow convince Rigoletto that they're kindapping some annoying countess and want his help, but that for some reason he needs to put on a blindfold to do the job. This doesn't make a bit of sense (why would a blindfold help with the kidnapping), but Rigoletto is a dipass and puts on the blindfold--the noblemen then kidnap Gilda and take her to the Duke's house.
At first Gilda is scared that she's being kidnapped, but when they take her to the Duke's bachelor pad, it's like she won the lottery. She discovers that her crush is not a poor student, but actually the Duke, and she didn't even have to write him an embarrassing note or otherwise ask him out. Score! The Duke is pretty pleased too, because he gets to "hang out" with Gilda and he won't even need to go to Church and pretend to be a poor student anymore. Everyone's happy, except Rigoletto.
So Gilda and the Duke spend the night together, but in the morning Rigoletto has gotten wise to the situation and comes to the palace demanding his daughter. The Duke doesn't particularly feel like making her breakfast, so he lets Rigoletto reclaim Gilda. Rigoletto is rightous pissed, and takes Gilda and leaves town. On their way out, he runs into Sparafucile, who happens to own an inn on the road from the palace. Rigoletto knows that the Duke will probably be out galavanting that night, so he pays Sparacule to lure the Duke to the inn, and then kill him. Sparafucile agrees--apparently his sister is quite the looker, so he has her woo the Duke.
So Sparafucile's sister gets the Duke back to the Inn. Sparafucile is about to kill the Duke, but then he and his sister have a pow-wow. The sister fancies the Duke, and suggests that Sparafucile just kills the next person who comes to the inn, and pass that body off as the Duke. Sparafucile doesn't want to argue, so he says that if someone else comes by before midnight, then he'll just kill that person. Gilda overhears this conversation and, even though she knows the Duke is hooking up with someone else, she still fancies him. So, she decides to sacrifice herself for the Duke, and so she knocks on the door. Sparafucile and his sister kill Gilda.
Rigoletto comes back later to collect the body of the Duke. Sparafucile gives him a body in a bag, but Rigoletto wants to confirm that it is the Duke's body. He opens it up and sees that Sparafucile took his money to kill his daughter. Rigoletto then remembers the curse of the Count of Monterone.
This is one screwed up Opera, but I guess a lot of tragedy is pretty crazy. It's weird because it starts off pretty funny, with the Duke's hijinks, Rigoletto's smacktalking, all at the expense of some lame noblemen. But it turns really dark at the end. The music is pretty good too. Overall I give it a B+.
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