Les Mis, No Internet, and a Kitty or Two

Hello again! Welcome to my two days late blog post! How devastated I was to wake up last Saturday morning to learn that the internet at our house was out and would not return until the coming Thursday. First of all, that meant I would miss my next blog post, and second, it really sucked. Because of this, I didn't really put much thought into what I would write about this week. After last week's post I was also kind of banking on the world actually ending. Now the day is here, my internet is back, and I haven't any real idea what to blog about.

                                                      Perhaps this can suffice?

Let's see, Christmas was earlier this week, and it once again passed by insignificantly, although I own slightly more DVDs than I did before. Seeing Les Miserables in theaters was about as excited as I got this week. By the way, fuck all you naysayers, that movie fucking rocked. Let's talk about that for a bit, shall we? I mean, it didn't leave out anything I really missed. Some song verses were cut but the only difference those cuts really made was that I noticed them, being a fan of the stage musical. As for the changes to the storyline, go look in the original Victor Hugo novel; those changes are straight from the source material. Eponine taking a musketball for Marius? From the novel. Enjolras and Grantaire being executed together in a final act of defiance? Exactly how it happens in the book. So theatre people, please, don't claim they changed the storyline when they actually portrayed those scenes as they were originally written. The movie managed to combine the novel and the musical into one coherent package. I rarely see adaptations get better than that. Although, I agree with everyone's criticisms of Russell Crowe as Javert; his version of "Stars" left much to be desired. However, Crowe absolutely nailed the songs "The Confrontation" and "Javert's Suicide," so I'd say that he made up for his low points. I got to see some of my West End favorites Killian Donnelly and Kerry Ellis in bit parts, and seeing Samantha Barks on screen after seeing her play Eponine in person was quite surreal for me. And nobody else should ever play Eponine. Seriously. She's the best. Honestly though, the only character I cared about being great was Enjolras, brought wonderfully to life by Aaron Tveit. Also, I never liked Marius as a character until Eddie Redmayne played him. He's the best Marius I've ever seen or heard, and I've seen the show twice and own three different cast recordings. Plus, he just looks badass. Sometimes I wish the story was just about Enjolras and Marius.

                  One of these men is definitely a new man crush, but I can't decide which one.

In other news, I watched Katy Perry: Part of Me and am even more in love with that girl than before. Count me in for her next tour. I also received news of auditions for a production of the musical RENT right here in Syracuse, so I will definitely be trying out for that. Seriously, if I could get cast as Mark or Roger that would literally be a dream come true. So yeah, that's what's been up with me lately.

You see, this is what being without internet does to someone. I don't care what our parents say, we literally cannot make it in this world without internet. It's not just Facebook either, which I love and never want to be without ever again, it's everything. I couldn't check my email, and there were emails I was expecting. I couldn't apply for any jobs for almost a week 'cause they're all online. I didn't know the address of the place I was going for an interview until my internet came back just in time for it. I couldn't do research for the books I'm trying to write. I felt so helpless and bored. Not just 'cause I spend a lot of time online, I couldn't download Kindle books without internet, so I couldn't even read to pass the time. Sure I could've gone out and bought an actual book, but I didn't have gift cards for books, I had them for Kindle. It didn't help that we got snowed in and my car tired fail in the snow, so I could hardly even leave my house. I was stuck at home with movies I'd seen hundreds of times and no internet access and no books. This lack of doing anything even prevented me from being productive in my writing. Creativity is fueled by being active and I just didn't have the resources to be so. So people, please, do not take the internet for granted. You need it more than you will ever know.

                                                            More than this.

                                                      But not as much as this.

So what have we learned this week? Theatre people are the worst critics, Katy Perry seems like a fun lady, the world sucks without internet, and cats are adorable. Since I will now have internet again at my beck and call I will strive to write a more resonating post next week, on time too. So stay tuned readers!

Surviving,
Tyler

P.S. Theatre friends, I love you, but Les Miserables was an awesome movie and I will not hear anything otherwise.

P.P.S. It's okay to just pick mold off of bread and still eat it, right?

Fond Memory from College:

When I got a 100 on a presentation for simply not giving a fuck. You really had to be there.