the lines of my earth.

REVIEWS OF THE DUCHESS #132: VALIANT

so, disney spent millions on voice talent on this one. ewan mcgregor. ricky gervais. john cleese. hugh laurie. jim broadbent. to name about half of the A-listers. and they will not make that money back. sad really, since this one was on my "must see movies of the summer" list. how wrong i was. poor ewan. (the only laughs come from ricky...but that's only riding on his "office" persona. if you don't know that, then the whole movie's sunk.) in fact, i can't even tell you much of the story because i kept falling asleep. truly.

even sadder still: disney's gotten rid of their 2-D department, making the full switch to computer-animated features. unfortunately, this comes right as pixar has had it up to here with disney (and rightly so) and skidaddled for the hills. by the production values of the writers and animators they were able to retain, disney is not long for this world. dreamworks and pixar are going to bury them in the 3-D realm, anime's growing popularity will keep them from retreating to their tried and true 2-D, and even their attempts at pulling off a popular franchise by way of "narnia" will not catch up with WB. buh-bye disney. in the future you will only be known as an amusement park.


REVIEWS OF THE DUCHESS #133: O'FLAHERTY, V.C. (amber's 38th production)

i haven't hated doing a show this much since "great god brown" and "rush limbaugh in night school." this was almost as painful as "laughing at grave matters." almost. performing on the showboat was fun. getting free food and cider and irish music was good. but i will never ever set foot in a lex-ham audition again. lesson learned. free at last, free at last. thank god almighty, i'm free at last.


REVIEWS OF THE DUCHESS #134: 2005 MINNESOTA FRINGE FESTIVAL--12TH ANNUAL (event)

and now, as some would store away their christmas trees after twelfth night, so do i pack away my fringe buttons for another year. *sigh* my most favorite week has come to a close, and i am satisfied for another 12 months. 10 stars (out of 5). i still wanna produce my own, and i've got 5 months to brainstorm before the applications begin again. *dream*

( top ten fringe shows, as seen by the duchess )

so this shaw one-act that i'm doing is going to SUCK! \m/ yeah! but my role is small and i get to be saucy and irish and have something to do with some nice people in the evenings. thank god it's only got one performance.

my director could be pat's twin. omg, he looks like pat, he has the same gestures, he SOUNDS exactly like him. and, the freakiest thing by far, he directs like pat. now, i've never been directed by pat, but i've done enough theatre and i've known that yoda-lovin' maniac long enough where i could pretty much guess. it's a little unsettling because of the uncanny resemblance, but simultaneously comforting because of its seeming familiarity. odd.

and then there's paul, who plays the lead and title character. holy crap. no complaints. siri, you would have died...he's a tall, pale, sculpted lanky thing with dark shaggy hair and scruff and, what's more, he walked in the rain, so the first impression i got was "the wet look." nice. very cute. a little shy. and way too young for me. *^_^* (let's not forget, siri-lass, he also straps on a very convincing irish accent. it's like the fancy bow on a package. for god's sake i hope he turns out to be an asshole. *laughs*)

but i'm telling you single boys out there; if you can make it work for you, "the wet look" makes a daeyam good first impression.

and he's pretty fucking talented. as is the woman who plays his mother. but it's the other main dude i worry about. in a huge way. (this is the reason for the suck-report from the first paragraph.) he's in his 60s and i don't think he's ever been on a stage before. the scales here are completely off-kilter. i wouldn't even mention it if he was "just not as good as the others," but we're talking guffman-proportional suckage here. i'm hoping to keep on the sunny side of this and get some amusing character study out of him.

our SM is a pretty kick-ass girl, and our designer is another old dude, but chipper, and a stutterer. that makes me smile. there's something about a stutter that's always very endearing.

so. if nothing else, it will be an entertainment for myself. and, besides psudo-pat, cutie-boy, guffman, stutterbug, and all the gaelic shenanegans therein, i also get free admission to the irish fair (where we're performing on the showboat). the fair itself looks amusing enough, with all of its sheep-herding demonstrations and irish quartets and loombuilders and such. but it's the free admission to the flogging molly concert that i'm mostly wetting myself for. score.

it's cabbage and cakes from here on out then. rock aaaout, george bernard! yaaaow!! *air guitar*

wait. scratch that: *air celtic harp*