I fricking love Dave Matthews Band. I love their new album. I love the fact that iTunes gave them a "Week". They should get a month. They should get 3 months. It's impossible to get tired of their music. Much like Coldplay. They've been part of the soundtrack of my life since 1st grade or before. Like I said. I fricking love Dave Matthews Band. That'll be all.

And is that a Mardi Gras parade on the new album cover? I do believe so. Mad love for Louisiana.

Meh, not late enough to start *gasp* making icons! I haven't used Photoshop in a while so I thought I'd try my hand again at a sport that should probably be left to the pros: crafting those nifty little userpics. Once upon a time I was actually quite good at PSing(for some reason that abbreviation never caught on. I may have a theory why...) and kind of honed my skills on the HL and Showdog.com games, making banners for people's hard-earned, cold-heart cyber moneys. Ahhh, the internet!

I'll probably start making these regularly again. Torturing myself and having another excuse not to write the rest of the next chapter has never been so much bloody fun!
                                                        
(see icon above) So here's Mr. Groban, owning the bass clef. Teh rawr-ness.
                                                                                                          

Most certainly Western France! I'd love to live in either along coastal Brittany or inner Normandy around the city of Roen, Lyons-la-Foret or Les Andelys. I've always been attracted by the French countryside and its beaches; these are all-around reasonable places to live.

Oh. My. Goodness. Gracious. Great. Barrels. Of. Flaming. Diesel. Fuel.

I don't think there is a word in the English language that can describe how many times The Dark Knight towered over my expectations. Even though I'm practically RUNNING on adrenaline right now, I can't help but think how emotionally stunning this gem of a film was underneath the explosions, knives, shmexy actors and badass Bat-methods of transportation. It's genuine. As genuine as anything Hollywood these days could possibly churn out- and then some.

The story snatches you up immediately and keeps it death grip on you for the entire 2.5 hours. Not only is this length survivable...it's thriveable. There are absolutely no dull spots to be spoken of(unless I'm preaching to a choir with an attention span of less than .00001 seconds). Every character is exquisitely portrayed. I need not express my feelings of sheer awe at Ledger's performance. It's been done for me in over 4000 pages worth of Yahoo Movie reviews(10 reviews per page mind you), out of which the majority- if not every one of them- exalt the tragic actor's final performance. The Joker sent chills down my spine in just about every scene he appeared. The essence...the entire aura of unadulterated menace was  unfailingly harnessed for the role. THIS is what acting looks like. May its embodiment rest in peace.

I'll skip over the waterfall of praise I'm prone to spew immediately after seeing a film like this to singularly applaud the psychological aspects that go far beyond what is the norm in movie undertones today. You don't go into a superhero movie looking for a take-home schooling on the depths of the human mind....the things that truly drive evil beneath material greed....the things that drive human impulse in times of distress. Whether the audience is aware of it or not, you get one hell of a psychology lesson to compliment your one hell of a thrill ride. Many hero movies, and just movies in general, try for this type of hold on the emotions that also make our brains work a little bit to perceive the actual depth of things. A great percentage of them fail at making us really think. And I can honestly say that for all of the working out we do, most Americans are in more need of a brain workout than a physical workout. This is not a movie to take for granted as a simple action flick. It's bursting at the seams with authentic intellectual prowess.

In short: it's dark, it's violent, it's skillfully crafted and it's memorable.

Seriously, you don't need me telling you that this movie WILL blow you away. It's everywhere. The hype- and trust this one simple review of THOUSANDS like it- is well deserved. You'll walk away a bit shaken but without regrets.


Spiderman, IMO, has been officially beaten to a slimy pulp.... no disrespect implied. I love you Tobey.

Why we should all muster up the courage to fight the hoards of seniors at local garage sales at least once in our lives.....




This is a 1993 print by some obscure artist by the name of Boris Cheusky. Heck if I know who he is; with my luck it's probably someone's grandson that drew this in high school. It looks to have been done with a ballpoint pen by someone with a whoooole lotta' time on their hands(quite like...guess what...a high school kid who draws on himself because he's got a whole lotta' time on his hands!). But I still loves it. A friend of mine dug it out of a box at someone's garage sale a while back. She must have either had an aneurism/the sudden impulse to buy junky secondhand art OR remembered that I'm absolutely in love with every musical in pictured in the thing. Now it's got a loving home on my desk. Fabulous!

It's got Phantom( <3 ), Les Miz(except Cosette looks somewhat like a stoner the way this guy drew her...okay, try to erase that image from your mind), Miss Saigon, Guys and Dolls and *meow* Cats! The biggies that were big in the 90's- and Phantom STILL dupes all <3 There's also a sign for something called "Tommy". Is that a musical? If it is, excuse my ignorance... I needs to be schooled X:

I can't even count how many times I've been told to sell this thing on Ebay. Get over it people, it's a NOVELTY ITEM and it's not going anywhere. No, I *DON'T* care if you think it's ugly. Sheesh!

"I am beautiful, no matter what you say..."

Tell it like it is.

Going through Youtube yesterday I had a spaztic fangirl attack when I saw this- it's part of an Animaniacs(yes, the old Steven Spielberg cartoon) episode called "Les Miseranimals". It pokes fun at the musical using cats and dogs. They did a pretty cute job of parodying the songs in Les Miz too....it's even got a Sweeney Todd reference or two thrown in there for extra points(musicalluv!):

(Part 1)


(Part 2)


So *apparently* the French revolution started because....there wasn't enough meat to make meatpies with so they had to use cats 0_o Runt-Valrunt and the Javert/bulldogonsteroids killed me.

"I am definately, definately Runt-Valrunt....definately" and "At the end of my fork is an unknown food product" = lolz.

Ello govnah. Just wanted to recommend a story from FF.net that is VERY dear to my heart. It's by an incredulously talented, faithful reviewer of mine- Kelsismom- and has got to be one of my favorite stories to date.

Inspired by the tv show Samantha Who, it's a really fun, really engaging piece. You can't go wrong with a plot centered around amnesia, oui?

("Erik Who?"- because why couldn't Don Juan have been a comedy?)



Just to add, have you ever eaten cookies at a nursing home? You know, the ones the old ladies make? Those are some damn good cookies.

<3 Smiles and Kittens, Soléne

from my POTO.com and FF.net posts- nothing really new here guys, just updating the old LJ




Oh yes. I am officially out of the dark ages of preliminary writing with my big epic phic, Les Shatteréd, and am ready to hear your feedback. Three full five-subject notebooks of outlining, drafting and piecing together later I'm finally coming to the end of the beginning. All of my irritating plot wrinkles have been ironed out by my handy dandy little chronological sequencing process so I'll be giving it the 'go' awfully soon. It is fully mapped out from beginning to end. Here is the official “preview” of sorts for this latest, “3-book” piece. Tell me what you think:



Les Shatteréd: Official Preview

“The cries of the multitudes- starving, rotting, burning- will rise from the foundations of Paris. Her belly will swell with death and the Seine will flow gorged on the blood of her children. Their eyes blinded by a terrible whiteness from which they are shielded from the horrors of this world, cast into one where only a hell of light is visible. Where there is no escape. And so unto all the world...until nothing is left...

...That, my dear, is why you must trust in me.”

-Erik, excerpt from Book The First: Pax

-----------------------------------------

The Opera Ghost's story began as a relatively simple affair. But what occurred in the wake of the infamous disaster would leave an eternal scar across the face of history...forever. Its story is one of lives doomed to tragedy from the their beginning, somehow intertwined in suffering by a malevolent force of nature so great that it would ultimately tear the fibers of European civilization, driving these lost souls, once so prosperous and spotless in the eyes of the world, ruthlessly at each others throats like dogs. But in the midst of this blood drenched battle for power, vengeance, and, in the bitter end, survival, stands victorious in the smoke of the onslaught the purest affliction of the human soul: compassion in the form of love. It is a tale encompassing the many common roots of stories- of lust, deceit, grudge, betrayal, devotion, sacrifice, trust, redemption.

But above all things, it is the story of a man and the world- of the world that despised him...and how he would give his very soul to save it.

--------

A beautiful, talented young diva with the world in her palm, searching tenderly for the final piece that will make her soul complete and a perfect life a reality. The valiant nobleman who patiently awaits her with the face of a god, staunch will of iron, and riches to match the unmoving strongholds that are his morals. The lovely former dancer who's heart is possessed by sweetly fleeting love, making a living as an innocent housemaid to raise a proper dowry for her poor but virtuous lover. The good doctor with his charm, wit and age, doomed to a life of prosperity in partnership with his old friend's son. The impossibly handsome aristocrat who has devoted his batchloresque life to serving the greater good in the footsteps of his father...

And the unstoppable force of nature that will inevitably unmask them all. They are the Shattered flawless models of society- and their tragedy is one that would shake the world to its very core. For even the shining city of Paris has her hidden wounds...but none have, since her beginning, cut as deep as this.

Nearly a full year has come to pass since the doomed affair of the so-called “Opera Ghost”. The people of Paris seem to have since then forgotten the tragic incident...everyone, that is, except a certain Christine Daaé. She is bombarded daily with terrible internal unease, although the world around her is as pristine and story-book perfect as the life she pretends to live. Even her adoring fiancé Raoul seems to have so easily left the sordid past behind, now only concerned with the planning of their sinfully late marriage. But months, she finds, are not sufficient to numb the pain of the burden she still carries- the pain that is still as strong as ever. She has made every possible excuse for more time but he persists, determined for them to finally be happy together, convinced that this is the only way to free her. When she finally sways to his well intentioned wish, news of their impending wedding spreads quickly to the Vicompte's closest, wealthiest, most prominent childhood friend: Micheal Reinier, a charming man and the most impeccably handsome and eligible humanitarian in Paris. This bon vivant batchlor, though concerned most thoroughly with his departed father's mission to help the less fortunate, upon hearing the news cannot help insisting to celebrate their marriage with the most lavish of the year's parties at his palatial estate. But on the night of the ball, Raoul finds his fiancé missing...

and the world would never be the same.

What followed would become the ultimate struggle for power and survival, pitting the sordid outcasts of society against their pristine upper-class counterparts as the progeny of the world's most infamous biological disaster. The White Blindness. A viral disease, a plague of devestationally massive proportions, so rare that the world's only trace of its known medical description lies in a destroyed book of gypsy myth. One man alone holds in his memory the virus's only cure...and the world's only hope. But can Christine overcome her darkest fears, her greatest weaknesses, and above all her most primal instinct to put every living ounce of her trust in him again?

The journey to find and protect the cure that would change the down-spiraling fate of all civilization is treacherous- a trek across the bloodthirsty Sahara desert to posses the last trace of the cure, requiring the purest and most selfless of all sacrifice. But what would you sacrifice to save the very society that in its horrendous cruelties made you a living monster?

Choices must be made. Trust must be broken. Tyranny must crumble. Facades must be exposed. Forgiveness must conquer vengeance- or death awaits the world.

--

Original Synopsis:

Les Shatteréd is an epic sequel to our original story, taking place almost a full year later. It involves the still unmarried couple of Christine and Raoul, a seemingly indifferent Erik, the reluctantly involved Persian, an all-powerful aristocrat, a lion, a single flower, a journey through uncharted desert, the near downfall of all civilization...and a plague known only as the White Blindness, caused by the most deadly and "incurable" virus the world has ever encountered. It is genuine story that goes far deeper than romance and adventure- it explores what lies hidden beneath the souls of all mankind and how only mass, all consuming tragedy is able to bring to the surface its capacity for evil...and even for good. It is the ultimate personification of "dark" facing "light" and how the two can mask themselves with kind deeds or hatred to distort who "they" truly are.

It is the ultimate facade. And this is its story.

-----------------------------------

Other regarding “L.S.” :

--Currently looking for an informal EDITOR. No hard core editing skills needed. I just want someone skilled in more refined style of writing themselves to personally help me through this more “epic-esque” piece- as far as polishing it goes, before chapters are released.(EDIT: there is a likely chance I've found a permanent one so- scratch it.)

--The entire work will be sectioned into three parts or 'books': “Book the First: Pax”(the shortest in length), “Book the Second: Lady in Waiting” and “Book the Third: Benediction”. All three books will be run together in one story on for the sole reason that they will be easier to keep track of- I originally wanted to make them separate but it should work out better this way.

--Will be mixed origin, mostly of Webber and Leroux influence w/ some Kay for a tiny bit of background input(the Persian's story is particularly different in this sequel)

--Some of my character designs are a little different than standardly seen- two are even tweaked from real-life people. For instance my Erik's general design is physically based off of my favorite singer, Josh Groban, with a unique differentiation of the usual deformity seen in “half-mask” designs. My Meg, as another example, is the farthest thing from a blonde and I even gave a little twist to Raoul's usual design. As a side note, I've been talking to a friend of mine who happens to be an extremely talented amateur artist about possibly getting these fleshed out. She's a POTO fan herself and told me she would only consider it if I threw a character based on Gerard Butler somewhere in the mix. So, happy to oblige, I ended up making him our villain. Wouldn't have it any other way now XD

--Yes, it will be a rather dark story. The eventual rating will either be T or M depending for the most part on how far I intend to go with the violence, torture, plague, etc. *Some events will be based loosely on the Black Death pandemic of the 14th century and the Nazi regime of Germany to give a little more insight.

--As far as the romantic elements go, I'd like to forewarn that this is not- and I repeat, NOT- your average E/C, although I will not defend that it isn't E/C. It is...in an emotionally straining sort of way. (Geez, I hope I'm making sense). But by no means is it “Raoul bashing”, though reading through most of it, it may seem to be. Not wanting to give away terribly too much, but Raoul plays one of the most spiritually defining elements at the bitter end of the story...especially for Erik. If I can get the emotion right it will end up being something TOTALLY different from what's usually seen in fics. I would also like to note that the main pervasive focus of L.S. is not going to be on the romantic elements. It truly is more of a “tragic epic”.

And that is really all I intend to share at present. Like I've said, a TON of preliminary work has gone into this...especially historical and medicinal research(I've learned more about the hypodermic needle than I cared to know). As for me, I can't wait to dive into writing this one. Expect the Prologue and Authoress's Foreword chapters most probably this weekend

*If there's anything you'd like to get in on I'm currently looking for artists especially to help out with character designs for a special project I'm accompanying this with. PM me here if you thin you'd be able to help.

Vive, Queenie

I've always loved doing writing exercises... especially ones that give you plenty of rein. Restrictive exercises that tell you to write about this-this-then this are 100% ew. My favorite writing practice technique is listening to a song and letting loose with whatever spills out of my head at the same time. I've begun working with this whilst messing around with fanfiction and have had absolutely delicious results. Plurs, it's actually fun: something enjoyable to take away from the often choresome task of real “hardcore” writing. It's one of the best ways I've found perfect tone(or try to at least!) and to really get something out of song lyrics, beat/"notes", basically the feel of the music itself, that you may not have seen before.

The name of the game is rapidfire recording of ideas in response to the general feel of the music itself. That means no correcting, no spellcheck, no dictionary.com*sniff*, no “looking before you leap”....complete submersion without worrying about what's acceptable.

“I want to break free-ee....I want to break free!” Yeah, that kind of thing. The let-your-hair-down method. Spare the rod, spoil the author. When I do this I sometimes come out with words that don't even exist. I remember one sentense in a recent practice having the word 'epithistic' thrown in there- whever the hell that is. Where did that come from? It may have something to do with the particular type of music I was listening to but I'll get into that later.

So, yes...back to my method:

Before starting, I begin with a general idea for what I'll be speed writing. I usually like to take a really plyable character of mine and explore their mental perception of a random scene, be it within a current piece I've got going on or just completely off the wall random. Other times I'll decide to go crazy with imaginary, unwritten plotlines and flesh out a certain scene. Whatever I feel like getting into, I give it a light consideration before busting out the iPod.

Shuffle time. I never pick the songs unless I'm really “writing-writing” and going for a specific tone. Shuffle is an awsome tool for spontaneous idea combustion. If it starts with a song I like, great! If it starts with one I can't stand(but still haven't deleted from the blasted thing) or something unexpected, even better. Maybe the idea I had in mind to write about has absolutely NOTHING to do with the song. The goal is to try to get away from convention or what you'd usually do. In other words, to see what your brain does on autopilot.

I write from the moment the song begins to the moment it ends....usually. Writing without taking considerable pauses can be strangely challenging, but its most effective to try to get everything down quickly.

Here's a little sample from the product of paper + Nella Fantasia sung by Russel Watson:

"She is the daughter of Spain. White with glory. White with intoxicating purity, renewedness of the human spirit embodied in animal. Her nostrils flare. The body rises and falls with the pulsation of every fiber in perfect cadence with every other. There is life in her steps. Life in her eyes. Grass beneath her hooves tremble with rapture. Her gliding canter alone can eat away at the earth in a single stride. Her footsteps- the heartbeat of all the nations and governments of nature. And when they go at full will and force she is the life of the earth and the salt of every word breathed by divinity. Andalusia calls to solidify her existance and to keep the heartbeat of the world in pace."

Verrry different from what I'd churn out listening to "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" XD

Back to Les Shatteréd(which BTW is due for it's first introduction and chapter this weekend ****MORE UPDATES SOON!***), ~TQ~