The insanely boring life…

As some of you may know, Sweeney Todd: The Movie will be coming out in January 2008. It stars Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, amoung others. It is directed by Tim Burton.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, I am a fan of the musical, and in particular a fan of Stephen Sondheim who wrote he music and lyrics for the show.

The point of this post is to give my vies and hopes for the film.

For those of you who don’t know, the musical is about a barber named Sweeney Todd who comes to London to seek his family. He learns that his daughter is the ward of the judge who sent him out of the country unfairly and his wife has apparently killed herself after being raped by the said judge. Sweeney meets a pie maker in London, Mrs. Lovett, who makes “The Worst Pies In London.” Her shop is where his barber shop used to be. She tells him that he can use the upstairs part of her shop to do his barbering business again, while he tries to get revenge on the judge by killing him. In the meantime, he kills every person who comes to his shop and Mrs. Lovett makes pies out the them to get rid of the bodies. The story unfolds from there…

I think that this musical should be rated 16 (or American “R”). Tim Burton said so himself that he was aiming for an “R” rating. Whether the studio (Warner Bros.) will allow this remains to be seen. Since the film has already been shot and is currently in post-production, we might see an “uncut” version on DVD if it ends up being rated PG-13 for cinemas.

There are many people rooting for a PG-13, though (mostly those who are not yet 16). They seemed to forget, however, that the Judge’s “Johanna” song will HAVE to be in the movie, and that song alone can take it to 16. The Judge is seen flogging and pleasuring himself by watching his adopted daughter undressing through the keyhole of her bedroom.

That, and the fact that cannibalistic acts are witnessed in the musical, should push it for 16. If it is not 16, then this musical would not be done justice. One’s audience might be smaller, but the quality and story would be better.

Besides the rating, I am concerned about Johnny Depp. Firstly, because I don’t want to see screeching fan girls in the row in front of me giggling about how hot Johnny Depp is. Secondly, because this is probably the most difficult singing part in in musical theatre, and Johnny has no singing experience whatsoever. I heard that Sondheim auditioned him, so we’ll wait and see.

I am also a little scared for Tim Burton. He is a fine director, but he will attract these emo-pre-teens with black dyed hair to the movie. That is the last thing that this film needs. I don’t want to sit with fan girls in front of me and goth-wannabe-nightmare-before-Christmas-tee-shirt kiddies behind me.

Helena Bonham Carter. She’s a fine actress, but her singing voice is a little weak for Mrs. Lovett, if Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride is anything to go by.

Anyway, I won’t judge this movie before I at least see a trailer. We don’t even have a poster yet. The one above is a fan-made poster.

Hope they don’t mess too much with it. Sondheim’s work is perfect as it is. One doesn’t mess with perfection.

I have joined the crowd on Facebook.com and I have to say that I am a slave!

It is so much fun, this social networking thing, and in all honesty, I never thought I would join the fad. But never say never, I suppose.

My profile is located here, so if you want to check it out, you should register and invite me as a friend.

Anyway, I wrote CAT (Computer Applications Technology) today and it was fairly easy. The theoretical exam was the fairly easy one, that is. The entire thing was about this girl named Ingrid who never stopped asking questions about her computer. They made it sound like, “Ingrid doesn’t know how to switch the computer on. [Insert name here] to the rescue!” It was a joke, except for question 6 (the last question) which I just had no clue of! It counted 30 marks!

But the practical was a real joke. I will get AT LEAST 95% on that. It was ridiculous. I don’t even want to talk about it.

Now there is only one subject left which can cause me to stress, and that is IT. That is not the easiest subject in the world…

Anyway, see you on Facebook.

I wrote drama exam (both the practical and the theory) today. It was…mild.

The reason is simple: The practical was easy, but the theoretical exam was a horror movie gone wild. The exam was not only difficult, but it was long!

Let me explain: The exam was split in two parts: Realism and Elizabethan Theatre. The realism part was easy, but the Elizabethan Theatre part was horrible because the questions were these LONG things which just never came to an end. The teacher says, “Explain shortly…” and yet the question counts 90 marks. It went on like that ’till I just got so sick of it, I could die!

The practical was easy, though. If CERTAIN people in the group did not forget their words, then it would have gone better. I am not referring to myself, though. No, there is one other kiddie in my group who forgot his/her words which forced us all to improvise the last half of the play.

But my own personal piece, in which I did a LONG poem and a LONG and DIFFICULT song, went absolutely fantastically well. My song went without hitch, although halfway through the first verse the teacher stopped me and started yelling at some random guy who decided to come on stage while I was performing. Besides that, all went exceptionally well. I am pleased with myself.

Talk again tomorrow. 

I said yesterday that the one musical I would like the sheet music for is Evil Dead. Now, while I may not have that, I do have the soundtrack. here it is.

1. Book Of The Dead
2. Cabin in the woods
3. Stupid Bitch
4. Housewares Employee
5. Evil Trees
6. It Won’t Let Us Leave
7. Look Who’s Evil Now
8. What The F*** Was That
9. Join Us
10. Good Old Reliable Jake (Intro)
11. Good Old Reliable Jake
12. Housewares Employee (Reprise)
13. Death Is A Bitch
14. I’m Not A Killer
15. Evil Puns
16. Bit Part Demon
17. Good…Bad…I’m The Guy With The Gun
18. All The Men In My Life Keep Getting Killed By Candarian Demons
19. Ode To An Accidental Stabbing
20. Boomstick
21. Do The Necronomicon
22. It’s Time
23. We Will Never Die
24. S-Mart
25. Blew That Bitch Away
26. Groovy

I bought a few new sheet music books today:

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – Themes from the motion picture
• Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical
• Cinderella
• Cats

They cost a total of R527 (Rand) ($74.11), which is quite a lot of money for me, but anyway.

So, along with those books, I also own:

• The Phantom of the Opera
• Chicago
• Jesus Christ Superstar
• The Sound of Music
• Moulin Rouge!
• Evita
• Wicked
• Rent
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Vocal Score
• Into The Woods Vocal Score
• Sweeney Todd Vocal Score

So, I own 15 sheet music books in total. That is actually more than I remember buying. Lol. Jesus Christ Superstar was my very first book. Ok, I lied. I bought this easy piano broadway tunes book before that one, but that doesn’t count.

It’s just…I crave to have Evil Dead: The Musical’s sheet music. As luck would have it, though, it is not published, as of yet. Luckily, I have the soundtrack to keep me busy…

The Exams are starting on Monday, and I have written down exactly when I write and what I write. So, this is my Exam Roster:

I must admit that it isn’t a very nice roster. All the difficult subjects are crammed into a condensed period of time.

English and Afrikaans are the two subjects which I don’t worry about at all. Besides them, only the practical exams will be easy.

I think I fear the Mathematical Literacy exam most of all… That is going to be horrific.

Anyway, wish me luck!

The only reason that I spelled the title “Technicolor” instead of “Technicolour” is because that is they way this particular recording of the show is spelled.

Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a musical written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. It was their first collaboration, and in fact Andrew Lloyd Webber’s first professional musical, if I recall correctly. Here are some tunes from the show.

1. Prologue
2. Any Dream Will Do
3. Jacob and Sons/Joseph’s Coat
4. Joseph’s Dreams
5. Poor, Poor Joseph
6. One More Angel In Heaven
7. Potiphar
8. Close Every Door To Me
9. Go, Go, Go, Joseph
10. Pharoah’s Story
11. Poor, Poor Pharoah
12. Song Of The King
13. Pharoah’s Dream Explained
14. Stone The Crows
15. Those Canaan Days
16. The Brothers Come To Egypt/Grovel, Grovel
17. Who’s The Thief?
18. Benjamin Calypso
19. Joseph All The Time
20. Jacob In Egypt
21. Finale
22. Joseph Megamix

For those of you who don’t know, Into The Woods is a musical written by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim. It is the second best musical ever written, with Sweeney Todd being the best (Music and lyrics also written by Sondheim).

Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for this show, and the music goes far beyond the boundaries of the storyline. It is about several characters from several fairy tales whose stories become intertwined in their attempts to get what they wish. They all do, in the end of the first act. The second act explores what happens after “Happy Ever After…”.

Here are some songs from the musical. You can click on them to download.

1. Prologue
2. Cinderella At The Grave
3. Hello Little Girl
4. I Guess This Is Goodbye/Maybe They’re Really Magic
5. I Know Things Now
6. A Very Nice Prince/First Midnight
7. Agony
8. It Takes Two
9. Stay With Me
10. On The Steps Of the Palace
11. Ever After
12. So Happy/Act Two Prologue
13. Agony Reprise
14. Lament
15. Any Moment/Moments In The Woods
16. Your Fault/Last Midnight
17. No More
18. No-one Is Alone
19. Children Will Listen/Finale

They are in the process of building a new fence around the school, and I so they have removed the current one in place. So, in effect, we currently have no fences.

Now, on one side of the school we have a small little gate. One person can fit through it at a time, so it is always a little difficult to get out after school because everyone wants to get out first. Now, since the fence is removed, everyone can just walk around the gate, because there is no fence. But guess what…

No one does. Now that there is no fence, people have the opportunity to avoid the bottleneck gate, but everyone still goes through it. It is like an insect trapped inside a jar: It will continue trying to get out, bumping itself on the lid of the jar, until it realizes (after a few days) that it can’t get out. You can then remove the lid, and the insect won’t fly out, because it is conditioned to believe that it can’t.

That brings me to the point: People are so conditioned to go through the gate, that even though there is now a large open area through which they can walk, they still walk through the tiny space that is the gate.

So, my philosophical question for today is: Which other things are we conditioned to do, but don’t even realize that we are doing it? In a sense, it is brainwashing. In the case above, they have brainwashed themselves. So, how many things have you brainwashed yourself to believe or do?

Religious Beliefs?

Political Preference?

Think about that.

All right, so I haven’t posted in quite a while, and I will tell you why:

The One Act Play is keeping me so busy that I don’t even have time for myself any more. I don’t even get any time to breathe properly.

Anyway, I just thought I’d post to tell whoever might be reading this that I am still alive, even if it is only just.

I am also writing a new musical in which I make many satirical comments about the state of schools and youth as we see it today, especially the effect that Hollywood has on the youth in terms of changing what they think and feel and how writers of films and books can manipulate our moral values without us even being aware of it. It is a comedy, by the way.

The thing that separates this musical from my other pieces are:

• Everything is written in rhyme.
• The music runs throughout, except during the intermission.
• It is mostly an ensemble piece.
• It is a comedy.

I will post it when I am finished with it, but I am far from finishing. I have finished the first few scenes, but it is no easy task writing every single scene in rhyme.

Another reason why I am posting is the fact that I have posted another of my compositions on YouTube. You can check it out by going here or you can check out my profile. I actually want to remove my first piece that I have there, but it is like a baby picture: They might be embarrassing, but other people might like them.