kiffie

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kcur/arts/article/12/77/1688179/TheaterPerformance/1776.-.The.All.Female.Musical/

There's an embedded audio file at the top of this page. It's an interview with the musical director and the lady playing John Dickinson. Eeee.

Me, Hissy, Mad Engineer, Hissy's Friend Steve*, and my and Hissy's mutual school friend, Spider-girl, all went to see 1776, put on by Musical Theatre West in Long Beach.

"BWEE!" does not even begin to cover it.

( The Kiff explains. )

*Note: His name is not really Steve.

1776 will be playing in Long Beach this July.

I am SO there.

Hey, random, feel like roadtripping? You can stay at my place for the night. Bob likes company.

Jefferson's face when Franklin rewrites the thing will never not make me laugh.

Saw 1776 last night at The Egyptian.

I had no idea how much detail I was missing until I saw it on the big screen. Holy crap. I could see the threadcount on John's waistcoat. :D

However, Dickinson's jacket was even more eye-bleedingly green when 20 feet high. Ouch.

I want to go again next year. :3

random_redshirt brought the John Adams miniseries back with her from home. We watched the "Independence" episode last night.

So, today, I am re-watching 1776 and laughing my ass off.

Having seen both in such a short amount of time, I think my mind may be slowly imploding. So much teeny, angry Bostonian. It is beautiful. 8D

Now, I will have to go back to homework. Ugh.

They collide.



I really hope someone filmed this.

From TV Guide.com:

[two stars]

"Neither particularly entertaining nor historically accurate, this is a musical attempt at reconstructing the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. The founding fathers are depicted as a less than exemplary lot, given to weakness and vices but nonetheless committed to liberty. At least, most of them are, and none more than John Adams (William Daniels), the Second Continental Congress' prime advocate of independence from England. Adams' abrasive personality works against his cause, however, and his colleague Benjamin Franklin (Howard Da Silva) suggests that the more popular Richard Henry Lee (Ronald Holgate) do the talking. Ultimately, though, Thomas Jefferson (Ken Howard) is given the task of drafting the document detailing the sovereign aims of the Congress. When his work is impeded because he misses his missus (Blythe Danner), Franklin arranges for her to be brought to Philadelphia, and Jefferson gets back on track. Debate over the abolition of slavery and other issues divides the delegates, but eventually the Declaration is signed and the rest is history (well, sort of). Toilet humor, anachronistic gags, and 1970s slang garner more than a few laughs, but in the final analysis they work against the material. Ken Howard's performance was singled out by a number of critics at the time, but most of the other actors' work is undistinguished. Sherman Edwards' weak music is the element working most strongly against the film. Cinematographer Stradling earned an Oscar nomination for his work here."

I... wait. What?

Considering how bad some movies get, they decide to pick on 1776 for being historically inaccurate? Really, now. And "toilet humor"? Were we even watching the same movie?

There was tons of sexual innuendo, to be sure. And lord knows just having Franklin in the scene raises the film's rating, but I can't recall any "toilet humor". Perhaps the all-fart musical number as the delegates are called to sign was left out of the Director's Cut. I should look up the laser disc edition.

I'd also love to pick at "...most of the other actors' work is undistinguished", but just can't think of a way to phrase it without delving into one, long censored bleep.

And let's not get me started on "Sherman Edwards' weak music is the element working most strongly against the film." Did this guy fall asleep after John came down from the bell tower? There's no way one could classify the music as weak, saving that you'd missed the entire film. If you dislike the music, fine. But the songs are each unique and powerful, and that can be said without even liking them.

I get it. It's a musical about the Declaration. It's silly and it's corny and there is a can-can line and a man in tights dancing on top of a table (HEL-LO, MISTER RUTLEDGE), but what's with the hate? ;_;

Still sick.

But much better than this morning. Don't feel quite so rotten. But I don't know if I'll be able to make a 7am class tomorrow, either. Bleh.

Am going to try to get random_redshirt to go to Rite-Aid with me for meds.

It's scary walking alone. I may be eaten by a grue. D:

In other beens: Does anyone know of a (freeware!) program to rip sound files from DVDs? I really want the music off of the 1776 DVD in mp3, as I don't want to wear out the DVD for listening.

It's obvious that I'm a teeny bit of a 1776 fangirl (quiet, eliyes, you're NOT HELPING), so YouTubing is pretty much a dangerous passtime.

Because it is such an old movie, and because it's not exactly popular outside of the US, there's very little on YouTube aside from rips directly from the DVD and a few videos of independent (hee) productions from across the country. So when I find a fanvideo, I tend to click on it. Morbid curiosity, you might say.

This has, unfortunately, led to me watching a SexyBack video centered around John Dickinson. Yes, it burned. No, I'd rather not link it.

But because I do have that horrible curiosity, I simply had to click when I found a fanvid set to "The Creation of Man" from the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Maybe it's because it is so early. Maybe I just laugh easily. Either way, I was trying very hard not to laugh out loud, and failing. Horribly. I'm not quite sure what, exactly, is so funny about it. The song is humorous, yes, and the clips from the "Cool Considerate Men" part of 1776 are always good for a chuckle, but the two together do something. Something very LOL-inducing, indeed.

So, click at your own risk. >:3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eriJT5yXjDI