Gert

Lilith

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Yesterday I went to see Claron McFadden perform her musical theater piece Lilith. It was shown in the Grand Theatre, which was fun as I had never been there. I had to work before hand, but had some time in between work and the show since it didn’t start until 20:30. So, I met up with Gert and we had dinner at Pappa Joe’s after which we walked in the direction of the theater before going our separate ways.

The Grand Theatre is smaller than I imagined it would be, and also in a shabbier state. It does have a nice atmosphere, though.

Claron McFadden LilithThe show itself is a two player piece done by McFadden (in the flesh) and Jeroen Willems (on projected video) about the biblical Lilith. In Jewish folklore, she became the first wife of Adam, created at the same time as him, who later left him (as she would not be submissive to him) for the archangel Samael.

In the piece, we meet Lilith in a mostly modern-day setting. She and Adam have separated long ago and she tells us, in speech and in song, of her life both back then, with Adam, and her life after. This is interspersed with Adam, shown on a screen, in a talking-head interview style, who also speaks of Lilith and their life back then, and his current life with Eve and the kids.

Adam seems to have never quite gotten over Lilith, but also cannot live with her free spirit. Lilith struggles. She loved Adam, but she is a free spirit, her own woman, equal to him. As they both speak, and sing, we get occasional flashbacks where the projection changes to a top down view of a bed with Adam in it. McFadden then stands in front of the screen to play her part as if in bed with him while they talk, and argue.

As time went on, and Adam started being weirded out by her passion for life in all its facets and her willingness to embrace it. He becomes more restrictive, and wants her to obey and submit to him, culminating in an incredibly powerful rape scene performed by McFadden in front of the screen.

After this, Lilith left Adam, and ended up with Samael. But over the years, this has not made her happier. The same goes for Adam, he married Eve, had children, but he misses the life that Lilith brought. In the end, both can’t live with, or without each other.

I really enjoyed the show, it was something I hadn’t seen before. I chose the piece because I was intrigued by its description, not only of the story, but also of the fact that Willems’ part was on screen only. I also read he died shortly after the show premiered a few years ago, so I thought that might be the reason, but it was really done because it fits the piece much better. It leaves the focus solely on Lilith, which she deserves.

I am impressed McFadden is able to play with a video projection so well, even though she’s had years of practice with it by now. It must be tough, playing with someone you know isn’t there anymore.

The music wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I had read up on McFadden and knew she was a trained soprano, so I was expecting more classic like music. Instead it is much jazzier and much more down to earth. It takes some getting used to in the beginning, but then you realise it fits the story perfectly.

The Battle of the Holiday Cards

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20141211_151353Wrote Holiday cards with Mom yesterday as we usually do.

In the evening I went to the city to meet up with Gert to go see The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. It was a good movie with many things I liked and loved, but it just felt a bit off. I’m curious for the extended edition release next year because I felt, at several moment, that things were cut that would be excellent moments to restore for the extended.

Then tonight, I went again, but then with Nico. I’m not sure if I’ll be seeing it more than these two times (in comparison, I went to see Desolation in cinemas thrice).

Saturday, Kim is coming over to watch the Extended Desolation of Smaug in preparation for watching Battle, later on.

Space

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20141112_161602Met up with Gert today to play games and have general fun. He has recently acquired Star Trek Catan, and as trekkie, I, of course, must play this 😀

To stay on theme, we watched Space Station 76 tonight. It’s a weird film, black comedy, taking place on a Space Station where it revolves around the relationships between the crewmates. At first glance everything is very idyllic Which gets reinforced by the very, very 70s visual style of the movie (which makes it tie-in to classic Trek quite nicely).Space_Station_76_poster

As the movie begins a new first officer comes aboard because the old one left. She and the Captain don’t quite get along. We later learn that the old first officer was the lover of the Captain and left as a break-up. There’s an engineer (played by Matt Bomer, I like him) with his wife and their kid, and while the engineer is crazy about the kid, the wife is just plain crazy and sleeping with someone else. And so on.

I liked the movie, but didn’t love it.

 

In a Mine! In a Mine! Where a Million Diamonds Shine!

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20141026_000544I bought this book recently, but didn’t get around to actually using it until today. The point of the book is to carry it with you while you turn your normal daily life into a scavenger hunt to find the items listed in the book. And when you have found one of the items, you turn around the book and flip to a random page. The edge of the page then tells you what to do with the item you’ve found and then, after you’ve done that, you can register it in the book.

20141026_000602Yesterday I joined Ingrid in going to The Farm to celebrate Julius’ birthday. It was a really fun day with good people and tasty food (they had made a wide assortment of cakes, tea and candies). While walking around checking out the new goats I found a magnificent white feather. And today I realised the book had a feather on the list 😀

As you can see, it has a space to note the time and date and how and where I found it. I wrote in the corner what I was supposed to do with it (Play) and since that isn’t something you can really show, I described it around the feather. And to keep it festive, I taped it to the page with fabric tape.

20141025_213358I also spent some time, yesterday, building my new Warcraft Lego Set. It consists of a Goblin on a rocket and a Night Elf on a sabercat (aka “Barren’s Chase”).

On Friday, Gert and I went to see Pride. This is an historical film taking place in England during the miner’s strike of 1984-85. The movie opens in London during a march for LGBT rights. After the march, a group of friends meet up in the bookstore of one of them and discuss politics. As they get to the strike, they realise that the plight of the miner’s is not unlike theirs. Both are not seen very positively in the public eye and garner a lot of abuse.

The group decides to band together to raise money for the miners. Raising money is very much needed as the union’s funds are getting depleted and social security is limited, so the miners are short on money and necessities.

Thus the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners organisation is formed. It doesn’t always go well, but eventually they have raised a fair amount and go about looking for a way to get it to the needy. They contact the National Union of Miners, but they refuse the donation, not wanting to be associated with the LGSM. At first discouraged, the group decide not to give up and start looking for a town to give their money to. They find the Welsh town of Onllwyn and are ecstatic when they accept the money.

Pride_posterThey pile into their van and travel to Wales to hand over the money. Once there, the atmosphere is awkward at first, as the town had not quite understood they were a gay group. However over the course of the movie, the continued support and interactions show most of the town that the LGSM are people, too, and they gain a mutual understanding of each other that is paid back after the strike ends.

I loved this movie. It takes place in the same time period as The Normal Heart, and touches on some of the same topics (acceptance, gay rights, AIDS) but mostly this is a heartwarming story in a difficult time, whereas The Normal Heart is heartbreaking.

Welcome to Your Life

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I’m liking Luke Evans more and more. I saw him, consciously, for the first time in The Hobbit (where I was, at first, mightily confused about the two Orlando Blooms…) and I really like what he does with Bard. Today I saw him in Dracula Untold.

I’ve been seeing the trailer for weeks now and it pushes all my buttons. Supernatural creatures, historical referencing, fantastic costumes and sets, and a good lead actor. So, Gert and I went to see it. As I expected I loved the movie. It’s a fictionalized account (obviously) of Vlad the Impaler. As a kid, he was traded to the Ottoman Empire to be raised there as a political hostage together with a 1000 boys for the Ottomans to use as cannon fodder in their army. As such, he fought in the Ottoman army as well and there gained his nickname of The Impaler for the heinous ways he would dispose of his enemies.

As an adult, no longer suited to fight, he is released and returns home, the Ottomans decline somewhat. He gets married, takes over the throne and has a son, all the while trying desperately to forget the past. This works decently until about ten years later. Over the years, the Ottomans have started to rise in power again. There are incursions of scouts and an all around feeling of unease.

One night, during a banquet of sorts, the Ottoman prince comes a-calling. He is of the same age as Vlad, they were raised together.  But tonight he comes to claim another 1000 boys, including the young prince. Vlad refuses him and a fight breaks out. He loses the fight and is forced to concede. A few days later, they meet the Prince’s caravan on the road to do the hand-over of the boy. There, Vlad rebels and kills the men of the Prince and rides off.

Having basically put his country at war with the Ottomans, Vlad searches for help. He enters a cavern in the mountains of which there are many rumours of horrible things. In there, he meets the vampire and strikes a deal. He gains the powers of a vampire for three days and three nights. If he does not succumb to the powers in that time (i.e. drinks human blood) he will regain his humanity afterwards. If he does succumb, he will become the vampire.

With his new found powers, Vlad takes on the Ottomans in battle and fights both them, and his new urges, while trying to hide the monstrous side of his abilities from his family and his people.

Koos, Thomas and Robert

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Social Media can be a really useful thing 🙂 After my birthday party last Sunday, my little (second) cousin lost his favourite stuffed animal Koos while on the way home. He was seated on the back of the bicycle and fell asleep and probably dropped it. Since it was his favourite, he was devastated. Monday I discussed this with Kim and later that day she sent me a link and said “isn’t this it?”

The link was to a Facebook post in a a local group, someone had found a stuffed animal and was looking for the owner. It sounded just like Koos. So I posted there, saying it was probably my cousin’s and warned my cousin that it looked like Koos had been found. She contacted the lady and indeed, it was Koos! Yesterday they picked him up there.  Lucky for them he’d already fallen off the bike still in town, and luckily there are people that are willing to put in some effort to return lost goods. Faith in humanity restored 🙂

Monday I also went to the movies with Kim. We saw The Mazerunner. It was entertaining, but a bit too fast and easy. It also reinforced that it’s really not a good idea to read the books that close to seeing the film (I finished the book that morning). The differences really stood out, and I think if there had been a week or twee between, I would’ve liked the movie better. Not that it was bad, but was okay-good, not good or good-good.

Then yesterday I went to see The Equalizer with Gert. I don’t normally watch straight-up action movies, but I’d seen the trailer for The Equalizer a few times among the previews before other movies and it seemed interesting. I’m glad to be able to say that the movie lived up to my expectations.

The story revolves around Robert, a middle aged man with a hidden past, who lives a quiet life with set routines. During the day, he works at a big hardware store where he tries to help his co-workers. At night, when he can’t sleep, he goes to a diner to read his book and talk with another regular there: Alina, a young prostitute. One night, he sees her being abused by her pimp and stands up for her. When she is then so severely beaten that she is hospitalized, he decides to act.

He seeks out Slavi who ‘owns’ her, and offers his savings to buy her freedom. Slavi ridicules him and declines the offer. Robert then kills Slavi and the four other gangsters present in about 16 seconds. Later, Robert is called in by the authorities and we learn he used to be a special ops agent who is now retired, and that the gangsters he killed were hotshots in the Russian mafia.

This is the start of the main action. Robert is pursued by a mafia hitman named Teddy and has to use all his skills and wits to outsmart him. Of course he succeeds, but the twists and turns in that are interesting, and not always as expected.

Funko’s, Faults & Food

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Funko'sI discovered Funko’s Pop Vinyls recently. It took a while but I finally found an online retailer in this country with good prices that seemed reliable. So, after giving it some thought and compiling a rough wish list of sorts I ordered Illidan and Arthas from Warcraft. However, these were backordered, so it will be a while before they finally come 🙁

To curb my impatience I ordered some more from their in stock collection and yesterday these arrived: Robby the Robot (from Forbidden Planet), an Andorian (from Star Trek) and Dr. Whooves (from My Little Pony). They will make an excellent start of the collection 🙂

20140827_193012In the afternoon I headed for the city to meet up with Gert. We went to see The Fault in Our Stars. I’ve read the book a little while ago, and liked it. It was a good movie, nice treatment of the book, and hits the feels where and how it should. I cried.

After, we went to IKEA so Gert could buy a wardrobe (and have it delivered, there’s no way we’re dragging that through the city public transport…) We stopped at KFC for some food. I was pretty pleased with that, since the KFC there is the only KFC in the city and I’ve been wanting to go for years now!

We then went back to the cinema to watch Guardians of the Galaxy, again 😀

20140828_155453Today, I hung out with Gert again. We played some games while awaiting the delivery of the wardrobe. He’d said yesterday that he would then put it aside, so it was no trouble at all for me to hang out. But of course, as it is with new things, and especially things-to-build, it itched. So, rather apologetically, he asked if I’d mind…. And since building together is not only more fun, but also faster, especially with big pieces, we built a wardrobe.

After we were done, Gert went out and got us gloriously spicy Thai food, so we would be refreshed and ready for that night’s movie. This time we went to see Magic in the Moonlight. It was pretty good. The storyline was interesting (1920’s medium debunker falls in love with the girl he’s supposed to debunk and falls for her ‘gift’, too). The scenery was beautiful and I liked the actors playing.

Fun Day

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IMG-20140813-WA0007Today I picked up my new ID card, it is very pretty 😀

In the evening I went to the city to meet up with Nienke and Ingrid at Subway for food, and then on to the cinema for the first of Ingrid’s presents. My bus was late, so I ended up being a bit late, too. Fortunately we had enough time, but they were already done eating. While I was eating my sub, Gert called. Nienke was so kind to answer, and the whole thing ended with Gert also coming along to come see the movie, Begin Again, also 😀

I really liked the movie, it’s an ucomplicated romcom with good actors and a fun story. Ruffalo and Knightlet play off  each other well, the city and scenery is used well, and the other characters are well developed enough to round out the film. Plus, the music is pretty good.

 

Three Days Make a Post

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Dragonmaw PassI had a fun weird dream last night 😀

There was a war going on, and I was the general of one of the sides. I don’t know who we were fighting, or even why. I just knew, my side was the French Horde. I can understand where the Horde came from, as I have been playing a fair amount of Warcraft, but why they were French, I haven’t the slightest idea 😀

Anyway, we had to assault the enemy base, which was on the other end of a large pass. The pass was generally straight, but twisty because of rock outcroppings and other nature things sticking out. Added to that, there were many, many gates in the pass. For the WoW players among us, it was basically a version of the Dragonmaw pass leading to Grim Batol, except straight.

The gates were very, very tall; easily 8-10 meters high. And every gate was swarming with defenders. We couldn’t get too close, because they had archers and would throw all kinds of crap down on us. Boiling oil, pitch, rocks, etc… All the while yelling insults at us, Monty Python and the Holy Grail style.

Fortunately, we had trebuchets, and with the copious amounts of rocky outcroppings we had more than enough ammunition for them. And lucky for us, the gates were wood. So it took us a long time, but we managed to break down the various gates.

Unfortunately, I awoke before we reached the enemy stronghold 🙁

My companion yesterday morning

My companion yesterday morning

Lucy Film PosterFriday I went to see Lucy with Gert and Nienke. It was an interesting film, exploring what might happen if we could use all of our brain at the same time. Even though it starts from the old, flawed, premise that we only use 10% of our brain, it is still entertaining to watch. It has some pacing issues where the first half goes fairly slow, and the second half fairly fast. I would have liked to see it the other way ’round as I found the first half, where Lucy delivers the drugs and ends up with it in her system, less interesting then the second half, where Lucy has figured out what the drugs do to her, and goes about trying to help herself before it kills her. The movie also has Morgan Freeman in it, which is always good.

After, we went to Starbucks and dropped Nienke off at the station.Starbucks

Gert and I then went back to the cinema for Hercules. No deep thoughts necessary for this one, it was pure entertainment. I liked it a lot better than I had previously expected. It was a nice treatment where the myth really is larger than the man. Good to see how his friends help, and helped, him achieve the things he gets hired for, all the while using their tricks to bolster the myth.

Movies Galore! Also Lego! And Theater!

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Did a bunch of movies this week, by myself and with others. Monday after work I went to see Edge of Tomorrow. It was a much better movie than I was expecting. I really like Full Metal Bitch and I didn’t even mind Tom Cruise in the movie 🙂

I also ordered tickets to go see War Horse with Mom. We’re going January 14!

Tuesday I finally went to see The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. The movie is hilarious! It’s been a long time since I laughed out loud at a movie that much. It’s been compared to Forest Gump, but it’s better than that. The titular character, Allan, gets put in a home when he blows up his hen house. Then on the day of his 100th birthday he decides to escape the coming party and attention and climbs out the window and walks off. As he goes to buy a bus ticket at the station, he gets asked to watch a suitcase for a minute and decides to walk off with it. It turns out the case is full of money. Criminal money. Cue an awesome road trip where he meets all kinds of people while being tracked and followed by the criminals that want their money back, interspersed with flashbacks to Allan’s long life where he experienced important events and met important people all the while being mostly oblivious to the importance of it.

Wednesday I had my shot again. Had it done in my arm because I still had some movies planned. Am never doing that again, though. My arm hurts like hell now still, and it’s Sunday. A quick Google has taught me that arm muscle is just not big enough. The way T. shots work is that the fluid bubble sits in your muscle and is slowly absorbed over the three weeks until the next shot. A leg muscle (or your ass 😀 ) is big enough to stretch around the fluid bubble, but arm just isn’t.

I also went to Bedum and Uithuizen with Mom to check for World of Warcraft Lego (Megabloks technically) at the Action10173768_10152193319638155_281758145161566397_n. Nico had seen it there, they had a big Stormwind Demolisher Set, a smaller Goblin Shredder (which I already have), about six or seven mounts+riders and eight single character figures with a small piece of scenery. They didn’t have all of them anymore, but I got a fair bunch

At the end of the afternoon I headed for the city to meet Gert. First we saw Grace of Monaco. It took me a while to get into but that’s mostly because I had the wrong idea and expectation beforehand. I’d seen trailers of the movie before, and that gave me the idea it was more a biopic of her life from marriage on and further. Until her death basically. But instead, it focuses on a specific period (early sixties) and shows how it was difficult for her to get used to life as Princess, torn between acting (Hitchcock offers her the lead in Marnie) and her family and duties, and how she could influence people, both behind the scenes, as well as the general populace. Once I figured that, the movie fell into place and things like pacing made sense.

Afterwards I had planned to go home, but we sat and talked for a while and decided on a whim to also see A Million Ways to Die in the West. I won’t dignify that movie with too many words. Suffice it to say that it is a stereotypical American comedy that runs on sex and poop jokes. The basic plot is fun, and there are occasional good, clever, jokes. So if it had been more of that, it would not have been so bad.

Thursday I also had the day off since I had to work yesterday. Nico was off early, so we decided to go see X-Men: Days of Future Past. It’s a good movie, I really liked that we got to see the merging of the old trilogy and these new films. Even though the timeline of the old trilogy is fairly effectively wiped by the events of this film, I like that they didn’t just go fingers-in-your-ears-it-doesn’t-exist-la-la-la-I-can’t-hear-you 😀

Back home, I finally ordered my theater tickets. As I said on Facebook, it cost me three organs and some change. But I have seven shows (in addition to the earlier mentioned War Horse) to go see in the new season two of which Mom will join me for.

  •  Chamber Choir of St. Petersburg: Vespers of Rachmaninoff ( 25-09-2014)
  • Toneelgroep Amsterdam & Toneelhuis: Maria Stuart (10-12-2014)
  • Musictheater Transparant & Claron McFadden: Lilith (05-02-2015)
  • Sara Kroos: Van Jewelste (25-03-2014) with Mom
  • Toneelgroep Amsterdam: Koningin Lear (03-04-2015)
  • Various Comedians: Onceuponatimethegodfatherflewoverthecuckoosnest (29-05-2015) with Mom
  • Marrugeku: Gudirr Gudirr (dance performance) (06-06-2015)

Friday, after work, I spent the evening reading and avoiding football. Not very lucky with that as I sat in my bedroom with the window open so I could hear the whole street erupting every time we scored. And we scored a lot.

Then, yesterday. I had a late shift, which I can normally do at home. But I realised this too late and since Kim was also working, I came to Groningen. Got a message from Gert half way through, he was at the Action, did I need any more Lego? I was indeed missing some, so I had him take a picture and saw they had ones I didn’t have yet. He was so kind as to buy them and bring them to work for me. I took my break and met him at Starbucks. I had just enough time to get a drink and chat briefly, before having to head back.

Today I slept in, and just as I was gonna go to the Parents for Father’s Day, Mom rang the bell. Dad was out cycling, so she came to ask if I wanted to take a walk with her. I joined her, and then after went back to their place for coffee and merriment 🙂