55 Favorite Songs From Musicals #6: Beauty and the Beast

I don't know if Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie, but it certainly has some really good music!
This song is of course, very iconic, and for good reason. Angela Lansbury does a terrific job singing it, the lyrics are moving, and the orchestrations are beautiful! And it's very sweet the way Beast's confidence grows during the song. :)
And I know that it's not related to the music at all, but just LOOK at that eye-poppingly awesome animation!

 

Tale as old as time

Tune as old as song

Bittersweet and strange,
Finding you can change
Learning you were wrong.

 

Certain as the sun
Rising in the east
Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the Beast.



The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo [1869] Video Review! :D

Hello guys! I did a video review of something. :)

I hope you guys like it, tell me if there are any other books you'd like me to video rant about. :D Have a good weekend!

A Tale of Two Cities Chibis

I drew these guys a long time ago, but then I lost the sheet of paper they were on and never found it again. Very tragic. So I gave up looking and drew them again, with a few improvements. And dang! Late 1700's fashion is really hard to draw, especially those weird little stocking things that men wore.

Charles Darnay: I actually based his outfit off of what Sydney is wearing on the cover of my copy of the book, and since they swapped jackets at the drugging part, I figured that I should draw Charles in the blue jacket instead. And the yellow shirt... just because for whatever reason I really like light blue/pale yellow as a color combination. It looks kind of sunset-y. :)
Lucie Manette: I tried to make her outfit as accurate as possible. From what I've seen of 1700's fashion is that a lot of ladies dresses would have a v-shaped panel in the front made of some kind of lacy material. Not 100% sure though. But it's a chibi, so who cares if the fashion is accurate. At least she's not in jeans.
Sydney Carton: Sydney is sad because I drew him with a bottle of wine, thus enabling his alcoholism. Ahem, in every adaptation I've seen, Sydney traipses around in a heavy, black trenchcoat that's like his de facto outfit. So I kind of stole that. Hm. I'm not so good at designing outfits. Even Lucie's dress is inspired by the musical's album cover. :P
Monsieur Manette: [sigh] My siblings hate Monsieur Manette because he cursed the family of Evremonde, including little toddler Charles. Hence, they think that Monsieur Manette is evil.
Miss Pross: Miss Pross is awesome. She's one of the coolest old ladies in all fiction. Ahem, I'm not sure why I drew her in pink, but I think that the mob cap is accurate.
Mr. Lorry: I drew him with his little brown wig that the book keeps bringing up. Aside from that, I don't know how to draw the barrister outfit. :P
Madame Defarge: Howabout that crazy hat? It's so big! I also went overboard with her little accessories. But overall, I'm quite happy with this one. :D
Monsieur Defarge: Shoot! I knew I forgot something... those stains on his apron were supposed to be wine stains, but I used the wrong color.
The Marquis: "MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" I tried to make him look a little bit like Charles (Family resemblance and all, y'know), but YIKES! That mouth.

55 Favorite Songs From Musicals #5: At The End of The Day

From Les Miserables. Call me generic if you will, but it's my favorite musical and I don't really care if people think that I just like it because it's popular. ;)
Anyway, this song takes place about eight years after the events of the prologue, and dang are these peasants angry!
I love the massive four note repeating introduction, then the angry strings, finally settling down into one heck of an awesome chorus piece. It always sends shivers down my spine, and it was really cool when we got to see it live. :) It's not a really pleasant song, but it's got that simmering anger that is constantly just on the surface of the story, and it sounds really neat.
I don't know why the picture is of Marius and Cosette. O.o

At the end of the day you're another day older

And that's all you can say for the life of the poor

It's a struggle, it's a war

and there's nothing that anyone's giving

All the day standing about,

What is it for? One day less to be living.

 

At the end of the day you're another day colder

And the shirt on your back doesn't keep out the chill

And the righteous going past,

They don't hear the little ones crying

And the plague is coming on fast

Ready to kill. One day nearer to dying.

 

At the end of the day it's another day dawning

And the sun in the morning is waiting to rise

Like the waves crash on the sand

Like a storm that'll break any second

There's a hunger in the land

There's a reckoning still to be reckoned

And there's going to be hell to pay

At the end of the day.



The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky [1880]

"You know boys," Alyosha said, "You needn't be afraid of life! Life is so good when you do something that is good and just."

Whew! What a crazy book! And I mean that in the best possible way, because I really enjoyed it. While not fast paced, The Brothers Karamazov is hardly ever boring, and there's kind of a subtle tension carried throughout the book. The characters are also very interesting and complicated.
That having been said, I wouldn't say that this book is perfect.
My first and foremost problem with the book isn't really the author's fault. I found the ending, while satisfying and very moving, a little open-ended. Fyodor Dostoevsky was planning on this book being the first in a trilogy about the youngest Karamazov brother, Alyosha (poor Alyosha). Unfortunately, he died before he could even start the second one. So it's not really his fault that some aspects of the book are left open ended.

Also, this book is full of rambling. The characters in this book love to talk. This is mostly fine because most of the time it's very interesting. But there are a few instances where it just got plain redundant. Like the chapter The Grand Inquisitor. That's the most famous chapter of the novel, but I found it turgid and rather [dare I tick off the literature professors?] a hinder to the flow of the story.. Ivan (poor Ivan) is not much of a poet, that's for sure. And there's the Prosecutor's speech in the courtroom. My main issues with the courtroom sequence was that most of the stuff being discussed was stuff we had already heard being discussed before.

Aside from all that, I really liked it! It's not really a fun book though. I mean, even Les Miserables had plenty of moments of brevity and light heartedness. This book is pretty much doom and gloom except for a few scenes with Elder Zosima (Think Russian Bishop Myriel) and the very end. It kind of got to be too much at times. I would recommend having something easy and lighthearted handy if you want to read this.

I was a little surprised by some of the characters, and by that I mean I was surprised by Alyosha. Alyosha (that's short for Alexei) is the youngest Karamazov brother and is a novice at the local Monastery. In the little chapter about little kid Alyosha, I kind of pegged him for being one of those bland, pure hearted heroes who never does anything wrong or has moments of doubt (Think Despereaux from the atrocious Tale of Despereaux movie adaptation). But he surprised me by being an interesting character with a good story arc. He's very saintly and kind, but it's pulled off in a good way. The other brothers are also very interesting and their story arcs don't go where you expect them to from the beginning. Except Smerdyakov, he's kind of exactly who he looks like. I liked Dmitry (or 'Mitya'), he was quite complicated and, despite his many faults, was a likeable character. Ivan was probably the most complicated character, and even though he wasn't a terribly likeable person I still felt a little bad for him in the end. I haven't even started to cover all the other characters in the book, but they were pretty cool. I liked Gregory, the Karamazov's housekeeper.

The Verdict: A
It took me a super long time to get this review off the ground! I guess I could blame that on my French homework (Oui! Je suis une etudiante a l'universite! Ma prof est tres sympa. :). The thing is, I don't really know why I like this book so much, but it clicked with me for whatever reason. And the reasons why a book clicks with you aren't always easy to explain. I really enjoyed seeing the various character's story arcs unfolding, and even being totally surprised by a few of them (Alyosha, Ivan, and Grushenka really surprised me with how they developed). This book made me think, and I love reading books that I sometimes have to put down and think about for a while. And the ending was very hopeful and optimistic. I may not be an optimistic person myself, but I appreciate true optimism (as opposed to just being fluffy and blind to evil) in stories.

Age Appropriateness: There is some language in this book. None of it is seriously bad (though there is one instance of something really nasty being implied but not actually spoken), but it might bug some people. There are also some rather disturbing scenes and subject matter, just a heads up.

In Defence of Mansfield Park [1814] & Review

Mansfield Park, aside from Northanger Abbey, is probably the least appreciated of all Jane Austen's works. And you know, I can see why that is. Fanny is introverted and shy, and the love interest, Edmund Bertram is maybe a little on the bland side. It's also a good deal more serious than Austen's more popular works, like Emma or Pride and Prejudice. But Mansfield Park is a very good book in it's own right! It's probably not the 'best' Jane Austen book, but hey! Jane Austen books are kind of relative, and I think that people like the ones that speak to them. I personally don't care for Pride and Prejudice, but I loved Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. Which one is the best one just depends on who you are and what you're looking for in a book. But yikes, holy diversion, Batman!
Ahem, let's tackle some of the reasons why Mansfield Park is commonly regarded as the least-good Jane Austen book, and refute them!

Fanny Price
Unfortunately, Fanny is usually the number one reason people don't like this book. She's shy and doesn't express her feelings very often, because she doesn't want to offend anybody or make herself seem more important than she thinks she is. She isn't a vibrant and passionate Marianne Dashwood, and she isn't an energetic and witty Emma Woodhouse. But in the vast and wonderful world of literature, there is room for ALL sorts of fictional characters, not just the funny and outspoken ones.
Fanny isn't a heroine who goes with the flow. Mansfield Park is an unusual story in that it is more about staying still than moving quickly. And imagine how hard it is to stay still when everyone else is moving around you! That's how Fanny feels in the story. All around her are people who aren't acting the way they should, and Fanny is trying to be steadfast in the midst of all that confusion.
And because she is usually so timid and afraid of offending people, the occasions where Fanny stands up for herself are all the more satisfying.

What Does Edmund Bertram See In Mary Crawford? Why Doesn't He Love Fanny Right Away?
In all honesty, I think that Edmund Bertram is a little bland. That having been said, I understand why he wanted to marry Miss Crawford. She's pretty, she's intelligent, and she's good humored. Problems arise however, when Mary Crawford is disrespectful of Religion and the Clergy. Why on earth would Edmund put up with that? Both Mary and Edmund thought they could change each other to fit their own needs. Edmund thought that marriage would 'pin' Mary down a bit, and Mary just figured that Edmund was being kind of old-fashioned.
Edmund also had no idea that Fanny loved him. Remember, Fanny doesn't like to be open with her feelings. If the book were told from Edmund's point of view, we'd probably see him be very surprised when he at last discovers that Fanny loves him!

It's Just Not as Delightful or Fun as The Others
Remember what I said about there being room for all different kinds of fictional characters? Well, the same applies with stories, too! Not all stories can be funny and delightful. Some stories are just going to be more serious in tone than others. Of course, there is no one book in literature that EVERYBODY has to like. Everyone has different tastes, so not everyone will like every book. By writing this little review/rant, I hope that I cleared up a little bit of haze and if you didn't like the book, I hope that I at least inspired you to read it again someday. But I am by no means suggesting that we all fall down and worship Mansfield Park. Cuz' we all know that Emma is the best Austen novel. ;) Kidding, kidding, that's just my opinon. :D

The Verdict: B+
I don't know if I would consider this one of my favorite books, but I definitely liked it. :) It was very sweet and moving at times, and even though it wasn't really lighthearted, there were still many moments where the good ol' Austen snark showed through.

55 Favorite Songs From Musicals #4: Arabian Nights

From Aladdin. :)
Probably the least politically correct song on this list. XD
But really, this song is hilarious! I personally prefer the Broadway version with it's more comedic lyrics, but the Movie version also makes for a really cool opening!



And here's the Broadway one. :)

 

Oh I come from a land,

from a faraway place where the caravan camels roam.

Where it's hot and immense and the heat is intense

It's barbaric, but hey! It's home.

 

When the wind's in the east and the sun's in the west

and the sand in the glass is right

Come on down, stop on by

Hop a carpet and fly to another Arabian Night!