Masquerade, Paper Faces on Parade. Masquerade, Hide your Face so the World will Never Find You...

Boyfriend happens to be pretty fond of The Phantom of the Opera, so it was really no surprised when he asked me to rent this one last friday after his qualify. The truth is we both like the movie very much, but we're not so excited about the story. What makes us really interested in it is the gorgeous songs.

Which means we didn't remember the story at all. No one remembered how it ended, no pne could tell if any of the characters died, it was kind of ridiculous, since boyfriend has watched it quite a few times (I admit I realized I'd never watched the entire movie).


The Phantom: [singing as he descends the staircase at the Masquerade Ball] Why so silent, good monsieurs? Did you think that I had left you for good? Have you missed me, good monsieurs? I have written you an opera! Here I bring the finished score - Don Juan Triumphant! Fondest greetings to you all. A few instructions now before rehearsals start: Carlotta must be taught to act, not her normal trick of strutting 'round the stage. Our Don Juan must lose some weight; it's not healthy in a man of Piangi's age. And my managers must learn that their place is in an office! not the arts. As for our star, Miss Christine Daae... no doubt she'll do her best. It's true her voice is good; she knows, though, should she wish to excel, she has much still to learn, if pride will let her return to me, her teacher... her teacher.

Firmin: What a way to run a business. Spare me these unending trials. Half your cast disappears but the crowd still cheers. Opera, to hell with Gluck and Handel; have a scandal and you're sure to have a hit.

The Phantom: [singing to himself] Masquerade / Paper faces on parade / Masquerade/ Hide your face, so the world will never find you

Lefevre: Gentlemen, good luck. If you need me, I shall be in Australia.

Andre: [trying to convince Carlotta to come back and sing] Your public needs you!
Firmin: We need you, too!
Carlotta: Would you not rather have your precious little ingenue?
Andre, Firmin: Signora, no! The world wants you! Prima donna, first lady of the stage! Your devotees are on their knees to implore you!
Andre: Can you bow out when they're shouting your name?
Firmin: Think of how they all adore you!
Andre, Firmin: Prima donna, enchant us once again!
Andre: Think of your muse...
Firmin: And of the queues round the theatre!
Andre, Firmin: Can you deny us the triumph in store? Sing, prima donna, once more!

Madame Giry: [about the Phantom] He's a genius, monsieur. He's an architect and designer; he's a composer and magician. He's a genius!
Raoul: Yes, but it seems genius has turned to madness.

Andre: [as Carlotta storms out] What do we do now?
Lefevre: Grovel. Grovel, grovel, grovel.

Raoul: [to himself] A collector's piece indeed... every detail, exactly as she said... will you still play when all the rest of us are dead?

PS: I didn't know it was Gerard Butler who played the Ghost. But it wasn't hard at all to recognize him. He was gorgeous!!

A Week in Review: 2011.1

I have to say, New Year's was great. Spending the weekend away from home with boyfriend and "in laws" turned out to be the best New Year's eve so far.
Unfortunately we had to come back on Sunday, because of the inevitable return to real life...

But the week was actually really nice. I had a friend's birthday on wednesday, which was fun as usual, started (quite slowly) my marathon of movies and set a few goals for this month. I actually realized, after having set the goals, that this month will be a lot shorter, considering I won't be home for ten days, but we'll go with it and see how it turns out.

Boyfriend was sick all week long, but I think he is now getting better, which makes me much happier. By the way, yesterday was his qualification exam for his masters. Well, QUALIFIED!! Not that we had any doubts about it, but it's always better once it's gone, right??

Yeah, I think I can say it was a good week, after all.

***

Eu tenho que admitir que o ano novo foi ótimo. Passar o final de semana fora de casa com o namorado e os irmãos dele tornou esse o melhor ano novo até agora.
Infelizmente nós tivemos que voltar no domingo, por causa do inevitável retorno à realidade

Mas a semana foi bem legal. Eu fui ao aniversário de um amigo na quarta, que foi divertido como de costume, comecei (apesar de bem devagar) a minha maratona de filmes e coloquei alguns objetivos para esse mês. Na verdade eu percebi, depois de estabelecer os meus objetivos, que esse mês vai ser bem mais curto para mim, dado que eu não estarei em casa por 10 dias, mas vamos deixar rolar e ver no que isso vai dar.

O namorado esteve doente a semana inteira, mas eu acho que ele está melhorando agora, o que me deixa bem mais feliz. Por sinal, ontem foi o exame de qualificação dele no mestrado. Bom, QUALIFICADO! Não que houvesse qualquer dúvida quanto a isso, mas é sempre melhor quando essas coisas passam, não??

É, acho que eu posso dizer que foi uma boa semana, afinal.

Discipline. Week 4. + Movie of the day 21/08: Breakfast at Tiffany's. + Online classes.

I like it. Very much. After watching both Roman Holiday and Sabrina (twice) I realized I might be postponing Breakfast at Tiffany's, 'cause I was not sure I would like it, and I very much wanted to.

So yesterday I just took it out of the box and watched. And I loved it. I loved Paul V-A-R-J-A-K, and the Doc. Ooh, the Doc is so cute. And it made me want to have a pet even more. A cat named Cat.

Oh, my...

So, that goal of going to all my classes. It almost worked. I skipped only one, on wednesday morning. And I'm quite sorry for it. I'm going this week. And I'm also gonna buy one of those books to study for that exam I applied to. I'll buy it tomorrow so I can have the rest of the week to study. Every day.

And after taking that first online class with Shimelle, I decided to try another one, with a different focus.I'm taking this year's Learn Something New Every Day. And since the class doesn't start until the first of Septenber, I've been trying my luck with last year's prompts, which are posted on the forum. I don't intend to follow the class strictly, making a page every single day only in September, but I've already started using a sketchbook I bought on Barnes & Noble last January. That way, I can use the book's kraft pages and don't have to worry about picking matching papers every time I make a page. (And by the way I don't make my pages every day. I just try to have a lesson every day, or as many days as possible, and then when I feel like it I assemble a page.)

Oh, and I sooo very much want my boyfriend to get better. I hate it when he gets ill.

Confession:

Ok, I admit: I have a problem. Maybe an addiction.
I love craft. But I mean love, really love. Even as a child I would love any sort of craft I saw on tv, or on fairs... Maybe it's all grandma's fault, since she was the one who really raised me and she was not only a really good seamstress, but also knows how to knit, crochet and quite a few other things.
But anyway, now I am getting kinda obssessed with craft blogs. So pretty much every time I turn on my computer I "HAVE TO" check everything new every single blogger I like has posted.
But tell me, is it possible not to like any of these??

abeautifulmess.typepad.com/
kwernerdesign.com/blog/
onepearlbutton.com/
www.apartmenttherapy.com/
designismine.blogspot.com/
designspongeonline.com/
redvelvetgirls.typepad.com/emma/
http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/heather_bailey/
http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/
http://hulaseventy.blogspot.com/
http://blog.lilacandivy.com/
http://little-doodles.blogspot.com/
http://littleoldhat.blogspot.com/
http://notebookdoodles.blogspot.com/
http://www.katherinejalaty.com/
http://www.createloves.blogspot.com/

Oh, well, I guess I'm gonna have to learn to live with it... Maybe it' not that bad, huh?

PS: boyfriend just graduated from college last thursday. Now he is officially a masters student. Pretty scary if you ask me, but I'm soooo happy for him...

Christmas gifts.

OK, I'm not usually the type of person who gets totally excited about christmas time. But I have to say I got really nice gifts this year...

#1: From dad.
My dad gave me some of the most weird stuff I ever got, but this christmas he got me a really good one. He gave me a Swiss Card. It's so nice!





Actually I had told him about this a few weeks before christmas. A friend of a friend showed me hers and I was very excited about it. My dad has a big one pretty much like this:


And I was always fascinated by the amount of cool stuff he would be able to do with it. So I'm pretty excited about my smaller version of it.

#2: From Boyfriend.

There's this great blog written by a friend of his that draws the coolest comics about god, Adam, Eve and a bunch of other characters:

The blog is now so popular he decided to make different products from the characters. The first one is God.



It's all sold out, but i suppose there are a few advantages in knowing the author... I was kinda planning to buy one next year, but Boyfrined gave it to me today!! (Yep, we actually had to wait until today to exchange gifts, cause I spent Christmas at dad's.)

#3: From Stepfather.

Actually I chose this gift myself, but I suppose it still counts... He gave me "The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914-1991", by Eric Hobsbawn.



I have been wanting to read this for a long time, but I never got the courage to spend the money... (I usually don't like to spend money unless I am sure about what I'm going to spend it on) I tried borrowing it from the college library once, but it just didn't work for me. Some books I need to have for myself...

#4: From Mother.

This one was also chosen beforehand and I had also been meaning to buy it for a while.
There's a store in Brasil that sells the funniest stuff. It sells all kinds of fun, modern, cool stuff, and it sells decoration items, clothes, accessories, almost anything. I love their stuff, and had been meaning to get one of their picture frames for a long time. So today we had this hanging on the wall:

I still haven't filled all the pockets yet, but I'll take care of it and then I'll post a picture of the whole thing when it's ready. I'm so excited about it! It'll look gorgeous hanging beside my bed!!

(It's actually quite an achievement to have it already on the wall, considering things usually lay around for months before being set in their proper places in this house. I so look forward to having my own place. Sometimes...)

#5 and 6: From Sister and Grandma.

I don't really have pictures of their gifts, but sister gave me a really cute white skirt (which I will obviously wear for New Year's, I suppose) and grandma gave a great b&w polka dot bikini (which I obviously loved. B&W AND polka dots?? gotta love it!!)