A Nerdy Break?

So, Winter Break is finally coming to a close. Tomorrow (which is now today because I stopped writing last night) is Sunday. Only one day left of this two week freedom that we had. So, naturally, what do I have to do tomorrow (today)? HOMEWORK!

Yes, homework. I think probably about 85 to 90 percent of the students at our school are in the same boat as me. You get a break, and every day you say to yourself “I’ll do my work tomorrow or the next day. After all, I’ve got all break to do it.” This is where we are all wrong! We just keep putting the work off until the very last second, and then we are all frantically working all of Sunday to make up for our mistake.

Now you might find yourself asking “So, what were you doing all break to make yourself so busy to hold off the work?” Yeah, about that…

I think I have been incredibly lazy this break, and I feel kind of horrible about it. I really did not do anything productive. The only things I really did over break were make cookies, sleep, and kind of be a complete nerd.

So, making cookies and sleeping: self-explanatory. Being a nerd: where to begin?

Over this break, I revitalized an old passion that I sort of dimmed down once the school year started. This passion is for Harry Potter. Yes, I know, I’m seventeen years old, and maybe it seems a little childish. Despite my age and what I think some people would say if they knew how much of a Potter nerd I am, I spent a great deal of this break reviving my passion since the summer.

I got the DVD of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for Christmas, so, obviously, I started my “nerding out” by watching it…twice. The second time I watched it, I forced my sister to watch it with me because she hadn’t seen it yet and I love it that much to make her sit down at 9:30 PM and watch it.

Apart from watching the movie, I reread the first book of the series. My goal was to reread the entire series before break was over, but I only ended up reading the first. Diving back into actually reading the books made me love the series even more. I’d honestly actually be rather reading the second book right now, but I sort of have to get this blog done. I haven’t read the first five books since I was probably about eleven years old, so refreshing my mind of the original works was nice. You can watch the movies all you want, but nothing is ever as great as the books.

So now I suppose I should justify slight obsession with these books. I love the Harry Potter series for a number of reasons. My first reason is that I love the whole magic sort of thing. I have a really quixotic (bonus points for vocab word? Maybe? Just kidding) mind sometimes, and I think that the world J.K. Rowling creates in the books is fascinating. Wouldn’t it be so cool if we could perform magic, or fly on a broom? I think that the fantasy element helps the reader to sort of get lost in the book, and really be able to envision what they are reading. I love when you can read a book and really see the story come to life. That is my second reason for loving the series.

My third reason for loving the series is that these books are probably the only ones to make me feel strong emotions while I am reading them. I don’t know if maybe it’s J.K. Rowling’s writing or the story or whatever, but when I read these books I feel emotion. This might be a little odd to admit, but I actually almost cried a little when one of the characters died in the sixth book.

So, to sum up why I am a complete nerd over the Harry Potter series, I will ask these questions: Would you rather read a book and only see words on a page that you know tell a story, but you don't really remember anything or care? Or, would you rather read a book and see an entire world come to life in your mind that makes you want to keep reading? I would choose the second option any day.

Be Italian!

Warning: Long blog ahead!

The other night, my sisters and I went to go see the movie Nine. This blog is going to be my personal review of the main actors in the movie, and my general opinion of it.

First, here is a little background on the movie. Nine is based off of the Broadway musical of the same name. The musical won the Tony for Best Musical in 1982, and the revival won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical in 2003. The musical/movie is the story of an Italian movie director named Guido Contini, his struggle to create a new masterpiece, and the several women in his life.

In the movie, Guido is portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis. I thought that his performance was notable. Through his acting, he clearly showed how the character was feeling, and it did not seem forced or fake. His singing ability was also noteworthy, but not my favorite.

Guido’s wife, Louisa, is played by Marion Cotillard, who I had actually never heard of before this movie. I thought her performance was impressive. I loved the emotions she showed. She made me feel sympathy for the character. I also enjoyed her songs in the film. I think she sang them beautifully, and put all of the right emotions into them.

Penelope Cruz plays Guido’s mistress, Carla. Her performance was not exactly one I would go on about. I do think that she played the role well, and her acting was good. Her singing, however, was not remarkable. I mean, she hit the right notes and got the right feeling of the song, but it just didn’t blow me away.

The next woman in Guido’s life is an actress named Claudia, who has been in a majority of his movies. Claudia is portrayed by Nicole Kidman. Before seeing Nine, I had only seen Kidman play a singing part in Moulin Rouge, and I had forgotten she was even in the movie at all. I liked her performance in this movie. Her character, unfortunately, was not in a lot of the movie, but I think she played her small part extremely well. I also loved her song. I think she sang it beautifully, and it was one of my favorites in the whole movie.

The next actress I am reviewing is Judi Dench, who plays Lilli. It was a little tough to watch Judi Dench in this movie because I am actually a pretty big James Bond fan, and all I could see her as was M (Bond’s boss). Her role in this film was completely different from that boss type. Lilli is Guido’s friend and costume designer. It was a little weird to see Judi Dench playing this role because she was not so much of the leader type as she is seen in other films, and she wasn’t exactly prominent. It was also very odd to hear her singing. I think part of the reason it as weird was because her song had a French theme, and she sung it with a French accent. I did not exactly like this. I think she sang the song decently, but for some reason the French aspect of the song made me dislike it. Overall, I think Dench did a good job in this role.

Kate Hudson played an American journalist named Stephanie. Her role confused me a little. For some reason, it just seemed a little out of place. It was not really pertinent to the plot, but perhaps that is a result of changing the role between the stage and film versions of the musical. Despite my partial confusion, and the small size of the role, I think that Hudson did a fairly good job. I think she acted the role well, and I actually found her sort of humorous. Her song was a really flashy, big number with lots of dancing and sparkles and lights. I think she did notable job singing the song because it does not sound like an easy one to sing, but I just don’t like the song itself as much as some of the others.

The role of Guido’s mother is played by Sophia Loren. I do not have much to say about Loren’s performance, which, unfortunately, is a good and bad thing. I do not have much to say because I can’t remember her performance much, which is the bad part. The good part is that this means that she wasn’t so bad that I have to rant about her.

Finally, the last woman in Guido’s life is a prostitute named Saraghina. This role is portrayed by Fergie, and was easily my favorite in the entire film. Guido encounters Saraghina while he is younger (about 11 years old maybe), and she is sort of his first encounter with, for lack of better word, sex. Guido and his friends go to the beach and pay her to dance for them (because she obviously isn’t going to go the whole way with 11 year olds). Fergie’s one scene in the entire movie is Guido’s flashback to when Saraghina told he and his friends about love. The scene visual switches back and forth between the beach scene and more of a dance number on a stage covered in sand. I loved this number so much. Fergie impressed me with her singing ability. She was able to sing the song phenomenally while doing it with an Italian accent and putting all of the right emotions into it. The choreography of the scene was amazing as well. It involved a lot of tambourine moves with the sand on the stage, which created a really cool effect. This scene was definitely my favorite.

So, overall, I really enjoyed this movie. I am unable to say whether it’s a good representation of the stage musical it is based on, but I thought it was a very well done movie. I wouldn’t necessarily say that it should win all of the awards it is nominated for, but if you want to be entertained for about 2 hours, this is a good movie for it.