Friday, November 1, 2019

October Wrap-Up

Books I Read

I only read one book this month that wasn't a play, and of the plays I read, three of them were Shakespeare. Gee, can you tell what I'm majoring in? 😂



3/5

Not my favorite Shakespeare play. It was really hard for me to understand, but maybe that was because it was the first one I read that I wasn't already familiar with? I did enjoy doing character studies in this play, because the motivations of each character were really interesting.


2/5

This was long and dull. The only parts I liked about it were the snarky and sarcastic quips between the family members at the beginning of the play. Other than that, I glazed over. It wasn't hard to get through, though, in terms of the dialogue being natural to read.


3/5

This was fun in the sense that Midsummer Night's Dream was fun; it was a little ridiculous and formulaic, but that's what made it entertaining. The ending was unexpectedly horrifying, though. 😳


2/5

I didn't follow this story much at all and didn't really care for what I did understand. It was short and all takes place in pretty much one room, which is always interesting to me, but it wasn't my cup of tea. Also, massive trigger warning for any animal lovers out there . . .


4/5

This was the first play for my theatre class that I genuinely enjoyed reading and was super excited to talk about. It was wild and not at all what I expected, but hard to put down. It even made me tear up a little at the end.


2/5

Descartes is the king of run-on sentences. I barely took in anything I read. I've decided reading philosophy is not my thing, but talking about it is pretty fun!


3/5

I forgot just how long Hamlet is in comparison to other Shakespeare plays. It has some gorgeous writing, but it's definitely better to watch it versus reading it. The parts that aren't too long are really exciting though. What a whirlwind of a final scene

Movies I Watched

2.5/5

Cheesy, predictable, and really not all that scary. 😂 But it was a lot of fun to make fun of. And it did a good job of making you feel claustrophobic whenever one of the babysitters was pretty much trapped in the house.


3.5/5

Having read the book, the book is definitely better. But the acting in this was really good and it was pretty creepy for how old it is. I liked the backstory and the portrayal of the characters better in the book, as well as the ending. The ending in this was a lot different, so that added some extra suspense, but it also wasn't as good.



3.5/5

This was pretty good! It reminded me a lot of the classic "find what's keeping the ghost tied to this world and put it to rest" "Supernatural" episodes. It wasn't the best horror movie I've ever seen, but it was solid. And the classic scene with the girl climbing out of the TV was very creepy.


2.5/5

I had to watch this for Spanish class and I thought I would like it a lot more than I did. It had that artsy, indie movie feel to it, but it was mostly weird. For a short movie, it sure felt long. I can't even remember how many unnecessary extended shots there were of the main character just eating food. Each shot was seriously like thirty seconds long, and all it was was the girl eating chips or a sandwich or something in silence. It was nice that the Spanish was pretty slow, though, so I could practice listening to the words and matching them up with the subtitles.

Quotes I Wrote

I didn't write anything creative this month, but I did write thousands of words in essays. 😂

Obsessions I Acquired

None this month.

Pictures of the Month


I had so much fun in my first college show! It was extra special getting to be a part of this piece of Ursinus History as a freshman. I loved getting to perform in my first true comedy too. It was a very different experience from a musical or even a regular play, but in the best way possible.
 


Thank you to Lexie, Ashlyn, and my parents for coming to see it and for taking me to milkshakes afterwards!
And thank you to Josh for coming to see it *twice* (and all dressed up too!).


With my director, Dr. Scudera.
And with my theatre professor, Dr. Brodie, who was a guest actress one night. Her adorable dog made his stage debut too!
Freshmen friends at opening night!
Celebratory ice cream!
A sweet gift bag from my parents 💓

I made it to the home page!
Loved seeing Max in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" (not once, but three times)! It was by far the best performance I'd ever seen from him.
Coming home for fall break!
  














"What's the time? Well it's gotta be close to midnight . . ."
Which of my theatre friends can guess what our Halloween costumes are? ;)
 










Home for another weekend!
 


Sooo proud of Josh in his "Godspell" performance! He was hilarious and engaging the entire time and I could always pick out his gorgeous voice in every number.  💓
 



Usher selfie at "Jekyll and Hyde!"
 



A fun Halloween goodie bag from friends back home!
Milkshake Monday!

Audition time for "Peter/Wendy!"

The gang at a boba tea event
Snuck this screenshot while I was video chatting Josh
I decorated my dorm wall with autumn leaves to make it a little more seasonal

I love the Polaroids I have with Josh!
Our official scripts!
Josh read to me one night as I was falling asleep 

Got a little spooky for the English major Halloween party 🎃


Kathryn and I saw "Rumors" and it was so good!
And now for everyone's favorite part: Scout pictures!

She didn't like her Halloween costume. xD
 

Video chatting, even though she is not at all aware that I'm on the phone. xD
 



She got a haircut!
 




She got tucked in! 😂
 


How was your October?

8 comments:

Boquinha said...

I haven't ever read "Two Gentlemen." I'm guessing it's not a comedy?

EEK on "Miss Julie" - definitely NOT the book for you!

Now I want to know what about "Machinal" made you emotional.

Didn't Andrew Scott play Hamlet? Can you imagine? I loved Benedict Cumberbatch in it, too.

When did you watch "The Shining?"

You and Josh always look like you're up to something when you drink milkshakes. LOL!

So many sweet pictures!! I love that you're close enough to come home on weekends.

The Magic Violinist said...

@Boquinha

It is, actually, just not a very good one. xD

Nope!

I mean part of it was probably that I was running on five hours of sleep, but the ending was also really sad.

I think so? I haven't seen it, but I'm sure it's really good!

A couple weekends ago with friends after a horror movie outing got canceled. We did a double feature of that and "The Ring."

LOL, that's not on purpose! xD

Me too! :)

Dr. Mark said...

I love how you are so totally honest about things you're reading and watching. It's such a breath of fresh air!

I also love how you got that picture of the gift bag. You're never too old for a bag with a drawing on it! ;)

I used to read to your mother when she was getting sleepy. Sometimes over the phone. Sometimes together. That's how I ended up reading "The Picture of Dorian Gray."

Fun stuff! I'm so glad you're filling your life with old friends, new friends, new experiences, and a whole lot of us and Scout!

Boquinha said...

Oh duh (the horror movie night)! I remember that now. :P

The Magic Violinist said...

@Dr. Mark

LOL, I wish I'd read/watched more recently that I loved, but at least it makes for an interesting reviewing process!

Of course. ;)

I remember that! It's nice to be read to sometimes.

It's a crazy busy time, but a fun one!

Jimmy said...

It sure looks like you're enjoying college! And I was hoping eventually someone would say what your Halloween costumes are. I'm stumped. But I loved Scout's!

Milkshake Mondays--sounds like something I need in my life. Too bad none of the days of the week start with "chicken enchilada."

I'm thinking of getting into Stephen King. Mostly because I like how he mocks Trump on Twitter.

My October? Still doing a lot of hiking which I love. I finished listening to Talking to Strangers in two hikes. It was a good book to listen to because of the podcast-style in which the audio book is formatted, but overall I didn't get a ton out of it. I'm finishing up reading The Overstory (thanks Mark and Stacy!) and really wanting it to turn more positive because the truth is, it has me kind of depressed every time I pick it up. I'm glad soccer and volleyball seasons are over and cross country season is almost over once we're done with an event in Phoenix later this month.

The Magic Violinist said...

@Jimmy

I am! I jumped right in with everything, so I'm super busy, but I like everything that I'm doing. I was Mimi from "RENT." :) Scout looks so cute in every costume.

LOL! Chicken enchilada Wednesdays can be a thing. ;)

Stephen King has some good stuff! I haven't read a lot, but I enjoyed Misery and The Shining.

Hiking in October sounds nice because of how cool it is. I don't enjoy sweating. :P Depressing books are rough if you're not in the right mood for them. It's always a relief when things slow down for the season!

Boquinha said...

Jimmy mentioned chicken enchiladas yesterday so of course I had to have them for dinner. I'm not even kidding. I'm so easily influenced when it comes to food . . .