Mozart's Sister

I don't have time to pick out a song today, but I still wanted to drop in and say hi. So, "Hi!" This past week has been a whirlwind of new classes and new roommates. (They're wonderful, by the way, although I am alarmed at how quickly one of them pounces on dirty dishes; she washed two of mine today before I even had time to go grab a rag. But I am not complaining.)

Last Saturday, I took a break from work and homework to attend a screening of Mozart's Sister, which is a film about Nannerl, who was--as the title says--Mozart's sister. It's funny at times--the actor playing the Dauphin has such an intense gaze that my friend and I had a hard time not giggling at tense moments--but mostly it's sad, because, like her brother, Nannerl possessed incredible musical talent. Unlike her brother, however, she didn't get to use it, because she was a girl. The movie (which is speculative, so the following might not be true) focuses on a time when Nannerl was acquainted with members of the French royal family, and in which she composed some music for the Dauphin. Later, she devoted her life to her brother's music. As far as I know, none of her work survives.

Here's the trailer, which is subtitled, because the movie is in French. (I just came from French class. Hmm.)

Happy Monday,

I wish my desk lit up, too.

Behold the marvelous children's circulation desk at the public library in Champaign, Illinois. It lights up and changes colors:

Taking pictures in libraries is awkward, what with all the people studying and browsing. But this awkwardness didn't stop me.

Too pretty to leave un-photographed, no?

I took these pictures on a road trip with my friend Amber last week. Our mission? To check out some graduate programs in library science. Naturally, we also spied on the public library systems near the grad programs.

And Champaign's public library is a win.

Signs don't get much more awesome than this.

Other things that make Champaign fun, besides the Jane Addams Book Shop*:

The artwork taking shape on this fence downtown.

Pekara Bakery and Bistro, which makes great sandwiches, cookies, and crepes. We know this because we went there twice in one day. Amber took this picture after we finished a delicious, berry-filled crepe.

Colorful tabletop at one of the gajillion Espresso Royale coffeeshops in Champaign.

The Sousa Archives at the state university in Illinois. I'm a trumpet player, and I've never enjoyed playing his marches, so yes, I took pictures of period shoes instead of his sheet music.

The Art Theater, a lovely 98-year-old theater.

It was very hot inside, though. One of the owners of the Art Theater came in before the film we saw to explain that the old building isn't set up for air conditioning, and the unit they do have is too noisy to run during a movie. So they shut it off, and we roasted. But it was worth it. If you get a chance, I recommend seeing Beginners.** It made me laugh, cry, and wish my pet came with subtitles, too. Here's the trailer:

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*The Jane Addams Book Shop might be America's coolest used bookstore. Remember?
**Beginners is rated R for a reason, though, and is probably not suitable for an all-ages family movie night--which is too bad, because that subtitled dog is so cute.

A zombie-free campus & a French film

Happy Monday! (If I fake enthusiasm, maybe I'll begin to feel it?) There is no song today because I wanted to post about other things.

First, in the war between humans and zombies on my college campus, the humans won! Hooray! One of my friends who played the game and managed to stay human until the end informed me that the humans won by detonating a cookie bomb that made all the zombies human again. A campus-wide e-mail announced their victory and explained what a cookie bomb is:

The eight-day saga finally ended Wednesday afternoon when a brave group of Human Resistance fighters were able to construct a Zombie Virus Cure Bomb using ingredients that they had to gather from around campus. (When combined, the cure’s ingredients doubled as a recipe for chocolate chip cookies… Who knew, right?)


Despite suffering key personnel losses at the hands of a fierce zombie contingent, sixteen Resistance members were still able to hold off long enough to detonate the Cure Bomb, sending the Zombie Virus Cure into the air . . . and turning everyone immediately (and hopefully permanently) back into a human. Breathe a sigh of relief, campus – no Zombie Apocalypse this year!

I miss the spontaneous Nerf gun fights in between classes, but I'm glad the paranoia is over. Some people got really, really into it. Zombie patrols outside dorms made it difficult for humans to sneak out to the cafeteria for supper. One of my friends who was playing explained that it was hardest on the underclassmen, who had to go to the caf (because they're required to have meal plans), but that they should have stocked up before the game...just like in a real zombie apocalpyse. She said this with a straight face.

I also miss seeing this on the bulletin board by Student Development near the coffee shop:

Risk of Zombie Attack: High

But I'll get over it. There was a Zombie-Human Peace Fire on Friday night that was advertised as:
S’mores. Campfire songs. Conflict resolution. I didn't make it, but it sounds like it was a good opportunity for both sides to make up and move on.

Aaaand second, I spent part of my Saturday afternoon at a mandatory film event for French class. We watched Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'tis, which is translated as Welcome to the Sticks. I'm not sure why; there's nothing about sticks in this movie. But it is funny. Here's the UK trailer:

My French prof is from Belgium, and she explained that Shtis is a dialect in the north of France. She's from southern Belgium--not too far from the part of France that speaks Shtis--so she understands it. Apparently they turn a lot of "s" sounds into "sh." This film reminds me of New in Town (trailer below), but...funnier.

Wishing you a Marvelous Monday,

Monday Miscellanies

1. Shannon Hale turns an old idea on its head in her post, "I knew he loved me when he hocked a logie at my face."

2. I want to see this documentary:



3. Happy happy news and pictures from Stephanie Perkins.

4. Zombies vs. Unicorns. I need to read more about this.

New Moon in a Minute

(via bookshelvesofdoom)


Haha! Excuse me while I finish laughing.

Okay.

I finally got to see New Moon a couple weeks ago, and I thought it was actually a pretty good movie, but this is still funny. I was concerned when I noticed that one of my friends put their facebook status as "Sitting through New Moon is like driving a tractor in low gear though a sullen sea of lard. Hard, miserable, and pushing to the point of where you want to chew off your own head to to be done with it." But again, it's really not that bad.

Harry Potter Week

Harry Potter Week was an event put on at the university I attend by the wonderful people in Student Activities in celebration of the July 15th release of the sixth Harry Potter movie. It was geeky and over the top and so much fun! And Student Activities worked really hard to pull it all together.

The fun began with e-mailed acceptance letters from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry the week before the release of the movie. (And just a side note: none of this will make sense for people totally unfamiliar with the books and/or movies. Sorry!)

Day 1: The Sorting Hat Ceremony and the Start of Term Feast!

Of course, it didn't look like this; our candles didn't float. But there were house tables with appropriately colored tablecloths.

And of course we had a sorting hat! It just didn't talk by itself, which didn't bother me, as that would've been mildly terrifying. Our names were called, and we were all sorted. I was a Ravenclaw.
Just call me Luna.

After that, each house competed in a timed challenge called "Introduction to Magic". We were given a puzzle and a spell to decode. The first station was "Lumos", and we received a keychain flashlight after unlocking the puzzle. This came in handy when we were sent to investigate a noise in the girls' bathroom. Oh no, I thought, there had better not be a troll in there. And there wasn't. Instead, we found "Moaning Myrtle", who shut the lights off and cackled as we used our keychain flashlight to solve the puzzle in the dark room. The answer was "Alohomora", which we had to use to get out of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Next, we ran down the hall to find a grinning Gilderoy Lockhart. He kept trying to hand us autographed pictures and tell us stories about his great deeds. We had to use "Expelliarmus" on him and run down the stairs, where there were dementors!

Meaning people with black hooded sweatshirts closed over their faces; thankfully not these :)

The dementors tried to pull us away from the puzzle, but we solved it and drove them away with a Patronus charm! And then we went to watch HP #1 while the rest of the houses tackled the challenge. The results came in later, with Ravenclaw in third place and Gryffindor in the lead. Slytherin took second, and Hufflepuff came in fourth.

Day 2: Quidditch semi-finals

That's right, we played Quidditch. Sans flying brooms, of course. But we did have an assortment of attractive (meaning incredibly worn out) brooms and mops, which we were required to have under our legs and held with one hand at all times. For goals, we had three hula hoops leaning against folding chairs on each side of Campus Park . We had two rubber balls--excuse me, Quaffles. No bludgers and no snitch.

It was one fierce game.

Gryffindor was the only house with enough members present to form its own team. The rest of us banded together as HuffleSlytherClaw. We lost the first game, narrowly winning the second.

Some competitors were more enthusiastic than others, as evidenced by my friend Matt's cape and cleverly decorated broom, which looks like a guitar (not sure if you can tell from the picture). Here he is, "flying"! He had to jump about five times for me to get this picture; photographing a jumping person with a dying digital camera is harder than it sounds.

Day 3: OWLs and Harry Potter Jeopardy

We reported for our Ordinary Wizarding Levels at the top floor of Glidden Hall, an old brick building with small-ish windows that arch to a point on the top floor. "Professor Snape", who was really Alex, one of the fabulous campus activity people, in a wig, graduation gown, and turtleneck, greeted us. "Snape" then commenced taking points away from houses for little or no reason and glaring at us while we took a quick Harry Potter trivia quiz.

"I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

After that, we played Harry Potter Jeopardy, with categories like "Name that Weasley" and "The Dentist's Kid" (Hermione). Ravenclaw swept "Fantastic Beasts". Unexpectedly, Hufflepuff won! Anyone who wasn't in Gryffindor was thrilled, as we were waiting for them to lose something. Random good things kept happening for them...kind of like in the book. Eerie.

Day 4: Quidditch Finals

It was raining, and I had to work at the library. What I do know is that it took place at the stadium, and those present were going to watch the fourth movie outside. Unfortunately, the sound didn't work. Fortunately, Maggie, a Slytherin, suggested subtitles and then began to read them in hilarious voices.

Day 5: End of Term Feast and Horcruxes Scavenger Hunt
We watched the fifth movie and dined on pizza and chocolate bars in Grand Island Hall's Big Lounge. From there, we went a scavenger hunt for horcruxes, which we had to find and destroy. This involved shooting waterguns at pictures on the sides of buildings and running a plastic sword through a print-out of a snake. Partially due to the accidental removal of one of the clues, Ravenclaw came in last. But what matters is that we had fun doing it.

The House Cup was awarded to Gryffindor just before the midnight showing of the movie, which I did not attend. (Slytherin took second, Hufflepuff third, and Ravenclaw fourth.) I went on Wednesday afternoon with my friends Skyler and Matt instead. Skyler (she's a girl, don't let the spelling of her name fool you!) and I met in preschool and have been friends ever since, even though we haven't lived in the same town since then. I've seen every Harry Potter movie with her.

And the movie? I loved it, over-foreshadowy music and all (you always knew when something scary was about to happen). Skyler, on the other hand, had recently read the sixth book and was less than thrilled because she could recall everything that was left out. I haven't read the book in years, which made it easier for me to let all that go.

Thoughts on reading books right before watching movies? Thoughts on the sixth HP movie? On popcorn? (Which I ate a lot of at the movie theater.) Please, share them.