"You see, you are lost! Now, no one can get out of the barricade. It was I who led you here, by the way! You are going to die, I count upon that. And yet, when I saw them taking aim at you, I put my hand on the muzzle of the gun. How queer it is! But it was because I wanted to die before you. When I received that bullet, I dragged myself here, no one saw me, no one picked me up, I was waiting for you, I said: `So he is not coming!' Oh, if you only knew. I bit my blouse, I suffered so! Now I am well. Do you remember the day I entered your chamber and when I looked at myself in your mirror, and the day when I came to you on the boulevard near the washerwomen? How the birds sang! That was a long time ago. You gave me a hundred sous, and I said to you: `I don't want your money.' I hope you picked up your coin? You are not rich. I did not think to tell you to pick it up. The sun was shining bright, and it was not cold. Do you remember, Monsieur Marius? Oh! How happy I am! Every one is going to die."

I always thought Eponine's story was the most pathetically sad one. But it's interesting because everyone thinks of her as this selfless heroine who saved Marius. Well... no. She first wrote a letter using his friend's name to get him to join the revolution and then she saved him because she thought he was going to die anyway, but she just wanted to go first. In some convoluted way, it was rather selfish of her. But because of the overall outcome, she's hailed by everyone.

Don't get me wrong, I much prefer her character to Cosette's. But her character just happened to be written in such a positive way in the musical, though, where she came out looking like the wronged female brave character... admirable, mostly because Cosette was very much a one-dimensional figure. But there was some genuine sweetness within the tough exterior of the street girl, though, and I like that. She was lonely, left alone. It's pitiful because death gave her a release and freedom that she never had in life.

She dropped her head again on Marius' knees, and her eyelids closed. He thought the poor soul had departed. Eponine remained motionless. All at once, at the very moment when Marius fancied her asleep forever, she slowly opened her eyes in which appeared the sombre profundity of death, and said to him in a tone whose sweetness seemed already to proceed from another world:--

"And by the way, Monsieur Marius, I believe that I was a little bit in love with you."

Isn't that just heartbreaking? It's like... the penultimate in unrequited love. It always DID irk me a little that she clearly liked Marius but he was completely oblivious and just falls in love with some random chick who wanders by with her father. But anyway.

Clearly, I just went to see the musical again on Friday night. It was excellent. As opposed to my Thursday evening and Friday morning. And then came the humbling of our Leafs on Saturday... Overall, I'd say it's been a 'meh' weekend with one bright spot. And then today shall be my mellow period.

Go ahead, cut deep... but don't tell the boys...

I never understood those lyrics, just by the by.

All hail daylight's savings time. And M&Ms.

// Amelia spontaneously combusted @ 10:19AM |

Here's a tip about animalia reproductive processes: a cow doesn't die after having sex. Well, not immediately, anyway. AND it can be milked more than once before it dries up. I know, it's scintillating stuff they teach us in accounting class these days. The quality of education is not strained! Tee hee.

Dave Matthews is coming to the ACC in December. I don't know many songs by them, but the ones I've heard, I love. We're strange allies, with warring hearts... what a wild-eyed beast you be.... With luck I'll be working that night. I've just been penciled in for the Aerosmith/Lenny Kravitz show so that must be happy happy joy joy fun... (calm your hearts, sarcasm!)

My music buddy lent me the sheet music for Les Miserables today. I'm thrilled because a) it gave me something to do during the 1.5hrs of agony today and b) I'm seeing it on Friday so it's fun playing and singing along again. Awesomeness until it drives mom and daddio mad.

Just for fun, a little musicals meme.

The rules as follow: I write the lyrics and you try to guess the song names and the musical it comes from. Pretty simple, right? It's even more fun if you play along!! I know, sheer ingenuity.

1. Farewell my fallen idol and false friends... one by one I've watched illusions shattered.
2. I see my present partner in the imperfect tense... and I don't see how we can last...
3. In my life, there's been no one like him anywhere, anywhere where he is... if he asked, I'd be his.
4. And where the journey may lead me, let your prayers be my guide. I cannot stay here, my family, but I'll remember my pride.
5. There's a man gone mad in the town tonight. He's gonna shoot somebody down.
6. I guess you can say we broke up because of artistic differences.
7. Look there she goes that girl is strange, no question. Dazed and distracted, can't you tell?
8. Midnight - not a sound from the pavement. Has the moon lost her memory? She is smiling alone.
9. Don't be offended by my frank analysis, think of it as personality dialysis.
10. But--would I have done, what I did, if I hadn't thought, if I hadn't known we would take the country?

Good luck, kiddos. Just leave your guesses in the comments and I'll update them as you get them right... or wrong. ;)

// Amelia spontaneously combusted @ 10:25PM |

Garbage. Sex Never Goes Out of Fashion. The lyrics are scandalicious.

Yes, I realize I just made up yet another word. Look surprised, people, look surprised.

bob and BOB are the image of the day. Pourquoi? Because they're so freaking awesome, that's why! You can visit their ongoing adventures here because I say so. They do everything from drinking tea to tackling avian flu to slicing off tops of their heads with erasers (and fixing it with head bandages). If this isn't love, then what is it?

Rosa Parks died today. I find it fascinating how people say she "died". Not "she passed away" or some equally euphemistic and softening phrase, but just the blunt reality of it all. The woman who broke down barriers and changed how society treats its peers today "died". C'mon, my friends, we can do better than that.

On a note tinged with the stereotypes of that day and age, I'd like to recommend The Long Walk Home for those of you who haven't seen it. I remember watching it in religion class in Grade 12. It was a good movie. Possibly right up there with The Dorothy Day Story, Pinocchio and Benny & Joon. Hey, after four years of Catholic education, they need to fill up the extra space and time with something.

In other news, Ben Bernanke will replace Alan Greenspan as the chairman of the Feds. See? I DO learn something in economics. Mind you, I don't know how that'll ever improve me in life or anything...

// Amelia spontaneously combusted @ 8:35PM |

My tarot reading told me today, and I quote:
Today's a day for inner revelation, Amelia. The High Priestess is offering you an opportunity for reflection, and you must seize it if you want to improve your state of mind. The Sun is giving you the psychological means to put a little sparkle into your love life. Maybe you'll meet the love of your life - or rediscover an old flame. Make the best of it!

So, in an effort to do EXACTLY that, I decided to go out and buy a couple of Disney movies to watch, while cocoooning with Kris. Clearly, this is my ticket to improving my love life. The mainstays are as follows:

Sleeping Beauty.

Bambi.

Such is my productivity factor and I know, my friend, it's mind-blowing how deep these films are. For example, I learned how not to cook from Sleeping Beauty, and I learned that it's impolite to say "He's kinda wobbly, ain't he?" from Bambi.

Someone once told me that Sleeping Beauty is a movie about date rape. I just wanted to share. So much Disney, so many dirty jokes...

Anyway, since my linguistic motor has apparently shut down its connection to my fingers, this is a pretty pointless post, except for the virtue of pretty Bambi pictures. I really liked how they drew the characters because the animals were so gosh darn cute. Particularly the skunk because that was too awesome.

Anyway, Grey's Anatomy is on tonight. Therein lies my studying aspirations for the day.

// Amelia spontaneously combusted @ 6:49PM |

I should probably explain the overtly large pictures in brief. I was watching a heck of a lot of Gilmore Girls with Kris and I decided that Jess looked a lot like Christian Bale. So I pulled out pictures to prove it. And then Kris frowned and said Jess looked more like James Franco which I vehemently denied until she made me find pictures so she could prove it.

For the record, I don't find it overly convincing, but anyway. I thought that James Franco looked more like Hayden Christensen, so I found pictures to prove that. But then Hayden Christensen looks a lot like Ryan Phillipe. And then in certain pictures, well, Ryan looks a lot like Chad Michael Murray.

And I was going through all these WB favourites, I thought about how much James Spencer from House resembes Chad Michael Murray and how Jared Padelecki-something-or-other looks a lot like James... but I got too tired of piecing all the pictures together and looking for pictures of people. But I decided to display the pictures anyhow because obviously I should either be studying and/or doing my econ assignment.

Instead I went to the mall with Kate & Mary, because that's the kind of thing we do instead of studying. That, and drown myself with GG-sized cups of tea because it's so much fun sipping tea out of them. (They're gigantic and yellow. It rocks.)

And now I shall proceed to bug Kris by playing Disney tunes over and over and over...

// Amelia spontaneously combusted @ 10:33PM |

It hurt my puny feelings, although not as much as it would've if... I hadn't finished my econ exam already! Yay!

I just sent off my accounting assignment too so life. is. good.

I also survived an intellectual discussion over the lexical use of the word 'aforementioned' versus 'aforesaid'. And I believe I handled the linguistical debate fairly adeptly after a rusty summer of non-literate things.

I think I'm off now to drown myself in Gilmore Girl reruns.

Do you know, I secretly suspect that I'm a huge fan of witty banter? But it's a secret. Shh.

// Amelia spontaneously combusted @ 11:31PM |

I love dried fruit. It's my secret weapon for combatting exams. It's small, handy, sugary and pretty colours.

Can you tell my brains are addled?

Laurier finally got facebook! Or, at the very least, Jules finally caved and set one up. Yay! (I just find it sad that your boo isn't on it already. That's okay, we can talk about him behind his back then...)

I'm kidding! Engineers rock!

Je suis tres fatigue. Je suis missing the francais symbols so I can afford to mangle words and phrases like this. But I feel a little boosted going into my exam tomorrow, and with luck this ain't false confidence talking. I figure if I spend the rest of the night going over some notes, I should be set. I think the class at the gym has completely killed me, though. I'm dozing off, ergo the goodness of sugary dried fruit comes in to save me and reinvigorate me.

Hm, and I think I'm supposed to tape Lost for somebody, too. Or so it says on the gigantic yellow Post-it note which is happily occupying a rather expansive space on the top right side of my monitor. Could you BE any more conspicious?

I'm sorry, that was snotty. I don't mean to be. I'm just keyed up to the flat diminished ninth chord today.

Fingers crossed, let's have a par-tay...

// Amelia spontaneously combusted @ 7:25PM |

My feet hurt. So bad. So I thought it would be productive to waste utilize this time I could be studying for exams... umm... finding pictures of shoes.

The shoes you see are the ones I suffered through all day. Mind you, they're gorgeous and Kris has a pair in pink, but after 3 hours on my feet smiling through agony from recruiters... I might never be the same again.

We had the cocktail today. I hope it went off well (I say hope because my perspective is obviously skewed). In retrospect, I had one of the best positions in the house because I was able to greet the recruiters and talk with them before they hit the storm of people. It was fantastic, exhilerating, and completely and utterly exhausting. And now I've got to get ready for an economics exam, so... well, wish me fun!

Poetry in words: All of the king's horses and all of the kings men... couldn't pull my heart back together again. All of the physicians and mathematicians too, failed to stop my heart from breaking in two...

// Amelia spontaneously combusted @ 8:56PM |

You're driftwood floating underwater, breaking into pieces, pieces, pieces... Just driftwood hollow and of no use, waterfalls will find you, bind you, grind you...

I've decided it's my mission to spread the Travis love to everyone, because they're way to indie for such an awesome group with so many excellent hits. And yes, I am particularly biased because I forked over a lot of $$ to get their singles CD yesterday. So I shall proceed to inundate you with Travis-love, and explain the best way to get someone familiarized with their music at 12:30 in the morning.

1. They're Scottish, but they sound British to me. That's always a hit because I love indie Brit groups.

2. Usually people have heard the mash-up with Greenday, Oasis, Aerosmith (Boulevard of Broken Songs). Now if you listen carefully, within the first chorus you'll hear a faint melody being sung softly by... no other than Travis. So it's a nice way to get people to realize that they DO in fact, know Travis music.

3. Now go listen to Writing to Reach You, which is the song which was clipped in the first song.

4. Garden State has an awesome soundtrack. Travis is on it with one of my favourite songs, Love Will Come Through. It's such a pretty song and it's mellow enough to really get you.

5. Now that you've heard some of the slower pieces, then it's time to hit you with the first song I ever heard by them which I love. Side was one of their biggest hits (comparatively speaking... compared to their uh, other songs, that is) which is catchy, rolling and FUN. Then go listen to Re-Offender because it's so singable.

6. Next it's a toss-up between two songs. They're both pretty good songs. There's Flowers in the Window, which Kris really likes and there's Why Does it Always Rain On Me? which arguably tossed Travis into the spotlight. They're both excellent. "Why does it always rain on me... is it because I lied when I was seventeen?" Okay, so Travis doesn't have the most enlightening lyrics, but I love it all the same.

7. At this point you'll probably have a fairly good idea if you like Travis or not. Other highly recommended songs include:
- Quicksand
- Driftwood
- Pipe Dream (I'd pray to God if there was heaven, but heaven seems so very far from here. And it all boils down to the same old thing, just a yin and a yang or a couple of pipe dreams...)
- Happy to Hang Around
- The Cage (Such a pretty song. You should just look up the lyrics)
- The Humpty Dumpty Love Song (if only for the title, even if you hate the song)
- Walking in the Sun
- Somewhere Else

8. The last one is interesting because Travis is more or less mellow, but this song really covers some darker material. It's the kind of creepy music I really like, but which others (Kris, for example) didn't. But give it a shot: Blue Flashing Lights, which was a hidden track off The Man Who. It's about domestic abuse, it's got a lot of wild background music going on, but I really like it, possibly because they use 'bloody' in the typical colloquial British sense and they drop it so subtley that the fact that they salute the Queen is oh-so-obvious. I'm not very coherent right now, but I swear... it's so awesome.

So yeah... am I wasting time instead of working on my accounting assignment which is obviously top priority? Well, yes. But in my defense, I need a break today anyway. And music is important when it comes to de-stressing because yoga isn't really doing it for me these days (it's a little too slow for me but Travis is... just right.)

Grey's Anatomy was too good tonight. The last couple of episodes have been incredibly emotional & tear-jerking. I think I love Bailey and I love Alex because they're such an interesting study in contrasts (within themselves, I mean. Although they do kinda contrast with each other, too). It's pretty good writing, too. Not exactly the top-notch intelligent wit of Sports Night or Gilmore Girls pre-Rory-dropping-out-and-losing-her-mind... but it's pretty darn close.

And yes Grace, Sandra Oh is a fantastic actress.

And now I'm off to do some more accounting and/or watching the OC. Such is the shamelessly petty life I lead.

// Amelia spontaneously combusted @ 12:03AM |

I confess I've never listened to Norman Mailer's voice (nor do I claim any desire to), but after thinking about it today... well, I have more faith in myself than Darren seems to give us credit for. First: the falsetto. Second: the falsetto. I might not have the most comprehensive case for my logic, but it's damn convincing to me.

Also, Norman Mailer's got wrinkles and I can never associate such facial features with music. Wrinkly people music isn't a harmonic phrase that exactly jives with me. But long story short, I am incredibly psyched for So Beautiful.

Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you...she tied you to a kitchen chair... she broke your throne, she cut your hair and from your lips she drew the Hallelujah [ Hallelujah ]

For referential reasons, probably because I was busy cartooning it, I decided to include a picture of the original Dempsey picture I used for this layout. I think it turned out fairly well and much better (as Jules would back me up) to the vectoring days of yore. I went through my files of art the other day and it made me nostalgic for the days of bad head manipulations although they weren't, albeit, as awful as they potentially could've been.

Last week's Grey's Anatomy was awesome. Kris taped it for her own obscure reasons so I was re-watching it with her again today and it was one of those episodes where everything seemed to happen for a reason and everything fell into place. I'm not particularly keen on how ABC is promo-ing the show though, simply because whoever edits the tape chooses the lines which aren't overtly funny and it just leaves you with a stale flavour in the air.

In other news, it is altogether too easy to love listening to Travis. They're the more tuneful Coldplay, they're under the radar to avoid radio overkill, they have the annoyingly catchy hooks, and they're British. I love it. Look for Writing to Reach You because you've probably heard that tune before and just never realized it was Travis.

I think the day wasted away too quickly today. Jewish holidays make for less education than my hard-earned $$$ is worth. I earned time and a half on the McCartney concert which is kickass, but there were other repercussions that weren't so happy. I've probably told you my experience already, but suffice to say, I won't be impressed by men in uniform for a long time yet. At least, old ones.

Marlies game last night. I'm glad you kids (Nicole, Fady, Andrea, Mel & GC) could show up! Opening nights are always hectic, but we got these nifty little commemorative tickets that could potentially be worth $2.00 in 10 years. And free pizza is always thumbs up.

I need something exciting to break up the monotony lingering overhead.

// Amelia spontaneously combusted @ 5:11PM |

Natalie: What's the last thing you do remember?
Leonard Shelby: My wife...
Natalie: That's sweet.
Leonard Shelby: ...dying.

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