In Which Things Confound Me...Or A Ramble On Musicals

Okay, so I have this friend who lives in New Joisey. And she told me for their school play, they're doing "Fiddler On the Roof". Now, for those of you who how somehow been living under a rock and don't know what that is, Fiddler is...okay. You know A Very Potter Musical?

Well, this is A Very Jewish Musical. Seriously. Look at the plot description. So, anyway, my friend goes to a Catholic High School. Uniforms and all. And my first reaction was, "WHAT THE FUCK? WHY CAN'T WE DO FIDDLER?"

We're doing 'Into the Woods' by Stephen Sondheim, which I (un)affectionately call, "Into the freaking Woods". Because Sondheim is a bitch to sing/play. Seriously. Listen to this, this, and this. Those are, if you're too lazy to look Comedy Tonight from A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum (which is HILARIOUS, by the way) as sung by Nathan Lane, A Little Priest from Sweeney Todd as sung by George Hearn and Angela Lansbury, and Send in the Clowns from A Little Night Music, as sung by Ruthie Henshall.

Now, Sondheim sounds very simple to sing. But that's the beauty of Sondheim. When done right, it seems effortless. When done poorly, it's a big fucking mess. Sondheim also writes the prettiest scores, with the catchiest melodies. C'mon. Tell me that Comedy Tonight isn't stuck in your head. And if it isn't, it soon will be. By the way, I'm not responsible whatever nightmares these reject Muppets induce. :D

Sondheim is also responsible for a song which I've mentioned once already. And that's Rose's Turn, as well as the rest of Gypsy. Sondheim is also responsible for West Side Story (although, I think he was just a producer on that one). So, yeah, Sondheim is a genius.

Now, speaking of Glee songs, I was watching Ruthie Henshall sing 'Maybe This Time', and I feel like I have to mention another fabulous Broadway person, who I think is dead now actually. Bob Fosse. I just checked Wikipedia...yes, he is dead. Wow, he died awhile ago. Like, before I was born. Anyway, Bob Fosse was known probably less known for his music, and more for his choreography.

Examples? Chicago, The Pajama Game, Damn, Yankees!, Cabaret (the movie, not the original musical), and All That Jazz. All of these are well known for their intensive choreography. Especially Chicago and Damn, Yankees!. We could never do a Bob Fosse musical at our school for two reasons.

The first being it's too risque. The second being we don't have many dancers. XDD

Yeah, this is pretty much all I gotta say. Musicals are awesome. I wish people appreciate them more.

In Which I Was Kate Winslet

...for all of five seconds.

Let me explain. So today was the "Swim For Life" which is a swim across the Hudson River, raising funds for Leukemia and Lymphoma. It was 65 degrees outside. And windy and cloudy. In the water? 72 degrees. Which, sounds warm but isn't.

A 'cold' pool will be about 80 degrees. Comfortable bathtub water is about 96 degrees. Scalding hot bathtub water is about 104 degrees. How do I know this? Well, pools have thermometers, but I had this little toy boat that had a thermometer and I used to take the temperature of my baths.

Not my point. Any water that is below 70 degrees is considered hypothermic, according to the boat captain that pulled me out of the water (I'll get to that in a minute. According to Wikipedia "Water at a temperature of 26 °C (79 °F) will, after prolonged exposure, lead to hypothermia." I don't doubt it. That water was cold, and it was 72 degrees. As I told one of my friends, "It was like the fucking Titanic", hence why I was Kate Winslet for all of five seconds.

So, I got in the water at about nine-thirty this morning, with just the instruction to follow the buoys, and that they would guide me through the current. Now, Usually this advice works, and swimmers aren't supposed to go straight across because then you end up fighting the current through a lot of it.

Not this year. This year was the exact opposite. The people who just went straight across had an easier time of it than those who followed the buoys. I followed the buoys as best I could. But the wind was so bad that it made the water really rough and choppy, making it hard to swim through. It made me nauseous, and I never get seasick. I can still taste Hudson River water when I sniffle.

As I was passing the sixth or seventh buoy, the volunteer firefighters of the town I live in's boat (yes, the volunteer firefighters had a boat) told me they were rounding up all the swimmers because we had gotten so spread out through the river. Additionally, there were some people who were starting to suffer from hypothermia. Like this one guy on my boat had to be taken back because he was so cold and they were afraid he would come down with hypothermia.

The boat captain looked a little bit like that guy from Titanic. He gave me a huge jacket (an XXL) to wear. It was quite cozy, and I hung out on the boat with some old people, all of whom were extremely impressed that I had swam across the river six times. The boat crew dropped us off right one buoy before the finish line, so that we could finish with some dignity.

I have never been so cold in my life. My toenails were blue. I was freezing. The first thing I did when I got home was get the shower as hot as it could go and I took a shower. I found seaweed in my hair. I don't even know how that happened.

Alas, there was no Leo DiCaprio to my Kate Winslet, although I will say that there were some very cute guys there. Moral of the story is? I'm not doing that again. It's nice to help people, but there's kind of a limit.

I don't really have anything to say...

I just got home from lunch with some friends (like you care). So...here's Craig Ferguson! :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpplZus7hPg&feature=related

If you don't think it's funny...well, I can respect that but Craig Ferguson is one of my favorite late night comedians.

Help a Sistah Out!

My friend Nathalie's mom has been having some rough times, and Natz has asked her friends to give her inspirational quotes. Like, happy inspirational quotes.

I have been doing as well as I can, but I could use the help of you fine people! If you wanna submit to her directly, here's her Tumblr. The first post explains it better than I can: http://with-all-my-love.tumblr.com/


Or, you can suggest quotes in the comments, and I can pass 'em on directly. Either way, I'm rallying for your support!

Also, York College of PA sent me a 'Preferred Student Application' yesterday. I feel wanted. And I don't need rubber bands anymore! Instead, the put new, tighter brackets on my teeth in a desperate attempt to get my teeth together. I told my orthdontist that he had until June to get my braces off. He said he'd try. I said he didn't have a choice.