It's obviously Anti-Semitic!

"Jesus Christ Superstar" is better than Godspell.
Sort of.
I mean, it's far superior musically, storywise, and ended becoming more famous.
But it's not wonder other Christians hate it.
And I wasn't crazy about it.
I cried a lot during it, though.
Pilate's dream, Mary Magdalene's solo, The Last Supper, nearly every time Judas sang, you name it.
And yet, not a lot during the crucifixion.
After, yeah. But not during.
The whole thing was...weird, and definitely verging on blasphemous.
But I was reading about some of the stuff religious groups didn't like about the movie, and some of the stuff was inconsequential compared to other BIG things.
Jews didn't like it because it blamed Jesus' death on the Jews.
Um, well, yeah, it was mainly Jewish people that called for his death.
And it was the Jewish high priests that wanted him dead in the first place.
It's not as if Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice are raging Anti-Semites who want you all dead.
Blame Hitler if you need to. He was one.
Or other Christians freaking out because Pilate didn't have the dream about Jesus in the Bible! His wife did!
Wow...you would think those people would object to the fact that the movie states that Jesus WASN'T THE SON OF GOD and that Judas WAS JUSTIFIED.
Anyone who's read this blog for a long time knows I think Judas was a sympathetic character.
But I don't think Judas betrayed Jesus for the good of the people, or that he was right about Jesus being a liar.
And Jesus, for the larger part of the film, was portrayed as a petulant, spoiled, ambitious, hypocritical loser.
Then, later, it showed him doubting.
Both he and Jesus ended up yelling at God and showing him to be a cold God who either doesn't care about us or doesn't exist.
Then the disciples, right before he was crucified, started wondering if all he wanted was attention or perhaps an effective way to prove his point and didn't realize the consequences.
Most of the disciples were shown as misguided punks who deserved better.
Then Jesus is dead.
His disciples do NOT carry him around the city singing, "Long Live God".
Instead, he's dead. They mourn. They scatter. And that's all there is.
Wow. How depressing.
My dad won't admit it, but he loved it. He knows all the songs.
My mom hates it. Probably because it's "Anti-Semitic".
I'm undecided.
I watched "Les Miserables" yesterday, though, and LOVED it.
Mmm, Hans Matheson.
I can't tell if Claire Danes is really pretty or really odd looking.
Maybe both?
Geoffrey Rush was scary. I managed to stop screaming, "Barbossa! Barbossa!" midway through the movie.
The suicide was a little overdramatic.
And Liam Neeson somehow walked away from that encounter unscathed, not emotionally traumatized at all.
But, overall, great movie.
I haven't gotten any farther in the book. There's a large section on Waterloo that keeps mocking me.
Ugggggggh I would love to skip that part, but I'm scared I'll miss something important.
I leave for Colorado tomorrow night. We'll be gone for a week and a half.
WOOOO!!! I'm excited.

You're so vain...

Parents.
Yes, the only reason I'm alive is so I can make you mad, Dad.
You see, it's my fault the concert in Keyport ended early.
So I sat in the backseat of the car trying to make him laugh, while he explained to me how my jokes weren't funny because they were innacurate.
Yes, I know Michael Jackson wasn't an albino. That's not the POINT.
But I digress.
I'm 58 pages into Les Miserables! Yes! Only 1410 pages to go!
Crap. I'm trying to find this book I saw about the art of making playlists, but it doesn't seem to exist.
My brother and I got into an argument regarding Les Miserables.
After listening to the CD a billion times, I found it rather depressing. The peasants continued to lead hopeless lives where no one gave a crap, and most of the "good guys" die. Marius is getting married and should be the happiest man alive, but he can't help thinking about all the friends he lost and can't celebrate. He literally lost ALL of his friends. Every single one of them DIED!
But Nathan argued that, later in history, the good guys eventually won, so the musical wasn't sad at all. And Javert, one of the "bad guys" died, so not everything was bad.
Hello? Eponine is dead. Gavroche is dead. Javert wrestles with his conscience and has the chance of becoming a good man, but decides he can't live with himself after all the things he's done and KILLS HIMSELF. Thenardier, one of the villians, ends up on top by robbing people. And Valjean, the hero, a changed man who's lived a full life, DIES.
Sure, of old age, with his daughter by his side, but STILL.
It's not the kind of thing I listen to when I want to be HAPPY.
But no, Nathan berated me for not thinking of the historical context and for even being sad at all.
Ugh. He was sort of joking, but of course he thought was right.
As usual.
We constantly butt heads over stuff like that.
I'll be sad about something, and he'll be all, "Well, logically..."
Irritating.
And yet my mom gets it???
Who knows.

Jesus sure looks nice in that Superman T-shirt

Crap. "Les Miserables" is at the library.
All 1438 pages of it.
Aaargh.
I don't want to read that many pages!
I have 8 other series to read this summer!
And I could barely focus while reading LOTR, what with all the fighting and recapping.
The French Revolution is going to be even worse!
I read the abridged version. That should count for something.
William and I watched "Godspell" last night.
An article in A&E stated that there are two kinds of people: Godspell people and Jesus Christ Superstar people.
Not having seen Jesus Christ Superstar, I wouldn't know.
But I'm not really that into Godspell either.
It was pretty trippy.
People follow the magical horn of John/Judas the Baptist/Iscariot, who pops in out and out of windows, ballet dances, and libraries for some odd reason.
Then they all jump into the fountain and dance to "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord".
Then Jesus appears wearing nothing but blue boxers. He wants to get washed up!
After being baptized by John, he pops out of the fountain WEARING CLOTHES!
That part threw me a little, and I stared at the TV with my mouth open for five minutes afterward.
Then they went on to act out parables in strange, unorthodox ways.
Then again, Jesus himself was pretty unorthodox in his day.
But that didn't make the movie any less weird.
The music was great. Alas, alas, you lawyers and Pharisees! "Day by Day" was somewhat ruined for me by the fact that Robin sang like a man.
I really couldn't understand how tying a man's arms to a chainlink fence while he stands on a bucket could ever be fatal. I know that wasn't really the point, but still.
And then it was as if the director ALSO missed the entire point of Jesus' death: he DIDN'T rise from the dead!
And, yeah, whoever wrote the play obviously didn't believe Jesus had, didn't believe he was the Son of God, etc.
But still. Why write a play about Jesus if you leave out one of the most important parts?
And yes, I can think of reasons why.
But it made the ending somewhat of a bummer.
His disciples decide to carry his dead body around town, while they sing merrily.
Which could be interpreted as joy because they know Jesus did good things and now it was their turn to share the good news with other people.
But if Jesus never rose...what good news would they have to share?
I also found it weird that Jesus died but Judas lived.
The other disciples didn't seem mad at all that Judas betrayed and essentially killed their Rabbi.
In the Bible? He killed himself, because he felt so guilty, and maybe (this is speculation) he knew that the other disciples wouldn't be able to forgive him.
In fact, they might even have killed him.
So he beat them to it.
Which makes me sad because he screwed up big time, but he was sorry afterwards.
Yeah, that sounds lame, but it wasn't just, "Oh dear, I regret that decision." His attitude was, "How can I live with myself after what I've done? What a terrible decision!"
So he bought a field and possibly hanged himself. There's a verse that talks about his blood and guts flying everywhere, which didn't sound like a hanging. :O Maybe the other disciples got him after all.
When the high school did "Godspell" last fall, they changed the ending and it was pretty epic. Shafer had commented that the ending seemed kind of hopeless and wanted to include the Resurrection into the script. So, in the play, Judas and another disciple placed Jesus' body in a box. While they were singing "Long Live God", they opened the box and revealed to the audience that Jesus wasn't there (they literally tore that thing apart, so it was pretty obvious he was gone).
Then, when everyone was clapping, Jesus runs out in a white suit onto the stage and joins the other actors as they take their bow.
Genius? You bet.
But carrying around Jesus' corpse works, too.
Next, to torture ourselves, we're going to watch "Bye Bye Birdie" and "Oliver!". Should be fun.

Where are those cliches when I need them?

Why is Jamie Lee Curtis at my library? WHY?
"Outliers" sounds like a cool book.
There is no such thing as an overnight success.
Which we knew. But we needed Malcolm Gladwell to put it into words.
Isn't it cool when you meet a fictional character who could very well be your soulmate?
Okay, that makes me sound creepy and pathetic.
But I don't mean romantic soulmate.
I mean, they say something profound, or maybe just mundane, and you go, "EXACTLY! How did you know how I felt? You're not even real!!!!"
And then, if you're me, you determine their personality type and discover it's the same as yours.
Yes. It's true. I'm sorry.
But Hope McNeill could be my soulmate.
The pugs! Ugg boots! New York! Telling our moms everything!
It makes sense.
"The Dead Poet's Society" was overrated.
To be blunt: I hated it.
Someone was going to kill themselves. Or at least, I knew someone was going to die. As was proved when, right before watching the movie, some girl protested, "I can't watch this movie. It's SOOOOOOOO sad."
Hm. I wonder what that means?
And it's a group of teenage boys. And they're horny. And they're studying poetry religiously.
One of them is going to die.
But why did it have to be Neil???
I didn't like Neil!!!
It was really sad. REALLY sad. I mean, he felt like he had no other option, and the only place he felt free was on the stage, but even that had been taken away from him.
So he blew his brains out.
And it was disturbing. Kevin laughed and all that crying girls refused to speak to him all day.
But I cried more over Angel, and I knew that was coming.
I cried more over Arvid, and that movie was terrible.
And the ending. :P Whatever.
We wanted closure!!

Irregularity is the spice of life!

And I don't mean in your bowels.
Hm, I could unintentionally be referring to my infrequent posting.
Just agh.
School started up, which wasn't as stressful as I thought it would be.
But the drama is still there, but no one wants to deal with it.
So I'll sit here stewing, come home from school every day crying, and bristle every time I see Skankasaurus Rex from now until summer.
Mr. Williams told us he already has the rooms planned, and Kevin and I were anxious as to what the assignments would be.
Because he doesn't want to room with the guy who has a heterosexual man crush on him, and I don't want to room with the really stupid girls who use words like "glam" and ask questions like, "How do you spell found?"
Seriously, if this happens, we'll switch rooms.
Creepy manboys vs. Remedial English?
Manboys win every time.
Ugh, speaking of English, we're watching "The Dead Poet's Society" and I don't see what all the fuss is about.
Robin Williams is great. But Robert Sean Leonard? Really? So gross.
And Ethan Hawke. Please. As if we didn't see enough of him in "Gattaca".
Oh no, speaking of "House", I died last night.
I haven't even watched the show for that long and I cried during all of last night's episode.
Kutner...WHY??? Why not Taub? Why not FOREMAN!?? No one even likes him!!!
But when Foreman randomly grabbed Remy's hand after ignoring her for the entire episode and she started crying, the tears started coming.
When Taub sat on a bench alone and began crying, the tears were pouring down.
When House found the one picture where Kutner looked absolutely hopeless and all these different emotions crossed his face, I was weeping. Pretty pathetically. William was just fine.
Argh. Oh well.

You can take the girl out of Hicksville, but you can't take the Hicksville out of the girl

So true.
Better days at school.
My dad thinks I have an eating disorder, though.
Please. It's not like I'm throwing up my breakfast on PURPOSE.
But mixed messages abound. It's getting really annoying.
It sucks to be melancholic and everything, but phlegmatics are just as annoying...in uniquely different ways.
Tyler and I did our England presentation today. Finally. At least it's out of the way. It might not have been 5 minutes, but at least it was 15 minutes like this one group, who stuttered painfully and paused for minutes in between topics.
And we weren't boring.
And we argued during it, which "caught people's attention".
But when we were done, people only had questions about the London Eye, the world's biggest ferris wheel.
Only that. And we couldn't answer them all.
Poor Maricel. She has to do it all by herself.
So we'll help her with the chocolate chip scones. Mmmm...
"They're supposed to be bitter!"
British people eat crappy food.
And don't like Jesus.
RENT! I love Anthony Rapp. Except for his icky goatee.
And Jesse L. Martin. He has a nice goatee.
And Wilson Jermaine Heredia's goatee looks pretty nice. HE is nice.
We're starting a poetry unit in English. It's a lot better than I thought it would be. Edgar A. Guest is totally cheesy and kind of lame, but I love Langston Hughes, Anne Sexton, and Mary Oliver. "Wild Geese" made me cry.
We have to pick a topic, find 5 poems that support that topic, write 2 of our own, and then present them to the class. One of them was "On the Edge", and I don't want to be melodramatic about it, because my poetry tends to be, but there was a poem in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" that fits the theme perfectly.
That one was sad, too.
The guy who wrote "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" also wrote the screenplay for "Rent".
No wonder I liked that book so much.

The cutest cows you ever did see

You Are 60% Ready to Be a Parent

You are mostly ready to be a parent, though you could be better prepared. If you had a kid tomorrow, things might be difficult at first - but you could pull through. You don't have to be an ideal parent, but if your life was in better order, it would help. Make yourself a plan of how you'll raise and pay for a kid. You'll feel better if you have all your ducks in a row. If you're already a parent, you're probably doing a good job. Even if things aren't perfect, you're making the best of it.

Are You Ready to Be a Parent?

Don't you hate thinking up brilliant things just as you're starting to fall asleep?
Then that wonderous thought disappears into your subconcious and you NEVER remember it.
NEVER!!
The choir concert last night wasn't bad.
It would be sort of biased to say our school did best.
But we definitely did better than Klahowya.
Kristine is so fantabulous.
Swimming in the pool was actually pretty fun. My swimsiut from 7th grade still fits me perfectly. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Mr. Freeman actually gave us half an hour to mess around.
And then stripping in the locker room afterwards wasn't nearly as traumatizing as it was in 7th grade. Girls were just walking around half-dressed or naked by the swimsuit dryer.
Ha ha, Sarah. Whenever the teacher asks us a question, we'll howl instead. And jingles will scare me for the rest of my life.
Poor Kris. He was really bummed yesterday and today he was trying to act like he was okay. It's really sad.

Barack Obama! You're limiting my TV options!

The election results weren't as bad as I thought they would be.
Of course, Barack Obama won.
Gee, didn't see that one coming.
Even if I didn't (or don't) agree with his politics, people's excitement about his election is contagious.
And all of my friends are genuinely happy and think he'll bring a change.
And, looking on the bright side, he can't be worse than Bush.
I really want to know what kind of puppy he's getting his daughters once they move into the White House.
He definitely deserved to win the election, and John McCain was very sportsmanlike about losing.
I-1000 passed in Washington, though. It pretty much sucks.
I talked to some people about it, though, and their reasoning was, "Well, it costs a lot to keep someone on life support."
Yeah, that's true, too bad it's a COMPLETELY different issue.
I-1000 was about legalized suicide.
How come health care will pay to give someone a lethal injection, but won't pay to help fight the disease?
And how come teens shouldn't commit suicide, but sick adults are allowed to?
When this point was brought up, however, those same people said, "Well, it life support costs a lot."
It's pretty funny. A bunch of kids in my English class are closet conservatives, and we all sit near one another.
I stole my dad's sweatshirt. No, I've never attended Wichita State.
Hi-Chews are on sale, but everyone is broke.
Mmm, that's what Pop Tarts are for.

The Castle Personality Test

You are scared of new experiences. It's hard for you to break outside of your comfort zone. You like to think that people see you as dramatic and fascinating. You do your best to seem mysterious. You are a very romantic person. You can't help but see the world as it should be. Right now, you feel like the whole world is open to you. You see lots of possibilities. Overall, your life is very peaceful - if not a little solitary. Much of what goes on goes on in your head. You aren't optimistic about the future. You worry about what will happen to the world and if we'll be able to clean up the messes we've made.

The Castle Personality Test

We just finished "The Pit and the Pendulum" in English, and now we're watching a weird movie version that has absolutely nothing to do with the actual story.
The acting is rather horrendous, and all efforts to scare didn't do much for today's desensitized American teenagers.

Stupid actions require stupid solutions

You Are Having a Green Day

You are approaching today with a good deal of balance and awareness. If you didn't pay attention, today could be like any old day. Nothing too exciting is going on. But for you, today all about making the most of each moment. You are seeing the beauty in every situation, and you're keeping your mind open to possibilities.

What Color Day Are You Having?

YESSS! I finally found a book series I used to read that I've been looking for forever.
There was another one, though, that was my favorite children's book, but I can't find the title. They just keep talking about the plot. It's like they forgot what it was called, too.
Steven Kellogg's Best Friends!!!!
BEST BOOK EVER!!!
This book made me cry in 1st grade.
What would you do if there was only one puppy?
Ugh, ethics are tiring. We read "Coup de Grace" in English, and it's a good story, but then we have to write about whether we think the main character did the right thing in killing his best friend.
True, his friend WANTED to die, but murder is wrong in any situation.
So while he was helping his friend, he did kill someone.
But if you're against that, then you should be against the death penalty, because if humans shouldn't have the right to choose to kill someone, then they shouldn't be able to murder criminals.
It's just too confusing.
We watched kind of a bummer movie in French, called "Manon of the Spring".
Manon's humpback dad Jean was sort of screwed over by Papet and his nephew Ugolin, who hid the spring from Jean and dried up all his crops.
Then Ugolin falls in love with Manon and sews her ribbon THROUGH HIS NIPPLES!
Try watching that while eating a roast beef sandwich. Ewwww.
Then Ugolin kills himself because Manon finds out what he did and hates his guts, and his suicide note was SOOOOOO sad!!!
He wrote about how much he loves Manon, and how much she loves this teacher guy, but the teacher guy didn't love her!! And Ugolin wanted to kill the teacher for taking Manon for granted, but that would make her sad and he knew killing himself would make her happy!!!!
I almost died.
Then, it turns out Florette, Manon's grandmother, got pregnant with Jean after a magic night with...PAPET!!
So Papet basically killed his own son and drove his nephew to suicide. But he never told Manon any of this because he DIED THE NEXT DAY!!!
Dang. Kind of messes you up.
I remember the Magic Attic Club!!! And the Cobble Street Cousins!!
I think they have every single one!! Checking them ALL out.