Concert Etiquette

A little while ago, I went to a Ghibli concert. It was a trio, and I think they were either students, or recently graduated. But they were really good! What really blew me away was that they had taken full orchestra pieces and beautifully arranged them to fit around a few instruments. I wish I could get copies of that music (In high school, I had actually turned the Howl's Moving Castle theme into a duet. Though the duets were cancelled soon after, so I never got to use it).

They said that they had only expected maybe 20 people to show up, but the place was sold out! I later saw posters for a second concert (with higher prices XD ) 

But some people in the audience had really bad concert etiquette. For example, don't clap until the song has actually ended! Clapping over the last note messes up a lovely ending. 

I'm sorry if you have to cough, but don't go hacking loudly during a concert. During one of our concerts, a lady had a little girl who was coughing and hacking loudly over our most important song. It messed up the whole song, as well as the recording of it. Your kid needs help! Take her out of the theater! Jeez!  If I have to cough, I try to hold it until the end of the song (then everyone is clapping anyway, so you can't really hear a cough).

And freaking turn off your phones! Jeez! Everyone should know that.

All the Beauties, all the Beasts

A while ago, I mentioned that I finally have an idea for my version of Beauty and the Beast.  I've seen several different versions of the story, and there are many more out there. If was after reading one specific version that I got my idea. Though I didn't get any ideas from that book - it just made me think of my story in a different way. And at that point, I wanted to check out some of the other versions I know and love, and find some new ones.

I grew up with the animated Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. It's one of my top favorite Disney movies. I watched the movie a couple times, mostly to get me pumped up for my own. But I also studied Beast . I didn't want to use him for my design - I  wanted to see how a beast might have been created. I've always been a bit confused by Beast's face, and now I know why. They freaking change it! When he roars, they make his jaws longer and more menacing looking. No wonder it's hard to form a solid picture of his face. But even with the fur and jaws, there's a bit of a human aspect to it as well. He doesn't have a long muzzle-it's a flatter shape like a human's.

Disney remade this movie, and while there was some cool stuff about it, I prefer the original. 

I think the strangest version is Strange Magic. I didn't care for the movie the first time I watched it, but after it had processed in my head and watched it again, I discovered that I loved it. This one is interesting because the "beast" never becomes handsome. He's just different looking. 

I read the original book (by Barbot de Villeneuve) a couple years ago. I was surprised to find that the story we all know is only the first half of the original story. The second half goes on to tell the beast's story. 

I liked the show Once Upon a Time (at least up through the Frozen arc). But I was always sad about their version of Beauty and the Beast. Which is mostly because I like cool monsters, and this "beast" wasn't a physical monster. He was beastly in his behavior. But his relationship with Belle almost bordered on abusive. Because he never really stopped being nasty. Even at the end, you don't really keep any faith that he's suddenly going to be a nice person. 

Descendants touched on Beauty and the Beast in a different way. Their son want's to give chances to other people, just as Belle gave Beast a chance. That was a nice way to start out the movie.

I stumbled upon a Japanese animated film called Belle. This is another one that's very loosely based off of the story. The designs for the characters were very cool. And there were some great songs. 

And Miyazaki actually did his own version, called Princess Mononoke: The First Story. Despite its name, it has nothing to do with the film. It was an idea he pitched while he was trying to get started making his own films. You can find it in a book form (and probably online). This one also leaves the beast as a beast. Though apparently in his original version, the beast was turned back into a human but it felt wrong so he changed it.

After I read "Beauty" by McKinley, I got my own idea for my story. She followed the original story very closely, but gave the characters much more depth. 

When I started forming my story. I told my cousin about it (because I always blab about stories that I'm excited about, even though people don't really care to listen to me). He told me to watch the old French black and white film by Cocteau. So I did. At first, I was able to accept the oldness of the film, and the Beast's bad makeup. But then one scene broke that. Beast laps up water like a dog. At one point. Belle fills her hands with water and offers it to him to drink. He says "don't I disgust you?" And she says, "No, I like it." And after that, I could no longer take the movie seriously. I'm sorry. (I was looking up more movies, and stumbled upon a list of top ten versions of Beauty and the Beast. It listed this as #1)

So, we'll see what other versions I discover.

Obstacles

Sometimes my cat keeps me company when I do stretches. Once she lay on the carpet where I wanted to stretch. I decided to put out my towel, hoping that would encourage her to move. 

It didn't work.

 

Wow, I've been the ultimate slacker on my blog. 

I don't have a really good excuse. I've been working on a million other things. And I was gone for over a month. I'll do a few proper posts covering everything. At some point. Yeesh.