Wicked.

I got to see the musical Wicked today with my buddies Rebeccah and Chelsea. It was amazing.

Scenery and props and costumes were perfect, acting was good, dialogue was witty, story was fun, and Elphaba’s voice was incredible. Really pure, pleasant tone while still having an amazing amount of power. Glinda was played by an understudy, and you could kind of tell. She was good, of course, but in duets Elphaba really had to tone it down to avoid running straight over the top of her. She was a great actress, though; played the role hilariously over-the-top, which made it perfect.

The AWESOME: Everything. All of it. Except…

The not-quite-as-AWESOME-but-still-good: I wasn’t overly fond of the voice of the guy playing Fiyero. But he was still pretty good. And as mentioned, Glinda’s singing could have been stronger. Still good.

Overall, completely worth the $75, and if I had more money I’d go and watch it again. And I’d get a shirt, too. Those things are like $40 and I was sad about that. :c

On a related note, I really dislike the novel Wicked on which the musical is based. But that’s okay, because Broadway managed to make it awesome anyway.

-Caitlin

Completely Bizarre.

So I receive this email from some guy I’ve never heard of who is apparently named “Carpenter Marcinkowski.” The text of the email follows:

“Merely read it before a few once upon a time, channel from
a larger and thickly wooded island,m. Thee deeply, he said,
young man, for thou art that day handsewed their first pair
of boots), i’ve heared squire donnithorne say many a time.”

And so, I did the only thing I could do. I responded with this:

“So rightly cupcakes, make due to their fall danger
a modest gallon distraught. Yea, though certain
noodle flagellum thou, seek o great porpoise livid
Jabberwocky terrible said she island sandwich.”

I’m eagerly awaiting a reply.

-Caitlin

Book Review: The Kite Runner

Maybe I’m a little late, since Khaled Hosseini’s  The Kite Runner was printed in 2003 and is a New York Times bestseller, but I just read it yesterday and it’s great, so I thought I’d tell you guys about it.

This novel spans from about 1975 to present day, and is set mainly in Afghanistan. It focuses on the life of the narrator, Amir, a privileged 12-year-old in 1975 who wants nothing more than to make his successful father proud of him. Unfortunately, his talents lie not in athletics, but in writing. His father is not impressed. Eventually, gaining his father’s approval will require Amir to turn his back on his best friend and loyal servant, Hassan. It’s a terrible summary and covers less than half of the book, but it’s about all I can say without ruining the story.

Kite Runner is dark and really depressing and violent and a bit graphic in places, and yet a fantastic read with a happy ending – similar to Hosseini’s next novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, also a great book and highly recommended.

In conclusion, this review really sucks, but the book does not. You should read it.

And here’s a picture of my happy baby, who is one month old today.

-Caitlin

Baby Update.

Kael is now two weeks old and seems to be adjusting quite well to the air-breathing lifestyle. Within three days of bringing him home from the hospital, he was sleeping through the night: he’ll wake up every few hours to nurse, do so, and go straight back to sleep again. When awake, Kael is extremely alert and loves looking outside and at lights. He makes all manner of cute baby sounds and only cries or fusses when there’s something wrong – and he generally gives fair warning before he begins getting upset. Basically, he’s a ridiculously perfect baby. We took him out to dinner at Red Robin when he turned one week old and he didn’t make a sound for the whole hour and a half we were there. He’s awesome.

Also, on the cuteness scale, Kael goes to eleven.

-Caitlin