I just avoided a HUGE salamander problem. Opened the window of my hut and one fell in. Long story short, I got it back outside. You see, a speak the salamander version of Parseltongue. It involves a lot of saliva to say the least. Anyway, I wanted it out so badly because all I was picturing was that scene from the 1997 film The Parent Trap where the salamander crawls into Meredith’s mouth. HA. What a great movie. And a prompt to the following thought: “Lindsay Lohan: What Went Wrong?” I think it was after she got rid of the red hair. It gave her spunk.
I don’t know about you guys, but The Comedy of Errors is a hilarious play. Isn’t it absolutely amazing how four hundred-year-old humour can still be relevant today? It’s even more amazing once you consider that it has been filtered through into Dari Persian and set in modern-day Kabul. And that an Anglophone can understand the humour! Sure, the plot might not make complete sense, but you still laugh when a man in drag comes onstage singing and groping himself.
For those who want nothing to do with theatre, skip to the next paragraph. On the same note of how this play is delightful despite the fact that it is in Dari, I much rather prefer this to other stylized (I’m going to use stylized to indicate a departure from its original, intended form) version of Shakespeare’s plays. For example, I once saw a two-and-a-half hour adaptation of Hamlet done by one actor with only stage blacks and no set or props. It was, in my opinion, horrible. Why take such a brilliant script and rush through all the lines with little to no coherency? Why eliminate all potential for a gorgeous set with a visually unappetizing mise en scène? Why forego character development with a very two-dimensional delivery? It wasn’t necessarily the actor’s fault, but the entire concept was flawed. It was more of a show of memorization than a production, and one that insulted the original script. This could be enjoyed by some people, but to me it didn’t work. I suppose I’m just finding the streams of theatrical language that I understand and enjoy listening to and speaking. That’s another thing that makes this experience so worthwhile. Sure I’m not learning a typical language like Arabic or Russian or even Dari, but it’s a whole other kind of communication that comes with theatre, and I think people are unaware of that. The same could be said for learning the language of cooking (“I’m Julia Child, bon appétit!” [if you know me, you pictured me saying that instead of Meryl Streep saying it instead of Julia Child saying it]), architecture, or juggling. I’m planning on writing my thesis on this topic... the different tongues of theatre... now I’m just picturing a car-sized tongue on a stage. What a gross image.
Puppies! There we go. Cuteness restored. If you could speak any language, what language would you speak? This is something that’s been going through my head a lot as Dari phrases whiz past me. My hesitancy to speak French comes with a sort of hipster vibe... so many people (yet, paradoxically, not enough) speak French in Canada. I WANNA BE UNIQUE. I WANNA BE A STAR. (“You got spunk, kid! - I just used the word “spunk” twice in one vlog.)
Then comes something like Latin, which is super hipster. “I speak Latin, but you wouldn’t understand.” That’s because virtually no one in the seven billion people on Earth speaks Latin anymore. But still. I could be über scholarly.
How about Russian? Arabic? Greek? All different alphabets. Too difficult.
East Asian languages intimidate me and I feel like I would need intensive calligraphy classes to do them justice.
SWAHILI. Everyone hears the word “Swahili” but no one really knows what it is. There goes that one.
The conclusion I usually come to is that I’m just going to adopt an Australian accent because I’m pretty sure Australian accents are universally sexy. Must use start learning the language of sexy. Whew, is it just me or is this blog getting hot?
No, it’s the fact that the electricity is out here and therefore the fan does not spin and therefore I am hot, being a synonym for sexy. Actually, not really. Attractiveness adjectives are so subjective. Like that episode of The Office when they debate whether Hilary Swank is beautiful or hot (I think those were the two).
Also, it’s one degree Celsius in Canada. Me so jelly. On the other hand, it rained today yesterday for the first time since December 29. Ok. I’m rambling now. But if you didn’t read the theatre paragraph then this is normal-length.
Potato.
I don’t know about you guys, but The Comedy of Errors is a hilarious play. Isn’t it absolutely amazing how four hundred-year-old humour can still be relevant today? It’s even more amazing once you consider that it has been filtered through into Dari Persian and set in modern-day Kabul. And that an Anglophone can understand the humour! Sure, the plot might not make complete sense, but you still laugh when a man in drag comes onstage singing and groping himself.
For those who want nothing to do with theatre, skip to the next paragraph. On the same note of how this play is delightful despite the fact that it is in Dari, I much rather prefer this to other stylized (I’m going to use stylized to indicate a departure from its original, intended form) version of Shakespeare’s plays. For example, I once saw a two-and-a-half hour adaptation of Hamlet done by one actor with only stage blacks and no set or props. It was, in my opinion, horrible. Why take such a brilliant script and rush through all the lines with little to no coherency? Why eliminate all potential for a gorgeous set with a visually unappetizing mise en scène? Why forego character development with a very two-dimensional delivery? It wasn’t necessarily the actor’s fault, but the entire concept was flawed. It was more of a show of memorization than a production, and one that insulted the original script. This could be enjoyed by some people, but to me it didn’t work. I suppose I’m just finding the streams of theatrical language that I understand and enjoy listening to and speaking. That’s another thing that makes this experience so worthwhile. Sure I’m not learning a typical language like Arabic or Russian or even Dari, but it’s a whole other kind of communication that comes with theatre, and I think people are unaware of that. The same could be said for learning the language of cooking (“I’m Julia Child, bon appétit!” [if you know me, you pictured me saying that instead of Meryl Streep saying it instead of Julia Child saying it]), architecture, or juggling. I’m planning on writing my thesis on this topic... the different tongues of theatre... now I’m just picturing a car-sized tongue on a stage. What a gross image.
Puppies! There we go. Cuteness restored. If you could speak any language, what language would you speak? This is something that’s been going through my head a lot as Dari phrases whiz past me. My hesitancy to speak French comes with a sort of hipster vibe... so many people (yet, paradoxically, not enough) speak French in Canada. I WANNA BE UNIQUE. I WANNA BE A STAR. (“You got spunk, kid! - I just used the word “spunk” twice in one vlog.)
Then comes something like Latin, which is super hipster. “I speak Latin, but you wouldn’t understand.” That’s because virtually no one in the seven billion people on Earth speaks Latin anymore. But still. I could be über scholarly.
How about Russian? Arabic? Greek? All different alphabets. Too difficult.
East Asian languages intimidate me and I feel like I would need intensive calligraphy classes to do them justice.
SWAHILI. Everyone hears the word “Swahili” but no one really knows what it is. There goes that one.
The conclusion I usually come to is that I’m just going to adopt an Australian accent because I’m pretty sure Australian accents are universally sexy. Must use start learning the language of sexy. Whew, is it just me or is this blog getting hot?
No, it’s the fact that the electricity is out here and therefore the fan does not spin and therefore I am hot, being a synonym for sexy. Actually, not really. Attractiveness adjectives are so subjective. Like that episode of The Office when they debate whether Hilary Swank is beautiful or hot (I think those were the two).
Also, it’s one degree Celsius in Canada. Me so jelly. On the other hand, it rained today yesterday for the first time since December 29. Ok. I’m rambling now. But if you didn’t read the theatre paragraph then this is normal-length.
Potato.
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