monkey nonsense

By BROOKE DONALD
The Associated Press
Thursday, October 13, 2005; 8:45 PM

BOSTON — The Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding soap opera is now a musical opera. The figure skating saga that captivated the country 11 years ago _ with the ubiquitous video of Kerrigan crying “Why me?” after being attacked and hit in the knee _ is the basis for “Nancy and Tonya: The Opera,” to be performed at Tufts University next spring.

Kerrigan became a household name when an associate of Harding’s clubbed her on the knee with a baton as she left the ice during practice at the 1994 U.S. championships in Detroit.

The attack prevented Kerrigan from competing, but she recovered to win a silver medal at the 1994 Olympic games in Lillehammer a few weeks later. Harding finished out of the running.

“This is the classic envy story and it was just so strange and got stranger by the day,” said Elizabeth Searle, who wrote the opera’s libretto.

Videotape of Kerrigan _ her face contorted in agony, grabbing her knee and wailing “Why me? Why me?” _ was a TV staple in the days after the attack.

Harding, the cigarette-smoking, pickup-driving bad girl, had said she would “kick some butt” in the Olympics.

Harding’s ex-husband, Jeff Stone, and two other men served time for planning and carrying out the attack. Harding pleaded guilty to covering up the attack but didn’t serve any time. She received a lifetime ban by the U.S. Figure Skating Association and apologized in person to Kerrigan.

“Tonya and Nancy was the first completely insane scandal that took over the country,” Searle said.

Attempts to reach Kerrigan and Harding on Thursday by phone and e-mail were unsuccessful.

The 43-year-old Searle said she did not consult the two skaters about the one-act opera, which was pieced together using actual quotes uttered by the women and others involved in the scandal. Searle plucked from newspaper reports, FBI transcripts and her previous novella about the skating rivals, “Celebrities in Disgrace,” which is being made into a short film. Tufts graduate student Abigail Al Dorry is writing the music.

The opera opens with Kerrigan and Harding holding dueling news conferences at the 1994 Olympics, just weeks after the attack on Kerrigan.

“There are elements of parody in it, but I really feel for this story,” Searle said. “Girls in America are either raised to be Tonyas or Nancys. I think any girl can relate to these two women and what they went through.”

from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/13/AR2005101301821.html

let’s go see it!!

i’ve been making a lot of purchases lately. bought…

• a used ps2 along with a couple of games (taiko drum master!) a couple of weekends ago
• the complete calvin and hobbes
• crossfire! dude, who remembers that game!!? it was awesome, i remember going to rachel and jenny’s (not the cousins, but the hsus) house and it was so amusing! also bought homer simpson operation, it was buy one get one free
• the movie that thing you do! i was planning on giving it to my sister for christmas… but sorry jie, it’s been sitting next to me teasing me at work and i’m just about to pop it into my laptop, so yup… you’re either getting a watched that thing you do or i’m just keeping it for myself!

and then i was reminded… the new ipod video came out today! acks! before purchasing the ps2 i contemplated buying an ipod instead. i don’t really know why i chose ps2, but i said i’d not purchase an ipod since i got a ps2… hrm, i dunno if i can stick to that.

in addition to all these purchases, i’ve also been trying to buy more clothes (i’m in need of nice pants). clothes seem to be more essential than these other purchases i’ve made. plus, i keep going clothing shopping (i.e. spent a whole afternoon in NYC shopping) and somehow, i can walk around the mall for hours and stare at clothes, but i can’t ever seem to make a purchase!! and then i can spend like 5 minutes deciding on silly board games to buy! (tho i did waste an entire saturday deciding whether i should purchase the ps2 and i did spend a couple of month’s eyeing calvin and hobbes)… i’m such a slow shopper

eagerly awaiting the end of the work day…. so i can play!!

Fiona Hudson
08oct05

A TOWN has banned posters promoting a children’s movie because of a local superstition about rabbits.

Officials on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, have baulked at posters for the feature film Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit because the word is taboo there.

Locals instead refer to rabbits as “underground mutton”. The word is considered bad luck because rabbit burrows have been linked to land slips.

Quarry workers extracting Portland stone, the type used to build St Paul’s Cathedral, used to walk off the job if they saw one of the animals.

Amended posters with the word “bunny” will be used instead.

from: http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,16849301%255E2902,00.html. Thanks Steph!

1. there’s something about moving. perhaps it’s ’cause i never moved around as a kid and my first experience dealing with moving was always related to the end of the school year in college ’cause moving always seems like an end to one thing. ok…. i guess that sounded really stupid because of course it’s an end to one thing, it’s an end to your time at one place. bah! i’m terrible with words, but yea… even now, moving for the 3rd time in 2 years… and with everything else staying constant- location (first move was a mile away, second move is 3.9 miles away), job, etc. – it seems like everything is changing! there’s something about an empty apartment that makes me sad.

2. post-its are lethal. so while packing, i tripped on a pack of post-its (that were to be used to post-it betty and/or julie’s cars but no one was willing to do it with me )… it actually cut me! the cut is sizeable (considering it was just paper cutting me!), the area around the cut is slightly swollen, and it hurts to walk since it’s right on the arch of my foot! darn you post-it!!!

3. anyone want to go through a corn maze!? http://www.belvedereplantation.com/maze.html (~1.5 hours away) and http://www.circleofseeds.com/index_cornmaze.html (~45 minutes away) are both close by! the belvedere plantation one looks pretty good!!! go to mazeplay to find corn mazes near you!

4. i’ve been getting a lot of comment spam, never noticed it before. but now, whenever i log in… there’s like 30+ spam comments! when did spam commenting become so prevalent? and they seem to come in organized bunches. last bunch was all on student loans. previously, they were all on casinos. it’s like they all decided on a topic and then spammed!

5. usps tracking sucks. “The U.S. Postal Service was electronically notified by the shipper or shipping partner on October 03, 2005 to expect your package for mailing. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later.” for the past 5 days…. and then the next time, it’ll say that delivery was attempted and i wasn’t home or something like that. it isn’t tracking if you’re not giving any information about the whereabouts of my package!!!

6. i accumulate change too easily. i am such a lazy bum that when i break a larger bill, i’ll just put the change it in my purse or my pocket “temporarily” (which becomes forever). last friday when i went to the hockey game, as they were checking my purse, the security guy cracked a joke saying “oh we don’t accept bribes here.” at first i was confused… then i looked into my purse and right on top of everything was a few dollar bills! bah!! wednesday, as i was packing my room… i decided to go through all my change that i collect in my pot. well, i couldn’t even get to the coins because there were too many dollar bills and $5 bills (even a $10 bill!) in it! after counting up just the bills, i had $87!! terrible

oh man oh man oh man!

i can’t wait for the complete calvin and hobbes to arrive!! i used to have a bunch of images of calvin and hobbes, but i’ve seemed to have misplaced them. here’s some snowmen scene strips to get you all excited about calvin and hobbes:

http://www.angelfire.com/wa/zzaran/calvin.html

Wednesday, October 5, 2005; Posted: 3:27 a.m. EDT (07:27 GMT)

LONDON, England (CNN) — Vancouver is the world’s most desirable place to live, according to a new survey, while Papua New Guinea’s Port Moresby is at the other end of the scale.

The Canadian city, nestled on the Pacific coast, was one of four locations in that country to rank at the top of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s livability survey, which looked at conditions in 127 cities.

The other top-ranking Canadian cities were Toronto, Calgary and Montreal.

Australia also fared well in the survey by the London-based group, with Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Sydney scoring high marks along with Vienna, Austria, and Geneva and Zurich in Switzerland.

The EIU study assessed nearly 40 indicators in five broad categories — stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

“In the current global political climate, it is no surprise that the most desirable destinations are those with a lower perceived threat of terrorism,” said Jon Copestake, editor of the report.

Joining Port Moresby at the bottom of the list were Algiers, Algeria, and Dhaka, Bangladesh. Karachi, Pakistan, and Lagos, Nigeria, also ranked poorly. The EIU said 10 cities — all in Asia, Africa or the Middle East — had aspects of daily life that “present challenges.”

By contrast, the EIU said 63 cities fell into the top livability bracket.

“This reflects the fact that many global business centers have a developed infrastructure and widespread availability,” the report states. “Still, the overwhelming majority of cities in the top livability range are based in western Europe and North America.”

The report said Canada, “with low crime, little threat from instability or terrorism and a highly developed infrastructure,” is the most livable destination in the world.

“Although higher crime rates and a greater threat of terror puts U.S. cities below those of Canada, U.S. cities are still among the world’s most livable.” Cleveland and Pittsburgh had the highest American scores.

Only three cities in eastern Europe fall into this bracket along with 13 cities from Asia, the EUI said.

from: http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/10/04/eui.survey/index.html

what the heck?! pittsburgh and cleveland were the highest ranking US cities? Canadia had four in the top rankings?! this ranking system is messed up!

with the new TV season starting up, seems like a lot of the posts in my subscriptions are about TV shows. see sprees22 for some reviews of lots of shows. i thought i’d copy and have my own review of TV shows… and movies!

new york minute (movie) – i was uber excited about this movie coming out! and to theaters no less! imagine my disappointment when it wasn’t the number one grossing movie opening weekend the movie seemed like a rip off of ferris bueller’s day off. good things- bob saget cameo and the guy from best in show who amuses me
when in rome (movie) – i get this movie and winning london confused a lot. i guess that means that it just doesn’t stand out too much.
winning london (movie) – so the olsen twins had the same first names in this movie that they used in so little time but of course to be complicated… they had to switch names!!! i think this is the olsen twin movie i’ve seen the most often (probably because ABC Family had a marathon showing of it or something). typical olsen twin movie… they seem to like to have a goofy dorky friend (larry in so little time, dylan in this movie) and the “hot” foreign guy(s)
full house (TV) – classic. it doesn’t get much better than this! yea, when she started talking more (particularly with nicky and alex), then it got annoying.
so little time (TV) – ahh, i remember watching this TV show the summer of 2003 (too bad it was all just reruns. it’s a wonder why anyone would ever cancel the olsen twins!)… i had my TV constantly tuned to either the disney channel or ABC Family just so i could have some sound in the room. (it was the first time in awhile i had a room to myself so i was thrown off by that and got scared)… nothing about this show really stood out for me. i think the olsen twins pretty much play the same characters in every movie/show. i remember being mildly amused by their friend larry though… even though he played the typical friend who has an interest in one of them.
two of a kind (TV) – sounds kind of like full house ’cause it’s about a single dad trying to raise his two kids. i like danny more than kevin though, more neurotic less boring. and it was weird… did kevin have a thing for carrie?? did they develop that relationship and i perhaps missed those episodes. hrm… i should go download the shows to review. it’s been awhile. i remember watching this in the afternoons after school… i hated when i had to stay after school for an activity or go to work… made me miss my olsen twins!

granted i haven’t seen a lot of their shows/movies- i haven’t seen any of their “The Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley” series nor anything they made between the ages of approximately 5 to 10, but bah… i thought i had seen quite a few. who knew they made so many movies!?

The Associated Press
Monday, October 3, 2005; 1:41 PM

LOS ANGELES — Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage is a new father.

His wife, Alice Kim Cage, gave birth Monday to a boy, Kal-el Coppola Cage, in New York City, said Cage’s Los Angeles-based publicist, Annett Wolf. No other details were available.

“They are healthy and happy and it’s quite lovely,” Wolf said by phone from New York.

Cage is a nephew of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola.

The couple married in July 2004. It was the third marriage for Cage and the first for his new wife, who was 20 when they were wed. They met when Cage visited a Los Angeles restaurant where she was working as a waitress.

Cage, 41, who won an Oscar for his role in “Leaving Las Vegas,” has a son from a previous relationship.

His screen credits also include “Lord of War,” now in theaters, “Adaptation,” “Honeymoon in Vegas” and “Moonstruck.”

He was previously married to Lisa Marie Presley and actress Patricia Arquette.

from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/03/AR2005100300596.html

Kal-El?! Isn’t that Superman’s Krypton-ese name?!?! bah!!!