ricardienne | Reviews

I went to the school play last night. They did The Lower Depths, by Gorky.

It was REALLY REALLY good. Very depressing, but very good. Although I thought the girl who played Natasha wasn't as good as everyone else in the cast. There isn't really a plot: it's completely character-driven by the denizens of a decrepit lodging house in turn of the century Russia and their miserable lives. Gorky was a socialist and a revolutionary; he wrote the play in 1902 or something. But there's nothing overtly political. No one's being overtly oppressed. The men are barely scraping by, getting horrendously drunk as a way to escape their horrible lives; the women are abused and sometimes abusive themselves. There's just no hope for these people. No happiness, no relief ~~except drinking vodka and then singing depressing songs~~.

What was weird was how perfectly it fit with Through Western Eyes (Joseph Conrad), which I just finished this morning. Same time period, same issues, to some extent. Conrad's revolutionaries are outraged by the travails of Gorky's underclass, you might say. Incidentally, I also highly reccomend the novel. I know people don't like Conrad, and I know that I did like Heart of Darkness, but this one is good. All about guilt and passion; dedication, idealism, cynicism, trust, identity, etc.

On a completely different tack…

Hey! Look! Incest!:

Ricardienne in Achyvi Et Al

Endearing and elegant, this painfully beautiful sequel, set in medieval times, depicts companions,

flyinghouse (Ben Affleck) and

ricardienne (Winona Ryder), who find themselves subject to malice because an evil scheme is made possible by her accident-prone mother,

achyvi (Alicia Silverstone). Nudity is kept to a tasteful zero.

Produced by

ianiceboy

This one's for Natty:

Ricardienne in Trading Braces

ricardienne (Rachael Leigh Cook) has a crisis on her hands. The school principal informs her that her low tolerance for objectivity is the focus of bullies, and

flyinghouse, her favourite foreign-exchange student (Erik Per Sullivan), is showered with compliments when he discovers that pi is a rational number in base pi.

achyvi (Mary-Kate Olsen) arranges a snide remark. Needless to say, everybody smiles anyway.

Produced by

ianiceboy

If I were a Dead Russian Composer, I would be Dmitri Shostakovich!

I am a shy, nervous, unassuming, fidgety, and stuttery little person who began composing the same year I started music lessons of any sort. I wrote the first of my fifteen symphonies at age 18, and my second opera, "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District," when I was only 26. Unfortunately, Stalin hated the opera, and put me on the Enemy Of The People List for life. I nevertheless kept composing the works I wanted to write in private; some of my vocal cycles and 15 string quartets mock the Soviet System in notes. And I somehow was NOT killed in the process! And Harry Potter(c) stole my glasses and broke them!

Who would you be? Dead Russian Composer Personality Test

Take the Dead German Composer Test!

If I were one of Elgar's Enigma Variations, I would be Sir Edward Elgar (E.D.U.).

I am the exalted composer of this magnificent work, surrounded by my adoring circle of friends. I am energetic and somewhat enigmatic myself, a big fan of codes and logic puzzles. As for the abbreviation, it's a paraphrase of my wife's pet name for me, Edoo.

Who would you be? Enigma Variations Personality Test