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[elmore3003]

Good morning, all! One holiday down and one to go! I am happy to see yesterday go. It was profitable in that I worked and made some money, but holidays are no longer special events in my life, more like obstacle courses to be navigated with Machiavellian cunnng, and unfortuantely my Machiavellian cunning is not what it once was. I did get some lovely cards and gifts from dear friends outside the City, and I got some beautiful emails from friends I haven't seen since 1970. That was the good side of the day.

It was nice to hear from DRs Dan(theMan) and Jose.

I slept late; the internet at Toyland is down so I brought work home yesterday, I have no idea when my colleague Curtis will attend to it, I have no ideawhere things stand on ROBERTA, and my lfe continues at its current frustrating pace. I must make a trek today to the post office and to the bank. And then I proofread.

I do want to see LES MIZ, perhaps this weekend. Having read the complete unabridged novel, I disagree strongly with DR Druxy's comment that that story is all about the Javert-Valjean chase; LES MIZ is not THE FUGITIVE. It's a history of a generation of the French population (the wretched ones) following the fall of Napoleon and the political unrest,centered around Valjean's story. One of my biggest problems with the musical is that there is no explanation for the 10-12 years between Valjean's taking custody of Cosette as a child and their life in Paris when she's fallen in love with Marius. The scenery changes and so does Cosette. One of the things missing in the stage version as well is the fact that the obnoxious kid Gavroche is Fantine's brother and Thenardier's son, sothe Thenardier's pop up in the musical often out of nowhere and coincidence rather than from Victor Hugo's plotting.

More coffee.

[Druxy]

My parents like LES MIS the show and loved the movie.

I have a friend who loves the show. And he and his girlfriend loved the movie.

i am curious about the shaky camera work. How often is this present and for how long? I am not a fan of this!

My wife hates "shaky camera work," but she never mentioned it, so I guess it didn't bother her.

[Matthew]

Good Morning!!

[Matthew]

I have returned to the land of the living.  We had wonderful Christmas Liturgy's with great music, great participation, and even great homilies!  Yesterday was a lovely day spent with family.  Everyone gave/received great gifts and had a great time. 

[Matthew]

Interesting story - The DP's Mom ordered a ham for us for Christmas dinner.  However, it turned out to be a 15lb cured prosciutto which was way too salty for anyone to consume.  It was a bummer

[Matthew]

Today, I'm seeing "Les Miserables" - the movie with a bunch of theatre friends/people/snobs with a get together after.  This should be interesting.

[John G.]

I'll take the prosciutto, Matthew.

The only way to really eat that meat is if it is sliced so thin you can read the newspaper through it. Otherwise, your right, too salty and too chewy.

On Christmas Eve, the hostess of the party I went made Duck Wellington in which she seared the duck breasts, then rolled them in ground mushrooms, before she wrapped each one in prosciutto. Then it went in the puff pastry. It was the four course and way too much food, so I'm having mine as leftovers tonight. 

[Ginny]

Interesting story - The DP's Mom ordered a ham for us for Christmas dinner.  However, it turned out to be a 15lb cured prosciutto which was way too salty for anyone to consume.  It was a bummer

When you've been on a reduced sodium diet like mine for 2.5 years, even ham tastes too salty.  And don't even get me started on restaurant food!

[Druxy]

I do want to see LES MIZ, perhaps this weekend. Having read the complete unabridged novel, I disagree strongly with DR Druxy's comment that that story is all about the Javert-Valjean chase; LES MIZ is not THE FUGITIVE. It's a history of a generation of the French population (the wretched ones) following the fall of Napoleon and the political unrest,centered around Valjean's story. One of my biggest problems with the musical is that there is no explanation for the 10-12 years between Valjean's taking custody of Cosette as a child and their life in Paris when she's fallen in love with Marius. The scenery changes and so does Cosette. One of the things missing in the stage version as well is the fact that the obnoxious kid Gavroche is Fantine's brother and Thenardier's son, sothe Thenardier's pop up in the musical often out of nowhere and coincidence rather than from Victor Hugo's plotting.

More coffee.

A movie and/or a stage play cannot be a novel.  Neither one has enough "real estate".

To make a credible dramatization of a novel like LES MISERABLES, you have to boil the story down to its "spine" or essence.  And, storywise, the essence of LES MISERABLES is the chase.  That's what moves the narrative forward.

Everything else (i.e. the social conditions, the revolution) is background or subplot (the romance), just like the Civil War is background to Scarlett's story in GONE WITH THE WIND. 

If you want to dramatize the complete novel of LES MISERABLES, then it has to be done as a 10-12 hour mini-series.  (Perhaps it has been done.  I don't know)

[elmore3003]

I do want to see LES MIZ, perhaps this weekend. Having read the complete unabridged novel, I disagree strongly with DR Druxy's comment that that story is all about the Javert-Valjean chase; LES MIZ is not THE FUGITIVE. It's a history of a generation of the French population (the wretched ones) following the fall of Napoleon and the political unrest,centered around Valjean's story. One of my biggest problems with the musical is that there is no explanation for the 10-12 years between Valjean's taking custody of Cosette as a child and their life in Paris when she's fallen in love with Marius. The scenery changes and so does Cosette. One of the things missing in the stage version as well is the fact that the obnoxious kid Gavroche is Fantine's brother and Thenardier's son, sothe Thenardier's pop up in the musical often out of nowhere and coincidence rather than from Victor Hugo's plotting.

More coffee.

A movie and/or a stage play cannot be a novel.  Neither one has enough "real estate".

To make a credible dramatization of a novel like LES MISERABLES, you have to boil the story down to its "spine" or essence.  And, storywise, the essence of LES MISERABLES is the chase.  That's what moves the narrative forward.

Everything else (i.e. the social conditions, the revolution) is background or subplot (the romance), just like the Civil War is background to Scarlett's story in GONE WITH THE WIND. 

If you want to dramatize the complete novel of LES MISERABLES, then it has to be done as a 10-12 hour mini-series.  (Perhaps it has been done.  I don't know)

Good try. Perhaps you're right. Perhaps you're not. It all depends on whether you think the through line is Javert's chase or the story of Valjean's redemption and humanity.

[Ron Pulliam]

The taking down of the Christmas tree is done, as is the complete "un"-decorating of the house.  We finished about 30 minutes ago.  Oof.

Now it's done for another year.

Sigh!


I don't know anything about "Les Miserables" other than it was a pretty good movie with Michael Rennie and Debra Paget.  Oh, yes, and it had a score by Alex North.

[Ron Pulliam]

A series of storms moved through our area yesterday and overnight.  This morning was particularly gloomy, but "lo!" the sun broke through and the skies became totally clear.

And now...it's glooming up again.   

At least it's not snowing!

[elmore3003]

I think the BBC should do 5-10 part adaptations of the two epic French novels of the 19th century: LES MISERABLES and THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. How many parts are there to their WAR ANDPEACE with Anthony Hopkins? 12?

[Druxy]

I do want to see LES MIZ, perhaps this weekend. Having read the complete unabridged novel, I disagree strongly with DR Druxy's comment that that story is all about the Javert-Valjean chase; LES MIZ is not THE FUGITIVE. It's a history of a generation of the French population (the wretched ones) following the fall of Napoleon and the political unrest,centered around Valjean's story. One of my biggest problems with the musical is that there is no explanation for the 10-12 years between Valjean's taking custody of Cosette as a child and their life in Paris when she's fallen in love with Marius. The scenery changes and so does Cosette. One of the things missing in the stage version as well is the fact that the obnoxious kid Gavroche is Fantine's brother and Thenardier's son, sothe Thenardier's pop up in the musical often out of nowhere and coincidence rather than from Victor Hugo's plotting.

More coffee.

A movie and/or a stage play cannot be a novel.  Neither one has enough "real estate".

To make a credible dramatization of a novel like LES MISERABLES, you have to boil the story down to its "spine" or essence.  And, storywise, the essence of LES MISERABLES is the chase.  That's what moves the narrative forward.

Everything else (i.e. the social conditions, the revolution) is background or subplot (the romance), just like the Civil War is background to Scarlett's story in GONE WITH THE WIND. 

If you want to dramatize the complete novel of LES MISERABLES, then it has to be done as a 10-12 hour mini-series.  (Perhaps it has been done.  I don't know)

Good try. Perhaps you're right. Perhaps you're not. It all depends on whether you think the through line is Javert's chase or the story of Valjean's redemption and humanity.

The chase makes better drama.

Actually, if you shift some of the events around (i.e. make Javert's suicide closer to the end), then you could probably have both.

Besides, by the time Javert kills himself, Valjean has pretty much redeemed himself.  He just hasn't told Cossette about it.  Storywise, does he really need to?

[John G.]

I think the BBC should do 5-10 part adaptations of the two epic French novels of the 19th century: LES MISERABLES and THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. How many parts are there to their WAR ANDPEACE with Anthony Hopkins? 12?

I'd watch either one, gladly. Then they could do some more Balzac.

[Jrand74]

Gavroche is Fantine's brother?

[Jane]

Deb, Anthony made just one cracker for the small guy. We got the others at Tea and Sympathy in the Village. You can get crackers at Bed Bath and Beyond also. You can order make your own crackers from the Internet.

I usually get high end crackers right after Christmas and put them away for next year - Tom's usually has a nice cracker with nice quality gifts.  Costco and BJ's occassionally have them as well.  I was intriged when you were describing the one Ant made for the li'l one and knowing how artistic he is withthe doll houses I wondered if he actually handcrafted all the crackers- 

Good idea, I'll do so if I see any but doubt I will since I didn't see them before Christmas.  I think I saved leftover crackers and forgot what happened to them.  I should have sent some to our daughter in-law you enjoys them. Ooops.

[John G.]

Gavroche is Fantine's brother?

Eponine's brother.

From Wikipedia: Gavroche is the eldest son of M. and Mme Thénardier. He has two sisters, Éponine and Azelma, and two unnamed younger brothers. He is also technically unnamed; the reader is told he chooses the name for himself, but is not provided with his real name. Mme. Thénardier only loves her daughters, and M. Thénardier shows no affection for any of his children. Gavroche is told by his parents to live in the street, because he would have a better life there.

[Laura]

Gavroche is Fantine's brother?

I think he meant "Eponine." Gavroche is a Thenardier.

[Jane]

Well, one thing that I do have to do is go out and fill my bird feeder.  I've gotten in the habit the past few weeks of keeping it filled with seed.  It doesn't attract anything more exotic that thongs of sparrows (and an odd cardinal or two which the sparrows tolerate--they've driven off the bluejays that attempted to take over the joint).  These hungry birds are going through a 40 lb bag of seed a week, but I enjoy watching them.

[Jane]

My friend, Bonnie, loves getting books for Christmas, but only if somebody gets murdered in them. In other words, mysteries and mysteries only. She reads dozens of them a year. So, she was particularly incensed when a friend gave her "Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures," a book about a woman who becomes an actress in Hollywood. The gift was from someone with a doctorate in philosophy and seems to have been picked up off a new book table without the slightest thought about the recipient.

Anyway, her reaction made us want to pick up the book and see what it was really like. Well, it came under a great deal of fire as the prose was decidedly underpar. We all took turns opening to random pages and within three or four sentences, we discovered that the author had penned something laughable. The first was on page one and went something like: Cherry County, so named because of the cherries that grew in the county.

Then the title character's son, Junior, was found "scampering" up to his mother and wrapping his legs "against" her waist.

Perhaps the best was an entire paragraph of how our heroine had been forced to sleep in a closet without a door. There was a curtain to provide a little privacy, but it picked up all the smells of the awful mystery meat being cooked in the nearby kitchen. Such hardship made her long for the day when she could have a door of her own, one "made of real wood."

Of course, as I look on the Internet, the book is getting fairly decent reviews.

Curiosity got the better of me so I checked it out on Goodreads, lots of 1 & 2 stars for this as well as 4 or 5.  The range is very wide but at mostly 3 stars I wouldn't read it unless the topic appealed to me. 

[Laura]

Dan (the Man), I have house finches, Gila woodpeckers, a flicker, peach-faced lovebirds, white crowned sparrows, quail, curve-billed thrashers, Anna's hummingbirds, and cactus wrens that visit my birdfeeders. As well as the invasive pigeons, house sparrows, and starlings.

[Jane]

The taking down of the Christmas tree is done, as is the complete "un"-decorating of the house.  We finished about 30 minutes ago.  Oof.

Now it's done for another year.

Sigh!


I don't know anything about "Les Miserables" other than it was a pretty good movie with Michael Rennie and Debra Paget.  Oh, yes, and it had a score by Alex North.

SAFE AND EASY TRAVELS HOME!

[Jane]

I think the BBC should do 5-10 part adaptations of the two epic French novels of the 19th century: LES MISERABLES and THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. How many parts are there to their WAR ANDPEACE with Anthony Hopkins? 12?

I like this idea, especially for Les Miserables.

[John G.]

Dan (the Man), I have house finches, Gila woodpeckers, a flicker, peach-faced lovebirds, white crowned sparrows, quail, curve-billed thrashers, Anna's hummingbirds, and cactus wrens that visit my birdfeeders. As well as the invasive pigeons, house sparrows, and starlings.

I think you'll have to post some photos.

[TCB]

Happy Mixed Martial Arts Caged Fighting Day to everyone (Boxing has become so passé)!

[TCB]

Welcome back, Dan (the  Man).  I have missed you.

[Jrand74]

Oh that's what I thought.....but then I thought maybe I missed something....sometimes I do.

[John G.]

Oh that's what I thought.....but then I thought maybe I missed something....sometimes I do.

I missed the news about the day the movie was supposed to open. Perhaps you could tell me.

[elmore3003]

Gavroche is Fantine's brother?

Yep! and they are Thenardier's children.