Film, Theatre, and Getting Ready for Travel...

Just the road by my flat...thought it was worth sharing.
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Kevin and I went to Hammersmith for a double feature at the RIverside Studios movie theatre, and we saw Annie Hall and Brief Encounter.  Annie Hall was hilariously amazing:  Kevin insists it's one of the best Woody Allen films.  Apparently the film more or less mirrors the real life relationship of its two main actors, Allen and Diane Keaton...I had no idea they were ever together!  Of course they didn't end up that way by the end of the film, either--so it made for a great anti-Valentine's Day film.  Ditto for Brief Encounter, and older (I'm guessing 1950's?) film by Noel Coward about two strangers, both married, meeting randomly and falling in love before they decide it's best to part ways forever.  Thoroughly depressing.  Hope you all had a great holiday, too! Hahahaha...

Evita!
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Today I went to see Evita, the musical, at the Adelphi Theatre on the Strand.  The music was wonderful;  I could sing along with it from hearing it so often on the Andrew Lloyd Weber tapes my mom has.  There were parts of the production which were not so great, though...the lead character was the understudy for the production, as opposed to the supposedly amazing Argentinean lady who normally plays Evita.  The understudy underacted the part a bit, and I wasn't impressed with the set, but all in all I enjoyed myself.  (Look at the little critic I've become--one theatre class and I'm ripping productions to shreds left and right! haha)...  Being able to sing along on the Latin bits was fun, though, so the musical was well worth it.  So yay for Andrew Lloyd Weber, even if my friend Dan does think his compositions are formulaic!

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Honestly, I've come to the conclusion that I'm the best possible audience for anything related to films or theatre.  I do and feel, as a spectator, exactly what the director wants me to do or feel...I gasp at the appropriate moments, I laugh on cue, I feel sad when told to feel sad....I'm the perfect puppet when it comes to drama, haha.  So it really is hard for me to be disappointed!  Which really isn't such a bad fate after all, is it?  At least I enjoy it all.

This weekend Jeanette and I plan on going to a little town in France called Sete.  It's on the Mediterranean coast, and I can't wait for it!  jeanette's ambitious:  she's bringing flip flops.  I'm a little less so, sticking with my boots and jeans...

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We bought some relatively cheap Ryanair plane tickets to France, but little did we expect to meet with such problems in getting to the damn airport.  We tried to find a bus or train online to Stansted, but the company we wanted to use said that bookings must be made 24 hours in advance...So we stopped by Victoria station earlier, where the buses to Stansted depart, hoping to talk to a human being and weasel our way onto one of the coaches that way.  We couldn't even find the company's booth, though, so we ended up talking to the coach driver of National Express, begging him to direct us where to buy a ticket for that night.  He said people just buy the tickets on the bus when they got there--which was pretty unsettling for me, since I'd prefer to have the whole situation written in stone before I even leave my flat...  I ended up coming back home after the musical and buying online tickets.  So at least now I'm guaranteed a spot, and won't be left in London while my plane leaves for Montpellier, France!

Wish me luck on my travels!  France, here I come!