French
Au clair de la lune, mon ami Pierrot
Prête-moi ta lume,* pour écrire un mot.
Ma chandelle est morte, je n'ai plus de feu.
Ouvre-moi ta porte, pour l'amour de Dieu.

Au clair de la lune, Pierrot répondit
Je n'ai pas de lume, je suis dans mon lit.
Va chez la voisine, je crois qu'elle y est
Car dans sa cuisine, on bat le briquet.

Au clair de la lune, l'aimable Lubin
Frappe chez la brune, elle répond soudain
"Qui frappe de la sorte ? ", il dit à son tour
"Ouvrez votre porte pour le Dieu d'Amour"

Au clair de la lune, on n'y voit qu'un peu
On chercha la lume, on chercha du feu
En cherchant d'la sorte je n'sais c'qu'on trouva
Mais je sais qu'la porte sur eux se ferma.

English
Under the moonlight, my friend Pierrot,
Lend me your light, so I could write a word.
My candle is out, I've no more light.
Open your door for me, for the love of God.

Under the moonlight, Pierrot replied,
I've no light; I'm in my bed.
Go next door, I believe that she is in,
For in the kitchen, someone lit a match.

Under the moonlight, friendly Lubin
Knocks at the brunette's door, she suddenly replies
"Who's knocking this way", he says in his turn
"Open your door, for the god of love."

Under the moonlight, little can be seen
The light was looked for, fire was looked for
Searching this way, I don't know what was found
But I do know that the door, on them was shut.

*In modern versions, this word is "plume", meaning pen. "Lume" is derived from "lumière", meaning "light".
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au_clair_de_la_lune

This should be the last post about my recent trip to London. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I visited Westminster Abbey. Photographs were not allowed inside and I'd previously taken some photos of the outside on another trip, so I only took one on my visit there this time. It would probably be better to post this on Monday or to have posted it on Thursday, but this photo is a portion of the wall above the main door at Westminster Abbey displaying the statues of 9 "martyrs," according to the tour guide. I've captured 3 of them here, the one in the middle being Martin Luther King, Jr.:

( Cut for photo )

I think I mentioned in my last post, too, that I'd gone to the Novello Theatre Saturday night, which was the closing night, to see whether I could get a return ticket for Hamlet, but there were none to be had by the time I arrived. So, I wandered around central London fairly aimlessly on Saturday night (coffee shop, bookstore, etc), but returned to the Novello Theatre, which really was on my way back to the hotel anyway, at the time the play was due to be over.

( Read more about chasing David Tennant )

If there is anyone reading this who might like to see Hamlet on DVD, please sign this petition. (For those on Facebook, joining the group on Facebook isn't the same as signing the petition. I think the Facebook group is mainly for updates. According to the latest update there, though, Michael Boyd, the artistic director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, has been in contact with the petition's author and is reading the petition with interest.)

Sunday, which was my last full day in London, I went to see Twelfth Night. This is the story of a twin brother and sister who are shipwrecked and find themselves in an unfamiliar land, each thinking the other is dead. The sister, Viola, passes herself off as a boy to work for the local duke, Orsino, and is sent on his behalf to court Olivia. Unfortunately, Olivia falls in love with Viola (as the boy, Cesario) while Viola falls in love with Orsino. There are several other characters in the households of Orsino and Cesario involved in side storylines, one of which involves making Olivia's steward, Malvolio, believe that Olivia is actually in love with him. (A mean trick, I thought, but I guess it would have played well to people who were victims of a class system.) It turned out that my ticket for Twelfth Night was very good, row K in the stalls, and I really enjoyed it.

( Read more about Twelfth Night )

Overall, the Shakespeare audience seems tougher than the musical theatre audience. Neither of the 2 Shakespearean plays got a full standing ovation, but Oliver! did.

Sunday evening, I was sent to a French restaurant at the Covent Garden Market for dinner by the hotel's concierge, who was French. As I was looking around the Market area for the restaurant, I came across a sextet who were performing in an open area of the Market near a pub. (Some of the pub's patrons were actually eating and drinking outside, despite the cold.) I sat and watched them for a few pieces (something by Mozart, "The Can-can", and the opening of Carmen) and gave them a couple of pounds. I also took a picture:

( Cut for photos )

This is for anyone who thought this was one of the most awesome videos ever back in the 80's.

Take On Me: Literal Video Version



Thanks to son_of_darkness for originally linking to this. :)

It's always strange running into someone in an unexpected place. Last night, I ran into the Redheaded Girl at the airport. I was on my way to Chicago and she was returning from Green Bay. We didn't talk long because, as usual, I was running very late and about to miss my flight. It's a very short flight to Chicago - from the time the plane reached an altitude at which electronic devices may be used until the time the plane was descending and they needed to be turned off, I was able to listen to a whole 5 (!) songs on my iPod. They were: "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, "Ray of Light" by Madonna, "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac, "Witchy Woman" by The Eagles, and "All Because of You" by U2. I also heard the first few bars of "Shut Your Eyes" by Snow Patrol.

Of these songs, I imagine that "Red Right Hand" would be the least known. One of my classmates once had to leave our office because it was playing on my computer and he found it too disturbing. *lol* (He didn't ask me to turn it off, but just announced he was leaving because of it.) Anyway, here is the song:



This version features scenes from the TV show, Profit, which I have never seen. However, I know this song because it was used in The X-Files and is on the CD from the show, Songs in the Key of X. It's used in the episode, "Ascension", and is the song Duane Barry hears on the radio while driving, after he's kidnapped Scully and has her locked in the trunk of his car. ( Read more about The X-Files )

Going back to what I said in my last post about how I think David Tennant would have been good for Snape, here are a couple of screencaps from GoF that show him as Barty Crouch, Jr.( Cut for pictures )

I know it sounds really lame because, you know, it's all in English (except for the odd alien language and Latin), but when cynodd, crabbydragon, and I watch Doctor Who together, we turn on the subtitles. This started because their daughter, HRT, who often plays in the same room while we're watching it, is very noisy (like all 3-year-old children). But, now we do it even when she's taking her nap or gone to bed for the night. The thing that we've learned to appreciate about the subtitles done by the BBC is that they also tell you what song is playing in the background and who the recording artist is. Obviously, this is very convenient, if you've always wondered what a particular song is called ("Moonlight Serenade" by Glenn Miller, for example) or hear a new song that you particularly like.

So, last night, we watched "The Runaway Bride", which is the 2006 Doctor Who Christmas special, and heard the song "Love Don't Roam". I thought the song was catchy (obviously, or why would I still be thinking about it today?) and it seemed like something I should already know. Strangely, though, the subtitles only identified the name of the song and not the artist. And, today I went searching for it.

( Read more... )
( Read more... )

I'm somewhat abashed to find myself so captivated by the story of the Doctor and Rose, but there it is. :-D

I finally made it home! My flight arrived about 30 minutes late, which wasn't bad, but then it took forever to get to the gate (it seemed) and they couldn't get the jetway to work. ( Read more... )

Last week, JK Rowling's seventh copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard (the "Moonstone Edition") was auctioned at Sotheby's and sold for £1,950,000, with the proceeds going to charity. Thanks to sander123, I've learned that it was bought by Amazon.com. If anyone is interested, they have posted about it on their website here. I haven't really had a chance to read much of the website's content yet - mostly, I've looked at the pictures. It seems that they've posted a summary of the stories?

My song for today is the remix of "Clocks" by Coldplay with the Buena Vista Social Club. This video features ballet and until seeing it, I'd never considered how strange ballet actually is:


from DELIMA45

My song for today is "Dance Me to the End of Love" by Madeleine Peyroux. This video features stills from American film noir:


posted by moonlight noir

Tonight I went to a dinner lecture. While there, one of my work colleagues told everyone about her family's pet mice. Her son bought them from a pet shop a couple of months ago and named them "Petie" and "Pee Wee". It turns out that Petie was named correctly and is a male. Pee Wee is female. Together, they're very prolific. She was telling us about how Pee Wee just gave birth to a litter of 19 mice! The mice are <1-cm long when they're born. However, over the last 9 weeks that they've had these mice, Pee Wee has given birth to a total of 62 baby mice! They've tried to separate them, but Petie has managed to impregnate Pee Wee within 2 hours of her having given birth! I'm glad I'm not a mouse! *lol* When I asked what they did with all these extra mice, she said that they've mostly been giving them back to the pet store to feed to the snakes there. I'm really glad I'm not a mouse! *shudder*

Does anyone else remember that news story about the python that ate the queen-sized electric blanket?

Stolen from cynodd, here is a map of all the places I've been in the world:

( Map )

I've included states that I've only driven through because I figure that I've at least seen them, if not their tourist sites. I didn't include Maine, because I was only driving there after dark and didn't really see what it looked like. I notice that the District of Columbia is missing from the places in the US. I also didn't include having been to the Netherlands because I never left the airport there (same with Nevada).

My song for today is "Dance Me to the End of Love" by Madeleine Peyroux. This video features stills from American film noir:

*trying to get video to work. please check back later.*

ETA: For some reason, LJ wants to replace the map with the YouTube video whenever I try to embed the YouTube video, so I've put it in another entry here.

Last week I finished my latest book, Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, which I thought was interesting and entertaining, though I'm not sure how well I liked the main character.  The book made much more sense to me than the movie; although, to be fair, that may have been because I was also posting on LJ and in various Harry Potter fora while I was watching it on cable. *grins* 

After reading this book, I realize that geisha are a bit more like prostitutes than I previously thought. They are paid to become what is, essentially, a mistress to a particular man, a danna; although, they still entertain other men, just not in an intimate way.  Whether or not they actually get the money themselves depends on their financial responsibilities in relation to their okiya, a geisha house/business.  As it was explained in the book, an okiya would buy a girl to raise as a geisha, but she would be responsible for paying the okiya back the cost of having purchased her, the cost of her training, and the cost of feeding/housing her all those years.  The okiya would, of course, also be entitled to a percentage of her earnings on top of that.  In addition to paying for non-intimate entertainment, before the geisha took a danna (usually arranged by her okiya), men would pay for the privilege of having the geisha's mizuage - basically, her virginity.  The book spoke in euphemism about "the eel" and "the cave."  *lol*  The man who bought the mizuage would not necessarily be the same man who would become her danna later on.  And, a geisha might have several danna during her lifetime.  

The story focuses on Sayuri, a beautiful girl with grey eyes, who is sold to an okiya to become a geisha at the time of her mother's death. It begins as a very typical orphan story with Sayuri being unfairly treated by the adults in her life. She makes friends with the other girl of similar age living in the okiya, Pumpkin, but loses her friendship when they become rivals. The story is told in the first person; so, of course, Sayuri seems very good & kind, even to fish. However, I'm not really sure that Sayuri was so good & kind as she (as the first-person narrator) wanted her audience to believe. ( Cut for spoilers. ) 

In other news, I heard that the box office returns for The Golden Compass have been disappointing, so far.  On MSNBC, they said that the film would be considered a success if it made $50 million over the weekend (Fri-Sun), but it only made $8 million on its first day of release.  I still want to see it, though.  :)

Since I haven't with the last few posts, I'll end with another song: "Radio Nowhere" by Bruce Springsteen. I don't think there is a Harry Potter video for this, so here is Bugs Bunny and friends:  


 from beepbeepgac

( Go Directly to Comments )

As usual, I got hardly any work done around the house over the weekend because I spent most of my day away from home. ( Read more... )

And, I guess that brings me to today - the first day back at work after the holiday. Fortunately, it was pretty uneventful, except for the fluffy wet snow while I was driving home. :)

I thought I'd post this Christmas meme which started making it's way around my f-list last week. This particular one stolen from ms_arithmancer: ( Cut for meme )

And, finally, another song for today: "Buy A Dog" by Luce. Again, there is no Harry Potter video for this, so instead here are puppies:



by laznluke

I think it's kind of funny that whoever made this video chose to put in a clip of the dog pooping! *lol*

I thought I'd post YouTube videos of songs I like every so often. Whenever possible, I'll make sure that the associated video has something to do with Harry Potter. :-D

So, with scenes from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, today's featured song is "Shut Your Eyes" by Snow Patrol:



This is actually the only video I could find of this song with Harry Potter-related content. There were quite a few other songs by Snow Patrol, so I guess I'm in the minority having this one as my current favorite. I'll just say I'm unique. ;-)

ETA: I should add that this video was prepared by CloudGraywords