"Les Mis": A Unique Theatrical Experience

When the lights came back on in the theater on Saturday night, my friends eagerly turned to me and asked the ultimate question: "So what did you think?" My response...

"It was OK."

The truth of the matter is that I walked into "Les Miserables" wanting to love it. I was going to this movie with friends that were seeing it for the second time...and you know that a movie must be good if there are people willing to pay $12 for it more than once. But as I sat through the 3-hour long mega musical, while I did find myself enjoying it, I wasn't blown away by it like the rest of the world was.

And then something interesting happened. For the next three days, I found myself thinking about this movie all the time. The themes within it, the characters, plot twists, theatrics - I kept going back and thinking over the meaning of everything and wanting to pick it apart and analyze it like one of the many books I mentally devoured in my days as an English major. Every time a movie keeps me thinking that much I realize that it's had an impact on me, and I suddenly realized that I did, in fact, want to see "Les Mis" again.

 As I've thought it over more, I think I've come to realize that the main reason I only thought the movie was OK was because I wasn't prepared for the theatricality of it. It's something unlike anything I had seen before, and sometimes when you come across something different you're not sure what to make of it right away...but how sometimes it does eventually grow on you. So here are my thoughts on the movie, both those points that I may not have appreciated as much right off the bat, as well as the more important points that have stuck with me since: 

The Sticky Spots (aka my slightly more childish side trying to handle an intense movie)

• Your typical musical has a dozen or so main songs and the rest of the story is normal conversation. This movie/play is just about all singing, including the parts when people are just having a conversation. As much as I love music, I found myself breathing a mental sigh of relief each time there was a snippet of normal speech.
• It was a little too long. While the movie did keep my attention throughout its entirety, three hours in one sitting is just too long for me - I get far too fidgety and movie theater seats aren't that comfortable. Two and a half hours, fine. Three - I've hit my breaking point. Why do you think I had to watch the "Lord of the Rings" movies in two sittings each?
• Multiple people singing at once. As beautiful as their voices were musically, these scenes made my band geek side and my English major side clash. Music - very pretty! Words - I can't tell what they're saying! What's going on in the story???
• It really irked me that the story was based in France and all the characters had British accents. While I probably enjoyed listening to the British accents more than I would have French ones, it lost an authenticity brownie point in my book. 
• The cheesy Shakespearean-esque love story between Cosette and Marius. It had its plus points, mostly because I'm a sucker for cheesy love stories, but for the most part this one just annoyed me. Amanda Seyfried just annoys me in general, though, so that could be why.

The Awesome Parts (aka where my nerdy/artsy/literary side comes out and I see the beauty in the movie)

• The quality of the movie as a whole really was incredible. The theatrics were flawless and the music was amazing. I'm still blown away by the fact that everyone sang their parts live during filming and the songs weren't prerecorded. I now know why it's been nominated for so many awards. 
• LOVED the character evolution. I could write an entire blog post just on this, but for now I'll keep it simple. Jean Valjean and Javert (the two main characters) were especially intriguing, but all the supporting characters were really interesting to follow as well. 
• The overall story line. Let's face it, it's a great story. It keeps you hooked the whole time and the plot is very well-developed.
• The religious themes. This in particular is the reason I kept thinking about this movie. Jean Valjean is Christian love personified, and I have to admit that his role was truly inspiring. My roommate, however (one of my friends who has now seen it twice), also pointed out the fascinating contrast between Jean and Javert - how the two practice the same religion but do so in such different ways. While she pointed it out to me (and while I'm slightly disappointed I didn't think about it more myself to begin with), I've taken it and run with it. Maybe another post on this sometime as well. 
• The influence of love. The story circulates around misery and a country in shambles, but the acts of love and the impacts that they have on the main characters are absolutely remarkable. This aspect of the movie is also something else I can add to my list of things currently influencing me to love more in my own life. 

As I finish up this post, I'm realizing that the more I write about the awesome parts, the more I want to see this movie again. Who knows, maybe some day I will be one of those people that falls in love with it. 

End note: for those of you that have neither seen the play or read the book (like me), or are hesitant to see the movie, I still recommend that you go. Just be prepared for a very different movie experience than one you might normally have. 

It's Time for a Blog-Over

In case you haven't noticed, "The Coffee Break" has changed just a smidge. If you haven't noticed, you might want to head to the doctor and get yourself checked out. Eye doctor, brain scan, whatever...you could have some serious issues. But for those of you that have noticed, congratulations! You've earned a perfect bill of health from Dr. Heather.

And now, for a quick tour. First stop, the design. New colors, brighter, fun fonts...what do you think?? If you don't like it, well you can just be quiet. Go get your own blog, you can do whatever you want with it. There's no need to hurt my blog's feelings!

In all seriousness, though, I'm open to suggestions to make it prettier! The format will probably be continually changing for a bit. I plan to add some labels, probably some extra tabs, potentially a photo background, and maybe even flirt with the colors some more (What's that, turquoise? Dinner you say? I'd love to!).

Next stop, my blog's name. I spent all weekend trying to puzzle over some fun and quirky new name, but couldn't settle on anything I liked enough to commit long-term (I did not go to Jared). Still, "The Coffee Break" just seemed pretty bleh, so I figured I would at least have the title match my URL. The official name is now "Heather's Coffee Break." Apparently I just need to add my own name to give something a little more pizzazz. Man, I'm just so awesome! [time for the Litany of Humility, anyone?] Welcome to the world, new blog name! I see a bright future for you!

And now for our final stop, because I like to talk/write too much and can't write a post that stops here. This last stop is a brief snapshot, a snippet if you will, about the history of the last 48 hours to pick a new blog name. While puzzling over various names and frightening my roommates each time I shouted out a new suggestion, there was one in particular that I kept coming back to: Pork Chops and Applesauce. Yes, I know it seems INCREDIBLY random, particularly because this isn't a food blog, but I don't care. There are many reasons this name would be a good fit for me:

• I'm totally ok with a random name since I write about a random assortment of things.
• Pork chops and applesauce are pretty random in their own right. You wouldn't expect them to go so well together, and yet they do!
• This was the only dinner that my mom knew how to cook when my parents first got married, so for a good stretch of time they were eating pork chops and applesauce a LOT. 
• It has an awesome and funny connection with the Brady Bunch (that of course concludes with a wholesome life lesson)! Check it out...

So why didn't I use this magnificent name you may ask?

The dang domain name was taken!!!

I  was so sad, because I had really let this title grow on me. I decided that I would hunt down the blog-name-stealing bandit and type in the URL...hoping that I would at least find some interesting food blog that I could come back to later. But what I found shocked...nay, flabbergasted me. A page in all pink...a Yankees fan (sorry Yankees friends, you know I still love you)...a grand total of 3 posts...from 2004...with a title that didn't even match the domain name!! I was so upset. Crushed, that my fun and random blog name, tied with family memories and the Brady Bunch, was going to such a waste! It would be so loved here! But alas, it simply wasn't meant to be for this humble blog of mine.

I won't let it get me down and out, though. I've officially decided that I will one day write a book called "Pork Chops and Applesauce," and it's going to be awesome. It'll be the #1 best seller in the New York Times and will probably win a Pulitzer. So take that, miss blog name bandit.

This...is...IMMUNITY!!!

As dawn approached, there was an impending battle looming over the horizon. There would be no guns, no cannons. Only swords and shields..........

.........wielded by little white blood cells.

This is what I think is currently going on inside my immune system right now.

While I am not yet sick, I fear that some ominous illness may be right around the corner. I've had no distinct symptoms, but ever since yesterday morning I've had that weird feeling that my body is fighting some strange disease. A disease that I most likely picked up in the sneezing, coughing hack-fest that is the DC Metro.

In my normal routine to attempt to ward off the [insert winter disease here] epidemic, I of course started chugging orange juice and popping Airborne tablets like they were free candy. But in an unusual way, I started wondering how these actions were actually helping my immune system, and somehow that led to me picturing my white blood cells holding swords and fighting an epic battle against the evil slimy germs.

As I let this lovely little part of my imagination get away from me, I started to picture my white blood cells as the gang of soldiers from 300, fighting off the monstrous Persian germs that are threatening to enslave my health for all eternity. Based on the fact that I've still managed to avoid serious illness up to this point, I imagine that White Blood Cell Leonidas has already kicked the Persian Germ Messenger into the well screaming, "This...is...IMMUNITY!!!!"

(I promise I'm not high on cold meds).

I have to admit, though, as crazy and weird as I might sound right now, there is something highly satisfying in picturing your immune system waging a successful battle to prevent your sickness...particularly when it involves white blood cells slashing green germy blobs in half with a sword. And hopefully my white blood cells will fare better in the end than the 300 Spartans...if all my white blood cells died then I'd be pretty screwed. But so far, so good! I think they just killed the Germ Rhino.

And just to stay on the topic of 300, if you've never seen 300 spartan apples you should totally check it out! Look, I even got fancy and made the title of the video into a link!

Learning to Love

Moving out on my own has been a wonderful thing for me. I've regained a lot of my independence, I've been having fun, and I've finally started to learn how to budget. My mood and happiness level have also improved greatly, which of course is a huge plus. But despite these major improvements, there are still some things in my life that I like to complain about. If you haven't been on the receiving end of one of my ranting sessions, consider yourself lucky. But to fill you in on a little tidbit so that you see where I'm actually going with this post, I've finally realized (with the help of my lovely roommate who does patiently listen to my rants) that my two biggest sources of complaining are 1. wanting a meaningful job/career and 2. wanting a boyfriend.

While there are of course other fun little details about life that add to daily stress, these two things are the big money items in my world of complaining. I've recently come to the all-too-slow epiphany that I complain about work and being single a LOT. Too much. But last week, and in the days since, I've stumbled across some things that have encouraged me to shut my trap and work on a personal attitude make-over.

The first thing that caught my eye was in a book called "The Way." Written by Joemaria Escriva, "The Way" consists of hundreds of short but incredibly insightful ways to live a holier and more fulfilling life.

One thing about this book is that it can sometimes be hard to know exactly which page to turn to in order to find a quote that fits a particular mood. But at least in my experience, I've found that that's not such a bad thing. This book is one of those that you can just open up and let yourself be surprised. Or as a friend of mine put it, you sort of play Russian Roulette as you flip along the pages and open to a random quote. That's normally what I do, and last week it revealed a phrase that was more penetrating for me than most:

412. "May the fire of your love not be a will-o-the-wisp, a vain fire, an illusion - an illusion of fire, which neither enkindles what it touches nor gives any heat."

This quote simply leapt off the page, and I automatically found myself wanting to finish it with, "Let your love be an all-consuming fire." Love in the way that God would want you to love...the way that He loved. Don't just put half of an effort into the things you do, but rather put your whole self into it. Whether the task seems enlightening or mundane, exciting or frustrating, you should perform it with all the love you have.

 This was one of thing things that helped me to realize that by complaining all the time, I was not allowing myself to love as I should. My desire for a boyfriend shows my ability to love, but my lack of a boyfriend shouldn't stop me from fully loving all the other wonderful people that I already have in my life - and all the other ones that I have yet to meet. Wanting a more fulfilling job where I can serve others is a good goal to have, but I should still perform my current job with as much hard work and effort, and even love, as I can.

Along with other little things that brought up these thoughts about love throughout my week, I met up with a friend this weekend that introduced me to another wonderful quote. After venting to her about the loneliness that is being single, she handed me a book called "Style, Sex, & Substance," then directed me to Chapter 5: "Single and Seeking God's Plan."

I figured she wouldn't steer me wrong and that this chapter would probably have something insightful, but little did I realize how appropriate it would truly be to my current state in life - and to my apparent journey in learning more about love. In the subsection titled "Our Vocation to Love," Anna Mitchell beautifully states,

"For most single people, this state in life is temporary. But even if it's not, our job right now and always is to live out the universal vocation to love. Everyone is created by Love for love, and we never lose that first calling."

Another lightbulb. Short, sweet, and to the point. I truly feel like I'm called to marriage, but you never know where life is actually going to take you. My state of being single shouldn't make me miserable. I should still love no matter what my relationship status is on Facebook. And I should love with as much love as possible.

Most importantly, however, through these quotes (as well as others, and conversations with friends and my parish priest), love first and foremost needs to be directed toward God. Loving God, and loving in the name of God, is the most important kind of love. Loving God is what helps us get through the good times and the bad. And loving God first also helps us to love others, and even ourselves, more. Believe me, I know that this can often be much easier said than done. But believe it or not, the more we work to love God, the easier it is to see how much he truly is there throughout every step of our lives.

So I guess the moral of the story is this: I'm still trying to learn how to love. I need to complain a little less, and love a little more. I need to give back to the world around me, and thank God for the many blessings that He's given me throughout my life. I've come a long way in the last few years, but I've still got a long way to go, and I hope and pray that I'm at least headed in the right direction.

*********************************************************************************

And now, I embrace my ever-present inner English major and provide you with this lovely bibliography (courtesy of all my teachers throughout the years who have instilled in me a horrifying fear of getting expelled for plagiarism):

Escriva, Josemaria. The Way. New York: Scepter, 1954.

Mitchell, Anna. "Single and Seeking God's Plan."Style, Sex, & Substance. Ed. Hallie Lord. Huntington: Our Sunday Visitor, 2012. 75-86.

(I'm sorry I couldn't get the indentation in! Dang formatting!)

Comedic Relief

It's 5:00 PM on a Friday afternoon. It's been a long, stressful week, and you're ready to punch a hole through your cubicle wall...with your head. You're more than ready for the long-awaited weekend, and what better way could you kick off said weekend than by going to happy hour?

By going to a comedy club of course! Laughter is the best medicine, right?

There are a lot of new things that I've been wanting to try out lately, and going to a comedy club was just one of them. This past Friday, I finally got to go to one...and I absolutely LOVED it!!

This recent comedy club adventure was initially sparked by a LivingSocial deal of all things. Unfortunately, upon searching the comedian that they were featuring, it turned out that he wasn't all that funny. But that didn't stop us. We still wanted to go to a comedy show, so I searched comedy clubs in DC. Google didn't fail me, and the first search result gave me the top club in the city...DC Improv. I talked to my roommates, we set up a roomie date night, then bought our tickets for a fun Friday night out.

I have to say, not only was I not disappointed by our trip to this legendary comedy club, but it exceeded all expectations. It sits in a cool and classy (and surprisingly not creepy) location that sits below street level, in classic comedy club fashion. The service is incredible, from ticket pick-up, to table seating, to food service. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis, and since I was one of the first ones there, I of course took them up on the offer to be seated right up front. The club itself has that cramped but cozy intimate setting with small tables all placed pretty close together. I excitedly and impatiently waited for my roommates to get there (the host brought them directly to my table) and for the fun night to begin.

And now the most important part, the comedians themselves. The main act we went to see was Christian Finnegan. He had us laughing throughout his entire set, and I'm so glad we decided to see him even though we didn't know much about him. But the best part was that he wasn't the only one that had us laughing that night, since we got to see two shorter acts before Christian even got on stage. Mike James, the host, is a local comedian who had the shortest, but still very funny set. He was followed by Carmen Lynch. I have to admit I'm usually not that impressed by most female comedians, but Carmen broke that streak. She was absolutely HILARIOUS, and I'm still debating if she was my favorite act of the night.

If you've ever thought about going to a comedy club I highly recommend checking out DC Improv. Not only did we have a great time, but it was affordable as well. Our tickets were $20 each, and the food and drinks weren't too pricey, either. It's a fun and unique night out, so definitely give it a shot! I know I'm going again!