Sunday, March 27, 2011

Sunday Blatherings: Lots of Les Miserables

I've been a bit absent this week.  Third term ended on Friday and our grades had to be in, so I had spent night and day grading.  Sadly, most of it was due to students trying to "death bed repent" as I call it.  My frustration was at an all time high, so I felt like following that old adage, "If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all" where posting was concerned!  Honestly, I didn't even read this last week, and I've been laying low this weekend.  I was so run down that I didn't leave my house, not once.  It was nice, but I'm already bracing myself for work in the morning.

One of the great, shining lights is what I'm teaching right now.  Grading, I could throw out the window, but the teaching still drives me.  In World Lit. we've been reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.  I don't know if it's the stress that's gotten to me at the end of this past term, but I've been a bit obsessed with both the novel and play and can't get them out of my head!  The timing couldn't be better with PBS showing Les Miserables: The 25th Anniversary Concert.  Between teaching it in class, watching clips from the movie, and then watching the PBS special, I've had Les Mis on the brain so much that I'm constantly humming the tunes! In fact, as I locked myself inside this weekend, I watched the PBS special again--twice.

I think that I'll be back to myself soon, relatively speaking!  Until then, I'll keep reveling in Les Mis.  :)  Here are my favorite clips from the encore.  If you haven't seen it, I can't recommend it enough!



5 comments:

  1. That's an awful lot of men standing around singing.

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  2. I hope the students are realizing the fantasticness of Les Mis! I loved the anniversary show too. My daughter and I discovered that it was on stage about 3 hours from us, but we could not get seats on the nights she has free. UGH!!!! We are so sad.

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  3. When we lived in NJ years ago, we saw many Broadway shows and I was in heaven. Out here in the country I really miss those shows. Haven't seen Les Mis, Little Miss Saigon, Phantom of the Opera or others that I was dying to see. I do so love the music. Thank you for including the recordings.

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  4. I thought this was terrific as well. I truly enjoyed seeing Lea Solanga grow into Fantine. How I love this book. It is truly my all-time favorite and I shudder when I think how long it took me to read it. How many other 'great books' am I missing?? Les Mis is coming back to Gammage at ASU this summer - I can't wait.

    Hang in there....grading gets us all down. I'm glad the teaching still motivates you. It's testing time here in the next two weeks. That's what's killing me! But, this too shall pass.(I just hope the kids do!)

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  5. I've been meaning to post about this production of Les Mis for a while now! I went and saw this with my mom in the movie theaters several months ago and we're still talking about it. It was so moving that we both cried the whole time. I'm sorry to have missed the PBS version! Isn't it fantastic??

    But, I'm still shocked about Nick Jonas's appearance. ;)

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