Today, set up an interview for a potential internship at a local publishing company! The interview’s Wednesday afternoon, so I have some time to prepare and de-stress beforehand.
Saturday, January 12th
Was going to go see Gangster Squad this weekend with Wes. But I’m definitely coming down with something. Hope I get better before the interview on Wednesday! ヽ(￣д￣;)ノ
I’m sure you’ve all heard about and seen the amazing giant squid footage recently captured by Japanese scientists. Well, I made a giant squid discovery of my own (see photograph below)! P. S. I love the Japanese word for giant squid – 大王烏賊 daiouika, which uses the characters for “big,” “king,” “crow/raven” (perhaps because squids have beaks), and “rebel/thief/bandit.” Yes, giant squid are awesome!!
Resident Squid at Woodhouse Fish Co.
Sunday, January 13th
Under the weather!
I just had to share something amazing with all of you. Recently, I’ve started watching a very strange show called Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy. The only way to describe it is Monty Python meets a live-action version of Yellow Submarine plus an unverified amount of crack. You might want to watch the whole episode if you’ve never seen it before to understand the humor. But I wanted to point you all in the direction of a skit about William Blake and The Ghost of a Flea (like The Poet and the Flea, but not)! Watch from 7:50 for The Flea.
Discovered this amazing review of The Poet and the Flea by Sarah Goode at University College Oxford on the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies’s website!
Brief but great meeting with Gabe! He seemed to really love what I’ve done so far on the final illustrations for Elias & the City of Cats. He didn’t make any changes other than adding a handwritten title to the cover and adding a second page for the part we call “cat craziness.” Plus, I sent Gabe a list of children’s book publishers I’ve compiled and he’ll look over it in the coming days. It’s wonderful to think that, once I’ve finished the final illustrations, Gabe will start working on submitting Elias to publishers!!!
Began reading Wes’s screenplay!!
Saturday, January 19th
Continued reading Wes’s screenplay!!
Sunday, January 20th
Received some amazing news — more details to come!
Saw Gangster Squad with Wes! Both of us agree that it wasn’t as bad as the 33% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Monday, January 21st
E-mails, e-mails, e-mails…!
Finished reading Wes’s screenplay!! Going to meet on Wednesday to go over it with him. (^-^)
Discussed screenplay with Wes today! I think he has a really strong screenplay (especially for a first draft) and already knows which elements need to be further developed. (︶ω︶)
Had dinner with a lovely relative from out of town.
Sunday, January 27th
Had brunch with our lovely cousins.
Date night with Wes!
Etcetera
The Poet and the Flea: 63 pages of written script (1 page of script = 4-6 illustrated pages), and about 36 pages (1-24, 27-30 completed, and 25-26, 31-36 in progress) of illustrated work.
The First Reich: about 1-10 pages of illustrated work in progress.
First Zine: about 6-8 pages of illustrated work in progress.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the following images or video!!
One of my favorite operas is Jacques Offenbach‘s The Tales of Hoffmann(Les contes d’Hoffmann). This opera is a fantastical retelling of the life of the German Romantic author E. T. A. Hoffmann, casting Hoffmann as the protagonist of his own stories.
Placido Domingo performing the “Chanson de Kleinzach” aria.
Désirée Rancatore performing ”Les oiseaux dans la charmille.”
Through The Tales of Hoffmann, I developed an interest in Hoffmann and his stories, quickly leading me to Sigmund Freud’s The Uncanny. In Freud’s essay, he uses many of the same Hoffmann stories as Offenbach, but in this case to prove a psychological point (not that Offenbach’s opera isn’t deeply psychological). If I remember correctly, Freud even mentions Offenbach’s opera.
Portrait of E. T. A. Hoffmann
I’m sure you are all wondering, “What does all this have to do with The Nutcracker?” Well, little do most people know, E. T. A. Hoffmann wrote in 1816 one of the earliest versions of The Nutcracker story, entitled The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (Nussknacker und Mausekönig).
Alexandre Dumas was also a fan of Hoffmann, employing allusions to Hoffmann’s stories in The Count of Monte Cristo. Dumas even went as far as creating a revision to Hoffmann’s Nutcracker in 1844 called History of The Nutcracker (Histoire d’un casse-noisette), or The Tale of the Nutcracker.
Towards the end of the 19th Century, Hoffmann’s Nutcracker was adapted to ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, perhaps the most famous incarnation of the tale. I write this post because my dad purchased tickets to the San Francisco Ballet to see The Nutcracker at the end of the month. Perhaps later I’ll add my thoughts on the production to this post.
Tchaikovsky’s music is always wonderful, if not a little too overplayed for the holidays. A lot of people tend to associate The March from The Nutcracker or The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy not with Tchaikovsky, but with the thousands of Christmas commercials that use these pieces. This also happens with The Chinese Tea Dance from The Nutcracker with Disney’s Fantasia and The Sleeping Beauty Waltz with Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.
I believe the most creative and exciting production of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker is Mark Morris’s The Hard Nut. The Hard Nut is set in 1950s America with a very retro feel inspired by the comic artist Charles Burns — a strange but brilliant compliment to the classical music. I hope to one day be able to attend a live performance.
Advertisement for The Hard Nut.
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Portrait of E. T. A. Hoffmann
