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The End of the Affair
Nov. 3rd, 2007 09:22 amIf the schedule for the bus company online is accurate, Karel should have already reached Vienna Airport, and be waiting for her flight to leave for Copenhagen. I'm rather sad- the long weekend has led a large number of the locals here to head home to their families, leaving me and a number of international students in the building alone. It was lovely to have a friend to go rambling around the last few days, and it served as a very nice break from the norm.
Yesterday Karel and I headed to Naschmarkt, where we bought food for dinner later that night, and just sort of toodled around in general. It was overcast but not really cold, like much of the weather has been here. I did the whole "This is such and such, and it's cool because," thing that semi-natives do for their tourist friends, pointing out the Secession Building and talking about various sushi places here.
After Naschmarkt, we headed out to Mariahilfer Straße, where I was kind of looking for a hat, but mostly just looking for a place to hang out. We got Bratkartoffeln from a sidewalk vendor and gave up on the Starbucks because it was clearly packed to the brim. We ended up having coffee in Café Ritter, which is slightly cheaper than Starbucks and completely different feel to it.
We got home and made dinner, and then made Glühwein properly, with raisins and almonds at the bottom. We watched the "Phantom of the Opera" movie, which I got as a gift, and were both disappointed by the execution.
(My general feeling on that particular movie is that it's a fairly goofy story and very theatrical in nature- if the director or actors are not really good singers and not really throwing themselves into the work, the seams show. It becomes too camp to really enjoy. And, which I sincerely appreciate Gerard Butler's chops as an actor, in the role of the Phantom he is sadly out of place. The role is almost entirely sung, even in the movie where much of the plot-related songs are turned into dialogue, and the actor's voice must really be able to carry of the ghosty, powerful, seductive presence of the Phantom. While Gerard clearly can and has shown these characteristics in other works, he's not a trained singer and lacks the ability to portray these characteristics in song. Add to this the absolutely crappy female vocalist and the clear lack of attention to detail, which suggests a lack of affection for the material itself, and you get a big, expensive movie that draws in more fans, but does not hold up to repeat viewing, which is the main reason fans would purchase the movie in the first place. )
Yesterday Karel and I headed to Naschmarkt, where we bought food for dinner later that night, and just sort of toodled around in general. It was overcast but not really cold, like much of the weather has been here. I did the whole "This is such and such, and it's cool because," thing that semi-natives do for their tourist friends, pointing out the Secession Building and talking about various sushi places here.
After Naschmarkt, we headed out to Mariahilfer Straße, where I was kind of looking for a hat, but mostly just looking for a place to hang out. We got Bratkartoffeln from a sidewalk vendor and gave up on the Starbucks because it was clearly packed to the brim. We ended up having coffee in Café Ritter, which is slightly cheaper than Starbucks and completely different feel to it.
We got home and made dinner, and then made Glühwein properly, with raisins and almonds at the bottom. We watched the "Phantom of the Opera" movie, which I got as a gift, and were both disappointed by the execution.
(My general feeling on that particular movie is that it's a fairly goofy story and very theatrical in nature- if the director or actors are not really good singers and not really throwing themselves into the work, the seams show. It becomes too camp to really enjoy. And, which I sincerely appreciate Gerard Butler's chops as an actor, in the role of the Phantom he is sadly out of place. The role is almost entirely sung, even in the movie where much of the plot-related songs are turned into dialogue, and the actor's voice must really be able to carry of the ghosty, powerful, seductive presence of the Phantom. While Gerard clearly can and has shown these characteristics in other works, he's not a trained singer and lacks the ability to portray these characteristics in song. Add to this the absolutely crappy female vocalist and the clear lack of attention to detail, which suggests a lack of affection for the material itself, and you get a big, expensive movie that draws in more fans, but does not hold up to repeat viewing, which is the main reason fans would purchase the movie in the first place. )
