Water, water, everywhere

Yet ANOTHER run in with broken pipes and flooding. At least this time it wasn't my apartment. This time it was my office.

Joy of joys the pipes burst above Perreault Hall in Fuller Labs. It set of the fire alarms which made us all run out into the cold. That was fun, let me tell you. The water ended up seeping into my office and basically being a general nuisance more than anything else. The people in the basement level got hit far worse. It hit a few computers I think but overall they too got out unscathed, they just had to move everything out of the wet areas.

As for the homefront, the basement has been repainted and new ceiling tiles have been put in. In my bedroom the contractor has put antibacterial paint on the stains and patched the holes. He'll be coming back to sand everything down and to repaint. The rug should be here by the end of the week (I hope) and the new appliances (stove and refrigerator) will be here on Wednesday, February 2nd. Of course the stove will be problematic since the landlord has to get an electrician to put in a new circuit for it, as well as a plumber to cap the old gas line. By Feb. 3rd the place should be like brand new, just in time to leave in June.

The only positive thing right now is that Wachusett mountain should be spectacular. With the new snow we got they should have a great foundation for all the trails. Hopefully I can break away this weekend to go. That's all for now.

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The Phantom of the Movie Theater

So they finally went and did it. I've been waiting for this since 1994 when I first heard the idea of creating a movie version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera.

**Spoiler Alert**
If you don't know the story of Phantom you may not want to read very far as I may mention things that are key to later parts of the story.
**


I got very excited when I saw some of the promotional stuff on the website. I absolutely loved the set design and the costumes, and I knew I already loved the music. I really was happy when I started listing to clips of the actors singing. M. Anrde and M. Firman were very good, Raoul was perfect and Christine was a very suitable follow-on to Sarah Brightman. She had the look and the voice for the most part. The only complaint I had was that she couldn't quite reach the same stratosphere on "The Phantom of the Opera" where he's commanding her to 'Sing for me' and she's going higher and higher and higher. What they did was to transpose the entire song down about a step. Honestly, if you weren't looking for it, you'd likely not even notice.

I was absolutely thrilled at the prospect of the movie, until.... I heard the Phantom himself. With respect to Sir Webber, I think he should have his head examined for choosing Gerard Butler. His lack of any classical voice training is immediately obvious. His voice is akin to a metal/grunge yelling/singing voice rather than the silken chords of Micheal Crawford. From what I've read Sir Webber wanted a rougher, darker and angrier Phantom, but I think it would have behooved him to find one that could SING! There are pleasant moments where I think they must have worked the song take after take after take to get something that is actually not too grating. Music of the Night was fairly passable, but Point of No Return was cringe-worthy.

If you can get past the Phantom I'd say the rest of the movie is worth seeing. Most of the changes I liken to what happens when a show is revived on Broadway. Things are changed, re-written, cut, added etc. Sometimes this is good, sometimes this is bad, but for the most part in the movie version I think many of the changes were positive.

Yes, I know, they moved the Chandelier. I was a bit bother by this but you have to realize that not all aspects of a 2 act stage production translate to the screen smoothly. One of this is the device of having the chandelier fall just prior to the close of Act 1. Movie audiences are used to the climax being toward the end. You can debate whether this was necessary but overall I don't think it really hurts the story too much.

Overall I'd give this movie an 8 out of 10 were it not for the Phantom. Because of that I have to drop it to a 7 out of 10.

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Dirty Tricks

Well the Republican Party of Massachusetts has really gone low this time around. They have gone and registered four domain names that potential gubernatorial candidate Tom Reilly may have wanted to use in his campaign.

The names include reillyforgovernor.com, tomreillyforgovernor.com, reillyforgovernor2006.com and reillyforgovernor06.com.

This is simply nothing more than the beginning of what will likely be a VERY negative governor's race next year. If they wanted to register noreillyforgovernor.com that would be one thing. I have no problem with them taking out web space to list their problems with the Democratic candidate, but to take the four most likely domain names that would be use in the pro-reilly campain just smacks of poor-sportsmanship.

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Trip to Okemo

So we settle everything up for the trip to Okemo on Saturday night. We print out directions and the skiing coupons and I'm off to bed at 12:40 AM. Not to bad right? Well not bad if you aren't getting up at 4:00 AM.

Getting up at 4:00 is not as bad as I had feared. I got up, dressed and prepped everything to leave at 5:00. Cate had mentioned that we would meet and leave at 6:00 but I inisted on 5:00 AM. As it turns out we left at precisely 6:00 after meeting at 5:30 and readying everything. Cate was slightly miffed and slightly amused, and Smriti and Tom were very amused when I declared that we were leaving exactly when I figured we would leave. :)

We got to the mountain at about 9:00 and had a great day of skiing. I got in several great runs including a few trips down a meandering green circle (beginner) trail called Mountain Road. This trail is absolutely beautiful. There were trees on both sides of it and you could see the valley through parts of it. This trail is basically a service road in the off-season which is why its not steep at all. The best part was that if you waited a bit for the skiiers to pass by, the trail was absolutely silent. No wind, no rustling, nothing. Simple, beautiful, silence.

At 4:00 pm we packed up and went home. Today I am aching a bit from all the workout. My legs are reminding me that I don't do this as often as I used to. All in all a good time.

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Vacation running out....

Well this week has been fun. I've had a chance to hang out with Donald a bunch so that's been good. Chili's, movies, sushi and nachos to name a few of the things we've done. Tomorrow we go see Phantom of the Opera the movie version.

Last night was also fun because Travis came up from RPI too. Travis and I have only hung out about 3 times but its always a good time. He's definitely someone I wish I knew better. I'm pretty sure he'd end up a really good friend.

Also exciting today was that I got my Amazon order in. I bought 6 new Diana Krall CDs, a Gavin DeGraw CD, and a Maroon 5 CD. Here's the full list.

Gavin DeGraw - Chariot (Bonus Disk: Chariot Stripped)
Maroon 5 - 1.22.03.Acoustic
Diana Krall:
- The Look of Love
- All for You: A dedication to the Nat King Cole Trio
- Stepping Out
- Love Scenes
- When I look in your eyes
- Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Also tonight will be fun because its the season premier of Alias!!!! WOOOHOOO.

And also Happy Birthday to Tim!

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Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year everyone! The party went off very successfully even with the burst pipe disaster. I reorganized my bedroom into a living room/party area. It worked very well and everyone had a good time. The party was a bit slow to start but at about 11pm things really took off.

May you all have a prosperous new year!

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