So, it is party time again, folks!

[wiseheart]

Each year this time, we launch my virtual birthday party, which starts on October 1 and ends on October 9 at midnight, sharp. The goals of the party are to post as many comments and collapse as many threads as possible, on as many new pages as we can. It is always great fun, as you can see if you check out the similar entries of the last few years.

This year, I'll also throw the real party at mid-time - and post the recipes of all the food that will be there for you, so that you can all participate if you want to. Virtual food has no calories.

Fandom-related discussions are as welcome as the ones about coffee or chocolate (just to name a few favourites from previous years), and, of course, pictures and recipes of birthday cakes. ;)

So, drop by, tell your story, post your pics or silly poems, ask questions you always wanted to ask and have a good time!

Soledad, in excited expectation




Oh, and by the way, to provide birthday gifts hobbit-style, I've got a revived story and a Kansas 2 update for you.

Enjoy!

Comments

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

It's a while ago, but I'I believe I've read most of wilde's plays and attended two (including Salomé with the music of Richard Strauss - which makes it an opera, of course). I've read a number of his short stories and poems. And lastly, I own the biopic 'Wilde'.

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

I really meant this as a comment, but it won't do any harm here at page 4, I guess...

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

You're made of win!

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

I do my best.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Well done for getting us onto page 4!

I really need to get hold of the Wilde film. I wanted to see it when it came out, but I think they didn't show it at the cinemas in the town I lived in at the time; since then I have also learnt to love Stephen Fry (not really having known of him, then), so it is getting stranger, and stranger not to have seen the film!

The only Wilde play I have seen performed live, was an opera version of The Importance of Being Earnest; I wasn't as impressed as I had hoped to be. It wasn't a particularly traditional type of opera, which I have since realized I should have expected of the company who performed it. Still very enjoyable, because I love the source text! I find Wilde's plays strangely readable; with Shakespeare even with the best intentions, I can't really follow the text unless I have seen the play performed, but I have read a number of Wilde's plays with great enjoyment before ever seeing the played out.

I do also really like The Canterville Ghost. I first read an abridged version as one of my English 'textbooks' in my pre-teens, and even in that form it was good; the full version is better of course!

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

The Canterville ghost is one of the things I didn't read. What is it about?
I had no idea there was an opera version of The Importance of Being Earnest - it strikes me more as an operette play, or even something for a musical.
Though Stephen Fry seemed a bit old at first, he filled the role well in the end, and I can recommend the film.

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

P.S. I forgot to mention The Picture of Dorian Gray! One of my favourite Wilde stories.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

The Picture of Dorian Gray is very well written, but I find the moral of it rather disturbing. On the other hand, I seem to remember Wilde commenting on that and saying it was art, and shouldn't be judged on its moral...

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

It has been quite some time since I read it, but the main plot is that there is this American family that moves into the Canterville stately home which is being haunted by an old Canterville. Most of the family either ignore or make fun of the ghost, which the ghost finds very upsetting, but the daughter tries to understand him. One of the things I remember very clearly from my first reading is about a blood stain that always reappears on the floor of (I thing) the dining room; the parents make the house keeper scrub it away each morning, but the ghost puts it back every night. Eventually it appears all sorts of weird colours, because the ghost has run out of blood (or things like it) and uses one of the children's colouring boxes instead...

[sammydragoncat]

I had no idea Oscar Wilde wrote The Caterville Ghost - I have never read it, have only ever seen the movie

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I do believe I have seen the film, but I found it a bit too different to the book to properly like; I find that when I have read the book first, I can be quite judgemental about films deviating from the 'true' story...

[sammydragoncat]

My Mom likes the movies, so I first saw it when I was really young. Generally speaking - the book is better than any movie version of it.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I only see the version with Patrick Stewart and I quite liked it. But it was because Patrick Stewart, mostly.

There used to be a hilarious theatre version in Hungary, with a female ghost. Poor thing was biting her long fingernails in frustration and kept repeating: "They are insane! They are all insane!" There was also a nanny who kept fainting whenever the ghost appeared. It was a great performance, with the best comical actors of the capitol playing in it, so even if it wasn't always true to the original, it was amazing.

[sammydragoncat]

I have seen that one too - but I like the 1944 version best (mostly because it's the first one I ever saw).

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

There is a version of The Canterville Ghost with Patrick Stewart in it? I will have to go searching for it; I love that man! He isn't just a great actor, he seems to be a genuinely good man, too. His work to with Amnesty protect women from violence, for example, saying if society listens to old white men he will use the fact that he is one to speak up for those it doesn't listen to.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I've seen Stewart on stage twice now, and he's got a powerful stage presence.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I have had the great fortune of seeing Stewart in Stratford-upon-Avon twice: First in The Tempest and then in Hamlet. As you say, he has a very powerful stage presence!

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Was that the Hamlet production with David Tennant? I saw that in Stratford and thought he upstaged Tennant by miles. The other play was Ibsen's The Master Builder, in which he was brilliant.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

ooohhh... I had totally forgotten that film - I remember it as being fun. I'll have to try and see if it on dvd or anything here.

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I may give this a try someday.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the 2002 film of The Importance of Being Earnest (the one with Judi Dench, Colin Firth, Reese Witherspoon & Rupert Everett); if so what did you think of it?

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Yes! My sister and I went especially to see it at the one cinema that screened it in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden which is about an hour's journey by train from Uppsala where we both lived at the time. I remember being a bit disappointed in it taking too much liberties with the text, but it was still good and we were both glad to have gone!

Have you seen it? If so what where your thoughts?

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I saw it on DVD a long while ago and recall enjoying it, and being amazed that Witherspoon was so capable of such an English role. Dench is always good value. But I've only seen the play a couple of times and a long time previously, so I couldn't compare the two.