Lessons We Learn from Disney Princesses

Lessons based on a conversation with Beth, Noelle, Laura, Summer, and Amanda. Pictures by Annie Leibovitz for Disney.

Pocahontas:

 Listen to your grandma. The right path is not always the easy path. And stop being racist, doggone it!

Belle:

Beauty is on the inside. Read.

Ariel:

Learn from your mistakes.

Snow White:

Kindness is more important than beauty.

Aurora:

Prince Charming can be Prince Charming, no matter what his name. Also, don't be naive.

Jasmine:

Just be yourself. Women are not objects to be won.

Cinderella:

Hard work and kindness will always pay off.

Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings

I'm not a huge fan of techno music.  Or of opera. But Eric Whitacre, one of my favorite composers, mashed them together with the traditional musical theatre tradition to create Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings.

The story is not based on Milton's Paradise Lost, but is actually about a tribe of angels whose parents hid them away and took their wings as children. An odd concept, true, but so is the music. It's a really beautiful and unexpected fit--like bacon in ice cream, or Bollywood and Jane Austen.

You can hear excerpts of the music by clicking here. I strongly suggest that you do.  I'm slightly addicted to "What If," "Sleep My Child," "Forgotten" and "All Alone."

Saturday is a Special Day!

It's the day Lyndsey and I had a photoshoot in downtown Rexburg! Here are my favorites out of the pictures we took of each other.

Saturday was also special because we celebrated Halloween! I was Lady Gaga, and Beth and Chelsea were my backup dancers. Beth made our amazing costumes. 

 (Chelsea does not like having her picture taken.)

       

 As it turns out, there's a lot more to photography than your average point-and-shoot will lead you to believe. Real photography involves so much control.  You really have to know what you're doing.

My first two assignments had to be film. Shooting film isn't too bad. It's exciting to not know what's going on or how the pictures will look.

      The real pain  comes in the processing. You lock yourself in a small room. Once you arrange your tools, the lights go out. They don't come back on until the film is wound on a small stainless steel spool, and the spool goes into a lightproof container. That's the worst part. If the film isn't wound just right, some of the negatives won't turn out. You won't know until you process the film, which involves all the fun bits of chemistry class.

      Developing is fun, too. The the red lights in the darkroom make the world go black-and-white. It's a fun experiment with light. It's a lovely process.

Digital is fun, too. It allows for more control, but printing isn't as fun. I don't have any of the prints I've turned in back yet, but I've posted the first two digital prints that I'm turning in tomorrow. 

Want.

I never thought I'd envy a member of Hillary Clinton's staff. Then I saw Huma Abedin's wedding dress in The September Issue of Vogue. (You always capitalize The September Issue. ALWAYS.) I love seeing clothes on real women instead of models--they're prettier because they're more reasonable--a real outfit instead of a mood board on a person. I like Oscar de la Renta clothes for the same reason. Ladies, grab your fashion magazines or pull up google. Compare an Oscar de la Renta ad to a Rodarte ad. Which one would you rather buy and wear? Yeah. That's what I thought.

I have no formal post. Just captions for pictures.

 This is my dad fixing the pipes. They're partway through redoing the kitchen, and it's going to look great!

 There's a clothesline in the backyard of my new place. 

 I plan to take unnecessary amounts of pictures of my clothes drying this summer.

 I actually plan to take unnecessary amounts of pictures in general, because now I have a real camera for the first time since November! I bought a Canon EOS Rebel XSi for my photography classes. Huzzah.

I was home alone with nothing to do tonight, so I got started making chocolate hazelnut gelato. 

 Side note: I made the bacon ice cream earlier this week. It was really, really good. My family loved it, too! (See? I am neither pregnant nor crazy.)

I wore an apron and everything!

It's not finished yet, though. It has to chill for a lot longer before it can go into the machine. But it'll be worth the wait. 

Sometimes We Need a Reminder.

                                      ffffound

Top Ten Reasons that This Week was the Best.

10. J'ai trouvé ma cloche!

I finally have the coolest hat in the world back. I lost it in my French class on the second day of class and didn't see until yesterday, when Sœur Passe-Carlus said she had it in her office.

9. Hair Color Fades!

My hair is a normal color! But I did turn the towels pink at the temple...

8. Nutella Cupcakes!

Found this recipe while stumbling around the internet on Thursday and couldn't help but trying them. And they are DELICIOUS. We ate them for breakfast. (Since they're self-frosting, you can totally pass them off as muffins.) I will definitely be making them again in the near future.

7. I've finally seen The Dark Knight all the way through!

When my family rented this when it first came out, no one ever told me when they were starting. So I always came in the middle. Then last semester I started it with the guys, but we only got halfway through before curfew. Then we watched it last night because their new roommate is just off his mission and hadn't seen it yet. Hurray for 1am curfew on Fridays!

6. I finally found a good place to study!

I have a hard time focusing on homework when Sven the Mac's 20-inch screen offers so many other options. And I don't like the library--too many people. But there is a lovely little secluded place in the Ricks Building (pictured above) perfect for reading and studying. This should increase my productivity by infinity.

5. The Hello Kitty Coloring Book

My mom sent a bunch of crayons up with me after Christmas Break and I had nothing to color! In my determination to remedy this, I bought a 288 page Hello Kitty coloring book. I almost got the Star Wars one, but it was part of that crap Clone Wars franchise. I am not ashamed of my new hobby. You're just jealous. 

4.Endless Jam Sessions.

My roommate Jenna the Music Ed Major brought an acoustic guitar up with her. Now we're both using it to teach ourselves to play. I remembered a few things from back when I actually practiced Francesca (my guitar that's been sitting lonely in my room for the past three years). My fingers are sore and covered in band-aids, and Jenna's thumb has turned funny colors from strumming with it. But it's way fun. Since Thursday, we've spent at least three hours a day taking turns playing. 

3. Getting things worked out.

Don't you worry your pretty little head about the details.

2. Hearing from two members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Elder Russel M. Nelson gave the devotional on Tuesday and Elder. M. Russell Ballard More will be on my Rexburg Blog.

1. Getting my family's temple work done.

Unless I'm completely mistaken, this is my great-grandmother,(my mother's mother's mother) Margot. I was baptized and confirmed for her and for my great-great-aunt, (my mother's father's mother's sister) Anna. I'm so excited to keep tracing my mom's family line and getting their work done, too!

Pop! Goes My Heart

There's a Pop Art gallery at the Spori. As a former wanna-be humanities major, I couldn't help but go. I'll probably go again. I love the definition of Pop they had in the gallery: "popular, transient, expendable, low-cost, mass-produced, witty, gimmicky, glamorous, and Big Business."

This one is one of my favorites. It says something about fame. It can take someone BEAUTIFUL and CONFIDENT (see black-and-white Marilyn below) and distort them beyond recognition. It's still flashy and bright and pretty in a way, but it can't come anywhere close to the original. It's just Pop Art. It's popular now, but you can just throw it out when you're done.  It's a dime-a-dozen. I noticed something while researching for this post: Warhol picked probably the worst picture Marilyn ever took to create this screen. Another downside of being famous: you can't pick out the bad shots.

Sven's take on Warhol. Yep. A new icon.