Al otro lado del campus.

WICKED

WICKED was the best part of the trip to Chicago. I had seen an amateur version of it in Spanish, by the group "amorevo", and I just loved the story. It's so witty and it changes the way of looking at the characters of the Wizard of Oz, which I love.

We went Saturday at 1 p.m. to the box office of the Oriental Theatre in Chicago. All the tickets were sold out for the weekend, and on Mondays there is no show. I was heartbroken. I was determined to go back to the theatre before the show and try to buy a ticket in the last moment.

I didn't need to do that. There is a drawing 2 hours before each show. So I went back to the Oriental Theatre at 6 p.m. with my friend Andrea. I was convinced that I would have to wait to see it until summer or Spring break. We entered our names and waited.
We had arrived very late, so our names were the last to go in. There was no way our names were going to get picked. One person won, and another, and another. Every time a name was announced, the winner and his/her friends would yell with excitement. I was thinking, "If one of our names comes out, I am not going to shout or anything. I am not going to make a spectacle out of this."

When my friend's name was said, I didn't realize it was him for a few seconds. Suddenly my head gave a little cry: "Oh my god it's us!" I had to shout, I couldn't help it. I think my friend got scared, because I got hold of his jacket and started giving little jumps. I started laughing, I couldn't believe it.

Two tickets for 25 dollars each. In the first role. I was thrilled.
The Oriental Theatre is everything but simple. It's richly decorated. Maybe too much. I thought it was gorgeous.

The play started and it was everything I thought it would be, and more. It has very funny moments. The music is great, so meaningful every phrase.
In the show I attended the role of Elphaba (the main character) was to be played by Dee Roscioli. She is the stand by for the Chicago production, but I heard that she is taking over the role in two months, because she's so good. I agree. She is a very good actress.
Later I learned that the actress who was supposed to be Elphaba is the main character of the Pirate Queen.

I had to buy a book called The Grimmerie. Is a behind the scenes look of the musical Wicked. The musical is based on Gregory Maguire's book Wicked: The life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Universal originally bought the rights to the book to make a movie of it, but it ended up being a musical. By personal guess is that a movie will come after the success the musical is.

I also bought the Soundtrack. It's such a beautiful music and lyrics. I can't stop listening to them.

The big hit of the musical is Defying Gravity. Here is a video with the Original cast of Broadway: Idina Menzel as Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda.

One of my favourite songs is No Good Deed. The lyrics are just amazing. In this video Eden Espinosa makes a great performance of the piece.

Probably the most hilarious part of the musical is the song called "What is this feeling?"

Dee Roscioli and Kristoffer Cusick had a special chemistry on stage. In this song: As long as you're as your mine. Love song from beginning to end.

A very beautiful song that summarizes the friendship story between Elphaba and Galinda is "For Good". In this video we can see a behind the scenes look on how the two actresses transmited their friendship to the stage.

One of the best things of the musical is that it goes from a very tragic moment to a really hilarious one, and it does it very naturally. Like in this video:

To end this Wicked post, enjoy this Behind the Scenes video. You can learn all the work that takes to do the sets and the choreographies, and more.

CHICAGO. The Windy City.

Fall break is over. And i'm again in Des Moines. And I say again because during fall break I was in Chicago. Being in back in Des Moines is like... Well, there is no comparison.

I loved Chicago. I've longed for a big city since I arrived in Des Moines. Being able to walk from one place to another and sightseeing without a car.
There are some anecdotes from Chicago. The first one, without doubt, the issues with the hostel were I stayed with my friends.
It's called Chicago International Hostel, and I strongly recommend to anyone who is going to Chicago and has a low budget not to stay in this place.

We arrived on Friday night, after a long day of traveling. What a surprise we had, when the mexican man who was working at the front desk told us that they were over booked. They didn't have beds for us.
"What?," said Rita (another Spanish girl traveling with me). "We made the reservation one month ago. What the hell is wrong?"

"You can all me all the bad words you want and shout at me," replied the man. "I can't do anything."

Eventually we came to an agreement. We would sleep in the lobby, in some convertible sofas and in a couch. Friday and Saturday. Sunday and Monday we got to sleep in real beds in an 8-person bedroom.

The first day we walked through the Magnificent Mile. It is located in Michigan Avenue, famous for its shops. Big brand shops.The arquitecture of Chicago mixes old-styled buildings, such as the Water Tower, with modern skyscrapers.
The blueness of the river surprised me. Being such a big city I expected it to be dirtier, but the water had a wonderful deep blue color.
The Millenium park is home to the Cloud Gate, where we could see the silouette of Chicago deformed.
The sight from the Sears Tower is something noone should miss from Chicago. The horizon line is not flat, but slightly curved. We were very lucky because it was a cloudless day. The next day it started raining and it was foggy.This was a weekend of musicals. I saw Wicked and The Pirate Queen. Wicked deserves one post for itself.About the Pirate Queen I can only say that I liked the music and the dances, but it was really hard for me to follow the story. The lyrics were almost impossible for me to follow, and they sang the whole time, so there was no way I could know what the plot was about.The Navy Pier was very nice, but it closed at 7 p.m. We went up the Ferry's Wheel, and the chain chairs. It was very funny. And very cold too.
We had dinner in a Greek restaurant called Greek Islands. It was great Mediterranean food after two months. I felt like if I were back in Mykonos, or Santorini, on Kythera.
We also went to China Town, but it was 10 p.m. and everything was dark and closed.
I fell in love with Borders: books, music, movies, cafe. Luckily I can't get to anyone near here, because if I could I would go broke.
Our last day in town we tried visiting some museums, but it didn't work. The Broadcast Museum, which was supposed to be opened since early this year, was nothing but a grey building being built.

The Museum of Contemporary Photography was closed for some reason and the Jewish Museum only had a portion of it opened, as it's being renewed. And it was raining. So visiting the Zoo wasn't the best idea. We were tired and it was 8 p.m. So we had dinner and went back to the hostel.

Students on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

This is the first scene we did in Spanish class. It is from a Spanish movie called Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios, which translates as Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
The director is Pedro Almodóvar.

Goya's Ghost trailer.

At last, a trailer for Goya's Ghost.



This movie is promising for its cast: Natalie Portman, Javier Bardem (Spanish actor, he was in The Sea Inside). The music heard on the trailer also foresees a great soundtrack...
What more can I say, I can't wait to watch it. It opens in Spain this November 10th. In the USA it's having problems to be distributed, because of some sexual and violent content.
Hopefully, it will get a go before the Oscar nominations, so it has a chance to participate for this year's awards.
The movie was shot in Madrid, Spain. They closed the famous Retiro Park to film some scenes, and restored an old building. Cayetano Martínez de Irujo, a Spanish famous noble man, is also in the movie playing the Duke of Wellington.

New series of Podcasts Spanish Cinema for Conversation.Tesis.

In class we watch Spanish-spoken movies, and talk about them. Then we select a scene, write the script and perform it. Then I edit the different takes to make the final product, that is what you'll be seing. I hope you find it interesting and you feel moved to watch the original movies.


This is the first video in the series of podcasts. This are my students of Spanish at Drake University permorming a scene from Tesis.

Laughing babys.

Find this video this summer. Perfect sincronization.

Angry dog.

Dog lovers, check this out. I found this video during a class, and I was laughing so much I had tears. People looked at me wondering whether I was crying or laughing and, if any, why.




"Don´t you just hate it when your leg tries to steal your toy?," a comment I read on this video said.

JAMBA JUICE

I'm sorry. It seems like I just know how to post videos.
I discovered this video in Natalie Portman's non-official webpage.
I watch it with my former roomates over and over again, and we just can't get bored of it.
It was a sketch that appeared in a Saturday Night Live show hosted by Natalie Portman.

Another funny video.

I found this one ages ago with my friends. We laughed so much. I thought that now that I've figured out how to put a video, I might as well put this one.

Funny video

Check out this video...it is so funny, I wont even talk about it.