The Reason I'm not Blogging this Week

I've finished Mockingjay (and desperately need someone else to read it so I can talk about stuff) and am now gearing up for the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. The Festival officially begins Thursday night but there are activities taking place at libraries, schools, and other location beginning today and of course there is a lot of setting up that needs to get finished up in the next few days. As a result I will be spending a great deal of time not blogging. As a little introduction to one of our new tellers, one Mr. Antonio Sacre (I just met him about an hour ago and he is just as nice as he could be), here is a short story he tells called The Barking Mouse (which is also a lovely children's book should you be interested):

The first minute or so is made up of a silly Elementary School style song so just move through that to the story

MOCKINGJAY

(AKA the reason I'm not blogging for real)

I've just about finished off my Jane Eyre obsession

(Loved The Eyre Affair--just so much fun and clever)

and am now happily 50 pages into Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.

Talk to you soon.

Free Gift Tags

Just look at how lovely these cards are:

And they can be downloaded for free over at Whisker Graphics. I particularly like the umbrella (you know, should anyone want to give me a present with a gift tag attached).

All Things British

Five things British that are occupying my time:

5. Jane Eyre (actually just finished it yesterday, but as it was the unabridged version it has been occupying quite a bit of my time of late--had to get it finished for Book Group).

4. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (happily felt that it needed to be read again following the finishing of Jane Eyre).

3. Jane Eyre the BBC movie with Timothy Dalton which fairly stinks but I was in the mood to watch Jane Eyre before Book Group--highly suspect one or more Book Group members of borrowing the good versions from the library.

2. Football (or soccer for the Amerosnobs--not sure if that is a real term but it is similar in structure to the term Eurosnob: someone who dislikes non-European club football/soccer). The English Premier League is up and running!

1. Doctor Who. The most recent season is over (it was quite brilliant) so now I am happily ensconced in watching Season 1 again.

And those are the reasons I have not been on the Internet very much of late.

Storytelling

It is just about that wonderful time of year again when storytellers descend on my little town. Here is a little advert:

Utah Shakespearean Festival

Really, I don't know where the last week has gone. Perhaps I left a small part of me down in Cedar City and the rest of me has refused to move on without it. Completely understandable considering that Cedar City and the Utah Shakespearean Festival are completely wonderful (as is the Pastry Pub and those really wonderful tarts). I'll just do a really quick recap and then attempt to really move on.

I saw Pride and Prejudice and thought it was quite good.

Okay, maybe I will say a few more words.

Mrs. Bennett absolutely stole the show. She was brilliant. Mr. Darcy grew on me--although I didn't care at all for how much of a comedic performance the script called on from him. I just didn't care much at all for Elizabeth (really rather tragic as she is one of my favorite characters of all time). The show wasn't stunning, but it was quite good--the scene changes were quite ingenious. Oh, I forgot Mr. Collins (aka Brian Vaughn) who was also simply brilliant and co-stole the show.

And one final thought. Have you scene the line up for next year? Really rather disappointing for a 50th year anniversary line up in my little opinion:

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Richard III

Romeo and Juliet

The Music Man

The Glass Menagerie

Noises Off!

I'll still go, of course, but I was expecting something just a bit more exciting--sigh.