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Saturday, Aug. 19, 2006 - 3:58 p.m.

Blonde Peldon is back in the "pages" of Go Fug Yourself; all is right with the world!

I actually really like Courtney Peldon. I find her absolutely adorable, despite her often rather horrible choice of dress. I know and care absolutely nothing for whatever B- or C-rated acting jobs she's had, I just find her constant presence on the red carpet soothing. And way less obnoxious than Paris Hilton's. Conversely, I care nothing for her sister Brown. I don't even pay attention to Brown's real name, as she is the skankier, less adorable of the two Peldons and seldom pulls of an outfit I actually find adorable, unlike Courtney, who is always so relentlessly cute and perky, I kinda wanna take her shopping just for the fun of finding out what an experience with Courtney Peldon at the Mall is actually like. I can totally see sitting in the food court having chocolate shakes and giggling over cute boys with La Peldon. Not her sister, though. Her sister just seems...wrong. Sort of the antithesis of Blonde, without any of the charmingly coquettish and good-natured sort of babble you just know Courtney holds forth with. So I love Blonde Peldon. Long live Blonde!

And actually, on a side note, I would totally love it if someone in Hollywood produced a drama for Blonde Peldon, in which she played a serious teen witch with real, teen witch problems like peer pressure and mean girl angst, sort of like that really bad Robin Tunney movie about witches, where she moves into a new town and joins Fairuza Balk's coven, and then Fairuza Balk goes all literal evil witch on her and has to be destroyed. Or something. I'm actually kinda hazy on the ending, despite having watched it twice on cable, once when I was bored and another just to see if it got any better on subsequent viewings, to which I discovered the answer is, "pretty much really no." The Blonde Peldon version would be really serious and gothic, but she would also have a few close friends who helped her learn her witchy skills, fight off the forces of evil and keep her witchy powers secret, sort of like Buffy had the Scoobies, but with less whining and prophecy, and more shopping.

And on another sidenote, doesn't Robin Tunney pretty much look like Margot Kidder's illegitimate lovechild?

I went to the Opera today, on accounta the rain, and took the english tour, which was really enjoyable. The guide was very funny and charming, and I laughed quite a bit, which rather unusual for a tour, especially of something as "snobby" as the Paris Opera (Palais Garnier). That building is just awesome, you guys. Seriously, it is my favorite building in the whole of Paris. It's really palatial in every sense - except, you know, for the whole no one lives there thing. There's like ten different kinds of marble, gold gilt, statuary, carvings, paintings, lush red velvet, carved onyx railings a foot wide...it's just unbelievable. In fact, some of the scenes in the new Marie-Antoinette movie were actually filmed in the building, though I think all of them are set elsewhere. The ballroom in the movie, for instance, was filmed in the grand foyer, which is not a ballroom but does look like one.

The ceilings in that room are amazing, btw. They're nearly entirely comprised of panels of trompe l'oeil paintings and all the dividers are carved and/or gilded. There's more goldleaf in that room than you could shake a stick at, though Garnier was a crafty, crafty guy and saved money by only gilding the outermost surfaces of all the carvings and the places where light would fall directly. So it gives the impression the entire room is gilded, but it saved a boatload of money. Still, the room glitters and shines in a really just breathtaking way. I also got to sit in the auditorium, in about the 7th row, and it was awesome. The seats are this insanely gorgeous red velvet, and there's red *everywhere*. The seats are really pretty, too. They're like little armchairs and don't look at all like the seats of any of the modern theatres that I've been in. On the center aisle of the first about 15 or 20 rows, there are these little fold-down red velvet chairs at the end of every row. I wanted to ask what they were for, but I had already asked by the gorgeous original ceiling had been replaced with the clashingly awful Marc Chagall that's there now, and the explanation had been a little long and some people were restless, so I figured if I asked another question, people might hurt me. Jeez, though, why take a tour if you don't want to know everything there is to know about a place? What's wrong with learning, people? Besides, Lenepveu's original ceiling is a frigging masterpiece and unbelievably beautiful. Why the hell you would cover it up with the Rorschach monstrosity that Chagall painted for it is beyond me. So when the guide said the original ceiling was still there, a few inches above the visible Chagall, I *had* to ask why. Freakin' sue me.

(Turns out that for whatever inexplicable and godforsaken reason, someone had the bright idea during the early 60's to see if contemporary art could be juxtaposed with the flaboyant details of the past and the two could live in harmony. Charles de Gaulle, in a move that proved he had no more sense about these things than his eventual successor, Francois Mitterrand, okayed the thing. When the fuck will politicians learn to stay out of this kind of thing? Your political prowess does NOT clear you for art direction. Please stop imposing your horrible, horrible taste on the public for generations to come. ::heavy sigh::)

The colors in the Chagall, not to mention the style, clash with pretty much every other color in the place. In fact, the style of that painting alone does not peacefully co-exist with a single element in that building. NOTHING in the entire place does not clash jarringly with that fucking thing. I will lay you any money on the planet that Charles Garnier would have a FIT if he saw that damn ceiling. It violates every single design sensibility in the entire building, from the Italian mosaic floors to the Corinithian AND Ionic columns and every single leaf of gold, slab of marble, semi-precious stone, pilaster, capital, carving, light base, statue, painting, seat, balustrade, parquet, and fountain in the place. I hate, hate, hate that damned ceiling.

After the very informative and interesting tour, I wandered around and took pictures. And I would really like to know what the odds are that today, I was taking a picture of the *exact same carving* on the grand staircase that I was taking a picture of 3 years ago when the Opera closed and a guard came and told me it was time to leave. Sitting on the exact same stair, although at the other end of it, and in 2003, the guard came from behind my left side, not up the stairs, as he did today, but seriously, what are the odds? I had even thought to myself as I sat down to take the picture, that at last, I could finally get a good picture of that carving, since I'd been interrupted the last time. At this point, I really kinda have to laugh. And give up on that damn carving. I am happy to say though, that they did stamp my ticket, so that I can come back another day and take more pictures without having to pay again. Go, Palais Garnier - you guys RULE!!!

Excellent Quote of the Day:
"There's not enough whatever in the world." --TVWoP recapper M. Giant, on a particularly poor piece of writing on 24

That's actually how I feel about 24. I just can't like it, no matter how desperate I might be for television I can follow along with on TVWoP so I know what the hell is going on. I have now forced myself to sit through 5 episodes of 24, and I can unequivically state I find it one of the worst shows on television. None of the characters are really likeable, all the exposition is written by Captain Repetitively Obvious, by and large, I think most of the actors suck, and the situations are just unbelievably ridiculously farfetched and/or nonsensical. I really can't believe it's lasted 5 seasons. It's the most trite, hackneyed writing like, ever.

Bygones to JonnyC, who loves it, but I just really can't tolerate it.

Did I say I took lots of pictures today and get to go back and take more? I'm kinda excited about that.

Okay, I'm really pretty tired. I think I'll go brush my teeth and actually get in bed before 4am tonight.

Peace out,
Katie

copyright 2002 - 2005 Katie Doyle; all rights reserved
Don't even think it, punk.






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Yesterday's News - Next Stop

In which Katie shares sad news - Wednesday, Apr. 01, 2015
In which Katie returns after a very long absence - Monday, Jun. 25, 2012
In which Katie pokes her head in and brushes some of the cobwebs away - Thursday, May. 06, 2010
In which Katie asks you to write your congressman again. - Monday, Jun. 02, 2008
In which Katie asks you to please click the link and send the message to protect the rights of artists - Wednesday, May. 21, 2008

 

 

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