Tag Archives: love

Happy-ness

If you look at her, you’ll just see an old, dirty stuffed animal whose fur won’t lay the right way. But when I look at her, I see the stuffed animal that I could never live without. My prized possession, my best friend, and my comforter all rolled into one. When I was younger, I even considered her to be my sister. My stuffed dog, Happy, is the thing I’ll always need and I’ll always have.

When I was five, I got a build-a-bear workshop gift-card from my grandma. When I went, I picked out a stuffed dog (because I was the type of child that could be in a room full of stuffed bears, for example, and one dog, and I’d only see the dog) that looked almost exactly like my dog, Butler. At first, I was only moderately excited, but the excitement grew as I began to build my build-a-bear collection.

I got bears, frogs, cats, and even more dogs, but each one I had would be cast aside, because I always went back to Happy. No stuffed animal I ever got was as good.

Since I’ve gotten Happy, I’ve always had her in times of need. When I got bit by the dog, Happy was there. When I had a horrible third grade year (that’s a different blog post), Happy was there. Even this year, when I shut my finger in the car door (different blog post again), Happy was there. And I’m sure Happy will be there in years to come too. She’s my every-lasting best friend.

I have to admit, when I was younger, I was starting to worry about what people would think if I still had Happy with me for everything. I thought people would start to tease me and make fun of me. I’ve gotten over that. I really don’t care if you think I’m childish (if you do, thank you!) for still having a stuffed animal as my best friend.

The assignment was to write a blog post about a memory with an object or movie (physical things), and I knew right away I was going to write about happy. But now, I don’t think that’s as smart if an idea; I can’t think of one memory with Happy that would do her justice. Looking back, Happy is in almost every good memory I have, and just about every bad one.

Happy means the world to me, even as a teenager. I would be devastated if anything happened to her. It’d be like an older sibling moving away from home, or a best friend moving to a different state. I’d be missing a part of my childhood-a part of my life. Nothing can ever break the bond between Happy and I, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
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“All I Ask of You” Commentary

I just want to go through this song from The Phantom of the Opera because it is just so full of…lies…that I don’t think many people see, and it’s seriously bothering me. So, I copied the lyrics from this website, if you want to read it, and I’m going to have my own commentary in it every now-and-then. To make it easy to find my commentary, it’s going to be orange and in this font. So, please enjoy the truth behind “All I Ask of You.” Oh, and most of this is stuff that never gets carried out.

(Raoul)
No more talk of darkness
Forget these wide-eyed fears
I’m here, nothing can harm you
My words will warm and calm you

Um, no. Raoul actually later CREATES more fears for her by making her do the Phantom’s Opera. Yup, no more fears indeed. Furthermore, he says ‘nothing can harm you’ and I just want to point out that immediately after they sing this song a chandelier almost FALLS ON CHRISTINE!

Let me be your freedom
Let daylight dry your tears
I’m here, with you, beside you
To guard you and to guide you

“To guard you and to guide you?” I honestly don’t think Christine wants to hear at this point since she recently asks the “Angel of Music” to guard her and guide her. The ‘Angel’ agrees and then the ‘Angel’ turns out to be The Phantom. Beautiful word choice Raoul.

(Christine)
Say you’ll love me every waking moment
Turn my head with talk of summer time
Say you need me with you now and always
Promise me that all you say is true
That’s all I ask of you

No, all he says is not true, Christine. Frankly, I think the Phantom’s more honest. One of my favorite moments is when the managers are telling Christine she has the biggest part (the lead) in the Phantom’s play. Christine says no, and when the managers are like, “Why not?” Raoul comes in and tells Christine that nobody can make her perform. Literally one minute later Raoul comes up with a fantastic plan that has Christine singing in the opera. Then Christine’s still saying “Please don’t make me.” Raoul tells her all hopes are resting on her. Ya, nobody can make you sing but he makes her. L-I-A-R.

[Raoul]
Let me be your shelter
Let me be your light
You’re safe, no one will find you
Your fears are far behind you

Ya, only behind the statue RIGHT BEHIND HER!

[Christine]
All I want is freedom
A world with no more night
And you, always beside me
To hold me and to hide me

[Raoul]
Then say you’ll share with me one love, one lifetime
Let me lead you from your solitude
Say you need me with you here, beside you
Anywhere you go, let me go too
Christine, that’s all I ask of you

I’m convinced that because of Raoul, Christine is in more solitude after this song than she was earlier. I will hand it to him; he goes where she goes: when Christine is kidnapped to the Phantom’s liar at the end of the play and is trapped, Raoul smartly gets trapped in the lair.

[Christine]
Say you’ll share with me one love, one lifetime
Say the word and I will follow you

[Both]
Share each day with me, each night, each morning

[Christine]
Say you love me

[Raoul]
You know I do

[Both]
Love me, that’s all I ask of you.

(They kiss.)

[Both]
Anywhere you go, let me go too
Love me, that’s all I ask of you

Okay, I can’t complain about this. Through all Raoul does, he does have Christine’s best interests at heart. He just has a really bad way of showing it.

Like my thought process? I hope so because that is my final say in that, unless you happen to have seriously convincing comment (so, please comment).

Now, to the best part. The Phantom’s watching behind a statue, Raoul and Christine leave to go back to the Opera house, and the Phantom comes out of his hiding spot. Lyrics from the same place as above.

[Phantom]
I gave you my music, made your song take wing.
And now, how you’ve repaid me, denied me and betrayed me.
He was bound to love you, when he heard you sing.
(Sobs) Christine, Christine.

Okay, let me just say: Poor Phantom! He had to listen to everything Raoul was saying that he wanted to do for Christine. Now, the Phantom probably would have done a worse job than Raoul of keeping his promises, but both of them did badly.

[Raoul & Christine]
Say you’ll share with me one love, one lifetime
Say the word and I will follow you
Share each day with me, each night, each morning…

For just a minute, imagine you are the Phantom. You’re innocently crying about your broken heart and suddenly, the girl you loved and the man who took her from you start singing again. Rubbing it in.

[Phantom]
You will curse the day you did not do!
All that the Phantom asked of you!

(In the play, the Phantom now drops the chandelier now.)

Now, I’m not saying the Phantom’s perfect, but he sure isn’t that much better than Raoul. Raoul never dropped a chandelier or killed anybody, but he did throw Christine into his plan that totally failed and just made things worse for her.

Well, now you know my thoughts about this song. I hope you likes them, or at least saw my thought process. I could have picked any song from this point on (go look, you’ll see what I mean), but this one starts the chain reaction (I know I’ve been doing a love of things love-related, and that’s why). Please comment your thoughts!

Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera is my new favorite play/movie. In English recently, we’ve been studying the lyrics to Phantom of the Opera, and I like it a lot. It has some slow songs, some fast songs; it has some soft songs and some loud songs. This play has EVERYTHING! Since we’re done with it, I want to give a run-down of what I think of some of the songs. So sit back, relax, and get ready to read.

“Think of Me”

In this song, Christine, the main girl, is trying out for the part of an opera that someone else was originally the lead in, but quit at the last minute. Christine’s voice is beautiful, and everyone’s wondering who her ‘mysterious tutor’ is. The song begins in the audition, and moves to the night of the performance where she has the role. I love this song because it starts off with just a soft piano, but when it goes to the night of the performance, there’s a full orchestra that’s loud and beautiful. During the performance, Raoul, Christine’s childhood friend, sees her and is totally amazed. The song ends with a fantastic ‘of’ (kind of hard to explain what I mean. Let’s just say it’ll be the longest ‘of’ you’ve ever heard). 

“Angel of Music/Little Lotte (not one we studied)/The Mirror”

In these songs, it is after the performance and Christine is in her dressing room when her friend, Meg, comes to talk to her. In “Angel of Music,” Meg asks Christine who her tutor is. Christine tells her about an angel her now-dead father told her about, the Angel of Music, and how it’s visiting her. Christine eventually becomes in a trance, and Meg leaves her after the song slightly frightened. In “Little Lotte” (a song we didn’t study), Raoul comes in and invites Christine out to dinner. Christine refuses saying the Angel of Music won’t allow it. Raoul calls her out as silly and tells her to get ready as the song ends. We then move on into “The Mirror,” where the Phantom is talking to Christine about how annoying Raoul is to be asking her to dinner and about how Christine shouldn’t have accepted. Christine, thinking it’s the Angel of Music, apologizes and asks the Angel to enter. When he does, the Phantom pulls her into a trance and literally pulls her down to his liar. While this is happening, Raoul is freaking out behind the locked door.

“The Phantom of the Opera”

Ok, first of all,  best song EVER! Oh, I’ve had this song stuck in my head for weeks! Anyway, in this song, the Phantom is taking Christine down to his liar. Christine and the Phantom are both singing, and not only is this song lyrically strong, but the music is FANTASTIC! At the end, Christine hits a fabulous note. Christine is still in a trance during this song. I feel like I’ve said enough, there’s not much I can say… so, ya.

Other Songs In The Order That I Don’t Want To Explain:

“The Music of the Night”

“All I Ask of You”

“Masquerade”

 

“Wishing You Were Here Again”

During this song, Christine is asking for guidance from her father in a graveyard. However, it seems as though she’s speaking to both the Phantom and her dad. This song is really beautiful. She’s singing lovely, the music is awesome, the lyrics are strong, and the set-up in just phenomenal. 

Ok, I don’t want to go through the last three songs because I’m trying to keep this relatively short, so I’ll just summarize. Christine gets kidnapped once again and taken to the liar of the Phantom. The Phantom takes off his mask and tells Christine how abused he was a child. Raoul comes to save her and the Phantom makes Christine chose: Does she want to spend forever with the Phantom down below the Opera House and have Raoul’s life spared, or does she want to return to the world above, but have Raoul killed. Eventually she decides…

…what did you think I was going to tell you the ending? No! Go watch it for yourself. There are more songs than just the ones I mentioned, we only studied nine. Enjoy the  play or movie and I hope you enjoyed this blog post.