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I know this “quote” was discredited as an internex hoax, but I still appreciate the sentiment. Who says you have to be famous to be quoteable?

Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind.

And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so.

How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.

–credited to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar

The concept of those 9/11 commemorative coins and the new “Patriot Day” makes me feel nauseated. 9/11 is not a holiday, George, and it’s not about patriotism. The fact that it shares the name with The Patriot Act makes it even worse. It’s like calling Holocaust Remembrance Day “Jewish/Gay/Gypsy/etc Pride Day.” 9/11 could have become a Memorial Day for the victims of terrorism worldwide, but now it’s in the calendars as a day for American national chauvanism. They do realize that it wasn’t only Americans that died on that day? What in the name of all good and holy is going through these people’s minds?

Oh, and more hypocrisy.

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Rebecca reminds me that Talk Like a Pirate Day is this Sunday! Arr! And this just in from Cinefex!

TheOneRing.net reports The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: Extended Edition DVD will be released on December 14. The 4-disc set expands the film’s 201-minute theatrical running time with 50 minutes of additional footage, including the Fellowship’s confrontation with Saruman and, no doubt, the Mouth of Sauron. This brings the total running time of all three Extended Editions to 11 hours 22 minutes.

Tra-la! Mmm, I know what I want for Christmas…

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The Witching Hour, 2005. Why was I thinking it was on the opposite side of the country? Man, I could actually go to this. I wouldn’t be able to attend the whole thing, as my fall break is a different weekend, but still. Dude. I wonder if it’s too late to participate in the Percy panel….

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Today the College Democrats hosted a rally with Terry McAuliffe, Chairman of the DNC. Coolness squared! And now, Ko and I have new signs and buttons and bumper stickers and assorted swag to further liberalize our room. Did I mention we’re co-hall captains for the College Dems? Because I should probably mention that at some point, seeing as how Ko has rerouted all her LJ readers to my blog in absence of her posting anything, ever, in the past age. XD Guest speaking at the rally, before Chairman McAuliffe arrived, was Melissa Fitzgerald, who plays Carol (CJ’s secretary) on The West Wing. W00t. Pics here.

I didn’t get into Penn Singers, which was no surprise, especially considering that they only let members miss one hour of rehearsal a week, and I’d have to miss an hour and a half due to my film history screenings on Tuesday nights. Maybe next semester. And after three rejections from the Singers, I find that it gets easier each time. I find I feel only mildly bitter that they’re the only theatrical people to reject me when every other director has not only not rejected me, but given me a principal role since Mrs. Felice jump started my theatrical exploits by casting me in H2$. Yes. Just mild bitterness, as they do have their rules and my audition was quite bad and plenty of girls would do anything to land some of the roles I’ve had. Grr, got to get off this line of thought. I wonder what time Fresh Grocer closes; chocolate soymilk sounds really good right now, and I finished up my carton the other day. Maybe pineapple juice will make it better. Man, how does everyone in this suite have chocolate except for me? And why is no one else here so I can ask permission to steal it?

Meanwhile, someone linked me to this alternative Chosen script. Uh, spoiler alert for anyone it may concern. In its own way, it clears up some ambiguous or otherwise unresolved stuff (or stuff that had other fanon explanations beforehand), but also tends to beat the reader over the head with the tieing of several aforementioned threads. And I might never be able to forgive Joss if it was The First in the “fade out on Buffy and Spike standing at opposite sides of the basement” scene rather than the real Buffy. Hmph.

In other news, Jewel Staite is adoreable.

Here endeth tonight’s moodswing. :D

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Cyth posted this link to some behind the scenes shots from Serenity. W00t!

Meanwhile, just got back from auditions. Since the invention of the musical theatre audition there have been five that were deemed the most laughable, most pathetic, most ridiculous. This one left them all behind.

I was very pleased with the quality of my voice, and my scales were truly a force to be reckoned with, but it turned out I had been practicing my song in the wrong key, so I had to belt it when I intended to sing it in my head voice. And because I wasn’t used to belting, I wasn’t sure where my break point would be, so to be safe I sang the high notes in my head voice, which sounded weak in comparison with the belt. Wah. And also I kind of flubbed the lyrics at one point and had to start the line over. Durrr. Oh well, there’s always next semester, and there’s always “Annie Get Your Gun.” Sigh.