Watching "Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again"

There are reasons why I tend to be skeptical with sequels, and as entertaining as it was to watch the songs of ABBA come to life once again, I left the theatre with a mixed feeling after watching Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again.

As a background, I actually saw the musical in Las Vegas back in 2008 before I saw the first film. And although I had a mixed feeling going into my first ever musical, I ended up loving it. I was quite impressed with the stage work involved in such a production. I also enjoyed watching Meryl Streep and co. acting, singing, and dancing, and that was a decade ago.

As my husband decided to escape the heat of Frankfurt by inviting us to watch Mamma Mia 2 in an air conditioned theatre, I said yes.  I did not have any expectation (or so I thought), and was open to an entertaining 147 minutes.

Well...let's start with my personal highlights.  I was impressed that they put a dancer in a wheelchair in the dancing scene from a parisian cafe, where young Dona and young Harry were dining. That's a BIG credit for inclusiveness. She - the dancer - was featured quite prominently and it's a joy to see such scenes in a mainstream movie. I am no activist or anything of the like, but yay to diversity!

With a storyline following two different timelines, with different actors playing younger and older versions in one film, you cannot help comparing the the actors, can you? For my part, I enjoyed those characters that seem to flow into each other, that the younger and older characters kind of match, those characters in which you have "oh yeah, they are definitely one person, I can imagine..." kind of feeling.  This feeling of one character played by two actors I got most from the character of Tanya, played by Christine Baranski (older Tanya) and Jessica Keenan Wynn (younger Tanya). I thoroughly enjoyed their perfomance, which is more than skin deep.  It might be easy to recreate the signature fringe bob and bold lipstick that Tanya wears, but I enjoy the feeling that the two actresses simply share the screentime of playing exactlty the same personality. Loved it!

Jessica Keenan Wynn and Christine Baranski in character (source: Instagram jkwynn)

My third highlight would have been the young Bill, played by the talented Josh Dylan. Being the only blond among the three gentlemen who got young Dona in bed, he stood out for many different reasons.  Besides his dazzling blue eyes, I found that the character of young Bill had the most interesting mixture between looks, charm, and humour, not to mention his hip moves while dancing on the sailing boat (which interestingly was shown exclusively moving with machine on during the whole film...) with young Dona.  

Lilly James and Josh Dylan on set (source: Instagram _joshdylan)

Now those were my highlights.  Why on earth am I writing about the sidekicks the whole time, you might ask? Well, because to be honest, they WERE my highlights.  

I believe that every actor has to have the freedom to interpret his or her character the way he/she sees fit.  Nonetheless, I personally found it difficult to see Meryl Streep's Dona in Lily James' younger version. I guess it's the curse of a sequel. 

I feel like meeting an old friend that I got to know a decade ago, only to find out that she was kind of a different person when she was younger.  I can't really put my finger on it, since the acting was wonderful, and she embodies the traits that the older Dona also showed. But somehow, something bothered me there.  Maybe the younger Dona was too perfect? Too perfect hair, perfect body? Maybe she only later turned into the nature loving, natural looking, naively pleasant older Dona after some years on the island? I kind of miss the simple beauty of Streep's Dona, her naive ability to see the positive in everything, and the way she stood out from the crowd not neccesarily because she was the most gorgeous in the room, but because of her charm....
Oh well, since even real people change, why not a fictional character?

That's why I loooove Tanya's character the most, because I totally can imagine that young lady becoming the older version of herself, still sassy, stylish and flirtatious as ever... Unfortunately I miss this feeling of familiarity with Dona's character. And since Meryl Streep's interpretation was there first...

In general, I can't shake the feeling that there are too many loose ends for someone who is keen in details, like the years and the age of the characters today (2018), like who on earth is Grandma (okay Ruby a.k.a. Cher..but you know what I mean...), and  what was her excuse? We only heard from younger Dona that "she never comes". Okay.  I guess we have to live with that until she landed in a helicopter as an (anti)heroine? 

My better half was a teenager around the year when young Dona is supposed to graduate from college, so maybe we should not start discussing whether the cool outfits they wore back then were fashionably accurate. This is the challenge when you put a certain year, like 1979, into a movie, and not keeping it abstract, like 30 years ago, etc.  Some crazy moviegoers might start doing the math or checking some historical facts, which is not always cool, but still.

All in all, lovely music, an entertaining way to stay out of this summer heat and enjoy some air condition. For those who haven't watched the first film, it's a fantastic way to enjoy some light hearted entertainment with wonderful scenery and music.  For those crazy moviegoers, just chill out and ignore the details 😉 (#notetoself here).

Greetings from melting Frankfurt!

Back to life....somehow...

The years flew by, and without realizing it, over three years had past between today and the last post I published on the blog.  I have been writing long Facebook statuses instead, but lately I have the feeling that there are some things I need to put out there, without wanting to automatically  share it with the list of 'friends' who get the updates everytime I post something

In the meantime, plenty of things had happened, and some things that I expected to happen did not happen. Maybe they will be part of the coming writing and reflection, maybe not..we will see.  I am playing with the idea of collecting/republishing some of my long FB statuses on the blog, simply for the sake of piling my self reminders in one place.

For now, I will try not to melt in the heat of Frankfurt (it gets to 37 Celcius some days, much hotter than my hometown in Indonesia....😓😱) .

Enjoy your weekend, Lovelies.

part two

The first week of the second semester of school had come to an end today.  Some happy and not so happy news from last semester.  

And as usual, this semester I seem to bite off more than I can chew.....  this is slowly turning into a bad habit...  And I found too many interesting things, as usual, LOL...  From the planned 6 classes and 1 tutorial session, I think I am going to take 9 courses, and give 1 tutorial class.  The headache is about deciding which exam to take...terrible, right?  The semester had just started and I am already thinking about exams....really terrible....

Have a great weekend!

Frankfurt, 19 April 2013.

A week 'off'

Wow, my real week 'off' kind of finally started.  I have to be honest that I actually got almost 2 months of semester break (well, it's not actually a break, it's called Vorlesungsfreizeit in German, which actually mean something like the time when you don't have to attend classes.... but time to attend tests and write your papers.... seriously...).

The first week I thought I got to read for fun after some time of reading only classes materials.  And then we had to travel a bit for a gift we owed my parents-in-law for more than a year.  And then time flew by.

The last 2 weeks or so I spent really working hard on the 2 papers that I had to hand in, and everything was finished last Friday, one week before the new semester starts.  Not great :(  I need to put myself into a better discipline.  At more than one points of time during the last weeks I really was close to panicking and was really wondering if I could really submit everything in time.  But then again, it felt good at the end to know that when I started writing, it really started flowing.. phew... Haven't lost the touch.  I don't know whether the result is good enough to get a good mark, but at least I got the minimum page numbers done, LOL.

Now it's time to start preparing for the next semester.  The classes to take, and the one to teach.   But at the same time, there are so many crafting ideas I have put on hold during the semester, and I really want to get into action for some of them.  Oh well, I guess you can't have everything ;)

On the brighter side of thing, Frankfurt does get brighter, the sun is finally out most of the day, and it seems that spring finally arrives!  I am not one who suffers easily from winter blues or something, but sun does make a difference :)

Frankfurt, April 7, 2013.

scatter brained

Today I should be reading, and writing, something else than this post.  But in any case, to get the writing flowing is already something.  I just to get the other things out of my mind right now.

The first is the flat refurnishing project that caught a hiccup or two.  In the stress of finishing up before closing time, we managed to pick up the wrong key pieces from the shop.  Conclusion: living with half of our clothes in suitcases, and having to come back to the shop to return the wrong parts and (hopefully) pick up the right ones.

The second is the fact that teaching is creeping back into my life sooner than I thought it would be.  I know I have to put the idea aside and focus on what I have in front of me now, but the thought that I have to start preparing materials and projects for a class I will co-teach starting mid April keeps getting in the way.

The third is the fact that not only I am going to start teaching a language next semester, I am also going to 'co-teach' a dance group.  And THAT also requires some planning and creative ideas, especially since me myself need a refreshing training on the dances.  And that a show awaits us on an undetermined date in June.  We, my co-instructor and I, would need to figure out the costume and figure out a way to create fun but efficient workshop sessions, so that we are 'bühnereif' in less than 10 weeks. Oh la la...

The fourth is a new information, or probably I should call it a 'wake up call', that the language class would need to produce something to present on the same stage as the dance group, in less than 10 (academic) weeks.  And I know I will face some resistance from some people with my ideas for the show.  We'll see how far we will get.

I should be a part of organizing party of an event,  but sometimes I am wondering, whether I really am too old to deal with youthful ego and ambition.  I sometimes have a feeling that some people lose their eyesight on what the event was suppose to mean, and who we wanted to reach with this event, and how much MONEY we have, and what is realistically achievable with what we have.  That instead of trying to prove how great we could be, and the various stuffs we could have done to prove how awesome we are, we should sometimes focus on how we do the things we can do awesomely.  Every time something popped up, and I chose to bite my tongue, I got so worked up anyway that I couldn't stop thinking about it, though I know that debating, with my lousy German at that, is out of the question.  I guess I just have to trust that they know what they are doing, and simply put my energy in 'defending' my own decisions, I know I would need to do that.  

Take a deep breath, concentrate, and choose your battle.  Choose your battle. Reminder to self.

Today is sunny, yay!!!! Cold but sunny, a good day to write :)

Frankfurt, March 27, 2013.

2013 started with a (good) decision

Wow, it's been a while since I wrote the last time.  I guess I was too busy struggling with school ;p

School has been interesting, although to be honest, at times I am still wondering what I got myself into, LOL.  This year started with a great decision.  We decided to stay in the apartment where we've been living in for the last one and a half year.  With a consequence, we are buying a new kitchen! We are also (finally) buying some new pieces of furniture to maximize the space.  YAY!  I (not so) secretly enjoy the fact that to prepare for the rearranging of our flat we got to buy some interior  design and inspiration books.

Timing wise it's not great because I still have to write two papers, but hey...a woman has to know how to multitask, right? :)

Wish me luck!

Frankfurt, March 20, 2013

PS:  We are rather curious to see how much we will like the white bookshelves wall, wait and see ;)  

Back to school

These last few weeks have been scary good.

I first had the hard decision to choose between an opportunity to go back to school, or to take up a job at the Indonesian Consulate in Frankfurt.  I bet I created some enemies with my final decision, but oh well, I also hope not, who knows.  And then my husband and I got this crazy idea, well, more my idea actually, that in the 2 weeks time between registering time and the beginning of the semester I could actually visit Yemen.  

And there I was.  In Yemen again, after more than 1,5 years away.  Strangely, things at the house haven't changed that much.  As a matter of fact, on the surface, things don't change that much.  I am one of those unprivileged people, who had no real contact with the people on the street to find out what it actually means for them, but I didn't feel any unsafer, or safer, than I was before.  Not even when we were driving in a 'restricted' area for caucasians.  With my being so often mistaken as being a Filipina, I had considerably less restriction when it comes to my movement, although to be honest, I was also extra cautious.  It would be stupid if a week of impromptu visit to Yemen had ended up not so pleasingly, wouldn't it?

Had some troubles with the stopover both way in Dubai, with Emirates Airline, but there's enough material to write another full post on that one....unfortunately.

Safely landed back in Frankfurt, I realized that I didn't come home unscathed from my visit to Yemen.  You see, during my visit, my husband had a nasty cold, and of course words such as , 'You'd better watch that I don't get sick on the first week of school,' didn't really stop the virus from actually infecting me.  So with my temperature keep raising and head thumping, I was understandably not very enthusiastic for the first day of school.  When the thermometer showed 38 ++ Celcius, husband tried to stop me from going to school, but a couple of Paracetamol tablets later, I could hold on long enough to survive the first 4 hours of class.  

Wow... and s*it.... I am back to school...

Time and time again, I am still wondering whether I have what it takes to study again.  Especially after I sent that mail to the Consulate, expressing my regret of not being able to take up the position, and hoping that they will not put me on a blacklist for being so ungrateful.  And even worse when it slowly dawned on me what a Master program means, almost every single class is seminar, except the language classes. No courses, just seminars.  And I don't know either whether one day I will finally understand the difference between old plain Seminar, Proseminar, and Hauptseminar, and how it contributes to my chances of surviving the program.  Oh well...if I provide a very bad example, maybe next time they wouldn't take any Master student from people outside their BA graduates.  So, please beforehand accept my sincere apologies, dear people who are interested in taking Master in Southeast Asian Studies at Goethe University, who are not currently taking their Bachelor program.  But then you'd better wish me luck, because otherwise you won't get your chance ;)

Anyway, I guess it's time to stop freaking up.  Decisions are taken, and though I have to admit that I feel quite loss in this jungle of academic jargon out here in Frankfurt, I am hoping that by simply pushing for it would get me somewhere. Oh, and I still have to somehow overcome my aversion to libraries.... Seriously, am I crazy to put myself through this?

Hoping that you had a less nervewracking beginning of the week.

Frankfurt, October 16, 2012.