"I want a hippopotamus for Christmas"

December 11, 2005 at 5:46 PM

"Romeo, Romeo, where art thou Romeo...." Oh wait...I'm doing Hamlet. "To be, or not to be: that is the question:"
Alright, now that I have my play right, I can continue on in the proper manner.

It's starting to feel like Christmas. There's the blatantly obvious - christmas decorations - and other advertising for the holiday season everywhere. There's the fact that every single one of my students is playing at least a carol or two of some sort. There's the little detail of Christmas shopping....which I am proud to report I have gotten all gifts more than a week ago with the exception of one gift "supplment." There's the boxes of chocolate that keep getting dropped off at work to eat. There's the many christmas productions that seem to pop up in the last couple of weeks before Christmas. And, of course, there is my annual Christmas baking which I started last week.
All these things help remind me that Christmas is scarishly near. I also am sitting here asking myself how September-December could go by so fast and I can hardly remember what has all happened in the last few months. One last big reminder it's got to relatively close to Christmas. It's been unseasonably cold here and we have snow!!!!

Now, why the random bout of Shakespeare at the beginning you ask? Well...this week, as is typical with one of my English teachers, when you do Shakespeare you better bet you have to act at least some of it out. Last year we did Macbeth and I got to be a witch (there's probably even a blog entry on it somewhere around this time last year). This year Hamlet is the victim play of choice. I've done Tempest and am currently doing King Lear in a Literature class but Hamlet is the play I get to act from. The assignment? 25 lines, memorised, rehearsed (and possibly copied and pasted from a couple of different sections of the play) and then a seminar presentation explaining which of the topic choices I (and my acting buddies) had chosen and how it fits into the play and why it's important and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember off the top of my head. But anyways...so my friends and I, a group of four, are covering two topics in one big presentation. Me and one friend are being Hamlet, the ghost, Laertes and Horatio and the other two or being the King and Ophelia. I'm Hamlet at first, then I get to switch spots with my friend and she's Hamlet when he dies so I can be Laertes and Horatio. I think it will be a lot of fun! Our topics of choice are rot and madness. I get to cover the rot bit!
Today is the big, huge, marathon christmas recital put on by the music school I work at. Almost all of my students are playing and the recital is expected to run about 4-5 hours. Ah! I am leaving at intermission though because all of my students will be done by then and the way will need to be made to make room for the second half of people who show up. Also my sister flys home this afternoon and that's roughly where/when intermission will be.

Yesterday I had my first violin lesson with my teacher, Liz, in a month! It was good, I've been sick the past week or so so I wasn't the most practiced up or awake for it but it was a good drill for my upcoming exam in January. We worked through a good chunk of the technique portion and worked on my study and because I really wanted her to hear my Bach Fugue and hear what I had done with it since my last lesson with Mr. Wood, I got to play that as well! After that, we had an outing together. We went out to dinner at one of the best Greek resturaunts in town, and I got adventurous and tried a couple of new food items which all except the fish mix i liked. After dinner we went out to see a student of my teacher's and someone that I know from various musical events, sing in a musical that was "not recommended for children under 8 years of age." Which was also great fun!
Other randomness...there isn't much. Oh!!!!!! Oh!!!! Oh!!!!! Do listen to the audio file I attached "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas" because it's highly entertaining!

From Samantha Hiller
Posted on December 11, 2005 at 6:05 PM

that song is great!!! it put a big smile on my face =)

From Jim W. Miller
Posted on December 11, 2005 at 10:01 PM

The song is a third rate novelty, unacceptable to genuine autistics. However it must be stated that indeed its singer exhibits more than scant acknowledgement to the vocal stylings of 13-year-old Jimmy Boyd, in his hit song of 1952, the likewise Christmas-themed "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," recorded in Midtown Studios, 133E. 54th Street, in Manhattan on 4/11/51. Clearly a debt is owed to Mr. Boyd.

From Emily Grossman
Posted on December 12, 2005 at 2:39 AM

Inconceivable! While I personally have not listened to the mentioned recording, I am certain beyond a doubt that the witty lyricism and equally intelligent phrasing will surpass the erroneous "novelty" label, and will subsequently seal its destiny as a timeless classic. Any mindless monkey with half a trained ear can distinguish between this masterpiece and the more crudely devised 1951 recording.

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"I want a hippopotamus for Christmas"

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