some of the most defining aspects of a person can be partially accounted for by their varied personal experiences. ummm... but despite that, i am putting up this page which will be a listing and comprehensive analysis of some of the greatest experiences in my life. no, you sickos, i'm not referring to stuff like that so stop thinking about it. what mind is your gutter in for cripesake!!! i am meaning like places i've been, people i've met and things like that. so read on and shit.

*** 11/18/99 Theater -- Amadeus
*** 9/4/99 Book Signing -- Orson Scott Card
*** 4/20/99 Book Signing -- Ray Bradbury

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11/18/99 Theater -- Amadeus

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From darcy's MICHAEL SHEEN page

*hmmmmm* Where to start... I suppose that this will turn out to be, not only my review of the play Amadeus, but also my I-met-Michael-Sheen story.

Sooooo.... I hope that you know the story of Amadeus - the play or the movie (I understand that the ending are different, I couldn't stand the movie enough to watch the ending), otherwise, please see Karen's detailed report. Suffice it to say that the play is about a man named Salieri who is bitter because the gift of perfect music was denied him and given instead to the "obscene child", Mozart. It's a story of jealousy and ... ummm... hang on. Jealousy and mediocrity and greatness. I'm not sure that I'm doing it justice, but I am trying.

Like I said, I hated the movie. It was just sooooo.... I don't know. Affected, boring, dull, drawn out, uninteresting... And F. Murray Abraham really does nothing for me. However, I was not going to let my impression of the movie affect my attitude as I went in to see the play.

We left the house at about 4pm and drove into LA. We arrived at the Ahmonson about an hour and a half before the doors opened. The man at the ticket window told us where the stage door was (wait... It may very well have been a woman at the ticket window... I don't recall.) and we went there. We were met by a very nice woman who said "No, Michael's not in just yet, but I'll take your note to him" or something like that. Then we wandered around the Ahmanson, the Mark Taper, and looked in at the Dorothy Chandler. We saw Henry Winkler wandering around, but he looked terrified so we didn't talk to him.

SOOOO finally the doors opened, we went in and I was most disappointed because our seats were only one row from the VERY BACK of the VERY BACK of the theater. *sigh* So I didn't exactly have the greatest view, only a general view. Nosebleed seats are what my old French teacher used to call them.

Anyhow, the play was EXCELLENT!! It was everything that the movie wasn't - it was interesting, it was amusing, it was funny, and the acting was superb!! I was incredibly disappointed that there was no standing ovation!! People in America. Honestly. I am disgusted!! But it was probably the best play I've ever seen. I say probably because I don't know as I've seen any other plays and I don't want to be presumptuous.

David McCallum was the Emporer and he was hilarious. Michael was the best though. My favorite of his parts were... when he's ranting and the other Italian fellow comes in and he just stops and says "You look like a toad" and at the end of his rant when he screams "Italians everywhere!! Agh!!!". David Suchet was hilarious as Salieri, yet touching. He had to be out on the stage the WHOLE time, though, so there was an almost visable air of relief emulated around him whenever other characters (like MICHAEL) took over the center of attention.

Michael was wonderful. Did I mention that? Really great. I don't want to go on repeating the same lines over and over again, so please just understand now that I loved the play and that night was one that I will remember the rest of my life. Yah. Sappy. ON WE GO!

So after the play we sat around a bit and then headed over to the Stage Door and the lady poked her head out and said something about Michael being in the shower and what was my name again? Ah, yes, Darcy. Her favorite name! She was very nice. So she said she'd send Michael out... So I sat down on the step - not really knowing whether to expect a long wait or what and I wasn't given time to think about it because the next thing I knew, Michael was stepping out saying 'Darcy...?' and I was in shock.

ummm... so we talked for maybe 15 minutes, I got 2 autographs and my mom took 5 pictures (only two of which will be posted as the others didn't come out too well) and my parents made sure to interupt and try to be witty and clever at least a few times. I illustrate this by: when Michael asked how I come up with enough time to do all my sites I'd have liked to have come up with my OWN answer but my mom cut in with "Well, she's not doing her housework!!" haha mother. Woo hoo. *sigh** I brought it on myself though, going with them.

So, what did we talk about... I asked about Bright Smoke - he didn't know of anything else to do but keep after the BBC in Wales. I asked about Kate and Lily - they'll be joining him in New York and he will try to get a picture of Lily emailed to me. He's SEEN THE SITE and likes it and doesn't mind that it's all pink. He's even seen my Julian Rhind-Tutt site (they did a radio program together) and likes it. Umm... He's under an 8 month contract for Amadeus so don't expect any new films, etc. for a llllooooooonnnnnngggggg time. I don't know if the 8 months STARTS in New York or if it also counts LA or if it even counts London as well, but in any case, it'll be a long time. *sigh*

And... after the 15 minutes, he had to go, so I said "bye", we shook hands and he kissed me on the cheek (and YES, I've washed. *tsk* everyone has asked me, thought I'd save you the trouble. geesh.) and then disappeared into the Los Angeles night. I have been a very happy, very hard to live with person since then. *grin** that is the highest point I think I can get to when it comes to the subjects of my sites. I have an autographed picture of Oded Fehr. Julian Rhind-Tutt has emailed me twice. Esteban Powell (Powder site) emails me sometimes. Brian McCardie emails me and has called me at my house before, but I MET MICHAEL SHEEN. *thankyou*thankyou* Have a nice day. That is all.

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9/4/99 Book Signing -- Orson Scott Card

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Orson Scott Card is my all time FAVORITE author. This is evidenced in that I have about 27 [s.t.c.] books by him and have loved and cherished each one I've read!! I think he's just absolutely brilliant. I first read Ender's Game cuz it was the only book on Mr. Smith's [10th grade English teacher and all time fave I think] list that had the sequel on it too, PLUS another book by the same author, so I thought it was worth a shot cuz three books down is good if I liked the author. AND I LOVED HIM!!! Ender's Game was GREAT, Speaker for the Dead was brilliant in it's own rite, though I prefer Xenocide to it and to Children of the Mind. Treason I believe to be the greatest book ever written. In fact, I think if I hadn't read that for Mr Smiths that my interest in Mr. OS Card would have been limited to the Ender books, but I read the first lines of Treason without having read the back of the book or anything, and I was hooked thinking "oh, it's... NO!! there is no WAY it's that!! OH MY GOD -- IT IS!!!" and I just adored it!! When I tested on it, I told Mr Smith it was the greatest book and he said, yeah, he thought there was something special about it.

Anyway, I discovered his official site but only really started scouring it after reading most of the Homecoming series. As a matter of FACT, I only obtained a copy of Treason and was just starting into Earthfall which I had to go all over hell's half acre to find when I learned of his BOOK SIGNING TOUR!!! And where should he happen to be? Why, three locations in Southern California that I could possibly attend!! WOOO!!! It was really exciting!! I told my parents, got them dates and locations and they agreed that the best bet was VRomans in Pasadena for Sept. 4th. The signing tour was in support of Ender's Shadow, a companion novel to Ender's Game.

I have to say that I ADORED Ender's Shadow and now I can say that I identify more with Bean than Ender, on an entirely subliminal level of course -- nothing tanglible. Anyway, I love all OSC's new Ender work because there really was that big gap and it's like reader fan fic only it's the LEGIT THING!!! Cool beans!!

So we arrived about an hour before the signing... actually, probably not that early cuz there weren't any chairs left!! yoiks!! There was this table with a small audience of folding chairs and while my parents stood in back, I found a nice squat-spot on the right hand side [his left] of the audience. First, the lady from VRomans came out asking typical survey crap [where did you hear about this, why did you come, what strikes you about his work...] and then Mr OSC himself came out!! He's such a great little guy!! Adorable. I don't say this from any kind of physical attraction -- I'm like that with Bill Gates, but not OSC. He's just adorable as a fact, not so much as an observation.

So he did a little 'Q&A' session then... People would ask questions and he would answer them. I recall someone asking if he felt there was anything left to write about in regard to Treason and I just fairly jumped at this -- unfortunatly he said he feels he's covered that story fairly completely [though I understand there is work on a sort of animated miniseries based on Treason in the works now and I am anxiously anticipating news!!!]. I don't recall the question, but I remember him discussing how li-fi [literary fiction] people are just full of it and they don't care about good vs. bad writing and that literature of that nature has not progressed AT ALL, whereas sci-fi is an ever-expanding field and unquestionably more inovative at exploring the old themes in entirely new lights. It was amusing to me, as my current English teacher [*MRS* Smith and no relation to the Mr. I had in 10th grade, by blood, marriage or thought process] is just like that -- she's a 'li-fi' person and almost intolerable.

Well, that's about all I can recall off the top of my head from the Q&A, other than the banal discussion of *why* he wrote it and his perfunctory speech on the progress of the Ender's Game movie so that no one would ask, including the defense on his preference of Jake Lloyd for Ender. Then he read a small selection from Ender's Shadow [the first phone conversation between.. I think it's Graff and Sister Carlotta. It's where the bit with Achilles' name comes up -- the pronunciation]. It was soooo freaking awesome to listen to him read it cuz the character's attitufes are brought to life by their creator... it was just really neato. *grin* Then came the signing!!

A lady had gone around earlier handning out those damnable little circus-ticket things that come in the huge rolls. The signing progressed in the order of those serial numbers. See, she'd call for numbers such through such + n to stand in line and when the line began to dwindle, more numbers were called. I wasn't exactly near the beginning, nor was I toward the end. I eventually got in line and waited... I brought my large trade paperback of Ender's Game, plus the two hardbacks of Enchantment and Treasure Box, paperbacks Wyrms, Treason [DUH!!] and Speaker for the Dead, plus there was the new book. He signed all of them To Darcy with little messages and he made eye contact and I don't remember but may have shook my hand [bad bad memory on this end] and my mom of course made a crack but I think I was speechless. Nervous, no doubt. I don't like to say things cuz I sound so very dumb. If he does another signing tour in the future and I'm able to attend I am going to tell him how much I love Treason. I really am. And SongMaster. Those two are my very favorites, along with the Homecoming Series and Wyrms... I also really like all the other books of his I've read.

That's all for that segment. I'm sad that OSC's not doing a signing this year [2000] but he's got two new books coming out and is in process of writing lots more and the man is simply not capable of writing anything less than perfection.

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4/20/99 Book Signing -- Ray Bradbury

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In 11th grade AP English class we had to do a report on a 'Great American Author' cuz you know, the only great authors are from... America... Well, I wanted to do mine on Orson Scott Card even though he was rudely left off of the list to choose from, and my teacher told me that I couldn't do it on him because I wouldn't be able to find any information on him. My teacher was clearly illiterate.

So I decided to do my report on Ray Bradbury because he was on list and he had written Fahrenheit 451 which I had not read but I had seen the film of in my Intro to Film class the previous semester. I read Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles for my report. My parents bought me Driving Blind, one of his more recent... books (I'm uncertain as to whether it's a novel or short story collection. Maybe I should read it sometime).

As it turned out, that April, while I was working on the report, Ray Bradbury gave a book signing and lecture at a local high school in San Bernardino. I found out about it the day before it happened and my mom was very mad at me at the time (I had posted something about her being really annoying on my website and she took exception to such a comment) and refused to take me.

So I was taking a nap when my dad came home and told me that I was going and that he was taking me. He also bought me my own copy of The Martian Chronicles and a photo to get signed. We were second to last in line after they cut it off so that the lecture could start.

And so I met Ray Bradbury. Sort of. We hadn't brought a camara so I don't have a picture and he is apparently all but completely deaf so we didn't talk or anything. I remember his lecture being witty and funny but apparently I didn't remember his voice correctly because they broadcast a lecture of his on UCTV (a public access channel here) that I recorded but I almost missed it because I was flipping through channels and saw him and thought 'wow, that looked like Ray Bradbury but it didn't sound like him' and of course it was him.

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