Ramin Freaking Karimloo

Alright. So, this man right here... he's fantastic. That's all I can say. He's one of the people that I think I can honestly say I adore (okay, okay... I say that about a lot of people. But still). His voice, his face, his smile... ah. (: He's just great. And quite talented.

Ramin has played both Raoul and the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. He also plays the Phantom in Love Never Dies, which is POTO's sequel. He has also played Marius in Les Miserables. And, of course, there's the role that made me fall in love with him: Enjolras in the Les Miserables 25th anniversary concert. (;

Staying on that topic, let me just say that, before Ramin, I wasn't the biggest fan of Enjolras. I still liked him, I just didn't love him. There were other characters that I was more in love with. And then I saw Ramin's take on the character... and I was hooked. (: He's still not my favorite character... but I enjoy him a lot more when Ramin is portraying him. (;

Anyway. Ramin was born in Iran, but grew up in Canada. Also, he and fellow actor Hadley Fraser (Grantaire in the Les Mis concert) have a band called Sheytoons. They're actually pretty good. (:

Ramin Karimloo and Hadley Fraser

Anyway. So... yeah, that's a little bit about the fantastic Ramin for ya. Now, here's some music. (:

Here's Ramin at the 2011 Oliver Awards singing "Till I Hear You Sing," which is a song that the Phantom sings in Love Never Dies. The song starts out quiet, then from 1:40 and on, it's just... "wow."

ETIAW - Coldplay

I turn the music up, I've got my records on

I shut the world outside until the lights come on

Maybe the streets alight, maybe the trees are gone

But I feel my heart start beating to my favorite song

All the kids they dance, all the kids all night

Until Monday morning feels another life

I turn the music up, I'm on a roll this time

And heaven is in sight

...

I've had this song stuck in my head for about... I don't know, two weeks now? I actually heard the Boyce Avenue cover first (see my Boyce Avenue post). I loved that so much that I was like, "Hey, I love Coldplay, too. Why not go check out the original song?" So... I did.

At first, I wasn't a fan. I just... didn't like the song at all.

Of course, about four tries later, and I was hooked. It's still not my favorite song by Coldplay, but I still really like it.

So... here it is. Every Teardrop Is A WaterFall by Coldplay. The video's slightly... epileptic, I guess, for lack of a better word. You'll see what I mean. Not the entire time, just most of it. But still, kind of cool. Give it a chance. (;

Anyway, that's all. I felt kind of bad for not posting in a while, so I thought I'd get something out. Because I'd hate to fall out of habit with this blog. :/ It's basically the only place that I can ramble about the things that I really love. ;D

Fireworks (:

Well, it was the 4th of July yesterday. Which, of course, meant fireworks.

... which, of course, meant an interesting photo-taking experiment opportunity! (;

I took a lot of photos. Only about 15 of them really turned out. Some of them actually turned out looking pretty cool. Here are my favorites. (:

Of course, they're by no means fantastic photos. But it was fun to to play around with taking the pictures. (:

And something random? Every time I look at these photos, I get Katy Perry's "Firework" stuck in my head. Ah, well.

My... bucket list.

"Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans." --John Lennon

... I've decided that I want to start making a bucket list. Yes, I know I'm sixteen. No, I don't plane on dying any time soon. But, if I want to get this stuff done, I need to start planning! (;

Plus, it's fun to even just dream about doing all of these things. (;

So. Here's... the beginning, I suppose? In no particular order. And I'll add to it as time goes on. And who knows? Maybe I'll even be able cross things off as time goes on. (:

CHANTEL'S BUCKET LIST

1. Visit New York
2. See Les Miserables... as many times as possible (preferably 5+ times)

3. Stand on the Pont au Change bridge in Paris. It has some significance in Les Mis (with Javert, if that gives you a hint).

<--- There's a picture

4. See the Northern lights

5. Go to California (yes. I've never been to California).

6. Get hypnotized

7. Watch someone else get hypnotized.

8. Meet Alfie Boe

9. Visit Ireland

10. Get married to an amazing guy

11. Visit England

12. Meet Simon Baker

13. Be in a production of Les Mis (even just the ensamble would be fantastic).

14. Get my ears pierced (yep, my ears aren't pierced yet. I'm too much of a chicken. But it will happen!)

15. Meet Conan O'Brien

16. Meet Craig Ferguson

Anyway... that's about it when it comes to that. For now. (:

Hugh Jackman confirmed for Les Mis movie?

Alright. So it hasn't officially been announced by the Les Mis people yet, but Hugh Jackman pretty much confirmed it himself.

Hugh was interviewed on a Toronto radio station (98.1 CHFI). They talked about a bunch of things, but about half way/two-thirds of the way in, they start talking about his musical theatre career, and then what other types of projects he would love to do. Hugh says this:

" So, I would love to do one of those [a movie-musical] one day. And, it looks like that's coming through 'cause I'm going to do Les Miserables, the movie version of it, next year. "

So... yeah. I'm assuming that that means that Hugh Jackman is officially going to be Jean Valjean in the movie-musical version of Les Miserables. Which is great. (: In a perfect world, I would have loved for Alfie Boe to have been cast in the role, since Cameron Mackintosh was supposedly interested in him for it in the beginning. But that's just the fangirl in me. (: I think that Hugh will be fantastic as well. At least he has some previous musical theatre experience! (: And he can sing. Does he necessarily have a voice for Valjean? Probably, otherwise why would he have been cast? Plus, he has the star power that may just get the general public to go out and see this movie.

"24601!"

Can you see it? I'm starting to. (:

Yep. I think that I'm slowly becoming more and more excited about this. (: As if I already wasn't. (;

Anyway. If you're interested, you can listen to the whole interview right here. (:

Oh, Grantaire.

Oh, dear. Here comes another rambling Les Mis post.

You know who else I love in Les Mis? Grantaire. Of course, there isn't much of him in the actual musical (but still enough to make him a bit lovable, of course). However, he's fantastic in the book as well. I just love him. He's such a sad, pessimistic, but also funny character. (:

As most of you may know, Grantaire is one of the student rebels who joins in on the fight at the barricade. He's a cynical, pessimistic alcoholic who happens to sign his name simply as R. Why? Because, in French, the capital 'R' is apparently pronounced a bit like "grand-air." Grantaire. Get it? It's fantastic. (;

Grantaire "doesn't believe in anything." So, why is he even at the barricade? One word: Enjolras. He idolizes him. Grantaire admires everything in Enjolras that he lacks within himself. He wants to be more than a drunken cynic, but he can't. That's why he admires Enjolras so much, because that's what Grantaire wishes he could be. He wishes he could believe in something, so he believes in Enjolras. And if Enjolras wants to start a revolution and build a barricade, then so be it.

Of course, Enjolras sadly doesn't quite feel the same way.

"Grantaire," Enjolras called. "Go and sleep your wine off somewhere else. This is a place for intoxication, but not for drunkenness. Don't dishonour the barricade."
"You know I believe in you."
"Go away."
"Let me sleep it off here."
"Go and sleep it off somewhere else," said Enjolras.
"Let me sleep here and, if need be, die here."
"Grantaire, you're incapable of believing or thinking or willing or living or dying."
"You'll see," said Grantaire gravely. "You'll see." 

 Aaaannnddd... we all know how that ends.

In the musical, we see the two of them on much more friendly terms. Grantaire still annoys Enjolras a little bit, but we still see them as friends. In the 25th anniversary concert, Ramin Karimloo and Hadley Fraser are fantastic as the two of them. (:

Something that I really love about Grantaire in the musical is a fairly new addition that I saw put into play when I saw Les Mis on June 5th. It's the relationship between Grantaire and Gavroche. They have a sort of big-brother/little-brother thing going on, and I love it. Since the turn table was gone, we didn't get to see Gavroche's death, only hear it. But Grantaire's reaction made up for that and made it all the more tragic.

I'm not too familiar with Grantaire actors, so I can't really say that I have a favorite. I do really love Hadley Fraser, though, who played Grantaire in the 25th anniversary concert. I also like Anthony Crivello, from the 10th anniversary concert.

They have, in my opinion, very different portrayals of Grantaire during "Drink With Me." Hadley's Grantaire is clearly talking to the rest of the men during his solo, and basically really taking a hit at their morale. He's clearly saying, "Do you guys realize what you're doing? We're all going to die, and there's nothing you can do about it." He doesn't necessarily care at all that he's going to be killed, but he would like to point out to the rest of them how stupid they are for getting into that situation. 

Anthony's Grantaire, on the other hand, seems to be talking only to himself. He's finally realizing what he truly got himself into, and he's terrified.

Here's Hadley. His solo starts about 47 seconds in.

And here's Anthony. He starts singing about 56 seconds in.

Notice the difference?

While I adore Hadley's voice, his portrayal of Grantaire, and just Hadley in general, I also love Anthony's take on Grantaire in DWM.

But... when it comes to my favorite... Hadley just might win this one. Why? I'm not sure.

I JUST FREAKING LOVE HIM.

Ahem. That's all. (:

Boyce Avenue, anybody?

Two words: Boyce Avenue. If you haven't heard of these guys before, then you should definitely give them a listen. (: I'd be surprised if you haven't heard of them, though. Currently, they're the most searched for band on YouTube.

And I absoutely adore them. (:

 

Fabian, Daniel, Alejandro

The band consists of three brothers from Florida: Alejandro, Daniel, and Fabian Manzano. Alejandro is the wonderful lead vocalist. (: They've been around since 2004, though I didn't hear about them until just a few months ago. I was sitting in my Interior Design class. My teacher turned on some music... and ended up introducing us to the wonderful music of Boyce Avenue. (:

They do both acoustic covers and original music. And they're fantastic at what they do. (:

So... listen and enjoy? I have two videos I'm sharing below, the first being one of their original songs, called "Every Breath." The second is their latest video as of today, a Coldplay cover. But I encourage you to check out more of their stuff. If you have a favorite song or band, it's possible that Boyce Avenue has done a cover. And their original music is really great, too. (:

Now. Click the link and go to their YouTube channel. Right now. Thanks. (;