Idina Menzel

 

The first time I ever heard of Idina Menzel was when I was in Mississippi. We had gone to see Wicked in New York City, and we watched the dvd of RENT over and over again. When I came back, it seemed to me that everytime I liked a new musical (new for me), Idina Menzel was in it. She quickly became my favorite Broadway actress (I say Broadway, because I have favorite West End actors as well...).

 

Idina Menzel is an American actress and singer from New York City. She was born on May 30, 1971. She was first a wedding and bar-mitzvah singer and she graduated from the Tish School of the Arts (NYU). Her Broadway debut was in RENT in 1995, written by Jonathan Larson (see my other article on this wonderful musical here), she originated the role of Maureen Johnson, which she later played in the movie version of the play. She was nominated for the Tony of Best Featured Actress in a Musical for this role.

 

 

She then worked on some personal music and was in other musicals such as The Wild Party, Aida and Chess, but the one that stuck out the most was in 2003: Wicked, written  by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman. Idina originated the role of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, opposite Kristin Chenoweth, and she then  won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. She later reprised her role in the London production of Wicked in 2006.

 

 

Idina also appeared in movies such as Enchanted and tv shows such as Glee (playing Rachel's mom, Shelby Corcoran, and it was known long before she even came on Glee how much Idina and Lea Michele look alike).

 

She married the actor Taye Diggs on January 11, 2003 (one day after my birthday!). He is also an actor, they met during RENT, but you all might know him as Sam on Private Practice. They have a cute son together, named Walker Nathaniel Diggs who is 3 years old.

 

 

I wanted to share with you the amazingness that is Idina Menzel, so here are a bunch of videos of her singing. This woman is beautiful and has one of the best voices I have ever heard and, having gone to her concert last week, I know that she is really nice and hilarious. It was definitely not a bad evening, her voice is even better live and she kept making jokes and laughing, she is really great. I had the amazing opportunity of meeting her after her concert, I got a great hug and she told me "You're so pretty". I am still not over this. I met my idol and inspiration. If you want to see pictures of this: here and here, or my Facebook album for more pictures of the concert.

 

I hope you will all love her and her singing as much as I do. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Coup de Coeur" of the Week #13

 

Ever since I saw this video, it's been my coup de coeur of the week, of the month, of the year. Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel (both on How I Met Your Mother, that I have yet to start watching) singing "The Confrontation" part of Les Misérables, as Jean Valjean and Javert. This is pure hilariousness and perfection. Enjoy!

Vacuflex: what in the world is that thing?

On Saturday, I went to the MACBA: Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona. The entire collection was really nice, but there is one thing that stood out for me: Vacuflex. But what in the world is that thing? Good question.

 

I entered the room "La Utopia es Possible", dedicated to what the ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design) had done in Ibiza in the 1970s and it was full of very colorful pouffes where you could sit to watch a bunch of videos about the installations they did. I watched a part of the video about Instant City: a city created with bouncy castles material and it looked really fun. But then I turned to watch the video about Vacuflex and I was puzzled.

 

 

The website of the museum writes that Vacuflex was a mobile sculpture made from a green industrial plastic tube over 250 meters long. The interactive intervention consisted of carrying the tube to the different areas around the bay. The piece became a playful objet with which it was possible to sculpt different shapes spontaneously and write words in the sand or water. Art could then become a game. The artists were a group of hippies who wanted to connect art and architecture with artistic installations, concerts, philosophical debates, sociology and urban education.

 

This bunch of young artists were carrying that huge green tube on their shoulders in a line, passing over people's heads and next to tourists sunbathing on the beach in Ibiza. Their faces were priceless. Then they went in the sea with this long tube and made a sort of circle with it.

 

I just thought it was all so hilarious and weird that it was worth mentioning on this blog. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Edvard Munch

I've always had a weird connection with Edvard Munch. Munch, pronounced [ˈmʉŋk], was a Norwegian painter from the beginning of the 20th century. His type of art, Expressionism, is usually not my favorite (I usually love Romanticism, or prettier and "lighter" things). But it turns out that during my Senior Year of High School in Belgium, and during my year in Mississippi, I had to give a talk about him in class. I learned so much about his life that I thought I knew him like no one else. This man was tortured, and his art accounts for it and something beautiful comes out of it. Here are some of my favorite works of art from Edvard Munch.

There is, of course, The Scream (1893).

Evening on Karl Johan Street (1892)

The Separation (1894)

Lady from the Sea (1896)

The Dead Mother and Child (1899-1900)



Edvard had to watch his entire family die before his eyes while he stayed alive. This helps to understand the darkness of his art. He also painted The Sick Child, because his sister died when he was young.

And now, here are sweeter paintings from him.

 

Girls on Jetty (1901)

Spring Day on Karl Johan (1891)



DIY Workout Shirt

 

I don't usually do a lot of DIY. In fact, it might be the first time I "do something myself" since I was a little kid and I built/created things to give to my parents on Mother's and Father's days. But when I stumbled upon (literally) this DIY, I thought it looked pretty cool and I wanted to do it since I have a bunch of oversized t-shirts that I wore in Mississippi, that I don't wear anymore since I lost all the weight I had gained there. Instead of having these shirts folded in my closet, I thought I might give them "a second life".

 

It is pretty easy to do and looks nice. It is supposed to be a workout shirt, but it could also be a simple tank top to wear when the weather is really nice (like these past few days in Belgium, what the heck happened?).

 

Check this nice DIY on this blog. (Yes, hers looks a lot better than mine, but she created it and hey, it's my first!)

 

Las Islas Gorgona, Colombia

Last month, I went to Colombia, South America, on vacation with my family. We visited different places and cities such as Cartagena de Indias on the Caribbean coast, el Parque Tayrona, Bogotá, el Eje Cafetero, Cali and an island in the Pacific Ocean. The nature of Colombia is breathtaking and well-worth seeing. There are so many different types of landscape that you feel like you have crossed some border although you are still on the very warm soil of Colombia. Also, the fact this country is 37 times the size of Belgium helps spreading the borders. 

My favorite part of the trip might have been the 4 days spent on the Island of Gorgona in the Pacific Ocean. Getting to the island is the hardest part: you have to fly to Cali, then to Guapi (one of the poorest towns of Colombia) and then take a boat and cross the Ocean for an hour and a half to finally reach the Island. 

But once you get there, you are glad you made the trip. After being carried out of the boat like a princess (whether you are a woman or a man, you ARE being carried out of the boat… ask my father), you receive the first of many fresh fruit juices you will get while your stay there. And then, you eat. We ate so much on this island, it was unbelievable. The food was amazing, always fish, plantains, fruits, vegetables and rice, with fresh fruit juices at every meal. I admit I was a bit scared of where we were going to end up, but the place was great.

Shape of the main island

Las Islas Gorgona are two islands: Gorgona, the main one in the shape of a whale, and Gorgonilla, a smaller one next to it.The main island was once a prison for Colombian murderers (like Alcatraz, near San Francisco. Or Azkaban, it depends on what your brain thought of first). The prison closed its doors in 1984 and the island became a National Natural Reservation Park, where only one private family has established a hotel, which is more like a bunch of little houses on the eastern side of the island. It is very, very quiet, and cute and comfortable. You can still visit the prison now, it was demolished, but not entirely, and nature has regained control over everything. It is amazing to see all these buildings surrendered to the jungle.

Old prison

The island was named “Isla Gorgona” in the honor of the Gorgons, three sisters of the Greek mythology who had hair made of snakes, because of all the snakes on the island. You are required to wear boots at all times (except when going from your room to the restaurant, where it is safer, but you still have to be careful) and you cannot go walk alone in the jungle without a guide. When you arrive on the island, there is a briefing where you are told all the dangerous things not to do and all the dangerous animals not to meet, but once you’ve been there a couple days, you are used to it and it doesn’t seem so dreadful.

Every morning, we went hiking in the jungle. The hikes are not that hard, but the heat and humidity of the place tires you faster. The nature is beautiful, and we get to meet so many tiny animals and types of plants that you are always looking at something beautiful (except if you just focus on not falling, and you just look at your feet, but that’s your choice).

My favorite animals on this island were the ‘basilisco’ (“basiliscus basiliscus”) which is nothing like the one from Harry Potter and is hilarious (if you are curious, check out this video: hilariousness, I tell you), and the ‘monos cariblancos’ which are the cutest little monkeys and they come next to you every day while you are reading comfortably in your hammock. Both these animals are very nice (except when they are mad), but we also met some not-so-nice ones.

Mono cariblanco

Basiliscus basiliscus

I did meet 3 snakes on one of our walks around the island: 2 corrals (with black and white and red and black lines) which are venomous and 1 casadora (green) which is not. Even if I was wearing my boots, I was not that comfortable around them. On the island, you can also meet the “talla X”, the biggest and most venomous snake of the island. Alcohol is prohibited on the island: if you are bitten by the talla X and you have alcohol in your blood, the vaccine will not work.  

If you go between May and October, you will have the chance to see whales passing by in the Ocean! We first saw one while eating lunch on the day we arrived, we could not believe it. Then we saw a bunch while on a tiny boat or eating lunch, and they were surprisingly close to the shore. I didn’t expect to see them coming so close.

Also, while snorkeling in the “aquarium” of the island (on the eastern side of the island, but north), we heard a whale sing. And believe me, it is one of the most disturbing things to hear (especially if you don’t know what it is) but one of the most beautiful. There is something completely surreal in the fact of swimming with beautiful fishes and hearing a whale’s song.

Colombia is such a diverse country with so many different things to see that it is definitely worth it. When you get the amazing chance of going to South America, don't hesitate, just go.

Also, lots of cute crabs.

Yes, you do feel small.

Chocolate & Nutella Cookies

Seriously, who doesn't love Nutella? I just spent an entire month without Nutella, and believe me, I was glad to come back home and spread some on a good slice of fresh bread. A couple months ago, I bought a cookbook entirely about Nutella, with 30 recipes going from simple 'tartines' to cakes and 'crèmes brûlées'. Today, for the first time, I did one of these recipes, and the result is not that bad.

          Ingredients
(for 12 cookies according to the book, 23 according to me)

250g of flour

1/2 pack of baking powder

125g of white sugar

125g of cane sugar

A wee bit of salt

100g of butter

50g of Nutella

1 egg

1 pack of vanilla-flavoured sugar

100g of chocolate chips

 

 

Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugars, and salt) and put it aside. Melt the butter and the Nutella, then pour them on the dry mix. Add the egg and mix well (not with a mixer, with your arm, yes, like old times). Add the chocolate chips and mix with a wooden spoon.

 

If possible, put the dough in the fridge for an hour. Just enough time to watch an episode of Bunheads or the Olympics.

 

Preheat the oven at 240°C (464°F). Put baking paper on your baking tray. Make balls of dough with your hands and place them on the baking tray. Press with your fingers to stretch and widen them. Do not put too many cookies and make them stick together; I did two batches, so that there would be enough space between them.

 

Let them cook for 8 to 10 minutes (depending on the heat in your oven, they might burn pretty quickly). Get them out of the oven and place your cookies on a shelf (like the one on the picture) and let them cool.

 

Enjoy!