Orestes Fasting
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Happy Barricade Day!The more nerdy among us may know that today is the 175th anniversary of the revolution of 5-6 June, 1832, aka the one where all the Les Mis characters get shot.
So, what are you doing for Barricade Day?
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Quique
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I played the "Final Battle" like 100 times in a row, lol. Seriously.
HAPPY BARRICADE DAY. 
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EponineMNFF
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HAPPY BARRICADES DAY(s)!
I plan on painting my nails red and black. And I'm going to wear the sash that I made for my first October 8 in the fandom. I would have worn my Gavroche style hat, but been boxed up. =/
I AM going to go see the revival on the sixth too! WOO!
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Fantine
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Uhm... Is creating some icons good enough?
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Orestes Fasting
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Hehe. I'm wearing red and black, yes, with a tricolor ribbon in my hair. And I'm posting in my LiveJournal with some pamphlets and miscellaneous documents published by actual revolutionary groups in the early 1830s.
...stop looking at me like that!
| Quote: | | I AM going to go see the revival on the sixth too! WOO! |
Ooooh, lucky. Wish the cast a happy barricade day at the stage door! 
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EponineJavert
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Woah, 175th anniversary 
I'll wear my only black shirt, paint my toe-nails red, watch the TAC and sing along to the CSR
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Mademoiselle Lanoire
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Watching the '78 movie
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LesMisForever
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Happy B-day 
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Colle
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I should listen to some of Les Mis in honor of B-Day. Like on the Fourth of July, it also makes me think of the people who live in oppressed countries today, like North Korea, and hope and pray for their freedom.
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Eponine93
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I'll probably pop in the TAC video either tonight or tomorrow night and just fast forward to the barricade scenes.
Actually, the biggest thng I'm doing for barricade day is that either today or tomorrow, I'm going to get the novel out of the library. Then I'll start reading it the second I get it... it's the first time I'm going to read it.
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Fantine
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| Fantine wrote: | | Uhm... Is creating some icons good enough? |
Posted them just now
Barricade's day is fun 
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Quique
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Well, I'm unable to celebrate Barricade Day today, so I payed homage yesterday. Don't have the time...too much studying!!!!
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Eponine93
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We do have tomorrow. I may just make a shrine to Enjolras in my room tonight if I'm bored....
Oh, I hope the library has the book! I'm going in a few minutes. If they don't have the book or I can't find it, someone's going to have hell to pay...
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Fantine
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I also played the OFC 
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Lara
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I'm going to wear my Les Mis shirt as soon as I get home from a set/prop/costume design camp but when I'm there I'll wear a red shirt and black pants. I got my braces tightened today and I nearly got red and black as my colors. Anyways, I'll play the music over and over and over again, sing loudly, and do anything else that comes to mind.
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eponinelover
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Happy B-Day!
Just to be annoying, I'm going around at school telling everyone I see "It's barricade Day! It's barricade day!" and asking them why they don't know!
I will also listen to the OFC!
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flying_pigs
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I'm wearing red and black and have had JOJ's Bring Him Home from his album playing for some time!
Happy barricade day!
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PappyCat
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I'm a total Les Mis newbie, so forgive me...But Why Red and Black? I realize it's from the song (which is probably taken from the novel), but why did they choose the colors?
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Orestes Fasting
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Well, in the book they had a (historically inaccurate) red flag. I don't know if there was a specific symbolic reason Boublil & Sch�nberg added black--the song doesn't come from the book.
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PappyCat
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Hmm...Okay. Obviously the SONG doesn't come from the novel, but the premise of the song might.
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musical4eva
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I told my friend it was barricade day and she looked at me like I was mad. I then explained it was from Les Mis and she called me a Musicals geek and a loser 
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eponine5
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I think we all had to suffer the "are you crazy?" looks today whenever barricade day was mentioned. But whatever, it's worth it.
Quique, studying is no excuse. I am in the middle of exam week, but in one of my frees was I studying for my next exam like I should be? Well...I dragged one of my friends with me to the library to watch the TAC - far more worth-while if you ask me!
And it just so happened that when we first turned it on the headphones weren't connected and suddenly there was Colm's 'What Have I done?' booming out through the entire library. 
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Lara
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I told my friend is was Barricade Day and she gave me a funny look. Then I had to explain. Psh, and she calls herself a Les Mis fan!
I can't wait to see the look on my friend's face when I go to her house decked out in red and black and my Les Mis shirt.
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Eponine93
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I'm celebrating barricade day by reading the novel for the first time. I'm only on the Champmathieu Affair, but what I've read so far is excellent.
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Orestes Fasting
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You got to the Champmathieu affair in two days?! Holy crap, you must be doing what I do whenever a new Harry Potter book comes out--hole myself up in my room with the book and only come out to eat and go to the bathroom.
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Eponine93
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I do that with the HP books too, but no... I spent about two hours reading yesterday, and then half an hour during a free period during school, and probably another two hours at home. I'm a very fast reader. I've gotten to Waterloo now, but I'm slowing down a bit because I find the whole Waterloo affair excessively boring. I loved the Fantine parts though.
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LesMisForever
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OF...you read Harry Potter? you disappointed me 
Pappy...welcome to "Les Mis" forum . I think, but not sure, that the black in the song is there for dramatic, and lyrical purposes.
There is a rather interesting incident about the red flag. In the Czech production of "Les Miserables" they don't use a red flag, but the French flag. I believe that is because the former Czechoslovakia was part of the Soviet block. You know that the Soviet Union's flag was red (it had other symbols as well). The Czechs hated the Soviet Union, and i guess they regard that red flag part of that.
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Orestes Fasting
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| LesMisForever wrote: | OF...you read Harry Potter? you disappointed me
Pappy...welcome to "Les Mis" forum . I think, but not sure, that the black in the song is there for dramatic, and lyrical purposes.
There is a rather interesting incident about the red flag. In the Czech production of "Les Miserables" they don't use a red flag, but the French flag. I believe that is because the former Czechoslovakia was part of the Soviet block. You know that the Soviet Union's flag was red (it had other symbols as well). The Czechs hated the Soviet Union, and i guess they regard that red flag part of that. |
Hey, don't diss Potter, it was my first online fandom back in 1999 or so. I don't really follow it anymore, but I have enough lingering affection to brave the midnight-release lines and spend the next day reading the book.
And that's interesting about the Czech production. Even Hugo had the barricade boys using a red flag, but the real 1832 revolutionaries were still waving the tricolor--prior to the 1830 revolution, the Restoration had been using the white flag of the Bourbons, so the tricolor was still entirely a revolutionary emblem. But by 1848, the July Monarchy's use of the tricolor had corrupted its symbolic value, so it was replaced by the red flag in that revolution. And even back in the 1840s the red flag had definite communist connotations. So in that respect, the Czech production was more historically accurate than Hugo himself--I don't think the Amis would have been part of the radical movement that used the red flag, which in any case didn't even get off the ground until 1834 or so.
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LesMisForever
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Yes, true about the history, but i don't believe they have done it for historical reasons, or to be closer to waht actually happened in 1832. They just hate the red flag.
A side question. Aren't they bound though to have a red flag? I am rather ignorant in the whole rights issue.
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Orestes Fasting
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The productions that reproduce the original London staging have to have a red flag, and must be identical in most other respects to the standard version that's playing in London and on Broadway right now.
But recently there have been a number of non-replica productions, mostly in smaller cities in Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland--and now in the US. I assume the '03 Czech production was one of these. And while there might be some oversight to make sure they don't do anything too wacky with the show, there is quite a lot of freedom in the design for these productions. I think that CamMack & Co. are gearing up for a much wider release of regional rights for the show--the proliferation of small, non-replica, independently designed productions is so big that I haven't been able to keep track of them all, and aside from old warhorses like the London, Broadway/Broadway "revival," and national tour productions, I don't think there's been a replica staging of Les Mis since the Berlin production closed in 2004. The Broadway revival could well be the last hurrah for the original London staging.
(Off the top of my head, I know there were/are non-replicas in Bomlo, Lillestrom, Trondheim, Baden, St. Gallen, Tecklenburg, and Salt Lake City, and that many of these were open-air. There are more coming up in Sacramento, Philadelphia, and a bunch of other places across the US.)
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Eponine93
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Sorry to interrupt every five seconds with my thoughts on the book, but I may have possibly skipped most of the battle descriptions (a good thirty pages or so) on Waterloo. I read the last part with the scene with Thenardier and the Pontmercy man (he was Marius's father, right?) but I couldn't drag myself through the battle. Hopefully, I'll be able to get the Cosette volume done by tomorrow night and then get a head on the Marius volume on the bus home from my trip.
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Orestes Fasting
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It's all right, I skipped half of Waterloo too my first time 'round. XD Aside from the one scene with Th�nardier and Col. Pontmercy, there's nothing in there that's directly relevant to the plot.
Near the end of the Cosette volume there's another digression on the convent where Valjean and Cosette wind up; you won't miss much if you skim the descriptions of life inside, and skip Hugo's rambling about the nature of convents.
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eponinelover
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Oh, God, I hate Hugo's rantings, especially on the convent!
I also am reading it for the first time!
And, I read all of Waterloo because I want to get the full effect!
I know, I know, I may seem like a total lm geek, but aren't we all?
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happyguava
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I didn't mind the Waterloo stuff the first time 'round. I skipped it this time though... meh.
And I didn't realise there was a thread for this - yay, Barricade Day.
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Mademoiselle Lanoire
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I read Waterloo the first time through, but subsequently I skip it.
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LesMisForever
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Thanks OF. I wouldn't call The Czech production regional. I suspect they asked him, and he agreed. Beside, i don't think the impact of the French flag is less than the red flag.
I LOVED Waterloo, and it sparked in me big interest about the battle. Of course i knew all the basics, but i did some research about the troops details, numbers, events leading to the battle, the development of the battle from start, and finally the casualties.
I thought it was written beautifully, and poetically.
The convent though was where i lost my patience, and skipped the lot.
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eponine5
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I love the whole convent bit!
All that stuff about the cute little bratty girls and that nun who never spoke a word except when she saw a random man one day in a service and called out his name. Exactly the kind of fluff that the book needs to balance out all the heavy philosphical stuff - but don't get me wrong, I love those parts too. Okay I'll stop now 
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The Pirate King
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I might be crazy, but I love Hugo's digressions.
Especially about the gross nature of monasticism, the nature of emeute versus revolution...I may have to reread the Waterloo though, as the first time I had trouble following due to my limited prior knowledge of the battle. But really, I loved all of his rantings and musings.
But I'm a future history major, so that may be why.
Simply enough, Les Miserables isn't Les Miserables without the presence of Hugo's mind and views in the pages. And that's why abridged versions miss the point.
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LesMisForever
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| The Pirate King wrote: |
Simply enough, Les Miserables isn't Les Miserables without the presence of Hugo's mind and views in the pages. And that's why abridged versions miss the point. |
Amen!
I think the bare story sucks to be honest. Highly melodramatic, and heavily reliant on coincidences.
It is the language, and all those digerssions that makes it great. None of us liked all of them, but almost all of them have been enjoyed by one person, or another.
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