Crusader

and now for a wonderful song by Chris de Burgh called Crusader

Les Mis part 2

Now the next post in my series of Les Miserable posts

This will be the begining of the script for Les Mis starting now:

Prologue - Work Song

Chorus (Prisoners):
Look down, look down
Don't look 'em in the eye
Look down, look down,
You're here until you die

1st Convict:
The sun is strong
It's hot as hell below
Chorus:
Look down, look down,
There's twenty years to go

2nd Convict:
I've done no wrong!
Sweet Jesus, hear my prayer!
Chorus:
Look down, look down,
Sweet Jesus doesn't care

3rd Convict:
I know she'll wait,
I know that she'll be true!
Chorus:
Look down, look down,
They've all forgotten you
4th Convict:
When I get free ya won't see me
Here for dust!

Chorus:
Look down, look down
Don't look 'em in the eye
5th Convict:
How long, oh Lord
Before you let me die?
Chorus:
Look down, look down,
You'll always be a slave
Look down, look down,
You're standing in your grave

Javert
Now bring me prisoner 24601
Your time is up
And your parole's begun
You know what that means.
Valjean:
Yes, it means I'm free.

Javert:
No!
It means you get
Your yellow ticket-of-leave
You are a thief
Valjean:
I stole a loaf of bread.
Javert:
You robbed a house.

Valjean:
I broke a window pane.
My sister's child was close to death
And we were starving.
Javert:
You will starve again
Unless you learn the meaning of the law.
Valjean:
I know the meaning of those 19 years
A slave of the law

Javert:
Five years for what you did
The rest because you tried to run
Yes, 24601.
Valjean:
My name is Jean Valjean
Javert:
And I am Javert
Do not forget my name!
Do not forget me,
24601.

Chorus:
Look down, look down
You'll always be a slave
Look down, look down
You're standing in your grave.

Valjean:
Freedom is mine. The earth is still.
I feel the wind. I breathe again.
And the sky clears
The world is waking.
Drink from the pool. How clean the taste.
Never forget the years, the waste.
Nor forgive them
For what they've done.
They are the guilty - everyone.
The day begins...
And now lets see
What this new world
Will do for me!

Farmer:
You'll have to go
I'll pay you off for the day
Collect your bits and pieces there
And be on your way.

Valjean:
You have given me half
What the other men get!
This handful of tin
Wouldn't buy my sweat!

Laborer:
You broke the law
It's there for people to see
Why should you get the same
As honest men like me?

Valjean:
Now every door is closed to me
Another jail. Another key. Another chain
For when I come to any town
They check my papers
And they find the mark of Cain
In their eyes I see their fear
`We do not want you here.'

Innkeeper's Wife:
My rooms are full
And I've no supper to spare
I'd like to help a stranger
All we want is to be fair

Valjean:
I will pay in advance
I can sleep in a barn
You see how dark it is
I'm not some kind of dog!

Innkeeper:
You leave my house
Or feel the weight of my rod
We're law-abiding people here
Thanks be to God.

Valjean:
And now I know how freedom feels
The jailer always at your heels
It is the law!
This piece of paper in my hand
That makes me cursed throughout the land
It is the law!
Like a cur
I walk the street,
The dirt beneath their feet.

Bishop:
Come in, Sir, for you are weary,
And the night is cold out there.
Though our lives are very humble
What we have, we have to share.
There is wine here to revive you.
There is bread to make you strong,
There's a bed to rest till morning,
Rest from pain, and rest from wrong.

Valjean:
He let me eat my fill
I had the lion's share
The silver in my hand
Cost twice what I had earned
In all those nineteen years -
That lifetime of despair
And yet he trusted me.
The old fool trusted me -
He'd done his bit of good
I played the grateful serf
And thanked him like I should
But when the house was still,
I got up in the night.
Took the silver
Took my flight!

Valjean Arrested, Valjean Forgiven

Constables
1. Tell his reverence your story
2. Let us see if he's impressed
1. You were lodging here last night
2. You were the honest Bishop's guest.
And then, out of Christian goodness
When he learned about your plight
1. You maintain he made a present of this silver.

Bishop:
That is right.
But my friend you left so early
Surely something slipped your mind

You forgot I gave these also
Would you leave the best behind?
So, Messieurs, you may release him
For this man has spoken true
I commend you for your duty
And God's blessing go with you.

But remember this, my brother
See in this some higher plan
You must use this precious silver
To become an honest man
By the witness of the martyrs
By the Passion and the Blood
God has raised you out of darkness
I have bought your soul for God!

What Have I Done?

Valjean:
What have I done?
Sweet Jesus, what have I done?
Become a thief in the night,
Become a dog on the run
And have I fallen so far,
And is the hour so late
That nothing remains but the cry of my hate,
The cries in the dark that nobody hears,
Here where I stand at the turning of the years?

If there's another way to go
I missed it twenty long years ago
My life was a war that could never be won
They gave me a number and murdered Valjean
When they chained me and left me for dead
Just for stealing a mouthful of bread

Yet why did I allow that man
To touch my soul and teach me love?
He treated me like any other
He gave me his trust
He called me brother
My life he claims for God above
Can such things be?
For I had come to hate the world
This world that always hated me

Take an eye for an eye!
Turn your heart into stone!
This is all I have lived for!
This is all I have known!

One word from him and I'd be back
Beneath the lash, upon the rack
Instead he offers me my freedom
I feel my shame inside me like a knife
He told me that I have a soul,
How does he know?
What spirit comes to move my life?
Is there another way to go?

I am reaching, but I fall
And the night is closing in
And I stare into the void
To the whirlpool of my sin
I'll escape now from the world
From the world of Jean Valjean
Jean Valjean is nothing now
Another story must begin!

At the End of the Day

The Poor:
At the end of the day you're another day older
And that's all you can say for the life of the poor
It's a struggle, it's a war
And there's nothing that anyone's giving
One more day standing about, what is it for?
One day less to be living.

At the end of the day you're another day colder
And the shirt on your back doesn't keep out the chill
And the righteous hurry past
They don't hear the little ones crying
And the winter is coming on fast, ready to kill
One day nearer to dying!

At the end of the day there's another day dawning
And the sun in the morning is waiting to rise
Like the waves crash on the sand
Like a storm that'll break any second
There's a hunger in the land
There's a reckoning still to be reckoned and
There's gonna be hell to pay
At the end of the day!

Foreman:
At the end of the day you get nothing for nothing
Sitting flat on your butt doesn't buy any bread
Worker 1: There are children back at home
And the children have got to be fed
Worker 2 And you're lucky to be in a job
Woman: And in a bed!
Workers: And we're counting our blessings!

Woman 2: Have you seen how the foreman is fuming today?
With his terrible breath and his wandering hands?
Woman 3: It's because little Fantine won't give him his way
Woman 1: Take a look at his trousers, you'll see where he stands!
Woman 4: And the boss, he never knows
That the foreman is always in heat
Woman 3: If Fantine doesn't look out, watch how she goes
She'll be out on the street!

Workers:
At the end of the day it's another day over
With enough in your pocket to last for a week
Pay the landlord, pay the shop
Keep on grafting as long as you're able
Keep on grafting till you drop
Or it's back to the crumbs off the table
You've got to pay your way
At the end of the day!

Girl: And what have we here, little innocent sister?
Come on Fantine, let's have all the news!

"Dear Fantine you must send us more money
Your child needs a doctor
There's no time to lose..."

Fantine:
Give that letter to me
It is none of your business
With a husband at home
And a bit on the side!
Is there anyone here
Who can swear before God
She has nothing to fear?
She has nothing to hide?

Valjean:
Will someone tear these two apart?
What is this fighting all about?
This is a factory, not a circus!
Now come on ladies, settle down
I run a business of repute
I am the Mayor of this town

I look to you to sort this out
And be as patient as you can-

Foreman:
Now someone say how this began!

Girl:
At the end of the day
She's the one who began it
There's a kid that she's hiding
In some little town
There's a man she has to pay
You can guess how she picks up the extra
You can bet she's earning her keep
Sleeping around
And the boss wouldn't like it!

Fantine:
Yes it's true there's a child
And the child is my daughter
And her father abandoned us,
Leaving us flat
Now she lives with an innkeeper man
And his wife
And I pay for the child
What's the matter with that?

Women:
At the end of the day
She'll be nothing but trouble
And there's trouble for all
When there's trouble for one!
While we're earning our daily bread
She's the one with her hands in the butter
You must send the slut away
Or we're all gonna end in the gutter
And it's us who'll have to pay
At the end of the day!

Foreman:
I might have known the bitch could bite
I might have known the cat had claws
I might have guessed your little secret
Ah, yes, the virtuous Fantine
Who keeps herself so pure and clean
You'd be the cause I had no doubt
Of any trouble hereabout
You play a virgin in the light
But need no urgin' in the night.

Girl
She's been laughing at you
While she's having her men
Women: She'll be nothing but trouble again and again
Woman: You must sack her today
Workers: Sack the girl today!
Foreman: Right my girl. On your way!

I Dreamed a Dream

Fantine:
There was a time when men were kind
When their voices were soft
And their words inviting
There was a time when love was blind
And the world was a song
And the song was exciting
There was a time
Then it all went wrong

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, no wine untasted

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
And they turn your dream to shame

He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my childhood in his stride
But he was gone when autumn came

And still I dream he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.

Edmonton Election

In this post I will give any recommendations I have for the election next month.   Some people when giving recommendations would recommend a whole bunch of different people.   Not me, I'm just recommending one person over and over and over and over and over and.... You get the picture.   The person I recommend is (drum roll please):

Carla Smiley

and she is running for Edmonton Catholic School Trustee for ward 72.

Her website is: http://www.carlasmiley.info/
If you can vote for her I highly recommend it.


P.S.  Wow, I used the word recommend 7 times

Les Miserables

Well, I was looking through my previous posts and I saw that I didn't have any posts about Les Miserables.   This post (and the next couple) are going to fix that.   I'm going to start with a list of the characters followed by the "official" story.   First, the characters:

Jean Valjean
Javert
Marius Pontmercy
Cosette
Fantine
Thenardier
Madame Thenardier
Enjorlas
Eponine
The Bishop of Digne
Compeferre
Brujon
Factory Foreman
Factory Girl
Bamatobis
Claquesous
Montparnasse
Babet
Feuilly
Courfeyrac
Joly
Grantaire
Lesgles
Jean Prouvaire
Young Cosette
Young Eponine
Gavroche
Fauchelevant
Friends of the ABC
Tons of choruses

Now the story:
ACT ONE

PROLOGUE: 1815, DIGNE

After 19 years on the chain gang, Jean Valjean finds that the ticket of leave he must display condemns him to be an outcast. Only the Bishop of Digne treats him kindly and Valjean, embittered by years of hardship, repays him by stealing some silver. Valjean is caught and brought back by the police and is astonished when the Bishop lies to the police to save him. Valjean decides to start his life anew.

1823, MONTREUIL-SUR-MER

Eight years have passed and Valjean, having broken his parole and changed his name to Monsieur Madeleine, has become a factory owner and Mayor. One of his workers, Fantine, has a secret illegitimate child. When the other women discover this, they demand her dismissal.

Desperate for money to pay for medicines for her daughter, Fantine sells her locket, her hair, and then joins the whores in selling herself. Utterly degraded, she gets into a fight with a prospective customer and is about to be taken to prison by Javert when the ‘Mayor’ arrives and demands she be taken to hospital instead. The Mayor then rescues a man pinned beneath a cart. Javert is reminded of the abnormal strength of convict 24601 Jean Valjean, who, he says, has just been recaptured. Valjean, unable to see an innocent man go to prison, confesses that he is prisoner 24601. At the hospital, Valjean promises the dying Fantine to find and look after her daughter Cosette. Javert arrives to arrest him, but Valjean escapes.

1823, MONTFERMEIL

Cosette has been lodged with the Thénardiers, who horribly abuse her while indulging their own daughter, Éponine. Valjean pays the Thénardiers to let him take her away to Paris.

1832, PARIS

Nine years later, there is unrest in the city because of the likely demise of the popular leader General Lamarque, the only man left in the government who shows any feeling for the poor. A streetgang led by Thénardier and his wife sets upon Jean Valjean and Cosette. They are rescued by Javert, who does not recognise Valjean until he has gone.  The Thénardiers’ daughter Éponine, who is secretly in love with the student Marius, reluctantly agrees to help him find Cosette, with whom he has fallen in love.  News of General Lamarque’s death circulates in the city and a group of politically-minded students stream out into the streets to whip up support for a revolution.  Costte is consumed by thoughts of Marius, with whom she has fallen in love.  Éponine brings Marius to Cosette and then prevents an attempt by her father’s gang to rob Valjean’s house.  Valjean, convinced it was Javert lurking outside his house, tells Cosette they must prepare to flee the country.

ACT TWO

The students prepare to build the barricade. Marius, noticing that Éponine has joined the insurrection, sends her away with a letter to Cosette, which is intercepted by Valjean. Éponine decides to rejoin her love at the barricade.  The barricade is built and the revolutionaries defy an army warning to give up or die. Javert is exposed as a police spy. In trying to return to the barricade, Éponine is killed.  Valjean arrives at the barricade in search of Marius. He is given the chance to kill Javert but instead lets him go. The students settle down for a night on the barricade and, in the quiet of the night, Valjean prays to God to save Marius. The next day the rebels are all killed.  Valjean escapes into the sewers with the unconscious Marius. After meeting Thénardier, who is robbing the corpses of the rebels, he comes across Javert once more. He pleads for time to deliver the young man to hospital. Javert lets Valjean go and, his unbending principles of justice having been shattered by Valjean’s own mercy, he kills himself.

Unaware of the identity of his rescuer, Marius recovers in Cosette’s care. Valjean confesses the truth of his past to Marius and insists he must go away.  At Marius and Cosette’s wedding, the Thénardiers try to blackmail Marius. Thénardier says Cosette’s ‘father’ is a murderer and as proof produces a ring which he stole from the corpse the night the barricade fell. It is Marius’s own ring and he realises it was Valjean who rescued him that night. He and Cosette go to Valjean where Cosette learns for the first time of her own history before the old man dies.

Not Back To School Party #3

Well, I'm a day late again, but this time I have a good excuse.   After the party, we stayed at some friends in Derwent.   At the party, a friend and I sang songs like "Blow the Man Down" and such like.

Not Back To School Party #2

Well I'm a day late, but that's because I was so tired out after this party that I just went home and went to bed.   The party was quite enjoyable.   Also, one of the families that was at the last party was at this one,   o we talked a bit about the "movie".   There was also a girl there who is in my Latin online class, so we had a bit to talk about as well.

Not Back To School Party #1

This is the first post in my three day posting spree. It is also the first NOT Back To School Party out of three. This is not in fact a coincidence. I will dedicate one post per day to each of the three parties. And now, what I did today. Some people will, when asked, "What did you do today?" give a very boring answer like, "I got up, had breakfast, went to school, got home, had supper, did homework, went to bed." However, I am not one of these people. What I did today was:

1. got up

2. had breakfast

3. went to the corn maze (It was a-maize-ing)

4. had supper at a friends house

5. went to a NOT Back To School Party

6. starred as a doctor in a tiny movie making fun of TV shows like House or any other hospital drama. I can't tell you about it because it is eventually going to be on youtube. I will, however, post the link when it's up.

7. went home

8. posted this

9. went to bed exhausted

Jackie Evancho

And now #3 Why I liked Jackie

To answer this all I have to do his say watch this:

America's Got Talent

Although I'm a little late to be writing this (the finale was yesterday night) I decided that since it's better late than never I would write down 1) Who I wanted to win. 2) the results. and 3) What I thought about the person I wanted to win.

Starting with #1 Who I wanted to win out of the Final Four (Jackie Evancho, Prince Poppycock, Michael Grimm, and Fighting Gravity.)

I personally wanted Jackie Evancho to win because she has, out of any person I've heard to this day, the most beautiful voice ever.

#2 Results.

In 4th place was Prince Poppycock

In 3rd place was Fighting Gravity

In 2nd place Jackie Evancho (a very big surprise for everyone)

In 1st place surprising even himself Michael Grimm

Number 3 will be answered in my next post

As you can see, I've redone the decorations for the blog. As you can't see, I just got back from my first EMT (Edmonton Musical Theatre) class. It was really fun and enjoyable.

A Ballad of Suicide

This is probably the only poem around about not commiting suicide.

A Ballad of Suicide
by G.K Chesterton

The gallows in my garden, people say, Is new and neat and adequately tall; I tie the noose on in a knowing way As one that knots his necktie for a ball; But just as all the neighbours-on the wall- Are drawing a long breath to shout "Hurray!" The strangest whim has seized me.... After all I think I will not hang myself to-day. To-morrow is the time I get my pay- My uncle's sword is hanging in the hall- I see a little cloud all pink and grey- Perhaps the rector's mother will not call- I fancy that I heard from Mr. Gall That mushrooms could be cooked another way- I never read the works of Juvenal- I think I will not hang myself to-day. The world will have another washing-day; The decadents decay; the pedants pall; And H.G. Wells has found that children play, And Bernard Shaw discovered that they squall, Rationalists are growing rational- And through thick woods one finds a stream astray So secret that the very sky seems small- I think I will not hang myself to-day. ENVOI Prince, I can hear the trumpet of Germinal, The tumbrils toiling up the terrible way; Even to-day your royal head may fall, I think I will not hang myself to-day