Well, just now something happened at my college as I was walking in. An old man was handing out pocket bibles. Being polite and a sucker for that stuff, I took one of them. It was a small pocket Bible with a green cover, containing the texts of the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. I took a look at the inside, and it says that it's distributed by the Gideons.

Gideons International is a group of Evangelical Protestant Christians. However, unlike other Evangelical Protestant Christians, they aren't jerks. They don't scream and preach fire and brimstone or any of that. They just hand out Bibles. That's pretty much it.

Most famously, they went to hotels and put bibles in the rooms. There's a reference to that in the musical Guys and Dolls, when the gambler Sky Masterson seems to have a great knowledge of Scripture, saying that "there've been two things in every hotel room: Sky Masterson and the Gideon Bible."

As far as Evangelism goes, you could do a lot worse than what the Gideons do. They just hand out Bibles to people who will take them, and personally, I see nothing wrong with that. They aren't talking about their own biased interpretation of the Bible, they're just, well... giving the Bible. They aren't rude about it, either. It was just a man standing around asking if anyone wanted a free pocket Bible, and I can respect that. Mainly, the goal of Evangelism is to convert people to Christianity, but alot of Evangelists just make themselves look bad and embarrass themselves and their religion (I'm looking at you, Jack Chick). The Gideons don't seem to have that problem. I notice that their Wikipedia page doesn't have any "controversy" or "criticism" section. All in all, it seems like a decent organization that just wants to spread the Christian message, and I can respect that.

Ughh... Gamespot's Greatest Gaming Hero contest. What a nightmare. Crawling with fanboys and trolls. And I was dumb enough to get involved in it and care.

Initially, I was rotting for Kyle Katarn. Then he lost to Lara Croft, somehow. Then I gave into peer pressure and joined the Bub and Bob and Gordon Freeman bandwagons.

Now I've lapsed into a state of apathy (probably due to my current boredom), and I seem to be writing this in an attempt to abate that.

On another note, I need to find a better way at dealing with the 'lows' I sometimes hit.

So, I'm going to college next year, and they have an opera program there. Next semester, they are doing Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Mikado," which is one of the most popular operas ever written. A silly farce with nice music. I highly recommend it.

Anyway, they hold the auditions a semester in advance, and so as I'm an incoming freshman, I went to audition.

I got cast in the title role. I feel good about myself now.

A strong case can be made for the argument that the internet is the world's strongest fortress for stupidity.

Well, stupidity is not the issue here, but more of a lack of class.

Twice now I have attempted to start a forum game based off of the famous song 'As Someday It May Happen' from Gilvert & Sullivan's comic opera 'The Mikado.' I put the entirety of the song lyrics, and come up with a verse of my own as an example, and say, 'now you try!'

Nobody got it. One person was doing thought it was 'like that freestyle rap thread.' Three people rick-rolled me. One person started using a pop band as a basis for the thing, and when I informed him about how it's based off of a particular song, he said, 'well you should have been more specific.' Another person quoted him to agree.

I put the song title as the topic title. I posted the entirety of the original lyrics, with the exception of the N-word (substituted 'banjo' as is normally the case), and I wrote my own verse. How much more bloody specific do I have to be?

I'm almost positive that Pianist is the only person in Off-Topic who has ever even heard of Gibert & Sullivan, or familiar with their operas.

It's The bleeding Mikado. It's one of the most popular operas ever written. And instead it's all about pop bands or whatever here...

I bemoan the lack of class.

So is the first line of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's famous musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Based on the nineteenth-century legend of the demon barber who murdered his customers and, with the help of his assistant, Nellie Lovett, made them into meat pies. It opened on Broadway in 1979 starring Len Cariou in the title role and Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett. The show won eight Tony Awards, including best musical, best score, best book, best actor (Cariou), and best actress (Lansbury).

What makes the show so amazing? The score, plain and simple. The musical score for Sweeney Todd was composed by Stephen Sondheim, composer and lyricist for not only Sweeney Todd, but also for the musicals Assassins, Into the Woods, Follies, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sunday in the Park with George (for which he won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama), Passion, and A Little Night Music (ever heard the song "Send in the Clowns?" That's what it's from), and did lyrics for Gypsy and West Side Story.

But that's enough of harping on Sondheim's reputation. The actual score for Sweeney Todd is highly complex,operatic, even,and it makes heavy use of counterpoint, notably in the "Kiss Me Quartet," and leitmotif, notably in the eponymous ballad, and other recurring melodies.But I must be honest - the songs aren't "pretty" or "hummable," but they don't have to be. The music passes the drama perfectly, with the "Epiphany" being Sweeney's meltdown, "The Contest" being bombastic prattle, and the three "Johanna" songs, sung by Anthony Hope, Judge Turpin, and Sweeney. Anthony's is a love ballad, whereas Judge Turpin's is a Mea Culpa, and it's quite freaky, as he battles with his lust for his sixteen year-old war (such a creepy song that it was cut fron the original Broadway performance, though available on the cast recording). Sweeney's rendition is a soft lyrical piece that he sings as he slits the throats of his customers.

He's a murderer? Yes. It's a story about revenge. Sweeney is out for revenge against the Judge shippedhim off tothe penal colonies of Australiaon a trumped-up charge, raped his wife, and adopted his daughter (possibly out of remorse). However, he snaps and decides to kill indiscriminantly until he can get back at the Judge and the Beadle. What follows is, well, I'm not giving any more spoilers.

The two most famous people to play the title role are Len Cariou, who originated the role on Broadway, and George Hearn, who replaced Cariou, and has been in two filmed versions: the 1982 touring cast with Angela Lansbury and in a later concert version with Patti Lupone. They are considered the best Sweeney's, though their approaches are different, and fans of the show are divided as to who is better.

Len Cariou won a Tony Award for the role, and his performance is on the Original Broadway Cast Recording. He portrayed Sweeney as somewhat more mild-mannered and more soft-spoken then Hearn, and thus is easier to sympathize with as an anti-hero. Unfortunately, it was his last great Broadway performance, as the part was so vocally demanding that it ruined his voice.

George Hearn won an Emmy for his portrayal, and he is clearly a better singer than Len Cariou was. His portrayal was a bit less subtle than Cariou's, and his performance of the "Epiphany" is very effective. Personally, I find him a bit over-bearing, but he is certainly a better singer, and considering that this musical has more singing than dialogue, that's not much of a problem.

Also, Tim Burton is directing a movie version, starring Johnny Depp in the title role, Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin, and Sacha Baron Cohen as Adolfo Pirelli, a pompous rival barber. The movie is set for nationwide release on December 21.