Stay Tuned!

New, interesting, thought-provoking, occasionally ranting, sometimes fangirling posts coming REALLY soon. 

Just as soon as I find my brain.

Which will be very soon.

I hope.

I mean, it was here recently. I have a dim recollection of having amazing ideas for posts, and articles, and the drive to complete them.

Enter debilitating invisible illnesses rearing themselves for a week and POOF! my brain went into hiding. I now have the attention span of a four year old on pixie stix. I can barely finish a coherent thought let alone...

Have you noticed how incredibly hot and talented and all-around-geeky Tom Hiddleston is? Classically trained Super Actor who refers to Loki as 'cray cray,' gets himself memed all over the interwebs (Loki'd!), and will either rap Will Smith's "Miami" or recite monologues from Henry V on command.

Oh, and then there's this:

What was I talking about?
Ummm...
Oh yeah, I'm going to see APOCALYPTOUR in less than a week. Which might help get songs from Holy Musical, B@man out of my head... or just embed them deeper. *shrugs* Still doesn't make me regret having Supersnoop saying "You got a phone call, motherfucker," as my ringtone.

Wait... that wasn't what I was talking about...

Oh. Yeah.

Brain missing.

Hopefully not for much longer...

You think killing people will make them like you, but it doesn't; it just makes them dead.

It's been slow going with the progress of goals the past few days. LIFE (reality, not the game) intervened as it tends to do in August and threw BS at me which rendered me incapable of creative, productive thought. Then the most extraordinary thing happened: on a complete whim I decided the time had arrived for me to investigate a little stage show called "A Very Potter Musical." In between yelling at my cell carrier and cleaning and stressing out, I'd take 15-20 minutes to watch this gem in sections on YouTube. By the end of the weekend I'd watch both the original and the newly released "A Very Potter Sequel," and bought the soundtrack.
This is how obsession works for me: Find something to indulge in at the right time, come to love it within minutes, then devour it like a hungry, hardworking family at Thanksgiving dinner.
What kept me enraptured of this particular show wasn't just that it's produced by a group of students at U of M, or that Dumbledore, Ron and Harry are huge Zefron fans, or that the music is unexpectedly catchy and fun (though all these points make it totally awesome). What appeals most is the obvious love these people have for the Harry Potter world, and the complete unabashed bashing they do to it with such reverence and love. It's the ultimate in parody because it so obviously adores its source material -- and no one can make fun of anything so well as someone who loves it entirely. That kind of inspiration and cheek goes a long way in my world.
The music in the sequel is more advanced, though not always as catchy as tunes in the first. I found the original to be more satisfying and a little better written than the sequel, but still more than worthy of viewing. The absence of Hagrid is lamentable, though the Hulk-esque Goyle provides great comedic fodder. The cast overall is solid with a few standouts, namely Draco Malfoy in both shows, Quirrell and Voldemort in the first show, and Lucius Malfoy and Umbridge in the sequel (incidentally, the same actor plays Voldemort and Umbridge -- through the writing and his performance an amazing thing happens: you start to love both those horrid characters. Really love. And kind of want to molest make your cuddle bear lick from head to toe be close to...).

Overall, anyone who loves Harry Potter in a nice, safe way (i.e. you don't treat it as your bible) really should check this show out. Yeah, it's an 'amateur' show, but these amateurs are damn talented and dedicated -- and FUNNY. Very, very funny.
For final encouragement, I give you these four words: Death. Eater. Kick. Line.

Carrying the Banner

Oh yes, I geek out about more than just books and Dracula. See in my world, where snobbery gets shot down by mental snipers whenever it tries to peek out, there exists an unabashed fangirl of most things Disney. We're not just talking masterpieces like Sleeping Beauty, Mary Poppins and The Lion King. We're talking Oliver & Company, Lizzie McGuire and the cheesiest of the Disney Channel Original Movies (I'm looking at you, Brink). This includes everything in between, some of which I defend ("Phineas & Ferb") and some of which I will just say, "It's an entertaining train wreck." ("Hannah Montana" - thought I must state that a good portion of my amusement with this show stems from the fact that Jason Earles, who plays Hannah/Miley's brother, is older than I am... kudos, buddy.)
The other night I indulged in a Disney geek out of epic proportions - I saw Newsies, in a sold-out theatre, with a featured Q&A by director Kenny Ortega. Whether or not Ortega came to the show didn't factor in until after I already purchased the tickets. We're talking jailbait-era Christian Bale singing and dancing here, people. Nothing could keep me away from experiencing that on the big screen. Add to that the director/choreographer who got Bale to sing and dance, as well as being the choreographer for Dirty Dancing and the director of a certain cheesy Disney franchise which I do indulge in (shooting a snobbery peeker here) and, well, I would have walked from the West Side to Pasadena to see that.
After eighteen years in the vault, I have to say on the big screen Newsies impresses more than I thought it would. It's not great, but it is good. Story-wise it's quite solid and cinematically as a freshman directing endeavor it's ambitious in both scope and content. It's still Disney fluff, but it's good fluff. Fun fluff. Also, find another movie where Bale smiles as much as he does in this film -- It doesn't exist.
The benefit of seeing this screening wasn't just geeking out over Jailbait Bale and enjoying the movie on the big screen for the first time, it was the entertainment value of being in a packed theatre with other people who possess a similar, obvious love for this movie. This screening inspired me with the idea that Newsies should start a Rocky-Horror-style tour where you come dressed as your favorite character, sing along to the movie, dance in the aisles, yell back at the screen -- an elevated version of what occurred at this screening. This really is a movie that could benefit from audience interaction.
If this screening taught me anything, though, it's this: fluff movies that also inspire and instill hope are few and far between, and the lack of good, fun movies with this much hope are a contributing factor in the emerging cynicism of these young whipper-snappers of the late '90s-00s generation. Call it brainwashing, but I am one of the most cynical people I know. However, park me in front of a screen or TV and give me something fun, peppy, and emotionally uplifting and I turn (temporarily) into one of those perky, confident, hopeful, sing-songy heroines whose plucky persistence gets them through even the most troubling times. This lasts for about a day or two before I return to my curmudgeonly self, but while it's occurring life does seem more cheery and hopeful -- and THAT is something I think all of us could use a little more of in our lives.