Smash - Bombshell Songs

Okay, I know I need to do another recap post...I promise, I'll get to it soon. I thought I was going to have some stuff to write about, but it's been a bit boring lately. Well, not boring, just normal. But, I'll get something going soon.

For now, though, I did promise another post about Smash, and the songs written for the in-show musical, Bombshell, about Marilyn Monroe. First up, a song from one of the rehearsals, Don't Say Yes Until I Finish Talking, featuring Christian Borle.



Derek and Karen went behind everyone's backs to stage Touch Me, thinking that the show needed to explore a darker side of Marilyn's sexuality. As it turned out, everyone was so angry at them for going behind their backs that they canned the idea immediately. But I still like the song.



Don't Forget Me, from the season finale, was amazing. I just...there are no words. I'm really curious as to whether Ivy's really going to commit suicide or not. Ugh, I've gotta wait until next season...I hate cliffhangers.



And I really wasn't going to do four (and technically this isn't a Bombshell number), but the whole "Derek hallucinating Karen as Marilyn" thing was so hilarious and weird that I couldn't resist posting the video of Our Day Will Come.



I promise to post something that isn't TV, music, or movie-related soon. But, for now, enjoy all the pretty Smash songs that get stuck in my head...lol.

I Know I Haven't Posted In A While...

I really am sorry, guys. I am so behind on blogging, it isn't even funny. I know y'all will forgive me. It's seriously been busy, and I have no idea where to even begin, because I think the last time I blogged about something other than tv shows or movies or crap like that, and actually posted about my life, was almost a month ago. Again, a thousand apologies for the few of you who like to know what I've been up to.

Anyway, on to the recap. Well, if I can remember anything...it's all been a bit of a blur. We've been doing a lot of cleaning. Well, it's not really cleaning, it's more purging our house of all the crap we've accumulated over the sixteen years we've been here. It's amazing how much stuff one family can have. Seriously, we probably got rid of half the Christmas decorations in the attic, and there's still a ton up there. But, it's all stuff that we've used, or Mom's planning on using in the apartment, so I guess that makes it okay. Jeannie's offered to store our holiday stuff at her house, so we don't have to try and fit it all in the apartment, which is really nice of her.

So, the Christmas stuff has been sorted through, I currently have a couple of boxes of stuff in the attic that made the first cut (but may or may not make the second cut when I come back to it later on), and my closet has been sorta cleaned and decluttered. Not really...again, it's amazing how much crap I have. I am really gonna have to scale back before we move.

We had a yard sale at Jeannie's on the 28th, and we sold a decent amount of stuff. And then, we turned right back around and had a yard sale at our house this past weekend, and sold quite a bit more. We got rid of the two giant holiday nutcrackers (seriously, they were, like, four or five feet tall and really heavy), the light up, plastic nativity set (you know, for the yard), the red couch we had in the basement (which we sold for $10 to our next-door neighbor...the girls were having a sleepover, and one of the friends that was over bought it, because she and her single mom are in dire straights and have no furniture. My mom was hesitant to give it to them, because there's a rip in the armrest, and it was kinda dirty, but the girl said her mom could sew something to put over it, and that she thought her mom would love it, so our neighbor bought it for her).

And we sold Quinn's Razor electric scooter, and the treadmill (which sucks because I really needed to do some more running and get in better shape for the summer), and a couple of sets of shelving from the garage, and a bunch of clothes, and a bunch of board games, and all kinds of stuff. And we made a decent amount of money from it, and we called over to Etc. (we consigned some clothes) to see if we had any money 'on our account' (aka, if anything of ours sold), and there was quite a bit more money than we had expected. So, it appears that we can go up to Buffalo for 4th of July...yay!

My dad signed the listing for the house, so the photographer is coming next Monday to take pictures, and then we'll list the house. So, if you know anyone looking for a house, send them our way. Lol. Which leads me to today's activities...aka, starting to streamline my room so that it looks nice and clean for the photographer and any showings we may get. Today involved clearing off my bookshelves and boxing up any that I want to sell at Edward McKay. I ended up with about two boxes full. My plan is to repaint one of our old bookshelves (which we used to have in the basement) as a summer project, and use it in my room at the apartment, but it's significantly smaller than the one my dad built into my room, so I scaled down from 115 inches of books (five 23-inch shelves) to around 80 inches (which is still a bit much for my four 19-inch shelves on the aforementioned bookcase, but my mom said we'll have some space elsewhere, so I'm good).

We just finished our end-of-year testing this afternoon, so the school year is starting to come to an end. Although, I'll probably be working on lecture dvds for most of the summer, just to keep busy. I just started my last two-week world religion unit (on Islam), and then, maybe I'll move on to philosophy or economics or something. Also, I'm totally jealous of all you prom-goers out there. I've seen every one of your pictures, and y'all look gorgeous in your dresses and suits and I'm simultaneously sad that I don't get the opportunity and happy that I don't have to find a dress or a date. So, yeah, thought you should know.

Also, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Have not read the book (really need to, as well as the other two books in the trilogy), but saw the movie and loved it. Rooney Mara...oh my gosh, she was just amazing. Everybody kept going on and on about how how disgusting or how heartbreaking or how hard to watch the rape scenes were, but oddly enough, I thought they were rather tastefully done in the cinematic sense, when you consider the dark subject matter. And she got her revenge on the guy, which was awesome. (Also, it has now occurred to me that I can go see R-rated movies at the movie theater without a parent or guardian...hello, freedom! Haha, just kidding.)

Um, not much else going on. Went to Hutch & Harris and the movie theater with my aunt a few nights ago. Saw Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, which was really cute. I ended up wearing my blue high-low dress with the tan crochet vest over it, tan purse, and tan/silver sandals. We were walking out of Hutch & Harris, and some random lady, who was sitting at one of the outdoor tables, actually took the time to say, "I like your outfit," to me, which was about the awesomest thing ever.

And that's really about it for now. I promise I'll be posting more often, now that all this yard sale madness is over.

TV Is My Life...

Okay, so new obsession time. Currently, it's two things - Downton Abbey (okay, so technically, I'm in withdrawal and will be until January when the new season starts) and Smash, NBC's show about the trials and tribulations of creating a Broadway musical. Now, I can't claim to be an expert on the show, nor can I claim to be a long-time fan, because I just recently started watching whole episodes. I'd been catching glimpses of it every once in a while, but I finally started really watching it a few weeks ago.

I'm not particularly fond of any character. Karen is too naive, Dev is too distant and brooding, Ellis is annoying, Ivy is really bitchy, and Uma Thurman's character, Rebecca Duvall is just manipulative and one crazy lady. Although, I have a soft spot for Derek, played by Jack Davenport, I think either because of the British accent or the fact that he played Commodore Norrington in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. And Tom, played by this guy named Christian Borle, is pretty sweet.

But what I really watch for are the musical numbers. They normally alternate between a song that is being used for the musical, and one that happens in 'real life'. Lately, there have been some really good ones. Particularly, Cheers (Drink to That) performed by Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty.



And from a more recent episode, Katharine McPhee's cover of "Run" by Snow Patrol.



And this amazing Bollywood number that appeared out of nowhere. I love how they used all the characters portraying the lyrics in the little vignettes.



Of course, all three of these are 'real life' songs...okay, so maybe "A Thousand and One Nights" is technically a dream/daydream sequence, but whatever...maybe next time, I'll cover some of the songs being used for the musical.

And I promise I'll have a real, this-is-what-I'm-doing post up soon. We've just been so busy lately - getting ready to put the house on the market, yard sale last weekend, another yard sale this weekend, cleaning the house, etc, etc that I haven't had the time to get anything posted. I've also completely lost my creativity, which means I haven't been able to write anything, blog or story, for a while, and I've currently got two video projects sitting half-finished in Sony Vegas, and a bunch of ideas for other ones I want to try to make. But, I've really got to finish the ones I have going first, and with my creativity out the window, I'm kinda stuck.

Just A Real Quick Post...

Okay, short, teeny-tiny post because I'm busy, but I thought I'd share this.

My dad met B.o.B. yesterday.

105.7 had this live webchat & performance thing to promote B.o.B.'s new album, Strange Clouds, releasing May 1st. My dad knew one of the guys managing the event, and the guy asked if he wanted to come, and my dad said yes. So, he ended up taking some pictures for 105.7's photo gallery, and got to see the live webchat and the performance in person.

I was streaming it online at home, and the interview was good. Some funny moments & neat stories. (I had no idea he was born here in Winston-Salem.) The performance was a little disappointing because they only did two songs, and neither were recognizable, at least on the mainstream/played-on-the-radio level. I really wanted to hear "So Good", since it's the first single on the new album, and I think it would have been cool to hear it acoustic. But whatever.

And apparently, everyone there got to take pictures with him, and my dad brought my brother and I autographed posters, which was awesome.

Finally Getting Something Done...

Okay, so I realize it's been almost two weeks since I last posted something. And I know my excuse is always that I've been busy, and this time, I really do mean it. It's been a crazy couple of weeks...

So, we've been cleaning our house. We had a ton of stuff up in the attic that needed to be looked through and gotten rid of, so my mom and I have gone through the Christmas stuff, the Halloween stuff, the Easter stuff, boxes of junk, some of my stuff, and a bunch more. And we're getting rid of a lot of stuff. Quite a bit of it is trash, but we're consigning a lot of the clothes, and making a pile in the garage of stuff we're going to yard-sale. We're doing one on the 28th with my mom's friend/co-worker at her house, so we're carting some stuff over to Lewisville. We'll probably have another one in May at our house, to try and sell what didn't get bought at Jeannie's.

We had a realtor come over last night & look at the house. So, hopefully, we'll get some prospective buyers, because I think my mom wants to move out by the fall. I still need to go through a lot of my stuff, probably put some stuff for the yard sale, some to the trash, consign some clothes, sell some books at Edward McKay, and the list goes on and on. So, I've been busy cleaning pretty much every day this week.

Let's see, what else? Um, we've seen a couple of good movies recently. Johnny English Reborn was, surprisingly, pretty funny, A Dangerous Method was interesting, but kinda anti-climatic, and Tower Heist was just hilarious. Other than that, well, it's really just been the cleaning and the occasional Netflix movie. Quinn's moved his Xbox 360 out to the living room, so he's been playing Skyrim nonstop on the big tv, which is interesting.

I promise I'll get something better written soon, but right now, I'm really tired for some reason, and can't come up with anything to write. :)

The Hunger Games...

So, I know I should have gotten to this sooner. I've been really busy lately. Anyway, here's a quick review (well, more of a nit-pick) of The Hunger Games, because I promised, and I try not to break promises.

District 12 was definitely not how I pictured it. I mean, I knew it was supposed to be in the Appalachian mountain region, and I knew it was filmed in North Carolina, but I wasn't expecting Hick-town, USA, wooden shacks, and that sort of stuff. I was expecting more of a gray-ish feel to everything, what with the coal dust and stuff.

The Reaping was so intense for me. My heart was literally beating so fast, which was so dumb because I knew the outcome, but oh gosh, it was just heartbreaking. I thought Jennifer Lawrence did a really good job with the emotions during the Reaping and the scenes in the city hall building with her mother and Prim and Gale. I think it would have been too cheesy for her to have been crying, but she showed just enough emotion that it felt real, like she was in shock from the whole thing.

The Capitol felt weird to me. It was like it was high-tech, but really bland-looking. Like, I thought, if the citizens dress so crazily, maybe the buildings would reflect the same thing. The Training Center and the 12th floor...well, I kinda thought the same thing. They were a little...too simple, too streamlined, but as I think about it, they might be growing on me.

I loved the relationship between Cinna and Katniss. I enjoyed every scene of them together. The costumes...well, I didn't particularly like the chariot outfit. I think the flames looked really fake and kinda cheesy. Plus, it really annoyed me that they messed with Katniss' hair. In the book, Cinna wanted to keep it in the single braid so that the audience would recognize her in the arena. The interview outfit was pretty good. The flames looked more realistic that time. I really wish they had put all the tributes on the stage at once, and that would have put more focus on Katniss' reaction to Peeta's declaration of love.

I loved the scene where she shoots the arrow into the apple in the pig's mouth. The way she said her lines... "Thank you for your consideration." was perfect. Haymitch's reaction (the thumbs up) was awesome, all while Effie's sitting there fretting and criticizing Katniss for doing something like that.

The transport plane/helicopter was really neat, and I loved the scene between Cinna and Katniss in the prep room under the arena. The whole countdown scene was amazing, but I really had a problem with the Cornucopia. It was way too modernized for me. The bloodbath was really well done. They kept it from being too gory, which was a good thing. The forest in the arena was a bit different than I had imagined, but it was still cool. I had imagined Katniss sleeping differently in the tree...I thought she laid down in the sleeping bag and belted herself to the branch, not leaned up against the trunk, but that's a minor detail.

The wall of fire was insane. Seriously kept me on the edge of my seat. The fireballs were pretty awesome, too. I felt so bad when she got burned, and I loved the scenes of Haymitch trying to drum up sponsors for her in her time of need. The parachutes were really nothing like I expected. I thought they'd be cloth, not metal mesh, and the beeping really bugged me because that would immediately give away your location to anyone in the vicinity of the noise.

The Careers were nothing like I expected. They were too playful, too goofy. I expected cold-blooded killers, not people who chased Katniss through the woods screaming and laughing and taunting. Um, hello, there are other tributes...you might want to be a little more concerned about how much noise you make, even if you are Careers and everybody's scared of you.

The tracker jacker's were pretty neat, though I thought the choppy-skippy camera stuff was a bit stupid. Just give us the visions described in the book. I want ants boring into people's eyeballs...lol. Rue was so cute, taking care of Katniss while she was out, and asking about her and Peeta. That was adorable. The whole blowing-up of the food pile was pretty awesome, though I really wanted more of Cato's reaction...mainly the pounding the ground with his fists, but whatever. Oh my gosh, Rue's death was so sad...she was so tiny and innocent and so not meant to die and then Katniss sang, and I was, like, awww, that so does not make it better, but in some crazy way, it kinda does.

Peeta's camouflage was nothing like I expected. Of course, that stems from the fact that I assumed it was a stream...maybe five, ten feet wide at the most, not a full-fledged river, and that the rocks were more like boulders instead of big, flat rocks. I expected him to be sort of submerged in mud and covered in leaves and little rocks and stuff...so for me, the whole, "let's paint my own face to look like the rocks, even though I don't have a mirror to see what I'm doing" thing really annoyed me. Although, I should admit, I do get annoyed easily.

The other thing that bothered me was the fact that it wasn't raining during the time when Peeta and Katniss were in the cave. But, again, it was so minor I was probably the only one who noticed it. The Feast was good, because after all the kissing and storytime and nursing back to health stuff, I was in need of a bit more blood and gore. Because I'm cool like that.

The nightlock scene was decent, but I wished they had focused on exactly why Peeta and Katniss were heading back to the lake...aka the Gamemakers drying up all the other water sources. Speaking of Gamemakers, I loved every single control room scene, seeing the sort of 'behind the scenes' action was awesome. And the interview bits with Caesar Flickerman were nice, too.

So, on to the mutts. I didn't find them very scary, actually. I think because it was night (um, why did they change the whole scene to night?) and you really couldn't see them that well. Also, we all hated that the mutts chased Peeta and Katniss through the woods, because we all really wanted to see Cato come running past the two of them without even trying to kill them. The battle was pretty good, though, but I found the berry scene kinda boring. I wish they would have at least started to put them in their mouths or something.

I really wanted the helicopter scene, but I guess since they didn't make such a big deal about Peeta's leg (they never mentioned him having it amputated, so I guess it didn't happen), they didn't need the helicopter scene. The final interview was good, though I wished they would have matched Peeta and Katniss' outfits like they did in the book. The train scene was nice, and overall, I came out of the theater satisfied, and I cannot wait until November 2013 when Catching Fire releases!

My Life Kinda Feels Like A Soap Opera Right Now...

Right so, I'm back again. Just thought I'd get something written while I can. I'll try not to make it too depressing and whatever.

So, I checked a couple of days ago, and I didn't win any of the seven raffle spots for tickets in that writing contest. But, that's alright. As I've said before, I'm pretty proud that I ended up in the top twenty. Quite an accomplishment for me.

My dad came over a couple of days ago (Thursday, I think) and took Quinn and I out to the park and talked with us for a while. Which was...well, depressing. Divorce is not a pretty thing, I'm not gonna lie. But, we talked, and basically, we're going to try and sell the house, and my mom, brother, and I will move into an apartment, probably in the late summer or early fall, which I've known about for a while. We've been looking around at apartments for a month or so now, and I think we've settled on The Arbors, off Country Club Road, which is a good mix of affordability and location.

And we talked about having to figure out what to do with Quinn's snake, since he won't be able to take that with him when we move, and he really hasn't been taking care of it at all since my dad moved out. So, he's going to keep it at my grandmother's until either he or Quinn gets bored with it, whichever comes first.

My dad also informed us (well, I've technically known for a while now...my mom has difficulty keeping things to herself) that he's developed a close friendship with our boss at Catered Affairs, Rebecca. He says that it's just a friendship, but my mom thinks otherwise, and she apparently feels uncomfortable with me working with her, so she and my dad came to the decision that I can't work at Catered Affairs anymore. So, essentially, I have no say in the matter, and it's all over and done with, and until I'm eighteen and can make the decision for myself or my mom changes her mind (again, whichever comes first), I can't work there. Which kinda sucks, because I earned quite a lot from working the football games in the fall.

So, technically, Wednesday was my last day at work. I got called in to work a lunch, which basically involved icing down the drinks, bussing tables, and then hanging around with David and Preston in the kitchen while the speaker was presenting, and then breaking down the buffet, eating, cleaning the kitchen, waiting some more, prepping for a small meeting in the bar area, and then cleaning up. I ended up getting in five and a half hours of work, which will make a decent final paycheck.

Okay, now I'm done with the dark and depressing for the time being. So, Pretty Little Liars. Oh my gosh, the season finale...wow. Totally knew Mona was 'A'...they were featuring her way too much for it to have been any kind of shock, and besides, it was Mona in the books. But, it was still neat to see it play out. Also, Aria and Ezra are kinda my favorite couple right now...I literally started bouncing up at down in my seat during this scene, which, by the way, includes one of my favorite songs.



So yeah. Um, other than that, nothing much has been going on. Just chilling out, watching some movies, and oh! Seeing The Hunger Games tomorrow! Yes! I'm so excited! Be prepared for a major recap/analysis post within the next few days...lol. Okay, I think that's about it for now. I'll be back soon.