I have “Giants in the Sky” in my head. This morning I went on a Sondheim binge and downloaded a bunch of Into the Woods and Sweeney stuff. It makes me want to watch Into the Woods very, very, very badly, but 1) our VCR doesn’t quite work and 2) it’d be best to wait until after the guests leave since they might not fancy it. Though they like musicals, so who knows.

Things I’m worried about:

* car insurance - it’s so expensive…I’m so spoiled that I’ve never had to worry about it till now :(

* car repairs - they were far more expensive than I had anticipated (I wanted to pay $500…the total cost was over $1,000 for only half of what was needed), and Adriann’s grandma wrote out a check for everything so I can’t very well make minimum payments ;_; I appreciate her effort but it puts me in an awkward spot and makes me very, very anxious

* Adriann - I know she’ll be okay, but she has so much stress right now that I think it’s draining her

* credit card payments - I paid off my car so that my dad wouldn’t have control over it, but that was before I realized I’d have to deal with all the stuff above, so now I have that $2,000 to pay off

*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh* I am just so ready for the world to end.

It does make me sad to know he died. :( I dunno…he was just doing all these awesome things and set to do some really great movies, really expanding his roles as an actor. I dunno, Adriann and I were talking about it, and it’s just so terrible that people who aren’t ruining their lives with drugs and alcohol have to die, while people who ruin their lives with that stuff are still doing all that crap, not caring for anybody else or even themselves. I’m not saying I’d like all people who do drugs/alcohol/etc to die - I’m just saying it wouldn’t be a surprise to hear that Britney Spears died of an overdose or something, while it’s a real shock that someone who was set to do wonderful things just…died.

I guess the suddenness of it is the worst. Who was expecting this? :(

I’m even more excited to see Batman now.

You’ll be missed, Heath. :’(

It was good.

Nuff said! It was super enjoyable, quirky, and really dark and morbid. So awesome. Final scene = phenomenal.

And  Tim Burton did amazing things with blood. I dislike gore really, and this wasn’t true gore I don’t think, but it was cool. I love the girl’s voice who played Johanna. She was like a little bird. ^^

Johnny Depp was also honestly VERY good as Sweeney. I was a little worried his singing would get in the way, but he did a great job. His voice was actually rather cool. I wouldn’t mind hearing him do more musicals, especially if he gets to slit people’s throats all the time. Heh. He made Sweeney pretty hot.

Adriann’s ipod got stolen today while we were watching August Rush in the theater. That was actually the only bad thing about today (okay, my dad also emailed me, which didn’t exactly make me smile).

We got off work at 1pm, which was phenomenal! I wasn’t expecting it so that made it even better. We went to Ruby’s Diner for lunch and then drove up to see August Rush, which wasn’t really all that great in my opinion. Amazing music, yeah, but the story wasn’t so great. Pretty cheesy to me.  When I voiced this opinion to Adriann, she said, “Cheesy?? And you want to see Enchanted?” ;) touche.

Happy Thanksgiving, Jackie, Vickie, Jenn, Deana, Angel, Heather, Valerie, and anybody else who reads this little blog.

Last night, Adriann and I joined Deana and her gal Lauren and Ben and Deana’s cousin (a triple date!) down at the Grove to see Across the Universe. I had really been looking forward to it, even though we had to drive all the way into LA to find the right theatre. It was just…beyond worth it.

I know it’s getting horrible reviews (I just read one) and some of what’s said is definitely true. The review I read mentioned how the director was extremely literal (”Strawberry Fields” comes to mind, where Jude — yes, of “Hey, Jude” fame — pins strawberries to a wall) and sort of missed out on what could have been an awesome sentiment about the current state of the world. He said it was “far removed” from 2007 and very much stuck in its era, though I honestly don’t see what’s wrong with that. I know it’s fashionable to draw parallels between Vietnam and Bush’s stupid war, but at the same time, it was really moving to see a different time. It really just made me feel hopeless, watching the scenes of Vietnam, and I was smart enough to connect the dots by myself instead of having the director do it for me. So to me, it’s okay.

The lieralness did get to me a bit. Only when several lines from the movie were direct Beatles’ song quotes (i.e. Prudence crawled in through an open window and Jude said, “She Came in Through the Window”).

Overall though, it was just lovely. I really adored listening to the singing and the way each song had a new sound. For example, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” wasn’t an up-beat pop tune but was a girl’s angsty lament about her unrequited love for a cheerleader. It was dark and weird and I loved it.

And as I touched on above, some of it was really brutal and terrifying. Thinking of war always makes my stomach clench, but watching one of the main characters suffer through Vietnam, watching all of his friends die around him, was almost too much. He was so young, and it just hit me that you really didn’t have a choice back then. If you were drafted, you went to war or went to jail. I’d like to think I’d go to jail for my morals, but if faced with that decision, I don’t know what I’d do. I guess sometimes women really don’t think about those kinds of things, because it’s not likely we’ll ever be drafted. Men I would think still have the chance to worry. I don’t envy them.

Anyway, that’s off topic. Another scene that hit me was their Vietnam protest. It was…eerie, actually, how much it resembled my experiences in protests over the Iraq War. The same people, the same chants, the same desperation and pain, the same images of people in body bags with white faceless faces… It was horrid but wonderful at the same time.

Adriann and I bought the soundtrack and listened to it on the way home. We’re hopefully going up to San Francisco for Yaoi Con from October 25th-29th, and I’m going to make a bunch of Beatles’ CDs so Deana can become a fan. ^_^ One step closer to making her like emo!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, not really.

I think this entry is done. I’m glad I’ve started posted again — oh crap, don’t want to jinx it!

So. While at Disneyland yesterday for Robert’s birthday, I came across something that really just shocked and excited me as much as the Phantom of the Opera movie did several years ago and possibly more.

SWEENEY TODD IS GOING TO BE RELEASED IN DECEMBER/JANUARY WITH JOHNNY DEPP AND ALAN RICKMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

::whew:: Excuse me while I explode. Depp is playing Todd and Rickman is playing the nasty Judge Turpin, which seems perfect actually, and even the dude who plays Wormtail is playing the weird Beadle character.

It’s really just overwhelming, and to share in my happiness, here is an awesome shot of Depp as Todd. Stephen Sondheim supports this movie, so I shall too!!

This is the most amusing thing I’ve ever seen and everyone should check it out ASAP.

I haven’t written in forever. I pretty much haven’t even looked at a home computer in several weeks. I guess the problem with them is that I’m online 8 hours a day at work, and in fact, that kind of takes the charm out of mine here at home. I still get on occassionally to check myspace (hadn’t done that in about a month though), this journal, and greatestjournal because of Jackie, Vickie, and Jenn, but I just get bored easily with things online. I spend so much time at work browsing the net that it’s kind of meaningless when I get home. :\ Kind of sucks, but there you have it.

Adriann and I went to Vegas (again) for her birthday, and it was by far the best trip yet! Even though I had snot pouring out of my nose (literally) and couldn’t stop coughing long enough to eat breakfast, we saw the most amazing Cirque du Soleil show EVER. It’s called Ka, and we actually went to see it accidentally.

Long version: We wanted to see “O” and it was sold out for the entire weekend, so we made kind of a split-second, last-minute decision to see Ka, which we had also wanted to see anyway. We got up to the line to buy tickets and the lady was really nice and awesome. She told us each ticket would cost $137, so I shrugged and said, “Okay, that’s fine.” They were good seats, so no worries — we’d have paid the same for O, so we knew what was coming. Then, the lady gave me the receipt to sign, I signed, and she looked at me funny and said, “…Did you look at the receipt?” and I was like, “Oh no, I trust you! lol” thinking she was teasing that she could have charged us $500/ticket and we wouldn’t have noticed. She smiled and said, “No, take a look at the receipt” and passed it back to us.

The TOTAL price was $137. TOTAL!

I almost flipped out it was so awesome! Both tickets, about 10 rows from the front stage of Ka, and it cost us $70/ticket!! She said she gave us a “military discount” which was sooo friggin hysterical. Do we LOOK like we’re in the army? ~.^

The show itself was so incredible and would have been worth the $140 per ticket price. There were a couple things that stood out.

1. The entire show was about a twin prince and princess of this Japanese-style village. They were about 10 or so years old when a neighboring tribe executed their parents and city. They were separated. This guy who was I guess a servant to the boy prince went with him. They stopped because the boy injured himself and hurt his hand. As they stopped, this huge light cast a shadow on their forms against a cave wall. The servant took the boy’s hand and to make him stop crying he showed him how to make a shadow of a dog against the wall. I can’t even describe how amazingly romantic it was. Not sexually romantic, but just generally beautiful and fantastical. They made dogs, birds, and I can’t remember what else, but the whole thing was so fluid and exquisite. I couldn’t believe it was only made with their two pairs of hands!

2. The stage. I can’t describe it properly, enough to do it full justice, but it was on hydrolics I guess, so it could move up and down as needed but then also so it could raise 50 feet up and turn vertical. The performers used it as a flat stage, as a diagonal hill, and as a vertical mountain and cliff. They had a HUGE epic battle as it was raised veritically and that was perhaps the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. It looked like something out of an anime.

3. The romance. Now I mean it in the true sense of romance. ^^; The boy prince fell in love with the princess from the neighboring tribe (yeah, the one that tried to kill him!) and they ended up married. The evil dude who basically ran the neighboring tribe was in love with the princess and it was all so incredibly unrequited and ugh, just so sexy for lack of a better word. He had long black hair (looooong, down to his butt) and he was slender and really tall and lanky. uuuuuugh *_*. Anyway, the princess from the good tribe fell in love with a man she met in the Jungle; I think he was King/Prince there, but he saved her from dying so it was soooo sweet.

Okay, enough romancing. ^^;

Work is going extremely well. I’m a published author as of today. More of that to come!

High School Music 2? It was faaaaabulouuuuus (note: that is how it’s sung in the movie, heh) and Adriann and I bought the CD the next day after it came out and have been listening nonstop since. I just adore Troy/Gabriella now T__T; And Adriann and I both agree that the boy who plays Ryan and Zak Efron (?) are both incredible.

More later. The gf is here. =^___^=

Check it, ya’ll — Adriann, Deana, and myself made it into the newspaper for being dorks for last night’s HP:OotP release!

http://sgvtribune.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?userphoto=0&theway=next&picnum=4&image=15482561&thispage2=&return=#show

http://sgvtribune.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?userphoto=0&image=15482556&thispage=1

Tee-hee!

My review of the movie? It was good! VERY dark, but that was the best part about it. A lot was left out, including any effing explanation about Percy-kins!!! (ugh, he looked like such a prat T_T) and even young Lily wasn’t in it. There were some really amazing scenes, such as the battle at the Department of Mysteries and Sirius Black’s death. I…actually like Sirius in this movie, too, and Hitler!Remus was thankfully nowhere to be found.

Snape crying in a corner? Bloody brilliant.

My next post should be Adriann and Tiara’s Predictions for the 7th Book. We’ve been wanting to write it, and last night we decided we’d better do it before the book comes out.

Ugh, that’s next week. T_T I don’t want it to be overrrrrrrr. Plus, I have to read it in 1.5 days, because I’ll be leaving for Chicago on Sunday. :( ugh ugh ugh.

Nagini, our beautiful black kitten, looooves Pickle. And Pickle loooooves Nagini. All the awesome pics are on our digicam, and I don’t feel like getting up, so I’ll post some later, along with awesome videos of how adorable they are.

In other news…I missed Jackie and Vickie’s bday. :( It’s pretty much made me feel like crap…and I haven’t heard from them since, and I wouldn’t blame them if they’re mad at me, ’cause I would be too, but it’s kind of just felt terrible not hearing from them. I’ve realized lately that I have kind of separated myself from everyone back home. It’s so hard to keep in touch. With Jackie and Vickie, its’ great because even if we don’t know every single thing going on in our lives, we can still continue to connect. Or I hope so anyway, ’cause I am soooo excited about seeing them when I go to St. Charles to visit.

In other other news, Anime Expo is tomorrow! Believe it or not, I’ve never been to an anime convention! *gasp, SHOCK!* I’m dressing up as Severus Snape and Adriann’s gonna be Remus. I dyed my hair to fit the part. Enjoy angsting Snape:

 

Yes, my hair is muuuuuch longer now than it’s been since I was 18. I’d like to get it cut, but it works out well for Anime Expo!

More news: saw Ratitoulle (sp?) and it was FAN-TA-STIC. Seriously one of the best Pixar movies ever. It was just completely original and unlike anything they’ve (or anyone else) has ever made.

Okay, time for bed. :(

Adriann and I went on an impromptu trip to the movies to see PotC: AWE. lol That spells awe.

It was a little…off for me. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t what I saw. I liked it, I guess, to a certain extent, but at the same time, I feel like they turned the movies into something they never were meant to be. While I appreciated Davey Jones’ emotion (keep in mind, I’m in LOVE with Bill Nighy) for the sake of his character, I don’t think it fit. At all. I was disappointed to see him cry, because…well, I didn’t feel anything. I love when men cry, everyone knows that, so for me to say that it didn’t hit me is pretty big. And disappointing. :( Because Davey Jones crying = wonderful. It should have been powerful, but it fell flat.

Half the time during the movie I was lost, because I didn’t like the 2nd movie, so I was struggling to remember why this person was doing this and that person doing that. It was tangled and intangible, and I really don’t think I loved it.

I mean sure, I enjoyed it for seeing Bill Nighy and Johnny Depp and I even enjoyed Kiera Nightley more than I ever had before (except she was a h0r), but the movie aspect of it, the storyline that was SO phenomenal and unexpected in the 1st movie, was void of feeling for me.

I’ll probably change my mind later. Give me time to digest it.