What I'm Listening To

Hi whoever is reading this!:-)
Over the last few days I have listened to some albums that have really blown me away so I'm going to rave over them here.

The first is Ever After by Marianas Trench. I've liked a few of their songs for awhile but they are not the best band in the world or anything, in my humble opinon( that spot is taken now and forever by The Beatles). However, my cousin lent me Ever After and I have to say it is really brilliant.

It's very different from MT's previous stuff. I've heard it described as techno-y and it kinda is but that doesn't really describe it. It's unique. In the album notes there is a story about a girl named Porcelain trapped in a toy factory by an evil Queen and how a guy comes to her rescue(see Wikipedia for a much better explaination :-) ). The songs kinda follow this story line. The whole thing is a little like a musical. The first song, Ever After, introduces a meldoy that is woven through the entire album.The last song, No Place Like Home, is the grande finale where bits and pieces of almost all the other songs are woven together. All of the songs flow together as one so you don't really get the whole effect unless you listen to the album all at once. My favourite slow song is definitely Porcelain but my favourite up tempo song is a toss up between Fallout and Stutter.

This album is soooo good! There is just one thing left to be said: And they lived happily ever after. The end...

The other album I'm loving this week is the Smash soundtrack. Kathrine McPhee and Megan Hilty are soooo incredibly talented! I especially love Who You Are. One of the things I love about this album is the mixture of covers and original songs. The musical numbers like The 20th Century Fox Mambo are so much fun and Let Me Be Your Star is just plain awesome! The whole thing is definitly worth a listen. 

Things That Make You Go GRRRRRRR!

Have you ever been super excited to get tickets to a concert? Have you ever been all ready to get tickets as soon as they go on sale only to find the show is already SOLD OUT!?! I have and it's one of the most annoying things in the entire world!

And what makes it even more annoying is that a huge chunk of those tickets go to radio stations and promotional companies. How unfair is that? The rest of us hardly even get the chance to get a hold of tickets because they are already taken by big companies.

Radio stations then "give away" free to tickets but we all know what the chances of actually winning those tickets are. I was listening to a station today that was giving away free tickets to the first person who called in, but there was a catch. You had to put the phone in the dryer and if the call wasn't dropped than you got the tickets. Who even thought of that? That's beyond stupid!!!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Has anyone else ever had this problem?

One Direction Infection!!!

Hiiiiiiiiii! I know it's been awhile since I've written but I haven't really been inspired and I didn't want to bore you by rambling about nothing :-( But now I actually have something to ramble about! Yay! The topic? One Direction.

I'm well aware that those two words will cause squeals from some and groans from others but hear me out before you jump to conclusions. I'm not going to lie, I'm definitely on the squealing side of this argument. I can't help it! I've never been the type to like music just because it's popular(sorry, Justin Bieber!) so I can honestly say I don't think One Direction is awesome because everyone else thinks so. I think 1D is awesome because they are really,really talented...alright...also because the really, really cute and BRITISH! But that is beside the point.;-p.

One Direction( Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Harry Styles,Zayn Malik and Niall Horan) came third on The X Factor last year but in many ways they were the real winners. They all originally entered as solo artists but were later put in a group in order to move on in the competition. Some people think this is a negative thing but I think it just goes to show how talented they really are.

Their first album Up All Night came out here in North America on March 13 and since then I've listened to it about a million times. They have a really unique sound, in my humble opinion. There is a good mixture of upbeat, dance songs and slower ballads. It's one of those albums that you can listen to whatever mood you are in. My favourite song is What Makes You Beautiful. It's just really catchy and fun and makes me wish that summer would just hurry up and get here already! I also really like One Thing, Tell Me a Lie, Stole My Heart, Moments...okay pretty much every song. I can honestly say there isn't a song on Up All Night that I don't like. At first I didn't like Gotta Be You as much as some of the other ones but now it has really grown on me. In fact, the more I listen to the whole album the more I like it.

There is another reason why I like 1D so much...here it goes... they remind me of The Beatles. I know, I know. Can you even compare the two? Well, yes. You can. Of course ,they're both British. That one is obvious. But it's more than just that. Their sense of humour and the easiness between them reminds me of The Beatles in the early days. Even thought the boys of 1D  didn't know each other before The X Factor they are obviously good friends now and love to joke around and have a laugh. The Beatles were the same way. All you need to do is watch the interview scene in A Hard Day's Night to see that(Reporter: What do you call that haircut? George: Arthur). When you watch the video diaries that One Direction did while on The X Factor you really see they're sense of humor, which isn't wildly different from The Beatles(Question: What's your favourite pick-up line? Louis: Will you marry me? Harry: Simple, but effective.)

The Beatles and One Direction are a bit similar musically too. They both use harmonies in similar ways and the beginning of I Want sounds an awful lot like the beginning of Good Day, Sunshine.

I really, really hope that we hear more from One Direction in the future and they don't just fizzle out like so many artists seem to. Until then, make sure you have a listen to Up All Night!                                              

   

Re-tellings: Good or Evil?

 I have been on a major Shakespeare kick of late, in case you haven't noticed lol. But this time (it's a re-occurring thing) I've discovered a lot of really cool re-tellings of Shakespeare's plays that I thought I would share here.

I have to start out by saying that not all re-tellings are created equal. Some can be clumsy and more than a little ridiculous. But some are actually really brilliant and thought provoking. Falling for Hamlet by Michelle Ray is a case in point.

The book is told from the point of view of Hamlet's on-again-off-again girlfriend Ophelia. And it is set in modern times. Not gonna lie, I was a little skeptical about the whole thing.But I gave it a shot and I'm glad I did. Ophelia was a very likable , feisty sort of character but she wasn't one sided. She was genuinely torn between her father and Hamlet and it seemed very real. I also found Hamlet likable, surprisingly enough. I felt bad for him.

What surprised me most about this book was how intense it was. I mean, I've read the play and everthing but I was expecting this book to be fluffier somehow. It kept me on the edge of my seat, rooting for the characters. It sticks pretty close to the play which is good but it also makes it rough at times because some of the dialouges and situations don't quite fit in the modern settings. That is easily forgiven, though, becauuse some things are explained better in this verision. For example the scene where, in the play,
Ophelia( driven mad by all the crazy stuff going on around her) confronts Queen Gertrude and King Claudius with  basket of flowers and crazy limericks. In this version, this is explained by a depression induced drinking binge. Quite frankly, I find this more believeable than the original she's-crazy-all-of-the-sudden expalination.

The relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia is really heart breaking. They are really cute in the beginning and when everything spirals into maddness it's really sad. Ophelia is faced with hating Hamlet for killing her family  and still loving the person he was before her world fell apart.
This book is so great!

Oh where to start? I LOVE THIS BOOK!!! I'm not kidding. It's fanatastic!
O,Juliet by Robin Maxwell is the best kind of re-telling. It's based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, for the record:-) It takes place in Florence around the same time as the original. The story is based around Juliet Capelletti, the spirited daughter of a well-off silk merchant and Romeo Monticecco , the son of her enemy. Of course the two meet and fall completely, head-over-heels in love.

What I like about Maxwell's Juliet is she is a little older than Shakespeare's(18) and she is well educated and VERY opinionated but still seems young and full of life at the same time. In Maxwell's version Juliet finds her equal in Romeo, and that -along with a healthy dose of phyisicial attraction- is what draws the two so closley together.

I've always wondered what exactly was going on in the heads of the characters and this book answers that perfectly. It filled in all the gaps. But this book isn't a perfect mirror of Shakespeare's play and it isn't meant to be. The story of Romeo and Juliet was in existence long before the famous play and the book draws on these as well. A perfect example is the ending. The lover's reunite one last itme before the poison the Romeo took prior to Juliet's waking takes effect. It's one of the most beautiful and heart breaking things I have ever read. You just need to read it!

And finally...

Dude, this movie is awesome! 10 Things I Hate About You is a re-telling of Shakespeare's The Tameing of the Shrew. This definitly the right way to do a re-telling! It sticks close enough to the original that you can definitly see the similarities but not so much that the story line seems out of place in the modern setting, which takes place at a highschool. And it's hilarious! I hate to say it but I liked Katarina more in this version than Zefferelli's. Kat seemed smart and sarcastic in this version as oppsed to just miserable.




If you are a little weary of Shakespeare you should check these out-they might even inspire you to check out the original.

Look What I Found!

I found this song on Youtube last night so I just thought I would share! I haven't heard this in forever!

Guess Who Got Netflix!?!

If you guess yours truly, then you're right! It's so cool! And it's free right now because I'm doing the free month trial. So what have I watched?

Where the Heart Is

This was one of those movies I saw on TV one time and really liked and then forgot about. I'm really glad that I rediscovered it! Natalie Portman plays Novalee Nation, a pregnant teen is abandoned by her boyfriend at a Wal-Mart in Oklahoma, where she eventually gives birth. It sounds weird but it's really touching.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Last Monday I watched the new show Smash,which is about the process of making a musical about the life of  Norma Jean Baker a.k.a Marilyn Monroe. It inspired me to watch this movie the next day. This was my first Marilyn Monroe movie and I really enjoyed it. it was just a fun movie. The plot wasn't intense or anything but it was very entertaining.

Much Ado About Nothing

I heard about this movie awhile ago but I couldn't find it anywhere-so I was excited that it was on Netflix. It is-of course- based on Shakespeare's play and has an all-star cast. Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves are all in this movie as well as Kate Beckinsale in her first role( don't quote me on that!) I think it is set a couple hundred years after Shakespeare wrote it but other than that it is pretty true to the play. The verbal sparring match between Beatrice and Benedick is hilarious!

The Taming of the Shrew

This movie stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and was directed by Franco Zefferelli, who directed Romeo and Juliet in 1968. Need I say more?

That's it for now. Check back for more reviews because I'm definitely going to watch more movies!





What's on My Mind: R and J Edition

So I watched the 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet again last night ( Shakespeare and Milk Duds...life is good! :-) ) and it made me SUUUUUPPPEER excited for the NEW R and J that is supposed to be released sometime this year, maybe next year. Did you know there was going to be a new one? Yup, there is and it's about time. It's been 15 or 16 years since the last film version.

Hailee Steinfeld of True Grit fame is playing Juliet which seems like a good choice to me. She's the right age and I thought she looked like Olivia Hussey even before I heard the new movie was coming out. Don't you think so?

Douglas Booth is playing Romeo. I've never seen him and anything but it looks like he will fit the part.

I read that it's going to be a classic version which is awesome because it's been a really long time since the last one. I can't even begin to describe to you how excited I am about this!!! I definitely wasn't around in 1968 and I was only 3 in 1996 so this will be the first movie version of R and J that I will be able to see in the theatre. That's so cool!

One of the things I'm most curious about is how much of the original play they will use. For example the infamous balcony scene.

Balcony scene in the 1968 Romeo and Juliet



Balcony scene in the 1996 Romeo and Juliet

They are obviously different. But even though the 1996 version uses more of the original scene, neither of them uses the scene in it's entirety. Will the newest version? And there's other scenes in the play that are skipped altogether in both versions. Will they be used?

Guess we'll have to wait and see...

P.S How do you like the new layout? I'll be changing according to my mood. :-)