Monday, September 27, 2010

Nowhere Girl

Around this time last week I found out that I (and a guest) was invited to the top secret premiere of the John Lennon biopic NOWHERE BOY, which was Tuesday night. My first thought was ”OHHH famous people and playing dress up!” “awesome! I’ll review it for my blog!” however, Lauren (who was my plus one because who else would say yes to “Want to go to a movie premiere in less than 24 hours? dress formal”) beat me to the punch and did a bang up job reviewing it on her blog so I’m just going to bring over some of that.

Nowhere Boy is the brilliantly shot, written, and performed biopic of John Lennon’s early life. Before I get into the movie (and the premier) I must give credit to some very important people involved in this film. Sam Taylor-Wood’s direction of the film is beautiful. Matt Greenhalgh’s screenplay brought Julia Baird’s (John’s younger half-sister) memoir to film wonderfully. Aaron Johnson becomes a young John Lennon; I can see a promising career in his future. Kristin Scott Thomas and Anne-Marie Duff are also brilliant as John’s aunt and mother. I could not recommend this film more highly, everyone involved in the film are flawless.

The film is the heartbreaking story of John Lennon’s early life. He was raised by his aunt Mimi and didn’t really know his mother until he was in his teens. He started to get to know his mother and become close with her and suddenly she was hit by a car and killed. It was one of the most brilliantly shot and heartbreak scenes I’ve ever seen. Julia is walking down the street with a smile on her face after leaving her sister’s house, they had started reconciling at John’s urging, she meets one of John’s band mates, and he tells her they’ve got a new gig. The sun is shining on a beautiful fall day; Julia is smiling as she crosses the street when BAM a car smashes into her and drives off. The camera pans over to the sun shining through trees and then the sky turns grey, then we see Julia lying dead in the street. It was such a powerful scene it just hit you, everyone in the theater jumped out of their seats.


So since I don’t have the movie to review, I figured it would be fun to blog about some of the fun things about the day. After debating about what to do with my hair I decided to take the plunge and get a well overdo hair cut (it had been a year) at a place I’d never gone to before and was surprisingly happy with the results. After that whole ordeal (the self debating being the ordeal) was done, I went back to Ms. Baby’s house and received the email with the top secret location, time, and no camera information that I needed to confirm that I received. When we arrived, I realized that not only were we lucky enough to attend but that we were being given front row seats in a room full of people like Steven and Mrs. Van Zant, Ethan Hawk, Liam Neeson, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Mr Hoffman and the two of us have a history together. A few years ago The man who stole Heath Ledger’s Brokeback Oscar Hoffman’s film Synecdoche, New York was filming on location down the block from my house and his guest star was Michelle Williams. At this time Williams was still coupled with Ledger and, having heard that Ledger and their daughter Matilda often hung around William’s set, I called Lauren and told her we should go “accidentally” bump into Heath and hang out. We never managed to see him, and only saw Williams from a distance but as we walked back defeated, I spotted Hoffman and said, “There’s Phillip Seymore Hoffan,” which would’ve been fine if we hadn’t both spontaneously hid our faces as if he was someone from high school we hoped didn’t notice us. It was really weird and Lauren, in her infinite wisdom, thought that the only way to fix the freak accident (yes he heard me) was to walk back passed him to show it wasn’t anything personal. Why we averted our eyes the second time (again strange and unplanned) I will never know but he did see us coming and I can only imagine that we got in his head and he still thinks about it sometimes. This only makes the fact that, once I pointed him out at the premiere, we got hysterical laughing that much funnier.

Once everyone got settled it was time for speeches about the film from the director, who was interrupted by crazy Yoko Ono who came up and took the microphone because I guess she had nothing better to do since there are no Beatles to break up, and the Producer Harvey Weinstein. Now any fan of HBO’s ENTOURAGE would snicker quietly when seeing a Weinstein in person but I had the added bonus of having just read an interview with Director (and former Monty Python member) Terry Gilliam where he said he regretted ever working with “the F***ing Weinstiens” because they are arrogant, self satisfying, and ruined his film THE BROTHERS GRIMM. I managed to suppress my need to boo and hiss but once he started talking I realized that Gilliam failed to mention pompous God complex. Oh and when talking about how his company almost single handedly kept Amnesty International afloat in its early days, he mentioned how he came up with the idea of creating a fundraiser for the charity (nice) and how he was going to call it THE SECRET POLICEMEN’S BALL (a very popular British fundraiser’s name) until, “those jerks Monty Python told us they’d sue (this man is a tool.)

Despite Ono, Hoffman, and Weinstein’s presence (or maybe partially because of it) I had an amazing time, truly enjoyed the film, and best of all- my beautiful hot pink heals remained on my feel without hurting me the entire night!

Oh yeah almost forgot, here’s my outfit!


Sunday, September 26, 2010

David Cook and the Anthemic Borgata Hotel and Casino



I am fully aware that I have been severely slacking when it comes to blogs lately. There haven’t been as many as usual and, furthermore, the quality hasn’t been up to par. I do apologize for this but, today marks the one year anniversary of the last time I saw David Cook live and since I have written about all the other artists I’ve seen since starting this blog, I thought today would be a great time to go back and reminisce.To Start off, the picture at the top is the only picture I have taken that every band member was in, and something about it makes it one of my favorite photos have have ever taken*.


David Cook

Andy Skib
Guitar, Keyboard, Backup Vocals

Kyle Peek
Drums



Monty Anderson
Basist


Neal Tiemann
Lead Guitar


You may recall, I spoke about my first trip to Atlantic City (which was March 2009) in Life of a David Cook fan. Luckily, in September I managed to not vomit before boarding the bus, always a plus, but it didn’t mean the trip went off without a hitch. The plan was that we wouldn’t get a hotel room to save money, after all we barely used it in March anyway. After an amazing performance and random slot playing, this “genius” ideas was not turning out well. Here we were, exhausted and room-less when all of a sudden we saw someone roaming around looking as weary as we were, Monty Anderson.



He had a nice chat with us, joked that his room was free when we told him how much a room at the Borgata cost, and then we sent him off to get fat burger because he was tired (not pissed off which is how he identified himself in this picture) and, even more hungry. About a half hour later, we gave in and got the after midnight half (ridiculously) priced room and as we were heading up to the elevator, Monty saw us and yelled, "Night Ladies," holding up his bag of fast food. We in turn laughed and waved our key. We had all given in to temptation.


*For All Pictures of this concert:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2063413&id=46304571&l=2fa6370f06
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2063543&id=46304571&l=d584de0e57
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2063596&id=46304571&l=258f714034

Monday, September 20, 2010

Dirty Dancing: A Lifetime Love Affair


As early as I can remember, Dirty Dancing was my favorite movie. While other little girls were watching THE LITTLE MERMAID on repeat, I wanted to go fall in love in the Catskills in the 1960s. I wanted to be Baby and I used to dance around the house to TIME OF MY LIFE and pretend that Patrick Swayze was my boyfriend. I was probably still in Preschool but that didn’t matter; I knew that that was what I wanted love to be like when I grew up. What could be more romantic than leaping into your dancer boyfriend’s arms and have him mouth the words to a love song to you as an entire auditorium danced around you?

I obviously didn’t understand many of the other things that happened in the film like illegal abortions, sleazy waiters sleeping around, or what exactly Johnny Castle did to Baby after they danced shirtless in his bedroom. Those realizations came later in life but it didn’t change my thoughts and I continue to count the movie in my favorites, and probably always will.

In my mind Dirty Dancing will always be one of the greatest love stories that has ever been told and perhaps it has ruined me a bit for real life romance. To this day, whenever I have on a nice dress, there is still a part of me that wants to be lifted off of a stage so I can run to my waiting lover’s arms as Jerry Orback realizes that he was wrong and that he really is a good man for me.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

One week in

Having a puppy is like having a baby, in fact basically everything with nannying applies with Graham, and I figured I should update you on our first week.



House Training:
Graham does not use the wee wee pad. All "incidences" that occurred happened near it, but never on it. The good news, when researching how to get a puppy to use the product I learned that they are actually counter productive to house training because, when a dog is praised for using the pad, he or she learns it is okay to bathroom inside the house.

Also, Graham isn't that bad with accidents. He makes it all day without any problems. The only issue we have is that, when he wakes up in the morning, he is excited to see people and play and he piddles. Until he learns bladder control this will probably continue.

Walks:
Graham loves walks! He still doesn't use the stairs but he enjoys sniffing and prancing around and, as Cavapoos are dogs who love to please, gets very excited when he is praised for using the outside as a bathroom. He no longer is scared to cross the street.

Sleeping:
The excitement leading to piddles when Graham saw humans thing meant that every time my father (who is the first person up everyday, but not the one who would be giving Graham his first walk) would get up there would be an accident. To rectify this situation and allow Graham to sleep later, training guides said the answer was crate training. Unfortunately Graham cried when in the crate so that was not going to happen.

The problem has been rectified by keeping him in my bedroom on his purple pillow. He sleeps through the night, unless I have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, but then I quickly corral him back in. The adjustment was simple for him but it is odd for me as Britney and DJ never ever slept in my bedroom. However, since he's happy and (knock-wood) behaves all night, it is not a problem for me.

Toys:
Graham loves to play. I believe humans are actually his favorite toys but he also has a stuffed crayon which he likes to drag around sometimes, A stuffed squeaky cow that he loves to run around with in his mouth, a pink tennis ball that he (kind of) fetches, a big pacifier he mostly ignores, a squeaky sheep from my bosses that he throws around and hides, and a Miss Piggy head that he goes crazy for and often looses under furniture.

Friday, September 17, 2010

I feel a bit jipped


Ever since I was a little girl in Ruby Red shoes there has always been a strange curiosity about tornadoes. I know they are destructive but they are a bit mythical too, at least for a little girl from New York City. I can imagine in the Midwest they can become a bit tiresome. Apparently, when I was a baby, I was on a plane that was being trailed by one but other than that, my tornadoes have been limited to L. Frank Baum and Michael Crichton (author of Twister.)

So yesterday, there I was on my way home from Jamba Juice when what happened but I was caught in my very first Tornado and do you know what? I thought it was just a thunder storm until the news reported it was actually a tornado. The winds picked up and it began to rain a bit and then the sky ripped in two and I got soaked but I didn’t see any funnel cloud ( I know because Lauren said, “it looks like a tornado or something,” and I began to watch the sky.)

I didn’t get to say, “GiGi I don’t think we’re in Chelsea anymore!” You would think at the very least, when I got back indoors a “Wicked” poster would’ve flown passed the window but that didn’t happen either. When it was all over, I was still on the New York side of the rainbow; there was no big green city; or color changing horses (or dogs for that matter); I had not befriended any wild beasts, straw men, or a tin fellow; and nobody traveling via bubble gave me as a pair of shoes that look amazing and are comfortable on long walks!

Gosh, it’s like you can’t believe everything you read or something. Now if you’ll excuse me, Graham and I will be in the closet trying to figure out which way it is to Narnia.


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