Sing Sing Sing

I love the Hollywood Bowl. It's so much fun to sit outside and eat while you watch a show during the summer nights. I go every year with my parents and this year was no exception. I went to a bunch of shows and I'm pretty sure I've written about all of them. This past Saturday I took my roommate to see the Sound of Music Sing-A-Long for her birthday and I have to say that it was very fun. I thought that it was going to be annoying with all the people thinking they could sing, but it was actually a lot of fun. It's such a good movie and getting to be able to sing aloud was very fun. There was a costume contest before the show started and some parents came up with super clever costumes for their kids. The kids that won were all dressed like Oscar's because the movie won 5 Academy Awards. Very awesome.

I also forgot how good the movie actually is. I mean I've seen it a million times, but this was the first time in a long time I sat and watched the entire movie from beginning to end. I might have to go every year now. I loved how much the audience got into the movie too. When the Nazi's were searching for the Von Trapp family, people in the audience took out their flash lights and started shining them everyone. Each audience member also got a small bag of goodies and inside were party poppers so when the Captain and Maria kissed for the first time, everyone shot off their poppers. And of course, when they all sang edelweiss, everyone took out their cell phones and waved them in the air. I was laughing almost the entire movie at things the audience members were doing. So I definitely think I will return.

Weekend of Disney

This weekend was very Disney filled and I’m not complaining in the least. Saturday, I headed down to the Anaheim Convention Center for the D23 Expo. It wasn’t what I expected, but I still had fun. I got to see John Lasseter and that’s really all I cared about. He and his creative team had a panel discussion and I waited in line for 3 hours to see it. There were a lot of nerdy people, which I didn’t expect at all. I guess when I think of Disney, I don’t think of a nerdy following, but this weekend kind of taught me a lesson. There were quite a few people dressed in bad costumes. I felt very out of place in some instances, but I saw some old co-workers and felt a little better about being there. I had fun, but I don’t think I will be going again. I was looking forward to the Carousel of Projects, which was a room showing all of the new projects coming up like the expansion of Fantasyland at Disney World, Cars Land, Buena Vista Street, etc but I follow so many Disney blogs that nothing was really new. I got to see a model of Buena Vista Street, which was cool, but for the most part, I already knew about everything they were showing. So again, it was fun, but I’ll skip it next time.

Then, I ran back to LA for a night at the Hollywood Bowl with Mickey and his magical brooms for Fantasia with the LA Phil. See, I told you it was a Disney filled weekend. I hadn’t seen the movie since I was a kid and I realized there were a lot of things I didn’t remember. They only showed clips of the movie, which was kind of sad because I wanted to see the whole thing, but it was still awesome. Of course, I was stuck sitting next to crazy people. The lady next to me was dancing and being obnoxious and the girl behind me kept humming every song. Then the dancing lady got annoyed by the humming chick and instead of turning around and telling her to be quiet, she kept shhing her. It was obnoxious. Either way, the Hollywood Bowl is always fun and enjoying something Disney related is even better!

Weekend Show - West Side Story

I went to the Hollywood Bowl this past weekend with the family to see West Side Story. We originally thought it was going to be a live action show, but it turned out to just be the movie with the LA Phil playing the music. It was very good, but I never realized how gay the movie is.

I've seen it plenty of times, but wow is it gay. Obviously, it was perfect for the time, but now when you watch the movie it's very fruity. The guys are dancing all over each other with fighting motions. I had to try not to laugh at some points. The movie will always remain a classic in my heart, but with very gay tendencies. It was definitely a good time though. I always love the Bowl in the summer.

Weekend Show - John Williams and the Music of the Movies

Nerd Alert! I went to the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday night to see John Williams conduct music from famous movies including music he composed. I thought the entire show was going to be his music because he's pretty much composed every movie ever, but that was not the case. He and the LA Phil played quite a few movies that weren't John Williams movies, such as Sunset Blvd, which I've never seen, but am now very interested. The movie is about a silent film actress whose career is no longer and desperately wants it back. She meets a man and kills him for whatever reason and all the attention she gets from the police makes her believe her career is back. Very interesting. They also played a tribute to Audrey Hepburn, which was amazing. The main violinist played the song from Sabrina while clips of Audrey Hepburn played. Sigh. She's so amazing. Screw you Emma Thompson for not liking her!

I find Audrey Hepburn fantastically
twee ... Twee is whimsy without wit. It is mimsy-mumsy sweetness without
any kind of bite. And that's not for me. She can't sing and she can't
...really act, I'm afraid. I'm sure she was a delightful woman — andperhaps if I had known her I would have enjoyed her acting more, but I
don't and I didn't, so that's all there is to it really.

Anyway, I digress. I'm just bitter. Another movie they played the music from was Psycho and even after all these years, that movie is still incredibly creepy. The fact that Norman Bates watches the chick through the peep hole he's carved out in his room and the fact that he keeps him mom's skeleton locked up. Creepy! Of course, they played the theme from Indiana Jones and Jaws. It made me realize that I've never seen Jaws all the way through. There are famous scenes that I know, but I've never actually watched the movie in its entirety. I need to add that one to my list as well.

This is where the nerd alert hits. We all know John Williams did the theme for Star Wars and that was the finale of the show. As we sat waiting for the show to start, we saw a bunch of people walking around with their lightsabers in their ridiculous Jesus robes and we thought nothing of it, but we finally realize the severity of the situation when the Star Wars theme began to play. Every single person raised their lightsaber. At that point I wasn't sure if my IQ went sky high or dropped a bunch of points. Even John Williams was shocked to see all the lightsabers. He turned around to face the audience at one point and had a look of utter shock on his face. Then, he played the Darth Vader theme and all the lightsabers were moving in time. The group I was with was probably the coolest group there. We were just surrounded by uber nerds. They all made noise too. People would turn them on and they would make the lightsaber noise. Seriously ridiculous. Funny, but ridiculous.

The show was entertaining and good, but I was hoping the entire show would be John Williams music. I was hoping for Jurassic Park and Harry Potter and what not. I was happy with that I got, don't get me wrong, but John Williams has done some amazing stuff. One person from my group over heard someone saying they thought the entire show was going to be Star Wars music. Can you imagine? I don't think I would have gone to that show....

Here are some pictures we took in case no one believed us. They're a little dark, but all those tiny lights in the audience are lightsabers.