They suck. I just got "Never Gone" the new Backstreet Boys CD and I practially had to sell my soul to get it to play in my computer. FORGET adding it to a mix CD, because apparently that is just a terrible, awful, impossible thing to do!
It makes me want to go and download copies of the songs illegally so I can use them. I mean, I PAID for the damn songs, I should be able to add them to a mix CD for my personal use if I want to do so. It's not like I'm handing out copies of the CD to every person I know.
Grrrr.
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Monday, June 20, 2005
Sunday, June 19, 2005
I'm a rotten, awful, horrible traitor
To Michael Crawford's Phantom.
(this may be spoilerish)
Damn me. I swore I would NEVER purchase a ticket to, rent or buy The Phantom of the Opera movie in respect for the awesome talent that is Michael Crawford. I intended to boycott Andrew Lloyd Webber's insanely stupid mistake.
But I'm WEAK... so very, very weak. I had my free birthday movie from Hollywood Video and I could no longer resist the call of this movie.
But before I burn in the fires of traitorious phandom, I did edit the movie experience slightly - anytime a major song came on, I stuck on my headphones and listened to Michael singing with the original soundtrack instead. Improved that movie immensely!
Ok, so my two big objections to the movie - the guy who played Raoul was a PANSY. Ugggghhhh, he was such a pansy that I don't know how anyone could have accepted that she chose him over the Phantom. If I had never seen or heard of it before, I would be shocked. I'm sorry, I just did not like the character at all.
Second - the Phantom was too good looking. The guy was barely disfigured, for crying out loud! Quite frankly, he was so much better looking than Raoul that it completely changed the story for me. I found myself yelling at the TV screen about how idiotic she was to make the choice. In both the original production (which I didn't see, but have seen photos) and the production I saw, Raoul was so gorgeous and so freaking charming that I could kind of see how she might choose him instead. But no, not in this one. Of course, I would have chose the Phantom, no matter what, so maybe I'm biased!
I mean, come on, go LOOK at this guy. Isn't it some kind of crime against nature to put him behind a mask? He should have been Raoul. I'd show you a picture, but the one I want won't seem to save as an image (damn imdb)
Quite frankly, I believe both male leads were badly cast. Butler made an incredibly sexy Phantom in the "Past the Point of No Return" scene (oh yummy, yummy, YUMMMMMY) - ok, so maybe I'd allow that. However, he was was too "rocker" Phantom for me in every other scene. don't get me wrong, the guy has a powerful set of cords and would probably do excellently with thousands of songs. His voice just did not fit well at all with the songs in the movie, except perhaps PTPNR (I admit it, he did very well with that and I was ready to fall into his arms - may my husband never see that, LOL). I don't think he truly had the whole "phantom menace" so to speak (haha, ok so it wasn't that funny).
The guy who was Raoul - please don't make me relive that to complain. I think his only redeeming moment was when he came pounding into the cemetery on horseback - but I'm a sucker for a man on a horse too, so once again, I think I'm biased. What is sad is Wilson is incredibly cute, but not in this movie.
Minnie Driver - was FABULOUS. This was an excellent role for her (except the insanely heavy accent that was sometimes completely intelligible).
Emmy Rossum made a great Christine. It helped that she looked so beautiful in this movie (and is so in real life as well). Sometimes I thought she didn't show enough emotion (like for Wishing You Were Somehow here Again - she's singing about her dead father who she misses like crazy, I expected tears), but I did enjoy her. Her voice made me want to cry, for she sounded almost exactly like Sarah Brightman at some points.
When Christine and the Phantom kissed, and then kissed AGAIN, I thought for sure she would choose him (this is how good it was, because I knew she didn't. It was kind of like a "pray-the-ship-doesn't-sink" kind of moment when watching Titanic. You know, in the back of your mind, that it is going down, but you almost convince yourself they'll make it out of it ok.)
The flash backs - well, technically, the story is the flashback, the black and white scenes would be "present day" - were an interesting touch. I totally was not expecting the movie to end with one, but when it did and I saw that rose with the ribbon and the ring, I literally GASPED out loud. Then I cried like a big baby. :) And THEN I damned her again for not choosing the Phantom.
Ok, so now the non-character and plot things. The costumes were INSANELY gorgeous. Truly perfect. The opera house was quite frankly the most beautiful piece of scenery I have ever seen. they really outdid themselves in those areas.
So, I say go watch it. It was very good for what it was (a gorgeously dressed up stupid mistake by ALW). However, if you love M.C.'s phantom, go get the original soundtrack and your portable CD player or iPod and play it over that man's singing.
(this may be spoilerish)
Damn me. I swore I would NEVER purchase a ticket to, rent or buy The Phantom of the Opera movie in respect for the awesome talent that is Michael Crawford. I intended to boycott Andrew Lloyd Webber's insanely stupid mistake.
But I'm WEAK... so very, very weak. I had my free birthday movie from Hollywood Video and I could no longer resist the call of this movie.
But before I burn in the fires of traitorious phandom, I did edit the movie experience slightly - anytime a major song came on, I stuck on my headphones and listened to Michael singing with the original soundtrack instead. Improved that movie immensely!
Ok, so my two big objections to the movie - the guy who played Raoul was a PANSY. Ugggghhhh, he was such a pansy that I don't know how anyone could have accepted that she chose him over the Phantom. If I had never seen or heard of it before, I would be shocked. I'm sorry, I just did not like the character at all.
Second - the Phantom was too good looking. The guy was barely disfigured, for crying out loud! Quite frankly, he was so much better looking than Raoul that it completely changed the story for me. I found myself yelling at the TV screen about how idiotic she was to make the choice. In both the original production (which I didn't see, but have seen photos) and the production I saw, Raoul was so gorgeous and so freaking charming that I could kind of see how she might choose him instead. But no, not in this one. Of course, I would have chose the Phantom, no matter what, so maybe I'm biased!
I mean, come on, go LOOK at this guy. Isn't it some kind of crime against nature to put him behind a mask? He should have been Raoul. I'd show you a picture, but the one I want won't seem to save as an image (damn imdb)
Quite frankly, I believe both male leads were badly cast. Butler made an incredibly sexy Phantom in the "Past the Point of No Return" scene (oh yummy, yummy, YUMMMMMY) - ok, so maybe I'd allow that. However, he was was too "rocker" Phantom for me in every other scene. don't get me wrong, the guy has a powerful set of cords and would probably do excellently with thousands of songs. His voice just did not fit well at all with the songs in the movie, except perhaps PTPNR (I admit it, he did very well with that and I was ready to fall into his arms - may my husband never see that, LOL). I don't think he truly had the whole "phantom menace" so to speak (haha, ok so it wasn't that funny).
The guy who was Raoul - please don't make me relive that to complain. I think his only redeeming moment was when he came pounding into the cemetery on horseback - but I'm a sucker for a man on a horse too, so once again, I think I'm biased. What is sad is Wilson is incredibly cute, but not in this movie.
Minnie Driver - was FABULOUS. This was an excellent role for her (except the insanely heavy accent that was sometimes completely intelligible).
Emmy Rossum made a great Christine. It helped that she looked so beautiful in this movie (and is so in real life as well). Sometimes I thought she didn't show enough emotion (like for Wishing You Were Somehow here Again - she's singing about her dead father who she misses like crazy, I expected tears), but I did enjoy her. Her voice made me want to cry, for she sounded almost exactly like Sarah Brightman at some points.
When Christine and the Phantom kissed, and then kissed AGAIN, I thought for sure she would choose him (this is how good it was, because I knew she didn't. It was kind of like a "pray-the-ship-doesn't-sink" kind of moment when watching Titanic. You know, in the back of your mind, that it is going down, but you almost convince yourself they'll make it out of it ok.)
The flash backs - well, technically, the story is the flashback, the black and white scenes would be "present day" - were an interesting touch. I totally was not expecting the movie to end with one, but when it did and I saw that rose with the ribbon and the ring, I literally GASPED out loud. Then I cried like a big baby. :) And THEN I damned her again for not choosing the Phantom.
Ok, so now the non-character and plot things. The costumes were INSANELY gorgeous. Truly perfect. The opera house was quite frankly the most beautiful piece of scenery I have ever seen. they really outdid themselves in those areas.
So, I say go watch it. It was very good for what it was (a gorgeously dressed up stupid mistake by ALW). However, if you love M.C.'s phantom, go get the original soundtrack and your portable CD player or iPod and play it over that man's singing.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Do two negatives make a positive?
Only in multiplication. ;(
I'm being such an odd duck about this whole situation - I don't want to be pregnant this month because my chart was so awful I didn't even bother with the progesterone, but, at the same time, I wait in front of the tests, practically holding my breath, looking for something to appear.
It truly sucks to be this conflicted.
Getting away from the TTC front - I'm writing my own fan fiction (Labyrinth, Jareth/Sarah romance). I only started reading fanfic last weekend (all Labyrinth), but I've read so many already that I began to want to to record the words that would pop into my head late a night. I did one piece, no more than a long chapter and felt satisfied I had gotten that particular thing out of my head. But it didn't end there, because one day I was listening to music and a song really hit mit as being perfect for a J/S story. I think 5 pages flew from my fingers on Monday within a matter of hours.
Honestly, I had forgotten how much I liked to write. It feels good, even though it isn't a productive thing to be doing, like housework, uggh :( I guess I shouldn't be suprised that it still feels good - after all, I do love to blog.
What amazes me most about this recent start is that I always thought it sounded strange to hear a writer say that the characters or story wrote themselves sometimes. I always thought a write made the story exactly as it should be but today I find myself facing this problem. I want the story to go one way (to a happy resolution now, perhaps some conflict later) but my thougths keep straying to a plot twist that will bring much conflict now and a happy resolution much later. I am amazed at this feeling of having to bring this conflict into my story and I'm trying to resist it but I think I am going to write it.
More about my fanfic efforts can be found here: http://www.livejournal.com/~princessjessia/
I'm being such an odd duck about this whole situation - I don't want to be pregnant this month because my chart was so awful I didn't even bother with the progesterone, but, at the same time, I wait in front of the tests, practically holding my breath, looking for something to appear.
It truly sucks to be this conflicted.
Getting away from the TTC front - I'm writing my own fan fiction (Labyrinth, Jareth/Sarah romance). I only started reading fanfic last weekend (all Labyrinth), but I've read so many already that I began to want to to record the words that would pop into my head late a night. I did one piece, no more than a long chapter and felt satisfied I had gotten that particular thing out of my head. But it didn't end there, because one day I was listening to music and a song really hit mit as being perfect for a J/S story. I think 5 pages flew from my fingers on Monday within a matter of hours.
Honestly, I had forgotten how much I liked to write. It feels good, even though it isn't a productive thing to be doing, like housework, uggh :( I guess I shouldn't be suprised that it still feels good - after all, I do love to blog.
What amazes me most about this recent start is that I always thought it sounded strange to hear a writer say that the characters or story wrote themselves sometimes. I always thought a write made the story exactly as it should be but today I find myself facing this problem. I want the story to go one way (to a happy resolution now, perhaps some conflict later) but my thougths keep straying to a plot twist that will bring much conflict now and a happy resolution much later. I am amazed at this feeling of having to bring this conflict into my story and I'm trying to resist it but I think I am going to write it.
More about my fanfic efforts can be found here: http://www.livejournal.com/~princessjessia/
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