ME AND ORSON WELLES

@antiheroine tweeted a link to a Me and Orson Welles clip…lots of Zac Efron + Clair Danes…looks like fun. Apparently, it’s still looking for a distributor.

DISNEY WINNERS

Zac Efron, Ashley Tisdale and Miley Cyrus all won MTV Awards. Congratulations all; excellent performances. Wow. The High School Musicals continue to be a cultural force. And I bet “The Climb” will be a serious Oscar contender for song. Yes, it’s not full of original images and we all know this stuff and every journey’s like this, but Miley’s managed to set down the song that resonates now. Hope Hannah Montana the Movie comes out on DVD soon. Flash and I would really like to see it.

ROCK OUT

Have discovered the local library (libraries rock) stocks Scott Pilgrim graphic novels and so am catching up on the craziness that is dating Ramona Flowers, fighting her evil ex-boyfriends and being part of Sex Bob-Omb. And it is great and crazy and funny and familiar in a way that has nothing to do with anything (well, maybe one evil ex-boyfriend fight) that ever happened to me (and maybe if I’d stayed in Toronto a little longer) and I love it in a messy, unkempt really need a good haircut way. And the art gets tighter as the series continues…The movie should be interesting.

Bandslam got a small blurb in the Entertainment Weekly Summer Movie issue so that’s more buzz.

And to segue from a Vanessa Hudgens movie to a Zac Efron one, 17 Again is the top movie for the weekend with 24.1 million dollars projected box office. We saw it on Friday (Flash is throwing mad miffy face at any mention of the Hannah movie so we’re waiting for the DVD). Not bad, not funny, and a bit messagey for me, but good roles for Matthew Perry and Leslie Mann, solid performances from Sterling Knight, Michelle Trachtenberg and the man all over the posters, Efron. But very, very clunky in places (long speeches to indicate Efron’s character was actually a Dad not working)…and Josie Lopez seems to be popping up suddenly, here and next Friday on the Disney Channel’s Hatching Pete.

My nine year old niece’s favorite Jonas brother is Kevin, she loves Camp Rock, she saw the 3-D Burning Up movie, she has the date and time of the Jonas show premiere memorized and yet even after this PR push, I can’t say I’m looking forward to it (and I loved The Monkees show, at least until I watched the episodes recently On Demand)…the more clips I see, the more forced the humor seems, although Gayle and I agree, Kevin looks like he’s having the time of his life. I wish them well (I, Jobot aside), but fear they may discover comedy is harder than it looks.

QUICK REVIEWS

Good to see the Vanessa Hudgens/Zac Efron contribution to the musical’s revival acknowledged by including them in the Oscar ceremony…would that there had been more singing and dancing by Beyonce and the High School Musical folks and less by Hugh Jackman.

Bought the HSM 3 DVD and enjoyed it; Flash is still fondest of the second, but she did trot in happy and/or worried a couple of times. Really big, well done numbers..a little too big for the small screen, but still enjoyable. “Scream” sticks around as does “I Want It All;” this one not so memorable for the love songs.

And note to Disney: admit High School Musical, the phenomenon, is a miracle of perfect chemistry/timing and don’t wreck the buzz with a fourth. Thank you.

Nice to see Andy Richter on True Jackson…still funny stuff; main character still behaving randomly in the service of comedy, but not the worst sin.

Dadnapped…Phill Lewis rocks; Jason Earles not so much a believable dire villian…really liked that so much was shot outdoors. I sometimes think about putting down some movie ideas and then I think, well, here at Lonely Pond, we’re all about the natural lighting, how the heck am I going to do that outside? Emily Osment did a good job as did David Henrie, Moises Arias, et al but weak in the script department. Trip Traps fun. According to imdb news links, Dadnapped beat Spectacular in the ratings war 4.6 million to 3.3 million.

Hey, the new Miley Cyrus video “The Climb” really impressed us. Sounded good, looked like a CMT worthy production. Seems like Disney’s setting her up for launching a country crossover career and heck, she might be really good at it. So good work and good luck.

iCarly — Fred episode fun, although I agree with Freddie. Liked the ostrich; hated the Fred voices. iLook Alike looks like fun. Oh and there can always be more Gibby…best thing about Archuletta episode.

I think this’ll cover me for awhile. Next up, Shakespeare and the a few FT articles that might interest you, but as James Altucher said in his latest column, step away from the computer for awhile and go out and talk to people. On the way to lunch and try that out.

SONG WRITING

Well, what have I done tonight — gotten my character killed three times in World of Warcraft because I have ABSOLUTELY no idea what to do — the highly amusing part of that is that I got talked into it by my 7 year old nephew and presumably he’s managed to survive. My mistake was not scheduling an in-game family meetup so that someone with actual experience/weapons/healing spells would have my back. Then there’s the listening to last.fm, reading the twitterific window when it pops up, trying to animate a new Christmas themed cartoon in both ToonBoom Studio Express and FlipBoom and not having any luck at either — although I love the crispness of the colors and lines in Studio Express and should probably sit through the tutorials…but I’m best at the apprentice approach, following someone around and learning by doing, then diving off the deep end before I’m totally comfortable and going from there. What else, pre WOW, there was the researching Quebec History in 1889 — Bulldogs (the Hockey Team that apparently invented the net(hockey, not inter, although it was in French so no guarantees), landslides and “warehouse stores” in Montreal.

And then there was the Lisa Loeb song that made me think writing a country song was the solution to my possibly late night rain induced mood so I caught up on my other blog and am here admitting that writing not drawing is what calls to me tonight…maybe haikuing

How in the heart does a song start
Take the heat meets the beat
Then the beat meets street
And the street rides the heat
While the beat pounds on
A song jaunts
to the street heartbeat
turn the heat on
riding the beat
while the heart street
hums

Not a haiku and no one could turn that into a country song; last.fm’s gone Blossom Dearie, which is the best name for a lounge singer ever…close race with Eartha Kitt, which is the best name for a Catwoman ever.

Anything else tonight — one of my twitter peeps is fascinated by parallel universes which will probably lead to strange dreams, watched Big Bang Theory on DVD — had a marathon over Thanksgiving — Beau had never really seen a full episode. As I was trying to sleep Thursday night the soundtrack in my head was a combination of the Friends’ (Beau’s a big fan) theme song, the BBT theme and the Northwestern (we’re going to a bowl game, baby) fight song, so I think he watched them long into the morning.

Googlequested for ToonBoom Animate reviews (couldn’t make the launch party), clicked back through blog trackbacks and ended up with speculation — last.fm pause RODRIGIO y GABRIELA are amazing; see them and be awed — that there might be a Wizards of Waverly Place movie; Disney’s setting their New Year’s Eve party on the Wizards set, advertising started tonight. I want Disney to have a special holiday treat of showing High School Musical 3 on TV so Flash will stop wandering sadly with her tail in its melancholy pose whenever they play a Zac Efron video bit from the current movie. Also spent some time on the iCarly website looking for news of new episode as I suffered iCarly withdrawal on Saturday, but only read Freddy’s not terribly convincing Black Friday tale and couldn’t text a “shirt suggestion.”

So, is that everything or at least 2:36 a.m.’s worth. I suppose so. Now I’m off to find something to read. Have to dig out a Ngaio Marsh book — I suddenly remembered that the Roderick Alleyn/Agatha Troy courtship was one of the things that inspired In The Bleak December. But now is not the time to start reading a mystery. They keep me awake. There’s a song thought: The mystery of you sneaks through my night and steals my sleep away. So sneak quieter or be less mysterious. Your choice.

Good night all. (Lenny Welch “Since I Fell For You” — I love the way the song swings through sadness and madness — hey, he’s a Jersey guy…so many of the cool cats are. Did I just write cool cats — alas that’s what’s you get at this turn o’ the hour. So I’ll be turning myself in.)

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 (+ OTHER MOVIES)

It’s band movie weekend here at Lonely Pond Central — or at least musical movies…wandered through Blockbuster and came out with an eclectic collection — The Stains, a 15 year old Diane Lane, Laura Dern and a whole collection of punk rock names, a movie with the Click 5 that I can’t remember the name of so pause here while I try to find it…(play Jeopardy theme — ah, got it, Taking Five), and (finally) an anime choice — Howl’s Moving Castle.  And there was a fourth movie, but Gayle picked it out and I really don’t remember what it was as she refused to agree to either Empire Records or Josie and The Pussycats to keep the band theme going. (CORRECTION: I picked it, it does follow the music theme and it is Prairie Home Companion.)

And then there was High School Musical 3, where all bets are on Zac Efron and you’ll walk away with the feeling that he’s won something besides the girl, the state championship and a solid opening weekend (guesses in our house range from 30 million to 55.)  We went to the pre school lets out matinee and the popcorn scarfing under four and a half feet crowds were gathering on our exit.  Real pause now while I hunt down the Click 5 movie name.

Back to High School Musical 3 — better than HSM 2, not quite as magical as the original, but surprisingly complex — very meta, as I told Gayle, a lot of external(as in sung out loud) internal conflicts rather than conflict between characters. I like part of the wikipedia meta definition: “The term meta also refers back to Roman Times. A “meta” was a structure mounted on the ends of the central spina in Roman chariot races. In many of the Romance languages, the term “meta” is basically an aim or goal. Roman Charioteers would aim their chariots for this pole-like structure during their races, in order to stay on track.”  HSM 3 is a lot about goals and what to aim for.

Sharpay finally gets to do a love song with someone other than her brother.  Actually, over the course of the three movies, I have gained respect for Ashley Tisdale as a comedian and actor.  These movies wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without Sharpay to triumph gloriously over and Ms. Tisdale throws herself into the part with verve and panache (those are very Sharpay words, yes?)

Where was I? High School Musical 3…more complex, but it basically comes down to Troy. Zac Efron gets a show stopper number in “Scream” as well as the opening shot. It was fun to hear the little kids behind me go “ick” on the limited occasions Troy and Gabriella kiss. The Troy-Gabriella relationship still sparks, it’s still a world where everything mostly works out and there’s a lot of singing and dancing, but I don’t think anyone really minds, except for the substitute Financial Times movie critic who mostly commented about how Zac Efron is too short to be a basketball player, which just proves he’s missing several key points the most important of which is the first: no one really cares.

Corbin Bleu didn’t seem to be able to access his sense of humor as well in this one as the other two — which brought down the junkyard number a bit as Mr. Efron managed to make there be funny moments and Mr. Bleu just seemed to be dancing. Vanessa Hudgens still has an amazing voice and is underused as a comic actress — she managed to be funny in a 2 second French maid bit. And contrary to Mr. French’s view, her character is not ever smiling, actually she usually seems a bit too glum, especially in this movie, where she’s leaving everything she likes behind her.

Lucas Grabeel doesn’t get as much to do in this one, but he does it well, including a very nice duet with his female counterpart Kelsi the composer (Olesya Rulin). Anything else — oh, the dresses seemed awfully short for a G rating, but I think the costuming was weaker in this one. Kenny Ortega’s point the camera straight at Zac and keep it there style worked for the dance numbers but was a bit static when fewer actors and less movement were happening in a shot. I thought the end songs were the weakest, but that’s why traditionally Act 3 is the climax, although the audience around us seemed to really get into the already nostalgic final number.

So, in summary, better and more complex than I expected, I still like the first one best and minor points off for the costumer(what was with the one purple sleeve in all the graduation red and white — apparently, I’m color sensitive and it was distracting). Good old fashioned, new fangled fun.

On a household note, Flash apparently did not understand that HSM 3 would not be the Disney Channel Friday night movie and we had to get a rush copy of HSM 2 to avoid fluffy unhappiness (Flash + stress = seizures; there was the day we turned off the “Bet On It” video tricked out with seizure inducing traffic lighting effects to prevent triggering an episode and Flash expressed her displeasure VERY liquidly…from this we gathered Zac Efron plays well with the Maine Coon crowd) so she settled down with the HSM 2 substitute.

And now I probably count as HSMed out and due for dreams with singing trees and basketballs. Good night.

N.B. I realized that I neglected to mention Monique Coleman but that’s probably because she does an excellent job of not being flashy and giving other actors someone to play off of. This is an under appreciated talent and her Taylor is essential to the whole ensemble.

CATS + MUSIC

Bjork…Pongo is a Bjork fan…he’s having a tough bout with arthritis and so I had to dig out his favorite CD, Medulla.  We’ve decided it’s some kind of primitive goddess worship.  I have two pastels, titled the primitive goddesses, that he used to lay down in front of, gazing at with the same worshipful look that he directs at the stereo playing Bjork.  We believe in the healing power of music here…whenever Hildy was having a bad day, we’d put on the James Galway Christmas album, even in July…in case of emergency, break out the flute player carols.  Patton seems to like nothing better than the terrified screams of smaller mammals while Flash is a determined Zac Efron Hannah Montana loving Disney pop fan — did you know that cats know when their favorite TV shows are on…she didn’t really like Camp Rock and is waiting for High School Musical’s 3 Disney Channel premiere.