Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Well now I think Eclipse can handle that.

I just got in from the Eclipse midnight premiere and it's 3 am but I wanted to write a quick post so that those who are wondering how good it is would know. It's late and I need to get rested for tomorrow night so I'm just going to hit on the highs and lows of the movie experience.

First low of the night was when we noticed a group of 12 year old girls. They proved to be very annoying as they began chanting cheers before the preview started. They were eventually silenced by agitated "20 somethings" telling them to shut up. So annoying. They were quite until the Deathly Hallows preview and then proceeded during Eclipse to scream EVERY TIME Taylor came on screen. We are now considering smuggling super soakers (Brett's idea) into Breaking Dawn.



Another low was when the screen split up so that the top was at the bottom and the other way around for a few minutes during the movie. People, nay the jr high girls, filled this time screaming for them to "FIX IT! FIX IT NOW!" and missing a lot of lines that were said. They know it's messed up and they are fixing it...it's not like someone did it on purpose....or maybe they did ;)

One thing that I just dont understand is when directors or screenwrites decide to change little things like who says what, or what color hair a character has. I just dont get it.

And finally, poor Bryce Dallas Howard (daughter of Ron Howard) never even had a chance at being a good Victoria. Again I'm mad at Summit for firing Rachelle to pay Rob and Kristen more. That's not ok and Rachelle was much better. It's not that Bryce isn't a great actress, it's just that she's not Victoria. Rachelle was spot on. But what's done is done.

My favorite things of the night:

We sat outside a sneak showing of the Last Airbender- also staring Jackson Rathbone who plays Jasper in Twilight- and the manager let Meghan and I go in and see a little of it. Tor opted out. We're really excited about that coming out tomorrow night.

This movie/book had a lot more to do with Jasper Hale- my favorite Twilight character plated by my favorite Twilight actor- Jackson Rathbone. He got a lot of face time and I'm very glad.

This movie also stuck to the book more than the others in my opinion. It was out of order but kept most things in. They also used a lot of lines straight from the book.

Stephanie Meyer recently released a novella called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. Bree was a newborn who figures out part of Victoria's plan- or at least that Riley is lying. It's kind of tragic because you like Bree by the end but you know her ending from Eclipse, so you know her fate. Because of that book we understand a lot of what's going on with the newborns and Slade did an excellent job bringing that into Eclipse.

I was REALLY  glad they left all of the back stories in there. They did such a good job on the Legends and Rosalie and Jasper's back stories.  Jasper even said, "My apologies, ma'am." presh. Also, Nikki Reed- gorgeous...they finally didnt jank her hair up. In fact everyone's hair and make up was a lot better.
The battle scene.....amazing. I mean amazing.

Finally, it seems that Kristen and Rob are finally comfortable on screen. Kristen didn't blink as much and they didnt seem as awkward. I dont know, maybe I'm used to them now or maybe Dakota gave her pal Kristen some tips. Either way it was a lot easier to watch.

Well I could go on and on about things I loved and things I hated but it's 4 and I've got to go get rested for another premiere. (I also just want to point out that we dont just go to movies all the time. The last movie I went to see, I believe, was when we were visiting Nashville and saw Date Night. It's just that there are two movies we've waited all year for that premiere two nights in a row. And it's Meghan's birthday week.)

Good night and Congratulashla to David Slade on the best Twilight movie so far. Losing you as a director for BD 1 &2 really makes me nervous now.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Eclipse, Burger King, Lost remotes, LOST and Alias...just a few thoughts

As anyone who is friends with me on facebook, or up-to-date in world today the third installment of the Twilight Saga: Eclipse premiered yesterday. We were very excited about this as E! covered it and had live interviews on the red carpet. Joy Beth went and got a camera for her computer so we could skype during it. We had it all ready to set up, Joy Beth on one computer and we'd hook up another computer to the tv so that we could all three see and watch the eonline live coverage of the red carpet. Our internet has been going in and out for a few days now so I woke up early(ish) and called Comcast. WELL. After being on the phone with them quite a while...twice....and after someone came out to "fix it"...AND after plugging up a new wireless router it still didn't work well enough to watch a live stream or to skype. So we decided to go somewhere else. We opted on a Starbucks figuring there wouldn't be a lot of people there on a Thursday. We were wrong. However, it was doable. I'm sure we were quite a site. We were at two little round tables- pulled together- with a computer on each. On one computer we had Joy Beth on Skype- though we couldn't see her- and on the other we had the live stream. We thought it might be rude to have the Skype going loud so Tori had headphones on that and we had a splitter in the computer with the stream so there were three pairs of headphones. Meghan and I also had JB on the phone. 
So Burger King is Eclipsed out right now. They have Eclipse "toys" in the kids meals, Eclipse cups, Eclipse bags, Eclipse games. It's pretty fun. We went in tonight and were really excited. He handed me a Jacob cup but I, of course, had to get another. After we had ordered we decided to get a large fry cause it has the game pieces on it and the guy just gave us one. We won a free whooper off of it.

Another fun thing happened tonight. Since we've been here our remote hasn't turned the volume up on the TV. Tonight Tori found a random remote. She tried it out and it turns down our tv! You dont know how great it is! We dont mind getting up and down, but watching Alias and Lost means just about every other scene is some quite talking and the next will be loud explosions and smoke monsters.

Speaking of Lost and Alias...Terry O'Quinn is in both Lost and Alias. They are both shows created by JJ Abrams and actors in his shows are often in others. Anywho, Terry plays this FBI(except he's not really FBI he's some covert something) Director named Kendal. In Lost he plays one of the main characters, John Locke, as well as Brother- the smoke monster. 
So on Lost Locke- the real one, not the monster in the later seasons- was obsessed with the idea of destiny. On the show he and Jack, the protagonist of the show, flesh out the ideas of faith and science or destiny and free will. The other day we were watching Alias and Director Kendal said, "Sydney, maybe this is your destiny." I did a double take to see if Lost was on cause of course it sounded just like Locke. I think the similarities between these two shows are interesting. Well Lost is on and it's super fun watching this in retrospect. 

ABC's of Eclipse

Annoying
b/c Bella cant decide between Jake and Edward 
and gets a little annoying

Bree Tanner
b/c she told Edward the Volutri knew about Victoria's army 
and did nothing

Camping 
b/c of that awkward camping trip in the mountains

Dakota Fanning
b/c she knows how to act





Eclipse 
b/c Jacob can handle the clouds 
but he can't compete with an Eclipse



Frienemies
b/c it's what the werewolves 
and vampires really are

Graupner 
b/c "G" is always for Graupner




Hostage 
b/c that Hostage stuff is fun

Insidious
b/c it means 
1. operating or proceeding in an 
inconspicuous or seemingly harmless way 
but actually with grave danger
2. Volturi

Jasper Hale
b/c he already told Victoria he could handle that
b/c he's sorry he kept Alice waiting
b/c we learn his story

Kiss, Kick 'n Kill
b/c it's what happens during the battle scene




Leah Clearwater
b/c we feel sorry for her 
b/c of Sam's imprintation 
and b/c she's a wolf

Marriage and Monster
b/c it's what Edward wants and 
Bella's afraid of 
and it's what Bella wants and 
Edward's afraid of

NSYNC
b/c Victoria wants Bella 
Edward wants Victoria 
and Jacob wants Edward
to walk out that door, baby bye, bye, bye


Overprotective fools:
b/c Jasper and Edward are 
both slightly overprotective of 
Alice and Bella


Party
b/c if Bella really loves Alice she'll let 
her throw a graduation party 
and plan her wedding

Quil:
b/c they thought it was weird when 
Quil imprinted on a two year old...

Rachelle
b/c we miss her

Switzerland
b/c it's Team Switzerland 
not Team Jakeward

Team Newborn
b/c by the end we all wanted them to 
kill Bella 

Ultimate Battle scene
b/c in Breaking Dawn they just go 
think at each other

Virgo
b/c Jacob doesn't want any of those 
freaky virgos around

Win-Win-Win
b/c Bella chooses Edward 
leaving Jacob free to imprint 
and making them one big happy family

X-best friends
b/c though they have a rough patch, 
Jacob and Bella do become friends again




Y?
b/c we're wondering y 
you haven't read them yet


Zero
b/c there are zero newborns left

Monday, June 21, 2010

Happy Belated Fathers Day

I realize I'm a day late but I still wanted to say Happy Father's Day to my Dad! 


I just wanted to say thanks Dad for loving my Mom.

Thanks for loving us and being a godly example for us



and thanks for allowing us to pursue our dreams.



I love you Dad!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

TTown Surprise!

This Saturday one of my friends is getting married so I thought I'd make a trip out of it. As Father's Day is Sunday Tori and Meghan came down with me. I've found it weird coming back as it feels like I've been away from Alabama for months but at the same time it feels like we haven't been in Nashville nearly long enough for a prolonged trip home- I mean we're not even finished with making our apartment home. Anyways yesterday I met my mom in Birmingham and Meghan and Tori went home with her while I headed to Tuscaloosa to surprise Lynn- who is home alone with the kids while KJ is out of the country on a mission trip. So about 7:30 I showed up at Lynn's and surprised her. She was very surprised and excited. Ella was at Aunt Teresa's spending the night and James was in bed so we had a fun night of talking, catching up and movie watching. This morning we went to Aunt Teresa's house to pick up Ella and see Katie and her children. We then tried to think of something fun to do before going to the store so we went to All Fired Up. It was a fun visit. I really miss All Fired Up. If I had stayed in Tuscaloosa I would have worked there soon. I told Noelle that the closet Ceremic Studio in Nashville was 20 minutes away in Franklin so she said she'll just have to come open a shop there. I agree...she should. Tonight Lynn and I cooked again, just like old times. We had Taco Salad and made a cookie cake....yum.
Well, I need to go because I'm about to head to the caug. Check you guys later!

Ha, you can really see the red in my hair here...Ella was making playdough PB&Js


Lynn and me

Ella's Cinderella Shoe:

James was such a trooper



James was so excited driving the cart

The back of Ella's Loveless shirt



Ella and I in Loveless shirts...and my horridly long bangs, gross

ps. thanks Lynn for letting me use your pictures :)

Saturday, June 12, 2010

7 Things I've Learned From My First Week In Nashville

There are a few things we have learned from the past week in Nashville.

1. Avoid major highways and interstates from about 5-6:30

2. Just because something says that somewhere is about 4 miles aways doesn't mean that it'll just take around 5 minutes to get there.

3. The AT&T building is known as the Batman building

4. The Batman building is on the East side (my side) of downtown and is very useful for navigation

5. Everyone references the flood

6. Avoid downtown during the CMA Music Fest


7. Ice Cream trucks aren't sketch everywhere