Sunday in the Park with Steam Powered Giraffe.

(or, as subtitled: You had me at 'la da da da da da.....')

It was a really good weekend for music. In all honesty, I sat around and listened to music all weekend. That's what I did. (Okay, I did do a few other things as well, but I was mostly paying attention to the music I was listening to while I was accomplishing them.) While within this past year I've fallen in love with House of Heroes & The Megas (who are both still awesome) other than that it's felt like a really long time since I've found fresh music that I really latch onto. 

Over the weekend I discovered my old recording of Sunday in the Park with George that I have (rather ashamedly) never listened to and instantly fell in love with it. Children & Art? One of the most gorgeous songs I've ever heard. I actually sat down and just listened to it when it came on. And then replayed it. And then played no music after it for awhile because nothing could have come after it. (You're going to go listen to that song now and probably not have the same reaction. Maybe I was just in the perfect mindset for it at the the right moment and maybe that's why it was so overwhelming, but it was incredibly lovely. Or maybe it's because nothing good is coming out on Broadway recently and I'm starving for it.)
And Finishing the Hat? Beautiful. Wow. I was reminded why I was so entranced at Dave's place the one time I watched the DVD. The musical is just a gorgeous piece of art in and of itself. I now have two shows on my "Shows-I'd-Like-To-Dramaturg-Just-For-Kicks" list. (Ragtime, of course, being the other.)
Seriously, I've got to listen to more Sondheim.
Now I wouldn't argue that it's a perfect show or necessarily recommend it to everyone - it's certainly slower at times and based more on character development than plot, and the music is minimalistic - so it really depends on what you're looking for. I haven't actually researched if this is true or not, but I read where: "Just as Seurat used only eleven colors, orchestrator Jonathan Tunickonly used eleven instruments in the pit...." and I've got to admit, that's pretty awesome.

Anyway, I was swooning over my good musical fortune when suddenly I saw this:
Les Mis released five new clips from the upcoming movie.  

"....AND LES MIS RELEASED FIVE NEW CLIPS?"
I have watched them over. And over. And over. And...over....  (Hey, autoplay is on. I can't mess with that.) Oh, Eddie Redmayne.... Oh, Samantha Barks.... I love you both.
I could give you my opinions of every clip, but that really seems unfair to shove my thoughts down your thought before you've seen them. (Even tho I usually do that anyway. :) ) So hey, if you watch them I'd love to know what you think first!

And then just when I was completely content surrounding myself with my musical happiness, I came across these guys:


(Man, that keyboardist is awesome.)

Meet Steam Powered Giraffe.

I had actually heard of them a few months ago via EpBot, but I think I ignored them because I was afraid they were going to be steampunk gimmicky and never looked into them. I think steampunk's really fun, but...in music? I figured it was just guys dressing up as robots and performing music and doing it....badly. Eh.

I was so wrong.
When EpBot posted about them again I decided to give them a chance. It took about three videos to really get a solid grasp on how good they were, but now I'm sold.

I love these guys. Their commitment to character through their movement and voice work is perfection and their music is really fun and so well done. And somehow at the same time they're also very silly and I think that's wonderful (see Captain Albert Alexander.) And they're completely family friendly!

This is a favorite of mine. Totally did not expect that music style to kick in by the title Automatonic Electronic Harmonics. :)


Actually, the first video I watched was Honeybee:



Which was almost a mistake (and why I didn't start off with it.) It starts off so slow that I almost turned it off within the first minute. But now it's one of my favorites. The harmonies kicked in and....seriously.
 The three characters involved are The Spine (silver makeup), Rabbit (glasses on hat) & The Jon (suspender man), although Jon has now been replaced by Hatchworth (not yet featured in their videos.) On their website they include full biographies for each characters as well as their background for their existing world.

"Hello, goodbye, twas nice to know you, how I find myself without you, that I'll never know...."

While they won't be everyone's cup of tea, I think they're absolutely wonderful showmen and musicians. I'm super excited to see what they do next. (And in the meantime, I'll keep replaying their videos on youtube....)

And that, my friends, was my very wonderful, very musical weekend.

Congrats to the Kings!

The LA Kings won their first Stanley Cup tonight in their 40+ year history! Which is awesome and I'm excited for them.

Their goalie's daughter decided to show up at the press conference and steal the show. She's pretty cute, so check out the video:



Congrats, guys!! You looked so happy and I'm happy for you!

(If you want more on the Cup or the games, I have no doubt Will will be detailing it out further soon.)

(My favorite tweet of the night came from Wil Wheaton: "Local LA sports media is trying to figure out how the Sacramento Kings won the Stanley Bowl Trophy for Basketpuck tonight. Good job, guys.")

Welcome to the world Baby Reagan!

There was a new baby girl born into the Plumb family tonight. :) Baby Reagan arrived this evening and is 6 lbs 9 oz. of pure perfection.

We think she's a keeper. ;)

 

Welcome to the world, baby doll! We're so glad you're here!

Dark Knight Rises Poster Reveal & Progression

 

 Seriously.... my breath caught tonight when I saw the DKR poster for the first time. Epic.

And hope still flies.

Shh.... I'm supposed to be sleeping.

Do you realize how much exciting entertainment news has occurred this week? (Okay, only two pieces, but they're extremely exciting to ME.)

First off, Dark Knight Rises announced a few amazing spoilers that I'm extremely excited about. (They're minor spoilers really, but since I've already spoiled it for one person, you're going to have to click on the link to see if you want to. Ha! :) Also, new photos on that link.) 

That first paragraph? That's what I'm excited about. I think its unexpected and brilliant. (Oh, it makes that trailer make SO much more sense now! How heartbreaking!) I have to admit: I was getting nervous and skeptical seeing some of the recently released pics and confused by the trailer. But this one piece of news has excited me so much I have to say: BRING ON THE GOGGLES, BABY.

Rumor has it an updated trailer will be released with Sherlock Holmes 2.

And then, my favorite dead band Five Iron Frenzy has been making noise for months now that they'll release huge news on the day of their break-up anniversary. And it's just been building and building hype and so tonight they finally announced it: they're not only getting back together, but they've already been working on a new album and have released one of the songs. (Hear it here.)

They were trying to raise $30,000 by January 21st, 2012 since they're doing all the releasing and recording themselves and avoiding a record label.

They reached their goal in 55 minutes total.

And as of now, four hours after the announcement? They're at $66,744.

I'm so excited for this, their new song sounds wonderful and those instruments are oh so crisp.

I'm supposed to sleep tonight, but that would mean I'd have to stop playing the new song and Batman trailer first.

FIF Freak Out!

Just a few more days and all will be revealed....

So much anticipation you're building! Please, FIF, let all this hype lead up to something awesome. I'm trusting you!

Eight Years Gone

Eight years ago last night - sometime around midnight - I sat on the bench between Raley Chapel & the cross and agreed to pray with no strings attached.
Just pray. Just talk.

And somewhere in the midst of that everything changed. I opened the door and Christ came swiftly running in, the blood immediately covering my sins, the relationship immediately beginning to take root.

I forget often, even now, that Christ was waiting on me. I forget that truly, He was right there, waiting, knowing, for the moment He could sweep in. Not a pause. Not a meander. Done. Finished. You're Mine. Not Satan's. Not the world's. You're Mine and as soon as you will hear My knocking, as soon as you will open the door I will be there. No waiting. No second guessing. 

Indeed, this is my favorite birthday. For this is the day I was brought back to life.

 

I came across this passage tonight in my reading and it wraps everything up.

"But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." 

- Hebrews 12:22-24

Amen. He is good.

Love to all and sweet dreams. 

"This is why we don't attack people with guns."

Tonight I was keeping Brad company when he offered me the chance to play Arkham City for the first time. Yay!

Also: Ahahaha! Oh dear. 

Listen, I'm just terrible at these games. I grew up on all the Nintendo sidescrollers. I never played Final Fantasy or, well, anything else. I did play Link to the Past. That's the only one I can currently think of where you actually go out and explore. Oh, and SMRPG. But Players Guides were my best friends. So the first time someone tried to teach me Kingdom Hearts it was a disaster. I didn't make it OFF THE BEACH. Y'know, that intro section?

"You have to find eggs. Where would eggs be?"
"I have no idea! I'm on a beach!"
"....how about a tree?"
"...."

That's pretty much how it goes most of the time. It's kind of sad.

This is my method for these types of games: Wander around. Eventually something will trigger the new scenario.

And it's not that I don't like those games! You just have to be very patient with me. Which Brad is. And so, even medicated, we sat there and he would calmly say "Sherri, didn't you just come from that direction?" And I would affirm that and he would reply "Then that's probably not the direction you should be going."

Also, I was learning the controls. So when I would go to "silent takedown" someone, I would actually leap up and attack them causing gunfire to come from everywhere. Batman died. A lot. Because I did that exact same button confusion. A lot. AT THE SAME FIGHT. It was awesome.

(I did, for the record, eventually manage to get past it, but it certainly wasn't because I completed any silent takedowns there.)

That being said, it's a really, really incredible game. (Even if you're lost and just grappling from platform to platform for awhile for fun.) The design elements are perfect, the storyline looks like an absolutely fantastic setup, and I feel like once I got used to the controller the controls would be a lot more intuitive. And gliding?! Gliding is the best.

Hm...maybe if I got an X Box....

Quick Catchup

I'm trying to blog and watch LOST at the same time, and it's just not working.


So Tuesday night I made a trip up to Kansas to see my Newberry family! Yay! I was able to see all the family and hang out playing cards with them. It was a fast trip up & back, but it was lovely and fun and there was also Dairy Queen involved.


This week we were able to get in some birds of paradise at a great price, which is a little unusual for us. And then when our plants arrived, he accidentally broke one of the tops off of a dracena and gave it to us to use in an arrangement. I was actually really pleased with the way it turned out. 

I haven't solved my desk conundrum yet, but I believe I will be moving it out tomorrow so that I can see what room I will have opened up. Plus, now that I've decided it needs to go, it's sort of driving me crazy that it's still here.


Slowly but surely, the cold is beginning to drift in. Mrrr.


Will found this link today and it's pretty spectacular:
"Killer Sharks Invade Golf Course"

"...The sharks, which are between 8ft and 10ft long, have proved quite a hit at corporate events and their fins have even been spotted during wedding ceremonies held on the course."

Bwahaha! Now THAT'S a ceremony. 

A trailer full of awesome.

Cannot. Wait. 




(But I do still miss Edward Norton.)

It's all about the Owls.

Little Lexie Lou's second birthday party was today! It was super cute. I mean, look at this face:

 
She instantly makes any party rock.

And because I can't resist this photo:

BAWWWWOOOOONS!

D'aaaaw.... my kids.

Grandma and I were at Cracker Barrel last week and happened upon an owl hat that we instantly knew Lexie would love because the girl LOVES OWLS. And this hat was awesome, so I kept searching through the rack for one myself. But what gives? It only came in toddler size! What's with that? Only toddlers can have owl hats? That's so sad!

Anyway, I've been mildly searching on and off for owl hats on etsy. I've looked for these before, without success of finding one I really liked, but I stumbled on this tonight:

Happiness.

Okay, so I'm not actually buying it (yet). I've discovered how great hats are for keeping a little extra warmth in, so at some point I'll probably pick up an extra one for this year,but this one is a little pricier than I was hoping for. Nonetheless, I still think this one is awesome. Maybe it'll go on sale.

As for Lexie, she loooooved hers. They were having trouble getting her to sit down and open gifts, and when the hat was the second gift in she was pretty much done. She jumped up, threw it on sideways and went parading around. She knows what it's about.

And it goes like this.

So this past Thursday night Regina & I trekked up to the OKC Zoo Amphitheater for the Train & Maroon 5 concert. Originally there were five of us, but Brad, Holly & Sam weren't able to make it for varying reasons. :/ Sad day. Although the concert wasn't until 7:00, we headed up there right after I got off work. Since we walked into the venue right on the dot I was really glad we left when we did.

I've only been to three other concerts at the Zoo Amp, but that's enough to know with the thousands of people in the first-come-first-served outdoor venue you're never going to be able to push your way down to the front that late, and especially not be able to see even if you do. I've spent the other three concerts way off to the side or far in the back. But somehow, we made it closer than I've ever been before and had a fantastic viewing point AND managed not to block anyone else's view. Seriously. It was awesome. I was so excited. 

This concert was so FUN. Giddy. Giddy is a good word for it, because Regina & I were pretty ridiculously giddy the whole time. Partially because they were both bands we were really anticipating, but also because of how nice the crowds were and our clear line of sight to the stage. (Okay, okay, and because both bands have front men with these gorgeous tenor voices.)

Regina's Pic of Train.

Train was up first, opening with the the sounds of a train revving up (I was so stupidly happy, I didn't even get that reference until AFTER THEIR SET, ahaha. We'll blame it on the happiness. And not the obliviousness.) and launching into "Parachute." Which I thought was a strange opening song, but I was still glad to hear it. And after that I have no idea of what order the songs came in. They teased with bits and pieces of "Soul Sister" throughout the concert and finally concluded with it. They did come out for a short encore where they finally played "Drops of Jupiter" and finished out with "This Ain't Goodbye."
Also - and this works really well with all their music homages on Francisco - they did a set of cover songs for about twenty minutes as well. That included a mashup between "Heart of Glass" and "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" that was brilliant and ended with the entirety of "Dream On" that was pretty fantastic.
(Other songs included: Save Me San Francisco, She's On Fire, Meet Virgina(!), Calling All Angels, If It's Love, Words, Marry Me.)

Maroon 5 threw the gates open from the get go opening with none other than "Moves Like Jagger" and that energy maintained itself throughout the rest of the show by the crowd as well as the band. They were great, with such high energy, excellent instrumentals and very entertaining to watch even though I only knew about three songs. They, of course, also came out for an encore and concluded their whole set with (I have to admit) a beautiful rendition of "She Will Be Loved." I guess enough time has passed now that I apparently am no longer sick of the song. It just had waaay too much airtime when it first came out.
(Other songs included: Stutter, Misery, How, Wake Up Call, Hands All Over, Harder to Breathe, She Said Goodbye, Sunday Morning, Without You, Never Gonna Leave This Bed aaand a lot of others.)

And, as Regina pointed out, the bands were great compliments to each other in concert. Train was a much more relaxed band onstage - not necessarily peppy or trying to overblow their songs, but just enjoying being there and focusing on interacting a lot with the crowd. Maroon 5, on the other hand, were the showmen who talked very little, paced their show very well and blasted through a ton of songs and great instrumentals.  So we enjoyed the different tempos of the two together.

Yeah, it was great. Due to city ordinances, the concert had to end by 10:30 and they landed on that number exactly, but each band still had about an hour and fifteen minutes to play. So still lots of time with both. I'm excited to hear Train's in the middle of working on their next album, and I really hope its as strong as the last one was.

Good times, good times.

Theatre News: Movie Musicals

WAIT. WAIT. WAIT.
This post was totally going to be about Les Miserables. And it will be eventually. I promise.

BUT I HAVE BIGGER NEWS.

For its 25th anniversary, Phantom of the Opera is going to be released fully staged on the big screen and DVD with Ramin Karmiloo as the Phantom.

Ramin is only underneath Anthony Warlow in my Phantom dreamworld. Sure, he equally shares that title with Earl Carpenter, but that's it.

I mean, just listen:




 That, my friends, is what the Angel of Music should sound like.

He is also currently playing the Phantom in Love Never Dies and yes, he's entirely too young. But if they're going to go for young anyway, pick this guy.

 Oh wait - a FULLY STAGED version?! With 200 cast & orchestra?!

Seriously, I have no words for this. I've waited for this for SO. LONG. In fact, after the movie was made, I just gave up that a staged version would ever be filmed. I figured that was it.

BWAHAHAHA! SO HAPPY!

But, wait! That's not all!

Have you heard? It's official, via Cameron Mackintosh: Les Miserables will be coming to the big screen December 2012.

Um...didn't you just say that was a rumor, all of two days ago?
Yes.

Look, I've been hearing about a Les Mis movie for over 10 years. And I know there was talk of making one after it became big in the 80's. So I had reached the point where I treated all movie talk of it as rumors. But it's official! So let's take a look.

Apparently its being produced by Working Title, directed by Tom Hooper (King's Speech) and the two leads are already cast: Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean and Russell Crowe as Javert. Of course, acting wise, that's pretty awesome casting. And it's already well established Jackman can sing.

So the big question is: can Russell Crowe sing this role?

Yes, I know he has a band.You can imagine since I first heard the casting I've pretty much just been going back and forth between finding clips of him singing and reminding myself of Javert's role.

Here's a clip:


Russell Crowe has a solid dusky, low voice. But I'm really concerned about that voice with songs like "Stars" and "Javert's Suicide." You can't talk-sing those songs. You just can't. It doesn't work. Will mentioned tonight that you have to have solid singers for this piece "because, really, nothing about this story ought to be glamorous. the only things that are beautiful are the music and the character journeys." And that's dead on.
However, it sounds like he has a good framework for singing, so there's a good chance they can keep developing that and work with him.

Anyway here's "Stars," for reference:


So lots of excitement tonight and things to keep an eye on! Now here's hoping I can sleep tonight.

The Birth of a New Country

Indeed, it is official now: we have a new country in the world. :)
CNN: South Sudan a New Country

The Republic of South Sudan.

If you have been following anything coming out of Africa, you will probably have at least heard of the Sudanese genocide. The simple version is that there has been bloodshed and violence for decades in their country. Essentially, a constant civil war. The South has been devastated. And devastated is an understatement.

I don't understand all the details. There are too many cultural intricacies that I can't understand. Nonetheless, with the little I knew, I never, ever expected South Sudan to even have the opportunity to vote for separation. I just assumed it would never be allowed to happen. But the vote was allowed. And it was overwhelming the numbers to split. And after much anxiety, the vote was actually honored. And as of Saturday, well.... This sentence brought a smile to my face, that even surprised me how much I was pleased to see it:

"South Sudan took a seat at the world's table early Saturday as citizens of the new country took to the streets to celebrate."

That leaves me pretty speechless.

That is not to say, however, that there won't be pitfalls immediately following their jubilation. Now decisions have to be made, especially the establishment of government and the decision between the North & South over their oil. Please pray for both countries. There is so much pain. And there is now so much hope in their eyes. I'm so grateful for that hope. Praise God.

Won't you take me down to Memphis on a midnight ride?

Flying across the land, trying to get a hand, playing in a travelin' band...

In unrelated news:

Apparently the Tonys are this Sunday. Who knew? I actually thought they were next week. Will I watch? Oh, probably. I don't really know what's up, but I didn't last year either and still got excited at the last minute, so I'm expecting similiar results.
Also, Spiderman: Turn off the Dark will be performing (though not eligible for any awards since it hasn't officially opened yet) so that should be interesting. The show is officially frozen now and back open to critics. It will officially open Tuesday, June 14th. (This looks like a pretty well-handled, fair new review if you're interested. It also appears to note most of the major changes.)

Speaking of next week, Company is playing throughout the week at a local movie theatre. Holly's already mentioned her interest (yay!) so I think we're going. ;)

Tonight I discovered Plants vs. Zombies and I have to admit that's a pretty fun game. Not necessarily too challenging so far, but amusing to despair for suns while zombies attack your garden.

The stories from Jopin still break my heart. I don't even know what to say in light of this new struggle.

In good news, I had dinner with Phyllis tonight which was wonderful as always. Chips and salsa may or may not have been involved. You never know with us (actually, you probably do.)

There are way too many anniversaries in June. I've already missed a few. No one else in my circle can get married in June. The limit has been breached.

Many of you read Epbot, but in case you don't, these silhouettes were just too amazing not to share. They're from Olly Moss' art show Paper Cuts. I have no idea who that is, but you should check out their blog because there are loads more (including Godzilla) and they're all wonderful. These are just some of the ones I was happiest to see:

Will, did we ever watch your full season of this? We should.

You know you're already singing it. I love the use of the map!

I thought this was the sweetest one. Up.

Sigh. I really, really hate to admit that it took me a second to get this one. And then all I could think of was a lion being drawn in crayon with a crown on his head... Maybe I have a block against lions. Or...maybe just against the obvious. *headdesk*

How many theme songs are stuck in your head now? :)

This one is merely for me. One of my favorite animes. Ride on, Cowboy.

And of course....
This made me smile. The days are just packed.

When one thing leads to another.

I was over at Brad's today when he learned I had never seen Patrick Stewart sing the alphabet. And he immediately found it for me, because it is indeed a must see.

I love this.



And then I said, have you see George Takei as Spiderman?



And then he said, wow, that's weird and what is this video about George Takei as Darth Vadar?

But that one ended up being lame.

But that reminded me and I said Have you seen the girl at the Disneyland Star Wars Show that Holly found?

And he said no, so we watched this one:


And it was pretty awesome.

How often do you get to hold an owl?

This is the Eurasian Eagle Owl, Ritual, at the Medieval Faire in Norman who was part of the Royal Gauntlet's Birds of Prey family. Regina & I stood in line for an hour and a half to pay $1 for the chance to hold him.




(Ha, he looks thrilled!)

The Royal Gauntlet is a bird rescue for sick or injured birds and works to release them back into the wild. Regina & I happened across their show while waiting for the boys to get their homemade root beer and ended up staying to watch the whole thing. There was a hawk that, after being mauled by a bobcat, had to have a six hour surgery with 295 stitches. Now she flies beautifully!

This particular owl apparently can puncture steel, therefore the glove used is made of Kevlar. Eurasian owl's also are known for bringing down large prey such as deer by hooking their intense talons on the back of their target, stripping the hide off of them, letting them bleed to death and then, well, feasting.

Ritual was sold to a zoo for $10,000, but after realizing how dangerous his breed was the zoo refused to take him. So the man was going to destroy the owl - now realizing the danger - but the Royal Gauntlet happened to hear about the birds plight and brought him in. After only six weeks of training he became a fully fledged member of their show.

He was incredibly beautiful and so soft! More than worth the long wait in line. Thanks to Regina for waiting it out with me and Brad for the pictures!

"My name is Dug. I have just met you and I love you!"

I really loved Up, so this made me grin. And even if you didn't like the movie, this is still pretty awesome. The images are fantastic!

Not all hot air: 'Up' in Real Life

On another note, do you like autotuning and Up? Check this out then:



Squirrel!

'Cause we love all the fluffy animals!

A mission, should you choose to accept....

I am looking for the Arbuckle Wilderness commercial from the late 80's/ early 90's.

You know that one with the awesome jingle that I just can't remember?

I've actually been looking for this commercial for several years now. I have found one from the 90's, but this isn't the one I remember. (I was so disappointed.)

The one I remember is way more upbeat and ended with "come feed the animals."

Admittedly, I haven't searched completely through Retrojunk, but I've really struggled to even find anything on this at all. Anyone else remember? I LOVED THAT JINGLE! Any suggestions?

COME FEED THE ANIMALS!

(In the process, I did find this commercial for CATS at the Winter Garden. Okay, so the show is strange anyway, but the commercial is actually really creepy! Apocalyptic looking! Ahhh!)

Even my henchmen think I'm crazy.

Oh wow. I have discovered Jonathan Coulton. This is wonderful.

The ponies. Oh the ponies.

Watch.