Loramir Of Gondor's Journal

Ah, the horse-crazy days of my youth.

I've been temporarily transported back there by the movie Secretariat, and suddenly find myself wanting to read my old Thoroughbred books, or at least King of the Wind or The Black Stallion.

( Rambling and nostalgia )

Anyway, it was worth watching, and particularly on a big screen - the excellent race scenes wouldn't be quite so awesome on a computer screen.  I might buy it on DVD eventually, because I'd definitely watch it again.

Ah, Toy Story 3.

It was amazing. I think it's one of Pixar's best movies so far, if not the best. It's definitely as good as the first two Toy Story movies and way better than Up!  It was hilarious, touching, suspenseful, a little bit scary, sophisticated, surprisingly deep and dark at times, and generally appealing in a lot of ways.  So glad I picked it over Eclipse (which I do, sadly, want to see, largely out of curiosity).

I was a bit hesitant - trilogies have a way of fizzling out by #3 (see PotC, for example) and the first two were so great.  Not to mention that it's been a long time - over a decade! - since Toy Story 2.  But I have to say I agree with Owen Gleiberman at EW: "Yet even with the bar raised high, Toy Story 3 enchanted and moved me so deeply I was flabbergasted that a digitally animated comedy about plastic playthings could have this effect. "

I left the theater totally uplifted and still smiling (something I doubt would have been the case had I seen Eclipse...).  Then I raved to my mom for a while.  I was still laughing and reflecting all the way home.

This will no doubt be one of my usual disjointed rambling reviews - I'm terrible at coherent reviews, and tend to just go with general reflections as I think of things, so here goes.  There are definitely spoilers, too.

( So, who's ready for Ken's dream tour? )

Just went to see Letters to Juliet with my mom and Jeff.  I love a good romantic comedy.

Disclaimer: I am proud to be one of those women everyone is scornful of, who happens to love silly romantic comedies and romance novels.  I do know they're silly, but they're fun and I enjoy them.  So there.

( Opinions )

It doesn't take much in a movie to satisfy me - if it can sweep me up and leave me happy, I'm pretty much satisfied.  And this one did that.  I don't know that it's one I'll be rushing out to buy the day it hits DVD, but I'll definitely pick it up sometime, probably when it's marked down a bit.

Friday night's Dailey & Vincent concert - where in the world to start??

We had front row seats.  Darrin hugged me.   Parker ate my cookies.

It was the best concert yet.  It was possibly the best concert ever. 

( Starting from the beginning... )

In short, it was epic.  It is truly insane how absolutely happy Dailey and Vincent concerts make me.  As I said that night, if there is one place in the world I could happily stay forever and never get tired of it, it would be at a D&V concert!

Tonight I saw Mamma Mia, the Broadway musical, with my mom.  Columbia actually has a pretty good series of touring Broadway shows at the Koger center, and I missed MM last time it was here.  It was pretty great.

I'm sure my opinions have been colored in this case by seeing and adoring the movie version first.  I always tend to prefer the first version of something I'm familiar with, and in this case, I loved the movie passionately, so I'm sure that affected  my judgment of the musical, though I liked it.  It was just that I know every single line of the movie version, so I was always noticing every line that was different and every little thing that was different.  Not better or worse, just different.

( Thank you for the music )

So overall despite my few complaints, I had a great time.  There was a great deal of laughing, clapping, tapping my feet, and singing, and it was tons of fun!  My mom and I spent a while during the intermission discussing how someone needs to make a musical of Statler Brothers songs, a subject which Heather and I (and Heather and Jan) had already discussed rather a lot, so we spent some time contemplating what the plot might be and which songs it might use...not to mention how awesome it would be.

It occurred me recently while posting something D&V-related on Heather's journal, that there is a deplorable lack of Dailey & Vincent LJ icons. This is clearly a situation which must be remedied. So I did.

Here are seven icons for me, Jan, and Heather, and of course anyone else who is equally obsessed with the best bluegrass band on earth. It's just a couple of icons I threw together using some of my (and Heather's!) favorite pictures, and some of them are slightly inside-jokeish (vests!).

If anyone uses them, please comment, especially if you're not Heather or Jan, since we'd be delighted to make the acquaintance of fellow D&V fans!

I'm not bothering with a cut or table or anything, so here they are!

   

   

 

Also posted on artless.

There is nothing like a Dailey & Vincent concert to have me flying on cloud nine for a while. They are five six of the most hilarious guys who make some of the most beautiful music.  I had a whole nice long entry planned (and half-typed and then my mom called and I sat on my mouse while grabbing for the phone, and somehow exited Firefox...) but now I'm in such a happy bluegrass-induced daze that it's mostly a happy blur of alternately laughing and swooning.

This was my sixth D&V show.  I saw them last in Lenoir, NC back in November.  Tonight was at the very nice Carolina Theater in Greensboro.  This was the second time I've gone with my now-very-much-converted friends Heather and Jan.  It's nice to have someone to be fangirly with.

( Recap )

So anyway, I'm still on a bluegrass high (insert puns about grass and being high here) and can't wait for the next show!

Why has dffmusic, a "German melodic thrash metal band," friended my LJ???  I am perplexed.

Well, I've been in Wicked-obsession mode all week and pretty much learned most of the soundtrack lyrics by heart.  However, today I got derailed, since I acquired the new Dailey & Vincent album from Cracker Barrel.

I've been looking forward to this album ever since I heard about it back in November, since it combines two of my favorite music groups ever: D&V and the Statlers (Now if we could just involve the Beatles somehow...).  How amazing is it that one of my favorite bands loves my other favorite band and does incredible covers of their songs?

Anyway, the album is awesome, of course.  It took me a little bit to get used to the addition of bass vocal--but I decided I liked it.  Which is probably good, seeing as they've just added a bass vocal to the band full-time.  It adds a new dimension to their usual sound; it's different, but not bad.  Especially on a Statlers album, it really rounds out the sound nicely.  The absence of a deep voice would be pretty noticeable when you're used to hearing Harold on the original versions.

I love "Too Much On My Heart" and "My Only Love."  Jimmy Fortune's ballads are perfect for Jamie, and the harmony on the choruses is beautiful.  "Elizabeth" is gorgeous, too.  The liner notes call the a capella ending "jaw-dropping," and I'd agree.  I love the dobro, mandolin, and fiddle parts through the song as well.

The other songs are all great, too, of course.  Even "Flowers on the Wall" converts nicely to bluegrass.   On "Class of '57" I was a bit taken aback because it starts off with the unfamiliar bass guy singing the first verse, but he does a good job.  I don't know if it was intentional - it sounds like it was - but Jamie does a great job of imitating Lew DeWitt when he sings "Joe took Freddie's wife/Charlotte took a millionaire and Freddie took his life."  I had never heard the Statlers' version of "The Brave Apostles Twelve," but I liked it, especially the "roll call" bit in the middle.  "Susan When She Tried" works very well slightly sped-up and bluegrassified, and has some great harmony on the choruses.  And one of my all-time favorites, "Do You Know You Are My Sunshine," also has some distinctive harmony.  I kind of miss Joe Dean doing the "Do you know" parts on the chorus, though, like he has in the past when they performed it live.  He's so cute singing the bass parts.

Anyway, the whole album is pretty much exactly as great as I was expecting it to be.  D&V make the songs their own while still keeping the spirit of the originals.  While I was hoping for some more obscure favorite Statler songs of mine (like "Almost In Love," one of my absolute favorites), they've got a great selection of my favorite hits here.  My favorite songs by my favorite band covered by my other favorite band - how much better can you get?

Other than seeing them live in 23 days (well, it's after midnight, so 22, I guess)!  Just bought my ticket tonight to see D&V on the 26th in Greensboro.  I can't wait!

Went with my brother's some of my high school drama club today to see Wicked in Greenville.  Despite the icy roads and glasslike sidewalks and falling on my rear end once, it was awesome.

( Dancing through life... )

So anyway, it was fantastic.  If it was a movie it would be one of my new obsessive favorites and I would watch it eight times in a week, but unfortunately I am having to live in withdrawal and make do with the Broadway cast recording and poor quality YouTube videos.

Man, I love the music.  Especially, of course, being the hopeless romantic that I am, "As Long As You're Mine.  The lyrics are gorgeous:

Kiss me too fiercely
Hold me too tight
I need help believing
You're with me tonight
My wildest dreamings
Could not foresee
Lying beside you
With you wanting me

*melt*

It was a pretty fun day, though it seems like ages ago that we left this morning.  I have spent pretty much the whole day surrounded by teenage boys (there were some girls along too, but they were all in the other van), which was interesting.  However, they were, on the whole, reasonably intelligent and fairly mature teenage boys, so it wasn't too bad.

Anyhow, I can now understand why Mrs. Livengood, the substitute coordinator at Sumter High, is obsessed with Wicked and used to play the soundtrack all day long in her office back when I was subbing.  And I am off to listen to "As Long As You're Mine" one more time!