Wicked

FINALLY got to see this at F's urgent request since he said one of the actors was leaving. Surprisingly, I was able to get decent seats when I bought them just a few days in advance, Orchestra Left Center Row P. We were MUCH closer than I thought we would be. Makes a huge difference. The last time I was at Pantages was to see Les Mis and I was sitting in the Mezzanine. Anyways, Wicked was MUCH funnier than I thought it would be. I knew it was a different take on the original book, which was great btw, but all the changes worked well on stage, I think. Plus I liked all the twists with the other characters like the Scarecrow and Tinman. All the lines were pretty good and I heard that the original Broadway actress, Kristin Chenoweth (who is currently on Pushing Daisies), pretty much defined the role of Glinda. Knowing this definitely affected how I felt about the performance of the current Glinda actress, but she was still good in her own way. I just wish I could've seen Chenoweth on stage. I've listened to her singing on the soundtrack and it's amazing. So, fantastic show. The actress playing the Wicked Witch has an amazing voice. And F, there is no way that the singing is prerecorded. People wouldn't pay that much money to see people lip syncing on stage.

Cloverfield

Not the GREATEST movie I've ever seen. Honestly, I probably only saw about 15% of the movie. The rest of the time I had to look away from the screen due to motion sickness. I can't help it, sometimes I even get motion sickness from 1st person shooter games! So, I either kept my eyes closed or looked away from the screen unless the monster was running by or something. Also, the scene with the night vision was pretty cool. Otherwise, the movie didn't really make me care about the people that much. The characters were kind of vapid. They were gossipy and cared about stupid things, but I guess the appeal of the movie was that you were experiencing what they were going through like you were right there with them. I still liked the Korean movie The Host much better.

High Note: good choices for music at the party. I can't believe they played Coconut Records' "West Coast". Hells yes! Spoon, Gorillaz, Ratatat. They should've released a soundrack.
Low Note: Only character I liked in the movie was Lizzy Caplan and her sarcasm and she wasn't even there for the entire movie

Cornelius at Disney Concert Hall

After bouncing around from restaurant to restaurant in Little Tokyo, because the restaurants weren't really what W thought they were, we ended up getting food (when W thought it was going to be a ramen place) at a disturbing noodle house. Disturbing because the walls were completely white and bare, not a single Japanese painting or kitschy decor in sight, and it was practically empty besides us, a table of Japanese kids, and a Japanese guy eating alone. Suffice to say, the amount of food wasn't worth the price and W thought the table of Japanese people were talking about us with the waiter. The service was bad and the worst part was that the waiter almost forgot to give us our chopsticks AND he didn't even give us napkins! WTF!? I know we were in a Japanese restaurant, but this isn't Japan. Napkins flow freely here! I was still bitter about it as we left the restaurant, running a little late to the show. Luckily, Plaid was opening for Cornelius, so we didn't miss much.

I don't know much about electronica, so I'll try my best to describe what Plaid sounded like. They're they kind of electronica that uses a lot of computer noises and sounds and beats. It's not so much about remixing several songs, if you know what I mean. They were kind of boring. They had images displayed in the background for each song that pretty much looked like a visualizer for Windows Media Player. I think one of the images actually was a WMP visualizer. It was the one with several colored lines bouncing all over the screen. Weak, I know. And all the songs sounded kind of the same and I didn't know where it ended or started. They all kind of melded together into one really long song. I can see why so many people were hanging around outside getting drunk. It was weird to see so many young indie people, having beers, and being rambunctious at Disney Concert Hall of all places. I almost expected people to be dressed up because the concert hall was so fancy. Luckily, most people were dressed kind of funky. My kind of people. :)

At intermission, we got something to drink and I must commend W on being able to chug an entire bottle of Heineken in less than 10 minutes. I could barely do half.

So, we ran back to our seats. btw, comment on the concert hall. It looked AMAZING. I loved the wood design they used on the ceiling. It was made to look like draped curtains. I couldn't stop looking at it. And the acoustics in the hall sounded fantastic. Also, I loved how the seats were arranged. They were arranged in a conelike manner instead of amphitheater style, so even though we were in the balcony on the 6th floor, we still weren't that far from the stage, we were just above it. The worst seats were behind the stage, especially since the screen was blocking them.

Cornelius started playing behind this big white curtain and there were lit designs moving along with the music. It was a cool intro. And Cornelius must've been an art major or something because most of his short films were so creative, like he must've been high or drunk to come up with some of the stuff that he showed. Some people have called him a mix between Beck and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. I kinda get the Brian Wilson reference because Cornelius plays some pretty happy sounding music, but Beck? He sounds nothing like Beck. The only resemblance I could find was in the short films he was showing with each song. One film he started off with had these 3 birds flying on a journey past tons of buildings and eventually 2 of the birds fell down and a lone bird was flying, but near the end he met up with a new group of birds and they kept flying. Another film had these dancing household objects. It started off with dancing spoons and then dancing sugar cubes and then dancing house slippers and they were all just dancing to the beat of the song. And for Drop, one of my fav songs, they had this water dripping from a faucet, but it was dripping from right to left and in slow motion going to the beat of the song, so it seemed like a visualizer but with real water. It was just a really creative idea. Anyways, very difficult to describe. I wish I could get a DVD of his music videos or something. I'd like to see them all. And he played quite a few loud noise punk type songs. That really surprised me because the stuff I've heard is usually more mellow and cheery. Anyways, now I know why people tell me he puts on a great show.

Juno and Sweeney Todd

Juno

Oh Juno, you won me over with "Oh and Sonic Youth sucks. It's just noise!" So true. W is always touting the greatness of Sonic Youth, but I just never got it. They sound SO noisy and distorted to me. Oh, boo me if you want. I'm going to complain about certain types of music and if you don't like it, then try to change my mind by making me the best mix of their music possible as proof. Otherwise, shut up!
Right from the beginning the movie reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite. Maybe it's the cute acoustic song playing along with the animation. The soundtrack was mostly acoustic with quirky lyrics. Some of them sounded really off key or like they were sung during an impromptu session where they made up the lyrics just a few minutes ago. I did like the creativity of the lyrics though. But I didn't like some of the really off key songs or maybe I don't really like The Moldy Peaches or maybe like Dan from TRS says, it's all too "lo-fi" for my taste. Although I do have to give them props for having Belle and Sebastien, Buddy Holly, and Cat Power. Admittedly, the Sonic Youth cover is alright, but I have to listen to it a few more times to be fully convinced. All the lo-fi songs do make sense when you get to the end where 2 of the main characters close the movie singing a sweet cover of the Moldy Peaches' Anyone Else But You. I think that probably won everyone over.

Low Note: I thought it was plausible that Juno spoke the way she did even though most people thought her speech was much too intelligent for someone her age. What I did find implausible was that a cheerleader would be best friends with an outcast. Yeah, right.
High Note: Belle and Sebastien and Juno said exactly how I've always felt about Sonic Youth.

Sweeney Todd

I loved the cinematography, the direction, the costumes. The way Tim Burton zoomed through the city made it seem really big and showed off the great architecture. The murder scenes were kind of shocking and so bloody. I loved how bright and vibrant the blood was (even though it was unrealistic, but it seemed to fit). Ms. Lovett's dream sequence was masterful. It was so shocking. It was like watching characters from a black and white movie enter technicolor. They looked SO cute in these color sequences and so out of place. I wish I could get some of these scenes as posters. Johnny Depp surprised me with his singing. He has a really good voice. The acting was great from everyone. Jamie Campbell had model good looks, but sometimes his giant eyes creeped me out.

Low Note: I'm sure Johanna had some operatic training or something, but her voice was WAY too high pitched for me. It hurt my ears.