I am the Starlight...

"What's scary about Starlight Express isn't that Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote it. He is insane. We knew this. What's scary to think about is that there were men in suits in an office somewhere that gave him money to do it." - Allison Andresini, 2004-ish

Ollie: You do know that this is a singing play right? Because one time, Daddy went to go see a singing play and then everybody was on roller skates.
Gertie: Cool!
Ollie: Daddy didn't think so.
-Jersey Girl

"It's just like Joseph but on roller skates. And instead of characters from the Bible, they're all trains. But other than that, it's like exactly the same." - Mike Nayden, anytime he tries to explain it to people who don't know what it is beyond that sketch on Family Guy

"I had this dream, that instead of doing Annie Get Your Gun, Mike convinced us to do an outdoor version of Starlight Express...I'm not sure what that means." - Katie Wiegl, Summer 2009

"Well, I don't know if I can take a whole night of ABBA and it doesn't sound like that subject is appropriate for my 9 year old. This is Andrew Lloyd Weber! The kids liked Cats, they'll like this too." - Irene Nayden, Summer 1999, London, England, Justifying her decision to take her children to see Starlight Express instead of Mamma Mia! (Good Call Mom!)

So, my earlier post today, about Joseph got me thinking about what may be my ultimate guilty pleasure...the musical Starlight Express. If you're unfamiliar (most people are) it's a post Cats pre Phantom of The Opera Andrew Lloyd Weber musical about trains.

Yes, you heard me right. Trains. And all of the characters are on roller skates. Does it sound bizarre? That's because it is. It's also fantastic.

And when I say I love Starlight, I don't mean it in an ironic, it's so kitschy, isn't that funny kind of way.

See, it all started in the summer of 1999. My family took a trip to Ireland and drove around the country for two weeks in a van. Lots of stories there. We ended the trip with four days in London. I was 11, I was in a foreign country for the first time. I was naive. My parents decided to indulge their burgeoning theater geek children by taking them to see a show on The West End, London's answer to Broadway.

Everyone was talking about this revolutionary new show, that took the music of an already established band and built the musical around it. Apparently, this show was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Unfortunately the band it was built around was ABBA, and my parents believe that disco came from Satan. Plus it was about a girl with 3 possible father's and my mom thought it would be inappropriate. So that was out. (In the future, I would often grumble about how I didn't get to see Mammy Mia like four years before anyone in the US had even heard of it)

Instead they got tickets to some show that my dad saw in the 80s and remembered vaguely enjoying and that the concierge at our hotel assured them, "the children would enjoy."

And enjoy it we did. This show had everything! Singing, dancing, roller skates, laser lights, power ballads, spelled out curse words in a a country song, a flimsy plot about a train race, a rap song, a convoluted and illogical love story, jokes about Sylvester Stallone movies...I think you get the point.

And we continued to enjoy it for years. We bought the CD and listened to it over and over and over again. Then high school hit and we got realllllllyyy into theater, and it turned out that this show which we loved, was actually considered a joke. A big stinking turd of a joke. I had many conversations with people who tried to convince me to change my mind, and my response usually went something like this:

"But, but, but, roller skates! And lasers! And...OK, yes, the trains are stupid, but it's for kids! Who cares?"

OK, so before writing this post, I read the Wikipedia article for Starlight Express. Um, it's turns out it wasn't supposed to be for kids. The original plot was way darker, and totally weirder. And then it got edited and changed around and became family friendly. Also apparently, Electra, the electric train, (Nobody sprained any muscles naming these characters, Rusty is an old steam engine, Dinah a dining car etc.) is supposed to be bisexual. Which is what his first song "AC/DC" is about. My 11 year old brain did not process that.

Also, although Americans think that Starlight is a big turd, Europeans love it! It's like the longest running show in German history, and it ran for 7,000 performances or something on the West End. So there.

I did listen to the CD again before writing this too. And I still think a lot of the songs are really good. But yeah, most of it is pretty awful.

Plus when you're just listening, you can't see the lasers.

And almost 10 years later, when we went to go see Mamma Mia! my mom totally loved it.

Any Dream Will Do

It's funny how the simplest offhand comment can set your mind going...

Yesterday, my horoscope was about dreams, and how great leaders often looked to dream interpreters as the wisest, and honored them...

Which prompted my mother to comment, that my horoscope recounted the story of Joseph, from the Bible. Or um, if you're me and my mother, (who both love the Bible, don't misinterpret!) from Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice's Pop Opera Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

My CD copy of the 1993 Canadian Cast Recording, featuring Donny Osmond as Joseph (Don't let the words, "Canadian" and "Osmond" automatically put you off, it's widely regarded as the best version) went missing ages ago, and I can't find any downloads of it, legal or otherwise. Which means I'm probably going to have to place an Amazon order for a new hard copy, since I doubt I'll be able to find it out in the real world either, so I've had to rely on Youtube clips to assuage my craving.

Anyway, if you're not familiar with the show, get yourself familiar. It's easily some of Weber's best music (written while he was still in school, I believe) and Tim Rice's lyrics are as always flawless. Even at my snobbiest theater geek levels, I remained a staunch Weber apologist. Sure, he can you know, go astray. (*cough* Starlight Express *cough* whichialsokindoflovebutthatsanentirelydifferentstory *cough*) and the show has some pure camp moments that can get kind of cringy...but it has two of his best ballads, "Any Dream Will Do" and "Close Every Door" as well as the camptastic but awesome "Benjamin Calypso" and "Song of The King" where an Elvis impersonating Pharoah tells Joseph his dreams.

Just a little slice of life and thought that I've been having...

Bringing The Pretty

I was fourteen I started falling in love with vintage clothing. The thing is, I have a build that isn't always suited to vintage. I have what's called a "curvy" build, I've always been a little overweight and I'm five feet seven inches tall. Most vintage clothes that survived are for girls about half my size, so as much as I love the stuff, I've been forced to wear "vintage style" clothes not the real originals.

However, I do check out EBay occasionally to see if the rare real vintage dress in my size can be found. This weekend I was lucky enough to find one, and I won the auction and the dress is to die for. It also doesn't hurt that I've been running at least two miles a day for the past month and stopped eating between meals so I'm down a size.

Here's a picture of the dress:
I'm hoping to wear it for my graduation in May, although two of my cousins are currently engaged, so I figure there will be plenty of functions to wear it to. I got the dress from Trendy Hip Buys, and her eBay store is a wealth of larger size vintage goodies! I had to restrain myself from bidding on some of her other auctions and I'll definitely be keeping an eye on her stuff!

CSD - Oscar Edition

Last night's Oscars were pretty much predictable, (Although The King's Speech taking home the biggie over The Social Network was kind of a shock) but the whole time my pop culture addled brain was completely thrown off, I will give you a glimpse into the confusion...

As the night kicked off and Mia Thermopolis and Harry Osbourne led us through the night's best picture nominees,I giggled a few times. It wasn't Oscar's best opening sequence, but it wasn't terrible either.

As the night continued on I couldn't put my finger on things, like why was Jackie Burkhart presenting an animation award with the guy from "D**ck in a Box?" And how did Princess Giselle lose yet another Oscar? She's been nominated every year pretty much...

Then some writer won for Best Adapted screen play and gave a speech that sounded exactly like something President Bartlett would reassure the nation with and I felt like I was going crazy! And everyone kept showing shots of Bellatrix LeStrange and I was thinking "OMG! Why hasn't anyone captured her?" Viola De Lesseps sang a country song.

Finally Jack Kelly won an Oscar and then later Padme Amidala got up there and she was pregnant, and I was all..."But you already had the twins!" and then to top it all off Mr. Darcy got up on stage and made the whole ballroom fall in love with him.

Character Separation Disorder is a very serious disease that affects pop culture addicts the world over. Learn more about it here, and please, spread awareness and if there is a pop culture addict in your life, give them a good shake and tell them that it's not real. These people are just actors. Just actors...

How We Met Barney's Father Part I

OK, I teased it in the "Relations" post, but here it is. The plot for the Gossip Girl/How I Met Your Mother crossover that my friend Crystan and I discussed. Granted, there are some problems to negotiate, like two narrators, that grand divide of Central Park (Ted and Gang live on the Upper West Side, not East) and obviously, who meets up with who. But I think I've got it. This is different than my Glee/How I Met Your Mother crossover, where it turns out that Mr. Schue is the mother.

Opening:

Ted's Voiceover: Kids, sometimes something miraculous can happen, that changes everyone's lives. And sometimes it starts with something very small. That's what this story is about.

It all started when a mysterious blogger started following Barney's Blog, and I had two new students in my architecture class.

While sitting in Ted's apartment the gang makes quips about something fun and inane.

Barney: Hey! This weird blog that links to mine is talking about Ted's stupid architecture class.

Gossip Girl's Voice Over: Hey there Upper East Siders. Who knew that gen ed requirements could lead to such juice! Looks like B and N are taking a class that has lead us to some interesting information about C. Their new Intro to Architecture Prof is often mentioned in a little site I've been watching regarding C's late daddy's other interests. Here's the link!

Barney then "accepts the challenge" to figure out who the mysterious B, N and C are.

In the Bass/Vanderwoodsen/Humphrey Apartment suite whatever

Serena is dressed in an evening gown first thing in the morning lounging on the couch of the apartment where she no longer lives. Someone is making waffles, obviously. She quips to Lily who is drinking a cup of coffee about how pathetic it is the Gossip Girl is still harping about Bart Bass almost three years after his death. Lily looks worried and asks what it says.

Serena: Oh something about his other interests and how it relates to Nate and Blair's new intro to architecture professor or something.
Lily: Do you know this professor?
Serena: Just that he's in his early thirties and Blair says that he thinks he's really funny, oh and he's dating that woman who just divorced The Captain, Zoey.
Lily: Oh no, I wouldn't have thought...
Serena: Mom, what's wrong?
Lily: I don't, you can't tell Charles, Serena, but well, before he met Charles's mother, Bart had another son...

So that's part I. What do you guys think?

Let It Go!

Let me preface the following post with this:

I think that Joss Whedon is brilliant. I have made that abundantly clear in various posts. I love Firefly and Serenity. My coat may not be brown exactly, but it's definitely a deep deep tan.

OK, so there's been kind of a weird story going around the internet, started by this CNN.com article in which Nathan Fillion said that if he had the money he would buy the rights to Firefly and distribute possibly new content on the internet, and that he would definitely play his role of Malcolm Reynolds again.

The small but loyal fanbase of Firefly have now started an internet fund raising campaign to get Nathan that money. I'm not planning on donating.

Look, do I think it sucks that Firefly got the plug pulled? Yes. Do I wish that Joss could have gotten a chance to fulfill his vision for the show? You betcha! Do I think that people take those sentiments too far? Absolutely!

Firefly is hardly the only "gone too soon" show that people loved. But for some reason it's the only one that it's fans won't let go of. Twin Peaks fans don't continue to create web petitions to return to that tiny weirdo town. Aaron Sorkin's hardcore fanbase doesn't continue to whine about how unfairly NBC treated Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip. Jason Segel, Seth Rogen and James Franco don't make mad declarations about how they want to revive Freaks and Geeks. (Although they could probably afford it.) So seriously what's so special about Firefly?

I honestly don't know. And I like the show. It's a nice little piece of Sci Fi. But it wasn't a perfect show, by any means. And it was probably really expensive for Fox to produce and it had next to no mass appeal. And Joss Whedon has moved on, Summer Glau has moved on, Morena Baccara has moved on. Everyone has moved on except for one tiny pocket of fans, and evidently Nathan Fillion.

By the way, those people that did move on? You know, those other shows I mentioned? Those people haven't been doing so poorly:

Kyle MacLachlan, the star of Twin Peaks has had a steady career, including paying Charlotte's first husband on Sex and The City and Bree's second on Desperate Housewives and has a recurring guest character on How I Met Your Mother. Not too shabby.

The Studio 60 gang? Um, well the creator, Aaron himself is doing OK. He's just the odds on favorite to win the Oscar for Best Original Screen Play this weekend for a little movie he wrote about some website. (I don't think that many people even saw it!) And two of the show's stars Matthew Perry and Nathan Corrdry are on two of the best mid season replacements in a while, Mr. Sunshine and Harry's Law respectively.

And the crew behind Freaks and Geeks as well as it's cast? Uh...yeah, look if you don't know what they're up to, climb back under that rock you where you were clearly living before reading this post. You'll be happier there, but before that watch Knocked Up, you won't be sorry.

So what's my point? Let Joss make The Avengers in peace. Let Morena be an evil alien overlord. Let Summer keep kidding herself with network sci fi show, after network sci fi show, after network sci fi show. Let Nathan solve crimes and quip away. Please people. Let it go!

Hang In There Kiddo

One of the things in my new, perky be positive lease on life requires is ways to stave off, what our friend Holly Golightly calls "The Mean Reds." Oddly enough, Holly is one of those ways, but that's not what I'm talking about today. Today, I'm talking about the "Hang In There" kiddo playlist I have on my iPod. I can't put the whole thing here because it's 67 songs long, but here are some of the highlights.

1. Taylor The Latte Boy - Kristin Chenoweth
2. Halo - Beyonce
3. Don't Stop Believing - Journey
4. Livin on A Prayer - Bon Jovi
5. Vienna - Billy Joel
6. That's The Way it Is - Celine Dion
7. Just Haven't Met You Yet - Michael Buble
8. The More Boys I Meet - Carrie Underwood
9. The Song Otherwise Known as Forget You - Ceelo Green
10. Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen
11. Firework - Katy Perry
12. Just Dance - Lady Gaga
13. Breakfast At Tiffany's - Deep Blue Something (See, Holly comes into play!)
14. Last of The American Girls - Green Day
15. Here Come The Sun - The Beatles

Like I said there are a lot more, but those are the top ones. Over the next few months, I'll be putting up some of my other cures for the mean reds, including 90s sitcoms, lattes, and chinese food.