CR2 Soundtrack

I bought the Camp Rock 2 Soundtrack today.

"Brand New Day" is the first track. The first line is "Last year's old news." I think that is very appropriate because a LOT seems to be different this time around. They're not regular campers, they're counselors.

This soundtrack is much more tuned for a musical than the last. Camp Rock songs were regular songs that just happen to fit into the scene. Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam songs actually tell a story.

"Rock Hard or Go Home" is a random way to end the tracklisting. It's not sung by any of kids, so I don't care to try to like it.

The Camp Star songs are more hip-hop-y. No reprise of the "Too Cool" shoulder thing by Tess/Megan =/ I like the chorus of "Tear it Down."

I love "Introducing Me"! It's so much fun when it gets fast =] I hope he sings this on tour. Question: how do you use "dude" as an adjective or an adverb?

"Wouldn't Change A Thing" > "I Gotta Go My Own Way" from High School Musical 2. I'm sure this scene will be amazing. I'd love to see it on tour, but if it's too awkward for Joe and Demi, I understand.

JB--I mean Connect 3 teaches campers how to rock out in "Heart and Soul." I guess there won't be any more hip-hop dance teaching from Shane? There's a lyric about fist pumping... are you serious?

I'd compare "You're My Favorite Song" to "You Are the Music in Me" from HSM 2, but it's acoustic. It's cute. Is this how Shane and Mitchie make up?

I think it's interesting that I compared songs to HSM2 istead of CR1. I'm able to compare songs from all HSM movies to each other, but I guess that could just come with the genre and less changes in those movies.

By the way, one of the "Road to Camp Rock 2" episodes showed the cast in the studio. I spotted Drew Ryan Scott giving direction, but he isn't credited as a writer on any of the songs.

RENT at Hollywood Bowl

My mom and I decided to Park & Ride to the Hollywood Bowl. We had a nice charter bus. Most of the passengers bought their bus tickets for $8 as they boarded. We prepaid on Ticketmaster for $5 + $1.75 service fee, so we saved $1.25.

This was my first time at the Hollywood Bowl.

I love the view of the Hollywood sign!

There were searchlights shining at opposite ends. I definitely had that "Hollywood" feel! I really like the atmosphere. Everyone was just kicking back, having a picnic. Courtney and Keri brought Panera sandwiches for everyone. They were yummy. Also, 75-cent seat cushions are totally worth it! The screens are big, but I liked looking through my binoculars.

8:30 rolled around. The lights turned off. The National Anthem was played on the electric guitar. After a closer look, you see that the guitarist has his back to the audience, and he's wearing a sleveless black tee with plaid pants. It's Roger (Aaron Tveit)! Once he finished, he took a seat, and Mark (Skylar Astin) came out to start the show.

"Rent" was really strong. I was pumped! As I was writing this blog, I learned that Benny is played by Collins Pennie, who was in FAME!

I fell for Aaron Tveit. He looked a lot older than Tripp van der Bilt in Gossip Girl. I LOVE how he was about to strangle Mimi during their argument at the beginning of "Goodbye Love."

I have always felt that "Out Tonight" is a difficult song to nail. Sorry, but Vanessa Hudgens did not nail it. Her peformance was better than the video I saw on YouTube from the night before, but there were times where the notes were just off for me.
BUT her performance got better throughtout the night. "Without You" was really good!

Telly Leung did well as Angel, just as the role demands. He kept up Angel's charm and talent. Skylar Astin as Mark and Tracie Thoms as Joanne brought it as well.

Wayne Brady was very good as Collins. He started off with a higher singing voice than he ended with. Is that just me who noticed?

Nicole Scherzinger was extremely good as Maureen. This version of "Over the Moon" added some hip hop. She was SANS COWBELL. Uh, weird! I can't remember if Joanne mentioned it during "We're Okay." Other than that, it was really good. It makes you forget that Maureen isn't supposed to be super talented.

If you didn't love her before, you ought to now!

There were a couple of technical glitches. "Christmas Bells" wasn't as epic as I wanted.

Other changes I noticed:
- The absence of Mark's interruption/introduction at the beginning of "Life Support"

- Maureen is from Jersey, not Hicksville?

- They cut a verse from "Happy New Year"
- "Seasons of Love B" was cut =/
- They cut out the orgy part of "Contact." It went straight to Angel singing "Take me.."
- They don't admit the truth of about Evita to Benny.
- Collins doesn't rewire the ATM.

There are two giant screens on each side of the stage. They were utilized well. During "What You Own," Mark wark was shone on one side, while Roger was on the other. Then, at the appropriate moment, the scene collided. Some actual footage was shown from Mark's film.

I love this picture during "Seasons of Love"

This picture is from "I'll Cover You (reprise)" without Angel.

I liked the blocking after Mimi jumps over the moon. That final image of everyone singing on the table warms my heart. After "Finale B" ended, the lights went out. The actors took their positions in line at the end of the stage to sing an encore of "Seasons of Love". There wasn't a proper curtain call, and Neil Patrick Harris did not come on stage to bow or anything!! That bummed me out a bit. He obviously is a big part of the reason people came out to these shows.

We had 20 minutes to get back to the buses. We followed the massive crowd down the hill. That was a dumb move. If we had gone down through the seats first, we would have saved 10-15 minutes. Tip for next time!

CR2 "Book"

I finally bought the Camp Rock 2 Junior Novel. I had trouble finding it in stores. The cover art isn't even on websites.

The first Camp Rock was about Mitchie getting over her insecurities and coming out of her shell as a person and a performer. This one shows her leadership ability as she fights to keep Camp Rock open.

I don't think it was necessary for Connect 3 to suddenly become brothers. Fans aren't used to them not being brothers? Well, in Camp Rock, they're not supposed to be Nick, Kevin, and Joe of Jonas Brothers or their fictional parody band JONAS. It's Nate, Jason and Shane of Connect 3.

Frankie Jonas plays the scene-stealing junior-rocker, Trevor.

Jason gets a birdhouse!

The first junior novel told the story way better than the movie. The movie underdeveloped the characters and storylines. For example, they didn't show Shane overhearing campers discussing his stupid, cookie-cutter popstar stuff. This is why he started writing a new, different sounding song, "Play My Music." Also, they didn't show Tess and Ella talking about lip gloss in their cabin, so the "BTW, you're lip gloss is SO NOT glossy!" line came out of nowhere.

I'm hoping this doesn't happen again for Camp Rock 2. Don't tell me it can't be done because the High School Musical 2 junior novel was on point! (I read because I'm too antsy to wait for the movie.)

Summer Belongs to You!

You gotta believe in something. So, today I believed in you and you came through.
We made it. I've never been so proud.
I know it's perfectly implausable, but we accomplished the impossible. Now there's something that I've got to say out loud:
Time is what you make of it, so take a chance.
Life is full of music, so you ought to dance.
The world's a stage, and it's time for your debut!


Don't waste a minute sitting on that chair
The world is calling, so just get out there

Candace's verse spoke to me! I really wanted to go outside and play after this song and this awesome, epic Phineas and Ferb episode! But it was 9pm by that time and dark outside.

"City of Love" was really cute. I thought, you know, the two of you-- a boy, a girl -- alone in the city of love... Poor Isabella! "Rubber Bands, Rubber Balls" was really funny! I bought the soundtrack on iTunes. It's totally worth it to me.

P.S. The Summer Solstice is the FIRST day of summer, but whatever! I loved "the visual gag" in the beginning and when Phineas found a sponge and a starfish on the beach.

Inception

Inception is the movie to watch if you want to know what happens after Teddy Daniels escapes from Shutter Island, after Tom Hansen's 500 Days of Summer, and after Juno graduates from high school.

Or perhaps those movies were really just the dreams of Cobb, Arthur, and Ariadne.

I liked this movie way more than Shutter Island. Dreams are more interesting to me than craziness.

Not to spoil the end, but I think he IS d__!

Mad World

After Alex Wong's hip hop dance with Twitch, this season on So You Think You Can Dance, I was convinced he could take it all. Unfortunately, he got injured and was unable to finish the competition.

So then, I was rooting for Billy to win SYTYCD this season. C'mon, the show loves him. He's really talented. He made top 20 last season. They changed the format to Top 11 instead of 10 so that he could be in the cast. Last week, they changed it up AGAIN so he wasn't automatically eliminated for his knee injury.

I forgot to vote, and he got eliminated on tonight's semi-finals. He might have stood a chance if I had voted or if there was another girl in the top 3.

His contemporary routine with Ade last night was really beautiful. I really liked the song.

I realized I heard this song last friday on General Hospital during the climax of Francophenia.

Billy danced to the Gary Jules and Michael Andrews' version from Donnie Darko.

The orignial is by Tears for Fears.

I like both!

Adam Lambert's American Idol version is pretty good too.

Enter the terrible twos

Sophie turned 2 on Saturday. To celebrate, my brother got 4 complimentary tickets to the Happiest Place on Earth. That's right, people, we got to go to Disneyland. I was elated!

First, we had to pick up FastPasses for World of Color. The line was huge! I'm happy for California Adventure. We got the Red Section for the 9pm showing. While Courtney and I got the FPs, Dan went on Soarin' Over California while mom watched Sophie.

We went to Disneyland and got a FP for Splash Mountain. Then, we rode Winnie the Pooh. I saw the moose heads!
I think that's pretty cool. I hope that if Disneyland continues to change, then they'll hide tributes like this for zealous people like me to find. After, we went on Haunted Mansion.

The guy in front of us was talking to a Cast Member about changes to Splash Mountain. He mentioned something about a watermelon after the first drop. After the first drop, we saw that they replaced one of the frogs with a huge watermelon. I totally forgot about the second drop IN THE DARK. It was SCARY! Then, the final, 50-foot drop was so steep to me! It was thrilling. In the final Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah scene, we saw the train pass by. I waved at the passengers. All-in-all, Splash Mountain was a lot of fun, especially with my brother's added soundtrack.

We had lunch at Napolini in Downtown Disney. Before we left, I split from the group to grab FPs for Thunder Mountain. I beat my family to Downtown Disney because they went through the crowded AdventureLand, while I exited through Frontierland. =]

After, we went to Captain EO. The floor shook the ENTIRE movie. I guess they want us to feel like we're dancing with them? Dan LOVED it. He wanted to buy a poster "for Sophie."

Then, Sophie got her face painted, while I got FPs for Roger Rabbit. We went on it's a small world and then back to BTMRR. Roger Rabbitt was kind of crazy. I tried positioning our front car to always face the back, so Dan could capture Sophie's reaction the the ride. We did a couple of gags at ToonTown, and I met Pluto!

Then, it was time for Chimichangas and Dole Whips. I went to Aladdin's Oasis while my mom waited in line, but Aladdin was getting ready to leave. This was it for Disneyland for today.

We went to California Adventure so we could watch the Pixar Play Parade. I welcomed the water because we were facing the bright, hot sun. Sophie was scared of the characters for some reason =/. Then we saw this guy:

Lotso! What a nice bear! That Mr. Potato Head cracks me up.

After, we went to Princess Dot's Puddle Park. THIS was Sophie's favorite part of the day. She just loved playing in all the water!

I got to check out the Blue Sky Cellar. I cannot wait for The Little Mermaid ride!

We rode Francis' Ladybug Boogie.

We headed over to the Hollywood Backlot and Animation Building. Dan was in awe of the Toy Story Zoetrope. Dan, Courtney and I talked to Crush, while my mom enjoyed the animation screens. When we got out, I saw a CM wearing red plaid. So, I looked for the celebrity he was with. It was Chelsea Staub from JONAS!!! My brother took a picture of us thinking she was one of my classmates from school.
Haha. I was pretty giddy as we made our way back to Paradise Pier for World of Color. I have always wanted to see a celebrity at Disneyland. Now I finally did =]

Red Section is all the way off to the right side, which didn't seem promising. Lines for the food and coffee near by are ridiculously long. The pre-show was cute.

Alas, the park went BLACK, and we entered the World of Color. The fountains soared high, and the colors were so beautiful! Seriously, it was like WOW. The projections weren't great from my angle. Half the time, I didn't know what character or scene they were showing. Center is the best place to be. For example, during the Nemo section, they made a tunnel with the water, but it just wasn't as awesome from the side. I don't remember seeing the cool Cheshire Cat or Steamboat Willie images from the early art concepts. "Part of Your World," "Colors of the Wind," and "A Whole New World" (with Mickey's Fun Wheel as stars in the sky) were really cool. My favorite part was the "So Close" section with all the love scenes. The blazing fire was a bit blinding. I can't wait to see it again, probably with a preferred dining package or the Wet Zone xP.

Courtney and I weren't ready to immediately after, so we went back to the Hollywood Backlot. Glow Fest is cool, but kind of weird. It's not Disney. We rode Tower of Terror, which was walk-on. The colors from Glow Fest did look cool from up there.

It was great to go Disneyland again. Until we meet again!

P.S. Check out Dan's blog.