you are the one

I've had the cd for a week and a few hours now and can't believe I've waited this long to talk about it! I have been anticipating the release of Elliott Yamin's cd since before last season's American Idol was even half way finished. EY has had a little work done. Love the new hair and the love the cd. My favorites are "Movin' On" and "Alright."

Labels: music

posted by amber @ 12:13 PM 1 comments

Top 15 Soundtracks--1,2,3

We're finally to the end! The big reveal all in honor of Oceans 12.

Number 3...Cold Mountain
After I purchased Cold Mountain, I played it over and over and over for weeks in my car and my home stereo. I couldn't get enough. I love that it has some old and new sounding bluegrass, a couple film themes, and some really different music.

Number 2...Kingdom of Heaven
Harry Gregson-Williams is one of the best film composers of our time!!! I could listen to Kingdom of Heaven for hours. It has a great mix of medieval and mid-eastern sounds and modern and classic. You HAVE to have this in your collection. A masterpiece.

and, finally,

Number 1...Little Women
Little Women was released a billion years ago, and I have been listening to it over and over ever since then. The music is so light and airy and spring-like. Just writing about it makes me want to stop everything just to listen to it one more time. This may not be a favorite of some, so I won't recommend it to everyone. I may like it more because of the nostalgia. But you never know...you might just like it.

Labels: music

posted by amber @ 1:00 PM 0 comments

Top 15 Soundtracks--4, 5, 6

We're getting closer to the end and just a little bit closer to a cleaner room. Let's recap now that we're over halfway through the list.
15...Aladdin
14...Sister Act 1 & 2
13...Forrest Gump
12...the Truman Show
11...Heart & Souls
10...Titanic
9...The Little Mermaid
8...Pink Panther's Penthouse Party
7...The Big Chill

Number 6...O Brother, Where Art Thou?
I first heard O Brother, Where Art Thou? in my friends' car. I didn't grow up listening to bluegrass, so this was a new experience for me. I fell in love at first hearing. Absolutely one of the best ways to get someone hooked on bluegrass. It's a fun cd and has some great singing to boot!

Number 5...Henry Mancini-All Time Greatest Hits
Again, not really a soundtrack, but it includes songs from movies and tv. Henry Mancini is probably my all-time favorite composer. Some of my favorite All Time Greatest Hits are Baby Elephant Walk, Charade, A Shot in the Dark, Peter Gunn, and a few of the themes. Definitely a great collection of some of the best!

Number 4...Now and Then
Probably the only good thing about the movie was the soundtrack for Now and Then. I can listen to this cd over and over without getting tired of it. Absolutely some of the best sing along songs. It's not really the greatest, greatest hits (that I know of), which I think is what makes it so great! Most oldies mixes repeat songs from other cds, but this cd doesn't have any songs on it that I don't already have on another cd.

One post closer to the end!

Labels: music

posted by amber @ 2:25 PM 0 comments

Fahrenheit 451

I've decided to go back and read all my favorites again this year. I started with Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. It is one of the few books I liked from the high school required reading list.

Synopsis: Books have been outlawed. Fireman don't put out fires; they start fires--to burn books. Reading is NOT tolerated. Strangers don't talk to each other on the streets and barely do at home. Cars speed down the highways so the passengers never see if anything is growing outside. Montag (a fireman) steals a book while on the job out of curiosity sparked by a girl he meets on the street. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll stop there.

If you love futuristic stories, this is one that will not disappoint. Parts of it are a bit humorous (and the movie that was based on it is even funnifer) due to the way the future is portrayed back when it was written in the 1950s.

The underlying message of the book is censorship, but I think there's something more. People not thinking for themselves is definitely a lesson to learn from in this book. So many people take the media at their word. You can't. You have to check the sources. Or don't think for yourself. Watch tv and never read a book. And go ahead a write a scholarly paper based on research only from wikipedia. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Some of the narrative is a bit strange, but Ray Bradbury uses it as a device to show just how the media has infiltrated the culture of Montag. I really like the way Montag's character develops through the narrative and dialog. The supporting characters seemed to have more depth reading it this second time as opposed to when I read it in high school...I think that's due to understanding people a little bit better now. I became very sympathetic to how taking away communication through the written {truthful} word and, mostly, through people can wear people down and utlimately kill them.

This entry is semi-anti-pop-culture. However, it's a classic book and it would make a fantastic {updated} film. They've been in talks about one, but it's only been a bunch of talk and no action.

Labels: book

posted by amber @ 10:33 PM 43 comments

Top 15 Soundtracks--7, 8, 9

Number 9...The Little Mermaid
I love singing along to The Little Mermaid. Disney has some great soundtracks. What makes this better than The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast? Well, the Broadway version of The Lion King is way better than the movie soundtrack, but it doesn't count on my soundtrack list because I took all Broadway shows out of the running so that they wouldn't dominate the list. Beauty and the Beast...well, I just don't own the soundtrack. The Little Mermaid is a fun cd because of its aquatic themed music.

Number 8...Pink Panther's Penthouse Party
Pink Panther's Penhouse Party isn't really a soundtrack, but it was put out at the same time as the special DVD. Some of the songs have made it to movies and tv. You may have heard those songs on Night at the Museum, Regis and Kelly, and either a Target, Old Navy, or GAP commercial (they all run together). Henry is one of my all-time favorite composers, so hearing some mixes of his music is the coolest. This cd will definitely inspire you to throw a 60s cocktail party Breakfast at Tiffany's style.

Number 7...The Big Chill
The Big Chill was one of the first soundtracks I owned...Actually, I came into ownership by default because I listened to it all the time, and my brother didn't, so it just ended up in my cd collection. The Big Chill has some of the Motown greats--Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Aretha Franklin, Four Tops, Smokey Robinson, etc. It's a great oldies mix, which is one of my favorite things about soundtracks!

Labels: music

posted by amber @ 6:34 PM 2 comments

Top 15 Soundtracks--10, 11, 12

Number 12....the TRUMAN show
I love The Truman Show because of track #8. There's a really long story that goes along with me liking/watching this movie that I'm going to refrain from telling becuase the story is just that long. Check out the music. It's rather laid back and relaxing. Interesting, too.

Number 11....Heart & Souls
I saw Heart & Souls a billion years ago. It's been one of my favorites ever since. I love that it includes B.B. King and Ray Charles. I like everything else, too. The movie's really good, too, if you haven't seen it. It's been awhile since I've seen it. I would put it on my list of movies to rent if I had such a list.

Number 10....Titanic
I can't get away with not putting Titanic on the list. I was like every other girl back when this movie came out and totally went crazy over everything about it. I'm still totally in love with the black and red dress Kate Winslet wore. Even if you don't like the movie, you should be able to agree that the music is fantastic. I love listening to this soundtrack, even though now I skip over Celine Dion since she totally gets on my nerves. You definitely need this one in your collection.

Labels: music

posted by amber @ 5:52 PM 0 comments

some updates

I've been a bit lax in give you ideas for what to do for the weekend. You can't do all this in one weekend, but you can make a list.

First of all, go see Pan's Labyrinth. {It's NOT for kids due to violence.} It was just released to local theaters on Friday even though it's a 2006 film. Why it's so good: it is absolutely the most creative movie of 2007; the story was incredible. The visuals were incredible. It's in good ol' espanol. It's rather bloody, but it was totally worth it.

Don't waste your time seeing The Holiday unless you're one of my crazy girl friends. The girls I saw it with loved it and wouldn't shut up about it. I, on the otherhand, was bored and wondering why so many women get sucked into cheap movies like this.

See The Pursuit of Happyness if you haven't already. Great movie even though you can wait for it to come out on dvd.

Children of Men is good if you like futuristic political movies. It has awful language and is definitely not a family movie. I was not disappointed when I saw it because I wasn't expecting much. It reminded me of Farhenheit 451, which is one of my all-time favorite stories.

The Good Shepherd. One of my favorite movies of 2006. I love spy and crime movies. Some of my friends thought it was a little long, but I didn't once wonder what time it was during the movie. I'd like to see it again.

I should also be telling you the next 3 top 15 soundtracks this week.

Labels: film

posted by amber @ 2:45 PM 1 comments

Beauty and the Geek

My new favorite show is Beauty and the Geek. I LAUGHED SO HARD watching this show. I wasn't planning on watching this show when I started seeing the previews. I had flipped to it in a past season and wasn't completely impressed and never had any intentions on watching it again. However, last night it was between that or Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which inevitably will just make me cry over really bad t.v. Beauty and the Geek was so funny that I even watched the second episode. And then I set my old fashioned vcr for Wednesday night at 8pm to tape all subsequent episodes.

What makes this show so funny? The beauties and the geeks--all equally lacking in one area of their life either in intelligence or social sense. I couldn't hold back my laughter when Sanjay related booty with only one thing---not what you're thinking but what it says in the non-slang dictionary---you remember....pirates....pirate treasure. And how about when Piao introduced himself, then gave his nickname (Pi) along with the hand symbols--kind of gang-like but a different kind of gang. Like the kind of gang that geeks created during one of their video game playing get togethers.

People who I want to see go: Matt & Andrea
People who I want to see stay: Mario & Nadia and Nate & Cecille and Drew & Erin

Labels: tv

posted by amber @ 12:18 PM 5 comments

we interrupt our regularly scheduled program to bring you this brief announcement

I'm finally finished reading Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck. I've only been reading it since August. I could blame it on all the books I have to read for school, but that would only be half true. School reading does decrease my pleasure reading but never this much unless it's just not a good book. Travels with Charley must not be a good book. It's semi-good. There are things I like about the book, but I was greatly disappointed. John Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors, and since A Walk Across America is my favorite book, I thought Travels with Charley would be a perfect combination. Nope.

It's a good book, and I have a friend reading it right now who likes it, who I'm always surprised each time he likes a Steinbeck book since he's more of a Walden and Thoreau kinda guy. I was just disappointed by the point of view. Since Steinbeck is a writer going on the adventure instead of an adventurerer writing a book, the perspective is completely different. He over philosophized what was going on in the people's lives he met.

I don't remember much from the beginning of the book, but I do like two things that happen close to the end. His trip to Louisiana, and his final leg home. While Steinbeck was in Louisiana, he did what I expected him to do through the entire book. He actually watched what real daily life was like. He talked to people about real stuff. Then on his way home, I felt exactly like he did. When you've been gone from home a long time, and it seems like you'll never get there and every road block gets in the way of you and home. That total frustration that builds up. AND THEN you're finally home. Sweet relief.

And sweet relief that I can finally read another book.

Labels: book

posted by amber @ 11:48 AM 2 comments

Top 15 Soundtracks--13, 14, 15

I absolutely love soundtracks and usually put at least one on my Christmas list every year. I've compiled a list of some of my favorite soundtracks in honor of receiving the Oceans 12 soundtrack this year. There are definitely some better soundtracks that I don't have on this list, but it's because I'm limiting my list to soundtracks I actually own. This list won't look as fantastic as snapculture's lists, so you'll just have to get past that....Let's begin.

Numero 15....Aladdin
You need to add Aladdin to your soundtrack collection if you don't already have it. I liked this movie so much when it came out back in the 90's. I think my parents even pre-ordered the movie on VHS, which was a totally cool thing to do back then, especially since Blockbuster also gave you some incentives for pre-ordering. I liked the sountrack sooooooooo much that I bought the sheet music for piano and learned several songs...my favorite being Arabian Nights. What's so great about Disney movies from the 90's is all the wonderful music. This was definitely a great time for Tim Rice and anyone who was priveleged enough to collaborate with him.

Number 14....Sister Act 1 & 2
I am combining Sister Act 1 and Sister Act 2 to get this list down to 15 soundtracks. I liked the first movie better, but the music from both movies is great. I probably like more songs from the first movie because I've never been a huge fan of sequels that are made to cash in on a first movie's fantasticness (but you will see from my most recent acquisition of Oceans 12 that this is not always the case). I like all the oldies on Sister Act 1 and absolutely love Hail Holy Queen. The Lounge Medley is definitely much better than the medley in the second cd. But you CANNOT forget the wonderfulness of Oh Happy Day and Joyful, Joyful on the second cd. And I can't tell you how man times I would keep His Eye Is on the Sparrow on repeat! I was definitely a chorus geek back in the 90's, and Sister Act totally helped perpetuate this side of my personality.

Number 13....Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump was definitely my favorite movie for at least three years following it's release. The cd I own isn't mine. I found it in my brother's collection. Then I found out it wasn't his but some girl's who had borrowed his Eagles Greatest Hits cd and never returned it. I'm so glad she never returned it. Forrest Gump has some of the best oldies ever on it. It also has Forrest Gump Suite by Alan Silvestri, which is absolutely one of my favorite movie themes. Alan Silvestri is one of my favorite movie score composers. {He also scored one of my all time favorite movies--Back to the Future.} I have definitely worn out this soundtrack. EVERYONE needs to own this soundtrack.

Labels: music

posted by amber @ 2:48 PM 0 comments