as opposed to say. . . the book, which was creepy and weird.

OK I’m going to start this review off, and then you’ll have to check comments for the rest of the girls opinions.  Now that we’ve all seen it, we thought it’d be time to review it.  So believe it or not, I don’t spend all my time watching fabulous tv shows like “Flavor of the Month,” “Cougar Tales,” and “Transvestite Wives” (review to follow).  I’m actually a pretty prolific reader, and I’ve read everything by Gregory Maguire.  Having said that, did I actually like “Wicked” the book?  Not really.  It was a fun and interesting read, but a little too sexual and darkly disturbing for my taste.  Needless to say it took me forever to be ok with going to the Broadway production.  When my sister, and half the Mormon population assured me that no one was getting down and dirty with any animals- I was in.

The show actually takes all the very best bits of the book, and puts them to music.  I’m a big fan of old Broadway- big costumes, high intensity dance scenes, and outrageous costumes.  This completely satisfied that need in me.  The music was unbelievable and I literally walked out of the theatre wanting to sing my heart out.  Watching some of Elphaba’s solo’s gave me chills up my spine.  Every actor brings something different to their part- our Ga-linda was hysterical in a very Amy Poehler, SNL sort of way.  One of the best parts of the show was just all the detail that went into every bit of it’s creation.  I felt transported to Oz- the costumes and set were just breathtaking.  Complete eye candy.

Now all this being said, I have to tell you I wouldn’t see it again, and I really can’t honestly say I would recommend anyone else seeing it.  One hundred dollars for a show isn’t that steep for me- and there are shows I’ve seen over and over again that have cost about that, but I did feel it was a bit steep for this show.  I also felt like this was an experience I only wanted to do once- instead of walking out feeling like it was money well spent.  I thought everything about the show was great- but I wasn’t over the moon in love with any part of it.  Mind you, this is coming from someone that has never done musical theatre, has no interest in anything drama related, and would rather listen to Metallica then the soundtrack to Hairspray.  I will say that if you do see it- get good seats.  We had great seats, and I’m really happy we did since there were a lot of nuances in the acting that I don’t think we would have picked up otherwise.

I know I’m in for some angry commentary- since all of us here at blogthedayaway, and most of our readers have seen it- so have at it below.  What did you think?

We went to the first Saturday morning show of Twilight. We got there an hour early to make sure we were in line and it turned out that we didn’t need to. The theater was almost empty. It was great and we were able to get Jamba Juice before we went in so it worked out perfectly.

I’ll be honest, the first 1/4 of the movie I really disliked it. The set, the sub characters were awesome I just couldn’t stand Kristen Stewart as Bella. I really felt like even the simplest of phrases were overacted. Not at all how I pictured Bella. As the movie went on though I guess I kind of grew numb to her because in the end I really enjoyed the movie. I still didn’t buy her as Bella but I bought everything else.

My favorite part of the movie is when Bella is on the phone with her mother and she turns around and Edward is standing there. The reason I love it is because they play music and just show them in bed talking and I feel like you don’t get that from the book. The quiet moments. The ones where they are really getting to know each other and falling in love. In that instance I felt the movie was better than the book.

I loved the cameo of Stephenie Meyer at the diner. I’m so glad she got to be a part of the movie. I love seeing her. I love it because she created not only Twilight but The Host as well and I am a huge fan almost turned stalker when I first finished the series. Seriously you guys, I almost got on a plane and went to AZ just so I could talk to her and tell her that I love her work. It’s funny that I should feel this way when I feel no attachment to JK Rowling and JRR Tolkien is dead so I didn’t have the option with him at all.

Anyway, back to the movie. I have no problems with the story line. I think the movie moved well. I love the entire cast especially Charlie (except of course Kirsten). Bella’s friends at school are so well cast. They look and act so well. My only beef is with Jacob’s hair. I hate it long and I can’t wait for him to turn into a werewolf so we can see his cute face. I’m nit picking there so obviously I liked the movie. I’m definitely going to go experience it again and I think I’ll come away from that loving it. I can’t wait for New Moon!

And yes, I was wearing my I am Switzerland T-shirt. I wore it to Forks, I wore it to the Breaking Dawn Concert. Of course, I was going to wear it.

Alisa

REVIEW #2

I liked the movie more than I’d expected to. Based on what I’d seen in the trailers, I was a little nervous… so overall I was happily surprised. The previews had shown so much of Edward and the vampire action that I figured a lot of Bella would be lost in the movie, but I actually thought they developed her story pretty well for a movie adaptation. Unlike Alisa and Laura, I thought the actress did a decent job. She definitely had a few moments (that hospital bed scene was so overacted I cringed) that made me wonder. Overall, however, I thought she did a good job of balancing Bella’s awkward reserve and perceptive wit/opinions. Her inner conflict definitely came across as well. Maybe a little too much in some parts…

So I was most surprised by just how dramatic and intense the movie made the relationship between Bella and Edward. Not that they’re not passionate in the book, but their falling in love and being together seemed so HEAVY and dark in the movie that it was kind of hard to enjoy. I realize there’s absolutely no way to include all the Bella-Edward dialogue from the book, but couldn’t they have put in even a little light banter or happy conversation? Even a few more good kisses would’ve made them seem like more of a couple in love.

That said, I enjoyed how the movie script infused humor in parts of the story that didn’t have so much in the book. Like the school friends: I don’t remember Eric or Mike being that funny in the book. I loved them along with all the other minor characters in the movie. The Cullens were super fun to watch. Loved the making-dinner-for-the-human kitchen scene and REALLY loved the baseball scene! Oh man, that was great. Mentioning that scene reminds me of how much I liked the music, too–maybe I’ll get the soundtrack.

All this writing about it has me ready to see the movie again, and it hasn’t even been twelve hours. So fun.

Julianne

Review #3

Ok sorry guys- it’s my fault this review is taking so long to get published, I’m totally slacking for some reason.  I really liked the movie- not loved, but I thought it was decent.  Edward and Bella were not MY Edward and Bella, but I sort of expected that.  I did think the movie was filled with a little too much teenage angst for my liking- although I know they only had an hour and a half to pull in “the many moods of Edward.”  I thought the rest of the cast was spot on- I especially loved the Rosalie character.  In my head I always pictured her as Head Cheerleader pretty, with the attitude to match, and I was really happy they went in that direction for her.  I was really afraid they would turn her into a stick figure supermodel, but Rosalie had some curves on her!  The movie cinematography was also a little random for me- I have extreme motion sickness, and there were a few scenes where the camera angles just kept turning and turning.  I had to put my head down for a minute to clear it.  I just thought some of the direction was a little unnecessary-  do we really need to see every Edward and Bella from every angle in every scene?  Especially in some of the kissing scenes, but maybe I’m just getting a little old?  All that being said, I thought it was great to watch the book come to life.  I wasn’t at all disappointed in any of the direction they took the movie away from the book- except for the meadow scene (and the CGI didn’t do Edward any favors- he just looked freakish in this scene).  So yes, I will be seeing the movie again, and I may bring my husband this time since they clearly didn’t take it in the direction of a chick flick.

Laura

So after another day of our comedy of errors which included me running a red light and almost getting in an accident we made it to the theater. Unfortunately when we got to the theater Laura got sick. Really sick. About to throw up and pass out sick. Poor girl. So we sat on the steps in front of the theater and people watched. There were 1800 people there. Most of them young girls but there were a lot of Twilight Moms (An actual online group of fans. We’re thinking of starting our own group so stay tuned.) and there were quite a few guys there. They were attached to girls of course whether they were dads, boyfriends or sons. Once we got into the theater it was set up to look like the book ends of all of the books with the center one saying Breaking Dawn Concert Series. (Sorry the picture isn’t very clear. You get the idea though.)

The one thing I did not prepare myself for was the screaming. The three of us assumed erroneously that everyone would be calm like us and politely clap at appropriate intervals. Holy crap, were we wrong. Dead wrong. They screamed when the doors to the lobby opened. Screamed when the doors of the theater opened. Screamed when the lights went down. Screamed when the MC came out on stage. Let loose when Justin Furstenfeld came out. Screamed through his songs. Screamed louder when they were done. Then all hell broke loose when Stephenie came out. I honestly thought I was going to fall to pieces it was so loud. Imagine how Laura felt. She totally had her hands over her ears. The part that made me mad though is that they would scream during the interview and Stephenie wouldn’t be able to speak. I’m pretty sure they got through all the questions though.

So this is how it went down. Justin came out and played three songs acoustically. Then Stephenie and the MC came out and did a Q & A. Among the questions was what the cover of the book meant. She said the pawn was the human Bella, the weakest player on the board, turning into the queen, the strongest player on the board. And I’m sorry to say I can’t remember any of the other questions except that Jacob and Nessie will both be immortal since Jacob doesn’t age as long as he keeps phasing. Which she said wasn’t a problem for Jacob. (Sorry I can’t remember more. It was a really long day and night.)

Then Justin came back out and he played some of the songs from Stephenie’s play lists and Stephenie introduced them. My favorite of his is “Hate Me”. It’s from the time when Edward left Bella after Jasper attacked her. I really can relate to and get that one in this context. It just makes sense. The rest I had to try really hard to concentrate on. There was one really annoying point where she said this song “My Never” off of Justin’s next album reminded her of page 355 of Breaking Dawn. Everybody got out their phones and their books and started looking for the page. So it was annoying two fold. First that Stephenie didn’t give a better explanation (though the song really did speak for itself if you paid enough attention, which I had a hard time doing). Second that everyone had their stupid phones out distracting me from the song.

If I’m remembering correctly Justin left the stage and the MC came back out and her and Stephenie closed up the show. At that point Stephenie thanked Justin for being there and said he made doing this fun and that she usually hated her book signings. To which quite a few people made disappointed noises. I don’t blame them but I can understand Stephenie’s side too. I think if I was in her shoes I would hate that part of my job too.

I’m going to hopefully put a link in a future post so you can go to iClips and see the concert on their archived footage. The concert was totally worth going to. In fact I think I’ll watch it again just because my memory is so bad. It was a lot of fun. My favorite part being when Justin and Stephenie were on stage together.

I’m going to write about actually meeting Stephenie in my next post. I know this is taking a long time but all I wanted to do was spend time with Scott when I got home. Reading these books makes me love him even more than ever. Man, I love this series!

Edward + Bella 4-ever!!

Maybe it doesn’t seem like a big deal to drive down to LA but for the 7 of us it was another one of my comedy of error days.  Unfortunately, it spread to my friends also.  So to start of with I was running about a half hour late which worked out great because Laura L. got caught in horrendous traffic coming home from Jordyn’s swim lessons.  We finally got everything packed up in the car and made it an hour away when I suddenly realized I left the tickets for the Breaking Dawn concert at home!  As you can imagine I pretty much freaked out.  So we found a place to turn around and made the hour trip back home.  In the meantime the battery for the DVD player died and the kids were not happy, to put it mildly.

We got to my house and everybody piled in surpring Nicole, my sitter.  We all used the bathroom, changed diapers, etc.  We got back in the car and set off and got to almost the exact same spot where I realized I left the tickets when Julianne realized she forgot her purse at my house!  Laura L. and I promised to cover her money wise but her glasses and phone and, girls you know everything else that’s important in your purse, were at my house.  So Scott, that purse in our house is Julianne’s in case you were wondering.

Finally we figured out how to plug the DVD player into the van and still have it reach to the back seat so most of the kids (Julianne’s 3 and 1 1/2 year old and Laura’s 3 and 10 month old) were pretty happy most of the drive.  We originally left the house at 11:45 and didn’t get to Desert Hot Springs at 10pm.  The only other signigicant event that happened was we were driving past a big rig and at the exact moment it blew one of its tires.  Holy crap was that scary.  It didn’t swerve or anything but the noise sent my heart out of my chest for sure.

I am so excited about tonight.  I’m almost as excited about getting out of the desert where it promises to be 108 degrees today.  If you know me you know I hate the heat.  Anything above 80 is too much for me.  And Laura keeps saying that anything above 100 just feels the same.  I would agree.  It all feels like hell to me.

What kind of crazy comedy of errors trips have you guys taken?

The picture is of Julianne’s son, Bennett.  He climbed right up to the top bed and got cozy.  it was too cute not to take a picture.

Laura’s parents put us up last night and tomorrow night we’ll be here too.  They’re also watching the kids while the three of us girls go to the conert tonight.  Big thank you to them.

Our trip to Forks was amazing. Everything seemed to fall into place for us and we even had great food along the way. If you stop by Forks go to the Coffee Shop and order the Blackberry (or Boysenberry, I can’t remember) cobbler. It is so yummy we almost went back a second time to just have it again.

Here’s the best part of the trip. Julianne was running and listening to the local Forks radio station when they announced the Prom was being held that night. She came back to the hotel room and we were so excited by the news. We went out Saturday night and hunted down the Prom which was held above a Mexican restaurant. We didn’t sneak upstairs for a peak, but when we got to the front of the building there was a silver Volvo just waiting for us. Could we have better luck or what? That was my favorite moment from the trip because it meant that some lucky girl had a guy that was willing to play along with her Twilight fantasy. Good for her. I just hope he was as virtuous as Edward. What are the chances of that though?  I tried to get Scott to buy a Volvo S60R but he’s not having it. He’s set on a Mini. I guess that’s OK too though.

You’ve got to love the theme of the prom: “Above the City Lights”. There’s seriously one main strip. But, they were above it, so it counts.

If you want to check out the photos from our trip, including one of the Elks Lodge and the church building we attended that didn’t make it to the blog, you can check out the photos here:Flickr

And Laura H. you give me a few months to save up some money and I’ll gladly go back with you. I never did find Jacob’s house or really get to hang out at First Beach. Plus if you go on Bella’s birthday the Quileutes will do a wolf dance and the town is set up to celebrate Twilight. And I would totally have more cobbler and fish and chips. I’m in!

And a big THANK YOU to Scott for holding down the fort while I was gone. Laura and Julianne, I had a great time, thanks for inviting me!  Too bad all the Volvo’s were already let out when we got to Seattle.  That would have been over the top cool.

Anyone for a Harry Potter sight seeing trip? Not that I have the means to make this happen but wouldn’t it be fun? l just like imagining it.

This is the last stop on our trip; Forks itself.  This is an interesting building.  It’s the grocery store, outfitters (clothing and camping), and the hardware store all stuck together.  It’s kind of like a Super Walmart (or whatever those are called) only the three stores are separated by walls having access through doors through the whole thing.  So this would be where Bella shops for groceries and Newton’s store all in one.  You can see MIke’s Suburban in the first shot.  He must have been working that day. What luck!

Now we have Forks high school and guess what?  Mike followed us and pulled in to the student parking lot!  Can you totally see Tyler and his van careening towards Bella, Edward stepping in just in time?

We didn’t exactly find Bella’s house but we found a house on a lot that could be hers.  It’s the top picture with the forest encroaching on the yard.  There weren’t too many two story houses at all in Forks so we couldn’t find the exact thing.  Plus this house only has one access road into it and Bella’s has to have two since Edward is always driving off before Charlie comes around the corner.  Or at least that’s how I picture it.  The bottom pictures are on the way to the Cullen’s.  The river that runs past it and the dense forest surrounding it and the road leading to it.  Can you believe how dark it is?  We didn’t find the Cullen’s house, but I definitely think someone should build one.  I’d go back and visit if you do!

So I have one more picture to show you and it is so much fun.  I’ll post it tomorrow hopefully.

First Beach was tricky to find. We found it at the end of the day after finally asking how to get to it. We didn’t even end up finding the main access where all the people (way in the background on the left) were playing on the beach and if you can believe it, surfing. It was so cold and the wind would not stop, I think they definitely were werewolves out there in the water. If you look in the background on the second picture you can imagine what the cliffs would have looked like that Bella jumped off of.

Access to First Beach doesn’t go through the trees, but since we spend most of our day at Second Beach (because it was clearly marked and easy to find) I thought I’d share it with you. It’s about a mile hike in to the beach up and over some hilly areas; they’re were some killer stairs at one point. It was an absolutely beautiful walk with lots of mud on the ground even though it wasn’t raining. You’ll see in the next pictures what I mean by, once we got to the beach, but once we did Julianne and I found a huge tree to climb up in to. This has nothing to do with the book, but it was fun.

Once we got to the beach we were met by a surprise. The entrance to the beach is covered by trees that have washed up in to piles (First Beach was the same way). We had to pick our way over and through the massive trees to get to the beach. Second Beach was much smaller than First Beach; a small crescent. The pictures on the top are a sort of panoramic view from the beach. On Second Beach we were protected from the wind, but when we got to First it let loose with a fury.

La Push was absolutely gorgeous, with the living situations being as simple as you might imagine on a reservation. They are building on to their resort though so hopefully it will bring more business in for them. I could definitely imagine Jacob and the pack running through the forest and swimming in the freezing water and protecting the reservation.

I don’t have too many pictures from La Push and I’m not sure why this is. We spent most of our time at the beach and did visit the store there in town where Jacob buys all his warm soda he has lying around in brown paper bags.  What a fun trip!

Forks tomorrow if I can get it together.

This is me, Julianne and Laura at Second Beach in La Push, but I thought I should start out with a picture of us together. This is our trip to Forks, Port Angeles and La Push to find the sights from Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. This was one of the funnest things I’ve done in my life. What a silly thing to go looking for vampires and werewolves in real life America. We didn’t find any but we found pretty much everything else we were looking for.

Port Book and News is the bookstore that Bella was looking for and never found. We didn’t find a new age bookstore to visit nor did we wander back alleys trying to get attacked. I tried to buy Wuthering Heights but they were out so I settled on Sense and Sensibility. I did end up finding Wuthering Heights at the Borders Bookstore at the airport. You’ll remember these were some of Bella’s favorite books. I also got Dracula for my birthday from Laura and Julianne so now every time I read these books I’ll think of our trip. What great souvenirs. Thanks you guys for the unexpected birthday dinner and present!!

Bella Italia (also known as Bella Vino) is where Edward takes Bella for dinner. The food was actually really good my only complaint being that they didn’t have mushroom ravioli (what Bella ate) on the menu. I mean if you’re going to go along with the whole book thing by changing your menus and windows why not add the ravioli to the menu? The place was a lot smaller than I imagined it from the book. They did have a back corner booth though that Bella and Edward could have sat at. I wanted to take a picture of it but was too chicken to ask the older couple sitting there if I could. Of course I had a Coke but didn’t ask for all the refills Edward got for Bella, I just can’t handle that much caffeine.

This picture with my finger in it is on the drive from Port Angeles to Forks which is absolutely gorgeous. Just above the water line there is a line of mist. It really set the mood because it was kind of eerie just sitting there over the water. Also the little picture is of the store Bella went with Angela and Jessica to shop for the dance.

All the pictures from Port Angeles and the subsequent drive were taken with my iPhone. Speaking of which, I used my phone three or four times a day to get directions or look up ferry info or whatever. I can’t tell you how much I love my phone.

La Push coming tomorrow!

Here’s the link to Julianne, Laura and I on the Forks website.  The lady that took our picture was a Twilight nut.  She hooked us up with maps and different Forks memorabilia.  She also gave us a Twilight and New Moon quiz that we took on the way back to Seattle.  We didn’t get all of the questions right so she’s given me some homework.

I have pictures that I’m going to post soon.  We had so much fun.  Also, notice I have my I am Switzerland shirt on which got noticed when we were going through security in Seattle.

I totally ordered a great t-shirt from Zazzle.com and it came yesterday!!! It has a “conversation” between Jacob and Edward and they banter back and forth like this: “leech.” “dog.” “bloodsucker.” “pup.” “parasite.” “mongrel.” and then both say, “you smell funny.” I fell in love with this shirt a couple of months ago but just got it because I’m going to Forks!!! That’s right. My friend Laura L. invited me (that’s her in the picture). I don’t know why but I just felt like I needed this shirt on my trip so I got it. As you probably know, I already have my “I am Switzerland” shirt, but this one is just so fun!!

Also, I am reading The Host. It took a while for me to get into it because I’m not big in to aliens but It’s really picking up now and I find myself totally drawn to the main character Wanderer. I did hear Stephenie say that some early readers were routing for the aliens but I’m not with them at this point. I’ll let you know how I feel when I finish the books.