Hair Spray Movie Review

Hair Spray was a great movie in many different ways: the music was great, the cast was full of talented people, and it was just a very lighthearted, fun film, that sends a message of "can't we all just get along?" A word of warning: it is a musical. I know some people don't like it when almost the whole movie is full of singing -- to be honest, although I saw the '80s version of Hair Spray with Rikki Lake, I have a horrible memory for things I only see once, and I didn't really remember much of what the movie is about. I expected it to be mostly dialogue with a song here and there, but it was mostly singing with a few portions of dialogue.

Why did I want to see Hair Spray? Mostly because of how hilarious John Travolta looks dressed as a woman! I also learned that Christopher Walken was in the movie, and because I think he's kinda creepy, I just had to see how he fit into this picture. I was not disappointed, and I actually enjoyed the movie much more than I thought I would. I think I would even consider getting the DVD, because I like to have funny, heartwarming DVDs in my collection. The singing was so great and the songs so fun, that I would also like to get the soundtrack.

Here's a link to the official movie site: http://www.hairspraymovie.com/

Nikki Blonsky stars as Tracy Turnblad, who immediately left me with a great impression with her opening rendition of "Good Morning Baltimore." Blonsky exudes a wonderful, fun-loving spirit, and made me believe that she is someone I would want to be friends with. John Travolta is Edna Turnblad, Tracy's mother, who suffers (obviously) from weight issues, but handles them in a much less optimistic way than Tracy does. Christopher Walken is Wilber Turnblad, Tracy's father. Suffice it to say that Walken and Travolta share some interesting and hilarious moments in the film!

Other notables are Queen Latifah and Michelle Pfeiffer, as well as Brittany Snow (from the tv show, American Dreams) and Alison Janney (one of my favorite characters in the West Wing series that ended last year). Amanda Bynes is also in the movie as Tracy's best friend Penny.

The movie begins with Tracy's quest to become a regular on the "Corny Collins Show," but turns into a quest for acceptance and equality on many levels. Tracy's demeanor is one that doesn't allow failure as an option. She doesn't see her weight as an obstacle to achieving her dreams. Her ambition extends beyond her own personal goals, and she is resolved to help others be able to realize their dreams as well.

I would recommend this movie to anyone that enjoys a feel-good movie, a musical, or a comedy. While some men may think this is a typical chick flick, my guess is that most will find the antics of John Travolta and Christopher Walken worth being dragged along to the movie by a wife or girlfriend.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Review

I have finished reading the Deathly Hallows, about 40 hours after picking up the book. My initial thoughts are that I really enjoyed this book, and thought J.K. Rowling did a great job wrapping up the loose ends. Do I think all Harry Potter fans will be happy with the ending? No -- without giving anything away, I will say that I don't think it would have been possible for J.K. Rowling to make everyone happy. I equate it to the Sorpano's ending (which I hated). It'll be a love-it or hate-it issue for many people.

I did not read any of the supposed spoilers that were appearing on the internet the days leading up to the book release, but I heard that some of those people were downright angry about the end of the book (there is an Epilogue). While I was happy with it, I can see why people would be upset. I'm not even really sure an Epilogue was necessary, but given how much I hated the uncertainty left by the Soprano's, the Epilogue was a good thing for me.

The emotions I felt while reading the book varied greatly. While there was some of the doom and gloom felt in the previous two books, I think it was dominated mostly by exhilaration and adventure. There were a number of parts where there simply was not time to think (for me or the characters) because they were thrown into a dangerous situation where they had to act immediately. Definitely not a boring book!

I also experienced sadness -- it is no surprise to anyone, as J.K. Rowling stated herself that at least two characters would die. I had guessed which two I thought were most likely to go, and I got one right. I would say I had to pull out the tissues about 4 or 5 times, although some of the tears shed were out of happiness or a bittersweet moment.

Another emotion I felt while reading the book was a sense of pride for the characters who chose to stand their ground and who remained loyal. Of course, anyone who had read the previous books knows that that feeling cannot be expressed for all the characters, but the loyalty expressed by a number of characters is quite admirable.

For those of you who plan to read the book and haven't yet, go and do it! I seriously had a hard time putting the book down for any reason. Even if you don't like the end, I think you will at least like the parts leading up to the end. Now that I'm done reading, I will now start listening to the book on CD. The list price is $79.95, but it was available at Sam's Club for about $47-$48.

ETA: a friend found the CDs at Costco for $39.99.

Picking Up the 7th and Final Harry Potter Book

Today marks the end of my Harry Potter Book 7 marathon weekend. My previous Friday evening plans of picking up a numbered ticket and seeing the 5th Harry Potter movie (again) before picking up my book at midnight went by the wayside, but it was a fun evening nonetheless.

With books 5 and 6, numbered tickets were distributed beginning around 6 p.m., and I didn't wait at all for those tickets. I just walked straight up to a table set up outside the store and got my ticket and came back at midnight. So of course, they decided to change things a bit this year. I called the Barnes & Noble where I reserved by copy of the book to confirm that I did have a copy reserved in my name, as well as to find out the proper procedures for obtaining the book. Instead of a ticket, it's a wristband, although still at 6 p.m.

So, I'm thinking, "no problem. I can head down there at about 5:40, in case they start early." We left a little after 5:30, and the mall is about a 6 minute drive. We drive by the B&N entrance, and there is a line that actually went down an enclosed hallway and out the other end! Thank goodness I had a chauffeur to drop me off. So much for my in-and-out theory! I ended up waiting about an hour to get my wristband and other goodies including a tattoo, a tassel, glow in the dark sorta-Harry-Potterish glasses, and a list of activities and rules for the evening. I was in the 5th group of 30, so that means there were at least 120 people in line in front of me, and I would guess at least another 100 people behind me.

We had another function to go to, a private party at So Good Jewelry in the Waikiki Trade Center. A friend of mine is a part-owner of the store, so here's a free plug. A link to the website is in my favorite websites at the bottom of the page. I did find some cool things there. I was looking for earrings, so I picked a few of them up, and you can see in the above picture. I also bought a cute and practical hair clip. They also had a ton of necklaces and other jewelry items.

After the So Good Jewelry party, we had dinner and went home for a bit before going back to B&N for the book party. The "rules" said to be ready to line up in our groups by 11:30, so I got back there by 11. They started calling the first group to line up around 11:50. I managed to get through the organized chaos, book in hand, by around 12:20, and stayed up until around 3 p.m. reading. I finished reading the book this afternoon, and am posting a review right after I finish this post.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Movie Review

Let me start by saying that this post will not contain any spoilers for those who haven't read the books yet and really don't know the story until they watch the movie, although I will make the assumption that you've at least watched the four previous movies.

On Sunday morning, I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (OOTP) at 9:30 a.m., the first show of the day. Unfortunately, we were in a relatively small, and surprisingly packed (for a Sunday morning) movie theater.

I anxiously awaited the commencement of the movie as we watched the previews. Then, the theater turned black and the movie started in the typical, ominous Harry Potter fashion. The opening scene did the book justice in portraying a dark mood, and it made improvements to some of the scary creatures we saw in the previous movies.

As I watched the movie with the eyes of someone who has read all the books multiple times, I often found myself complimenting the casting of characters and accurate depiction of places we haven't seen in the previous movies. Considering that OOTP is the longest book, and the shortest movie so far, the movie flowed pretty smoothly.

However, as the movie ended and I walked out of the theater, all I could think was, "ehhh." With the previous movies, I felt really excited about how great a job they did with the characters, sets, effects, and story (even though I felt that Azkaban was a bit choppy and left some gaps), and I was ready to go buy another ticket and watch the movie all over again right then and there. OOTP left me a bit disappointed. Because I promised I wouldn't post spoilers, I won't be specific, but while they touched on most of the main storylines of the book, that was it -- just one touch and *poof*, it was gone as soon as it arrived. Surely they could've spared an extra 10-20 minutes to provide a little more depth to some of the stories?

Sure, the effects were great, and I really enjoyed some of the individual scenes like the flying and the climax toward the end of the movie, but the movie as a whole didn't do it for me. Will I go see it again? Sure. But instead of having that feeling of exhilaration and want to remember more of the details, I am finding myself thinking of the next time I view the movie, which will probably be on Friday night as I await the midnight release of the 7th book, as more of something to do to kill time.

Harry Potter Mania!

I've mentioned that one of my obsessions is anything Disney. What might possibly be my second-top obsession is Harry Potter. In some ways, J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, might be considered the Walt Disney of our time. She has given children, including big children like myself, something to look forward to and obsess over.

I'm not really sure what it is about the Harry Potter books and movies that appeals to me so much -- I suppose in part it is because Harry epitomizes the essence of what almost every person experiences in life. He has his horrible life in the muggle world, where he is treated almost as a slave. Yet, he goes into the magic world, where he is heralded as a hero. At such a young age, he has had to learn who he can and can't trust. While most of us might have not had to experience these things at the age Harry has, I think we have all had similar highs and lows in life.

So, how obsessed am I? Well, not so obsessed to stay up after midnight to watch the first showing of Order of the Phoenix (the movie based on the 5th novel). I'll probably go and see it Friday night.

On the other hand, I am obsessed enough to go to Barnes and Noble during the midnight release of the 7th and final novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I already have a plan...I will go and pick up my ticket as early as they'll allow me to, then I'll go have dinner and see the Order of the Phoenix movie again, then go pick up my book at the strike of midnight. (At B&N, they distribute tickets and call out the numbers 20 at a time for people to pick up their books -- the last time I got a good number and was able to pick up my book with the second batch of people.) Then what will I do? I will go home and read until I fall asleep. And I will eat, sleep, and breathe Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that entire weekend and should be done with the book by Monday morning. Hopefully I will complete my reading without having heard or read any spoilers, although I won't be reading anything but Deathly Hallows that weekend anyway.

Oh, there's one more thing I will probably be doing that weekend. I will head over to Sam's Club to pick up the audio version of Deathly Hallows, if they have it at a reasonable price. I was able to get the Half Blood Prince CD's for $30-something the last time, which is a good deal. I not only read the books and watch the movies, I listen to the CDs. Why? I have Jim Dale (and a colleague who told me how great the audio books are) to thank for turning me on to audio books. He is incredibly amazing with his rendition of all of the voices. It is truly a wonder how he does it.

Good luck to my fellow Harry Potter maniacs who will also be picking the book up at midnight next week! Until then, have a good time re-reading the previous books and watching the movies!

Santa Barbara, September 2006

Since I am not traveling until September, I thought I would start with my last trip. Every year I travel to Las Vegas and try to take a road trip to different locations in California. Last year I decided to try something new and made plans to go to Santa Barbara. I wasn't quite sure what we were going to do there, other than the Santa Barbara Zoo and maybe visit a winery or two, but it looked like such a great place to relax, and it did not disappoint!

I found a place called Hotel Mar Monte on Travelocity (www.hotelmarmonte.com), which I thought was a great place to stay. While not in the middle of all the action, it's walking distance from the Santa Barbara Zoo (which was great!) and right across the street from the beach. I reserved an ocean view room, and we were fortunate enough to get a room that had a balcony. Some of the ocean view rooms only have windows. The hotel restaurant was a good place for breakfast, although we chose to have our other meals elsewhere.

One of our meals was at Eladio's, along State Street and across the street from Stearn's Wharf, where most of the Santa Barbara action is. We had a terrific lunch here! This is a picture of me with my entree, sole piccata. We had a choice of sitting indoors or outdoors, and decided to sit outside since the weather was so beautiful and we had a view of the ocean across the street.

Our last dinner in Santa Barbara was also on State Street at Opal Restaurant and Bar. The food was terrific, but the atmosphere was a bit noisy for us, and we would have preferred someplace a little more casual while on vacation.

We spent one day driving around Santa Barbara Wine Country including Santa Ynez Valley, Los Olivos, and Solvang. To be honest, I think one of the things that inspired me to travel to Santa Barbara and its wine country was the movie, "Sideways"! While I am by no means an experienced wine connoisseur, I am a wannabe!

We stopped by the Fess Parker winery where I tasted one of the wines produced there and ended up purchasing several bottles. After the winery, it was about lunch time and I remembered reading about a restaurant called the Wine Cask at Fess Parker Wine Country Inn (which is located in Los Olivos -- not at the Fess Parker vineyard). The Wine Cask also has indoor and outdoor seating, and we were seated outside. The food there was also very good. I had the trout.

We spent 3 nights in Santa Barbara, which seemed just about the right amount of time for us. We were able to do a lot of things at a casual pace. It was a very relaxing place to be, and I was so impressed with how pedestrian-friendly it is! Because we were staying about a mile away from Stearn's Wharf and State Street, it gave us an opportunity to use the electric bus transportation, and also to walk a bit. However, driving there was also relatively easy as well. Overall, a very good trip!