woo freaking hoo!

Remember my blathering on about Sweeney Todd and its new life as a Tim Burton movie? I just got a pass to see it tomorrow night, a day before it opens in general release.

Oh yeah, THAT’S what I’m talking about!

Off to do a little “Yippee!” dance…

tentatively hopeful…

I love musicals.

Thing is, I’m extremely picky. Rodgers and Hammerstein? Don’t like ‘em. Andrew Lloyd Webber? Annoyingly cloying without Tim Rice around.

For me, the penultimate composer is Stephen Sondheim. He’s a musical g-d in my eyes, one I’ve mentioned on more than one occasion. My favorite work of his is Sunday in the Park with George – perhaps my favorite musical of all time – but it was the brilliance of Sweeney Todd which first hooked me by the ear and dragged me into his stunning, syncopated worlds of dark and light. One of my favorite musical memories was from the early 90s, when I dated a filmmaker/composer – a man who was (and is) very talented and whose music is favorably reminiscent of Gershwin. We were at his place, going of photos of a short film we were working on, when music issued forth from a TV six feet away. My ears perked up as they recognized the opening strains from “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” – the first number in the show.

“Sweeney Todd!” I exclaimed with delight. My then-boyfriend cocked his head and asked me about it. He had, of course, heard of Sweeney Todd and the brilliance of Sondheim, but was unfamiliar with the work. I couldn’t believe my ears. How could a man who was eighteen years older than me and had been composing since he was a child not be familiar with Sondheim or Sweeney Todd? It was unfathomable to me. I took great joy in filling in that bit of lacking knowledge.

I’ve also worked on two wonderful productions of Sweeney Todd, a community theatre production and a professional production. Both productions are ones of which I have many fond memories.

Suffice to say that Sweeney Todd? It’s a good thing.

Therefore, I’m sure it wouldn’t take too much imagination to conjure the slight bit of trepidation that I feel when contemplating the film version due to be released around Christmas of this year.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Tim Burton. I think the casting of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter as Todd and Mrs. Lovett could work well. And the marvelous Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin is positively inspired. The trailers look excellent:

But.

This is my baby. I am very protective of my baby.

Crossing my fingers…

(Too bad Anthony Stewart Head has been cut out of the movie. That would have been fabulous to see.)

in lurve…

..with Musicovery. Found it on PC Magazine’s Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites, which I found at By The Way.

So very in lurve with it…

so many levels of lurve…

…I have for this video:

John Scalzi featured it on his site over the weekend and I finally clicked on the video. Music and animation – purely sublime.

(For more info on Kwoon, check out their site. The animator of the video, Yannick Puig, writes about the making of the video.)

my ipod is psychic…

Every morning I wake up with a song running through my head. While sometimes the genesis of the song is a puzzle (Afternoon Delight? WTF?), usually I know why a certain song has turned into earworm, including this morning’s song, which I’m positive came about due to all of the news about the Iraq Study Group over the last two days.

A few minutes ago I plugged my iPod into my computer and set it to shuffle, which is my default play mode. The first song that was played? The same one I woke up humming this morning: Dear Mr. Bush by Wil b and The Political Power of Hiphop.

Uh oh, my Nano is reading my mind. Spooky…

damn it all…

That’s it. No more. I have decided upon a New Year’s resolution. I will not let anyone get too close to me, get to know me too well. Because when they do they inevitably figure out my likes and dislikes, which will enable those with a keen eye and sharp mind to accurately predict the sorts of books and music that I will like, or that I will adore. And as I am endeavoring to maintain my aura of Femme Fatale, International Woman of Mystery, such predictability simply will not do.

Back in the bright hazy days of summer, you may recall that I went on a camping trip, during which I bought a nice-sized stack of books at a library sale. When showing the ever-growing stack to CuteNerdBoy, after a bit of chuckling at the height of the stack, he noticed my selection of Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver, whose work I’d never read. “Oh, you’ll enjoy her books,” he said to me.

Damn him, he was right.

I finished reading it yesterday and I very much enjoyed the book. It spoke to both my intellect and my heart, which is harder than one might suppose. I don’t think I even once thought, “Oh, she should’ve phrased it this way,” which crosses my mind even when reading John Irving or Sue Miller, both of whom I’ve professed my undying devotion as a devourer of books.

I think I’ve got yet another author to follow. As if I haven’t added enough over the last year as it is.

See if I ever let someone figure out my taste in literature again. Harumph!

*************************Have I got my music listening cut out for me? You betcha.

Whilst Christmas shopping last week I picked up a few CDs for myself, because it had been a very long time since I’d bought any music. Rufus Wainwright, Queen Latifah, Chantal Kreviazuk and an interesting little CD, Songs Inspired By Literature, which is quite good. I’ve listened to those a little bit since I bought them, but with the death of my beloved portable CD player, I can no longer listen whilst riding on the bus, which significantly cuts into my music listening time.

However.

Yesterday I had the lunch with GruvLoungeGoth that was postponed from Tuesday. And he brought with him, as I knew he would, a boatload of CDs from the Kenny Club. I had missed the last two meetings due to illness, so everyone gave their CDs for November and December to him, knowing he could probably get them to me since he works down the street from me. Thing is, it’s one thing to know you’ll be getting 24 CDs. It’s another thing to actually look at the stack and wonder if there is any way in hell you’ll get through all 24 before the January meeting in two weeks. And make the time to comment on them on the website, as is proper.

(Right now I’m listening to The Dividing by Android Lust, which was GruvLoungeGoth’s selection for October. Some of it I like quite a bit, some of it not so much. And some of it I can tell I would love it if I were in the right mood. The nice thing is that the variety of music from the Kenny Club members is pretty wide, ranging from electronica to classic sixties to Jonatha Brooke, bluegrass to Hollywood spoof to mainstream alternative. I have no doubt I’ll find something I love.)

And since I also received the latest Wilson Phillips CD from ModelGirl on Sunday, my total of new CDs? Is up to 30.

Too much music, too little time…