In here life is beautiful… The girls are beautiful…

I was recently asked what my favourite musicals were. Well now, that’s not a fair question, is it? So we narrowed it down to favoured movie musicals, and that made the decision making much easier. Here’s my top ten, although, I am not committing myself to this list and would never say that it’s in any particular order. It’s hard because some I have seen many, many, many times, and one is very recent. Plus I was told that animated Disney movies can not be on the list. So there goes Beauty and the Beast, which I have seen approximately 300+ times.

Top 10 Movie Musicals Randomly:

10-“Mary Poppins”. I had the soundtrack on vinyl and Kathy Rose and I listened to it a lot. Like, A LOT a lot. And not when we were 6, no, when we were in high school.

9- “Tommy”. My favourite scene used to be the one with Ann-Margaret and the baked beans, but now any moment featuring Keith Moon as Uncle Ernie pwns. Creepy, creepy perv.
8-“Wizard of Oz”. But only because no movie musical list would be complete without it. The music when the wicked witch is riding her bike, wow, who’s mother is that song for again? ;)

7-“Grease”. Summer Lovin’ indeed. I first saw this in the gymnasium of Niagara District Secondary School and I think I might have been 8. Instantaneous addiction.

6-“Hair”. For as long as I have been breathing, I have known the words to this musical. I sang the lyrics to Sodomy while riding in a grocery cart when I was 2 and embarrassed the hell out of my mother.

5-“Sweeney Todd”. With Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. Well, truth be told, it’s better sung by Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury, but the movie is so beautiful and scary and wonderful. I can’t wait for the dvd release.

4-“Chicago”. I didn’t bother watching this movie for ages, which is weird, because it’s exactly the kind of thing I love. It took working on a production of it in sunny Windsor to really get what it’s all about. Shame that Bob Fosse died 15 years too early to choreograph it properly.

3-“Rocky Horror Picture Show”. I love every moment of this movie. I love Meatloaf. I really do. And I love that it’s Susan Sarandon in it, who I picture talking to Sean Penn in “Dead Man Walking” and get the giggles. Seriously, I must be sick.

2-“Gypsy”. The original one with Natalie Wood and Rosalind Russel. Sure, the later one with Bette Midler will do in a pinch, but for real, R.R. as the fame-crazed Mama is pure brilliance. I could watch this movie over and over again. Ok, I have watched this movie over and over again.

1-“Cabaret”. Oh Liza Minnelli. Oh Joel Grey. And this song. Wow. Show stopper. This movie was made the same year I was born and I believe it’s my birthright to feel ownership towards it. I have listened to the soundtrack many, many times. And despite it missing some great songs from the stage production, it is still perfect. Yes, I said it, PERFECT.

Honourable mentions: “Annie”, “Fame”, “Sound of Music”, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, “Little Shop of Horrors”, “A Chorus Line”, “West Side Story”, “Popeye”, “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut “, “The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T”, “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” and “Rock and Roll High School”.

Edited to say: I am well aware that there is a space missing between numbers 8 and 9. I have tried to add one, I have even tried to add two, but no dice. For some reason 8 and 9 want to be very, very close together and I can’t be bothered to stop it any further.

Ta da!

And, at the moment, 1276 diggs. I am woman, hear me quack.

Mmm. And this. We better rake in the loot on those google ads.

Thank goodness I rescued that peanut from a terrible fate.

I got a satellite radio + subscription for Christmas and it’s been on 24/7 pretty much since. I pretend I wanted it because I love Howard Stern, but truth be told, I mostly listen to Sirius 77, Broadway’s Best. I love it, I really do.

Luckily for me, I am not the only person in this house that loves musicals. We watched “Annie” the other day, and she actually managed to sit still and watch the entire thing, 2 hours, without losing interest. This thrilled me beyond belief. Not only that she had the show stopper in her head after: “Tomorrow! Tomorrow! Tomorrow! Tomorrow!” etc, ad nauseum.

Although, she’s not so good at remembering names. At one point she asked me a question about “the blue kid” (Annie in a blue romper) and later another question about “Danny”. Well, close.

Knowing I have someone I can bring to shows in the future makes me very, very happy!

I took art all through high school but never really got into painting. I’d convinced myself that you can be an artist without using paint (which I still believe) but when a person is surrounded, constantly, by paintings, paint, canvases, brushes, all of it, that person might start getting crazy ideas.

Lord knows I did.

These are already posted on my other site, but I wanted to get them here too, just in case.

1. East Coast Owls and

2. Harriet

3. Jack Rabbit One

Now I am working on a new design for my next project. Much like tattoos, painting leads to more painting and when I am not doing it, I think about it constantly.

I saw two great shows last weekend and one not so great show, so I thought I would share here.

1. Friday night I took T to see Walk Hard. I had no hope for this movie, I thought, judging by the commercials and previews, that I would hate it. Shannon and I agreed that it looked incredibly stupid, the kind of movie that I would cringe through. I was wrong. It was so funny, I laughed all the way through it and all the way home. And all night, in bed, I giggled to myself. Seriously, one of the best movies of the year.

2. Saturday I met T and K at the Canon Theatre to see We Will Rock You, the musical by Queen and Ben Elton. I didn’t have terribly high hopes for this show either, but I love musicals and if there’s a free ticket I will jump at the chance to see it. It was the worst, worst show I have ever seen in my entire life. Picture the TVO show Hi 5 but post-apocalyptic and singing Queen song, but badly. The story was ridiculous, the costumes hideous and it was way too loud. And the people sitting beside us were drunk and obnoxious. I have a really difficult time understanding what is good about this and why anyone would give it a standing O. Freddie Mercury is doing somersaults in is grave.

3. Sunday Shannon and I managed to catch a matinee of Sweeney Todd and it was every bit as wonderful as I had hoped. Sure, Johnny Depp is not a great singer and neither is Helena B-C, but it was so good in every way that I was dying of happiness by the end. Not to mention the exciting pen I found in the lobby on the way to the washroom, hello, bonus! It’s better live because all the songs are in it and there’s an intermission for weak bladders, but once it’s out on dvd, I will be first in line. Then I can sing along without the people behind me laughing. Jealous haters.