lmcteer

Just so you know, this is the “Gone With the Wind” of LJ posts… or should I say… “The Atlas Shrugged” of LJ posts. XD

I had a quite productive day today, I’m proud to say.

I finally learnt that bugger of a solo in Urban today, and it makes me feel nice. We had to teach this horrid little girl who’s new this year though. That sucked because, well… she sucks. And she has these airs about her where you can tell she doesn’t think she needs help. But I won’t launch into a full scale rant about that, as it would take all night.

I bought the original cast record of “A Chorus Line” yesterday. It’s AMAZING.

Today I was dancing around my room to it, doing high kicks and such… Then I kicked too hard and fell flat on my back. It was really, really, really funny. I tried to laugh, but I didn’t have the breath to XP.

My mother tried to tell me today that we were going to have to buy me some size 5 pants. I cried. I know it isn’t big, its just… I’ve been in a one for two years. But then this summer that one morphed into a two, and a three, and now a five? NO. So I decided to do a diet. And then I went home and ate two cookies and a small bag of chips. I guess the problem is that I don’t have any self control. Like, at all.

So last night I watched a bit of Driving Miss Daisy (Just enough to see Patti’s face pass across the screen, because then my friend switched it to “Big Brother”) and I was like “SQUEE! It’s Driving Miss Daisy! That has Patti in it!”. And then I looked across the room and noticed a box of DVDs and Cassette tapes. And there, lying on its side, in all its unopened glory was “The Jerk”. As in, STEVE MARTIN AND BERNADETTE PETERS! So I scooped it up and asked Kayla’s mom if I could borrow it, because I still haven’t seen it (I Tivoed it but it didn’t capture sound… Weird, right?) And as soon as I type this entry, but before I actually post it (There’s a little time before my parents go to bed) I am sooo going to watch it.

I read TONS of Helen’s book this afternoon. Went straight from page 91 this morning to 242 tonight. It’s so enjoyable! I guess its because I am falling more in love becoming more obsessed with her everyday, but I always smile when a new fact I didn’t know before is unveiled. I have a feeling I will be like this when Patti’s memoir comes out. I’m BEYONDDDD excited for that. My hopes are that she will do a book signing in Dallas. My more practical hopes are that she’ll do a book signing in New York and I’ll be able to get there to have her sign my copy. (Note to self: Try really hard not to faint if this happens)

And speaking of Gypsy…..

OMG! The CD comes out in just a few short (or for me, dreadfully long) weeks. I have waited ALL SUMMER for this CD.

Tracks I Am Most Excited About?

-Let Me Entertain You (The Gypsy Strip)

-You’ll Never Get Away From Me

-You Gotta Get A Gimmick

I keep playing Patti/Boyd’s version of “You’ll Never Get Away from Me” in my head (I vaguely remember it from the bootleg, which I think I will now watch that scene, LOL. After my CD my band director gave me to borrow finishes importing into itunes, that is), and it’s the most magnificent thing of like ever.

And now a small rave about our marching band music. I LOVEEEE IT. Now that I can play it, I have fallen in love with our show. I just might upload it here in a bit, being as its only three songs and all. And if you wanna download it, cool. If not, I’m sorry, but you’re missing out. It’s very cool. In case I haven’t mentioned it, (I can’t remember if I did our not.) It’s from the show “La Nouba” which is a production of Cirque du Soleil. I’m not sure who the people on the recording are, but we almost sound like that.

A RAVE ABOUT OUR BAND, PERIOD: We rock. I know at some schools its really nerdy to be in band; at Arp it’s not like that at all. Loads of the cool people are in band. The simple reason? Our band is actually good. Our matching routines are award winning, our director is really funny, and band buses make for… well, fun stuff (don’t worry, not me. I’m more of a ‘sit in the corner and listen to my ipod on the bus’ kind of girl) ;).

 Today (this morning before band) Miss Betty picked me up from Kayla’s house and we moseyed on down to the local Barnes & Noble book sellers.

Wow. I think this has been the easiest ramble I’ve made in a while. Here lately I’ve been having to think of things to write about, but today it all just sort of spilled out. (Haha, now I’m rambling ABOUT rambling.)

Well, I may or may not post later. (Maybe I'll do a meme)
If you want the music, comment. :)

How this works:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image. Post and link to the original.

Molly Shannon on Will & Grace= BEST EVER.

Anyway... I was sick yesterday and it sucked really, really badly. Judy Davis once said that, to her, vomiting was the worst kind of sickness. AGREED.

The ONLY upside was that I got to skip band. Only thing is that they learned the hard song and now I will be behind for FOREVER.


BIG NEWS: I'm not technically supposed to know yet, but I do.
I should explain some things before I tell you, because not everyone who reads is from around here.
In Tyler, which is a town about twenty minutes from where I live there is a college called the University of Texas at Tyler, and they have a place called the Cowan Center. I'm losing the word for what it is.... ANYWAY, every year different 'acts' come around (last year Bernadette Peters came, as well as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and the National Tour of Gypsy) and they sell season tickets either to all the events, or just to certain groupings of events. One of the groupings is the Cowan Center Broadway Series, which is a season ticket to all the national tours that are coming (this year these are Chicago, Jesus Christ Superstar, Movin Out, and the Drowsy Chaperone). Tickets are anywhere from $90 to about $250. My mother refused to buy me these this year. I waaaaas dissapointed. 

Our principal of our school is called Dr. Zachary, and he and his wife really seem to like me. He always calls me 'Lani girl' and they took me out to eat Mexican food after I won an All-Star Cast award for playing Lala Levy in Alfred Uhry’s “The Last Night of Ballyhoo”. He came by my mother’s flower shop a couple days ago to tell her that he had bought me season tickets to go see the Broadway touring shows with him and his wife! My mother said I shouldn’t mention it to anyone until he had told me, and that I have to act surprised. It won’t be hard, because I am very excited. I was sad that I really got ‘into’ Broadway towards March because I missed some fabulous shows this year (Evita, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Gypsy came)

I typed this after band:

So I went to band (obviously) and I wasn’t as terribly behind as I thought I would be. Our solo is super hard, but really fun and crazy. It sounds rather like a demented music box, actually.

I feel like I’ve neglected to listen to many musicals lately. Mainly its been a playlist of Mamma Mia, [title of show] and some songs from the Wedding Singer. I also feel really bad because I rarely listen to Patti.

When I become un-lazy I plan on retyping my about me section for my myspace, lj, etc because its not very accurate anymore. Not that anyone really reads it probably, because its SUPER long.

Also, I feel like a slacker because I WAS reading Breaking Dawn, but I sort of stopped midway and started reading Helen’s book. It bugs me when I don’t finish books, but I really would rather read In the Frame. They sit side by side (by side XD) on my bedside table and I always go for it. Maybe I’ll develop a plan to read a little of each every day. Who knows.

And now I jump back to being sick:

I felt bad last night, like shit. About ten o’ clock, as I watched Will & Grace I slowly started to feel better. Coincidence? I think not. By the end of the second episode I felt so much better (no Legally Blonde pun intended. Well, maybe a bit). So I guess Will & Grace has a healing effect. Maybe not for everyone, but at least for me.

I’m super excited to get the cast recordings from Gina. Like SUPERMEGAEXCITED. I’m such a Sondheim girl (or so I like to think) but I don’t own the recordings for Company OR Sunday in the Park With George. I’ve heard them, I love them, I just don’t have them. Pathetic, I know.

Because it seems standard now for me to talk about Helen (just a month ago it was standard to discuss Patti, what’s happening? Lol) I should mention that she topped Vanity Fair’s prestigious Top Ten Internationally Best Dressed Women list for 2008. (She was also voted number three sexiest celebrity stomach XD).

Observe Helen in a bikini. How is it possible that she is that age and more fit than I am?

Number two on the best dressed list was Angelina Jolie. Go Helen! Way to beat all the younger people just by being amazing and gorgeous. I am so very jealous of her, and I hope to God that I age as gracefully as she has. One of my worst fears is being really ugly. I know that I’m not like gorgeous now, but at least I’m not HIDEOUS. Yet, anyway.

Well that’s about all I can think to say for now. I’ll try to post another blog later, especially if we go see “The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2”. (Yay Blythe Danner and Blake Lively having scenes together!)

 Gotta love Jack McFarland. This may be a short one, I only have until my friend Jamie wakes up.

Last night I watched "Definitely, Maybe" and it was adorable. There was as much Abigail Breslin as you were led to expect in the previews, but that was okay. The women who played Abigails three possible mothers were fantastic.
We got it when we went to rent a movie. I picked "Calendar Girls", but I wasn't the one paying, so she got her choice.
I talked her into watching " The Queen", but she just texted ALL THE WAY THROUGH (I swear she had to be talking to like five different people at once), and then she made me turn it off early before it 'bored her to tears'. It made me really angry and personally insulted. So I popped in "A Series of Unfortunate Events" so that I could watch Meryl Streep kick ass as Aunt Josephine. But then I remember Catherine O'Hara (<333 She is so fabulous) was in it and I decided to stick it out. Only I fell asleep before the movie was 1/4 of the way through. But I WILL watch it when I get home from Band Camp today. Speaking of Band Camp UGHH.

Everyday I go down to the Band Hall at 12:30 and we rehearse till 3:30. The music is very nice (La Nouba from Circue du Soleil), but I can't play it. So that sucks. I just kind of sit there and fake play the marimba (which is kind of like a xylophone). But yesterday they brought in a percussion specialist who broke it down and made the music easier.  So I have the first bit memorized.

I have been reading Helen's book, and I mean actually READING it. I NEVER really read biographies, I just sort of flip through them. But her book is so much better than any other biography ever. She remembers little miniscule details and adds them in the book, so its not just boring 'I went to college at so-and-so and then I studied, blah blah blah'. And she adds photo collages and fun bits. I'm totally lovin' it.

We're going to see "The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants" later today.
Yay for Blake Lively and Blythe Danner! I'm  super excited.

Well I'm watching Will & Grace and I'm being brave by hooking up to the internet not at night (it ties up our phone line and pisses my mother off) so I need to go.

Byeeee!

I had to go out tonight with my Nonie, my sister, and my little cousin Quentin.
They decided to go bowling and out to eat. I decided to plot a way to get to Barnes & Noble.
Before we left, I called up and asked about "In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures", Helen's autobiography.
They had ONE copy.

So anyway, we get to the bowling alley and they have us switch lanes TWICE because the computer keeps screwing up. And then I was doing fine, until my head started hurting REALLY REALLY badly. And my stomach started hurting.

AND THEN to top it off we had to eat Mexican Food. I really hate Mexican Food.

But then afterwards we did indeed go to Barnes & Noble, and I was able to get $35 dollars of Helen-y goodness without spending a cent of my money. There are tons of fabulous pictures, such as some candid photos from one of those super-fun photobooths and unreleased press pictures.

And we pause for the "Coco Chanel" commercial. GAH. SO. AWESOME.

Anyway, I've had issues making myself read this summer (a very odd concept for me) and I've only read "The Bell Jar" all the way through (that I can remember), but this book had me absorbed. It might just be the growing obsession in my mind (that's probably it). Either way its amazing and you would have to pay me a bunch to get it away from me.

I can't believe that I'm having issues rambling. This is stranggggge.
Well I'll do a meme or something in a little while.

This is going to be short and to the point.
The movie "Greenfingers", with Helen Mirren, is amazing.


Lani--- Helen Mirren addict.

This is my entry about some pretty effing fabulous ladies. I would call them my favorite leading ladies, but not all of them seem that type. No, they're not all beautiful, but they can all pretty much act the pants off you.

I don't really have a good reason for why I think they're so grand, but oh well...

Let's go.

MEGAN MULLALLY
   
She IS Karen Walker, one of my favorite television characters of ever.
AND she's in Young Frankenstein. It's just an explosion of fabulousness.



KATEY SAGAL.
Married With Children and 8 Simple Rules. 
AND Futurama (which is one of my guilty pleasure shows...).

 
LILY TOMLIN.
She's Miss Frizzel. 
DAMN STRAIGHT.

 
HELEN MIRREN.
Royally fantastic.


MERYL STREEP.
Quite frankly, Meryl Streep is the best ever.

 
JUDY DAVIS.
I take that back, Judy Davis is the best ever. (Meryl comes very close, though)

   
HELENA BONHAM CARTER.
WOW.

 
CHRISTINE BARANSKI.


 
BLYTHE DANNER.
She's Will's Mom! AND MORE.

 
PATTI.

And I'm sure I'm forgetting people, but oh well...