Monday, February 28, 2011

Britian and it's Awesome

Alright, for some reason I've been on a rant about how Britian is much smarter in their culture and music than America. Don't get me wrong, I love my country. But our music falls flat (literally) and our TV Shows are all racy and get old reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaly fast.
Yes I just started watching Dr.Who. And it blows my little American mind with it's awesome.
But why is this? Why does it seem Britian is doing it better right now? And why can America not air doctor Who on Sci-Fi or something! I can't keep renting these episodes off iTunes, it hurts the planet and my wallet!
Anyway, end rant on how Britian does it better, I'll just keep talking about Dr. Who.
It's really hard to be a nerd for me right now. It seems that hardly any of my friends are into nerdfighting or British genius or books. I was around typical specimens of teenage girls this weekend (I don't know why I don't consider myself a teenage girl, considering that's what I am, bt these girls take the cake for defnition of teenage girls), and the conversation went in circles like this:
Justin Bieber Movie
Disney Channel
Miley Cyrus
Make-up
Nike Shorts
Uggs
Glee
Twilight
Insert Latest Trend here
*repeat cycle until you rip out your hair*
Yeah. Meanwhile I was hiding out in my sleeping bag and wondering if on the occasion I found a sonic screwdriver, would it make them shut up? If I knocked them all dead with my fake vegan powers, would the vegan police come and take it all away for abusing said powers? Would calling in my hobbit army do anything at all?
I pondered these while my peers became wired on sugar.
After two whole days with these trendy zombies, I was allowed to escape their grasp. Thank God.
And now I'm bursting  at the seams to go back to making nerd referacnces every few minutes as oppsoed to not talking at all for fear of having large volumes of paranormal romance books I so despise thrown at me.
So here's to you nerds out there. This is a place for you to take refuge. Ten points to your respective Hogwarts houses for every referance made! LIVE LONG AND PROSPER!
-Randi

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Hunger Games Movies Do's and Don'ts

Allrigt, you know what the Hunger Games is. You have to by now. But if you don't, here goes:
*deep dramatic voice*
In the post apocalyptic place where America once was lies PANEM! Twelve Districts, one captiol and the Hunger Games every year.
Basically, the Captiol sends two tributes from each district to fight to the death in an arena for their enjoyment. And whoever is the last one standing gets fame, glory, immunity from other games, and food for their poor districts.
Katniss and Peeta get sent to the games, yadda yadda. I won't tell you the rest because you probably know it by now.
Anyway, Lion's Gate is doing a movie adaption of it. And here's what's up:
They've approached ALEX PETTYFER as Peeta. Now I think this would be fine but for one thing.....
Alex is a fan girl's dream, and then the Hunger Games will turn into Twilight if he is cast.
Otherwise, I think he'd be cool.
THE ACTRESSESS FIGHTING FOR KATNISS:
Oh my gummy bears are actressess desperate these days! Alyson Stoner and Jodelle Ferland, both former Katniss hopefuls have posted pictures of themselves dressed up as Katniss, complete with fake bows and climbing rocks. I SAY THIS IS IMPROPER! The Hunger Games was all about media fraud and propaganda and fame and other things. These two should be condemned from Katniss Movie Portrayal.
IT'S A BOOK TO MOVIE ADAPTION
I mean, honestly, there's going to be something wrong. We all know it. let's just set our expectations low and see what happens.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Grammy Review

I know, like three weeks later, I finally get over my rage and decide to write a review.
THINGS I LIKED:
Lady Gaga's egg entrance. I thought it was really exciting and took the attention offf Miley Cyrus' boob revealing dress.
Florence Welch's dress on the red carpet. She was radiant even though not everybody thought so.
The cover of "Joleen" that night was excellent.
THE RAMONES WON THE LIFETIME ACHEIVEMENT AWARD!!!! PUNK FINALLY WON SOMETHING!!!!!! Isn't that wonderful. Dolly Parton, one of my favorite personalities also won. So congrats guys!
Justin Bieber did NOT win best new artist! But I'll get to that later.
As much as I hate to say it and I will NEVER admit this again, I think Eminem's preformance was exceptional that night even if they did have to turn his mic off about four times. A lot of the preformances fell flat that night (including Rhianna's in that same song, but she had laryngitis I later found, so she is excused from my wrath) but Eminem knows what he's doing by now, so props to you man.
The tribute to Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul! All Hail! That was truly inspiring. And again, Florence Welch is amazing, as well as Martina McBride (total childhood flashback to when Concrete angel was a huuuuuuge hit).
Katy Perry's set surprsingly enough. She sounded pretty good and I loved the set thing.

THINGS I DID NOT LIKE:

What was up with Esperanza Spalding! That hit me out of nowhere! Although it was quite funny to see the Belieber's reactions.
What was up with Cee Lo Green? Rejected Henson Puppets? Granted he preformed well, but it was definite WTH moment.
There was an excess of rap this year. I wish there would have been a little more variety.
I remember that fateful Sunday night well, and I think I saw maybe three awards handed out in an HOUR! Time efficiancy, people! I don't have time to sit around and watch people I don't really wanna see just to find out if Mumford and Sons for Florence and the Machine or Neil Young win anything AND NONE OF THE DID!

Well, end rant. Good night to you all.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Grammy's Y'all!

Is it that time of year again? When Lady GaGa is allowed to be crazy?!?!?!?? I'll be front and center watching with rapt attention. My favorite picks this year are Florence and the Machine and Gungor, this funky Christian group. And there's a few others like Paramore and Sara Barilles that are up for some smazller awards that I'm rooting for. Best of luck to everyone except Justin Bieber!
-Randi

Friday, February 11, 2011

The King's Speech, Five stars, Two Thumbs Up, Hands In The Air

Where did I get all these  hands?
I must've picked them up at the movie because I think everyone in the theater had the same reaction in the end, judging my the standing ovation of a movie that came out a month ago.
So  here's the deal: King George the V (Colin Firth) has a speech issue. He stammers due to childhood issues, and his dad (Dumbledore, Michael Gambon), and teasing and other such matters. So they call in this unortohodox speech therapist Lionel Louge (Forgive any spelling errors). And when World War II breaks out, he has to give his war time speech via radio, which is the climax of the movie.
Anyway, bit by bit  shall we?
Actors- The obvious two best preformances were Colin Firth and Geoffery Rush, King George and Lionel respectively. Helena Bonham Carter was showing off her diversity in a normal-ish role (I'm so used to seeing her as Bellatrix or the Red Queen or something crazy that when I finally see her out of character I have to tell myself several times, "THIS IS ACTUALLY HELENA!"). And whoever the two kids playing Elizabeth and Maragaret Rose were incredibly adorable!
Story- How anyone can make speech therapy so energizing is beyond me. I'm a lost cause ADD child and this movie was, like, two and a half hours and I was enraptured the whole time. And ITS ABOUT SPEECH THERAPY! It was hugely amazing and I'm running out of adjectives, so lets move on, shall we?
Cinematography (sp?)- I loved the whole look and feel of the Speech Therapy office. It was a gritty kind of beautiful. Lower class London at it's finest. The couch is losing it's stuffing, the wall is a commotion of scuffed up colors. The royal settings had a very regal, stuffy, confined feel to them. Lots of reds and rich dark colors.
Rating- Alright, as weird as it sounds, I give this to those who have concerned parents. The movie is reated R..but
If you're kids can handle the F-word, we're good. There were incidents of smoking, some alcohol, and the only time they really cursed was in speech therapy as a way of getting out stress and not stuttering. I talked to  my mom about why they put that bit in (she works with much more orthodox speech therapists)  and she said that that's actually pretty normal in treatment. Anyway, it was a very light R-rated movie. If you want to take a thirteen  year old, it wouldn't disturb them.
(By the way, if you don't trust me, and I don't blame you if you don't, IMDB has a good parental guide on the movie, as they do with most films).
Overall: Refer to the title

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Wizards unite!

As you know, I'm a pretty big nerd, and it goes without saying that Harry Potter is a huge part of my life. So I started a completely seperate blog for it.
wizardcritic.blogspot.com
I focus a lot on wizard rock. It's pretty awesome.
I'm tired and I wanna go to bed. You should too

-Randi

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Robert Plant's latest: Band of Joy

One day, cruising through the suburban streets, our radio was announcing they would be playing new music from Robert Plant. Now, I'm one of those people that doesn't usually believe in the whole "It's going to be just as good as the good 'ole days!" type people. There have only been a few good albums put out by old artists in the last decade. Rober Plant is one of the good ones.
So back to the radio. My hands on the dial to change stations when the booming intro to "Angel Dance comes blasting thourgh our little mini van. My mom even started jamming to the glorious chaos that ensued.
"Angel Dance" was all over the place. African beat, mandolin, distorted guitar, and this danceable song that I absoloutly adored.
So my mom lamely enough finds the album at STARBUCKS of all places, but I didn't really care when Istarted listening to this.
This album, much like "Angel Dance" is pretty out there, but in a good way, and it goes along witht the trippy liner notes/album art. But it's some good stuff.
 I can't describe it. So your just going to have to trust me.
Peace,
Randi

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Patti Rothberg Returns

If you don't know who Patti Rothberg is, I don't blame you, but you need to find out. Her new album "Overnite Sensation" comes out on Valentines day, and it's one of my most anticipated this year.
First, lets do a lot of history.
If you've been around long enough, you've probably heard the name Patti Rothberg before. She had a hit song in the 90's called "Inside" from her debut album "Between the 1 and the 9". Then her record label branch closed off and we didn't see anymore from Patti until 2001's "Candelabra Cadabra".
Then in 2008, "Double Standards" came out, and that was when I was introduced to the sardonic, sarcastic, beautiful, lively, genius that is Patti Rothberg.
And now she's back for a fourth round.
What I really liked about the album was that every song sounded different in it's own way, yet you could still tell you were listening to the same album. Lots of rock, blues, acoustical, a little bit country, punk, singer-songwriter.
So if you like any of those genres,you'll like Patti.
I reccomened buying all of Patti's discography, "Candleabra Cadabra" and "Double Standards" (as well as a short EP called "Snow is my Downfall) are on iTunes. You might have to do a little searching for "1 and the 9" but there are some good copies on eBay (that's where I got mine).
You can also find her on Facebook and Myspace.
So do the world and yourself a favor and check this very talented lady out.