Oh my god, you guys...

A few weeks ago MTV aired a performance of 'Legally Blonde: The Musical' straight from Broadway. Immediately after I watched it I promptly logged onto facebook and expressed my displeasure about what I saw. I couldn't imagine how it had won so many Tony's...I wasn't all that impressed, but I couldn't put my finger on why.

I realized after proclaiming my dislike of the show to a few friends, that this type of thing had happened before. Guess what other show I didn't like the first time I heard? 'Wicked.' Can you believe it? After hearing a few songs I liked I picked up the soundtrack at the store...and after my first time through it, I was upset that I'd wasted my money. But I listened to it again and found a few more things I liked. After a few more runs of it (ok - maybe hundreds more by now), it has become one of my all-time favorite shows. Sounds so much like that story in 'Mr. Holland's Opus'...doesn't it?

Now, I'm not saying 'Legally Blonde' is my new favorite musical...but thanks to that amazing invention of a DVR I was able to re-watch it to try to pinpoint the reasons for my disappointment - an lo and behold, I liked it quite a bit better the second time around.

Things That Made Me Go: 'Dear lord...this is ridiculous'

1. They went wayyyyyyy overboard with the impressively quick costume changes. Yes, we get it, you had an awesome budget and can afford the flashy and quick scene changes, etc. But the sorority girl sliding down the fireman's pole and ending up changed out of a robe by the time she hit the bottom? Kinda makes the quick change for Elle later on much less cool.

2. Could there BE anymore big production numbers? I count exactly 3 numbers in the entire show that don't include basically the entire company (2 very short reprises could also be added to that number). And this is out of 20 songs (including the 2 reprises)!!! It's just basically really loud all the time and a bunch of those songs end up having the scenery completely pulled away and blow out into huge dance numbers. Don't get me wrong - as a dancer, I love a good production number...but they would've been more powerful a little fewer and farther between.

3. This really didn't have anything to do with the actual show, but rather MTV being the horribly bad station that it has become. The hosts for the airing of this production were three teenage girls with absolutely no personality whatsoever but looked like Lindsay Lohan wannabes. I really had to fast-forward over their disgustingly lame intros after the return from commercials as well as their stilted interviews with cast members (which was unfortunate, because the cast seemed to be great and personable). That whole dressing to the show just made me want to yak through all the blatant sorority-girl moments in the show...cause even though they were meant to be overblown in the show, they didn't seem that far off...


Things That Made Me Go: 'Now this is a good show'

1. From about the point of the Gay or European number ('There! Right there!') through the rest of the show is pretty great. The best sequence, though, comes right after Callahan kisses Elle and she slaps him. I think it's party due to the great acting from Laura Bell Bundy, but at this moment you really forget that she's been a ditzy blonde for most of her life and she is just a girl dealing with a complete sleezeball the best she can...and the shock of how much of jerk this professor of hers was. I give a standing-O for this. Oh, and while I'm at it - Michael Rupert, who played Callahan, was flipping amazing. Perfect sleeze with the ego and damn fine singing voice to go along with it. I could see him as a great Billy Flynn if Chicago ever needs a kick in the butt again.

2. The Greek Chorus - while possibly too overused - is a hilarious concept. The great costuming for this show is also really apparent in that all the girls in the chorus had the same outfits as before but now in washed out grays/whites as opposed to the extremely bright colors from the beginning of the show.

3. The opening number was a great throw-back to the opening of 'Bye, Bye, Birdie'. The staging of the girls in the windows of the greek house is very similar to the idea for the phone tree spreading the gossip of Hugo pinning Kim. Too great of a way to draw the parallel to that classic teenage musical from the early 60s.

Oh - and I'm still torn about whether or not to like the little Irish dancy section. Should I be upset that they could've been really cool and done ACTUAL Irish dance moves? Or should I realize that it is probably more funny and in character for Paulette and her UPS guy (of course, with the rest of the cast...see #2 from my 'ridiculous' section) to dance in their not quite so accurate manor? I'm going to continue to mull over this for awhile....

My Best Friends' Wedding

Last weekend I had about the most fun I'd had in a long time. Two of my best friends Tim and Alex got hitched...and we had quite a party to celebrate.

What I loved most about this weekend (besides the awesome bridesmaids) was that every so often I just had to say: 'This is just so Alex'. Here's just a few examples of why this wedding was the perfect reflection of her and Tim.

1. Alex's dress.
This gown was gorgeous! I remember going with her to try on dresses and every time they tried to put her in one of those sleek satiny things that are so in style nowadays, I just thought, 'She's pretty...but it's not WOW.' Then she got this lacy one on and it just hit us all. It was old fashioned looking without looking dated - classic is the word I think I'm looking for. There was gold accents to this off-white dress that just made it perfect for their fall wedding.


2. The bell ringer/pumpkin carrier
Instead of having a ring bearer/flower girl, they had Tim's little cousins Owen and Eldgon as the pumpkin carrier and bell ringer. Owen carried in a white pumpkin and Eldgon had this big old fashioned bell that he clanged up the aisle and back down. And get this - they were both in knickers! They had white button down shirts, suspenders, knickers & long socks, and newsboy hats. These boys could've fit right in with the cast of Newsies. It was also cute because the bell tied in with the 'wedding wands' we used as Tim & Alex exited the church. (We couldn't throw anything and bubble stains on the dress didn't sound good for lace...so we had little bells tied to sticks with brown ribbon that we got to ring as they left.)

3. The coordinating handbags/jewelry/compacts/shawls
These bridesmaids gifts were gorgeous and I can't wait to use them again. It was also perfect because our purses went great with Alex's...which was an antique (perfectly Alex).

4. Our candles
Instead of having bouquets for the bridesmaids we had these awesome candles to carry. They had the fall feel to them and (while we were careful not to blow them out while laughing in the side chapel of the church...) looked beautiful and mellow. They were the perfect decorations for the head table that evening as well - a nice additional glow to our part of the room.

5. The groom's cake
It was a cake made completely from rice krispie treats...too dang fun.

Other great things about the weekend included really getting to know a kindred spirit - Ms. Kayce. She is a friend of Alex's from high school whom I'd met before. While I knew I enjoyed her immensly, I didn't truly get to know her until this past weekend. What a doll!


The one funny (interesting, not so much ha-ha) thing about the weekend was realizing how much I miss Tim and Alex. Tim and I went through all four years of undergrad together...almost always in the same classes together. We made classes much more enjoyable for each other because misery evidently always loves company! Alex and I bonded early on in freshman year because of our mutual understanding of life in an all girl high school. While we haven't taken a class together since freshman year, we are still close and revel in our mutual nerddom. It was a good thing we all were having so much fun or I could've very well been a big mess 'o tears the entire time. As it ended up, the only tears shed on my end was when Tim & I shared a dance during the 'Dollar Dance'. I think we must've been talking about undergrad and how weird it was to not hang out all the time and I started getting choked up - stupid grad program being so far away....

A final thought about the weekend - Amy Enderle is my favorite photographer on the entire planet!!!! Amy is a high-energy, darling, documentary style photographer who adds so much to the wedding day itself...and captures those wonderful moments that make the day so special. Amy shot my brother/sister in law's wedding a couple of years ago and did such a phenomenal job that I couldn't help but gush to Tim & Alex about her when wedding planning began. Happily, Alex saw her website and saw the amazingness that comes from the Silverbox Photographers (Amy & Kim) and booked them for their big day. We had a blast riding around on the party bus and taking wedding party pics after the ceremony with this lady - down by the riverside, along some train tracks, at an old house, and then at a little park area. We all kept saying that even though the day wasn't even over yet, we couldn't wait to see the pictures!! I'll make sure to pass links along once Amy is done with the post-processing...but for now, check out her blog (click on Silverbox link on my left side bar). She is so absolutely awesome...I bow down to the amazingness.

Go Tigers!!!

Just a short post about the most amazing thing to happen this weekend...more updates to come soon. I promise!

The awesome Mizzou Tigers had a face-off against the Nebraska Cornhuskers yesterday (coming into the game the teams were ranked 17th and 25th respectively). Now, our rivalry with Nebraska is second only to that with kU and followed closely by that with Illinois - so this was a huge game already. But add to that the fact that this game was set to be the deciding game for the lead of the Big 12 North and you had the makings for a GREAT college football game day. If only I could've been in Columbia to witness such a great day...but I had to just enjoy it from afar. Instead of tailgating, I had a soccer tournament (where I scored my first goal!). But after I got home and cleaned up, I changed into my Goldrush gear and started gearing up.

The game was going to be on ESPN (national coverage!!) but another game was a little more important to those in this area - LSU Tigers and Florida Gators. So instead of having our very own Tiger watch party it ended up feeling like we had our own sports bar over at our friend's apartment. 3 TVs showed, over the course of the evening, 6 football games (Ohio State and Purdue - I didn't care about that game, Rutgers and Cincy, VT at Clemson - the game I was pissed at, USC and Stanford - an AWESOME upset!!, and the two main events) and a baseball game or two - with the main devotion to these two big games. Why was I pissed at the VT/Clemson game? Oh...only because when it was NOWHERE near a close game with 4 minutes left on the clock ESPN thought it would be fun to stick with that game rather than switching to the MU/Nebraska game. And those 4 min did NOT go by quickly. Sooo we got to miss the 1st 14 points Mizzou scored. Thank you SO much to the network for that lovely decision.

Some Tiger fans eating corn before the game...a preview of what was to come.

Anywho - it ended up being a pretty darn good evening all around. Evidently it was the night of the Tigers because LSU and Mizzou both won!!! Now Mizzou is ranked, get this, 11th in the nation! We play OU (#5) next week and it's going to be an exciting game. Hopefully some network down here will pick up the game since it's now a match up of two very highly ranked teams...otherwise I'm going to be watching it verrrry slowly on Gametracker online.

And maybe with some good friends in Columbia they can get me tickets to the A&M game in November so I get in a true Tiger Tailgate before the season is over :)