The Ramblings of Elyse

The post that NO ONE has been waiting for!
Well, I am super excited to write it, so awesome!

Last night I saw Wicked. It was the third time I have seen it, I first time was in New York (and NO, not with Idina... I've said that a lot recently. I wish it was Idina), and then last year in Sydney.

You can read all about what I thought about the New York production here.  That is actually a good post about my fleeing the country since it features the link to my quote in the New York Post.

I just reread that post, I was nowhere near as harsh as what I'm about to be. Then again, I think the talent pool of musical actors in New York is much wider. Or I was just super excited to be in New York, which just as likely.

Now, as a precursor to this. I love Wicked. It is one of my favourite musicals.
I'm very much of the "with all it's faults, I love it still" school of thought.
I am not blinded by the awesome and the lights, so if you are going to come in with a "oh noes! Wicked is awesome, how dare you say these horrible things"
Then I laugh a little bit because I can easily say it because I'm not deaf!

So, if you are one of those fanboys who are gonna throw stuff at me for being "mean" or whatever, pretend like I care, since your fanboy status probably has nothing on me.

Ok, I realised something was strange when I started writing.
I didn't have the right soundtrack to my writing happening, but that's now been rectified, hello Idina, I've missed you so.

Last night, the ever present KT and I went on a hot date of pancakes and Wicked.
I am pretty sure I should not word it like that on here.
The pancakes WERE delicious, thanks for asking!

KT was also sick and delirious and almost killed children on the train. It was fun!
The KT part is important part of the story, because it features me getting slapped a lot.

The thing I was most excited about in seeing Wicked this time was the complete and utter lack of Millsy as Fiyero. He is just bad. So bad.
The understudy who was on last night was good, much better.
He managed to get the high notes in As Long As Your Mine. That makes him a keeper in my eyes.
The tight pants at the begining... Well, that's a different issue, he looked much better when he got some looser pants on.

Ok, I just went on a Idina YouTube fest. I'm sorry world.
But that's part of my problem.
I will always compare whoever plays Elaphba and Glinda to Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenowith, and it is is easy to compare to the Original Broadway Cast Recording, because that's what I hear so much, but that's not what I compare it to.
Because I am completely aware of the things that you can do in the recording process, the mixing, the mastering. There is LOTS you can do.
"Ok, Idina, that was great, but just want you to do that last chorus of Defying Gravity again to overdub it. Awesome".
To destroy the magic, that's what happens. I have a further post I want to make about this.

Thus, comparing anything live to a recording is stupid. Yes, I said. You simply can't do it. Unless it is a live recording, but that's a different kettle of fish.

But YouTube? YouTube is a whole nother ballgame. YouTube that is illegally taken, hello copyright, didn't see you there!
Which generally has crappy audio, and you know it's live, and I'm not going to lie, I've watched A LOT of those of Idina and Cheno, so that's the live performance and thus my standard.

And, well, it's Idina and it's Cheno!

As we walked into the theatre KT was all like "I think I like this Glinda more than Cheno" and for the record, yes, Cheno IS how we say it. I was completely devestated.
How could I know someone that would make such outrageous statements about the awesomeness that is Cheno?
Seriously, Cheno should beat you to death with her Tony!


Sorry, where was I?

Now, something you may not know about me is that I enjoy making sarcastic commentary. I know it is a shocking, shocking revelation but you know, sarcastic commentary.

Yes, I will be on that special level of hell for people who talk in the theatre.

Now, KT has threatened to slap me A LOT. Some times I feel if she hasn't threatened to slap me once every time I see here I am not doing my duty as a friend.
She has never carried through with this threat, I found out the reasoning is because I don't like sudden movement and her going to slap me is enough to freak me out.

Yeah, this isn't the Wicked standard though, since I got slapped a fair bit. She didn't care much for my commentary and if anyone is wondering, no, no one did try and kill me.

I stopped writing for some reason and now I don't really remember my issues that I had, but considering that we bitched all throughout intermission and for the train trip home.


Dammit! Why did I stop writing earlier?

I remember there was an issue with some weird harmonies and them sounding off key, well, probably true, but in Defying Gravity, there are some weird harmonies.
It's just strange.

I could try and analyse it with my mad musical skillz, but I can't be bothered.
But there are just some harmonies that aren't the most consonance of a note combination and just say if you are having an off night than it just sounds bad.

My remembering of details is fuzzing.
So in conclusion: I'm a harsh, harsh judge.
I watch too many things on YouTube.
I'm a massive, massive fangirl.

Good times.

Enjoy!

I like to think I'm a fairly hip person... Oh ho ho...

I'm totally not, but either way, a long time ago and by long time ago I mean November for the wonderful Miss Addict's Birthday last year. I'm totally sucking up because she is currently sitting on my left.

Just for the record, she does know I'm here so I'm not one of her stalkers.

But upon this day, we had pancakes and she informed me of the greatest video ever.

That's right, the Christian Side Hug.

Today, it's particular reference because today is Good Friday and I think Good Friday is a loss to Team Jesus, but he shall rise again on Sunday and thus Jesus created the Three Day Rule.

Actually, that has nothing to do with it, that line just made me laugh.

Anyway, so the Christian Side Hug.

When I first saw this I was convinced it was a parody but upon discussion and looking at it. No, these people are serious.

Totally serious!

And that is disturbing because it is saying that Christian's shouldn't front hug.
Now, I go to church every now and then, I'm also part of a Christian youth group and bro, we are all about the front hugging!

The thing I find most offensive about this is the fact that it is claiming that a hug is sexual. And as a result ALL hugs must be sexual.

This video condones violence, there is a line about how if you go front huggin' one of the dudes then he'll call your mama and you'll go home in a coma.

So, front hugging is wrong but beating your friend/girlf/child so much that they are going to end up on a coma.

What the fuck?
Front hugging, not ok, but violence totally ok. In fact condoned.

The thing that bothers me most in that is the line about how Jesus wouldn't condone front hugging, no pretty sure he wouldn't condone the violence but would be all about the hugs.

Now, then it comes a question that I've never considered, is the front hugging problem occurs when it is between a man and a woman or are same gender front hugs ok?

Or do these rappers find some girl on girl front hugging really hot. Can you imagine them telling all their crazy Christian friends "Oh em gee! The is totally two girls front hugging right now! Fucking hot, dude!"

Now, of course, guys can't front hug because apparently that is weird.
Which leads to the awkward man hug, which is my favourite hug of all time.

Sorry, I went to a good place of the hilarity of some of my favourite awkward man hugs of all time.

Let's go back to the video.
Gimme that Christian Side hug, that Christian Side hug, I'm a rough rider, filled up with Christ's love.

Rough Rider?
Really?
One, that is a brand of condom in the States.
Which gives a hilarious image... disturbing yes, but kind of hilarious.
Now, if we ignore that and keep with the hugging bad but violence yes.

What the hell?

No front hugs and kissing...
I think this goes back to my own issue of why do front hugs HAVE to be sexual?
What the fuck is wrong with you if you think that.

I just can't get over that, come on dude, if you are making a big deal out of it, you have much bigger issues then I think I can help you with.

I do a Christian side hug, I do the Christian side hug, when I am sitting next to someone who is clearly upset and then you need to some christian side hug, some Christian side hug.

So, front hugs are inappropriate.
I've learnt a lot from this video.

Next time I see you people, remember, you ain't no rabbi, you ain't no priest, so rise up off me like something with yeast.

Now, I've realised I've front hugged... IN A CHURCH...
I've sinned, I'm sorry Jesus.

I'm actually a little bit excited to be writing today, for a few reasons and I shall list them.

1. It has been a while, I've been on twitter a fair bit and I don't think in 140 Characters, I'm a rambler, it's just how I roll. So much so I could make this point about 3 words but that just doesn't seem right to me, so thus I don't.

2. I actually have a topic to write about, which just odd.

3. I give into peer pressure.

They are my three reasons.

Today is going to be link heavy and those links will by sponsored by YouTube. So they are videos, so just a heads up.

Over the years, I've spent a very long time on the internet, I've done many things and one of my greatest hobbies is random linkage. I've discovered and lost so many great things over the years but one of my favourites has always been the literal versions of film clips.
Which is the film clip of a song, they are generally from the '80s due to the sheer oddness of the 80s film clips.
It was the 80s, MTV was in it's prime and the film clip was an important part of getting music out there and had developed into just being really, really odd. Oh, the 80s, I love you so.

And by love, I mean love to mock. We got that, right?

I'm not sure who makes them, I think the first one I found was on Collegehumor.com and was for the delightfully 80s song Take on Me by A-Ha. Those links are completely misleading, but as your faithful blogger here, shouldn't we trust me?

Well, no. I guess not. Here's the link for the Literal Version, the other ones or for some background listening and well, because the Reel Big Fish are fricken awesome.


That is the literal version, years ago I thought it was hilarious. There was also a link for another song but I can't remember the song, thus pretty pointless.
That was many years ago and life was different.

Then came a day...

I was at work one day and we were discussing various promo lines we could use, for those playing at home this is the land of bad puns, and the particular teaser we were writing was for a caravan park, it might have been a caravan show, that's not important and one of the suggestions thrown around was "Caravan of Love".
That sounds kind of dirty and I believe my comment was that it wouldn't fit into our G Rating.
Apparently, it was a song... From the 80s.
I decided to YouTube it, as so often happens when I'm at work, so off to YouTube I went and that's when I found it. The Greatest 80s Film Clip of All Time.
THE GREATEST!

I saw it and my heart melted like the polar ice caps will due to Global Warming. Now, I know what you are thinking... "Elyse, this is a terrible, terrible song... Are you high?"
The answer is yes and no, I'm not high.

I love it BECAUSE it's dodgy.
My favourite thing is the literal dance moves, yes, this is the original version of the film clip. The actual standing up at the line "Stand Up".
Seriously, what is not to love?
Unless, you are one of those crazy people who can't see humour in this kinds of things. That just makes me sad for you.

I have the film clip on my iPod now and if I'm ever having a bad day, I watch it on the train and laugh hysterically (on the inside because I believe in Train Etiquette).

Love it!

I took my knew found knowledge and love for this brilliant 80s clip to someone who I know dodgyily brilliant film clips as well, and we discussed, his opinion was "it was good, but the film clip for "Total Eclipse of the Heart" was the ultimate winner".
I see his point, but come on man, the dude has a cross shaved in his head which he reveals in the most dramatic move ever.

It's like I directed the clip.

I compared, I contrasted and then I played Random Linkage. I need to find a better name for that.
And that's where I found this, which is so much greater than the actual film clip, it is the Literal Version of Total Eclipse of the Heart.
I have this one on my iPod as well, this one I share the love a lot for.

This clip reignited my love for the literal film clip and then I looked at the related videos and there were more of them!
MORE!

Not just the Take on Me clip!
But so many literal videos!

Random comments about those clips: 80s songs are clearly the best songs to use. Seriously, what is with the Daydream Believer one?
Just odd.

My favourite part of those has to be the description of the dance break in Love is a Battlefield.
The Lion King theme of Creed is just weird, I'm just gonna assume it's some MLIA obsessed kid


The meme is becoming very disturbing and the longer it goes the lower in quality it becomes. I'm not going to lie, if it doesn't start off well, I tend not to listen to the rest of it. Which is why, I actually haven't looked at ALL the clips because I really don't like James Blunt. His voice is whiny and the guy that sang as him managed to be even more whiny. It was just an example!

There is one exception to this, when the version is so bad, that you can't turn away or the Train Wreck.

I present to you the Train Wreck of Literal Versions.
The literal version of Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne.
Now, just so we are clear, I have nothing against Avril except her pseudo-punk thing REALLY annoys me. I like her ballads and when she actually tries to sing and do that kind of thing as opposed to her upbeat things which just annoy me to know end.
The Girlfriend clip is everything I don't like about Avril Lavigne.
So much about the clip I don't like, especially that the "punk" Avril ends up with the dude at the end even though she is a bitch and the dude doesn't seem into her.

Those are my own issues with with can be neatly summarisied with a nice "Shut up, Avril" but that is not what makes this Literal Version awful.

Go back and take it in, click the link, take a moment and really take in the badness that is the song.

It's ok, I'll wait.
In fact, why you are doing that, I'll watch it myself, just to refresh my memories.







So, we are done?
Ready to discuss.

First thing is first, it is a biased literal video and while some of the other versions, which in my mind are the Classic Liter Videos" of Total Eclipse of the Heart, Take on Me and whatever Meatloaf song that was.
Which is basically just a literal version of what is happening without outside commentary, which kind of comes into play with the anti-Avril vibes.
That being said I do enjoy the "I'm pretty sure that's not how Newton's Laws of Motion Work". That line is just gold.
As is "Why won't someone call security"
Then again, I just maybe overly sensitive to the phrase "Guitars make me feel cooler". Coz dude, guitars make me feel cooler.
In fact the coolest I will ever look is a photo of me playing electric guitar.

All of that is pretty meaningless, the main reason why I find it an absolute train wreck is because it sounds like an absolute train wreck.
I'm pretty sure it is derailing as it plays.
The audio quality of the track is TERRIBLE.
I've heard some poor quality audio, but that is just a new level.
It's all distorted and bad and the singer needs to just move the microphone back. It can pick you up, just please stop screaming it... I just have no words.

I'm also not entirely sure if it is actually the song, it is vaguely similar, but if push came to shove, I do not think that the song that is singing sounds like "Girlfriend" Avril Lavigne.

And the harmonies are horrible.

The performance of this song is beyond bad.
I have no words to define just how bad the actual version of the song is.

Which is a shame since some of the lines, as noted above, are just hilarious.

That and LEAVE AVRIL ALONE!!
Except Girlfriend, someone needs to slap her for that.


That concludes this super long post.

As an added bonus, I offer you this clip, which the literal version just failed to acknowledge the complete randomness of the clip.
This one doesn't make me angry. It just disappoints me.


Until Next time, I'm Elyse and this is where my rants go to die.

I hate titles... and character names...
Seriously, hate them.

It's the real reason why I could never be a writer... yeah, that's it.

Though, let me get real with you for a little bit.

Ok, I won't, because I'm not that much of a tool.

I think I've mentioned this before, but for some reason I have this dream to be big on the internet. That's right, I want to be a meme dammit!
I'm not sure I even know why, because these rants aren't really interesting, enlightening or that amusing to anyone that isn't me.
So that is my big internet dream.

It's dream, I'm way too lazy to actually do anything other than you know make my friends read this. You guys do read when I link you, right? RIGHT? RIGHT?!?!?!

Anyway, that isn't really why I was writing, it was just a tangent.

It is currently 12.51am, what have I done since I got home yesterday from work, not including sleep was watching this youtube channel. It is fricken hilarious.
Tomorrow all my "your mum" jokes are going to be because of that, as well be all the incidents of finger guns and winking. Seriously, this is my warning. You guys should check out my blog and you'd know all about it.

Yes, I watched all 178 videos and just hilarious.
It all started when I clicked onto YouTube, it might have been because I'm looking for a new Reel Big Fish friend now that Chris is leaving me to go to Texas. (What the hell Chris? Pfft...)
Just to encourage people to become my new Reel Big Fish friend I shall include some clips of theirs from YouTube, admire their awesomeness.
A Live Clip... SR Though, that isn't their normal Trumpeter which makes me a little sad.
A Cover... Take on Me
What I always thought was their big hit... The Set Up
Their ACTUAL big hit... Sell Out
And one of my favourites... Where Have You Been This one is a live version, because I prefer the live version, coz it has the horn section and that is just fricken ace, bro.

Man, I'm totally getting good with the pimpin' stuff on my blog. Shit yeah man, I'm on fire!

Oh, right... Anyway, so I was looking at something on YouTube, I don't know, I'm sure it was super important at the time.
And then I found this video...
And man, it was gold. Pure gold and then I'm like, MUST. WATCH. MORE.
Umm.. so I did.
One of my other favourites is this one

So that was my weekend.
Hangin' out on YouTube.

Though, from watching that, I realise I want more nerdy shirts.
I guess not all of them have to be nerdy, like this one . IF that's not Elyse in a shirt, I don't know what is.

Well, I guess, this is Elyse in a shirt.

That actually took an embarrassingly long time to find.
Then again, most of the photos on here have been taken in winter, so I haven't been just in a shirt.
So man, I just used my photo bucket account.
The entire I reason have a photobucket account is so I can upload and link photos like this for my Buffy Forum. Which features some quality motivators that I made, I have lots. This one was for the challenge about using Buffy titles. Enjoy!
As I expose my tender geeky underbelly to my non-Buffy peeps.

I was going to do a post full of some other links that I enjoy, but I think I got a little carried away, so I guess that is for another day.

'til next time...