Entertainment Queen

I’m so excited I was able to go to the very FIRST ever taping of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon today. This post will contain spoilers so you don’t want to know what happened, don’t read anymore! And please remember I am writing this all exhausted and trying to warm up as it feels like about 0 degrees in New York City, so I apologize in advance if it is random and jumpy. I attended a taping of Late Night with Conan O’Brian in December, so I was prepared for the hurry up and wait fun. First of all the set was awesome! I can’t believe they redecorated and completely changed all of that in like two weeks. It seems like a completely different place than where Conan was filmed. It was a pleasant suprise that The Roots were Jimmy’s band! They had contagious energy. When Jimmy came out at first he seemed incredibly nervous, understandably so. His monologue went by so fast. I was really thrown off by the title of the game ‘Lick It For Ten’, which was…well, exactly what it sounded like. Members of the audience were chose to go down on stage with Jimmy and lick a random item for ten dollars. The first item was a lawn mower, the second a scanner printer combination and the third was a bowl of goldfish. It took me a couple minutes to fully wrap my head around the absurdness of the game. I was secretly kind of glad no one in my party was picked to go up there! Robert DeNiro was the first guest and was great as usual. I loved the skit that Robert and Jimmy did together about a fictious movie they did together (but not really) called Space Train. Justin Timberlake did some impressions, like Barry Gibb. He and Jimmy talked about how they used to do the Barry Gibb talkshow skit on SNL. Justin also did a John Mayer impression that was quite hilarious, complete with facial expressions. Van Morrison was okay, kind of a disappointment. I will probably think of more later but that is it for now!

I saw Confessions of a Shopaholic this past weekend and I can sum it up in one sentence. Once again, the book is better than the movie. Oh no, I wasn’t expecting it to be a fabulous piece of cinema, but I figured at the very least it would be a good chick flick with some amazing fashion to drool over and covet. I adored Isla Fisher in Wedding Crashers and in Shopaholic she does warrant some giggles, but nothing near the hilarity of Wedding Crashers. To me it felt like so many of the parts that were supposed to be funny, felt too forced and awkward to provoke a general laugh. It is a fun. light movie to see with your girlfriends, but is probably best left for a DVD rental.

Jessica Harp’s first solo single ‘Boy Like Me’ was released on February 10th. It is the first single from her upcoming solo album, ‘A Woman Needs’ due out sometime this summer. I have been excited for this release for a long time! I have been a big Jessica Harp fan since 1998. I really enjoyed The Wreckers, but I think Jessica is the more talented of the two. It is a refreshing change to hear something upbeat and fun from Jessica Harp. A lot of her solo stuff is slow and about heartbreak. I think this girl has an instant hit! This song definitely gets stuck in your head. I found myself singing it all day after only listening to it once in the morning. I can’t wait for the video to make it’s debut! Did I mention Keith Urban himself plays guitar on the single? It’s practically cotton candy for your ears…except without the calories!

lala.com is a great site where you can listen to ENTIRE songs for free before you buy them. I was incredibly excited for the new Jessica Harp single ‘Boy Like Me’ being released on February 10th but was bummed that I could only listen to the 30 second sample on iTunes. I can’t even remember where I first heard about lala.com now, but I headed over there to see if they had the new Jessica Harp single. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they did. They don’t seem to have the new Michelle Branch single, This Way thought, but that’s okay. They have a great variety available including a new releases section. If you sign up for an account you get 50 song credits to add to your online library; tracks you can listen to however many times you want. And if you decide to buy, they are only 79 cents! If you run out of song credits, after that it is only 10 cents a track to add songs to your online library. It really is a cool new approach to buying, finding, and listening to music!

Katie Herzig is amazing! I have been listening to her album ‘Apple Tree’ non stop lately. It is refreshing, happy, calming and puts you in a good mood all at once. Her lyrics flow and just make you want to sing along. She has three albums out, Watch Them Fall, Weightless, and the newest, Apple Tree. Funny that ‘Watch them fall’ was a title because I used to own a domain of the same name. My inspiration was from the Prince song ‘7′ though. Anyway! I adore the fact she is the songwriter to the songs she sings because sometimes I feel like if an artist is singing words someone else wrote, you don’t get the same real emotion as opposed to what you feel from someone who is singing the words that are their own.  I initially discovered her through her song ‘Sweeter Than This’. The lyrics fit in with what was going on with my life when I first heard it, and I have been (and will always be) a sucker for those type of songs that I can relate to.

Sweeter Than This

Life is in boxes in back of our car
Driving around with our dreams in a jar
And it’s all right here

I’ll feed you ramen and you’ll braid my hair
Anything goes when you don’t even care
When you’re this far in love

If it gets any sweeter than this I don’t want to know
I don’t want to know

I want a garden and you want a coke
Living is simple when lovers are broke
You can fix anything with a kiss

If it gets any sweeter than this I don’t want to know
If it gets any sweeter than this I don’t want to know

You read your book baby I’ll float away
Taking a nap on your lap in the shade
I could hold your hand all day

If it gets any sweeter than this I don’t want to know…

The other night I went to see Coraline 3D and was so blown away and inspired! It was amazing beyond words and I honestly really wasn’t expecting much. It easily appeals to children and adults alike and is a visual treat for everyone. If you are planning on going, definitely go see it in 3D! It was an endless ride and such a great adventure. The characters were all equally quirky and entertaining. The plot was a fresh new twist on the typical animated movie. I left the theater wanting to come home and write. Coraline is the story of a young girl who has parents that don’t seem to have enough time for her. They write about gardening, but actually don’t really do any real gardening and hate going outside to play in the dirt. Soon after moving to her new house, she finds a secret passageway that leads her to a perfect version of her life. After some time you realize that not everything is as it seems and the price she pays for “happiness” might be the ultimate one.

After much peer pressure and constant badgering, I have finally jumped on the Arrested Development bandwagon. Okay it wasn’t constant badgering, but it sure felt like it! I am still just enjoying the first season, but so far…wow. I can already tell it is one of those shows you have to watch each episode more than once to even catch half of the jokes because it is so fast paced. Although mostly outrageous beyond belief, some situations and characters hit very close to home. Let’s just say the mother, Lucille, is a striking resemblance of someone I know in real life. It’s funny because it’s true! I adore Michael Cera and how awkwardly shy he is. It is kind of a buzzkill getting so hooked on a show when you know it’s doomed fate. I’m trying not to let that sway me at all though. All the characters are quirky and bring something to the table. I don’t think I have a favorite yet.

I’ve been excited about this movie for a long time. Sex and The City is one of my all time favorite series and I think it is funny but at the same time cool that one single episode sparked a book, and now a movie. This review will include lots of spoilers, so don’t read if you haven’t seen the movie yet! First of all, the crazy cast of this movie should be a sure fire sign it might be bad. (Or maybe this is just a personal rule of mine. Too many stars equals less than stellar script.) I laughed during the movie, but also wanted to punch some characters at times, namely Neil (Ben Affleck’s character) at the end, even though I have his less than mainstream view on marriage, or his feelings toward it before he caved and conformed. This might make some women cringe, but I think Janine (Jennifer Connelly’s character) deserved what she got. You trick a guy into marrying you before he’s ready and what do you expect? To live happily ever after with no issues? She was my least favorite person in the movie. Maybe it’s because when I went to a taping of Conan in December she was a guest and was so boring I wanted to cry. I thought Scarlett Johansson, aka Anna, was adorable in the movie, even if she was the other woman and all. The character of Gigi (played by the darling dimple queen, Ginnifer Goodwin) was a pitiful representation of women, panting them to be desperate, stupid, and with no goals of their own in life besides landing a man.

That’s all I have for now. It was an okay movie, good for a few laughs but I don’t know if I would watch it again.  It is a fun escape if you don’t take it too seriously.

I’m working on my reviews of some Sundance films I saw this year and should have those up next week! 

I’ve been wanting to see the movie, ‘My Best Friend’s Girl’ for awhile now. I was never able to catch it in the theaters for some reason. It seems like it wasn’t playing for very long around here. Anyway, even though it is rated R, I have to say if you are senstive to extremely outrageous material, don’t watch it. I wasn’t bothered by it but honestly thought I was watching the unrated version! That rated R seemed very minimal. The premise of the movie is that Tank (Dane Cook’s character) basically takes girls out and is a complete jerk to them in order to get them to go crawling back to their boyfriends. Sounds like a perfect role for Dane Cook, right? Well, everything changes one day when he takes out a girl his roommate (Jason Biggs) is interested in, and actually *gasp* has feelings for her. The whole plot is incredibly predictable and cliche, but it was entertaining. Some parts were funny, some were downright vulgar, but it is a decent movie.

I caught a little bit of the Golden Globes tonight. I haven’t seen a lot of the nominated movies, but it was still kind of entertaining to have on in the background while I was doing dishes and cleaning up dinner. (Yes I actually cooked tonight! It’s a miracle.) I’ve been wanting to see ‘Revolutionary Road’ despite the heavy and depressing subject matter because I think Kate and Leo have the kind of rare chemistry that jumps off the screen at you. I loved watching Kate win; she seemed like she really was surprised and grateful. I was also incredibly giddy to see Mickey Rourke win even though I haven’t seen ‘The Wrestler’ yet. He is such a welcome breath of fresh air in hollywood. I’ve been wanting to see Slumdog Millionaire as well, so it was great to see that win!

Also, like my new header? I made it the other day while experimenting. Can you tell I can’t wait for it to be spring?