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Dec. 5th, 2013 11:02 pmTonight my sister-in-law J came over to watch The Sound of Music live on TV. I was expecting Carrie Underwood to crash and burn in a spectacular fashion. Honestly, she really wasn't bad at the singing. (My sister and I were texting throughout, and on the "Lonely Goatherd" song I said Carrie was doing quite well. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yakgirl replied something like "Of course she is -- it's yodeling." HA!) Of course, everyone else acted circles around poor Carrie. She was high school drama club acting while everyone else was legit acting. Even Bill Moyer came out looking better than poor Carrie, who was just so WOODEN. (Let us not even compare the singing of Audra McDonald or the woman who played Elsa Schrader to the others, as they were far superior. Audra especially -- get it? Har har har.) That said, I must applaud Carrie on trying to even do this in the first place. It's a thankless job to take on such an iconic role as one made famous by Julie Andrews, it's hard to do live productions when you're not an actor, and it's got to be completely nerve-wracking knowing that it's broadcast to every TV in America and everyone watching is just waiting for you to fail. So A for effort, Carrie. C- on acting, but a solid B to B+ on the singing itself. Everyone else, though, was really quite good. And HOORAY for keeping in the Max and Elsa songs! That makes me happy.
Other media-related things that make me happy: Catching Fire. The Scientist and I went to go see it last night, and hot damn if that isn't one hell of a good movie. I thought they did a really, really good job keeping to the book. The casting was fantastic, the effects were great, and even though I knew what was coming and who was going to get it, the movie still kept me on the edge of my seat. The Scientist hasn't read the books, but he came out of this one with far, far fewer questions than he did the first. (In fact, I think he came out with zero questions. He said he was going to ask me about something afterward, and when I queried him after the movie was over he said he'd figured it out.) Jennifer Lawrence came off as rather wooden in the first movie, but here I think she embodied Katniss much more than before. However, that might also be because I've seen so much more of Jennifer on TV acting like a complete screwball, so when she buckles down to be all intense as Katniss it's much more obvious that she's actually acting and not just being one-note. Katniss is, IMO, much more complicated in the second book/movie than she is in the first. I'm really looking forward to what they're going to do with Mockingjay, but I have no idea how they can translate the book to film without an R rating. That will be interesting.
In other news, my Christmas tree is complete. Hooray!
And changing topics completely, I find I'm quite shocked about Nelson Mandela's death. They guy was 95 and in failing health; it was going to happen sooner or later. But it's still sad to see such an important figure pass on. I hope others remember how committed he was to ensuring equality and try to continue stopping bigotry and repression when they see it.
yakgirl replied something like "Of course she is -- it's yodeling." HA!) Of course, everyone else acted circles around poor Carrie. She was high school drama club acting while everyone else was legit acting. Even Bill Moyer came out looking better than poor Carrie, who was just so WOODEN. (Let us not even compare the singing of Audra McDonald or the woman who played Elsa Schrader to the others, as they were far superior. Audra especially -- get it? Har har har.) That said, I must applaud Carrie on trying to even do this in the first place. It's a thankless job to take on such an iconic role as one made famous by Julie Andrews, it's hard to do live productions when you're not an actor, and it's got to be completely nerve-wracking knowing that it's broadcast to every TV in America and everyone watching is just waiting for you to fail. So A for effort, Carrie. C- on acting, but a solid B to B+ on the singing itself. Everyone else, though, was really quite good. And HOORAY for keeping in the Max and Elsa songs! That makes me happy.Other media-related things that make me happy: Catching Fire. The Scientist and I went to go see it last night, and hot damn if that isn't one hell of a good movie. I thought they did a really, really good job keeping to the book. The casting was fantastic, the effects were great, and even though I knew what was coming and who was going to get it, the movie still kept me on the edge of my seat. The Scientist hasn't read the books, but he came out of this one with far, far fewer questions than he did the first. (In fact, I think he came out with zero questions. He said he was going to ask me about something afterward, and when I queried him after the movie was over he said he'd figured it out.) Jennifer Lawrence came off as rather wooden in the first movie, but here I think she embodied Katniss much more than before. However, that might also be because I've seen so much more of Jennifer on TV acting like a complete screwball, so when she buckles down to be all intense as Katniss it's much more obvious that she's actually acting and not just being one-note. Katniss is, IMO, much more complicated in the second book/movie than she is in the first. I'm really looking forward to what they're going to do with Mockingjay, but I have no idea how they can translate the book to film without an R rating. That will be interesting.
In other news, my Christmas tree is complete. Hooray!
And changing topics completely, I find I'm quite shocked about Nelson Mandela's death. They guy was 95 and in failing health; it was going to happen sooner or later. But it's still sad to see such an important figure pass on. I hope others remember how committed he was to ensuring equality and try to continue stopping bigotry and repression when they see it.
