Tuesday, October 11, 2005

teaching an old dog new tricks

so, as I'm sure I've mentioned previously, the movie version of RENT is coming out in november. and while the trailers look amazing and I keep hearing from the cast and directors that it is going to be great and very true to the original musical, I am still hesitant and am anxiously and apprehensively waiting for the day before thanksgiving. the first step towards this process of accepting the new came yesterday. the movie soundtrack was released two weeks ago, but I was broke (well, I still sort of am) and I was busy, so I didn't pick it up until yesterday. I was having a pretty shitty day and I hoped that listening to the soundtrack would make things better. and of course, RENT always pulls through.

it was really such a strange thing listening to it. imagine listening to something that you have had literally memorized (down to each instrument and vocal aside) for the past eight years, yet it sounds totally different. I knew all of the words but it was new. it was kind of trippy. but interesting. all of the songs are different in some way, some much more obvious than others. there is a heavier, more rock sound to most of them. there are also two new voices out of the eight original actors and that is definitely taking some getting used to, especially Mimi. I'm still not sure yet about Rosario Dawson playing her. I'm really going to have to wait until the movie to see if she can pull it off. the new Joanne (Tracie Thoms) is really great, so I'm excited about that. all of the returning people are great as well. Adam Pascal (Roger)'s voice has changed a bit in the last nine years, so that is interesting (but he is even hotter than before, so that's really good. hehe). and Anthony Rapp (Mark) is still amazing. there are a couple lyric changes, but even those are very very small (for instance changing 'christmas eve' to 'christmas day' in one case which I'm sure has to do with some change in the timeline of events). Besides all that, though, I am enjoying the cd and as part of my get-used-to-the-changes plan, I am not going to listen to the original broadway cast recording until sometime after I see the movie.


in other news, school is still humming along. I'm busy as usual. friday night, a bunch of us went out to get cuban food and then went to a couple of art shows in downtown Phoenix. that was pretty cool. the ASU football game was really fun on saturday. me, Brian, Steve, and Keely got drunk beforehand and made a big racket. one of the highlights was when Steve fell like three rows forward and landed on some girl (not really like on top of her, but just sort of into her). she was sooo mad. it was hilarious. all in all, it was great fun. too bad we lost. that sucked. sunday my grandparents were in town visiting, so I went to my aunt and uncle's house (they live about 40 minutes away on the other side of Phoenix) to have dinner with them. it was really nice and a good way to end the weekend.

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