The Wild Blog in the West

When it comes to television series, I'm almost always late for the party.  I tend to hop on board the love train after one or two seasons have passed, when the show is safely critically acclaimed and therefore worth investing my time. Such was the case with Avatar: The Last Airbender  and its sequel, The Legend of Korra .  I learned about Avatar  at the same time as its much-maligned film version, and thought little more about it.  But after Doug Walker from That Guy With the Glasses did a review of the film/series, I became intrigued enough to check it out.  While Avatar  was not readily available,* Korra was.  And oh my God, after one episode, I was in love. A little context: since childhood, I have been an absolute nut for great animation.  Until I was 10 or 11, I was convinced that I would become an animator, and spent my afternoons doodling comical dogs and dragons on large sheets of paper.  Disney was the default style, though...

This will probably be my shortest update yet.  I know that I usually have a post up by Monday or Tuesday at the latest, but I have been slammed with work this week.  It has been spilling out every which way, and it is all I can do to stay on top of it.  I should have something up by the coming weekend, and I think it will be really good.  So I'll check back in then. In the meantime, feel free to speculate about Downton Abbey  Season Four!

Hairspray  (2007) is another movie that was on the border between Right and Wrong.  However, unlike Across the Universe , I feel a bit more confident saying that Hairspray falls on the Wrong side. Hairspray began as a movie -- a quirky non-musical from 1988 starring Ricki Lake.  From there, it became a Broadway stage musical, and then that stage musical became a movie.  Obviously it's not unusual for movies to be remade, but for a remake to come out less than 20 years after the original?  But then, that's the trend these days for movies to be remade every 10 years or so, though it usually involves a superhero franchise. The story focuses on an overweight teenager named Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky in the Ricki Lake role) living in Baltimore with her two parents.  Tracy and her friend, Penny Pingleton, devote their lives to  The Corny Collins Show , a local American bandstand that features teenagers dancing to the latest music -- of 1962. ...

Even though I officially began the Wild Blog in the West on February 20, 2012, I published my first real blog post on September 1, 2012... one year ago. I had never kept a blog before.  I had done lots of ghost writing for other blogs, but the style of writing was very different.  I also wrote recaps for reality shows several years ago, but that was different -- a set subject matter, defined parameters.  What would I do with a blog?  How often would I update it?  What if I ran out of things to talk about? Thankfully, the fears that I would run out of things to say never came to pass.  If anything, the number of topics has expanded over the months -- the only thing that's contracted is time.  This blog has given me space to be a massive fangirl about things like Les Miserables , the musical, or to rant about things I hate, like leaf blowers.  Despite the fact that the Wild Blog in the West has no major theme or niche, the number of page view...

My blog posts can often be on the cynical side, so I've decided to dedicate this one to some of the things that I appreciate.  In no particular order or category: 1.  Puppies!   All doggies really.  Actually, I'm an animal lover through and through, but I can't have cats due to allergies.  But there's just something so nice about doggies... they love you when you're sad, they just want to be near you, and the only things you need to give in return are food and some hugging/playing time. 2.  Professional Sports.  It can be painful when your professional sports teams are going through bad times, but when they're doing well, nothing is sweeter... 3.  Les Miserables.   No elaboration needed . 4.  Most Musicals, Really.   There's something energizing about them, so that even Just Okay musicals can perk me up.  Well, maybe not you, Rock of Ages .  There's something about the idea of just bursting into song and dance ...

In American culture, whining is probably second only to murdering in terms of being a scorned activity.  Those who whine are labeled childish, selfish, soft, weak, lazy, lacking character, and "everything that's wrong with today."  Americans don't want whiners -- we want winners! Yet the definition of "whine" can be difficult to pin down.  Merriam-Webster Dictionary merely describes the sound -- "to utter a high-pitched plaintive or distressed cry" or "to complain with or as if with a whine."  As does the Free Dictionary: "To utter a plaintive, high-pitched, protracted sound, as in pain, fear, supplication, or complaint." So the sound isn't pleasant, but does that mean the reason for it should be ignored?  What is the fine line between a valid complaint and a "whine"? Maybe the answer lies in our view of the American ideal: the stoic, rugged individual who takes a single tree on a barren landscape and turn...

At this point, it's becoming more difficult to find notable movie musicals made in the past 15 years.  Live-action musicals, that is -- of course there are countless animated ones.  There are a few obvious live-action musicals still left, but otherwise, I'm struggling to think of any.  That brings me to  Rock of Ages . Like Across the Universe and Mamma Mia! , Rock of Ages is a jukebox musical.  Unlike  Across the Universe ,  Rock of Ages  isn't "wrong" because its ambitions and creativity fell just short of the mark.  No, Rock of Ages  has very simple aims: be feel good and nostalgic.  Yet unlike  Mamma Mia! , Rock of Ages  does not fulfill these aims.  I am hard-pressed to think of a more blah musical. Rock of Ages began as a stage musical.  Whereas the other two jukebox musicals dug into the song catalogue of one band, Rock of Ages features songs from a variety of 1980s hard rock and "hair metal" ban...