#pepper texts

Well, it began awesomely. Just the strains of... What, Rhapsody in Blue, and then showing Rachel standing in Times Square? Awesome.

Then right off the bat we have problems.

1) They're already in New York for Nationals, and haven't even WRITTEN their songs yet? Look, when I was in band, we started rehearsing songs for our April concerts in OCTOBER. And they've got, what, like a day or two, maybe a week before they have to perform? I'm sorry, I just can't suspend my disbelief that much.

2) Rachel and Kurt are supposed to be the big Broadway buffs, and judging by Kurt's facial expression, along with what Rachel said, NEITHER of them knew Cats closed 11 years ago?

But QUINN did?

I think it would've made more sense for, like, Finn or Brittany to buy the Cats tickets.

Especially because Brittany owns at least one cat. And it would make sense for them not to know Cats closed already.

Then they sang that mash-up, and I loved it.

Btw, if anyone knows where the coat Lea Michele was wearing is from, PLEASE tell me. I WANT that coat. Or something like it.

...

3) I imagine Sardi's is an expensive restaurant. New Directions could barely afford plane tickets and could only get 2 rooms for like 13 people, but somehow Rachel and Finn could eat at Sardi's? Without a reservation?

Maybe I'm wrong and it's not that expensive. But...

The Glee guys serenading Finchel with Bella Notte was pretty awesome, though. Didn't know Puck could play the accordion. But maybe that was a fantasy performance and not an actual one?

I do have to say, though, when I saw they were doing Bella Notte on Glee, I was hoping either Heather Morris or Darren Criss would be singing it, Heather because of Brittany's earlier reference to the spaghetti-eating scene in Lady and the Tramp, and Darren because of all his awesome Disney covers on his iclemyer Youtube account.

It WAS quite a lovely cover, though. The whole song is great, especially at the a capella portion.

I also like Patti LuPone's cameo.

And it was awesome having a Rachel/Kurt duet of a Wicked song, after their diva-off in season 1 of a different Wicked song, and of course with original stars of Wicked having guest-starred on the show. And I must say, Lea Michele sounded an awful lot like Idina Menzel in the song, which just adds to my suspicions that she may actually be a clone of Ms Menzel.

And, finally at Nationals: You mean to tell me there's ACTUALLY more than three groups participating?? No way! After going through four previous competitions that somehow only have 3 groups, knock me down and label me surprised!

Nice to hear Charice sing again. For the fourth time in 22 episodes.

Ah, so they didn't place in the top 10. Well, no wonder, with songs they wrote like 2 days before competition! The other groups probably started rehearsing in November. :|

And thanks, Hulu, for cutting off the poignant music note.

And Santana's Spanish rant seemed... weird. Not angry enough. And out of place.

And end of episode wrap-ups... Set-ups for next season...

Okay, so, what's the bottom line?

I... was disappointed, honestly. Putting aside my high expectations, it seemed more like a mid-season episode, really. There wasn't a lot of drama or character development. "Kurt and Rachel like New York! Brittany thinks of the Glee Club like a family! Will basically does too!" and, shocker, "FINN AND RACHEL LIKE EACH OTHER!!!"

This plus the previous episode have made the conclusion of this season pretty... meh. And this season had some really good moments. I just wish they'd saved some for the end. :(

But let's see how things go for season 3, I guess. Obviously I have no word on what will happen other than the winner of "The Glee Project" will have a 7-episode arc on the show, and all else I have to go on is that Mercedes and Sam are Secretly Dating, and Blaine loves Kurt, oh and that Finn and Rachel are probably going to start dating again.

Seriously, it's like Ross and Rachel, but condensed.

Now for season 2 as a whole:

It had some fantastic performances, some awesome moments, and some hilarious ones. My favorite episode might be "Grilled Cheesus", just because I enjoyed all the performances in that episode, and it was quite heartbreaking.

I have a lot of favorite songs and moments, but I think the ones that stick out most to me are when I first heard Gwyneth Paltrow sing (and I realized "WOW, she CAN sing!), Karofsky's little reveal in "Never Been Kissed", and Santana's monologue in... I think it was "Born This Way"?

Funniest moment would definitely have to be when I realized they were singing "Friday" in "Prom Queen". I laughed for like 3 minutes, and still felt giggly the rest of the episode - which was AWFUL, because it got all dramatic and sad later, and I was still laughing internally.

Saddest song performances are of course "Pure Imagination" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand". Dang.

Worst moments? I disliked pretty much the whole of "Funeral". It was sad, and it was... just boring, outside of Sue's lines. It did have good songs in it, though.

I also dislike "Born This Way", mainly due to high expectations. Everyone was hyping it as "the second Glee episode to pay tribute to Lady Gaga", and it being "90 minutes" instead of "60 minutes" (when it's actually only about 14 minutes longer than a normal episode), I was expecting it to be like "The Power of Madonna" or "Britney/Brittany" - you know, where they almost entirely sing songs by the artist? - only to get to the end of the episode to find that ONE Lady Gaga song was performed in the whole thing. Hey, "Audition" had a Gaga song in it too! Why doesn't that count as paying tribute too? (I do realize why that one doesn't count, though).

I was just looking forward to a 90-minute Gaga-palooza, like it was being hyped up to be, and was disappointed to have only one song in the whole thing for it.

I had read somewhere that they were intending to have us learn more about various Glee member's families in season 2. Well, we saw more of Kurt's dad and Finn's mom, found out Santana's dad is a doctor, that Rachel's dads have enough money to go on an Oprah cruise, and found out a tiny bit about Sam's family. Oh, and we know that Brittany does in fact have a father.

I realize the show isn't focused on their families, but it would be nice to at least see them or hear from them or something! Especially Rachel's dads! I want to know about these two gay men who groomed their daughter for show business yet never attend any of her performances and don't know how to sew (which you SHOULD know if you're planning on fixing costumes really quickly!)

Maybe season 3. Sigh.

Also, it seemed to me like season 2, while it did have some more character development, started flip-flopping on character traits even more.

Mercedes: Some episodes she's down-to-earth, kind of timid, and nice, some episodes she's the world's biggest diva who won't take crap from anybody.

Quinn: Sometimes she's relatively nice and down-to-earth, sometimes she's just a horrible person.

Rachel: Sometimes she's ambitious and hard-working but kind of annoying, sometimes she's just incredibly annoying and that's it.

... Fix that!

On a final note, I'm severely disappointed there was not ONE reference to anything Darren Criss has worked on as a member of Team StarKid. I realize he has no control over that, and, sure, why would they reference, like, A Very Potter Musical when they didn't even do ONE in-joke about how Kurt and Rachel like Wicked so much yet have never noticed the two original leading ladies (or their dopplegangers in-universe) of Wicked have appeared on the show?

But, I mean, they couldn't even slip in a line? Like "You're not alone, because you're here with me" or an obligatory "totally awesome"?

Maybe next year. Sigh.

With Glee's season finale over, I now have ONE season finale left to watch - The Office. Maybe 30 Rock too. I'm not really sure if that ended yet. And I'm sure that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report aren't on this week, so that means I'm going to have a very boring weekend.

And I still have one week left of school.

I came a bit late into the Harry Potter phenomenon. I think I was in 4th or 5th grade when I picked up the first book (that would've been 2000 or 2001, I believe). And, you know, being only 9 or 10 at the time, and having several books out already, I didn't have to wait for who knows how long for the books to come out, and then they were just awesome stories. I didn't read through them wondering what the significance of every little scene or line might hold for future installments.

And I was 16 when the last book came out. I bought my copy from Epcot (and I was very upset to find maybe a week later that every store outside of Disney World was charing half as much for each book, basically because it seems like every store ordered about 20 books per person and they couldn't sell them all).

With it being 2011 now, I've been following this franchise for nearly a decade, waiting with increasing anticipation for each book and movie, rereading the books to realize there were little hints and references (rereading all 7 books in one go is a fantastic experience, by the way), and now...

Now the end is coming. 

The last book came out several years ago, and the last movie is coming out very soon. And there's a website that does a sort of in-depth look at the books, chapter by chapter, and it's coming to the end of the last book itself. 

It's quite melancholy, I think, to find a series you've loved for ten years (which is half of my lifetime, actually) is finally and completely coming to an end. Sure there's always a small chance J.K. Rowling may write another book or short story (still waiting on that official Harry Potter encyclopedia, by the way), but that probably won't happen. And it's possible the series may receive another adaption - another film series, an animated movie (or tv series!), maybe even a set of graphic novels, but still...

This is probably the end, and it's very sad to think that there may never be anything new of significance related to this series to ever be released.

But I'm always reminded of something that was said at the end of A Very Potter Sequel. Everyone has celebrated getting rid of Big Bad Umbridge, and everyone's happy that the year is finally over. But even though the year is over, and they'll all be leaving Hogwarts for the summer, there's no need to say goodbye. Because it's not forever. Because no matter how long you're away from Hogwarts, well, there's always a way back. 

I sincerely recommend you go to StarKidPotter's Youtube page and watch A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel. They're hilarious, have great songs, some really touching moments, and... they're both totally awesome. Go check it out. (Also if you're a fan of Blaine from Glee, his actor, Darren Criss, is in both shows - also having written some of the songs for AVPM and all of the songs for AVPS.) And you should watch their other shows - Me and My Dick and Starship, and Little White Lie (although that doesn't show up on their page for some reason. You have to search for it).

I don't know if it's still touring (probably not), but if it is, go see The Harry Potter Exhibition. It's this touring... exhibition featuring REAL props and sets from the movies. You can't take any pictures, and all the souvenirs are horrifically expensive, but it's a really great experience. My personal favorite was the Hungarian Horntail head. And being able to see the detail of all the clothes and books up close was really excellent.

But it's probably not touring anymore. I just wanted to brag about having gone to see it myself.

I've also been thinking lately (actually since at least last fall, probably before) that the Harry Potter series would be GREAT as a graphic novel series or an animated tv series. Hear me out:

With both of these, it would allow certain scenes to be left in, mostly unaltered, since there wouldn't be a need to fit everything within a 2 and a half hour time slot. And then lines and scenes that aren't directly related to the main plot could be left in pretty easily, to appease all the "omg they left out the line about exploding toilet seats!" fans. And obviously with both media, there's no limitation on how to portray the more fantastic elements of the series. And then you wouldn't have people complaining that the actors don't look enough like the characters.

Now, I know that J.K. Rowling rejected the idea of having the Harry Potter movies be animated for some reason. I think that's pretty ridiculous. I mean, the movies are basically half-animated anyway, with all the CG effects they have to do to portray creatures that don't exist and show people flying on broomsticks and whatnot. I don't know the whole story, but I think Rowling may have been thinking an animated adaption would end up more like a Disney movie, with everything happy and people singing and the dark moments not as dark as in the original. Look: You CAN have an animated movie that isn't all sunshine and roses. There are plenty like that. 

But maybe that wasn't the issue.

Anyway, my idea is to adapt the series into a television show. Again, that would mostly do away with the time restraints, everyone could be portrayed about as they are in the books, and there'd be less worry about having aging actors (by the way, I really hate that when people make fun of Harry Potter and going "Oh the actors are so old but they're playing children lolol". Yeah, they were all like 19 or 20 playing 17 or 18-year olds. That's SO much more ridiculous than shows in which  28-year olds are playing 16-year olds. Not to mention most of the younger actors started out AS the age they were portraying, if a little older or even younger). My concern would just be with getting across the changes in time (days, weeks, months, that kind of thing), and how exactly everything would fit per season. I'm not sure the earlier the books would be able to fill out a 20-episode season (with each episode being 20-25 minutes long), but it would be weird if, say, book one ended on episode 16 and book 2 started the next episode, and then the season ends when it's still on book 2. And then how would each episode be constructed? That would obviously depend on what needs to go in each episode from the book, but... like a couple chapters per episode? One chapter? Just two? 

The graphic novel idea might be the more feasible one to come into existence. After all, Twilight and TrueBlood both have graphic novel series, and they're both based on movie/tv shows based on books. Coincidentally both are centered around vampires.

But there are plenty of other graphic novels based on existing franchises that AREN'T about vampires. 

It would just be really awesome to visibly be able to see some scenes in the books that were excluded from the movies, or ones that were in the movies but were heavily CG'ed. 

Bwah.