The Soundtrack of My Life

I have been thinking about music a lot lately. Music is something that I generally think about a lot anyway, but it's been occupying my thoughts quite a bit more as of late. Music is a funny thing. When one hears a song, it can instantly trigger a memory. Much in the same way scent can transport you to a place with just a quick whiff. I am the sort of person who assigns particular songs to a person or place. I will often create a playlist that reminds me of certain qualities I have found in a person. I have also created playlists which I listen to when I go to certain places like Cades Cove or driving to South Carolina. I even had a playlist when Zane and I went to Washington. All of that to say that in everything that has happened with Bateman, that has been one of the toughest things. He had songs that were assigned to him in my mind. Songs that I loved because I loved him. For me to hear those songs now is painful. Particularly any song by Mumford & Sons, which is awful because they are my favorite band. He and I saw them in concert twice and when I hear certain songs by them it sometimes transports me to the first show of theirs that we saw, which was the best concert I've ever seen. Or they take me to their last show we went to in August. That was around the time that I knew things between he and I were coming to an end. He seemed annoyed to be there and wasn't really sharing the experience with me. Now I am working so hard trying to hear their songs and have them be mine. I want to be able to hear The Cave, Little Lion Man or Hopeless Wanderer and not have it fire a synapse in my brain that automatically connects to him and his face. How do I do that?

 

The best thing though is the discovery of new artists and songs that I am falling in love with. Finding bands that I love that are my own. Hearing a song that I've never heard and making it my new theme song. Right now I am completely in love with the song One Day Like This by Elbow. It is such a sweet song and the lyrics are so wonderful and inspiring to me. I've been using it as my alarm to wake me up and it makes me smile instead of grimace at the thought of having to get out of bed to face the day. I imagine that the day is directly in front of me and it could truly hold something special. Another song I currently adore is Two Fingers by Jake Bugg. Give the two finger salute to yesterday. You're damn right! I'm alive and in a good place and that's where I plan to stay. It has also been so great to be able to listen to bands that I liked before. When I met Bateman I was a huge fan of Kings of Leon. Then he informed me of how his second wife played a couple of their songs all of the time and that he hated them. Being the people-pleaser that I am, I quit listening to them. Although, I will say that my musical tastes have evolved over the last few years, so I don't enjoy their music in the same way. However, their song Sex on Fire still does something to me. It's just a damn sexy song!

 

I'm just really thankful that some songs that I have loved for so long, but don't listen to on a regular basis haven't been ruined. He never really seemed interested in the Indie music that I prefer. Like Deathcab for Cutie, Arcade Fire, The Lumineers, or Radiohead. Thank goodness! He never really seemed to care for some of the older artists that I love. For instance, Bateman hated The Beatles. I mean...what the HELL?! He said that they were overrated. Complete bullshit if you ask me. The Beatles are my all time favorite band, so really he did me a favor. None of their songs have been ruined for me. We never listened to Van Morrison together either thank God! My favorite song by Van Morrison, Sweet Thing, has the ability to ring true each time it comes back around for me. I hadn't thought of the song in a while, but saw it mentioned by an actor I dearly love (gee...I wonder who?) and it caused me to get my CD out to listen to the song. It transports me to a memory I have of Zane's dad and a couple of friends from about sixteen years ago. The song wasn't playing in that moment, but the images that the lyrics call to mind take me there. "We shall walk and talk in gardens all misty wet with rain." It also drudges up those memories of other past love and how those just weren't the right ones. There could be one coming in the future and one will be able to take things at face value. "I'll be satisfied not to read in between the lines." One has to hold out hope. Not me, though. If I ever decide to try again, which is highly doubtful, the man will have to be very special, but there I go digressing again....

 

I have a current playlist that I am wearing out. I've tied it to the thoughts of people that I adore. Many of them are some of my old favorites and others are new recommendations that I've read about on-line. Several are British...surprise surprise. Alt-J, Elbow, London Grammar, and Stone Roses for example. If any of you reading have a suggestion, please feel free to chime in and offer them up. Thanks again to all for reading!

Biting The Hand That Feeds Them

I know you all thought that it was over but the feud between Rachelle LeFevre and Summit Entertainment is continuing, although with a little less animosity. Rachelle has stated that she will not be making anymore statement on the matter and Summit is stating that she broke her contract and is owed no other compensation, so the only thing left do is...call in the lawyers. Rachelle has thanked her fans via Twitter, but has left it at that and some of the other cast members have made very short comments about the situation, but no other elaborations have been made. I am sure Summit and their lawyers have placed a gag order or asked for silence on the issue. Either way, I am sure this will not be the last we will hear on the matter. Marc Malkin with E! News Online wrote an article to shed some light on the situation and it gives a little more detail. If you are interested in keeping up with this story, I suggest you all keep up with Marc. He was the first to speak to Rachelle and get the exclusive. He is in the know!

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/marc_malkin/b136855_rachelle_lefevre_vs_summit_call_in.html?sid=twitterfeed_topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=twitterfeed&utm_campaign=twitterfeed_topstories

According to another report, Summit is biting the hands that feed them. There is a petition going around the web via Twitter in an attempt by Twilighters to save Rachelle's job and have her return as Victoria. According to Ted Casablanca, also on E! News, Twilight fans need to save their Twitter breath. Here is the short article from Casablanca.

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"I don't think so."

—A key Summit player's response when we asked if the Twitter petition Twilight fans are waging in an effort to save fired Rachelle Lefevre in her role as Victoria would get her reinstated.

Clearly, Lefevre's attempt to get time off from her Eclipse duties to do another film, Barney's Version, did not go over well. Lefevre's side of the battling story, as our colleague Marc Malkin scooped, states plainly it's Summit just trying to get out of paying her upped salary for the third installment in the Twilight saga.

On the other corporate bitchy hand, Summit claims Lefevre withheld notification about doing the film (which has a conflicting shoot schedule) and is being "uncooperative" as a result.

Well, that's just what Summit's saying on the record.

What are those involved in the studio fracas saying privately?

Rachelle, to her credit, drew the first blood," bitched a key player involved in the nasty situation. "So no matter what Summit says, they look like the bad guy."

Score one for crafty Rachelle!

What about that amazing and dedicated Twi fan base, we asked the Summit insider? You know, that impressively forceful, online contingency that's been screaming for Lefevre's rehiring ever since the news first broke?"

Because the fan base is so passionate," our studio know-it-all replied, "any change [is one] they feel they need to be consulted on."

Bitchy! OK, so we guess Summit isn't too interested in maintaining nicey, nicey with anybody right now, huh? But remember, they said Rachelle started it all, so, of course, they're in lousy moods, right?"

You have no idea," sasses Deep Twi. "Everyone started freaking out when they saw how Rachelle was going to spin this. Execs were prepared to play nice but were 'stunned' when they saw Rachelle's statement. So you can scratch the playing nice part."

We asked DT one more time if there's any hope Lefevre can reprise her role in the third film, after hearing all the fan outrage and such."

After this public mess? I think that's a no."

WTF is up with these people?

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Another story that I found interesting is the "smack talk" that is going on between Katherine Heigle and Seth Rogen! They starred in Knocked Up (one of my favorite movies) together and everything seem hunky dory at the time. Afterwards, Heigl stated that she saw the movie as "a little sexist" and that the women were painted as "shrews". Rogen is now saying that this must be Heigle's thing now, because she talks bad about everyone now. I think that Katherine is getting a "big Head" and needs to get over herself. Knocked Up is a movie that helped put her on the map! I am so sick of these bitchy actresses who are getting paid millions of dollars to a movie with these other amazing actors and directors and then they complain about it or act miserable. I would gladly switch places with them any time! Here is the short article from Erik Pedersen at E! News.

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b136961_seth_rogen_goes_off_on_katherine_heigls.html?sid=twitterfeed_topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=twitterfeed&utm_campaign=twitterfeed_topstories

Did you see Kings of Leon on The Today Show this morning? I just love them...in case you didn't know. Al Roker said that it was the biggest crowd they've had come out this summer AND it was raining. I thought it was so amazing that there were such a variety of people in the crowd. There were teenage girls, older men, frat guys, mom-type ladies and rocker dudes. I even saw a couple of little kids there. It was pretty cool. When I was driving Zane to my mother's house this morning we listened to a couple of other KOL songs and Zane said, "If I knew a couple more of their songs, I think they would be my favorite band." God, I love that child so much! A fan recorded her T.V. while they performed, so here ya go.



Last night at 8pm I saw that Gone With The Wind was on, so I turned the T.V. to AMC to see if Zane would show any interest in it. He watched it quite a bit and was asking me what people's names were and things like that. There were a couple of funny things he said while we were watching. During the scene where Scarlet is running through the streets of Atlanta and there are all the other people running to evacuate and they're all screaming and there were cannons going off Zane said, "The rodeo's in town!" I don't know where he got that! I've never said anything like that in my life. I guess he probably got it from my mother or from a movie, but it cracked me up. A few minutes after that he looked at me and said, "My Grandaddy fought in the Civil War." I thought that was pretty funny. I had to explain that the Civil War was 140-something years ago, so he didn't fight in the Civil War, but it was the Vietnam War. I think he understood, but he is just too darn cute!

Zane is going to his Daddy's this weekend and I am planning to take in some theatre at the CBT LAB, which is exciting. The weekends when Zane is with his dad are always a little tough for me. There is a part of me that is relieved to have time to myself and do things that I want to do, but there is an even bigger part of me that misses him more than words can express. It is these weekends that I wish I had someone to spend time with, so that I stay occupied and don't really have a chance to think about it. It has been something I have dealt with for so long now, though. I am used to it. Luckily it is only two days and they usually go by so fast and he is back with me before I start to feel that unbearable ache that comes when I just want to see his face or hear his voice. My sister sent me a new DVD player for my birthday, so luckily I can rent some movies this weekend to keep busy, too! (She's also sending me the new Dave Matthews Band CD and I am so excited!)


I like to give "shout outs" on my blog, so this one I have to give to my neighbor, Jenifer Bowman. I bumped into her when I got home yesterday and she has been sick lately and had to go into the hospital. She is a Twilight fan, too and she said that she and her BFF Jennifer Kennel were reading my blog out loud in the hospital and it started a conversation with some other folks who were there, too. I am glad that what I write (and so far love doing) has helped keep people entertained while they are in an undesirable situation, so thanks Jenifer!

More on the New Moon front! YAY!

There is quite a bit of Comic Con news to report today, so I hope you all will enjoy it.



Yesterday there was the small three person panel that I didn't get to see due to the suck-age of Entertainment Tonight, but I watched some video of it and I just think Rob and Taylor are so charming. Kristen Stewart is such a stick in the mud! She seems to have an attitude. Either that or she is trying to act down-to-earth and like all of the attention The Twilight Saga is receiving isn't going to change her. Maybe, but I think maybe she's a stoner.


Anywho. The panel that was later in the day was very cool. It was mostly a repeat of what the three cast members had said earlier in the day, except for the addition of Ashley Greene (Alice Cullen). She was so well dressed and expressed her gratitude to the fans. I adore her! Too bad she wasn't a better actress in the beginning, she would be a better, more likable, Bella. Ah well. Here is a bit of video that shows how sweet Ashley is, how annoying Kristen is and how adorable Rob and Taylor are.



The most exciting thing of all was when Chris Weitz presented the two clips that he has been working on just for the fans. He expressed his desire to show his fidelity to the novels and hoped the fans would recognize that. He presented these around 7:30pm ET time yesterday and I stayed up until 2am trying to find them. When I woke this morning, I went onto twitter and two of my favorite people to follow RobPattzNews and spunk_ransom posted the video of the clips. The videos are video taken of the screens as the clips were playing. There is a LOT of screaming and talking, but they are VERY cool to see, so here ya go!


Clip #1 with Bella & Jacob and the "Edward Apparition"





Clip #2 Alice and Bella chasing the clock to save Edward




I have to admit that the second clip brought tears to my eyes. I know...pitiful. But I can remember how I felt the first time I read this sequence in the book and it really calls up those emotions that Bella must be feeling. I think that Weitz is doing this movie justice (much more than what Catherine Hardwick did with Twilight) and I am counting the days until November 20.


There was also a viewing of Twilight afterwards and a majority of the cast made an appearance and answered some questions. It is a lengthy video, but if you are interested in seeing it, I will post the link.


http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2009/07/exclusive-video-rob-pattinson-and-new-moon-cast-qa






If you made it through that entire thing or even just enough to see Kristen Stewart and how she was acting, then you can understand how I feel about her. She acts so immature. I can just imagine the snide comments that she is making about the fans and their reactions. She looks so miserable and there are so many actresses (I know of one in particular) that would be willing to trade places with her.

Rob was very charming. In all of the interviews I have seen from Comic-Con, he seemed glad to be there and a little nervous. There was one interview, with three of the other cast members, in which he kept popping his joints. It was endearing and sweet that he seemed uneasy, even though his career has sky-rocketed.

As for Taylor, I think he will achieve the "Rob" level of popularity once New Moon is released. He is such a doll and it will impossible for him to go out in public, just as it is for Rob. I can't think of anyone more deserving.

Also, at Comic-Con, Chris Weitz confirmed three of the artists who will be on the soundtrack for New Moon. He stated that he has gotten confirmation from Thom Yorke (lead singer of Radiohead), Bon Iver, and Band of Skulls. He also stated that he is really hoping to get Kings of Leon and I gotta say, I am REALLY hoping for that, too. If you are not familiar with Kings of Leon...give them a listen. They are awesome. Here is the song I anticipate will be on the New Moon soundtrack, if Weitz gets the O.K.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8AvtYJDBoA

I also mentioned that Tim Burton would be at Comic-Con to present the new trailer for Alice in Wonderland although it had already leaked. Bummer. The cool thing is that Burton had a surprise guest. Check it, yo!

Can I just say that if I got to see Johnny Depp and Rob Pattinson in the same day, someone would have to call 9-1-1! Either that or I'd need some smelling salts. I would try to be cool and aloof, but would probably react just like the fans in those videos.

~With all of that said...Zane and I made it safely to S.C. On the road here, Zane was asking for me to play certain songs and out of nowhere he said he had wet himself. He was more concerned with hearing songs he loves than with telling me he had to potty. Sounds a little familiar. There are to be birthday celebrations this weekend and I am excited about that. Plus, later for dinner I think we are going to the marina for dinner. I might just have to have a gin & tonic or a Corona. Something to celebrate my 32nd birthday.

~I forgot to mention that, thanks to the advice and encouragement of Roger and Brandon, I colored my hair today. I have decided to get back to my "roots". Pun intended. I have always had a tough time finding a blond color that looks natural. I have also not held any belief in the adage, "Blonds have more fun!" so I am going back to my brown color.

~I am wondering who left the anonymous comment on my blog from yesterday? It was so sweet and meant the world to me. I am excited to have 8 followers already! Who would have thought.

I am wondering if my readers are enjoying the celeb gossip or would you rather I talked about something else? No matter how some might react to the idea of my "blogging" I really want to keep up with it. I don't want to get discouraged, so any advice is welcome.