The Sound of Music......I Liked The Movie Better

The Sound of Music was a huge part of my childhood.
It's my mom's favorite movie, and she bought the movie on tape when I was really little (or she might've stolen it from my great grandma. The memory is a little fuzzy). For almost my entire life Julie Andrews singing "raindrops on roses" has echoed through my house, and we've all accepted it as a regular thing that isn't slightly obsessive on my mom's part.
So of course, when my mom heard that NBC was doing a live show, she nearly had a heart attack from happiness.
Seriously, in the middle of science on Thursday she sent me a text that nearly got my phone taken away (but I was a total ninja and silenced my phone before Mrs. Z could place who's pocket the Doctor Who theme was coming from), that said I can't wait to watch the Sound of Music with all of you tonight! :). Bottom line, this was a big deal.
So Thursday night, we all sat down on the couch with our dinner and turned the t.v on. Actually, that was a lie. I was up in my room franticly trying to finish my homework so I could go down and watch with the rest of my family. I got down there when the nuns were singing "How do you solve a problem like Maria?"
For the next three hours, we watched the musical version of The Sound of Music, which none of us had seen before, and I must say......it was a little disappointing.

Mostly I had problems with the casting.

From: www.nydailynews.com

Now, it's impossible to top the embodiment talent that is Julie Andrews, and it's certainly difficult for any actress that plays Maria to follow in her footsteps. But look at this picture.
<- Do you believe for a second that Carrie Underwood is Maria? All I can see is someone with WAY too much foundation who thinks that wearing sorta Austrian clothes and putting her hair in that braid thing makes her Maria.
Her acting in this was pretty much DREADFUL, but I guess I can't blame her for that since she's a singer by trade. Speaking of that, she was excellent with the singing part. Though it wasn't Julie Andrews, she did a very good job with singing the songs with the right attitude (most of the time), and was very powerful.

From:www.buffalonews.com

So this guy is Stephen Moyer. He's apparently a big deal on True Blood and my mom was freaking out about it for some reason. He played Georg Von Trapp, and I was extremely underwhelmed. I don't really know why he got the part. When he was 'stern' it looked much more like he was about to throw up or something. Also he wasn't a very good singer. He managed, but he didn't preform.

From:mamamich-mjay.blogspot.com

Again, he had some big shoes to fill. I mean look at this.
Look at this gorgeousness that is mid 1960's Christopher Plumber. Seriously, he was my first fangirl crush at the ripe ol' age of 10 when I was first starting to realize that boys might not be incredibly disgusting.
Have you HEARD him sing 'Edelweiss'? Have you HEARD THAT SINGING VOICE!?
*swoons*

From: www.broadwayworld.com

I don't have many complaints about the kids.
Liesel was sort of bratty, but I guess all 16 year olds are.
Freidrick was the only one I genuinely didn't like, but he didn't do much so it was okay.
Louisia was okay. She was spunky and it worked.
Kurt was a big ball of cute. That's all there really is to say on the matter.
Brigita was hilarious and filled with sass. It was awesome.
Marta was adorable, but cutely annoying.
Gretel.....I want to say bad things, but I can't cus she was such a cutie. So I'll just grit my teeth and say she was fine.


All the minor characters seemed to be fine casting. I'm pretty sure they were the actual broadway people that did this sort of thing for a living, which would explain why they were so much better than the others.

I know that this was the musical version of the story, but being a girl that grew up on the movie, I was a little confused by the differences. I know all you theater buffs are flipping your tables right now and screaming about how the musical is so much better than the movie. But hey, I'm entitled to my opinion, especially since this is a REVIEW blog.
Besides some audio problems, the rest of the musical was great!
The costumes were very fashionable, and looked right for the era.
The sets were AMAZING. Seriously, these sets were beautiful with a capital b. They built a freaking FOREST for pete's sake! Here's a scene where you can get a grasp for it.
The choreography worked for the show, I think? I'm not a big dancer, or choreographer, so I don't really know about the art of dance.

In conclusion, this is one of those rare cases where I liked the movie better. Though I think that this musical was a great project, and it went well as a whole, it just didn't work for me.

Vlogbrothers: Best Wishes!

I'm a bit of a YouTube nut......
There! I admitted it! I watch Youtube WAY too much!
However, for me it isn't a really bad thing, since most of what I watch is educational.
You know......vsauce, TEDtalks, viheart, etc.
But my favorite YouTubers by far are the Vlogbrothers.

From:dftbaexpressions.tumblr.com

This is John Green (please excuse the sharpie face).
He is the author of The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska, and An Abundance of Katherines. He's also collaborated with other authors to make books such as Will Grayson, Will Grayson,  Geektastic, Let It Snow, and more.
This guy is in my top 10 bestest people ever list.

From:effyeahnerdfighters.com

This is Hank Green.
He's a musician.
Also a huge science nerd.
He has released songs such as A Song About An Anglerfish, Strange Charm, and Accio Deathly Hallows.
He was also a producer of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which he won an Emmy for.
He's pretty cool (at least as cool as the geekiest geek to ever geek can get :).

These two are pretty cool by themselves, but when you COMBINE THEM......it's sort of like the emotional explosion that happened when the guy who made pizza first tasted his amazing creation.
Hank and John started a Youtube channel called Brotherhood 2.0 on January 1, 2007 ((well, technically December 31, 2006 since Hank did a weird starter video :/ )).
This channel was created with the idea that for an entire year, these two would use NO textual communication. No texting, emailing, letter writing (but face it, who writes letters anymore?), or anything of the sort. They could communicate through telephone calls, face to face, and of course, vlogs.
For one glorious year, they made a video every week day, going back and forth between themselves. But then that year ended, and their by then very large fandom ((a.k.a- Nerdfighters)) were thrown into a panic.
 "OHMYGOD THEY'RE GOING TO STOP MAKING VIDEOS!"
"WHAT WILL I DO WITH MY TIME NOW!?!?"
"THERE WILL BE TOO MANY PEEPS WITHOUT JOHNS TO EAT THEM!!"
However, their panic was unnecessary. John and Hank decided to continue the channel, renaming it Vlogbrothers. The channel is still going strong, with John making videos on Tuesdays, and Hank on Fridays.

Pretty cool, right?
What? You haven't seen the educational part of this yet?
Well okay then. Though Vlogbrothers is educational in itself, here are other channels that they've created ((or helped create)) that are VERY smartsy.

1. SciShow: This is a channel run by Hank, that's pretty much him explaining science things. He explains everything from Tardigrades to why we need sleep. Very educational, and very interesting.

2. Crash Course: This is a channel with both John and Hank. Each video is Hank or John giving a 12-ish minute lesson about whatever they're talking about that day. Hank does science lessons, John does Social Studies and Literature.

3.Mental Floss: Yes, like Mental Floss the magazine. John is the one that mostly does this channel, and it's basically him just telling us a list of obscure things. It's a trivia junkie's dream come true.

I guess while I'm listing all of the things that they do, I should include the charity part.

1. Project for Awesome: ((the link is for last year, since I couldn't find one I could get to for 2013. Sorry)).Once a year, the Vlogbrothers call on Nerdfighters to promote their favorite charities in a YouTube video. Then, they get these videos to be the most liked and most viewed to get them on the front page of YouTube, and encourage the online community to give back.

2. This Star Won't Go Out: Back in 2010, John met with a nerdfighter named Esther Earl. She was a sixteen year old who unfortunately had cancer. She was an awesome person, but she unfortunately died a few years ago. Since then, the charity This Star Won't Go Out has been made to support Esther's family and to support other families with kids who have cancer.

So ya, these guys really get around.
I don't think it takes too much explaining as to why I look up to them so much.
They're both super duper intelligent, and incredibly generous with everything they have. They give their time, money, and effort into helping other people, wither it's supporting charities, writing funny songs to get people through the day, or writing heart wrenching books that crush your soul.

From: www.pinterest.com

I'm looking at you John.

Be prepared for a post about this book later.

In conclusion, these guys are great. They're awesome and have really become a big part of my life in the almost year that I've known that they exist. 

So yep.

That's really all there is to say on the matter.

Adios.