2011: A Year in Review

Ringing in 2011 with the Davis clan in Provo - can't believe that was a year ago!

Hey, friends! Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to all of you! 2011 has been quite an incredible year. In many ways it's been "the best of times and the worst of times," filled with amazing adventures and the realization of long-held dreams as well as some heartbreaking disappointments. I've also been a sidelines observer to some amazing triumphs and hard times friends have experienced, and the resilience of the human spirit never ceases to amaze. I'm no doubt a better, stronger, and more authentic woman than I was when the year kicked off in January, and I can't wait to see what further growth 2012 will bring.

Anyways. On to the fun stuff. Here are some highlights from the past year:

• 16,250 miles traveled on 10 trips to/through 9 states and 1 Canadian province - and that doesn't include many trips along the Wasatch Front to Layton, Logan, and the like (which, on days like today, tack on 200 miles!). This year I journeyed to San Francisco, Capitol Reef, Glacier/Waterton/Banff/Calgary, Yellowstone/Island Park, Denver, Savannah/Atlanta, and Southern California times four (but at least to varying parts - L.A., Orange County, and San Diego). For the record, I miss Savannah and/or Banff on a near-daily basis. And I LOVE that I can say that I miss places like Savannah and Banff. Jet-setting has been a blast!



• 18 plays, 20 concerts, and 4 Sundance Film Festival flicks thoroughly enjoyed. There's such a vibrant scene of local performing arts talent around here, it's awesome!!! Those concerts range from local bands in block parties, clubs, and even their parents' homes to choirs like OCMCO or the Mormon Tabernacle in concert halls to the Pacific Symphony playing the 1812 Overture in the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater while visiting Orange County; the plays range from Broadway tours and professional companies to very, very amateur local productions. Professional or amateur, I've loved them all!



Rosie and I got to meet Kevin Clash, the man behind Elmo!


Photo snagged from Justin Hackworth


Photo snagged from Hue & Hum - see my shoulder in the tan jacket on the left?
• Oh, and let's not forget taking the stage for 1 amazing, technicolor production and 2 performances at Temple Square during the Christmas season with the Lehi Chorale. Wish I had bandwidth to do more! Can't wait to start voice lessons next week and dive into next summer's show in the spring.


• 21 dates with 12 amazing men, ranging in age from 25 to 43, with 1 more date (with possibly 1 more guy) slated for the weekend... but still 0 relationships to show for it (despite getting the label of "wifeypoo" from this summer's stage hubster). All this dating's exhausting! But I'd rather be dating than not, so... it's worth it. I've really enjoyed getting to know these guys, but I'm still definitely not used to interacting with guys I know strictly in the dating sense (as opposed to my former normal of going on dates with guys who were friends first). It's a learning process, that's for sure. Better late than never!
• 3 roommates and 2 wards, despite not moving an inch (which was LOVELY, considering I moved three times from Nov. 2009 to Sept. 2010!)
• 1 royal wedding viewed with 2 lovely friends at 3:30 a.m. via streaming internet - and yes, many happy tears were shed. Love Wills and Kate!


• 3 speeding tickets - I know, I know, slooooooow doooooooown...
• 5 temples visited, including many a trip to the temples in Newport Beach and Draper, lest this list seem all vapid and ridiculous. I wish I could've actually gone in and spent time at the Cardston Temple, but it didn't work with the travel schedule. Ah, well - maybe next time. I can't wait to add the Brigham City temple to the list next year, and the Fort Collins, Colorado, temple soon as well!

• 30 lbs. lost... but let's not talk about how many came back from 7 boxes of Candy Cane Joe-Joe's, mmmmmkay? ;) Hitting the gym again tomorrow... *sigh*

• 1 promotion at work and a 2-year work-iversary celebrated - hooray for finally finding a job into which I can settle and stay put! 
  
• 3 sections of the GRE passed with flying colors, and 1 Utah State University class toward my masters completed with an A! Just 10 more classes to go...

WHEW!!! What a year! 

Just flipping through my planner to recap makes me exhausted. It's been an intense year, but wow, it's been such a blast. Being too busy has been great in some ways because it's made me evaluate how I'm spending my energy, and there are certain things that just plain aren't worth it. If it means dropping some relationships, sadly, so be it - much like Elphaba sings in"Defying Gravity,"

I'm through accepting limits 'cause someone says they're so

Some things I cannot change, but 'til I try, I'll never know.

Too long I've been afraid of losing love I guess I've lost - 

Well, if that's love, it comes at much too high a cost! 

I'd sooner buy defying gravity.

Amen and amen! My theme and goal for 2012 is to truly defy gravity - to stop imposing silly limits on myself, being hemmed in and held back by insecurities lacking in any real basis other than falsehoods that got drilled into me over the years by people who should've complimented instead of criticized, myself included. Why I let such negativity seep in over the years, I'll never know - but now that I see it, I can make the future better, and that's what really matters, right?

Anyways... that's my adventure from this year. I can't wait to see the exciting things 2012 will bring!!! 

How about you, friends? Any fun journeys taken or lessons learned in 2011?

On Cocoons, Roots and Wings

Photo by nickso

Well, friends, I'm sad to say that I missed my hot date with Errol Flynn tonight. In trying to finish a project at work, I got to the BYU library too late - I wasn't actually late to the screening, but the theater had already filled. Sad day!

Dejectedly, I drowned my sorrows in some Creamery chocolate milk and a mint brownie (of course) - while taking a lovely little nighttime stroll around my alma mater.

Being back around BYU has been a funny experience for me since leaving six years ago. As I've mentioned before, every square inch of that campus is crammed full of some memory for me. "There's the hill where I had a DTR with my First Kiss after he ripped my heart from my chest and did a flamenco on it. It was so rewarding to stand up for myself in that situation!" (For the record, First Kiss and I are still good friends - in hindsight, it wasn't that bad... but at 18, it felt like the WORLD, y'know?)

"That's the lawn where I studied for my San Francisco class - with my toes entwined in the grass, of course, feeling a little like a hippie at heart."

"Here's the route I loved to take between classes the year I liked the basketball star because our paths always crossed that way - not that he ever noticed, of course."

"It was while reading in this spot with Cute Humanities Boy that he mentioned he had a girlfriend. Oh, how devastating it was to see him the next fall and he was married!"

And the list goes on.

For years, this emotional barrage was so overwhelming, it made me dread campus visits. While it was fun to catch up with friends there while I was in town, somehow it always hurt deeply. I was so immensely happy during my college years. Sure, there were difficulties, but BYU fit me like a glove, and leaving it was easily one of the hardest things I've ever done - especially when my Orange County life never fit quite right. It was good enough... but I was never as happy there as I was at BYU, and campus strolls always served as a reminder of that, and of the missteps and mistakes I made as an undergrad. If only I knew then what I know now!

But tonight's stroll was... different.

Instead of viewing campus as a mausoleum wherein the unfulfilled dreams of my late teens and early 20s were laid to rest forever, tonight campus was this homey launching pad for the amazing life I have today: "There's the Kennedy Center, where I'd always pore over the Study Abroad programs and dream of going (but never apply). Ah, well, I'll get to Spain someday." "Oh, the fishbowl classroom where I took New Testament from Stephen E. Robinson (of Believing Christ fame) is now a study lounge! Things always change, even if they seem the same." The Testing Center, the SWKT, the JSB - everything seemed so peaceful and familiar in a totally positive way. It felt like a childhood home should be - warmly nostalgic, but so clearly not current life, and that's totally fine.

Which makes sense. I'm finally so secure and content with pretty much every aspect of my life. Really, I can't complain - and the happy memories from BYU no longer supersede my present because my present is way better than those days were. It's a great reminder of the vitality of living fully present in the moment, for we have experiences in their season for a reason. It's great for now, but it won't always be this way. Children grow up. Seasons change. Jobs come and go. Hair thins, waistlines thicken, and life marches merrily along. It's neither good nor bad - it just is.

These thoughts reminded me of a line in Sweet Home Alabama, where the dreamy Josh Lucas character reminds Reese Witherspoon's character that she "can have roots and wings." Isn't that such a wonderful truth?! We can appreciate where we've been for who it's made us today, but it should never hinder us from soaring into the unlimited possibilities the future holds, especially when there are important, unique roles for us to each fulfill in this great big world of ours. The joy is in discovering what that is and then making it happen - not in dwelling on the good times behind.

BYU was where I broke free of the limiting cocoon of my childhood and started to strengthen my wings. Thankfully the journey didn't end there - the best vistas and flowers and horizons are yet to come.

And with that, I'm going to go cuddle up with Jimmy Stewart AND Cary Grant.

Eat your heart out, Errol Flynn!

A Cozy Saturday morning

Right now I am curled up in my all-too-comfy bed, noshing on In-N-Out and watching Anne of Green Gables.

Why?

Because I can.

It's been a hectic couple of weeks, and today was supposed to be crazy busy, too, but my lunchdate was cancelled, and, well, a few hours to myself sounds like the greatest thing in the world.

Sure, I have laundry that needs doing, a car needing washing, errands that need running and an apartment that could use decorating for Christmas.

But I realize that someday my weekends won't revolve around trips to Disneyland and L.A., movies with the girls or even my own boring errands. Things will get even busier than they are now, busy with caring for others who will be at a loss if I slack off.

So I'll take a lazy Saturday while I can.

Ah, Anne of Green Gables. That Gilbert Blythe is too cute!

My cheeseburger is calling my name... yum-o!

"Ghost Town": Laugh, Cry, and Think Ricky Gervais Is Darling (Weird, Huh?)

Hola!

Just a quick post, and then I'm off to Dreamland, but I just HAD to tell you to go see Ghost Town!!! A few of us went tonight, and seriously, it was the best film I've seen in a while. I haven't laughed that hard in a movie for a while, let alone laughed out loud AND gotten truly teary-eyed all in one picture.

In case Ghost Town isn't ringing a bell, it's a rom-com starring Ricky Gervais (creator of the British version of The Office), Tea Leoni and Greg Kinnear - think The Sixth Sense meets Ghost meets Just Like Heaven, with a twist of The Office's awkward humor and yet also some timeless Hollywood screwball humor from the 1930s a la Preston Sturges. It's fantastic!

Hurry and catch this one before it leaves the big screen - you won't regret it!

Love that Google Analytics!

If you blog, you seriously have to sign up for Google Analytics.

What, you ask, is Google Analytics? It's a fantastic, FREE analytics program that tells you how many people are visiting your blog, how long they stay, where they're coming in from (both on the Web and geographically), etc. I loooove it! It's only updated once daily - but I look forward to checking my analytics every day to see how the blog's doing on viewership.


Since I started tracking my blog one month ago today, I can tell you that I've had 400 page views, 65 percent of which have come from referring sites (Facebook, links from other blogs). Most of the views have come from the U.S., but there have been four views from Canada and one each from Puerto Rico, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and Kenya (which is kind of puzzling, honestly). You can even track it by city (well, area) - most are from Irvine and Provo (duh, no surprise there) but there are a ton of cities listed where I can't think of anyone I know living or visiting there!

Honestly, it's such a little ego boost! I feel all warm and fuzzy, a la Sally Field's "You like me - you really like me" Oscar speech, when I see that 30, 40 people have visited the blog on any given day. It's cool, too, to see how my traffic has really increased during the last week, as I've actually started blogging consistently. It's so fun!

Oh, and speaking of blogging... I launched my Christa on Classic Cinema blog during the weekend - cinemabychrista.blogspot.com. I'll post at least a couple times a week on my latest classic cinema finds. It's pretty minimal now, but stay tuned for more. This is one where the analytics will come in handy - I've kept this personal blog out of search engines and such, but the film one I want to publicize. It's my little, grassroots shot of fulfilling my dream of being a film historian. Leonard Maltin and Robert Osborne, watch out!

Cinema Studies Lesson #2: So Bad It's Good

Kenny Ortega, you've come a long way.

Ortega, the choreographer/director dynamo behind the High School Musical powerhouse, has quite the list of talent with whom he's worked. Zac Efron, Miley Cyrus et. al. are great and all, but before the tween scene, Ortega set the footwork for a pre-Batman Christian Bale (Newsies, anyone?) and headed choreography for essential '80s flicks like Pretty in Pink, Dirty Dancing and, yes, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. That dance scene in the street parade? Classic!
And to think, all of Ortega's choreographic goodness may not have happened without the film that started his Hollywood career: Xanadu.


Ah, yes, Xanadu. Who can forget this infamous 1980 roller disco extravaganza starring Olivia Newton John, coming off of her Grease success, and the incomparable Gene Kelly?

With such talent, you'd think the film would be a hit, right?

Wrong!


Xanadu is one of two films that were so awful, they sparked the creation of the Golden Raspberry Awards, or "Razzies," honoring the worst films of the year. (Trivia: the other film was You Can't Stop the Music, a film starring the Village People, of "YMCA" and "Macho Men" fame.)
Xanadu tells the tale of Sonny Malone, a frustrated artist who falls in love with the muse sent to inspire him - the same muse who had visited retired musician-turned-real-estate-tycoon Danny McGuire in his heyday. McGuire has dreamed of opening a nightclub since his closed in the 1950s, and he teams with Malone to make it a reality.

On a recent Costco trip, one of my roomies spotted the newly released, "magic musical" edition of Xanadu for a mere $10 - and that included a CD of the film's hit soundtrack plus a free ticket to Mamma Mia!, a $10.50 value itself (and worth every penny!!!). A steal, right? And, after all, I had fond memories of the film. We'd watched it in the 8th grade drama class I loooooved, and so, feeling a little nostalgic, I forked over the $10 for the film, eagerly listening to the delightful Electric Light Orchestra-filled soundtrack.


We finally sat down to watch Xanadu last night, and... well... now I understand Esquire Magazine's famous review of the film: "In a word: Xana-don't."


The film was supposed to launch Michael Beck's film career - "Michael who," right? Olivia Newton-John returned to her music career, Gene Kelly never made another musical... but, on the bright side, he took a liking to 20-something Kenny Ortega and taught him the art of choreographing for the camera. Considering the amazing body of work that's come out of Ortega's career (like it or not, HSM helped revived the movie musical), I'd say that's a good thing!


Xanadu was on a list of the top 10 best bad movies ever, and I have to agree - it's so bad, it's good.

The film had serious potential, but apparently two roller disco films were released around the same time, so the filmmakers scrambled to revise the plot into more of a timeless love story. Apparently shooting with an incomplete script is a bad idea - the acting is painfully bad (except for Newton-John and Kelly, who shine despite the milquetoast material) and the film requires such a suspension of disbelief, it's like watching a live-action Salvador Dali painting! It's so surreal... but, on the other hand, that gives the film a bit of an ephemeral quality.

It's kitschy, the music's catchy, the effects are ridiculous (mostly due to putting all of this magic in the "real world" of 1980s Santa Monica and Venice Beach) - and I can totally see why it's become a cult classic (and is now a hit off-Broadway stage musical!).


For your viewing pleasure - drum roll, please! - here's the film's finale:



Apparently they kept coming up with different genres for the nine muses to dance until they ran out of time and money, hence the bizarre amalgam of styles there at the end. The finale set alone cost $1,000,000 - crazy, huh?

If nothing else, Xanadu is a fun time capsule into the trends of the early '80s - I didn't realize zoot suit pants were all the rage around then, in addition to the stereotypical legwarmers and spandex. It's weird to see how some of the hairstyles are quite de la mode today, too. I looooove Olivia Newton-John's hair at the end (which is also the same 'do from the film's beginning), ribbon barrettes and all!

Cinema Studies Lesson #1: "The Man That Got Away"

If I could do any profession, it would be cinema history.

Film fascinates me, especially classic cinema. I can't get enough of it! One of my goals is to watch all 78 of the American Film Institute's top 100 films that aren't rated R - I'm a little more than halfway there, thanks to Netflix!

Without another platform for geeking out about my beloved classics, I'll just start educating y'all on why they just don't make movies like they used to, beginning with A Star is Born.

Although not on AFI's list, A Star is Born is one of Hollywood's classics, telling the tale Norman Maine, a leading man whose star is falling right as he discovers the next big star, Esther Blodgett (whose name is, of course, changed, to Vicki Lester).

I recently watched the 1937 version starring the darling Janet Gaynor and the dashing Fredric March (surprisingly in Technicolor!). It's a great backstage drama that tells how life was in Hollywood back in the day.

The film was updated in 1954 as a musical starring Judy Garland and James Mason in the starring roles, and I had the pleasure of watching it the last two nights. I really enjoyed how the plot was updated to fit the changes in the movie industry by then, during the Golden Age of the studio system. Truth be told, I agree with the many people who say the first film was better.. but in the second, you get the incomparable Judy Garland.

Need I say more?

The film is a whopping 176 minutes, so I doubt many of you will pick it up anytime soon - especially since Blockbuster doesn't carry old flicks (much to my chagrin!) - so I thought I'd post the film's most important musical scene, "The Man That Got Away."

The scene captures Judy Garland singing one of the best torch songs ever, having fun with the band without knowing that James Mason's character is watching from the wings. It's phenomenal - one of the best songs ever!


The film is such a famed classic, and now I see why. Garland's dynamite in the role that was touted as her big comeback after MGM dropped her contract in 1950. She was up for Best Actress for the part but lost to Grace Kelly's homely turn in "The Country Girl" by a mere six votes! Groucho Marx called the loss the "biggest robbery since Brinks," and it's still the talk of Tinseltown more than 50 years later!

Garland never quite got over the loss. Her drug use spiraled out of control, and she only really made two more movies, neither of which was a major success. What a shame!

Anyways, enjoy the clip!



PS: I'm watching the filmreel from the film's premiere at the Pantages, seeing the parade of stars arrive, and can I just say, what was with the hairstyles of the mid-1950s?! All the women have terrible, short hairdos - I think the mens' hair is longer!

Oh, and bless her heart, but did you know that Judy Garland had snaggle teeth? MGM capped them for her films there, but they aren't capped in this footage, and they aren't pretty. Poor thing!