DedeCanGomezziblog #1- Percy Jackson & the Olympians, the Movie.

Danielle and I both went to see Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief together. As suggested by the movie title, the movie is both long and about a Lightning Thief. I don't feel the need to review it, because everyone who reads this has already read the book, and if you haven't, do I know you? Danielle and I both compiled this list, which spawned the title of this post. Isn't it amazing? Just as a precaution, the following contains spoilers to the movie and the book.

THINGS THAT ARE DIFFERENT FROM THE BOOK
No Nancy
Grover's black
The action before he gets to the camp was either deleted or went fast
Riptide was gold, and was unnamed. It also never returned to his pocket.
Poseidon and Zeus acted like they never see each other
Persephone has a storyline
No cabins, only tents that aren't arranged.
Annabeth has brown hair and no invisible cap.
No camp half-blood t-shirts.
No Thalia's tree.
No Clarisse.
No Cerberus
No Ares
No Oracle
No Mr. D
No prophecy
You have to click Riptide, not uncap it.
Percy ends up taking his mom from underworld, and leaves Grover
Hades randomly comes to camp
Luke confronts them in the outside world
Annabeth doesn't have much of a crush on Luke
Thier quest is based around achieving pearls to get his mother
Luke has video games
Luke has his own cabin
He gives them a map and a shield with the lightning bolt inside it
They sneak out of the camp
Lotus flowers. Wtf.
*The Lotus Flowers are given to them at the Lotus hotel. Once eaten, they enter a drug-like, Euphoric state and gamble. In this movie, there is no age limits. At anything.
There's no Auntie Em. Just Medusa.
There's a woman who turns to stone in front of them.
Percy has an iPhone
No mist
Annabeth and Percy are on two different teams during Capture the Flag
No music label where Percy meets Hades
Nashville is added to their quest. One of the pearls is hidden in a fake Parthenon.
Mom doesn't work at the candyshop
The shoes were never rigged that Luke gave him and Zeus would let him use them
They're over 16 and can drive
No truck with animals in it
No three furies who attack Percy.

THINGS WE LIKED
Persephone's story line. And ROSARIO DAWSON was amazing.
When Percy and Annabeth dueled it out at the very end.
The music. Really, it's one of my favorite movies in terms of music choices. This include A Little Less Conversation by Elvis, Tik Tok by K$sha, and Just Dance by Lady Gaga. I know how it sounds, but trust me on this.

OUR ADVICE
If you haven't read the books, you should definitely go see it. However, if you have read the books, be aware that the movie differs so much. Don't expect it to be the book you read. We recommend watching this movie. We're glad it came out, just dissapointed that it's basically a different story.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Movie- 4 Stars
Compared to the book- 2.5 Stars
Worth the 9 dollars we paid to see it?- Mostly.

There you have it, our first DedeCanGomezziblog post. This will also be posted on Danielle's blog (Dedecanblog) with mostly the same information. Comment on both of ours! Now.

Chronological Timeline of Events leading up to my Love of Theater.

My first real time being in a theater to watch a show was to see Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with my mom. We went to see it at the Palace Theater in Waterbury. I can't remember much about it. I don't even know if it was a musical or just a play. I remember that all the grandparents were puppets, though. Some other things I remember: This was I believe in 5th grade. I didn't wear my glasses all that much then. I forgot them at home, and since we had balcony seats, my mom drove back home and got them. I remember getting to the Palace and it was amazing. Marble floors, balconies, box seats, wow. I got some Party Mix as a snack. (They let you have snacks in there.)

Although I enjoyed the experience, I never really got into musical theater until mid-eighth grade. I was looking for songs on Youtube and I remembered Seasons of Love from Rent. I loved this song. I looked at the related videos and saw some names I thought were familiar. I eventually made it through every song in the movie adaptation. After a month or so, I finally got to rent Rent (haha) from Blockbuster. I fell in love. The movie was great, but I thought that was the farthest this love would go. But I was wrong.

I soon discovered the theater version. I bought the DVD, and watched, and awed. It was so brilliant, fantastic, and emotional. The cast was pure perfection, and I realized that I liked this version better than the movie. There were more scenes, more songs, and although more simplistic, a better scenery. (I still don't know why I think that. The set pieces are just a table and chairs.)

Idina Menzel originated the role of Maureen in Rent, as well as reprising the role for the movie version. Danielle had mentioned a few times about Wicked. I never really paid much attention until one magical day. I was on pandora.com on my self-created Rent Radio. No One Mourns the Wicked came up from Wicked. I recognized Idina and decided to ask Danielle a little more about it. I soon downloaded the entire soundtrack and read the book (Wicked is based off of a 300-500 page book. No lie. I read it and loved it.) I later found bootlegs of Wicked. The first full show I saw was with Stephanie J Block and Annaleigh Ashford on Google Video. It was so fantastic. I shared the link with Danielle, and to this day, Wicked is one of our most talked about topics. It's something we both get and enjoy and love. 

One day at a get together, I gave Danielle a huge bag of stuff I wanted her to read and watch. A couple days after her birthday, we met up at Woodland for the wandering party. I gave her her birthday present, Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway. She really enjoyed it, and we still make references to it on Twitter occasionally. We actually might have been able to see it, but that didn't work out too well. She gave me back my bag of stuff to borrow. In the car I was looking through it to make sure everything was there, and I found a Playbill from Wicked at the Gershwin theater. I gasped loudly, and read it front to back. The cast was Marcie Dodd and Alli Mauzey on Broadway. I called her immediately after to talk about it. She said she went with her dad, and she had an extra Playbill, so she gave it to me. I was, and still am, so thankful. It's on my shrine of favorite things ever. 

Ever since then, my love of theater has grown and grown, and probably won't stop. (Select favorites include 9 to 5, Next to Normal, Spring Awakening, and of course Rent and Wicked.) I'm now interested in pursuing acting and singing. I might be going to see Wicked in October on Broadway (fingers crossed, people. Fingers crossed.) I suppose credit for the start of all this goes to Mrs. Coneglio from Community School for teaching Seasons of Love to the chorus... Wow. I never really thought about it that much. Also: My mom, Angela (for the day before my discovery of Rent for reminded me of Seasons of Love at Josh's get together while bouncing the yoga ball) and Danielle for showing me Wicked and the Playbill.

So, yea, this post is one of those "I didn't need to know this" kind of posts. Sorry, but hey, it's my blog.