inspiration(music): music from my childhood
I didn’t mention this before, but the launch of my new site , fotogirl.net, (yes, I’m plugging it again), was extra special because it happened on my 30th birthday. I felt it was only fitting then to have my first online mixtape reflect my journey into adulthood. I decided to put up the songs that most reminded me of being a youngin’. The mixtape is subtitled, “stuff my mommy played all the time”, because that’s really what it is!
In the days before cds, mp3s, and ipods, we had good ole fashioned records and tapes. There were certain albums and songs that my mom used to play into the ground, so now whenever I hear them, I get nostalgic.
The song that hits home for me the most is the Wayne Shorter/Milton Nascimiento song, “Ponta de Areia”. My mom said that she used to put it on and start dancing with me and my brother.When I got old enough for a record player, I would play the album in my room contstantly. I still have said album.
Eliane Elias was/is another Watson favorite. We had a few of her albums, and they were constantly on repeat…which, in the days of records and tapes, meant actually getting up and turning the record/ tape over. *shudder* I now have her music on my ipod even though I still can’t pronounce her name correctly 
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.I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I did listen to actual children’s music as well! I loved Carole King’s, “Really Rosie”, album. I have the original tape, but eventually had to get it for my ipod. I still listen to it frequently, and take pride in knowing all the words to, “Alligators all around”. The Al Jarreau song is actually from a Sesame Street album called, “In Harmony”. It’s a great album with special guests like James Taylor (my mom LOVES James Taylor), Bette Midler, and George Benson. And yes, I still have that album, too.
I loved Angela Winbush’s, ” Your Smile” so much that, apparently, mom had to tape it multiple times in a row so I could listen to it back to back. I don’t know why that song appealed to a 6 yr old, but it did. What can I say? I’m an old soul.
Overall, the mixtape shows the musical foundation that I had growing up, and I believe those songs and others laid the groundwork for my current eclectic taste in music. Thanks, mom. 
- go to fotogirl radio
In my last post I quickly mentioned one of the new sections on my site, fotogirl.net. The section is called “radio”, and it is an online mixtape that will be the home to ever changing playlists that you can check out and (hopefully) enjoy. I added this section for several reasons. One, I’m a music addict. No, really. I don’t know what I would do without it. Probably cry. At any rate, I got jealous the musicians who got to have music playing on their website, so I decided I was gonna put some on mine! Over the years, I’ve gotten compliments about my music selections, so I decided to take it a step further.
Two, I loved Muxtape. For those who didn’t know Muxtape, it was a site that allowed you to make online “mixtapes” and share them with others. You weren’t able to download anything. You were only allowed to stream it. It was a great way to share music, as well as discover new music. Unfortunately, the RIAA had some beef with the site and took it down. It’s back up now, but it’s not the same. People may say that sites like that cause musicians to lose money, but I disagree. Because of Muxtape, I discovered the band Grizzly Bear. I later ended up purchasing their album, the album of their sideband, and bought two tickets to see them in concert. All because of one person’s mix. Anyhoo, after mMxtape went kaput, someone else came out with Opentape. It’s basically like Muxtape, but it’s hosted on your own site. You aren’t able to easily discover anyone else mixes anymore, but it’s still cool.
Lastly, I created this page to put the songs that couldn’t go directly on my website. I try to find calming, mellow songs for my site so as not to scare anyone off lol. But, there are times when I’d love to throw Bjork ,Nine Inch Nails, or Plaid up on it and I can’t. So…now I have a place to put it all.
I’m not gonna proclaim to change it at specific intervals. I will keep a mix up until I feel the need to change it. That could be once a week, or once a month. I will write a corresponding post about it though, so people know when it’s up.
Let me just start off by saying…YAY! I am pleased to announce the relaunch of my portfolio site, fotogirl.net. Why the new site? Well, it was just time for a change. I loved my old site, but over the years I’ve learned, I’ve grown, and I’ve discovered new features. I felt it was time for my site to reflect all of that. The site now has links to this blog, as well as my new mixtape page (see next post), and it features a new shop section that will be up and running soon.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. I wanted to launch LAST year! That obviously didn’t happen . The up and downside to being able to design my own website is that I can do whatever I want. It is very satisfying, yet extremely overwhelming. I tried hard to come up with an idea I liked, and for a while I put a lot of pressure on myself, but I eventually came to the realization that it would come to me when it was supposed to. Sure enough, a few months ago, the idea popped into my head while I was taking a nap. I woke up and fleshed it out, and then I finally had something that I was excited about. Flash forward to today, and I am finally able to write a blog post about my new site! You have no idea how happy I am to have it up. It’s been in my head for the last year, so now I can start thinking about something else! Anyways, please check it out and let me know what you think. I hope you like it!
I know, I know, it’s been a minute since I’ve written anything. My bad.  Months have just flown by in a snap. Now it’s April, and seeing as how this is my birthday month, I figured now was as good of a time as any to get back on track. Over the last month or so, I’ve been watching quite a few animated movies. I was going to blog about them separately, but I thought it would be more interesting to make this a super post. So here goes.
WATCHMEN
Ok, so the first movie up at bat isn’t an animated film at all, but it contains computer graphics, so I’ll allow it. I wrote a blog a while back about the awesomeness of the trailer, and I was counting down the days until the release of the movie. At the time of that post, I had yet to read the graphic novel but I was intrigued enough by the trailer to do so. I ended up loving it and reading it twice. If you haven’t read it, I would highly suggest you do so. It is a richly layered story that is both engaging and thought provoking.
ANYWAY, back to the movie. I went on opening night with the fanboys and got to see it again a few days later on IMAX. Overall, I thought that Zack Snyder did a very good job given the extremely dense text. He stayed pretty faithful to the comic, both in storyline and visuals. There were some scenes in the movie that were ripped straight out of the graphic novel, and I thought that was a nice touch.
Funny enough, the very thing that I loved about the trailer is what I hated about the actual movie: The music. I found the music choices to be extremely jarring and distracting. Some of the song choices were too iconic (“Hallelujah”, “All Along the Watchtower”). Technically they fit perfectly within their respective scenes, and that is what ruined it for me. The songs seemed TOO obvious and at times made the movie feel campy. I understand that some of these songs were from the time period, but I didn’t feel like it was necessary do that. I also know some songs like, “All Along the Watchtower”, were taken from references within the graphic novel, but I still didn’t like it in the actual film. Bottom line: Watchmen was very good, but I probably would have liked it even more if it was as successful as meshing the music and visuals together as well as the trailer.
CORALINE
I’m usually good about keeping up with upcoming animated films, but I only found out about this movie after reading a behind-the-scenes article in Wired magazine. The amount of detail and patience that goes into stop motion films never ceases to amaze me. From tiny, hand-knit sweaters, to tree blossoms fashioned out of painted popcorn, Coraline is visually stunning.
What made the movie even cooler was seeing it in 3D. I’ve seen 3D movies before. The effect is usually cool for a few minutes until you start getting a headache, and then it just gets old. There is now a new 3D technique being used called, “RealD” , which is a LOT more successful. First off, previous so-called 3d movies were not all in 3D. Usually there was only 20 minutes or so of 3D effects, and the rest of the movie was normal. An icon would pop up telling you when to put your 3D glasses on or take them off during certain scenes. It did not make for a seamless movie going experience. On the flip side, I watched Coraline with my 3D glasses on the entire time. The effects looked more natural and realistic, and it never hurt my eyes. I was very impressed.
Oh yeah, and the story is great, too. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s about a girl who feels neglected by her parents and comes to discover an alternate world where she finds the perfect version of her parents. Or so she thinks. It may be too late to see it in 3D, but I would highly recommend checking it out when it comes out on DVD. In the meantime, visit the film’s official YouTube page for interesting vids about the process.
MONSTERS VS. ALIENS
Seeing Coraline in 3D impressed me so much, that I was curious to see another film using the same technology. It was just as cool. I went to see the movie on a night when I was in a crappy mood. I was hoping it would be a pick-me-up, and it did the trick. It’s a cute film that’s entertaining and funny, and the animation was very well done. It also comes with the message, “be comfortable with who you are”, so you can’t go wrong with that.
WALL-E
I, like most other sane people, am in love with Pixar films. They are extremely well crafted and usually become instant classics. That being said, I had NO desire to see WALL-E in the theater when it first came out. The trailer looked boring, and I didn’t think Wall-E was that cute. I knew that as a Pixar film it had to be good, but that still didn’t pique my interest. It was only after I started hearing everyone rave about it that I decided to give it a chance. I tried to catch it in the theater but never got around to it. Then, there was a huge wait on Netflix, so that delayed me from seeing it even more. Finally, I broke down and bought it last week during Virgin Megastore’s “going out of business” sale. I’m really sad about that….but, I digress.
Yes, I LOVED Wall-E. I was in yet another crappy mood (I had a rough week lol), so this made for a perfect calming evening. I turned all my lights off, curled up in a blanket and watched a robot love story. I was worried that the repetitive cries of “Wall-E” and “Eva” would get on my nerves after a while, but it didn’t bother me. In fact, I was amazed that a movie with minimal dialog (and minimal action in some parts) could keep from being boring. The animation was gorgeous. I definitely regretted missing it in the theater, but I bought it on blu-ray, so that was a good runner-up. I’m very happy to have it as part of my DVD collection.
BOLT
I actually did want to see this movie in the theater, but I never got around to it. I wish I had, because I found out it was in 3D, as well. It turned out to be a sad, yet adorable movie. It is about a dog who believes, with every fiber of his being ,that the tv show he’s a part of is real. He then gets let loose into the real world by accident, and he thinks he’s still a crime fighting dog with super powers. Watching the poor, delusional dog try to figure out why he no longer has heat-vision will make you laugh and break your heart lol. And if you watch it for no other reason, Rhino the hamster is hilarious!
So, there you have it folks. It’s my mega movie blitz in a nutshell. Oh, and in case you think I’ve been sitting on my butt, watching movies all day, I’m about to launch a few websites…so stay tuned. One of them will be a relaunch of my site, Fotogirl.net, on my 30th birthday!
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