Quick Review….”Miles to Go”

Last night I started off my week by reading Miley Cyrus’ engrossing biography called Miles to Go.  That has to be the most fitting biography title I have ever seen.

I checked it out just for kicks, but I really learned a lot of interesting things.  If you can sift through all of the inspirational hooey (not to knock inspirational stuff, but to me it is mostly just hooey) there are several juicy facts found inside.

1.  Miley and Emily Osment did not get along at all during the first two seasons of Hannah Montana.  WHAT!!!!  I was horrified and saddened to read this.  Lily is my favorite character on the show, and it hurts to know that her friendship with Miley was all “fake.”  Okay, I know they are acting so it really is fake, but still.  Apparently things were really awkward until they started shooting the movie and now they are the best of friends.  At least it has a happy ending.

2.  I didn’t know that Billy Ray wasn’t originally scheduled to play her dad.  I thought the whole show was built around the two of them, but I was way wrong.  The whole first part of the book is about the multiple auditions she had to go through to get the part.  According to the book, Billy Ray getting the part was based on an offhand comment made by her mother.  The audition stuff is really great to read.  Apparently they wanted a 16 year old girl to play Hannah……imagine how different that would have been.

3.  Miley’s sixth grade experience was just as hellish as the rest of ours.  She writes about being bullied repeatedly by several girls in her school.  They tormented her at lunch and even locked her in the bathroom once.  I don’t know why I was so surprised by this.  I guess I pictured her childhood being filled with sunshine lollipops and rainbows.

4.  She has lots of sweet things to say about her “Prince Charming.”  (Not her current illegal prince charming, but her first one.)

5.  She struggled with really bad acne during the second season of the show.  I totally can’t tell at all when watching the show.  I can’t even imagine how awful it must be to have to go through things like that while the whole world is watching.

Anyway, I found the book to be an entertaining and quick read (There are even full color pictures!!!).  It is rambling in some parts and filled with lots of the aforementioned hooey, but it really does sound like it was written by a 15 year old.  That may sound like a bad thing, but it lets me believe in my mind that she actually DID write this book herself and didn’t have too much “help” with it.  So if you are a fan of Hannah Montana or Miley it is definitely worth your time.

Jen

I Have Seen the Hannah Montana Movie!!

I have been looking forward to this day for a long time and it totally lived up to my expectations…..tonight, along with a theater full of kids (all ages, girls and boys) I saw the Hannah Montana Movie.  Thanks so much to Abby for going with me so I was not the creepy old lady sitting by myself.  I really enjoyed the movie and will probably see it again.  Since my mind doesn’t work well in paragraph form, I will make a list of the things I loved and some I didn’t so much love.

Things I loved!!!

**Miley’s acting.  Not once did I look at her and think, “there’s that sixteen year old with a skeezy 20 year old boyfriend,” or did I hear “It’s Miley” from The Soup.  The whole movie I saw her as nothing more than Miley Stewart and cute as a button Hannah Montana, which didn’t always happen with the tv show.

**The songs.  I liked the new stuff that was in the movie, and was happy to hear a new version of “Best of Both Worlds.”

**Jan from “The Office” was in it.  I liked seeing her as something other than crazy trophy-weilding Jan.  Although I was sad that she didn’t sing because apparently she has an amazing voice and I think she even has CDs or something like that.

**Travis.  Oooooh Travis.  He plays Miley’s little love interest, and wow, he is pretty fantastic (I can say that because he is 18 so it is not illegal……….kind of disturbing, but not illegal).  The little girl behind me literally hyperventilated everytime he showed up on screen.  Or maybe she was just making shrieking sounds too high for humans to hear.

**The end credits are awesome…..actually beyond awesome.  Every movie needs to end with a dance number.

**I love how Rascal Flatts is randomly hanging out at Miley’s grandma’s house.  Apparently in Tennessee famous country singers spend their time traveling from porch to porch singing their most well known songs.

Things I didn’t really love:

**Vanessa Williams’ character.  I hate it when they cast “stars” in these types of movies that have absolutely nothing to do with the tv show.  I’m pretty sure no one in the theater was there to see one of the stars of “Ugly Betty.”

**Spoiler Alert!!  Miley and Lily’s fight gets resolved too quickly.  Miley did something really horrible to Lily and after two weeks of not speaking Lily completely forgives her for the sole reason that she wouldn’t be in the movie if she didn’t.

**Speaking of that……where were Oliver and Rico??????  They are in the movie for 5 minutes total………and that includes three minutes of the end credits.

**Not enough Jackson!!!!!!!!!!  He didn’t really do anything in the whole movie except fall down………but he does really know how to fall down.

All in all, I really loved the movie.  It made me laugh, almost cry, and even dance around in my seat a tiny bit.  The best part was being in a full theater where people clapped along with the songs, sang along to “The Climb,” and screamed like they were at a Hannah concert when the movie ended.  When Travis finally admits that he has a crush on Miley, all the girls in the theater went “Awwwwwwww” (I was totally one of them).  That is what makes a fantastic movie experience.

So if you even halfway enjoy the tv show, or like horses, or cute cowboys, go see this movie!!!

Jen

Girl Power Music

This isn’t a post about the Spice Girls.  Sorry if I misled you by the title!  I am making myself an awesome new CD soon, and a bunch of the songs on it are by current teenage girl rockers.  Here’s what’s sitting in my iTunes shopping cart. (I can’t download them until I’m ready to make the CD.  I know, weird rules.)

Demi Lovato – “Don’t Forget” — haven’t heard the whole song yet but love the clip on the Disney Channel
Demi Lovato – “La La Land” — ditto above
P!nk – “Just Like a Pill” — apparently that’s how she spells her name.  She’s not a teenage girl rocker, but I forgot all about this song until Amber & I recently tried to remember her first hits
Miranda Cosgrove (with Drake Bell) – “Leave It All to Me” — I soooo love the iCarly theme song!
Muse – “Supermassive Black Hole” — a non-teenage girl rocker, but it’s from Twilight, so it still counts
Iron & Wine – “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” — ditto above, LOVE it at the end of Twilight.  Every time I watch the movie (3 times now), it stays in my head for the rest of the day, which is fabulous
Miley Cyrus – “The Climb” — totally ready for the movie to come out!
Aly & AJ – “Rush” — discovered this while listening to the Demi Lovato station on Pandora (thanks for twittering about that Lindsay! 🙂 )

Any more I should get??

– jill

The Holiday Book Everyone Needs to Read

This is just a quick video blog where I blabber on (slightly incoherently) about my new favorite book Let It Snow by John Green, Lauren Myracle, and Maureen Johnson.  If you don’t feel like watching the video, I will sum it up by saying:  GO READ THAT BOOK!

(Also, please try not to pay attention to the fact that I look like death run over by a truck.  I haven’t been feeling great and am fresh off an early evening nap, which is never a good thing.)

Jen

I Am Not Scared to Publicly Admit…

That I, a 26 year-old (almost 27) like “Hannah Montana”.  There I said it….are you happy Amber and Lindsay???

I must say it is probably all due to the both of you that I even got started watching it.  I was one of those people who used to ridicule the show. I caught part of the very first episode that ever aired and I was like, “Ugh, what is this?  The DC has really gone downhill since the glory days of “Flash Forward” and “Lizzie McGuire.”

But then I went to Lindsay’s Bachelorette party where I was engulfed in a world of Hannah Montana guitars, games, and underwear.  I started to think that maybe I should see what all the fuss is about.  Well, I would catch an episde here and there and it started to grow on me.  Kind of like that guy who doesn’t seem all that special when you first meet him, but after you get to know him you realize that he has a great smile, is pretty dreamy and makes you laugh.

Well, now it is official.  “Hannah Montana” has become appointment viewing for me.  I usually watch an episode every day during the week, either at 6:30 or 10:30, and I was so excited for the new show last night.  Lily is my favorite character (I love her fun wigs when she is Lola) and I think she and Oliver really need to get together.  I totally have a crush on Jason Earles who plays Jackson (but that is totally okay because he is way older than me so I am NOT a dirty old woman).  I thought last night’s episode was great!  I think it referenced my favorite British show ever “Spaced” when Lily said “Skip to the end!” (but I could be reaching about that).  Also, it contained the classic line “Even Lord Voldemort would look cute with a puppy!”

The first season is coming out on DVD very soon and I ordered it for the library.  I really want to put it on hold because I know it won’t stay on the shelves very long, but the unfortunate thing about working in a library is that I have to see these people every day and I have no excuse for putting Hannah Montana on hold.  No little sisters around, no nieces, and people in circulation are going to have to put a hold slip with my name on it around the DVD and think, “well that is odd.”  So maybe I will just hope that they will be checked in sooner or later.

Also, have you guys seen the promo for the new November episodes???  I love the song in the background, and doesn’t Mr. Earles look sooooo much hotter with his hair short.  He actually begins to look more like the married man of 31 that he is in real life.

Doesn’t it look like they are having so much fun?  I so want to work there.

Jen

Dolly Parton knows how to Party

Here are a few photos from Lindsay’s Bachelorette Dolly Parton Tea Party:

There. Promise to post these fulfilled.

amberj.

Why does Meg Cabot own an Oliver (from Hannah Montana) doll?

I can’t give you the answer to this question.  I think only Meg can do that for us.  What I will say is that I think it’s awesome she owns one, and I am lead to believe she must have the entire set of dolls from Hannah Montana (because who would only buy Oliver??).  But really, I understand why she’d have Ken and Raspberry Torte and other dolls from yee olde times, but Hannah Montana didn’t debut until 2006 and who even knows when they started making dolls for it.  Hmmm.  And he looks too well taken care of to belong to children, so my theory that she doesn’t own Oliver but instead borrowed him from a child doesn’t seem to pan out.  I guess I won’t know until I get to meet her – I’m going to start up a list of questions I want to ask Meg when I finally get to see her (Amber, Jen, get on this stat).

List of Questions for Meg from Lindsay

#1 – Why do you own an Oliver doll, and do you own the other dolls from the show?

#2 – Is it possible I was personality cloned from you?

#3 – Would you like to have tea with me and Dolly Parton?

#4 – If you’re ever in Nashville, would you like to come over and play barbies with me?

I will be adding to this list and then preening it because I am sure that there will be lots of other girls there to see Meg and I don’t want to monopolize her time too much. 

<3, lindsayd.