Storia della mia vita: L.A., L.A., Baby

So, we went up to LA this weekend (by weekend, I mean Saturday and half of Sunday). We went because there was a special preview of the upcoming DCOM, Camp Rock 2. There were a lot of people there, but I'm guessing that it didn't actually sell out because there were quite a few open seats, but that's ok. All the better for me & my mom to get great seats =D. Additional bonus of seeing the movie before everyone else? I got to go to Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, which is hard for non-Disney workers to get into. It's completely gated in (I noted that all of the major media networks/companies were, though. But NBC advertised a studio tour, so I'm assuming you don't need a special invitation, but maybe. Also, Disney might need to be more careful because around the world Mickey Mouse (aka Disney) is kind of a symbol of American consumerism, and those who are opposed to American consumerism use & target Mickey for their own purposes. So I *suppose* I can see why they're extra careful. Anyways....), but we were able to go on in order to see the movie. What I noted was that the Studios look A LOT like Disneyland. I think that I had read about that in Mouse Under Glass by David Koenig, but wow. Seriously, the signs, the colors, everything was a lot like Disneyland. Interesting, and really cool. SO, we saw the movie in a little theater (not super little, but like the small (but still stadium) theaters that movies often move into once they've been out for a while and the newer movies take up the biggest rooms in the theater), and they gave us free popcorn & water (two types of water. Regular spring water and Smart Water, which is interesting. I wonder what the reason for having two types of water is. It seems like Smart Water is becoming more prominent...everywhere, but it's still interesting. Did the Glaceau company donate it? Does Disney have a deal with Glaceau? Do people demand it? Who knows. (well, *somebody* knows, but that somebody is not me). Anyways, so it was super cool to see the film before everyone else, and it's SO good. I think I might just like it better than the first one. Seeing it in the theater was also very special because otherwise I would likely watch it on the TV in this room with has a sound issue (background noise is louder than the sound that you're supposed to hear. Example: When we watched Pride & Prejudice, we couldn't hear the dialogue at all, practically, during the scene at the "country dance" because the background noise was so loud. So with a musical movie like this one, I would have heard the beat really strongly, the rest of the music pretty well, and the rest somewhat ok) and is surrounded by very distracting things (like computers, people moving around, etc) which could keep me from focusing just on the movie, so seeing it there with fans of all ages was great (and yes, of all ages. The loudest most enthusiastic person around me was at least 40 and she'd go "woo" and things like that. She reminded me of the women at the showing of New Moon that I went to...(forgot about them? Read this blog entry). Oh, extra bonus? No commercials. Yes...Then there was a Q&A section with the director of the film, the VP (or was it the president...) of DCOMs, the director of soundtracks, and the writer of the film. I enjoyed hearing about how they put the movie together and their motivation behind certain scenes and other choices.

All this to say: 1) it was a really great experience; 2) you should watch it on Disney Channel on Friday, September 3rd; 3) I SO want to work at Disney or for D23

aaaah, just looked it up Glaceau is owned by Coca-Cola (not advertised on the website, but I figured it out). That makes sense though. Based on Disneyland, I'd say that Disney and Coke are pretty close. Now that I think about it, they totally sell Vitamin Water at Disneyland now...

PICTURE TIME!!!