Tally Hall in Dallas, TX

For anyone following my livejournal, you know that my job has been cutting down my hours. My schedule for this last week came out with my Monday and Tuesday off. I was put off but didn't raise a fuss.

So I'm sure you could imagine my surprise when I looked at Tally Hall's tour schedule and saw they would be in Dallas Monday night. For those unaware, Dallas is 300 miles from my home in northeastern Louisiana, a five hour drive. This small factor would not stop me! I had the right days off by luck, extra money from my tax returns, I was going to see them. I had missed seeing Tally Hall in Houston last December when I had to move back to Louisiana; my determination was unmatched.

After a long drive there, getting stuck in traffic, road construction, and more traffic entering Dallas, I parked a block away from the House of Blues and went on my way inside. And I can tell you, it was worth every mile.

I got there about half an hour before the first act started to set up and realized I was older than most of the group that had formed at the foot of the small stage. The Cambridge Room they were performing in looked more like a decorated blackbox theatre than a concert hall. But I cruised around, perused their small gift shop table. Picked up a hard copy of Tally Hall's album (since I hadn't been able to find it in stores at all) and one of their T-shirts. Andrew (keyboardist) was manning the shop at the moment, so I got his autograph on the shirt. They had interesting things for sale as well, like a gas mask, an original NES Super Mario Brothers game cartridge, and other random things. Such as you'd expect from Tally Hall. I spoke to their tour manager for a few minutes while I was there as well. Nothing of note, really.

The first band that played was a small group called Skybox. I hadn't heard them before so I was eagerly listening. A very talented group, they had a sound akin to an upbeat We Are Scientists mixed with P!ATD's newer album sound. I was disappointed, however, in the group of teenage girls next to me. They were incredibly rude to the band, heckling and making comments that they should get off the stage, they didn't want to hear this band. Halfway through their set, their keyboardist said, "Howdy, y'all! ...I've always wanted to say that. Look, I wore suspenders to fit in." He was obviously joking, but someone to my left (that group of girls) yelled out, "Racist!" I'm not sure if they didn't get that it was a joke or if they called that out as a bad joke retort. I discretely relocated myself in the crowd. The keyboardist took it in stride and tried to joke back. They finished their set and made way for the next band, Jukebox the Ghost. At this point, I had to make use of one of the couches against the wall so I didn't see much of their act. But they had a great sound that I can't properly describe. That's good, in a way; it means they have a sound all their own.

And last, but certainly not least, the prize of my trip. Tally Hall's crew began setting up and I found a newer spot in the crowd. I was sad to see Joe Hawley wasn't there: according to word of mouth, he had backed out of the tour completely for unstated reasons. His stand-in, Casey, was an asset to them nonetheless. They opened with "Ruler of Everything" and most anyone in the crowd that I could see was either mouthing the words or taking pictures. They went on with a song from their new, unreleased album and continued with "Greener". I laughed a little to myself when Shaun (Shawn?) ran to the front of the crowd, beer in hand with her hands up high until the song was over. Rob mentioned to us that she is who the song was written about. Zubin had a technical difficulty at that point, so Rob opened the floor for Q&A. A guy behind me asked a question about when they started playing, to which Rob replied their sophomore of college.

"Which was what year?"

"1985," Rob replied. "Graduated in '86. ...'87. Graduated in '86-'87. Which is weird when you think about it, we were born in '93. ...... 1893, that is."

Andrew, their pianist piped up from one side, "That is such a load of bull." Rob laughed.

"No, it's not! It's intelligent banter."

Zubin supposedly fixed his guitar problem and they performed "Good Day", followed by another new song called, "Fences".

At that point in the show, an audio recording started playing, asking the crowd to "sit on the floor, take a load off [our] feet. Tally Hall will continue their performance on the floor".

They restationed themselves nearby and I was able to slide closer until I was about four feet from the band. (see above picture) Unfortunately (or fortunately, for me), when they moved their equipment, they lost the use of their PA system. So the rest of the performance would be acoustic. They played several new songs and then sang "The Bidding", followed by their closing song, "The Whole World And You". They finished with streamers and an airzooka shooting confetti over the crowd. They then had Skybox and Jukebox the Ghost come out and had a crowd sing-a-long rendition of "Oh Cecelia".

After they were over, Andrew and Ross (drummer) were back at the gift table. I asked Ross to sign my shirt as well and thanked them for having a great show. It was energetic, fun, and left me looking forward to their new album with a renewed anticipation.

MOVIE REVIEW: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

I feel I should start this review by stating a simple fact: I love movies. I've been going to movie theaters since I was three and have yet to find myself wholly disappointed with any movie I've seen. I just love movies, even 'based on book' movies. Most people I know have trouble separating the movie from its source material to enjoy it, but I find myself quite easily able to do it. I will say that I also understand in these kinds of movies, some things may have to be removed from the story for time constraints (Tom Bombadil of The Lord of the Rings for instance). So I review this movie on its own with little to no connection to the original book it was "based" upon.

That being said, I believe this is the first movie out of twenty years that I have found myself completely and utterly disappointed by. It had the setup for a great movie: fantastic cast, wonderful composer, good director, well-loved source material. So I'm not entirely sure how the script writers of this movie managed to let a good idea be executed so badly.

I enjoyed the cast chosen for the film. I hadn't done my usual investigating and was surprised to find Sean Bean, Uma Thurman, and Pierce Brosnan were in the movie. The main cast ensemble (the quest trio) seemed to fit the roles well, particularly Logan as Percy himself. Unfortunately, the characters were not as fleshed out as they could have been. Grover seems to be the only character with ....well, character in the movie's entirety. Percy has only his love of being in the water, dyslexia and ADHD, and love for his mother going for him throughout the movie. Note: I mean to say they are the only things. When Grover asks him why he, "can't be a hero," Percy responds telling him he's dyslexic with ADHD. As if those are the only flaws he has. Or, perhaps, those are the only things Percy sees wrong with himself. We get a minute and a half introduction to Annabeth before she takes an interest in Percy (claiming she isn't sure if it's positive or negative just yet) and a few hours later, the three are on their way to the Underworld.

Other characters are decent enough, if you want a caricature of who they are. Chiron gets maybe four major conversations in the movie (1 as Mr. Brunner at the museum, 2 when he greets Percy at Camp, 3 when he tells Percy his father is Poseidon, and 4 when Percy returns to Camp at the end). We get two glimpses of Smelly Gabe and a third on the TV news report. Sally Jackson (Percy's mother) seems to have one of the only stable characterizations throughout the film which is protect Percy. Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades themselves are barely touched upon, mostly with glimpses of the characters we remember from childhood mythology while the other gods are not even touched upon. We get a mention of Hermes from Luke, but beyond that? Don't expect to see or hear anything from them.

The story was definitely something that needed more work. It did not lend itself well to the adaptation of the sequels and did not leave me wanting to see more. It was very basic, predictable, and overdone. On top of those factors, it was not executed well. The beginning was incredibly rushed in such a way that you didn't get to really know the main characters outside of a few brief glimpses. Each time the trio got to a "milestone" in their journey, it was as if the writers weren't sure how to transition their exit, so they put in an iconic battle from the books and had them escape to make the scene change for them. The last battle and ending seemed to be the only scenes the writers gave serious thought to as they were well thought out, but too little too late for this viewer. And some things just were never cleared up or mentioned at the end, such as how they handled Percy's being a fugitive (the news report about he and Sally going missing and Gabe saying he was a delinquent into drugs and alcohol). Or stating whether or not Percy would stay at Camp year-round; it's implied that he will, but it's more or less left up to viewer interpretation.

There were a lot of unneeded things in this movie, ranging from jokes to certain lines to entire scenes. I believe the entire Lotus Casino scene was the worst scene in the entire movie and was used solely as an excuse to include current pop songs onto the soundtrack and sell music from those particular groups/singers. I was almost at the point of getting up to walk around the theater until the plot point was over it was so bad. I would have rather not had the Lotus Casino at all than have had what we were given.

All in all: this was a movie that had great potential that was not executed well and had only its visuals and graphics going for it. I do not recommend anyone to see this movie if they're expecting any resemblance to its book counterpart.

INTRODUCTION

I wasn't sure where exactly to put these more serious updates; my livejournal doesn't seem as though it would be the right fit. My deviantart is more or less for art updates rather than reviews and creative updates. So it only felt right that a blogger would be the way to go.

As an introduction for what I am about here: I am Allison Cagle. Drawing and sketching have been lifelong passions, however, these days I find myself more and more working in the world of the literary. I've begun writing a quintet book series with close friend these last couple of months. We both bubble with ideas and how to implement them into our storytelling and enjoy nothing more than bouncing character interactions between each other to get a feel for what tone this story will have. As I continue to delve into writing, I use art more and more to get a visual of the characters and how they hold themselves together (posture, attitude, &ct).

The story itself does not have a title, not even a working title. As we are avoiding having any character know the main character's name, it seems unlikely that the books will be named after her. This, perhaps, is a creative mistake on my part; it was originally my idea to avoid names for the two main characters until at least the end of the first book. I considered for a short time giving it a title similar to something as, "The Life and Times [...]", but shortly after realized I would run the risk of it being mistaken for a preteen series. They are not my target audience (though I do know they will likely read it in the end anyway). A title will likely not present itself until I get further along into the story.

Hopefully, soon, I'll have enough written to post small excerpts here. At least I hope! For now, I have rare snow to play in, so that would be the end of this post.