hitRECord Fall Formal
Oct. 13th, 2011 12:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eternalsojournAs many of you know, I went to the hitRECord Fall Formal in Los Angeles on October 10, 2011. So while I was sorely neglectful in reporting back on the Seattle hitRECord at the Movies, I’ve vowed to myself that I will report back on this one.
First, two things:
I was very nearly late for the show. This was due to my trying to pack in entirely too much into my day. I’d spent the better part of the day with my husband’s cousin, who lives in Santa Monica. He took me to the pier and cycling around Venice Beach. It was perfectly lovely and I left at a reasonable hour, then faced several unexpected things: namely, L.A. traffic worse than any I’d experienced thus far, and a sunglasses tan that required some serious covering. Also, I almost fell asleep at the wheel several times. D: (I had a 10 minute nap before going to the Formal in an effort not to die on the way there.)
Once sorted, I showed up at the theater to find that the show actually didn’t start until 8:30. YAY! So Leslie (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sparrow_hubris) met me at the front with my ticket, and in we went.
Here I am with my luminously lovely date:
Everyone looked fab. There was one very ginger-beardy dude wearing an emerald velvet dinner jacket. There were lots of short dresses, a few very elegant open backs, some ballgowns, some three-piece suits, regular suits, and some hats (mostly on the men). All in all, it was a gorgeous crowd and everyone seemed to be quite excited to be there. It was a mix of people who either had no idea what they were even there for, and people who’d been looking forward to it with bated breath.
As with the Seattle show and all the others, there were questions on up the screen requesting answers via twitter. Since I had no internet access, Leslie tweeted on my behalf. The question was: “What does love mean to you?” I said:
Which is not me being funny. I actually think that really making a relationship work means prioritising compassion over semantics. [Barring any actual abuse, etc.] Most of the time, my needing to be right in an argument just leads to the argument extending, and expanding beyond its original parameters, and causing more hurt than was really warranted by the original problem. If I’d just let go of the notion that I had to be right about everything, I could have smoothed things over and made my life — and his — a lot easier by just listening and talking. In the end, it’s not necessary that he agree with me on everything. ANYWAY. /philosophical rambling
Leslie and I sat for a bit, then she got up to go take some photographs with her fancy camera. A short time later she came back, breathless, saying, “Gary Oldman is here! I talked to Gary Oldman! OMG, I need to go get my picture taken with him. Let’s go!” At which point I just kind of gaped at her. But up we got, and sure enough, just 6 or so rows ahead of us, is GARY MOTHERFUCKING OLDMAN with his kids! I tried not to be too much of a goober, and I felt like a jerk asking for my photograph after he told Leslie “Okay, just this one,” when I took her picture with him. But how could I not ask? I’m still conflicted. But here! Here I am! With Gary Oldman’s hand on my waist!
Then we went back to our seats and I tried not to flap my hands too much and we talked about all of our favourite Gary Oldman roles. It was the most exciting thing and the show hadn’t even started yet!
This next bit happened later, but since this is the Gary Oldman section, I will post this here.
Better quality video than mine: Gary Oldman reading a not-so-tiny story
There was the usual mix of video, voiceovers, artwork, animation, etc. It was much as the same as the other hitRECord shows with the addition of the live band and more actual performances by hitRECord contributors.
First off, I got some not-very-great video of Joe reading a tiny story about an orange and an egg.
For the record, hitRECord contributors are freaky talented and awesome. Sia has an amazing voice, and though I preferred her first performance, this one was also fantastic. I love how powerful her voice is.
And there was Nothing Big with Tasha Taylor, who has a smoky, sultry, sexy voice and I don’t know how she stayed standing when Joe was trying to flirt with her through song. That she didn’t flirt much back frankly astonished me.
The Neil Patrick Harris sketch nearly killed me. NPH!!! Man, I’d ship this. I’d ship this so hard. For the record, they were sitting about 10-15 rows ahead of us, one aisle over. I could see the backs of their heads.
And of course, Anne Hathaway was there. She’s a lovely singer and charming on her feet.
Okay, I couldn't find video of the version that they played. maybelater__ found the video! I have thoughts about this moving and beautiful piece that I’ve been wanting to share since I saw it in Seattle.
The notion that our imperfection is what makes us beautiful and powerful is something that really hits home for me. As a writer, I know that the only way I’ll ever be successful is to write my way, not anyone else's.
The idea that much of the media we've been exposed to is bland, dumbed down, homogenised. We're smarter than this. I love this idea, and the piece does a marvelous job of expressing it.
However, I resist the idea that ‘corporations’ are the enemy and responsible for all this homogenisation. I resist the implication that we as consumers are victims. Rather than seeing the possibility of breaking free from the oppression of homogenised media and corporation-run society, I’d love to see people expecting accountability, from themselves and the corporations, and everyone. ‘Corporations’ are run by people — people who mostly intend good things, as unpopular as that idea might be. They’re not the enemy, and through collaboration with the people in charge of those larger entities, I think great things can happen. I think creative people can get their hands on the wheel and do responsible, exciting, creative, beneficial things. Mainly I resist the idea that this has to happen as an independent revolution, that we’re somehow special, unique and different from the people in the ‘system’. It’s a tired old us-an-them cliché that I'd like to see us evolve out of.
JGL performing his final number.
Not kidding, even with meeting Gary Oldman, this was my favourite part of the night. Joe is infectiously excitable, incredibly charming and dances and sings like he’s in the silver screen era. I think I fell in love with him again. Not only that! The subject matter of this song is EXACTLY WHAT I THINK ABOUT ALL OF IT! The glory of what he’s doing, this collaboration, this connection, this creation: it’s been going on since the dawn of time. It’s both eternal and immediate. It’s wonderful that we're doing it now with the tools we have to hand, like the internet and digital media and good old-fashioned ink and paper. Most importantly, they’re our ideas. All of ours, put out there to share, to build on. Not squirrelled away and hidden where they'll remain static or even wither. And his conversation with God — not that I believe in God, but whatever — it was charming and wonderful. Did he really have God say “suck my cock” or was that my imagination? Anyway, this whole thing really is Joe’s baby and has his personality all over it.
I love him. I love what it all stands for. I love that throughout the entire show I was torn between filling my eyeballs and ears with all the creative goodness, and just dropping everything so I can go make stuff. So hopefully I can retain that feeling long enough to actually do so.
First, two things:
- I did not live tweet while I was there. First, my phone has a new contract and the company has turned off international data roaming. I didn’t think to change it before I left. Also, I’m not really one for tweeting while I’m watching stuff anyway. Maybe it’s a lack of multitasking ability, but I tend to just focus on what’s in front of me, and forget to tweet or text or do anything, really.
- I didn’t take a lot of photos or video. As with the tweeting thing, I tend to just forget to take pictures when I'm filling my eyeballs. Also — and I know this goes against the very philosophy of hitRECord — I don’t actually see the need to record and share my experiences in that way. My experiences are mine, and if I’m going to share them it’ll be in the way I know how: via words after the fact. It’s my way of living moment to moment, I suppose, although I don’t judge anyone who records things. I’m glad everyone does; it means I rarely have to. Also, people record better quality stuff than I do.
ON WITH THE SHOW (review)!
My Date
I was very nearly late for the show. This was due to my trying to pack in entirely too much into my day. I’d spent the better part of the day with my husband’s cousin, who lives in Santa Monica. He took me to the pier and cycling around Venice Beach. It was perfectly lovely and I left at a reasonable hour, then faced several unexpected things: namely, L.A. traffic worse than any I’d experienced thus far, and a sunglasses tan that required some serious covering. Also, I almost fell asleep at the wheel several times. D: (I had a 10 minute nap before going to the Formal in an effort not to die on the way there.)
Once sorted, I showed up at the theater to find that the show actually didn’t start until 8:30. YAY! So Leslie (
sparrow_hubris) met me at the front with my ticket, and in we went. Here I am with my luminously lovely date:
Everyone looked fab. There was one very ginger-beardy dude wearing an emerald velvet dinner jacket. There were lots of short dresses, a few very elegant open backs, some ballgowns, some three-piece suits, regular suits, and some hats (mostly on the men). All in all, it was a gorgeous crowd and everyone seemed to be quite excited to be there. It was a mix of people who either had no idea what they were even there for, and people who’d been looking forward to it with bated breath.
As with the Seattle show and all the others, there were questions on up the screen requesting answers via twitter. Since I had no internet access, Leslie tweeted on my behalf. The question was: “What does love mean to you?” I said:
Love is giving up your right to be right.
Which is not me being funny. I actually think that really making a relationship work means prioritising compassion over semantics. [Barring any actual abuse, etc.] Most of the time, my needing to be right in an argument just leads to the argument extending, and expanding beyond its original parameters, and causing more hurt than was really warranted by the original problem. If I’d just let go of the notion that I had to be right about everything, I could have smoothed things over and made my life — and his — a lot easier by just listening and talking. In the end, it’s not necessary that he agree with me on everything. ANYWAY. /philosophical rambling
Gary Oldman
Leslie and I sat for a bit, then she got up to go take some photographs with her fancy camera. A short time later she came back, breathless, saying, “Gary Oldman is here! I talked to Gary Oldman! OMG, I need to go get my picture taken with him. Let’s go!” At which point I just kind of gaped at her. But up we got, and sure enough, just 6 or so rows ahead of us, is GARY MOTHERFUCKING OLDMAN with his kids! I tried not to be too much of a goober, and I felt like a jerk asking for my photograph after he told Leslie “Okay, just this one,” when I took her picture with him. But how could I not ask? I’m still conflicted. But here! Here I am! With Gary Oldman’s hand on my waist!
Then we went back to our seats and I tried not to flap my hands too much and we talked about all of our favourite Gary Oldman roles. It was the most exciting thing and the show hadn’t even started yet!
This next bit happened later, but since this is the Gary Oldman section, I will post this here.
Better quality video than mine: Gary Oldman reading a not-so-tiny story
The hitRECord Set Pieces
There was the usual mix of video, voiceovers, artwork, animation, etc. It was much as the same as the other hitRECord shows with the addition of the live band and more actual performances by hitRECord contributors.
First off, I got some not-very-great video of Joe reading a tiny story about an orange and an egg.
For the record, hitRECord contributors are freaky talented and awesome. Sia has an amazing voice, and though I preferred her first performance, this one was also fantastic. I love how powerful her voice is.
And there was Nothing Big with Tasha Taylor, who has a smoky, sultry, sexy voice and I don’t know how she stayed standing when Joe was trying to flirt with her through song. That she didn’t flirt much back frankly astonished me.
The Neil Patrick Harris sketch nearly killed me. NPH!!! Man, I’d ship this. I’d ship this so hard. For the record, they were sitting about 10-15 rows ahead of us, one aisle over. I could see the backs of their heads.
And of course, Anne Hathaway was there. She’s a lovely singer and charming on her feet.
And A New Earth
maybelater__ found the video! I have thoughts about this moving and beautiful piece that I’ve been wanting to share since I saw it in Seattle.The notion that our imperfection is what makes us beautiful and powerful is something that really hits home for me. As a writer, I know that the only way I’ll ever be successful is to write my way, not anyone else's.
The idea that much of the media we've been exposed to is bland, dumbed down, homogenised. We're smarter than this. I love this idea, and the piece does a marvelous job of expressing it.
However, I resist the idea that ‘corporations’ are the enemy and responsible for all this homogenisation. I resist the implication that we as consumers are victims. Rather than seeing the possibility of breaking free from the oppression of homogenised media and corporation-run society, I’d love to see people expecting accountability, from themselves and the corporations, and everyone. ‘Corporations’ are run by people — people who mostly intend good things, as unpopular as that idea might be. They’re not the enemy, and through collaboration with the people in charge of those larger entities, I think great things can happen. I think creative people can get their hands on the wheel and do responsible, exciting, creative, beneficial things. Mainly I resist the idea that this has to happen as an independent revolution, that we’re somehow special, unique and different from the people in the ‘system’. It’s a tired old us-an-them cliché that I'd like to see us evolve out of.
Final Number
JGL performing his final number.
Not kidding, even with meeting Gary Oldman, this was my favourite part of the night. Joe is infectiously excitable, incredibly charming and dances and sings like he’s in the silver screen era. I think I fell in love with him again. Not only that! The subject matter of this song is EXACTLY WHAT I THINK ABOUT ALL OF IT! The glory of what he’s doing, this collaboration, this connection, this creation: it’s been going on since the dawn of time. It’s both eternal and immediate. It’s wonderful that we're doing it now with the tools we have to hand, like the internet and digital media and good old-fashioned ink and paper. Most importantly, they’re our ideas. All of ours, put out there to share, to build on. Not squirrelled away and hidden where they'll remain static or even wither. And his conversation with God — not that I believe in God, but whatever — it was charming and wonderful. Did he really have God say “suck my cock” or was that my imagination? Anyway, this whole thing really is Joe’s baby and has his personality all over it.
Conclusion
I love him. I love what it all stands for. I love that throughout the entire show I was torn between filling my eyeballs and ears with all the creative goodness, and just dropping everything so I can go make stuff. So hopefully I can retain that feeling long enough to actually do so.
