Happy 2013! I hope everybody had a safe, fun, and memorable (or you know…not so memorable ;)) New Year’s Eve and has an even better coming year. This past year has certainly been a busy one, one reason being it is the year I started this lovely little blog you have come to know (and love?) by now. As you have also probably noticed by now, keeping a blog is hard. My original goal of two posts per week was, though admirable, a bit unrealistic (though I did keep it up for a few weeks), and posts have unfortunately fallen a bit behind. That is definitely a resolution for the coming year: more blogging! This is a learning experience and I look forward to learning and expressing more through it.
Movie update! I promised I’d keep everybody updated on the movies I saw this holiday season due to my previous blog post. So far, I’ve seen Les Miserables (see below), The Guilt Trip (surprisingly hilarious—Barbra Streisand steals the show [no surprise there]), This is 40 (not so much a LOL comedy per Knocked Up, but I still laughed my way through it despite the more serious tone), and tonight I will be seeing number 4 with Silver Linings Playbook. Now, onto Les Miz…
Now, being the Broadway fanatic that I am, I deliberated dedicating this post to Les Miserables. Not only was (am) I obsessed with the movie, but have been listening to the soundtrack nonstop ever since. However, being that I have never seen the stage show (I know, but trust me, I am dying to), and honestly wasn’t that all familiar with the musical to begin with (another fault, I’m aware, but I promise it was grouped in the rare few I wasn’t already in love with), I figured I couldn’t make an entire post out of just my love for the soundtrack and Aaron Tveit (maybe one day). So, being this time of year, I decided to do something much less Broadway-related and much more New Years-y. I give you: my top 5 favorite posts of 2013 not including video blogs (I’m starting a tradition, ya’ll…get excited)…oh, and don’t worry, Les Miz is definitely playing in the background while I write this (told you…ever since the movie…all I listen to…).
It honestly still blows my mind that, as far as social media is concerned, an entire day is dedicated to Mean Girls due to one arbitrary line uttered during the movie that has absolutely no relation to the advancement of the plot nor any character development. This day, October 3rd, known as National Mean girls Day to fans on every spectrum of social media, has not failed to clog (not that I don’t love it) my news feeds year after year. Being that this is one of my absolute favorite movies, I don’t necessarily mind having endless quotes from the movie constantly filling my computer screen for a twenty-four hour period. In fact, it’s the one day I can be myself: a completely obsessed and able-to-recite-every-line, die-hard fan, and actually appear normal. Who wouldn’t want that, right? Who knows, maybe soon there will be more arbitrary non-holidays based on useless quotes from popular movies. Example #1…December 24 can be RENT Day (“December 24, 9 PM, Eastern Standard Time, from here on in I shoot without a script…”). Just a thought.
I am a fairly nostalgic person, so any opportunity to look back and remember (picture in your head the clichéd slideshow to Green Day’s Time of Your Life which, yes, I have made many of before) is always a favorite. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I will cry at the thought of said slideshow (or a sad/romantic/emotional in any way movie or in this case, a show finale). And going off the theme of clichés, as cliché as it is to say “I grew up with that!” or “It was such a big part of my life,” in reference to a television show, as far as Gossip Girl is concerned, it’s true. I started reading the books in junior high, and several inappropriate novels and a television show that followed the bare minimum of those novels, Gossip Girl took up almost eight years of my life. Additionally, with me wanting to go into entertainment of some sort, popular culture, television shows, and blockbuster hits have to be in my interest, which leads me to post #3 of 2012…
3. The Twi(Light) at the End of the Tunnel
Honestly, the experience I had (SPOILER) sitting in that theatre watching a million things that were not in the book go down freaked me out to no end, and being able to go back and express my sheer horror through funny memes and sarcasm was a type of writing I hadn’t tried yet, and I think it turned out pretty well. Admit it, if you hadn’t (haven’t) seen the movie, my post gave you some depiction of what went down/ what I experienced, right? There, short and sweet and not even about Twilight itself 🙂
These types of posts (as demonstrated by *spoiler* this and my #1 post) are by far my favorite. Unfortunately, I can only write so many of them, because they are the foundational posts (no sure if that’s a phrase, but just go with it) that allow you to get know me and my personality a little bit better (which is clearly what you want to read about as opposed to things such as celebrity news, right?). I love the posts where I get to write about what I love and why I love it; more of an autobiographical piece, if you will. I really hope this post (along with the one I’m about to talk about ranked numero uno) helped my readers (it feels so weird to say “my readers”…people who occasionally look at my blog? my friends and parents? Anyways, moving on…) get to know me. As long as my life continues to be full of my passion and leading me to what I eventually want to do full time, you can definitely expect more posts than this one.
And, drumroll, please…
This post is by far my favorite because it’s where my entire blog-writing extravaganza started. When I wrote this post I didn’t quote know what type of blog I wanted to have (and honestly, I still haven’t pinpointed the direction it’s headed towards quite yet), so I just spoke from the heart in another autobiographical, honest, passionate, and exciting post. I got to talk about all of my favorite things: Broadway, my life at school, my career goals, my everyday life, and entertainment. Oh, and I also got to share some embarrassing but true childhood tidbits (reenacting RENT for instance….that tape is still being searched for and will appear on this blog when it is eventually resurfaced), and just bluntly talk to you as a reader about what I wanted to do. Of course, every post can’t be like that, because not only is my life not that interesting to fill all of those blog posts, but I am not a point of interest in the entertainment or Broadway world (yet). Give me a few years, maybe that will change…
So that’s it. I started this blog in September 2012 and in January 2013 these were the favorites so far. I’ve definitely learned the ups and downs of blogging (like blogging twice a week is very ambitious and at the same time very very difficult), but this is definitely only the beginning (my blog is merely a four-month old, it hasn’t even begun to walk, talk, and truly get to express itself (myself?) yet. With an upcoming trip to NYC this weekend (video blog!), and me heading back to school in a couple of weeks to start my second semester of my junior year (scary), I think it’s safe to say the best is yet to come.
-Wendi
You Know When It's Reel 
Spot on with this write-up, I really believe that this website needs a great deal more attention. I’ll probably be back again to see more,
thanks for the information!