I recently went to go see the musical-turned-movie Rent written directed by Chris Columbus. I found the movie quite good, and the music was the best part of the movie. I’ve been listening to the soundtrack almost non-stop since seeing the movie. I would give this movie 5 stars, because of the great acting, great cinematography and musical aspects. Below is the summary from imdb:

Based on Puccini’s La Boheme, tells the story of one year in the life of friends living the Bohemian life in modern day East Village New York. Among the group are our narrator nerdy love struck filmmaker Mark; the object of his affection his former lover, Maureen; Maureen’s Harvard educated public interest lawyer lesbian lover Joanne; Mark’s roommate HIV+ former junkie, Roger; Roger’s lover the HIV+ drug addicted S&M dancer, Mimi; their former roommate HIV+ computer genius Tom Collins; Collins’ HIV+ drag queen street musician lover Angel; and Benjamin Coffin III a former member of the group who married money and has since become their landlord and the opposite of everything they stand for. Shows how much changes or doesn’t change in the 525,600 minutes that make up a year.

This film adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning rock opera tells the story of one year in the life of a group of bohemians struggling in modern day East Village New York. The story centers around Mark (Anthony Rapp) and Roger (Adam Pascal), two roommates. While a former tragedy has made Roger numb to life, Mark tries to capture it through his attempts to make a film. In the year that follows, the group deals with love, loss, AIDS, and modern day life in one truly powerful story. Rosario Dawson, Jesse L. Martin, Idina Menzel, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Tracie Thoms, and Taye Diggs also star.

The soundtrack includes a couple songs and some parts of other songs that didn’t make it into the big screen version of the film. If you’re still wondering if the movie is any good, I’m planning on buying the DVD the day it comes out, which will hopefully contain all the scenes that didn’t make the final production.

You can visit the Rent homepage here, and the Soundtrack homepage here.

As you all know, I’m normally not someone to plug an individual or a website on my blog, but I’ve decided this is a worthy cause. I recently bought the first CD from the former Creed lead singer Scott Stapp. The general sound on the CD sounds much like the original Creed sound. Thus far, my favorite song on the CD is the title track, “The Great Divide.” The guitar in this song is very reminiscent of Mark Tremonti’s guitar style. (Mark Tremonti now plays for the band Alter Bridge since the Creed breakup). Scott Stapp says he’s matured a lot since the breakup, and his lyrics go to show. The song “The Great Divide” has some very insightful lyrics:

You set me free!
To live my life
You became my reason to survive the great divide
You set me Free!

While many people criticized Creed for taking a non-Christian stance toward their religious beliefs, it is now known that Scott Stapp is in fact a Christian. He’s written a song for the CD entitled “Songs Inspired by the Passion of the Christ.” It’s another great CD, I would advise everyone to check it out.

I’ve finished a rough recording of my song “Falling.” If you’re interested in hearing it, you can navigate to this page:

http://www.myspace.com/sawyerpangborn

Take note - it’s a rather rough as far as recording is concerned, I’ll have a better version up soon. Thanks for all the encouragement. I welcome any comments on the MySpace page or here. Suggestions, comments, smart aleck retorts, sarcasm. Anything to let me know how people like or dislike it. Thanks for staying around.