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.

Loukomades. Gyros. Music. Dancing. $3 admission.

Yes, today was the 2005 Greek Festival in downtown Salt Lake City. The festival took place around the Greek Orthodox Church and the neighboring Hellenic Cultural Center. I attended mostly because my wonderful Greek [EX]-girlfriend attends every year, but I also wanted to get some of the wonderful loukomades. Loukomades are a Greek pastry in the shape of a ball. They’re battered up with honey, then sprinkled with cinnamon. There’s not a better dessert around, in my own humble opinion. They’re extremely difficult to make, as you have to pull them out of the oven at exactly the right moment. Too long in the oven, they burn and lose most taste, too short, and they don’t rise. Note: I know this through experience.

Once inside the Festival, I headed straight for the food. As is custom for a non-Greek like me, I decided to try a lot of new things out. I hit the usual gyro, then headed for some meatballs in a special Greek salsa. Ashley decided to make me try another type of meatball, this time wrapped in some sort of leaf. [Pardon my general explanations of these foods, I’ll get the exact names once I have the opportunity.] To top it all off, I had a Greek salad with fetta and to drink, a Dr. Pepper.

After filling my stomach with these delights, I headed towards the stage where very soon some Greek dancing would be performed. I took a few pictures and a couple videos for your viewing enjoyment.

Note: You will need to download the Google Video Viewer to watch these videos. It’s small and doesn’t take long at all to install. I have tested the program itself, and it’s trustworthy.

After watching the dancing, I decided to get some of the loukomades I explained earlier. I’ve now discovered the worlds’ eighth wonder. Yes, it’s Greek, and it’s amazing.

The festival has it’s last day Sunday the 11th, and has rides for kids, great food, and wonderful family entertainment.

Update: My videos are now uploaded and verified by Google. Feel free to check them out here.

As I opened up a SoBe bottle, I found on the “1 in 12 scores” cap that I had “won” 3 free music downloads from buymusic.com. Prizes like this are usually a good find for me. In fact, any useful prize is wonderful. It also listed a phone number on the cap that I was instructed to call. I dialed, 1-800-569-7837, only to find that I had won nothing until I mailed the oddly-colored cap in to SoBe. Irritated, I contemplated this predicament. I’ve not only sent out 50 plus graduation announcements recently, but also thank you cards. Now I have to send in a stupid cap to get three MP3’s? Granted, postage is relatively cheap, but I think I might as well just buy from iTunes. I would rather do this so that I don’t fall into the marketing bear trap laid by buymusic.com and SoBe.

I’m still disappointed with SoBe, but I guess I’ll survive. A Buy One Get One Free Cap would have been better than this, but I guess I’ll have to survive without some free music. By the way, if any SoBe exec is reading this, I would like my Cooper Mini S you promised me.