July 1, 2 PM, Pacific Standard Time--ELENI

Hola yo! Long time, no blog! To catch y'all up, I've been super busy--1st I had Greek People Camp, then I had Summer School (last day of health is tomorrow! Whoopee and all that jazz!), and factor in summer reading for both SF and a shakespeare class I'm taking and the new HP book. Yeah. Mucho busyness. Where shall I start? Greek People Camp--wow. So so so so so so so fun. Awesome year. I can't do it justice in words, so I'll just limit it to this phrase (no, it's not as corny as my ABBA-solutely fabulous one, thank god): I love Greek People Camp! Oh and Liz, if you're checking this out--USS meeting date...we need one. Tell me which dates are available to you....I'll check my schedule. 2nd up--summer school. Health is how do I put this--veeerrrryyy boring and long. 5 hours in class per day. I'm just about ready to fall asleep during class.  It's not that bad--it's just incredibly looonnnngggg. Only one day to go! Yessss! We got to make videos about health stuff--ours is "When Tanning Goes Bad" and is aboot skin cancer, and I'm the reporter, Alexi Darling (rent-savvy friends: get it??? "mark cohen, alexi darling from buzzline!" "oh that show's so sleazy"). Enough about health. Onto Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: I'm not gonna spoil anything for you slow readers. But it is fricking awesome. I am totally sure now of JK's genious. Read it. Even if you don't like HP. It's awesome reading. If you've finished it, and want to discuss email me at ekouklamou@yahoo.com. I lurve summer and all, but I'm already semi-bored. Sad, yet true fact. I miss everyone from school. Oh wait--Birthday party themes! I need a bday party theme for this year!!! Last year I had no party, so I'm gonna have one this year! So here's the themes me and my mazha came up with:

1. New York State of Mind: came up with this while watching the Tonys. I'm so obsessed with NYC that my mom said, hey why not have a party about it. Yeah. So I would like turn my hallway into Broadway or something, make my garage a subway station, and decorate my living room like it's Times Square. And make everyone dress up like something from or found in NYC. (me, what will I be, you ask? Take a wild guess....what's found on 208 West 41st Street? The Nederlander theater, home to Rent. I'll dress up as a character from Rent and say I'm an east village artist. Or I could dress up as the show itself. Or something else). Invitations will be a wannabee metro card or a ticket to a Broadway show. We'll eat NYish foods--pizza anyone? We'll do stupid NYish things that I have yet to come up with. And party favors? They'll be a CD of NY songs. Stuff like "New York State of Mind" by Billy Joel and Adam Pascal and "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra and other songs that remind me of NYC. It's a cool reason to force my music upon people who would normally not listen to it. Fun!

2. Hawaiian party: Self explanitory. I had one when I turned 10. We would dress up all Hawaiiany and go to the Hawaiian themed restaurant Hukilau and pig out.

3. Chicago Party: Chicago as in the movie, not the place. I just found out Chicago comes out on DVD on August 19th. Conveniently before my birthday. So I could have everybody dress up like a flapper or character out of the movie, and we could watch the movie (complete with my commentary, it's just not the same without my random mutterings of "taye diggs is so sexy", "catherine zeta-jones was pregnant in that shot", "taye diggs was in rent", and "taye diggs is a stuck-up landlord who only drinks diet coke". As you can tell, my mind can be pretty one-track sometimes.). Party Favors would be burned copies of the soundtrack. We could have a fun time making up dances to the music.

4. I Love the 80s party: Because I love the 80s. Everyone dresses up like a famous person from the 80s (it's all about Madonna baby or Jon Bon Jovi if you've got the hair). Lots of 80s music. Eat 80s food. Watch 80s movie (Flashdance baby! What a feeling!). Dance like Maniacs (anyone get the allusion there..."Maniac" by Michael Sembello...from Flashdance). Party favors: Either Madonna's "The Immaculate Collection" or an 80s compilation CD.

Okay so tell me which one you'd most like to attend....cuz I need your opinions. Gotta go read more Shakespeare. 'Till then happy plaid pants and Vaughn dreams!

Quote of the day: "In life one has to face a huge assortment of nauseating fads and good advice. There's health and fitness, diet and deportment, and other pointless forms of sacrifice. Converstation, wit--I am a doubter. Manners, charm--they're no way to impress. So forget the inner me, observe the outer. I am what I wear, and how I dress"-- "My Strongest Suit", Aida

Lurve y'all lots,

Eleni

ELENI dropped dead at 2:33 PM, Pacific Standard Time 

June 11, 9 AM, Pacific Standard Time--ELENI

Last night, as many of you already know, was Mamma Mia! There is no proper way to describe the amazingness of it all. Wow. Oh My God. You're probably wondering why any sensible high school girl less than a week on summer vacation would be up at 9 instead of sleeping. Well, after the orgasmic time last night, I came home totally hyped and couldn't sleep at all. Honestly. I think I fell asleep at 2 AM finally. I'm so exhausted today, but last night was soooooooooooo amazing. The only way I could do it justice is by a full-blown out review. And since this is not going on any message board, I can feel free to stick in all those little personal details about what I wore, ate, talked to, what people said to me stagedoor. So here we go--I'm telling y'all everything, from getting dressed to the final guy we got to meet at stagedoor. (yes, we got to stagedoor!!!! that made me soo happy!) Oh and if anyone who went checks this out--Julie, Erika, Ryan, Alex, Courtney, etc--feel free to talk about it in my guestbook. Please write me something--nobody signed the guestbook yet and I'm beginning to feel lonely. You know you had one of the best times of your lives last night, and I wanna hear your perspective...so sign the thing. And one and two and utah jazz go--that was my countoff for starting, it was for Julie--

Pre-dinner: So I went to the casa de Julie at around 1:25. At least that's when I started out of the door for the first time. I thought I had everything--clothes, brush, makeup, bling-bling, etcetera. Just as I get about halfway down my block, I'm thinking about  my obscure collection of weird things in my wallet--my Pascal in a Pocket (long story, long long story), my Chicago tickts, my fake Bruce Springsteen ticket (it was my fazha's he went , I didn't), and then it hit--Whoops, I forgot my Mamma Mia! ticket at home! So I ran back home and grabbed my ticket and headed out the door for a second time. I honestly think that the only reason I for got my ticket was that I stuck it in a conspicuous place. I remember things better when I stick them in places I can't find them. That's so typical of me. Okay, off topic, so anyways I set out again on the 8 block trek known to me as the "walk to Julie's house". I get there at like 2, we've got about 3 hours until we have to be out the door. So what does Julie suggest? Let's watch Buffy. So we watch Buffy, I end up showing her this site, we start to get ready at around 4, Alex comes over. Julie'a awesome mom tells us that Clay is on Oprah, I go mucho, mucho crazy and get to watch Clay sing his song (his single came out yesterday)!!! Muy muy muy fun!!!! I heart Clay. So we jump in the car at like 5:45 and we pick up Erika and Julie's super cool dad on our way to the Spaghetti Factory.

Munchie time/pre-show at the Convention center theater: Dinner was muy fun. I managed to eat a full plate of spaghetti with meat sauce without getting it on my white shirt. I totally should have ordered mizithra or something, but no, me being the deprived of  meat sauce child I am, had to order red sauce. Erika and I had many interesting conversations at dinner. On to the theater. We drive over there blasting the Mamma Mia cd, singing along. Julie's car is the greatest car ever. You can sing as loud as you want, and you can harmonize, cuz we all sing in that car. I mean, do theater singing. I love that car. I want it. "THSOTOS' all the way! Enough about me saying how cool Julie's car is. We get to the theater, and we are sooo frickin excited. See, we all had front row seats. Now don't kill me, this is the only time I'll ever get to sit front row in my life unless I'm rushing for Rent. I'm not super rich either. We just lucked out because apparently, Julie's mom called the box office group ticket sales people the day tickets came out, and they had front row. We walk up to our seats, and it's like so crazy because I've never been front row before. Wow, the seats were incredible. I was row A, seat 5, and pre-show I went over to where Julie was sitting w/Erika, Alex, and Ryan, and we talked. I got to see my buddy Courtney, who I haven't seen in eons (well, actually a year, but that's a long time still), and we sat next to each other, so that was cool. And I found out she's a crazy Renthead like me!! I'll shut up about Rent, this is about Mamma Mia! The overture/prologue started, and the adrenaline pumped thru me like crazy. You know you are a true drama geek when you get excited--i mean super excited--before a show starts. Now onto the actual show review:

The Show: First off, I wanna say that I am now truly in love with this show. Oh it was amazing. It definently ties with Rent in Dec 2002 and Bon Jovi/Goo Goo Dolls concert in 2003 for best night of my life. The energy is phenomenal. I'll go into a castmember by castmember review for the leads, a general for the ensemble/swings, and then I'll do number by number.

Monique Lund (Donna Sheridan): Oh my god. She was an awesome Donna. Wow. Like I said about energy, she had so much energy. Yeah. The note she hit at the end of "The Winner Takes it All" was amazing. She was a great mom. Good chemistry with Kristie Marsden (Sophie) and Don Noble (Sam). She lead the show in terms of talent and presence. The acting was great. All in all, she is an awesome Donna.

Kristie Marsden (Sophie Sheridan): She was a cute Sophie. I really enjoyed her. She fit the role really well. The only thing that bothered me was that she would do this weird thing where she'd switch from belting voice to head voice and you could totally tell the difference. It was weird. I mean, Mamma Mia is a pop show, you've got to have that pop voice--it's more like Rent or Hairspray than traditional musical theater like The Music Man or Annie Get Your Gun. It's not traditional Broadway. I mean, all the music is ABBA, it's gonna be pure pop. She had a really Broadway sounding voice. It would just sound weird in songs like "Thank You For the Music" or "The Name of the Game" when one second it would be full out belt and the next, wham, it's super operatice head voice. Other than that, her acting was fine. During the dramatic dialogue between her and Sam just after "Knowing Me, Knowing You", she wasn't that great. A bit of overacting. But that was canceled out by the fact that her and Chris Bolan (Sky) were the most adorable thing I have ever seen together. Such good chemistry. They deserve a big "awwwww", like the big ones we do at SF. Seriously. Cutest couple ever. Adorable. And you could really feel the mother/daughter thing between her and Monique Lund.

Don Noble (Sam Carmichael): He was such a great Sam. You could really feel the past relationship between him and Donna. "S.O.S" is one of my favorite songs in the show, and that requires some major Sam action, and he was totally better than the cd. Really. He didn't get all "arrr" vibrato-y like the CD, but it still sounded awesome. He was totally his character. Adorable with Donna. "Knowing Me, Knowing You" was so sad. I never realized what it's about--Sam's divorce. I almost cried.

Chris Bolan (Sky): He is so adorable. Like I said above, he has awesome chemistry with Kristie Marsden. They are the cutest thing I've ever seen assembled. Enough about how good a job casting the casting people did, onto his performance. I really love the song "Lay All Your Love On Me", and he was awesome in it. He was so funny when he had to be all frat-boy ish before his bachelor party. Made me think of a horny little college guy. Great fun. He's a good actor in his dramatic scenes, and you could really feel his love for Sophie.  And he doesn't look too bad in a wetsuit. That's a plus.

Robin Baxter (Rosie): Easily one of the most hilarious people ever. I almost peed my pants during all of her scenes. "Take A Chance on Me" was so great. All I can say is that she is hilarious. You don't realize how funny this show is until you see it. God. So funny. Good chemistry with Pearce Bunting (Bill). She is one with her character. Just funny. ha ha ha.

Pearce Bunting (Bill): This guy was the total Crocodile Hunter type Australian. His accent was perfectamundo. Another super hilarious guy. So, so so funny. He and Rosie were the ultimate funny couple. His facial expressions are priceless. Really priceless. Oh god, right after Rosie starts "Take a Chance on Me", he gets this look of "oh my god" on his face that had the whole audience in uproars. The Ultimate Bill. Really nice guy, too (more on that later). "Name of the Game" was cute and sweet. Good in his serious parts. All in all a great actor.

Ellen Harvey (Tanya): Oh god is she funny. Fit the part of the tall, rich blonde jaded by multiple marriages perfectly. Great team with Rosie during songs like "Chiquitita". They are so funny together. She really came alive during "Does Your Mother Know". Totally made that song one of my favorites (it already was). She was on fire. Amazing. Her vocals were awesome. Like I said, she was on fire.

James Kall (Harry): He was a sweet Harry. Fit the role to a T. He was so sweet and adorable, and you could just tell that he was the "nice guy" in the show. "Thank You For the Music" was sweet and just like it should be. His little headbanger dance was hilarious. So funny. He was like the older, geeky sort of guy in the show but it was so adorable. "Our Last Summer" was bearable--I hate that song with a passion--and the little smoking pot movements he did were so great.

J.P. Potter (Pepper): Hilarious. He shined in "Does Your Mother Know". Oh god, he was great with Tanya. They were amazing together. And boy can he dance. It should be illegal to do the amound of toe-touches he did in that song. Seriously illegal. Those things are hard.  I should know, I used to be a cheerleader. He wins the yummiest guy in the cast award. I enjoyed the wetsuit scenes. Mucho hotness. Erika, Julie, and I are having a fight over who gets him, but I suggested we could all happily settle for a foursome.

Ensemble/minor roles: This ensemble has some of the most energy I have ever seen. Wow. How the hell do they do all of that?!?! Honestly, great ensemble. Great singing, great dancing, great show.

"Money, Money, Money": Great song. The ultimate girl power song. I love it.

Okay, I can't go on about every song without boring all of you to death. I'll just deliver my verdict on the entire show. Are you all ready? Here it comes:

ABBA-SOLUTELY FABULOUS!

Corny, yes I know. I am the queen of the corn (note to Sarah: It's time to get my free corn!)

Stagedoor: This was my first stagedoor experience, and me and my buds were so hyper after and in a Mamma Mia induced euphoria that we practically ran to the stage door. We were all really timid, and we ended up following Erika's lead. She was good at it!!! First we got James Kall (Harry), he was really nice and asked us if we liked the show, etc. Erika, Julie, and I were all dying to get J.P. Potter's autograph, and we saw him kinda sneaking off. Julie started yelling, "J.P." and he didn't notice, so she yelled "J.P." for a second time and he came over. He turned out to be a really nice guy, and he asked us if we were in theater and we all said yes, and we all told him how we thought he was so funny, etc. and we explained that we were "drama geeks". Yes. Right before we hit stagedoor, we were crackin the Matthew Broderick/Sarah Jessica Parker Tony Drama Geek jokes. We finally let JP go (although we didn't want to--he's so muy guapo), and we got to talk to Robin Baxter (Rosie) she was really nice, too. Then Erika and I got Monique Lund (Donna), and my pen went totally out and I felt so bad and I got another pen (if you know me call me and I'll explain this and it will make sense). She was great, and we told her how much we loved her performance. We got Kristie Marsden (Sophie), and she was kinda half-baked about the whole stagedoor thing. I mean, she was nice, but out of all of them, seh was the least nice. Finally, we got Pearce Bunting (Bill), and he wins the nice guy award. He actually talked to us for a little while, and he was so, so funny even offstage. He was great. The best part of the whole stagedoor? The actors recognized us from the front row. Yep. There apparently were cameras down in the conductor's area, and they could see us having a blast. They actually told us that they could see us having so much fun. So we left stagedoor, hopped in Julie's car, and belted the show's cd all the way home. I walked up to my house, opened the door, and couldn't sleep because I had so much fun.

Mamma Mia! comes very close to beating out my first Rent. Very close. All I can say is that I had the best night of my life last night and I want to just say "Thank you for the music-al"!

Call me if you want my crazy recap told to you in my voice. Oh, and I've uploaded my signed playbill onto my Picturetrail account!! The scan is kinda screwy, but you can see it in it's digital beauty! Go to http://www.picturetrail.com and under "Visit Album", type "ekouklamou". It's in "Eleni's Basic Album". Have fun!

Lurve ya lots,

ELENI

ELENI dropped dead at 11:57 AM, Pacific Standard Time

June 9, 11AM, Pacific Standard Time--ELENI

Okay, so we all know that I am the biggest drama geek in the world. So, last night, Broadways big night was on CBS--yes, the 57^th Annual Tony Awards! And now, for your reading pleasure I present you with my

1^st ANNUAL TONY AWARDS RECAP!

First up, I would just like to say that 3hrs. is waaaaay too long for any awards show except for the A) Grammys and B) Oscars. Honestly, even I, a self-proclaimed drama fan, got bored during some awards. My first bit of advicepresent some of the lesser-known and lesser-cared aboot awards earlier in the day, and make more time for performances. I know everyone would have liked to have seen more from the nominated musicalscough Hairspray especially. For me, the Tonys are the only time I get to see scenes from the new musicals out there because I live no where near NYCin Northern California, to be exactand my parentzhas wont take me to New York within the next millenium, so those performances on the Tonys are the only time I get to actually see what I listen to acted out. That and I wish, wish, they would have a Best Long-Running Musical category. Really, stuff that has been playing for a long time deserves an award, and they are always replacing the old castsevery original broadway cast comes to an endso, replacement casts deserve awards, especially if theyre better than the original casts. So yeah. Go replacement casts! I would like to thank Matthew Broderick (Producers!! Hahaaa keep it gay!) and Sarah Jessica Parker for acknowledging that people who watch the Tonys are geeks. I am soo proud to say that I am a geek along with the two. I thought this was funny and totally true. I wasnt offended.  Its all about acknowledging your drama geekiness. The first step to being normal is acknowledging your weirdness, so be a geek and proud! Heres my list of highlights:

1. The opening number with Billy Joel and Movin Out. Man can those kids dance. And Michael Cavanaugh is mucho gorgeous. Hes going up on my list of Broadway sexy beasts.    

2. Those two Hairspray composer dudes kissing onstage. Way to go in the right direction. Me, although I am straight and proud, have a few GBLT buddies from theater and I am so not a homophobe. But I think my fazha is. He freaked out when I told him about one of my bi friends. Last night he was all eww, two guys on tv are kissing. What is happening to our nation ish when that happened. Honestly, my dad just needs to get over it. Whatever floats your boat people. My dad would never survive Rent. He would totally be one of those people who goes oh my god a little two loudly when Angel and Collins or Maureen and Joanne kiss. Tear. My fazha is a semi-homophobe.

3. Wow. Hairspray rocked You Cant Stop The Beat. I was totally in Hairspray heaven. Since the touring company isnt coming to Sactown soon, Ill just have to live with the Cd. The only problemjust as Harvey Fierstein is coming on for the song, my lil brother decides to have a fit. So, my Cant Stop the Beat was barely audible. Harveys part was totally interrupted by screams from my brother. Yes, I am mad. But no, Eleni is not hostile. GRRRRRR ARRRRRG. Hairspray totally deserved to rock the awards, and it dominated and did. Whooopeeee....and all that jazz. (takes time to turn up You Cant Stop the Beat on her cd player) On a side note, I would really love a little I love Link pin for my birthday. Its on August 26^th, for all of you who know me in the flesh. Just a hint. My, would it look great along with that Rent pin I want on my backpack.....I cant find it on the website, but I know you can get them at the theater, so if youre gonna be in NYC this summer, please stop by the Neil Simon theater and buy me a I love Link pin and I will pay you back. Rent pins are at the following two sites:

http://www.broadwaynewyork.com/Item.asp?CategoryId=0&CategoryName=+Search+Results&StoreId=1&ItemId=28444

that one is for the uber cool lapel pin. this one is for the normal pin:

http://www.broadwaynewyork.com/Item.asp?CategoryId=0&CategoryName=+Search+Results&StoreId=1&ItemId=28669

3. Joey Fatone looks like a baboon. Yes. He does. And when he came on, I started screaming at my tv Worst Mark Cohen ever (thats the character in Rent he played). So yeah. At least the little orchestra played a little  Seasons of Love. Basically, yeah. No Joey Fatone love in this house. Although I am still an Nsync fan (once an Nsync fan, forever an Nsync fan), I honestly think his Mark was icky. Ive seen vids. And, he was soo not Greek in the movie that describes my life, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. He is so exceno and he is not even a good person at acting like a Greek. Stick to Nsync and hosting Fame.

4. Def Poetry Jam was cool, but when they were in Times Square they were totally having audio problems. Fix them. I couldnt even hear the people.

5. Whoopee for the segment at the Pantages with Jason Alexander (KFC Costanza man) and Martin Short and the rest  of the LA cast of Producers. Yahoo for California theater. I so wish I could go see them, but the only person I know whos going would be my buddy Julie...lucky her. Wait, Rent is going to Anaheim near xmas, and Anaheim is near Hollywood, so I could organize a Rent/Producers trip....whos up for a 8-10 hour drive to go see Rent and Producers with me?

6. Hugh Jackman can sing! Yay! And he needs, needs, needs to get rid of that hair asap.

7. Marissa beat out Bernadette! Do you know how happy I am? Yeah, Im so happy a chubby New York girl with a cute sqeaky voice in Hairspray can beat out a Bway legend. This world has come so far!!! Along with Marissa, Harvey was great. And Im totally happy he won.

All in all, the Tonys were normal this year. Props to the Hairspray domination. The only thing that bothers me is that a little cutesy show like Hairspray can win more Tonys than an awesome, life-changing show like Rent can. Grrrr...life is so unfair. Now I all know youre all looking at this and thinkingman she is a freak. This is the only time of year that I can totally blab about shows and stuff, so you just gotta bear with me. So now Ill shut up....oh one more thingcongrats to Sarah for winning 4 1^st Places at her Highland competition on Saturday!!!! I am soooooooo happy for you and this is the greatest thing ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!! This is great!!!!!!!!! Lurve yall lots, ELENI