Posts Tagged ‘One Tree Hill’

Nov

2012

I’m Lookin’ Out at Blue Skies; I’m Lookin’ Out at a Home

The hardest part about posting trip blogs about New York City is that it makes me miss it, and wonder when I’ll get back. In this case, though, I know when I’m going back, since it’s in less than two days from now. So, before I start packing (hello, procrastination), I thought I’d recap my last trip to the Big Apple, November 3-5, 2012.

I’m going to employ a conversational tactic passed down through the generations of my family and say, “wait, wait, let me back up.”

The year was 1998. I was a junior in high school, and Joie Lenz got a two-week gig on Guiding Light. She made a good impression on more than just me, because a year later, she got a contract role… playing a different character, taking over the role of longtime Springfield resident Michelle Bauer from another actress, which is always dicey in daytime television. It’s been quite a few years, and I’m getting old, but as best I can remember, one day the previous Michelle was killing a dude in self-defense, and the next day, Michelle looked a lot different and she needed to keep the mob from finding out she was the one who offed their guy. Naturally, she was found out, but the mobster sent to kill her married her instead, and they eventually fell in love. Man oh man, daytime television. It was awesome. I’m sorry you missed it. But, for old time’s sake – feast your eyes on Danny and Michelle Santos:

Joie Lenz left Guiding Light in 2000, and Danny (Paul Anthony Stewart) got yet another new Michelle. I had the opportunity to meet and talk to Paul on a few different occasions after that, but I never got to meet Joie. In 2003, I read in a magazine that Joie Lenz had landed a starring role in a new show, and I knew I’d have to see it. She had gone back to her real name, Bethany Joy Lenz, and adopted a new character named Haley on The WB’s “One Tree Hill.” And I think we all know how I felt about THAT show.

As it would happen, in all the times I visited Wilmington and watched filming and met most of the One Tree Hill cast members, I never met Joy. I passed her once on Front Street. She was among friends for a girls’ night (I’m guessing), and in addition to not wanting to intrude, I was too stunned to have said anything, anyway.

In addition to being an actor, writer, and director, Joy is also a musician, so after One Tree Hill finished, I just hoped that she’d release an album and tour, and I might get a chance to see her that way. Therefore, after 15 years, I hope you can understand why, when I read that she was scheduled to headline a benefit concert for Rock the Schools in New York, I immediately bought a VIP ticket, without even being sure that I could attend.

While I was trying to figure out how I could afford to make the trip on my own, my BFF Jessica mentioned to me how much she and her daughter, Thai, wanted to return to NYC. I mentioned the weekend, Jessica jumped on it, Thai was excited, and we were off and running.

Then, a week before we were supposed to go, Hurricane Sandy hit the northeastern coast, and parts of New York City were devastated. After making sure my loved ones were safe and sound, I started waiting and watching, wondering if our trip would go on, or if we’d have to chalk it up as a loss, with a lot of non-refundable expenses paid. The news media is, of course, no help on such matters, and we had a chorus of well-meaning naysayers, but Jessica and I were in agreement: “Even if we have to walk there, we’re going.”

The key concerns specifically pertaining to our trip (and most New Yorkers) were the power outages, including all of lower Manhattan thanks to a blown transformer, and that the flooding had knocked out the subway system and vehicle tunnels, which would be akin to all of the highways closing down in a mid-size town.

New York, though, has a will of iron and they know how to get back on their feet. Jessica and I were planning our walking-intensive (walking-exclusive!) itinerary when I saw the announcement that partial service had been restored on the subway. Mere days after the greatest devastation the subway system had ever seen, and almost half of the lines were back up and running. New lines were added every day, and by the time our plane landed on Saturday morning, every subway line we needed was operational again. Also, Saturday morning, power was restored to most of downtown, including to the Gramercy Theatre, where I was going to the show that night. In the words of Fiona Apple, “I can’t help it; the road just rolls out behind me.”

We stayed in Queens at the same hotel where I stayed in May. And, feeling relieved that we no longer had to walk across the 59^th Street Bridge (aka the Queensboro Bridge) to and from Manhattan every day, we took a walk to the river to have a look at it before hopping on the subway.

The subway took us to Roosevelt Island, and Thai and I had railroaded Jessica into taking the tram from there to Manhattan if we at least let her get there in one direction without testing her fear of heights. Before hopping on the tram, though, we took a walk around the southern end of the island, which afforded a nice view of Manhattan.

And we could look across the East River back toward Queens, from whence we came.

Tram time!

Thai was a big fan of the tram. She may have even loved it more than I do. Jessica didn’t freak out even once. I think she rather enjoyed herself, even.

Once we were back on the ground on the Upper East Side, we repaid Jessica’s tram generosity with two of her requested stops: a deli and a Sephora. As we walked, I got reacquainted with the city in my usual way – camera in the air:

We made our way to Central Park and found a pedicab driver to ride us around. I teased that I was going to post this photo and say I took it while I was running by, but I knew you’d be on to me, because the Marathon was cancelled in the aftermath of Sandy.

Pedicab is such a nice way to see Central Park. Someone else does all the hard work, and lets you off at key points for photo ops.

I worked it out with our driver to change the route a bit and drop us off at mid park on Central Park West, so we could continue on foot and see a place I’d never been to before: Belvedere Castle! On the way, Thai terrified us by climbing atop a huge rock. And then made us come up, too.

Doggies in New York actually pose for the camera! (At least, this one did.)

Leaving the park, we parted company for the night. Jessica and Thai were going to tour the Times Square area and see a few stores before going to see Wicked on Broadway, and I was headed downtown for my show!

VIP ticketholders (including myself) were attending a pre-show party and gaining early admittance to the concert, but when I arrived at the theatre, I found folks were already lined up for general admission! I was pretty happy to get to head inside ahead of the crowd. Before going in, I saw one of the acts, Matthew Perryman Jones, headed into the building. I don’t think anyone else recognized him (though they learned later that they did recognize his music), so I could go over and talk to him without starting some kind of frenzy. Then, it was time to head inside for the party.

The party was held in a cute space in the basement of the theater, and there were mini cupcakes waiting on all the tables. I probably would have appreciated this more, but I had one thing on my mind. Luckily, I ran into some folks I was acquainted with through my trips to Wilmington, so I had some solidarity as we waited for a chance to talk to the woman of the hour.

All things considered, I think I kept it together pretty well. I’m grateful that it’s my chest that usually flushes when I’m experiencing any kind of extreme emotion, so my face doesn’t betray me so much. One of my cohorts, Tray, knew that it was a particularly momentous occasion for me, so he sent me up first and broke the ice a bit – thank you, Tray! I pretty much rapid-fired all the things I had wanted to say, because I usually forget things, so I told her that I was a fan of hers since Guiding Light, and having given her my name, I said that I was one of the three writers she chose to feature on her blog last year, and named the piece I had written. The only thing that could have beaten the day that I logged on to her blog and saw my own words there was the moment that I related that to her and saw recognition cross her face. She had posted my entry on her blog, yes, and she remembered it still, and pulled me into a hug, saying that it was great to finally meet me. She signed the back of my lanyard, Tray took our picture, and I walked away with a big smile and a wonderful memory. I’ve met a lot of celebrities (famous by varying degrees), but the ones that I really admire, and careers I’ve followed for years on end – those are the hardest ones to meet. There is always that fear of a bad encounter; the fear that, in person, they’re haughty or mean or they’re neither, but they’re just having a bad day. I’m happy to say that Joy was warm and kind and as delightful as I could have ever wanted her to be. It meant a lot to me.

Shortly thereafter, they opened the doors upstairs for the VIPs to go ahead and claim a spot in front of the stage. I was the first person to walk in, and being very early, I took a seat in front of the middle of the stage and waited for the show to begin.

There was a long list of performers for the evening, and I didn’t know most of them. Amongst those unknown to me was Thomas Ian Nicholas, of American Pie fame. I never saw that movie franchise, but I’m sure some of you have, so I included a photo of him.

I was excited to hear Matthew Perryman Jones again, as he’s put out a new album since the last time I saw him, so I had some new songs to sing along to. He also played my favorite, “Feels Like Letting Go,” which I had requested when I saw him outside. He was even kind enough to call out to me from the stage, and say he was playing it for me.

Since both Joy and Mike Grubbs (of Wakey!Wakey!) were performing, other One Tree Hill cast-members who were in town turned out for the show, including James Lafferty and Robert Buckley. When the hosts called Grubbs to the stage, out walked James Lafferty instead. Dressed in Grubbs’ signature cardigan, James sat down at the keyboard as if he was ready to put on a show. In a cute skit that the audience loved, Grubbs came out and told James that was his piano and his sweater and this was his moment, and James couldn’t have it. He then called Robert Buckley out to remove James from the stage. I must say, I enjoyed it.

I have seen Wakey!Wakey! a few times before, but this was my first time seeing him with a 99% One Tree Hill crowd. Such screaming! He was overwhelmed by the reception. He played a fantastic set which got me pretty excited about the next album.

Joy even came out at one point to sing a song with him, which certainly got the audience psyched. I would have flipped over to video for that, but I was too busy, well, getting psyched!

Finally, the only performer remaining was Joy. My feet were not thrilled about how much time I’d spent standing, but finally getting to see Joy perform was enough to take my mind off of that. She brought down the house! AND… she brought CDs!!!

Joy said she had just written a new song, but it was a duet, and Grubbs reappeared to sing it with her. I flipped over to the video setting for that! And… since trying to get my blog to embed a YouTube video makes me want to jump off of a cliff, just click here if you want to see it, ok? (It will open in a new tab.)

Here is a photo of Joy, taking a photo of the crowd, which she immediately posted to Twitter. I’m visible in her shot, so I’ll post that below as well!

I was exhausted and happy as I made my way back to the hotel Saturday night. Jessica and Thai had beaten me there by 30 minutes or so and had already had our bags brought up, and had a Caffeine Free Diet Coke waiting for me, so I could unwind before getting some rest.

Sunday morning, we decided to go to Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum in Times Square. On our way, Thai stopped for a photo op with Mickey and Minnie.

Also, it is just me, or is there something wrong with this picture?

But then, here’s the cure, because there is nothing wrong with THIS picture!

I usually doze off at the mere mention of a museum, but Ripley’s was actually pretty fun, and Thai loved it.

I did not fare very well in this “black hole,” but Thai thought it was awesome.

The best part was this room that recognized our movements and projected them in a colorful way via a screen that covered one entire wall. We stayed for way too long in here, and I inevitably got dizzy from all the dancing and twirling, but it was worth the price of admission, right there.

Our next stop was another museum of sorts… THE MOST AWESOME MUSEUM IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND… The Harry Potter Exhibition!!! I had just missed it when it was in NYC last year, and I was so bummed about it. When we saw a sign advertising it as we walked around the day before, I was afraid that it was an old sign, just teasing me. It turns out, the exhibition had just reopened on the day of our arrival. All three of us looked like kids in a candy shop when we walked in. The employees manning the photo camera actually chuckled a little when they saw the three of us, wide-eyed and pointing and gasping around the room. And we hadn’t even entered the actual exhibit yet.

Unfortunately, photography was not allowed (Warner Brothers and all their copyright business), but when we walked in, they took volunteers to be sorted (Thai got Gryffindor and I got Slytherin and Jessica got to witness us geeking out), and then we proceeded to walk through rooms filled with props and costumes from the Harry Potter films. We got to pretend to pot Mandrakes and play Quidditch, and I found great difficulty in moving away once we came upon the replica of Snape’s Potions Closet. We all took turns sitting in the enormous chair in Hagrid’s Hut, and the tour culminated in the Great Hall, which was magnificent. We had a blast!

Back out in Times Square, we saw some more strange sights. What do you suppose they’d be discussing?

And is this some sort of convention?

Thai wanted to go into Toys R Us, and she really wanted to ride the ferris wheel. We’ve already covered Jessica and her heights, so, what can I say? I stepped up and took one for the team. Which is to say, the only person who enjoyed the ferris wheel more than Thai… was me.

In case anybody ever wonders what bonds Jessica and I together, here she is, holding her Harry Potter bag, grinning like a fool in front of a Disney Princess display. Yep. I’d say that clears things up.

Next, we made our way uptown so we could be at the Top of the Rock by sunset.

As always, the view was spectacular, and as always, it is so stinkin’ cold on top of that building!

I caught Jessica and Thai warming up in the light room. Ooooh, pretty!

Once the sun went down and we were all pretty frigid, we walked back to the Theater District to see Mary Poppins! The show was great, and Mary Poppins even flew right over our heads!

Broadway Cares was raising funds for Hurricane Sandy victims, and Jessica made a donation, which resulted in us being invited backstage for a tour and to meet the cast.

These are fishing reels, used for the kite-flying scene.

After the show, we were all hungry, so we went down the street to Dallas BBQ. Thai was amazed at the size of her drink. The caffeine had no effect, though, because she fell asleep on the table as soon as she finished eating. Clearly, it had been a long day.

Monday was our last day, and we started it off right with a big breakfast at Court Square Diner in our little neighborhood in Queens.

Jessica thought, since it was vacation and all, it would be appropriate to order an appetizer before breakfast. She settled on this lemon meringue pie. Even with three of us, we didn’t quite get to the bottom of it.

From there, we made our way downtown, visiting Old St. Patrick’s cathedral and then walking downtown, catching sight of the Williamsburg Bridge and the buildings that scrape the sky down in the financial district.

I wanted to see the South Street Seaport, which I knew had been badly damaged by Sandy. I love that area, and it was sad to see so many small businesses boarded up. I hope they’ll be back on their feet soon.

We continued to walk along the river by the seaport down to catch the ferry over to Brooklyn.

When we reached Brooklyn, we walked along the parks which had been completely submerged only a week earlier. For instance, here is a photo of the carousel that sits at the edge of the water on the Brooklyn side. It’s one of the higher points along the parks.

And here is a photo of that carousel on the night of the storm.

But, the water had all receded and if we didn’t know it, we wouldn’t have been able to tell Hurricane Sandy had even come through the Brooklyn Bridge Parks.

We made our final stop at Front Street Pizza to get some lunch. The food was amazing and cheap, and I uttered the phrase, “Excuse me, but y’all are hot and I’m a tourist, so smile for the camera.” Good sports, these ones.

Once we left Brooklyn, it was back to Queens and then on to the airport for the trip back home. I’d say we had a fantastic time!

Tags: Bethany Joy Lenz, Harry Potter, Hurricane Sandy, Matthew Perryman Jones, New York City, One Tree Hill, Rock the Schools, Wakey!Wakey!
Posted in Music, Travel | 2 Comments »

Feb

2012

Un-Innocent, Elegant Fall into the Un-Magnificent Lives of Adults

It’s hard to believe we are 181 episodes into One Tree Hill, and there are only 6 more to go.

I’ve written about One Tree Hill a number of times on my blog – either in recapping my show-related trips to Wilmington, or during the campaign to save One Tree Hill from cancellation after Season 7. While I got a lot of traction writing about the latter, and still get emails from strangers asking me where to find Tree Hill locations in Wilmington, NC, I mostly wrote those pieces for my own benefit, without much idea of too many other people reading them.

So, I was both surprised and flattered when I started getting requests to write something about Season 9. Once I realized there was interest, I wanted to oblige, but I’ve mostly just been sitting back and enjoying the ride of this last season without discussing it verbally or in print.

But now that we’ve passed the halfway point, and we’re getting close to the end, I thought I’d go ahead and give you my thoughts on the season so far, and my thoughts on what may be coming. I’m not doing spoilers here, so feel free to share what you think is coming, but let’s keep those out of it, shall we?

First off, I’ll add my hearty “welcome back!” to the always-entertaining Chris Keller. I was really excited when I heard he was returning for the final season (and I knew he’d always been open to that idea), but I was a little concerned that having him as a regular would be a little too much. I was definitely wrong there. With all the drama going on this season, his humor has been a welcome reprieve, and I’m glad it’s coming in the form of an old friend instead of a new character brought in solely for comic relief. I grin every time he says, “Wellll, wellllll,” refers to himself in the third person, or says something totally smug and rude. It’s funny that he still flirts with any woman in sight (including Haley), and yet he tips his hand now and then, like when he stepped up to help Haley at the police station. Chris and Chase are funny as friends, too, although Chris’ womanizing ways play as funny, while Chase’s escapades just seem sleazy. Funniest moment of the season, so far, though, goes to Chris kicking Chase in the leg outside of Karen’s Café when he found out about Chase and Tara.

We got a few other funny moments out of Julian and Brooke early in the season as they juggled the twins and Brooke’s battling parents. Then Victoria took off (come back, Vicky!) and Brooke’s absentee father renewed his absentee status and seemingly took that storyline with him.

Speaking of Brooke and Julian, how great is Austin Nichols this season? He is blowing me away. We’ve already seen him exhibit his particular penchant for comedy in the previous seasons, and we got a taste of his drama power in that great mid-season hurricane episode last year, but this season, he’s shining in every arena. Julian always brings big laughs, but when his life took a tragic turn, Austin Nichols brought every emotion to the table and stole the show. Sadly, forgetting a sleeping infant in the car is a more common occurrence than we’d like to think, and I thought it was brave of One Tree Hill to tackle the subject, and to do it so well. Having watched it, I don’t think anyone could have done those scenes better than Austin. Now, with Xavier paroled, I am guessing we’ll be seeing yet another side of Julian before the season’s over – a protective and tough husband and father.

If Julian and Brooke’s near tragedy is the most poignant story of the season so far, Mouth and Millie win the prize for the silliest. This is not an Eddie Murphy film, so let’s dispense with the fat suit already. First of all, Mouth looks to have gained about 20 pounds, but even if he gained 40, he’s not so ridiculously overweight that Millie needs to be calling him fat live on the air of their morning show, and nor does everyone need to be whispering behind his back and making fun of him to his face. Speaking just to the storyline, given that Millie has had her own ups and downs with eating disorders, she is the last person who should be judging Mouth, who we’ve been led to believe she loves. He helped her through her turn as an anorexic, pill-popping crack-whore, and she’s going to have the nerve to disparage him for plumping up? It’s annoying, to say the least. And memo to One Tree Hill – your viewers are not all emaciated celebrities, and while your actresses are supporting True Beauty events to make girls feel good about themselves, you’re undoing that with this condescending and insulting storyline. Zero is not a size, remember?

I’ll give the “Most Improved Storyline” award to Clay and Quinn. It took me about half an episode back in Season 7 to be over their mushy, we-fell-in-love-in-10-minutes crap, and they have been the bane of my One Tree Hill existence ever since. This season, though, after a tiny bit of mushy and a lot of yelling, the saccharin couple were separated when Clay checked himself into the mental ward. I find them much more likeable when they’re not on screen together. Clay’s newfound friendship with fellow patient, Logan (who is the cutest kid on the planet, probably), is actually entertaining and heart-warming. It can’t be a coincidence that those two are bonding, so we’re left to wonder what the connection between them will be, and I am actually looking forward to finding out. I’m sure we’ll be back to “Clay and Quinn” before the season is over, but I am enjoying this reprieve from the montage of puppy dog eyes. Also, they seem to have finally sprung for a wardrobe for Quinn, so she doesn’t have to walk around awkwardly in her underwear anymore. Let’s keep it that way.

That leaves me with one storyline, which actually includes my favorite part of this season as well as my least favorite. To get the bad news out of the way first, it’s so disappointing to have so little of James Lafferty (and therefore, Nathan Scott) in the final season of the series that has been largely about him. What’s worse, we’ve barely seen Nathan and Haley in a scene together this season. I think they’ve been in the same room for portions of two episodes, and otherwise, we’ve had a few phone calls and a video chat, and then complete separation. And unlike Clay and Quinn, they are not two characters that need to be apart.

That being said, Nathan’s disappearance is still the best part of the season for me. It has nothing to do with that bizarre, Shakespeare-quoting Russian mobster, and a LOT to do with watching Bethany Joy Galeotti turn in one great performance after another as Haley becomes more desperate to find her missing husband. Joy has always brought the acting up a notch on One Tree Hill (in my humble opinion), and without much conflict in Haley’s life last season (and with a reduced role due to Joy’s real-life pregnancy), I’m glad to see her back on screen as a major player again.

The proverbial “cherry on top” of the entire season is the return of the great Dan Scott. Love him or hate him, he is the most compelling character on the show, and so much in this little town hinges on that man. Going from a callous, sad excuse for a father in Season 1, to public enemy #1, to a sad shell of a man who made every possible mistake and couldn’t find his way back, Dan has always been worth watching. Some fans have always hated him and will always hate him, but I’ve always found reasons to root for him. I like his Machiavellian presence on the show, and I love seeing his softer side when he’s around his grandchildren, or asking forgiveness from his family for the umpteenth time.

Now, this season, once again, Dan showed up down on his luck and desperate for help from a family that hates him. He found a brief and begrudging welcome from Haley before Nathan showed up and kicked him out in the cold once again. Ironically, Dan got a reprieve when Nathan turned up missing, a coincidence Haley noted before digging deeper to find out that Dan had been the architect of his own disaster as a ploy to gain sympathy, so she freaked, accused him of kidnapping his own son, and had him arrested out of her own home. Haley was being irrational, of course, albeit with good reason, but what really broke my heart is that, for fear of losing his Dad, Jamie turned against Grandpa Dan, going from his only ally to just the next person to consider him an enemy.

Dan didn’t have much time to mope over his situation, because he was busy taking action to find his son. He rented space and set up camp at Julian’s studio (just when Julian was in dire need of some business), and launched a full-fledged, Dan-style investigation into Nathan’s mysterious disappearance. I love seeing him make up a list of his enemies, and track them down, gun in hand, to find out whether he could be indirectly responsible for the kidnapping. It’s great that he has something of a partner in Julian, who seems to be in it partly for curiosity, and partly for boredom. I have no doubt that Dan will ultimately be the one to crack the case and bring Nathan home, and I am almost certain that it is going to cost him his life.

I’ve said before that I thought Dan had to die before One Tree Hill could end. And more than that, I want him to have that redemption he’s been so desperately seeking before he dies. I think that’s going to happen sometime in these next six episodes, and I am looking forward to it with a certain anticipation (because it’s going to make for great TV) and also trepidation (because I am going to cry like a big baby).

It’s still hard to believe it’s all coming to an end, and disappointing that we won’t get to see all the familiar faces we’ve been missing these last few seasons (like Whitey, Karen, and Peyton, who were all very high on my wish list), but I understand that it couldn’t all come together fast enough for 13 final episodes, taped straight through without a break, so I’m going to try to put the “if onlys” out of my mind and just enjoy the stories we’re given in the meantime.

Tags: One Tree Hill
Posted in Editorial | No Comments »

Nov

2011

I Won’t Be Your Last Dance, Just Your Last Goodnight

I had the privilege of attending a farewell event in Wilmington last month to celebrate 9 years of One Tree Hill. The “Evening with One Tree Hill,” as it was billed, was bittersweet for the cast, crew, and fans alike, but it was evident that this “Little Show That Could” touched a lot of lives on both sides of the TV screen. The cast passed a box of tissues back and forth for the sentimental moments, only to let loose with uproarious laughter a moment later when they reminisced over a funny story or watched Rob Buckley demonstrate his signature dance move, the Power Drop, while the audience looked on, delighted. It was nice to see that the show that has meant so much to fans around the world also made an indelible imprint on the people who spent 9 years bringing it to life.

So, it came as no surprise that the cast took to Twitter during the last week of filming to share their memories and say their goodbyes to the iconic people and places of Tree Hill. I simply wanted to commemorate it by compiling a few of my favorite quotes and pictures from the cast members during filming for episode 187 of One Tree Hill. I’ve replaced Twitter screen names with real names for the ease of non-Twitter readers, but I’m keeping the hashtags in place, because they were special to all of us.

~~~~~~~~~

Sophia Bush:

Today marks the first day of filming the last episode of One Tree Hill … My heart is bursting at the seams. The years we’ve shared laughing, crying, and growing … What a family we are. Thank you, each and every one of you, for coming on this journey with us.

Day 1 of filming the One Tree Hill series finale…

Bethany Joy Galeotti:

James Lafferty:

Lights shining on our Rivercourt for the very last time. This is one location I will never forget. #GoodnightRivercourt

Sophia Bush:

One more week. But tonight we celebrate …

Bethany Joy Galeotti:

Lindsay Wolfington (Music Supervisor):

Gavin DeGraw on-camera taping today. In between takes, he’s quietly playing chords to ‘I Don’t Want to Be’ #coolsentimentalmoment #OTH

Gavin DeGraw:

Thank you again to the creators, cast, and crew of OTH for having yesterday. You’re a class act.

Stephen Colletti:

Last call. Cue Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” last day of shooting in Tric “FOR-EV-ER.” My fingers are feeling a little sticky…Goodnight, TRIC. May you forever hear the jams that rocked you.

Bethany Joy Galeotti:

Day 5 of 9, OTH Series Finale. Countdown picture of the day… Goodnight “Karen’s”

This picture turned up online with reports that Joy kissed the door of Karen’s Cafe as filming was completed:

WildLife_TV:

#GoodnightNathan

Picture from a fan, RT’d by James Lafferty:

#GoodnightNaley

Stephen Colletti:

My man. That’s a wrap on Chuckle. “CHUCK!”

Bethany Joy Galeotti:

OTH Series Finale, Day 6 of 9 Countdown Photo… That’s a wrap on James Lafferty, a gentleman and a scholar. Goodnight, Nathan Scott. (James responded: I’m still in there. Decided to pretend like it’s not true. Just waitin’ to be called for rehearsal…..)

Bethany Joy Galeotti:

We’re up on the Karen’s rooftop set. So many memories here— mini golf, water balloon fights, laughter & tears… It’s a great place to leave Haley James. Thank you all for your years of support… You have made possible many wonderful memories for me.

Sophia Bush:

That’s a wrap on Jackson Brundage. A celebratory bear pile was in order. I’m so lucky to have such a great little friend. #GoodnightJamieScott

Shantel VanSanten:

Just rehearsed & about to shoot my last scene ever on OTH with Rob Buckley. It’s an honor to work beside & laugh with my BFF for 3 seasons!

Robert Buckley:

I can’t believe that I’m halfway through my final day on OTH; to say it’s surreal would be a colossal understatement.

Shantel VanSanten: There were many tears shed (even by Rob Buckley) but here is how we’re coping with wrapping on OTH! #GoodNightClinn

Austin Nichols:

Last day of work for Lee Norris. I was there for his final scene. Great actor. #GoodnightMouth

Stephen Colletti (quoting the U2 song for which the show was named):

“I’ll see you again when the stars fall from the sky and the moon has turned red over One Tree Hill.”

Bethany Joy Galeotti:

#GoodnightQuinnJames #GoodnightClayEvans #GoodnightRedBedroom

RealOneTreeHill (official Twitter):

9 years. 187 eps. Over 8k scenes. Millions of amazing fans. 6,471,818,671 people in the world, and sometimes all you need is #OneTreeHill

James Lafferty:

As One Tree Hill wraps today, I think we all owe a thank you to Mark Schwahn. He dreamed it all up and changed our lives. #ThanksMastermind.

Sophia Bush:

Three more scenes as Brooke Davis. Wow … “For now, I say goodbye to this chapter in my life. And I look forward to what comes next.”

Daphne Zuniga:

AAAAHHHH! Today’s the last day of this show!! Drinking my last am cup of java in makeup… Dear time, can you please slow down a little bit today? Thx J

Daphne Zuniga, to Sophia Bush: I love you so much! Victoria and Brooke made it work.

Sophia Bush:

And that’s a #GoodnightVictoria @DaphneZuniga. I love you like a mother, a sister, a best friend. xo

Austin Nichols:

Today is the final day of shooting for One Tree Hill. Saying goodbye to all these talented folks. Unraveling a bit.

Sophia Bush and Austin Nichols:

And then there were two. Picture is up on our final scene. My heart is bursting with love. What a gift these 13 weeks have been.

And that’s a wrap. Oh my heart. To end where it all began … #GoodnightBrookeDavis

Bethany Joy Galeotti:

And after the wrap:

Sophia Bush:

I’ve been crying for 36 hours. Spontaneous sobbing in strange places. It happens in an instant, then I start swearing, & repeat.

Wilmington has renamed the street that runs alongside Screen Gems Studios to One Tree Hill Way. Here are some cast members posing with the sign at the One Tree Hill wrap party:

And, perhaps as a sign that with any ending comes a new beginning, two OTH guest stars (who are married in real life) welcomed their first child to the world just as One Tree Hill wrapped filming. Congratulations to Scott Holroyd (who I remember fondly from his As the World Turns days) and Allison Munn! Allison had this to say on Twitter:

Allison Munn:

@scottholroyd + @allisonmunn = Nathan Powell Holroyd. Welcome to the world, Baby Nate!

It certainly feels odd that filming is wrapped forever, and the One Tree Hill cast have packed up their boxes in Wilmington and moved back home, but we still have another season to watch! Season 9 premieres on the CW on January 11^th! I’ll be there with my tissues at the ready.

#GoodnightTreeHill

Tags: Austin Nichols, Bethany Joy Galeotti, GoodnightTreeHill, James Lafferty, Mark Schwahn, One Tree Hill, Robert Buckley, Shantel VanSanten, Sophia Bush, Stephen Colletti
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Feb

2011

Hey, Mr. Love, Mr. Big Love, Big Love

My lifelong friend Andrea sent me a fantastic quote a while back: “It goes Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and Valentine’s Day. Is that fair to anyone who’s alone? If you didn’t get around to killing yourself on Christmas or New Year’s, boom, there’s Valentine’s Day for you. There should be a holiday after Valentine’s Day called ‘Are you still here?’” (from comedian Laura Kightlinger)

Fortunately, I can laugh at that because I don’t typically suffer from the single-at-the-holidays blues. (With the obvious exception of the endless suffering from family members who know of no other question to ask than some crass variation of “Do you have a boyfriend yet?”)

Since the answer is still no (and PLEASE stop asking me), I thought that I’d pay homage to the fictitious men in my life, who have all the hotness with none of the hassle.

Coming in at numero uno (and to the surprise of no one) is the great Nathan Scott.

Faithful husband, loving father, B-E-A-utiful, and has one heck of a jump shot. What more could you ask for?

Many thanks to James Lafferty for bringing this wonderful character to life (and supplying the mad basketball skills).

And, look here… score 1 for Amanda!

Number two is a more recent addition to my list, courtesy of Friday Night Lights. I’ve already got my upstanding basketball player, so naturally, I have to follow that with my football player of questionable repute: Tim Riggins.

Sure, he’s the town drunk, a habitual criminal, and a player both on and off the field, but he means well in his tender heart of gold, and his overwhelming hotness covers over a multitude of sins. Plus, he’s got that “Awww, shucks” Texas charm going for him and his truck makes a lot of noise. And when he runs the ball, he tackles the other team members ON HIS WAY to the endzone.

The man behind the legend is Taylor Kitsch, and if you listen really closely here and there, you can catch his true Canadian accent seeping into Riggins’ southern drawl. I’ve never seen him up close and personal, but if I ever do, and he lays that Texas accent on me, using words like “gal” and “ma’am,” I’ll be a goner.

Speaking of Texans… number 3 goes to White Collar’s Neal Caffrey. Technically, I don’t know where Neal is from, but his portrayer, Matt Bomer, is from Texas. And many years before his starring role on USA, I loved Matt Bomer for another role: Ben Reade. Here he is back then:

Alas, Ben Reade went from being a nice boy to a serial killer who eventually offed himself. It was sad. So, with the demise of Ben Reade, I followed Matt Bomer through Jay Burchell, Bryce Larkin, and eventually on to his star-making role as Neal Caffrey.

There seems to be a bit of a theme developing here, as Neal Caffrey is also a career criminal, BUT he tries his best to walk the straight and narrow to help his FBI buddy, Peter Burke, solve all his white collar cases. (Peter could rank pretty high on the list of fictional characters I love, too, come to think of it.)

My number four is ALSO from White Collar, though he only had a guest role in one episode. I’m cheating a little bit with this one, because in this case, my love is more for the actor than any character he has portrayed. But, I became acquainted with Murray Bartlett through his stint as Cyrus Foley (yes, another criminal) on Guiding Light. I’m not really sure what it says about me that the boys I like tend to spend quite a bit of time on the wrong side of the law. Here’s a photo of Cyrus in action (shout out to Mandy Bruno, who I also adore):

Aaaaaaand, here’s Murray:

I have met a lot of actors, many of whom I found incredibly attractive, and it was no big deal. But no matter how many times I’ve seen Murray, I have to fight the impulse to giggle like a schoolgirl. Obviously, he’s quite extraordinary-looking, and the Australian accent doesn’t hurt anything, but Murray’s best qualities are his kind heart, sweet disposition, and welcoming smile. I don’t know if or when our paths may cross again, but if they do, I’ll give him a big hug… and probably melt a little bit, as usual.

I think there is some unwritten rule that no list can stop at four, so I’m compelled to include a fifth here. The top five in my head is not relegated to fictional characters, so it usually includes Ryan Adams. But, he’s a musician, not an actor, so I can’t even slide him into this list on a technicality.

So, while there are quite a few fictional fellas I could name here, I am going to have to disappoint Mr. Darcy and go with another of my slightly-dark, tragic heroes: Severus Snape. (If you don’t know who that is, then you need to get off the computer and go open a book, for goodness’ sake.)

I guess I shouldn’t wax philosophical about Snape’s lot in life, given that some unfortunate souls didn’t read the books and are still waiting for the outcome of the movies. Suffice it to say that I loved Snape throughout the books in spite of everything, and despite the descriptions of his physical appearance that were supposed to make me see him as unattractive, I still came out of Harry Potter with a big ol’ crush on the greasy professor.

There are not many actors who could have brought Snape to life in a way that I could accept, but Alan Rickman pulled it off beautifully. Now, if only Snape were more prominently featured in the films…

So, who are your favorite fictional Valentines?

Tags: Friday Night Lights, Harry Potter, One Tree Hill, Valentine's Day, White Collar
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Sep

2010

Some Impressions Stay and Some Will Fade Away

Once again, I’m falling behind blogging about all my adventures this summer. So, before I hop on a plane again tomorrow morning, I thought I’d try to at least get the post up from my vacation that happened back at the end of July!

Of course, the internet hates me, so I am giving up the battle with these pictures. I edited them into groups, so I could include more pictures but have fewer actual images for your computers to load, but they were too big for Photobucket to cooperate with me, so I tried in Flickr only to discover that they automatically changed all my .gifs to .jpgs, making them unusable, but not to worry — Flickr makes it next to impossible to link to your own images anyway. So, I posted these pictures out of Photobucket (since it’s at least user friendly, for goodness’ sake), and some of them are horribly pixelated. Given the amount of time it took me to get to this point, added to the number of people who read this blog in the first place, I am leaving them as they are and calling it “artsy.” Just work with me — some of the pictures may look a bit wonky, but I can counter with the fact that some of these pictures are of James Lafferty, nullifying your right to complain. And if anyone has a suggestion for a photo hosting site, I’m all ears.

*****

It’s both wonderful and dangerous that one of my favorite places is only a five hour drive from my apartment. That makes it easy and tempting to hop in the car with a full tank of gas and point my car in the direction of Wilmington, NC. I’m not the only one who feels that way, so together with my friends Katie and Ali, we set out for a week at the beach.

On the trip down, we made a point to stop by the Cheesecake Factory for lunch, and we found ourselves talking about what we were going to do when we got “home.” Ali snagged pictures of the first road sign pointing the way as well as the “Welcome to Wilmington” sign when we reached the end of I-40 and landed in paradise.

We made a few stops before we even got to our hotel, including a visit to “Tree Hill High” (Cape Fear Community College) and the infamous “Clothes Over Bros.” Naturally, we were also eager to get downtown and explore.

We stayed at the Riverfront Hilton and got a great group rate as part of the One Tree Hill Fan Reunion. We even got a free upgrade to a river view room, affording us a bird’s eye view of the river, the battleship across Cape Fear, and even our beloved River Court in Battleship Park. Since I’m a tremendous nerd, I noticed that we were staying in Room 409 – which just so happens to be my favorite episode of One Tree Hill (4.09, “Some You Give Away”).

We had to make a trip back to the car to finish bringing in our suitcases and our cooler, which I quickly discovered was much too heavy for me to carry. We were faced with either having to carry our water bottles upstairs one handful at a time, or getting some help, so when I spotted a capable-looking fellow across the parking lot, my instincts took over and I yelled, “Hey! Big Strong Man!” Luckily for us, he answered my cry for help and carried our cooler inside for us. He was a real trooper, especially when he realized that our cooler really was THAT heavy and we weren’t just being dainty.

Aside from the chivalrous guests and glorious views, the best part of our hotel was its proximity to downtown and the River Walk.

As we walked around downtown, Ali spotted Bethany Joy Galeotti and Lisa Goldstein walking with a group of girls on Front Street. We were all taken by surprise and didn’t want to interrupt them on their way. I am typically a little quicker on my feet and not remotely shy, but seeing Joy – who is awesome, if you didn’t know – was a bit much for even me.

We met up with our reunion group for a quick meeting and then we went out walking around again after dark. This time, eagle-eye Ali spotted Lindsey McKeon on Market Street, and we stopped and talked to her for a while and took pictures. Lindsey is much sweeter than her alter-ego, Taylor James, but I rather enjoy all of One Tree Hill’s scandalous characters.

Sunday morning, we got up bright and early to go to church (Port City Community Church) with Katie’s aunt and cousins. After church, we had breakfast and then parted company, as Katie went to spend some time with her family, and Ali and I went to tour the studio.

After our tour, Ali and I joined Katie and her family at the pool for the afternoon. Then, we went back to our hotel pool, where two handsome gentlemen – James Lafferty and Stephen Colletti – were waiting for us. (Either that, or they were just coincidentally swimming there, but I like the other theory much better.) They were both nice enough to let us get pictures and grin like fools in their general direction. We initially took pictures standing between them, but my picture didn’t take, so I got a do-over wherein James took a picture of me and Stephen, and Stephen took the picture of me and James. Later, we saw Kate Voegele by the pool when we were on our way out to dinner. She was also delightful and happy to chat with us.

Ali’s picture turned out perfectly, so I’m giving it lots of pixel space here:

Monday was the day of our official Reunion tour, so we piled into a 15-passenger van with our fellow fans for a day of sight-seeing.

Going off of our tip from the day before, we started our day by heading to the Batting Cages to watch Austin Nichols and Jackson Brundage do some filming for episode 8.02. Joe Davola (Executive Producer) was on hand, directing the episode. You can see him in the blue shirt talking to the crew in one of the pictures below.

We watched filming for about an hour in the hot, hot heat. (And for the record, everything that took place this week happened in the HOT, HOT HEAT.) From filming, we proceeded to Screen Gems Studios for our private group tour.

We toured Stages 7 and 8, which include the downstairs of Nathan and Haley’s house (Stage 7), the upstairs of their house (Stage 8), and Mouth and Skills’ apartment (Stage 8). Because we were a small group on a private tour, the guides opened up the porch area of Nathan and Haley’s house and let us walk out to the pool. I had seen the downstairs of the house many times (and loved it each time as it is a magnificent set), but getting to see the pool, porch, and sun room was a really cool experience. It was also my first time touring Stage 8, so I got to see Nathan and Haley’s bedroom, bathroom, guest room, and Jamie’s room. Mouth and Skills’ apartment was also cool to see. I noticed a lot of picayune details in their bachelor pad that I’ve never noticed on screen.

After our tour, we had lunch, and drove around to several key One Tree Hill locations. I covered most of these locations in my first Wilmington blog, so I don’t want to be redundant here. However, we did visit some locations I had not seen before, so I’ll cover those for you.

The most exciting spot for me was the practical location of Nathan and Haley’s new house. Considering that the sets for their house take up two sound stages, it comes as no surprise that the house itself is massive and beautiful. The owner was home and was delighted to let us all look around and take pictures. The sets in the studio are near-perfect reproductions of the house itself:

The backyard extends down to the river, and the chairs in the yard and the dock have been featured in several scenes, as you can see below:

Of course, we had to make a stop at the River Court, and since I’d been there many times before, I took the opportunity to admire the view from the court across the river, looking at downtown Wilmington:

Greenfield Lake was also on our docket, and I’d been there before, too, but this time, I ran into a bit more wildlife, including a duck that waddled out of the woods and startled one of the girls, and a scary lot of alligators swimming in the lake below the bridge:

One of the newest practical locations is for Focus, Quinn’s photo gallery. The show uses the empty Roudabush building for those scenes:

Grace United Methodist Church was on our touring list, so I suggested calling ahead to see if they would allow us to come inside and see the sanctuary. The staff was very obliging, so we got to take some pictures inside the beautiful church.

After a successful day of touring, we concluded our evening with dinner at Hell’s Kitchen. Named for it’s usage on Dawson’s Creek, it also appeared as The Swinging Donkey in Season 2 of One Tree Hill:

After dinner, Katie, Ali, and I walked back toward the hotel and ran into Stephen Colletti again, down on the River Walk:

Tuesday morning, we set out to tour Airlie Gardens before the heat became too stifling (95 degrees is preferable to 115, after all). When we picked up our map at the Visitor’s Center, we were told that the One Tree Hill crew was working at the Pergola, staging for a scene to be shot the following day. The staging guys told us that Clay and Quinn would be walking along this path, and they were adding fake flowers to make it even more beautiful:

The Pergola was definitely the place to be, because in addition to the crew guys and us, we were visited by several swans who were hanging out on the steps:

The past few times I’d been to Airlie Gardens, they were constructing a new butterfly sanctuary, so that area of the park was always closed. On this trip, though, construction had been completed and we were able to walk through the butterfly house:

When we left Airlie, we headed back downtown to catch filming at TRIC. We camped out with other fans across the street from base camp and waved to the actors as they went between the trailers and set:

While on a break from filming, several of the actors came over to see us and take pictures. They were happy to hang around signing autographs and taking pictures until every person had gotten a chance.

Tuesday night, we went to dinner and then walked around Independence Mall before calling it an early night and heading back to the hotel. I was in desperate need of some sleep, so Katie and Ali went for a late night swim and let me get some extra rest.

Working on a full night of sleep, we all set out Wednesday morning for a late breakfast at the best place in town – The Dixie Grill.

There, we ran into Jamie, who was part of our tour group, and he was happy to share his pictures with us. He had taken a picture with Jackson at TRIC the previous morning, and then ran into Sophia Bush when she was walking downtown. He was the only member of our group who met her on the trip, and we were delighted for him. He emailed me his pictures so I could share them here as well:

After breakfast, we walked around downtown, enjoying the River Walk again, stopping by St. James Church and Day School, and ducking into a fountain garden tucked away in the courtyard of a bank on Market Street.

The doors were open at St. James, so we were able to take a look inside there as well:

After cooling off back at the hotel, we ventured out again to Hugh McRae Park, where we heard there was filming at the baseball field. When we arrived, we ran into some other fans, and together we watched Stephen, Kate, and Jackson film a scene together. Austin Nichols was hanging around as well, but wasn’t filming while we were there. He did, however, come over to talk to us and take pictures!

After leaving the baseball field, we walked around the rest of the park for a bit and then decided to get some relief from the heat by checking out The Fuzzy Peach, which was recommended to us on Twitter by Jeff Hidek of Wilmington’s Star News. The Fuzzy Peach is a pay-by-the-ounce yogurt bar, and it was delicious. This was our first stop here, but not our last!

Wednesday night, we decided to go out to Fort Fisher Beach (my favorite beach ever!) and have a picnic as the sun was setting. We stopped at McAllister’s Deli on our way to get sandwiches to eat, and made our way down the coastline.

We made a quick pit stop to see Brooke’s beach house, as Ali had not been there before:

When we left Brooke’s place, we were mere minutes from Fort Fisher. We easily found a close parking place, gathered our food and blankets, and walked down to the beach. The sun was setting over the trees, making for some gorgeous colors in the sky. As always, Fort Fisher was pretty quiet, but we did run into some locals who were out walking their dog, and they pointed out some dolphins that were playing in the water about halfway out to the horizon. They were friendly and were happy to chat with us about Wilmington and One Tree Hill, and then they volunteered to take a group shot for us.

Thursday was our last full day in Wilmington, and while we contemplated what we wanted to do, a storm rolled in over the river. With rain drenching downtown, we loaded into the car and drove up the coast towards Topsail Beach, about 45 minutes north of Wilmington. We heard there might be filming at Clay’s Beach house, and we figured we had nothing to lose since we couldn’t do much else with the rain.

We finally found the beach house, far out on the inlet, found a place to park, and walked back up the road before going onto the deserted beach. Filming had been rained out, but the skies were just clearing, so we were able to walk along the beach and take some pictures.

We debated about whether they also used the house as a practical location for indoor filming, and after coming home and rewatching Season 7 scenes in Clay’s beach house, the presence of ceilings, waves in the background, and the sheer size of the house itself, I am now convinced that this beach house is used for both interior and exterior shots:

Still chipper from our beach adventure, we had a little sing-a-long in the car on the way back. My trip playlist included the Doktor Kosmos song “Holiday,” which was used to great (hilarious) effect on One Tree Hill. Ali caught me singing and gettin’ down on video, and we enjoyed many laughs about it in the hotel that night, while watching the clip of One Tree Hill that inspired it and the (HOLY CRAP CAN YOU BELIEVE THERE IS ACTUALLY A) music video of Doktor Kosmos singing his song.

The day was still a bit dreary when we arrived back in Wilmington, so we seized the opportunity to drive around to some of the locations we had missed.

While we were out, Ali took my picture from the balcony of Nathan and Haley’s apartment building:

We also went to see the pilot house – which served as Lucas and Karen’s place in the first episode. After it was filmed, the owners declined to sign the permanent contract, so the show went with their second choice house. I am pleased with the house they ended up with, but it was neat to see the one from the pilot episode as well. The current owner was less than thrilled, however, as she ran out of the house to make sure we were not location scouts hoping to use her house for a TV show or movie. I assured her that we were not – we merely wanted to take a picture of the house. I am not sure what about us looked like we were filmmakers of any kind, but she was satisfied with our answer and we went on our way.

I drove really slowly so Ali could get pictures of the consecutive streets signs on Market that read “Clay Street” and “Evans Street,” respectively. One might assume that is where Mark Schwahn got the name for Nathan’s sports agent, Clay Evans.

When we got back to the hotel, we decided to walk back downtown to the Reel Café for dinner. Reel Café doubled as Carl’s Crab Shack on One Tree Hill and apparently made quite a few appearances on Dawson’s Creek as well. Their food was delicious, so we enjoyed a big dinner and walked around downtown until we made room for some delicious Kilwin’s ice cream. I am not sure how we made it all the way to Thursday before we stopped into Kilwin’s. It’s a Wilmington staple!

Our walk back afforded more beautiful views of the River Walk as the sun faded away:

We decided to go for a late night swim, and before jumping in the water, I took this picture of the sunset from our hotel’s pool area:

Friday morning, we slept in and then packed up to check out. Our week was nearly over. With the suitcases back in the car (and a cooler that was a manageable weight by week’s end), we made our last stops before driving out of town.

Katie wanted to get some pictures of the “Psycho Derek Bridge,” which we drove over nearly every day while we were in town:

We also rode out a little way to go see Roy’s Bait and Tackle, where Q was shot in Season 6. The man himself was manning the counter when we went inside to get some snacks (and take a look around), and he was delighted to see us and ready to tell his story about the night that One Tree Hill came to film at his store.

We had to go by the River Court one more time before we left, too:

We stopped to fill up the tank before leaving town, and who should we see there filling up as well? James Lafferty! We didn’t say hello this time, of course, but it was still a bit of a thrill to see him again, if only from afar.

I sprang one last quick stop on Katie and Ali, stopping at the Fifth Street Bridge, which turned out to be a great place to photograph the Sixth Street Bridge made famous by One Tree Hill’s opening credits:

After leaving Wilmington, we drove out to the middle of nowhere to get to the site of the bridge accident in episode 3.22. From there, we made another stop at The Cheesecake Factory (it was National Cheesecake Day, for goodness’ sake!), and then drove into Greensboro for a show that night at a venue called Greene Street.

One of Ali’s favorite bands, Jonas Sees in Color, was playing a homecoming show Friday night, so Katie and I tagged along. The opening bands were a little too much to handle, so we left Ali to hang out with her friends and Katie and I went and explored the Four Seasons Mall. You know me and malls, so when I say I “explored” the mall, I really mean that I said, “Oooh, look! A day spa! I think I’ll get a pedicure.”

We returned to the venue before Jonas Sees in Color took the stage, and through a wrong turn up the stairs, Katie and I ended up on the roof of the building, looking out on the city. Greene Street also has a rooftop bar/club, but it was still early enough that it was a peaceful place to hang out and pass the time.

We went downstairs to the balcony level at showtime, while Ali watched from the crowd below. I took a few pictures for her:

After the show, we made a late night stop through the Cookout drive thru and started making our way back home in the wee hours of Saturday morning after our week-long adventure.

*****

The following Friday (yes, less than a week after my return home), my office-mate and friend Kelli announced that she was ready for a weekend getaway and wanted to go to Wilmington. That coincided with a Hope4Hannah fundraiser that James Lafferty was doing, so I decided at the last minute to tag along with Kelli and head back to Wilmington yet again. On my way out of town, I saw this bus and knew it must be fate:

She was already in Raleigh, so I drove down late Friday afternoon, arriving in time to join her for dinner and go see her cousin’s art opening downtown. After the opening, we got on the road to Wilmington.

We rolled into town around 10pm, and The Fuzzy Peach was our first stop. Kelli loved it as much as I thought she would, and after that, we checked into our hotel to get some rest.

Saturday morning, we drove downtown to get breakfast at The Dixie Grill. There was a 45-minute wait (it’s worth it), so we used the extra time to walk down by the river where a farmer’s market was set up in the street. I snapped a photo of some musicians who were entertaining the fruit and veggie vendors from their spot on the River Walk:

After a delicious breakfast, we headed down the coast to go to the beach. Traffic was heavy, since it was a Saturday in August, but we continued driving south towards Fort Fisher. Traffic continued to thin all the way down the coast, and when we arrived at Fort Fisher, it wasn’t crowded at all. (One of the many reasons I love that particular beach.) We sprawled out in the sand and enjoyed the peace and quiet for a while.

Kelli decided to go out into the water, and when she came back, she said she had been viciously attacked by a metal beach chair that came hurling at her in a wave. We got her cut cleaned up and headed back toward the hotel.

There was still sunlight left, so we traded in the beach for the pool:

I looked online to choose a spot downtown for dinner, and saw that the Front Street Brewery was conveniently located and had rave reviews. We discovered there was a wait there as well, so we walked down the street and back with our buzzer in hand and I took some pictures, including one of our dinner destination:

The food at Front Street Brewery was amazing! We both loved everything that we ate. Kelli got the ribs, and I am not a ribs-eater, but I could see that the meat was so tender, it was falling off the bones. My chicken was also perfectly seasoned and grilled. The food was so good we contemplated whether we might be hungry again before they closed for the night!

After dinner, it was right at time for the charity event to kick off at The Calico Room, which was on Front Street on the opposite side of Market. To my surprise, we were some of the first to arrive, which meant we were able to snag a place at the bar.

James Lafferty was on hand as the “celebrity bartender” for the event, and he had actually practiced making some drinks the night before. However, you can’t learn to be a bartender in a day, but he made an admirable effort and handed out a lot of ice waters – many of them to me! At one point, he also made me a Diet Coke, and if you know much about me, you know that is a perfect combination of two of God’s best creations.

We had a great time at the event and made some new friends throughout the evening.

I also got another picture with James. This time, we’re both wearing clothes (hurray!) and we’re not squinting into the sun. Nothing against my poolside pic from the week before, of course, but this one does seem a bit more appropriate:

Later in the evening, Austin Nichols showed up, and I got a picture with him as well:

We left sometime around midnight to head back to the hotel, hugging everyone goodbye and promising to come back to visit – which I will, next time I’m in town.

Sunday morning, we slept until it was almost checkout time, and then headed out to get breakfast at Whitey’s, which we heard was going to be torn down to build a Walgreen’s before year’s end.

After breakfast (and it was pretty much lunchtime), we drove back downtown to stop in at Kilwin’s (because I had promised to bring Katie back some fudge), and then we headed home. It was a quick trip, but it was definitely a memorable one!

Tags: Airlie Gardens, Austin Nichols, Bethany Joy Galeotti, Calico Room, Fort Fisher, Fuzzy Peach, Jackson Brundage, James Lafferty, Jana Kramer, Kate Voegele, Lee Norris, Lisa Goldstein, One Tree Hill, Screen Gems Studios, Sophia Bush, Stephen Colletti, Topsail Beach, Wilmington
Posted in Travel | 3 Comments »

May

2010

All That You Can’t Leave Behind

As I write this, there is only one episode remaining in Season 7 of One Tree Hill. However, as the credits rolled following last night’s show, it was quite clear that there are still more stories to tell than can possibly be finished in one solitary episode. And yet, we’re all in a holding pattern, wondering if we’ll see these stories come to fruition, or if, after being faithful to this great show for seven years, its completion will be left to our imaginations.

As I’ve already covered in my last two posts, there are a million reasons to love One Tree Hill, and I don’t think it’s presumptuous in the least to say that The CW Network owes us a season 8 and a proper conclusion befitting the legacy of our show. So far, they’ve avoided giving any clear answers, either afraid of the fallout if they deny our request, or they are enjoying the game a little too much. It disappoints me, but I don’t want to dwell on it here.

As promised, this third and final blog in my “We Are One” series, is to discuss the stories yet untold – the things I would like to see happen in Tree Hill before the show’s ultimate coda. I’d like to hear your ideas as well. So, let’s tell our stories.

“When archaeologists uncover lost civilizations and they unearth their worlds that have long been since been destroyed, you know what they find most often? They find stories, ancient languages, words, inscriptions from people who have been gone for thousands of years, because chances are, like you, they wanted to know, “What’s the point?” And they wanted us to know that they were here, you know? They told their stories, and they tried to make sense of their lives and their worlds and their tragedies. So that’s what we are gonna do.”

Mark Schwahn and the rest of the One Tree Hill writers have given us a lot of stories in seven years. We’ve certainly been dealt some twists and turns along the way – shocking moments we never saw coming, heartwarming scenes that got us a little choked up, and hilarious one-liners that we’ve done our best to work into everyday conversation as often as possible.

But even after seven years, the well hasn’t run dry. One Tree Hill is still telling great stories, and there are many more that haven’t even been touched yet. I have every confidence that, given an appropriate amount of time, the writers and producers of the show will not let us down. We just need a little more time to get to that “happily ever after” conclusion that we deserve. For me, that includes a number of things:

• Dan. I know some people have said that season 4 had a storybook ending. Others point to the finale of season 6 and say it offered the picturesque conclusion we needed. I disagree. Those two seasons didn’t have any splashy cliff-hangers, but that doesn’t mean they were sufficiently wrapped up, either. (Hence why the show has continued!) My reasoning all points back to Dan. While not generally named with the original “Core Five” of the cast, I tend to think that One Tree Hill began with at least SIX key players. Without Dan Scott, there would be no One Tree Hill. And further, without Dan Scott, there can’t be a proper ending. We have seen Dan do a lot of evil, unspeakable things. We have even seen him be kind and vulnerable in unexpected ways. Ultimately, we have seen him reach for redemption and forgiveness, but despite valiant efforts, he’s never grasped it. I do understand that some characters (and some viewers) will never excuse him, no matter what he does. For my part, I would like to see at least two things happen before the show ends. First, before One Tree Hill goes off the air, Dan should finally breathe his last. Bear in mind that I love Dan, so I envision this happening about one episode prior to the series finale. That is the only true closure Dan can have. We know he’s not going to turn into the model of perfection, and he can’t just go back to being evil at this point. But, he can still die in peace. I’d rather like to see him die a hero. And not alone. Nathan has said time and time again that he will never forgive his father, no matter what he does, and despite some pretty spectacular displays of love and support from Dan, Nathan has only barely tolerated him, and even then, it was only in service of Jamie. But as Jamie told Nathan at the beginning of season 7, “I think you’re good enough to forgive him.” I think Dan can accept being ostracized from everyone else’s life, but the rift between him and the son that he raised has tormented him for years. And Nathan, as the veritable hero of the show, has the capacity to heal that breach, even if only so his father can die in peace.

• Brooke. When all the original characters finished pairing up, Brooke got the shaft. Regardless of whether you’re pro-Brucas or pro-Leyton, I hope we can all agree that Brooke certainly deserves to find some happiness. She loved Lucas, but he chose her best friend – a scenario which Brooke (eventually) was able to handle with class and dignity. After that initial heartbreak, what followed was a litany of failed attempts: Felix, Chase, all the Nicks (not the Knicks) of New York City, Owen, to be capped off with a rather tumultuous, on-again, off-again relationship with Julian. I may be in the minority here, but I am not convinced that their love can (or should) stand the test of time. In addition to romantic turmoil, we’ve seen Brooke dream of motherhood since she returned to Tree Hill at the on-set of season five. She took care of Baby Angie long enough to get attached just before having to send her home to her parents. Then, she bravely stepped up and took in Sam – passing up an opportunity to adopt an infant – only for Sam to leave her as well. Now, her dreams have been utterly crushed by the news that she’s infertile, and after so many disappointments, the spark in her eyes has all but died. Now, we know Mark Schwahn to be a sucker for a happy ending, so I have to believe there is one in the cards for Brooke – as long as he has time to tell the story. Now, as I said, I’m not a big advocate of Brulian, and believe Brooke met her soulmate in season five. Remember the sweet and adorable Dr. Ethan Copeland? The one who operated on Baby Angie? Yep. Him. There were sparks flying between Brooke and the good doctor, but every time they had a nice moment together, along came Lucas to mess it up. So, if Brooke could run into him on the street somewhere, I have a feeling they would finally hit it off, and chances are, he either knows a few fertility specialists through his work, or he’d be more than happy to adopt a lot of Baby Angies with Brooke.

• Whitey. I love Whitey. He added so much heart to the first four seasons of One Tree Hill, being essentially the father that Lucas and Nathan never had, and offering his sage wisdom (and crotchety attitude) to any and everyone that needed a little bit of guidance. I squealed with joy when he appeared for the flashback episode in season five, and again at the end of season six, wherein I cried like a baby to see him offer encouragement and a loving embrace to perhaps his most bitter enemy. We have not seen anything of Whitey this season, but I would dearly like to see him again before the show ends. In my mind, he certainly must visit Nathan, Haley, and Jamie from time to time. I can’t imagine he made such a tremendous impact on Nathan’s life (and career) only to disappear into oblivion and not keep in touch. The scene at the end of season 6 supports my theory, and I would be over the moon to see Whitey show up for at least one family dinner at the Scott House. Can you imagine the epic cuteness of a scene between Whitey and Jamie? I must see that. And I would not be even remotely opposed to seeing more of Whitey and Dan. Perhaps Whitey could help with that Dan/Nathan reconciliation I mentioned earlier.

• Nathan and Haley. Aside from one or two *slightly* cheesy lines in the course of seven years, I have zero complaints regarding the way my favorite couple has been written. I was hooked on them from the very beginning, and their stories have never disappointed me. There is no other couple in TV, movies, or literature that I enjoy more. (Darcy and Elizabeth are a distant second.) All that being said, I obviously think they should stay together all the way to the end (and it would be preposterous if they didn’t, so I don’t really have any worries there). But the one thing my Naley-loving heart desires is another baby. They got their son, so taking what Nathan said to Haley in “The Desperate Kingdom of Love,” they’re still due “a little girl, just like you [Haley].” And I want to see it happen! They can even throw in some cheesy lines (“Now I know why they call it true love”) and I swear, I won’t even wince. Plus, given the present state of season 7, One Tree Hill simply cannot end with Haley in the midst of (or even beginning to recover from) a very dark and serious depression. It’s a great storyline, but it’s not the stuff of “happily ever after.”

• Lucas and Peyton. Now, I know what you’re going to say, because I’m usually the one saying it: they’re not coming back. And hey – you know what – I can accept that. But if One Tree Hill got (at least) one more season, I figure that only increases the odds that they might be willing to make a guest appearance in the eventual series finale, which would be a nice nod to the fans that have been around since day one. (And the Leyton fans would be ecstatic, obviously.)

• Chris Keller. I had a fierce hatred for Chris Keller for obvious reasons, but darn if he wasn’t just so funny that he grew on me after all. Plus, Tyler Hilton is fantastic. And – it just so happens that when last I saw him, he said he’d love to come back to One Tree Hill for a series finale. So, there must be a way to let this fellow drop by Tree Hill. He and Nathan were almost kinda sorta friends the last time we saw Chris in season 4, so I see no potential problems there. And wouldn’t it be hilarious and awesome if Chris Keller returned to town on the arm of the love of his life, and let’s say her name is Taylor James. Oh, that’s what you call a win-win, folks.

• Levi Weaver. Now, I suppose none of you remember that character. Which makes sense, since there never was any such character in Tree Hill. Rather, Levi Weaver is a musician – a darn good one, whose songs would go so nicely with the always-fantastic One Tree Hill soundtrack, and come to think of it, the man himself would probably look pretty well at home on the set of Red Bedroom Records. One Tree Hill has done some great things for independent artists and acts that deserve a second look. The integration of Mike Grubbs in season 7 to launch the extremely noteworthy music of Wakey!Wakey! is only one example. One Tree Hill has changed the lives of a lot of musicians by giving them an avenue to get their music out there to the public. Radio simply doesn’t do that anymore – it’s TV’s arena, and One Tree Hill does it best. And for an independent musician like Levi Weaver, a song placement in a TV show with two million plus viewers can make a huge difference in a career – and in whether he can afford to keep making brilliant music. I am constantly awed by the song placements on One Tree Hill (Lindsay Wolfington is a genius, by the way), so I don’t suggest this lightly. I hear Levi Weaver’s “We’re Tornadoes When We Dance,” and I think of Nathan and Haley. “Drink, Drink, Drink” is reminiscent of Dan Scott – did I mention I love Dan Scott? And “You Are Home” – well, that kind of fits the show as a whole, doesn’t it? “Oh, you are home. And no matter where I go, you’re in my bones. And no matter where I sleep, I never rest outside the place I keep my soul.” So, yes. This is my wish list, and it absolutely includes hearing a song by my all-time favorite artist playing through the coda of my all-time favorite show.

I could go on and name a million different storylines, but then this blog would never end. And I’ll leave the writing to Mark Schwahn, since the last 7 years of stories have come from him, and I haven’t been disappointed yet. Still, I’d like to hear your ideas in the comments. What stories are important to you? And what do you need to see before you’ll feel like One Tree Hill is complete? Here’s hoping that we get to see all those stories play out on our TV screens, and we get all the things we wished for.

To The CW, I’d like to reiterate another relevant One Tree Hill quote:

“Regret comes in all shapes and sizes. Some are small, like when we do a bad thing for a good reason. Some are bigger, like when we let down a friend. Some of us escape the pains of regret by making the right choice. Some of us have little time for regret, because we’re looking forward to the future. Sometimes we have to fight to come to terms with the past. And sometimes we bury our regret, by promising to change our ways. But our biggest regrets are not for the things we did… but the things we didn’t do.”

Don’t let canceling One Tree Hill be your biggest regret. And don’t let it be ours, either.

Tags: Levi Weaver, Mark Schwahn, One Tree Hill, The CW, Tyler Hilton, We Are One
Posted in Editorial, Music | 2 Comments »

May

2010

You’re Gonna Need Someone On Your Side

“You know, it’s been said that we just don’t recognize the significant moments of our lives while they are happening. We grow complacent with ideas or things or people and we take them for granted. And it’s usually not until that thing is about to be taken away from you that you realize how wrong you’ve been – that you realize how much you need it, how much you love it. God, I love this game.”

I love this show. I assume you do, too, and that’s why you’re here. I must say that I was humbled and honored by the outpouring of support from One Tree Hill fans regarding my last blog, pleading with the CW to give us a season 8. In fact, your support has compelled me to be a little more forthright about my motives for saving this show in the first place.

There are not a lot of things I’m willing to campaign for, but when I find something I’m passionate about, it’s impossible for me not to share that. If I find a good thing, I want others to find it, too. Usually, I’ll dispense music suggestions to anyone who will listen, but I have thrown myself into promoting One Tree Hill with a similar tenacity.

Of course, music and One Tree Hill go hand in hand quite nicely, which may explain why I’ve been able to relate to it so strongly. The writing is truly fantastic. The stories are compelling. But there is something about One Tree Hill that can’t be put into words, and something that can only be grasped by watching it – One Tree Hill has heart.

The truth is, I’ve only been watching One Tree Hill for about two years. I have no TV reception in my apartment – not a single, solitary channel – and no internet, either (I am typing this from my office after everyone else is long gone). But, I do have Netflix and a DVD player. So, when I wanted a show to watch, I remembered hearing how great One Tree Hill was, and I knew that Bethany Joy Lenz (now Galeotti) was in it. I was familiar with her prior work and thought she was amazing, so armed with that information and little else, I slipped the first disc of season one into my DVD player.

By episode 3 (“Are You True?”), I was completely hooked. When I finished season one – and after picking my jaw up off of the floor – I remember saying aloud, “And that was only the FIRST SEASON!” While watching season 2, Netflix accidently sent my discs out of order. I had a good system going, where every day I put a disc in the mail, and every day I got a new one. So, when I logged in to my account and saw that I was getting disc 5 before disc 4, I freaked and called customer service. That poor guy who answered the phone – I had to wonder how many people called him daily saying things like, “But you don’t UNDERSTAND! What am I supposed to do tonight?” My co-worker, Kelli, who has since started watching One Tree Hill as well, took pity on me and found somewhere online where I could watch the disc 4 episodes with Japanese subtitles, and sound that didn’t match up with the picture. Still, I was elated and stayed at work until past 10:00 watching them online. Then, I went home and watched disc 5 that was in my mailbox. The next day, I ordered all the seasons online.

Beyond sheer enjoyment of the show, there was something else at work. I was really struggling, personally – not in any way that I could explain even if I wanted to, but there were nights that I was so racked with anxiety that I couldn’t even fall asleep. But I discovered that if I visited Tree Hill for a while, I could ease the tension, calm down, and fall asleep. That method still works on a bad day, or even on a good day when I just want to relax. In sharing that, I know I am telling many other stories besides my own. I have heard a lot of fans attest that One Tree Hill has seen them through some difficult times, and I dare say there are not many (if any) other shows that can do that. So to Mark Schwahn, show creator, Lindsay Wolfington, music supervisor, and every single producer, director, writer, actor, and crew member involved in making this show, allow me to say: “Your art matters. It’s what got me here.”

OTH Cast – “Feeling a Moment”

“Most of our lives are a series of images; they pass us by like towns on a highway. But sometimes, a moment stuns us as it happens and we know that this instant is more than a fleeting image. We know that this moment, every part of it, will live on forever.”

There is plenty to love about One Tree Hill, and I’m sure every fan has his or her own set of favorites. I am hoping you will all share your own in the comments below. For my part, nothing beats Nathan and Haley. “Always and forever.”

Fictional characters on TV and in movies sure spend a lot of time talking about “always” and “forever,” but very few of them actually follow through with it. And while I am a little too cynical about love in general, it’s really only because I want it to be great, and I see too many people settling for less. I, meanwhile, have always been a sucker for a fairy tale: Ariel and Eric, Darcy and Elizabeth, Nathan and Haley. But the thing I love about Nathan and Haley is how imperfect they are. Most of the time, we go to a movie or read a book and see a couple struggling through their dating relationship, and they finally make it to the altar just before the credits roll with music that leaves us with that “happily ever after” feeling. With Nathan and Haley, however, we saw them as the unlikely pair that fell in love, and then they were married by the end of season one – at the ripe old age of sixteen, no less. So the six seasons since have shown them making huge mistakes and hurting each other, but deciding through everything that their marriage comes first, and the more problems they face, the more love they need to have to get through it. “And, that’s what true love really is. It’s not this fairytale life that never knows pain, but it’s two souls facing it together and diminishing it with unconditional love.”

Nathan and Haley – “Brand New Day”

Coming in at number two on my “Why I love One Tree Hill” list is Dan Scott. I love him and I hate him and that is what makes compelling drama. He is also the master of one-liners that make me chuckle like a supervillain. Dan Scott is, after all, the most lovable villain in entertainment history. TV.com recently did an interview with James Lafferty, wherein he confessed Dan Scott to be his favorite One Tree Hill character:

Dan Scott, hands down….Paul Johansson has just masterfully performed [the role of Dan]. When he comes on the screen, I’m glued because of the way he plays that character. There are so many different colors of Dan Scott. And [he's] written so well, first of all. That’s where it starts. Then you’ve got somebody like Paul Johansson who can execute it so well. Not everybody can play such a villain and, at the same time, get the audience to care for them. To emotionally invest in them. It blows my mind. I love Paul as an actor and a director and a friend, and I love the way he plays that role.

I completely agree with that assessment, and I am definitely “emotionally invested” in Dan Scott. At the very beginning, he was just so overwhelmingly cold-hearted and mean that it was hard to see anything else. But I remember the moment when that changed. In the season one episode titled “The Living Years,” Nathan goes to the beach house to tell Dan that he isn’t sure that he wants to play basketball anymore, and wonders if the problems in his family all center around him – if, in fact, Dan should have chosen Lucas instead of him. Then, with Ryan Adams’ “The Shadowlands” playing in the background, Dan gets teary-eyed and says, “Nathan, you have to know, whatever you do, whatever you decide, you’re my son, and I am proud of you. I love you.” And, oh boy, did I cry. I mean, if the devil himself says “I love you” and means it, that’s a moment when it is OK to cry. And since then, anytime Dan is the least bit earnest or kind – and heaven help me if he is sad – I am ready to climb in my TV, give him a hug, and tell him it’s all going to be OK. Not bad for a murderer. And don’t even get me started on “Grandpa Dan.”

We’d be here all day and into next week if I tried to list every single thing I love about this show, so this will not be an exhaustive list. But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how much I enjoy the relationships on One Tree Hill. And by relationships – I don’t necessarily mean romantic ones. In fact, other than Nathan and Haley, I have never gotten extremely invested in any Tree Hill romance. Sure, I like some more than others, but I prefer the family relationships: the volatile connection between Dan, Nathan, and Lucas; the loving connection between Karen, Keith and Lucas; and certainly the father/son bond that Nathan shares with Jamie, in spite of his own messy childhood.

Then there are a whole host of friendships – “Real friends…the kind of friendships we used to believe in” – that have always carried the characters through the toughest of times: Lucas and Haley, Haley and Brooke, Brooke and Peyton, Peyton and Nathan, Nathan and Clay, the James sisters, and the list goes on and on.

OTH Cast – “You Found Me”

“This all means nothing if you can’t knock down the shot.”

My favorite friendship, though, is the one that developed between Nathan and Lucas, as they built a bond as brothers that will last forever. After all, One Tree Hill was originally a story about these two brothers who were at best, strangers, and at worst, bitter enemies. And yet, through their mutual passion for basketball and their love of the same woman (albeit not the same kind of love), they learned to be brothers and best friends. They also had their ups and downs along the way, but I believe their relationship was cemented in the finale of season four. That is not to say that they wouldn’t face any struggles (as obviously they have since then), but that no matter what happened, they would remain brothers first and foremost.

When that chapter of One Tree Hill came to a close at the end of high school, there seemed to be few options: either cancel the show or concoct ridiculous storylines to send all the principal characters to the same college, and present “One Tree Hill: The College Years.” Everybody knows that the college years never pan out for “teen dramas,” and it would have been such a shame to walk away from a good thing. So, once again, One Tree Hill reinvented the wheel and stepped forward in time, skipping college altogether and reuniting its now-adult characters back in Tree Hill four years, six months, and two days later. It was a bold and risky move, but it paid off by revitalizing the show and giving each character new obstacles to face and new people to meet.

With the end of season six, we saw another chapter come to a close with the exit of original characters Lucas and Peyton (Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton), which was met with some opposition from longtime fans of the show. Now, I do not want the comments section on this blog to break out into a brawl, Brooke-and-Peyton-Prom-Night-at-Hater-High-style. However, I would like to explain why I am OK with those departures, and still see a bright future for One Tree Hill. Namely, Lucas and Peyton got their “happily ever after” story and literally rode off into the sunset. I don’t have any trouble believing or understanding that they would want to go and sail the world with Karen, Andy, and Lily. Yes, I am sure that Peyton misses Brooke, and Lucas misses Haley and Nathan and Jamie, but no more than Lucas had surely been missing his mother during the years they had spent apart, or being able to watch Lily grow up. Characters aside, sometimes actors move on and do other things, and sometimes a story ends and the writers see fit to wrap it up and move on. Whatever combination of those things (or maybe something else entirely) that happened in this case, we have no further control over it.

However, we may still have some control over whether the current One Tree Hill gets to have an 8th season. I can only imagine how disappointed I would be if Nathan and Haley were the ones gone instead of Lucas and Peyton, but I would like to believe that I’d still support the show that gave me those characters and so many other storylines that moved me through the years. Some “Leyton” fans haven’t been watching season 7, and I’d say they’ve missed out on a lot of great new characters and storylines featuring the old and the new. However, because One Tree Hill is such a compelling show, many of you who name Lucas and Peyton as your favorite characters have stuck with season 7 and been rewarded by a lot of excellent storylines.

Season Seven – “I and Love and You”

OTH Cast – “All the Right Moves”

My favorite season 7 moment so far (aside from Nathan Scott putting Jake Ryan to shame) came when Bess Armstrong reprised her role as Haley’s Mom, Lydia James. It was a quiet, bittersweet exchange between Nathan and an ailing Lydia, wherein we saw the bond that had obviously developed between them during Nathan and Haley’s almost nine years of marriage:

Lydia: You’re taking good care of my daughter. I remember the day you came to ask our permission to marry her. You were so nervous. But I looked into your eyes and I just knew.
Nathan: What did you know?
Lydia: That you were gonna change my daughter’s life. And I was right.
Nathan: You are responsible for raising the woman who changed my entire world. I’ll never forget that, Lydia. Thank you for saying yes.

So, no matter your favorite character or couple or your stance on this season, we are all fans of One Tree Hill. And if I could impart a little wisdom from Nathan Scott, “I wear that uniform just like they do, so it doesn’t matter if I’m playing or not, it’s still my team. We win as a team and we lose as a team.” So, whether are not your favorite couple is on the proverbial court this season, One Tree Hill is still your show, and you’re still a part of it. So I think we should focus on the ways in which we share a similar passion for this show, and consider how we want One Tree Hill to be remembered – not as a show that was cut off mid-story, but one with a lasting legacy that we can all share. With that in mind, please share your favorite moments, quotes, actors, directors, characters, or songs from One Tree Hill in the comments below. And don’t forget to tune in tonight!

“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound up in sorrows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, and we must take the current when it serves or lose our ventures.”

On the next blog, I’ll throw out some ideas on things I’d like to see happen before One Tree Hill goes off the air for good, whether that’s at the end of season 8 or the end of season 18. (The end of season 7 is simply not an option.)

In the meantime, I’d like to send out special thanks to the folks over at One Tree Hill Blog, who posted several of the videos shown here to help us get through the hiatus. (I would also like someone to explain to me how you do it! I think I could manage to compile the video, as I’ve done some of the photo slideshows with music for weddings and the like, but where do you get all those clips?)

Here are a few other videos that I didn’t embed in the post above, but that I thought you might enjoy seeing:

Tik Tok (OTH Cast)

Things I’ll Never Say (Brucas)

The Best Years of Our Lives (Leyton)

The Freshmen (OTH Cast)

One Last Chance (Naley)

Missing You (Naley circa Season 2)

P.S. – The rudimentary Photoshop art came from me, so be gentle.

Tags: One Tree Hill, OTH, The CW, We Are One
Posted in Editorial | 10 Comments »

Apr

2010

The Show Must Go On

After two months on hiatus without even reruns to keep us company, One Tree Hill has returned to The CW to air its final four episodes of season 7, and fans are left wondering if those will also be the final four episodes of the series.

One Tree Hill began in 2003 as a “teen drama” focused on the lives of five teenagers, but more specifically on the relationship – or the lack thereof – between half-brothers Nathan and Lucas Scott.

Despite the stigma surrounding “teen shows,” One Tree Hill has always managed to appeal to a broader audience by incorporating strong and intriguing adult characters, and spending time on family dynamics instead of trying to produce endless scandals to satiate the teen set.

One Tree Hill has always been a show with a lot of heart, explaining why its fans are among the most loyal in all of television. Show creator Mark Schwahn and the other writers deserve credit for the compelling drama, managing to offer storylines that haven’t been done (and redone!) before. The writing on One Tree Hill has been enhanced by the use of classic literary voiceovers and a quality soundtrack unparalleled in television.

But even though One Tree Hill has enjoyed seven years of success, and the actors, cast, and crew are already signed on and enthusiastic about making an eighth season, The CW has yet to issue an official renewal for one of their most successful shows.

The obvious question is “Why?” and the obvious answer is money. After all, seven years of success equals a hefty production cost, and comes with a price tag that The CW doesn’t seem to want to pay. However, you get what you pay for, and the CW gets a great return on its investment in One Tree Hill.

Quality programming is disappearing from the airwaves at an unprecedented rate thanks to reality TV, which happens to be the cheapest medium to produce (along with game shows). Scripted dramas cost more money, because they feature actors and writers who must be paid for their contributions.

In the same vein, younger shows with inexperienced casts (like The CW’s 90210, for example) come cheap because the actors are in first-time roles and haven’t earned the salary of a seven-year veteran actress like One Tree Hill’s Sophia Bush.

This might serve to illuminate The CW’s decision to grant renewals to shows like America’s Next Top Model, 90210, and Gossip Girl, while leaving One Tree Hill in limbo.

However, when you look at the numbers, there is still a disconnect in that logic. Cheaper production costs is one thing, but ratings still matter, right? When advertisers see big numbers tuning into a show, they’re more willing to shell out money to air commercials during that show, or pay for product placements to be used within the show.

Gossip Girl is The CW’s darling because critics took an initial interest in the show and everybody was talking about it. The CW has promoted Gossip Girl relentlessly in every possible avenue. They even incorporated mentions of Gossip Girl into episodes of One Tree Hill! Why would they do that? Because One Tree Hill, without the articles and the interviews and the attention of Gossip Girl, still managed to pull in significantly higher ratings. In fact, One Tree Hill’s LOWEST rated seasons match Gossip Girl’s HIGHEST rated seasons. Something seems a little backwards there, right?

Then, consider The CW’s remake of 90210. Its series high ratings were from early in the first season – 5.14 million viewers. People who loved the original 90210 tuned in to see if the new one would match the original. Unfortunately for The CW, those ratings quickly went into a freefall and settled in to around two million, with one episode as low as 1.48 million. Still, 90210 got an early renewal from The CW, because even though their ratings are in the tank, it still costs very little to produce and has struck the interest of the teen set.

The only CW shows yet to see renewal are One Tree Hill and the freshman drama, Life Unexpected. I have heard that it’s a good show – something with a little more substance than 90210 or Gossip Girl, at least. In order to create an audience for the show, The CW put it on the air initially right after One Tree Hill and marketed the new drama to One Tree Hill’s loyal fans. Then, they sent One Tree Hill on hiatus for two months and put Life Unexpected in its time slot, so that viewers used to tuning in on Mondays at 8pm would naturally watch Life Unexpected instead. I might not have minded the bait and switch quite as much were it not for the fact that The CW left these two shows hanging, in seeming competition for the sole remaining time slot on their fall docket. Did they think that One Tree Hill fans would just forget about their show of 7 years and accept a premature cancellation in exchange for a new show that’s only aired for half a season?

After The CW renewed all their shows but One Tree Hill and Life Unexpected (besides the obviously-over Melrose Place), polls started popping up online asking fans to decide which show should be saved. I can’t imagine the results surprised anyone: fans wanted BOTH shows to stay, but having to choose only one, One Tree Hill was the obvious winner.

Oops. I guess The CW should have weighed its options a little better before offering up early renewals for shows with dwindling audiences before considering that it might be in their best interest to keep both One Tree Hill and Life Unexpected around for another full season. (Life Unexpected, by the way, is pulling in higher ratings than 90210 or Gossip Girl, but still about half a million viewers lower than One Tree Hill.)

Further proof regarding One Tree Hill’s viability came in the form of E!Online’s Save One Show Campaign, wherein fans vote to save one “bubble show,” and the winner gets a big push in the press. Nineteen shows were in the running this year, but it came down to a top five including: One Tree Hill, Life Unexpected, Chuck, Better off Ted, and Parenthood. Twitter support brought Heroes back into the running for the final vote, as well. During the campaign, E!News decided to champion Chuck and lend that show some extra support to drum up votes. The Daily 10, meanwhile, threw their support behind Life Unexpected. The rest of the shows were on their own. Still, when the votes were tallied on the official poll and on Twitter, the results broke down like so:

Official Poll:

Chuck – 52% of the vote
One Tree Hill – 20% of the vote
Life Unexpected – 11% of the vote
Heroes – 8% of the vote
Better off Ted – 5% of the vote
Parenthood – 4% of the vote

Twitter Mentions:

Heroes – 36%
One Tree Hill – 32%
Chuck – 28%
Life Unexpected – 2%
Parenthood – 1%
Better off Ted – 1%

Combining the two lists, the obvious top three are: Chuck, One Tree Hill, and Heroes. You’ll notice that One Tree Hill came in second place for votes as well as Twitter mentions. What may not jump out at you right away, though, is that both Chuck and Heroes air on NBC – one of the “Big Three” networks. And while The CW is now considered a network (and is owned by CBS), they do not bring in ratings comparable to the big three. So, Chuck has 6.5 million viewers, and Heroes, once a ratings powerhouse, now brings in about 4 million viewers. Conversely, One Tree Hill’s success in the poll came from its 2.5 million viewers – 4 million less than winner, Chuck. Also of note: One Tree Hill was on hiatus (and had been on hiatus for over a month) when this campaign began. So, One Tree Hill had significantly less viewers, and was effectively “out of sight, out of mind,” but STILL managed to come in second place in both polls.

If I were a CW executive, I would take those numbers straight to my advertisers and point out that while One Tree Hill has a smaller audience by comparison, the fans are obviously devoted to the show, passionate, and involved in social networking – in other words, a marketing dream for advertisers hoping to push products on viewers. (Raise your hand if you watch One Tree Hill and you’ve ever bought Sunkist!)

In case The CW needed any more proof that One Tree Hill fans are a force to be reckoned with, the fans have been busy campaigning for Season 8. Christy-Anne, over at One Tree Hill Bugs, accepted fan donations to mail out uniform postcards on behalf of each fan who wanted to express their support to the network:

Meanwhile, fans took it upon themselves to start their own show-specific mailing campaign by sending thousands of basketballs to The CW, like Ali’s below:

The bottom line is this. One Tree Hill has devoted fans who have stuck with this show for 7 years, through a major network change (from the WB to the CW between seasons three and four), numerous schedule changes, a four and a half year time jump, and even the loss of two original cast members after season six. Any one of these things can cripple or end a show, but One Tree Hill has continued moving forward seamlessly, rewriting the playbook at every turn.

These fans, along with the creator, cast, and crew of One Tree Hill, deserve to see their show get its “happily ever after” ending – not to be dropped in the middle of developing storylines. When it is time for One Tree Hill to end, fans should know about it before the last season even begins, so that the writers have time to give it the sendoff we have all earned.

“No matter where you go, or who you become, this place will always be with you. There is only one Tree Hill. And it’s your home.” – Karen Roe, “The Games That Play Us.”

Along with emailing The CW and voting in the various online polls, I’ve decided to lend my voice to the show I love via this blog. So, if you’re a regular reader who doesn’t watch One Tree Hill, then I would first suggest adding season 1 to your Netflix queue post-haste, and second, bear with me as I have two more installments on the way. I first wanted to address why The CW should keep One Tree Hill from a business standpoint. In Part II, we can reminisce about why we love this show in the first place, and in Part III, discuss what we’d like to see happen before One Tree Hill eventually leaves the air.

Tags: One Tree Hill, The CW, We Are One Campaign
Posted in Editorial | 35 Comments »

Apr

2010

Farewell to the City and the Love of My Life

Seven years ago, I made my first trip to New York City when I was invited by some friends to attend the As the World Turns fan club luncheon with them. I wasn’t much of a traveler back then, but these gals bought me a ticket and begged me to join them, so I threw caution to the wind and headed north.

Since then, I have been to New York almost fifteen different times, and every time, I seem to love it just a little bit more, and find myself feeling more and more at home. This past weekend, I attended the final As the World Turns luncheon, saying “goodbye” to a show I’ve watched for a quarter of a century before it leaves the airwaves in September. (I bid a similar adieu to Guiding Light last October.) That made this trip feel like a farewell in many ways. For starters, these fan events have been the catalyst for my regular NYC trips for seven years, leaving me to wonder when I’ll visit the Big Apple again. In the larger sense, though, this trip carried the weight of the realization that I would be saying goodbye to some people that I may actually never see again, which is as appalling as it sounds.

Still, even with a bittersweet tinge marking this trip, I had a glorious time sharing the experience with dear friends.

My best friend, Jessica, along with her 8-year-old daughter, Thai, accompanied me on this trip. They had been planning one of their own, and we decided to lump our trips together in the interest of finances and fun. We set out for NYC on Friday morning, by way of a JetBlue flight from RIC to JFK. We made it into midtown Manhattan just after noon, dropped our bags off in the room, and set out on our first adventure to the Statue of Liberty.

First, we stopped by a street vendor for some hot dogs. I tend not to eat hot dogs, and I REALLY tend not to eat food that: was cooked outside, is currently outside, or is sold in a building where you can also buy motor oil. That being said, I hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before, so I actually took a bite of one of Thai’s hot dogs – a New York City first for me. Jessica even had to ask for clarification, because she thought she was seeing things. (Later in the weekend, I took THREE bites of a pretzel from a food cart. I’m a wild woman, I tell you!)

Eating on the run like true New Yorkers, we headed for the Subway station to ride downtown. Thai enjoyed the experience immensely; first, for all the germ-laden surfaces she could touch immediately before adjusting the gum in her mouth; second, for trying to stand up while the subway was moving. Luckily, she stayed within catching distance.

Possibly due to the foggy skies or chilly weather, the ferry line for the Statue of Liberty was very short. We breezed right through security and braved the wind atop the boat for optimum views en route to Liberty Island.

This was my first time actually going over to Liberty Island. Previously, I have opted to ride the (free!) Staten Island Ferry to simply get a good view of the statue, but it is a nice experience to actually go over to the statue at least once.

When we returned to Battery Park, we hopped back on the subway and rode up to visit one of my favorite locations, Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Little Italy. I’ve been to Riverside Church on the Upper West Side and to Trinity at Wall Street, and while I suppose those are larger and more celebrated, they still do not outdo this place in my mind.

After leaving the cathedral, we proceeded to another hallowed location: Pinkberry.

I got a mix of plain and pomegranate yogurt and topped it off with strawberries, kiwi, and blackberries, pictured here in all its glory. Jessica and Thai both got chocolate yogurt with strawberries and fruity pebbles, and while they were enamored with the taste, it was the nastiest looking cup of stuff I have ever seen, so I will not be sharing those pictures.

When we left Pinkberry, we proceeded to walk through Little Italy and head down to Chinatown. Thai has a reading assignment coming up at school about Chinatown, so her teacher suggested taking her down there so she could report back to the class about what she saw. She was not overly excited about the prospect of doing something school-related on our trip, and she seemed even less interested in walking the necessary blocks. In fact, having seen enough of Chinatown to satisfy Thai’s teacher, we discovered Thai’s favorite New York City attraction – the taxi cab.

We took the cab to a place called S’Mac, which serves only macaroni and cheese – in other words, my mecca. The menu featured many different varieties, or you could build your own, and I didn’t even recognize all the cheeses listed. While my mind boggled at the possibilities, Jessica ordered a regular mac and cheese for Thai and cheeseburger macaroni for herself (pictured). I settled on the Four Cheese with Bacon.

That’s when things got interesting. We were seated at a table near the kitchen, and Jessica and Thai’s order came up first. The delay seemed longer than necessary between the arrival of their orders and mine, but I attributed that to my overwhelming hunger at that point. When my piping hot skillet arrived, I quickly grabbed a fork and dug in, but while I was still blowing on the first bite to cool it down, an older lady seated by the window got up, crossed the restaurant, and stole my skillet of mac and cheese right from under my nose (and my dangling fork that still held a bite full). I was in shock, and the waitress came over and explained that I had gotten that lady’s food and she got mine. She then asked if I wanted the skillet she was holding (which had come from the other lady’s table, as evidenced by the blanket of pepper on top and the gaping hole in the side where she had taken her first bite). I declined that generous offer and said I would wait for a new skillet. In the meantime, I finally ate the bite that was on my fork, which is probably the best bite of macaroni and cheese I have ever tasted. Only a few moments passed before the waitress returned and offered me a “new” skillet – still oddly covered with pepper and caved in on one side. This time, Jessica flagged the waitress down and pointed out that this skillet didn’t have bacon in it, which I had overlooked due to sheer astonishment and disbelief. What I really wanted to do was go punch that other lady in the face and take my skillet back with the magically delicious mac and cheese. I couldn’t do that, anyway, because after STEALING my food from me, she took one bite and then brought it back up to the counter and told them it was cold and she needed another. Unbelievable. I did eventually get my order, two bites into which, Thai asked if we were ready to leave. *blink*

After our candid camera experience in fine dining, we proceeded uptown to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, aka “The Met.” Jessica loves all things historical, and Thai seems to have picked up on the gene, so while they ooh’d and ahh’d over various old pieces of pottery and stone busts of various old dead people, I simply looked around for pretty stuff to photograph:

Given our early morning wake up time and our long day of travel, we were ready to head back to the hotel fairly early (by New York standards). We did linger around Times Square and let Thai take in all of the lights before passing out in the hotel.

On Saturday, our itineraries went two separate ways. Jessica and Thai went off on their own to take in the Empire State Building, the Museum of Natural History, and the Hayden Planetarium. They also did a little napping and a little shopping, which were NOT on the itinerary. Bloody insurrectionists.

Meanwhile, my friend Christina came in from Staten Island, and Terri flew in from South Carolina, and together, we went down to the ballroom (in our hotel) for the As the World Turns luncheon.

Having procured a script from the final episode of Guiding Light at the luncheon in October, I entered the raffle for an As the World Turns script as well. (The final episode hasn’t been filmed yet, so that script obviously wasn’t available.) I did end up winning one of the scripts, which will be quite welcome in my collection. After lunch, we were off to the meet and greet lines, and while I made the rounds, I figured I’d just post a few highlights.

First, this fellow from France, whose name I have already forgotten, was in NYC with his parents, who had flown him over for his birthday so he could attend the luncheon for the first time. As the World Turns, he said, is his favorite show. Here he is sporting an autograph from Eric Sheffer Stevens.

Since this was the final luncheon, several actors returned to see the fans even if they hadn’t been on the show in years. One of my old favorites, Peter Parros, was on hand and told me about his company, Ten Talents Productions, which produces comic books and a cartoon aimed at ministering to children. Another familiar face back to visit was Jon Prescott (pictured), who was only on ATWT for a short time, but made such a great impression on me years ago that I had to go and say hello to him again.

On the list of the most talented people I have ever had the pleasure to meet is Tom Pelphrey, and he was also on hand to greet the fans, even though he wrapped filming on ATWT months ago. His line was one of the most popular at the luncheon, and certainly with me. I cannot say enough good things about his acting (the man can make a simple play reading riveting) and he has one of those infectious personalities that is a joy to be around. The incredible success that he has had during his very short career so far tells me that the whole world will know his name one day.

On the topic of talented youngsters, let’s go even younger (I’m a cougar now, apparently) and mention Mick Hazen, who seemed like such a little boy just a few years ago, and suddenly he turned 17 and shot up to six feet, three inches tall! More importantly, he’s a wonderful actor, and I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of him after college. No matter how tall he gets, he’ll always be sweet little Parker Munson Snyder to me. I resisted the urge to pinch his cheeks like an old lady.

After the luncheon, I walked over to Latitude Bar & Grill to participate in another grand tradition: Martinis With Henry. I was fortunate enough to be present when this tradition was born, and it has grown to a much bigger group over the years. Trent Dawson (the “Henry” of Martinis with Henry) has always and will always hold a very special place in my heart. I hope my next trip to NYC will be to see him tearing it up on Broadway.

After reuniting our group at the hotel, we headed out once again to visit the Top of the Rock. Great view and that light room is fantastic.

Afterward, we walked across the street to Rockefeller Center so Thai could check out the ice skating rink.

By then, it was time for me to part ways again so that I could head down to the Lower East Side to see Matthew Perryman Jones play at Rockwood Music Hall. I was a little tentative about hopping on a subway alone and going to a part of New York I was entirely unfamiliar with at 10:00 at night, but the inducement was strong enough, and partly I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it.

When I made it down to 2^nd Avenue, and walked up the stairs out of the subway station toward the street lights and graffiti, I almost ran smack into Jon Prescott. We laughed at the coincidence – New York City is such a big place in a very small world. He remembered from our earlier conversation that I was headed to the show, so he pointed me in the right direction. I found the line of people waiting to go inside the Rockwood and waited with them for a few minutes. The act before was finishing up, and when he did, enough people exited the hall to allow those of us on the street to get inside. I found a seat at a table against the wall (I don’t like standing in the midst of a big crowd), and shortly my table was filled with strangers, all there for the same reason as me. The guy next to me initiated conversation, and it took only minutes for us to discover that we had a lot of common musical interests. Then, no one could shut us up! We talked in detail about Derek Webb and Caedmon’s Call (whose drummer, Todd Bragg, is touring with Matthew Perryman Jones) and we even tossed some music suggestions back and forth.

Watching Matthew Perryman Jones perform (and he is fantastic, by the way), the whole essence of the evening struck me. I was in New York City, having come downtown alone, sitting next to a fellow Caedmon’s Call buff, listening to one of my favorite artists perform just a few feet from me. It is hard to explain the emotion of a moment like that, but it was beautiful.

I was in such great spirits that I forgot I was taking a different train back, so I hopped off one stop too early and, weighing my options, decided to just enjoy the 14 blocks back to Times Square on foot.

Even though I was the last one in bed Saturday night, I still managed to wake up first on Sunday morning. (Anybody who knows me also knows how ridiculous that is.) With a chorus of snoring around me, I contemplated slipping out on my own again, but as I started to move around, I saw some signs of life, so I waited for Jess and Thai to get moving so we could head down to Central Park.

Thai was eager to ride a horse-drawn carriage, so we took the 45-minute tour of the park with a guide named Kevin and a horse named Beethoven.

When our ride was finished, we still had about an hour before we were supposed to meet Terri and Christina for lunch, so we decided to go to the Conservatory Gardens in Central Park, since we didn’t have time on Friday. I am glad we were able to fit that in, because the gardens were absolutely gorgeous, and this wasn’t even peak season!

Our group gathered together again to chow down on some delicious (and cheap!) pizza before heading to our matinee of Mamma Mia at the Winter Garden Theater. David Andrew MacDonald – once the evil villain, Edmund, on Guiding Light – was playing the much more affable role of Harry for Mamma Mia, so we were excited to see him on stage. The show itself was fantastic, and we all found ourselves singing and dancing along. Of course, there was plenty cause for laughter, too. Broadway is the only place on earth where platform boots and spandex can add up to a good time!

After the show, we waited at the stage door in the hopes of saying hello to David. He was the first one out the door and as charming as ever. We talked to him and he signed our playbills and posed for a picture.

Thai was more excited by that than we originally anticipated, and she wanted to hang around and see who else might come out from the show. We were happy to oblige her, and she got more pictures and signatures from Mamma Mia’s “Tanya” and “Sophie.”

From there, we had to say goodbye to Christina, because she had to get back home to return to work the next day. She headed down to Battery Park to catch the ferry home, and the rest of us were Brooklyn-bound.

We made it to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade just as the sun was setting, and were able to enjoy the view (and take some photos) as the sky got darker and the lights got brighter.

We hopped on the subway again, but this time Terri and I left Jessica and Thai behind as we transferred trains to go back downtown to the Rockwood Music Hall again. They have recently built a new space next door to the original hall, and refer to it as “Stage 2.” In a brilliant stroke of luck, Wakey!Wakey! was playing there Sunday night! Terri opted to come along, although she had never heard any of their music before. We weren’t sure how our music tastes would line up, but I appreciated the company all the same, and just hoped that she’d enjoy the show.

When we walked in the door, the first person I saw was Mike Grubbs, lead singer of Wakey!Wakey! (and bonus: Bartender “Grubbsy” from One Tree Hill). I am pretty sure the combination of those two things made me a little too giddy, but he obliged me with a photo and we talked a bit. I related how I’d fallen in love with their music upon hearing “War Sweater,” and then when he popped up in a recurring role on One Tree Hill, that was the icing on the cake for me.

We settled in for the show – again, mere feet from the stage. Two songs in, I looked back at Terri to gauge if she was enjoying herself and she nodded yes. Meanwhile, I was over the moon! It is disappointing when you love an artist and then you go to a show and realize that what you really loved was the miracle-working producer who put the album together. In this case, though, it was quite the opposite. I’ve been a fan of the music for quite a while, but seeing them live was – wow – spectacular!

The whole band played most of the show, and Grubbs did a few songs on his own as well. Rosi Golan even joined him onstage for a rendition of “Blame You.” When the whole band was playing, I was quite taken with the violinist, Patrick. Amazing!!

Somewhere around the middle of the show – and I don’t even remember what song was playing – Terri tapped me on the shoulder. When I turned around, she was grinning and giving me a big thumbs up! Needless to say, Wakey!Wakey! has a new fan, and since Terri asked me, “Man, what did I miss last night?!” – she’s probably home looking up Matthew Perryman Jones as well. We both talked to Mike Grubbs again after the show, and then I got to meet the band’s manager, Wesley, which was a delight after having corresponded sporadically on Twitter.

Monday morning, we all slept in, but still woke up exhausted. There wasn’t much on Monday’s schedule for that very reason. Terri was meeting another friend for breakfast, so Jessica, Thai, and I walked around Times Square some more, hitting the Hershey store and the M&M store, much to Thai’s delight.

We had lunch at Junior’s (and packed our cheesecake in our purses to go), met Terri at the hotel for the goodbyes, and jumped in a cab back to the airport.

The cheesecake never made it out of the city, since we ate that while we waited at our gate, but before long, we were on a plane headed back to Virginia.

Thai certainly seemed to enjoy her first-ever trip to New York City, and I can only hope that, like me, she finds something new to love about it every time she goes from now on. For my part, I am sure I will find another reason to go back to the Big City soon enough – you can bet I’ll be keeping a keen eye on the schedule down at Rockwood Music Hall!

Tags: As the World Turns, Mamma Mia, Martinis with Henry, Matthew Perryman Jones, New York City, One Tree Hill, Wakey!Wakey!
Posted in Music, Travel | 1 Comment »

Mar

2010

I Couldn’t Breathe Without Your Music In My Lungs

I marvel at those lists that boast the best songs or albums… of the year, of the decade, or of all time. I am equally fascinated every time someone posts a more personal list of their 10 favorite songs or their most influential albums. Just thinking about crafting a list of that sort is daunting enough to scare me away from it. I feel like my opinions on that change with every day, every mood, and every new album released. The only question I can answer with some certainty is “Who is your favorite artist?” and even then, it’s a three-way tie between Derek Webb, Ryan Adams, and Levi Weaver.

There are songs that I will always love for various reasons. I’d never scroll past a radio station playing “She’d Give Anything” (Boy Howdy) because it brings a surge of memories, and quite frankly, I still relate to it. But I also couldn’t really name one other song that group ever did – and I probably wouldn’t want to! On the other end of the musical spectrum, there are songs like “Paris is Burning” by St. Vincent, which – while I have no emotional attachment to it whatsoever – awes me every time I hear it. That song is a work of art – a masterpiece, actually. But it doesn’t hold a piece of my heart like that cheesy country song from 1994.

Then, there are songs that are my favorites for a day, a week, or a month, and then I move on. I get stuck on songs like “Daughters of the Soho Riots” (The National) or “I and Love and You” (The Avett Brothers) and listen to them on repeat until they are branded on my soul. But catch me one Friday afternoon in the summer on the open road with the windows down, and I just might be rocking out to Fall Out Boy. When I’m 90 and in the nursing home, I’m going to remember The National, but “Dance Dance”? Probably not.

I face this internal conflict about music. On the one hand, I savor music that is well-crafted, with atypical chord progressions and lyrics that slay me. On the other, I can and will rock out like a 12-year-old when I hear the New Kids on the Block, and I pity the fool standing between me and the dance floor if the DJ plays “You Shook Me All Night Long.” It’s like I have Multiple Musical Personality Disorder. And I make no apologies for it.

Thankfully, I have a lot of friends who are the same way, and we float recommendations back and forth to great effect. Word of mouth is the new way to discover music, since radio is on life-support and desperately waiting for someone to put it out of its misery. I’ve also discovered quite a few artists thanks to music supervisor Lindsay Wolfington and music-loving show creator Mark Schwahn over at One Tree Hill, who are responsible for introducing me to the likes of Trespassers William, Lucero, Wakey!Wakey! and others, as well as causing me to give a little more play to music legends like The Cure or Led Zeppelin.

So, despite my ever-changing, ever-growing musical catalogue, I decided to attempt to satiate the masses (heh.) by discussing some artists, albums, or songs that have either had a profound impact on me, or that represent an era in my life.

Let me begin by saying that I grew up on country music. And when I say “grew up on,” the truth is that I’m not sure I even knew that any other kind of music existed. When people talked about “the King,” I figured that must surely be George Strait. I don’t regret that upbringing by any means. Even though country music crashed into Shania Twain mountain long ago, some of it still holds a special place in my heart. For example, Clint Black was my first crush (not counting He-Man) in his tight jeans (why, Clint?), his blazer, his black cowboy hat, and that grin. I still think he is adorable to this day. My favorite artist growing up, though, was The Judds. They provided the soundtrack to my childhood, and I still love listening to them. I have every album they ever made, but back when all I had was two Judds’ cassettes (Love Can Build a Bridge and River of Time), my Mom had the Greatest Hits on vinyl. Anytime I was left home alone as a child, I’d slip down to the record-player and crank this album up while I sang along and danced around the living room. When I was 10, Naomi got sick and The Judds came down to just Wynonna. Her solo album was the first CD I ever owned, given to me on my birthday along with a “boom box” that still resides somewhere in the dark depths of my closet. And since not many pre-teens can afford to expand their record collections too much, this album is about all I listened to for years. I loved every beat of it. I still think Wynonna is one tough broad with an amazing voice. And lest I should ever be without a boots-clad, guitar-playing country boy to swoon over, I have Joe Nichols for that.

Then, about 15 years ago, my musical landscape changed forever. I related the story on my old blog of how I came to own the self-titled Caedmon’s Call cassette tape, which was my introduction to what would become my favorite band of all time. This album made me fall head over heels in love with music, and I have never looked back. That album followed into 40 Acres, which houses one of the contenders for my favorite song (“Somewhere North”) as well as the song responsible for my internet alter-ego, “Shifting Sand.” After the release of “Long Line of Leavers” in 2000, Caedmon’s Call lost a few of their key members – Aaron Tate and Derek Webb – to other projects. Unfortunately, Derek and Aaron were their chief songwriters, and without their well-crafted lyrics to drive the music, the band lost quite a bit of its luster in my eyes.

Three years later, I got the magic back when Derek Webb re-emerged with his first solo offering, “She Must and Shall Go Free.” To me, it packed a punch akin to Luther’s 95 Theses, and Derek has not stopped convicting and infuriating the Christian community since. No matter what anyone says about Derek Webb, though, he stands by his convictions and backs them up with the way he lives his life. So, even if I don’t always agree with him, I can always respect him. Luckily, we tend to agree. I had the great privilege of meeting Derek Webb several years back, and since then, I’ve scarcely missed a show within a reasonable driving distance, and I find that I enjoy hearing what he has to say as much as listening to his songs.

Of course, I listened to more in my teen and college years than just Derek Webb and Caedmon’s Call (though that certainly captured the majority of my attention). Alanis Morissette got me through the angst with “Jagged Little Pill,” which was certainly a departure from my usual musical style, but a great album is a great album and THAT was a great album. To carry on with my country background, I left the Dixie Chicks’ “Wide Open Spaces” in my CD player for probably a year, and even if I live to be 200 years old, I’ll probably still know that album from beginning to end. And like any good teenager of the 90s, I had to participate in the great debate: ‘NSYNC or BSB? I sided with the Backstreet Boys and collected EVERYTHING – carefully-clipped magazine articles, posters covering 90% of my bedroom walls, CDs shaped like their heads (which you probably didn’t know existed, did you?), and VHS tapes of concerts that I watched over and over again with my cousin, Tracey. She loved Brian and I loved AJ. I kind of still have an AJ poster on the wall in my office at home, but I swear, I’ve been thinking about taking it down. For some weightier subject matter, I had Jennifer Knapp’s Kansas, which remains a favorite album of mine to this day.

Over the course of college, I stopped hearing any new music that I liked, because the radio certainly wasn’t playing it, and I didn’t really know where to get it. I also had some trying times in college, where I listened to Alison Krauss non-stop in my car as if the engine wouldn’t run otherwise. At a certain point, I wasn’t listening to music much at all, because there was nothing to compel me or excite me or awaken that part of me anymore.

Then one day, something happened that changed my life as much if not more than that Caedmon’s Call cassette had ten years earlier….

I created a MySpace profile. I know what you’re thinking. MySpace is basically a joke now (although I am thinking of returning there post-haste if they can promise no Farmville or Mafia Wars), but there was a time when MySpace was the hub of the internet and, for all its faults, it created the opportunity for independent artists to network and connect with fans that would never hear their songs played on the radio or stumble into one of their shows. The down side was that anyone who thought they had talent could put their music out there to the masses, and it became tedious trying to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Before the random friend requests became overwhelming, though, and MySpace was still quite new to me, I got a request to become “friends” with an England-based musician by the name of Levi Weaver. I clicked over to his page out of curiosity and immediately connected to the music that I heard. The lyrics were brilliant – with depth and authenticity – and the sound drew me in completely. Beyond that, I gave the profile a once-over and the bio impressed me enough that I decided to message Mr. Weaver and let him know that he had a new fan in me.

To my surprise, I received a fast response from Levi, despite the fact that it was well past midnight in England at the time. I’m not sure I can trace the progression from there, but suffice it to say we have become friends over the years, and music or not, I feel blessed to know him. Luckily for all of us, he has continued to produce one amazing song after the other with no signs of slowing down. So, I am grateful to be along for the ride, and because I pity the people who have not been introduced to his music, I try to spread the word at any opportunity.

(To wit, you can actually go HERE and subscribe to the new album AND get your hands on the rest of his catalog for one very small lump sum. Support independent artists, people!)

Discovering Levi’s music was enough to reawaken my slumbering zeal for the arts, but it didn’t stop there, because Levi proceeded to turn me on to the third member of my musical trifecta – Ryan Adams.

While I have specific (heart-warming!) stories to relate about Derek Webb and Levi Weaver, I have no such anecdote for Ryan Adams. I’ve never met him, and can boast only having been within about 20 or 30 feet of him at concerts. All I know is that once I got a small taste of his music, I could not stop listening until I had heard it all. And hearing it “all” is no small feat when you’re talking about a musical genius the likes of Ryan Adams, who gained renown for cranking out music faster than his fans could listen to it. Since I arrived at the party about a decade late (when you count his earlier Whiskeytown recordings), I had a lot of catching up to do. I started with a few selected songs that spanned the years, and then rushed out to get his latest release at the time, “Easy Tiger.” I loved it and it sent me into a frenzy collecting the other albums – albums that even surpassed what I had already heard. “Heartbreaker” (possibly his most acclaimed album), “Cold Roses,” and “Love Is Hell,” to name a few, are filled with amazing melodies, lyrics, and emotions. Much of his music was never officially released through a label, and came through Adams himself as he released the music online directly to fans – and the songs are by no means second rate! My favorite studio album, though, is “Gold.” The title may imply that it is some kind of “best of” collection, but it’s not – it’s an original album that houses several of my favorite Ryan Adams’ songs, like “The Rescue Blues” and “New York, New York.” While a lot of his music tends toward the melancholy, the content of “Gold” seems a bit lighter when compared to some of his other fare. It also contains the widely-covered song, “When the Stars Go Blue,” which shines best through the voice of its author. (And I can only hope that Ryan Adams got a LOT of money from Tim McGraw’s cover version, because that has got to be the most tragic thing to happen to a song in my lifetime.)

As my friend and office-mate, Kelli, will tell you, there are some days that I just do not function on anything other than Ryan Adams. Luckily, she also has a great appreciation for his music, so she doesn’t mind, and I dare say she’s had a few of those “Ryan Adams Days” herself. Sadly, Ryan Adams is on an indefinite “break” from making music (though he has been producing books of prose with about as much regularly as he did his music), but I am banking on the notion that a consummate musician like him will not be able to help but make more music as time wears on. If not, I take comfort in knowing that I have a tremendous catalog of his music that I can and will listen to until the end of time.

This blog has run a bit lengthy, even by my verbose standards, so while I could probably go on forever discussing this topic, I will leave you off by rounding out my top five favorite artists for you. Coming in at number four is Josh Ritter, who honestly took a while to grow on me. That recommendation came through Levi, as well, and though I was immediately taken by some of Ritter’s lyrics, I wasn’t sold on the sound, and I was ready to throw in the towel. Levi challenged me to press on, and I did – thank goodness I did! Ritter’s voice grew on me, and his lyrics have kept me coming back for more. (Lyrics always get me.) Critics say that Josh Ritter gets better with each album, which I do not doubt and am eagerly looking forward to his next release in May after a LONG wait, but while I think both “The Animal Years” and “The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter” are epic albums, I stand by my favorite Josh Ritter album, “Hello Starling.” My favorite tunes on that album are “Kathleen” and “Snow is Gone.” Check it out.

My number 5 choice came through Levi in a way, though in this case he is the one that needs to see the light and embrace this artist. Through the marvel of the internet, and the mutual connection to Levi, I have gotten to know Mel, who is always ready to share her musical discoveries (and she has a keen ear for them). So, she is the one who introduced me to Patty Griffin, and oh, what a gift that has been. It is hard to single out one Patty Griffin album, because they are all filled with her rich, soulful style and there are plenty of songs to treasure. For the sake of this exercise, I am going to mention “Impossible Dream” because it contains my favorite Patty Griffin song (which also happens to be the one that most easily slays me), “Useless Desires.”

What are some of your favorite artists or songs or styles? I am interested to know. And if you want to talk even more about music, you know where to find me and I am always up to the task! If you’re just hearing about any of the acts I mentioned above, then you have some rewarding work ahead of you checking them all out!

Tags: Derek Webb, Jennifer Knapp, Josh Ritter, Levi Weaver, Lindsay Wolfington, Lucero, Mark Schwahn, One Tree Hill, Patty Griffin, Ryan Adams, The National, Wakey!Wakey!
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