Well, first of all, when I found out about this a few weeks ago I was all over it! On the very top of my bucket list is to someday be a part of a lip dub, mosh mash, flash mob, whatever! I mean, nothing ties me better to my computer than an afternoon of watching these things!
So it was first scheduled for the 15th of May (which I couldn't even comprehend because that would mean them having to block off downtown for two days in a row given the River Bank Run the day before.) But luckily the production was rained out that day, which, by luckily, meant that I could just sleep in and not have to think about driving downtown on a Sunday morning.
And then, I found out on Google that it would be re-scheduled for the next Sunday. So thank goodness, right?
So then next Sunday rolls around and I open the door to let the cats out and realize that even at 7:00 am the weather is feeling a little bit (more than) steamy. And anyone who knows about the relationship my hair has with humidity will completely understand why I decided to just go back inside and shut the door, content to stay on the computer in my cool basement for the rest of the day.
It wasn't till again a few days later, after mentioning it to my friend Cheryl, and after learning that the premiere of the production was going be shown on the big screen at Celebration Cinema North on Wednesday night, that I truly regretted not having just dealt with the humility of having been born with frizzy hair.
Us: So why didn't we do it? Me: Why didn't you ask me to do it with you? Cheryl: Why didn't you ask ME?!! And Etc. Etc. Sigh. Sigh. Whine. Whine...
So ok... here's what we missed out on...
And Now, My Humble Review...
I think the fact that it was all shot in ONE shot is amazing but which,of course, are the rules for a lip dub anyway. But I mean, how difficult must it be to pull something like this together? Unimaginable. The direction, camera work and the timing (in parts) were incredible, I thought. But the fact that this had to be shot on a Sunday afternoon was the unfortunate thing, sort of making it look like a dying city afterall... (This whole project stemmed from NewsWeek's article about Grand Rapids being one of the top 10 dying cities in America...) sigh
Plus... I'm really kicking myself as well for not having had the wherewithall and forsite to have volunteered to be a choreographer for all those extras. I thought the principals were really pretty good though! (Except for those people in the cars on the bridge who had absolutely no clue to the words.) And where was the Grand Rapids Ballet during all this?! But I'll stop now.
I just wish that all 200,000 of us would have turned out! That would have really been something! But then again, that probably would have been a little bit too much for a 22 year old (Forest Hills Central HIgh School) graduate to manage...
Anyway, he sure is cute!
Grand Rapids Lip Dub Premier, Rob Bliss, Celebration Cinema, May 25, 2011...
Check out Rob Bliss's ArtPrize 2009 Paper Airplanes entry if you want to see wall to wall people...
Anyway... I still really, REALLY love my super cool town!
P.S. Cheryl, was I right? It really DOES work better on a smaller screen doesn't it? But it's still only a sadly half filled bridge...
And this just in!!!! Roger Eberts calls this the best music video ever made! So WeeeeeCoooo!!!
