I have been dying to be able to talk about OneRepublic’s new album Waking Up that is out today! So here I go…I got an advance copy of the album last week and I have to admit that I haven’t stopped listening to it. I am pretty sure everyone has heard me have it on repeat.

Waking Up, recorded in OneRepublic’s  hometown Denver, is the band’s most sweeping, cinematic effort to date, with even more strings and movie-like moments, thanks in part to the use of the same children’s choir and orchestra used by Batman and Edward Scissorhands composer Danny Elfman (with whom Ryan Tedder has shared ideas). Plus, OneRepublic has recently added co-writer and bass and cello player Brent Kutzle to its lineup. “All he listened to before getting into this band was soundtracks,” Tedder says. “He can name every score and soundtrack guy from the last 15 years.”

My favorite songs off the new album are definitely  All This Time and All The Right Moves. Especially with All This Time it talks about how someone was always in love with this one person, and how all this time it was them they were supposed to love. (I’ve listened to that song the most.)

This for sure has to be my favorite album of there year. You can get it on iTunes right now by following this link.

Ryan Tedder  says his best work with OneRepublic is ahead of him, and he’s more inspired than ever. He practically speaks in lyrics these days. “Music is my life,” he says, “and songs are my currency.”

Serabee is releasing her new EP tomorrow November 10th. I have talked about Serabee before. She has an amazing sound that you haven’t really heard yet. I think that it will get her far. I’ve listened to the whole EP and I love it. I will be buying it tomorrow!

My two favorite songs on the EP were Driving Me Stupid and The Rest Of Me. I love how she sings about how in love you can get…how it can make you feel like you are crazy. And with her soulful and upbeat love songs you are sure to be able to relate to her.

There’s no doubt Serabee’s nomadic musical instincts fan the flames on the fiery self-titled debut. Note perfect and a helluva’ lot of fun, she’s a soul siren who’s not afraid to let loose in ways almost forgotten on contemporary records tempered by auto-tune. Also known for her emotive, uplifting auditions, it was the piano-tinged romp she put on for the executives at Universal republic that would ultimately seal the deal.

“I guess I’ve never been afraid to show what I’ve got,” she smiles, slyly reverting to that wry lyric on “The Rest Of Me”: /’Who cares what I look like under this dress./ I know that you will be impressed….you’ll love the rest of me…’ “

The truly amazing feat is that she was able to pour such an undeniable essence into every groove of her new EP.

I am an avid reader and right now I’m reading, The Mortal Instruments Series. I’m almost done the second book but feel heartbroken about the characters so I must admit that I haven’t been reading as much as I used to.

I had heard about Nightlight by The Harvard Lampoon a couple weeks ago and how it was a parody of Twilight. I know that when I was reading it I had some silly questions about the characters. The book finally came out today and on the EW website they posted a chapter of it.

The main character is Belle and she is moving from Phoenix to where her dad lives, Switchblade. And the main character that she falls in love with is a computer geek named, Edwart. I have to say that I read through the first chapter quite quickly laughing and getting stares at the other people in my house. Here is my favorite excerpt from the first chapter.

It was then that I saw him. He was sitting at a table all by himself, not even eating. He had an entire tray of baked potatoes in front of him and still he did not touch a single one. How could a human have his pick of baked potatoes and resist them all? Even odder, he hadn’t noticed me, Belle Goose, future Academy Award winner.

A computer sat before him on the table. He stared intently at the screen, narrowing his eyes into slits and concentrating those slits on the screen as if the only thing that mattered to him was physically dominating that screen. He was muscular, like a man who could pin you up against the wall as easily as a poster, yet lean, like a man who would rather cradle you in his arms. He had reddish, blonde-brown hair that was groomed heterosexually. He looked older than the other boys in the room — maybe not as old as God or my father, but certainly a viable replacement. Imagine if you took every woman’s idea of a hot guy and averaged it out into one man. This was that man.

”What is that?” I asked, knowing that whatever it was it wasn’t avian.

”That’s Edwart Mullen,” Lululu said.

Edwart. I had never met a boy named Edwart before. Actually, I had never met any human named Edwart before. It was a funny sounding name. Much funnier than Edward.

I can’t wait to get the whole book and read and giggle through the whole thing! I hope they end up writing all the books. I know there is a couple of the characters like Dr. Cullen and Emmett and how they would make them really funny.

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Orphan is now out on DVD & BluRay. I watched the movie yesterday and I have to say that I was very impressed. I was on the edge of my seat through the whole thing. I was very glad it was during the day because I was freaking out. And the twist in the movie…I wasn’t expecting it at all. Get it on Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand & Digital Download on October 27th. You can also get it at the WBShop.com here.

The movie has two really strong characters….the girl that plays Esther, Isabelle Fuhrman, and the little girl that plays her sister, Max, Aryana Engineer, I was crying for little Max through the movie! It also stars Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard.

The synopsis goes like this: Tragedy seems to follow nine-year-old Esther. She was orphaned in her native Russia. Her last adoptive family perished in a fire Esther barely escaped. But now the Coleman family has adopted her, and life is good. Until a classmate takes a serious fall from a slide. Until an orphanage nun is battered to death. And until Esther?s new mom wonders if that tragic fire was an accident. From Dark Castle Productions comes Orphan, bringing stunning new twists to the psychological thriller and locking audiences in a tightening vise of mystery, suspicion and terror. You?ll never forget Esther. So sweet. So intelligent. So creative. So disturbed. Check out the official site here.

[Images by Warner Bros]

Everyone knows that a Matthew McConaughey movie has to be good. And then you add Jennifer Garner in there and you have a hit! I am a huge fan of movies that go in the past or future so Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past was perfect. Get it on Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand & Digital Download September 22.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past stars Matthew McConaughey as perpetual bachelor Connor Mead. On the eve of his brother Paul’s wedding, Connor’s mockery of romance proves a real buzz-kill for Paul and the wedding party, including Connor’s childhood friend Jenny Perroti (Jennifer Garner), the one woman who has always seemed immune to his considerable charm. Just when it looks like he may single-handedly ruin the celebration, Connor is visited by the ghosts of his jilted girlfriends, who take him on a revealing and hilarious odyssey through his failed relationships. Together they attempt to find out what turned him into such a player and whether he has a second chance to find—and this time keep—the love of his life.

New Line Cinema presents a Jon Shestack/Panther Production of a Mark Waters Film, starring Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Breckin Meyer, Lacey Chabert, Robert Forster, Anne Archer, Emma Stone and Michael Douglas. “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” is directed by Mark Waters from a script by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore, and produced by Jon Shestack and Brad Epstein. Executive producers are Marcus Viscidi, Mark Waters, Jessica Tuchinsky, Toby Emmerich, Cale Boyter and Samuel J. Brown, with Ginny Brewer as co-producer.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company. It is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for sexual content throughout, some language and a drug reference.

Check out the official website here.

[Image by Warner Bros]

The Used first formed their band back in 2001 and now in 2009 the members are Bert McCracken (lead vocals and keyboard), Quinn Allman (Guitar and back up vocals), Jeph Howard (Bass and back up vocals), and Dan Whitesides (Drums and Percussion).  They just released their seventh album called, Artwork, that has made them head in a new direction. In an interview with AP magazine Bert said, “In the past, we’ve always kind of brought pop sensibility into heavy rock, but this is going to be all that much more tantalizing and brutal. Our songs are 10 times messier and noisier than they’ve ever been.” This will also be the first album to feature Dan, on the drums, since he first joined the band in 2006.

I had a chance to interview the band before they left on their tour for the album. The nationwide tour kicked off on September 21st and it reaches Europe for August and September, and then the  U.S., with two Canadian dates for October and November.

Taylor Blue: Since you have been on tour a lot what has been your favorite venue to perform at?
Dan Whitesides: Well I like to play anywhere at anytime but I guess one of my favorite places is the Starland in New Jersey. The fans are crazy and the security guards are the baddest m—— f—— around.

Taylor: Being a fan of many people I always get a kick out of hearing about other people’s fan stories. What is your favorite fan story of how that fan made you feel extra special?
Dan: At almost every show there’s one or two people that can’t get in or they don’t have any money so I’ll get them in. I think just talking with fans and getting to know them a bit before or after a show is really special for me and them.

Taylor: Who are your main musical influences that come out in the music you play?
Dan: There are so many but a few are Refused, Nirvana, At The Drive In, Motley Crüe, Led Zeppelin, Kerosene 54, Burning Airlines, Ink and Dagger, Earth Crisis, Tony Williams and so on.

Taylor: Do you have a certain muse, and or inspirational ritual, for lack of a better word that helps the creative juice to flow so you can write your lyrics?
Dan: Anything and everything is inspirational the best thing for us is to not force anything.

Taylor: Of all the albums you have released which one is your favorite one?
Dan: ARTWORK it’s probably the most honest record since the self titled.

Taylor: Now onto your new album, Artwork. I love how raw the album cover is by the way. I listened to the first track you released from it, Blood On My Hands, and noticed it has a different sound from the other songs on your previously released albums. What brought on this change?
Dan: That song just came out of nowhere. Quinn had a loop and we just started jammin and about an hour later the song was finished. That was one of those days that the creative juices were flowing for everyone.

Taylor: In all things there is always the bumps in the road. What was your biggest obstacle in getting your new album released?
Dan: Well the label kept pushing the release date back but that was probably for the best. Other then that there were no obstacles, we had all the time in the world.

Taylor: What was the main concept you were going for in the sounds and lyrics in the album?
Dan: Dirty, raw, poppy, heavy and to be able to do whatever we wanted when ever we wanted so that’s what we did. This album is exactly what we wanted it to be.

Taylor: You are heading off for a tour soon and there has to be a favorite and least favorite part of the whole experience, people like us can only imagine what it’s like. What is your favorite and least favorite part of being on the road?
Dan: I love playing every night, meeting as many people as possible that come to the show and seeing the world doesn’t suck either. I probably drink too much on tour so being hungover everyday kinda sucks. We have the best job in the world and there’s not too much to complain about.

You can catch them on their website, Myspace or Twitter.

Homecoming is hitting theatres on July 17th and stars Mischa Barton, Jessica Stroup and Matt Long.

The synopsis is the following: Mike (Matt Long) is a small-town star athlete who is the first in his family to attend college, receiving a football scholarship to prestigious Northwestern University. When he returns home over Christmas break to the people he left behind – his family and friends – they are all surprised to see him with a new girlfriend, Elizabeth (Jessica Stroup), a pretty rich girl from Chicago. No one is more shocked than Mike’s homecoming queen ex-girlfriend, Shelby (Mischa Barton), who immediately wants to be rid of Elizabeth and plots to take care of the problem. Our story takes many twists and turns as Shelby does everything it takes to get Mike back.

I got a chance to screen the movie today. I have to say that I was pleasantly impressed with the movie. It didn’t take long for the action to happen and when it did it did. There is a huge twist in the story that reminds me of Misery but this one is done so much better. I was actually yelling at the TV and sitting at the edge of my seat. I promise you won’t be disappointed going to see this movie!

Here’s the trailer.

I got my copy of Elsewhere in the mail yesterday and I just had to watch it right away. I was excited that it had three actors I knew! Anna Kendrick from Twilight, Paul Wesley from the upcoming Vampire Diaries TV Show in the fall and Tania Raymonde from Lost. Right from the beginning the movie grabs your attention.

The synopsis for the movie goes like this: In the small town of Goshen, Indiana, teenage girls are mysteriously disappearing and no one seems to care. After revealing to her best friend Sarah (Kendrick) that she has been meeting men online, Jillian (Raymonde) goes missing. Now the only clues to her whereabouts are her diary and a cryptic video message sent from her cell phone. Aided by Jasper (Chuck Carter), the town’s computer geek, the two plunge head-long into Goshen’s dark secrets – uncovering corrupt police, jilted boyfriends, a mother driven mad by loss, and an unsolved string of child abductions… the final truth they unearth will rock the town to its foundations.

The DVD and Blu-Ray has the following extras that include an audio commentary with director Nathan Hope and producer Vincent Palomino, “The Road to Elsewhere” making-of/interview featurette, deleted scenes and a photo gallery. You can order the DVD here and the Blu-Ray here.

Check out the widget that has the trailer and some exclusive scenes from the movie.

I know I’m a bit late posting my review of this movie. I’ve been really sick and now I’m finally feeling better enough to start doing my reviews. I have a bunch more coming so watch out for them. Zack and Miri Make A Porno really made me a big leery. I have never seen a Seth Rogan movie and I was sure I was going to hate it. I love comedy’s but I just wasn’t sure about this kind of comedy. I found myself laughing out loud alot and the romance in this movie was great. Who knew a Porno could be funny. The extras are even better with bloopers, deleted scenes and more. I must stress this movie is an R. A very R!

This hilarious and risqué story follows two best friends as they venture into the world of adult film in order to pay off their bills.  The pair discovers that their quick porno plot to get out of debt is affecting more than their need to have their heat turned back on. As production of their adult film takes off, so do their feelings for one another in a series of hilarious yet heart-warming turn of events.

My two favorite characters in the movie had to be Justin Long who plays a hilarious gay guy and Kenny Hotz (from Kenny VS Spenny, one of the best Canadian shows EVER!) who just does a cameo in this movie. They both stole the show for me.

Here is the scene with Kenny that I just loved.

Zack and Miri Make A Porno is out now on DVD. You better get a copy!

Last night I watched Pulse 3 before I tell you what I thought I’ll give you the rundown:

Seven years after the last attack by the “soulless ghosts” who haunted the human race twice before, the world is left void of all deadly electronics that almost destroyed it… or so we thought. Living a primitive existence on the outskirts of the city, human survivors are surviving without any trace of technology. That is until 16 year old Justine enters the city and, letting her curiosity get the best of her, opens a working laptop and unknowingly unleashes the most terrifying attack the survivors have ever faced. In a world already torn and without hope, can humanity make it through the toughest struggle of all time?

From director Joel Soisson (Pulse 2), the pulsating supernatural fright-fest stars Rider Strong (Cabin Fever) and Brittany Finamore (Silent Night, Deadly Night) as Justine, PULSE 3 is a horrifying and gruesome tale that will make you reconsider opening you laptop ever again.

I love movies that do with computers and cellphones and them taking over the world. And when they are against all electronics it’s a weird world. You can hardly believe how we as a world would survive without computers or laptops. This movie is scary, and it helps to make it more scary when your cats decided to smash your lamp at the exact right time in the movie.

After watching the commentary in the extra’s section for the movie I must admit I have to praise the writers for one thing. They said they got the idea from To Catch A Predator shows we see on TV.  The girl in the movie takes off to see ‘the city’ where no one goes. There she meets males and you would assume the worst for her. There would for sure something bad that would happen to her because of course that’s the way most movies go. You think it’s going to end up all bad for the girl but it doesn’t. So many movies use sex as a weapon. I was glad they decided to not go that way.

This movie is rated R and is out on DVD. I know my daughter wanted to watch it with me but I said no way. It scared me enough. I wouldn’t want her to see it too!

Photos courtesy Dimension Extreme