Last week I was fortunate enough to snag stand by tickets for last Friday’s live studio filming for The Suite Life on Deck. I had heard that On Deck was the hardest DC show to get into (not counting Hannah, ’cause that one’s impossible) so I was ecstatic just to have the opportunity!
At the Wizards filming I learned the importance of getting there early. And for On Deck I was determined to get there as early as possible. Me and my Mom got there at one, and we where the first ones there! I was shocked. As it turned out, only five stand by people showed up, and they actually had room for about 15 at last weeks show.
The episode I saw filmed was called “The Ghost and Mr. Martin” and it is part of season three. In this episode, the ship is docked in New Orleans and the cast is dressed in 1800s period costumes for a ball on the deck. London and Bailey are attempting to help Mr. Moseby overcome his fear of preforming in public. Meanwhile, Zach, Cody, and Woody are attempting to find and communicate with the ghost Captain that’s haunting Zach.
The SLOD set is unlike any other I’ve seen. The ship’s sky-deck set filled the entire stage in front of our audience area. All other scenes on other sets where pre-filmed and shown to us on the monitors. Combined with the other supplemental sets, On Deck probably has the largest set of any DC Show.
As a result, we only had two scenes to film, but they where nine and ten page scenes! So there where many takes and resets back to back. There where a variety of other supplemental shots for special effects (as I mentioned before, there is a ghost), and some other special effects involving Woody. From start to finish, it took four and a half hours! By the end it was starting to get a little crazy on set!
“Wow, this is a great take. I don’t even remember the beginning! … We’re all delirious and we want to go home” – Dylan Sprouse
“You’re Not Helping!” – Phill Lewis
“But Cosby impression did?” – Assistant Producer
At 9:25, they wrapped the last supplemental shots and practically threw us all out! Apparently union rules required them to have the audience physically outside the building by 9:30. I tell ya, SAG has a lot weird rules! LOL. Obviously, we didn’t have time for an autograph session, which was a disappointment. I have met Debby before, but I really did want to meet Phill and Brenda, plus ask the cast and crew if they want to do another season or if they’re happy if season three is the end (which it probably will be). Because we wouldn’t have time to get autographs, they gave us these presigned script covers:
I would have loved to meet everyone, but I’m not complaining. I feel very blessed to have been able to go and see the show filmed. I mean, I got to see Debby dance around and lip-sync to Justin Beiber in a period dress! I watched as Brenda and Debby where literally eating the set between takes! And I learned why the director doesn’t take Matthew Timmons (Woody) seriously – “Because you’re covered in gelatin!”
I learned a couple spoilers as well (highlight to read) => Doc Shaw’s character Marcus Little was written off the show. Also, Cody and Bailey break up. <= Unfortunately, both hose things happened in episodes prior to the one I saw, so they’re only refrenced and that’s all I know about them. Oh, and Debby’s favorite costume was her Naomi Wyoming pop-star outfit, which I also thoroughly enjoyed.
Now, I’ve had some cool stuff up on my wall for a while, but The expo was a nice (and unexpected) boost.
I’ve finally finished getting everything framed and rearranged, so I thought I’d share.
Going from top to bottom and right to left, we have a UCR banner, Natasha poster, Ice Princess Poster, and Felix the Cat poster.
Now the fun stuff. That’s Walt Disney in black and white, surrounded by Selena Gomez, Tiffany Thornton, and Demi Lovato. Also visible is a HSM Pep rally pendant from Disneyland and a rare Ashley Tisdale promotional card.
Along the top of the third photo are things I want to frame, but haven’t yet. Below that we have my Nicole Anderson and Chelsea Staub autographs from the expo, right next to my college diploma. I also have a Hilary duff pre-printed autograph, the signed photo Ashley Leggat sent me in response to my letter to her, my Debby Ryan autograph from the expo, and three great Kim Possible Items. The KP Calender is from Germany, and is in German. The Poster used to belong to Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle, I believe there’s only about 25 in existence. And that framed KP script at the bottom was signed for me by none other that Christy Carlson Romano.
So after the awesomeness last month that was the D23 Expo I realized that I had now seen, in person, every Disney Channel girl except for Brenda song and Emily Osment. So you can imagine my delight when I found out that Emily was playing a free show but 30 minutes from me!
Her third concert ever was held in the parking lot of the San Jacinto, CA Wal-Mart on October 1st 2009.
She looked absolutely amazing, as always.
Emily signed some autographs after the event, but with some 3,000 people there, the line was just too long for everyone to get to meet her. I was a tad disappointed I wasn’t able to tell Emily about my websites, but she did walk right past me in the store so that was pretty cool!
And I got some amazing videos. Including all six of Em’s new songs from her EP and some songs from her opening act too.
I got there just after four, and there where already a lot of people there. The people in the front row got there at noon!
I went over to the Barnes and Noble, and was pleased to find that they had stocked up on Ashley’s new CD and her first album, Headstrong. They also had quite a few copies of Vanessa Carlton’s three albums (Vanessa preformed at the Americana the week before.)
Ashley’s opening act was the Beach Girl5 (videos), featuring Miley’s BFF Mandy Jiroux whom is much cuter than I remember from their little web show.
Finally, it was time for the Tizz herself. She preformed six songs, and I posted the HQ videos of five of them.
I was a bit disappointed that she was wearing jeans and not her usual short shorts. But she still looked awesome up there. Be sure to check out the first set of photos if you haven’t already.
The crowd was huge. Articles written about it placed the number of people anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000!
I also got to meet with Audrey of MissTisdale.net after the show. She didn’t get into VIP, but still got some good photos from the Press Area in the back.
I had seen the Veronicas once before, last year when they opened for Natasha. I knew who they where before the show, of course, but I had never heard anything from their second album until that day. And “Untouched” totally blew away anything they had done previously. I left that show with two thoughts in my mind, “Natasha was awesome!” And “I gotta get the Veronica’s new CD.”
The following day I got the album in iTunes. And the day after that, I decided I needed to see them in concert again. I got my chance this week when they played a sold out show at The Music Box at the Fonda in Hollywood on Tuesday (06/23/09). I got there at 7pm, my usual “hour early,” only to find that they had changed the schedule to add an extra opening act. Now Carney was set to go on at 8:00 – 8:40, followed by Pretty Reckless from 9:05 – 9:45, and finally the Veronicas from 10:15 – 11:45. And they stayed pretty close to that schedule, with the Veronicas wrapping up their show at 11:35pm.
But, I’m getting ahead of myself, lets start with the line outside.
They searched all the guys really well, patting us all down. The girls, well, they just kinda looked at them. Sexist security much?
The first opening act was Carney. They where okay. Also the girls tell me that they where really sexy. I wouldn’t know. LOL
The second act was Pretty Reckless. Upon seeing her walk out, the gentleman next to me commented that it was more like “Pretty Naked.” I wanted to disagree, but he wasn’t that far off! I do have to admit she was cute. And musically, she was okay.
Finally, it was time for my girls!
I had never used my new camera at a concert before (as you recall, I just missed getting it in time for Demi’s last concert) so I was learning as I went along. By the end of the show, I think I had it figured it out.
Check out this pic of Jessica Origliasso,
And this one of Lisa Origliasso.
Not too bad, if I do say so myself.
Oh, and the show was amazing. “Take me on the Floor” was perfect. And they had some great banter, at one point I remember Lisa asking “Has anyone here in love?” *cheers* “Is anyone in love with me?” *louder cheers*
Mandy Moore put on a good show earlier this month, but this, a real concert was something I really needed. Definitely a highlight of the year so far.
So I hadn’t heard of the Grammy Museum or LA live before. I hadn’t even heard that they where building a huge new entertainment complex next to the Staples center. Now admitingly I don’t make it up that way very often (I think the last time was in 2004!) but I still thought I’d have heard of it.
Anyway, I was there on Thursday (06/11/09) to see Mandy Moore. But before I headed over to the venue, I decided to swing by Disneyland. I only had a couple hours at the parks, so I decided to spend it at DCA. Quite possibly the stupidest thing I have ever done, for unbeknownst to me, Selena Gomez was at Disneyland that day! In fact, had I simply checked twitter on my phone when I arrived, I’d have seen her tweet about eating a pickle at Disneyland: “I ate a pickle, ice cream, fries, corn dog, and corn at Disneyland. Hmm now what else is there to do here? Oh. I guess I could ride rides…”
But sadly, I did not check my twitter. As I got onto the tram several tween boys where seated right in front of me. And my ears perked up when I heard one of them mention Selena. Another clarified, “Selena Gomez, that girl from Camp Rock” Ar which point I realized that if they couldn’t keep Demi and Selena straight, they where probably idiots and tuned them out. Had I instead corrected them, I might have learned why they where taking about Selena.
I arrived at the Grammy Museum with a good hour to spare. And was the 15th or so person in line. Not too bad if I say so myself. As I stood outside the venue I pulled out my blackberry and checked Twitter. Once I saw Selena’s tweet, suddenly everything made sense and I quickly realized I had missed a possibly once in a lifetime opportunity. I mean, how often does one actually get the chance to meet a DC star? Even with SDS resources I had only met Amy.
Needless to say, I was bummed. But then I remembered I was 15th in line to see Mandy Moore. And I realized that this day was still gonna be beyond awesome. As the line grew longer, they took us inside the building, up to the second level, and into the theater. I end up in the front row of seats, which meant that there was both no on in front of me, and because we where sitting, that no one behind me would complain about my height.
The event was called “The Drop” in reference to the familiar phrase that signifies the release of the new album. The idea behind it, was to explore the process of creating the album. So we started with a roughly hour long interview and Q&A with the director of the Grammy Museum and Mandy Moore. Mandy told us a lot about Mike Viola who was in many ways her partner in producing this album. She had many great stories about the little house in Boston, and how they used the different acoustics of just about every room in the house on different parts on the album.
(Click to enlarge )
Following the end of the Q&A, Mandy preformed several songs acoustically, accompanied by Mike who had been hiding in the back the whole time.
Finally, following the end of her performance, Mandy autographed copies of her new CD. Sadly, the no photo rule was still in effect but I did get a moment with her and an autograph. I considered snapping a photo as I left, but decided against trying it.
