When you were 9 years old, did you know what you wanted to be when you grew up? Most of us probably did. Did you grow up to be that very thing? I’d bet most people would say no.

Kevin Clash knew what he wanted to be. He knew, at 9 years old, that he wanted to be a puppeteer and that one day, he wanted to work with the Muppets. He started by making his own puppets, (his first out of the lining of his dad’s new winter coat) and putting on shows for the kids in the neighborhood and then around town at hospitals and events.

Can you even imagine working from the age of 9 at making your dreams come true? This documentary by Constance Marks chronicles Kevin’s journey and it is truly inspirational. We all know who Elmo is but learning where he came from really provides a whole new depth to the man who IS Elmo. An explanation of what we see when we watch these characters really stood out to me: “When a puppet is true, and good, and meaningful, it’s the soul of the puppeteer that you’re seeing.”

Elmo is the very best parts of Kevin. He talks about being given the puppet that would become Elmo, cast off by another puppeteer who was fed up with trying to make the puppet come alive. He said after a while he realized that Elmo should represent love and with that, he turned Elmo into a puppet that has changed his life and those who love him.

I can’t say enough good things about this documentary. It’s special. As a parent, you want the very best things in your child’s life, you want them to be great not just because you know they are, but because they know they are. Kevin Clash represents that. He’s doing things in his life that are helping the people he comes in contact with and through Elmo, he can reach millions.

Being Elmo absolutely touches your heart. Hearing Kevin himself explain his love for what he does and the way he worked hard to meet, work for, and befriend Jim Henson is awe inspiring.

Being Elmo is not being released world wide however, in NYC it opens today at the IFC Center. As of right now, Being Elmo is playing in select cities through the new year. I was invited to a special press screening of the movie at the Laemmle Theaters in Hollywood. It will start playing there to the public starting November 4th. If you’re a local reader, this is a great venue and I highly recommend you go see it. If you aren’t local to Los Angeles, you can go here to see if Being Elmo is playing in your area and when. If your city isn’t on the list, demand it! There’s a link at the top of the very same page.

I very highly recommend taking the opportunity to see this movie. You will walk out of it feeling inspired. If you’re anything like me, bring tissues!

When I first saw the previews for Real Steel, I’ll be honest, I was not interested in seeing it. I thought my son might like it because it was boxing robots. My second thought was, “why would anyone think that making a movie based on the concept of Rock Em’ Sock Em’ Robots was a good idea?”

I was wrong about both things.

Real Steel is actually based on a short story from the 50’s, written by Richard Matheson. You probably don’t know him by name, but he’s responsible for I Am Legend, What Dreams May Come, and some episodes of The Twilight Zone.

The adaption from short story to big screen was phenomenal. As I said before, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. I already love Hugh Jackman (who doesn’t??) but I was blown away by how great a job Dakota Goyo did. He plays Max Kenton, son to Hugh’s character Charlie. They don’t start the movie with a relationship, but they end it with one. It isn’t traditional but it’s absolutely perfect for the two of them.

While I did enjoy the movie, I loved it even more once I saw my son enjoying it so much. He was laughing and totally digging Max’s dance moves. He’s big into dancing right now and this movie has some really fun scenes with Max dancing with his robot, Atom.

Real Steel opens in theaters today (October 7th) and you’ll really be missing out if you don’t go check it out. I’m especially excited to be able to offer someone the chance to win a Real Steel Prize Pack courtesy of Dreamworks. It will have all kinds of Real Steel goodies for you and your kids.

It’s quick and easy to enter. Just leave me a comment here and let me know if you’ve seen it, want to see it, favorite Hugh Jackman movie, or if you just think my hair looks nice today. Bonus entry if you pimp my giveaway on twitter. Just make sure to leave me the direct link and I’ll add an extra entry for you. You have until Monday, October 17th to enter.

Pretty easy right?

So go check out an awesome movie and enter my giveaway for a fun Prize Pack. Hope you enjoy the movie!

**Comments are now closed! Thanks to all who entered!**

Special thanks to Dreamworks for inviting me, my son, and my dad to the Real Steel premier and for allowing me to host this awesome giveaway!

Last Wednesday, I had the amazing opportunity to attend the opening night of The San Diego Film Festival. In it’s 11^th year, the Festival opened with a brilliant movie directed by Jonathan Levine called 50/50. The movie stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen, friends who are fighting cancer, together. The movie really focus’ on Joseph’s character, Adam, as he comes to terms with his diagnosis and his 50/50 odds of survival.

The movie is a biography of sorts for film writer Will Reiser who, in real life, is friends with Seth Rogan and who actually lived this story. Here he is, opening the movie for us, speaking about how he transferred his reality to the big screen:

After the movie we were treated to a Q&A with Will Reiser and Philip Baker Hall, who was also in the movie. In my opinion, the cast of the movie was perfect. Both Will and Philip agreed that working with the cast felt like working with family. The subject of the movie is so serious and cancer is something that has touched so many of us that it’s hard not to relate in some way. The cast did a great job of portraying their given roles and the emotions that went with them.

I can’t say enough good things about 50/50. Once it was over, I wanted to see it again. There are so many movies out, or coming out, that lack original idea. We’ve all seen and heard of so many movies that are re-makes, like Hollywood has run out of ideas. Well, this movie is a breath of fresh air, around all the crying and laughing you’ll be doing. It’s refreshing, it’s inspiring, and it makes you want to be with the people you love. From a mother’s point of view, this movie touched me. I could never imagine being in the position of sitting by while my child battled for his life.

If it’s playing in your area, go see it. Just don’t forget the tissues.

Recently, I was having a discussion with Ant about Disney movies that came out in “our time”. You all know that time, when you were young enough to really love them and old enough to know that the magic was going to end soon. We both agreed that the handful of movies that counted the most for us were The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and of course, The Lion King.

The Lion King was originally released in 1994. I was 12 years old and completely head over heels for Jonathan Taylor Thomas. On the cover on every Bop magazine, he was the IT boy. When I learned that he was cast as the voice of young Simba, it made the movie that much more important to me. Hearing his voice come through that adorable little lion made my pre-teen heart soar. I even wrote him, telling him how much I loved the movie (and him) and I got a letter back, with an autographed picture inside. I was early in defining my dork-dom.

Recently, when I went to see Glee Live in theaters (yeah, still a dork), I saw a preview for The Lion King 3D. It took my breath away. When I received the opportunity to attend a screening, I jumped at the chance.

The screening was held at the ABC offices on the Walt Disney Company’s Burbank lot. I absolutely geeked out just being there and almost totally lost it when I actually had a celebrity sighting. Having Justin Bartha casually walk by you to get on an elevator is just freaking cool. I know, I live in LA so this should be normal to me but, uh, it’s NOT. I never see celebrities. It’s some weird curse I have.

I took my mom to the screening with me and watching one of my favorite movies on the big screen again, this time in crystal clear 3D was absolutely amazing. It brought me back to my innocence. What the geniuses at Disney have done with this movie is incredible. There aren’t any cheesy “pop out at you” 3D gimmicks. All you’re getting is the opportunity to see this movie in a new way. The graphics are amazing, the sound is unbelievable and the jokes are just as funny. We both agreed that it was a wonderful experience.

The Lion King 3D opened in theaters on September 16^th and it’s only going to be around for a short time. I know that movies are expensive these days, especially 3D movies but this one is worth making an exception for. If you saw this in theaters 17 (!!!!!!) years ago, you owe it to yourself and your kids to see it again and this time, let them experience The Lion King 3D on the big screen. It’s something I hope they look back on years later and appreciate. I know I do.

Hakuna Matata!

Prior to Blogher, my dear friend who you know as Vdog, forwarded an email to me and Nic to ask if we were interested in going to a movie screening of The Help while we were at Blogher. If it were possible, you would have heard us say “YES!” in unison. We have this very dorky (but oh, so, US!) thing where we read a book and see the movie. From the minute we saw the trailer for The Help, we knew we had to see it. We RSVP’d and it was one of the best Blogher scheduling decisions I think we made.

We both finished the book before the conference (one of us faaaar before the other *cough*) and actually turned down other parties to go to this screening. I don’t regret that decision one bit.

The movie touches on a subject that will always be sensitive, racism. The portrayal of this period in our history, in my opinion, was done well. I didn’t feel as if there were heavy cliches in either direction. The screenwriter did a decent and fair job of translating this story to the screen. If you haven’t read the book, don’t let that hinder you from seeing this movie. If anything, you might want to read it even more after seeing it.

One fair warning though… bring tissues! If you’re anything like me, you will cry during this movie. It’s almost emotionally exhausting because I was literally going from laughing hysterically to crying out in shock and sadness. It was refreshing to sit in a theater and listen to all the women this movie was touching, while I was wiping away my own tears.

I would suggest seeing this movie with women that you love and sharing this event with them. Follow that up with some movie inspired cocktails and you’ve got yourself a girls night out! I couldn’t think of a better way to spend an evening. Luckily, the awesome guys at Snake Oil Cocktail Co. were inspired enough to create some amazing (and SO tasty) cocktails inspired by the movie:

The movie opens today so if you’ve even thought for a second that you might want to see this movie, please don’t hesitate and go see it! You won’t regret it, I promise. Let me know what you thought ok?

Extra special thanks to the people at Dreamworks who put the screening together. Thank you for the amazing experience and the yummy cocktails and food. My opinion is my own and I was not asked to write or promote The Help in any way to be able to see the movie. They are just that awesome over there at Disney.

Now keep in mind, this is for when your man is out drinking beer. Or lives 3,000 miles away.

So do you think that it would void your warranty? I need to know. For a friend…

I would also guess that if your vag played music when your man went down on you, he might actually like it.  You could make dedications. The romantic possibilities are endless.

So internets. Vagina song recommendations? Make sure she has the Grooveshark app installed too.

Glee Season 1 has come to an end. When I first started watching this show, I never in a million years thought I’d become so attached. From the start, the show intrigued me because well, I’m a chorus nerd. We’re talking outfits, dancing, the works. See?

Yes, that is glitter all over our tops. You don’t even want to know the places I found glitter after a performance. Think about when you’ve visited a strip club, same thing. I’ll credit this picture to my sophomore or junior year in high school. That silver top hat? Yeah, we used them for a song. Awful, I know. Anyways, not the point. The point is, I loved those years.

So loving Glee is understandable. I totally get that a lot of people don’t like it, don’t get it and thats totally ok. Those people probably really like the Bachelor.

Moving on, what I took from watching this show was the music. I enjoyed the story line for what it was, silly at times, close to home at others. It was fun, it was easy to follow and that’s that.

Here’s a bit of what I *loved* about Glee. I can’t wait for next season.

Defying Gravity from Wicked – I didn’t enjoy it as much when they battled it out as I did when iTunes released the Lea Michelle Solo version.

Smile - I like this version MORE than Lily Allen’s. That says something.

My Life Would Suck Without You – Mr. Schu running to Emma. That’s a throw your hands in the air moment for sure.

Favorite Mash-ups

Don’t Stand So Close to Me/Young Girl

Borderline/Open Your Heart - I love them together.

Favorite Ensemble Songs

Don’t Stop Believin’ - From the first episode. This song made me fall hard for this show.

Somebody To Love – The first 20 seconds of this song EMBRACE what choir is. Amazing harmonies.

Like a Prayer – The Madonna episode rocked, no lie. But they were a group, friends, in this one.

Bad Romance – How can you NOT love this??

I loved every bit of the finale, especially when they sung Don’t Stop Believin’ as a group.

This show is just fun. They cover some good songs, some bad songs, and some amazing songs. You just can’t knock something that makes you smile and honestly, we can all use a smile lately.

So fellow Gleeks… favorite moment of Season 1? Favorite song?

I’ve heard a lot of people say that they’ve stopped going to the movies. Some because they think movies suck these days but most because it’s too expensive. I totally agree. When a popcorn, drink, and a box of candy cost more than your ticket, we have problems. When buying that for more than one person costs more than dinner at Applebees, we have major problems. I don’t mind the ticket prices half as much as the cost of concessions. I find it hard to believe that they need to inflate the price of popcorn to 6 bucks for a bucket to stay afloat.

So far this year, I’ve seen 12 movies. I absolutely love going to the movies. To cut down on costs, I try to eat before, smuggle in my own food (yeah, ghetto but I really don’t care), and go to the earliest movie possible which is also usually the cheapest. Unless it’s in 3D. Then you still pay 11 bucks. Thanks for teaching me that, Shrek in 3D. The most expensive movie I’ve seen this year was Alice In Wonderland in IMAX 3D which was 16 bucks. Nic and Kel took me to see that for my birthday. 2 of those movies I didn’t have to pay for; one because I earned a free movie being a member of the theaters movie club and the other because the theater had problems with the projector the first time I tried to see it so I got a refund and a free ticket. One movie, Date Night, I went to see with Ant when he was here because we both love the movies so we went to one the last night he was in California.

I’d have to say that Alice, Death at a Funeral, Date Night, and Sex and the City 2 have been my favorites I’ve seen this year. I’m highly looking forward to Eclipse, Toy Story 3, and Part 1 of the last Harry Potter movie.

Anything you’re looking forward to that you just can’t wait to see on DVD?

Current Obsession: Greg Laswell

Sorry y’all but I had to do it.

While some of you may have been listening to Madonna, this is what I had in my Walkman. Earbuds? Hell no. Headphones bitches.

Please tell me you watched it all. Please. The cat is RAPPING. That is fucking bad ass. (And you’ll never realize how awesome you were in the 80’s until you are quoting those rap lyrics, by memory, with Heather on twitter.) Paula was ahead of her time. Also? I love her hair up in that high half pony tail. And I may or may not be rocking her bangs. Today.

Ahem.

Paula had it going on. Don’t lie to yourselves. In 1988, she was totally 80’s hot.