Laura’s place

Yesterday was Fiestaval at Kai’s former elementary school. PITD had been invited to play there. It was great. It was our longest performance since Lilly’s birthday party…a whole hour! It was rainy so we were under this…roof outside. If it had not been raining we’d have been out on the yard where more people could see us, but we got a pretty good audience so that was okay. We started out with Angelina Baker (or is it Angeline the Baker?), a Stephen Foster tune. We did that pretty well, but my dad threw an unexpected solo at me and I was surprised so I just played the melody. We followed that with “All Down the Line” and “Waiting for the Band.” The audience liked those, but when we played “Peein’ in the Dark” they were really rolling on the floor (not literally). That was pretty cool. As usual, we ended the performance with me saying, “We’re Peein’ in the Dark…and we do birthday parties!” Dad says Andy (Kai’s mom) got someone who asked how much we charge.

At Fiestaval yesterday I was wearing this tight green shirt tucked into my pants and a bright pink vest like thingee (more like a sleeveless button up shirt) and my pink Converse High-Tops, so I got my hair sprayed pink and green. I would have gotten my nails painted pink and green as well but there wasn’t any green nail polish so I just got them painted pink and black, since black goes with pretty much everything. I was also going to get my face painted with a pink heart outlined in green on one cheek and a green heart outlined in pink on the other but I changed my mind at the last minute.

Anyway, that afternoon Lilly went to a birthday party with dad and my mom and I stayed home so we watched “Let the Right One In.” It’s a Swedish movie (it’s dubbed) about a child vampire and a boy who is always bullied and constantly plotting revenge. It was really cool. It wasn’t as dark as many vampire movies; half of the movie took place during the day. That’s the same with the other vampire movie recently on DVD, “Twilight,” only that in “Let the Right One In,” the vampires aren’t in any of the day scenes (in “Twilight” the vampires don’t die in the sunlight. They sparkle like 80’s rock stars). One of the coolest scenes in “Let the Right One In” was when a newbie vampire was in the hospital because she was attacked by cats (cats don’t like vampires) and she told the doctor in a creepy, hushed voice, “Will you please open the blinds, doctor?” So the unknowing doctor opens the blinds and the vampire starts screaming and she bursts into flames. Not many 80’s rock stars have burst into flames.

My mom suggested seeing this movie yesterday because my sister wasn’t home. I agree that kids Lilly’s age should not see this movie. It wasn’t really bloody (there was a lot of blood, but not a disproportionate amount for a vampire movie) but it was creepy and the suspense made it kind of scary. There is also a lot of death. There is a part where a dead body is pulled out of a frozen creek in a chunk of ice. The arms and legs are sticking out of the ice and the head is completely turned around (the vampire killed him by breaking his neck, turning it completely around). It is also a little scary when Eli, the vampire, comes into Oscar’s home without him saying she could and she starts bleeding all over. You see it from the back, the camera facing Oscar, and Eli is wearing a white shirt. You see a speck of something dark on her shirt gradually getting bigger and you’re like, “What is that?” Then you see it’s blood and it starts running down her shirt, then the scene changes and you see blood is coming out of her ears and scalp and mouth. Then it looks like she’s going to cry, but instead of tears blood comes out of her eyes and runs down her face. So yeah. Don’t watch this with little kids. It’s rated R for a reason.

Out of the two recent vampire movies, this is most definitely the better one. It’s the one that actually seems like a vampire movie instead of a teen drama. However, both these vampire movies have one scene in common.

Twilight: Bella and Edward are in the woods. Edward is standing behind Bella. Bella says, “How old are you?” Edward says, “Seventeen.” Bella, “How long have you been seventeen?” Edward, “…A long time.”
Let the Right One In: Eli and Oscar on separate sides of a glass door, fingertips separated only by the glass. They are looking at each other. Oscar says, “How old are you?” Eli says, “Twelve. But I have been twelve for a long time.”

But that’s pretty much the only thing they have in common.