High School Musical

A week and a half ago, Disney's High School Musical arrived at our house as part of our Blockbuster subscription. It's been watched over a dozen times -- probably closer to 20 times. Some of the song-and-dance scenes have been played repeatedly throughout the day.

I'm not sure why we became so crazy over this movie. But we have! It's light. It's fun. It's catchy. And we just keep playing it over and over. It's not exactly like it needs your full attention when it's on. So it plays in the background, and we dance around the kitchen while sauteeing veggies and singing the songs, and other such nonsense.

We really like Chad (the hero's best friend) because he looks so much like Patchy ... except for the hair. Jane has a picture of him: Patrick is the one in the brown shirt.

The movie made me wonder why we do surgery on VCFS kids who have velo-pharyngeal insufficiency (in other words, they talk really really nasally). Three of the four lead singers in the movie do that baby-talky nasal singing. It's pretty obnoxious. But we still love the show and the songs! Maybe if VCFS kids didn't have their cleft palates fixed, they too could grow up to be famous singers!

I hope my kids don't think that high school is really like they show in the movie. Those kids are never in class. They walk around the school freely, without passes from the teachers. They come and go. They socialize all day long.

With what we hear about overcrowded high schools, and how the school has to run some classes in closets and hallways, it was a crack-up to see empty rooms available for kids to hang out in.

We are dying to try making creme brulee! "It's really satisfying," says Zeke. But I keep forgetting to skim the cream off my milk. Maybe I'll just have to buy some cream. We've web-browsed for recipes. I think we're going to have to put the dessert under the broiler, so that means we'll need a metal pan. We think we're coming up with a way to fake our way through the lack of equipment for this recipe.

The main thing I noticed about this movie was how different it was from Grease. So many people told me that it was like Grease. There was one main thing I hated about Grease, though. The message was to change yourself so that the guy (or girl) would like you. In Grease, the wholesome girl became sleazy to attract the guy she liked. It seemed to me that, at the end of the movie, I always got the message to "sell out who you are so you will find friends." And that's the exact opposite of the message of High School Musical. Personally, I think high school IS (and will remain) the place where everybody is supposed to stay in their own groups, their own cliques, and stick to their "own stuff" (not playing a cello or doing hip-hop dancing, unless that is what Your Group does). Nevertheless, the movie's message is that we should accept diversity and work together, as shown by one athlete who bakes, another athlete who sings, a skateboarder who plays cello, and one of the geeky smart girls who sings too.

And Rachel, I'm not sure whether you should get this for Dad for Christmas. I'm not sure he can send it back to Blockbuster without buying a copy for himself right away. Of course, he did say yesterday that he thinks he's had his fill and could consider returning it now for the next movie on the list.