I considered burying my review in the middle of the blog, just to make you all read the whole thing thoroughly to find it....but, here it is..... It didnt suck, but it wasnt awesome either.
I'm giving it a generous 5.5/10.
Now remember, I have NEVER READ THE BOOKS!!! So dont gripe at me with "oh, they forgot this" or "the so & so scene was ruined because this pointless background detail wasnt there". I dont care. I graded it as a movie, and not as a comparison to a piece of literature. It is a movie, I graded it as a movie compared to other movies.

I was pretty worried it was going to be gawdaful after hearing responses from people I knew. Of the 6 people I knew in person who saw it prior to me, only ONE gave it any type of positive review. The rest were trashing it hard. Sites like IMDB & Rottentomatoes were in agreement with this assessment of it as well, so I was truly expecting garbage. Maybe thats why it rated higher than 5, because I went in with such low expecations & it overshot them.

To me the film has several good pieces which are wrapped around a pile of really dull, dragged out scenes. Some of the smaller characters are a bit too dorky for my liking. Just them saying even a couple words made me roll my eyes. The pudgy little school kid that has a crush on Bella might be the most annoying of the bunch. They shoulda scrapped him all together. I personally did not have the same problems with the acting of the big 3 that others have stated. They arent going to win the academy award, but its fine. I mean if Sean William Scott or Hugh Grant can continue to find employment doing the same character over & over again in movies that arent even connected to each other, than whats the problem with these 3 acting the same as they did in the first film? The supporting cast did a decent job IMO with the limited screen time they generally had. 
The Volturri looked good image wise, but Michael Sheen & Dakota Fanning were the only two that really made a positive impact on me. If Jamie Campbell Bower had more of a role, maybe he coulda done the same. The rest however... I found most of them too rigid & not smooth enough in delivery.  The fight scene was too sped up to enjoy. They needed to slow it down a bit. I realize they are vampires & are really quick, but the audience is only seeing minimal glances of the action & its really frustrating IMO.
It was certainly fascinating to see scenes in places I knew, or had been to. That might have given it an extra .2 or so just for the Vancouver element? But overall, it wasnt terrible. I wont go spend $12.50 to see it again, but I could see me watching it down the road again if someone rented it. Its certainly watchable.

So that is essentially my review of the movie, spoiler free I hope.
 
 
Of course Twilight Saga: New Moon is a film that was a big deal to me, as I hounded this film pretty intensely compared to the efforts I usually put in to celeb hounding.
 
Here is a list of top 10 things I learned/appreciated/enjoyed about the New Moon phenomenon being here.
 
- Jackson Rathbone. The man who plays Jasper turned out to not just be a wonderful surprise for interacting with, but perhaps the nicest celeb I have ever met. After 1 of the 100 Monkeys perfornaces here he talked in chilly spring weather for like 15 minutes about anything & everything. Awesome guy who even after that first encounter, kept up his good guy images all the way thru Eclipse even.
 
- Sam Bradley show at Richards On Richards. It was my big payday of the event. It nabbed me my first ever celebrity photo run in a national magazine (sure, it was OK Magazine & I would later blast them for being idiots...but still, it was groundbreaking for me) I also learned to enjoy Sams music leading up to the show & the short amount of time I got to enjoy his performance. It also lead to a cool impromptu sing along by Sam on the street after the show that I thought was all too cool, which later lead to getting a couple Pattinson autographs. So all in all, a very productive night.
 
- Spencer Bell discovering. One of the things Jackson Rathbone told us about that night was Spencer Bell & asked us to donate to his site (link is in my twilight autographs section). It took me awhile after misplacing it, but I finally found the site & have since then enjoyed quite a bit of Spencers music. Sad that there cant be anymore.
 
- Meeting Rob after filming in New West. It was the only set hounding I did in New Moon & it nabbed me the nicest Rob autograph I obtained the whole shoot, and to top it off he did in despite his driver trying to deter him from signing for me. At 6 AM, after a long night of work, Rob came over to a fence & signed for the 5 or so fans who waited it out, while his co-stars left with little more than a wave from a distance.
 
- How it revitalized my celebrity hounding. Because of New Moon, I started hounding celebs a fair bit more over that run, and it still lingers some now. I met a lot more stars in that few months it was here that I had probably met in the past 5 yrs (minus my time at Toronto Film Fest a couple yrs ago) because I just rarely bothered going out.
 
- Twitter strategizing with others to prevent chaos during the Blue Water Cafe cast dinner. After the shenanigans of Punkd images & Lainey Gossip to try & ruin the casts party at the Blue Water Cafe, several of the regulars who were at the scene took action & banded together despite all having different interests in being there. The one thing we all knew was, if it wasnt stopped now, chaos was going to ensue. Within 10 mins of Laineys tweets, 2-4 people had shown up, but no one else did after that & for that, the credit mainly goes to the few fans & myself who worked on creating a smoke screen to assure no one else would try coming down & making it a mob scene.
 
- All the new hotspots I never knew about before. I pass places like Chill Winston often & have occasionally passed Glowbal & Blue Water Cafe, but never really though of them as anything special. Since then I have learned just how often they really have housed notable celebs.
 
- Celebs twitter updates. Before New Moon I barely knew of Twitter. Within a week of it, I had signed up for an account & was using it daily to keep up to date on where people were & more importantly, celebs who tweeted about their every detail. It was vital in giving me good, solid info more times than I probably confessed at the time. Fan updates were 1 thing, but celebs updates were 5Xs better.
 
-The day Kristen Stewart told my friends & I "I dont care". Outside of the Loose Moose one night we chatted with her for a few mins. One of my friends apologized for being there, which Kristen responded that she didnt infact care, understood we have a job to do. She respectfully asked us not to do 1 or 2 things, so we didnt. But for the mostpart, she was understanding that we had a job to do & was fine with it.

- The fans. Sure, there is a large portion who are batshit nuts. Odds are a few of you will even read this & say "well, he cant be talking to me". When I see a 40 yr old woman nearly in tears because she met Rachelle Lefevre or a girl probably no older than 12 telling Kellan Lutz she wants his body...well, yeah, THEY are nuts. But I also met quite a few cool, laid back people whow ere just fans & who just wanted to soak up a bit of the experience of them being here. Some of the regulars were the most normal people of the bunch. It amazed me every time someone told me they were from Brazil, Texas, Minnesota, Belgium or Japan. I was just like "wow, you spent your vacation time to come here in the HOPES of seeing one of the cast?". Now granted, I have considered the same thing for my favorite TV show...but I also can combine it with work to offset some of the costs, as well I have a fair bit more knowledge & experience in finding them than Joe fan. But I admired their commitment to an entertainment medium & most of the time, I found most of them to be normal.

For all the frustration the New Moon filming here brought me at times, the entertainment, money & memories likely outweight those frustrations greatly.

Thats it on New Moon I guess. Next up is Eclipse.....which as we all know, I have a less fond memory of.

FIRST- BE WARNED!!! I have a massive head cold, and a mild headache...so excuse me if I get some details out of order, or forget something you thought was notable etc etc.

Its not everyday the poorest postal code in Canada gets a notable celebrity playing a show it the area. Last night was that rare exception.

Of course 100 Monkeys were at the Rickshaw Theatre last night & played to a fairly packed show. Funny side story. I pass this theatre almost daily & till I heard Jackson Rathbone & his bandmates Ben Graupner, Jerad Anderson & Ben Johnson would be playing there I mistook it for a usually abandoned building. I have seen it open maybe 5 times ever & It doesnt even have a name displayed anywhere. I was more suprised when I got inside & saw not only was it a 2 level theatre style venue with seats, but that it had a standing & seating room of around a 1,000...but I'm getting ahead of myself here.

I showed up around 6 PM & waited at the back for Jackson to arrive. Shortly after being there I heard a soundcheck & was aware the band was, at least, partially there already. Some of the band members came out & left to go get food. No Jackson though.

About an hr or so later they returned & saw 2 fans & myself back there. When they arrived Ben (I believe Graupner) chatted breifly with us, remembered both the pair of fans & myself from their previous tour of the Vancouver area.  The couple asked if he could get them tickets, and he happily obliged. He then asked me if I wanted to go, I said, I'll certainly go. A few minutes later the manager (without his trademark Banana suit...currently looking for a new banana suit as the old one was deemed no good anymore :( ) came out with 3 tickets & it was official, I was going to the show.

I had about 45 mins to an hr to kill, so I went home (a whole 4 blocks away) & dumped some stuff off & recharged my phone some. When I got back I saw the same couple still in the alley. They said Jackson hadnt arrived yet. So I waited with them. It was much darker now than when I left and rats were in abundance in the alleyways...and I'm not talking about L.A. Rats or the local rats. Eventually sometime in the first bands set a security guy came & said Jackson was already in. This would later be verified by a fan who went inside & said she saw him in the upstairs room that was sort of a "backstage" area for them...despite being infront of the stage up 2 levels. I headed inside after getting the disappointing news.

The show had 2 opening bands. Neither I heard (well, actually I heard part of the middle band, but I was focussed at that time on other things...which it turns out was foolish.) By the time the 100 Monkeys were set to take the stage I was already sweaty. It was ridiculously hot in the theatre & everyone was at the very least a bit sweaty. At this time its probably a good time to point out, of all the Twilight based events I have gone to, tonights crowd had the highest percentage of hot women I have seen at one yet. There was still some stereotypical Twinocerouses lurking about, but for the mostpart, the most aesthetically enjoyable crowd I have seen at one of these Twilight hotspot events.

I have to say, I never actually noticed what time the 100 Monkeys got on stage, but it turned into probably an hr to hr & 1/2 set. The band all took turns playing different instruments, Jackson played guitar, bass, drums & keyboards at different times. The other bandmates did as well. In typical Monkeys fashion, they did an improvised song...about Acorns tonight. They kept a good pace & were certainly giving a strong effort. They did a song right before their encore thanking all their fans for being there, which was kind of cool. Of course they squeezed in talking about Spencer Bell at the show & told everyone there if they didnt know who he was, to google him. I knew about this already as they told me last time that they would like me to make a donation for Jackson signing all our stuff to the http://www.spencerbellmemorial.ning.com website. I actually promised I would at the time & so far have failed to step up, last night was a good reminder.

If I dont talk about cast members at the show I am sure I will hear it from some random fan....so here it is. Nikki Reed & her bf Paris Latsis were seen in the overlooking private box at the side of the stage. Elizabeth Reaser was there as well.  The one that blew me away & unfortunately I didnt know till after the show. Stephanie Meyer was also there.
Nikki & Elizabeth left only a few songs into the set. I didnt notice when Stephanie left, since I was unaware she was even there.

When the show ended I instantly headed for outside. 1- to find Jackson & the band. 2- to get fresh cool air. It was sweltering in there.

Outside 30 or so fans waited around the back, while 10-20 waited out front. Band equipment was making its way out for ever. It was then that I learned Stephanie Meyer was in there....I then noticed later, she was in some of my pics. If I had only known sooner. Eventually band members from 100 Monkeys started to leave & then I saw the flashes go off...it was Jackson. He spent little to no time leaving & was hurried into a minivan, and quickly wisked away. Jackson didnt interact with fans, which is VERY rare. I was shocked.

A good show. I took lots of pics & videos. Vids will be uploaded in a little while.