HSM

Every year, my labmates and I venture into the Sequoia foothills for Lab Retreat. In an attempt to "bond" with each other, we spent most of the time eating, playing boggle, competing in sudoku tournaments, reading (and complaining about) the Twilight series, eating some more, and interpretive dancing to records from the 70's (you can't beat my "worm"/caterpillar dance moves to ABBA - I am a dancing queen!).

But there's really only one point to Lab Retreat and that is watching movies. Specifically, watching Oscar-nominated movies. Although we may all seem like science geeks, a couple of us are in relationships with Hollywood-types who donate screeners to the cause, giving us access to the year's big movies.

Well, usually this happens. This year, the only screeners we got were The Reader and Revolutionary Road. From this selection, you may think we're big Kate Winslet fans. We're not. Sure, I think she's a great actress. And I've always admired her "stand" against stick-thin Hollywood (which, btw, seems to be a lie, since she's pretty thin in both of these movies). But really, these were not my favorite films.

The real winners of this weekend were High School Musical and HSM 2. After a mix-up at Blockbuster, we also had Sunday School Musical. Of SSM, Emily Johnson of Arts Alliance America reports: "The movie is a strong inspirational tale that exemplifies good morals through exciting and catchy musical numbers." Sadly, we didn't watch this one.

Back to HSM. I've been wanting to watch this movie for years now. Once (okay, maybe twice), I actually looked for it at Blockbuster, but it was sold out (rats!). I even asked my 10 year-old cousin if she had a copy I could watch while baby-sitting (she had a copy, but had watched it so many times, she was over it. Foiled again!). When HSM 2 came out, I tried to avoid it, despite the repeated showings on the Disney Channel, in an attempt to watch the movies in order. I felt utter despair when HSM 3 came out. I was never going to be able watch these amazing made-for-TV films!!

Or so I thought until Lab Retreat 2009 came along. Luckily, my coworker, V, felt just as passionately about HSM and she took action, picking up the movies (along with SSM) before the retreat. YES!!! HSM was everything I could ever hope for! Little Troy and Gabriella were so cute as they defied the laws of high school and pursued their secret dreams of trying out for the winter musical (But how could this be? He's a jock and she's a science geek!! They're not members of the drama club! Shouldn't they stick to what they know?! My head is going to explode!). My boss' side comments of "Do her!" every time Troy and Gabriella almost kissed added to the charm of this fine film. In fact, HSM was so good that we actually turned off Revolutionary Road 30 minutes in and put on HSM 2. YES!!!!

And since you're all wondering, my favorite character is Ryan Evans. The way he stepped up and showed the baseball team that dancing is cool in HSM 2 was brilliant. And his skin is so clear and luminescent. Just like a vampire's... hmm... reminds me of another teen series...