crashing in a crowded room.

backstage at the academy is... february 2006.

there was a new employees meeting with jeffrey katzenberg the other morning. there were about thirty or forty of us in the theatre and he sort of just talked to us about the state of the studio and its various projects and undertakings. and then he allowed us to ask him questions. he was surprisingly candid about everything and very un-CEO-of-a-studio-like.

as for the new the academy is.. album fast times at barrington high, it's definitely a good, solid album. i haven't listened to it enough to have developed a decisive opinion on it, but there are definitely a few things i can say for sure. first off, this is their third album, their first two being almost here and santi. almost here is quite possibly one of my favorite albums ever - every song is in my iTunes top 25 played list. i was not a huge fan of santi initially - it was nothing like i expected - and it took a lot of time before it grew on me - it was kind of all over the place but i understand that they were experimenting and testing their limits. fast times is what i would have expected to be their sophomore album to sound like - lyrically it is much closer to almost here, and musically it is less confused (for lack of a better word) and much more cohesive.