Bossypants

I haven't written in a week and I feel like its been months. While I'm restructuring my life and getting ready to present my new self to you I decided to read a book! Yes, amazing, I actually FINISHED a book. It wasn't hard.

What was it?

Bossypants, by Tina Fey of course. My interest in Tina Fey was first born when I watched 'Mean Girls', a classic coming of age story for girls in the 21st century (please note the sarcastic tone), and damn hilarious. Soon after, I generated an addiction for 30 Rock. If you haven't seen it, I encourage you to catch up. Her style of comedy (sarcasm, truth, everyday quips) was exactly what my friends and I did, so henceforthwithto, I thought Bossypants would be a good choice for my reading attempt.

Now, I'm not generally a fan of books and don't get sucked in easy, but this book feels like Tina Fey is talking to you about her hysterically busy and successful progression in life. And aside from the disturbing cover art, I have come to feel like I know her and would be disgustingly disappointed, that if we met, she wouldn't treat me as an old friend and give me a hug (I smell just as good as Oprah Tina Fey).

It's an entertaining book to read and talks about her career, comedy, life as a mother, life as a (bad) wife and life as a boss, all while being very funny and telling a great story! It inspires me to stay up later, write more and work harder...well at least for today...to get what I want out of life. It is nice to see that there are people out there, that still pursue what they love to do, instead of what is convenient, conventional and expected of them. (Yes, I got all that out of this book).

Good work Tina Fey, I applaud you and good luck!

Amos Lee - The Music Box

I had only heard the song 'Sweet Pea' before I was invited to The Music Box in Hollywood on January 27th to see Amos Lee perform. Apparently, that's not even one of his most popular songs. Regardless, I didn't really know him that well and didn't know what genre to put him in (apparently he is in the Folk Jazz genre).

I arrived at The Music Box about 9:00 p.m., at which point his opening acts were still on the scene. While I got my beverage and found my friends, I was interested to see what was in store for me.

The result: What a treat! Amos Lee is pretty terrific and although, some of his songs are a bit more folksy (actually sounded more like country) than I would like, the majority of his set held a lot of mixed genre sounds with soul, jazz, blues and country altogether.

His voice sounds delicious live and he is a very dynamic vocal performer. He also had a trumpet come up there, some snazzy electric table guitar and talented backup singers. This song was on my favorites list from last night.



Of course the show was great, thanks to @James'jimmylin'Lin, since it was free ninety nine; however, if I was asked again, I would not mind paying for the tickets. I'm not sure what kind of perspective that puts that into.

I just wish that they had seats at The Music Box, it actually reminded me very much of The Fillmore in SF. Michael Kors makes very cute boots, but that doesn't mean that I want to stand in them for 14 hours of the day. Seats please!

The top of the list - worst movies!

After watching a spot of television with my beau last night, I decided that it would be interesting for me to write about the WORST movies I have ever seen. Unfortunately, this number is growing in the multitudes, however, I did notice that the worse a movie it is, the funnier it gets.

What inspired this blog?

Evil Dead 2...wow - If you haven't seen this then put down what you're doing NOW! and go rent it, Netflix it, whatever you need to do to get this in your VHS..yes VHS, they probably don't (and shouldn't) make this in DVD format. From the moment we turned this on, I knew there was no other option then to finish watching this movie. I really can't describe in words how ridiculously funny this horror movie is. Here's a snippet for your enjoyment:



Next on this list:

Rambo IV - not only does it look like Rambo has tons of wax on his face, his body is closely reminiscent of Ben Grimm from Fantastic Four. Why Rambo is out in the Cambodian jungles at the age of like 60 is beyond me anyway; but I can't lie, I was laughing a LOT! Essentially, the badness of this movie turned the last of an epic series into a frightful comedy. The trailor makes it look way more serious that it really is. I can't say how funny this was; mostly because Sly is all kinds of screwed up. Snippet below:

OK so those are the first two movies that come to mind. But I know there are more, feel free to contribute to this endless list.

U never know what to expect @Blogworld -Day 2

Starting Day 2 was not fun. $28.00 to get to the convention center was really not the way to get my day going. Anyway, I started out with some lovely conversation from the CTO of Webgrrls, a very cool professional network for women in technology. Hopefully, I will be helping the LA Chapter grow soon.

Anyway, I walked the exhibit floor for a bit to get a feeling of what is going on there. By far the two most interesting places to be on the exhibit floor was the Charity Smackdown and the Fatburger truck, where they were doing a 11/2 pound burger contest. I contemplated participating, but I was too late to register. Don't worry I have a second chance today, but who knows.

Apparently, you never know what's going to happen at Blogworld. I met lots of new people that I have had great conversations with, potential clients, potential vendors and so much more.

My new friend Blair Williams (@supercleanse)

The opening day part was at JET nightclub at the Mirage, which is the first time I have been there. It was a nice place, free beer, $6 sodas, roasted veggies and mozzarella balls, yum! Upon entry I met Blair Williams at the app bar. It was one of the few highlights of my day. After exchanging conversation about what we do, banter on life an other miscellaneous intro conversation, Blair pulled out some tickets. Who doesn't love tickets?

The Blue Man Group

What were these tickets to you ask? I'm glad you did, it was the BLUE MAN GROUP. I immediately said yes to take one of his last two tix, because I've been dying to see the show for years. Quickly I had plans for the night other than wandering around from one Blogworld party to the next, ensuring an inevitable headache. Instead, I'm on my way to The Blue Man group with 10 new friends from Blogworld. The great part was most of us didn't know each other. We head over to the 10' o'clock show and I must say that the show did not disappoint. The music in the show was amazing, there were funny bits, stuff that made you think and audience participation all wrapped up in a really unique presentation. The Blue Men were great, but what I really enjoyed was the band that reminded me of those Cobra Kai guys in Karate Kid in the skeleton costumes.

Skeleton guys (aka the band) Skeleton guy from Karate Kid

It was a great show and I even got to pretend like I knew what I was doing on those pipes that they play. Check out the pix.

Me on the drums Blair on the drums

One blue man

Fed Up - Away with the Awards already!

After watching this year's MTV Music Awards, I decided that I am through with awards shows. I realize that MTV and the Grammy's are technically two very different things, but are they really? It seems like nothing really turns out the way people want it to, someone is always getting jipped and of course, hi-jinks are added so that the show is ruined for everyone. I think it's is rigged anyway.

I must say that this year's music awards was much more entertaining than I anticipated but the highlight for me was the very first 10 minutes during the Michael tribute with Janet. Which leads me to another question, where has the art of performance gone?

The generation after mine (Y or Z or whatever) has been raped of true performance art. Where I grew up with Michael, Madonna, Prince, New Kids, Janet, Dave Matthews, Pearl Jame, Rage Against the Machine, (the original) No Doubt, N'Sync and even Britney...who do current youngsters have to look up to and aspire to be? Solider boy? I mean c'mon. He shouldn't even really be singing/rapping some of the stuff that he says. The music industry has been congested with BAD but catchy lines, big egos of people who should retire and lack of recognition of true young talent.

What happened to the artists that could do it all? Sing, dance and play and instrument and really put on a show? Now you just have a group of people on stage either hobbling around with a mic pulling their pants up and wearing sunglasses in a dim lit audatorium or a bunch of head banging kids with one witty line in they entire rock song.

Has anyone listened to the lyrics of these songs? I mean really listen...Here let me give you a sample of a popular song today. These are the first-ish lyrics of the #1 song on the Billboard charts by the Black-Eyed Peas

I gotta feeling... (Woohoo)

That tonight's gonna be a good night

That tonight's gonna be a good night

That tonight's gonna be a good good night (Good lang)

Tonight's the night

Let's live it up

I got my money

Let's spend it up

Go out and smash it

Like Oh My God

Jump off that sofa

Let's kick it OFF

I know that we'll have a ball

If we get down

And go out And just lose it all I feel stressed out I wanna let it go Lets go way out spaced out And loosing all control

Fill up my cup

Mazel tov

Look at her dancing

Just take it... OFF

Lets paint the town

We'll shut it down

Let's burn the roof

And then we'll do it again

Lets do it (x4)And do it (2x)Let's live it upAnd do it (3x)Do it, do itLets do it(3x)Cause I gotta feeling... (WoooHooo)That tonight's gonna be a good nightThat tonight's gonna be a good nightThat tonight's gonna be a good good night

Forgive me if I don't really see much sense in any of those lyrics, no wonder America is in a recession following directions like that.

So aside from the bad music the performances are getting even worse. I guess it goes without saying that Michael really knew how to entertain and put on a show, but does that mean that the next generation won't get that experience at all? Instead of waiting by the TV to watch the next MTV video premier or crying dry to get tickets to a concert/show, they are watching a group of guys flail about on stage, posse style with pants that are around their ankles and the other half are cutting off circulation to their upper halves with skinny jeans. Girls are in leotards and no one is putting together classic routines anymore. It's a lot of screaming and repetition.

The more I think about it and see shows like the recent MTV music awards the more I feel that our next generation is being robbed of good entertainment and may fail to understand the enlightened view of entertainment that us 70's and 80's babies had.

When I finally have kids they are going to get a solid dose of what REAL entertainment is like. I guess its off to watching broadway shows, live music and checking out Carnival when I can.