7 Şubat 2013 Perşembe

Jane's Addiction Announces 2012 Tour Dates

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Jane’s Addiction has released news of a 2012 North American Janes Addiction tour to support their latest album called ‘The Great Escape Artist’. This album and tour are the first projects the band has done together in about 8 years. Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro will front the band as usual and as always, Farrell promises a show you won't forget. The announced tour is not long and the band is only playing small theaters.
If you're a Fan of Jane's Addiction, check out www.JanesAddictionTour.com for their latest tour dates, concert tickets, merchandise and more.

6 Şubat 2013 Çarşamba

Mini Bloggiesta To Do List

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@bloggiesta#bloggiesta
I'm so exited to spend some time this weekend doing some bloggy business! I think most of the stuff I'd like to do during this Mini Bloggiesta (check out the Bloggiesta blog for details!) is just normal upkeep.

But here's a list if you are interesting on the specifics:
  • update links in author/title archives (That wasn't so bad this time! It helps to not get so behind!)
  • clean up email, again
  • update links in books read page 
  • print blogs
  • decide what labels (and other things) in sidebar are necessary do you see what's gone?
  • add to local author page and update links
  • pin reviews to Pinterest
  • do a couple of previous challenges that I missed the first go around
  • maybe write and schedule a handful of posts is one a handful?
And that's enough for a couple of days work I'd say!
I hope you join with us in working on your blog this weekend! Be sure to come and chat on Twitter on Saturday night at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

Currently: UnSuperbowl

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C  U  R  R  E  N  T  L  Y(as written on Sunday morning/afternoon)

Listening: at the moment? Not much. A quiet-ish morning house. But here's a song I want to share with you, a song I am loving so so much:
. 

It's a cover of a Bob Dylan song, and the one that they use for the show Parenthood, though they have changed it up so much in this version that I hardly recognized it. I LOVE what they've done with it. Gives me chills!!

Eating: healthy! Well, at least making a stab at it. Though I did have ice cream last night at a birthday party (passed on the cake though) and wow, it tasted good!

Loving: the mini bloggiesta this weekend! We TRENDED last night during the chat! How cool is that! And I thought it would be a "mini" thing with not near as many people, but you all TALKED a lot and it was great, so thanks for that and here's hoping all your blogs are looking shiny today! I have yet had a chance to really work on more things today, but I did a few things yesterday. So that's good.

Reading: Wolf Hall! Trying to finish up my segment of the week. I'm a bit behind. I'm anxious to jump into some other books now though. And some ARCs I've got on the Kindle! Anxious I tell you!

Feeling: quite good today! Last night I felt weird, but I feel much better today. Amazing what a little sleep can do!

Watching: NOT the Superbowl! But I'm still holding out hope that someday I can host an UN-Superbowl party! I think that would be fun, but, not sure how... or who.

But this week, it was "fun" to see everyone's reactions to the Downton Abbey episode that I endured all alone a few months ago when I watched it online! Wasn't that the worst???

And Vampire Diaries continues to intrigue! Sheesh, that show is crazy!

And I haven't watched any American Idol and it feels weird.

We watched Pitch Perfect over the weekend, rented from Redbox. I enjoyed the singing, but the story was debatable, and the kids were crude. I would love it, LOVE it is someone would be brave enough to make a movie about singing high school (or college as this one was) kids and leave out all the crap. Please?

Wanting: The Josh Groban CD... Tuesday! So excited! Yep, I'm still on board with this guy and his songs. Love.


Thinking: that it's impossible that kid #3 is turning 18 tomorrow. Not really happening, right? Someone stop this time thing! I'm tired of it going so fast!

Exercising: Not really. Zumba once. It's like I can only concentrate on either the food end or the exercise end. This week, it was the food I guess. 

What's new this week for you all?

Book Review: Just One Day by Gayle Forman

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Book: Just One Day by Gayle Forman
Genre: YA Romance
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
For: Fun
From: Bought with gift card

I loved this book, which actually has quite the simple plot. Allyson is on a summer European tour and while in England she and her friend ditch the main group to see a different take on a Shakespeare play. Of course there's an awesome looking dude in it! And later when she sees that guy on the train she takes a major risk and goes to spend a day in Paris with him.... just one day!

Well, things do not end as you might expect and she comes back to her normal life and wonders what the heck happened in Paris! In fact, she wonders so much that she can barely function. So when she gets a chance, she goes back to try and discover some answers and figure things out.

I loved it because it really gives an interesting look at the oh so very romantic city of Paris. They don't do the normal things, and that was fun. I'm hoping to see Paris really soon myself, and I'm sure I'll probably do the normal things, but I'm hoping I can squeeze in a few off the beaten path things too. That is always such a cool way to see a city.

There was lots of other traveling tidbits in this book too that were lots of fun and basically, let's just say, this book will want to make you see the world.

However, if you are a mom of a girl about the age of this girl, it will make you crazy! To imagine my daughter doing the things and making the choices this girl did? Yeah, scares me to death.

I also found it interesting that this book is not your normal romance. Nothing happens quite as you expect. And I now I can't wait for the next book! (From the guy's point of view this time.) Much needs to be resolved!

Bottom line: I really loved it.

Other Reviews:

Emotions filling every pore and just releasing and turning you into a wreck. From Books With Bite

Forman clearly wants her readers to be frustrated and confused and angry. I think my reaction stems from how real this book seemed. From Anna Reads

There is to be a sequel, presenting the story from Willem’s point of view. Let’s hope he’s more interesting. From Rhapsody in Books

I really enjoyed seeing Allyson and Willem's interactions. It never felt dull... From Book Chic Club

I mean this book, it makes you think about everything big and small. From Buried in Books

Top Ten Tuesday: All Time Favorite Bookish Memories

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This is going to be a fun post to write! I'm thinking back in all my whole long life to all my bookish memories (and there are A LOT) and am trying to decide what the best ten should be! This is not an easy task people. But here's what I'm settling on:

Top Ten Bookish Memories..EVER!

1. I'm sorry to list it YET AGAIN and regular readers are going to be sick of hearing about it over and over, BUT, my best bookish memory to date is meeting Markus Zusak. Nothing has yet to compare how awesome that night was.

2. The whole Harry Potter phenomenon will always be something to remember. We were on vacation when the third book came out and it was on the news. I had never ever before in my life heard of a book making news like that. It blew me away. The following books were the first books I'd ever cared about getting on the first day. And it was so much fun!

3. Reading the Little House books. Looking back, I'm not sure these were the best and most exciting books after all! But I loved them and I ate them up and I owned the whole series!

4. Joining online book groups in the mid to late 90s. It was the coolest, COOLEST, I tell you, to be able to connect with people all over the world about books! Who knew? Wow.

5. Scholastic Book Fairs. Both going to them as a kid, and running them for 10 years as a mom. Going to them was so fun, because we could get quite a little handful of books for not much money. It was awesome! And running them? That defined my life for years! And was also lots of fun.

6. Another very specific bookish memory was the day my dad and I were at the library, and we were walking up and down the shelves and he randomly picked a book for me and said, here read this one! So I did, and I LOVED it! It was the love story of Tristan and Isolde (The Enchanted Cup by Dorothy Roberts). The fact that you could just up and pick something, not knowing a thing about it, and that it would end up being so so good, was amazing to me. A whole new world!

7. I've probably mentioned this one before, but once when I was probably 10 or so, we went on a trip and while on that trip we meet up with my dad's cousin who was a librarian. My dad said to him, hey, this kid likes to read, what should she be reading? And he gave me a list that I hung on to for years and methodically went through all the books one by one and read them. They were a bunch of Newbery Awards winners like Island of the Blue Dolphins, Julie of the Wolves, The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frank...something something! This was a defining moment in my bookish life, this list. It was most awesome!

8. Shortly after getting married, we had only one working car. So while my husband was still at work, and even after I had walked a good distance home from school, I would still walk a nice good distance to the public library and check out book after book after book. I remember loving that small little library (which now, by the way, is the BIG Provo Library where so many awesome events happen!) and I felt the need to read EVERYTHING they had!

9. A few years after starting the blogging thing, we had a Utah book blogger party. And there was an author there! (James Dashner) And that's when it occurred to me that readers and authors could actually interact with each other and maybe even be friends. The concept was a big one, and another most awesome bookish memory!

10. One of the first signings I went to was Stephenie Meyer. We crashed a paid event to get in line. When we were discovered, they made us get OUT of line and sit on the chairs and wait and wait and wait.... in order to insure that we would indeed be the VERY LAST people in line. After nearly three hours, we got our books (Twilight and New Moon at the time) signed by a very very tired author! There's been so many book signing lines since then, but this memory is one that stands out and makes me realize the things I'll endure in order to get a book signed!

Ah, there's so many memories! I look forward to hopping around to see what sort things everyone else has listed today! Come and link your stories up over at The Broke and the Bookish!


Just Joshing

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So, it's been awhile since I went on Josh overload, but these past few days have been just that. Well, except "overload" has a bit of a negative connotation, and this overload has been a good awesome thing!

Monday night Josh (do I need to say Groban?  Okay... Groban! For those newbie blog readers!) did a mini sort of concert in New York to celebrate the kick off his new album, which was yesterday. This concert was broadcast into 500 theaters across the country. I wanted to go so bad! But it was my son's 18th birthday and so I figured we'd be at home celebrating.

As it turned out, he and the other kids went off to an extreme sports playground (which I so can't do!) and while they did that, I went to see Josh! All by myself! (I know, I know, but it was seriously the first time I went to the movie theater to see something all alone!)

And it was awesome!

It was just like being at a concert, except the audience was a bit more subdued (we did little golf claps because it felt weird to REALLY clap!), and the sound still wasn't quite as loud as I like. But it was so fun to have him there singing to us and talking to us, the theater crowd, even though he couldn't see us. He was so funny and personable as always and had us all giggling, even all the old folk in the theater!

He sang many of his new songs, but also many of his old songs like February Song, Alla Luce, Vincent and of course, You Raise Me Up (which he introduced by saying for sarcastically that nope, he NEVER gets sick of singing certain songs.. nope never... ha ha! But then explained that he gets and he appreciates it and he will sing it forever!)

The new songs he sang that I remember were Falling Slowly, Una Alma Mas (which he wrote), She Walked Through the Fair (an Irish folk tune,) Below the Line, and then he ended with I Believe When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever, which, he said, is something he truly feels. Ah, Josh!!! Fall in love already!!! No more excuses!

Sigh. It was awesome. (Wait, did I say that already?)

And then yesterday morning before I faced what would be a really crazy day, I went to Target and bought the exclusive edition with FOUR bonus tracks! (Don't you love the marketing? I just don't get it, but whatever. Like who would by the other CD sitting there, the poor CD without ALL the songs? NO ONE I tell you!!)

Then all day long as I drove kids here and there and here and there and back again, I blasted Josh. And fell in love with several songs already! So. Much. Fun.

So anyway, it's been a happy couple of Josh days around here and of course, I had to tell you about it.

What singer/band would you go to the store first thing in the morning on release day in order to buy their CD?


5 Şubat 2013 Salı

LEGENDARY BAND CHICAGO RELEASES NEW DVD DOCUMENTARY: CHICAGO WORLD TOUR 2011 - "BACKSTAGE PASS"

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The multi-platinum, Grammy® award-winning band Chicago has released a new DVD, Chicago World Tour 2011, featuring footage of their concerts from all over the worldThe multi-platinum, Grammy® award-winning band Chicago has released a new DVD, Chicago World Tour 2011, featuring footage of their concerts from all over the world, including London, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Zurich, Oslo, Berlin, Toronto, Brazil, Australia, and dozens of U.S. cities. This unforgettable collection of music features some of the band’s greatest and most popular hits including “Just You ‘n’ Me,” “Feelin’ Stronger Every Day,” “Hard to Say I’m Sorry,” “Old Days,” “25 Or 6 To 4,” “Saturday In The Park,” “You’re The Inspiration” and many others.

Additionally, fans will also experience the band in an intimate rehearsal setting, never-before-seen behind-the-scenes footage from their U.S. tour, in-depth interviews with the iconic founding members and current band members, rare archival photos and much more. The DVD is for sale on the band’s website. Hailed as one of the "most important bands in music since the dawn of the rock and roll era" by former President Bill Clinton, Chicago is the first American band to chart Top 40 albums in five consecutive decades – a landmark achievement. Considered one of the longest running and most successful pop/rock 'n' roll groups in history, they are the highest charting American band in Billboard Magazine's list of Top 100 artists of all time, coming in at #13.

Lifetime achievements include a Grammy Award, multiple American Music Awards, elected as Founding Artists to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a Chicago street dedicated in their honor, and Keys to and Proclamations from an impressive list of US cities.

Formed in 1967 in Chicago, the “legendary rock band with horns" released their first album “Chicago Transit Authority” in 1969. Since then, they have had record sales top the 100,000,000 mark, and include 21 Top 10 singles, 5 consecutive Number One albums, 11 Number One singles and 5 Gold singles. An incredible 25 of their 34 albums have been certified platinum, and the band has a total of 47 gold and platinum awards. From the signature sound of the Chicago horns, their iconic Vocalists, and a few dozen of ever-Classic Songs, this band’s concerts are celebrations. The band is now in their 46th consecutive year of touring, without missing a single concert date!

This DVD documentary showcases the band’s relentless enthusiasm and sheds light on their amazing musical journey – one that is far from over.