What a week!

What a whirlwind of a week!  Busy, busy, with year-end work and taxes etc.  But more importantly, busy with FUN activities!

It started out with Fat Tuesday.  Good food, good friends, good fun!  NOT good for the diet.

Then on Thursday, I went to see Kingsman.  It was a rollicking good time!  Really enjoyed the movie!  But again, popcorn NOT good for the diet.

Then my guy came over and installed a new cat door in my bedroom door.  Now I can close the door against noise from visitors and not be woken up all night long.

Then it was 3rd Friday.  Went to Steitz’s for fish fry.  Great food, great friends, great fun!  Again, NOT good for the diet.

Finally, Saturday came, along with what I having been waiting for!  2Cellos concert downtown!  It was an unbelievable day from start to finish, except for the train home.  Went with my awesome friend Nancy, did a bit of sight seeing at the Bean and the skating rink, then a tasty dinner at Park Grill.  Again, NOT good for my diet, lol.  On to the venue, and 2Cellos!  Met some Cello Girls before the concert started, and then the most unbelievable musical experience of my life!  Got to chat with more Cello Girls after the show, but was not able to do the meet and greet because of the long line, and we had to catch the last train home.  But even without that, it was still an incredible day!  I could not sleep at all that night.

On Sunday, I tried to nap a bit before I attended an Oscar party at my friend’s house.  Great food, great drinks (I tried a Moscow Mule and liked it!), and prizes for ballot winners!  I even won the grand prize, a nice trophy and 2 movie passes!  Most importantly, the great friends.

Speaking of the Oscar party, they really need to take a page from the Golden Globes.  The Globes start and end on time, and all the while the nominees are eating and drinking and having fun, which can lead to some of the best acceptance speeches!  They only present the most popular awards.  And even though some of the categories at the Oscars are VERY important, they tend to drag the show out to wayyyyyyyyyyyyy over 3 hours.  Come on Oscars, people have to get up for work in the morning!  Maybe they should move it Saturday nights if they are going to CONSISTENTLY run long.

On Monday morning, I felt like I was beat with rubber hoses, so I went to swim class to stretch out the muscles in the pool.  I had done a lot of walking and standing and dancing on Saturday, so I had some aches and pains.  The water felt wonderful, and I ran around the pool for about an hour.  Later that day, I did feel some leg cramping etc., but a banana and a Propel took care of that!

Today, Tuesday, I feel pretty damn good.  Will go to Walmart for my weekly shopping and walk the store for about an hour for my daily exercise.

All in all, a GREAT week!  Thanks to all my wonderful friends for some awesome good times!

 

Here’s why John Lennon was not my favorite Beatle…

Everybody loved the Beatles.  Everybody had their favorite Beatle, usually John or Paul, it seems.

Today is the anniversary of John’s death, and for that I am very sorry.  However, he was NOT my favorite Beatle, and I don’t think he was a very good person either.

The truth is…..John Lennon was a violent abuser of women, a drug addict, a cheater, a horrid father to Julian, and the main reason why the Beatles broke up.

Yes.  All this is true.  He admitted to it freely numerous times, and some of his songs are about it.  He was forced to marry his first wife Cynthia because she was pregnant, and was mostly absent or too drugged up to care about his son Julian.  The Beatles had just gotten on fire, and he was supposed to hide his marriage so he would more appealing to the hordes of fans that screamed his name.

I never did like the later Beatle’s music.  I didn’t get it.  Too psychedelic for my tastes.  I guess a lot of it had to do with John’s LSD and heroin addictions, although I never knew about it at the time.  Did you?

Then after the Beatles broke up, John got too weird for me with all the Yoko Ono stuff and their music, and I dropped him off my radar for good.  Until he was murdered.

I was not a fan of Yoko at all, and never will be.

I know there are a lot of John Lennon fans out there, and even though I will think kindly of him today, due to the fact that he life was snuffed out too early, I did not like him.

Many of you will not believe that John was not just the icon of his age, and that these things are not really true about him.  I grew up thinking the Beatles were the greatest thing ever.  And they were, for their turn in history.

But in this day and age of information overload and high technology, there are no more dirty little secrets and lies that you can hide.  I heard something the other week about Lennon when watching something about Bill Cosby and his alleged drugging and raping victims, and started digging around about John Lennon.  If you don’t believe it, just google John Lennon abused women or something like that, and your screen will be filled with all sorts of goodies.

But, with all that being said, a man’s life was cut short on this day in 1980, and who knows what other wonderful things he could have done with his life.   Here’s hoping you are enjoying your afterlife, whatever it may be.

 

Lucky Lady

In case you can’t tell, that is Lady Gaga.  One of her more tame looks, I might add.

I have always been a Gaga fan.  Now, even more.  She has some powerful pipes, and now she is singing with the great Tony Bennett, and they are making the old jazz standards new again.

They are certainly not a combo you would think of putting together off the top of your head.  But her voice is totally suited for singing jazz, and she admires Tony so much, and he her.  They play off each other so well.

I am seeing more and more of these types of collaboration, and I for one am happy for it.  Lady Gaga wears many hats (and wigs and costumes and meat, lol) and I think I like this hat the best.  I have known for a long time that underneath all the exterior fluff is a real live normal person.  I have seen and heard many interviews with her where she comes off as a girl you would love to be besties with.  Oh, and don’t forget her hot boyfriend, who she met as her love interest on a video shoot:

Yeah.  Pretty hot, right?  In fact, he is now her REAL boyfriend, and has been for over 3 years.  Just a normal guy, with a normal girl.

That’s right.  Severide from Chicago Fire.  Taylor Kelly.  Whew, blow the flames out!

Lucky lady indeed.

 

“Boy” bands

New Kids on the Block.  Backstreet Boys.  Boyz to Men.

I saw Jordan Knight (NKOTB)  and Nick Carter (BSB) on GMA last week.  They have formed a new group, call Nick & Knight.  They claim NOT to be a boy band, but judging from the sycronized dance moves and pop sound they were  lip synching singing, I beg to differ.

I loved the boy bands, back in the 80’s and 90’s.  Nsync was my favorite.  I loved their songs and dance moves, and did them with my little step-daughter and niece all the time.  I would embarrass myself on my pontoon boat in the Chain O Lakes singing and dancing with the all the kids.  (I especially loved doing The Macarena!  But shhhhhh…..)

I don’t expect any Nsync reunion, ever.  Justin Timberlake (or JT as I like to call him) has done just fine on his own, thank you very much.  The other guys have gone their own ways too.

But back to BOY bands, now performing as MEN.  I know that some of the best shows out there are older men reviving their younger days.  The Rolling Stones, U2, Queen…..all still VERY popular and selling out tours.  But they did not start out as BOY bands.  They started out as rock bands, and are still rock bands.  There is a difference.

Watching Nick & Knight doing their little dance steps and trying to look cool on the tiny GMA stage made me feel…..sorry for them.  If they want to be taken seriously, and not as another boy band revival, they should get their shit together and act like men and sing like men.  Men singing to little tweeners and making them scream just seems wrong on so many levels.

It’s ok for ME to still remember the crazy boy band days and sing and dance to them.  I am not doing it for fame or money.  I am doing it for fun.  And maybe they are too, and collecting a paycheck for it to boot!

But I’m sorry, it makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth.

 

Throwback Thursday!

The year was 2011.  The tour included Maroon 5, Train, and GAVIN DEGRAW.

I don’t think any of these bands were on my radar back in 2011, not really.  But now, they are 3 of my most favorite bands.  And all 3 toured together!  Gaaaaa!

I was not really into listening to “favorite bands” in my later years.  Sure, as a kid, The Beatles or The Monkees were spinning on my record player every night.  (Yes, I am THAT old!).  And in the 70’s when line dancing started, I was all in!  I loved to dance!  So I was at the clubs a lot, dancing to great music.

But once I started my career, who had time for music and dancing?  I worked anywhere from 60-90 hours a week, depending on where we were in the accounting cycle.  I didn’t have time to SLEEP, let alone worry about bands.

Then American Idol came along, and changed everything for me.  I started to really enjoy music and singing again.  More and more shows popped up, and I for one liked them all.

I was always a fan of Dancing With the Stars (DWTS).  And lo and behold, a few years ago, a singer/songwriter/piano man named Gavin DeGraw appeared.  I had NO idea who he was, so I googled him.  Wow.  He blew me away.  Such talent, and what a voice!  His dancing skills didn’t last too long on the show, but a new fan was born, in fact, thousands of them!  His twitter account blew up, and his followers are now almost 400K.  I started a special twitter account just to follow him on the show, and HE WAS MY FIRST FOLLOWER!  So that’s MY claim to fame, lol.

I always loved Adam Levine, especially when The Voice started, and loved his performance on American Horror Story (hubba hubba!)  Same with Pat from Train, love those dark haired men!

So I can’t believe that I was a day late and a dollar short of going to see all 3 of my fav bands in one place!  Something like that will never happen again, because they are all their own headlining bands.  All 3 bands have done very well over the past few years, and I love all their songs.  Gavin DeGraw is still my fav (really? lol), but I love all their music.

Was anybody out there lucky enough to have seen one of those concerts?

 

The man curse of American Idol

IMy favorite American Idol contestant ever, Adam Lambert, did not win.  Kris Allen won.  You remember Kris, right?  He won that season.  I think no one was more surprised than he was.

The ONLY possible reason I can think of for Kris’s win over a much more talented Adam Lambert was the song he did in the last week of competition.  He did a solo acoustic version of Kanye West’s Heartless, surrounded by teeny boppers looking up at him adoringly.  He appealed to that age demographic.  I loved his version of that song, and thought he did a good job.  Apparently so did the majority of voters that season.  I think Adam Lambert scared them.

Adam Lambert is lucky he didn’t win.  He would have been held to their contract and at their beck and call.  Most male winners have not fared well, compared to the women.  Instead, he went his own route.

He had a few rough starts (anybody remember the infamous AMA’s boy-on-boy kiss?  (Among other things).  People just weren’t ready for his in your face style of his recently declared gay lifestyle.  At least not on national TV.

So he went on his “Glambert” tour, and sold out everywhere he went.  He went his own way, with his own style.  He played a few gigs with Queen in Russia.  The crowd went wild.  Literally.

Look where he is now.  On a worldwind tour with Queen.  Picking up the infamous Freddy Mercury mantle, and wearing it with pride.  And oh yeah.  Those pipes.  That amazing voice.  If anybody could throw down with Freddy note for note, it is Adam.  But he still shares the stage with Freddy.  Queen still pays tribute to him, with interspersed videos during the performance.  Gives you chills up and down your spine, to see Freddy and Adam on the same stage.  Check it out on YouTube.

 

You don’t have to like Adam or his lifestyle.  But you do have to respect his talent.  And boy, he’s got it.  Lots of it.  Queen loves him.  So does Lady Gaga, who joined them for a performance.

I don’t watch American Idol anymore much.  Just not the same since Adam, the talent level is just not there.  There are many more singing shows out there too.  So Idol isn’t the only game in town anymore.  I think the ratings reflect that too.

We all miss Simon……………. lol!

 

Cello anyone?

Take 2 hot dudes from Croatia, train them in classic cello, and then turn them loose on Youtube for Michael Jackson’s Criminal Minds (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx0xCI1jaUM) and you have yourselves an overnight viral sensation who has since swept the world with their electric cellos and penchant for rock songs like AC/DC and Michael Jackson among others.

So hot in fact that Elton John immediately signed them up for his tour. Since then, they headline and fill their own venues. And people go crazy for them, especially the ladies. Luka Sulic is the more serious of the two, while Stjepan Hauser is a wild man. The best of both worlds, I’d say.

I knew of these guys from various shows they appeared on, including Glee. I started checking out their videos online, and was flabbergasted by their talent and appeal. I highly urge you to do the same, but warn that they are addictive!

So when I was watching America’s Got Talent a couple weeks ago, imagine my surprise when two young fellows named Emil and Dariel got on stage and performed a rock cello cover of Purple Haze. They were total copycats of 2cellos, in fact, 2cellos had already nicknamed them 2cellos Jr. and had them on stage performing with them a few times! The young brothers have the mannerisms and style down pat, and it was glorious to watch them. The judges on AGT obviously had never heard of 2cellos because they remarked they had never seen anything like that before. My only criticism of Emil and Dariel would be that at that point they might have mentioned their heroes, 2cellos, as their mentors. But, whatever, 2cellos are quite famous, especially in Europe, and don’t need the plug. I’m just happy that America got to see how cool the cello can be!

So if you like music, do yourselves a favor and check them out, especially Thunderstruck and Every Teardrop is a Waterfall. Well worth your time!

All those in favor of deporting the Biebs…….

Mothers, hide your daughters.  The Biebs is up to no good again.

He is back in his home country of Canada, and facing assault charges for a dust up with a limo driver.  He apparently is turning himself in to be booked and given a citation.  Unlike his Miami incidence of resisting arrest earlier this month for drag racing and DUI.  Oh, and driving without a license.  Oh, and his dad was with him. And he told the police that he was smoking dope all night at the studio, and that that his MOM gave him prescription drugs.  Bieber told police he didn’t know what they were but they were for treatment of anxiety.

“Well, my mom takes care of all that stuff for me,” he said, according to the report.
Here’s his mug shot…….

What has happened to our little Biebs?  He was such a cute little fresh faced boy….

Now he’s all saggy pants (see my previous blog post http://wp.me/p1J9S2-sO) tattoed, bad ass, and dare I say spoiled little rich kid?

I really can’t decide if I like his saggy pants look, or diaper look better…..

Wait, a back shot is better to see the diaper effect….

In fact, his pants are such an impediment, his bodyguards have to pick him up…..

From all you mom’s of teenage daughters out there, is Biebs still the object of the affection? Just curious, I feel like I am watching another melt down of a famous person, ala Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan. I wish him the best, and hope he straightens his life out.

The songs of my life!

I love songs.  I love the lyrics.  I love the love, the heartache, the angst.  It seems there is song for everything.  Every situation in life.  Situations you didn’t even know existed, until they happened to you.
“My songs know what you did in the dark”…..See, they know EVERYTHING!  I’m one of those people that thinks in song lyrics.  People say something to me, and I want to respond in song, because I know a lyric that will fit.

Sometimes I do sing it out.  I love to sing, and see nothing wrong with responding in song.  I’m not a good singer, but I’m not a bad singer.  I’m just someone that enjoys singing along to the radio or CD or just me.

My roommate in college came from a very musical family, and she taught me how to sing.  Every night in the dorm, we would hang upside from our tiny little beds that met in the middle of the room, and sang.  She taught me how to carry a tune, and a few nuances.  We then joined the choir at Illinois State, and I learned how much I loved to sing.

When I was working at Rust-Oleum, they had a Christmas Choir call The Rusty Voices that went all over singing at hospitals and nursing homes etc.  We were quite good, I must say, and I loved the camaraderie and fun of it all!

Sometimes at the local watering hole we start playing some oldies but goodies and shout, I mean sing, our favorite songs all night.  Bye Bye Miss American Pie can take up half the night, lol.  Paradise by the Dashboard Lights is always a favorite.  Oh then we always throw in some vintage Frank and Dean.  Delightful!

At the local Y where I go swimming, I’m always singing and dancing in the pool during class.  It entertains the seniors, and I have fun too.

Other than that, I typically sing to myself.  When my doggies were alive, I took them out walking every night.  We would start out with Maddie’s favorite song, the Hawaiian version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and then finish up with a rousing rendition of Mollie’s favorite, Bohemian Rhapsody.  My brother down the street would be in his garage and hear me singing going around the block, and ask people who the crazy lady was, lol.  My neighbor across the street would be outside smoking, and loved to hear me sing, and always came out when she saw me walking the girls.  I miss my girls so much.  I haven’t sang their songs since they died.

But I sing plenty of other songs!  Who else out there sings?  Come on, ‘fess up!

 

More Prime Time Porn coming your way

Get ready for a brand new season!  Cast announcements coming up soon!  And boy oh boy, do we have some good ones for you!  Here is a sneak peek at some of the rumored contestants…..

Dina Lohan – yes, Lindsay’s “mother-of-the-year”.  Finally she’ll get her 15 minutes of fame!

Another mother-of-the-year – Mama June!  Honey Boo Boo was all booked up so Mama June is stepping in, ready to twirl her way to a banging body!

Katie Holmes – maybe she is the REAL mother-of-the-year.  She is a true fan of dancing (so is Siri) so I would have high hopes for Joey!

One more mother – we need another Kardashian, right?  Maybe Kourtney this time….

The Virgin Bachelor Sean Lowe – YES PLEASE!  Someone else to compete with Max’s shirtless bod! (His popularity pushed Emily Maynard to end of the line).

Deena Cortese – we all need some more Jersey Shore action!

Jerry Supiran – a washed-up child actor from the eighties.   Supposedly flat broke and homeless – he blames a stripper.  Might be interesting…..

Victor Ortiz – always gotta throw an athlete in there.  This one’s a boxer.

Interesting line-up, eh?  NOT.  We’ll see what happens come Feb 26th on GMA.