October 2011 – Page 2 – Concert Katie

Action Item Concert Meet and Greet Photos

Action Item The Stronger The Love Tour

Katie October 24, 2011 0Comment

Friday night, my friends and I went to see Action Item at The Space in Hamden, VIP style. Only 25 VIP tickets were available for each show and included dinner with the band before the show! Unfortunately, on the way to the show I was in a car accident, but I’ll expand on that in tomorrow’s post!
I got to VIP a bit late, but they were doing group photos when I got there so I hadn’t missed much. There was pizza to eat and soda and then Anthony and Brian did an acoustic set of 3 songs. Then the guys all mingled with everyone and took photos and chatted.

At 6pm doors opened and at 6:30 the first band was on – Voted Most Random. They aren’t technically on The Stronger The Love tour but were added I think by the space. I wasn’t too impressed with them – especially since they enjoyed spitting water on the crowd. Maybe I am just getting old, but I found it disgusting.

The next band up was Hollywood Ending. They are up for Radio Disney’s next big thing, and I enjoyed their set. They also announced they were going to do a cover and my friend said “please don’t let it be Katy Perry” (As voted most random did a kesha cover and if there is one thing we dislike more than kesha and katy perry it is bands covering kesha and katy perry) and it turned out that they did the Jonas Brothers Year 3000!

Days Difference was up next – I had seen them once before. The music was SO LOUD for the set I could barely hear the lead singer so I can’t really say much. We we right by the speaker all night and my ear plugs have been missing for quite some time now so I am just keeping my fingers crossed that my ears do eventually stop buzzing!

Next up was Burnham, the brother band from Vermont who I do enjoy. Unfortunately, the mic was still not very loud and I couldn’t make out most of what they were singing! They did do a cover of Bruno Mars’ The Lazy Song (edited, of course!)

Then finally it was time for Action Item! This is their first headlining tour and Connecticut was their first SOLD OUT show! (in fact, it was oversold by 20 tickets) The lighting absolutely stunk in the venue so pictures all had to be edited and even still aren’t that great. The show was very high energy and a lot of fun – it was nice to see them in a headlining situation after having seen them open for Honor Society twice a couple of months back.

After the show all the bands were hanging out to sign and take photos – but I had to get home to call the insurance to get the claim rolling on my car damage!

Thumbing Through Thoreau by Kenny Luck

Katie October 23, 2011 2Comments

Thumbing Through Thoreau is a book of quotations by Henry David Thoreau, compiled by Kenny Luck. Each of the quotes is accompanied by illustrations done by Jay Luke and Ren Adams. The quotes are broken down in to 3 sections, Society & Government, Spirituality & Nature and finally, Love. There is 1 quote to a page and the book is about 300 pages long, so chances are you will find the perfect quote you are looking for in this book. Each quote also references which works it is from and the page number in case you want to use this book for research purposes! The end of the book has an index to make it easy to find the quotes you might be looking for or need for that special project based on topics. While these quotes may have been written 150 years ago, all of them can be put in to play in today’s world as well. Kenny did a great job selecting quotations for this works and I am sure that it was not an easy task to take on considering all that Thoreau had written!

You can find out more about this book at the books website: http://www.thumbingthroughthoreau.com

Hardcover

Price: $24.95
ISBN: 9780982256541
Pages: 320

Buy links:
Amazon Kindle Nook Google iPad

Kenny Luck’s Bio:
Kenny Luck is a graduate student at Marywood University in Scranton, Pa., and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in History and Political Science from the same institution. He writes for The Weekender – an arts and entertainment weekly – and The Independent. He is currently working on his second book. He enjoys recording music, book browsing and travel.

Kenny Luck’s Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=77501977&ref=ts

Kenny Luck’s Twitter:
http://twitter.com/kjluck

Kenny Luck’s Blog:
http://www.kennyluckblog.blogspot.com/

Jay Luke’s Bio:
Jay Luke is a musician and artist from Throop, Pa. A graduate from Marywood University, Jay is very active in all things art, whether it be through painting, performing with his band, or through his day job as a graphic designer. As a project engineer of the Olyphant Coal Miner Memorial Association, he has delved deeply into the origins of the area and the forgotten histories of the towns around him.

Passionate about not letting future generations forget their local origins, he took on this project to reconnect readers to the past. As writer and poet Wendell Berry once said, “The past is our definition. We may strive, with good reason, to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it, but we will escape it only by adding something better to it.”

Jay Luke’s Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jay-Luke/1248717066

Jay Luke’s Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/jay_luke

Ren Adams Bio:
Ren Adams is a professional artist and writer currently living in Albuquerque, N.M. The bulk of her work is done with traditional Chinese brush painting techniques, a centuries-old practice of using ground charcoal and water to create delicate worlds on paper. An ideal brush painting captures the spirit, or “Qi,” of the subject, not just what it looks like. Ren also teaches art & Eastern philosophy courses through the University of New Mexico Continuing Education department. She has been painting and sketching for over 20 years and is a southern California native.

Ren Adams Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/renadamsart?ref=ts

Ren Adams Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/plasticpumpkin

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Book Review

Book & Movie Review: The Help

Katie October 22, 2011 0Comment

The Help has been a pretty popular book over the past year or so, and recently was made in to a movie. Lately I’ve been doing things backwards and seeing the movies and THEN reading the book – but I am finally back on track with having read the book before I saw the movie. (Which is usually how I like to do things so I can picture the characters and then if it gets turned in to a movie, see how close I came to picking similar looking people!)

The book takes place in Jackson, MS and has several different narrators that switch back and forth. Two are “the help” Aibileen and Minny – black women who are maids for white families. The third narrator is Skeeter Phelan, a young white girl who was practically raised by her black maid and who sees past the color of skin. Skeeter wants to work for the newspaper and writes to a publisher but is told that her ideas aren’t good enough. It is Aibileen who helps her decide that she wants to write about life from the perspective of the help. Aibileen helps her try and line up several other maids to speak to. At first, they are hesitant and don’t know what they will do if their employers find out that they are running their mouth. Skeeter assures them that she is changing names and no one will figure out that “Niceville” is actually Jackson.

In their spare time, the help talks with Skeeter and she gets everything put together. Skeeter’s contact in New York says at first they want the draft after the new year, but then bumps the deadline up or else it will get lost in “The Pile” during the holidays and won’t ever be read. Skeeter works hard and makes the deadline but still doesn’t know if the book will be chosen as one to be published. If you’ve seen any of the commercials for the movie – the book DOES get published and then the help and Skeeter all worry about if anyone from Jackson will figure out it is about their town and what kind of repercussions there may be.

The book is about 400 pages and tells of the writing of the story so you don’t get to find out ALL of the stories that were told for the book (called ‘Help’). Although the ones that are mentioned in the book had me laughing quite a bit.

The movie is fairly similar to the book. Obviously a few items are left out, probably for the sake of time. The acting was great and I was crying at several times during the movie, but did not cry at all while reading the book (but I did fall asleep reading the book a couple times but didn’t fall asleep in the movie)

I have to say the little girls that play Mae Mobley completely steal the show. Mae Mo is the little girl that Aibileen watches and she was my favorite character in the book and was absolutely my favorite in the movie as well, though she doesn’t get all that much screen time since she is just a little kid.

I would definitely recommend the book or the movie. But it’s probably best if you read the book first 🙂

GetGlue

Get Glue September Part 2

Katie October 21, 2011 0Comment

The Voice Adam Levine
White Collar Premiere
HP Coming Soon
Glee Project Coming
HP Sorcerer Stone
Get Your Heart On
PLL Summer Premiere
SP Fan
HP Chamber
SP Superfan
HP Azkaban
WOF
State of Georgia Soon
Melissa & Joey Soon
PLL The Goodbye Look
Voice Christina
HP Goblet
Idol St Louis
This Loud Morning
PLL My Name Is Trouble

Concert Hanson Photos

Hanson Musical Ride Tour NYC

Katie October 20, 2011 0Comment

In New York City, Hanson did something a little bit different with their musical ride tour. Before the show, they did an event called “The Story” for members of their fanclub. During “The Story” they told the making of one of their albums. This was done at 3 stops previously so the album that we got to hear the story of was 2007’s The Walk.

For about 45 minutes the band discussed the process of writing songs, how several of them had existed for quite some time before finally “fitting” on an album with the other songs. (Although they started with talking about Coldplay, Fiona Apple and and Alanis Morissette and album and song titles being long and made up)

Most interesting was the band discussing their trip to Africa and the song Been there Before. There’s a line “does it move you, does it sooth you, fill your heart and soul with the roots of rock and roll” and they had an African choir singing “rock and roll, rock and roll” in the background. Isaac explained how the kids just really wanted to sing the rock and roll part over and over, and how it was moving because the roots of rock and roll are in Africa since it can be traced back to gospel sung by the slaves in the south who had come from Africa. And how realizing that was really inspiring.

After the discussion they took a few questions and answered them and then it was time for doors to open at 7pm.

Charlie Mars took the stage at 8:30! And did a few different songs than he had done the previously 2 times I saw him. (And I realized that my name is in not one, but TWO of his songs!)

We were worried with Charlie starting so late that Hanson would in turn start late as well, but they came out at about 9:30. The opening of the show was the same as the past few – starting with Musical Ride, going in to Waiting For This, Where’s The Love, Thinking Bout Somethin… etc. Then it was time to go in to the album for the night – The Walk. They missed playing “Your Illusion” but did all the others in almost the same order as the CD which was interesting.

For the acoustic set they did Go, Carry You There and then Zac did his solo song, The Walk – which had actually debuted on their tours in 2003 (we fans called it “Tightrope” originally) and it ended up being the title track from the next album they released.

During If Only they did a bit of “Let’s Get It On”, which of course I could not enjoy because Taylor made his “if you can stand you can jump” comment again, which just put me in a rotten mood because I can’t. (And I’m thinking I am going to send Zac a message about it because I go to these shows to not worry about anything and then I am getting upset that I’m disabled and that should not be how it goes!)

They also jumped off the drumset at the end and I got an awesome shot since we were right in the center of the seats in the back! Looks like I’m going to be busy making a new layout for my Hanson blog very soon. (Or not so very soon as my weekends are getting more and more booked as the days go by – and weeknights too!)

Setlist under the cut!

Book Review: Peace at the Edge of Uncertainty

Katie October 18, 2011 2Comments

Peace at the Edge of Uncertainty: Finding Beauty in Mystery Reclaiming Truth From the Myth of Certainty is a book written by Neil Hanson. I won this book off of another blog and Neil saw that I did reviews and asked if I wouldn’t mind posting about his book. Since I had been intrigued by the blurb on the blog and therefore knew I would be reading the book very quickly after it arrived, of course I agreed to write something up on the blog to share with my readers!

The book is written from the perspective of Neil, but rather than just him recalling what happened with his father being in a coma, and ultimately passing on, it is written as a letter to his father. This was an interesting approach to the book, but I have to say that I think it worked really, really well and I am not sure that the emotion involved with the situation that Neil and his family found himself in would have come across as well if it was written any other way.

I was really drawn to Neil’s writing style, it was descriptive enough to make me feel like I was there right beside him, living through all of these memories with him. I don’t get like this a lot with books, but something with Neil’s writing and my brain just kind of “clicked” and I ended up flying through reading this book because I just could not get enough!

About the Book

In a poetically elegant and highly accessible story, Neil Hanson provides a moving account of a man who journeys to the edge of death with his father, discovering a mystical surprise there. Explore the strength of “uncertainty” as a gift through which the magic of Wisdom and Truth might enter our life.

Those blessed with any doubt regarding the spiritual dimensions of life will be richly rewarded with a story that will nurture the search for Truth that is often hidden behind the veil of certainty. Those who have not yet pushed aside that veil may find in this story a window through which to grasp the blessing of uncertainty.

About the Author

Neil Hanson lives and works in Colorado. Peace at the Edge of Uncertainty is his first book. He blogs actively and writes articles for periodicals.

You can learn more about Neil Hanson, and join in conversations about subjects that might be of in interest by going to his website:

www.NeilHanson.com

In addition, you can find him on Facebook, and at his blog:

http://neilhanson.blogspot.com

You can follow him on twitter: @NeilMHanson

Product Review

Clues, Spells & Curses Scavenger Hunt

Katie October 17, 2011 0Comment

My Party Games Plus is coming at you with a Halloween game like you’ve never played before! This is a scavenger hunt unlike any scavenger hunt you have ever participated in before. Hailed as a combination of scavenger hunt, treasure hunt and murder mystery (minus the murder). You’ll have to separate your Halloween party guests into teams. Each team must work together to find the hidden clues and figure out how to banish the evil witch! But beware! You may think you have found a clue but actually pick up a CURSE! If a curse is found, the player must act out the curse until another member from their team finds the proper spell to reverse the curse!

Included in your party kit are:

The rules/directions of the game so you know what you are doing 😉
The introduction to the game
Clue cards
Curses!
Reverse spells
Labels for the magic ingredients
Money
Red Tickets
Awards

The directions for the game are also super easy to follow:

1. Print out the game

2. Divide the sheets according to their number (found at the top of each sheet in a yellow circle)

3. Cut out all the pieces, but keep them separated by their numbers.

4. Place each individual piece from 2,3,45’s into separate envelopes.

5. For the magical ingredient labels (6s) you will need to prepare props ahead of time and attach the print out labels. The ‘magical ingredients’ can be created from everyday objects.

6. Prepare your rule sheet. You can personalize the rules that come with the game if you want to include off limit areas in your house and print out a sheet for each player.

7. Divide money in to envelopes of $200 each. Make sure there is enough for each player to have an envelope.

8. Decide and purchase any prizes to use after the game. You can have an auction for each item and the players can bid with what is left of their $200. (Or more, if they earn it during the game!)

The game comes in a 25 page PDF and is easy to set up and make for a memorable and fun Halloween party! Recommended for ages 8 & up!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Giveaway

Winner Caramel Expressions Etsy Gift Certificate

Katie October 16, 2011 0Comment

The winner of the $10 Gift Certificate to Caramel Expressions Etsy shop was comment #1. Lauren! Congrats Lauren 🙂

(The winner will have 48 hours to respond to their winning email or an alternate winner will be chosen)

GetGlue

Get Glue September Stickers Part I

Katie October 16, 2011 0Comment

These stickers were requested September 10 and are postmarked September 16. I think that is one of the fastest turnarounds I have had yet with Get Glue.

(For those of you who don’t know what Get Glue is – it is a website, getglue.com, where you “check in” to TV shows, movies, topics, etc and can get rewarded with stickers. Once you have reached 20 stickers, every month you can request actual copies of your stickers for free! You can get stickers for checking in once, 5 times, 15 times, etc as well as live during show airings, posting keywords, and other phrases to get the stickers to “pop”)

The A-Listing
Barnes & Noble
Breaking Bad
Couch Potato
Fringe – Equipment Subject
Fringe – Fauxlivia
Former Soap Store
Fringe Division Agent
Gigolo
True Blood – Maker
Fringe Observer
Fringe – Olivia
Pimp
Myth Busters – Plausible
Fringe Department of Defense
Fringe Division Department of Defense
Rubicon
Glee – Sue Sylvester
Fringe – Walter
Fringe – Walternate

Book Review Giveaway

Book Review & Giveaway: The Lump

Katie October 15, 2011 4Comments

The Lump is A gynecologist’s journey with Male Breast Cancer. Written by Alan Johns, MD.

Many people are not aware that breast cancer does not only affect women, it is something that males can get as well. (Which is why all those “breast cancer awareness” memes going around Facebook telling women to “keep it a secret from the men!” drive me absolutely bonkers. For more than just the fact that it can affect men… but that posting to your facebook is doing nothing to help find a cure!)

Dr. Johns went in to medical school in an effort to dodge the draft during the Vietnam War. He ended up enjoying surgery and decided to become a gynecologist. The beginning of the book tells of his journey in to med school and how he met his wife and just giving you some background on him and his family. It then goes in to how he noticed that one of his nipples was inverted one day, and thought that could mean breast cancer but waited 3 months before going to see any specialists about it. An interesting aspect of the story is how Dr. Johns said he would often reprimand his patients for waiting so long to contact HIM about a problem – and there he was doing the same thing. He was beginning to see things from a different perspective, which in turn helped him with his patients.

Another time he saw things from a different perspective was when he got his lump biopsied. He used to tell his patients that it would be “just a little pinch”, but was near tears when he had to have it done himself.

The book also goes through his surgery and treatment afterwards and explains how he felt nausea afterwards (even though he was convinced he’d be find and didn’t take any anti nausea medications), how he found out that peanut butter and crackers were great for helping with his nausea and how he took medication that made him get hot flashes. (Another thing that made him realize what his patients were going through!)

With all his new experiences, Dr Johns decided to open a Breast Center – named after a good friend who helped him deal with his breast cancer – Joan Katz. (Donate Here)

I really enjoyed reading the book and getting a humorous male perspective on what it is like to have breast cancer. There are 22 chapters and it is a pretty easy read, but very interesting and informative as well.

About the Book

Most men have midlife crises. Most men don’t have them in the form of a masectomy.

As a gynecologist and surgeon in the prime of his life, Alan Johns had a blossoming medical practice, a growing family, and what he believed to be the maximum amount of empathy for his female patients; until suddenly he found himself on the other side of the telephone, receiving a diagnosis of male breast cancer.

This startling discovery leads Johns on an unusual journey through his own mastectomy, chemotherapy, mammograms, and hot flashes — and experience both challenging and humorous that forces him to reexamine his profession from his patients perspective. With a keen eye for professional detail, a playful sense of humor, and many atypical insights, Johns recounts his childhood, education, and the events that molded his surgical career– and the invaluable lessons in empathy and medicine cancer had in store.

With a rare dual perspective as both male gynecologist and breast cancer patient, Johns offers an illuminating story and a fascinating look at his newfound philosophy of healing for anyone encountering a life-changing diagnosis.

About the Author

Alan Johns, MD, spent his childhood learning to handle butcher knives in his dad’s small-town grocery store. After a little further training in college, medical school, and residency, he became a gynecologist and surgeon. He has authored or coauthored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, as well as chapters in surgical text books. He has lectured on surgical topics around the world and performed over 8,500 surgical procedures. He practices medicine in Fort Worth, TX, where he lives with Jenny, his wife of forty-one years. The Lump is his first stab at non-medical writing.

I was sent an additional copy of “The Lump” to give away to one of my readers! The Giveaway will end October 31 at 12:01 AM EST. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to their winning email with their address, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher to read & review as well as a second copy of the book to give away to one of my readers. I was not asked to write a favorable review and all thoughts & opinions are my own.