Advantages of Having Your Child Study Music

Your child might be at a crossroads. Perhaps he or she might not have any special interests in school. If this is the case, you might want to consider encouraging your son or daughter to begin studying music if your child’s school offers a music program. There are many reasons why this is a good idea. Unfortunately, there are many schools that are looking for ways to cut their budget and the music program is usually one of the first things to go. Here are a few of the key reasons why your child can definitely benefit from starting to learn music at an early age.

1. Reading music is something that will be simpler to learn for children when they are at an early age.

There are many things which young minds can more easily absorb than adults. This is because the development of a child’s brain has not finished yet. Therefore, doing something like learning a foreign language is easier for children than adults. Learning to read music is a lot like learning a new language. There is a great deal of memorization involved. Getting an early start on learning all of the various aspects that are involved in reading music will help to make your child a better musician.

2. Your child will find it easier to make friends if he or she plays music.

Playing music is a social activity. It is certainly not something that a person can easily do alone. There are many children who are socially awkward and do not make friends easily. If this is the case, getting your child involved in his or her school’s music program will allow him or her so associate with other children. These interactions might lead to friendships that will last for many years.

3. Music will allow your child to be creative.

Your child might develop a passion for music that leads him or her to begin writing original songs. The process of writing a song is no different than painting a picture. The same level of creativity is involved. You start with nothing and end up with a unique creation. It is always good to encourage creativity in young children.

4. Playing in a school band is a good extracurricular activity to have on a college application.

There are many things that colleges look at when they are trying to decide if they should admit an applicant. All of these schools have different criteria that they use. One of the key things they look at involves which extracurricular activities that the applicants were involved in at their high school. Colleges tend to like applicants who have a musical background. Therefore, having played in the school band could help your child get accepted into various colleges.

5. Your son or daughter might decide to make a living playing music.

Your child might discover that he or she has a natural gift where music is concerned. This might lead your child to determine that music is something he or she wants to pursue as a career. Coran Capshaw has managed numerous professional musicians. Business leader Coran Capshaw has spent many years helping some of the biggest names in music achieve greatness. Your child might become the next superstar by studying music in school.

Rhode Island Comic Con

I’ve done a couple days of Comic Cons before but never a full fledged weekend. But when Rhode Island Comic Con kept adding more and more of my favorites, a couple of my house elves and I decided we had to do it.  Friday afternoon the show kicked off and we started it off by meeting Elijah Wood and Sean Astin and then heading over to the LOTR panel.  The next morning I got up bright and early to make sure that we got there in time for me to get my photo with Sean Astin and Elijah Wood.  We also met Jason Isaacs of Harry Potter (and many other things) and then my friends opted to go to Jason Isaacs panel while I somehow got myself in the middle of all the Stranger Things insanity trying to get into that panel.  They had chosen the smaller of the two rooms for the panel, and last second decided to switch into the larger one because there was just so, so, so many people that wanted in – the whole upstairs area was just jam packed.  I ended up making it in and it was so hilarious and so much fun – aside from the grown ass woman that fell on my lap trying to rush into the seat next to me… really?  We closed out the night with our Jason Isaacs photo-ops and were ready to head back again for day 3. My friend and I fell in love with Sean Astin so we added a photo op with him for our last day and went through his autograph line again.  My NSYNC girls met me to meet Joey Fatone (although I will admit I walked past his booth and giggled many, many times before actually going over to talk to him Sunday)  I finally made it to the line for Gaten Matarazzo when it wasn’t completely shut off for way too many people wanting to meet him and not enough room… we had our photo ops with Joey (probably my fave op, ever) and closed out the weekend watching the cosplay costume contest.  The weekend was a ton of fun and we are looking forward to seeing what guests will be there next year!

 

 

 

Hanson in Boston

Sunday night was time for my second double header as I headed to Boston to see Hanson at the House of Blues.  The line was around and around the block which was insane. Fortunately the Hanson.net Members Only Line was just finishing going in so we were able to hop in it and enter the venue.  My seat was on the balcony on Isaac’s side – although since I had bought the tickets I was convinced I had the stadium seats. It was a nice surprise since the stadium seats were much further back than I had expected. If I leaned at just the right angle I could see all guys, but for the most part my view was Taylor and Zac and Isaac looking like he was in jail due to the bars around the balcony!

I opted to crowd watch a bit more this show than usual, probably because I had such a great view of the GA Floor below me and the Boston crowd did not disappoint.  There were a couple of younger girls in the crowd singing along at what appeared to be the top of their lungs (with feeling) to every song.  There was a girl dancing with the merch guy to Weird-  complete with her twirling him. And that same girl’s reaction when This Time Around started was gold. Probably because it was the complete opposite to my usual reaction when they start that song.

Highlights included – me making it through With You In Your Dreams without crying (the trick is to try and ignore the fact that you are at a concert and check your social media accounts that you had neglected for the last hour or so) and I Don’t Want To Go Home as the encore.

We didn’t stay for the after party this night as it was a “school night” and I was disappointed to find out that Zac came out by the buses relatively quickly after the show – but I think the extra sleep before heading to work on Monday was more necessary than another photo with Zac. (At least, that is what I am going to keep telling myself)

Still one more double-header to go… and this time I’ll be adding 2 new states to my map!

 

Already Home
Waiting For This
Where’s The Love
Look At You
Tragic Symphony
Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’
Great Divide
This Time Around
Weird
Go
Madeline
Juliet
Strong Enough To Break
Penny and Me
Watch Over Me
With You In Your Dreams
On and On
I Was Born
A Minute Without You
Get The Girl Back
I’m A Man / Gimme Some Lovin’ / Long Train Runnin
MMMBop
If Only
Fired Up
In The City

Encore:
I Don’t Want To Go Home
Lost Without Each Other

 

Chris Kirkpatrick at Super Mega Fest Comic Con

A few weeks ago our “boyband SOS” was alerted when we found out that Chris Kirkpatrick from *NSYNC would be attending a Comic Con in Massachusetts.  We not so patiently waited for the day to arrive and jumped in the car and headed the 1.5hours or so up to MA. We had pre-purchased tickets to get into the con and despite checking every day, Chris’ prices for photos and autographs were still “TBD”.  When we arrived, we headed straight over to his table, which appeared to have the longest line.  Quickly we found out this was because he was taking the time to chat and take photos with everyone for quite some time.  This wasn’t a problem because we knew that he would talk with us for quite some time as well!

It was $40 to get something you brought signed and $60 to get a signed 8×10 and a “selfie”.  Our group was 4 so we split in 2 and 2.  Christine and Casey went first and Casey has *NSYNC shoes (which I may have mentioned here before) that she wanted to get signed.  Then it was mine and Lauren’s turn.  I wasn’t sure what to talk to him about but had decided that any mention of an *NSYNC reunion probably wasn’t the best idea (since everyone was probably mentioning that to him!) so I opted to tell him congrats on the baby that he and his wife were expecting! He ended up telling me the complete story of how they had been trying for 3 years and how the baby was conceived.  We took our “selfie” and he asked me if my camera could make phone calls since everyone uses their phones for pics now.  Then I got a photo with Lauren and then Chris took a big group selfie of the 4 of us with him – and then announced the next photo would be funny faces – but got mad when Casey and Christine gave us bunny ears!

We then went to buy our tickets for the professional photo op with Chris and went to grab a snack while we waited for the time we were supposed to be back for the photos.  It turned out that we were essentially the only people doing the photo op with him (save for 2 guys who seemed to be doing photos with everyone and another family). It went quick but somehow it ended with him talking crap about Joey Fatone so of course I had to step in and defend and let him know Joey was my favorite which resulted in him yelling at me to NEVER say that to him again! hahaha.

Next thing we know we are outside and deciding where we should go for lunch and a car pulls up to us and asks us if we are going to eat… minutes later I am in said car WITH Chris and we end up having lunch with him. I honestly have no idea how it happened and we probably couldn’t make it happen again if we tried. But he talked about a LOT of stuff with us and out of respect to him I am not going to post it all over the internet. (Nothing really scandalous though – mostly sports and stories about “my man” Joey lol)  He did end up calling Joey and letting me say ‘HI’ though! 😀

I think we all may have a new favorite *NSYNC member now… Chris was incredibly nice and a lot of fun and if you have the chance to see him at a con definitely do it!

Getting a Job as a Choreographer

Dancing is a wonderful activity. It can make you feel good and make you healthier at the same time. Are you someone who loves to dance every chance that you get? If this is the case, you might want to think about pursuing a career that will pay you to dance on a daily basis. There are a number of jobs that you can choose from. One of the most exciting and potentially lucrative careers in the field of dance is that of a choreographer. Craig Revel Horwood is an example of someone who made it big in show business as a choreographer. Here are some of the things that you can do to get started in the choreography profession.

1. Sign up for dance classes that are taught be a professional instructor.

It is important that you only receive instruction from a person who has been highly trained in the field of dance. It stands to reason that you will become a better dancer if you have an outstanding instructor. Do not be in a rush to find a dance class. Take some time and do some research about all of the various dance classes in your area. Make sure that you learn a great deal about who the instructors are. It would also be a good idea to choose a dance class that has a small number of students. This will help to ensure that you get an adequate amount of attention from the instructor.

2. Attend a school that will teach you the art of choreography.

Becoming a great choreographer will require you to know much more than basic dance steps. You will need to learn the subtle elements that go into any great dance routine. There is a lot of creativity when it comes to being a choreographer. Therefore, there are many elements that you will not be able to learn in a class. All great choreographers have a natural gift for what they do. However, going to school to learn about choreography will allow you to see how routines are created and staged with actual dancers. This will be valuable for you later when you are creating routines of your own.

3. Send a tape of your choreography to various producers.

You should allow people in the industry to see the work you have done. You might get hired by doing this. It is important that you contact an employment lawyer as soon as possible if you are experiencing harassment in your workplace.

Year In Review 2016

Most expensive show:
As it has been for the past 4 years – Hanson Back to the Island event.  Not including BTTI, My2K Tour was expensive because of all the VIP packages.  Non VIP the most expensive was Carrie Underwood at $99.

Least (not free) expensive show:
Hanson at Alive at Five was $10.

Free shows:
Adam Lambert, Nate Ruess, Parachute, Javier Colon, Hanson (x10), Hop Jam

# artists seen: 88
# unique artists seen: 37
# shows seen in CT:   20
# of shows out of state: 18

Show farthest away: Hanson in Jamaica
Closest show:   Nick Fradiani
$$ spent on tickets:   $2,898.49
Miles traveled: 10,328.15

Top 6 shows of the year?
Jason Mraz June 21
Hanson July 14
My2K tour August 5
Carrie Underwood October 28
Hanson October 31 (Shows 1 and 3!)

Total number of shows in 2015? 38

First show of the year?
Hanson in Jamaica

First show with actual tickets:
Adam Lambert

Last show of the year?
One Tree Holiday

Most surprising show?
Dalton Rapattoni – mostly for the Fairfield School of Rock but Dalton was awesome too.
Or being the only one for VIP with Tyrone Wells!

Most disappointing?
Maroon 5 rescheduling shows with ours being the last one before Adam’s baby was supposed to be born and then at the last minute canceling it and not rescheduling it at all!

Farthest traveled?
1,867 miles to Jamaica

States attended shows in?
Jamaica, CT, NY, OK, FL

Venue most visited?
American Garden Theater @ EPCOT – 9x.

Band seen the most?
Hanson – 16 times

Best new discovery?
Parachute

Bands seen this year that also broke up this year?
Dream

Friends made at shows?
Many!

Band members met?
Hanson x3, David Cook, Tony Lucca, Kris Allen x3, Parachute x2, 98 Degrees, O-Town, Dream, Ryan Cabrera, Stephen Kellogg, Tyrone Wells, Dalton Rapattoni, Tyler Hilton, Kate Voegele

Best souvenir from a show?
Although it wasn’t quite from a show – my MOEy trophy from Hanson & Hanson.net!

Longest time in line?
Probably Hanson in Stamford, we got there about 11am for a 5pm show? People driving by thought we were nuts.

Shows seen from the barricade [front row]–
Hanson at BTTI night 1, Hanson in CT, Kris Allen in Danbury, Jason Mraz, My2K Tour

Most shows in one month?
January – 4
February – 1
March – 5
April – 3
May – 3
June – 1
July – 3
August – 2
September – 1
October – 9
November – 4
December  –  2

Once again, October wins!

Most shows in one week?
10. Carrie Underwood and then 3 nights of 3 Hanson shows per night

Biggest crowd?
Probably the Hop Jam.

Any drunk encounters?
None that I can remember!

 

Review: Decluttr

decluttr

Recently I was looking to get rid of some books and decided I would try out decluttr, as I had heard it was a pretty good site.  In order to have free shipping to send the items to the site, you had to submit 30 items, so I ended up going through my CDs as well to hit 30.  I ended up getting $13 for all my effort and it was completely not worth it.  If you are in dire need of cash and have a TON of free time to sort through all your things and scan barcodes, it may be worth it.  But for all the hours I put into it, to only end up with $13 (sometimes just $0.05 for a CD) I would have been better off putting in little effort, throwing everything into trash bags and dropping it off at a place like GoodWill.

After packaging everything and sending it in – they ended up not even paying me for one of the CDs because it was a “promotional” CD and unable to resale.  Did they send the CD back to me? Nope. They kept it.  Whether they tossed it since it couldn’t be sold or decided to sell it (or do whatever it is they do with them) instead, I don’t know, but that was pretty annoying.  I guess I should have realized it was a promo CD myself but it wasn’t obviously labeled as one.

In the future I think I will just donate to GoodWill, less effort and a tax write off.

 

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