Scrapbook Saturday: Sea World 1
Katie 
Part 1 of the Sea World pages. WONDER TWIN! and a couple of roller coasters.
Ed Sheeran at Mohegan Sun Arena
Friday Night July 14th Ed Sheeran took his divide tour to the arena at Mohegan Sun for the first of a two night stay. Our tickets were marked as “possible obstruction” but aside from the fact we were side stage and couldn’t see the full effect of the screens behind Ed, we were in a great spot!
James Blunt opened and while I only knew his song “You’re Beautiful” (which is just a great creepy stalker anthem but most people don’t seem to realize that) he had a good set and was pretty funny with his banter between songs. He even jumped on top of his piano at one point. Before he left the stage he mentioned how he and his piano were going to leave the stage, as was his whole band and their instruments and it was just going to be Ed and his pedal up on stage for the rest of the show and while Ed was performing we should think of him because he would be backstage saying “Damn, a pedal is a lot cheaper than hiring a band”
Ed opened his set up with Castle on the Hill and it just amazing to watch him – just a guitar and a pedal – fill an arena as if he had a full band with him. I had to laugh when he was singing I See Fire and Smaug came up on the screens and everyone was like “AH! A Dragon!” haha. Ed said that he was going to have no voice by the end of the show and hoped we wouldn’t either (since I’m recovering from bronchitis I tried to be careful to NOT lose my voice as I’m trying to get better!) and said that Argentina had the loudest crowds and he knew that we could scream loud but he was hoping we could sing louder because he thought the US could be louder.
Downer of the night was the dude next to me who was clearly dragged to the show by his girlfriend and he sat next to me miserable for most of the show. Before “Perfect” she said “This is the song I wanted you to listen to!” and when it ended he said “Why would you want me to listen to THAT?” Oof. I now get what the artists say when they talk about feeling the audiences energy and feeding off of it, because he was totally bringing me down. Then the woman in front of us flipped out and was screaming about Wexford and decided to turn around and apologize to us. Why? I don’t know. I don’t care where you are from and no need to apologize for having fun at a concert!
Ed left the stage to us singing along on “Sing” but came back out shortly after for a quick encore of Shape of You (and I had far too much fun with the hot dog on Snapchat… Teletubbies, Hot Dogs, close enough) and then finished out with one of my favorite songs to see him do live – You Need Me, I Don’t Need You.
Ed did a 2nd show Saturday night at Mohegan but since tickets weren’t all that easy to obtain and I had pulled up obstructed and threw them away never to get another pair to pop, I opted out.
Throwback Thursday: Kris Allen 12/8/09
Headliner: Kris Allen
Opener(s): Article 19
Venue: Up Or On The Rocks
Cost: $0
Setlist:
David Cook at Infinity Music Hall
Sunday, July 9, David Cook and his band returned to Infinity Hall in Norfolk, CT for a show. For people who love attending such concerts and are always on the lookout for great music shows such as this one, Cheapo Ticketing could help in getting tickets at discounted prices.
After the song Heroes, he stopped to have a conversation with us. I tried to transcribe it from a recording as best I could…While the schedule looked like they had a few days off, David mentioned that they had left their show in Philly, flew to Las Vegas, drove to California to perform for the troops and had left that morning with a layover in Detroit to get back to CT, getting to the venue around 5pm for the show. The VIP M&G was held after the show instead of before the show due to this. David was also complaining of a sore throat all day to his band, but he sounded great! (He has since had to cancel several shows to be on vocal rest though, poor guy!).
“We have a lot of music to play but we have to have a conversation first. So, our last public show was… the 6th in Philly and so to people looking at the calendar they’d say hey awesome they have 2 or 3 days off that’s pretty cool. On the 7th we flew from Philly to Las Vegas and drove 2.5-3 hours to Ft. Irwin Army base in California. We composed some custom songs and played it for the veterans there at the Army Base. But we got lost on the way in the desert which is already a great end to the story… we were like maybe 20 minutes off the highway and the map was telling us turn left… there’s a cactus there we can’t turn left so in the middle of the desert literally an oasis there was a monastery St Anthony’s monestary and the other side of the fence is just the most lush green you’ve ever seen like they just took all of the water. So we turn around and are going to go back to the highway and all of a sudden this Honda Civic just comes tearing ass over towards us flashing lights at us honking and we are like ok this is like some breaking bad shit. He pulls up beside us and is just like pull over, pull over, it’s this bearded guy. Bearded dudes are suspect. So we pull over which is obviously the smart thing to do in this scenario, so we pull over and its one of the monks from the monastery and it’s like he knew what we were doing and he was like are you guys trying to get to Ft Irwin and he says oh follow me and we are like no! so we get back on the highway another 45 minutes, get up the next day to play the show and its 110 degrees I think… gross! Oh it was 114 excuse me. So we play the how it went well and then 1am his morning pacific time we got up, I got up later I overslept, get in the van drive back to Vegas for a 6am flight to Detroit, in Detroit 40 mins get here at like 5… but listen… it leads me to this point, so we are sitting here waiting for the show to start and I’m just like I want a day off, and then you guys start singing Hereos back to us… that is FUEL. So I don’t know. That’s it”
The girls behind me also had a sign… David took it from them and read it out – Here for Kyle, no longer in the band. Here for Neal, no longer in the band. Here for Andy, no longer in the band, here for Monty, no longer in the band. … David. He thought maybe they were questioning if they were there for him or not and they said no, they weren’t questioning it they were settling. So he gave them a guitar lesson on how to turn a chord into a power chord which was basically just giving them the finger. Then he was teasing how he was #5 in his band there was only 4 guys on stage.
He hung it up on the keyboard but later signed it and passed it back to the girls in the crowd.
Before one of the songs he said he had to be careful what he said because when he’s over tired he gets emotional and no one can sing beautifully with snot running down their face. I think he was going to mention something about his time on Idol but decided not to.
For the encore, he started off with Light On, his first single post-Idol. He told a story about how they told him that it was going to be his single and he was disappointed because he was hoping he could write his own song. But then they told him that the song was co-written by Chris Cornell who was one of his idols growing up so he agreed to it. He talked about how the arrangement of the demo was basically the same as he plays it – but the vocals were Chris’ and they told him “Ok you’re going to sing this song” and how he had hoped that Chris was out there somewhere listening.
The last 3 songs from the encore were all tracks from his new EP that he is currently raising money to record on Pledge Music and Tubidy. The first was a Phil Collins cover of Another Day in Paradise that I think he reworked beautifully. And then 2 originals – Ghost Magnetic and the latest single, Gimme Heartbreak – which I hadn’t had a chance to listen to before the show because… vacation on the other side of the world… but it’s really good as well!
Before he went in to the new songs someone in the crowd yelled out “NEW SONG!” and he thought that she said “YOU SUCK” and mentioned how he thought she yelled You Suck but then realized what she had actually said and was thinking he was going to have to give another guitar lesson – which he did anyway and then was worried his Mom was going to see video and get upset with him
NKOTB Fenway Park
Saturday we made the trek to Fenway Park to see NKOTB and The Total Package Tour. This was my first concert at a ballpark! As soon as we had gotten let onto the field to take our seats, it started raining. Fortunately I had some ponchos in my purse and we quickly put them on. The rain was on again off again.
Boyz II Men opened the show and it was slightly drizzling their whole set – which made trying to get any photos tricky! When they started playing Water Runs Dry it started raining harder! I thought that they had a great set and it was a lot different from their set on The Package Tour.
Motownphilly
On Bended Knee
It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday
Water Runs Dry
Are You Gonna Go My Way/American Woman/Locked Out of Heaven
I’ll Make Love to You
End of the Road
In the Still of the Night
A Song for Momma
One Sweet Day
End of the Road
Paula Abdul was next up, and it started absolutely pouring so half her set I was hiding in my poncho to try and stay dry. She talked about how singing in the rain inspired her when she was younger to become a singer and dancer… but it took her quite a while to realize… she was SINGING IN THE RAIN. A few songs in she announced she had to leave the stage and then the PA announcer said severe weather was in the area and we had to take cover in the grandstands.
I have to say, the Fenway staff did an AMAZING job making sure all the wheelchairs were able to get out of the ADA area and to the ramp that was several sections away by holding back the rest of the concert go’ers and doing the same when we went back after we got the all clear. If not, navigating through the crowd with the wheelchairs would have been impossible.
When we were let back to the seats, everything was being set up for NKOTB to take the stage. It still was raining lightly, but by the time NKOTB came out the rain had stopped – but that didn’t stop the guys from stomping around in all the puddles that had formed on the stage!
I feel like for the past few NKOTB tours their setlists have been pretty much the same. With the release of a new EP (which I still haven’t had the time to check out, bad fan!) and them being at it for so long (Jordan said they had been performing in Boston for 33 years!) they switched things up a bit and did a lot of throwbacks to the older stuff as they went through their discography and band timeline.
Highlights included the quick change camera which is hilarious and definitely live because Donnie had a piece of confetti stuck to his arm that appeared in the video just in case anyone thought it might have been pre-recorded and Joe’s son Griff joining him on stage to sing Please Don’t Go Girl. Adorable.
There also was a point in the show when the guys left the main stage and we had no idea where they were – and it seemed like the camera guys had no idea either as the screens on stage just kept panning around. Turns out the guys were running around on the infield and then ended up on the dugouts for a song as well!
It was a great show and definitely a great first for me! It rained, it snowed, there was tons of confetti (though I only ended up catching a few pieces even though I was convinced we were going to be covered in it due to our wet ponchos) and even fireworks!
Act 1 – The Beginning
One More Night
My Favorite Girl
Dirty Dancing
You Got It (The Right Stuff)
Remix (I Like The)
Block Party
Tonight
Summertime
Games
Cover Girl
The Whisper
Act 2 – Storytellers
Stop It Girl
Popsicle
Be My Girl
I Wanna Be Loved by You
Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)
Call It What You Want
Valentine Girl
Happy Birthday
You Got the Flavor
Dirty Dawg
Never Let You Go
If You Go Away
Merry, Merry Christmas
This One’s for the Children
Hard (Not Lovin’ U)
Single
Please Don’t Go Girl
Act 3 – The Close
Step by Step
I’ll Be Loving You (Forever)
Hangin’ Tough
Virtual Race: Chamber of Secrets
Race Title: Chamber of Secrets
Distance: 10k
Company: Hogwarts Running Club
Charity: Jimmy Fund
Book Review: Imagines: Boy Band Babes
This book is all fanfic – celebrity encounters starring YOU – written in the second person so that you can pretend you are the main character. I love the idea but I’m not sure why a book that is called ‘Boy Band Babes’ starts out with a story about Justin Bieber. I tried and tried to pretend it was Justin Timberlake but “I” kept squealing Justin Bieber! at him so that didn’t really work out.
The book contains 6 stories and actually 3 of them are not about boyband members at all – Zac Efron, Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes. The other 3 I only really know who 2 are – Zayn and Niall from One Direction (and I think the last is from 5 seconds of Summer but I never really got into them.)
The stories were cute (the Justin one was all about how he set up a scavenger hunt with clues for their 2nd wedding anniversary) but I think I would have enjoyed them more as just regular guys and regular girls without the celebrity aspect. Justin Bieber’s was by far the longest one, the rest were pretty quick and kind of had a choose your own adventure vibe to them as well.
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
Fanfiction at its best, from your favorite Wattpad authors! In this collection drawn from the Imagines anthology headlined by Anna Todd (After, Nothing More) comes six stories putting “YOU” alongside your favorite pop stars, including Justin Bieber, Zayn Malik, Michael Clifford, Niall Horan, Zac Efron, and Shawn Mendes!
A unique and daring series of imagines in which you get to uncover the real boy behind the pop star hottie! Told in the second-person, “you” get to step into these swoonworthy and unpredictable adventures and do things like go on a romantic and exciting scavenger hunt through the city in search of your husband Justin Bieber, attend the prom of your dreams with Michael Clifford, and party with Shawn Mendes. Dive into the fantasy worlds of your favorite pop stars now!
Note: Although this book mentions many real celebrities, they have not participated in, authorized, or endorsed its creation.
Scrapbook Saturday: Fat Ones
A couple of pages from Joey Fatone’s hot dog shop in Orlando, appropriately named Fat Ones.
Book Review: Antique New England Homes & Barns
I guess since I have lived in New England my whole life, I have developed a fondness for antique New England homes. I love driving through older neighborhoods and looking at all the old houses – there were plenty in the coastal town I grew up in and we even sometimes took walking tours through them as class field trips! So when I saw that there was a book devoted to not only the homes but barns I had to check it out. It goes through the history and how a lot of people moved to New England from [old] England and brought with them the traditions of building. I looove looking at all the pictures – any house that looks like Snow White might haved lived in it is awesome to me. It talks about how the style of the homes and how they were built was dictated by the climate. The book also talks a bit about how to restore an antique home with a lot of great information for anyone who might be tackling this project. It lets you know what to look for when looking for a plumber, what to salvage and “The Rs” that you need to know to fix up an older home.
In addition to getting to see some really cool photos of antique homes I learned a lot. I am not sure I am going to run out and buy an old home to remodel and renovate (though I wish I could afford to) but should I win the lottery, I certainly would be on the right track with what to do after reading this book! (And for a music connection, there’s even a chapter on Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates and how he transplanted and renovated 2 homes into one!)
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
There is something about antique homes and their hard-working barns that captures the imagination. Maybe it’s their pleasing proportions, maybe they remind us of a simpler time, or maybe we sense that these venerable old survivors that were built when our country was young have seen it all. But how many of us have bothered to listen to the stories they tell or tried to understand what makes them tick? This book reveals the essence of antique New England homes and barns—their history, the people who built them, why they were built that way, and how to restore them, piece by piece, without losing their character. Learn to identify architectural styles from different periods, how to strategize a restoration, and how to approach it systematically, from the timber frame to the floors, walls, and ceilings, windows and doors, wiring, finishes, and landscaping.
Throwback Thursday: Kara DioGuardi 11/20/09
Headliner: Kara DioGuardi
Opener(s): Mitch Allan
Venue: Lyman Center
Cost: $5
Setlist:
