As you know, my sister and I have made it a semi-regular habit to attend celebrity appearance events at our local theaters, Hollywood Palms and Hollywood Boulevard. It was only two months ago that we met Henry Winkler, Penny Marshall, and Eddie “Carmine ‘the Big Ragu” Ragusa” Mekka. In the spring, we met Burt Reynolds. This weekend there was another event we couldn’t resist: “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” on the big screen, in honor of its *cough cough* 40th anniversary. This film is a huge one with my family in general, but it was also the first movie I saw in the theater, ever. Though we have watched…
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Reestablishing Chicago As The House Music Capital of the World
I had a conversation on Facebook yesterday that made me positively giddy. I was in a back-and-forth with my friend who you might remember: Jane the Phoole from the Bristol Renaissance (Ren-AY-sance) Faire. One of the things I adore about “Jane” is that she may spend her summer days dressed up in 16th century chic, but she spends her nights listening to House music, which is SO NOT 16th century. The juxtaposition of Jane’s (whose real name is Ann) Facebook statuses cracks me up on a regular basis, because how funny is it to see that one day during Ren Faire season she’s posting something like this: “Join Jane the…
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Ice Is Nice.
I am a huge fan of the Today Show. If I’m home Monday through Friday mornings, I always start my day watching it. I was thrilled when I started seeing promos a while back about the 10th Anniversary of “Where in the World is Matt Lauer?”, which is five days’ worth of Matt traveling around the world and inviting viewers (as well as Ann, Al, and Natalie) to figure out where he’s going from a clue given the day before. It’s a great way to learn about some fantastically beautiful destinations, some of them familiar by name and some not. Monday morning, I sent out a tweet asking that people…
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The Rules of British Royal Succession Change, And I Bore You To Death By Writing About Them.
Today is a great day. Not only is it Friday, but some rules that were as antiquated as…well, let’s just say they’re really old (as in, from the 17th century!) have been changed to reflect general 21st century beliefs and thus hints at the modernization (finally) of the British Commonwealth. (Note: If you’re new here, you may not have known that I am a total FANATIC about the British monarchy. It’s a blessing and a curse: don’t be scared. I’m harmless.) First, the rules as they were: Succession rules indicated that boys were given precedence to the throne over girls, just because they were, well, boys. Let me give you…
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Happy Days
Tuesday nights in the early 1970’s meant one thing in my house: “Happy Days”. I wasn’t the only one who loved the show: my parents, having spent their teenaged years in the 1950’s, were also huge fans of Richie, Potsie, Ralph Malph, Joanie, Mr. and Mrs. C, and–of course–The Fonz. A couple of years after “Happy Days” premiered, “Laverne & Shirley” spun off and joined the Tuesday night lineup on ABC. I always wanted to be Laverne: assertive, outgoing, and sassy. One Halloween I even dressed up as Laverne, and a friend of mine who was cuter and much smaller than I dressed up as Shirley. Seriously. So, knowing that,…