Universal CityWalk to Become Universal MoonWalk for a Day

So I’ve refrained from most of the Michael Jackson talk simply because, well, I don’t believe in hyping out someone’s death like it’s the most tragic event to happen in the history of humankind. But I thought this news from Universal Studios was pretty cool and free! If you can’t make it for the MJ celebration, be sure to check out the rest of the summer on the CityWalk for really cool performances, bands, and other summer goodness.

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Universal CityWalk will become “Universal MoonWalk” for one night with Southern California’s largest outdoor public celebration of Michael Jackson’s life and music on Thursday, July 9, as part of CityWalk’s ongoing Summer Block Party free summer marathon of movies and music.

CityWalk’s tribute to the King of Pop will begin at 7:00 pm and will include screenings of “The Wiz” and “Michael Jackson’s Thriller,” plus a “live” dance retrospective of Michael Jackson’s phenomenal musical history, from his days as the youngest sibling in The Jackson Five to his history-making solo career as the world’s most renowned pop music star. Admission is free.

CityWalk’s Summer Block Party provides seven-nights-a-week of non-stop entertainment, featuring top tribute band concert performances, the ever-popular outdoor movie night, swing dance lessons, star-making talent competitions and Latin entertainment nights. Summer Block Party continues through August 30.

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Feed Your Addiction

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So I have an addiction…. Well a few of them!
But today I’m bringing up my terrible addiction to soaps and lotions and things. To be honest, I’m not a big lotion person, but I ADORE soaps and bath bombs and salts. Really anything that will make me smell pretty and will go in the tub or shower. I also love what great gifts these things make!

So with that in mind I wanted to talk a little bit about a few of the places that feed my addiction.

To begin with I heard about this give away today. It looks pretty great and right up my alley. I checked out the store and am really excited about the Sage and Lavender stuff (what a great idea to mix those two smells!). I’ve not tried anything from there yet, but I’m excited to! The prices also look really reasonable, so I’m looking forward to adding this stuff to my usual rotation. I also like that there are sales! Yay for sales. Rebecca’s Soap Delicatessen.

Now I also recently found this place. I just love this stuff. Its local for me but they will deliver anywhere. Again the lavender stuff is amazing (all of it). I also really enjoy the moose (its a thick lotion), and the Red Rocks soap is earthy and wonderful (and totally looks like Red Rocks)! The kitchen soap is fun too, citrus and coffee, awesome idea. There are some great products for moms-to-be and babies. There are also a lot of smaller size (and less expensive) items that make fantastic gifts. I personally enjoy the small soap packs, you get a variety of scents for a pretty good deal! They also have a lot of eco-friendly products worth checking out. Mountain Girl Botanics.

I’ve also been spending some time with Lush. The hair products are really different and fun. I’ve been using the hair mask and WOW! I’m impressed. I also love it for the bath bombs and other fun bath stuff. They have a great online ordering service, and have locations all over. One of the things to note though is that I will often find something I love online only to find they don’t carry it in the store.

And finally for bath enthusiasts check out Melt. They are similar to Lush, but the scents you get are very different. I personally am a big fan of the Maharini Mist. I like that they sell things by scent rather than product, so if you find something you like you can get everything from scrubs to lotions to bath bombs with that scent. Oddly enough, this was a little confusing for me when I went to the store. If you don’t remember the name of the scent you liked it can be a bit daunting to locate it again.

There are a LOT of places out there, and I usually find something special and fun about most of them. I suggest you check out any of these places and find the thing you love about them

Coming Soon – A New Web Series to Cover Web Celebs!

New web series, “The Web.Files,” will launch its inaugural episode on July 8, 2009, from multiple platforms across the web. Planned as a weekly talk/inteview show featuring 5- to 7-minute episodes, it was first conceived by entertainment correspondent and hosting veteran, Kristyn Burtt.

During her coverage of the March 28, 2009, Streamy Awards from the red carpet, Burtt realized that the people she was talking with that night had a lot of untold stories. Stories that she would like to tell.

She devised a plan to create a web series she would host centered around the principals involved in creating the best, most-watched, highest-rated, and most talked about series on the web.

Burtt contacted award-winning filmmaker, Sandra J. Payne, whose SPwrite Productions, LLC, was about to launch its first web series, “Life with Kat & McKay” on its new web portal, PurseDog.tv.

Both passionate about New Media, Burtt and Payne decided to combine forces to create “The Web.Files.” Burtt’s first interview is with YouTube sensation Tay Zonday, who became one of the early break-out stars from that site with his song, “Chocolate Rain,” which currently has more than 38 million hits.

“The Web.Files” opening sequence is now available for viewing. Follow “The Web.Files” on twitter at https://twitter.com/TheWebFiles, or find us on Facebook.

Mary Mary Named 2009’s Best Gospel Artist at Annual BET Awards


Buy Mary Mary CDs on Amazon.

marymaryMary Mary was named this year’s Best Gospel Artist at the 2009 BET Awards ceremony held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 28, airing on BET. Mary Mary’s soulful performance of the group’s “God in Me,” with guest artist Queen Latifah, was one of the highpoints of an emotional BET ceremony.

The groundbreaking contemporary gospel duo had racked up seven BET Award nominations in years past, beginning with a Best Female Group nod in 2001, culminating in 2007 with noms in both the Best Gospel Artist and Best Group categories.

Mary Mary also won 2009’s Best Gospel Performance Grammy while taking home this year’s NAACP Image Award — for Best Gospel Artist (Traditional or Contemporary) — and the Urban Recorded Song of the Year Dove Award for “Get Up,” one of the key tracks on the group’s #1 Gospel chart-topping album, The Sound.
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Heralded as “Praiseworthy” by People magazine, Mary Mary’s latest album The Sound peaked at #1 on a variety of Billboard Christian and Gospel albums charts shortly after its release in October 2008. The Sound entered the Billboard Top 200 at #7, giving Mary Mary their highest charting — and second Top 10 — album on that chart (2005’s Mary Mary peaked at #8 on the Top 200). Mary Mary and The Sound achieved one of the highest chart debuts on the Top 200 of any gospel album released in 2008. A bona fide crossover smash, The Sound made a “Hot Shot” debut on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart at #2.

“Get Up,” the Grammy-winning lead single from The Sound, garnered massive crossover radio play on Urban, Urban Adult Contemporary, Rhythm Gospel and Dance radio formats while charting in a number of formats. “That song embodies what the whole album is about,” says Mary Mary’s Erica Campbell. “It asks people, ‘Why are you waiting? Why do you care what other people think?’ It reminds us that your beginning can be whenever you want it to be.”

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Movie Review: Justice League: The New Frontier

1Buy Justice League – The New Frontier (Two-Disc Special Edition) on Amazon.


200px-newfrontier2 Hal Jordan is shot down in his plane, even though it’s just been announced that the Korean War is over. He is forced to shoot an enemy soldier in self defense and ends up in a hospital because of the trauma. His time in the hospital makes it difficult for him to find a position as a pilot in the future.

The Martian Manhunter has been accidentally transported to earth by a curious scientist. The scientist has a heart attack and Martian Manhunter takes on his persona, since he can’t return to Mars. He takes to learning about the human race by interacting and watching television.

Superman and Wonder Woman argue over justice and if superheroes should be allowed to distribute it. The Justice Society has disbanded and Batman is a fugitive. The government is distrusting of the heroes.

This is the set up for a full length animated movie about how the Justice League comes to be. The movie includes an all star cast. David Boreanaz as Hal Jordan, Miguel Ferrer as J’onn J’onzz, Lucy Lawless as Wonder Woman, Kyle MacLachlan as Superman, Kyra Sedgwick as Lois Lane, and Neil Patrick Harris as The Flash.

A Cult surrounding a mysterious being called the Centre is showing up in the lives of several of the heroes. Batman and J’onzz team up to investigate the Centre, until J’onzz decides to try and leave the planet. He finds out about Hal Jordan’s mission to Mars and tries to hitch a ride. He doesn’t feel at home one Earth with all the hatred and conformity. He misses his chance and is captured instead.

The Flash decides to quite the hero business, since no one seems to want them anyway. He doesn’t want to put his loved ones at risk.

Hal Jordan’s Mars mission fails and he’s rescued by Superman. Abin Sur, the Green Lantern of Sector 2814, is fatally injured and leaves Hal his ring and information about the Centre, who is a monstrous creature that fears humans and wants to rid the planet of them. Hal must now work to stop the Centre, as the new Green Lantern.

The Centre attacks and the heroes come together to fight it. After a rousing speech about trusting each other as human beings Superman goes to fight the Centre, but is defeated. Thinking Superman is dead Hal Jordan, Batman, Martian Manhunter, The Flash, and even the Green Arrow come up with a plan to defeat the Centre.

The New Frontier explores themes of teamwork, paranoia, freedom, trust, and justice. It has origins for Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter and some deeper insight into Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash. It successfully focuses on more than one superhero with development for all of them. It would be great to see a live action Justice League movie as well done as this.

Favorite quote: Batman to the Martian Manhunter- “I have a $70,000 sliver of radioactive meteor to stop the one in Metropolis. With you, all I need is a penny for a book of matches.”

Movie Review – Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

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Want to catch up on Transformers before you go see the sequel? Buy Transformers on DVD or purchase the original cartoon as Transformers: The Complete First Season (25th Anniversary Edition) on Amazon.

I went and saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen yesterday. It wasn’t bad – all in all I’d give it… maybe… a three-star rating out of five. Maybe. By now, it’s made its money back. The last time I checked it was at 201M USD and climbing. Second biggest blockbuster opening in history – second only to Dark Knight. The movie itself is about what you’d expect if you’ve seen either, A) the first Transformers movie, or B) anything else by director Michael Bay. The story continues with Sam, the slightly goofy, every-teen hero, and his life after the first adventure – where he discovers an alien race, helps save the world, and gets the girl. And since the first movie was also a Michael Bay movie, the aliens are visual-complicated CG robots, saving the world involves a lot of stuff blowing up, and the girl is incredibly hot.

Fast forward to post-high school. Sam decides to leave home and head east. Leaving behind the robots, stuff blowing up, and Mikaela. For what? 40,000 a year in tuition, his dad would say. But really – he wants to distance himself from all the baggage of the past – while not making a break with his girlfriend, who – according to his mother, talking under the influence… well, we’ll say that Sam and Mikaela are on ‘good terms’. Which is odd. And selfish. This sets the tone for Sam in this movie.

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Film Independent Announces Award Winners of 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival

Today Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, announced its 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival award winners at a special event, presented by Target. The Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by The Los Angeles Times, ran from Thursday, June 18 to Sunday, June 28.

“One of our goals at Film Independent is to help filmmakers build an audience for their work, and the Los Angeles Film Festival does just that,” said Film Independent Executive Director Dawn Hudson. “We hope recognition at the Festival will allow these filmmakers to continue to find broad audiences for their terrific films.”

The two top juried awards of the Los Angeles Film Festival are the Target Filmmaker Award and Target Documentary Award, each carrying an unrestricted $50,000 cash prize for the winning film’s director. The awards were established by the Festival and Target to encourage independent filmmakers to pursue their artistic ambitions.

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Episode Review: Star Trek:TOS – 1×02 – Charlie X

Captain’s Log, star date 1533.6. Now maneuvering to come alongside cargo vessel Antares. Its Captain and First officer are beaming over to us with an unusual passenger.

So much is made of Cap. Picard’s dislike of children, but in this episode we get to see that Kirk’s seems to have the same opinion; in the first scene Kirk’s tells the kid he’s being rude, then after that he tries to avoid the boy as much as possible.

Unfortunately, Charlie’s got a crush on Yeoman Rand, and some freaky mind power, which means Kirk gets sucked into playing Dad.

Things That Stood Out:
Uhura’s song about how seductive Spock is, and Spock’s sly little grin while she’s singing.
Kirk’s red workout tights.