Life & art in Angeltown.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Universal Orlando Resort

 

I cannot even explain how much I want to go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando. I could just cry. Watch the webcast!

via www.universalorlando.com

the mudbloods

<--- See what I got! Such awesomeness.

A couple weeks ago at the live Pottercast we saw Adam Dubberly / the Mudbloods play and loved his music. He has a lovely folky-singer-songwriter type sound (& great lyrics!) which I've always been in love with so I'm of course thrilled to find a new artist to love.

Well at that event someone suggested the HP-DFW Meetup Group and I joined a few days ago. And perfect timing, too, because on Friday I saw on the calendar that Adam was playing again Saturday night. Yay!

So last night we (me, Sarah, Lloyd, Kathy, Scott) went to the event: Lone Star Comics HBP Party & Wizard Rock Concert. It was a pretty small event but it was great to see Adam play again. AND this time I picked up 2 CD's: a weathered copy of Essentially that he signed (shown) and a REALLY GREAT new CD he recently released of muggle music.

Both CD's are fabulous, and I've been listening to the muggle CD for a few hours now. Really love it! I don't even know the track names LOL except I believe the first one is called 'Happy Ending'. All of the wrockers who love the Mudbloods should definitely pick up this CD, too! All of the songs are great, and it's not that common for me to like every track on a CD. I think my faves are 'Happy Ending', track 3 which I'm calling 'Waking Every Morning' & track 9 which I'm calling 'Sing You Home', but as always my fave tracks are subject to change. BTW feel free to send me the real track names if you know them LOL!

I took some video of 'A Pensieve Full Of Unrequited Love' including a quick look at the adorable little girl (15mo I think they said?) that danced and chased balloons through the show. The loud girl talking about Harry Potter & Twilight is my sis, Sarah, LOL so just ignore her if you can! (HAHA Sarah!)

A big thanks to Adam for coming back from CA to play for us even w/o his guitar string. It is appreciated & we had fun!

In honor of #Dumbledore

8 hours to go!

Summer So Far!

Whew! Summer is flying by!

I just did a blog redesign that I like despite the irritating Typepad limitations on blogs using templates. I really do not want to switch to advanced templates for my personal blog - it makes changes much more of a hassel so this will have to do unless Typepad decides to be awesome and make some needed changes like...oh I don't know...how about the ability to have a full width (outside of container) footer for example! Good grief Typepad!

OK so anyway I think I'll just do a recap of my life & things that caught my attn so far this summer. This is a long post so I'll split it into sections! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ baby <3 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Baby Tristan is growing SO FAST! <SIGH> Here he is eating a quesadilla I made him for lunch. He loves cheese! 

Tristan had a fun playdate with Will, Kate & Devin at Sacha's house. I filmed a bit so Sarah can see how much he loves this playhouse toy that matches his kitchen! Thanks for having us over, Sacha! P.S. It's a bit shakey - I was on the couch and Will & Devin were sitting with me at various times LOL. It's quite difficult to be steady with a 1 year old & a 3 year old next to you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ books ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have read several more fantastic books (all updated on my WeRead lists!) including Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska & An Abundance of Katherines by the brilliant John Green. Paper Towns is my fave of the three. John Green has a very truthful & thought provoking writing style and is quite insightful into the way people perceive each other vs. reality. I can honestly say I will read anything John Green writes - a new fave author!

I also read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins:

Fascinating story of a strong-willed girl thrown into a very disturbing "game" requiring teenagers to kill each other or be killed. Interesting commentary on doing what society and/or the government requires vs. choosing what is morally right. I've always been drawn to these sorts of books and I can't wait for book two!
If you like these types of stories as well I also recommend The Giver by Lois Lowry and the classic series starting with A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.

I'm very much looking forward to the sequel coming this fall: Catching Fire. Yay!

Speaking of sequels, Maureen Johnson announced she is writing a sequel to 13 Little Blue Envelopes (which I wrote about in a previous post). And speaking of Maureen Johnson, read this absolutely hilarious play submitted by a fan to Maureen's Scarlett Fever contest: http://tinyurl.com/kl6ysm

I'm currently reading three more books when I get a few minutes: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama. More about those when I'm done!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ crafts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've been crafting up a storm over at TCC's Blog! I'll get some of the those projects posted here soon. Plus I have some other projects to post! Soon I promise!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ harry potter & things made of awesome ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It has been an amazing summer for Harry Potter goodness! I already posted about the complete AWESOMENESS that was the live show with Pottercast, The Remus Lupins, The Whomping Willows & The Mudbloods. Make sure to check them out if you haven't yet! AND I'm still SO HAPPY that Melissa signed my copy of Harry, A History!

I've also been getting more involved in fighting for awesomeness with the Nerdfighters, the Harry Potter Alliance & MyLeaky. You will not find fandoms anywhere more welcoming & invested in decreasing world suck, spreading the invaluable lessons Dumbledore taught us, and in general making a the world a more tolerant and better place.

And if all of that wasn't enough, I will be watching Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince at the theater IN 52 HOURS! WOOOOOOOOOOT! Kathy & I have our tickets and will be at the midnight showing Tuesday night. Can't wait!

I added a page to the blog called Obsessions (LOL! tab at the top right). Coming soon there will be fun things like Links & art including Harry Potter related stuff.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ random ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've discovered BlipFM (LOL) and love that I can tweet songs to all of you! You can find my BlipFM channel here and there is a link in the sidebar under Socialize.

And for some literal awesomeness watch this:

Pottercast Tour 2009 in Dallas!

WOOT!
On July 1 Kathy & I went to see the live tour of Pottercast, The Remus Lupins, & The Whomping Willows. And BONUS: Adam Dubberly from The Mudbloods also played and was really fabulous! We both really liked the muggle songs he played, too. I must check out their CD's!

I got a few decent pics during the last song when everyone was on stage.I took a few earlier in the night on my phone but they were much too dark - should've used my camera all along!

We had a fabulous time! I am BEYOND THRILLED that I finally met Frak, John & Melissa in person! WOOOOOOOOO!

AND AND AND AND...

Melissa signed my copy of Harry, A History. <sigh of deepest contentment>

Here's a video of Adam from the Austin show...if anyone took video in Dallas I'd love to see it, too!

MTV Movie Awards, books, & Harry Potter

Did you watch the MTV Movie Awards??? Can you believe that nonsense they pulled w Eminem? Good grief. That was SO over the line - totally don't blame him for leaving. Actually I find very little of their crude humor funny, so you know. But I do love movies and like to see who wins so what's a girl to do. Plus I wanted to see the promised new clips! Of course Twilight won loads of awards - yay! In case you missed it, here's the New Moon trailer they showed:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

And in case that wasn't enough, they also played a clip from HBP! Only 46 days left!!!! Only 46 days! That makes me so very, very happy. :) Here's the clip:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Since my last post I've finished three more books, Brother Odd & Odd Hours by Koontz and Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson. I really enjoyed Brother Odd (see post below for the previous books in this series). Odd's wit, sarcasm & sense of responsibility make a lovely character. Odd Hours was also good but books 1 & 3 are still my favorite in this series.

Suite Scarlett is a simply lovely book. This was my first Maureen Johnson read, and I really like her style & ability to define the relationships between her characters. I'll be reading more of her books I'm sure.

You can see my full reviews on my weRead account (see Angel's Bookshelf in the sidebar). That's all for now! Ciao!

and once again I am HAPPY!