Monthly Archives: August 2012

Recipe UPDATE: Butterbeer Cupcakes

So around a month ago one of my friends read my recipe post about the Butterbeer Cupcakes and decided to give them a short herself with some good results.

Here is her blog post about her attempt with the Butterbeer Cupcake recipe and her impressions. She even includes pictures which was something I neglected to do.

She goes so far as to say what part of the recipe she followed – because if you remember I strayed from the path a bit – and cuts off the recipe portion from there and just continues with what she did.

Her impressions?

Following the recipe directly using one standard cake box mix, it made 21 cupcakes for me, with plenty of frosting to cover them all. It might be a tiny too little if you manage 24 cupcakes. The cupcakes are some of the lightest and fluffiest cupcakes that I have ever had. One of mine even turned onto the side in the oven. It was undamaged but quite funny to me. The cupcakes are so good that you can honestly eat them without the frosting. They’re good with them, but the average cupcake is nothing without its frosting.

I would definitely agree with that assessment… but what about her verdict?
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Entertainment: Beauty and the Beat featuring Todrick Hall

Oh Em Gee… I nearly died laughing watching this. From Todrick Hall’s YouTube Channel who appeared on the 9th season of American Idol (back in 2010).

He’s been creating a series of fairytale related videos with a bit of a hip hop spin. This is just one of the stronger ones. Another video he created was Cinder-fella which has a very decent number of cameos from a variety of celebrities:
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Reflection: R&R in Minocqua, Wisconsin (Day Two and Three)

When my friends warned me that the weather was rather cool up in Minocqua they weren’t kidding. I got up at the crack of dawn (just mere hours after a long night by the campfire) and found myself feeling the cold air even though my body was warm and snug in my little cocoon of blankets and coverlets. But I wanted to see the sunrise… so I pulled myself out of bed, tossed on my coat and went out to the dock and “Oh Em Gee” it was gorgeous… and I was so mad that I forgot my camera. Dammit. Ah well.

You just had to see it to believe it, you just had to be there. Eventually I went back to the cabin and snuggled back into bed and played on my iPad (yup still a geek). After another hour passed I decided I lounged around long enough and pulled myself out of bed and took a warming shower before getting dressed and headed to the dock to memorize lines for a show in late-September.

Enjoying the calming air, the glass water… I got distracted and had to take a picture to show just how clear the water was. While memorizing lines I was beckoned indoors for a massive mug of some awesome coffee and a hell of a breakfast complete with grits, bacon, eggs and a piece of toast.

Now I had never had grits before either (you know that whole thing about being a foreigner and all that jazz?) so I was curious as to what was in it. All I remember hearing was milk, sugar, salt, butter and I think cornmeal but in any case it was good… Nom nom nom nom nom, as the cook said

This should fill you up til burger porn this evening.

Oh Em Gee… burger porn, how could I forget? But I am jumping too far ahead here.
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Entertainment: UK X-Factor: Lucy Spraggan – Last Night (Beer Fear)

A friend of mine posted the following on my Facebook timeline earlier today and I am hooked… just another reason why I feel like I am living in the wrong country:

For more information head over to my post on PureTVNet.com for more information as well as lyrics of the song (taken and cleaned up from Lyrics007) and what people are speculating in regards to Lucy Spraggan in regards to the show.

Quick low down after the break:
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Reflection: R&R in Minocqua, Wisconsin (Day One)

At around mid-August I joined a few friends up for a bit of rest and relaxation nearby Minocqua, Wisconsin. Although I have posted pictures in a previous post and I have mentioned what I did soon after I drove back down to the Chicagoland area from being up north… but this post is dedicated to my feelings of what happened in between… at least over the almost three day trip with commutes included.

I could have easily just drove straight up to Minocqua soon after rehearsal on Thursday evening, but that would mean I would have arrived around three or four in the morning and that was just crazy. Then I thought about wrapping up packing, take a quick cat nap and then head up there early in the morning… but when I was packing I started packing for my trip to Vietnam (more on that in a later post). So taking that cat nap and waking up early went right out the window.

Instead I decided that since I had a meeting that I really didn’t want to delay in Chicago and I had to stop by my parents’ place to unload a few air mattresses from my trunk (again more on that in a later post), it was probably wiser to get a full night’s sleep and get up double check on the packing, have a quick bite to eat and head out the door… Which ended up being around 8:00am to 8:30am. Bah.

After the round of errands and extraneous trips I was finally out of Chicago and on my way up to Wisconsin. Now what I was telling my friends to do is that if there is anything that any of them need that they had forgotten to text, call, FB message, just contact me and I will pick the items on my way up… afterall I would be the last person to join them. So true to form, there was a small grocery list of items that I needed to bring up with me for various people for various reasons. But, I figured to give them time I would wait until I reached the halfway point of my trip to get out of my car, fill up the gas tank and get me some Culvers Custard. Nom nom nom nom nom.

Anyone that knows me well knows that I have a bad habit of nitpicking on thoughts, issues, problems when I am by myself, alone, in my car. Well on this almost six hour drive none of that happened and that soon became the mantra of the mini-trip itself. The chance to really just relax and be able to leave almost everything behind is such an amazing feeling. Just the drive up to Wisconsin (as well as the drive back) was calming and helped in centering me in so many different ways… especially with the chaos and drama we all knew as life.

I eventually arrived just before four in the afternoon, and as it would turn out my friends took a trip into town and walked around for a few hours… so they were beyond beat. A couple of my friends showed me around and helped me get settled into a cabin that I was able to claim as my own (if only for a few days), kind of made me wished I came in at least a day earlier.
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Entertainment: Michael Buble’s “hidden gem” – Russian Unicorn

When I went to Chicago to hang out with friends, they introduced me to this music video of Michael Buble called “Russian Unicorn”

Are you done dying of laughter yet? No? Ok… I’ll wait…

Waiting…

Waiting…

Still Waiting…

Done yet? Anyway, what happened is that the above video was created by putting Michael Buble’s original video on silent and lip reading him to create the skeleton of the lyrics and then filling in the rest to complete the song.

If you are curious what the original music video sounds like… go just beyond the break:

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Recipe: BBQ Pork on Seasoned Rice

Once a week (or every other week) a friend of mine and I would gchat taking about various dishes or meals we’re planning to eat that day, what we ate, recipes we tried, etc.

So earlier this week I was trying to figure out what to eat based on what I had on hand at home. The problem I have is that I am planning to leave for a trip out of country so whatever I make I wanted to make sure it is just enough to last til I have to fly out so nothing gets wasted. Then I realized that I had about a pound of BBQ pork and a pound of roasted pork that were sitting in the freezer that I had purchased from meat shop weeks prior. So I moved the BBQ pork to the fridge and decided to just cook up a batch of rice and have BBQ pork on rice.

But that was just plain boring. One thing in Vietnamese cuisine is that we love our oiled green onions. So I purchased a bag of them at the local grocery and chopped them up and simmered them with a little bit of vegetable oil. In the meantime I got the crock pot going with white rice and water and instead of plain white rice I decided to season it up a bit for additional flavor.

I got this idea after visiting a Persian restaurant about a month ago and they had a batch of dill rice that I really liked, but instead of cooking the rice and mixing the dill afterwards I decided to cook the dill in while the rice was cooking so that the flavor would (hopefully) be saturated into every grain of rice.

Turned out I was right and voila! A batch of dill flavored rice with BBQ pork. Nom nom nom nom. Now I think I would give this a try with other seasonings too to kind of spice up the traditional white rice to make sure the flavor is well saturated.

Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures like I am prone to do when I go out for meals… I was too hungry to think about “ooh must take pictures so others could see!” ah well maybe next week, except I think I will try something different and see.
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Endeavors: “A Piece of My Heart” by Shirley Lauro

Recently I was asked to participate in a production of “A Piece of My Heart”. I had other plans and ideas, other productions I wanted to audition for: but once I knew more of the story and the characters I realized that this was one of those stage productions that I would ultimately regret turning down.

From Shirley’s webpage about this stage play:

The true stories of six courageous women sent to Vietnam and their struggle to make sense of a war that irrevocably changed them and a nation that shunned them. A work with the music and soul of a tumultuous era in our history.

Also from the Samuel French website:

This is a powerful, true drama of six women who went to Vietnam: five nurses and a country western singer booked by an unscrupulous agent to entertain the troops. The play portrays each young woman before, during, and after her tour in the war-torn nation and ends as each leaves a personal token at the memorial wall in Washington.

Before I go on… typically I would not talk about any productions that I have been a part of because by that time I would have a very biased view of the production that I would be able to give a reasonable objective view. However, after the first read through and the first rehearsal I felt that it is necessary to write my thoughts and feelings down about this production else it might overwhelm me… it is that deep and thought provoking… right up my alley.

So for the sake of keeping this as objective as possible I will not mention the remainder of the cast, production team or where this production is going to take place… if you are interested in knowing more about this production you could message me directly from my personal Facebook Page or send me a tweet and I will provide the information. But for the purposes of this blog post I just won’t place any bias on this script and story.

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Review: Wheaton Drama’s Broadway Ballot (Act Two only!)

Show: BROADWAY BALLOT Location: Wheaton Drama
Director: Craig Gustafson

After my whirlwind weekend getaway up north in Minocqua, Wisconsin… I drove straight south back home and realized that if I pushed it, I would make it to see a few of my theatre friends at their Broadway Ballot. Granted I ended up missing the first Act (which had a few shows that I really wanted to see) but seeing the second act provided songs from shows that I am not typically a fan of, but now I would be kind of curious to see.

Below are all the songs that were featured in the second act of the Broadway Ballot at Wheaton Drama. What Wheaton Drama did was put on a kind of revue of a vast variety of Broadway songs from a variety of musicals and asked the audience to decide which shows they would love to see or not care to see at all. Then these ballots are tabulated and presented to the Wheaton Drama monthly meeting and from there they may use the data to decide what musicals to present for future seasons.

Regardless if the data would be used or not, in the end it was a fun revue / production and it helped bring in donations and dollars to the theatre group for their future productions. So all in all a win-win situation for an outsider looking in (aka myself).

From what I understand from those that were part of the production there were twenty-two performers who were singing twenty-six songs and they only had eleven rehearsals to do it. Now coming from someone that has been thrown into the thick of things a week before Opening weekends (including Shakespeare)… I can honestly say that I was expecting nothing less than fun, laughter, and entertainment and this group definitely delivered.

Taking a look at the official Ballot the revue is comprised of songs taken from a vast variety of shows: traditional and non-traditional, well and lesser known. A nice mixed bag with something for everyone to enjoy.
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Pictures: R&R in Minocqua, Wisconsin (Pictures Only)

Several of my friends head to the cabins in Minocqua for a mini-vacation, a kind of well needed and deserved rest and relaxation. But this is me we’re talking about here: since when do I take a break? Now apparently. Unfortunately I had to shorten the amount of time I was with my friends due to rehearsal obligations with a stage production but whatever amount of time I was able to pool I used for the trip.

Another reason I wanted to go up to a little bit of R&R? I needed a break and a new experience is always something that I am up for… despite my outward appearances to the contrary.

After the break are pictures taken from my time up north… I also posted more indepth thoughts of my time there broken down between Day One and Day Two/Three
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Conventions: Wizard World Comic Con at Chicago

Between the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (aka as C2E2 in March / April) and the Wizard World Comic Con (in August) I typically prefer going to C2E2 by default. Wizard World always seem to strike me as a bit too chaotic and busy for my taste… which I suppose is odd considering that pretty much every convention is going to be just as crazy and chaotic.

Nevertheless… I went, and really my reasons for going was sound considering my motivation. In hindsight I kind of wished I spent more time at the convention, and not necessarily for the original reasons. Meeting new people is always a positive and this is no different.

The people I met on this trip to the convention may have given me a reason to look towards going on again next year should they be there, but I digress.

One of the things that is always a sight to see at these conventions are the costumes and below are some costumes that caught my attention in some capacity or another. All of these are already on my personal Facebook album that was posted over the weekend… but the ones below reminded me of one thing or another.

Looking through my original images it is of no wonder that my tastes are beyond eclectic… I can’t really determine my own primary interests when there are just so many of them.

Enjoy.
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UPDATE: PureTVNetwork and other Odds and Ends

So… with the announcement of the pairings on the Monday directly after the Olympics in London ended I have been hard at work not only posting the pre-season elimination predictions to include the announced professional partners, but on the PureDWTS Predictions: Professional Partners page that is housed on my personal blog.

I have also been going back in time and working on the previous seasons to see if there is any possibility of overscoring in comparison to past seasons.

Hopefully I’ll get all this done prior to my leaving the country and heading to the other side of the world to visit family for a spell.

In the meantime head on over to Pure So You Think You Can Dance and Pure America’s Got Talent for some of my other postings since both will start up this week now that the Olympics are over.

Over at the Pure TV Network blog, any updates I may have in regards to NBCs the Voice will be posted.

Convention: Corseted by Generations of Art at the Wizard World Comic Con

Anyone that knows me well enough knows that I am not a fan of the Wizard World Comic Convention so what on Heaven’s good Earth would draw me to be at the one Chicago convention that I would much rather not go to? Generations of Art of course! Geez, it is as if you didn’t know me.

In any case… if you have read my previous post I was in love with the corseted dress that was made for me to the point that I was and am looking into having others made. In fact when I emailed Lisa Lindburg (the creator of all the designs and corsets from Generations of Art) about a few ideas for down the road she replied:

I’m planning to be in Chicago again at Wizards comicon. [You] could come be my slave and work into a corset.

Now remember how I just said that I was not a fan of the Wizard World Comic Con? Yeeeeaaaah… I was going to have to eat my words. Looking at my schedule we talked and eventually she found people to help her out. So since I wanted to see her stock regardless I decided to head to the convention for one day regardless and talk to her for an hour or so (depending on how busy she was) and that was it. Expensive for a $35 pre-show ticket, but for me in the end would be worth it… little did I know what I was getting myself into.

Taking a day off of the office I cleaned up, decided to toss on the dress she made for me originally (blue side out) and headed off to the Stephen Donaldson Convention Center in Rosemont.
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Review: Il Divo & Orchestra In Concert World Tour – Chicago Stop

On a whim I decided to purchase a ticket to see Il Divo & Orchestra in Concert World Tour for the first of their two night stay in Chicago. Personally I have been a fan of Il Divo since their self-titled first album back in 2004, like most other women that fell in love with the group over the years the one song that caught my attention back then was the Spanish cover of Unbreak My Heart as sung by Toni Braxton: Regresa a Mi.

Still so good and dare I say it probably even better live. The staging for their current world tour is very similar to their DVD concert Live in London.

For that particular number the men dressed down a wee bit from their normal full Armani suits and serenaded the crowd… but one of the songs that they opened with was their rendition of Come What May from Moulin Rouge.

Their music repetoire to me appears to stretch across a vast variety of styles and songs, going from balladic pop (like Unbreak My Heart and Unchained Melody) to musical theatre (Impossible Dream, Somewhere), Latin / dance (La Vida Sin Amor) to other popera songs (Time to Say Goodbye). Their latest album and tour set list also largely reflects their expanding repetoire though if I were honest I would have liked to have heard more songs / music in the vein of the Latin / dance song: La Vida Sin Amor. However, this quartet isn’t known for their Latin roots, but rather for their romantic classical sound so I can’t complain too much since that is the sound that drew me to them in the first place. What was another major draw for me? The fact that not all of their songs was in English, in fact the majority of their covers are done in other languages be it Italian, Spanish, or French (as some of the primaries) which is a reflection of the international feel of this group (David is from the United States; Carlos is from Espana; Sebastian is known as the Frenchman in the group while Urs is Swiss).

Taking a look at the released set list for the current World Tour:

ACT ONE ACT TWO
Come What May
Dove L’Amore
Adagio
Nella fantasia
Medley (La Vida Sin Amor / Ti Amero / Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman / Angelina)
Don’t Cry For Me Argentina
Everytime I Look At You
Passera
Unchained Melody
My Way 		Senza Parole
Melanconia
Si Tu Mi Amas
Mama
Hallelujah
Crying
Ven A Mi
Regressa Mi
Por Que Tu Me Amas
Somewhere

There have been a few changes and adaptations from this original set list but the majority of the songs are correct. Il Divo balanced some of the songs from their newest album with plenty of old favorites from their previous four albums. They went through the entirety of the spectrum of music while staying true to themselves as artists and performers. They are entertainers in the same vein as the boy bands or pop princesses from the turn of the century but they entertain in their own way that just brings the audience and fans back for more.
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Entertainment: Wayne Enterprises vs Stark Industries

A few weekends ago, during a car ride, one of my friends asked the following question:

Which business would you invest in? Wayne Enterprises vs Stark Industries

Thus beginning a conversation where we notate the positives and negatives in investing in either fictional company.

In the end the consensus was that with Stark Industries you know what the final products are and you are guaranteed some kind of profit from your investment whileas with Wayne Enterprises there is a lot of research and development going on but it is not entirely certain what they specialized in.

But what being a part of Wayne Enterprises provides are the contacts and network for the political and social games / circles whileas Stark Industries appears to be much more about making money than dealing with the nuances of society.

I won’t go into details of the conversation.

In any case… I came across recently an article that asked how much would it take to be Batman or Iron Man and the numbers may surprise you.

Now I doubt that the average comic / superhero fan would have the money to pull it off, but it is fun to speculate nonetheless. I can’t say that I am surprised that it would cost more to be Iron Man than Batman, but I like to think of Batman as someone that knows how to stretch his dollar whileas Iron Man just tosses money into a general direction knowing that it’ll end up becoming something useful.

So obviously one thing led to another and as thus I decided to look into Wayne Enterprises and Stark Industries just to see what do they specialize in if anything.
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