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NKOTB – The Main Event. Concert Review

Published July 18, 2015 by lorimuma

Last week I was able to attend the NKOTB Main Event Tour. Now I have been very clear. I have an overall dislike for this band.
At 40 years old, apparently I should fit right into their fan base, but I don’t. I never at any point purchased, listened to, or remotely liked this band.

So it is to my surprise that for some reason I have seen this band 5 times (including when they opened for Tiffany back in 1988) How this has happened is hard to explain at this time.

So when I heard that I would attending “The Main Event” I was excited, only because one of my favorite bands from the 90’s was also on the tour –TLC. I was so looking forward to seeing them, minus the “L” (RIP Left Eye) as well as Nelly that having to watch NKOTB for one of the nights would be bearable. Watching them both night, not a chance.

For this post, I will only focus on the New Kid part of this show.

The whole theme of the was boxing, hence The Main Event. The stage was shaped like a ring at the centre of the stage and they entered like they were boxers entering the ring for the match.

They opened with a song called Block Party, at least that is what the set list said. I quickly realized that NKOTB use confetti like Beyoncé uses wind machines. At one point I wasn’t even sure a new kid was on stage. It was covered with confetti.

They crowed made up of about 95% women seemed to be enjoying themselves, so that was good. Joey and Donnie seemed to carrying the show vocally. I was just starting to think, even though I will never be a fan, I can see that they really play for the fans and everything seemed to be working. Until something happened. Something that left me speechless and slightly horrified.

The New Kid named Joey decided to do a rendition of the Eurythmics classic Sweet Dreams while all dressed in white, and dry humping the stage. It was horrible, possible one of the worst things I have seen in years on stage, and remember I have seen this band 5 times! I was slightly scared. Listen new kid, just because you can sing, it doesn’t mean the you should sing any song you want. Annie Lennox wherever you are, please never look this up on You Tube.

The New Kids went on to sing more, grind the stage more, thank Jesus more and blow extreme amounts of confetti out of the machines.

I left a few songs before the end but I got the feel for the show.

For some reason I am sure in my life I see this band for the 6th time.

3/5

TIFF14 – My Review

Published September 27, 2014 by lorimuma

I want to start by apologizing for my delay. I have been offline for a better part of September, but I am back now and finally here with my reviews of the movies and events that I saw at TIFF14. I have decided to rank them in order of how I liked them, instead of the order in which I saw them. As most know, I am really only interested in movies with “names” in them, so you want see any Finnish coming of age movie here. I don’t read when I go to the movies!

1) Nightcrawler. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom, a guy who is a loner, borderline thief and overall weirdo . He figures out that he can make easy cash by becoming a “Nightcrawler” Someone who goes to crime scenes or car crashes (preferably before any first responders get to the scene) and film them. Then goes as sells the footage to any news station that will pay for it. In this case its Rene Russo’s last place station The bloodier the better. He becomes obsessed at getting the story and making a name for himself,and will go to almost insane length to do it. He also can talk himself out of any situation or into any situation depending on the need. Jake Gyllenhaal does an amazing job in this movie and I hope he gets some sort of recognition for it. He is creepy, terrifying and left me totally freaked out by his performance.

2)Top Five. This is Chris Rock at his best! Not only is he the director and screenwriter, he also stars. This is not a family comedy. It is inappropriate , cringe worthy ( a certain scene with Cedric the Entertainer) and a totally hilarious movie. Chris Rock stars as Andre Allen, a stand up comedian and movie star who is in desperate need of a big hit to jump start his career again, all while planning a wedding to a “reality” tv star on her show played by Gabrielle Union. He decides to do an interview with a journalist, played by Rosario Dawson (who has a couple of cringe worthy/ hilarious scenes herself) to help in his re-branding. I have to metion all the great cameos of great comedian in this movie – Kevin Hart, Adam Sandler,Tracy Morgan, Jay Pharaoh, Whoppie and Jerry Seinfeld I am sure that missed some. If you life Chris Rock, and who doesn’t go see this one when it comes out later this year.

3) While We’re Young. This movie it the complete opposite of Nightcrawler’s and more subtle with the humour then Top Five. Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried star in this movie about 2 couples. One are in there 40’s, married, no kids and wondering if they missed out on anything. The other couple are 20 somethings living a sort of hipster life. With the exception of a middle part that dragged a little too long, this movie is enjoyable and very funny. The acting is great and I feel Ben Stiller takes the movie. I am not sure this will win any awards, but its a good Sunday afternoon movie that I highly recommend.

4) Cake. This is Jennifer Aniston’s “I want to win an Oscar” movie, and she is really good. I was even surprised and I love Jennifer Aniston. I will say it right from the start. This is not a feel good movie. It’s depressing. It’s sad and will leave you at the end going “so now what” Don’t watch this movie if you are in a sad mood. It will make it worse. Aniston plays Claire a women who is suffering from chronic pain, due to a horrible car crash we learn. She not only has physical scars, but mental ones as well. I won’t go into that as it is a major plot development in the movie. Her husband left her, her friends don’t know how to help her,her support group kick her out and she is addicted to pain medication. Basically her life sucks. By the end of the movie, is her life any better? Sort of I guess. This is not a movie that you will leave going “I love that movie” no, its a movie that you may think about after and realize that your life is not that bad.

5)The Drop. This was the first movie I saw at TIFF14, and it is also the last movie that James Gandolfini made. Tom Hardy, who not to hard on the eyes, stars in this movie. He plays Bob the bartender, at the bar that his cousin Marv (Gandolfini) owns, well used to own. Now the Chechen mob owns it. The bar serves as the place where the new owners “drop” laundered money. Throw in a Pit Bull that Bob rescues from the garbage of a soon to be love interest and you have an average suspense movie. I would wait to see this on Netflix,it was good, but not amazing.

6) Men, Women & Children. After watching this movie I came to a conclusion. I really like Jason Reitman, however I really don’t love Jason Reitman movies. I may be one of the few people that turned off Juno, thought Up In The Air was overrated and Labour Day was just ok. So why do I continue to go see his movies? I truly have no idea. The movie looked promising, in fact my friends that I saw it with LOVED it. I thought I was more depressing than Cake. It is about how Social Media has destroyed our lives. A married couple feels they are not loved anymore and go searching out for an affair, thanks Ashley Madison! A teenage girl becomes anorexic because she wants some high school football play to like her. Thanks eating disorder blogs. Another mom wants her teen daughter to be a reality star/beauty queen she never was. A teen guy looks at porn too much and sprinkle in some depressed, plays video games too much, mad at the world teens and you want to believe this world we live in has gone completely mad. This movie is just expressing what has been happening since everyone went to high school. Its only the platforms have changed. With a pretty high profile cast, Adam Sandler, Jennifer Gardner, and Judy Greer I am sure this will be nominated for something, but it just was my kind of movie.

7) The Sound and The Fury. This is a James Franco attempt to yet again, write, star and direct a movie. He plays a mentally challenged man who as other reviews have said. Does his best Tropic Thunder impression. Look it up and you will get what I mean. I will spare you the details, but this will be a movie that most people will NEVER see, its not the worst movie, but it will probably end up on Super Channel or some movie channel that nobody watches. The most exciting thing about this movie was that Wayne Gretzky was at the screening? Now why would he be at a James Franco movie. His wife was a producer of it and paid..I mean played the mother in the movie.

That is a wrap of my TIFF movies, overall I was happy with my picks and look forward to seeing some of the other buzzed about movies in the theatre soon.

Drunk in Love for the Summer?

Published April 16, 2014 by lorimuma

Will they or won’t they. All morning speculation has been growing that Queen Bey and Jay Z would be be going on a summer stadium tour that would take them to 20 cities. Lets hope this is true, it seems like an obvious choice. Fingers crossed.

Here a couple for photos I took last summer.

( Taken from the Mrs. Carter Tour at the Air Canada Centre Summer 2013)

(Taken for the Legends of Summer Stadium Tour, Rogers Centre 2013)

Lori

Drake in disguise

Published April 11, 2014 by lorimuma

Last night Drake appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Now I’m not the biggest Drake fan,but this is quite funny. I especially like the guy who questions is “started from the bottom” line. I actually would like to see this as a reoccurring segment

Lori

Toronto

Published November 17, 2013 by lorimuma

For the past few weeks people have had tons of opinions of Toronto. For the most part they make complete sense. I am not about to get into the reasons behind all the “unwanted” publicity. Unless you have been living under a rock you already know. The one question I keep getting asked is “Why don’t you move back home with all the stuff happening in Toronto?”
Why don’t I move back home? I am home. What is so bad happening in Toronto? We have a situation with the mayor. That is hardly a reason to pack up and leave. It did however have me thinking. Like most of the people who call Toronto home, I was not born in Toronto. I was not raised in Toronto, but when I was twenty I packed up and moved to go to Ryerson. My parents had told me if I wanted to move to Toronto I had to have a reason. Fair enough. I always knew I would never leave this city and I didn’t.
Nineteen years later I am still here. My home is here, my life is here. Not for one minute do I regret my decision. Does it annoy me that Toronto is on late night TV, no I enjoy the humour behind it and it will eventually be replaced by something else.
It does annoy me when people have all these opinions on how much they dislike Toronto and they hate the traffic, the crowds, the noise, and they live in some tiny town 4 hours away.
Good then you don’t live here then and good thing I no nothing about where they live.
I love this city and this situation will pass and we can complain about something that no one will give a crap about around the world. The 2015 Pan Am games.

TIFF13.

Published September 18, 2013 by lorimuma

For 10 days every September, Toronto becomes a crazed movie city. TIFF literally take over the entire downtown core. This year I bought a pack and was able to see 6 movie/events over these 10 days.
Now lots of people love to see the obscure foreign films. Not me. The thought of seeing some Icelandic coming of age film is not my thing. I want to see big movies with big names.

My 1st movie was Prisoners. With an incredible cast that includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Hugh Jackman, Terence Howard and Viola Davies. It is about 2 young girls who go missing after Thanksgiving Dinner. First piece of advice if you see this movie. It’s over 2.5 hours so don’t drink anything. Second, make sure you listen very carefully to all the conversations that happen in the 1st part of the movie. Things will make more sense in the 2nd half of the movie.
This movie reminded a little of Silence of the Lambs and Seven. With lots of plot twists, some which are little hard to believe. This movie will have you questioning what you would do if put into the same situations. I don’t want to talk to much about what happens in this movie, although you do leave it knowing the fate of the 2 missing girls. What made this movie for me was the ending! In fact the entire Princess of Wales Theatre let out a gasp once the ending credits started to roll.
Overall I highly recommend this movie with it is released on September 20th.
8/10

Next was All Is By My Side. Andre 3000 from Outcast plays Jimi Hendrix, the year leading up to him becoming the famous musician. If you go to this movie thinking you will hear early works from Hendrix, think again. The makers of this movie did not get permission to use any music for his catalogue. So lets see, you make a movie about an iconic musician but can’t use any of his music?? We see Jimi Hendrix the guitarist, the soon to be drug addict, the womanizer and the Jimi Hendrix who beats his girlfriend over the head with his mic. Wait for the DVD release of this one. It was ok, but nothing that exciting
6/10

How I Live Now was the next movie on my list. It is a movie from the UK, starting people I have never heard of. It was about an American teenager who is sent to live with her Aunt and “cousins” in England during what is WW3. Why someone would leave the US to go to a country that is at war I have no idea. Never mind how all of Europe is at war with something that is never really addressed and that the US seems totally indifferent and uninvolved is really hard to believe. Also hard to believe, how the main character falls in love with her cousin. Did I like this movie? No, not really. I would say pass on this one, unless you like movies that really go nowhere and explain nothing.
5/10

Labor Day became the 4th movie I saw at TIIF. Jason Reitman directed this. Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin star as the convict on the run who happens to force the lonely single housewife with a secret into hiding him. It was sort of The Bridges of Madison Country meets The Fugitive. This was a really well acted and written movie. I am going to predict that it will be nominated for Best Actor (Brolin),Best Adapted screenplay and best Director.
8/10

Life of Crime was my final movie of the festival. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel it stars Jennifer Aniston as a soon to be divorced wife to Tim Robbins’s cheating wealthy husband. She is kidnapped for a million dollar ransom. Then her captures realize that her husband has no desire to pay anything because he already sent her divorce papers. Its set in the late 70s so the outfits, hair and set design reflect that. It’s a mildly funny movie and well acted. Its nothing that will dominate the awards season but is an enjoyable 1.5 hours.
7/10

Overall I was happy with my TIFF choices. My 6th selection was called “In Conversation with Spike Jonze.” It was interesting, but the interviewer was a disaster. Do for that its a 6/10. I expected more than a preview for his new movie.

New Beginnings

Published September 2, 2013 by lorimuma

It has been years since I have been in full time school but every September I always feel like it is a new year. Forget January 1st the day after labour day is the true “new beginnings” time of the year. So I have decided to make a few changes. I have stripped down my blog and will be creating a cleaner looking site. I know that I keep saying this but I do promise to blog more!

The fall looks like it is going to be a busy time again, new shows, TIFF and of course some concerts. I hope everyone had a great summer and that the Fall brings you happiness.

Concert Review – Beyonce. The Mrs Carter World Tour.

Published September 2, 2013 by lorimuma

I have to start with saying this. Beyonce has a lot of wind machines. Beyonce has really really huge wind machines. Beyonce will never have a drop of sweat on her. The wind machines won’t allow it.

On Sunday July 21st, four days after seeing her husband in concert I got to see Mrs Carter. Beyonce.

Yes I got to see up close the identical choreography from every single one of her videos in the last ten years. Crazy in Love choreography? Check. Single Ladies choreography? Check. Girls rule the World choreography. You know where I am going with this.

Beyonce does this very well, so well people seen to think she is doing ground breaking innovative stuff. Its good, but really its the same routines that she has done on her last tours, but in new outfits and of course more wind machines.

You are probably thinking I didn’t like show, no I actually really really liked it. She looked fabulous and was highly entertaining. The sound was so good, I could barely hear for two days. I should have brought myself to put the earplugs in that were giving to me before the show started.

Lets start at the beginning, no not the 1st song. The 20 min before where we got to see how great B is. We got to see her H&M inspired clothing collection commercial which is no longer available, but whatever its Beyonce on a beach, rolling around in sand. Then we got to see her pepsi commercial. Clearly she got that body from drinking high calorie sugar drinks. Then we got to see Beyonce talk about her working with a charity for girls rights. Probably the same girls that make her H&M clothes, but whatever. Then (yes it hasn’t stopped) we see Beyonce’s mom Tina and all the good work they do for the Goodwill in Houston and around the US (and I guess Canada but that is never mentioned) Tina Knowles goes to the Goodwill in her designer clothes and $2000 handbag to help spread the word about how this helped her years ago. Honestly she touches the clothes on the rack like they are going to give her a terminal illness or something. It is a good way to make the time go by before the show starts.

Then right a 9pm it begins. She rises from the stage in a white one piece. Dancing, saying to crowd “Lets go!, Come on!, Sing with me.” And the wind machines are on full blast. At times your forgot she was indoors. Those really wind machines really work.

She sings about 2-3 songs before it was time for a costume change. I believe she had about 7 changes. Her hits were played, she flew across the arena in a blue bedazzled jumpsuit. (did she see Pink earlier this year. She does the EXACT same think but on human sling shot)

She told us how much she loved Toronto and how lucky she was, In fact we were able to see a 2min video clip about how lucky she really is. Honestly her life is better than yours. I mean do you lounge on a Yacht in the south of France for something to do. I doubt it, but we saw her video of it.

After exactly 1 hour and 50 min, its time to say bye to Beyonce. She enters singing Whitney’s I will always love you then going into Halo. Side note, we all saw what happened when she sang this song in Montreal the next night. The wind machines had enough.

As much as it seems I picked out the negative things about this show. Honestly I love the Divas and Beyonce is one of the best Divas out there. I can’t wait to see it again in December. Hopefully she will be bloated and we can all guess if she is pregnant.

Below are some shots from the show. Taken from the floor beside the main stage