2016 Concerts

The concerts I attended in 2016:
--- David Cook (in Kent, OH)
--- Chris Hardwick (in Baltimore, MD) [comedy]
--- Kris Allen (in Pittsburgh, PA)
--- Ryan Star (in Columbus, OH)
--- Blue October (in Pittsburgh, PA)
--- Chris Hardwick (in Pittsburgh, PA) [comedy]
--- Eve 6 (in Pittsburgh, PA)
--- Dalton Rapattoni (in Fort Washington, PA)
--- Castro the Band (in Pittsburgh, PA) [Jason Castro and siblings]
--- Safetysuit (in Greensburg, PA)

Review: Ready Player One

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The nerdiest book I've ever read! Tons of 70s/80s nostalgia. A race to become the ultimate gamer. An unimaginably gigantic virtual reality system. Every nerd over the age of 30 should read this book! (I listened to the audiobook version with Wil Wheaton narrating.)

View all my reviews

Books, Books, Books

I'm currently reading:
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline [audiobook version, narrated by Wil Wheaton]

The Secret Diary of Lizzy Bennet by Bernie Su & Kate Rorick

Here's some books that I read recently and my rating for each of them on a scale of 5 stars: 

2 stars:

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

4 stars:

The Shadowhunter's Codex by Cassandra Clare & Joshua Lewis

Oh, Myyy! (There Goes the Internet) by George Takei

Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson & Lauren Myracle

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Olivia by Lori L. Otto

Contessa by Lori L. Otto

The Midnight Heir by Cassandra Clare

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson 

One book that I tried to read last month but could not stay interested in it and had to abandon was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Zzzzzzzz... 

Ryan Star - National Anthem 7/4/14

Video by YouTube user rzezniksangel

I wasn't at this concert but I'm really glad rzezniksangel recorded video of this song. Wow!! 

Recent Albums I've Been Listening To

My favorite number is 13, so instead of a Top 10, here is my Top 13 of newer albums that I have been listening to lately:

  1. A N G E L S + A N I M A L S by Ryan Star (2014)
  2. Rivers In the Wasteland by NEEDTOBREATHE (2014)
  3. Baptized by Daughtry (2013)
  4. You and Tennessee by Nick Gibson (2011)
  5. Skyes - EP by Skyes (2013)
  6. Head or Heart by Christina Perri (2014)
  7. NEW by Paul McCartney (2013)
  8. Bookmarks by Five for Fighting (2013)
  9. Everything Changes by Julian Lennon (2013)
10. Stars and Hotel Bars by Mike Sanchez (2013)
11. Somewhere Somehow by We The Kings (2013)
12. Drive All Night - EP by Glen Hansard (2013)
13. Stuck In Love: The Writers Playlist (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Various Artists (2013)

Has it been two years already?

Wow. I guess it's been a few, um, years since I last blogged. In that time, many concerts/videos/books have been heard/seen/read and I may take time to write about some of them eventually. Today I would just like to mention that I recently, after being a fan for 25 years, finally saw Richard Marx in concert!!!! Still sounds amazing and looking gorgeous at 50 years old!!

In the tags are a few people & things from 2013 & 2014 that I can think of off the top of my head without consulting my concerts list or my book list. (If there's a specific tag you want me to write about, let me know in the comments.) Yes, I am a geek. Or rather, a nerd. As in Nerd Fighter. DFTBA!!! :)

...Okay, so, it looks like I have more tags than I am allowed to use in one post. Here is everything I wanted to tag:

adelitas way, chris daughtry, david cook, kris allen, ryan star, richard marx, 3 doors down, daughtry, josh paul, vlogbrothers, dftba, don't forget to be awesome, nerd fighter, nerdfighteria, john green, hank green, harry potter alliance, hpa, project for awesome, maureen johnson, shades of london, cassandra clare, mortal instruments, bane chronicles, infernal devices, veronica roth, divergent, insurgent, allegiant, the fault in our stars, the spectacular now, ansel elgort, shailene woodley, miles teller, jai courtney, sherlock, benedict cumberbatch, martin freeman, jimmy fallon, the tonight show starring jimmy fallon, this star won't go out, esther earl, pottercast, cuckoo's calling, cormoran strike, robert galbraith, jk rowling

2011 Concerts

The concerts I attended in 2011:
--- Ryan Star (in NYC!) with openers Gambit and Hot Chelle Rae.
--- Adelitas Way (in Auburn, IN).
--- Ryan Star (in Auburn, IN) with opener Sierra Shame.
--- Ryan Star (in Erie, PA) in support of The Goo Goo Dolls.
--- David Cook (in Greensburg, PA) with opener Carolina Liar.

Music Obsession Update

Time for an update on a couple of my music obsessions: Daughtry and Ryan Star.

I was lucky enough to go to a 2nd Daughtry concert this year! I drove 4 hours to Hershey by myself on August 6th to experience the amazing voice of Chris Daughtry again. I was in the 10th row on the far right for this one. That's the closest seat I've ever had at a Daughtry concert. Opening act this time was Kris Allen who I'm happy to say sounded great live. Daughtry gave their best performance ever of the song Over You! It was also great to hear the crowd singing along to it. That song seems to mean a lot more to me now than it did a year ago. (Yes, the phrase "over you" can definitely be applied to a certain guy out there in the world who will never see this blog anyway.) Another highlight for me was when Chris and Kris sang a duet of the song Send Me All Your Angels which is a song Chris wrote for Kris's debut album. I'm hoping to see both of them again in 2011!

Not only did I get to see Ryan Star for a 2nd time in 2010, I will be seeing him for a 3rd concert this month! Squeeeeee!!!! Concert #2 was in Pittsburgh on October 19th at WLTJ's Fall Q Ball Think Pink benefit at the Altar Bar. I finally got to meet my Twitter buddy Lisa at this show. :) We got there early enough to stand at the front, right up against the stage, for the concert. There were several performers that night, including newcomer Christina Perri who has an amazing voice. I love her song Jar Of Hearts which I've heard on the radio several times. Ryan Star and his keyboard player Dallin Applebaum went on stage 2nd, after Christina. AHH-MAY-ZING!!! So much energy, so much passion, so much fun!!!

I've been so lucky that I've gotten the chance to talk to Ryan a couple of times after concerts. I think he may even be starting to recognize me, even if he doesn't remember my name yet. I can be quite a shy person sometimes but somehow he brings out the more outgoing side of me. I wonder if he will see this blog entry? Ryan has admitted to googling himself to see what people are saying about him.

I'm really looking forward to 11/12/10 which is when I'm taking my sister Emily with me to the Ryan Star show in Erie. As far as I'm aware, she hasn't ever listened to his music before. I can't wait for her to be blown away by Ryan's incredible live performance! He's quickly becoming my favorite singer who is younger than me (and Chris Daughtry is a close 2nd), while Paul McCartney is my favorite singer who's older than me.

Ryan's new single Start A Fire from his album 11:59 is doing really well, #25 on the HAC charts and #35 on Rick Dee's countdown so far. The official video for S.A.F. was released last week. I'm just *slightly* obsessed with that video. Probably have watched it more than 50 times by now. Can't wait to see it added to VH1's Top 20 Countdown sometime soon!

Wishes

It's a little less than 6 months until my birthday. Instead of my family giving me gifts that I might not like or might never use, I ask the "rock gods" to grant some birthday wishes for me. I wish for "Start A Fire" by Ryan Star to reach #1 on the Hot Adult Contemporary charts. I wish for "Unbreak" to be Ryan's next single from the 11:59 album and for him to sing it on national TV, maybe on American Idol or on some kind of awards show. Some people may say I'm "dreaming too big" to wish for those things but I say you have to "shoot for the moon and you'll land among the stars" as the old saying goes.

Ryan Star (and a few other people)

Well, my plan to blog more often hasn't really happened so far this year. Too much of my time was spent watching and reading about American Idol in the spring and now this summer I've been reading a ton of Twitter posts on several subjects. Maybe if I actually got some comments from people who read my blog, I might be inspired to write more. But then again, maybe I'm just too boring? Whatever the case may be, I'm here today to write about my favorite subject: music.

Over these last 4 months or so, it seems that Ryan Star's music has been on my mind the most. I haven't even been reading books as much as I normally would because I've been on Twitter every day reading what other fans are saying and sometimes having conversations with them. My Twitter obsession began in June, after I drove to Pittsburgh to see Ryan perform at a mall. (I'm so glad I finally got a chance to see him perform again and to talk to him afterwards without being nervous. Unlike when I met Chris Daughtry 3 weeks before that and I totally froze up and only said Hello.) I had already been on Twitter for almost a year but somehow I began following more and more people after that day. I guess I just needed to talk to people who understood my passion for Ryan's music. I have also been voting for his song Breathe on a Pittsburgh radio station's weekday Top 8, plus voting for Breathe on VH1's weekly Top 20 music videos on TV. Last week, Breathe was removed from both of those lists but a few days later I found out that the song Start A Fire is listed as being his next single, and will be released to radio in mid-September.

I have started working on getting some of my friends and family interested in listening to Ryan's new album, 11:59. I started by playing the Breathe and We Might Fall videos plus a snippet of Start A Fire when my nieces were here visiting one weekend in July. The 4 year-old had fun making her Barbie dolls dance to Start A Fire and the 9 year-old kept wanting to hear Breathe and We Might Fall over and over again. When the album was released on August 3rd, I bought some extra copies to give away as gifts. So far I have given out one to my cousin who is going through some tough times right now. I have plans to give copies to at least 5 more people eventually. There's just something about Ryan Star that makes me want everyone to have the opportunity to hear and love his songs. And if they would be so fortunate as to see him perform live and meet him, that would be the icing on the cake.

It has been so much fun watching the progress of Breathe, and now 11:59, on various charts. Breathe's highest ranking as a current song was #15 in the Hot Adult Contemporary genre before Mediabase moved it to the recurrent category. The 11:59 album had a good debut on the Billboard charts last week by coming in at #31 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and at #10 on Billboard's Top Rock Albums chart. One of the reviews I read about the 11:59 album said that 11,599 units were sold in the first week. I wonder if that number is accurate or if the reviewer just added another 9 to the title of the album to see if anyone would notice? Either way, it's interesting to think that 11,599 could have been sold already. I don't know what the average is for a relatively unknown artist but that sounds like a good amount of albums to sell in the first week of a debut album.

Now to talk about some other musicians. In April, Jason Castro's debut album was finally released and I was pleasantly surprised at how good it is. When he was an Idol contestant in 2008, I thought he should have gotten more experience performing before auditioning. His album, though, shows that he has been hard at work since then and deserves the exposure he got by being on the show. The deluxe version of the Jason Castro album is well worth the money. Some very good bonus songs are on there. A few weeks after Jason's album was released, Anoop Desai independently released his own debut. I had high expectations for Anoop's album because he had been one of my favorites in the 2009 season of Idol. Unfortunately, it's not nearly as good as what I was hoping for. I had wanted to see him record "classic R&B" style songs with some Indian influences in them. Instead, it turned out to be crappy "modern R&B" with very little orignality in the songs. It didn't help much that Chris Richardson (from the 2007 season of Idol) was one of Anoop's collaborators. I didn't care for Chris Richardson at all when he was a contestant and I still don't like him or his music. Matt Giraud (from 2009 Idol) is still working on getting a record deal. So far, he has dueted on 2 songs with well established artists and is hoping to release an EP of his own soon. The first duet was earlier this year with singer Anna Wilson on a jazz version of the classic country song You Don't Know Me and it did very well on the jazz charts. Currently, Matt has a new duet with Jim Brickman called Thank You. I'm not sure if it's considered to be jazz, christian, or adult contemporary. Personally, I hope that Matt continues with the jazz route and stays far away from R&B.

Wow, this blog post has become very long and I haven't even gotten to everyone yet that I wanted to write about. The rest will have to wait for another post, I guess.

11:59 available for pre-sale

Last year, Daughtry's "Leave This Town" never left my car's CD player for 4 months straight. This year, Ryan Star's "11:59" album is finally being released on 8/3/10. How long will "11:59" be the only CD played in my car? I'm willing to bet it will be for a very very very long time.

Pre-ordering "11:59" on Amazon yesterday was something I've been looking forward to doing ever since the first time I saw Ryan perform live (when he was David Cook's opening act last year). That trip to see David Cook in Elkins, West Virginia on 3/14/09 is the day I became a Ryan Star fan.

Ryan has said that "11:59" is about living in the moment. Recently, I took a day off from work to drive more than 2 hours to see Ryan sing 4 songs at a mall in Pittsburgh. Some people would say that I'm crazy for doing that but for me it was an "11:59" moment. Hearing him sing and talking to him afterwards made it so worth the time and effort it took for me to be there.

Books

Recently, I've read:
Cancer Schmancer by Fran Drescher

I'm currently reading:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling
Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert
Enter Whining by Fran Drescher

I'm just a few pages into it but so far Enter Whining is just "okay". Cancer Schmancer was a much better book. As always, I'm constantly reading one of the Harry Potter books. Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows seem to be the two I pick up the most often. I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I like Committed. The writing style of Elizabeth's other book (Eat, Pray, Love) felt too scatter-brained to me. Committed, on the other hand, is much easier to read and feels more organized.

2009 and 2010

Musically speaking...

In 2009:
I enjoyed my roadtrip with my friend Donna to West Virginia in March to see David Cook and Ryan Star in concert. In July, I became obsessed with listening to Daughtry's sophomore album, Leave This Town. That disc never left my car's CD player for 4 months straight! It took 3 highly anticipated new albums for me to finally hit that eject botton. In November it was Paul McCartney's new live album and Kris Allen's debut album, plus Allison Iraheta's debut album in December.

In 2010:
Ringo Starr has a new album coming out in January that I am looking forward to. I'm hoping for the possibility of seeing Daughtry in concert again sometime this year. Another roadtrip to see David Cook would also be a fun thing to do, after his 2nd album is released. To quote Ryan Star, "this could be the year" -- for several long awaited debut albums. I hope those high-paid record company executives get up off their butts and release Ryan Star's 11:59, as well as albums from Jason Castro, Matt Giraud, and Anoop Desai.

This and That

Less than two weeks away from a new season of American Idol! Looking forward to seeing Ellen Degeneres as a judge! I spent New Year's Eve watching Daughtry singing on ABC plus Kris Allen and Allison Iraheta on FOX.

Finally took the time this week to start organizing all my old photos. Placed an order today on the Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts website for some storage envelopes and boxes. As for the more recent ones, I haven't gotten prints made yet for 99.9% of the pictures I've taken in the last four years. Time to round up all the CDs that the pics are stored on. Speaking of photos, looking at them brought back MANY memories. Ended up looking for a lot of old friends on Facebook tonight.

Yay! Valerie Bertinelli has a new website! Click here to see it. I am so amazed that she is running her first marathon as well as turning 50 years old this year!

Reading

Books that I am currently reading:
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Finding It by Valerie Bertinelli

Idol Thoughts

It's been a long time since I've posted anything here but now I'm back to write about American Idol, which is a subject I tend to post about often.

Driving home from work today, I was thinking about my favorite American Idol contestants from seasons past. My #1 all-time favorite Idol is definitely Chris Daughtry, without a doubt. You haven't lived until you've attended a live performance of Daughtry! SO AMAZING! I can also very confidently say that my #2 favorite Idol contestant is David Cook, who is also AWESOME in concert! When it comes to #3 and beyond, my favorite seems to change a lot. So I'll just list the others that I like from each of the seasons that I've watched. Season 8: Anoop Desai, Kris Allen, Matt Giraud, Allison Iraheta. Season 7: Michael Johns and Jason Castro. Season 6: Melinda Doolittle and Jordin Sparks. Season 5: Ace Young.

I went to one of the American Idols Live concerts this year for the first time. Several of the top 10 from this season were MUCH better sounding live than they were on TV. I was the most impressed with Anoop and Matt. Can't wait to see what kind of debut album they eventually release. Somebody hurry up and give them each a recording contract soon!

Speaking of albums... I am so obsesssed with Daughtry's second album "Leave This Town" which came out in July. That CD has been in my car stereo for more than 3 months now. If I'm not listening to the radio, I'm listening to Daughtry's CD. Not sure yet how long I'm going to keep it in my car. Probably until one of my other favorite singers release a mind-blowing new album. Will it be Kris Allen's or Jason Castro's debut? Or David Cook's sophomore album? Or whenever my favorite Beatle, Paul McCartney, has a new album?

Cook vs Lambert

I really really really wish the people on some websites would stop trying to pit David Cook against Adam Lambert!!!!!! Even when they write an article that is only about Cook, people insist on glorifying Lambert in the comments!!! The comments that some people wrote today were calling Adam a "god" and that David is "boring"! I just wanna shake those people as hard as I can and ask "Are you insane?!" Yes, Adam is very talented but he is in no way a "god", not even in a musical sense. And they keep saying that David sounds exactly like the band Nickelback and is not unique. I don't agree with that at all. His voice and his songs sound nothing like Nickelback and he's not "hard rock" like them. He's more "pop rock" with "alternative rock" aspirations. (If he didn't have to do whatever Idol told him to do, his album would have been much more alternative and only a little bit pop.)

Getting back to the idiot comments... People were gushing about how there's no other singer that sounds like Adam and that he's not afraid to "wear his sexuality on his sleeve". PULL-EEZ!!!! Apparently those people have never been to a quality theater performance (like a Broadway-type show but not necessarily actually on Broadway). There are many theatrical singers out there who are just as talented as Adam, if not more. And who flippin' cares whether he's gay or not?! I sure don't. That's his business, not mine. Just like I don't care if a contestant is married, widowed or single. Or if they're a single parent or don't have kids. Or if they're 16 years old or 28 years old. All I care about is the music and whether or not the singer's performance makes me feel emotionally connected to the song. Personally, I don't feel any connection when a song is taken a few notes higher than necessary and is "screeched".

At the beginning of the season, I had high hopes for Adam. I expected him to "wow" us each week with clever spins on well known songs. Unfortunately, I've been disappointed by week after week of screeching. (The only exception would be Motown week when he sounded amazing and was screech-free.) At this point in time, the only Top 10 Idol that I care to vote for this season is Anoop Desai. I know he's not the strongest singer on Idol this year. But his performances leave me wanting to hear more (which is important to me) and I'm looking forward to any album he records. If Anoop is voted off, I'll probably go with either Allison Iraheta or Kris Allen --- and I'll be voting for whoever is up against Adam in the finale. But that's just MY opinion.

American Idol - Season 8

Wow, it's been a long time since I last wrote a blog entry. We now have a new president (woo hoo!) and I have been to my first David Cook concert (woo hoo, again!). Well, now that we're in the middle of Season 8 of American Idol, maybe I'll have something to write about. But only maybe. So far, A.I. hasn't been as much fun for me as last year was. Too many mediocre singers in the Top 10. At least we have a guest appearance from David Cook to look forward to. Today I was reading MANY comments on a news website where they were trying to compare Cook with Season 8's front runner Adam Lambert. Personally, I think it's impossible to compare apples to oranges. Here's the comment I posted on that news site:

"I think Adam Lambert is very talented but I don't feel any kind of emotional connection when he sings. Who is he as an artist/musician? What kind of music would he record? I hope that we get to see the real Adam soon. Up to this point, Anoop Desai is the only one I've voted for [among the top 10] so far this season. I see Anoop as an R&B artist with a little rock thrown in once in a while. Who is Adam? Certainly not a rocker from what I have seen so far. When I vote, I think about who I'd like to see in concert and whose album I'd buy. From previous seasons, for me it has been David Cook, Michael Johns, Jordin Sparks, Melinda Dolittle, Ace Young, and Chris Daughtry who are worth spending my money on. I didn't watch the first four seasons. Chris Daughtry is the one who got me hooked [on A.I. in Season 5]."

Harry, a History

Yesterday, my pre-ordered copy of Melissa Anelli's first book, "Harry, a History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon", arrived on my doorstep. I spent today eagerly reading until I finished the entire book. My eyes are now bleary with tiredness and my brain is telling me I need to sleep. One thing that is clear to me, all Potter fans -- and everyone who knows a Potter fan -- need to read this book!

Light On and other stuff

"...try to leave a light on when I’m gone, something I rely on to get home, one I can feel at night, a naked light, a fire to keep me warm, try to leave a light on when I’m gone, even in the daylight, shine on, and when it’s late at night you can look inside, you won’t feel so alone..." (from the new David Cook single, Light On)

Love this new David Cook song!!!!! I listened to it eleven times in a row on my way home from work today. No kidding. Eleven times. Hey, it's nearly a 40 minute drive. And now the lyrics are stuck in my head. But that's okay. It's a great song! Can't wait until the entire debut album is released in November!!!

I've been a Cook fan from the very start of the 2008 season of American Idol. Yes, I admit, I liked David Archuleta's audition, also. But as the weeks went on, I became more and more annoyed by Archie. I know there's a lot of people who think he should have won but I'm not one of them. Yesterday I listened to a clip of Archie's single, Crush, which will probably do well on R&B/Pop radio stations. His singing just isn't my cup of tea, though. Don't get me wrong, I do like some R&B songs -- just not David Archuleta's. I'll be sticking with Rock/Pop music like Daughtry and Cook. After all, Chris Daughtry is the only reason I started watching Idol in the first place.

Speaking of talented folks, tonight I caught the last few minutes of the finale of America's Got Talent. I've never watched the show before but a friend at work is a fan of it so I thought I'd tune in and see who won. The winner was an opera singer named Neal Boyd. Last year's winner was a ventriloquist and now this year an opera singer! Awesome!