The girl spent as much time with guy as she thought she was able, but the connection, the chemistry from before and from online just wasn’t there. Guy left the States disheartened and girl knew she made a mistake. Girl vowed that if given the chance she would have guy be more of a priority in her life over work/career, but that chance never came… guy emailed later saying the chemistry just wasn’t there and he didn’t want to make another trip if it just wouldn’t work out. Girl agreed, regretfully and both parties moved on…

Over the years, though girl never heard from guy, she still grew as a result of a mistake she felt she made with guy. She learned to place family, friends and life above her job/career and as a result lived a fuller life, she vowed that in any relationship that she would find herself in down the road would take precedence over her job… She never really thought about guy except in passing and hoped to reconnect with him as a precursor to a possible trip through Europe but that never materialized either. Deep down she always knew that if an opportunity arose or if they had lived closer she would have fought to keep him in her life, because she had always regretted letting him go. So when word came to pass – seven years after their initial meeting – that he was engaged to another she didn’t experience loss as she had expected, but rather happiness and joy. For in her mind, he found someone that he felt he connected with in a way that they were unable to all those years ago.

And so it was… the one guy I ever really regretted in letting go has moved on and found another. And you know what? I’m ok with that, because he deserves all the joy and love in the world.

I am doing this primarily because questions have popped up over the years in regards to some of the things I have written and were discontinued for one reason or another. This particular side blog will be connected primarily with such projects like Currents, Like a Dream, and the fanfiction Elements of Song that I have worked on in the past and will post ideas, characters, background that I feel have no chance of being revisited again in the near future. Another web-drama that never got a chance to come off the ground was Rosarito, I may provide insight to that particular never launched web serial depending on which characters/background I may recycle for future works.

In the meantime, in the coming months I will be busy blogging at other sites:
Pure America’s Got Talent (Mondays and Tuesdays)
- Providing the music list and personal thoughts/power rankings on the acts that have come through the show

Pure So You Think You Can Dance (Wednesdays)
- Providing the music list and personal thoughts on the dancers during the auditions and power rankings when the performances are live

Pure Dancing with the Stars (Thursdays and/or Fridays)
- Providing comparison statistics of previous seasons to this last season
- Providing statistics and graphs of celebrities rumored to be on the show for the Season 15 All-Star Season in the Fall

Also in preparation for Season 15 of Dancing with the Stars, because so many questions have popped up I will be providing expository calculations, reasoning and breakdowns as to how I come up with the predicted calculations and pre-season elimination predictions. These pages will be found via the PureDWTS page on my personal blog.

Part of the reason I never mentioned Emily Gray during my review of Soulless was simply because I wasn’t entirely sold on a female voice emulating so many male voices. I loved Emily as she interpreted Alexia, her sisters, her friend Ivy and even Lord Akeldama… however. So I chose to wait and give it another audiobook to see if my feelings have changed, and in honestly because Changeless has so many female characters taking center stage, this made the listening experience much more pleasurable.

While in the first novel we were introduced into Gail Carriger’s interpretation of the supernatural world and how they are integrated with society at the time. This second novel delves more into the unknown of the supernatural… primarily the preternatural.

Alexia is as witty and stubborn as always, and while her husband has run off to Scotland to take care of a “family problem”, she is trying to figure out what is causing the mass exorcism of the ghosts in the London area and the humanization of the vampires and werewolves. After a little digging around, Alexia believes that the solution involves following her husband up north, into Scotland.

Ivy, I felt disgressed when it came to characterization. When in Soulless she was barely tolerable, in Changeless, to me she became more annoying than tolerable. I found myself asking to the imaginary Ivy: “Really? Really? You can’t be that silly…” In many ways the dilemma that Ivy was being rather overdramatic with was very predictable, but still very very silly.

One of the additions in this particular story was Felicity’s (Alexia’s sister) inclusion on the trip to Scotland… all I remember asking was “why?” I mean I didn’t see any real need for her to be a part of the story unless it was for comedic reasons, and to me that didn’t really do much.

What I did love was the addition of the cross-dressing French inventor: Genevieve Lefoux, a strong female character that proves to be a kind of foil to Alexia’s nature. Highly intelligent, very affectionate and definitely warmer than Alexia is. What I found very amusing in listening to this story was how obvious Genevieve was in her flirtations towards Alexia and in turn Alexia’s imagination running with the insinuations even while keeping a calm exterior.

Taking it a step further what happens towards the end of this book seems to be a bit of a dejavu for Genevieve… but to dive any further would be to provide spoilers… and I’ll try not to do that here.

Another strong female character that I rather enjoyed listening to is Sidheag, prickly and irritable multi-great grand-daughter of Lord Maccon. A human version of pack alpha who has been writing to her multi-great grand-father Lord Maccon with a plea to be turned into werewolf. As feisty and annoying as she can be, she is also likeable and one cannot help but want to help her on her cause to become a werewolf.

The story, in my eyes, was a bit weaker overall than in Soulless. I say this because there were times when Alexia seems to be focus a little too heavily towards one direction that she was missing out what it would seem to be fairly obvious for either myself or the reader. Though this plays out to be more of a mystery than the previous book, the author provides more than enough clues throughout the story that the reader should be able to figure out what was happening on their own.

However, the major twist… that one may not see coming happens towards the end is ironically enough not tied to primary premise of the storyline. I found myself screaming at the injustice of such a cliffhanger for the end of Changeles, though I suppose this would just drive me to want to read/listen to the next book in the series: Blameless.

When I first listened to the music for Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice created by Lindsay Warren Baker and Amanda Jacobs, I would admit, as much as I enjoyed pieces of the music I wasn’t completely sold. Until I went to see this production live on stage… seeing everything put together did the music come to life to me. Not necessarily a good thing, but it does bring the audience goer deeper into the story.

The music of Sense & Sensibility by Jeffrey Haddow and Neal Hampton is very similar to that for me. When listening to the music, I was intrigued, but very few songs drew me in. One of these being “I Must Have Sense” that Elinor sings to Marianne in an attempt to prevent herself from breaking down in the possibility of losing her sister.

In the meantime while reading my RSS Feed I found out that one Marcia Milgrom Dodge (Tony nominee for Best Direction of a Musical of the 2009′s revival of Ragtime) was tapped to direct the production at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts for their 2012-2013 season.

Now mind you, just like Pride & Prejudice, there are multiple versions of Sense & Sensibility as a musical out there. However, to my ears, this is the probably the first to have enough strength in the music to keep the average theater goer entertained.

With a strong vocal cast for the demo recordings (Christiane Noll, Brandi Burkhardt, and Jeremiah James to name a few) I am personally looking forward to seeing the growth of this particular production.

Though there is nothing unique with this particular production, the story and music does have a kind of charm to it. There is a simplicity to the feel of the production that I rather enjoy. So come April/May of 2013, I may actually consider the possibility of flying out to Denver to see this production onstage. Much like how I considered going to Rochester, NY to see Pride & Prejudice on stage.

Anyway! So I was at my grandparents for dinner and on the television was a programme talking about what has been happening around the world. Two months ago an artist/musician was arrested by the secret police and there is a movement in Washington DC to force the US hand in releasing the political prisoner. In fact, the movement take it a step further and is calling upon the U.S. government and others to investigate the human rights abuses and oppression in a country that the U.S. had a hand in many years ago.

Like any average person I have opinions, ideas, suggestions… I don’t really align myself to any one political party. I more align myself to be a centrist, seeing multiple sides of a situation and choosing to find a middle ground… well as possible a middle group could be in such a bipartisan government. By extension, I find myself not extremely passionate one way or another on a lot of issues because for me there seems to be a rather obvious center ground that neither side is wanting to see.

Taking that a step further other issues that come to light that is tied to human rights and oppression by various governments to intrigue me, but haven’t really stirred much more than idle curiosity.

This is no such case, this is more than simple “idle curiosity” in fact it is more than that… this is piquing my curiosity to the point where I am wondering what more can I do. But reasoning and logic settles in and I find myself wanting to know more about what is going on…

So don’t be too surprised if I start talking more about this openly… afterall, I owe my life to this smaller piece of U.S. history… and that is no trifle matter.

So when MuggleNet posted a 10-second video sneak peek from the “Auror’s Tale”. I was positively thrilled. The sneak peek is fascinating enough for me to want to watch later… Though, later in the day a full minute trailer of the Auror’s Tale was released, and now I can’t wait til the webseries air.

My understanding is that this is set in New York City where Dark Magic controls the underground and it is up to the NYC Department of Magical Law Enforcement (DMLE) is the only defense against them. For anyone that is a fan of the Harry Potter series, this is a web series made by fans that grew up with the books, for fans that grew up with the books. Releasing the web series in 10-minute increments they plan on a DVD release upon completion of the series of 10-minute increments on the web.

In the last post, I also mentioned two books that I have read that also lead into those trains of thought. I don’t believe in going down just one road or the other, but rather finding a balance of both. So this particular post will be my thoughts / review on the book Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. While the third post in this series would be about the rebuttal book Think!: Why Crucial Decisions Can’t be Made in the Blink of an Eye by Michael LeGault.

Blink dives into the hypothesis that “quick judgment” decisions work just as well if not better than decisions based off of extensive analysis. The author also talks about how one’s likes and dislikes, prejudices and stereotypes, and biases can color their gut instinct / intuition. But how can one tell if they have an unconscious bias?

There is a measure in social psychology that is created in an effort to detect unconscious biases that people may not realize that they have: The Implicit Association Test aka IAT. This test was designed to detect how strong one’s association between various mental concepts within their memory. Like all psychology tests/exams, there is some controversy as to the accuracy of such exams, however, like humans there is always room for error. If you are curious as to how strong your unconscious bias is, Harvard has created a series of online exams that simulate the various IAT exams used to measure such associations and stereotypes.

How does one’s gut instinct / intuition apply in reality? Speed dating, happens to be a prime example. You go through a series of people, meet them for a few minutes and move on to the next person if you don’t feel a connection or chemistry. Then you rinse and repeat.

The author provides plenty of examples as to how sometimes one’s intuition could provide a strong basis for decision making, on the other hand the author also provides examples on how one’s intuition can be flawed… particularly when unconscious bias’ are involved. In a lot of ways in order for one to trust one’s quick judgment and intuition, one needs to neutralize their subconscious and unconscious bias as much as possible. Neutralizing one’s bias on an unconscious level requires many years of constant self-awareness of one’s thoughts and movements.

However, the author does point out in a few examples that basing one’s decisions purely on intuition and gut instinct could prove to be false if not outright fatal. Particularly if more information comes in that just enforces your original gut instinct. The author uses the death of Amadou Diallo by the hand of police officers as a more extreme example as to how rapid judgment could have fatal consequences if one is not careful. Another more recent example could be the death of Trayvon Martin, but that would be opening a whole can of worms.

The author also uses the decision-marking process in the medical profession as a reason why a quick decision would be much preferred over thorough analysis. The author claims – rather convincingly – that when giving far too much information then there is a likelier chance of having “analysis paralysis”, with the challenge being how to sift through so much information to focus on what can be considered the most critical. In a lot of ways I could see how too much information would easily confuse a decision maker which invites a higher risk of error.

So how to work around it? As I mentioned in my previous post, I prefer to use intuition more in combination with logic, reasoning and analysis. To me, intuition should be used more towards the intangibles in life: relationships, activities in the long distant future… while analysis would be used as a way to “fill in the spaces” in between as an aid to reach what intuition has decided.

All in all, I enjoyed this book, it is a pleasant read and it does give the reader clues and hints as to how to listen to that “little voice” inside of everyone. On the other hand it is also a cautionary tale where one’s intuition could fail them if they are not careful.

Not only that they are planning to cycle in additional judges to the panel. Not necessarily because of the chemistry of the current panel, but on the contrary TPTB (The Powers That Be) feel that since the judges are all working musicians, to ask them to schedule time for the show would be asking too much as it is.

To say that I’m excited is an understatement. What I am most worried about is whom they would bring on as coaches, after all the chemistry between the judges panel now (CeeLo Green, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton and Christina Aguilera) was a total unknown when the show premiere last summer and it soon became such a massive hit. I mean take a look at the Superbowl promo they filmed:

Anyway, I’m getting off the point. I think the only way that the Voice can sell in the Fall is if they make just as huge of a knockout with the judging panel as they currently have. But who to bring?

Drew Lachey did a charming job on Dancing with the Stars Season 2, and he came back for a spell to co-host with Tom Bergeron during Season 5… I mean he has a hell of a following at this point, but as a judge? I’m not too convinced, I wouldn’t mind seeing him as host though, give Carson a break.

Britney Spears is rumored to be signing on with X-Factor, whileas Paula Abdul and I believe Nicole Scherzinger have been let go from X-Factor, but if I had a choice I’d say take Nicole over Paula in this case.

TPTB could also attempt to bring on Miranda Lambert (Blake Shelton’s wife) onto the show, it would keep it semi-competitive within the two married couples without them having to go head to head. Unfortunately, the Voice lost out on a couple of others mentors to ABC’s Duets now (Kelly Clarkson, Robin Thicke), Lionel Richie was originally suppose to be on the show as well but had to drop out due to “personal scheduling conflict”.

Some of the other mentors that have come onto the show:
- Alanis Morissette
- Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds
- Ne-Yo
- Jewel
- Adam Blackstone
- Reba McEntire
- Monica
- Sia Furler

So based of what I have seen on television thus far this is my judging panel wish list
- Drew Lachey (though I would still prefer him as host)
- Reba McEntire
- Ne-Yo
- Nicole Scherzinger

Not quite as edgy as the panel we have now, but they have their own calming uniqueness to it. We’ll see I suppose. Still have the summer to go through still… So I suppose it will be just a matter of time until we know for sure if they are sticking with the same panel or go with something different.

Well let’s start with what I have already done:
- City of Angels

Yes, I was even willing to grow a beard for a show. =) I loved the musical: City of Angels ever since I first heard “The Tennis Song”, so when I read up on the synopsis of the show and started listening to more of the music I knew that this was a production I just HAD to be a part of. Little did I know what the director at Theatre-on-the-Hill had in store for me…

City of Angels is NOT based off the Nicholas Cage movie of the same name. Instead it is about a writer whose is hired to adapt a popular book of his for the big screen. As we follow the writer go through the perils of working in Hollywood we are also watching scenes from his movie unfold concurrently. Changes he has made in the script are seen live on the stage as it happens.

What I love about this particular show is how two seemingly separate storylines are intertwined. There are particular moments in the shows where you see only one story or the other, and sometimes you see them both happening concurrently. Sure it forces you to think more than the average show, but once you get it, it makes the whole thing even funnier and worthwhile.

There was one conversation I had with a friend whose career is in the performing arts and we agreed that if someone is truly serious about acting and performing they better damn well be willing to make a fool of themself on stage. Pride, image, ego, etc goes right out the door, there is simply no room for it. If you’re not willing to “look ugly” on stage, then you’re not really serious about acting.

I swallowed my pride for my art and to this day people still remember that role. That’s making an impression. People don’t always remember the leads or the straight forward roles, they tend to remember the crazy, off beat, quirky characters. Plus you have fun along the way. =)

- Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

This is a show that I fell in love with after one song: “What was a Woman to Do”, I can’t tell you how many times that particular song was on repeat. So when I heard that Wheaton Drama was planning a production of this show as the final piece of their 2011-2012 season, I had to make sure that my schedule worked around this. And due to a set of favorable circumstances, not only did it work out for me, I was lucky enough to participate in the one song that made me fall in love with the show in the first place. And irony of all ironies, it happens to be the one series of lines that I absolutely love.

What IS Dirty Rotten Scoundrels about: It’s about two con men staying at the French Riviera trying to out-con each other. Their mark? An impressionable young newcomer from Cincinnati, Ohio.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a show that has you thinking in one direction and when you think you know what’s going on, *poof* a curve ball gets thrown and you suddenly find yourself going: WTF?!?!?! And you’re back at square one.

Ironically, playing a high class woman isn’t too far off the mark for me, having done something similar in previous shows (Much Ado About Nothing, Neil Simon’s Rumors, Pride & Prejudice). It has been joked that I’m better off playing a southern belle than low class ghetto, and as much as I hate to admit it… I’ll have to agree.

Hmm… kind of makes me wish that I hadn’t taken semi-permanent breaks from theatre in general in favor of my day job… Here’s hoping I’ll get the chance to do any of the following if not all.
- Into the Woods
When I was a kid and I was watching a PBS special of Into the Woods with Bernadette Peters as the Witch and I thought “I want to be a part of that”. There was something alluring about seeing a variety of fairytales being tied together and meeting up in the woods and interacting whilst still going on with their individual storylines.

It has been whispered by insiders that a movie version of the musical was in development years ago, but it seems to be more in development hell. Ah well. =( There are plenty of community theatre groups doing this show in recent years, I am sure I’ll have my chance to participate in this show at some time in the future.

- Children of Eden
Children of Eden is at it’s core a story about family, set in two known religious stories: The Story of Creation in Act One and the story of Noah and the Ark in Act Two.

The song I had used for my earlier auditions was “Stranger to the Rain” which is the song that introduced me to this fabulous show via AccuRadio Broadway:

There were auditions for an amateur production of this show a couple of years ago, but I was so busy working that I simply couldn’t make it work, but I am kind of regretting missing out on that. Here’s hoping that one day I’ll get that chance.

- Songs for a New World
Jason Robert Brown‘s music revue show: Songs for a New World is rather difficult to explain. The most I can say is that this show deals with moments, as the moment when a heart wrenching decision is made and the affects of it. To try to derive a singular (or even several) storyline is to invite insanity, instead this is a show that just needs to be appreciated.

What drew me to this production was the song: “Stars and the Moon”. In this particular number we have a woman who believes that she wants a life living large, and rich. She meets two men who would give her a world of love, truth, and passion, but she turns them down in favor for a guy who has all the material wealth and would shower her with riches. The message in this song is so poignant and lost in today’s society that is almost needs to be emphasized over and over and over again.

One other song that really drew my attention once I listened to the cast recording was “I’d Give it All for You”. I can’t really say personally why this means so much to me, but this is definitely something that I can relate to:

- Jekyll & Hyde
There is just something about Frank Wildhorn‘s music that has drawn me to his shows ever since I was introduced to Jekyll & Hyde. The song that did it? I can’t say, the musical as a whole had a darker vibe that drew me in, even though I knew the story inside and out. The anticipation, the heartbeat. Or the way that she is drawn into Hyde’s voice when they sing: “A Dangerous Game”, this sends shivers down my spine.

I can’t wait to see this show now that it is announced that there will be a touring production starring Constantine Maroulis with hopes of being revived on Broadway, and you can bet I’m going to go and see this show the moment I am able.

Now after just reading the possibility of The Public Theater talking to investors and raising the funds to see it make a turn on Broadway, it just makes me giddy with anticipation.

The last time I was this giddy for Into the Woods was in October of 2010 when it was announced a concert version of Into the Woods featuring all Asian American actors would be put on to benefit the National Asian American Theatre Company. That particular production starred Ann Harada (original Christmas Eve from Avenue Q) as the Witch, and featured Jose Llana, Telly Leung and others in the production.

It would seem that another group is deciding to follow suit: MU Performing Arts up in St Paul, Minnesota will be putting on an all Asian-American production of Into the Woods slated to go up in mid-July and running through mid-August. For me the temptation to see an all Asian-American production of Into the Woods is too much for me to ignore, but we’ll see if I could make the trip. =)

Yes, I’m a little obsessed here.