Summer Festival Season Kickoff!

With Memorial Day behind us, the summer festival season has officially started.  Resident of Ozaukee County can jump right into the fun with two great festivals this weekend!  The Lucky Street Music Fest in Grafton and Port Pirate Fest offer something for everyone.  Best of all, admission to both festivals is free!

Lucky Street Music Fest- Saturday June 2nd 12pm-10pm Grafton Wisconsin.

The Grafton Blues Association will be hosting the second annual Lucky Street Music Festival. Admission is free to this musically charged festival located in the Veterans Memorial Park Grafton WI.  The music begins at noon and last until 10pm. Feel free to bring a lawn chairs, or blankets and enjoy the day with fantastic music!  Lucky Street Music Fest will also have local food and beverage vendors, along with inflatable activities for kids.  This year’s lineup features several popular favorites:  

·         Nora Collins (an 18 year old up-and-coming singer/song writer) at 12pm

·          Dirt Road Law (2012 WAMI Peoples Choice Winner) at 1pm

·         Carrie Melton & the Minor Fall (mix of blue grass and folk music) at 2:15pm

·         The Itch (current rock and dance party music) at 3:30pm

·         Bob Mittnacht and The Crowning Glories (mix of rock, alt-country) at  4:45pm

·         Katz Sass (high energy Texas blues band) at 6:45pm

·         The Razors Edge (AC/DC tribute band) at 8:30pm

Information about the Lucky Street Music Fest can be found at graftonblues.org.  Veterans Memorial Park is on 13th Ave in Grafton Wisconsin

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Port Pirate Fest- Friday June 1st- Sunday June 3rd Port Washington Wisconsin.

Port Washington is also hosting its annual Pirate Fest Friday June 1^st through Sunday June 3rd. Located in downtown Port Washington’s harbor,  Pirate fest is a fun filled weekend with pirate shows, entertainment, live music, kids’ activities, and fireworks. Reenactors will be taking to the streets dressed up as their favorite pirate and guests are also encouraged to dress up and join in the fun. Need to purchase pirate gear? No worries - stop by the “Thieves’ Marketplace” and pick up pirate essentials.  You also don’t have to worry about going hungry at this festival; the “Gruel Gallery” will feature several local vendors: Tellos, Beanies, and Taste of Africa will all have booths serving hearty pirate grub for just about any taste.  Wanting to try out your sea legs? Flat bottom Cruise Ship, Voyageur, will be offering several themed cruises starting Friday night, continuing throughout the festival.  One of the highlights of Pirate fest will be watching the pirates light up the sky with the annual Pirate Firework Show Saturday night! Fireworks will begin at 9:30pm in the Port Washington Harbor.

Additional information about Voyageur Cruises and all the fun pirate activities and times can be found at www.portpiratefestival.com.

Four things that irk me!

My intent with this blog is to be an extremely light hearted, funny blog about things that recently irk me.  In no way do I mean to insult, or offend anyone on this list except maybe the celebrity moms!

4.  Celebrity Moms- I’m irked by all the celebrity moms out there that have a baby and 1 month latter are back on the red carpet or a beach in perfect shape.  I’m jealous of them since I have never had children and can’t keep up with their perfect bodies.  Now if I were a celebrity, I know that I would have a personal trainer, dietician, and agent all paid, to kick my butt into gear.  Until that happens, I will just gawk at the covers of the tabloid magazines and wonder how the hell they just had a baby, and yet still fit into that teeny tiny bikini!

3.   Road Construction- I live in a small city.  We have three ways to get into the city by car and two of the three ways are currently under road construction.  I’m not talking about repaving the road I’m talking about ripping up bridge road construction.  One of the on ramps to get onto Hwy 45 is now so dangerous; I’m amazed every day that we do not have a fifty car pileup!  To make matters worse, they are behind schedule and the road construction will go on for the foreseeable future.

2. This Season of Mad Men- Mad Men has become one of my all-time favorite shows.  I was so disappointed when a contract dispute pushed the fifth season of Mad Men from July 2011 to March 2012.  The fourth season had ended in October 2010, forced to wait seventeen months before I could find out what happened to Don Draper and company.  Well the start to the fifth season has been slow, to say the least, what made Mad Men enjoyable was the mix of marketing pitches, and the fooling around.  This season has neither.  The marketing pitches limited to Heinz Baked Beans, and the fooling around is non-existent with Don getting married, Joan having a baby, and Peggy in a "living in sin" committed relationship.  I hope that the next 6 episodes go back to the Mad Men roots and have some drama in them.

1. E. L. James and Fifty Shades- E. L. James is a self-published author (just like me), who loved the Twilight saga, (just like me), had a crush on Robert Pattinson (just like me) and wrote a book about her crush, (just like me).   Unlike me, she wrote a highly erotic version of Twilight called Fifty Shades of Grey that caught on like wild fire over the internet. Now she is a famous author with a movie deal.   I should be happy for her. She is one of a few self-published authors to be on the New York Times best sellers list.  She has helped the self-publishing industry, and given hope to many indie authors that maybe someday your book might be discovered.   I just can not help but be jealous of her success.  Our stories and inspiration are remarkably similar.  Fifty Shades of Grey is a story about Ana Steele, normal girl, and Christian Grey, hottie millionaire CEO.  My Life With The Movie Star is  inspired, not Twilight, but by the actor, Robert Pattinson.  Robert was the reflection I used to create the ideal movie star boyfriend Grayson Edwards.   The relationship between Grayson and Abby is similar to Fifty Shades of Grey.  Grayson is handsome, rich and infatuated with Abby.  Abby is an average girl, and not sure she belongs in Grayson’s world.   I do feel that I did give Abby a better voice than Bella/ Ana.  Abby is a confident woman who has been in the work force for several years, she has purchased her own home and can provide for herself.   Bella is still a highs school student so her means to support herself is limited, but Ana who is weeks away from graduating college has no plan for  her career, and her  only living arrangement is to continue being a roommate to her rich college friend Kate.  Grayson has no need to ask Abby to be anything different than who she is. This is something that Christian almost demands of Ana, and Edward reluctantly has to change Bella for their love to last through time.  My Life With The Movie Star does have a bit of “romance” in it, but I would categories it as PG romance. Abby gets to see Grayson’s abs a few times, and that is the extent of any adult content. My Life With The Movie Star by Meaghan Hoffmann is available on amazon.com

Summer Movie Season Begins Avengers Opens!

I’m not a comic book girl, but I have to admit I have been hooked on The Avengers Series ever since Iron Man in 2008. Anyone who stayed through credits got a sneak peak of Samuel L. Jackson playing Nick Furry, and knew that there was so much more to come! What I find neat about The Avengers Series is the buildup of movies leading up to this one:

• Iron Man 2008

• The Incredible Hulk 2008

• Iron Man 2 2010

• Thor 2011

• Captain America 2011

All of these movies can stand alone, but what I fully appreciated was the chance to get to know each of the principal characters in The Avengers years before the movie was even produced. This was genius, allowing interest to build, and exposing more and more fans to the series along the way. Again, I have never read the comics, but have grown to know who Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr), Black Widow, (Scarlett Johansson), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) are.

Josh Whedon, director, is famous for creating and writing several notable Sci-Fi T.V. shows and movies, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and my personal favorite is the Firefly series which was briefly on T.V for a season in 2002-2003, and spun the cult classic movie Serenity, released in 2005. Recently, Whedon also lent his writing talents to the just released The Cabin in the Woods in April, receiving praise for being much smarter than the typical horror flick.

The Avengers starts with a bang! The movie begins at S.H.E.I.L.D. headquarters (a secret security organization led by agent Nick Furry) where the Tesseract (a unique energy source) is being held and examined. Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston, comes into our world with the purpose of stealing the Tesseract, taking over our world, and eventually taking over his old home plant Asgard, which he was disowned from. To gain control, Loki takes over several members of S.H.I.E.L.D ‘s minds including Agent Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). Nick Furry now has no choice but to convince the other members of the Avengers to join him and help get the Tesseract back. This is not an easy task since all members have past or present issues they are currently working through. Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as Iron Man, Tony Stark. Tony has been working on new building that is energy self-sufficient. Tony begrudgingly agrees to join, and has girlfriend Pepper Pots continue working on the project without him. Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) has the job of convincing Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) to join the team. Bruce is reluctant to take part due to his uncertainty if he can control “The Other Guy” Hulk. Nick Furry approaches Captain America (Chris Evans) to join, but Captain America is still sore that he has been brought back to life and is having a hard time adjusting to the 2000’s.

One aspect I of the movie I did not expect was how much I enjoyed seeing Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/ Hulk. The hulk has previously been featured in two separate movies played by two separate actors. I felt that Ruffalo did the best job showing the two very different faces of the Hulk. I hope to see more of Ruffalo’s Hulk in the future.

The Avengers is fast paced right from the start and has some of the best special effects I have seen in an action movie. The 3D is worth the extra money, and is a great use of the technology. The costumes were also incredible. I have no idea how Cobie Smulders and Scarlett Johansson put on their cat suites, but both actresses looked amazing! The Avengers went beyond what I had expected and is a great way to kick off the 2012 Summer Movies.