Also while in New York

My brother, a very talented actor/dancing/singer is currently in a play, so I also went to see him. The play was great and he was fantastic, course I'm a bit biased. :)

On my last night there I attended an advanced screening of CNN's amazing documentary Planet In Peril. More on this series later, but the screening was great. Anderson Cooper was on hand to tell us a bit about his experiences and to answer some questions. He was funny as he usually is and I have to admit I'm right there with him in regards to the whole bug thing. I don't get the sheer joy Jeff gets from seeing them, but more power to him... I'll be inside. :) I asked Anderson what surprised him most. He said that it was actually seeing it for himself. For our entire lives, or so it seems, both Anderson and I have heard about the destruction of the Amazon and the melting of the ice sheets. Even so, he said it was surprising to actually see it. I definitely get that, seeing for yourself makes it real. Hmm, sounds like a mantra of Anderson's.

All in all it was another great weekend in New York!

JK Rowling Book Reading

I went to New York again last weekend. The main reason I was there was to attend the book reading/signing JK Rowling was doing at Carnegie Hall. I can't possibly describe how wonerful this event was! Jo is an amazing author and is a very kind and gracious person. It was a real honor to meet her. Since the release of the 7th book it has been a lot of fun to see her do readings and interviews. She seem's to be having such a great time! Finally able to relish the freedom of being able to fully talk about the books, now that the pressure of keeping things secret has lifted.

She started things off by reading what she said was her favorite part of book 7, and I have to say it's one of mine too. It's the part in the book where Ron comes back (I won't say any more, since I don't want to spoil it). She was very funny and read it wonderfully, I loved her voices.

She then answered several questions from the audience. The most memorable one of course was about Dumbledore. She was asked if Dumbledore had ever fallen in love and been married. She paused for a bit and then said that she had always seen Dumbledore as gay. At first the audience was quiet, a bit surprised, but then everyone broke out in applause and laughter, followed quickly by a lot of text messages going out. Seeing our reaction she laughed and said that if she knew we would react that way, she'd have said something long ago. :)

Then finally she did the book signing... keep in mind that there were 2,000 people in attendance. She signed a book for each person there, that's truly amazing to me. My friend and I were about half-way through. Scholastic definitely did a good job at herding people through, but I still got a chance to thank her for such a great series.

A big thanks to Jo and Scholastic for such a fun evening!

Seeing Maroon

About a week ago, I saw Maroon 5 at the Verizon Center in DC. It was a great show! The guys are amazing and Adam Levine is an incredibly talented vocalist!

They performed all of my favorites, save one. They started with Should I Never See Your Face Again and Makes Me Wonder two of my favorites from the new CD. They also did Sunday Morning, Secret and She Must Be Loved my faves from the first.

I definitely would love to see them again and will be keeping an eye out for them to come back around.

Baltimore at Night

I spent Saturday night at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, MD. A really nice place to take pictures, especially at night. I'm currently taking a Night Photography class so this was a perfect place to go. Here are a couple of shots.

Joining Jeff at the Zoo

Last night I attended the National Zoo's "Escape to the Wild Side..." event. The key speaker was Jeff Corwin from Animal Planet. I must say he was a great speaker. He has a lot of wonderful stories and was very funny and poignant.

The zoo is one of the best things about living in the DC area, I've always loved animals and have visited many different zoos. The National Zoo is definitely one of the best. Course I'm a bit partial to pandas so my opinion might be a bit biased. :)

JK Rowling Book Reading

I will again be travelling up to New York, this time in October. JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, will be doing a book reading/signing next month. I found out late last week that I won tickets. As a huge fan of the books this is an incredible opportunity and I am very excited to say the least!!

Elton John's AIDS Foundation Benefit... aka Hangin' with Mr. Cooper

The reason I was in New York this week was to attend the annual (althought it was my first time going) benefit dinner for the EJAF. This was a really great evening. The best part of which was that I finally got a chance to meet someone I'd been wanting to meet for quite awhile. The host of the evening: Anderson Cooper. I must admit I was quite nervous, Anderson is truly an extraordinary person, but I finally got a chance, and the courage, to walk up and introduce myself. He could not have been nicer. We shook hands and he was very sweet and seemed genuinely appreciative when I told him that I really enjoyed his show and his book.

The rest of the evening was very nice, and seeing KD Lang perform was a big treat. She has an amazing voice. The foundation does some amazing work to help both those suffering from HIV/AIDS and their families, but also works very hard towards prevention and education. It was definitely a worthy cause and I'm glad I was able to help support it.

Back in New York... first up Jeffrey Toobin's new book

I was back in New York this week to attend the Elton John AIDS Foundation Benefit dinner. More on that later, but first up was Jeffrey Toobin's Book signing. He was first interviewed by CNN's Anderson Cooper. Following the interview was an audience Q&A. It was definitely interesting hearing Jeffrey's take on the nine men and women who sit on our courts highest bench. I haven't read the book myself yet, but I've heard it's gotten great reviews. If you're interested in law and politics, you may want to check it out. Below are a couple of pictures I took. Yes, I know the second is just of Anderson, just thought it was a cute picture.

Genesis Turns It Back On!

Sunday night I went to the Genesis concert in Washington, DC. It was incredible!! I've seen Phil in concert before, but not Genesis. Personally, while I hate crowds, I do love concerts. There's something about being there in the middle of all that energy that really is amazing.

Rehoboth Beach

My family and I spent the last few days of August in Rehoboth Beach, DE. We had absolutely gorgeous weather. I love being near the water, I am an aquarius after all. :) Hearing the waves crash and feeling the sand be washed out from under my feet are two things I love most about being on the shore. Course I am about as pale as a human can get... so I burn to a crisp in seconds, but so what! ;)

Zoo trip

Hi there,
Have a lot of catching up to do! First up is the photography class I was taking. It's finished a few weeks ago and I have to say I learned a lot!

One of the last things we did was took a trip to the national zoo, one of my favorite places. Here a few pics:

Harry Potter 5

I saw the 5th Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, last night. It was fantastic!! They did a great job in adapting such a large book, the screenplay was excellent. Daniel has really grown into an extraordinary actor! I loved the flying scenes, be they on broomsticks or thestrals. I also loved Grawp, he was adorable and Hermione was very funny. The only negative was that we didn't see very much of the adults, not unlike the book, but I really liked McGonagall in this one, would've been nice to see more of her. I'm definitely going to go see it again this weekend and will see it a third time when I visit my brother in New York at the end of the month. If you've seen it I'd love to hear what you think.

I'm back from London and Duran Duran in New York, on to Harry Potter

It's been way too long, but I'm back now. This past month has found me travelling, first to London and then to New York. Two of my favorite cities. To see my London photos/journal here's the url: http://www.jennslounge.com/trips/london/. The rest of my site is still under works, but I wanted to go ahead and make that available.

I primarily went to London to see Dan Radcliffe in Equus, the play was amazing btw, and decided to stay for a week. I've been a Wham! / George Michael fan for twenty something years, but had never seen him in concert. I lucked out that he happened to be performing at Wembley while I was in London, so I finally got to see him. Fantastic show!! The rest of the week was spent both getting lost in the city and escaping it by visiting a friend in Oxford. I had a great time.

I only spent a couple of days in New York. I am a ridiculously obsessive Duran Duran fan. They were doing a show exclusively for their fan club, so of course I had to go! I flew up Sunday and then came back home Monday evening. Other than the concert I didn't have a chance to do too much. Breakfast with my brother and then walking around. One odd thing though.... The concert ended around 11, and as I hadn't eaten dinner before the show I was starving went it let out. Being New York City I figured it'd be no problem... I was wrong. Nearly everything was closed, and this was mid-town near Penn Station, I was so surprised. :) I ended up eating at this little diner... very Seinfeld-ish, good food and packed with other Duranies in the same position. I halfway expected Simon or Nick to walk in. No such luck.

Now it's July and for all us Harry Potter fans a very big month is finally here!! The 5th movie comes out next week and the final book on the 21st. If you watch/read either of these, I'd love to hear from you... just watch the spoilers! :)

I guess that's it for now. Have fun!

Fun with Vista

As a web developer I can't tell you how much fun it is when a new operating system comes out. I've spent most of the day today, yup it's Sunday, playing... aka fighting with IE 7.0 and Vista. For the most part the project I'm working on works fine, but every once in awhile a new "feature" rears it head and makes things interesting. Course if it was always easy, I wouldn't love it so much.

Heading back toward the top of the hill. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can... .

Democratic Debate

Tonight the democratic candidates will debate on the issues facing this country. Regardless of what side you're on, I would suggest that everyone watch both the debates (Republican's will be on Tuesday). One of these candidates could very well be our next president so I for one definitely want to know where they stand on the issues. I'm watching CNN, but it may be shown on other channels... though I didn't see one.

On a side note: Happy Birthday AC!

Chicago's children

I'm currently watching my DVR (recording of last night's AC 360 on CNN) while getting this all set up. Anderson is being tested on the spelling of the word "Serrefine". He guessed it the way I would... we were both wrong.

I'm amazed at what's happening in Chicago right now, it's insane, but I'm glad that CNN is bringing such an important story to light. For those that didn't see it, so far 28 school age kids have been murdered this school year. My heart goes out to the families effected by these senseless acts of violence, both in Chicago and throughout the rest of the country. Our children need help, encouragement and guidance... and in my opinion less time on their hands. Idle time and boredom is a big reason kids go searching. Helping and encouraging them to find positive ways to spend their time will go a long way in keeping kids out of trouble.

Welcome!

Hey there! The enivatable first post! Must say it's a bit daunting facing this empty box, but here goes. Generally I'll post about things that are going on both in my own little world and the world outside. Whether you agree or disagree with me, I'd love to hear from you. I'm always interested in other points of view. I hope you enjoy looking around.