Engagement Season Advice And Insight

     There is something about May that causes many couples out there to take the next step in their relationship into marriage, making May one of the most engagement filled months in the year. This is a great thing for businesses who deal with weddings, be it flower arrangements, to everything else that goes into making a wedding the most beautiful event in a couple's life. Though marriage can be a beautiful thing there are a few things that get forgotten regarding the process of planning a wedding that can either be harmful for the relationship or the people who are friends with the engaged couple. These are a few pointers that could really aid some of you as you go through this phase in your life and for the friends of the engaged couple in being able to navigate through this season safely.

    Girls Be Considerate

   Some guys out there dream about their wedding day since they were young and are great at dealing with wedding stuff, but the rest of the guys out there have really never thought much about the wedding and don't care about all the details that go into making a wedding happen. Though your fiance loves you he does not love looking through wedding magazines or making a scrap book, this is not a reflection on his love for you, this is just a fact of life, not everyone likes the same things. By this point in your relationship you should be aware of what his strengths and weaknesses are so look for tasks that fit his strengths well, in this way he won't get frustrated and you won't have to deal with bad attitudes being around you.

     Guys Be Considerate

    In the same way guys understand that most girls (not all but a good majority) have thought about this day since they were young and now that this day has come want everything to go perfectly and a slew of emotions hit them all at once. Your job in this is to make sure that she doesn't burn out, help her in any way you can with the best attitude you can muster. If you really are terrible in dealing with wedding stuff then allow her to figure all that out, in the end of the matter it is better to put your partner first than to be selfish about something you really don't care as much about. Now is the time were you being dependable is put to the test, if you love this girl then give it your all and do all you can do to make this as magical as you can for her.

      Time Management

    We always come back to this, time management is the key to completing anything in life well while keeping yourself in good physical and emotional health. Many couples seek to decide everything about their weddings in the first few weeks after the engagement, this is never a good thing, you should space out decision making and planning, making sure that everything is taken care of a few weeks before the event and not the night before. Accidents happen and they will happen, some things might fall apart, some problems might arise therefore planning ahead and having a chunk of time to work with versus a few days can save you from much stress.

       Remember Your Family

    When planning your wedding know this simple truth, everyone has an opinion and your family will be the most vocal of all. The key here is to listen to your family and not ignore them or fight them, just listen and given them the time of day, even if you are not going to do what they are saying you should do, just listen and nod and leave it at that for now. The best way to go about doing it is to implant the idea you are thinking about in a conversation like "what do you think of this?" causing them to think about it and have time to process your idea. Give it a week or so and when you talk to them again they might be more inclined to agree with you, remember that you have time to decide everything and that your family is as anxious as you are, so be mindful of that and remember that sometimes silence is best.

       Friends Be Ware

    Unfortunately weddings happen to be a time where many friendships end as well, this is due mostly to stress and poor behavior from friends or from the couple getting married, but most of the time it is due to friends not understanding how sensitive the couple is during this time. As the couple goes through the process of planning a wedding there will be many factors standing in their way, things they have to deal with and problems that need solving, don't be that problem. Remember that the bride is anxious but that the groom is also anxious and quick to come to the defense of his bride, thus exercising caution in comments or actions is a wise decision. Something that was funny a week ago is no longer funny right now, so calm down and exercise some wisdom by not stepping on anyone's toes.

     The bottom line here is that weddings are a beautiful thing, full of love and laughter and unity and family, it's the celebration of two people coming together and wanting to spend the rest of their lives together. There are few events that carry as much joy as weddings do, but at the same time there is a lot of anxiousness to be found surrounding it, so be wise when dealing with each other, your friends and family and make this time one of bonding with everyone, especially your fiance. There are a lot of things that will stress you out during this period in your life but don't forget to love.

Love from your humble blogger,

Upcoming TV Shows You Should Be Aware Of

     2012 has been a great year for television and it looks like the second half of the year will be filled with even more awesomeness. "Game Of Thrones" is still one of the most fantastic shows around, proving that sometimes a TV series adaptation of a book can in some aspects be superior than the book, something many would never have even thought possible prior to this series. We'll have many favorites like "Spartacus" returning in the Fall for a third season, but there are also a few new shows that will be coming out that you should be aware of. Some of these shows have been approved for this year and one or two will be making an appearance next Spring, but the bottom line is the same, here are some shows you should definitely be aware of and prepare yourself for.

   Revolution

      NBC is stepping their game up big time by introducing this new epic series who is being written by J.J. Abrams and Eric Kripke, the series is to be directed by the great Jon Favreau. By what we know of the story so far this follows a group of people who are trying to survive in a world where everything electronic has stopped working. The series takes place 15 years after the desolation has taken place thus instead of focusing on the governments falling and all that jazz that we've seen before they focus on another question, the "now what?" question. The show will be airing soon and if you know anything about J.J. Abrams then you know that this is a show you don't want to miss. As soon as we hear more about this show we'll be sure to pass the word to you.

    Elementary

        We've previously covered the great British show "Sherlock" exclaiming how amazed we were at the show's production and story arches. We also explored the fears we had of American television wanting to create a show based off this concept like we have done to shows like "The Office" or "Being Human" and so forth. Well, "Elementary" is looking more and more to be the American version of the British show, instead to change things up they are making Watson be played by a woman instead of a man, Lucy Liu, so no ordinary woman but still any fan of the book series can't help but to cringe a little. The chances of this being good are 50/50 at best, especially being that this will be competing with "Sherlock" which is way way better. We're trying not to be too negative about this though, this will be a show we'll follow closely before we make an overall judgment.

     Arrow

      It's about time that Green Arrow gets his own television series, so when CW made this announcement many fans of the Arrow stood up and applauded. The Green Arrow reminds us a lot of Batman except he's more of a tool and has more laughs, which makes for great television. The Green Arrow already made an appearance in "Smallville" so we're not talking about a new character here, so this show is looking better and better as we approach the deadline of its release. There is a lot that can be done even if this series were to do well as simple as having more heroes involved in the series to raising popularity of DC again, which is needed after "The Avengers" movie stole all of our hearts.

     American Gods

      Neil Gaiman is the genius mind behind books like "Neverwhere" which became a TV series, "Coraline" and "Stardust" which both got their deserved big screen debut, he wrote one of the best comic book series ever to be written "The Sandman" and now his best selling novel "American Gods" has been given a chance to take life by HBO and will be making a appearance next year blowing all of our minds for sure. IMDB does a good job given a brief synopsis, being that we have read the book we fear giving anything away so here is how they summarized it, "a recently released ex-convict named Shadow meets a mysterious man who calls himself "Wednesday" and who knows more than he first seems to about Shadow's life and past". This is a series to look forward to for sure, anything Neil Gaiman touches is gold, so keep an eye out for this one, you won't regret it.

    If there is a show coming out that you think is important that we talk about then please let us know via email or a comment down bellow. We hope that your summer has started well, full of laughter and rest.

Love from your humble blogger,

Dark Shadows Review: Another Fun Burton Movie

  We got a chance last night to go see the new Tim Burton movie "Dark Shadows" and with all things considered the movie was pretty fun. The movie is based off of one of Depp's and Burton's favorite childhood television shows, so adapting an old show to the big screen was a lot of fun for them. The movie has an impressive cast, though in the end this was another movie to come out whose sole focus was Johnny Depp with everyone else as side characters. This was not necessarily a bad thing, Depp is always fun to watch, but at times one couldn't help but want a little more substance from the surrounding characters, maybe a back story or a plot twist.

    We'll do our our best here to not include spoilers in this review so no worries while reading it. The basics of the movie and story structure you can get from the preview, but to sum it up, Depp fornicates with a witch and later says he doesn't love her, this obviously makes her furious with Depp and causes her to give him the vampire curse and to imprison him for two centuries. Depp eventually is brought back and finds his family in shambles where he seeks to bring back his family fortune and keep his family united at the same time. The witch is still alive and starts causing havoc when he comes back in the scene like expected and thus you have the movie. Not necessarily the most thought provoking of all the Burton movies but it is a fun one.

     Out of all the Burton movies this was one of the best combination of talent within a movie, though Depp did steal the show the other characters did contain some substance due to the brilliant casting by Tim Burton. With people like Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Bella Heathcote, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jackie Earle Haley, Jonny Lee Miller, Gulliver McGrath and even Alice Cooper made an appearance, with such a brilliant cast behind Depp the movie does carry some weight and does deliver an entertaining 2 hours of fun. Eva Green was radiant in her performance as Angelique, she looked beautiful and did a fantastic job, one could not help but notice her as she came on screen, it was perfect for her character.

    There was an issue with the movie though, the beginning of the movie was very well done, the back story doesn't take too long and it gives us a good background to everything we are about to witness. The middle of the story is good as well, we are thoroughly entertained throughout the movie by Depp's dialogue and character growth, but the end of the movie was weak. It went from being a good Burton movie to being something more along the lines of "Hocus Pocus" from Disney (not that that was a bad movie, it just didn't carry the Burton flare we love), so 80% of the movie is really well done, but the end felt a little weak, especially the line "wolf", once you see the movie you'll know what we're talking about and agree that it was unnecessary and cheesy.

      Even though the end of the movie is a tad cheesy we would still recommend this movie as a fun escape from the troubles of life, so a good weekend getaway. This is a classic Burton movie, we got the dark elements we love, the movie isn't necessarily scary but nor is it really funny, it just exists in the strange bizarre world that is Burton's mind. If you are accustomed to his work and enjoy his movies then you'll really like this movie, if you aren't a fan of Burton then don't go watch it for this movie from beginning to end is a "Burton" production. We had a lot of fun watching the movie and even though we would never give the movie more than a 3.5/5 we still would watch it again if the opportunity presented itself.

      We hope this week of graduations, finals exams and last get togethers with friends and family was a good one, we pray that this weekend may be a great and relaxing one for all of you,

Love from your humble blogger,

A Break From Stress: Music Feature Part 2

    Last Wednesday we hosted a post about upcoming artists and some more well known artists that haven't made it "big" yet and we got a really warm reception to the post. Many of you are still having exams this week and reading more than you already are having to read can sometimes be an exhausting thing, thus we've decided to do a follow up article just highlighting some great artists that will help relax you a bit during this hectic time. We've spoken to various artists who wanted to be featured here and thus we might do this every other week or so, but we felt it was appropriate to have another one again this week again due to finals. We hope you enjoy these tracks and hope that they may aid you in finding some escape from stress during this week.

     Melissa Polinar

      
     
    Nathan Angelo

        
       
  Ainslie Henderson

           
       
  James David Carter

         

  Matt Wertz

            
   
  Justin Nazuko

              
    
   Josh Ritter

             
    And there you have it, if you know of any local bands you would like us to feature please send us an email at mransan@sodanca.com and we'll do our best to feature them next time we do an article like this. We hope this week is a blessed one for you and that you may finish exams well.

  Love from your humble blogger,

My Big Fat Absurd Reality TV Show Weekend

   This weekend I decided that it was about time that I took the time to get really acquainted with some reality TV shows that are going on right now, the major problem I faced was that due to my ignorance no starting place was present, and thus I sought out a reality TV "life coach" which ended up being one of my best friend's girlfriend Anna. I knew she was perfect for the job when she uttered the phrased "oh, I love this couple, they are so dysfunctional! lol", which made me sad for this whole generation, but I promised myself I wouldn't be to harsh and face this battle face on with the least amount of reality TV prejudice as I could muster, and so she led me through some of the "basics" as she puts them. We had spoken about where to start and in the end we decided that we should avoid the more popular shows for now and instead focus on some of the other surrounding shows that are slowly taking over our television, and so my big fat absurd reality TV show weekend began.

   My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding/American Gypsy Wedding

    If it wasn't for the fact that I have two very good friends that are Gypsy at home, this show would have had no entertainment value for me, though there is an important observation that needs to be made, when you watch the London show (which is the first show we watched) you instantly become shocked at what's on TV but when you watch the American version you quickly begin to miss the London show with thoughts like "Oh, I guess that show wasn't so bad after all". You know your morals (between good and bad television) are getting warped when you begin looking at a trashy show as "not so bad" compared to a super trashy show. This might be the permanent psychological damage I suffered this weekend talking here but I can see how the London show could be popular, I wouldn't mind sitting down and giving it another chance.

     Mob Wives

    I grew up in a house with two sisters so this isn't my first rodeo when facing any "wives" themed reality show, or at least that's what I though before I started watching this show. Anna thought that starting with "Mob Wives" would be a better transition into the other "wives" shows with that same logic of "if you can face the worst of it then you will enjoy the 'still bad but not so bad' other shows", looking back I cringe at that logic. I want to say that this show wasn't that bad, and I want to say that this show had some depth to it but I can't, I just can't, I'm sorry, this show is horrible, just plain bad. This is a "Jersey Shore: The Grown Up Years" type of show, they stoop lower and lower begging for better ratings, the sad thing is that they might just get them and therefore be encouraged to make more episodes *cringe*.

     Real Wives of New Jersey

    One would imagine that this would be the show where the "Jersey Shore: Later Years" joke would apply but surprisingly it's not. As I watched this show I was actually entertained a little and as I watched I quickly realized what had happen, it was a trap, Anna had shown me a horrible show so that I would come to appreciate a not so horrible show and I was appreciating it, *cringes*, I'm still recovering from the experience. For once I think they should have a show about legit moms, name it something like "Real Sane Wives" and show the drama that takes place in a good home with a good wife that is not a stereotype. There is so much drama that populates our lives why would we need a stereotype in order to take things over the top? Plus when they say "Real Wives New Jersey" or "Real Wives Miami" all they are saying is "Miami Stereotypical Wives" and so forth, if you think about the nature of the show I think it kind of offends women within those regions, maybe networks will do a sane show one of these days. 

     Tough Love

    By this point "Tough Love" was a welcomed breath of air, here is a show about helping single women battle their demons in order to aid them in possibly being able to attain good relationships after the show. The concept and flow of the show is a good one, I like the fact that this is a process instead of a one episode thing so it looks legit, and as you watch the show you quickly become aware as to what these girls' problems are and you want to see them change. Out of all the shows we watched I felt that this one was the most OK one, I wouldn't voluntarily sit down and immerse myself into it but if Anna were to be watching it again I would sit down and watch it with her. As we watched I started to learn about all the other shows that followed this same premise from Anna, which gave me hope for this generation, a little hope at least. Nothing though could have prepared me for what came next.

     Long Island Medium

    It took all my strength, everything that I had in me for me to sit there and watch this show, nothing could have prepared me for it and though Anna tried to do so by showing me all those other shows first, I still could not handle the absurdity of this show, I had a *facepalm* moment every other scene or so, I think I might need psychological care after being face to face with this absurd show. I don't know what it is about it, if it's her over the top style (play on stereotype), mothering skills (play on the wives motif), her clear need for attention (reminded me of tough love), or if I just had had enough, either way this show offended any sanity I had still lingering within me. Here is a show I will never watch again, they'll be playing seasons of this show on repeat in hell, no greater torture exists.

     The Aftermath

   I sought to include all the most absurd shows we watched this weekend here, Anna thought that these shows were the necessary dosage of crazy I needed to be faced with before she showed me all the good reality TV shows out there, so I'll be doing a follow up article soon highlighting all the better reality TV shows out there. As I went through this painful experience an idea came to mind, that there should exist a show about watching reality TV shows, like put a group of guys that have never faced the world of absurd reality TV in a room and video them going through the experience, that ought to be a funny show or maybe I think so now after I lost some of my sanity. Honestly though there are some good shows out there, I'll tell you one thing, after this weekend I have come to understand why the Kardashians have such a strong following, when your competition is any of the shows above how could you not be the top rated reality TV show on television?

   I hope this week goes well for you and for those that will be officially starting summer break we wish you a good and safe summer,

Love from your humble blogger,

"The Avengers" Review: The Best Superhero Movie Ever Made

  How can we put this..."The Avengers" was the best superhero based movie ever to be made, and that's an understatement. From beginning to end the movie had our attention, if there were any doubts on casting prior to the release of this movie then all those doubts are gone now. The theater was laughing and cheering their favorite hero the whole movie, it was a great experience. To put it simply, Marvel has outdone themselves, we were looking forward to this movie but never did we assume that this movie would be this good, this was one of those "I could sit here and re-watch the whole thing" movies, if you don't have plans to go watch it then do yourself a kindness, change your mind and allow yourself to be blown away by this awesome movie.

    When talking about this movie we cannot begin anywhere but with Joss Whedon. This was your classic Joss Whedon work, it was funny, it was serious, it was entertaining from beginning to end and it was just plain awesome. Joss doesn't disappoint, he directed and co-wrote this movie, if you are familiar with his work then you know what we're talking about, Joss Whedon has been writing/directed works like "The Cabin In The Woods", "Firefly", "Buffy", "Toy Story", and a ton more, if you have never seen "Firefly" then do so. Most of the humor within "The Avengers" was thanks to him, and it was awesome humor, it was a perfect balance of everyone's ego while keeping us all entertained the whole time. We cannot wait for the DVD to come out so that we may watch the extra scenes, there are a lot of rumors circulating about the scenes that were taken out that Joss wanted to put in there, just another thing to look forward to.

     Looking back upon this flick the character that deserves to be talked about first is the incredible Hulk for he was the least looked forward to character and the choosing of Ruffalo as the Hulk made many worried that the Hulk wasn't going to be played right, let us put those fears at rest in saying that Ruffalo did a fantastic job. The Hulk in this movie was awesome, his every appearance was awesome, we had people cheering for him every time he appeared on screen. The humor Joss was able to weave into the Hulk was brilliant and created some of the funniest most awesome moments in the movie. Mark Ruffalo deserves to be commended though, he played Bruce Banner exactly like Bruce should be played, it was an exceptional performance. With the exception of the latest Hulk movie with Edward Norton, we had not had this good of a performance ever, and even though we love Norton we cannot help but want more Ruffalo on the screen from now on.

      One of the biggest worries when releasing a big budget production like this one with many strong actors within it is that the actors will clash with one another trying to outdo one another, but this was not the case here. The movie flowed like it should have flowed and the actors behaved like a team, you could tell that they were all in this together from beginning to end. They all had a strong presence and all of them had funny little jokes here and there, picking a favorite among them is a difficult task, this is the reaction one should have when watching this kind of movie, if it is done well that is, and oh this movie was awesome. One would imagine that their personalities would have clashed and their stage presence would have made this movie unwatchable but trust when we say that it was everything we ever dreamed of and more.

     Everyone that has ever read a comic book or watched a superhero movie has dreamed of this moment, as IGN's review puts it "this is the movie that played out in our minds as we read the comics", except it was written by Joss Whedon so it blew everything we could possibly imagine out of the water. Let's not forget the side characters as well, Nick Fury was played perfectly by Samuel which was expected but a surprise came with Cobie Smulder's performance (Robin from "How I Met Your Mother") as she played Agent Maria Hill, she did a fantastic job and made us want to see her in more movies, her career is one worth following for sure. When rottentomatoes.com gives a movie a 93% you know the movie is going to be amazing, we fall right in line with everyone else in saying that this movie was a definite 4.5/5, we would give it a perfect score but that would mean that nothing more can be done to make the next one more awesome and that's simply not true, think Spider-Man and Wolverine making an appearance, that would be awesome.

      So there you have it, this is how you should spend your money this weekend, be it today or tomorrow, just do yourself a kindness and go watch this movie, it's sure to not disappoint. Make sure to stay for both secret endings not just the first one, you won't regret it.

 Love from your humble blogger,

An Escape From Stress And Finals

     Finals week can be rough and we understand that you're having to read a ton of books and notes in order to prepare for either final exams or term papers, so we decided to make this post one where you won't have a lot of text to read, a post where you'll find a nice calming escape from the hardships you are facing this week. We got a really good response from the Monday post and so when we were thinking about what to write here one of the girls on our team brought up a fantastic point, that the best escape from life's many stresses is music, thus we decided to make a strict music only post. We'll be featuring a lot of up and coming artists and some that are a little more popular. Listening to good music is always relaxing and meeting new artists is always a fun thing, so here you go, a healthy calming escape from your stressful week.

     Andrew Hoover

   Jenny & Tyler

            
Jamestown Revival

                    
Allen Stone

     
Micah Dalton

      
    Givers

                  
Luke Wade

       

    We hope this proves to be a relaxing escape from a stressful week.

Love from your humble blogger,