Stuck In My Head: Started

All day long I've had "Started" by Iggy Azalea stuck in my head and you know how I roll, if it's stuck in my head I'm going to get it stuck in other people's heads...

Stuck In My Head: It's Gonna Be Me

For the past like five days I've had "It's Gonna Be Me" by N'Sync stuck in my head. Like, so much so that I wore an N'Sync shirt to Brooklyn on Saturday and when I was asked why I was wearing it, I replied "Because it's gonna be May..." Yeah, I know. I'm lame.

But really, do any of you get "It's Gonna Be Me" stuck in their head this time of year? Is it just me?

Also, is anyone else as excited as I am about all of the N'Sync reunion tour rumors after Joey, JC, Chris and Lance performed with Ariana Grande at Coachella? My inner twelve-year-old is so pumped about the idea. I mean, it would be sad if Justin didn't tour with them but I'd still go see them.

But that all being said, here it is so that you can have it stuck in your head also...

Stuck In My Head: Not Tonight (Ladies Night Remix)

All day long I've had Lil' Kim's 1997 single "Not Tonight (Ladies Night Remix)" featuring Da Brat, Left Eye, Missy "Misdeameanor" Elliott and Angie Martinez stuck in my head.

And as you know, if it's stuck in my head I need to get it stuck in someone else's head, so here it is...

Stuck In My Head: Money

Earlier in the day myself, Nicole and a couple of other staff members had a ten minute dance party in our office just because (Don't worry, there were no patrons around) and ever since then I've had "Money" by Cardi B stuck in my head. And you know how it goes, if it's stuck in my head I'm gonna try to get it stuck in yours...


Have you ever just had an impromptu dance party at work just to relax for a couple of minutes? Or do you think we're crazy? Lemme know!

Month In Review: September 2018

♥ Vacationing in Croatia with Justin.
♥ Justin & I celebrating our fourth wedding anniversary.
♥ Hanging out in Brooklyn with the crew and discussing vacation plans for 2019.
♥ Finally going to the Camp Ground with Day.
♥ Having dinner with Gino & Christina to figure out our upcoming trip to New Orleans.
♥ Making plans to go see the new Halloween (2018) movie with peoples.
♥ Dinner date with Day.

♥ Brooklyn In Huji
♥ Getting Ready For New Orleans

Cuisine Royale (2017)
Paul Hollywood's City Bakes (2016 - Present)
Happiness Is In The Plate (2012)
2 Dudes & A Kitchen (2016 - 2017)
Donna Hay: Basics to Brilliance (2016 - Present)
Murdoch Mysteries (2008 - Present)
The Hunt For The Trump Tapes With Tom Arnold (2018 - Present)
American Horror Story: Apocalypse (2011 - Present)

Stuck In My Head: Jackie Chan

All day long I've had "Jackie Chan" by Tiësto and Dzeko featuring Preme & Post Malone stuck in my head and you know how I roll, if it's stuck in my head I'm going to get it stuck in other people's heads...

"Celia: My Life" Coming To Television

A board book I bought my future 

niece about Celia (@MisfitLibrarian)

As you may or may not know, I am first generation Cuban-American from my father's side and I have been brought up as Cuban as one can be from Long Island with a mother who does not have a drop of Spanish/Latin in her. And aside from Cuban food, the second most prevalent things growing up as a Cuban-American was music (I mean, the fact that my father is a musician probably has a lot to do with it also). I grew up listening to Gloria Estefan, Cachao, Los Van Van and the Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz in between all of the pop and alternative rock hits of the 90's and early aughts.

So because of this, when I found out that they were making a scripted television show about Celia Cruz based off her autobiography "Celia: My Life" I was beyond excited and had to share it just in case anyone else loves themselves some Celia. 

ENDEMOL SHINE NORTH AMERICA AND MAJOR TV TO ADAPT CELIA CRUZ’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY INTO TV SERIES     

Kenny Ortega Set To Executive Produce & Direct     

Los Angeles, Ca. — Endemol Shine North America and Major TV have optioned the rights to late Latin superstar Celia Cruz’s best-selling autobiography, “Celia: My Life,” with plans to adapt it for a scripted television series.     

Veteran film and TV producer/director/choreographer Kenny Ortega (“High School Musical”) is signed on to serve as an executive producer and direct the series. Flavio Morales, Executive Vice President, Endemol Shine Latino, U.S. Initiatives, is also set to serve as an EP.     

Cruz, known as the Queen of Latin music, was one of the most popular recording artists of all time, having won 4 Grammy Awards, 5 Latin Grammy Awards, recording 23 gold albums and attracting millions of loyal fans globally before her death in 2003.     

Endemol Shine and Major TV are currently developing an English language series based on Cruz’s only authorized autobiography, with a foreword by the late Maya Angelou. Based on more than 500 hours of taped interviews by the Smithsonian, recorded just months before her passing, Cruz let fans glimpse a life that, while lived in the full view of the public, had remained largely private.      

“There is no bigger name in Latin music than Celia Cruz,” says Endemol Shine North America CEO Cris Abrego. “We are thrilled to be adapting her amazing life story, one filled with triumph and tragedy, for a dramatic television series with a producer of Kenny Ortega’s pedigree attached.”     

Added Ortega, “I had the extraordinary honor of working with Celia Cruz many years ago as a burgeoning choreographer on a little movie called ‘Salsa.’ While we were working together, Celia and her husband invited me to join them for her concert at the Hollywood Palladium. Celia seated me in a chair on stage and I was there, in the light, watching La Reina de la Salsa, hypnotizing the audience with her voice and performance magic. Over the years, my appreciation of her gift to music has grown and deepened. Celia has been an inspiration for so many and I am honored to participate in this tribute of the incomparable Celia Cruz.”     

“With a voice that transcended language, color, race, and gender, Celia Cruz broke barriers, changed the landscape of music and became a Global icon. Capturing her authorized life story for the first time on screen, in any language, is an incredible milestone,” says Major TV’s Raymond Garcia. “We are honored to have the captivating vision of Kenny Ortega guiding this production. His universal sensibility in story-telling, expertise in resonating with viewers through music and dance, coupled with his sincere cultural and personal connection with Celia, makes this one of the most important, moving, and electrifying musical series of all time.”      

“Celia Cruz was a black woman, of limited means, who painfully abandoned her small island and triumphantly conquered the world with the power of her voice.  Her story is a testament of perseverance, hope and inspiration that deserves to be told,” said Omer Pardillo Cid, Executor of the Celia Cruz Estate and her former manager.

Endemol Shine and Major TV previously announced that they had jointly optioned the rights to Chris Perez’s “To Selena With Love,” the best-selling book that tells the late Latin superstar Selena Quintanilla-Perez’s love story through the eyes of her husband.     

Major TV is led by Raymond Garcia, formerly publisher and founder of Celebra at Penguin Random House, where he published numerous New York Times and international best-sellers with top authors such as Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, as well as, Gloria and Emilio Estefan. 

Endemol Shine North America and its Spanish production division Endemol Shine Boomdog, currently have numerous scripted series in development, including “To Selena With Love” (With Major TV) and the upcoming drama “Nicky Jam: El Ganador,” which is slated to debut later this year on Telemundo and Netflix.     

From her modest childhood in Cuba, to her exile years in Mexico, to her remarkable career and life in the U.S., Cruz was a woman of contrasts. Her flamboyant costumes contrasted with her simple and straightforward demeanor. She was open and accessible to her fans, but staunchly private about her personal life. She was uninhibited without decadence, honest without offense, confident but not arrogant, and generous without fault. Yet above all, Cruz was authentic, and it was this authenticity that resonated so deeply with her public.   

After Cruz passed away on July 16, 2003, more than a half million people stood in line for hours in order to pay their respects, in both Miami and New York. Millions more paid tribute to her, holding impromptu memorials in living rooms and crowded street festivals throughout the world.   

Ortega is a three-time Emmy winner and he’s served as a director, choreographer and producer on many top TV series and films. Some of Ortega’s works throughout his illustrious career the feature documentary “Michael Jackson’s This Is It,” “Newsies,” “Hocus Pocus,” and Disney Channel’s “High School Musical” franchise and served as the executive producer for “High School Musical’s” multi-platinum soundtracks. In 2008, Ortega directed and executive produced “High School Musical 3: Senior Year (HSM 3)” for Walt Disney Motion Pictures.     

Most recently, Ortega directed, “A Change of Heart” (produced alongside long-time friend and partner, Emilio Estefan, and starring Jim Belushi and Virginia Madsen), “The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again” for FOX and Disney’s “Descendants” and “Descendants 2,” which premiered to record breaking numbers in July 2017.  The “Descendants 2” Soundtrack also debuted at #1 on iTunes.     

Ortega has been the recipient of three Emmy Awards, and 2 Director’s Guild of America Awards, The Fred & Adele Astaire Lifetime Achievement Award, Bob Fosse Award, American Choreography Lifetime Achievement Award, MTV Video Music Award, American Music Award, Billboard Award, ALMA Award, Nosotros Golden Eagle Award, Imagen Creative Achievement Award, NAACP Award, as well as a number of others. 

This is definitely a television show I'm going to keep my eyes out for because Celia lived such an interesting life and was such an incredible musical talent. I really do look forward to seeing what they do with the accounts from her autobiography and rich life she lived.

Here is the video for one of my favorite songs by Celia:

Stuck In My Head: Finesse (Remix)

For the first time in a long time I have a song stuck in my head. Literally for the entire past week I've had "Finesse (Remix)" by Bruno Mars featuring Cardi B playing on loop in my brain. It's just so damn catchy and reminds me of the early 90's R&B and rap songs that I love so much.

So here it is to get it stuck in your head...

Night Out In Brooklyn | Homegrown Heroes Music Festival...

Friday night Day and I headed into Brooklyn to go to the Homegrown Heroes Music Festival at The Paper Box because we know one of the members of The Driggs. So we went out to show our support and rock out with the hipsters in Bushwick East Williamsburg (We even dressed the part because as you guys know, that's how we roll).

We got to Brooklyn before the doors opened at The Paper Box, so we decided to kill some time by going to grab a quick dinner and some drinks at The Anchored Inn. Which was awesome, and all we had were their Carmen Fries and a couple of Downeast Ciders.

Eventually after getting a few texts from our friend in the band, we closed our tab out and headed over to the venue. Which killed us because The Anchored Inn had air conditioning and The Paper Box did not. But since the concert was the main reason for our trek out to Brooklyn we sucked it up.

Thankfully The Paper Box had an outdoor area, so Day and I hung out there until The Driggs went on because it was honestly too hot in that damn venue to stand around and watch other bands.

While we were out there, we did end up making friends with a dude that ended up being a scout for the record label that was throwing the festival. We bullshitted and had a few drinks with him before going inside to sweat our asses off watching The Driggs.

After their set, Day and I ran back outside (Because we were dying and didn't want to have heat strokes) and waited for our friend to get back from dropping the equipment off at the studio area near by that the band rents.

For some reason it took forever, so we decided to run back to The Anchored Inn to have another drink. Eventually he met up with us, as did the lead singer of the band and some of their friends.

The newcomers didn't think The Anchored Inn was cool enough, so we wandered around the corner to The Well which was deemed a much cooler spot. We had a round of drinks before bumming the lead singer out be getting an Uber to drive us to Jamaica Station so we'd be able to catch a 12-something AM train back to Long Island.

Even though it was hot as hell, we had a really great night out in Brooklyn and it was a great way to kick off Memorial Day weekend. I can't wait to see the band again (Especially in an air conditioned venue) because they are actually really good.

If you wanna check out the band for yourself, here is a video of them performing one of their songs...

If you check it out lemme know, they love to know what people think of them and their music.

8 Songs I Will Never Get Tired Of (With Music Videos)...

Since I did my "10 Movies I Can Watch Over & Over Again" you had to have known that I was going to do a music list eventually, so here that is...

1. "Wish You Were Here" by Incubus (2001)
If you've been following me for awhile you know that in my life it isn't officially summer out until the first day where it's hot enough for me to crank down all of the windows in my car and to blast "Wish You Were Here" by Incubus. In my head that is the beginning of summer and it has been for the past twelve years.


2. "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" by Backstreet Boys (1997)
As most of you should know by now, I'm an N'Sync fan through and through but there is just something about Backstreet Boy's "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" that I love and I could just listen to this song on repeat. In fact I did it the other day while I was driving home from work.


3. "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston (1992)
I absolutely love Whitney's version on this song and it's a song I've loved since I was a child. So I figure I haven't gotten tired of it in twenty-three years, I'm never going to get tired of it.


4. "Hotel California" by Eagles (1973)
This is hands down one my favorite classic rock song ever. It's my ringtone for my cousin Yvette when she calls me. When I was a teenager all I wanted to do was learn how to play it on the guitar.


5. "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer (1995)
"Say It Ain't So" is one of my favorite songs by Weezer and I will never change the station if I hear it on.


6. "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" by Jimi Hendrix (1968)
This song just reminds me of my dad and driving in his Jeep Wrangler down the Ocean Parkway.


7. "Bye Bye Bye" by N'Sync (2000)
This is hands down one of my favorite N'Sync songs. I love N'Sync. No other explanation needed...


8. "Everlong" by Foo Fighters (1997)
It's mine and Justin's song, so of course I'm never going to get tired of it. 


So those are the eight songs I will never get tired of. What are yours? Lemme know!