This Just Pinned: Week One Hundred & Sixty One

Here the highlights of my pinning as of late...

 (via:  The View from Great Island)

(via: Danielle Clough)

(via: Tumblr - Amandaherzman)

(via: Easy As Apple Pie)

(via: Nerds With Knives)

(via: Studio DIY)

(via: The Unemployed Philosophers Guild)

As always if you want to see what else I have up on Pinterest you can check out my account here.

Movie Trailer | Night School

Recently I was sent the trailer for Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish's upcoming movie Night School (2018) and because I'm such a fan of Kevin Hart's work, I thought that I'd share it with all of you.

Official Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | #NightSchool

Star Kevin Hart and producer Will Packer, who partnered for the hit Ride Along and  Think Like a Man series, bring their signature style to Night School. The comedy from director Malcolm D. Lee (Girls Trip) follows a group of misfits who are forced to attend adult classes in the longshot chance they’ll pass the GED exam.   

Co-stars Tiffany Haddish, Rob Riggle, Taran Killam and Romany Malco join Hart on - screen for the film that Hart produces for his Hartbeat Productions, and Packer via his Will Packer Production.

Genre: Comedy
Cast: Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, Rob Riggle, Taran Killam, Romany Malco
Director: Malcolm D. Lee
Writers: Kevin Hart, Harry Ratchford, Joey Wells, Matt Kellard, Nicholas Stoller & John Hamburg
Produced by: Will Packer, Kevin Hart
Executive Producers: Malcolm D. Lee, Preston Holmes, James Lopez

Personally I love Kevin Hart and think that Tiffany Haddish can do no wrong, so I'm totally going to check out when it hits theaters September 28th. What about all of you? What do you think? Are you fans of Kevin or Tiffany? Lemme know!

Street Art & Day Drinking In Brooklyn

This past Saturday Justin and I went to Brooklyn to visit Day at her apartment and wander around.

We started off our adventure by hitting up the piragua cart around the corner from her apartment and enjoying them on the subway on our way to Bushwick.

Once in Bushwick we decided to grab drinks and enjoy the street art at the Wyckoff Beer Garden before heading over to the Bushwick Collective Block Party (Which is an annual art event combining graffiti, street-art, music, food trucks and local vendors).

We didn't spend a lot of time at the Bushwick Collective Block Party (We were actually a tad bummed later in the day that we didn't stick around to see JaRule) because it seemed like it was going to get crazy busy quick. So we just did a walk through and headed over to the Kings County Brewers Collective to have a few more drinks (Sense the theme of the day?).

Eventually we realized that we needed to eat something or we would not be able to keep going. So we walked over to Amaranto to have some tacos. And after putting enough food in our systems to keep drinking we walked over to Pizza Party, where we had a few more drinks and played some board games.

Once we had or fill of 80's nostalgia, we walked over to Dromedary Bar where we had the best frozen drink from the shittiest bartender -- Like after we finished our drinks we left because we just couldn't deal with her.

At this point we were three sheets to the wind, so we walked back over to Day's apartment to play video games and sober up before driving back to Long Island.

Aside from it being hot as balls, it was a great day in Brooklyn. I can't wait for next outing.

Getting Ready For Croatia

Justin and I are going to Croatia! So as I've done for the majority of my other travels, I've collected links to articles and blog posts about traveling in Croatia. And even though we aren't going for another couple of months I thought I'd share my current findings because someone else might find them useful.

So here's what I've put together as of thus far, and since we're bopping around while we're in Croatia, I figured I'd break the links up to the specific places we're panning on hitting up while we're there...

Split
♥ Emma's Travel Tales -- Stunned By Split
♥ Girl Vs Globe -- Party Girl Guide to Split, Croatia
♥ The Modern Jetsetter -- 48 Hours in Split, Croatia
♥ Solo Traveler -- Split, Croatia: A Perfect Port and More
♥ Two Blue Passports -- Spotted In Split

Hvar
♥ Blonde Atlas -- Hvar Travel Guide
♥ Epepa Travel Blog -- The Secret Beaches Of Hvar
♥ Epepa Travel Blog -- Top 10 Things To Do In Hvar Island
♥ One Day In A City -- One Day In Hvar
♥ Solo Traveler -- Solo Travel Destination: Hvar, Croatia 
♥ Two Blue Passports -- Island Hopping In Croatia: 2 Days On Hvar
♥ Unlocking Kiki -- The Best View In Hvar
♥ Unlocking Kiki -- Do’s & Dont’s Of Hvar
♥ The World Pursuit -- Things To On Hvar Island, Croatia + Important Travel Info

Korčula
♥ Adventurous Kate Solo Female Travel Blog -- Korčula: In The Land Of Marco Polo
♥ One Day In A City -- One Day In Korčula
♥ Unlocking Kiki -- 8 Things You Must Do in Korčula

Dubrovnik
♥ A Guide To Beaches In Dubrovnik: Dubrovnik Beach Hotels, Beach Map & More
♥ Adventurous Kate Solo Female Travel Blog -- Dubrovnik Survival Guide
♥ Bruised Passports -- Roadtrippin’ Croatia: Dubrovnik Love
♥ Emma's Travel Tales -- The Beauty Of Dubrovnik
♥ Solo Traveler -- Solo Travel Destination: Dubrovnik, Croatia
♥ The Travel Hack -- Wowed By Dubrovnik In Just One Day
♥ Travels & Treats
♥ Two Blue Passports -- Dobar Dan Dubrovnik
♥ Unlocking Kiki -- The Charming Old City of Dubrovnik

Miscellaneous
♥ Adventurous Kate Solo Female Travel Blog -- 100 Travel Tips For Croatia
♥ ArboursAbroad -- 12 Things To Know About Renting A Car In Croatia
♥ The Blonde Abroad
♥ Condé Nast Traveler -- Island-Hopping In Croatia
♥ Fathom
♥ Notes On Traveling -- Public Transport 101 – Croatia
♥ Travel Fashion Girl -- What To Wear In Croatia: A Packing List

As we have in the past, Justin and I watched Anthony Bourdain to check out his recommendations.

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (2005–2012)

• Season Eight, Episode Three: Croatian Coast

 Have any of you been to Croatia before? If so I'd love some suggestions!

Month In Review: May 2018

♥ Meeting my niece.
♥ Justin buying me a box of roses from Venus ET Fleur.
♥ Mother's Day dinner with my family.
♥ Celebrating my sister's 31st birthday.
♥ Hanging out with Day at her new apartment in Brooklyn.
♥ Planning a big group outing to a Mets game for later in the summer.
♥ Seeing "In The Heights" off off off Broadway.
♥ Meeting Sir Pugs-a-Lot.
♥ Finding out that all of my photos were back on the blog.
♥ Celebrating Christopher's 7th birthday.

♥ Hanging Out With Day In Brooklyn
♥ Lost Dog
♥ Everything Is Coming Up Roses | Venus ET Fleur
♥ My Photos Are Back | Photobucket Set Our Photos Free

Guy's Ranch Kitchen (2017 - Present)

 "Styling for Instagram: What to Style and How to Style It" by Leela Cyd
"Blame It On Bianca Del Rio" by Bianca Del Rio 

"Wanderful: The Modern Bohemian's Guide to Traveling in Style" by Andi Eaton



 Sibling Rivalry

Huji Cam

"Dinero (feat. DJ Khaled, Cardi B)" by Jennifer Lopez

"Brujería (feat. Mitch Ferrino)" by Aja

"Good As Hell" by Lizzo

June Photo-A-Day

Here is the photo-a-day list Fat Mum Slim made for June 2018...

How To Take Part In June Photo-A-Day:

• Using the list as inspiration, take a photo each day.     
• Share it on Instagram or Twitter using the hashtags #FMSphotoaday and #FMSPAD. You can also share on your blog or on Facebook by joining her group.     
• Check out other people's photos and like them or comment on them.
• Each day a Fab Four is picked from the photos shared on Instagram for the challenge. It’s four photos that have captured their attention from each prompt. Check the feed @littlemomentsapp to see the photos.

"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:

Library Articles

♥ We Took Our Young Children On A Library World Tour—And It Was Marvelous
♥ Borrow A Tune! Brooklyn Public Library Now Lending Musical Instruments
♥ The Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation May Have To Auction Off Precious Artifacts
♥ Can You Help The Library Of Congress Identify The Woman In This Photo?
♥ Obama's Proposed Presidential Library Drew Protests In Chicago
♥ Libraries That Speak Loudly
♥ This Kid’s Pez Collection Is Now A Library Exhibit
♥ The Oldest Cookbooks From Libraries Around The World
♥ New York Public Library’s Rich Digital Collection Has Over 180,000 Images To Download
♥ The Right To Browse: A Library Puts Books Into Storage And Readers Cry Foul
♥ Newberry Library Digitizes Trove of Lakota Drawings
♥ Cool Facts About the Library
♥ Bringing Wikipedia Into The Library
♥ Zambia Library Warns 'Half-Naked' Female Students
♥ A Haven for the Homeless: The City Of Santa Monica – And Its Librarians – Are On The Front Lines Of The Homelessness Crisis In Southern California

My Photos Are Back | Photobucket Set Our Photos Free

So as I was working on my post for A Fantastic Woman yesterday, I was going through my previous movie posts just for reference when I noticed that all of my older posts had their photos back (Which made me feel like screaming and jumping up and down for joy because I'm so happy).

As you may or may not know, last summer the photo server Photobucket went under a bunch of new changes and decided that they would no longer allow posting on third party websites. Causing myself and a tons of other people to lose all of their photos on their blogs. Which, in addition to all of the bullshit I'd been dealing with (And still are dealing with), was so disheartening to me and made me feel like I had wasted the past seven years blogging.

When I went to look into why my photos were back I saw this tweet from Photobucket:

And after seeing that I went straight to the website to see what was going on. Apparently, like the tweet says, they are under new management and revamped their plan options to now allow third party hosting for those who pay for an account (Which they were doing last year but for a stupid amount of money).

Here's their new pricing break down from the website for anyone interest:

Photobucket Subscription Pricing & Info  

When you sign up for a Photobucket account, you are prompted to select a plan.  

Our Beginner plan is our free plan and includes:      

• 2 GB of storage space (Approximately 400 photos). 

If you need more storage or access to 3rd Party Image Hosting, you'll want to upgrade your account to one of our paid subscriptions plans. With a paid Photobucket plan, you receive all the benefits of the Beginner plan, plus many more! 

Please visit the following link to upgrade: Choose Your Plan 

Pricing

The cost of a paid account varies depending on your needs. Please note, yearly subscriptions are billed annually.  

Beginner +

• You may choose to pay either monthly at $2.49/month or yearly for $26.99/year (equivalent to $2.25/month).     
• 2 GB of storage space (Approximately 400 photos). 

Intermediate      

• You may choose to pay either monthly at $6.49/month or yearly for $69.99/year (equivalent to $5.83/month).     
• 20 GB of storage space (Approximately 4,000 photos). 

When you upgrade your plan, you gain the following benefits:     

• 3rd Party Image Hosting: Link the photos you have uploaded to Photobucket to your forums, blogs or other websites for viewing.     
• No Advertisements: Enjoy an ad free Photobucket experience as long as you are logged into your Plus account.     
• Premium Support: You have direct access to our tech support team.

Now that they are offering photo hosting for a reasonable amount, I went and got myself an Intermediate Plan. And I feel a renewal of energy to continue blogging because I was really so upset last summer when I lost everything. It was just heartbreaking to me.

So, are you just as happy as I am about Photobucket setting photos free and giving us reasonable options? Or are you done with them for doing everyone dirty last year? Lemme know!

A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantástica) On DVD

This years Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film winner A Fantastic Woman (2017) was just released on DVD and Blu-ray Tuesday and I thought that I'd share a bit about the film with all of you because even though I haven't seen it yet, it seems like a movie I would very much so enjoy.

Academy Award® Winner for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year     

Certified “Fresh” ~ Rotten Tomatoes     

“A Fantastic Movie.” ~ A.O. Scott, THE NEW YORK TIMES     

“A Knockout. Extraordinary.” ~ David Rooney, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER     

A FANTASTIC WOMAN     

A Film by Sebastián Lelio,  

Starring Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes & Luis Gnecco     

On Blu-ray™ & Digital May 22 and Includes an 

Exclusive Making-of Featurette  and Director Commentary        

Starring Daniela Vega, the first transgendered Oscar® presenter in history, comes A FANTASTIC WOMAN, the Academy Award® winner for Best Foreign Language Film and the first Chilean movie to win an Oscar®, now available on Blu-ray™ and digital from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. From the producers of Jackie, Spotlight and Toni Erdmann, the acclaimed drama stars acclaimed newcomer Daniela Vega, in the story of a young transgender aspiring singer who must confront society and her older lover’s family when he dies unexpectedly. Directed by Sebastián Lelio (Disobedience, now filming Gloria with Julianne Moore), A FANTASTIC WOMAN also stars Francisco Reyes (Neruda) and Luis Gnecco (Neruda, No).     

In “The Making of A Fantastic Woman” featurette, available on the Blu-ray release, fans will delve into the passionate storytelling and incredible artistry of the film with this in-depth profile highlighting the extraordinary performances, stunning visuals and flawlessly crafted direction. Also included is an audio commentary with director Sebastián Lelio.     

A FANTASTIC WOMAN also won Best International Film at the 33rd Independent Spirit Awards, won Best Feature Film at the Berlin International Film Festival and was named one of the Top Five Foreign Language Films by the National Board of Review.      

Synopsis:  

Marina is a young transgender waitress and aspiring singer. A story of Marina and Orlando, an older man, who are in love and planning for the future. After Orlando suddenly falls ill and dies, Marina is forced to confront his family and society, and to fight again to show them who she is: complex, strong, forthright, fantastic.     

A FANTASTIC WOMAN was directed by Sebastián Lelio from a screenplay by Sebastián Lelio and Gonzalo Maza. The film was produced by Juan de Dios Larraín and Pablo Larraín, with Jeff Skoll, Jonathan King, Rocío Jadue, Mariane Hartard and Ben von Dobeneck serving as executive producers.     

Blu-ray Bonus Materials Include:  

• “The Making of A Fantastic Woman” Featurette
• Commentary with director Sebastián Lelio    

A FANTASTIC WOMAN is in Spanish with English subtitles, has a run time of approximately 104 minutes and is rated R for language, sexual content, nudity and a disturbing assault.   

For those of you unfamiliar with the film, here is the trailer:

Genre: Drama
Language: Spanish
Cast: Daniela Vega, Luis Gnecco, Francisco Reyes Morandé, Aline Küppenheim, Antonia Zegers, Nicolas Saavedra, Marcial Tagle, Amparo Noguera, Trinidad González, Néstor Cantillana, Alejandro Goic, Erto Pantoja & Eduardo Paxeco
Directed by: Sebastián Lelio
Written by: Sebastián Lelio & Gonzalo Maza
Produced by: Maren Ade, Alexander Bohr, Eduardo Castro, Martín Cárcamo, Fernanda Del Nido,  Jonas Dornbach, Janine Jackowski, Juan de Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín, Sebastián Lelio & Gonzalo Maza
Executive Producers: Mariane Hartard, Rocío Jadue, Jonathan King, Jeff Skoll & Ben von Dobeneck
Rated: R

What do you think? Have you seen A Fantastic Woman? If so, what did you think about? If you haven't seen it, is it the type of film that you're interested in? Lemme know what you think!

For those of you interested, here is the clip from when it won the Oscar® back in March: