Wednesday, July 28, 2010

July Bloom Gloom

Hey-o

So the weather's been kinda wacky this month. I haven't felt this supposed 'fryin' pan' feeling that happens in the valley every summer. Makes me kinda happy i'm still missing out on this and won't burn.

Anyways, I've been off the grid for a while. Mostly due to fixing up my place and getting ready for a few big events in August. One actually being the arrival of Petie D! I think he actually arrives tomorrow?! As of now the only thing that's a set plan is going camping with him and an assortment of others over next week.

Other things...

-visitng San Fran to see Alyssa (hopefully) and Dan (probably)
-dinner with ms. amie & john
-miniature golfing with the crew soon
-possibly roller skating with some CS peeps this saturday

Alright well, gotta get these errands done and do some writing. My buddy at work Mike Maye is expecting 3 tracks from me sometime on Sunday..eeek!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

No Road to Wander

So my lack of entries has been high as of recent, which inevitably means my life has been quite busy!

To cut to the nit and grit, I was offered another TM job back with IMG Live for their DirecTV tour, unfortunately this coincided with the opportunity to advance further with my current job at CenterStaging. Weighing my options and checking my finances, I ultimately chose CenterStaging. I think it's a good choice, although right now I am suffering from a major aching for the road and keep on planning 2-day mini vacays to San Fran and Vegas in my head..I'm sure this will benefit me in the long run though, and possibly the opportunity to tour in the future is still afoot.

While being stuck here in one place for the summer does sound a little off, I'm going to try to make the most of it by takings some small trips outside of Los Angeles, as well as take some lessons surfing or something fun like that...I was even thinking going to try for working a little over at Filter Magazine again...suppose we'll just have to see how it all pans out.

Other news, well I have been lagging a bit on finishing up my place. I put up some shelves and new frames, but have a wayz to go. I'm kinda stuck on what to do with one wall in my kitchen, I want to put up a calendar, or poster, or tiny shelves, but nothing is really sticking in my mind yet.... Also I need to get a smaller bed frame for my sleeping area. I have a queen bed, but this blasted air conditioner is making the frame awkward as of now, so downsizing is in order.

One of the newest additions to my pad is the Gustav Klimt "The Kiss" painting. Last week I was randomly at the mall and there was a frame/painting shop going out of business. Alot of their items were severly marked down and the one just staring at me through the glass was this painting.


I've always wanted to get it, although I thought it would be a poster, not an oil painting. My mom's fav artist is Gustav Klimt, and this painting in particular is in my parents house. Story behind it is my dad gave my mom the painting. I always thought that was very sweet of him, and now I can hang it up and think of them. Phew..that sounds sooo cheezy, but it's true. I don't have any pictures of them surprisingly enough, suppose I should fix that problem too.

Anyways, tomorrow's gonna be another day off so I have a few plans already in action. One being an afternoon trip to the movies. Tonight I'm gonna cook some Amish Bread my friend, Danyelle, hooked me up with, this pesky tomatoe pie i've been putting off making, and some banana bread. I actually am gonna need to go to the store to get some ingredients like milk, a roller, a few tomatoes, and probably some baking powder. I think I'll make the banana bread for our Friday Morning Breakfast at Centerstaging. I like baking, but don't like to have a whole lot of semi-sweet products just chilling at my place. This would be a good way to eliminate excess sweets.

In the future though, I've decided to have Sunday Sit-Downs, which basically consists of me cooking a new meal each Sunday from scratch. I am hoping this week to make Thai Green Curry. I went to a Thai place a few weeks back with Nancy and Tracy for Thai and it was pretty awesome. People at work were also talking about Thai the other day, which has reignited my craving for it. After that, I'll probably grab something from one of my recipe books...or maybe just make hush puppies and crawfish etoufette!


Alright, well now a quick update on my webpage and I"m off to the store.

Chow.

Monday, May 17, 2010

B in my Bonnet

Hello! Today in the lovely part of the world known as Southern California, it is quite rainy.

This compliments my mood quite well as I am not feeling so wonderful. But instead of boring you with how tragic I feel about things at the moment, since we all have our own issues and I prefer not to share mine on the web...although I kinda just did....I'm going to give you a couple updates on things that I've been doing.

Well, the webpage is still troubling me a bit with pesky links not working, hopefully when I reload my site today that problem will vanish. A new feature on the website..will be my review for Valley Scene Magazine, but this all goes back to the links-not-working problem so as soon as that's fixed you'll actually get to go to the About Me page, and then click to the Writing page I'll be setting up.

I wasn't able to grab hard copies of VSM with my reviews in them, but found them on the web and am pretty excited you can too!

http://www.valleyscenemagazine.com/archives/mar52010/arts/
http://www.valleyscenemagazine.com/archives/apr22010/music/

Soon they'll be on my website, along with some other reviews I've done from the past. Currently I'm working on a fashion review for a Kitson trunk show I went to this past weekend. I'll keep you posted on this!

I also went to the Santa Monica Beach two weekends ago with my friends Tamra & Rene. It was a bunch of fun and reminded me why California is so great and how close the f-in ocean is! I was craving going to my little look out point by Zuma Beach this weekend to watch the waves crash, but unfortunately my work conflicted with this, so it'll have to be postponed to another date.

Also I recently did some house sitting for a friend. It was alot of fun, but reminded me of how huge of a responsibility it is to have animals, and not something I can devote alot of time to at the moment...I do love the idea of a little dog, and possibly, I'll get one some day, but it might end up being a cat if anything. I've already had those before and i love how they can chill and watch a movie with you, but then be like 'alright that was fun, later!' and you both can do your own thing. With dogs I feel bad not dedicating tons of time to them when I can't, and that's probably how having a dog would go at this point.

other things.....

-merched for Thomas Nicholas Band @ Molly Malones: fun fun fun!
-my lemoncello is done!
-developed some photos ;)
-wrote songs with Camila for band ;)

Tonight I'll be hanging out with my buddy, Chad, @ Sardos. Not sure what the scene's gonna be there as it's an Emerson related affair and I rarely socialize with old college collegues that haven't naturally progressed to the friend stage, but should be a good time. Also an old co-worker might be having some people hang at his place, but that seems up in the air at the moment so i don't know about that, then there's a lovely evening at the gym to clean my head and get some endorphins!

talk laters.
b

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

The Web Site is Up Up UP!

Working on the website at work today. Got it up no problem this time...only thing is some of the links are being a little sketch and not working properly...maybe i've loaded up too many links? hmmmmm....

I have the link to the page listed under my I Spy section on my blog now for those of you avid readers who simply can't get enough of me from just a blog here and there on occasion!
or

you can just go here: www.marybroadbent.net

Enjoy!

luv B

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Soo Happy for the Weekend

Last weekend was Ca-razy! Centerstaging was super busy with lots of shows, booked rooms, and tons of paperwork! On top of all this was the planning for the Showbiz Expo which Danyelle and I handled during the weekend. I think ShowBiz overall was a great experience and we've gotten some success & new cliental from it. Hopefully in the next few weeks we'll get more positive feedback.

In other news I finally had some spare time to make it to Ikea and get these emerald green curtains i've been itching for. Along with this, double curtain rods, and some pictures from Walgreens my kitchen's gonna be all said and done very soon! All that's left is a few more pictures, hanging a spice rack and getting some shelves for my cook books!

Aside from work work work, I've been trying to put together a band with my friend, Camila. it's been a while since I started from the ground up on music, but after seeing my friend, Barry, play last weekend, it reminded me how much I love to be on stage and sing, so i'm really hoping that this will all work out. After touching base with Camila, it looks like we're gonna start back up with practices soon, so that's a good sign we're stepping in the right direction. Also i've enlisted Barry to help possibly with playing live for this act since there's no way we're gonna be able to get things off the ground if i'm the only one playing a guitar. Also if i wanna get super good, i'd have to practice like, 3 hours a day, and I hardly have time for that commitment, it would cut into sleep and then I would be grumpy..that'd a a lose situation.

Tonight i'll be soap peddlin'. was gonna hit the gym, but then I caught up with Tara, Chris, Camila, Barry and my mom. Phew! Hopefully tomorrow the gym and I will be spending some long hours together :) The plan right now is to go hiking with Rene and Tamra, then possibly explore some LA treasure i've discovered from reading LA Bizarro. So in the evening before baking a tomatoe pie, writing music, and watching a movie! i'll probably be able to get in 2 hours at the gym.

Anyways, suppose I'll work on some aforementioned music writing now before I have to get to work.

chow!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

EarthQuaker!

This morning I was disturbed (minorly) by an earthquake, or more so by my mom calling me at 7:30PCT to make sure I wasn't dead from the earthquake. Obviously, since I am writing this now, I am not dead, but a little cranky from being woken up.

Aside from the lovely rumbles of Mother Nature, there's nothing that crazy and wonderous to report. I'm still working over at Centerstaging, and enjoying my time there. Right now the main focus is on the ShowBiz Expo which will be happening at the end of next month. Today we had a meeting as to how to approach the festivities, and I believe we'll be able to take the bull by the horns on this one and create a successful promotion for CS. Sadly plans to Austin for SXSW did not work out for me. I really wanted to go, not only for the fact of promoting CS and Soundcheck, but also because it is my one and only true escape every year. I am bummed I'm going to miss out on all sorts of new good music, but maybe this is just the year NOT to go?

In other news I am working on booking for Red Wine Rewind and Jim Hanft which is taking up most of my afternoons. Things are going fairly well with that and I'm hoping I'll be able to book a good tour for both these bands since they have quality music which I enjoy listening to. Another thing I'm now involved in is free lancing for Valley Scene Magazine. I'm still unsure if it's just an online publication or something in print. I seem to recall picking up their magazine last year at Dupar's in Studio City, but I could be completely wrong. So far, I've done two reviews for them, one theater, one music, i'm hoping more music reviews will come my way, they did need someone for the Grand Re-Opening of The Key Club, but unfortunately it was a last minute deal and I had to work. LAME.

Also, music writing is going good. I recently came up with a song that has clapping and a toy piano and some simple synth and guitar, now I just have to finish writing the lyrics. Aside from that Barry and I are at a continual need to finish these other three songs. I need to get the break down for two of them and send them to Scotty, I don't think they'll ever be done in the complete fashion I want, and I'd rather him just look it over and play with it for me before the producing offer goes off the table with him.

Hmmm...what else? Well this evening I'm going to the craft store to find a scarf that goes with this new seahorse pin Tamra got me for my Bday. Then I'm going to head over to Birkham Yoga, which is this 108 degree yoga class that Rene got me into. I'm hoping this will be a good kickoff before i detox next week. The plan as of now is hot yoga this week, master cleanse next week, and then raw fruit and veggies the week after. I just want to cleanse my system, it helps so much and I'd like to make it a yearly routine.

Well now i'm going to clean my place for a little bit, maybe squeeze the juice outta these remaining lemons to prep for the cleanse next week. chowza!

Mb

Saturday, February 13, 2010

I wish I was asleep...

The PST is 7am, and unlike most of my friends residing on the West Coast, I am awake and sitting at a Keyes Toyota while my car goes under the knife due to a recall.According to sources, it's going to take a least 4 hours for this thing to get repaired..worst. Luckily Keyes is making up the inconvenience by giving me a lift back to my place as soon as the shuttle guy can get himself out of bed and get over here. You think car places would have the whole coordinating of times down properly by now...ie not opening up the mechanic shop at 7am and making everyone wait til 8am to sign up for a lift home, which there in might take another 30mins to an hour to actually receive said ride home. Psh.

In other news of minor importance, I am in the process of getting an interview for a marketing internship at Filter. I would of went in last week to speak with someone there, however their ?email wasn't working? so all interviews were postponed til that's been figured out. I know I'm overly qualified for an internship position, but if there's an opportunity to get a little writing in for a music magazine, then it's something I'd like to try at least while I'm grounded for a bit.

Also my friend Kerri has asked me to step on board for booking with 2 bands. Now that I have my whole morning free, and am out of the radius of a nearby gym, I'll probably start investigating this today. One of the bands is Redwinerewind and I think they're based out of Vegas. I haven't had time to listen to their music just yet, but from the pictures i've seen they look like a good group of boys to work for. The other artists' name escapes me at the moment, but i'm sure they're swell too.

In other news of major importance, I'll be getting my fridge today! (FINALLY!) This means back to eating properly and all intake of nasty cheap food will stop post haste. Then when March rolls around I can once again begin my master cleanse and get out all the nasty toxins that have settled in over this past year. I'm also a little excited just to go out and buy a few magnets for the fridge too. Silly I know, but a little joy in a lady's life none-the-less.

Camila's also going to come over around the same time that the fridge is delivered and then we're going to head on down to the LA Food Festival. http://lastreetfoodfest.com/ I've never been and am hoping it's going to be a good time, but we shall see. One of my main interests at this place is going to be the Buttermilk Truck which apparently serves nice warm biscuits. If they're any good I'll make sure to buy some for my friend, Tamra, for her birthday the following day.

I also might check out some co-workers recording music this weekend, but we'll have to see if I can work that in given an already time consuming schedule.

I suppose with this new abundant amount of time on my hand I can get all the little things done in my house that need tending too, or just fall asleep for a few more hours til the fridge people come...hmmmm.....

Anyways, time to take the shuttle back home.

pip pip!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Floods Of Biblical Proportions!!!

Yup, that's what all us Californians have been hearing about the weather out here for the next week, and so far it's looking to be true.

I however am a fan of the rain, and personally believe we need it out here. It does put a damper on work though. I'd rather be at home snuggled in my bed watching a movie or playing a video game.

So the latest news is that I was sort of offered another Tour Manager gig, but had to turn it down due to it lasting throughout 2010. Also it was a little low in price range for me from what I understand, but it seemed like it would be fun none-the-less.. Hopefully a buddy of mine will get the gig instead and I'll get to hear about his adventures and maybe see him later on this year.

The other good news was a I finally saw Avatar and got chills (literallly) from watching it. I was a little disappointed by the Alice In Wonderland Trailer. It was more of a teaser trailer then the actual full length version I was hoping for in 3D. Movie will probably be sick though.

Tonight I'm going to put together my shelves and clean my place up. Probably throw in a little bit of laundry and movie watching on the old computer. Maybe even throw out a couple of things and make some soup!

Happy MLK Day!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Old2New

Well I suppose it's time for an update for the new year.

Christmas was fun, but quite draining. I was very tired throughout the trip and when I returned back to LA I had to go straight back to working alot. One of my jobs tends to lay the work hours on hard whenever i come back from taking time off....I suppose in the future I should just request my first day back in town off too so i can recover.

The rest of the year was spent moving and working. New Year's Eve was celebrated in a traditional Mary B fashion where I didn't party or celebrate at all. Kinda like it that way, I never have to worry about what I'm going to do because I'm always working or have something planned out ahead of time. That morning was spent at Lush, after that i rented a truck and grabbed moving gear, then went to a wedding, was there for a bit, then drove down to my old house, and loaded my truck with my remaining furniture. I thought i'd already missed it striking midnight then heard Jed the fish on some radio program say 'happy new year!' as i was cruising on the 101 back to the valley. It was relaxing driving on the freeway watching the fireworks, but made me feel kinda lonely too, but in a good stable way? meh.

then the new year happen and woot woot! here we are!

Umm....let's see, my new place is coming along nicely, right now I'm focusing on my kitchen area. I went to IKEA this past weekend to savor in their free breakfast and inexpensive (sort of) furniture. I picked up some chairs and a stool and lots of pots, pans. plates. and cookware. I can't wait til the kitchen is all settled in, then it'll be time to make lots of tea and cook a bunch!!

The next big objective for my place is to find a fridge that will suite me good. I went over to Sav-on this evening and found a few options which gave me some good ideas for a price range to start with. I'll probably search around a little more though before committing to anything. Another concern on my mind is having trouble finding an emerald green curtain for my kitchen. It's an essential part of the home decor! That, and painting a few objects, like my table, which I plan on starting tonight.

Probably next weekend I'll move over to the bedroom area a bit and go ahead with buying these tall bookcases to act as a room divider for my single. soon as that's good and ready I can then get a better idea as to what to do with my living room space.

Earlier this week I also met with my good friend Emily Simonian to discuss getting the ball rolling on marketing strategies for her and also on a tour for the summer/fall. I'm kinda excited to get back into the mix of this as I did it last year for Courtenay Green. This time however there's no money i'm being paid so i'm not going to get stressed and feel bad if I can't commit all my time to helping Em. Also I'm gonna see if she can help me with some freelance writing when she has the time as her sister's in the publication business.

My music has been put on a stand still with the moving and constant changes I've been going through, but I think that after it's done I'm going to give it to my friend, Scotty and get his opinion on what to do next besides the obvious 'play shows' answer I know he'll probably give me. I also want to go to a few auditions this year and maybe work with a band again. I went to a co-workers birthday party last night and it kept reminding me of high school. Like, how everyone one knows everyone playing the show and mostly its all the people playing who act also as the crowd watching, but there are a regular friends that show up to support you too. There were a few guys that played who had the same manorisms? as some friends of mine I used to play with so that made me a little sad thinking of my Philly boys.

but hey! that's the past! I'm in the present! and now it's time for me to listen to a movie while i paint and then take a sexy bath, followed my some snuggle time in my bed!!!

hzah!!

p.s. just saw the list of artists that are on the new Alice in Wonderland Soundtrack.....can't wait to nab it and hope for the best.