goodbye 2016

So 2016 ends in a few hours.... while most people are under the impression it was a totally suck-ass year overall based on all the amazing people who died this year and the election insanity, in retrospect, my own life was actually okay.

One part of it was, in fact, AWESOME -- I became a real auntie for the first time (I will be one for the second time in January when my new niece is born!) and it's been amazing, because this little guy is the absolute light of our family and my life right now. Seeing Kaden grow, and now starting to babble and roll over and recognize and understand things is so fun. I can't imagine my life without him!

I also had a bunch of great adventures and accomplished an altered version of about a third of my 2016 Vision Blog (hey, better than nothing!) ... 

I finished these books, which included four from my original "to read" list + two new ones....

+ I also read Where Am I Now? True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame, by Mara Wilson, who I had the pleasure of interviewing back in the day when she was a child actor starring in Mrs. Doubtfire and Matilda. She even fondly mentions one of our Disney Adventures photo shoots in the book, which was an awesome surprise! (The book is now being borrowed by my Disney Adventures wrangler La Lizzz, thus it's MIA in this photo ;)

I didn't go to Hawaii or another "tropical" locale like I wanted to, but I did go to Santa Barbara for my birthday weekend and finished 2.5 of the books above (finished The Interestings, started and finished Best Year of Your Life, and started John Taylor's auto-biography).. and I got my gorgeous view!

I also got a ton of gorgeous views on my Sunday Funday adventure to Santa Rosa Island with Linda and James. The Channel Islands are right in our backyard here in Southern California, and they are beautiful! Can't wait to visit more of them in 2017!

And while, I didn't make it to Europe, I did travel Internationally... to Vancouver. It was a relaxing, fun trip with my fave positive person Cwennen. The city was BEAUTIFUL and its food delicious!

On the "did not accomplish" side of the "vision blog" to do list, I only wrote (soon-to-be) 30 blog posts this year, and did not order my new front door yet. January 2017 - I swear! 

And on the sad suck-ass side, a lot of bad stuff did happen this year. One of my best friends has been dealing with an inner ear issue since June that affects her vision and makes her dizzy and exhausted. Four of my friends lost a parent this year. My childhood friend lost her son. And there seemed to be more and more senseless acts of violence taking innocent people too soon...

The one that hurt the most was the murder of Christina Grimmie, who was shot by a deranged "fan" while signing autographs after a show in Orlando on June 10th, the night before the massacre at Pulse nightclub, also in Orlando. Most of you probably knew her from being on Season 6 of The Voice. I knew her from the YouTube video game show she hosted for my team at Disney.com in 2014. I met her twice, and she was so sweet and full of life. She loved video games and she loved making music. The fact that some guy could walk into her show with a gun and shoot her four times still makes me SO MAD. This world is just insane...

Then there was the fact that entertainers who have been part of my life forever have started dying... cancer, drugs, heart problems. It was just so sad... the music world was hit hard first - David Bowie, Glenn Fry, then Prince, Leonard Cohen and shockingly George Michael on Christmas Day at the age of just 53. And in the last half of the year, actors I grew up watching on TV and in movies - Gene Wilder, Florence Henderson, Alan Thicke and Carrie Fisher - passed away as well, all shockingly without any advance warning or time to prepare. So, so sad...

A few days ago, I decided to make what I'm calling my "FU2016" playlist, filled with my favorite songs from the musicians I loved that we lost this year. (Note: I love Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"... I just don't love his voice, thus the Justin Timberlake/Charlie Sexton version below. They are both still alive and well. #knockonwood)

Some of my playlist is sad but a lot of it makes me want to dance, which brings me to this video that my sister posted a link to today. It will also make you want to dance, and is a loving, positive tribute to all these great people and the joy their talents brought to the world... enjoy!

And now it's on to 2017... I'll talk about that tomorrow. Right now, I'm going to go get a cocktail, because I just saw this and really need one. God help us all in the New Year... we're gonna need it! (And @alexandergold, you're my new hero!)

random thoughts on the grammys - 2016 edition

For the first time ever, the Grammy Awards are LIVE on the West Coast! Yay!

However, I'm working on a hour-long Tivo delay because I was signing refi docs for my house at 5, which means I should catch up around 6:45 as I skip the commercials and rap categories.... here we go:

First up, to set expectations, here's what I care about:

• When is Adele singing?
• When is Lady Gaga doing her Bowie tribute?
• Since they've been posting pix from all over LA this weekend, does that mean U2 is going to make a surprise appearance?
• And most importantly, is Dave Grohl there? Because Dave Grohl makes everything better.

Look it's Taylor Swift opening the show. Shocker. She cut her hair. I wish she'd sung Bad Blood. Then the cameras could have found Kanye in the audience... or John Mayer... or a JoBro .... or Katy Perry and created a fun awkward moment.

LL Cool J is hosting again. Does no one else know how to host this show?

And there's the Adele/Lionel Richie "Hello" joke. Took all of 3 minutes...

Rap category. Fast forward. (aka ff)

It's some guy singing with Carrie Underwood. She is very tan. (Sorry.. that's all I got. I was making dinner reservations on Yelp during that performance.)

Arianna Grande introduces The Weekend singing the song from "50 Shades of Grey." Somehow my Twitter feed already thinks he won something for this song. This is also the song that made "50 Shades of Grey" an Oscar(c) nominee. I really preferred the Ellie Goulding song...

That song wasn't that song...

Ooh speaking of Ellie Goulding, here she comes singing with Andra Day. I saw Ellie at the Bowl at the Katy Perry concert charity show a year and a half ago. And I saw Andra open for Lenny Kravitz at the Greek in September. She is AMAZING. Mark my words and remember her name....

Yay. They are singing the good "50 Shades of Grey" song. (Did I just say that?)

So they're saluting Lionel Richie. What do any of the people LL and James Corden just introduced (with the possible exception of John Legend, who's also a pianist/singer/songwriter) have to do with Lionel Richie? Demi Lovato and Meghan Trainor?? Umm well at least they can sing I guess. But Meghan Trainor looks like Nia Vardalos with brown hair... and that's all I can think about right now.

Tyrese is doing "Brick House." Was Bruno Mars (who's sitting behind Lionel Richie in the audience smiling like a dork) not available for that?

Is there ANY network Ryan Seacrest is not on? (Note: I do NOT want to see him host the Grammys instead of LL Cool J.)

Fancy in-the-round camera work on the intro to the Little Big Town "Girl Crush" performance. Love the acapella start followed by the strings.

Those are some snazzy bright sneakers Stevie Wonder is wearing.

Ahhh... so instead of one super depressing "In Memoriam" segment, they are doing musical tributes to those greats who passed away in the last year.. and by "the last year" we mostly mean the last 45 days. :(

AHH Dave Grohl is there!! (audience shot) YAY!

Taylor Swift is more excited for Ed Sheeran beating her for "Song of the Year" than I think she would've been if she won. He's so cute in his suit and Chucks... and thanking his parents for coming every year even though he never wins... til now. And saying he can't believe Stevie Wonder just gave him a Grammy. I heart him. And way to cut off his fellow songwriter Amy with the Glenn Frey clip as she started to speak... oops.

Now the Eagles' first performance without Glenn Frey. Don Henley looks like he's going to cry. I am too.

Great duet by Tori Kelly and James Bay. I love when people just sing with some stringed instrument.

Yay! Hamilton! This is probably the only time I'll see this cast perform live.

Kendrick Lamar. I feel I should watch this. Normally I would ff the rap.  That's a damn big fire inside Staples Center... I hope it's far above my Kings' ice. Way to bleep out a good 10 seconds of the song there censor with your finger on the button. That was pretty intense.

Look it's Seth McFarlane to present Best Musical Theater Album. Gee.. I wonder who's going to win this.... OMG! It's Hamilton (shocker). Lin Manuel wrote a rap for his acceptance speech. Of course he did.

Ooh. And now the live Gwen Stefani Le Target commercial. No pressure. She's like Alice in a Cruella de Vil Explosion... in a Barbie hair salon... in a speakeasy. And wow. She can roller skate. Or maybe not. What just happened. I'm so confused.

And the Foos lose "Best Rock Performance" to Alabama Shakes!?!?!?! WTF. No.

Yay! Bruno Mars! But wait. Why isn't he singing??? Oh, he's introducing Adele. That's allowed then. YAY! Shhh.

Why is the piano louder than she is? Sound guy... you SUCK. Oh. My. God. She looks pissed. Someone is sooooooooo getting fired. She looks and sounds beautiful though (now that I can HEAR her). Her dress is what I refer to as a "good red." And there is no doubt she sang that live. Wow. Such power and emotion. Love.

Bieber. I want to ff.. but I can't look away. Wait. He won a Grammy? So Bieber now has as many Grammys as David Bowie??!?!? Shoot. Me. Now.

Time to go get a glass of wine and some frozen Thin Mints. This has been a very traumatizing last 10 minutes since that Gwen Stefani Target commercial came on. Oy.

Nia Vardalos.. I mean Meghan Trainor just won Best New Artist. Okay. Stop crying. As anyone who isn't Christina Aguilera will tell you, this isn't necessarily a good thing. #bestnewartistcurse

Here's "Academy Award Nominee Lady Gaga"... the Bowie tribute. She's just about the only person other than him who could pull that performance off. Wow. And we thought her Sound of Music tribute was amazing at the Oscars. Now I miss him all over again. Aww. Nile Rogers is playing on "Let's Dance." Love.

Now a salute to the incomparable BB King. Miss him too. Geez the last year really sucked for losing great musical talent.

Alabama Shakes is performing. ff out of spite. #foofightersforever

Whoa stop! It's Dave Grohl... "the leader of Foo Fighters with FIFTEEN GRAMMY AWARDS!" Aww. He's talking about Lemmy. #riplemmy
(Ed. Note: They've actually only won 11 Grammys. And Nirvana only won one. So Dave only has 12. Some Grammy fact checker just got fired too.)



Alice Cooper, Joe Perry, Johnny Depp, Duff and Matt Sorum.... The Hollywood Vampires. I love that this is on CBS right now. All the old people who watch CBS are like, "What is this scary man with black circles around his eyes and blood on his shirt doing on my television and why is Johnny Depp playing guitar with him?" Hahahaha.

"Ace of Spades" tribute to Lemmy. Dave needs to be playing with them. Run out there!

Oh, it's the little piano prodigy I saw on "60 Minutes"... Joey Alexander. He's 12. He has talent. Right now, Justin Bieber has more Grammys than he does.

Now the dreaded "In Memorium" segment. It's packed with so many greats gone. So much amazing music. Nice extra long moment for Natalie Cole at the end since she didn't get a tribute segment. Unforgettable indeed.

This show is now officially too long.

Lifetime Achievement Award to Earth Wind and Fire. Another loss. Maurice White.

T-Swift just won Album of the Year. She's the first woman to win this award twice. Nice #girlpower speech... as she's surrounded by her male producing squad. Le sigh. 

Beyonce doesn't need an intro apparently. 

Bruno wins Record of the Year for "Uptown Funk." I support this decision. Geez Bruno Mars is short. 

That means it's over now right?

Wrong.

Pitbull still sings? Is this necessary? This sounds like the Macarena. ff. Wait. Why is Joe Perry participating in this? Oy. More wine....

Oh thank god it's over. That was SO not necessary. 

Okay. Break down the stage so my LA Kings can come back home....

PS: U2 never showed up. :( I guess Adam was having too much fun at The Getty today....

music in mourning

The end of 2015 and beginning of 2016 have royally sucked, as every few days another music legend has passed away... shockingly, because most people had no idea these artists were even sick.

First, on December 28, two days after being diagnosed with an extremely aggressive cancer, Motorhead legend Lemmy Kilmister was gone.. and rockers everywhere mourned their idol.

Natalie Cole died on New Year's Eve from heart disease.

Then a week ago, the world was rocked by the death of David Bowie.

Today, another shock.... founding member  of The Eagles, Glenn Frey has died from a combination of rheumatoid arthritis, colitis and pneumonia.

What the heck? The last three weeks are going to take up the entire allotted time for the "In Memorium" tribute at the Grammys next month. Was God bored with heaven's current musical offerings? Were John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Elvis, Mozart and Bach not cutting it anymore so he needed to mix it up with some '70s metal, soul and rock? It's just so sad. I know people die, but this many greats dying so close together is just unbelievable. 

In announcing Glenn Frey's death this afternoon, The Eagles website posted the lyrics to “It's Your World Now," written by Glenn Frey and Jack Tempchin, from the Eagles’ Long Road Out of Eden album. So beautiful... yet so sad. 

Rest in Peace legends. Thanks for leaving so much good behind. And enjoy your freshmen class of heaven jam session... 

“It's Your World Now"

A perfect day, the sun is sinkin' low
As evening falls, the gentle breezes blow
The time we shared went by so fast
Just like a dream, we knew it couldn't last
But I'd do it all again
If I could, somehow
But I must be leavin' soon
It's your world now

It's your world now
My race is run
I'm moving on
Like the setting sun
No sad goodbyes
No tears allowed
You'll be alright
It's your world now

Even when we are apart
You'll always be in my heart
When dark clouds appear in the sky
Remember true love never dies

But first a kiss, one glass of wine
Just one more dance while there's still time
My one last wish: someday, you'll see
How hard I tried and how much you meant to me

It's your world now
Use well your time
Be part of something good
Leave something good behind
The curtain falls
I take my bow
That's how it's meant to be
It's your world now
It's your world now
It's your world now

dust to stardust

Last night as I was falling asleep with the 11pm news on, I was shocked awake with the breaking news that David Bowie had died.

Apparently, he'd been battling f*in cancer for 18 months. But it seems few people knew. Good for him for maintaining his privacy... but shocking for us to end up so rocked by the surprisingly sad news.

I never considered myself a huge Bowie fan, but I've always enjoyed his music, especially the '80s stuff I grew up watching on MTV (in between the Duran Duran videos I obsessed over.) So I was surprised by just how sad his passing made me and how much I've thought about him today. He was an artistic icon... a genius... a legend ... and I guess sometimes it takes losing someone to truly realize what they meant to your life.

Social media today has been filled with tributes and rememberences of David Bowie. Here are some that touched me:

This "Bowie through the Years" gif is awesome. Artwork by Helen Green

Conan O'Brien replayed some of his favorite moments with David Bowie on his show:

One of the first Bowie songs I remember, and maybe my favorite to sing along with:

My friend Lisa's friend Myriam Santos knew and photographed Bowie -- here's her tribute

Bowie and Queen's "Under Pressure," which is included on my favorite film soundtrack ever - Gross Pointe Blank. This song always makes me smile... and I LOVE this a-capella version that's popping up now! I hope David and Freddie are having quite the reunion concert in heaven today :)

They played this for the Dance-cam at the Kings game tonight as a tribute :)

And this amazing quote, immortalized in chalk art by the cool undercover artists DangerDust

#ripdavidbowie