Ryan Star, Rising Star

As I drove to work this morning, I heard a song that I'd not heard before on the radio. It was a song called "Start a Fire" and I couldn't readily tell who was singing. At first I thought it was a new song from Ricky Martin. After all, it had a very upbeat, danceable rhythm - much like Ricky Martin's music. Plus his voice sounded pretty close to it. Before the song ended, I noticed the info screen on my car radio. This song was from Ryan Star.

Who is Ryan Star? Well, he's actually been a musician all his life, having been born from parents who exposed him to music as though music were their religion. He probably came into the public eye from his exposure as a contestant on the reality TV series "RockStar" where he unfortunately did not make it to the top three but managed to entice a new following of fans.

Shortly before his stint on the show, he released a full-length album titled "Eye of an Elephant". The album included a song called "Back Of Your Car" which he performed on the Rockstar show, receiving rave reviews and quickly becoming a fan favorite.

My first thought is personally I was quite surprised to hear Ryan Star's new song this morning because of its very danceable beat. This is a striking contrast from the songs I listened to from the Eye of an Elephant album which I (sadly admit) thought was somewhat depressing. The whole album may have its artistic qualities but the dramatic, serious mood of the songs in the album could not invite me to listen to it again after the first time. (Sorry, that's just my opinion!)

As I look forward to hearing the rest of this new album, my next thought is that 2011 might just be the year that Ryan Star's star rises. Since he is going to be touring with Bon Jovi this year, I am going to assume that this new album is going to contain more "upbeat" sounds unlike his previous album.  And if I'm right on that, then we'll be sure to hear a lot more of Ryan Star in 2011.

These are my two thoughts this Tuesday for BlogDumps' Top Site Tuesday.  Let them know you stopped by.  Click on the blinking button below!





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and so it begins again...

Wish I was in Daytona right now.... but I guess watching the 500 in -22 weather in Calgary is good too......

No. No it's not.

Firefox Themes for Music Lovers

 Three Days Grace

Hinder

Thirty Seconds to Mars

If you use Mozilla's Firefox web browser, did you know that you can customize your browser theme with their Personas add on?  Yes, you can!  And if you love music as much as I do, there are tons of music themes available in their gallery.


I also have a few music-related themes that I recently decided to share with others.  Please check them out here -

LiggyzDreamz Music Themes for Firefox

And while the other designs below are not related to LiggyzDreamz, I thought I'd let my readers know that I have also designed some Firefox themes for health and wellness supporters, particularly for Xooma Worldwide members.  Xooma Worldwide is a health and wellness company that sells directly to consumers.  I use many of their products myself.  Although I'm not one of their distributors I like to help spread the word about their amazing products.  I've also been doing work on the side as a publications assistant so some of their distribution teams are already familiar with what "Liggy" does there.  :)

Xooma Green Theme

Xooma Pet2O Treat

Kardiaxyme - One of Mother Nature's Best Kept Secrets

There's more available at Personas for Firefox.  Be sure to check them out and have some fun!!! 

If Calgary could be summed up in a paragraph...

This would be it.

LINK


Yep.

Blame Jason Heyward

so at last year's spring training, Braves phenom Jason Heyward put on a batting display lasting several days. His home runs would be hit so far, they would leave the field of play, cross a smaller field, and land in a parking lot across the street. This parking lot held the cars of Braves execs and managment. In all arbout 14 cars were damaged over the course of the week.

This year?

Well, you can't say the Braves don't adapt and learn from past mistakes.

The Dark Knight Rises, as Selina Kyle/Catwoman

Anne Hathaway
will appears in 2012 The Dark Knight Rises film as Selina Kyle/Catwoman. Now it is in Pre-Production.

Yea... In January 2011, it was announced Anne Hathaway had landed the role of Selina Kyle in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises.

Recently, Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess share a kiss on the poster for One Day. As a huge fan of Anne Hathaway and an admirer of the mug on Jim Sturgess, we are really looking forward to their upcoming romantic film, One Day. A poster for the film debuted on Yahoo! Movies and it is lovely. Sure it looks rather simple and ordinary, but sometimes that's just what you need. One Day was directed by Lone Scherfig who also did helming duties on An Education.

The best searching Anne Hathaway's pictures this week

Busy day...

If anyone needs me, you can find me HERE.

I'll be gone some most all of the day, so please leave a message in the comments and I'll get back to you... eventually.

Funny Valentine's day pictures

Just in case you haven't seen it yet...

I've seen it a million times already, and it still gives me chills. In front of 76,000 people, Wayne Rooney proves why he's still the best. (you'll want to click it up to 720p HD)

EDIT: okay, I've tried 5 different videos now, Youtube keeps taking them down faster than I can put them up. This goal highlight must be loaded with government secrets or something. I'll try again later...


Suck on that City!

Sofia Vergara Without Makeup Pictures

Sofia Vergara Caught Without Makeup On!

This might sound catty, and I admit that I’m a little jealous of the beautiful 38-year-old Sofia Vergara, but have you ever seen a photo of her without makeup on? She’s not as drop dead gorgeous as she is when she’s all dolled up!

Sofia Vergara With Makeup

Sofia Vergara Without Makeup

We’re all used to seeing her dressed to the nines on the red carpet, or as her character Gloria on Modern Family. And we know she looks great in a bikini.

But in a recent photo, Sofia was caught heading onto the set for her new film New Year’s Eve bare-faced and looking less glamorous than normal.

But what struck me the most of her in her au naturale state is that she looks like any other looks like a normal, average woman.

A bit of Sofia Vergara trivia: she’s really a natural blond and dyes her luxurious locks black. And when she’s all dressed up, she was voted one of the 50 Best Dressed Celebrities of 2010.

See? Make up really does work wonders sometimes. I can’t wait to show this picture to my husband who just might be Sofia Vergara’s biggest fan.

Time for Top Sites Tuesday with LiggyzDreamz

It's great to have Top Sites Tuesday back again this year.  Since the last time I participated, so much has happened in the world of LiggyzDreamz.  First off, my Facebook fan page has been growing and I've seen a lot of new people join  - THANK YOU!!!  Now if you could just hover over to the little DONATE button on the right and send a little fun money my way...(LOL - just thought I'd give it a try!)

This past couple of months we've just been through a lot of miserably cold weather in the U.S. but the cold weather didn't stop me from being able to capture some really cool photos from my own backyard.
During the first big snowfall of this winter, I saw a woodpecker pay a visit to my birdfeeder. I'm glad I filled it up for any birds that didn't fly south.  After I saw this woodpecker, a few other smaller birds came by that same day.

See - here's another one now...

Remember those times I wasn't able to participate in Top Sites Tuesday last year because I got addicted to playing Mafia Wars on Facebook?  Well, I did manage to cut back on my gaming and limit myself to just a few hours on the week-ends.  I thought about completely quitting the game but I have built a pretty good size mafia and selected some really nice gaming buddies (no punk @$$ gaming addicts who fight their own mafia members or players who never give back and help you out).

With my mafia "status" I think I can "sit" comfortably with a few hours of recreational MW each week-end and still not let any of my gaming buddies down.  In fact, check out this screen shot of one of my achievements.  This shows what an awesome team player I really am by successfully helping out in the "operations"...(whoot whoo!)

I think the highlight of my last few months since the last Top Sites Tuesday post was the HINDER concert I went to on January 30th.  I could say it was the experience of my life.  I posted a blog about it last week.  But before you check it out, please click on the blinking button below so that BlogDumps knows you read this post...








Come Join Top Sites Tuesday and be  #1 on BlogDumps!
The purpose of this Meme is to encourage
Networking  between bloggers to have fun while doing it!
Make sure to visit all the other participants and leave comments.
View More Top Sites Tuesday Participants on Technorati here.
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No More Brent Smith!

Man, what a bummer it was for me to learn that Brent Smith (lead vocalist of Shinedown) "released himself" from further work with Apocalyptica recently.  The band had to replace his vocals in the song Not Strong Enough, the newest single release from Apocalyptica's latest album "7th Symphony". 

The vocals were replaced with Doug Robb (of Hoobastank) in the newest video release for the single.  Personally, I think Doug Robb gives excellent vocals to the song.  After all, didn't so many of us love The Reason so much that we were suddenly asking "Who's Hoobastank?"  And it was Doug Robb's meaningful rendition of that song that touched so many hearts, even though it was perhaps the only Hoobastank song/album most average listeners know.


That is...unless you are an avid console gamer or a big fan of The Scorpion King soundtrack.  In that case, you have probably already heard the harder edge sound of the band and Doug Robb's voice many times.  Unfortunately, I can't speak much about it because I'm just not a Hoobastank fan. I just like The Reason.





In any case, I must say, Doug Robb does pour his heart out in the climactic chorus of Not Strong Enough. Only someone with real musical experience and natural vocal talent can rock out to a song like this.

But I heard the original version of Not Strong Enough with Brent Smith's powerful vocals which gave the song the feel of a vengeful struggle against emotions.  And when you compare that to Doug Robb's somewhat softer sound, I have to place my vote with Brent's rendition.