Central Arkansas STOMP Ticket Giveaway!

There are some things you see, or hear about, and immediately go, "Why didn't I think of that?"

The plastic lettuce knife
Redbox
wine slushies
packages of wipes with that little flip-top lid
Stomp

My kids... all kids... bang pots and pans and sticks and spoons and brooms, they rip newspapers and jump off of things. Why I didn't think to monetize this will be one of life's enduring mysteries.

www.stomponline.com

Granted, the folks behind STOMP are at least seventeen times more creative than I am, with a heck of a lot more energy, too. 

I have wanted to see STOMP since its inception, and now I'm going to. And so can you!

STOMP, the international percussion sensation, will make its Conway premiere at the Donald W. Reynolds Performance Hall on Tuesday, March 27 at 7:30pm.  

Stiff-bristle brooms become a sweeping orchestra; Zippo lighters flip open and closed to create a fiery fugue; wooden poles thump and clack in a rhythmic explosion. STOMP uses everything but conventional percussion instruments — trash cans, tea chests, plastic bags, plungers, boots, and hubcaps — to fill the stage with compelling and infectious rhythms. 

From its beginnings as a street performance in the United Kingdom, STOMP has grown into an international sensation over the past thirteen years, having performed in more than 350 cities in 36 countries.

I am pole-thumping excited (yes, that's a thing) that STOMP is coming to central Arkansas. And I'm almost as excited that I am giving away two tickets to the one-night-only, already-sold-out performance!

Leave a comment telling me the your makeshift percussion instrument of choice, and I'll randomly select a winner by this Friday, March 23. 

Be sure to enter your email address so I can notify the winner!

www.stomponline.com

Monday Mash-Up. On an Actual Monday!

I'm writing this Monday Mash-Up on Thursday, because I can't count on myself to do it over the weekend, much less on a Monday. Monday's are crazy, yo. But that's what I get for being all alliteration-y.

Let's do this thing, shall we?

First:
Shameless Self Promotion.
I started a new blog. A bookish blog. You should check it out. Like it on facebook. Follow it on the twitters.

Second:
Five hundred new fairy tales were found in Germany. 500! Did you even know there were 500 lost fairy tales? Me neither!

Third:
My (beautiful, talented) friend Kerri was positively gushing about a band named FUN. I said something like, "ok, ok, shut up, Kerri, I'll listen, already." And then I listened. And, oooooh, I like FUN.



The song is called The Gambler, and it has nothing to do with Kenny Rogers. Thankfully.

Fourth:
Famous Bestselling Author (and Extremely Cool Person) Eleanor Brown writes about a thing she and her honey, J.C., call Silent Love. You know what Silent Love is:

"Putting away the laundry when it's not your turn, leaving the last bite of dessert, picking up dinner when it's not fast-food night, changing the channel away from the thing you want to watch. And these are things that do not have to come from your partner - they can come from family or friends or anyone at all who loves you."

Fifth:
I'm really restraining myself here, but suffice it to say, inside I'm all OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG.

My main musical man, John Mayer, has a new album coming out in May. 

My longest-running-famous-guy-crush-next-to-Ryan-Gosling is playing at my favorite venue, The Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, in April.

My fellow book clubbers (and both occupants of my Top 25 Favorite People list, if I had such a thing. Which I might.) and JM fans, Becca and Paige will be Road Tripping with me to see him. 

Outside: cool, calm, collected. Inside: OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG O.M.G.

Sixth:

I haven't talked about it at all much on the ol' blog, but I am WAY SUPER EXCITED about the first Hunger Games movie. I'm mostly WAY SUPER EXCITED that they cast a girl whose face actually shows emotion- I'm looking at you, Dead in the Eyes Bella Swan. Also, I think the books have a Big, Important Thing To Say about the culture we live in, the strength of family and love and freedom and all kinds of great things. 

Also: Lenny Kravitz.

That's it for this week. Books, music, movies, blogs.

You're welcome. 

A Must-Read on International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day.

There are so many, innumerable, women who have made me the woman I am today. But today, I am thinking of two Someday Women.


My husband and I are trying to raise two girls who will be Women Someday. With hope and fervent prayers, they will be secure, smart, generous, thoughtful, kind, ferocious, gentle, poised, adventurous, bold, beautiful, conscious, compassionate Women, Someday.

For now, they are girls.
Capable of Anything Girls.
Ready for the World Girls.
Unafraid of Life and The Mirror Girls.
Uninhibited Dancing Girls.
And I don't know how to keep them that way, but I hope they stay a few more years.

If you are raising Girls, tending to Someday Women, or if you are growing Someday Men who will someday love and protect and serve and cherish Someday Women, please read the post I'm linking below. (It has saltier language than I use here at  cmB {or, ok, at all}, but the message is a powerful one.)

"Because it’s coming. Everyone knows it’s coming and that it can’t be avoided. Sure, we can (and will) support and bolster her sense of self with worthier props: her intelligence, her integrity, her sense of humor, the mere stunning fact that she’s a girl in the world. And that’ll matter. It will; it really will. But it still won’t negate the fact that our culture is cocked and loaded with its finger itching to shoot her in the face."

Happy International Women's Day.