Thursday, February 27, 2014

Di's Dish: The Lego Movie Builds "Block" Buster Momentum as Word Spreads It's Great Fun For the Whole Family

Di Reviews The Lego Movie. The Lego Movie has passed up 150 million domestically and over 200 million worldwide. The sequel has already been planned with a release date of May 26, 2017.

What do you get when you combine inventiveness, creativity, dry humor, a plot twist and a great message? You get the delightful Lego Movie.

Like many parents, I’ve spent countless hours over the years building and disassembling Lego sets with my kids. So I wondered…..was the movie going to be a venture into a nightmarish instruction booklet with robotic characters and a “let’s make it up as we go along” story line? Or was it going to be an assembly of familiar bricks and minifigures merging together to capture and retain the audiences’ attention? Unexpectedly, it was most definitely the latter.

I’m going to forego the usual retelling of the story. I decided to see it just as a child would – without any advance knowledge of what would be contained inside the one hour and forty minutes. And I’m glad that I did! It added an element of surprise to the viewing experience.


Monday, February 24, 2014

Event: Enjoy a Fashion Show With RHONJ's Melissa Gorga - 201's Style and Beauty Week Kicks off at The Manzo Brother's New Eatery The Victory Sports Bar and Grill

Update: For Post Event Story click here: http://www.suzeebehindthescenes.com/2014/04/rhonj-melissa-gorga-headlines-201.html


If you've never been to the Meadowlands Racetrack because you're not a betting person, here's betting you'll enjoy this event.

I first wondered why a fashion event was being held at a racetrack eatery when the I realized the new Victory Sports Bar and Club is owned by Albie and Chris Manzo. This must be their second eatery in addition to Little Town in Hoboken, NJ.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Behind the Scenes Look: A Visit to Yankees Spring Training 2014- Exclusive Video of CC Hitting Grounders to His Son and Mark Teixeria doing BP at George M. Steinbrenner Stadium

Mark Teixeira warms up for the 2014 season at Steinbrenner Stadium
It was the first day for Pitchers and Catchers to report to Yankees Spring Training in Tampa, Florida. I had gone to dinner with my brother-in-law, Jack Curry of the YES Network, the night before, and he invited us to stop by the next day, prefacing it with,  "Even though there won't be much going on".

I had never been to spring training, but the first thing that impressed me was the size of George M. Steinbrenner Stadium and the grounds. The stadium itself, according to Jack, held ten thousand. It also just got a new scoreboard which was quite impressive-looking. There was a field to the right of the stadium and another on the left, closer to the
Buccaneers football stadium down the road which was clearly noticeable amidst the tall palms. The grounds were well maintained, with flowers and plantings using Zeriscape landscaping which was proudly noted on a sign. There were rows of tall palm trees adorning the stadium. There was a pond with a water feature with lots of ducks on it.

When we entered the grounds it looked like the crowd of about a hundred or so was walking from the stadium on the right, where it looked like some team members were just doing some exercises, to the main stadium. Jack had texted us that he was in the dugout on the main field behind the first base line, so we went in and he came out at sat with us.  Jack said that there will be twice the crowd there when Jeter comes, saying "he's like a magnet".

Thursday, February 13, 2014

View: Paterson Plank Road Was No Super Bowl Boulevard

Photo: Eileen Hillock
NJ was very excited to have the Super Bowl in our own backyard. Yes, it should have been billed as a NJ Super Bowl because that’s where it was, but we live in the shadow of the greatest city on earth, and everyone around here takes advantage of that, so as a Northern New Jerseyan it didn’t bother me that we shared the title with New York.

Jersey City Fashion Week Holds Super Bowl Festivities

Emerging Designers Score a Fashion Touchdown and Make a Statement

The 2014 Jersey City Fashion Week Presents “Where Fashion Touches Down” Football Fashion Week - A Pre-Super Bowl XLVIII Fashion Event!
Proceeds Benefit DLJ Give To Live Foundation


Friday, February 7, 2014

Michael Strahan Presented with Pat Summerall Award at NYC St. Jude's Benefit

Michael Strahan, Marlo Thomas and Phil Donohue
Amidst the flurry of Super Bowl XLVIII events the week leading up up to the NY/NJ Bowl was the annual Legends for Charity Dinner benefiting St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital at the Grand Hyatt/NFL Headquarters in New York City.

It certainly was worth the Battle of the Boulevard to get to Park Avenue for this event, which this year presented Former NYGiant, NFL on Fox Sunday Analyst and Live with Kelly and Michael co-host Michael Strahan with the Pat Summerall Award. Over 600 people attended with over 400K raised.

Athletes and Celebs Helped Support the Kids

Kelly Ripa and Man of the Hour Michael Strahan                      Photo by Eileen Hillock

NJ's Martha Byrne Joins the Cast of new NBC Crime Thriller CRISIS

Los Angeles: Two-time Emmy winning actress Martha Byrne, best known for her work on the popular former long-running daytime drama, As the World Turns, will be returning to television as she joins the cast of the new NBC crime thriller, Crisis, set to air March 16,2004 in the Sunday at 10pm time slot after the Sochi Olympics.

Crisis is a powerful crime thriller set in Washington DC, which centers around a school bus carrying some the the nation's most important people's children that is ambushed on a secluded rural road, igniting a national crisis. Just how far the parents will go to rescue their kids plays out in this edge-of-

Dance Aunt: Review of a Meet and Greet with Dance Moms Cast Members Chloe and Christie

I have two sons. My sister has two girls. She gets to experience the thrill of 3 hour baseball games through me and I get to go to dance recitals.
   
Christie and Daughter Chloe
Throughout the past summer, every time I was with my 12 year-old niece Amber, I would hear about Dance Moms. I wouldn’t just hear about the people on the show or how great it was but the geographic location of the girls in the show as well. Thank you Twitter. For instance, we went to see the Radio City Christmas Show in November. Did you know that two of the dancers were in  NYC the day before?  Very important information for a tween Dance Mom fan whose eyes were the on the lookout for them amidst the hundreds of people on the sidewalks of NYC perchance they hadn’t left yet.


So when I asked my niece what she wanted for Christmas, she politely and very neatly wrote down for me on the paper that I handed her the name of  the website where I could go to purchase tickets for a Meet and Greet for the dancers on the show. Then she listed all the people she would like to see. It took up most of the space on the piece of paper.

Luckily some of the cast was in the area, over the border in New York, and I was able to purchase tickets and surprise her on Christmas that we would be going to see Christie and Chloe. I asked her if she like those girls and how good they were. Having never seen Dance Moms, (but having watched many a Little League World Series), she politely told me that Christie was the mom. Then she went on to explain who the best dancers were and who got solos and all this other stuff that I know not what she spoke..

Almost TMI on Chloe from Dance Moms

Are you a Dance Moms fanatic? Want to know more about the life of Chloe, her dreams, her life, what she wants to do when she grows up? Then read on...
                                                                                                                       By Suzanne Ordas Curry
I recently took my over-the-top Dance Moms fan niece Amber who is a dancer herself to a Meet and Greet with Chloe and Christie. This was my first foray into the world of the reality show Dance Moms as well as real Dance moms. The event was perfect for a young girl, tween or teen. Chloe spent almost an hour going around the room and answering everyone’s questions until pretty much there was nothing left to ask. Never TMI to my niece, though.

If you love the show and Chloe, here’s a sample of some of the information you would walk away with if you went to a Meet and Greet.

Q:  What are your favorite subjects?

A:  Home Economics, Language Arts and Math. I like to read.
      (Note: Chloe is starting a book club.)