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…for WEDDINGS! Those of you who know me well and most likely those of you who barely know me know that I am 100% crazy obsessed with weddings! Most girls like to fantasize about their dream wedding, well; I fantasize about my wedding, my friend’s weddings, celebrity weddings and the weddings of complete strangers. Our Coffee Buzz customers have quickly learned that if you mention the “w” word you have opened a can of very excited and very inquisitive worms!

I love that every wedding is completely different. I love seeing the different styles, different tastes, and different traditions. Just like every relationship is unique and special, so is every wedding. I love that they are so emotional and yet so crazy and fun. I have had this obsession from a very young age; I remember getting bridal magazines when I was little and cutting out pictures I liked and taping them in notebooks creating little collages. Little did I know then that creating these “Inspiration Boards” is a very popular and useful wedding planning technique. I will also say with complete confidence that my Barbie’s had the most fabulous weddings in town. I remember my cousin, Steph, and I used to always have Barbie weddings at my grandparents house. They had a long and narrow hallway, upstairs where the bedrooms are and at the end of the hallway is a full length mirror, this mirror made the most beautiful alter. We would use all of my grandma’s arts, crafts and sewing materials to make the wedding come to life. We always used a long thick ribbon as the aisle all the way down the hallway. I also recall creating and delivering wedding invitations to my grandparents.

I am very excited for this summer because I have the honor of actually being in two weddings! One of my girlfriends from college is getting married the end of May.

Brianna & Matt are getting married May 30th! I can't wait to be a part of their special day!

And my mom is getting married in early August!!!

Me, My mom, her fiance Steve and his daughter Natalie on Lake Minnetonka last 4th of July. This wedding will no doubt be extremely emotional as well as complete and total blast!

I have also recently come to the conclusion that I could very easily use my business to fulfill my lifelong dream and calling of becoming a wedding planner. I have met so many awesome people in just the two short months we’ve been open and it’s amazing how many of them just so happen to fall into the wedding field. Check out the following if you’re currently planning a wedding:

Wedding Dress/bridesmaids/accessories: Mary Kay’s Bridal

Flowers: Arts & Flowers

Printing: Bryant Graphics

Photographer: Sara Jayne Photography

Band: Glad Rags

With just these connections alone I could plan one kickass wedding! Plus, I already have the perfect office…a beautifully decorated, super cute and super delicious neighborhood coffee shop! So, I’m creating a five year plan for myself! Five years because that gives me a lot of time to accomplish my current goals and in five years I’ll be turning 30, seems like a good time to mix things up and take on something new. I’m going to continue to put my blood, sweat and tears into making my baby (Coffee Buzz) a huge success. I feel that five years is ample time to do this in! Plus, I will still get the opportunity to meet and talk to so many amazing people, and who knows what other connections will come along in the next five years. Plus, maybe just maybe I’ll have the chance to plan my own wedding in the next five years and get some experience! Along the way, I also want to take some classes with the Association of Bridal Consultants to learn more about the industry and to build my street –cred. It’s a pretty heavy curriculum and is pretty expensive, so five years will give me plenty of time to learn what I need to know and not break the bank. I am also hoping that in five years Coffee Buzz will be so successful that I will no longer need to be a full time employee and will have the extra time and energy to take on a new venture. So, if you’re planning on getting married five years from now…keep me in mind.

One last note, I am thrilled because Mary Kay’s Bridal is moving from their Richfield location to just right up the street from us! Mary Kay and her daughter Ashley been in a bunch of times and are the nicest ladies you will ever meet! I am so excited to have them in the neighborhood, and I’m hoping we can help each other’s stores be successful. This weekend is the grand opening for their new store and they were nice enough to invite me to the V.I.P event tonight! I am so excited!!! I am bringing my friend Carolyn and hopefully she can get some ideas for her wedding next summer! I will not doubt have more details on the event tomorrow!

Kick Ass (2010)

Title: Kick Ass (2010)

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Writer: Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman based on the comic book by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.

Cast: Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz, Nicolas Cage, Christopher Mintz Plasse

Review:

Here’s something you probably didn’t know about me: I used to be hardcore comic book collector. I bought and collected comics on a weekly basis! The latest issue, the latest special edition cover, the first appearance of this and that character. But I stopped at one point. I guess, I kind of lost interest because honestly, there are a lot of shitty comics being made out there, its just like the movie world in many ways. I outgrew some of the stories that were being printed in some of favorite comic books. And if the art work wasn’t exceptional, I just didn’t give a crap. Art was #1 for me when it came to reading comics. I like the good stuff. So now I just by the collected editions and graphic novels, and I only buy graphic novels from artists and writers that are worth a damn. As a result I have a massive collection of comics in boxes, gathering dust waiting for the day when they will all suddenly sky rocket in value. Things are starting to look up, that first appearance of War Machine (Iron Man #282 ) is probably going to be going up in price once Iron Man 2 is out. But my love for comics has never died out. I just don’t buy comics on a weekly basis like I used to. But I know the excitement and joy of buying the latest issue of a comic you’ve been reading for a while. And that thrill of having that special edition that everyone else wants. Kick-Ass is a film whose storyline develops within this universe of comic book collectors and geeks. The kind of guys who love to hang out for hours and hours in a comic shop just talking comics.

Reading comics in a comic shop, comic book geek heaven

Kick-Ass is a film based on a comic book written by Mark Millar and drawn by the great John Romita Jr.; a comic book artist that I have always admired. His artwork has always had a style that I really enjoy. Romita Jr. has been working for Marvel Comics for years now, doing memorable runs on various Marvel comics. Amongst them The Amazing Spider-Man. But with Kick-Ass, Millar and Romita Jr. decided to take a stab at creating their own super-hero. This comic was released Marvel Comics Icon Imprint, a division of Marvel that produces creator owned titles. This means that Marvel prefers to produce comics which are still owned by their creators, as opposed to having these great artists and writers run off and self publish their own comics somewhere else. Kind of like what Todd McFarlane did with Spawn and Rob Liefeld did with Youngblood in the 90s. These two guys worked for Marvel Comics and then quit, and went out on their own to print their own damn comics and subsequently, make millions while at it.

Issue #2 of Kick Ass. Prices have sky rocketed on back issues of this series!

Millar and Romita Jr. did their own take on a teenage superhero, and I got to hand it to them, they came up with something that is equal times familiar and equal times refreshingly original. I’m speaking only from what I saw in the film, because I have not had the pleasure of reading these comics. You can rest assured I will be searching out for that Kick Ass graphic novel as soon as I can!

Story for Kick-Ass concerns teenager Dave Lizewski, a dude who is fed up with being mugged and harassed by petty criminals. One day he decides he is going to make himself a superhero costume and go out and fight crime himself! The logic behind his actions is, why, if we watch so many super hero movies and read so many comics, does nobody ever actually dress up like a super hero and confront evil? The answer to that question is quickly handed to him when he confronts a pair of criminals trying to steal a car. He gets his ass handed to him for trying to stop them. But he doesn’t give up! After a quick recuperation period, he goes right back to the streets to fight crime. When his heroic escapades reach You Tube, he becomes an overnight sensation! He opens a MySpace page and suddenly requests for help start pouring in! Can Dave take on the responsibilities of being a hero? Or will it all prove to be a little too much for him?

Essentially, in its first few frames, this film feels a lot like Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man movie. A nerdy teen (with glasses of course) decides he wants to be a superhero. He designs his own super suit on a little notebook, he goes to the roof tops to try and jump from one building to the other, he has a girl he likes but doesn’t dare tell her. He is poor. He lives with parents apparently oblivious to his super hero exploits. These similarities don’t surprise me since Romita has been working for marvel comics for years, and he himself has worked on a long run of Amazing Spider Man. But this movie takes one turn that makes everything else after that initial set-up completely original. It’s when our hero suddenly confronts brutal reality and gets his ass kicked by the criminals. His first adventure as a hero is a pretty brutal one! And that’s when the movie took me completely by surprise! I was like “no way did that just happen!” So the movie got me on its good side for surprising me like that.

What is most surprising about this movie is the blood and violence. The edginess it has, the profanity. The shits, fucks and cunts fly out of these kids’ mouths like there’s no tomorrow. Normally, this kind of super hero movie plays it really safe, I mean, just look at how squeaky clean the Spider Man movies are! There is not an ounce of blood in them. The violence is cartoonish, you never feel like the characters are in any real danger. But with Kick-Ass, characters bleed, they hurt, they end up in the hospital. They ache and pain.

Hit Girl, comic book version

One thing I always hated about comic book movies is the fear to show the “good guys” killing. This is normally a big no-no in comic book films because the target audience is almost always kids. That’s how Hollywood executives think. Comic book movie? Make it squeaky clean, and aim it at the kids. Look at Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four. How ‘safe’ were those movies? Super safe that’s how safe! Villains end up killing themselves most of the time, hero’s don’t kill the villains themselves. I’m guessing the logic behind that is that they are the good guys. They shouldn’t be doing any killing whatsoever. But not on Kick-Ass! Take the character of Hit Girl for example, she is twelve years old, her father is a vigilante called Big Daddy, a Batman of sorts. They both go villain hunting, and when villains are confronted, they get maimed in really gruesome ways. Hit Girl is a character that has gotten a lot of heat because she goes around with her daddy killing bad guys.

I see why this can be seen as ‘controversial’. Of course having a 12 year old girl chopping of arms and legs with a sword is controversial, but this is just a movie, not to be taken seriously. I had a blast, seeing this deadly little girl kicking so much ass. It was a complete thrill, simply because that’s not the type of thing we are used to seeing a twelve year old girl do. So it’s shocking that way. Hit Girl goes around on a first person shooting spree that was so freaking awesome! And in night vision no less! Anyhow; I think this controversy can only do the movie good. People will probably go see the movie just to see what the big deal is all about. I have to give kudos to this movie for being so ballsy. That edge is what makes this film interesting. Call it controversial or whatever you want, Hit Girl kicks ass! She handles guns, knives and swords like a real expert!

I did find something strange about it. The movie is called Kick Ass, yet you don’t really feel like it’s his journey. You kind of get the feeling that this movie should have been called “The Adventures of Hit Girl and Big Daddy, and their side kick Kick-Ass” Yeah, we do see Dave’s trip towards becoming a true hero, we do see him go from Zero to Hero, but I have to say that Hit Girl stole the show. I’m not bringing down Aaron Johnsons performance as Kick-Ass. I think he played nerdy and vulnerable very well, but the truth is the truth, the focus of the film is on Hit Girl and Big Daddy, Kick-Ass is just coming along for the ride, learning the ropes of becoming a hero.

The Nic Cage factor is underplayed here, by that I mean he doesnt get that much screen time because the movie focuses mostly on all the other characters. Cage plays Hit-Girl’s dad, Big Daddy. A Batman like character who has a burning rage for criminals. The idea that he has raised Hit-Girl in the ways of death and destruction is kind of crazy. Yeah, he is a hero, but he has essentially sabotaged Hit-Girls chance at a normal life, at a childhood. This wasn’t a big problem for me because this is one big comic book fantasy, its not reality, plus I found it funny and shocking at the same time, so I went with it. Plus, the villains in this movie were real villains; they deserved to get their asses kicked by Big Daddy and Hit Girl. Cage plays Big Daddy like a time bomb that’s just about to explode at any given second. You know how Cage can get when he gets into whacko mode.

One thing that I thought was peculiar was the inclusion of music from two of Danny Boyle’s films: 28 Days Later and Sunshine. I love both of those soundtracks, but couldn’t understand why this film couldn’t get its own musical score. But the music did fit in perfectly with the scenes. Speaking of the films director, Mathew Vaughn made the film interesting with his stylistic direction. The film plays with that idea that since this is a comic book movie, the colors should be vibrant and jump of the screen. I think he achieved it. The film also has some awesome shots like the first person shooter sequence in night vision.

All in all, Kick Ass was rather refreshing actually. While it doesn’t bring us anything remarkably original or anything (its similarities with Spider Man are many) the violence and cussing and Hit Girl made the movie that much more entertaining. Its characters do stuff normal superheroes would never be caught dead doing, like killing. If you don’t mind cartoonish violence and profanity doesn’t phase you, then you should be okay.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Kick-Ass: Creating the Comic, Making the Movie

Bugatti Royale First Photos

of this Royale completed,

BUGATTI ROYALE RENDERING

7 - 1931 Bugatti Royale

1930 Bugatti Type 41 Royale

They acquired original Royale

But also a Bugatti.

File:Bugatti Royale Coupe Type

Random Libre Attack

Every once in a while, a story comes along that makes it all worth while...

Like the guy who shot his neighbor in the back with a bow and arrow a la Nacho Libre during the training sequence (jump to 1:40)...

(from cbs3)
Trenton Man Attacks Neighbor With Bow & Arrow
Trenton Police have arrested a man who attacked his neighbor with a bow and arrow Thursday evening. Just after 11 p.m. police received a report that a man, identified as Anthony Giovannini, 35, was struck with what he believed was a rock as he was walking inside of his house on the 400 block of Franklin Street. Giovannini told police that after being struck, he looked and observed his neighbor, later identified as Robert Wood, 41, entering his home. The victim then noticed an arrow protruding from his back and yelled for his girlfriend to call police and an ambulance arrived immediately. READ MORE