Blue Like Jazz...Accociate Producer Julie Snell

I read Blue Like Jazz - Non-Religious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality, by Donald Miller in college and it quickly became one of my favorite books ever. I might not qualify it as life changing, but it was absolutely thought changing in a great way for me. When I heard a while back that Steve Taylor wanted to write a screenplay for the book to direct a movie, I had mixed feelings. One, the book is a collection of essays - was not sure how that would translate to a movie...but I was also excited because I love it so much and knew that if it was made it would be heads and tails above most "Christian" films or films with a "Christian" tone/message. (I was hoping for something along the lines of  SAVED! - I really like that movie). Anyway, the movie was being backed by private investors (and had taken years to fund) and the day before production was scheduled to start one of the investors backed out. Don posted on his blog that unfortunately the movie was dead and 2 fans of the book started a campaign on Kickstarter to raise money from the fans of the book. Steve & Don did not think anything was going to come of it because they had to raise $125,000 in 30 days if they wanted production to continue...and no movie on the history of Kickstarter had raised more than $40,000 in the past. Well, apparently Blue Like Jazz fans were more extensive than they thought. They raised more $345,000 and I was one of those donors. For my donation I got a lot of fun  tchotchke stuff like a movie t-shirt and poster AND my name is listed (along with 1600 other donors) as an Associate Producer in the film's credits. I guess I have to update my head shots and resume ;)

Another perk of donating was that I was invited to a pre-screening of the film - which was yesterday. It was very cool - Don, Steve the cinematographer and 2 of the main actors attended the screening. Steve & Don both shook hands and introduced themselves to everyone who attended which was such a nice touch. It was so cool to see a movie and then get to be part of a Q&A with its creators and actors.

Overall I enjoyed the movie. I went in with mediocre expectations mostly because I wanted to be pleasantly surprised. I am not great at getting my thoughts together for a review but THIS ONE is pretty RIGHT ON with how I felt about the movie. I also really liked the music in the film. I would totally recommend the movie and more importantly would recommend seeing it on opening weekend if it is in theatres near you. Because it has such a small marketing budget behind it, if it does not do well in theatres the first few days it probably won't make it to a second weekend.

Note: the film is rated PG-13 for a reason, not family friendly for the kiddos. Director Steve Taylor said to us before the film, if you took the non-family friendly parts out of the bible, it would be a pretty short book.

Here is the trailer - take a peek!

A Gem...brought to you by Erin K. Murphy

As I have posted at least once before on this little blog of mine...we here at the RSC in the land of pizza and honey often receive "interesting" guest feedback. Erin is one of our resident saints, as she receives the best of the best. When someone is SO pissed that they want to go above and beyond our Guest Relations gal, they get sent to Erin. Why? Because she is the Gloria Estefan of the pissy customer complaint world. She takes someone from wanting to throw pizza at our staff because they are SO mad about being charged $1 for extra cheese to wanting to join her for tea the next day to discuss the latest rom-com. Well, this morning I came in to a forwarded email from Erin which contained a guest recommendation she thought we should be aware of for our next menu rollout. It made my week...and it is only Monday at 9:00 am. Enjoy!

Michelle was our server, and was fantastic. She was very friendly and attentive. Her recommendation for your BBQ Pizza with Pineapple AND Bacon was spot on, as were her other suggestions. On top of that, all of her interactions were ended with a beautiful smile. The only negative I can think of was when i ordered a lemon drop (another great recommendation from Michelle with the pretty eyes) and it was brought in a martini glass. Being a manly man with bear fighting hands, it was hard for me to pick the glass up. The shape of the glass kept forcing me to stick my pinky finger out and slowly slurp the beverage with Lindsey Lohan shaped "duck" lips. This made me feel over-privileged and I began rolling my eyes at the other restaurant guests while referring to them as "My peasants". In the future, please include an option for all of your Woman drinks to be served in a Man glass for clumsy lumberjacks like myself. Make it feel like I'm holding an Axe or a Machine Gun. Otherwise I'm concerned that a random bear might see me in my weak state, and in the age of the Internet, my reputation as the "Shark Riding, Bear Killing Ninja" will be ruined with the speed of a Tweet.

Brilliant! Not only would I like to grant this man's request...I would like him to come work for us. Mostly just to entertain me every day with his Lohan Duck Lips.

Stupify!

After our little Bahamian Disney jaunt, we stayed in Flor-to-the-ida for one very important reason...Orlando just happens to be the home of Hogwarts. Yes people, Wendy and I paid $$$ to spend the day at Universal (which is otherwise pretty lame and SO NOT worth the money) so we could go to Harry Potter Land - otherwise known as Hogsmeade! It did not disappoint either. The only factors that would have made it better would have been if it were a whole theme park dedicated to the series and if Erin and Dan would have been with us!

The Twin just outside the entrance to Hogwarts!

 The first ride we went on was pretty cool because the line took you through a "tour" of Hogwarts. Go Gryffindor!

 Waiting in line...posing with golden statues...

 The photos talked and also seemed to be following you. Not in the same way that the ghosts follow you on the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney, but in more of a sneaky way.

 Hermione "cast" a spell on us that made us fly - which basically means they sprayed soapy bubbles on us before we got on the ride that was kinda similar to Disney's Soaring Over California ride, only better. This one you are in individual carts and you are basically flipped all over the place while flying all over the Hogwarts grounds with Harry. Oh yes, we were attacked by spiders that could eat your face and played some quidditch. It was actually a super fun ride.

 More pics from inside hogwarts.

 This pic did not really turn out like I wanted because it did not pick up on the fact that the black box is actually an LCD screen that was showing the news happening - a la the real Daily Prophet. Picture Harry flying/playing quidditch...I know, so much better now that you have that vision, right?

 I am thinking that right around this pic, heck...maybe even after the 2nd sentence of this post, I may have lost most of the few readers of this blog. But seriously people...it was so fun. Come on! The Sorting Hat! And yes, it talked to you as you walked by. I think it murmured something about me being in Slytherin, but I am sure it was mistaken.

 Hagrid's house...this was part of another ride. A roller coaster similar to Big Thunder Mountain. Buckbeak was sitting outside too. Seriously, the builders of this little world did a really great job.

 This is for Erin! RIP Cedric!

 Getting in line for another coaster, this one...Wendy was NOT such a fan of riding with me. It was super fast, super long and had a ton of loops and craziness. And, it was one of the rides where your feet/legs are dangling instead of being safely inside of a confined space. 

 The Weasley's car!

 Floating candles in line, looked much cooler in person. 

 About to get on the ride...the twin looked pretty pumped before she saw what the coaster looked like.

 That was it for the rides...so we hit up some of the stores in Hogsmeade. We tried on our school attire.

 The twin asked a random worker to borrow his wand for the pic. He pulled it out of his robe and then said "Sure, but how did you know I had a wand?" To which Wendy replied..."Duh, Magic!"

 Mucho Mucho Wands! They had a ton of wands for sale there - $29.99 a pop. You could pick pretty much any characters wand from the series to buy. There were people lined up trying to purchase multiple wands...this place is making a killing! We did not buy and wands, but we did buy some chocolate frogs.

 Cute little Mandrake! They were screeching in a little window outside of the restrooms...which I am also happy to say had Moaning Myrtle in them crying and bitching endlessly as I took care of my business. It was awesome too, because on the way there that morning I told Wendy, "Moaning Myrtle better be in the bathrooms or this is gonna suck!"

 We popped into the 3 Broomsticks for lunch and got chicken, potatoes, corn and BUTTER BEER! The butter beer was awesome, pretty much like a butterscotch slushee!

 As we were leaving we had a run in with the conductor for the Hogwarts Express. These employees stay in character no matter what! We asked him to take a picture of the two of us and he told us he couldn't because he got in trouble with Dumbledore the last time he took a picture of a muggle because he broke their camera....blah blah blah. So instead I snapped a pic of him and the twin.

 Goodbye Harry Potter Land - it's been real...real awesome!

 Oh...and because there is no way on God's green earth that I could convince Kirk to come with, not even if it was free...while we were getting our Potter on, David and Kirk went and spent the day at NASA.

 How tiny does Kirk look next to that massive thing? In my opinion, unless you could get in and ride around in that sucker, or it had a secret lever that dispensed Butter Beer...I can see we clearly made the better choice of venues for that day!

Cruise Con Culvers

Last month we went on a Disney Cruise. Normally cruising to the Bahamas with a bunch of rugrats and their slightly creepy Disney-loving freaky parents would not be our first choice, but Jay means a lot to us and when we were lucky enough to be invited we said yes right away. Bring it on Mickey! So, off we were to celebrate Jay's 40th birthday with the whole Culver Fam, Wendy & David, Christy's parents and their grandson. Here is our vaca in photos...

Taking off from San Diego - shout out to Darrin & Daniel for puppy-sitting the pup! What followed was a quick trip to LAX and then a red eye to Orlando. I HATE red eye flights. I can't sleep on planes, so I end up super cranky and miserable while watching everyone else sleep around me. 

 The next day...still in the same clothes, with my hair in a slightly greasy side braid we were on the ship!

 Our first port was Nassau - overall we were NOT impressed. It might have been because it started pouring 2 minutes after getting off the ship and we got soaked. But really, I think we just made a bad judgement call by heading to the Atlantis hotel. It is supposed to be amazing and really, you can see so much cooler and high-fa-lutin stuff in Vegas. But we had already paid for a cab ride there, so we made the best of it. We opted for the cheapest "tour" you can purchase - oh yes people, if you are not a guest there you have to PAY to tour their grounds. The cheap tickets got us access to their aquariums, which I will admit are pretty cool. Twinner, Christy, Mason, Ashton and I were the takers. Christy's parents gambled at the Atlantis Casino, Jay and Kenz had a diving excursion and Kirk and David took a taxi to a different hotel casino.

Starting off the aquarium tour...

 I kinda want one of these.

 They had 2 massive Manta Rays. Seriously people, this thing was gigantic. It was super creepy to watch it glide towards you. This was the smaller one!

 There were creepy green eels with even creepier blue eyeballs.

 A quick shot of us with the husbands before they took off. They had NOTHING to do there because since they did not spring for the tour they could not even gain entrance to the outside bar. That's right, you have to buy a tour to be able to buy drinks at the bar.

 The next aquarium was the predators cave. Although I apparently captured no sharks in this shot. I am not sure why these fish are considered predators.

 Wendy and Mase! This is right before I gave him a kiss on the cheek and he turned the color of a Roma tomato. Oh to be young and adorable. Love ya Mase.

 Christy with her lil' guys. Ashton cracks me up...he is SO NOT a fan of taking pictures, but he is so damn cute, you just want to keep taking them. It's kinda like Kirk :)

 I want one of these too.

 I couldn't get Ashton to sit in the throne, but he would humor me by standing to the side of it, with his hands in his pockets...

 Human Lady Horse Statues

 The food on the ship overall was awesome. So many different options and great quality. They rotate you on different nights to different themed restaurants. This was us in the Enchanted Garden celebrating David's belated birthday. The Culvers (because they are awesome) got him a special dessert and all put mustache tattoos on to serenade him with happy birthday. Right up David's ally!

 Show me your Staches!

 Then he got double birthday fun when the wait staff came to serenade round 2!

 Forced Husbro Photo #1

 Wilson totally NOT forced photo op!

 Christy and I in the Champagne Bar, Pink - it was a super cute lounge. The good thing about being on a Disney Cruise...all of the 18 years and older places on the ship are pretty much empty, perfect for us to run around in. I donned a side pony a la Camille Grammer that night. I love me a side pony!

 The guys headed up to the top of the ship to smoke birthday cigars in honor of Jay. Which they ended up doing multiple times during the cruise.

 How cool is the water slide on the ship? Pretty darn cool. They also did a firework show off the side of the boat, right to the left of the slide. It was so cool to see fireworks that close up...all we had to do was lay back on lounge chairs and they were right above us. Way to go Disney.

 The slide went around the entire ship...there were 2 kiddo pools in the shape of Mickey naturally. They also had Disney movies playing on that massive big screen all day for people to watch while swimming or in the theatre style seating they set up on the deck. This is also where they played the Superbowl game the first day we boarded.

 This is a massive Finding Nemo ceramic tile mural on the walls of the huge buffet restaurant, which I only ate at once. I try to avoid buffets, especially on vacation. Although I did partake one night around 11:30 pm when I walked by a make your own crape station. Please and Thank You!

 Castaway Cay...Disney's PRIVATE ISLAND! The best part of the cruise. Twinner and Kirk hanging out in our private cabana.

 That's right people. Jay and Christy as a thank you to all of us coming on the cruise with them sprung for a private cabana for us all to enjoy.

 So many great things about this, free drinks and snacks stocked in the fridge, free bike rentals which we totally enjoyed riding, free tubes to float around, private hammock to lounge in...

 PS - try not to focus on the creamy whiteness that is pretty much all of the Snells and the Wilsons. You know the phrase "Skinny feels better than food tastes"?...Well here is another one for you, "Pale looks better than cancer feels!"

One of the other best parts of the cabana, it was located on the 18 year and older beach...so it was incredibly peaceful and not crowded at all. The husbro even found it relaxing enough to read (I mean study his poker books) with a pretty nice view.

 That little blob in the water is David floating out there in a tube.

 There he is!

 David pretty much spent an hour or two combing the ocean floor for sea life. He found this giant starfish and brought it to shore. He also got stung multiple times by something in the water. The price you pay to explore the ocean floor.

 We could get used to this.

 That night was pirate night back on the ship. This is our main server Alfredo who served us dinner every night. He was super nice and gave Kirk a hug on our last night dining. Kirk looked so incredibly uncomfortable. It was awesome.

 Ladies on Pirate Night

 David on Pirate Night! I love this pic because he looks like a pirate ghost or something.

 David and Christy showing me their matching pirate jigs. My favorite part of this picture is Kirk in the background pretending he is not with us.

 The ladies were not as festive on Pirate Night

 Jay and David on the other hand really got into it. Especially Capt. Jay!

 How great are they!?!

 I can tell that deep down Kirk really wishes he was more of a joiner.

 Capt. Jay with his wench...I mean wife.

 Gettin' our Disney Ears on...

 That night we promised Christy we would all go to the dance party in one of the family rooms. It was super fun to watch the Culver Clan get down.

 They knew all of these dances that I had never heard of or seen. Even Jay got out and busted a move or two.

 This was the 18 year and older pool area with swim up bar. We spent most of our morning and afternoon on our last day lounging by this sucker.

 Forced Husbro Photo #2 on our private balcony

 Christy put together this mini party for Jay in a private club room where we drank champagne and ate cake together. Christy surprised Jay by getting a ton of people from his past and present to write letters and birthday cards filled with memories from the past and how Jay has impacted people's lives. It was really great. She read some aloud and it was so special. Mason and Kenz both gave little toasts to their dad as well and we all sang the infamous Culver Birthday Rap as loud as we could.

 We love you crazy Culvers and were so blessed to get to spend such an awesome vacation celebrating Jay and his 40 years on this planet.