Returning from San Jose to Liberia with a stop in San Ramon to visit Nel Lopez!

I woke up 8-9 am and had breakfast with Lorena and Mario before I started to pack up my stuff and prepare to leave.

Lorena had a new appointment with her eyedoctor after her operation and while they were away I wrapped up my packing and once they got back Mario drew me a map on how to drive from their house to the highway towards Liberia.

I checked my Facebook email and I had an email from a local Costa Rican comedian, Nel Lopez. I wrote him a few days ago to ask if he still sells CDs from his show and hearing that I was a fan from Norway he wanted to invite me to his home to get to know me.

So, after taking off from Lorena and Marios house my first stop was in San Ramon. San Ramon is a village about 1 hour towards Puntarenas (and the coast) and once I arrived I called him to get directions. Nels daughter Maria Jesus came to get me and lead me to the house.

I had a great time getting to know Nel and his family. I have known about Nels Jokes and CDs since years and had many a good laughs from his jokes. It was real fun and he told me heaps of jokes and his wife served Arroz con Leche and home made lemon juice. Sooo good !!!

We took pictures and Nels daughter even took one with Nels camera that they posted on his facebook profile. So Cool. I got a few CDs and then Nel gave me one that has still not been released on top of that and they sent with me empanadas (sooo good). Really delicious.

I had to move on but first Nel accompanied me to Pops Ice Cream shops where we had Ice Cream and told eachother jokes :D Ha! Awesome day.

From San Ramon I moved on towards Liberia and I had a stop at a souvenir shop at Cuenca and at Monteverde Restaurant to have a bite. The trip went mostly fine. I may have driven a bit too fast a few times (I think my worst breach of local traffic laws was 85 in the 25 kmph zone, but that was following the traffic and the queue). In one of the 25 kmph zones there was a police control, but thankfully they did not stop us despite driving in 60 kmph (following the queue again).  However what they did do when they discovered I was a female and blond driver was to throw kisses at me.. I love this country!

I arrived at home just as the sunset was over and it got dark. I still had just a little light left when I arrived (I really dislike driving in the dark here due to such poor visibility and conditions), but it was awesome to finally arrive home after this 2,5 weeks trip. I had dinner with my family and then I unpacked and sorted dirty clothes to wash tomorrow. Then I just enjoyed spending time at home !

Breaking Dawn – Midnight Pre-Premiere with Elizabeth Reaser

I just got home from the Pre-Premiere of Breaking Dawn – The fourth installment of the Twilight Saga (yeah yeah). Finally, 1,5 years after Eclipse was released – it is here!

And you know who else was here with us today? Elizabeth Reaser  aka Esme Cullen. She is in Oslo, Norway for 3 full days promoting the movie. I even got a picture of me with her.

I went to see the movie with my best friend and we were dressed up for a Black Carpet Movie Premiere. Maybe a bit overdone with the fangs and all (since noone wears fangs in the Twilight Saga), but that’s just part of the fun :D

Prior to the midnight screening there was a bridal show, some people won goodie bags, Marion Ravn interviewed Elizabeth and we were shown the movie trailers and movies from fan events while waiting for midnight and the actual movie started.

Marion Ravn and Elizabeth Reaser.

Trailer 1

Trailer 2

Trailer Mash up of the two

.
The movie was great. Bill Condon has done a great job. Unfortunately to avoid the certain (US American) R-Rating Sex scenes, Birth Scene and Death was toned down, but at the same time, in the book you are also left to wonder and think for yourselves.
The birth scene was fantastic. Probably one of the best in the film.

One of my favourite scenes was during the wedding when family and friends held speaches to the bride and groom and Charlie threatens Edward to treat Bella well and keep her happy for the rest of her life, because he knows a few things … like shooting with a gun, beating someone up and stalking. After all he is a Policeman ! Awesome scene! Bellas mom sings a lullabye. Bella’s friend Jessica performs a bittersweet speach where she lets it shine through she is jealous that Edward didn’t choose her. Awesome.

Oh.. Wedding Dress.. My Gosh what a boring wedding dress. Totally DISLIKE.

I had great anticipation to how they would be explaining the whole imprinting on infants part and I’m not too impressed of how they handled that – however I also understand why…

Totally stoked folks… Loved it !!
As another blogger said it: “No one is going to call this movie a masterpiece, but I was not looking for a masterpiece”.

Newspaperarticles from the event:
Dagbladet
Aftenposten
Aftenposten – (Interview with Elizabeth Reaser post-movie)

Newspaper recommendations on the movie:
VG
Dagbladet
(PS: All articles in Norwegian only)

For more pictures
CLick link to my picasa album

Other Movie Reviews:
http://play987.radio.com/2011/11/16/the-twilight-saga-breaking-dawn-part-1-movie-review/

Linkin Park

I have listened  to Linkin Park for years and years. I dont even remember when I first heard of LP (or potentially my memory going bad with age – however it works perfectly if I need it to). Thats how long ago I started liking LP  !

This is Linkin Park played at Hovefestivalen. It is their FIRST visit EVER to Norway and they were one of the reasons I even cared about purchasing the ticket.

Linkin Park playing in Norway. Awesome concert

Extatic is my experience with this concert. Of course, I am one of the Fans and I was of course located right in front of the stage (a bit to the right side to not be in the middle of the crazy bunch). The concert was a BLAST! It was an energetic, completely awesome show and we got lots of new songs and some of the old classics. I am very, very happy about not missing out on this one !!!

Video from the performance at Hove

http://www.aftenposten.no/embed/?art_id=4161190

Other music videos from LP

Numb

Waiting for the End

Iridicient

In the End

Waiting for the End

It was a fantastic concert, great songs and despite the newspaper reviews I had a great time !!! A really great time ! I’m so getting this album ! And I picked up a LP A Thousand Suns Tour T-shirt!!.

Where Aftenposten and VG claims that audio was lame and LP no longer delivers due to age and that people left the concert due to bad performance (over 20 000 people were present, it was the last concert of the day – a few of them hmay have left early to avoid complete traffic chaos once concert ended), Dagbladet praised the concert high.

Norwegian Newspaper Reviews
Aftenposten
VG
Dagbladet 
(Where I actually suspect Dagbladets reviewer to be a bigge fan of the band than the other 2 reviewers – where Dagbladet cant praise LP enough, VG and Aftenposten claims the concert was low quality – Its always about preferences)
Agderposten
Lydverket

30 Seconds To Mars

My first meeting with 30 Seconds to Mars was in California in November 2009. I was in a Hot Topic store and they played the newest 30STM record (This is War) promoting it in the store. It was short before release date. I wanted to purchase the album right away – however they hadn’t gotten the album for sale (just for promo) and I ordered it on Amazon when I got home that same day. It arrived by mail a few days later and I was happy.

30STM is the band of the Hollywood actor Jared Leto, his brother Shannon and guitarist Tomo Miličević.

Today they performed at Hovefestivalen in Arendal, Norway and they delivered some show! However – I must admit that the concert in itself is not among the best I have seen (or heard). Jareds band mates mainly stayed in the back of the stage, letting Jared run around doing his thing. This works in some ways, but mainly for the kids (Anyone under 25 – Please dont feel offended if you dont categorize yourself in this category and are under 25)…  Jared was more busy focusing on showing off, getting people to scream and jump (endless encouraging to jump) and what about those pants? They looked like something women wore in Norway 20 years ago to wear pants, but pretend they were skirts. Weird. The kids liked it ! :D

30STM Did put on a blast of a show

They played lots of good songs from the “This is War” album.  Im very happy about that part! AND I got a T-shirt ! YAY. I still had a great time and it was a good concert!

Now – Im only waiting for todays most awaited band: Linkin Park

Norwegian Newspaper Reviews
VG 
Dagbladet
Pre concert article – Dagbladet
Lydverket

Pablo Francisco in Oslo

Today I gave Jorunn her birthdaygift – a week early, but who cares. The comedian Pablo Francisco was in Oslo and he would not wait a week – just not to spoil Jorunns surprise…

It was a great show – like you have no idea.

We both laughed hysterically most of the time and had a great time !

Me, Pablo Francisco and Jorunn

Here a few Youtube videos of him performing (PS: Not from todays show)

All about the preview guy

Mexican Comedian – Brokeback Mountain

On drugs and rehab

Scarface and Kermit drug deal

Billy Burke Removed Record Release party at the House of Blues in Hollywood

Great temperatures today. As usual +42C and not a cloud in sight :D 0% air humidity. Gorgeous day :D

I woke up early and packed my stuff and played with Gerd and Auduns dogs.
Audun had to go to Tucson today so he said goodbye before he took off for work and for breakfast Gerd took me to John and Jimmys sandwitch bar and then we went to the post office to ship my catch from Target yesterday.
That was easily 15 pounds, but it was not as expensive as I would have thought it to be so that was good news :D
After that we drove around to find Tapioca seeds and we ended up at the Whole Foods market. They had Tapioca seeds but not black ones that I am searching for. However I will find them somewhere :D

Then Gerd and I went home again and I had a shower before Gerd took me to the airport early.

Good thing she did though because my flight was cancelled !!!! EEEEK. I totally panicked thinking of the Billy Burke concert and the appointment with Libbi.
THANKFULLY I was very early for my flight and the personnel booked me on the flight 1 hour before my original flight and everything was solved for the best ! Things obviously worked out so much better today than I would have thought, I think I was meant to go to that concert :D
Not only winning the tickets, but also because I was allowed to bring a friend.

I picked up a few souvenirs, went through security and sat down to wait for my flight. Nothing interesting happend neither there nor during the flight and I was even lucky with the suttle services too. One came just a few minutes after I got out of the airport. We picked up passengers from all the terminals. Even the traffic wasnt too bad and I checked in at Hollywood and Highland Hostel and Hotels in good time before the concert and I checked in and got myself over to the Hollywood House of Blues to meet Libbi :D I met Libbi at the Twilight Convention last weekend in Los Angeles.

When we met up we realized that there was people nicely dressed up everywhere and we were like… OhOh.. we are like totally underdressed. Eeeks.

Thankfully… We were not. Those overdressed people were participating at a different event in the first floor. Turned out… Billy Burkes record release party was in the Foundation room up in the third floor ! Woohooo :D We are game.
I would have thought that it was a huge event but in reality it turned out to be a rather exclusive party. Only 100 guests whereof 30 fans + their friends and the rest of the crowd was Billys friends and family. His father was there, his lovely wife, Pollyanna Rose, was there and of course camera folks, managers and the band. :D

One of the smallest concerts I have been to but also one of the nicest.
After the concert Billy handed out CDs and signed them for those interested. We were also handed out CDs on our exit.

It was a wonderful evening and I enjoyed every single moment of it. When I got back to the hostel I watched some lame TV shows until I had processed the great night and was ready for sleeping.

And yes if you recognize Billys face – its only because you have probably seen him as Bella Swans dad in The Twiligh Saga movies :D

Twilight Convention – Phoenix, Arizona – Day 3

Great temperatures today. As usual +42C and not a cloud in sight :D 0% air humidity. Gorgeous day :D

I woke up and spent some time updating on emails and just relaxing as the official program, that I would participate to, wasn’t about to start until 11:30 so I prepared to check out of my room, pay and store my luggage with the Bell boy.

Sunday Programme:
10:00 am to 10:15 am: VENDORS ROOM SET UP/ Vendors Only
10:15 am to 4 pm: Registration, Vendors Room Open
11:00 am to 6pm: Theatre Open

EVENTS IN THE THEATER

11:15 am HILLYWOOD SHOW OPEN and final showing of NEW MOON Parody

11:35 pm The Wolf Pack Panel with ALEX MERAZ, KIOWA GORDON and BOOBOO STEWART: get your howl on and be with us for what promises to be a fun event!
Note: Booboo will be signing at in the vendors area throughout the weekend, times will be posted at registration & in vendors area.

On the question to Kiowa; Tell us a secret fact about Alex Meraz. Kiowa revealed that Alex used to work at a gay bar for 8 months. Alex confirmed this.

12:15 pm COSTUME COMPETITION: Come dressed in your finest costume as any Twilight themed character or make up your own! A $250 gift certificate is awarded to the very best! Let your creative juices flow and come ready to thrill!

The winners were Renesme and Edward of the kids and of the grown ups the Jacob wolf :D and Emily and Embry.

12:40 pm PHOTO OPS with WOLF PACK The Wolves and YOU! Alex, Kiowa and Booboo and YOU! Awesome opportunity!

12:50 pm TWILIGHT LEXICON PANEL: Twilight Saga Set Visit – The Lexicon was on set of Twilight the day that Catherine Hardwicke referred to as: The day that made grown men cry. Hear about that day of crazy weather on the beach and share her video interviews with Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner. They were also on the set of New Moon and can speak about the vast difference between the two experiences.

1:35 pm TWILIGHT & GENRE AUCTION: Grab the big bargains here in cool collectibles! The pace is fast so get your bids in to win!

2:10 pm THE VOLTURI PANEL with DANIEL CUDMORE and CHARLIE BEWLEY

The Volturi panel was one of the best ones up until so far. Daniel and Charlie rocked the stage better than anyone and they clearly like to entertain and show around. They were fantastic and perfect for the panels. The whole crowd laughed with them as they threw around jokes and fun stories. Charlie has the most contagious laughter as well and its difficult to not join in and have fun when he laughs.
2:55 pm TWILIGHT PARODY FILMS & VARIOUS CLIPS & SURVEYS

3:20 pm PHOTO OPS with The VOLTURI and YOU! You and Daniel Cudmore and Charlie Bewley (don’t be scared!)

3:30 pm TWILIGHT TRIVIA COMPETITION II: The final chance to put all that Twilight reading and watching to use by trying to win gift certificates and prizes! Be in the audience to participate!

4:10 pm On One side of the theatre: AUTOGRAPHS with DANIEL CUDMORE and CHARLIE BEWLEY.

———

As we were waiting for the autographs, Gerd came to pick me up, but she waited patiently in the auditorium with me :D

When all was done we looked around the hotel before we went to meet Audun and a friend of his at a bar for dinner.

When we got home we had chocolate brownies for dessert and spent the evening talking and watching TV (New Season of True Blood) and having fun.
It was great to be able to spend more time with Gerd too as we havent met for 16 years!

Twilight Convention – Phoenix, Arizona – Day 2

Today we had another cloudfree day with temps up to +42C (106F). 0% air humidity.
Gorgeous sunny weather.

I woke up to another gorgeous day ! I have been so exited so long for this weekend and its just wonderful. I spent 2 hours by the pool grilling myself before the interesting part of the program started :D

Saturdays program:
9:30 am to 10am: VENDORS ROOM Set-Up/Vendors Only
10 am to 11am: Pre-Registration for Weekend Patrons, not a necessity, just a convenience.
10 am to 6 pm: Registration and Vendors Room Open
11 am to 7pm: Theatre Open

EVENTS IN THE THEATER

11:30 am Hillywood Show Welcome & Screening of extended NEW MOON Parody

1:55 am BOOBOO STEWART (Seth Clearwater) Note: Booboo will be signing at in the vendors area throughout the weekend, times will be posted at registration & in vendors area at his cool booth.

BooBoo is such a cute kid. PS His real name is not BooBoo, but Nils Allen Stewart.

12:40 pm THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT PART TWO: more super-cool footage you won’t want to miss! Enough said!

1:10 pm TWILIGHT LEXICON PANEL: Tales From the Red Carpet. Ever wonder what goes on in between all the screaming at a Hollywood premiere? See an exclusive behind the scenes glimpse as the Twilight Lexicon describes what it’s like to be in the eye of the storm.

1:45 pm Exclusive Video Featurettes: Past Convention Appearance Clips with some of your favorite Twilight stars!

2:00 pm LANA VEENKER: A special panel with the Casting director of TWILIGHT, Lana is a wonderful addition to our convention and she has been quite influential on-line warning fans about Twilight saga casting scams. Find out what the process for casting is like and how the cast of Twilight came to be. Lana also casts the fantastic TV series LEVERAGE as well as many other projects.

2:40 pm KIOWA GORDON (Embry Call)

3:20 pm NEW MOON cast interviews featuring questions we received from fans! See Rob, Kristen, Taylor, Dakota and more answer YOUR questions!

3:50 pm INTERMISSION & STAGE RESET FOR AUCTION

4:10 pm Twilight and Genre No Minimum Bid Auction: grab the great bargains on cool collectibles (and our giant banners) in this fast paced exciting event!

4:45 pm ALEX MERAZ (Paul)

5:40 pm: THE TWILIGHT PARODY by Hillywood Show: the one that started it all!

6:05 pm Previous tour stop convention clips

Note that vendors room closes at 6pm, please make sure you have a photo or souvenir for our guests to sign (you can of course bring something from home)

9:30 pm: SATURDAY NIGHT VOLTURI VAMPIRE BALL
A hot DJ, dancing, The Hillywood Show hosting, a cash bar, reveal of our Vampire Court, Celebrity appearances by DANIEL CUDMORE.

Kat and her sister.

Most of the day I spent with Heather and the girls and Katarina and her sister.

Me and Heather

I didnt buy much stuff as they didnt have as good of a choice as in LA, but who cares. That was not the important part :D The sessions with the wolf pack were great and I enjoyed my time a lot.

Heather and the kids had to leave after the saturday autograph sessions, but I was so lucky to find Vonda and her daughter and their friends and they invited me to have dinner with them. I met them last night and they were really nice :D We had dinner at the 4 diamond rewarded restaurant Reds Steakhouse lead by Chef De Cuisine Michael Scott. It was such a wonderful dinner. The food was awesome and the company was great too.

I almost forgot the whole Volturi Vampire Ball but got there in time to participate to parts of it :D It was a wonderful day :D

Twilight Convention – Phoenix, Arizona – Day 1

It was a fantastic day today. We had +40C and gorgeous sun from clear sky.
No complaints about the weather to be made :D

I woke up and was a bit sad because it was my last morning with Amanda and its always sad to leave good friends, however I was also incredibly exited to go to the Twilight convention and see my idols and my new friends Heather and her kids + Katrina again.
But before that, Amanda got the happy message that SHE GOT A JOB today !! I am sooo happy for her! She lost her job just some days before I was scheduled to arrive so we got to spend a lot of time together, but it was always with the knowledge that she just lost her job, so i am soo exited that i got to be there with her when she found out ! :D

When we had eaten breakfast and I had packed every single last piece of my belongings, Amanda took me to the WigWam Resort. We stopped to get food for the weekend and then got ourselves over to the hotel and checked in and registered for the convention :D

Fridays Program:
9 am to 11:45 am: VENDORS ROOM Set-Up/Vendors Only
Noon to 1pm: GOLD WEEKEND PATRONS Pre-Registration: not a necessity, just a convenience. Get your credentials, schedules and first crack at souvenirs.
Noon to 6 pm: VENDORS ROOM Open
1pm to 1:30 pm: PREFERRED WEEKEND Patrons Pre-Registration: not a necessity, just a convenience. Get your credentials, schedules and souvenirs.
1:30 pm to 6 pm: Registration Open for All
1:30 pm to 7pm: Theatre Open

EVENTS IN THE THEATER

2:00 pm HILLYWOOD SHOW Welcome & screening of the extended version of NEW MOON Parody

2:45 pm TWILIGHT LEXICON PANEL: Our great friends from the worlds number one Twilight fan site offer up the first of their fun panels. The Real Forks: a video driving tour through Forks and La Push and a Q&A about the town.

3:20 pm TWILIGHT SCENE-IT presents the YES/NO TRIVIA COMPETITION: Be in the audience for your chance to win $1750 in gift certificates by showing off your knowledge of all things Twilight! WINNERS also become members of Saturday Nights Vampire Court, receive a professional make-over, gifts from Scene-It, and a cool celebrity surprise!

3:50 pm ECLIPSE TRAILER

3:55 pm PETER FACINELLI (Dr. Carlisle Cullen)

5:10 pm THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE Electronic Press Kit Footage, Part One

5:20 pm PHOTO OPS with Peter Facinelli.

5:40 pm The HILLYWOOD SHOW Cast on how they produced their two parody films and what their future plans are!

Note that vendors room closes at 6pm, please make sure you have a photo or souvenir for Peter to sign (you can of course bring something from home)

9:00 pm: FRIDAY NIGHT KARAOKE CONCERT hosted by PETER FACINELLI
Special performance by popular songstress Candace Charee

I made it in time for the YES/NO trivia game at 3:20 and then participated to the program after that.

Katarina was seated on front row and Heather a few rows back to me so they were fairly easy to find.

The Peter Facinelli Panel was awesome ! He is as gorgeous as he looks in Nurse Jackie. See also Sho Entertainments Nurse Jackie Official site .
Few facts: Peter is married to Jennie Garth that played Kelly Taylor on the new FOX series Beverly Hills 90210. They have 3 kids together.
Peter was good sport with all the fans and we got pictures and autographs.

Heather and the kids took me to have dinner outside the hotel area (hotel was very expensive) and we had italian food at a nearby restaurant :D

When we got back I joined the Friday night Karaoke concert with Peter Facinelli and Candace Charee :D (she is one of the possible singers signed up for Breaking Dawn soundtrack).

It was hilarious and I hung out with Katarina and her sister and Kat and I were singing (read: howling) in on all the songs :D It was so much fun :D

Winners Luck

Temperatures are still high but they are not as high as during the weekend. We are at +42C today. Morning air humidity 10% but got down to 0% in the afternoon. Not a cloud in sight all day.

I woke up 9 am and that was sooo good. I have been really exhausted after the weekend, but now catching up. I spent the whole day working despite my intended-to-have-vacation day.

However for lunch I participated in a competition to win tickets for the official Billy Burke record release party Are you ready to be removed?. Billy Burke is the actor that plays Bellas father in The twilight Saga.

It all started out with me signing up to the Billy Burke website fanlist some months ago. Billy released his first song, his first movie and then now he will release a whole album of songs during this party next week. So I have been at this fanlist updates for a while and yesterday he announced that the 30 first people to reply to an email he would send today would win tickets to a concert downtown LA in Hollywood !!! So today between the specified hours he had given, I was waiting and I had a draft ready to ship as soon as I got the mail. I shipped it off within 10 seconds of recieving the email and then I had to wait.

So I finished off my workday and then Amanda and I went to the swimming pool for a few hours. Its really nice to be able to go to the swimming pool when its this hot outside! We read, talked and enjoyed the nice day until Amanda went home earlier and left me there as I wanted to stay out longer. When the sun prepared to go down I went home too and guess what.

I WON the competition. I am now officially on the guestlist of a Hollywood party. I can bring one guest !! :D I love it !

Amanda made us chicken and baked potato with Spinach for dinner. It was delicious. We watched a travel program about Borneo after that before going to sleep.