Random Thoughts About the Oscars

Looky! It's me and an Oscar winner!!!!!

 

Yes, I stayed up to watch the entire Oscars last night. I have to say it was more entertaining than other years. Here are my Oscars Musings...not in order this year of watching it. These are afterthoughts!

1. I heart Ellen. LOVE her. She cracks me up and everyone else, too. I hope she hosts next year. She had me literally laughing out loud throughout the night.

2. Here's the super selfie that broke Twitter!

3. Lupita Nyong'o looked classy and lovely as usual. Her vibrant, beautiful dresses have been the highlight of every award show this season. Her speech was amazing, too.

4. Performances by P!NK and U2? Love it!

5. PIZZA!!!!! And of course Jennifer Lawrence is chowing down! Glad to see a Hollywood actress not take herself too seriously.

6. Um. Was John Travolta's wig on too tight? Wouldn't you make sure that you knew how to pronounce someone's name before introducing her??? By the way, @@AdeleDazim has about 5k followers on Twitter! Ha!

7. Stunning dresses this year. My favorites were Lupita's flowing light blue dress, and I thought Jennifer Garner's silver flapper dress was really fun and cute! Charlize Theron looked gorgeous as usual, too.

6. Jared. Jared. Jared. Yes, he should cut those long, luscious locks. But so happy he won. I adored how he thanked his mom so eloquently and also thought of others less fortunate in his speech. Handsome and multi-talented (you all know he's lead singer of 30 Seconds to Mars, don't you?? My photo above was taken before a concert). If you haven't seen him in Requiem For a Dream, another great performance in that movie.

6. Alright. Alright. Alright. Absolutely thrilled for Matthew McConaughey. He has been my fave since he was Jake Brigance in A Time to Kill in the 90's. He is amazing on True Detective on HBO - only one more episode! His speech was thoughtful and so very quirky like Matthew. Sooooo incredibly handsome, that man. But one thing is for sure. McConaughey's gonna get older, and that Oscar is gonna stay the saaaame age.

Here's me and Matty. (okay, okay, okay. This one may or may not have been photoshopped...)

Rockabet Band Manager

Today I'm playing band manager to celebrate the release of my ABC's of rock 'n' roll picture book, ROCKABET: CLASSIC EDITION. You know I love my rock bands. If I could choose any band members from any bands to form the best band ever, these would be my rockin' picks:

Band Name: Indecision  (also the name of a band in my upcoming middle grade novel!)

First Gig: Red Rocks (I have never been there!! I'd love to see a concert there!)

So, like I said, I LOVE rock. I figured these musicians are pretty busy and probably should swap out gig by gig so they can still play in their other awesome band. So I have multiple choices, yo. (And yes, these are all my photos taken at concerts (except for Grohl) :) .)

LEAD VOCALS

 

Lead vocalist #1:  Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach - one of the most energetic frontmen I have ever seen! This man can ROCK!

Lead vocalist #2: Gerard Way formerly of My Chemical Romance - Love, love, love his voice.

Lead vocalist #3: Josh Todd of Buckcherry - He dances with his shirt off while he sings. Nuff said.

Okay, one more lead vocalist: Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars - Energetic, blue eyes, smooth vocals.

LEAD GUITAR

Lead guitarist #1: Mark Tremonti of Creed/Alter Bridge/Tremonti - Awesome variety of guitar riffs. He's in three bands plus mine! He is a wanted man!

Lead guitarist #2: Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold - My favorite intro guitar riff of all time is "Unholy Confessions" by A7X. This man can shred. And he's kinda cute.

Lead guitarist #3: Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins - He's a Chicago guy who is mega-talented.

BASS GUITAR

Bass guitarist #1- Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue/Sixx: A.M - Love his lyrics, his looks, and he's in two of my fave bands!

Bass guitarist #2 - Matt Brady of New Medicine - Beautiful brown eyes with a beautiful heart (he spent the last year in Ghana!).

Bass guitarist #3 - John Taylor of Duran Duran - Play the #*&!-ing bass, John! More pop than rock, but Duran Duran was the first band I ever loved.

DRUMS

Dave Grohl of Nirvana/Foo Fighters - it's Dave freaking Grohl, people!



Who would you choose for your supergroup and why?
Here's a band name generator to create your killer band name!

Some very kind people are helping me celebrate the release by sharing who they would choose to be in their ultimate band in a ROCKABET BAND MANAGER post! Go check 'em out! Thank you!
Theresa Milstein , Lydia Kang , Shelli Johannes , Candyland , Bish Denham , Samantha Verant , and Leigh T. Moore. 

ROCKABET: CLASSIC EDITION can currently be purchased online at Amazon or at select bookstores. Hardcover books will be available at various online retailers and stores in October.

Kelly Polark is also the author of BIG SISTER, BABY BROTHER and the upcoming HOLD THE MUSTARD! from Meegenius. Come visit her on Facebook and Twitter! Check out her website and celebrity book recommendation site, Book Recs of the Rock and Famous.

READING ROCKS!

Fun and Games Blogfest

The king of blogfests, Alex Cavanaugh is hosting today's superdeeduper fun blogfest. Participants are to list their three favorite games.

Here are mine!

1. Scattergories - I love this, because you think it should be easy, but it isn't! I also love that it is fun for all ages so we can have family games.

2. You Don't Know Jack - My hubby and I used to play this game on the computer many years ago before kids. We are super competitive with one another, and this one was great because we were about even with wins. We are getting him the Wii or Xbox version for Father's Day! (shhhh, don't tell him! He's so busy with work this week; I know he won't read this!)

3. Apples To Apples - We have family games around the table. Even my kindergartener can play it! The only downside is no one likes it when I'm the judge. They think I'm a terrible judge! But it's so fun anyway!

Honorable mention - Pig or horse at the basketball hoop in the driveway with my son. Competitiveness runs in the fam.


What's your favorite game?? Find out what others have to say at Alex's blogfest headquarters! Join in on the fun!

Another favorite pasttime of mine? Concerts! I went to Q101 Jamboree with my mom and sister on Saturday. I even got to see Carolina Valdez Miller and Erica Chapman there (they had Pit tickets, brave girls). We ended up with fifth row seats, so we were pretty happy! We saw Sum 41, Papa Roach, Seether, and 30 Seconds to Mars! Papa Roach is now the band I've seen the most times live (this was my sixth!). And I even got a hug from Papa Roach's electrifying frontman, Jacoby Shaddix, when he came out into the crowd! Here he is right before he couldn't resist my charms.

And here's a pic of Jared Leto from 30 Seconds to Mars, another amazing frontman!

I hope the photo resizing and post formatting works. This Blogger is driving me nuts!
Have a great week, everyone!!

Jared Leto Gives Carol and Me a Bath

A blood bath that is! Last night the wonderful Carolina Valdez Miller and I attended the 30 Seconds to Mars concert. The theme: BLOOD BALL! And bloody it was! Here's a clip of Jared Leto spraying the audience with blood.

Carol and I sang at the top our lungs, jumped up and down with thousands of people, and stayed up to the wee hours talking about writing.


Before the last song of the concert, Jared announced that anyone that crowdsurfed to the front could come onstage with them. We were right by the front barrier, so I swung my leg over but I couldn't climb over! Before I changed my mind, fans behind me heaved me over to the other side. I sang chorus to "Kings and Queens" with about 30 other rabid fans onstage with the band. Unfreakingbelievably fun!
Pics from onstage:

Tomo the guitarist



A short clip from onstage:


Thank you, Carol, for being my date to the Blood Ball! Carol is as sweet in person as she is on her blog! 30 Seconds to Mars was AMAZING, and so is Carol!