The Spectacular Now: The Movie

On Tuesday, the hubs and I attended a special screening of The Spectacular Now complete with a question and answer session with Athens hometown hero, director James Ponsoldt. It was a fabulous evening to say the least! Hubs and I enjoyed our weeknight date immensely. 

The movie poster for The Spectacular Now. 

We started our night by having dinner at The National in downtown Athens, Georgia. This was the first time either of us had been there and it was wonderful! The National is a little fancier than we normally go for (meaning pricey) BUT it was VERY much worth it! Perfect for our pre-Prom dinner! 

AND...The National is right next door to this place...

Cinè hosted the night's event. We'd never been here either but I was impressed. Cinè is an "art house theater" which means they play educational and festival films. It is a great venue. They hosted this event not only to support The Spectacular Now, which was was filmed in Athens and James Ponsoldt, the director, who is from Athens; but they are also raising fund to get digital projectors to use in conjunction with film. (It is a worthy cause if you are interested check the Cinè website for more info!)

Tickets!

Me and the Mister at the Prom Party!

Cheers! Best cream soda ever.

After the movie Q & A with James Ponsoldt (director) on the left.

 

Me with James Ponsoldt who was kind enough to speak with me after what I'm sure was a LONG day for him. You could tell he was passionate about making GOOD movies and that he was passionate about Athens!

Me & Mister. One of the best date nights ever!

Alli's Thoughts on The Spectacular Now movie: 

I'd listened to all but the every end of the audio book. I always love when good books are made into movies; sometimes I am disappointed and sometimes I am truly surprised. I was very pleased by what I saw. The movie stayed true to the feel of the book and I recognized some of the dialogue as coming straight from the novel. Some things were a little different but there was mad respect paid to the original written work by author Tim Tharp.  

In fact, when I got the chance, I told Mr. Ponsoldt I thought he did a good job of representing the book. He told me that Tim Tharp had been on set and was pleased with the movie. (Which makes me happy, I often wonder what authors think once their words become movies.)

Like I mentioned before, the movie was filmed in Athens which is practically my own hometown. So I was super excited to see sights I easily recognized. It wasn't over done with our "major landmarks" but if you are familiar with the area, you'll know it's Athens in the movie! (Hometown love!)

The movie itself is a magnificent coming of age story. It is rated R and appropriately so. There is some nudity in a tasteful sex scene, lots of cussing and underage drinking. All these things were pulled directly from the book. The movie is based of a Young Adult novel that deals with some very real issues some teens face. The movie did a great job of portraying the teen experience.

Miles Teller plays the main character, Sutter. I was amazed. Teller always reminds me of a young Vince Vaughn, fast-talking and funny. He WAS Sutter. 

I was really surprised by was Shailene Woodley, who played Aimee. I've seen her in Secret Life before so I just didn't know what to expect from her. But she really sold me and I'm excited to see her in her upcoming roles in Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars (also based on YA novels!).

I really enjoyed our whole experience. I totally want to see The Spectacular Now again and I can't wait to add it to our own movie collection. 

The Spectacular Now opens in more cities today. If you check it out let know what you thought about it! 

Tyler Perry's Temptation Atlanta Red Carpet

You may know that along with my love of books, I am also a huge movie fan. I am big fan of Georgia's own Tyler Perry. He is super multi-talented. He writes, directs, and acts. He brings us movies, television shows, and plays. He is the man behind the madness that is Madea. He is able to address serious issues with a sense of humor that makes his stories relatable. If you have a chance, read some of his back story. Perry wasn't born with a "silver spoon," his story is truly inspiring. I'm really not sure if there is much Mr. Perry can't do. He's just that awesome.

On Saturday, March 16, the mister and me journeyed into Atlanta for the premiere of Tyler Perry's newest movie, Temptation. We didn't get to see the movie but we did have a blast seeing the cast, special guests and Atlanta socialites walk the "red carpet." 

In this post I'm just going to share some of the photos we took from the event. (Of course per our usual, we took a ton of photos but these are just a select few.) I just caught a glimpse of Kim Kardashian because she just flew by my section...she didn't even pause for a smile! And I think I saw the back of Jurnee Smollett-Bell's head because she too scooted past us too fast. Still it was a fun event. You can find more info and pictures from this event from E! or from Yahoo!

 The celebs started to arrive...

Actor, John Schneider (Bo Duke from the original Dukes of Hazzard!)

Actor Robbie Jones greeting fans!

Actress Jasmine Guy from A Different World and more recently The Vampire Diaries!

 Singer and Actor Marvin Winans

Cynthia Bailey from The Real Housewives of Atlanta

 Todd Tucker  and Kandi Burruss from The Real Housewives of Atlanta

Nene Leakes of Housewives fame. But I love her on Glee!

Actress Keke Palmer

Actor Lance Gross

And...Mr. Tyler Perry, ladies and gentlemen! 

And because this is my blog..here is Me with Robbie Jones! I loved him soooo much on Hellcats! He just has one of those smiles that just lights up the place! I can't want to see him on the big screen! Also, please note my picture was photo bombed by Buddy of yeahyoutriedthat.com. Check that link because he got some GREAT photos of the event!

Any Tyler Perry fans? Planning to see the movie? Let me know!

Seven Urban Fantasy Authors at Avid

Yesterday MrCaptKirk and I attended "Meet Seven Urban Fantasy Authors" at our local indie bookstore, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia. (If you are ever in the area, I recommend checking out this little shop. The owner, Janet, and all her employees are super nice and knowledgeable.) 

I honestly almost forgot about this event until the morning of and last minute we decided to go. I am so happy we made the trek to town, it was totally worth it! I mean seven, that's 7, authors in one event?! Yes, please. Also, I'm always super stoked to meet and support local, homegrown Georgia authors so this was a perfect event for such.

Love this place! Avid Bookshop, Athens, Georgia.

The 7 author line up!

Authors and their books from left to right: 

Kalayna Price -- the Alex Craft novels, 

Rachel Aaron -- the Eli Monpress fantasy series , 

Jenn Bennett -- the Arcadia Bell urban fantasy series , 

Alex Hughes -- Clean, 

Delilah S. Dawson -- Wicked as They Come, 

Janice Hardy -- The Healing Wars middle grade series, 

& 

James R. Tuck -- the Deacon Chalk urban fantasy series.

~~~

The evening started with the authors introducing themselves and then read excerpts from their respective novels. (Of course this lead to us buy more books than we planned. :-)

Then there was a q & a/discussion time. All of the authors in attendance had some very interesting insights to the publishing industry.

Two bits of advice and encouragement from the authors that really stuck out to me:

1. Every writer is a unicorn and every writer is also normal. (Meaning there is no one "typical" way of getting published, each author's journey is different but also the same.)

2. Life is too short to read bad books. (I felt like this released me from some level of guilt I carry for not finishing books I start but just don't/can't finish.)

So the Mr and I had ourselves a nice night out, not too far from home. I really appreciate what Avid brings to the community and hope to attend more events there soon!

Are there any events near you that you're looking forward to or recently attended? This can be book related or otherwise. I want to hear about them in the comments below!

Have a FABULOUS week y'all!

Educational Day Trip: Toccoa

Last Saturday hubs and I took day trip to the Toccoa, Georgia area. I wanted to share with you guys some of the pictures we took.

First, the historical site of Travelers Rest which used to be a stage coach inn. It was pretty cool walking around the grounds. And I was made aware of how grateful of modern convinces I am, namely electricity and indoor pluming. For more info on Travelers Rest click here.

We also visited the the Currahee Military Museum. This was pretty pretty awesome. They have some really amazing artifacts from World War II at this location. The white dress you see below is wedding dress fashioned out of a parachute! (Wow!)

We went out to the memorial at the base of Curahee Mountain and up the mountain. We just drove up but I can not even image the troops trying have to run the "3 miles up, 3 miles down!" in training for the War. While sitting at the top and looking over the valley I was overwhelmed with gratitude with all our military has done.

We had a really great day checking out some nearby historical sites. Sometimes you don't have to go very far to see new things. I recommend checking out the local sites around you. Make a day of being a tourist in your own areas!

And since this is usually a book blog...while we were in Toccoa I was reminded of a couple of books I already have sitting at home in my to-be-read stack! Now I'm even more excited to read them. So I'll share those with you as well...

Origin, author Jessica Khoury is from Toccoa! See Goodreads info here.

Fireworks Over Toccoa by Jeffrey Speakoff, Goodreads info here.

Where do you like to go for a day trip? Any good sites near you? Leave me some comments about great places to vist!

Beyond the Screens Blogger Meet Up Recap

If you recall this post, you'll remember I was excited about Beyond The Screens a local blogger meet up this past Sunday held here:

at great indie book store Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA. That's right, in the heart of Bulldawg country, home of the University of Georgia!

It was awesome to get to meet all different types of bloggers from the area. There were lifestyle, fashion, health, (potential) food, etc bloggers in attendance.

I think we had a pretty good turn out. Bloggers-a-plenty! Yay! And we have plans to meet up again soon. 

Here's a pic of the business cards I collected:

So many good blogs represented 

and here's a few more

links from other local ATH bloggers:

http://irreverenterrata.com/

http://www.girl-who-reads.com/

http://www.leighvslaundry.blogspot.com/ 

http://www.athensstreetstyle.com/

http://petitepanoply.blogspot.com/

I hope I didn't leave anybody out 

between the cards and links.

Are you a Georgia blogger or specifically a blogger in the Athens, GA area? Let me know! 

Leave your links below:

Short Story Sunday: Unspeakable

Hello y'all! This is just a little post to let you know what's going on in Alli's World...AND of course discuss some good writing. First, I want to tell you that the hubs, some of my family members and myself spent a couple of days together on Tybee Island, Georgia (and did the tourist thing in Savannah as well) earlier this week. Which was completely lovely and just what we all needed. The only unfortunate thing is that I didn't get to read as much as I thought I would while we were there, just not enough time to do it all! 

Second, my work schedule changed and I'm on night shift now. I'm still trying to adjust to that and it has really put a damper on my reading for the time being. (If I'm trying to read so late at night it tends to just make me more sleepy and that is certainly not what I need!) So, please just hang in here with me and the next 16 weeks of night shift will fly by and then we will be back to our regularly scheduled Alli's World. Heck, who knows, I might adjust so well I might want to stay on nights, we'll just have to see. 


So this past week I haven't really read much in my current read, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, not because it's not good of course but see above, for the whole night shift makes me narcoleptic thing exploitation. Plus once I get all done with it I really want to share with you guys some things we saw in Sav that you can also read about in the book. It's going be great, trust me. Until then I'll just give you one glimpse at the beautiful "Hostess City" of the South. This is the fabulous fountain at Forsyth Park, complete with the Live Oaks dripping with Spanish Moss.

BUT until I finish Midnight and get my "photo tour" ready to go live on the blog, I've actually been reading some short stories this week I downloaded on my Kindle app for my phone. The first two, I'm not even going to mention cause they were just that bad. Finally today though, I read some quality stuff! YaY!! I downloaded it a week or two ago and finally got around to reading it and it left me wanting MORE!!!

Click the pic for more info!

(Amazon-which I do NOT get paid for, 

just so you know, I just do this cause

I love books!)

I've been hearing about S.R. Johannes' The Nature of Grace series and my interest was piqued. THEN, I saw Unspeakable a short story to the first book Untraceable was a free download on Amazon I simply had to give it a try. Ohmygosh y'all! Just based off the little bit in the short story, I reallllllly want to continue reading. The characters are witty and mysterious. (What ARE they doing in the woods!?) And it ends on a cliffhanger that has me hooked. I told the hubs I think he might enjoy this one (and hopefully the whole series) because it has this whole out in nature aspect to it. (Bless hubs heart, he gets roped into reading most of what I read...but a family that reads together, stays together, right??) Basically, even though I'm like 20 books down in my to-read stack I really want to move this one to the top! PLUS the next book in the series Uncontrollable is due out late summer 2012 and I saw the third book is scheduled for a Christmas 2012 release date!


By the way, S.R. Johannes is a GEORGIA author! YaY for local authors! This makes me super happy! Here's a link to her site so you find out more info about the author and the books!


Anybody out there reading anything good? Got any good summer fun times, you'd like to share? Leave me a comment. I HEART comments!

WWW Wednesday (July 18)

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

My answers:

• What are you currently reading?

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. This is my prep work for our upcoming trip to Savannah, Georgia! It's a re-read for me but I remember really enjoying it the first time and I'm excited to read it again and then hopefully get to see some of the sights!

• What did you recently finish reading?

Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I feel like I'm her own personal cheerleader here on the blog but I have REALLY liked everything I've read by her and she was super cool when I got to meet her on tour. I'm thinking as long as she keeps pumping them out, I'll keep reading!

• What do you think you’ll read next?




The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp. I'm interested in this book because it being turned into a movie that happens to begin filming soon in my hometown area of Athens, Georgia. I really have high hopes for this book. I WANT to love it and hopefully at some point during filming I'll be able to see of the cast and crew around town!