Shudder, a premium streaming video service from AMC focused on horror, thrillers and the supernatural, has some exciting new content this month. As I write this, I have a live Shudder movie marathon playing in the background of the first six films in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, which were just added to the streaming service. For more details regarding Shudder’s Freddy Krueger offering and other great additions this month, keep reading.
In December 2018 I recommitted myself to doing DDP Yoga several times a week, proving that the third time is the charm. Since then, I’ve had some amazing experiences. I interviewed and befriended the founder of the program, Diamond Dallas Page, stayed at his house in Smyrna for a week with professional wrestling legend Jake “The Snake” Roberts as my housemate, attended seven DDP Yoga classes over the course of five days at the DDP Yoga Performance Center, and I’m currently pursuing my DDP Yoga Level 1 certification, so I can teach this great program in Philadelphia. My latest DDP Yoga milestone was attending Dallas’ DDP Yoga workshop at the LifeMed Institute on Sunday, July 21. With 185 people in attendance, it was the largest DDP Yoga workshop ever.
The Quick Red Fox is the fourth book in the Travis McGee series and it’s the first one that I didn’t care for, which surprised me. While this audiobook is well narrated and that McGee charm is pervasive, the story itself is incredibly slow. It takes forever for something meaningful to happen and there are a significant amount of inner-dialogue moments, which slow down the story even further. It’s a shame because I wanted to like this audiobook much more than I did. That said, I still look forward to future entries in the series.
On June 26 Kiefer Sutherland brought his amazing live band to the Ardmore Music Hall for an 18-song set of rockin’ music. He played material from his new album, as well as his first, and more. In addition to being his guest for the evening, I got to hang out with the man himself after the show, which was a great honor.
The Travis McGee novels by John D. MacDonald inspired numerous thriller and mystery writers, so I thought it would be a great idea to check out these books for myself. The audiobooks for the Travis McGee series are exclusive to Audible, and I recently completed the third book: A Purple Place For Dying. Each book includes a color in the title, making for unique and interesting names. As with the previous two entries, this novel was highly enjoyable.
From June 18 through June 30, Cats, the award-winning and record-breaking Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, is in Philadelphia. I had the opportunity to see the show and it wasn’t exactly what I expected. I love cats (my wife and I have two that we adopted), and I love musicals. I also adore Barry Manilow’s interpretation of the signature song from this show: “Memory.” However, I found this show to be one of the weirdest musicals I’ve ever seen.
I recently interviewed Rita Coolidge, who has two Grammy awards to her name and decades of songs and albums along the way. We talked about her time touring with Joe Cocker, being in the studio with numerous legendary artists, singing a famous James Bond theme song, and much more.
Patti LuPone brought her one-woman show, “Don’t Monkey With Broadway,” to Verizon Hall in Philadelphia on June 9 and it was phenomenal. The two-time Tony Award winner performed classic Broadway show tunes by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Jule Styne, Stephen Schwartz, Charles Strouse, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin. She also told stories in between songs about how her life-long love affair with Broadway began and her concern for what the Great White Way is becoming today.
Tommy James, best known as the lead singer for Tommy James and the Shondells, is back with a new album: Alive. Overall, I’m impressed with the vocals and music. However, there are a few duds and the album has a disjointed feel to it.
I’m the latest guest on DDP Radio, the long-running live radio show and podcast about all things DDP Yoga, and you can listen to it below. On this episode, I talk about my DDP Yoga journey thus far, including the amazing past six months I’ve experienced, as well as what lies ahead. It was a blast taking part in this episode, and I hope you enjoy it!
