This past weekend, I visited a place in Chicago I was unaware of. Imagine living "right next door" to Chicago and never having heard of the China Town district. I always thought it was a New York State exclusive. Now I'm finding many other states have similar communities. I suppose it makes sense, there is a large Asian population in the United States now. Following are a few more photos I took while in China Town. Hope you enjoy them.
Questions: Which is your favourite photo? Have you ever visited a China Town? Ever been pleasantly surprised by a new discovery in your own home town or neighbouring city?
China Town - Not too far from the Willis Tower
One of the streets in China Town
Aji Ichiban - A well known sweet shop chain from Hong Kong with a Japanese sounding name.
At different times throughout the year, various street musicians play.
Another view of the street from an upper level.
Visit TBaar for the best Bubble Tea in town.
The largest selection of K-Pop I have ever seen can be found here.
I have to be honest, I was VERY happy with the results of this battle. No, it has nothing to do with who won. It has to do with voting turn-out and the fact we had an actual BATTLE! Seriously, more exciting than anything I could watch on TV. What do I mean? Read on....
Our first round could have gone either way. Points were literally awarded back and forth. Gwen, Kylie, Gwn, Kylie Gwen. This means Gwen wins the first round, but just barely. Kylie has NOT given up yet.
Gwen Votes - Debbie, Michele & Arlee
Kylie Votes - Mary & Alex
The second round votes came in pairs, with a final tie breaker to decide the round. Two votes for Kylie, two votes for Gwen and a final deciding vote for Kylie. This means Kylie wins the second round and at the end of ten total votes, they are tied.
Gwen Votes - Stephen & Janie
Kylie Votes - Janet, Robin & mike
Round three begins and end the same as round one. Votes go back and forth. Like the first round, Gwen took charge and scored one final vote to secure her the third round decision. Will this break Kylie's spirit? Or will she hold on, dig in, and show Gwen who's really in charge?
Gwen Votes - Cherdo, Shady Del Knight & Chrys Fey
Kylie Votes - Dixie & Borgot
Once again, Gwen takes the lead by one single vote.
The fourth and final round was a quick one. diedre came to support Gwen, giving her two votes over Kyle but then the next two votes came in from John & Spacer Guy for Kylie. You know what this means? Yes, WE HAVE A TIE!
HOLD THE PHONE!!!!! THE FIGHT IS NOT QUITE DONE YET.
WE HAVE A LAST MINUTE ENTRY.
That's right, suddenly at the zero hour, one final vote from Cathy came in for Kylie!!!
The tie is broken and we can declare a winner!
Winner's Circle With a final score of 10-9 Congratulations to Kylie Minogue
PS - Have you figured out what the theme is I'm running? You would be so lucky to figure it out. It's CHALLENGING! While you ponder on it, here is a song which may have aired back in the day on TV. For a few hints see below.
Secret Theme: Notes
First Battle - Bring Me To Life
American - Chris Daughtry vs. Welsh Katherine Jenkins
Second Battle - Tears on my Pillow
American Gwen McCrae vs. Australian Kylie Minogue
Clue 1: The theme has nothing to do with song selections.
Clue 2: You will likely need all three battles to work on a guess.
Previous Guesses - Just because I have not declared a winner, does not mean someone may not have guessed correctly. But that doesn't mean someone HAS guessed correctly yet either.
Want additional clues? In your comments below, you may ask one Yes/No question.
I will answer it in my next battle.
How much of a detective are you?
Have you noticed a pattern?
Would I be evil and throw in a few red herrings?
Well, enough with the clues and such, I'm off to watch a bit of TV.
Top Comments Debbie D. - For this battle I preferred Gwen McCrae's bluesy rendition. Kylie Minogue's voice makes me grimace.
Michele Truhlik - I'm going with Gwen McCrae on this one. I love her version. I didn't like Kylie's voice.
Janet Miles - Hey Jeffrey, I have to go with the Kylie version, McCrae's was just too slow for me.
Stephen T. McCarthy - I didn't really care for the way the version by GWEN started out (I rarely like spoken passages in a song) but, boy, it sure intensified as it went along. Her deep, Bluesy, impassioned interpretation of the song easily beat out the much more superficially Poppish version by Kylie, in my opinion.
Janie Junebug - I vote for Gwen McRae because of the emotion in her voice, although I don't like the spoken part at the beginning. Kylie seems too manufactured.
Cherdo - Basically, I like both of these versions for waaaay different reasons. Pop is not a bad word in my world, so I like Kylie - but Gen is superior when we battle 'em out!
Birgit - Oh I give my vote to Kylie because it is. Throwback to the 50's which I like and I like her voice. Gwen's talking and style just didn't do it for me at all. I'm not into that style
diedre Knight - I rather liked Kylie's Doo-wop style, I love that era. However, in terms of 'singing your heart out' Gwen gets the golden hanky!
John Holton - I prefer Kylie Minogue's version of this. Gwen McCrae's version was a little too hammy for my taste, while Kylie's was closer to the original, which I think is quintessential Little Anthony.
Please note: My next battle will held November 1st.
Once again, thanks to everyone who stopped by and placed a vote.
See you next battle.
Who will you vote for?
What song will I choose?
Which artists will battle it out?
Stay tuned.
For my last BOTB, I mentioned there was a secret theme for three battles. Well, one battle has been completed, and there were a few guesses. If you'll recall, the song selected was from Evanescence, 'Bring Me to Life'. The covers were from the American - Chris Daughtry and the Welsh operatic singer - Katherin Jenkins. Additionally, I placed a hint in the results page, though I won't repost that hint here. ;)
For this battle, I have turned to an oldie but a goldie song, 'Tears on my Pillow'. I subject which I can certainly relate to. To be honest, who can't relate to this song in one form or another? It certainly sucks when you have to cry yourself to sleep, doesn't it? But, it happens from time to time. And we must learn to go on. There are plenty of fish in the sea, and all that jazz.
So what is the clue I'm giving this week? Is it the song name or the original artist? My lips are sealed. Perhaps it's neither. Perhaps the clue is in one of the covers for this song. So who exactly will battle it out this time? I'm glad you asked.
For reference only: Little Anthony & the Imperials- Bring Me To Life
BATTLE OF THE BANDS
The two musical contenders for this Battle of the Bands are below.
Please listen to both and tell me who you like best.
Cover A - The American: Gwen McCrae
Cover B - The Australian: Kylie Minogue
Those are the two contenders. Ignoring the actual videos, who do you think performs the song best? I collected the two bands to battle it out, now it's your job to vote on your favourite. Please list your preferred song choice in the comments. Additionally, let me know why you feel the way you do. Voting ends on the 8th when I'll cast my vote (if needed) and announce the winner in a separate posting.
Additional Questions:
Have you ever had tears on your pillow?
Who can remember the Soundtrack this song has appeared on?
Which, if any of the artists are you familiar with?
Please note:
Starting in December, I will be changing my BOTB posts. In order to get more writing done, I will only be producing one battle a month, the second battle. The first of the month I will be devoting to my R.a.n.t. series and working on YA series.
If you enjoyed this Battle of the Bands feature, don't forget to visit the other participants in the Battle of the Band to see what sort of music they are featuring. You will certainly be entertained, so click on their links below.
Jeffrey Scott came back to the Battle of the Bands with a powerful song. And win or lose, each contestant seemed to do well with all voters. Though the vote wasn't the closest I've ever seen, kind comments for both were encouraging. (Okay, there were a few negatives, but that's the nature of the beast. This battle, featured American Chris Daughtry vs the UK's Katherine Jenkin's.
The first round of the battle went to Chris with an impressive 3-1 lead. But would this be enough of a lead to maintain.
Chris Votes - Shady, Janet & Alex
Katherine Votes - Arlee
The second round insured Chris was to keep his lead. Voting for Chris had surely come to life. But would the second round help out Katherine?
Chris Votes - Janie, Mary & mike
Katherine Votes - Stephen
The third round did bring some new life to the game. This round was won by Katherine. Perhaps she could make a comeback as powerful as her beautiful voice. We shall see.
Chris Votes - Michele
Katherine Votes - Birgit & GB Miller
Perhaps if more showed up to vote, the outcome would have been different. The fourth and final round was a draw. However, having won the first two rounds, this puts Chris as the ultimate winner of this Battle of the Bands.
Chris Votes - DisConnected & diedre KnightKatherine Votes - Cathy and Jeffrey Scott
Second Chance Circle With a final score of 6-9 Katherine Jenkins comes in second place. Congratulations to Chris Daughtry - our First Place Winner!
Following is a second chance song for you to enjoy. Will this one from Katherine Jenkins win you over? Is there a reason the loser is a second song? Is this a clue? Do you remember I have some kind of a theme running? Can you figure it out?
Top Comments
Arlee Bird - In the case of your battle I really like Daughtry, but the outcome of the race for me is a squeaker. I'm going give the opera singer an edge though. I cast my vote for Katherine Jenkins.
Shady Del Knight - This is my third BOTB vote of the day and another very difficult decision. Both of your selections are superb, the kind of music you would find in my personal collection. Katherine Jenkins is drop dead gorgeous (your new dream girl replacing Diana Krall?)
Janet Miles - As for the battle, I was going to vote for Katherine but then I listened to Daughtry again and he seems to sing the song as if he really needs to be brought back. I don't get that feeling from Ms. Jenkins. Also interestingly, I don't like Evanescence!
Mary Burris - OH boy! Do I go for the rocker, or do I go for the one that stayed pretty true to the original? Well, it *IS* Rocktober this month, so I think I'm going to give my vote to Daughtry.
Stephen T. McCarthy - I have just one word about Daughtry's performance: annoying, annoying, annoying! (That was one word. I just repeated it three times, that's all.) Seriously, that was like "MEATLOAF singing" -- heavy on the histrionics; ten dollars worth of emotion in a ten cent song.
Birgit - No doubts for me....Katherine Jenkins all the way! In fact I have her album with this song on it. She has a tremendous voice and just brings it home for me especially this song.
Michele Truhlik - I really felt Daughtry's. His version is very powerful and emotional. I liked Katherine's until it got opera-y. I'm not keen on the opera sound.
G. B. Miller - I have the c.d. that contains the original (I'm very strange that way, will buy the entire c.d. for one song. 99% of the time it's a good thing), so I'm a bit biased in that aspect.
DiscConnected - I liked the Katherine Jenkins version ok, but since I am a fan of Daughtry's "Meat Loaf" singing, as McCarthy put it, he sort of had my vote locked before I hit "play."
Cathy Kennedy - Jeffrey, WOW, you put together two different styled artists going head to head on a Evanescence's biggest song! This is a good song for Chris and he pulled it off beautifully while keeping it close to the original. The real surprise for me came with Katherine Jenkins. I thought, "Ok, this isn't a song up her alley." and yet she did a fantastic job. Her vocals are far, far better Amy's and I loved Jenkins lighter rendition which didn't make me think about death.
diedre Knight - Katherine Jenkins is really good, but I'm hooked on Doughtry!
Please note: I will be offline for the entire weekend. I will return Tuesday to comment and answer comments. My next battle will be October 15th.
Once again, thanks to everyone who stopped by and placed a vote.
See you next battle.
Who will you vote for?
What song will I choose?
Which artists will battle it out?
Stay tuned.
Don't forget to visit the other participants in the Battle of the Band to see who won their battles.
Please don't let the blog title fool you. I know it might do so because for the past few months, my blog has been fairly vacant. I've taken a self-imposed hiatus for various reasons. But I'm back. And I apologize for missing the past two IWSG posts. I was suffering depression and I simply could not bring myself to get online. Yes, that might seem odd, I was so depressed I couldn't even get online to drop a quick note. Well, I eventually did. So what do I mean by my blog heading? Well, that brings me to the question of the month. Which is:
When do you know when you're story is ready? This really is a challenging question for me because I continually rewrite and look for improvements in all my stories. Even when I'm done, I usually will go back and rewrite. I've been writing a series for so long, I have finally decided I have it where I want it. How did I decide this? I came to the conclusion that I will NEVER be happy 100% with my writing. I wonder if this is just me, or a typical writer experience. So I had to finally 'call it'. Finish a final edit and let it be. If I don't/didn't tell myself to finally stop, I'd still be working on it and I can't do that. I have to stop looking back, I have to move forward. And that's what I'm going to do. As I mentioned above, a lot of my depression stemmed from things in the past. But I have to stop looking to the past. No more. I need to move forward. In my writing and everything else. Continuing to rewrite and be depressed? I'm done!
Goals and such:
New Goal: Make it a full year, posting to IWSG, without going AWOL again.
Old Goals: Test readers: In the next few months, I'm going to be looking for someone to exchange a YA manuscript with, to test read. I have a few sites others have suggested for me to check out. I shall be doing so. Find Writing Schedule: Still looking to time my non-negotial time. Summer is a bad time for me. So much going on. Can I still find the time?
My Encouragement: "In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity". - Albert Einstein
Questions to Ponder: Outside of school, what was the first thing you wrote that others enjoyed? Have you ever written something, put it away for a long period of time, then returned to rewrite it years later?
* * * * * * * * * * The Insecure Writer's Support Group posts the first Wednesday of every month. Please follow along as my fellow writers and I relate why we feel insecure, or read as we help encourage others suffering from insecurity. Are you an insecure writer? Why not join the group? Find out more information via the group HERE. The site is founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh - Thanks for all the support! Save
A few things before I continue with the Battle of the Bands.
1.) First, I'm sorry I have been away for awhile. I was dealing with a few things which were seriously depressing me. I believe I finally have thing under control (for the most part) so I shall pick up where I last left off. I was feeling so out of it, I couldn't bring myself to visit my online colleagues, much less post to my own blog. But I'm back. Please note, even still, I shall be adjusting my blogging schedule. More on that later.
B.) There is no hidden message to my song selection for the day. Though I had initially though on doing so with other songs floating through my head. But that is not to say, there isn't a reason why I have selected this battle. Which brings us to.....
III.) Over the course of my next three BOTB, I have a hidden theme. Will anyone be able to figure it out before the third battle results? There is the hook. And to be really mean, I'm not even going to give any clues this battle. Hello my old friend, the sound of silence is all you will know from me. Muaahaaaha. However, starting in the results of this battle, I shall begin to drop hints. (Or maybe I'm lying and I've already started dropping hints).
Back to the Battle: As you may have deduced already. The song for today is Bring Me to Life and I have found some dramatic covers of the song, almost as interesting as the original Evanescence version.
BATTLE OF THE BANDS
The two musical contenders for this Battle of the Bands are below.
Please listen to both and tell me who you like best.
Chris Daughtry
Katherine Jenkins
Those are the two contenders. Ignoring the actual videos, who do you think performs the song best? I collected the two bands to battle it out, now it's your job to vote on your favourite. Please list your preferred song choice in the comments. Additionally, let me know why you feel the way you do. Voting ends on the 8th when I'll cast my vote (if needed) and announce the winner in a separate posting.
Additional Questions:
Have you ever felt so stressed, you had no motivation to do anything?Will you forgive me for being gone so long without a word?
Are you good at puzzles?
Please note:
Starting in December, I will be changing my BOTB posts. In order to get more writing done, I will only be producing one battle a month, the second battle. The first of the month I will be devoting to my R.a.n.t. series and working on YA series.
If you enjoyed this Battle of the Bands feature, don't forget to visit the other participants in the Battle of the Band to see what sort of music they are featuring. You will certainly be entertained, so click on their links below.
