Kristi Kates

Features Kristi Kates Hypnotic Rena Greenberg’s Right Weigh
By Kristi Kates
“I struggled with food for a long time,” author and hypnotherapist Rena Greenberg says, “I was a big sugar and carbohydrate addict. When I was 26, I ended up in the emergency room, close to death. So I know how painful the struggle can be. I used the tools that I’m now sharing with others to turn my life around. It’s not just about weight loss—it’s about taking your life back.”
Greenberg is both walking the walk and (literally) talking the talk. She’ll be presenting a major weight-loss seminar and motivational program at Boyne Mountain on Saturday, May 1, to help others “find the power within themselves to make changes.”

Music Kristi Kates Various Artists - Repo Men: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Relativity
Futuristic Jude Law/Forest Whitaker vehicle Repo Men’s storyline sends repossessors after those who can’t pay for their equally futuristic mechanical internal organ replacements. The soundtrack music, as might be expected, is appropriately quirky, blending atmospheric classics (Rosemary Clooney’s “Sway,” The Mamas and the Papas’ “Dream a Little Dream”) with more modern, scratchy tunes like Beck’s “Nausea” and UNKLE’s “Burn My Shadow” as perfect accompaniment to this thought-provoking sci-fi yarn.

Modern Rock Kristi Kates U2’s 360 World Tour is returning to North America this June, and the band has selected a plethora of opening acts to support their many shows. Lenny Kravitz will be first up, supporting 360 concerts in Salt Lake City (6/3), Denver (6/12), and Anaheim, California (6/6); The Fray will take on shows in Seattle (6/20), Edmonton (6/23), and Oakland, California (6/16); and Interpol will open the evenings in Toronto (7/3), Chicago (7/6), Miami (7/9), Philly (7/12), Minneapolis (6/27), and East Lansing, Michigan (6/30.) U2 will head back over to Europe in August, where they’ll play additional dates in Germany, Finland, Greece, Turkey, Italy, and Spain, among other destinations...

Music Kristi Kates The Knife - Tomorrow, In a Year - Mute
This grainy, chilly offering from mysterious, mask-wearing pair The
Knife finds the Swedish act in paradoxical moods, veering from one
electro-drama to the next. Influenced in part by German
theatrical-rock and also perhaps a little bit of opera, these
synth-based tracks are a dichotomy of themselves, as the album seems
at times like a whole, and at other times like you’ve gone entirely
into another musical plane. Evocative “Colouring of Pigeons,” the
title track, and “Letter to Henslow” are among the standout tracks,
especially instrumentally.

Modern Rock Kristi Kates Ticketmaster Expands Paperless Concert Tix
Don’t be surprised if you won’t be able to save all of your concert ticket stubs any more - because in many cases, they simply won’t exist. Oft-maligned concert ticket broker Ticketmaster have announced that they’re continuing to expand their paperless ticketing methods - in which customers purchase seats and gain admission to shows via their credit cards and IDs - in order to shut down ticket scalpers and overpriced ticket resales. 2009 saw the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Metallica utilizing the paperless tix for their gigantic show events, and 2010 is set to pull even more artists into the paperless ticket roster...

Music Kristi Kates Natalie Merchant - Leave Your Sleep - Nonesuch
Former singer for ’80s/’90s band 10,000 Maniacs, Merchant’s first studio album in over five years finds her adapting a variety of 19th and 20th Century American and British poetry into songs of her own. Ogden Nash, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Edward Lear are among the poets represented here, in such string-bedecked, Merchant-arranged tracks as the foreign-tinged “The King of China’s Daughter,” the folky “Peppery Man,” and the more poppy “It Makes a Change.” Merchant worked with 125 musicians in a wide range of genres for this set, and her enthusiasm for the project - not to mention her distinctive vocal talent - really shows through.

Music Kristi Kates Africa meets Appalachia at the Dennos
By Kristi Kates
Jayme Stone’s Africa to Appalachia CD - on which he collaborated with
Mansa Sissoko – singer, kora player, and a ‘walking encyclopedia of
Malian songs’ – won Best World Music Group at the Canadian Folk Awards
late last year, a high honor for a journey that started with Stone’s
own musical mecca to Africa.

Modern Rock Kristi Kates Take a Chicago Roadtrip to the Pitchfork Music Festival
The 2010 Pitchfork Music Festival has confirmed this year’s dates and artists, and it’s an event you’ll definitely want to save up and plan a road trip for. Set to be held at Chicago’s Union Park on July 16th through the 18th, tix are on sale already for the big show(s) at www.pitchforkmusicfestival.com, and you’ll likely want to get those tickets early so you can catch all three days of performances. Friday will feature top indie-rockers Modest Mouse, while Saturday and Sunday will offer up shows by LCD Soundsystem, St. Vincent, Here We Go Magic, and a special appearance by the legendary Pavement on Sunday night. Even more bands will be announced and added to the schedule as the festival nears, so keep an eye on that web address, too...

Music Kristi Kates Squeeze - ArgyBargy (Deluxe Edition Remastered) - A&M
Originally released in 1980, Squeeze’s ArgyBargy spawned more than a
few now-classic tunes penned by the gifted Difford-Tilbrook team, and
this two-disc remaster does decent justice to the pep and vigor of
these pop songs. The first disc contains the original album, which
includes landmark Squeeze tracks “Another Nail In My Heart” and “If I
Didn’t Love You,” plus bonus tunes and B-sides including “What the
Butler Saw” and “Farfisa Beat.” Disc two adds to the retro fun by
offering up the band’s Hammersmith Odeon show from March, 1980.

Modern Rock Kristi Kates MTV Officially Gives Up on Music
MTV has finally done what most music fans have thought they should do
for years - removed the “music television” tagline from their MTV
logo. The VP of MTV finally admitted to the press that the network is
“not just about music anymore” (uh - how about at all), and that the
channel is “going in a new direction” - part of which is “no longer
being interested in Generation Y” - which, unfortunately, probably
means more episodes of Jersey Shore and other questionable reality
programming instead of music videos and coverage of actual musicians,
both something that the channel has been sorely lacking for a long
time now...

Features Kristi Kates Leslie Neilson’s Inspired Living
By Kristi Kates
It was July of 2000 when former microbiologist-turned-importer and art
appreciator Leslie Neilson opened her first store, Bali and Beyond, in
Boyne City. Chock-full of beautifully-crafted mobiles, kites, wooden
carvings, and other treasures that Neilson found while on buying-trips
in Bali, the tiny shop in a back alley quickly became a local and
tourist favorite. For Neilson, it meant an equally quick expansion was
needed.

Music Kristi Kates Berating Bowie: Petoskey Professor Picks a Musical Fight
By Kristi Kates
North Central Michigan College Liberal Arts/Social Psychology
Professor Erick Haight is throwing down a musical gauntlet.
Specifically, a musical gauntlet against none other than innovative
50-year rock music veteran and legend David Bowie.

Music Kristi Kates Madlib - Medicine Show No. 3: Beat Konducta in Africa - Madlib
Medicine Show This is the third in Madlib’s Beat Konducta series, in
which Madlib constructs his own potpourri of remixes, beat tapes, and
other productions into a cohesive listen. The Africa*set pulls quirky
vinyl tracks from the afro-beat, prog-rock, soul, and funk genres,
bringing the listener music from Nigeria, Botswana, Ghana, Ethiopia,
and the Ivory Coast, among other places. It’s interesting to see
Madlib’s personal stack of vinyl grow throughout his mixmaster
travels, and even more interesting to listen to what he builds out of it.

Modern Rock Kristi Kates Fatboy Slim, Doves, Editors at Snowbombing 2010
Haven’t had enough of ski/snowboard season yet? Well then, grab a
plane ticket and join Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, who will hit the
Austrian slopes (so to speak) between the Penken and Ahorn mountains
alongside Doves, Friendly Fires, The Enemy, James Zabiela, Editors,
and De La Soul at this year’s Snowbombing 2010 Festival bash. Slim,
who pulled out of the event last year to voluntarily enter alcohol
rehab, is back in fine, healthy form, and will contribute his DJ
skills while the rest of the artists will perform their own live sets
at the wintery musical celebration, which will take place at
Mayrhofen, Austria on April 5 through the 10th...

Dining Kristi Kates Tom‘s Mom‘s Cookies Made Famous in Harbor Springs
By Kristi Kates
Located less than 75 miles south of the Canadian border, the sleepy
town of Harbor Springs, Mich. (pop: 1,600) may be known as the
birthplace of the Shay Locomotive, but today, it is also famous for
being the location of Tom’s Mom’s Cookies...