Do you hate Networking as much as most of us do? Are you also bad at it, often wondering why no one returns your calls or follows up with you after a “Networking Event”? Join us in any of our cities for “The Art of Active Networking”, and let’s change everything you believe about Networking! Take a look at our site and what people say about the events here: TheArtofActiveNetworking.com Come see why over 12,000 people have attended worldwide! Tickets are 20$ on-line on our site until 6pm the day of the event and 30$ at the door until 7:30pm. Each event typically ends about 9:30pm! You must purchase a ticket online in advance to get the 20$ pricing. At this event you will make some amazing connections and you will learn why Networking is not about what you get, but what you give and what I call my #GIVE4. You really only need to meet one person to make your entire night worthwhile if you know what you are doing. You will have an opportunity to speak to everyone in the room, and you will absolutely meet people you might otherwise never have an opportunity to meet and you will see that’s it’s not what you are selling or how you sell it that matters, you will instead learn the importance of building ‘know, like and trust’ relationships! Finally you are then invited to join all of our groups and pages and use our FREE walls to post up what you might be looking for, all of those links are on our homepage near the ticket link. Everything you need to know about this event is on our site. Join the pages and the groups, spread the word and also take a look at my TEDxFulton Street talk, also on our site. TheArtofActiveNetworking.com I, Mark E. Sackett started this in San Francisco over 7 years ago as a way to help others do better in life, love and business. I own 13 companies and live in San Francisco. I hop between Los Angeles, New York, Vancouver BC and my hometown of Kansas City often. I’m a Director, Producer, Designer, Art Director and Public Speaker. Working daily in Branding, Marketing, Film, Television and Music and as an events producer and speaker allows me to talk about and thrive, while living an authentic, powerful and creative life. My Mantra: “The power of us all working together is so much greater than anything each of us can accomplish on our own.” See you soon and I hope your year is about beautiful, powerful connections. Connect with me by clicking below to start sharing my massive networks with those you can help to do better each day! BE WELL, BE CREATIVE, BE GREAT! Mark E. Sackett President/Creative Director/Executive Producer/Director/Public Speaker Mobile: 415-602-9500| MarkESackett.com TheArtofActiveNetworking.com
with OXYMORRONS, Apollo Bebop It may sound like hyperbole, but there is truly no one out else there quite like Astronautalis. In addition to moonlighting as a travel writer, avid photographer, Harleyrider, and most assuredly being the first rapper to perform and have a piece on display at the world famous Venice Biennale, this nomadic wordsmith has been perfecting his own unique hybrid of hiphop, indie rock and punk for o v e r a d e c a d e . C u t T h e B o d y L o o s e i s A s t r o n a u t a l i s ‘ f i f t h f u l l l e n g t h a n d a l s o t h e first album he’s released since his Justin Vernon a.ka. Bon Iverfronted, highprofile hybrid project Jason Feathers, who released their debut De Oro last year. While sonically different from Astronautalis’ own music, he insists that in many ways this album was inspired by the making of De Oro.”The process of creating De Oro with Justin Vernon and those other guys was the most fun I ever had making an album and it really changed the way I thought about making my own,” Astronautalis explains. In keeping with that new approach, he decided to record Cut The Body Loose at Justin Vernons April Base home/studio outside of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, with his long time producer, engineer, and musical collaborator, John Congleton (Modest Mouse, St Vincent, Earl Sweatshirt).”I realized early on in the writing process that I was creating my record about the south that I grew up in, and around, and down the block from, he explains, as well as my Father’s South, my Mother’s South, and the South of the past, and the South of future, and all the magic, and mysticism, and horror, and tragedy, and weird, sweaty, fucked up beauty that entailed.Not only did Astronautalis take influence from the music that was ubiquitous to his youth like Trick Daddy, Mystikal, Three 6 Mafia and the classic No Limits Records roster, he drew further inspiration from every corner of the south’s musical past. He cites everything from the New Orleans trad jazz of Allen Touissant and Professor Longhair, to the hill country blues of Mississippi Fred McDowell, the night trips of Dr. John, and even the legendary college marching bands during halftime at the Florida Classic.And somehow, Astronautalis manages to tie this “bipolar southern insanity” to the dominant hiphop hallmarks of today to create his own jagged, puzzlepiece persona on this record. “Running Away From God” is about him attending a wedding in New Orleans six months after Hurricane Katrina and admiring the beauty of watching people still find love, drink, dance, and celebrate in the chaos.He had a similar experience when he played a show in adca, Slovakia, a poor mining town where people, despite the bleak situation of a mine gonebust, and a economy teetering on the edge of collapse, still managed to not only survive, but to really live. “The overarching theme of this record is seeing people in adverse conditions take matters into their own hands and still find the energy to go dancing or fall in love or create art,” he explains. “I’ve started to get really frustrated with our complacency here in America and those feelings came out a lot on this album.”Although this may be Astronautalis’ most aggressive album, to call it angry, or pessimistic, would be to miss the point. It is, in fact, an album about liberation. In a traditional New Orleans jazz funeral, there is a ritual of grief, that carries from the wake, to the service, to procession of the pall bearers out of the church. Each step of the way, the sorrow, and pain, escalates, soundtracked by the music of suffering. Heavy, gutwrenching, plodding dirges fill the air, as the funeral service, and the casket itself, spill out of the church, and into the streets. The mourners, and a full brass band follow along with the casket, as the pall bearers, carry the departed to the cemetery gates. The music guides the pace of the procession, while shaping the suffering of the mourners. And just when it seems as if the pain is becoming too much to bear, the suffering insurmountable, the casket reaches the cemetery gates, the band swings into the raucous celebration of “When the Saints Go Marching In”, and the mourners “cut the body loose” as they leave the body to gravediggers, and they dance on down the street. The time for sadness left in their dust.The scene of the album is set early with the gritty, glitchy opener “Kurt Cobain” which is as much a call to arms as it is an mission statement. Cut The Body Loose exists in a space between heartache and acceptance, and that duality is evident in songs like “You Know What It Is,” which starts as a downbeat critique of music and pop culture in general before exploding into a joyful, horndriven celebration of life. Like life, there’s plenty of inherent variety, which is why there’s room for ominous, ethereal bangers like “Kudzu” or the pianodriven, downbeat hiphop ballad “Boiled Peanuts, an ode to his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida.”I feel like I really fell in love with hiphop again on this album,” Astronautalis explains. “That was territory I tackled here that I was really scared to go to because I’m at the point where I could just write more songs about girls, but I didn’t really want to do that again and wanted to see what would come out if I wrote from the heart.”As anyone whose seen him live knows, it’s difficult to separate Astronautalis’ music from his raucous performances, which are less cerebral than than used to be and currently favor a freeforall full of freestyles and beats so infectious that you can’t help it but get lost in the kinetic energy of it all. “For the longest time my inspiration for live shows were watching bands like Grandaddy or Bill Callahan and now I’m way ore interested in watching The Knife or gangster rappers getting totally nuts onstage,” he explains. “To me that’s way more exciting and it’s also ahuge influence on this album in the sense that I want to write songs where I can make everyone jump up and down and sweat and get whiskey dumped over themselves to, you know?” In other words when Astronautalis commands the audience to “turn it up ’til it shakes the rafters” on “Running Away From God,” it’s not a metaphor, it’s time to tear the fucking room apart.On the surface, Cut The Body Loose centers around themes of loss, disappointment, and struggle but in the end, it is really about finding redemption, triumph and catharsis in the face of all of that sadness.”The core of this album is the fact that the world is fucked in a lot of ways but instead of letting that crush you, you can use those circumstances to make a small change,” Astronautalis says. “I’m not talking about recycling, I’m talking about finding joy in being good and happiness inside the framework of what can easily be a crushing amount of sadness you see in the world around you,” he continues, “and exercise those demons and find an outlet for all of those feelings through my stories and experiences.”Having played thousands of shows all over the world and seen more than many of us will ever witness, its a perspective that’s worth hearing out.
The Addams Family: The Creepy, Kooky Musical Comedy The creepy and kooky adventures of the mysterious and spooky Addams Family have inspired this altogether ooky musical comedy from the writers of the Tony-winning Jersey Boys. The Addams Family tells the story of every father’s nightmare: Gomez’s little girl Wednesday, now all grown-up, falls in love with a seemingly “normal” boy. Inviting his family to the Addams Mansion sets the stage for a meet-and-greet gone gothic. Savor the horrific hospitality of Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley, Grandmama, Lurch and everyone’s favorite weirdo, Uncle Fester, as this popular Broadway show comes to the Costa Mesa Playhouse.
It is a time of crisis for the delightfully ghoulish family created by cartoonist Charles Addams. Gomez and Morticia’s daughter Wednesday is growing up. Now eighteen, she has fallen in love with a “normal” boy, and to make matters worse, has invited him and his parents over for dinner. In one fateful, hilarious night, secrets are disclosed, relationships are tested, and the Addams family must confront the one horrible thing they’ve managed to avoid for generations — change.