October 25, 2009

In our last post, you were able to catch a little glimpse of us sisters playing around in the Zumanity gift shop. Well, after a lot of thought and many discussions on the subject, plus some expert advice, BigSis and I have decided to bust out from behind the caricatures and expose our real faces!

LilSis and BigSis at Elton's Red Piano

What better time to reveal ourselves than when we’re talking about Zumanity!  You can’t get much any more revealing than that!

This photo was taken at the Elton John Red Piano Concert a few years ago. This was a very special occasion for us as SisMama treated us to the concert and then it ended up being the last trip with were able to take with our Dad.  This is the actual photo we sent to the awesome artist, India Kalff, who designed our header and spent oodles of time helping us with the design of BigSisLilSis.

So, now that you know what we really look like, we thought we’d just go for it and make our very first EVER videos. Why the heck not!  We’re brave girls, huh?  Be kind!    We’re just winging it and having fun!

In this first video, we were on our way to see Zumanity and were really, really excited, and a little nervous/worried, so we forgot to introduce ourselves. In case you hadn’t figured it out, BigSis is brunette and LilSis is blonde.  (No makin’ fun of the accents, okay??  You already know we’re from Texas!)

If we were asked to sum up our thoughts about the Zumanity show in one word, it would be WOW!  In all reality, we were a little stunned after the show and could barely even get one word out. Check it out! (Oh, and notice the creepy lurking guy peaking through the show poster behind us.) 

When we finally snapped out of our Zumanity-induced trances, we did a second “after the show” video with a few more words!

We both really enjoyed and appreciated some aspects of the show.  It is unlike anything either one of us has ever seen, or will see again. The production was incredible and beyond stunning; including the costumes (designed by Thierry Mugler), choreography, contortionism, acrobatics, music, and staging.  It was all truly superb.

One of our favorite performances was the Waterbowl. These two young women swam around in that bowl and performed out of it like they were dolphins.  It was absolutely mesmerizing.  (We added the red heart to the photo so you wouldn’t have to see everything that we saw.  BTW, they do have on itty-bitty undies.)

Zumanity Waterbowl

In all seriousness, to say that Zumanity took this show as far as they could possibly push the envelope – even for Vegas – is an understatement. It’s definitely NOT for everyone. There is a LOT of nudity, plus a drag diva emcee, a kiss between two men, suggestions of lesbianism, and simulations of sex acts that will pretty much curl your hair.  Plus other stuff that we won’t even mention!  We’re still not sure what the scary little horned goat/man creature was about; maybe we don’t want to know!

While Zumanity features incredibly talented people and unbelievable performances, make no mistake about it – this is a very sexually-explicit show. If you choose to see it, be prepared to be shocked at the sexuality and amazed at the performances at the same time.

One last word of advice. Do. Not. Sit. On. The. Front. Row. And don’t make eye contact with any of the characters that roam around. Unless of course, you would enjoy being dragged on stage to have strange men and/or women take your clothes off and perform very suggestive things on you (or to you).

All in all…we guess the final question should be, “would we see it again?”  LilSis says “yes”. BigSis says “nope, once is more than plenty”.  If you’re thinking about seeing this show, we suggest you go to YouTube and investigate some of the videos there so you can make an informed decision.  As for us, we’d really like to see some other Cirque shows since we have a huge appreciation for the athleticism and talent we saw in Zumanity.

*Disclosure: BigSis and LilSis received free press tickets from Cirque du Soleil, with the understanding that we would tweet or post about the show. As you can see, we were very honest about our opinions!

October 24, 2009

We’ve talked a lot about Las Vegas this past week, but we’re not quite finished yet!  We have more to tell you!

On our last night in Vegas, we had free tickets to see “Zumanity; The Sensual Side of Cirque du Soleil”.  And, sensual it was! Wowee!  We’ll be reviewing the show shortly, but here’s a little sneak peek at the real BigSis and LilSis playing around in the Zumanity gift shop.

This shop was full of fun items: t-shirts, masks, sunglasses, and also lots of sketchy stuff that we WON’T show you!

Don’t forget to come back for the Zumanity review in our next post.  Pssst…here’s a secret.  It’s going to be a video!  Our first video ever!

PS: Just a reminder that BigSisLilSis is still PINK for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Don’t forget to support your local breast cancer charities!

~LilSis

October 21, 2009

What a time we had at BlogWorld!  We won’t bore you with all of the blow-by-blow details, but we’d be crummy selfish friends if we didn’t share the highlights of the conference with you!  You can go to our flickr photostream to see more photos.

• It was incredible to be involved with the new Guinness World Record for the most social mentions in 24 hours.  The goal was to raise money for cancer.  For every tweet, facebook update or blog post mentioning #beatcancer, 1¢ was donated by ebay/paypal and Miller/Coors.  Over $70,000 was raised.  That’s over 7 million mentions in just 1 day!

Jermaine Dupri at BlogWorld

• The keynote panel on “New Celebrity” was moderated by Brian Solis and featured Robin from the Pussycat Dolls (?), producer and Grammy winner Jermaine Dupri, singer Matt Goss, Don Lemon from CNN and Anthony Edwards.  Quite a diverse group, wouldn’t you say?  That diversity ended up with a bunch of sparks flying around that we could have done without.  On the positive side though, Anthony was totally likable, and spoke sincerely and passionately about his cause Shoe4Africa.  Very smart of him to make friends with a bunch of big-mouths like us bloggers!

Anthony Edwards at BlogWorld

• We were really impressed with what Chris Brogan had to say.  Just wisdom from this expert; no BS!  We need to read his New York Times Bestseller “Trust Agents“.

• The final keynote session was moderated by Guy Kawasaki with Jenny the Bloggess, Kevin Pollack, and Chad Vader.  It was pretty funny, although I’d say a few too many f-bombs for my taste.  But Jenny was hilarious and totally held her own as the only woman on the panel!  Check out her stories on the alien apocalypse and William Shatner.  Go Jenny!

• We had a chance to chat with Lou Mongello from wdwradio, and got some great input on wherever the heck it is that BigSisLilSis are going.  Thanks for your thoughts, Lou!  All the best to you with wdwradio.com.

• And lastly, we had the awesome opportunity to meet Darren Rowse.  Yes, THE ProBlogger!  In person.     Woo hoo!  Seriously, we didn’t want to leave BlogWorld without meeting Darren because of the enormous respect we have for him, his expertise, and the way he conducts his business…with total integrity.  So we send a HUGE thank you to Darren for kindly tolerating our gushing, and giving us some extremely valuable input that we’re going to be acting on asap!  THANK YOU!

Oh, and the big surprise that we mentioned yesterday?  It’s a direct result of the ideas and encouragement from Lou and Darren.  Whatever could it be? 

~BigSis

October 20, 2009

We’re back!  We both flew back to our homes last night after 4 days at BlogWorld in Las Vegas, and you can bet that we have lots to tell you about that long weekend!

Can you even begin to imagine how much stuff it takes for 2 blogging women to get through 4 days of work and fun in Las Vegas?  These photos will give you an idea of what our room looked like!  Just imagine a bomb going off in both our suitcases!

Here’s the bathroom we shared at the Renaissance…

Vegas Bathroom Mess

and the desk we shared when we moved over to Caesar’s Palace…

Vegas Desk Mess

Somehow we managed to pack all that cr*p back into our bags and get home with it all, plus a bunch of business cards, marketing materials from vendors and swag from the show!

We’re going to have gobs more on BlogWorld this week (plus a big surprise) so don’t go anywhere!

~BigSis

October 15, 2009

Today is a big day for us!  This morning, I’m hopping on a plane to meet BigSis in Vegas, where we’ll be attending the BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2009. We’ve been planning this trip for months so we’re really excited that the much-anticipated day is finally here!

We’ve been studying like crazy to prepare ourselves for all that we hope to learn this weekend at the Expo. And, we’re secretly (ok, not so secretly now) hoping to meet Darren Rowse, the infamous ProBlogger. I’d also like to meet the zany, Jenny of The Bloggess. And, we’re both curious about Anthony Edwards being a Keynote Speaker.

We’re going to be extremely busy with morning til night sessions and plan to crash a few ‘After Parties’, so if something exciting happens, you can bet we’ll be Tweeting about it! If you aren’t already following us, just go to the right sidebar and Follow BigSis and LilSis. We promise not to bore you with what time we get up, what we eat for breakfast or what time we get in from the casinos; just maybe a couple of quick Tweets about our adventures and misadventures!  We’ll also be putting up our photos on flickr.  You can find our photostream at www.flickr.com/photos/bigsislilsis.

And, if time permits, we’ll throw up a post or two from Vegas so stay tuned for more on our BigSisLilSis adventure @ Blog World in Vegas!  Look out Vegas; here come the sisters!

~LilSis

September 29, 2009

The San Diego tourism, along with just about every other industry, has been affected by our poor economy. I was so disappointed to read that San Diego is going to lose it’s only year-round cruise ship by April, 2010.  Carnival Cruise Lines has decided to relocate its’ 2,052 passenger ship, Elation from its’ home port in San Diego to Mobile, Alabama.

California’s battered economy, along with the sharp drop-off in travel to Mexico because of the swine flu scare and an increase in drug-related violence in Baja, California, has driven business down for the cruise line.

Not everyone realizes how much of an impact this can be for the city. A study conducted by the Port Authority in 2005 found that each cruise ship contributes $2 million dollars to the economy.  Multiply that by the 78 stops that Elation makes in San Diego during a year, and that’s nearly $160 million in lost revenue.

Earlier this year, the Port District was trying to persuade the Walt Disney Co. to bring its’ planned West Coast cruise operations to San Diego, but the Disney Cruise line ultimately chose the Los Angeles area.

One bit of good news for San Diego was the debut last week of Royal Caribbeans’ Radiance of the Seas, an eight-year old, 2,500 passenger ship that will be making about 30 round trip cruises to Mexico from San Diego. In the beginning, the cruise line will be offering four and five night trips to the Mexican Riviera through November 16. After that, the ship will offer nine to twelve nights through May to destinations such as Acapulco, Ixtapa, Ensenada, Puerto Vallarta, and Mazatlan.

The arrival of Radiance also marks the launch of the cruise line’s military appreciation campaign. In recognition of the contributions made by members of the U.S. military, Royal Caribbean is donating $10,000 to Wounded Warriors Families Support, an organization that provides support to the families of those who have been wounded, injured or killed during combat operations.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship Radiance of the Sea (photo credit: John Gibbins/Union Tribune)

I actually saw the Royal Caribbean Radiance last Friday when I drove past the harbor on my way to the airport. It’s a gorgeous ship! Thanks for coming to San Diego Royal Caribbean!

~LilSis

September 19, 2009

Are you going to BlogWorld Expo?  We hope so!  We’re going and are SO excited about it.  It’s just 4 weeks away now…October 15-17.

If you want to go, the discounted registration pricing has been extended to September 21st.  That’s Monday, so you don’t have long.  Go to the BlogWorld Expo registration page and get yourself signed up asap.  The discounted weekend pass for Friday and Saturday sessions is $395, and will go up to $495 once the discount expires.

There are also some discounted $69 rooms left at the Hilton, but that pricing is only good til October 1st, if the rooms last that long.

Not sold on the value of BlogWorld Expo?  Check out the agenda for this year’s sessions.  There are some pretty heavy hitters scheduled to speak:  Darren Rowse, Chris Brogan, John Chow, and Cali Lewis, just for starters!  And the Keynote Speakers haven’t even been named yet, so who knows!

For more info, get yourselves over to the BlogWorld site.  You can also check out twitter #bwe09 and flickr tag blogworld09.

If you make plans to attend, please let us know!

~BigSis

September 12, 2009

We’re going through a lot of changes right now with our business and the past several weeks have been the most stressful that we’ve ever been through. I’m sure we’ll get through it as we always do. I just tell myself every morning “This too shall pass.” (Actually, I say that about fifty times during the day.)

What does that have to do with the World’s Happiest Cities?

Well, since you asked, I’ll tell ya. While in the middle of this huge transition, I find myself thinking about what it means to really be happy and to have true inner peace. I even wonder if it’s possible to live a stress-free life? Could you really live a happier life just because you’re living in a different environment?

I’ve always wanted to go to Rio de Janeiro, but since I heard that it was voted The Happiest City in the World, I WANT TO GO NOW!!  This might even get put at the top of my bucket list above Rome. (Don’t get hissed off at me BigSis, I’m not ditchin’ our dream vacation to Italy.)

I’m really curious to know what makes a city the happiest city in the world? For starters, just look at the place.

Leblon Beach

Stunning views

Rio de Janeiro

Ipanema Beach (Flickr Photo by over_kind_man)

Forbes recently named the Top Ten Happiest Cities in the World. Here’s the complete list.

1. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2. Sydney, Australia
3. Barcelona, Spain
4. Amsterdam, Netherlands
5. Melbourne, Australia
6. Madrid, Spain
7. San Francisco, USA
8. Rome, Italy
9. Paris, France
10. Buenos Aires, Argentina

It’s sad that there’s only one US city on the list. The results were compiled from 10,000 online interviews from people living in twenty countries. Still, the concept of happiness is pretty tough to quantify. This study is more of a survey of the respondents’ perception of happiness than actual reality.

The study says “Brazil is associated with all the qualities of good humor and good living and Carnival”. Carnival is very important- it’s the classic image that people have of Rio, and it’s an image of happiness.

You can actually buy an apartment in Rio for $25,000 and beachfront homes just an hour away for less than $250,000. That’s a heck of a lot cheaper than here in California! Now all I need to do is figure out how people make a living there. I think I need to take a trip there to check it out.

I don’t think HayHay would mind too much if we uprooted him to move to Brazil. The surfing is supposed to be pretty good in Rio!

~LilSis

July 6, 2009

Got your summer vacation planned? Anyone still trying to decide on a great place to visit that’s jam-packed with things to do? If that’s the case, you might want to consider visiting beautiful San Diego, California. Whether you’re traveling alone or with children, there is absolutely, without a doubt, something in San Diego for all ages.

Here’s a list of just some of the main attractions that you’ll find here in San Diego.

• San Diego Zoo
• SeaWorld
• Balboa Park (home to 15 major museums)
• Birch Aquarium
• Marine Corps Command Museum
• Wild Animal Park
• Legoland
• California Surf Museum
• San Diego Air and Space Museum

If you’re lucky enough to have time for some fun day trips, here are a just a few ideas.

• Cruise the historic Highway 101 to find everything from historic buildings, specialty shops, and beach side restaurants.
• Relax and play on Mission Bay.
• Tour the USS Midway.
• Cruise to Catalina Island.
• Take the 15 minute scenic ferry ride to Coronado Island to visit the legendary Hotel Del Coronado.
• Drive up to Oceanside Pier for a walk out on one of the largest wooden piers on the West Coast.
• Take a Trolley Tour. Check out the San Diego Metro Transit site for timetables.
• Walk around the Gas Lamp Quarter in Downtown San Diego for amazing shopping and dining.
• Visit Historic Old Town, the Birthplace of California. After siteseeing, have lunch at my favorite, Cafe Coyote for some of the best Mexican Food in Old Town.

Lastly, for specific dates on events or for more information about San Diego, check out the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau site. Whether you’ve got a week or just a long weekend, you really can’t go wrong in choosing  San Diego as your vacation destination.

We’ve lived here for seven years and still haven’t managed to see or do everything on this list!

~LilSis

July 1, 2009

I like to always carry plane snacks with me so that I’m not tempted to gobble up the free honey-roasted peanuts that I don’t like that much anyway, or buy one of those uber-expensive snack packs that are full of fat, sodium and sugar.  This is my criteria for travel snacks:

• They aren’t too messy.

• They don’t spoil if they’re in your carry-on bag for a while.

• They don’t have too much sodium.  I get puffy enough already from flying!

• They keep you going until you get your next proper meal.

These are my top 5 picks for best airplane travel snacks:

• Raw unsalted walnuts or almonds: they give you protein which keeps you satisfied longer.  Chips or crackers just make you crave more chips or crackers!

• Trail mix: make your own with raw nuts and your favorite dried fruit.  I like blueberries, cranberries and cherries with raw nuts and sunflower seeds.  Scoop 1/3 cup of your mix into a snack size plastic baggie.  Be sure to measure, otherwise it’s really easy to eat way too many calories from this snack.

• Low fat string cheese: great protein, plus satisfaction from the flavor and the bit of fat you get.

• Half a whole grain bagel: either plain or spread with a little nut butter.  I like almond butter but you can use peanut butter.  The whole grains will give you steady energy and fill you up without cravings.

• Dark Chocolate Peanut M&Ms: I know these have sugar, and caffeine and fat!  I know, I know!  But just a few are a delicious treat and a great pick-me-up at 33,000 feet!  Plus they melt in your mouth and not in your hands!  And they come in fun colors!

Whatever your snacking preference, make sure to pack a few individually-packaged antibacterial wipes in your bag so you can clean up your hands and fold down tray before having your snack.  Who knows what kind of germs are lurking on your plane, right?

~BigSis