Ultimate Sounds Entertainment

On 2/20/10 I had the pleasure of providing the entertainment for one of the sweetest and most thoughtful young ladies i’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.

From our conversations on the phone leading up to her special day to the actual party, Jamie’s concern was that everyone have a great time, kids and adults.

From the start, you could tell that this was going to be great. You could see people bopping along with the “cocktail” music and the energy level was building. We did the candle lighting ceremony up front as well as her dance with her dad. After that we opened the dance floor to the black eyed peas “i gotta feeling” and never looked back. The dance floor erupted with both Jamie’s friends and family and with the exception of dinner it never emptied. Every once in awhile i’d see some of Jamies friends body surfing and showcasing their dance moves, it was an absolute blast. Towards the end of the party, Jamie wanted to change things up by doing a game. We played a modified version of musical chairs that was hysterical to watch (especially those hopping like bunnies) and then followed that up with a mystery dance contest.

Jamie, all I can say is you have great friends and a great family. May you live as long as you want…and never want as long as you live.

Wow! That pretty much decribes Abie’s Bar Mitzvah.

As John “Hannibal” Smith (the A-Team) used to say “I love it when a plan comes together”. After months of planning, Feb. 14th arrived and with that so did Abie’s Bar Mitzvah celebration at the Berkely Hotel in Asbury Park, NJ.

The party was broken down to five rooms. The cocktail rooms were decorated beautifully and accented with theatrical intelligent lighting. Then onto the three main rooms. The adult room, the lounge and the kids room. The adult room was beautifully uplit and had some incredible centerpieces We provided the adults with an incredible sound system consisting of four Bose L1’s with eight bass bins hidden behind our uplit custom made FaCIEd as well as Howie Bongo on percussion. The Lounge was the home to our bopping heads system, custom gobo, couches, tables etc… that were uplit an icy blue. The lounge also had the kids buffet and deserts. The kids room was turned into a night club with cage trussing, four plasma screens, live video simulcasting and l.e.d lighting with theatrical intelligent lighting.

The party was rocking with Howie Bongo and I with the adults and Emilio and Scott with the kids. I can honestly say that this is a day Abie and his family won’t soon forget.

When you meet a couple like Trish & Tage, there’s something that draws you to them. That was the feeling I had when I initially met with them. They were always happy and you just sensed that they had something special going on between them. To be honest, I think they “liked” each other.

The Berkely Hotel in Asbury was the setting and we had to setup three systems. The Bose compact and pacemaker for the ceremony, the alesis transactive pro for the cocktail hour and our main bose system with a 50″ plasma screen for their montage.

Trish & Tage introduced me to a group called vitamin string quartet. That was the music that they wanted for their ceremony and cocktail hour. Vitamin string quartet performs string versions of contemporary songs (everything from the Beatles to Metallica) and more. Thanks to Trish & Tage i’ll be using them quite often.

After a beautiful ceremony that was performed by a friend of theirs they headed out (literally) for pictures while their guests enjoyed cocktail hour. After the cocktail hour it was on to the reception, actually let’s call it what it was, it was a PARTY!!! After the introductions, the mood was set. They shared their first dance (sparks by coldplay) and then we invited the bridal party to join them on the dance floor to Stevie Wonders “for once in my life”. It was at that moment that Emilio & I looked at each other, smiled and said this is gonna be fun. About halfway through that song all the guests were invited to join the newlyweds and it was magical. Typically we would follow up a first dance with another slow song, but Trish & Tage chose something with a little bounce to it and it worked great, so great that we followed that up with spiral staircase “more today than yesterday” and kept the dance floor going… This was followed by A beautiful toast by both the best man and maid of honor. From there we invited Trish and her dad to the dance floor for that special father/daughter dance, well this wasn’t what everyone expected. With the photo montage running in the background, dad & daughter busted a move to Tavares “heaven must be missing an angel” to the delight of all the guests. Tage then shared a dance with his mother to Roger Williams “theme from somewhere in time”.

After a delicious dinner, the dance floor heated up and never stopped. With A little bit of everything and alot of old school, I think Emilio and I were having as much fun if not more fun than everyone.

To wrap things up, Trish & Tage anytime you want to have a party, don’t forget us (even as guests). Thanks for letting us be a part of your special day. May the two of you live as long as you want… and never want as long as you live.

Twin Rivers community room provided the perfect location for the communities valentines day pre-teen dance. With about 40 kids in attendence and the latest and greatest music playing through the bose compact by way of the tonium pacemaker, the party was off the hook. With the chauvet 4 bar providing an awesome light show the kids were packing the dance floor all night. One of my favorite moments of the night was when we did the mystery dance contest and watched in amazement as the kids waltzed, tango’d, cha cha’d etc… It was almost like watching the abc show so you think you can dance. It’s nights like this that really make you smile. I’m anxiously awaiting the next pre-teen dance.

Well the fiasco at NBC concluded last night as Conan O’Brien exited The Tonight Show for the very last time. NBC’s big experiment to save prime time programming money failed miserably, and a very talented young host has had his career derailed by the stupidity of accountant-driven executive programmers.

Conan “COCO” O’Brien 

It was high time for Jay Leno to retire and turn over the reigns to a younger host, and Conan O’Brien had indeed paid his dues to be rewarded with the most coveted position on television. But NBC couldn’t simply have a nice orderly Bye Bye Leno transition. They had to screw up prime time programming to inject a useless Jay Leno Hour at 10 PM.

NBC’s big money saving idea eventually cost them nearly $100 Million as you consider the reported $45 Million in severance pay to Conan and his staff, along with the expense of a new $50 Million Studio for the show.

NBC has made some real blunders over the years, and this latest fiasco should keep their ratings in the dumper for a long time to come.

Remember, this is the network that cancelled the original Star Trek Series claiming it wasn’t rating worthy and had no lasting power!

It’s also the network that interrupted the 1968 AFL Football Playoff Game when in the final minutes of the game,  had a tide turning ending play, instead went to a Holiday Special called Heidi!

 That fall day in Oakland, California was a showdown between two of the best teams in the American Football League–the defending champion Oakland Raiders and the upstart New York Jets, a team that had become a force to reckon with, thanks to its able and flashy quarterback Joe Namath. Because the game was set to begin at 4:00 Eastern Time (1:00 PM in the Western time zone), there was no concern the game would run over into prime time. Most football games usually took less than three hours, so NBC felt confident it could air the game within the three-hour period, allowing the much-hyped “Heidi” to air on schedule.

What the Peacock Network did not count on was a nail-biter. Both teams were in fine form, with the lead changing hands often. By late in the fourth quarter, a 26-yard field goal by Jim Turner put the Jets ahead 32 to 29. By that time, it was just before 7:00 PM Eastern Time, and the game had just 65 seconds left to play. With so little time left, it seemed there was no way–short of a miracle–the Jets could lose. Immediately, viewers were treated to NBC’s animated peacock colour logo, before “Heidi” went on the air.  Here’s what they missed:

The game resumed after the commercial break, and the Jets suffered a penalty, giving control to Oakland. Charlie Smith ran for 43 yards for a touchdown, putting the Raiders ahead 36-to-32. But during the kick-off for the next play, the Jets’ Earl Christy allowed the football to land on the two-yard line, giving the Raiders’ Preston Ridlehuber a chance to grab the pigskin and score a SECOND touchdown for Oakland. The final score: Raiders 43, Jets 32–one of the most sensational plays in American football history.

The fallout was tremendous. It wasn’t bad for the Raiders, who later that year defeated the Jets in the AFC games and went on to win Super Bowl Three with a 16-to-7 victory over the Baltimore Colts. But the National Football League was so angry it demanded future broadcast contracts to include a provision that required the networks to air all football games in their entirety. The “Heidi Game” was one of those rare television events that caused a chain reaction–and proved once and for all the popularity of professional football in the United States. Perhaps the best final words came from Val Pinchbeck, who was the National Football League’s chief of broadcasting: “Probably the most significant factor to come out of ‘Heidi’ was, whatever you do, you better not leave an NFL football game….It sure let you know that you better not take my football away from me at 7:00 PM.”

Well, it seems NBC still hasn’t learned it’s lesson when it comes to Prime Time Programming!