Opening Night At The Hollywood Bowl with Reba and Chaka Khan

One of my greatest summer pleasures in Los Angeles is the Hollywood Bowl.  I go every year to catch everything from Hall and Oates to Gustavo Dudamel to the Broadway musical, Hairspray.  I have never been to the Opening Night at the Bowl which always honors the inductees to the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame.  My amazing friend, Annie, who was working on the production, offered me two tickets to opening night.  How could I say no?  Well, the seats turned out to be gorgeous box seats with the most incredible view of the stage--a completely different experience for someone like me who normally buys the $10 seats in the last row.  If you live in the LA area and you haven't taken advantage of the Bowl in awhile, check out their schedule here.  It's an affordable entertainment option for the summer season.

Here are a few photos from my evening with my usual inside commentary.....

 Tarrah and I joked about our "terrible" seats all night long.......

 Okay, see that last section all the way in the back?  Yep, that's where I normally sit. By the way, the bathrooms are way nicer and more plentiful by the box seats too.  Higher price=better life?

 This photo makes me giggle--I'm taking a self-portrait on my iPhone while Tarrah is busy Tweeting on her iPhone.  Steve Jobs would be proud.

 The host of the evening, Julie Andrews.  She's a Dame, but prefers to be called, "Julie".

 The super sweet Reba McEntire.  Her awesome fans followed me all night on Twitter.  They love their gal, Reba. 

 Souvenir chocolate bars for the box seats!  We never get this in the bleacher seats.

 I was happy to see there wasn't any corn sugar or high fructose corn syrup in this chocolate bar.  

 Hey, Dawg, it's Randy Jackson!

 The diva-licious Chaka Khan even had a costume change with only a 5-song set.  "Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan!"

The best way to end the night......Hollywood Bowl fireworks.  

Don't forget, it's #RadioBurtt night!  I will be on the Driving With Gass show at 7:35PM PT/10:35PM ET tonight on KWSS.  I hope you join me for the latest in entertainment news.

If you missed my appearance last week with Dara on Radio, click here to listen in about how I got my start in entertainment reporting. You can find most of the archives to other media appearances here.  

Disclosure:  My tickets were complimentary.  I was not asked to post on this event, all opinions are my own.

Hyundai Santa Fe Launch at the New York Auto Show

Oh boy, have you ever walked through a crowd of journalists who are clamoring to get into a newly revealed and redesigned vehicle while reporting for the LIVE on the scene?  Well, I was lucky enough to host the webcast for Hyundai's launch of the Santa Fe at the New York Auto Show on Wednesday.  Watch me battle my way through the crowds to interview Hyundai's President and CEO John Krafcik.  It was one of those defining moments where I was just thrilled to be in the midst of all of the action, a total rush confirming that I was "doing more of what makes me happy".

Live on every Steve Jobs-designed device.

Click on the link below to see the broadcast:
2012 New York International Auto Show Press Conference – Hyundai Motor America: Hyundai Motor America President and CEO, John Krafcik, introduces the third-generation Santa Fe crossover family – the two-row, five-passenger Santa Fe Sport and the long wheelbase (LWB) three-row, seven-passenger model called Santa Fe.

Let me know what you think of my crazy crowd-busting reporting!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus for more photos and inside scoop from my adventures in LA. 

Remembering Steve Jobs

At the Oscars with my iPhone 4.

In December 1984, the big family Christmas gift was a Macintosh computer.  I spent my entire holiday vacation inserting the MacWrite and MacPaint diskettes and wasting reams of paper and ink cartridges printing up my creations.  I even went off to college with my Macintosh about a decade later and wrote countless term papers on that computer.

Dancing a little West Side Story with my iPad 2 at the State Fair of Texas yesterday. (I seriously need a spray tan.)

I didn't rejoin the Mac revolution until 2003 when I bought my first iPod, but once I went back to the cult of Apple, I never left.  My old Dell desktop went away as I bought an iBook G4 laptop in 2004, a MacBook Pro in 2008, my 3G iPhone in 2008, a gifted iPad in 2010, an iPhone 4 in 2011, and 2 gifted iPad 2s in 2011. Steve Jobs revolutionized the way we look at technology and I always joke that if I could marry my iPhone, I would.  I'm not kidding.

At CES in 2004 launching iTunes for HP.  (Look at that awful haircut!)

In 2004, I had the pleasure of helping HP launch their version of iTunes and the hPod at the Consumer Electronics Show(CES) in Las Vegas.  Yes, this Apple/HP partnership was short-lived, but it was an exciting time. I remember teaching people how they could find a particular song, download it to their iTunes playlist, and then make a mix of a variety of artists.  I remember adding a plethora of Michael Jackson, U2, and No Doubt songs to my unlimited iTunes account while I was at the show.  I was hooked and I watched as others shared in my amazement that week at CES.  

On the Goodyear Blimp a few weeks ago.....

These days, it's rare to find me without my iPhone or laptop and my iPhone has been photographed everywhere from the red carpet at the Oscars to the Goodyear Blimp. I own a collection of Pixar films from The Incredibles to Finding Nemo and I wear my Pixar sweatshirt with pride.  I am a happy Apple owner and shareholder.  My thoughts go out to his family and friends at home and at Apple.  You revolutionized the world.  RIP, Steve Jobs.

I would love to hear your stories about how Apple and Steve Jobs revolutionized your life.  Share in the comments below.

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July!  I spent my evening at one of my favorite summer activities in LA at the Hollywood Bowl.   Hall & Oates were the headliners for the holiday concert and I was more than thrilled to hear one of my favorite songs, "You Make My Dreams Come True" played live. Here are a few photos of my weekend.  Be sure to let me know what you did this weekend too!

First up, two photos of fireworks from Saturday at the Toyota Speedway of Irwindale.

And then off to the Hollywood Bowl on Monday night for a little Hall & Oates with my pal, Phillyjo.  Super grainy on my iPhone 4!

We are in the bleacher seats, about 493583449459458 rows away from the stage.

If you squint, you can see Daryl Hall on the video screen.

Take two! Peace out!

Look at all of the lights shimmering in the audience.  It's all of the Smart Phones recording the fireworks.  18,000 Smart Phones.  It's good to be Steve Jobs.

Sometimes it looks like the Hollywood Bowl is on fire versus a night of fireworks. 

"You Make My Dreams Come True" Lyrics:

"What I want, you've got
And it might be hard to handle
But like the flame that burns the candle
The candle feeds the flame
What I've got's full stock of thoughts 
and dreams that scatter
You pull them all together
And how, I can't explain
But You make my dreams come true
On a night when bad dreams become a screamer
When they're messin' with the dreamer
I can laugh it in the face
Twist and shout my way out
And wrape yourself around me
'Cause I ain't the way that you found me
I'll never be the same
'Cause You make my dreams come true
I'm down on the daydream
That sleepwalk should be over by now
I know that You make my dreams come true"