Muscle in Progress

“We’ve had such good times.  Do you remember the time we saw those cute Mormon missionaries in the doctor’s office?  Or the hot military guy waiting for the bus?  You were my common companion, always quietly waiting in my pocket for me to come up with some brilliant idea to text to one of our friends… ahhh the memories….”

Unfortunately my poor cell phone crapped out on me this week.  For some reason it would work great for 4 or 5 hours, and then all of a sudden it wouldn’t make or receive calls even though there would be a full battery and full reception.  Weird huh?  I finally had to take it into the store the other day when I missed several important calls.  The only option presented to me was that I needed to purchase a new Blackjack.  And at close to $400, the pain was even greater.

When out of the corner of my eye, what do I see…but the young and hotly-desired Apple prodigy, the iPhone.  Hmm…should I or shouldn’t I?  I don’t really need it… and I heard that  some people are having problems with it.  And I know that my Blackjack was awesome.  Do I really need to be a trend-follower?  What if I end up hating it?

“You can relax, sir…actually, the iPhone is the same price as your Blackjack…and the data plans are cheaper,” the sales girl whispers.  “Really?  You’ve got to be kidding me.”  Apparently not.  And of course she had the data plans out in front of my face in a flash.  Hmmm…. $30 for 1500 txt messages and unlimited data, and this new “visual voicemail” thing.  Hmm… ok fine, the touch screen and unlimited data got me hahaha.

You know what the coolest thing about this phone is?  That I can listen to the iPod on it and take a call at the same time.  Oh and not to mention that the Visual Voicemail function is way too cool.  I hated having to listen to all the crap voicemails before getting to something good.   There is a downside to paradise though… unfortunately, you can’t send MMS messages and if one gets sent to you, you have to use the web browser to view it.  But you can’t download pics and video from the web browser onto the phone itself.  So you have your friend email it to  you, then download the pictures or video from a computer…and then upload it to the iPhone through iTunes.  It’s a pain in the ass for sure.  But I guess the other cool features of the phone outweigh the minuses.  And since the phone is updateable via iTunes, I sure hope that Apple makes it possible someday.

Anyway, the iPhone awaits… who am I going to call next?

From the moment the curtain rose, we knew that we were in store for a rare treat. Of course, by now, being the big Broadway geek that I am, I knew exactly how the opening number would roll out, but you never really know what you’re going to get until you’re actually immersed in the pagentry and theatrics. What an incredible musical!

We have been waiting for “The Lion King” to make its presence in Honolulu for years ever since the rumors started to spread about the possibility of it coming here. You see, I live in an area that isn’t really known for its theatre community. Unfortunately I moved away from the successful theatre areas of LA, San Fran, Orlando, and NYC…. and here on an island in the middle of nowhere, it’s very rare that we get an actual Broadway tour rolling into town. So when that happens, I make it a point to get my ass into the theatre to see it.

What makes this show even more special is that it is here until December 9th, so if any of you out there are secretly planning a trip to Honolulu, make sure to come and check this show out! And whats more, because they’re here for an extended run, the crew from the show rebuilt the concert hall’s stage! So it’s going to be interesting to see what will be able to come here in the future because of the new modifications.

Anyway, back to the show…. familiar and loveable songs, haunting African rhythms, undulating drums permeating throughout the whole production accompanying some of the greatest choreography ever presented on the stage makes for a great show! All of the leads were incredible both as singers and as dancers, but if I had to choose favorites….

Clifton Oliver’s portrayal of Simba brought out the youthfulness and the playfulness of the character, while his solemn moment of singing “Endless Night” brought tears to the eyes of everyone around me. And of course, with a song like that… you’re either gonna create magic, or royally fuck it up.. so I’m glad that he did the role and his acting predecessors proud. Everytime I listen to the song on the soundtrack, it makes me think back to the original Simba on Broadway, the beautiful Jason Raize…and I cry. Those in the Broadway community probably know why…

Gugwana Dlamini’s portrayal of Rafiki was both a breath of fresh comedic air and a heart-wrenching rollercoaster of emotion at the same time. A versatile performer, she brings a powerful presence to the role.

But in my mind, the scene of the night would be Ta’rea Campbell’s rendition of “Shadowland”, Nala’s signature song in the show. Her voice had such power and depth to it that even though the sound levels were a little lower than I would have liked throughout the show, she was able to blast through it and bring the crowd to its feet…which, coming from a place that is not known for its great support of musical theatre, IS saying something! In fact, the mere fact that the show is sold out for most of its run IS REALLY saying something

Rumor has it that Westcoast Entertainment, the promoters of this tour, were so impressed with the ticket sales that they are contemplating bringing other big name shows like “Wicked” to Honolulu in the near future. Hmmm, what a sight that would be!

The only recommendation that I could make for the touring cast of this show is to cut out some of the dialogue, because the show goes on and on in areas where it would’ve been much better just to give us an idea of the storyline and then move on. It seems like they tried to take ALL the dialogue from the movie and put it into the stage production, which I think is a major “no-no” when you’re trying to stage something. Now I can see doing it from the other way around… if you were taking a stage show and turning it into a movie… but, yeah… anyway… Oh! And one more thing, please turn up the mic levels on the actors… There are many moments in the show where you can’t hear what the actors are saying if you’re sitting towards the back of the theatre…and supposedly a new state-of-the-art sound system was installed just for this show, so hello…. can you use it?

But, all in all, if you couldn’t tell, I loved the show and definitely want to see it again… maybe this time a little closer up Oh and for all you lovers of the male body….yes most of the dancers are shirtless as are some of the leads…. oooh…Simba…. heheheh.

Thanks to Donnie for this fun quiz!

I hope everyone’s having a great start to their week? Unfortunately I have been suffering all day hehe. I think maybe I had some bad dinner at the restaurant last night…ugh… I don’t have that many sick days left for this year, so I need to conserve them as much as I can. But anyway, enough about my problems. It’s time to kick up our workouts a bit as we get into another week in the gym.

Since Fall is starting to hit us all, there isn’t much beach time left. So you know what that means.. time to gear up for next season! If you didn’t achieve your goals this year, don’t give up! Just keep at it, and make every day count

I don’t know what kind of training this guy went through but damn, look at his chest! It’s huge! And you know, it’s kind of depressing for me to see a guy with a huge chest and a thin waist.. heheh. I want that

Actually maybe this is more my speed I already have the great legs hehhe.. It’s just a matter of slimming down to a great 6pack and beefing up my chest and arms just a little bit

You know, part of the fun of being at the beach is playing in the water For some reason, I have no idea why some people come all the way to the beach just to get a tan… if they knew any better, they’d know that actually being in the water would get you a tan quicker . And hell, with a guy like this in the water, who wouldn’t want to play right? And they say that better workouts can be inspired by a great partner .

Or who knows, maybe what you need is a whole bunch of friends to help ya with your workouts . All three of these guys are hot, but if I had the choice, I’d aim for something like the guy in the middle has. I just can’t get over that massive chest, lean waistline and broad-shouldered look

Well, now if you all would excuse me, I think my personal trainer is waiting heheh.. maybe he can provide some TLC tonight since I’m not feeling too good

Oh and this week, personal trainer Shawn Phillips talks about the importance of nutrition and R&R in a building a great body. Click here.

Oh my gosh… I had to crack up while I was watching this. Anybody else remember the original song? Hehehe…. special thanks to Ka’ano’i for finding this gem

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Hey gang! I hope everyone’s having a great start to the week. And I hope that everyone has set new goals for themselves this week to make this one stronger than the last. For this week’s inspiration, I’ve decided to go with a set of pictures of one hot Brazilian that was featured ages ago on Made in Brazil. His name in all his pics are “W Patrick Shimizu” so I’m guessing that he’s probably a Japanese/Brazilian mix. He is just hot and I couldn’t help but drool over his bod for a long time.

Patrick has perfect proportions, don’t you think? Sometimes I wish these guys had their own personal training websites so that the rest of us could learn how the hell they reached such perfection. Look at that chest! It’s huge, but not freakishly big, you know? I wonder what kind of sports he played in high school and college?

What kills me is that his arms are nice and full while his stomach is completely flat and trim. Now what kind of diet plan do you think that requires? I hear horror stories all the time about bodybuilders who take extreme measures in their diets by cutting out fats completely or cutting out carbs completely… I’ve always been taught that you need a balance which includes a certain amount of fats and carbs in every meal.

Of course, it always helps to have a set of killer abs right? Hmm a little more work and he’d have an awesome 8-pack. Apparently getting a hot set of abs has more to do with diet than lifting weights. In fact, I’ve also learned through researching all kinds of different programs that doing 100 situps or 200 situps every day does no more to build the ab muscles than doing 20 or 30 crunches in precisely the right way. And if it were you, who would you listen to… the guy who has the killer 8-pack who does precision crunches 20-30x or the cute actor who’s got semi-definition and has been doing 100-200 situps? Hmmm I’ll take door #1 please…

Now I had to throw this one in just because it shows off the size and definition in his arms and shoulders. To me, there’s nothing sexier on a guy than a set of large broad shoulders. Find a guy with that kind of build and have him lay on top of you, and you’ll see what I mean

I just had to throw in another ab pic heheh… What kills me is that there is absolutely no overhang whatsoever. You can always tell who is in REALLY good shape versus who is more “talk” than “action.” Have a guy sit in a chair… if his belly hangs over his waistline on his pants, then there’s still work to be done

Which reminds me, I need to get my ass to the gym… have an awesome week!

Oh! Before I forget… this week’s bit of wisdom from personal trainer Shawn Phillips, the secrets about high metabolism. Click here to hear it.

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Thanks to Alek and Steph over at Oh La La Paris for posting this clip of Enrique Iglesias performing at a gay club. Now, I’m not much of an Enrique fan, but for him to do something like this in a club, that takes a lot of balls one way or the other… so my hat goes off to him for it.

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The world lost one of its legendary voices of our time last night. The great tenor Luciano Pavaratti succumbed to a long battle with cancer. In my mind there is no one who can sing like him. His versions of “Nessun Dorma” and “Ave Maria” have become legend.

I, for one, will miss him… ciao Pavarotti..

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