Tag Archives: features

Backstreet Boys Nick Carter’s Santa Barbara, California Wedding

09 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by in Inside Weddings

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Originally published in the Fall 2014 issue of Inside Weddings

Nick Carter never had to wonder what his family would think of his girlfriend, fitness expert and actress Lauren Kitt, after they began dating in 2009. That’s because it was Nick’s sister, Angel, and brother, Aaron, who intuitively knew the couple would enjoy each other’s company and persuaded them to meet. The two were introduced at a movie night at Nick’s house, where a sign from the heavens seemed to approve the match. “Three hours into conversing on my balcony overlooking the beach, we saw shooting star after shooting star,” Nick remembers. “We both looked at each other and it got quiet.”

While on tour in Australia, separated from his love for the longest time since they met, Nick realized he couldn’t live without her. After obtaining permission to propose from Lauren’s father, Nick set off on a mission to design the perfect engagement ring. He sent Lauren to look at jewelry for her birthday with his business manager. A diamond on one particular necklace captivated Lauren, so Nick had the stone removed and set into a ring. “I personally love it because it looks like a Star Wars battleship,” he explains.

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Is Silicon Valley The Best Place To Be A Single Woman In America?

13 Sunday Sep 2015

Posted by in Mic

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Originally published on Mic

On a Friday night in downtown Palo Alto — just a stone’s throw from Stanford University, office buildings and the technology hub of San Jose — the college bars and vegan restaurants lining its streets teemed with single men. But at Nola, a Creole-themed bar with notoriously bad service, Erika, 25, wasn’t having much luck meeting single guys.

“I ordered my drink, and my girlfriend and I threw out glances and smiles to many men we were interested in. However, none of the maybe 30 men surrounding us were eager to start a conversation,” Erika, who lives in nearby San Jose, told Mic. “I would come up to them directly, only to languish in their lack of conversation skills.”

In most urban areas like New York City, Philadelphia and Washington D.C., where single women handily outnumber men, such a scene would be wholly unfamiliar. But it’s par for the course in the sunny suburban sprawl of San Jose and the surrounding Bay Area cities, home to technology giants like Facebook, Google and Cisco, where college-educated single men outnumber women.

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Meet The Daring Young Women Showing The World How To Stand Up To Slut Shaming

13 Sunday Sep 2015

Posted by in Mic

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Originally published on Mic

When Alexis Frulling was secretly recorded having a threesome in a deserted alley and the clip went viral on Reddit, she could have hid in the shadows, hoping no one would recognize her in the video. But instead, she uploaded a YouTube video calling out her haters.

“I can’t say I’m proud about it,” Frulling says in the video. “But I’m not ashamed.” Her story spread, with many praising Frulling for taking back control of her own sexual narrative.

She’s not the only one.

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112 Weddings: Filmmaker Reveals What Really Happens After the Ceremony

07 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by in Inside Weddings

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Originally published on Inside Weddings

While filming 112 weddings over the course of 20 years, videographer and documentary filmmaker Doug Block found he couldn’t shake one simple question: After the cake was cut and the gifts were opened, whatever became of these couples’ marriages?

That question inspired 112 Weddings, a documentary that explores how life and marriage have changed for 10 couples since Block filmed their weddings years earlier. Juxtaposing footage from the couples’ wedding days with candid present-day interviews, the film reveals which marriages thrived, stumbled, and, in two cases, ended.
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The Vibrations In Ruhl’s “Next Room” Reach The Secret Rose

22 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in LA Stage Times

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Originally published in The LA Stage Times

It’s a sunny Saturday morning in the San Fernando Valley, and actors Joanna Strapp and Michael Oosterom are discussing the finer points of Victorian-era sex.

“In the Victorian era, they were raised to never talk about sex until your wedding night, and then you better be making babies like crazy,” Oosterom explains. He and Strapp aren’t historians, but they’ve clearly done a lot of research on the subject. “It’s not just the brides — the grooms were like, ‘I don’t know what to do, no one told me what to do, all I know is that we’re supposed to do this’.”

Which makes it all the more surprising that these same 19th-century Victorians were the ones who invented a device now known as the vibrator. Back then, it was used to treat hysteria, a catch-all term used to describe a variety of female ailments; today, it’s the subject of playwright Sarah Ruhl’s2009 comedy In the Next Room (or the vibrator play).

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Eve Gets A Second Chance In Rubin’s “eve2”

09 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by in LA Stage Times

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Originally published in the LA Stage Times

If you’re familiar with the biblical story of Adam and Eve, you know that Eve’s got a lot of blame resting on her shoulders. She did eat the apple from the Tree of Knowledge, after all, supposedly causing the fall of mankind and the beginning of pain and suffering.

But what if Eve realized that she got the raw end of the deal? What if she decided she wasn’t going to be blamed for man’s fall from grace and changed the end of her story — so eating from the Tree of Knowledge actually turned out to be a pretty good thing?

These are the questions posed by eve2, a feminist re-imagining of Genesis in which Adam and Eve are modern-day workers at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital morgue. After a blackout stops time and space, they realize that they have become the titular biblical figures, giving Eve a chance to transform her dreary ending. The surreal, dream-like play opens Saturday at L.A.’s Bootleg Theater.

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Circus Performer Uses Giant Balloon To ‘Pop’ The Question

07 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by in The Huffington Post

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Originally published in The Huffington Post

Most men get ready to propose to their girlfriends by putting on a nice outfit and making sure the ring is tucked into their pocket. Vancouver circus performer Nigel Wakita got ready by by stuffing himself inside a giant balloon!

Wakita is the director of recreational education and a performer at the Vancouver Circus School, and his girlfriend, Fiona Walsh, also works at the school as a performer and office administrator. He told HuffPost Weddings that, since he knew she wanted a big, public proposal, he decided to organize a show at the school and pop the question during his balloon act, in which he puts himself inside a giant balloon.

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Hurricane Sandy Victims Lose House, Receive Free Wedding

07 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by in The Huffington Post

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Originally published in The Huffington Post

New Jersey couple Samantha and Chris Reinhold were planning to get married in Aruba in November 2013. But after Hurricane Sandy destroyed their Staten Island home in October 2012, they realized they could no longer afford their dream wedding. Then, Samantha, 24, a hairstylist, entered herself and Chris, 28, an engineer, into a contest to win a free wedding from TheKnot.com. They didn’t win, but thanks to the generosity of local wedding vendors and wedding gown designer Amsale, they married on Saturday in a free wedding at the Affinia Manhattan Hotel. Here, Samantha and Chris tell their story to HuffPost Weddings’ Erin Migdol.

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Harry Potter Proposal Features Quidditch Box, Hidden Ring

08 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by in The Huffington Post

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Originally published in The Huffington Post

Rachel Allison knew her girlfriend, Jaquie Richards, had been a “Harry Potter” fan since 4th grade. So when Allison decided to pop the question, she turned to Hogwarts for some proposal inspiration.

Allison enlisted the help of artist Tony Albano to create a “Quidditch box,” filled with the bat and four balls necessary to play the mythical game featured in the “Harry Potter” series. She hid an engagement ring inside one of the balls, the “Golden Snitch,” then surprised Richards.

Allison told HuffPost Weddings that although she has never read the “Harry Potter” books, the movies have been a major source of entertainment for her and Richards since they first began dating in 2010. She was inspired to center her proposal around Quidditch because she wanted the phrase “I open at the close,” which is inscribed on the Snitch and signifies endings and new beginnings, to factor into the proposal. Continue reading →

Mother and daughter make dentistry a family affair

20 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by in The California Aggie

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Originally published in The California Aggie

Mother and daughter dentist duo Jeanne and Kelly Brewer remember the first time they ever worked together. One of Jeanne’s patients needed to have a root canal over a weekend, and with no dental assistants available to help with the procedure, Jeanne offered the job to her daughter, Kelly.

Kelly was seven years old.

“When you’re doing root canal work the person who’s assisting you suctions next to you. She wanted to make sure it was at a perfect angle, and she sat there just doing it perfectly because that was her big job. She was great,” Jeanne said.

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