6.15.2012

Meet Christianna: The Girl With the Blue Bow

Have you noticed the new button hanging out on my sidebar this month? See the pretty red head about halfway down the page on the right? Well that's Christianna and she has a blog called The Girl with The Blue Bow

Christianna's invitation to swap buttons this month inspired me to try something new on the old bloggy blog. It's no secret I'm a huge fan of the community aspect of blogging. It really is such a wonderful part of the blogging world. So with community building in mind, I didn't want to just put Christianna's button up for the month and hope you'd stumble upon it. I also wanted to give her a chance to introduce herself and say, "howdy." (Although, considering she's from California, I'm not sure "howdy" is what she'll say...) While I'm sure some of you already know her, some of you might not. Who knows, maybe this guest post will be the beginning of a beautiful new bloggy friendship. 

So without further ado, I bring you, Christianna.

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Hello friends of Molly and readers of A Foreign Land!  My name is Christianna and I blog over at the music/lifestyle blog The Girl With The Blue Bow. No, really it's all about music, even the lifestyle posts have music inspired themes, that is if they aren't posts about travel. Molly has been one of my blog pals from almost the beginning of my blogging career, so I was extremely excited when she asked me to guest post on this little corner of blog land.

As we all know Molly and her guy now call Chicago home.  If there is one thing I know about Chicago (other than the things I've learned here) it's that it has inspired a lot in the music world, and created some really cool musicians! Sometimes things like bands and musicals are simply called Chicago. Sometimes they aren't. What are you gonna do? Shall we take a look at the few that are named after the windy city?!

The Rock Band:


Chicago deemed themselves "the rock band with horns" and they've stuck by that statement for years.  Seriously, the band started in 1967 and they are still doing live shows. Yes, maybe with some new members, but the band is still very much alive and kickin'. Chicago was formed and made in Chicago. Those guys were so creative...

The band is well known for their hit songs "If You Leave Me Now", "You're The Inspiration", "25 Or 6 To 4" and "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" just to name a few.  If you click on these, you can see videos of live performances and flowing locks of hair!

The Musical:
Yes, now we are gonna talk about the musical "Chicago."  I personally love a good musical.  I have to admit that I've never seen the live, musical version of "Chicago", but I have seen the film.  This grimy, crime/song/dance filled musical actually first hit Broadway stages in 1975. It had a great run. But it was received extremely well when it was revived in 1996. In fact, it hasn't stopped it's Broadway run yet, making it the longest running revival Broadway show! How cool is that?

Of course the film version of "Chicago" staring Richard Gere, Renee Zellweger and Cathrine Zeta-Jones not only brought the musical to a whole set a people who wouldn't see it on Broadway, it also helped open the door for movie musicals to be cool again!  Cause who doesn't love a movie set in the 1920's in Chicago that is about a whole bunch of women in prison for killing dudes?  HERE is one of my favorite tunes from the show!

So as you can see, as well as being a wonderful city, (so I've been told) Chicago has also had a large part in music and musical history.  At least by the use of it's name!  Plus all the other great music it has produced over the years!

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Christianna, if you're interested in checking out Chicago for yourself - once you get back from Europe, of course - I'd love to show you around!

If YOU would be interested in swapping buttons and posts in July (or even sometime further in the future), please, let me know. I'd love to make this a monthly tradition.