Big Time Rush revealed their new music video on Saturday, July 31.  ”The City of Ours” also has a bunch of behind the scenes footage, and we’ve found it for you on YouTube!  It takes a lot of people, directors, extras, and technicians to make a music video.  I like to watch all the different people doing their jobs.  It’s so interesting to see how it all comes together behind the scenes!  It’s total chaos, then the director yells action and suddenly everyone’s dancing in sync and it all looks great.

“Big Time Rush” is my eleven year old’s new favorite show.  All his friends get together to watch it together.  Have you seen it?  What do you think?

Justin Bieber wanted to have some fun during a recent downtime in his US tour, so he went to visit the Fantasy Factory. One of the workers there who is called Drama went to twitter to tell about Justin’s adventure. We also have a video and photos at the bottom of this post.

Drama tweeted

Justin Bieber stopped by the Factory the other day to say whats up and enjoy the things the Factory has to offer before he went on his U.S. Tour.

. As you can tell that, they were all excited for Justin Bieber to come there and wanted to share this news with everyone. It does appear that Justin did have a blast while being at their factory, so it was likely a good day for all parties.

For more of Justin Bieber before we get to the video or photos, be sure to hear his rap song Omaha Mall. You can also see his cover on Todateen.

source-disneydreaming.com

We all know that Hannah Montana Forever will not come back for anymore seasons, so Emily Osment decided to give the fans of show a virtual tour of sorts. She leads you on a tour of the new house, rooms, backstage and even talks about a new character. The video is located at the bottom of this post.

The tour is a nice touch, yet it does seem to make this season that much more final. I find it bittersweet, and I am sure that for some of the shows other stars feel sad about losing a show that played a huge role in their tween and teen years. I know I would feel pretty sad about that.

In fact, you can hear what Emily Osment had to say about the show and her character. You can also see a behind the scenes photo Miley Cyrus, Emily Osment and Miley’s father Billy. Now for the final tour that we likely ever see of the Hannah Montana Forever set.

source-disneydreaming.com

If you remember from our first look at the Yakima Skybox 16, we were going to be road testing this product.  Not just a one and done review, but actually seeing how it holds up during use.  Well, I am happy to say that in the real world this product still gets two thumbs up from me and the family.  We made our way to Williamsburg this past weekend, and with a family of 5, we sure needed some extra storage room.  Step in Yakima and their product.  I had already installed it on the roof, so that part was done, so I figured let me pack this thing up and head out.

I hurt my knee recently, so I was using a small wooden step stool to put the items in the carrier.  If I hadn’t had an injury, I could have just done it via an open door, but I was taking no chances.  Well, after packing all our things up in the Yakima Skybox, I had so much extra room left over, I decided to throw the small wooden stool in the car for easy unloading, as well!  A nice bonus for easy loading and unloading.  Driving with the Yakima on the highway filled up with items for our vacation was also no problem.  I was the only one driving and did not feel any sort of handling difference during the drive, which with traffic was over 18 hours.

The Yakima is easy to open from either side, and after packing it there is something very satisfying about the “click” of it being closed.  It is a manly sort of click that gives you a sense of security for your belongings.  They may not be riding in the car with you, but you feel comfortable with them up there.  Stay tuned as we move the Yakima from our Mazda CX-9 to my parents’ Toyota Sienna in the coming month for a super-long trip!

Product provided by Yakima for review

I was first introduced to Super Chicken Nugget Boy by someone running around in a costume at Book Expo America this year.  By the time I had gotten over to the booth, though, all the copies were gone, so I had to wait a bit to get a review copy.  I was happy when Josh Lewis reached out to me and asked us to review the book.  Fast forward ahead a few months (as I am never the most timely person with reviews), and I bring you both my point of view as well as some thoughts from my 6-year-old son, as we have started our own book club this summer.  So we both read Super Chicken Nugget Boy and the Furious Fry by Josh Lewis.

I enjoyed the characters that Josh Lewis created for this book; he puts together a perfect Mr. and Mrs. Hamstone to be the parents of school bully Dirk Hamstone.  The rest of team bully consists of Snort, Dirk’s sidekick–he may have been a bit overdone for my tastes.  Now on to the hero, Fern, and his friend Lester.  Lester played a very good secondary role to Fern and kept the story flowing.  Dirk and Snort, though, are just part of the story, as Fern will eventually have to face the Furious Fry and save the day.  I enjoyed the artwork by Douglas Holgate; it is sprinkled to perfection throughout the book.

I did have some issues, though they may be affecting only my grown-up brain.  I felt the book started off a bit slow–there was a lot of set-up in a book that was this length and meant for kids.  Plus there was also not a clear-cut villian; at first you think Dirk and Snort, but in reality we only need to look at the title to see the Furious Fry was the real evil that Super Chicken Nugget Boy needed to defeat.  I was also a bit confused about where this Furious Fry came from.  With all the set-up in the beginning, it seems that Fern’s town gets attacked a lot.  Bowling Ball Barry was seen rolling into town right after the Furious Fry is defeated.  What did these people do before Super Chicken Nugget Boy?  I like the Dirk angle; I just think it has to be slimmed down a bit so as to not overtake the story.  Dirk needs to be a distraction, not a plot point.

I love the concept and really look forward to book two in this series.  I think that Josh Lewis lays the groundwork for a great series, and the slow start may just be like a Bowling Ball rolling down a hill–he is going to pick up speed with each volume of Super Chicken Nugget Boy.

For my son, he enjoyed the book and stated that it was his second favorite read of the summer.  Hey, based on the fact that he read over 10 books, I would take that as a compliment!

He’s got genuine deep-fried breading!
And swift, nuggety hands!
He’s the most powerful crime fighter in Gordonville —
He’s Super Chicken Nugget Boy!

When Fern Goldberg arrived at his new school, he was just an average kid: near-sighted, a touch on the skinny side. Then he fell into the pool of radioactive green goo behind Bogie’s Burger Barn. Now, whenever his skin comes into contact with condiments, he transforms into a bona fide, deep-fried superhero who”s not afraid to take on villains great and small, from the class bully, to the giant, mutated French fry who threatens to crush the whole school beneath his massive, starchy feet…

Villainous vegetables beware! Here comes the most formidable food fighter in history!

D.J. Steinberg really knows kids, and you can tell that right away just based on the titles of the first four books in the Daniel Boom aka Loud Boy series:  Sound Off, Mac Attack, Game On and Grow Up.  I mean, all kids are loud, most all of them love mac and cheese, they all want to game, and what kid does not want to be a bit older and grow up?  David (D.J.) has put together a set of characters and stories that my 6-year-old has dubbed his favorite books of the summer.  It was so bad that when I was reading book 4 and he caught up to me, he hid it on me so that he could finish reading it before bed.  He did not want me reading it before him!  David Steinberg, corrupting our youth.

The reasons that these books rock are many, but for one, Steinberg puts together a great villian (Old Fogey) and the evil Kid-Rid Industries to take on Loud Boy, Chatterbox, Fidget, Tantrum Girl,  and Destructo-Kid.  To help them is the crazy Uncle Stanley, who is on the run from Kid-Rid but still pops up to help the kids out and give them some information.  Another thing is that the stories just cater to the kids’ imagination–I have to go to Mac Attack as an example, where the kids have to stop the lunch lady who has teamed up with Kid-Rid to serve them a mac and cheese that makes the kids behave like polite children, to the extreme.  Also their superpowers are based off of the bad habits that most children have, which makes it funny and cool at the same time. 

Some of the credit for the winning combination also has to go to Brian Smith, who illustrates the series.  He creates colorful and detailed drawings that do not overwhelm the panels. 

The only issue I have with the books is the binding is a little weak on them, but it does keep the cost of the book to a reasonable price, so maybe I should not complain too much. 

Beyond my review, though, I think that my recommendation can be summed up that this was my kid’s favorite book (series) of his summer reading.  He just gobbled up these books.  Go get them, now, before Loud Boy yells at you.

Being the new kid in town with no volume control on his voice, Daniel Boom discovers an even bigger problem: the evil Kid-Rid Corporation has silenced the entire world with their terrible Soundsucker LX machine! Daniel taps into his inner superhero to become Loud Boy, along with his new pals who have bad habits (aka superpowers) of their own. The unlikely heroes are able to turn the tables on the villains, restoring peace and un-quiet to the world once more! But is it the end of Kid-Rid?

Watch a QuickTime trailer for this book.