LINE-UP ANNOUNCED | NYC Governors Ball

I absolutely love going to music festivals and have been putting together a dream wishlist of festivals I'd love to cover someday. This list includes the huge well-known parties that go by Coachella and Lollapalooza, but another big one I want to check out is The Governors Ball on Randall's Island in NYC.

And just last week, the line up for this year's event was released and it looks killer. I WANT TO GO. Kanye, Azealia Banks, The XX, Kendrick Lamar, Icona Pop...so many.

So I just thought I'd share:

Amazing, right? Let's see if I can make it out there this year...

- Christina
Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

Safe Haven Toronto Premiere

I am, and always will be, a sucker for those cheesy romantic movies - I can't help it. So when I won passes to see an advanced screening of Safe Haven, I was definitely pumped, since it's another one of Nicholas Sparks' novels come to life.

Not only was it an advanced screening, it was also the Toronto red carpet premiere, so the stars made an appearance and did Q&A after the movie! Starring Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel, the pair were introduced in the theatre and they looked great. They're also pretty funny. And Josh Duhamel is such a gorgeous human being, sigh...

Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother), also stars in the film, but wasn't there for the premiere. I did get to meet her though last year at the premiere of The Avengers. Did you know she's a fellow Canadian? Oh and I've also met Julianne Hough before, when she was in Toronto promoting Footloose!

Anyways, here's the trailer, so you know which movie I'm talking about:

At the theatre, the audience wasn't allowed to bring in any form of cameras/cellphones so I had to (reluctantly) hand over my phone before walking in to get a seat. So, sadly, I have no photos from inside the theatre and from the Q&A. But while I was waiting to go in, I was lucky enough to see Josh arriving, so I snapped a few pics:

After the movie, they chatted about what it was like filming together (they said Fergie and Ryan Seacrest were fine with it haha), their favourite scenes to shoot and how they prepared for the roles. Julianne, who is normally seen dancing and singing, takes on a role that really showcases her skills as an actress - although there is still a dance scene in this one!

The movie was actually so good. I don't want to give away any spoilers, so I'll just say that it's better than you might think. It has romance, drama and twists. Go see it when it comes out on Feb.14! For more Safe Haven updates, find them on Twitter @safehavenmovie.

- Christina

Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

All Time Low @ The Sound Academy

Last week, I was surrounded by the teenage fans of the pop-punk band All Time Low. I didn't know much about the band, but from the huge line up of dedicated people standing outside in the freezing cold Toronto weather, they seem to be quite popular (I discovered that they have more than two million Facebook likes!). If you haven't heard their music yet, here's one of their most recent singles, "Somewhere in Neverland" -

The guys of All Time Low (Alex, Jack, Rian and Zack) were in town for a show at the Sound Academy along with Yellowcard and Fireworks on January 17th and I was there for Faze Magazine. We got to do an interview with ATL's lead singer Alex on their tour bus and he told us about how their tour is going so far and insight on their latest album, Don't Panic.

Stay tuned for the article in an upcoming issue.

Check out some of my photos from the show:

For more All Time Low, find them at http://www.alltimelow.com and on Facebook & Twitter!

- Christina
Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

CONTEST | Book Lovers' Giveaway!

Hey everyone!

I've got another giveaway, featuring three awesome books to add to your never-ending reading lists:

The Bridge by Jane Higgins

Blood Red Road by Moira Young

The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong

For your chance to win one of these novels, all you have to do is comment on this post OR tweet me telling me which book you want to read the most (BONUS points if you comment AND tweet!)

Sample tweet:

"Hey @christinaaa28, I want to win The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong!"

It's that easy! :)

Details:
- Open to residents in North America
- Must be following @christinaaa28 on Twitter (only if you are entering via Twitter)
- Contest runs January 16th to January 31st (midnight EST)
- Three separate winners will be chosen

Retweet or re-post this contest to your followers for bonus entries!

Good luck!!

- Christina
Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

MY PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARDS EXPERIENCE

The day I'd been waiting for had arrived at last: January 9th, The People's Choice Awards.

We had to be at the theatre at 10:30am to check-in and take part in the full run through rehearsal of the show so we got up early and got all ready for the big event.

This is us in our hotel room, super excited and ready to go:

We were really quite sad that we weren't allowed to bring any cameras, phones, etc so we wouldn't be able to capture the memories, but thanks to the wonderful people of Gotham Casting, one of the organizers passed around her own camera for us all to use. I was so excited. Hooray for photos!

With our new friend Matt

She even let us use a flipcam...so here is our vlog during lunchtime after the rehearsal, waiting for the actual show to begin:

And when it came to the actual show...wow what a crazy experience. Brittney and I had awesome seats, so we were able to high-five and cheer on the award winners and presenters as they went on and off stage. My left hand had the lovely pleasure of interacting with Ellen DeGeneres, Taylor Swift, Ian Somerhalder, Josh Hutcherson, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Aniston...and the list goes on. And it's not every day when you get to see Heidi Klum race a monkey on segways...Let's just say it was definitely a night to remember. 

We were so pumped when we got back to the hotel that we even made another vlog...enjoy haha

And here is some of the confetti straight from the Nokia Theatre - a remnant of my amazing People's Choice Awards experience:

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed taking a glimpse into my trip to LA and being a part of the PCAs!

- Christina
Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

TRAVEL | My first time to Los Angeles

The year 2013 has definitely started out with a bang.

On January 3rd, I got a phone call from a California number, answered with a confused 'hello?' and was told that I'd been selected to be a part of a special on-stage audience at this year's People's Choice Awards. In LA. Was this a joke?

I had applied a couple weeks prior to the phone call after seeing a tweet from Gotham Casting - I always apply for things, it's like a reflex. Anyways, so that happened and I obviously said yes to the opportunity. But this meant basically putting everything else on hold for the time being...which I was okay with, since school wasn't going to be starting up again for another week - talk about perfect timing.

So this is going to be a two-part blog post - this first one being about my trip to LA as a whole, featuring the food, places we explored and all that touristy stuff. THEN I'll get to the excitement of the PCAs in part 2.

My Cali adventure began on Sunday, January 6th and I brought my friend Brittney along. We flew into the airport in Orange County (yes, The OC theme song may have been playing on my Ipod as we flew in....) and then made our way to our hotel in downtown LA. We chose a hotel that was close to The Nokia Theatre, since that was the main area we had to be in for the awards show; little did we know that other than L.A. Live, there really wasn't much in the downtown area. But we did get an awesome deal on it, so we were okay with it.

We didn't have time to do much when we first arrived, but our first meal of the trip was at Wolfang Puck and was delicious, take a look:

The next day we had the morning/early afternoon to explore downtown LA before a PCA rehearsal. This is what we found:

Grand Park - cute pink furniture!

Bottega Louis (above & below) - Such a cute restaurant and bakery!!!

Then at the PCA rehearsal, we met some locals who recommended we check out The Standard hotel so we did that night and it was so cool!

Funny face menus and yummy desserts!

Gorgeous rooftop and view of the city!

The next day we had a whole day to roam around so we did checked out The Grove and Venice Beach.

 Got to be in the audience of an Extra taping - Sighhhhh, why can't they just hire me already?!

Venice Beach - so nice!

 Stunning.

I loved getting to escape the cold Toronto weather for a bit and to set foot on a beach in January!!

I know I've overwhelmed you all with tons of photos, so that's enough for now. Up next is part 2, featuring my experience on the People's Choice Awards stage.

- Christina

Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

All photos taken by me | Please contact for use 

CONTEST: Win an American Apparel & Anna Sui prize pack!

Hey everyone!

As a special welcome to 2013, I'm holding my first blog contest of the year - ft. American Apparel & Anna Sui! Here's your chance to win:

- One white American Apparel tank top (one size)
- One Anna Sui tote bag

All you have to do to win is follow me on Twitter and retweet this contest! This is what the tweet looks like:

"Want to win an @americanapparel & Anna Sui prize pack? All you have to do is RT!"

Simply retweet and you are automatically entered to win!

Want a bonus entry? Tell me what you are most excited about for 2013 by commenting on this post!

Contest runs until January 12th, 2013 at midnight (EST) and is open worldwide! Winner will be picked at random.

It's that easy - GOOD LUCK! :)

- Christina
Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

Package Deal TV Studio Visit

During my holiday visit home in Vancouver, I had the chance to be a part of a studio audience for a brand new sitcom called Package Deal, created by Andrew Orenstein (Malcolm in the Middle, 3rd Rock from the Sun). The show revolves around a family of three brothers and one of their girlfriends who becomes a part of their dysfunctional lives.

The show is filmed in Burnaby, BC and comes from Thunderbird Films (which also is the production team behind Mr. Young, another set I got to check out!) - you can catch all the hilarity of this new comedy on Citytv (release date TBC).

Take a look at the (all Canadian!) cast:

 Randal Edwards

Julia Voth

Harland Williams

Jay Malone

Since the show hasn't aired yet, I wasn't able to take many photos from the set, but here's one of my seat in the audience! It's always fun to be a part of a live studio audience - they even have a host who entertains everyone during the breaks by playing games and giving out prizes!

The special guest star for the particular episode I was there for was the one and only Pamela Anderson. That was pretty cool to see her there!

Be sure to keep an eye out for Package Deal on Citytv this fall - in the meantime, stay in the loop by following the show on Facebook and Twitter!

- Christina
Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28