This is your Life

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It began as a radio show in 1948, and has appeared on television in several countries since that time.
It has even been spoofed on cartoons, comedy shows and other TV specials, and it is sometimes done at the best adult birthday parties!

In the show, the host would read a sort of biography of the guest of honour, who was surprised by “mystery” guests from their past.

We think that doing a “This is your Life Party” as a surprise party is best of all. If the party isn’t a surprise, make sure that he/she doesn’t know the entire guest list That will be part of the surprise!

Make sure that the guests who will take part in the “this is your life” program remain a mystery and stay out of sight! That way the guest of honour won’t know that they are there at the party until the right moment.

When planning a birthday party, seat the guest of honour in a special chair in front of everyone. Have several “surprise” guests from different stages in his or her life hide behind a curtain or outside the room.

One at a time, have each of them tell a story about the guest of honour – some will be funny, some will be touching. Then it is up to him/her to guess who the speaker is.

For This is Your Life Party decorations, you could…

Blow up photos of him/her from different times in their lives – from birth to present!
Decorate with things that the guest of honour loves – for example, gardening, books, travel, etc.
decorate with items representative of the different decades and group them together as a centerpiece, area of the room, etc. Such as stuff from the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, etc.

For birthday party music at a This is Your Life Party, play the favourites from their youth – their teens and twenties. They, and their friends, will love it!

If you wish – tell guests for the birthday party beforehand that a gift isn’t necessary – their presence will be the best present of all!

A Smashing good time

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Greeks smashing plates to accompany musicians is a mental image of Greece practically as common as the sight of the Parthenon. But if it were really as common in Greece as foreigners believe, there wouldn’t be a saucer left intact in the entire country. How did this noisy custom get started?

Ancient Origins
In its earliest form, plate smashing may be a survival of the ancient custom of ritually “killing” the ceramic vessels used for feasts commemorating the dead.

The voluntary breaking of plates, which is a type of controlled loss, may also have helped participants in dealing with the deaths of their loved ones, a loss which they could not control.
Similar offerings may also have been presented at other times to include the dead in festival proceedings, with the result that this custom for the dead began to be tied in with all kinds of celebrations.

Here are some other potential ancient roots for this tradition:

One also has to be suspicious of the ancient wandering potters who used to travel from village to village making their wares wherever the clay was good and there was enough wood to fire up a kiln.

Could the first people to introduce the locals to this exciting custom have been the potters themselves? Could this custom of breaking plates at parties simply have its origins in a shrewd ancient marketing ploy?

Breaking plates can also be a symbol of anger, and the sound of shattering crockery is a classic part of domestic disturbances. Since plate breaking often occurs at happy occasions, it may have begun as a way of fooling malicious spirits into thinking that the event was a violent one instead of a celebration.

Worldwide, noise is believed to drive away evil, and the sound of the plates smashing against the stone or marble floors of Greek houses would be loud enough to scare off almost anything.

There is a phrase used by children about sidewalk cracks: “Step on a crack or you’ll break the devil’s dishes.” (Today, it’s less common than the “break your mother’s back” threat.) In early Crete, ritual offerings and vessels were thrown into cracks and fissures located near peak sanctuaries. These “cracks” would certainly have had “dishes” in them, and later followers of Christianity may have demonized the old practice.

Since the children’s chant is actually a caution to avoid stepping on cracks, it may refer back to ancient associations with these dishes. So breaking plates during a performance may be a way of protecting the dancers and musicians by destroying supposedly evil influences present in the poor plates.

One Greek singer occasionally breaks plates against his head while he sings a song of the pain of love. He enhances the rhythm of the piece with the smash of the plates and, in character for the song, tries to ease the pains of romantic love by countering them with physical pain.

Usually, breaking plates in praise of a musician or dancer is considered a part of kefi, the irrepressible expression of emotion and joy.

A plate might also be broken when two lovers parted so they would be able to recognize each other by matching the two halves even if many years passed before they met again. Small, split versions of the mysterious Phaistos disk are used by modern Greek jewelers this way, with one-half kept and worn by each of the couples.

Raising a glass

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Toastmasters have served with distinction for many years at a variety of events, and are now most commonly associated with Weddings. The beginnings of the Toastmaster are, however more humble and a little cloudy.

Whilst documentary evidence is patchy, the origins of the Toastmaster have foundation in the middle ages, where the keeper of the wine in great houses was known as the Master of the Toast. As wine was not as cultivated as it is today, the Master of the Toast would take small pieces of bread, toast them over an open fire, and dip them into herbs and spices. Once coated, the Master of the Toast would then add the toast to the wine and mix in. This had the dual purpose of removing some unwanted flavours, whilst adding others which, it was hoped would make the wine more drinkable.

The practice of raising a glass in acknowledgment, or to wish good health is not new. It has been practised as far back as Roman times, but became an accepted custom in society terms during the 17th Century, particularly amongst VIP’s attending banquets. Once such occasion was being held at the Pump Rooms in Bath in 1649. Having wandered into the nearby spa two gentlemen from that banquet came upon a lady who was lounging in the water

One of the gentlemen wanted to join her but was prevented from doing so by his friend. The friend took up some water from the bath into his drinking vessel and passed it to his companion. Sitting in the bottom of the vessel was a piece of spiced toast, from his previous drink. Having taken a drink, the man is alleged to have said “Nay, though I likest not the beverage (pure spa water is an acquired taste) I will take the toast to the lady”. He then proceeded to drink the water, and joined the lady in the spa. The incident was subsequently reported in Tatler, in an article which identified it as being the first use of the word ‘toast’ to pledge the health of of a person i.e. ‘Toast to the Ladies’; and so it became accepted that this occurrence was the precursor of ‘toasting’

Within society and private members clubs in particular, they often used one of their members to act as a Toastmaster. Whilst an easy solution; if there were a number of toasts to be made, the speech of the Toastmaster became somewhat slurred as they continued to drink similar quantities of wine as other members. This resulted in a special glass for the Toastmaster, which was made from extra thick glass, and would only hold a small amount of wine, ensuring the Toastmaster was in a suitable state to adequately perform his duties; particularly important if special guests were in attendance. It is generally accepted today that Toastmasters do not drink whilst ‘on duty’.

The most obvious feature of a Toastmaster is the long red tailcoat. Accepted within the industry as having been introduced by Mr William Knight-Smith. William was commenting to his wife that he was concerned about looking like a butler whilst working in London at the Cafe Royal during the latter part of the 19th and early part of the 20th Centuries. His wife then suggested that he should wear a red coat, and so the distinction was made, and a tradition born.

Today the Professional Toastmaster can be found at Weddings (of all faiths), civil partnerships, charity and corporate events, gala dinner nights, awards ceremonies, family celebrations, masonic knights, and any public occasion that demands dignity, style and a cutting edge.

Event team building

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More often than not, Corporate companies hold event team building days and it is an important part of the office world. There are various events from raft building to quiz games and strategies each will get teams working together, but have you ever wondered how the idea came about?

The emergence of the team idea can be traced back to the late 1920s and early 1930s. These involved a series of research activities designed to examine in-depth what happened to a group of workers under various conditions.

After much analysis, the researchers agreed that the most significant factor was the building of a sense of group identity, a feeling of social support and cohesion that came with increased worker interaction.

Elton Mayo (1933), one of the original researchers, pointed out certain critical conditions which were identified for developing an effective work team:

– The manager (chief observer) had a personal interest in each person’s achievements.
– He took pride in the record of the group.
– He helped the group work together to set its own conditions of work.
– He faithfully posted the feedback on performance.
– The group took pride in its own achievement and had the satisfaction of outsiders showing interest in what they did.
– The group did not feel they were being pressured to change.
– Before changes were made, the group was consulted.
– The group developed a sense of confidence and candour.
– These research findings spurred companies to seriously consider the idea of grouping their employees into effective work teams and to this day they are still important considerations for human resource developers.

The All American Barbeque

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Thinking of having a Barbeque at your event? Here’s how it all started…

Pork or beef? Kansas or Memphis? Texan or North Carolina? The evolution of America’s four most distinct barbecue styles has come a long way since Christopher Columbus.

While the never ending battle for barbecue supremacy will continue to rage, the history of American barbecue is as diverse as the traditions themselves, moving through a path that begins in the Caribbean – and even involves help from the British.

Spanning across the famous ‘barbecue belt’ that runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, arguably no nation on Earth takes the primitive form of cooking as seriously as the United States of America.

Indeed, it was over five hundred years ago that Columbus first witnessed native tribes on the island of Hispaniola cooking meat over an indirect flame using green wood to keep the food from burning.

Historical records indicated that the Spanish explorers named this cooking style, ‘barbacoa’ – and eventually the technique made it onto the mainland – where it kept its traditional attachment to pork.

This historical accuracy is very important in the arguments that rage between Texas, who use beef, Memphis who use mutton and the Carolina’s who use pork.

Purists argue that the meat used in BBQ must always be pork, because the tradition of southern cooks having to use the cheap, low maintenance hog as the meat in their barbecue pits.

This is because cows are expensive and need large amounts of food and land, unlike pigs who can be left to fend for themselves.

In pre-Civil War times, this meant that because the pig wasn’t cared for like a cow would be the meat would not be as fat and would need to be cooked slowly to tenderize.

Prior to 1861, Southerners ate an average of five pounds of pork for every one pound of cattle – and their reliance on this cheaper method of food lead to a form of patriotism that separated the richer north from south.

Despite the south’s historical attachment to the BBQ, primitive forms of cooking originated in the easternmost colonies.

The vinegar-based ‘whole hog’ barbecue that was started in Virginia made its way down to North Carolina and the technique of adding sauce to the meat as it cooks – is said to have originated with the British, despite their inglorious culinary history.

In South Carolina, where a large portion of French and German immigrants lived, mustard based sauces were created – both sweet and tart.

As the Carolina BBQ’s grew in popularity, the fashion for slow cooking spread to Texas – where the rich German immigrants who lived their used the meat from the cattle they were herding.

Up the Mississippi River in Memphis, the sweet, tomato based sauces used were created by mixing molasses to get the unique taste.

And once BBQ had moved along to Kansas City, he mixed everything up, allowing not only pork to be used, but beef as well.

A barbeque is a delicious and sociable way to feed your guests at your private party or corporate event. What could be better than the smell of a BBQ on a hot summer’s evening?

Street Dance

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The history of street dance is said to be divided into two eras.These are Old school and New school. Almost all of roots of street dance is African American culture namely, hip hop culture. Keep your mind that hip hop dance is one part of hip hop culture. Hip hop dance is categorized into New school.

In Old school, there are B-boying, Locking, Popping etc.

B-boying is frequently called Break dance or Breaking but these names are not actually correct. B-boying was born in the South Bronx of New York in the early 1970’s. In the beginning, B-boying is called Good Foot (It is the name of James Brown’s hit tune.). Good Foot was different from B-boying in that Good foot didn’t include acrobatic move. The middle of 1970’s Good Foot became to called “boie-oie-oings”. It is the base of today’s B-boying, but it does not include acrobatic move too. The last 1970’s, Puerto Rican young dancers revolutionized B-boying. They started acrobatic move in B-boying like Windmill.

Locking was born in Los Angeles in 1960’s. It was perfected by “The Lockers”. The roots of Locking is said Robot dance. In 1969, an African American young man became famous with his dance. His name was Don Campbell, and his dance was Campbell Lock. Campbell Lock was new in all point, it’s move was unique and comical. In 1970, Don Campbell formed The Lockers. Their style was amusing and unique so many people were attracted by them.

Popping was born in Los Angeles in 1960’s. It was created by ELECTRIC BOOGALOO. The roots of Popping is said Robot dance. As you may recognize, Locking and Popping is like brothers. But Popping’s move is stranger than Locking’s one. I’ll give you the video of Popping. check it out.

Hip hop has roots in all street dances. It means that Hip hop is free and it is difficult to define hip hop. Hip hop dance history is with Hip hop culture. So, I cannot tell you who started Hip hop dance but certainly African Americans made it.

The major source in house dance movement streams directly from the music and the elements within the music such as Jazz, African, Latin, Soul, R&B, Funk, Hip Hop, etc. The other source is the people, the individuals and their characteristics, ethnicities, origin, etc. You have people of all walks of life partying under one roof. Thus you have exchanges of information (body language) house dance is a social dance before these competitions.

Balloon Decorating

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Balloons are the ultimate party decoration and are used for decorating birthday parties, weddings, corporate functions, school events, and for other festive gatherings. The artists who use the round balloons to build are called “stackers” and the artists who use pencil balloons to build are called “twisters.” Most commonly associated with helium balloon decor, more recently balloon decorators have been moving towards the creation of air-filled balloon decorations due to the non-renewable natural resource of helium limited in supply. The most common types of balloon decor include arches, columns, centerpieces, balloon drops, sculptures, and balloon bouquets. With the increased aptitude for balloon twisting as well as balloon stacking, the rise of the deco-twister manifests itself as the combination of stacking techniques as well as twisting techniques to create unique and interesting balloon decor option.

Decorative rainbow colored arches made of party balloons used at the gay pride parade in São Paulo, Brazil.

Party balloons are mostly made of a natural latex tapped from rubber trees, and can be filled with air, helium, water, or any other suitable liquid or gas. The rubber elasticity makes the volume adjustable.

Twisting balloons can be used to create decor centerpieces for events and to create a more unique look than can be provided by foil balloons.

Often the term “Party Balloon” will refer to a twisting balloon or pencil balloon. These balloons are manipulated to create shapes and figures for parties and events, typically along with entertainment.
Filling the balloon with air can be done with the mouth, a manual or electric inflater (such as a hand pump), or with a source of compressed gas.

When rubber or plastic balloons are filled with helium so that they float, they typically retain their buoyancy for only a day or so, sometimes longer. The enclosed helium atoms escape through small pores in the latex which are larger than the helium atoms. Balloons filled with air usually hold their size and shape much longer, sometimes for up to a week.

Even a perfect rubber balloon eventually loses gas to the outside. The process by which a substance or solute migrates from a region of high concentration, through a barrier or membrane, to a region of lower concentration is called diffusion. The inside of balloons can be treated with a special gel (for instance, the polymer solution sold under the “Hi Float” brand) which coats the inside of the balloon to reduce the helium leakage, thus increasing float time to a week or longer.

It is becoming more common for balloons to be filled with air instead of helium, as air-filled balloons will not release into the atmosphere or deplete the earthly helium supply. There are numerous party games and school-related activities that can use air-filled balloons as opposed to helium balloons. When age-appropriate, these activities often include the added fun of blowing the balloons up. In many events, the balloons will contain prices, and party-goers can pop the balloons to retrieve the items inside.

Heavy Metal history

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To the uninitiated, any loud music is called heavy metal. In reality, there are a multitude of heavy metal styles and subgenres. Heavy metal is a wide umbrella characterizing a style of music that is generally loud and aggressive. There are genres that are very melodic and mainstream, and other genres that are extreme and underground. Here’s a brief overview of heavy metal and its many styles.

The term “heavy metal” was first used in a musical sense in the ’60s song “Born To Be Wild” by Steppenwolf when they referred to “heavy metal thunder.” Although there are debates among experts, most consider groups like ​Black Sabbath, ​Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple to be the first heavy metal bands.

From there the style evolved and branched into many different genres and subgenres. Heavy metal remains a vital force in music today, with sellout concert tours and CDs selling impressive numbers of copies without any radio airplay or MTV exposure.

The backbone of heavy metal is the electric guitar. You can’t have metal without at least one guitarist, and many bands have two or more. Certain genres have some quiet and mellow parts, but most metal is loud, intense, fast and aggressive. The vocal styles in heavy metal range from melodic singing to aggressive singing to unintelligible screaming, depending on the genre.

At the beginning, there was just traditional heavy metal. Shortly after it evolved and splintered into many different styles and subgenres. This site has a series of articles on many of the genres that will give you a more in-depth look at that particular type of metal.

As time has gone on, there are literally hundreds of subgenres

New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM)
This genre has influenced almost all metal that has followed it. These were the metal pioneers that took the original sound of groups like Black Sabbath and took out the rock and blues influences to make the traditional metal sound that we’re familiar with today.

Examples: Def Leppard, Diamond Head, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Saxon

Nu-Metal
Combining heavy metal riffs with hip-hop influences and rapped lyrics, this genre became very popular in the late ’90s through the early 2000’s and then fell from favor. There are a few bands of this style still doing well, although most have come and gone.
Examples: Korn, Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, Slipknot

Power Metal
A very melodic form of metal that utilizes soaring guitars and strong vocals, usually in a higher register. It’s also an epic style, with long songs and many lyrics about mythology, fantasy, and metaphysical topics. Most power metal bands also have a keyboardist.

Examples: Blind Guardian, Fates Warning, Helloween, Jag Panzer

Thrash Metal
This genre evolved from NWOBHM and became heavier and more extreme. It’s characterized by fast guitar and double bass drum with aggressive but understandable vocals. Some of the most popular bands in metal started as thrash bands, although most evolved as they went along.
Examples: Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer

The great thing about heavy metal is that it is continually changing, evolving and improving. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more extreme, something new comes along. Whether you prefer the melody and complexity of power metal or the aggression and intensity of death metal, it’s all part of this widely encompassing genre called heavy metal.

The History of A cappella

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A cappella is a style of vocal performance without instruments. The word means “from the chapel” in Italian, as a cappella takes its roots in early religious music. A cappella singing has been used in Christian, Islamic, and Jewish religious music for many centuries; references to Jewish a cappella chanting date back as early as 20 BCE. Today, the term “a cappella” encompasses many different secular styles, including doo-wop, the barbershop quartet, and the pop a cappella common on many college campuses today.

The history of a cappella in religious ritual is long and deliberate, as many sacred texts in both the Judeo-Christian and the Islamic tradition can be interpreted as forbidding instruments in worship. Christian musical worship was traditionally a cappella. Instruments were not introduced into the church until 670 AD, when Pope Vitalian brought an organ to his cathedral, and many Christian pop a cappella groups remain popular today. For Jews, the use of musical instruments is prohibited on the Sabbath, and informal Jewish worship often includes songs sung a cappella, known as “zemirot.” The Muslim religion also has a long tradition of unaccompanied worship songs, known as “nasheed.”

Barbershop music, one of the few exclusively American vocal styles, is characterized by its taut, consonant four-part harmonies and ringing overtones. The word “barbershop” was first used to describe this a cappella harmony style in the 1910 song, “Play That Barbershop Chord.” Early barbershop music was closely associated with African-American gospel quartets like the Mills Brothers. In the ’40s, barbershop music became widely popular, and in 1954, the Chordettes brought barbershop into the pop mainstream with their song “Mr. Sandman.”

After the middle of the century, bands like the Persuasions and Manhattan Transfer brought a cappella and acapella elements closer to the center of pop music. Songs such as “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” released as a debut single in 1981 by the Nylons, became wildly popular. Billy Joel’s “nearly a cappella” song “For the Longest Time” became a hit in 1983. Paul Simon’s “Graceland,” which features a South African a cappella ensemble, won a Grammy for Best Album in 1986; Rockapella was formed later that year. Boyz II Men “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday,” which is entirely a cappella, became an enormous hit in 1991 and remained in the charts for 133 weeks.

Viking Entertainment

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Vikings worked hard, but they also played hard, and in much the same way men do today, by playing ball, wrestling and holding competitions to display their strength and skillfulness. Many of their games were violent and often became bloody, sometimes resulting in death. They mainly served to show how “manly” a person was and showcased the competitors’ strength and dexterity

Vikings often tested their physical strength with stone-lifting competitions, which could be considered the equivalent of weightlifting today. One of the most popular ball games mentioned in Viking literature was called knattleikr and involved full body contact.

Sometimes wooden bats, similar to those in baseball and cricket, were used. These ball games also ended violently.

Surprisingly, intellectual prowess was also regarded highly, and archaeologists have found many boards and game pieces from board games at many different Viking sites. Many Viking sagas have described people playing board games as nobles, and it has even been suggested that a prerequisite for becoming a king was being skilled at board games. Not so surprisingly, drinking games were also popular, with the Viking women often joining in on the fun. Finally, Vikings also enjoyed live music entertainment, mummery (similar to a play) and miming,