One of the best things about having a little one is making holiday crafts with them to give to grandparents, teachers, etc. The bean and I have quite a few faves. Here are our holiday crafts we love:
Mini gingerbread houses. Just make little houses out of graham cracker squares and decorate with everything you can think of: sprinkles, candy canes, cookies, cereal, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips – the choices are endless!
Paper snowflakes. Likely a simple craft you did as a child, the bean’s favourite part is unfolding them to see what shapes we made. We hung them with fishing line from our ceiling.
Popsicle stick trees. You can make the blank trees ahead of time and then give your kids a variety of things to decorate them: markers, glitter glue, pompomps, stickers, paint, etc.
Salt dough ornaments. Half the fun is playing with the dough and cutting out the shapes, and other half is prettying them up. My favourite recipe for salt dough is:
1 c. cornstarch
2 c. baking soda
1 1/2 c. water
Bake on a low heat, turning a few times, until dried out.
Toilet paper roll snowmen are fun. The bean turned his into a one-eyed monster snowman.
Christmas light fingerprints. Just have your child put differently-coloured fingerprints all over a page, and then “connect them” with the thin line of a marker to make the wire.
A full-time work-from-home mom, Jennifer Cox (our “Supermom in Training”) loves dabbling in healthy cooking, craft projects, family outings, and more, sharing with Suburban readers everything she knows about being an (almost) superhero mommy.
“We’re in H-town so we have to do something special!” yelled Jeezy as he stood center stage at the House of Blues Sunday night. Dressed simply in black shorts, a black T-shirt with his signature snowman logo, a black hat turned to the back, and a gold chain, the Atlanta rapper paced pack and forth pumping up the crowd.
“I want to see who is a real day one,” he exclaimed as he looked back at the DJ and returned his gaze back to the crowd. While the DJ cued up the next song Jeezy stood up on the monitor in front of him, arms crossed, as the sound of blaring horns filled the room. The audience lifted their hands as “Dey Know” boomed through the speakers.
Jay Jeezy Jenkins has grown well beyond his introduction into the music world with the release of 2001’s Thuggin’ Under the Influence (T.U.I). His major label release Let’s Get It: thug Motivation 101 would help to define a genre and influence so many MCs that followed. His gritty anthems of struggle and success have brought him from the streets of Atlanta to the halls of of the upper echelon of politics. He executive produced Hip-Hop and The White House, a Hulu documentary examining the intersection of politics and Hip-Hop music.
Last year he released Adversity for Sale: Ya Gotta Believe, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller where Jeezy speaks about his upbringing from South Georgia to his journey becoming a father, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. While a search of his name now pops up prominent news stories of his recent separation, all that is dwarfed by his musical accomplishments. Jeezy’s Playlist Concert Series focuses on those musical accomplishments, giving real fans the opportunity to hear the Snowman run through his hits and mixtape classics.
Jeezy’s discography consists of 13 studio albums, 18 mixtapes, and 70 singles and The Playlist Concert series goes deep into his catalog. The 26-city tour began back in July and has been crisscrossing the country giving fans a taste of the old Jeezy, a fact that he recognizes and addresses during the show.
“They told me what y’all want to hear Houston,” he laughed into the microphone. “They said if you gonna get it rocking, we don’t want to hear no new shit!”
The Playlist Concert series is aptly named with its curated selection of songs that are picked by Jeezy fans. Jeezy has built a career from mixtape anthems and he doesn’t shy away from those that brought him success. He leans heavily into the fan-selected songs, especially the deep cuts, which in many other artists’ cases would seem to be forgotten. Songs like “Dey Know,” “All There,” “Standing Ovation,” “Lose My Mind” and “I Luv It” kept the crowd on their feet and chanting in unison.
Jeezy displayed the stage presence he’s honed for the last two decades, but often it was simply the MC leading the packed house through the chorus of his hits. The call and response style were on full display with “Way Too Gone” and “Everythang” where the sold-out crowd basically took over the song as camera phones and hands rose into the air.
Sunday marked the second to last night of The Playlist Concert series, but the show does display the power of allowing fans to have some say in the song selection. Hopefully more artists will take their cues from Jeezy’s example because Sunday night’s concert left fans little to criticize.
Along with the expansion of streaming, among the unintended consequences of COVID and the SAG-AFTRA actors strike has been global consumers’ growing consumption of non-English-language films and TV shows. That in turn has elevated familiarity with and acceptance of Asian local shows and Asian performers – not just those riding the Korean wave.
Meguro has trodden a familiar path – years of training within the Johnny & Associates talent agency (soon to change its name due to a sexual abuse scandal), insertion into a junior music and, since 2019, as a singer and dancer with the Johnny’s backed idol group Snowman.
As a likable and ambitious – perhaps intense – performer, Meguro is increasingly adding film and TV roles as part of a parallel, solo career alongside his Snowman activities. He won a best newcomer award for Shochiku film title “Phases of the Moon” last year and also last year was the male lead of Toho’s “My Happy Marriage” (aka “As Long as We Both Shall Live”).
Meguro spoke to Variety ahead of the Netflix upload of “Trillion Game,” in which he plays the tricky lead character Haru, a young businessman who offsets his overarching ambition with wit and charm.
How did you become involved in ‘Trillion Game’? Had you read the manga? What appealed to you about it?
I had heard about the manga but did not have the chance to read it until after I first got the offer. After I was cast in the drama, I bought the whole series and read it many times. It’s very interesting and I have a lot of respect for the original story. While the production tried to stay as close to the original story as possible, I was glad for the chance to be able to add my own live-action spin on the character of Haru Tennoji.
How did you do that, become that character?
When I read the manga, I really homed in on Haru’s personality, and how natural he is when it comes to communicating with others. He’s got a personality that draws people into him and makes them want to follow him even down crazy or unorthodox paths. Though most of the time he’s bluffing, somehow, he always manages to accomplish what he says he’s going to
Haru is pitched as the world most selfish character. Did it disturb you or was it fun to play that role?
He’s certainly very different from me in that regard as I don’t think I’m a selfish person, but this did make it a very interesting role to play. That’s one of the things I love about acting; you’re playing pretend and getting to be someone else. Even though I’d never be that selfish in real life, it’s okay to act that way as Haru’s character. It’s part of getting into his head, so I didn’t hesitate to fully immerse myself in his outlandish indulgence.
You have been in the entertainment industry more than a decade, much of that was as a singer, and the last few years as an actor as well. How has that helped prepare for this role?
I’ve gotten to experience a lot as a performer, but when I was younger, I couldn’t connect to the roles I played that well. I took on a lot of darker characters thinking that was cool, but being so far removed from my own personality it was difficult to make them relatable or even believable. But [with] more stage work and the other performance opportunities my agency was able to give me, I started to find little ways to make connections that make the characters more believable for the audience and especially those who know me.
Looking back your acting career, it feels you have done a lot of different things. Did this particular role (contemporary but fantasy in the sense of being larger than life and truly unbelievable) present a particular difficult thing comparing to previous roles? How does that connect with or deliver differently from previous acting roles?
It goes back to finding that one piece about the character that I can relate to. Once I find that spark, I’m able to fan it out and start to develop who the character is. Haru is larger than life, but also believable because he’s sincere.
How was the chemistry with the Imada Mio, who plays the shows female anti-hero?
Having worked with Mio previously on the set of ‘As Long As We Both Shall Live,’ where we played a romantic couple, made the atmosphere of ‘Trillion Game’ much easier. While Haru and Kirika are very different characters from those we played in the previous film, as actors we were very comfortable with one another, and that natural chemistry made the inter-character chemistry more believable.
‘Trillion Game’ is your first lead role in a prime-time TV slot. Did it change you? The recognition, the people’s perspective of you, the recognition of member of Snow Man?
I don’t think it’s changed me per se, as I’m comfortable and confident in who I am and have always tried to bring my all to any role I do. However, I appreciate the opportunities to be part of a more visible media, because if I can keep growing and improving myself as an actor, I think it would only benefit Snow Man. Everything we do individually benefits the whole, and our success as a group opens more doors to the individual members, and I’m happy to be a part of that reciprocal growth.
This show is now moving to Netflix. Do you have more interest in looking toward the international market?
With ‘Trillion Game,’ I and the rest of the cast, as well as the staff and crew really put a lot of heart into creating the drama. When it comes to completed projects I’ve done, I feel like once they’re out they kind of take on a life of their own through interacting with new audiences, and I’m very curious to see how that plays out with first-time foreign viewers in addition to repeat or first-time viewers here in Japan.
As an entertainer who wants to experience being a part of more international projects — not just acting but together with Snow Man as well — I’m glad that more people around the world are getting the chance to experience TV shows that represent and show off what Japan has to offer.
What will be your immediate future in 3-6 months? What do you expect after 5 years?
For me, it doesn’t matter if it’s 1 month, 6 months, or a year from now, but I want to keep working as hard as I can to develop myself as an actor and as a performer with Snow Man. I have personal goals, but can’t disclose them. One thing I can say is that both as Ren Meguro and as a member of Snow Man, I want to go out into the world and see as much as I can. I don’t know if it’ll take three or five years from now or more, but I’m very excited to see where we end up.
