An Alternative To iTunes

I've debated about advertising this little gem, but since I know I have so many readers, who depend on my opinion, I feel it is my duty to share.

For about two years I've been using the site: www.gomusicnow.com to download my music. It's completely legal and I do pay for the songs, but the best thing about this site is this: songs range from $o.15 to $0.09. Yep, you read that right. AND, if you buy the entire album they usually discount it by 10%. Now, I know what you are going to say, "Do they have current albums?" Um, they actually have albums that haven't even been released on iTunes yet. "Is the quality good?" The download quality is actually a little better than iTunes. "How do you pay for the songs?" I set up an account from my debit card and with my account it keeps a great catalog of my downloaded songs and the amount of money I have left to spend.

So, here's what I do. I go to iTunes because I like the structure of this site. I like that you can see what are the most popular songs, preview them and then even find bands that are similar to what you like. I then find the songs I want to buy and then head over to my site and download. I would say the only downside, and this is the only one, is that sometimes for whatever reason they don't have particular albums. For example, they have an awesome live recording of Adele in London, but they haven't posted her 21 album, which has won a thousand awards. So, I'll admit it's a little random, but in the end, if you are willing to wait, almost everything you want will be posted.

So, if you are willing to walk away from the grips of iTunes and stop paying $0.99 for a song come on over to gomusicnow.com.

Malibu Golf Club

A few months ago the husband bought off groupon.com a groupon for two rounds of golf at Malibu Golf Club. With the groupon we were able to save about fifty dollars and had no trouble getting a tee time.

Malibu Golf Club is located up in the mountains of Malibu off Encinal Canyon Road. We decided to take PCH from Santa Monica and then traveled about fifteen minutes in the canyon until we came to the club. Before I talk about the golf, let me just say this drive is gorgeous. Encinal Road winds through the mountains and opens up enough so you can see the ocean and the expansive coast. The husband and I have ridden this road a few times on our bikes and it is definitely one of my favorite roads to drive or ride.

Okay, the golf. The course is nestled right in the middle of the mountains in this beautiful valley of rolling hills and trees. I didn't find the course to be overly complicated and definitely found the distances to be manageable for someone at my level. I did find each hole to be quite narrow and deeply forested on each side. The starter let us know to just stay left each time and we would be fine. His advice proved to be correct and each time the left side seemed to be the safe bet. There was not much in the way of water. The only difficult water hazard you have to navigate is on the 9th hole and if you hit a good drive you should have the distance to pop one on the green. The water isn't very long but snakes across the entire hole.

Overall I really enjoyed the course for these reasons:

1. The carts have GPS and were about 99% correct in your distances.
2. A lot of the tees are set up high and give you a great look down the hole and into the beautiful course.
3. There weren't a lot of bunkers, which I sort of hate, so approach shots were a little more forgiving.
4. Distances of the holes are manageable but challenging.
5. The club is organized well and we didn't have to wait for the groups ahead of us.
6. The club house has great chili. Just saying.

The cons:
1. The greens seem like they are in pretty bad shape. I have seen municipal courses with better greens. There's a lot of bumps and patches.


If you are looking for a great drive and a great course check out Malibu Golf Club.

Jersey Boys

If you don't have a particular show in mind when you get to Vegas, but you know you want some form of entertainment for the night, I recommend getting up early in the morning and hitting one of the tix4tonight kiosks located around the strip. These are great because they offer shows and buffets, for that night, at almost half the price. We decided to try the one located in Fashion Show Mall, which was close to our hotel and wasn't too busy. While waiting in line they offer great assistants that can let you know what is available and what is worth seeing. We decided to see Jersey Boys, and ended up paying about 40% less had we bought the tickets ahead of time. We also we were able to get great seats up in the second level.

We decided on Jersey Boys because of the amazing reviews on yelp.com and because the employees at tix4tonight said it was a guaranteed good show. In my opinion, which is obviously incredibly important, I found the show to be incredibly entertaining. The changing sets were dynamic and easily took you through the different places Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons experienced throughout their career. Also, the music was awesome. I had no idea The Four Seasons had written so many songs I was familiar with and had grown up hearing. The man who played Frankie Vallie had a ridiculous voice and sounded almost exactly like the original guy.

I would say the only disappointments of the show were, and this really wasn't the fault of the show, but the theater was almost empty. Therefore, I felt bad for the performers because there was almost no energy in that place. (A guy in front of us actually slept through the entire thing.) And lastly, I definitely wouldn't recommend this show to families. The language and comments are pretty intense and definitely could be slightly uncomfortable for families to hear.

Outside of those riveting opinions if you are looking for a good time in Vegas, on the cheap, try tix4tonight and check out Jersey Boys.