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Thanks again to all those that participated in the Doors – When You’re Strange DVD giveaway.

all the entries (including all the retroblog facebook fans) were compiled into a spreadsheet and numbered sequentially. I then used random.org to produce a random number.

and without further ado – the winner of the When You’re Strange DVD is:

Belinda Moore

Congratulations! Please send me your mailing address and I’ll forward your info to the PR rep at Universal Music who will be sending the DVD directly to you.

OK, so that was fun!
Be on the look out for our next DVD drawing which should be posted in the coming weeks. and please join us on facebook to keep up to date on the latest happenings on retroblog as well as to qualify for future drawings & contests.

I had a chance to watch the new Doors’ DVD When You’re Strange: A Film About the Doors over the weekend and I have to say that I really enjoyed the Tom DiCillo-directed documentary. Like most music fans, I’m so accustomed to “VH1: Behind the Music”-style music documentaries that DiCillo’s choice of using only archival footage was a refreshing change of pace. “When You’re Strange” is essentially an overview of the band’s short time together with Johnny Depp doing the narrating. DiCillo assembled a great variety of riveting footage from Jim Morrison’s onstage antics to the surreal clips from the unreleased film “HWY”. The vintage clips have been cleaned up and restored for this release and the quality of the footage definitely adds to the enjoyment of this documentary. One of the more memorable scenes is when Morrison is simply hanging out in the crowd before “The Who” gig and fans are just in awe of his presence, some just wanting to touch his hair. Another great clip is of the band recording “Wild Child” in the studio with Morrison being a bit self-conscious with his vocals.

As expected, Morrison gets the bulk of the screentime here but the other band members (Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek and John Densmore) make their mark by their notable instrumental performances.

I’m sure longtime fans will gripe about DiCillo not going into more detail about certain events or songs but my guess is that it would take a multi-volume set to get into the real “nitty-gritty” which simply can’t be accomplished in 86 minutes.

The bonus material on the DVD features an interview with Morrison’s dad, Admiral George Stephen Morrison, before he passed away in 2008. From what I heard, it’s the only interview he has done on camera concerning his famous son.

Title: When You’re Strange: A Film About the Doors
DVD released by: Eagle Rock Entertainment/Rhino
Directed by: Tom DiCillo
runtime: 86 minutes
released in the U.S.: July 2010

OK, as for the DVD giveaway, here’s the scoop. One lucky retroblog reader will be receiving a new DVD of “When You’re Strange: A Film About the Doors”. To enter in the drawing all you have to do is post your favorite Doors’ album in the comment section of this blog post. This will count as ONE ENTRY in the drawing. Please be sure to leave a legitimate email address or else I won’t have a way of contacting you if you’re selected as the winner.

For those that want a better chance of winning, you can also join the retroblog facebook page (which is essentially hitting the LIKE button on that page). And by “LIKING” us on facebook, you’ll get the equivalent of TWO ENTRIES in the DVD drawing. I hope that makes sense. Let me know if I’m confusing you.
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thanks again to all those that participated in the Rolling Stones – Stones in Exile DVD giveaway.

all the entries (including tweets) were compiled into a spreadsheet and numbered sequentially. I then used random.org to produce a random number.

and without further ado – the winner of the Stones in Exile DVD is:

Jacob Boss from Minnesota

Congratulations! I’ve forwarded your info to the PR rep at Universal Music who will be sending the DVD directly to you.

Be on the look out for our next DVD drawing which should be posted real soon. and please join our new facebook page to keep up to date on the latest happenings on retroblog as well as to qualify for future drawings & contests.

In case you haven’t heard, the new Rolling Stones’ documentary titled Stones in Exile arrived in stores last week. And thanks to the kind folks over at Universal Music, one lucky retroblog reader will receive a brand new copy of the Stones in Exile DVD.

Interested? well, here’s how to enter the drawing:

Just simply post a comment below with your personal top five favorite Rolling Stones songs. Also be sure to leave a legitimate email address so that I can contact you in the event that you are selected. Don’t worry, your name/email address will not be sold or used in any other manner.

You can also earn an extra entry by posting the following on twitter: @retroblog is giving away a new Rolling Stones DVD – Stones In Exile enter to win http://bit.ly/ceoojO #giveaway

Be sure to post a followup comment here about your tweet in order to receive your bonus entry in the drawing.

This contest/giveway ends at 11:59pm July 11th, 2010. A winner will be picked randomly from all entries and will be contacted by me via email by July 13th. Once the winner provides a mailing address, it will be forwarded to Universal Music who will be sending out the prize.

No purchase necessary and the contest/giveaway is only open to U.S. residents age 18 or older. By participating in this RetroBlog contest, you agree to allow RetroBlog to post the winner’s name and city on this site.
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I’m sure you all are waiting with baited breath to find out who is going to win these highly sought after Tony’s Pizza coupons!

Well thankfully the wait is finally over. I placed all entries in a spreadsheet and assigned a number to each of them. I also made sure to add extra entries for the kind folks that added me on twitter. I then used Random.org to generate a random number.

..and so the winner of the FIVE coupons for free Tony’s Pizzas is: Shirley! congrats! You should be receiving an email from me today.

Thanks again to all that participated in the drawing and hopefully I’ll have another fun giveaway coming up soon. stay tuned!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Tony’s Pizza. All opinions are 100% mine.

I recently received some coupons from Tony’s Pizza for me to try their new Crispy Crust style frozen pizzas. Since pizzas and our household go together hand in hand, I had no problem going out to the local grocery store to seek these out. I was pleasantly surprised to find that these pizzas were priced around $1.50 at our supermarket but you have to take into account that these are “individual sizes” and not one of those super-sized pizzas. But even so, I thought it was a pretty good deal.

I brought home three varieties of the Crispy Crust style pizzas – the Supreme, Pepperoni and cheese. It took around 12 to 15 minutes to heat up in the oven and yes indeed the crust was crispy and not spongy like some other brands. My kids were the official taste testers on this occasion and the pepperoni was the unanimous pick of the three. They thought the supreme had “too many vegetables” on it and they felt the cheese was too plain. From what I tried, I thought the Supreme was the tastiest of the bunch but had to agree with them about the Cheese pizza being too bland.

Anyway, I have FIVE extra Tony’s Pizza coupons that I’d like to giveaway to one lucky RetroBlog reader. Each coupon is good for one free Tony’s Crispy Crust Brand Pizza. All you have to do is post a comment here to let me know you’re interested in the Tony’s Pizza drawing. You can get an EXTRA entry in the drawing by following me on Twitter but be sure to post here to let me know that you did so. I’ll gather all the entries and draw a winner at random on February 10th, 2010. And while you’re at it, why not enter for a chance to win a $500 Tech Prize Pack from Tony’s Pizza. The contest is currently being held on several different blogs. Here’s more info on the tech prize along with links to all the participating blogs. good luck!

Time’s almost up for fans to register to win the brand new Rolling Stones Deluxe Box Set Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!. To celebrate the 40th anniversary, ABKCO records put together an expanded reissue of the original 1969 album. The deluxe set contains 3 CDs, 1 DVD and a 56-page book. Rarities include 5 unreleased tracks by the Rolling Stones and 12 never before released tracks by the opening acts of the Madison Square Garden concert, B.B. King and Ike & Tina Turner.

Register for the box set giveaway before the December 3rd deadline for your chance to win.
Not only will the grand prizer winner get the deluxe reissue, he/she will also get a Gretsch Drum kit, a Gibraltar hardware pack, a Let It Bleed book, an official Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out Poster, guitar picks plus an eco-friendly shopping bag. That’s a pretty cool prize pack if you ask me. get your name in the drawing today!

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A number of folks emailed me this past week to let me know how much they enjoyed the Todd Rundgren CD giveaway. I had a lot of fun running the contest and hope to do more giveaways here on this blog in the future. In the meantime, you may want to check out NoblePR’s website for a chance to win a copy of Cooking Vinyl’s UK promo CD of Todd Rundgren’s single “Strike”.
The CDs are pretty rare with only 1,000 of these made. All you have to do is email NoblePR with the answer to this Rundgren TRivia question:

Todd Rundgren’s drummer, Prairie Prince, used to play for which rock band-
1. Grand Funk Railroad
2. The Tubes
3. The Pursuit of Happiness
4. Bourgeois Tagg

Head on over to NoblePR to send in your answer.

OK, I guess it’s time to announce the winner of the autographed Todd Rundgren CD. But first I just have to say that I had a blast reading through all of your entries. Thanks to all those that participated in this CD drawing. There’s no question that Todd Rundgren has a rich and deep catalog of songs and so it was fun seeing the variety of favorites people submitted this past week. I thought it’d be interesting to tabulate everyone’s favorites and post an overall Top Ten list of the most requested songs. …You know, just in case Todd ever wanders by my blog to see what his fans are clamoring for. ..yeah, I KNOW it’s highly unlikely. but hey, a fan can dream, right?

so here are the overall Top Ten songs that fans would love for Todd Rundgren to perform in concert:

1. The Last Ride
2. Fair Warning
3. Parallel Lines
4. Utopia Theme
5. Don’t You Ever Learn?
6. We Gotta Get You A Woman
7. World Wide Epiphany
8. Fade Away
9. Just One Victory
and TIED for the 10th spot on the list- Change Myself, Love is the Answer, When the Shit Hits the Fan/Sunset Blvd.

I received a total of 129 entries for the CD drawing. I numbered all the posted comments sequentially in order of appearance and then went over to Random.org to generate a random number between 1 and 129. The website generated the number #94. And so the winner of the autographed Todd Rundgren Arena CD is…

Chris B.

Congratulations! You should be receiving an email from me. If you don’t find a message from me in your inbox, please go ahead and email me your mailing address via my contact page. I’ll be forwarding your address on to Todd’s management. They are planning to get Todd to sign the CD during the October U.S. leg of the tour so you should be receiving the CD sometime after that.

As always, support Todd by seeing him live at one of his upcoming shows. If he’s not scheduled in your neck of the woods yet, why not try calling one of your local concert promoters to demand a Todd show near you!!! yeah, let’s be proactive!

10/01/08 Seattle, WA Triple Door
10/04/08 Glen Ellen, CA Cohn Charity Music Festival
10/06/08 Chicago, IL Park West
10/07/08 Madison, WI Barrymore Theatre
10/09/08 Morristown, NJ Community Theatre
10/10/08 Pittsburgh, PA The Rex
10/11/08 Tarrytown, NY Music Hall
10/13/08 Knoxville, TN Bijou Theatre
10/15/08 Asheville, NC Orange Peel
11/06/08 Manchester, UK Academy 2
11/07/08 Edinburgh, UK The Picture House
11/09/08 Copenhagen, Denmark Amager Bio
11/10/08 Helsinki, Finland House of Culture
11/12/08 Gothenburg, Sweden Tragarn
11/13/08 Malmo, Sweden Kulturbolaget
11/15/08 Eindhoven, Netherlands TROMP International Music Festival
11/16/08 Bonn, Germany Harmonie
11/18/08 Milan, Italy Rolling Stone
11/20/08 Paris, France Trabendo
11/22/08 Norwich, UK Waterfront
11/23/08 London, UK The Forum
12/17/08 Alexandria, VA Birchmere
12/19/08 Bay Shore, NY YMCA Boulton Center
12/20/08 Norfolk, CT Infinity Hall
12/23/08 Woodstock, NY Bearsville Theater
12/26/08 New York, NY Blender Theater at Gramercy
12/27/08 New York, NY Blender Theater at Gramercy
12/30/08 Annapolis, MD Rams Head On Stage

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To celebrate the release of Todd Rundgren‘s long-awaited studio album, Arena (in stores September 30th), I’ve got a special treat for all you Todd fans! One lucky RetroBlog reader will be receiving the new Arena CD signed by none other than Todd Rundgren himself! That’s right, an autographed Arena CD!! All you have to do to register for the giveaway is to post a reply right here on this site with your name, email address and a list of 5 songs that you would personally LOVE to hear Todd perform in concert. I thought it would be interesting to see what all your favorites are. The songs can be from any era of his career and doesn’t have to be something that Todd normally performs. I will be selecting the winner at random and will be contacted via email. The deadline for the giveaway is Tuesday September 23rd at Midnight EST. – so what are you waiting for? Post a comment NOW! good luck!

NOTE: By participating in this RetroBlog contest, you agree to allow RetroBlog to post the winner’s name and city on this site. I will pass along the winner’s mailing address to Todd Rundgren’s management who will be mailing out the autographed CD. The CD will be mailed out sometime after the official release date. Retroblog will not use your email or mailing address for any other purpose. This giveaway was made possible by – Hi Fi Recordings in association with Cooking Vinyl and Todd’s management.

oh, by the way, here’s my list of songs I’d personally love to see Todd perform live:
1) Parallel Lines – probably my all time favorite Todd song. The “Up Against It” version, especially.
2) If I Have to Be Alone – amazing vocal performance on 2nd Wind. I would love to see him do this one up close and in person.
3) Just One Victory – his current show closer. always a favorite.
4) Worldwide Epiphany – Rundgren’s studio version pales in comparison to what this sounds like live.
5) Mated – Yes, call me sappy. but it’s another classic that I would love to see Todd do.

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- To read my track by track review of Rundgren’s Arena CD – click here.

- To pre-order the Arena album on Amazon.com – click here. Order multiple copies to give to your friends and co-workers!

- For those in the U.K., you can order directly from Cooking Vinyl.

- And for the latest on Todd Rundgren, check out his myspace page or Roger Linder’s TR Connection.
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**UPDATE**: The CD contest is now closed and the announcement of the winner can be found here.