You have a red tie. You wear socks all the time. Blaming shawn in the morning with dao vu. There you go. I think ive got red for all of us. Including my red shoes. I red a moot color, which is none. A lack of color. Coming up on the morning blend, just in time for valentines day, the choice, producer micah chats with one of the stores, the movie on the latest book brought to the big screen. Plus theyre keeping the fever alive in the Las Vegas Strip and in our studio. The australian bee gees have a Live Performances celebrating with us. First up today, a mix of classical, jazz, latin and classic pop. Pink martini has performed with more than 50 orchestras world wide and tomorrow night theyre teaming up with our own las here with more, Michele Madole of the las vegas philharmonic. Also with us, our students kelsea au and erika dalton. Chelsea is the winner of the Cox Communication young artist concertexesion. Erika dalton won in 2014 and is runner up this year. Good morning to all of you. Thank you so much for coming on. Good morning. This is such a fun event that youre putting on coming up. Can you tell us all about this . Yes. Tomorrow night the las vegas philharmonic presents pink martini in concert at the smith center in Reynolds Hall at 7 30. As part of that concert, we have two of our fabulous young artist concerto winners and competitors ho get to perform with us and with pink martini. This is really cool. Well talk to the ladies in just a second. Theyre led by Thomas Lauderdale . Yes. He went into politics a band that originates out of portland. He was originally working in politics, but had a passion for music. Years ago and they toured all over the world. As you said, played with 50 orchestras. This is our first collaboration with pink martini tomorrow night. Were beyond excited. What kind of music . Its a really incredible and dynamic mix of international jazz, samba, latin, even pop. They have a very distinctive signature, sultry style. They have an incredible look. Lead singer, storm, will be fronting for the band tomorrow night. They have another vocalist that performs in rotation with them. But storm large will appear with them tomorrow night and she has an incredible, distinctive style all her own. And the acoustics in the smith center will love her. I agree. Every fall the las vegas philharmonic you conduct a competition for high school students, an opportunity to perform in this atmosphere. What was it like this year . It was a really, really tough competition. There are so mentalented, Young Musicians in this community. To watch all of them who had put so much hard work into practicing and preparing their concerto for the competition and to watch them on competition day, how incredibly dedicated they are and passionate and just the shear amount of talent that i got to see was stunning. Chelsea, congratulations, you won the competition. Thank you. What did you perform . I played violin concerto number 2 in d minor. Winning this competition has been such an amazing experience and im so glad that i was able to access all my emotions on such a huge stage like the smith center to all of the Young Students that were watching. You were this years runner up. But you won last year. Yeah. So im not feeling bad. Whats the experience been like for you over the past two careers . This is such an opportunity. Yeah. Ive been involved with this for two seasons now and its been such a great experience. Motivation to work hard and getting to solo with the las vegas philharmonic is something that drives and motivates me to this day. And having that experience makes me want to work hard to have experiences like that full time as a career in the future. What did you perform . I performed this year i performed the same piece that chelsea did, except i did the first movement. How long do you practice every single day . It usually depend, since i go to public school, i usually dont have a lot of time to practice, especially since its my junior year, i have a lot of studying to do. But usually like on the weekdays i woul to four hours. And then weekends, four to six, depending on if i have a competition. Thats dedication. Incredible. What do you guys see as the longterm goal for you . You want to do this for the rest of your life . Yeah. Like whats the dream gig . I think performing music for both of us. I really like solo. Philharmonic really helped me find that. I really want to be a soloist so i can solo with the symphony every day for the rest of my life. They caught the bug. I love it. Well, i think theyve developed it over many years with hard work. Great to see. Again, the pink martini is when . Tomorrow night, 7 30 in Reynolds Hall. Tickets with still available. But limited. There are some great seats left, but limited. If people buy tickets for tomorrows show, theyre entered for tickets to another las vegas yes. Every Ticket Purchase goes into a drawing to win two tickets to our following up two matinees far the rest of the season. Everyone that goes to the matinee show tomorrow gets what . Gets a free copy of cds pink martini cd, a fantastic. Its great having you again. Thank you. Thank you so much. Congratulations. All right. Las vegas philharmonic at the internationally acclaimed 12 piece little york is that pink martini featuring vocalist storm large. Tomorrow night 7 30 at Reynolds Hall at the smith center. For more information, call the number or visit the web site on your screen. Still to come, wwe hall of Famer Mick Foley is live with us. What persona will he bring . Next speaking of music, its getting ready to dance time. Celebrating a specia welcome back. Its saturday night fever every night with australian bee gees. They are keeping it funky five excalibur. Here now with a little jive talking is michael clift, with wayne hosking, who plays maurice and david scott as robin, as well as the rest of the group. Hello. Hello. Behind us. Ill get out of the way. Weve got tiny richards on the bass guitar. Welcome. Hello. Now. Five years. I know. It is. I cant believe it. We had you on the show your first week. I think it was the first week we were in vegas. Your show was just sort of starting out, too. Weve grown up in vegas together. We started at preschool. Together . We were together as group before doing our own music and so corporate we did a lot of shows with tribute bands and gees. So we researched it and thought, do. For those who have not seen the show what, can they expect . We do it in two eras, the 70s and more of sort of modern. Retrospective. Those elements. We do the show in character were actually in character for the whole thing. Thats real hair . Thats real hair. What nights do you perform . Six nights a week. What songs do you cover . Anything all the big hits . They released so many. They have a few hits. Do you have an audience that are they screaming out requests to you and stuff like that . They do that. Obviously we cant include every hit thats theyve had. It would be a seven hour show. Exactly. We include all the expected hits. We try. Over the last five years, do you have moments that stood out for you . In vegas . Yeah. Just right through the way the show has grown. The way that our showroom has grown and improved. Is it crazy when you look at the audience and they can sing back the songs to you because it was part of their childhood growing up . Exactly. We get a lot of younger people also. And they know the music. Words. Were going what . Youre seven. How do you know this . Exactly. Us. Expect at the show. Well get out of your way. We make terrible dancers. Jive talking telling me lies jive talking you wear a disguise jive talking so misunderstood jive talking youre really no good oh, my child youll never know oh, my child, you got so much you gonna take away my energy with all your jive talking telling me lies good loving still gets in my eyes nobody believes what you say its just your jive talking that gets in the way oh, my love youre so good treating me so cruel there you go with your fancy lies leaving me looking like a dumb struck fool telling me lies a disguise jive talking. So misunderstood, yeah jive talking you just aint no good you know that yeah jive talking just isnt a crime and if there is somebody youll love til you die then all that jive talking just gets in your eye with all telling me lies jive talking. Jiveal, just gets in your eye jive talking jive talking that was awesome australian bee gees, everybody. Their fifth anniversary of the australian bee gees, every saturday through thursday at the excalibur. For tickets check out the web site or call the number on your screen. You can also find them on facebook or twitter. You make that look effortless for 9 00 oclock in the morning. No kidding. Right now were giving ausra one of their cds. Be caller 13 and you win. Up next, producer micah has more on the tear jerker the choice. Are you on facebook or twitter . Like or follow us. Vegasmorningblend. Com on our praised as one of americas best mayors who governed as a pragmatist. A practical and successful legislator, Bernie Sanders passed more rollcall amendments in a Republican Congress than any other member, primary care access for millions of americans, protected social security, cracked the gridlock with john mccain to strengthen veterans healthcare. Nt, prctive leader. Building a future to believe in. Ultimate test to say the least on love will prevail. The best selling novel from Nicholas Sparks. Tissues. Dr. Ryan joins us more. Tom, how are thanks for having my. Thank you for joining us. Its from nick class sparks, so emotional. D it. Yeah. I read the scripolase, s we all know what this is. As i read through it, i realized this is different. It has all the elements you would expect from a Nicholas Sparks film, but it takes place over the course of ten years. You get to see these characters early on make choices in their lives and you get to see how the choices played out. I think there is an authenticity to the emotionality of what these characters go through. There is a lot of fun knowing that ross is going to be the and to be able to work, i was looking forward to it. Were seeing some clips of it right now cause were going to introduce to your character as the boyfriend at the time. So tell us more about your character in the film. My character, dr. Ryan, we kind of joked, didnt have a last name. But hes on the perfect path. Hes going to take over his fathers medical practice of the hes got the perfect girl. Going to propose. Things might change his course. You get to see him react to the fact that his girlfriend may have been with another guy. It was interesting. Its fun to play a character who doesnt get the girl and then to see how he reacts and how he makes choices for his life going forward. Kind of how love works. After youre already in a relationship and kind of wondering what if. Looking in a little bit on this one. Yeah. Its funny. We wanted to make it very hard for trace, for her character to make this choice between the two because her character is so great that she would never be with a bad guy to begin with. And for my character, it reay comes down do you really want to be with someone who doesnt want to be with you . How do you react . How do you respect their choice for ha they want in their life . Those are all sort of themes i wanted to explore through this character. Tell us about your costars. Who else is in the film with you . Theresa palmer, shes fantastic. Electric. She jumps right off the screen. Ben is fantastic. Very talented. Very different as far as we play very different characters, who both probably dont understand why trace would be with either of them. And then ross, our director, was a very big influence. He really helped create an environment where we could really support each other. Day right around the corner. Depending on who youre bringing to the movie with you, could be leaving with somebody else. I hadnt thought about that. You have to be careful. My congratulations on it. What other projects are you working on . Were working a number of projects. Were waiting to hear from cbs about a project that i was waiting for the green light to go shoot and hopefully on tv soon. I appreciate you taking time out and talking to us this morning. Thank you, sir. Every path you take, another choice to let your heart decide. For a preview, head to the web site on your screen. Tom was talking about how character kind of only has one name. Tom welling as ryan. Bring the tissues. I certainly will. Time for this weeks whats for dinner brought to you by m and m soul food cafe. Head to m and m soul food restaurant. Award winning chicken and waffles platter. Delicious. Their traditional mississippi dish campaigns their crispy Fried Chicken with waffles and a must try combination. You can not forget about the dessert. Have one of their famous lip smacking selections like sweet potato pie, peach cobbler, botha in a pudding or a wide selection of cakes. Wash your dinner down with some of the popular sweet tea or lemonade. 11time best of las vegas award winner. They have two locations. One on valley view and charleston and their new one on las vegas boulevard across from the stratosphere. Theyre also open for breakfast, so you can start your day with tasty mississippi home cooking. If youre up buying groceries for the big game, pick up an extra few for families that are if need around the valley. Tomorrow participating smith food and drug locations in las vegas will host their annual food drive for Ronald Mcdonald house. Volunteers will be on hand to assist shoppers with making last year the food drive brought in more than 18,000 pounds of food and more than 13,000 in cash donations, which was enough to provide families with food for the entire year. Again, that is tomorrow at drugstores throughout lastt2wlr [hk po j ml tt2wlr [hk p n m tt2wlr [hk p4 j [p tt2wlr [hk px ` . U tt2wlr [hk pt j` u tt2wlr [hk pt j ` 15 tt2wlr [hk pp j ` . 8 tt2wlr [hk pp j,` gtx tt2wlr [hk pl. ` n]t tt2wlr [hk pl 0` uk< welcome back. Teachers are in high demand in southern nevada. If you have a desire to pursue a career in teaching, wgu nevada is offering you a way to fill that dream. Joining us now with more is chancellor spencer stewart. Good morning. Thank you. Can you tell us about wgu before we talk about the scholarship. Absolutely. So wgu nevada is a fully online university. It started about six months ago where the state of nevada creating an affiliation with wgu. This is a university that targets working adults. It really is designed for them. So we started six months ago with just under 900 students and today we almost have double that. So we have seen Significant Growth over the last six months. There is certainly a need for it here in nevada. Thats why wgu exists. Absolutely. I think it really is designed to within the state as nevada tries to diversify, the realization is you need a skilled work force in order to do that, which is where wgu nevada comes into play. You are also here to talk about the scholarships that are available. Thats right. Last legislative session, the Legislature Passed an initiative designed to get more teachers into the profession and the state board of nevada, education board, just awarded wgu nevada 240,000 in scholarship funding. So we have 20 scholarships designed for individuals who have a bachelor or masters degree, not in the education field. These are individuals who want to change their career and get into the classroom. So this is an alternative route to license sure. This is an accelerated pathway classroom as soon as possible, given the Teacher Shortage that we have here. Absolutely. A lot of movement as far as the teacher are concerned. Im not great at math. So could you help m legislative it covers your full ride at wgu . Fantastic six instboard of education awarded these dollars to. So wgu nevada is working with five other institutions throughout scholarship . Very easy process. That stand to licenseure. In order to be eligible, oneedto be officially admitted to wgu nevada. Whats an alternate route. An alternate route to license entire four years just for teaching. You have that degree and this kind of attaches to that degree . Thats right. There are several ways to get into the classroom. There is the traditional route, degree program. And then there is alternative route where lets education degree. Degree. Classroom. I w track program where one can get licensed and typically that takes anywhere from one to three years. And this person already has a b. A. Degree . Thats right. They already have their fouryear degree. So then they can just fast track and get that teaching certificate. Thats right. And the costs of going to school can get expensive. So this scholarship would be fantastic for so many people. It is. Wgu nevada already has a low price point. So for a full Academic Year at wgu nevada, its 6,000. Thats a flat fee. That actually covers your textbooks as well. It does. Usually its not including the textbooks. So thats like another two grand. Wow. Whats interesting about wgu nevada is because were a competencybased provider, one is able to accelerate through their course work if they can demonstrate mastery. So the average time for a fouryear degree with us is about 2 1 2 years because people as students can accelerate through at their own pace. So at the end of the day, for a fouryear degree, this is without the scholarship, but for a fouryear degree, youre looking at 18,000, which is incredible. Absolutely. Less than one semester at some of the other schools that are out there. Thats right. What are the other programs and courses that wgu offers . Really a myriad . Thats right. We have four academic colleges. Business college, teachers college, our college of i. T. , and our college of health professions. So across these four academic colleges, we have 50 bachelors and masters degrees. You hit, these are all areas of high need areas in nevada. Thats right. Thats why nevada invited with, gu into the state because these are areas we certainly want to grow. And you can do this but at your leisure online, too, if you already have a job, but you want to get your certificate . Thats right the primary market for wgu nevada is the Adult Learner because this is a selfpaced curriculum. They can learn anywhere, any time. Comfort their home or after hours working. It really is up to them to advance themselves. You can keep your job and go to school at the same time. Thats right. Its really a phenomenal opportunity for some aspiring