Stumble

I stumbled upon this interesting site...
"it's 99 things you should have experienced on the internet unless you're a loser or old or something"... if you have some time... or are procrastinating... watch a bunch..

the name was enough to get me and if you've got some time some of my personal favorites are:
01) grape lady falls
06) Charlie The Unicorn
25) gangsta barney (idk this kills me)

this is why you're fat

i was looking through UO's Blog and I found this little site, (click on the delicious pizza(?) above)... quite amusing if you ask me.
hope this entertained/disturbed you as much as it did to me.

trendstalk: menswear

I'm not going to lie, i enjoy fashion. I enjoy looking at it. I enjoy wearing it. I enjoy talking about it. This leads me to read about trends and to follow numerous blogs. This season, one trend in particular had caught my attention. Menswear. Why is menswear for women so excellent? When it showed up in Fall '08, I was a little skeptical, but now I see the beauty in it. When worn well it is strong, yet sexy. It doesn't show too much, but doesn't have to be the "conservative mommy goes to work" outfit. Also, black and white is classic. It will never go out of style. The Yves Saint Laurent 'le smoking' suit (picture credit to: lightswitchclothing's Blog)is a classic example of this; sexy, sophisticated, simple, effortless, classic. Skirts can be shortened and blazers fitted. The best part of menswear is the ability to add feminine details. Menswear can be intertwined into many outfits, wither it is a men's watch, bow tie, blazer, button up, vest, oxford shoes, or suit shorts.

Here are some of my favorite menswear picks (that you can get at the mall) for under $75 to spark inspiration:

1. Urban Outfitter's "Lux Little Brother Blazer", $68 here
This lovely little jacket is cropped, which is perfect because it distracts from the masculinity of the jacket. It could be worn casually with a t-shirt or worn even with a dress. (Reese Witherspoon pulled of the casual blazer look here.) A bow accent would help add femininity to this piece.






2. American Eagle's Boy Fit Jeans, $29.99 here
These are honestly a steal. These are on my own personal wish list. For less than $30 (it's close, i know) you can get a relaxed, distressed denim look, which had shown up at the end of summer 2008. These look so comfortable. They could be jazzed up with a blazer or fedora. Even a t-shirt would work fine with this. It works for a relaxed spring look. (Check out Reese Witherspoon at the end of summer 2008, here)

3. Forever 21's Cuffed Dressy Short, $17.80 here
I own these and they are honestly my favorite shorts. They aren't hoochie short and they look good with everything. I typically wear them with a cardigan, tights, a t-shirt, and flats. Plus, they're only $18! I bet they'd even look great with heels.


Shake up your wardrobe a little bit.
Take some risks and don't be afraid to dress like a boy!

Shows Vs. Concerts

Mmmm. Deerhoof.

I really love music. I love Satomi Matsuzaki and Deerhoof. And I love music pure from anything else, don't get me wrong, but lately I've come to realize it's the show aspect of concerts that really get me into the music, and goddamn if they don't have it down.

So when I recently started listening to Deerhoof based on a recommendation I recieved last summer, the music was great. But the most exciting part is that I listened to most of their music through youtube. I don't think I've ever appreciated youtube as much as then. It's fucking great.

 So their kinda a mix of noise rock and japanese pop, and a bunch of people don't think that they're music. So, this is a 10 minute video of one of their concerts at UICA, and it's rad. I think that it's all brilliant, but flip to 9:09 on this video and watch the magic that ensues until about 9:28.

  

It's great. I mean really, really great. I can't describe how perfect those dance moves are.

But, does that mean there's a difference between a show and a concert? Yeah, I mean, that was a show. That might turn out to be a petty point in semantics, but there's something to be said for the difference I'm talking about. That isn't only their hearts and minds flowing through the amplifiers, those are laid out right on stage for everyone to see. There's no mask of fake-ness or uncaring to hide behind. In this age of communication, it's so easy to forget that before cds, before 8-tracks, before vinyl, there wasn't anything. If you wanted to hear music, you had to go out and listen to it for yourself.

Now, obviously, before vinyl, the music being made wasn't much about putting your heart on the table anyway, but the point stands. When everyone walked around with a walkman, exchanging mixtapes of some of the latest underground bands' recordings they've gotten a hold of, it wasn't as mechanical as it is now.

When you're playing a show, you're making a fool of yourself and standing behind it. It's not meant to be this picture perfect reproduction of how the recording sounded, it's meant to be the music you're making and the heart to sing it at the top of your lungs.

Fuck. I'm rambling. I gotta show another concert to keep me focused.

So I've also been in love with Man Man for the past 3 months. I wanna not short change them right now, because I love them too much, so I'll wait for next time to express that.

But I wanna say that this is great. It's all about taking drags from your cigarette in between lyrics and shouting without microphones. And we're slowly making steps from the heartiest to the heartiestest to the most heartiestestest.

I think I found the point of this post, and that's it right there. Having kids a foot away from knocking you to the ground and having another kid be your mic stand is something you can't really describe. I think what all this has been leading up to is that anyone can make music. The current music being made has so much post processing sometimes, it makes your forget that all you need to make music is a frying pan, a stick to hit it with, and vocal cords. You don't need to be doing funny dances to show your heart, but when you're not just hearing or playing music, and the vibrations in the air become a part of every inch of your circulatory system, that's when there's some soul.

A lot of musicians these days are starting to forget why they're playing. And sometimes they call the absence of heart they put on stage an artistic choice. And that's okay, but at that point, you might as well be listening to a cd. The noise that comes out when you're on the same level as the crowd, smiling as you shout. Fuck, man. That's how music is intended to make you feel.

Glamourous Indie Rock and Roll is All We Want?

Supposedly, Brandon Flowers isn't the only one with cravings for indie music. Whether it be "experimental", "chill", or "pop" indie, there has been an explosion of new listeners. This can be credited to a few things. 1, everyone is tired of rap about dancing and grinding on your hoe. 2, who doesn't want to be a hipster. And finally 3, the internet. The internet is clearly the biggest reason why indie bands have been able to make it. With the ability to torrent, download, blog, and "scrobble", indie bands have been able to develop a fan base far beyond their local areas. Bands such as Vampire Weekend and Feist were popular topics of blogs and through that exposure were able to succeed. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah can also credit the large success of their first album to blogging. Last.fm has also had an extremely large impact on music. If you take 5 minutes to start an account, plus about a week of intense iTunes listening, you will be exposed to plenty of bands that you would love, yet never knew existed. The technology that Last.fm uses, as well as Pandora Radio, is allowing bands to get larger fan bases and more success.

This doesn't just apply to newer bands, although. This explosion of music blogs and increased indie exposure has also helped older bands, such as Neutral Milk Hotel, to get exposure they never got when they were playing the nineties. For bands like NMH, it was difficult to consolidate a fan base because they weren't a Billboard 100 band. Without blogging and a solid file downloading system, their music was never able to launch as far as it would have if they were playing now.The internet has allowed Neutral Milk Hotel's music to live on long after they have stopped playing, and have given them a name as an extremely talented indie band.

With the internet being a great medium for getting music, it seems as if indie music has a large pedestal for indie music to sit on. As it continues to get bigger, we can finally see indie hit more mainstream. Bands such as Vampire Weekend, MGMT , Passion Pit, and Chester French will be able to get much more exposure and fame due to their distinct, yet poppish sound. Although these bands have clear pop roots, they experiment and do different things that give them a completely different sound than all of the Fall Out Boy's and All American Rejects.

So as we continue to bask in the glory that is indie music, we give our thanks to the internet. Without downloading, myspace, and other blogs, what would indie music be now?

Super Bowl < The Office

Like the majority of my fellow Americans, I could not wait for this past Sunday (February 1st). Unlike most of them, however, I could not care less about sweaty, large men running around tackling eachother. As I sat with my family, eating pizza and watching the Super Bowl, all that was on my mind was what would come after the annual game. As 10:30 PM rolled around, I rushed to my TV and turned to NBC, overjoyed that The Office was finally on.

The Office, which is usually on every Thursday night on NBC at 8:00, is arguably the funniest show on TV at the moment. The writers have yet to create an episode that I dislike. The characters, unlike those of most modern TV shows, are loved for their sometimes strange and somewhat unlovable characteristics. There are no unrealistically thin & blonde girls with perfect fashion sense, no gorgeous Abercrombie&Fitch model-looking boys. The characters of The Office hardly ever say the right thing or look notably good. They do, however, present an unusual yet very real & natural charm that keeps the viewers laughing.

After seeing the hysterical commercial for this past Sunday's episode, I just couldn't wait to watch. I wondered, however, if the writers, directors, and actors could once again live up to the extremely high expectations I had. I worried that maybe they would run out of good jokes, or that the plot would be stupid.

My worries proved to be completely unnecessary. Once again, the team of The Office had me laughing through the entire 1-hour special episode. This episode, titled "Stress Relief", may have been one of the funniest and best episodes in the show's history, which almost never happens in a TV show's 5th season.

There were many different subplots to this episode. It opened with Dwight; the cocky, socially awkward, gullible, and lovable top sales man (and, as he so often points out, "assistant reigonal manager"), setting the office on fire to prove to his coworkers that they are not prepared for a "real" emergency. This ended with Stanley (the quite, stubborn, token black guy) on the floor having a heart attack. Of course, this was the perfect oppourtunity for Michael (the immature boss with no self-awareness who loves both himself and his job, played by the hysterical Steve Carell) to yet again prove how rediculous he is by saying (in an attempt to revive Stanley): "Stanley you will not die! Stanley! Stanley, Barack is president! You are BLACK, Stanley!"

It was all uphill from there. Michael attempts to de-stress the office in order to prevent a similar situation from reoccuring (in his words: "Nobody should have to go to work thinking, oh this is the place that I might die today. That's what a hospital is for. An office, is for not dying. An office is a place to... live life to the fullest. To the max. To... an office is a place where dreams come true."), which makes him realize that he is, infact, the one causing the stress. It is because of this that Michael organizes a Roast, which will bring everyone together to publicly bash him and, therefore, relieving the stress he is causing. He does not anticipate that his workers will have many things to say about him that would be better left unsaid. After a truly harsh bashing of Michael Scott (I must admit, it was very upsetting to watch), Michael goes off to contemplate his life and his problems on a playground. This saga ends with uplifting laughter among everyone at the office when Michael returns to the office and attempts to harshly roast his workers (epic fail).

While all this is going on, there is also the storyline of Jim and Pam, the best-friends-turned-lovers. Now engaged, they had yet to experience real problems in their relationship (aside from the insane sexual tension and obvious love connection confusion pre-lovers phase). But in this episode, Pam's parents are facing mariage troubles and, after talking to Jim, Pam's father tells his wife that he is moving out. Pam is convinced that Jim said something to her father that made him want to leave her mother. Turns out, she was right. "He (Pam's father) said that you (Jim) told him how much you love me (Pam). About how you feel when I walk in a room. And about, how you've never doubted for a second that I'm the woman you wanna spend the rest of your life with. I guess he had never felt that with my mom even at their best." CUTEST PAM-JIM MOMENT EVER. God, I love them.

So in conclusion, this episode was filled with fire, stress, singing and dancing to "Staying Alive", meditation, romance, a CPR dummie with no arms or legs, a new version of the song "What I Like About You", disses towards Michael, hysterical moments and a happy ending. AND to top it all off, there were cameo appearances made by Jack Black and Jessica Alba. It just doesn't get much better than that. Actually, knowing The Office, it just might get better than that.

I love the 90s! Part I

Being a junior in high school, I don't find myself often turning to Cartoon Network for my television entertainment. However, whenever I am flipping through the channels and Courage the Cowardly Dog is on, I watch. Although this show scared the bejesus out of me when I was a kid, I have grown to have a deep appreciation for the show. If you are unaware of the plot behind the show, maybe I should start with this...

We interrupt this program to bring you... the Courage the Cowardly Dog show, starring Courage the Cowardly Dog! Abandoned as a pup, he was found by Muriel, who lives in the middle of Nowhere with her husband, Eustace Bagge. But creepy stuff happens in Nowhere... it's up to Courage to save his new home!



My love for the show starts with the animation of the show. For example, the screams in the show are priceless. Courage's flailing arms and hole ridden teeth make my day. Another reason to love this show, is because you each episode has two mini episodes. Courage saves the day TWICE, every show. Then of course there are the villeins... like honestly where else can you see a fusia dog fight EGGPLANTS? Villeins include: Katz, Le Quack, The Snowman (aka S'man [??]), Freaky Fred (who has a compulsion to shave everyone's heads), and The Chicken from Outer Space (who sucks off people's heads with a plunger). Each villein is truely unique and convicingly evil.


Time and time again, i fall for Courage, his cowardice, and determination.

Courage: The things I do for love!