Filed under: Barrels of Fun, Music, Nouvelle Musique | Tags: Art, Blake Sennett, Conor Oberst, Culture, feminism, Jenny Lewis, M. Ward, mp3, music, Rilo Kiley, Sarah Maple, School, She & Him, Smokey Robinson, Volume One, Zooey Deschanel
I just zoned out and pictured Ali and Becca with Ed Zych moustaches. Hahah. Wow.
Speaking of Ali, she created a new blog. I am going to advocate her blog for a minute. You might like my blog because I am long-winded and really immature and I mope a lot. You get to watch me grow up. Go back to my first post, and you want to punch me in the face. I like to explain things thoroughly so you completely understand whatever I’m talking about. And I try so hard not to offend. You will like Ali’s blog because she uses colourful pictures to illustrate her points. She writes with an intensity that is unheard of. Somehow, she is able to get her point across with few words. If we both wrote about the same thing, I’m pretty sure that I would take a five-paragraph essay to convey what she can in five sentences. The way she writes conjures up thoughts of vignettes. They are little snippets of her life that require no backstory. Ali’s writing is unique in this way. The way I write is basically a very unpoetic epic poem or a journal. I give you some backstory. You can track my progress. I change.
Dear Ali,
I will always find you whenever you start a new blog. You can’t hide.
Love, Paige
When I put it this way, I wonder why you read my blog at all. It’s probably for the free candy. Free music. Yeah.
Honestly, I don’t know why I’ve let the blog go for this long without some new music. Because I’ve been listening avidly all this time, finding new lovely artists. I’ve been tuning my iTunes to spring.
I feel that I should start slowly though. First, I said back in February or March that I would write about She & Him, and I didn’t lie but I just haven’t done it yet.
Erika is the one who introduced me to She & Him. She told me that she falls asleep to their album, Volume One, every night. It is her teddy bear. I was excited but a little skeptical. It seemed like sacrelige to me to bed down with an album like that, to worship something other than Rilo Kiley. And while they are no Rilo Kiley for me, while Zooey Deschanel is no Jenny Lewis and M. Ward no Conor Oberst/Blake Sennett, they put up a damn good fight.
If you like Jenny Lewis’ solo albums and if you love 50s/60s pop music with a slight bubblegum flavour, then She & Him is for you. I really don’t know how they manage it. It’s a mind-blowing mixture, slightly dangerous, but for what it is, it is perfection. I would even venture to wholeheartedly recommend She & Him to older listeners, people who grew up with that 50s or 60s bubblegum pop. I don’t think anyone out of their mid-twenties even reads this, but next time you and your Aunt Elaine are bonding over music, pop this one in.
As for the album itself, most of the thirteen tracks check in at under three minutes. She & Him don’t go for the epic “Tereza and Thomas”-type shit. That means that every song is bite-sized, kind of like a Sour Patch Watermelon.
I should never write reviews for CDs again. My analogies are cringeworthy.
You Really Got A Hold On Me | She & Him
[mediafire] [buy]
Did I mention that they do covers that make me want to melt? Also, maybe you can help me. In iTunes and on Last.fm, it’s named “You Really Gotta Hold On Me” but elsewhere, it is named “You Really Got A Hold On Me”. Which is correct?
I Thought I Saw Your Face Today | She & Him
[mediafire] [buy]
Did I mention that I love sick beats?
While I’m on a roll, talking about amazing women, it is mandaroty that I mention Sarah Maple. She is an incredibly accomplished and clever feminist painter and photographer. I don’t want to just paraphrase the Bitch article that introduced her to me on a formal basis (because I had run into her a few times before, but the websites never cited her). She’s just an incredible cultural commentator.
This one's my favourite.
As for real-life occurrences, I go home in three weeks (less than a month) and I am stoked. I will be able to sit outside and read all day while my sisters suffer at school. And for those of you still in high school, yes, that is a pretty mean thing to say, but when you think about it, I suffered too. I went to school for fourteen years before arriving at this position. This is my fifteenth year, and it’s almost done. If you’re in high school, you probably haven’t gone through that much school.
Filed under: Barrels of Fun, Books, Music, My Experience with Existence, Nouvelle Musique, School | Tags: Books, college, Everything Is Illuminated, grades, Jonathan Safran Foer, literature, Melpo Mene, mp3, nuttymadam3575, School, Twilight, VCU
Here is a story for you. I thought I had four As and one B this semester at college. When I checked my grades online, I found that I had four As and one C. The C was in my one-credit Intro to University class, where we did jack shit and my teacher was a certified phony. I’d nabbed As in Psyc, English, Math, and Gov. This was not an easy feat. And that one-credit piece of shit class dragged down my GPA. Needless to say, I was at least a little frustrated, and supposing my cousin, Liz, chances upon this entry, she will probably correct me and tell me that I cried and she wanted to punch me in the face. College is something you have to pay for, so my mentality was to achieve all As (unlike my high school mentality, which was “Fuck It”).
However, I still made Dean’s List. This is extremely satisfying.
My message to you is: If you go to VCU, do not take Univ 101 no matter how your advisor urges that you do so. It’s just not worth the time.
I will give you two more things today.
The first is a book recommendation. If you’re like me, then you have multitudes of books lying around your room and your suitcase that you cannot wait to read, yet there are still so many more that you have not yet acquired of which you yearn to get ahold. And you’re ever so open to recommendations, as you love to read and you love books, but at the same time, you barely have room for another book in your life right now. I am like this now, and I was also like this when I purchased the book that I am currently reading, but I urge you to do whatever you can to make room for this book. And I’ll tell you what this book is.
But first, I have to admit that I can’t believe I haven’t read it yet. I feel so overwhelmed now because I must have about a million undiscovered gems to read, especially considering the grandeur that is this novel.
The book is called Everything Is Illuminated and it was written by Jonathan Safran Foer. And I’ll have to leave it at that, because it’s impossible to describe in all its intricacies. I can tell you that if you doubt me at all, then just read the first “chapter” piece, narrated by Alex in hilariously fucked-up English. If you’re a language person like I am, then you’ll appreciate these segments. And if you still doubt me, then turn to the next “chapter” piece, narrated by Jonathan. If you’re a detail-oriented person like I am, then you’ll appreciate these segments. And if you still doubt me, well, you might as well read the entire novel. It’s thick but the pages fly by. And it’s probably worth it.
I might as well add that yes, a movie version does exist, and it may or may not be loyal to the book and it may or may not be fulfilling, but I only recommend the book. It is worthwhile to read the book. Elijah Wood is in the movie, but I don’t know whether or not it is worthwhile to watch. Just read the book already.
Also, okay, since I had to find a photo of the book cover, I also ran into shots from the movie and it is tempting to watch it now. But please, be a good person and read the book.
The last well…maybe the last thing I wanted to tell you is that of course I enjoy Melpo Mene, and that I have another Melpo Mene track to share with you. Not unlike the band’s other tracks, this one is a sweet, soft lullaby-like crooner tune but it strikes me probably because it is both incredibly joyous and terribly melancholy at the same time. It is not unlike a sunny afternoon on a day where you’ve slept too much, because while it’s dandy that everything is gorgeous and that you are well-rested, the sunlight will go away soon and the day will end and then you’ll have nothing to do.
I should get away | Melpo Mene
[zshare] [mediafire]
[website] [myspace]
And I was just thinking that maybe this should be the end of my post, but I have decided to take it upon myself to introduce to you a phenomenon. If you have already seen this phenomenon, then I am proud of you. But I can only go a few days or weeks without seeing this video before having to refresh my memory.
It’s not that I think this girl is stupid or that I want to hate on her. I just find her videos humorous in content. This is probably the most popular one, but her others are gems as well. She can be good-natured and excited, which in turn brings a smile to my face maybe because her good moods are fairly contagious, or maybe because she’s just so unbearably silly. It kind of reminds me of an exaggerated version of me reacting to anything to do with Rilo Kiley. I’m not praising her views on Twilight, though. I find it fairly silly to defend something like a popular (and allegedly poorly-written) piece of literature so relentlessly and without restraint. This sort of video by a self-proclaimed “twituber” makes me want to test Twilight for myself so I can be a better judge, since my taste in literature is relatively acute. Then again, most girls who read Twilight, their taste is acute too. They mostly refuse to branch out from the Young Adult section, which means they’ll just imbibe novels like A-List, The Clique, and other such teen romance/girl-fiction shit.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Banksy, bunny, college, Lewisburg, rabbit, School
I’m a bit of a bitch as far as romance goes. I’m so reluctant. Maybe it’s just in the rare event that it’s so easy to lure someone in. I mean, if I was a guy, I probably wouldn’t fuck me. I get insecure at that thought, and I think that people flirt with me just because they can, because I am secretly in love. But I need someone who will just stealthily come up behind me and hug me without warning. That’s my idea of romance, I think. Meaningless hugs and picnics and kisses on the neck. And spontaneity.
I’m graduating on Friday, but I’m not ready for college. I’m just worried that my music won’t be enough to help me survive. And I know that’s silly, and of course it will be.
But also, despite the fact that I’m moving back to the Triad and Divya and everyone, I’m actually intensely sad that I’ll be so far from my new friends. I mean, we’re just kicking things off and we have all summer, but…ah, how to sound unlame? They’ve helped me get rid of a good deal of my anxiety. And I feel good about myself the way I am. And I can sing around other people and not care. They seem to understand the awkwardness, and instead of thinking it’s silly behind my back, they understand, and we can all laugh about it together.
On the other hand, I feel that my friends are helping me prepare for college. I am like a baby bird, and they are feeding me and giving me confidence and teaching me right now so that by the end of the summer, I will be my own person, and I’ll be able to fend for myself.
Speaking of baby animals, a lot has happened over the past two weeks. One of the things that happened is that Charles found a baby rabbit by the road and brought him to me. He was very hot and very little–eyes still closed–but I was determined to nurse him back to health. He was so helpless, and it was so urgent.
Things went fine for the first two days, and Alexa named him Leverett. But on the third day, Leverett apparently aspirated, so he began choking. Despite the fact that I gave him the heimlich maneuver several times, he only got worse. His organs gradually shut down until he couldn’t breathe, and then Ali arrived at my house, and I was a mess, and she sensed the urgency, and then he died. I bawled. We mourned and went to Rita’s, and then the next day, we had a funeral for him and buried him on my side yard with the help of Paige and Carol. Although I was hurting, the funeral was a strangely happy one. Sometimes, I can’t find the right emotion, or I try to make things seem lighter than they are.
Leverett didn’t deserve to die. I held him in my hand for his last hour, and it was just the most frightening experience of my life. Louie all over again. He would sleep and wake up and hyperventilate, and then it seemed that he had seizures, which led to paralysis, which required rapid chest-rubbing. And then the cycle would return. It happened for hours on end, apparently. It was just the most dreadful thing–indescribable–to know that he would die and that there was nothing I could do about it. At one point, I called my mom and screamed for her to drive us to the vet, and she said that no, there was nothing they could do. But they could have done something more than I could have, right? It will haunt me forever that I didn’t do everything in my power to save him. And I just keep thinking–should I have returned him to where Charles found him? But Charles later found his sibling in the road–killed by a car. Leverett was a helpless newborn. I’m just stuck.
As far as other changes go, I feel tension building between myself and Derek, and it makes me upset. It’s not that I don’t want to spend the summer near him in Richmond. It’s that I don’t want to live with my dad. And I love my friends here. And really, Sara summed it up best–I may be in love with Lewisburg. I want to get a job here this summer and make money and just sort of slowly say bye. It’s not that I won’t be back, but I will be away for a while.
Besides, I first experienced Lewisburg over the summer, and that’s why I loved it. Now that I live here, there are more things to do and I have friends. And I can make plans and I can meet new people who are looking for this connection. Before, I didn’t understand why anyone would move to Lewisburg as an older person. But as a teenager, I kind of get it. It’s a college town, and it’s just lovely.
Filed under: Barrels of Fun, Music, My Experience with Existence, Nouvelle Musique, School | Tags: Annie Clark, Ben Gibbard, Britt Daniel, Cooking With Rockstars, Facebook, Food, Honeyhoney, Jennifer Robbins, Jenny Lewis, Jenville, Mike Mogis, Revised, Rufus Wainwright, Sam Beam, School, The Matches, Vampire Weekend, veganism, Vegetarianism
The last time we went to the grocery store, my mother told me that I should lay off of pre-packaged and frozen special-made vegetarian and vegan foods because they are too expensive and I need to be more resourceful. After all, when I am in college, I will need to learn to cook. By the by, just typing about college makes me get butterflies in my stomach. I am so excited.
Anyway, I bitched and moaned about “OMGZ, Mom, I’m vegetarian! You can eat anything I can eat, but I can’t eat everything that you can eat! Make a Venn Diagram! UGHGHGhghghghhh!” I think that I was so irritated because of two reasons. One, my period was on its way. Two, I have wanted to cook for myself from scratch for a long time (because it would give me more of an opportunity to slip into going vegan), but I have always figured that my mother would be pissed about it. The fact that she was not even remotely pissed somehow set me off.
So I ate my boxed couscous and pondered on gathering recipes.
I am the sort of person who always needs a project. I rarely finish my projects, but what I get done is grand. So in order to aid my attempt at veganism/learning to cook, I decided that I must gather recipes. And in order to organize that, I should gather them in a cookbook of sorts. Since I love composition notebooks, I grabbed one from my drawer.
The question was then where I should gather them from. Well, a while back, I found this website featuring a Jenny Lewis interview–and at the bottom of the page, it had her recipe for vegan “chicken” and then Mike Mogis’ recipe for vegan gravy and this recipe for vegan Worcestershire sauce. Although I had bookmarked it, I lost all of my bookmarks once in a Firefox update sesh, but FORTUNATELY, I had preserved my bookmarks on my LiveJournal in anticipation for the move. And let me tell you, this modest site has changed so much.
The site is actually called Cooking With Rockstars, a…I want to say subsidiary…of Jenville. Cooking With Rockstars chronicles a bunch of interviews conducted by the lovely Jennifer Robbins with various stars in the musical mainstream. But I don’t want to say mainstream. I almost want to call it the indie mainstream. You know, the artists you know and love. Probably. I mean, considering you’re on this blog. Rufus Wainwright, Ben Gibbard, Sam Beam, Britt Daniel, Annie Clark. I mean, just to name a few. And the artists contribute recipes, and Ms. Robbins publishes them on her site. I actually think that she is Mrs. Robbins, because she has an official “Wedding Site.” And also, she is a charming interviewer.
Fortunately for vegans, there are many vegan recipes on there (mainly salads, but I should think that Jenny Lewis’ “chicken” should be grand), as well as several vegetarian recipes where you’d only need to alter one or two minor ingredients (like swap butter for vegan margarine). While there are a few non-vegetarian recipes on there, eh, I took eighteen edible ones away (and those were just some of the ones that were to my taste).
Anyway, I guess as I begin the transition and learn to cook, I shall chronicle my adventures. You know, what tastes good, where I got my recipes from. Yeah.
On a completely different note, I am the creepiest creepster with Facebook. Every time I see that someone has a new album, I’m all over it. Like, holy shit yes. I’d like to think that it is all about my obsession with aesthetically pleasing things. But maybe I am just a lurker.
Now. All weekend, I sat on my ass, collecting music to offer to you-all. My first noteworthy find is “Wake The Sun” by the Matches. It’s quite a catchy, cheerful tune, like 10/10, almost sure to start off a good day. It is necessary, kind of like coffee or OJ. In retrospect, I now realize that I heard it once in art class when someone plugged in his (probably his, maybe her) iPod to the art room speakers. Actually, that day, someone was playing spectacular music that I did not recognize. It was one of those rare days.
Wake The Sun | The Matches
[zshare] [mediafire]
[buy] [mp3 direct link]
The Matches’ MySpace
The Matches’ Website
The next song is a Vampire Weekend, equally impeccable and equally catchy. Automatic love right here. Plus, the lyrics are familiar in a good way. Maybe I’ve never been in a situation like that before personally, but it sounds like something that happens all the time.
Campus | Vampire Weekend
[zshare] [mediafire]
[buy] [mp3 direct link]
Vampire Weekend’s MySpace
Vampire Weekend’s Website
This last track is actually my mother’s finding. While she was at the Matt Nathanson concert with her friend, she texted me and told me that I would like the band that opened for him. Of course, the text was in like teeny bopper talk, with “u” for you and “r” for are. That’s not important. I looked up the opening act, since she omitted the name, and came up with the name Honeyhoney. There was also like Jason Reeves or something, but I figured she was talking about the band. I checked for them on the Hype Machine and failed. Then I iTunes’d them and came up with five tracks–apparently they have recently released an EP. I laughed at the clips I heard. They sucked. This is an example, though, of iTunes sucking at picking out 30-second clips. Gaddamn.
This morning, my mother slipped into my room and sat on my bed and started unwrapping this CD case. She gave me the CD and told me I would probably like them because they were an “off” band. I kind of cringed, but loaded it on my computer anyway. And then I gave them a second shot.
While I didn’t love the first two songs, the last three were slower and more my style, and they really allowed Suzanne Santo’s voice to shine. I basically loved the last three tracks. Thus, I am jealous of my mother.
My madre was sort of concerned about the parental advisory on the CD, and then she asked me if I ever buy CDs with that. I was thinking, “You should hear some of the music I listen to,” but instead, I just affirmed that I do, indeed. Well, I did not hear any explicit lyrics in the first three songs, so I was wondering why there was a warning (maybe because the first song is about a gun?). That is, until the third song came on. It’s raunchy and sexy, but mellow at the same time. Thus, I shall present you the reason for the parental advisory.
Thursday Night | Honeyhoney
[zshare] [mediafire]
[buy] [mp3 direct link]
Honeyhoney’s MySpace
Honeyhoney’s Website
Also, while I’m at it, I might as well say that I love being a senior in Pennsylvania and getting to sleep in again tomorrow because underclassmen have to take the Terra Novas and PSSAs. LOVE IT.
*By the by, I have revised my host site so that mp3s show up on the Hype Machine. You now have a variety of options for downloading them. I really recommend MediaFire or the direct link because there is no waiting time, but if you’re more familiar with YouSendIt, just click on the title. Or if you’re more familiar with zShare, click on that link. Anyway, I am not sure how long I am going to keep this three-host thing up because it will get old fast. I guess I am just transitioning. Also, I am in debt to the Hype Machine help staff. They’re so nice and easy to work with. Plus, they responded to me right away. No guarantee that they will always do that, but I was impressed.
