Wall of Sound

This video was shown to me by a good friend who keeps my new music in check! As soon as I heard it, I got chills all over my body. Everything from lead singer, Chris Chu's crooning voice, the drums, the Etta James-style instrumentals, and the background vocals just compile so beautifully. In the interview at the beginning of the video, Chu describes his objectives for recording their song, "Excuses" in this fashion. He wanted to recreate record producer Phil Spektor's "wall of sound" theory which basically adds up to putting a load of people and instruments in a room and going with it as loud as you can, creating a "wall" of sound. This is "Excuses" from the delightful Berkley, CA band the morning benders (they prefer lowercase), enjoy!

Anonymous Apology (AA)

More often than not we go about our days saying things without thinking, without understanding. Today I realized the true meaning of that old phrase, "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." Today I realized I am not who I want to be, or expected my self to turn in to, either way. I am not the understanding, polite, eloquent, and creative young lady that I know I should be and it took only one person to show me. Unfortunately, she will never know. She won't know the words I said, the hurtful thoughts I had running through my brain every time I saw her. I did not understand, I'm sorry. Silently, she took my hand and offered kindness, a kinship of sorts, although rather unconventional. Oh well, I am an unconventional being. Through her kind outreach I will push myself to learn a better, more patient way of life where I am not run by frustration, jealousy, and guilt. Easy come, easy go-that is what life is. Love, joy, creation, death, sadness, all of these things are essential but others I can learn to live without. "Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope." Josh Billings

Costa Rica!

My closest friend from high school and I share a common passion-- traveling. Clare spent a year abroad in Denmark our junior year of high school. That same year I spent time at an orphanage in Mexico. That was the year the passion was born in us. Now, we are starting a tradition where every year we take a Girl's Getaway Spring Break. Basically, we find the cheapest tickets we possibly can on www.studentuniverse.com and blow all the money we save for this occasion throughout the year. This year we are taking our trip to Costa Rica! We are gone for eight days and are hopping from one hostel to another every couple of nights. We will be staying on the Caribbean coast due to the fact that Costa Rica is a deceptively large country. A few things we have planned for the trip are as follows; beach, beach, beach, rain forest tour, snorkeling, beach, beach, etc. I will update after I get back with photos from our trip and stories as well. Until then, adios!

The World Would Be a Better Place..

I heard this song and immediately became happy. I am thoroughly convinced that if more artists sang about things like love, happiness, and being together, then our world would be a much happier place. This is Train's newest release, "Hey, Soul Sister." Enjoy!

My Young Grasshopper!

This weekend I went home to support my little sister, Lily at her Tae Kwon Do testing. Lily has worked very hard on her forms, sparring, and discipline. After two long, hard working hours, she stood up to receive her first place trophy for sparring (fighting), and her second place medal for her poomse (forms). She also moved up in belt color. Lily is now at green/blue. Lily is now only five steps away from her black belt and I couldn't be any more proud! Here is a picture of Lily after kicking some Tae Kwon Do booty! Congratulations, Lilybee!

Spoon

Spoon is a band from Austin, Texas made of 4 young men that falls into the indie-rock category of music that is quickly growing these days. They have released seven EP's and are a favorite among many people, including myself. Spoon's lead singer and guitarist, Britt Daniel, has a crooning, scratchy voice that makes you feel emotions you weren't feeling before you turned the song on. They're mainly up-beat music makes you want to get up and move around whenever you hear it and their lyrics tell fluid stories to keep you attention.
Here is Spoon with their hit "I Turn My Camera On" from 2006.

Save the Planet...One bottle at a time?

The new hype is "Go Green" meaning, reduce, reuse, and recycle. People are making drastic changes in their lifestyle to conform to the recycling era that we are now is. How far is too far, though? Some of the products at are coming out of the assembly line just seem too strange. Take the 360 Paper Bottle made by Brand Image. These bottles are made from 100% food-safe, recycled products. We all know that every time you throw away a plastic bottle, you are condemning it to lay there for 80 years. Well, there are all kinds of wonderful metal canteens and water bottles out there as well as Nalgene bottles that are both reusable. Why throw away paper bottles when you could be reusing a metal or plastic one every day?