Monday, August 30, 2010

The Wilderness Downtown


Has anyone else seen the new Arcade Fire music video yet? I think the best word to describe it would be: insane. But insane in an extremely good way. It's for the song, "We used to wait" from "the Suburbs" which I know I've mentioned here before. Just go to thewildernessdowntown.com and enter in the address of your childhood home-- I think it works best if you just choose the house that you remember the best--and let it load. The site will tell you that it's meant to run on google chrome, but I used firefox and it worked fine for me. Also, when I first watched it I was confused and kept messing with the windows, but once you press play just sit back and watch.

Then tell me about it!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Bee Sting

Today I got stung by a bee. It was weird--but as my dad told me "no one wakes up and expects to stung by a bee that day". I recently purchased some silver shade first flush Polaroid film for my camera from the Impossible Project. This film is very sensitive to heat and has to be shaded from light for the first 90 seconds of development. I had a great idea for a photo, but it was ruined when I turned it over on the hot pavement, so I went back to the spot and was trying to decide where to shade it. I thought maybe I could shade it against my shirt so I put my hand on my stomach to see how warm it was. There was a bee on my shirt, I put my hand right on it and it stung me through my shirt. But there is my segway into putting up some of the Polaroids I've taken so far.

PS. The film is supposed to be black & white, but when it's warm it turns orange, and since it's summer many of them have turned out sepia. I actually think they look a little oranger here than they really are.
(this one is a little hard to read but it says "When life gives you oil spills make molotovs --Dante" I think a couple people should recognize that wall.)


Friday, August 27, 2010

You turn me on, I'm a radio

Last night I was about 10 feet away from Zooey Deschanel, and at points in the night the same distance from M. Ward. Of course this can only mean one thing--That's right. Last night I saw She & Him! I went with my dear friend Heidi, neither of us had gone to any of the previous Twilight concerts and weren't sure how early to go--but the website said to get there early and we are both short--so we went early, got a pizza at Settebello (Have to give a shout-out to my cousin Joel for introducing me, good taste just runs in the fam) and then ended up waiting TWO hours. I think we may have been a little overzealous, but we had a decent view.

I feel like I have a lot to say, but maybe just because I read a terrible review of the show that I completely disagree with. First of all the author spent most of the article comparing this last Twilight show to the first, which was played by Modest Mouse--anyone else thinking apples and oranges here? He also called the performance "lackluster" and said that all it inspired was chatter from the audience, but I would have to say that from where I was standing it was the audience that was lackluster. But a lot of that had to do with the fact that the show was free and a lot of people were there just to get a look at Zooey and didn't care about the auditory experience. like the guys behind us who kept talking about how they were going to marry her despite, as Heidi pointed out to the, the fact that she is already married.
We actually weren't supposed to take pictures--supposedly Matt is shy--so I tried a couple without my flash, but then I saw that they weren't enforcing. But I did end up with this psychedelic picture.

I was really surprised by the songs I enjoyed most since many of them aren't my favorites of the album, but that's one of the things I love about seeing band live. "Sentimental Heart" has never been one of my favorites, but I fell in love with it last night. I favored the slower, more soulful songs where I feel Zooey's beautiful alto really shines. In part, this is also because one of my pet peeved is when people sing along loudly at concerts, and a lot of the peppier songs encouraged that.

I also think that if they did an album of covers, people would eat it up (especially me). They had a bunch of really great ones including: "Wouldn't it be nice", "Fools Rush in", "Roll over Beethoven", and the Joni Mitchell song that inspired the title of this post "You turn me on, I'm a radio". They also did a couple M. Ward song ("Magic Trick" and "Rave on") and it was really great to hear more of the "him".

The show made me love both She & Him even more, but I was especially impressed with Deschanel's musical prowess (She played a mean keyboard on "Roll over Beethoven", had the cutest ukulele, and is an excellent whistler. Along with the whole singing and songwriting thing of course). Despite the crowd I loved the show.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Summer Reading Pt. 3


"...I wondered if I could act any other way again. But I remembered one thing: it wasn't me who started acting deaf; it was people that first started acting like I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all."

"Papa says if you don't watch it people will force you one way or the other, into doing what they think you should do, or into just being mule-stubborn and doing the opposite out of spite."

I remember my papa saying something like that too.

Confessions of

a post grad foodie.

I went to Communal today. If you are in Provo and haven't been; go.

I should have taken pictures of our whole lunch, but I went with my dear friend Kayla and she had AMAZING steak while I had a bleu cheese burger with a side of the most delicious heirloom squash I've ever had.

It was good, but the burger was probably a little heavy of a choice for me. Neither of us completely finished our food but decided there is always room for dessert.

I had a berry pandowdy--look at all that cream!
And Kayla had the delicious homemade s'moreSo Yum. And a beautiful setting too--especially since I requested a table by the window. Communal I will miss you, but we have planned a followup outing to Pizzeria 712 for all my friends who have never been if anyone else wants to come?

Oh, and Jenny & Johny on NPR's first listen: Yes!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

MYALYL

I am so tired. I had to work again all day today and just got home a half hour ago and I thought that I would share a piece of slang we throw around the office.

Introducing: MYALYL

OR

Miss you already love you lots!

This joke first started when I yelled something to the same effect at a co-worker as they were leaving and an unsuspecting stranger was standing right outside the door and gave them a strange look when I yelled "I love you!" out the door. Or at least that's how I remember it. But now whenever someone is leaving for any duration of time we often call out after them "Miss you already love you lots!"

I am so glad to be done with Education Week, but there have been some highlights. All of my embarrassing moments that often involved me throwing or trying to throw something or doing a little "Party in the USA" dance. Tonight I also got a hug from an old marine who told me I looked like this Norwegian girl he used to date. I also was complimented on my "riot control" skills, maybe I should put that on my resume--I could add a little testimonial section.

All in all, not too bad.

Goodnight Moon/.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Pepperoni Malone

The Story Formerly Known as my Monday Night Dream

Some of you may have seen my mysterious Facebook status of the same name yesterday and I thought I would illuminate here, since it really is a funny story. Monday night I had a strange dream. Towards the end of the dream I ended up in a tiny, dusty town where we walked down main street and into a shop with an old-fashioned storefront. Somehow I knew that it was a thrift shop even though it was a grocery store with food items, and everything else looked pretty new. Like the Ally Capellino rucksack that just recently came out and I have been coveting ever since.It was the orange, which is my favorite and it looked brand new until upon further inspection there was a tag that said, "Property of: Pepperoni Malone". Although I think in the dream I pronounced it so it rhymed.

Then we saw a pig in the store and I was convinced that it belonged to a guy that I work with, but we needed to tranquilize the pig to be sure so the shopkeeper brought me the syringe and I was holding it while one of my friends went to get the pig, and then I woke up.

Then, since I packed up all my stuff and no longer have pen or paper and also remembered the dream as I got on Facebook I made note of it there so I wouldn't forget.

It's not exactly a riveting story, but I'm constantly baffled by the way our minds work. Perhaps this dream reveals some deep-seeded secret of my subconscious, but Pepperoni Malone? I love dreams like this. And I still want the AO rucksack for my new laptop.

Oh, I also had a dream last week where my roommates had an intervention because I eat on my bed and there were crumbs.

I also love this, both the songs and this hot pink cassette tape and am excited for the Jenny & Johnny record out on the 31st!




ps. I have awesome hair. Today especially, but I am lucky to have nice hair in general, but especially today when a %&@#%!$*@&!$$ guy tells you "Thank you for making BYU even more irritating" when you are at work and just trying to your job but being incredibly misunderstood--and thinking about your beautiful jungle woman hair is the only thing that can keep you from thinking about what a !@$# etc. that guy is. Thanks hair.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Summer Reading Pt. 2

"Some of these new thinkers say if we have better intelligence, if we can see everything we can't lose. What my brother always says is, 'Hey, say you are looking at a chess board. Is there anything you can't see? No. But are you guaranteed to win? Not at all, because you can't see what the other guy is thinking.'"

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Celebrate.

Sometimes, when you are having a hard time you've got to look for the good, but sometimes that can be hard and you just need something a little extra to celebrate. That is in part why Liz and I have decided to find something to celebrate everyday by observing random daily holidays. It's easy to find lists online. Today was Duran Duran Appreciation day. It had been too long.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Summer Reading Pt. 1



"Remembering and forgetting are part of the same mental process. To write down one detail of an event is to not write down another (unless you keep writing forever). To remember one things is to let another slip from remembrance (unless you keep recalling forever). There is ethical as well as violent forgetting. We can't hold on to everything we've known so far. So the question is not whether we forget, but what, or whom, we forget" --p194 JSF Eating Animals

Jodi in the Suburbs

Or what I'm listening to today.




I kind of wish the new Arcade Fire had come out earlier in the summer, because then it would have been my summer soundtrack.