a defence of england

I have an English friend who isn't such a big fan of her country and can't understand why I like it so much. So I've decided to condense all of my reasons into a blog post.

I am not an aficionado of all things English. I know England has its fair share of not-so-great stuff; I am not an Anglophile because of the chavs, or the sensational fear-mongering tabloid stories, or the reality television, or the former imperialism, or because I think the monarchy is an awesome idea and Prince William is a hottie. He's not.

However, because of my interests and personality, in my opinion the good things of Britain's past and present far outweigh the bad. And the best of England appeals more to me than the best of the US.

So here's a random list of things I grew up with or discovered in my teens that really made me fall in love with the culture and the country.

• The Beatles
• Fawlty Towers
• Pride and Prejudice
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• Mary Stewart
• Danger: UXB
  
• Shakespeare
• Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie
• Robin Hood
• The Kinks
• Lyra's Oxford
• Arsenal
• 60's Mod fashion
• Sherlock Holmes
• Nick Hornby
• Extras
  
• Blake, Shelley, Byron, other Romantic poets
• The Clash
• Margot Fonteyn
• Oliver Sacks
• Harry Potter
• Wimbledon
• Henry Cavill
  
• Bill Bryson

(Yes, the last one is American, but he is an Anglophile like me, and the way he writes about England makes it seem like a very funny yet awesome place to live. Which it is.)

I'm sure there are tons I am forgetting, but really. You can't say that a country that has produced all of these things isn't awesome.

this is a hockey post.

NHL is back, baby! I'm super pumped. I love being the best team in the league, although it is a very strange feeling. I am not used to all this success!

Speaking of success, I must first address Team USA's amazing performance in Vancouver. Sidney Crosbitch's goal in OT was heartbreaking, especially after the full on seizure-inducing goal by Zach Parise in the last few seconds of regular time to tie it up. (Seriously, I spazzed out hardcore.) That being said, before the start of the tournament I never dreamed we'd be going into the gold medal game undefeated, having already beaten Canada once, so it was kind of a dream finish. The boys deserved silver at the very least--well I thought they deserved gold, but I am slightly biased--and they should be so proud of themselves and their performance. Not quite a miracle finish, but they'll always be winners to me.

But now that the Olympics are over, I have to deal with my new lover being on the wrong team--not only that, but the team that is second in Eastern conference, creeping up all sneakily trying to steal our spot! Well okay, the Devils are a ways behind us, but I still have to hope you suck for a little while Parise, sorry.


Moving on to tonight. The Caps kicked off their season restart with a 3-1 win over Buffalo and MVP of the Olympics Ryan Miller, who I now have a total hockey crush on. (Just to be clear, a hockey crush is different from a normal crush...I don't find Miller hot, but his skillz are sexy.) Jose Theodore (who, by the way, I do find hot) had a great game, and I am liking him more and more. I also feel like a total ass for getting pissy at his inconsistency over the past few months, because I had no idea about this. I cried reading it.

Mike Green got his 15th goal of the season when he scored the game-winner in the third period. Another reason I want to win the Stanley Cup: Greenie didn't get called up to the Canadian Olympic team (bitches!) so 1. he deserves some glory, and 2. then he (and Ovi) can rub it in Crosby's face.

I think that's about all I've got for the moment, considering it's 12:30am and I have to finish a book, write a short paper, study for a midterm, and pack before I go to bed.

I leave you with David Steckel bitchface:

(go here for more awesomeness)

shameless soliciting...for a good cause

I have been getting much more involved with SHH this semester, including going up to the yearly summit at GMU last weekend to kick off the semester's fundraising campaign. We are shooting for $200,000 as a whole organization, with the Virginia Tech chapter pledging to raise $25,001 (that extra $1 is to best William and Mary, who only pledged $25,000...losers!).

Here's the breakdown of where the money will go: the first $100,000 is going to an education and empowerment fund, to keep kids in school and help them succeed. The next $50,000 will go towards building a business center in Villa Soleada, so the village will become self-sustaining and be able to support all of these various projects that we've been working on. The final $50,000 and any extra money we hope to get will go towards starting a new children's home project, to give orphaned and abandoned kids in the area a better place to live. If you read that novel down below that was my trip recap, you know how badly orphaned children can be treated, so this is something we are all very passionate about starting. So we really want to get to that $200,000 mark!

To help reach our fundraising goal, I have set up a webpage: http://giving.studentshelpinghonduras.org/shh/participantpage.asp?uid=3147&fundid=1678

Please donate if you can! It would mean so much to the kids of Villa Soleada, and it would make me very happy too. I love you all.

[Here is the general fundraising website, with a video and a running total of all the money raised by the different chapters: http://giving.studentshelpinghonduras.org/ ]

oooooh canada we stand on guard for thee!

I always forget how much I love the Winter Olympics until they start. I've become obsessed. I will watch any sport they decide to show. My favorite (of course) is the hockey, but speed skating, snowboarding, skiing of all types, and even figure skating and curling have all made it onto my watch list.

And because I am a girl with a serious weakness for athletes, I have also found some new Olympic loves.

1) Alexandre Bilodeau, the first Canadian to win a medal this year:

Yes, I think the French Canadian accent is cute. Don't judge.

2) JR Celski, the adorable pint-sized speed skater who nearly sliced his leg off with his own skate last September:



3) Zach Parise, NJ Devils (boo) player unfortunately, but a bit of a hottie:


Also the hero of today's quarterfinal game against Switzerland. I couldn't watch because I was in class taking a test, but he scored both goals.

4) Aksel Svindal, 6'5" Norwegian alpine skier:


5) Evan Lysacek, although this is mainly for Vanilla Bear's sake because he looks a bit like Gonzalo Higuain:

And this last one isn't an Olympian, but I stumbled across him when I was googling goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. Ladies, I present to you Swedish model Alex Lundqvist:

I have a feeling Stephanie and Callie might agree with me on this one.

juntos por progreso

As you all (probably) know, I spent a week in Honduras over the break. What Students Helping Honduras has been working towards for the past two years is building a village for 40 impoverished families in El Progreso; the houses are now finished, so our group was installing the water system so they could have running water in their homes. We also helped out at a kids camp for the children in the village, since they had been out of school for months due to instability in the country.

I flew into San Pedro Sula at around 12:30 on Saturday. Luckily there were a bunch of SHHers on the plane with me so I knew where to go when I got off the plane. Not that the airport was that big, but we did have a guy in our group get on the wrong bus and end up 3 hours north with a crazy Christian mission group, so it does happen. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, unpacking, getting used to our surroundings, and getting to know each other.

Our hotel was pretty awesome. This is one of the cabanas that we all stayed in.

On Sunday we got to know some of the kids at Por Venir, their school. Since lots of us don't speak Spanish, we drew pictures with them instead of having real conversations.

This is Jorge. He taught me "pescados", "caballo", "nube", and "lluvia". And he showed me how to draw the Honduran flag.

After Por Venir, we went to Siete de Abril, the slum that the families of the village used to live in. It was eye-opening, to say the least. The coordinators took us to Siete first in order to better understand why this project was needed. Afterwords, we went to the worksite, or Villa Soleada as it is now known. All of the villagers were waiting for us there with a big party to celebrate the near-completion of the project.

Entrance to Villa Soleada

Kids dancing!

The football pitch. The villagers were more concerned about this being built than the actual houses.

Random story about this field: Micheletti (the current president of Honduras)'s son built this for us. I don't know the details, but I know he is from El Progreso, and that Cosmo Fujiyama (one of the SHH founders) is extremely charismatic and apparently won him over and convinced him to help out.

On Monday we started the actual work, i.e. digging two foot trenches around the village to lay water pipes down. This task was made much more difficult by the fact that it had rained heavily for the past three or four days, so we were basically swimming in mud by the end of the day.

See, I wasn't kidding. Check out Wes behind me.

Monday night was salsa lesson night, which was a blast except for the fact that there were far more girls than boys on the trip so I had to lead! They set up a really awesome performance by the local high school salsa group though.


On Tuesday we had another morning with kids camp, and another afternoon at work. Our evening activity was supposed to be a soccer match, but it was raining again so the field we were supposed to play on was flooded! So we watched a great film called Sin Nombre instead. Not exactly a happy feel-good flick, but it was really interesting to see more about a world that I knew nothing about before my trip.

Monica and me with two of our favorite kids at Por Venir

Wednesday was our break from manual labor. We took the bus into San Pedro Sula for a bit of shopping at the indoor market in the morning, which was awesome. Most of the boys bought machetes. I bought a Honduras football jersey so I could rep my new favorite place during the World Cup this summer!


We had lunch at a place called Baleadas Express, which is kind of like their Chipotle, but better. Baleadas are the unofficial food of Honduras, and they are absolutely delicious. The day wasn't all fun and games, however.


In the afternoon we went to a government-run orphanage (known as Instituto Hondureño de de la Niñez y la Familia, or IHNFA) called Nueva Esperanza. This was an extremely misleading name however, as these children really have no hope for the future. The place is underfunded, understaffed, rarely cleaned, and looks like a prison. Nearly every child in there had been abused or abandoned before arriving there, and many of them are permanently mentally or physically affected by it. They don't get enough food and never get adult attention. They were so starved for affection that as soon as we walked through the door they attached themselves to us, a group of strange people who didn't even speak their language. They called us all "tio" and "tia", or "aunt" and "uncle", which was adorable and heartbreaking at the same time. There was so much that we wanted to do for them, but we couldn't. I've never felt more helpless. All we could do was play with them for an afternoon.

I spent most of my time with a little girl named Vilma, who didn't care at all that I didn't speak Spanish. I gave her piggy back rides and drew her pictures, and she was delighted. The hardest part of the visit was the infant room though. There were about 30 babies in one room, and most of them were sharing cribs that had no real bedding, just a thin plastic mattress. They were only changed once a day, if that, and had very little human contact, because there was only one worker in the room. When it came time for us to leave, Vilma found me again and just hugged me for about 10 minutes. It was so hard to leave, but at the same time it was so depressing that I couldn't wait to get out of there.

The saddest thing is that these children really have nothing to look forward to. When the boys get to about 12 or 13, if they haven't been placed in foster care they are kicked out. There used to be a boy's home in the building next to the orphanage, but it was closed down a few years ago after rumors of child abuse and murder. So most of the boys will join gangs to survive, and end up in a juvenile detention center or prison. The girls don't have it any better, either. There is a girl's home that they can stay in until they are 18, but it only has room for about 50 girls, and right now it's got 3 times that number. So they all sleep on the floor and again, don't get enough to eat, and once they turn 18 they are turned out on the streets to become beggars or prostitutes. Many of them will get pregnant and not be able to support their children, so they will go to an orphanage and the whole cycle will start again. It's such a depressing and hopeless situation. So even though Wednesday didn't tire us physically, by the end we were all completely emotionally and mentally exhausted.

Sorry for the tl;dr essay. I just had to get it all out.

On to less depressing things...Thursday we again had kids camp and work site digging. Since it was our last day working with the kids, we had an epic futbol match to celebrate. And we got crushed. By a bunch of 8 year olds.

In the evening we had a dinner celebration in El Progreso with all of the volunteers and Villa families, with good food and dancing. We even performed dances that we had been working on all week! There was even a special *NSYNC dance by the guys of cabana 5:

It was pretty epic.

On Friday we had our last look at Villa Soleada, when we planted trees around the edge of the football field. In about 30 years they will be huge shade trees, which will be awesome. I'll have to go back when I'm 50 and check it out.

Then we took the Villa kids to the beach at Tela, an hour away. A lot of them had never been to the beach before, so it was a great day of fun, sun, and relaxation. And I barely even got burned! I didn't get any other sort of color either though...

Spot the pale one...this is why I don't go to the beach.

The food at the beach was great. We had kebabs for lunch, and they sold beer and pina coladas and this absolutely heavenly coconut bread that I wish I had right now. I also drank coconut milk straight from a coconut. It was probably the best day at the beach I've ever had. A great way to end the trip.

Although it didn't quite end there...on our last night in town we got all dolled up and went out clubbing! It was a fundraiser party for the organization, and there were lots of locals there because apparently they had advertised with "come see american tourists dance, it's hilarious!". It was so much fun though.


We got back to the hotel at about 1am, and I had to go to the airport at 4:30, so I didn't even bother to sleep. A few of us went out to the pool and stargazed for a while, then we all trooped back into the dining room to talk. One by one, people started going to bed, until I was the only one left, and then I had like a half hour to sit by myself until the taxi picked me up. Needless to say, I was a zombie on the way home, but it was more than worth it.

And that was my epic trip to Honduras in a really really really large nutshell. My "life-altering experience" tag has never been so appropriate.

new years, new adventures, and new adults

Another year, another January starting with another goodbye. I am off to Honduras for a week this time, before the new (and last ever!) semester starts. I am very excited, and also glad to be meeting a bunch of students there because I still speak no Spanish. I wonder if they'll understand "Jonathan Bornstein"...


Oh and happy 18th birthday to Jack Wilshere!

Still little, but not quite so little, so all of you who were perving over that shirtless picture of him a few months ago don't have to feel so pedo bear-ish. And he is possibly off to Burnley or West Ham or somewhere else on loan for the rest of the season. I'll be a little sad to see him go, but it will be good for him to get some real playing time.

Anyways, happy new year and I will see you all in a week!

top five albums of the last decade, part five: 2008 & 2009

2008

5. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

"Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?" Actually, I happen to like the Oxford comma. I think it helps to avoid confusion. But anyways, that isn't the point of this. This is another great workout record, and it's got a song titled "Walcott"! Although I doubt Theo Walcott has ever been to Cape Cod.

4. Hold On Now, Youngster - Los Campesinos

Los Campesinos are a band from Wales that aren't actually Welsh. Another very fun album, plus the girl is a ginger!

3. ¿Cómo Te Llama? - Albert Hammond, Jr.

Overall I don't like this album as much as Yours To Keep, but it's got a few of my favorite songs by him, including "The Boss Americana", "Gfc", and "Victory At Monterey".

2. Oracular Spectacular - MGMT

I heard how good this album was from several different people when it came out, but I didn't believe them, and for a while was all "MGMT, meh whatever, they aren't that good." Then I actually got the whole album and had to kick myself because they are that good. Love it.

1. Raise The Dead - Phantom Planet

I first saw that video soon after it was put up in 2007 and I became obsessed with the song and absolutely couldn't wait for the album to come out. Also I love how Darren commented on the video through PP's official youtube channel. I don't know if this is my favorite Phantom Planet album, but I do think it is their most complete. They grew and changed their sound so much throughout the first three albums, and this is the final result. Even though I was very upset when they called it quits, this was a great album to end on.

2009

5. Troubadour - K'naan

Yes, more rap. Deal with it Stephanie. I got this song as a free iTunes download, and then a few weeks later I learned that his song "Waving Flag" was picked as the official 2010 World Cup song. So I bought the whole album and it's super catchy.

4. To Lose My Life - White Lies

Total 80's post-punk throwback band and I love it. I first got "Death" in an Urban Outfitters compilation CD free with a purchase, then in January I started seeing ads for the album in the London underground, and then I finally got it online (thanks Roz!)

3. Tonight: Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand

The information for this video on youtube is "Alex Kapranos of the band commented - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is music of the night: to fling yourself around your room to as you psyche yourself for a night of hedonism, for the dance-floor, flirtation, for your desolate heart-stop, for losing it and loving losing it, for the chemical surge in your bloodstream. Its for that lonely hour gently rocking yourself waiting for dawn and it all to be even again." This is why I love songwriters.

2. Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear

I heard about this album around the time it came out over the summer, but I didn't get it until a month or two ago. So it's been on my current listening playlist and I am really liking it a lot.

1. Quicken The Heart - Maxïmo Park

For some reason, this song makes me really melancholy. It's hard to find more poetic representation of a storm than "static headlights glow / in the flooded streets below / the TV turns to snow / gutters weep with overflow", and the whole song has a very bittersweet feeling. I've talked about how much I love Maxïmo Park several times before so I'm not going to bore you all again, but this was definitely my favorite album of the past year.

top five albums of the last decade, part four: 2006 & 2007

2006

5. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys

I know lots of English people got annoyed when this album came out because of all the hype about a band that wasn't really all that great. But since I was safely in my American bubble, I didn't get any of that, and I just enjoyed it for what it is: a fun record about boring teenage life sung in a very strong Yorkshire accent. And you all know how I love the northerners!

4. Robbers & Cowards - Cold War Kids

This is an awesome video for an amazing song. This album is a very cool blend of west coast quirky rock and folksy-bluesy undertones.

3. Yours To Keep - Albert Hammond, Jr.

While browsing youtube for a video to link to, I noticed that a lot of comments had to do with the Jonas Brothers. Apparently they wrote a song about a pizza girl (?) that sounds a lot like "Call An Ambulance". So I had to look it up and it does sound really similar, and now I'm getting Jonas Brothers youtube recommendations. Fuck them. Anyways, this guy is awesome. The guitars still sound very Strokesy, but without Casablancas' voice the overall sound is a lot less rock with a little more pop.

2. Ganging Up On The Sun - Guster

Like Phantom Planet, Guster have been one of my favorite bands for a very long time, and I think they will always be up there. I'm pretty sure we have three copies of this CD floating around our house, because my brother and sister and I were all in different places during the summer that it was released, and we all bought it. It's that good.

1. Bring It Back - Mates of State

(I'm not sure what's going on in this video. You can ignore it.) I really like male-female vocals, and this husband and wife duo is one of the best around. Neither of them have particularly incredible voices, but the harmonies and especially the rhythms are really great.

2007

5. The Good, The Bad, and The Queen - The Good, The Bad, and The Queen

This album was a collaboration between singer Damon Albarn (of Blur and Gorillaz fame), guitarist Simon Tong (The Verve), bassist Paul Simonon (The Clash), and drummer Tony Allen (Feta Kuli). It's not an album that really pops out at you, but rather one that grows on you. It's one of my studying records: not too loud or upbeat that it will distract me, but interesting enough to keep me awake.

4. Night Falls Over Kortedala - Jens Lekman

The sophomore album from everyone's favorite Swedish crooner, Night Falls Over Kortedala is happy, romantic, sometimes melancholic, and always witty. I totally see why my best friend is a little bit in love with him.

3. I'll Be Lightning - Liam Finn

Liam Finn is one of those people that are born into rock royalty (weird fact: I have a cousin named Neil Finn), but he's not hiding in his father's shadow. I'll Be Lightning is a hauntingly beautiful debut album from a talented young musician. This is another one of my study-at-Starbucks records.

2. Neon Bible - Arcade Fire

In my opinion, Neon Bible isn't as good as Funeral, but it's still great (especially the first four songs). Again, the mix of French and English lyrics make me geekily happy, especially when I can understand them, i.e. "le miroir casse / the mirror casts mon reflet partout" from Black Mirror.

1. In Rainbows - Radiohead

I remember the day this album came out. It was the infamous "pay what you want" deal, and their website crashed because so many people were trying to download it. After I finally got it, I didn't stop listening to it for about two months. And then I saw them in concert and it was uh-mazing.

top five albums of the last decade, part three: 2004 & 2005

2004

5. So Jealous - Tegan and Sara

I love Canadians. And I love twin sister duos (see Exit Clov). So yeah, I love Tegan and Sara. I first heard of them through Phantom Planet's old blog, when Darren and Jeff played around with a cover of "Walking With A Ghost". I loved the song so I looked it up and found this gem of an album.

4. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand

The beginning bit of "Take Me Out" was my first musical phone ringtone ever. I actually thought it was so weird when I first heard it, but I couldn't get it out of my head.

3. Futures - Jimmy Eat World

I bought this CD for my brother for his birthday the year it came out, and then promptly stole it. I may be a bad sister but I do have cracking good taste in music! Jimmy Eat World are often lumped in with other random pop-punk or emo bands from the era, but they are really so much better than that.

2. Antics - Interpol

"I'm timeless like a broken watch / I make money like Fred Astaire" Awesome. I still regularly listen to this album.

1. Funeral - Arcade Fire

This is another band that I didn't love until recently. I thought they were okay for years, but never really tried to listen to a whole album. But last summer and this past semester I have become obsessed. I love the mixture of singing in French and English; it creates a beautiful, if strange, sound.

2005

5. Has A Good Home - Final Fantasy

I just found this video when I was searching for a song to link to, and it made me so happy. I love Owen Pallett. He was one of the collaborators on Arcade Fire's first album, but he is amazing on his own too. The electric violin fascinates me; it's so cool how he is like a one man orchestra, creating the melodies and harmonies live at the same time.

4. Silent Alarm - Bloc Party

Bloc Party aren't one of my favorite bands exactly, but the type of music they make is the reason I love British music. The British have a history of blending rock and dance music to create something that is much more fun to dance to than rap or techno. Of course it isn't limited to the UK; bands like MGMT and The Strokes and We Are Scientists do it too, which is probably why they're more popular in the UK than they are over here.

3. The Sunlandic Twins - Of Montreal

Despite the misleading name, Of Montreal is an American band. They're very quirky and I love them. Good to work out to and good to clean to because they put me in a good mood.

2. Illinois - Sufjan Stevens

There are some artists that are better live than in studio, and I think Sufjan is one of them. Not that I've ever seen him live unforch, but all of his live youtube videos are fantastic (Owen Pallett also falls under this category). Plus, of course I love the U 0f I-like gear.

1. Twin Cinema - The New Pornographers

I've talked about this album before so I'm not going to go into detail about why I love it. Suffice it to say that I really do.

top five albums of the last decade, part two: 2002 & 2003

2002

5. Un Día Normal - Juanes

I just discovered Juanes a few summers ago (I never took high school Spanish, so I didn't get to translate his lyrics - we just got MC Solaar in French class), but Latino pop has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, and this is some fantastic stuff. The Black Eyed Peas actually did a remix of La Paga that I like a lot, although the original is better.

4. Turn On The Bright Lights - Interpol

I actually didn't get this album until last year, and I don't like it as much as Antics, but it's still great.

3. Songs About Jane - Maroon 5

My sister got this album from a friend of hers right when it came out, and we both quickly became obsessed. Maroon 5 was the first band I ever saw in concert, when they were opening for John Mayer. They didn't get popular until like two or three years after they released their debut, and it was my first real experience with discovering awesome music before everyone else and being able to say I told you so. Hee, I still love that feeling.

2. O - Damien Rice

There are certain albums that bring me back to a very specific place and time when I listen to them. This album reminds me of summer camp in 2006. I had heard Damien Rice before that and didn't pay much attention, but my friend played "The Blower's Daughter" in one of the talent shows and I fell in love with it.

1. A Rush Of Blood To The Head - Coldplay

Like I said earlier, I don't listen to Coldplay all that much anymore, and I hadn't listened to this album in years until I started making this list. Then I re-listened and remembered how amazing it is.

2003

5. Keep It Together - Guster

This was such a great year for music that it was really hard to narrow this list down. But this album definitely deserves a place. Guster's best in my opinion, with "Amsterdam", "Homecoming King", "Keep It Together", and "Come Downstairs and Say Hello".

4. The Guest - Phantom Planet

This album--and band--is famous for "that OC song!" but there's much more to it than "California", which isn't even my favorite on the CD. Their first album was classic Cali pop rock, but this one is great because it has so many different sounding songs.

3. Absolution - Muse

This is the album that made me a Muse fangirl. I love the Rachmaninov influenced piano solo in "Butterflies & Hurricanes", "Hysteria" is my favorite road trip song, and "Time Is Running Out" is still one of the best songs ever.

2. Dear Catastrophe Waitress - Belle and Sebastian

I discovered Belle and Sebastian far too late. I had heard how good they were for years but I never got around to getting an album until pretty recently. Silly me. This album is freaking awesome. Go listen to it if you haven't.

1. Chutes Too Narrow - The Shins

I don't even know how to describe how much I love Chutes Too Narrow. When I try to think of my favorite song, I can't choose. For every time I think "Saint Simon", I remember "Gone for Good" and "Pink Bullets" and "So Says I" and I give up and go listen to the CD over and over.

apparently i like funny guys

I think I'm developing a thing for Joel McHale.

Of course I've always found him hilarious on The Soup, but I don't see it that often because I don't watch reality tv so I don't know what he's talking about half the time. Plus it's on past my bedtime.

But I finally started watching Community-which I had no idea he was in until tonight-and I've realized I'm a little bit in love. Something about the sarcasm mixed with the intelligence mixed with the arrogance is appealing to me. And don't ask me why I think arrogance is an attractive trait because I don't really know. Humility just kind of annoys me sometimes.

Plus, who knew he was so tall? You only see him from the torso up in The Soup so I always thought he was short, but he and Chevy Chase look like they're the same height! I'd be willing to overlook the light hair for that.

Am I crazy for thinking it or am I crazy for just now noticing?

top five albums of the last decade, part one: 2000 & 2001

This will be a five-part series to celebrate the musical awesomeness that was the naughties, now that they're just about over. The new millenium has become a tween, how exciting! I originally divided this up into country of origin, but decided to do a top five list by year instead because it was easier. It's also good this way because I can include both nostalgia albums and great albums that I didn't discover until years after their release.

2000

5. Country Grammar - Nelly

First rap album I ever had, and I still rock out to it when my itunes shuffles it on. Andale, andale, mama EI, EI! Don't judge.

4. The Moon And Antarctica - Modest Mouse

I've never been a huge Modest Mouse fan, but this was the album that everyone always told me to get if I wanted to try to get into them. So I finally got it and realized that yeah, its actually pretty good! I still don't love the band exactly (although I did get-and like-We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank because of Johnny Marr), but this is one of those CDs that should be in any music fan's collection.

3. Parachutes - Coldplay

I've gone through several stages with Coldplay. I actually remember hating the band around this time. They played "Yellow" on DC101 radio all the time, and I thought it was whiny and dull. It wasn't until A Rush Of Blood To The Head came out and my sister played it over and over again that I started to like them and rediscovered this album. Since then, they have both grown and...shrunk on me, but this is still a fantastic debut album from an iconic band of the 00s.

2. Mass Romantic - The New Pornographers

The debut album from one of my favorite bands. It's not as good as Twin Cinema, but I still love it. The title track is one of the best on the CD, and I also love "Jackie", which is slightly strange but fun.

1. Kid A - Radiohead

First Radiohead album of the decade, and it was certainly a good one. It was definitely boundary-pushing with it's weird electronic feel, which is one of the reasons it is so memorable. Another reason is that it produced one of the best songs to be performed live in "Idioteque". The crowd turns into a giant rave dance floor and Thom Yorke does his crazy dance.


2001

5. Room For Squares - John Mayer

I don't listen to this album much anymore, but whenever I do, I get serious flashbacks to ninth grade. Katie and Alex, my two gym/health class buddies, introduced me to it when we were supposed to be watching a Kevin Costner baseball movie. It wasn't one of the good ones, so we were bored. So I spent a few months listening to it through Alex's headphones, then got it for Christmas and it didn't leave my CD player for ages.

4. Rockin' The Suburbs - Ben Folds

I was introduced to Ben Folds by my best friend from high school, who is a pianist so gets excited when any artist uses the piano in their music. We saw him in concert at the beginning of junior year during his Songs For Silverman tour, and it was amazing. Only the second concert I ever went to but it was still one of the best because he is such a great performer. I love this album because it is a mix of silly Ben Folds Five-esque songs and more mature songs, like the father's anthem "Still Fighting It".

3. Up The Bracket - The Libertines

I didn't know about The Libertines until right about the time that they broke up, but this was one of the first British indie bands that I heard that really sparked the whole obsession. I like this album better than their second, because it's kind of rough and loud and weird, like how The Clash would sound today. Pete Doherty grosses me out a little, but he and Carl Barat really were a great songwriting team and I miss them together.

2. Oh, Inverted World - The Shins

I also got this album from Emily, right around the time when we were discovering good music. The Shins became one of my favorite bands then, and they remain so now. I now like Chutes Too Narrow a bit better, but this holds a special place in my heart because it was my introduction to a fantastic band, and it was my favorite CD for a very long time. "New Slang" is of course a gorgeous song and probably their most well known, but the whole album is full of great songs.

1. Origin of Symmetry - Muse

Oh Muse. I still miss the Muse of this era, even though I have grown to like their new sound. Absolution was the first of theirs that I got, but Origin of Symmetry was always my favorite after I discovered them all. This album wasn't even released in the US until 2005, but my sister's boyfriend at the time had a UK copy of it, so we were in luck. "Citizen Erased" is still my favorite song of theirs (specifically the live version that was on Hullabaloo, but the album version is great too).

the american public strikes again

I'm a little behind on my So You Think You Can Dance episodes, so I didn't see who was voted off last week until today.

Nathan is gone and I am sad.

I hate Mollee, she is so annoying and she needs to go. Like yesterday. She and Nathan never should have been paired together, and Nathan got voted off because he didn't get much of a chance to show his stuff with a better partner. He also seemed like kind of a douche, so maybe that's why people didn't vote for him, but he's still an amazing dancer.

Okay, the real reason I like him is because he danced his LA audition to Made Up Lovesong #43. Guillemots are <3 and so is this song.

Nathan was really only my third fave guy (go Jakob and Russell!) so I'm not too cut up about it, but the fact that he got voted off before Mollee is just stupid. And I liked Noelle too! Ugh, just total voting public fail.

Last thought: I freaking love Sonya Tayeh's choreography. Almost as much as Travis Wall and Tabitha and Napoleon.


I had the exact same thought as Adam while watching that routine; it reminded me a lot of The Garden with Courtney and Mark from season 4, and I loved that one just as much.

Yay dance.

the starbucks or the starbucks or the starbucks...

I saw this for the first time yesterday and split my sides laughing. I don't live in Arlington, but I'm not far from it and I know lots of people from there, and truer words have never been spoken (or rapped, I guess) about a place.



EDIT: I just found the Fairfax response!



Ooh, it's on now! (Although the Arlington one is better...sorry Funfax.)



Mmmm, bulgogi.

finally!

After November weather in the mid-70s, I was so ready for winter to get here.

And get here it did!

After the Arsenal win, I walked to campus with the vague idea of getting food. Then I realized that it was the first snowfall of the season, and so I had to get a peppermint mocha from Starbucks. When I got downtown, I decided to pick two up and take one to my friend LA, who was holed up inside her apartment because she hates snow.

On the way over however, the snow went from a light but steady dusting to a blinding swirl of white, and by the time I got there, I was soaked. So I ended up staying the afternoon because I didn't want to walk back in the blizzard.

Home sweet home!

sotw: this is the one

I should probably change this segment to song of the month. Or song of the year, with the way this blog is going. Oh well, maybe my weeks are just super long compared to the rest of the world.

Anyways, on to "This is the One". (Side note: I found out a few years ago that they play this song at Old Trafford when the ManUre players are taking the pitch. This was far more upsetting news to me than it probably should have been. It makes sense, as the Roses are from Manchester and Brown is unfortunately a red, but ugh. It makes me angry that they get such an awesome song while we have Elvis. Not that I dislike Elvis exactly, but I mean, come on.)

The Stone Roses lyrics have always had a sort of understated beauty to them in my opinion. They aren't too complicated (although the word "brigantine" is used in Waterfall; how often do you hear that in a song?) but they manage to convey very stark images or emotions when you hear them put to music. Being a travel whore, the lines "I'd like to leave the country / for a month of Sundays / burn the town where I was born" have always seemed to stick with me. (This is the SOUND of my soul!) This track isn't really one of their greatest lyrical moments, as it does get repetitive at the end. But it doesn't really need a lot of words; the way it's composed makes it a very powerful song anyways.

Ian Brown's voice is nearly impossible to hear , let alone decipher, for the first minute or so. But I've always liked the way the voice blends with the music: rather than sitting on top of the melody, it integrates with the melody, almost like an extra instrument in its own right. And the way the song is very quiet at the start and then has these bursts of sound is not only cool, it's great to tap fingers and toes (or legs or any other body part) along to. Definitely the "Good Part" of the song (see: YLNT). I also love the jangling sort of guitar sound that is so indicative of late 80s Britrock. Overall great melody and great composition.

This whole album is fantastic actually; definitely one of my favorites. Most people point to "I am the Resurrection" and "I Wanna Be Adored" as the staple Stone Roses songs, and while both are great, my favorites have always been this song, She Bangs the Drums, and Waterfall. Check them out if you have no idea what I've been rambling about in this post.

singlehandedly keeping the american economy afloat

Shopaholic, thy name is Sarah.

I have spent lots of money on myself lately. When, you know, Christmas is in about a month and I really need to be spending money on OTHER people. Here are some of my latest acquisitions (yes, this isn't even all of it).

Purple knit top from Anne Taylor Loft:
Blue Tahari dress and black pointed Steve Madden pumps:

ModCloth dress and purple boots (these I actually bought a month or two ago, but I had to take the dress to the tailor to get taken in so I still spent money on it recently):
Anthropologie dress and CL by Laundry shoes:

And this sweet hat from Forever 21 (this was actually only $4 so I don't know if it really counts):

I'd make a vow to stop buying clothes, but I know that won't happen because my sister just got a job at Urban Outfitters so now I get 40% off everything in my favorite store. 'Tis the season of consumerism!