Sigur Ros - Untitled 1

You should listen to Sigur Ros.

I began liking instrumental music more and more after being introduced to Explosions in the Sky. They are very good, yes, I don't deny that, but Sigur Ros gives me more feeling, I guess. Maybe it's the little bit of language they use, but it's probably the great amount of piano played. And the build-ups. I love when a song makes you want to explode with happiness in your heart. I only know of a few songs that bring me that kind of escaping feeling, and now Sigur Ros is bringing me albums upon albums of greatness.

You should really listen. And watch.


A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

That would be "Hoppipolla" in the background. So fucking good.

(Once again, I must apologize to Calvin for constantly stealing and falling in love with all the lovely things he finds and posts on his blog. Sorry!)

Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends

I had such a great childhood. I thought about it today in Philosophy when Devlin was talking about Santa Claus and how much of a lie it is, yet all of society, even the government, goes along with it. (He was talking about right vs. wrong and what lies are okay to tell under strict circumstances.) So I thought about this, yanno, Santa Claus thing, and for as long as I could remember, my Mom always had Christmas dinner at our house. The tree (real, of course) stood in the corner of our living room with those huge string of lights (not the stupid, bland of white lights either; these actually had character) and that reindeer head thing that sang obnoxious carols every time someone stood in front of the sensor hanging on the front door. Anyway, this isn't what made my childhood so grand. It was the fact that my Mom worked a full time job, made a healthy dinner for my father and me every single night, cleaned every weekend because we couldn't afford a cleaning lady or a dishwasher, was a great mother when she didn't have a mother herself, and sang me to sleep. It was the fact that this was her life for 18 years, 24 hours a day, and she still wanted all the family at OUR house for Christmas. She would cook and clean and decorate for days. Days. Wow, this entire entry was supposed to be about my childhood and this is just one example proving how full of love it is, but now it's really making me realize all that my mom has given me. I think I'll write her a card now.

At the end of this entry, I was going to say if I had to change my childhood it would be somthing like this:



But I take it back. I would never change my childhood.

Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours

I know I already posted something today but I just did too much research of Obama videos and I am in love with this man. It's not because he's Democrat, he's black, or he believes in the power of hope. It's because I actually believe in him.



If you can't handle a 10 minutes speech, then watch this 2:30 clip.



His words give me chills.

Josh Ritter - Wolves

"Who told you this would be easy?" she said, eyes glittering like sea-wet stones. A flush, gentle as rain, rose in her cheeks.

Nobody, nobody, the voice in his head clamored, I'm sorry, sorry, my love, it is blessed, it must be; I cannot ever deny love.

At that moment he met her eyes and it occurred to him that we live only in moments, arranged as it happens. Someday we shall live entirely in nothing but a single kiss.

Kyle Parrish


Calvin, sorry in advance if you ever see this. I just had to steal it from ya. It's too utterly and completely perfect. Absolutely perfect.

The Format - On Your Porch

Forever.

The Postal Service - Against All Odds

I'm getting tired. I can't hear what you're saying, but I know what you're doing very loudly. I can't see what you're hinting at, but you are continuously painting me a picture.


I don't need anything grandiose. In fact, I don't need any thing at all. I just need a name. I need a name. I need a name.

The Frames - People Get Ready

When people ask me why I did it, I'm most likely going to respond with something simple like "Just felt like it" or "it was getting too long, hard to work with" or the like. Which is partly true. I wouldn't do it if I didn't feel like it, and it was getting pretty frustrating. Showers lasted incredibly too long, it took forever to air dry, and at night I would have to pull it over my head as to not strangle myself to death in the middle of my sleep.

But in reality, it was so much more than just a hair cut. My mom calls it a "new and improved" me. Maybe I don't have to be new, but I definitely needed an improvement. I really do feel like this is a new start, a new beginning. Of course, it will take time, a lot more time, but at least a load was taken off of my shoulders, so to speak. This is kind of gay, but it was more of a release for me. Like I was chopping off a web of lies. At first she stopped at the chin, but I just had this urge inside of me to scream "Don't stop! Cut it all off!", which she then did once I calmly said, "more, more, more!" I was hiding a lot behind my hair, but now I'm completely exposed. Nothing is hiding anymore. Not only can you see me clearly now, but I can see everything clearly. That was my past and I really am trying to be as hopeful as possible for the future. I just need you to love me enough.

So, on a hopeful note, I leave you with this.



You should also watch "Heal this Nation - Obama Ad" that's in the suggested videos after that one ^. You should learn the alphabet from this one V.

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - May It Always Be

I woke up today in a different state of mind.

Last night I watched The Notebook, probably the last movie I should have watched in my current state, but I watched it. The plot hasn't changed, the actors are all the same and the lines were spoken again, just as last time. Nothing about the movie changed, but I felt something totally different than what I've felt the past times I've watched it. I finally asked, "Why do people think it's sad?" My heart wanted to burst when she finally remembered and they danced to our song, but in a good way. He never gives up, she leaves, he writes, she falls in love, he finds her, she finds him, they die in each others' arms. I think it's safe to say I'm now taking on all of these things that both of them do, and if my future turns out anything like theirs, I will die happy.

Being 18 and in love was one of the scariest ideas, I thought. Now it's all I long for.

Imogen Heap - Oh Me, Oh My

When I was younger, like beginning of kindergarten, I started getting pains in my chest. I remember getting them for the first time at First Steps and I went to my teacher and told her "my heart hurts". She called my mom, who then immediately brought me to the hospital. They thought it had to do with when my whole body turned blue when I was first born. They had me in a little incubator for the first couple weeks of my life, hooked up to machinery and in a private room. That is beside the point though, which is they never figured out what was wrong. So anyway, my doctor put me on this medication, that changed shape and size over the next 7 years. Once I reached middle school, I stopped taking the medicine.




My heart hurts.

The Shins - A Comet Appears

“It’s best to have failure happen early in life. It wakes up the Phoenix bird in you so you rise from the ashes.”
-Anne Baxter

Band of Horses - Marry Song

I don't know what I want to do for the rest of my life. I can tell you what I've considered. I want to be a fashion stylist at a fashion magazine, preferably Nylon. I want to be a writer. I want to be a graphic designer. I want to be a fashion designer. I want to work in sustainability. I want to work in human resources, merchandising, advertising, and marketing. I want to be a lawyer and a paleontologist. I want to be a photographer.















My parents want me to be an electrician.

I hope I never figure out what I'm going to do for the rest of my life, for the rest of my life. I just want to live.

Tool - Schism

"What do you love?" she says.
"People," he says.
"People in general, or specific people?" she says.
"I love people," he says. "I don't have a hatred for anyone."
"Then you should do what you plan to do; travel and meet people and record what you find. You have to do what you love for the rest of your life and be happy," she says.
"Well, what do you love?" he says.



"I don't know," she says. "Art."

Iron & Wine - House By The Sea

There has been a lot on my mind the past few days that I've been wanting to discuss on here, but never actually wanted to type about. I just wished my thoughts would appear in my blog as I thought them. Sometimes, things just happen.

1. I'm getting extremely homesick, and this is just one reason why:



















ELBOWTOE is my new favorite street artist. I will be sure to post GAIA as soon as I can. I was a bit biased with my opinion of him since I never did receive the artwork I bought, but after looking at his recent stuff and seeing how beautiful it all still is, I just can't see how I can stay angry.

2. My Mom lost her job last week. It's taking a crazy toll on the family. At first I was extremely upset, not because I have to now get a job as a freshman in college, but because she's already so depressed about this move to Arizona. Of course, she was the other half of the agreement to move out here, but when that day comes, it's a completely different set of emotions. Anyway, not only do I not know my mother as anything but a meeting planner, but she doesn't know herself as anything but that either. She's been doing it for 35 years. No college experience. Just straight out of high school and into a travel agency. Maybe this is good for her, though. I just want her to do what she loves. She wanted to be a child psychologist. I read that in her yearbook. She was also a cheerleader who obsessed over Bob Dylan and Jethro Tull. I wish she was like that today, minus the whole cheerleader business.

3. Oh, politics. So it sucks that the reason why I'm getting more and more interested in the debate is because my mom lost her job, but fuck it. I'm interested.





...and, of course, the best question of the night...



The entire issue about Obama "palling around with domestic terrorists" (i.e. Bill Ayers who is now a professor at the College of Education at the University of Illinois in Chicago) just makes me love the Weather Underground even more than I already did. Obviously I don't think responding to violence with violence is the answer, but those were radical times and not everyone responds when the only message is "Peace". It's unfortunate, but it is what it is.



4. And this...
There is a house by the sea
Two jealous sisters, they're waiting for me
And one is laid on the floor
And one is changing the locks on the doors
And I've been buying the time on my knees
And I've been selling their blankets to bleed (on)

Around the house by the sea
The scent of roses and raspberry leaves
And there is smoke in my clothes
Too much time with just smoke in my nose
And I've been making the meaning they lack
And I've been burning that book they come back too

There is a house by the sea
And an ocean between it and me
And like the shape of a wave
The jealous sisters will sing on my grave
And I've been living to run where they led
And I've been dying to rise from their bed
And I've been sparing my neck from their chain
And they've been changing the sound of my name
And I've been swimming to them in my sleep
And I've been dreaming our love and our freedom

Porcupine Tree - Trains

Amos Lee - Arms of A Woman

Oh! Last night I also went to something called First Fridays on Roosevelt near downtown Phoenix. It's basically a very long strip of houses and stores that leave their doors open for artists to put up their artwork. Quite simply, it's amazing. There are a few stages set up for bands to perform. Also, the Obama Headquarters is right there so there were all peace-loving, happy youth sharing the streets. I bought a great piece from a young boy. He was very cool, in a non-cool way. I don't know, I was very impressed with his artwork and his suave attitude. I'll try to take a picture of what I bought from him later and post it. It's absolutely beautiful, and there is a hawk with its wings spread near the top of it, which makes it all that much better. I'm debating on whether or not I should give it to my dad.

I love art. I love paintings. I love photography. I love everything beautiful.

Bird York - In The Deep

I went to see Burn After Reading again tonight. I really love the humor in that movie; it's so dark. I think John Malkovich is such a great actor.



I got into the theater a lot earlier than last time so I was able to see some more previews, and I can't even begin to explain how excited I am for Frost/Nixon!



When I was younger, I always wondered what that scene in Forrest Gump was all about. Speaking about politics... I honestly do not know as much as I should, especially now that it's the first year I can vote and such, but I do know what is intelligent, or at least, what should be. Sarah Palin is not very intelligent.



Obama 08.

My Morning Jacket - Gideon

Tonight I was asked one of the best questions I was ever asked. "What makes you feel free?" I think everyone needs to think about this. You'd be surprised what answer you come up with, and I think if you truly thought long and hard, you'd appreciate whatever it is that makes you feel free so much more just because you are simply acknowledging how powerful that one thing is.

For me, it's quite simple. I find freedom in the wind dancing with my hair. Any kind of adrenaline rush, I guess you could say. Specifically, though, I am free when I can spread my arms as wide as possible and tilt my head back, eyes closed, and just feel the wind and the sunlight. Riding front row on a roller coaster, standing at the front of a speedboat, cliff jumping, riding on a motorcycle, or simply driving with the windows down and the music way up. It's everything to me.

On a musical note, tomorrow I will be going to my parents' house with a great friend of mine. There, not only will we have my favorite dinner, but we'll be seeing Iron & Wine! I've only started listening to them recently, and I cannot stop.




Oh my gosh, that video for "Boy With A Coin" is absolutely perfect. I am the luckiest little girl.

Radiohead - House of Cards

I watched Into the Wild again today. Man, that's such an influential movie. Not to mention, Emile Hirsch is absolutely beautiful in every shot, yes even when he's emaciated. I'm certain that if that was a documentary and he lived and then came to visit me in a far away land I would just marry him on the spot and then be whisked away on his Magic Bus. No matter how many time I watch it, I am just as upset over the ending as the first time I watched it; when I had no idea that it was based on a true story. I cried my little eyes out that rainy night.




His role was obviously amazing in this movie, so it's no surprise that any movie he's in, I adore (except, of course, Girl Next Door and Speedracer). I knew he was going to do great things once I saw him in Imaginary Heroes. To this day, it is still my favorite movie, along with American Beauty and Into the Wild. What's makes Imaginary Heroes even cooler than it already is, is the fact that it was filmed in Glen Ridge, New Jersey with some scenes in Brookdale Park. Gosh, how I wish I was there that day.



So the moral of the story is this; Sean Penn was, is and will always be amazing. Whether it's as Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High or the Academy Award Winner for Best Actor in Mystic River, he is, as a matter of fact, a fucking great actor. Not only that, he's becoming a modern day John Lennon, just not as radical and well, he's no John Lennon. But you should check it - http://www.peace.ca/seanpenn.htm

You should also check the new movie Milk that not only Sean Penn is in, but also Emile Hirsch AND James Franco. What a beautifully crafted cast. Hirsch is so lucky to have worked with him both on screen and off. Holy shit.