Humor me

WODdling soundtrack this morning: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (self-titled album), Hot Chip "Made in the Dark"

Did anyone else listen to Terry Gross on Fresh Air today?
She interviewed Trey Parker and Matt Stone about "The Book of Mormon Musical". You can listen to the interview here.

I have to admit, it sounds pretty funny! The interview gave me a chance to finally hear samples of some of the songs (at least the PG rated ones). The ones I heard seemed like something that could come straight out of "Saturday's Warrior". Of course, they do make jokes at the church's expense, but it seems like it's done in a most good-natured way. From what I've heard of it's crude humor, the show probably wouldn't be my cup of tea, but I'm not really up in arms about it. Any informed media consumer should know that work from these guys is going to be have a lot of profanity, that it will probably be blasphemous, and will be offensive to many. But Matt and Trey are funny, savvy, and smart. They are also fair. I highly suggest the interview to anyone who is wondering about it.

Here is the official church's stance on the musical:

"The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening, but the Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people's lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ."

See? Classy as always.

My cousin Duncan (whose family I'm living with and whose room I'm going to take over after he's gone...haha), leaves on his mission in less than two weeks! He will be serving in Anaheim, California. I think that this musical may actually prove to be helpful to him. I'm sure people will be interested in his experience, and maybe have questions about what they've heard about the church. Just another way to turn around something that others perceive of as negative into a positive!

On another musical note, my grandpa showed this video to me a few weeks ago, and I think it's pretty great.

Stranger in a Strange Land

Over 3 days back east. I am not yet a native.
Virginia and the general D.C. area are places that I would consider foreign.
They have all the characteristics of what I would call a foreign place.

1) Humidity
2) Green
3) Unique architecture
4) Different smells


They share these characteristics with other foreign places I have been to in my life like
Lima, The Cotswolds in Britain, Pokhara (Nepal), and Disneyland.

So far, I like it.

I've been jogging on this trail the past couple mornings:

From now on, I will refer to it as "waddling on the WOD," as I am so out of shape, I waddle more than run. But anyway, the trail is great. My iPod was specially loaded for this sort  of daily endeavor. This morning, the soundtrack to my WODdling was The Black Keys "Brothers" album. A good choice if I may say so myself.

Ramble On

Let's recap, shall we?

DAY ONE:
Roadtrips are so fun...when they start. Mom and I prepped well. We had carrots, we had candy, we had mate, and we had the dulcet tones of Blaine and the Warblers.
Let's just throw this up there so you know what you were missing:


I took a bunch of pictures while we were driving.
And then I dropped my camera in the toilet. boo.

Allison warned me that Wyoming was the worst state in the world. I understand it's bad when it's snowy, but Allison: your home state of Nebraska is about as mind-numbingly dull as it gets.

Flat
Flat
Flat

DAY TWO:

We spent the night in Lincoln, and then set-off once again. 

Winner of loveliest state to drive through....

MISSOURI!

What?!

Who knew?

We listened to Sufjan Stevens "Come on! Feel the Illinoise" while driving through Illinois. It was sorta awesome. Everything felt very "meta".

I don't remember much else about the drive.

We spent the night with Tia Hortensia and Uncle Bart. 

She had a great delicious soup ready for us (with cheese from Ireland) and cake (a British recipe). Anglophilia runs in the family.

I hadn't seen them in forever, so it was great to catch up.

DAY THREE:

This leg of the journey was marked by a sudden increase in evangelical radio stations, anti-abortion billboards, and the smell of cows.

So I choose the second option of googlemaps choices, thus leading us to drive on this:

It was beautiful. Very romantic and wild. 

For this part of the trip, we listened to the Cold Mountain soundtrack and The Avett Brothers.

"The rain it fell, and we got gone"

literally.

Man, that road was ISOLATED. 

I can't imagine actually living in one of the tiny towns along it. I was astounded at every turn. It started raining and got really foggy. My mom got carsick. 

We arrived safe and sound at Tyson's Corner in Virginia at 11:30.

THAT WAS THAT.

So far, I have not been disappointed. The families I will be working with our great. The wards are friendly. There is so much to do.

This summer is gonna be sumthin'.

A series of unfortunate (and fortunate) events.

Maybe you want to know how my three-day journey across the country was.

You will have to wait for tomorrow for the low-down. 

If you can't wait till tomorrow, these two equations sum up my emotions during the trip.

This:

plus this:

equals this:

BUT

this:

plus this:

equals this:

It was a journey of many emotions. Time for bed.

A Man's Secret Weapon...

... good clothes.

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.- Mark Twain

You may be wondering what inspired this post.
First off, I went to the new, reorganized singles for our area. A representative from the stake stepped up to the podium, and my brother and I gave eachother significant looks:

Me: He looks just like Tim Gunn!
Jeremy: I know! He's just missing the glasses...

Make it work.

A few minutes later, he put glasses on to read a quote, and the vision was complete. Also, over the past week, I have been watching Project Runway (and America's Next Top Model during commercials) and have just fallen in love with it. I watched a full season for the first time last summer, and I am seriously considering looking for them on dvd or something. Also, I recently watched this trailer. AND, my favorite blogs to follow are fashion-y ones and I have been trying to keep them in mind as I've been selecting clothes to take with me back east.
And I've worked at Old Navy.
For all of these reasons, I am an expert on men's fashion.
HAHAHAHAHAH. funny joke.

Anyway.
With this theme running through my head, I've become specifically impressed of the role of men in fashion, and the lack of respect (or maybe just lack of interest) from the general male population.

Boys. I don't think you understand the power clothing. It is truly a secret weapon. I was talking with one of my friends the other day about moving to the D.C. area. She informed me that the types of guys I would find there would be different from the one's I've been around: "They know how to dress". She said.

I am a firm believer that if  a man can dress well, he can do anything. I think this guy summed it up pretty well: 

"...it is indeed remarkable how impressive ugly men can look in really good men's clothes. Is their a finer sight in the world than a hideous man, who is normally just one big explosion of visual pollution, decked out in a thousand pounds worth of state-of-the-art Men's Clothes?      ...men's clothes don't ever change in basic design. They just get ever more perfect and magnificent." 

A guy can get away with a lot if he looks sharp. Case in point: Scott Dissick.

Stolen from this blog.

I think a sense of style may be the only redeeming quality homeboy has.


So if any of you men are looking for pointers, here are few examples to emulate from our good friend, The Sartorialist:

Really guys, I guess you can wear whatever you want, but keep in mind this quote I found while reading about the shows at Coachella.

“whatever a dirty-looking young man with aviator glasses and certain kind of facial hair is doing looks disingenuous” - Ben Ratliff NYT

Note: most of the men in these photos have facial hair, but is is not the "certain kind" that Ben was referring to. You know what I mean.


Be clean. Be genuine. Be styled.

Cinco de Mayo

Last year we had a fiesta.

This year, I made brownies and ate PB+J. Boring.

At least I had these:

My first mission companion recommended this band to me because "la letra es bonita". She has good taste.


This was the first Latino group that I was ever conscious of. They have a soft spot in my heart.

OK. Some of you were present during "the summer of freaks and geeks". We used to watch multiple episodes of this vastly underrated show a night, waiting for a certain moment during the opening credits. Let's see if you can guess which part is was. Anyway. I feel the same way about this video, seconds :49 - :50. Love him.


This guy used to be half of Sin Bandera.

So there you have it. Four perfectly crafted reasons to love Mexico even more.

May Mix: "What are you sinking about?"

I am so excited for you to listen to this mix. It's a good one! I know I say that every time, but I REALLY REALLY mean it this time. I'm leaving in a week, and I think this mix is a good send-off. It pretty much encapsulates every emotion I have.

Whoever you are, wherever you are, I probably miss you.

Love,
Gretchen

1. All Yr Songs - Diamond Rings
2. Hello (Single Edit) - Martin Solveig & Dragonette
3. Contact High - Architecture in Helsinki
4. The Human Condition - Jhameel
5. Impossible Soul [BODY TIME edit] - Sufjan Stevens
6. Till the World Ends (AC Dubstep) - Britney Spears
7. Houdini - Foster The People
8. 2 Hearts - Digitalism
9. Second Chance - Peter Bjorn and John
10. Hang Me Up To Dry - Cold War Kids
11. Rome - Phoenix
12. Flume (Bon Iver Cover) - Peter Gabriel
13. Everywhere I Go - Lissie
14. Already Yours - Bahamas
15. Lost In My Mind - The Head and the Heart
16. Little Talks - Of Monsters And Men
17. Orono Park (Edit) - The Wilderness of Manitoba
18. Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues

LINER NOTES:

1. "Cause in the summer weather, we'll put sunscreen on together, I would not want your skin to burn" True love is skin cancer prevention.
2: You may not want to listen to this song cause it will be stuck in your head ALL DAY. Quote from my brother watching the video:
Jeremy: So this is essentially The Royal Tannenbaums?
Me: Essentially, yes.
Jeremy: hm.
3: Who else thinks they should mash this up with Prince's "Kiss"? Just me? Oh. Ok.
4: Jhameel does some great covers such as "Heartbeats" (duh. you already know I'm obsessed with this song) and "Halo". Sometimes his voice sounds like My Chemical Romance, sometimes like Jamiroquai, sometimes like Jonsi, sometimes like Vampire Weekend. So pretty great. Right? You can download his whole album for FREE, though I encourage a donation. He calls his album an "expression of both my overwhelming love and bitter hatred for the human condition". Love him.
5 and 6: Look for these on Hype Machine. I guess none of my mixes are complete without a dubstep shout-out. 
10: When I think Cold War Kids, I think freshman year at BYU. Music was my best friend that year... oh boy.
11: Thomas Mars is the perfect combination of Ben Kweller and Jim Sturgess. In terms of everything.
12: This makes me sad. Why?
14: Future camp-fire-hit-heart-break-song
17: You clicked on the link and watched the video right? You didn't?! Well, go back and click it right now. This song is magical. Now imagine that whatever cathedral hallway they are in is actually a hallway in HOGWARTS and Harry, Ron, and Hermione could come around the corner at any minute and start doing a jig. Even more magical. Now aren't you glad you watched that video?
18. :)