This Adventure Drums guy is also a winner. My brother Jeremy showed me his videos, and now I am addicted. I fully respect drummers. I think drums are one of the coolest instruments; you can't pretend to be good at them, people will see right through you. They can tell if you are weak.
I mostly know this because I used to play a lot of Rock Band.
Spotify.
I love it love it love it.
I love it as big as the sky.
Can I invite you guys to join?
Do I have that ability? I do not even know.
Here is a list of some of what I've listened too.
- Rockabye Baby! Lullabye Renditions of the Flaming Lips
- Rockabye Baby! Lullabye Renditions of Weezer
- Rockabye Baby! Lullabye Renditions of Kanye West
- Rockabye Baby! Lullabye Renditions of The Beatles
- Rockabye Baby! Lullabye Renditions of the Pixies
- Rockabye Baby! Lullabye Renditions of Bjork
- Rockabye Baby! Lullabye Renditions of Green Day
- Rockabye Baby! Lullabye Renditions of Nine Inch Nails
- Rockabye Baby! Lullabye Renditions of No Doubt
- Rockabye Baby! Lullabye Renditions of Nirvana
- Rockabye Baby! Lullabye Renditions of Radiohead
- Rockabye Baby! Lullabye Renditions of The Cure
- Everything by Christopher Riley (he does piano renditions of other people's songs like Elliott Smith, Thom Yorke, Nick Drake... generally troubled people).
- Vitamin String Quartet tribute to Elliott Smith
- Sondre Lerche (His new self-titled album. I haven't had the time to pick it up for myself.)
- Various songs from the Glee albums
- Songs from the Book of Mormon Musical (Don't worry... not the explicit ones :)
- Cool old songs done by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
- ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that Chris Thile touches. I love him.
- Songs from Rent, In the Heights, and Ragtime
- Nicki Minaj
- Rocknocersous
- A.A. Bondy
- Selena Gomez
- Metric
and of course, songs about myself.
- Gretchen - The Diamonds
- Gretchen is a Smokin' Hot Babe - The Smokin' Hot Babes (you can find any name with this song)
- Gretchen's New Dish - Dick Kent
* You really need to listen to that last one, I mean... WOW.
This is a good website to find more awesome songs on Spotify. They beat me to the punch.
SO.
You can understand why I don't have Spotify totally connected to me Facebook. I don't WANT people to know what I listen to. That would just be too embarrassing.
A couple weeks ago, I was sorta sick. So much so, that I could not sleep. So I stayed up till 4 in the morning, on this website, finding all sorts of cool covers. My loss of sleep is your gain...in...music? Something like that. So this mix is called "Dress-up" because these bands are "dressing-up" with other peoples songs, get it? haha.
P.S. I will be putting out ANOTHER mix 'speshly for Halloween! Lucky you!
P.P.S I washed my hair with shampoo for the first time after a week! Lucky me!
It was grand. I had been using baking soda in lieu of shampoo so that I could stop global warming. It gave me excellent volume, but my hair ended up feeling like I had sprayed it all over with that cheap hair coloring stuff they use at football games. Ew.
2. I'm worried that this song will soon be featured in a car commercial or something similarly ridiculous, sometime soon.
5. This cover is not great? But I love Bright Eyes? And hardly anyone covers them anymore? Did you know I worked with a guy who said everything in the form of a question? Once you start, it's sort of addicting? Try it sometime?
6. I wish there was an mp3 of the jam session from "It Might Get Loud" available. I wish I wish I wish.
9. strokes. typical. i love them. duh.
10. Caetano Veloso is THE MAN. no really. I mean it. hottie.
11. You know when you were in high school and you were listening to mixed CD (here is a link just in case you forgot what those are) and "New Slang" by The Shins would come on and some girl would inevitably say "ooooohhhhh, this song! I just LOVE Garden State!" and you would kind of want to punch her in the throat because you are pretentious and you loved The Shins WAY before Garden State and you hate that this chick only knows them because of that movie and her enthusiasm is just like, so lame? Well, I am both of the girls. The punchy one and the "lame" one. Every time I hear this song, I think,"ooooohhhhh, this song! I just LOVE Donnie Darko!" And I know Echo and the Bunnymen are great and everything, but I don't know any of their other songs, and this will just be that one Donnie Darko song...that I just LOVE. That's just how it is.
And this cover is simply awesome.
13. I've been listening to this song more than daily now. You know how I feel about accents.
14. See above.
16. This band is not Fleet Foxes. They just pretend like they are, and it is actually pretty brilliant.
17. One of my favorite songs in the world. And I love this boy.
18. Listen to the song and try not to cry. What? You didn't shed a single tear? You have a heart of stone, sir. Heart of STONE.
UH. So this was supposed to post like, a week ago. I don't know what happened. So consider this an easier versions time-traveling. This blog will serve as the DeLorean.
...
I had been feeling pretty good. My classes, though difficult, will be manageable if I stick to a strict schedule. If I work as much as possible, I won't be in too much debt. And other kids in my classes average 5 hours of sleep a night, right? There is a guy in my class who tutors 20 hours a week, is taking 27 credit hours, is in a movie, and still has a great GPA. If he can do it, I can too, right?
But then I had a mini-crisis.
So I survive all of that. I graduate, and move into the real world.
Then what?
Yesterday was the BYU career fair. You know, the one that I guess I was supposed to be preparing for these past few weeks. Competing with all those other students, trying to stand out, talking to strangers...it gave me anxiety thinking about it.
I finally mustered up the courage to just go in and take a look around. I wouldn't have to talk to anybody.
But even that was too much.
Let's get this straight.
I've never taken a class in the Tanner Building.
I haven't had any internships.
I'm not published.
I've never done research in my field(s).
I've never been awarded any grants or scholarships.
I don't own a suit.
I don't even have an up-to-date resume. Attempting to list my skills and accomplishments is embarrassing. What would my future employers think if they saw the truth? Work experience? I assume working as a nanny/ baker/custodian/grounds crew/waitress/shop girl/census enumerator is not what they would have in mind. Skills? Uh. I speak spanish. That's about all I'm qualified to do with my major. No teaching, no translating.
I felt very out of place.
Very far behind.
I left the wilkinson center in near hyper-ventilation mode. I needed to schedule an appointment with a counselor. I needed to redo my resume. I needed to take an extra certification test so my spanish is considered more "professional". My whole course of direction had to change.
I couldn't just think about making it work till graduation, I needed to think about making it in the real world.
By the time I got to my apartment, I was a nervous wreck.
I immediately started checking classes and schedules and certifications and workshops and resume builders and job postings and internships and grants and GRE test prep courses and and and and...
and then I saw something about "Dressing for success".
and then there was a link about changing your hairstyle.
and then I thought, "Hm. Maybe I should part my hair on the other side of my head?"
and then I went to the mirror and changed my hair.
and then I felt a bit better.
How did I find this video? It is golden.
Anyway. I feel better now.
Our home teacher came over to visit with us. We talked about things we have learned by listening to the prophets, going to General Conference, etc. A lot of the talks I've heard lately have been about being charitable (to others AND yourself), and being patient. We need to be anxiously engaged, but also, not run ourselves ragged. President Uchtdorf's talk at the General Relief Society broadcast definitely struck a chord. Our home teacher told us how he has to do all of this code writing and computer stuff, for hours at a time. It can be tedious and stressful. Sometimes, we just want to be done and know what's next. But then he was walking around campus, and realized that he is in a great place, BYU. He fought so hard to get here; he had to take time to enjoy the small things.
I know I have to do all these things eventually, but it's ok to just change little by little.
P.S.
I think I'm going to try parting my hair on the opposite side from now on. Even if it does feel REALLY weird.
This poem is perfect for today in more ways than one. Look, I even counted the ways for you so that you could be sure that I'm not lying.
1) It is in Spanish, and Spanish is a poetic language.
2) It talks about a Thursday, and today is Thursday.
3) It talks about it being rainy, and today was rainy.
4) It talks about death, and Steve Jobs died yesterday.
So consider this a eulogy of sorts.
It is by Cesar Vallejo; give it a read:
"Piedra negra sobre una piedra blanca"
Me moriré en París con aguacero, un día del cual tengo ya el recuerdo. Me moriré en París ?y no me corro? tal vez un jueves, como es hoy, de otoño.
Jueves será, porque hoy, jueves, que proso estos versos, los húmeros me he puesto a la mala y, jamás como hoy, me he vuelto, con todo mi camino, a verme solo.
César Vallejo ha muerto, le pegaban todos sin que él les haga nada; le daban duro con un palo y duro
también con una soga; son testigos los días jueves y los huesos húmeros, la soledad, la lluvia, los caminos...
OH. You don't speak spanish? That is a shame. Here you go. But this is nothing like the original in Spanish. Like, nothing at all. You should probably just learn Spanish. It is worth it if only to understand this poem.
You know I love the Salton Sea. I talk about it HERE and HERE. I was thoroughly excited about that it's part of her mission. I couldn't adequately convey how cool it was. I think I sort of weirded Tiana out. Oh well.
