Don't Hibernate!

Here at Marietta College we have what is called the College Union Board, or for short CUB.

CUB is responsible for brining all of the entertainment to the campus, such as musicians, comedians, hypnotists and many other entertainers. CUB is also in charge of Little Sibs and Family Weekend, and Doo Dah Day and Homecoming.

The CUB board is comprised of three executive members, and eight chairs. Together they work to bring many things to campus.

I am the Musical Entertainment chair for CUB. So far I have had two musical performances, Jason LeVasseur (right), Poncho and Spence, and Johnny Red and the Skammunists.

It is hard at times to make sure everything gets done, but it is a lot of fun getting to work with the other board members and the artists that come to the college. CUB board members have committees and are always looking for more people to help out with events.

Over the next five days, 8 of the board members will be traveling to Peoria, IL to attend NACA.

NACA is a giant convention for us to preview all of the new and upcoming acts there are. We book most of our talent through the convention.

So over the next few days, I will be keeping everyone updated about how NACA is going. We leave tomorrow and then embark on a ten hour drive to Illinois.

The Streetlights are Always On

I've said it a hundred times, and I'll say it again, I have been to a lot of shows.

And everytime I go to a really amazing one, I'll try to think of the top five best shows I've been to. It's pretty much impossible. I have been to dozens of incredible shows and each time I go to another one, the list gets bigger.

The list got bigger on October 12, 2008. At the World Famous Agora Ballroom in Cleveland, OH, I got the opportunity to see one of the craziest shows ever.

Ska band Streetlight Manifesto tore the ballroom up, for lack of a better word. From beginning to end the intensity of the crowd and band were non-stop. The crowd had the 7-piece covered on they lyrics too, knowing every single word.

To someone like me who enjoys the band, but doesn't know every lyric, the show was actually intimidating.

Every person that came out of the giant mosh pit was covered in sweat (both theirs' and other peoples') and sometimes blood. My boyfriend suffered bruises to his legs and a sore neck from jumping around.

I stood off to the side and watched the chaos. Had I been in the pit, I would have broken something, no doubt.

Even though it was a scary show, the band really performs and I would definitely see them again, and maybe make my way into the pit.

Batman in the House

As I blogged about before, I went to the Boys Like Girls concert at WVU.

There were a lot of people there of all different types. There were country kids, scene kids, prepsters, and a lot of others. Even Batman was there!

Ok, so it wasn't really Batman. It was just some girl dressed up as the DC Comic superhero. I can't really say why she was dressed the way she was, but she seemed to like the attention she was drawing.

I have never seen anyone dress up at a show before, unless it was Halloween, and she was about 25 days short.

I'm Gonna Bang Them All Night Long

Bongos that is!!! Get your minds out of the gutter!

I am now the proud owner of a set of bongos. I have wanted them for a few years now. I love percussion instruments and these were the perfect fit, shape for me. They also required the least amount of hand-eye coordination!

These were yet another birthday present from my wonderful boyfriend. He knew how bad I wanted them and then bought them for me.

When I saw he had gotten them for me, I was happier than a kid at Disney World. I immediately started playing them, and didn't stop for a few hours!

After my fingers started to hurt and my mom got sick of hearing them, I stopped playing them. But not for long.

I brought them back to Marietta with me and fully intend on playing them in my dorm, even if the boys across the hall slam their doors with aggravation. I may even get ambitious and have a jam session in Gilman!

But don't get your hopes up =]

So if you hear loud, obnoxious, bad bongo playing, it's me!

permanent love

I love music, duh!

But I also love tattoos. I have two and plan on getting a lot more.

My first one is not music related but special to me.

I have one on my wrist though that is about as unique as they come. It is a music staff, trebel clef, with the notes DAC. Those are my initials. Each note length corresponds with how many syllables are in each of my names.

I love this tattoo. It hurt really bad, but it is like a fingerprint to me. A lot of people have told me they are jealous because their initials don't fit into the musical alphabet. I guess I'm just lucky!

I plan on getting other music related tattoos, like an old microphone (the kind that hang from the ceiling), and a gun shooting out the words 'let love in', a Goo Goo Dolls song.


Side note: If you want or are planning on getting a tattoo, make it meaningful!!!

love is a mix tape

I love mix cds. I have probably over 100 at home and on my computer and ipod. They can put you in a certain mood with the music on them. I have made a lot of the past few years, but my favorite ones are the ones that are made for me.

It's special when someone makes a mix cd for you, it shows that in some romantic, funny, or other way, that person is thinking of you. And it's nice to be thought of.

My friends and I used to make them for each other for birthdays and holidays. They were my favorite gifts, and still are. I would be content with only getting mix cds as gifts from now on, I love them that much.

My birthday is in a couple of weeks, so I celebrated with the people at home. MY boyfriend got me some pretty awesome gifts. He also made me a mix cd. It made my weekend. I love seeing what songs he puts on there that make him think of me. But enough mushy stuff!

Rob Sheffield is a writer for Rolling Stone and a music geek. He wrote the book Love is a Mix Tape. The book uses about 15 different songs to tell about a very special relationship he had with a punk-rock girl named Renee.

I haven't read the book yet, but will have an update/reaction when I do.

Until then, I'm going to keep making, getting and listening to mix cds, because they really are love.

You Never Know What You're Gonna Get in West Virginia

Pop-rock bands Cute is What We Aim For and Boys Like Girls played at the MountianLair Student Center at WVU on Sunday.

I had never been to WVU until Sunday, and I'm sad about that. It is a huge campus, but still gives you that small town West Virginia feel. The student center is insane. My favorite thing was the country flags suspended above the eating area. The main level resembles a food court at the mall. There is a 'grand staircase' that led to the small auditorium where the bands performed.

The first band that played, Lights, was not my cup of tea. The singer seemed to be stuck in the 80s and insisted on putting her hand in the air at every chance she got. This was her 6th day on her first tour, but WVU's crowd was the best ever.

Cute is What We Aim for played next and the were awesome. I had been wanting to see them live since they came out a few years ago, and they did not disappoint. They played hits new and old including my favorite "The Curse of Curves" and ended their set with their first hit song "There is a Class for This".

Boys Like Girls took the stage around 9:30pm. Earlier in CIWWAF's set, myself and some others noticed the floor and light fixtures shaking violently. We figured it was just normal from the crowd and the music.

Boys Like Girls started off strong in their performance. But after about three songs, the house lights came on and the band informed the crowd that the weight of the crowd jumping and the bass from the music was too much for the floor to handle.

We were dangerously close to falling through the ceiling.

There were physics majors behind us who were actually calculating the amount of force it would take to break through the ceiling!

The band and the crowd were not happy at all. The show still went on, but it went on as an acoustic show. After the announcement a collective shouting of 'Bullshit" resonated throughout the crowd.

I love acoustic, but wasn't expecting to hear the rest of the show performed that way. The next six songs were performed by the lead singer and his guitar.

After a while he said, "We're going to stop embarrassing ourselves now, this is our last song." The show ended early, and left a lot of 12 year olds disappointed.

The performances were good, but the show as a whole was under par due to the near death circumstances.

Free Ringtones

I have 36 ring tones on my phone. And I didn't pay for any of them.

I use the website myxer. It allows you to download ring tones to your phone for free! You can also download pictures from your computer to set as backgrounds.

Many of you probably already know about this site, but for those of you who don't, try it! Why pay three or more dollars for a 10 second song clip. On myxer, your ring tones can be up to 1 minute long.

You can get virtually any song you're looking for on this site, and if you cannot find it, you can upload the song if you already have it on your computer.

The ring tone comes to your phone as a picture message, so make sure you are able to receive those before signing up.

Video Killed the Radio Star

These days it's more like reality killed the video stars.

When MTV first premiered in 1981, Video Killed the Radio Star was one of the first songs they played. It was their way of saying that music television was the next big thing. And it was. MTV was huge, there were music videos, and lame game shows that now-big stars used to host.

Things aren't like that anymore.

MTV sold out. They traded in their declaration to play music videos for horrible, brain decaying reality shows. Very rarely does one see a music video. Even on the video countdown show TRL, they have resorted to playing only snippets of the videos.

Luckily stations like MTV2 and vh1 have picked up the slack of MTV's lack of music. I honestly do not remember the last time I watched MTV and was satisfied with what I watched.

The High School Musical movies have more music in them than MTV has had in the last 3 years.

How many Idols are there?

I'm not going to lie, I like reality tv. There's something about watching people make fools out of themselves, that just really brightens my day.

But really, how many more does there need to be?

American Idol is in it's what seems like 18th season, and I have to ask, how many idols can there really be? Most of them turn out to be one hit wonders, and sometimes the runner-up ends up doing better than the winner! I understand there are a lot of talented people in America, but they don't all need a chance to be and Idol.

This goes not only for Idol, but for many other reality shows. How many survivors can there be? Or how many times can people dance with the stars?

TV producers need to go back to the basics and stop trying to exploit hundreds of people. Yes my guilty pleasures would be gone, but then I would be able to watch reruns of Full House and Mary Tyler Moore. And I am ok with that.