best of the best

For my last blog of the semester, I would like to share some of the most memorable concerts that I have been to. Now I have been to a lot and do not have pictures from them all, but here are some of my favorite ones.

Warped Tour is always a good time. I have been to three of them. At the first one, I got thrown around in a mosh pit. The next one there was a tsunami is Cleveland and most of the performances had to be cancelled or shortened. Because of the rain, the people who run Warped Tour told everyone there that they could go to any other Warped Tour in the country for free. So we did of course. We went to Pittsburgh and it was different from anywhere else, but it was a lot of fun.

The Grog Shop is my favorite place to see shows in Cleveland. I have had many good times there and have seen and met a lot of really cool bands. One of my favorite bands to see there is Halifax. I've seen them at the GS about four times. They put on an amazing show and are super nice.

Another great show I went to was Taking Back Sunday and Angels and Airwaves. This show was awesome, but I had broken my leg a month earlier, so I couldn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

These next few pictures are of some of the people in bands I have met. They include; Jared Leto, Paul Wall, Jess Margera, Shane Told (of Silverstein) , the band Aiden, and Steve Bays (of Hot Hot Heat).

The last show I would like to share with you has been one of my favorites. In August I saw Jack's Mannequin and Paramore, two of my favorite bands. That was my fourth time seeing Paramore and they did not let me down. They put on such an incredibly energetic show, everyone was left stunned.

i've got friends who...

The semester is almost done and I have not yet decided if I will keep blogging on here or not. I will no longer have to do it for class, but I have found this pretty enjoyable. When I first heard we would have to blog, I was apprehensive. Now that I have been doing this all semester, it's pretty enjoyable.

In case you couldn't tell from my posts, music is pretty much my life. That is why I chose it for my blog topic. I could not think of anything else that I was more passionate or knew more about than music. If we would have been assigned a topic, I would have been less apt to keep up with the posts, and my writing for them would be under par. I think that with this blog I have written some of my best work, I even got a post published in my school newspaper.

The title of my blog is la la lie. It is a Jack's Mannequin song. The lead singer, Andrew McMahon was originally part of Something Corporate, one of my favorite bands. His current band started as a side project and is now as big and SC was.

Since I liked Something Corporate so much, I didn't want them to not make music anymore. So I didn't listen to Jack's Mannequin. I had heard their first sigle Mixed Tape and like it, but never listened further.

It wasn't until I saw Paramore in concert this past August that I fell in love with JM. They opened for Paramore, and I was hooked. I had an old iTunes gift card and bought their album. I didn't stop listening for about a week.

The day we had to set up our blogs I was stumped on a name. La la lie had been stuck in my head all day, so I went for it. It just flows nicely.

I don't really know what the song means, but I love the lyrics.

I couldn't write a blog about music without having a musical title.

808s & Heartbreaks

I have been waiting for today for a long time.

Kanye Wests' new album is in stores today.

Kanye West is my favorite rap artist. Most people do not like him because he is cocky and thinks he is the greatest performer on Earth. That's why I like him though. To me, he is the best and he is a lyrical genius. When he came on the scene in 2004, his music changed the rap game.

I am especially excited about the album because it wasn't supposed to drop until December.

The album is available today, but I was able to download it last night.

I love it. I can't stop listening to it.

This album is different from any other Kanye album I have heard. It seems more personal and real. His first single off of the album LoveLockDown premiered at the MTV Video Music Awards in late August. His new single Heartless just came out.

If you are any kind of fan of Mr. West, you will get this album. You will enjoy it.

Riot!

It's Thursday night at work, I'm bored. I brought my Ipod with me to keep me awake and entertained.

The band for the night, Paramore.

They are my favorite band. They are from Franklin, TN, there is a song on their first album dedicated to their hometown. The band started in 2005 and has only gotten bigger since.

Many people think the band has sold out, but that happens with every band. You can't expect a band to stay at the bottom forever.

Whether they sold out or not, I love them. I have seen them live in concert four times in the past two years and I have not been let down yet. The second time I saw them I had the great pleasure of meeting the band. They were incredibly nice. The lead singer Hayley Williams was the friendliest person, and she was complimenting the fans like they were the superstars.

If you haven't heard the band yet, crawl out from under the rock you've been living under and youtube them! It will be worth your time, trust me.

Open Mic Night

As I stated in an earlier blog, I am the Music Chair for my school.

For one of my programs I did an Open Mic Night. It was held last night and was very successful.

We have done Open Mic Nights in the past and the people who perform and attend usually enjoy themselves. This Open Mic was different from all the other ones we have had in the past. This one was for charity.

We worked together with our Service Advisory Board to get donations for local food banks. We had a poetry and music category. There was one winner from each category.

The winners were determined by how many votes they received. The votes were counted as 1 non-parishable food item or $1.

There were 94 votes counted and out of that, $28 was raised. The total amount of food raised was 215lbs!

The show was fun in many ways, I love seeing the talent we have on campus, and I like doing things for charity.

Next semester we hope to have a talent show, where people can display more of their talents.

life and loss, one song at a time

I recently finished the book Love is a Mix Tape.

I'm still in awe.

This book is incredible. Out of all of the books I have read, this is my favorite. I have read a lot of books and it seems strange that this simple, new-age book is my favorite. But it is. As I read, I kept marking pages with quotes that moved me, there are a lot of little paper strips poking out from the top.

Rob Sheffield lost his wife after five years of marriage. You learn this from the beginning. And while tragic and heartbreaking, this is not what the book is all about. Rob and his wife's relationship was bound by music. From the moment they met, through their time together, and even after she passed away, music was their rock.

They made mix tapes for each other constantly, for all occasions. Sheffield says in the book that he bought a china cabinet and instead of filling it with dishes, he filled it with tapes, and that cabinet still couldn't hold all of the mixes he had.

Of course it was hard for Sheffield to be ok after losing the love of his life. It was also hard for him to listen to music again, something he had done 24/7. But it was through music and those mix tapes that he was able to be ok again.

This book is inspiring. Sheffield is a writer for Rolling Stone magazine. He wrote this book with such a casual dialect, but it is beautiful. I want to write like this. My goal as a journalist is to write the way Sheffield does.

If you have ever loved and lost someone, or made a mix tape, read this book. Borrow it from a friend, the library, or buy it off of amazon.com like I did. Just read it. You will have a whole new appreciation for music.

Election Day.

I'm going to stray away from my usual music talk and bring up politics.

Today is election day. Duh. It's all EVERYONE has been talking about since before March.

And I'm sick of it. I am ready to punch the next person who brings up the election, in the throat.

All I keep hearing about is, make sure you vote, who did you vote for, republicans yay, democrats yay, STOP! It's annoying.

Leave people alone and let them make their own decisions on who to vote for, or to vote at all.

And also, when did it become ok for people to ask one another who they're voting for? From what I can remember that's a personal right and decision to keep that to yourself. Some people just don't get it.

Regardless of who wins, I can't wait till this day is over. I just have to prepare myself for the backlash of the losing party.

NACA. The Ride Home.

Needless to say, the ride back from Peoria was not as fun as the ride there.

By Sunday, we were all getting tired of being around each other, and tired in general.

For the first four hours, I got to drive the 15 passenger van, something I had never done before. It was scary, but were still alive.

We did play another game of Apples to Apples, but it didn't have the same flair as the one on the ride there.




Also on the way home, we saw gas for an even cheaper $1.69!

Everyone slept most of the way and kept to themselves.
No one really fought over music, the radio was on for the driver and everyone else played their ipods.

Playlist for the ride back:

Radio:
Adele-Chasing Pavements
Starting Line-Islands

Ipod on Shuffle:
Jack Johnson-Same Girl
Houston Calls-A Collection of Short Stories

You Can Have Whatever You Like

The T.I. song was our theme for NACA.

NACA is a giant conference for all of the college programming boards in the Mid-West. The purpose of it is to see showcases of bands, musicians, comedians, and special acts perform so schools can book them to come to their schools.

We were there Wednesday-Sunday. And we were BUSY! Everyday we started at 9am and didn't finish things until about 12:30am.

The conference was a blast though. Even though it was busy, it was fun. We went to a few boring educational sessions, but most of our time was devoted to watching performers and getting to hang out with them, and getting so much free stuff. I know, it sounds horrible right? I even got to meet Mr. Belding. If you don't know who that is, brush up on your 90s pop culture.

We booked some pretty sweet acts for the Spring semester, if I do say so myself.

It was especially great to get to know the other people on the board better over the five days. The stories and inside jokes we have, are priceless.

I also got to celebrate my 21st birthday at NACA. I thought this was going to be horrible and not fun, but it was the complete opposite. It was pretty cool to go to the bar with the performers.

There were a lot of schools at this particular conference. We were able to meet some interesting people. I even got to meet Chi Omegas (my sorority) from other schools.

I had an amazing time at the conference and cannot wait to go next year.

NACA. The Ride There.

Ten hours in a 15 passenger van.

That is how my Wednesday went. We set out for Peoria, Illinois around 1 on Wednesday. The ride was ok at first, we all talked for a while, then everyone drifted off to sleep.

When we woke up it was time to get gas and switch drivers. We got dinner in Indiana where we also saw gas for $1.89!

On the van we were bored, so we played a game of Apples to Apples to pass the time.

We arrived in Peoria around 11 pm. There was an hour time difference that we couldn't really get used to.

Agreeing on the music for the ride was no easy task. We would play one persons ipod, taking requests, then switch to another persons ipod. When that didn't work, we tried the radio. Eventually everyone gave up and played their own music.

My playlist for the ride:
Ipod on shuffle, which included:
Jack's Mannequin-Bruised
Lil Wayne-Lollipop Remix
MXPX-Secret Weapon
Big D and the Kids Table-Shine On

It was a long ride, but it was fun.