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Archive for December 2008

Goals for 2009

December 31st, 2008 — 03:22 am

“Into The Unknown”, Photo by Swamibu

All the cool kids are doing it, so how could I resist? I think resolutions however are stupid, I’d rather just set some goals! So here are some goals I have for 2009.

1. Learn to use Flash and InDesign (and work super hard in my design classes so I gain more skills).

2. Take more photos.

3. Move into a house with my friends (which will be happening by June!!).

4. Learn 10 (or more!) new things to cook.

5. Learn to play the guitar (I am finally attempting again!) and practice the piano more (as I have been drastically slacking.).

6. Travel at least one new place.

7. Try one new artistic practice or medium that I normally never would out of thinking its weird, or that I am unable.

8. Read 20 (or more!) books. I used to read so much but this past year I haven’t as much and I regret that!

9. Continue to update this blog and my portfolios.

10. Maintain a 3.25 GPA!!!

Obviously as the year progresses more goals with come up, but this is the list for now!

1 comment » | Misc.

2008, This Year In Songs Playlist

December 31st, 2008 — 02:57 am

Every year there are a set of songs that you listened to a million times, some new songs from the year that stuck with you, and songs that defined particular events during the year, so here it is, my 2008 summed up in music! I would love to know some of yours too!

1. Live or Let Die by Paul McCartney

Not a new song at all, but on June 1st sitting in Anfield Stadium in Liverpool, England at the Paul McCarntey concert that was part of Capital of Culture ‘08…the song Live and Let Die was one of the defining moments of my life up to this point. The song starts out slow and suddenly explodes into noise and fireworks and I just remember forgetting how cold and wet I was and just being so awe-inspired by the scene in front of me.

2. Human by The Killers

This song, really doesn’t make sense, I mean come on “are we human or are we dancer?” what does that even mean? Well I have no idea, but seeing the Killers live at Not So Silent Night ‘08 was a really amazing moment for me and this was the first song that they opened their set with, the whole atmosphere just had that feeling of unity. Its from their new album that came out this year and is one of the best albums of the year!

3. Hot n Cold by Katy Perry

Such a tacky pop song, so horribly catchy. That alone is good enough in my book, but I suddenly started hearing this song all the time when I started my job at Lush (because all we listen is disco diva music!) and this song is now just constantly stuck in my head!

4. West Coast Friendship by Owl City

As you know, I moved to San Francisco, California for school in August and this is a cute little song about finding your place in California. “I must be in California, Aloha, my happy west coast friends…” I couldn’t have said it better :).

5. Paper Planes by M.I.A.

This song was played a million times in my dorm building during the first semester of school, all my friends constantly had it playing, it was all anyone heard for a while and thusly it became a sort of anthem to our first semester at art school.

6. D.A.N.C.E. by Justice

This is another one of those catchy songs that when you live in a building with 90 other art kids that gets played a lot. For whatever reason nearly everyone in my building has a love affair with Justice and this song got almost as much airtime as Paper Planes. I think its because its so fun to dance around to!

7. Fortunate Son by Credence Clearwater Revival

Another classic, even my British friend at school knows this one, this is one of those classic songs, that everyone knows and like to put on and sing along too, I seem to have found myself in a lot of crazy music listening sessions turned sing-along via this song in the past few months!

8. Happiness by Goldfrapp

One of their new songs from this year, its just very simple and makes me smile when I listen to it! It makes the list because it came out this year and is an amazing little song!

9. Viva La Vida by Coldplay

This whole album really, I listed to it so many times on the flight to England and the train ride to London. Its a beautiful song, the whole CD is really really good, one of the best albums of this year!

10. Paris to Berlin by Infernal

I don’t think this song came out this year, but the memories connected to it are definitely hilarious. This song was introduced to me in late May, a few days before graduation by a friend of mine while we were sitting around in an empty art room. She put it on, and got up and did a whole dance to it! So now we both know the dance and several of my other friends know it now too, and it always just leads to hilarious events.

11. Two Step by Dave Mathews Band

This is so tacky of me, but this was of senior song, the lines “Celebrate we will/Because life is short but sweet for certain.” were the lines we used as the motto for our senior t-shits. I was never one of those people who was into this sort of thing normally in high school, I never cared, I was not one of those popular weirdos who “LOVED DAVEEE!!!” (as in the popular kids who were obsessed with Dave Mathews Band and thought they were super indie and cool for it). But regardless, high school is one of those things everyone goes through and when graduating (as I did in May) you look back and realize you ended up with someone good friends and good memories and this was the senior song, thus it got tagged to a lot of those good times.

12. All I Want is You by Barry Louis Polisar

This is the year that everyone fell in love with this song via Juno, and at art school I get a lot of crap for liking this movie, but its cute and hard not to like, and the music in it was awesome. This song is just adorable, for a while it got put on all the mix CDs I made for people in hopes that it would make them feel as warm and fuzzy as it made me feel.

13. Always Love by Nada Surf

Towards the end of the summer, in someone’s car on a really hot and humid night where we had the windows dow and it felt like we were the only people on the whole planet, a friend of mine put this song on, and it fit, it just fit perfectly. We were all about to go off to college and in our separate directions and I remember someone else just quietly saying that this was it, this was the end, that we wouldn’t just be all together aimlessly driving around with no worries until next summer, if we were even still in touch. And it wasn’t really sad so much as just nostalgic and kind of surreal, an “infinite moment” if you will.

14. Sunshine Highway by The Dropkick Murphys

This song just epitomizes right after I got my license this summer, driving on the highway under a perfect blue sky in my crappy old Lincoln feeling so incredibly free.

15. California by Phantom Planet

I moved to California, and made a whole California playlist which you may remember, so enough said. So cliche and yet, so right!

Comment » | Playlist

Best Quotes From Musicians

December 30th, 2008 — 02:52 am

I love music, its a major part of my life, I watch a lot of rock documentaries and read memories ect, so here are some of my favorite quotes from some of my favorite musicians!

1. “I was a rust repairer. I was a rust repairer and full-time survivor. I survived all the major earthquakes, and the Titanic, and several air crash.” -Keith Moon (on being asked what he did before The Who)

2. “We didn’t all get into music for a job! We got into music to avoid a job, in truth - and get lots of girls.”-Paul McCartney

3. “I mean, Eighteen years old is the age of consent in Europe and you can go anywhere and do anything you like. In America, it is dumb. At eighteen you should be able to do anything that you like, except get married.” -John Entwistle

4. “When things get too heavy, just call me helium, the lightest known gas to man.”-Jimi Hendrix

5. “Through literacy you can begin to see the universe. Through music you can reach anybody. Between the two there is you, unstoppable.” -Grace Slick

6. “You wake up in the morning and you look at your old spoon, and you say to yourself, ‘Mick, it’s time to get yourself a new spoon.’ And you do. ” -Mick Jagger

7. “I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth. ” -Pete Townshend

8. “All I can do is be me, whoever that is. ” -Bob Dylan

9. “I think of myself as an intelligent, sensitive human being with the soul of a clown which always forces me to blow it at the most important moments.” -Jim Morrison

10. “Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.” -Janis Joplin

Comment » | Quotes

Inspired: The Road Ahead

December 29th, 2008 — 03:37 am

1. Chair-O-Planes, 2. Indian Train, 3. Road Trip, 4. What’s a Road trip Without a Road?, 5. Suitcases, 6. Empty Suitcase, 7. Empty Office 2, 8. Empty Sky, 9. Boston Skyline, 4:45am, 10. Boston Harbor Sunrise, 11. The Neon Lights, 12. The Gateway, 13. Con Sombrilla, Bicicleta y Zapatos de Tacón, 14. Sunflowers for Friends, 15. San Francisco Skyline, 16. On the Bridge

A few images that are inspiring me lately, I am always saving images in my Flickr favorites that inspire me. Right now I am very inspired by traveling, images of Boston and San Francisco (my two homes), suitcases, fields of flowers someplace warmer, places like Japan and India where I want to go…the road ahead.

1 comment » | Inspired

College-Land Oddities Episode 1

December 29th, 2008 — 02:48 am

Welcome to the first episode of what I like to call “College-Land Oddities”, crazy stories and videos from the land of art school. This weeks episode features my roommate an I, the night before our big design project final was due, we both had colds and like to blame the insanity on the various cold medicines we had taken. Also please note that while we joke about Hello Kitty going to Ruby Skye and doing drugs, and about the crack deals we see going on in the ghetto…we do not in any way condone the use of such substances =P enjoy!!

Comment » | College Update

Weekly Digs

December 27th, 2008 — 03:21 pm

1. The ten best foods you aren’t eating (cinnamon is on this list!).

2. Skipping breakfast leads to having sex at a younger age? Weird, definitely and I am not sure if I am truly convinced but interesting none the less.

3. The ten best indie movies of ‘08 (since this is the last weekly digs of this year!!).

4. This list is hilarious, the top 10 most preposterous rap songs of ‘08, and yes it’s just as ridiculous as it sounds, so worth the read.

5. Creative things to do with the mountain of used gift wrap! This blog is absolutely adorable.

6. A list of unusual deaths, I am particularly fond of “1911: Jack Daniel, founder of the Tennessee whiskey distillery, died of blood poisoning six years after receiving a toe injury when he kicked his safe in anger at being unable to remember its combination.”

7. I almost feel bad for this poor sorority girl, but its just so hilarious, she’s obviously drunk and seems to think that by pulling the smoke alarm she can make it snow…yup.

Comment » | Weekly Digs

Friday Fives #2

December 26th, 2008 — 02:21 pm

I hope everyone survived their holidays, and that Santa (if you celebrate Christmas) was good to you! He was sure good to me, but perhaps a holiday recap later, right now its time for my Friday Fives! Oh and you can participate too! Feel free to talk about five of your own favorite whatever of the week on your own blogs or in the comments!

Top 5 Movies

1. Almost Famous

Sex, drugs and rock n roll! The story is set in the early 70’s, about a boy named William who wants to be a rock journalist. On his first assignment for Cream magazine William meets the ragtag band, Still Water as well as the group of “bandaids” lead by the infamous Penny Lane. William goes on to be asked to write an article for Rolling Stone Magazine and travels around with Still Water. The movie, in my opinion is a classic coming of age story, remember, in the words of Penny “Never take it seriously, you never get hurt. Never get hurt, you can always have fun. And if you ever get lonely, you just go to the record store and visit all your friends.”

2. Lost In Translation

Sophia Coppola’s breath taking and heart breaking beautiful film starting Bill Murrary and Scarlett Johansson. Bob (Bill Murrary) is a declining movie start with a failing marriage and an overwhelming sense of emptiness in life. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is a newly wed whose husband neglects her. While staying at the same hotel in Tokyo, the two somehow meet and form a bond. The movie does a brilliant job of putting you right their with them, you feel the same loneliness, joys and failures.

3. The Life Aquatic (& The Darjeeling Limited…and well anything by Wes Anderson)

Wes Anderson is my absolute favorite director. He hasn’t made a film that I didn’t love, Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums are all among my favorites, but his two most recent films, The Life Aquatic and The Darjeeling Limited in my opinion are the best yet. They are fantastical, the music, colors, actors and settings are always spot on and I would imagine thats a pretty big accomplishment for a director. The Life Aquatic focuses on Steve Zissou, a once revered nature documentary star and his hunt for the jaguar shark that ate his partner Esteban. Along the way we meet Ned, Steve’s “son” (it never becomes fully clear whether he truly is his son or not), see the falling out with his wife, the kidnapping of the bond stooge and so much more. To top is off the entire movie is set to a soundtrack of David Bowie songs redone with acoustic guitar in Portuguese…and it is beautiful. The Darjeeling Limited centers around a family of dysfunctional brothers on a train journey through India, where they slowly reconnect, find themselves, their mother and finally are able to let go of the death of their father. However naturally they manage to get themselves into a trouble, illegal prescriptions, poisonous snakes, all help to get their journey off course and unplugged.

4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This movie is absolutely heart breaking at times, about a couple who erases each other from their memories, only to later meet up again and fall in love again and then find out that they had already knew each other. Clementine is such a crazy free spirit and a really identifiable character for me that it made it hard not to fall in love with this complicated and twisted movie. By the end you will be rooting for Joel and Clem, hoping that it finally works out for them.

5. Empire Records

The well known cult classic from the mid-nineties. About the employees of Empire Records and the shenanigans they get into while trying to save their store from being closed. They are like the quintessential cast of off-beat characters, all ridden with personal problems and their own quirks. Which really just helps to make you love them all the more.

2 comments » | Friday Fives