This Ended Up Longer Than I Expected

& that's what she said.

Music Challenge - Day 4 - A song that makes you sad

"Limousine (MS Rebridge) - Brand New"

Not hard to explain why this makes me sad. It was written about a little girl who was killed in a car crash by a drunk driver. She was in a limo with her family on her way to be a flower girl at a wedding. Breaks my heart, I should really delete it from my iTunes because I usually skip it whenever it comes up on shuffle anyway.

In other news, I ate like crap today. My manager bought us pizza for lunch at work today. Really? You couldn't get us grilled chicken salads? I guess I didn't have to eat it, but it was either pizza or starve. And when Monster Jo hungry, she eat. Anyway it was at least a good reminder of how crappy I feel when I don't eat well. You better believe I'll be sticking to oatmeal squares and apples this week.

Anyone watch Being Human on SyFy? (Yeah, apparently it's spelled 'SyFy' now.) I'm kind of loving it. It's a remake of the UK version of the same name. It's a show about a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost living together in an apartment and attempting to go through life (or in the ghost's case, after-life) avoiding the difficulties that spring up while being a monster... Ok, it sounds a little kitschy and campy, but it's actually really good. The characters and the actors that portray them are really loveable. For instance, I am pretty much in love with Josh, the werewolf. Give it a chance if you catch it on! Mondays at 9 on the Syfy channel.

Oh, hello commercial advertising The Strokes' show at MSG. Thanks for the reminder that I will probably be missing this awesomeness.

Okay I'm calling it a night (after Being Human, of course.) Just wanna say I'm really enjoying this Blogger business! Thanks to anyone reading, followers or not =] Peace out, girl scouts.

A Case of the Sundays

Music Challenge - Day 3 - A song that makes you happy

I've Just Seen a Face - Jim Sturgess

Well obviously this is a Beatles' song, and I love the original version too... but the version from Across The Universe has a little more oomph and is much better to jump around to. I literally smile every time I sing along to it. And if you try to sing it without smiling, it doesn't sound right at all. I chose the use the video with the movie scene and not just the soundtrack audio because, come on, how much fun does this look?

I'm glad that today's music challenge was to look for a song that made me happy because I've been anything but that today. I generally dislike Sundays, they just always bring up a weird funk in my mood, and today for some reason that funk was turned up to 11. I listened to a lot of songs that I know make me smile before choosing one for this post, and by the end of it I'm definitely in a much better mood than I was when I started =] Music Challenge FTW.

A Quickie Before Bed

Mind out of the gutter, kids.

Music Challenge - Day 2 - Your least favorite song.
Easy.
"The Climb" - Miley Cyrus

I don't think there are many other songs that make me swell up with anger as much as this one does. Or many voices that make me want to shove my entire fist into my ears to block out the noise more than Miley's. Just thinking about it is pissing me off, actually, and now I'll probably have a restless sleep. Thanks, Music Challenge.

In other news, I'm cutting my hair tomorrow morning and... I'm kind of terrified. Going short, which I haven't done in a very long time. If I contemplate it too much it won't happen, so I'm trying to forget about it completely so I can just freaking do it and get it over with without psyching myself out. I guess I'll post a picture tomorrow so you can tell me if I made a huge mistake or not?

Lets try something, yeah?

So I've been spending a lot of time looking through past Blogs of Note to see what I come across. I've found a lot of great writers that I'm excited to keep up with; reading good writing always makes me happy.
One blog that caught my eye (because he mentioned Jers-day. Awesome.) was Ryan's, Waxed Red Threads. Yesterday, he started a Music Challenge which I think will be a lot of fun to go along with because, um, I love music. You should do it too, lets start off our Blogger relationship with a community project =]

Day 01 - your favorite song

Day 02 - your least favorite song

Day 03 - a song that makes you happy

Day 04 - a song that makes you sad

Day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone

Day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere

Day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event

Day 08 - a song that you know all the words to

Day 09 - a song that you can dance to

Day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep

Day 11 - a song from your favorite band

Day 12 - a song from a band you hate

Day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure

Day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love

Day 15 - a song that describes you

Day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate

Day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio

Day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio

Day 19 - a song from your favorite album

Day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry

Day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy

Day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad

Day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding

Day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral

Day 25 - a song that makes you laugh

Day 26 - a song that you can play on an instrument

Day 27 - a song that you wish you could play

Day 28 - a song that makes you feel guilty

Day 29 - a song from your childhood

Day 30 - your favorite song at this time last year

So here we go.

Day 1 - Your Favorite Song

Wow, this is a challenge. If you're a friend of mine you probably know all too well that my favorite band is Coldplay, and I could safely say that several of their songs are my favorite songs ever. But that's not the point of this challenge, is it?

"Lovers in Japan" - Coldplay

What makes "Lovers in Japan" stand out in my mind is my experience at All Points West in August of 2009. Coldplay were headlining on the Sunday of the festival, so of course my partner-in-CP-related-crime and I had to be there, front row, no matter what. Unfortunately "no matter what" included getting there at 8am, waiting online for 2 hours before it started pouring rain, being forced out of the shelter of the tent because it was deemed unsafe during the thunderstorm, waiting outside, actually IN the rain, for another couple of hours, losing our golden-spot in line when the mass of people herded into the tent again, and then running about a mile through nothing but mud (in sandals) to get front row at the stage, where we were standing, packed like smelly, wet, hot, muddy sardines for about 4 hours. Truth be told, even though I knew I was about to see Coldplay, I was pretty miserable.

But then of course they took the stage and I lived in the moment, forgetting every curse I threw at the skies that morning and instead threw my arms in the air and sang. They were perfect, but nothing was more perfect than the moment they released the butterfly confetti during the chorus of "Lovers in Japan." At the risk of sounding really, really sappy, looking up into a sea of colors with that song in the background, after such a hellish day, was beautiful, and it's a moment and feeling I'll never forget.

The 2011 Grammy Mostly-Concert-but-Also-Some Awards

I complain about the Grammy's every year. They've become more and more about their live acts than they are about the recognition for winning artists. But I bit my tongue this time around, because the performances were actually all AWESOME. I was already a fan of everyone that performed (besides Martina McBride; sorry, I can't get into country) so it was like one big epic concert I would've loved to be at live. Some of the standouts include Bruno mars, B.O.B & Janelle Monae, the Mumford & Sons part of the M&S, Avett Brothers, & Bob Dylan collaboration, Arcade Fire (more on that later) and of course, Lady gaga. Surprisingly though, what made Gaga's performance stand out was how much it wasn't in your face. In her terms, it was actually pretty tame, but still in no way plain. I mean, unless you consider dancing around in fleshy condom costumes normal. And if you do, please keep that to yourself.
Every once in a while, when the producers remembered these were the freaking Grammy's, they gave out an award or two. There were a couple of pleasant surprises, and my favorite of those was Justin Bieber not winning either of the two awards for which he was nominated. Does the kid sell? Yes. Does he have millions of devoted fans? Inexplicably, yes. Does he make quality music? No. I'm proud of the music industry for at least realizing that.
Hurray for Lady Gaga, she won Best Pop Vocal Album for The Fame Monster. And I'm all for rooting for the underdog, but was anyone else a little annoyed that Esperanza Spalding won Best New Artist? I've never heard her, I'm sure she's good, but I think that category belonged to Drake, hands down. Also: if I hear "Need You Now" one more time, anywhere, I'll break out in hives.
My favorite moment of the night was the presentation for Album of the Year. I was never much of an Arcade Fire fan, but their album The Suburbs opened me up to them a lot more, and the singles off of it ("Ready to Start" and "The Suburbs") are two of my favorite songs at the moment. Arcade Fire is the first band to win Album of the Year without being signed to a major label, which goes to show that you don't need to do extremely well in the mainstream (coughjustinbiebercough) to be recognized for your work. I loved seeing how shocked they were to win, and it gave them such an amazing energy to close out the show with "Ready to Start". They were smiling from ear to ear the whole performance, and that made me happy =]
All in all, I enjoyed this year's Grammy's a lot more than I usually do. Besides Esperanza Spalding and "Need You Now", I was pretty content with all the winners. Or as Lea Michelle would say, "wimmers." I'll leave you with Arcade Fire's win and surprise post-win performance, because it was just that awesome. Til next time =]

I Love Award Shows

I really, really do. I watch the completely pointless pre-red carpet shows and everything. So obviously Grammy night is kind of a big deal in my life. Currently doing a live commentary on my twitter, @joSawSparks, because HOLY CRAP people really outdid themselves this year, and I just can't keep some of my opinions to myself =P

Shout out to my best friend who shouted ME out on her awesome fashion blog, Head Over High Heels. She documents what she wears almost everyday and it's so fun to see her put together really amazing outfits. Must follow =]

I'll post a follow-up blog tomorrow to talk about tonight's Grammy's; the winners, the losers, the performances, and of course, the Gaga. See you then!

Song to Currently Obsess Over

"What You Know" - Two Door Cinema Club

Really can't get enough of this song right now. It's got such a fun melody, can't help but hop around to it in my room. Only if I'm alone, of course. Otherwise I'm calm, cool, and collected, as always.