I'm All Smiles

Cuz music has that effect on me. That's right. Another music post.

Safetysuit, which is one of my favorite, if not THE favorite of the lesser known bands I listen to, just released a new single and that's right, I'm all smiles because of it. Their sound, probably classifiable as rock/pop, is not really the type of music I'm in to at the moment. I've recently found myself enjoying more of the folk and independent singer/songwriter stuff, but despite that, I will always love Safetysuit. Mainly because of their music, but partially because of who they are as people and as a band. They seem like genuinely good people. Obviously I don't know that for a fact, but when you watch all their interviews and random homemade videos, you do get a feel for 'em, so unless they're really good at pretending to be nice, decent, fun, chill guys, they must actually be that way. Anyway here's their new single. Check it out.

Complete with lyrics and all :)

And here's a little interview regarding the album, followed by an acoustic version of their single, which is of course, just as brilliant as the full studio version.

And here are a couple random videos they've recorded that showcase their personalities.

Doug In the Studio (Guitar and Lead Vocals)

Jeremy Fixes His Amp (Bassist)

Dave Instructs the Class (Lead Guitar)

Tomfoolery with Tate (Drums)

In the Studio With Chico (Manager)

And One of My All Time Favorites: Christmas Onezies With J and Chico

Go Purchase

Uh...Seriously?

So some relatively attractive guy came into work today. He wanted candy. Like a well-trained employee, I asked him if he wanted any popcorn or soda to go with his candy.

This is the conversation that ensued.

(Keep in mind that this guy, although somewhat attractive, had an extremely slow, mellow, mumbled speech pattern. He was kind of like a ditzy blond but the male version and not as perky with a mixture of possible stoner brain, or genuine idiocy.) Anywho. Here's the conversation. And the place was dead so it was just me and him chatting over the counter.

Me: Would you like any popcorn or anything to drink?

Guy: **IN ALL SERIOUSNESS** "No. I'm trying to watch my figure."

Me: **FAKE PERKY TONE MIXED WITH EXTREME SARCASM THAT I DON'T THINK HE PICKED UP ON** "Yeah. Swimsuit season is right around the corner."

(THERE WAS KIND OF A LONG PAUSE HERE WITH ME STANDING BEHIND THE COUNTER STARING AT HIM CUZ HE DIDN'T SEEM READY TO PAY. HE THEN LOOKED DOWN AND RUFFLED THROUGH HIS WALLET, SLIGHTLY DISTRACTED, ALMOST LIKE HE WAS THINKING ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY AND SO I CONTINUED TO STARE AT HIM WITH MY "SERIOUSLY. CAN WE GET ON WITH THIS?" FACE. ) THEN HE FINALLY LOOKED UP AT ME AND SPOKE AGAIN.

Guy: "Do I look tan to you?"

Me: **NO LONGER FAKE PERKY BUT BLUNT AND SLIGHTLY ANNOYED WHILE AT THE SAME TIME SLIGHTLY AMUSED THAT HE'S SERIOUSLY ASKING ME THIS QUESTION** "Yes. But then again, I'm pasty white so pretty much everyone looks tan to me."

Guy: "That's true. Do I look too tan?"

Me: **EXASPERATED TONE** "You don't look orange, if that's what you mean."

Guy: Ok. Good.

HE PROCEEDS TO PAY AND THEN LEAVES.

He was seriously like one of those really shallow, vain, and unintelligent guys who thinks he's all that and then some. The kind I thought only existed in the movies and television shows. But today this guy proved to me that I have been mistaken and that they actually exist in reality.

Now. I'm not really judging him on his intelligence. Maybe he's actually very intelligent but simply has a hard time communicating. And I'm not making fun of him just because he agreed to my declaration that I'm pasty white. I came to terms with my lack of color a long time ago. But I AM judging him on his vanity for he stood there for what seemed like forever, clearly only thinking about the depth of his tan, until he finally just decided to ask my opinion, if only to interrupt the warring inside his head over whether or not he should hit the tanning booth tomorrow. Let's just say, I no longer found this guy in the least bit attractive. I did consider him unintentionally humorous though.

Am I Misunderstanding Something?

I thought the purpose of a wheelchair was to assist immobile people in becoming mobile, and generally people are immobile because their legs don't work quite right. Or maybe because they don't have legs. Either way, the idea of an elderly woman, in a wheelchair, using her feet and legs to scootch herself across a room, seems slightly odd. Yet this is what I witnessed a few days ago at work. Apparently nobody explained the concept of a wheelchair to her.

A Somewhat Meaningless Post...But I'm Going to Post it Anyway Cuz It's Been So Long Since I Posted Anything

One of the longest post titles in the history of bogging I'd say.

So I love movies. Not necessarily the ones pictured above. And I have my favorite actors and actresses as I suppose many movie-loving people do. Some of my male favs are Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, and Will Smith...just throwing that out there. The name dropping is not really of any significance.

Well, me being the slightly psychotic, and slightly OCD person that I am, am very in to... collections... I guess you could say. For example. I don't know if you've noticed this before, but companies are constantly reinventing their packaging techniques for TV series, and it drives me absolutely INSANE because I'll buy a season of a show and it's in some big fatty case, and then they'll figure out how to repackage the next season in a smaller case, so then when I have the seasons sitting nicely on a shelf next to each other, the cases don't match!!! Aaaah! Books. If I have a series of books they ALL have to be either paperback, or hardback, they can't be a mixture of the two within the same series. CDs. I hate how they're starting to package CDs in thin cardboard cases meant to look like an LP sleeve, when the CD collection I started 15 years ago began with plastic jewel cases. I want them all in jewel cases!! If they'd started in the cardboard cases, then I'd be fine with it, so long as all future CD releases came in the same cases! Sorry. This was a bit of a tangent.

What I was getting at is that I have this goal in my head, (one that will probably never go away until it's accomplished, since it involves a collection of sorts) that for each of my favorite actors, I'm going to purchase and view every movie from their film career. I know it's a weird goal, but I'm a weird person, and I mean that in the best way possible towards myself :) Thanks to the handy tool of imdb.com I've been able to copy and paste the work history for my favorite actors into a list (because I make lists for everything otherwise my brain would explode) and can simply cross off a movie I get and then watch the list slowly dwindle.

Not too long ago I was updating said lists, though I only got through Johnny Depp and Leonardo Dicaprio. And I had 10 Leonardo Dicaprio movies and 10 Johnny Depp movies. Then I thought hmmm, I should go to Walmart and look at their 5 dollar movie rack, cuz I generally don't buy movies for more than 5 bucks, and whichever movie I see first with either Johnny Depp or Leonardo Dicaprio, I'll buy. Just so I can have a tie breaker. What movie did I find? "What's Eating Gilbert Grape." One problem. It has both Johnny Depp AND Leonardo Dicaprio. Did the unbroken tie keep me from purchasing it? Of course not. But I guess what I'm getting at, and the point of this pointless post is that my Johnny/Leo tie still stands. Time for another movie? Probably not since I'm supposed to be saving my money.

Told you this was meaningless :)

Other random thought. I was listening to that song Apologize by Timbaland feat OneRepublic today, although I think credit should ACTUALLY be given to OneRepublic with a "feat" Timbaland, since OneRepublic are the ones...I dunno, playing the instruments and singing the song. But somehow Timbaland gets away with taking credit for other artists' songs after doing a simple remix, which probably isn't really that simple but still shouldn't afford Timbaland the majority of the credit. Anyway. I was listening to that song today which is all about how the woman in the story did something horrible and now he's giving up on her and it's too late to "apologize." Yada yada yada. There are some lyrics however that state, "I loved you with a fire red, now it's turning blue." That line has ALWAYS bothered me and I decided to vent about it today. Here. On my blog. Because if this guy is talking about how much he loved this girl but now he can never forgive her you would think that means his love is diminishing, which I think is the point they tried to make with the "fire" lyric...BUT...the hottest part of the fire is the blue part, not the red part, so they got it backwards. It SHOULD be "I loved you with a fire blue, now it's turning red," which would symbolize his fading love for this supposed heartless woman. Unless I'm misinterpreting the entire meaning of the song....but with blatant lyrics like "It's too late to apologize..." I don't think I am.

And the Oscar Goes to...

I think they should give Oscars to those who present, perform, and create what is the event of the Academy Awards, because the show can either be extremely boring or very entertaining and it depends on the people taking part in it. This years show was the latter, which in case you forgot... means it was entertaining. Anne Hathaway and James Franco did an amazing job hosting, which is the first and overall main thing that kept the show interesting,

but my absolute favorite part of the show was this auto-tuned mashup someone created to make up for the lack of "musicals" offered this year.

My dad and I laughed hysterically at this...and if you don't find it funny, then we can't be friends anymore. Sorry!

So this is at least the third consecutive awards show I've watched now, if not more. In 2009 I watched the show at school with my roommates. We were all very excited for that show because one of our many heroes, Hugh Jackman was hosting. Last year Evan and I watched the show together, and who better to watch it with than a fellow movie lover like Evan. This year it was just my dad and I, and occasionally my mom.

I was going to post my second favorite part of the show, but a youtube video hasn't been posted for it yet so I can't. But once I find one then I will offer an update. Let's just say it has to do with Anne Hathaway singing a song about Hugh Jackman, which if you watched 2009s show, you would know that that means something :)

Sidenote

Something I learned this year: The indication that you have a good actor on your hands is when you forget where the person is from because they so easily slip in to different accents. Example. Christian Bale. Recently I've seen him mostly in American films, meaning films in which he speaks American English, but when he got up to offer his acceptance speech for The Fighter he was speaking with a British accent and using British slang. I asked my dad why the heck he was speaking like an Englishman and then he reminded me that he's from England. I argued with him forever until he finally looked it up. During that process I started to second guess myself as it slowly started to register that he was in fact from England, so when my dad mentioned that he was right and I was wrong, I wasn't too surprised. Although in all actuality we were both wrong seeing as he's actually from Wales, but I was more wrong than he was. Another example of such a person, not seen at the awards show, but such a person nonetheless, is Johnny Depp. I always thought he was British when in fact he's from Kentucky. Quite a big difference there.

Alice Cooper on Anne of Avonlea

Have any of my fellow Anne of Green Gables lovers ever noticed that in the second movie, (whether you call it Anne of Avonlea, or Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel) there's a part near the beginning where the camera pans over a field heading to the schoolhouse and you see some children running through a field and they're singing/chanting this song. They say, "No more teachers, no more books, no more teachers dirty looks." I noticed some time ago how similar that is to Alice Cooper's song "School's Out" in which it says, "No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers dirty looks." Quite similar, eh? I wonder if the director or producer of the Anne movies is a big Alice Cooper fan and threw it in there just for the heck of it. Or maybe there's some history behind it that I don't know about, and it's actually something children from the early 1900s legitimately said on their last day of school. Or maybe it's a complete coincidence. Either way, I decided to blog about it today.

Bieber Fever...?

"Oh my gosh JUSTIN BIEBER. I LOVE HIM!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" That's all I heard at work today seeing as the new Justin Bieber movie just graced us with its presence.

I've never really understood the whole Justin Bieber madness. Of course, I understand madness in general, because I have things, superficial things though they may be, but I still have things that I'm passionate about, just how all these preteens are "passionate" about the Biebs. So I really have no place to harp on the Bieber fever stricken people because I'm the same way with, I dunno, let's just say 30 Seconds to Mars. The only difference is, if I saw Jared or Shannon walking down the street, I wouldn't scream and chase after them. But I believe that's just something that comes with age. So I DO understand the madness, I just don't understand why so much MADNESS has been focused on this one kid by the name of Justin.

So where am I going with this? Well, with all the hype surrounding the movie, I became curious as to what it is about this kid that has all the girls going crazy. I've been somewhat anti-Bieber just BECAUSE everyone's so gaga over him and because I haven't really heard any music of his that's blown me away (granted I'd only heard bits and pieces of his songs on the radio, I don't think I'd even heard one of his songs all the way through) but I realized today as all these kids were overcome with excitement at the movie, that I hadn't really given the Biebs a chance to prove his chops to me. And then that made me realize how extremely hypocritical I was being, because I hate it when people dislike an artist just because they're popular, just how I hate it when people dislike an artist just because they're NOT popular. I like to give everyone a shot. So I came home and I did a little research...on Justin Bieber. I watched a few Youtube vids, listened to some of his music...and that's about it. But I think it was enough to offer a fair assessment.

Here is my conclusion. Justin Bieber is adorable. He's cute in that little kid sort of way, and I can see why all the teen girls go crazy over him. He also seems extremely kind, funny, and personable. Those are the things I learned from watching some videos and interviews of him. However, after listening to his music, I still just can't get into it, with the exception of a couple songs. Never Say Never has a little bit more "substance" to it, though not much, and I think Justin's voice got a little deeper before he recorded it, so it makes it easier to listen to. That factor combined with the prepubescent voice of guest rapper Jaden Smith (Will Smith's son) makes the song adorable if not catchy. I also discovered a song he did called "Pray," which is a cute song, and actually has some meaning behind it. Then there's his song "Somebody to Love," which is the only one of his extremely poppy, superficial songs that I own, and that's only because BYU-I did a lip sync/flash mob to it and so now I associate it with that video, which I love. Other than that I found most of his songs to be...blah. My main problem with Justin Bieber's music, even with his couple catchy tunes, that I'll admit to liking, is that I find it hard to take his music seriously when he's singing about "love" and girls and experiences, and yet he sounds like he's 12 years old. Does that mean I might like his music more once he goes through puberty? Possibly, though it'd be more likely if he wrote something of substance in his lyrics. Something other than, "baby, baby, baby oh...." Although, I suppose that's why the majority of his fanbase is comprised of the preteen age bracket. Because they find his music relatable. Am I saying that all the music I listen to is nothing but meaningful? Of course not. I love Britney Spears for goodness sake. But Justin's sappy, puppy love lyrics, combined with his little boy voice, makes it hard for me to listen to the majority of his music.

That being said, what does this conclusion mean? I suppose it means that I'll cease being such an anti-Bieberist. Though his music isn't for me, I can see why all the teens go crazy for the whole package of what is Justin Bieber. I probably would too if I were 12. And if someday, Justin's voice changes, and he learns how to write some decent and compelling lyrics, and maybe if he realizes he can sing without having his voice autotuned like crazy, (which I do actually believe he has a good voice, though it's hard to tell with all the electronic alteration) then maybe I'll actually start listening to his music. But I suppose he's off to a good start, he has a decent voice, and he seems like a pretty decent person, which I suppose is the most important thing. I only hope that part will last. Who knows, if he remains a good person, and learns how to write good music, I might even come down with a case of Bieber fever, though perhaps only a mild case. He's a little young for me :)

Anyway. In honor of Justin Bieber's movie release...here are a couple videos I discovered on Youtube while researching.

"Pray (Acoustic)" Music Video-I think this is cute, though I wouldn't consider the song acoustic, even though that's what the producers seem to think it is.

"Never Say Never" Music Video from the film. This is alright in this condensed amount of time, but if this is what the whole movie is like then I pity the parents who had to sit through it with their children.