Talent Spotlight: Neko Case

For those of you who haven’t heard of her, you’re welcome. You may have heard her voice as singer for The New Pornographers. Solo, she is fantastic. She has the kind of voice you don’t hear very much today…resonating, powerful, smooth, on key (!), unique. She has a versatile quality that can appeal to varied generations, and seems both contemporary and something you might have heard at a folk fest in the 70s. Her genre is labeled generally as “Alt-Country,” but if you’re not into country, don’t let that stop you – I promise. She’s also rock, alternative, folky, indie... Neko just came out with a fifth album, Middle Cyclone, that’s gaining her new publicity, but here are my current favorites:
- “I Wish I Was the Moon” (Blacklisted) – Beautiful, and a great title/concept.
- “Hold On, Hold On” (Fox Confessor Brings the Flood) – Great song, upbeat rhythm.
- “People Got a Lotta Nerve” (Middle Cyclone) – Ditto; a hit from her new album.
- “That Teenage Feeling” (Fox Confessor Brings the Flood) – Short but sweet; I love the chorus: "I don't care if forever never comes/cause I'm holding out for that teenage feeling"
Now go listen! You won’t be sorry.

Think about it

Freaking hilarious. I love FOTC!

Slow down, you crazy child

In a lot of ways this song describes my life...here's "Vienna" by Billy Joel:


Slow down you crazy child
You're so ambitious for a juvenile
But then if you're so smart tell me why
Are you still so afraid?
Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?
You better cool it off before you burn it out
You got so much to do and only
So many hours in a day

But you know that when the truth is told
That you can get what you want
Or you can just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even get halfway through
When will you realize...Vienna waits for you

Slow down you're doing fine
You can't be everything you want to be
Before your time
Although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight (tonight)
Too bad but it's the life you lead
You're so ahead of yourself
That you forgot what you need
Though you can see when you're wrong
You know you can't always see when you're right(you're right)


You got your passion you got your pride
But don't you know that only fools are satisfied?
Dream on but don't imagine they'll all come true
When will you realize
Vienna waits for you

Slow down you crazy child
Take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while
It's alright you can afford to lose a day or two
When will you realize...
Vienna waits for you.

And you know that when the truth is told
That you can get what you want
Or you can just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even get halfway through

Why don't you realize...Vienna waits for you
When will you realize...Vienna waits for you


________

March Madness

I usually hate March..but...it's actually been pretty nice, despite the stress. Here's some of what I've been doin...
1/2. !! FaV (Felix and Volcano) !!
3/4. Alycia’s 18th/girls night out!
5. Footloose
6. Baby Noah :)
7/8. Parliament and the Rideau Canal in Ottawa; the first is my camera zoomed in all the way and the other is all the way out.
9. In front of Beavertails, also in Ottawa. I'm holding an "Obamatail" which the people at that particular location created- Mr. Obama himself went there on his visit to Canada! It was tres delicious.
10. Amazing graffiti wall at UVM.

I need 36 hour days

Legit. I really, really do.
I need to grow five more brains and invent them.

So I am ridiculously excited for Europe in 3 1/2 weeks!!!!
In preparation, today I officially became a Birkenstock convert. :)
And now, I need a new bag to hold all my crap and more...
Shall I? It would either be in black or blue...most likely black. Or perhaps the one below it...




Ah yes. So now, to the math project!
I love that Douglas Adams quote: "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
Plus, homework. And a paper. And expose the floor in my room again. And make muffins (because I feel like it.) And apply to camp. And oh!! GET A JOB. Because I am paying for my new camera, the Europe trip, my bag, and track (which starts tomorrow!!! So excited. But of course my back started hurting again today.)
Yadda yadda yadda. And a million more things of course.
I figure it's just best to take things one day at a time.
...yeah.

Update: I got the bag in the bottom picture. :)

And the countdown BEGINS!

30 days til Europe!!!!!! and 18 school days I believe :O :O :O
And like...87 til summer; 52 school days (?)

AHHHHHHHHH.

Today I saw the sun- as in, the spring sun. The kind where you're like, oh, winter isn't some crappy eternal melancholic dungeon. I smell better days ahead, my friends...

P.S.

1. Yesterday (3/14) HAPPY PI DAY EVERYONE! Oh my goodness, one of my favorite days of the year. Probably the only thing I like about March. K, this is how much of Pi I've memorized (yes, I am a geek): 3.1415926535897932384626 and no, I didn't cheat.
2. Today (3/15) Beware the Ides of March! "Et tu, Brute? Then fall Caesarrrrr." Haha, I just read Julius Caesar in Lit.

Poesia & Fotos

Country Cornfields

Leaving my shoes in the rusty red pickup,
I walk, my toes digging in the dirt.
Down row upon row of dusty paths
Lined with cornstalks towering overhead
That whisper and wave, rustle and sway.
The tangled leaves are like waxy fingers;
The ears seem set to jump out of their skins.
So my own hungry fingers twist and tug quickly;
My basket is full, for it’s a harvest of plenty.
Then I sit down against a backdrop so vivid -
An endless green carpet below perfect blue sky.
Peeling the husk, I taste my treasure -
Sweet and starchy, with sticky angel hairs.
The 4 o’clock sun sinks in the sky -
Soon it will be time to leave July.





The Crocuses

Early March is not my friend, most of the time.
I don’t enjoy the biting wind and slush in my shoes.
This dreary in-between season pulls me down into a slump.
The days are dark and I can never seem to get warm.
But sometime in the middle of the month,
I see the sun again; my hope is renewed.
Patches of green brave their snow-white oppressors.
The color returns to my cheeks; my toes defrost.
The stunning scent of life is in the air - a sun-drenched remedy.
The evidence of melting is in racing watery trails
As I sit on my driveway with the warmth beating down.
And next to me sit two lone companions -
Purple crocuses, greeting the day with open arms.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen something like these -
Something new and delicate, not wounded by winter.
The endearing blossoms embrace the moment given to them -
No matter how fragile their lives may be,
No matter how long until the cold night closes their arms.
Reminding me that I have not much time -
So I, alive and new, go out and seize the day.





memories

oh, those memories
sweet, sweet memories
lightening up dark days, bringing
hope

for a moment, bright and glistening,
we'll never have to move
because that moment is eternal
forever awash in the glow of
friendship

how easily we let slip and forget
the delicateness of the moment
we hold on so tightly
but it slips away like the
seasons

now we are miles away
and the moment is just a memory
but we can still look back
over our shoulders and
smile.



All photos and poems by me.

Dear Blog...

Dear Blogspot,
I just wanted to let you know that I love you and
I think you are the best procrastination method ever, next to Facebook. What am I doing right now of course? (AGAIN?) Writing a paper. I HATE how good I am at wasting.time. Seriously, I think the worst feeling in the world is the feeling that you've wasted time. Bahhhhhhhhijqeiowjqoijioasf. I just realized that this post is an awful lot like another one I wrote recently. :[ :[ I'm sensing a pattern here. Sophomore year really does suck. For more pattern-forming:(yes, my life is kind of in a not-very-exciting slump)I saw grass yesterday! GRASS!! Real, waxy, "green," stems sticking out of the ground. And melting snow! It was in the 50s and I was wearing a sundress for crying out loud! BUT. Today I woke up to lots of obnoxious, cold, white flakes. I mean, I usually love love love snow (I dance in it on the first snow of the year- see the picture on my profile) - but only December, January, and early February snow-that's happy snow. Lucy on Charlie Brown Christmas agrees with me. MARCH snow is NOT happy snow. And we got dismissed from school early, because of it, and since
then I have been here. Writing this paper.
We've been here before...I recognize that tree...

So while I'm here...let's make
HYPOTHETICAL lists!!
Just so I can keep track of my ideas for
things I don’t have to think about yet.

Grade 11 Schedule:
1. Contemporary Christian Thought
2. Environmental Science
3. Modern US History
4. Study Hall
5. Honors Lit 11
6. Honors Spanish IV
7. Pre-Calculus (Honors??)
8. Film as Literature/SH (Or Yearbook/SH)

Grade 12 Schedule:
1. Apologetics or Missions/World Religions
2. Honors Civics & Economics
3. Honors European History or Honors Cold War/WWII (or Physics)
4. Study Hall
5. AP Literature
6. AP Spanish
7. Logic and Statistics (or Calculus)
8. Digital Photography

Universities I am/might be looking at (sooo far):
1. University of Toronto
2. Ryerson University
3. McGill University
4. New York University
5. Northeastern University
6. Boston University
7. American University (just like mah sister!)

Then of course there’s Columbia/Yale/Harvard/etc.
But I don’t think so. Maybe Columbia.


Anyways, back to Austenland (the paper's on P&P!!)
I'd rather be there. Maybe.
I like pants once in a while, though.
Until next time...cheers!

Have fun, general populace.

So I decided to start an ongoing dictionary of popular things that I actually hate:
Don’t mind me…

1. Jonas Brothers: A group of strange curly-haired brothers, except for one who has felt the desire to straighten his, who claim to be able to sing, but what they really sound like is that they each have a cold, with cotton balls stuffed up their noses, singing underwater.

2. Hookah (pronounced like bazooka, ironically enough): Yet another massively popular way of implanting lots of wholesome carcinogens in your lungs, except this time, instead of going old school and using a cigarette, pipe, or paintbrush coated with tar, you use long tubes with recorder-like mouthpieces at the ends and you get to look like an absolute tool while using it.

Jai Ho!

http://projectwhy.blogspot.com/2009/02/jai-ho.html

^Read that post, and then also take a look at the blog.
Of course, listen to this fantastic song from the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, too. And watch the movie if you haven't yet!!!! Definitely worthy of its Best Picture award.

Fun stuff.

I really really hate research papers.
So much.
I mean, I love writing
(hellooo...blog...)
but I am horrendous at research papers.
Mostly just the getting started part...
like, I've been getting started on this one
for 3 days...
But I am awesome at wasting time.
Which I hate.

Oh, and yesterday I smelled spring!!!
And today...it's snowing.
But maybe we'll have oh, ANOTHER
snow day tomorrow... :)
Don't like the weather in New England?
Just wait five minutes.