Please excues my emotional drivel, Huxley brings it out in me

So, this little blog is a big deviation from what you normally get.

So, I've read Brave New World for the second time in my life last week. If you haven't read it, it is phenomenal. But what really interested me was how my reception of it has changed. As, you may or may not know, the story takes place in a society where people are conditioned/drugged into believing that they are happy. No one participates in long-term relationships, no one gets hurt. There's no starvation, fear of death or illness, almost nothing to worry about at all.

Now, when i first read this story in high-school I was appalled. Young me thought: How dare they stoop to drugs to alleviate emotional pain? Why would anyone not risk the pain that can come of monogamous relationships? I mean, breaking up really sucks, but most of the time i don't regret getting into the relationship in the first place. In most cases I had fun while it lasted and learned something from the relationship.

But now that i'm older, I'm not so sure. I mean, there is no war in this world. No sickness. Everyone in the society is perfectly happy with their place, and if they are not they are of course free to leave. There are no weeks or months of recovery when you get rejected by someone you love, because no one loves. And that's a big thing for me. Because i'm pretty much a serial monogamist and I know i've hurt others and been hurt by breakups. Sometimes that weighs on my conscience a bit.

These thoughts kept running through my head as I was reading it. It's a little dismaying to realize that it is slightly tempting to me to essentially become a robot rather than continuing to endure the triumphs and failures that make me human. Especially considering i was never the druggie, pain-numbing type. When exactly did this happen? When did i become so exhausted with life?

I would have probably continued this argument if I didn't at this point start thinking about art. Afterall, if i hadn't experienced dissappointment in my life, would i write poetry, and songs? would i draw? Doubtful. And to be perfectly honest, I think i am willing to go through the pain that is life. I'm willing to face sickness, death, and ex-boyfriends if it means that maybe, someday in the future i'll create something that resonates as well as my favorite song or painting. If i was an emotional robot, I suppose i wouldn't need an emotional outlet, but I think i prefer things this way. I am vaguely aware that this last paragraph may seem a bit pretentious. I don't care.


the end.


For those of you who may have been wondering:
fav. song (for the moment)-
two steps behind by ryan montbleu

fav. painting-
without ceres and bacchus, Venus would freeze by hendrick goltzius

PS: I highly doubt I will ever create any work of art to rival Goltzius' work.

You may be wondering where i've been...

i've been a naughty little blogger, haven't I?

Yeah... School does not leave time to think.

Actually, school does. But school in conjunction with learning how to play the drums, my continuing guitar endeavor, and drawing does not give me any time for reviewing movies, talking about great music. I'm actually trying to get a webcomic going, but i'm a perfectionist and i refuse to put anything up that can't rival the sites i've previously droned on about. Actually it leaves me little time for movies at all... So anyway. to recap:


Drive by Truckers & the Holdsteady:
These two bands put on a fantastic show. I'd recommend you buy tickets to their tour immediately, but i think they said our show was their second to last one or something... Anyway, I had only vague notions of DBT before the show, and I enjoyed them way more than I anticipated I would. They are way more rock than any country band i know of. When i think country/rock my mind immediately turns to kid rock and i kinda want to vomit. But, this is nothing like that. The lyrics have a depth to them, I had never actually seen a pedal steel guitar, and the 'three axe attack' will melt your face off. On the other hand, I've revered the holdsteady for quite some time now. Now I face a problem. Their show was too good. It was in fact so good that when i listened to boys and girls in america i got kinda depressed. Because up until a few days ago i didn't think it got better. Now I know. They are even more brilliant in person and god only knows when i'll get to experience that again. I so rarely go to concerts, you know.

Wolfparade & Listening Party:
I have never heard of Listening Party. It was a really interesting set. They used loops very effectively and brought back visions of stomp (or what i imagine it was like since i've never seen the show) by playing drums on a trashcan, bucket and snaredrum with maracas. It was cool, but the songs were a little weak in my opinion. But I'm known to prefer giant supergroups and this was only a three person group, so maybe my vote is biased. Wolf Parade, however, was fantastic. My neck hurt for days, i was dancing so vigorously. I'm also really glad i went with my friend kevin. He knew so much more about music than me, so it was nice to have my questions answered. It also made me less self-conscious about dancing when there was a full grown man yelling "I love you stephen!!" and headbanging next to me. all in all. fun times.

For anyone who's actually interested, I've got a deviantart page now. It seemed better than the facebook photoalbum route. Now i can have them posted as they were originally made instead of having to shrink stuff down. the name is "luckpushedme1st" of course.


toodles

So, i've been reading too much of spin.com

And now i'm all jealous because there have been thousands of concerts and i missed them all (except for ham1 and elfpower @ chronic town), wrapped up as i was in my internships.

So, this isn't really a post so much as it is a list of upcoming concerts i really want to go to (in order of preference), if anyone wants to join me on an adventure.

broken social scene @ the electric factory (philly)- Nov 9th
margot and the nuclear so & so's @ crocodile rock (allentown)- sept 6th
of montreal @ the electric factory (philly)- oct 31st
tilly & the wall @ cornell 0ct 14 or @ starlight ballroom(philly) 24th
ryan montbleau band @ the kenswick theatre in glenside(near philly) nov 14th
Weezer(& tokyo police club!) @ susquehanna center Sept 27th
Ryan montbleau @ Philly folk festival Aug 15th (impromptu road trip, anyone?)

I tend to look for stuff in the philly area because 1) i know where all the good venues are and 2) I have a built in place to stay. So that's what i want.

I'd also like to implore the fratellis to come back to the us. Their "tour" of new york, california, and washington (wtf?) left much to be desired. Though it did give me yet another reason to move to seattle.

random

This song just came onto pandora. i've heard it before but i don't know where.

In the frame- Rob Laufer

i like it.

Wasting a few minutes before i catch the bus.

So, we're gonna play a game right now. it's called put your i-pod on shuffle and list the first 10 songs to play, no matter how embarrassing.

1-Copacabana-Barry manilow: this song reminds me of my two best friends from home. I'm really not sure why we almost always ended up listening to this song during our sleepovers. I also remember running down southstreet at like 2 am singing it really loudly after seeing stephen kellog in concert.

2-Blue Chair-Elvis Costello: as much as I love Elvis Costello. I really don't listen to Blood & Chocolate (the album this track is from) almost ever. It's not like the songs are terrible. I just seem to have a stronger emotional connection to his earlier albums. This is a good song though!

3-I Wanna Be- Eric Clapton & BB King: I instinctively turned the volume up to full blast when this came on. I normally only listen to the title track, "riding with the king", but this whole album is fricken awesome. I don't even know how to describe why I like this song, or anything off this album. It's basically two geniuses holed up in a studio having a really good time.

4-Cheatin'- Gin Blossoms: I've never actually listened to this song before... I was not aware there was country music on my i-pod...

5-Sympathy- The Get Up Kids: TGUK makes me think of highschool again. I didn't actually own anything by them till last year. But i have cruised in the passenger seat to their songs more times than I can count.

6- Gimmee Shelter- Rolling Stones: I have to admit I probably don't listen to the stones as much as I should. It's been months!

7- One more day- Karl Ruch: I saw this guy at bible camp... This was my favorite song for approximately a week. I haven't heard this in approximately five years.

8- Psycho-System of a Down: uh... the transition from a love song to this.... wierd.

9- I'm dying tomorrow- alkaline trio: OMG! the first song I learned to play on the guitar was an alkaline trio song. thanks Dan del

10-Welcome to the Jungle- Guns n Roses: My dance group did this song in highschool. probably almost gave my poor uncle a heart attack. It was hot. But, still very skillfull dancing.


Well, that's it. those songs were much less embarrassing than i thought they'd be.

The rhythm is gonna getcha

Today's blog serves two purposes:
1- I wouldn't say i'm hungover, but my brain feels like mush right now. I think if i start writing about something it'll give me the figurative kick in the head that i need to stop being a lump today.

2- I've found a lot of bands and songs that i really like. It is mainly due to spin magazine's website, with some help from Pandora's radio stations and the alt rock station on sirius radio.

And so, without further gilding the lily and with no more ado, I give to you my list... of stuff you just have to listen to.


Cold War Kids: So, I probably hear the cold war kids every single time my friend matt throws a party. Almost every time I say, "I love this song! who is this?" the last time he said, "if you ask me that one more time, i'm going to hit you." But anyway, I finally started listening to them sober, and they're still awesome. My favorite song is probably "We Used to Vacation."


Matt Costa: Pandora has this thing about playing Matt Costa songs no matter what kind of station I try to create. I guess it's because he has a very diverse style of songs. so no matter what kind of music you enter in, it's a pretty good bet that there's a Matt Costa song that sounds like it. He's on Jack Johnson's label, and you can definitely hear the influence. But i think he mostly reminds me of Ben Lee. His newest song, "Mr. Pitiful," was featured in the trailer for Ricky Gervais' newest movie. I think.

Mgmt: I originally saw this band on spin's website. there was a clip of them demonstrating the different types of dancers you see at festivals. it was quite funny. Turns out their music is just as entertaining. They're described as psychedelic synthpop. You can hear hear surf, and R&B influence at times.Their most popular single , "time to pretend," was in the movie 21. It's definitely one of their most "manufactured" songs, and strikingly different from my other favorite song by them, "pieces of what."

Port O'Brien- It's not really surprising that i like this band. It started with broken social scene, but pretty soon I realized i'm in love with pretty much any indie group that can keep the sound tight with 5 or more people. Their most popular song is probably "I woke up today." I'm kind of attached to the less popular acoustic version, probably because i heard it first. It's a tad slower, and more raw sounding. The singers are singing together, but the lyrics invoke alienation. "stuck on a boat" is pretty good too. I love hearing when a girl and boy harmonize well. which brings us to...

The Hush Sound: I'm a big fan of peppy, upbeat songs with semi-depressing lyrics (let's call them poignant, kay?) So when i heard "wine red" I got addicted pretty fast. Bob (guitarist) and greta (pianist) take turns singing for most of the songs. I like it best when they sing together rather than when one steps up alone, their voices just work really well together. Of the bands listed here, they're probably the only one where I like all of their songs across the board. "sweet tangerine" is a good one, as is "Lions Roar."

Okay, that's enough for today i guess.
toodles!

according to the rumors, my dreams are gonna come true!

Now that you all know i'm a nerd I'm going to go back to talking about things that are really effing cool.

So, it's been confirmed by multiple sources that after yanking our chains last spring, broken social scene has decided to come to state college this fall (youtube: 7/4 shoreline or fire eye'd boy). Yay! But i already knew that. The semi-big news is that The hold steady is in the works to
play here too! they'd be opening for drive-by truckers (I personally could go without, but they're alright). Furthermore, Vampire Weekend (you tube: oxford comma) and Tokyo Police Club (look up nature of the experiment or in a cave) are also both in the lineup for the coming school year.

In other words, two of my old favorites and two of my new favorites are gonna be in my town. Between that and the increased rent for a larger apartment, i fully anticipate being broke. Broke but blissfully happy.

Of course, i did get this information from a state college music scene insider, which means some of them may not go through. But i have faith.