my haircut saga!

September 22, 2008 · Filed under life · Tagged , ,

So this weekend I decided I needed a hair cut. I wanted about two or so inches cut off because my hair was gross on the ends from a two year old bleach whim. I walked into a fairly well-respected hair salon here in Westerville and asked if there’s any openings. Luckily there was one, and I was able to get in right before they stopped accepting appointments. Little did I know that this decision would CHANGE THE FATE OF MY ENTIRE HEAD.Okay, so I’m being a little over dramatic. But guys, this hair cut IS dramatic. For comparison’s sake, here are some older pictures of my recent hair history.

Sophomore year I got an uber short cut as you can see in this pic:

It was cute, but also ticked off my entire family because I was due to be a bridesmaid in a wedding in four months and ZOMG, BRIANNA, HOW COULD YOU BE SO SELFISH, YOU’RE GONNA RUIN EVERYTHING WITH YOUR SHORT, BUTCH HAIR. Which, clearly, my hair was not butch, but as pixish as one can get with curly hair. I let my hair grow out over the rest of the year all throughout junior year and the summer. This is the most recent photo of the length before Saturday’s chop:

Not too much of a significant growth, but I have uber curly hair, people. It bounces. Anyway, here is the photo that was taken about an hour ago with the new hair cut, pulled back with a little black headband:

UNFORTUNATE. WAY TOO SHORT. How did it get this short without my consent, you ask. Well, as I’m sure you’ve all had experience with, stylists can get a little…scissor happy sometimes. During the consultation I asked her for a shorter style that would help my curls lay nicely and not give me the dreaded triangle-head as short, curly cuts are want to do. She assures me that she has just the idea of what I want and to not worry, she herself has curly hair (though it was straightened that day) and that I was in capable hands. We start to make chit-chat and all of a sudden I see her lop off AT LEAST four inches in the front. I started to get nervous and I voiced my issues. “Don’t worry, you’re gonna love it in the end.” “Oookay…” I said and sat back and just let her cut.

Next thing I know she starts pulling down the bits from the top that she had pinned up. She pulls out a long section and cuts off what appeared to be EIGHT OR SO INCHES. Now, I got immediately vocal. “Whoa! That’s a lot of hair!” She laughed and says “Look how cute you are with short hair. Seriously, you look great.” It was too late to go back now. I let her finish the cut. In the mirror I was confronted with roughly the style in the photo above. AHHHHH! HORRIFIC. Whatever, I looked at it and said “Well, guess it’s good to start my senior year on a new foot…” And I paid for the cut. I went about my business and ran the rest of my errands.

As soon as I came home I fired up my straightener. This is what the cut, thankfully, looks like straight:

BETTER. MUCH, MUCH BETTER. In fact, I really like it straight. It makes me look older and more polished and a little HOT. When I wore it straight one of my guy friends swung by my apartment just to say hi and his first reaction was “Whoa, you look fantastic! Are you going out or something?” This is always an excellent response. The little itty bitty bits in the back help create some diva-esque volume when flipped the right way with the straightener. However, since it’s so short there is no way I can get it up in a pony tail. My only option to get it up off my neck is two little springy pig tails at the top of my head. Not so attractive.

So, uh, that’s my saga. Looks like there’s a future of daily straightening in my future until it grows out a little and looks less stupid curly.

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07/08 playlist

June 21, 2008 · Filed under life, music, personal · Tagged , , , ,

Every year, for the past 3 years, I have made a yearly playlist that goes from June to June. I pick June just because, for me at least, has been the end of an era. School’s out, summer’s begun and life takes a turn for the bright and sunny. I just put songs on the list that I feel like reflect the time I’m going through in my life. So here it is, all 35 songs. Ranging from the uber indie to pop to classic rock, here is my life for the past 12 months in sonic form.

ps- a few mp3s are linked in here. I’m not sure if they are still working, since they are time-sensitive upload links. If they aren’t, I’ll reup them if you would like.

1.You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away by The Beatles; lyics
How can I even try/I can never win/Hearing them, seeing them/In the state I’m in

2.Four Winds by Bright Eyes; youtube link
And it’s the Sum of Man/slouching towards Bethlehem/A heart just can’t contain/ all of that empty space/It breaks. It breaks. It breaks

3.26-Hour Day by Jay Brannan; lyrics, youtube link
Is this democracy or a monarchy/What do we hold elections for/You write your personal agenda on a post-it note/And leave the constitution lying on the bathroom floor

4.Brandy Alexander by Fiest; lyrics
Though you know what I love most of him/I’m walking on needles and pins/My addiction to the worst of him/The low moon helps me sing

5.My Heart by Paramore; lyrics
I am finding out that maybe I was wrong/That I’ve fallen down and I can’t do this alone/
Stay with me, this is what I need, please?

6.Secret Heart by Fiest, covering Ron Sexsmith; youtube link yousendit link to mp3 (highly recommended!!!)
secret heart/why so sacred/why so serious?

7.Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do by Billie Holiday; lyrics, youtube link
If I go to church on Sunday/Then cabaret all day Monday/Ain’t nobody’s business if I do

8.I’m So Tired by The Beatles; lyrics
You’d say I’m putting you on/But it’s no joke, it’s doing me harm/You know I can’t sleep, I can’t stop my brain/You know it’s three weeks, I’m going insane/You know I’d give you everything I’ve got/for a little peace of mind

9.That’s What You Get by Paramore; lyrics
I wonder, how am I supposed to feel when you’re not here/’Cause I burned every bridge I ever built when you were here/I still try holding onto silly things, I never learn/Oh why, all the possibilities I’m sure you’ve heard

10.Campus by Vampire Weekend; lyrics
Then I see you/You’re walking cross the campus/Cruel professors/Studying romances/How am I supposed to pretend/I never want to see you again?/How am I supposed to pretend/I never want to see you again?

11.It’s Tough to Have a Crush When the Boy Doesn’t Like You Back by OK Go; lyrics
Well it’s tough to have a crush/Whoever knew such hullabaloo/Well it’s tough to have a crush/When it only leaves you blue

12.Running With Scissors by Ben Lee; lyrics
well i can feel you in my bones/these are the symptoms that are shown/its always every now and then/life is unusual again

13.I Used to Think by Cars Can Be Blue; , yousendit link (it’s so twee and angry at the same time!)
my attention only holds four seconds/don’t hold my hand/if we decided to be more than friends/things would really turn to shit

14.Cold Song by Clare Burson; her myspace link
I’m too tired to go outside/wish I could just could stay in and wait for the spring time to come/ooh the spring to come/to come oh, the springtime to come

15.Diamonds and Gold by Langhorne Slim; youtube link
toss your misery out the door/what are you waiting for/you gotta learn to get a little happy along the way/it’s alright to smile/it’s alright to get a little happy along the way

16.Happy Kid by Nada Surf; lyrics
Got ink all over my right hand/Getting crushes with no chance to grow/It’s like i’ll never ever land

17.Winter Song by Chairs in the Arno; not much due to extreme indieness yousendit link to mp3
let’s go play hide and seek/let’s blow off work next week/having fun didn’t seem this hard/when I was 10 years old

18.Add Your Light to Mine by Lucky Soul; lyrics
I’ve seen you dancing like no one was looking/Beneath the fullest moon/Oh some day soon/I’m gonna find all the things I’ve been yearning for

19.Afraid by Patrick Wolf, covering Nico; lyrics
Have someone else’s will as your own/You are beautiful and you are alone

20.Never Let This Go by Paramore; lyrics
One day you’ll get sick of/saying that everything’s alright/And by then I’m sure I’ll be pretending/Just like I am tonight

21.I Do What I’m Told by Madeline; lyrics
i do what i’m told/and i’m getting aggravated/my spine has been sold/to a boy well, we traded/courage for the promise that we’ll/never be so honest

22.As Much As You Lead by Lex Land; not much due to extreme indieness, link to myspace
at least when I’m sleeping I can dream of you/but the taste is so foul when I ask you if you’ll finally stay/because as much as you lead/you know I will follow

23.Looks Like We Haven’t Learned a Thing by The Walkup; myspace
looks like we haven’t learned a thing/why don’t you look around/see that there’s no one laughing now/won’t you take a bow

24.Pressure by Paramore; lyrics, youtube link
And there’s nothing else to show/For all of the days that we spent/Carried away from home/Some things I’ll never know/And I had to let them go/I’m sitting all alone feeling empty

25.Bloody Motherfuckin’ Asshole by Martha Wainwright; lyrics
I will not pretend/I will not put on a smile/I will not say I’m all right for you/When all I wanted was to be good/To do everything in truth/To do everything in truth

26.Every Little Bit by Patty Griffin; lyrics
I stay unseen by the light/I stay untold by the truth/I’m sold by a lie/By this I am able in all of my travels/To make these memories quit/But tonight I clearly recall every little bit

27.Never So Strange by Morning State; myspace
call me on the phone/call me very late in the evening/oh oh oh/I never thought we’d be so strange/I never thought we end up this way/and what did you expect to see/a difference inside of me?

28.Viva La Vida by Coldplay; lyrics, youtube link
For some reason I can’t explain/I know Saint Peter will call my name/Never an honest word/But that was when I ruled the world

29.Shine On by The Kooks; lyrics
Shine, shine, shine on/Yes Wont you shine, shine on/Because your not done

30.Be Good or Be Gone by Fionn Regan; lyrics, youtube link (highly recommended, wonderful video!)
The range is staggering/Movement and timing/Frame by frame/It did unfold

31.Changes by David Bowie; lyrics, youtube link
I still don’t know what I was waiting for/And my time was running wild/A million dead-end streets/Every time I thought I’d got it made/It seemed the taste was not so sweet/So I turned myself to face me/But I’ve never caught a glimpse/Of how the others must see the faker/I’m much too fast to take that test

note: some songs may appear “early” in the year, perhaps even before the album they are on was released. I went back and put songs that informed that time of my life once I heard then. This is true for one of the Fiest songs.

Boy, I was sad a lot this year, well more frustrated, I guess. Yep, sounds about right for being 20/21.

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reading writer; read, write, write and read, writer.

March 24, 2008 · Filed under books, personal, writing · Tagged , , , , , , , ,

 

I feel like I’m learning how to read again. Since I’ve become an English major, books have become a strange way of life. Of course, reading and literature has always had a huge space in my life, but now, as a student of words and paragraphs and metaphors, they have become this unsciencey-science. Books are a sort of sterile mess that I have to sort through, siphon in and then suck back out again in intro-body-conclusion form. Somewhere along this glorious road of a BA in English, I’ve lost the simple pleasure and curiosity that is inherent in sitting down and reading.

It’s spring break for me and I am about 1/4 of the way into Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. It was given to me as a gift and I couldn’t be more grateful. It’s a dense novel (though short at only 277 pages) centering around an exiled princess of a nondescript kingdom named Leigh-Cheri. Living in “the last quarter of the twentieth century”, Leigh-Cheri is a young woman itching to make a difference in the world. Until she meets Woodpecker, a serial bomber and makeshift philosopher.

This story has a thickness that seems impenetrable, but not in a Foucault sort of way (did I just make the comparison? Someone kill me before I get even MORE pretentious). I’ve been reading on and off since Thursday and I am only on page 83. A better word is rich. Robbins folds in surprising little details that shock and amaze, but he walks away from them as if the little explosion on the page was nothing compared to the blast that will come. He definitely commits to his style of multi-layer adjectives and descriptions. In a strange way, each word seems to build from one to another until the bubble bursts and a bold, type-writer script number and decorative filigree signal the next chapter. In fact, each little chapter could function as a short story. A confusing short story, but a short story nonetheless.

I couldn’t have asked for a better book to usher my return to contemporary literature as a mere observer, instead of a unsciencey-scientist, with my stethoscope to check the narrative’s respiration a and centrifuge to mix in my own interpretation. It lifts me out of my English major consciousness. I can’t wrangle this bull. I just have to watch it buck around the ring for awhile.

Lately, I’ve been having many, many problems getting back into a a nice niche of fiction writing. I can’t say it’s writer’s block, really. No, I can write. It’s just horrible and dry. This does not happen in my scripts or nonfiction. Those pursuits are alive and well. It’s just this fiction that gives me fits until I want to rip out every one of my eyelashes and press the backspace button until everything is erased and gone.

Woodpecker might just be the salve I need. See, I think my problem is that after a while, my vision gets blurry. And by vision, I mean my writerly vision. Or as my Indian professor would say, “wision”. I lose track of where my story is going. I drag everything behind me like a criminal’s body through cobblestone streets. I just need to let things roll. Do some push ups. Turn some cartwheels. Shake it like a Polaroid picture. And most importantly, I need to be less critical.

Annie Dillard has an amazing point in what I like to call her writing textbook, The Writing Life. She, in a less trite way, say that your audience for your books should be the terminally ill. You can’t waste their time with a story that is not your best. Don’t put it away for another day when you’re “better” or less busy. Do it now. Work.

Tomorrow, I am devoting the day to writing and reading. At night, when my eyes are tired, I’ll sew. But in the afternoon, I am going to sit in a chair and write until I don’t want to pluck my eyelashes out. Because someday, I’m going to be terminally ill, and I don’t want there to be ink still left in my pen.

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just like the song says

March 23, 2008 · Filed under christianity, life, personal · Tagged , , ,

I have a hard time letting go.

I needed to write that down. Confess it. I like to think I welcome change and growth in my friends, family, the world and in myself, but it’s not necessarily true.  I cling to my past like a life preserver in knee-deep water. All those thoughts, all those feelings…sometimes they are just excuses for me keep clinging, pretending like I’m drowning, even though I’ve swam all the way from the deep end to the shallow.

Throughout my first two years of college, many issues plagued me. Self confidence, body image, my faith, academics, anxiety/depression, my big personality, my likability, etc, et all, the list could go on for miles. There has been a lot of progress made in many of these areas, and a few have even proven to be healed over, sealed with new, pink skin. Some have been given a band-aid that has been ripped off, the scabbed picked, just to discover the wound was just as sour and painful as ever.

But I look at myself in the mirror and there’s no pain in my heart, no laments to God in the middle of the night because I was scared and shaking, no hiding from people, no lying about when I’m not okay.
Today is Easter Sunday and He is risen. Why am I refusing to rise out of the dirt? He took it all for my right to turn my back on the old and run without fear into the new and better. Focus on the new. New life. New covenant. New legs to swim.

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I should never miss Him

March 2, 2008 · Filed under christianity, personal, quotes, religion · Tagged , , ,

Just when I thought spring would never come, God delivers a gorgeous day. I even got up to go to church today.

They sang this song that has the line take the coal/cleanse my lips/here I am. Every time I hear it the image is so stark and gorgeous. It’s magical and real. Words can’t explain my attachment to the passage that the line references. The first time I heard it I was 8 years old. We did something with in Sunday school. We colored bright orange and read coals. I pressed my lips to the waxy crayon. Ever since, my spiritual life has been connected to to that verse in these winding, jig-saw ways. When they sang that song in church today, I couldn’t even sing. I just cried these unrecognizable tears. I wasn’t sad, but just extremely humbled.

Isaiah 6:5-8

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

The image of burning hot coal pressing against my lips. The power of being burnt clean. It’s all too much for me to handle sometimes. There’s a humility involved that resonates with me. It’s a call to be made lovely again.

Maybe it’s just a security blanket for me to believe that all the times I’ve been burned there’s some sort of plan behind it. And if it is (though I don’t believe that), so what? It’s not hurting anyone, and it’s certainly not hurting me. I feel so lucky to have been as close to the Lord as I have been at points in my life. I feel like I’m going back to that, though it’s a snail’s pace.

Today, I’m just really happy that I’m a Christian. I just wanted to write it down.

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I’ve been waiting all this time to be something I can’t define

January 31, 2008 · Filed under christianity, life, music, personal

so let’s cause a scene

clap our hands and stomp our feet

I just gotta get myself over me

The First Single, The Format

It was one of the closest things to true bliss I’ve ever experienced: hearing my favorite song, a song so perfect, I feel as if the words poured out of my own heart, played live.

Click here to listen to The First Single.

I can thank freshman year for this. A girl named Joanna lived down the hall. She was (and still is!) artsy and friendly and hilarious. One afternoon, I came back to my dorm room to find a lovely little burgundy and lime green paisley scarf and a burned CD tied to the door knob. I rejoiced. On it was a song called “Janet” by a band I had never heard of called The Format. It was Destiny, with a capital D.

At first I was hesitant about it. It reminded me of…nothing. It felt more foreign than the Swedish pop music I paid top dollar to import. My musical tastes were quite limited then; showtunes, Hanson, the aforementioned Swedish pop groups and boys with guitars were my only true sonic loves. But I kept listening. It was like learning new partnered dance. I had to be lead through slowly, note by note, lyric by lyric. Finally, several weeks later, the verdict was in: I had never been so enchanted by a band since I was 11 years old.

It’s a pity I can’t remember the exact moment I heard it. But I know from that moment, it must have pushed “A Song to Sing” by Hanson out of the top spot of my All Time Favorite Songs and it has yet to budge. In a world where musicians hit the top of the charts and then slowly fizzle away, I believe that to be quite an accomplishment, at least for a girl who has been baptized into the indie music subculture and hasn’t looked back. It must have been through one of the mp3 blogs I still visit every day on my internet rounds, Fuel Friends. I bet it was magic, though. During my freshman year, I slogged through my first identity crisis that most college students must go through. I doffed all of my past sins, habits and friends and became an entirely new person upon move-in day. The lyrics must have been salve for the necessary still-open wounds of this identity surgery.

you know me,
or you think you do you
you just dont seem to see
I’ve been waiting all this time to be
something I can’t define
I still don’t know what I’m waiting to be. I thought I knew back then. I thought I knew this spring. Had another identity exploratory surgery over the summer. Conveniently, that aforementioned moment of bliss came at the end of the summer. The guitar pumped through the speakers, pulsed through my stomach. The staccato snare drum reverberated through my ears. Nate (the lead singer) counted off…1…2…1, 2, 3, 4.
I can’t stand to think about
a heart so big it hurts like hell
oh my god
I gave my best before
three whole years
to end like this
do you wanna fall apart?
I can’t stop if you can’t start
do you wanna fall apart?
well, I could, if you can
try to fix what I’ve undone
because I hate what I’ve become
I screamed. I screamed, my eyes closed, my fists wrapped tightly around the metal barrier in front of me. And I prayed.
I know prayer isn’t something one does at a rock concert, let alone a “secular” rock concert. But this song, I swear, it had become my secret anthem. God, I prayed, please mold me into what you REALLY want me to be, not what I think you want me to be. Jumping up and down, the song became more like worship than any other hymn or praise song I had ever sung. It was undignified. It was intense. It was the most genuine praise I had ever given to Him.
Yes, I wanted a change when I came to college, three whole years ago. And I got it. I got a change that squished my square beliefs in a round hole. I trimmed the corners of my square. I sanded down the edges of my hard to swallow opinions. And it worked. I found people who accepted me, who believed (in the beginning) that I was so perfectly round.
It’s been five months since the concert and I know things have changed. I subscribed to a feminist magazine. I placed my GLBTQ ally pins on my front door instead of hidden away in my desk. I’m seriously contemplating starting a Bible study that is open to and addresses contemporary liberal questions about faith and the Bible.

me, flushed after the most amazing concert ever.

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shoo!

January 24, 2008 · Filed under christianity, life, personal, romance · Tagged , , ,

this isn’t me really saying “SOMEONE PLEASE LOVE ME!”
what I am saying is…
if my true love is out there,
I’d really like it
if perhaps, maybe, they
please don’t come right now.
because I have a feeling I’d resent them
for being so lovely.
besides,
my lips are chapped
and not primed for makeoutage.
also,
I think valentines day is kind of a joke.
I try to express my love to my friends and family
everyday
through my actions
(I know I fall short a lot)
why have only one day where
we buy meaningless (although tasty) things
that are supposed to
REPRESENT our love?
why can’t we ACTUALLY love?
it’s distressing to me
that on valentine’s day,
the “most romantic” day of the year,
we treat love like
it is our representative government.
we send in other people to be our voice.
we send flowers and chocolates and
pre-written cards
instead of our real love,
however that is manifested.
I suppose it’s better than nothing.
I’ll be honest;
I really like receiving valentine’s
day surprises.
some people don’t love through actions
everyday.
and that’s okay.
valentine’s day provides them a space
so they can be
a romantic, if they want to be.
I’m trying to learn
that I’m emotionally exceptional
that most everyone isn’t like me
and that’s okay.
that I’m just a little
too sensitive.
and that I’m
kind of a flake
and I’m kind of
selfish.
so,
that being said,
I still hope that my
true love stays away
for awhile
because I want to be
the best
I can for them.
and if I become
more
and more
like Jesus
everyday…
then whenever I meet them,
finally,
I will be that much
closer
to being better.
I will wait for you.
that wasn’t a poem, I just like the way
the text is centered under the picture
and playing with line breaks in prose
is really kinda fun when you can’t sleep

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music love: January edition

January 15, 2008 · Filed under music · Tagged , , ,

I love music a little too much sometimes. More specifically, I’m extremely picky about what I listen to, which is mostly indie pop and rock. I cringe at the sound of Keith Urban. I lash out irrationally when Kayne West starts raping. I bemoan the fact that Rob Thomas used to be so cool in 1997, but you can’t tell that from the horrible songs he’s writing now. My sister says my motto it “If it’s not indie, it’s crap.” And I hate to admit it, but she’s almost right. There are so many great bands out there on indie labels or are self publishing their records.  Here, I submit to you, some of my favorites of this month.

The jarringly named band, The New Pornographers, is my favorite pick of this month. I’ve steered clear of them for ages because of their name. I recently gave them a good listen and I discovered they weren’t one bit as dirty as their moniker suggests. My favorite song is from their 2007 release, Challengers. Here’s Go Places, a heartfelt and well written song with soulful guitar and clear, cool vocals. This live recording of the band sounds wonderful! They certainly aren’t they sort of band who can’t play live.

I have been watching Voxtrot since the beginning of my freshman year. They finally produced a full length, self titled album last fall and have been touring all summer (no where near Ohio, unfortunately) to support it. I don’t know what they’re up to in the new year, but heres to hoping they are recording a new album. This is Firecracker, the song I always jump around to in my room while I’m getting read in the morning.

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Last is Paramore. They’re last because they seriously don’t need my help in promoting them. Their song, Misery Business, is being played all over MTV and top 40 stations. I can’t blame them. Paramore’s lead singer has a catchy and energetic voice and stage presence. AND Paramore is on the now famous FueledByRamen label, made popular by Fall Out Boy. GOSH I wish I could pull off hair like hers. I’m muy jealous.<object width=”425″ height=”355″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/aCyGvGEtOwc&rel=1″></param><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/aCyGvGEtOwc&rel=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=”transparent” width=”425″ height=”355″></embed></object>

Other bands I’m loving on: Station 2, One Life Lost and Florence Valentin with a lack of youtube videos (get on that, guys!)

Hopefully if I have time this week, I’d like to blog about a wedding I was in recently and also my 21st birthday.

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Atonement: my bet for Best Picture

January 6, 2008 · Filed under movies · Tagged , ,

Two wonderful and completely different movies in two days! What a lucky girl I am!

For today’s movie, Atonement, Bridget, Maria, Robby and I made the hike out to Bexley and the Capital area (you mean CRAPital, Otterbein’s rival). The Drexel there is not sleek and modern like the one in the OSU area. The Bexley Drexel is still only plays two movies at a time in small, non-stadium style seats. The marquee out front isn’t digital like the flashy Rave 18 screen multiplex Bridget and I frequent. Seeing Atonement there was a perfect choice; a the old fashioned setting really added to the period feel of the film.

Here, I present to you one of the most beautiful sequences in the movie. Don’t worry; there’s no spoilers, just pretty music and pictures.

Atonement is one of the best romance movies I’ve seen in ages. Also, this was one movie where the soundtrack DEFINITELY used to heighten moments of intensity. Like the two low bass notes of Jaws, a moment was cracked open with a sharp, staccato sounds of an old fashioned typewriter.

This clip, picturing the war-torn beaches of England, just shows you the scope and breadth the filmmakers went with this movie. In this shorter section of an emotional tour through Dunkirk, the little moments count. Each time the camera catches a face, the emotion is just kicked up another notch. Seeing it on the big screen…It moved me to tears. It is definitely one of the beat scenes in the entire movie, displaying the craft and care the director and cinematographer took to engage the audience.

I’d be very, VERY surprised if this movie doesn’t get nominated for best picture. I actually have my fingers crossed for it to win. If you can find a theater playing it, make sure you see Atonement. It’s worth the price of admission and MORE!

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Let’s all agree on how awesome early Stones and Bowie were.

January 2, 2008 · Filed under music · Tagged , , , ,


“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” before Britney got to it. Mick really was a showman! He also looks like he’s having fun. Even in that goofy haircut, he could rock out.

“Get Off My Cloud”. I wish I was alive back then, when rock was really taking off into a mighty golden age of awesome.

“Changes” by David Bowie. Fast forwarding to when rock really started getting controversial. Make up, bright red hair, spandex costumes, open bisexuality…Bowie was a powerhouse of The Other. He was everything good little boys and girls shouldn’t be listening. Parents back then probably looked at him similarly as parents look at Marilyn Manson today.


This is a clip from a Bing Crosby Christmas special! I find this so amusing and fun.

Enjoy the blast from the musical past!

Oh yes, and happy 2008.

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