Things I Love This Week: 9/29

• The owner of the Segway company died in a Segway crash this past week. So sad, and yet…oh, the irony! [New York Times]
• Remember the older version of Rose in Titanic? The one that threw the Heart of the Ocean back. Gloria Stuart, the actress that played her, died at the age of 100. This article gives some examples of her career—she was the oldest actor to ever to be nominated for an Academy Award at 87, and helped form the Screen Actors Guild in the 1930’s, among many other accomplishments. [BBC]
• An analysis of the two and a half hour Facebook outage last week. I just love the Geekosystem quote: “Some Facebook users may be forced to roam the streets in tears, shoving photos of themselves in peoples’ faces and screaming, ‘DO YOU LIKE THIS? DO YOU??’” Which, ironically, is exactly what I did. [Newsy]
• This video of two boys playing the Super Mario Bros. theme song on xylophone made my little geek heart happy :) [Youtube]
• I’m in love with Media Storm. It’s not just really great in-depth journalism, but some incredible photography and videography. I was going to post a specific link, but there were way too many good stories, so instead I just recommend checking out the entire site. [Media Storm]
• I love Steve Martin. Now he’s all into playing banjo, which is great and all, but I prefer his comedy side. So I love that the two sides mixed in this post on his website: October Tour Ideas Leaked! [Steve Martin]
• A few people have posted this on Facebook, and Megan sent the link to me yesterday…I proceeded to cry through the entire thing. I want a pet lion. Or, as Megan said, “I want lion hugs!” Christian The Lion. [Youtube]
• I am the biggest Harry Potter nerd ever, so of course I love things like this from NY Magazine: Hogwarts finally hooks up the internet. Too funny! I love all the attention to detail in the Facebook pages…even the ads! Love. [New York Magazine]

Boys of Summer

In my world, the end of September means one thing: the end of regular season baseball. Sure, there’s the post-season in October, but it’s hardly exciting when your favorite team hasn’t been to the post season in 9 years and has absolutely no chance of making it this year. So the last days of September are the days when I say a fond farewell to the major leagues—and the  Seattle Mariners—until February, when pitchers and catchers report to spring training camp and the hype begins again.

Growing up, I often played baseball in the back yard with Megan and my dad. Note the batting stance—probably why I never made it to the majors.

I grew up loving the Mariners. I remember going to the Kingdome with my dad and my sister, dressed in my teal Griffey jersey, which I so fashionably wore with a blue turtleneck and a matching teal baseball cap. We would sit in the 300 level seats eating peanuts and watching the games. I loved everything about going to games—parking ridiculously far away from the stadium and walking to the game, trekking up the ramps that encircled the dome, watching batting practice—every memory was a good one.

The 1995 Mariners. Photo: Seattle Sports Commission

When Norm Charlton, nicknamed “The Sheriff,” was warming up in the bullpen one day before a game in the mid-90’s, Megan convinced me to call down to him. At 6 I was the most easily swayed child ever, so I proudly cried, “Sheriff, Sheriff! Help me, I’ve been robbed!” Not just one time—no, that wouldn’t get the point across. I distinctly remember yelling the same line at least a half-dozen times within about ten minutes.

Growing up, my favorite player was Ken Griffey, Jr. I remember asking my dad one day who his favorite player was. He pondered it for a moment, and I suggested that Griffey should be his favorite player. He responded with a nonchalant, “sure.” I was shocked—hurt, even—that my dad didn’t avidly agree that Griffey was the best player of all time. It should come as no surprise that I felt that way, though—after all, I’m the girl that dressed up as Griffey for Halloween in kindergarten, eye black and all.

 

The Kingdome, home to the Seattle Mariners from 1977-1999, was imploded on March 26, 2000. Photo: University of Washington

In 2000, the Mariners began playing in Safeco Field, which was built across the street from the Kingdome. I remember sitting in front of the TV on a Sunday morning with my family, watching the local news coverage of the implosion of the Kingdome. The 23-year-old stadium, which had been home to the Mariners as well as the Seahawks, Sonics, and Sounders [note: Seattle is a big fan of alliterations] since opening in 1976, had been deemed unusable. In order to make way for a new home for the Seahawks—now Qwest field—the Kingdome had to go. We watched as the explosives detonated and the huge cement structure folded in on itself. Of course, Safeco Field was state-of-the-art and remains to this day a beautiful stadium—but the Kingdome’s implosion marked the end of an era in my memory.

 

The Seattle Mariners in 2010. Photo: 67C

To be a Mariners fan is to suffer year after year. Every year we go into the season with high hopes, citing a fantastic pitching rotation or great  clubhouse relationships as our saving grace. Enthusiastic phrases like “This is our year” soon melt into “well, there’s always next season.” Of course, I am blinded by my love for the Mariners, and so I will always believe that their day will come and I will see them at the World Series at some point in my lifetime.

So while the Mariners stumbled out of the gate and never quite caught their footing this season, I will still put my hope in them next year. I may be somewhat more of a cynic as years go by, but I will always have that small string of hope: There’s always next season.

Things I Love This Week: 9/22

I’ve decided to turn this into a weekly thing, so I’ll try to post every Wednesday or so! Here’s what I love this week:

• I’m a big fan of websites like MLIA and FML, so naturally I love the next funny site to come around: Dear Blank, Please Blank. People post funny miniature letters. For the most part, they are completely fictional. A couple of my favorites: “Dear Edward, This is why you were in Hufflepuff. Sincerely, The Sorting Hat.” and “Dear Billy Mays, Oxi Clean didn’t work. What now? Sincerely, Lady Macbeth.”
• One of my friends on Facebook posted this gem about a week ago…Phil Davison, a candidate for treasurer in Stark County, OH, goes a little crazy. My favorite part is that people actually applauded at the end. Were they being polite? [Note: This video takes a minute or two to load. I would recommend pausing this video and letting it fully load…it’s much better without the constant ‘buffering’ pauses]
• There’s an article on Flavorwire called The Terrible Pop-Song Relationship Advice Hall of Fame, which chronicles the awful dating advice we get from our favorite songs. 
• For those It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia lovers out there…there is an entire Tumblr devoted to all things Sunny! From screen caps to information about the show and cast members…it’s not an official Tumblr for the show, but it’s still pretty dang awesome.
• I listen to the “Answer Bitch” podcast, which is a bunch of answers to questions about Hollywood…but mostly because Leslie Gornstein is a riot. She also does a column for E! Online, and this one is one of the best…Did Anyone Ever Eat Lady Gaga’s Meat Dress? I mean, really…jerky?!
• I’m pretty sure everybody and their mother has seen this by now, but just in case you haven’t, you must check out The Wilderness Downtown…it’s an interactive film created with Google Chrome, set to Arcade Fire’s “We Used To Wait”…and it’s pretty spectacular.

It’s Not a Dream Anymore

Last night the Honda Civic Tour hit Phoenix, bringing Paramore, Tegan and Sara, New Found Glory, and Kadawatha along for the ride. I bought my tickets, oh, six months ago when they went on presale, and counted down the days until the show. Now that it’s over, I’ve got to write about it (are we surprised?) before I forget all of the details of the incredible show!

Let me start out by saying one thing: Concerts are meant to be enjoyed from the pit. There was some talk of possibly getting backstage access at this concert, and while it would have been awesome to get to meet some incredibly talented musicians, I don’t think I would have wanted to stand on the side of the stage and watch the concert. The show was designed to be seen from the audience, and I’d much rather stand in the hot, stinky, crowded pit and see it the way it was meant to be seen.

The show was held at the Dodge Theatre in downtown Phoenix. It was my first time to this venue, and I was highly impressed. That place can really pack in a crowd, and they did exactly that with a sold out show. The pit was pretty good sized and there were way more seats than I expected. The sound system was impressive, too, and the bass actually shook the floor at times. I will definitely be back to the Dodge again.

Now for the good stuff…the music! Paramore had three openers: Kadawatha, New Found Glory, and Tegan and Sara. We had dinner at Cooperstown before the concert and got to the show just after Kadawatha finished playing, so unfortunately I can’t say much except that “Kadawatha” is really fun to say. New Found Glory put on a great show, the kind that gets you moving even if you don’t know the music well. Then came Tegan and Sara. I’ve just recently gotten into their music, and I absolutely love it. They played a good set and even poked a bit of fun at themselves, calling Sara (I think...I had a hard time figuring out which was which, and how often do twins hear that one?) a Justin Bieber look-alike and saying that the twins, just shy of 30, “don’t look a day over 12.” At the end of their set, a friend mentioned that they had played for almost an hour, but honestly it did not seem like that long, and I’m very glad I got to see their performance.

The show started at 6:30, but Paramore didn’t hit the stage until about 9:30. I’m sure this may have been a long wait for some, but for me, the opening bands were entertainment enough to keep me held over until they came on. The setup of the stage was neat, with a metal mesh backdrop upon which videos were displayed throughout the show. At the start of the show, after a huge black curtain dropped and they began playing “Ignorance,” a bunch of lightbulbs dropped and swung low over the audience before settling over the stage—a cool effect reminiscent of the music video.

The concert was fantastic. I had only seen Paramore once before, last year when they opened for No Doubt on the summer reunion tour, which is when I really started to love them. It’s rare to see a band live that sounds almost exactly as good as they do on the studio album, but Paramore is definitely one of the few. Hayley Williams has an incredible voice that just doesn’t quit. I sang along to every single song at the top of my lungs, and by the end of the night my throat was about ready to remove itself from my body so that I would stop trying to murder it, but somehow Hayley is able to do that every single night and still sound absolutely amazing. I’m pretty sure she drinks a magic concoction of sorts, or perhaps she uses some sort of voodoo magic, and really, can she hook me up with some of that good stuff?

At the very beginning of the concert, maybe three songs in or so, there was a guy about five feet away from me that decided it was time to start a mosh pit with unwilling crowd members. He started bumping into everyone around him unapologetically, which started a fight. A big girl-on-girl, guy-on-guy, and even girl-on-guy fight. In a move that showed absolute class and respect for the concertgoers that weren’t throwing punches, Hayley stopped singing and actually reprimanded the people involved in the brawl. It took a minute for security to break things up and the band didn’t start playing again until the offenders were escorted out of the pit.

What I love most about Paramore isn’t just their music—yes, it’s fun to sing along to and it touches the heart and all of the good things music is made of, but that can be said of many, many bands. What I love most about them is their heart. Not just Hayley, but guitarists Josh Farro and Taylor York, bassist Jeremy Davis, and drummer Zac Farro…it is so clear when you watch them live that they love what they’re doing. Their interactions with the audience, their beautiful acoustic songs, the clear fact that they’re having a blast on stage—that’s what really makes me fall in love with Paramore.

There were little things in the show that made it just that much more special. During their acoustic set, Hayley and Josh did a cover of Loretta Lynn’s “You Ain’t Woman Enough,” a song that truly transcended the music genres. The band sat on a big red couch and brought a lamp onstage during their acoustic performances of “When It Rains,” “Where the Lines Overlap,” and “Misguided Ghosts” to add a personal touch. They invited fans onstage during their encore of "Misery Business” to help them sing through the bridge, and Zac Farro and Taylor York (drums and guitar, respectively) wore Bert and Ernie masks throughout the song. I was pretty impressed with guitarist Taylor for sticking it out through the show, because he was constantly coughing and, as Hayley explained during band introductions, he was suffering from the flu. Mad props to him for still rocking hard and giving an enjoyable performance, and it’s just too bad that there wasn’t a granny in the audience to give him a cough drop. Next time.

From the moment the curtain dropped until the confetti stopped showering down at the end of their encore, Paramore put on a fantastic show. I’m never very critical of concerts, because I get so caught up in the excitement of the moment, but I’m pretty sure I can say that this was the best concert I’ve ever been to. Yes, I was that girl that screamed a lot and danced to every song and sang every word, and I wouldn’t do it any other way. Thank you Honda Civic Tour for an awesome tour. Thank you Tegan and Sara and New Found Glory (and probably Kadawatha, too) for making the wait for Paramore a fantastic one. Thank you Steve, Morgan, Dash, Mark and Carissa for going with and making the night that much more fun. Most of all, thank you Paramore for coming back to Phoenix and blowing us all away. I think I’m speaking on behalf of everybody when I say, please come see us again soon!

Things I Love Today

Here’s a few things that have caught my eye today…

• I have spent the past hour looking at BBC’s travel section. I want to go to there…if you haven’t checked it out, do it! The photos alone are worth it.
• I’ve always been strangely fascinated by stories of art thieves. Maybe it’s because it looks so cool in the movies…or maybe it’s because I’m secretly an art thief mastermind. You’ll never know! But the theft of Van Gogh’s ‘Poppy Flower’ painting in Cairo? Insane. Seriously…I’m baffled by how easily it was stolen. Museum security practically handed the painting over to the thieves!
• I love reading Megan’s blog, Less Than Adventurous. If you want to follow her adventures in Washingtonland and see lots of fun pictures, follow her! Her latest post is all about Christmas, so it’s extra awesome. [edit: it's about Fall...but I saw mention of Christmas and got excited. Can you blame me?]
• MSNBC always has interesting slideshows, and their latest is a collection of photos of summer memories. Plus the photo of Ocean City, NJ, directed me to this story on the real Jersey shore. 6 'Jersey Shore' Myths Debunked
• FlavorWire listed the top 10 bookstores in the country…I am drooling.
• I am a girl and that almost automatically means I love weddings. We can all thank the New York Times for fueling this love with their Weddings/Celebrations section. My favorite is the couple that met while working at the Bronx Zoo…and got married at Prospect Park Zoo! So cute.
• If you’re looking for a complete time waster (which is exactly what I’m doing, of course) then the Amazing Fact Generator at Mental Floss will literally make you forget everything you are supposed to be doing right now.

Keep checking back for more posts like this one every few days :)

Stress Test

I started my 3rd year of college—still at the community college—about two weeks ago. All was going well, I was enjoying my classes and getting along with my classmates, generally looking forward to what the semester had to bring. Then Wednesday morning came, the third day of the Fall 2010 semester. I was taking notes on a lecture in my anthropology class when the girl to my left turned to me, looking like she was on the verge of a breakdown, and moaned, “I don’t know if I can handle this.” She proceeded to explain that it was her first semester of college and she was taking three (count that—three) classes. She told me that she was already stressed out and didn’t know if she was going to be able to manage the work load. As a student who has almost always taken 15 credit hours or more a semester, as well as working part-time and taking on a multitude of other responsibilities outside of school, I wanted to brush off her complaints. After all, how could she be so stressed out with only three classes?

That’s when I realized, though, that every student must have their own idea of how much work they can handle and how much is too much. I’ve observed people that are taking 18 credit hours and working that somehow still manage to have an active social life—something I am hardly capable of. I asked around a bit, trying to get a general idea of how different students study and how much they can handle. My sister, it turns out, wasn’t exactly the most enthusiastic student around. I believe her exact words were, “Man, I hated school.” She recalled that she rarely studied more than an hour for a test and would always put off studying in exchange for hanging out with friends.Then there’s my mother who, at 53, is one of the hardest-working students I know. She began nursing school in her mid-40’s, and I have watched her for years as she studies harder than I knew was humanly possible. She sets up camp on our office desk, piling her books, binders, laptop, and has been known to spend entire days at the desk writing papers, doing homework and studying. She claims that she doesn’t like the stress, but I think she thrives when she’s in school—it’s just part of who she is.

I’ve had my fair share of slacking and lack of focus in college. I spent one semester at in college right after I graduated from high school, and I believe I changed my major no less than 4 times in 4 months. The “real world” was the last thing I wanted to worry about, but it was exactly what I got myself into. I took a semester off to “figure things out,” and what I figured out was that the idea of working full time at a mediocre job for the rest of my life was about as thrilling as getting my teeth pulled. So I chose my major—journalism—and returned to school for what would turn out to be a rollercoaster of a year. After all of that, I feel that I’ve found my niche in school. I study often, I’ve decided the focus of my major—digital media—and I have found the right balance of work, school, and some semblance of a social life.

Oh, and for the record: I did my best to console and encourage Breakdown Girl (as I so fondly call her) but to no avail—she has since dropped the class.

So here’s my question for you, if anyone is reading this: what’s your story? How do/did you study? How much can you handle in school?