I let another month pass without writing anything on this blog… I would apologize, but COLLEGE, YO. Things get so busy, so quickly. I haven’t even exercised all semester (heh let’s be real I don’t really exercise anyway, but still). But since the semester started, I’ve gained a whole new slew (always thought that was such a weird word, I just think of stew) of obsessions, as if I didn’t have enough things I’m obsessed with. Since there are a bunch of new things I’m obsessed with, this is going to be more of a comprehensive list than a paragraph-type article/blog.
- Vlogs – So I’ve always watched a couple of vloggers pretty regularly since high school, like Charlie McDonnell and Alex Day, and I went through a phase in freshman year when I was obsessed with youtube musicians like David Choi, Kina Grannis and Conor Maynard. But these past few months, I’ve gotten really obsessed with a lot more people on youtube. My subscription list is getting ridiculously long. In fact, I just went to check my subscriptions list and it literally said “99+”. Oops… so here’s some of my favorite YouTubers, and why:
Boyce Avenue: Ok, yeah, I know they’ve been around forever, and everyone knows them, but I just want to give them a shout out. I had heard about these guys for years before actually taking the time to check them out. Let me preface my thoughts by saying that I have a lot of issues with other certain YouTube musicians because a lot of them tend to overproduce all of their songs and you lose a lot of the raw, real music in the performance. I won’t name any names because that’s so unnecessary and also just mean, but the point is, I kind of unfairly lumped Boyce Avenue in that category for a while before really listening to them. I am newly obsessed with them now, because I’ve now seen how they take every song that they cover and really add their own personality and make it their own. They have a knack for taking a song and adding extra depth, and they also have a knack for taking a song that I previously hated and making me love it. Perfect example: their acoustic cover of Miley Cyrus’ We Can’t Stop.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzgp65UnPxA
Lindsey Stirling: She’s also been around for a while, and I’ve been really into her and Tyler Ward for a while, but just today I watched like five of her videos in a row. I’m obsessed with her arrangements of video game scores, because they’re all GORGEOUS and she also wears awesome costumes and plays her heart out on that beautiful violin. She plays with so much character and passion, it’s just so fun to watch. Something else I love about Lindsey Stirling, along with people like the PianoGuys and Kevin Olusola (more on him later), is that they all represent a revolution in popular music. They’re all taking classical music, and classical music, and fusing it with today’s hits. These musicians are helping today’s generation appreciate the beauty of classical instruments, instead of letting them fade into the background with the emergence of dubstep music and the like. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy that kind of music too, but I’m just so grateful that Lindsey Stirling and others are keeping the appreciation of classical music alive. Plus, when she did that cover of Radioactive by the Imagine Dragons in a collab with Pentatonix I just about died. Pretty sure I’ve seen that video about thirty times. No shame. I’m also OBSESSED with her arrangement of the score from Legend of Zelda. It’s STUNNING and she looks adorable.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3KUyPKbR7QYeah okay I’m including the Pentatonix/Lindsey Radioactive cover because it’s just FLAWLESS and the whole world needs to see it.
Laci Green: Moving away from musicians for a second, I’m just absolutely obsessed with this woman. She’s pretty high on my girl crush list, forreal. Along with just being absolutely gorgeous, she’s eloquent and her channel is making a huge difference for so many people everywhere. Laci Green represents a revolution in the world of sex education. She’s taking topics that were considered completely taboo, and so stigmatized, and is educating people about them. Honestly, I don’t know how people learned things about sex and life WITHOUT this woman. She’s amazing. One of my favorite things about her and her channel is the main theme of sex positivity. Her channel is called Sex+ after all. One of the biggest problems with the stigma surrounding discussing sex is that sex is seen as something wrong, or scandalous, and Laci is trying to teach people that it’s okay to talk about sex, and it’s okay to have questions, and that there is nothing wrong with sex or talking about it. I think that’s such an important message, and she does it so wonderfully and eloquently. Bravo, Laci.
Superfruit: This obsession stemmed from my Pentatonix obsessesion (more on that later). So this is a new vlog with Scott Hoying and Mitch Grassi of Pentatonix, and I always knew I loved these two. They’re both a year or two older than me, and they always made jokes on twitter that I related to and I always was like “oh man if I knew them personally we’d totally be best friends.” This vlog pretty much solidified this opinion, because these two are absolutely hilarious and wonderful and I love them so much. It’s probably one of my favorite vlogs out there. I’ve seen all of their vlogs probably three times each, at least, and they never stop being funny. I show their videos to everyone I can, because I’m basically in love with both of them. Plus, they do random runs and start singing all the time in their videos and I want to die every time because they’re both so wonderful and talented. I pretty much feel like these two are my spirit animals/kindred spirits. SCOTT MITCH LET’S BE BEST FRIENDS.
Colleen Ballinger & Joshua David Evans: This obsession is like a week old, so yeah, relatively new. It actually came from my Superfruit obsession, funnily enough. Yeah ok no it’s not that funny but anyway, Superfruit put up a video last week with MirandaSings as a guest. I had heard of MirandaSings years ago when she first started getting big on YouTube, and I saw like half of one of her videos and got annoyed/was not amused and closed out of it before it even finished. I didn’t really get why she was so famous on YouTube just for being bad at singing. She was kind of funny but I didn’t find it all that amusing. It wasn’t until Superfruit that I realized that she was a character and not a real person – I know I’m SO smart. So I got really curious about the girl who played Miranda, Colleen Ballinger, and found her personal channel outside of MirandaSings and watched like 15 of her videos in a row. She’s just adorable and charming and really funny, but I mainly fell in love with her relationship with her boyfriend, Joshua, who’s also a YouTuber. I’m such a sucker for adorable YouTube couples (R.I.P Charlie & Bryarly, I still cry forever about them), and their videos together were so genuinely funny and adorable and honest and wonderful, so I fell in love with them. They’re also both insanely talented singers; I have nothing bad to say about these two.
Ok that was a video of them singing but also LOOK AT HOW ADORABLE THEY ARE. I CRY.
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries: This show was actually a huge reason for me getting into vlogs and YouTube more. I was completely infatuated with this show, and I just got more and more into the vlog format. I have a million wonderful things to say about this show but I don’t want to ramble. The whole concept from Hank Green and Bernie Su of taking Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen and modernizing it, and putting it into vlog form is just so incredibly genius and inspired. Hank and Bernie and everyone else who contributed to the show also represent a change in media. First of all, they brought a timeless story to a completely new audience and IMMORTALIZED IT ON THE INTERNET! Additionally, the Lizzie Bennet Diaries told their story not only through one channel, but multiple channels, as well as through other types of social media, like Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and more. It’s no wonder they won an Emmy (!!!) for Interactive Media. Also, the entire cast is gorgeous. I’m in love with every single one of them. If you haven’t watched it, TODAY IS THE DAY TO CHANGE THAT. Ok that’s all.
Carrie Hope Fletcher: I would have preferred to talk about Carrie after talking about my McFly obsession, but oh well. So basically I’ve been obsessed with McFly since 2006. I think they’re incredibly talented, not to mention gorgeous men. But anyway, a couple years ago, I randomly found Tom’s little sister, Carrie Fletcher, on YouTube through her friendship with Alex Day. I watched a couple of her covers and thought, Damn, this girl is talented. What is with this family? Seriously though, talk about winning the genetic lottery. Bravo, Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher. So from then on I watched her videos sporadically and followed her on Twitter, blah blah blah. Every now and then she would tweet about an audition or something, and I would just think, you go girl, I hope you get famous because you’re wonderful. Then one day she tweeted that she was going to be Eponine in Les Mis on West End and I thought HOLD UP WHAT? It just all seemed very sudden, albeit amazing. And now this girl is all over the place, doing 8 shows a week, and I couldn’t be happier for her. There isn’t a more deserving person out there. Talk about crazy amazing talent. I have a little bit of a girl crush on her. Plus, her English accent is just wonderful. I could listen to her talk all day.Watch this video of Carrie describing her journey to becoming Eponine, and then watch her performing On My Own. Her talent is absolutely staggering.
Tyler Oakley: You knew this was coming. Come on. If I’m making a list of my favorite vlogs, obviously Tyler Oakley is going to be on the list. Saving the best for last. Tyler is pretty much my spirit animal – in fact, I’m pretty sure the reason he’s so popular is because his entire fanbase sees him as their spirit animal. Obviously that’s not the only reason he’s popular, but I do think that since he basically says what all of us are thinking and says it in a really outrageous and hilarious way. Also, he’s living a magical fantasy life. He gets to interview celebrities and travel the whole world and has a million internet friends and he has a glorious apartment in LA and I just no. He’s amazing and I want his life/I want to be best friends with him. I’m putting two of his videos because you can never get enough Tyler Oakley in your life.
Vlogbrothers: Another duh. You can’t love YouTube and/or vlogs without loving the two beautiful men that are Hank and John Green. These two are basically the kings of YouTube, and the internet in general. I don’t know how else to describe them. Enjoy the glory of the vlogbrothers.I couldn’t decide to choose a video of Hank or John, because they’re both amazing, so HERE’S BOTH OF THEM.
- McFly – HA you thought that long thing about vlogs was all, but ACTUALLY IT’S JUST #1 ON A VERY LONG LIST. Turns out I’m planning on rambling on for a lot longer. I’m on fall break, you see, so I HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO! Sorry for all the caps. Anyway, as I said before, I’ve been obsessed with McFly for like 7 years now. My obsession was kind of at its peak when I was first getting into them, and from 2006 and like three years after that I listened to Five Colours in Her Hair, I’ve Got You, Obviously and I’ll Be OK on repeat every single day.
McFly circa 2006. You can see why I was in love with them… right?…
Then, after a while, my love for McFly kind of went to the back of my mind and I didn’t pay attention to them anymore. I still loved them, but I wasn’t as avid of a fan. I knew they were still doing things and I was happy about it, but I didn’t keep up at all. Then a couple of weeks ago I decided I wanted to get back into McFly and see how their music had changed over the years. Plus, I had crushes on pretty much all of them when I was 11 and I had a feeling that they probably had grown up well 🙂 So I caught up with their music and I have officially renewed my obsession with them. They’re just an insanely talented group of men (and I was right, they grew up to be incredibly attractive men) and amazing musicians.
McFly in 2012. I honestly had trouble picking just one picture of them because they look SO GOOD in every picture. But LOOK. PUBERTY HAPPENED.
Their sound has really matured over the years into something amazing; I will admit, I will always have a soft spot for their older stuff, because of the sentimentality (and it’s also got that amazing teenage boy rock sound, very All-American Rejects or JoBro later era, but with a little more soul to it). But now their music has this maturity to it, and it’s a little bit more, I daresay, sexy and musically developed. They’ve also gotten a lot more versatile in their style – they kept their rock and soul, but they also have some cheery ukulele-type music (Love Is Easy, which is one of my new favorites and it is constantly stuck in my head). Love Is Easy is absolutely amazing, and also the video is adorable and they re-create all of their previous album covers and I’m in love with it. One of my other favorite songs off of their most recent album (Memory Lane: The Best of McFly; yeah, they’ve been around for so long that they actually already have a best of album. They’ve been around 10 YEARS. WHAT.) is I Need A Woman. I’m just going to include a link to that because once you hear it, you will understand.
One of their old hits that I’m OBSESSED with. Note the hair. And the huge amounts of sweat.
I’m including two new ones because I love them so much and I just want to share their music with the entire world.
The Love Is Easy video I was talking about. Note THE PUBERTY THAT HAPPENED. Also, look at how dapper they are. I just love them all.
Acoustic version of I Need A Woman. First of all, Tom and Danny. Look. Amazing. But also, they sound great and I just love the song so much. There’s something really retro and amazing about it, but it still has that McFly feel to it. Plus it’s adorable how giggly and silly they are in the video.
- The Voice – This obsession totally came out of nowhere, but if you know me at all and hang out with me in person, there is no way you won’t know about this obsession, because I tell everyone how amazing this show is. So I kind of grew up watching American Idol, and my family watched it together. It was actually the only TV I was allowed to watch on schoolnights, and it was kind of a thing I had with my mom. My brother and dad would always come in and out, and watch certain parts with us, but my mom and I were hardcore fans.
We watched from beginning to end, each season. Sure, we had our issues with it – the blatant humiliation for entertainment aspect where they showed terrible auditions, and how annoying all the judges were, but we loved it nonetheless. But the show has been going on for far too long, and honestly, one of my biggest problems with the show is that the winners are almost never really artists. Because the show is so controlled by America’s viewers, and the judges don’t really have any control at all after the auditions and Hollywood week, the show just becomes a popularity contest. The true talent is usually weeded out far too soon, and America votes for the good-looking All-American guy with the guitar, or the beautiful woman with the mediocre voice.
Three winners of American Idol, all guys with guitars. Not to say that I have anything against guys with guitars, and Kris Allen and Phillip Phillips (honestly still can’t get over that name) have admittedly both had a couple of hits, whereas I haven’t heard anything from Lee DeWyze since he won, and I honestly didn’t expect to. I just think that America clearly has a preference when it comes to this show and the show isn’t a true showcase of all the kinds of talent there is in the country.This is why successful (being a relative term here) winners of American Idol are so rare. After the get off the show, they don’t really know what to do or how to go forward. I do believe that part of the prize of being the new American Idol is that you get a record deal, but most winners (with the obvious exceptions of Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson and the like) don’t have enough content to put on a full-length album. Most of them are performers/singers, but not musicians. That is my main issue with American Idol.
No.
Plus, the show keeps cycling through and changing the judges, and in my opinion, none of them are really qualified to be judges on a singing competition. Like, I’m sorry, I love her, but Ellen Degeneres?! What were they thinking?? She’s hilarious but she knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about music!! Also, Nicki Minaj. Just… why? Also, while we’re on the subject, PAULA ABDUL. I don’t know why they picked her in the first place or why she was there for so long, but I never understood what made her qualified to be a judge on the show. She never really had helpful comments; she just talked about how much she liked the contestants as people or how much she loved their outfit or something, which is nice, but it was never helpful. Simon, on the other hand, was just a bully. I hated that he was paid to be mean for entertainment, because that just makes me hate the entertainment industry. Because if you watch him on The X Factor or other shows, sure he’s a little egotistical, but he’s not flat out mean for no reason like he was on American Idol. Then there’s Randy. Yeah, I understand he’s a music producer and that’s all fancy and important and exciting, but I didn’t really think he ever had helpful comments either. I’m pretty sure he just used the word “pitchy” to describe every performance he didn’t like because he had no other things to say. Plus, Ryan Seacrest scares me. Pretty sure he hasn’t aged in the past 10 years. Just saying. So I stopped watching American Idol maybe 3 seasons ago. I was just kind of done.
They are all flawless and no one can convince me otherwise. The other day a friend tried to convince me that Adam Levine was a douchebag and I just refused to believe it.
Then I discovered The Voice. I actually stumbled onto the show a little bit accidentally. Because of my obsession with The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (see above) and its cast, I heard that Briana Cuoco (Mary Bennet) was going to be on the show. I had heard of the show before, and I knew it was a really successful show, but I didn’t really have any interest (I had my fill of singing shows with American Idol). But then I heard Briana was going to be on the show and I wanted to support her!
I try to watch whatever the LBD cast is in, just because I want them to succeed. They’re so wonderful and talented. So anyway, Briana tweeted that she wasn’t sure which night of the blind auditions would screen her audition, so I just decided to watch every one until I saw her audition and then I would just watch her performances and nothing else. God knows I didn’t need another show to watch. But after the first episode, I was hooked. There was just something so different about it. It had something that American Idol lacked, and something that I wanted in a singing competition show. The biggest aspect that I loved was the concept of blind auditions. Contrary to American Idol, contestants auditioned for the judges with the judges’ backs turned. The judges made all of their decisions based solely on the person’s voice, instead of judging based on appearance or anything else.
The Voice took a huge part of American Idol’s key entertainment component and destroyed it, showing that it should be all about the talent. Additionally, anyone who came to the blind auditions was there by invitation; so there weren’t any horrendous auditions to laugh at anyway. The Voice set a certain standard in terms of quality and talent, eliminating any embarrassing/awful auditions and making it all about people’s voices and their talents and goals as artists. Additionally, the judges are all incredibly successful musicians (of different genres) that really know what they’re doing. These judges (they actually stay away from the word judges, which I also like; they’re called coaches instead, which is just so wonderful. They focus more on the mentorship of the contestants, who are actually called artists instead) can nurture the artists and help them learn and grow, as opposed to in American Idol where the contestants are just kind of thrown into competition mode immediately and expected to know what to do without much help. The judges on American Idol just kind of sit back and watch while having other people do the work and mentorship. The coaches on The Voice are so much more involved, and so much more invested in the artists because they fight to have these artists on their respective “teams,” and there’s so much more camaraderie on this show among the artists. I always thought there was kind of a lack of camaraderie on American Idol; or even if there was camaraderie, the audience wasn’t really shown much of it, and that made me really sad. But anyway, the talent on this show is absolutely astonishing. It blows my mind how versatile and talented the people in this country (or this world, rather) are. And the coaches embrace the artists for their individuality, and encourage them to savor and nurture that. So yeah, basically I’m obsessed with this show now. There’s an insane amount of talent on this season particularly. I’ve even been going back and watching past seasons, because I just can’t get enough. Here’s some of my favorite auditions from this season:SO.
MUCH.
TALENT.
IT’S.
ACTUALLY.
SO.
RIDICULOUS.
- Jam sessions – Ok so this is so random but oh well I’m including it. So I started trying to teach myself to play guitar in my freshman and sophomore year of high school. It was really tedious and I didn’t get very far, but I got the basic hang of it – I could play a lot of the easy chords and I would spend a lot of time on ultimate-guitar.com trying to play all of my favorite songs and feel like I knew what I was doing (hint: I didn’t). I continued to attempt to play guitar sporadically (Clueless shoutout) for the rest of high school and then when I went to college, I couldn’t bring my guitar with me overseas, seeing as I had a ton of other crap I was bringing with me. So I stopped playing for about a semester, and then when I came home for winter break I played a little bit more, and then I came back for summer break and played more and more, and I realized how much I missed it. My brother, who had been going to school in Portland until that summer, was moving to Singapore for his job and didn’t want to take his guitar overseas, so he offered it to me. I jumped at the chance to take it, so that I could have a guitar in college with me. So I’ve been playing more and more, trying to get those pathetic barely-there guitar calluses back. The other day, my friend and next-door neighbor Maddy (who’s extremely musically inclined, she’s an expert in theory and has been playing piano for years, and it basically a musical genius) heard me playing Ho Hey by The Lumineers. She came in and went, “You sound amazing!… want to have a jam session like right now? I’m supposed to practice piano for my performance class but screw it.” So I followed her to our dorm living room and we just sat there, with other people studying around us (hey, no one protested, otherwise I would have felt bad for disturbing them), with Maddy at the piano and me with my guitar, and we just played whatever came to mind and I sang. At one point my friend Stephanie, who’s in a cappella with me, came and joined us and harmonized with me. It just felt so quintessential college to me, and also I just realized how lucky I was to be able to spend time with so many other people who love music as much as I do, and who are so good at it. I guess it was just a moment when I felt really lucky to be where I am right now, and also how lucky I am to have music in my life.
- The Mindy Project – So this is also a relatively recent obsession; I’ve been obsessed with The Office for years, and basically worshipped the entire cast. I was so devastated when the show ended; I sobbed the whole way through the series finale, it was baaaaad. But anyway, since the show ended I felt like I had a huge void in my life that only BJ Novak/Mindy Kaling style humor could fill. A couple of friends who also had watched The Office kept urging me to watch The Mindy Project last year, saying that it was hilarious and if I loved Mindy on The Office I would love the show.
Flawless. God, I miss this show.
For some reason, I didn’t feel that drawn to it, and I didn’t really feel a need to start it, even though I missed The Office so much. So my friends kept talking to me about it, in hopes that I would start at some point. Towards the end of the school year they kind of forgot about telling me about it, so I didn’t hear much about it after that. I followed Mindy on twitter, so I heard about the show all the time and I heard James Franco was going to guest star. I remember thinking, oh, so this is getting pretty legit then, huh? I guess some small part of me in the back of my mind thought it was going to get cancelled; I have no idea why I thought that. Mindy is incredibly intelligent and talented and an amazing writer and actress, so I don’t know why I didn’t have faith in her. Plus I knew that BJ was helping her out and was a producer or co-writer or something, so I had no doubt that it was funny. But anyway, I remember thinking whoa, James Franco is guest starring? This is getting serious now. And then at the beginning of this school year, I remember thinking, I need another funny show. I watch way too many dramas. I need more funny in my life. New Girl supplied me with plenty of funny, but I missed laughing out loud at The Office every week.
So I randomly decided to start The Mindy Project, and wowowowowow. I don’t understand why I didn’t start it sooner. It is absolutely hysterical, and while it is a taaaad self-indulgent, Mindy totally acknowledges that and sets up the fictional version of herself on the show to be a self-indulgent, self-involved person who somehow is also incredibly relatable. Mindy is one of those writers and comedians that just says what everyone is thinking but is afraid to say, and also draws on those guilty habits we all have but never talk about and puts it all into one hilarious character. That is the character of Mindy Lahiri on the show. The show is fantastic. She put together a pretty good ensemble cast, too; no one’s too annoying or too obnoxious or anything. A couple of the characters that seemed a little bit one dimensional at first were given more depth, and each character has had their shining moments of hilarity. It’s just all-around a really great show, and I’m really just so glad that Mindy went off on her own and is making a name for herself. - Mindy Kaling – Yeah okay I guess I’m just obsessed with Mindy Kaling in general. She’s a pretty amazing woman. First of all, I’m just going to say it: I’m just so happy that there’s another woman of color out there who’s intelligent, beautiful, funny, and is succeeding in the entertainment industry. We can never have too many of those, in my opinion. I think Mindy is just absolutely fabulous.
I just started reading her book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), and it’s just amazing. If you have not read it, I recommend you go out and buy it RIGHT NOW. That’s right, stop reading this. And go to your nearest Barnes & Noble. And BUY IT. Or, if you’re one of those people that never goes into stores and only shops online, GO TO AMAZON AND BUY IT NOW. kcool so we can move on.
Seriously. This book is amazing.
Honestly, there are so many things I have to say about Mindy Kaling and how cool she is, and how inspirational she is, but I somehow can’t put it into proper words. I just… she’s awesome. I would love to be her (or something like her). Also, Time apparently named her one of the 100 most influential people IN THE WORLD. How badass is that?!
- Amy Poehler & Tina Fey – So after that Mindy Kaling rave I’m sure you saw this coming. But honestly, who isn’t obsessed with these women? I think it’s pretty clear from the announcement that these two are going to be hosting The Golden Globes for the next two years that the entire world is in love with Amy Poehler & Tina Fey.
QUEENS.
Example 1: Parks & Recreation, Amy Poehler’s show on NBC (which is spectacular by the way) just celebrated their 100th episode. That is quite a feat in the television world, let me say. That is a BIG DEAL. It helps that they have an incredible flawless cast and incredible writing. It also helps that the show was created by the creators of The Office (yes, it all makes sense now, doesn’t it?) and that Amy Poehler is one of the producers. Seriously, what can’t this woman do?!
On a slightly unrelated note, I’m still wounded from finding out about her divorce with Will Arnett. I shed REAL TEARS when I found out. Also, I think that the glory years of SNL were with Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. I mean, SNL will always be great in my opinion, but come on. Those were the best times. And don’t even get me started on Tina Fey. This woman is EVERYTHING. Example 2: she wrote the greatest teen movie our generation (let’s face it, the world) has ever seen. Mean Girls will forever be the most quotable movie in the entire world, and I will not listen to anyone’s argument on that.
Always listen to Gretchen Wieners.
Example 3: there is the flawlessness that is 30 Rock. If I had had it my way, that show would have gone on forever. Literally forever. Even after all the actors died, they would just do what G.E. did for Seinfeld-Vision in that one episode. IMMORTALIZE ALL OF THEM FOREVER. Also, it gives me major feels that Tina & Amy have been friends for so long and that they performed in Second City together all those years ago. Seriously though, they are an unstoppable duo. Both flawless. My love for them is endless.
- Nashville – So, I started watching this show last year about halfway through the season. A friend had been urging me to watch for months, saying she knew that I would fall in love with it. Aaaaand she was right. I watched the pilot and ended up watching like the next four episodes right after that in a marathon in the next day and a half. I’ve been obsessed ever since.
And honestly, the show just keeps getting better and better. The characters are getting more complex and layered, and more things keep happening, and the music. Oh god, the music. I always knew that I liked country music (well, parts of it), but this show has completely solidified my love for country music. Also, it’s made me want to visit Nashville and just sit in bars and cafés all day and listen to all the talent in that city. The entire cast of the show is just incredible, and the show is just bursting with talent. I can’t get enough of this show. It’s definitely high up on my list of favorites. Plus, Scarlett and Gunnar. Oh my goodness. Two of the characters on the show become writing partners, and the duets that they perform are absolutely stunning. The songs are very country folk-y, with a Civil Wars vibe to them. Plus, they’re both just gorgeous human beings.
Also, Lennon and Maisy Stella – they’re a pair of sisters, who are 14 and 9 years old (wow I can’t get over HOW YOUNG THEY ARE). Along with being incredible actors (I will honestly never understand child actors and how some of them can portray emotion so clearly and honestly at such a young age, when their emotions aren’t even fully developed and they don’t even fully understand them or know how to control them), they’re staggeringly talented musicians.
Lennon, the older sister, is an amazing guitar player (better than I will ever be), and both she and Maisy have incredibly pure, mature voices. I can’t even imagine how talented these girls are going to be as they grow and mature. I really just hope that they are raised well and are kept grounded – I always have that fear when it comes to child stars, that they won’t grow up well and will end up screwed up somehow. It’s just not fair to them at all.This is one of the beautiful Scarlett/Gunnar duets I was talking about. Plus, a little peek into the amazing acting from Lennon and Maisy (still blows my mind).http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wsTU1huSeATALENT.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceYtOlmImNEI forgot to talk about the flawless Hayden Panettiere. She’s incredible in this show. Her acting is incredible, and she adds so much depth to her character. I originally hated her character in the pilot, but there’s something so magnetic about Hayden Panettiere; I ended up somehow loving the character, and then seeing the layers of the character later. It also helps that she’s an incredible singer and performer. I’ve been so impressed with her on this show.
- Vulfpeck – I could go on forever about this band. I discovered them about a year ago – I went to a show in LA for Theo Katzman, who I’ve talked about before. He shared the stage with Jack Stratton, Joey Dosik, and Caleb Hawley (all incredible musicians; I recommend checking all of them out). I came out of that show so stunned by the talent and feeling incredibly inspired. I looked up all three of the new musicians from that night and found Vulfpeck, a contemporary jazz/funk/soul band that Jack, Joey, Theo and a few others are a part of. I’ve always loved jazz music; in middle school in my concert band days when I played clarinet (I was a really cool kid obviously), I always secretly wanted to switch over to saxophone. So discovering Vulfpeck was awesome; they’re a group of incredibly talented musicians just making the kind of music that they love. I don’t really know what else to say about them, because their music kind of speaks for itself.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XftabV9S2z0
- Photography – This is absolutely not a new obsession; it’s actually more of an obsession I want to get more into, because I’ve kind of drifted from it and that makes me sad. In high school I was pretty hardcore into photography. There were a lot of other aspiring photographers in my high school and I didn’t really try to compete with them. They all had fancier cameras, more equipment, and more experience than me. They were always the ones asked to photograph school events, and be the official photographers for the school charity fashion shows. I never tried to compete with them because I was a lot newer to the field (I got into it a lot more sophomore year onwards) and I didn’t have as much interest in fashion photography, mostly because I felt like it was a little bit out of my depth. There seemed to be kids in my high school that started doing fashion photography starting from like 8th grade, and were so far ahead of the game, so I felt like I probably shouldn’t even try touching that field. Anyway, I got really into photography just for fun, just for me.
Okay sorry. Shameless self-promotion over.I created a flickr page (yeah I know, no one really uses flickr anymore, I don’t really know why I did it) and put up all my photos. I really loved nature and animal photography in particular, and I also loved night photography. I also really loved taking portraits. I loved trying to capture someone’s essence or their personality or energy in just one photo. One of my favorite things about photography is the ability to capture one single moment and freeze it in time. That’s probably why I love learning about history through photographs so much more than through textbooks, because I feel like you can only learn so much through reading about events in a textbook as opposed to actually seeing it and feeling the emotions from that moment flowing through you as you look at the photograph (example: photographs from The Great Depression, or the Holocaust, or any type of tragedy. Or in contrast, the famous photo from V-J Day). In college though, I’ve gotten lazy. I capture all of my moments with my phone, like the rest of the world. And I feel like I’ve been too busy to just walk around and take photos. There are moments when I’m walking around and I think, this would make an amazing picture. But I never have my camera with me anymore. - Jay Stolar – So I saw Jay at a concert in LA last fall. He shared the stage with one of my favorite musicians, Charlene Kaye (if you haven’t heard her, CHECK HER OUT. I’ll put in a video of one of her songs. She’s so wonderful.) and I absolutely fell in love with his music. His music has so much soul to it, and there’s something just so honest and true to his music, but you still get that singer-songwriter vibe that I love so much. I just love that his music is just so earnest and wonderful, but also so catchy. I truly think that this man is going to go places. He is one of my favorite musicians ever, and I am just such a huge fan. He had a kickstarter a while ago for his debut album (which just came out last week, GO LISTEN TO IT! IT’S ON SPOTIFY AND ALSO ONLINE!) and I couldn’t not contribute. I just want him to do well, because he deserves it so much and his talent is just amazing. As a contributor to his kickstarter I had early access to his album and I literally just listened to it on repeat for weeks. When I was studying, when I was going to sleep, when I was just hanging out in my room… always. And now that his album has been released, I have it on my phone (it’s the only album on my phone, since my phone has no space and I can’t fit my music on it) and literally listen to it all the time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fallen asleep listening to his album. He’s just a true musician, and I have so much respect and admiration for him.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcpLhaVcEDg
- Jewelry – Suuuuper random, but this is just something I’ve noticed lately. I’ve always had tons of jewelry and I tend to buy jewelry a lot when I’m out shopping or whatever, and then I never end up wearing. I just wear the same necklace and earrings every single day. Then at the beginning of this semester I went to some random student sale over at Pitzer College where seniors from last year just gave all of the stuff they didn’t want. All of the items were being sold for under $10 dollars and I found this gorgeous jewelry tree for a dollar. I decided to grab it, because the jewelry holder I had made it hard to see everything I had and just encouraged me to never wear any of it.
So now that I have a new way to hold my jewelry, I’ve been trying to wear all of my earrings and rings and all and I’m very proud of myself for it, because I felt so awful for just wasting all that money on jewelry and then never wearing it. Yay for personal progress! - Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D – This show is seriously just fueling my obsession with the Marvel universe. This show was seriously just what I needed. It’s exciting, amazing, hilarious, and epic. I don’t really know how else to describe it. Plus, everyone loves Coulson. How can you not? Clark Gregg is just genius. And Joss Whedon’s writing is flawless (but we all knew that already, didn’t we?) and everyone in the cast is just so wonderful.
Ming-Na Wen, first of all; she’s gorgeous, badass, and just an amazing woman. Her character is kind of a hardass with a soft side and I just love her so much. Plus… WOC. Enough said. And like I said, Clark Gregg: he’s just so endearing and wonderful, and is also just such a badass as Phil Coulson. Then there’s Chloe Bennet’s character of Skye: firstly, she’s just such a hottie. I mean really though, what a gorgeous woman. And she’s got stellar comedic timing, and always love when TV shows make gorgeous women more than just gorgeous women. She’s also a genius computer hacker, and she’s brave and headstrong and intelligent and innovative. But, something I also love about her character is that she’s also flawed. She’s clumsy and stubborn, and impulsive, and I love that about her. I’m just so proud that Joss Whedon created such an awesome female character (not that I’m surprised). Then there’s Grant Ward, who fulfill the role of man candy and also badass and also romantic interest for Skye. I have no complaints. The character has a lot of potential to be really layered and complex, and I’m so excited for the show to explore his past more. Then there’s Fitz and Simmons, played by Iain De Caestecker (wow, Scottish much?) and Elizabeth Henstridge respectively. They’re in charge of weapons tech/engineering and life sciences, and they’re both just adorable and nerdy and endearing, and they’re just so wonderful.
I have so much love for this cast and these characters already, and there have only been four episodes. THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING. - Pentatonix – I honestly don’t even know where to begin with my Pentatonix obsession. It kind of came out of nowhere, too. I somehow discovered The Sing-Off (I don’t remember how), and started watching all of the season 1 performances in a row. Oh wait, I think I remember how I discovered the show now. I’ve been obsessed with college a cappella forever – I don’t remember how I first got into it, but I’ve always been obsessed with choral and a cappella groups. So anyway, I discovered seasons 1 and 2 of The Sing-Off and became absolutely infatuated with it.
I watched videos of Street Corner Symphony, The Whiffenpoofs, and The Backbeats on repeat for months. My obsession was fueled by a visit from The Spizzwinks(?) from Yale – they came to my high school and did a concert and a workshop with my high school choir, which was incredible. Then, a while later, Delilah and the Tufts Beelzebubs came to Hong Kong to do some shows. I hadn’t heard of Delilah before but I went to the show anyway, because I knew I loved the Beelzebubs.
My friends and I with a couple of the Tufts Beelzebubs in Hong Kong!
I fell completely in love with the women of Delilah, and realized they had also been on The Sing-Off. I went back to YouTube and watched every single one of their videos, before realizing that they hadn’t even won the show, but some random group called Pentatonix had won. I remember being absolutely baffled that Delilah hadn’t won, and resented this “random” other group. Then I decided to check them out to see what the big deal was. Aaaaand I fell in love. There’s just no denying their talent, creativity, innovation and individuality.
Look at these beautiful wonderful people.
There just isn’t a group out there like them. There’s so unique and wonderful and talented and I just have endless positive things to say about them. I basically want to be them. They are an incredibly revolutionary group, not just to the world of a cappella, but to the music world. They took so many risks on The Sing-Off that just blew everyone’s minds, and they’ve made such a difference in making a cappella a more well-known, respected art in the music world. I love everything they do, basically. I’ve pre-ordered their new album (PTX Vol. II) and I’ve already listened to all of the previews of the tracks on iTunes a million times. I know it’s going to be incredible.
- She’s Not Afraid (One Direction) – Yeah, there’s no denying my One Direction obsession. I’m not even ashamed of it. They’re talented guys, and also insanely attractive and so easily likeable. I am ridiculously excited for their new album coming out in November, Midnight Memories (I’ve also pre-ordered it… GIVE IT TO ME NOW). I heard a preview the other day of one of the tracks, Story of My Life and it’s incredible. But anyway, one of my all-time favorite tracks from their most recent album, Take Me Home, is She’s Not Afraid. The movie (This Is Us) is really what fueled this obsession with this specific song. I can’t really explain why I love it so much, it’s just so catchy and easy to dance to, and it’s one of those songs that’s just so fun to sing along to and just amazing. Plus, the lyrics are kind of really hot.
God, I wish there was an actual music video for this song.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e-ITR9d9PA - Typography – This is a really random new obsession, partially because of my roommate. I’ve lately become really obsession with typography, particularly on posters. And if I had endless money, I would probably have ordered 50 new typography posters by now. But because money, I ordered all the prints as small 5×7 prints on Walmart’s website and now I’ve put them all up on the wall next to my desk. I don’t know, they just make me happy 🙂
- Backstreet Boys – This is also pretty new; growing up, I almost barely missed the Backstreet Boys craze. I kind of caught the tail end of it, and caught the end of their I Want It That Way/Everybody/Larger Than Life glory days. So I grew up obsessed with those particular songs, but not really the group specifically. Because of when I was born, I was definitely more of an ‘N Sync girl (Bye Bye Bye 5evar). But then a few months ago, I saw that the Backstreet Boys were doing a show in Irvine, with Jesse McCartney (OH GODDDDDD) opening for them. HOW could I say no to that?! So my roommate and I snatched up a couple of tickets and we went in early September.
It was incredible. First of all, Jesse McCartney. He somehow got even more attractive than he was before (definitely one of my first big childhood crushes; I listened to Best Day of My Life and Beautiful Soul a scary amount of times) and even more talented. I was just stunned with what an amazing performer he really was. Plus, his new music is actually pretty incredible. This one song, Back Together, has kind of a retro Hanson-esque vibe to it and I’m in love with it. Also, him. And when he did Beautiful Soul life my 12 year-old self pretty much died and went to heaven. It was glorious.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmMPH8WjKIoThen, the Backstreet Boys came out. And they were PERFECT. First of all, it just blew my mind that they’re all 30+ (pretty sure one of them is 40. I KNOW, WHAT?) and are still such incredible performers and can dance just as well, if not better, than they could before. They did a ton of their old classics, which were amazing, and I enjoyed them so much. But they also did a bunch of their newer stuff from their most recent album, and I was so impressed. All of the songs were flawless. And something I realized about the Backstreet Boys that I didn’t know before was that these guys are not just a boy band and performers, but they’re also artists. They wrote a bunch of their new stuff, and they took breaks from the dancing to just sit down on stools and play guitars and sing, to focus on the music. I was so impressed.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BruEqHpQRgYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUk7TvoOuMs - Vampire Weekend – Another new obsession. I had always appreciated this band, and thought they were a great indie rock group with catchy music. But when I went to their show at the Hollywood Bowl a few weeks ago, I really came to appreciate them. Their music, along with being catchy and wonderful indie music, has some really incredible lyrics and musical integrity. They’ve definitely moved up to be one of my favorite bands now.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIcjA5ykloIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANznirklthshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_i1xk07o4g
- Feminism – This one kinds of goes without saying, especially because of the women’s college thing. Plus, I feel like as a woman, I should be obsessed with feminism. Why wouldn’t you be obsessed with fighting for equal rights for not only women, but all genders? I could go on about this forever, but I really shouldn’t. But anyway, feminism is awesome. And the world needs feminism. There are still so many problems in this world that need to be fixed, and there’s also just so much heteronormativity that I didn’t see before, and I really need all of that to not exist. So yeah, feminism! Equality! Yay!
- MY FRIENDS – Alright I’m about to get super cheesy. But this is just something I’ve thought about a lot lately; I’m just really grateful for the people that I have in my life. My friends here in college are all incredible people; I talk to them about anything and everything, and I feel comfortable being myself. Just that fact simply makes me feel really lucky, because I know it’s not a common thing. They’re also just hilarious, wonderful people, and I know that I can always have fun with them, but I also know that we can be serious and talk about the really important things in life. Some of these people know more about me than anyone else.
Along with my college friends, there are quite a few people from middle school and high school that I still keep in touch with and am still close with, and I am so grateful for that. The prospect of losing touch with my close friends really scared me when I was in high school, and I’m really glad that I’ve kept close with the people that really matter to me. These people really do know me best; they’ve known me for years and years, and also grew up with me, so I don’t ever have to explain my upbringing or explain my worldview to them, because they relate to me in a certain way that I value so much.
Anyway, I’m just really thankful to have so many amazing people in my life. I’m obsessed with my friends 🙂
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