Fall Out Boy

Hey,
This is just too ridiculously funny...you'll never be able to listen to Fall Out Boy's "Sugar We're Going Down" without thinking of this once you've seen it. Go here, it's funny, I promise.

I'll do a proper post soon, things have been busy but boring, so there isn't much to tell. Christmas was good, got a lot of nerdy stuff-computer & music related-but I wanted it all so it's all good:) I'm starting work on my podcast, more info to come.
Ciao,
Sasha

Music Recommendations

Well, I haven't posted recommendations in a while, things have been fairly busy getting ready for the holidays and such. So, here are a few suggestions and musings...

First of all, for you Green Day fans, you MUST download "Shoplifter," the B-side off the "American Idiot" EP. It's hilarous, sounds kind of Beatles'-esque (in a very cheeky way) and is just a fun song.

For lighter rock fans, try "Take Me Away" by the Plain White T's, and "No Goodbyes" by the Subways. The iTunes music store doesn't have it yet (just their song "Rock and Roll Queen" from The OC, which makes me cringe a little, but the song is really good), but you can download it for free on Pure Volume.

The whole album is good, but if you only want to try one song, you must try "An Honest Mistake" by The Bravery.

I've dug a little into Atreyu and though there are parts of songs I like, I don't really like the straight out screaming/rooooaaar approach bands like this one take. I'm not sure what they're trying to do exactly, but it just isn't my thing.

With all the hype around Fall Out Boy, I've been listening to them a bit, and they're ok. Not bad, but I've yet to figure out why there's such mania surrounding them. (I will confess that I like "Dance Dance" by FOB though...am I on the slippery slope??) Same with Hawthorne Heights. I've yet to figure out why people are so nuts about them. I got my hands on a few tracks by them and need to listen to them a few more times before I make any kind of a statement on them. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this, but I'm definitely getting into Good Charlotte...also listening to a bit of Taking Back Sunday which is rather good and not so screamy.

Anyways, definitely looking forward to Christmas and an extra day off from work:) I found a freelancing music job that I'm going to apply for, no pay but free cd's and tickets which isn't at all bad. Now I just need to sit my butt down and write a sample review for them...

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, happy whatever-wintery-holiday-you-celebrate!
Ciao,
Sasha

Kinda funny

So, I have difficulty with all those celebrities hauling around their miniature dogs like the latest fashion accessory, but what cracks me up is that some celebs are trying to do the same thing with cats. I think Trent from Pink is the New Blog put it best:

"Hmm ... it looks like the latest celebrity trend is to pitch the pooch and pick up a kitty cat to cart around ... Nicole Richie recently acquired a cat and so has Mischa Barton. I really don't think that it is a good idea to shove a cat into a purse and expect it to play along nicely. This sounds like a really bad idea. "

Yes, an exceedingly bad idea. Can you even imagine?? See, this is why I think cats are superior to dogs, they won't put up with that crap! I'm just waiting for Mischa Barton or Nicole Richie to get their eyes scratched out as they try to put a terrified cat in their purse. That will be hilarious!
Ciao,
Sasha

Michigan, the winter wonderland

Well, for those of you not in Michigan, we were "blessed" with a ton of snow on Thursday. It began snowing around 9am and didn't let up for about 8 hours. Needless to say, the roads were a bit of a mess that day, but it is so amazingly beautiful (too bad it has to be cold to snow...). Anyways, I thought I'd share a few pictures of it all. Unfortunatley the pictures seem to lose something, maybe it just wasn't sunny enough when I took them, but you still get the idea. Doesn't it make you just want to curl up inside with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book?

It definitely has gotten me really in the mood for the holidays (and I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping--yay!) Got the Christmas cards done and mailed which is way better than I can say for myself last year...they just never got done at all, so they may be a little late this year, but at least I did them!

Other than that things have been busy but not terribly interesting. In my next post I'll have some current music commentary, but I need to finish wading through this weeks downloads, purchases and such before getting into that. One quick thing on that note though, I'd really recommend checking out Men, Women & Children and Action Action (though, unless you were at their show at the Blind Pig a week and a half ago, you'll have to settle for checking out their cd's). Men, Women and Children even got a write-up in the January 2006 issue of Alternative Press as one of the most anticipated albums of 2006. I'd almost put money down that these two bands are going to be getting airplay by this time next year. Let's see what happens....
Ciao,
Sasha

Weekend in DC

Well, it may be back to the grind, I may be tired, but I had a fantastic weekend in DC. Getting there wasn't so easy though... I left bright and early Friday morning and was a little worried since we'd gotten somewhere between 4 and 6 inches of snow overnight. Things are ok at first but they have to de-ice the plane which took about half an hour. So we're sitting there on the runway, they've finished de-icing and then the captain comes on and says that there's a problem with the engine and we have to go back to the gate. More time passes and then they make the announcement that we're going to have to change planes and that there's room for everyone on the next flight. Wrong, there isn't room for everyone so I end up on the 10:25am flight despite the fact that I should have been on the 6:40am flight. Ok, not that big a deal, I'd rather they find an engine problem on the ground than in the air. Some people get all hyper about the situation and, sure, I'd have liked not to have been delayed, but what can you do? No point in getting all excited. Finally got to Reagan though it took another hour to get my bag, which did make me a little worried...

Headed over to CUA and met Cara for lunch, caught up on tons of stuff and had a great time. She had to go to work so Shannon came and picked me up and we went to her place and just chilled for a while. Then it was down to the Front Page in DuPont for happy hour. Shannon and I met up with Cara and Lindsey there, drank quite a lot and just generally had a lot of fun. From there Cara, Shannon and I went to the Big Hunt, drank more, decided it would be a good idea to actually eat something instead of just drinking all night. Sadly we were home by 11pm, though I suppose that isn't too bad since we started drinking at 6pm. Here are a few pics of the fun:




Yeah, it was definitely a lot of fun:) Saturday Shannon and I headed over to Pentagon City to do some shopping. We were actually both really good and didn't get anything for ourselves, just did some Christmas shopping for other people. Honestly, it's extremely unusual that the two of us made it out of there without having spent money on ourselves. Go us. Later on we went over to her yoga studio for a holiday party. Nothing too exciting there, then we went to Cleveland Park for dinner, had drinks at Aroma, a very cute but very expensive martini bar. We then headed over to the Reef in Adams Morgan. The place was packed, way more crowded than I've ever seen it, but it was so fun. I got asked out, Shannon got a call from a guy who asked for her number on Friday, we almost witnessed a fight, and had drinks bought for us--definitely a good night:) Sunday was pretty low-key, had brunch on U Street and basically just hung out till it was time for me to go back to Reagan. Luckily my flight back was not nearly as eventful as my flight to DC. It was sad to leave after having such a fun weekend, but also kinda good to get home.

So, now it's back to the usual stuff, work is work, I've got to finish my Christmas shopping and all that good stuff. I can't believe Christmas is so soon! Anyways, it was a great weekend overall, I definitely miss Shannon, Cara and Lindsey and I'll have to go back and visit again before too long:)
Ciao,
Sasha

Action Action

So, despite my cold and the cold, I decided to go see Action Action at the Blind Pig last night. I got there while Men, Women & Children were still playing which was kind of cool. I can't say I knew much of their stuff other than the song "Lightning Strikes Twice in New York" but they were entertaining and put on a good show. I knew a tiny bit more about Action Action and I'm really glad I went to see them, because I definitely like their stuff. It was fun being at such an intimate show too. I feel bad for the bands because there really weren't too many people there (maybe the cold? maybe the fact that it was a tuesday night and all the students are getting ready for finals??) but it also made it sort of feel like the show was just for you. Anyways, Action Action played "Drug Like" and "Let's Never Go to Sleep" off their last album as well as a bunch of songs that will be on their new cd out in about a month. Yeah, so, really glad I saw them. I think I'd be kicking myself if I had chickened out.

I forgot to mention that I saw "Rent" over the weekend. It was really good--definitely different from the stage version which I've seen twice, but I still enjoyed it (and cried, of course). I'd recommend it even if there are some things I think miss as a result of being put on celluloid, but I guess that's the way it goes.

Heading off to DC bright and early Friday morning, zillions of things to do before then and not much time to do it, but I'm psyched about being down there and seeing people (and it can't possibly be colder there than it is here, so, bonus).
Ok, I think it should be bedtime,
Ciao (and check out Action Action),
Sasha

Musings

First off, curse whomever gave me this stupid cold. I can't breathe, can't sleep and feel generally rotten. I'm whiny and I know I'm whiny which just makes me irritated with myself but I can't help it. I feel lousy but not really lousy enough to call into work, so yeah...fun Monday. I know part of it is totally my fault, I should have just stayed in bed all weekend instead of going out Saturday and Sunday night but oh well. Right, so, enough complaining.

I went and saw The Nutcracker performed by the Joffrey Ballet at the Detroit Opera House last night and it was so beautiful. I haven't been to the ballet in a million years and can't remember the last time I actually saw The Nutcracker live. It made me all ready for Christmas and really brought back the days when I wanted desperately to grow up and be a ballerina. I have such admiration for the dancers, it was incredible and I just can't fathom how they can make it through an entire ballet on pointe and not just be crippled with pain. I mean, I got far enough in ballet that I got my pointe shoes, but good god, the pain was excruciating. As a skater I skated through pain plenty of times, but I don't think it really ever compared to the pain of pointe shoes.

There were so many kids at the performance too which I thought was really great. Sometimes you wonder if parents take kids to stuff like that anymore or if they just plop them in front of the tv or computer instead of doing "cultural" stuff, but there were tons of them there last night. It was so cute too because some of them just seemed blown away by it all and really, who wouldn't be even as an adult? It got me thinking about something. I mean, the 2 year old little girl sitting behind me loved the "princess" (Sugar Plum Fairy) but so did I and I'm 27. So, do you ever outgrow that little, tiny bit of you that wants to be a princess? I mean, sure, I know I'll never be a ballerina, but hey, there's still a part of me that loves the whole sequins, glitter, and tutu type stuff. Is it just me? Is it all women to some extent or do some people lose that sort of awe and love and little-girlishness inside? Maybe I'm nuts but I just sort of couldn't help but wonder. I guess even if I am nuts it would be kind of sad to totally lose that awe and wonder.

Oh well, never mind me. Maybe it's the lack of sleep talking...
Ciao,
Sasha

This Week's Musical Recommendations

Ok, here are a few music recommendations for this week.

The lesser-known stuff (aka you'll be ahead of everybody else when these bands hit it big):
"Let's Never Go to Sleep" and "Drug Like" by Action Action. You can download it free here. Really like the song and they'll be playing at the Blind Pig this Tuesday. Doors at 7pm, $8 cover, and Otto Vector and Men, Women and Children open.

"The Third Grasp's the Charm," "Smoke Em if You Got Em" and "Box Lunch at the Y" by Forever In Effigy. You can download the tracks at Pure Volume for free.

"The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage" and "Dance Dance" by Panic! At the Disco. (Yes, they get the award for longest song title of the day, no they're not disco). You can download both tracks here for free.

The better-known stuff (aka songs in the mix on Virgin Extreme and Kerrang! 102.5 right now):
"Juicebox" The Strokes
"Munich" The Editors
"Hysteria" Muse
"Walk Away" and "Do You Want To" Franz Ferdinand

And yes, Pure Volume is one of my new favorite sites. It's a great place to go to find out about the lesser-known bands out there, but also a good place to check out musicians that are getting more radio-play. Also a good place to get info on the Warped Tour.

More recommendations next week~
Ciao,
Sasha

They ARE Okay

**This is a little story I just wrote in application for a job at the Alternative Press. I'm actually quite pleased with it so I thought I'd share. I had to include samples of writing about music, so I went ahead and picked a topic I like and know a bit about. Yeah, I know, "obsess much" but aren't you supposed to write about things you like & know? Anywho, wish me luck with the job!**

They Are Okay
How the five self-professed geeks of My Chemical Romance took the music industry by storm and head into 2006 to record one of the year’s most anticipated albums.

Lately it seems like you can’t pick up a music magazine without reading something about My Chemical Romance. These five boys from Jersey have gone from relative nobodies to rubbing elbows with the likes of Billie Joe Armstrong, Diddy and Jay-Z all in what seems like a matter of months. So, the question that a lot of slightly jaded twenty-something music-listeners are asking is, “why should I give a rat’s ass about MCR?” Good question. Here’s why.

Because they’re really good. Because they’ve brought something to their music that all of the other screamo/emo/metal/whatever-genre-you-want-to-put-MCR-in bands have been lacking. Because they’ve got charisma. Because their live shows are non-stop music. Because they’ve worked their little Jersey asses off. Because their next album is one of the most anticipated in the industry.

For those readers that somehow managed to avoid all mention of My Chemical Romance for the last year, here’s a little background on the quintet. Though each member of MCR grew up with music in his life in some manner, the spark for actually putting a band together was, in many ways, the result of September 11th. Frontman Gerard Way was burdened with the difficulty of making it as a comic book artist in New York City when the Twin Towers were hit and the struggle to comprehend what had just happened combined with the difficulty of making it as an artist forced Way to reassess his life and the direction it was taking. Ultimately, and luckily for music fans around the world, Way decided to hang up his paintbrush and began writing songs. He reconnected with Ray Toro, a buddy from Way’s childhood, and the two went about pulling together a seemingly rag-tag group that would one day become one of the hottest bands to hit the stage. Way seduced his younger brother Mikey to join as bassist and he was then followed by the addition of guitarist Frank Iero and drummer Matt Pelissier.

The band cut their first album for Eyeball Records and was challenged by the difficulty and luck of being connected to another Jersey-born band, Thursday. Though comparisons were inevitable, the contacts proved useful and “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love” helped MCR develop a fan base both in the U.S. as well as in other countries. It wasn’t until the release of “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge” in 2004 that U.S. listeners really began to take notice of the band. The combination of strong song-writing, music videos that verge on miniature movies, incessant touring and a strong following resulting from the Warped Tour helped make MCR one of the biggest bands of 2005, culminating with their first headlining tour and their nomination for three VMA’s including Best New Artist, Best Rock Video and Best Choreography.

The rise to fame wasn’t without its difficulties though and much has been written about the troubles MCR faced in the course of their ascendancy within the music world. Way’s downward spiral into alcohol and drugs, Pelissier’s dismissal from the band and replacement by Bob Bryar and the challenges posed by constant touring have all impacted the five young men making up MCR today. While such events are impossible to ignore, at this point in the band’s existence, it seems more rewarding to look at where the band is headed rather than look at what is practically ancient history in the music world.

Currently, My Chemical Romance is finishing up their first headlining tour with a number of shows in Canada and Australia. They’ve recently made appearances on Fuse’s “Daily Download,” MTV’s “TRL” as well as getting to participate in the Leeds and Reading music festivals in the U.K. and perform at the VMA’s. One would anticipate that a vacation of some sort should be in MCR’s future, though it seems that the wave of momentum from the last year will actually spur these five into the recording studio sooner rather than later. What will the third My Chemical Romance album bring to listeners? It’s difficult to say since Gerard Way has made comments that the next album will be taking the band in a new direction. Whatever the final result is, fans can be sure that the Way brothers, Iero, Toro and Bryar will throw themselves into it with the same passion and intensity as they’ve put into everything for the last four years. Is taking the band in a new direction risky? Sure it is. Is it difficult following up a wildly successful album with another that is equally, if not more, successful? Of course. Is My Chemical Romance up to the challenge? You bet. They’ll no doubt head into 2006 and the recording studio with guns blazing and their fans can’t wait to see the results.

Phew...

Good news, I FINALLY got into a class I needed at MSU so I can get on with this whole journalism program. Luck of the draw, I just happened to be in the scheduling system at the very moment somebody dropped the class...bad for other people, good for me:) I was really getting worried there, didn't think I'd ever get in.
Yeah, so guess I'm going to MSU:)

Band Names I'd Like to See

Ok, as promised, a list of band names (some good, some not so much) that I'd get a kick out of seeing somebody use:

The Ultraviolet Catastrophe
Q-tip Deathtrap
Birdbath Weedwackers
The
The Wannabe Hacks
The Toaster Rodents
The Sod Rodents
Nutvial
Peen
Le Pond
Yve
Digr
Webchai
The Mapmen
Eatoz
Ing
Vivatext

Er, yeah...like I said, some are better than others. Most were products of the Scrabble game between me, Husband and Wife though some just came up in conversation (don't ask how, I'm really not sure, but it all stems from "The Pocket DJ").
Ciao,
Sasha

Thanksgiving Weekend

Yuck, the Monday after Thanksgiving is definitely no fun. I looooovvved having a long weekend...not happy to be back at work, that's for sure. Thanksgiving day was really nice, my brother and sister-in-law came over for dinner and we rounded out the evening with a rather mental game of Scrabble. For once I won by a landslide (Wife usually wins when we play), but maybe the only reason I won was because we decided that you had to create band names and you got double points if you were able to do a real band name. We came up with some pretty crazy possibilities, I'll have to share some of them but I don't have the list with me right now, so that'll have to wait.

Did a little Christmas shopping on Friday, spent a bucket of money at Borders but don't feel too guilty about it:) Then I went and saw "Walk the Line" on Saturday with Husband and Wife. It was really, really good! Definitely go see it, great acting and I give Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon a lot of credit for doing their own singing. Wow, great film...if it doesn't win some awards I'll be stunned. Before we went to the movies, Husband, Wife and I went to Ashley's for a few beers and I think Husband wins for best quote of the night. Somehow we got talking about Brad Pitt and his role in "Thelma & Louise". I argued that was his "break-out" role, Husband retorted, "That wasn't a break-out role, that was a happy accident!" Hmm, maybe you had to be there, but I find his argument about it being a "happy accident" pretty damn funny.

Not too much else exciting going on. I'm playing with the idea of going to see Brendan Benson at the Blind Pig on Friday...we'll see. Still working on expanding my musical tastes/knowledge and have been listening to some stuff by the Psychadelic Furs, The Ramones, Joy Division and The Stone Roses over the weekend. Psyched that Kerrang 105.2 has been playing Alkaline Trio lately along with their usual good mix of stuff (which, of course, includes MCR).


And finally, just because it makes me happy and it's the Monday after Thanksgiving, and I need something to be happy about, here's a photo from MCR's latest appearance on Daily Download. Oh yeah, one more thing, if you haven't submitted any playlists to Spin's Pocket DJ contest, do it! The best part is coming up with weird-ass playlist titles (Husband, you better work on that "The world can go f$@# itself" playlist!)

Happy playlist-ing (I know it isn't a verb, humor me, just go with it).
Ciao,
Sasha

An Evening at the Firefly Club & Blind Pig

Despite the cold, I ended up venturing forth with Jim to check out some music at the Firefly Club last night. We went and saw the Maypops and if UltraViolet was totally lacking in originality, the Maypops made up for their lack of creativity. They played a number of songs off their cd "Spirits of Agnew" including "Blackeyed Susan", "Yola My Blues Away", "The Bloom is Off the Rose", "Stuck in First" and "Hangman." They also played a song called "Avalanche" which was just generally an awesome song, I wish it was on their cd. There's a tremendous amount of talent in that band and watching George Bedard play was nothing short of amazing. I still am blown away by people that can actually sing and play an instrument at the same time and do both well but to play as well as George Bedard...holy crap. Amazing. Overall it was a good set and I have to give Khalid Hanifi credit for writing some pretty amusing lyrics (I mean, how often do you hear the word "hubris" in rock?).

From there we ended up heading over to the Blind Pig to see what was going on there. When we got there there was a fairly poor rapper on stage, but again, gotta give him credit for having the guts to get up there and do it. However, I think that some of the poets I saw at the poetry slam had more passion and more lyrical ability (and performance talent) than this guy had. After that there was a good rock band (I think they were called Wylde) who had sort of a Incubus-Red Hot Chili Peppers-Linkin Park thing going on. Some of their songs were really good, particularly "Pacifica" and I had sort of hoped their set would be a little longer. After them was Approaching Zero (again, pretty sure that's what their name was) and, as Jim astutely observed, it seems like they must listen to a lot of Korn... They were my least favorite of the night, even below the so-so rapper that started things at the BP. At the risk of sounding like my mother, it didn't seem like much more than them screaming and playing their guitars really loudly, I mean, Wylde was loud, aggressive and impossible to understand their lyrics, but there still seemed to be more musical talent there than with Approaching Zero. All in all it was a really fun night, we got to see some cool music, go to some new places (I'd never been to the Firefly Club and hadn't been to the Blind Pig since I was in college). Must keep trying new things...

I'm having trouble getting into classes at MSU which is making me really anxious...I didn't think everything would be full already. Maybe I can talk my way into a class or two...stress. Randomly I found openings for two music related writing jobs, one in California and one in New York and just bit the bullet and sent in my resume. What the heck, it doesn't cost me anything. I doubt I'll hear anything from either of them, but I figured I'd give it a try. I also sent my resume to Rolling Stone and Alternative Press, no official openings there but I might as well give it a try. The worst that happens is that nothing happens and if this is what I want, I need to try even if it's somewhat terrifying.

It's snowing like crazy here, I guess we'll have a white Thanksgiving. Very psyched about tomorrow & getting to see my bro & his wife and eating lots of good food. Well, that's it for now--Happy Thanksgiving!
Ciao,
Sasha

Grrr

Right, so, my current place of employment is really starting to get to me. There are a certain few people that just irritate me beyond words...one of them is The Supervisor. Now, I know I've ranted about her in the past but lately she's been particularly bad.

The Supervisor's deal is this, she's lazy and things only get accomplished once her ass is on the line or a situation has reached a crisis point. Even when things get to that point she usually tells somebody else to do whatever it was that should have been done days, weeks or months ago. She's a lousy supervisor and an even worse manager. How she keeps her job I really don't know. She never comes in before 9:30 or 10:00am and then, when she is here, spends half the day yakking away on the phone on personal call after personal call. What really gets me is that when certain other people in the office make mistakes, she lets it slide but if I make the slightest mistake, she's on me so fast I can't believe it. Can we say favoritism? I think these other people get away with it because they kiss up to her whereas I just come in, do my job and go home. I am not her friend. I do not want to be her friend. I do not think we should be friends. Clearly I am in the minority and am suffering for this. The Supervisor has never gotten back to me about whether or not I can have that one day off to go to DC which annoys me since she said she would. We had a customer/client that was irate about a certain situation last week, she called The Supervisor, had to leave a message (because The Supervisor was, of course, not here). The Supervisor just sent around a lot of emails once she became aware of the situation, let one of the other employees call to placate the client and take care of the situation and The Supervisor NEVER EVEN RETURNED THE CLIENT'S CALL! Her response was that the other employee had taken care of it. Well, wait a minute, if you're supposed to be the manager, and part of your job is keeping clients happy, shouldn't you follow up on something like that? I mean, the client was REALLY pissed. It's just a good PR move if nothing else. God.

The other person that has been getting to me lately is someone who I thought was ok when I first met her, for now, let's call her the Ice Queen. She seemed like a hard worker, was friendly etc. Apparently I must have done something to piss off the Ice Queen because she hardly even speaks to me when I address her. I just get these sort of grunts in return which seems so stupidly childish to me. I haven't a clue what I did that made her mad, we hardly even really work together. She works in one section of the office doing one thing and I'm in a different part doing something else. One day I was asked by another employee to help the Ice Queen out since she was swamped. I went to her area of the office, she gets up, leaves and then my phone rings. It's the Supervisor, she says "the Ice Queen does not want your help, you can go back to what you had been doing." Ouch. It wasn't the fact that I didn't get to help, I could care less about that, it was the way The Supervisor worded it. "does not want your help". Yeah, that stung. So, between the Ice Queen and The Supervisor, it's getting a bit miserable working here. I really need to get out of here.

In music: probably going to see the Maypops tonight at the Firefly Club which I'm pretty psyched about. There was a big article about them in the A2 News on Sunday so I'll be interested to see what they're like. Continuing my musical explorations I just added some more stuff to "the list of music I *should* listen to" (which is the acutally the title of my playlist:) :
The Clash
Taking Back Sunday
Idlewild
Hard-Fi
The Ramones
The Smiths

Working on this...also thinking of starting my own podcast, but I need to get more info on it first. I hope today gets better, I started out by oversleeping, getting a pissy email from The Supervisor, having to work with the Ice Queen and being desperately in need of coffee (see: oversleeping). Aargh, aargh aargh.
Ciao,
Sasha

Trying new things

Well, I'm feeling mostly human again though it took till near 4pm this afternoon before the hangover really wore off. God, haven't felt quite that out of it after a night of drinking in a while...maybe it was the fact I was out till 2am. Maybe it was the fact that I really didn't eat much yesterday and then drank too much on a near empty stomach...who knows. It was well worth the hangover though.

The evening began with a happy hour at Grizzly Peak. I didn't really know too many of the people in the group except for Elana, most of them were just acquaintances but it was ok, entertaining and people were nice. I got to see some people I hadn't seen in a long time which was fun too. From there the group was going to head over to Live, though the plan ended up changing when we found that they didn't serve food and some of the girls wanted to eat. Went over to Full Moon, plan aborted again when Dana suggested that everyone go over to her parents' restaurant because there we could drink for free. Elana had already taken off and I kind of wanted to check out Live so I met up with Jim at Starbucks and then we headed over to Live. Live just opened maybe a month ago or so and this was the first time I'd been there. I liked it though, much better than Gracie's downstairs which is just way too small to have any kind of live music. So, Jim and I got some drinks, chatted about all sorts of stuff and then the evening's band began. The band was "Ultra-Violet" and they were a pretty good cover band. Low on originality but they did do some pretty good covers--stayed quite true to the originals in many cases. After the first half Jim and I headed out and ended up at the Fleetwood. God, I haven't been to the Fleetwood in AGES. That place just amuses me and it's so Ann Arbor...yeah, so I ended up having way too much coffee for 1am and felt like ass this morning from the entire combination of things, but had a great time despite how lousy I felt when I woke up:) It's nice to have found somebody who is willing to go check out music & stuff in Ann Arbor (not that Husband isn't interested, but I know he's got lots of stuff on his proverbial plate at the moment:)

I'm really working to expand my musical tastes too. I feel like there's this huge list of music that I *should* like or at least should have heard so I can have an informed opinion on, so I've taken it upon myself to work on this. Luckily, the library is a fantastic way of getting one's hands on cd's to try without having to actually buy them (I'm hardly afraid to buy stuff, but I've got a long list of things I *need* to try, and I'd go broke pretty fast if I bought it all, so for now, my library card is getting quite the workout.) So, these are the albums I'm starting with for now:

The Libertines "The Libertines" (Pete Doherty--can't decide how I feel about him. From what I've read there's a certain amount of "genius" in his music but he's such a trainwreck at the same time...need to think about this some more).
The Doves: "The Last Broadcast" --love "Pounding", need to really listen to the rest of the album
Primal Scream: "Evil Heat"
The Von Bondies: "Pawn Shoppe Heart"
The Smiths "Louder than Bombs"
The Dead Kennedys "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables"
New Order: "Substance"
The Psychadelic Furs "All of this and Nothing"

I think this is plenty to start with:) Of course I'll report on them as I digest them a bit more. I really don't know what I'd do without music...that's a long narrative though, I'll save it for another day when I'm less tired.

Ciao,
Sasha

Owww. I think my head is going to explode which means last night was a very good night. More on this when the edge of my hangover has worn off.

Life isn't fair

Life really isn't fair at times. I'm so excited about going to DC and then I'm told today by my boss that I might not be able to have the time off because other members of the clerical staff are away that same day. This is NOT fair! I hardly ever take time off, I don't give them any trouble, I do the shit jobs that nobody else wants to do and I want one lousy day off so I can go see some friends I haven't seen in months and I might not get to go. THIS SUCKS. She said they'd see if they can get a float in for the day but god, I'm so annoyed and depressed about this. I mean, one of the few stupid things I had to look forward to after all the crap that's happened in the last few months and now I might not even be able to go. Maybe I should just call in sick that day. God, I've got a plane ticket and everything and I don't even want to think about what it'll cost to change the ticket. Probably almost as much as the ticket itself cost.

So annoyed...and based on my lack of luck lately, they won't be able to get a float which means I won't get to go to DC that weekend. I HATE THIS JOB AND MY STUPID SUPERVISOR!

I guess it's really winter...

Well, I guess there's no point denying it any longer. It's finally winter. Ugh. It was snowing pretty heavily here this morning but seems to have stopped already (fine by me). As much as I'll bitch about it (and, oh yes, I will bitch about it) there's still something sort of magical about the first few snowfalls of the year. Sure, it can be a huge pain, and, unfortunately, with the snow comes the cold (I think that's what I dislike the most, the bitter cold), but right now snow gets me thinking of Thanksgiving, which, in turn, gets me thinking about Christmas. I love the holidays, I love the fact that my brother and his wife will be over for Thanksgiving. I love giving people presents. I love our little Chirstmas rituals like having coffee and eggs benedict on Christmas morning, going to mass on Christmas Eve, squirrling away presents so people won't find them early...yeah, I may hate the snow once January rolls around, but right now there is still a little something fun about it. I can't help it, I guess it's the kid in me or something:)

As far as fun news goes, I bought a ticket to go to DC for the second weekend in December. I'm really psyched to see Shannon, I can't believe I haven't seen her since April. I hope I'll get to see some of the other few people I miss (Alcarwen, do you think you'll be around that weekend or will you be up to your eyeballs in papers??) It'll be nice to get away for a few days, not so much from Ann Arbor (still happy to be back) but to have a little space from the parents. Yay, I hope it's as fun as I anticipate!

Guitar continues to go well, I've definitely gotten a lot better at "Good Riddance" and my teacher is now having me learn"I Should Have Known Better" by The Beatles. What's also cool is that he told me to start thinking about what songs I want to learn and it can be anything I like! Fun! Of course I need to find stuff that I know almost all the chords for (I imagine if there's one chord I don't know he'll teach it to me) and that aren't too horribly complicated, but I really like the fact that he's letting me have a say in some things. My old piano teacher never let me pick stuff to learn, so this makes me really happy.

One other thing, Spin magazine is having a cool contest right now that you iPod folks should check out. It's connected with Ultragrrrl's book The Pocket DJ and the gist of it is that Spin wants you to submit any playlist you've created for your iPod and the winner gets a 30gb video iPod. I never win anything but it was still kinda fun to post one of my many playlists:) Check iout the details here. Go on, you know you want to!
Stay warm,
Ciao,
Sasha

Weekend Update

Well, I had all these grandiose plans for the weekend and, though I still did stuff, it wasn't nearly as fun-filled as I'd hoped. Friday night, instead of going to see Mustard Plug at the Blind Pig, I chickened out (yeah, going alone took more guts than I had on Friday) and ended up going over to a friend's and we ended up just drinking beer and watching The Royal Tenenbaums (which she fell asleep during). So much for a wild and crazy Friday night. God my life is boring.

Saturday I'd planned to go to a MeetIn Detroit event but found that I had too much little shit to do around the house and had tickets to see La Boheme with my mom for that evening and didn't think I'd be able to make it to Plymouth and back in time to make it to Detroit for the opera. La Boeheme was much better than Norma, that's for sure. It makes me quite excited to see the movie version of Rent that's coming out soon (also really want to see Walk the Line). Beautiful music, sad story, nice evening, but again, Saturday was not all I'd planned it to be. Then I was an idiot and stayed up till 3am reading so I was exhausted on Sunday. Wise choice on my part. Suddenly it's Monday again and why is it that the weekdays can't go as fast as the weekends? Not fair.

I did go to Borders yesterday and got two fun books. One is Ultragrrrl's book, The Pocket DJ which is just fun because it's got all sorts of playlists in it as well as some fun trivial facts about musicians and bands. The other one is iPod Therefore I Am and the title alone is amusing. Haven't started reading it yet, should be pretty interesting though (its about the place of the iPod in digital music, the author's own musical development etc.)

Randomly, I have also decided I want to go to NYC for a few days. I haven't been there in a million years and certainly haven't been there since I was old enough to be allowed to run around NYC alone. I'm going to try and convince Shannon that this is a good idea and we should go. Other than that, it's now getting officially cold in Michigan and I hate it. This was one of the few good things about DC-mild winters. I HATE Michigan winters. It's basically ok until you get to New Year's and then there's nothing fun to look forward to and you just get sick of the cold, nasty grayness of it all. Ugh, ugh ugh.
So, on that happy note,
Ciao,
Sasha

Random stuff

Ok, this will be pretty random but I've got a few things to comment on/recommend.

First of all, you should definitely check out Pink is the New Blog if you like snarky celebrity gossip. Hilarious site, great waste of time.

I'm pretty late on this one, but even though I've had "Hot Fuss" by The Killers for ages, and I've had "Mr. Brightside" and "Somebody told Me" on my iPod since last year, I've only just actually been listening to the whole album. I quite like it, (yeah, yeah, I know, who cares, it's already been reviewed as a good album, won awards etc) but if you're holding out for whatever reason, you should go to iTunes and download it. (on a side note, we know my love for certain guys wearing eyeliner and let me just add, Brandon Flowers can pull it off). I really like "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine," "Smile Like You Mean It," "All These Things That I've Done," and "Andy, You're a Star".

Ok, um, also got the Kaiser Chiefs album "Employment" which I first came across when I was in England. I'd wager that they're going to become quite big here once more word gets round 'bout them (course, maybe word has gotten round and I'm just out of the loop since I refuse to listen to the rather crappy radio stations we have and listen to London radio instead). A few songs I'd particularly recommend: "Modern Way", "Everyday I Love You Less and Less" and "Oh My God".

Er, what else...Vaux "Are You With Me" is a good song. Totally different sort of thing from The Killers or Kaiser Chiefs. I also recommend The Subways "No Goodbyes" and The Tears "Refugees". Also, if you didn't take my recommendation on The Stone Roses "I Wanna Be Adored" go listen to it! Go listen to the Doves! Go listen to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's "The Weight of the World! If you haven't heard "The Importance of Being Idle" off the most recent Oasis album, download it! It's weird but quite catchy (another one I brough back from England) Yay for britpop!

Continuing on the all-things-British (or close) thread: very excited by the fact that a H & M will be opening in Ann Arbor this spring. Now we just need a Lush and I'll be in heaven.

Thinking of heading out to DC for a weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I've got a bunch of people I miss pretty badly and I think a weekend away would be very good for me:) Of course I also miss going out to Adams Morgan, DuPont Circle, Georgetown and Chinatown. I don't miss Brookland at all though and I can't say I really miss CUA. Anywho, once I get the go ahead from my best bud down there for the weekend I've been thinking about, I'm there. Pretty psyched at the idea.

Well, that's about all the news that's fit to print for now. Work is dragging by dreadfully slowly today, so glad it's Friday!
Ciao,
Sasha

Andrew Kendall-Awesome Photographer

Hey all,
First off, thank you to everyone who has been so supportive through my whole job search catastrophe. Your kind words really mean a lot to me and I'm lucky to have you all! The plan for the moment is to continue as before, go to MSU get a minor in journalism and see what happens. I think I'm also going to see about getting some work writing for small publications-music reviews, concerts etc. Not so much for the money, more to build more of a portfolio. I've got a few ideas for this (though one of them is just to spend a lot of time at the Blind Pig checking out little known bands. Hey, could be worse, I mean, Nirvana, REM, The Smashing Pumpkins, Soul Asylum & Pearl Jam all played there before hitting it big:) Yeah, so, if you ever feel like catching a show or something, let me know, I'm sure I'd want to check it out. Thinking of going to see Mustardplug tomorrow night, feel like coming too?

In other news, I've heard through the grapevine that Andrew Kendall, a really awesome British photographer, recently had £5,000 worth of camera equipment snatched. Worst of all, his insurance will not pay for it even though the stuff was insured. Anyways, to make a long story short, he's up the creek and needs to make some money so he can buy new camera gear. What this comes down to is selling prints of his photos. Now, aside from the fact that you'd be helping him out, his photos are amazing and if you like concert photography, you MUST check out his stuff. Here are a few samples (and, yes, it doesn't hurt that he's taken some great photos of MCR, but that aside, he's a really good photographer!!)

Sorry about the wonky formatting on that. You get the idea anyways.

Right, so, nothing else new right now except communication issues with my mom. I tell her my plan for the future (going to school) and she keeps handing me job postings. I know she means well, but god, some of this stuff you wonder if she even read. I mean, I want a job and all, but working as a communications associate for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission is not exactly what I'm looking for, yet, here I am with the job listing in my hands courtesy of mom. How do you tell someone who means well to lay off a bit? There's no good way to do it without hurting feelings, so I guess I'll suck it up, grit my teeth and smile and nod.

Aargh. Ciao, Sasha

Bad News

I think I need to find a bridge to jump off of. Didn't get the job at AMG. Not to be overly dramatic about things but I feel completely hopeless right now. I am never going to find a job. I am never going to move out of my parents' house. I am never going to do anything worthwhile in my life. I can't get a teaching job. I can't get a non-teaching job. What is it about me that I'm always in the "final cut" of interviewees but never am the one that gets offered the job? What did I do wrong in this life or a past life? I feel like karma is kicking me in the head repeatedly for something truly awful I did at some point.

I am so sick of this. Maybe I should have just stayed in DC.

Weekend Update

Moderately busy weekend, well, no, I lie, I didn't do a hell of a lot and it was great! Friday I got talked into going to this private party at a cosmetic boutique in Royal Oak. The concept was ok, but traffic was horrid all the way from Ann Arbor to Royal Oak, I was tired, had a rotten day at work and generally hungry and crabby. The place had cool stuff but it wasn't SO cool that I was willing to spend $35 on two eyeshadows like a friend of mine did. Oh well.

The highlight of Saturday was Husband and Wife coming over for dinner. The best part of all was the totally meandering, bizzarre and weird conversation we had after dinner. I believe it took a path something like this:
Guys wearing eyeliner->creepy actors->Alan Cumming->Alan Cumming has a fragrance-> Husband's fragrance would be bike oil and chain grease (hence, he doesn't have a fragrance for sale)->Steve Buscemi->Anthony Hopkins/Titus Andronicus->Husband wishing he had a hollow leg->Husband wishing he had a tapeworm->leeches/slugs->leeches, slugs & tapeworms are disgusting because they're tubular->dachshunds must therefore also be disgusting by that rationale->the hairy/fuzzy/furry/fluffy continuum->(the path gets a bit fuzzy here)->actors/actresses/celebs we don't like->ways of weeding people out->knowing a second date isn't worth it based on the music someone listens to (see below regarding DMB)->avoid dating people who only read books by John Grisham->avoid people who only listen to Dave Matthews Band->Ben Affleck is a pimple on the face of celebrity->->God, who knows where it went after that. I'm sure I missed some major stopping points but at this stage, I can't remember what else we talked about. I know Husband's Jackson Pollock gingerbread house came in there somewhere but I can't remember where for the life of me. Yeah, it was weird, but it was a damn good time. Those weird rambling ones are the best conversations! Good times. Oh yeah, if you have any opinions on any of these issues/topics, feel free to share:) Husband and Wife: if I missed something particularly "important" in this chain, let me know:)

Not much else here, just getting anxious about hearing something from AMG and slowly losing my mind...Work is hell today. I'm glad it's getting close to time to go. And finally, happiness is a picture of Mikey Way and Billie Joe Armstrong:

To be fair, it would be even more exciting if that guy wasn't in the middle and Gerard Way was there instead. Oh well...such is life:)

Ciao,
Sasha

A2 Poetry Slam and Music Recommendations

So, I went to my first ever A2 poetry slam on Tuesday night and it was awesome! It was such a mix of seriousness, irreverence, accordian playing, humor...crazy! I had a blast though and definitely want to go to the slam next month. I don't think I'd ever have the guts to get up and participate in the open mic or anything, but damn, there are some amazing poets out there! I think what struck me the most of all was just how alive it was. I mean, I love a lot of the famous published-type, canonized poets, but there's something so different about seeing somebody get up on stage, just put themselves out there and peform their poems. I can't explain it but it was so amazing and so far from the stuffy examiniation of poems, poets and poetry that I've been exposed to in grad school for the last two + years. The featured poet was Future and, my god, just amazing stuff. Not just his poems but his presentation as well. Awesome, awesome. It really made me want to start writing again. I should do something about that...

Work is work, nothing worth noting there.

In music news, Green Day just released the video to "Jesus of Suburbia". You can see the 9 minute uncensored version here. It's quite the epic. I'm not entirely sure what I think of it yet. It works for the song, but I guess I was expecting something more along the lines of the videos for "Holiday" or "Boulevard of Broken Dreams". I suppose I should watch it again before making any bold proclaimations:) I've been listening to Virgin Radio Extreme a lot at work lately and found two new songs I like quite a lot. They are "Modern Way" by the Kaiser Chiefs and "Weight of the World" by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Check them out!

I also have been listening a lot to some good bootleg/rare songs by MCR (including some stuff recorded at the concert I attended at EMU). You can download the songs along with some other really cool videos and such at The Big MCR Media List of Doom (there are also a lot of videos/mp3's etc. here for The Used, Fall Out Boy & 30 Seconds to Mars among others). In other MCR news, iTunes just put the videos for "Helena" and "Ghost of You" up for sale in the music store. I hope they put up the video for "I'm Not Okay" soon. The whole private school situation just cracks me up.

Um, also just "discovered" some stuff by the Doves ("Pounding") and the Stone Roses ("I Wanna Be Adored"). These aren't necessarily new songs, but they're new to me and I like them a lot--kind of cool & trippy sounding, along the lines of "Angel" by Massive Attack (also a really good song!). I've made up a playlist of all this stuff I *should* listen to. Things my brother has given me, things I've ripped but just never actually took the time to listen to--all that kind of stuff. Right now the list includes: The Killers (love a few songs but never bothered to listen to it all, don't ask me why), The Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, Franz Ferdinand, The Mean Reds, Operation Ivy, Finch, Hot Like a Robot...it's a pretty weird/sad list that there's all this stuff I need to listen to. My problem is I tend to get really into a few things and don't listen to anything else. Maybe there's a support group or something for people like me;)

Ok, those are my recommendations for today. And because photos of MCR just make me happy and it's gonna be one of those days...


Ciao!
Sasha

Happy Halloween!

Hey All,
Happy Halloween! Well, 'twas a good weekend. Friday I had the day off because I bailed out of the staff "retreat" (hey, they treat me like a temp, I AM a temp, why should I go to a retreat that I wasn't really invited to anyways nor do I care about?? I mean, really, what would you pick: a day off to sleep late and goof off OR a day of touchy-feely crap with a bunch of co-workers whom you could care less about (at least most of them)?? Not too tough a decision really.) Yeah, so Friday I had off and my parents headed to Indiana around noon, so I had most of the day to myself. I can't say I did anything terribly exciting, worked on my costume, watched "The Big Lebowski" (funny and I'd never seen it before) and the original "Psycho". Frankly, I was a bit disappointed in "Psycho". It wasn't all that scary even in a psycho-thriller kind of Hitchcockian way and I've seen other Hitchcock movies that were much more suspenseful. Oh well.

Saturday I finished work on my costume, practiced guitar, ran errands, and went to Husband and Wife's halloween party. It was a good time and there were certainly some entertaining costumes! Wife went as Billie Joe Armstrong which was hilarious, Husband was a bike messenger that got hit by a car, then there was Superman, Kryptonite, a bloke in drag, a couple that had just finished madly making out and/or having sex, and a king. Lots of yummy food and drinks were had (of course) and I was pretty pleased with my costume on the whole. I decided to go as Helena from My Chemical Romance's video for "Helena". I don't know how much I actually looked like her but it was fun to put the costume together and wear weird makeup. Here's a photo:



Pretty creepy, yeah? Sunday was far from exciting so I won't even bore you with the details. I really loved having the house to myself...is that awful of me? Oh well, can't help the way I feel. I had my second interview with AMG today, it went well but I won't hear anything from them till next week. I REALLY WANT THIS JOB! PLEASE let this work out finally! Aargh, I wonder if I should do some sort of a dance or make a sacrifice or something to get it... :) Just kidding (well, mostly kidding).

Rest of the week should be pretty dull...oh well. Such is life.
Fingers crossed!
Ciao,
Sasha

P.S. Happy B-day to Frank Iero from MCR! Maybe it's weird wishing somebody you don't know a happy b-day, but hey, everybody needs birthday wishes :)

More fun news...

Well, yesterday was quite the day! First I get that message from AMG (still quite excited) and then I have my guitar lesson. Best of all, my guitar teacher gave me a real song to learn and it is a Green Day song! I get to learn "Good Riddance" which is cool since it's one of my favorite songs anyways:)
Hmm, hopefully good things come in threes, not just bad things, in which case I'd really like my third good thing to happen on Monday at about 1:30pm...

In sadder news, I want to curse all those bloody squirrels that ate husband and wife's awesome jack o'lantern. Cheeky bastards. Just remember, you're rats with bushy tails, nothing more!

Ciao!
Sasha

WOO HOO!

Oh my GOD!!! AMG wants a second interview! I didn't expect to hear so soon:) They want me to come in on Monday, meet some more of the staff, work with their software, do some writing stuff with the other editors...scary and exciting! How cool would that be?? Heck, at least I made it into the second round, that's more than I can say for some other interviews I've gone on.
SO EXCITING!!!!

Music News

So, the interview at AMG seemed to go quite well. It was sort of a nice change from all those retarded behavioral type interview questions (stuff like, tell us about a time you failed at something and how you dealt with it, sort of crap). We basically sat there and talked music for about 45 minutes which was cool. The job sounds awesome, totally up my alley and I reeeeaaaallllly want it, which means I probably won't get it. Boo. I won't hear anything from them till next week but I really, really hope I at least get a second interview. I feel like the interviewer and I got along and hit it off, so hopefully that's a good thing. Please let this work out!!

Not much else besides a fun mail day. I got the new issue of Rolling Stone which has a huge article on Bono so that should be fun reading. I also just got my first issue of Interlude magazine. It's a new music magazine that's much less "mainstream" than Rolling Stone or Spin and seems quite cool. This is only their second issue and I'm pretty impressed with it(ok, quite impressed with it). There's a great article/interview with Gerard Way along with some awesome photos of My Chemical Romance:



(hmm, hopefully this isn't the only reason I like the magazine, I guess the jury will have to remain out till the next issue:) Check Interlude out though, it looks like we'll be seeing some good stuff from them in the future.

Ciao,
Sasha

Sunday nights are no fun

Well, another weekend is at its end. Yuck. Can't say I really look forward to going to work tomorrow. Of course, I know I shouldn't complain, the week is only three days for me (day off on Tuesday for an interview and going up to MSU and then the day off for a staff retreat I'm getting out of on Friday). Also looking forward to being on my own this coming weekend-parents out of town, and a Halloween party (quite happy with how my costume is coming along so far:) The interview seemed to go well but who really knows. I mean, I've gotten to this point before and haven't yet been offered a job. I'm supposed to hear sometime the end of next week but I'm not too nervous about it. I figure this won't be any different from the last few and it's pretty hard to keep that momentum/excitement up when I've just been severely disappointed in the past. Whatever.

My mom is back on her kick trying to get me to go to this young adult social group at church. Frankly, the idea makes me cringe. I mean, I can pretty much envision this--most likely a bunch of Jesus Freaks (or Bible Thumpers-call them what you will) and me feeling like a heathen and a hypocrite. I mean, I am hardly the best Catholic and for the most part I'm ok with that, I mean, I've made my choices and I don't regret them. However, being around a bunch of people that are very "good" Catholics, don't mind voicing their "good-Catholic-ness" and feeling like a total heathen in their midst does NOT sound like a fun evening to me. It isn't the fact that I wouldn't know anyone there, it's the fact that religion is involved. My mom is a much more religious person than I am, in fact, I'd say my faith has taken a serious nosedive since attending Catholic grad school and it hasn't improved with this whole job search thing. My mom's answer to a lot of things is to pray about it, well, I'm afraid I've tried that many times in many different situations, and it hasn't seemed to make a difference. I'm a bit skeptical. Well, we'll save my religion rant for another time. Suffice to say, I do not want to go to this young adult church thing. I foresee disaster.

Song quote for today:
"Skylines and Turnstiles"
You're not in this alone
Let me break this awkward silence
Let me go, on record
Be the first to say I'm sorry
Hear me out,
Well if you take me down
Or would you lay me out
And if the world needs something better
Let's give them one more reason now, now, now

We walk in single file
We light our rails and punch our time
Ride escalators colder than a cell

This broken city sky like butane on my skin
and stolen from my eyes
Hello Angel, tell me where are you
Tell me where we go from here

And in this moment we can't close our lids on burning eyes
Our memories blanket us with friends we know like fallout vapor
Steele corpses stretch out towards an ending sun, scorched and black
It reaches in and tears your flesh apart
as ice cold hands rip into your heart

That's if you've still got one that's left inside that cave you call a chest
And after seeing what we saw, can we still reclaim our innocence
And if the world needs something better, let's give them one more reason

Tell me where we go from here.
-My Chemical Romance

Ciao,
Sasha

Here we go again...

I decided to do the interview with the school, it's this afternoon and I wish I could be more excited about the whole thing. I'll do my best, but I feel so kinda jaded at this point that I'm not sure how upset I'd be if I don't get it. Whatever. Such drama! Interview with for the music editor position on Tuesday, weirdly enough I feel more excited about that than the teaching job. What the hell is wrong with me?? Sheesh, I annoy even myself at times.

Second guitar lesson last night, it went well but my fingers hurt like crazy again. Just when I thought I was getting tougher :) I learned a bunch of new chords and feel like I'm making some progress. I like it a lot though, it's an excellent stress-release after work *wry grin*.

As for the weekend...happy hour tomorrow after work (woo hoo!) and not a whole heck of a lot else. I'm definitely looking forward to the weekend after though--parents out of town and a Halloween party at husband and wife's. I love Halloween! I've got a few ideas for costumes--one in particular that I really like the idea of, but I have to see if I can pull all the bits and pieces together for it--but I'm not telling yet:)
Ciao,
Sasha

So confused

I am so confused. I'm at work, my cell rings, it's the principal of a local high school. They'd posted a position for an English teacher a month + ago, I applied, didn't hear anything, figured they'd filled it. Well, the call today is that they want me to come in for an interview. I should be totally thrilled about this, right? Why aren't I? Why do I feel like not even bothering with the interview? I feel like I just got my life sorted again, sure, going back for journalism wasn't what I'd expected, but I've gotten used to and like the idea now. Just when I get used to one thing something else happens to screw it all up. I set up the interview, but there's a big part of me that doesn't want to bother. Watch, the time I don't care & don't really want the job is the time I'll get it. What the hell is wrong with me? If I were to get this job there's no way I could do both the journalism minor and teach, Tecumseh is in the opposite direction from Lansing and the two are something like an hour and a half from each other.
I haven't any idea what to do. Why does this kind of shit keep happening to me?? Why??

Jewish mothers & Catholic guilt

I've decided that there may be one type of mother "worse" than a stereotypical Jewish mother.

The Catholic mother.

I know I've already mentioned a few reasons why my mom makes me crazy but last night she used the card that always manages to cause me to spiral into self-loathing. What might that be you ask? The "when am I going to get you married off" card. To be fair, she didn't say it quite like that, but the meaning was there. We were talking about apartments etc., and I said something about really wishing I had my own place. Her response? "Well, you've got no money and, more than that, I really wish you'd meet someone". AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!! No, no no no no no no, PLEASE do not start with that! It isn't bad enough that I beat myself up about that very thing on a fairly regular basis, I do NOT need you joining in!! She makes it sound like I don't want to meet someone. God, it's hardly a case of me not being interested! It's very much a case of there being no normal, decent guys out there that I am interested in and happen to be interested in me. So, right there in the span of about five seconds my self-esteem managed to take a total nosedive. To be honest, I'd been feeling pretty ok about the whole situation lately. I haven't been dwelling on it too much, haven't been getting all psycho-emotional about no boyfriend and such. You'd think that would actually be a good thing and, hey, don't all be-coupled people tell you "think positive! blah blah blah, the more you think about it the less likely it happens, blah blah blah". Well, I wasn't thinking about it that much, but now I'm all depressed about it again. Thanks a lot mom. Thanks for re-opening that wound. Oh yeah, and hey, let's just forget about the fact that when you were my age, you weren't married yet either. So don't even start with me. I have enough self-loathing as it is. I hardly need you to help me out in this department.

The other fun comment from good old mom this weekend had to do with my hair. She begins with a seemingly good comment about my hair looking nice. What this discussion then evolves into is a commentary on how she did not like the way I'd done my hair the other day, how she doesn't like it's color, it's too dark etc. etc. It just rubbed me the wrong way and you combine that with the whole boyfriend/marriage discussion, driving to Detroit with her and such and god, this weekend was a barrel of laughs mom-style. Sheesh, practically makes you look for the closest tall building or bridge.

Oh yeah, and one other really fun habit of my mom's--every single time I'm on the phone, once I hang up, she asks me who I was talking to. I could be up on the roof on the phone and she could be at work across town and somehow she will know I was on the phone and will want to know who I was talking to. It makes me absolutely insane. God, I mean, I talk to maybe three people, you can guarantee it'll be one of them, so why ask? For some reason that really rubs me the wrong way. I'd love to tell her to stop asking, but what's a non-bitchy way to do that??

Here's my theory on the whole Catholic vs. Jewish mother thing. My mom has somewhat insane opinions about Judaism--the ideas, practices, people, you name it. However, what I think is hilarious is the fact that she is the perfect Jewish mother. Hell, aren't all Catholic mothers? And, to be technical, aren't they all actually in a way Jewish mothers? If Catholicism came out of Judaism, wouldn't it be logical that the Jewish-mother-ness was passed along to Catholic moms? Hence, my mom (despite the fact that she denies it) IS a Jewish mother.

Two things to look forward to:1) my mom and dad have a thing to go to tonight so I will get the house to myself for a few hours. 2) My mom and dad will be away for a weekend at the end of October. I will have the whole house to myself for almost three days. This is very, very exciting.

I really wish she'd leave me alone. I'm going to go completely insane at this rate. It's not like I don't already feel like a total loser, I hardly need her help.

Sasha

Pink hair, driving in Detroit and opera: Some observations

Well, yesterday turned out to be fodder for a number of observations. My mom happens to like opera, I don't mind it, my dad hates it. So, when my mom decided that she wanted to go to the Detroit Opera House to see "Norma" she asked me if I wanted to go. I agreed and she got tickets for last night. Let me tell you, getting there, I thought I'd die.

Now, when I was 16 my mom was dead set against me getting a driver's license and I was so pissed about the whole thing. At this point I've been driving for 10 years and the more I'm with my mom when she's driving, the more I realize that she's a maniac on the road. Everything was ok until we got on 96 and there was a detour that took us off the highway, into a less-than-stellar area of Detroit where there was MORE construction. Things came to a grinding halt and this is where the problem begins. My mom is so busy looking at everything but what is in front of her that we almost hit the car in front of us multiple times. I had a death-grip on the door handle and honestly believed we wouldn't make it to the theater without getting in an accident. Then, if that wasn't bad enough, she is getting frustrated because of the whole detour/construction issue and just about blows through an intersection with the light against us, at about 40 to 50 mph. If I hadn't yelled at her to stop, we'd have gone right through. That's the other thing that makes me horribly nervous driving with her, it never seems like she's going to stop as she's coming to a light, stop sign or behind another car. I hate driving with her, I usually feel like I'm going to have a heart attack. I mean, there's aggressive driving and then there's idiotic driving. It's like she thinks that she's driving like a New Yorker (to be fair, she did learn to drive there) but this is just stupid. I mean, not stopping for a red light isn't New York, it's asinine. Sheesh.

So, we actually made it to the opera, the whole thing was ok, quite nice and all, but as we're standing around during intermission I see the weirdest woman there. She has a bubble-gum pink bobbed wig on, black platform shoes, and a blue, strapless, PVC dress. She looked like she was poured into the dress (or it was spray-painted on) and, she definitely didn't have the body to be wearing such a dress. Her breasts must have been kept in the dress by sheer willpower, because there wasn't much else keeping them in there. I'm not sure what the weirdest bit of the whole thing was...the pink wig? I mean, pink hair I could understand more in a way. You dye your hair, you're stuck with that color no matter where you go till you decide to dye over it. But a pink wig? She CHOSE to put that on to go to the opera. Bizarre. The dress made her look like a cheap hooker and the guy she was with was completely normal. Your average black/navy suited/tie-wearing middle aged guy. How the two of them ended up together I have no idea unless it's some sort of weird Pretty Woman scenario they're trying to live out. She must have a hell of a healthy self-esteem to be ok going out in that get up, especially to the opera where the standard uniform is any color as long as it's black and I'd say the average age is 40ish (so, likely to be horrified at a pink wig, PVC dress wearing, hooker inspired wardrobe).

It was kind of a bizarre evening in a lot of ways. At least I made it out alive!! It's cold and gross out, perfect day for curling up with a book which is exactly what I think I'll do:)
Ciao,
Sasha

Addendum

Oh yeah, contrary to what wife and I may have wished, said guitar teacher does not look like either Billie Joe Armstrong or Gerard Way. There is much sadness in that regard but he seems to really know his stuff and I know that's what's important (but it would have been super fun if he did look like Billie Joe or Gerard!) :)

Well, I think my first guitar lesson went quite well! I definitely need to develop some more motor memory when it comes to the fingers on my left hand...I suppose I should give myself time :) My teacher is quite nice, encouraging and patient which is a good combination. I learned a bunch of finger exercises and five chords, so that's a good beginning. I practiced for almost an hour last night after my lesson and the fingers on my left hand hurt like hell but I'm happy nonetheless. I know that once I've been playing longer I'll either be used to the pain in my fingertips (chords are the most painful) or I'll develop thick enough callouses (sp??) that I won't notice it or maybe a little of both:) I also had to cut the fingernails on my left hand way down. I thought they were short enough but I quickly found that they weren't, so, so-long to them! I like it a lot though and I'm still quite excited about it all! Maybe someday I'll be able to play more than just chords... It was sort of funny, I was in Herb David paying for my lesson and ran into Ben there, I had no idea he played guitar, so I guess I learned something new. I'll have to chat with him about this at some point...

I have an interview with All Media Guide set up for two weeks from now for the editor job. The whole thing should be quite interesting...I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. I really want to find some sort of a new job. I've been stuck in the call center most of today and it sucks big time. I'm not exactly sure why but I hate calling patients and answering patient's calls. I think part of it is that I never know the answers to their questions and when they want to schedule an appt., there are so many little unwritten "rules" about that sort of stuff. Then it's trying to figure out what doctor they should see if they haven't been referred to a certain doctor, and again, there are a million little rules to do with that. Unfortunatley I'm scheduled to be in the call center for tomorrow too which doesn't make me happy. I don't know, maybe I'll get used to it. I'm not going to hold my breath on that one. Maybe it's just being out of my "comfort" zone or something like that. Whatever.

Yay for it almost being the weekend! I'm supposed to be heading to Plymouth with friends for drinks tomorrow night which should be fun. I hope everything works out b/c I really could use a night out. I just hate it when it turns into everybody else (I can think of one person in particular, and though I love her dearly, she tends to be very self-centered) bitching about their boyfriends (or in this case, ex-bf). Hello! At least you have a boyfriend!
Anywho, that's it for now. More practicing tonight!
Ciao,
Sasha

Slowly losing my mind and other exciting news...

Well, as much as I love my parents, yesterday the "togetherness" factor reached an all-time high and I was extremely close to just flipping out on my mom. Ok, so we work together and I don't actually see her all that much at the office, pretty much just now and then, but I guess part of it is the fact that she's just always there. We drive to work together in the morning, which makes sense, I know, it would be stupid to take two cars from the same place to the same place (especially with the cost of gas these days) but sometimes being in such close quarters with my mom first thing in the morning makes me a little edgy. What also makes me nuts is that she probably has been on-time twice in her life. Once for her own wedding and once for my brother's wedding. It will never, ever happen again and it's a challenge each and every morning to get her out the door on time so I'm not late. Technically it matters if she's late, but it doesn't seem to bug her the same way as it bugs me (probably becasue I've spent the last 27 years arriving places late because of my mom--as a result my brother and I have swung the other way and are neurotically early almost all the time). I thought that leaving without her might speed her up in the morning, nope. Didn't work, but at least I got to drive alone. I used to think that if she just got up 10 minutes earlier she'd be on time, but I don't think that would actually fix the problem. Somehow she manages to just waste time doing god-knows-what and makes pretty much everyone late almost all the time. Grr.

Most of the time she isn't ready to leave when I get off work, so I usually get to go home on my own (or not go home) which is oddly nice. I get time to sort of decompress from all the idiots I deal with during the day, get to sing in the car (which, though I look like a moron, I love doing), run errands...you know, all the little stuff. The problem is, I like that "me" time so much that on the rare occasions she is ready to go when 4:30 rolls around, I'm ready to jump out of my skin. That also means that I have "mom" time for the rest of the evening unless I can figure out some excuse to leave the house for a little bit. I know I'm mean but honestly, wanting my "me" time going home from work really helps me not say anything that could cause world war three. Honestly, sometimes I just sit there repeating "don't say anything, don't say a bloody word" to myself so I don't go and blurt out something totally obnoxious/try to cause a fight/bring up a topic I think my mom is wrong on but I'll never win an argument about etc. It's exhausting...

In other news, my first guitar lesson is today after work (talk about "me" time!) and though I'm nervous, I'm also very excited. I just hope my teacher is cool and doesn't think I'm a total idiot. The only other random news is that, last week after becoming disgusted with teaching red-tape, on a whim I sent in my resume for an assistant editor position with a music website. Well, much to my surprise, they called me to schedule an interview! They probably won't be interested when they find out I'm going back to school, but can't hurt to try right?? V. exciting! Heh, maybe I'm not meant to be a teacher, maybe I should have been in journalism all along...who knows.

And the song quote for the day:
I used to long for time alone
I used to long for a place of my own
now I'm losing faith in everything
I'm lost, so lost, I'm lost at sea, you'll see

Oh mercy me
God bless catastrophe
There's no way in hell
We'll ever live through this so
Drive yourself insane tonight
It's not that far away and I just
filled up your tank earlier today.
-Alkaline Trio

Now, if I can just manage not to go postal at work today, things will be good...
Ciao,
Sasha

The weekend so far and proving a point

Well, overall, it's been a good weekend so far. Too bad it's Sunday and I have to go back to work tomorrow... Went over to husband and wife's last night for dinner. They made their famous buffalo wings which was a fantastic surprise, probably ate too many of them and shortened my life expectancy by a few years but it was totally worth it. We basically hung out, but it was definitely a good time. One of the funniest things was this phrase that husband made up, let me set up the context for it first:
Wife and I had just gone to rent a movie. While we're at blockbuster we conclude that husband is very particular about his movies in an odd way. When we get back home, we give him a hard time about his particularity and he asks for examples. Unfortunately, wife and I can't think of any good ones despite having had a list of them while at the video store. He suggests that one of them is that he doesn't like Meg Ryan. Then he amended that statement by saying that "When Harry Met Sally" wasn't so bad, BUT he thinks that this is due to the fact that Billy Crystal is in the movie and it offsets the "Meg Ryan-ness" of the movie. Meg Ryan-ness??!! That's not a word and it's definitely not an adjective! Pretty damn funny though. Meg Ryan-ness...

I got some good news on my Shakespeare paper, my prof gave me an A on it which rocks, especially since it's a big fat six-credit A. Take that my ex-doctoral program! Ha, I'm not a total idiot despite what some of you may think! Nyah, nyah, nyah :) Getting a little stir-crazy right now though and trying to figure out a good excuse to take off for a little bit. Too much "together" time with my mom and dad can make me a bit nuts. I actually really liked having my Shakespeare paper as an excuse to take off to Starbuck's to work on it. I mean, it's true that I get nothing accomplished at home, I get way too distracted, but it was also nice to just head to downtown Ann Arbor, do a little people-watching, get a cuppa and be alone for a bit. Hmm, maybe I can get a friend to go for coffee right now...

On a different note, while at husband and wife's last night, there was a bit of a debate over whether or not eyeliner works on some guys (not whether it actually physically works but whether or not it looks good on them). Wife and I agree that it definitely works on Billie Joe Armstrong. I submit this photo as evidence:


Husband was not entirely convinced by our argument and then proceeded to question whether or not Gerard Way is one of those guys that looks good in eyeliner (while also mocking me for thinking he's hot.) Again, as evidence:


Again, the eyeliner really works on him and how could anyone deny that this is a beautiful man?? Of course, it seems like it's in the genes. His brother, Mikey, is gorgeous too:

Yeah so, in summation, some guys in eyeliner = hot. Others, not so much. For Billie Joe, Gerard and Mikey Way, it definitely works. I mean, could you imagine Jakob Dylan in eyeliner? Pretty good looking in general but I do not think eyeliner would work on him. I'm sure I could think of other examples, but I'm too lazy right now. I rest my case.
Right, so, now its time to head back to husband and wife's house for dinner again, this time my parents are coming, so it won't be quite as free and easy with the conversation as it was last night. Should be a good time though. Managed to convince a friend to get coffee, so I made it out of the house for a bit which isn't all bad. Too bad it's back to work tomorrow :(
Ciao,
Sasha

VICTORY!

Oh my god, I did it. I set up guitar lessons and bought a guitar! I start lessons on Wednesday and am SUPER psyched about this. I can't believe I finally got up the nerve to walk into Herb David, look like a moron and do something I've been thinking about doing for a loooong time. Yay me! Well, I may not have a teaching job, but I think it'll be good for me to have something like this to be excited about.
I'll keep you posted on how the lessons go!
Ciao,
Sasha

Another Turning Point

Ok, so I've been listening to Green Day a lot lately and sort of got thinking about the song "Good Riddance". I LOVE finding song lyrics that seem to fit with the way I'm feeling at the moment. This one, for the most part, seems to fit well with my life right now (except maybe the "having the time of your life" bit):

"Good Riddance (Time of your Life)"

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial
For what it's worth it was worth all the while

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

I guess that's the way I feel right now about the whole not getting the job, finding out I need to go back to school situation. I DO feel like this is a test of some kind and I sure as hell hope that this is the right thing to do and the right thing for me. While I'm ok with going back to school there's still part of me that thinks I really must have done something horrible in a past life to keep having stuff like this happen to me...I hope that something really good will come of all this. I hope that "in the end it's right".

Ciao,
Sasha

The Plan

Ok, so I've calmed down a bit from this whole certification thing going down. I'm not happy about it, I can't stop thinking about it, but I'm actually calmer. This is how I see it:

• I have a state of Michigan teaching certificate for English and Anthropology. I can teach English but cannot teach journalism and/or yearbook.
• Because of this and NCLB, I need to get a journalism endorsement for my certificate so I can teach journalism and/or yearbook.
• I am unlikely to find a full-time teaching job at this point in the year. This means I am out of a teaching job till at least next fall.
• I am unlikely to find a job in an area that interests me besides teaching since I don't have experience with anything else.
• Therefore, I need to go back to school.

With all this in mind, I've done some thinking and made a lot of phone calls. Here's the plan:

• I need to go to MSU to get a journalism minor. After looking over their program versus Madonna's (they are the only two accredited journalism programs recognized by the State of MI Dept of Education) MSU's seems far superior. I will manage with the fact that this is enemy territory and I'll have to conceal the fact that I've got three degrees from U of M.
• I'm actually excited about this--I didn't expect to be back in school so soon (if ever) but the classes I'll have to take sound really interesting and totally different from what I spent the last two years in DC taking.
• Getting a minor in journalism may help if I decide to leave teaching and work as a writer at a rock magazine ;)
• The money side of this freaks me out, but, I guess you have to spend money to make money. If I play my cards right, I can still keep my boring but income producing job AND go to school. So, that would help.

This is definitely not what I expected to be doing when I decided to leave DC and grad school behind, but I'm ok with it. I guess if I have to be semi-unemployed and unlikely to get a job till next fall, I can think of worse things than using the time to go back to school (again). At least I'll be using my brain which I don't really get to do where I'm working right now. MSU may be enemy territory but it's still a good school, and, unlike my former school in DC, it's huge, offers lots of classes and even multiple sections of those classes (can you imagine!?) and there will be lots and lots of people. Sure, like the DC school, some of them will be weird, but at least it'll be a bigger pool to fish in. So, that's the plan.

A few other thoughts:

• I'm thinking about starting a music ezine. I need to figure out what niche to go after, so if you feel that there's an area in music that needs more coverage, let me know. I figure a good place to begin is with the Ann Arbor music scene. We'll see...
• I need to get off my ass and do something about learning how to play the guitar. Enough thinking about it, DO SOMETHING!

Finally, a song quote for today:

Well I'm a total wreck and almost every day.

Like the firing squad or the mess you made.

Well don't I look pretty walking down the street.

In the best damn dress I own?

[Chorus]If you were here I'd never have a fear.

So go on live your life.

But I miss you more than I did yesterday.

You're so far away.

So c'mon show me how.

'Cause I mean this more than words can ever say.

Some might say we are made from the sharpest things you say

We are young and we don't care.

Your dreams and your hopeless hair.

We never wanted it to be this way.

For all our lives.

Do you care {at all}?

-"Give 'em Hell, Kid" MCR

There is something supremely wrong with the education system in America. Here's the deal: randomly, a job opened up at a local high school--it seems perfect, high school English, yearbook and journalism. It's at a good school and my awesome sister-in-law is a teacher there too. I get called in for an interview, things go really well and it seems like I might finally get a teaching job.

Wrong.

I get a call from the principal and there's good news and bad news. The good news is: they want to hire me. The bad news: they can't hire me. Why? Apparently, thanks to the good ol' State of Michigan a teacher needs to be certified in English AND Journalism in order to teach Journalism and/or Yearbook. I am only certified in English. Here's how popular the journalism certification is in Michigan, only TWO of the many, many universities and colleges in the state offer a program for journalism certification. I would bet money that not all of the teachers currently teaching journalism and/or yearbook as a class have a journalism certification. In fact, I know of at least one who doesn't have the "official" endorsement on her certificate and she's currently teaching journalism AND yearbook!

Oh yeah, it gets even better.

The principal seems like a nice guy and is still trying to figure out a way to hire me legally, so he calls the state and asks if they'll issue a temporary "emergency" journalism license. They say they won't because (get this) there is a surplus of ENGLISH teachers. Wait, I just thought you said I needed a journalism cert, not English, but you won't offer a temporary cert because there are too many English teachers??! Clearly there's a lack of journalism teachers, why are you even bringing English into this if you just said they were two separate things?? It's freaking retarded is what it is (and hats off to our idiot president who puts stupid, red-tape creating educational policies in place like No Child Left Behind. I can tell you that it sure as hell won't make much of a positive difference in our American educational system).

I can't quite believe this...I mean, the school now has to leave the position unfilled, in the middle of the school year, get a substitute in (who, in Michigan, does not need to have a teaching certificate at ALL, nor do they even need a bachelor's degree, just a certain number of college credits in ANY area) and apparently that is better (in the eyes of the State of Michigan) than having a full time, certified teacher, who, albeit, doesn't have a journalism cert but DOES have an English cert, three years experience teaching yearbook and two years experience writing for a daily newspaper. What is WRONG with this picture?

Basically, this means I need to go back to school and get a journalism certification if I ever want to be able to apply for a job that teaches journalism and/or yearbook. I don't mind going back to school, but it doesn't help me with the job problem right now. I'd need to complete 20 credits, so that isn't something that can be done overnight exactly. I feel so disillusioned about teaching right now, and though there's a part of me that really loves working with kids and knows that I'm a good teacher, there's a bigger part of me now that wants to just say to hell with it. Problem is, I have no experience doing anything else and one of the things I'd really like to do (write for a magazine, preferably a music magazine) would require picking up and moving to New York City IF I could even get a job (back to the no experience thing).

God, this sucks. I was SO freaking close to getting a job and I can't have it even though the school wants to hire me. No wonder people don't want to become teachers or don't want to stay teachers. Don't even get me started on this Teach for America bullshit. There was an article in the NY Times about how great it is that all these Ivy League kids are going and joining TFA, and how wonderful that they aren't at the "bottom of the barrel" like all the teachers we currently have, blah blah blah. That article made me SO FREAKING MAD I could hardly see straight. TFA teachers DON'T have state certification! Why do they get jobs and I can't freaking find one even though I've got not one, but TWO BA's, a MA AND a State of Michigan teaching certificate?? And I was definitely not at the bottom of my class! I graduated with class and university honors! This is bullshit. I know I should keep trying for the kids, but it's getting harder and harder to see the point in even continuing to try.

Unhappily,
Sasha