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