My first Podcast!

Well, I finally got off my butt and put together my first podcast. I know it isn't award-winning or anything, but I'm pretty damn pleased with it, put some cool music on there, don't think I sound like too much of an idiot etc. The hardest part of all this has been figuring out how to get it on the web.
Ciao,
Sasha

Hmm

So, I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this. I'll admit, I was pretty disappointed when I initially saw this on Spin's website. As you know I went to see Hard-Fi over the weekend and was pretty psyched that I was right that they're going to be big here in the US (at least according to Spin). So, I went to the show, wrote a review and called Spin to see if there was any way they'd even consider looking at it with the idea that maybe (maybe, this was a huge long-shot and I know it) they'd run it. Well, I never heard back from the girl at Spin I left a message for, which wasn't that huge of a surprise, but I was rather disappointed to find that maybe the reason I never heard back was because they already did an on-line exclusive review of Hard-Fi's show at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC (not to mention that their review was so much better than mine). I know I shouldn't really be disappointed, but I can't help it. I guess I just need to focus on the fact that my instict about the band was right-on, and really, isn't that part of it? I guess I can learn the writing side of it, I mean, that's what I do, I'm a writer and you can learn to write in new ways. I guess you can't learn instinct and that's one of the biggest parts of all this.
Still, kinda a bummer. Oh well.

One other thing (a confession of sorts). I really tried to be all, "Fall Out Boy is just a trend, too many people like them therefore it isn't cool" but, dammit, they're good. Funny, weird lyrics, catchy tunes, hot bassist (heh heh, can't help it!), bizarre videos and a pretty solid album. Like I said to husband, they're like crack (or so I've heard, about crack that is), don't listen to them once, you'll get addicted. Once again, curse FOB!
Later,
Sasha

Right again (or) my musical tastes validated

Um, yeah, how many chances are you going to get before you finally believe me that Hard-Fi is going to be big here in the US? They've got the number one album in the UK, "Stars of CCTV," have been written up in Spin as a breakout band and they're on a big tour of the US. What more do you want?? Oh, you want to listen to them for free?? Ok, iTunes has, once again, validated my recommendation and you've lucked out. This week Hard-Fi's hit "Cash Machine" is the FREE (yes, FREE) download of the week. Go get it and see how right I am on this.

Yet another busy weekend

Ok, so despite the fact I thought it would be a low-key weekend, it didn't happen. Here it is, Sunday night, I don't have all my work done for class tomorrow, I spent both yesterday and today very tired from drinking too much the night before or just being out way too late and the weekend is already over. Ugh. Well, as with the last few weekends, it was SO worth it.

Friday night I got some super amazing news that I don't know if I can share just yet, so I'll have to hold off telling you (but it is so cool!). I headed over to husband and wife's house for dinner and general revelry. We ended up drinking a lot and playing Scene It and sort of playing Trivial Pursuit while harassing the cat and drawing things on my brother ("werd" to you...). The night wasn't totally without it's educational value, husband invented a hell of a drink, the TNTini (I have to take credit for the name;) and let me tell you, boy does that drink kick your ass. Other than a bit of an ache you get in your jaw from drinking it too quick, it's pretty yummy if you like rather sour/tart stuff. I give husband credit for something else too. We were standing there admiring the TNTini and it's innocent and pinkish appearance, when husband said "pink is the new TNTini" and thus, because wife and I are huge fans of the Pink is the New Blog I decided to take a photo of it and email it to Trent. We'll see if it makes it on his blog:)

Saturday night was spent at the Magic Stick for the Hard-Fi show. It was amazing, they were so good. Richard Archer was all over the place, totally getting in everyone's face and just full of energy. They played most of the songs off of "Stars of CCTV" as well as covering the White Stripes "Seven Nation Army" (one of my favs). I was a little disappointed that they didn't play "Feltham Is Singing Out" but overall it was a really great show. I wormed my way all the way up to the stage and got a bunch of pics, not the greatest, but it was still kinda cool to get them. I tried to get an interview with the band but their tour publicity person never responded to my email. Oh well, it was worth a shot:) If you didn't believe me before, trust me now, Hard-Fi are awesome-you should definitely check them out. Feel disappointed that you didn't go to the show, you missed a great band.

Righty-o, that's all for now. Better get on with what's left of my weekend.
Ciao,
Sasha

I love being right (this is why Spin should hire me)

Ha! Have I not been talking about Hard-Fi for a while now on my blog? Did I not recommend them to people? Didn't I say they were cool and would be big here eventually??
I was so right.
I get home from work and what do I find in the mail? The February issue of Spin. I page through it, am amused to see that they recommend the Arctic Monkeys (great band name, but I had already heard of them *smug smile*). I get to page 34 and what do I see? A full-page article on Hard-Fi as one of the breakout bands for people to watch. I love being ahead of the curve. I particularly love being right.

Ergo...
This why Spin should hire me:)

Pretty Dope

So, this is just kinda cool and has me psyched in a nerdy way. I'm going to go see Hard-Fi on Saturday, right? I'm justifying this as "research," I mean, if I want to write for Rolling Stone some day, I need to get started on this. Also, in one of my classes, if we get a story published, we get extra credit (like seeing your name in the byline of story isn't good enough!) So, I'm thinking, well, let's try something here. I'm going to cover the Hard-Fi concert and see if I can get it published. I contacted their record label to see if they could send me some info and got an email back pretty quickly. They're sending me a press pack and gave me the name and email address for their tour publicist. They also said that I can contact either the label directly or the publicist and they will try to help me in any way possible with my story. How freaking cool is that?! Ok, so maybe they'll send a press pack to anyone who asks, but I'm still pretty psyched about the whole thing. Maybe it doesn't hurt that the band isn't really known over here at all, but hey, a girl's got to start somewhere;)
Yay!
Ciao,
Sasha

One more thing...curse Fall Out Boy!

yeah, curse FOB...I've had "Dance Dance" and "Sugar, We're Going Down" stuck in my head for days. Worst part is, all I can think of with "Sugar" is that ridiculous home-made video from Google video...the actual lyrics don't make much sense and I don't know them so all that keeps going through my head is "we're going down tuuuu in a luleelurah".
Aargh, song...too...catchy...must...get....a different...song...stuck...in...my...head...

I think I'll listen to some Johnny Cash. How much you wanna bet I'll have "Ring of Fire" stuck in my head for the next few days??
Argh.

Too much partying...

Wow, either my social life up till recently has been really dull or I've been going out too much lately. Another weekend spent recovering from the night before only to go out again and put myself through it all over again. Was it worth it? Hell yes!

Ok, so Friday I met up with a friend for happy hour at Grizzly Peak. From there we headed over to the Blue Nile for dinner. Neither of had ever been there and I really had no idea what to expect from Etheopian food, but it was so, so good! I'd definitely go there again. After that we went to see the Kinsey Report at the Ark. I'd never been to the Ark before and I'm hardly an expert on blues, but it was really cool. Each of the band members was an awesome musician on his own but then you put them all together and...well, wow. I don't think I was "ark-y" enough though, majority of the audience seemed like aging hippies and, really, exactly the sort of people you think would hang out at the Ark. After that we went over to the Alley Bar and I probably drank too many cosmos, but such is life.

Spent a good part of Saturday recovering only to go out again to celebrate husband's b-day. We met up at Arbor Brewery, waited for an hour and a half to get a table (not too many tables that can accomodate 11 people there) and finally got to eat around 9ish. It was a little weird because there were moments where I really noticed the "couple-y-ness" of everyone. A few of the people there were with their husband or wife. There were a few boyfriend/girfriend pairs and then there were three of us single folks. Needless to say, I was in the minority. Luckily none of the couples are the type that make a singleton want to shoot themselves in the head, but I couldn't help but notice it now and then. Probably doesn't help that I'm older than them all, but oh well. Luckily a guy friend of mine showed up around 9:30ish, so that was definitely a good thing. Let's see, after dinner some of us went over to the Alley Bar (hmm, notice a trend here? You'd think it was the only bar in A2), continued the drinking and revelry. We lost a few more of our group and the evening ended with a few of us heading over to the Fleetwood for fried food and copious amounts of coffee. Weirdly enough, I got kicked out of the Fleetwood for the second time in a week, not for bad behavior (I wonder exactly how bad or nuts you'd have to be to get kicked out of the Fleetwood for that) but basically because the place is so tiny and they need to keep making room for all the drunken folks coming from the bars.

Thank god I had today off otherwise I think I'd be pretty dead. Again, it was totally worth it. As for next weekend? I'm seeing Hard-Fi on Saturday and probably trying to get ahead on homework (the last part isn't too fun).

Oh and just because it's funny, here's a photo from Saturday night at Arbor. You've heard of wine and cheese? Logical combo. Not so much this:
Beer and cheese? Ew, ew, ew. There's a good reason why that doesn't spring to mind as a mouth-watering combination.
Right, that's it for now-
Ciao,
Sasha

One more thing...

Thanks to Wife for reminding me of something about my classes at MSU. I'm taking two classes, one (Journalism 200) is required and is the first undergrad class I've taken in about six years. I'm not too worried about it, I figure I'll learn some stuff and it shouldn't be too terribly hard, especially compared to things like my Renaissance Lit class from last spring. Here's the thing though, I'm in a class comprised entirely of college sophomores. I am almost 10 years older than a lot of them. We are in entirely different phases of life. I've got two BA's, a MA, a teaching certificate (however worthless it may be) and 30 credits of doctoral work. They haven't even got one degree yet. Anyways, here's the thing. I just knew that the first day of class we'd have to do the typical introductions. My dilemma was, do I tell the truth and immediately distance myself from the other students. Do I tell an outright lie and make up some fantastic story about being a junior from some podunk town in the middle of nowhere. Do I only tell the partial truth, something like, I've switched programs from English to journalism without bothering to mention that I've got a few degrees in English... I honestly wasn't sure what to do and figured I wouldn't know what approach I'd take 'till I opened my mouth to answer in class.

Well, I decided to go with the truth. If I shocked 'em, scared them or they think I'm a total loser, it's done. They know the gory truth (or at least part of it)... Well, I may be a heck of a lot older than them, but I can have a car on campus and they can't ;)

Busy, busy

Wow, things have been totally nuts lately. I started classes at MSU on Monday and have been spending vast amounts of time driving back and forth from Ann Arbor to East Lansing. Thank god for my iPod or I'd go nuts. I like my journalism classes a lot so far and they're totally different from what I was doing in my English Lit classes (change is a good thing). It is a little weird going to MSU after having grown up in Ann Arbor. I'm only partially joking when I say I hope nobody slashes my tires because of the U of M sticker on my car...I'm not thrilled about having to do homework again, but at least I'm doing something with my brain. I feel like my brain was beginning to atrophy with my current job.

The past weekend was pretty busy too. Friday night I went to a happy hour at Leopold's with the MeetIn group. Had a lot of fun and met someone who knows some people I went to high school with. Drank a lot and so spend most of Saturday slightly hungover. Saturday night I went out to dinner with my parents, husband and wife for my bro's birthday and my parents' anniversary. After dinner husband, wife and I went over to the Alley Bar followed by the Fleetwood. Again, drank much and spent the next day slightly hungover and exceedingly tired.

As for this weekend...I'm headed to Grizzley Peak for happy hour, Blue Nile for dinner and then the Ark to see the Kinsey Report (a blues band which should be cool, and I've never been to the Ark before). Then on Saturday we're headed out to celebrate husband's birthday again. I presume much will be drunk this weekend as well. Hmm, do you notice a trend?? Should be a lot of fun though, so it's all good.

Let's see, what else is going on...I've got a few bits of music news. I got a ticket to go see Hard-Fi at the Magic Stick on the 21st which I'm pretty psyched about. Like I said in a previous post, they're HUGE in England so getting to see them in a pretty intimate setting before they get huge here is cool:) I'm also going to see The Subways at the Magic Stick in March. Another Brit band that is getting a lot of airplay on Virgin Radio and Kerrang! Radio, but not many people over here have heard of them. So, fun:) Good stuff coming up. I wanted to go see Panic! At the Disco and The Academy Is but it looks like the tickets are sold out. Oh well, probably shouldn't spend all my money.

Tried to give my hair a purple-ish tint but it didn't really work. It just looks dark, dark brown with a reddish tint. Weirdly enough, my mom liked it better than before. I'm still aiming for the purple though and ordered some Manic Panic that may work better than the stuff I just tried. Yeah, I'm weird and probably too old to be doing this but I don't care. Hmm, maybe I'm going through a quarter life crisis or something like that...
That's all for now!
Ciao,
Sasha

Musical Musings

Ok, so it's pretty clear that music is a huge part of my life. For a long time I thought everyone was that way, partly because my brother is equally obsessed as I am. Once I got into college and had to live with other people, I began to see that it isn't such a big thing to everyone. I was that person, you know, the one that moved into the dorm with my stereo and piles and piles of cds and I didn't really get people that were ok with just having a little clock radio as their sole source of music. I didn't get it when my various roommates didn't care if a really great new album came out or thought that Dave Matthews Band was the best band ever (they're ok, but best band ever? Of all the bands the have existed? I don't think so). I'm not really sure why it is that not everyone has such a strong connection with music. For me, it goes back as far as I can remember.

For example, I remember that one of the best presents from my parents was one of those tan, built-like-a-brick-shithouse, Fisher-Price tape players. I carried that thing around with me everywhere. My brother had one too and we were hardly without them. We didn't have a tape player in any of our cars, so we always had the Fisher-Price in the car with us. Best of all, those things were practically indesctructable; I know I dropped mine at least three or four times on the cement garage floor and the worst that ever happened was the batteries popped out. I think I still have mine somewhere and I'd put money down that it would still work just fine with a couple of fresh batteries...ah, the good ol' days:)

I also remember Casey Kasem's Top 10 being on every Saturday morning after the usual hours of cartoons. Seeing as that we didn't have cable (my parents flat out refused, felt it was unnecessary, which it probably was, but I hated the fact that all my friends had MTV and I didn't) it was the next best thing to MTV. My brother and I watched it every week from a really early age... I remember hounding my parents when I was in 6th grade until I finally convinced them that we needed a CD player. That wasn't an easy battle, that's for sure. I remember being totally psyched when I got my very own stereo for my bedroom and the total coolness of having not one but two cassette decks in my stereo. I remember finally convincing my mom that I wouldn't become an anti-social nightmare if I got a walkman...the musical memories could go on and on really.

The vast musical chasm that separates me from many people I know has become even more obvious because of Apple's beautiful little iPod. I adore mine--it's sleek white and chrome finish, the ease of the click-wheel, the compatibility with my PowerBook G4. Sure, those are all great things, but what I love the very most about my iPod is that I can carry around my entire music collection around with me. If I'm in the car listening to Nirvana and all of the sudden I feel like listening to Elgar, with just a spin of the wheel I've gone from "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor. I have a good friend who just got an iPod Shuffle and it doesn't seem to bother her that she can't have every, single song she owns with her at all times. She looked at me like I was nuts when I questioned her about this. She's perfectly ok with having only 240 songs with her and, in fact, she hasn't even bothered to put as much as she can on her Shuffle. There's just something I don't get about being ok with only having a few songs with you--for that why don't you just keep using CD's?? I have a lot of music, 17 gigs worth, that's almost 5,000 songs, and I love having it all with me. When I find out that somebody has just gotten an iPod, my first question is, what size? Weirdly enough, this is one of those instances where size matters. I don't fully trust anyone that is completely ok with having anything smaller than at least 4 gigs. Yes, I'm a snob. Yes, I'm nuts. Am I ok with this? Totally.

Here's how nuts I am. I've actually not bothered going on a second date based on the guy's taste in music. "Oh, your very favorite band is the Bare Naked Ladies? Interesting." or "Really, you've seen DMB 10 times? How...fun?" Right there is a huge red flag. I know it would never work out. Maybe I should give people more of a chance, but here's the problem. I've got a few ex-boyfriends who helped make my musical tastes what they are today. Where would I be if my 9th grade boyfriend hadn't been obsessed with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains? Where would I be if my college boyfriend hadn't introduced me to Mazzy Star, Grant Lee Buffalo, Liz Phair and Elastica? I've met a few people with vast musical tastes who have introduced me to all sorts of music I might not otherwise have found and I just don't think that someone who only listens to DMB is going to do that for me. Again, yes, I'm nuts.

Well, enough of my blathering on this, but it's been something I've been thinking about a lot lately. One final music related comment. I was surfing around and found some awesome concert photos by Christopher Chouinard. He's based in Detroit and not only am I envious of his photography talent, I'm really envious of all the awesome bands and musicians he's seen. He was at the My Chemical Romance concert I went to back in September and here are a few of my favorite photos of his. Enjoy!
Ciao,
Sasha

Whew...

Wow, I can't quite believe the holidays are already over (nor the fact that there is already Valentine's Day stuff in the stores). I feel like they really snuck up on me and suddenly they're over! On the whole, I enjoyed myself. Christmas at my parents' house tends to be pretty low-key, which I'm quite ok with. All my relatives live on the East Coast, so we don't have millions of extended family members bombarding our house. Sometimes it would be nice to have a few more people around, but I'd really rather have it be quiet instead of going nuts because this or that relative is being insane. I'll admit though, it was a little weird since this was the first Christmas that my brother has been married, so it was the first Christmas where he really wasn't around much. I know he's got lots of other responsibilities now, but I missed having him around. Guess I'll have to get used to that. Since I was practically the only person working over the holidays, there wasn't too much excitement. I had a blast on New Year's Eve, enjoyed Christmas and New Year's day and such, so I can't complain about the holidays at all. Just kinda bummed that they're over. So, in thinking about the new year and all, I've made a few resolutions:

1. Be more brave (which relates to #2)
2. Try new things (um, I'm not talking new things like skydiving, more like, new restaurants, new places, new music, books, bars, etc.)
3. Get in shape (yeah, I know, me and everyone else, but I've got a gym membership now, so more impetus to get off my ass)
4. Go to NYC/do some more travelling (sort of goes back to #1 & 2)
5. See more live music
6. Get a real job--hopefully a journalism or good teaching job
7. Get a tattoo?? (goes back to #1 and #3...) have to think more on this one.
Yeah, kind of a mishmash of things. We'll see how it all goes ;)

I went and saw "Pride and Prejudice" at the State last night--it was really good, beautiful music and some amazing shots. I had no idea that Donald Sutherland or Judi Dench were in it. Of course, since I'd just watched "Animal House" all I could think of when Donald Sutherland was on screen was him as the skeevy lit professor. I enjoyed it though, now I just need to read the book (shh, don't tell, I'm the worst English major! I'm probably the only one that hasn't read P & P!)

The holidays may be officially over, but there's still celebrations coming up at the house. My mom & dad's 29th wedding anniversary is on Sunday and my bro's 25th birthday is Monday. I can't quite believe my "little" brother is going to be 25! It's also pretty hard to believe that my parents have been married almost 30 years-good for them. They may make me a bit nuts at times, but I just hope that some day I'm as blessed/lucky in marriage as they have been.

There are a few musical possibilities in the works, one of which is Hard-FI. I first heard them when I was in England and they're huge there. They just finished a tour and every night was sold out. Cool that they're coming here! Best of all, since no one here has really heard of them, tickets are only $8:) Go see them, their music is entertaining (check out "Cash Machine" available on iTunes).

Ciao,
Sasha