sorry for the slack

Well, it's been awhile since my last post. The middle of the semester always gets a little ridiculous, with tests and projects, birthdays and music festivals, so I'll give you a quick rundown of what's been going on:

My 20th birthday was about 2 and a half weeks ago. I'm no longer a teenager. I guess I had a tough time trying to grasp that, but now, it's all good. It's another part of life, getting older. But I'm really looking forward to all the things I'll do in the years to come. But to celebrate this passing out of childhood, we made s'mores and played Apples to Apples at my party.

I went to the Austin City Limits Music Festival on October 8, 9, and 10. I always have the time of my life there. The atmosphere there always helps me to remember to being loving and what makes humans human: love of beauty. Beautiful music, beautiful food, beautiful nature, beautiful people, beautiful friends! And thanks to Jennifer for introducing me to some new people and sticking with me throughout the masses of people!

And I've been trying to delay this last bit of info for some time... I still haven't heard back from the Visualization department about my application. This has me a little bit worried. I'm planning on trying to get in contact with them to know if I made it in or not. So as soon as I hear, I'll let you know what's going on. Thanks for thoughts and wishes during this process!

And I finally finished reading The Pillars of the Earth! What an amazing read! I was at a section about halfway through the book, around page 500, and I couldn't put it down! I swear I read at least 200 pages that day! If you want a book that you can read for a while but will never be bored with, this is it. Nearly a thousand pages of brilliant storytelling. Definitely one of my favorite books ever. And the mini-series is on Netflix, for those of you interested. I've been watching that, and it's just as breathtaking as the book.

So, this has been an attempt at a (quick) update on my life for the past month. I'm going to be better about posting everyday in November, I promise. And as for the giveaway that I'm planning, I'm still trying to figure out how to go about doing it. If you have any advice for me, leave me a comment!

top five tunes of the week

Hey guys. Check out the Playlist.com set at the bottom of my page to hear what I've been listening to this week!

spring break finale

Look at these sweet threads my mommy just bought for me from Urban Outfitters! I feel like such a hipster...

But enough about me!
How about MUSE?!? So awesome. Maybe, probably, most likely the best concert I've ever been to. They are so amazing. I think I sang to every single song and just soaked it all up. They have such a stage presence it's ridiculous. And the lead singer Mr. Matt Bellamy is such a goof ball! He was dancing around and spinning like a mad man! I wish I had caught that on camera!

They had the coolest stage I've ever seen. So you know when you are at a smaller sized concert and the stage is only four and a half feet off the ground and, if you're short, you can't see a damn thing? Yeah, it really makes it suck, especially the day after with the stiff neck. Well, I had always wished they would make the stage like 10 feet higher to fix this problem...

And they had some to the sickest graphics and videos. The crazy digital age, DNA, apocalyptic, revolutionary, new world thing that Muse is just should up in all the images and stuff they did. I just about died. And as I was sitting there (yeah, I got to sit the whole time! My feet were so happy!), I thought, "How do you get a job like that? Just making visuals for bands to play during their shows. I want to do that!"

Favorite images of the night:
If you look closely at the piano, you see little white dots. Those are actually the notes that he's playing! They show up on the lid of the piano! I want one!!!
Mr. Bellamy is also, in my mind, The Piano Master. And he really likes simple scales. Just throwing that out there.

This is the only picture that you can kind of see faces. We were pretty far back.And it was REALLY dark or REALLY bright, neither of which are conducive to good photography.

Of course they played most of my favorites! I was so happy! And I totally called that they were going to play Knights of Cydonia last. They were either going to open with it or close with it, but they opened with Uprising. Just the thing to get the blood pumping. And they played part 1 of Exogenesis, which is just incredible.

So AMAZING. I can now cross that off my bucket list and die a little happier.

i've been waiting for this

In less than 24 hours, I will be on my way to Houston to see (one of) my favorite band(s) of all time (so far ;))... 
MUSE!!! 
I can't tell you how excited I am!!!
I started listening to Muse in 10th grade, probably. I was starting to get into "harder," more alternative music then. I just love their sound. Techno-y yet rock'n'roll. And who doesn't love British people?! And falsetto? Yeah, I know.


Favorite songs (I have too many for just one):
By Album:


Showbiz
- Falling Down
- Unintended
- Sober


Origin of Symmetry
- New Born
- Bliss
- Hyper Music
- Plug In Baby


Absolution
- Hysteria
- Sing for Absolution
- Falling Away With You


Black Holes and Revelations
- Starlight
- Supermassive Blackhole
- Knights of Cydonia


The Resistance
- Undisclosed Desires (#1 played song on my iTunes)
- I Belong To You (featured on the Twilight: New Moon Soundtrack)
- Guiding Light
- Exogenesis: Symphony Parts 1-3 (Matt Bellamy is a genius on the piano)


B-Sides
- Cover of "I Can't Keep My Eyes Off of You" which I consider playing at my wedding I love it so much!


Favorite Album:
Absolution. EVERY SONG is Awesome! EVERY ONE OF THEM (In my humble opinion).


My bf got us tickets for Christmas. Talk about impossible to top!
I'll post some pictures of my adventure tomorrow or Friday!!!

academy awards

The Oscars are so fun.

Interesting fact that I just realized while skimming my iTunes: I own at least one Oscar nominated score from the year 2001 until now, except for years 2003, 2004, and 2008.

2001:

• Winning: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• I own: Chocolat

--------------------------------
2002:

• Winning: LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring
• I own: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring

--------------------------------
2005:

• Winning: Finding Neverland
• I own: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

--------------------------------

2006:

• Winning: Brokeback Mountain
• I own: Pride and Prejudice

--------------------------------

2007:

• Winning: Babel
• I own: Pan's Labyrinth

--------------------------------

2009:

• Winning: Slumdog Millionaire
• I own: Wall-E and Slumdog Millionaire

--------------------------------
2010:

• Winning: Up
• I own: Avatar

Animated films are almost "made" by their music. Up is definitely no exception. One of the things I love to do with all the fabulous spare time that I have is to see who composed what and see the variety for movies these super talented people do. For instance, one of my favorite composers ever, Thomas Newman, cousin of Randy Newman, did the soundtrack for Wall-E and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, both more children oriented movies, as well as American Beauty, Erin Brockovich, and the Shawshank Redemption. This year's winner, Micheal Giacchino, for Up, also composed the scores to Star Trek and the TV show Alias. 

That is serious talent!

teamwork ftw!

Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders "Excuses" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

One of the coolest I've seen in a long time. Amazing.

"Everything is backwards now, like out there is the true world, and in here is the dream. "

 Sorry for my long absence. School. It's getting ridiculous again. I'll try harder to stay on top of things!

 

I think most people know about my strange obsession with orchestral soundtracks. I've got lots. And I picked this one up yesterday from Walmart. Delicious. Lot's of light strings, marimbas, choir. Very ethereal and completely other worldly. Perfect for studying!

P.S. It has been a very long time since I left a theater so pleased with a movie. Avatar is simply genius in just about every way. Groundbreaking.

Favorite song: The Bioluminescence Of The Night

James Horner also did the music for Titanic. It's got the same Celtic piccolo/flute influence that Horner is known for, but with touches of tribal and even some electric synth thrown in. It's simply gorgeous. I really recommend it if you are into film scores.

Another Song on Repeat

"This time, baby, I'll be bulletproof."


They're big over in England. I wonder if I can even find they're CD here...