The post during which I tell you about our buddy, the seal cub.

Sooo... Been on a trip. Actually on a trip. Sitting in a hotel in Redmond WA (headquarters of Microsoft and Nintendo!) and a little bit bored. I realized I'm not really good at this blog thing. I think it's because I think too much when I write these... what do they call them? "Posts"? Yeah, those things. I don't want to write something dumb, so I have to take time to do it.... Anyway, this isn't important enough to elaborate on any further....

Lets see, what have I been up to during this trip of mine? Well, I'm in Washington, not doing anything too special, with my brother, grandma, aunt and 5 of my cousins, just kinda bumming around. We went up to this little island in an archipelago inbetween Vancouver island and Anacortes, in the Puget Sound. It's called Lopez Island and it is TINY. Population, 2,200. We were staying in a beach house, but unfortunately this beach = (rocks + driftwood) - about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. It was goregous though, and the people there were pretty cool too. There were bald eagles all over the island, cute organic farms, and a bunch of wildlife. It was pretty boring though, mostly cause none of us are very outdoorsy. But, we found stuff to do. We went island hopping on two different occasions: to San Juan island and Orcas island. When we were waiting for our ferry to go to San Juan island, a woman approached the car and asked us to carry an injured baby seal cub to the island to give it to the wildlife center. It was FIVE DAYS OLD!! SOO CUTE!! Haha. Apparently due to "heightened security" animals are no longer allowed on the ferrys unless they are in a car, and since the car ferry fee is about $22 they just find someone already going to carry it with them and drop it off to a car waiting at the other ferry terminal. We were a little afraid it was a scam, but damn if you saw how cute that thing was you would break the law for it too! In fact, I'll show you...

CUTEST THING EVER? Easily. Uhhh soo lazy.... I'll finish writing about our trip later, but just know this people. We helped save the life of a baby seal. WHAT DID YOU DO?

The post during which I describe various aspects of the new Indiana Jones movie.

Oh man, I saw Indiana Jones 4 today....

Um spoiler alert.

Who thought they were gonna go the alien route? Seriously, what the hell Spielberg? Surprising as it was, it was still pretty badass. Aliens + Indiana Jones = All you need now are zombies. Mr. Ford was looking quite old though, and you could pretty much tell that's the only real reason Shia "The Beef" LaBeouf was there. Whenever it started to become a little too obvious that a 65 year old man couldn't pull it off, The Beef stepped in and carried the action of the movie. Which was fine by me. Good ol' fashioned pretty boy. Speaking of which, the Brando reference was so RIDICULOUSLY blatant when The Beef first drove up! I am all too aware that I am a film nerd and most people don't pick up on the old film references I do, so I'll go ahead and give you a side by side comparison...

Brando (From The Wild One):

Beef:

Crazy, no? I guess it could be labeled as an "homage" or some bullshit like that, but I think it's just the easiest way to get the "greaser" idea across. But whatever, he's hot. And, I suppose there is still a portion of their fanbase who grew up in the 1950's and loved the original Indy movie who would understand the reference.

Overall though, I thought the movie wasn't completely terrible. But, it seemed like the writer would just write himself into these ridiculous situations, and then have to fall back on one of three crutches to wrap up the scene and move forward....

1. The crystal skull itself. Being chased by a ton of ants? It's cool, we got the skull y'all! Can't understand what your bestie is saying? No worries, the skull will give you the power to... notice that... his hand is moving? That one didn't make a whole lot of sense...

2. Have the crazy dude tell you. This one is pretty straight forward. Anytime they weren't sure what to do, the Ox (Oz? Az? I didn't ever really understand what they were saying...) dude would go all Bilbo-Gollum on them and spit out a riddle. Of course, Indy being Indy would immediately translate them so that us non-adventure-movie folk could understand his gibberish. Plus crazy dude gets to say whatever he wants. If it were the Beef saying all of this you'd sorta think, uhhh how does this greaser know what he's talking about, yo? But instead we're all, ohhh, he's crazy, it doesn't matter how he knows it, yo!

Eww, spider killin' time! Yuck... Anyway...

3. That one dude who's a traitor. Well, no he's not. But he kinda is. Mostly he's just a greedy son of a bitch. Basically meaning they need to explain how those commies know so much about Indy. Where he'll be, how he'll act, what he knows, etc. etc. etc....

But anyway, the movie itself was pretty much up to par with the past movies: interesting plot, well hated foreign groups, and Indy breaking those wacky Archaeologist stereotypes left and right. Plus it had the Beef, so that's pretty alright I guess. Plus aliens! Aliens with CRYSTAL SKULLS! That are MAGNETIC! So much so that even GOLD is suddenly magnetized! (Why was that by the way?) I just wish there had been some zombies and some dinosaurs... Or possibly zombie dinosaurs... I want one movie to encompass all good action/horror/adventure movies for me, which mean crazy adventures, zombies, ghosts, aliens, dinosaurs, car chases, spies, and something that you can never, NEVER feed after midnight. Although I suppose that last one is subject to change...

Anyway, given that they were making a 4th installment to one of the best action/adventure movie series of all time (and with a 65 year old action star no less), basically anything better than pure shit is a miracle. Anyone else remember The Mummy 2? Pure shit.

Hmm, well I think that's about enough of that.

Current Favorites:
Finding the perfect simple shirt for $10 (and buying several). Woohoo!
Today I kept thinking to myself "I wish I could combine GoogleMaps and the RTD trip planner!" and then I found out that someone beat me to the punch! And it was glorious. That makes me so happy.
Showering after camping for 3 days.

Current Least Favorites:
Fiberglass splinters
MTV (ruins everything!)
Spiders in my bed. Gross.

The post during which I kind of tell you about my tendency to collect old things

I think I might want to do this program after I graduate. Film archiving! I figure, combine my pack-rat tendencies and love for old crap with my love of film! We'll see though. My Mom has said to me, and I agree, that I should take a couple of years off to just work in the real world before making such a huge decision. Either way though, it's good to know that programs like that exist, so if this archival idea isn't just a phase that is an option.

Speaking of my love of old crap, I went to Salvation Army today. I was actually pretty disappointed though! There was a sale where anything that had been there for longer than a few weeks was 3 for a dollar. I went in thinking I'd hit the jackpot, but instead it was all pretty bad. Anything that was remotely worth buying was marked up. I think it's the curse of Boulder: They actually know this shit has value. It takes all the fun out of finding an awesome kitschy vintage plaid thermos when it costs $5! But on the plus side I bought two pairs of glasses for a dollar each to add to my newly formed glasses collection.

So yea, I've started a glasses collection. Wanna fight about it? The only problem is, I'm too poor to get my lenses put in, so for now I just get to admire them I suppose. I am gonna call around though, and see if I can get non-prescription lenses put in for cheap. Anyway, my count as of now is 8. Pretty good for having started it about a week ago aye? That's counting my two pair that I used to wear though, and also the three pair with prescriptions that aren't mine (aka 40-30ohsweetjesusmyheadhurts). So truthfully the count is at three. But if you take out the glasses I already have, then really it's two... But who's counting right? The point is I have a collection! Woo! It's all part of my Grandma persona. Before you know it I'll be collecting cat plates and Paul Newman stamps. (Actually there were cat watercolors at Salvation Army I would have bought just to laugh at, but they were like $5 each! What the Wiggles Boulder?! I will buy a lot of things just to laugh at but not for $5!)

I've been home for less than a week but it feels like a month. Sooo boooreeeddddd.....

Current favorites:
Jon and Kate Plus 8 (Haha, those kids are so freakin cute!)
Mixed Taste Lectures at The Lab at Belmar
Radio 1190 (Fingers crossed they'll call me about my volunteer application!)

Current least favorites:
Always missing the Skip by 30 seconds
Katie (my boss) leaving the lab!
John McCain and his new commercial

The post during which I pretend to know things about music but secretly I do not.

Hmm what shall I write for my very first post? How about I chat to you for awhile about music aye?

Being the summer and all, I generally spend my freetime reorganizing my music and finding more. I mean what else am I going to do? An idle mind is a dangerous thing after all, and I have to fill my time with something (why do you think I started this?). So it's pretty much music or thrift store shopping. I think I'd fall into a coma if I couldn't do either of those...

In my pursuit of keeping myself from sleeping 18 hours a day I've found some really great music, and I'll share it with you! Unfortunately, I just don't have the balls to post mp3s (yet) so for now you're going to have to settle with various links.

First off is "Gobbledigook" from Sigur Ros' new album, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust. Yeah, I had to Ctrl+c that shit. Anyway, the song is light and super fun. It has a very strong beat, which makes me want to bounce around. It's not quite dance music though... more like, car dance music. Just enough rhythm to dance with your torso, but not quite enough to throw your legs into the mix. And if my poorly scripted review isn't enough to get you to check it out then I'll tell you this: there are naked people in the video. LOTS of them. So if you like Icelandic boobies, (and who doesn't?) click on the link!

Ok, so this one doesn't have boobies, but does have a free mp3! It's all about give and take people. "Genevieve" is a song I didn't particularly like the first time I heard it, and as it came up on my ipod more and more I really started to appreciate it. It's by Chris Walla, the guitarist for Death Cab for Cutie, and although I find his voice to be just a little annoying, the melody is great. The very lo-fi sound really works in his favor also, because it allows the melody to help carry the song. If he added a bass and drums (or basso continuo if I want to get all fancy pants with my HUMN 1020 knowledge) it would have detracted from the core of the song. I think it also would have made his voice more annoying, although I'm not really sure why. But I said it anyway. Oh the freedom to promote unfounded opinions! Internet, you are the internetiest! (Phrase stolen from Bestweekever.tv)

Back to whatever it was I was rambling about... Ah yes, that darned electronica those kids keep blasting these days! Hellfire! (Phrase stolen from Angie) Crystal Castles. (Thank you Ladda!) I imagine that if you became trapped in a video game (à la Tron) then this is exactly what you would listen to all day, every day. Basically, if Justice were timemachined to 1984 and forced to make the music for the soundtrack to Revenge of the Nerds, it would more or less turn out like this. Shall I continue with the analogies? If Johnny 5 took up singing, he would sound like Crystal Castles. If the actual Atari game, Crystal Castles, played a song after every level, it would surely be composed by Crystal Castles. When R2-D2 was just a little baby droid, his mother would have sung Crystal Castle songs to help him fall asleep. Nerdy '80's references aside, this band really is quite teh awesome. It straddles the line between music you can't dance to but love to listen to, and music you have to dance to because it gets boring when you just listen to it. Case in point, "Untrust Us." Go czech it out, yo!

Finally, one of my new favorite bands, A Hawk and a Hacksaw. If you are a fan of any of the following, you should start downloading their music immediately (legally of course...):
Beirut, Sufjan Stevens, Devotchka, Neutral Milk Hotel (same percussionist), Broken Social Scene, Gogol Bordello, the soundtrack to Everything is Illuminated... or pretty much anything that sounds possibly Balkan or Gypsy folk-y.
So if that sounds enticing (which it probably doesn't because, lets face it, my sales skills are terrible) then you can start by listening to "Oriental Hora." But for real, they're so good I paid money to listen to their music. I NEVER pay money to listen to music. They're that amazing.

Well, it's been fun kids. I hope that in the very least, you can laugh at my first attempt at rambling about music, because if you can't even be laughed at, then what's the point?

That didn't make a lot of sense but whatever, I'm tired.

Annnddd by the way, I've decided that if I'm really going to be doing this "blogging" thing, I'm going to add a bit at the end of every post. Three current favorite things and three current least favorite things. Mostly cause I like any excuse to make a list. So here goes!

Current favorites:
Eugene Hutz
Accordions
The Venture Brothers season 3

Current least favorites:
Living at home over the summer
Flaky people
The lack of RTD near my parent's houses