Happy Birthday J.K. Rowling!

Happy Birthday J. K. Rowling! <3

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (directed by John Hughes and starring Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, and Mia Sara) is a quintessential coming-of-age story beloved by generations of teenagers. First released in 1986, Bueller remains a classic to this day. 

At first the premise of the movie seems simple: Ferris Bueller, golden boy of Chicago's Shermer High School, wants a day off from school, so he tricks his parents and convinces his friends to join him. But it is so much more than that. Ferris is who we all want to be - popular, handsome (well, at least in comparison to some other 80s stars - Judd Nelson, I'm looking at you), and incredibly lucky.

“How can we be expected to handle school on a day like this?” he asks, looking out at the perfect spring day before calling his best friend, Cameron, to come pick him up. Cameron, Ferris, and Ferris's girlfriend Sloane set off for a day of adventures. 
 

“The question isn't 'what are we going to do,'" Ferris says, "the question is 'what aren't we going to do?'” Throughout the day, Ferris and his friends go to the top of the tallest building in Chicago, visit the stock market, go to the art museum, con their way into an expensive restaurant, catch part of a Cubs game and a fly ball, and – in one of the most famous scenes of the movie – Ferris takes over a parade float, and what seems like the entire city dances and sings along. All this without being recognized by anyone. 

Ferris isn't just lucky, though – he's a visionary, inspiring almost everyone he meets. As Grace, the secretary to the principal, says, "Oh, he's very popular, Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads - they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude." As the movie goes on, the sphere of Ferris' influence becomes more and more clear; a collection is taken up in his school to buy him a new kidney, his home is overrun with flowers and balloons sent by well-wishers, a water tower is erected with the words "Save Ferris" emblazoned on it, and a headline in the local paper states Community rallies around sick youth. He can get you out of summer school, help you with your drug problem, and simply make you feel better about yourself.

This can especially be seen in Ferris's relationship with his straight-laced, hypochondriac, long-time best friend, Cameron Frye (played by Alan Ruck). Ferris provides an apt description of Cameron, saying, “Pardon my French, but Cameron is so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal up his ass, in two weeks you'd have a diamond.”

In the beginning of the movie, Cameron is lying in his bed, convinced that he is too sick to go to school. Ferris calls and demands that Cameron come pick him up. At first Cameron refuses, but Ferris wins him over and soon they are working together to get Sloane, Ferris's girlfriend, out of school. Throughout the movie, Ferris pushes Cameron to take greater risks, pushing him out of his comfort zone. 

At the beginning of the movie, Cameron seems terrified of his parents, especially his father. When Ferris "borrows" his father's Ferrari, Cameron says that his father loves the car more than life itself. Throughout their adventures, Cameron frets about the fate of the car, sure that his dad will find out that he took it. 

By the end of the movie, however, when it becomes clear that he can't hide what he did, a sense of peace seems to come over Cameron. He says, "I am not going to sit on my ass as the events that affect me unfold to determine the course of my life. I'm going to take a stand. I'm going to defend it. Right or wrong, I'm going to defend it."

It seems to me that, more than anything else, this is the message of the movie. Ferris always ends up on top, but the rest of us may feel that our lives are changing and we don't have anything to do with it. Everything may work out perfectly for Ferris, but Cameron shows us that sometimes you need to stand up for yourself.

~Maya

Monday: Austin Chamber Music Center

Just yesterday, the music camp I had been in for the last two weeks ended.  I'm getting back into the swing of things and writing my blog posts again, so today's is going to be short.

Playing Spohr's Concerto for Quartet and Orchestra with the Aeolus Quartet

Over the last two weeks, I've seen more than ten famous classical music groups perform, taken masterclasses from three of them, and even performed with one of them.  I've taken lessons from some of the best teachers in the state, played with other young musicians, and made some of the best friends I'll have. This is my fourth year at this camp and without them I would never have had experiences like this or played at venues such as the Long Center, Bates Recital Hall, and Antone's, or to play with artists such as the Aeolus Quartet and Mother Falcon.  It's been one of the best three weeks ever and I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who made this camp possible, to all of my awesome friends, and the fantastic teachers.

Here's one of the amazing performances from fellow players at camp, playing the Handel-Halverson Passacaglia.

Fact of the Mostly Daily

Fact:

     A kangaroo cannot jump if its tail is off the ground.

~Adair

Fact of The Mostly Daily

Fact:



     Each year, there are more than 40,000 toilet related injuries in the United States. 

~Adair 

Weekly recap!

Here are just a few of the things that I've been doing/watching/reading/otherwise using to procrastinate this week.

Unphotographable: whenever the author of this site (a photographer) isn't able to take a picture of something, he describes it with words instead. Some examples from the site:

This is a picture I did not take of a man with a walking cane and cigar ambling toward me on the street, his t-shirt a faded yellow, bearing a worn message in 80s-style lettering saying "Ask Me About Century 21", and as he walked toward me, looking me in the eye, he passed a woman sitting on a bench right next to the sidewalk; her grey t-shirt said, "Ask Me If I Care..." 

This is a picture I did not take of a woman driving a car, steering with her right hand while talking on her cellphone, which she held in her left, pressed against her left ear, while simultaneously clutching (with her left pinky and ring finger) a double-scoop ice cream cone, which (while she waited for traffic to clear so she could make her turn) was melting onto the phone and dripping onto her hair and her ear in the unexpectedly hot middle of a spring afternoon. 

This is a picture I did not take of a nun, littering.

making zines: I've always wanted to make collages, but a huge sheet of paper waiting for me to cover it in teeny-tiny magazine cutouts is just TOO STRESSFUL. So, inspired by this article, I decided to try my hand at making zines. And it is amazingly awesome. I make mine like mini collages on each two-page spread, interspersed with doodles/poems/song lyrics/anything else I can think of. After making a few (and watching this video) I tried making a page-sized collage, too, and it actually turned out pretty cool.
p.s. Everyone in the world says that zine should be said like ZEEN, as in magazine, but I still think ZYNE sounds better. Does anyone agree??

You Look Like the Right Type: conversations, overheard and illustrated. Here are just a few of my favorites:








 




Miranda Sings:  is the alter ego of Colleen Ballinger . Her YouTube channel (mirandasings08) has almost 400,000 subscribers. She is best known for her ... um ... distinctive singing style and very unique fashion. In this video she gives us her views on the royal baby born recently.

"Dear Stranger...": Leaving notes for strangers is another one of those things I've always wanted to do but never gotten around to before. A few days ago (in the midst of a happy nice-day-criminal buzz), Adair and I made several notes to put in library books. We asked for book suggestions (or suggested similar books for our unknown readers), and left an email address (nonsenseuncommon@gmail.com, if anyone wants to know!) so people could contact us. And we've already had one response!

BookCrossing: "Perhaps there is some secret sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers. How delightful if that were true." -The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
     BookCrossing is a site that allows book lovers to share their favorites with others. Basically, you register a book in their database and label it, then set it free - on a park bench, in a restaurant, on a sidewalk - for someone else to find. Then that person can read the book, leave a journal entry on the website, and pass it on. I released Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (by J. D. Salinger) on Tuesday. I haven't seen any updates on it yet, but my fingers are crossed!

I think that's it for now! What have you been up to this week?  

~Maya

Thursday: Catching Fire Trailer

Guys....

...

New Catching Fire trailer came out this week.  And it looks FREAKING amazing.

The "Nice Day" Criminals

     After a long day of crafting (much more about that later), Maya and I became teenage criminals. In a good way, I promise.

     Our short-lived life of crime involved writing on post-it notes:

Have A Nice Day!

- The Secret Neighbors

...and placing them along the street in places such as the backs of mailboxes, the rear-view mirrors of parked cars, and the sides of trashcans, in the hopes of brightening someone's day with an anonymous, creepy, and definitely suspicious message.

     Having planned our illegal activities well in advance, (here I quote Maya - "we'll make it up as we go along, okay?") we executed our placement of the post-its in the following manner. 

1) Ride your bike through the neighborhood with post-its awkwardly at the ready in your sweaty hands.

2) Look as non-suspicious as possible. (Tip: whistle, talk loudly, explain to thin air what a perfect child you are and how you look down upon other teenagers who stick anonymous post-its on private property)

3) Find a target. Example: Green minivan parked in the street.

4) Whisper to your partner in crime, "This one is MINE!" (evil laugh following this statement optional)

5) Slow down and ready the now very sweaty and non-adhesive post-it note.

6) Stealthily, and skillfully (aka: don't crash or set the car alarm off) place the sticky note in a visible area (aka: wherever the heck you can get it) and speed away.

     While carrying out these procedures we imagined possible scenarios in which the notes could be found.

Scenario One:

Wife -  "Hi, honey I'm home!"
Husband - "Oh, um... hey"
     * insert smooching sounds here *
H - "Woah! Why are you in such a good mood?"
W - "You were so sweet this morning!"
H - "I was?"
W - "Why YES! That note on my car window was so cute!!"
H - "What no-" (thinks about it for a second) "I mean, I'm glad you thought so sweetie"
      * more smooching *

WIN? I think so

Scenario Two:

Person walking dog: "Fido!! That is the grossest poop that has ever come out of you!!! UUGGHH! Why is this day so HORRIBLE!! OH MY GOD!"
* Walks over to bag station and finds this *

Scenario 2 continued with ending 1

Person walking dog - "AAAHH that's so sweet, and now my day is SO much better! I'm going to go donate all my money to charity the moment I get home!"

Scenario 2 continued with ending 2

Person walking dog - "Huh, what kinda joke is this?"


     We had a ton of fun doing this, and being the type of teenagers who sit around writing blogs, this was the sneakiest thing we've ever done, and I hope it's only the beginning of our career as the "Nice Day" Criminals.

~Adair     

The Book Thief

I'm always a little wary of Holocaust books. I've read Diary of Anne Frank, of course, and Number the Stars (by Lois Lowry), and The Devil's Arithmetic (Jane Yolen), and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (John Boyne) and they were powerful and moving and I felt sick for three days afterward. They kind of killed my faith in humanity.

The Book Thief is different. To begin with, it is narrated by Death. This isn't the Grim Reaper, though, or some sort of ghoul. His job is to scoop up the dead souls and take them away, but sometimes, he can't help but notice the survivors. As he says, "I am haunted by humans."

He is particularly haunted by Liesel Meminger, a skinny nine-year-old German girl who comes to live on Hummel street with Hans and Rosa, her new foster parents. On the way to her new home, standing in the snow watching her brother being buried, Death watches Liesel as she steals for the first time: The Grave-Digger's Handbook.

Throughout The Book Thief, Death tells her story; but, as so often happens, her life is inextricably linked with the lives of others. The first person to be affected by the book thief is Hans Hubermann, her foster father. He is a soft-spoken accordionist with melting gray eyes, and as he teaches Liesel to read, he becomes the first person she is able to trust in her new home. His wife, Rosa, is a wardrobe-shaped woman with a hard hand and a filthy mouth, but in her own way she grows to love Liesel too. Hans and Rosa work together to shelter Max, a Jewish fistfighter whose family is taken away and who has nowhere else to run. Liesel grows closer to Max as the book progresses, but he can't stay hidden forever.

My favorite character, however, was undoubtedly Rudy, Liesel's best (and only) friend. The first time they meet, Rudy knows that he will always love Liesel; and Liesel makes up her mind that she will never let herself love him back. As the book goes on, their relationship progresses - they grow together from ragged, hungry 9-year-old soccer players to cynical, starving partners-in-crime.

Unlike most books, The Book Thief is not a straightforward story with cliffhangers and a climax. Rather, the narrator loops around himself, telling the reader early on who will die and who will live. Rather than eliminating the tension, however, this made it worse: I was constantly on the edge of my seat, nervously awaiting the tragedy I knew was coming. Despite this, however, The Book Thief wasn't all sad; Liesel is too strong of a character to constantly seem like a victim, and grim humor is sprinkled throughout the pages.

The Book Thief was heartbreaking but somehow hopeful. Even in the darkest of times, it seemed to say, you can still find beauty and goodness. In the first chapter, Death explains that he tries to always notice the colors, to find peace in them even when he is deep in the most gruesome situations. He'll never get a real vacation, he explains. Who could replace him? He's Death, after all. So he vacations in increments. In colors.

Zusak's style is unlike anything I've read before; each sentence reads like a poem, and the words stayed with me long after I finished reading. His two other books, I Am the Messenger and Underdogs, are similar in style but lack the grim power of The Book Thief, perhaps because they're set in modern time Australia rather than tumultuous Nazi Germany. They're still amazing books, though, and I'd definitely recommend checking them out.

Here's a great interview with Markus Zusak (and if you need incentive to watch it ... he has an amazing Australian accent).

~Maya

25 Important Life Lessons (as taught by the Gilmore Girls)

I have to admit it: I absolutely love the Gilmore Girls.  I've watched all seven (yes, seven) seasons more than once and I love it more every time I re-watch it.  From the comedy, to the romance, to the sweet realness and closeness that this show is made up of, there's plenty of important life lessons that you can draw from it. So, without further ado, here are 25 of the most important ones:

1. Nobody likes Mondays.


2.  Don't be afraid to be a bookworm.


3.  It's ok to be a little afraid of bugs.


4.  Listen to good music.


5.  Don't be afraid to let your feelings out.


6.  Maintain a healthy, rounded diet.


7.  Know what you want in life...


8.  ...and keep your priorities straight.


9.  Always give good compliments.


10.  Understand relationships.


11.  Always be classy.



15.  Make dramatic entrances.


16. Know who you are.


17.  Being a teenager sucks.


18.  Coffee is essential.


19.  Love your best friends, no matter how ridiculous they are.


20.  Exercising sucks.


22.  Always be there when you're needed.


23.  Make awesome catchphrases.
  

24.  Have good style.


25.  Don't be afraid to talk with a hint of uncommon nonsense!



~Simone

Every Day Review

     After having seen David Levithan speak about writing, him holding the door for me (I know, crazy right?), and Maya recommending to me his books, I felt that the universe was really telling me to sit down and just read one of them. So I did. I read Every Day By David Levithan.

     What did I think about it? I'm gonna be honest. I didn't love it. But I can't say I hated it either, and so (while taking into account the author's door holding abilities) I'll give it a three and a half star. I feel that some of the messages the plot carried were really strong, and got their point across perfectly (I'll get more into those later), but the actual plot, and specifically the romance, was a little weak.

     Every Day is bout a person named A. He is neither a boy or a girl, because every day (hence the title) he wakes up as a new person, in a new body, but still as himself (I'm going to refer to him as a boy by the way). His life has always been like this, but he learns to accept it, and everything goes well until he meets a girl, and love just takes things on a wild adventure that results in the rest of the book which I'm not going to spoil for you, you're welcome.

     One of the themes that has already come up in just a short summary of the book, is the unimportance of gender. Levithan approaches this subject often, saying at the beginning of the book that males and females are 98% the same and that society has spent the previous millenniums of its existence focusing on that 2% of difference. He demonstrates his point further by having A wake up as a boy who knows that he's only a girl on the outside, and later, a guy named Hugo who goes to a gay rights protest with his boyfriend. This is the part of the book I love, and Levithan makes it better by acknowledging that while people may not be opposed to the idea of same-sex relationships, not everyone is comfortable or can understand them. Rhiannon, "the girl", is always less affectionate and more uncomfortable when A meets her in female form, because society has engrained boy-girl relationships into us for so long. This aspect of the book was spot on.

     And now for the part I was underwhelmed with. Let's face it, the plot and the romance were weak. The idea of the book, waking up in a different body every morning, was a really cool and unique idea, but where this idea's taken, is less so. I especially didn't feel the romance; not only was it weird and impossible, I never felt like the characters really loved each other, especially Rhiannon. Maybe, if I could've heard a bit of the story from her perspective I could've seen a little more of a spark, but I think it all worked out to be rather one-sided. And finally, while the ending was sweet, I found it very unsatisfying, like "I just read 314 pages to get to here? Come on!"

     So all-in-all, it was a good book, with a good message, and I definitely think you should go and read it, but be warned, if you're looking for a wild, passionate, heart-breaking romance, you're not in the right place.

~ Adair
     

Fact of the Mostly Daily

Fact:

     Baby beavers are called kittens.

~ Adair 

#YOLO!!!

We've all heard it. We've all hated it (well, mostly). Now that it's comfortably behind us (that was so 2012), we can take a closer look at why so many people embraced the YOLO philosophy - and why maybe it's not so stupid after all.

YOLO itself first gained popularity after the 2011 song "The Motto" by Drake, but the concept has been around for centuries. Songs, stories, and poems have been inspired by the idea. "What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" the poet Mary Oliver asks. From the Romans (carpe diem) to Nike (Just Do It), we have been obsessed with the idea of plunging in and living life to the fullest.

YOLO seems to embody the "teenage spirit" - this is your one chance, it seems to say, to do the things you always dreamed of doing. It's a way to justify taking risks and going crazy, all wrapped up with a neat little hashtag on top. Always dreamed of getting a tattoo? YOLO. Wanted to do graffiti? YOLO. Partying, drinking, whatever you want, YOLO is your excuse. Aspiring rapper Ervin McKinness took this to heart, tweeting "Drunk af going 120 drifting corners #F-kIt YOLO" just minutes before the car crashed, killing the five men inside.

Understandably, YOLO has earned its fair share of criticism. This study suggests that, since teenagers are more likely to make poor decisions when others are present,"[using social media and the YOLO hashtag] almost artificially creates the presence of an audience because you sort of assume your actions are on display."

But is this YOLO's fault, or it just along for the ride? People have always done irresponsible things - YOLO is just a convenient hashtag. Maybe it provides an easier way for them to justify their actions, but it's not responsible for them.

To me, YOLO is a way of encouraging people to put themselves out there, to spend less time worrying and more time living. You do only live once, so you should make your life a good one.

 At first glance, YOLO appears to be going the way of totes adorbz and the XD face - that is to say, an unforgivable offense. But the concept behind the acronym, the idea of living freely with no regrets? That's timeless.

~Maya

Fact of the Mostly Daily

Fact:

     A completely blind chameleon will still take on the colors of its environment.

~Adair 

HOW TO: Get Your Parents to Agree to Anything

Simone and I have a long history of writing persuasive essays to get what we want. When we were six and seven, we wrote an essay trying to get our parents to agree to a mere nine hours of phone time a day (it didn't work). Then when we were ten and eleven, we wrote a paper voicing our dissent that while we were at swim team practice, our brothers would get Sonic drinks and we would get nothing but chlorine up the nose (an obvious injustice, I think!). Neither of these essays helped us out much, but on Sunday we figured it was time for another try. Emblem3 - who we've obsessed about for over a year - were coming to Austin the next night. There was only one thing to do - and, amazingly, it worked! 
So, if any of our readers are trying to get their parents to agree to anything, we recommend this strategy. After all, one out of three isn't that bad, right? 

Emblem3: A Persuasive Essay

As you know, Emblem3 will be coming to Austin tomorrow night. We understand that this is a stressful time for you, but how better to relax than seeing a bunch of perspiring, attractive young men (or, in the youthful phraseology, “hot sweaty guys”)? Now, before you stop reading and give a loud eye-rolling groan, please hear us out: these are our four reasons that we absolutely need to attend the concert.

First, and most obviously, the blog potential.  It would be the first real concert that we have seen live, so the review would be more accurate and descriptive than what we’ve seen on a computer screen. Seeing it would provide a basis for reviewing future online concerts and albums.  It would also give us the chance to pre-review their not-yet released album, which will draw more attention from readers. In fact, the relative attraction of the perspiring self-proclaimed “Emblemers” might engage a larger following, especially from fans of the musical group.

Secondly, the event would be paid for by us, making it very inexpensive for you, though we would be willing to reimburse you for gas money.  Although we would for you to be there, you would not have to go to the event unless you really wanted to.

Thirdly, it is cost-effective as the tickets now are very inexpensive at only $16 per person, and as it is their first tour, will be the cheapest they will ever be.  Prices would rise along with their popularity, and next year we may not have the chance to go at all.

Finally, the most basic reason is that it would make both of us infinitely happy, as well as grateful forever.  This concert would give us the chance to hear someone that basically represents a year’s worth of appreciation (that is to say, obsession).  We could see and hear them in person, become the rambunctious young ladies (or, “screaming teenage girls,” as it were) that we have reviled.  

So here’s the proposal: we will basically be your slaves for the day of rest for some groups of religious persuasion, that is to say, Sunday, the fourteenth of June, the Year Two Thousand and Thirteen.  Anything you ask us to do on Sunday we will do willingly as well as cheerfully.  To perform best, we will go to sleep no later than 10:30 P.M. exactly (also with no complaint).  Thank you for reading and please consider our proposal.  

Most sincerely, Maya and Simone 


[disclaimer: my Mom did say that she was planning to take us anyway. But we're pretty sure it was the essay that cinched it.] 

~Maya 

Monday: Emblem3 at the Belmont

Emblem3 at the Belmont in Austin

Now, let me just say that I was a huge fan of Emblem3 when they were on the X Factor - I voted for them religiously every week and have been kind of waiting with baited breath for their album.  I do have to admit, though, I was a little disappointed when their first single, Chloe (You're The One I Want) came out.  It still had hints of their style that they had in older songs, but it was more poppy and boy bandish.  Still, I did really like them and when I heard they were coming to Austin, I knew I needed to see them.

Emblem3 is a hip-hop/reggae/pop fusion band from California made up of brothers Wesley and Keaton Stromberg and friend Drew Chadwick.  They were on the X Factor last year, coming in 4th place, and have since been signed to Simon Cowell's record company with their debut album coming out on July 30th of this year.

They started the concert off with a new song, Girl Next Door.  This one I was not very impressed with - the lyrics were pretty weak and it, like Chloe, made them sound like a boy band. However, they followed it up immediately with an older song, Reason, which brought them back to a very Sublime influenced beach rock style.  They managed to work the stage amazingly, though it was very small, very hot, and there were only about 100 people there.  They reached out to their fans, walked through the crowd, wore the ridiculous hats fans had thrown to them, and at one point, Drew actually did a back flip on the stage.  Still, they remained genuine, thanking everyone for being there, having a great time and supporting them, as well as promising to meet fans outside afterward.

Wesley singing

After a few energetic songs, they slowed it down and told the crowd to put their phones and, to paraphrase Drew, "experience the music as humans", bringing out their acoustic guitars for a performance of a new song, Jaiden.  I do have to admit this wasn't exactly a fantastic song - in fact, it's painfully cheesy - but it's the biggest guilty pleasure song I have ever heard. They sang it beautifully, featuring Wesley's fantastic vocals.

However, the spell cast over the audience with this song was quickly gone as they went straight back into another set of fast songs, and quickly the cell phones returned.  To close it all they played Chloe, calling for the crowd to sing along.  They obliged and sang, jumped up and down, and screamed until it was hard to hear anything at all.  They left the stage, waving and thanking the crowd.  But wait - they hadn't played the song they played at their first audition, the song that got them this far, the song that everybody knew and loved and had been waiting for the whole time.  So, five minutes and many shouted chants of "EMBLEM3! EMBLEM3! EMBLEM3!" later, they were back out with an encore of Sunset Blvd., bringing the crowd to their feet, screaming out the lyrics, leaving a feeling of excitement and contentedness that wouldn't leave for hours.

Throughout the concert, they played eight new songs, including the weaker, more poppy Nothing To Lose, Teenage Kings, and Spaghetti along with the stronger Just For One Day and XO, along with four older ones, including Riptide and Curious.  They also featured their version of Matisyahu's One Day.  Overall, I was amazed at at how well they worked the stage, even in a small place.  Though there were a few songs off of their new record I did not like, there were still plenty of good ones to balance them out.  I would absolutely go see them again - today, preferably.  I will definitely be back to Emblem3 in about three weeks to really review their full, newly released album.

Fact of the Mostly Daily

Fact:

From 1984 to 2000, Martin Luther King was honored in Virginia on the same day as two guys who have very different legacies: Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The state holiday was known as “Lee-Jackson-King Day."

Fact of the Mostly Daily

     Starting today, I'm going to start a new kind of post: The Mostly Daily Random Fact. Mostly daily because really? I have a life too, and a post (even a small one) a day is a commitment too big for a teenager.

Today's fact of the mostly daily:

Sadi Arabia bans anything and everything having to do with Christmas, including putting up Christmas lights and trees.

~Adair

Thursday Review: Manic Panic Hair Dye!

Manic Panic in Rockabilly Blue

For the last few months, I have been really wanting to dye my hair a crazy color, and yesterday, I finally did it!  I used Manic Panic semi-permanent in Rockabilly Blue to dye the underlayer of my hair and I am pretty happy with how it worked!  With the help of my dear sweet mother, I did my hair basically the same way you do highlights - taking chunks, putting them on foil, painting them with the dye, closing up the foil, and moving to the next piece.  I left it in for 30 minutes, like it says on the bottle, and even though I hadn't bleached my hair beforehand, it turned out super vibrant blue - in fact, I'm hoping it fades out a little more in the next few days because I feel a little like Cruella de Ville.

Rocking the no-makeup Bellatrix hair look.

The product itself was really easy to use, though I would definitely recommend using an applicator.  Even using one, my (and my mom's) hands are still faintly blue, as is my neck. Be warned also: when you first rinse out your hair...well, you'll know exactly what Purple Rain must have been about.  This dye will stain everything.  And I do mean everything.  There may have been some bleaching of the shower afterwards, and the t-shirt that I was wearing died a brightly colored death.

The final result:

What do you think?

But overall I am really happy with how it looks! I love how bright it turned out, even though I didn't have to bleach it, and I will definitely be using this dye again in the future.

Temporarily Unappreciated Geniuses

     Sadly, many great thinkers, artists, and scientists who are now very famous and admired today, were ignored or laughed at during their lives. But which ones were they? You may be surprised (or not) at the people listed below. I wanted to learn more about why they were ignored, because who knows, maybe we're all just misunderstood geniuses.

1. Galileo Galilei 

      On February 15, 1564, One of the most famous astronomers ever was born. Galileo contributed many instruments and information to the world of science. He built a telescope with which he discovered the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, sunspots, moon craters, and lunar mountains. But the thing he is most famous for and was his downfall was his belief in, and ability to prove Copernicus's heliocentric (sun in the middle of our solar system) theory. This threatened the church which was a government all its own back then; they firmly believed that the earth was the center of the solar system (not to mention the entire universe), for why would God send his only son to a lowly planet? Pope Urban VIII accused Galileo of heresy and he was put under house arrest until his death.

2. Gregor Mendel

     The father of modern genetics, Mendel, was born in 1822. He became an Augustinian monk, but was as devoted to mathematics, and his experimentation on the inheritance of pea plants as he was to God. Mendel was always shy, quiet and rather prone to psychological breakdowns; he never shared his findings with the world, but was way ahead of his time. In fact, his two laws, The Law of Segregation and The Law of Independent Assortment, both hinted at the inner-workings of cell functions and DNA that wouldn't be discovered until later. He was however, spot on.

3. Henry David Thoreau
     Born on July 12th, 1817, Thoreau is best known for his rather long and dry book (you decide whether or not that was sarcasm) Walden about his time living in a shack by a lake. In it, and his other books, he preaches the importance of living naturally. Much of his writing was over the heads of many of its readers, for he could write stanza upon stanza filled with symbolism and hidden meanings. In fact, when no one would publish his book A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers he printed 1,000 copies at his own expense, and in the end, fewer than 300 books were sold. Today, his writings are greatly esteemed and have inspired many leaders such as Ghandi, and Tolstoy, along with many people all around the world.

4. Edgar Allan Poe

     In Massachusetts, on January 19th 1809, one of the most famous writers ever was born. Poe wrote short-stories, books, and poetry, most of which had a ghoulish or mysterious twist, and was the first to write a short-story featuring a detective. Unfortunately, Poe's works were not appreciated while he was alive, and he wrote mostly anonymously. He had a hard time getting his works published, and when he did, he was either not paid, or paid very little. The Raven, a now greatly admired piece of literature, was sold to The American Review for $9. Unfortunately, after his wife's death, his life took a turn for the worse. Poe started drinking, and it got harder to publish things; he had to move constantly to stay out of trouble, and eventually, in 1849, he died. Oddly enough, the cause of his death is shrouded in mystery; doctors' opinions ranged from insanity to suicide to rabies to disease of the heart. Rather fitting for Poe don't you think? 

5. Vincent van Gogh
     Perhaps one of the most famously misunderstood geniuses is this fellow, a Dutch painter born on March 30th 1853. He is now considered one of the most influential artists ever, and the most famous Post-Impressionist painter. As a child he was very shy and had low self-esteem; he later started to do missionary work to become a priest, but his ambitions changed and he soon turned to painting and drawing. Although his works contain bright colors and scenes, his life was much different. He suffered from epilepsy and depression making him mentally-unstable which eventually lead to suicide.
     Van Gogh's approximately 2,000 pieces of art were not truly discovered until after his death, but are now among the most influential and admired works ever.

     So really? You could be a misunderstood genius like the rest of these people, just waiting for your immense intelligence and talent to be discovered by the world. Keep that in mind as you go around making history today.
 
~Adair

The Dancing City

Today's guest blogger composed this poem driving home from a night in downtown Austin. 

The Dancing City
At night the owl hoots,
then tucks in his head,
The deer find a spot for the night.
But the true magic is in the cites,
which at night come alive.
The buildings they sway,
their lights beating in time to music
only they can hear.
The buildings touch the sky,
move the clouds,
yet still grow.
The metal groans
the earth thuds
and still they move
swaying forever
no reason to stop
the night is forever theirs
as it should be.

T. A.

Monday Review: Orange - Diamond Youth

Diamond Youth

Ok, let me preface this by saying I know that the album I'm about to talk about is not a super recent release. And it's technically not a full album, it's an EP.  But I still feel like they deserved some attention.

Anyway.

Diamond Youth!  You might not have heard of them - the only reason I do is because I've watched more than my fair share of live Paramore songs, and in a bunch of the tour their singer been wearing their t-shirt.  I've been looking for new bands to listen to anyway, so I just went ahead and looked them up.  And they were definitely worth the listen.

With three EPs out now and an upcoming album, Diamond Youth is a Chicago-based alternative rock quartet.  Their latest EP, Orange, came out in January.  When I first listened to it, I was a little unsure about whether or not I really had liked it - it was a bit like having stepped into an old-school Muse album with just a hint of Foo Fighters.  It was very 90s emo/college rock and though it did feel a little generic, I already knew that I liked it much better than the similar Queens of the Stone Age album I listened to just a few weeks ago (...Like Clockwork).  There was no doubt the music was more complex, well done, and, well, musical, but I didn't know if it was enough to make it something that would be introduced into the library of music I listen to  consistently.  So, since there were only six songs on the EP (and I have more than a little free time) I went ahead and listened to it again.

The second time listening to it, I decided that I officially liked it.  While still maintaining a very 90s-esque sound, they brought in different styles and influences while creating a very cohesive but not overly repetitive structure of the entire EP.  They showed a distinct sound clearly set in the first track - to quote this site's review, "Cannonball is a great opening track, as it tells you everything you need to know about the band; fuzzed-out guitars and clear melodic vocals, mid-tempo yet still high energy, with a clear debt to '90s emo".  The album overall was one musical arc, providing a strong opening and a buildup continuing through the the first three tracks, peaking in loudness and complexity at the fourth track, Orange, slowing back down at the fifth song Swinging From You, and completing itself by fading out, though still maintaining its old energy, at the final track Lola.  The vocals reached an almost aerial quality over the songs, providing great dynamics between the swooning choruses, especially seen in Separator and Orange.  Though the style and structure of the songs were still basically the same, there was some divergence from the typical style with Come Down starting as a more classic, almost 80s rock style that adds multiple layered melodies in the mix, until later turning into a bright alt-rock second verse.  Because of this, the album comes across more as a large work of art rather than one long song.

There's no doubt that Diamond Youth is a good band with potential.  Personally, I think they are probably the best group right now attempting this style of music, bringing different styles and musicality to the table that similar bands are not really offering.  It's hard to judge how well they will do in the long run since they have not had a full record out yet, but from listening to their older EPs it is pretty clear it will be a good album.  For music-lovers searching for a band that combines the best of the 90s, Diamond Youth will definitely have a space for themselves in the current rock music scene.