Beasts and Superbeasts

I have a Youtube account (to which I will not link because I don't have any videos worth anyone's time) which I use mostly just to favorite videos and subscribe to cool Youtubers. One of these 'tubers happens to be mememolly, a formerly-British, now-Canadian teenage girl who I discovered over the summer from her homemade music video to Rilo Kiley's "The Frug."

In her latest video, "Glamorous," Molly told her viewers about all the books she bought recently (including one of my favorites Looking for Alaska) as well as a CD she bought. It was the debut album from the band Beasts and Superbeasts. The cover was really pretty so I decided to Google them and listen to the music on their Mypsace.

I didn't even get halfway through the first song of four before I absolutely fell in love with their style. The song, "If I Was a House," is completely magical. It starts with a cool accordion sound that is then accompanied by a mellow guitar melody. Soon the accordion drops out, yields to piano tinkling and male-female paired vocals that are fairly toneless but fantastic nonetheless. A little over halfway through the song, the guitar melody returns with a darker sound and so does the accordion, as if you just went from a mellow sailing trip to a journey into the dark and stormy sea. The lyrics and the vocals become more intense and emotional with about a minute left of the song. But then you come out of the storm and back into the sunny sea with toneless but happier vocals and piano tinkling.

I haven't gotten around to their other songs because I am so in love with this one I'm afraid nothing else of theirs will compare (though I doubt this is true in practice).

Books I Want To Write

Writing a book sounds like a huge task. For some, it may be a dark and looming task as well, especially if you love telling stories and have wanted to write a novel for years but just haven't gotten there yet.

But if I were to write a book, there would be two possible books I'd want to put onto paper (or, more appropriately, into a Word document).

The first would be the novel I have been working on since October that I worked on dilligently all through November, AKA: National Novel Writing Month. It's a fantasy novel about kids, but not meant for a child audience (think His Dark Materials type of novel). It's fun to write and plot this story but I haven't made much time basically since the end of winter break to get anything written. Since then, I've written about 15 pages, which is not very much considering I wrote probably 120 or so during November alone. It's a total of 167 pages as of right now and I'm waiting for the time to be able to dedicate to some serious, hardcore writing time.

The second book I would want to write is a novel that would mix basically everything I could ever want to read about. It would be a horribly self-indulgent novel and I would probably be the only person to purchase a copy in any bookstore anywhere. I would somehow manage to blend drug culture and vampires and magic (which sounds incredibly corny now that I type it out but does not in my head). It would probably end up being somewhat epic, because I'd need some sort of social drama, adventure drama and immortal drama. But it would be so much fun to write! If only for my own personal joy. :)


PS: I stole this topic from Chris Brogan's website where he has a list of 100 topics people should write about. I chose: #25: Books I Want to Write. (His list is very helpful.)

The Sims (2)

Yesterday, for lack of anything else (except homework) to do, I decided to play the Sims. I installed the Seasons expansion pack and haven't been able to use it as much as I'd like yet so I made great use of it. I made a Sim with Knowledge aspiration so that all her Wants would be easy to fulfil and went to town. I gave everything a Country theme except one room, which was a Tiki room. She has a gerbil and a green house and a pond to fish in. And I sat there and played for at least eight hours. I am not even kidding.

The Sim that I started yesterday is now at the top of the Culinary career track as a Celebrity Chef. She has lots of funny outfits that she can wear to work, when she goes to work, three days a week making over 2,000 Simoleons a day. She has a gold gardening badge, which means she can talk to her plants to make them thrive, and a silver fishing badge, which means she can catch more kinds of fish. Her cooking and creativity skill points are maxxed out and her body points are nearl there. She has seven friends, who are all also best friends, and one love interest (though they have no chemistry... ??)

And now I am addicted to The Sims. And why? It's kind of sad that I sit in front of the computers for hours, only to control a simulated person's simulated life. But, let's face it.. Sim lives are so much better than our own. My Sim makes $2000 a day but her bills are ony $100. She has a maid who charges $20 a day (basically, because my Sim is consistently non-slob-ish) and I can just cheat to get my Sim anything she (or I...) want. Everything is easy and black and white as a Sim. There aren't social cliques or sexist bosses to keep you from the top of your career track or any of the other things that make our lives horribly complicated.

Despite the fact that the makers of The Sims are trying to make the game as real as possible, with chemistry factors between acquaintances and lots of customizable factors and traits, it gets farther and farther away from reality and farther into how harmoniously we wish we could really live.

Kelsey Wild

A few months ago, probably sometime during fall trimester, I went onto Purevolume (which I, apparently, pimp all the time) and looked at their featured artists. I stumbled upon an Indie/Acoustic arist named Kelsey Wild.

She's a seventeen year old artist from Byron, Illinois. Her music is basically her playing piano and her voice. She has a really unique voice that really defines her lyrics. In conjunction with her voice, her piano melodies give the perfect accents to her poetic lyrics. All her songs are very mellow, very stripped down and vulnerable and extremely pretty. She's immensely talented.

All of Kelsey's songs tell stories, in some way. They're all personal and have some kind of experience from her life to convey. Her music is mellow and perfect to listen to when trying to write a story, do your homework or any other time during the day. Once you start listening to Kelsey's music, it will be stuck in your head all day long, cycling through one of her five songs on her Purevolume.

The only depressing thing is that Kelsey's music is so good you just want more of it once you've listened to her five tracks. The sad thing is that she isn't yet signed to any record label. I think she'd be an immediate hit among mellow indie listeners, maybe even wider audiences, espcially in the Midwest because that's where she's from and where she's play shows. However, there is no news on new songs or a potential record deal. But she has many fans crossing their fingers for an album in the future.

Luther College Visit

I am going to take a quick break from my usual blog posts about music and movies and books to write about my visit that I took yesterday to Luther College.

I left my house, with my dad in tow, around 8:30 in the morning. It was a really nice day for a two hour drive. We were mostly on two-lane highways with 55 miles an hour speed limits. But the weather was perfect. It was nice and sunny and bright. The grass was green and I passed a propane truck after miles of slow-driving aggravation.

We got there at 10:40 and spent the next five minutes trying to figure out where would be the best place to park and then where to go from our selected parking lot. Eventually, we figured it out and then were on our way with our tour guide to sightsee around the campus.

It was a long hike around the campus, especially in the hillier bits. We went all through the Union building (where the food's at!) and their "wellness" facilities and some dorm buildings and some learning buildings and looked around basically all the campus, mostly. Everything was maintained really well and looked really nice. I dig/dug it.

After the tour, we were free to go get lunch in the cafeteria with little food card things they gave us. So my dad and I went to get food. The cafeteria only had a million choices. It was really good food too. Instead of the bland, plain, gross stuff they serve at our school cafeteria (which I decline to eat by bringing my own lunch).

After everyone ate, we went to an official "Welcome!" presentation in the Center for Life and Faith, which is a really pretty building. The told us all sorts of fun factoids about Luther and then sent us on our way to meet with various departments or to do a student-to-student conversation or go to a financial aid session. My dad and I went to the English department one together and then I went to the Education session while my dad went to learn about financial aid stuff (yet again).

After all the department sessions, you could go back to the Union, get free (COLD AND REFRESHING because it was hot outside) beverages and talk to the admissions counsellor who would be looking over your application, if you so chose to apply. So my dad and I did that for, like, five minutes. And then we left because we had to drive the whole two hours home. But first we drove all through most of Decorah. Which is a cute, small little quaint town. But it actually has a lot of stuff, at least more than I thought it would. And it's basically five minutes from the Luther campus (but then again, it is the closest town for, like, forever).

Overall, the visit was really fun and went really well. They ran everything really smoothly, with plenty of people there to help you get where you're going and feel really comfortable doing it. I had a really good time and I think that after my visit, Luther is definitely at the top of my "Colleges I Want To Go To" list.

Tilly and the Wall

My friend, Danielle, introduced me to a band about a million years ago called Tilly and the Wall. I didn't really listen to them very much until about... a week or so ago. I'd only heard a fewof their songs ("Bad Education," "Rainbows in the Dark," and "Night of the Living Dead") but looked them up on YouTube to see if they had any music videos or live performance videos. And this is how I found out about the coolest thing about Tilly and the Wall.

Their percussionist is a tap dancer.

Which is only the single most unique thing I've ever heard of or seen from a band. Ever.

I was watching this video and I was like, "Wait a second..." And now I'm totally a slave to Tilly and the Wall. I have found that I have a broken record in my head that can't play anything besides "Bad Education" and "Rainbows in the Dark." Not that I'm complaining.

Tilly is a pretty unique band. The vocals aren't the most masterful. They sound kind of like a mix between Bright Eyes and vairous indie pop bands (which isn't surprising, given that they are signed to Conor Oberst's label, Team Love, and they were in a band with Conor before he went BIG TIME as Bright Eyes). Their lyrics and melodies are catchy and fun to sing along to (if you can figure out the words in time). It's easy to listen to their songs on repeat because they're so fun and loveable.

Their video for "Sing Songs Along" is probably a perfect example of how bright, bubbly and fun Tilly is. They are wearing bright colors, jumping around with a bunch of kids in a gymnastics studio and smiling, smiling, smiling! I think they are, overall, a pretty feel-good band, perfect for this emerging spring and up-and-coming summer.

Super High Me

There is a movie, coming out just in time for 420, called Super High Me. It is being made by High Time's Stoner of the Year, Doug Benson. I have a very strong urge to see this movie. It's a spoof off Super Size Me, in which that guy ate only Fast Food for 30 days. Instead, Benson is smoking pot and being high all day, every day, for 30 days.

Now, despite the illegality of marijuana and the obvious health side effects, I think this movie (or would it be a documentary...?) is going to be a joy to watch. Doug Benson is a pretty funny guy, being a professional comedian and all. I'm wondering, however, how much of the film is going to be humorous filler and pot-talk and how much will be professionals talking and (boring) factoids we have probably learned through our school's drug education program. Given that this is sort of a parody documentary, I am pretty sure that it will be mostly bullshit the whole way through. We'll see, however.

The movie is doing "grassroots screenings" all over the country on 420 but I can't find a REAL release date. You have to be 18 in order to organize a screening and get a (free!) DVD sent to your house. Which is a shame. Because I'd totally love to see it ASAP because I could do with a good laugh - especially this weekend, after the heavy homework load this week has bestowed upon me.

But here is a trailer, as I always post videos. Tell me what you think.

As Tall As Lions

Every once and a while, I like to go to the homepage of Purevolume and look at their featured bands. Normally, I can't really find any bands that I like. But a few days ago (okay, so more like a week ago) I went onto the Purevolume page and found the profile (?) page for As Tall As Lions. I have been listening to this band for days on end, seriously.

I downloaded the free songs from their Purevolume and bought their self-titled CD. I burned all the songs onto one disc of happiness, joy and wonder. Probably half of the songs on the 14-track CD are considered favorites of mine by this particular band. The songs are all different and the same at the same time. They have intensity of emotion lurking behind the layers of instrumentation and vocals. The lyrics are very abstract and storylike and, with the "Ambient / Indie / Rock" influences (thanks, Purevolume!) it makes for an overall enchanting album.

The one thing that has been bothering me through this entire obsession with this band is that the lead singer sounds A LOT like another singer but is obviously a different person. I cannot think of who it is. Sometimes, he sounds a little like the singer of Keane, but then I'm like, "No..." And then he sounds like the singer of the band The Juliana Theory, but that isn't right either. I also considered that he and the singer of Meriwether sounded a lot alike, but I'm not too sure about that either. But listening to songs over and over to try to solve this mystery is only a weak excuse for listening to As Tall As Lions as much as humanly possible.

Some of the songs I highly recommend are:
A Break, A Pause
Ghost of York
Stab City
Song for Luna
The Carousel (which is on their Purevolume profile)


Video for the song "Love, Love, Love (Love, Love)":