At Limbo

My current musical obsessions are all over the place, and in an attempt to make sense of them, I’d love your thoughts! Yup, it’s a Listening in Limbo post, which I haven’t made since… January… So let me know – what are you obsessed with? Flashback retro? Blues? Justin Bieber? I’m admitting my guilty pleasures here, so you be sure to, too!

1. Ke$ha; Your Love is My Drug – When I’m on the road, there is nothing like this song, I really don’t know why. The video is completely cracked-out (forgive the pun), but the song itself is catchy, tells a fun story, and gets you belting along while you’re zooming down the highway in the beating sun.

Check out more beneath the cut, with the youtube music videos to go with it!
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Three has always been a good number to me. I’m not quite sure why, though I’ve definitely always preferred odd numbers (even better if they’re prime). I’m not much of a math person, but the idea that something – like a prime number – can be so wholly unique just always struck me as sort of beautiful.

But anyway, today is a particularly important three in my book – my third to last day at the Day Job. See, I’ve never done anything like this before: leaving stability for the unknown, changing things up *gulp* on purpose. And so, in honor of three more days I bring you, some of my favorite threes. What’s your favorite number? Any significant reasons? Do you have a favorite trio? Let me know!

• Goldilocks’ story
• Starting lines
• Group photos (3, 2, 1, Cheese!)
• The Twilight series (because we all know it ended with Eclipse)
• The Goo Goo Dolls – John Rzeznik, Robby Takac, & Mike Malinin.
• The original Star Wars movies
• “Three Blind Mice” (the only song I could play on my recorder in 4th grade)
• The three fingers scene in Inglourious Basterds
• Being Catholic and all, the Holy Trinity needs a shout out here
• The fact that there are 3 Abrahamic religions (Islam, Judaism, &  Christianity)
• Freud
• The Three Musketeers (the book & the candy bar!)
• The third time’s the charm
• The Golden Trio (Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, & Hermione Granger)
• The third book of the Harry Potter series is my favorite (Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban)
• The Triplets of Bellevue

I am a loyal Crackberry owner. I loved my Zune so much, I bought two of them. I still use Winamp. I don’t appreciate monopolies, particularly in my user interface, and so I have done everything I can to steer completely free of Mac products. The entire Mac culture gives me the creeps, to be honest. I went to an Apple store once with a friend who needed to pick something up, and I felt more watched over than I do in a Catholic church. Being inside those too-brightly-lit white walls made me feel like maybe Big Brother wasn’t a thing of fiction.

But then a few weeks ago my Zune was pick-pocketed. And I’m looking at needing to open an iTunes account for the first time (because Derek Evry’s releasing his solo cd on it, and I have to have that cd, even if it means contemplating opening an iTunes account against my better judgement). And I’ve been thinking, has my preconditioned hatred of all things Apple kept me from a superior musical experience? Does my distaste for ‘iPhone people’ change the way I interact with the world & the technology that moves it?

What it really comes down to is this: I can fit more music for less money an iPod Nano than on anything else.

Heavy questions, my friends. What are your thoughts? I’m still not giving up my Blackberry Tour for anything in the world (seriously, it could BE Big Brother in a PDA, and I’d swear my allegiance), but would branching out in this one tiny way be the beginning an all too dangerous, slippery slope? Or would I be safe from the black turtlenecks of the world?

If you had three wishes, what would they be?

So, what would you wish for? Anything in the world, any lesson you’d need to learn, any place you’d want to be.

I am finally getting back on my feet from my fall a week ago! I don’t look nearly like a prize fighter anymore, and the migraines from having one’s face rearranged by a wooden staircase have almost subsided. Yay! To celebrate, and because the DCYRs are wonderful and offered me a chance to volunteer, I’m going to be at tonight’s Lincoln/Douglass Dinner, the DC GOP’s big annual shindig! After that, I plan to head home and dig into some awesome new music care of M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel, aka She & Him. The duo released their second album – Volume 2 – today and I was glad to see a spot on review of the band’s work in this morning’s Washington Post Express.

What made me so glad about this particular review? It made a point of discussing the difference in Deschanel’s confidence levels, which is the only thing about their debut album, Volume 1, that grated on my nerves in anyway. Knowing that she’s grown into herself as a singer and songwriter gets me so excited to hear their newest effort. So check out the review, pick up the album, and let me know what you think (I’ll be doing the same)!

Wow – 100 posts?! In honor of this milestone, as well as my recent love for lists and the fact that we had Kostume Karaoke – Red Carpet Style last night, I’m listing my Top 5 Favorite Karaoke Songs (that I sing, because there would be a lot more Johnny Cash on any other kind of karaoke list), check them out after the jump.

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I may be a bit odd, but I am someone who looks forward to spring cleaning as if my survival of the winter depends on the annual tradition. Closet reorganization, scrubbing floors, half.com sales, open windows, Facebook clean-out, ripped jeans, and library alphabetizing! I don’t know why this particular ritual is so awesome in my book (especially as my OCD has me cleaning/rearranging my areas of my communal house every couple of weeks year-round), but I woke up this morning nearly tingling with anticipation for this weekend.

by einschuss via flickr

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Rather than pretending to be an authority on any subject or fandom, I’ve decided to simply to a series of posts that encompass my favorites of 2009, rather than the ‘best of’ anything in particular. And so, here they are, my favorites, brought to you via graphics & lists by yours truly (in no particular order).

My Favorite… Live Music Venues

IOTA (Arlington VA)
Goodbye Blue Monday (Brooklyn, NY)

Honorable Mentions

DC9, Galaxy Hut; Asylum; Solly’s U St.;
The Barns at Wolftrap; The Market Commons (Myrtle Beach, SC);
The Living Room & Googies (NYC)

My Favorite… Albums

Merriweather Post Pavilion, Animal Collective; Grand, Matt and Kim;
All I Ever Wanted, Kelly Clarkson; Battle Studies, John Mayer

I and You and Love, The Avett Brothers; It’s Not Me, It’s You, Lily Allen;
Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear; Hot Mess, Cobra Starship; The Fame Monster, Lady Gaga

The Time of our Lives (EP), Miley Cyrus; Heartbeat Radio, Sondre Lerche;
Break Up, Scarlett Johansson & Pete Yorn; The Resistance, Muse; Kris Allen, Kris Allen

Soundtrack – Where the Wild Things Are, Karen O;
Soundtrack – Glee (vol 1 & vol 2), The Glee Cast

After the jump, check out my favorites and my disappointments, as well as missed opportunities in TV and movies!

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from winiandfred.com.au

It’s been a busy week, so I haven’t been around much to bother you all with posts, but here I am again to tout some things that have made me particularly happy this week. It’s Friday, and I’m in love!

• Pandora – I resisted Pandora’s radio station glee for a long while, being a big devotee of Last.FM’s ocd-music-tracking addiction, and didn’t think the two could exist in the same heart space. I was so wrong! My Pandora station does what my Last.FM account doesn’t, pinpointing exactly what new artists and old favorites I didn’t even know I needed to be listening to.
• Being sent flowers… Yesterday, I received anonymous flowers to my office, and I still haven’t a clue whom their from, having asked my best friends and family point blank! They are pink and purple, lovely, and came with the most uplifting unsigned note. I haven’t gotten flowers since, I believe, Valentine’s Day, and something so small and thoughtful has had me on cloud 9 these last two days.
• Adams Morgan – I’ve rediscovered this party spot in the city after years of neglect (college leaves a certain after taste with things like this, I think) and can’t be grateful enough. With live venues like Asylum, Madam’s Organ, and TomTom (where I saw their comedy open mic for the first time this week), it’s walkability from U St., and overall great neighborhood vibe, I’m excited to be checking it out as something other than just another drunken college partier. Blues bars, jam bands, and Asylum’s Golden Sprints are sure to have me coming back for more all winter.

And that’s it from me, folks. Like I said, it’s been a busy week, but very little of it has been spent online for once! I enjoyed live music, checking out new happy hour venues, kostume karaoke of the Solly’s sort, really good food, amazing live theater (in the form of As you like it at the Shakespeare Theater last night), and a lot of time with my best friends. This weekend brings more settling in at the new homestead and a trip to lovely Baltimore for my Little Sister’s (proud fellow sorority alumna) wedding long weekend!

So, it’s Friday. What are you loving?

from hellocherie @ flickr

At the beginning of October, I embarked on a somewhat laid back ‘change some things about my life before the new year’ adventure. I wanted to enter 2010 in a much better place than coming into 2009 saw me, and I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job so far, but a public gut check is never a bad thing, so here we go.

Goal #1; Focus on my health more acutely. Thanks to having been struck down with one helluvan ear infection which then took over my brain/body for about a month (I’m still battling it a bit, to be honest), I have certainly focused more on my health in the last month and half. I have been forced to take nights off from live music, been spending more time attempting sleep, having to eat better (chicken soup for the win, completely). Orange juice has been a diet constant. Through it all, I know I’m not ‘feeling’ better because of the lingering cold, but I’m still aware of how doing better things for my body is only going to be good for me in the end; it’ll eventually feel great!

Goal #2; Branch out musically. I have! I’ve moved from almost exclusively seeing shows at IOTA to checking out Galaxy Hut, the Kennedy Center, Jammin’ Java, coffee houses all over the city, and of course, the web. In the last month or so I’ve checked out amazing free style, falling in lust with DC-rapper Wale’s national debut “Attention Deficit”, gotten to dance the night away to a thumping bluegrass jam band, spent an entire afternoon surrounded by Joni Mitchell albums, and rediscovered my love for country western and opera. I’d say I’m on the right track.

Goal #3; Trim down what I own. I fail. With the move coming up, I keep saying “as I’m unpacking, I’ll go through everything” but that sort of defeats the propose of trimming things down so that moving is easier. Oy.

Goal #4; Win NaNoWriMo. I’m working on it for the next two weeks!

Goal #5; Lastly, I will get back to my roots. I have jumped back into the delicious world of campaign politics as if door knocking were my air. I volunteered on both the Christie and McDonnell campaigns and couldn’t get enough election coverage straight up until the last ballot was cast and the winners were announced. It feels wonderful. It feels like coming home. It’s the reason I came to DC 8 years ago and I’m so grateful to be involved again, I don’t plan on walking away this time! Oh yeah, and it helps that we won!

As for entering 2010 in a better place, I’d say I’m right on track. With a move into a new house I feel as if I’m physically coming out of a somewhat… for lack of a better word emo… state. Moving out of the basement, into the sunshine, if I want to be very poetic about it. This can only be a good thing. I’m taking off the kid gloves, taking trips to brand new places, taking more time to simply appreciate my friends & family, and really excited about having heat in my bedroom for the first time in a year… Yes, 2009 has been a year of transition, and I’ll be ending it with one more. I’m almost ready for the holiday season, folks. This list’s butt is mine to kick.