please, mr. boss man

On repeat all day long.

bless my heart and bless yours too

My favorite song of the moment.  Favorite band of the moment.  I wanna be her when I grow up.



Really?  I can be that cool, right?  Maybe?  Kind of.  Sorta?


Alabama Shakes.  Look it up.  Love 'em.  Be indebted to me for forever.

right now I'm loving...

the Last Kiss soundtrack.
a few of my favorite songs:


"Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk" - Rufus Wainwright


"Arms of a Woman" - Amos Lee


"Hold You in My Arms" - Ray Lamontagne


"Paperweight" - Joshua Radin and Schuyler Fisk

hanging out with these crazyfaces.

this book I stole from Amby.

storing the chalk for my new chalkboard on my coffee table.

monday.

Wake up early.  Wear a handmade colorful skirt.

Do homework on the bus.

Drink some oj.  Go to the financial aid office.

Listen to Adele.  Walk to class.

Read books by old Russian guys.

(Escape Hatch by Vladmir Makanin)

Make salted caramel dark chocolate brownies (from scratch!) with your sister.
Ruin the carmel three times.
 Discuss life after college.

Watch a traumatising documentary about natural birth and then decide to adopt.
Stay up late doing homework.  Go to bed.  Wake up.  Do it all again.

did you get a good lawyer?

Larisa and I have been talking lately about working on a few more songs together.  We came up with one that we wanted to sing and decided to go up to campus last week to find a pretty place to perform.

Well... We got a little distracted.  I started showing Larisa around campus and she fell for all of the gorgeous architecture.  She stole my phone (better camera) and went on a little photography spree.  She'd get enthralled with beautiful woodwork on a doorway and then apologize for "taking so long"; I wanted to pull out all of the random photos of campus on my phone to show her just how much I understand.  I'm a sucker for a gorgeous building and I love that she appreciates UT the way I do.

 all photography by Larisa Corder

We headed over to the music building where they have a bunch of little soundproof practice rooms to run through the song.  I pretended to play around on the piano, but I soon let the real musician accompany our tune.

Of course, by the time we were done sightseeing and playing around on the piano, it was dark outside.  Grrrrrrr.  We tried out a couple of places outside, but we couldn't find enough bright light to film.

Our solution?  The laundry room.  Yeah, that's where all of the great musical collaborations take place.

We just Could. Not. Get. Through. This. Song.  One of us kept forgetting the words (me) or messing up on the harmony (me) or laughing (me).  

Such are the things we do.

P.S.  It's not just me, right?  I make some weird faces when singing.

the best mj cover I've ever heard.

I don't know where I first saw this, but I've had it stuck in my head all week.  So gorgeous.

I can write a thousand words about flower arranging, but I have nothing more to say about this.

things that I think are awesome (the it made me laugh edition)

I haven't been feeling super fantastic this week (as Loryn and Mel got to witness when they dropped by to see my beautiful, pj clad, unwashed hair self) and since I found out I can make up some of the test I bombed last week,  I've been laying around watching The Office and studying Linguistics.

In a particularly challenging chapter on phonology, I found this:

"switching my major to figure drawing"

I feel you, mysterious artist who also bought/sold their book to the UT Co-op.  If I had to study this stuff for more than one class I'd switch my major too.  (And if I wasn't 242 days away from graduation, I might switch my major to one that didn't require this class as well...)

this chart is the bane of my existence

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more funny things...

a drunk guy in the back of a cop car sings "Bohemian Rhapsody" flawlessly

"I have done nothing wrong - even the situation where you grabbed me, has nothing to do with having been sort-of intoxicated, as you proclaim!  And I didn't say that I was intoxicated... And it doesn't even matter! What it has to do with is brotherhood of man on the planet Earth!" 


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I'd like to thank Clint for showing me this next video and its compatriots.  My Drunk Kitchen is a series where a girl named Hannah gets drunk while she films a cooking show and posts the videos to YouTube.  

It's as awesome as it sounds.

Most of the videos are about cooking things like pizza or omelets.  My favorite, however, is one where she attempts to make cookies.  She's not a fan of baking, by the way... (language warning)

"nothing about cookies is fun"
"now it's the worst part, the part where we cook and don't just get drunk"

"pretentious a** recipe"

"put some baking powder in, it doesn't matter how much"

"things to do while it's baking - clean your kitchen so your roommates don't get mad about your drunk cooking show"

Clint, let's make our own drunk cooking show.  We'd be soooooo good.

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Nobody does "Garth and Kat" better than Andrew Rodriguez and I. (I'm Garth)

some of Fred Armisen and Kristen Wiig's best work.

"That's how your hair looks when you come out of the shower?"

"I heard a rumor that you gave me chocolaaaaaaates."

"Please, Seth!  We came all the way from Colonial Williamsburg!"

"Please!  I'm begging for my life!"

Every single time they break and start laughing, I almost pee in my pants.  They've done this bit a million times (you're welcome) but I love it every time.

What I've been doing lately...

I took Friday night off of work to do some catching up on sleep from Thursday's all-nighter (but I've gotten my grade back and the studying wasn't in vain!)  After my nap, I went to a movie by myself (my favorite way to spend an evening) at Alamo Drafthouse - an Austin institution that's worth all of it's hype.  I saw 21 Jump Street and had some amazing 4 cheese-artichoke-spinach-hearts of palm dip.  It was fantastic.  Fan-freaking-tastic.  So funny and smart (and a little dirty, fair warning.)

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The littlest sister (Larisa) moved into a new bedroom, so we've been spending a lot of time together lately, talking color schemes, new furniture and paint choices.

We also had the first Casey's of the summer last night.  Seriously, if you live in Austin and you've never been, you need to remedy that.  Casey's New Orleans Snowballs - one yelp reviewer said it all:

If one does not like Casey's, it is fair to assume the following:

* They are a terrorist
* They are a communist
* They do not believe in AMERICA
* They take life for granted

Mounds (hers) and Peach/Strawberry (mine).  Why did we get big ones?  I think we were just a little excited that they were finally open.  We drove by, saw the open sign and practically did a U-turn to get there.

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Campbell (the brother) has had a scary week.  He went to the ER with what he thought was a extreme muscle spasm in his neck.  An ambulance ride to Seton and some surgery later, he had a giant abscess taken out of his lymph nodes.  He's totally fine and cracking us all up when he's loopy on painkillers, so I'm relieved.  He does have a sweet scar on his neck - we've been coming up with explanations for the injury and my favorite is knife fight, followed up with the classic, "You should see the other guy."

I just stole this picture from his facebook, but look how handsome he is!

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I also took a little study break tonight and did a little music making with Larisa.  She's become a little ukulele virtuoso and so we used my crappy iPhone video camera and had a concert out on the south steps of the Tower.  

Thanks for the screenshots, youtube.

I made Larisa record "Sweetie Pie" - the song that prompted this post.  She killed it, of course.

Oooooh... That one might be worse.

The squeals at the end of both of these is our excitement of getting through the songs without a car driving by.  If we were more professional, we'd have multiple takes to pick the best from...  Nope, y'all get one-take performances.

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Ok, back to more studying.  I lead an exciting life, don't I?

watchin' the ships roll in...

"Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" has to be one of my all time favorite songs and this is a killer version of it by a lady I happen to love.

(Side note: It's also my ringtone, so whenever I hear it, I have this instant reaction of "Who's calling me?")

you know I love me some Adele...

But this guy is killing this song.

I was reading on Jezebel about a busker who performs down in the subway in NYC.  The story told about how he saved someone who had fallen in the track and linked to a video of his performance of one my favorite Adele songs.  I loved it.  It's definitely one of the best versions I've heard.



You're welcome.

what's an autoharp?

That's the question I got from most people when I told them I bought an autoharp last week.  I bought it for the program Journeys in Music that I've started with UT's The Autism Project.  (I'm going to finish going through all of the pictures from the event this weekend on Friday - so I promise I'll write a big blog post soon!)  Part of the program required enough instruments for each of the children to have one, so then they could rotate through and get a chance to play each of them.

I went on Craigslist and found a bunch of cheap instruments - I was trying to get a well rounded group of instruments, so I when I found an autoharp, I thought it might be fun.  I didn't know exactly how to play one, but I figured it would be awesome for the kids to play on.  The guy I bought it from had found it at his grandmother's house and had no idea what to do with it.  It came with all of the original paperwork, including a bill of sale from 1967 from Sears Roebuck (it cost his grandmother $8.67) and a record to help you tune it.

I didn't end up using it this weekend because it needs to be fixed up, but I think once we get it ready to play, the kids will have so much fun with it.  I think I might research how to play and learn a song or two, because that's a pretty bad ass instrument to have on your repertoire.

You have to watch this.

A friend of mine posted about this video on facebook, and since I was wasting time on the internet late at night, I watched it.  (As would be expected.)  Then I watched it again.  And then again.  And again.  And a million more times.  I don't know exactly what I like best about this.  The gorgeous, simple harmonies are a giant factor; the use of the cup game as the rhythm is amazing; I don't know exactly what it is, I just like it.  I've never really listened to Robyn (the original artist) and so I don't know if I've ever even heard her version of the song. 

I'm obsessed.  Just watch it, and you'll see why.

This is what I do when I should be studying.

So, I've got my last final in about 9 hours and I've been studying like crazy.  I thought I'd take a break and for some reason, went to YouTube to watch a video of Dolly Parton singing "Jolene."  My sisters are forced to go to Jo-Ann's (the craft/fabric store) with me often and one of them wrote a sweet version of this song that goes like this, "Jo-Ann's, Jo-Ann's, Jo-Ann's, Jo-Aaaaaaaaaan's, I'm begging of you, please don't sew my pants."

This is what I watched.

It's awesome.  

Then, I just fell into the black hole of YouTube.  I clicked on another video from the "Related Videos" sidebar and just watched weirder and weirder stuff.  This mostly stayed on music videos (by virtue of the sidebar) and luckily for you, I've decided to share the awesomeness that happened.

Now, this is gonna get embarrassing, but don't judge me.  ;)  And... I didn't watch very much of very many of these videos.  Most of them got from 15 seconds to maybe a minute and a half of viewing time.  Here goes.

From "Jolene" I watched the White Stripes' version.  This thing is super sweet.  I love that he didn't change the words (to make the lyrics work for a guy.)  I kind of hate it when people do that to a classic song.

You're welcome for that.

It just all went down hill for a while after that.  First, Miley Cyrus and Dolly sing it.  Then, Alison Krauss killed it, as she is wont to do.  I stayed on that pretty lady for a while, with "Down to the River to Pray" which kills me every single time Alison sings it.  Then I watched the version from Oh Brother Where Art Thou? the version from Oh Brother Where Art Thou? which is an awesome movie.  So, then I watched the video for "Man of Constant Sorrow." (By the way, "Soggy Bottom Boys" is a brilliant name for a band!)  I always remember the English family singing that song.  After that, I clicked on a link for a scene from a movie that I've never seen; it is, however, on my list.  (I have a giant list of movies that I've never seen but "Oh my god! You totally have to!")

Dueling banjos from Deliverance.

I knew that Steve Martin had been playing music, but his version of "Dueling Banjos" on Letterman was pretty awesome/funny.  (So is his book, Shopgirl, you should read it.)  

I know I said it went downhill earlier, but that was a lie (just embarrassment that I was about to admit I watched a video of Miley Cyrus singing.)  This is actually when it got bad.  Disclaimer, I watched only a few seconds of most of the following videos.  I did, however, click on them, so I have to deal with the consequences.  I watched a clip from some show about Taylor Swift in high school from a long time ago.  Then, a horrible quality (the video, Breeny, not her) performance of her song "Tim McGraw" sang to the actual Tim McGraw at some country awards show.  Then, evidently Nicki Minaj sang that "Super Bass" song at one of Taylor's concerts (Taylor's such a cute little white girl dancer!)  For some reason, this linked me to a video of a teenage girl doing the dougie?  Then, the First Lady (who I love - we would so be best friends) getting down.  Obama did a bit of dancing on Ellen.  Justin Bieber and Willow Smith whipped their hair back and forth.  I told you it was bad.

Somehow, from there I fell into a crazy vortex of wedding parties doing what they said was THE BEST WEDDING DANCE EVAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!  They were all horrible, and I won't subject you to all of them.  At this point, I was pretty committed to only changing videos via the "Related Videos" sidebar and I thought I'd never get out of this heinous dancing video hell.  One of the worst actually saved the day, because the half-drunk bridesmaids doing the Slumdog Millionaire dance to "Jai Ho" gave me a link to something else.  The AH-MAY-ZING (no sarcasm here, I mean it!) Pussycat Dolls' version. (I can't tell if this was the worst or best thing I watched all night.)  That led me to this next video, which I watched the whole thing of, because I love, love, love, love, love Bollywood movies.  It's pretty old school and the set reminds me of a scene in the Shirley Temple version of The Little Princess.

My friend Ayla and I used to rent Bollywood movies from I Love Video all the time.

 I watched the "Jai Ho" scene from Slumdog Millionaire and relived my dreams of doing a giant dance number with a crowd of strangers.  I watched "Sway" by the Pussycat Dolls. I just officially wrote the words "Pussycat Dolls" way too many times.  This lead into a performance of "Lady Marmalade" by Christina Aguilara and the gang.  So what if I know the entire rap verse to this song?  That's the least of my sins tonight.  I went to a couple of songs from Back to Basics (It's a killer cd!  The second half was recorded on old school equipment and it's got a great sound to it.) like Candyman.  The song "I Got Trouble" is my favorite song of hers and one I'd really like to perform with a live band someday. If you just heard the singing, you'd never guess it was a modern song/recording.  This led to an over-sang performance of   That last click finally started taking me to a good place.  First was an Etta James version of the song.

Love the outfit.

In a welcome respite from the earlier crap, I listened to Etta's version of "My Funny Valentine."  I then remembered that Amy Winehouse was a really talented jazz singer - this live recording of "Lullaby of Birdland" is awesome!    You know when the sidebar showed me an Adele video, I immediately went there.  There was a interview with her where she was all adorable and British.  Then, a longer version (the British adorable-ness.)  I'll watch a cute little kid sing anything, but a cute little girl and her dad singing "Rolling in the Deep?"  I'm there.  This being, of course, the dad/daughter combo that everyone has seen singing that "Home" song.

How many marriage proposals did that dad get after this video?

(2:50 starts the best moment)

If you're talking about cute little girls singing songs, I'm sure all of you have seen those little girls sing "Super Bass" on Ellen... Well, they were red carpet interviewers at some awards show. It was awesome to see the stars' responses to them.  

Then, I decided I should stop wasting time and study some more.  Then, I didn't study and wrote a blog post instead.  Now, I should probably study.

What do I do instead of study for finals week?

Obviously, go to karaoke with Clint and Lauren.