Trip to Joshue Tree

This is the third time I have tried to go to Joshua Tree and didn't make it. Incident 1 was when me and Kim drove cross country and almost pulled off the road to go and at the last minute didn't. Incident 2 was when I went to Coachella and had time to go after, but ended up getting sucked in to being lazy at the pool. Incident 3 was Thursday.


Me and my friend Laura from Philly who is visiting took a day trip out to Joshua Tree. It was a beautiful day, about 85 degrees, perfect road trip weather. We are about 20 miles away from Joshua Tree and we stop for gas in a little town called Morongo Valley. We get gas and then notice that my car has steam coming out of it.
This guy tells us to go down to Leo's Automotive which we do and we end up being at Leo's for the rest of the afternoon, never making it to Joshua Tree.




Leo's was like the Twilight Zone. The mechanic's daughter were sitting in waiting room watching Mickey Mouse cartoons that I haven't seen since I was 25, I mean 5. We met an 88 year old Cherokee Indian named mom. And then we perused the cactus shop next door which had three roosters.



Eventually we found out we wouldn't be able to drive my car anywhere and Leo couldn't get the parts for 4 days. So we had to call AAA who towed us 120 miles back to LA. Only after a brief 2 hour detour to Palm Springs to drop off another car. It was lunacy. But my car is fixed now and all is well.

My Past Few Weeks of Non Blogging

Since I have been slacking with posts I will do a quick picture summary of my past few weeks.

World Champions!!!!!! The Shack. Philly bar in Santa Monica.


Celebrating Franklin Style


ROAR! Cat Hands!


"Excellent"


A Touch of Home.


Halloween Party at one of my neighbors. They had a gift exchange and someone gave a live cochroach as a gift. This is the Halloween tree.


Drinks at the Velvet Margarita after seeing the Michelle Williams' new movie "Wendy & Lucy". Michelle Williams did a Q&A after. She seemed cool.


My co-worker Loretta.


Protesting Prop 8.


After protesting, I saw Paris filming her BFF show. She was very, very skinny, with alot of makeup, but she ate the food that she ordered.

My Night Working the Red Carpet

Video of the red carpet event that I helped one of my bosses with a few weeks ago. It was a fashion show/birthday party for my boss, Face, at AREA nightclub. I was in charge of the VIP guest list on the red carpet. People will seriously do and say anything to get in to a club on a random Thursday night. I had a woman screaming at me - "Don't you know who I am, I am a recording artist." Oh really what song did you sing? "Oh well I worked with Beyonce once" It was hilarious. Or the publicist that was trying to get his client on the carpet by saying "She was on Days of Our Lives once." It was all very amusing. I talked to the bouncer for awhile and he told me all about his job and dealing with stars and getting them whatever they want. It was very interesting. Paris Hilton was supposed to show up for the fashion show, but of course she didn't. Oh well. Check out the video - my roommate did the makeup for the show.

VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 More Friends

I Can't Wait

I can't believe we have to wait till July. This looks awesome.

Life is a Fortune Teller

This is so random. This was the cover of Life Magazine in 2004.
Tina Fey and John McCain. What? How ironic!

A Word from the Wise Winehouse

"Nelson Mandela and my husband have a great deal in common -- both of them have spent a great deal of time in prison."

Much like Nelson Mandela, Blake Fielder-Civil is a shady shady character who lets his wife beat him and is in jail for obstructing justice. Some how the young man is not is jail for drugs, which he has been addicted to since he dropped out of school in the 6th grade.

Hollyweird

Over the weekend I hung out with a friend of mine from high school who was in town. We went to Skybar, which is such an awesome place - but I have never actually had fun there. LA is such an odd place. In the middle of bar there was this couch and in front of the couch was a red velvet rope. This was a so called "VIP" area. It was like sitting in your living room and putting a rope in front of yourself between your couch and your coffee table and then saying - "No you can't come in here, it's private." And people were waiting in line for the staff to prepare the area to get in. The couch could fit maybe 4 people. It was so weird and funny.

After deciding it sucked there, we left and on our way out - we met Mr Rawazeva. He said to our friend, Kaz, "Sir I can see you are with two lovely ladies, I do not call ladies B-I-T-C-H's in my songs. I respect ladies. Please take my CD and check out my music. I do not need you to give me anything, just listen to my music. I just want to get my music out. But I do accept donations" So Kaz gives him $1 and Rawazeva says "What? a dollar forget it" and takes the CD back. So clearly it wasn't about getting the music out. In the end we paid him $3 and got 2 CDs. I am listening to it now and surprisingly I think it is OK. Its sounds like any ghetto rap that you hear on top 40 stations. I expected much worse. I have not heard him call ladies b-i-t-c-h's, but he does call lady's "mommies" and "shorties". I think I'd rather be called a bitch. This guy will probably end up blowin up we were doggin on him(rap speak). That will compare to the time when me and my friend Kim were on South St in Philly and one of the Strokes came up and gave us their first EP and I said - "I am never going to listen to this no name band". Now they are one of my favorite bands.

We went to the Stone Rose which was in Brenda's hotel and we had a really good time there except for the 3 inch roaches that hung out with us that I crazily kept checking for.

Then I met this lovely lady in the bathroom.

And I don't really have much to say about that.

I stayed at my friends hotel and we were woken by the LA Aids Walk music, which the hotel was playing right under our window, and the 4 people clapping at the walkers as they passed. While I walked to my car in the opposite direction of the AIDS walkers (in my clothes from the night before) it was fun to see the people get out of their walk and go to Taco Bell for a mid walk 500 calorie snack. A burrito is alot like a powerbar. And it was fun to see the 2 protesters on their megaphones shouting to the walkers, who spent their morning raising money for people with AIDS, that gay people are the reason why there is war, famine, tsunamis and hurricane katrina. My goodness, those gays are awfully powerful people to cause all of that.

But it was really cool, there were soo many people and it ended up raising over 3.1 million dollars. Go Walkers. I wish I wasn't a scrub and participated.

Vintage Madonna

Unreleased Madonna recordings made by her boyfriend at the time when she first moved to New York and got in to music. Her biographer spliced together the early recordings with her acceptance speech when inducted in to the R&R Hall of Fame this year. Also if you have never read a Madonna biography, it is such an interesting read. She moved to NY at 19 with only $35 and a bag full of ballet tights, did not know anyone and supposedly ate out of trash cans.

Phillies Going to the World Series

So I get an email from my friend's husband, Jayson and he tells me that I better be at the Phillies game because tickets are on sale for $15. I go online and sure enough - tickets starting at $13. Clearly the super faithful Dodgers fans could see that their team was going to lose - so they were getting rid of their tickets. The game started at 5:22 pacific time, but I have work till 7. Which was fine I just wanted to see the end when the Phillies won, but my boss let me leave at 6:00 and I hit all this traffic and the lot was super full and it took forever to park, but I finally made it to the game by the 6th inning. Just in time for stupid Manny's home run. I had no time to get any Phillies gear or my camera, but I took pictures with my phone.



When I walked in Dodger fans were already leaving and two guys said "Don't go in there unless you're a Phillies fan" and I said "I'm a Phillies fan" and they booed me. The fans were chanting "Phillies suck" and trying to engage some Phillies fans in some verbal sparring, but nothing really came of it. They booed Shane when he was up and I cheered really loud and I got alot of dirty looks and curses thrown at me. And after I heard about the knife flashing at Phillies fans at other playoff games in LA I decided to simmer down. So in the 9th I went down to lower level where all the Phillies fans were waiting for the win.


All these pictures are pretty blurry, but you get the gist.


And when it happened all the Phillies fans started jumping and running around and we were all slapping each others hands. And all the Dodger fans cursed at us and someone curiously said "Ryan Howard has Aids". Not really sure what that means. Then all the Phillies fans gathered by the visiting dug out and waited for the team to come out and one by one they did. They came in and out of the dugout for the next hour. Along with Harry Kalas. It was so awesome. Also awesome when the Dodger fans threw cups and trash at us from the upper deck.



Shane Victorino is so freaking cute. He came out and ran towards his daughter and just hung out with her during the whole after party thing on the field.


Some random Philly came over and poured champagne all over the fans and So Taguchi jumped into the stands gave his NLCS t-shirt to some girl in the crowd then bowed to everyone and slapped all of our hands. Then the guy from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" walked by. Rollins gave beers to the fans which they opened and poured all over themselves. The trophy finally came out and they gave it to Rollins and Burrell. Then we were asked to leave and of course people got belligerent, but I only saw one Phillies fan kicked out, but that was earlier.



It was pretty awesome. Thank you Dodger fans for being so lame that I was able to go the National League playoffs for $13 dollars. Which was actually less than it cost to park. That's disgusting and that would never happen in Philly. Could you imagine Phillies fans selling their tickets day off and leaving in the 5th inning? I feel bad for the Phillies that it didn't happen at home, but it was good for me. Cheers and GO PHILS! But I must say, the Rays scare me a bit. They are annihilating the Red Sox.

My Week at My New Job

So after my first week of work, I really like the job. It is pretty long hours, but I like what I am doing, I am learning a ton, and they are super laid back. It is a mid size talent management company that has been around for awhile and they also run an indie record label too. They don't have any big stars, but they have some recognizable people that you have seen in movies and TV. I think I am going to learn alot and it will be a good building block for the future. Being as they have been in the business forever they know a lot of people and have a ton of celebrity stories, which is awesome. I randomly met Britney's 30 second first husband the other day, which was just strange. So that is that, and GO PHILS!!!!!!

My Week With Rachael Yamagata

Picture from Rachael's residency last year at Johnny Brendas in Philly.


Rachael Yamagata tickets went on sale around August at this really cool venue in Hollywood called the Largo. I tried to buy them when they went on sale, but it was in the middle of my identity theft crisis so I couldn't swing it. So I when I was ready to buy them, they were completely sold out. So day of the concert comes along and I stalk Craigslist all day trying to get tickets that people were selling at the last minute. I end up getting a call from this guy who is like I have an extra ticket and I'm on the list plus one, I will give it to you if you pick me up. I asked him if he was a murderer, he said no, and I started to consider it.

I work around the corner from the venue so I figured I'd do some investigation to see if he really was on the list, he was but without a plus one. I call him he apologizes and we end our negotiations, so since I'm there I stalk for tickets. I end up getting front row tickets from some guy for $20. This random girl sees me buy them from this guy and we start talking and it turns out she is good friends with the opening act - Kevin Devine, who I have seen when the Jealous Girlfriends opened for him in Philly. She ended up being from the east coast and went to Fordham where a couple of my friends went.
She introduced me to Kevin Devine and he was sooo nice and humble and just seemed like a really cool guy. His show was really thought provoking and intimate. Though I didn't love him when I saw him in Philly, I like him a whole lot better now. He also plays for Rachael and he is the red head in the video below.

Anyways, Rachael went on and she had a little cold but the show was awesome. There were rose petals through out the entire theater and she had a whole string section. It was cool. It was the CD release concert and she dressed up for the event in a metallic gold baby doll type dress, it was pretty interesting and flashy looking. She had alot of personal supporters there and she even got a little emotional at one point when she was thanking one of them. It was a great time and I am glad that I was able to go.

So to bring this full circle back to the random Craigslist guy... He emails me on Friday saying that he had tickets for that nights show and if I wanted to go. We ended up emailing and becoming facebook friends so I found out he wasn't a crazy maniac. So I ended up picking him up and taking him to the show. It turns out he used to be a music exec who was one of the first people to discover Rachael and he tried to sign her to his major label, but his boss said no --> Idiot. Now he does community betterment projects and it was all really random, but he was very interesting and I wasn't killed. I did bring a butcher knife with me just in case though and when we parked the car the valet had held my door open and I was really scared the knife would fall out.

The Friday night show was great, I wish I would have gotten there earlier because it was a kickoff for the Hotel Cafe tour and there were a few other artists I'd love to have seen. But here is video of Rachael from that night. She was even sicker this night, but still awesome and still drinking Coronas on stage.



So anyway - Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart, Rachael's double album, came out last week and it took forever. She recorded up in Woodstock before she moved down to Philly and she basically just holed up for a year in the woods writing and composing. After that she had record industry political problems and had to switch labels and it took her 2 years to finally get it out. When she did her residency in Philly last year, she played most of the songs from the new album, but she still had to wait all this time. That sucks. But either way - it is awesome and worth the wait. One disc is slow songs and the other are more rock and roll. Here are a few treasures from the double CD. But check it out, it's a great CD and Ray Lamontagne even makes a special appearance.

Has Anyone Seen This - Genius!!!

Google Goggles. An application that you can add to your gmail and you set it so if you try to email between certain hours that you denote, it won't let you send the email unless you answer math questions in 60 seconds with a difficulty level that you also decide ahead of time. Supposedly some guy invented it after he accidentally wrote an email to his ex girlfriend telling her they should get back together. The thing that sucks though if you are kind of sober you can easily just disable it. Either way - freakin hilarious.

This is Really Cool

Simulation of flight patterns.

PHILLIES in the National League Championship!!!!

I can't wait to wear my Phillies hat around LA and piss off the Dodgers fans!!!!

Grey in LA

Yesterday was the first day it was grey/rainy since May. I told this to Rita, she mentioned a song in Knocked Up, "Grey in LA" by Loudon Wainwright III. I really hate his one song "That's My Daughter" or whatever it is called. But this one is pretty good. So here you go Reet.

FactCheck.org

The best website for non biased informational FACTS about the spin that politicians like to throw around.

http://www.factcheck.org/

It is run by the U of Penn, non partisan. Ch Ch Ch Ch Check it out.

Regina Phalange in Web Therapy

This is a web series created and starring Lisa Kudrow. Need I say more? It's hilar. It's called Web Therapy. So far there are three parts. The third is the best, but you need to see the first two for background. The website that the videos are on is pretty cool too, so if you have time (and clearly I do since I am quite the blogger today), you should check it out.

The Jealous Girlfriends

New Jealous Girlfriends video. Not my favorite song from the CD, but the video is OK. It actually kind of reminds me a little bit of a Cold War Kids song. Ch Ch Check it out.

Organ On The Kitchen Floor - The Jealous Girlfriends

Etc...

Just a side note - Saturday Night Live last night was great. Anna Faris is excellent. As is Kristin Wiig. As is Fred Armisen. As is Tina Fey. And Kenan Thompson.

Genius!


Also - RIP Paul Newman. I love him. He was such an inspiration and a superb actor. Also he was super hot.

My Night At Work

I had work tonight and I totally didn't want to go to it but I am so glad I did. I worked a tennis tournament in Thousand Oaks. I have worked at this place before and it is absolutely gorgeous. First let me tell you about this place before we get to the super awesome part. It is Sherwood Country Club which an exclusive country club/housing development. There is a lake with houses that are nestled in the hills around it, a golf course, tennis courts, and I am sure a whole lot more that I don't know about. The only thing is that the houses are not houses but mansions.

For example: This looks like the freakin Von Trapp chateau.


Click here to see a tour of of this house. The "house" is 13100 square ft. Its for sale if you want to buy it.


Here are some pictures:

Aerial View of Sherwood Country Club


The actual country club that I worked at.


Some houses in the hills.


So anyway I was working a tennis tournament and it was being held by the Bryan Brothers who are the #1 tennis doubles team in the world. Tiger Woods also holds a charity golf tournament here as well. Anyway, the Bryan bros are really nice and very handsome and very tall. They are also multi-talented. They got up on stage and performed with the band. The one was on the drums, the other was piano.
So they are bff with Andy Roddick and I thought he was going to be there and I would have freaked out because I love him. But Andre Agassi was there and he was really cute and a really good speaker. Maria Sharapova was there and I don't really like her but she was very very pretty. And she doesn't have an accent, I thought she did? I guess not. Also the blond chick from 8 Simple Rules was there. She was not as cute in person but I heard she was really nice.

They had an auction and the people at this thing were super rich. Some one bought a day with Maria Sharapova for $20,000 and something involving tennis and Andre Agassi for $45,000. Just to get in it was $5000 a plate. It was all for charity though - so that is really cool.

So then they were having musical performers. I don't know if anyone remembers Evan and Jared. They sung that song Crazy for this Girl or something like that. Who knew that those one hit wonders were still performing music 10 years later. They were very cute and nice though.

All night people were like Belinda Carlile the country singer is performing and I was like - I don't know any country singers named Belinda Carlile. It ended up being Brandi Carlile, who is my top five favorite artists. So I was clearly super excited. She was amazing as usual. She just did a 6 song acoustic set and people LOVED her. She got 3 standing ovations after some of the songs. I talked to her afterwards. It went like this:
me - that was awesome brandy
brandi - thank you

So we are pretty much best friends now. Brandi was there with her gf who I have never seen. She looked very familiar, like another singer, but I have no idea who she was. This is around the 13th time I've seen her live and it never gets old. She did a cover of a song I have never heard her do before and now I can't remember what song it was. But it was good.

It was such an awesome work surprise. On top of all of that, I got a delicious ny strip steak for dinner, they gave us the center pieces which are a beautiful fall themed arrangement and a bottle of wine. So all in all, a good night.

Today

In the words of the great poet Ice Cube "today was a good day". After being out in LA for 6 months I finally got a paying job in the entertainment industry . Hurray. I will be working as an assistant at talent management company/record label. And on top of it - ChaCha wrote me back and invited me to be a guide. And on top of that Survivor and The Office are back!
Cheers!

My Favorite Web Videos

Facebook in Reality



Drunk History -
There are 4 of them and they are all funny. It is drunk people telling historical events. They are all great. The first one they made has Michael Cera then the Ben Franklin ones have Jack Black. They are hilarious.

Drunk History - Ben Franklin & Electricity

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Drunk History - George Washington & his slave

See more Danny McBride videos at Funny or Die

Borman Academy - Its so weird. I love it.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

South Park - Scientology
I love this one - just because this really is what they actually believe. So great.

In Color

Have you ever wondered "Hmmm I wonder what song that homeless man is listening to on his headphones?" Well if that man is in West Hollywood walking with a bouquet in a two seater stroller wearing pink camouflage shorts, he is most likely listening to "In Color" by Jamey Johnson. How do I know this you ask? Well the man started telling me about this song and how it speaks to the situation with the financial markets and how this guys is a genius, then he shoved his dirty earpiece in my ear. I listened for a moment then was on my way to promptly go home and clean my ear out with alcohol. He also told me if I am ever in trouble and I see him, yell out to him and he will help me. For a moment I felt like I was in a Jack Handy scenario.

Unfortunately I could not take pictures of celebs and not do my job at the same time

The Nokia Theater where the Emmy's were held.


The room in the Convention Center where the Governors Ball was. There were 3500 people there!



This huge Emmy was on top of the bar that was in the middle of the room. They had huge fake emmys all outside of the convention center too. The emmys themselves were bigger than I thought they would be and sooo shiny.


The things I stole. The Emmy program, an Emmy ticket, the seating chart for the Governors Ball, the menu, and my parking pass (which clearly I didn't steal). The thing that the celebs got that I couldn't steal was just a box of Dove chocolates. Which is a pretty lame-o gift. Also the red wine bottles were engraved with 60th Emmy award stuff.


Up close and personal with the ticket.


They served signature drinks too -
This is the "Emmy" drink:
Grey Goose Citron
Elderflower Cordial
Cointreau
Lemon, Orange, Lime juices
Grenadine
Bitters
Mint sprig & Nutmeg

Sounds lovely.

ChaCha

I just heard about the coolest thing ever. Has anyone heard of ChaCha?
Here is their explanation for what it is: "ChaCha is like having a smart friend you can call or text for answers on your cell phone anytime for free!"
It is so awesome. You just text them and they send you an answer. Or you can call them. I love it! I have always thought about this and wondered why no one invented it. Now I know - that they did invent it, in 2006. I wish I invented it. Though I would like them to send me directions or traffic reports for when I don't have my GPS. But still, so cool. I always have random questions and when I am bored I will just text them questions. I will be BFF with these people. Its like imaginary friends that teach you things. For example - I just asked them something I have been meaning to ask my mom -
"How can tell when lunch meat has gone bad?" I know, I know - sounds like common sense - but I wasn't 1000% sure. They answered me in 2 minutes - It needs to be eaten within 3-5 days. Good to know. Thanks ChaCha. Also I am trying to get job there which would bring my job tally up to 8. That would be the perfect job for me since I waste 70% of my time on the internets anyway. The company sounds so cool to work for too. If you are from Indianapolis - Apply to ChaCha.
Also - though not ethical and completely breaking the rules - this is the perfect answer to tough Quizzo questions.
Here are the numbers - text 242242 or call 1800.2chacha

EMMYS

I worked the Emmy Award Governors Ball tonight and it was pretty cool. It is basically the party that everyone goes to after the Emmys. I was able to get some pictures of the place but I need to figure out how to get them off my phone. So my job was to hand out drinks on the red carpet and then to take care of coffee. So I stood on the red carpet and everyone left the Nokia Theater and walked across the street to the Convention Center where the Governors Ball was. I saw so many people all at once as they all rushed out to go to the convention center. I know I missed a ton of people too. Seth Meyers from SNL came out way before everyone else and he got champagne from some other server and he gave her twenty bucks. Leslie David Baker (Stanley from the Office)took a water from me and Kevin Dillon (Drama from Entourage) took a champagne from me. I heard him say I am so excited for Jeremy. Both of them were really nice. My favorite people I saw at this point were JJ Abrams & Damon Lindeloff (creators of LOST). I almost dropped my water when I saw them. And I was pretty excited when I saw Cynthia Nixon and Neil Patrick Harris too.

Then we moved in and had to do some stuff, but my job was so boring that I was able to escape toward the end and I just walked around and stalked. At this point I was really disappointed that I hadn't seen anyone from Lost, Office or 30 Rock. I had seen Daniel Day kim but that is all. Then all of a sudden I look over and see Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski. Jenna was just as cute in person and taller then I expected. John Krasinski was adorable and had so many people trying to get pictures with him. Then the table next to them was 30 Rock and I got to see Tina Fey & Amy Poehler, which was awesome. Tina had a line of people around waiting to talk to her. No Will Arnett though - which would have made my night. Then a few minutes later I saw Alec Baldwin. Brian Baumgarten & Oscar Nunez (Kevin and Oscar from the Office) asked me to take a picture of them and their wives. Kevin is pretty much my favorite on the Office and I told them I loved them. That was pretty much it for celebrity interactions. I will upload pictures tomorrow.

Here is a list of celebs that I saw:
Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Lorne Michaels, Seth Meyers, Chandra Wilson, Rainn Wilson, Jenna Fischer, John Krasinski, Leslie David Baker, Brian Baumgarten, Deborah Messing, Charlie Sheen, Ryan Seacrest, Jon Cryer, Kevin Dillon, Neil Patrick Harris, Cynthia Nixon, JJ Abrams, Damien Lindoloff, Julie Louis Dryfus, Terri Hatcher, Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, Flight of the Concords people, BJ Novack, January Jones, Daniel Day Kim, Kristin Chenoweth, Holland Taylor, Vanessa Williams, Michael C Hall, Nicholette Sheridan, Adrian Grenier, Cheryl Hines, Jimmy Kimmel, Kumar, Kyle McLachlan, Olivia Wilde, the guy who won best supporting, William Morse, Christian from Project Runway, Josh Groban, the host from DWTS, Alan Cumming, David Boreanaz, Dennis Leary, Judy Dench, The PC guy, that guy that I can’t stand from Boston Public, Meredith & Phyllis from the Office.

Everyone pretty much looks like they look on TV. John Krasinski & Daniel Day Kim are so hot. January Jones and Olivia Wilde are beautiful. Charlie Sheen looked like a mess. Ryan Seacrest looks as gay as you would imagine. David Boreanaz looked miserable every time I saw him. Christian from PR is seriously 4'8. He is so little. So is Kristen Chenoweth. Also I gotta say Adrian Grenier is pretty cute even though I hate him.

People I wished I'd seen: more LOST people, Lauren Conrad, Jeff Probst, Heidi Klum & of course CONAN.

It was a really surreal night. OK more later. Goodnight.

Fill You In

Love the lyrics, love the song, love the video.

Fill You In - Josh Pyke

Double Standards and Spin

I love the double standards and spin that politicians practice. This is funny. I also love how everything, everyone says is recorded and can come back to get you. I really need to get those college videos off of my friends before I run for political office.

XPN Essential Songs

WXPN, the greatest radio station in the world, has an 885 Countdown every year and this year's countdown is "Essential XPN Songs". People on the blogs are taking this in different ways, but the consensus is, songs that remind you of XPN, but also mean something to you. I based it on that, but basically only did mostly newer artists and songs that I discovered there. I think my top ten are pretty obvious. The top 7 are artists that I discovered on XPN and are pretty much my some of my favorite artists. I picked the song that XPN first started playing that caught my attention. The bottom three are just basically synonymous with XPN for me.

Top Ten:
1. Worn Me Down - Rachael Yamagata (I actually heard this first at an XPN listening station in Tower Records (RIP) and it was basically this moment that made me start to crazily research new artists all the time)
2. Throw it All Away - Brandi Carlile (Not one of my fave Brandi songs - but it prompted me to allow Debbie, to get me my first Brandi ticket - which was clearly awesome since I have since seen her, like, 10 times)
3. Trouble - Ray LaMontagne
4. Chicago - Sufjan Stevens (Probably one of my top 25 favorite songs)
5. Mushaboom - Feist
6. Tamacun - Rodrigo y Gabriella
7. Car Wheels on A Gravel Road - Lucinda Williams
8. Engine Driver - The Decemberists
9. Trains to Brazil - The Guillemots
10. Over and Over Again - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Someone used to put this song on repeat in my car and dance like a fool with imaginary maracas)

Others that almost made my list:
Don't Know Why - Norah Jones
Wake Up - Arcade Fire
Hide & Seek - Imogen Heap
Orange Sky - Alexi Murdoch
Black Horse & A Cherry Tree - KT Tunstall
Conceived - Beth Orton
Kamera - Wilco
Son's Gonna Rise - Citizen Cope
Ah Mary - Grace Potter
Galileo - Indigo Girls
100 Days - Sharon Jones
Anything by My Morning Jacket
Chips Ahoy - The Hold Steady
The entire Alison Krauss & Robert Plant CD
That stupid Richard Thompson song that I hate, but reminds me so much of XPN, and it will probably be in the top 10 because everyone on the blog has it on their list.

Labor-A-Rama

Pictures from my Labor Day weekend:


I wish I knew how to play the guitar like Jim Hanft.


I wish I knew how to surf.


I wish I was on that boat.


I wish I lived in Malibu.


I wish this picture came out a little clearer.


I wish I didn't get hustled for $5 by the "It's easy - Throw the Ball in the Bucket" guy, just cause I wanted the big stuffed lion at the carnival.