Now Playing

                I love finding new music. I love rediscovering old favorites. I’m always a little afraid when I listen to new artists. I’m really afraid that they’re going to suck and I just don’t want to find out. I love promoting bands (I do it all the time, for free, even though I know a lot of people aren’t going to take my recommendations). Once, I talked about the band This Century for nearly a month straight before I finally got someone I know to listen to them. She told me that “I talk about them way too much for them to suck” so she gave them a listen. They then followed us both on Twitter and I fangirled like you wouldn’t believe.

                Music is my thing. So is food. If there’s a job where I get to promote music and cook food all the time, let me know because I have the best qualifications around. I can’t create music yet, but I sure can listen to it. I listen to the classics, The Eagles, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, George Jones, Johnny Cash, my list keeps going but you get the idea. But I also love finding new things. I have a “sticky note” (the one that PC’s come with on the screen) that I keep up 24/7 so I can add a new artist and I have a note in my iPhone specifically for music.

                You’re probably in need of some summer tunes, so here’s a list of all my favorites so far this summer.  Some of them are long standing favorites and some are new discoveries, but they’re making their rounds every single day.

Matt Hires

Wilhelm Tell Me

Frightened Rabbit

Surrogate

Ryan Adams

Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors

Local Natives

Lydia

Fall Out Boy

Pocono

A Day To Remember

The Raconteurs

The Chain Gang of 1974

As the summer goes on, I’ll rotate my list out. There’s tons of new music coming out as well! Never Shout Never previewed a new song from their upcoming album on Property of Zack and We The Kings is climbing the charts with their two new singles.

What are you playing this summer?

Summer Reading

Now, before you go off on me and complain that no one should be forced into summer reading let me explain you a thing. Books do things. Let’s start with fiction. Fiction books become not-so-fiction-y and become real places. They create worlds that anyone, young or old, can escape to because reality is pretty gruesome. They offer adventure and fun and magic and drama. The books that could be real with their people and scenarios set in our own little world offer potential answers to some of our greatest questions. The stories with completely imagined worlds and people and creatures do the same, while showing us what it means to spin a tale.

                Then there’s the non-fiction section. Knowledge is everywhere! You can learn about anything you imagine! From psychology, anatomy, and medicine to mechanics, and physics and chemistry; it’s all available. Ever wanted to know the difference between a llama and an alpaca? Or why some recipes use baking soda instead of baking powder? Has your mind ever wandered about why some goats climb trees and how in the world they actually get into the tree? I bet you’ve even wanted to own your own micro-brewery. Good news for you, there’s books on all of that and more.

                But my main reason for summer reading is that it’s the only time I get to choose what to read. In late August through early May, I’m forced to read this or that for class. Some of the books I’ve been forced into were great and some of them missed the buy-back date because they just needed to be on my shelf. But I still needed the freedom to get lost in a book that I chose, to get from it’s pages what I wanted from it, what it was meant to teach me. I’ve had to pick apart countless books for classes, and at some point I stop trying because I know it’s not what my professors want. So I start twisting the book to meet their guidelines and bullshit my way through a ten page paper that I couldn’t care less about.  When I read over the summer, I notice that it’s a happier time. I can mark in the pages (with a pencil, no highlighters) and dog-ear the pages if I want with no worries of the lady at the book store giving me the “you have to pay for that” stare.

                I’ve also noticed over my twenty years of life, that I feel more creative after I read. I have deeper thoughts, more creative ideas, and more questions that make me wonder about our world. There’s so much I don’t know and books offer a way to discover them. I had been moping around during the first week of my summer break because I just didn’t feel creative. I had lost that spark of imagination that I always relied on. Then, I read a book I had purchased over the weekend and it made me think. I have a notebook with me all the time and I started writing my thoughts, ideas, and questions down again. Books do great things.

                Some people give me that “well, I’m not a good reader”, but if you would read you could become a great reader! It’s not about how fast you read or what you read, it’s about the people in the books. It’s about their stories and their lives and their worlds and what you take away from it is what matters. It may take you six hours or six months to finish a book, the important thing is to just finish.

To make your life easier, I’ve made a list below of what I’m reading this summer with links to where you can find them. If you don’t already, get a library card. It’s amazing what that little card gives you access too. It’s better than money.

Looking for Alaska, John Green

Drinking With Strangers, Butch Walker

A Map of the World, Jane Hamilton

How We Believe, Michael Shermer

Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace

The Fault in Our Stars, John Green

The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux

Under the Dome, Stephen King

World Made By Hand, James Howard Kunstler

                Not sure where to start? Do what I do: wander around the library or bookstore. Something will be sure to catch your eye! Ask friends for suggestions or hit up your favorite search engine and look for “ultimate reading lists”. You can even start with the classics! Whatever strikes your fancy! I would tell you to not judge a book by its cover, but that’s how I found a lot of good books! 

Pickles Are So Summer

"Pickles are so summer." 

    -John O'Callagan

That is, perhaps, one of the stupidest tweets I have ever read in my life. It is also one of the truest.  Pickles are quintessentially summer (and I spelled quintessentially right the first time, without Google). Think about it, summer is hot. It is the season of BBQs, cookouts, late nights doing stupid things, celebrations, pool parties, and good friends. And in the midst of all that awesome: pickles. We put them on burgers (hamburger dills, my favorite), on our hot dogs, in our potato salad, and sometimes we just eat them out of the jar using our fingers (don't tell my dad).

But only in the summer do we enjoy these slices of sour cucumber-y deliciousness. No one eats pickles in the winter, not even in the fall. “Here, would you like some pickles with Thanksgiving fare, perhaps with your stuffing?” See, that sounds disgusting. Pickles just aren’t right for winter. They were meant for summer, for friends, for BBQs. Some things are meant to be relished (pun intended) at certain times, and pickles, well they’re one of those things.

As I sit here in my dorm room, bundled up in a sweater, cotton socks, and rock out to The Chain Gang of 1974, all I want is to lay in the sun and eat a pickle. All I want is to have to reapply SPF 100 (it exists) to my pale Irish skin and have the sun beat down unbearably while I dip into a pickle jar.

But alas! I have a journal article to review and summarize for my psychology course and a religions test to study for. 

(and if you haven't, check out The Chain Gang of 1974. Your ears will be forever grateful! Find them on Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter!)*

*I'm not being paid to tell you to listen to them, honest! I just really want the world to hear.