earth day, every day.

nature is not here to serve you

-ani difranco

photo by voss

The boyfriend, a bunch-o-friends, and I saw Ani Difranco last night!  It was so cool.  We had 4th row seats and a great view.  She is such an amazing woman, songwriter, singer and guitar player (among other things).  It was completely inspiring and really makes me consider making music a larger part of my life.  On top of that, she's such a powerful female figure and I can't help but admire her for her strong points of view.  Very cool.

photo by alexis mire

photo by I'mBlakeColeman via On a High Note

And today is Earth Day!  The quote at the top is from Ani's song "Amendment".  She sang this lyric last night and it stuck with me.  It seems the perfect line to describe how we should view our relationship with our planet.  In my part of the world, Mother Nature is letting her presence be known with fog, rain, wind, and snow.  It' a great day for it!  Are you doing anything to celebrate Earth Day?

photo by bekathwia, note: not my mri, of course

I had my MRI this morning.  No word yet on what the deal is, but the tech did mention that I have a bunch of fluid in the joint.  I have no idea what that means so I'll wait until I get the phone call.  Your knee is DESTROYED!  That's what I imagine they'll say, but surely, that won't happen. :) 

Happy Earth Day!

weekend recap.

photo of Old Town Fort Collins by David Kingham

How was your weekend?  I hope it was filled with sunny days and blue skies.  Here are some highlights from mine:

• The boyfriend and I checked out Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.  The campus is beautiful.  Awesome.
• Went to an information session for a program I'm interested in at CSU.  Tons of information, mostly good, very overwhelming.
• Met up with our good friends and went to FOCOMX, a music festival in Fort Collins.
• Saw The Dovekins and Stella Luce.  Both killed it. They're so good. 
• Witnessed a strange drunk fight.  A mustache and super wasted man were involved.
• ATE A HOTDOG.  Delicious.
• Stole a cab from someone else.  Maybe that sounds not nice, but it was late.
• Woke up the next day and ate at Lucile's (best breakfast in town).
• Shopped at Target, and other lovely shops downtown.
• Had lunch (complete with a blood orange, yum) at Whole Foods.
• Headed back to Laramie.

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxed and normal.  It was a good weekend.  I hope your weekend was too!

this day will be big.

 

photo via a violent yet flammable world

Today is the day!  Which day, you ask?  It's the long awaited meeting for the program I'm looking at at Colorado State.  I'm anxious to see what they have to say and ask some questions.  I'll give a total fill in on Monday.  I'll also get to check out the campus in general.  I've been on campus once, and it's lovely, but I haven't really explored.

After all of that, some friends are meeting the boyfriend and I to attend a music festival called focomx!  It's not your typical fest.  This one is 15 dollars, 15 bars, 150 bands, over two days.  Lots of music overlap, but I don't know many of the bands so that's not a big problem.  One of the bands we do know and are going to see is The Dovekins, of course!  Golly, I love them.  I'm super pumped to introduce our friends to them.  Stella Luce is also playing, as is Fierce Bad Rabbit.  The latter band of the two is one I haven't seen live, but the violinist from Stella Luce is in it, and they sound pretty rockin' on their myspace.  Another band I just found that will be playing sometime tonight is The Tanukis.  They've got a real gypsy sound to them and I think the boyfriend will really dig it.  A fill in on this part of the adventure will come Monday too.  Yay! 

Have a great weekend!

live music.

photo by jesse.millan

I'm a conditional fan of live music.  I don't love being in a huge arena and so far back that you're essentially listening to their (muffled) cd while being jostled by giants that somehow only come out of the woodworks when I actually want to see something. 

What I do love is going to an intimate show with pretty close seats (or the kind of place where everyone can see) and having a real experience with the band.  Some bands that I've seen this way are Stella Luce, Murder by Death and the Dovekins.  All awesome.  All even more awesome because they play in smallish venues.  I'm a short person.  Really short.  And quite often when I'm at a larger show, I can't see a dang thing because giant mcgianter always stands right in front of me.  It never fails.  But smaller venues seem to either have better viewing all around, or there is more room to move around and get a better view.  And the sound quality in small venues?  While some of these bands may not have the most up to date sound equipment, because you're close to them, the sound is raw and amazing. 

Next month Ani DiFranco is coming to Laramie and we have 4th row tickets!  It's going to be amazing!  What's even more awesome is that the venue she'll be playing at isn't very large so I know already, I'll love her show.  I can't wait!

can you grow overnight please? thanks.

screenshot from "Lost Things" by Angela Kohler

I've had short-ish hair for about a two years now.  As many women do, I tend to cycle through the long and short hair over and over...and over.  My hair is now to my shoulders, but I desperately want it to be longer.  Oh hair of mine, please grow faster!     

Another phase that used to be my calling card was ever changing hair color.  Since the 7th grade I haven't shown my real hair color to nary a soul, including my own, and that's just as well as it's a boring, dishwater blonde.  But that's all changed since I've discovered the glorious red that coats my hair now.  I'm in love with it.  In love.  I do wish it was a little brighter though, so I'll experiment the next time I color.  That's right!  I'm a DIYer in the color department.  Sally Beauty supply has saved my life (and my money).  I'm due for a visit.



This video fell into my lap today.  It's a stop motion short called "Lost Things" shot by Angela Kohler.  The video features Alison Sudol (aka A Fine Frenzy + a song she wrote just for the vid) and boy oh boy, do I want her hair.  The length, the color, the curl, it's all so perfect.  Everything about the video is magical and beautiful.  But the hair is what I dream about...okay, and the clothing too.

wayfaring stranger.

photo by sidewalk flying

I've started to play the guitar.  There are a couple of friends of mine that are in various stages of learning as well, and we occassionally get together to play.  We've coined this little group with a band name: Knock Knock and the Moles.  It's a weird name, but say it enough and you'll like it...I hope.  Anyways-At first I tried to just play different chords over and over but that got really boring, really fast.  To liven things up a bit (and make myself feel like I'm progressing), I decided to pick an easy song that I love, to learn.  I chose the folk song, Wayfaring Stranger.  It has a simple melody and it's a song that I already know lyrically.  Perfect.  Starting out, the chords were easy enough for me to do until I got to the F.  The blasted F is messing everything up!  At this point, it sounds like a dying cow whenever I strum that particular chord.  To do this chord you have to use one finger to hold down all of the strings, and then use your other fingers to hold other strings down.  Here's a link to the song I'm learning.  If you hover over the F, you'll see what my fingers are supposed to do.  Needless to say, the song abrubtly stops everytime I get to the F.  But it sounds pretty dang awesome up to that point!  Happy strumming!