The Hazards of Love

If you haven't heard the latest album from The Decemberists, Hazards of Love, you outta look it up. The band is from Portland, Oregon - about two hours north of where I grew up. I'm not going to say anything about the album because I don't want to give things away, except to say that this is a story album that uses some old English wording.

Go listen!

Forget About Feminism

Some Muslims are moving way past equal rights. There are a handful of Islamic punk bands popping up around the United States. Their music is charged with current events and politics.

This is awesome.

(Also, this is the 250th post!)

The National

So I went to The National concert last night at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee. It was amazing to say the least. If you haven't heard any of their music, you should really go check out Mr. November and Secret Meeting just because they are my favorite songs. The energy that this band brought to the stage was fantastic. The only other band that I've seen get quite as much into their music as The National is Dave Matthews Band (which I haven't seen in person). Anyways, go check em out because they're friggawesome like that.

Michael Jackson

I'm gonna piss people off, so I'll let you know right off the bat.

I'm sorry, but if you didn't molest young boys, why would you settle with one of the boys' families? I know I wouldn't. It is also obvious to see what happened as a result of his relationship with Macaulay Culkin also.

Do I feel bad that his childhood sucked? Sure. Do I like some of his music? Of course. Do I feel bad that he's dead? No, not really.

Random News Anyone?

Sorry for my long absence again. It's becoming apparent that I won't really be blogging on a regular basis until after finals, so the first part of May or so.

Kurt Cobain has been dead for 15 years now. It's hard to imagine that someone who was gone before my sixth birthday would have such an impact in my life. Call me a conspiracy theorist all you want, but I'm not entirely convinced that his death was a suicide. On my to-do list once I return to visit my family and friends in the Northwest? Visit and write on Kurt's bench.

If you are a House fan or fan of Kal Penn, you should now this. I won't explicitly say it, since there would be spoilers to the show, but if you want to read (and, again, spoilers!), click here.

Also, Obama wants to eliminate the conscience rule for physicians. This means better access to reproductive health care for women, but less of a choice for providers to refuse services. Some people aren't so happy.

New Music and a New Haircut!

I have a new post to put up, but it's not quite done yet. I feel terrible for letting the blog go so long without a post, so here's some hold music. Enjoy!

New Duet!

All is explained in the video :)



Enjoy!

More Shameless Promotion

That's right... I figure since I haven't posted in a while, I can post about myself and see how it goes :)

I've been busy recording songs - all covers right now. I figured maybe I could test out my musical career (ha!) on you guys. With that said, here's a list of sites containing my music:

Unsigned

Myspace

Facebook page

iLike

Enjoy!

Oh, and feel free to email and comment as you see fit. :)

Genetic Emancipation

It's one of the best songs from Repo, which I talked about in my last post.

EDIT: Apparently there WAS a music contest involving songs of some kind. It ended in November, as the movie came out. You can still post submissions... I doubt I can be voted for, however...



Hope you enjoyed!

Repo! The Genetic Opera

It's pretty much a necessity to see it if you haven't (and I gather that's the case). Here's one of the best musical numbers from the rock opera:



Yes, that's Paris Hilton. No, you don't realize it most of the time.

There are a myriad of great actors in this film, including Paul Sorvino and Anthony Stewart Head.

Go rent it, see it in a live theater, drag over a friend with the film to your dorm room and make them watch it. Whatever you do, go see this movie. I guarantee it's nothing like any musical you've ever seen. The music itself is an entirely different thing than we've seen before.

La Musica

I feel bad for not posting lately. But at the moment I'm kinda knee deep in researching a group project, so I can't take too much time writing.

I like this myspace karaoke thing, but I'm annoyed that if you have recorded ten songs total, there's no way to record more - yes, even if you delete them - without paying a ridiculous amount each month. Anyhow, I've been getting some good feedback on these songs, so I wanted to see what you guys think.



Enjoy!

You Gotta Love YouTube

In searching for instrumental versions of songs, I was saddened to see that no one had halfway done versions of duets... until I found mss12000. He has a great voice and has done some amazing duets, just missing the girl part.

Here's the version of Baby It's Cold Outside that I just recorded with him.

Enjoy!



EDIT: And here's me singing Santa Baby. Yeah, the video is a little goofy, but I just figured out how to use Windows Movie Maker today, so I think it's pretty good.



Happy holidays!