Category Archives: music

by | August 26, 2008 · 3:00 am

unsurprising separations and other important news.

Because I’m such a DC local now (someone even asked me for directions today! No word on whether they made it to their destination safely, but I’m optimistic…), I read the free little daily newspaper that you pick up on the street. It’s basically a dumbed down, easy-to-digest version of the Washington Post. Today there were some pretty interesting celebrity tidbits, so I thought I’d share those and other pieces of news with you, dear readers:

  • Brace yourselves for this first one, folks: Chris Kattan (or Mr. Peepers to you) has filed for separation from his way hotter model wife. They had been married for a staggering eight weeks. In fact, Kathleen posted about the nuptials back in June, and because she is such a wise, wise blogger, she was already skeptical. [People]
  • Lady rapper Da Brat was sentenced to three years in prison for — wait for it — smashing a hostess over the head with a bottle of rum last Halloween. Yo ho ho, eh? An intergalactic high five to anyone name a song she sang… [Inside Track]
  • So the Olympics are over. Thank goodness we have the DNC to casually watch now so that we don’t have to turn back to watching reruns of The Hills. Kathleen will be reporting live from MY Mile High City, and I’ll be doing world-changing things like going to class and watching the speeches on the teevee. Didn’t love Pelosi’s speech today, and didn’t get to see the Kennedys’ because I was…um…watching Jon & Kate Plus 8.
  • The Brits (the English? When I was abroad my English friends got very angry if we called them British) are the new Americans, at least when it comes to drinking heavily in foreign countries and giving your own country a bad name. Great quote from the mayor of Malia, a popular resort town in Greece: “They scream, they sing, they fall down, they take their clothes off, they cross-dress, they vomit.” Sounds like a normal Thursday to me. [New York Times]
  • So, this is kind of old news, but Tucker Max is making a movie. Now, I used to be one of those people who thought he was HI-larious and I stalked his website and maybe met him once, sober, at a sketchy bar in downtown Richmond. (And I’m ashamed to admit that not one but TWO of my acquaintances have “known” Mr. Max in a different way. I feel dirty just thinking about that.) Now that I’m a super mature college graduate, though, I’m kind of over the Tucker Max thing. I prefer to make my own embarrassing stories. Anyway, according to several people one set, Tucker is miserable to work with. [Gawker]
And just in case you thought this blog didn’t teach you anything, know this: my little sister (who, in her slight defense, has been living under the rock known as sorority rush for the past two weeks), correctly answered an extra credit question in class today because she knew the name of the new Dem VP nominee. The only reason she knew that answer? By reading this here blog. Take THAT, legitimate news sources.

[Posted by Mallory]

Leave a comment

Filed under celebrities, movies, music, news, politics, pop culture, sex, sports, TV, weddings

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | August 20, 2008 · 5:47 am

toby keith and political custody hearings.

Just when I start to feel down about politics, something like this comes along to brighten my day. Super patriotic American country music hero Toby Keith is a Democrat. WHAT?! (But I thought us Democrats hated America?) We’ve got Toby! We’ve got Toby Keith! And he likes Obama! YES! His voice of truthiness rings out like the Liberty Bell before it was cracked. And it is sweet music to my ears. Seriously, this is the first time I’ve appreciated country music since those crazy liberal ladies, the Dixie Chicks. Rawr.

Where I lived, it seemed as if Toby’s post 9/11 hit, “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” and “Drops of Jupiter” by Train were the only two songs the radio station owned. And that’s saying something about this song.

If you should choose to ignore all of the hard work that comes with posting a video in the blog and don’t watch it (what I’m saying here is that you SHOULD watch it), here are lyrics from the song that I find particularly humorous:

Now this nation that I love
Has fallen under attack
A sucker punch came flyin’
From somewhere in the back
As soon as we could see clearly
Through our big black eye
Man we lit up your world
Like the fourth of July.

And Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list
And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist
And the Eagle will fly, and it’s gonna to be hell
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell
And it’ll feel like the whole wide world’s raining down on you.
Brought to you courtesy of the red, white, and blue.

Justice will be served
And the battle will rage
This big dog will fight
When you rattle his cage
And you’ll be sorry that you messed with
The US of A
Cuz we’ll put a boot in your ass
It’s the American way

This masterpiece comes from a Democrat. A DEMOCRAT. The Democrats are taking back the country! And country music. Heyyyyyyo!

I joke about “taking back” country music, but in all honesty this brings up something I’ve wanted to talk about for a long time. I cannot stand how certain things, both political and non-political, “belong” to one party or the other. Yes, this next exercise involves some serious stereotyping–but don’t get your bright white political panties in a twist–I’m only making a point. Here are just some things that come to mind:

Republicans: Supporting the troops, pearls, freedom (not to be confused with freedom of expression), tax breaks, Chuck Norris (you can keep him), old people’s votes, Texas, big business and businessmen, oil, quoting the Bible, NASCAR, country clubs, veterans, money, pastel colors, business school, Joe Lieberman (apparently), country music, football, big trucks and other large gas guzzling vehicles.

Democrats: The environment, vegetarians (especially the vegans), DMB (RIP Leroi Moore), health care, females, the West Wing, getting out of Iraq, herbal tea, Apple computers, pointing out the bad economy, earth tones, liberal arts colleges, labor unions, Massachusetts, minorities of any kind (we love you), Hollywood, hope, the Toyota Prius, education, rhymes with smasmorshion, taking care of old people, MTV’s Rock the Vote, Al Gore.

We haven’t painted ourselves red, white and blue like Toby Keith wants us too–we’ve painted each other into separate corners. Seriously, when did these political custody hearings occur? I like pearls! And support the troops!

It’s a shame that being active in an environmental group flags you as a Democrat, or having a yellow “Support the Troops” ribbon sticker on your car makes you a Republican. Because, obviously, we all should care about both. We should care about everything in our great nation. Even NASCAR.

One last thing to add to the Democratic score board: blogging. Count it! And you best not disagree with me there. Because I’ll put a boot in your ass. It’s the American way! Thanks for the rhetoric, Toby!

[Posted by Kathleen]

4 Comments

Filed under music, news, politics, pop culture, random, YouTube

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | August 20, 2008 · 5:24 am

on the death of leroi moore.

Dave Matthews Band saxophonist LeRoi Moore died Tuesday from complications due to an ATV accident he had on June 30. Not many details about the cause of death have been released, but we do know that Moore had recently returned home to L.A. to start physical therapy. To me, that fact makes it a lot sadder; I hate the idea that he seemed to be doing well and that his friends and family probably got their hopes up that he would make it.

Moore had been with the band from the start. At a concert on Tuesday, Dave told the crowd about Moore’s death, acknowledging that “It’s always easier to leave than be left.” Wise words, bud.

As I’ve mentioned, I saw Dave live this summer at the Mile High Music Festival, and I remember my friend Katie was really bummed that Moore was not playing with the band that day, because he was her favorite of the band members. And we just realized that my roommate saw DMB live on June 28, which means she may have been among the last lucky ones to get to see Moore play. 

Here’s a New York Times article about Moore’s death, and DMB’s website has a nice tribute page up right now. 

[Posted by Mallory]

2 Comments

Filed under celebrities, music, news, RIP

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | August 19, 2008 · 4:46 am

i’ve got moves you’ve never seen.

So the other night (it may have been Saturday because Sarah and I may have spent ALL day carrying the world’s heaviest and largest furniture into our apartment while hungover), my friends and I lounged around and watched a movie. Our DVD player wasn’t working, but luckily, we still have the old standby of the VHS. You almost forgot that existed, didn’t you? Because we were working with videos, our choices were limited to the random movies I’d bought at Goodwill one day while purchasing a tacky Christmas vest, but there was one gem in the collection: My Best Friend’s Wedding. 

How much did you love that movie? When we were younger, my sister and I would rewind the scene where they sing in the restaurant over and over again until forced to stop. (Remember the waiters waving their lobster hands?) And just the other day, “Wishin’ and Hopin'” came on the radio and Kelsey and I found ourselves separately reminiscing about the awkwardly wonderful karaoke scene (even though “Wishin’ and Hopin'” is not the karaoke song. Weird, right?). 

The movie was still wonderful, a decade-ish later. Julia Roberts was still evil in such a lovable way; Cameron Diaz’s hair was still strangely awful; and Dermot Mulroney was still smokin’ hot:

And was I the only one in the universe who had a raging crush on Michael’s little brother? According to my friends, I was. Here’s a clip of what is arguably one of the best scenes in a movie, ever. Sorry for the crappy quality, but please be sure to notice how adorable Michael’s bro is:

[Posted by Mallory]

3 Comments

Filed under celebrities, crushes, movies, music, weddings

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

by | August 18, 2008 · 7:21 pm

hmm… what ever happened to t.A.T.u.?

So I was driving in the car today when a certain song came on my iPod. This song has been stuck in my head ever since, and I want to lovingly pass it off to you because that might make me feel better.

You’re welcome. HA! (If you’re too chicken to watch the video, it’s “All the Things She Said” by T.A.T.U.) It’s almost as bad as that M.I.A. “Paper Planes” song. Just as I was getting “Paper Planes” out of my head from hearing it every day towards the end of senior year, they go and put it as the promo song for “The Pineapple Express”. Thanks a lot, marketing geniuses/jerks.

Anyway, where did t.A.T.u., the kind of hot Russian are-they-or-aren’t-they-lesbians go? That whole kissing girls thing was totally their gig. And they made quite a blip on the pop culture scene. Because let’s face it, we were prudier back in 2002 than we are now. Here is how I remember the girls:

Girls kissing isn’t my thing, but rawr.

So imagine my surprise when I came across this:

Whoops! The gig is up, apparently! But that is one ballsy chick. Power to her, she’s rocking that prego belly.

Wikipedia tells me that the girls have a CD coming out in September. So they’re still around. And that they never were lesbians. WHATEVER.

It’s a slow news day people, give me a break.

[Posted by Kathleen]

17 Comments

Filed under music, pop culture, random, the arts, YouTube

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | August 12, 2008 · 8:49 pm

update on my east coast adventures.

It seems that every so often, Kathleen or I get busy with exciting things going on in our real lives, and then we write a post apologizing for our embarrassing lack of blogging. I clearly just took a little hiatus myself, so let’s get you updated on my life, shall we?

The reason I’ve been more or less out of commission the past few days is that I made a huge, grown-up move to Washington DC. Hooray for me! I’m so mature that I even ordered our cable and Internet and bought (and put together!) my own bed. Chuckle all you want, but these things are huge for me. We didn’t have to do that stuff at my college. (Side story about the bed: I ordered it from Craigslist from this stranger boy, and arranged for it to be dropped off the next morning, while I was alone in my apartment. I told my mother this plan, and she immediately freaked out and assumed that I would be raped and murdered by said stranger boy. So naturally, I Facebooked him to see if I could gauge his rapist tendencies. Turns out, we sort of have a mutual friend, and also, he’s a professional lacrosse player. He didn’t rape or murder me, and now I get to sleep where a professional athlete once slept. Take that, Mom.)

Aside from slowly becoming a huge fake adult for the past few days, I’ve also been up in New York/New Jersey visiting some of my best friends from college. I hadn’t seen any of them all summer, and I was insanely excited to be reunited. The weekend did not disappoint.

For starters, I got to see the Counting Crows live, which made me giddy because they are my favorite band and I’d only seen them once before. Katie and I maybe had a little too much cheap wine before the concert, and we maybe forgot to eat dinner, and Katie maaaybe slept through Maroon 5, who opened, but it was still wonderful. I don’t care if Adam Duritz is old and kind of unattractive; he has dreadlocks and I’d like to marry him. 

The rest of the weekend was filled with straight-up college-style debauchery, just as we hoped. There was drinking, excessive eating, obnoxious dancing, and enough stories to fill several books. Here are some highlights (and I truly wish I didn’t have to censor these, but if I’m ever going to change the world, people have to think I’m respectable): 

  • Katie’s poor boyfriend having to meet all FOUR of Katie’s parents at once. It was so fun to watch. Katie’s dad and stepmom were coming home to meet the boy (whom we will call “DJ”), so Katie’s mom decided that she would come over with her own boyfriend and add to the awkwardness. I must say, DJ performed quite well.
  • DJ telling me I look like Karen from Californication. DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THIS MEANS TO ME?! She is my idol, and I don’t know that any compliment will ever again make me as happy as that one did. 
  • The fact that Madeline and I actually won two out of three pong games to win the only portion of Beer Olympics that we actually paid attention for. Have I mentioned that I’m TERRIBLE at pong?
  • The end of my vegetarianism. Did I not totally predict this shit? The offending meats were breakfast sausage and pepperoni, obviously.
  • Making friends with all of our NYC cab drivers. We met the greatest people! One man, Ram Lama, was a sherpa in Everest who worked as the head sherpa on like a million expeditions. I’ve never understood why sherpas don’t get more credit. We freak the fuck out when some American white dude climbs Everest, but sherpas climb it regularly. Without oxygen. While carrying all of the American white dudes’ crap. It’s amazing. We also met a Pakistani cab driver who essentially said that because I dressed like a whore, I could never be a Muslim. (And, for the record, I was not really dressed like a whore. My dress just happened to be, er, a little short.) I proceeded to get in a bit of a religious debate with this driver while my friends laughed from the backseat. 
Exciting things that did NOT happen this weekend: I didn’t get to ride in the Cash Cab. Sigh. Maybe next time.

 

[Posted by Mallory]

2 Comments

Filed under adventures, blogging, celebrities, dance, drinks, food, music, post-college depression, religion, TV

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | August 12, 2008 · 3:26 pm

youtube clip of today: barack roll

Ever been Rick rolled? That freaking song gets stuck in your head–but let’s face it, it’s kind of brilliant. Anyway, this video is flying around the internet right now. And I have to say, it’s impressive. Isn’t B a goofy dancer? Sigh.

[Posted by Kathleen]

2 Comments

Filed under music, pop culture, random, YouTube

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

by | August 11, 2008 · 3:16 pm

youtube clip of today: telephone piano.

To all of you who claim that I have too much time on my hands because I blog, I present to you this video.

[Posted by Kathleen]

Leave a comment

Filed under music, random, YouTube

Tagged as , , , , ,

by | August 4, 2008 · 4:52 pm

youtube clip of today: flea market!

Three million people have enjoyed the musical stylings of this advertising guru–so you know it’s something special. And when he looks into your eyes and sings to you, it’s like he’s singing straight into your soul. I hope you’re emotionally ready, suckers.

I will warn you, I have my suspicions that this video actually brainwashes you. Something about the music. For some reason I am feeling as if I need living rooms, bedrooms, dinettes. I don’t know what it is but I just want to go to Flea Market Montgomery. It’s just like, it’s just like, a mini-mall! Hey hey!

[Posted by Kathleen]

Leave a comment

Filed under crushes, music, pop culture, random, YouTube

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | July 29, 2008 · 2:44 am

seacrest gets bit, takes advil, lives.

Ryan Seacrest was bit by a shark this weekend! Ha ha! The article is like three words long, so I think you won’t mind reading a good chunk of it:

The “American Idol” host said he was “about eight feet out” when he felt something swim by him.

“I thought it was a stick,” he said. “I wasn’t sure what had happened.”

Then, he said, “I saw it swim! He took a bite, and he left.”

Seacrest, 33, said the shark’s tooth “wasn’t a great thing to find. It was like finding a splinter!”

Although he said he was “in pain,” the “American Idol” host wasn’t hurt too badly, but said he “needed to take an Advil.”

So let’s get this straight: the shark just took a nibble, then swam away? All Seacrest needed to heal his shark bite was AN ADVIL?! I guess the shark wasn’t a fan of Seacrest’s other other white meat, which surely tastes like spray tanner and douchebaggery. Mmm.

Yeah, I don’t like Ryan Seacrest. I can’t say I hate him more than I hate seal-clapping, whiskey-in-her-water-cup Paula, but something about Ry guy drives me NUTS. I think it may be that he has one of those mouths which, when closed, looks like it’s hiding a set of hardcore braces. I can’t find a picture that really helps out my theory, but this one’s entertaining:

Oh, Ryan. Could you maybe stick to radio, so that we didn’t have to stare at that weird mouth of yours when we’re trying to get an American Idol fix? Maybe take Paula and your dawg Randy and just leave the show to Simon. He’s the only one worth listening to, anyway.

Although, come to think of it, I really do love to hate you.

[Posted by Mallory]

Leave a comment

Filed under animals, celebrities, music, pop culture

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,