She’s holding her tonic like a cross

I have a new obsession with Airborne Toxic Event. I had a band on tour with them and though I have the past two CDs, I never actively paid attention to the songs until recently. I dig! I kept going back to “Sometime Around Midnight” and after some research, that of course was the US and UK single. Cannot get enough and it’s now been added to my running and work playlist. I also just played it no less than three times while getting ready, I need to make up for lost time.

Lately a few new (to me) songs have been hitting me making me realize why I do what I do and what brings me back to my desk every day. Sometimes I need hints to remind me how and I got here and why. “They don’t even know what it is to be a fan. Y’know? To truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts.”

Love Out of Lust

This song is ridiculous.
Finally got around to checking out Lykke Li’s new release and I keep going back to this track. Usually I just let the album play then check the title if something attracts my ear.
“I Follow Rivers” and “Sadness is a Blessing” are also tasty.

Just say yes, just say there’s nothing holding you back

Sometimes when I can’t figure out what to listen to or I don’t have any new CDs on my desk, I leave my workday soundtrack up to Pandora. I haven’t really discovered anything new via Pandora, but at least I know that it’ll play a mix that I want to hear.

While on the David Gray station, Snow Patrol kept permeating the rotation. Snow Patrol are probably on my top ten favorite bands, but I totally missed their last release. Though it was a great hits collection, which is probably why I didn’t pay it any mind since I have it all, there are a few new songs on it. Every time I checked Pandora to see what was playing, it was a *newish* Snow Patrol song. Obviously I had to get these new tracks!

I’m smitten with the posted songs below. “Just Say Yes” has been my mantra lately… to trying new things, accepting invitations, getting off the couch, etc. and this is the perfect song to accompany such a movement. It’s easy, just do it. The song slightly reflects something I’ve been pondering over and going through with someone that I may dabble about later.

“Give Me Strength” is just perfect. They both are, quintessential Snow Patrol whose lyrics and music always captures a sentiment in a flawless package.

It’s so simple and you know it is, you know it is
We can’t be to and fro like this all our lives

Someone Like You

Are you kidding me?!?
I’m loving Adele’s new album “21″ lately. I wasn’t much of an Adele fan before, but this album is solid start to finish. What a fucking voice, and lyrics to boot.

Regrets and mistakes, they’re memories made.
Who would have known how bittersweet this would taste?

“and suddenly it’s all about to change…”

How has it taken me THIS long to listen to Whitley??
I receive CDs ALL the time…promos, gifts, purchases, and sometimes I just forget about them. Sadly “Submarine” has been sitting in my iTunes library for over a year without a listen. I think I heard about him when he toured with Howie Day then later with Tristan Prettyman? Can’t remember but I do remember that he had an awesome poster promoting whichever tour he was on, which prompted me to Google him and buy the album that I didn’t listen to until years later.

I’m so late to the game!
I LOVE IT! SMITTEN.
I’ve been listening to all all the way through all day for the past few days it’s starting to become ridiculous. I still haven’t lost the beamy face while listening so I’m sure it’ll earn a few more spins before I tire of it.

Reminds me of Jonathan Rice, Teitur, David Gray, Joseph Arthur, Bon Iver, Peter Bradley Adams… you get it.

Key tracks:
A Shot to the Stars
Lost in Time
I Remember
All is Whole

Listen on MySpace
Watch on MySpace

Summer reading

Since school starts in less than two weeks (oh my), I’m trying to get in as much enjoyable reading as I can since from August 17th until December 23 I’ll be knee deep in law books.

I just finished “Rock and Roll WIll Save Your Life” by Steve Almond and will pick up “Juliet, Naked” by Nick Hornby (<3) on my way to work tomorrow morning. I love my library.

Less than two chapters into Almond's book, I told Morgan that he has to read it, it's about people like us for people like us: Drooling Fanatics.

What’s a “drooling fanatic”?
I couldn’t shake the notion that we had gone wrong somewhere [...]. We had wound up, instead, as wannabes, geeks, professional worshippers, the sort of guys and dolls who walk around with songs ringing in our ears at all hours, who acquire albums compulsively, who fall in love with one record per week minimum and cannot resist telling other people—people frankly not that interested—what they should be listening to and why and forcing homemade compilations into their hands and then calling them to see what they thought of these compilations, in particular the syncopated handclaps on track fourteen.

I stumbled upon this book while passing time in a Delaware Barnes & Noble before I needed to leave for the bus. Whenever I need to waste time, I find a bookstore and add titles to my neverending list of books I should read. There are still books I discovered in 2005 on that damn list.

The book was a quick read and I always find it fascinating to read about other peoples passions, especially when it comes to tastes in music. Almond details his discoveries and infatuations while taking us through his stints as a music critic, college radio dj, and as a fan. He’s lucky enough to meet his favorite musicians, which almost never lives up to expectations. Many lists and footnotes permeate the book, which is always a plus for me. Most of all, he truly displays excitement for music – songs, albums, artists, lyrics, everything. Though I work in the music industry and spend many evenings at shows, it’s disappointing that you find more people who are jaded than excited.

Fun fact: Almond co-wrote a novel, “Which Brings Me To You”, with Julianna Baggott. Julianna is from Wilmington, DE, grew up in Newark, DE, and relocated to Newark for a bit before moving to Florida. She regularly visited Rainbow with her kids while I worked there and we shared many casual conversations. Always enjoyable.

Out of the back you fall in time, I somehow find you and I collide.

Good news, kids. My knee is only strained. Ice + rest + light miles and I should be good to go in NINE DAYS. This is the story of a girl…

Though after spending most of the day off my feet, covered in ice, and popping extra strength Tylenols all day yesterday, I feel much better. Will probably just do yoga tonight, run tomorrow, then the NYRR 8000 is this weekend. Fingers crossed that I won’t have to hobble through any of that mess.

But most importantly, the title of the post. This week two of my worlds have collided, big time.

First… Miss Jen works for a program in DC that is looking to use JM’s music during it’s opening. Though she didn’t reach out to us personally, the request landed on my desk to coordinate with JM. Once I recognized the show I immediately contacted her. After a few days of back and forth, JM has approved and we just need to get all of the paperwork complete. How completely random and awesome is it that our two big name bosses are kinda working together.

I was catching Aurora up on all of this yesterday and she reminded me that 6-7 years ago we all decided that STN would sometime rule the nation. Slowly and surely we’re making our mark.

And how about this one… For a few weeks I’ve raved about this fantastic new artist my company is working with. Before we officially started managing him, his label sent out an email soliciting musicians to try out for a band to support this unnamed artist. I had a hunch it was our guy, but I wasn’t sure and still sent out the email to a few musician friends. Flash forward a few weeks and Chris is now one of the two keyboardists being considered. Who would have thought that random nights above Rainbow would have led to him possibly playing with my artist on a major label. I absolutely love it. We should know if he’s selected later today or tomorrow. Good *vibes*.

sunday morning checkin: lsats, snow, and miles…

Well, that LSAT’s are done, yay. Now it’s the sit and wait period as I contemplate what I want to do with my life, part two. The test wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be, but it still had some unexpected negative points:
- Not negative, but the kid who sat next to me on the bus also sat a person away from me in the test. Odd. He was also in khakis and a blazer. Needless to say, I was in a hoodie.
- The test was supposed to start at 8:30 am, but started at 9:30 am thanks to the women administrating the test moving as fast as molasses.
- Right before the test, the chick to my left sprayed old lady stinky perfume. WTF! Aurora told me later that this is a testing technique, and apparently it is. It gave me a headache, awesome.
- Tubby to my right kept hitting my elbow while filling in his test bubbles. Understandable since we were smooshed in the classroom but still distracting.
- Time. Oh, time. I didn’t finish the first three sections. I was only half done the first section when we got the five minute warning. I hustled, then once time was called, I randomly filled in bubble. UGH. I also had to randomly fill in bubbles for two other sections. I simply spent too much time reading and going over answers than I should have. No problems with the last two sections. This really threw me off from the beginning since my first section for me was logic games, which I usually due very well in when I completed practice tests. I didn’t even get to one of the 4 puzzles… Dammit.
- The writing sample was fairly easy, I just hope my handwriting was legible enough. The kid behind me (who sat under the clock I kept checking) didn’t write anything past 10 minutes. He either gave up or was extremely brief…
- For the most part, the questions we’re challenging, I was just racing the clock so may not have been as attentive as I could have been if I had deliberate further than my first initial answers.
- Heh, Traci had taken the test a few years ago and a kid in her testing session received the packet and exclaimed “oh my god, are you fucking kidding me” and walked out. At least I finished !

After the test, Aurora and I trekked to Boston for a few hours. Since nothing ever goes right, the few hour trip took nearly six hours due to the snow storm that wanted to follow us. We skidded while we sang along to the whitest cd mix ever. We borrowed Keith’s car and in his CD player were: Mraz, Kings of Leon, DMB, DMB, DMB, and Jay-Z. HEH. Each disc was a little surprise followed by elation from the irony.

During our brief jaunt to Boston, we saw Graham Colton acoustic at a tiny tiny tiny venue, which was nice. Funny, in the past 8 years I think we’ve seen GC in more states than we’ve seen any other artists. And most of these shows involved an intricate road trip of sorts, which makes all the appearances all the more fun and interesting.

His lyrics and music are so simple, but so honest and straight to the point. Pretty sure every song we can relate to some point in our lives or another. I’ll still take it.

Don’t give up on me tonight
We’ve come this far we’ve made good time
And all the light of the world is somewhere else
We drove all night in this old car
The morning light the faded stars
And every day I find I’m someone else
But every day I get closer to myself

Here’s a link to my awful recording of Summer Stars.

After the show we went to some bar… Of course the guy we stand next to lives in NYC. In Tribeca. Who LIVES in Tribeca?? He kinda mocked us for where WE lived (UES/Bed-Stuy). Not verbally, but you can tell by his tone. Then he said that we must drive a nice car if we’re willing to drive hours to hang out for a night and was completely shocked when we said we borrowed a friends car and it wasn’t that nice (it’s nice, it’s not like an SUV that would have handled the snow like a champ). Well F you chump for thinking that cross streets and car brand matter. We had great company, great tunes, and great scenery which trumps all. So weird. He did offer to buy us drinks all night, so he wasn’t a jerk, just said some of the wrong things…

We battled the snow until Connecticut and were armed with DD coffee and donuts and the GC EP as we drove all night back to NYC. It was a good Saturday and the adventure that I needed: best friend, a favorite city, great music, snow, and the open road. It was perfect aside from the unsurprising obstacles.

And I can finally run again! Starting my DC Marathon running regimen on Wednesday, but at least tomorrow I can lace up and hit CP before work. Hopefully the knee contusion and plantar fasciitis are full healed….

I’ll leave you with two photos.

Check out this sexiness:

And this elf deflated on my street, bummer:

6 days, music & waffles!

OMG SIX DAYS. SIX!!!!

So I need to make my running playlist, email me with any suggestions, especially since my current long run lists are stale. I need to make about a 6 hour playlist since after 2-3 minutes I get mired and skip to the next song. I probably won’t listen to my ipod to whole time due to the crowds, but still… I’m so bad at picking running playlists since I usually listen to indie or way melodic stuff that doesn’t lend well to running fast. My iTunes is full of sad sad slow songs. Heh, I recently told Morgan that my running playlist compromises of songs that a 15 year old girl listens to. It’s almost embarrassing, though it’s heavy on the Jay-Z, Kanye, Common, Kelly Clarkson, and Switchfoot. I’m not posting it…half of it’s credible though, so no fear.

I think I’m still full from last night. So so so good. But first, I love NYC:

I ran 10 easy miles in Central Park around dusk. It’s been a while since I’ve ran at that time in the park and I’ve missed it. The sky was an amazing kaleidoscope of blues, purples, oranges, and pinks while broken with the buildings and their lights. The park streetlights started to come on and everything was picturesque. While meandering through the park, I felt so lucky to be able to see this, to experience it. I know I’ve been complaining about a lot lately, how barely anything I’m involved with is going well, but those solitary moments made me feel special that this was mine. That I get to be apart of this, this city, this atmosphere, this mystery, all of it and it’s all exciting.

Everything will work out just fine…no matter how many situations can fall apart, The Lake will always be there. Friedsam Carousel will still spin. The CNN building will tell me the time and temperature overtime I approach 65th Street. The Guggenheim will peek between the trees whenever I feel like I’m lost in the woods. And the Still Hunt statue will be there for me perched on top of Cat Hill when my quads are screaming. I will be fine. when all else fails, this city, this park will always be there for me when I need the support and reaffirmation that everything will turn out the way it should.

After the breezy run, I quickly changed and was scooped up by Dan and Emily for an evening of feasting at Melba’s. IT WAS AMAZING. Good conversation was had and we gorged ourselves on delicious food. Both Dan and Emily had the southern fried chicken entrees and I had the mac and cheese and eggnog waffles with strawberry butter and syrup. My two favorite things in one dish? Yes, please. And we topped the meal off with red velvet cake (another favorite) and triple chocolate mousse cake. A food coma was had shortly after. Highly recommended.

a bad run and a busy week…

I need someone to blog for me… I keep wanting this to be a regular blog, but it doesn’t seem to be…

First off, I had an awful run yesterday, simply awful. Chris and I planned on a 20-22 miler, but he’s been having knee pain and opted to rest, while I decided to ignore my ankle pain (it was fine on Friday…) and set off to Central Park. I wore the capris that I will run in Philly and my only complaint is that I had three gels in the back pocket which rested on my tailbone. Though I find that much easier than carrying them, or safety pinning them, they did bring my pants down a bit. Trial and error. The weather was nice and a bit rainy at times. I felt great the first 8 miles – energized, fast, and pain free. Around mile 4, I ran into the setup of the finish line for the NYC Marathon tomorrow. It was quite the scene with the blue and orange, boxes of apples, country flags, runners, etc. I got giddy for a moment excited for my friends running tomorrow and a sense of pride that I’ll be running under that finish line on November 7th 2010. I’ve watched the NYC Marathon for years in person and on TV and I’m elated that I finally made running a marathon one of my goals and that I’ll be running the race next year. But first, Philadelphia.

My ankle started hurting around mile 8 and I was starving despite eating well before my run and already taking a gel. CP was also like a ghost town since many of the usual runners either got their run in already or are running tomorrow so there was a lack of crowd to keep me going. Mile 11 was rough, I was tired. My ankle was throbbing and I winced with every step around mile 13.3. I stretched a bit and drank some water to regroup mentally. I wanted to run 20, and those remaining 6.7 miles seemed soooo long. I told myself if I get to 15, I can stop and not feel guilty. So I trudged through 2 more miles on a soft surface and once I started walking, the pain was worse. I picked up two bags of ice and sat in an ice bath for 20 minutes, which hurt so good. The pain in my ankle was so bad that the ice was an afterthought and almost immediately after I got out, the pain lessened and was gone by the time I went to bed. I should have had it looked at the other day, but my doctor left because I was five minutes late to my appointment and I can either sit and wait in express care or make an appointment for 6 weeks from now. Ugh.

The marathon is now 3 weeks away and I’m getting nervous and I feel as though I’m not going to be prepared. Granted, it’s my first and just finishing will be a feat and rewarding, but still, I will be disappointing in myself if I feel like I wasn’t ready or could have done better. I’m working as a medical assistant for the NYC Marathon today so perhaps that will boost my morale and motivation. I’m rooting for a Ryan Hall win in 2:05!

In other news, we moved our office… it’s cozy. Because of my OCD, the boxes and clutter severely bothered me. I honestly had to step outside because I felt claustrophobic and couldn’t deal with the mess. MY AREA was perfectly fine and everything was in it’s place, it was everything else that I couldn’t handle.

This week we also had a major label showcase for YV, which they nailed. I have never seen Coyle sing as passionately as he did on Tuesday. And Mal is an animal. Still waiting on a firm answer… But during those 30 minutes, as I saw a perfect band in front of me, then compared the stage to what a label looks for, it hit me that this is a freaking hard business. I mean, I’ve been at my job in artist management for 5 years – I’ve certainly had my ups and downs, my successes and failures, I know what works and what doesn’t… but it’s still hard to be on the creative end waiting on feedback from the entity that have the dollars and manpower to take a band to the proverbial “next level”. And it’s all a matter of opinion at that point. To even get to the level of a major label showcase you have to have to talent, the drive, the history, the songs. But other than that, it lies in one person’s opinion…and as you know, in addition to stellar bands that consistently tour and put out great songs, there is a lot of shit on the radio and in tv and on commercials and in movies. It wears you down.

I took my first portion of an LSAT practice test, reading comprehension. Though I didn’t prepare for the SAT’s since I feel that with these kinds of tests, you either know it or don’t… I received one of the highest scores in my class, so I was fine, but I’m anxious for the LSAT. For starters, I have been out of school for 6 years. And second, I get one shot. If that, seeing how I’m wait listed. So I at least want to be prepared, I have two study guides which I’ll open Nov 1, and a few tests from previous years. There are five sections, each section timed at 35 minutes. I finished my practice section in 23 minutes and scored 43/44. The correct answer I simply misread and I wasn’t stumped, I just read one word incorrectly. but at least I know I have a cushion of time so in my next practice round I can read the questions more carefully or at least do a final skim through of my answers. 34 more days until the LSAT, talk about a cram session!

And lastly, this week was anchored by Aurora’s and Chris’s birthdays. We celebrated Chris’s on Monday night at Red Lion where we all had a bit too much to drink but all still had worldly revelations, and tonight we’ll be celebrating Aurora’s birthday at Wogie’s with a (hopefully) Eagles and Phillies win.

Off to work the marathon, happy Sunday!