Sound Opinions

As most of you know, I've become the biggest public radio nerd ever. I know almost the entire Maine Public Broadcasting Network weekend schedule, by heart! Ask me what the difference between NPR, PRI and APM is... and prepare to get bored.

But in all seriousness, it's partially because of my job. For approximately an hour every day, I have this one task that involves some data entry, then mail merging that data, then stuffing envelopes. That hour goes by much faster when accompanied by an episode of This American Life or Weekend America, or some other hour long program. Next week is my two year anniversary at this job, so ah, I've sort of run out of shows to listen to. I was streaming New York City's public radio station, and then I was streaming Chicago's public radio station (the two best in the country) but in the morning they do a lot of local news... and it doesn't really apply.

Let me get to the point- I've been listening to this great show called SoundOpinions. As a person who has spent a lot of her life talking about music, it's been great to kick back and hear someone else do the talking. People I agree with, no less! The hosts of SoundOpinions, the only rock and roll talk show in the country, are both critics at newspapers in Chicago... the Sun and the Tribune. They are very, very aware of things going on in the world of music, and have some great opinions! They don't always agree, and they often take calls from listeners. I highly recommend checking it out at soundopinions.org, especially the episode they recap their SXSW trip.

If you are right now thinking to yourself, "I would never ever listen to that, Thanks for a waste of a blog entry, Aman-duh," do me a favor and mentally count the amount of times you've watched High Fidelity, then reconsider.

Like a Unicorn jumping over a Rainbow

Heather and I were just blog-skimming. We saw something of interest... that was pretty awesome. Without saying a word, our jaws dropped, we BOTH pointed at the screen, then gave each other the best, most in-sync high five ever.

Then proceeded to laugh really hard at how ridiculous we are. AMAZING!

Hopefully this is newsworthy...

My cat just played fetch with me. She is pretty awesome.

Jon Lester and the Fabulous No-Hitter

Me (upon arriving at my coffeeshop in Westbrook, The Daily Grind): Hey, how 'bout that Jon Lester no hitter!

Daily Grind Guy: I know! It was awesome!

Me: Yeah, what cancer! (high five) And did you know that Varitek-

DGG: Caught the last four no hitters! That's a record!

Me: I know. And that diving catch Ellsbury made? He's like, on fire.

DGG: Man... chicks who like sports are awesome!

What kind of music do YOU like?

Being a person who worked at a record store for a long time, I've had a fair amount of time to think about the question, "What kind of music do you like?" It's just about the dumbest question you can ask a person. How are you supposed to answer without sounding like an idiot or a snob?

I never know what to say. I can't say "Rock," because that's too broad, but it's the most accurate. I can't say "Indie Rock," because that's too specific, and half the time people don't even KNOW what indie rock is! Plus, it doesn't nearly explain the wide range of my collection. It's also not appropriate to say "Everything." When people say that they like "everything," they mean everything on the radio. But it's awkward to explain, "Well, I like Indie Rock, Soul, some Rap, Top 40, Jazz, but only in the morning, Showtunes, and the occasional Punk Rock."

This happened to my friend Heather the other day, while she was working at the coffeeshop. Her coworker, who usually listens to upbeat Soul, Dance and Hip Hop while working. He asked her, what kind of music she liked. I saw her face go blank and the wheels in her head turning, not knowing what to say. She is the kind of person who likes bands no one has ever heard of, and things that are only available on vinyl. But you can't really say that, even though it's true. So I piped in and SAVED her, with a joke. In a matter-of-fact voice: "Heather really likes hits of the 90's... especially TLC and 'No Diggity.' " Which isn't necessarily false, but we had a good laugh.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

You might think I'm crazy, but I just saw Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for the first time. And, I'm not sure if it's held up! I was offended on behalf of Indian people everywhere- I know that they don't eat scary bugs and monkey brain, they eat nan and mush! Sure, the end was exciting with the freeing of the children slaves and the train car ride (which reminded me of Kong for Super Nintendo... what a great game!) This doesn't however, hinder my excitement whatsoever to see the new Indy movie.

Just thought you guys might think this is funny:


It was a Red Cross Blood Drive. And I got bangs:

Blue Skies...

I know it's been a while since I've written, and it's certainly not due to a lack of happenings in my life. Indiana was great, Heather's birthday was great, the Kentucky Derby was great... I'm at sort of a turning point in my life, things are changing, decisions are to be made, and I've had to give these things a lot of thought. What do I really want to do with my life, what will really make me happy?

* * *

The other night, I was out with Josh's kickball team, celebrating their victory. Has anyone else had the experience of talking to someone new and them causing you to remember something you'd long forgotten? There was this senior thesis exhibit that I saw while I was attending Montserrat, and it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. This girl took all of these pieces of white, antique fabric, which turned out to be many different shades of white and textures, then quilted them together. But before she did that, using a typewriter, she wrote on some of the squares what seemed like random lines from a diary or something. I stood there and looked at it and wept like a baby. And I'd completely forgotten.

From the Portrait Studio