Posts Tagged “music”

Early to bed, early to rise

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Cathryn

This has been circulating around the Internet probably since I started college (if not even earlier). It’s also true! There is also a terrifying one for grad school that I’m going to choose to ignore for now because it frightens me.

But anyway, I’ve always chosen Enough Sleep and sort of oscillated between the other two. Especially being a commuter with a 30 minute drive to campus, it’s been imperative that I get enough sleep. And if not, enough coffee?

Anyway, I usually go to bed by 11 or 11:30. A lot of the time I’m just beat so I go to bed at 10. That is embarrassingly early. But I’m used to waking up around 7 or 7:30 in the morning, so I get a lot done before I have to go anywhere. Most of the time.

I realized, though, that practically nobody else is on this schedule. I tend to wake up and find that my inbox is exploding with emails sent after 11 PM, including several from my professors. This makes it awkward when said professors request that we do additional reading for the class I’m about to go to. Not going to happen!

GO TO BED, PEOPLE!

If you need a lullaby, I highly recommend John Legend and the Roots covering Dancing in the Dark. DOWNLOAD IT NOW.

Tagged: bruce springsteen, college life, music | 1 Comment

Current musical obsessions

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Cathryn

I have a lot to talk about tonight!

Okay, several songs. Two good, two guilty pleasures.

1) Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal. I had to kind of acquire a taste for Fleet Foxes, I think starting with their “Helplessness Blues.” Now I can’t stop listening to them! As far as these laid back alternative bands go, they’ve been around for a while and I’m just slow on the uptake. Their self-titled album is beautiful. Very relaxing and perfect to calm you down with this crazy stupid weather we’re having.

2) Of Monsters and Men – Little Talks. I was listening to 92.3 wtts’s New Music Monday and this song came on. I can’t begin to describe how much joy it brings. I love duets! The song is upbeat and fun. Makes me want spring though.

3) Jessie J – Domino. If you were around me when Jessie J’s first song, Pricetag, came on the radio, I probably couldn’t stop myself from complaining about its preachy premise for three times the length of the actual song. When I heard this was her new single, I didn’t give it a chance and changed the channel when it started. But one day I switched it on mid-song and did a double take. Katy Perry, the British edition!? Sure I’ll take it. If you like pop but haven’t given this a listen yet, do so. It’s a fun song. (Give it to 0:40 for the bridge.)

4) Selena Gomes – Love You like a Love Song. It’s a little silly, but you can’t deny Selena’s excellent voice, the retro disco beat, and the fact that Disney actually groomed a wonderful young lady that’s fun to listen to. I crank this song every time it comes on the radio.

I have about a million other songs I’m really into, but these are the selections you get for now.

Tagged: fleet foxes, jessie j, music, selena gomez | 1 Comment

The executive decision to listen to Christmas music

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Cathryn

Ever since pharmacy school, the Appropriate Time to listen to Christmas music (after Thanksgiving-beyond) has been marred by a rush of clusters and finals. We have clusters the first week back from break, a week of classes, and then finals. It is not a time to feel happy and joyful in the season of giving. It is a time of no sleep, catatonia, and junk food.

I made the executive decision to listen to Christmas music early this year. Because I want to enjoy it. A month just isn’t long enough when 3 weeks of it is squandered on the panic of the end of the semester.

To my delight, I discovered today on Spotify that ZOOEY DESCHANEL HAS A CHRISTMAS ALBUM.

It's beautiful.

It’s so good I’m going to buy it. Then one day, I might get the CD player fixed in my car so I can blast it on Binford Blvd as I tend to do with all music I like.

I know it’s not Halloween yet and some of you may see me as a heretic, but I can’t tell you how good her version of The Christmas Waltz is. It just is.

Tagged: christmas, finals, music, spongebob squarepants, spotify | 2 Comments

My favorite Springsteen album

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Cathryn

"The First American Apparel Ad" - Jimmy Fallon

Last spring, Darkness on the Edge of Town was practically stuck in my car’s CD player. I blasted The Promised Land all the way up Binford Blvd with the windows rolled down, because everyone knows I’m sick of the radio and how they play Bruno Mars every 2 seconds.

When sitting at the traffic light at Meridian and 52nd street, I would roll down my window (just one, I don’t have automatic anything in my car) and subject everyone around me to Badlands. Subsequently, it would be stuck in my head for the next 2 weeks.

I don’t know what it is about this album. There’s just this over-arching theme of Stick it to the Man (“mister, I ain’t a boy–no, I’m a man / and I believe in the promised land”), while underneath there’s a real sense of hopelessness and discontent (like in Something in the Night). It’s the kind of album that can fit any mood. It inspires me.

But let’s face it, I love everything Springsteen.

Curtis reveals that his favorite album is The River, then he retracts the statement and decides on Tunnel of Love.

(My second choice is Born to Run).

Tagged: bruce springsteen, music | Leave a comment

My poor, neglected iTunes

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Cathryn

For a long time, my iTunes library fluctuated between 10GB and 11.5GB.

It is now 14GB. I don’t know when this happened.

I was trying to sort through my iPod library and delete some things, and a thought struck me: I’ve been listening to Bruce Springsteen, Ke$ha, and The Black Keys almost exclusively for at least six months.

This has been my desktop background for almost 3 months.

Right, so, Springsteen only takes up about 1.5GB and the other two artists are negligible data space. So what the heck is in my library?!

Apparently I had two System of a Down albums, Ra Ra Riot, Metric, The Doors–when and where did I acquire these?! Suddenly I remembered I got a public library card over the summer. The public library has tons and tons of CDs. I may or may not have exploited that.

But really, I’ve been so out of touch with my iTunes library that I was genuinely surprised that I had certain songs, like I had always wanted to have them and never realized that I had them the whole time. I can’t believe I’ve listened to that much Springsteen.

And I’m not even ashamed! It gets me through the long hours of studying.

LISTEN. WITH. ME. (That last one is adorable because he doesn’t know/hasn’t finished writing the lyrics so he just mumbles. And giggles.)

Tagged: bruce springsteen, music | 1 Comment

Songs I hate right now

Posted on January 7, 2011 by Cathryn

This will be a fun post. It’s all because the CD player in my car has been misbehaving and skips with every tiny bump I hit. So I’ve been subjected to the radio.

While I enjoy talking about things I … enjoy, let’s talk about stuff I hate.

Bruno Mars. Who does he think he is? “Girl you’re amazing just the way you are.” “If perfect’s what your searching for than just say the same.” Did you get those lines from a Harlequin novel?

And further more: “I’d catch a grenade for you / … Yes, I would die for you, baby.” Okay but would you? Considering the entire chorus of the song is some masochistic proclamation of love, I don’t think it’s a figure of speech. You would literally stop in front of a speeding train for me, the hypothetical object of affection in your song.

I would not catch a grenade for Curtis. Do you know why? One, it would hurt. Two, I would get blown up, and splatter all over him. That’s just rude. Plus, if I was really catching a grenade for him, wouldn’t he be standing somewhere in the vicinity to also get blown up?

I digress.

Rihanna and Eminem. Just stop. You’re strange, mixed messages about domestic violence are both confusing and disturbing. Additionally, the chorus of the song is annoying as snot, and I’d prefer not to hear it on the radio anymore.

B.O.B. and Hayley Williams. You two need to stop pretending that are planes are like shooting stars. How can something pretend to be LIKE something? If you’re pretending, you’re already creating that simile. Get it? Take that unnecessary “like” out. Oh, and get off of the radio.

Ke$ha. Okay, honestly, just keep doing what you’re doing. I can’t even pretend like I hate it. Pretend. Like.

You look.... great. Just. Just stay on the radio.

Bruce Springsteen can write music. Just sayin’.

Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night / You ain’t a beauty, but hey, you’re all right.

See, Bruno? I’m still swooned by “Thunder Road” and I didn’t need to hear your fluffy lies.

Tagged: music, rant | 1 Comment

Why I should be banned from Half Price Books

Posted on January 7, 2011 by Cathryn

Seriously though.

I went into Half Price Books today looking for Ulysses by James Joyce. Why? Because all pretentious writers have read it. I guess.

I marched right into the store and found the Literature section. There are a lot of authors with the last name of H–I noticed this. Anyway, I found a copy that had a mustache in the cover art with no highlighting inside, so I claimed it.

Then I met the friends I went with in the CD section. This is where it all went south.

I wanted to get a Doors album, anything that was in my price range. I couldn’t find one. I thought that scanning the voluminous markdown CDs would score the album I was looking for. Instead, I left with Radiohead, Spoon, The Wallflowers, and The Strokes. At least they were on markdown?

Well, one of my friends and I were not satisfied, and we thought a quick trip to the Half Price Books on the other side of town would have what we wanted. So we go, we walk in, we attack the CD section, and in less than five seconds, we had the albums we came for. Good day.

Sooo I now have a million CDs scattered around my desk right now. I am not ashamed.

The guy who rang us out at the register is pretty confident that The Strokes have a release date set for their next album. I’m still skeptical of lead singer Julian Casablancas.

He doesn't seem trustworthy.

Tagged: half price books, music, shopping | Leave a comment

Computer Blunders

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Cathryn

As a COPHs student, I have a Dell Latitude XT2 tablet computer. It looks really cool, right?

Okay, first of all, I don’t know where they got that screen on the website with the pretty blue bubbles on it. I would like this computer so much more if it had pretty blue bubbles on it. Instead, it just has this tiny ridge along the bottom of the monitor where dust and skin particles gather, impervious to my every effort to get rid of it with my fingernails. It also freezes if you squint at it the wrong way.

I might abuse this computer a little bit. I don’t take care of the battery like I should (“Oh, I just plugged in two minutes ago? I feel like unplugging now!”), and it may or may not have taken a tumble off of my desk chair. Hard.

Today, I grabbed some grub at C Club (short tangent on the pictures appearing on the dining site: I don’t think I’ve ever seen powder sugared doughnuts in the dining hall–what is this, Cafe du Monde?) because I forgot a lunch. I chose a crispy chicken salad, which came with fried chicken, bacon bits, and a hard-boiled egg. It sort of defeated the purpose of a salad, I know, but I picked off the bacon bits, so there. I almost forewent salad dressing, but I got some anyway, and took it back to the table where my computer was sitting. I ripped open a tiny slit in the corner of the dressing pouch and tried to squeeze the dressing onto my 600-calorie salad.

It didn’t come out. I squeezed harder. Dressing squirted out sideways and landed in a huge, oily puddle on top of my computer’s enter key. So I ripped off the enter key to try and soak up the dressing, and I was in panic mode, because cluster exams are this week and I will probably like the use of my keyboard to study.

Long story short, I couldn’t get the enter key back on, there is now a sticky, gunky feel to the apostrophe key, and IT told me that Dell has to reconstruct the entire keyboard because you can’t replace keys.

Do you see what I have to deal with?

Pandora is playing a depressing acoustic cover of “The Freshman.” I need another cup of coffee, people.

See you on the other side of clusters! Unless I do something stupid again and feel the need to update!

Tagged: clusters, i broke it, music, tablet | Leave a comment

My Current Playlists

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Cathryn

If you’re ever on iTunes, and you see a shared library called “IT’S PIKACHU,” that’s me. Just so you know. If you live in the Apartment Village, you’ll definitely see it. I have two gigs of Bruce Springsteen.

Here are my fabulous musical selections.

New Young Pony Club – Chaos. As much as I value good music with meaningful lyrics, sometimes I can cling to a mood. I like the heavy electronic beat and the sound of the lead singer’s voice. It makes me feel like I’m out CLUBBIN’. (I’ve never done that.)

Neon Trees – Animal. This is just a fun, upbeat song. The music video is cute, too, if you can stand looking at the lead singer’s hair the whole time. I find it taxing.

Vampire Weekend – I’m Goin’ Down (Bruce Springsteen Cover). I first heard this cover on Youtube when fans uploaded cell phone recordings of the live performance. I’m so happy Vampire Weekend recorded it! They did a great job. This prompted me to watch a ton of Springsteen covers.

Bruce Springsteen – The Promise. An answer to Thunder Road, “The Promise” is a huge downer about how following your dreams ends in dead end jobs and mundane routine. It’s a beautifully written song, and it gets me every time.

Taylor Swift – Mine. I’m not a fan of country, but I’m so in love with Taylor Swift, it’s sick. She always puts out top-notch work with great music and lyrics. “Mine” is just another great single for her and I hope she can keep making hits!

So, there is a sampling of the music I’ve been listening to.

This is going up in Curtis's and my first place.

Enjoy!

Tagged: music | Leave a comment

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