Tuesday, February 7, 2012

"To tell the truth" Tuesday

I probably should have posted this on Music Monday, but I've been fighting with myself on whether or not to share this one with you.

The shameless side of me just won out.

On Saturday I had the CMT Top 20 Countdown on whilst cleaning and heard a great song come on the ole television. I decided I already loved it by time I reached the living room to see it was actually Miley Cyrus covering Bob Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go."  

My heart sunk. I already love that stupid "Party in the USA" song, if I like her version of this song I'm practically a fan.

So here's where you all come in. Listen to this and tell me what you think. I can't make you do a blind listen because there was no way for me to post this video without her name at the top of it so you're gonig to have to get past any anti-Miley bias right now.




To balance out this post I'll also post the original version by Bob Dylan.



Clearly, it's just a great song.


Monday, February 6, 2012

You know we have to talk about this

Overall, I was pretty bored with the Super Bowl sideshows/commercials this year. Probably due to too much hype and early online previews, but I still have two favorites.

Wait, actually three.

Funny.

"Let's kick some ass and buy some cars. RAWR!!" Inspiration.

Best use of Betty White.

What were your favorites?

Monday, January 30, 2012

Music Monday

This weekend I went to the Randy Rogers Band concert down in Westport at The Beaumont Club. Of course RRB was amazing, but their opener, Sam Sliva and The Good, turned out to be a great find.

There is a pretty noticeable reggae influence in some of their songs so I can think of a few friends out there that would like them as well. If you ever see they are playing in your city you should check them out, the bass player's hair and dancing alone are enough to keep you entertained for the 45 minutes they'll play :)

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Ad astra per aspera

HAPPY KANSAS DAY!

Growing up in Kansas is probably the second coolest thing a person can do in a lifetime. Mainly because in grade school you likely had to dress up as pioneers and churned butter to celebrate Kansas Day. So, in honor of this special day in history I'm going to share some Kansas Fun Facts with you that I got from this site (some editorializing may take place on my list though).

Only acceptable state nickname: Sunflower State

State flower: Sunflower

State tree: Cottonwood

State reptile: Ornate Box Turtle (I gotta be honest, I feel like box turtle is a real stretch. What about the garter snake? There was probably a vote way-back-when — when all of these things were being decided — and the group felt having a snake as the state reptile would hurt tourism.)

State bird: Western Meadowlark

State animal: Buffalo

State song: "Home on the Range" (In grade school we performed this one play, probably called Home on the Range, that had this song in it. So I can sing this for any of you if you need me to.)



State motto: Ad astra per aspera (To the stars through difficulties)

Sadly, my fun fact source site and I disagree on what makes the state famous and famous people from the state. Seriously, did anybody know that Charles Curtis was 1. a vice president and 2. from Kansas? I mean, if you are super bored, educate yourself with this wikipedia link on him and then let me know if this gets a famous Kansan vote or not.

Not to 'suade your vote any, but I've driven through and around Topeka lots of times and never seen a sign boasting "Home of former Vice President Charles Curtis." If the votes come in famous though, I'll contact Governor Brownback tout de suite to remedy this grave oversight.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Audience participation

I'm loving how you all have been active participants and leaving blog comments lately.

I want to reward you with more new posts, but there is one problem.

I have blogger's block.

I don't know what to write about next.

Give me your suggestions and there's a 93% chance I'll write about it.

GO!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Music Monday

There are few things in life I love more than music from the 1980s. However, videos from the same era are a serious competitor.

In my pursuit to procrastinate from doing anything productive this weekend, I spent the better portion of the afternoon watching music videos from the '80s on youtube. (Seriously, I don't know how grown-ups procrastinated before the internet.)

Anywho, I stumbled upon this golden nugget and had to share it — Starship's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now."

My reason's for loving this video are tri-fold:

  1. I don't sing at karaoke bars, but if I did, this video shows how I would perform this song — with exactly the same gusto as the female lead does in this video.
  2. It has opened my eyes to a new Netflix Queue item. It uses scenes from the movie "Mannequin," which I have never seen, but want to now, based on the following: It appears to be some sort of "Sex in the City" meets "Police Academy" RomCom, it has a dog that may or may not have a breakout comedic role and finally, it has Andrew McCarthy. I adore Andrew McCarthy. 
  3. It's just a REALLY good song.
Enjoy!





Saturday, January 21, 2012

Drum roll, please....

I told you I wouldn't leave you hanging!

Ok, so as I posted earlier, I had a wall(s) that had drywall tape cracking, probably from settling so I did what Dad taught me to do. Bugged one of my brothers until he came and fixed it for me.

I'm not even joking about that. In college, Dad drew my name for Kris Kringle gifts and made me a toolbox. It came equipped with emergency contact phone numbers and everything.



Fair warning, Brian & Greg, Jeremy said next time I can call 1-800-BRIAN or 1-800-GREG.

So Jeremy fixed the walls and then I was charged with the tough decision of picking a color to paint the living room.

I have plans to upgrade my living room furniture in the next year or so and I want to get a grey couch so I knew I wanted to pick a new neutral color that would go with that. But I had to be careful, because the current khaki color on the walls bled into the kitchen and the hallway and I was not mentally prepared to do that much painting.

Thankfully, Glidden has a great Color Palette tool that helps you see what colors will look like together.  After lots of emailing with willing subjects, I landed on Canyon Echo on the walls and Regal Purple on the interior of the front door and under the bar.

Here's the color before.


During painting...


You'll notice that I hit the jackpot on Day 1 of painting, because CMT was airing Overboard!


Door before.


Door after.


From the living room looking into Red/Khaki/White kitchen.


Here is a better view of the purple with the red. You can't really tell it in this photo, but the sidewalls of the bar are the old khaki color, in certain lights you can't tell they are different colors I guess.


So there is the big reveal. I LOVE IT! And thank goodness for Pinterest, I got my inspiration for the painting the interior door while dorking around on there.

My next project will be updating some of my wall art before hanging.