Music Review: Florence + the Machine

So today after arriving home from the Iowa High School Press Association conference (thanks for the ride ben) I hopped on facebook. The first thing i saw was Michael Nordstrom's status quoting Florence + the Machine. I LOVE Florence + the Machine, but i didn't know these lyrics, so there had to have been a new song released. And there was!

Shake It Out by Florence + the Machine is a work of art, like all of their songs. I only had to listen to it once to fall in love. It starts out and builds into an inspirational song. It makes me want to dance! The beat is catchy and makes me want to dance in my car. This is probably one of my favorites from Florence + the Machine. My absolute favorite is Cosmic Love. It gets me every time. Its great to belt to when no one's around.

Florence Welch is a vocal genius.She just can't go wrong and is incredibly talented. All of the songs are written by Florence Welch, and on their website, http://www.florenceandthemachine.net, Welch says that she writes her best music while drunk or hungover. It's when she is the most creative and the most destructive. To me, this makes the group all the more mysterious. Discovering when her most creative time is makes her awesome in my eyes.

I've watched a few SNL episodes where they are the guest performers. They are incredibly phenominal live. It is rare to find bands that sounds better live than they do on their album, and Florence + the Machine is definitely one of those rare groups.

If you don't like alternative indie music then you probably won't enjoy Florence + the Machine. Their sound isn't mainstream like LMFAO or anything. It's unique to them. They make their own music, no one writes it for them.

Their new album, Ceremonials, will be released October 31st in the UK and will be available on iTunes. I highly recommend it. Florence + the Machine is in my top 5 favorite bands of all time.

Sarah =]

P.S. I got my hairs cut!

The Bohemian Way

As you all know, i am the photography editor for the Torch. Today i was assisting one of my photographers on an assignment. Mohammad Cheetany, the beautiful man, was this photographer.

The adventure began as any adventure would in downtown CR. We parked by the candy store and wandered around. Our mission was to find New Bohemia. That’s was our destination. The problem was, we didn’t have any idea where it was. So we ended up just wandering around the downtown district, discovering the new parking meters, chasing geese, and waiting for a 238457023948572049875 mile long train to pass– and then back up–looking for something that wasn’t there.

new parking meters!

Chasing Geese

57948365093485093475903847 mile long train

that isn't even the whole thing

ghosties

We gave up and entered the candy store to purchase some sweets. It was going to be dark soon so the photos would be no good. We gave one last attempt and asked the candy store lady where it was. After purchasing some chocolate frogs, giant sweet-tarts, and roadkill gummies, she wrote out a map that lead right to it! The only thing she got wring was 4th street. There is no 4th street in downtown CR, only train tracks where the road would go! So we took third instead and ran right smack into New Bohemia.

candy lady's map

This place is awesome. Seriously legit. The very first thing i saw was a GIANT mural on the side of a building. It was so cool! We pulled into the mural’s parking lot and when we got out of the car, some dude asked us if we wanted to buy his dog (Uhm…no?). So we took photos of this awesome mural (shown below) and of this sign that said “NO PARKING EXCEPT FOR BOB.” Radical right?

Poser

poserr

frightening...

giant sweet tart

hi bob

So after that little scary and exciting adventure, we ventured down Third Street and walked into an open building. Here, a woman was organizing Occupy Cedar Rapids, an Iowa version of Occupy Wall Street. Inside, there were posters like the one below and a lot of hand made posters. They meet everyday at 6:30 PM at 1209 3rd st. SE. You can also find them on Facebook <<<That is a link right to their Facebook page. I plan on attending one of these meetings. I want to get involved! Less than the top 1% of the US population controls 90% of the US money. Not cool!

CR

i made a new friend

Occupy Cedar Rapids headquarters

official logo for Occupy Cedar Rapids

So after speaking to a rep for Occupy Cedar Rapids, and the last original Bohemian on the New Bohemia board for Mo’s story, we departed to explore more. We found a delicious looking eatery before we ended our adventure and headed home.

Everyone says that downtown CR is dead, but i disagree. I look at New Bohemia, a place i didn’t even know existed, and all of the inspired people in it and i know we aren’t dead. There is some awesome stuff and places in downtown CR, and i encourage you to look beyond 1st Ave. New Bohemia goes from 8th St. to 14th St. with about a three-block radius with 3rd Ave in the middle. I didn’t even know that downtown had more than 8 streets! Go there, get involved, help revive downtown CR.

Sarah =]

Sock Bunny

My obsession with stumbleupon has returned. I have been stumbling for the past three hours. There is some seriously nift stuff out there on the net dudes. Since i don’t want to extinguish my resources of stumbleupon (Ha! As if that were possible), i thought i’d share some of my findings with you. These are life changing things dude.

1.Piano Stairs

This first great find i shared with my good friend Mohammad Cheetany. To inspire folks to take the stairs instead of being lazy and taking the escalator, some people in Odenplan, Stockholm decided to make the stairs a piano. This is rad dudes. I think every staircase should be like this. It could become a new sport! Making a song on the stairs. It’d be a serious workout dudes.

2.How to Curl Your Hair with a Sock

I am a sucker for tips on how to do hair or DIY stuff. But this just makes me giggle like no other. Her accent gets me. But her hair is seriously so long and pretty. So i did what she did. And this is how mine turned out.

Front

Back

LAWLZ! It is fairly obvious that my hair is not as long and luscious as hers is. And i should probs use a brown, not white, sock. This was harder than it looks! We shall see tomorrow how my hairs look when i take it out! Good i hope (but is unlikely).

3. Wanelo.com

This place is AWESOME! I love everything! (almost) Some things are expensive, but others aren’t. I plan on investing in this cup in the future. Stumbleupon has amazing online shops. You know what else is awesome? My friend Maida shops on ebay. There are so many things that are super cheap! Like $0.01 cheap. rad dudes.

4. DIY SHIRTS!!!!!

Does this not look awesome?!? It is so easy to make! Since i love arts and crafts (LOVE THEM!!!!) i am seriously going to go do this project  this weekend. Someone should so it with me! It doesn’t have to be words, in fact, i don’t like the words really, It could be a picture or something!

Those were the top 4 things i found tonight while stumbling. I have 114 favorites. This blog post could have been much, much longer.

Sarah =]

Questions

Why can't boys draw hearts very well?
Why is the hand writing of a male typically much worse than that of a female?
Why do hospitals have religious affiliations when they are sponsored by the government?
Why is it that the government can't put aside their opinions and reach a conclusion?
Why aren't the smart people like Mr. Grady running the government?
Why are humans the dominant power on earth?
Could dogs have evolved to be as smart as we are?
Does every animal have emotions?
How is it that we grow from something so small to something so big? Have you ever looked at a baby?
Are babies able to communicate through their gibberish language and we just can't understand?
How did people discover to put the penis in the vagina to make babies?
Why do we find specific traits attractive?
Why is our favorite color our favorite color?
Do we genuinely like our favorite music? Or is it just what is given to us by the radio so we think we like it?
How did writing come about?
How did language come about?
If blue and yellow makes green, how come yellow and green don't make blue?
Why do men have nipples? They don't breastfeed.
Why are things named what they are? Who came up with the name "Blue Gnu"?
Which came first? The chicken or the egg?
How do we know for sure that the universe is infinite?
How am i supposed to limit myself from a world of possibilities to what i need to study in college?
Why are girls so mean?
Why does gay marriage mean so much to straight people?
Why does drug use bother the people who don't abuse drugs?
What really happened to JFK?
Why is skinny considered attractive?
Who really wrote the bible?
Why is the thing that pumps blood through your body considered where your feelings stem from?

These are the questions that keep me up at night. There are answers to some, and theories about others. Now you have taken a walk through my brain. 

Sarah =]

Marbles for Marbles

Okay. I know i am a bit behind, but i have just discovered Jenna Marbles. I think i am in love. Seriously. I have never laughed so hard in my life!!!

Basically, Jenna Marbles is an escort who has a youtube channel. She makes videos and posts them every Wednesday. She has a dog named Marbles and he is in every single video. Her videos have over 3,000,000 views and her channel has 1,279,035 subscribers. Jenna Marbles’ plots range from what she does during the day, to how to be fake pretty, to celebrity impersonations. This is the real deal folks.

My favorite video so far is What Caffeine Does. She goes crazy. It is hilarious.

The only critique i would have is the language. It was slightly awkward showing my mother these videos when Jenna Marbles cusses so much. Buuuuuuuuut. I still like them alot. I am as addicted to them now as i am to Criminal Minds…if you didn’t know…that is extremely addicted. I watch about four hours of Criminal Minds a night.

So yeah. Here’s a link to her channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/JennaMarbles?ob=5#p/a Enjoy!

You could also check out this video that Danielle Grasso and I made in 7th grade. Oh such good times. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLRrKjNadR8

Sorry Danielle… =]

Sarah

Psh. Conformity.

So early this morning as my mother woke me up late, i freaked out because i wanted to straighten my hair before going to school. Well, i had ten minutes to get this done, and i succeeded. But it came at a price. Does my hair look thinner than usual today? I ripped out a large portion of my hair because my flat iron has crevices that catch my poor hairs as it goes through them. In the midst of doing this, i asked myself, “Why am i putting myself through this much pain, this early in the morning, to produce something that society finds acceptable?”

my frazzled hairs

If you didn’t know, i’m not one to enjoy conforming to societies ridiculous rules and expectations. Somewhere along the way though, it must have got to me, because i was ruining my hair on this burning hot ceramic thing that was man-made to make women look alike. I finished the painful process because i have enough decency to at least attempt to not look ridiculous when going to school, but i regret it.

Seriously, why do we straighten, curl, 3-barrel, crimp, our hair ladies? Because society thinks its beautiful? Who is society to say what is and isn’t beautiful? If you went to Africa with hair like that they would find you absolutely ridiculous.

Why do we try so hard to fit in when we were meant to be different? We were all made differently, whether we like it or not. As hard as we try, our hair isn’t going to be as straight as the next persons, or as shiny, or as awesome. This doesn’t mean that we should give up personal hygiene or become apes, but we should do what we think is beautiful. I like my natural hair; it’s crazy, and frizzy, and unpredictable. I see these girls walking down the street trying to make their hair messy and voluminous and i giggle to myself. My hair does that naturally. Is your hair straight naturally? good for you! embrace it! Other girls buy crappy products that do more damage than good to their hair to make it look like yours. Is your hair curly? Same thing to you! Is it wavy? You too!

This whole society thing applies to every aspect of our lives, believe it or not. Do you have to take gym every other day? That’s because our school district has a rule that students must take it. This is supposed to help eliminate obesity. Guess what? Being bigger is a sign of fertility! I don’t think that we should be forced or pressured to lose weight if we don’t want to. It is so contradictory, love your body, but lose weight. I would rather love my body than starve myself to conform to what other people think is beautiful. If they don’t like it, it doesn’t matter to me. All that matters to me is that i am happy with who i am.

Basically what i am trying to say is don’t let society rule our decisions. Whether it be about college, our hair, our clothes, the classes we take, the food we eat, the friends we make, how we spend our time. We think on our own, do what makes us happy, and not worry about what society thinks.

Sarah =]