4 Days and Counting...

"I can love you better that that
I know how to make you forget her
All I'm askin' is for one little chance
Cause baby I can love you, baby I can love you better"

5 Days and Counting...

*For Diane (I personally can't stomach this pic.)



"I want a man that stands beside me
Not in front of or behind me
Give me two arms that want to hold me, not own me
And I'll give all the love in my heart
Stand beside me
Be true, don't tell lies to me
I'm not lookin' for a fantasy
I want a man that who stands beside me"

Drunken Memories Thanks to YouTube

This video was taken by your's truly.

6 Days and Counting...

"Oh baby know what your like?
You're like my favorite underwear
It just feels right, you know it
Oh baby know how you feel?
You feel like my favorite underwear
And I'm slipping you on again tonight"

"Hope" Floats

On Begin to Hope, Regina Spektor treads a delicate balance between her anti-folk past and her present home on Sire Records. Though the label re-released Soviet Kitsch in 2004, Begin to Hope is Spektor's first original material for Sire, and it feels more like a major-label debut than Soviet Kitsch ever did. The album's big, glossy production and preponderance of drum machines and keyboards inches Spektor toward territory that isn't exactly mainstream, but is closer to a more conventional adult alternative singer/songwriter sound. Her songwriting mirrors this, too: "Field Below," which finds her wishing for the countryside while living in the city, has a mellow, appealingly rambling vibe that grows from the traditional singer/songwriter roots of Joni and Carole; "Better" takes the breathy, literate, pretty side of Spektor's music and tailors it into a radio-friendly single. "On the Radio" takes it a step further and becomes a smart, funny, and sad meta-single, with lyrics like "We listened to it twice/Because the DJ was asleep" backed by poppy synths and beats. But even though Begin to Hope's first few songs might suggest otherwise, Spektor is much too freewheeling and quirky a talent to stick to the straight and narrow for the entirety. Show tunes, classic soul, the Bible, and the backs of cereal boxes are all inspirations for the album. And whether she quotes the melody from Doris Payne's "Just One Look" and pairs it with lyrics about orca whales on "Hotel Song," or begins the lovely, confessional closing track, "Summer in the City," with the line "summer in the city means cleavage," Spektor uses them in unexpected ways. She also places some truly surreal, heady tracks toward Begin to Hope's end: "Lady" is a torchy number arranged for piano, saxophone, and typewriter, while "20 Years of Snow" is buoyed along by impressionistic keyboards that twinkle and tumble like a just-shaken snow globe. "Apres Moi," one of the album's most impressive tracks, showcases her classical piano training, her Russian heritage, and those biblical influences to ominous, paranoid effect. Leaving the more unique, quintessentially Regina Spektor-esque tracks at the end of Begin to Hope isn't so much a bait-and-switch as is a clever way to lure in and loosen the inhibitions of new fans. The album feels like getting to really know someone: at first, it's polite and a little restrained, but then its real personality, with all of its charming idiosyncrasies, finally reveals itself.

7 Days and Counting

"Here we go, we're at the beginning
We haven't fucked yet, but my heads spinning"

Don't Get Me Started

Oprah Winfrey, who recently opened a $40 million school for poor girls in South Africa, spoke in a Newsweek interview about potential criticism for spending the money abroad rather than on education in the United States. American pupils don't appreciate what they have, she said, adding that she became frustrated visiting inner-city schools and just stopped going. "The sense that you need to learn just isn't there," she said. "If you ask the kids what they want or need they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don't ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school."

I applaud Oprah for opening a school in South Africa but I find her comment to be a ridiculous generalization and severely hypocritical. I find that she actually perpetrates this mentality of entitlement, consumerism, and celebrity. I rarely watch the Oprah Winfrey show, but I have seen episodes where she gives away free crap to her audience members in episodes called "Oprah's Favorite Things." A couple of years ago she also gave away brand new vehicles to each and every person attending the taping of her show. I still remember her shrieking, "you get a car, and you get a car, and you get a car..." I need someone to get the hook. Oprah, next time you open a school, make sure you do it quietly so I don’t have to be annoyed with the ridiculous statements that fly out of your mouth.

I leave you with one of the funniest SNL Oprah skits ever! I remember watching the episode and laughing so loud I may have accidentally woken the neighbors. It stars Maya Rudolph, Rachael Dratch, Amy Pohler, and even Tina Fey. These bitches were on fire! Hope you enjoy this as much as I did, and still do.

Duped Yet Again!

After taking the cleaning lady home, making dinner, and taking a shower, I sat down on my couch at 9:00pm and turned the television on to watch Grey's Anatomy. I had mentally prepared myself for a fresh episode since it has been off for at least five weeks and it is a new year. I think the first words out of my mouth when I realized it was a repeat was "fuck me." I had been looking forward to the show all day, ever since I woke up at 5:30am. On the bright side my cable did go out half way through the episode. Now you know I would have gone down to the Comcast Headquarters and cut a bitch if it had gone out half way through a new episode.

One Week and Counting...

That's right folks, Justin Timberlake will be in Sacramento performing on Friday, January 12, 2007. And you guessed it... I will be attending. In an effort to hype myself up into a fucking tizzy, not that I'm not already, I will be making daily Justin posts up until the day of the show. And yes, I know I have a problem...

My New Year's Resolution 2007

This is my New Year's Resolution all wrapped up neatly in a nice little song.
I have told myself that I am not going to settle for anything less than everything in every aspect of my life.
Love, Work, School and Health... every aspect I say!
Here are the lyrics if you want to sing along!

Settlin' - Sugarland

Fifteen minutes left to throw me together
For Mr. Right Now, not Mr. Forever
Don't know why I even try when I know how it ends
Lookin' like another, "Maybe we can be friends."
I've been leaving it up to fate
It's my life so it's mine to make

Chorus:
I ain't settlin'
For just getting by
I've had enough so-so
For the rest of my life
Tired of shooting too low
So raise the bar high
"Just enough," ain't enough this time
I ain't settlin' for anything less than everything

With some good red wine
And my brand new shoes
Gonna dance a blue streak around my living room
Take a chance on love, and try how it feels
With my heart wide open
Yeah, you know I will
Find what it means to be the girl
Who changed her mind
And changed the world

Repeat chorus

I ain't settlin'
For just getting by
I've had enough so-so
For the rest of my life
Tired of shooting too low
So raise the bar high
"Just enough," ain't enough this time

I ain't settlin'
For just getting by
I've had enough so-so
For the rest of my life
Tired of shooting too low
So raise the bar high

I ain't settlin'
No, no, no, no, no, no
So raise the bar high, high