Who doesn't love Girl Talk?

For once, Pitchfork Media and I agree.


Girl Talk
Feed the Animals
[Illegal Art; 2008]
Rating: 8.0

"Unlike mash-up makers in it to figure out the lamest way to combine two song titles, justify their existence with cheap mp3 blog Diggs, or wind up in a Cobrasnake shot with some Olsen twin look-a-like, Gillis just really likes stuffing tons of his favorite FM moments into bursts of Top 40 overload. "I'm a pop music enthusiast," he told me. Hailing from the anti-flash city of Pittsburgh, Gillis has sidestepped the Absolut-sponsored stigma associated with of-the-moment party starters ever since 2006's Night Ripper sent him on a never-ending tour of sweat-stained clubs. While his live set changes with the ebb and flow of the Hot 100, this is Gillis' first major release as a semi-popular act. Unsurprisingly, his new record, Feed the Animals, comes off like the ultimate July 4th rooftop soundtrack..."

Read more at Pitchforkmedia.com

I have become pretty engrossed in this album over the last day or so. Right now, I'm fighting back the desire to get in my car and cruise with it. (1- I'm working. 2- Gas is not cheap!) So I just grabbed my iPod.

No matter who you are or what you listen to, no one can deny pop music completely. There's always going to be that one song that you reminds you of hanging out with your friends in the garage as a teenager or the song that was playing at the dance where you first kissed your sweetheart.

For me, someone who appreciates good music but still drives around with Z107.7 in the background (whether I like to admit it or not), the album is perfect. It contains both songs I can't get out of my head and those I don't want to get out of my head.

My personal favorite track is 3, "Still Here." It blends the song "No Diggity" over the clapping sound from Radiohead's "15 Step." Before that, you heard correctly: "Wont' start no shit, won't be no shit." Later in the same track, you hear from Ace of Base and The Band.

I feel like this could appeal to a lot of people. If you haven't heard it, you can download it for free on his Web site, http://www.myspace.com/girltalk

I have a river view!

Normally I can see a tiny sliver of the Mississippi River around ConAgra from our loft, but now I can see a whole mess of it!

This was our view Saturday night. Cones had to be laid out to deter any block partiers from taking a dip or wandering into the floodwaters.


Our neighbors, The Big Muddy Pub, have been pumping water out of their basement for weeks. Our landlord just started last week. Before we left on our vacation, he told us he couldn't start pumping until it reached 2-3 feet, so we knew the pump being out meant business.

This was the view on Sunday morning. The water had crept above a temporary road built up on Broadway to let trucks through.

The actual Big Muddy, referring to the river, supposedly crested Sunday night and is going down (cross your fingers) barring any heavy rains.

Seeing as though we live on the second floor of our loft, it would take a flood of drastic proportions to reach us, but still -- those pumps running every night is becoming a pain in my butt!

Chicago portion of our vacation

I don't have the energy today to upload more photos from the trip, so if you'd like to see more, please visit www.flickr.com/viewsfromlalaland/

Just because we chose Chicago as a destination because we wanted to see friends, same as Cincinnati, it doesn't mean we didn't want to do touristy things. So we parked at a brown line Park and Ride at Kimball, north of the city near Brian's, and wandered around the city.

When I recognized Millenium Park, we decided to walk through and have a hot dog. The last time David had been in the city, I'm not sure Millenium Park even existed. We saw "the bean" and the Crown Fountain (see above photo) and decided to go into the Art Institute of Chicago.

Our feet were tired afterward from walking all day so we sat on the front steps of the Art Institute and watched some guy put on a show with his sound system and rock n' roll puppet musicians. It was entertaining.

We walked around Downtown a bit, taking photos of various buildings and architecture, until it was time to meet Erin in Wrigleyville for dinner. We went to Goose Island, which is a pub/restaurant that brews its own beer. There, Brian met us.

We called Emily and Ryan to come out as the night progressed and ended up in some bar Erin hangs out at a lot in Wrigleyville. It wasn't the greatest place on earth but it was fun. It was nice to see people we hadn't seen in awhile as well, whether they are from home or school.

After not too long, we called it a night. The next day, Saturday, would be a beautiful day to spend at the beach. And that's exactly what we did.

We grabbed Subway and took the train to a stop I can no longer remember, then we got off and walked to the North Avenue Beach. We ate our sandwiches and then spent the bulk of our time (Brian, Brian's friend and his girlfriend, David and I) hitting the volleyball around in Lake Michigan with complete strangers.

When we were done there, we headed to U.S. Cellular/Comiskey Park to see our first White Sox game. No, we weren't emotionally invested. No, we didn't get to see an American league team -- they were playing the Rockies. However, we hadn't ever been to a professional baseball stadium outside of the two Busch Stadiums, so it was an experience. I bought a Crede jersey-T to mark the event and decided that I will buy one jersey T from each stadium I go to in my lifetime, a little like souveniers.

That night we ate at a restaurant called Whistlers, which wasn't the best but we survived. I had my very first taste of Matzah ball soup. (I feel very worldly now, haha.) Brian and David wanted to watch "Dr. Strangelove," but I was dead so I went to sleep.

The next day, I asked Brian to take us to a record store, and we ended up at a Half Price Books! It was a pleasant surprise being that we'd been to several with Thomas and Beth before. We bought like 20 movies together and bulked up our media library at home.

The drive home was nice -- we listened to Mike Birbiglia and took lots of photos as we left the city. Then we were finally home.

It was nice to be away and to see new things, but at the end of the day, I just want to be in bed ;)

Back from vacation and ready for another -- Pt. 1

David and I took a vacation these past two weekends. I was off for about 9 days and took two trips, celebrated my dad's birthday and Fathers' Day and played our first two sand volleyball games. I got a lot done. There wasn't a ton of rest involved.

It was fun though.

June 7-8 we spent in Cincinnati visiting Thomas and Beth.

We left around 5:30 a.m. hoping to be in town by the time Beth got off work, but what should have been a 6 hour drive was extended to 9 hours due to insane amounts of flooding in Indiana, especially in Terre Haute. Because a portion of Interstate 7o had gotten washed out, we were rerouted 30 miles back toward Illinois and listened to a local radio station as we passed through the town, which was in a state of emergency. We only hoped we would make it.

We finally did and were given a tour of the new Richards household. (Very nice, by the way.) They were very hospitable.

We ate at Mongo's (Mongolian Barbecue) and watched the Belmont horse race in hopes Big Brown would win the Triple Crown. (Well, they did.) He didn't. Then we crossed over the Ohio River into Newport, KY.

We explored their little downtown area, which is really nice there by the aquarium, and took photos in front of Cincinnati and from a walking bridge over the river. The sites were beautiful.

We checked out Game Works, which was a bit like Dave and Busters, but decided not to stay. If we wanted to play video games, we'd just go back to their place and let Thomas beat us (which he did) at MarioKart for the Wii.

The next day, we got up and had lunch at P.F. Chang's, which (other than my beloved QQ Buffet) had the best Chinese food I've ever had. Better check out their St. Louis area restaurants... Then we went shopping at IKEA, which I loved. God, I wish I had a new, empty house and lots of money to spend on furniture. I'd never seen anything like it. And I needed new pillows, so I was in luck. After that, we stopped at the mall and they showed us the crib that his parents bought their baby on the way, little T-Rex Richards or whatever they end up calling him. Thomas barbecued for us, and then we headed home a different route. In no way were we ready for Indiana again. That was Cincinnati.

More photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/viewsfromlalaland/.

Monday through Thursday we got a lot accomplished at home. David still had to go to work so I spent a lot of that time at my parents'. I washed the car (which had a coating of some chalky substance, no doubt from living down by the river) and the dog. I baked Dad a birthday cake. On Tuesday, my mom and I took Dad to the St. Louis Zoo and to Ameristar Casino to spend a $10 gift card they had sent him. We ate at a little dog-themed bar and grill in historic downtown St. Charles, then I headed back for volleyball.

Friday morning, it was time for another road trip. This time, we headed north to Chicago. Stay tuned for Part II of this epic saga.

'American Idol' should have been Archuleta

This post a little belated, but I felt strongly enough to Google this information, so I feel strongly enough to share it with you: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1587939/20080522/id_0.jhtml


Points I agree with 100%:

1. He was the New England Patriots. Everyone knew David A. sang the best and should have had the competition in the bag a long time ago. But people don't like that, so many started hating him and rooting for the other guy out of spite. (Side note: Who actually liked the Giants? Anyone? No.) In both cases: Jealous much?

2. He was goofy. This is true. He was awkward as all hell on stage, but he's a freaking kid people, give him a break. It doesn't mean he wasn't an AMAZING singer. Which he was. And is. That doesn't change because he finished second.

3. He was Al Gore. I didn't vote for him. Why? Not because I voted for Cook instead (which I didn't) -- but because I didn't think I needed to. After all, according to Simon, finale night was a KNOCKOUT and David A. was coming out on top for all I knew. How many people thought the same and didn't bother voting? (Side note: "The World I Know" was great, but the other two performances were sub-par. David A., on the other hand, was flawless.)

4. He could have tried a wider variety of songs. Which is something I really liked about David Cook and disliked about David A. On the other hand, he was so damn good at ballads I wanted to hear another every week. Well, you can't win them all.

My own opinion:

People didn't want a predictable outcome. That would have made Idol boring, so they voted for the other guy. David Cook was definitely not the worst, but the "vote for the worst" idea works here too. You don't want the best to win, so you vote for the other guy. (And no one hated Cook from what I could tell, there was no reason to, but I KNOW people hated Archuleta, though I think it was for stupid reasons.)

I love David Cook, even though David A. was my favorite. Don't get me wrong. I will probably buy both of their albums when they come out, because I am a big dork. But, for the record, David A is the better singer. I apologize for sounding like a crazed 13-year-old.

Work is about to change.

Hey everyone.

I have a new job. Sort of. I will soon no longer be the Jersey County reporter, but will instead be the online/video editor. I will still be doing some reporting, but only doing page design when I'm needed during vacations.

It's at the same place and I'm not getting any pay raises (which is doody). But my paper is trying to make a leap into the 21st century and it apparently needs me to help streamline the effort.

The no pay raise at the moment part sucks but I think this is a step closer to where I want to be in the future. I think I want to get into online journalism (though I feel like I'm betraying my beloved print...)

I am also applying to a 30-and-out Web design program at Lewis and Clark Community College so I can add that Web design associate's degree to my bachelor of arts in journalism. The best part is it should only take me about 1.5 years to do (while I continue to work full time). That should get me more opportunities and a pay raise of some sort (or I don't know what else will).

Lookout world. I'm changing directions.

A workout I can stick with

Finally, I have discovered a workout I can stick with. Yoga.

Mainly because it's at a great time of the day -- from 7 to 8 p.m. at Metro Sports -- for the first time since I started joining gyms.

It's a lot of fun too!

The great thing about it is that you are supposed to work at your own pace, the moves are challenging enough to keep you excited about trying more but not too complicated that you want to give up and that you leave the workout relaxed but still feeling like you did your body some good. (And you're not GASPING for air, thank God.)

I'm still a little rough when it comes to some of the poses I've learned, but I know that will get better with time -- and the flexibility, strength and toning benefits will be, by far, worth the work.

Can't wait till Wednesday!