What I'm Listening To: The Maddigans

I checked out their band, ended up liking it and got their EP titled, "Way to Start This." A four member band with female lead vocals, they come to us from Canada. Made up of, Trisha Watson (vocals) Benn Kimmis (drums) Thaddeus Lake (bass) and Seb Sanders (guitar); here's a quick interview I did with them via Twitter.


For those who haven't heard about your band how would you describe it?
 -We'd describe it as pop punk with female vocals.
Do you write your own music?
 -Yes we write 100% of our own music. No co-writers, no producers, no bull haha. 
What inspires your lyrics?
 -Lyrics are inspired by life, tour, and everything else!
Biggest influences?
 -Biggest influences include The Maine, All Time Low and New Found Glory. 
If you could tour with anyone, dream tour lineup?
 -Dream tour would be blink-182, All Time Low and us.
Meaning behind band name?
 -There's no meaning behind our name it was simply our high school friend's last name. 
Any big plans in the future?
 -We have some big touring plans coming up, but we can't say anything about it yet!


Here's how you can keep up with the band:
Facebook. Twitter. Myspace. Youtube.
Purevolume. Absolutepunk. Last.fm


From this summer, here's an acoustic version of two different songs of theirs. (My personal favorites)

For Jamey; From Lady Gaga

As many of you are probably aware, this past weekend was Las Vegas' iHeartRadio Music Festival. After hearing about it for sometime on SirusXM I couldn't wait to see what had gone on. See the pictures here. With big names, such as Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Jennifer Lopez, Kenny Chesney and Steven Tyler, it was bound to be a good time. Most news articles I've read say Lady Gaga stole the show, going over the forty-five minute time limit given to each performer. Saying, "They told me I was only allowed to play for 45 minutes, but I think you’re all pretty drunk so you probably don’t know what time it is, do you?” I think the whole reason she actually stole it was because of Jamey Rodemeyer, a gay fourteen year old who took his life due to bullying. She dedicated her song, "Hair," which is about your identity, to him at the show; shown above. His last tweet went out to @ladygaga, with the words, "bye mother monster, thank you for all you have done, paws up forever" Now sporting over fourteen thousand Twitter followers, @hausofjamey will live on with a legacy; the one that has given Lady Gaga a chance to meet with Obama and try to get an anti-bullying law underway. Trying to get the trending topic of #MakeALawForJamey started, he's not the only one who suffers victim. Many teens are victims of bullying for all different reasons. Merik Castro was kicked out of his school by the superindenent and has a petition, sign here, going around that he needs 2500 signatures for by this Sunday. People are finally being heard, and actions are finally being taken to stop what is affecting so many teenagers today.

"Jamey, I know you’re up there looking at us, you’re not a victim, you’re a lesson to all of us, I know it’s a bit of a downer, but sometimes the right thing’s more important than the music, let’s do this one for Jamey."

Glitch in the system.

After changing my URL all my links disappeared. I have no idea how or why, but will fix it once I have the chance.

The Market is Sinking.

The market report is in for today, and it's already looking dim. According to CNN Money, within the first ten minutes of this morning DOW plunged 300 points. To be completely honest I have no idea what this means, but it doesn't sound good. Trace back seven years ago and I was a fourth grader who took part in the school's Stock Market Game and loved it. There was a group of us, all part of the gifted program, and when we all got together to buy, sell and trade- well that was our idea of a party. I thought I was a big shot with my online portfolio, buying a stock like Google, GOOG. Having large success when I invested in American Greetings, AM. (Look, as of right now it's up $0.07) Other kids would invest in Berkshire Hathaway, but I was smart and didn't because it's a long term stock and the game only ran through the school year. Actually, the only reason I knew this was because I got my dad into it and he would give me advice on what to do. We set up our My Yahoo! page so that we could compare his stocks to mine, there were times when I did better. After it had ended I convinced my mom to buy the book so I could continue partaking in the market. To date I have no idea where that book is, and after we bought it I never even touched it. Once I got my participation certificate my interest died. I didn't keep track of anything anymore and then found myself completely out of the loop, on the same level, dare I type it, as my mother. But thinking back, was I ever really in the loop? Is anyone ever really in the know? Or does that just land you in Martha Steward's position? All I really knew was the famous, "Buy low, sell high," phrase that so many stock market investors live by. Maybe that was all I needed, for many, that's all they really understand about the market before they dive in and get going. A lot of their sucess is acutally just luck; luck and trust. My mother grew up with a father who never put a penny in the stock market, thus causing her to have no faith and overreact when she hears that's the market is in a slump. My dad, on the other hand, has more trust and keeps saying, "It will turn around." I hope he's right, but according to my recent fortune, he is.

Newest book collection: Nonfiction

Recently raided B&N, Half Price Books and my father's book shelf to invest in some nonfiction literature for my AP Lang class. And these are just the physical copies! God bless the Kindle.

Found the following:
Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans (I found it in the humor section)
Saturday Night by Susan Orlean (My mother said it looked inappropriate, so then I knew I had to read it)
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen (Another one my mother wasn't sure if I should read or not)
The Lost Daughters of China by Karin Evans (Given to me by my dad)
Naked by David Sedaris (recommended by Mr. Ayers, AP Lang teacher himself)
Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (recommended by Mr. Ellis, my 8th grade math teacher)
Women Are Crazy, Men Are Stupid by Howard J. Morris & Jenny Lee (currently reading, already loving)
Each of them are linked, enjoy!

Google+ went public.

Read the article here.

Within the last twenty four hours, Google+ went public. Before it was by invitation only; each user had 150 invites to send to their closest friends and family who were not already on the social network. How do I know? I still have 150 of these now useless invites. The link to my profile is on the left hand side of this page, or just click here.

If you're going to put me in one of your circles make it the following one. For those of you who are unaware what all of this terminology means, let me explain. On MySpace, you have friends; Facebook has friends, but you can also list family; on Twitter you have followers. Rumor has it that Google+ is a combination of all the social networks, so they give you circles that have all of these options. I'ts pretty much just your basic privacy settings, you choose which circle(s) you share what with. Plus, you can make your own, but to start with there are four basic ones:
Following- someone you're linked with just to see their posts.
Acquaintances- which is what everyone on Facebook truly is.
Friends- the ones who know more about you then your parents do.
Family- they added you, you add back just as not to appear rude.

Now, I've been on Google+ just four days shy of two months. It's boring, but it shows potential. The main reason I find it boring is probably the lack of use it has. Six people have me in their circles. That's the equivalent to taking half a dozen of your least active Facebook friends and only seeing them on your newsfeed-no one else. Boring.

After a month of being a Google+ user I decided to see who they recommended I add to my circles. Celebrities. I was actually surprised how many already had official pages. So here I am adding Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Demi Lavoto and Ashton Kutcher to my following circle like we're all best buds. But we're not, and after a week of seeing them on my stream it was painfully obvious they were using it as self promotion. And that it wasn't even run by the celebrities themselves, just their hired people. The only useful information I found was the Preston, Britney's son celebrated another birthday.

Maybe now that Google+ is available for everyone it might be more entertaining. The only downside- it won't seem as select anymore to users who had to be invited when it was first created. We'll see what happens, it's only a matter of time before Facebook joins it's distant cousin Myspace in the land of has-been social networks. Google+ might come to the forefront, only after battling down Twitter.

What I'm Listening To: The Spin Room

I'd like to believe that I listen to music that's not, "mainstream," but I also want the bands I like to be successful, so in the end it's selfish of me to keep them to myself. This is why I'm going to share with you...The Spin Room. I found the one man band after Nick, the mastermind behind it all, followed me on Twitter. You can also follow him on Twitter by clicking here. After he followed me I checked out his PureVolume™ page where I was able to stream some of his songs. I liked what I heard and now I'm just counting down the days until I can buy his latest EP, The Early Years, on Amazon.

My favorite songs, at the moment, are definitely Daydream and Pop Disaster Queen. They're both great songs to listen to when you're getting ready in the morning because you can rock out to them without wanting to fall back to sleep. Trust me, on most days I'm all for getting back in bed, but finding the right songs to wake up to is a great start to any day.

If you want pure, from the heart lyrics, then I recommend the song You Did it Right. This is the kind of song I would listen to at night when I'm trying to finish homework and everyone else is in bed. It's not too loud to wake up the rest of the house, but it's not a lullaby that'll put you to sleep when you need to cram in those last few bits of information for that big test first hour. The lyrics are so honest it can send chills down your spine:

You never let me down 

When I was young 

And I was always proud 

To send all my love 

And in the darkest of times 

You'll always be my hero 

Another reason to check out this music, besides the fact I told you to...because Nick likes other bands including Paradise Fears, who I got to meet this past August and will get to see perform live when they come to U of I on my 17th birthday! More about them later. Read the interview with The Spin Room here. And give it a chance, you'll probably end up loving it.

The 9/11 Memory.

As many of you know, this past weekend was the ten year anniversary of 9/11. My dad had a business convention and was one of the lucky ones that got to fly out to Orlando on Sunday. Fortunately, his flight went smoothly with no hassle. Others were not so lucky, including Shoshana Hebshi. She was just another woman flying on 9/11/11 who was handcuffed after the two men she was sitting between on the plane were reported for suspicious behavior. Talk about unsettling. In the end though, everything turned out to be fine and she made it home safely, reporting that she would never fly again on another 9/11.

If you asked me where I was ten years ago on that fateful Tuesday I would probably tell you a story that was exaggerated for your own entertainment. Starting along the lines of, "We were at the airport flying to Boston," to catch your attention and ending with, "Our flight was cancelled for obvious reasons, and to this day I have still not been to Boston." There's about one third truth in that.

Here's what honestly happened:
We woke early that morning to a phone call, one of my dad's friend's wife had passed away in her sleep the previous night. I was only six, and did not know her, so I wasn't phased by this. My dad then went to work; on his way he had the radio on and that's how he heard the news of the Twin Towers. He called us and told my mom. She wasn't extremely upset; probably more worried about getting me to school on time. A few, "Oh, that's terrible," and, "Too bad," were murmured, but other than that I had no idea what the impact of the situation was, so I went to school with no worries. My first grade teacher didn't tell us anymore than she had to and it wasn't that I got home did the effect really set in. My mom told me to come sit down, I did. She explained, to the best that she could to a six year old, what had happened and that we wouldn't be flying to Boston the next day. My grandpa had called and told us not to fly, but either way we couldn't because the airports has shut down. And to this day I still have not been to Boston.

That's the honest, boring truth of the matter.