The CMA's - Sugarland, the Dixie Chicks, and Taylor Swift
It was CMA awards time again, and I was jumping off the couch with war hoops of victory when Sugarland won Best Duo of the year against Brooks and Dunn. B&D have won 14 out of the last 15 years - beaten only once by Montgomery Gentry - and with acts like Big & Rich and Sugarland out there in the past couple years, I've been very resentful of Brooks &Dunn's dominance. It's been frustrating to see the music association awards shows not step outside the tired, worn, winners and recognize new talent.
Besides, I've been a fan of Sugarland since their debut on country radio, which counts as "the very beginning" for a fan who lives way in the hell in upstate New York and has no chance to catch new bands until they come out on radio. I wanted to send a copy of "Baby Girl" to my parents. The song is written as a series of letters from a girl pursuing her dreams to her parents, done in an upbeat catchy tempo, and it got me right away. When their second release, "Something More" came out and equally expressed exactly what I wanted to say, I was a fan. And when I listened to their debut CD Twice the Speed of Life and realized that every song on there was GOOD, I was hooked. Their second CD didn't disappoint. Enjoy the Ride is just as good as the first one. So yeah, I was excited to see them win - it's the only category I cared about strongly.
But I was a little surprised at Taylor Swift's win. She definitely had Kelli Pickler beaten three songs to one, but I was surprised she took over Rodney Atkins. Her CD is one of the ones I've been wanting to acquire though. I'm always a little skeptical of child prodigies in country music - LeeAnn Rimes was my age when she debuted, and yet even then I wasn't hooked - because their albums often seem a bit spotty. Some good, some bad but not really a high quality all around product. But with three great songs out there, I was wondering if I should take a chance on Swift's CD. I don't want another She-Daisy fiasco, which I bought solely for Passenger Seats and then HATED the rest of the album. Now that she's won, I'm thinking I really should take a harder look. But seriously, "This is definitely the highlight of my senior year" ???? I groaned!! Funny, but good grief she is so YOUNG!
And then of course there was the Dixie Chick nomination. I preferred to think of it as a baby step toward peace, an olive branch if you will, but realistically it might just have been the country establishment begrudgingly trying to polish a reputation tarnished by their snubbing of the Chicks when mainstream - read Grammys - gave them such support this year. But seriously, mainstream needs to get off their high horse. I love the Chicks; I own three out of the four of their albums (the ones prior to Wide Open Spaces don't count) and "Wide Open Spaces" and "Taking the Long Way" are personal anthems of my life. But let's face it - THE SNUB HAS BEEN MUTUAL. As someone surrounded by a bunch of friends who don't understand in the least why I love country music, it's really frustrating to see a group that I *really like*, that is putting out what is musically speaking some of the best country music out there, trash country music. I mean, I get it - I do get why they are frustrated. But how in the world can country music take them back when they are sitting there saying "We don't want you." And fine, they don't care if country music takes them back - but dammit, I'm not any more pleased about them trashing the reputation of country music than I was about country music trashing the reputation of the Chicks. So much for one side or the other being the bigger person and letting it go.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
10 Things You Didn't Know About Me
Okay, so I got tagged by my sister to do this, so here goes:
1) My previous nicknames include: Scrappy, Sawyer the Lawyer, Munchkin, and Squirt.
2) I write (wrote is more accurate) poetry and I embroider. If you're brave, the link to my poetry is here: http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/cs234/poetrypage2.html
3) My eyes are not brown, they're actually hazel, I just have really big pupils.
4) I can't remember my first kiss, it was that unmemorable.
5) Thanks largely to my best friend in college, my former love interests all have nicknames like "the Texan pilot, the jailbird, the football player" . . . can you tell I used to have a bit of a thing for bad boys? ;-) Even "the Mac guy" was actually a bit of a girl-charming scoundrel, if you can believe it!
6) I'm a crazy Country music fan - not just "I listen to it", but I keep up with the country stars and the awards and I can sing along with practically every song on the radio.
7) I've never learned how to swim, but apparently I managed to pass the Cornell swim test freshmen year all the same.
8) My first job was picking strawberries in Dossey's Orchard at age 10. (He broke his own rules for me - usually he wouldn't let kids start until age 11.)
9) My heroes include MacGyver, Dr. Quinn, and Marj the night manager at the Moberly McDonald's.
10) My dream car is a Ford Mustang. What can I say, I'm an all-American girl!
I tag Kiernan!
Okay, so I got tagged by my sister to do this, so here goes:
1) My previous nicknames include: Scrappy, Sawyer the Lawyer, Munchkin, and Squirt.
2) I write (wrote is more accurate) poetry and I embroider. If you're brave, the link to my poetry is here: http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/cs234/poetrypage2.html
3) My eyes are not brown, they're actually hazel, I just have really big pupils.
4) I can't remember my first kiss, it was that unmemorable.
5) Thanks largely to my best friend in college, my former love interests all have nicknames like "the Texan pilot, the jailbird, the football player" . . . can you tell I used to have a bit of a thing for bad boys? ;-) Even "the Mac guy" was actually a bit of a girl-charming scoundrel, if you can believe it!
6) I'm a crazy Country music fan - not just "I listen to it", but I keep up with the country stars and the awards and I can sing along with practically every song on the radio.
7) I've never learned how to swim, but apparently I managed to pass the Cornell swim test freshmen year all the same.
8) My first job was picking strawberries in Dossey's Orchard at age 10. (He broke his own rules for me - usually he wouldn't let kids start until age 11.)
9) My heroes include MacGyver, Dr. Quinn, and Marj the night manager at the Moberly McDonald's.
10) My dream car is a Ford Mustang. What can I say, I'm an all-American girl!
I tag Kiernan!
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
The Science of Love
I've heard this before, but there was an interesting video that gave a brief synposis on the science behind "love", so I thought I'd share. As I understand it, scientists have been able to classify three different types of chemical reactions / brain activity which they associate with three different types of desire: sexual desire, "romantic love", and "attachment."
I find this to be a very appealing explanation because it makes so much sense. I've wondered from time to time about it myself - I can remember what it was like to have all the symptoms of a "crush" . . . feeling like my heart literally skipped a beat when my crush came around, and being all intensely aware of his physical nearness, and to fixate on him, etc. But in a long term relationship all of that slowly goes away. In it's place there is something at least equally wonderful, which is a certain sense of security and safeness and a great deal of comfort in being physically close to someone. But it's weird, because that security, safeness, and comfort are the exact opposite sensations to what I would get when I was "crushing" on somebody.
And let's face it, sometimes the "crushing" part and all the flirting that went with it was a lot of fun!! But I always wondered why did all those symptoms of a crush go away.
It turns out that the two scenarios I am describing relate to what some scientists are referencing as "romantic love" which is really just a series of chemical reactions bound to wear out in 18 months or so (that figure I'm remembering from somewhere else) while attachment is the more long lasting, love-of-a-lifetime bond. And though the video is not explicit on this, it would seem to suggest that attachment is less about those automatic chemical reactions firing in your brain (like "romantic love" in their terminology) and more about something more akin to the mental reasoning parts of our brain. (Let's not get into the whole everything-is-a-chemical-reaction debate here, my lingo is not sophisticated enough on this point to be as precise as I'd like so don't catch me on it! :-) )
Anyway, all that is in many ways sort of a "well duh" finding for people who've gotten a good grounding on what it takes to make a marraige last a lifetime, because w/o the science behind it, I think the conclusions about the first infatuation versus life long love are already well-established (though not well followed.) But it's kind of cool to see science parralleling it.
Besides, maybe this is an explanation for all those Hollywood romances falling to the wayside - once they pass that "romantic love" stage they just throw in the towl!
I've heard this before, but there was an interesting video that gave a brief synposis on the science behind "love", so I thought I'd share. As I understand it, scientists have been able to classify three different types of chemical reactions / brain activity which they associate with three different types of desire: sexual desire, "romantic love", and "attachment."
I find this to be a very appealing explanation because it makes so much sense. I've wondered from time to time about it myself - I can remember what it was like to have all the symptoms of a "crush" . . . feeling like my heart literally skipped a beat when my crush came around, and being all intensely aware of his physical nearness, and to fixate on him, etc. But in a long term relationship all of that slowly goes away. In it's place there is something at least equally wonderful, which is a certain sense of security and safeness and a great deal of comfort in being physically close to someone. But it's weird, because that security, safeness, and comfort are the exact opposite sensations to what I would get when I was "crushing" on somebody.
And let's face it, sometimes the "crushing" part and all the flirting that went with it was a lot of fun!! But I always wondered why did all those symptoms of a crush go away.
It turns out that the two scenarios I am describing relate to what some scientists are referencing as "romantic love" which is really just a series of chemical reactions bound to wear out in 18 months or so (that figure I'm remembering from somewhere else) while attachment is the more long lasting, love-of-a-lifetime bond. And though the video is not explicit on this, it would seem to suggest that attachment is less about those automatic chemical reactions firing in your brain (like "romantic love" in their terminology) and more about something more akin to the mental reasoning parts of our brain. (Let's not get into the whole everything-is-a-chemical-reaction debate here, my lingo is not sophisticated enough on this point to be as precise as I'd like so don't catch me on it! :-) )
Anyway, all that is in many ways sort of a "well duh" finding for people who've gotten a good grounding on what it takes to make a marraige last a lifetime, because w/o the science behind it, I think the conclusions about the first infatuation versus life long love are already well-established (though not well followed.) But it's kind of cool to see science parralleling it.
Besides, maybe this is an explanation for all those Hollywood romances falling to the wayside - once they pass that "romantic love" stage they just throw in the towl!
Thursday, April 05, 2007
This is where I wish I was. Sort of.
But I am really excited about my Chinese; I've been meeting very regularly with my Taiwanese friend who is helping me practice. It is still frustrating that I have good Chinese days and bad days, but I have bitten the bullet and signed up for a Chinese class for next semester. At least, I think I added it. I'm a little fuzzy on how the just the facts works, since we don't use it for law school courses, and consequently I haven't messed with it in several years.
Anyway, despite all indications that my life is heading in a different direction, I just can't give this part up yet. I'm taking a course on Chinese Business Transactions that's all about international businesses in China, and it really gets me excited. A young partner at one of the upstate firms I interviewed with was selling me this pipe dream that they were getting ready to add a small international business practice group to their Ithaca office, and they were really interested in my international background. Note, however, that they didn't give me an offer.
But if that happened, and I got a spot with them, I would happily settle in to stay in this area my entire life. Between Rob's great job - he just got a promotion, he loves the people he works with, and this has been his dream job since childhood - and what would be my dream job, and doing it out of the big city in the small vibrant town of Ithaca . . . it would be a package impossible to resist, despite the distance from my family.
But, note that I did describe it as a "pipe dream." I'm skeptical. But wouldn't it be nice?
Over the summer maybe I'll dig out some old textbooks and use them a little more in prep for the Chinese class.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Coming Up For Air
I went to Helen Newman today intending to go make fitness love to the elliptical, and as usual on my way up to the second floor poked my head in the gymnasium just to see if the basketball courts happened to be open. Since it's still spring break, I got lucky. So I checked out a woman's basketball and spent the next hour shooting around. I forget, in the months that pass in between times, how much I enjoy the sport. And today I was thinking about how much I enjoy dribbling. Too bad you can't score points that way. It's much more fun than shooting - though I like that too.
I probably didn't have time to go work out today, but I've concluded that I never have time, and that it's never going to get better - at least not while in I'm law school. So I might as well go. The new iPod has been an extra inspiration to go to the gym; it's the only time I use it, because when I'm walking too and from campus I like to hear the sounds of the world around me, and the bus ride is too short to justify it. I'm determined to be back to my senior year of highschool weight by the time the wedding comes around - which is currently about seven stubborn pounds away. Now Junior year of highschool, when I was still playing basketball . . . that would be cool, but probably a bit unrealistic.
Ah the wedding. We're less than six months away. Eeeks!! Rob and I were discussing that we really should get back to planning things again. We got all the major pieces - except flowers - in place and then kind of ground to a halt. I realized that mostly I don't care about the flowers. This makes it difficult to take time away from the gazillion other things I have to do to pick out what I want. Actually though I think the causal analysis is the other direction - I think I don't care about the flowers because in the big scheme of things, other things in my life are infinitely more important at the moment. The wedding is important, whether or not we have flowers is not. For instance, this dang LII Supreme Court bulletin on the EPA v. Defenders of Wildlife which I'm writing on my own (usually we're in teams but they overloaded cases this time around). And the many various duties that go along w/ the moot court competition in the coming weeks. And then guess what, we're three weeks away from finals - and despite being fairly studious this spring break, I'm still waaaay behind.
I'm stressing. I shouldn't do that. The bottle in WalMart said that there's this hormone that gets triggered when you are stressed which increases belly fat. It promised that if you took this pill when you were stressed, you would have pleasant mood uplifts and that (combined w/ diet and exercise) you would lose weight.
I decided mood-altering drugs from Walmart's shelves seemed like a bad idea. I think I'll stick to my iPod inspiration.
I went to Helen Newman today intending to go make fitness love to the elliptical, and as usual on my way up to the second floor poked my head in the gymnasium just to see if the basketball courts happened to be open. Since it's still spring break, I got lucky. So I checked out a woman's basketball and spent the next hour shooting around. I forget, in the months that pass in between times, how much I enjoy the sport. And today I was thinking about how much I enjoy dribbling. Too bad you can't score points that way. It's much more fun than shooting - though I like that too.
I probably didn't have time to go work out today, but I've concluded that I never have time, and that it's never going to get better - at least not while in I'm law school. So I might as well go. The new iPod has been an extra inspiration to go to the gym; it's the only time I use it, because when I'm walking too and from campus I like to hear the sounds of the world around me, and the bus ride is too short to justify it. I'm determined to be back to my senior year of highschool weight by the time the wedding comes around - which is currently about seven stubborn pounds away. Now Junior year of highschool, when I was still playing basketball . . . that would be cool, but probably a bit unrealistic.
Ah the wedding. We're less than six months away. Eeeks!! Rob and I were discussing that we really should get back to planning things again. We got all the major pieces - except flowers - in place and then kind of ground to a halt. I realized that mostly I don't care about the flowers. This makes it difficult to take time away from the gazillion other things I have to do to pick out what I want. Actually though I think the causal analysis is the other direction - I think I don't care about the flowers because in the big scheme of things, other things in my life are infinitely more important at the moment. The wedding is important, whether or not we have flowers is not. For instance, this dang LII Supreme Court bulletin on the EPA v. Defenders of Wildlife which I'm writing on my own (usually we're in teams but they overloaded cases this time around). And the many various duties that go along w/ the moot court competition in the coming weeks. And then guess what, we're three weeks away from finals - and despite being fairly studious this spring break, I'm still waaaay behind.
I'm stressing. I shouldn't do that. The bottle in WalMart said that there's this hormone that gets triggered when you are stressed which increases belly fat. It promised that if you took this pill when you were stressed, you would have pleasant mood uplifts and that (combined w/ diet and exercise) you would lose weight.
I decided mood-altering drugs from Walmart's shelves seemed like a bad idea. I think I'll stick to my iPod inspiration.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
My Yellow Polka Dot Bikini is Blue
And it's not a bikini, it's a kick ass cocktail dress.
Okay, so you know the song I'm referencing I'll assume. And you might recall this Danon yogurt commercial where this woman has a yellow polka dot bikini hanging in her room. And as the seasons turn outside her window, she keeps walking in looking at it while eating yogurt. And at the end she heads for the beach in her bikini - the point being that she lost weight eating yogurt instead of ice cream. The bikini was there as her inspiration through the winter to keep losing weight.
Incidentally, much of what I said wasn't actually made explicit in the commercial - they did a good job of playing to the collective feminine knowledge!
But anyway, today I went shoe shopping around Moberly, and one of the places I went to was Stage. I browsed through their clothes section, and found this dark turquoise blue cocktail dress for 80% off. I tried it on and it actually fit, technically, although I need to lose the tummy pouch to really get away with wearing it in public. But since it was only $12, I decided this was my new inspiration dress. I bought it and it's hanging in plain view to remind me of my 10-15 pound goal. It already stopped me from having ice cream today. :-)
I had a couple other good finds - two pairs of slacks for work over the summer for $13 a piece (another steal) and a few pairs of shoes at less of a steal, including a pair of Sketchers. My knees have really been acting up of late, so I decided I really have to start wearing better quality shoes. Sort of. I'm still adjusting to it. I bought the Sketchers at Stage, but then I also bought cheap Payless shoes . . . but I bought lots of insoles for them!!
And it's not a bikini, it's a kick ass cocktail dress.
Okay, so you know the song I'm referencing I'll assume. And you might recall this Danon yogurt commercial where this woman has a yellow polka dot bikini hanging in her room. And as the seasons turn outside her window, she keeps walking in looking at it while eating yogurt. And at the end she heads for the beach in her bikini - the point being that she lost weight eating yogurt instead of ice cream. The bikini was there as her inspiration through the winter to keep losing weight.
Incidentally, much of what I said wasn't actually made explicit in the commercial - they did a good job of playing to the collective feminine knowledge!
But anyway, today I went shoe shopping around Moberly, and one of the places I went to was Stage. I browsed through their clothes section, and found this dark turquoise blue cocktail dress for 80% off. I tried it on and it actually fit, technically, although I need to lose the tummy pouch to really get away with wearing it in public. But since it was only $12, I decided this was my new inspiration dress. I bought it and it's hanging in plain view to remind me of my 10-15 pound goal. It already stopped me from having ice cream today. :-)
I had a couple other good finds - two pairs of slacks for work over the summer for $13 a piece (another steal) and a few pairs of shoes at less of a steal, including a pair of Sketchers. My knees have really been acting up of late, so I decided I really have to start wearing better quality shoes. Sort of. I'm still adjusting to it. I bought the Sketchers at Stage, but then I also bought cheap Payless shoes . . . but I bought lots of insoles for them!!
Sunday, December 03, 2006
If they had Law, I think I would have scored 100%. But this will do.
You scored as English. You should be an English major! Your passion lies in writing and expressing yourself creatively, and you hate it when you are inhibited from doing so. Pursue that interest of yours!
What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3) created with QuizFarm.com |
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