I'm Off To Minnesota and Ohio

This is going to be one helluva hectic weekend.

Friday- fly to Ohio at 1 pm, stop at Phoenix Arizona. Arrive at Cleveland, ohio at 11 pm (don't freak, it's different time zones. It's still a lot though). Drive to Holiday Inn in some random middle-of-nowhere place 30 minutes away.



Saturday- go to Oberlin in the morning. Eat "continental breakfast" there, then take a tour, then listen to an info session (this is all with other accepted students). Then I'll walk around with my mom and study every inch of the place and stare at every student to insure, you know... stuff. About them. Yeah. I must make sure that they're not too artsy indie snobby, if you know what I mean, because I've been getting that sort of vibe off the class of 2012 facebook group and, I'm sorry but- I'm not going to have any of that. A little indie snobbery is okay, I guess, but I'm not cool with every single person in a school listing the Decembrists, Jose Gonzalez, and Panda Bear as their favorite bands. I mean, seriously, everyone? That's just not fucking cool, or normal for that matter. I'm really only looking out for myself here- I don't want to be burned at the stake for loving the Killers. But I digress... later we'll walk around the quaint little town of Oberlin, Ohio. We're staying there the whole damn day, which was not my plan exactly but that's how my mom got the tickets so what can I do. Then sleep at Holiday Inn again, and then wake up at the middle of the fucking night and drive to the airport again, to get whisked away to St. Paul, Minnesota, probably stopping for no good reason somewhere in the middle because that's what happens when you get the cheapest tickets possible.




Sunday- arrive at St. Paul. Probably get some breakfast somewhere in the city- supposedly it is a very "hip" city- we'll see about that. Oh yeah, it will be cold as fuck. Rain, sleet, the whole deal. It's really hot here- tomorrow it's 90 degrees. Minnesota- 30 degrees. Just 60 degree difference, no biggie! It's not like environmentalists freak out over two degree differences or anything! Anyways, then we'll visit the Macalester campus. Unfortch there will be no tours or anything- I'm hoping that at least the cafeteria is open because food is very important for me and I must try out the foods at each school. (So far in the past: Princeton: eh. Cornell: yummm. Stanford: well, they have Subway so not bad. Vassar: not so much... Berkeley: lol everything was organic and healthy at the snack store, but what do you expect...). ANYWAYS. So I'll walk around and get as much as I can out of a campus on a Sunday with no classes and probably not too many students (outside in the ccooollllddd). Then we'll leave and explore Minneapolis/St. Paul a bit more. Then we'll leave around I think 3-ish pm, to the airport, back to LA (of course, stopping at Phoenix on the way). We'll arrive at 11 pm and somehow I'll have to finish my homework at the middle of the night.

Do you see how this will be hectic now? two states (actually more- PHOENIX) in one weekend.Oy vey. Oh well, I'm actually pretty excited. I think I really like visiting new places like this- especially now that I have read so much about them. I'll be back after the weekend with all the deets. 'Til then, ciao...!

Oberlin pictures

Macalester pictures

Ideal Musical Collaboration: BFlow + Kanye

I was just listening to this Chris Martin (Coldplay)/Kanye West collaboration, "Homecoming."... it's, eh. Nothing special. I used to listen nonstop to Coldplay and I still like their older music (I just cooled off a bit when X & Y came out). But I don't think Chris works so well on this song. It's like he needs to change his voice a bit to fit it, because his voice is perfect for Coldplay songs but it feels very out of place in this song.

Anyway, while listening, I thought of how Kanye would probably kill to collaborate with Brandon Flowers (of the Killers, duh). No that's not just me making shit up- he has mentioned in plenty of interviews that the Killers are one of his favorite bands, and for a while last year he would not stop gushing about them.

Now, this is what the BFlow/Kanye relation has been these past couple years as far as I know:

-The first time I read anything involving the two, it was in a Killers interview with I believe Spin magazine around the Hot Fuss era. The whole band was asked to comment on people and events in pop culture at the time and one of the people was Kanye West. Brandon naturally said whatever came to his mind without censorship (that was before he started biting his tongue. Ah- the golden age of bitchery). He said, to quote him:

He makes me ill. I wanted to love him so much when he first came out. He has this sweet voice, and there's a cuteness to it. And then you see him in interviews and he's like a lion. It just ruined the whole package for me.

So no lovey doviness whatsoever thus far...

-Then Kanye discovered the Killers around the time he was making his new album (I'm guessing that's partly why there's so much synth in his songs now) and slobbered all over them in interviews for a while. He said they had "bigger hooks" than TV on the Radio (indie snobs around the world collectively gasped)

-then it was reported by one of those trashy "star sighting" websites like The Sun or something that Kanye and the Killers were seen partying together at a club with their own table and debauchery and the whole deal. Oh really, now?

-Finally, in another interview with the Killers a little bit later, Brandon was asked about Kanye after the interviewer mentioned how Kanye seemed to be a fan and Brandon said something along the lines of "he's great" in a gushy sort of way. Oh really???

So that was the transformation from icy feelings to a whole love fest between Kanye West and the Killers. And, naturally, this must culminate with a collaboration! The idea actually makes me really excited- I'm sure it would turn out excellent. For some reason I just have the feeling that Brandon's voice would work very well with Kanye's. Notice I'm not saying Kanye should appear on a Killers album, but the opposite. Brandon should feature on one of Kanye's songs, like this Chris Martin deal. I think Brandon would be a million times better.

Juno IS a Good Movie. Duh.

Snobby Juno haters need to shut up. It's like they live for bashing whatever used to be "indie" but then blew up into that horrid thing called the mainstream. Unless they want more Fantastic 4's and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry's, They butter STFU like, now. Juno was everything I could ask for from a movie about teenagers and more. In fact, it was one of the only movies I have ever seen where the teenagers are actually portrayed as very smart and not stereotypical. Plus the movie never went the easy, predictable route. I thought the parents would surely throw a fit over Juno's pregnancy but their reaction was actually refreshingly different. I thought Jennifer Garner's character would stay the neurotic bitch but that took a different route as well. It was just a very admirable and satisfying movie. Yeah, I cringed too when the girl said "honest to blog," but that was at the way beginning and after that I did not cringe once (unless you count the part where the husband acts all creepy with Juno).

So all you Juno haters.... just, find a new hobby or something.

p.s. if you want to see some seriously pitiful Juno bashing, read this post on Stereogum (and the comments too).