radvent, day 3

radvent, day 3: compilation

when i was in college, i would spend hours with my friends searching the internet for new bands to listen to. there were times that our download speed would far surpass our listening abilities, and we'd be backed up with new music for weeks. in high school, all of the guys i hung out with would basically curate my music taste for me - with their own music or with mix cds. nowadays, i joke that my taste in music is "jack white and taylor swift." but, it isn't much of a joke - i listen to jack white and taylor swift pretty much all of the time. i don't even put my ipod on shuffle anymore. this weird stage in my grown up life reminds me of my mom, who listened solely to rod stewart when i was younger.

austin and i listen to records at home and go to shows, so i guess i'm exaggerating a little bit. additionally, i've worked at the mall for most of my adult life, and there are soundtracks there. but that's where the problem stems from, i think.. i got really, really good at blocking out music. i rarely agree with any of my store's choices in soundtracks, and so i've gotten to the point where they legitimately fade away and i don't notice them unless someone brings them to my attention.

it's strange how much of a backseat music has taken in my life. i don't know if it's just becoming older or what.. because i still love music and listen to it, i just don't spend the time on music that i used to. the "new music" that i "discover" these days are when austin goes to shows out of town, we go to shows locally, or other friends recommend music to me. which is cool, because they're normally local bands and it's nice to support that. i still keep mix cds from high school, college, and early on in austin and my relationship in my car, and listening to those always make me feel this weird comfort. at the time that i was listening to some of those, i was probably so mixed up and confused, but now they're these really nostalgic, happy pieces of history.

i didn't feel comfortable making a playlist, because, well.. it'd all be taylor swift & jack white. but i'm going to post a couple of songs here that have ~meant something~ to me in the past year. i've already warned you about how limited my taste is right about now, so keep that in mind. ;)


<3
ps, i can also confidently recommend dads, everything on sewn together records (they even have a christmas album!), eternal summers, the bastards of fate, and everything on flannel gurl records if you were interested in the local music i was referring to.

the best thursday night i've ever had

i almost titled this post "the best night that i've ever had," but that seems dramatic. i'm pretty sure that it is the best thursday night i've ever had, though.

i can't really remember the moment when something clicked and i became o b s e s s e d with jack white, but i know it was sometime around my freshman year of college. considering the only time i've ever seen him live was with my least favorite of the jack white bands (the raconteurs), this was long overdue.

can i be real for a second? i spent ALL MORNING while austin was at work deciding what to wear. i know. it was like a legitimate 5 hour game of dress-up.

i decided on a black tank top, a 70s skirt that has just been hanging out in my closet, my dollar store frankenstein socks, and my doc martens (in case i needed to stomp some people to get to the front, obviously).

the socks were kinda weird but i was a little obsessed with his eyes peeking over the top of the boots. plus they matched my skirt!

i also brought this goofy purse that i got in dollywood. it's teeny and goes over my shoulder and is perfect for my phone, money, id, chapstick, whatever. unfortunately not for a tshirt and poster, which meant i was carrying a tube around all night, too. but whatever! totally worth it.

i was so giddy. like a child. i posted something on facebook along the lines of, "i'm sure that you can imagine how much i'm annoying austin right now," and the only other person who has seen me at a jack white concert liked the status. ;)

we did have car trouble on the way there? which was weird, and i freaked out a little (read: a lot). but i took this cute picture of austin:

and then we were basically there. we stood in line for about 2 hours before we were let in, and then i annoyed (probably) everyone around me for an hour and a half before the concert started.

i could talk/write about this show forever probably, but i won't.. i guess. the "set list" (jack doesn't have set lists, which i only know from my pre-concert research) was a really cool combination of white stripes, raconteurs, dead weather, jack white, and bluegrass/country/blues-songs-i-didn't-recognize. he played with the guy band, which i ended up being really into, even though i thought i wanted the female band. okay, but - i really want to see him again, but with the girl band! you know, for the different songs! i didn't get to hear "love interruption" live, and i'm wondering what else he would've played with them. one huge shock (on my part): i only cried once!! i teared up consistently, like every time austin acknowledged what i was watching (by hugging me or rubbing my back or whatever), but i only full-out cried when he played "hotel yorba." i have no idea why. also, his encore was 6 songs long.

you guys, it was just so much fun. we were lectured about not taking photos or videos, because they had a professional photographer onstage and the pictures would be free on jack's website (so you can imagine what the background to my laptop and phone is going to be for the rest of forever). also my cell phone pictures just would. not. turn. out. so really, you probably don't believe me that i was there. i actually can't believe that i was there.

so, i'm glad i bought this poster.

i'm going to end this here, or else i'll gush for another two hours. of typing, which is like probably 7 more paragraphs.

i promised austin that we would never, ever miss another jack white show, ever. <3

ps, my ears are STILL ringing. ~no regrets~

virginia werewoolf and math the band!

i've mentioned this in passing, but i don't think i've really expanded on it. i love going to shows. i'm lucky enough to live in a town with a growing music scene, and i try to take advantage of it as often as possible. i spend a lot of my nights at work, so this doesn't happen as much as i'd like, but sometimes a show comes along that is TOO GOOD to pass up, and i have to ask off of work.

this show was one of those. it was actually in a neighboring town, about 35 minutes away, but there was no way i was missing it. luckily i had a fun friend who was ready for an adventure, and took my word for it that the bands would be worth it. :)

i'm SO GLAD caroline and i have been hanging out more often! she's so fun and always up for whatever, even though i just realized that this is the first time we've done something other than get coffee together. ;) hopefully it'll open all kinds of new doors for things for us to do! we spent a lot of time once we got there walking around and giggling, because shows seem to never start exactly right when i get to them, weirdly enough.

first up, austin's new band, virginia werewoolf, played. i haven't seen them in a couple of shows (thanks to work :( ), and they had worked up a couple of new songs! it was fun. i love watching them grow as a band, and i've gotta say, i'm really glad that my boyfriend has only played in bands that i like so far. ;) they don't have any music online yet, but while you're waiting for it, you should check out sewn together records for free music from other roanoke bands!

part of the reason that i deemed this show worthy of asking off work AND dragging a friend along to was that math the band was coming back to town! and yes, they are actually as fun as their website implies. have you heard of them before? they've gotten pretty well known, touring with andrew wk. i saw them in 2007 or 2008 at the american eagle music festival (haha, whatever, i had an awesome experience with it), and again a couple of months ago when they came into town. they've never disappointed. i HIGHLY recommend seeing them if you find out they're coming nearby!

i only took a picture so that you'd believe me ;)

after the show, caroline and i bought matching tshirts (nerds), and i mentioned to justine, the lady in the band, that i had seen them at that particular festival. we reminisced and she filled me in on the happenings of a couple of the other "college bands" (that's what american eagle billed them as, haha) that played the festival. as it turns out, my favorite of them all (the delicious - go there and listen to the music! SERIOUSLY!) is no longer a band! boo. luckily, i bought their cd back then and still have it. the whole long ride home (we got stuck in traffic), caroline and i talked about how HAPPY we were. it seems like that is the entire goal of math the band, and they super succeeded with us (nerd). especially chatting with justine made my night! introduce me to some local bands from your part of town! :) <3

greasy fast food dates

austin and i really like sonic. i like their burgers, he likes their hot dogs. i like their strawberry limeades, he likes their ocean waters. sometimes they have half off milkshakes and we both really like that. so, on saturday night, we parked my car, rolled up my windows, turned on the ac and radio, and ate in the drive-in. :)

we've actually been listening to the radio all weekend. since we have totally different, rarely overlapping tastes in music, we're kind of picky and weird about what we listen to in the car together. the radio provides a third party that chooses the music for us. :)

stations programmed in my car: the local standard pop music station, a country station (i know, i know.. but it's so fun sometimes!.. especially 70s-early 90s country), a classic rock station, an oldies station, the kind of "easy listening" station that i think plays at my mom's work, and a local station that plays more contemporary music. we had fun singing along and making fun of some of the more classic songs. we even had a bohemian rhapsody moment (all i could think about was wayne's world)! since the dvds that play at my job sometimes include really new pop music that i'd never hear otherwise, i had fun introducing austin to one direction and never shout never. even though i think we sometimes get caught up being a little bit snobby with the music we listen to, it's fun to just.. let music be fun. one of my most recent favorites is justin bieber's "boyfriend." :)

do you think you turn your nose up at the radio, or do you prefer how much fun it can be?  i'll probably go back to my ipod shuffling tomorrow, but austin and i might stick to the radio when we're driving around together from here on out. there's just something that screams summer about driving around, listening to the radio. <3

currently

hi! today has been a ridiculous mayday. i don't even want to get into it, eep.

i decided it'd be fun to start doing currently posts, inspired by danielle of sometimes sweet.

reading: "super sad true love story" by gary shteyngart. i've had this book on my kindle for a few months now, and i had even attempted beginning to read it several times, but never fully committed to it. well, apparently saturday was it's day, because i started it again, and i haven't stopped! it's dystopic literature, set in a futureish america (something i can't get enough of lately..). it is also scaring the crap out of me, but things like this do things like that to my overly sensitive sensibilities. :) i'm about 30% of the way through it, and so far, pretty awesome.

watching: lately, austin and i have been switching between "psych" and "louie." in case it isn't clear, "psych" is usually my first choice, and austin always goes to turn on "louie." i can't help but have a bit of a crush on shawn and gus, and austin thinks louis c.k. is hiiiiilarious (i spend half of the show laughing out loud and the other half being overly offended).

thinking about: my job, my business, my future.. sometimes i think i'm having a pretty serious quarter-life crisis, but i think these thoughts are things every deals with, pretty much as soon as they get their first "real" job. i know exactly what it is that i want to be doing, it's the process of getting there that i'm stuck on. i just keep wondering when that one moment that makes my current job not worth it anymore is going to happen.

loving: it's really silly to say this, but lately i've been super loving austin. like more than normal? i don't know about that, but my love is deepening for him all of the time. it's ridiculous. i spent a couple of hours the other day being really nostalgic about how i'll never have another first date or first kiss or any silly things like that, but then i realized that i'm totally cool with that, because for the rest of my life, i get to have firsts with him. because i figure those are never going to go away? there are always going to be things we haven't done together, and i want to spend the rest of our lives doing them.

anticipating: my day off! ;) i have a couple of plans, but mostly on my days off i get the most excited to see my sister and niece. and we're going to do a photoshoot for the store, since we'll have another update in a couple of weeks!

listening to: i've been switching back and forth between ben kweller's new album, go fly a kite, and (obviously) jack white's new album, blunderbuss.

i've been listening to ben kweller since i can remember (literally, elementary school with his 90s band radish), and i have a serious soft spot for everything that he creates. this release reminds me SO much of his early solo stuff, and even though i really did love his foray into country music, i missed his indie pop side even more.

after searching for this song to post, i got sucked into this youtube rabbit hole of ben kweller live videos. i just think he's so cute, and i'd love to see him again sometime soon.

eating: grilled cheese has become my current go-to meal while i'm at home. i've been trying to cut down on the mall food, because it's disgusting, but grilled cheese isn't that much better. ;)

feeling thankful for: my grandma, for her kindness, her understanding, her help, and just for always being there and believing in me.

hope you're having a good week so far! <3