New Tunes

Thanks to the benevolence of Cam's mom, our band (newly rechristened Thesaurus Rex) was able to record four of our best songs in the month of November. We recorded and mixed for a total of 24 hours over two days. It was a great experience. Noisebox Studios treated us well and everybody was pretty pleased with how things turned out.
Take a listen!

Hide and Seek--
Written by me
Guitar and Vocals- Emily
Second Guitar and mandolin- Sam
Bass and Backup Vocals- Keaton
Backup vocals- Sarah
Drums- Brady

Hide and Seek


Suicidal Phoenix (name might be changed later)
Written by Sam
Guitars- Sam
Bass- Cam
Keys- Keaton
Drums- Brady
Claps- Cam and Keaton

This is my brother's first song-- not bad. He was channeling Coldplay, if you can't tell by the solo.

Suicidal Phoenix

Here are the other two, by Keaton and Cameron, respectively. On behalf of the band, I welcome your comments, compliments, and criticisms. Thanks!

1889- Keaton
1889

Another Sky- Cameron
Another Sky

This is Halloween

Presenting the Meta-pumpkin. By Me.

Proud.

A Birthday Present to Myself

I haven't blogged in a while. I won't say I haven't been busy. But I can't really say that I have, either. Whenever I think about blogging, I think "oh, but there are far more important things that you could be doing." And then I continue to putter around, doing nothing useful, really. I wish I had more time. I really do. Having too much to do leaves me paralyzed by choice. But a friend asked me why I haven't blogged lately, so I decided to start again.

Anyway. One of the biggest things on my mind is the future. The big furry but fuzzy future. Graduation fast approaches. And I have no super-duper solid plans. I'm considering going back east and doing an internship back there. I'm also considering going on a mission.

But there are some things in the future I can predict. Like my birthday. I'll be 21 on 14th of December. Orruther, I'm almost 99% sure I will be 21 on the 14th of December :). This is the last time (crossing my fingers) that my birthday will coincide with finals (This year, I get to wake up at 6:30 to take a final on my birthday... yay!). In years past, my birthdays have been all right. My birthday is just another cool day of my super-cool life (minus the 7:00 final). But, as you might imagine, these birthdays are somewhat overshadowed by the end of the semester as well as other holiday parties and busy-ness brought about by Christmas.

So this year, I'm being proactive. There are a couple of things that I have always wanted for my birthday that I've been denied because of the season and other circumstances. But this year, I'm having the birthday I've always wanted.

1. Watermelon-- My favorite food, hands down. Never in season in December, and super expensive anyway. So this year, I mixed the remainder of my last beloved watermelon of the season with some ice cream, put it in a tupperware, and froze it, with a "Do Not Open Til December 14" warning and subsequent happy birthday message to my future self from my past self. :) I'm really excited to see how it tastes.

2. Pinata-- As a child, I was always put out by the fact that Pinatas just aren't done in December. My younger brother, whose birthday is in July, would normally always have a pinata. And because I was older than him and his friends, I was always at the end of the line to hit it, so, inevitably, it was done with before I even got a whacking chance. You can see my put-outedness in the picture below. I'm on the left.



So you can bet I'm getting myself a pinata for my birthday this year. And I'm up to bat first.

3: There aren't a lot of things I can do about the weather, but I love summer way more than winter. I'm going to pray December 14th is at least sunny, since a balmy 70-75 degrees is an improbable wish.

So what's the plan, Stan?

Well,I'm going to have a huge awesome party and invite all the people I love and like. It'll be a sensation. A dalmatian sensation... or a Luau/fiesta combo. With live music and delicious food. Consider this an invitation, if you know me even semi-well and you aren't a stalker. And happy birthday to me soon!

A Song, Simply...

This is my new song (and it's temporary album art, courtesy Elise Bucket Photography). I might put it on my page "The Stuff Bucket" when I become more blog-savvy. For now, it will be here.

I'm competing in Lilith Fair's Local Talent Search, and I while I can't imagine my little ol' blog is generating enough traffic to merit a plea to my readers, I'll do it anyway. Please vote for my song here: http://www.ourstage.com/go/lilithsaltlakecity ...(click on vote). If I am in the top ten by May 28th, the judges will pick out the finalists and I'll have a chance to open for some big act at Lilith Fair in July. So that would be really cool, right?

Now, some explaining about my song. The guitar that you hear was recorded last, and I'm going to blame that for my pitchiness because I think that IT is what is off key, not me :). I mean, maybe its me. But the guitar we used can have problems and we probably should have done the guitar first anyway. This is by far not a finished product (I entered it into the contest on the deadline of the competition), but I think it has potential. This is what I've got now... we'll probably go back and re-mix it later.

Feedback, please!

Variations on a Theme

I like to cut apart magazines, then reassemble the fragments all over notebook covers or guitars or boxes. It's one of my favorite past-times. One of the more serious projects that I've worked on in this manner I started my senior year of high school. I don't want to even guess how many hours it's taken to complete, but this year alone, when I pulled it out again to work on, I've probably spent at least 15 hours going through magazines, cutting, and pasting.

You might recognize a more primitive version as the banner for my blog. I might change it, but I kind of like her fragmented face.

Anyway, she is finally done.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Miss Audrey Hepburn (clap clap clap)


She turned out better than I expected when I started this, and with a different meaning than I had originally planned, too. For those of you more artistically inclined, I would love to hear your interpretations of this piece (there is no right or wrong answer.) Leave those interpretations as comments ;). You might have to open up the bigger version of the photo so you can see everything properly.

I'm still using my mom's 4 megapixel camera, so you might not get all the details that are there. And it's a little blurry.

But I didn't want to just stop there. Cutting out magazines and seeing how things play out can be rather addicting, so here are some of my favorite temporary discoveries/additions to my art that I thought were worth sharing. I give you "Variations on a Theme."


"Mona Lisa Hepburn"


"Mona Lisa Hepburn" + almost perfect Maybelline Hand


"Too Coy for Comfort"


"Take Me to Your Leader"


"Butterfly Kisses"


"The Reticent Wide Receiver"


"The Breautifur Geisha"


"Horsin' Around"


"Smoky Secrets"


"Pearly Whites" -- a tribute to my cousin Mary Ashley, because the smile is hers.


"Anti-Smoking Campaign" (Courtesy of Edward Munch)


"Raising the Woof"


(Haha. I know, this one's just thilly.)

"'Oh Baby' Blues..."


And now just the eyeballs:


Pretty striking, huh? And a perfect fit. I still can't bring myself to glue them on permanently. I mean, I've covered every other part of her... I can't take her eyes. But I am going to keep them poster-puttied to the butterfly in the right corner just so I can keep my options open :)

If anyone can think of a good title, leave a comment. I'm still stumped. 10 points to the winner.

Short Story...

Or that's what they say these are called. Not so much short, when you get down to it..:). This one ended up being about 4000 words, but I entered it into the 2010 BYU Hunger Banquet's Creative Competition. And it won one of the prizes!!! I was really excited. I'm really proud of it too. Billy Collins once said that writing poetry makes him feel... like writing more poetry. This is how I feel about writing. So, rest assured, I'm far from being done.

There is a copy of the story posted on the BYU Students for International Development Blog (here). However, I accidentally sent them the wrong copy and for some reason they haven't put the right one up. So that one can be proof of my greatness, and this other one you can just read- if you love me, that is. And please let me know what you think, if there is anything that doesn't make sense or you have questions. I really want to polish it up as much as I can. No pun intended :).