soo today is an exciting day!

one final down, three to go.

the cab, forever the sickest kids, new found glory/international superheroes of hardcore had releases today. i picked up everyone of them and they are fantastic! favorite ISHC song - hardcore hokey pokey. expect that to happen at the next new found glory show. expect it!

also, just found out that suffolk, va got hit with a massive tornado yesterday while i was at piano. which is about an hour and half away from the burg but hey, we were under a warning for a while and it was windy as helllll. ps- i have a severe fear of severe weather. lived through two tornadoes when i was little and i have hated them since. except for that period of time when i wanted to be a meteorologist in 6th grade, but besides that, yeah, deathly afraid. i thought i was going to die or something was going to happen while i'm sitting there attempting to play something by jamie cullum (yeah, i am. it's coming along nicely).

besides almost death, i studied and studied for like everrr for my history final, which is now over. woot. sociology and math tomorrow. -gag-.

BUT the MAIN reason for this post is to simply come out and say that Fall Out Boy's video for 'Beat It' is the sexiest fucking video i have EVER SEEN. it reeks of sexy and it just oozed from every freaking pore. the moment that i saw those four on their mini stage thing i squealed, yes, like a little girl at a Backstreet Boys concert.

basic outline:
-Joe. he's got STRAIGHT HAIR. i swear to god about passed out. and he looked GOOD. like reallyyy fucking hot. his tattoo sleeve looked reallyy good with the outfit he was wearing. not only THAT but he shaved and joe just looks like almost a million times hotter without his beard. but don't get me wrong, i love some facial hair on him. (okay, it's sounding borderline creepy and that is not my intent).
-Andy looked sexy too! he just looks like a sexy pirate the whole time behind the skins. he is just amazing. subtle enough to rock your face.
-Pete looks like Pete but also looks like a hair metal/glam metal god from another planet. Pete is a fucking visionary and just amazes me. he says that 'takes over' 'this ain't a scene' and this video all link together... hmm... start your thinking caps, it's time to work it out.
AND FINALLY, last but, oh my god, not least,
-PATRICK. I....i-i-i. Stunned. Fucking sexy as anything i have ever seen before. i swear to you, i am speechless. and i'm not being biased, he really is mind blowingly FANTASTIC in this video. i need to meet him. NOW. that's about the end of that. he. is. sex.

okay, it's getting hot in here because of this video, so you are probably wanting to see it. now, i know i condone using MTV because it is bile and garbage, BUT i'm making an exception because this is where the video premiered, so i have to go with it. here is the sex.

pleaseeee watch and tell me what you think. it's the sexiest video ever even if you disagree.  (i know you like how i used all font styles except 'strikeout'.)

wow. it's been a crazy few days.
i'm thoroughly exhausted and i never really realized until i went to bed friday night and last night. i seriously could have laid in bed for DAYS. and every time i think that i think of "one day, robots will cry". you know, that line: "SLEEEEEEP FOR DAYSSSS. COME OVER, COME OVER... I WON'T MAKE THE SAAAAAAME MISTAAAKES!" you get the point.

anyway, not much going on here. besides procrastinating yet again. this time it's just studying for finals. nothing major, right?
schedule for finals goes as such:
monday- last day of classes
tuesday- history final
wednesday- math and sociology finals. PLUS honda civic tour in dc
thursday- SLEEEP
friday- english final

i mean, overall not bad and considering one of them is open note and another is an in-class essay i should be fine but math... -gag- i might die. really. for real. i might. history will be easy since i'm a buff but it's just the thought of sitting down and typing/writing up all the info that i need to know. meh. it'll all be over in a few. thank god panic, the hush sound, and motion city are breaking the monotony of my week of stupid school work.

the weather has been cloudy today and it's this type of weather that makes me want to listen to lounge jazz music or tom waits or jamie cullum. something jazz-esque. even though tom waits is definitely NOT jazz but it's good enough to be awesome. i just wish that the temperature was low and the rain was steadily falling and that the piano was just tinkling in the background (yeah, i said "tinkle". and yeah, i giggled a bit, but i regained composure) and a book open. i don't know, but something about that is insanely comforting. it's like that random happy place that people have. some people have the beach or the mountains, i have a spring shower and lounge jazz music playing. not really ordinary is it? but then what is? let's not go into sociology stuff here...

so besides feeling mildy melancholy and slightly bummed that i MISSED paramore and jimmy eat world to sit around and watch juno for like the millionth time, i'm having a really good weekend. i don't really know the point of this post other than the fact that i really like sitting up late and just writing ridiculous amounts of nothing on my livejournal. there's an odd pleasure in that.

anyway, going to write on stories. and listen to jamie cullum. :)

ps- patrick stump's cover of tom waits "tom traubert's blues" is the sexiest cover song i have ever heard. besides the boys like girls cover of frou frou's "let go" and patrick's cover of ne-yo and marvin gaye. you must listen to it when you have the chance. it's my recent addiction. link? yes: here it is.

pps- not only did i forget to mention my hair cut, but i forgot to say HOW WICKED AWESOME IT IS. i swear to you, hayley would be proud. it seriously is the same color as her hair is now and as it was in "that's what you get". i went on a paramore music binge friday - today when i put the juno soundtrack on.

ppps- okay, last one i swear. got to listen to the cab's new album at work today and it's SEXY. like, oh my god. it was worth the wait. we currently have only one copy of the album and more than likely i'll be buying it tuesday along with new found glory/international super heroes of hardcore cd and forever the sickest kids. yeah, full tuesday. see? all done. painless!

you heard right. if you even heard at all.

anyway, since i am ONCE AGAIN procrastinating like a pro, even though i reallyyyy shouldn't, i'm going to make this short and sweet.

i am getting my hair done tomorrow for the first time like seriously almost 4 months, which is a surprisingly long time for me to go without getting it chopped and managed a bit. so i just wanted to let anyone know out there in livejournal land what it'll more than likely look like:



basically it's going to be this color and this cut:



granted it's not going to look as fly because well... i have short hair, but you get the point. it's going to look super rad. i'm really freaking excited. and yes, hayley williams is like freaking amazing. she's kind of my heroine. hopefully my new 'do will make her proud, since i'm still contemplating going to the DC paramore/jimmy eat world show saturday. my heart is telling me "YES!" but my brain is telling me, "do you want to fail because you didn't study and weren't rested?" yeah. it's hard to argue with that.

anyway... back to working on another stupid paper, only instead of sociology, it's english. it's not bad it's just i have too much stuff i have to get done (finding sources, getting an interview, faking survey statistics). shh... don't tell. thank god just another full week of this bullshit and i'm DONE for the summer and then it's applying time for vcu! woo!

ah, yes. last night.

it was AMAZING.

kelly's backstage tavern with kellie and anna got us a 15 minute or in last night's case, 5 minute, early entry to see the lovely boys in we the kings and the cab. we ended up not getting barricade, which was fine because we ended up getting second row center, which i feel was probably better. no bruises under the arms today (save for last thursday's).

before i get too into the show itself, can i just say that the bouncer who has been giving out the beefy X's on the hands at the shows recently was a complete ASSHOLE and MADE ME CUT OFF my favorite thing ever: my Fall Out Boy floor ticket hot pink wristband. yeah. i was devastated. you might think, "oh sam, you are overracting. it's just a bracelet. it was gross looking anyway. you'll get another one." well, let me say YOU ARE WRONG. that thing was more than just some bracelet that said i was allowed to be on the floor that fateful night of November 11, 2007, but it was a memoir of how freaking fantastic that night was. it was a wristband that meant more to me than jewelry or clothes or shoes; it was that single every day reminder that those four boys in that band are everything to me. everything. they make my day better. i'm not trying to get all preachy about it or try to get all elitest on the subject but that wristband was like a part of me. it's like going to a fancy dinner and you are wearing like a string of pearls that your great grandmother wore and you grew up loving them. so you wear them forever and then when you get there they tell you that you can't wear it. you have to take it off and destroy it because it's too similar to the ones that are there already (which is the same goddamn argument that they SAME GUY used thursday to try to get me to take it off. "it's the same color as the VIP bracelets." fuck you.). you say no and he says "well if you don't take it off then you are not allowed in." (that bouncer said it to me too as he whipped out a freaking knife to cut it off.) so what do you do? you have spent money, time, and gas to get there. you take it off reluctantly as much as it pains you. that's how it felt. any situation can appeal to this like removing a piercing you just got so you can work at a new job. yeah. fucking sucks. i was really devastated by it. i actually almost cried more than once. kellie and anna were all somber and just kind of were like trying to cheer me up but that didn't happen until we got inside.

anyway, so we are waiting for the show to start and when it does we are all excited and happy. sing it loud was first and every time that any of the three of us saw one of the guys, we kept thinking it was travis from we the kings. silly girls. so then after that, charlotte sometimes played and she was really good. she sounds like a jazz lounge singer but the moves of a girl in a pop-punk band. and let me add, her house bass player that she had one tour was hotttt. i was all about that. after charlotte sometimes played one of the main reasons i was going to this tour was because of the cab. so as they were setting up the girls in the crowd were like freaking out! like boy band freaking out. think *nsync and backstreet boys but for five smaller and younger guys. it was ridiculous! they were just sound checking and these girls were screaming like they were walking around naked. and to add to the irony of the statement, travis from we the kings wore an *nsync concert shirt on stage too. it made my night.

so the cab finally starts playing and can i just say that the last time we saw them, alex deleon had hardcore eye sex with anna and sang their cover song of the edwin mccain single that came out in like the 90s to her at the cobra show. it was awesome! and then this time... it was even better. every time he looked at her, kellie and i looked at each other and smiled like crazy. i had such a lump of rising pride in my throat. i was so happy for her. it really made my night. anyway, after the sexiness, we just kind of left because our hour or actually 25 minutes of excitement had ended.

we get merch, blah blah blah... and valencia takes the stage. can i say they were douches? i like their music but live, they are no good. mean guys. sorry about that if you like them, but it was not an appealing set. it could be the lack of love in the crowd. i don't know. whatever. so we eventually get to see we the kings and it was just fun. i genuinely had a good time. it's nice to be able to sit back and just have fun without worrying about what someone is saying about you as your flail about and sing like no one's listening (yes, that was a straylight run reference). it was over before it started it felt like, but that's kind of how it is when you only have one album out. so it ends and the fun starts.

we meet the guys in sing it loud, the cab, and we the kings. travis is super nice and when i said something about how both of us being red heads would make pretty red headed babies he smiled and said "we so would! we would have red headed babies running around green fields." and then he talked to us about how when he goes to scotland soon he's going to run with a herd of red heads. he's basically amazing and i realize that i need to be best friends with him.

so you are probably wondering about the interview. well. i asked marshall, ian, and alex deleon about it and marshall and ian were for it but they were still signing stuff so i was like i'll wait. so when we talked to alex he was like we're getting ready to leave but hold on... what did he do? oh, he got mi numero. yeah. you heard right. RAD. i was super stoked and anna was hating me for about 10 minutes but it's not like i want to steal her favorite guy. not at all. so hopefully before friday i'll get a call from their tour manager and we'll work out a phone interview. fingers crossed h-core. the romance says, "you have connections with fueled by ramen family guys!" and i agree. it's going to be super sweet if it ends up working well. and it'll add some street cred to my budding music journalistic abilities.

so the night ends and we are all happy, even though i am sans-pink FOB wristband, it'll go in my ticket box with the rest of the norva ones.

oh! by the way, i found the link about the norva on rolling stone's website. here it is: bamf.
you have to scroll down a bit but it's there, in all it's glory. always makes me proud to call that my second "home". and every band loves it so it gives them more reason to come and play here. thank god for that.

anyway, back to doing sociology which i have been avoiding since i started writing this. boo. thank god this semester will be done by next friday. it's killing mee.

i am a procrastinator to the core - like so much so that if you look in the dictionary for the word procrastinate and the many different grammatical ways to use (past, present, possessive, future tense etc) then you would find my picture next to it. the reason: i work better under pressure (cue 'under pressure' original version or for the other kids, the used and my chem version).
i have a big english paper due this friday and guess who hasn't started it? me. yep. and i've had over a month to start on it. main reason for not starting it, seeing the romance and i changed subjects. current subject: getting the US to use/get universal health care like england, france, or our brothers and sisters up north, canada, who i give much props to for giving kellie and i kiros. anyway, this paper HAS to have an interview AND a survey. boo. shitty time to start late, huh sam? as i was thinking up ideas as of who to interview on such short notice. i was thinking the romance's mom because she had crazy foot surgery last year because her being h-core and into roller derbies but then i got like a crazy brain blast like jimmy neutron. tomorrow night, once again and less than a week later, am returning to the doors of my favorite venue EVER, the NorVa, which Rolling Stone listed as one of the hottest venues in the country. yeah, the country. i'll post a link or the story later when i find it. the reason i'm returning? well it's the long hair, don't care tour with the fun boys of we the kings and the cab! so i thought, who just got into an accident a few months ago? the cab. who probably had to deal with the american health care system recently? the cab. who would be the coolest interview to do this health/medical care subject with? the cab. yeah. the most badass thing EVER. so guess what i'll probably be doing a few hours past this time tonight? probably interviewing the cab (that's if they are okay with it).
it's going to be rad!
and then for my survey, i'm going to see if the guys in we the kings will take it and some of the bouncers at the NorVa and maybe some other random people. it'll be interesting but i need to get this thing done.
i know, i suck. but just think: i'm interviewing the cab (possibly). if it totally goes down, i'm going to post the video here. you'll die. as well as my sister who is promising to marry alex deleon, but don't quote me on it.
that is all.
wish me luck!

ps- the starting line's last show was AWESOME. kellie and i got barricade because of our crazy friend tyler who we met outside in line for the audition/hit the lights/every avenue/kiros show on march 15 or so. to top that off, we are going to be in a starting line dvd. yes, you heard right. DVD. besides that rocking, i got the starting line's set list. you know how? the tech had two of them and said "if you name a band i like, i'll give you one." kids starting naming stupid shit and the guys was like "nope. they suck. fucking hate them." and can i point out that he was wearing a joey ramone t-shirt with year of birth and death on it so this answer should be obvious. anyway, he was like "an old band!" and i walked up from behind like 8 kids and said "black flag." and he smiled and pulled one of the set lists out and handed it to me. the kids looked in awe as i took a hold of it, thanked him and punched the air. i looked retarded but i was proud to say that black flag helped get me what i want. also there is the fact that for the rest of my life whenever i listen to "cheek to cheek" i will think of the guys chanting "cheek to cheek! cheek to cheek!" and tom not wanting to play it. oh man. i cannot wait to see them reunited again. for now, i got person l (kenny vasoli's side project) and matt and mike's side projects.  and i'll say this: "please don't leave me without saying good-bye, without saying good-bye."

contrary to popular belief, nalgene water bottles break. well, at least the cheap kind that you find at like... target or something. they are not good for the type of strenuous activity that they succumb to on a daily-using basis. the legit ones are tough to break.

when i was working at cold stone creamery oh, so long ago (it's been about two years, going on three since i worked in that hole), someone -- a certain  "someone" that my fellow scoopers and i did not like AT ALL, had left her legit nalgene at work one night. it just so happens that she never went back for it. it may be because we hid it from her but whatever. anyway... two of the guys got the bright idea to fill it with water and then stick it in the deep freezer to see if it'll break or bust. might i add that the deep freezer is used to freeze the freshly made ice cream once it's been smoothed and labeled with a wax marker and wax paper and it's temperature is usually around... 15 or 12 degrees fahrenheit. it's cold. (we played around with it more than once. patrick crawled in there one time and all you could hear was him screaming about the cold and banging on the inner doors. it sounds creepier than it was.) so we stuck this girl's nalgene in the deep freezer and it was in there for about a week. we took it out and tried destroying it. our means of destruction were quite futile -- we actually had a mini firecracker and we stuck the firecracker inside this frozen nest, which was ceremoniously placed in the girl's bathroom toilet for safety precautions, and waited for it to blow. when it went off, there was no damage at all to this thing. and it was a powerful little thing. the rim was singed but that was it. we were super disappointed so we hid it in the freezer again until we were ready for our next offensive. a few nights later after closing down the cold stone, about four of us went out back behind the store where the road in front of the shell station is. it was dark and warm since it was like july when we did it, and there wasn't a soul to be seen except these miscreants who were really bored. one of my fellow cold stoners, as i like to call them, takes this frozen nalgene and heaves it as high as he can into the sky and we see it reach abovet the building and the street light. we can't see it because of the dark. we all start running like chickens with their heads cut off to get out of the line of fire. then, with a crashing sound, the nalgene comes flying to the ground and smashes. the lid ends up down the road a ways; the sides have shattered and large blocks of ice are skittering across the ground. we felt accomplished. it was a feat trying to break it. it always seems the times when you want to break something it never does, but when you don't it does. lame. as we collected the pieces of the broken bottle, we all sort of smiled and felt cool -- we broke a nalgene. (keep in mind, i was 16 and the others were 16, 19, 17ish). i was proud.

now, i said all that to say this: october and i have been wanting to start a sort of interview/music site because we just want to be able to talk about something that we are passionate about, something we care about. something that doesn't have to do with the war or politics or sex life or whatever. something that truly makes sense still in this ridiculous fucked up place that we live in. we have been trying to find a name for ourselves, something that is different and attention getting. after failed tries with names such as "the new faces of failure" on friendsorenemies.com and "riot squad" on myspace, the romance and i were brainstorming.

from friday the 4th through sunday the 13th i was in mississippi visiting miss romance for a well deserved break. we played and had fun but we never really worked on this project. it was more about staying up late and watching panic at the disco on snl and mtv all week (which, for the record, i HATE mtv. it ruins the pure and good things about music). while there, i got this freaking sweet nalgene bottle from a little shop called "maggie's pharm" in memphis. it's got a little sparrow on it with flowers everywhere. i picked it up the moment i saw it and have been using it since. last night though, i was talking to october and we were discussing names (since we plan to sort of be up and running by warped tour in time for interviews and coverage of the sweetest thing that was ever concocted in kevin lyman's head). we threw around names like "buzz" "buzzworthy" "buzzkill" (that was all me btw) and "chaos" at a previous discussion. nothing was working. i looked at my fantastic nalgene and saw the bird and it hit me: Sparrow. Sparrow TV. there it is! WE GOT IT! along with the name, i got a motto: "truth and integrity in the music and reporting." holler. there it is: our site. in a nutshell of under three minutes. i told her and she loved it.

now, we have a name. we have business. we are ready for anything. just working out the glitches like designs, sites, things. we only have a name, so we have to work from the ground up. but this this is going to be beast. indestructible. JUST LIKE A NALGENE. and you thought i would never get to the point. we can stand up to almost anything: a freezer, a firecracker, kicking, beating, shoving, shit talking... you get the point. the only thing that could bring us down was if we were thrown up in the air and then fall without anyone catching us or hoping to save us.

what i'm saying is: you have to be infallible to be able to pursue something. you can't take any shit from anyone. keep doing what you are doing and you'll more than likely get what you were looking for, even if it was just sitting on a kitchen table in front of you.

keep a look out for Sparrow TV updates on LJ or myspace. i'll let you know as things develop.

seacrest out. 

It was more than just a schlock C-List movie from the 50s, it is the place that i live and breathe for. The store that i have been working at since july, that i have been wanting to work there since i bought my first CD with my own money (let me just tell you my first purchase was the unimpressive Men In Black Soundtrack. Laugh now, but you know that one of your first CDs purchased wasn't anything impressive unless you are in fact, an impressive person). The sad and depressing thing is not that we, the ONLY indie store in Williamsburg is closing, but it's that we are moving to a new location after almost 19 years at our store location.

We're only moving across the street where an old independent pet store was (RIP Pet World), but still... that store has history. There are posters and mobiles and stickers and stains and dust that has collected and settled there. It for real is my favorite place to be in the world. This record store is my LIFE. It's the dream job for a 19 year old who's current future dream jobs include working for either Fueled By Ramen or Alternative Press Magazine as a writer or even possibly just a writer working for myself. I LOVE walking into that store. The feeling i get knowing that even though i am the only girl working in a store full of boys, i basically "run" the store. I love it when people come up to me and ask my opinion about an album or a band. Knowing that we have a tab for Me First and The Gimme Gimme's and not one for Muse (I KNOW. It's ridiculous.) is like knowing a secret that you are allowed to tell people. Standing behind that large bank of counter is like... you are on an island, away from the mundane and the ignorance of non-music fans. There is a faint hint of the Nag Champa incense that sneaks through the cracks of the doors on the glass display. There are holes in the floor behind the register that is covered up by that black and faded mat. Stickers line the drawers and doors behind the counter ranging from Five Finger Death Punch to Planes Mistaken For Stars. At sunset every day, the sun comes over the horizon line where the trees are lined against the property of the old hospital and it shines brightly and blindingly into the the store. The front is lined in windows and it really is an enlightening feeling.

There is just so much that i am going to miss. I haven't even begun to make the list. i might one time between now and our moving date (should be in early April). It's like a piece of history is gone. When another lease gets taken up by another company, the counters, the stickers, the walls and the ceiling will be redone and there will not be a trace of the epic and long lasting Plan 9 Music, formerly known as Echoes before 2003. The good thing is that we aren't going out of business. I don't know what i would do if we were. I'd have to get a normal job. Yesch. I don't think i could waitress. I have no patience for ignorance and stupidity -- i wear my emotions on my sleeve as well as my face. You think that's bad, you should see me when i drive.

Anyway, i just wanted to update you all that P9 is moving and it's the ending of the chapter at the 143 Monticello Avenue and the beginning over at the former site of Pet World. All i have to say is this, don't take anything for granted. It could be over and gone sooner than you think.

PS- Go to indie stores. Please. If our store made more money, we wouldn't have to move to a location with cheaper rent and we could stay at the holy temple that is our current location. Support your indie stores.

PPS- I'm going to be taking pictures of the glorious P9 soon (Hopefully starting tomorrow) and will be posting them on here. You can be the judge of the gloriousness, even though you might think it's dingy, but think of it this way, alllll record stores look like that and smell like that. Dust that has collected on old records and the faint smell of incense. Don't forget the feeling of complete and total relaxation once you walk past the threshold, hearing some new band playing over the speakers (which are sometimes defective in our case). But in a sense a record store should be dark and sleepy instead of bright and cheery so this new place should be the key.