10.10.10

It's FALL!!!


It was raining for like a week here, which I actually kind of liked. It's so weird to see the leaves change in the Yard. There are seasons here!!! I'm doing photography for The Voice, a life mag here at Harvard that has an awesometastic blog and a little gem called HarvardFML. YEAH. I'm also gonna learn to mix music (and hopefully DJ eventually) for CityStep, this awesome organization that teaches city kids to dance. And I'm trying to breakdance. So far I can hold up a turtle freeze for like 2.5 seconds, and I have bruises on both knees and a sore body. Hopefully these ventures will be successful.

I'm learning how to balance my time and still have me-time. Time goes so fast here, so fast it feels like I didn't even exist in September. But it's been such a fun ride otherwise, besides the work. I'm loving the people here, my roomies, everyone. I <3 college. Just not the work.

For everyone who saw The Social Network, Harvard is not full of snobs and socially inept people. No joke.

AWESOME PHOTOGRAPHY
And I thought I loved tape.
possibly my new favorite photographer (and currently my wallpaper supplier)
LOL
10,000 true things
kaPOW!
some lovely tunes.

I hope y'all are doing well. =D


10.9.10

and now I flinch when I hear the wheels of a bike churning by...


So I got hit with a bike the other day, out of no where when I was walking to class on a footpath. I think I fell quite swiftly, actually. The guy must've been going like 10 mph and he fell down too. Actually, that made me think I was way more durable than I thought I was. But yeah, I'm ok. Now I have a story to tell and a battle scar coming on my left palm.

Besides that, college has been AMAZING. People are incredible, but class, as always, is still a pain. I have a sore throat, but I'm going to see either Chiddy Bang tomorrow or Asher Roth on Sunday...hmm...choices choices...

My goals in college are coming closer:
a) mixing my own music
b) breakdancing


Some tunes
A little freaky, but pretty awesome, Arcade Fire.
A healthy dose of inspiration.
My roommate and I discovered the perfect workout song.


I'm excited!
I hope you're all doing well. =D

15.8.10

As usual, there are never enough hours in a day.

This is probably the last one I'll post from my old Olympus, because I have my new Canon t2i!!!

So I thought this summer I'd get regular with posting again, but yeah, that didn't work. Neither did studying, reading more books, and the SYTYCD tour. But instead I got 2 DC trips, met Obama, Ted Fu, John McCain, Harry Reid, watched the XGames live, ate funnel cake, went go kart racing and kayaking, saw/touched the Jabbawockeez up close, got my license, fell in love again with Cali, worked a pretty rewarding internship at BGCLV, and went on a scavenger hunt on the Strip which included doing the hokey pokey with strangers and singing "If You're Happy and You Know It" in the middle of the Fashion Show Mall.

So yeah, even though I didn't do the boring stuff I was hoping to force myself to do, I had a much better time just...living. I hope the adventure of life to come is just as or even more amazing as this summer was. I'll be going to Harvard soon, and I'm determined to have fun and make it the best experience it can be. If I mentioned it before, I want to learn/try bgirling and DJing. Even I can't imagine that, but I never know what can happen.

btw, I love my new HTC Aria.

If I don't post before I get to Boston...Thanks Vegas, for being my home for the past 18 years.
I still hate your dry heat.
And thanks for opening the largest Forever 21 in America right before I leave.

I gotta do this sometime.
Time to get classy.
That Blackberry ad song is beautiful (Le Loup).
They had Abercrombie & Fitch back then?!
A remix that is decidedly better than the original.
Riding that rhythm like a cruiser on the beach.
An nerd with beats? Sounds like who I wanna be.
And if anyone wants to buy me one of these fonts, I'd love you forever.

Stay well, guys. Stay happy.
did I mention I love to color with Sharpies?

17.7.10

Self


This is a little self-portrait I did for an application. That day I took this picture, I sweated a ton running back and forth to my camera and back to my chair. I couldn't find my camera remote. -_-

So I'm off to DC again tomorrow for a week! Last time, when I came back I was stuck at the airport for 15 hours. Airports are so eerie when no one's around, I swear.

A few links to keep you going and I'll see you on the other side of the week. =D

Need some sleep? Help out my friend if you have a buck to spare.
Lovelovelove this cover. 2 degrees of separation (to Robyn xD)
Well, this makes things easier...
Spacey
Turn it up!
Dancing in my chair.

11.6.10

I wish you luck!

Stephen! Stuffing!
like this picture of us???

I hope you have a nice trip over to Texas, and a wonderful new life over there for the next few months before you head off to Berkeley. We've had way too many good memories, and we will make more in the future! I promise you. And I got oovoo, btw. Thanks for all of the late-night AIM chats, OMGPOP Pool games in which I pwned you, your great sense of humor, your tolerance of my teasing, your silent laughter, and for being an amazing best friend. I'm sorry you had to be the first friend I had to see leave Vegas before college, but I'm glad you're always online so I can bother you like you're not miles away. =D I will miss you.


the beginning of summer means
newshirt
new music
I'm now a Clark alumnus!
and now I want to go swimming



I'm getting a new camera, but I don't know which to get yet. All I know is I want a DSLR that can do video and shoot some mean photos. Suggestions?


and Stephen, I will never make you a sandwich if you ask me.

1.6.10

Scrambling for Time


Wow am I behind or what??? I apologize to whoever reads the blog, but I've been a terribly unproflific blogger this year. School has officially ended for me, and it's been a huge swirl of emotions. I'll be leaving people I've known for 7 years and some I have become best friends with I've only known for a year. I have a bunch of photos waiting to be edited, to be sure. For now, I have to go sign a ton of yearbooks since tomorrow is graduation practice and pretty much the last day I can give them to some people. So some quick updates on me:

I'm going to DC twice this summer, with an internship with Boys and Girls Club (hopefully I'll get over my fear of small children and brush up on my basketball skills heh)
I got rejected by Stanford
I'm going to Harvard instead =D
The year has been crazy
The year has been fun
I need to clean my room
I got hit in the head today with a chair. haha jk Alex I forgive you. Even though you're my rival.
I went to San Francisco with my chamber orchestra and did a little tour of Nevada. All the way up Reno and then to San Fran. We saw Wicked, went to Alcatraz, and the ceilings were too short in the hotel room to jump on the beds.

I found this wayyyy back in December, but here's the full film for First Days of Spring. It's lovely, just watch it.
One of my new favorite LOLcats
for Prom =D
Try some Alphabeat or Bon Iver. Total ends of the spectrum but totally part of your daily healthy intake of indie. =D

See you all sooner than I did last time.
I've decided. When I get to college I want to learn how to a.breakdance and b.DJ
amongst other things

28.2.10

Starving for garbage, desperate for time

Oh, how I miss you dearly, photography.

I am so so so so so so glad to finally have some time to post something. I've been looking at the blog every day, seeing Ari and Mai's posts and always longing for the chance to actually get something done. I have too many bookmarks, too much new music, and too many amazing mind-blowing things to tell you all that have been building up in me for the past 4 months, basically just settling to the back of my mind and hardening into this insatiable desire to release myself into the blogosphere. Alas, the only feeling I have the chance to feel is regret and loss. Finally getting the chance to take the photography that has been accumulating over the past few months and actually doing something with it made me realize what I have been missing the past few months-photography. I have been so stressed over 12 college applications, scholarships, and essays, that I haven't the time to breathe. Nothing, over these months, that I have tried to relax with made me as soothed as getting some photography done. I was reminded of the healing power of the art, and am so grateful that it is in my life. Even here typing this, my headache that has been building over the day's stress is waning, and I feel so much better knowing someone will read this. I hope you, too, will find some peace with some sort of art, as I have.

I actually wrote this bit of my post about a month ago, but I never knew how to finish it. Last month, two anticipated albums came out, one after the other. First, Vampire Weekend's Contra, then OK Go's Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. For you guys who know me (or read this blog enough to sort of know me), you know that I am a huge fan of both bands. I admit, the first time I listened to Horchata, I wasn't quite sold on Vampire Weekend's new album, Contra. The day the album dropped, Vampire Weekend posted the whole album on their site, for everyone to hear. I was SOLD. I could not stop listening to the range of this album, the beautiful voice of Ezra, and the revival of my love for this band. Suffice it to say, I had a huge Vampire Weekend phase for a couple of weeks.
The day before, I listened through OTBCOTS, which did not blow me away so much. OK Go's new album has reached what they say is what they really have been all along, a band with a lot of Prince influence, and a smooth vibe. I have nothing against the high-pitched squeals of Damian's glorious pipes, or the heavy drums and basslines of the album, but nothing has really stuck with me so far (except for the fact that my photo was used in an interview with Damian ahhh the second one down). I still love the boys for what incredible people they are, and how far they are stretching where their creative energy can be. They are looking to launch a video for every single one of their songs, one of which was released a long time ago and a Rube Goldberg one coming out tomorrow! They've also been actively informing the public once again of the big mean machine that record companies can be (their video was not able to be embedded from YouTube, which caused a lot of people, including the band, to become not so happy). Boiled down to the end of these two, I regret to say that although I still love OK Go, my palette is not mature enough to appreciate the style they went for. My tastes are much more geared to love the swoony, melodic ballads of Vampire Weekend, those tunes dripping with hormones, young impulses, and Ivy league, not to mention the undercurrents of cellos. It doesn't hurt to say that VW's new album always makes me giddy for my college dreams in (hopefully) the east coast. OK Go's album is a lot more mature, full of real love, of introspection, and hope. And btw, the cover of OK Go's album is art down to a science. The whole CD booklet is an incredibly thoughtful way to put lyrics and feelings down to graphs and charts, something way too complicated for me to explain here but downright genius.
Still, The Winner? Vampire Weekend

My recommendations:
Of the Blue Colour of the Sky: White Knuckles, I Want You So Bad I Can't Breathe, Andy's guitar solo toward the end of All is Not Lost, and the mid-section of digital rhythm in End Love

Contra: ALL OF IT! But I'm a real fan of Run, Taxi Cab, and Giving Up the Gun. You should also take a gander at this Minimix. You won't regret it.


Here are just a few things that I've been waiting forever to post.

The hilarious
The Incredibly Beautiful (I'm so serious. This thing is all CGI. You can't stop watching it if you start. It's so beautiful, I made myself screenshots to use as desktop wallpaper)
The Paper
The Sound (can't...stop...singing...along)


Sorry for rambling. Have a good first week of March!
New laptop YUSSS

20.12.09

There's so much to say!

New sig. Like it?

You guys have no idea how much I missed blogging. I would look at the blog everyday and feel that tinge of guilt that I wasn't posting anything, even though I have a million things to show you I've been collecting over the past month. College apps are taking over my lifeeee. Finally break is here and I am able to edit some of the pictures I took over a long while now. I've been trying some new material, but what I really need is more photos of people...

Here's some big news: I have a nephew!!! I get to see him in a couple of days! He looks like a really big baby and looks a lot like my brother. Very cute. =D

So I was at Forever 21 yesterday (on a much-needed shopping break) and heard Christmas Wrapping, by The Waitresses, which is currently on repeat. Apparently it's an old song, but I've never heard of it before. Love the horns.

Even more importantly, I am almost completely obsessed with the new Noah and the Whale. This video/song is pretty much the perfect song to end the year. The whole hopefulness and the beauty of it all is just amazing. That baseline and the piano is brilliant.
Apparently Noah and the Whale's new album is based off of the break-up between lead singer Charlie Fink and former member Laura Marling, who is in a lot of other indie songs, like a few Mystery Jets songs. The album is paired with a full film, which I haven't seen yet. But according to the above video, which is also the trailer, it's a very beautious sort of film. It takes its time to suck out all the emotion, all the scenery, all the indie it can. And it makes me want to ride a bike and shoot some 56 indie film. After their release of Five Years Time, I sort of lost my fancy for this band, but their new sound has brought me back. I think I'm actually on the brink of abandoning mainstream music...

btw, it doesn't feel like Christmas at all in Vegas. You could go out in a t-shirt and be fine. It's warm, even for Vegas. Global warming, man, I'm telling you.

Have a good week, and enjoy your holidays! I will talk to you soon.


15.11.09

A Little (Big?) News

I posted this a year ago, but I was so excited that the designer of the little orange papercraft guy in this picture favorited this shot on Flickr. It's not like I met the guy, but Marshall Alexander's pretty darn talented.

I had a photoshoot weekend, trying some new things, but those will come when I get the time to play with them (which I hope is soon)!

For now I'll leave you with Pt.2 of the big news: Free Helvetica. YESSS

btw, did you guys hear the new Vampire Weekend single Horchata? It's lovely.

9.11.09

Why does a chicken coup have 2 doors?


Because if it had 4, it'd be a sedan.
*knee slap*

Is anyone else upset about the Facebook revision with the two feeds? I am now set on live feed, as it seems everything appears on that one. But still, I don't really need to know what people my friends are friending. I'm getting used to it, after a few weeks, but I want my old Facebook back! I fruitlessly and desperately fell for those "we need a trillion people to join this group and Facebook will go back to normal" groups. I actually joined 3, hoping one was actually legit. don't tell anyone

I felt a little less angry at Facebook when I discovered that you can change your Facebook language to PIRATE(!!!!) Yes, indeed. Now, my alerts tell me that "20 shots o' rum ago" someone posted on my wall, and instead of clicking "like," I now click "Arr, this be pleasin' to me eye." I guess I still love Facebook after all, a lot more than Myspace for sure. I realized yesterday I haven't gotten a comment on Myspace since the middle of October. I've officially been taken over by Facebook.

The moral of the story is: TRY PIRATE!!!! and try English (upsidedown) too.

My next project that I REALLY WANT TO DO. This is for you photographers/lomographers/videographers out there.

10 points if you can guess what band is on my mind. Hint: look at the pictures above. A new video for their new single "WTF" comes out tomorrow, and it's supposed to be pretty amazing. I don't know what to think about the new direction of music they're heading for, but we'll see about that soon.

oh, what people put their dogs through...