Friday, November 1, 2013

I drove a van for the first time and it was rad

Yellow Things
There was a banana.
In a yellow basket.
The sun was darker than other days.
Although brighter than the sunflowers.
The sun shined darkness on the dried grass.
When the lemon rolled from the yellow basket.
Onto the floor.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

I think I sleepwalked

October

I was clueless.
In the black of night.
I woke up to the sound.
Of the wind on my shoulder.

Friday, September 27, 2013

songs I would put in a film

Sometimes I think of stuff that I would write if I wrote a book someday.

Friday, September 20, 2013

nerds candy for 39 cents

Ender's Game


I had never read science fiction before Ender's Game.
I did not pick up this book on my own either.
On an ordinary day in book club of my first year in high school the librarian asked the three book club members, yeah there was only three, to pick a book we would want to read and he would buy it for us. I told him that I didn't know what book to pick. I had not idea, the others had no idea, so he said something along these lines, "How about I pick your books?"
 The book club was reading Blood and Chocolate around this time, which I actually thought was an interesting book. It's a supernatural werewolf novel. Although it is short, I finished it in three weeks because I also had school work to do.


During the next book club meeting the librarian brought the three book club members books that he thought we would like. I don't remember what he brought everyone else. He brought me a box set of three books in the Ender's Game series. They were Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Shadow of the Hegemon.
I had never heard of these books, so it took a while for me to finally begin reading them. I attempted to read Ender's Game two to three months after receiving it. The topic didn't interest me and I couldn't understand the book completely. It wasn't the right time, so I put the book away. Time passed. Three years later I picked up the book again and, this time, I read it from cover to cover. I had never read science fiction before. I had never dared to venture into this world before. After reading Ender's Game I read Ender's Shadow, which has a similar plot to Ender's Game, but it is told in the viewpoint of another character named Bean.
Whenever anyone asks me for book recommendations, Ender's Game is always one of them. Somehow, though, everyone ends up choosing a different book.
After I finished reading Ender's Game, I placed it on my book shelf and forgot about it.
One year later when I started college Ender's Game was one of the required books along with Invisible Man and The Handmaid's Tale for my English class. Invisible Man and The Handmaid's Tale are pictured below. I would recommend these books. They are different and deal with issues such as race and gender roles, respectively. 

                        

Now, back to Ender's Game.
I thought I had lost my first copy of Ender's Game, so I bought a second one this time. I read it again from cover to cover along with the other two books required for the class. Now I own two copies.
I also found out that there is going to be an Ender's Game movie coming out in November. I'm excited to see the "Buggers" fights and the Battle School.






Friday, September 6, 2013

piles and piles of nothing

September

Riding on a bus.
Reading a book
Remembering to discuss.
Radiating the look.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

plainsong

Lollapalooza 2013

I wish I could live in a Cure concert forever and ever and ever and ever.

My sisters and I decided that we would go to Lollapalooza in 2013 no matter what did or did not happen.
I quietly sat in my College Algebra class waiting until the clock struck 10:25 a.m. some day in June or July because my sisters were in school and I was the only one who would be able to purchase the Lollapalooza tickets. As soon as College Algebra was over I ran to the library, logged on to a computer, and went on the Lollapalooza website. I had to buy four tickets, but only two went through because it turns out that my sister did not have enough money on her card. I panicked and went home. Luckily, we found out that someone we knew had bought many Lollapalooza tickets and we asked that person to please save two for my other sister and me.

Then the day of the concert came. My sisters and I woke up early. I kept thinking about The Cure. I really wanted to see The Cure. We took a bus and a train to Grant Park. The security was crazy. We had to pass through many layers of security, which felt like we were walking through many layers of cake. haha, When I reached the last checkpoint my wristband would not scan and I was sent to a tent in the corner to see what was wrong. At this point I panicked. Was I going to get into Lollapalooza? Did I have to go home? Luckily, my wristband was fixed. I was told it was on too tight.

The first band that we saw was Wild Nothing. I had heard some songs from Wild Nothing before and since no other band that we wanted to see would play at the time, we went to see them. I keep listening to Paradise over and over. It's a great song! Wild Nothing played from 2:15 pm to 3:00 pm.



Then after Wild Nothing we had to choose between Tegan and Sara and Two Door Cinema Club. We ended up choosing Two Door Cinema Club. As we walked to the stage where Two Door Cinema Club would play my sisters', my sister's boyfriend, and I bought a burger to eat. Never again. Never again will I eat a burger that tastes like cardboard. I ended up eating about half and I saved the other half for later that I never ate. When we arrived at the stage where Two Door Cinema Club was supposed to play Alex Clare was playing, so we waited. When he was done playing we hurried to the front to be as close to the stage as possible, and we waited for close to one hour. Two Door Cinema Club came in stage at exactly 4:30 pm. We left a bit early because Grizzly Bear was going to play from 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm on the stage where Wild Nothing played on the other side of Grant Park.
This was Two Door Cinema Club's set list:

1 - Sleep Alone
2 - Undercover Martyn
3 - Do You Want It All?
4 - Wake Up
5 - Come Back Home
6 - Sun
7 - I Can Talk
8 - Next Year
9 - Something Good Can Work
10 - Handshake
11 - Eat That Up, It's Good for You
12 - Someday
13 - Cigarettes in the Theatre
14 - What You Know

The third band that we saw was Grizzly Bear. I have to admit that I had not listened to much of Grizzly Bear before I went to the show aside from their most well-known songs. Even though I did not know several of their song the show was amazing! They had floating lanterns on the stage that lit up throughout all of the show. I guess this was a reference to their music video for their song Two Weeks.



Grizzly Bear was playing on the same stage as The Cure and we were pretty close to the stage, so when Grizzly Bear was done playing we pushed our way to the front. I could see the stage kind of clearly for there was a tall person standing almost in front of me and I am short. But I did manage to move to the right of this person so that I could see as The Cure's instruments were brought on stage.


The Drum Set
I cannot begin to explain how excited I became as the time neared 8:00 pm at the Red Bull Sound Select stage. After waiting for one hour, the night was becoming dark and the people in attendance were starting to scream. Slowly, The Cure walked on the stage. Robert Smith grabbed his guitar, Simon Gallup his bass, Roger O'Donnell stood at his keyboards, Jason Cooper sat at his drums, and Reeves Gabrels picked up his guitar and they began to play.
I almost cried. The excitement around me was crazy!! I couldn't believe that I was seeing The Cure live in concert. It all felt like a crazy dream. This was the setlist:

1 - Plainsong
2 - Pictures of You
3 - Lullaby
4 - High
5 - The End of the World
6- Lovesong
7 - In Between Days
8 - Just Like Heaven
9 - From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
10 - The Walk
11 - Mint Car
12 - Friday I'm in Love
13 - Doing the Unstuck
14 - Trust
15 - Want
16 - Fascination Street
17 - The Hungry Ghost
18 - Wrong Number
19 - One Hundred Years
20 - Disintegration

 Encore:
21 - The Lovecats
22 - The Caterpillar
23 - Close to Me
24 - Let's Go to Bed
25 - Why Can't I Be You?
26 - Boys Don't Cry


I took many pictures:







 












And one or two videos:


Plainsong

Lullaby


Disintegration

Caterpillar Girl

After what felt like two short hours The Cure left the stage. Slowly, the crowd began to leave, I put on my sweater on for it was getting cold, and we walked to the entrance to Lollapalooza. We waited here for my cousin who had worked at Lollapalooza. She was able to meet and take a picture Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend, Sam Halliday from Two Door Cinema Club, and a band from London, Palma Violets.
Then we went to a Mexican Restaurant called Los Comales before we went home.
It was a fun day.
It was an awesome day.
I will never forget this day.
Never.