Christmas Wish List

When I was little, my sister and would flip through magazines and exclaim, "I want that!" whenever we saw something that caught our eye. After we had been doing this for a while, my exasperated mom told us that it wasn't nice to want but better to wish for things. I've carried that with me into adulthood. Want puts a certain amount of need in something while wishes leave room for daydreaming but this doesn't necessarily place any importance upon the wish. It's a good way to sort out things you desire from things you actually need.

So, after that little anecdote, I present my Christmas Wish List. It's funny how much thought I've put into it this year -most things I actually do need or will eventually.

1. Vinyl. (Hot Chip, Tanlines, and Youth Lagoon are at the top of the vinyl list)

2. Socks. More specifically, wool socks. I'm not kidding. I wear my Smartwool hiking socks all the time -they're great in the weather up here and so cozy.

3. Boots. Ankle, Engineer, Riding... really, just boots. I tend to wear them out pretty quickly.

4. iPhone.

5. iMac.

6. Pantone swatch book.

7. Leather messenger bag (big enough for my MacBook) or awesome backpack.

8. A ukulele. I started learning to play one at the end of the summer when I was staying with friends in Boulder. It would be fun to continue fiddling around.

9. Snow. What's Christmas without snow?

What's on your wish list?

XO

Thanks

Today I am grateful for so, so many things. My friends and family. They're incredible people and I love them with all my heart. I'm thankful for time and its ability to bring perspective and understanding to past situations, and for the future which is daunting but holds within it infinite possibilities. I'm grateful for music and art and design, for my education, and for happiness and health.

Block Party

So over the weekend, I went on a very last-minute, spur-of-the-moment trip to Seattle for Capitol Hill Block Party. I had been hoping to go before my move but it turned out to be too expensive...or so I thought. I was lucky enough to procure a 3-day pass for about 1/3 of the price, and I caught a ride with my incredible friend, Celeste. Unfortunately I missed Friday and consequently two performances that I really wanted to see -Youth Lagoon and Father John Misty. But I'll catch them another time.

Saturday was a blast. I'd never listened to Beat Connection but their set was surprisingly good. Grimes fulfilled all expectations -the girl rules. And I caught bits and pieces of other performances -ended the night with Major Lazer and a sweaty dancey crowd.

Sunday was the day that I really wanted to go -a bunch of performances I wanted to catch were happening really closely to one another. The highlight was definitely seeing The Lumineers. They're a band from Colorado (the state I hail from) and they have an incredible folky sincerity that just made me smile the entire show. Overall it was a whirlwind of a weekend. Until next time have a looksee at some of my pictures and check out a few music videos by my favorite performers.

Grimes

Major Lazer

Major Lazer

Major Lazer

The Lumineers

Florence + The Machine

I ADORE Florence + the Machine. There are many, many reasons why. Florence Welch is such a unique individual, her songs are intense and beautiful with Sylvia Plath-esque lyrics. I love how she combines elements from pop with rock, metal, industrial, and folk music. Her voice is incredibly dynamic and she has an amazingly unique style. 

We'll start with my introduction to her. Dog Days Are Over had been playing everywhere -on the radio, MTV, Fuse, the internet; her lyrics were Facebook status updates, and I got curious. After going on YouTube, I looked at more of her videos and again, I got hooked. Kiss With A Fist is probably one of my favorite songs. It's empowering, danceable, easy to sing along with, and WAY TOO SHORT. The best songs always are...almost. Needless to say, I was very excited for Ceremonials to drop this fall (her follow up album to Lungs). Here are some videos.

The latest video to be released "No Light, No Light" 

"Kiss With A Fist"

Now Flo's style is another reason that I love her so darn much. She has a fantastic figure and she isn't afraid to take risks with fashion. Thankfully, she hasn't been quite as avant garde as Lady Gaga, if she were though, I think she'd pull off a few of the ensembles better than Mother Monster. I think my favorite thing about Flo's style is how eclectic it is. She's bohemian, preppy, grungy, pantsless...you name it. And she pairs almost everything with an incredible pair of shoes. (Who doesn't love a great pair of shoes, really.)

Fantastic vintage shirt paired with chambray high rise shorts and adorable leather flats. 

Love the hat too!

Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of this outfit. The leopard print is a little gaudy, and a trend that shouldn't have made a comeback. I do however, love the blouse.

Amazing mini-dress for the red carpet. 

I love how flowy and bohemian this dress is. It has such a Victorian feel.

Dress + Boots = Win

Dear Flo, please keep doing what you do.

On the Radio

So I have a radio show. I'm on air, playing music, hanging out, and rocking out once a week. KUGS FM is the WWU radio station and it's all student volunteer operated. So mistakes are made on air -I just played a cd, then popped the cd player open mid song, whoops. Right now, I'm doing a program called Music for the Masses. All of the albums are put on this rack (a.k.a. THE WALL) in the studio, then playlists are created based on ten categories: new music, top 40, heavy, medium, and light play, specialty, upcoming shows, local, backtrack, and open. There's an awesome selection of music too. 

So because of the diversity of "the wall," every show is different. It's constantly being updated and shuffled around, which is really fun when you're a fan of discovering new music. A few of my favorite finds consist of: Kristin Allen-Zito, Twenty-One Pilots, Deer Tick, The Dum Dum Girls, The Rooftops, and Rachel Goodrich. 


I suppose this leads into my musical taste. It's kind of eclectic (though some may argue otherwise). I love alternative female singer/song writers/muscians/vocalists like Regina Spektor, Feist, Florence & the Machine (I LOVE Flo), Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside, Carla Bruni, and so on. I love Britpop. My first (official) concert was The Kooks, and upon being introduced to them I immediately tried to discover similar artists. This led me to bands like The Pigeon Detectives, The Fratellis, and The Wombats. Then there is my love for Muse.

The Kooks - "She Moves In Her Own Way"

 I discovered Muse the summer before my sophomore year of high school -I'd been watching Fuse all day and then the video for Knights of Cydonia aired, I was intrigued. A while later, I saw the video for Starlight and was hooked. I bought the Black Holes & Revelations album, listened to it relentlessly and then moved on in my interests until a friend showed me how much more music they had produced. I think that the last half of my senior year of high school and the first of my freshman year of college consisted of Muse being played at least once a day. As of late, they haven't really been at the top of my playlist because....

Muse - "Starlight"

These days I listen to a lot more Indie music. Indie pop, indie folk, indie rock, indie folk rock, etcetera, etcetera. Bands in this niche include Blitzen Trapper, Band of Horses, Deer Tick, Broken Social Scene, Camera Obscura, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Cults, The Drums (who I saw in concert last fall...it was awesome), Givers, The Joy Formidable, M83, Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, Matt & Kim, Metric, Mother Mother, (of course) Neutral Milk Hotel, and so it goes.. I think that I like the diversity within the Indie genre and how (especially when making a playlist for my show) everything flows together in a weird/awesome way.

Blitzen Trapper - "Black River Killer"

Broken Social Scene - "Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl" feat. Feist & Emily Haines (of Metric)

Finally there are a few alternative bands that I love along with the rest of the world. For example: Beirut, Bon Iver, Hockey, Kings of Convenience, The Postal Service, you get the idea. 


Check out the videos if you get a chance, maybe you'll discover something new!

Today Was Good

Hello! Welcome to my blog. That's so weird to type...I never thought of myself as someone who would really write about anything. But, last night I was laying in bed and I thought to myself, "I have interests, albeit varying interests, maybe I should create something where I can share those with other people who might share a few of the same." So here we are. Monday night, sharing our...my...interests. Instead of letting you in just like that, "Hi, I'm Meghan, I love blah..blah..blah...," I'm going to tell you why today was good.

Trying to take a decent picture with photobooth is quite difficult.

I caught the bus this morning. I RARELY catch the bus in the morning. In fact, I never really have to. But today, I walked to the bus stop, arrived there at approximately 7:12 am, unsure of what time I could expect the next bus, I looked at the schedule, and wouldn't you know it, the next bus arrived at precisely 7:13. That was the start to a good day. I think that generally, when days start off well, it's really difficult to make them worse. You're not late, rushing around, bustling to get to class, forgetting your coffee on the kitchen counter, only half of your face made up (that may be an exaggeration); instead you get to take your time getting ready, you get to listen to Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, blow dry your hair, and put on an outfit that doesn't consist of tossing on yesterday's pants, a clean shirt, and a cardigan. Yes, today was good. I had time to get coffee before class, the lectures were interesting, and work passed by pretty quickly. I did a bunch of homework over the weekend, so I get to spend the evening creating this project, listening to good music, and discovering the modern-day Sherlock Holmes tv show on Netflix.

Ok, now that I've bored you with my day, I'll tell you a little bit about me (just this once though, that's what the About Me section is for). I grew up in a ski town, I love winter and snow. I love the calm that gently falling snow instills in people. I love the landscape after a fresh snowfall, it's so clean and untouched. I love making fresh tracks in that pristine powder. I also love summer and spring and fall. The flowers that spring brings, the heat and sun of summer, and the crisp air and crunch leaves of autumn. Of course, in the Northwest, crunchy leaves are in kind of short supply. But, I don't mind the rain. It almost has the same effect of snow -at least the sound of it does. Standing in a rainstorm leaves you a lot soggier than a snowstorm. (Can you tell that I'm excited for it to snow?)

I love photography. I think that people who take pictures capture their unique perspective of the world and that photograph gives us a glimpse into their mind. I also think that being able to capture a moment is beautiful.

I love clothes and how they are an outward expression of individuality.

I'm learning to love graphic design. Actually, no. I LOVE graphic design and I can't imagine studying anything else. I'm learning about why I love graphic design -fonts, layouts, colors, brush strokes, happy accidents- it's a complex field but it's so fascinating.

Ok, I think that this first post is plenty long. I'll try to update this with artwork I like, projects of mine (a.k.a. my portfolio), outfits of mine and clothes I'm lusting after, and my general thought on things. Until next time, happy trails!