Tuesday, April 21, 2009

What's on your iPod?

I have often found myself wondering about this question time and time again, and I mostly wonder if I'm the only person on earth that actually thinks this or even cares enough in the first place to ask it.  The great philosopher Aristotle once said, that humans by nature, have the desire to know, so this question I ask: have you ever seen somebody, or several people, whit an iPod or some mp3 player plugged into their heads and wondered what was playing?

Nearly every time I see a person with earphones on, I try to take a stab and guess what is on.  The muscle men at the gym might be playing, "Stronger" by Kanye West, or maybe polka, who knows? Would it be out of place to approach somebody and ask what they are listening to just out of mere curiosity?  It might look like a come on, or small talk, but I really just want to know.  This isn't something I can just look up on the internet or find in a magazine or book.  Being a person that is really into music, I am always interested, not nosy, curious if you will, but interested, whether it be classic rock or Latin hip hop.

I wonder if people wonder what I listen to be it at the gym or walking around campus.  Do I come off as a hard rock or tween pop kind of person?  I guess I'm kind of an everything person, just one look at my iPod/iPhone library would tell you.  Sometimes I feel like pop-punk, other times I feel like Latin rock.  Anything from Kenny G to Rage Against the Machine.  But I try to stay away from love songs, they make my ears bleed almost as much as country music. 

The point is, music is the universal language.  Everyone listens to music, granted very different genres, but the common thread is the emotion the music evokes.  Happiness, sadness, excitement, depression, love, hate.  Music also carries memories and association.  There's nothing like sitting in traffic for over 3 hours on the way to San Diego, but when it finally let up, we rolled down the windows and blasted Hellogoodbye, "Call n' Return," which magically made everything all better.  I will never forget that, it was amazing.  Friends and music. I remember that moment every time I hear that song, but this is just one of many examples.  I know this blog is going everywhere, but that's what music does to me, it takes me everywhere.  You can tell a lot about a person by what kind of music they listen to.  What kind of person are you?
iPhone iPod

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Famous Words to Live By

Photobucket
Photobucket

Andy Warhol

Frank Warren is my Friend

I've made a new friend.

He may not know it, but Frank Warren has become near and dear to my heart, and I know I'm not the only one.  Frank Warren started a blog called Post Secret. I stumbled across it after over hearing some class mates talking about it during my Creative Strategy and Execution class at Cal State Fullerton. I know it sounds cliche, but this really has changed my life and opened my eyes to all new creative avenues.  

Frank Warren calls for people to send him a simple post card (address is on his blog) with a secret. The secret can be vague, specific, insightful, illegal, crazy, gross, anything you can think of, the only rule: it has to be something you've never shared with anyone before.  People send in postcards of every type, some hand written, some typed with pictures, some with collages, anything.  Every Sunday Frank posts a handful of secrets on the blog and people can comment on them. 

After following the blog for a few weeks I purchased two of the four books Frank has published filled with secrets people has sent. Each page I read I realized that so many of my secrets were in the book without me even sending them in. "I know you don't really like me (please stop pretending)," I felt like someone was reading my mind, but in reality it was just a whole slew of people that knew exactly how i felt. I cried. 

The thing about Post Secret is, no matter if your post card gets on the blog or even put in the mail, just getting your secret out and on paper is the biggest therapeutic release anyone can feel. And, it's completely free, no showing up to a shrink that charges you by the hour, just letting it out yourself and on your own terms. 

Since discovering Post Secret, I have began keeping a journal. Each page filled with my secrets, mimicked in the style of the post cards. One day I will send them in, but until then...

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Commercial Trend - Ads offer free song downloads

One of my favorite pastimes, I hate to admit, is watching TV. Over the past few months I've noticed an increasing push or call to action in several different AD campaigns, including State Farm's Better Teen Driver and Toyota Venza. More and more campaigns are using catch music in their ads and offering a pitch for free downloads to the music heard to those who visit the website at the very end of the ads. Once you visit the website, there is a quick and easy link to download the tune heard in the commercial.

Why has this not been thought of before? If there's anything people love, it's free stuff, especially young adults. In the era following the Napster catastrophe (let's all pause for a moment of silence in memoriam), paying anywhere from 69 cents to $1.29 for a single song on iTunes is not on the agenda of many people, that is why this is such an intelligent idea. And it's not like the music on the commercials is all that bad either, there's everything from up beat pop songs like the remake of "16 going on 17" in the State Farm ads to the more smooth, contemporary, "Brighter Day" heard in the Toyota Venza campaign. Absolutely Brilliant.


Click below to download the tunes:

http://www.betterteendriving.com/

http://www.toyota.com/sem/venza.html?cid=Google_toyota%20venza

Study Abroad Spring 2008

From February 7- May 8, 2008 I had the amazing opportunity to participate in the North Orange County Community College District's Study Abroad Program in Paris, France. By living in my very own Parisian flat (37 Rue de l'Ermitage) I had the opportunity to completely immerse myself in the European culture. Studying Western Civilization, Renaissance Art, Creative Writing and French Film I had the chance to broaden my knowledge on subjects I hadn't hat the chance to previously explore. Best of all, I traveled around France, Spain, Italy and Belgium and caught the travel bug while doing it. Here are some hi lights: