Falling Into My Next Playlist

Summer is coming to an end; and as evidenced by my blogging hiatus, I’ve been quite occupied. After a few months of Midwestern travels and sun-soaked experiences, it’s going to be hard to say goodbye to pool days, big sunnies and fresh summer produce. Although, the 100+ degree weather I can live without.

Fall is my favorite season; and after a taste of cool autumn weather here in Indy, I’m in the mood for the chunky sweaters, cinnamon apple candles and sweet brown ales that September 22 will ring in. What better way to get back into the coziness of fall and to kick off a new blogging season than with some funky tunes? Check out what I have been listening to recently, and let me know what you think!

1. Warrior – Foxes

2. Take a Walk – Passion Pit

3. Timekeeper – Grace Potter & The Nocturnals

4. Moving in the Dark – Neon Trees

5. 99 Problems – Hugo

6. Seventeen Years – Ratatat

On Repeat: Spring Mix

Before my last post, it had been forever since I scribbled on this blog. That means it has also been forever since I shared some of my new favorite music with you. So now’s the time. These are the songs I’ve been feeding my ears this spring. What will you be jamming to in May? Don’t forget to take my poll at the end!

Center Stage – Capital Cities

Radioactive – Imagine Dragons

Black & Blue – Miike Snow

Come Away to the Water – Maroon 5 and Rozzie Crane

Water Will Find a Way – The Black Ghosts

Settle Down – Kimbra

Some Nights – Fun.

When the Night Falls – Chromeo (this vid is hilarious)

She Always Gets What She Wants – Florrie

Crush on You – Nero

Holidays – Miami Horror ft. Alan Palomo

Barton Hollow – The Civil Wars

Too Close – Alex Clare (yes, this is from the Internet Explorer commercial…)

You made it all the way through! Now, which song was your favorite?

My XLVI

Super Bowl XLVI, Monument Circle (See all of my Super Bowl pics below!)

It’s been more than a week since the Super Bowl hub-bub in Indy, and things are back to normal — or should I say, back to boring.

It was a miracle that Indy won the bid for this year’s Super Bowl in the first place. I don’t know that anyone really expected it. When Indy won the bid, I was not a resident. And I have to admit that I have never been particularly impressed with this city. Don’t get me wrong, now that I live here, I have discovered that it has plenty to keep me busy and has been a great place to start out as a twenty-something, but let’s just say it’s no Chicago.

Super Bowl week totally changed my perspective of the the so-called Nap-Town. Maybe it’s because it was suddenly infiltrated with Hollywood visitors (yes, I was on Ryan Gosling watch), or maybe it was how flawlessly the city was able to adapt to such a major event, the likes of which it has never seen before. But something changed with this city last week, and the nation saw it. I didn’t hear one negative comment or read one bad review of our humble Indianapolis, with celebrities, athletes and culture critics all impressed by the convenience downtown offered and what a surprisingly enjoyable (and unseasonably warm) backdrop the capital and people of Indiana provided for this American tradition.

Before SB XLVI arrived, I had made absolutely no plans for the week. I wasn’t even sure I would make it downtown to see the Village (Georgia St. and the Circle were transformed for the various SB festivities; and they dubbed it “Super Bowl Village”). But somehow, my Super Bowl week turned out to be more eventful and exciting than I would have ever expected. Things just kept falling into my lap, and the week turned out to be a great experience thanks to my totally hooked-up friends.

THE PLAY-BY-PLAY — pics are at the bottom of this post

Friday January 29  was the first day of the official Super Bowl week. A co-worker of mine’s boyfriend had opened up a temporary club in the old Nordstrom building downtown called The Huddle, so I went to check it out. I was impressed with what they did with the place; it was chic and very clubby, with blue mood lighting and white couches, tables and curtains. The drinks were more than I would have liked to pay, but it was a cool place. I bet it got pretty crazy there later in the week.

Saturday, I ventured downtown during the day to check out Super Bowl Village. It was pretty nippy, but with beer in hand, Steven and I walked Georgia street end to end, stopping to warm up in the heated enclosed beer garden, down to the zip line and back around to the Circle, complete with ginormous XLVI (which have a screen projected on them when lit up at night). I was really impressed with how they had revamped Georgia, which was completely pedestrian friendly, decked out with heat lamps and speckled with outdoor bars (all serving varieties of Budweiser, the ubiquitous sponsor of everything Super Bowl).

I wasn’t planning on heading back downtown until the next Saturday when I would be hitting up the Pitbull and 50 Cent concert, but Wednesday unexpectedly proved to be one of the best days of my Super Bowl week. One of my co-workers scored tickets to the first of Jimmy Fallon‘s Indy SB tapings of Late Nite and asked me to go along. As a celeb-stalker, this was a dream come true. To my dismay, the night we had tickets to the show, Tim Tebow and Tracy Morgan were guests. Snooze. And imagine my frustration when I found out that Adam Levine (swoon) and Taylor Lautner would be on the following day. Although I was bummed at this predicament, it didn’t diminish my excitement to see Jimmy. And he was everything I expected: adorable, genuine and a riot. And since I had band tickets (All American Rejects), I got to go on stage at the end of the show. So, naturally, I decided to chat up Jimmy, who was chillin’ in the corner of the stage. I was sort of at a loss for words, so our conversation consisted of me asking what he liked most about Indy. His answer was sort of bland and typical, with him citing the welcoming people of Indy and their numerous dining suggestions as his favorite thing. I also may have almost spit on him, but it was totally worth it! Too bad I couldn’t get a picture of him

When I was just getting over my lucky Wendesday, my Thursday continued with surprises. While in line buying dinner at Walmart, I got a call from Alyssa telling me to be ready ASAP to go with her to the Pepsi Fan Jam at the Pepsi Colosseum at the Fairgrounds. And who would be there? Yep, Adam Levine. I didn’t miss my chance after all! What would have been a regular night watching Vampire Diaries at home ended up being a big party with B.o.B., Gym Class Heroes, Adam, and All American Rejects (again). Not too shabby.

Friday, I passed on trying to fight the mob (literally – police were calling the Village a “human gridlock”) to see LMFAO; but I got my fill waiting more than two hours in the cold and rain outside the Bud Light Hotel tent on Saturday to see 50 Cent, Lil Jon, Pitbull (so awesome!) and a surprise performance by Far East Movement. We also caught a glimpse of Nelly, who decided to pay a visit to Lil Jon on stage. Thanks to Alyssa for hooking us all up with the tix from Hot 96.3!

After a hectic week I hardly expected, watching the actual game on the couch with frozen pizza was more than welcome. But who cares about the Super Bowl anyway? Not me 😉

Steven and I at The Huddle downtown

Steven and I freezing in the Circle!

Super Bowl Letters in Monument Circle

Jimmy Fallon’s desk

Rowdy Rag from Jimmy

B.o.B at Pepsi Fan Jam

Gym Class Heroes at Pepsi Fan Jam

Adam Levine performing with Gym Class Heroes at Pepsi Fan Jam

Adam again!

All American Rejects at Pepsi Fan Jam

Group at Bud Light Hotel party (Berto looks super excited!)

Besties at Bud Light party

Surprise visit from Nelly!

Pitbull at the Bud Light Hotel

50 Cent at Bud Light Hotel

Super Bowl XLVI, Monument Circle

Bangers, Mash and Broken Bells

I’m currently scoping out the fashion on the American Music Award’s red carpet in preparation for work tomorrow, so I’ve decided to post my playlist for this week. But before I get to that, I wanted to share a food first from last weekend.

I’ve always been fascinated by the British, mostly because of their accents and beautiful spawn (Orlando Bloom, David Beckham, Prince Harry, Emma Watson etc.); so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my dinner destination last Saturday served traditional English fare. A couple of friends and I hit up Broad Ripple Brew Pub. Unfortunately, I had mixed feelings.

We started things off with the beer cheese appetizer. This was awesome, although it’s gotta be pretty hard to screw up cheese and bread. It was tasty nonetheless. My meal, however, was less impressive. I wanted to get a taste of the traditional stuff, so I decided on good old “bangers and mash.” I knew bangers were just sausages, but I guess I expected a special, delicious kind of sausage. That’s not what I got. First of all, I made the mistake of getting a half portion, which meant a teeny tiny sausage (maybe you’ve had that problem, too). But the real disappointment was the link — bland and hardly what the menu had  described. I didn’t notice any yummy breadcrumb filling; it was just lackluster meat. What really got me was how bland and not creamy the mashed potatoes were. Mashed potatoes are so easy, so imagine my frustration with sub-par taters. I’m assuming this barely mediocre meal was the fault of both the English and the cooks at BRBP. Sad day.

Beer Cheese

Bangers and Mash

It was a good thing I went with a trusty German standby for my beverage choice. Heffe weisse has yet to steer me wrong. (The Lawn Mower beer I tried wasn’t my fave. But if you like hopps, go for it.)

Now, for the goodies. Here’s my most recent On Repeat playlist. Leave a comment about your thoughts. Enjoy!

The Ghost Inside – Broken Bells

Miracle Worker – Superheavy

Islands – The xx

99 Problems – Jay Z (throwback!)

World News – Local Natives

Milk and Honey –  Jonas and Plunkett

All Alone – Toro y Moi

Love on Top – Beyonce

>> Couldn’t find Milk and Honey by Jonas and Plunkett on YouTube, so check it out on iTunes <<

Victoria’s Secret Revealed (Hint: It’s Not Very Hot)

I do not find models attractive. If you’re going to be honest, you probably don’t either. What with their protruding spines and gaunt faces, there isn’t even enough there to judge as being attractive or not. But there are models, and then there are Victoria’s Secret models, the Angels, if you will. These are the models that men drool over, set their DVRs for and hoard swimsuit catalogues for. Sure, they look healthier than the average model, but that isn’t saying much. They still starve themselves.

Source: becomegorgeous.com

The problem with our perception of female body weight as portrayed on television or in magazines is that we are looking at these women as they are standing next to other women like them. We don’t see any disparities with their proportions because we don’t have anything real to compare them to. This means that, in Hollywood, women who are a size 2 (SIZE TWO) can actually look thick. If we were to pluck a Victoria’s Secret model off the runway and out of her wings and put her next to a normal woman, who is say, a size 4 or 6 or 8, she would look emaciated. And for those of you who say, “She’s perfectly healthy. She actually has boobs and an ass!” Those boobs are actually chicken cutlets, push up bras and strategic shades of bronzer — that or silicon. A lot of these girls are flatter than pancakes in real life. That’s how it is when you have no body fat.

Well, folks, one model fessed up and ruined the illusion: Angels kill themselves to be skinny just like any other models. Instead of eating absolutely nothing, the Angels hop on a “training” diet and exercise plan to “get in shape” for shoots and runway shows. Let’s take a look at this plan.

Angel Adriana Lima confesses that, after a visit to a nutritionist (I have major doubts that this nutritionist actually has a degree — or exists in the first place), the VS girls take on a diet of protein shakes and vitamins, whose sole purpose is to give the Angles the energy for their two-a-day workouts, and a gallon of water a day (ok, that’s not a bad thing — except that that’s probably what’s giving them the illusion that they have something in their stomachs). But, hey, it’s ok! Their protein shakes contain powdered eggs, which are the same thing as real eggs. That’s food! Right? Yeah, no.

The Angels starve themselves, allowed to drink ONLY their shakes and water, for nine days before the televised VS fashion show and dispel any calories from their frames with two workouts a day for about a month before. For 12 hours before the show, the girls are not allowed to consume ANYTHING whatsoever, including water.

Now, some might say that a mere 9 days on a liquid diet is no biggie. Well, that combined with two-a-day workouts (reminds me of a football team….and they eat a lot) doesn’t seem so safe. I sincerely wonder how far into their workouts they make it before they pass out. Plus, if they consume so little during this period, I’m willing to be they don’t consume much more when they are allowed to actually eat solids. I’m also willing to bet a fair number of the Angels pass out once they step off the runway. But what do I know. I’m a size 4.

Now, I’m no man, but I have to think that knowing what these girls do to themselves (can we say lack of self-respect) has to detract at least a tiny bit from their sex appeal. Although, like I said, I’m no man. Which means I don’t think like a man. And men never cease to amaze me.

When I shared the Huffington Post article that relayed this Angel diet with coworkers, the majority of them being females (one of whom also blogged about this very topic), they were appalled by it. But one coworker, a male, did not share our disgust. Now, I don’t want to call him out as stupid or insensitive, but I do question his response. He claimed that our criticisms of such an extreme way to get thin were “mean,” that these women should essentially be praised for working so hard to achieve “hottness.” This confuses and scares me. Is this really what men want? They would rather us starve ourselves to look like smokin’ hot Angels (and probably have no energy for that little activity they like to partake in with hot women) than be healthy and happy?

I don’t know that they understand what these models are probably like mentally and emotionally. Sure, they’re “hot.” But would you want to date a woman who literally obsesses about everything she eats? You couldn’t buy her chocolate or make her dinner or expect her to eat any of your mother’s stuffing when you bring her home for Thanksgiving. Not to mention the baggage you would have to deal with. Women whose very careers and livelihoods depend on their bodies have emotional issues tied to their self-esteem (or lack thereof) and the harshly critical industry they thrive in. I can only imagine how critical someone who is under this kind of judgment would be of a boyfriend or how she would deal with a relationship. Sounds messy. And if you think your girlfriend is crazy, just think about what she would be like if she was starving. Yikes.

All I can say is, I’m proud that I ate pizza for dinner.

Kim Kardashian is the smartest woman in the world.

Source: Just Jared

Yes, you read that correctly. The recently married and divorced queen of E! and reality TV, Kim Kardashian, has just earned the title of “Smartest Woman in the World.”

Of course, I’m not talking IQ. I’m talking strategy, which is essentially just as valuable. Now, Kim is a lot of things — superficial, materialistic, dramatic, showy — but stupid is not one of them. Oh, sure, she’s probably not book smart in any way, shape or form; but when it comes to making a name, nay, a brand, nay, an empire for herself, she knows exactly what she’s doing. How else do you explain her rise from relative anonymity to a household name (whether we want to admit it or not)?

Well, let’s see. Other than her moderately famous ties (her father, Robert Kardashian, was an attorney on the defense for O.J. Simpson; and her step father, Bruce Jenner, was an Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon in 1976 — and then there’s her step brother, Bruce’s son, Brody Jenner, who was a regular on reality shows “Laguna Beach” and “The Hills” on MTV), Kim has no sensible claim to fame.

Kim simply started out as a socialite who roamed in the right circles. That was the key. Kim made the right connections and wore the right skin-tight dresses to get herself noticed, for nothing more than looking pretty and being rich. She began to hang with other socialites who were known for no real reason other than their lifestyles (remember Paris Hilton?), as well as low-level celebrities and athletes. The big-busted, big-bootied Armenian beauty eventually became a professional closet organizer and occasional stylist thanks to a few celebrity friends’ recommendations.

And then she met a boy named Ray J.

I think that was probably the turning point right there. Kim recorded a little bedroom fun with the singer, brother to singer/actress Brandi; and the tape leaked in 2007. Whether she meant for the romp to be publicly consumed media or not, this is the point that Kim began milking her fifteen minutes of fame into something a little more substantial.

Kim started popping up on red carpets and at swanky Hollywood parties, and her sisters joined in on the action. Eventually, her estrogen-powered brood, plus Bruce (no, Robert’s got some estrogen in him too), caught the eye of the press and the hearts of Barbie-wannabees everywhere and got their own reality show on E! The rest is history.

Kim now has a spin-off reality show with sister Kourtney; a boutique called Dash, which she owns with Kourtney and her other sister Khloe (all the K’s are just obnoxious) in Miami and New York; several fragrances; and a new clothing line at Sears. She’s also tried her hand at singing and acting, failing miserably at both, and showed the world that just because you have a big ass doesn’t mean you can shake it from her brief time on “Dancing with the Stars.”

But it wasn’t until Kim met another “K” that things took off to a new level. Kim met Kris (no, not her mom Kris Jenner) Humphries, a New Jersey Nets basketball player last year. Kim has had a thing for athletes in the past, as she dated football player Reggie Bush on and off for several years; but Kris was the first one to stick, at least for entertainment purposes. When the two met and began dating, Kim’s fame was at its peak. The only natural step would be to get married and whore the whole thing out for a profit, giving Kim the biggest boost her career could ever hope for — and the biggest rock her ring finger could withstand.

And that’s just what they did. The wedding was lavish, excessive and hyped to no end, with some arguing that it rivaled that of the royal wedding across the pond (I wouldn’t go that far. My mom didn’t wake up at 2 am to watch Kim and Kris get married). The pair had a two-night wedding special on E! and offers from every celebrity rag for the first pictures of the exclusive nuptials (and Kim’s THREE custom Vera Wang gowns).

And we thought that the Kardashian hype would kalm down for bit, at least until “Kourtney and Kim Take New York” began airing again a couple of months after the wedding special. But Kim got us again. Just when you think she’s waning in popularity, she jumps back at ya. This past Monday, Kim kept her name on America’s tongue by filing for divorce from Kris Humphries after a mere 72 days of “marriage,” just weeks after her double-hitter wedding special aired. And the Kardashian Kaos ensued.

If it’s possible, Kim’s divorce received more media attention than her wedding, probably just what she expected. What made it funnier worse was that, rumor has it, Kim didn’t even tell Kris; he found out from TMZ! You couldn’t plan a more dramatic departure if you tried. Oh wait, you could.

I have to say, Kim really outdid herself. With a great business and marketing mind (no doubt with lots of help from her “momager”), Kim has managed to ride out what should have been a short-lived bout of fame to become a full-fledged media darling (although with headlines reading, “Kim Kardashian and the Sanctity of Marriage,” being used to propel arguments on LGBT rights, the situation might take a huge turn).

Still don’t think Kim is the smartest woman in the world? Well let’s see you try to wedge your net worth up to $35 million using just two butt cheeks and a killer smokey eye.

P.S. I would like to note that, yes, I am a fan of Kim Kardashian for certain reasons (mostly fascination); but that doesn’t mean I can’t discern my superficial obsession with her from my desire to utterly rip her a new one.