chriss_c

If you didn't already know, I'm from a small rural town in NW New Jersey complete with farms, cows, dense forests, and mountains.
You'll need to know this when you see the sign my mom texted me a picture of this afternoon:



Best.Sign.Ever! Only in Sussex County. LMAO

Two years ago I fell in love with a little band from Tennessee:

I smiled with pride watching the performance they did today at the same radio station.
Two years, lots of maturing, and over a million sold albums later, here they are again:

I love these kids. :)

I just watched The Boy In The Striped Pajamas.

It was out in my theatre for maybe two weeks, and I never got around to seeing it, but I heard stories of big burly men coming out of the theatre crying. Now I know why.

I have never seen a more depressing ending to a movie in my entire life.

Go watch it if you haven't already.

I somehow managed to pass all of my classes this semester, and with the exception of an internship this fall (that I need to start looking for), I am done with school FOREVER! I never ever thought I'd be able to say that. I was seriously thinking I'd fail at least one class and need to take something this summer, but I don't, and I can't even describe how happy that makes me.

Grades for those who care:

History of Western Music 2	C+
Drumset for Non-Percussionists	A
Conducting 2	A
Bass Lab - Lines 2	B-
Health and Wellness	B+
Elements of Vocal Tech/Non Voice	B
Guitar Perf Skills/ Non Guitarist	B+
Bass Lab - Singing and Playing	A-
Private Instruction - Bass 4	B+

I wish I could've made the C+ in History of Music higher, but that class has always been surprisingly hard for me, even knowing that I listen to more classical music than probably half the kids in my class. I always had trouble with the listening portion of the tests. I passed though, and I'm fine with that.

*Skips around the room*


PS - The No Doubt & Paramore tour starts tonight in Las Vegas, and Paramore's supposed to play two new songs off their upcoming album. I never thought I'd be this excited to see crappily camera-recorded performances on YouTube.

School's finally done for the semester, and if I pass all of my classes, then it's pretty much done forever. Just an internship to go. I walk in graduation on Saturday, and one of the musicians receiving honorary doctorates this year is Smokey Robinson. I'd like to shake his hand, but I don't know that I'll be able to. That'd be pretty sweet though... no, that'd be REALLY sweet.

This summer's going to be awesome for concerts.

Last week, I saw The Sounds (and held Maja's hand twice... oh, Maja <3) and the Believers Never Die Part Deux Tour with Fall Out Boy, Cobra Starship, All Time Low, Metro Station (who would be much better without Trace Cyrus), and Hey Monday. The Sounds was a better show because it was a frickin tiny venue, and I was two seconds away from just sitting on the edge of the stage. Fall Out Boy was great though too. Pete Wentz is such a huge doucheface, but I'm starting to realise that he knows that, and he embraces it. At one point, he walked off the stage into the audience and was attacked by 100 screaming 12-year-olds, to which I said, "He's such a douche!!" lol. As long as that douche keeps making music that I like, what can I do?

At the end of this month, I get to work at both Dave Matthews Band concerts at Fenway Park. I'm not a huge DMB fan, but I like their second album, and I definitely respect them a great deal. They're amazing musicians. I skipped out on the Phish concert at Fenway so I can go see Paper Route instead. There was no way I wouldn't. They just came out with a new album called Absence, and it's amazing, so definitely check it out.

Then there's June. Oh June. I get to see No Doubt and Paramore twice... that is if I don't die from being so close to No Doubt at the first show. I've got pit tickets for the show in Mansfield, and I have no idea what's going to happen when No Doubt goes on stage. My jaw will probably drop to the floor, and I'll just stare at them for an hour. I haven't seen them play in 12 years. I'm also beyond stoked to see Paramore (again), hear some of their new songs, and just watch them play. They are, hands down, my favorite band to see live and some of my favorite people in the world.

I don't know about other shows this summer. One tour I will not be at is that Creed tour. Who told Creed it was okay for them to get back together? *facepalm*

Okay, that's enough writing for now. Go listen to Paper Route. Do it.

Last week, I got a brand new (absolutely beautiful) Squier (cause I'm poor) Telecaster Custom. For all my non-musician friends, this:


I have about 12 other musical instruments, all with names. I don't know why I started naming them, but I did, and it's become a tradition. In the past 6 months, besides my new Tele, I bought a new bass, and a new acoustic guitar. Sometimes the names come easily (I was on the train home from Guitar Center, and the name Edward popped into my head, so that's what I named my new acoustic) and sometimes, not so much (my new Jazz Bass didn't have a set name for three weeks). I tried to think of some names for my new Tele before I even got it, but I wasn't coming up with much, so I decided that the next time Hayley from Paramore posted an LJ entry, I'd ask her for suggestions. After all, she does talk about her car Miss Anne fairly often, and I've heard stories of her bike Tilly, so who better to ask then someone else who also names inanimate objects?

After expressing interest the first time I posted, she kind of got ADD and forgot (she does that), so I posted again, and I got this:

"hahah what about daniel. frampton (peter frampton). chad (umm).


i like practical names for practical objects such as a guitar. or a car.

orrr...

beth.

or...

smelly. as in smelly the tele.

rose... from titanic.

oh my gosh. i need to sleep. i'm sorry for those pitiful attempts at naming your guitar. let me know what you decide on!"

LMAO...  so yeah, I thought Daniel was pretty sweet, and I went with that. I have to admit though, I have this ridiculous urge to name my Tele "Rose... From Titanic."

It's almost 5 o'clock in the morning, and instead of sleeping, I'm listening to two drunk people (two people my roommate hangs out with that I really don't know) in the hallway of my apartment telling their life stories to each other and playing beer pong. I have to be up in five hours for class and am very irritated right now.

If I ever questioned my decision to be straight-edge, this would be just one more reason for me not to drink. Maybe it's me, but I don't understand why getting so plastered that you reveal everything about your life to total strangers and lose your ability to understand why it might be a bad idea to start playing a loud game at 4:30 in the morning would ever be fun. Having a drink with dinner is one thing. This is something completely different, and if I were a confrontational person, there would be a broken beer pong table and some very upset drunk people in my apartment right now.

I would say I'm going to bed, but I really doubt it. The conversation started with beer pong skills, moved to dating, and they're now on to when they got high for the first time.

Well, in my opinion anyway...


In May, No Doubt will hit the road with Paramore and The Sounds (and some other band, but I don't know who they are). Three of my favorite-bands-of-ever on one tour together? Are they trying to give me a heart attack? If so, I would die happy. I can't wait to see this show... several times.


And speaking of shows, if you're in the Boston area on February 6th, please come to this one, and bring your friends:

I just got my grades back for last semester, and I passed everything! I'm surprised that's such a big thing now since in high school, I always got A's and B's, but college has been a little less than exciting for me, so I find myself not caring as much about homework and such. I was mainly worried about my private bass instruction because this summer I failed level 3 (which I wholly disagree with) and had to take it again this semester. If I somehow failed this time, I would have been screwed because I'm pretty sure the spring semester will be my last in Boston before my internship.

Grades: 

Principles of Marketing	A
Conducting 1	C
Bass Lab Lines 1	A-
Taxation	A-
Private Instruction 3	C-
Counterpoint 2	A
Concert Promo	B+

Now on to my last semester.


PS - If you're in Boston/Allston and not doing anything in this rainy, snowy, grossness, go see Paper Route open for Innerpartysystem tonight at Harper's Ferry (@ Harvard Ave & Brighton Ave).

Since I haven't posted in a while, here's a funny video:


Speaking of Oscar-type movies, I saw The Reader tonight. I read the book my freshman year of college, and I though it was great, so of course, when found out they were making it into a movie (and Kate Winslet was starring in it?? YES!), I planned on seeing it. After seeing Twilight, and nearly losing all hope in movies based on books staying true to the story--and loling at Bella's pet cactus, I was happy to see that this movie was pretty much just the book in movie form. 224 pages in 2 hours. Not bad. So if you want to read the book first, you could probably do it in an evening. Whatever you do, go see the movie. Be warned though... there's tons of nudity and sex (it fits the plot), since it takes place in Germany and obviously wasn't made by Americans. :P

No Doubt is going back on tour in '09 and will be headlining day two of The Bamboozle at Giants Stadium in NJ in May. AAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*DIES*



http://www.nodoubt.com/
 

Just saying... Dream Tour 2009: No Doubt and Paramore

Tonight, my friend Allen and I went to see a band that we first saw open this summer for Paramore, and we had the best time ever. The band is called Paper Route and, unlike most opening bands who you watch because you have to and then forget about, we loved them from the first song we heard them play. Their music is great--some compare it to Coldplay's, but if you actually listen, you'll realise that Paper Route is much better--and when you watch them play live, you can tell they absolutely love what they do. They are so into their music and love it when they see people singing the words to their songs because, apparently, that doesn't happen very often. (I refuse to believe it.)

The show was at Great Scott in Allston on the smallest stage I've ever seen, and Paper Route was, unfortunately, the opening band. There were maybe 30 or 40 people there by the time the show started, and to our surprise--and the band's--at least half of the people knew the words to their songs! We were going half thinking we would be alone as Paper Route fans, but we weren't, and that was awesome. The band only played a 30 minute set, but they kept mentioning how this was easily the best show they've had on this tour.

We talked to their bassist/keyboardist Chad for a little while before the show, and we realised that one of his old college professors now teaches at Berklee... and is my marketing professor, hahaha. We didn't talk long though because he was having problems with his bass and needed to hurry and fix it... I was ready to drive back to my apartment and get mine for him.

The show was amazing, and Allen and I were right in the front singing along the whole time. Then, after they played, we went over to the merch table to wait for the band so we could buy shirts (the girl who was sitting there didn't know where they were). They got off stage at 10:15pm, and we ended up hanging out inside with them for maybe a half hour. It was loud, but they were still awesome and amusing to watch as they tried to find shirts in the right sizes for everybody.

We got autographs, shook hands, and I gave them hugs because hugs are better than handshakes, and we put our stuff in Allen's car. Then we went back in because while we didn't want to be annoying, they kept asking if we were going to hang around, so we did. We ended up hanging out with Chad until midnight, walking over to McDonald's only to realise it was packed and heading over to Dunkin Donuts instead, where PR's drummer, Gavin, and guitar player, Josh, joined us. We talked about everything from ideas about how to promote the band to how Paramore shot their video for "That's What You Get" in Chad and Gavin's house ("Why'd they pick your house? Did they just drive past it and say, 'Oh, that house is nice. Let's film our video there!'?")... and how to play the accordion. It was a great night, and they're great guys, both as musicians and people. I got Chad's info and told him we'd keep in touch and help them out however we could... and made sure they would come back to Boston once their new album is released. It was a lot of fun hanging out with them, and I'd love nothing more than to help spread the word about their band because they really are a talented group of guys.

I also managed to burn my mouth on hot chocolate. That was the other highlight of my night, haha. No matter how hot you know it is, you just convince yourself that "maybe it's going to be a little cooler than usual." It never is.

All in all, it was an awesome night, and I met some great people. Hopefully we'll keep in touch, and we can help spread the word for them. Allen mentioned that it would look great on my resumé to be involved in helping a small band make it big, and while that would be cool too, I pointed out that, more than anything, it would just be personally rewarding to help such a great band bring their music to an even bigger audience. I also told them that it'd be awesome to somehow intern for them. That would be sweet, and an even better way to help them out. We'll see if anything ever comes of that. In the meantime...

Go check out PAPER ROUTE, one of the best bands out of Nashville...
http://www.paperrouteonline.com/

This is pretty awesome...

Take that, California...
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After much (possibly not even real) pressure, mostly from Hayley Williams but also a few coworkers, friends, and movie trailers, I have decided to read Twilight. I haven't read a book since I was 19, which was four years ago if you don't know how old I am. That book was called The Reader, and I think it's being made into a movie now. Beyond that, I haven't finished a book that wasn't assigned by a teacher in probably over 10 years. I feel like reading a book, even if it is Twilight, might help me feel a little more intelligent again... even if I still make people feel like idiots when watching Jeopardy and playing Trivial Pursuit (winning Trivial Pursuit: 20th Anniversary Edition in an hour is either the coolest or saddest part of this past summer, hahaha).

My goal is to read the book in the next two weeks, before I see the movie. Cause yes, I am seeing the movie... and I'm going to be surrounded by lots of awkward 15-year-old emo girls. Haha, it's going to be awesome, almost as awesome as being the oldest one in the theater to be excited for The Best of Both Worlds Tour in 3D was. I haven't seen HSM 3 yet, but I'm sure that will be equally as awesome (and if parents give me looks when I start singing, I'll just sing at them).

Wish me luck. I'll need it. I've been several chapters into five or six books for the past 10 years. Hopefully this will be the first book out of those that I actually finish.
If anyone wants to keep track and make sure I'm actually reading, that'd be really awesome too.

Today at the movie theater, I met Seth Meyers from SNL. Of course, I didn't want to bother him, so I just rang him up at the concession stand and let him go watch his movie. I should have said, "Hi!" and shook his hand.

I know this sketch is a few weeks old (and doesn't include Seth Meyers), but it's one of my favorite in recent months:

Because Taylor Swift is just so awesome, watch this video. And pay special attention around 4:15 to her little dig at Joe Jonas who, if you didn't know, broke up with her by phone. I think you're alright Joe Jonas, but who in their right mind would break up with TAYLOR SWIFT??? Seriously!!

Don't forget to buy her album next week. :)

We watched this parody in my marketing class, and I thought it was hilarious. :P