Stephen Thompson's Austin 100

Courtney Barnett at Stubb's

I'm a massive fan of NPR Music's podcast, All Songs Considered. I learn about so much up and coming music. My favorite episodes are when Stephen Thompson, full time contributor of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, shows up to share his favorites. I have a little crush on Stephen, even though he's much older than me, because we are so on the same page when it comes to crying in corners about bands we love.

And every year before South by Southwest, Stephen curates the Austin 100, 100 tracks out of the thousands of artists that will appear at SXSW that he chooses to feature and share with listeners. They're usually just the artists that he's the most excited about seeing each year. He also provides a mp3 download of all 100 tracks over at NPR. I've been listening it to non-stop on shuffle since he released it almost a month ago now.

It's available for download until April 2nd, so get on it!

Here is a brief play list of some of my favorite tracks from these 100. Most of them are super poppy, dancy things since I'm so pumped for spring and summer to actually begin. It snowed here yesterday so I need these fun songs to distract from that! 

Stephen Thompson's Austin 100 from someswedishtrees on 8tracks Radio.

Painting Dump Trucks

My boyfriend, Josh, occasionally sands and paints dump truck for his dad's company. And I occasionally help him. It's not particularly hard work, but the days are long and can be really cold when we're trying to work during winter months.

First, we take off all lights, mudflaps, and mirrors we can. Then we usually spend some time sand blasting, depending on how rusty the bed and frame are. Josh usually does the blasting and I empty the fifty pound bags into the cylinder and shake it so the sand doesn't clog. Once we get the truck back into the garage, we then sand with a circular sander to get all the grittiness of the sandblasting away. The metal ends up really rough from the blasting, so circular sanding is totally necessary. Then, once the garage is warm enough, we set up our paint gun, mix the primer, and prime the truck's bed and frame. After another coat of primer, you can add your color! In our case, it's a nice navy blue, which is the company color. You can add another coat of color and then put allllll the lights, mud flaps, and mirrors back on. All of this usually takes at least 3-4 days, but once it's done, it's pretty rewarding and my arm muscles feel much stronger. The last time I helped Josh with sandblasting I moved 1,500 pounds of sand in one day!

Click, Click, Click

I used to take photographs ALL the time. One of my many, many cameras was with me at all times, wherever I went. However, I really fell out of the habit within the last few years and the same roll of film has been in my favorite camera for quite some time now. I'm really hoping to get my act together soon so I can get out there and take a lot of pictures! Here's some of my personal favorites from my collection over the years: 

It's so much fun taking pictures and looking back at them. These photos are from my trips to Chicago, my friend Joey's birthday, a day adventure to the Cape, some time spent at the old bog near my parents house, and one is of my wonderful cat, Belle. 

I have plans to purchase a new camera bag in the near future in order to get myself to carry my camera around with me more often. I'll also need to do some new research on films I want to use since it's been so long since I've last bought any! I can't wait!

Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever

I usually don't read anything that is an instant hit, anything that ends up on any best seller lists. I don't necessarily go out of my way to avoid these, however those types of books are usually long, unsurprising titles by James Patterson, Jodi Picoult, etc. But since I work at a book store, things like this occasionally pop out at me and I make exceptions so I can check them out. (And the store I work at allows you to take hardcover books home with you for a period of time, so I didn't have to spend the $20 on a brand new book or wait for months on a hold list at my local library. SCORE!)

All The Light We Cannot See was the best exception I've ever made.

This book follows two children/teens as they grow and learn in Europe during World War II. First, we have Marie-Laure, a girl who became blind at the age of six. She and her father live in Paris where he works at the Museum of Natural History as a lock keeper. Once she loses her sight, her father crafts a miniature version of her neighborhood, which she then re-learns by touch. Marie-Laure is twelve when the Nazi's occupy Paris and she and her father take off to her secluded great-uncle's home in Saint-Malo. With them, her father carries a jewel that could possibly be the museum's most coveted and dangerous piece, which is connected to a story about death and immortality. Unless he has one of the three fakes, of course.

Next, we have Werner from a mining town in Germany. As a boy, he finds an old radio and quickly learns the craft of restoration and repair on these new devices that will be essential to the upcoming war. With his fixed radio, he and his sister listen at night to voices far away. He is eventually placed in a school for Hitler Youth, where he is eventually taken and assigned to track the resistance using his new inventions.

While they both try to survive the devastation of WWII, Marie-Laure and Werner's stories are constantly intertwining until they finally connect and the pieces fall together.

It was an absolutely beautiful read that I would recommend to anyone, even someone who wouldn't typically read historical fiction like myself. I feel as if this book were written specially for me and I truly hope that everyone else feels the same after reading. This is now one of my all time favorites!

Carrie & Lowell

I have officially pre-order Sufjan's new album and cannot wait to hear what hasn't be released yet. Also! Tory and I are going to see him in Portland real soon. It'll be my fourth time, suckas. 

I'm interested to see what he's going to do on this tour. With the release of this album, he's going back to his roots a bit and moving away from the electronic dance stuff he was working on with Age of Adz. His performances during that time were filled with backdrops of art by Royal Robertson while Sufjan covered himself in glowy duck tape. I'm very curious to see if he'll attempt to incorporate any of the electric stuff in with his new folky songs. 

I can't wait to find out!