"He doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but he talks like a gentleman, like you imagined when you were young." ~the killers

Right now I am listening to what has been, to me, the most anticipated album of the past 2 years. Sam's Town, by The Killers, has finally leaked. It's being released next week and I preordered it a long time ago, but I got my hands on it ahead of time and I'm trying to decide what I think. This is a huge deal to me; I'm obsessed with music and, in particular, with The Killers. And the release of their sophomore album is pretty important. Now everyone gets to see if Hot Fuss was just a fluke or if these guys are the real thing (which I know they are). I haven't finished listening to the whole thing and I need at least a few listens to solidify my thoughts, but my initial reaction is that it's good. It has a slightly different sound from Hot Fuss, which isn't necessarily a bad thing (I LOVE Hot Fuss, which means it's pretty hard to top, and I like that they're experimenting with new sounds). They're thinking big on this album (which is both good and bad). Everyone's been making the Bruce Springsteen comparisons, which are definitely valid (especially on When You Were Young), but I wouldn't put too much weight on them. I think The Killers are great at creating their own sound by drawing from a wide variety of inspirations (mostly from the 80s). Right now I'd say I like Hot Fuss better than Sam's Town, but the new album might grow on me, and it's definitely not bad.
Listening to the album makes me sad in a way because I've been looking forward to it for so long, and now that expectation is gone.
Sam's Town should make for some pretty good concerts (it's good concert music). Here's one of my favorite pictures that I've ever taken. It's Brandon Flowers, the soul of The Killers, in one of my favorite concerts ever.

"We were wanna be rebels who didn't have a clue, with our Rock n' roll T-shirts and our typically bad attitudes. Had no excuses for the things that we'd done, we were brave, we were crazy, we were mostly young." ~kenny chesney

I love live albums/bootlegs. In case you haven't picked up on that already. They're pretty much all I listen to. Kenny Chesney's new live album, Live Those Songs Again, is great. I've been listening to it a lot lately. My favorite song on it is "Anything but Mine;" it's such a beautiful song. Here's an example of why I love live recordings. During this song, at one point Kenny starts to sing the chorus. He manages to get out, "And in the morning I'm..." and then he stops singing, in the middle of the line, right after "I'm." Because the audience is singing so loudly that he's shocked and lets them sing it alone. So he sings "And in the morning I'm..." and the audience keeps going with, "leaving, making my way back to Cleveland, so tonight I hope I would do just fine." And then Kenny joins in again for, "And I don't see how you could ever be anything but mine." It's such a beautiful moment, because you know he wasn't expecting it. The audience was just feeling the song and they took over. And he stopped singing in the middle of a line and let them. Those moments are fantastic. That's why I love live music; it's so unexpected. Even if you know a song, you can hear so many different versions of it and each time you'll get something new and special out of it.
Counting Crows are, of course, the kings of live music and always will be. No one else can do what they can do live. But I still like listening to other people try. And Kenny Chesney does a decent job on his live record.

"Let the music take your mind, just release and you will find, you're gonna fly away, glad you're goin' my way. I love it when we're cruisin' together." ~smokey robinson

Tonight was Proclamation Night. For those non-UR students, that means that the senior women got to wear our graduation gowns, take a class picture, and go a ceremony where we received letters that we wrote to ourselves as freshmen. I wasn't expecting much from my letter, but I surprised myself. I was quite a talented, profound writer as a freshman. In fact, it's slightly disappointing that I'm so impressed with my freshman self; it makes me wonder how much I've grown. Of course there were some funny, freshmanesque instances in my letter; I expressed my desire to have found my future husband by the time I graduate. Heh.

I've been really busy lately. Last week was insane. As a writing fellow I had to meet with 25 Core students to discuss their essays. It made me frightened for Richmond's future. I've also started a pretty intense babysitting job; I babysit 8-10 hours a week for a 5-year old girl. She's a great kid, but it just takes up a lot of time, so I have to figure out how to balance that with my schoolwork and everything else. But I'll manage. I always do.

“We keep on waiting, waiting on the world to change. One day our generation is gonna rule the population. So we keep on waiting, waiting on the world to change.” ~john mayer

I’m listening to John Mayer’s new CD, Continuum, right now. It hasn’t been released yet, but of course it’s already leaked. It’s not bad. My favorite song is "Dreaming with a Broken Heart." It's beautiful. I also like "I'm Gonna Find Another You." The album has a very similar sound to his previous albums, but I think he’s matured. Of course, to completely discount that maturity statement I just provided, you should read the new Rolling Stone interview with him. Here are a few highlights (not for those easily offended):

On porn:
“I bought myself a Playgirl once. I just loved the feeling that there was a porno you really, really weren’t supposed to have…Not to say I wouldn’t enjoy the energy of watching a guy and girl have sex. I think I’d vomit out of pure arousal. Have you ever seen a guy and girl have sex in person?”
On press interviews:
"I’m at a point right now where the more I talk, the more I’m going to say something in the next twelve months that’s going to damage my career.”
On Brangelina:
“Everyone thinks Brad Pitt has it great because he married Angelina Jolie. I think he has it terrible, because when Angelina Jolie is giving you a blow job, what do you tip your head back and think of to help you finish? You have nothing left – just Jesus on a polar bear in the middle of the snow saying, ‘You greedy motherf-cker, I’ve got nothing for you.’”
On being on tour:
“I slept with, like, three girls a week.”
On his private parts:
“I’m not worried about how small my penis is – I’m worried about how dark it is. I have a Dominican penis. My penis hit six home runs last year; my penis wears shoes without socks.”
On the media:
“Everybody right now in the world of entertainment is a p-ssy. A p-ssy. They’re all so sensitive. What the f-ck happened?”

On another musical note, the new album I REALLY cannot wait for is Sam’s Town by The Killers. I’ve heard a few of the songs and they’re fantastic. I don’t think I can wait until October 3d for it to be released. Did anyone see them on the VMAs? They closed the show with "When You Were Young" and really tore it up. They're one of the best live bands I've ever seen. I talk about their Central Park concert all the time because it was such an amazing experience for me; I can't even describe what it's like being in the front row, directly in front of them (making eye contact every once in awhile), singing along to all their songs and being caught up in the indescribeable energy that they generate.

I guess I haven’t updated since being back at school. I’ve been pretty busy. So far I’m loving my senior year, though. My apartment is fantastic, my roommates are amazing, my classes are (for the most part) interesting and manageable…so everything is going really well. I miss MTV, though.

"Hand out the window, Floatin’ on air, Just a flip of the wrist, I’d be wavin’ you goodbye..." ~dashboard confessional

That's my song of the moment. I can't stop listening to it; I play it over and over. I absolutely love it. Adam Duritz sings "background" vocals, although his part is much more prominent than most background roles. It's a beautiful song on its own, but his participation makes it perfect. I seriously can't describe what his voice does to me. Just the way he says "town" in this song makes me want to cry and scream for joy at the same time. His distinctive, emotional voice floats through the song and layers it with something that I can't explain. Can you imagine how excited I am to see Counting Crows in a few weeks? I seriously can't wait.

Sorry I haven't posted in forever. I've been incredibly busy this summer with work. The hours are really intense with this job. I usually don't get home until after 8pm on days that I'm in the office. There have been lots of shoots lately (1-2 a week), and those last at least 14 hours, so with traveling time I'm often out of my house from around 4am until after midnight. So I've been busy. But good. Shoots are fun even though they're tiring. Last week we had one at Sam Ash's house (the owner of Sam Ash music stores). It was pretty cool. He has this room full of guitars (maybe about 30), and each one is hanging up in front of a music poster of a band, so I think they're guitars from those bands. I was impressed.

Another example of how my job can be cool: last week I got to go buy the first season of Laguna Beach on DVD and then "watch" the entire thing. I only had about an hour in which to do that, though, because I was only supposed to be looking for bedroom scenes (we needed to see what the kids' bedrooms looked like to use as models for the commercial we filmed at Sam Ash's house). It was an interesting assignment. Watching Laguna Beach in fast forward is pretty funny; I recommend trying it if you're ever bored and in need of a laugh. The drama seeps out even without the sound; in fact, the intensity of the teens' emotions and relationship angst seems heightened when the show is moving so quickly.

Funny story: last week I was walking on Prince Street after picking up some tapes for my job, and Paris Hilton walked out of a store just as I was passing on the sidewalk. So I ended up standing right in front of her/next to her. There was this papparazzi guy there and I was blocking his shot, so he yelled "MOVE!" to me and pushed me out of his way. I almost got knocked over. You can imagine how significant that made me feel, being shoved out of the way so this guy could get a photo of Paris Hilton leaving a store. I almost felt bad for Paris Hilton (almost). She can't even go shopping without being followed.

Let's see, what else...I've seen some good movies lately and have gotten to spend time with my friends who are around, for which I'm grateful. I recently got to see my friend Christin, which was lots of fun. I stayed at her apartment in NYC and we got up really early to go see The Beach Boys perform live on Good Morning America. It's a great summer so far, and it's going by so quickly. I can't believe I'll be starting my senior year so soon.