How I Love Dylan Saunders

Oh, Dylan Saunders, How I love you!

How I love your cute, cute face and these awesome new photos on your website.

How your beautiful voice makes me swoon and ask if it is blasphemous to prefer your version of Sami to Darren Criss's! How Lil Sis and I have oft discussed getting Dylan to sing at her wedding, because his voice is amazeballs.



How hilariously perfect your Dumbledore is.

How amazingly strong your arms must have been to play Pincer during Starship.

How adorably you played Tootsie Noodles/Tootsie MegaGirl and made us forget the part was originally intended for Darren before he got Glee and how well you sang in The Way I Do.

How excited Lil Sis and I were to see you wandering around the crowd at the ball Saturday night at Leaky Con. How I thought I saw you making your way through the crowd, tried to tell Lil Sis, but she didn't believe me at first. How we gave you hugs and told you how much we loved the show. How pumped we were about this encounter.

How much I love listening to this song you sang with Jim and Povolos. And how excited I was when this song played on iTunes directly followed by your version of Sami. I was in heaven!

w I hope that the fact that you've moved to LA doesn't mean you stop doing Starkid things, but that you will in fact make a solo ablum which I will buy immediately for everyone I know!

The Sing-Off

I'm excited that the Sing-Off is on as a regular fall show instead of a month-long special around Christmas. I'm bummed that it is on at the same time as Dancing with the Stars. However, I'm DVRing it and catching up on Wednesdays when nothing else is on :)

I love the Sing-Off; it's so much fun. I love, love, love how all of the groups have color-coordinating outfits, but they don't match, it's not like they're wearing the exact same thing, but they all wear the same color in different styles. I love seeing how everyone wears the colors in different ways.



I also love the judges and host. Nich Lachey can be awkward and super cheesy with the musical puns, but he's infinitely likeable despite that :) I've already confessed my nerd love for Ben Folds And I like the guy from Boys to Men too. I am sooooooooooo glad that Nicole Scherziwhatshername decided to defect to the X-Factor for two reasons. 1) I'm not watching the X-Factor 2)Now she can't be on the Sing-Off. I like Sara Bareilles much, much more. She seems so fun and real, at least through the first episode. I like how she made comments about how bad her note-taking was (when one of her notes was, You're all so good-looking.) Hopefully she keeps it up the whole season.

Umm I also love their names. They are so clever. My fav. name this season was The Cat's Pajamas. I was very sad when they got kicked out the first week :( In fact there were four groups I really liked and two were the two that got kicked off (The Cat's Pajamas and the one with the 8 siblings).

So my two favs are Vocal Point the Mormon guys group (please love with me the fact that they changed it from "looking for a can of ale" to "looking for a can of ginger ale" :) and the Yellow Jackets. Although there are still another whole group of eight that haven't sung yet.

I'm looking forward to a season full of color coordinated, high energy fun!

It Makes My Heart Happy

Darren Criss (aka Blaine from Glee) is pretty much the best ever. I love his dancing and his cute cute face. Also his singing talent. And how awesome he and the Warblers (who happen to be voice by the Bubs of season one of the sing-off) were. Any song the Warblers sang was pretty much guaranteed to be better than the original.Also he went to U of M. Also that he was in a Very Harry Potter Musical.

If you start watching this make sure you have a couple of hours available to view the whole thing, plus the sequel, which I have yet to watch...)

Linky Round-Up

I saw two videos online today that I just had to share :)

The first is pretty much the best video ever. As I wrote about here I loved watching the Glee Project. Cameron ended up winning the Bing Fan Favorite (I hate Bing, btw). Apparently, Cameron decided include his BFF and Glee Project winner Damian in this video (I think he got to do this video because he was the fan favorite...) Which I think is super sweet. Anyway, they are singing Haven't Met You Yet, which is one of my very favoritest songs Enjoy!



Clip #2 aired during the VMA's last night. I did not watch, there was a How I Met Your Mother Marathon on... It is a teaser trailer for Hunger Games!!!!!!! Yay! Don't get too excited, it is very short as they are still filming the movie, but it is nice to see anway. There is some debate about whether the male voice is Peeta or Gale. Listen for yourself and post your thoughts in the comments. Personally I think either guy would give Katniss that type of speech, but I think the voice sounds more like Liam Hemsworth (Gale), but I'm not certain.

AI Boyfriends

When I was in high school I watched American Idol religiously. I was a major Clay Aiken fan (when he was still a geeky nerd)
and my little 14-year old heart was crushed when he lost.

This was before he started looking like a creepster...



After Chris Daughtry failed to make it far in the competition and Taylor Hicks won I lost interest. I mean please, look at what Chris Daughtry has gone on to do; he's had tons of popular songs...


I mean I went to see Daughtry's concert last year. Who is going to see Taylor Hicks in concert? No one.


Also I left for college and none of my roomies watched it, so it fell off my viewing list.

Momma and Daddy continued to watch it, so I would catch the end of the season. I knew that when I was home for the whole season, I would get sucked in. I tried to watch The Good Wife and White Collar from Tuesday nights on Wednesday nights online instead of watching AI. But one week, White Collar wasn't online, so I watched the end of AI. The next week I didn't even watch the Good Wife online until after Idol was over. I was sucked back in like I knew I would be.

I'm sure there will be times I get annoyed and frustrated with how America votes, but in the wise words of Bruno Tonioli, "You can't moan, if you don't phone." But for now, here are my two fav. guys. They both make my heart so very happy.

Scotty McCreery-

This guy is 17 years old and has the deepest voice ever. He is a fabulous country singer. I would probably buy his CD even though the only type of country I like is poppy Taylor Swift/ Carrie Underwood country. But he is that good.

Also he felt horrible after 15-year old cutie pie Jacee got kicked out of Scotty's group during the group round. He felt so bad and it was very sincere. Made me like him even more.

The cute little faces he was making as he sang last night, paired with his gorgeous deep voice- love him! I wish I could find a video of his performance from last night, but there isn't one up yet, so enjoy his audition :)

Paul McDonald-

His unique voice, his stellar smile, his quirky dancing, his style- they make me swoon. I could listen/watch this guy sing all day!!! So attractive.

Here is video of him the night they sang the Beatles- aka the night I fell for him.  Such an interesting and unique voice!

His performance this week was stellar too, but again, not posted online yet...

I hope they make it far. Who are you rooting for?

Let It Be

I love, love, love the song, "Let it Be." I've never been the biggest Beatles fan (I used to dislike them, but I think it mostly pre-teeny angst trying to annoy Big Sis who loved them...). I think they're great and all that, but I've just never been a Mega Fan.

But I loooooooooooove Let it Be. I think part of this love is based on one of my high school bff's high school dance recitals. One of the advanced ballet classes danced to Let it Be and it was gorgeous.

I think it's such a beautiful song. The lyrics are so simple, but uplifting. The melody is also very fabulous.


When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.

And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree,
there will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is still a chance that they will see,
there will be an answer. let it be.

Let it be, let it be, .....

And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light, that shines on me,
shine until tomorrow, let it be.
I wake up to the sound of music, mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

Let it be, let it be, .....



It makes me smile and makes my heart happy and hopeful.

This guy on American Idol just sang Let it Be, which is what inspired this rather random, unorganized post...

Day 13

A Picture of your Favorite Artist/Band

I hate picking a favorite singer, so here are the top three most played artists on my itunes.

1) Rascal Flatts. This surprised me, but I love "God Bless the Broken Road."

2) Taylor Swift. Love her.

3) Glee, of course!

My Sing-Off Crushes

Momma, Daddy and I love watching the Sing-Off. They got me hooked last year, when I loved the Bubs, who now do the back-up vocals for the Warblers on Glee! I am always amazed by these singers and their ability to make the sounds of instruments. Awesome!

This year my fav. group is Committed. Daddy likes them too, but Momma is partial to Street Corner Symphony (she always likes the southern rockers...)

I've got two Sing-Off crushes this season.

1) Ben Folds, who is one of the judges.
He's such a dork and I love it! His comments are always filled with a ton of technical jargon that no one gets, but he still says them anyway, as if to bring some credibility to the show.

Adorablespice.


2)The tall, skinny guy in Committed- He is in the middle. I love all of these guys because they started off singing in church. They're such sweet Christian guys that are embarrassed doing "sexy" Backstreet Boys dance moves :) And this guy is just the cutest thing ever!!

Here they are doing I Want it That Way

They'd better win!

Epic Weekend

Last weekend my parents went to visit big sis and bro-in-law, leaving lil sis and I with the house to ourselves for a weekend- an Epic Weekend.

Epic Weekend existed of four parts the first two of which are chronicled here.

Epic Weekend- Part I- Backstreet's Back!

Yes, Lil Sis and I attended the Backstreet Boys concert on Friday night!!!! It was amazingsauce!!!!

We got lawn tix for $15 which we agreed were the best fifteen bucks we've ever spent! Aren't we adorable?
:)

Waiting... in the beautiful summer evening!

The lawn was definitely more crowded than the seats :)

The Opening Act- Mindless Behavior (aka 4 12 year old boys...)

Then our favorite boy band!! I couldn't really get any good pictures...



But it was an awesome concert! Lil Sis and I were up and rocking out the entire time!!! We were a little worried they'd play a bunch of their new stuff that we didn't know/care about. But they played a lot of their old stuff. Probably two of every three songs were oldies but goodies. There were like 4 or 5 costume changes including one when they were dressed as robots. Also during costume changes they played trailers of movies with BSB as the leads, the best was Brian as the prince in Enchanted :)

Here's my boy!

I <3 Brian and his adorable little son. To start the show this adorable curly headed kid came out. He said, "Are you ready for the Backstreet Boys? Here's Nick, Howie, A.J., and of course my dad, Brian!" So cute!!!

Here we are with our excited faces!

The weather stayed pretty good for most of the concert, but about half an hour before the end it started sprinkling, then I got a text from a friend saying there were tornado watches in the area... I figured that if it was bad they would stop the concert. Then it started pouring!!! and we saw lightning flashes in the distance. We were soaked, but it was so fun!!! When it was over everybody splashed in puddles all the way to the exit. The rain definitely made the night :) Here we are in the car after the show

So Awesome!!!! If you have a chance to see BSB definitely do it, so worth the money!!

Epic Weekend Part II- Seeing Toy Story 3 in Imax. Neither Lil Sis nor I had ever seen a movie in Imax so we decided to check it out.

The movie was awesome! I laughed, I cried (almost), I definitely left feeling satisfied! For peeps my age it was cool to have Andy grow up with us and be dealing with similar life situations as us now (i.e. going away to college). Pixar does it again! Seriously, their movies never stink and usually always rock! Definitely check this one out!

The True American Idol

Last weekend, lil sis and I made a trek across the state to attend the Lifehouse/Daughtry concert! We loved Chris Daughtry on American Idol (he totes should have won; Taylor Hicks beat him, seriously??? that is not cool).

We met up at a friend's apartment and walked downtown for dinner. We went to this custom burger place. I had a chicken burger with swiss cheese, lettuce and bacon. Delish! Plus my order didn't come out with everyone else's so it was free! Plus they had awesome fries. My friend's roomie ordered ostrich meat. It pretty much tasted like beef, which was kinda disappointing.

Then lil sis and I walked to the concert, which was really nice becuase we didn't have to pay to park! Big Thanks to Laura for letting us crash at her place :)

When we got to our seats lil sis and I had a two person row! We were in the corner so there were only two seats in our row, which was nice cause no one got up and walked in front of us.



I hadn't been to a concert in a long time, so I wasn't sure what I should wear. But I ended up with my cutest dark jeans, a brown tank top and some fun gold jewelery (my New Moon gold motorcycle necklace :) And of course my new yellow wedges!


The opening, opening act was Cavo.
They were pretty good, I'm not rushing out to buy (or download) their CD, but they were entertaining.

Then we waited while they changed the stage for Lifehouse...
They were really good! They played about 9 songs, four or five of which we knew. It would have been better if we'd known more of the songs on their new album, but all of the songs/ performances were good!


Then came Daughtry!!
Again we probably only knew about 1/2 - 2/3 of the songs, but it was a really good show! I would definitely recommend it!!


This is the girl from one section over who was dancing all night! Until security made her move :(

After approx. five awkward minutes after Daughtry left the stage and some people left the arena and some people were waiting for an encore... Daughtry came back out for two more songs. During "Home" the lead singer of Lifehouse, Jason, came out and sang, which was cool.

Then we walked back to Laura's apartment and crashed for the night. The next day we headed back across the state, in two cars, which was kinda fun :)

Then we bought tickets to see the Backstreet Boys in June :D

p.s. is a list of concerts I have been too
1) Faith Hill/Tim McGraw- my friend got free tix the day of because it was going to be a TV special and they had to fill all of the seats
2) O-Town- yup I am that awesome
3) Clay Aiken/ Kelly Clarkson- I really wish I had cared more about Kelly Clarkson at this point, because now I really like her music
4) Clay Aiken - yes, again...
5) Josh Gracin- he was the homecoming conert at school one year, plus he's from Michigan!
6)TransSiberian Orchestra- awesome, but very loud, wear earplugs
7) Daughtry/Lifehouse- see above

In Defense of Taylor

Lately I've been reading some articles criticizing Taylor Swift and her song lyrics for sending young girls the wrong messages. The complaints I've heard have centered around two songs- "Fifteen" and "You Belong With Me." I find these criticisms fairly ignorant...

For reference, before I get on my rant, here are the lyrics to "Fifteen"
You take a deep breath and you walk through the doors
It's the morning of your very first day
And you say hi to your friends you ain't seen in a while
Try and stay out of everybody's way

It's your freshman year and you're gonna be here
For the next four years in this town
Hoping one of those senior boys will wink at you and say
"You know, I haven't seen you around before"

'Cause when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you
You're gonna believe them
And when you're fifteen feeling like there's nothing to figure out
Well, count to ten, take it in
This is life before you know who you're gonna be
Fifteen

You sit in class next to a redhead named Abigail
And soon enough you're best friends
Laughing at the other girls who think they're so cool
We'll be outta here as soon as we can

And then you're on your very first date and he's got a car
And you're feeling like flying
And you're momma's waiting up and you're thinking he's the one
And you're dancing 'round your room when the night ends
When the night ends

'Cause when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you
You're gonna believe them
When you're fifteen and your first kiss
Makes your head spin 'round
But in your life you'll do things greater than
Dating the boy on the football team
But I didn't know it at fifteen

When all you wanted was to be wanted
Wish you could go back and tell yourself what you know now

Back then I swore I was gonna marry him someday
But I realized some bigger dreams of mine
And Abigail gave everything she had to a boy
Who changed his mind and we both cried

'Cause when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you
You're gonna believe them
And when you're fifteen, don't forget to look before you fall
I've found time can heal most anything
And you just might find who you're supposed to be
I didn't know who I was supposed to be at fifteen

Your very first day
Take a deep breath girl
Take a deep breath as you walk through the doors.

The article I read was saying that this song was sending bad messages to girls about what life was like at fifteen, that it was promoting some of the actions in the lyrics. I think if you listen to the song it is not promoting these activities. It is saying that things that you think are extremely important at fifteen aren't really that important in the scheme of your life. Dating a football player may seem like a big deal at 15, but it really isn't. Going all the way with a boy leads to heartache. Having bigger dreams that just love. I think that these are messages we want our young women to receive. These are definitely lessons I want my future daughters to learn. If these critics listened more carefully to the lyrics they would see that it is sending out good messages to young girls.

Here are the lyrics to the other criticized song "You Belong with Me."
You're on the phone with your girlfriend, She's upset
She's going off about something that you said
She doesnt get your humour like I do

I'm in the room, its a typical Tuesday night
I'm listening to the kind of music she doesnt like
And she'll never know your story like I do

But she wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts
She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers
Dreaming bout the day when you wake up and find
That what you're lookin for has been here the whole time

If you could see that I'm the one who understands you
Been here all along so why can't you see?
You belong with me
You belong with me

Walkin the streets with you in your worn out jeans
I cant help thinking this is how it ought to be
Laughing on the park bench thinkin to myself
Hey isnt this easy?

And you've got a smile that could light up this whole town
I havent seen it in awhile, since she brought you down
You say you find I know you better than that
Hey, Whatcha doing with a girl like that?

She wears high heels, I wear sneakers
She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers
Dreaming bout the day when you wake up and find
That what you're looking for has been here the whole time

If you could see that I'm the one who understands you
Been here all along so why can't you see?
You belong with me

Standin by, waiting at your back door
All this time how could you not know that?
You belong with me
You belong with me

Oh I remember you driving to my house in the middle of the night
I'm the one who makes you laugh when you know you're about to cry
I know your favorite songs and you tell me about your dreams
I think I know where you belong. I think I know it's with me.

Can't you see that I'm the one who understands you?
Been here all along so why can't you see?
You belong with me

Standing by or waiting at your back door
All this time how could you not know that
You belong with me
You belong with me

Have you ever thought just maybe
You belong with me
You belong with me

I find the person that was arguing that this song sends the wrong messages to young girls pretty crazy. Said person was arguing that this song is promoting girls sitting on the sidelines and not doing anything- i.e. the lines "I'm on the bleachers." However, I find this a very odd perspective. I feel like this line is saying that you don't have to be a cheerleader to fit in, get the boy, enjoy life... The point isn't that she is sitting there doing nothing, it is that she is choosing a different path, not the path of popularity and cheerleading, which is to be admired. Plus it's not like she is totally uninvolved, she is at a school sporting event. When I listen to the song I actually picture her, in that line, as a member of the band, sitting in the bleachers, playing for the football or basketball team. I think that the person who criticized this song, was taking one line out of context and using it to say that Taylor is anti-feminist, but I actually find this song and that line in context to be very pro-feminist- saying it is OK to be your own person and not fit that typical stereotype. The young woman in the song is going to be who she is and be loved for that.

I'm not saying that every one of Taylor Swift's song is a banner for feminism (Love Story, probably not so much, Fearless- probably yes) but I just took issue with the those picking at these particular songs.

<3

I Haven't Met You Yet

I was driving home from school the other day and I heard this song:

I'm Not Surprised
Not Everything Lasts
I've Broken My Heart So Many Times,
I Stop Keeping Track.
Talk Myself In
I Talk Myself Out
I Get All Worked Up
And Then I Let Myself Down.

I Tried So Very Hard Not To Loose It
I Came Up With A Million Excuses
I Thought I Thought Of Every Possibility

And I Know Someday That It'll All Turn Out
You'll Make Me Work So We Can Work To Work It Out
And I Promise You Kid That I'll Give So Much More Than I Get
I Just Haven't Met You Yet

Mmmmm ....

I Might Have To Wait
I'll Never Give Up
I Guess It's Half Timing
And The Other Half's Luck
Wherever You Are
Whenever It's Right
You Come Out Of Nowhere And Into My Life

And I Know That We Can Be So Amazing
And Baby Your Love Is Gonna Change Me
And Now I Can See Every Possibility

Mmmmm ......

And Somehow I Know That It Will All Turn Out
And You'll Make Me Work So We Can Work To Work It Out
And I Promise You Kid I'll Give So Much More Than I Get
I Just Haven't Met You Yet

They Say All's Fair
And In Love And War
But I Won't Need To Fight It
We'll Get It Right
And We'll Be United

And I Know That We Can Be So Amazing
And Being In Your Life Is Gonna Change Me
And Now I Can See Every Single Possibility

Mmmm .....

And Someday I Know It'll All Turn Out
And I'll Work To Work It Out
Promise You Kid I'll Give More Than I Get
Than I Get Than I Get Than I Get

Oh You Know It'll All Turn Out
And You'll Make Me Work So We Can Work To Work It Out
And I Promise You Kid To Give So Much More Than I Get
Yeah I Just Haven't Met You Yet

I Just Haven't Met You Yet
Oh Promise You Kid
To Give So Much More Than I Get

I Said Love Love Love Love Love Love Love .....
I Just Haven't Met You Yet
Love Love Love .....
I Just Haven't Met You Yet

And I was in love :) I love this song! I think it is fabulous and I think Michael Buble's voice is amazing! I'd heard him sing before and wasn't super impressed. After I heard this I listened to some of his other stuff and love it.

You can watch/listen here and fall in love yourself!

There's someone out there for you, you just haven't met him yet!