Creepy Amazing Music Video #4 & #5

Since I am slacking big time on posting some pics from Chicago, I decided I would put up TWO music videos for ya from two of my favorite bands I saw at Lollapalooza. The first is "Cold Dust Girl" from Hey Champ. Please be warned that the video contains a few images that are PG-13. (I will just tell you right now that two girls kiss) So you may want to just play it and check your Facebook on another tab or something because the song is really kickin. Second is "To Kingdom Come" by Passion Pit. If you want to go buy a really fun album go pick up Manners, the first full-length album from these guys. It's great. (A small parenthetical side note. I was under the impression that the name of this song was Eyes As Candles. Somehow when I *ahem* downloaded *cough* this album a few track names were switched. Let that be a lesson to us all about *ahem* downloading *cough* music.)

I'm Back Baby Doll!

Well guys, I really fudged up this time. Everything was in place for some great live photo-blogging from the Windy City, or so I thought. My dear mother lent my her computer and her laptop, but I forgot to pack the oh-so-important cord that links the two together. Whoops. That's my bad, guys. My bad.

Now, you are probably asking yourself. Why don't you just put up the pictures, you big schlub? Well, remember the broken computer? Yeah it is still kaput. It should be up and going by the weekend but will still be without a CD-ROM drive. But don't you worry faithful readers, I will find a way to get the pics up and that is a promise. I just wanted to put this up to let you know that I am here and I still love you.

I'm Peacing Out!

HA! I did a Google Image search for "peace out" and this was the first picture to show up. Even though, I have no affection for this human on any level (except the unintentional comedic level) I could not resist. Fun Fact: Two of twenty pictures on the first page were of Miley, beating out one of Britney and one of Martin Sheen. :)

Just as we all wish Miley would peace out of our lives, I am peacing out of town for a week and into the unknown of Chicago. But will I be peacing out of the blogosphere, you ask? NO....hopefully. I received great news today that my computer is fixed and ready to rock. So as long as (A) I have Internet access and (B) my computer lives longer than a week. Who am I kidding? Longer than a day. An hour. I will take what i can get people! Since both of those things are FAR from guaranteed, you have a 50/50 chance of some great blogging from ChiCity. Stay tuned.

Peace out!

PS- If any of you have ever been to Chicago and have suggestions of what to do, text me or throw something up on here.

What's Better Than Free?

Ohhh, summer. How I love it. Without the stresses of classes and homework I have been able to spend my time doing the things I do best. Taking naps, playing XBox, ultimate Frisbee, watching PTI and a string of VH1 reality shows, and going to concerts. A lot of concerts. I listened to the classic sounds of the Eagles at the beautiful Rio Tinto Stadium. I endured the darkened confines of the Urban Lounge in the name of The Helio Sequence. I even partied with thousands of teenage girls at the Pussycat Dolls/Britney Spears concerts at ESA. (If you have a problem with this I have three things to say to you: My little sister invited me, I had a great time, and deal with it.) To top all this off, in a week I will be in Chicago for the massive music, beer, and sweat-fest known as Lollapalooza. Aside from being totally awesome and sardine-esque, these concerts had one thing in common: Expensive.

Being a concert junkie and living in a town without concerts can be a pricey habit. Between gas, food, merchandise, and tickets (blast you, service fees!) it is pretty easy to spend between $30 to $100 for a show. That's of you don't care where you sit. (Grand total on the Rihanna concert expenditure of last summer was around $400. Worth it.) Luckily this summer has blessed me with the discovery of the free concert. The Twilight Concert Series (TwiCon, anyone?) at the Gallivan Center has been a revelation. With bands like Bon Iver, Jenny Lewis, Black Keys, and the incomparable M.Ward, the music has been top-notch and the crowds are energetic and entertaining. The outdoor venue provides a great setting as the sun goes down and with the shows wrapping up around ten, it is easy to get back to Logan Land at a decent hour. I've loved it so much I am considering driving to Vermont and performing a commitment ceremony to it. That was a weird thing to say.

Continuing on with my free concert high, my bro Marcus and I drove out to Park City on Tuesday for the MLS All-Star Jam featuring Soulive. Our main purpose was supporting Mar's brother, whose band, Shaky Trade, who opened the festivities. Shaky did great (I will blog about them some other time. I have seen them multiple times and they can really wail.) and after they finished, Mar and I debated on whether we should stay for this unknown (to us) band or get back home. To make a long story short, we stayed and were rewarded ten-fold. Soulive is a jazz/funk trio consisting of a drummer, guitarist, and organist. With very few vocals, the three combined to create a beat that seemed to far exceed the abilities of only three people. The highlight of the night came when a power surge cut power to half the lighting and part of the organ. Instead of waiting around for a fix, the three quickly went into improv mode and continued to tickle our collective jazz bone. To make things even sweeter after the show we joined Shaky Trade backstage for a little meet and greet with the band. I even talked to the organist. It went down like this:

Me: Hey, great show.

Mr. Evans: Thanks, man.

I wish I could have held on to that moment a little bit longer. First of all, if your jazz bone needs tickling, I highly recommend a little Soulive. Second, free concerts are wonderful. Third, have I learned my lesson and stopped spending so much money on concerts? Absolutely not. As I write this, I simultaneously have a few hundred dollars invested in Lolla, Killers, and Elton John/Billy Joel tickets. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think it all evens out somehow. But free is definitely more fun.

Here is a short clip of Soulive to give you an idea of what I got to see:

Anniversary

Thanks to Stacey, the super blogging expert, I think I may have finally solved the comment posting problems that have been plaguing the loyal readers of Paper Badge. So if you have a heart, please please please comment when you read this so I can see that it works. I will reward you by telling a hilarious, moral-driven story that happened to me last night.



This July marks the one-year (12 mo.) anniversary of my horrific, gruesome foot injury of 2008. (You think I made it clear in that sentence when that happened? Haha. I'm not even going to change it. It's 8:15 in the morning. Let's move on.) For those of you who don't know I had the misfortune of a cargo trailer landing on my foot. It was exactly as bad as it sounds. The result was a massive crater the size of a tennis ball in my right foot, which led to about one hundred stitches, crutches, numerous pain pills, and excruciating physical therapy. Bottom line: Worst summer of my life. (Looking back, I learned a lot from this experience but it still really, really sucked.)



Fast forward to last night. I was sitting around my apartment with nothing to do, and three hours to kill before the Charm School Finale. I decided I would take a walk. This is not an abnormal thing for me to do now. I love being able to put in my iPod and just start walking somewhere without an plan to where I will end up. (Logan, UT has got to be the most perfect place in the world to do this. Great scenery. Low crime rate.) Last night, I decided to make a plan. I would walk to the scene of my accident. It would be a nice opportunity to reflect on everything that has happened in the past year. Mostly, I wanted to see if the giant hole the trailer made in the parking lot was still there. It took a little over an hour for me to walk (in a round-about way) to the warehouse where it all happened. I approached the building from the backside and made my way around the corner. When I finally faced the location I had waited so long to see I was met with the most unexpected of scenes. I circle of four police cars surrounding a few officers training their police dogs. Ferocious, drug-sniffing, blood-thirsty dogs. Dogs that looked like this:

So, that might be a slight exaggeration. But I only say slight because they were not attacking a human shoulder. They were still barking, showing their teeth, and tearing into some round padded thing. I didn't want to be that round padded thing so I turned around and walked someplace else.

"Well," I said to myself "I am definitely not going there today."

I told you there would be a moral and here it is. Sometimes we are faced with obstacles we don't think we can overcome. For example, recovering from a bizarre foot accident, or posting on my blog. But, with faith, perseverance, and hard work, we can move past these obstacles. Other times, police dogs are fighting exactly where you wanted to be and it is probably better for you to forget about your goal and do something else that day.