Dropped some cash on some rad concert tickets today. (Wait. I don’t talk like that.)

A few months ago, a colleague told me about this thing called “The Sasquatch Festival” up at The Gorge Amphitheatre in the great state of Washington.  I thought to myself..hmmm that sounds like fun, I wonder who will be there this year?  Well, they finally announced the lineup Monday, I scrolled through the internet to find the pre-sale password, and today I purchased a 3-Day pass to the event!!

I’m pretty excited as the day one lineup is particularly stellar, and this will be my very first big music festival.

5/29: Day 1: The National, Broken Social Scene, Mike Snow, The Middle East, My Morning Jacket

5/30: Day 2: Massive Attack, Pavement, Tegan and Sara, The xx, Midlake, Freelance Whales

5/31: Day 3: MGMT, Band of Horses, New Pornographers, Camera Obscura, Telekinesis

What do you think? Who wants to join?! Road trip, camping, hiking, drinking, live music? What more could you want!?

Music, Personal

I was in the saddle for two hours today and it felt like two minutes.  Either the training I’ve been doing has made me stronger, or when I’m on my bicycle I just have no concept of time (or anything, really).

Personal

Well it is the beginning of February and no that does not mean Super Bowl time that means KCRW Winter Subscription drive time.

KCRW 89.9fm is a non-profit radio station that airs out of Santa Monica College.  In my opinion, it is one of the finest radio stations in the country, if not world (!?!).  I have been in Los Angeles for a year and half now, and it seems that each month I listen to KCRW more and more.

They have a perfect blend of programming. If I’m up super early, I get NPR’s Morning Edition, which “prepares listeners for the day ahead with two hours of up-to-the-minute news, background analysis, commentary, and coverage of arts and sports.” Following the news is my favorite KCRW program, Morning Becomes Eclectic.  I often find myself introducing my friends and colleagues to different artists and songs. Well, my “secret” is that I discover a great deal of them through Jason Bentley and the morning program.  The program is supplemented by quick NPR news blasts and live in-studio performances.

If that wasn’t enough, most everything aired on KCRW is archived and can be played on demand via their website.  I also enjoy Anne Litt and Nic Harcourt on the weekends.  There are programs for everyone on KCRW.  They have an extremely diverse graphic, including age.  Young, old, or in between, there is something for everyone at KCRW.

Along with the music programs, they offer several hours of NPR programming.  I cannot stress enough how important NPR is in my life and yours as well.  Let’s face it…NBC is liberal, Fox is conservative, and CNN is just retarded. (Can I say that?  Well I did…)  All three in my opinion are not credible places to ascertain news.  NPR is the only way to get news that I trust, as well as news that hasn’t been spun upside down and inside out a fifteen times.

What I believe makes NPR and KCRW work, is that it is both non-profit and listener supported.  Which is where you come in.  If you live in the greater Los Angeles area, please consider making a donation to KCRW!  If you donate over fifty buck’s you get this little discount (Fringe Benefit) card that will save you money all over the city.  If you are from another city, find out what your local NPR station is and give them a donation.  I know times are tough, but listener supported, un-filtered local radio is just something we cannot afford to lose.

DONATE NOW – KCRW

DONATE NOW – NPR

Personal

I was here today, where were you?

Personal

YES.

•   Motion City Soundtrack: My Dinosaur Life
•   Fanfarlo: Reservoir
•   A Clean Apartment.
•   Sleeping in.
•   Coffee.
•   Friends that can sing.
•   Receiving compliments on how good my hair smells.
•   Bar-B-Que sauce.

NO.

•   Rain in Los Angeles.
•   (Monday) morning traffic on the 405.
•   Forgetting to do laundry.
•   Natural disasters in poor countries.

MAYBE.

•  Love.
•  Waking up early to exercise.

Personal

Wow.  What an exciting weekend.  I spent a good hour or two re-ripping some CDs I had on hand into my iTunes library.  When I had originally ripped them,  iTunes default import settings converted the tracks to ACC files.  I need them to be MP3s.  Why you ask?   Because my car’s CD player plays MP3 discs.  Which means?   It means awesome.  Instead of being limited by the 1-hour or so audio CD, I can burn a MP3 audio disc with folders of music.  For example, I can burn all of Bayside (Sirens and Condolences, Bayside, Bayside Acoustic, The Walking Wounded, Bayside Live at the Bayside Social Club, The Walking Wounded Gold Edition, and Shudder) all on one CD.  Which also means safety!  I won’t be fiddling around with multiple discs; I simply can just switch from folder to folder.  Are you bored yet?

Earlier in the day I was going to update my budget (seriously, I’m going for the most boring post ever), while watching the amazing Brett Favre and his Vikings, but my computer shut off after being away from a power source for 10 minutes!  WTF!  I wanted to chuck my computer to the ground.  I’ve had this thing for 3 and half years and it has eaten like 3 or 4 batteries.  And batteries aren’t cheap.  At 120 bucks a pop, I would like a battery to last more than one year.  There’s an application called Coconut Battery that monitors battery life.  This is mine.  Only 96 battery load cycles.  Now, I understand.  You buy a car you’ll eventually need to change it’s tires.  So I shouldn’t get too upset when I need to change the battery.  However, my situation is a little ridiculous.  Get it together, Mac.  Finally NewerTech, a third party manufacturer, is making replacement batteries for the MacBookPro.  They are cheaper and presumably better.  (There’s no way to go but up?)

Tip: Batteries should be changed in a Mac about every 300 cycles.  If you want to know your cycle count, you can use Coconut Battery, or within your mac go to Apple –> About This Mac –> More Info –> Power –> Under Battery Information –> Health Info –> Cycle Count.  Of course, that is just a gauge.  Rate your computer on it’s performance.  If it’s sluggish, and you’ve never changed your battery, a fresh piece of power might help.

So after I watched Favre put away the Cowboys, I putzed upstairs, plugged Conrad (my computer) in, and finished updating my budget.  Here’s another tip.  There is a gorgeous finance application for a Mac called Squirrel.  Yes, I just said gorgeous and finance in the same sentence, and yes the software is called Squirrel.  It allows you to set up accounts for your credit card, cash, and checking accounts.  You can set up categories to sort your expenses and income.  There’s charts and graphs and say you’ve set up $100 to spend on recreation, and you’ve already spent $90, well you know it’s going to be a movie rental weekend.  Yes, I know it seems very tedious and boring and who the %&*$ has time to do all that, but the dividends are great.  At the end of the month you see where the hell all your money went.  And then when you get really good at it, you know where your money’s going before you even spend it.  And maybe you save it. (I’m working on that.) And like I said it’s much prettier than an excel spreadsheet.

So, with the knowledge that my computer battery is a piece of crap, and with the knowledge that I don’t have much room in my budget to spend on things other than food, gas, and rent (no new battery anytime soon), I decided it’s a good idea to back up my computer in case it explodes.  That didn’t take too long because I’m actually pretty good about backing up.  (Had a hard drive crash once.  After that, you become pretty proactive with making sure your data is protected.)  Then I did some more maintenance.

I have a 100GB hard drive, so I try to free up space when I get a chance.  There is a free application called Grand Perspective that scans your hard drive and gives you a visual of the data.  The screen shot is after my initial clean up, but I had some huge blocks of video files that I ended up getting rid of.  Following the space scan, I ran TechToolPro’s computer suite tests.  Surprise, surprise Conrad failed the temperature test.  Seriously, he gets up to 190 degrees.  Luckily, other than that he was fine.

This is what happens when it rains on the weekend and I am unable to unwind with a nice long bike ride.

Personal

Last Thursday night I attended a show featuring the lead singers of a few of my favorite bands.  Anthony Raneri, lead singer of my beloved Bayside kicked things off.  Even though I think the band has sold out (over produced recent album, t-shirts in Hot Topic!?, obnoxious scenesters that attend their shows, maybe I’m just old…), I thought Anthony’s performance was awesome.  His voice is one of a kind.  When Anthony sings, the sound waves in the room convert to a form of purity unlike any other.  Not to mention, this was at the Troubador, which is my favorite venue in Los Angeles.

Following Mr. Bayside was Chris Conley.   Saves the Day anyone?  The last time I saw Saves the Day I was at Waterstreet Music Hall in Rochester, NY with my best friend Jen.  Unfortunately, we had to leave early because I had to be back in my room by 12am so I could email a scholarship application for Japan.  It was a great show from what I saw, and yes…I got the scholarship.  A great show, and 5 grand for Japan.  Sadly, Thursday’s performance wasn’t as good.  Ah well, the memories.

Third was Matt Pryor.  Last year, my friend introduced me to his solo work.  What a gem.  Pryor was a bit nervous (and drunk), but put together a nice set.  He mixed in some Get Up Kids and New Amsterdams, along with most of his solo stuff. His set included the fitting track, “Totally New Year.”

The New Year.  Such an interesting time.  It seems most of us just couldn’t wait to get 2009 behind us.  It also seems we say that every year.  It is a great time, though.  Everyone seems so rejuvenated, reinvigorated, and prophesizing big things to come. I personally jumped on that train this time.  I’ve started working out more.   I’m on Day 10 and still sticking with it.  Baby steps!  Baby steps!  Additionally, I’ve made it a resolution to ride my bike more.  I want to be able to do a century ride (100 miles), or a time-trial, or something.  I’m bummed to hear they cancelled the bike tour that usually happens before the LA Marathon this year.  So now I’m looking for another race.  Also, I’m trying to get in better shape so I can do a little mountain biking.  The bike shop where I bought my bike, Cynergy Cycles, sponsors a mountain bike ride every Sunday morning and provides the bikes.  Trying to get fit enough to join them!

Additionally, I made the decision to switch from nights to days.  Nights are comforting.  Not too many people around, I am my own boss, and I am independent.  It also enables me to shadow assistant editors, which will hopefully help my career and promotion.  However, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and switch to days.  I’m a bit nervous, but I think I will adjust.  I’ve been out in LA a year and half now, most of which has been working nights.  Hopefully I will be more social and meet some new people outside of work and actually have the evenings free to pursue such relationships.  I’m still looking for Mr. Darcy, wherever he is, so maybe this is the year.

You know that life won’t wait,
You’ll have to make your move
The choices you make, every awful mistake,
Will try to define you
This will be a totally new year.

Personal

I bought a new bike last weekend…

More to come soon.

More about the bike.

More about the adventures with said bike.

More about everything.

Much love,

Ashley

Personal

I’m sitting in my (now old) West LA apartment at about 11:43pm. My eyes hurt, I don’t feel like watching TV, and I don’t feel like reading either. I spent most of the day cleaning my new apartment. I go a little overboard when I clean. Yes, if there were a “Scrubaholics Anonymous” meeting, I would be there. My tools of the trade involved a sponge (classic!), red bucket, bathroom cleaner, COMET, a grout brush, and a toothbrush. Oh, and a different sponge, paper towels, and glass cleaner for the mirrors. With Rise Against, The Sounds, and Bayside blaring, I scrubbed, scraped, disinfected, and cleaned like a professional. Simultaneously frustrated that the previous inhabitant was so dirty, but secretly delighted that I would have any opportunity, to well, shine, three hours passed by and there was now a sparkling bathroom where grunge and mildew had once lived. A glorious victory.

Personal

Thursday following another exciting day of season-end inventory and tape boxing, I went to the Borders in Westwood (near UCLA).  They were hosting a discussion/signing  of Reza Aslan’s new book, How To Win A Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the end of the War on Terror.  Aslan was a guest on The Daily Show a few weeks ago, and was pleased to see that he had scheduled a few book tour dates in LA.  First things first, I must say he is cuter in person.

I thoroughly enjoyed this event.  Aslan read a few pages from the first chapter of his book, and then opened the floor up for questions.  What followed was an hour long conversation about Iran, Israel, Palestine, the difference between Jihadists and Islamists, among many other things.

Impressed by his knowledge, listening to him speak was extremely refreshing.  It gave me flash backs of college.  I miss learning so much.  I mean, of course I’m learning a ton out here, but it’s just different.  It was absolutely satisfying to listen to a man with such fluent and passionate discourse.

While it’s fresh in my mind, here is a brief recap of some of the topics he discussed:

Q: Can Islam and Democracy Coexist?

• Of course they can.  Look at Indonesia.  Look at Turkey.  Malaysia.  India.  Pakistan.  The world’s most populous Muslim nations are democratic.
• The question really is, can Arab culture and democracy coexist?

Q: Is Iran a Nuclear Threat?

• He claims Iran as a threat is a joke.  They are a third world country with a terrible army.
• They recently figured out how to launch a rocket at a minimal distance without a payload.  Good job. (sarcasm)
• In terms of Israel, Iran as a threat is a purely political tactic.  Israel is a first world nation, has one of the best armies in the world, and has far more superior weapons.
• In terms of a threat to the U.S., look at the map.  We have troops surrounding the entire country.
• We need to start rethinking how we look at Iran.

There was more, but that’s about all I can regurgitate at the moment.

Unrelated, I saw Ben Folds last night and it was pretty sweet.   Gave me another Oswego flashback.  And again, being in LA is awesome.  You never know what extra treat will be at the show.  Ben brought out Sarah Barellies for a song, and then during the encore brought out Josh Groban.  Yep, that’s right.  Josh Groban!! I got chills!

Personal, Political