Wednesday, January 28, 2009

diggin' on excitement.

i am so excited for so many things! one of my favorite people is celebrating her birthday tomorrow, and i can't wait to celebrate life with her. i'll be spending some time exploring the city with friends this weekend, and that is always a blast. the invisible children screening i'm organizing on campus is officially happening. i'm getting the ball rolling on a trip to the dominican republic this summer, to help build a church, play with some adorable kids, and enjoy time with new and old friends. i have actual spring break plans for once in my undergrad career - it's about time! i'm making plans to move to new york with friends next year, THAT is exciting. i'm almost ready to send off my second grad school application, also exciting.

i am obsessed with making exciting plans! i love having great things to look forward to.
oh, and as far as the present - i'm sitting in my bed with a cup of tea and books. lots of tea and books lately, i'm loving both. besides my reading for classes, i'm reading "the creative habit: learn it and use it for life" by twyla tharp, and it is quite good so far.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

k'naan

i've been obsessed with this guy since sometime this summer. i was watching a youtube video about a program in cape town, south africa, and i fell in love with the song they used as a soundtrack. after some googling, i found that the song was "in the beginning" by k'naan. he's a rapper from somalia, and i am super picky about rap music but k'naan is amazing. refreshing, fierce, and just all around incredible. i just checked his myspace and he's announced a release date for his next album (feb. 24!) and a US tour with a show in new york on feb. 25. I AM SO GOING TO THIS AND I CAN'T WAIT.
"in the beginning" isn't on his myspace page and it's too fierce to not share, so check out this youtube:


yes!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

saving seeds!

awhile ago one of my favorite blogs, superforest, had a post about the millenium seed bank. what in the world is a seed bank? that was my first question. they collect seeds and save them to keep plants from going extinct. if plants go extinct, we're never able to know what cool scientific developments they could have been used for, like medicine and who knows what else. this is kind of a clumsy explanation, you should probably check out superforest for a better one.

the reason for mentioning the seed bank is the fact that it's in big financial trouble. superforest is trying to raise $3,000 to save a seed. if you'd like to contribute, that would be amazing. if you'd like to pass the message about the seed bank on to your blog readers, or facebook friends, or whoever else, that would also be awesome.

in celebration of seeds and plants and all things green, check out this cool tree!

last tuesday, i may not have been at the inauguration, but i was blessed to celebrate the event at bowery ballroom with fiction family, jon foreman (switchfoot) and sean watkins' (nickel creek) new project. it was an incredible time, and i just watched the video for their first single, "when she's near" - it's adorable!

Fiction Family - When She's Near from ATO Records on Vimeo.

also, last night i finally finished reading "extremely loud and incredibly close" by jonathan safran foer. i read most of it while i was at home on break, but i put it down for the first couple weeks of class. i picked it back up last night and couldn't put it down until i finished. after, i was so shaken that i couldn't sleep for over an hour. it's really an amazing book and i recommend it to everyone. i will happily loan my copy to anyone who wants to read it. it's just so, so good.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

when i got an email from spring awakening about duncan sheik releasing a new album next tuesday entitled "whisper house", inspired by a forthcoming theatrical release, i was ecstatic. then i found this video for "earthbound starlight", a song from said album, and i was absolutely floored. it's BEAUTIFUL. breathtakingly, heartwrenchingly so.


Duncan Sheik - Earthbound Starlight (Official Music Video) - The funniest movie is here. Find it

Wednesday, January 21, 2009


obamicon.me is absolutely GENIUS! check it out, i wanna see more obamicons! i don't know if this is new or not but i just discovered it and i think it's the coolest ever.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

o-ba-ma!


on the first day of 2007, i was on my way back from a family vacation in the bahamas. on the plane, i had read an article about senator barack obama. i had never been into politics, but obama's vision and energy caught my attention. i remember telling my mom as we walked around miami's airport on a layover -
"can you help me look for a book? it's called 'the audacity of hope' and it's by barack obama."
"by who?"
"he might run for president."
"with a name like that?!"

i read about obama and the other candidates and weighed them all against one another, and decided to support obama, surprising a lot of my friends who assumed i'd support hillary clinton. in september of 2007, i stood in a crowd of over 20,000 in manhattan's washington square park at a rally. he spoke, and i had goosebumps, honestly. this photo is one i took that evening, an incredible moment that i am greatful to have been a part of.

i am so proud to call this man my president, and i cannot wait to see what he can do for not only this country, but this world. today i am so very proud to be a part of this nation and a part of this beautiful planet.

happy inauguration day!!!

Saturday, January 17, 2009


i got matt costa's album "unfamiliar faces" yesterday, and i'm loving it. this is the perfect soundtrack to keep me from being grumpy on days that are too frigid to do much beyond staying inside with books and something hot to drink.

one of my new year's resolutions is to practice yoga at least three days a week. i've done it twice this week, with help from the videos from yoga journal's website. they are easy to follow and so far my favorite pose is warrior II, and my least favorite is chaturanga dandasana (four-limbed staff pose, pictured.) my shoulders have been sore the day after both times i've practiced so far. it's a good kind of sore though, the kind that feels like i'm doing something for my body. i miss that from my dancing days.

tomorrow is a day i have been waiting for since october, the closing performance of spring awakening. i am incredibly sad to see such an amazing piece of art come to an end, this show has meant so much to me over the past two years. however, i'm so very greatful to have the opportunity to see the final performance. it will be an emotional day, to say the least. if you're not familiar with the show, listen to some of the music on the myspace page. i'd especially recommend "don't do sadness/blue wind". the show will go on through the national tour and various international productions, so see it if you can.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

awhile ago i came across the concept of ubuntu, and i was immediately fascinated. here is how desmond tutu explains the idea:

Ubuntu is a concept that we have in our Bantu languages at home. Ubuntu is the essence of being a person. It means that we are people through other people. We cannot be fully human alone. We are made for interdependence, we are made for family. When you have ubuntu, you embrace others. You are generous, compassionate. If the world had more ubuntu, we would not have war. We would not have this huge gap between the rich and the poor. You are rich so that you can make up what is lacking for others. You are powerful so that you can help the weak, just as a mother or father helps their children.

"We cannot be fully human alone." wow!

in completely unrelated news, i'm in love with this video:

Sunday, January 11, 2009

spirituality and dorkiness!

i found an awesome blog today! spiritual cowgirl is written by sera beak, an incredible woman who studies and experiences religion and spirituality and writes beautifully about the things she learns. she is basically living one of my dreams. i love her description of the difference between religion and spirituality, two closely related fascinations of mine: "I generally use the term “religion” to mean a structured socially-driven organization and institution with set belief systems, doctrines, rituals, and dogma. Spirituality is more self driven, intuitive, and personal. It recognizes that you don’t need religion to connect you to the divine, because it’s right inside you. You are free to know the divine through your own experiences, in your own way, under your terms, with no restrictive definitions. Spirituality is not about morals or rules, but about ethics and energy; it’s about recognizing the same spiritual essence in all people despite outer appearances or beliefs. You can be spiritual within or without organized religions." i dig it!

i am also obsessed with fresh starts. it's a new year, and tomorrow begins my last semester of undergrad. i love starting off fresh over and over again, it's one of the many things i love about being a student. new notebooks and folders (made of recycled materials so i don't feel so guilty about buying new ones) still excite me. yes, i know i'm a dork, and i love it.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

rooibos tea!


a few weeks ago, my mom and i went into philadelphia to see "a chorus line". she won tickets from a radio station, which was cool because everybody loves free stuff! before the show, we were wandering walnut street and popped into a store called "ten thousand villages", which i was ecstatic about because everything was fair traded from nations in africa, south america, and asia. so cool! they had gorgeous jewelry, pottery, little home-stuffs. it was fabulous and i wanted to buy everything. mom bought some crazy christmas earrings made in kenya, and this tea, organic rooibos from south africa. i had forgotten about it, but i started drinking it earlier this week and it is absolutely delicious! i'm going to go make a cup now... and i think i'm going to swipe a few bags to take back to school with me.

check out this tea and other products from equal exchange here.
and scope out the gorgeous whatsits on ten thousand villages' website.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

music doing good things!

one of my favorite bands, mae, just announced a new project for 2009 and i am in LOVE with it. visit their website for the complete details, but here's the basic idea: each month, they'll be releasing a song via digital download. you can get the song by donating $1 or more, and the donations will fund a variety of humanitarian projects, the first of which is to build a home for a family in virginia through habitat for humanity. how absolutely cool is that?! the first song, "the house that fire built", is up now. you can listen to it, donate, and download at mae's website.

Friday, January 2, 2009

friendship!

i've spent the last few days, including new year's eve and day, with two of my best friends. we spent most of our time together lying in bed, eating yummy food (chipotle! mmmm.) and watching, oh so appropriately, DVD's of friends. i am so greatful to have begun my 2009 surrounded by love and laughter.
i'm reading jonathan safran foer's extremely loud and incredibly close, which i have wanted to read for awhile now. i just started it, but i am loving it so far. this passage made me tear up a little in the middle of the borders' cafe - "We need enormous pockets, pockets big enough for our families, and our friends, and even the people who aren’t on our lists, people we’ve never met, but still want to protect. We need pockets for boroughs and for cities, a pocket that could hold the universe."

wishing you a 2009 with plenty of love, gratitude, and enormous pockets.