Picture Tiime!!

I'm bored so I decided to post some fairly recent pictures. Click the thumbnails to see a bigger image.

My Lakers inspired nails (I actually did this during the finals):






The Father's Day card I sent to my dad:


What it said on the inside of the card:


Lemon tarts, I got the recipe from Paula Deen:


Red Velvet Cupcakes, recipe also from Paula Deen:

Lakers Are The '09 Champions (1, 2, 3, RING)

I'm sorry, but I have to talk about it....the Lakers that is. I've been watching the Lakers Championship celebration on FSN which will be replayed pretty much all day today. Well, I was watching it all morning with my grandpa, and it was so exciting. I've been a Lakers fan since I was a small child (I'll have to get my mom to dig up a picture), and some years I didn't pay too much attention to the Lakers, but there have been other years that I watched a bunch of games (I lost). This was definitely one of those years. Ever since my grandpa told me the Lakers were on a winning streak starting from the beginning of the season, I knew they would be the Champions. I didn't see most of those games at the very beginning of the winning streak, but it was nice to hear about it from my grandpa. After awhile I got sucked in again and I was watching pretty much every game I had a chance to watch. There were some great games I watched, and a few I had the misfortune to miss. There was the win against Boston on Christmas; a sweet revenge (like MCR) game since the Lakers had lost to them in last year's NBA Championship. So much greatness has come out of this season. All of the Lakers have really grown as a team, and individually. Phil Jackson won his 1000 game (it was the win on Christmas actually). {Even though LeBron James won the MVP award, I knew Kobe was the REAL MVP, and he proved by wining it in the Finals (I'm sure many other people shared my opinion). Injuries and other adversities aside, the Lakers still went 65 and 17 and went on to win the Championship.

I'm just gonna give some general comments about the series that led up to the Finals. The first series against the Utah Jazz, was a little exciting but not too much of a challenge with the Lakers wining 4-1. The next series against the Rockets was so intense and both teams were playing very physical. There were times when it was looking pretty scary, but I knew they would take it, even if it had to go down to game 7 with the Lakers winning 4-3. There were a lot of critics after that series say the Lakers weren't playing hard enough, and saying that they weren't gonna root for the Lakers anymore. The next series was just as intense against the Nuggets. It was another physical series, although, not quite as much as the last, and there were some GREAT steals from Ariza, a key player in my novice opinion for this series and the next. In the end the Lakers won the Western Conference Finals 4-2. At first glance the NBA Finals looked to be the biggest challenge yet; the Magic had just won the series against the Cavaliers 4-2 and had previously beat the Celtics on a difficult 4-3 series and I have to admit, my whole household was rooting for the Magic to win the Eastern Conference, but as soon as the won the Eastern Conference Title, I knew they had just become the enemy. They were confident and had beat two tremendous teams, first the Celtics, who were last years champions, and the Cavaliers, who had won 8 playoff games in a row prior the series with the Magic. The Finals series was no easy task. It was aparent that both teams were not going down with out a fight (with the exception of game 1 because I missed it *sad face*). I thought it would come down to game 7, or at least game 6 for sure, but no, the Lakers won it in 5. It was a very bittersweet day. Sweet because the Lakers finally had done what they had vowed to do when they lost the Finals last year, and in doing so winning their 15th championship title out of 30. It was a great and exciting game. But here comes the bitter part, no more basketball for at least 4 months. It was such a fun and exciting season. There was a huge build up of emotions starting from the beginning of the season, but most especially from the beginning of the playoffs. Every playoff moment was exciting and these exciting times were built up all the way until the last second of game 5 of the Finals. It was then that we were drop kicked from this exciting season. I will be waiting anxiously for the 2009-10 NBA season because nothing is as exciting as a great basketball season followed by a phenomenal playoff season (well, maybe there is, but not that I can think of at the moment.)



And I still don't know what a pick and roll is....

*P.S. Sorry if I missed anything good from Playoffs or the rest of the season, or if I recounted anything wrong*

Blood Donation=VIP Passes??

Hello, it's been a while since I just talked about stuff and not posted a concert recap. Anyways, I just wanted to say that I donated blood today. I think it's something important that people should do if they are eligible. It's for a good cause, and, if that's not good enough, they give you food afterwards and sometimes they give you incentives like a free meal at a restaurant. The reason why I chose to donate at this blood drive was because I heard that if you donate to Music Saves Lives (which is in some way associated with the Red Cross), you get a VIP pass for Warped Tour. You still have to by tickets to get into the show, but the VIP pass with give you special access to signings and other stuff.

Ok, now I'm gonna make it really simple for you to donate and get VIP passes and all the info:

To make an appointment for a blood donation click HERE. You have to be at least 18, or 17 with parental permission, but if you're not old enough, I think you might be able to volunteer to help with a blood drive. There is more information about this in the link below. After you click the above link, click on a skull (each skull represents a city) to find blood drives in your area.

For more information on donating and VIP passes click HERE

For more information on Warped Tour in general click HERE

After you donate you will get a card that looks like this (please don't try to make fake copies, they will catch you):



Then when you get to Warped Tour, look for the Music Saves Lives booth. If you have any questions, click on the second link above.

I just have to share this picture, just because the bandage was such an atrociously bright pink:




That's about all I can think of saying for now. I'm gonna go watch the rest of the Laker's game. GO LAKERS!!

P.S. Can someone please explain what a pick and roll is?!?! I've been confused for so long....

No Doubt and Paramore Recap

Last night's show at the Conspiracy (the new name my mom made up for Cricket Wireless) was so amazing. The crowd was so huge since it was a sold out show. We were in section 101 so, when looking at the stage, we were all the way on the right side. One time during No Doubt's set, I looked back and it looked like an ocean of people. We missed The Sounds, even though we were in the parking lot before 7:30, when it was supposed to start. The whole concert just seemed like it went by so fast. I was enjoying myself so much, I guess time flies when you're having fun. So, I'll post the set lists with my comments.

Paramore:

1. Misery Business: I was surprised they started with this one since it is their biggest hit, so I was wondering what they were going to close with, but then again, it was cool because their closing song would be a surprise, but I kinda figured it out.
   
2. For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic
   
3. Pressure: So, after they played Miz Biz, I thought they would play this song last, but, Wrong Again!! It was nice to hear this song.
   
4. Ignorance: New song. I read the lyrics on the Paramore website the other day and I was really curious to see how it would sound because I really couldn't hear any music at all in my head when I read the lyrics. The song was surprisingly good, it made me really excited to hear their new CD. Here are the lyrics: http://www.paramore.net/postDetails/2009/05/18/why-not/
   
5. Crush Crush Crush: I don't know why, but I'm not really a fan of this song, but they do a good job live.
   
6. Decoy: I love this song.
   
7. When it Rains: I also really love this song. It reminded me of when I first heard it live, last year I think, at Soma. Hayley dedicated it to some special people she saw in the parking lot that day before the Soma performance. This time the song was just as good.
   
8. Another new song. They didn't say what it was called. It was upbeat and fun.
   
9. That's What You Get: I loved it and so did the rest of the crowd.
   
10. Let The Flames Begin: They had a cool little ending addition to this song. I can't remember if they had done this before. I know they like to do a different ending, but I can't remember if it was the same as last time.
    
11. Decode: By the time That's What You Get was over, I kinda guessed they would end with Decode because I couldn't think of any other hits they had except Emergency. I was wondering if they would even play Decode, but right before they played it, Hayley said, "You all know this one," so that's probably why they played it last, because everyone knows it from Twilight. It was a great ending.
    

So, after Paramore, I bought a shirt, as usual. I was surprised they were charging so much, but, I paid the price anyways. I really liked the Paramore jacket/sweatshirt they had, but I was not about to pay $75 for it, no matter how much I liked it.

No Doubt:

They came out behind a white screen so the audience could see their silhouettes. This stage was white and futuristic looking.

1. Spiderwebs: One of my favorite No Doubt songs ever. I always thought it should be used as a greeting on a voicemail.
   
2. Hella Good
   
3. Underneath It All: They had a screen in the back and were playing clips of the music video.
   
4. Excuse Me Mister: Gwen said it was their oldest song off of Tragic Kingdom and that they were going to remix it a little, which they did. It sounded good, but it was slower than the original version.
   
5. Ex-Girlfriend
   
6. [ ]
   
7. Simple Kind Of Life: Gwen said this song means so much more that now she has little ones running around.
   
8. Bathwater
   
9. [ ]: I don't know the name of this song and I don't know if it's really a song they recorded because it was mostly instrumental with a lot of trombone and trumpet sound.
   
10. New
    
11. Hey Baby
    
12. Running: They played some footage and showed some pictures from what looked like the very beginning of the band. They all looked so young. It was really cool to see that.
    
13. Different People: Gwen said it was the first song she ever wrote lyrics to and she announced all of the band members and where they were from in the middle of this song.
    
14. Don't Speak
    
15. It's My Life: The video they played in the background was the three guys driving around in one car and Gwen driving in another car.
    
16. Just A Girl: One of the most awesomest songs in the history of frontwomen. It was so great to hear this song live. Gwen kept mentioning that the grass (as in the lawn/nosebleed) is where it's at and that she wanted to go up there. In the middle of the song, she got off the stage and ran up to the lawn. She was in the middle of a bunch of people, and I don't remember all of what she said but at the end she said, "don't kill me, I'm gonna get down now, but please don't kill me, ok?" And then she ran back to the stage with a security person and I saw someone try to grab her, but she kept going. When she got back on stage she laid down for a second and then got up to finish the rest of the song. It was so epic.
    

Encore:

1. Rocksteady: Gwen said it was her favorite No Doubt song ever written.
   
2. Stand and Deliver: Adrian was dressed in a ballerina tutu and played one of those marching band drums strapped to his chest at the front of the stage. Then
   
3. Sunday Morning: This is my other favorite song. When my mom was trying to win tickets, we would listen to the radio a lot more than usual and one night after they said to call, the DJ played this song and I danced so much I could barely breathe. So, I danced the most during this song.
   

There are two interesting things that happened, but I forgot when they actually took place. First, Gwen said to someone in the audience, "Do you want to take a picture?" So she grabbed that person's camera. It was a disposable one and she said something like, "This is so not current, you know that right?" Then she kinda squatted close to the edge of the stage and told the person to smile and I think both of them were in the picture. Second, someone had a stuffed lamb and she said, "Is that for me? Can I have it, I love presents." Then she took it and said, "I'm gonna put it on the slide," which was what part of the stage looked like (see picture). At the end of the show, she threw it back into the audience.

It was an amazing concert. Sorry what I've written is not completely finished because I don't know the names of some of the songs. And I'm so sorry for my recent lack of posts. Summer is coming up so I hope to ramble about other stuff soon. I'll post pictures as soon as I can.

My April Recap

Wow, April was really a great month for me. Meeting Gerard Way,Bamboozle Left, my birthday, and meeting Matt Dallas at the Fangoria Convention, among other semi eventful things in my life, just to sum it up.

Full recap to come soon!!

The Snakes and Suits Tour [this is still in the process of editing, I'm not done writing it, even though it's super long]

And now my very first concert review. Actually, I think that word is a little inaccurate, it'll be more like a recap, well, maybe a hybrid of the two like a reviewcap, with more emphasis on the recap part because I pretty much only go to concerts that I like and to give a true review I would have to rate it and so forth, and it would be lame because everything would be five out of five. So, it will be like a recap with my comments and thoughts to go along with it. I hope it's not too boring, if you don't care about the concerts I go to, you should skip my recapviews (that's a working title, I'm open to suggestions, but who really reads this anyway).

Ok, so tonight I pretty much determined that William Beckett=The Academy Is... and by the commutative property, or something like that, or maybe it's the If and Only if thing I'm looking for, The Academy Is...=William Beckett. I kinda knew it all along but tonight confirmed that pretty much he is the band. Not to say that he is snobby and stuck up about it, like, "oh I'm the singer and I'm the best so I get to be an a****** to everyone because I'm so full of myself." He's pretty cool about it, but he only brought out one member of his band for two songs, which I thought was weird. They should have just announced the tour as William Beckett featuring Sisky Business, but I guess that goes to show that he's in it for the band, which I respect and think is very cool, because some singers get all cocky and think that they need to be the center of attention and start a solo career, which I think is really lame. They aren't solo, they're just with a different band, but they're being selfish and just putting their name on it, like they're the only ones that are playing. But if William Beckett went "solo" it would be really dumb because it would be the same thing as The Academy Is... since he writes most of the songs, it would just be different people, idk. I do have to say that he has an amazing voice and is a very talented person, especially because I've never seen him play the guitar so much. He looked pretty good too, so did Sisky and William kept smiling and laughing and kinda making eyes at people without really meaning it. Ok, enough of my digressions, here's the set list:

1. I don't know what the first song was, it was something short that wasn't an Academy Is song, and I didn't have time to record it so I could figure it out later.

2. Classifieds (It was pretty fun, it's one of my favorites by them.)

3. His Girl Friday (William started talking about the basis of why/how he wrote the song, he called it a history lesson. When he was in high school, guys, who he described as "bros" would make fun of him and call him a fag, but little did they know, he made out with all of their girlfriends behind their backs, but they still went back to their boyfriends. Fun song.)

4. A Cover song by Alkaline Trio (He talked about how he used to listen to the radio to discover new songs by bands like the Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana, etc. but after awhile he realized it was "recycled garbage" by bands like Creed and some other band that I forgot, so he started listening to "punk rock" <--huge air quotes on that one. He listened to bands like Bright Eyes and Alkaline Trio. I thought he did a great job with the song, although I've never heard it before. I haven't heard too much from Alkaline Trio, it kinda deadened the mood though, because not too many people knew the words.)

5. Seed (Pretty good, brought the general mood and vibe back up since more people could sing along. He described it as a song about when you're in a relationship and it goes bad because of jealousy, etc.)

6. Attention (Great song, he introduced it by talking about how he used to work at the Gap, and he got over that real quick. He had to work in the morning and fold t-shirts and women with kids would walk in and ask him to sell them stuff. He said that at the time he was writing the record "Almost Here" and one day Adam came to his house and when William let him in, Adam looked him in the eye and asked him if he had been writing any songs, so William looked him in the eye and said, "Attention, Attention..[cue the rest of the song]")

7. The Test (William introduced his fellow band mate, Adam T. Siska, aka Sisky Business. Before Sisky came on stage William took a poll about who everyone thought was the best batman, Christian Bale won. Michael Keaton was a close second. Then William said that he thought Sisky should be the next Batman, so he was going to audition for us. They did the voices for the first scene of the Dark Knight, and I have to say, he really sounded like Christian Bale's Batman voice. Then Sisky played the harmonica while William continued to sing and play guitar for The Test. William described it as a break up song. Sisky left after this song.)

8. Jimmy Eat World Cover song (I think it's called A Sunday, I'll double check after I get some sleep. He brought Ben from This Providence and Evan Taubenfeld (I don't know who he is) up on stage to play with him. They said they had just learned the song the day before, which was pretty cool because it sounded great. William and Ben also mentioned that Jimmy Eat World was in their top three favorite bands.)

9. You Brought This On Yourself (Another cover song. William talked about his blog and how on Saturdays he does the Saturday Night Music Club and posts a song/video. This song was featured a few weeks back. Here's the link to his blog if you're interested: http://thewilliambeckettblog.com/)

10. Automaitic Eyes (William said that he mostly writes songs, I guess from his experience or his perspective, but this one was about another member of TAI who had a sudden break up.)

11. Down and out (He said he wrote it about his parent's relationship. It was great since most people knew the words.)

12. After The Last Midtown Show (He said it was the most romantic song he has ever written. It's about not taking the present, or whatever is happening in your life right now for granted. He mentioned that, especially when you're in school, people are always telling you that everything is leading up to something better, but he said something that really moved me, I guess is the best way to put it, not trying to sound sappy or anything. He said that we have to enjoy our lives right now. Pretty much what I thought about that was I'm wasting my life away. Like the Green Day song, I'm not growing up, I'm just burning out. I'm not having fun and life is passing me by and the saddest part is that I don't know how to change that.)

13. Slow Down (The complete opposite of the previous song. It's about wanting the person you break up with to "stop breathing in their sleep." <--He said that not me. Great song, one of my favorites. It reminded me about how during the summer, I listened to that song while everyone else was asleep in the house and I really wanted to get up and sing really loud, but I had to lay in my bed and quietly sing and dance laying down. I'm weird.)

14. About A Girl (Sisky came back for this song. When he first came back he started playing Superstition by Stevie Wonder and then William started singing along. Then Sisky started playing some other Stevie wonder song, I can't really remember which one. Which reminds me, at the end of one of the other songs, I don't remember which one, William said that something random came into his head. He described it as a weird roller rink song from the 90s, but now I can't remember what it was. Anyways, both of them played guitar for this song. I forgot what he said about the song, like if he gave background on it or anything, but he told us that there was another concert on another floor of the building and he wanted us to sing so loud it would shock the other people. Super fun song!! I had fun singing really loud and I think everyone else did too. It was very loud.)

After this song William and Sisky were signing at the merch table, but somehow I ended up at the end of the line. The girls I was standing behind kept looking at themselves in the mirror and fixing their makeup, I thought that was dumb. I bought the This Providence CD from Gavin, the guitarist. He was cool and he signed it for me. Then the people were telling us that we only had twenty minutes and to hurry up because the line was long and they probably couldn't get through everyone. Well, needless to say, they didn't because it was getting close to 11:00pm and they couldn't have minors in the facility and were telling everyone under 21 to leave. Damn you little girls that look way under 21. Then they made William leave, I guess they figured that the only way to get everyone to leave was by taking him away. I was so close, yet so far. Then we went outside and Sisky was still signing, but they had to take him away because they had to move their bus. So we went around the building and saw the bus, and we were just there stalking them. I'll post the pictures in a little bit.

Overall, it was a great night. I discovered This Providence. I kept wondering why they're name was so familiar. When I bought their CD, I realized they are on the record label as The Academy Is... and Paramore and whenever I sign into the street team page, I see their band name really huge on the side of the page. I thought they were pretty good, good enough for me to buy their CD. It was only $10, I figured I might as well if I liked them because at the store it store it would probably be more expensive. We missed most of Evan Taubenfeld though.

Ok, so I don't know if anyone will read this. I'm kinda too ADD to read things that are this long, but sometimes I do. Sorry it turned out so long, I'm mostly doing this because I want to remember this but there was no video recording, so I have to extract my memory and put it into words. It's kinda OCD, similar to the way I wrote everything down when I got my wisdom teeth taken out, yes I actually made notes.

Random Rachel

P.S. Supernatural was really good this week, so was Kyle. And, no more writing class for two weeks.