My goodness,

What an eventful night it has been.
1 - Vaca Christian's Country Fair
2 - PEP band amazingness even though I said I wasn't going
3 - Cleared up some things in my personal life

I just wanted to post this as sort of a bookmark I guess. Maybe I could impress you readers by adding the fact that I parkoured my way over the 12 ft fence thus granting me free entrance into the football game. My parkouring included running up to and jumping off a water fountain rail, then grappling on a small ledge over to the fence, and hoisting myself over. Mad skillz.

No mp3s for this one. Just the print.

Fall 09 (Mix #1)

The first ever Bask Mixtape!

1. A Tribe Called Quest - Check The Rhyme
2. Arcade Fire - My Heart is an Apple
3. Kimya Dawson - Better Weather
4. Radiohead - Airbag
5. Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald - Mack The Knife (404'd)
6. Weezer - I Want you To
7. Final Fantasy - The Power Of Love (Dion Cover)
8. Feist - Inside and Out (Bee Gees Cover)(This song is brilliant).
9. Noah and the Whale - Slow Glass
10. Weezer - I'm your Daddy
11. Regina Spektor - Sailor Song
12. Karen O And the Kids - Sailing Home

Get them before they're 404'd!

28 Dollars Later

My dad bought 1 and I saw 2 in the theaters.

1 Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen
2 Paranormal Activity (w/ spoiler)

Starting off with the newer of Transformers series, Revenge of the Fallen, I'd like to say that this was SUCH a teen movie. Normally I'd lay back, give you some plot info, and allow you to form your own opinion on whatever I'm reviewing, but I have accumulated such a distaste for this film that I refuse to commit such a crime. It was as if the movie was leaning on Megan Fox's sluttiness, comstant super roboaction scenes, and American Pie humor to fill the absence of the prior two to satisfy the audience. Well you know what Michael Bay?!! NO! FAIL!
The script was terrible, the acting was a joke, and the action was so incredibly repetitive. I could go on and on about this but I don't really have the time, nor the stamina. If you fall somewhere in the ages 10-14, these trigger-happy robots will be the cheese to your macaroni. Everyone else, don't bother. Settle in the glory of the first movie and don't let your curiosity bring you to watch this.

Next up is...Paranormal Activity! WOOOT! no, not really. It was also a disappointment but not as bad as Transformers. Everyone told me prior to my viewing that they had trouble sleeping for the next few nights so I was initially nervous to watch it, butttttt boy I sure was overreacting.
The movie is about a couple that had just gotten engaged and moved in together. After a couple haunting incidents the viewer as well as the husband (Mika) learns that the wife (Katie) has been haunted by a demon since childhood. Determined to show the demon who's boss, Mika taunts it despite numerous warnings that signs of trying to communicate with it will only increase its activeness. His taunting included recording it's activity, shouting "Show yourself you fucking demon, so I can kick your ass!", AND -drum roll- the dumbest thing one can possibly do taunt a demon -drum roll continues- he brings in Ouija board! An effing Ouija board; I mean really, how retarded could he possibly be?? As his taunting becomes more empty-minded, so do the haunting incidents.
I have to admit this movie wasn't a complete disappointment because the haunting incidents were quite creative, but its problem was that they were too spaced out, and Mika was so stupid that it seemed unreasonable for someone to make the decisions that he made. You know how in most scary movies a girl would be running away from a killer and instead of running outside, she runs into the closet? That pretty much sums up Mika.

*SPOILER* The only part that really knocked my socks off scary-wise was the very ending. The final scenes happen like so: Katie is found with a bloody cross in her hand, half-conscious. Mika brings her up to the bedroom and tells her that they have to get out, and at this point she's in some happy trance replying with "Nooo, Mika let's stayyy. I don't wanna leaveee. We'll be fineee." The husband is flipping out but goes with it. That night, the camera shows her sleep-walking downstairs and in the morning we hear her scream. Mika wakes up and runs downstairs leaving the viewer hearing screams for a short period, than seeing only the silent dark hall/stairway for roughly 3 minutes. Out of the darkness, dead Mika is suddenly hurled towards the camera and a blood covered Katie slowly emerges in the doorway of the room. At this point, the audience knows shes fully possessed. She does a Golem crawl over to dead Mika, sniffs, turn towards the camera, and lunges at it. I'm pretty sure the entire audience, myself included, screamed here.

I personally think PA had potential to be so much more disturbing: the demon could've locked them in the house, blocked off all communication with the outside world, and tormented them to insanity...but nooOOOOoo.Overall, this movie could be called "The Diet Blair Witch Project". If you want some unsettling scenes, you go watch the BWP.




Playlist post soon.

Sipping Sleep

I feel really awful right now for no reason at all. Or maybe there are so many reasons that I don't know where to begin. Its hard to describe. Like I'm a wanderer of the earth without any sense or purpose...but that's just how I feel right now. Even though its not true. I'm more than positive I'll get better-

LINK Yann Tiersen - Summer 78
LINK Patrick Wolf - Epilogue


-update-
See, that didn't last too long
LINK Nikkifurie - The A La Menthe (Ocean's 12 laser dance song)

Double Feature

1 Where the Wild Things Are
2 I Love You Man

Do you remember when you were little kid and your imagination soared; you didn't understand enough to separate the possible from impossible in most cases, so you felt invincible. Where the Wild Things Are is essentially a movie from the perspective of a child and it was pretty damn impressive how stylistically appropriate it was to model that feeling, along with reality.

For those of you who don't know what its all about, the story goes like this: The main character Max, a child about 10 or something (I forget his age) gets angry at his mother and runs away. He finds a boat and decides to sail away into the ocean; upon doing so, he finds himself in a land of depressed monsters who threaten to eat him. To avoid this, Max tells the monsters that he had powers that would make them happy all the time, so they spared his life and made him king. They have crazy sweet adventures, yaddiyaddayadda - go watch the movie for the rest of it.

I thought the move was really delightful (I want to use the word "cute", but I'm not sure if guys are allowed to say that) mostly for it's warm humor, and Max's character. The boy who plays Max is really, without a doubt, perfect for that part in every way; not to mention, he's got a hella sick monster costume that I want. Karen-O & the Kids (of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's) did their part smashingly with the soundtrack, in my opinion. "All is Love" has been playing in my head for about a week, and I don't mind it one bit :]

Now, my understanding is that this movie was made for children and anyone else who's read the book since '63. I myself haven't read it but I enjoyed the movie nonetheless. However, for children I think this is a great movie for life lessons if you've got yourself a little smartie for a kid, but if otherwise, you little fellow would get distracted from the lessons and focus more on the character reactions. The character reactions are exaggerations of the basic sad, angry, scared, and happy, so they rest on the extremes in this movie. Most of the movie is fast-paced and lots of action, but there are a couple scenes that might be frightening, and a little confusing.

Verdict: You might think it's just another kids movie thus a waste but the piece is quirky, feel-warm, and imaginative. Give it a shot, you might like it.

"I Love You Man" was surprisingly hilarious. I'm not the type to watch movies where reality doesn't apply and everything is just perfect for people, but I gave this one a shot because I was tired of renting hella deep indie movies and wanted something new. My band teacher also recommended it so I figured why not; it was between that and Zoolander which I've already seen a few times before.

This one goes like this: a man named Peter gets engaged, and his wife finds out that he's always been a ladies man therefore has no actual close friends. Peter is then urged to go out and find himself some man-friends and goes on a series of man-dates. After those fail, he meets a guy named Sydney who teaches him to grow some balls and not give a shit all the time. Sounds kinda cheesey but the events leading up to his marriage ceremony will make you really laugh out loud.


"Yeah, I was a king! For...20 YEARS!" -monsters gasp-"





Thanks for reading
MP3 Karen O & The Kids - All is Love
MP3 Karen O & The Kids - Igloo
MP3 Karen O & The Kids - Rumpus
MP3 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Deja Vu
MP3 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Down Boy
MP3 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Soft Shock (accoustic)

Dear Stranger,

I've just finished reading "Perks of Being a Wallflower", and let me tell you, this book is something else. It really is.

I liked it mainly for the reason that I could relate to it in many ways (I think we all can), such as one case when I was going into my freshmen year of high school I was invited to a hang out with some kids that were much older then me, and all strangers except for one, and I'd only met her online through friends. Some would be seniors, others would be freshmen in college, and coincidentally, one of them recommended this book to me about a year or so following, and I didn't read it until this weekend.

There's so much to be learned from it; it's humor, it's sensitivity, it's trials; I feel that every high school student should read this at least by the end of their sophomore year. For those of you who haven't read it, I think it's best that I don't tell you what it's about and instead, you go pick it up at a book store or the library. If you even gain a spark of wisdom from these 213 pages, it will change your perspective on high school so dramatically.
...Or maybe I'm just in a moment right now.

But really, I feel infinite right now. I hope to be doing some pretty big things this week. Let's see.

Love always,
Paul


MP3 Air - Sing Sang Sung
MP3 Vampire Weekend - Horchata
MP3 Tiesto - Feel it in My Bones (Feat. Tegan & Sara)
MP3 Karen O & The Kids - All is Love
MP3 The Smiths - Asleep (lo qual)

My name isn't Stella

I can't remember the last time I had such a boring day. I woke up this morning around 9:30, did oil pastels till 11:30 (forgot to mention, I do oil pastels as of earlier this week), had lunch + did a fat load of dishes till 12:45, read "The Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genius" till around 1:50, then started on "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" for 2 hours. Then sleep.

I was supposed to go to my friend's birthday party around 6 but it was canceled so I'm stuck here watching Detroit Rock City and texting my conveniently, also bored, friend Marti. You'd be surprised how well this movie is put together though. I'm on the disco vs metal part. Hmm, I'm hungry now. Hungry and Bored.

"I know! I say we beat the shit out of each other, go to the ticket holder, and say we got mugged. They have to let us in. right?? They have to..."

tunes soon

English Muffins

I went to the corn maze last night and felt death in my sleep. There's the most beautiful duet you'll ever see.




Watch the entire thing here.
I recommend "Black Rainbow"

PEP

Tonight's PEP band was NUTS. Joe and Coulsen needed the band to step it up so I naturally went wild, as well as a few others. I really wanted to beat the shit out of those pricks on the visitors' side whom were being obnoxious when Aimee and I were trying to sell them tickets, but that didn't happen. Aside from that, everything else was full of energy and the best part was getting the band to sing "Heart it Races" by Architecture in Helsinki. G-R-E-A-T.

and guess who was awarded the spirit stick....yes, that would me moi. I stand proud.
:)

MP3 Architecture In Helsinki - Heart it Races
MP3 Dr. Dog - Heart it Races (AIH cover)

It's been two months, I apologize

I was going to review Eisley's Room Noises before writing up anything else but I wanted to do something new for the time being. So I thought I would give you readers an update on my life at the moment.

So, I picked up my gameboy color exactly a week ago and I've been playing it during my passing periods and free time at school; my primary games consist of Pokemon Red Version, Wario vs Bomberman, and Super Mario Land (I have Paperboy but that game is really impossible to play and belongs in the arcade). I also seem to have got a couple other people bring theirs to school, something I'm proud of, and amused with at the same time.

I play tenor saxophone for those of you who don't know and a struggle I've been working with is finding a new mouthpiece. Good mouthpieces are at least a hundred dollars and you need to order them most of the time, therefore, it gets costly to try them out. And no, they're not all the same at all. It's a bitch process yes, but you learn a lot about your trade and has a good payout if you know what to buy. Anyways, I've also been playing a lot of flute because it's common for a saxophone player to double on their primary instrument as well as a flute/clarinet/bass clarinet.

I'm honestly disappointed with the lack of biking I've been doing; maybe its that I'm getting bored of this town, I don't know. I've started driving - permit only - so maybe I'll make some cycling adventures when I get my license. Speaking of biking, one of the big things I've done lately is start a bike club at my school. Initially, it was to fund-raise for the Human Trafficking cause (inspired by my church) but now I'm thinking we might get a little broader. This includes biking places and doing community work, while fund-raising. Cooper and I are still discussing it. One more thing, if you're interested in joining, we need members and we've decided to get members through word-of-mouth so talk to us.

My sleep schedule has really gone to pieces lately and it's irritating others; mostly my band teacher, but also (for some reason) the students of my 0 period jazz band class. I'm thinking it's because they look up to my band teacher so whenever he gets pissed off, they feel obliged to say something. I haven't a clue. The thing with my schedule is that I really don't know how to fix it, nor do I really care to fix it as much as everyone else seems to want to. I go to sleep at 3am every night, arrive late to Jazz, and also sleep from 3 pm to 5 pm every afternoon. What blows about this is that I could be so very productive in this period of time but there just seems to be something about my house (or room, whichever) that doesn't allow me to do this. This is partially why I'm off facebook, and deleting myspace (I'll get more in depth with this a little later.) I'm really trying to improve but there's so many ways to get distracted.

I've left facebook for a month and I've also decided to delete my myspace (which is proving to be a pain because I can't remember the password to the email) mostly because it's been controlling my life and I'm under it's chains. For Example, I started today, and I'm already dying to see what everyone is up to, and noticing that, I've come to the consensus that online social networks limit people from the potential. Everyone is so lame now in that they get people to understand them without talking to them directly and most of the time this builds false assumptions in the "stalkers" (we'll just call them that for now). Our imaginations go wild when we're presented with this new unfamiliar idea. I don't know, call me whatever you want but it just feels like something I needed to do anyways.

The second half of that is that there were girl issues I was having and it was getting to be too much for me. There was a girl I liked with a beautiful soul, but I was beginning to feel that her mind wandered from guy to guy too much and I didn't know how to handle it. I've found that the perfect song to describe my frustration with her is "Since I've Been Loving You" - Led Zeppelin. If you want the blues, you go to them. Anyways, I'll move on and life will get better.

Note: Don't have texting conversations with the people you like, unless you can avoid one word responses. Sometimes you'll get places but I recommend just waiting until you can see them in person to talk and babble senselessly. Like I said earlier: Our imaginations go wild with the endless possibilities.

So off of the facebook topic, I have made a tremendous improvement today with getting this set in my life. Let me explain: so there has been this person who has been sticking around our group and we all found him unbearably annoying for the longest time. We couldn't think of a good productive way to say it, so we would beat around the bush and naturally, nothing was solved. Well, after a few life lectures in my youth group, long talks with my friends, and my yearning for peace with myself, I decided I wanted to do it at lunch during school (and understand that we've been trying to figure out how to put this out for a really really long time) so I get 3 friends and bring him into a room. We sit him down and work things out face to face. Afterward, Cooper and I decided that it was a really great success. One thing I'd like to say is that everyone in that room was nervous as shit but it was worth the anxiety.

note 2: talking face to face with someone really does solve thing quick and effectively.

note 3: The three nicest students at DSH are Garret Raspasin, Hunter Kett, and Nicole Hagstrom. Seriously, they are the definition of "the shit". If you see any of them, give a high five and ask them about their day.

note 4: Mrs. Cribb is the bee's knees and you other kids are surely on crack for thinking otherwise.

That's mostly what's been happening. So talk to me.


MP3 Phoenix - Rome
MP3 Bon Iver - The Park (feist cover)
MP3 Little Red - It's All Right
MP3 Noah & The Whale - Five Years Time