Fascinating Facts Friday: Iron Bowl

*This post was inspired by a New Jersey wife by the name of Natalie


I tried to google this to make sure of it, but I swear I have heard this on radio or TV, but my Uncle, who lives in California, actually told me this too.

But here is my fact (it may not be 100% accurate, but I'm going off memory):


In November, the annual "Iron Bowl" game is played between the Auburn Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide. The game is such a big deal in the state that on game day the respective stadium and surrounding tailgaters make it the third largest city in the state at that time.



This year, it's in Auburn. I can't wait.

oh, HEY! Didn't expect you there, but c'mon in...

So yea, it would have been nice if you would have let me know that you were coming. I didn't even have a chance to clean or pick up or anything. Kinda sucks that the first thing you are seeing as you walk in is this:
But in my defense, that is NOT trash. If you look closely, you will see that it is cardboard, plastics, aluminum... yea, we recycle here. It's just that sometimes I get too lazy to take it to the site.

Well, as we make our way around the kitchen, I have to stop and say that I hope you ate before you came over here because I am a terrible host and have not gone shopping in a while, as you can tell by what our freezer looks like
Like I said, you guys caught me off guard. Next time I could have prepared a meal fit for a king. Or asked jme to do it. Whichever.

Over here in the living room is where we spend most of our time, and probably were we will be hanging out.
Once again, please excuse the mess. That corner is mostly old textbooks that we can't seem to find a home for. Feel free to take them if you want them. But you will see the main attraction: our Rock Band setup. We get pretty serious about our Rock Band in this house.

However, here in the living room you will find two of my most prized possessions.
This is my blu-ray collection since I got my player back in December. It seems like most of you are fans of these movies, so we can watch later if you want. But if TV is more of your thing...
Then we can watch two of the greatest series. Ever. Well up to season 3 of Scrubs because these are the only ones I have found on sale.



Huh? You wanna see the rest of the house? Ok, we can make that happen. Walking down the hall, you will come face to face with a poster we found in the attic when we moved in.
I will be honest, at first I though it was a Rambo type poster until I discovered that it was a bandana he used while dancing in Saturday Night Fever. When you have a poster like that, you HAVE to put it up.

Since we saw the blu-rays and the tv show dvd's in the living room, I will show you my favorite shelf of dvd's that is stored in my room.
If you notice, there is a sort of theme on this row. And believe it or not, the only movies on this row I haven't watched are Johnny Depp ones. I need to change that...

But this, I have no explanation for:
other than to say don't judge me, we all have our embarassing shelves, right?

If you looked at the top, you will see autobiographies. Those are books that I have read every word of. But other books that have caught my interest are on the other side of the room. Don't trip on the bed trying to see them.
So I don't have a real bookshelf, mainly because I have only read half of these books. Some were given to me from my uncle, who also has the book that should be displayed right here, Fight Club.

Now, I know what you are asking yourself. "Mr O, you always talk about music, don't you have any of that stored in your room?" And all I have to say is look above the books
I started my record collection during our road trip back in May. But if you look over to the other side of the room, you will see that I still rock some cd's
along with momentos from the trip. That rock is from the Grand Canyon and the jellyfish in a jar is from a shop and the seashell is from a beach, both from Monterey. However, cd's are kind of going away, so it's mostly the laptop that emits the music coming from my room
That's my baby. If you look closely, you will see it's what I use for my radio shows. You might recognize a certain playlist going on.

Well that about concludes it, unless anybody knows how to play this thing
I've tried to learn so many times, but I just keep stalling in my progress. So feel free to show my a thing or two.

But if you guys are ready, let's end this tour and go play some Rock Band. I CALL DRUMS!

*Special thanks to Mr. Condescending for coming up with this idea and to Girl Interrupted for twisting it and giving me an inspiration in which to do mine.

WW (video version): Underoath at Warped Tour; 7/28/09; Atlanta, GA

These words pour out when I open my mouth

I feel like all my posts in recent weeks have either been Wordless Wednesdays or links to songs and all that stuff and I KNOW you guys are going "But Mr O, what's been going on with your life?" Even though I just made that up (I don't know what you guys think) here is an actual "post" that the description of my blog talks about.

The other day, I had all these events and thoughts that I was going to put into this but I have forgotten them. So this post is going to be freestyled. Not even I know how it's going to end.

I think I just made a mistake. I made a Coldplay B-side playlist to listen to right now and one of the tracks is piano heavy. So I guess I will start with the deep stuff first. Right now, there are two things dominating my mind. One is a family issue that may or may not happen so therefore won't get talked about right now and the other is next month. It's so crazy to me to think that August will be one year since my girlfriend of three years officially, after three or four semi-breakups, ended our relationship. We were actually still complicated for a while and I guess we didn't officially stop whatever the hell it is we were doing until late January early February. But still, a year since the final break up and my craziness that came afterward. I hate that I was “that guy.” Calling her every day and pleading for a chance to make things right. I hate it not only because of how stalkerish it felt but now I just feel embarrassed for myself. I tried to do everything and for what? It got me nowhere and in man terms just made me look (and feel) like a little bitch. Everytime that I pleaded for her to come and she did everything on her own time. Even now. Since last August, after a weak week attempt at trying school, she has been home ever since, missing what could have been her last year in undergraduate school. Next month, she comes back. Did I mention we started dating a few days before high school graduation and were steady the first three years of college? So I feel like this past year that she left me. Not only on a relationship level, but just being there – in my life. And now she is coming back. I don't know how to react because I have recently finally started to have a life without her. A life where I don't see a sappy movie and think of her. I just know my own emotions and I don't know how they are going to handle her living in the same town again. A few months ago she got into a new relationship so that may explain why there has been no contact. As far as I know, they are still together. For my sanity's sake, I hope they stay together so no temptations will creep in. I've warned all my friends that I may need them in the next month or two now more than ever.

Speaking of friends, I am getting to the point where I am starting to consider some of my blogger followers and people I follow “friends” as well. We may never actually see each other, but I have connected with some of you more than some people that call themselves my friend. With that said, I'm warning all you guys as well – I may need to come to you guys in the next month or two, haha. Even if it's just you clicking on a blog title.

And let's try to lighten this up a little. I am really appreciating all the nice comments whenever I do a music post like Under My Covers. Especially the ones who say they are hearing it for the first time, it just makes me smile because that is my mission. But I feel music is like Christmas – it's great to give and receive. I will never walk around like I know all music because that's impossible. So as much as I love to put music out there, I love to receive it even more. In the past week I have listened to cd's that I got by winning jeanette's blog contest and have found a few new gems, youtubed this nice acoustic version of "Let Go" after a couple of comments from the Garden State version of Under My Covers and stayed on Melissa's post for an hour clicking play repeatedly listening to jazz. And that's another thing. I am mostly an alternative rock kind of guy, but I really do listen to everything. “Make Her Say” by Kid Cudi, Kanye West and Common is one of my favorite tracks right now. And just planned – in October I will be going to my second drum and bass show. That combined with the Incubus show in August and a *possible* Blink-182 show in September and these next few months are looking nice.

Speaking of shows, I finally got confirmation and on Tuesday I will be sweating my ass off in Atlanta while attending Warped Tour. Last year, there were two bands I HAD to see – Pierce the Veil and Gym Class Heroes. I saw GCH twice, a regular set and then an acoustic set in the afternoon, and PTV stole the show. This year, I don't have that one single band I want to see but I will definitely be looking out for a few. And since I will probably be stoked coming from the show, I will talk more about the bands in a later post.

Movie wise the past two few days have been interesting. On Friday, I was hanging out with J Beezy when a friend of hers asked her to go see The Ugly Truth. She pretty much told me I was coming along to make the thing better and Hedman ended up coming with us. What was really crazy was that the point of going was to go with the friend of hers, but we didn't even sit with them. Hedman and I were complaining at the beginning (let me stop right there – I don't want to make it seem like I hate romantic comedies. They are actually a guilty pleasure. But this movie just did not look good to me) and we laughed pretty hard at the idea of walking out in the first 30 seconds. But we stayed – and laughed. Jeannette doesn't feel the same way, haha, but it was much better than I expected. I am still waiting for Katherine Heigl to come out and bash the movie now.

But then last night we FINALLY saw Ice Age 3 in 3D and it was pretty much awesome. Those little squirrels – they get me everytime. And I think after this and Up, I am starting to dig these 3D movies. But the best 3D movie of all hasn't even come out yet. But it will be here March 5, 2010. I think I have watched the trailer like five times already. If you haven't yet, it's in my very important date to the upper left of this post.

If you have read this far, you are awesome. But the other small thing that has been stressing me out is taking over and I feel like this is coming to a close because of it. I have class in the morning and we only have a week left. It's a photojournalism class, so it's not that hard but all the assignments finally got dates and they are all due in the next week. In the past few days I have gotten most of them done, but I tried to do one today that didn't come out so well. I am hoping the teacher has got some advice for me or else i'm screwed. But off to sleep to be prepared for that.

Oh, and sorry that no house party happened this weekend. But hopefully your night is free tomorrow. I'm making waffles :)

Random lyric of the day:

Mmmm whatcha say,
Mmm that you only meant well?
well of course you did
Mmmm whatcha say,
Mmmm that it's all for the best?
of course it is
Mmmm whatcha say?
Mmmm that it's just what we need
you decided this
whatcha say?

Under My Covers, Vol. 4 (Garden State edition)

*So I usually try not to double post on a day, but hey -- first time for everything, right?

*Also, this post is going to be all over the place emotion wise.

So as much as I consider myself knowledgeable in music, I also consider myself somewhat of a movie buff. However, there are still some great movies out there that I haven't seen. Until tonight, one of those movies was Garden State.

I liked it. I think if I would have saw it at a time when everyone else saw it, I would have it up there in my top 10. But as of right now, I can't budge any movies out of there. To me, a really good movie is when I am still thinking about it afterward and this was one of those.

First off, I want to say that I am convinced that the girl I fall for and ultimately be with is someone who shares my taste in music and I find out and immediately become attracted. That is kinda what happened with the Norah chick. I was falling for her because of her playlist, hence the blog nickname. But the scene where Zach Braff meets Natalie Portman and she tells him to listen to the Shins, oh man, I probably would have asked her to marry me right there. I'm not a huge Shins fan or anything, but for a girl to do that is match made in Heaven material.

I related to some of the deep scenes in this movie. Like, the very beginning when it looked like the plane was crashing and he was just all calm. It reminded me of the scene in Fight Club when he prayed for a plane crash. Sometimes, I am just driving and my mind drifts to what would happen if I got in a wreck right at that moment. I know it sounds really weird, but these thoughts come to my head sometimes so it felt good to relate in a way. It's crazy because whether facing a wreck or a plane crashing (i have those images whenever I go to visit Cali) for some reason I am calm about it as well. I'm not ready to die or anything, far from it, but I guess it's just one of those "what are you gonna do about it" kinda things. Also, the scene where he is talking with his dad and he says something along the lines of "we don't have to be happy, we can just be ok being what we are" it made me think of me and my dad's relationship. We have never had that closeness that some father and sons have had, but in the past year or two we have gotten, not closer, but better. And I related somewhat because I think we are both reaching a point where we are ok with being ok.

My only gripe about the movie was at the very end. I liked the scene for what it was, but for the first time in any movie (or wonderfully fantastic tv show) I felt like Braff overacted. When he was talking to her on the steps and when he got her from the phone booth, it was hard to buy into it. But I still liked it. I just wish he would have toned it down a bit.

But of course, what did I like most about the movie? The soundtrack. I mean, the first song was a Coldplay track. For those of you who don't know, Taking Back Sunday and Coldplay alternate between my number 1 and number 2 favorite positions (A Rush of Blog to the Head is a reference to a Coldplay track). But then there was more great music throughout the movie, which prompts today's covers. That's right, two covers.

1) Such Great Heights -- This song was played in the second half of the movie and it was the Iron and Wine version. The original is by the Postal Service on a cd that brings back memories of freshman year of college for me. I love it because both versions are both so different, but sound so great.

Original version by The Postal Service

Cover version by Iron and Wine

2) We Will Become Silhouettes -- Ok, so this song wasn't in the movie. However, the above song was originally by The Postal Service and so is the one below and the cover is by the only band name dropped in the movie -- The Shins. Once again, both versions are different (though, not AS different -- one is just more acoustic). But both, once again, are great.

Original version by The Postal Service

Cover version by The Shins




So there's that.




Random lyric of the day:

We live in a beautiful world,
Yeah we do, yeah we do,
We live in a beautiful world,
Oh, we're sinking like stones,
All that we fought for,
All those places we've gone,
All of us are done for.

The Response Blog: WW, Mr. C, & Contests

Taking it back to the UFC layout:

Preliminary Fight:First off, I hope you guys appreciate my commitment to the first word in "wordless wednesdays." However, the responses from yesterday's post require some feedback. Just to clear things up:

1) It was a friend's house, not mine. But we still had fun nonetheless.

2) I know some of the poses looked flamboyant, but I was trying to replicate some of my favorite wrestlers poses like this:

and this:

haha, i don't think that made it any better, but the above is a guy from back in the day called "Macho Man" Randy Savage, and that twirl thing I was doing with the cape was trying to be like he used to do. We kind of had the same one, huh?

Undercard: So the other day I posted an Under My Covers blog and Mr. Condescending asked if I knew any artists from today that would go with some of the bands he listened to. I'm choosing to respond in a blog because I only have a couple so if anybody reading this wants to help (jeanette, i'm looking at you my musical buddy) feel free. But here is the few I came up with right now.

*Note* these bands don't sound exactly like the ones he mentioned, but my theory is that if you enjoy those bands, you should enjoy the following:

Kings of Leon
Example: Notion & Crawl

Manchester Orchestra
Example: I've Got Friends & Wolves at Night

Silversun Pickups
Example: Well Thought Out Twinkles & Lazy Eye

Cage the Elephant
Example: Ain't No Rest for the Wicked & James Brown

That's all I can think of right now, but maybe some more inspiration will hit me (or fellow bloggers will be able to chip in). But yea, Mr. C, I hope you like these but don't be afraid to tell me if you don't.

Main Event: So I came back from a surprise one day trip to Crestview yesterday and found I had a package. These were the contents of said package:
It's basically what winners get in the mail. Well, winners of cool blog contests. Please click on the image so you can see the awesome artwork on cd's.

jeanette: Disc 1 is playing as I type this, ya know, cuz it's music to blog to. Thank you!

So that's it, but I wanted to let you know to drop whatever plans you have, because this weekend you are ALL going to be guests at my house ;)

Random lyric of the day:

I am slipping through, I am slipping through
I am slipping into the airwaves
(The static's where you'll find me)
And this is nothing new, you are slipping through
My fingers and into the airwaves
Into the airwaves

WW: Helping a Friend Move; A picture story involving chairs and capes/shower curtains