Spice Up Your Travel with the right Tunes

Due to the fact that I live in Columbia, Missouri and go to the wonderful University of Missouri I have to do quite a bit of traveling. This is because I am, of course, not from Columbia but from the Chicagoland area and during holidays and breaks I spend a lot of time in my good, old car.

Traveling by yourself, however, can be a drag. Long roads, plenty of hours and no conversation can lead to a boring day of driving to get from point A to point B. So generally I like to find ways to keep myself occupied on the drive.

Good music and good coffee have proven to be the best methods of keeping my head from falling off my shoulders due of boredom. The only dilemma is that I am always looking for fresh tunes to mix up what I normally listen to. This is one of the reasons I am in love with Spotify and creating playlists on it. And the latest playlist is dedicated to travelling during the Fall and Winter seasons.

As with most creative endeavors, coming up with the right playlist is like pulling teeth. You search high and low for the right balance of music to keep you going and that, if need be, you wouldn't get sick of if you had to listen to it at least two or three times on repeat.

After song searching, focus groups, and test drives (literally driving while testing out the playlists) I believe to have found my Fall/Winter Travel 2012 playlist. Of course, my music taste is probably different than some of yours, so while this playlist is perfect for me, it may not be so for everyone.

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1. "I Will Wait" by Mumford & Sons- OK, honestly, could I come up with a travel playlist and not use Mumford for my first song? This bluegrass, folk band from Britain knows how to get you excited about traveling long distances, especially with their new hit from their latest album Babel.  And if the banjo doesn't get you pumped about driving, then hopefully the next few songs will. 
2. "Anything Could Happen" by Ellie Goulding- With fun vocals and energizing synths, Goulding's new song provides the perfect energy boost to the playlist. It's a fun song that keeps you moving, and jamming on the road won't be as silly when going along with this song. 
3. "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons- I have been on a HUGE Imagine Dragons kick lately after listening to the album on Spotify. This song in particular is one of my favorites, with a heavy bass line and great use of synthesizers it keeps me energized on the road. 
4. "Big Parade" by The Lumineers- This band is also one of my newer bands, I only just started listening to them after a friend recommended them to me. I immediately fell in love, and had to add them to the playlist. Like Mumford, The Lumineers adds a folk touch to the playlist and adds that variety needed to keep the boredom at bay. 
5. "Thinkin About You" by Frank Ocean- I'm not big on hip hop or R&B but I love Frank Ocean. This single from his newest album channel ORANGE adds a softer, more soulful touch to the playlist. It adds the fun variety of slowing down and taking away from the bumping and grinding or the more energetic selections. 
6. "It's Time" by Imagine Dragons- As I said, I am on a huge Imagine Dragons kick right now, and I couldn't resist putting their most popular single on this playlist. 
7. "Leave You Travelling" by Steel Train- I can't have a travel playlist and not have a song that is about travelling in it. And Steel Train's song is perfect for all travel occasions. 
8. "Sail" by AWOLNATION- I'm a big fan of a good bass line, and "Sail" provides what I'm looking for. The song is a lot of fun to sing along with and makes it easy to jam along in your car. 
9. "Things to Do" by Beauty Feast- As I said in my last post, I am in love with the soundtrack from The Outs and Beauty Feast is a major contributor to that album. I really enjoy their acoustic touch to the playlist, and it ties in well with the earlier contributions of The Lumineers and Mumford & Sons. 
10. "Wondervisions" by Delicate Steve- Another piece from The Outs soundtrack that is completely instrumental. This song is actually a lot of fun to listen to, just because of the way it is performed. It has the elements of a rock song, but the electric piano and synth add great energy to the song. 
11. "Home" by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros- This indie rock song is more sentimental than anything. Whether I'm pulling into my driveway in Columbia or at home in the Chicagoland, this song always gets me excited about traveling and seeing the people that I love.

The playlist mixes indie rock, folk, R&B, and electronic and can play towards the taste of any travel partners you have with you. Of course, traveling is always exciting and with the right musical contributions you can make the journey even better. 

This playlist and all the songs and artists mentioned above can be found on Spotify. To all my fellow holiday travelers stay safe on the roads and in the skies and remember, always jam out responsibly. 

Web Series Watch Party: The Outs

Back in October, I had the great pleasure of stumbling across a web series that I instantly fell in love with. Of course, I found the series because of tumblr and the first night that I had found the website I watched all the existing episodes that I could.

This series is called The Outs. 

Of course, for some people this series won't be their cup of tea. The 6 episode storyline follows the lives of two gay men who, before the action of the series, were dating and had moved to New York together. The two eventually fall out of love and break up and the series follows their lives in New York after the break up and the emotional fallout that comes from the end of any relationship. 

The story revolves around Jack

No boxers? That is shameful. 

And Mitchell

That's him. With the glasses. 

The dynamic between the two characters is interesting because the story follows their break up, not their romantic interest in each other. At first, you can feel the tension and anger between the two in the first encounter that the audience witnesses. But as each episode progresses you start to see the characters move towards the closure that each craves for.

The first encounter is masterfully done, as well, because at the beginning all the audience sees is two separate people living their different lifestyles and then all of a sudden we are shown that there is history to the show. Even though we don't fully get that history until a later episode, the scene is written in a way that the audience almost knows everything that has happened between the two of them, even though we are never actually told. 

Each episode lasts only around 20 to 30 minutes, but each episode has proven to be well written, captivating and emotionally moving. As I continued through the series I began to sympathize with the characters, and even start seeing myself in the ups and downs that some of the characters faced. 

The series also offers a perspective on the gay community that is refreshing and touches a lot of bases. From the stereotypical "slutty phase" that Jack claims to go through (and the connotations of promiscuity and gay men) to Mitchell hitting on a burrito delivery man because he is lonely, the series doesn't focus on one aspect for each character. Both Jack and Mitchell hit stereotypical points seen in typical media depictions of gay men and both have moments that people don't normally see in mainstream media. 

One of the best parts of the series is that the characters are flawed, human beings. It's not like watching a movie and thinking "this could never happen because this situation is too fantastic to live in the real world." When you watch the series it's like looking into the lives of two real people. It's like looking through the screen to get an intimate look at a relationship that has gone through hell and is starting to come out of it. 

Each episode is written, produced and shot in Brooklyn, NY. The project was funded by donations and two successful Kickstarter campaigns that allowed the cast and crew to keep the project going. The series works a lot with local businesses and relies almost entirely on local artists and musicians for their soundtrack. WHICH IS AMAZING BY THE WAY. 

Seriously, the soundtrack is great. I listen to it daily and I can't get enough of it. The music complements the action for the story so well, and listening to the soundtrack is like watching the series all over again. 

The story of The Outs captures your attention and keeps you wanting to watch. Before you know it you've watched all 6 episodes in one night and you're sitting in the darkness of your bedroom, wishing for more. The most heart wrenching part of this already emotional show is that the last episode has already been aired. 

The Outs and any information that was written about in this post can be found here or by going to The Outs on Facebook. The pictures above were found from tumblr. Also the AMAZING soundtrack can be found at this awesome link right here or by just clicking the "soundtrack" page on the website. 

Enjoy your watching experience with The Outs!

Secession in the Nation

We all know those people who take politics a little too seriously. Sometimes (as my last post demonstrates) we can even be that person in the room. I can't say that many people would know someone who has the audacity to start a petition to secede from the Union, however, due to political unhappiness.

As the video above demonstrates, some people are taking the election, the economic crisis and the "threat of national government" to an extreme. While it's completely fine for these people to exercise their right to free speech, do they truly think that 25,000 signatures is going to make anyone sit up and take notice?

As of the most current numbers that I have seen, the petition for the secession of Texas is sitting at 93, 175 signatures. I find it hard to believe that citizens of the United States are looking to secede from the Union because they can't have their way when it comes to politics. It seems immature and, frankly, sad.

This move from the citizens of some states, such as Texas, is not surprising in a historical context. Anyone remember the Alamo? But not only Texas has the thirst for independence, but other deep south states such as Louisiana have citizens calling for secession. To be honest, when I think of this issue now, I will only be able to think of people sitting in front of their computers whispering sinisterly, "The South will rise again," as a Confederate flag hangs in the background.

That could be an ad campaign for these petitions.

I doubt that anyone in the federal government will take these petitions seriously. Since they weren't formally from the states themselves (only residents of the states) the federal government probably won't even acknowledge these calls to action. Also, the Civil War brought about the end of the States' rights to secede from the Union. So good luck to those citizens in attempting that.

As is with any Internet phenomena, there have been many spoof petitions that have popped up as well. A few of my favorites include:

• Forcing all states to pay their part of the national debt before seceding (764 signatures) 
• Peacefully grant the University of Illinois Chief Illiniwek back as the school mascot (2,144 signatures) 
• Peacefully grant the city of Austin, Texas to withdraw from the state of Texas and remain part of the United States (3, 327 signatures) 
• Deport everyone that signed a petition to withdraw their state from the United States of America (12, 931 signatures)

All petitions, whether they be about seceding or actual, sensible things like cutting foreign aid to Uganda if they actually do pass the "Kill the Gays" bill, can be found here. 

Election Night 2012

This being my first post I thought it would be fitting to post on election night, only one of the most exciting nights for Americans. I thought I would give a recap of my election day, as a way to capture this experience in written form.

BEGIN

My election day started as most normal, college days do. The minute my alarm started buzzing, I immediately shut it off, looked at the time, decided my bed was still too warm and comfortable to get out of and decided to sleep another hour. While in that half-awake, half-asleep limbo land I was vaguely aware that today would be a historic day, no matter what the outcome was.

I got up earlier than needed in order to make it to the polls before things got too crazy. Long lines and a college schedule rarely mesh well together, especially when your polling place is on the other side of campus. The line was quiet, most likely because it was the morning and I had time to look over what information I had on the candidates in order to make a decision on who to vote for.

Of course, I don't mean who to vote for in the presidential race but in the Missouri races, being as I am from out of state and this was my first election in Missouri. But I digress.

As I was filling in the bubbles on my ballot I realized that even though I could feel insignificant in the grand scheme of things today, my vote still mattered. There aren't many opportunities to show the government what you really think about their actions in our society, but voting is one of them and I was ready to take that opportunity for what it was worth. After this grand epiphany that occurred within 15 seconds, I fed my ballot to the counter and exited my polling place to get some caffeine for the long day ahead.

Sitting in the RJI (Reynolds Journalism Institute) I began to browse through the tumblr-sphere and other social media websites. One interesting observation was that many people on social media sites were enthusiastic about voting. Since this was coming from my generation, I was pleased to see so many of my peers take an interest in trying to "change" the country (I put change in quotations because there are many parts of political races that we know are not going to change, no matter how many of my generation gets out the vote).

ANYWAY

The day was filled with a mix of apprehension over what was to come, and boredom in classes as I ached to be watching the news coverage on several websites without having to mute them. Classes that allowed the use of computers were set on the back burners as I poured over the most recent polling information and versed myself in the different scenarios that could potentially play out later in the evening. To say I was excited about watching the coverage would have barely scratched the surface.

After class my work schedule offered a somewhat needed distraction from the electronic buzz of election news. The distraction was, of course, short lived as I attempted to immerse myself in the projects my coordinator gave me. My co-worker probably had to take a nap from exhaustion after listening to me talk non-stop about the election for 3 hours.

It was getting close to zero hour.

My night began with Fox News Radio, as I listened to projections that Romney had already won Kentucky and Indiana while Obama had won Vermont. I raced home so that I could get my "Election Coverage Network," (or ECN) as I called it, set up and ready for the night ahead. Upon getting home, CNN was turned on the TV, and my computer desktop was flooded with polling information from news outlet websites including: KOMU, BBC, ABC, NPR, Huffington Post, and The New York Times. Not to mention I was live-blogging via tumblr with other people keeping the race as relevant as possible.

I probably took the amount of coverage in my ECN a little overboard.

This was what I loved about the election though. Seeing the coverage, getting the information, following the ups and downs, and being able to watch these changes take place in our government. Sure, we may only be one vote in a sea of millions but we still have something in this country that allows us to be that one vote that people in other countries would kill for.

At around 8:30 p.m. I had to make my way to my second job (college kids have to eat) which was thankfully a desk job at the student rec center checking out equipment and doing laundry (towels) for the guests. My co-worker for the night was also vehemently invested in the election and so we were able to construct a miniature version of my ECN on the computers at our work station. We talked politics the entire shift and discussed who we thought were the best candidates (we had many of the same views) and occasionally checked for updates while in between checking laundry and helping guests.

As guests began to hear what we were talking about, they began to chime in. They asked for updates on the race, leaning over the computers to watch the coverage with us and giving their opinions to the mixture of information we were all looking to absorb. We were all sitting on edge, wanting to know what would be decided for our country and everyone was together no matter who they had voted for. At that moment, we all cared about something important.

At one point I left the work station to go and check the locker room and on the TV, CNN coverage had just announced that they were calling the race for President Obama to be re-elected. I immediately ran back to the desk and the two of us began fact checking, getting as much information as we could. At this point in the night, Ohio and Florida were still too close to call and we were having a field day with figuring out what had happened to get Obama to the magical number of 270.

After that, we attempted to focus on laundry, each one of us standing at the counter, folding towels, in our own world as to what the election had meant. We talked, but only when we needed to. The election had affected us, moved us so deeply that there was a mix of emotions swirling around our desk alone.

As the night began to wind down and we started the closing procedures, the coordinator for our desk walked by, smiled, laughed and said "Folding towels is a little sweeter tonight, yeah?" And proceeded to walk away.

I laughed, thinking of the crazy day and the end result that had come from it, and continued to fold the towel, smiling the entire time.