Music Monday #3::Natalia Kills

Vevo

  Missed a week? Recap now!
MM #1::The Weeknd
MM #2::Ed Sheeran + True Tiger   What music are you crazy about this week? Leave a comment below!

Music Monday #2:::True Tiger + Ed Sheeran

I love Ed Sheeran.

But what is better than Regular Sheeran?

Dubstep Sheeran.

The combination of his soulfully sweet lyrics, True Tiger's fast paced electronic beats
 and the occasional English rap artist is an unforeseen storm of perfection.

Music Monday #1:::The Weeknd

Official Site

I've been meaning to share an artist who I've been loving lately. Seeing as it's Monday, I think that it's the perfect time to start Music Monday.

Last weekend I drove up the coast to Oregon. Before I left, I frantically searched for some new tunes to keep me entertained for the twelve hour drive. I somehow found this Canadian kid who sounds like the Michael Jackson incarnate. He is Abel Tesfaye, otherwise known as The Weeknd. He is a bit of a mix of Trey Songz with the feel of Justin Timberlake's Sexy Back Album. I can just put his music on and get lost.

The Appeal Of The Manly Beard

A few months ago I was asked to travel to the mountains for a Local Natives concert. I agreed to go without hesitation; I'm always down for a road-trip and a rock-show. For months, my friend was unable to control her fangirling; the anticipation was absolutely killing her. I'll be honest, in the time leading up to our trip, I never brought myself to listen to one of their songs. I couldn't tear myself away from my Bay Area Rap that I had recently rediscovered.

Despite being relatively young (24 and 23), we chose to avoid the mass of people camped in-front of the stage. Seeing as my friend had just finished her second round of cancer treatment and my pesky spinal fusion was acting up again, we decided to impersonate a couple of little old ladies and claimed a few comfy chairs for the night. It may have looked rather awkward, but it felt oh-so comfortable. Plus, you'd have to get me pretty DRUNK to rock out with a bunch of people that I don't know. Don't forget...I have the social capabilities of someone who'd been locked inside a tower their whole life.

From the minute that the concert began, I could see my friend (and pretty well everyone else) having a complete mental breakdown. There was too much excitement, their minds couldn't handle it! I watched the band with the thoughts, "Oh cool, I still have no idea who y'all are...or this song...or the next song". I did quickly learn that one of the band members was named Kelcey. Bro! We're meant to be friends, it's required of all individuals with this 1980's Valley name. Don't you know the rules?

WARNING: I am now going to explain Local Natives (as best as I can with my shit memory), and I feel that this requires less blogger and more Californian. 

Sorry in advance.

These guys are just so chill. Like...they're such mellow dudes. They don't go hard during their performances, they just move in a way that is reminiscent of the hippies of Woodstock; bobbing about the stage as though on shrooms or LSD. I loved it! And the most superficially FANTASTIC thing about Local Natives are their gnarly beards and staches. C'mon...so legit.

Ain't nothin' wrong with all that manly facial hair.
 

It may seem a tad strange, but I was drawn to their personalities more than anything else; I quite enjoyed them as people. They have this gentlemanly demeanor about them; soft spoken, extremely polite and genuinely excited to perform. I wanted to chill with them and be friends. Weird? Hopefully not.

Halfway through the show we ventured into the pit, mostly in an attempt to see one of the band members named Ryan. He is so adorable, I just want to, ughh, I have no words. As we began to get a little closer, the blinding lights were set to the eye-line of the audience. I was the only person to look away, the rest of the crowd stared straight into the little sun beams. I'm convinced that it was some form of hypnosis because it made the drunks go even harder. Perfectly okay with me, I love awkwardly dancing drunk people. I unfortunately never made eye contact with the little cutie Ryan, such a shame!

Local Natives are a band that you can't help but love; for their music and them as people.

My friend has already mentioned that they will be in London on October 17. 

So...all donations are now being accepted.

Twitter.com/LocalNatives

We All Have Dreams

I've been stuck at home a lot lately and during my quiet days I've had time to think about my hopes and dreams.
 About everything that I wish I could be.
I have to say, it's been pretty philosophical. I've learned so much about myself.

My #1 Dream: To live in a world where I can openly listen to HIP-HOP

EVERY-TIME I roll up in my car and I just happen to be going hard to 2Pac...I get the "DAFUQ" face.

While on my daily drive around, I kept getting weird looks. I even had to turn the volume down as a preventative measure.
It's 2013 people. Shame on you, it's not polite to stare!

Let me be me. It's not my fault that I'm a ginger-blonde-Irish-white-girl.

It's not my fault. It's genetics!

The Prince of Portlandia

Once upon a time, there was a strange and magical land where all those who lived were cursed. Those marked by The Evil Witch could only see through black framed glasses, could only hear the sounds of soft Indie Rock and were forced to wear internal-organ-crushing skinny jeans.               

    This magical land was known as Portlandia.

Portlandia had long been segregated from the rest of the Enchanted Forest of Oregon. An evil witch had spelled The Land and turned all of her subjects into ogres of which she called Hipsters. My quest to Portlandia was in search of The Prince, destined to save The Land from this evil enchantress. The task was too great to be fought alone; I needed my most trusted friend, Eve.

The journey from The California Castle to this faraway land was long; it seemed that we would never find our way. To bypass the treacherous Enchanted Forest, a dragon carried us upon its back. As we finally spotted Portlandia, the dragon slowly dropped to the ground, never alerting the cursed-knights to our arrival. We soon found a weak spot within the Portlandia Gate and silently slid through.

 

The Witch's curse within The Ghostly Manor

We traveled until we found The Ghostly Manor where we'd hope to hide as we continued our search for The Prince. As Eve and I entered, we quickly realized that it had been cursed as well; it was stuck within a time loop, stuck in 1850. As we sat at the ancient tables, a palm reader suddenly appeared offering to relay my fortune. I couldn't exactly place what I'd felt, but I knew that there was something off about her. The old hag violently grabbed my arm and began to read the lines of my hand, revealing that my life was soon to change. She wouldn't disclose the details of the life altering event; for that required money. Refusing to pay, her face suddenly began to change; her bones began to break and reassemble right before my eyes. She was The Witch! Eve and I ran, never resting until we came to our little room, the only place she could never enter. We cautiously examined our hide-away, looking to see if the ghosts of her victims still lingered within. It wasn't called The Ghostly Manor for just any reason.

...we didn't stop until we came to our little room.

Seeing The Witch face to face made us even more determined to find The Prince. We headed for The Center of Portlandia where we could stay in the shadows, keeping out of view of her Hipsters who would most certainly trap us within the curse. Eve and I searched The Enchanted Land for hours until we came upon a group of prospective princesses sitting outside a strange place called The Roseland; The Prince must have been inside. The little ladies created settlements around the walls to wait for their precious ginger. I began to study each of the ladies, scanning their eyes, unveiling their intentions. I soon noticed one that seemed to be far different than the rest; her smile was a bit...off. All of a sudden she let out a cackle that could only come from The Witch herself. She must have changed her face in the hopes of winning The Prince's heart! We couldn't let that happen. Eve and I had to find a way to stop her.

We returned that night to rescue The Prince, unsure of how exactly it could be done. We stood outside the walls of The Roseland, watching...wondering who had become the hidden witch. Panic set in as we realized that we would soon be surrounded by thousands of possible evil witches...completely unprepared. 

 

The little princesses, or The Witch

 The Witch never made her move against us and we safely found our way inside. To our delight, The Roseland had been divided in two: The Peasant Level for all of the prospective princesses younger than 21 and the Royal Box for those of us a little older. Eve and I quickly ascended to the upper level to convene with the other royals as The Witch was left with the peasants; her young disguise forced her to remain with all of those who she greatly despised. Suddenly, we heard a blood-curtailing scream from The Peasant Level; The Prince had arrived, and he had begun to sing. I'd heard tales of his voice, but with every word I fell in love. The Witch must have been angry when his spotlight came upon me and The Prince and I locked eyes. One of the jealous princesses soon cried out, "I JUST WANT TO STROKE YOU!" in hopes to gain his attention. The Prince continued his song and our eyes met once again.

 
The Prince  

The Prince sang for hours, but after his melody "You Need Me, I Don't Need You", he suddenly disappeared; I became worried that The Witch had done something. All of those in attendance were forced to leave, a princess wouldn't be chosen that night. We sat in the Royal Box, hoping to somehow spot him. Soon, one of The Witch's armed guards found us...and we ran for our lives. Extremely tired and hungry, we visited a local shop called Voodoo Doughnut, the creation of The Witch's younger and more beautiful sister. These magical cakes contained both power and bravery. To earn them however, we had to recite a spell. My cake required the use of the phrase, "Triple Chocolate Penetration", something a lady should never say. I soon felt powerful, I could fight anything; a dragon: a Hipster, The Witch. I wasn't the only one who needed to be prepared, Eve did as well. She used the spell, "Old Dirty Bastard"'; not the language of a proper woman indeed, but she started to feel a little braver. The spelled cakes required time to fully work, so we began the journey back to The Ghostly Manor, leaving the prospective princesses waiting at The Prince's window, from which he never appeared.

As we awoke from our voodoo slumber, we set off to find the ancient magic that would aid us in our fight against The Witch. We traveled to the source...Multnomah Falls. The water from the mountain contained more magic than The Witch could ever hope to see. For years it had been protected by her younger and more beautiful sister, where else would the Voodoo Doughnuts get their power? We found ourselves a carriage to bring us to The Falls. Soon, we would have everything that we needed to save The Prince.

Multnomah Falls Magic Shoppe

The Falls

We traveled to the bottom of the mountain to collect some of the magic within the water. The entire time that we knelt near the magic pond, we could feel someone watching us. The Falls was crowded that day and there was no way to tell who exactly was staring. Eve and I began to walk back to The Magic Shoppe; we needed to learn how to work the spell. As we walked in, we were immediately met by a woman called Amy. She pulled us away from the crowd; she could feel the eyes watching us as well. Within moments, we were attacked! One of The Witch's ogres had found us. How do you fend off a Hipster? Eve and I hadn't a clue, but Amy seemed to have an idea.  All of a sudden, a box appeared and inside was a pair of Ray-Bans, a penny-board, a camera and a type-writer. The ogre stopped in his tracks, he couldn't help himself. He grabbed the penny-board, put on the Ray-Bans and immediately began to ride around the shop, taking photos and compulsively writing about it. While The Hipster remained distracted, we ran. We continued to run until we were sure that no one was chasing us. Neither of us knew how to use the magic from The Falls, but as I tried to catch my breath, I noticed a small piece of paper crumpled in my hand. Amy somehow managed to give me the words to complete the spell. All that was written was...

"Give Me Love"

                                                                                                                                                                   
These are my photos from my trip to Portland. I was going to just write a blog about it, but decided to make it a little more interesting. This is my fairytale version.

Eve: Fake name, my friend doesn't have a fairy-tell name 

The dragon: the plane 

The cursed-knights: TSA who search me every-time I go through security

The Ghostly Manor: The White Eagle Bar & Hotel
The Prospective Princesses: All of the teen girls at the concert
The Prince: Ed Sheeran

The Roseland: Venue of the show

The Royal Box: The 2nd level where the bar was, no teens allowed
Multnomah Falls: Actually Multnomah, no magic
Voodoo Doughnuts: Actually Voodoo Doughnuts, no magic

Triple Chocolate Penetration Spell: My doughnut: vegan chocolate, with chocolate frosting and coco puffs

Old Dirty Bastard Spell: My friend's doughnut: yeast doughnut with frosting, Oreo and peanut butter

Give Me Love Spell: My favorite song

The Witch: The too-cool-for-school vibe of Portland

The Hipster Ogre: The too-cool-for-school people of Portland

Yes: Some girl screamed "I just want to stroke you" AND I did lock eyes with Ed Sheeran. It was awesome.