Dude, this show is actually good.

So I've now seen the second episode of The Sing-Off. Here's what I thought about it.

First off, the opening combined song was incredible. There's just something about getting all these amazing lead singers from each group, and having them trade off in machine gun fashion. You get all the best aspects of each singer, and none of their deficiencies since they're only singing a line at a time. I admit, "Use Somebody" has gotten really REALLY old since it came out, but the arrangement was awesome. The show started off with a bang.

The first group up: On the Rocks, the boys from Oregon singing Live Your Life. In addition to being partial to all-male groups, I love taking rap/hip-hop songs and putting them to a cappella arrangements. The dude who sang the Rihanna part sometimes got off-key, but the whole thing seemed like one big party. I also liked how they used the entire stage, it made it seem like they were trying to come out of the TV

Secondly, Street Corner Symphony on Hey Soul Sister. Could've called they'd do something with a high lead, but it was even almost a little too high for him. Watching it, you forget it that they're only 6 people. They fill my whole ear, I don't know how to describe it better than that. They've got an above-average bass and then those two guys do great high harmonies. I feel like each person is individual, but they all come together nicely (like Nota last year). Also, I like how originally they dealt with the bridge - it gave some nice break from one guy's voice.

Also, apparently Ben Folds is writing a recap-style blog about each episode and the individual performances? What a genius...I wish I'd thought of that. (here it is: http://www.nbc.com/sing-off/on-key-with-ben-folds/)

High school group (Eleventh Hour), Bruno Mars - Just the way you are. She's still got a great voice, but I still can't help but think she's the only thing that really deserves to move on in the competition. I mean, LeBron could only bring his team to the Finals - you need some great support to win it all. They deserved to go this round, but they're really good. That just speaks to how good every group really is.

Jerry Lawson and the Talk of the Town, singing Mercy. These guys are just a lot of fun, and musically they know exactly what they do. I'm curious as to whether they can adapt each week, or whether it will start to sound the same. They're another group that sounds much deeper than just 6.

The Backbeats, singing one of my favorite radio songs (Breakeven by The Script). This lead singer is one of the best in the whole show. At the end when she's going nuts over the top of everybody else - that's the soundtrack to heaven, if you ask me. They're a favorite, even though they still cheated by stealing Sing-Off vets!

Committed, singing Apologize by Onerepublic. Whoosh, these guys can turn an overplayed radio song into some of the best 2 minutes of my life (only slight exaggeration). It's awesome to see that yet another group member has killer pipes. Not much to say here, these guys are head and shoulders and torso ahead of the rest of the competition.

Groove for Thought, Mike Posner, Cooler than me. These guys definitely can sang mayn, and their lead singer's voice reminds me a lot of Justin Nozuka - not a bad thing. The girls definitely added to the overall performance, and I honestly think this could be the performance of the night. Dang, it was great - loved the stand-up bass impersonator.

The Whiffenpoofs, singing a great song - Haven't Met You Yet - Michael Buble. Didn't love the lead singers, except for the ginger. He was great, and added some personality. They are like the best accompanying band ever, but I guess they only have one great lead singer (I loved Mr. Grace Kelly), and his voice was a little too high for this song I guess? So yeah, they got stuck in the harder side of the bracket, and they don't get to move on.

I'm saying that Committed, then Groove For Thought, Street Corner Symphony, Backbeats, then Jerry Lawson and On the Rocks rounding out the group. The funny thing is, I think On the Rocks could've made the top 3 last season. I'm excited for next week!

The Sing-Off, Season 2!

I love the sing-off, it was amazing last year. They've got a kind of eclectic mix of judges/host: Shawn Stockman (Boyz II Men), Nicole Scherzinger (Pussycat Dolls), and Ben Folds are the judges...and Nick Lachey from 98 degrees and Jessica Simpson-fame is the host. If you haven't seen it, check out, it's worth it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wldcHwwRHKg&feature=related

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaLBrIZFP68&feature=related

Those are the two finalists from last year, and they were clearly the two best of the season. However, some (aka myself) may think that they picked the wrong winner.

So when I saw that the second season was coming on, I just got so stoked. Here's the rundown of this season:

High school group from Ohio, co-ed - they sang a Justin Bieber song, they're the youngest in the competition, and it kinda sounded like it. I was shocked to see that they moved on to the next round.

Oregon group, all-male - they had a viral video of them singing Bad Romance (watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUWfL32S5PA), and they remind me of the Beelzebubs from last season. They're an early favorite of mine.

Seattle jazz group, co-ed - they're a group of music teachers, so they're really musically solid. However, they're smaller, and a little older, so the energy isn't really as high as with some of the other groups (for the record, I think that isn't what they're going for though). While I didn't love them, they did sing "I Wish" by Stevie Wonder, so they get bonus points from me.

Pitch Slapped, co-ed - funniest group name, and they're from Berklee college of music...so they're studs vocally. They have some intricate harmonies/notes they can hit, that not many other groups could. With that said, it was hilarious that this group of music students comes out with "Good Girls Go Bad". I still can't believe that they got kicked off! It's rigged. I'm calling it right now.

Jerry Lawson and the Talk of Town, all-male - super-enjoyable, motown a cappella. This guy used to be in an R&B group, and I don't know how old he is, but he can definitely still sing. I've got a soft spot in my heart for this type of music, I love it.

The Whiffenpoofs, all-male - Yale student group, oldest a cappella group ever apparently? Really, really liked how they did "Grace Kelly". They're another early favorite.

Men of Note, all-male - great lead singer, and really solid vocally top-to-bottom. They just got stuck in the second group, and every other group was better than them, although barely.

Street Corner Symphony, all-male - good ole boys from Tennessee with a hipster singer, they're really united as a group, but nothing really stuck out to me.

The Backbeats, co-ed - my sister loves this band, and she's got a point. They're a supergroup, and they sound like it, but I'm not all the way on-board yet. But then again, maybe I'm intimidated by a girl beatboxer.

Committed, all-male - gospel group of black boys from 'Bama, these dudes are amazing. Oh my goodness. Can I just say how weird it is to have your beatboxer have a solo - and then jump right back into beatboxing? I am committed to committed.

Bloggy and Me

Reunited! I forgot I had this thing, and then through a long stretch of checking out other peoples' past couple months, remembered about mine.

I'm seriously trying to remember ANYTHING worth blogging about (the peak of importance), and I can't think of a thing...so I think I'm going to document my musical journey for the past couple weeks.

I started downloading music (illegally...torrent is illegal apparently?), and downloaded Coldplay's complete discography. Apparently, the only music by Coldplay that I was missing was Parachutes and then a whole bunch of EP's that had different versions of the same 4 songs. After that came: Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, All-American Rejects (not bad actually), Say Anything, Foreigner, Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind and Fire, John Legend, Kanye West, Sondre Lerche, and Jay-Z.

With all that new music, what am I listening to right now?
1. The entire "Signed, Sealed, and Delivered" album by Stevie Wonder. Amazing.
2. Undone (The Sweater Song) - Weezer
3. Uh Huh - Forever The Sickest Kids
4. Walk Through Hell - Say Anything
5. Blame It (Feat. T-Pain) - Jamie Foxx...hilarious.

You Know It's A Sad Day At Work When You Blog

Wow. Starting this thing again. I wanna take some webspace to marvel at how bored I am at work. I mean it's only 8:45, and I've already stooped to blogging. Two more days of work left! Yahoo!

On that note, one of the things that is driving me to complete work, school, and A-Plus right now is the prospect of playing muggle quidditch this weekend - two games! I'm stinkin stoked...I was so excited one day at work that I read the entire rulebook - all 65 pdf pages' worth. I will never get a foul. Ever. My boy strick put the team together, and it's in this already-established league that consists of band nerds and the like, so needless to say the soccer/football/ben ruhl guys are whooping up on the trombone section. We beat the last guys something ridiculous like 275 to -65. Yeah. A negative score. Talk about demoralizing.

My mom had oral surgery yesterday, so my sister is taking care of her. I am going to be SO happy this weekend - my mom, one of the most talkative people I know, will be in too much pain to converse. Ballin! All kidding aside, I'm excited. I have both of my exams on Tuesday, and by 12:30 on August the 5th, I will be done with summer school. It feels great to say that, and even better to know that it's so close. However, it's also a terrible situation, knowing that I have to make a 111.2 and a 125 to receive A's in Mechanics of Materials and Thermodynamics, respectively. Whatev. I'll take a B (or C) over a D any day!

The gay thing about summer school is this: right now, the thing I want more than anything is a break. Without school. Just to be able to unwind, not do anything, sleep til 4 in the afternoon, you know just whatev. However, I'll be working my tail off until the 5th, and then come home, chill, get a short break, and then have to be BACK by the 25th. My summer < 3 weeks long. And yes, i realize that looks like a heart. Summer...you have broken my heart.

JabbaWockeeZ

Sunday I was at home, and watched 4-5 hours of the first season of America's Best Dance Crew (which apparently is endorsed by American Idol's Randy Jackson, although he never graces the show with his presence...). You would think, with my pessimistic attitude towards pop culture, that I would see right through yet another lame attempt at bringing 'thug lyfe' to the television (anyone remember "Yo Mama"?), but no. I was not so adept at spotting the commercialist propaganda of over-hyped Compton street life, and lo and behold, here I was, addicted to a 30-minute show that reminded me of Step Up 2 with better acting.

Needless to say, after watching some 8 or 9 episodes, I am overly pumped about ABDC 2, which I should punish myself for saying, since it's not The Office, and now have something else to look forward to in the coming weeks (or days?).

Youtube jabbawockeez (preferably) or kaba modern for some sickkk dances.

Farmers Fight!

I just ordered my freaking Fightin' Texas Aggie Ring, and I'm stinkin' excited about it! I was schoolgirl-ishly nervous while I was waiting in the anteroom, but leaving there I felt like a million bucks (although 822 poorer than when I stepped in, which is to say at the beginning of the day, I was a rather valuable young fellow). So yeah, I now have a countdown calendar to September 19th, when I will puke my guts out in front of all my adoring followers. Goal for the next couple of months: decide what to dunk my ring in.

In other, more serious, news, I was reading the blog of one of my most adored people in the world - Matt Thiessen (lead singer, etc./brains behind Relient K), earlier this afternoon. In his blog there was an "interview" between him and one of his fans in Morocco (aka this guy sent him a cool myspace message that was all questions, and he answered it, and put the responded message on his blog), and I found myself at a crossroads of thought. In a synopsis, the message came off as witty (it's matt thiessen, i mean come on), thoughtful, and a bit sassy, as if he were trying to be funny and it came off condescending (i.e. one of the questions was about his favorite superhero and he answered "John the Baptist". Funny, but it almost sounded like "I don't read comic books - they are the devil's work. Now read Mark 12-15."). Anyway, I realize that my entire being, my core structure should not rely on how funny and approachable and relatable of a person Matt Thiessen is, especially in a blog setting (since he seemed awkward enough to be human the time that we saw him after a show), however, this is big for me to say of one of my "heroes": I felt like I disagreed with him on more than one occasion, or at least wasn't like "Wow that was the absolute perfect thing to say!", which is how I normally am. One of those things that I treat a hero like a god, which there is and should be a fine distinction between the two. Since I feel like the entire last paragraph is one big run-on sentence, I am going to press enter. Twice.

Much better. I'm going home today - so excited. This week has been a tough one, which was to be expected going into it, but needless to say I'm going to enjoy my stay at home, away from things. My mom told me that Micaela is a natural in her summer school speech class, where I fought down butterflies everyday whenever I had to stand up in front of 25 strangers and talk for at most 3 1/2 minutes (which, I must say, is better than standing up in front of 25 of your friends, which is in turn infinitely times greater than standing up in front of 25 people who you look up to or who are cooler than you). So she's a natural, which doesn't surprise me, and she apparently loves it. So hopefully I'll be hearing funny stories about nervous teens the whole weekend to get my mind off of EBSCO invoices and Dr. Beason rambling about how the world is actually cooling down (which is exactly what "the commies" don't want you to know). I wonder if he knows the Cold War has been over. Or that it ever started. This is long enough.

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain."

I've been thinking about adding a post here, and just haven't, so now that there are approximately 9 minutes until I check out of work 5 minutes early, and I have nothing else to do (nor have I for 1 1/2 hours), I'll dedicate my energies to this.

As I've been recollecting on my life right now (which is never a good thing, because you're much too close to the situation, better to wait a year or two before making any judgments), I've found that I am unhappy. Not altogether unhappy, not desperate, nor grumpy, just not happy with me. Which is a problem. Because while I can't change how other people treat me, or feel about me, or act while they're around me, I can change me. And that's it. Me - how I treat others, feel about others, and act around others, as well as all of those actions in regards to myself (which is a bigger part of my life than I would like most to know). So when something is going wrong, or maybe not wrong, but just differently than what I would have a perfect situation look like, I can't be angry at anyone else, because I can't control them, I can't change them. All I can change in a situation is myself, and how I react to said situation. So if I find myself unhappy (as I have), what can I do to remedy this?

I don't think that trying to answer that question will actually answer anything, so I'm just going to ask it, then revisit it later, and make fun of myself for answering it wrong.

Ah! As much as I hate being cliche', I'm going to say something true, and it will mean something to me, and that's enough to merit writing it on here: If you tell yourself something to be true, sooner or later, you start to believe yourself. So, in a sense, changing this lifestyle, and changing my self, is, at least in part, a matter of telling myself that something is so.

And now I am a big, fluffy ball of cliche'.