Morning Playlist!

Its playlist time!!!  I recently have been having trouble getting up in the morning and staying happy.  It hit me today when I was running late for class and my car was buried in 6 inches of snow, that life sucks in the morning.  So today, I saw a post on reddit about favorite morning songs, and decided to make myself a morning "pick me up" playlist, so here goes nothing.


1.  From the Morning - Nick Drake
          This song is a beautiful marriage of acoustic guitar and soft lyrics.  It's the perfect starter song to this playlist.  If its the first song I hear in the morning, I want it to be soft and gentle to ease me into waking up.  I'm not a morning person, so I'm at my worst the first few minutes after waking up.  Everything in the world will be ok after hearing this song.


2.  Here Comes the Sun - The Beatles
          Just a classic here is all.  Lyrics and good tune start to pick up momentum.  How can you listen to the first 30 seconds of this song and be grumpy?  You just cant.  There is something about older music that modern music just doesn't carry anymore.  Things seemed so much more upbeat and cheery back then.  If I ever get up early enough to watch a sunrise, I'd want this song to play as I skip away.


3.  Mr. Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra
          Here is another oldie but goody.  With a rising sun comes a blue sky.  In the funk of winter and gray skies, this song gives me hope of warm summer mornings.  At this point I'm awake and need the energy to get me going, and this tune carries energy through it.  "Mr. Blue sky, you hide to away for so long, everyone wants to smile at you"  Those lyrics make me want to be a morning person.


4.  Hold Me Now - The Polyphonic Spree
          This song is a new song to me, and I loved it the first time I heard it and saw its music video.  The video had "muppet-like" puppets and reminded me of my younger years waking up in my ninja turtle PJs, skipping down to the kitchen for a bowl of cereal and morning cartoons.  I dub this my 'breakfast song' of my morning playlist


5.  Up, Up, and Away - Kid Cudi
           My little sisters inspired this song, cause I know they like Cudi.  Its a good upbeat song to get ready to.  "those happy thoughts, in my head, I'm feeling like I'm peter pan minus the tights and the fairies happy to see how far I've come to the same place it began my dreams and imagination perfectly at peace so I move along a bit higher"  Good inspiriation for happier thoughts and being glad at the progress you've made.


6.  The Boxer - Chemical Brothers
          I know this song has been on one of my earlier playlists, but its perfect for a take-on-the-day song.  The bouncy beat and explosions in the background make me feel pumped enough to take on the day ahead of me.  This song puts a bounce in my step.  I'm going to have to listen to this song as I walk the 2 mile journey from the parking lot to the science building.


7.  You Make My Dreams Come True - Hall and Oates 
          Again, I think I'm a sucker for these older songs lately for good high energy happy songs.  The new day is all about making your dreams come true, so get get 'em, go getter!  I better be careful where I listen to this song in the morning, because it is a toe tapper and finger snapper for sure.


8.  Banana Pancakes - Jack Johnson
          No morning playlist is complete without Jack Johnson.  Love him or hate him, he has what it takes to make this playlist.  Sure his songs sound the song, but his songs merit a listen in the mornings.  This song makes you wish it was a rainy day outside and all you can is stay in bed to wake up slow.


9.  Mornin' - Star Slinger
          Besides the obvious name, this mix has an interesting twist of beat and vocal clips blended in for a great upbeat vide.  Starts off nice and simple and then as the track goes on, it picks up and has a great build up beat.  I <3 this song.


10.  Stand Out - The Goofy Movie
          This is the song to end my playlist, and it is one of my favorite songs and movies ever!  Its time to tackle the day and stand out, do your best, and rise above the crowd.  I was going to either post this song or "After Today" from the same movie.  The one where he is going to school and everyone is singing about what they will do after school is over.  However I went with this song instead because its more upbeat, and doesn't make me wish my day was over lol.

Hope you enjoyed this morning playlist and can have better mornings!  More to come soon, and I should have a player somewhere on this blog so you can listen to the songs.

Community

(Image from NBC)
Community is my new favorite show! I have always seen an episode here and there on TV, but recently got season 2 on DVD, and I'm loving it.  You may recognize a few members of this awesome cast. Troy (Donald Glover) aka Childish Gambino, he is a rapper, writer for shows like 30 Rock, and he's probably my favorite character in this show.  Jeff (Joel McHale) is the main character, who is also the host of the show "Soup".  Abed is hillarious, he's the obligatory minority with a twist.  His character is super witty and dry.  Abed talks super monotone and lack of emotion, and he always points of the parallels of the "show" and a tv show.  Then you also have Chevy Chase and Ken Jeong who have both been in a handful of movies.
Shirley, Annie and Britta make the amigas of the show.  I kinda have a crush on Annie, but then again she is the most annoying character of the show, so it's a love/hate relationship in my mind.
The premise of the show is that all these guys form a study group at the local community college.  Every episode follows multiple engaging stories between the different characters.  For example the last episode I watched was about Jeff and Annie trying to figure out how they can make up fake classes to earn fake credits.  Jeff wants the free credits he made up from a night class he made up, while Annie tries to uncover his lie because she doesn't like his dishonesty.  Well that whole story quickly turns into an "inception-like" plan where each person is actually creating conspiracy theories to prove a point to the other person.  It's complicated by hilarious.  While on the other side of the episode Troy and Abed make a huge blanket fort.  They keep trying to make it bigger and better, and then it develops into a huge blanket fort city involving the entire dorm.
Rating Breakdown:
Characters 4/5  This show is very character driven.  They do not have a lot of depth, but they do have a lot of identity.  Each person has an important dynamic on the show, and adds to the comedy of each episode and situation.
Acting 5/5  My favorite part about this show is the acting.  Each line and facial expression delivers a joke.  It's so cheesy and has so many inside jokes from previous episodes that it adds another layer or intrigue if you watch more than one episode.  This isn't oscar quality acting, but it is perfect acting for a comedy in my opinion.
Plot - 3/5  The plot is not the strong part of this show.  Yes the episodes are funny and carry lots of parallels to real life school and friendships.  The main character is an ex-lawyer who got disbarred because he made up his bar test results.  So he's going back to school to get a real education to go back to his career.  Not the best story line there, but then again, you don't really watch comedy for its plot.

Overall Rating 4/5  I was close to giving in 5/5 but the story lines make it so you can only handle an episode or two at a time.  It's not one of those shows where you want to keep watching episode after episode to see how the plot develops.  The episodes are hilarious and the messages it delivers rival that of a grown up "Full House" sitcom.  I'd recommend this show to those that enjoy shows such as Big Bang Theory, SNL, The Office and Soup.  It is not a show for everyone though.  It's jokes are quick and witty, which are hard for some to really grasp.  There is also a lot of sarcasm and pop culture references.

Welcome Back!

Welcome back everyone to my little corner of the internet.  It has been a while since I've had a blog.  I had to remove my old one due to privacy reasons, and then my account got hacked.  So here I am again, back at it!  With this blog I intend to do more product reviews (i.e. movies, games, food etc.)  While at the same time keeping you all updated on the crazy adventure I call life.  I'll try to keep things light and fun so people will want to actually read this site =)  So tell your friends and family, give me any feedback, and its good to see you all again.  I'm pretty excited,and I hope we have a good time reconnecting!