Guest Blogger: Siren Music Festival!

I love music. Like, there is really nothing I love more than listening to it, whether in the comfort of my own home, or in an actual venue. I will do a lot of shit out of my love of music. I will go to hellish-ly hot outdoor venues, and wade through a mass of people who have decided to abandon regular bathing habits. I am willing to be physically crushed by these people as I attempt to move forward to get a better view of the stage. I do these things in the name of music. Sometimes I am rewarded with a great show, other times I am disappointed. It doesn’t matter, it was still worth it either way. Here is my account of the Siren festival, (sorry it technically was written on Sunday E)!

So, after the longest train ride known to man, we finally make it to Coney Island. FUCK. It was soo hot. And I was wearing a tank and shorts. Thank god I’m a girl, and can wear a very minimal amount of clothing during the summer. But, whatevs, after waiting around a while, we decided to head over to the main stage to see The Dodos. Sorry, no pictures of this event. I was too far back, and waay too short to even consider trying to get pictures. I want to say something about them, but I honestly can’t remember anything about their set other than it was scorching. This is going to become a running theme throughout the day. After this, my friends decided they wanted to go to the beach for a little bit. Because of this excursion I missed motherfucking Times New Viking. Thanks guys. Way to be good friends. Just kidding, but it’s ok, cause none of them read this. To amuse myself on the beach I took random pictures.

That guy in the white shirt on the right-ish was kinda hot. Hence the random photo. Sorry, it get's better after this, kay?

So finally, we headed back to the stage for Ra Ra Riot. Who were pretty good, though I'm pretty sure the lead singer was stoned the entire time (my friend disagrees with me, but he is wrong obvi). I'll give them a little free promotion here, and tell you their album is gonna be out on august 19th, if you care. Due to an act of what was, I believe god himself, a huge ass mothafucker in front of me actually moved! Allowing me to get these semi-decent shots for you guys. Don’t ever say that I don’t love you. The entire concert I was just thinking about how I was going to blog this experience to you. So sad, so true. This is the lead singer. Cute, if you're into hippie stoner boys. Oh, who am I kidding, I love me some hippie boys. This is a shitty photo, but I wanted you to see that awesome yellow guitar. Not gonna lie, it was pretty sweet.

Check out the cellist. She was hardcore man.

I personally found this girl's hair color amusing. It was a really bizarre red/pinkish color.
My friend made a fortune teller out of the free fan they gave us.

Blah, blah, blah, standing around blah, blah, blah. Now, you guys know who my favorite band of the day is gonna be, right? I talk about them a lot, so if you've been paying attention to me, this should be a no-brainer. Yes it's true, Islands FUCKING KILLED IT!! I mean I liked them before, I fucking love them now. Best band of the day, for sure.I have absolutely no complaints about you Islands, you were perfect. I wasn’t even that hot when I saw you cause we found a spot in the shade! Their stage presence was amazing too, as the lead singer came out with a garbage can over his head, and later proceeded to tell us that if we were too hot, we should just “take your pants off, cause that feels fucking awesome!”. Omgz, you guys, I can’t even properly convey just how much they rocked, other than to tell you that their show was like the best party I’ve been to in a long time. It was difficult to get pics, but here are the two I managed, both very blurry.
Holy shit, dude, you are amazing.
Check out those sah-weet shades. I loved them so much, I had to get a really crappy picture of them.

I was going to try for more pictures, but I was having too much fun dancing and whatnot. I plan on eventually ripping some from facebook once they are posted and putting them on my blog. Can you read this? It says, "Shoot the Freak". Which would make an awesome band name.
Wild Women and Wise Guys. Coney Island is just a wealth of potential band names. Go ahead and use this one if you want, Shoot the Freak is mine, though.

So finally, after a very long day it was time. Time for the main act, the star of the show. Broken Social Scene, in this case. Now, I wish there were words to explain just what this show was like. It was the worst clusterfuck you could ever imagine, as the scents of pot, body odor, sweat, and god knows what else mingled in the air. Fuck, it was terrible, not gonna lie. My friend and I made a valiant attempt to wade through this crowd, but it was totally pointless. I couldn't see the band at all, and was literally crammed into a space that made it impossible to move without hitting someone. We hightailed it out of there, and decided to go over to the walkway and just stand against the fence. Much better plan. Sure we had to contend with people constantly walking past us towards the beach, but I actually had the ability to move freely, so I was not complaining. Broken Social Scene was amazing, I mean it was a short set, but the energy and passion they brought made it special. If you've ever been to a concert of theirs, than you know how much fun the theraputic scream thing is. Cluster. Fuck.

Oh, I'm sorry, did you want like nice, clear, pictures of this event? Yeah, so did I. We can't always get what we want though, can we?

Finally the concert was over. It was a fun day. I was called an "indie kid" and a "new york hipster" on two different occasions. I don't think I'm either of those. Maybe I'm both. I returned to the city, to find the most freakishly empty train station ever. It was fucking creepy, dudes. And the subway ride just got creepier on the way home, when I was lucky enough to sit next to what I believe was an actual insane person. Like, he was totally crazy. I'm fairly certain that he could possibly be our crazy Tyra missbehave commenter (btw, has anyone seen Tyra recently?!). He started to talk to me about his day, and asked me if I liked his shorts. He apparently cut them himself, and wanted reassurance that they looked good. Also discussed (by him) was sweat, Interpol, free concerts, and ear piercing. Thank the lord that my new bff got off a stop before me, crazy dudes like him do not need to know where I live. I'm telling you though, I can draw the crazies in like no one else. Alright, I'm tired, it's like 1:40 right now and I need my energy for summerstage tomorrow, if I actually can find someone to go with me. Having no friends sucks sometimes.

Valentina

Guest Blogger: I'm Happy for Once!

I am a shameless self-promoter. I have absolutely no problem admitting that to you guys. I think that you are either comfortable talking yourself up to strangers or you’re not. And I most certainly am. If you read my post from yesterday, you might recall my mentioning the fact that today I was going to photograph a stylist for my internship. This is pretty awesome, considering the fact that I am a lowly intern, and my amazing boss actually let me use her camera and go and do this by myself. But anyways, I leave at like 10:30, which is pretty much the earliest I’ve been up in months. It’s sweltering-ly hot outside, so by the time I actually get to the building, I’m disgusting, sweaty, and my pretty hair now looks like shit. Oh, well, I finally make it there to discover that this stylist is like soo cool and funny. He’s obsessed with the best music and movies. He works as an artist and has all of his paintings around his apartment. One of his first fashion shoots was inspired by My Own Private Idaho, and River Phoenix is one of his favorite fashion inspirations. Basically, he’s like one the most insanely inspiring and cool people I’ve met so far who work in the fashion industry. So do you know what I did next? Duh, I asked him if he needed any interns! I mean, my current internship is only three days a week, I’ve got a lot of free time on my hands that usually ends up dedicated to my all consuming love, the internet. He was totally enthusiastic about it though, his current assistant would love the help, and they’d both love having a cool, young girl around. Can you believe it guys? This may be one of the first times in my life that being young and a girl has actually helped me in a situation! So yay! I emailed him like the sec I got home, and he’s going to contact me next week. I’m so excited and happy right now, I’m not even upset that I’m not going to be able to see Batman today. I have to apologize though, I think my whiny complaining posts are actually more interesting than my happy posts. In case any of you are interested, I’ll be sure to post the link to the interview and photos when they’re posted up on models.com, btw.

So freaking happy it’s Friday. What are you guys doing this weekend? Besides going to see Batman. Feel free to tell me what happens if you do go see it though! I personally am a huge fan of the spoiler.

Valentina

You should go and read my blog today. I have a super adorbz post about how much I miss my siblings. Go and read it, and tell me stories about your crazy siblings!

**Best quote of the entire interview**
Question: What is your biggest weakness?
Answer: Hairspray.

Guest Blogger: I love the TV!

Yay! The internet is starting to slowly come back to life! I feel better already. Gawd, I need to get a life that doesn’t involve the internet. I mean, my aunt and uncle are starting to get suspicious. They’re always asking me what I do on the computer for hours at a time. And because I have a weird sense of humor, I usually give some strange answer like, “looking at internet porn” (duh!), or “googling how to build a bomb!”. I loves the internets, yes I do.

Today’s fantastic guest blogging post actually isn’t about my love of the internet. See, over the past insanely busy year, filled with various college visits and worthy attempts to actually make myself to intelligent (I fooled those suckers good!), I began to notice a disturbing trend. This was only confirmed more for me this past Sunday, when as I’ve mentioned several times before, I attended a meetup with my future college classmates. For some strange, ungodly reason, all the “smart” kids I have met this year always say that they never watch any tv (say that in a snobby, pretentious voice for full effect). You know these kids, they’re those super driven a-type personalities that exist at every high school, the ones who participate in every club or extracurricular and try to take control of every situation. But it’s not even limited to those kids, even the relatively lazy slacker ones like me refuse to admit that they watch tv! Now, personally I consider myself an intelligent person. I mean, I got into one of the best liberal arts schools in the country out of a ridiculously competitive applicant pool. But I love tv, love it with a passion. I watch everything, Weeds, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Project Runway, Intervention, Gossip Girl, Maury, The Simpsons, whatever it is, I probably watch it. Watching television doesn’t make me less intelligent, it makes me more likely to drop references to The O.C. into our conversations. Seriously though, I still read books, I’m still interested in academic pursuits. Sometimes I can even carry on an intelligent conversation without using the word like once. But every time, I meet these freakish kids, they make me feel like a total idiot for watching the teevee. They try to talk to me about how much they enjoyed being in their school’s chapter of Amnesty International, I try to talk to them about America’s Best Dance Crew. They don’t realize they can often be b.o.r.i.n.g. I would like to offer some advice to these kids, or you if you happen to be one. Lighten up. You still have plenty of time in your life to be a serious, dedicated adult. You’re young right now; try enjoying yourself for a change! Be lazy, and see how much fun it can really be. I mean, watching tv doesn’t mean you’re some loser who never does anything remotely social. I watch tons of tv, and I still manage to not only hold down a job, but also have time to go out and party with my friends. So sit back, relax and pick up that remote. Judge Judy is calling you, don’t disappoint her. She can be super scary when she’s angry, which you’d know for yourself if you watched more tv.

P.S. Tomorrow I am going to photograph this up and coming stylist for my internship at models.com. I’m soo nervous, just writing about it is kind of making me want to freak out. My hands will probably be shaking so much I’ll barely be able to hold the camera! You should leave messages to make me feel better. But a full recap of this is coming tomorrow, aren’t you excited?

Okay I love you, bye-bye! (Extra points to the person who can tell me what tv show that comes from!)

Valentina
I’d suggest at this point going over to my blog, but I haven’t written anything new today, so whatevs.

Guest Blogger: Story Time!!

It’s been a ridiculously slow two days on the blog front. I feel a little empty, a little bored, and most definitely a little anxious. If everyone doesn’t start posting soon, I might be forced to actually go on facebook, just for something to do. And considering that nothing of any interest whatsoever happened for me to post about today, I’m going to tell you a little story. It’s a good one (not really).

This morning while killing time before I had to go to work, I decided to watch the movie Mean Girls, again, for some unknown reason. But anyways, it was the scene where Tina Fey is counseling all the junior girls, trying to ween them away from their evil, backstabbing ways. Last time I saw this movie, I was watching it with my sister. When it came to this part, I remarked that I could not remember a time when I had ever talked about a friend behind her back. I swear, I just never got into any of that hs drama. “Really?” my sister asked, “you’ve never talked about any friend ever?”. Well, just this one time, okay?

Chloe and I became friends while attending this summer program for gifted and talented student’s. We clicked instantly, and loved to jokingly refer to ourselves as “twins”. Not in the sense that we were so similar, more in that we were actually kind of opposite’s personality wise. Like the way they used to stereotype Mary-Kate and Ashley when they were little with defined personalities (Mary-Kate is the bohemian one, Ashley is the smart, driven one!). Chloe was outgoing and crazily confident in herself. She was so much fun to hang with, we would spend forever getting ready for all these little social events and then we’d get bored and leave after 5 minutes. She was always hanging out with at least 4 boys, and every boy I met was like totally in love with her. I joked with her that she was single-handedly fucking with the minds of an entire generation of boys. One of these boys, Casey, would eventually become one of my best guy friends. One day we were sitting outside when he and I started to talk about Chloe. I said some things, none of which were insulting in my mind, in fact they were exactly the things I had been saying to Chloe herself all along. A day later, Casey apparently told Chloe that some of her friends had been talking shit about her, and she was pissed. Even though I didn’t think I had said anything evil (wtf did he actually say to her?), I felt terrible and tried to apologize like 10 times. She usually ignored me or simply told me we’d talk later. I stopped worrying about it, and a week later we were back to being friends. I even remained super-bff’s with Casey. I still kind of have no idea what happened in that situation, though. Like I never get involved in things like this, it's so not me. Moral of the story, NEVER discuss your friend’s lives while they are not actually present. Has anything like this ever happened to you? Have any of you guys ever talked shit/ had shit talked about you? Did I actually do anything wrong? Please tell me stories and help bring the internet back to life.

Valentina

of the Savage Sunshine blog (self promotion is fun, you guys!)

Guest Blogger: I can't concentrate.

I was going to have a really excellent post for you today. See I was planning on going to Coney Island with two of my non-native NY relatives. This would have provided me with plenty of fun source material for a blog post. I mean, the subway ride alone would probably have been hilarious enough for me to just quit right there. Instead at 3:00 this morning I got a text saying that the plans were cancelled, maybe we’d go next week. Cancelling on people is mean, but waking them up in the very early morning to do so is purely evil. Oh, well. This is what I get for having no friends. Let me clarify, I make friends super easily, I just don’t stay friends with anyone for very long. Eventually most of my friendships end up as a facebook friendship, you know a quick note every now and then. I’m starting to hate facebook, but it would be too difficult to shut it down now. At least facebook is good for stalking people. Not that I do that (right now my cousin and her friend are facebook stalking our superhawt 8th floor neighbor. Shh!)

I just graduated from high school like 2 months ago. Want to guess how many people I still talk to? ZERO. This is for the best. I mean, I was really only friends with them cause there were no better people around. It was a friendship of convenience more than anything else. So I don’t miss them. I do miss some of my friends who I left when I moved back to NYC (I grew up in NY but moved to Arkansas when I was 15). They didn’t go to my high school, I met them at this summer program I did before my senior year. Therefore they were pretty cool. Now in a month or so I’ll be heading to California for college. This idea is exciting and stressful at the same time. I mean I’m ridiculously glad to be going, but I know I’ll miss NY. Cali is like the opposite of everything I am. I am not tan, blonde, relaxed, and happy all the time. I am a pale, anxious New Yorker who despises the sun and most outdoor activity. I think I’ll make some truly close friends at college, though. My future roomie who I met on a visit to the school is awesome. She’s like a much sweeter, less sarcastic version of me (no wonder boys like her better! No bitterness though, she’s too amazing for me to hate on.) And this one girl I met this weekend is seriously the closest I have ever come to finding myself in another person. So I’m excited for college, I’m excited to meet new friends. Who I’ll probably stop hanging out with after like 4 months. But still. Sorry, did this post not make any sense to you? Yeah, me neither. I’m starving right now, but my cousin and I can’t decide on whether we want burgers or panini for dinner. Both require us to leave the apartment and go outside. Fuck it, let’s just order pizza.

I can't concentrate on anything today. Thank god it's my day off work.

Peace,
Valentina, also known as the writer of Savage Sunshine.

PS- I keep meaning to add cute pictures to my posts, but I can never find any that I like. So sorry about all the boring wordy-ness.

Guesting it up: Boys and Girls

I am very bad with boys. This is the easiest way to say it. I have plenty of guy friends, but I do not know how to handle boys. Also most boys, spesh the ones who are my age, don’t go for me. My big sis/Dr. Phil once told me this was because I “intimidated” them. That apparently, I am so “pretty”, and “sophisticated” that some boys are scared to approach me. Fuck that. I’m pretty much the most un-intimidating person ever. I’m like 5’4, pale, skinny, and quite frequently look like a member of the living dead. My friends used to ask me if the heroin chic look I had going on was intentional or just genetics. I mean sure I talk a lot, (yesterday I lost my voice for two minutes. It was the most terrifying two minutes of my entire life) but just compliment me on my clothes and you’re pretty much my new best friend.

This whole thing was really brought home to me last night when I attended this meetup with my future college classmates. Now, I have no problem talking to boys. I just have a problem differentiating when a boy actually likes me, and what I do from there. For example, my friend and I were roaming around outside Whole Foods, discussing something amazingly funny and I notice a cute boy next to us. He’s probably about my age, and has a sa-weet tattoo on his wrist. Kay, whatevs, boys like this never like me, we keep walking. 3 minutes later this boy approaches me to ask if I’ve ever been to LaGuardia (the NYC high school, not the airport), cause he says I look really familiar. I say I haven’t, than we talk for a hot sec and I leave. My friend and I continue walking, at which point J. asks me why I didn’t give my number to him or something. (Um, cause he could be a total psycho, duh!) Ok so, like how am I supposed to react in situations like this? For real, I honestly have no idea. Christ, I hate dealing with boys when they decide to be all aloof and quiet. So far my most successful boyfriends have all been on the extremely loud/direct side. Ugh, I am so freaking bad with boys.

However, happily enough, the American Apparel skirt I wore to this event (go on my blog to read more) is magic. Never before in my life have I received so much attention from relatively normal boys (oh yeah did I mention that the only dudes who like me are usually batshit crazy?) I’m never taking it off. When it gets gross and old I’ll just go buy a new one, that is how much I love it.

Kay. I’m tired and depressed now. I’m gonna go watch some old Freaks and Geeks episodes to cheer myself up.

Peace,
Valentina a.k.a. Little Miss Savage Sunshine

Guest Blogger

So, hi guys! I'm Valentina, Do It At the Disco's very first guest blogger! I'm crazy stoked about this, cause you know Erika's blog is totes amazing, so to be the Lesley Arfin to her Missbehave is pretty exciting. I thought I would just intro myself with this post, I'm going to put up another one today once I finish (start?) writing it. I was trying to think of ways to sum myself up in a few sentences when I came upon this gem in my diary. It's a fake bio I wrote for this scholarship thingie. I actually later wrote a more legit version after my father failed to appreciate my brilliant sense of humor.

"Valentina Starr enjoys pina coladas and getting lost in the rain. One of her favorite movies is Rocky Horror Picture Show which she often finds herself quoting involuntarily. She rarely wears makeup and almost never brushes her hair. She is regularly called a “hippie” by school administrators, and by her calculations has spent more than 10 days of her life reading magazines. She hopes to one day achieve her lifelong dream of working at the Coney Island Side Show, performing such stunts as sword-swallowing and fire breathing all while wearing fabulous vintage outfits culled from the year she inevitably spends “finding herself” in Europe. In conclusion, she would like to remind you, don’t dream it, be it!"

So that's it for my first post, be back later in the day. If you want to email me with odd inquiries/comments/compliments, hit me up at sunshinesupernova41@yahoo.com. And my blog is Savage Sunshine, duh. Go and read it and catch up on all my old posts. Pop quiz later.