Osheaga 2012

I've developed this exciting (and incredibly expensive) tradition of going to a music festival each year. Last year it was SXSW and Lollapalooza and the year before that it was... Well, it was just last year. Not much of a tradition yet, I suppose... but it's going to be one, DAMMIT.

Anywho, I decided to mix things up this year and leave the US and head up to our lovely neighbors to the north for Osheaga in Montreal. And it was AWESOME. Osheaga is similar to Lollapalooza in that it's a three day music festival with a whole range of musical artists performing at different stages throughout the day. While this is awesome, it also made it a bit of a challenge to see everyone I wanted to see.

Friday started out with a great set from Hey Ocean, a Canadian band that really needs to be noticed here in America because they're awesome and had the crowd dancing the whole time. "Big Blue Wave" was probably my favorite song they did live and I'm hoping to catch them again soon.

After that I made it to a couple songs by Yukon Blonde, who were just as insane live as I expected them to be, before rushing off to catch Polica, a band from Minneapolis that has been receiving a lot of press lately... and deservingly so!

Minnesota loving.

Polica has managed the seemingly impossible task of using autotune in a way that enhances what's already there instead of making up for something that's missing. This becomes incredibly obvious during their live performances, which are filled with emotion and genuine musicianship.

From there I caught Bombay Bicycle Club (didn't stay for their whole set as I found them crazy boring), Freelance Whales, the Jezabels, Of Monsters and Men, Sigur Ros, and Justice. The highlight of the day, however, was without question Florence and the Machine. Florence has this mystique about her that comes out in her live performances. It's more than just her powerful singing voice (though that certainly adds to it!). The way she dances around the stage with her dress flowing and blowing in the (man made) wind, her interactions with the audience, her constant encouraging people to be loving and accepting of each other... It all felt really surreal.

After a brief sleep, Saturday arrived and with it came the hot, hot sun. I probably put on half a tube of sunscreen that day because I kept sweating it off. The only thing hotter than the sun was the music. The day started off with the very end of a pretty good sounding set by the Do and then Kathleen Edwards, who was phenomenal. She brought the rock and, most impressively, her earrings matched her bra. Clearly, as a gay man, I'm obligated to notice these things.

I caught a bit of Portugal. The Man before I headed over to see Kandle, a Montreal native who people seemed really excited about. She was awesome! Her voice was great, her band did a fantastic job, the crowd was into it and she seemed really appreciative and sincere. After Kandle we stuck around for the Black Lips. I was a bit leery as I had seen them twice before. One time they were AWESOME, the other time they were completely horrible. It could have gone either way but it ended up being a dancingly good time. And oh look, we ran into one of them after.

We meet all the bands.

After them was Young Galaxy. Waiting for them produced one of the most exciting moments of the trip, a wave from Amy Milan (of Stars), who was back stage and looking fab as always. Young Galaxy was only mildly familiar to me (I'd only heard a couple songs) but their sound was infectious and I found myself dancing the whole time. Definitely a highlight!

Next up we booked it to the main stage to secure spots for Feist and Garbage. In the meantime, we caught Brand New. They were fine but I wasn't blown away by them and couldn't imagine myself listening to their music on my own. They weren't bad by any means, but I definitely didn't rush out to buy their album.

Garbage came next and they produced some of my favorite moments of the whole festival. They opened with "Automatic Systematic Habit," and it set the tone for a great set. A few songs in, Shirley introduced her band to the audience. "For those of you who are fans of us," she spoke, "we are Garbage. And for those of you who aren't fans, first of all, fuck you. We're still Garbage." And then she proceeded to keep rocking our faces off.

It was like a 90's explosion but by far the coolest part of the set was not something that happened when the music was going. At one point, a fan was trying to hand Shirley a letter from the band so Shirley, in perfect French, asked one of the security guards to grab the letter for her. She then thanked the fan and promised to read it. A simple gesture, yes, but I guarantee that person's life was made. If only all bands were that cool.

Speaking of cool, up next was the insanely cool Feist. She... is a total badass. Guitars, a trio of singers, members of Broken Social Scene, giving Snoop Dogg a shout out. The coolest part of her set, however, was when a fan sent a palm tree up through the audience as a gift and she stopped the song she was playing, brought the palm tree on stage, and kept going. Why the fan thought a palm tree was the perfect gift we may never know, but I suppose even the most famous musicians don't necessarily have enough tropical foliage.

As I alluded to in the last paragraph (please reread said paragraph if necessary) after Feist came Snoop Dogg (he wasn't Snoop Lion that night) and it was... quite interesting. As the whitest person on the planet, I never thought I'd be able to add "Seen Snoop Dogg Live" to my resume but well, now I can. That'll get me employment for sure! In the grand tradition of bizarre things happening at the festival, we were also treated to a couple very publicly doing the nasty right next to us. I'm not talking heavy petting or dry humping, either. It was pretty clear there was full on penetration going on.

Fast forward to the next morning and the day I had been waiting all weekend for, METRIC SUNDAY. To the surprise of no one who knows me we got there before doors opened, despite the fact that it was humid and rainy, and camped out the front row all day. And we made signs.

Go listen to "Succexy" before you question it.

Luckily, the festival gods were merciful and pretty much everyone I wanted to see that day was on one of the main two stages. First off was Chappo. They were so bizarre and so wonderful I can't even begin to describe what actually happened. I'll sum it up with this list: Sexy bikini models, seagulls, a volcano, confetti wands. And there was a giant dream catcher and something about a Native American elder in the desert.

Up next was Zeus at the other main stage (they were right next to each other so we could see both acts) and they were really, really good. I only wish I could've been closer. Following them was Dan Mangan who is crazy talented and had us all sing a really fun song about robots.

Following Dan was Passion Pit. I'll admit my bias and say that I'm not a huge Passion Pit fan but I was actually surprised by how good they were live. I was expecting a train wreck and instead I was dancing and singing along. And I'll also admit that this may have been because, to my surprise, their lead singer is 100% doable. I'd make a joke about wanting to get into his Passion Pit, but obviously I'm too mature for that.

Common was on the other stage next and he made one fan's life by pulling her on stage, singing to her, and letting her go in for a kiss. I think something about the festival atmosphere made the artists want to do cool things for the fans and one of these cool things happened to my friend Steph during Santigold's set when Santi invited her and some others to come dance on stage with her. Steph's excitement was apparent as she looked like she was in shock the whole time.

I unfortunately couldn't see much of Tame Impala's set over at the second main stage but they sounded really good. At our stage next was the Shins and holy lord were they a lot of fun! They even did my favorite song by them, "Australia," and I caused a mild scene in the front row. This excitement was diminished when City and Colour took the stage and I wanted to fall asleep from how bored I was. They're fine musicians but jeezy creezy. Do something besides get up their and play your songs.

As soon as they left the stage, I quickly perked up because IT WAS METRIC TIME. Metric opened with the lead track on their new album, "Artificial Nocturne," and I was quickly sucked in. Nothing beats starting out a set being able to scream, "I'm just as fucked up as they say" along with the lead singer of one of your favorite bands. From there they went into their most recent single, "Youth Without Youth." Some fans weren't thrilled with the song when it was originally released, but the overall sentiment seemed to be that seeing it live was an entirely new, positive experience.

During YWY was when the palm tree incident happened. Sure enough, palm tree man was back and another palm tree made its way up to the front of the crowd. This time, however, the security people threw it to the side. Obviously, as I assume palm trees are expensive, this pissed off palm tree man and he came up right behind me and started yelling at the guards. This escalated into the guards pulling him out of the audience, him kicking and screaming, and then wrestling palm tree man into submission and carrying off the premise. Who knew someone so into plants could be so full of rage?

Anyway, Metric then went into "Speed the Collapse" and the fan favorite, "Lost Kitten." This resulted in a total freakout of all around me and may have caused me to wet myself just a little. From there they went on, doing mostly new tracks but also a few old favorites including "Help I'm Alive," "Empty," and "Dead Disco" (which is ALWAYS insane live!). Their set was closed out with a beautiful acoustic version of "Gimme Sympathy" that brought a few tears to my eyes and shivers to my spine. And just as quickly as it had started, Metric's set, and the weekend of music, was over.

Overall, I'd say this was my best festival experience to date. I made a lot of wise decisions that I didn't make at the other festivals that I'd gone to, such as bringing my own food, not drinking, and actually wearing a butt load of sunscreen. Montreal was a cool city and I wish I could go on for all the fun adventures that happened outside the festival, but I'm sure most of you have quit reading by this point. Will I go to Osheaga again? Most definitely. It was an A+ weekend and I know I'll be thinking fondly of it for the rest of my life.

The Joeys Halfway Through the Year Edition: The Best of 2012 So Far

It's June and those who follow music blogs or go on iTunes or read the newspaper or basically aren't imprisoned in a turret in a castle surrounded by lava, you're no doubt seeing a bunch of half way through the year lists. Well, guess what? THIS IS ANOTHER ONE!!!! Except mine is better and more accurate because it's written by me. Same categories I usually have but half as long because 1) it's only the midpoint of the year and there's still a ton of new music to come and 2) I need to be studying for biochemistry. Wahoo.

BEST NEW ARTIST

I feel like this year there have been so many new releases by old favorites that I haven't had time to search for new music. One can only listen to so much music at once before it becomes chaotic and you end up trying to kill your neighbors' cat in a psychotic rage.

This showed up when I Googled "psychotic rage."

One artist I did hear about and have become more than a teensy bit obsessed with is Kimbra. I. LOVE. KIMBRA. Not only is she a talented musician, but she seems really down to earth and cool. And she always wears really poofy dresses. And she's from New Zealand so she has an adorable accent. And... Oh God, I could go on forever. If you haven't heard her yet, check her out below.

Honorable mentions: Polica (using autotune CAN be artistic!), MNDR (super catchy, super rad, super... super)

BEST LIVE ACT

So this has been a hella busy year for me concert wise. I went to 10 (yes, 10) shows in April and have two music festivals, SoundTown and Osheaga, coming up. Most of them were really, really good so this was a difficult one for me to pick. I do, however, need to pick someone so...

The Joy Formidable meets the Joey.

The Joy Formidable are just so fucking good live. The energy these three bring is infectious and they're all really, really good musicians. And when they do Whirring? Holy moly, everyone rocks out, things get thrown from the stage, guitars get broken... It's unreal.

Honorable mentions: Ellie Goulding (IT WAS SO HARD NOT PICK HER. Damn, you Britain, and your great music!), The Ting Tings (Oh jeez, these are all British artists), the Head and the Heart (not British, but still great... and sexy. Josiah, I'm looking at you)

BEST SONG SO FAR

"I was looking for a hooker when I found you." How can any song that includes that line not be the best song of the year? It would be a crime. And thus, I must pick...

What does a sad (but still fluffy wuffy!!!) cat have to do with sex workers? Find out more below!

"Lost Kitten" by Metric. Oh come on, don't act surprised that a Metric song was picked. Hell, I'm sure my end of the year blog will just be all me gushing about how great they are. But this song. Let's chat about it for a second. Emily does the whole falsetto thing that she does so well. And there's some sort of chimey bell thing. And it's just really, really catchy. So go. Listen. Think about cats.

Honorable mentions: "Skin Graph" by Silversun Pickups (Freakin' love this band, freakin' love this song),  "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye and Kimbra (Fuck you, don't pretend like you don't love it. And also... KIBMRAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!), "45" by the Gaslight Anthem (So much satisfying rock in this song!)

BEST ALBUM

Guess what it is, guys? Just take a guess!! No seriously, you should all be able to predict this based on knowing me and reading the preceding entry. Ugh, fine I'll just tell you.

Synthetica by Metric. I'll be the first to tell you that it's no Fantasies (then again, Fantasies, their previous record, may be my favorite album of all time) but that by no means makes this a bad album. And hey, what do you know? It features "Lost Kitten"!!! And another favorite, "Speed the Collapse." Go pick it up. You won't regret it.

Honorable mentions: "Neck of the Woods" by Silversun Pickups (RROOOOOOOCCCCKKKK... and Nikki Moninger), "Not Your Kind of People" by Garbage (Goddamn do I miss the 90's... and goddamn do I love chick rock), "Vows" by Kimbra (KIMMMMMMMMMMMBRAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!)

MOST ANTICIPATED ALBUM FOR THE SECOND HALF OF THE YEAR

So I found out this week that like... 8 bands that I love are coming out with new albums so this one is another really difficult one. But actually, it's not because I've been waiting for TEN FUCKING YEARS for this album

Totally stole this image from Beacon Street Online so you should go check them out.

No Doubt. I mean, no doubt I'd pick No Doubt. They might be the only one to give Metric some competition when it comes to the end of the year. Sorry, everyone else. You can't compete with my favorite bands!

Honorable mentions: Stars (I might pee myself from excitement), The Gaslight Anthem (Please be as good as "45"!!!), Matt and Kim (EEEEE!!!!!!) ... and a few more that are rumored so I won't mention them as not to get my own hopes up.

2012 IS THE BEST YEAR IN MUSIC EVER.

Okay, off to work/homework. Stay classy, readers!

The Ting Tings at First Avenue 4/2

I’m going to start out with a pretty bold statement: The Ting Tings are the most underrated band making music right now. A lot of people dismiss them as just noise or as not a serious band and I don’t really understand why. They’ve developed their own distinct sound that not only defies genres but stands out from anything else out there today.

Where they really stick out is in their live show. Last night’s killer set at First Avenue was  a gleaming example of this. The show started out with MNDR, an electronic singer who had never heard of before. While at first I was a bit skeptical of the strange woman wearing a short gold top and red booty shorts, by the second song my friends and I were all dancing along. It was hard to resist her charm and infectious dance beats.

Speaking of dancing, this woman was not afraid to shake her thang. Yes, I just used the word “thang.” I imagine this was pretty awkward because her parents, who apparently are from Minnesota (she mentioned she used to live here), were in the audience. Dirty dancing aside, I imagine they must have been proud of their daughter because she won the audience over and made at least two new fans.

Ballin' with MNDR.

As great as MNDR was, the main attraction of the night was the Ting Tings. They started off their set by coming out in darkness and Katie silenced the audience. This led perfectly into "Silence" and the band quickly brought the rock as Katie grabbed her guitar and Joules hit the drums. At the end of the song, Katie announced, "I have only one request for you tonight and it's that you fucking dance!"

Oh no, what a horrible request!!! Of course, they made it easy to dance with their high energy and rockin' dance beats. The band constantly had the audience clapping along and Katie kept those of us near the front on our toes the whole time as she would regularly come and sing at the very front of the stage to dance or shred on her guitar.

One thing that really impressed me was the number of different instruments the duo plays. Katie had to keep track of keys, guitar, bass, cowbell, various pedals and knobs and things that I had no idea what they were. Joules did all that plus drums plus backing vocals. Seriously, these guys are legitimate musicians.

One highlight of the evening was when they played one of their most well known songs, "Shut Up and Let Me Go." The whole audience erupted and you could hear everyone in the place singing along. Everyone danced harder than usual. Speaking of dancing, the only time during the whole show I stopped dancing was during the short intermission between the main set and the encore. Even then, my dancing was really only replaced with screams for more.

The only real criticism I have of the show, if you can call it that, is that it ended. I could've kept dancing all night long had they continued to play. For now, I'll just have to wait until they come back. I know I'll be one of the first to buy tickets to see these two wonderful Brits again.

What a bunch of badasses.

As many of you know, this was my first concert of what I'm dubbing the Month of 10 Concerts because... Well, I'm going to 10 concerts this month. Here's to hoping that they're all as great as the one last night. Tomorrow is Gotye and Kimbra. Look for my review Thursday!

The Beginning of the End (of Times)

Greetings loyal blog readers and loveable randos!

We are less than 48 hours into 2012, or as the Mayans like to call it, APOCALYPALOOZA!!!! I rang in the New Year at Minnesota's own First Avenue with a friend who I've since before I was sperm.

A shot of the crowd dancing.

 Me attempting to look nice. Did it work?!

The crowd was wild, the drinks were strong, and everyone was having a great time. I was also pleasantly surprised at how responsible everyone seemed to be. I talked to more than a few designated drivers and the buses and taxis of Minneapolis were full. This almost led to us not getting home but thankfully, we met a nice guy at the bus stop who called a friend to come pick us all up and drop us off at home.

I wanted to take a moment to say thanks for reading. I happened to glance upon my blog stats today and I noticed that I have a ton of readers from countries that, well, I don't really know how/why they're reading my blog. I'm talking Russia, Austria, and Latvia. I understand all the US, Canada, and even England but some of these just baffle me.

Maybe it's because I'm actually really fucking famous. Yeah, that's what I'll choose to believe.

Anyway, happy New Year... wherever you're from! Look for (hopefully) more posts from me, especially related to music as I'm trying to do more music blogging and I hopefully will be going on at least one festival and tons of live shows. I'm also going to give album reviews a stab and see how that goes. Keep an eye out for what's to come!

The (Facebook) Bystander Effect

It's a Saturday night and so far this evening I ran 8 miles, chased a rabbit around the yard, and learned the medical term for man-boobs. One thing I did not do, however, is have any sort of social contact minus a few texts seeing if some friends were free this evening (Obviously they were not).

I know you're probably thinking, "Oh God, Joey's going to bitch about not having friends again." While most of the time you would be right (Let's be honest: I'm pretty damn good at bitching) bear with me because this is actually going somewhere productive.

Anyway, where was I? Oh right, not having a social life. So here I was, sitting by my lonesome when I got the idea to post something on Facebook seeing if anyone wanted to hang out. Despite posting the most witty, insightful, and though provoking status I could, no one responded. Whomp whomp. This isn't the first time this has happened, nor will it be the last. I was pondering why the fuck this kept happening when two explanations came into my head:

(Actually, quite a few more came into my head. But these seemed the most likely. I don't think all my friends being abducted by aliens and replaced with illiterate sheep who have hacked into their Facebook accounts is very plausible).

The first explanation is that I'm completely unbearable to be around because I'm annoying as all fuck, smell, am ugly as sin, a real asshole, hated by everyone, or some combination there of. While this is definitely a viable theory because no one wants to to spend time with people with those traits, it's more than likely a product of my paranoia because sometimes I convince myself of some pretty ridiculous things.

I decided to think a little more rationally for an explanation. Suddenly, it hit me as I thought back to my social psychology class and something known as the bystander effect.

Those of you who haven't taken social psychology or even introductory psychology are probably thinking, "What the fuck is the bystander effect?" ...or some variant of that. The bystander effect is an interesting phenomena that occurs when people are confronted with an emergency situation in which someone else needs help. If there's just one person there, they will be significantly more likely to attempt to help than if there is a group of people around. This is believed to occur because when more people are around, people feel less personally obligated to help and the sense of responsibility is diffused throughout the group. Unfortunately, this usually results in no one helping. An example of this from my social psych class was this chick named Feline Genwjwthaiothabgtasjgnasg, or something like that, who was murdered in an alley in New York and, despite crying for help, none of her neighbors called the police.

So what the hell does this have to do with my Facebook post? Think about the way Facebook works: We each have a couple hundred (or, for those who are particularly insecure, a couple thousand) friends that all of our status updates, links, etc. get sent out to. Each of those friends has a couple hundred/thousand friends (again, depending on their level of insecurity). Each of these friends acts as a bystander of sorts and thus everyone develops a, "Oh, someone else will respond" attitude and no one responds even if they may be bored and looking for something to do. I am coining this "the Facebook bystander effect."

Another example from my life was back in March when I was looking for someone to see Girl Talk with me. I posted repeatedly on Facebook asking if anyone wanted to go with me because the person I was originally going with was no longer able to go. Bear in mind that GT sold out two back to back shows in Minneapolis. How many people do you think responded? ZERO. Thankfully, I ran into my friend Edwina (isn't her name AWESOME?!) and she told me she wanted to go. I asked why she didn't respond on Facebook and she said, "Oh, I thought someone else would want to go so I figured I'd wait and see." Like in the real life bystander effect, there were many virtual bystanders so she had just assumed that someone else would respond because of a sort of diffusion of responsibility (although in this case there's no responsibility, but to keep in the context of the original bystander effect I'll use that term).

Now, I realize this is quite the stretch to go from a real life emergency to something as silly as Facebook but think about it abstractly and you'll see that the general concept, the more people there are the less likely someone will act, carries over. Of course, there are other problems. My thinking is in no way based on any empirical evidence because I don't have fucking time to do experiments for fun. I do think the anecdotal evidence suggests there may be something there. Also, it is based off of a theory that actually has empirical evidence behind it. So if any of you happen to be a researcher and want to test this theory out, let me know! *wink wink nudge nudge*

There are some other applications of the Facebook bystander effect that, assuming it's actually happening, I'd be interested in exploring as well. For example, does this still happen if the person making the post has few friends? Are people more likely to respond if they themselves have few friends? What factors can increase responsiveness to a request on Facebook (humor, invoking a sense of obligation, etc.)? How many people would respond to an actual emergency request on Facebook ("The baby's coming! Someone take me to the hospital!") and would responsiveness be affected by any of the above listed factors? Does having a picture of a sexy bikini model increase the likelihood of a response?

Finally, how can this effect be countered? Research would need to be done to make a reliable judgment of whether variations in wording or tone could result in more responses. The best way to counter the Facebook bystander effect would be to make very specific requests. In the actual bystander effect, instead of shouting, "Somebody help me!" it would be a better idea to pick one person out and point to them and shout, "Hey asswipe in the red scarf, call the police!" Okay, maybe don't call them asswipe. But you catch my drift, right?

To apply this to Facebook, instead of posting a status saying, "I'm bored. Someone want to go fly fishing?!" it would be more effective to write on one person's wall, send them a message, use the chat feature, tag them in a post, text them, use a carrier pigeon, address them specifically via smoke signals, etc. I can't promise that this will get you results, however, because it seems like people are too lazy/big of assholes to respond to texts and what not... But that's a whole different blog =)

Another way to overcome the bystander effect may to just simply be aware of it so you can consciously make an effort to notice if it is happening and hopefully act against it. So the take home message is that if you see someone who's looking for something to do or someone to go see a show with on Facebook, don't just assume someone else is going to respond and do it yourself. Chances are, everyone else is thinking, "Someone else is going to respond so why bother?" This especially applies if it's something I post. I always love comments and responses, which is why I obsessively do it on other peoples' posts all the time.

If anyone actually decides to put my little theory to the test, let me know how it goes. From a personal standpoint, hopefully by taking a more proactive and direct approach I won't be spending too many more weekends like this holed up at home.

... Or maybe I'm just an asshole.

Let's Get Physical

The inspiration behind this post comes from my friend Ashley. Much like myself, in addition to being a student Ashley is extremely involved on campus. Earlier this year, Ashley snagged herself a prestigious position as an orientation leader. For those who don't go to the U of MN, orientation leaders lead students through orientation all summer long and then assist with our welcome week we have for incoming students. It's a HUGE time commitment and, from the sounds of it, you're basically the university's bitch for a couple months.

A few days ago, Ashley wrote a blog about her orientation leadering experience and quite honestly, I almost had an aneurysm from reading about how unhealthy her lifestyle has become. She's not eating right, not sleeping much, and not having time for exercise. As someone who makes his health a top priority, this greatly disturbs me. Because of this, I wanted to share a couple of health/fitness tips for busy people. I know that I sometimes have a hard time fitting in sleep or exercise but I've found that cutting them out only makes things so much worse. I generally feel like a fatass and have a tendency to spiral into a mental breakdown (see also: me during finals week).
Keep in mind that I'm not a doctor but I do have an extreme passion for fitness and health so I spend a lot of time reading up on them and I make sure that all of my sources are basing their claims on empirical evidence and not just pulling it out of their asses.

If you can't find time for a solid workout, break it into 10 minute chunks throughout the day. It's recommended that you get your heart rate up for thirty minutes a day most days a week. Sometimes you just don't have time to devote a solid thirty minutes to exercise. If this is the case, break it up into 10 minute chunks. The key there is make sure you're moving for at least 10 minutes because any less and exercise really isn't as effective as it could be. Of course, if you can squeeze in a full 30 minutes that's still preferable. Personally, I generally will do 40 minutes right when I wake up to get myself energized but sometimes I'll break it into a 10 minute and 20 minute chunk if I'm really busy.

Make sleeping a priority. Ashley describes in her blog that her mood has been affected by her spotty sleep patterns and I am not surprised at all. There are numerous studies showing that lack of sleep, for lack of a better term, fucks you up. You should ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS make sure you get enough sleep. Studies have shown, too, that college students who get more sleep actually perform better than those who don't. As a psychology major, this makes complete sense because it allows for your brain to recover and make more neural connections. From a weight loss/health perspective, sleep is extremely important in maintaining a healthy weight. When you sleep, you burn a TON of calories and all the hormones in your body get back in sync. Not getting enough sleep can, and probably, will lead to weight gain. Now what do you do if you have little time for sleep? Nap. Not a long one but take a 20 minute nap and you'll feel surprisingly refreshed. I suggest against taking a nap much longer because research tends to show that that can leave you feeling groggy or mess up your sleeping cycle.

Don't think you can escape getting the full amount of sleep you need each night. Everyone needs a different amount of sleep. Some people need significantly less and others may need up to 10 hours to wake feeling refreshed. However, for most adults, it averages around 8 hours (this number changes with age). If you don't get this amount, you'll be fine for a day or two but your body will develop a sleep debt and you'll have to get that sleep at another time or have it take a toll on your mental and physical functioning. Again, try taking naps. Otherwise, there are resources on the internet that can teach you how to alter your sleeping schedule so you need less sleep and the sleep you get is more effective. However, I am not sure what the scientific literature says about the safety or effectiveness of these drastic lifestyle changes (yes, they're drastic!) so I do not in anyway endorse them and urge you to use caution if you decide to test them out.

Incidental movements are your BFF. I'm sure you're like, "What the fuck is an incidental movement? Is it like a spasm?" No, it's not a spasm. It's a term for non-exercise movements that you happen to do throughout the day such as walking across the room, brushing your teeth, shaking your legs, or walking up and down stairs. While each individual action might not burn that many calories, they add up. That's why finding ways to add more movements, even if they're little, can greatly benefit you. That being said, don't expect to get ripped via this method. They'll help stave off fat and are a great addition to an exercise regime, but they're no replacement for actual exercise.

Combine activities. I used to do this when one of my psychology classes offered online lectures. I'd download the recordings and listen to them while I ran or did yoga. This way, I was both getting exercising and studying done at the same time. If there's any way you can do something while exercising, do it! Bring your reading with you to the gym and do it on the treadmill. Be creative!

Eat foods that are nutrient dense. Calories are not a bad thing. In fact, you need to get a certain amount of calories per day just to maintain basic functions  (For an estimate, multiply your body weight by 10. If you weigh 140, you need 1400 calories before your body starts using muscle tissue for energy). Of course, the more activity in your day the more calories you need. The key is to make sure that each calorie you intake is accompanied by as many nutrients as possible. Finding foods like this is actually a lot easier than it may seem. Look for (non-artificially colored) foods with bright colors. For example, spinach is more nutrient dense than iceberg lettuce so making a salad with spinach instead of lettuce is a great way to improve your diet. You'll feel better and by taking a few extra moments to think about your meal choices, you'll be healthier and feel better.

There's a lot more I could share but I think this is a good start for most of you. Start slow and stay committed! Your life will be so much better by just taking a little bit of time for yourself each day to remain healthy.

If you have any tips you'd like to share, feel free to post them in the comments! I'd love to hear what works for you!

Summer Reading List

As I mentioned in my last blog, it's summer! Woo hoo!! Now that I have a ton of free time and don't have to be constantly reading for school, that means I have free time to read stuff I actually want to! Woo hoo! With that in mind, I thought I'd share my summer reading list. Will I finish it? Fuck no. Most of these are spill overs from winter break reading, last summer, and even high school. If any of you have read any of these, please feel free to share your thoughts!

Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me by Chelsea Handler and Friends

I love Chelsea Handler, hence why I shelled out $90 for fourth row tickets when she's here in June. I've read all three of her other books and almost stopped breathing from laughing so hard each time so obviously I was very excited for this one to come out even if most of it was written by other people. This is actually the book I'm reading right now and so far so good!

Hyperspace and Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku

As I'm sure you're all aware, I am a nerd. One of my favorite nerdy pastimes is anything and everything science and that's why not one but TWO books by Michio Kaku, rock start theoretical physicist, have found their way onto my summer reading list. This man is a GENIUS. He has this fantastic ability to be able to explain advanced physics concepts in terms that even someone who has little background in science can understand AND, best of all, he uses minimal math. I tried reading Hyperspace over winter break but ended up not finishing it so I'm going to start from the beginning and give it a good read this time. Physics of the Future just came out in April and I have not had a chance to pick it up yet but if it's anything like Physics of the Impossible, it's going to be a nerdy good time.

Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

Ahhhh, politics... How I love thee. This one's about the 2008 presidential election which holds a very special place in my heart because I spent so much time interning for a political campaign that year. I'm looking forward to seeing what went on behind the scenes and how Obama was able to take down McCain and his Alaskan Barbie of a running mate.

The Center of Winter by Marya Hornbacher

Marya Hornbacher is a Minneapolis author best known for her memoir Wasted in which she dives into the depths and presents the horrifying reality of eating disorders by sharing her personal struggle. I thoroughly enjoyed this book in high school and have since read her other memoir, Madness, which focuses more on her struggle with bipolar disorder (This lady has had some fucked up shit happen to her and one can't help but feel sorry for her and want to help). Despite having picked up a copy a while back, I have yet to read her fiction novel, The Center of Winter. Based on the first few pages, title, and reviews I have read, it's a pretty big downer but an excellent read.

Secret Carnival Workers by Paul Haines

Secret Carnival Workers is a collection of music journalism, poems, and other writing by Canadian poet Paul Haines. Another one I've had for a while but have not gotten around to reading. An interesting tidbit about Paul: His sperm produced one of the greatest musical geniuses, best looking, and downright awesome women of our time, the lovely Emily Haines. Anyone who shares 50% of their genes in common with that woman MUST be really, really awesome.

That's my reading list. Of course, there's always room for more so if you have a suggestion, feel free to let me know!

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?

Last night I had a bizarre dream (not that this seems to be anything new for me). I was living in a forest by a lake in a cabin. The lake had one of those rope thingies with buoys showing where the water dropped off about 6 feet out and another a lot farther out. Even though it was a private beach, there were always random people playing on it and swimming in it. This didn't bother me, however, because of my gigantic fear of water so it's not like I was using the beach to go swimming or play sexy beach volleyball with lots of bikini models or anything. Anywho, so I had this cabin but for some reason robots wanted to attack it so I called up the witch of the forest and had her cast a force field spell or some shit over my house. Of course, if the robots touched the force field it would shatter. In retrospect, not a very effective force field, was it? Not so much. So all of a sudden this group of robots came and started walking toward my house and so I was like... "DUDE. I gotta fight this shit off!" so I called up the witch of the forest and was like, "WITCH WHAT DO I DO?!" and she's like, "Go sit on one of the floaties in the water." So I went onto the beach and jumped onto this pink inflatable chair thing. Then the witch came flying on her broom and tried to push me out into the middle of the water. I was hella pissed, needless to say, and quickly jumped/flew to land (not really sure how it happened, to be honest). I realized that the robots were getting closer. And then I realized I was having an affair with one of the robots named Alex (The robots looked like people so it wasn't TOO weird that I was mackin' on one of them). I went to the edge of the force field and Alex and I kissed through it. Then I realized I needed to go kill all the other robots. So I went into my house and in my closet I found this thing that looked like a green light saber that jammed all electrical things within 10 feet of it. There was also a wand thing that made a whip made of fire balls. If only my real closet contained such badass things... So I went outside and stood near the edge of the force field and turned on the light saber thing and the closest robots started short circuiting. As soon as I turned it off, however, they returned to normal. So I turned on the light saber and started swinging the fire whip around. The robots caught on fire and started exploding. I went through the incoming army of robots and wreaked havoc on them. And then I woke up and played beach volleyball with sexy bikini models.

Okay, that last part didn't happen.