Musica Monday/Cheap Find

So, yesterday I stated that I picked up a few CDs at Half-Price Books while I was there, and as I claimed I will be sharing some of those here. Today's musica for instance is from said collection of CDs. Sick of Sarah is an indie rock/power pop band founded in Minneapolis, MN (yay!) back in 2005. They are an all girl band, which isn't a common occurrence (yet, two of the five CDs I picked up were all girl bands...), and I have become a fast fan of their music. It reminds me of Tegan and Sara, Paramore, with a touch of Avril Lavigne in the music video I'm going to show you. Oh! Fun fact: apparently the name for the band came from the lead singer's old roommate, who used to say that she was sick of her own name, Sarah. I thought it was interesting and kinda funny :P

The songs that I have chosed to leave for your guys' enjoyment are 'Kick Back' of which I'm really a fan of the beat and the video and 'Giving Up' because I really love the music, lyrics, and the video! Enjoy my friends!!

I also want to use this as a way to give a shout out to other stores similar to Half-Price Books for having all these unique artists who aren't quite as mainstream but have good music and these stores sell them at a really low price!! I got this CD for $1!!!

Love,
Sara :)

Half-Price Books

I have a problem. I can't go into a bookstore and come out empty handed. If I do it's because I don't have any money or they don't have anything I haven't gone through. Half-Price Books is not helpful with that. It doesn't have to be just books either: I'm a sucker for cheap/discount books and music.

For instance, today at Half-Price Books I bought one book and 5 CDs (some of which, if not all, will be featured on my musica Mondays at some point). The book is "Emily and Einstein" by Linda Francis Lee. The CDs are: "Black is Beautiful" by Rolling Blackouts, "Fast Too Slow" by Samsara, "Falling Uphill" by Lillix, "2205" by Sick of Sarah, and These Modern Socks. All of these for under $9!! This is why whenever I go there I come back with a bag of things and significantly less money. I was talking to the cashier about this and he said that there's a reason why the employees are for the most part former customers. It is defiantly a place where a book or music lover could spend quite a long time :D myself included!

Where do you guys like to go for cheap finds? What was your last Half-Price haul?

Love,

Sara :)

Reasons Why I'm A Geek 2

I know I'm a geek this time because when I'm sitting alone all night not sleeping I turn on SyFy channel and my favorite shows to watch are Face-Off and Heroes of Cosplay.

Face-Off, for those of you who don't watch the SyFy channel, Face-Off is a contest show that reminds me very much of Project Runway. It involves contestants who are competing for the best new creature creation. The last two episodes I saw were as follows. The first required two larger teams of artists who had to work together to create creatures of a different world, but separately in order to create five total creatures. They then used real models in order to bring their characters to life (pretty sweet!). The secon episode required groups of three to create the famous pair: Frankenstein's monster and bride in a modern sense. Both of these characters were then required to be made using models. This show was like Project Runway only SyFy style :D

Heroes of Cosplay really opened my eyes as to the seriousness of Cosplay. I've considered doing Cosplay in the past and have been seriously considering it in recent weeks and months. Being in Wisconsin it does seem to be a bit hard, but it sounds like the big thing is to go where the people are  who you have things in common with. I've learned so much: the fact that there are contests for best costumes, it's best to go all out and do a lot of work because it will pay off, for some people it's about sex appeal, for others it's not at all, the art is super important just as much as being in character, and so many more things! If I were to Cosplay I think right now I'd probably Cosplay the Bea Rabbit from Pandora Hearts, cause she's awesome! But I'm also learning how much I don't know about anime and manga and comics. So I'm working on that :P

This is fun so I hope you enjoyed reading about these shows and that you give them a chance, even if only from an artistic standpoint!

Love,

Sara :)

Lately

Hey, so recently things have gotten a bit rough for me and my family. Tomorrow, Tuesday, is a funeral for a man who has lived with us my entire life, who I refer to as my brother, but is more of an adult foster care, or adult family home as they now call it. Kevin passed away at the age of 53, and it's going to be rough not having him around, he was a real joy and a wonderful person, never in a hurry and he never thought that something was too little to be unimportant. He was developmentally disabled but that just gave him even more charm, and for those who got to know him, he was really a wonderful person. So, I apologize but he passed away Friday morning, and it's been rough going ever since then as we deal with it. I ask for your patience with this and I hope that this finds you all doing well and I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Love,
Sara

Musica Monday

Music is an important part of each of our lives. Whether its just to be background noise on the commute in to work, or if its the reason you go in to work, or if its simply how you get through the day, music is a major part of our lives. People's taste in music is just as varied and all over the place. I've been trying to listen to as much music as I can lately and for me, indie music is still one of my favorite genres. There's a song I found a while ago, then lost due to my terrible methods of storing things, then refund again just this past week. It's a lullaby by Gregory & the Hawk, a true indie band. This lullaby is very calming and melodic and really puts me in a great mindset. So, without any further ado, enjoy 'Boats & Birds' by Gregory & the Hawk!

Love,

Sara :)

Musica Monday

How many people like stories? What do you consider a story? What can music do with stories? What if we take a story and put it to music? I mean it has been done before and it will be done again, no doubt there! Stories are what make up our culture and our lives, when we were little we would use stories to learn about our lives

Here's a new example of a story telling cd that a friend introduced me to a few months ago. The artist/producer is L'Orange, who draws inspiration from the 1920s-1950s. All his music truly incorporates the genre of the film noir. His newest album is entitled The Mad Writer, and you can listen to it for free, that's right, FREE, online on his website.....here! Make sure you start at the beginning of the list of songs thought!

Another example of stories being put to music are ballads. Modern day ballads tend to be put together with music videos that tell a story through them. One of my favorite ballads is called Ballad of a Man and his Sorrow by KOBE. Enjoy!!

Love,
Sara :)

Books Books Books: Buttons and Foes (Mandy Dyer Mystery, Book 6)

So, before I go into this book review (yea! I'm on a roll right now as far as book reviews and reading in general goes! woot!!) I really need to make a correction about my previous book review. I wrote the title in wrong!!! It is The Fault in Our Stars NOT souls! My apologies go out to anyone who was offended by this or who noticed this...I'm so sorry! I promise that I will do my very best to ensure that this will not happen ever again!

Moving on, I just finished a book (this Sunday) called Buttons and Foes. I picked it up because it sounded interesting at the library and the other books that I was looking to read were no where to be found in my library. I did finally get around to ordering the second Phryne Fisher book and that should be in and I will pick it up next chance I get to go to the library (which is now closed until Tuesday :c) called Flying Too High. But I'm getting off topic, this book that I just finished was one that I rated as being alright, not my favorite but not too bad. I gave it three out of five stars on Goodreads and here's my review:

"Mandy was the type of character who could, at points of the story, annoy me to no end, but in the end she was always right when it came to her suspicions and even if non of the men (and yes, the majority seemed to be men...) around her supported her in her endeavors to learn the identity of her loyal customer's murder. The story was predictable but was well put together and ok. The opinion might be a bit off considering I realized just now that I started with the 6th book in the series....fail on my part..."

Yes, that was all in my review. I hope that you all find this helpful or at least a bit amusing considering I made such an amateur mistake as not checking the order of the series! I feel quite silly about that whole bit... Well, my cat is begging to be given attention so I shall scurry off to play with him a bit before he breaks my computer....sigh. I hope that you all are reading good books and having a good back to school time! It's so weird not going back to school this year....huh....weird!

Love,
Sara :)