EJE's response to Osama bin Laden's death

Wow.

So, Osama Bin Laden is dead.

Now, I am never happy about the death of anyone. However, I feel like I can be a little happy considering he contributed to the deaths of 3,000 innocent civilians, and if there's anything I hate, it's innocent people dying because of people who think they have the right to kill anyone.

This is... wow. Except now, I'm super worried for our country. Al Qaeda isn't completely gone just because their leader is. It makes me incredibly selfishly glad that my family lives no where near any huge government building.


And now for the whole, "Where were you when you found out that Osama bin Laden died?" thing that will become important when I'm old.

I was sitting on my computer when Madisen message me saying "do you know what's going on?"


So then she sent me a link and I was like, "Holy shit." My step dad was overjoyed and said even though he doesn't believe in revenge, he's glad bin Laden is dead. This is all so crazy.


So yeah, important moment in history, and Americans outside of the White House are celebrating by singing our national anthem and Queen. Good night.


- EJE

JSYK, J Biebs hates Uggs.

So as I was looking at the dashboard thing on blogger,  I saw how many posts we had posted.

And I giggled. I'm sorry, I'm just too immature.

I mean, 63 is just such a funny number! It's 9x7!

ANYWAYS, I'm pretty sure I already have a blog post for this week because I posted on last week and we didn't have to post one last week, but I'm doing ANOTHER! Yay. And it also happens to concern Facebook like pages. However, this concerns real people and real relationships!

...Or, how people on Facebook would define them, actually. Here is a post that has almost 19,000 likes:

Some girls paint their nails, watch chick flicks while counting carbs but they're fake
The real girls watch their fav tv show pig out on food lounge in sweats w/ an old t-shirt and dance like idiots to their fav song
Like if you're a real girl 

The first time I saw this, I was all raging and I went and posted it on this website that I read to get my anger out. However, it's still stupid. So if I happen to like The Notebook or A Walk to Remember (and I do love both of those), I'm not a real girl?  Or if I like to have colorful nails, I'm obviously fake? And what about those diabetic teens, huh?! Are they not real girls either because they count their carbs so they don't, I don't know, DIE?! I'm pretty sure they're all girls because they don't have an SRY gene (or a working one, if they happen to be one of those girls with an Y chromosome that just broke).

Then there's being a real girl. You know, sometimes, pigging out on food can make you feel gross. I know when I eat too much junk, I feel like I need to go eat a salad. Most of my friends prefer jeans to sweats (Facebook stalking when they posted those little notes about themselves that everyone fills out and one of the questions was jeans vs sweats? Not at all), and I know I don't even OWN any really old shirts.


Moral of the story: If you have two X chromosomes, you're a girl. So shut up.


And now, for another post that annoys me:

Having guy friends! No drama, no betrayal, no jealousy, they're much more entertaining, and they're straight up. They're like your brothers, and got your back, instead of stabbin you in it.

If you're having all those problems with girl friends, then you're doing something wrong. That's all I'd like to say. 


There are also a bunch of posts about boy/girl scenarios where one of them starts talking in a different language, then they get dumped because the other person thought they said something mean or some crap like that.


(Yeah, can't find any at the moment, but I shall update later!)


If someone started telling you something in another language, you would ask "What does that mean?" not say, "OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU."


I also found the reverse.

nerd: hi
girl:um hey
nerd: i really really like u and um will u go out with me pls pls pls
girl:bumsen Sie
nerd: i'll take it as yes!
girl:*face palm* gehen Sie verzögert Verlierer get a life werde ich nie will mit dir gesehen werden, und wenn u sagen etwas anderes will ich haben u ​​ermordet, weil ich arbeite in einem großen Mafia und meine Jungs kommen und u ok!
nerd: see u at 7:00 tomorrow night for our date!
girl:bye bye
* google translate german to english* 

If I were that nerd, I would, I dunno, TRANSLATE IT because... are there any other ways for me to say how stupid this is? Also, I'd take the words "get a life" and "Mafia" as a no. 

And then... we have the ever so popular "A perfect guy..." posts. Here's one example:

A Perfect Boyfriend
give her your hoodie even if you go to different schools
give her a big t-shirt of yours to sleep in
leave her cute messages
kiss her in front of your friends
tell her she looks beautiful
look into her eyes when you talk to her
let her mess with your hair
just walk around with her
forgive her for her mistakes
hold her hand when you're around your friends AND in private.
let her fall asleep in your arms.
stay up all night with her when she's sick
watch her favorite movie with her
come up and grab her by the waist... 

Here are my issues with this post:
1) I feel really bad for guys. They must always be freezing. Some girls really need to understand that guys aren't made of fire. I've been given a jacket before by a boyfriend, and it's not that big of a deal, guys. Sure, it's nice because I get cold very easily, but you NEED TO GIVE IT BACK, GOSH DARNIT.
2) Why would you give her a t-shirt? Doesn't she have her own?
3) Kissing in front of your friends is so awkward. I know I would never want to be around my friends while they're making out with guys. 
4) If someone came and grabbed my waist, I'd probably freak out and start screaming.
5) The main thing is that everyone is different. Girls who write these give these crazy weird/high expectations for guys that that not every girl wants. BECAUSE WE ARE ALL UNIQUE AND BEAUTFUL IN OUR OWN WAYS. MY SECRET IS THAT I'M 15 AND I HAVE A TEDDY BEAR.


...Sorry, I'm also reading SBS and getting annoyed with those posts too. 


And one more, because I'm tired of looking at stupid posts:

10 things a typical teenage girl can't live without...
1. A Mobile Phone
2. A Laptop or Computer with internet access
3. Headphones
4. A Warm Hoodie
5. Music
6. A pair of Uggs
7. Sleep
8. Unlimited Texts
9. Hair Straighteners
10. Reality TV
Like this if you can't live without at least one of these things!!

 NO ONE CAN LIVE WITHOUT SLEEP. OH MY GOD.

Also, your boy J Biebs thinks Uggs are ugly.

- EJE, who is annoying and will probably rant about Six Billion Secrets next week.

*edit from a few days later*

I just saw this on a Facebook like page... and I was confused:

some teens are out having sex, partying, doing drugs, drinking, but like this if your the teen at home, on facebook, listening to your ipod, sleeping

How the hell are you on Facebook, reading/possibly liking this page IF YOU'RE ASLEEP?!?!?!

Wow... you guys rock.

I love you all.

- EJE

EJE loves him so MUCH.

ALKJDFGKDFJGKDFJD. LOVE. SO MUCH. HE NEEDS TO RECORD MORE THAN 4 FREAKING SONGS.

- EJE

EJE Leads

Here are some of my leads. I guess:

Descriptive:

1) Already at his drums, Suren de Saram of Bombay Bicycle Club waits for the rest of the band to come on. The small crowd of hipsters cheers when every guitar is tuned and Jack Steadman begins to quietly sing, gaining energy with each note. By the end, he's headbanging during Jamie MacColl and Ed Nash's guitar and base solos. After, many of the listeners offer to buy him drinks, but he declines, as the musician of five years is not even of legal age.

Now and Then:

2) Five years ago, Bombay Bicycle Club meant a bicycling group in India. Five years ago, Jack Steadman, Jamie MacColl, Suren de Saram, and Ed Nash were 15 and in high school. Five years ago, these four boys had no idea they'd be traveling to different music festivals around a foreign country to perform.

But now they're living their once teenage dream, just like many other artists who were once playing in their mom's garage.

3) Five years ago, The Canals walked onto stage at their school; it was just another school talent show. The four boys making up The Canals weren't attempting to be a band, they only wanted to play the instruments they loved.

Now, the four young men are still playing the instruments they love, they're just doing it under the name Bombay Bicycle Club and for their over one hundred thousand fans around the globe.

Here's what I really want to do, but kinda is not what you're supposed to:

Imagine what it's like to be hit by a bus while riding your bike on a river and die.
Jack Steadman has to imagine too. He's just the lead singer in the British band, Bombay Bicycle Club, not Jesus.

Since the beginning of time, there have been hippos. But not really, we don't care about hippos here. We just care about Bombay Bicycle Club, an indie band from Britain.

Oxygen has 8 protons. Jack Steadman, lead singer of the British band Bombay Bicycle Club, breathes oxygen. He's just like us.

Against all odds, Jack Steadman has survived the black plague. He wasn't alive then when it was a pandemic though, he's alive now and in a band!

Swedish people suck at being interviewed.

So for MY feature story, I decided that I would interview some bands because I like music and couldn't think of anything else. SOOO I emailed Bombay Bicycle Club, one of my favoritest bands, and they were like, "Sure, email us the questions!"

BUT THEN IT ALL CAME CRASHING DOWN.

They would only allow me to ask 10 questions (or actually, their manager would only allow ten). So I was forced to move onto making it into a topic based. So I emailed this band called We Were Promised Jetpacks, who also agreed, but they have yet to get back to me. Even though I gave them a deadline of last Sunday. But whatevs.

So THEN, at a lack of email for Blue October (who I should really look into interviewing at the last moment, since my step dad went to high school with him. I always think that's so cool, and I started freaking out when my step dad showed me that Justin Furstenfeld had friend requested him. Also, he has a funny sophomore yearbook picture. Now I'm rambling. RAMBO! That's my friend's nickname, since she has a superlong last name.) and Stars of Track and Field (the least known band that I thought about contacting, but they opened for Blue October on their tour last year), I emailed Taken By Trees. Taken By Trees is the solo project of Victoria Bergsman, a Swedish singer. I posted a couple of her videos a week or two or three ago.

But guess what she does? TYPES IN ALL CAPS. All the answers were done with the caps lock on. I had to retype it all. But it wasn't too bad.

So yeah, not such a good interviewing experience. HOWEVS, I got some fantabulous quotes from both interviewees and the bands are all cool and suck at giving good background info. But, that can be googled.

So long, loves, and thank you for reading my rant (I need to write another rant about life)!

- EJE

Happy April Fools!

I meant to put this up last night... But I didn't. This was our class's April Fools Day prank to the world (I guess), and we figured as long as we uploaded it to the blog, it was relevant.

NOW, I will also include a little rant about the comments on Youtube for the actual video.

People really need to lay off Rebecca Black. Sure, she sucks, but so does Miley Cyrus, and no one is telling her to go kill herself. And why would you tell a 13-year-old to go KILL herself?! You shouldn't tell anyone that, much less someone you don't know who made a crappy song that she didn't even write. We all know she sucks, but if you hate it than much, stop watching it and get away from the video! I hate it too and I very much enjoy watching the parodies, but hey, if Rebecca Black wants to go give herself a terrible image and be made fun of, that's fine with me. I know I would have taken one look at the lyrics and said, "Really? No way. I'm not doing this."

Also, here are a couple really funny parodies.

LOVE,

EJE ♥

Indie Music... From Sweden?

I love foreign music. Also, because I am SUCH a hipster (BAHAHAHAHAHAHA), I like indie music. And because I'm an even BIGGER hipster (teehee), I like indie music from foreign countries. My latest prey?

After being asked on this website that I read if I liked Swedish underground folk music (after claiming that I liked most genres, and I would like to be challenged so I can discover more music), I went to Wikipedia for musical suggestions. There, I learned of a Mr. José Gonzáles, a folk musician from Sweden that is of Argentinian decent. After wandering around wikipedia for a little while longer, I found "Taken By Tress," the solo project of Victoria Bergsman, former lead singer of The Concretes.

I was very surprised when I went and listened to Taken By Trees because she sings in English, as do most Swedish artists, apparently. Here are two of the songs that I like. They aren't the best lyrics, but I like the style of music and her voice that come from this wonderful country.

You may not like them all that much... but I'm a hipster so I do.

LOVE,

The Swedish Estonian Jumping Elephant

OH MY GOD.

I, EJE, am very excited. Like, I think if John Lennon came back from the dead, I wouldn't be as happy as I am now (mostly because that would we very scary). My second favorite band (BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB!) is coming to Austin, and I was so sad because I thought they were only playing at SXSW...

BUT THEY AREN'T!!!

Bombay Bicycle Club (or BBC) is playing at the Red House Pizzeria on March 18th, 2011 at 7 pm, and I am going. AHHH!!! I might also become a crazy stalking fan girl and go to their hotel (because they're playing there, and the San Jose hotel). YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!

Sincerely,
EJE, who ♥'s BBC.

Sexy from left to right: Suren de Saram, Jamie MacColl ♥, Jack Steadman, and Ed Nash

One of my favorite songs.

EJE's First Blog Post!

Hipsters: "Someone who tries to be original but fails."

This is my definition, at least. Most people would probably define a hipster as someone who hates anything mainstream, from music to fashion. But this style of, well, person, has now become mainstream, which is the irony in it. Hipsters can't acknowledge that they're hipsters, because then they're acknowledging that they're mainstream and popular. AH! SO CONFUSING!

Personally, I find this style rather annoying. Sure, there's some great unknown music, but there's also some fantastic popular music. You can't write off all popular music, because generally... there's a reason it's popular. This is just as stupid as saying you hate pop music because you hate Justin Bieber, or that you'll never read a book written by a woman because it'll suck (yes, I've heard someone say this, and it was a GIRL who said it). As a fan of some popular music and some indie music (The Beatles and Bombay Bicycle Club are two of my favorite bands, the former being one of the most popular bands of all time* and the latter being an unknown band from England), and all genres, I think that all kinds of music are valuable**. You shouldn't say you don't like something until you've seen a good enough selection of it.

Also, you shouldn't dress like this:

 A classic hipster, with classic hipster glasses.
Photo credz to PJ Gallagher/Chromewavesdotorg on Flickr.

Sincerely,
EJE

* See my article "Roll Over Beethover, The Beatles Are Here" in our upcoming spring issue.
** See Clyde's article "Rage Against The Machine" which talks about why all kinds of music are valid forms of music.

I can post on here? What? The EJE's first rant about life!

After reading other posts, I have discovered that WE CAN POST RANDOM BLOG POSTS ON HERE! Amazing, isn't it? So, I have decided that I will rant on here... I mean, fill the audience with musical information that will totally prove useful.

Have you ever attempted to write a song? It doesn't matter if it was serious or not. If you have, you'd know... IT'S REALLY HARD. I have been all angtsy and teenagerish recently because... well... I'm a teenage girl who is sad. And because I am so... awesome... I am filled with angry lyrics and I hate poetry with a passion. So what do I resort to? Banging on the piano trying to come out with something that doesn't sound like poop. And then I tried picking up my guitar to play sad songs that were already written to find that if I played a D chord, it would sound like crap. So I tuned my guitar to find it was pretty much perfect. SO I tried again, and once again, I failed. I kept thinking, "OMG how am I going to be angsty teen who puts her angry/sad/ohemgee-I-cannot-believe-you feelings into songs if I can't play a freaking D chord?!" I figured out that if I was trying to play whatever note the third fret on the B string is (which happens to be in the D chord), it would fail.

So I went back to the piano, pressed out some notes that I was able to sing, and wrote some angry lyrics. Then, I locked them away where no one can find them except for the one girl who knows my password. Now the world will never hear them, unless I become some internationally acclaimed superstar. Then I'll release my terrible song that was written because I didn't feel any angry song accurately described my sadness.

Thank you for possibly reading my rant before my group members take this down! (If they choose to.) Also, don't judge me because I can't play any instruments and I like to write crappy songs when I'm angry -.-

- The Estonian Jumping Elephant

Operation: Leads - The Estonian Jumping Elephant

Lead One: Narrative

    For as long as I remember, I’ve known who the Beatles were. My mom played one of their many albums as she cleaned up the house, and every time one of the cover bands played at the Oasis or the Nutty Brown Cafe, you could see my family, little sisters and all, dancing along to the beat of Come Together. Even though it's 50 years after the Beatles began as a band, they are just as popular.

Lead Two: Direct Address

    If you walked around a high school for a moment, you’d probably see merchandise for artists like “J-Biebs”, Lady GaGa, and Usher. But one band that has started popping up on teens is the Fab Four, or the Beatles. Since the 60’s, they’ve been rocking the musical world for everyone.

Lead Three: Twist

    The Beatles have been around since the early 60’s, and some people argue that their age has made them less valid in the modern musical world. But if you look at music today, they are not only still popular but influential.