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Friday, February 13, 2015

Getting Something Off My Chest... Grammy's

By {Molly}


I feel like I really need to get this off my chest. I know your Facebook news feeds are already drowning in Kanye West and Beck babble, so I'll try to stay away from focusing on that. I am a music lover, a music snob even. I love indie, alternative, 60's & 70's rock, and even indulge myself in the occasional Taylor Swift {I mean come on... her new album is really great}. No, I don't love country, pop, or R&B/rap, but I can appreciate that you might and I'm not critical of that.

Unless you're living under a rock you know that Kanye West once again rushed the Grammy's stage. This time because Beck won album of the year over Beyonce. The internet has come to Beck's defense and I can't help but love that.  Before we get too much further, I feel like you should know, I'm not a Beyonce fan. I love what she does for feminism but I'm not a fan of her music and I never will be, and that's ok.

I actually think Kanye rushing the stage yet again brings up a good point, even though to me it's muted in the fact that Kanye West thinks Beyonce should have won over Beck. Beck writes all of his own songs and plays {TWELVE} instruments, twelve people. How many of you can play one? He's a musical genius, constantly changing himself and the music he creates. Yes, creates. Beyonce on the other hand has a team of about 20 people that write 1 song for her. One song that probably has only about 10 different words in it. Now, in her own right clearly Beyonce is a genius. I mean you don't become Queen Bey by being an idiot. I totally 100% get that she is a musical genius in her own right, it's just VERY different then Beck's musical genius.

My biggest argument about the Grammy's actually has nothing to do with Kanye's behavior {although appalling}. Think about the Oscar's for a second. When the films are announced that are up for Oscar's 9/10 of the nominees are unknown to the majority of the population. The Oscar's actually dig up the {BEST} movies of the year to recognize. Some obscure, some well known, but all are actually critically acclaimed movies. They don't award the most popular movie, or the movie that brought in the most income, which are usually totally mindless, cinematic trash. They don't care that a movie was popular or not, they choose the movies that deserve to be awarded. They bring something to the table that wasn't there before, whether that be cinematic breakthroughs, pressing an issue that we weren't talking about before.

The Grammy's seem to pick the songs and albums that are the most popular. I love the Sam Smith song as much as the next person {ok maybe not...}, but do I think it's a groundbreaking, really well made song? No, I don't, and I don't think it should be nominated for a Grammy.

So, why do the Grammy's seem to pick songs that are "basic" and top 40? The Grammy's nominees are chosen by their "peers". As long as you've had 6 retail tracks released via traditional distribution or 12 digitally released tracks, and pay $100 you can vote in your area of expertise and also for the 4 major categories {Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist}. So it's sort of unfortunate and alarming that they don't vote for something a little more interesting.

It's a small step in the right direction that Hozier, Haim, and Beck were nominated. But when do we get away from the music that is total worthless drivel? Sam Smith may actually have a really creative great song on his album that he didn't release. Why can't that song be the one that wins Song of the Year? Why can't we celebrate someone that's even lesser known then Haim and Hozier in the Indie genre. While I love both of these artists, they are actually fairly well known at this point. They are creative geniuses, however they should also be up there along side a relatively unknown artist.

Before I finish, I will tell you that, yes, I do remember in 2011 when Arcade Fire won Album of the Year, which I applauded. I also remember when the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou? won in 2002, also a great win. I'm not saying that real talent never wins, I'm just saying it would be nice to have even more diverse nominees every year. All I'm asking for is a little diversity.

There is no end to this post. There is no enlightened answer. I just don't understand why the Grammy's don't celebrate lesser known music, as the Oscar's celebrate movies that no one has ever heard of, but our worthy to be in the spotlight. I don't care if it's country, R&B, or rap. There are so many people creating music out there and it's not the music you're listening to on your radio. I wish that they would take a queue from the Oscar's and start rewarding the real artists in their industry. Yes, Beck is a win in the right direction. You may have guessed by now but I love Beck and I always have, but no one person can argue, whether you like him or not, that he isn't one of the purest forms of artist in the music industry.

I hope his win is a small step toward music professionals changing the way their awards shows are done. Maybe the buzz surrounding this years show will help them understand that we do want to see people like Beck win {except Kanye that is}. I agree with Kanye that they need to celebrate true artistry, but clearly our views differ on what true artistry actually is.

Until the next time Kanye makes the Grammy's something people actually give a shit about...

xoxo,
Molly

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Warby Parker // 2014 Year End Review Generator

By {Molly}

It seems like most people have moved past 2014. From the responses to my last post it sounds like you all felt the same way I did about the year... good riddance.

I hope you agree that 2015 is going swimmingly. If the first 21 days are any indication then I think we're all in for one hell of year!

I personally hate those stupid Facebook year round ups. I never love mine, which is really why I hate them. I'm not married, engaged, or having a baby so my pictures cap out at 20 likes {this is an extreme max...}.

Then my friend at Warby Parker sent me what I thought originally was their annual report for 2014. "That seems strange... I do love WP but I don't really need that" I thought. Until I clicked the link and realized they had made a 2014 Year End Review Generator. I immediately did mine {before I even clicked on his that he also sent... don't worry, I went back to it}.




Here's my 2014 annual review! To be fair I probably didn't {crush} it as my motto says, but I did crush the last few months so I'll take it.  Also to be fair, I didn't use one of those emoji's it said are my favorite. My spirit animal though... amazing. A harbor seal, which I laughed out loud at and can't say I don't agree with {I do flop occasionally}. Lastly, I may require you all to start referring to me as Moose, my 2015 nickname.



You should hop on over here to the Warby Parker website and make an annual report for yourself. You won't be disappointed. When you're done, check out their frames, you'll remember our post from here about how obsessed we all are with them.

xoxo,
Molly




Wednesday, January 7, 2015

New Year’s Resolutions? Still No...

Here we are again, the snow has fallen, the trees are dying, the twinkling lights are being taken down. It’s that time of year in which we are supposed to decide what we did wrong in the last year and what we want to {yet again} fix in the new year. You might remember my post from last NYE’s here. Well, it’s safe to say that didn’t exactly pan out as I planned but I’m going to take the same attitude I had 1 year ago and use that again for 2015.


For those of you reading this that know me well you know that it’s safe to say that 2014 wasn’t the best year of my life. I’ll be the first one to admit it, because let’s be honest, it was a pretty bad year when you write it down on paper. I had a great year end {bang} with my car being stolen the day before Christmas Eve too. It the perfect cherry on the top of my year.

I could feel sorry for myself, I could mope around, cry, and say oh poor me, but I’m not going to do that. While there were some big things in 2014 to feel sad about, there were also many things in 2014 to be really happy about, even to outweigh the bad beginning to the year.

I finally moved to the city I set my sights on years ago {Denver}. I get to see my twin niece and nephew grow into their own personalities daily because of that move. I was lucky enough to immediately fall into a great new group of friends I couldn’t feel more fortunate to have in my life. Luckily, I found these friends following my very own advice that was published on Elite Daily last summer, one of my proudest writing moments so far.


So starting now, I will look back fondly at the positive moments of 2014, because there were many of them. I will remember the bad moments only so I learn from them and don’t make the same mistakes twice. I won’t beat myself over the head with those mistakes, there’s no point in that, that's not how we grow as people.

I’m really looking forward to 2015. I feel like this will finally be my year, my time. Whether I finally really start working out again, learn French, paint more, write more, or anything else that might have made it on my resolutions list in 2015 {had I made one}, I’m not going to care. I’m going to spend my 2015 focusing on myself and my relationships, doing things that I’ve always wanted to, but mostly just enjoying my life and being happy for the many wonderful things that surround me.

xoxo,
Molly
 

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