They were just giving them out at the record store...in exchange for money.

The search is over. I fell in love. For the past few years now people have been telling me that I would really really love this band, and I just didn't listen to them (my friends or the band). Well, as of a few weeks ago I was on a hunt that seemed to be never ending. I needed new music in my life more desperately than almost ever before. Too many things in my life are up in the air,  I didn't need the added stress of no new album to be obsessed with. In my many visits to various CD stores (which is a common event for me, I probably go every week to see what new previously owned CDs will be there) and searching different internet websites like this, showing me what bands are similar to other bands I already love, I kept seeing this band that my friends had been telling me about. I have had one song of theirs on my iPod for a long time, but I was always too busy with other music to listen to it. Well, I decided that now is the time I should probably take a listen. Also they were having a new album come out in a few days (from when I found them) so they were being advertised everywhere. I listened to tons of their songs on youtube, and realized my friends had been right. I fell in love with them. I will forever regret letting so much time go by that could have been spent loving them. Oh Arcade Fire, please remain in my life forever. Since I have full control over whether or not they will, it's safe to say they will. The Suburbs is one of the best albums I have heard in a while. I would tell you which song is my favorite, but that's not physically possible. If I HAD to, I might say "We Used to Wait". It changed my life completely, but so did the rest of the album. (please note the adorable kitten at the end of that video. Will someone just please give me a kitten! this is getting ridiculous)

I guess to be honest, I would have to say I fell in love twice. In my extensive search for new music I also found another band that I have become fully obsessed with. A little less than the level of obsession with Arcade Fire, but very close. They also had a new album come out a few months back and I kept seeing it at the store. It always caught my eye because of the album cover, which I personally think is quite clever and definitely something I would do. So, I decided if they are cool enough to have that as their album cover, they are cool enough for me to take a listen. So, I did. I found their song "Tighten Up" off the album on youtube and immediately became obsessed, such a rad song. Also the video is funny, and I love that the singer looks a lot like Conan to me. (Team Coco for life). Also, that little brown haired boy in the video is the cutest little boy I have ever seen. I better have sons that look exactly like that. I saw the album on sale for $8 the next time I was at the record store, and of course bought it. Right from "Everlasting Light" I was just giddy. Amazing album. Oh, "they" are The Black Keys, if you haven't clicked the links and figured out by now. (which you should do so immediately if you have not, your life will change for the better)

These two albums have been ruling my life. It just seemed important that everyone know that. (I have faith someone, somewhere feels the same extreme joy and excitement about new albums as I do. And yeah, enough to continuously write descriptive blogs about how good they are. To the rest of you, I advise you to get more excited.)

My mountain won't hurt me.

I'm sorry, but when someone in Utah tells me to look at the beautiful "mountains" I have a hard time not questioning that persons knowledge on the definition of mountains. To me they just aren't mountains and they never will be, they are just glorified hills. Yes, they are gorgeous though. (In their own special, handicapped way) Don't start your arguing, I just feel like when you are used to looking at this

I stole this from a Seattle photographer's blog, Robert Wade.

and someone tells you these are mountains

I just feel like they don't know what they are talking about.


Now I understand that Rainier is only like 1000 ft higher than King's Peak, but Utah's elevation is like 3000 ft or something higher than WA to begin with, so just shut up and deal with the fact that the Cascades are better than the Uintas and forever will be. And be prepared to fight me if you want to talk about this. Sure hiking trails in the Uintas are perfectly good and I'm always up to hike them, but again they just don't compare to this

In my last year and a half in the Seattle area, and now being back in Utah, I have come to even more fully realize my need to live in the forest by mountains and lakes, but yet miraculously still be in close proximity to incredible cities, like say, oh I don't know, Seattle. Nothing is better. I'm accustomed to it, I've spent more than half of my life doing so. I miss it so. One of my main life goals is to own a house on a lake, preferably Lake Sammamish or Lake Washington. I used to go running on the Lake Sammamish trail all the time. Every run I would just stare at the lake the whole time with a big stupid smile on my face because it is just so incredibly gorgeous. I mean seriously,  look at it...

It's somewhat hard to go from this being your driveway

driving over those potholes is "fun"

to well not having a driveway (or a house, for that matter). But if I did, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't look like that here.

Dear Washington,
I promise I will return to you one day. No, I don't know when, but rest assured our time apart is only making me love you more.
Love,
Mal

(If you must know, the title of this post is from an old man that lived in a cabin by Mt St Helen's. He was told to evacuate his cabin because the mountain was going to erupt and he told the rangers "My mountain won't hurt me" and didn't leave his house. His mountain killed him.)

For the past few months I haven't had too much time to work on my artwork, and I'm not OK with that. It's for legitimate reasons that I haven't started anything new though, so I guess I am OK with it. The itch to start something new has been just raging lately, and it must be cured. So I went to my mom's house and dug around in her closet and found some of her painting stuff. I've been wanting to try some new mediums, so I thought I would mess around with some watercolor for a bit. I haven't used watercolor since my senior year in high school, and apparently forgot how freaking hard it is. One painting that I did in my senior year won in the art show and made me an All State Artist, so I figured I would probably be able to do something somewhat decent. Well, apparently not. After like five hours I had nothing good to show for myself. My watercolor skills are pretty much gone. I was really wishing my mom wasn't out of town on one of her many river rafting trips (I swear she goes every weekend, she's so rad) because I really REALLY could have used her help. She is an insanely good artist and watercolor is her medium of choice, she could have given me some very useful tips. I guess, in my own defense, I wasn't really trying that hard either. Also I hadn't properly prepared my paper for painting, I didn't have 12 hours to soak it and let it dry. But those are hardly excuses. Although, unless I'm super into the piece I'm working on, I've noticed I do considerably worse on it than normal. And I wasn't super into the ones I was doing. But I am so excited for this semester be over in like 2 weeks, then I will have lots of time to work on my art. I already have so many things I want to draw, I can't wait.

Also, lately I haven't had hardly any time for my own personally reading (aside from scriptures), or I guess I haven't made time. It's been a few months since the last book I read for myself, and I remember that the one I read kind of made me angry. It was Tears of Blood: A Cry for Tibet, a good read, but sad. The other day Kelly and I spent way too long at DI perusing the bookshelves and I found a couple good ones for like two bucks each - A Passage to India, and A Map of the World. That second one has an Oprah's Book Club sticker on it, so you KNOW it's good...I guess. I started reading A Passage to India, then about two days later I lost it somehow. I thought it was lost to the world until today I found it hidden under a pair of running shoes and one of my drawing boards that were in the trunk of my car. I'd like to know how it got there, but I've come to terms with the fact that I probably never will. I was saddened that I didn't find the one I was searching for at DI though, but eventually I will find me a cheap copy of a bio on Caravaggio to suffice my needs. Oh, that will be the day.

Not my chair, not my problem. That's what I say.

What the crap happened? How have I already been back in Utah for a month? Have I really been living out of my backpack and bag of clothes, sleeping at Kelly's, Kristina's, Janie's or my mom's place (wherever I happen to be when night comes) for that long already?! I've been so freakin busy I didn't even notice! Maybe I should get an apartment, or maybe I should decide what I plan to do, in general, with my life. Most likely I will just stay here and finally finish school. Who knows, I sure don't. 

Basically for the last few months of my life this is what I have been up to, since I know you are all dying to know...

- Quit my job. I don't care how much money I was making there, it's not worth it if it's not something I'm really excited about doing. Although, I did like how I was able to pay off my $9000 car in one year because of it. (I plan on having my beautiful Civic, La Toya, for years and years to come, otherwise I would not have spent so much.) But I'd much rather be poor and happy with my job, than rich (not that I was that rich by any means) and doing something that isn't very satisfying. I did it for about four years, and that it is all I could take. I will miss a few things about the job though. Mostly the funny/mean/weird customers and the things they would say. I swear, everyday someone would ask me one of two questions: "What are you, like where are you from?" (I was guessed to be Italian, Hawaiian (?!), Russian, and my very favorite was when one woman asked specifically if I was Transylvanian! Um what OK, that's not obscure at all?!) or customers would stand there and look at me for about five seconds then ask "Is it real" Is what real? Oh my hair, yes it's naturally curly like this. I wouldn't do this to myself.

- Ran in my second marathon with my brother Matt. We didn't get as good of times as we did last year because we both had a lot on our minds, plus we had already done it once so the challenge element was gone. He was moving to Alaska the very next day to spend 3 months fishing on a little boat with just one other guy, and I was moving back to Utah two days later. We both hadn't packed at all.

- Had a really fun/long drive out to Utah with my little brother Mitch and his friend Rugs (his name is actually Nick, but I nicknamed him Ruggles, Rugs for short). We mostly spent the drive talking about how much Rugs was going to freaking love Cafe Rio (he'd never had it, or been to Utah), and listened to the Drake Thank Me Later album like five times. I'm usually not much for rappers, but I freaking love Drake. Mostly because of songs like this one, and this one. He's good, I suggest listening.

-river rafting

-Michelli and Mitch's Wedding

-Modest Mouse concert for FREE. Ya awesome.

-Doing a bunch of stuff to do with Janie's wedding, then the actual wedding day.

-Kings of Leon concert. They played "Milk" and I almost passed out.

-ridiculous amounts of schoolwork and studying (which I should probably be doing now instead of this)

- 7 peaks: I don't care how old I am, that place will never get old.

- hiking at midnight

- running with Kelly. On one occasion we decided to run up into the mountains, and when  we got about 3 minutes in we saw the hugest snake ever coiled up right in the middle of our path. We both freaked out a bit, immediately turned around and ran back down the mountain and almost ran right over this guy with literally five dogs coming up the trail. We think the snake was a rattle snake, but we both had our iPods in so we don't know if there was any rattling sounds.

- having a Leo filled weekend: Inception two nights in a row (it's as good as everyone says) and of course my favorites Blood Diamond and The Departed. Oh Leo, what a man. I love him even more.

Anyway, that's a recap of my past few months. If you're still reading, thanks. I know it's just ever so exciting. Stay tuned, in about two months the blogs really will be exciting. And I'm not joking.


I'm in dire need of a new album to be obsessed with. But recently I, with no explanation, just love love this song:  
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Home
I love running to this so much, and it makes me want to live in the south and regularly chew on stems of barley. But, I probably won't do that. 

6 Records In Don't Know Where To Begin

Over the last few weeks (mostly while I was on the east coast) so much incredible music has been added to my inventory and taken over my life. Out of all that has been added one band has definitely taken precedence over all the others, and I basically can't stop listening/thinking about their songs. That band is: Coconut Records. For those of you unfortunate souls who have never heard of them or their music, do yourself a favor and click here and then you can feel a little bit better about yourself and the life you live.

Also you will probably recognize the singer:

Mmm not bad. Also I guess he used to be the drummer for Phantom Planet, which makes him even more attractive (not the Phantom Planet part, although I guess they could be a good band. I know nothing other than "California") But apparently he has a wife. He would. Dumb.

Honorable Mentions (of the rest of the music recently added):

• Paul McCartney Ram - I feel sorry for my life previous to the knowledge of this album and am forever grateful that it has crossed my path. I've listened to "Uncle Albert" probably 100 times since I got it.
• Atmosphere's "That Night" - the drums mixed with the lyrics to this song are enough to give you chills, also make you a little sad. It's a true story.
• The New Pornographers Together - Never actually listened to this band before today when I walked into the record store in Bellevue and asked what band was playing at the moment. I liked it, so I bought it.
• Jaydiohead - Jay-Z mixed with Radiohead, actually very good and fun to run to.

All incredible music. Really do yourself a favor and listen to all of the above. But if you don't have time for all just at least listen to Coconut Records and then you can thank me for how much better your life just got. You're welcome everyone.

The Adventures of Mal and Lou

Here is a quick recap of the newest chapters of The Adventures of Mal and Lou that took place over this last weekend.

Thursday: I spent the morning taking a stupid math final. I felt like I was going to throw up the whole time I was taking it and it totally sucked. I joke about throwing up a lot and I usually use it too describe something exciting, but this time I for real wanted to puke. I didn't though. And after the test I felt fine. Dumb. We will have to see how the crap test went. Then afterwards I headed to the airport to catch my flight to Newark. At about midnight or so Lindsey got me at the airport and we headed to her house to basically go right to sleep.

Friday: We woke up and ate breakfast then headed to the train station to catch the train to NYC. When we got there we spent the next few hours just wandering around from Time Square to Central Park to Staten Island to basically wherever we wanted. While we were in Central Park we happened upon a baseball game and stopped to watch. Lindsey started cheering for a "Timmy" because well, why not. Obviously we knew no one on the team, but it was pretty funny to us when the team members started yelling for Timmy too and thought we were actually looking for him. Well, just watch this video of it and it will make more sense. We also filmed some prime people watching and our commentary of it while we were there. (It may be posted on the internet somewhere someday, but for now it was taking way too long to load so we gave up.) After we got tired of walking around the city it was pretty late so we headed back to Lou's and pretty much went straight to bed.

Saturday: SIX FLAGS! That's basically all that needs to be said. It was pretty hilarious when we almost lost our bags at the end of the day. Our ticket for our locker wouldn't open the locker so we had to get the park maintenance people to come open it, and when they did someone else's stuff was in there. We were like - um crap that's probably not good. So then we had to open all these different lockers until we finally found our bags. The park people were super nice about it so that was good. We were so happy to find our stuff that we seriously wanted to hug the cute old man that helped us find our things. But we didn't. Then we left and got Rita's (Italian ice) and headed home to get pizza and Ralph's (even better Italian Ice) and watch a lot of episodes of Arrested Development. (quite possibly my favorite show now) Then we met up with Dave and Bryan to head to their house to watch Hot Rod. Lindsey had never seen it, which appalled me considering it's probably the best movie ever made, so we had to watch it.

Sunday: We drove to Philly and wandered around most of the day looking at all the typical Philly sites. We also probably got Ralph's like 2 or 3 times. It's one of the best things that has ever happened to my life and I wish we had it on the west coast. When we got home we spent the rest of the night watching Arrested Development.

Monday: We went back to NYC and wandered around SoHo in the pouring rain. When we got hungry we went to Chocolate by the Bald Man, this incredible chocolate restaurant, and ate so much chocolate. We both wanted to just pass out, it was so good. We left feeling way too full, but it was totally worth it. Then we headed home to get Ralph's and watch Arrested Development. (see a pattern?)

Tuesday: We went to New Hope, PA and wandered around the shops looking at whatever. Then after we were there for about an hour the power went out and no one was letting people into their shops anymore. So we left to get more Ralph's. Then I headed to the airport and back to the west coast.

The trip was way too short and it was so incredible to hang out with Lindsey again!! I am seriously considering moving to the east coast sometime in the future. Maybe just for Ralph's, but no seriously I could live there, I'd love it.

Rip City

Going to sleep at 3am and waking up at 8am to run 14 miles (I'm marathon training again for the June race) before driving 3 hours to Portland is probably not the smartest thing to do. I, as well as my passengers, were pretty nervous of me falling asleep at the wheel. But thanks to some Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper we arrived safely at Rose Garden in time to spend an hour in the Blazers fan store before the game started.

Mitch, Xander and I had decked ourselves out in Sonics gear to show our rebellion towards the Blazers opponent: OKC Thunder. Most people understood the message we were sending and would walk up to us and say a quick "Sorry they moved" or "They should have stayed" throughout the game. We were not alone in our rebellion, we saw plenty of people in Sonics jerseys and t-shirts all over the arena. Before the game started we noticed a couple 20 something yr old guys sitting maybe 5 rows back from the court so we headed down there to become friends with them and see if they wanted to trade seats. It turns out the seats weren't theirs either. So no go on the seat swap, but we did become friends with them. They were super drunk and kind of annoying though.

We were pretty excited when the Blazers won and the boys went to buy Roy jerseys before it was time to get back on the road and head home. At this point I was pretty tired and really was not excited about driving for 3 more hours, but the boys were helpful in keeping me awake. Xands and Mindge had a great time pointing out how every sign for food coming up at the next exit had Taco Bell, Subway, and McDonald's (or McDank's like Mitch likes to say) on it. They were just baffled that all three of them were at every exit that had food. I know it's fascinating right? Also blasting Third Eye Blind and The Beatles helped aid in the safety of our drive home. It was a glorious night for sure. I also may have developed a huge crush on Fernandez (Don't worry Deron, no one can replace you. No one) And I wish Roy wasn't injured and had played. He's a Husky so we were all pretty yoked to see him play, then he hurt his knee or something dumb and shattered a portion of our dream for the evening. Even so, it was an incredible night.