It's Fine By Me If You Never Leave But You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go

It's Wednesday! Wednesday is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week because I get to share music with you guys! I really enjoy writing these posts and deciding which songs/artists I'm going to share so I hope you guys enjoy reading them =) I need to come up with a catchy title for these music-filled Wednesday posts... suggestions are certainly welcome!

Now I'm sure most of you have heard Andy Grammer's single "Keep Your Head Up". It's been all over radio. Its catchy, fun, upbeat, and sort of inspirational if you are not having the best day. I like the song but it did really pull me in initially.

Admittedly a friend told me months ago that I would like Andy Grammer but since I wasn't in love with "Keep Your Head Up" I didn't ever take the time to go check him out. Well I recently heard Andy's second single "Fine By Me" and I loooooovvvee it. So I finally took that friends advice and downloaded the rest of his album.

As a side note, what do you guys think of this little dude who lip sync's popular songs? I'm not gonna lie I think he is obnoxious, and I don't like that he has gotten so much fame from just being a funky looking dude, who poorly lip syncs other people's music. Okay, rant over.

Andy does pop music without being super generic. He even gets a little bit funky sometimes. I like watching him perform because you can see the way he feels the music.

Fine By Me is probably my favorite song on the album. However, I also like "Ladies" a song in which Andy sings about his mother's advice relating to how he should treat women, "Biggest Man In Los Angeles" in which he takes us back to his days as a street performer in Santa Monica Promenade (my favorite place to shop when I went to UCLA), and "Miss Me" a song about love lost and reminding that person that they are going to miss him when he is gone.

Andy gets me with his witty, heartfelt lyrics (if you haven't gathered, I'm a sucker for lyrics I can take and twist and relate to my own life). If you haven't heard any more than just "Keep Your Head Up" I strongly recommend that you go check out the rest of his album.

I planned to end this post here but just the other day I saw a video that made me so happy. My girl Miley is back! She participated in the special album made to celebrate 50 years of Amnesty International which features a ton of amazing artists covering just about every Bob Dylan song you can think of. The album is Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan and it is pretty dang awesome. It features artists like Adele, Kris Kristopherson, Darren Criss, Maroon 5, Elvis Costello, Jack's Mannequin, and the list goes on. Miley covers "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" and I love it. Call this blasphemy but I like it better than Bob Dylan's original version.

I know Miley Cyrus is not most peoples favorite- but I've always loved her. Considering this girl used to sing "Best Of Both Worlds" as Hannah Montana just a few short year ago, I think she has grown up a lot. Her voice sounds so much more mature on this track.

I literally clapped at the end of this video when I first saw it on Monday night (and my mom thought I was a total freak...). I then proceeded to listen to it about 10 billion times at work yesterday. Hope y'all like it. Let me know!

TLC's Sorority Girls

I prefer not to post about negative things on my blog, but I am extremely offended by TLC's new show "Sorority Girls" and I want to do my part to refute the negative stereotypes that the show is perpetuating. As such I've written a statement to the executives at Discovery Communications and TLC. This is not something I am actually sending, as I know my one letter will not make a difference, but I hope that you will read it and will not buy in to the trash that TLC is calling reality on the show.

I accidentally stumbled upon TLC's "Sorority Girls" last night as I was flipping channels. I honestly could not believe my eyes.  If any of you are sorority women, which I know many of you are- watch this clip. I guarantee you will be just as appalled as I was.

Dear Discovery Communications and TLC Executives,

"In keeping with its mission, Discovery is dedicated to satisfying curiosity and making a difference in people's lives through our content, our talent, our viewers, our employees and our practices. On a global scale and at the local level, Discovery Communications' impact is felt through our collective efforts to make a difference for the planet where we live and work."

I've taken this quote from http://corporate.discovery.com/our-company/our-impact/, your corporate website for Discovery Communications- specifically located in your"Our Impact: Making A Difference" section. I would like you to keep the words quoted above in mind as I raise one, important question about your new show, "Sorority Girls."

"Sorority Girls" chronicles the story of five young American women who seek to bring the "unique traditions" or sorority life to the UK. Your preview titled "Sorority Girls -S-O-R-O-R-I-T-Y Girls" includes images of young women in somewhat revealing attire, makes a mockery of ritual, and displays blatant hazing. How do any of these things "make a difference in people's lives"?

I am a recent college graduate, and a proud sorority woman. As an undergraduate I served as President of my sorority. I am well aware of what is means to be a sorority woman. 

The National Panhellenic Conference, the governing body of all 26 panhellenic sororities, has the Panhellenic Creed on the website. The very first sentence reads as follows; "We, as Undergraduate Members of women’s fraternities, stand for good scholarship, for guarding of good health, for maintenance of fine standards, and for serving, to the best of our ability, our college community." I did not see one minute of programming during "Sorority Girls" that indicated that Sigma Gamma was attempting to do any of those things.

Sororities are constantly attacked with stereotypical ignorance. We fight to promote all the good work we are doing, but a single bad story will get all the press. According to http://impact.discovery.com/our-business/our-networks/ TLC's unique mission is "Encouraging Tolerance". The images I saw tonight did little to promote tolerance of any sort. In fact, I believe that "Sorority Girls" did the exact opposite of encourage tolerance, it promoted prejudice.

If you're intent with "Sorority Girls" was to follow your mission and "make a difference in people's lives", I think that you have failed. Although, I suppose you have succeeded in making a (negative) difference in my life. You have shown me an example of how disappointing today's society can be. On the other hand, you have also succeeded in renewing my desire to fight ignorance like that displayed in you show.

I encourage you to take a second look at your programming, and question whether or not it is truly of a standard that you are proud of.

Best,

Ashley Canfield

acanfield04@gmail.com

To my followers, I apologize for the heaviness of this post. My normal Wednesday music post is up too =)

Guess What?!

Forgive me for my double post today but... I wrote my first ever guest post for my friend Simply Alyssa, and it is posted TODAY! Go check it out! It's all about why I blog =)

And HELLO to any of you who may have found your way over here from Alyssa's blog! I hope you take the time to look around my little bloggy and comment/follow if you like what I've got goin on here!

Worst Date EVVEERRR!

I am not participating in every day of Neely, Amber, and Casey's Valentine's Day Challenge, but I have been wanting to tell this story for awhile so I might as well do it today with them since the topic is "Love Telling This Bad Date Story- Worst Date Ever." I know this is a long post but make sure you read to the end, because you will not believe how this date ends!



So lets go back to summer of 2010- I was 21 and living with a bunch of my best friends in a fraternity house (yes you read that right). One night we went out to a random apartment party. At this party I met a guy who I ended up talking with for the majority of the night. He was super nice and easy to talk to, so when he asked for my number and suggested we go out sometime in the next week I agreed.

He seemed interesting enough, and I figured that we would have plenty to talk about but I was still a bit nervous so I wanted to make sure our date included an activity just in case conversation lagged. I found a bowling alley in the area and we planned to go there.

He picked me up, we drove to the bowling alley, and quickly discovered we could not bowl because there was a bowling league that night and lanes didn't open up until much later than night... Bad Sign # 1.

I suggested we drive down the street to Santa Monica's Third Street and get some dessert and walk around. We drive there and begin the awful search for parking. During this drive he tells me about a web show he does which chronicles bad date stories. "But don't worry" he says, "I'm sure our date won't end up on the show." Bad Sign # 2.

My date had no cash, and would not let me pay for the parking so we drove around for at least 40 minutes and failed to find somewhere we could park for free. Conversation LAGGED this whole time despite my best efforts. Bad Sign # 3.

Finally I suggested we just head back to Westwood and get some Diddy Reese or Starbucks (anything to get out of the car!). We get back to Westwood, park and begin to walk to Diddy Reese (an awesome place where you can get choose two cookies and your choice of ice cream to make into a giant cookie sandwhich for only $1.50!) when he informs me that he is not a big dessert fan... Really?! After two hours of fail you are going to complain about cookies and ice cream?! Bad Sign # 4. Fine. We get Starbucks instead and decide to walk around Westwood with our coffee.

We begin walking the same streets that I walk all the time. As we walk I see a potentially homeless man walking directly towards us. Bad Sign # 5? I begin to move over as it seems apparent that this man does not plan to change his direction. My date moves to the other side, but not before the homeless man THREW HIS CUP OF SOUP ON MY DATE. No joke.

We turn the corner as my date picks noodles off of his jacket, and I inform him that we should probably just head back to the car as that must be the cake topper on an evening already full of FAIL. He agrees, and as we walk back to the car he informs me that our date probably will be on that web show (but assures me its not my fault).

Needless to say I did not go out with him again, despite his multiple attempts to convince me otherwise.

In retrospect I should have looked around for that supposed web show though... Oh well.