soundtrack to my resolution

Like most people, I have vowed to make some improvements in 2009, and like most most people, those improvements include exercising more often. I really don’t mind working out once I finally get my butt to the gym, especially if I have a really awesome playlist on my iPod to get me through my 45 minutes on the elliptical. So…in the spirit of the new year, I’ve decided make an ultimate work-out mix! Woo!

1. “Warm It Up” -Girl Talk. The title says it all!

2. “Touch Down Turnaround” – Hellogoodbye. It’s such a great song with an awesome beat! It actually reminds me of the time(s?) that Kateryn and I went running at Riverside a few summers ago, so it must have been on my list back then, too!

3.”Glow” -Alien Ant Farm. Is it just me, or is this song really hot?!

4. “See You Again” -Miley Cyrus. My favorite guilty pleasure…love her or hate her, you have to admit that it’s a catchy song!

5. “88 Lines About 44 Women” -The Nails. I’m not really sure why this one always ends up on my running mixes, despite the fact that it’s got a really nice beat. Other than that, I’m just in love with this song!

6. “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” -Dropkick Murphys. Um, so I have no idea what they’re saying half the time…something about losing a leg? Nevertheless, crazy Irish rock definitely pumps me up.

7. “Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex” -CSS. I love these crazy Brazilians, and I love that the lead singer’s name is Lovefoxxx!

8. “Two Girls” -Paranoid Social Club. For some reason this song reminds me of high school. Was one of our friends obsessed with it or something?

9. ”Typical” -Mute Math. This is a really good song! If you haven’t seen the music video, go check it out…they learned to play the entire song backwards so that it would look right when they reversed the film…!

10. “Through the Fire and Flames” -DragonForce.  YES.

 Any other suggestions?

in fond memory of my faithful planner

Today I ran out of pages in my 2007-2008 Moleskine Weekly Notebook. It was a strange realization: flipping through the past couple of weeks that haven’t required any scheduling at all, finding Sunday, January 4th at the bottom of the page, turning to write down the time of my flight tomorrow, and then finding that the neat little rectangle for Monday, January 5th didn’t exist. Suddenly, the planner that had carried me through so many hectic weeks was obsolete. I honestly felt a little helpless. This planner had faithfully kept all of my calculus assigned problems and suffered through repeated notes and reminders (“Call about getting the DVD out of the AC vent!!!!” and “Declare Major!!!!” can be found for multiple consecutive weeks). It held to-do lists (buy present for Nicole, write Merchant of Venice essay), shopping lists (coat, rain boots, cereal, mug, safety pins), and even a list of things that I hope to do before I die (1. Fall hopelessly, helplessly in love. 2. Write my novel. 3. Travel to Italy. 4. Discover something. 5. Live in a city. 6. Be a mother.). I couldn’t deny that the lovely leather cover was well-worn and the edges were smudged with pencil lead and multiple colors of ink. It was clearly time for me to move on, but the more I flipped through the pages, the more I realized that this once-elegant little notebook represented my past in a very real way; tossing it aside to ring in a new year and a new semester would be more meaningful than I could have expected.

Even so, I am looking forward to purchasing a new, though identical, Moleskine Weekly Notebook for 2009-2010. I’ll open it up and write my name where it says ”In case of loss, please return to: _____ ” on the first page. On the next line, the Moleskine reads “As a reward: $ _____,” and I had filled in “good karma ” in my old planner. I probably still won’t be able to offer much more than that in the year ahead…some things don’t change. However, some things do, and I can say with certainty that my new Moleskine Weekly Notebook will be right there with me for every step of 2009 to see those changes and record them in a sophisticated and organized fashion, week by week.

So much to do, so little time!

ending ’08 in style…

With only a few more hours remaining in this calendar year, I thought it would be appropriate to recap some of my favorite discoveries and surprises of 2008 in the world of music and style:

5. Vanderbilt football ends on a high note! Okay, so I must admit that I’m not the biggest football fan, and this is totally unrelated to fashion or anything, but with our first bowl win since 1955, a victory over BC was a pretty big deal. And it just happened, so I’m still pretty pumped.

4. Cross-body bags. They succeed in being so wonderfully practical and so effortlessly chic at the same time!

3. High waisted skirt + wide belt + t-shirt = rocking outfit. Inspired by an Urban Outfitters catalog, this look became one of my favorites of ’08.

2. The Sartorialist. Such an awesome site. I secretly aspire to be featured in one of these inspiring and elegant photographs one day… 

1. Fleet Foxes. Their debut album has been raved about on almost every single “best of 2008″ list. The vocals are stunning. The harmonies give me goosebumps. The lyrics are simple and poignant. I can’t wait to hear what they do in 2009!

(Attempt to upload an mp3 of their music was unsuccessful…will try again later!)

That’s all I have for now. Time for some New Year’s Eve celebrations!

colorful names

Well, I have thought about starting a blog for a while now. The main reason that I put it off for so long, though, was that I had the hardest time coming up with a name. Trivial? Perhaps. But that’s the first thing anyone reading this (not that I’m really expecting anyone to read this) will see, and so it was always an immediate deterrant.

I always have trouble coming up with usernames or any kind of identifying tag whatsoever. I’ve never really had a good nickname, so that option was out (unless you count “Angela Mangela,” “Ang the Pang,” or any other ridiculous attempt at rhyming with my first name). I’ve also never really had any one subject or hobby that I felt could express my identity or sum up my interests. So, after years of deep, unresolved introspection, I decided upon this name last night.

“What the hell,” you may be asking, “is pinklish purple???” Well, it was my favorite color around the age of 6, the best color ever (clearly), and also the color that is sometimes reflected in clouds at sunset. I have a memory of seeing that color in the sky on a flight to St. Louis; the clouds seemed so soft and tangible that I wanted to curl up in them like I did with my pinklish purple-colored blanket back home.

So there you have it. And now that I finally do have a blog, I’m going to use it primarily to write about the latest music, fashion, or book that’s on my mind, or maybe just whatever I’m in the mood for writing about. We’ll see how this goes.