Okay, I know AIM lists are somewhat irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but I have several comments to make about this list of 100 Celebs under 25 that AIM shoves in my face when I log in. First of all, I don't think I know who 40% of those people are. That makes me feel old, but I also don't know how that happened. I read ONTD pretty obsessively (well not so much lately since it broke live journal...) and I still don't know who a lot of those people are.

As for Gossip Girl stars, Ed Westwick > Penn Badgley, Taylor Momsen and Chace Crawford. Why is he so low on the list? I mean if you talk purely star status, I believe the list is about right as it stands, but then why is Daniel Radcliffe lower than Jamie Lynn Spears? Don't tell me she got bonus points for being a pregnant teen. Or actually, why is he lower than Brody Jenner for that matter? Back to Gossip Girl, I guess Blake Lively is the bigger star than Leighton Meester, but I would have had it the other way around on the list.

I was actually surprised that Mandy Moore got #20 on the list. She's actually been slightly irrelevant this last year. Kind of. She did release Wild Hope, but for as good as it was I don't think it was that popular. She's cutting it close, though, so she better enjoy it while she can. Evan Rachel Wood is above Emma Watson? Really? I'm surprised Robert Pattison, given all the OMGTWILIGHT madness that we've had to endure the last year, is only #40. He's actually lower than Heidi Montag. I guess the Twilight spot went to Kristin Stewart, who somehow cracked #10. Also, Heidi > Audrina. Just saying. Fine, I admit that it wasn't surprising that Megan Fox hit the top 10, but I think she's really gross. She's like a trashy version of Angelina Jolie. Like, not even a trashy now Angelina Jolie. A trashy pre-do gooder era Jolie. Keira Knightly is below Ashlee Simpson. Ashlee Simpson is only still relevant because ... I don't know how she's still relevant. I thought her last album tanked. Finally, I have nothing against Hilary Duff, but how did she get #1? The only thing I can think of is that she's been getting press for that NBC show she's set to do. Otherwise...

That's about it. I didn't mean to write this much about that silly list.

They've announced the Coachella lineup for this year and I really, really, really, really want to go. The one big downer was that the rumor that David Bowie was going to be there turned out to be false. By far, the most amazing day appears to be Friday. I think that $100 ticket for the day pass is worth it JUST for Paul McCartney, in my opinion and then you sprinkle in this slew of other amazing acts...AHH! I want to go. Saturday's is almost as amazing. If it wasn't so close to finals I would try to find some way to make it to one of those days. Sunday's got a great line-up as well, but not as omgineedtogetthererightnow as Friday/Saturday. For me, at least. But I will not be going this year, as usual, especially since it's harder to get there now that I'm in Northern California. :(

I was supposed to go see The Dark Knight with Gina and Jamie at 3:30, but I've been really tired the last few days, been feeling like sickness might be coming my way soon, and I'm way behind in work. Jamie also had some problem with her refrigerator again, so the plan got scrapped. For now, at least. Tomorrow's still up in the air.

For Moot Court, we have to attend one of moot court team's practices. I judged today. It kind of made that whole process seem just a little intense, but it looks kind of fun. I think I know that that above anything else I need to teach myself how to talk slowly, but it looks like it can be done. My torts professor was judging as well. It was nice to see her again.

Anyway, I guess I've got a lot of work to do now.

I don't feel like I got anything useful accomplished today. Because I was so tired last night, I decided to take it easy today. I had signed up last week to help out with a KALSA funraiser, so I went to that from 12-1. We sold japchae, bap, and kimchi. It was pretty good japchae too. I ended up not going to GAAP after that. Even though GAAP is a very good break from studying all the time, I figured I could use the two hours to either catch up or take it easy today, so I did just that.

I spent most of the day trying to get through enviro law reading for tomorrow. I'm not sure if I'm finished yet, actually. We're supposed to be going over Assignment 4 tomorrow, but he said to start on Assignment 5. I read half of Assignment 5. I don't know. We'll see.

I didn't know there was still more Idol tonight, but I ended up watching it because all of my regularly scheduled NBC shows for Thursday night were reruns. This was disappointing as last week's episode of 30 Rock has to have been one of the best episodes of that show. Idol was the same, except there was some uber hippy earth child contestant that I liked.

I dragged myself to the gym today. Tried to get in some more research for Moot Court. That's about it. I think I'm going to try to get some ConLaw reading done.

Today was a pretty long day. It's my long day of classes since I have Moot Court in the evening. It actually doesn't feel like it's as long as it was last semester. I think it's because I have Property for two hours instead of Civil Procedure. Much, much, much more interesting class. Anyway, I think I'm just tired. I've been doing a lot of homework this week and last weekend. I thought I was going to have time to start on next week's reading this week, but I'm seeing now that this is not going to happen. Nope.

Idol was okay tonight. I think they're finally done with auditions, but I switched to Lost too soon to find out for sure. There were some really good voices tonight.

Lost was more interesting. I don't know where to begin. They need to go back to the whole flash back thing. I miss that format, but I guess there's something intense about to go down, so they don't have time for that.

You know what the best part of this episode was? There. Was. No. Jack. In fact, there was no Kate either. It was GLORIOUS.

There was a lot of Faraday in this episode, and I'm coming up with some new theories on him. I think creepy old lady (Mrs. Hawkins, I think is her name) is Faraday's mom. Either that, or the woman who kept on trying to kill him is his mom. Farraday did keep looking at her because he said something about her looked familiar. Also, we've now established that not only does Charles Widmore know Faraday's mom, but he also used to live on the island. He was one of the O.G. Others, apparently. It would make sense that their acquaintance goes back to this time. It could be that Faraday's mom is both creepy old lady and O.G Other. This would explain why creepy old lady knows so much about the island and what's going to happen if they don't go back.

Also, I love Juliette. She's so much cooler than Kate. I love her tongue-in-cheek jokes about "the Others."

I'm glad someone finally asked the question that we've all been dying to know for the last few seasons regarding Richard's age. Apparently he's been the leader of the Others at his current age since the 1950s (at least). I also find it interesting that Locke apparently recruited himself as an Other.

I think the last comments I wanted to make on Lost had to do with Desmond/Penny. One, or both, of them is going to die this season and that makes me very sad. Neither of them actually want to be caught up in this whole scandal and even Charles is trying to get them to stop their silly meddling. Considering Charles is supposed to be the bad guy in this (or is he? When are we getting his flash back episode?), I'm wondering if he actually cares about what happens to Desmond. Then again, Desmond is with his daughter and he can't be that cold hearted. Even Caleb Nichol wasn't. Also, notice Desmond's kid is named after Charlie?

Oh, one last thing. Daniel Dae Kim's name is still appearing in the credits and he has yet to reappear this season. I'm still convinced he's not dead, but it looks like he's for sure coming back in some form (flashback, Hurley crazy, jinsactuallyalive) this season.

Idol was really lame tonight. There were a few entertaining moments, but it was boring overall. I hope this is the last week of auditions. They drag it out way too long.

I watched two movies tonight while getting work done. First was Hellboy. I actually thought this movie looked stupid when it first came out. Pan's Labyrinth is what really convinced me to watch it in the end. The movie definitely wasn't what I expected and I actually kind of liked it. Then, in light of Project Watch 2009 Oscar Nominated movies, I watched Vicky Cristina Barcelona. I think I've seen one Woody Allen movie and really didn't like it, so I wasn't too excited about this one. I did really enjoy Jarvier Bardem in No Country for Old Men and it takes place in Spain, so I gave it a try. It was cute. ScarJo's kind of a blah actress, but I thought everyone else did a good job. That's about it.

Other than that, I've had a relatively productive night in terms of getting work done. I finished Thursday's Constitutional Law reading. Finished the assignments for Moot Court that I have to turn in tomorrow and emailed them (we have to turn in an electronic copy of whatever we do). Now I'm just briefing cases that I looked up for Moot Court. Pretty good deal. I chose a pretty cool topic. Identity theft.

I actually did all of this week's Contracts assignments over the weekend. It really just happened because we're way behind in class, but whatever. And I'm semi on top of things in Enviro Law. Because of this I can 1) get a head start on next weeks' assignments; 2) take a breath; and 3) start actually doing job search stuff. I actually have to do that. In an effort to give myself a kick in the butt, I scheduled an appointment with the Career Office for next week. Also am going to do the Alumni Mentorship Program, where they pair you up with an alumni. I scheduled a meeting to go over that stuff too. What that means is that I really actually need to start doing this stuff. I've been doing bits of research here and there. It's not like I've been doing nothing.

..Speaking of doing nothing, I should get back to work.

I talked about that Britney song a couple of posts ago, but here's Fox News's take on it, just for the lulz. My other thought on this matter is that I did not catch the profanity until I read that it was there. I probably would have caught it eventually, but it's only as obvious as they're saying if you're listening for it. Maybe I just have lame observation skills, though. I don't know, here's the song.

Speaking of music, apparently Scarlett Johansson covered Jeff Buckley's "Last Goodbye" for the movie, He's Not that into You. I tried to look for it on YouTube to link it, but maybe it's better you didn't listen to it. Her voice isn't that bad, actually. I remember being incredibly unimpressed when I heard the single from the album she released last year. It's just a bad cover of a good song. It's streaming on Stereogum if you're that interested. If you want a good cover, TV on the Radio released a very good cover of David Bowie's "Heroes."

Also, the Bird and the Bee album, Ray Guns are Not Just the Future, was released today. It's soooo good. It's the Daily Download on Amazon today, so it's also relatively cheap.

And since I seem to like to talk about Josh Schwartz shows, apparently I missed the news that Scott Bakula is going to be playing Chuck and Ellie's dad on Chuck. I actually read about that during Contracts and I almost gasped out loud. It's good that I didn't. I'm not sure how I would explain that. Anyway, I am beyond excited about that. Not too keen on the fact that Monday's episode is going to be in 3D (people really need to stop trying to make that happen and let it remain a Disneyland novelty), but I am beyond excited. Seriously, this show's already has Tony Hale on it (who I hope they don't get rid of like they did with Masouka from Dexter). They could add someone like Lee Pace as Chuck and Ellie's long lost brother and the show would have amassed quite the collection of actors from my favorite canceled shows.

In other news, I just got back from volunteering at GAAP. I volunteer twice a week now. I like this more. I felt like I got nothing done coming in once a week on Monday mornings. Not that I do much more now since it's a lot slower on the afternoons, but it's nice to be there more than once a week. I only volunteer for like 40 minutes on Tuesdays, though, so it goes by quickly. There were fewer people in this afternoon than there usually are, so I spent all of that time making sure that all the files were in alphabetical order. Better than nothing I suppose.

There was no new Gossip Girl tonight. It was the rerun of the episode where Chuck finds out that Lily and Rufus have a kid. I don't know which one. I didn't watch it. Listened to Gianni's radio show instead. I also watched this ridiculous new reality show on ABC called True Beauty. I tried to stop watching several times, but it's one of those train wrecks where you just can't look away.

Anyway, I guess they're really going through with that Gossip Girl spin-off. I was kind of excited about it at first because Lily van der Woodson's one of the more interesting characters on the show. It really just looks like a disaster in the making. I'll probably end up watching the first episode just because, but I really don't know why they have to make it. You already know what's going to happen to Lily and as interesting as Lily and Rufus's fling in Monteceito might really be, it's also something that they could cover just as easily in a series of flash backs (maybe I just watch too much Lost). Whatever. They're the ones losing money over this right?

I completed Book #6 in my quest to read 50 books in 2009. #6 was Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. The book was okay. The show is a lot better, in my opinion. The Dexter storyline isn't quite the same without Michael C. Hall narrating everything and the music. The characters weren't as exciting. Masouka's not nearly as quirky and weird. Angel is not important at all, which is a pity because he's definitely one of the cooler characters on the show. Also, LaGuerda in the book was shallow and obnoxious. She was cold in the first season of the show, but at least they portrayed her as a strong character. Dexter only kills a couple of people and the build up to the revelation of the Ice Truck Killer was lame. There are very few Harry flashbacks. Deb whined the whole time (Oh wait, she kind of does that on the show). The only thing that I thought was interesting was how Dexter started to think that he was the Ice Truck Killer. I don't know. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I didn't end up comparing it to the show the entire time. My two cents, anyway. I think the next book I'm going to read is some book by Anthony Bourdain. Don't remember the title.

Today Obama made the decision to have the EPA reconsider the decision to allow states to set their own stricter limits on auto emissions. Bush rejected this, which was why our governor sued the EPA and Bush admin a couple of years ago. It's up to the EPA at this point, I guess, but I'm excited. This is a definitely a step in the right decision.

I also wanted to record this epic moment on my last.fm profile page before it changed:

I got back from Department of Eagles show at the Cafe Du Nord about thirty minutes ago. It's very rare that I get back from shows this early. Part of the reason is that I don't have to make that drive back from LA to Irvine, which at 12-3 am feels like it takes forever. The other reason was that it was an early show. Yeah, the band is playing two shows tonight, one that was scheduled to start at 7 and another that was scheduled to start at 10. That must be tiring. I'm not going to lie, though. It is nice to be done early and to (in theory) be able to actually get work done after. That's the theory. It also meant that I didn't have to brave the Tenderloin that late. Surprisingly, though, the UN Plaza is empty at night. Who knew?

Dinah got into the city around 6:30-ish. I met her at the Civic Center Station and we took Muni over to the Cafe du Nord. I'm so happy that I've finally managed to make it to that venue, by the way. Not only is it absolutely adorable (it kind of reminded me of the Hotel Cafe), but I have missed so many Miggs shows that happened to have been at this venue. Granted, I was in Southern California for many of those shows, but still. A lot of their big shows happened there. It's also incredibly easy to get there by MUNI. The Church station drops you off about a half of a block away. Good to know for future reference.

There was a line in front of the venue. Since it was almost seven by the time that we got there and the show started at seven, we assumed that the line was for the late show. Turns out it wasn't. In good concert fashion, the show had not started yet. We got in. The guy at the front fumbled through the chart for a while when Dinah showed him the slip that she was on the guest list. Almost thought it was a hoax for a second and we'd be left out in the cold without Department of Eagles tickets. We got it, though. No ticket stubs, unfort., but whatever. It wasn't that crowded when we got in. We were actually able to get semi-decent spots (maybe 5-6 people back). We waited around for about 30 minutes and the first band went up.

You're going to have to excuse the few photos I took. The venue doesn't seem to take well to flash photography, so when one person takes a picture with flash, it blinds everyone. Combine that with the fact that I'm already semi-self conscious when it comes to using flash at shows, and you get uber blurry pictures. Some of them are actually quite a trip, but everyone still turns out to be giant red blobs.




The first band was called The Cave Singers. I don't know what I was expecting from them, but they turned out to be amazing. I think I was almost more impressed by their performance than by Department of Eagles (not that I didn't like their performance). I really liked the lead singer's voice. They even used a keytar-like instrument, a tamborine (I LOVE it when bands bring out tamborines), and a washboard. Yeah, a washboard. I really liked these guys. They didn't sell any albums at the table, but I liked them so much that instead of buying the Coconut Records album that I had just decided I was going to buy tonight, I bought their album. It does not disappoint.

They finished their set a little after 8 and the Department of Eagles started setting up. That process took a lot less time than I had expected. I think it just felt long because I was dying of thirst and stuffiness by that time.



They eventually got up and started performing. The lead singer, whose name I do not know, started alone and played a song on the banjo. Now I've got this sudden urge to learn how to play the banjo. The first song that the band played together was "In Ear Park." I actually don't know many of the titles of their songs. I don't know many of the titles of a lot of songs now because I have the music playing in the background and don't pay attention to the track names. Where was I even going with that? Oh, I think it was that I only knew the name of this song and "No One Does It Like You." Beyond that, it was "hey it's that song I like from the album!"

Their set was pretty good. Very mellow. The audience was also mellow. Apart from some random pushy people, there weren't any especially obnoxious people in the crowd. I like it that way. There were a lot of awkward moments between songs. They reminded us of this comic, actually.



I also really liked the lead singer's voice live. It was so good.

All in all, it was a great show. Hopefully this is going to be a good kick start to my efforts to get out more this semester. Not that I'm going to stop studying, but I think I spent an excessive amount of time locked up in my room last semester. I need to get out of the Tenderloin every once in a while, that's for sure.

I am hoping to see the Lovemakers in San Jose in a couple of weeks, but that's not confirmed yet. If I don't go home that week and see them, I kind of want to see The Bird and the Bee at the Independent. There are a handful of other bands that I'm hoping to see this semester. One is confirmed. I'm going to see the Fleet Foxes in April! Dinah got the tickets. Going to the Filmore show because the Palace of the Fine Arts one apparently sold out. I don't care. I'm going to see the Fleet Foxes!! I'm beyond excited.

That's it. Back to homework.