Summer Love- Cincinnati

The few brief rains this weekend has brought a steamy sort of relief to the hot Midwest summer. It's cooler than our week of 100+ heat, but the rain has just evaporated into the trademark Ohio humidity. Sticky.

Despite the heat, the summer has deepened my love for Cincinnati. So many amazing things going on in the city: reopening of Washington Park, Bunbury Music Festival, the World Choir Games, and on and on. Beyond the bigger events, you have baseball, the river for boating, and the many neighborhood monthly activities like the Hyde Park Farmer's Market, Oakley After Hours, Second Sundays on Main, Final Fridays in OTR, and City Flea. Hey, Cincinnatians, did you know that your urban core is this vibrant and beautiful? I hope so. Before I became a Cincinnatian, I took those who called this city the "Nasty Nati" at their word, but the city as I know it now is nothing of the sort. From the beautiful hills, gorgeous historic architecture, and distinct history and culture, this is a unique city. Yes, there is a certain uber-conservative, anti-progressive contingency here that turns me off and scares me, but honestly, it seems these days that you'd be hard pressed to find a city that does not have that element when the country has become this polarized. (Not to say there isn't a difference in concentration.) This is all to say, I love this city and I love showing it off to people and changing their minds about it. It's not Denver or San Francisco or NYC, but it's home and it's special.

Okay, off my soapbox. To make up for my crimes of listening to terrible pop, here are my more recent real musical finds:

1. Bad Veins: A band of Cincinnati natives, Bad Veins has really captured my interest with their two-man show and the fact that they play off a tape deck. And the lead singer sings into a phone sometimes. Lead Benjamin Davis has a nicely unique voice and the latest album, "The Mess We've Made" is a great mixture of drama and upbeat melodies. Look, I'm not a music writer, so just try it out if you like indie rock. They were super endearing at the Bunbury Festival, too.
2. Regina Spektor: I love her. Her new album, "What We Saw from the Cheap Seats," doesn't disappoint. Always quirky but never failing to deliver in her powerful, tremendous voice and classical piano prowess. 
3. Belle Histoire: Another Cincinnati band that is creeping into the scene! They just released their latest album, "Dreamers," on July 17.  I'm not sure if this will become a favorite, but the vocals are good and it's easy to listen to.
4. The Deep Dark Woods: I am a sucker for deep male vocals. The lead singer of this band has a voice reminiscent of one of my favorites, the National. The instrumentals and beat tend to have a bit of a country twang, but much more folky and a little haunting.
5. Of Monsters and Men: Reminiscent of Stars, I first saw this Icelandic band playing "Little Talks" randomly on a music video channel. There is a lead male/female duo: male vocalist think cross between the Weakerthan's, Decemberists and Ben Gibbard. Female vocalist: Feist/Regina Spektor/Bjork. 

instagram taken on stage by bad veins (I'm way up in the back)

I Might Never Not Be Sore Again

June marked my 30th birthday. I don't feel particularly different; really 29 almost seemed less interesting. I will say that one marked difference between being say, 26, and 30 is it seems like no matter how much I work out, I will feel sore. That, and it takes longer to get back into shape when it's so easy to fall out of it.

It's my second summer back in Cincinnati, which means it's the time of nearly suffocating, heavy, hot air. You can't be outside for a few minutes without breaking a sweat. Disgusting, but I suppose I chose to move back here. The husband and I have love-hated having a yard for the first time. During the spring we played the weed or plant game (definitely weeded non-weeds and left real weeds a few times) with the landscaping that was left by our predecessor. We are learning all sorts of things: pruning rosebushes, that hostas need to be separated when spanning 4 feet in diameter, vines are annoying parasites... We also have our first vegetable garden, which is slowly growing in this oppressive Midwest heat. I'll have to post a picture soon. We're also getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. These little jerks in our back yard are savages, truly. I once ran out fully clothed in the heat with a hoodie and pants on to water the garden and got bit square on my neck. Bastards!

Aaand because I love me some lists, here are a few...

Summer highlights 2012 in the 'Nati:

1. Loveland Bike Trail- This is a great trail that is fairly flat, protected, and mostly shaded. It's great to stop in Loveland for lunch and browse around, or do Newtown to Milford, etc. 
2. Lunken Bike Trail- A (much) less shaded and shorter option, you might catch a glimpse of some old-school planes around the airport.
3. Bunbury Festival- I'm really excited about this. Great line-up and I love the park.
4. Washington Park- Opens today! And Over the Rhine, one of my all time favorites, is performing for the grand opening on July 22, and I am crying inside because we are out of town that week and can't see it.
5. Smale Riverfront Park- Just another beautiful new piece to the downtown scene. See the pretty lights and water?

Guilty pleasures.. for my workouts... right... 

1. Boyfriend, Justin Bieber. Every time I acknowledge that I find this song catchy, I die a little bit inside. So wrong. But so catchy.
2. Payphone, Maroon 5. The music video is stupid. It makes no sense. Why did he save the girl and run out and then become the fugitive? What about the real robbers? Were they actually in a relationship before? IT MAKES NO SENSE. But I love belting out this song in the privacy of my own car. I love that it's jaded.
3. Call Me Maybe, Carly Rae Jepson. This is a vapidly silly song. I blame Jimmy Fallon for getting it in my head by creating this video with her and his band. They are having so much fun cheesing it up. $#%^#&.
4. Pause, Pitbull. Tell me this doesn't make you want to stop drop and pause.
5. Wild Ones, Flo-Rida feat Sia. I love Sia. Also, I kept listening to this because it sounded to me like she was singing "Running with Wilson, I'm on the prowl." Which made no sense. Wilson? Like the volleyball in Castaway? No, it's wolves. Which actually makes sense. I just love fist pumping after the opening riff and the beat comes in. 

Pin-sanity: Pinterest

Can we talk about the evil amazingness of Pinterest.com for a minute? It is the ultimate virtual bulletin board. You've probably heard your girlfriends rave about it, and seen your guy friends roll their eyes about it. Well, I've jumped on the bandwagon. Here's why:

• Easy execution: make your boards as you go (essentially tags) and with the "pin it" bookmark button, you can pin wherever you are browsing.
• Visually simple: just pictures, everywhere
• Better than bookmarking: you can visually identify the project and then if you click on it, the site will direct you to the original webpage.
• Great for inspiration and ideas: follow other people with similar styles or interests to maximize your world. 

So, are you in?

Find my boards at: http://pinterest.com/angechang/

Guilty Pleasures

My Top-Ten Musical Guilty Pleasures of 2011:

I blame Zumba class for getting my endorphines mixed up with pop music. I usually try to avoid pop music. It's increasingly idiotic and performed by talent-deficient individuals. Somehow I end up bopping my head to these tunes despite my disdain...

10. Party Rock Anthem- LMFAO: Despite having a truly ridiculous band name, this song is indeed a party rock anthem. Maybe it was because my zumba class played this song, but it makes me want to jump around every time I hear it. As for the rest of their songs- truly awful, like I-scrunched-up-my-face-in-distaste awful.

9.   Super Bass- Nicki Manaj: I fell for this song mostly because of a little girl, Sophia Grace Brownlee, wearing a pink princess dress and belting it out. Incredible. Also incredible, her little sidekick dancing scarily skanky moves for a small child on the side. Clearly, she's going to be that slutty friend when they grow up.

8.   The One that Got Away- Katy Perry: Make no mistake, there are few current female pop singers that irk me more for lack of talent and brains than Katy. Her songs are horrifically vacuous. So I'm ashamed to admit that this one has made it's way into my head. But it's so cheery and nostalgic. I wonder how Russell feels about this number. 

7.   We Found Love- Rihanna: Oh, Ri-Ri. I hate how you aren't a good singer but magically have taken over the airwaves. Why do I hear your songs every 5 minutes on my XM radio? This song is catchy despite having a total of oh, 20 some words in sum (at best). Why? Why do I listen to it?
6.  Mine- Taylor Swift: I'm totally embarrassed that I like this song. But it's so cute, and she's so sweet and earnest. And it's so catchy. Dammit.
5. Gotta Good Feeling- Flo-Rida: I'll be honest, either the lyrics are nonsensical or I just can catch enough to understand them, but for some reason, this song gives me a good feeling. I'm pretty sure the lyrics don't make a lot of sense. Why does he have a good feeling? What?
4. Give Me Everything- Pitbull: It just sounds so cheery and causes me to bop around. That's all I have to say about it.
3. You Make Me Feel- Cobra Starship: First of all, Cobra Starship?? What does that mean? Why? I'm not sure if the biography on Spotify is supposed to be funny, but it describes the lead singer pondering life and staring at the lights in the night sky until he became catatonic and a cobra come out of nowhere and bit him in the neck. The cobra tells him his purpose in life is to make sure the world goes out in style. WTF. Drugs much? Aside from that weirdness, the female lead is even a step down from Fergie, which is to say, not great. Regardless, in the same way Black Eyed Peas is catchy, this similarly styled group always catches my ear on the radio. In fact, this song is inexplicably in my head as I type. La la lalala.
2. Moves like Jagger- Maroon 5: I've never really been a huge fan of Maroon 5. But the hook to this song with the whistle and guitar riff slays me. And I always love to hear Christina Aguilera rock it.
1. Love You Like a Love Song- Selena Gomez: Oh I have a not-so-secret love of dear Selena. She's just stinkin' adorable and fresh, and she won me over when she played Beezus on Ramona and Beezus. The lyrics to this song are so silly, but are totally something a 17 year old would write for her boyfriend. Even the ridiculous and unnecessary riff in the song doesn't keep me from listening to this song on re-peat-peat-peat-peat.

Reality can be funnier than fiction