Tag: artist

Getting Paid to Go to a 5 SOS Concert (an update on my latest writing adventures)

My Dallas Observer editor gave me two free tickets to go see 5 Seconds of Summer at the House of Blues Thursday. Isn’t that crazy? And I’m getting paid for this, too!

After a lot of going back and forth with publicists and managers, my editor was able to score tickets and let me know about 4 hours before the show that I could go. So I texted my sister. She was excited.

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So within a couple hours we were lining up at the House of the Blues to see one of her favorite bands. (This conveniently doubled up as an early birthday present for her.)

Some things I learned: When your editor tells you your tickets are at “will call,” that just means you’re supposed to ask the ticket booth for your tickets.

Words I actually got to say multiple times that night: “Hi, I’m with the Dallas Observer…” and “Hi, I’m here covering the concert for the Dallas Observer…” does that sound official or what? Granted, I feel like I look like this random 16 year old pretending to be a reporter, so I felt like I had to say things like that to seem more valid. I got a wrist band for “press” and everything!

 

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The concert was a pretty cool thing to do for “work” on a Thursday night.

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I was probably the only one taking notes at a concert, so that was interesting.

My editor wanted me to get the review to her by 10am the next morning, so I stayed up until 1am to finish it so I could just sleep in until my class the next day. Got her done!

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LINKS TO THE STORIES:

Click here for the 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER STORY

(Unfortunately… maybe it’s because I was tired or I’ve never written a concert review before, it looks like my editor made more changes than normal. So if it doesn’t sound like me at some points, that’s why!)

I also have two other new articles out, one about a local neon artist and one about a contestant on Lifetime’s new reality dating show! I watched one of the episodes and it’s actually really interesting, go check it out!

 

A Documentation of My Coffee Shop Obsession

I noticed that when one scrolls down an Instagram feed, there are certain themes. Things that recur and develop a narrative if you stitch up all the matching posts. The development of a relationship, a talent, or an obsession can sometimes be traced in Instagram history.

I decided to document my obsession with coffee and coffee shops by taking screenshots of my personal Instagram account (@isagram.98, wink wink…), and embellishing it with some artwork I’ve posted in my art Instagram account (@artsyrosebud, nudge nudge…) and further decorating it with some random doodles and notes. I made it in a very long format so that one could do the ever-familiar, Insta-esque, scrolling motion.

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the code of friendship

Coding- it’s super daunting. A whole different language that lives right in your computer.

Don’t get me wrong, I still know nothing about coding. Like, absolutely nothing.

But I got introduced to something that looks a lot like coding. Does it count? Maybe not. Either way, it made me feel cool.

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Look at that beauty. I have no idea what any of it means. But my art Professor had us open up a .jpeg image in TextEdit, and that’s what came up. All the little bits of information that the computer uses to make up the picture. Here is the original photo:

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These are 5 of my best friends. We like to think we’re like the TV show “Friends.” (I’m Pheobe, of course.) But that’s all probably for a different blog post.

I took this picture of them a couple weeks back and processed it through VSCO. Then I opened it up in TextEdit to see this random array of letters, numbers and symbols.

This is where the glitch comes in.

My professor taught us how to make glitch art. To mess up images to make cool irregularities.

I started deleting large sections of the code and replacing many parts with the names of my friends typed over and over. For example, here’s Tyler’s section:

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After a while of totally destroying sections of the code, the results were pretty cool.

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the code of friendship

My Favorite Celebrity Covers

When people cover songs from other artists, I think it’s just so cool. I love how you can listen to one song, and then someone new sings it and it can turn into something totally different. Here are a few of my favorites. Enjoy!

(These aren’t in order. I can’t choose favorites.)

  1. Imagine Dragons- Stand By Me

The band performed this at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards. They’ve done some really cool covers, including “Blank Space” by Taylor Swift, if you wanna look that one up. This one I thought was super cool.

2. Boyce Avenue and Bea Miller- We Can’t Stop

Can we just take a moment to appreciate these people’s voices? They’re those kinds of singers that don’t really need to try, they just sound naturally beautiful. Love their take on Miley Cyrus’ song, how they softened it up and made it sound so pretty. And Bea was only 14 at the time!

3. Taylor Swift- Riptide

I love Taylor’s version of Vance Joy’s song, I actually like it better than the original. It’s also refreshing to see her with a piano.

4. Little Mix- Doo-Wop/ Never Leave You (Acapella)

The only thing I love better than a good cover- a good acapella cover. I love it when Little Mix does acapella. It really shows off their talent and individual voices. Little Mix are the winners of the British X-Factor in 2011. They are currently #2 in the charts in the UK with their new album “Get Weird” (which I highly recommend, by the way).

5. Fifth Harmony and Boyce Avenue- Mirrors

This one is also with Boyce Avenue, featuring Fifth Harmony. The blending and harmonizing in this is marvelous. I listen to this version even more than Justin Timberlake’s.

6. Ed Sheeran- Stay With Me

If the sunset had a voice, I’m pretty much it would sound like Ed Sheeran.

7. Birdy- The A Team

I think this one is just beautiful. And her piano- playing skills are incredible! The way she sings this song makes it seem like I’m hearing it for the first time.

That’s all for now, folks! Hope you enjoyed these! Feel free to comment your favorites, or if you have any other cool covers you’d like to share!