Tales of a Restaurant Kitchen Worker: Part Two

It's a dangerous world out there. I didn't know how dangerous until I started working with industrial size Hobart mixers. Sure, I love me a good KitchenAid stand up mixer, they come in handy with practically every baking recipe, but believe it or not folks, size does indeed matter.

Okay, so I didn't exactly have a bad run in battle with a giant bread dough mixing machine, but I got a bruise on my knee and a few good scratches on my hands. I work in the bakery department of a state-wide franchise pizza place, which means I basically make everything except the bread and pizza dough. Cookies, crab, jell-o, and pasta salads, a variety of calzone fillings, two kinds of pies, chocolate mousse, apple crisps, etc. All from scratch. I actually very much enjoy my job, because I like cooking, and for some reason I'm a fan of continuous cycles of activity, i.e. doing a small task over and over and over for a good half hour or so. Like portioning 8 ounces of an Italian calzone filling into a small plastic bag...25 times. I find enjoyment in the little things in life. There's generally a logical reason for the enjoyment, but sometimes I just simply like the repetition.

Anyway, I was cleaning the smaller of the two giant mixers the other morning after making a raspberry jell-o salad, and whilst wiping the machine free of pink splatters, the metal gate/splatter shield fell off the machine and onto my leg. Perhaps I should let you know i was kneeling on the ground, or else the previous statement doesn't make any sense.

I ended up with a lovely welt, relatively the size and color of a plum. It's slowly fading, but still. I haven't been that bruised for a while, it was odd to know that it came from a kitchen accident.

The moral of the story, folks, is that there is danger everywhere...I just didn't expect it to come after me in the form of a Hobart mixer.

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That was my attempt at writing something different for once. Still all about me, but a different take on me, I guess.

Later days.

Song of the Day: "Bring It On Down" by Missing 23rd

Show of the Day: Bones

On the Road Again

I'm looking forward to my drive to California on Tuesday morning. Long drives alone are good for thinking. And also for good music listening, which generally helps out the thinking process. In my opinion, anyway.

I haven't done a long drive alone since September, but I'm excited to go again. I''ll be making up some playlists tonight and tomorrow in preparation. And also doing a lot of laundry.

I don't really have much else to say.

I'll take pictures and such, I'm sure, perhaps even some video.

Wish me luck and a safe drive!

Later days.

Song of the Day: "Sailing To Nowhere" by Broken Bells. The Shins + Gnarls Barkley = Broken Bells. For the most part.

Leave Your Home, Change Your Name

[Keep in mind that this is just my opinion. I listen to and enjoy much more music than that which I reference in this post.]

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how awesome music is? I mean, I know I'm a total music nerd, and as I've said before, in no way do I think of myself as an all-knowing music buff, but I am passionate, and I think that's the most important part.

I realize that I just wrote a music post a couple weeks ago, but I feel like I didn't quite express my love for the beautiful stuff as much as review and recommend a few artists.

I can't read music. Well, actually, I can, but it takes me way too long to sight read, and I just don't like doing it. I like sounds, not symbols. I may regret not learning how to further advance my skills in reading music in the future, but for now, I am quite content with tabs and sounding out things by ear.

I owe a lot of my 80s music knowledge to my mom. Singing songs from Into the Gap by Thompson Twins is one of my favorite childhood memories. And dancing along to "Rio" by Duran Duran when I was little. I'm so glad that I still have most of those tapes and records in my possession now. Scritti Politti, The Smiths, Depeche Mode, Talking Heads...she had good taste. Same with other music genres: Steel Pulse is still one of my favorite reggae bands to this day.

It's a surprise that I didn't know who Led Zeppelin was when I entered high school.

I never was brought up on classic rock, but I quickly learned, and immersed myself in the fantastic tunes, perhaps too much at times. That led into my love of hard core punk rock, and then into my punk phase during my sophomore year of high school, which I do not regret one single bit. How I do miss the local punk shows and mosh pits...but I digress.

Throughout my punk phase, I learned of something called indie rock: I surrounded myself with Rilo Kiley, The Shins, Death Cab, Tegan and Sara, the works. Probably still my favorite type of music to this day. Regardless of how much I love The Doors, I will choose Rogue Wave over "Crystal Ship" any day. Though perhaps not over "The End". My point is, I love the feel good sounds of The National more often than the acid trip sounds of "Dazed and Confused". I want to hear listen to Tegan & Sara's The Con on repeat for 2 weeks straight, intertwined with some Eisley and Now, Now Every Children.

But that doesn't mean I don't have my Taylor Swift and Jason Mraz moments.

I love music. I love lying on my back on the floor of the empty room next to mine in the basement, doing nothing but letting the sounds of Iron and Wine wash over me. Every once and a while, I tear up when I listen to "Passenger's Seat" by Death Cab.

I was once asked by a friend of mine what sense I would rather lose if I had to pick: Sight or Hearing. I said sight. Sure, I can be moved to tears by the sight of a beautiful piece of art or a film shot, but try watching Amelie or City of God without the sound. It is nothing without the music to guide it.

I'll leave you with that.

Later days.

Song of the Day: "Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks" by The National, from their High Violet album. Perhaps my favorite of the year so far. That I've heard anyway.

Film of the Day: Bottle Rocket (1996). I'm in the middle of it. Love it so far. Also, Inception just came out about 35 minutes ago. Probably seeing it tomorrow in between work shifts if possible.

I have no ideas for a catchy title today.

Believe it or not, I've been busy lately. Not like 'omgz i have no time for anything', but I have been more busy than I generally tend to be, which is saying a lot since it's summer and I spend way too much of my time on the interwebs.

This next week is going to be a little crazy. I'm actually kind of nervous about it, which is weird, but it's probably because I haven't had to do so much in one week for several months now \, so I'm just freaking out a little bit internally.

Anyway, I work everyday except Wednesday, and I'm closing dish 3 of those nights, which I'm NOT looking forward to, seeing as it is probably the worst job within the food service industry. As for opening in the bakery in the mornings, I'm getting a lot faster at everything and have most of the recipes committed to memory now, so things are going a lot more smoothly in that department.

It's still incredibly hot here in southern Utah, and I am still not used to it.

I really want to go to Zion sometime soon, but I don't see that happening for at least another two weeks, after I get back from Salt Lake City for Jen's wedding.

Oh, I'm going to SLC for a wedding in a week and a half. I'm so excited! I haven't been up there since last September for my birthday, and I haven'y even seen Jen or Shannon or Bre or Lindsey for over a year now. It's insane. I've missed my Weber buddies.

Speaking of college, I am excited for school to start up again next month. I'm taking 19 credits, which is kind of a lot, especially for me, considering I haven't ever taken more than 13 at once before in the last 2 years. In any case, I'm excited. A little nervous, but excited nonetheless.

I'll be taking American Civilization (basically US History), Human Development (... psychology? Or close to it), Elements of Grammar (yay English major classes), Intermediate Ceramics (I've missed the wheel...), Beginning Spanish II (me gusta mucho), and Communication Design, which is just a the very basic starting course for anyone interested in Graphic Design. Of which I am. So. There we go.

I've been playing guitar a lot more lately, not really writing so much as practicing and improving. Or trying to at least. I have motivation to do so lately, so I'm just going to roll with it.

But I did write a song last week that I really like. It's called Weird Kids, and I would really like to expand on it a bit more, though the chorus is pretty set.

Okay, I need to head off to sleep.

Later days.

Song of the Day: "Lipstick" by Lemuria

Film of the Day: Good Will Hunting

Also, Inception comes out next week! Stoked. And check out the trailer for Let Me In, it looks pretty awesome, and not just because Chloe Moretz is in it.

I Don't Care About The Car - a music suggestion post

This is definitely a music post. As I'm sure you know (at least if you've read a few of my posts) how much I love music. I wont get into that again. Not now, anyhow.

Anyway, I am so incredibly grateful to have such a passion for music, and the motivation to actually search for new bands and artists to listen to on a daily basis.

Right now, I'd basically just like to inform anyone reading this of a few bands to look at now and search for in the future, because I think that they could be legendary (or close to it), regardless of whether or not they make it to the "mainstream" music scene, so to speak. In no way do I consider myself as a professional music critic or anything, but I do believe I have good taste in music. So there's always that.

Now, Now Every Children

I heard about this group a few months ago but never really gave them a listen until last week, and then an even better listen last night. My favorite songs by them are Cars and the acoustic version of In My Chest, both available for a listen on their MySpace, which I've linked, just in case you didn't click on it already.

Not only do I love Cacie's voice (the lead singer...obviously), but just the overall sound of their music is something you don't hear everyday, which is always refreshing. They are fantastic in my mind, and a real inspiration to me, as a musician and otherwise.

Now for the faster, more dancy-ish stuff.

Unicorn Kid

I found this guy thanks to the Talk To Animals MySpace (I'll mention more about that down below..), and within the first 3 seconds of every one of his songs, my mind was completely blown by the catchy, awesome, dare I say it, amazing, dance/techno/electronica tunes. I haven't really found out yet for sure, but I believe it's just one person, and I think he's around my age, seeing as he's still in school. But regardless, he has a great talent for making great music to move to.

Unicorn Kid does a remix of a Talk To Animals song (available for a listen on his MySpace, as is linked above). Talk To Animals is pretty cool too, especially if you're kind of into the indie/hipster music scene. Which I guess all of these artists are for you in that case. They're all a bit different of a sound than what society as a whole is used to listening to, that's for sure. But that as very rarely a bad thing in my opinion. Anyway, they are definitely good for dancing to as well. And we all know (well maybe not all of us) how much I love to dance.

I think I may be a bit late to jump on this bandwagon, but Paper Route has recently found it's way into my life as well. Good tunes, for sure.

Also, Fun. has been on a few of my playlists as of late. Their last album, Aim and Ignite, is quite good. I love their sound, [just about] all of their songs are so catchy. The guitarist of Fun., Jack Antonoff, is also the singer for Steel Train, who just released a great album themselves.

As mentioned in one of my last posts, Sleigh Bells is just another one of many artists that has become a part of my musical life. They are definitely different, and may take some getting used to. Just don't cast them out right away if you aren't sure about their sound. I didn't like them at first, then I listened to them again a few weeks later and fell in love with their chaotic, good sounding noise. And then proceeded to almost blow the speakers in my car because they have so much bass in their songs and I have crappy sound in my car.

Let me know what you think of these artists! Be sure to give them all a listen, or at least listen to some of one song from each of them, yeah?

Happy listening, and later days.

Sugar On the Asphalt

Instead of watching the Mexico game right now, I'm sitting in my basement/room listening to Jimmy Eat World's first album and waiting for my laundry to dry. But aparrently Mexico is losing, so I'm not too bummed about missing it.

In 15 minutes I'm going to a work BBQ/party thing for Brick Oven. That should be...interesting. I'll just leave it at that.

Really, this post is kind of pointless.

Though I would like to say that I'm excited for Wrockstock in November. And on that note, I wish I could record my songs with more legit equipment than my one cheap condenser mic, ridiculously complicated and ghetto software, and classical guitar. But, alas, life is not always fair. unfortunately. But why can it not be??

I ask myself that all the time.

I suppose everything is possible, right? Perhaps the possibilities have just yet to present themselves in my life. Hopefully.

Okay, I'm going to go on a short tangent.

I want to play music. I don't care if I get played on the radio or only have a small group of fans or something, but I want to record an album with someone who can actually produce it, and I want to tour the US and Canada, at the very least. I think this has always been a suppressed dream of mine, in the sense that I've always thought it was a neat idea but I never saw it as an ideal thing to do.

But I have recently changed my mind.

I realize it's kind of a big ambition, but I've got the time, I'm only 19. I just want to live my life to the fullest, however cliche that may sound. But it's the truth.

Hmm. I need a drum set.

Later days.

Song of the Day: "Bleed American" by Jimmy Eat World

fact: The things I get the most compliments on are my purple jeans and blue watch. I'd like to thank Target for this.

Dance Dance Dance

Okay folks. Confession time.

I know for a fact that I'm not the only one who does this, but it's still weird to admit.

I dance. A lot. I know, I know. It's ridiculous, right? But I do, and I've even found that the times I dance the most are when I'm by myself.

I don't know if it's just because I feel more comfortable that way or what, but it's been getting out of hand, people. Whenever I cook/bake, I like to turn on music to listen to, and even when it isn't dance-type music, I dance to it. In the kitchen. While baking.

I dance when I clean my room to, which actually isn't too often, but still. Or when I'm bored, I dance.

In all seriousness though, I love dancing, even if I look like a total idiot. Though...no one is usually around to confirm that, so I could perhaps be an incredibly amazing dancer, who knows?

I'm not sure how many of you actually read my blog, but if you do you you know that I designate a "Song of the Day" every time I put up a new post. So here's my question to you: What is your song of the day? I want to know what you all are listening to. So leave a comment telling me what you're hearing, or what you wish you were hearing, or what your favorite thing to hear is.

Good night, and later days.

Song of the Day: "Crown On The Ground" by Sleigh Bells. This band is pretty darn unique. I like to describe it as good sounding noise. If you listen to it you'll know what I mean. Also, it is very much an acquired tasted, in fact, the first time I heard it I was kind of like, "What the hell is this", so be warned.

fact: I am legally blind without my contacts or glasses.