Today's Birthday Boys and Girls in the World of Celebrity!

Today, I was inducted into what my friends like to call "The 20's Club". I turned twenty today, and as usual, I don't feel all that different. I feel like I'm still nineteen. Nothing really changes when you hit twenty. Just the first number in your age: it goes from a one to a two.  I guess that thought creeps me out a bit! But today is NOT just my birthday.  There are obviously plenty of other birthdays out there, and I'm going to share some people who are known today that I share a birthday with. Some, I can say I'm honored to share a birthday with.  Others, not so much.

1. Lady Gaga.  This music icon turns 26 today, meaning she's another year older, stranger, and everything inbetween.  Gaga's Little Mosters have been blowing up twitter today, wishing her a happy birthday and wishing her nothing but the best.  Whether you like this woman or not, you cannot deny the fact that she is one talented...monster. She has a wonderful voice, plenty of hits, and she is one of the few people that actually sings during her performances.  No lipsyncing for this diva.  I have plenty of respect for Lady Gaga, and I do wish her nothing but the best for her.  I hope she keeps cranking out hits, and continues to stay as strange and talented as she is.  She along with everyone else knows that that is what makes her so special in the media world today.
2. Vince Vaughn.  Vince Vaughn turns 42, today.  I'm honored to share a birthday with someone as funny and witty as he is.  Everything this man has done has turned into comedy gold.  Movies such as Old School, Dodgeball, and my favorite of all of them: Wedding Crashers.  Vaughn also has some serious roles under his belt as well.  He shows off his acting chops in movies like Into the Wild, The Cell, and The Lost World: Jurassic Park.  I love this Wedding Crasher's speaking voice, too. It's one of a kind, and I'm always able to pick him out without even seeing the screen he resides on.
3. Dianne Weist.  This lovely actress turns 64, today! She's known for movies such as The Lost Boys, A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, Edward Scissorhands, and one of my favorites: I Am Sam.  This woman is so talented, and she is actually a two time academy award winner!

Other names I can add to this list are Reba McEntire, Julia Stiles, Ken Howard, Kate (from John and Kate Plus Eight, unfortunately), and plenty more!  Happy Birthday to all of these individuals, and I hope they enjoy today as much as I'm going to!

The Duke: A Post About My Love For John Wayne.

John Wayne. 

I was asked a question the other day, and it was: Mary, who's your favorite actor? And I didn't really have a hard time answering that question. In fact, I answered it right away with a short and sweet response: The Duke.  And it broke my heart when I had to explain to them who The Duke actually is: the great John Wayne.

John Wayne was an actor whose movies my siblings and I grew up watching because of our dad.  I think I can say that I'm the only one who grew to appreciate it out of the four of us, though.  I just think that the way he portrays his characters in all of his films was just so great.  John Wayne is just so..cool.  And there could be a movie starring him on in a different room that I'm in, but because his voice is so unique, I'm able to tell that it's him.  There wasn't anyone that sounded quite like John Wayne.  He was not like other actors during his time.  He played everything from a soldier at war, to a cool cowboy in the west, to one of my favorite roles and movies ever: him as an American Boxer who finds love in his ancestor's home of Ireland.

That film I last mentioned (him being the American Boxer) is one of my favorite movies: The Quiet Man.  I watch this movie with my dad every year on my birthday, as well as St. Patrick's Day.  This is one of those movies that I never get tired of watching.  I always love taking in the beautiful scenery that Ireland has to offer, and I love the story of it.  I can't wait to get home from classes tomorrow, and watch this classic on my Lazyboy back home (you guessed it! My birthday's tomorrow).

John Wayne is a classic actor, with some classic movies under his belt.  I love everything he did from True Grit, to (obviously) The Quiet Man, to the Searchers, to Island in the Sky, to his last film: The Shootist, and plenty more.  I could watch his movies all day, and I think I just might during the much needed Spring Break that's coming up within the next two weeks.  If you haven't watched any movies with The Duke in them, you should get on that as soon as you can!

Johnny Cash: Greatest Cover Artist of All Time.

Johnny Cash is a man who definitely rocked the world of music, back in the days when Rock n' Roll were still young.  But there are plenty of people out there who neglect the fact that he was just as great before he passed, as he was back in the fifties and sixties.  Johnny Cash was in the game of music for a very long time: all the way up until he died back in 2003.  He came out with some great stuff on his last three albums.  Not only did he write some great music on his own, but he did some beautiful covers as well.  Some of the covers he does make me forget that they're actually just covers.  He makes them very much his own, and he makes me like the songs he covers even more than I already did.

There's actually one song in particular that he did so well, that the band that wrote the song doesn't even play it anymore.  Johnny Cash simply did it better! And when people scream at Nine Inch Nails to do their song Hurt, they respectfully decline.  They too agree that Johnny Cash did it better, and I think that's absolutely incredible that he did that.  Even though he's gone, Nine Inch Nails still refuses to play that song. 

What Johnny Cash does with his covers is something that not a lot of people can do with their covers.  He puts a whole new kind of emotion in it.  It's raw, and he really makes the songs his own.  Mr. Cash definitely knows how to pull at my heart strings with his covers of songs like The Beatles's In My Life, Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water (which he sings with his daughter), and his version of Danny Boy makes me cry like a baby.  You can definitely count on Johnny Cash's later stuff to make you cry, if you need some tears to fall.  Your tears would be caused by a mixture of his music being so beautiful, and being so sad.

Johnny Cash is a man I consider to be underrated by many.  He was (and still is) one of the greatest artists of all time, and shared such a great talent with all of us.  Thank you, Johnny Cash.

This is Johnny Cash's cover of The Beatles hit song, In My Life.  Let the tears fall, guys. It's okay.

Hayoka: Our Newest and Permanent House Guest.

 

 Meet Hayoka, ladies and gents! The newest and cutest of house guests!

 

The Walking Dead Podcast!

This is my first (well, actually 1000038032809523th) attempt at a podcast, after a cold that made me sound like Milhouse from The Simpsons! Enjoy my nerdy rant about TWD!

Musical Cures for a Rainy Day.

For the last couple of days, the weather here in New York has been abnormally nice.  It's actually starting to freak me out a bit, by the way. But today is another story.  It has gone back to the crummy weather that we all have considered normal for this time of year here in the Empire State.  But I have some music suggestions that can turn your rainy day into a sunny one!

1. Dave Matthews Band: This band is just one of those that I can listen to constantly, and it'll make me feel better.  DMB knows how to really mellow me out and make my day just a little bit brighter! They've always been like that. I've liked them since I think Middle School, and I'm now a sophomore in college.  Dave's been one of those bands that I just never stopped liking.  But their tunes are really good to listen to when it rains (at least for me, anyway!).  It helps in making the rain make me feel less sad, putting me into a better mood.  Their music ranges from being really quiet and soothing, to something upbeat and kind of loud.  But all of the tracks in their own way are very soothing.  And I am actually going to be seeing Dave Matthews Band at Jones Beach on the 12th of June, making June an even more exciting month than I thought it was going to be, considering I'm starting it off with Radiohead.  Dave's got a great sound, and rainy or not, I think everyone should give him and his band a listen.  They're so good, and they've been around for quite some time!
2. Jack Johnson: Kind of the obvious one, here! Jack Johnson has one of the most soothing and quiet sounds out there.  He's known for his mellow sound and his extremely mellow persona.  All of his songs have the same calming effect on his listeners.  Everything from Banana Pancakes (which mentions the idea of it raining), Hope, Better Together: they all have a very calming sound to them.  His music as my friends put it is "consistantly mellow", and we all love him for it.  I have the Hawaiian music artist's whole discography on my ipod, and I can listen to just about anything he's created, and I'll be walking through a rainstorm and feel like the sun is shining.
3. Don McLean: I'm going to kick it old school and recommend a man who was from two or three decades ago.  He's the singer of one of the most famous rock songs of all time: "Ms. American Pie".  And there is just one song in particular that I can listen to over and over again, on gloomy days like this.  If you haven't heard the song "Vincent" by Don McLean, you should most definitely get on that. I'll even provide you with the song later on in this post.  The song is about the famous artist Vincent Van Gogh, and it's just five minutes of straight up beauty.  The calmness that overpowers me during this song is insane.  I can honestly say that this song does wonders: it's magical. The moment the first "starry, starry night" comes out, it's an instant feeling.  But there are plenty of other songs that he sings that have an effect similar to that, but none are like that of "Vincent".
4. Eric Whitacre: I'm taking another turn with this man, as well.  Eric Whitacre is a conductor of both chorales and orchestras, and he is a musical genius.  At a young age, this man has been making music for instruments and voices alike.  And as a man who is still young and packed to the brim with so much promise, has already made quite a few masterpieces.  Some of them include "Sleep", "Cloudburst", "Boy & Girl" and "Lux Arumque".  Classical stuff like this isn't for everybody, but you can really count on it to make your day just a little bit brighter.  Here at Hofstra University, the University Chorale has done some of his works and I am honored to sing anything that this man has created.  But I would watch the rain fall as I would listen to his music at home to practice, and the resolve at the end of the songs would actually make me see the sun come out of the clouds. It's pretty awesome.

Now there are plenty of other artists that one can count on to cure a rainy day, but these are the four that really did come to mind.  I plan on listening to them pretty much all day..hoping that this weather will change back to the abnormally beautiful weather that has been bestowed upon us over the last couple of days.

Here's the song I promised. I know that the painting is looking pretty sad, but the song is so beautiful!

June First: The Day My Life Will Change.

As of recently, I learned that I will be starting off the month of June with a very terrific bang! A good friend of mine scored two tickets to one of the hottest shows that I'm pretty sure I will ever be going to within my life time.  I will be seeing the great English natives Radiohead perform at the Prudential Center in New Jersey.  My countdown has already started (SEVENTY FOUR DAYS), and I will continue this countdown until the day finally comes that I see one of the greatest bands to ever exist.

Radiohead formed in the year 1985, seven years before I was born.  The year I was born, 1992 is when they came out with their hit single 'Creep', an anthem for all those who believe they are alone in this world (which actually didn't really become a hit until their first album Pablo Honey debuted months later).  Their second album The Bends which came out three years after that made them famous in the UK, but it's their 1997 album OK Computer that made them known worldwide.  OK Computer is definitely one of the best albums to come out in the 90's because of how much it changed the world of rock, and alternative as well.  The famous English band has come out with five more albums since their 1997 album, their last being The King of Lambs which came out last year in 2011.

Radiohead has been such an influential band in the world of rock for a bit over twenty years now.  Their style and their music is so different from 99% of the music out there, right now.  This band consists of five musical geniuses, including the great Thom Yorke.  This man has such a beautiful mind, and there is a whole lot going on up there as you can see from some of the music that they've come out with over this long period of time.  I admire this band for their individualism, and the fact that they don't change for anybody.  They've stayed true to themselves, and have come out with such great music that they themselves have created for their fans.  My life is defintiely going to change the day I see them, considering they are one of the bands that have changed the way I look and listen to music.

This song Talk Show Host is my favorite song by the English natives. It's a video of them performing it live back in 2003 in Glastonbury.  If I hear this song live, I can assure you: there will be tears. I will wait impatiently for the first of June to come rolling around. I can't wait for the day that I see these musical geniuses perform live before my very own two eyes.

The Walking Dead: A Show With A Season Finale To Die For.

This week's episode of the zombie-tastic series The Walking Dead was most definitely one for the books.  And it's crazy, because I thought that last week's episode was absolutely insane!  I really had no idea how they were going to top last week's episode in terms of shock value, action and drama. But somehow, they totally did! Kirkman & the other makers of the show have done a swell job this season at keeping its viewers on the edge of their seats!  I couldn't be happier with where the show is going.  My mind still can't wrap itself around what has happened on the show over the last two weeks.  Two main characters: dead within two weeks.  I haven't seen this much death of main characters occur on a TV show since ABC's hit series Lost! And next week is the finale, so this season is definitely going to end with a bang based off the preview I saw for it (and based off the last two episodes).

Everyone is saying that their one problem with the show was that there wasn't enough zombie action and too much drama and dialogue.  But within the last three episodes according to Norman Reedus in an interview with Huffington Post, he expresses the people's opinion about the show and informs its fans that it definitely does change.  "It's all fireworks," he says from this point on.   He goes on to say that the people are definitely going to get what they want, and that it's going to be very dark (much more so than the comic books).  And based off of what we've seen, the actor who plays the crossbow wielding redneck has been telling us nothing but the truth! We're all getting exactly what we wish for: more blood, more zombies, more comic similarities.  The last two episodes that have been aired definitely were proof of that.  And the teaser for the season finale is definitely another form of evidence of the show beginning to go down a very gruesome path.  And the fact that this is all happening in the last episodes of Season Two, definitely shows that Season Three is going to be a very interesting experience for the fans of the show and the comics.

The episode from last night ends with a horrific sight. Rick and Carl are standing over a dead & turned member of their group on a eerie moonlit hill, and don't notice the hundreds of walkers slowly approaching the farm that they are all currently occupying. We all knew that this day would come, when the farm that they saw as safe would be overrun by the undead.  We'll all just have to tune in and watch the madness unfold.  All I know now is that I'm basically going to turn into a walker due to my lack of TWD after the finale is over.

Best Friend.

The best friend and I when we were in about 11th Grade.

Francesca Greta Villa-Real Mendoza Cruz Dizon is a twenty year old girl who came here straight from the Philippines when she was about thirteen years old.  She's been my best friend since we were at that age as well.  I'm so proud to have a best friend who has had a life of such interesting twists and turns, and developed such an awesome personality through all the good and bad things she's been through.  I admire her for her openness to plenty of things, and I admire her for so much more.  She's one of my heroes because she has the guts to do what I don't feel like I can.  Francesca helps me so much more than she will every know, and has taught me so much throughout all this time that I have known her.  She's one of the few people that I know that can always make me laugh.  She's someone I know that I can always count on, and someone that will always be there for me.  Everyone has that one person that they

Every month, Francesca and I hit up the Applebee's two towns over on Sunrise Highway for some half off apps to talk about everything and have a couple of laughs. Everything that comes out during our adventure time at Applebee's is just either something absolutely hilarious, or something beneficial and good for both of us to know.  It's our favorite place to be.  The atmosphere is just great, and we have the best of times in there.  It's a tradition that we've kept alive for about three years.  And this was from our most recent visit to the food establishment, where we talked about everything from why Lori isn't dead on The Walking Dead yet, to the fact that she is so proud of her Asian culture that she wanted a picture of herself with the Asian salad in the menu.

I'm never bored with this girl. I haven't been for the last eight years.  Out of all those eight years that I've known her, we have never been in a single fight.  We get each other on a whole other level that people haven't even been to.  I know her like the back of my hand, and it's the same the other way around.  The two of us kind of complete each other, too.  What one doesn't have in terms of personality, the other one does, and together we make one "super-mega-awesome-Asian-Irish package deal", according to the five foot tall girl I call my best friend.  She's truly one of a kind and I'm so happy that I know her.

Engineering an Empire! A Long Island Band, As Well As Some Close Friends of Mine.

These are four boys that are members of a band Engineering an Empire! They all live within three or four blocks from me, and I have known these talented fellows since high school.

My Monday After Classes Were Done: Journalism Photo Assignment.

Got myself some food at Bits.

Visited my old high school. Why? I'm honestly not that sure.

Hung out with the demon known as my dog Shiva.

Played a very long and very intense game of Triopoly. Three levels of Monopoly. Hence, there's triple the intensity!

Had a wonderful time seeing Bjork! What a way to end the longest day of my life!

Björk's Biophilia: A Beautiful Performance by the Icelandic Music Artist.

The Stage of this awesome show (taken with an Iphone, due to the untimely death of my camera).

I had the privilege of seeing the Icelandic Queen (as my sister and I like to call her) do work here in New York in the city's Roseland Ballroom on March 5th.  She went on about an hour late, but she was most certainly worth the wait.  The performance was so magical, and so special and unique.  The other night proved to me once again that Bjork is definitely one of the greatest musical artists of all time.  This show completely blew me away, and I know for a fact that there will never be anything else like it. It was quite the magical experience, and I am so happy that I went.

Biophilia is the Icelandic artist's eighth album that came out last year in October.  It's definitely individualistic and powerful, and very special just like she is.  Something different about this album that she came out with is that half of it was actually made on an Ipad, believe it or not.  She even has a series of apps out, which gives people the ability to see not only how her songs were made, but you too can make your own music.  The project itself teaches people about music, and nature and how the two coincide.  The concept of it is so beautiful, and the music is absolutely stunning.

The concert was very unique, in the way that it was set up.  As you can see from my picture, the stage was small, and it was circular.  It made the show rather intimate, which is something very special.  And the way the venue was set up, made it so that there was not a single bad seat in the house. Everyone was able to see her artist and the choir that sang with her along with the instrumentalists that played along with her.

The show also consisted of a lot of visuals from the apps themselves. They were presented on eight projector screens above the stage in a circle.  The visuals were so beautiful, and they were nothing like anything I have ever seen, and it blended so well with the music.

The night that I saw the performance was the last night she was in New York, and it was my first concert of the year. I'm so glad that this year started off with such a terrific bang! Get out there, buy the album (and obviously listen to it), and the app for a good time and a very memorable experience.

This is one of the songs off Biophilia, and definitely one of my favorites that she performed the whole night: Crystalline.

The Walking Dead: A Tribute To The Symbol of "Humanity" and The Importance of Daryl Dixon.

Dale Horvath: What was left of the group's humanity.

If you didn't watch last night's episode, please just stop reading, and WATCH THIS EPISODE! I don't want to ruin anything for you, for I am pretty sure absolutely no one saw the last ten minutes of the most previous episode coming, at all! So it is with great sadness, I must take this time out to have a moment of silence for the late elder man filled with wisdom and a heart of gold: Dale Horvath.  Dale was taken in a very gory way just the other night.  It broke my heart, and made my brain cry.  It's going to be very strange watching the show without such a wonderful character that Jeffrey DeMunn did such an awesome job portraying.  Dale was definitely one of my favorites characters on the show because he kept his kind heart in the crappy world that they live in.  Sunday Night was one of the saddest moments (for me, anyway) in television history.  My family was left in shock and sadness as we all watched the show together like we do every Sunday.  Dale was not only one of my favorites, but he was a family favorite as well.  However, his kind heart, unfortunately, was in a way, what got him killed in the first place.  

This episode showed a very compassionate and very brave side to Daryl.  The very last minute of the show, Daryl calmly moves Rick out of the way, taking and works up the courage to put poor Dale out of his misery.  Dixon gives Dale a 'sorry brother' and pulls the trigger on the elder man we all loved so much.  Dale being gone (to me at least), is symbolizing the death of humanity in the group, as we know it.  It was like killing Simon in the famous Lord of the Flies, I think.  Rest in peace, Dale Horvath. Whenever I see bucket hats, now..you will surely be the first thing that comes to mind.

Daryl Dixon: The loveable bad ass with the good intentions.

Seeing this side of Daryl adds on to why he's my favorite character on the show, and one of the best characters in anything that's on TV, right now! Daryl Dixon has grown so much on The Walking Dead, and everyone has grown some sort of soft spot for the bad ass cross-bow wielding redneck.  In fact, Daryl has become such a great character on the TV show, that he's getting written into the comic books. That's a pretty big deal.  Actor Norman Reedus (plays Daryl Dixon, and happens to be my favorite actor) was a huge contributor to the development of this character, along with the maker & writer of the series, Mr. Robert Kirkman and the other makers of the show.  Reedus' character is so complex, and he says so himself: "he's the kind of person that you just want to give a hug, but if you try, he'll try and stab you."  You get all of this from Dixon, with the help of how Norman Reedus portrays him.  When the show first started, you only see the mean side of Dixon: he's only out to help himself and his brother.  But as time goes on, you see that he needs the group just as much as they need him.  He is such a significant part of their group now, and such a big deal on the show

One can see throughout the show that Daryl has the strength to do what the majority of the group is afraid to.  He goes out on his own to hunt, he went out on his own to look for Sophia, he put a member of their group out of their misery.  Daryl is slowly rising up as one of the leaders of the group.  Dixon went from being this redneck in their group that no one wanted to even come towards, to this brave man that people can rely on.  They look to Daryl for protection, and they're starting to care for him, and warm up to him even more.  Also, you see that Daryl is starting to warm up to the group. You see that he cares, and it's easy to see that he just wants what's best for everyone. He may not come off the right way in showing it, but everyone knows that his intentions are for the greater good of those around him.  And I might be making a big deal out of this, but I think the fact that Daryl called the men of the group "my boys" was kind of a big deal.  He feels like one of them, now and he sees that he's being embraced in a way that's good.  Watching Dixon grow like he has is one of my favorite things about not only the show itself, but of anything I've watched on television. 

There are plenty more reasons as to why Daryl Dixon is such a wonderful part of this show, and I don't think it's possible to write them all in one post.  He's my favorite character on this show, and definitely someone I would want on my side in a zombie apocalypse. Hell, he should be just about everyone's number one pick! He'll keep you safe, he'll get you food, and he's very easy on the eyes (of course that third one is the least important of those three, but it's nice).

Although episode was definitely one of the saddest. With death comes life, in the way that as a result of Dale's fatal attack, Daryl stepped up to take on the task of dealing with it.  This moment in Walking Dead history resulted in Daryl showing that not only does he care, but that he has the potential to be a great leader.