THE SCIENTIST

The Scientist by Coldplay is my favorite song. I still remember the first time I heard it—My cousin Jessica was living with us when I was little and I idolized her. She was always so patient with me. When I was in San Francisco last week, on the first day of the trip, we went to an outlook high in the hills to see the Golden Gate Bridge. If you walked through a concrete tunnel, you emerged with a different view, this time of rolling California hills and the ocean/bay (don't ask me haha).

I was having a rough day in general and was beginning to wonder why I even spent all that hard-earned money and went on the trip in the first place. I needed a little space so I headed for the tunnel to check out the views on the other side. That's when I heard this. (see video) I talked to the girls afterwards—they lived nearby and just spontaneously came to sing in the tunnels. They sang a couple other songs until the sun set and it got dark, including La Vie En Rose. Anyway, it wasn't spontaneous, it was inspired (tender mercy). I really needed to hear that song at that moment.

Another beautiful cover of The Scientist is Natasha Bedingfield's. I love it so, so much.

Fake Spring Break, CA Style

For the last week, some members of the BYU photo program and I escaped Provo and headed to greener, warmer pastures—specifically San Francisco and Los Angeles. It was a wonderful experience but I'm happy to be in the airport as I type this, getting ready to board my flight back to Salt Lake City. It was just what I needed. We visited photographers in their studios and made a lot of time for playing. More on all that later. For now, I give you a simple little video. It may be far from perfect but it makes me happy and that's enough.

Michael Bublé: Incredibly Talented & Unexpectedly Hilarious

 

"COFFEE FOR EVERYONE after the show!!! ...I was this close. I almost got you!"

"[To the string section] How many of you are Mormon? [About 1/2 raise their hands] Oh my gosh, wait. [To the audience of 10,000] How many of YOU are Mormon? ...I feel so left out."

"Most of you are proof that you don't need alcohol to have fun after all!"

"[Translating a Spanish sign to English] I love your fat baby that loves cake... Oh! I love you like your fat baby loves cake! That makes more sense."

"[After he went on a tangent and had 10,000 people sing the 83 year-old Phyllis 'Happy Birthday'] ...So I'm not really sure how that transitions into songwriting because I didn't write 'Happy Birthday'. Whatever. It's a crap song anyway."

My only regret is not getting any video footage of "All You Need Is Love."

My favorite part of the show (besides Cry Me A River & All You Need Is Love) was at 7:53 in the video when he sings through the evolution of the song Everything. All I can say is, can he release the first draft too? I love it!!

Also, for the encore, he came back out in a sequined tuxedo jacket. It was awesome. He actually sang quite a few more numbers which I'm convinced were not necessarily on the set list. He brought 5 kids on stage to sit next to him and sing "You've Got a Friend in Me" and no one would dance with him. The little girl sitting next to him wouldn't even look at him—it was probably the highlight of his night when he got her to give him a high five when he finished the song. "I finally won you over!"

I was simply blown. away. at the end of the show. I was literally in the back row of the farthest end of the stadium. He 'shhhed' everyone until there was silence and got rid of his mic, in-ear monitors, everything. AND THEN HE SANG WITHOUT ANY SPEAKERS. I'm convinced he's not human. I could hear him perfectly in the back row.

If you can go to a Bublé show, do it! It's the best performance I've ever been to.

Early Morning At The Salt Flats

Such a good day. Super imperfect and yet still beautiful. Just the way I like it.

Woke up at 5 and saw the sun rise. I think I'll make that a regular part of my routine—it was so peaceful.

I'll admit it; Utah sunrises are unreal.

Lumineers, I Love You!

"It's like we're being reverse serenaded!" — Emily, in response to the last-minute balcony stage

 

 

The Saltair is the worst. I won't go into it, but because of their poor management skills (proven repeatedly to us throughout the night), The Lumineers only got to preform about 5 songs before they were interrupted and the show was abruptly ended because of 'inclement weather'. Do not let that be a reflection on the Lumineers. They were incredible.  It ended too soon. Come back to Utah!!

"I literally just proposed to a man over instagram, Liz!" 

Concrete Jungle Where Dreams Are Made Of

We love NY. See ya in December!

Our Cousins Came To Visit

A weekend with our little cousins.

Memorial Day at the Zoo!

A fun day spent with family—the cutest little cousins (once removed).

Opus 36 & Some April Flowers

I filmed this last Friday. I had gotten out of school early only to come home and watch the news for hours and hours because of the crazy manhunt going on all day and night in Boston. After a long time I just decided to go outside with my camera to give my mind a break:

PS:

I was about to make excuses about how this isn't a very good quality video at all, and that I just made it on a whim, etc. But then I realized, who cares? So it's not jaw dropping. So it's a little shakey. So there's annoying fibers on my camera sensor that show during the whole thing. (I'm getting it cleaned this weekend, phew!) Who cares? Eh, this is me, learning to not apologize for things not being as 'perfect' as I had planned. 

PPS:

The music is Opus 36, from the movie Marie Antoinette. No copyright infringement intended.

It's February, People!

In honor of Valentine's Day, I put together a little video. 

Because I associate holidays with treats. And I love love.

They're Funfetti cupcakes, of course! My frosting skills could use a little work, I guess...

I came across this cake yesterday, and by the looks of it, it could be a game changer.

it's a new year!

i made another video! 

i had a lot of fun during the break, but as much as i hate to say it, i think it might be kind of nice to return to a sort of routine and schedule. ...there's something about nothing on the calendar leading to exhaustion and lethargy even though i got way more sleep than i usually do while school is in session!

here's to 2013! june (and february!!) suddenly seem a lot closer just because it's suddenly january.

xo - hope you had a wonderful break as well!

balboa island, newport beach, LA, etc.

now presenting: our california vacation!!

even though it's not perfect, i love it. and i'm so happy i captured these moments on camera, that we would've forgotten.

like at the very end: i had just finished asking my little cousin ethan if he was scared of the haunted mansion and of course he replies "no!!". but two seconds later when he jumped three feet in the air might suggest otherwise. ;)

and my personal favorite moment: everyone dying of laughter at the disneyland "jedi training," when of course my cousin jackson gets a little too crazy when defending himself from darth vader.

thanks for watching!! let me know what you think!

(500) days inspired

this is just a fun little video i made when we were in LA at angel's knoll park. a la (500) days of summer. it's exciting to see yourself making progress, after looking back at where you were a year or even a few months ago. yay!

 (more videos coming soon! i'm really proud of the next one i'm going to share and how it turned out. but for now, an afternoon at the park will suffice!)

a little video, for you

today i threw together a quick little stop-motion style in honor of how ridiculous it feels running across the yard for self portraits:

someone asked me how i take them. two things:

1) trial and error. mostly error.
2)i set the self timer to 10 seconds and have it take ten exposures at my manual settings.

enjoy!

side note: you might want to leave the screen small for this one. i'm not sure what it is, but i'm getting really annoyed with blogspot's terrible quality lately..... ugh.

(ps let me know what you think of the video! the first of each group of 10 {aka each round of self timer} is in black to give perspective. also the music is mah homegirl, taylor swift.)