Atole

I've been trying to finish up some posts but it's been really hard. Mostly, because ever since I started, all I wanna do is listen to Fantasía Pop or watch weird videos with Melissa. Now, Melissa is home for her sister's wedding and I am all alone. I've spent my time crying and writing letters to Korean popstars that sound something like: Dear Big Bang & 2NE1, Please come to the US. Come play a show near Philly so that I can charm you, become best friends with you/marry one of you... just kidding guys! I don't write letters like that! I just proofread the ones Melissa writes and make sure she uses at least 3 of the 10(?) Korean words we know.


ANYWAY, the weather hasn't been so nice lately. It's rainy and gross and I don't like it. Mostly because I don't own the right clothes/shoes for this weather and because I also no longer have an umbrella. I also don't like rain because I hate when it gets on my glasses. Life is hard. What I do like about the weather is that it's been getting a little colder. That makes me happy because I love cold weather! When it starts to get colder I always begin to crave things like soup and one of my favorite things ever: ATOLE.


I really just love Atole. It's basically this drink made from cornstarch and a bunch of good stuff. You can make different flavors on your own or just buy packages that you just add milk and sugar too. Now, I'm not gonna lie, I kinda love the Maizena Strawberry atole. It is totally not as good as homemade stuff but it's pink and I've loved it since I was teeny tiny and I can't help liking it. I even noticed that they changed the shade of pink this summer when I made it at home. Seriously, it's different. Other than that though, I have real favorites. One of them is my mother's guayaba atole. It is perfect. I am not joking, it is really that good. Everyone in my house loves it and this summer we kept asking her to make more. Sadly, my mom has other things to do besides make atole, so sometimes she'd say no. Once I tried to make it and it really just didn't turn out as delicious. Sad.


My other favorite kind of atole is champurrado. It is all cinnamon-y and chocolate-y and full of all this really great stuff. It's delicious. And it goes so well with tamales! I am sad that I haven't found a good place for tamales in Philadelphia. In Chicago, or in Mexico, there is always someone selling tamales and atole on the street, and that's usually the best champurrado ever. Seriously. Sipping champurrado from styrofoam cups and devouring warm tamales on the street is on my list of favorite things.

Some of my other favorite flavors are tamarindo and nuez. There are tons of flavors though and you can basically make atole out of anything you think might be good. I've also heard tons of really funny/cute Mexican proverbs with atole in them. Oh, atole, I miss you! Okay, now I am just sad that I don't have any atole or tamales. I am going to go back to reading my paper for the 900th time.

Love, María

Belanova

I had a really horrible day and I thought I was going to cry for 90% of it. BUT I made it to all my classes! And now I am sipping lemonade in my room and writing a blogpost, so that must mean things are looking up. Sometimes, I really just want to listen to Mexican pop music because it makes me feel better. Or it just makes me want to sing along. That's one of the reasons why I like Belanova. They aren't the best band ever or anything, but I really like them. I've wanted to write this post for a long time but I kept stopping. Now that I'm actually writing a post about them, I decided that I'll just write a post that's mostly about their last album, Fantasía Pop, or else this blog post would be way too long.

Belanova is a Mexican electropop group. I first started listening to them after I saw them on TV all the time. I remember one of their videos would play all the time when we were in SLP visiting my grandparents one year. At home, we only have cable so that we can get like 1000 channels in Spanish. This is mostly because without these channels we wouldn't get to watch Mexican soccer, and I don't know what would happen then. Because everyone in our house knows that there is no talking if the soccer game is on, it's sick. Anyway, because we get 1000 channels in Spanish and a lot of these are music channels, I sometimes watched them when I was getting ready. Belanova was on ALL THE TIME. So, it was pretty inevitable that I just continued to listen to them.

Fantasía Pop is so good because I can listen to it all the time and never get sick of it. It was released in 2007, and ever since then, it's been on my computer and I play it when I feel like listening to really good pop songs. The first song I ever heard by them isn't on this album, it's called "Por Ti" and I could dance to that song all the time. I have been listening to it all day and I am not sick of it. The girls next door probably are though.

My favorite song on Fantasía Pop is definitely "Vestida De Azul" it is just so perfect. Some people think it sounds like a Julieta Venegas song. Maybe, maybe not. Denisse's voice is just so cute and almost squeaky sometimes. It makes me happy. "Dulce Fantasía" is also really good, when she sings "sabes que me duele no encontrarte/sabes que es dificil que ya no estás" my heart kinda breaks. "Rockstar" is so electropoppy and has clapping and silliness. "Bye Bye" is what I listen to sometimes when I'm putting clothes away. It is all "my life is so hard!" but also really dancey. Also, all the lyrics in "Cada Que..." are perfect pop song lyrics like "y cada que pienso en ti/se enciende mi corazón/y nada es más triste que hoy/hablar de ti" how sad! I even like "Toma Mi Mano" which isn't upbeat but is still really good.

The video for "Baila Mi Corazón" is probably the best video they've ever done. It is just completely precious. I like it better than the video for "Por Ti" simply because look at all those pretty colors! Denisse is so cute! And everything looks like it's made out of paper, kewl. I just wish I was precious enough to wear those teeny tiny cutesy outfits. I just want to have a cute little band!

Now I'm sure that A LOT of people really hate Belanova. Sometimes people think they are annoying, or just not very good, well, I just don't agree. They are so precious that I can't not love them. They are silly and poppy and heartachey and cute. Okay, maybe a tad bit annoying, but that's not totally a bad thing. So if you don't like them, sucks for you. And if you just want to listen to some precious Spanish pop songs, go listen to them now!

Love, María

PS: I knew this blogpost was gonna be too long. Sorry, guys!

Andrew Bird w/ St. Vincent at the Electric Factory

On Sunday night, Maggie, Zanny, and I went to Andrew Bird's concert at the Electric Factory in Philly! It was pretty awesome. I have really wanted to go to another Andrew Bird concert ever since I saw him back in January/February (I can't remember which month it was, because it was either right at the end of January or the very beginning of February), and the fact that he is now touring with St. Vincent gave me a reason to go.


St. Vincent played all of the songs we wanted her to play ("Now, Now," "The Strangers," and "Actor Out of Work"), and obviously Andrew Bird was just as precious as he always is and did a lot of that adorable little head-shake/nod thing he does all the time. But probably the best part was when he brought St. Vincent and her band all back on stage and they played the most amazing version of "Scythian Empires," complete with flutes and clarinets and tons of adorableness.

I know I have a lot of friends who think that Andrew Bird is their perfect man and that they are going to marry him (at least four), but it was just really obvious that Andrew Bird and Annie Clark are totally in love. Before he had her come back out on stage to play "Scythian Empires," he made this little speech about how this has been the best tour ever because he gets to hang out and "jam" with Annie, and then for the encore, he brought out St. Vincent again, and they played "Marry Me" together while totally staring at each other. She may as well have changed the lyrics to "marry me, Andrew." So, sorry everyone. They are probably going to get married and have tons of super-skinny, musically gifted babies.

Love, Jillian

Food Porn Daily

Okay, I know what you are thinking, and that is that anything with "porn" in its name totally does not belong on Flower Farm. But, you are wrong. When Anisha first showed it to me, I wasn't sure if writing a post about this website was appropriate for Flower Farm because the food that is mostly involved falls into the non-precious food category (i.e. it does not involve pink frosting and sprinkles). Then I realized that 1) this website is too good to NOT write about it, and 2) there are totally pictures of tiny little desserts and cupcakes on the website, so it totally qualifies as adorable.

Red Velvet Cake w/ Cream Cheese Frosting

The website I am talking about is Food Porn Daily, and it is basically the most perfect website I have ever seen in my life. Every day, a new, giant, beautiful photograph of delicious food is posted. That's it. You can click on each picture to see the picture from the day before it, and other than submitting a photo of your own, that is all you can do. And why would you want to do anything else?! Their motto is "click, drool, repeat," and that is exactly what I did for at least an hour last night after coming back from the gym.

Because I have already been through every picture of every delicious dish on Food Porn Daily, I will share with you some of my favorites that I stole (yes, I save my favorite pictures on my computer, so what?).

Potato, Leek, Spinach & Bacon Soup

Moist Delicious Pumpkin Pie w/ Whipped Cream

Caprese Salad Skewers

Fried Green Tomato, Crimini, Mache, Poached Egg & Mustard-Basil Creme Fraiche

Aren't you so hungry now?! But aren't you also so glad that beautiful, delicious, perfect food like this exists?! I guess sometimes I forget that, because even though our dining halls are not too bad, they are nowhere near as wonderful as these things. Every time I look at this website, it only enhances my constant and intense cravings for things like corned beef, bacon, chorizo, and poached eggs. Apparently, I do not have enough protein in my diet. But Food Porn Daily will kind of help me out (or make me crazy) by reminding me of all the wonderful things I will be able to make in my adorable kitchen when I get an adorable apartment!

Love, Jillian

Big Bang Ice Cream Video

Normally, I wouldn't share any of the crazy Korean videos we are weirdly in love with. But, c'mon, this is full of really cute things like ice cream and pretty clothes. Plus, I might just not care because I'm really distracted by all the pretty pastel colors.



I don't think I need to say anything else.

Love, María

Jonathan Johansson

All I have been able to listen to lately is Swedish music. Something amazing/terrible happened to my brain when María, Melissa, and I went to see Asobi Seksu with Anna Ternheim and Loney, Dear at Johnny Brenda's on Saturday night, and ever since then I feel incomplete if there is not Swedish music in the background of my life. I am not even exaggerating, I stayed up until after three last night just because I didn't want to have to be asleep and not be able to consciously listen to Swedish music anymore.

I blame this on the fact that while we were trying to buy time at Honey's before going back out in the freezing rain to walk the ten-ish blocks to the show, I drank three full cups of coffee and caffeine does really weird things to me, especially when I haven't had it in a long time. But it is also due to the fact that Swedish pop is the sweetest, most perfect and precious and heartbreakingly adorable music to ever exist!


A really great example of this is Jonathan Johansson. For now, I've been able to listen to his album En hand i himlen for free, but I'm pretty sure that Last.fm only lets you listen to things for free so many times, and I've already listened to the album three times today. It is just so perfect that I can't stop! I think that this one review of some Swedish band I read put it perfectly when they said that the melodies and music in Swedish pop all fit together so perfectly, but the songs also sound so delicate that even if you only changed one note, you feel like the song would just break like a tiny little glass figurine.

Even though I can't understand anything he is saying, Jonathan Johansson's songs make me feel all sorts of warm and fuzzy and heartbreaking feelings! En hand i himlen even made me laugh when I first realized that "Alla vil ha hela världen" is definitely a cover of Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." "Sent för oss" is dance-y and perfect and even though the whole album makes me feel warm and fuzzy and cuddly and happy, "Innan vi faller" makes me feel that way even more. "Du sa" is just so perfect that I can't even put it into words.


In a way, I think that it is a good thing that I don't understand Swedish, because if the songs sound this precious and perfect to me now, I would probably just be completely debilitated by the adorableness of what he is actually saying, and I would probably never be able to leave my room again because I would be too busy not sleeping and listening to Jonathan Johansson all the time while crying because of all of the perfect, sad, precious, happy, adorable things it makes me think about. I guess that giant sentence just shows you how extra-insane caffeine makes me--I had coffee last night and again just now.

Love, Jillian

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Part II

Almost 2 weeks ago, I finally saw The Pains of Being Pure at Heart play a show. Before that though, they released their Higher Than The Stars EP. And if you follow any music blog, which actually I don't really, you'll see that they've been releasing stuff all over the place since their full-length album. Plus, even though I already wrote a pretty lengthy post about them, I figured it was worth it to write about this EP and their show.


Higher Than The Stars has four songs and a remix on it. I almost said "it's short and sweet" but that sounds stupid. Plus, like the Pains, it's not really as saccharine as a lot of the other stuff I listen to/write about. But I do really like the EP. The title track has such perfectly POBPAH lyrics and when Kip Berman sings "in the back of her mother's car" over and over I just wanna sing along. Both the title track and "Falling Over" are almost dreamy sounding tracks compared to other Pains stuff. I still really like them. But I really love the noisiness of "103" because I'm pretty sure the fuzzed out pop started my love for this band. "Twins" is sort of in between, noisier but maybe a little catchier. The Saint Etienne remix of "Higher Than The Stars" is a nice ending to the EP, but maybe that's just because I also love Saint Etienne. There's also another remix of this track which is not on this EP. That remix is done by Skanfrom (the guy from Television Set and Sleeparchive) and for a bit I thought I might like that better. I'm not really sure now.


Anyway, after listening to the Pains forever, and missing their shows all the time, I finally made it to one. I went with our friend Melissa, and we showed up way too early. Then we met up with our friend Maggie, who is actually in this Sociology class at Bryn Mawr about popular music. The show was, basically, uh, research, because Kip was going to her class the next day. The Depreciation Guild opened for the Pains, and I actually really like them, so it was nice. Then they finally came on and for a little I could only think of how precious Peggy Wang is. She seriously is, guys. Even moreso in person, when she's wearing my dream flower print 90s jumper dress. It was Kip's birthday and he was really precious about it. I liked their set, and even though one of the guys in front of me smelled like Smirnoff Ice, all was good. I love the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and I was just really glad to finally go to a show. They are just so good and so adorable! At the end Kip almost fell and almost poured a his drink on me. But c'mon guys, he's so precious that I just sort of shook my head.

According to Maggie, Kip was super precious in class. And he mentioned a bunch of my favorite bands, which I had just shared with Maggie at Burger Friday. At the show, Maggie's professor had mentioned that Kip Berman's mom was also coming to their class, saying something like "I've had rockstars come to class, but I've never had the mothers of rockstars come to class..." Well, apparently, it just made everything extra cute.

On the way back to Bryn Mawr, Melissa and I took some really ridiculous pictures. I really hate pictures, but the show put me in a good mood. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart don't always put me in a good mood, but I really just love them.

Love, María

Baseball

In case you couldn't tell from my fall and summer season-posts, I think that baseball is pretty adorable. I am really bad about actually paying attention to it until the postseason, but then I get excited when I randomly catch a game on TV.


I think the reason I have so many warm and fuzzy feelings about baseball is partly because my grandma loves the Yankees more than life, and because of Maple Valley.

When we lived in Delaware, we would go to the Maple Valley pool every day in the summer. I was on their swim team for five or six summers (I can't even remember, I did it every summer), and after practice in the morning, I would basically just stay there for the rest of the day. We used to walk to Wendy's in giant packs to get Frosties and fries, or we would hang out by the picnic tables and eat pizza that people would order, and if it was cloudy or during adult swim, we would go to the field behind the deck and play baseball!

One of my friends in middle school's dad always had tickets to the Padres' games, so I probably went to every home game of theirs the summer between seventh and eighth grade. I've never felt any particular attachment to the Padres because people in my family all like the Yankees, so all I remember from those games is wandering around the stadium and eating too many hot dogs and thinking about how precious baseball uniforms are.


Something NOT cute happened to me last night involving baseball. Maggie, María, and I were watching the Phillies/Dodgers game last night, and two freshmen kicked us out of the Pem East TV room so they could watch some ridiculous show that they had "reserved" the room for. I think was called "Supernatural." I am too mad to look up what that show even is, but it sounds stupid.

This makes me angry for three reasons.

1)When I was a freshman, if I had walked into a TV room and seen that it was full of seniors (they know Maggie and I are seniors because we work with them), I would have just gone to find another TV, because THEY WERE SENIORS AND I WAS A FRESHMAN.

2) At Bryn Mawr, people put little notes on the doors to the TV rooms to reserve them for whatever shows you happen to watch. So, it's not uncommon to see little notes that say the room is reserved every Thursday or Tuesday or whatever, for an hour or so. However, it's fall break, so it's perfectly reasonable to assume that the people who reserved the TV room are not going to be using it, since the whole campus basically empties out every break and everyone goes back to New Jersey or Connecticut or New York or whichever super-close-to-here state they are from. I guess what I am trying to say is that during break, reservations are no longer valid.

3) Baseball games happen in REAL LIFE. Once they are over, that's it! I watch two TV shows regularly, but I just watch them an hour after they air on my computer in my room. Life is easier that way. Once a TV show has aired, you can still watch it later and it will still be interesting exciting. Sports don't work that way at all.

It was just really disappointing because we basically missed the best part of the game. When we got kicked out of the room, the Dodgers were winning 1 - 0. When we got it back an hour later, the Phillies were winning 5 - 1. In between, we were wandering around campus in the rain, looking for an available TV, and then sitting in Maggie's room constantly refreshing MLB.com and screaming obscenities and imagining all of the horrible tasks we could give these girls at the cafe when we have them on shift (I actually still kind of want to do this) because we were missing awesome things.


But in spite of all the horribleness, the point here is that baseball is adorable. I guess I didn't do a very good job of explaining why, but it just is. Like last night, I didn't think that I really had a preference for either team, but then I found myself getting really excited and happy every time the Dodgers scored and getting nervous when the score got close. It is just really precious, and I am excited to watch the Yankees/Angels game tonight. And this time I'm not going to give up the TV room.

Love, Jillian