Rhymes With Foam.

01/06/12 The Apollo Project @ the World Financial District Winter Garden

01/13/12 Socratic, Vinnie Caruana (acoustic) @ Angels & Kings

02/24/12 My Love For Danger @ Bar East

03/01/12 Young Statues, Mansions, A Great Big Pile of Leaves @ Knitting Factory

03/09/12 Vinnie Caruana @ Angels & Kings

03/10/12 The Wonder Years @ Gramercy Theatre

03/12/12 Brian McGee, Frank Turner @ Knitting Factory

03/25/12 Miniature Tigers @ Bowery Ballroom

04/07/12 Hostage Calm, I Am the Avalanche @ Santos Party House

04/18/12 Vanessa Carlton, Gavin DeGraw @ Webster Hall

04/25/12 Family of the Year, The Belle Brigade, Good Old War @ Bowery Ballroom

05/16/12 Kishi Bashi, The Barr Brothers @ Le Poisson Rouge

05/20/12 Hall & Oates (Great Googamooga) @ Prospect Park

05/23/12 Young Statues, The Wonder Years, The Swellers, The Early November @ Irving Plaza

06/08/12 American Babies, Trevor Hall @ Gramercy Theatre

06/10/12 Tokyo Police Club @ Bowery Ballroom

06/14/12 Grace Potter and the Nocturnals @ Irving Plaza

06/16/12 Now Now, fun. @ Terminal 5

06/22/12 fun. @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

06/27/12 Suburban Legends, Big D and the Kids Table, Goldfinger, Reel Big Fish @ Best Buy Theater

08/10/12 fun., Grizzly Bear, Santigold, The Flaming Lips @ the Intrepid

08/11/12 The Jacksons @ Seaside Park

08/18/12 Antibalas, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings @ Williamsburg Park

08/23/12 The Bright Silence, Jay Stolar, Charlene Kaye and the Brilliant Eyes @ Gramercy Theatre

09/07/12 Lauren Coleman, Vinnie Caruana, Matt Embree @ Mercury Lounge

09/11/12 Sad & French, Spirit Houses, Vinnie Caruana, Matt Embree @ The Acheron

09/18/12 Tyler Ramsey, Band of Horses @ House of Vans

09/29/12 Global Festival (K’naan, John Legend, Band of Horses, The Black Keys, Foo Fighters, Neil Young and Crazy Horse) @ Central Park Great Lawn

09/30/12 Jenny Owen Youngs, Larry and his Flask, Frank Turner @ Webster Hall

10/06/12 Virgin FreeFest (Justin Jones, Penguin Prison, Portugal. The Man, Dismemberment Plan, Ben Folds Five, Alabama Shakes, Nas, ZZ Top, M83, Jack White @ Merriweather Post Pavillion

10/09/12 Cartel, The Early November @ Gramercy Theatre

11/16/12 The Menzingers, Bayside, Taking Back Sunday @ Best Buy Theater

11/17/12 The Stepkids, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals @ The Beacon Theatre

11/20/12 Brandon Reilly @ Idle Hands

11/29/12 A Great Big Pile of Leaves, Ambassadors, Hellogoodbye @ The Marlin Room at Webster Hall

12/03/12 Chris Berry, Xavier Rudd @ Irving Plaza

12/04/12 Spin Doctors @ Irving Plaza

12/11/12 Band of Horses @ The Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom

12/11/12 Jason Lytle, Band of Horses @ Hammerstein Ballroom

(I go to a lot of concerts with my friend Dustin, so when available, I linked to his reviews.)

• I saw a total of 78 different bands this year.
• There were only 10 bands/artists that I saw more than once (4x: Band of Horses, Vinnie Caruana. 3x: fun., 2x: A Great Big Pile of Leaves, Frank Turner, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Matt Embree, The Early November, The Wonder Years, Young Statues.)
• 55 of these are bands that I saw for the first time this year.
• 17 of these were free shows.

Nicki Minaj & co from the Super Bass video.

What you need:

• White tank top
• Jean shorts
• Doc Marten boots
• Pink wig with bangs
• Matching solid-colored bra & undies

Not gonna lie, I considered doing this for about 30 seconds because I already have bright blue doc marten boots and thighs like Nicki Minaj. Then I came to my senses…but I like to think that there’s a sorority somewhere out there in matching pink wigs learning this dance so they can perform it at whatever Halloween kegger they’re going to.

Beyonce’s assorted key changes from the Love On Top video!

What you need:

• an assortment of black leotards and low-cut pantsuits
• fishnets
• heels (one lucky gal gets to be Beyonce #1 and wear sneakers)
• top hat
• military hat
• unrealistically beautiful giant hair
• rockin’ boobs

What you don’t need apparently:

• a shirt
• a bra

True story: for the first minute and a half of this video I thought “I should totally do this song at karaoke.” Then with every key change I felt my dreams get dashed more and more.

Kelly Rowland.

What you need:

• Sexy toga diaper

No, but really. Kelly Rowland, I think I actually like you. And you are a pretty lady. Who approved this outfit? In any other color it would be acceptable but this is totally a diaper.

This was the playlist for my half marathon. I wanted to post it in order so I could make commentary on songs that really helped me when I was struggling and stuff, but my blackberry started the playlist over at the beginning when I tried to look. So I put it roughly in order- the first few songs are right, and the last 10 songs were the last 10, and the middle ones were the middle, but this isn’t the exact order they played.

A Loss For Words “I Want You Back”
Butch Walker “The Weight of Her”
Jason Derulo “In My Head”
The Movielife “Hey”
The Starting Line “The World”
Timbaland f/ Keri Hilson “The Way I Are”
Avril Lavigne “What the Hell”
Adele “Right As Rain”
Steel Train “Touch Me Bad”
Fireworks “Seasick”
Christina Aguilera “Come On Over” (remix- single version)
Cobra Starship “Guilty Pleasure”
Jay Sean f/ Nicki Minaj “2012 (It’s Not the End)”
Justin Bieber f/ Ludacris “Baby”
Panic! At the Disco “Bittersweet”
Cobra Starship f/ Sabi “You Make Me Feel”
Katy Perry “Peacock”
Robyn “Dancing On My Own”
I Am the Avalanche “Is This Really Happening?”
Hanson “Waiting For This”
Frank Turner “Live Fast Die Old”
Mann “Buzzin” (remix f/ 50 Cent)
Mathletes “Badstreet USA”
Flo Rida f/ Akon “Who Dat Girl”
Cee Lo Green “Cry Baby”
Katy Perry “Hummingbird Heartbeat”
You, Me and Everyone We Know “Colorful Language”
No Doubt “Different People”
Steel Train “Touch Me Bad”
The Rocket Summer “Hills and Valleys”
fun. “All the Pretty Girls”
Melee “Frequently Baby (She’s a Teenage Maniac)”
Young the Giant “My Body”
Cartel “The Perfect Mistake”
Take Cover “Something Wicked (This Way Comes)”
Hit the Lights “How Will I Know”
Panic! At the Disco “Stall Me”
The Format “Oceans”
Reel Big Fish “Ban the Tube Top”
You, Me and Everyone We Know “A Little Bit More”
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals “Paris (Ooh La La)”
Save Ferris “Mistaken”

Basically my goal was that every song would get me so pumped that I couldn’t bear to stop and walk while it was playing (at least, not walk any more than I was already planning and scheduling to walk.)

I briefly considered just playing “Peacock” on a loop for two and a half hours and running the whole thing to that, since it’s by far my favorite running song, but that seemed ridiculous even for me. I’m not going to lie, I expected “My Body” to be a good motivating song but I got super super bummed when it came on towards the end. I needed some peppy pop punk and just having the words in the chorus of that song to drive me was not enough. That one dud aside, this was a pretty solid running playlist for me.

This morning I was annoyed that I was running late, until the best subway performer ever got on the train, plugged in his bass, and started singing songs to and about the people on the train. First there was “I Feel Good” about the kid in the striped shirt. This was my favorite.

This song is for the white lady sitting next to me, with the freckles and the nice feet. Everybody, look at how nice her feet is.
(to the tune of My Girl)
I’ve got sunshine on a number 2 train.
You can tell just by looking at her, she got a college brain.
I guess you’d say what can make me feel this way?
White lady with the freckles, you my girl.
Her name is Amy. She got computer skills.
White lady, you my girl.

I looked around and NO ONE ELSE WAS LAUGHING. White lady with the freckles was chuckling a little bit but I was almost crying from laughing so hard. Then he sang a song to ‘the guy with the sunglasses, looking down.’ “Weeeee are the champions, my friiiieennnd. And weeeee gon’ keep on wearing sunglasses ‘til the ennnnnd.”

Another gem that I found in a box of old junk at my parents’ house. This is a rap song that I wrote about dogs, circa 1992 (grammatical error retained from my original handwritten lyrics sheet)

Dogs are cute, there real real bright.
Some are heavy and some are light.
You can teach them to heel,
or train them to sit,
but if they disobey don’t roll up the paper and give ‘em a hit.
Poo, poo, chi, chicka, poo, poo, chi! (this part was a beatboxing break)
Take ‘em for a walk at least once a day,
and they’ll be so happy they could just fly away!