Music Monday: Lorde

Happy Monday to all! My apologizes for a lack of a Music Monday last week, but this week's artist is pretty darn good. Today I would like to talk about Lorde.

Lorde (her real name is Ella Yelich-O'Connor) is a 16-year-old singer/songwriter from New Zealand. She made her musical debut in late 2012, so she has not been around too long. Due to her novice status, she has only released one EP so far, titled The Love Club. Despite being fairly new in the music game, her single "Royals" debuted as #1 on the Australian charts. Rock on, sister. Rock on.

My friend Alexis introduced me to Lorde last week, and let me tell you I am so glad she did. Lorde is only 16-years-old, but she is incredibly talented. It blows my mind. She sounds like the super talented love child of Adele, Ellie Goulding, and Florence Welch. Oh, and did I mention that she writes all of her own songs? Here are a few songs by her, so give them a listen and enjoy!

Thanks for reading and have a rockin' week :)

Love?

Happy Saturday to all!

Recently, I have been thinking about the way we, as humans, view relationships. In the average human's mind, being in a relationship and being in love is seen as ultimate happiness; the highest achievable goal and accomplishment possible. In our minds, we view people in relationships to be on another level of happiness, and those who are single are seen as sadder or more lonely than those in love. This is a bit of a generalization, but seeing this thought process got me to thinking: as humans, do we view being in a relationship/in love as the ultimate happiness and something we should strive for because society tells us we should, or do we view it as such because as human beings, we are programmed to feel our happiest and function best in a relationship?

I have been asking my friends and family this question quite recently, and almost everyone says it is a mixture, but tends to lean one way or the other. This is quite impossible to know for certain, but I also think that it is a mixture of both, but lean more towards society. Thinking of just the friendships I have in my life now, I know that they make me happier than I would be if I did not have these relationships in my life. Humans do thrive by being around others. This leads me to believe that we do need some sort of companionship, whether it be romantic or not. Being alone without human contact for a week would make me sad, so I personally find happiness in my relationships with the people in my life. Consequently, if I had continual human contact for a week without alone time, that would also make me sad. Overall, though, I think that any sort of human relationship brings us happiness, and it does not have to be a romantic one.

On the other hand, society stresses so much what being in a relationship is like that it slightly skews what the source of being happy can be. One of my friends pointed out that on sitcoms or in movies, the people who are in relationships are often presented with their lives in check and seem happy, while single people are often presented as unsure of their futures and scatter brained or sad. This makes the viewer think they need to be in a relationship to be happy. Assuming you will get married and have children is another societal implication. Growing up, almost every person you are around casually speaks about what they'll do when they're married, or when they have kids. We truly have no right to assume that. Who knows if we will all get married some day? Even if you do get married, who knows if you will have children? We so quickly assume that this will be our future because that is what everyone else does. It is what society teaches us to be the norm, and the way to being a happy American family. This does make me wonder: if we did not feel pressure to get married, would we naturally gravitate towards that anyhow?

There is no way to know for certain if you will or will not get married, or if the longing for that is societal or not, but that should not dictate your happiness. I by no means want to depress anyone or make you feel sad about being alone. This post is a little more intense than most of the other stuff I blog about, but it is something that I've been asking people about, so I thought, why not blog about it?

Please comment and let me know what you think! It is quite interesting to hear everyone's take on the situation.

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading :)

The Great Gatsby

Happy Wednesday everyone! A few nights ago, I saw The Great Gatsby with my brother. I was very anxious to see the film because it is always tricky when movies are based on books. Despite my hesitation, I was pleasantly surprised.

For anyone who does not know, the movie is an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. The book is wildly popular and is considered to be one of the greatest American novels of all time. Because the book is so well known, and I read it for a second time earlier this year, I was afraid the movie was going to ruin the book.

Yes, Leo. Yes.

The movie was pretty good overall, proving to be better than I anticipated, but not as good as I hoped. The costumes and set were spectacular, and the first party scene at Gatsby's house was an intense explosion of color and excitement. The film's soundtrack included modern songs and covers by Jay Z, Beyoncé, and Florence Welch. There were parts in the movie where the modern soundtrack went really well, but there were moments where the up-to-date music contrasted the 1920s feel a bit too much. The movie was also incredibly long, and sometimes focused too much on the set and atmosphere, rather than the story.

Leonardo DiCaprio was a perfect Gatsby, and Joel Edgerton was the Tom Buchanan I pictured when reading the book. Carey Mulligan did a good job as Daisy as well, and after seeing the film, I fully came to realize how much of a B Daisy Buchanan really is. Another plus of the film is that it followed the book very well and used many direct quotes, which I was really excited to recognize. But most importantly, Leonardo DiCaprio wears a pink suit and looks crazy good doing it.

 I would definitely recommend seeing The Great Gatsby, especially if you've read the book. It had a slight modern twist, but still maintained the 1920s feel, and followed the novel very well.

Have a great rest of the week, and thanks for reading :)

Music Monday: Alabama Shakes

Happy Music Monday to all! For any new readers, my name is Bekah. I blog for Butler University, but decided to start a different blog for the summer. You can check out my Butler blog here. Every Monday, I blog about music that I recommend to my readers, dubbing it Music Monday. This Music Monday is dedicated to the Alabama Shakes.

The Alabama Shakes are an American rock band from Alabama. They formed in 2009 and have released one album, Boys and Girls. The group was nominated for three Grammy's this year for Best New Artist, Best Rock Performance, and Best Recording Package. Their debut song was "Hold On," but some of their songs have gained notoriety as well. Their song "Always Alright" was featured in the film Silver Linings Playbook. Righteous.

The Alabama Shakes are incredibly soulful and just make me feel good when I hear them. I have not heard a huge amount of their music, but what I have heard is really good. A few of my favorites by them are down below. Check em out!

Thanks for reading and have a great week :)

Hold On

Always Alright

Boys and Girls

First Post...Kinda

Hi friends! I will start posting regularly on here real soon. Sorry there's nothing to look at yet. In the mean time, take a look at my blog through Butler University: http://www.butler.edu/admission/student-perspectives/blogs/bekah/