This is great! Last night on Jimmy Fallon during their lip sync bit, Tom Cruise did an excellent job pretending to be The Weeknd and lip syncing his current top hit ‘Can’t Feel My Face.’ Enjoy!
And speaking of that song, the visuals for it are scheduled to drop today via Apple Music – I’ll try and find a working link for yinz when it does! Stay tuned…
Today marks my 4th year of living in the great state of California! I still really can’t believe it. Four years. That’s how long most of us spend in college! This past year leading up to today has truly been one of the best. From countless girls nights out in the South Bay and at Agatay, to happy hours, concerts, Twitter contest winnings, trips on Miss Mandy, picking up a dance class again, to kissing the Stanley Cup, and more, I can’t say enough how grateful I am for this (west coast best coast) life.
Since they say pictures are worth 1,000 words, I think this last year could best be explained visually :).
All of these memories could not have been made without the help of some pretty cool people (pictured above). I am beyond grateful for all of you. And I can’t forget to thank Anne and Freddie, along with my mom and the rest of my East Coast family and friends for their continuous support and the ‘good times, good times.’
Thank you all for making my californyinz experience thus far truly the best! On to the next year, yinz. Looking forward to what it will bring… hopefully Drake and a new Frank Ocean album.
Please watch the video below to see what went down on Miss Mandy during last year’s 4th of July celebrations to Catalina with some of the most epic people I’ve met in CA thus far.
Droning and video editing credit: Nick Trojan. Unfortunately, he won’t be on the boat this year since he’s off doing kewl rowing things.
Thank you again to Mandy, Nick, The Don (our captain), and Jawnet (the hostess with the mostess) for taking us (I think I can speak for the crew) on their boat to experience one of the best weekends of the year!
Happy celebrating, everyone! And in the words of Deb, ‘make smart choices.’
‘I looooove ‘Murica!’ -The Donald
This is for all of the Drake fans, those who aren’t fans of Drake, or for those who wonder why I’m so ‘obsessed’ with him. Aside from his good looks and songs he puts out, the passion behind his work and love he has for his hometown of Toronto is admirable and a big part of why I have taken such a strong liking to him.
“I’m not worried about those other rappers. I’m not competing with those guys. I’m worried about the kid that’s sitting in his house that wants to be better than me and all those guys (current rappers). That’s who I’m competing with.” -Drake
In conjunction with the Sprite campaign he is currently part of, Drake opens up in a rare interview about his motivation for success. This is Episode 1, so I’m definitely looking forward to more, assuming there will be. I encourage all of you to watch it. It may inspire you to ‘obey your thirst’ for your passion.
Okay, so so many things to talk to yinz about! I’m going to (try and) make it quick though since I know most of our attention spans are quite small these days.
#6615
The graduation party of the year was a great success due to my mom’s very hard party planning work (starting over a year ago) and the help of her wonderful friends! From the fancy foods to the delicious donuts to my fun-loving family and friends, it was the perfect way to celebrate Anth’s accomplishments and wish him well on his next journey… college! #wishicouldgoback There was LOTS of dancing, shots of Limoncello, and laughter. It was also great seeing so many people who I haven’t seen in forever and probably won’t know the next time I’ll see them – lots of fun! Proud of ya, Anth!
#SMWLA (Social Media Week Los Angeles)
On June 4, I entered a Twitter contest (go figure) for the chance to win a free pass to attend SMWLA – you should really check it out to see if they’ll be stopping in your city if you’re passionate or want to learn more about social media trends and technologies. Passes normally range from $250-$350 for the whole week, allowing you to attend a multitude of panels featuring many different social media topics. After a simple retweet and positive vibes, I was notified by the PRSA-LA (Public Relations Society of America – LA Chapter) that I, among others, won – thank you, PRSA-LA! I want to say this was my first Twitter contest I won that wasn’t tickets for a rap/hip-hop concert. Being very fortunate in my current job position, I was allowed to attend as many panels as I wanted that would be of interest to me and also benefit my current role. I met some great people, learned a lot, and could envision myself being in a true social media work environment. Hope to attend next year!
MUSIC NEWS – Too many tours!
In honor of the fifth year anniversary of his Friday Night Lights mixtape, J.Cole announced his third annual ‘Dollar & A Dream Tour.’ The concert actually costs ONE DOLLAR to attend but is on a first-come, first-served basis. I can only imagine the line! He will perform the mixtape in its entirety, which is dope. Cole is only stopping in four cities, one being Los Angeles. Unfortunately, I cannot attend since I already have tickets to see Nicki Minaj perform at the BET Experience that evening – #concertgoerprobz.
Earlier this week, Miguel announced his North American summer tour. THIS I plan on going to. Stopping at over 25 cities, he will be wrapping up the tour in LA on Friday, September 4 at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Yes, it is an actual cemetery. I saw The Weeknd perform at this venue in May 2011, and it was epic! Not to mention he brought out Drake as a surprise guest for ‘Crew Love,’ and I nearly fell over. Tickets are general admission, and you are free to pillows, blankets, and picnics. It’s a really cool venue, so I recommend you check it out if you ever get the chance! They also host movie nights there, I want to say in the fall around Halloween time. Get it…. spooky setting for spooky movies.
Holy heck, and how could I forget. The BET Awards! That is like the ultimate concert on steroids, next to the GRAMMYs, that is. On Sunday, June 28, I will be attending the award show in my usual spot – the mosh pit. Unfortunately, I cannot bring in my cell phone, so 1. I will make sure I’m getting some camera time and 2. You will just have to tune in to see if I made it on TV. Sorry mom and other family members that will be watching this – you’ll probably completely disapprove of the music I’m listening to on the reg.
I do have more music news to write about, but I will save that for the ‘Weekly Wrap-Up.’ Lots of things I love happening in the music world this week!
Stay tuned…
What a great Monday! Today in San Francisco, Apple unveiled its new music streaming service at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a little help from an idol of mine…
…Drake! He will be using Apple Music to promote his own new album, so you better believe I will be supporting this new streaming service. And in the above picture, he is high-fiving (real word?) Eddy Cue, head of software and Internet services, after discussing the Connect feature of Apple Music. To learn more about the service, check out this New York Times article here. I haven’t done enough research to compare all of the streaming services out there, so I will write another post on that once the proper research is done! But I have a feeling this might be the cake taker. Or it could be just because Drake’s involved, but whatevs. From the few articles I’ve read thus far, Apple Music looks like it could have some real potential and truly engage fans, while still benefiting the artist (and not at $20/month for the fan). #praise
If that wasn’t exciting enough for me, The Weeknd also came out to world premiere his newest single ‘Can’t Feel My Face.’ Produced by Max Martin, who has also worked with Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift, Abel swoons over a love so strong that he can’t feel his face, metaphorically speaking of course.
I’m totally blowing it with embedding the actual song into this post, so you will just have to click here to listen. Sorry for the extra step, yinz, but I’m no coder and just want you to listen asap!
And at Drake’s most recent performance at the Governors Ball in NYC on Friday, he made mention during ‘Crew Love’ that an OVO + XO collab could be making a comeback. Maybe it will drop on Apple Music! Stay tuned, yinz…oh, and this post is my first post written in Pittsburgh 🙂
Say bye bye to Bruce. Caitlyn Jenner has made her debut on what will be the July issue of Vanity Fair, shot by world-famous celebrity photographer, Annie Leibovitz. Read more about it here.
I have a feeling this image will go more viral than Kim and Kanye’s debut on the cover of Vogue, and this magazine will outsell Kimye’s issue, as well. #CallMeCaitlyn
You can pick up this issue at newsstands on Tuesday, June 9.
Better late posting than never! Having dropped yesterday, The Weeknd released not only a new song but (dark) visuals, as well, for his track titled ‘The Hills.’ Really really digging it. And no, Lauren Conrad and Lo aren’t featured in the video 🙂 Watch and listen below – enjoy!
Also check out…
FUTURE FT. RICK ROSS & BIG SEAN – ‘F*CK UP SOME COMMAS (REMIX)’
Listen to the star-studded remix on Future’s banger ‘F*ck Up Some Commas’ below.
I’m just going to leave this right here. I’m pretty confident this will be on Drake’s Views from the 6 . It’s definitely got a slower feel to it – not my favorite, but I’ll give it a few more listens. Also, apologies in advance if the track gets taken down, so enjoy it while you can!
And it got taken down – as did most of the others 😦 I will keep an eye out for another link for yinz!
So what did you do after work last night on Monday, May 18? Probably didn’t go to an impromptu FREE Miguel concert in Venice Beach. I still can’t even believe this was real. Let me explain.
Sunday night I see…
…which obviously meant I had to turn on his tweet notifications so I could be alerted the second he released the time and location.
Monday around 4:30pm…
Once I realized my roommate Kylie couldn’t come with me since she had #sports (a co-ed soccer game), I text the one person who is down for anything… Mac Bab. Conveniently enough, she was heading to Venice for the night already, so it worked out perfectly. Not knowing if we’d make it in time or if we would even get in, we said YOLO and went for it. Praise to the heavens we did. We were the first people there, so we grabbed a drink at the bar until a very kind man from Vevo told us what to expect and when to head downstairs.
We walked RIGHT up to the stage. It was a very tiny stage – we were in the basement of a pretty grungy (but epic) bar.
Not knowing what to expect and with a crowd of no more than 50 people, Miguel and his band walked on the stage. Now this is sorta when I went into a state of #celebushock* – might have blacked out a bit (and no mom, not from alcohol). Yes, he was that close. No, this is not zoomed in or filtered. I die.
His performance was part of Vevo’s #VevoGOShow – mini concerts/performances, normally a surprise with last minute locations and times that are filmed and posted on the Vevo YouTube channel. I’ll be sure to post the Miguel one once it’s up. But for now, you can check out the videos I took below and visit my YouTube page to see the rest of my footage!
It was truly one of my most memorable experiences yet, not only living in Los Angeles but in my life (and it was completely free!). Experiences like this just keep adding on years to my time spent in LA. 🙂
After his performance, he told the crowd all drinks were on him in the upstairs part of the bar so everyone should go hang with him, and that is exactly what Mac and I did. We got another picture with him, chatted for a bit, and left around 9:30pm. A solid Monday for sure. And if you aren’t that familiar with Miguel’s music, I highly suggest you check him out. He is so incredibly talented and not to mention so very nice which made me like and respect him even more as an artist and as a person. I cannot wait for his new album WILDHEART, dropping on June 30!
Oh, and thank you #VevoGOShow and my new friend Alex for the autographed Miguel poster. I look forward to more #VevoGOShows and more epic Mondays (or any day of the week really)!
*celebushock – when one enters a state of shock when coming within a few feet of a celebrity and you forget where you are and what occurred during that time but you know it was the best experience ever
Californyinz 