Flight of the Frontman

Today the members of the band Chiodos announced that their singer/frontman Craig Owens has been 'let go' from the band. Now, being a fan of Chiodos, I've been continually refreshing the page of Chiodos Myspace bulletin making the announcement, just to see what kind of reaction the news is getting.

Frankly, I'm a little shocked by it. There are (upon my most recent click of the 'refresh' button) 78 pages of comments...and almost all of it consists of 'fans' telling the other members of Chiodos how much they're going to suck now, and how Craig was Chiodos, and Chiodos was Craig. I'm inclined to question the fanship of these people.

A band consists of more than one person. One person is not a band. To say that you like a certain band strictly because of one member of it makes you a fan of that individual, not the band. I will admit that part of the reason I enjoyed seeing Chiodos live is because I find Craig a very attractive guy, but ultimately it's the band as a whole that caused me to want to go to their shows. Craig is currently touring solo, and I have not (and still don't have) the slightest desire to see him on his own.

Despite this opinion, I'm well aware that people generally base their view of a band around a 'frontman,' who is usually the lead singer. That's all fine and dandy, the singer is the one you can easiest feel a connection to since they're the one communicating the actual words that are hitting you. But what about the rest of the band?

We all love the frontman/frontwoman, but aren't the other members of the band just as important? I feel it's unfair that bands so often become associated with just one (sometimes two) of their members. Examples? I'm friends with a few guys who are HUGE Alkaline Trio fans, complete with having man crushes on Matt Skiba and tattoos of the Trio symbol. However, any time Alkaline Trio comes up the only person from the band they ever make any reference to is frontman Matt Skiba.

Why, why, why?! I understand that the frontman is the one putting their presence out there, more or less creating the personality of the band. At the same time, though, they are still just one person. They represent the band, they are not the band itself.

I'm not saying that the frontman should be ignored, because yes, they are an important part of the band. Just let's not forget that there are other members of the band as well, who are just as essential.

Well, there's my rant for the day.

And the count is now up to 87 pages of comments, still all Chiodos bashing. Le sigh.

Time Marches On

...And I often feel like it's marching too fast for me to keep up.

I feel like the majority of what I hear about these days is about people diving into jobs and internships, getting engaged, having kids, making plans for what they're going to do after graduation, all these important life-changing things.

Me on the other hand?

I think I'm rather stunted on the whole moving forward fact of life. Here I am, almost 22 years old, graduating in 8 months, and...absolutely petrified by the idea of the future.

It's not that I'm afraid of change, I just have an overwhelming fear of the unknown. The way I see it, as much potential as there are for things to work out well and life to be this amazing ride, there's just as much chance of everything falling apart at any given moment. This terrifies me.

The fact that I'm not one of those people who has everything planned out is a double-edge sword in this regard. On one hand, I suppose it's good that I don't have a set plan, then I'm not putting limits on myself or boxing myself so strictly into some unchangeable plan. But on the other hand, not really having ANY plan just makes me feel like I'm aimlessly floundering.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not completely lacking in direction. I have ideas of what I want to do, where I want to go, what my options are...I'm just not quite sure how I mesh all of that into something that satisfies everything I'm looking for.

*sigh*

I suppose things will fall into place however they're meant to.

For now though, I guess I have eight more months of anxiety to look forward to. Yay.

Cookies and Cupcakes and Brownies, Oh My!

Well folks, today is Friday. Which, last year, turned into my baking day. Last summer my friend Sarah and I (and often our friend Pat) started what we like to refer to as "Cookie Monday," where every Monday night we would go over to Sarah's and...you guessed it...make cookies.

I had so much fun making the cookies that I kind of got hooked on it. Once I got back to school last year, I kept up the weekly baking ritual, just changing it from Cookie Monday to Baking Friday. I don't know why, but I really like having that time every week set aside for that particular activity.

There's something I find very therapeutic about baking (unlike cooking which, while I enjoy it, seems like such an effort), about seeing raw ingredients come together into something awesome. I suppose it has something to do with the creative process, that desire to see what you've set out to do come to fruition. I don't know, perhaps I'm over-analyzing it. Long story short, I love to bake.

The previous two Baking Fridays resulted in chocolate chip cookies the first week, and brownies the second. Fantastic, no? So of course the question is, what am I making today? Well my dears, I am making cupcakes. Of the funfetti variety.



I think cupcakes are awesome, because I love cake and cupcakes are a mini-cake. Makes sense, right? However, I don't particularly like making cupcakes, due mostly to the fact that I like making anything I bake from scratch, and as I've not yet found a recipe to make cupcakes from scratch, I must resort to using a box. Alas.

As for the type of cupcake today's baking involves, personally, I find funfetti cake to be highly overrated (my fave is yellow cake with chocolate frosting). It's tasty and all, but it's not like the funfetti bits really make for a different flavor. It just looks pretty. But, funfetti cupcakes were requested of me, and I aim to please, so funfetti cupcakes is.

So far, my baking endeavours have been rather simple- cookies, brownies, cupcakes, a few simple breads. I do believe it shall be my next mission to get a baking cookbook and find some tasty recipes to try. I'll let you know how they go.

Now, to the kitchen I go!

Sad Little Bookworm

I have been a bookworm my entire life. When I was little, I read, quite literally, constantly. It wasn't until about 6th grade that I actually started paying any sort of attention to where I was when I was in the car, since my nose was always stuck in a book. Even now, reading remains one of my all-time favorite activities.

However, the life of a college student (particularly an English major college student) has turned me into rather the sad little bookworm in the last couple of weeks. As I said, I still love to read. But let me clarify: I love to read on my terms. Let me have a book of my own choosing, and I will dive into it whole-heartedly, and have it devoured in no time. This whole business of having to read for class, on the other hand? I'm not particularly enjoying it.

It is only the start of the 3rd week of classes, and already I find myself burnt out on the amount of reading my classes entail. Just to avoid any confusion, I do not, by any means, dislike my classes. In fact, I'm really enjoying my classes this semester. The discussions and content covered are interesting, and my professors all intrigue me. So as far as that goes, no complaints.

But having at least 20 pages of reading in every class (of which I have six), every night? It's a bit much. Again, it's not a dislike of what I'm reading that is causing me to become disgruntled, it's the sheer quantity of reading these classes entail that is getting me down.

I'll be the first to admit that I procrastinate like it's my job, but I've honestly been trying to stay on top of things this semester, but I'm already falling behind on what I'm supposed to have read, solely because of the massive amounts necessitated. It's incredibly frustrating. Seriously, it has hit the point where my workout time (which is my much needed 'me' time) consists of me reading--for class, of course--while working out! I am not a fan!

Hopefully I can get myself back on track and up to speed with everything that needs to get read, which may alleviate the overwhelming feeling of doom I get when I look at my nightly assignments. Wish me luck?

Oh, and just to add insult to injury:

All I've wanted for the last week has been to go to Border's or Barnes and Noble and find some good stuff to add to my bookshelves. But can I do that? Of course not, I have too much required reading to be doing, no time for pleasure reading! Bah.

I tell ya though, once I'm caught up on the school reading, I will be going on quite the nice bookstore raid. For now, though? Back to the books!

Intro Pt. II

I'm not sure why I feel compelled to explain myself so clearly in regards to this, but since I gave an explanation of the name of this blog, I now feel it necessary to explain the url of it (othersidedoor). As I said in my first post, this blog is like you're looking at my life through a keyhole. Thus, from the other side of the door. Pretty easy explanation, but there you go. Nothing else of interest currently...maybe tomorrow I'll have something for you.

Intro

Well, I finally did it. I caved and started a blog. I'm still having mixed feelings about it, so we'll see how it goes/how long I stick with it. To start things off, I'd like to give a brief explanation of the title of this brand new blog of mine.

I don't wish for this to be a blog where I recount every detail of every day of my life- that's what I keep a journal for. Instead, this is more going to be accounts of random thoughts/ideas/opinions that pop into my head, which I can hopefully turn into some sort of coherent piece of writing (or they could turn into exercises in stream of consciousness...that'd be interesting...). That said, most entries will probably be fairly short, and I'm ok with that.

Since this blog is going to present merely snippets of my life, I feel as though it's as if you, the reader of this humble blog, is seeing my life as if you were (wait for it)... looking at it through a keyhole, only getting glimpses of what happens to pass in front of that limited view.

Maybe you'll enjoy it, maybe you won't. Maybe I'll enjoy it, and maybe I won't. We'll just have to wait and see, from our respective sides of the door.