If you guys haven’t picked up on it by now, your girl is GRADUATING!
Less posts, less commenting, etc. in this past month – it’s all because I’m gearing up for adult life and trying to make the most of my college life while I can. It will be interesting to see the direction in which Yow Yow! takes after I graduate because this blog was first created when I was just a second quarter freshman here at Seattle University. Together, we’ve grown a lot since then, but as always (and to be extremely cliche,) all things must come to an end.
Yow Yow, however, won’t.
My dear friend Megan Newell recently helped me design a graduation announcement for my big day and she did a phenomenal job at creating one that was truly me. I am very lucky to have such wonderful and talented friends in my life.
This year, I have had the opportunity to introduce you all to many of my friends. They are all such talented, caring, and generous people and I never forget how near and dear they are to my heart and life. Since they never stop impressing me with all that they do, I am going to keep tallies on them even after I graduate to let you all know how they are doing as well.
My friend Maddie Cary wrote a post for Yow Yow! pretty early on and if you can remember her, she’s the one with the powerful voice. Last year, she created her girl group – Maddie and the Cary Oh-Keys and now they’re back and bigger than ever.
Here is their cover of Kimbra’s “Settle Down.” Proud of you, girl!
To promote this year’s Quadstock, we invited one of our acts, Campfire OK, to do a series of spontaneous performances on our campus in a classroom, in one of our busiest buildings, our library, and our cafe. It is always such a joy to work with this band. Not only are they extremely talented, but they like to have as much fun as we do.
Thanks for everything Campfire OK. We love you so much!
This video was edited and shot by my dear friend Veronica Lim.
So I recently acquired myself a job in downtown Seattle that requires me to dress business casual every time I come in. After being in the business school for four years, you would think that I would have this down by now, but I don’t – therefore, it is on the list of things that still do not make me a complete adult. The mothership stepped in, naturally.
Now that I am so much more aware of it though, business casual wear is all that I want to shop for. No, it isn’t, really, but it’s on my radar.
This new collaborative collection between Banana Republic and Trina Turk has got me swooning.
It’s 73 today in Seattle and there is nothing that I want more right now than a good ol’ ice cream sandwich. Leave it to me though to be sick on this fabulous weekend. It’s really a shame.
The above photo is an advertisement [via The Frisky] of Carl’s Jr.’s newest dessert. It’s a cute play on the name, but let’s be real – I just want this:
Despite being gone from Yow Yow! for an entire week, the blog has still been receiving its typical number for visitors! Thanks for sticking around y’all!
With graduation just around the corner, life has picked up a bit. I’ve been tying up some loose ends and spending time with some dear friends and family. I know that, however, Yow Yow is always going to be here. I may not have had the chance to post daily for awhile now, but the pressure of keeping up with every day news just got to be a little bit too tough for me. Will that change when I am a working girl? We shall see.
So it’s been a crazy whirlwind of a past two weeks.
I planned a music festival! Well, actually, I’ve been planning it for a whole year with my co-chairs, but I finally got to see it come to life and it was by far, the coolest thing I have ever done.
I returned to a community and said my parting goodbyes along with the rest of the seniors in my class.
I ate and didn’t eat a lot simultaneously.
I didn’t sleep very much.
School was kind of on the back burner.
I became a “downtown” kind of a girl.
“Call Me Maybe” became a little bit more permanent
But most importantly, in the last two weeks (probably in the last month since I said this not too long ago,) I have laughed and smiled more than I ever have in my years here at Seattle University. It is such a joy being a senior, but my time here would not be worth anything if not for those around me and in my life.
You guys, my last week of college is next week. I’m not even going to try to wrap my head around that right now at 10 PM.
We like to eat at small burger drive-ins.
We spend our mornings and afternoons chalking our Quad for our biggest event of the year.
But seriously, allow me to introduce to you our bands:
Mayer Hawthorne and the County:
+ R&B/Soul/Pop
+ Hails from Detroit, Michigan
+ Supporting Foster the People on tour this summer
+ Just finished a worldwide tour/in the first leg of his national tour
+ Performed on David Letterman and Conan
+ Collaborations w/ Snoop Dogg, The Cool Kids, Rizzle Kicks
+ Ranked by Filter Magazine – Top 10 Albums of 2011
+ Performed at 2011′s Lollapalooza and Moog Fest
+ Was the last band to tour w/ Amy Winehouse along w/ Janelle Monae
ScHoolboy Q:
+ Rap/Hip-hop
+ Hails from California
+ Will tour w/ Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller, and Kendrick Lamar this summer
+ Part of TDE Entertainment w/ Kendrick Lamar and A$ap Rocky
+ On the bill for Pitchfork Music Festival 2012
+ Performed at this year’s SXSW
+ Part of the Rock the Bells 2012 lineup
Bearbot:
+ DJ/Mashup
+ New York native
+ Design student by day/DJ by night
+ Has had her work recognized by the 2012 Oscar Awards in the shorts nomination category
+ Latest featured work in David Guetta x Nicki Minaj’s music video “Turn Me On”
Pickwick:
+ Indie/Pop
+ Local band
+ Will be on the mainstage at Sasquatch 2012
+ Participated in SXSW 2012
+ Performed at 2011′s Doe Bay Fest, Bumbershoot, and City Arts Fest
+ Voted by City Arts Magazine as part of the “10 New Seattle Bands to Watch” March 2012
+ No strangers to selling out their shows
Campfire OK:
+ Indie/Folk
+ Local band
+ Performed at 2011′s Capitol Hill Block Party, Doe Bay Fest, Bumbershoot, and City Arts Fest
+ On the verge of releasing their new album
+ SEAC’s 2012 Battle of the Bands judges
I don’t like to typically talk about things unless they are for sure happening, but this is for sure NOT happening anymore – therefore – I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t post this.
A few weeks back, the leadership department at Seattle University was searching for commencement speakers for this year’s graduation ceremony and I figured I had a few things I could say. I turned in my application and my speech and became a finalist. I had my audition last week, but I had this sinking feeling that the role just wasn’t going to go to me. We’ve all had that feeling, right? The girl before me made everyone in the room laugh a lot harder than I did. Oh well.
Below is my speech though and even though I was not selected, it is still a piece that I am proud of.
Thank you to Seattle University for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the students. It is an honor to be standing in front of you all today – students, family, friends, faculty and staff, and the Seattle University community.
Four years ago, we sat in a set up similar to this one. We made jokes in our seats, reminisced with our friends, and dreaded the ceremony that we thought would drag on forever as every one of our peer’s names were called. Secretly, you loved every minute of it. Today, you might be in your seats doing the exact same thing and feeling the same way as you did four years ago or you might just be Facebooking and tweeting from your phone.
As Free As My Hair: My college experience and personal formation as told through my hair.
Hello! My name is Ben and I have known the beautiful Katie since freshman year. So when I received a message from her asking if I wanted to write a blog my instant reaction was HELL YEAH. Since I am senior this year at SU with Katie and I have an abnormal love for reminiscing, I kept coming back to the idea of reflecting on my college experience and the many transitions I have gone through. Now you may be thinking that relating this to my hair is super dumb or really vain but I think hair can liberating and has allowed me to externalize emotions or internal feelings about my life at the point. Through this post, I hope you get to know something about who I am and how, at some level, I have let my hair reflect where I am at in my life.
The starting point: High school
When I got to high school, I had grown my hair out and it is what we now call “the swoop.” I had the original Justin Beiber haircut and will probably have neck problems later in my life for flipping my hair so much. People knew me by my hair and people liked it. Above all though, I liked it. But I think at the core of who I was at that point was trying to “fit in”. Even though I had so much fun in high school, I definitely was trying to just fit in. Not make any waves. Just get by. The swoop was safe (and warm since I have really thick hair). I had the swoop for most of high school and any haircut I got was either a variation of the swoop or ended up returning to what the swoop originally was.
Picture 1. The “swoop.” And yes. I am wearing a Panic! At the Disco shirt.
I am slightly embarrassed about the story I am about to share with you all, but at the same time – I think it just needs to be said. This could happen to anyone, or so I’d like to hopefully believe.
A few weeks ago, Ashley and I were downtown shopping and when we stopped into Sephora, I couldn’t resist. I didn’t exactly need a new eyeliner pencil sharpener, but it was purple and black so I had to have it. I could have continued washing my foundation brush with just water and soap, but this one was anti-bacterial! I made the purchases and they stayed in my Sephora for weeks until last night.
As I stayed in for the night and glanced over at my Chanel foundation brush, I thought that it could use a good clean. I whipped out the anti-bacterial shampoo from Sephora and analyzed the bottle. There was a “Try Me” sticker on it. Why would my bottle have this sticker unless it was a sample. Oh…light bulb! So this is the point where we come to a crossroads. Do we decide to throw it out completely or go ahead and use it anyways. No one is going to bring their brushes in and use this sample to clean it are they? I could tell my bottle had been used so yes, it looks like someone has done that already. Then again, there is some distance between putting the bottle directly onto the brush, but that is something I would have done too…
I wasn’t going to win this. I went ahead and did it and while this is completely gross and you’re probably wondering what could ever make me do such a thing, I urge you to ask yourself how a Sephora sales associate could ever think that it would be okay to sell me a sample product. That is not okay, therefore, I am worse off because of this decision.
Congratulations, you are almost done! I know it’s a couple months away, but you do have every reason to celebrate. You will be able to do senior streak and you will have the time of your life. You’ll have so much fun that you will spend half of the day passed out, you may or may not puke in the library and you’ll spend the next couple of days trying to figure out how to get the blue paint out of the bathtub, the bed sheets, and the shoes. You will also realize that Crayola is not all that washable. But here’s the kicker- you’ll actually make it to your final, and your professor will be kind enough to pass you.
I know the future may seem like a blurred-dark-abandoned-hell-of-a-rabbit hole and every time someone asks you, “What are your plans after you graduate?” you want to cry, scream and even punch the person in the nose. But here’s one thing I want you to know – come graduation day you will forget all about the stress and live in the moment. You’ll spend the day smiling until your face hurts; you’ll stand on your chair and fist pump; you’ll see a big giant poster of your face- of course it’s the one picture of yourself that you absolutely hate – and your crazy family will be behind it waving and laughing; except grandma, she’s tired.
Welp! I’m pretty late on getting this news out, but I guess that just goes to show how little time I have for this blog right about now. Regardless, I am BEYOND thrilled to announce this year’s Quadstock lineup:
Mayer Hawthorne and the County
Schoolboy Q
Bearbot
Pickwick
Campfire OK
Br’er Sun
It has been a long time coming getting this lineup together – 10 months to be exact (but who’s counting?!) and being able to release it to our students is a huge weight off our shoulders. So far the response has been pretty great! My biggest concern with this lineup coming out was having to deal with the criticism, but I’ve secured a solution – kill ‘em with kindness!
So I’m pretty excited and I promise to give you all updates along the way especially with the final product. I especially want to make a post at some point with all of our publicity because it’s incredible and designed by my dear friend Alyssa Johnson.
