My Other Secret: Boy Bands

I love listening to music and pride myself on having very eclectic tastes. Ask any of my friends - if you take me out to a sing-along piano bar (such as my favorite: Howl at the Moon), I'm almost as likely to know the lyrics to oldies as I am to classic rock, hip hop, showtunes, pop, and even a smattering of country.

But my secret musical guilty pleasure? "Boy bands."

Why you may ask?

Well, I'm not really sure, but I think that if I go back to the days when my musical tastes were just beginning to develop, it all starts to make sense.

My parents, as I grew up, listened to two types of music - "oldies" (we're talking 1950s/early 60s) and showtunes. This is what I listened to, exclusively, for the first 11 or 12 years of my life. It was what we sang along to in the car or at home. In the 5th or 6th grade, when we had a talent show and my friends sang catchy current songs, I sang a song from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

There was, however, one exception to my oldies/showtunes childhood.....

Oh Joey McIntire...

I loved New Kids on the Block. I had the big picture book of the band, a tshirt and even had the (why were these ever popular) oversized Donnie Wahlberg button. I also dreamed about Jordan knight and Joey McIntire and owned the cassette tape with the cover pictured above. I used to know all of the words to all of the songs (ok, maybe I still know most of the lyrics to "Hangin' Tough" and "(You Got It) The Right Stuff" and, my personal favorite "Popsicle").

Eventually my NKOTB obsession faded in to the background and I started to listen to more current music. It was slow goings (at least two of the songs I remember being played at my Bat Mitzvah in 1994 were Beach Boys songs). I purchased the Columbia House "buy 12 cds for a penny" deal and started picking out my own music ( Pearl Jam, En Vogue, Green Day, Boyz II Men, Mariah Carey, Ugly Kid Joe and some showtunes and oldies thrown in for good measure).

But then came the one true "Boy Band Era".

I was the late 1990s and if you were a teenage girl, chances are you loved a boy band. For most, alliances fell with either NSYNC or Backstreet Boys (BSB for short). 

From an outsider's perspective, the boy bands were all the same. Four or five young, (reasonably) good looking, (moderately) talented guys who came together (read: were brought together by that creepy guy in Florida) to bust out some tunes and some sick dance moves.

They were all relatively the same when it boiled down to it. Each guy had a role to play.

The Leader: 

 

The Young (Hot) One:

The Shy Guy

The Older Brother

The Rebel

But their songs were innocent (sounding), the boys were dreamy, and they made you want to scream.

Sure, I think deep down we all knew that they were cheesy. The carefully manicured images, the overly-produced songs, it was all part of the show, but that didn't stop us from loving them any less. I saw NSYNC in concert TWICE. Once I paid for the ticket and sat in the nose bleed seats with my friend Kristina, and the second time I was given a free floor seat by my friends Ben and Robin who had won the tickets (I even skipped out on the second half of a double I was working at a restaurant to go). They were amazing concerts, and I remembered seeing Pink (before she got really big) when she opened for NSYNC at that first concert.

My sophomore year college roommate, Jamie, also shared my love. She was a HUGE fan of O-Town and we would have moments in our dorm that we would bust out singing some of the greatest hits of all of the boy bands.

In fact, my love for boy bands spilled over in to the realm of "fake" boy bands:

• Did anyone else watch/love the MTV movie/tv show "2ge+her"? I was reminded of my love for this "group" recently by Jamie, and immediately went to YouTube to watch some of the videos. They produced such great hits as "You + Me = Us (I Know My Calculus)".
• In grad school I heard about this off-Broadway musical about a fake Christian boy band Altar Boyz. I saw it once in NYC and once on tour, and both times it was amazing.

I can't help it. I have been known to rock out to some NSYNC and BSB when they come on my ipod.

I really just love boy bands. Don't Judge.

You know you had a favorite. Leave your favorite boy band or song by a boy band in the comments!

On Being a "Grown-Up"

I turned twenty eight in October.

Now, twenty eight may be an anti-climactic age, but this time in my life... I'm starting to feel like I'm actually a real adult. I'm not sure if I like it, but I've accepted it.

I've been younger than my peers for a long time, and it always made me feel like a kid trying her hand at being an adult. In grad school almost all of my classmates were older than me, and I still felt stuck in that college mode of having a good time and looking out for number one (it's a symptom of my generation... we're all narcissists). The thing is, even though I was having a good time, I worked hard. I am proud to say that I earned my MFA (a terminal degree in my field) before I was 25 years old, moved in to a position that was created for me and then transitioned in to what was, at the time, my dream job. I was barely a year or two older than people who, in some senses, worked for me. My first intern, in fact, was actually four months OLDER than me!

 Denny Chimes at University of Alabama, 

where I earned my MFA.

Then, last May, I was let go from that job, and I was heart broken. It was the sort of job that left me working nearly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When I wasn't actually at work, I could get phone calls or be THINKING about work. At the end of my time with that company I was looking for a new job, and I wanted nothing more than to leave, but my deep love for the people and the organization kept me tied there far longer than I needed to be. Though every once in a while memories tug at my heart strings, I have no ill feelings and still think about that company and wish them well

It's been an interesting (almost) year, to say the least. Since being let go I was able to, for the first time in nearly five years, relax. I actually took a vacation in Atlantic City with my family and got to see some friends in New York. I spent time really thinking about what I wanted to do with my life and if I really wanted to stay in the low-paying long-hours world of non-profit arts organizations (the answer - an unequivocal yes).

I applied for jobs across the DC/Baltimore metropolitan area and in New Jersey, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, and beyond and ended up working in my own backyard in a position that is giving me some of the best hands-on experience I could ever ask for as an young arts administrator. I will leave this job (years from now) with a whole new knowledge base that I never had before.

So, I've been at my current job for more than six months, and though I'm still learning, I'm really enjoying it.
I've also learned that at the end of the day, it's ok to just walk away.

You know what else makes me feel like a grown-up?

I have roots.

I've been a Girl Scout Leader for the last three  years, but have really invested my heart and soul in to it this year.

I've joined the Young Professionals Network of Howard County - part of the local Chamber of Commerce. I also applied to be part of their "steering team" and after an interview process, I just found out that I got the position.

I attended my ten year high school reunion back in November, and I'm trying to reconnect with old friends as best I can. I finally got to have dinner with a bunch of people I hadn't seen in YEARS and it was awesome. 

I've made time for a social life and have a great group of friends that seem to find me really funny (who knew?).

I've developed a love for baking (how domestic of me!)

And, the craziest thing? I made an offer on a townhouse. I could actually be buying a home in the next month or so... just waiting on word from the bank to find out if they'll approve the sale and Keith and I could be moving in as little as 30 days from when everything is final.

 This could be my new house!

Almost 11 months after being let go from what I thought was my dream job, and I have found myself in a place in life that I never expected.

And you know what? It feels pretty good.

What, exactly, is "crazy?"

Before I start writing the rest of the post, I have to let you know a fact about me: I am NOT crazy.

I like to consider myself someone who thinks/writes/acts with my stream of consciousness. If something comes to my mind, I say it or write it. That leads a lot of people to find me funny (not narcissistic, just a fact) because, as they tell me I'm quite quick witted. I think I just have an overactive imagination.


Now here's the thing:

Some of the thoughts that occur in my head I have to seriously consider this question "if I say this out loud, will people actually think I'm insane?"

Whenever I'm in an elevator alone, I may do something weird like sing to myself or dance, and then I automatically think "gosh, what if someone were watching me right now... what would they think of me?"

Sometimes I'll be driving my car and think about what would happen if I suddenly turned my wheel sharply and hit another car or a tree. Some people may also think those thoughts, but that's where they stop. Me? Then I think about hitting that tree, rolling my car over, rolling in to a ditch, and breaking my leg. It's always breaking my leg for some reason.

When I was younger, I used to have this regular thought whenever I would use the restroom that a snake or other lizard type animal would come out of the toilet and bite my rear end.

Last night, in fact, I was crawling in to bed, and I thought about what would happen if I stepped on a mouse. Granted, I thought about that because we recently had a mouse sighting in my apartment.

Seriously. Who thinks about this stuff?

Oh, yeah. I guess it's me.

My boyfriend has learned to live with it and love me regardless...in fact, he occasionally finds it endearing. He reminds me, however, that every once in a while I need to think about things in my head before I say them so that I don't come off as a crazy person.

Spring = Flowers!

Well, it would if the grass wasn't buried under feet of snow still.

Ahh March. You're here, and even though spring isn't officially (who decides these things?) due to arrive for another 18 days,  I'm looking forward to seeing green grass instead of dirty snow.


I know that the adage is that "April showers bring May flowers*" but my favorite flower is one that starts to rear its head (bulb) in mid-February.... the lovely daffodil.

Also known as narcissus, the name of the flower comes from the myth of Narcissus (you know, the guy who was the original narcissist) who happened to catch his reflection by the lake, fell in love with it and stared at it so intently that he (depending  who you hear it from) fell in and drowned OR couldn't tear himself away so he just starved to death. And the very first narcissus flower bloomed on that very spot.

The original narcissist. 

Narcissus by Michelangelo Caravaggio

For nerds - Narcissus, the person, is also closely tied to the story of Echo.

Anyway, I really like daffodils. One of my favorite things is that they're always the first flower to pop up, usually in early February and though they typically come in three colors (yellow, white, orange, and the combination thereof), there are a million different varieties. Some are closed buds, some are double layers, and some are just simple flowers - the bell and the petals.

I think part of the reason why I love daffodils is that when my family moved when I was ten, I went to the store and picked out bulbs and planted a bunch of daffodils around the light post. Even though I didn't pay much attention, this hearty flower bloomed regularly every February.

In college and grad school, I always noticed the flowers peeking out from the soil on campus. 

When I was living in Alabama, I noticed that one of my co-workers had a daffodil tote bag. I commented on it and the next day she brought be a whole bouquet of flowers for my desk.

They herald the spring like little flower trumpets.

And now, a poem by Wadsworth:

 

 

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

*bad joke alert - If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring? PILGRIMS!! (get it? May flowers...the Mayflower....)