Sited: Sam is back!

By Sam Hackerson
Hi guys, it's been a while. I accidentally went off and got myself employed on the East coast (I was all "whoops I tripped and fell, woah how did this office get here?") so I've been trying to navigate that little adventure.
I've been told that we're talking about sites we love...which is tough for me...because I have an attention span of approximately 0. This fact makes it difficult for me to be an avid follower of just about anything, but I'll give my favorites tab a once over and see what I can dig up.

Music:
http://smokedontsmoke.com/
Smoke Don't Smoke has been one of my music go-tos for a while now. Through his consistently informative and on-point posts, Tim Thompson, the site's owner/writer/Head D00d/Chief Guy, has introduced me to acts like Born Gold, Teen Daze, and Blackbird Blackbird. He's great at sharing the music of bands you never knew existed (especially if they fall under the category of "glow-fi"), AND once a month he posts the results of a collaborative scour of the internet for rad music that just so happens to be FREE. If you aren't sold yet, I don't know what else I can say.

Latest-tumblr-Hilarity:
http://trextrying.tumblr.com/
T-rex Trying...I don't have much to say about this one, except that my reaction to the one about the buffet sneezeguard was enough to worry my roommate.

Blogger:
http://lesleyarfin.com/
(http://streetbonersandtvcarnage.com/?s=ask+barf&x=0&y=0)
If Smoke Don't Smoke is where you turn for music, Lesley Arfin is where you turn for advice. Arfin is the writer of Ask Barf, an advice column on the site Street Boners and TV Carnage, and she is my favorite thing about the site, hands down. If you have any kind of life questions brewing in you, send them her way--she covers love, sex, futures, family--you name it. Her answers are honest and practical, without being condescending. OH, and did I mention she tends to be hilarious? She walks the line between entertainment and actually helping you out better than any other column I've stumbled upon, so make sure and look her up.


Mostly-Useless-But-Intriguing
http://moodjam.com/
MoodJam is something I learned about recently from reading about artist Laurie Frick (http://www.lauriefrick.com/) who is all about quantifying her life in these visual and mind-blowing ways. MoodJam allows you to present your moods as a color and give it a small description. The more moods you post, the more colors you can use to describe a mood. You can also navigate the site and see what other moods other people are posting. How is this useful to anyone? I don't know. Maybe you can look back on your collected moods someday and see how your perception of color and feeling changed, maybe you can make a really cool print out or chart for your wall. Maybe you can annoy the snot out of your friends with it. I like to challenge myself with it, use it to force myself to come up with new and interesting ways to describe what I'm feeling or why I'm feeling it. 

In the end, I think the main appeal of Moodjam is that it takes the art of the internet-overshare and puts the emphasis a little bit more firmly on art...which I think we could all use some days.


...And that's that, now go forth and deepen your addiction to this series of tubes.

Summer Songs (Iowa Style) Vol. 1

By Sam Hackerson
For those of you who are unaware, sometimes in Iowa, weather (temporarily) skips seasons entirely. And by this, I mean that it is barely May and it is a forecasted 90 DEGREES TODAY. In preparation for this early, early summer I have revamped my iPod playlist. Here is a nice and mix-sized taste of what I consider summer listening (AKA loud anthems for blasting out car windows and dancing all night and sultry somethin’ somethins for the sweaty, humid inbetweens):

1- Bummer Time- Be Your Own Pet
2- Sunshine - Rye Rye ft. MIA
3- Toro Y Moi- Still Sound
4- TV Girl- If You Want It
5- Tony Castles- No Service
6- Cloud nothings- Heartbeat
7- Maps & Atlases- Israeli Caves
8- FRIENDS- Friend Crush
9- Robyn- Time Machine
10- Muscles- Chocolate Raspberry Lemon and Lime
11- Oh Fortuna- Faces I Can See
12- Local Natives- Who Knows Who Cares
13- Teen Daze- Four More Years
14- Cut Copy- Where I’m Going
15- The Notorious B.I.G.- Juicy
16- Sun Airway- Shared Piano

Lucky for you, we've taken it upon ourselves to find links to most of the songs. A lot of them are links to free downloads so get clicking! Summer is here!!!!! (at least in Iowa)

Unfortunately I had to take down the free download links, but just know that the songs are out there!

Things I Like (right now)

By Sam Hackerson
1-Robyn’s Body Talk— I know it’s not an ultra-new album, but this sassy pop music has been on repeat in my life lately because it has managed to match every one of my moods and activities. I’m obsessed with the whole thing, but Hang With Me and Call Your Girlfriend are both great, and if you follow the link you’ll find a little extra Robyn attitude on the other side.


2- Algae—If we do it right, we could use it to sustainably replace 17% of our oil imports, AND it cleans out certain water pollutants and feeds on carbon emissions! YOU GUYS, THIS IS SUCH A COOL THING. More here

3-Mesh/Crochet pieces— Absolutely PERFECT for summer and I’m already addicted (it’s just spring and I have one crochet top and two mesh). I like this trend a lot more than the sheer trend—I think the pieces are more thriftable, usually have more character, tend to be more slouchy/hang off the body rather than cling to it, and generally put off a more fun, casual vibe. These are some of my favorites that lookbook helped me find: Here , here , and here.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Refuse

By Sam Hackerson

We’ve all heard it before—reduce, reuse, recycle. But very recently it was pointed out to me that no one ever remembers the fourth R in that sequence---refuse. One of the most important things you can do is refuse. Send a message to suppliers of all sorts and show them exactly what you don’t need.

Start Small

Try bringing your own silverware to the plastic-stocked cafeteria, bringing a reusable water bottle and refilling it at fountains, or replacing air fresheners with baking soda.

Take it a Step Further

Go vegetarian once a week. I know you’ve all heard this one before, but that’s because it’s such an easy way to lower demand for something that causes a lot of unnecessary waste.

Feeling Ambitious?

Try making your own rain barrel and avoid overusing your hose (there are some good instructions herel) or plant your own garden and lower demand for groceries that would’ve required transport. Don’t have your own place? Try one of these. You can even start your own compost and lower your demand for space in landfills— there’s some great start up info here.

You don’t have to drastically alter your everyday life; all you need to do is think about what you can substitute and what you can do without, then all that’s left to do is start refusing.