Viva La Vida

For a couple of weeks my brother has been saying things like, "why do I like that new Coldplay song so much?!" and telling me how good it was. I started listening to it (over and over, I'm TERRIBLE at being a repeat offender) and decided I liked it to. I haven't been into Coldplay much but I started thinking it might be fun to hear them sing the new song live. The SAME DAY I thought that, I heard Jules in the photo department asking people if they wanted to see Coldplay on the Today Show. No one would go with her, but I said I wanted to. She decided she didn't actually want to go because she thought it was going to rain. I was debating whether or not I wanted to go by myself when my roommate told me she knew Aja was going. So I called Aja who said she was going to be there at 5 a.m. I was not that dedicated to Coldplay. I had been planning to get there at 7. But I decided to go half way at 6 so I could hopefully meet up with Aja. By the time I got to Rockefeller center and figured out where the line was to get into the main concert area, Aja had already gotten in. I randomly stood in the back and ended up being crowed up against a van. During the two and a half hours I was standing there with sweat dripping down my back and really annoying people talking super loud around me, I was thinking of all the really bitter things I was going to write on my blog about how it wasn't worth it to stand out and wait for Today Show, even if it was free. But when Coldplay started playing they were so great and I love live music SO MUCH that I forgot all about it (mostly...) I was able to stand up on the back of a van so I could see pretty well. Coldplay was really awesome. The music was fun, I could hear really well, but what I liked most was how considerate they were. They knew everyone was there just to hear them, so during sound check they played full songs and were talking to the crowd. During one song Chris Martin ran to the back of the crowd and said, "thank you so much for standing way back here, we appreciate it!" And of course, everyone in the back thought that was great. In summary, I'm not sure I'm going to be running back to the Today show, but I did buy the Coldplay album and I have been enjoying it. Coldplay MADE me love them just by being nice. Oh, and I'm 2 for 2 at being on the Today Show. I know for sure I was on TV during at least one song (I haven't rewatched it all). I was easy to spot since I was on a van:





Here is the whole video of Viva la Vida:

Philharmonic in the Park

Two years ago when I interned in NYC we tried to see the Philharmonic in the Park, but as soon as we sat down a torrential downpour started and there was a mass exodus of really wet people leaving the park and crowding the subways. Last night I went again and it was a completely different experience. It started out with a beautiful walk through Central Park that took much longer than I expected and by the time I got up to the Great Lawn it was almost ready to start. The crowds were huge and everyone was using their cell phone to find their groups. Too much cell phone usage apparently caused T-Mobile to go down because my phone wasn't working at all. Ann Poulson rescued me out of the crowd and let me sit by them and also let me use her phone so I also sat part of the time with Linsey, Brian and Ivy Morris. The crowds are really too big to be able to see the stage or hear the music very well, but it is really really fun to sit with millions of people on blankets and listen to the orchestra. AND they have fireworks. People make it a big event and bring fancy meals with citronella candles and some had tiny tables with china and the WORKS. Linsey has already started planning a fancy picnic for next year so can't wait for that.

Sorry no pictures. I think my camera is REALLY broken this time...

Hamlet

Thanks to the new virtual ticket line to see Shakespeare in the Park, I saw Hamlet Tuesday AND Wednesday of this week. Becca Shim got tickets on Tuesday and I was very excited to go. The play was great until a huge storm started and the sky was flashing pink and purple and huge lightnings and thunderings were going on. Leaves were blowing really hard at the poor actors who were yelling but could not be heard. It started to rain. They canceled the show. As we walked out of the park there were huge tree branches laying all over the grass. Crazy. So I signed up for the virtual line on Wednesday and we got to see the rest of the show minus the storm. It was really well done until at the very end when (spoiler alert just in case you actually haven't read or seen Hamlet) Hamlet killed King Claudius and a spout of blood came out of his neck like a hose. Tons of tons of red liquid spewing like a rainbow out of his neck. I had to cover my eyes and everyone was laughing. When the next person died, it was a lot more realistic. Just a little costuming problem.

Guggenheim

Today was the first time I've ever been to the Guggenheim. I went with my coworker Jeffrey to see Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want To Believe. He is a Chinese artist that does explosive art. Literally. He uses gunpowder to create a lot of his drawings. It was really cool because the entire museum was dedicated to his work. He really took over the space. You can look here to see a video about him. The whole show was pretty great. I really liked how he used non-traditional media to create his installations. Like gunpowder. And wolves. Something else really smart that he did was make black fireworks that you could see in the day time. Wow. The best part was at the end the artist himself was walking around. There was a room where he made a boat with a long meandering shaped swimming pool. No one else was allowed to ride in it. But it was really cool to stand and watch him look so peaceful and happy moving along the "river" with his (or some) kid on his lap. He looked really happy with the way everything turned out. It was pretty intimate, not many people were there. All in all, it was a great day at the Guggenheim. Here are some images of the awesome stuff he makes:

Ashley likes to party all the time

Today is my birthday. I am 26 years old. At work they brought in bagels and we toasted them with delicious cream cheese. I love toasty bagels! After work I made some Banana Pudding using vanilla wafers I had made the day before. Some people came over. Here they are:
I'll shout out as best I can...Jen, Brooke, Greg, Garrett, Alejandro, Matthew, Marcus, Tara and Bardhi... Holly's brother John, Holly, Ty, and Meredith.


























































This is Becca Shim singing me my own karaoke song based on Eddie Murphy's Party All the Time. Not everyone has as great of friends as I do. Here are her lyrics, written around the fact that I am moving into a different apartment soon: v1:

girl i can't understand it

why you wanna leave me

after all of the things i've done for you

i let you sleep on my loveseat

and store things in the ottoman

but still you want your own room

what am i to do

(it's because)

ashley wants to party all the time

party all the time

party all the time

**some freestyling

v2:

girl i know i may not be an ideal roommate

hanging out in my drawers and talking til 3

but remember how i helped you find

your eternal mate

don't go thinking you can play MASH without me

(chorus)

And this is the remnants of banana pudding. Also pictured is the amazing golden good luck cat from my friend Sarah and flowers from Ann. Thanks everyone for a great birthday!













Ecard from Sarah.

One of the best stories I've ever heard about someone I don't know

So my roommate's coworker's roommate...

had her dog die in their apartment. It was a big dog. They didn't know what to do with the giant dead dog in NYC. They didn't have a back yard to bury it in and didn't want to throw it into the dumpster, so she decided to take it to the Humane Society to have them incinerate it or do whatever they do with their dead animals. So she puts the dead dog's body into a big duffel bag and took it down to the Subway. It was a really big dog and so she was struggling carrying it on the stairs. A guy saw her having a hard time and asked if she needed help. And she accepted. So he carries her bag onto the train and they are chatting a little while they are riding. At one point he says, "That bag is really heavy! What is in it?" And she answers, "...uh, some books...a computer..." and at the next stop when the subway doors opened the guy grabbed her duffel bag and ran off. She just let him go.

Washington DC on the side.

I've been trying for a week to post these pictures NOT sideways and I can not do it. I straightened them in Photoshop more than once! So, I am ashamed to do it, but I am going to post my Washington DC pictures, sideways.

I also tried to upload all the images at the same time and this blog is not working the same as usual. I can't get the captions where they need to go. I'll list them all at the top, then you'll have to scroll down to see pictures. This is not working well. What is wrong with this post? Just keep scrolling. And scrolling.

In true tourist fashion I took pictures of me everywhere with different backgrounds.

1.There was a Japanese festival at the same time and we had some great Japanese food. I ate this awesome bean cake fish. I'm still not absolutely sure what it was, but it was good.
2. Cherry Blossom Parade with Seth
3. The building under which I watched the parade.
4. Idaho at the WW2 memorial.
5. Lincoln memorial.
6. The cutie cute cute Irish dancer whom I loved so much.
7. Here they are dancing
8. Here we are watching them dance on the Jefferson Memorial. Seth, Kami, and Amy. We also saw the Timpview Marching Band from Provo perform. Woo hoo.
9. Cherry Blossoms!
10. As the giant beaver in the parade said, "take pictures not blossoms."
11. Goodbye Washington Monument.
12. Really cool subway system.
13. I saw a really cool live Butterflies and Plants exhibit at the Smithsonian.
14. Scary Smithsonian elephant attack
15. Me at the White House. There was a protest going on. "Foreclose on Bush" they were saying.

Where I work

This is me opening my window at the desk where I work. Yes, we have to actually climb onto the desks to either open or close them. But it is nice to have them open. And I do look at the Empire State Building all day.

La Bohème

Thanks to Jen for inviting me to my first opera, La Bohème! I loved it! I loved it so much! We started standing in the back of the theater but before the third act someone gave us their tickets on the fifth row in the middle. I'm glad I got to see it from both points of view. The sets were INCREDIBLE. The cast was AMAZING. The stage was GIGANTIC. It literally blew my mind.

Don't even worry about it

This morning my roommate Amy and I responsibly woke up early and went to do our laundry at 6:00 a.m. at the Miss Bubbles which is located on 137 and Amsterdam. We see many police cars and an ambulance in the street right by Miss Bubbles, but hey, we are in New York City, when do you NOT see those sorts of things? While we are in the laundromat, the news channel is showing LIVE footage from a three person shooting that happened less than a block from where we were, about 10 minutes earlier. Oh. So that is what all those helicopters were doing. If you wondered, we did get our laundry done. I tried to find a link to a news station to verify my information and this was all I could find.

Wish list

Well, I'm off the New York in the morning. This is the list of things I didn't get to do last time I lived there that I want to do this time. Anyone is welcome to join me and/or to add any funtivities to my list.




















And yes, I did save this scan to my computer. My poor picture folder has not yet been found. I will take my poor laptop to the Apple store in NYC. Please be able to rescue my pictures Mac Docs, even though I am so bad and I keep saving new things over them.

Hey Stop!

Christina said she was sad she didn't make it into any of my New York pictures so I am posting this video I accidentally took while we were waiting in front of Grimaldi's. I know it is sideways and you can't even really see her but I have an important question that arises from watching this video. At the end I say "hey stop" to my camera. Is that really what my voice sounds like? Kind of like a ducky squeak toy?


I don't actually have any good pictures from New York of people. This one is us eating at Grimaldi's. I'm not sure why I didn't try a little harder.

I'm sure part of it is because my camera is so bad.

But don't get distracted. Does my voice really sound like that video?

New temporary plans

I am moving to New York in a month to do freelance in the Martha Stewart Living Magazine design department while my friend Linsey is out on maternity leave. I start April 7. I will be there 3 months for sure, maybe a little longer.

That is just an update on my plans.

In honor of that I will post some unflattering pictures from the last time I lived in New York:

This is when we moved all of Holly and Becca's stuff from one apartment to another. My job was sitting on the curb making sure no one stole the stuff. For a few hours. New York City is hot. Everyone was covered in sweat.

These are my awesome tomato plants that were stolen when I moved and the taxi driver wouldn't let me put them in the car so I left them in a garden area of my apartment building for not very long and someone horked them. That was sad. I am still mourning a little.


A couple examples of how wildly curly my hair gets in New York. I have been growing my hair out since I was there last, on the off-chance that I might go back. I didn't especially like my co-workers singing the "Annie" songs every time I went to work.

The sleepover we had the night before I left. We slept on the roof. That is always awesome. I am most excited about getting to see all my New York friends again.