Friday, November 23, 2012

Taylor on VH1 Storytellers and AMAs


VH1 storytellers

Taylor Swift held a contest recently calling colleges to vote competing for a private concert. Harvey Mudd College in California won and Taylor performed a small concert, which was recorded by VH1 and premiered as an episode of VH1 Storytellers. 

She opened with You Belong With Me.
"I recently wrote an album called Red and I am holding a guitar that is also red. The song that I wrote was about this relationship that I had that was the worst thing ever and the best thing ever at the same time. I was writing this song and I was thinking about correlating the colors to different feelings I was going through...emotions like daring, passion, love, affection, and the other side: jealousy and anger and frustration and 'You didn't call me back and I need space.' What I ended up doing was writing a song that I hope you want to hear right now called 'Red.'"

 


Next, she performed Ours. That song was one of Taylor's best moments. It was just her and her guitar. Her voice is so pure and controlled. The anecdote beforehand made it even better. She said when two people are in love, it's theirs and no one else's, even though everyone wants to judge. She talked about a critic that really didn't like her and she wrote Mean, which she performed next. She then told a funny story about writing a song accidentally in the studio with two co writers. A friend of an ex came in and said I heard you're getting back together.
We are Never Ever Getting Back Together was performed next. 


She said the next song she wrote for her high school talent show about a nice guy she was dating at the time. The crowd loved it. She told her record label she wanted it on album and they told her that she can't base decisions on your friends. It was her first number one so she said I guess you can.  
She played Our Song. 
 

 

Taylor said you never know what's going to happen to a song when it's released. When she was 17, she liked a guy who was bad news and her parents were right about him. She got mad at them one day and stormed off, slammed the door, and wrote a song comparing them to Romeo and Juliet. 
She played Love Story, her first number one worldwide hit

Note: This is based on the VH1 Storytellers show, not the actual performance. They didn't air every song she performed. She actually performed You Belong With Me, Red, Ours, Eyes Open, Mean, Begin Again, Our Song, Love Story, and closed with We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, lasting about an hour and a half for about 3,000 students.

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American Music Awards 

Taylor won Favorite Female Country Artist  
and performed on the AMAs this year. 

 

She performed I Knew You Were Trouble (debut). She appeared in a long white gown.  Midway through the song, she disappeared in a mob of her dancers. A few seconds later, they dispersed revealing her in a red and black corset with a black skirt with gold embellishments and details. 

 
 
 
 

Click here for a video of her performance. 
I thought it was awesome.

 In 2010, she performed Back to December and won Fav Female Country Artist. In 2011, she didn't perform but she sweeped the awards, winning Fav Female Country Artist, Fav Country Album, AND Entertainer of the Year (the highest award)
 
 

Berry Eagles and Looming Football

Update: the eggs have hatched! Berry has BABY bald eagles! (1/29/13)

Update: there are eggs in the nest!! (1/5/13).

Update: Berry installed a live eagle cam to arch the nest! (12/17/12).

Update: the female could lay eggs any day now! (11/28/2012).


Back during all the debates on campus about adding football, two bald eagles nested on campus right where the stadium was to be built. Officials and bird experts and such even comments on how odd it was for the eagles to nest so far from water.

How about that? I think it's hilarious in a karma kind of way.
The birds that are protected by federal LAW (can't touch them, can't move them, 100K fine) build a nest in the EXACT spot where the stadium is planned. 
Hm. Hehehe. 





This is just incredible!


 Stadium plans were halted. Berry had to apply to some forestry association to get permission to build in the planned spot. Recently, Berry was granted permission to build as planned.

September 7, 2013
This is the date of the first Berry football game.. 

The first ever Berry football coach. 
Tony Kunczewski from La Grange College.


*sigh* 
I am so glad that I will be long gone from Berry when football fever sets in. 

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Protein Crystals

These are the proteins (lysozyme) we crystallized in biochem lab last week.
I think that's SO COOL!






Ticket Fiasco

So Taylor announced her Red tour, which kicks off in March and goes through September so far. Tickets went on sale November 16 at 10am. I was worried. 

I couldn't get tickets for the Speak Now tour because it sold out in three days. I was worried about the Red tour since her career has skyrocketed so much. I knew tickets would go fast and I wanted to be ready. But I had a test that day at 10am when they went on sale. This only caused more worrying and panic. 

On November 11th, I received an email with a secret code to be able to purchase tickets as part of the presale the next day at 1pm. WHAT? I was surprised and so so soooooo happy that I would be able to try to get tickets without messing up my test! So at 12:50pm on that Sunday, I was ready. I had my code and my laptop and Ticketmaster already loaded. As SOON as they became available, I entered my code and searched for the 'best available.' No luck. I tried again. Nothing. I must have searched 15 different times and it couldn't find tickets. Finally, it found two tickets, but the were in the back, third level, $200. I gave them up and searched over and over for almost an hour. I finally gave up. 

Later that day, I found out 14 stadium and arena shows were sold out within MINUTES, including the one I was shooting for. Taylor sold out three stadiums and several arenas
Toronto’s Rogers Centre stadium (sold out in 5 minutes)
Detroit’s Ford Field stadium (sold out in 10 minutes)
Chicago’s Soldier Field stadium (sold out in 25 minutes)
Los Angeles (2 shows in 1 minute)
Washington DC (2 shows in 5 minutes)
Atlanta (2 shows in 5 minutes)
Miami, Tampa, Columbus, San Diego and Sacramento.

In response to the strong demand for tickets, the following shows have been added to the previously announced RED Tour dates:
June 14 - Toronto
July 26 - Foxborough, MA
August 23/24 - Los Angeles   

Taylor Swift’s The RED Tour will now include 11 stadium stops,
 for a total of 62 shows in 45 cities in 29 states and 3 provinces in 2013.  
I have another city in mind that I will try to get tickets 
 for as soon as they go on sale.