Sam Tsui and Kurt Hugo Schneider Concert!

Yesterday, I went to see Sam Tsui and Kurt Hugo Schneider perform live in Freehold! Macy Kate was even with them! It was the first time I ever went to concert too and it was absolutely amazing! The meet and greet tickets were also super cheap, so me and my friend got to take pictures with them and have them sign our t-shirts!

For those of you who don’t know (although I don’t know why you wouldn’t have already heard of these awesome people), Sam Tsui and Kurt Hugo Schneider are musicians who post mashups and covers of other songs on Youtube, though Sam has just made a debut album called Make It Up. Sam is usually the one who sings and Kurt plays the instruments and produces music. Macy Kate is one of their friends and another singer on Youtube. Here’s one of Sam and Kurt’s mashups that I absolutely LOVE:

Honestly, I didn’t think seeing them live would be as amazing as it was. I mean, seeing any performance live would be really cool, but I figured it wouldn’t be too different from their other stuff–just that they would be on a stage in front of me instead of in a music video.

In reality, though, seeing someone you love to watch and listen to in person instead of on a computer screen was straight up surreal. I had resigned myself to never being able to see them in the flesh, and they sort of became just cool, awesome people I’d only ever see on the Internet. But now, they were actually in front of me, not just a channel on a video sharing website! It was like my world imploded. My friend and I actually saw them walking around iPlay America before the concert and I was just speechless.

Their performance was awesome! They sounded just as good live as they do in their videos, which is just a testament to their musical talent and how autotune-less their videos are. Sam did drop the microphone once, but other than that, it was pretty much flawless. They played all of my favorite songs from their channels and then some–I was pretty dejected when the concert actually ended.

Sam and Kurt are spectacular performers and their concert was fantastic! My only wish would be for them to come to New Jersey again!

QUIZUP SUCCESS!

OMFG HOLY CRAP

I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!

Guess I really am awesome with myths and stuff!

Homemade Falafel!

Today I made falafel with my brother! It was delicious. We ate it with homemade(not authentic but still good) tzatziki sauce (even though it’s Greek and falafel is Middle Eastern–we didn’t have the stuff to make tahini sauce). It was delicious! Even though I was a little dubious about it, I ended up loving it! Here’s the recipe so you can recreate it at your own house, but bear in mind that these ingredients are not completely exact:

Falafel Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of water

2 cups of falafel mix (We used falafil mix)

Olive/cooking oil

Tzatziki sauce ingredients:

2 cups of Greek yogurt

2 tablespoons of white vinegar

4 tablespoons of relish

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 green onion

1 clove of minced garlic

salt, black pepper, and oregano to taste

Directions:

1. Mix all of the ingredients for the tzatziki sauce thoroughly and refrigerate it for about 8 or so hours or overnight, like we did.

2. Mix the falafel mix and water and refrigerate it for the same amount of time.

3. Fill a frying pan with cooking oil until it is about a centimeter high on the pan and put it on medium to high heat.

4. Shape balls out of the falafel mix and set it into the pan carefully–the oil may splash out of the pan.

5. Fry the falafel until it is nice and crispy on both sides.

6. Set the falafel on a plate with a paper towel to let the oil drain out of it.

7. Dip it into the sauce and enjoy!

Here’s a photo gallery:

Finished tzatziki sauce

Balling up the falafel before cooking

Falafel being cooked and crispy

The finished product! (My brother’s holding it)

Vice Documentary: Heroin Holiday

http://www.vice.com/Fringes/heroin-holiday

This documentary is probably one of the most interesting ones I’ve seen. It’s not that long either, so it’s definitely worth a watch! It shows how heroin junkies make their own heroin from the poppy fields. While it does seem a little filthy and gross, as pointed out by my disgusted mother, it’s pretty fascinating. I’d never have thought that junkies would be so friendly, or that their lifestyle would be like what was shown. It also had the plus of discouraging me even more from ever wanting to dabble in the drug business, which is always something good.
For those who follow me, sorry about not posting for such a long time! I promise I’ll try and be more on track.

Hurricane Sandy

Hi guys! I thought I’d write about my experience during Hurricane Sandy when the power went out for weeks.

My family stayed in our house for a few days. The days were filled with the thin, reedy light of the winter sun, and the evenings filled with a dim, candlelit darkness. The darkness was sinister and intimidating. The candles only gave out a small amount of light, and I was always afraid that someone was hiding around each and every corner. Amazingly, the lack of light shortened our days. We always went to bed at 8 or 9 o’clock, because we could do very little without power and without sunlight. Everything in the refrigerator slowly spoiled, so we had to live on the snacks my parents had bought from the supermarket in anticipation of losing power. We have well water, which runs on electricity, so there wasn’t any running water, either. The thing I remember the most, though, was the cold. The whole house was just constantly chilly. At night, the temperature dropped swiftly, and I’d climb into a frigid bed, the blankets as cold as ice. In the morning, the only thing that wasn’t freezing cold was where I’d wrapped the blankets around myself. I would reluctantly climb out of the only warmth and shiver as I walked down the stairs. We couldn’t even go outside and play because of the cold, and we could only read by day because our flashlights and candles didn’t provide enough light at night, though I had a kindle, so I could read when I wanted to as long as it had battery. When my dad managed to generate electricity by letting the car run idle in the garage, all of us would gather around the single power strip connected to the car, plugging in chargers in every available slot as our electronics slowly regained battery life with the intermittent power. After putting up with this for a few days, we got out of the house and spent nights at friends’ houses that luckily did not lose power. It was sort of like being a refugee, always only staying a day or two at the same house. I couldn’t even enjoy the pleasure of no school! Finally, on November 4th, the day after my birthday, our power came back on! It was such a relief! Everything worked properly! The house was actually warm for once! It was a bliss. I wasn’t even mad about going to school the next day. It was an amazing feeling.