I was ready to set the world on fire.

Today I'm revving up and getting ready for what is panning out to be a great holiday weekend. More details on that tomorrow, but for now: got any questions for me? Amid my furious working and later, cleaning and packing, I'll answer them on my Formspring!

Here's a list of things I've been super-digging:

• My commenters' Top Five Girl Crushes lists. I almost made a Honorable Mention list. Almost.
• Liz at Dance to the Radio's Monday Mixtapes
• We all know I'm a huge Dashboard Confessional fan. Total geek. I love this new tumblr dedicated to the band, but with a mocking tone. I'm all for the die hard "I love you" fans, but I also know how easy it is to make fun of their emo reputation and, it's true, everybody takes a bad picture sometimes! It seems all in good fun. The best is their Dashboard Confessional show etiquette post - I quote - "7) DON’T yell for hands down every other song. I SWEAR TO YOU, IT WILL BE A COLD DAY IN HELL BEFORE THAT SONG IS NOT ON A SETLIST."
• A Great Big Pile of Leaves' new album getting a 93% rating on AbsolutePunk.net!
• This recipe for Tequila-Soaked Watermelon Wedges - delicious summertime snack
• How I realized I'm actually interested in The City's storylines about branding your fashion line and working at a magazine. Boys, schmoys - I like seeing them work!
• The Best American Magazine Writing 2009 - great, sometimes emotional, but always eye-opening reads
• And finally, a picture of really cute cheetah cub, the best animal in the entire world:

Be calm.

I have a lot of catching up to do, I KNOW! My holiday weekend was sure fantastic - I'll have to tell you about it when I have more time.

For now, I hope you have all heard the new Motion City Soundtrack single, "Her Words Destroyed My Planet" ---- right?! Well, if you haven't, get on it - buy it for 99 cents at Shockhound.com! Also, have you heard the lyrics: I fell asleep watching Veronica Mars again...yeah, as an obsessive VMars lover, I was hooked upon first listen. (And if you haven't seen Veronica Mars, it's well worth the DVD price!)

Have you listened to it? What do you think? I love when the song kicks in after the intro and if I'm listening to the song alone in my room I usually have to get up and bounce around a little. I'm so very excited for January 19th, 2010 when My Dinosaur Life will be released. If you happen to be seeing Motion City in the next few weeks on tour with WEEZER, stop by their merch table where you can purchase this amazing Joe Ledbetter lithograph from the always-awesome Beth and I believe get a download code for the album!

Last night the dudes played the first show of the tour in Chicago and Jesse and the rest are pretty stoked - not only to be touring with Weezer but also to actually be playing shows and with Tony again! Anybody going to see the tour? Jesse said he had a lot of fun last night!

In other news, I came across something on the internet that got me really excited. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know I'm a huge Dashboard Confessional fan (my love has not faltered over the years...). Though he cancelled the tour that would bring him to New York for three nights in a row (yes, I would have done all three nights!), Carrabba and Lefler are touring acoustically with New Found Glory, who are also performing acoustically. They played their first show of tour two nights ago in LA and Spin.com had a good little recap, and the setlist made me happy!

Dashboard's setlist via Spin.com -

"Ghost Of A Good Thing"

"The Swiss Army Romance"

"The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most"

"Until Morning"
"So Impossible"
"For You To Notice"
"Get Me Right"
"Bend And Not Break"
"Up My Sleeve" (from John Lefler's Better By Design)
"Breakable" (Ingrid Michaelson cover)
Interlude: "Over The Rainbow" (Judy Garland cover)
"Carry This Picture"
"Stolen"
"Screaming Infidelities"
"Belle Of The Boulevard"
"Remember To Breathe"
"The Good Fight"
"Where There's Gold"
"Vindicated"
"Hands Down"

Encore:
"The Best Deceptions"

The whole So Impossible EP was played, as well as a lot from his first two albums and only one from my least favourite album Dusk & Summer. Strangely, they didn't play "Even Now" from their latest Alter the Ending - I would think it fits in so great with their set and I believe they've already filmed a video for it. I am now plenty excited for the tour to hit New York!

Also, I love the fun. album Aim and Ignite. You can download it for $5 on Amazon.com right now! If you loved The Format as I did, you would love this album. This is all old news, though, I'm sure.

Let me say it again for the bajillionth time in this post: LOVE! I apparently LOVE everything.

That's all I've got for the moment. Wait! PS - I'm on book 51 of the year now! Hurrah!

Even now I can feel your hand.

As I related in the last point, I saw the movie In the Cut, as recommended to me by Amber, and was surprised to find how much I loved it. I'm also obsessed with this particular tumblr that summarizes or features movies in four frames. Above is my hand at "framing" Jane Campion's 2003 movie. I instantly thought of framing the film because of how interesting Campion's shots were throughout. Has anybody seen it? What did you think? I remember people absolutely hating it when it came out; I can't believe I hadn't seen it until now.

The viewing also led to a little shake-up in my Top Five. Mark Ruffalo has always been near the top, but was never included. Well, he has taken down Lee Pace. Pace, as you may remember, was the lovable main character on Pushing Daisies, but since that has been cancelled, my love, too, has waned in his absence. Ruffalo is IN. Also, weird fact that I learned while watching the behind-the-scenes featurette on In the Cut - Ruffalo hadn't worked in ten months when approached my Campion, as he had just gotten over brain surgery from having a brain tumor that paralyzed half of his face. He doubted whether he would even return to acting.

In other news, the new Dashboard Confessional album is out today and I've been listening to it for the past week completely enamored with both the full-band and acoustic versions of the songs. Before listening, I wondered why he would even put out two versions of the same songs, and once I listened to the electric songs it became clear: Carrabba, you are using some electronic effects! Gotta get those acoustic songs out there too for the ol' die-hards...like my friend Rick, who has always proclaimed Dashboard is infinitely better unplugged. Rick and I plan on discussing the album(s) this week, and I'll let you know how that debate goes. For now, you can pick up the album for $6.99 today via Shockhound and if you want to know my two favourite songs at the moment they are "Get Me Right" and "Even Now."

Also, you know that movie Say Anything? It was released TWENTY years ago. Can you believe that?Lloyd Dobler holds the title as my first swoon ever. Way over any other 80s teen character, Lloyd was my silver-screen lobster - and I think every girl who's seen it. Some of the ladies came over on Saturday night for an anniversarial viewing, in which we talked about when we had first seen it, and how in ways it ruined our ideas of love - Lloyd Dobler does not exist (these sentiments were half-joking). Our own Jiscilla had never seen the film - I KNOW. We laughed as she commented during the viewing: "Aw, her dad is so nice. He takes care of her." and "She's not going to give him that pen, right? HA. That would be awful." I actually loved seeing someone react to the movie without ever having seen it! We all revelled in Diane Court, Joe lies/When he cries, Stoltz, keymaster, "If you were Diane Court would you fall for Lloyd Dobler?", kickboxing is the sport of the future, how does that "happen", I gave her my heart and she gave me a pen, IN YOUR EYES THE LIGHT THE HEAT, etc., etc., etc.

I think you know I could go on about this seminal film of my adolesence - couldn't you? Is there anyone who doesn't like this movie? (And not in an award-worthy way or had to be relevant to your childhood way - just, simply, like or do not like...and why?) I think a negative opinion of Say Anything would really surprise me! Like, surprise me in a way completely different than when people say they hate The Beatles or The Godfather. How can you hate on Lloyd? Anybody want to prove me wrong?