Jams of the Week 12/8/16

Hi and welcome to jams of the week!

I never listened to the xx before they were on SNL, but I'm glad they were 

because "On Hold" has been in constant rotation since.

On Hold - the xx

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It took me a while to figure out that AWOLNATION was more than just "Sail" 

but since then I've been really digging their stuff.

Kill Your Heroes - AWOLNATION

"Never let your fear decide your fate."

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If this song doesn't make you want to get up and dance I don't know what to tell you.

Come Down - Anderson .Paak

till next week,

Maggie 

Jams of the Week 11/30/16

Hola and welcome to jams of the week!

Big Decisions - My Morning Jacket

You're sweet and sincere, but so ruled by fear

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Move - Saint Motel

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All Night - Beyoncé

Probably in my top 3 songs off "Lemonade"

Till next time,

Maggie

Jams of the Week 11/19/16

Howdy and welcome to jams of the week.

First up, a great take on how to wake up the Wednesday after the world lets you down.

Wednesday Morning - Macklemore

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I have a slight obsession with British rappers...Dizzee Rascal on You've Got the Love? Obsessed. Tinie mentioning J.K Rowling = yaassss. Something about that accent has me hooked. 

Girls Like - Tinie Tempah feat Zara Larsson

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Niall is the best member of 1D, don't even argue.

His solo song is beautiful.

This Town - Niall Horan

honorable mention for the week - Brooklyn, You're Killing Me - Andrew McMahon. 

New song from my boo, but I can't decide if I like it or not! So I didn't include it as a true pick this week.

till next time,

Maggie

Doctor Who Awesome Art Roundup Volume 4

Howdy! Welcome to the Doctor Who Awesome Art Roundup vol. 4! I just finished watching episode one of the "Class" spin off so I'm in a Whovian mood and thought it was a good time to share some more art!

let's start off with a visit to my favorite Whovian artist Alice X. Zhang's newest works:

Probably my favorite ever of Twelve

and

"Remember Me"

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"I think you need a Doctor." 

Sigh...Nine and Rose's relationship is so underrated... via aimekitty 

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Arkarti has some amazing Whovian deviations but my favorite is "The Impossible Girl"

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I'm verrrry tempted to buy sugarpoultry's 50th illustration. I'll be your bad influence, go do it!

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"Doctor Funkenstein" by rapsag

ALSO by the same artist, "Finally someone worth talking to"

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Obsessed with the style of this one, "Rose" by overflow8

and then there's this, I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING

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All the Doctors in the TARDIS, wonderfully done by erich0823. There are also single prints of each!

in addition to that there are a few awesome single episode prints and other characters like Capt Jack!

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I wasn't a huge fan of the "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit" episodes but I love this art of Rose&Ten from it by wondercookies

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Ninth Doctor in mod pop form! via billpyle

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I have to end with "Hold Me" by hazeeel because it's my favorite of the roundup. #Whouffaldi forever.

till next time nerds,

Maggie

Jams of the Week 11/4/16

Hola and welcome to jams of the week!

Roll Up - Fitz and the Tantrums

I Don't Wanna be Funny Anymore - Lucy Dacus

Healing - Paul Janeway

till next time,

Maggie

Jams of the Week 10/21/16

Howdy and welcome to jams of the week!

a little random, but all wonderful. 

Ain't No Man -The Avett Brothers

"I know it gets dark, but there's always a light"

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Same Drugs - Chance the Rapper

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Alaska - Maggie Rogers - Alaska

till next time,

Maggie

Doctor Who Awesome Art Roundup Vol. 3

Hey cool kids! Today I'm headed out to New York for Comic Con, so to celebrate getting to meet Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman I present the Doctor Who Awesome Art Roundup Volume 3!

Rose and Ten, scootering into adorableness, via rennerei

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From the same episode, but different artist, a little hair fluffing for that vintage feel =) via lisaveeee

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why anyone would want to torture themselves with this is beyond me but its awesome and so I had to share.

AND THEN YOU GET THIS AND YOU MAKE IT AND CRY

thank you tumblebuggie for this, I forgive you for making me cry because you also did this adorable Eleven X Amy

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Her hair is full of Gallifreyan spoilers =) This is my favorite River art of all time!
via savedher

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Madam Vastra and Jenni don't get enough love, S.O to theGorgonist for this awesome print, and the following boy and girl who waited.

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I've featured RaRo81 (Rosalia Radosti) on my Harry Potter roundup a bunch but now she has this adorable Twelve and Bill print that makes me so excited for the next season!

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This poster for "Time Heist" is awesome by foreverclassic

"robbin' a bank, beat that for a date" 

Honestly one of the first Doctor Who episodes I saw which makes no sense.

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and lastly, gotta end with Eleven since I'm meeting him finally, adorable giraffe dance in whovian sweaters by scribblywobbly =)

Hope you guys have a great rest of your week, and if you're going to be at NYCC hit me up in the comments!!! =)

till next time,

Maggie

Book Review: The Lunar Chronicles

Book lover problems: last month for book club we read "The Red Queen" which I devoured and then immediately downloaded the second book and read. Unfortunately for me, there is a third book that doesn't come out until who knows when. Starting an unfinished book series is one of the most frustrating things to me...I literally need to know what happened next or I won't stop thinking about it. I decided I needed a complete series to start ASAP. After a trip to the library I found they had whole Lunar Chronicles, which included four lengthy books I could read for a good minute. I was slightly hesitant because a.) they're teen bestsellers which can be good or bad b.) something about the covers was a turnoff and c.) how many Cinderella stories does a person need?

Apparently I needed one more. Or, as it were, four more books about one awesome cyborg Cinderella. Cinder, the first book in the Chronicles, follows Lihn Cinder. Cinder is a cyborg mechanic living in New Beijing, a commonwealth that like the rest of the world is plagued by the deadly Letumosis. 

That sentence normally would make me think the book was too"sci-fi" for me but Marissa Meyer works it all together brilliantly. Cinder lives with her wicked stepmother Adri and stepsisters Pearl and Peony. She has no memory of her past life prior to becoming a cyborg and spends her day working a stall fixing broken things, giving any money back to her stepmother, and only having the company of her funky and malfunctioning android Iko. One day the Price of New Beijing Kai stops by and asks her to fix his personal android, and that pretty much starts the crazy action in the book. Cinder's stepsister Peony catches letumosis and is whisked away, which Adri blames Cinder for and sends her to be palace where scientists are using cyborgs to test possible cures and research to the deadly plague. Cinder there meets Dr. Erland, who runs the research for plague cures. Cinder agrees to take part in the research, but only to find a cure for Peony. In the process she finds shes immune to the plague which sparks some questions, since no earthling could be immune. 

While reading you get to go back and forth with POVs, including Prince Kai. Kai's father the Emperor is dying from the plague and he has to deal with Queen Levana, the ruler of the Lunar colony at the moon who wants to form an alliance with him (aka to marry him) as soon as his Dad is dead. So, life's no party for him either. Queen Levana as a lunar has the ability to control your actions and glamour you. She's lived her life in a constant state of glamour as the most beautiful woman in the world, but Kai finds her repulsive. Levana bargains with a cure to the plague if they marry, and Kai feels he has no choice but to save his country. 

Before that can happen though Cinder gets Prince Kai’s android to work and finds out that Kai and the android had been searching for the dead/missing Princess Selene. Selene was Levana’s niece who many think is still alive and could take over the throne from Levana. Cinder tries to get that info to Kai, but Levana sees her and knows immediately she's actually a Lunar, and Lunars aren't supposed to be on earth. Levana tells Prince Kai he wants Cinder dead, but instead Kai asks her to the royal ball because, duh. Cinder says no because he's self-conscious of her cyborg bits, which Kai doesn't know about, and because she's a dummy. But then she finds out Levana is going to kill Kai, so she has to go to ball to warn him. Adri bans her from going, and it starts to take on that Cinderella/Ever After imma go to the ball no matter what kinda thing... and you can maybe guess what happens? But wait! then there is a twist! and you'll have to read book two to see what happens. 

The next book Scarlet is an awesome take on Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.  After that is Cress, a Rapunzel / Flynn Rider kinda thing, and lastly Winter a Sleeping Beauty/Snow White and the Huntsman retelling which brings all the characters together to bring down the evil Queen Levana. 

In case you're feeling some kinda way about the queen, Marissa has her backstory available in short story form!

It might be temping to say you'll skip these books for the same reasons I almost did but they are awesome and unique re-tellings that don't make you feel like you're just watching the Disney movies. The series was different and exciting, had strong female leads (with diversity), NO love triangles (thank you Jesus and Marissa Meyer), and was just fun to read. If you're a fan of the tv show Once Upon a Time  or if you love a bit of sci-fi mixed with your Disney, I'd say read them ASAP.

Shoutout in the comments what you've been reading, or if you loved the Chronicles too! If you suggest a non-complete series though I swear...lol

Till next time,

Maggie

Jams of the Week 9/22/16

Howdy and welcome to jams of the week!

I can't believe I forgot to post this song last week, it's the newest from my love Andrew, and its awesome. 

Fire Escape - Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness

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Such a sucker for Ryan Tedder's magical voice.

Kids - OneRepublic

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kinda newish death cab?

Good Help (Is So Hard To Find) - Death Cab for Cutie

till next time,

Maggie

Jams of the Week 9/15/16

Howdy and welcome to jams of the week!

This weeks jams have been stuck in my head all week so sorry in advance for when they're stuck in yours! 

and oldie but a goodie that I revisited because of Donald's new show "Atlanta"

Retro [ROUGH] - Childish Gambino

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Sad but uplifting is my favorite genre. This song is perfect for feeling sad but not wanting to curl up into a ball, maybe dancing it out instead?

Good Grief - Bastille

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this stupid song - ugh - has been stuck in my head since I heard it. That would be fine, but I have the part that isn't really words from the beginning stuck, so I'm just mumbling syllables and stuff. Thanks Kiiara.

Gold - Kiiara

till next time,

Maggie

Jams of the Week 9/4/16

Hiya! Welcome to jams of the week! I hope you guys are having an awesome weekend and a happy labor day. This is the first year in a long time I haven't been laboring on labor day so I'm pretty jazzed. 

Sometimes remixes or covers reallly get on my nerves, but I think this has enough of the original Leslie Gore that it works. 

You Don't Own Me - Grace feat. G- Easy

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"Drawn to your face like never before/

Even the mistakes aren't really mistakes at all"

see also: Stockholm and Trojans. Great jams.

Molecules - Atlas Genius

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Today is Beyonce's birthday, yasss queen, and she released another video from Lemonade on youtube so I can actually share it here! Bonus, it's one of my favorites! If you still haven't sat down and watched all the Lemonade, do it now.  Right now. 

Hold Up - Beyoncé

till next time,

Maggie

Jams of the Week - 8/16/2016

Welp, slap on the wrist for me, because I haven't posted a Jam of the Week since Cursed Child came out. Harry Potter kind of takes over my life. Anyways here we are, back at it again with the jams

I want to post soo many pop songs I am digging right now, but I have a feeling those jams are also songs you hear all the time on the radio so I'm going to skip those. S.O honorable mentions to Heathens - Twenty One Pilots, Cold Water - Major Lazer +Bieber. 

I haven't heard these first two on the radio so I'm counting them as jams of the week. First off, Bacon, so damn catchy. I'm also a sucker for "Close" feat. Tove lo.

Bacon - Nick Jonas ft. Ty Dolla $ign

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Kind of obsessed with this song since I saw the movie. The soundtrack is pretty good, the movie...eh.

Sucker for Pain - Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa & Imagine Dragons w/ Logic & Ty Dolla $ign ft X Ambassadors

Can we talk about how Augustus Waters from The Fault in Our Stars is a DJ now? I added the song to Spotify and I listen to it a lot which drives me nuts because things he says in the press make him seem like a dbag. Kudos to you Augustus.

Home Alone - Ansel Elgort

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Welcome to Your Life - Grouplove

"Welcome to your world, my girl

Let it be your fantasy, oh yeah"

till next time,

Maggie

Harry Potter Awesome Art Roundup Vol. 7

Happy Harry Potter week muggles!!! Day two includes the ever epic Harry Potter Awesome Art Roundup, volume 7! It's extra jam packed because it's an awesome week (and can I just say how coincidental it is that it's number 7, the ultimate Potter number???)




First up, this awesome bunch "Witch Gang" via dasstark.
Dasstark has an awesome tumblr, and if you're also a fan of the Raven Cycle, she draws an awesome Ronan =)

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I am loving all these characters by Brittany Myers, particularly her Draco seems so spot on.

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How sweet is this Philosopher’s Stone set by Bear + Crocodile??

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I want the burrow to be a real place I can go to ASAP. Maybe that should be my new life goal? It looks so awesome in this print by twiggymcbones

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while we're on the topic of weasleys, here's the whole famdamily by xxKaseixx. the width makes it hard to look great on the blog so click the link.

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Check out this lil badass Trio on their way to kick some butt by theGorgonist

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Top 3 favorite Harry Potter fanart projects has to be  audreylynnillustrationhp who I've put on a different volume before. She's working on the whole Harry Potter book (books?) and each image is so wonderful and sometimes they're in GIF form and even more wonderful! 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Chapter 9 The Midnight Duel 

“They weren’t in a room, as he had supposed. They were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor. And now they knew why it was forbidden. They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.”

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Chapter 7 The Sorting Hat 

“Oh, you may not think I’m pretty, But don’t judge on what you see, I’ll eat myself if you can find A smarter hat than me. You can keep your bowlers black, Your top hats sleek and tall, For I’m the Hogwarts Sorting Hat And I can cap them all. There’s nothing hidden in your head The Sorting Hat can’t see, So try me on and I will tell you Where you ought to be. You might belong in Gryffindor, Where dwell the brave at heart, Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart; You might belong in Hufflepuff, Where they are just and loyal, Those patient Hufflepuffis are true And unafraid of toil; Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, if you’ve a ready mind, Where those of wit and learning, Will always find their kind; Or perhaps in Slytherin You’ll make your real friends, Those cunning folk use any means To achieve their ends. So put me on! Don’t be afraid! And don’t get in a flap! You’re in safe hands (though I have none) For I’m a Thinking Cap!”

I could honestly post them all! Please check her out when you get a chance =)

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Because it's volume 7, let's go with another top 3 fanartist, Rosalia Radosti. Her character portraits are amazing, but I've put those on here before so here are some of her other adorable Harry Potter prints. 

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I find wizard families really interesting (obviously) but one small detail that I've always appreciated was the Black family's astrological names. This print by Dromedas does a wonderful job compiling them and showing their actual locations. 

 If you check out the link, there are individual prints for each constellation. 

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taryndraws is doing a wonderful 8 days of Potter art leading up to the new book, and so far everything she's posted has been wonderful

Day one - "no post on sundays" prompt 

Day two- "expecto patronum" prompt

Day three - "Ickle firsties" prompt

the best part of this whole thing? I get to find so many more amazing Harry Potter artists!!

First off, this AMAZING gif by Zannarl

and then Luna with her patronus by sonyacreates

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Again with the Burrow and the Weasleys, I know, but this one by smelslikeart is too adorable.

“Harry stepped in, his head almost touching the sloping ceiling, and blinked. It was like walking into a furnace: Nearly every thing in Ron’s room seemed to be a violent shade of orange: the bedspread, the walls, even the ceiling.” 

AND YOU KNOW WHAT, 

I'M JUST GOING TO END WITH MORE

WEASLEY

BECAUSE IT'S MY BLOG AND I'LL WEASLEY IF I WANNAAAA

and because this wonderful art from Pottermore seems like a great way to end this volume. 

Till next time!

-Maggie

P.S t-minus 70 Hours!