You Never Know Who's Paying Attention...

Wow, what a week! To say that the past 7 days have been insanely amazing, crazy, surreal, awesome, jaw dropping , kick ass and above all busy would actually be a gross understatement.

It's been all that and then some, kids! ;)

I'm still trying to catch my breath but in the meantime, let me fill you in on one of the most awesome moments from this past week.

First a little history:

For the most part, Out the Other Side gives me a great excuse to (among other things) talk about fellow creatives and creative things that I adore. Occasionally , I have been known to talk about music video directors that inspire me. Frankly, I am a bit of a music video junkie. I think that music videos as an artistic medium (as well as an entertainment vehicle) are just fascinating to analyze in depth. I am even reading a book that highlights the finer points of music video history ("Money for Nothing: a History of Music Video from The Beatles to the White Stripes" by Saul Austerliz. It's a fun sunny day read ;).

I'm particularly fond of directors (or artists in general) who aren't afraid to be edgy, unique, boundary defying, unapologetically weird, interesting, or willing to say something visually different.

This brings us to Maria Juranic and how she single handedly made my week/life! :)

Several months ago, I wrote a post about Juranic and her fascinating body of work. She is something of a professional hero of mine, so it was totally my pleasure to do the write-up on her.

Now, when I write this little blog that I call Out the Other Side , I seriously don't believe that my readership goes very far beyond my amazing group of personal friends (many of which are talented artists in their own right) a few other amazing creatives that I get feedback from on occasion, and possibly a few drunken college kids in Sweden who click on this blog by mistake.

I believe that to think otherwise so would a require a level of confidence/cockiness that is, frankly, just not in my nature. ;)

Anyway, never in my life did I think that I would be getting a personal email from Maria Juranic herself thanking me for the write-up I did on her! Never!

Not only did Maria send me an incredibly sweet email thanking me for showing her work some love but she also told me that she loves my work as well! :)

I'm not sure if she was just being polite, but I think that compliment almost caused me to have a small stroke out of excitement....haha.

Wow! I have nothing but an enormous amount of respect and admiration for Maria and her approach to her craft. As I said , she's a hero of mine, so to have her compliment my work at all really means the world to me. I don't even have the vocabulary to express how amazing that is.

What can I say? I'm a little star-struck. ;)

In any case, I want to extend a HUGE thank you to Maria Juranic for taking time out of her busy schedule to send such a cool email. She seriously just paid me one of the most amazing compliments that a girl could hope for! She is a class act, an amazing talent and if you haven't gotten aquatinted with her work yet, then what are you waiting for?

Below is my favorite Juranic clip : "Optimist (We are Not for Them)" by P.O.S.

Check out Maria's official page HERE and my aforementioned blog post on her HERE. :)

Also, thank you to everybody who has become a fan of Out the Other Side on Facebook! If you haven't started stalking the new fb page yet, feel free to get to stalkin' right over HERE! ;)

Andy Rehfeldt May Be My New Hero

Do you think that Metallica and smooth jazz make for strange bedfellows?

Well keep reading. ;)

Today I have been cooped up inside (on a beautiful day, mind you) because I have been putting together a reel of motion pieces for a student art show (which opens on Monday Wednesday).

I'll admit, being stuck inside on a pretty day just to meet a deadline kind of sucks. However, this is actually a fun gig. I've basically been handed a stack of DVDs with several student's motion pieces and have been put in charge of stringing them together so that they can be looped during the show.

Simple enough.

The interesting thing is that one of the pieces prominently features the classic Metallica track, For Whom the Bell Tolls.

For the record, Metallica happened to be one of the many staples of my high school music collection, so I still have a warm, fuzzy spot in my heart for them.

Despite the fact that I think that Lars Ulrich is a certified douche, I pretty much believe that The Black Album and much of what predated it account for some of the most masterful heavy metal music ever committed to tape.

Getting back to the art show reel, For Whom the Bell Tolls certainly falls well within the era of Metallica that I can gleefully tolerate.

However , as a consequence of tweaking this reel for several hours today , I have had to hear that song repeated many, many times. Quite frankly, it was starting to make me a little crazy.

Imagine my surprise when (after finally finishing the reel) I stop for a "Twitter break" and randomly stumbled across this beauty :

No -- Metallica hasn't suddenly morphed into a jazz fusion act. However, after seeing this, there is a part of me that now secretly wishes that they would!:)

The musical mastermind behind the re-dubbing of Enter Sandman (and many other metal classics) is Los Angeles based musician, Andy Rehfeldt. He has been recently featured on MTV's Buzzworthy blog (which you can find HERE). You should also should totally check out his Twitter page HERE and his Youtube page over HERE. ;)

Not only did this effectively clear the pallet from the marathon repeats of For Whom The Bell Tolls, but it also just made me smile like an idiot. Granted, this may not do anything for some of you metal purists out there.

However, it definitely made the metal head, jazz nerd and lover of general oddities that I am a very happy girl. ;)

Andy Rehfeldt.....you are now officially my new hero. Bravo, sir! ;)

Year One

First things first. Lets get one little thing out of the way....

You're welcome. ;)

In other news, today has just been crazy awesome for yours truly.

Today I was briefly mentioned on (former Tonight Show) blogger Aaron Bleyart's blog. I was a finalist for a contest to name the Macbook Pro that Bley will be blogging from on Conan O'Brien's Not Legally Prohibited to be Funny on Television Tour.

My suggestion ("The iBley") unfortunately didn't win. However, it was apparently cool enough to be a finalist and to get a mention on his blog (which you can check out here). Apparently, I am also getting some sort of (possibly questionable) snack from Bley's Matt Damon lifetime achievement awards goodie bag as a runner-up prize.

Seriously -- I'm kind of way too excited about this! The mention + the Matt Damon snack have got to be one of the coolest slices of random that I've ever been somewhat a part of. Well....at least not since I saw Sylvester Stallone getting in trouble at customs in Sydney, Australia.

No -- I'm not kidding.

Anyway, it's still pretty awesome and I'm pretty stoked about being a runner-up. Thanks Bley! :)

Today I also got another piece of news that was so good that I almost thought it was April Foolery. I got a call-back for a potential internship in Los Angeles, California!

Needless to say, that phone call pretty much made my day! The company is called i am that girl and they deal with (among other things) the promotion of females being passionate, beautiful and strong on their terms. It's very cool stuff and (as I said before) I am incredibly excited to get a call-back from them! We'll definitely have to see how things go with regards to that offer....but I'll keep you guys posted. ;)

Finally, not only is today April Fools day (hence the completely creepy 'Rick Roll'), but it was also one year ago today that I officially launched Out the Other Side!

Wow....my baby's growing up so fast! Seriously, were does all the time go?

A year ago I started this blog as a sort place to spew randomness / quasi-portfolio / bouncing off point for all of my creative inclinations. I sort of put this thing out there on a half-whim and have been pleasantly surprised to see that people are still interested after this long. That's nothing short of being completely miraculous to me and I am insanely thankful to every one of you who check this blog out and have given feedback over the last 12 months.

The coolest thing about posting on Out the Other Side is that it has allowed me to connect to so many other fabulous creatives. Hopefully I will continue to inspire you guys as much as you have me. :)

Anyway, in honor of Out the Other Side's first birthday, I have taken the liberty of giving the header (and color pallet) a little overhaul. My twitter page has also gotten a fresh makeover, so if you haven't checked that out yet, then you can do that over here. ;)

I hope that you guys dig the new look. I initially wasn't so sure about moving to an all white background for this blog. However, the longer it stays this way, the more I really love it. I'm pretty excited about brightening up the blog (in my own morbidly special way) just in time for spring and summer.

I also wanted to share my new favorite song with you guys. This is "Strapped for Cash" by Fountains of Wayne (from their 2007 album Traffic and Weather). Seriously -- why did I never pay attention to these guys after "Stacy's Mom"? This song is brilliant!

Anywho, given the fact that I am preparing for a big move within the next month or two, I figured what better way to usher in springtime than with a funky, upbeat, horn drenched, energetic ode to being broke.

Think about it. It totally fits. ;)

In any case, enjoy!