A SHIT TON OF STUFFS

Go to the Stolen Transmission website to hear the Oohlas newest song and a video that they made for it using footage from their trip to New York. The song is called "Tripped" and it's one of the best songs I've ever heard in my life. Before you sue me for hyperbole, you need to hear the song, and then you'll be like "you know, sarah, you're right."



OK, so possibly one of the best stories i'll ever tell (which is remarkable, cause i'm known in most circles as one of America's worst story tellers):

I took monday off after working 8 consecutive days from the morning til 2am every day mixing the oohlas record. So for brunch I went with Brandon to La Palapa (you must, must, must try their Huevos Rancheros Verdes asap), and then we went to St. Marks cause for whatever reason, I thought it'd be a good idea to get my nose pierced.

So we're walking home and crossing Houston when a car cuts us off and honks at us. So naturally, Brandon gave the driver the finger and the car pulled aside. I look inside and then realize that my mom was the one driving! I had no clue that Brandon gave her the finger so I turn to him and go "OH MY GOD! IT'S MY MOM! This is perfect! Now you can finally meet her!" So we walk over to the car, my mom rolls down the window and says to Brandon "I saw what you did!" in a playful voice. He basically throws himself into the car through the window to give her a hug and apologize. I turn to him and say "huh? what did you do?" he explained and i doubled over laughing. Meanwhile, my mom really didn't care at all. She was more concerned about my nose ring, which she hated. "You're not 17 or 18! that looks ridiculous! take it out!" I was too busy laughing at Brandon to care what she thought. What's amazing is that he'd been so concerned about meeting my mom and making the perfect first impression, and this was it. She said "this is the perfect way to meet. no set up. totally natural."

Well, at least she thought he was cute.

HELLO

This is what will happen in a 24 hour span of my life, starting from last night at 10pm.

- 10pm - Sat at the Shed studio where the Oohlas record was getting mixed and listend to 11 of 12 finished songs. Blew my mind. This record is seriously on another level, I can't even begin to explain how amazing it is. I actually said "this record is going to make people eat their own cum." Yeah... classy. But in all seriousness, I had an idea that this record was going to be amazing, but I had NO idea it was going to be this intensely incredible. Plus, this is my first ever completed record (save for the mastering part). Next up is Bright Light Fever, which will fucking flip me out as well. Anyway, i'm really proud.

- 11:30pm - went home to get dressed and pick up my music for djing at misshapes.

- 1am - Arrive at Misshapes. Say hi to some people before getting my shit set up to DJ. Get told by Leigh "Axl Rose is coming here. He's going to be sitting over there. PLAY ALL THE HITS."

- 1:30am - I'm busting out my greatest hits collection and decide to throw in some George Michael's "Freedom 90." I turn to my left and see Axl on his feet singing along at the top of his lungs. Sean Dak comes over and points out Axl as well. Me, him, and Jackson kinda freak out.

- 1:50am - DJ Jess, the next DJ, comes up to me and says that he heard that Axl is digging my set. My mind is blown.

- 2:15am - Jump into a cab and head back to the studio to hear the final mix of "The Rapid." I'm greeted at the elevator by Greg Oohlas who rushes me to the mixing board to listen as it's printing. Perfect timing. I lay my head at the deck and start tearing.

- 3am - Head back to the apt with the oohlas and gurjy wurgy. Sorta freak out over the recrod. Go right to sleep cause i'm so drizzunk.

- 11:30am - wake up and take a shower. order breakfast. Spend some QT with the Oohlas before they leave.

- 2pm - Brandon arrives back home. I run downstairs to help him bring his luggage up to our apt. When we get back to the elevator on our floor, the Oohlas are standing there to greet Brandon, say good bye to us, and fly home.

- 3pm - Brandon and I play with Bella, the cat for a few hours and eat lunch.

- later tonight - we're going to Sin-e To see a secret BRAND NEW SHOW!!!! I'm so excited, I can't even tell you.

OK, more to come later. I'm stoked on life right now, you have no idea.

THIS REMINDS ME

I'm DJing Misshapes on saturday, i think.

TONIGHT

Nick Snow made this flyer for me. Duh.

HOLY SHIT

Imagine my surprise when i read the byline of this article about TomKat!

Yes, that's my other brother, Albert. The oldest of the bunch, with whom I lived with for about 2 years on and off on his couch on the Upper West Side (you should've seen me walk into his posh building every night at 4am with makeup smeared all over my face and an outfit that probably made the doormen giggle). I had NO CLUE that he writes for CNN.com, did you, Lawrence?

Here's a photo of me and my brothers, Albert and Lawrence.

LOLOCUAST!

Holy fucking shit of cats in a blanket.

Bright Light Fever have a new video on their website that's fucking hysterical.

OOOOOOH! I WANT THIS!!!


Look at that baby! I want that baby now! OMG, i've never felt my ovaries ache so badly until this very moment. Brandon, i hope you're reading this cause uh... "i think it's time that you should know...". (EDIT: new NOY video for "The Days Go By Oh So Slow")

That photo comes from Nick Snow's friend, Emily Driskill, whom at 20 years old, is a fucking remarkable rock photographer. I'm going to make all the ST bands holla at her when they're in Texas. Holy Moses.

OMFG

I appreciate all my interns more than they'll ever know because they fucking rock more than any other interns on this earth. They're specially selected after numerous tests on many things and after several recommendations from various psychics (one of those psychics being me).

I just want to take this chance to focus a bit on Nick Snow (don't worry Sasha, Jordana, and Jackson, you will get your chance too, but right now, it's Nick).

Nick Snow is the funniest motherfucker I've ever met. There isn't one day when he hasn't thrown either me, alex, or gurj in to a fit on convulsions. I've had friends THANK ME for introducing them to him. I've had nights when I thought I couldn't smile end in nights where I found myself in tears of hysterical laughter thanks to him.

If you're smart, you will either befriend him, girlfriend him, or hire him to do whatever it is that he thinks you should hire him to do.

The end.

FOR REAL FOR REAL... WORD

I know that I've pimped this party before, but I'm serious. It's one of the coolest parties I've been to in NYC. It's totally different than anything else I've ever been. That's why I'm helping promote it. I really, really, really suggest you go.

MONKEY PEOPLE

Men, Women and Children everywhere will love the Men, Women & Children video... which I think the singer, TJ, came up with the concept for.

See It Here. I'm so stoked on that video.

Another video i'm stoked on is Taking Back Sunday's "Make Damn Sure."

Are there any budding video directors here? I think we might do a contest at Stolen Transmission with music videos, but that's still in the works... HOWEVER, never hesitate to make some videos for our bands. Macs are awesome for that. You can put them up on youtube.com and email me the link at sarah.lewitinn@umusic.com ... i'll post them here and on stolentransmission.com and shit. I'm a big fan of those emo stick figure videos, hint hint.

LOL @ that MW&C photo! Nice accessories boys!

THINGS I WANT BURIED IN MY BACKYARD

Congratulations to Nightmare of You for winning the Yahoo!s "who's next" thing!

You can see the hot boys perform and do an interview here.

I'm gonna smooosh their little faces in!

I just got back from Sacramento. Read about my trip here. Oh, and once you're on the website, please post on the message board. it's fun. yay!

HAPPY PASSOVER!

NEW STOLEN TRANSMISSION MESSAGE BOARD

My hot canadian friend Justin from SceneSpin set up a fucking great message board for Stolen Transmission since the one that we're currently using blows massive donkey dicks.

Please start posting and have fun and be cheeky. Make friends and enemies. Talk about music. Find some young love and shit like that.

RIGHT HERE

Thank you!

SORRY BOY

My apologies to my boyfriend because not only did I suddenly decide to attempt to eat as much as humanly possible (seriously, i'm eating when I'm not even hungry, just cause) and will probably be twice the size of the girl you left at home before tour, but I'm going to be sharing a bed with this bombshell for a week:


Ollie Stone. Ollie of the Oohlas. Olivia. Olive juice.
Me + Her - You = word.

Wanna see more photos of her and the two other men of the Oohlas that I'll be sharing a room with for a week? Here are Ollie, Mark, and Greg:
PHOTOS

THESE TRAVELS

I'm leaving for Sacramento today for the day. 24 hours. I'm going to the Casa De Bright Light Fever to hear a new track or two and the songs that they're recording for their debut record on Stolen Transmission. For anyone that likes the band The Bronx, you'll be excited to find out that Joby Ford from the Bronx is producing it. I'm sure I've mentioned this before. I have a tendancey to repeat myself. It even annoys me.

Speaking of things on my label, if any of you are in Hamden, CT this friday, GO SEE PERMANENT ME AND MONTY AT THE SPACE!

Go. Seriously. Run. Hurry.

Also, did anyone see American Idol this weekend? I missed it and finally looked at the website and saw that Mandisa was kicked off. Whoa. How did the judges react to this? Someone please tell me!

THE FIRST TRANSMISSION

Monty finished recording their debut album for Stolen Transmission and turned it in today. I took a poop on it.

Just kidding, I punch my stereo speakers and threw them at my intern's head and said "YOU TRY MAKING A RECORD AS GOOD AS THIS! NOW GO GET ME SOME FUCKING COFFEE!!!!"

You can watch the video they made in honor of the end of the recording of the album with Matt Squire (panic! at the disco). It's so fucking sweet and cute, it's disturbing.

Watch it here.

Hey Ollie, I have a really important question for you that I'm going to publically ask you on my blog: You're going out the front door, not the back door, but haven't you ever heard of closing a Goddamn door?

And Gurj, I want you to show me a little bit of spark you've been saving for your bed post.

(two people will think that's funny: gurj and ollie).

TART BRUT



My Brother Lawrence helps me prove the neopotism isn't dead by performing a guest DJ spot tonight at STOLEN TRANSMISSION at The Annex (153 Orchard btw Rivington and Stanton... lower east side).

Joining him will be every hipster's favorite band ART BRUT!!! If you want to hear the song "we formed a band" you just might hear it from stage rather than the dj booth... at about 1am. hint. hint.

FROM NOW ON

Brad Walsh is my new favorite party photographer.

I'm hopped up on allergy meds... i would write more but my brain is not working.

WAR GAMES

Gideon Yago had been MIA from my life for about a year or 3 cause everytime I called him he was like "I'm going to Iraq tomorrow night, I can't hang," or "I'm going down to New Orleans to help with relief efforts," or "Please tell Dan I can't make it to his wedding tonight... I'm scheduled to interview the President." You know, normal shit like that.

Anyway, just like the rest of us, Gideon now has a Flickr account filled with photos from his travels. From a truckload of young eyeliner clad afghani boys, to a friend immitating Nicole Richie, there are tons of gorgeous photos up there that I suggest you check out.

ACROSS THE STARS

I just updated the news section of the Stolen Transmission website. Please go check it out.

While on the topic of Stolen Transmission... If any of you got an i<3Music T-shirt from the SXSW party, please take a photo of yourself wearing it and send it to me.

And, if you go to any of our band's myspace pages (The Oohlas, Permanent Me, Monty, Bright Light Fever), you'll notice that you can listen to AND add their songs to your myspace page. If you add their song to your myspace page, send me an email with your address and my space address so i can send you a super special Stolen Transmission goodie bag.

HEARTS ARE LIGHT

Someone new that I've met that I really enjoy the company of, is Nightmare of You's guitar tech, Big Brother Mike (or Hot Mike as brandon and i call him). This is BBM:


Now, apart from looking like the twin of my friend Patrick from Youth Group, he also rules because he's just as obsessed with Lost as Brandon and I are... which is to say a lot (so much so, that it's infiltrated our dreams). Also, Mike is an amazing photographer who entertained us all with slide shows of his photography from the current NOY tour and tours he's been on with other bands. He spent ages on the road with the Get Up Kids and combined a bunch of photos from a tour to make a little video that's actually really fucking cool. I asked BBM to post it on YouTube so i could share it. He did.



Also, Sasha the Intern sent me a link to an RPG blog about me... There are a few of those that I sometimes peek at (well, attempt to, but i can't really since they never accept my friendship on those things so i can't read the "friend only" blogs that are about my life... kinda ironic)... This one is like the Passions version of my life. Apparently I was dating Josh Madden and then cheated on him with Gurj. I'm also the mother of Josh's baby... and he left me when I cheated on him with Gurj... Gurj and I also broke up. No word yet on where/when/if Brandon fits into the equation, but apparently he's dating Michelle Nolan of Straylight Run on all these RPGs. So I'm dating Josh all over the internet and Brandon's dating Michelle all over the internet, and Gurj is a little homewrecker. Fucking amazing.

If anyone reading this is role-playing me, will you accept me as a friend so i can keep tabs on my fake life???

NEVER EVER

It never gets easier dealing with death. You run out of tears after a while, but it never becomes easy. Especially when its one of your friends. There's shock and denial. You tell yourself that it's a temporary thing. You call your friend and leave him a voice mail telling him that you miss him and want to see him soon. You pace outside the last apartment you knew he lived in, hoping to catch him on his way out. And then it hits.

For me, it hit when I was in Brandon's tour van driving from Philly to DC. We passed Ben's home-city, Baltimore, on the way and that's when the tears started welling up. I focused my eyes on the ceiling, quietly telling myself what happened, as if I had been on an emotional leave, and eventually burying my hysterical face in my boyfriend's chest as he tries to console me.

The next day I boarded a train from DC to Baltimore to attend the funeral of my friend Ben. And all I can remember is him wrapping his arms around me and kissing every inch of my body in the most loving and playful way possible. All I can remember is him padding around my apartment fixing things as I proudly called him the apartment 3a houseboy. All I can remember is the squintiness of his eyes and the curves of his mouth.

A lot of people knew Ben Chappel. A lot more women knew him than anyone could ever imagine. He was enigmatic and charming. Sometimes confusing. Always painfully smart.

I never want to bury a friend again. I never want to say goodbye forever, again. Not this young. I'm so sorry, Ben. I'm so sorry.

Ben's photos.
Ben's mypsace.
A cute site that Ben made.


(Lizzy and Ben)