Music | The Wannabe Chef

Tag Archive: Music

My Marathon(Or Anytime) Playlist

Written on November 27, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

I listen to music whenever I’m running or working out. I usually listen to music and ~~try to~~ sing along when I’m cooking and think I’m alone until somebody comes by and wonders who’s killing a cat. And now I’m listening to music as I write this.

You’re not really supposed to wear headphones when you’re running a race, but I couldn’t stand listening to my own thoughts for 4 hours. That would drive me nuts. My strategy for long runs is always to distract myself with music that’ll get my heart racing. A good playlist is invaluable for a marathon to take the focus off the pain.

This is the playlist I used for my most recent marathon. It’s pretty evenly mixed between 3 different genres for variety. I put the whole thing on random so I never really knew what was coming up.

Top 40:

These types of songs are great because they’re usually up-tempo and kind of catchy. Plus you’ll probably already know them because they’re played on the radio every day.

Country:

I’m a big country fan. For the skeptics, I promise it isn’t all songs about dogs dying, wives leaving, and drinking too many beers on a Friday night. There are definitely those songs but they aren’t all the songs. I usually look for the songs with a good, strong rhythm that you could picture people in a bar in Texas line dancing to(not that I’ve done that… yet).

Alternative Pop/Rock:

These types of songs are really good for running in particular since the beat is so strong and they get your heart racing. I’m not a fan of the crazy, screaming metal rock like Metallica, though that works for some people, but alternative rock I find fun and invigorating.

Some albums to check out:

Here are a few of my favorite band and albums. If you’re looking to buy new music, I suggest listening to a few of these and seeing what catches your ear. Most of them are available to preview on Spotify.

Masterpiece Theater—Marianas Trench

Ever After—Marianas Trench(not on my playlist since it came out the day after my marathon, but I’ve been listening to it ever since)

Shallow Bay: The Best Of Breaking Benjamin—Breaking Benjamin

Incredible Machine—Sugarland

Various Songs—Miranda Lambert

The Singles Collection—Britney Spears

What are you favorite workout songs lately?

8 Comments - Leave a comment!

Mixfest 2011

Written on September 18, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

I’m interrupting the regular foodiness of this blog to bring you something way cooler. Yesterday I went to my first Mixfest hosted on the Esplanade.

Growing up around Boston and a regular listener of Mix 98.5/104.1, I had always been aware of Mixfest as an awesome star-studded concert but never gone since tickets were usually pricy and hard to come by. This year, however, the concert was free. And since my friends wanted to see the concert just as bad as I did, we planned out a day trip to Boston and made it happen.

We got to the hatchshell wicked early(can you spy the Bostonism?) and had a couple hours to kill before the performances started.

Cotton candy was an obvious snack choice. I’d like to say I don’t eat it much but this was my second time this week. I just love sugar so much.

There was also a stand that sold just about everything imaginable on a stick and covered and chocolate which a lot of my friends got. I was really in the mood for cotton candy, so I stuck with that. But if they set up shop in Providence, there’d be trouble.

Finally Javier Colon took the stage, winner of last season’s The Voice. I admittedly was a Dia Frampton fan but he did an amazing job singing songs like Time After Time and Stitch By Stitch and hit some incredible notes.

Next up was Michelle Branch, which would have been the highlight of my 2000’s childhood. It was a blast singing along to her older songs; I was surprised just how many hits she had and that I could remember all the words.

After Michelle was perhaps the highlight and main reason we decided to come to Mixfest: Sara Bareilles. I saw Sara a few weeks ago also in Boston so I knew to expect a spot-on performance. She sings JUST like she sounds on her album and always gets the crowd up and dancing. An easy favorite.

After Sara was Grace Potter & the Nocturnals. Admittedly I had never heard of them before. By the end of their set though, I was a fan. She brought the most energy out of any performer and rocked the house. Her fans were equally as amusing to watch; for a second it looked more like Woodstock than Mixfest.

During her first few songs I helped myself to a dinner of pink cotton candy. I think I prefer the blue flavor, described on the bag as “Boo Blue.” Yum, how do I make that at home?

The last performance of the night was Lifehouse. This could have gone either way but they ended up being really good and closing the night strong. Another band that I forgot had a huge number of hits. I think I lost my voice somewhere during Hanging By A Moment.

Start to end, the whole trip was 11 hours long. And then we ended up back in Providence dancing to some very different music with a very different crowd for a few hours. Today’s going to have to be pretty low key to recover from it all.

12 Comments - Leave a comment!

New Things I’m Loving

Written on July 3, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

Today I’m in NYC visiting some friends over the holiday weekend. I don’t have any red, white, or blue recipes to share for the very good reason that peanut butter and chocolate are none of those colors. Instead, I’ll hold on to that recipe a little longer and share some of the new things I discovered in June that I can’t get enough of.

It is scary how accurate this tastes. I don’t know how they make carbonated water and “natural flavoring” taste like a pina colada; I don’t want to know how. I just want a fountain of this in my house.

If you haven’t noticed, I have a new header designed by Ryan and an overall new layout designed by myself. The old layout was looking a bit shabby and cluttered whereas this one is stripped down.

I don’t know how “new” this relationship is; Friday was Netflix and I’s one month anniversary. We celebrated with dinner and a movie. Actually, it was more like dinner, a movie, a documentary and 3 cartoons. I don’t want to jinx anything but I could see us being happy together for a long time.

I’ve also been enjoying on repeat this song:

And while we’re at it, this song, too:

I know, I know, I have the musical taste of a preteen girl.

What’s new in your life?

10 Comments - Leave a comment!