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It’s crazy as I sit here and start writing all of my feelings down while I’m sitting at my desk watching Grey’s Anatomy and on Rival Summer’s last live before he makes the change to his legal name. For those who have been lucky enough to interact with Artists, or work with them it hits differently when you’re so used to knowing them by a certain name. Rival Summers started back when I was also at Oakland University. The first time I became aware of RS was at an event for WXOU, or walking through the OC, and I just said “hi” striking up a conversation. Then I went and checked out his music later on, and remember thinking “local talent is always the way to go.” That’s when I really started getting into the underground music scene what’s now referred to as “Indie.” Rival Summers was the first artist from Michigan I listened to with an open ear and mind and went “man you have raw talent” During the same year I started digging Rival Summers, I also started attending more shows especially during 2011-2013, and finding more underground artists who I’d later find out were relatives to some of my friends. This whole entire time, I remember thinking “talent lives in my state, and I’ve been living under a rock my entire life.” During my time at OU, I was helping out with Promotions at WXOU. Every year we put on a series called “WXOU Birthday Bash” and would have local artists from Michigan as well as big name artists. My first year attending is when I saw Rivals Summers play for the very first time. Then after that I started going to venues like “The Crofoot” which is one of my favorite venues in Metro Detroit. It’s actually one of the only venues in Michigan I’ve been to the most out of every venue I’ve been too. I can’t remember what show it was, but I’m pretty sure I saw RS play a show their at some point too. I know I saw him a few times.

This isn’t just about live shows and the live performance space. Lets get into some music. Over the past 13 years, Rivals Summers has released one EP, 3 albums, and several singles. The very first single I ever listened to was “Jenna’s Song” off of “Days Like This” EP. 2012 “Learning To Live” came out which was before his 2016 album “Undeniable” which as many know is his latest album to date. Those last two albums were albums I listened to for a very long time, and I learned every lyric, and could sing it because it fits my range hahaha. Every song Rival Summers has released is uplifting, real, personal to him, and relatable to all of his. This is why music is extremely powerful, and changes lives forever. This is why people get into this crazy life/business. I reached out to Rival Summers one summer one year right after graduation asking if he was looking for help and at the time he said no. So I went on about my life and started getting into blogging, writing concert reviews, single reviews, and album reviews.

Years went by, and I decided to leave my life behind and move to California in 2017. In 2018, I took a job, and one year later in June 2019, I was sitting at lunch, and decided to reach out to Rival Summers again. This time I was successful, and we started working together. As some of you know “Still Here” was released September, 6th, 2019. Before the release I spent hours during breaks, on my commute to/from work, when I’d get home from work, I’d just constantly reach out to media outlets, radio stations, create lists, everything. I of course had big dreams for him, and that was where I discovered “hey I can do this.” I remember the day “Still Here” dropped, and it was a Friday. I felt extremely proud and I didn’t even work on the single at all. Where my excitement came from was my drive, and determination that if you put work, sweat, and tears into things especially when you don’t have time to have “a life” it all pays off. Once the single came out that was the end of Rival Summers and I working together, but I knew he lived in Nashville, and at the time I was prepping to move to Nashville as well. I never think I’ll end up in same states as people I know, and have looked up to for a very long time, but it always seems to happen and never fails. In April of 2020, I was supposed to go and see Rival Summers live now that I lived here, and instead that was the week the world shut down. Needless to say I still haven’t been to a show here yet, but I definitely will.

Earlier this year, Rival Summers announced the retirement of that name and going under his legal name Leo Bautista. It’s no longer “Rival Summers AKA Leo” for me anymore just “Leo” which will still take getting used to because we all know Rival Summers as the music side of Leo, but now we get the real person behind the mic this entire time. I look forward to hearing new music, attending more shows in 2022, and supporting Leo’s new name/new journey. Thank you for everything you’ve given all of us for 13 years, and as always allowing me to be apart of your journey at some points in life.<3 For one last time, as one door closes, a new one opens. Here’s to the next phase and steps of your new journey. Much love to you Rival Summers! It’s been real! ❤

If you’ve been living under a rock, and had no clue what took place on Saturday, SHAME ON YOU! Saturday was one of the biggest days in College Football history. The Big Ten Conference, is I think one of the best conferences in college football. At 12 EST/11 CST, the infamous rivalry in my hometown of Michigan took place in East Lansing. This game was hyped up to be one of the biggest games since both teams were in the top ten rankings of the AP Poll. Michigan #8, Michigan State #6. Now if you’re not an avid football fam you’d be thinking why should I care about some stupid game? It lived up to all the hype and more.

For those who don’t know history about U of M or MSU, all you really need to know is over the past few years both teams have struggled with playing at high levels, rebuilding offenses, coaching changes, etc. This year alone has been one of the best in terms of so many teams playing a lot better. It’s not just these two. Overall theirs a lot of good football happening week in & out. This week was a match up like we haven’t witnessed between tsk really good teams. That wasn’t to say their weren’t mistakes on both sides of the ball by both teams because their were, but I can’t explain what this vibe particularly meant.

I started watching the game before I went to the Nashville Predators game, and starting out Michigan didn’t let state start out very easy. A 93 yard TD for my maze in blue, while state threw a few interceptions at first is what had them struggling, but then things got even more interesting because their were a lot of 3 & outs on both sides, complete passes, fumbles, Defensive plays, field goals, and more TD’s Michigan QB, Defense, & offense looked great, greater then they have in years, and they played at high levels. Game gets tied at 14, Michigan gets 2 FG’s and state starts finding holes in first and second quarter, but Michigan should’ve scored more points in the entire game, but they didn’t because Sparta defense. Defense for Michigan was great too they had a fumble in the end zone on a defensive play when State was on Offense.

At halftime it was 23-14 Michigan on top. I expected State to pounce the Wolverines all game, but that wasn’t even close. Now I don’t have brain capacity to go into everything and everything is bleeding together because it’s late, but what I will say is second half is where the ball game got exciting because it wasn’t allMichigan. As a true U Of M chick I live them, but this game was so close a real fight to the finish. A well fought hard battle for both teams who played well. State really started scoring in the second half. Michigan still fought though.

In the 4th, what did in Michigan was the thrown interception, & fumble. The score was 33-37 state sealed it when they intercepted on their possession. Overall I loved the game I thought it was great, one of the best, and didn’t disappoint. Even though my boys lost they still in the top 10.

Hey their I know it’s been a really long time. Live shows are back, and everyone’s itching to get back out to live shows. Last Saturday, I did just that. For those of you who don’t know I picked up and moved myself to one of the music capitals of the country Nashville, TN at the end of 2019. Last year, I was supposed to attend a show at Mercy Lunge where Rival Summers was performing, but the week of the performance the world shut down, and I had bought tickets and everything. So during the pandemic, I attended one live virtual show for the release of “Slaves” album which dropped earlier last year. For months, I had been missing live shows and actually going to shows because my love for music came from attending live shows over the past decade. Back in July, I was taken to a brand new music venue I’ve never been too “The Station Inn” to see “Bobby Osborne”, and for those who follow me on socials I told the story which never happens, but hey I have my ways hahaha. Anyways, back in May, I started helping an Indie Pop Artist out of Nashville look for more opportunities, promote his EP, and just step in anywhere I could. From that I learned we lived in a very small world which shouldn’t surprise me because the fortunate part of me just falling into the music industry is finding those connections, but I never expected it to be someone I personally know so that was a fun fact to learn. Fast forward to October, I was invited to a show in Downtown Nashville at “The Analog” which is an extremely amazing venue. I thought I’ve been to some of the best ha I was lying to myself. This place had really fancy couches, a bar, not to crazy on the tech side which was good for me because I’m used to Rock Shows and pits which I do miss. Lets get into the real meat of this. The entertaining stuff.

As I stated above “The Analog” is personally what I think of as an very upscale music venue inside of “Hutton Hotel” which in itself is extremely fancy at least by my standards. Of course I had no problem asking people for help or where to go because I knew I’d get lost. As people started piling in the show started at 7:30 PM on Saturday, October, 23, 2021, I remember feeling the most excited I’ve felt since I moved to Nashville, because I never did get to experience the show I was supposed to go to last year, so I felt like I had so much time to make up for and it was exactly how I expected to feel, but so much better. If your a musician, music junkie like me, into the live music scene, it’s torture to be away from something for over a year, but when you get to experience it for the first time in a different way it’s way more thrilling, and a feeling like no other.

First up was Alex Embler whos is a Nashville based Pop/R&B Artist. He played some new songs along with some favorites like “Rich Girl”, Indigo”, and “#Winning” off of his current EP “Inigo.” I was right in front of the stage, and the sound wasn’t too over powering. The acoustics sounded really good, and their was minimal light changes, but some. Above Artists heads their was a chandelier that was round and it was one that went in upwards instead of outside. Alex had a live band from a keyboardist, two guitarist’s, and a drummer. Vocally, he killed it, but I could tell something was off, because I know he has way more energy then he put out so I was expecting more of a stage presence. I found out later that he wasn’t feeling well so I said yeah it was obvious, but he pulled through. Each performer had a half hour (30 Minute) set.

Sam Mcleod was after Alex, then Meadowlark Valley, and last but not least was Mariclr. I’d love to go into detail about every single performance, but I’m shortening this because I wasn’t prepared like usual, but I do want to get back into writing about shows because that’s one of my strengths. Performance wise everyone did great and Sam, Meadowlark, and Mariclr were all indie artists I’ve never heard any of their music, so it was refreshing and vocally everyone nailed it. Mariclr’s performance was the best of the night though because she really got into it. She even had her band break it down on solo’s, and the keyboardist even contributed on vocals to “Milk & Honey” which honestly the man can sing. His name was Matt. She really brought the energy, and I was reminded of how much I missed live music. That was one of the best shows I’ve been too in a very long time. I love shows that can bring all the energy and get the crowd going. Sorry this one is long, and sucks, but hey I captured the last two years briefly, and just went with this. Once I get back into this I’ll be back at my level. 🙂 Hope you enjoy this one though. 🙂 Have a great weekend!

Well as we all know Ohio State lost because of Devonte Smith. Well it started with him, then Alabama just trounced all over them. In the beginning it looked like it was a back and fourth game and they were finding their stride then it all just went down hill and to see them actually get challenged and struggle was entertaining, but I would’ve liked to see them win. I feel as though new team needs to get into the championship game other than Alabama. It’s kind of getting old watching the “Alabama Show” every year. I’d like to see some new blood in their and new teams come to play. What’re your thoughts? Are y’all sick of seeing Bama every year? New teams should prove themselves. I got bored watching once Alabama started pulling away.

For those who don’t know I’m going to tell my story because why not? My name is Ashley. I was born at 26 weeks gestation, and am an identical twin. I have Retinopathy of Prematurity which in my own terms is defined as: I have no vision in my right eye because of detached retina’s so I have ZERO vision in that eye, and my right eye is smaller than my left because of that. However in my left eye, I do have decent usable vision with correction using bifocal glasses (legal limit is 2200) Without my glasses my vision is blurry (2500) because I don’t have a lens in that eye because of an eye surgery in 04 where the decision was made to just not put a lens back in, but they did leave room for that. I have been legally blind since birth, and have had pretty stable vision throughout my life. This is the life I know and to be completely honest nothing has ever come easy for me. First of all, it’s a miracle I even survived because from stories I’ve been told we weren’t supposed to survive, so WE’RE LITERALLY A MIRACLE. 🙂 I also have mild cerebral palsy which affects my left side and that’s a muscle weakening condition so growing up in grade school I had a lot of PT & OT. I also remember having speech therapy as well for what reason I don’t remember. Going through all of grade school from first to 12th every year before school I would do what’s know as Orientation and Mobility which in the field of vision loss is an actual thing guys. Reasons why this exists for blind/Visually Impaired people is to get familiar with our surroundings because believe it or not based on what your vision acuity is and your level of having good orientation becoming familiar with new places can be daunting and challenging especially when you lack certain skills so therefore I would go do tours of my classes a few times before the school year started. I’ve also done this with any new places to get my bearing and gain my confidence because I lack that sometimes. When I was also going through grade school I also had a Teacher consultant that would come in every week and teach me braille which is comprised of six cells that make dots which creates words/contractions, and I started that in second grade. I was always better at writing than reading it. My parents even took braille classes which I thought was super cool because a lot of sighted people don’t actually know what it’s like to grow up in a visual society where minorities like myself have to learn things in different ways.

Don’t get me wrong I’ve gotten to experience a lot of cool things as well and when I was in high school I would literally go around to classes and give talks about my vision and what it’s like for me so that people could get an idea, and I always loved doing that because I felt special and important and yes it was always fun to be the cool kid in class with all of my equipment because everyone was fascinated with it. I wasn’t always the smartest with academics and yes I used to have help from my paraprofessional which would enlarge papers if I need it, braille stuff, or roll my cart down the hallway so I got to leave class early. There are perks to having disabilities y’all. Math isn’t my strong suit and when i was born I also had a brain bleed which is why I’m more logical and street smart then book smart. That came later in college though…I graduated high school and made it to college.

In college I was scared because for the first time iI was on my own and I had to figure things out for myself I didn’t have help from anyone and I was the one in charge and had to advocate for myself. So every semester I’d go to Disability Support Services and get accommodations I needed for my classes and every year I’d talk to my profs and I had some amazing professors who understood blindness and who worked with me. Not everyone is lucky and has great experiences like I did but growing up I was in a great district and I was MAINSTREAMED which was a huge blessing because I was socialized and I had friends I was super lucky to live the life I did and have because not everyone has my mentality or brain or drive. My parents did good things for me and I’m forever grateful for that because things could’ve been so much different for me, and to me I always thought I had it tough because I came from over protectiveness and that always bothered me but I understood why my mom was like that. So I got through college with my BA in Communications and this is where I got good at writing papers, and where I found my love for media. I was apart of my schools radio station, and television station doing Promotions for radio & an Audio Tech for TV and sometimes I was scared to try different things because I didn’t think I could do it so I wouldn’t try because that’s when I realized things are super visual and got scared and just gave up didn’t challenge myself like I should’ve. I was super fortunate to get an internship here in Nashville where I really learned that a lot of things involve driving and visual things which honestly is a bunch of crap because we’re so focused on being visual humans that we forget if that’s taken away from us because it could be that everything we know we have to relearn so my hope for this blog is that I can educate you and make you all realize that ableism is real and a bunch of sighted people need lessons in life and just how to interact with disabled people.

This is just the start and the cusp, but I hope you guys understand me a little better now. I will be writing more consistently and going into more detail, but this year I don’t want to be afraid to just put myself out there, and hide. I want people to know my story and ask questions because I’ve always been scared of what people think of me or how how I get treated because I’m different and if you use a cane your more easily taken advantage of. It took me a long time to use a cane which there’s different ones that signal to people hey this person is blind EXCEPT I’M NOT COMPLETELY BLIND so that’s annoying sometimes but people don’t know. So for now I’m done with this first entry and if people get lost feel free to ask questions and get to know me. I wanted to write my thoughts down, but sometimes my fingers are faster than my brain so if some of this doesn’t make sense sorry my bad but that’s me and if you don’t like it oh well. I’m going to be me and not apologize for who or how I am because everything stems from me being a preemie but also being an awesome human who’s had to overcome a lot of challenges in life, but that says a lot about me. 🙂

Stay tuned for more! ❤

Have you always wanted to know what sets great music apart from just being good? Music isn’t about what just sounds good, but the building blocks to a good narrative story, the passion behind the impactful lyrics, putting your heart and soul into something great that will make a huge impact on the world. Originally formed in 2008, and raised in Michigan, this Nashville based pop storyteller artist comprised of Leo Bautista known as Rival Summers has always taken the world by storm with his inspirational song lyrics. In 2012, the first album “Learning to Live” was released. Then in 2016 his second album “Undeniable” was released. That leads us to Friday, September, 6, 2019 where after a few years the latest single “Still Here” finally was able to be heard all over the internet. You might be thinking well why is it every few years an album comes out? It’s simple completing tracks, coming up with concepts, and personal life ventures have happened for RS, but he’s always kept his eye on the prize and continues too.

Let’s jump into the meat and potatoes of this single, shall we? “Still Here” represents a positive message of falling down, but getting right back up again. This is a constant battle and fight to get where you want to, but the trick is to never give up on yourself. Immediately when the song starts it has this pop/dance vibe that just makes you want to get out of your chair and dance your butt off. The song has drums, guitar, piano, and other instruments that just make this song have more of a bang right off. Some lyrics that stand out to me throughout this song are “when I feel like I’m at the point I can break. When it feels like I’ve got more then I can take. I remember I fought to get here today and I know that I’m still here.” That entire lyric resonates with all of us as this song literally talks about fighting to get to where he is now. This is honestly the best song that Rival Summers has ever released because it’s upbeat, the message is clear right off the bat, and this is exactly what music is about. Artists who are true to who they are, and it reflects in their work that’s something a lot of music lacks now a days. I always say what’s going to make more of an impact is music and artists who have the passion, drive, and determination and Rival Summers does for sure. Leo is one of the best people anyone will ever meet. He’s so humble and just an all-around positive person that we need more of that in the music industry. With this upbeat jam and positive: message, I give this single a 10+++++.

For more on Rival Summers and where to find all of his social channels here is the website. On there you will find all of his other social channels at the top right once you go into the website portal. Go LIKE, STREAM, and SHARE with your friends!

http://www,rivalsummers.com/

In September of last year, Colton Underwood was announced as this past season’s Bachelor. Underwood was first seen on Becca Kauffren’s season of the Bachelorette, and then went on to Bachelor in Paradise. His story line of course revolved around his virginity and that’s what he was well know for. As a viewer, I wasn’t sure if Colton would really be ready for a relationship let alone the potential of an engagement. Well this season really was like any other. He started out with thirty women on night one, and from their the women just kept dwindling. There were a lot of outstanding dates/moments throughout the season. First one being how a front runner Caelyn approached the serious topic of sexual assault and told her story in the most authentic way possible and that showed on camera. It was totally natural and in that moment they both forgot that camera’s were around them. I remember watching it and just crying because I felt like I could relate a lot to her story and it brought back a lot of bad memories to relive. I know we’ve all been through a lot in our lives and we all experience things differently, but there’s something about experiencing something so difficult and it change your life drastically and then coming out stronger on the other side because of it. So I felt the way it was handled was so great. Colton was able to open up more about his life. I felt that Caelyn and Colton had one of the strongest connections. Some of the dates were some of the best from skydiving to bungee jumping and doing a scavenger hunt to having leeches. Now Demi was something unique and now I have more respect for her because she kept it real. I wasn’t sure what I thought of her because of the edit, but man she’s not afraid to hold anything back. That was evident on the Women Tell All. By the way Women Tell All was nuts, but it was hella entertaining. When it got down to the final three you could tell who Colton was super into and the connections he had with certain women. Caelyn was in the top four and he sent her home after hometowns. Then the top three were Taysha, Hannah G., and Cassie. His first date was with Taysha and you could just tell that he wasn’t that into her. Then he had his date with Cassie where that’s when he basically quit the show and declared his love for her and he did what we all want and jumped a fence for the one he loves.  After that, we were all left wondering what happens next. So after Chris ran looking for him and then production found him he decided to let the other two women go and just be with Cassie. So then the show continued with just Colton and Cassie and Cassie just was transparent with her feelings the entire time. The one thing I like about Cassie is that she was real and really thought about life outside of the show. We finally saw Colton tell Cassie how he truly feels and that she was the only one there, and then after that you really got a sense of where she stood more and that she was taking this seriously. We were left wondering how their connection took off from after their time on the show, and we got thoe answers through other interviews and social media. My thoughts on this season were that it was the best because so many rules were broken and Colton stayed true to who he was the entire time and now moving forward I feel that that’s where the direction of the show is going to go. It;s going to be different from previous seasons and people want more authenticity.