All posts by Sophie Tahran

The first time I saw Odesza, it was completely by accident. I stood in line at the coat check at Mezzanine, a smallish venue tucked away in the SOMA district of San Francisco, as they opened for Emancipator. I had no idea that this was their first-ever show in this city, as my friend and I remarked, “Wait…I really like this!” It was the kind of upbeat, laid-back electronic sound that perfectly emulates how you want to feel 24/7. Walking out of the venue later that night, we happened toRead More

We’ve all heard of the work-life balance, a.k.a. “don’t sit in front of a computer for 50 years and not see all the cool shit outside of the office too.” You go to work, and then you hang out with friends who know nothing about your office other than your complaints about the heavy breather and obsession with the new cute coworker (and prayers that you don’t get reported to HR). Every once in a while, you find yourself in the twilight zone known as a work happy hour, whereRead More

The Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing has now been missing for over a week. Flight MH 370, with 239 passengers and crew on board, vanished the morning of Saturday, March 8. What was initially assumed to be a tragic crash or accident has now developed into a real-life version of the TV show Lost. There are now increasingly credible signs that someone on the jet deliberately diverted the plane only about one hour after departure. The passengers were mostly Chinese and Malaysian, includingRead More

Most of us spend at least twelve years of our lives in school (unless you’re a Kardashian or a child star, in which case you’re just screwed). Throughout the years spent in preschool, elementary, high school, and possibly college and beyond, we cram our brains with facts that 99% of us will never need to recall ever again. In this new edition of This Website Will Change Your Life, we’re turning learning upside down and introducing ways to master things that are actually useful and relevant. The website in question,Read More

As a twenty-something, you’re at a major crossroads in your life.  You’ve graduated college, or are so close that you can taste it – the stale beer, that is. You’ve already had a taste of being abroad, whether it involved studying abroad with your classes in a foreign language, or a spring break trip to Cabo. At this point, you’re settling into a phase of your life where you’re expected to be semi-responsible, which is making that creeping wanderlust you’re still feeling an issue. On the one hand, your twentiesRead More

Please stop whatever you are doing at this moment and go to shoshigames.tumblr.com. Frequent worrier and pop culture aficionado Shoshanna from Girls (or at least her photoshopped face) has taken over the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in “Shoshi Games 2014.” Yoooou’re welcome.     View the full gallery at shoshigames.tumblr.com.Read More

The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi are under way, with gold medals and cultural misunderstandings a-flying. While these games have been off to a more… bizarre… start than others, they have fulfilled the usual requirements for the Olympics: weird Opening Ceremony outfits, civil rights breaches, and half-naked athletes. They also are the first games since The Hunger Games franchise has taken off, with two of three books converted into absurdly popular movies and a third on the way. As I watch the Sochi Olympics over a glass (read: bottle orRead More

Hosting the Olympics is like the real world equivalent of running for Senior Class President in high school. You’re put under the magnifying glass and just asking to be critiqued and ridiculed. Everything you do is being translated to people of very different backgrounds. And every once in a while, there’s a slim chance that you might just be epically successful. Key words: slim chance. The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi are not off to a great start in their bid for epic success. Even before the games began thisRead More

The Sasquatch Music Festival lineup for both Memorial Day Weekend AND Independence Day Weekend 2014 has been announced! Get the FIRST look at the lineup on Writtalin!  Read More

Breakdown of my time spent while the Super Bowl is on during any given year: 50% eating snacks, 40% seriously asking everyone who’ll listen why they don’t just have Beyonce perform for halftime every year, 9% watching the commercials, and 1% pretending to actually watch the game. For those of you who spend your time otherwise (I don’t understand why you would), here’s a recap of the best commercials worth looking up on YouTube.   Arnold Schwarzenegger Plays Ping-Pong for Bud Light Seriously, watch this. Bud Light took a randomRead More

Lesbehonest…I had McDonald’s for lunch today. And for breakfast yesterday. Possibly multiple times this week. When it comes to being healthy and working out, it takes a small miracle to get me anywhere near kale and/or a treadmill. But as I grow older, I’m not-so-subtly often reminded of the reality of a declining metabolism and drooping physique. Enter the gym. Actually, more like gyms. I’ve cycled through (literally… I hate spin classes) a new gym almost monthly since graduating from college and attempting to be a real adult with aRead More

If you’re a functioning human being, you need to have a good LinkedIn profile. “But Writtalin, I love my job!” said no one ever, “I would never want to leave!” Not a valid excuse. At some point in your future, you’ll either need or want to begin the job search anew, and you’ll kick yourself for not keeping your profile up-to-date when you had the resources to do so.   Now it just looks like you’ve been working at the same pizza restaurant that you delivered for in high school forRead More

So the lineup for Coachella 2014 was released the other night (January 8), in case you haven’t checked your Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/texts/literally anywhere. In full disclosure, my own mother has been the first one to notify me of the lineup’s announcement for the past three years running. I’m hoping that’s more of a testament to my mom’s coolness than the amount of friends I have. But regardless of how you heard the news, the lineup is here, spreading like wildfire and launching endless opinionated posts about how good or bad it is.Read More

Apps come in all shapes and sizes, and most human beings stick with the usual collection: social media sites, games, music, and a small collection of actually useful tools which normally involve pretending to be an adult (“Stocks,” anyone?). There’s also that handful of apps that your friends have convinced you to download, claiming that they’ll change your life, but have since been exiled to that second page of apps that you always forget about. Cue Writtalin. These are the five apps that you may not have even known youRead More