Big Freaks

I'm currently reading a book called Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 by Simon Reynolds and after reading only 40% of the book I've decided something: Postpunk "musicians" were big freaks, one way or another. And the reason I call them "musicians" is because half of them refused to actually learn the instruments they "played" and the majority of them weren't musicians first and foremost. Some were politicos/philosophers using music as a soapbox while others were artists who got into music as a means of expressing their art (performance artists basically.) Of the bands I've read about about half thought that having a melody was to conservative and old fashioned and so screeched instead. I've read about the birth of industrial music which consisted of unconfirmed neo-fascists making strange noises from tape machines. The next chapter I'll be starting tomorrow finally gets to some bands I've heard of and who I don't think will depress or freak me out, namely the Talking Heads. But as my sister pointed there is a very good chance I'll be proven wrong. And this my friends is why I'll never be a true hipster. I'm not strange enough in the right way. I'm just a geek, not a freak.

Something That Should Be Known

A simple statement: You know I'm in a bad place when, in a desperate need to feel better, I watch the Ricky Wilson-hosted episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks. However you know I'm really bad off if I actually look at the screen the entire time during the episode and not just listen to the show.
So you may ask yourself "Nore, what are you doing?" The answer would be watching the Ricky Wilson-hosted episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks, though I'm not watching the screen all the time, so obviously I'm not really bad off. I'm just in a bad place.

Geekdom is a Fun Place To Be

I just want to say, I get a little too excited when I see David Tennant. I was watching the fourth Harry Potter movie on ABC Family and when David Tennant was on screen I was all "Yay Ten-inch!!" Which considering how he plays the villian of the movie isn't a normal reaction. But god I love David Tennant.
Also, my friend Hunter wants to make a legit DW club on campus. Somehow I think that makes the world just a little better.
I've got classes tomorrow starting with linguistics and then moving on to theory (yay for cross campus classes!) and ending with jazz history. I think this is going to be a good year :D

Back At School (And It Feels So Good)

I got a cold on Wednesday, have errant ants wandering around my room (though those are mostly gone thank God), spent most of yesterday recovering from said cold, and spent all of today lounging around watching TV. Right now I'm wallowing in self-pity over my lack of social skills and in doing so ate a small pepperoni pizza. It hasn't been exactly the best three days of my life but there has been one small consolation. Last year my enthusiasm for Doctor Who convinced a friend of mine that he should rethink watching the series. He did. And now he's a complete fanboy now. He even set-up a Facebook group for UMW DW fans. Now all I need is for classes to start and my world will be fine. And if this DW group goes anywhere, maybe my year will be good.
My colds nearly gone though and Kathy moves in tomorrow. :prays for school to start:

Commercial/Corporate

I like to make villains of certain musical artists, mainly because it's fun but also because certain musical artists open themselves up to snide remarks. Oasis is one of those bands I tend to vilify and my reasoning behind that is because they open themselves up to being called idiots and twats. Anyway, I just wanted to put that in the open before I call Noel Gallagher an idiot once again. Because honestly, who doesn't play a venue because of nachos? Now I've read the article (because the whole nacho thing seemed too ridiculous) but Gallagher's complaint about O2 being "too corporate" makes me question the last time he's been to an arena gig (that he didn't perform at). I ask this because the last time I went to that kind of a gig, there were lots of people, during the headlining act, leaving to get more beer. Besides, not performing in a venue because it's too commercial/corporate is just a little too precious coming from the lead guitarist of Oasis. Can't call them a commercial flop, now can ya?

Summer/Beach Achievements

I'm currently waiting for an episode of Bones I haven't seen to download (oh yeah, totally love Bones) so I've decided to list the accomplishments of my summer/time at the beach. The beach part will be small since I've only been here two days, but that's not really the point. I mostly just want to write about my accomplishments from the summer. So onward and upwards!

• Write half of a novel aka The archives I worked on this summer totalled 133 pages, which, if a normal novel is about 350 pages, is about half the size of a normal novel.
• Managed to look like a human aka My skin is not the colour of neon white, which considering how that's what it has looked like since the summer before 9th grade, is quite an accomplishment.
• Gotten obsessed with a new show aka I've started watching Bones and by the time school starts I will have seen all three seasons.
• Gotten into an "argument" over the correct pronunciation of a snake cake aka Is it "jaffer cake" or "jaffa cake?"
• Continued my walking regimen aka The walk from my metro station to WPFW was twenty minutes for a total of forty minutes of walking a day. I've continued doing that even though I'm at the beach. Yay exercise!

That's it for my summer achievements. I have non-neon white skin and wrote half a novel worth of show summaries. All in all not bad.
In other music news, Keane and Kaiser Chiefs are competing for my attention by releasing their third albums on the same day. Hopefully my radio show this year will still be on Mondays and Wednesdays so that on the Monday before the releases (aka October 13th) I can concentrate on playing non-KC/Keane music and then on the Wednesday after the releases (aka October 15) I'll just switch between the two albums. Also I would like to apologize to KC and Keane for anything mean I might have said about when their albums might have been coming out. Obviously I was really wrong (World release for both: October 13; American release for both:October 14th). Now we just have to wait and see what Franz Ferdinand do. (By the by Franzie poo are streaming a new song on their site and you should really listen to it. It's quite good and I'm quite excited for the new album. Can't really say that for KC though. There is rapping involved, but it's not quarky 80's rap. It's the real kind. :shivers:)

Killing Me Slowly With Their Press

I know I said I wouldn't be updating that much during the next few weeks, but I'm having a "bad" day and need to vent. That's what blogs are for right?
My main complaint about today, other than the impending doom of rain, is my arch-nemesis, fanaticism. Namely fanaticism for a certain band. I think we all know which band I'm talking about (think Leeds) so I'm not going to write their name for the entire entry. Anyway, they are inadvertently ruining my day. See, back in 2007 when I decided I wouldn't allow a band to rule my life (yeah, that worked well), I unsubscribed from their email listing, because I figured unsubscribing from that and not bookmarking their website would mean I could ween myself from that particular obsession. It worked (sort of) and then I got addicted to Doctor Who. Anyway, I haven't been getting the band's newsletter's for some time, a fact that I enjoy because their updates usually just infuriated me. Until today.
I've figured out how the band got a hold of my email, but let me tell you seeing their name in my inbox just about stopped my heart. And then NME.com had some articles about them. And then NME.com said the band is planning some sort of mini-American tour. I didn't read the email and I haven't read any of the stories on NME.com, Drowned in Sound or This Is Fake DIY (which has a splashy new website.) However all of this press is killing me. Not knowing everything is killing me. However, I'm at work and if I were to read any of the above (except the email because I deleted it) I'd probably go insane. I can't go insane because I have my exit interview at 3:30. So, to summarize, a certain band from Leeds is killing me.
The only bright spot in my day has been the fact that I've totally turned a friend of mine into a DW freak, like me, without working too hard. It makes me happy on the inside.

The Plan

So this is my plan for the next few weeks:
This Week
This is my last week at WPFW which means I'm going to indulge at the Diner. Not much else really, I just won't be updating that much, unless of course something really fantastic or major happens. In which case I will.

Next Week
Next week I will be at the beach and occasionally having to endure my Mum's side of the family (all of them, grandparents, sisters, uncles, and cousins) without screaming. We leave Sunday and I'll be coming back the next Sunday. And then...

Two Weeks from Now
I'll be going back to school. I've been asked to be a "mentor" for the Disabilities Services' "Step Ahead" program, which I did last year. That and the fact that I didn't fail out of school means I'll be telling a bunch of freshmen not to be scared of their classes and profs. The rest of the week will be spent finding things to do and possibly harassing the Linguistics department.

So those are my plans for the next few weeks. I don't know how much I'll be updating, but just know I'm not dead. At least not right now.

Also, the new Keane song makes me laugh. It's very dancy, but there's a bit toward the end that makes me laugh. Tom sounds like David Byrne during the not-singing bits of "Once in a Lifetime." Which makes me laugh. 0_0

Signatures

I wasn't really that excited about seeing We Are Scientists again. Their second album leaves much to be desired and with the departure of Tapper, my respect for the band had taken a serious hit. But Sophie had purchased the tickets before either of us really understood how disappointing Brain Thrust Mastery is, so there was nothing to be done. Suck it up and enjoy the concert as much as possible. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as all that.

"So the merch guy left the band as well?" - Sophie (in a hypothetical question to Keith Murray)

At the last concert Sophie and I went to at the Black Cat, various members of the bands had somehow been put in charged of selling their own merchandise. The person who been selling for the White Rabbits had seemed somewhat disgruntled about the whole thing, which is why I ended up with a shirt a size too small, but it had been cool nonetheless. However, I thought that the whole thing had been because of the relative fame of the bands involved. So you can imagine my surprise when I see Keith Murray fronting the merch table.
Needless to say I flapped around a lot, was completely indecisive about which shirt I wanted and forgot what size shirt I wanted when it was my turn. Gorgeousness does that to me.

Nore: "Could you sign this?"
Keith: [swats card]
Nore: [makes small pouty face]
Keith: [signs card]

The first opening act was thoroughly unimpressive (I decided, after maybe three songs that "they [were] trying too hard"). In the lull between them (Apache Beat) and the second opening act (Oxford Collapse) I posited various actions I should take given that Keith was still manning the merch stand. None of them actually made sense and some involved taunting him about Tapper's departure from the band. This line of conversation was ended when I needed to use the loo (three diet cokes at dinner and two glasses of water, plus another diet coke at the club). Which was when I saw Chris Caine, bassist for the band, nonchalantly standing and talking to someone. When I came back from the loo I posited that I should get the two's signatures, since they were so readily available to the audience. Sophie concurred and we agreed that I would get Keith's signature and Sophie would get Chris'. After much hemming and hawing and general nervousness about the whole business I finally got the signature (hence the above little bit of dialogue).
(A very big version of the actual signature)

Sophie then tried to renig on her deal, but I wimped out from getting Chris' signature so Sophie agreed to get it for me. She missed the first two songs of Oxford Collapses' set, but she got the signature.
(Also a very big version of the actual signature)

The actual show was lack luster, but much of that opinion is due to the fact that I didn't care for the first opener, was coming down from an adrenaline rush during the second, and was completely un-enthused for the head liners. I'm sure actual fans of the band really had a fantastic time.

We Are Scientists

1. Nobody Move
2. Chick Lit
3. This Scene is Dead
4. Inaction
5. Impatience
6. Let's See It
7. Cash Cow
8. Can't Lose
9. Callbacks
10. That's What Counts
11. After Hours
12. Textbook
13. Tonight
14. Dinosaurs
15. It's a hit

Encore

• Lethal Enforcer
• Great Escape