Another In A Long List of Lyrics

Because lyrics are my poetry

"Save It For Later" --- The English Beat

Two dozen other dirty lovers
Must be a sucker for it
Cry cry but I don't need my mother
Just hold my hand while I come to a decision on it.

Sooner or later your legs give way, you hit the ground
Save it for later don't run away and let me down.
Sooner or later you hit the deck you get found out
Save it for later don't run away and let me down, you let me down.

Black air and seven seas all rotten through
But what can you do?
I don't know how I'm meant to act with all of you lot
Sometimes I don't try
I just now now now now now now now now now now now
Now now now now now now now now now now now

Soomer or later your legs give way, you hit the ground
Save it for later don't run away and let me down.
Sooner or later you hit the deck you get found out
Save it for later don't run away and let me down
You runaway runaway and let me down.

Two dozen other stupid reasons
Why we should suffer for this
Don't bother trying to explain them
Just hold my hand while I come to a decision on it.

Sooner or later your legs give way, you hit the ground
Save it for later don't run away and let me down.
Sooner or later you'll hit the deck you'll get found out
Save it for later don't runaway and let me down, you let me down.
You run away run away runaway runaway runaway runaway
And let me down.

Thankful Two Years On

Today is Thanksgiving in the US and now that I've recovered from my five hours of social torture, I'm going to list the things I'm thankful. Because that's just how I roll.

• My music, it's the only thing that keeps me truly sane
• British panel shows, they keep me entertained for hours on end even though I should be working
• Living five minutes away from Pollard
• Doctor Who, which needs no explanation
• My family, even if they do drive me up a wall after long periods of exposure
• The UK without which my music collection would limited and very different, there would be no DW and no panel shows to watch
• Hunter (I didn't want to place him too early because that would seem desperate)
• Not having to host Thanksgiving this year

That's about it. May not seem like a lot, but it covers a vast swath of territory. So there you have, what I'm thankful for in random order. Night.

Damn Scarf

I am irrationally jealous of an inanimate object. Namely this scarf. Completely and irrationally jealous of it. The only thing keeping me from tearing the whole thing up is that a) it's not finished and b) that would be cruel to the scarf. I think next time I'm just going to magically overcome all my inhabitions and jump him*. Though hopefully the next time I get the chance to jump him, he'll be finished with that damn scarf. Damn my eyes! Damn them to hell.
*I'm talking about Hunter. Because jumping an inanimate object is even more irrational than being jealous of it. And yes, I do want to jump him.

A Very Happy Goat Indeed

For a very long time I believed that romance and love worked in the real world the same way it worked in books and movies and music. I'll never really let go of that belief, and it's not something I wish to let go of, but now I know better. Admittedly it was hard letting go of that belief, at least in practical terms, but now that I've let go of Cinderella I can finally embrace what I have. And it is wonderful. Awkward, frustrating and wonderful. Somehow in the past week I've been able to make the psychological leap and actually and completely believe that there is someone in this world who cares about me. He is awkward and dorky and adorable and he cares that I make it back safely to my dorm room. And it is a wonderful feeling knowing I have that in my life. It makes everything else seem superfluous. So you can see, for the first time since I started writing in this damn blog I am genuinely happy. I am a very, very, happy goat.

The Things She Knows

Allison has become a vital force in my life again. Well, not so much a vital force as an outside annoyance I wasn't really expecting to have. You see, unlike my relationship with Allison which is contentious and full of bad feelings (mostly on my side), Hunter and Allison are bestest friends and if she asks, he'll tell. A situation which has some very awkward potential. You see, what makes this all the more annoying, is that Allison is visiting UMW during spring break. Which means I'll actually have to see her again and more than likely by that time she'll know things that I haven't even had the nerve to write about in this here blog. Things that, to be perfectly frank, I never would want her to know. But there's naught to be done about it. I'm not about to begin dictating who Hunter can talk to and what they can talk about. Still, for someone who I thought I had "gotten rid of" (aka she left because she hated it so much here), Allison is still awfully present.
Nonetheless life isn't all bad. Granted I do have what amounts to one week of school left until exams, but it could be worse. I could have a drama queen for a roommate and no means of releasing built up stress. So yeah, I complain, but really except for my inability to open up this damn bottle of orange juice, my life is good and I am happy. An odd thing really, but I'm getting use to it.

Fire!

My dorm is experiencing a smoke related fire drill (aka a real fire, but just in a kitchen and not really that serious). The current temperature is somewhere in the 20's (Fahrenheit). My dorm happens to be spitting distance from the library. Guess where the majority of my dorm is currently located?
At least I wasn't really planning on going to be anytime soon. I'm too hyped up on caffeine and music and Buzzcocks to be sleepy. But yeah, thank god for the library.

Brighton Port Authority

So the bloke who writes The Last Bus Home may or may not have moved over to a new blog called 853 and so I move with him, because it's British and dammit I need my British! Anywho 853 posted a youtube clip of this song called "Seattle" being performed by Brighton Port Authority and it's bloody brilliant. So head on over to 853 or youtube and watch/listen. Tis bloody brilliant.

In My Ears

- "Wouldn't It Be Nice" The Beach Boys
- "God Only Knows" The Beach Boys
- "That's Entertainment" The Jam
- "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" The Shirelles
- "Every Little Thing" The Beatles
- "Waterloo Sunset" The Kinks
- "To The End" Blur

Short Random Spurts

You can almost always tell when you're watching a robot movie based off a robot novel by Isaac Asimov. The way you can tell because Asimov created what are called the Three Law of Robotics and they're always included in the movie. For instance, if I hadn't been paying attention during the credits of The Bicentennial Man I still would have known that it was based on an Asimov story because there's a whole big presentation on the three laws of robotics, complete with holographs and a Sousa march. So that's how you can tell it's a Asimov robot story. For everything else he wrote, pay attention to the opening credits.

I was watching an old episode of NMTB and one of the songs featured was "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys. I decided to download said song as well as "Wouldn't It Be Nice." The odd thing is that whenever I hear either of those songs I immediately think about my freshman seminar and how incredibly depressed Brian Wilson was when recording Pet Sounds. I still like listening to the songs though because the Beach Boys are one of the few non-Motown American bands that had a large impact on British pop music, at least in my opinion. That and the fact that those two songs remind me of my favourite prof. ever, so it's all good.

Last night I got to hang out with Hunter which was uber-nice since I hadn't seen him all week and despite my paranoia, I'm really clingy. He mentioned that this week's "Sexclamations" in the Bullet (UMW's newspaper) was about penises (which is par for the course really) and that it was funny. So today, after much searching, I found said column and read it. It wasn't really that funny, but does feature a picture from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life and kinda mimics my own opinion of penises. Which I'm sure all of you really care about 0_0

In other Hunter-related news I got him to download "Victoria" by the Kinks. It's a small step in the right direction in my opinion. The next step involves Terry Pratchett and more Kinks, but we'll get there eventually.

More Buzzcocks!

Life Is Short

I'm currently working on writing a semi-snarky analysis of an article written in 1964 were nine jazzers (as Prof. Long would put it) were interviewed on a series of questions pertaining to the larger jazz scene. I just wrote in a paper that I'm turning into my professor tomorrow "the party lines were drawn." For some reason in my sick-addled mind that is absolutely hilarious. I don't know why, it seems absurd now that I'm writing about, but it is. God I love hate being sick.
So sometime this week the Kaiser Chiefs and Lily Allen were on a BBC radio show hosted by Zane Lowe. Someone over at the Lily Allen forum pieced together a video based on photos. Or something like that. In any event, a video was made and the result had me chuckling, even though I couldn't hear the song they were performing ("Always Happens Like That" in case you were wondering.) The reason I was giggling was because Lily had a long piece of string and was fidgeting with it the entire time and Rick looked incredibly awkward. He kept tilting back and forth like a loony bin patient or a chicken pecking at food. I even came up with a little dialogue between Ricky and Lily where in Ricky told Lily to stop acting like a cat and Lily told him to shove off. It was great fun. I should have been writing this paper, but oh well. Life is short and Ricky's hot.*
On Tuesday I realized that everyone and their uncle know I'm in a relationship. It was an awkward realization mainly because I find being in a relationship awkward, but it happened nonetheless. It's going to be even more awkward tomorrow when he meets my sister, but from a purely intellectual standpoint, my emotional reaction is quite fascinating. Sad, but fascinating.
On Wednesday I got to show off my anglophilia in full force during linguistics. Namely because I know what a spanner is and also know that Welsh is an offshoot of Celtic. I also know how the British pronounce things (or at least the accent people associate the British with) and how they like to spell things with a "u." My professor asked how one might come to know these sorts of things and in my scratchy nasally voice responded "Youtube." She smiled and said yes you could research it. On Monday, when we discussed regional differences and accents and dialects and all that, I couldn't help but think of all the regional differences and accents and dialects found in the British Isles. I didn't bring them up, but I thought about them on my walk to Pollard. God I love being an anglophile.
*A re-jiggered quote from the 3rd season of Doctor Who. The original quote is "Life is short and you are hot." Oh yeah, fangirl in the house.

I'm On a Sugar High!

I've got news! Music news mind you, but news nonetheless. Some is exciting in a really weird way and some is tragic in a not actually tragic way. So onwards and upward mes petites, I've had enough sugar to get allow me to ignore my cold and actually write this entry. Hurrah!
So first up, who wouldn't want Gary Glitter on a music exam? Yes, he is a paedophile, but still, I would have died and gone to heaven if Gary Glitter had been mentioned on my IB music exam. Literally. I mean it was cool having "Rhapsody in Blue" and everything, but Gary Glitter would have made me squee so hard. So yeah, shame he's a paedophile.
I was doing my bi-hourly check of NME.com to see if anything happened since I had last checked it and I saw this headline: "Kaiser Chiefs man hospitalised in Brazil." I immediatedly freaked because I was absolutely sure Ricky had managed to break another limb. Turns out, even worse news. Peanut has been hospitalised with appendicities, which is just no fun and requires surgery. At least with Ricky, no surgery required. So, get better Peanut and congrats to Ricky for having made it about a year without breaking anything!
So I've got another cold to get over. And a band performance this Friday. And the awkward situation of having to tell Hunter that a) he's meeting my sister and b) we can't "hang out" Friday because he's meeting my sister. It should be fun.

Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

So last night was a bit of a bust. The dance-y thing (as I'm now calling it) started at 7 and I was back in my room around 9:40. Multiple photos were taken of me which are now on Facebook much to my chagrin. After said dance-y thing I spent the rest of my night with a headache (from not having any caffeine) and watching Mock the Week. So when I say last night was a bit of a bust, I mean it was shite. Oh well, at least there was some socialization involved and I got to see Hunter act like a complete goof, which was actually quite brilliant.
I've been up for about three hours as I type and have spent most of that time watching Mock the Week and trying to figure out whether or not I've actually lost my voice or whether it just sounds like I've been smoking for two decades. My mum had the brilliant idea of going to the clinic tomorrow to get a Rx for meds, which really is quite a good idea, since I've been feeling like shit for a month. So yeah, today has been interesting in how boring it's been.
In a final note, I had what was actually a really awkward dream that, in my opinion, is a foreshadow of how incredibly awkward Thanksgiving is going to be for me. It involved Hunter meeting my grandparents and we were both in our pants. 0_0 Thankfully real life won't involve my grandparents actually meeting Hunter and I will fully dressed. Still, the prospect of having to tell my grandparents is frightening enough that it has entered my subconscious. Huzzah.

Time Marker

This entry is purely to mark a point in personal history. I think if I can figure out when I bought the first Kaiser Chiefs album based on journal entries, I should be able to pinpoint slightly more important personal dates based on journal entries. In any event, here's a Friday Five for your general amusement:

What's your favorite holiday ...
1. Song?
So many great holiday songs, but definitely "For Unto Us a Child Is Born" from Handel's Messiah. Actually anything from the Messiah gets me into a holiday mood, so yeah. Handel's Messiah

2. Movie or TV special?
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, duh. And Holiday Inn. :D

3. Memory?
We went to Arizona for Christmas one year and I had insomnia the entire time. But the night before we left I watched My Fair Lady and that was the last night I went to bed at a normal hour.

4. Baked good or desert?
Fuuudge. Mmm...also chocolate spritz.

5. Each year, what's the one moment that lets you know it's officially the holiday season?
When it's December 1st or when the Christmas lights get taken out by department stores.

So I'm going to a masquerade ball as Euterpe, the muse of music and lyrical poetry. I can't even pronounce her name, but that's who I'm going as. I'm very excited :D

Pop!

Remember, Remember...

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I can think of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

Another Quickie News Update

I am a wicked and evil vixen. In my mind anyway. Mwhahahahhahahahahaha!
My left eye has swollen up for no apparent reason. This has given my eyes a weird almost lopsided look but I doubt anyone will notice. I just hope I'm not getting sick again.
Seeing as today is Election Day, GO VOTE. I voted absentee, so I've already voted, but if you're reading this GO VOTE.
Tomorrow is Guy Fawkes day. I slightly more excited about that than I am about today. That is how sad I am.
I don't have theory Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday and I'm really excited about that fact. However the weather is making me feel apathetic about just about everything, so you wouldn't be able to tell based solely on my demeanour. Nonetheless, I am excited.
That's it really. More news may or may not occur as the week progresses. You'll just have to way and see.

Generally Good

Generally life is good. There are some not so good bits that are more frustrating than actually bad, but those frustrations mostly just makes me more motivated than defeated. The major frustration lately has been music theory mainly because my teacher doesn't know how to teach to people who don't care about theory as much as he does, but now that I've realized that he really does take his exam questions from the checkpoint questions in my theory book, at least the tests will be easier. I've also had to embrace the fact that you can't be perfect at something you've never done before and being disappointed in yourself for not being perfect at something you've never done before is the road to becoming my mother. It's frustrating, no doubt, but you just have to embrace the frustration and live with it. Eventually it will go away, or at least that's what I'm banking on.
But as I said life is generally good. I've got someone who cares about me which is something I've wanted for a very long time and quite frankly having that in my life tempers my overall bitterness about the world. The fact that I haven't listened to the Cribs in weeks is a testament to that fact. No, I've nothing real to complain about and that's a very welcome change.

A Review (Because I Couldn't Come Up With a Clever Title That Included Both Album Titles)

As promised, my review of Off With Their Heads and Perfect Symmetry. Not as much bashing as I thought there would be, but still rather good if you ask me.

Originally Off With Their Heads and Perfect Symmetry were suppose to be released on the same day. It was going to be an absolute bonanza for me: Two of my favourite bands releasing their third albums on the same day. Sadly, though I guess ultimately for the best, Off With Their Heads was delayed three weeks here in the States and so I got to hear Perfect Symmetry before I heard Off With Their Heads. If you had asked me at the beginning of October whose album I was more excited about I would have automatically answered the Kaiser Chiefs. But now, after listening to both albums I must, sadly, admit Keane has the better third album. And what it comes down to is passion.
My main complaint with the Kaiser Chiefs’ lead single, "Never Miss a Beat" (beside the idiotic nature of the lyrics), was the lack of passion contained in the song. This apathy pervades the band’s new album Off With Their Heads leading the listener to think that band doesn’t care about what they’re singing or playing, that they are merely putting out and album to put out an album (and ultimately, why should we care about an album that the band doesn't care about). Although Mark Ronson and Eliot James do a very good job of producing Off With Their Heads, the band’s lack of enthusiasm and the poor quality of the lyrics makes listening to this album a very trying experience. The few saving graces on the albums, particularly "Like It Too Much" and "Always Happens Like That", are the songs that seems to have even iota of passion in them. Unfortunately those songs are too infrequent to make up for the rest of the passionless tracks that dominate Off With Their Heads. Recommended Tracks: Like It Too Much, You Want History, Always Happens Like That, Remember You're a Girl
On the flip side, you could never accuse Keane of not being passionate about their music. While not every song on Perfect Symmetry is absolutely brilliant, the band never wanes in its enthusiasm for the music they’re producing. As often happens in the mixing of an album, Perfect Symmetry is front loaded with the best songs recorded by Keane, but there are a few gems on the second half of the album particularly “Pretend That You’re Alone” and album closer “Love is the End” that save the album from being too dull at the end. While some of the messages on the album can come across as heavy-handed the musical experientialism paired with Tom Chaplin’s complete and utter belief in what he is singing more than makes up for calling mankind weeds. The best songs on the album are those that break ground both musically and lyrically for the band, those few times when they step out of their comfort zone and create something unexpected. Recommended Tracks: The Lovers Are Losing, Better Than This, Perfect Symmetry, Pretend That Your Alone, Love Is The End
A good album shows growth musically and lyrically and conveys the passion a band has for creating music. Good songs step ever so slightly outside a band’s comfort zone, showing a certain amount of experimentation without alienating their fans or casual listeners. Those elements and the lack of those elements are what make Off With Their Heads a disappointing album and Perfect Symmetry a good one. Ultimately, it all comes down to passion.
Perfect Symmetry: B+ Off With Their Heads: C-

In other news my self-created issues with my relationship are slowly dissipating, though they haven't gone away completely. I still think way too much about everything, but since that's a problem that will never go away, I'm coming to terms with accepting what I have and embracing the idea that I will never be the perfect girlfriend because I don't live in a fictional world. Oh well. Ultimately my life is good and I am mostly happy. Except when I think about music theory. Then, not so much. But that's for another entry at another time.