The Day After Thankfullness

It's the day after Thanksgiving and since I spent most of yesterday wishing it would be today, I'm going to list what I'm thankful for this year. It's largely the same as last year, with a few minor changes.

• My music, without which I would have little reason to be sane
• British panel shows which keep me amused and teach me things I would not have known otherwise
• My sister, who's the only member of my family I can stand for longer than an hour
• Getting into Westminster, because it means so much to my future and my sanity
• My friends, who I will miss desperately when I'm over in London
• Facebook and Twitter, which will allow me to keep in touch with the friends I will be missing desperately while I'm over in London
• The radio station and all the people involved in the radio station, which will hopefully still be around and intact when I get back next fall

So those are the reasons I'm thankful for eating massive amounts of food. And now back to watching Bones.

Ridiculous Human Being Continued

Here's the transcript from the round I mentioned in my last entry. Enjoy. And keep in mind that Ryan mumbles a bit (and has a rather thick accent.)

Ricky: was it because a) there weren't enough tour buses to transport her hangers on, b) five of her dancers fell ill after sampling deep-fried Mars bars for the first time or c) her trademark ostrich feather cloak was impounded at Glasgow airport customs.

(Bill talks about the ridiculousness of having a trademark ostrich feather cloak)

Ryan: It's actually b, because although that sounds like the most ridiculous one, you know the deep-fried Mars bar, if it's a or c then she's just a ridiculous human being (goes on to explain why a and c are more ridiculous than b)

Ridiculous Human Being

Before I post what I'm going to post I need to explain the origin of one of my favourite phrases. "Ridiculous human being" comes from an episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks, specifically the one Ricky Wilson hosted in series 18. For those of you who don't pay attention, NMTB is split up into four rounds, with three of the rounds being set in stone (one being the intros round, the second to last one being an ID parade of some sort and the last being next lines [I give you a line in a song, you give the line after it]). The first round of the show, however is up for grabs. In the episode that Mr. Wilson hosted the first round asked the panelists why a certain artist had to cancel a show or tour. Bill's team, which consisted of a DJ none of you have heard of (Colin Murray) and Ryan Jarman, where asked why Missy Elliot had to cancel a Glasgow show. The choices they were given are as follows: There weren't enough tour buses to hold her "massive entourage," one of her back-up dancers became sick after sampling a deep-fried Mars bar for the first time, or her ostrich feather cloak was impounded by customs*. While trying to figure out which answer was the correct one (it was the tour bus one) Ryan Jarman declared that if the answer had to do with the ostrich feather cloak, that would make Missy Elliot a ridiculous human being. So there, that's the origin of my favourite phrase to describe myself and most pop stars. Every time I say that phrase in my head I hear Ryan Jarman's voice. Anyway, onto the posting of things.
A friend of mine recently got into Mika's new album, much to my joy and happiness. And, like any sane person, the first song she really got into was "We Are Golden" (because that's what sane people do.) On her blog, when telling the world of her love of that song, she decided to embed a YouTube video of just the audio track because the actual video of the song was too fabulous for her. I wanted to point out that all of Mika's videos are fabulous, but decided against because I didn't want to explode her brain. However, I do feel the need to post the video for his new single before Thanksgiving break starts (aka before my last show) because I think it's the most ridiculous thing I've seen, save for the video for Bad Romance but really Lady Gaga is just her own category of ridiculous. So, in conclusion, Mika and Lady Gaga are both ridiculous human beings. As am I. Enjoy**.
Rain (with spiders!!!***)

*This entire section was done from memory which either means a) I've watched that episode way too many times or b) some of the information might be incorrect. I'm going to watch the epi. later and will tell you which it is.
**People need to tell him to stop dancing, or give him some proper choreography. My brain can't take much more, eventually it will explode. 0_0
***Oh "Vienna," you never fail to amuse me. Also, no spiders, just...watch the video.

I'm Becoming More Fabulous By the Day

Somewhere deep inside of me lives a three year old exhibitionist. Due to social norms and other things, that exhibitionist doesn't get out very much. However, when it grows up it wants to be Karen O. For now it will just have to revel in the glory of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance video. For it is spectacular. I'm not a huge fan of Lady Gaga's music, but I respect her outlandish fashion sensibilities and blatant referencing of the Mighty Boosh. That's it. I have another blog to update and will hopefully be getting to bed early so I can wake up early. We shall see. Until then, don't panic.

What? Okay I'll Update...

It started raining on Wednesday, which is my excuse for not updating for over a week. The rain and cold made me sad, and not much happened. Not a lot has happened in the past few days to really warrant an update. There was new Doctor Who, but mostly it just made me excited for the series two-part finale. Hurrah for crazy John Simm. I watched a lot of BBC/movie adaptations of Jane Austen novels (Emma, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice.) Didn't nearly fall asleep during my radio show, but did have it on shuffle, which always makes me feel slightly guilty, but on the other hand I am essentially lazy so...yeah. Stephen Fry was on Bones which made me exceedingly happy, but then it was all dark and cold so the happiness didn't last for very long. Went out to dinner on Friday with some music major peoples which was fun and quite nummy. Bemoaned to Ana that I don't need a preview of British weather two months in advance, that I'll get use to it when I'm there. Saturday was Jane Austen day/complain to my sister about how frustrating my room mate can be at times. Sunday I worked on the analysis paper that was due today, mainly by transcribing into Finale the piano reduction from the adagio movement of Mozart's Concerto for Clarinet. I finally finished the entire transcription this morning, but somehow managed to finish the paper at a reasonable time last night. There was a pre-departure orientation for study abroad which was when I wrote a large chunk of my analysis paper because I know not to act like a dumb American and more about British culture than I really should. Thank you panel shows. Then there was DW which as I said before just made me excited for the Christmas/New Year's specials because I <3 crazy!John Simm. I also bought beer, some of which I plan on consuming tonight, something I've not done since I turned 21 (the buying part, not the consuming. I've consumed.) There's another analysis paper due next Monday but I'm far less concerned about that mainly because it's not due until Monday and I've already done the heavy lifting (Forte analysis). I also have a chorus concert this Sunday, but again less concerned with that because it's not until Sunday. Oh procrastination, what have you done to me? So that's it. I'll update when something happens.

Two More Things

Extra Credit Bullet Points:

• After watching "Love Today," and "Grace Kelly" two billion times (each) I've decided that Mika should give smeyes-ing* lessons to the next cycle of models on ANTM. It would ridiculous and therefore hilarious. And I'd die from squeeing so hard.
• I've made it my mission to have at least one video in my collection for each letter of the alphabet. Thus far I have videos for a, b, c, e, f, g h, i, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, u, v, w, and z (aka most of the them.) So if any of you, my loyal readers can come up with videos for the missing letters, that would much appreciated.

*smeyes - To smile with one's eyes, as coined by Tyra Banks on America's Next Top Model.

I Like Bullet Points

And men who dance around in their underwear.

• In effort to explain Mika to my music history teacher, here's what I came up with: David Bowie if he had only listened to ABBA. She said that was a disturbing thing to think about so I tried, in vain, to give a better description. Then Stephanie mentioned "Big Girls (You Are Beautiful)" and all hope was lost. Related Edit: My sister's description of Mika: Like Queen, but gayer. Oh how I love my sister.
• I will never eat Doritos again because of a weird phenomena of classical conditioning. Thanks 6th grade day trip to Philadelphia!
• My brain failed me on Wednesday. I'm still mad at it.
• Everything I know I learned from TV, music, or movies. And books. But mostly TV and movies.
• I've been so tired the past few days. I actually went to bed at 10pm last night. I'm still tired, but I just watched "We Are Golden" so that's given me enough energy to write.
• Off With Their Heads spontaneously reached Silver Listener badge-dom yesterday much to my surprise. I find this whole system amusing, but I'll try not to write about it too often in the future.
• When I grow up I want to be Karen O, or at least have her hair.
• Glitter is a wonderful thing.
• In music history yesterday we spent a large chunk of the class trying to pin point what makes something funny. We watched a Monty Python clip ("How Not To Be Seen") and Tristram Shandy was mentioned. Best music history class ever.

In a perfect world I would go to bed now. Sadly I have theory soon and then my second to last psych experiment, so no sleep anytime soon. Maybe later.

A Break in Analysis

The reason I like the Forte analysis system is the same reason I like pop music: It's succinct*. If a grouping of notes (a cell) aren't in the Forte chart, it doesn't exist as a cell. Unlike with late 18th/19th century music, there's no question as to what something is. If you can't find it in the chart, then you screwed up and need to re-do the math. With late 18th/19th century analysis there are about fifty different options for every chord. It could be an augmented 6th, it could be a seventh diminished, so on and so forth. I prefer to listening late 18th/19th century music, but if I had to choose between Forte analysis of a piece by Stravinsky and Roman numeral analysis of a piece by Chopin, I would pick Stravinsky in a heartbeat (in fact I'm sorely tempted to analyse this piece by Stravinsky that I played in high school, but that's way beside the point.) It's like if I had to choose between only listening to classical music or only listening to pop music. I would choose pop music because it's to the point, just like the Forte system. No hemming or hawing. It is what it is and that's why I like the Forte system of analysis.
And now, half an hour of solitaire and back to counting semi-tones.

*Obviously not all pop music is succinct. But really the longer songs in the pop catalogue are actually rock and therefore don't count. I'm looking at you Lyndard Skynard/Led Zepplin.