Christmas Time is Here Again

I have acquired an irrational fear of the holidays. They always seemed to sneak up on me like a bad dream or crappy grades. One moment every thing's fine and then bam: awkward holiday meals where I'm left talking to relatives who have nothing to say to me and who I have nothing to say to, watching my parents get more and more obnoxious and feeling overly tired. This year, for whatever reason, the holidays haven't been that bad. My cousins are pleasant and talk to people other than themselves and while my parents remain obnoxious, the whole process doesn't seem nearly as taxing as it has in previous years. Of course the spectre of previous Christmas meals still looms, I feel optimistic about today's meal. I sincerely think it won't be as bad as Christmas' past. I also sincerely hope I'm not proven wrong, otherwise I may go back to strongly disliking all family gatherings, just on principle.
On a completely different note, I got some really excellent swag this year (even though I kind of knew about all of the DVDs and books that I received.) I got a lot of "practical" gifts (guide books, maps, UK-style chargers) but possibly the silliest gift was given to me by my sister. Every year she gets me something I didn't ask for and almost never need. I love her to death though because the gift is invariably linked to whatever I'm interested in (hence the bootleg Kaiser Chiefs DVD I still haven't watched). And since I have a really spiff camera, here's a picture of what Sophs got me:

I really do love her. Even if she gets me ridiculous articles of clothing. (And for those of you who are unsure, yes that is a shirt that says "We Are Golden" and is from the official Mika web site.)

2009: Favourite Moments in Chronological Order

This has been a fairly negative year for me. I wouldn't say it's been the worst year I've ever had (that one goes to 2004) but it wasn't exactly a happy-go-lucky/gosh isn't life wonderful year (that would be 2006). Despite the rather devestating event earlier this year, there have been a number of good moments which have made the year not really terrible. There have also been general trends that I'll mention through out this list. Yes, bullet points will be used. So here are the highlights from 2009:

• The acquirement of a pen-pal (even if it was fairly short lived) who finally got me to listen to Pulp
• Becoming closer friends with Heather and Ana after the break-up
• Discovering Ashes to Ashes and Life on Mars
• Becoming an unofficial member of the radio station elite, without even trying very hard
• Getting to see Franz Ferdinand for the first time and absolutely loving it
• Discovering music that lies just slightly outside of what I normally listen to and letting those discoveries lead me to even better discoveries
• Giving Mika a chance
• Getting into the University of Westminster for the spring semester
• Becoming more and more fabulous
• Watching "Bad Romance"
• This season of NMTB
• Getting into the practical module I wanted at the University of Westminster
• All the really great friends I made and solidified over the past year

So that's my favourite moments of 2009. Tomorrow I may or may not post my favourite songs/albums of the year. We shall see. In any event there will be something after the holidays and in the lead up to my leaving for London. Happy Christmas and a good New Year to you if I don't say something before then.

Lengthy Updates Are My Speciality

Well, Westminster let me back into their system, which was awfully nice of them. My ID card is going to be a bit scary, but I now know when my three classes meet, in what buildings, and that British syllabuses are called handbooks are equally boring to American syllabuses. So let's get with the descripting!
Music Radio
This class is the one that confuses me the most in terms of scheduling. We meet twice a week from 10am to 5pm but it's only listed for meeting for the first half of the semester. Which confuses me because I'm getting a full 15 credits for it (4 in the American system). But in terms of content I'm really glad I got into the class because it's going to teach me an invaluable skill: How to incorporate quizzes into my radio show. That and other technical stuff that will be really good to know once I graduate from free form radio to regular programmed radio. Also one of the books we're suppose to read for the course I've already read, so that's nice.
Law and the Music Market
Contracts! We meet once a week for two hours where in I will learn about intellectual property, copyrights and you, and contracts! I'm actually really quite excited about this class because...well because I am. The copyright and intellectual property stuff is actually very pertinent what with illegal downloading and mash-ups and all that good stuff. I don't care what anyone says, it's going to be interesting dammit. Even if I can't explain why.
Principles of Music Marketing
This is the class I'm least excited about largely because I have no plans for going into music marketing. Sure it will be interesting from an intellectual standpoint and in terms of transfer credits it will do quite nicely, but in terms of real life interest...not so much. So yeah.
Well those are my classes. Last night I slept with my older dog (Nikki) who, once she is in position, doesn't move. This was annoying because a) I wasn't expecting to sleep with her and so my door was open and b) meant it was very hard to adjust the number of covers I had over me when it got too hot. So I didn't sleep very well last night.
In other news Rage Against the Machine got the #1 Christmas single this year. The group won over a Simon Cowell creation, so that's nice. But on the other hand Rage Against the Machine aren't a very good band. Yes I'm all for taking down crappy pop acts that do a disservice to the entire genre, but people of the British Isles, think about who you've given this title to: An American metal band that very few people in America like anymore. If you're going to take down the system why not do it with a British band (Franz Ferdinand, the Cribs, etc) who are actually talented (Arctic Monkeys, La Roux, etc) not some crap American band (Rage Against the Machine.) Nonetheless, down with crap manufactured pop music, all hail crap American metal.
Umm...snow. Lot's of snow. 19 inches of snow. And I've been assigned to the morning orientation group which meets at 9:15am. However I get pastries so that's something. And snow. More snow than we've had in years and years and years. And I did really well this semester and brought my GPA up to almost a 3.0. I went to Williamsburg on Thursday and spent 2+hrs looking at wreaths and thinking "dear God I'm bored and cold and bored. Why did I say yes to do this again?" I think that covers everything. I've been having weird dreams, but that's not that bizarre in actuality. So yeah, that's everything. Until next time, don't panic.
Edit: Here's the AV Club's take on the whole British Christmas single. It's an excellent summary for anyone who's either never seen Love, Actually or just wants a more descriptive reason for why RATM's win is a big deal.

And You Won't Let Me In

Before I got locked out of everything at the University of Westminster site (for no reason as far as I can tell) I found out what classes I'm signed up for. I got into one of the practical modules I requested (Music Radio) which means that my portfolio must not have sucked as badly as I thought it did. I'm also taking a class in music marketing (eh) and music law (interesting). After finding this out I almost immediately got locked out which makes me unhappy because I'd really like to be able to login to things, but at least I know what classes I'm taking. And I can complain about not being able to login when I get there since I know the vital information (which classes I'm taking.)
There was something else I wanted to talk about, but now I can't remember what it was. In light of this fact, I'm going to take a nap. Ahh, it's good to be on winter break.

Slightly Related Items of Interest

To make up for a lack of posts, I'm doing double duty tonight. Here are two random, but somewhat related items from Youtube.
*



*I would just like to say that while I'm mostly a-political* and I do my best to keep this blog neutral** I wanted to post this video because it really brings home what it's like to be gay and not have the right to get married because of that fact. Again I seldom touch on this stuff because I don't feel it's my place to proselytize to my readers, but just think what it would be like if you had to ask over a 300 million people*** if you could get married to the person you love. :shrugs:
*I believe in a democratic system and all and I consider myself a liberal but...after eight years of a douche for president you're either going to be extremely active in politics or shun it all in my opinion
**Two of the closest friends I've had have been deeply conservative. They're good guys and I value my friends, so I had to learn pretty quick how to keep my mouth shut because losing friends over something you don't care about is stupid.
***According to Population Finder the estimated population in the US for 2008 was 304,059,724. The estimated of population of VA (where I am) is 7,769,089. So yeah.

Completely Off Topic

But still amusing to me. I found this tid bit of information at List Universe and was glad to know that what I'm hearing is real. So here's the tid bit:

Intrusive R and Linking R are pronunciations of the letter ‘r’ in English dialects that don’t generally pronounce a final ‘R’ (such as New Zealand English). For example, in these dialects, when saying “don’t go far” – the word “far” has a silent ‘r’ – but the ‘r’ is pronounced in the sentence “he is far away”. This linking ‘r’ smooths out the phrase. Intrusive ‘r’ is when an ‘r’ is added where one doesn’t exist at all – as in the case of “Africa or England” – this would be pronounced “Africar-or-England”.

This principle also applies to "saw" and "idea" but I find "saw" much more amusing because it sounds like they're saying "sawr" which isn't a word and therefore highly amusing. I think this is a strange hold over from the Norman conquests because they French are all about making everything sound really smooth. So yeah, that's my exam week interruption. I'm going to watch Mock the Week and Firefly, completely ignoring the fact that I have a music history exam I probably should be studying for. Until next time, don't panic, like me, and go "oooommmm."

Tired End of the Semester Rambling

I'm going to make something of an admission which, if you look at the entries over the past three months(ish) shouldn't come as much of a shock: This has been the most stressful semester of my college career. The odd thing is that it's been stressful not because of the classes I'm taking but because I've procrastinated on so much of the work I have to do for those classes. And I think the reason I procrastinated more this semester than in previous semesters is twofold but basically comes down to one thing: applying to study abroad. In the first half of the semester I procrastinated* because I was stressed about applying to Westminster. When I found out that I had gotten into Westminster I procrastinated because, as much as I knew I needed to do the work, I just didn't give a damn. Of course I'm a horrible procrastinator to begin with, but this semester has been truly appalling. As an example I finished my Mozart paper about an hour before it was due. For me, that's terrible. I don't like doing that because it causes me to lose sleep, but I just didn't care enough, so I put it off. But just thinking about this semester and looking at entries from the past few months the main theme seems to be stress and when I think about why I was stressed it largely had to do with putting off crap until the last possible second.
With the end of this semester less than a week away (four tests, one project presentation) it's been slowly dawning on me how strange next semester is going to be. And as I tried to explain to my sister it's not just because I'm going to be in a different country. Granted saying "I'm going to be in a different country" kind of covers all the bases, but it's little things that are going to be strange. Not doing my radio show, not having band or chorus at their normal hours. Not seeing a certain group of people every single day, not having breakfast as Seaco. Not playing the clarinet or having a private lesson every week. No more randomly running into friends on college walk or trying to not stare at every one who walks past me (Yes, I'm weird.) Just weird little things that, yes, do get covered by not being at Mary Wash, but whose I'm absences I will feel nonetheless. I've been banking on having some kind of breakdown as my departure date gets closer, but I keep thinking about all the things I'll miss but it's more of a mental exercise than me actually missing them. I guess that will come in time, but I wish I was acting a little more sad than I am right now. I suppose that will come with time as well.
I think either my sleep debt is finally catching up with me or I'm getting sick because I'm just so tired. Ridiculously tired. And if I am getting sick, I'm going to be well pissed because now is not the time to be getting sick. So let's hope it's just my sleep debt.

Big Ball of Stress

So this week has gone from mildly frustrating to "Oh my god, why does the world hate me so very, very much?" in the matter of about five hours. I haven't been updating on Twitter or Facebook because they only way I can describe my current state of mind is by making strangled noises of frustration and then curling up in the fetal position. I just want this week to go away and not come back ever, ever again. Of course all of this means that I've been listening to Mika non-stop since this morning because clearly listening to a strange amalgamation of techno/pop/glam is the best way to deal with the massive amounts of stress I'm under right now. Funny thing though is that my roommate said that I don't worry about anything. Oh how wrong she is about that. I worry, I just don't let people know (thanks Dad!) unless of course they read this blog. Then they get to hear about it all the freakin' time.
First major stresser this week is a paper I have due on Thursday in music history. One of the key resources we need for said paper has been checked out by a mysterious entity who is not in our class. There's a neat little summary on Google books and I can kind of glean some stuff from various reviews of the book, but seriously. I just want to glance over the real thing so I can accurately describe what all the hubbub is about. But no, no luck there. Thankfully it's a not a very long paper and there are other sources I can talk about in more depth, but...I just want the book to come back so I don't have to worry about it.
Second major stresser is that I've been waiting for weeks now to hear about boarding at Westminster. I get a neat little email this morning fro, the housing officer at Westminster saying that they haven't heard from me and that I missed the deadline. However if I can get my paperwork in by Friday all will be well. I didn't get an email. I don't have the paperwork. And the housing officer guy hasn't responded to the email I sent him this morning. Now I realize there's a four hour time difference, but seriously. I sent it at 10am EST which would be 2pm GMT. He had time to respond to my email, or at least in my mind he should have had time to respond to my email. And what if I don't hear from him soon? Will I not get a room because of some clerical error or whatever? Then what will I do? :makes gargled frustrated noise:
I also had a tiff with my mom last night over a power cord I ordered almost a month ago that got delayed. I try not to argue with my mom as much as possible because in her mind she is always right and I am always stupid. So in an effort to not have a fight about the layout of the Dell website (which is frustrating and stupid, like most tech websites) I just tried to move on. She wouldn't let it go, so I had to say, in a loud voice, "anyway" just to get her to let go. It's just...aaargh.
Then of course there was my jury last night. Thankfully I didn't almost cry this time, so in comparison to last year's jury, much better. However I'm very glad I won't be doing this again. Very, very, very, glad.
So that's it. I hate this week almost as much as it hates me and I have my last radio show on Wednesday. Thank god I already made up the play list otherwise the show wouldn't be happening. I'm now going to play solitaire and listen to Mika. Because that's how I roll.

Edit: Westminster rooming situation has righted itself, thank god. And my Mom decided to buy me a copy of the book I need for my paper. Which may or may not get to me in time to be useful. In which case, I have a book on Mozart's Requiem that I really don't need. So yeah, one less stressor is still a good thing.

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.

Issues

For some reason I thought that once I got into Westminster, if I got in, everything would be easy. I didn't think about all the paperwork that goes into travelling and studying in a foreign country, nor did I think about all the bureaucratic hoops I would have to jump through (because there are always hoops) to even get to point where I could go abroad. I just thought once I got in everything else would fall in place. As I sit here with a half written email to the head of the business department, I'm realizing how wrong I was.
The process for applying for a visa makes no sense. The UK Border Agency's website is convoluted but I'm semi-loathe to put off applying for a visa until December because that feels like I'm cutting it too close. On the other hand IAS seems to be of no help because they're information on applying and acquiring a visa to the UK isn't up to date (though the UK's new system is really f-ing confusing and the changes have to do with continental Europeans living and working in the UK illegally and trying to root those people out). So either I apply for a visa over Thanksgiving break or try and suss out how to do it all by my lonesome. Issue 1.
After talking to Dr. Long and IAS it seems that two of the course I'm trying to get approval for work best as general electives under the business department. Thing is I've never taken a business class and wouldn't know the chair of the business department if he smacked me on the butt (though that would be well creepy.) So I'm sat here trying to write an email to this person I don't know to set up some time to get these two courses approved. I hate writing emails like this. I never know where the line between formal enough and not formal enough is and therefore I get hopelessly stuck trying to come up with a formal version of what I'd really like to say (please see me tomorrow so I can get these courses approved thank you.) I hate doing this with professors I do know, so writing one of these is like ten times worse because it's to someone I don't know the person I'm writing to and he doesn't know me. It always helps if the person knows me because then my inability to write is made up for by my nice personality and the like. Issue 2.
It's almost fucking November. When the hell did that happen? It doesn't feel like it was all that long ago that I was working on my demos and fretting over my lack of a Zune. Obviously it's been quite a long while since September, but really, what happened to October? Where did that month go and how can I get it back? I'm not ready for the end of the semester. The end of the semester means that London is really happening and I'm not ready for that either. I need more time to bask in the glow of my acceptance. Also I'm not ready for finals or any of that other crap. So please, can I have October back now? Issue 3.
That's it. I need more time to process everything and get everything done (finished the email, but yeah...still a valid point.) And of course it's raining, but at least I have wellies. And now I'm going to go hide under a rock until the semester is done. And listen to happy music.

Incomplete Sentences and Bullet Points

Because I just can't be arsed to write a proper entry. I used up all my motivation yesterday with that review, so today you get bullet points. :raspberry:

• Before I dropped my Zune in the toilet, I had no videos. Then I a) discovered Mika and b) discovered that 80GB is a lot. Now I have almost all of Mika's videos, plus 1 video each from the following artists: La Roux, the Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Kaiser Chiefs, Patrick Wolf, Franz Ferdinand, OK Go, and The Cribs. That's right I went from zero to fifteen! I'm so proud of myself.
• Weird thing that I do that you wouldn't know I was doing if I didn't tell you: On the stairs to Pollard, the ones I walk down I do in tempo with whatever song I'm listening to. Today it was "Love Today" and I walked the sixteenth note. I was super impressed with myself, but you'd never know I was doing that if I didn't tell you. Yes, I am that big of a geek.
• I realized during skills on Tuesday that as excited as I am about getting into Westminster now by January I'm going to be freaking the fuck out. Like literally. I can imagine, right now, when I get to the dorm I'm staying in I'm going to be a nervous, crying wreck. It's going to be amazing.
• The best part of Dollhouse is when Eliza Dushku isn't on screen. However Firefly is by far Joss Whedon's best show. And my ex is an idiot when it comes to practical obvious crap. [That last bit was in no way related to Joss Whedon, more just saying something else that's fairly obvious.]
• When the ex found out I was studying in London his first reaction was "I hate you." His second reaction was to state "You're going to stalk David Tennant." I told him that no, there are other people I would rather stalk :cough:Mika:cough: and something I thought of later: There's no guarantee that David Tennant even spends all of his time in London. He is Scottish ya know.
• Two of my classes for next semester might get transferred in as business electives. This is the only time I plan on taking any kind of business related class ever. I just find that really amusing. More amusing was Dr. Long's description of them: "They sound good." Yes Dr. Long, they are good.
• Watching the certain music videos without sound are still entertaining, especially if the alternative is John Doe. 0_0

That's it. Until next time, don't panic.

La Roux Is Definitely Into The Boy Who Knew Too Much

There is something to be said for good sugar pop (as a fellow radio colleague called it). As I've said in the past, writing a good hit-worthy pop song is not easy task, something that far too many people don't seem to appreciate. However so much of sugar pop is disregarded as fluff while more "artistic" bands and artists are lauded over while the writers of pop songs are ignored and pop stars left for rehab (or worse.) Every once in while though, sugar pop should be, or at least deserves to be, reviewed and treated the same way its more respected musical categories are treated.

When Life in Cartoon was released in 2007, I had no idea it had been released. I had never heard "Grace Kelly" (or for that matter "Relax (Take It Easy)") and was quick to hop on the bandwagon of slagging off Mika for the pleasure of making fun of someone who was in competition with my favourite band, Kaiser Chiefs. So when I stumbled upon the fact that Mika had released a new album and single I saw an opportune moment to take up the mockery once again on my radio show (since that's what I do and most of the original mockery had occurred well before I had a radio show.) I stuck "We Are Golden" towards the end my show and didn't really bother to give it a listen. [It should be noted that in the previous weeks and months I had given my self unto the wonderful joy that is brought about when listening to Barry Manilow, Queen, and the Scissor Sisters* so my state of mind was in a good place to accept what I'm going to describe next. It's amazing what listening to the Scissor Sisters repeatedly will do to one's point of view.] In the course of broadcasting my show and subsequently having actually listen to "We Are Golden" I found out something about Mika: He knows how to write a really infectious pop song. A trained musician (with some of that training having happened at the Royal College of Music) Mika knows how to effortlessly incorporate the musical trickery of the Western European tradition into the format of your standard pop song. But what's slightly more impressive (at least in my mind) is his further incorporation of his falsetto range, which he manages to do without falling into the Darkness trap of using it just for shits and giggles or as some odd way of showing off (something can't be said for his first album, which does sometimes fall into that trap more than once.) The best sugar pop sound effortless and simple while being actually much more complex on the page. The Boy Who Knew Too Much, the majority of which was written by Mika, does just that while also showing the kind of musical growth you would expect of an artist who is so clearly influenced by glam rock and elector/glam pop**.
Recommended Tracks: The whole damn thing except for maybe "I See You." But even that's tentative, so just the whole damn thing.

The self-titled debut album from British techno pop group La Roux starts off promisingly enough. The first half of the album sounds like a throwback to the early 80's when drum machines and synthesizers ruled the airwaves*** but with enough gloss to show that it was written and recording in the 00's. Although a clear line could be made between between La Roux and many of the early new wave band what makes La Roux distinctive, at least for the first half of the album, is Elly Jackson's vocals. While in many of the songs Ms. Jackson tends to let herself settle into her breathy upper range, the moments when she goes back into the lower part of her range (which in my opinion is the stronger part) a needed grittiness is added to the songs. Unfortunately after "I'm Not You're Toy" the album lapses into a repetitive cycle of broken hearts and thin textured techno beats. With time and more maturity La Roux could quite possibly be an excellent band. La Roux defintely shows that the band has that potential and it's a good album. It's just not brilliant.
Recommended Tracks: "Tigerlily," "Bulletproof," "I'm Not You're Toy," "Armour Love."
Album Grades: The Boy Who Knew Too Much: B+; La Roux: C+

On a minor side note, I just checked how many listens Mika has according to Zune. It's 930, which means that, as I predicted, Mika will be the next artist to get a Silver listener badge thingy. Also, Zune has the "Blame It On the Girls" video. I really need to get a life and soon.

*I'm not trying to assert that these three are in any way related. They're all just very dramatic and bombastic. I would never equate Queen to Barry Manilow, I'm not thick.
**I don't think glam pop is an actual pop music sub-category, but it's the best descriptor I could come up with for most of the music heard on The Boy Who Knew Too Much. However if its, go me!
***Ultravox is what I'm thinking of. And yes, they didn't rule the American airwaves, but La Roux isn't from the US, so that's okay.

Best Reaction Ever

So this a bit redundant, but I got into Westminster. I've done everything to convey this news save going to the top of a very tall hill and yelling it at the top of my lungs (which, as those people who went to the first sci-fi club meeting of the year can attest to, is very loud.) As well as people "liking" my statuses and commenting and/or replying to those statuses, I had some people tell me in person congratulations. One such example was in theory and of course when someone says "congratulations" to someone else, if other people don't know why the first person is saying that, they like to know. So I said why the person was giving me congrats and then my theory professor went "huh?" So I said it again and he asked where and told him London and then he asked what I'm going to be studying. Now as I've said in the past, my theory professor doesn't hold pop music in the highest esteem, but has been making an effort not to completely slag the genre off as a whole. This has been done to varying degrees of sucess, so I was somewhat intrigued to see what his reaction would be to my answer, which was radio production and pop music. He looked at his papers with a frown on his face from confusion, repeated what I said and then said "Okay." We moved on and it was suggested that I write the department post cards. Now, I have a lot of respect for my theory professor, despite our differing views on the legitimacy of pop music. Everyone is allowed an opinion and a strong argument can be made, as has probably been made throughout pop's history, that pop music isn't really legit. But in my heart of hearts, I know he thinks that I'm wasting my time next semester. I don't think I am, but I can see where he's coming from. I just found it amusing to see the way he reacted. As nice as it was to have many people congratulating me, it was more amusing to see Dr. Long try and be diplomatic.
One last thing that has nothing to do with getting into Westminster. This is more a general statement, but I feel I need to say it. Sometimes I write things in this blog about situations in my real life. Sometimes when I do that, I don't always take into account that people in my real life can, quite possibly, see and read what I've written. It rarely happens, which is why I don't worry about it often. However this doesn't mean that I don't make mistakes. I am human and therefore make mistakes and misjudgements. This is just kind of my caveat to all of you out there in the ether: I'm not perfect and I sometimes write about things that I shouldn't. Anyway, just wanted to say that.
The only down side to finding out today, is that I can't really do anything to celebrate until Wednesday because of this analysis paper for history. Other than that though, my entire week is made. Entire month actually. My life is made. :does best impression of Bernard Black smiling:

Because I Have To Remain Calm Elsewhere

I GOT INTO WESTMINSTER!!!!!!!!!!!! BOOYA BITCHES!!!! I GOT IN!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 0_0
I got the email this morning. I am happy. And now, back to writing about Vivaldi's Gloria which is not fun.

Switzerland

I don't think I'll ever completely understand human nature. I do my best (as do philosophers and psychologists) but certain things just baffle me. For instance, why would you re-re-start dating someone who cheated on you repeatedly? Why be with someone who you seem incapable of being nice to? I'll never understand some things that people do.
In the positively brilliant play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? the main characters George and Martha make everyone around them uncomfortable with their constant arguing and bickering. Reading the play was uncomfortable and profoundly moving, but imagine being around a couple, a very young couple, who are similar to that. They constantly bicker and you can just imagine what they'll be like in 20 years time, old and married. They'll still be bickering, the husband giving into the wife in a desperate bid to make her happy, but she'll never be happy. I know that attraction is uncontrollable and has absolutely nothing to do with logic (for the most part, and if it's real attraction) but why would you do that to yourself? Put yourself on the path to becoming a real life George and Martha? It's agonizing to watch the two of them go because in the back of my mind I'm seeing an old married couple who have done clinical psychological damage to their children. Maybe I'm just jealous (always a possibility), but what do you do? Ignore the awkwardness and hope that it goes away? Try to placate everyone by being Switzerland? I don't know. All I know is that it's frustrating at times. And confusing in general.
I made the big leap and read the entirety of the Wikipedia entry on Mika. He's a trained musician and has dyslexia. My respect has grown 100 fold and just proves my entire pro-pop music point: Really good pop music takes a knowledge of music beyond the power chords. :sticks out tongue in the general direction of Dr. Long:
And now, back to Bones.

Mika, Ranting, and Rain

In case you're wondering, Mika has taken over my head space. The Kaiser Chiefs are making a valiant effort by forcing me to wake up with their songs stuck in my head, but overall Mika has taken the place of top obsession for the moment. I suspect there will be a point where his infectious pop music will start to annoy and then t'Chiefs will ride in on a big horse and take back over, but for now it's all about Mika. Mika, Mika, Mika. Anyway, that's not the only reason I'm updating (yes, there's more than one reason.)
Westminster applications for next semester were due today and I'm dead nervous that a) my application didn't get there on time and b) I won't get in. I sent it over two weeks ago (approximately) but the mail people said 6 to 10 days and...I just want this to happen so badly and despite my college acceptance experience, I'm not entirely sure I'll get accepted into Westminster, which is way more important to me than getting into college was. Now that it's out my hands and...gaaaaah. I can't even verbalize/write how important getting in is and how scary/nervous-making this whole process is for me. It's like waiting for college acceptance letters times twenty-hundred five thousand million billion. I've jokingly told Stephanie that if I don't get in, she won't want to be my roommate next semester, but it's not a joke. If I don't get in, as far as I'm concerned my future is dead. Technically that might not be true, but that's how it feels. And of course it's raining and bitterly cold and I don't have a coat and left my umbrella at home. And yes, I know this pales in comparison to many peoples worries/fears, but dammit I get to be selfish sometimes.
Then of course we have fall break. I swear to god if my mum asks me if a) she's a good person or b) a good teacher ever again I'm going to throw cutlery at her face. I'm so tired of her insecurities. I'm tired of my dad cutting everything I do down to nothing even when it's actually really quite impressive. Amazingly enough my sister is the only person I can stand being around, but really that's only under certain circumstances. Back to my mum. She manages to direct every fucking conversation to special education and her experience with special education. I'm all for special education, but most of the theories and principles behind special education I think are bull shit. Studies are crap. Generalities mean diddly squat in real life. And my life has nothing to do with teach sp-ed. Nothing whatsoever. I'm just so tired of my family. I would have preferred to have spent fall break doing almost everything I did, but at school. It just pisses me off that I can't go home without coming back with a guilt complex and feeling like I didn't really have a break at. :listens to Mika:
At least I have my Zune back. It's been so nice having my music with me at all times. I don't have to converse with people randomly and I can listen to things that make me happy, which will be excellent tomorrow night which is when I'll really need it. Can I go to London now? Pretty please? I've been such a good girl lately. :sigh:
One of Stephanie's friends wrote the following on our whiteboard: "Isn't the weather great?" He was being serious (he wants to live in Germany when he graduates) and I've been wanting to see him in person so I can tell him, yes I can deal with this weather, but only if I have an umbrella and Wellingtons. I have neither and I know as soon as I acquire them, it will stop raining. But yes, this weather is great Houston.

Non-Topical Points of Interest

I'm home for fall break and here are some of the thoughts/interesting factoids I've garnered since the last time I updated.

• Glasgow is located in the Clyde Valley in Scotland (Thanks British calendar) [Immediately suspected that Glasgow was involved because of these faces, which I had seen before.]
• I'm either listening to Mika or a strange combination of playlists and new music, but I have my Zune back!
• You need elbows to put glasses on
• Mika is just like Micah, except British
• The biggest difference between Queen and Mika (in my opinion) is the use of guitars. Basically, Mika doesn't have Brian May
• I earned a Bronze Artist Power Listener badge for Mika after 3 days (which means I listened to Mika 200 times). I'm working on getting the album equivalent (which means listening to The Boy Who Knew Too Much 200 times). (I know I have an illness, no I don't care.)
• I am finally in possession of a white tie which means that either my Old Gregg costume is complete or I need to buck up and get some white gloves.
• I've mailed my application to Westminster (did this awhile ago, but I don't seem to have mentioned it yet) and hopefully it will arrive before Thursday. When I hear about acceptance is up for grabs.

So that's it. The definition of home changes constantly and as much as I needed this break from school, I would have preferred to have spent it not here. So yeah. Can I go back to school now?

LolliPOP

I think I've reached a point where my interests are so outside of what other people I know are interested in, that I no longer care what people will think. I blame Mika for this discovery. [I can't stop watching "We Are Golden." It's bad.] I was bound to hit this point, where the hipsters and trend-setters would no longer matter because I'm so immersed in a completely seperate culture. It's very liberating actually. Doesn't mean I'm going to start dressing or acting like a crazy person (I'm still very much a wallflower), but at least I'm starting to accept things that I wouldn't have when I first delved into pop culture almost five years ago. You can't accept the very serious without having a healthy dose of the not-serious-at-all. And that's all I have to say about.
This upcoming week is mid-terms and I have two tests (Tuesday and Friday) plus the regular radio show on Wednesday, so I won't be updating as furiously as I have been (most likely.) Just wanted to let y'all know. Evil mid-terms.

Music Videos

After last night's self-induced melodrama, I've decided to reward everyone with music videos. Since I've currently got Eddie Izzard's voice in my head, I won't say much more, save for some commentary next to some of the videos. Enjoy!

• Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) - Beyonce
• Uprising - Muse
• The Universal - Blur (See that reference to A Clockwork Orange? It's intentional)
• Mirrorball - Elbow (This was performed and recorded at Abbey Road studios and the band is backed by a live orchestra and chorus. Which is why this video is here.)
• Like It Too Much - Kaiser Chiefs (Well if Elbow can get a live video, why not my favourite band?)
• Antmusic - Adam and the Ants
• Heads Will Roll - Yeah Yeah Yeahs (The werewolf is played by Richard Ayoade[whose last name I spelled correctly without looking]. Except you can't tell, but that's alright, you know he's under there somewhere)
• Can't Stop Feeling - Franz Ferdinand
• Just - Mark Ronson
• Good Days Bad Days - Kaiser Chiefs (A real video. Not live.)
• Young Love - Mystery Jets
• Grounds for Divorce - Elbow (The actual real video. But if you look for the song on YouTube you can find the Abbey Road studio version as well.)
• Can't Say What I Mean - Kaiser Chiefs (This is me dragging all of you head long into my sick obsession. Just in case you weren't there already)
• We Are Golden - Mika (This is exactly what I expected this video to be like. And sadly I find Mika semi-attractive. :hangs head in shame:)
• Never Forget You - Noisettes
• Not the Only Person - The Rumble Strips
• Bulletproof - La Roux (She looks like she's scowling the entire time, and the video quality isn't that good so...good song!)
• Vienna - Ultravox (Ooooooooh Viennaaaaaaaaaaa!!!)
• Zero - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

It's Friday Again (So It's Probably Best to Ignore Me)

I hate him. I hate him for being my first. I hate him for moving on so quickly. I hate him for breathing. I hate him for laughing and acting like a normal person. I hate him for being nice to me when I'm so cold towards him. I hate him for making me care. I hate him for making me cry. I hate him for being so completely oblivious to how much he continues to hurt me by just existing. I hate him for making me feel so completely shitty. I hate him. I think I'll always hate him. I wish I had never said yes to watching that stupid movie with him. I hate myself for allowing him to do this to me. But most of all, I hate him for not noticing. I wish I could leave this school, go some place new. Somewhere far from him and everything that reminds me of him. From the tangled web and tension filled situations, where I'm the only one who feels any tension. I want to start over. I want him to understand all of this and to feel all this pain. I want him to feel all this hurt and anger. I hate him completely. And I'm sorry to all the people who have to even know about all of this. If I had known that this would be how things would turn out, I would never have said yes to anything.
I still hate him. I promise not to do this again though. You have all read it enough times to know how I feel. I just wish I had some rum right now. Or more chocolate.
I do try to act like a normal person though. Sometimes though, it's just too hard to keep the mask on. Tonight just happened to be one of those nights. Still, I'm sorry. It's not fair to the rest of you.

It's a Small World After All

The world, both in real life and on the internet, is a very small place. While I'm not often reminded of that fact, except when I'm on Facebook, it's always interesting when I am. Anyway, I just wanted to say that. The world is small. Go check out my latest radio show blog and watch "Vienna" because it's so much fun.

Necklaces

I don't know why I feel the need to write about what I'm going to write about at this particular moment but for some reason I feel the need to address something. It's two necklaces I own. I think I've written, or at least mentioned, both of these necklaces, but now that I have a cord for my camera and some free time, I'm going to write about them. Again, I don't know why I feel the need to do this, but I do. So here we go.

The necklace on the left was given to me by Loghman for my 18th birthday. This necklace got lost, I thought permantly, on the desk in my room at home. You see that desk was like a black hole until my Mum cleaned out of pure frustration with how messy it was. Anyway, I hadn't seen the necklace in quite a long time and now that I have found that I haven't lost it, I've started wearing it again. Back when Loghman gave it to me I wasn't particularly found of it because the chain was so long. But now that I have it back in my life, I wear it almost every day. I've been wondering why that it is, and I've come to following conclusion as to why I wear it so often: it reminds of someone who cared about me and liked me knowing full well that I was crazy. Back when Loghman gave me the necklace I was even crazier than I am now, and so wearing it reminds me that there has been someone in my life who cared about me selflessly (which in Greek translates to agape [thanks literature and religion!]). Given the events of last year, I need a reminder of that however I can get it.
Th necklace on the right I bought for myself about a month after the ex broke up with me and was gotten as a reminder that you create your own luck. At the time it was a sentiment that I grasped onto like a life boat because not only had the ex dumped, and had very quickly gotten back on the horse as it were, but my social and academic life seemed to be going down the drain. Wearing a necklace every day that reminded me, in essence, that I created my own fate, was helpful and reassuring during a time when I needed to be reassured of something.
Of the two necklaces, I value the one on the left more than the one on the right because of the sentimental value it holds. I just felt I should let the world know that about me.

Dumb Making

Oh dear readers, I have done a very stupid thing. In an effort to confirm something that I thought I had seen, I went to the Kaiser Chiefs' Summer 2009 picture gallery. Which was when I saw this* and died. Just died really. Further explanation could be given, but that's not the point of this entry. The point is that you, my dear readers, need to remind me not to do stupid things like look at overly attractive men. Work on that telepathy and psychic abilities people! Otherwise this blog will be entirely gibberish and insane ramblings...or at least more insane and gibberish-y. And now, I'm going to try and scrub my brain clean of that image. Maybe...**

*Normally, or at least a few years ago, I would have posted the picture. But now that I'm slightly less insane than I was a few years ago (and I like trolling through my more recent posts), I decided against doing that. Because really a daily (or every other day-ly) dose of dumb-making isn't necessary. I can do that by just going to school.
**This doesn't have anything to do with brain scrubbing, but this week was the last week of Mock the Week and during the final round one of the unlikely situations was "Lines You Wouldn't Hear in a History Documentary." Guest panelist Milton Jones said the following thing and I just had to share it: "1547, Nostradamus predicts the rock group the Kaiser Chiefs. He also predicts a riot." Now back to the mind scrubbing.

Uncomfortable Realities

So the long tortuous week is finally over. I survived with most of my sanity and integrity intact and didn't have to "choke a bitch" (I may have lost my ability to spell though.) However instead of writing about this past week (which by the way, will never happen), I'm going to write about my school newspaper's sex column. I promise to make it PG-13, but the hints might be TMI, so you have been warned.

When I started college I was absolutely sure I was going to be a journalist. In that vein I started avidly reading the school newspaper, waiting for the day I would be in the by-line. It never happened and I turned to radio as my preferred venue to brain wash the masses. However I continued to read the newspaper, enjoying the typos and grammatical errors to the fullest extent that one can enjoy such things. There were (and still are) two featured columns that I particularly like and even if I don't read any of the articles, I always read those two columns. Susannigans delved into the life and opinions of one the cooler people on campus (at least in my opinion) while Sexclamations was like reading a weekly brochure on a foreign country (even when I was in a relationship.) I read Dan Savage's weekly sex advice column, but Sexclamations provide a female perspective without somehow being associated with Dr. Ruth. It was real and founded in the college life. However at the beginning of the school year, the regular writer left Sexclamations leaving a hole in my weekly reading habits. Today, while flipping through this week's issue of The Bullet I found out who had replaced the old writer: My ex and his horny friend.
There's an odd trend that I've noticed about sex. Most perspectives on sex, at least in the media, are written from women well past their prime or men. What I liked about Sexclamations is the woman who wrote the column was neither of those things. Now that it is being written by "two (possibly) over-sexed idiots" I'll only have the advice of a gay man to tell me how sexual relationships work (not that Dan Savage isn't more than adequate or capable, but even gay men have testosterone.) While I will concede that my ex and his horny friend's opinions are valid (in that they are their opinions), what made Sexclamations great was that it was the from the view point of a horny woman something you don't hear about very often in the world of college (horny guys on the other hand are a dime a dozen.) Of course some might argue that I'm biased against the new writers because I'm currently not on good terms with my ex (and never really liked his horny friend) to which I say, yes. I am biased against both of them. But even if the column had been taken over by two guys I didn't know, I would still be disappointed. I just happen to be predisposed to disliking the two who have taken over writing Sexclamations.
And now that I have nowhere else to go, I'll leave you to mull over the opinion I have set forth. See, this is why I'm not a journalist.

Nore's [Fill in the Blank] Radio Show

Every week I do a brief (hahaha) run down of my radio show over at wmwc.umwblogs.org so that people who happen to know about that blog can catch up on what I did during my show. I've recently added links to videos on YouTube to make sure I can still do basic html while typing (I can). Because I haven't written in this blog in a while, I'm going to copy this week's entry to this blog, so you too can enjoy my show without having to actually listen to me nattering away and forgetting which song is next (because my Zune still hasn't shipped). Have fun!

This week's show was made in the face of much opposition. This week's show was created out my sweat and tears as the last thread of my sanity went down the proverbial drain. This week's show happened in spite of the fact that no one did a thing to speak of. This week's show was created because I care about all of you. This week I'll give you both the talking points and videos. Don't expect that kind of respect next week. So now for the dets.

Playlist [There were two minor revisions from the original playlist, but no worries, I wrote everything down this week]

1. Morning Light - Ida Maria
2. Ignore the Ignorant - The Cribs
3. Bad Reputation - Joan Jett
4. Rudie Can't Fail - The Clash
5. Right Where They Left - The White Rabbits
6. Can't Stop Feeling - Franz Ferdinand
7. Just - Mark Ronson
8. When The Cows Come Home - Blur
9. French Navy - Camera Obscura
10. London - The Rumble Strips
11. Mouthwash - Kate Nash
12. Waiting - Cake
13. Good Days Bad Days - Kaiser Chiefs
14. F*** You - Lily Allen [This is the explicit version, so be warned]
15. Seattle - The BPA
16. Young Love - Mystery Jets
17. Burial - Miike Snow
18. Fire - Kasabian
19. Grounds for Divorce - Elbow*
20. Wait For Me - The Pigeon Detectives
21. Low Rising - The Swell Season
22. On the other side - The Strokes
23. Blue Skies - Noah and the Whale
24. Can't Say What I Mean - Kaiser Chiefs**
25. Golden Years - David Bowie***
26. We Are Golden - Mika
27. Ulysses - Franz Ferdinand

The Talking Points

• Zooey Deschanel and Ben Gibbard tie the knot
• Many bands and artists, including Thom Yorke, sell their souls to the Twilight franchise
• OK Go, go on tour in the UK this January
• Canada awards its version of the Mercury Prize to punk rock sextet F-ed Up
• Ted Leo signs to Matador Records and everyone hopes he's not actually a black widow in human form
• I expounded on the illegal download policy situation in the UK. Here's the end result (4 paragraphs in). Further updates will be given if I don't get to tired of reporting on it.

Releases

• Mum - Sing Along to Songs You Don't Know
• Rufus Wainwright - Milwaukee at Last!!! [Deluxe Edition]
• Baseman Jaxx - Scars
• Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk

Well that's it for this week. Next week is up in the air, though there will defininatly be music, I can promise you that. Until then, don't panic.

*As with last week I'm featuring Elbow backed by a full orchestra. The first link is to the official video, the second to the Abbey Road session. What can I say, I'm a sucker for orchestration.
**This is me, dragging you into my sad obsession. I apologize.
***Whenever I hear this song, I think of the big dance scene from A Knight's Tale. So in choosing a video link, guess what I went with. The big dance scene from A Knight's Tale.

The Feeling is Gone, Only You and I

Dear Blog Readers,
I'm not going to be updating for at least another week. My life is incredibly stressful and thinking about it makes me sad. Also, I have no social life outside of school work, so unless you really want to hear me moan about how stressful school is (which I'm sure you don't), I'm not going to be updating until next week probably. Also, normally I would say I'll be updating this weekend, but this weekend is Family Weekend here at school, so let's all imagine how stressful that will be. Imagined it? Yeah that's why I won't be updating until next week. :sigh: Just remember: This means nothing to meeeeeeeee!!! Oooooooh Viennaaaaaaaaa!
Sincerely,
Nore
Tuesday Night Edit: As I told my roommate, I'm coming very close to reaching my stress threshold, which means pretty soon I'll be cranky as all get out and won't have any kind of patience for anything that disrupts my pre-ordained schedule/daily patterns. Also, my Zune hasn't been shipped (even though the billing information was received last Friday), so I have nothing to help alleviate the stress when I'm not in my room. Sadly, over eating has lost it's charm (feeling nauseous doesn't help anymore) which means I might have to choke a bitch pretty soon.

BBC Press Release for Never Mind the Buzzcocks

BBC Two's irreverent pop quiz, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, returns to our screens this autumn with a brand new line-up.

Joining the panel this year as team captain, alongside the ever repressible Phill Jupitus, is Mighty Boosh star Noel Fielding.

Following Simon Amstell's departure after three successful years, the new series will be presented by a string of guest hosts including Alex James*, Dermot O'Leary, Jack Whitehall**, Rhod Gilbert, David Walliams***, Frank Skinner, James Corden and Mark Watson.

As ever, celebrity guests from the world of music and entertainment will join team captains Phil and Noel as the guest host each week navigates them through a number of musically based quiz rounds.

With the show's reputation for the unpredictable, guests are always primed for the occasional embarrassment and harmless ribbing as their knowledge of music is put to the test.

Noel Fielding said of joining the show: "I am so excited about Buzzcocks. I am leaping across the Camden rooftops dressed as a small white kitten."****

Never Mind The Buzzcocks will return to BBC Two from Tuesday 29 September.

*Yes, Alex James is the same Alex James I've been mocking mercilessly for the past four years. I'm ecstatic.
**He was a guest this past week on Mock the Week and if I had known he was younger than me I would have been slightly more impressed (and I was impressed to begin with.)
***He annoys me for the most part, so you can look him up yourself.
****I can actually imagine him doing that, which either says something about me or about him, I haven't decided which yet.

A Weekend in Brief

So my plans for this weekend didn't exactly go to plan. For instance yesterday I spent three hours a birthday party I had no idea was happening. So let's star there.
Yesterday morning I woke up with a definite plan in my mind: Go see A Mid-Summer Night's Dream and do fuck-all else. And then I checked my email and saw that a friend of mine had sent me a message over facebook. So I started checking the message when I saw that the header was "Hunter's B-day?" I stopped reading the message and concentrated on doing things other than reading the message. The weird/crazy thing is that when I was setting up my schedule at the beginning of school I was convinced something was happening on the 12th. I was right, just not about what was happening. Anyway, I put off reading the message until I had finished checking everything else on the internet and then finally read it. I had, hesitantly, been invited to the ex's 21'st b-day party by a mutual friend. I then preceded to freak and call home to get advice on what to do. My sister said to not go, but Mum said to go and stay at least a half hour. I ended going and staying three hours. The mutual friend was glad I came and I got to spend some quality time "learning" how to play Risk and talking to another friend of mine. I barely made I contact with the ex and didn't say goodbye or happy birthday. I got cake as well, so a fairly good time was had by all. I didn't do anything rude (like neighing under my breath) and didn't do bodily harm to the VIP. So, in short, it was an unplanned success.
Today didn't go to plan either really. I didn't see A Mid-Summer Night's Dream mainly because I'm lazy, but also because it would have been hot and I would have been eaten alive by the bugs. Mostly though I was just lazy and ended up spending the majority of the day rewatching episodes of Ashes to Ashes. I also started finding the disparate pieces for my Halloween costume, wherein I will dress up as Old Gregg to either complete failure or semi-success. I've also decided that if Old Gregg doesn't work out, I'll be the Moon. I've also started working on my study abroad application once again. I'm turning in the application request for an official transcript tomorrow, but the big thing I'm worried about is the personal essay. How do I explain my reasons for wanting to join the study abroad program without sounding crazy (or really pathetic)? I might be posting a dry run through up here, but we shall see. I've got a month to finish everything and have it shipped to Westminster, so you can see why I'm a little worried at the moment. Still I have one radio show edited and ready to send off and I'm going to go talk to my advisor and the IAS people tomorrow, so at least I'm making some good head way with this. :sigh:
So there's my weekend. Not a complete dud and definitely less depressing than last weekend. Let's hope the trend continues.

The Week in Brief

I got mentioned in my school's newspaper today. The online edition doesn't show it, but in the hard edition (which takes drugs) there's a neat little column that recommends some shows to listen to. And guess who get's her own category? That's right, Nore! I was in the Washroom (which is like the Student Union on most campuses) and I just about flipped out when I saw it. "Brit-pop: Nore [Last Name]- Wednesday, 8-9 p.m." So what if the show is actually from 8pm to 10pm? I am my own category. I'm thrilled. I'm keeping the article forever. It's the capstone to what started out as a pretty shit week. So let's start from the beginning.

Monday
I woke up tired. I woke discouraged and slightly depressed. My Zune sat in it's little package waiting to be sent off to Laredo, Texas and it dawned on me, completely, that I would have no portable music, and with my schedule, no music most of the time. It was gloomy and I had nothing to perk me up. Ultimately Monday wasn't that interesting. My religion lit. class seems to drag on and on, but at least the reading material is interesting. Mu Phi had it's first meeting and I wrote a resume for Jean-Baptiste Lully. I went to bed tired.

Tuesday
I woke up tired again. Tuesdays and Thursdays are the worst because I have a class at 8:15am and I am the least morning person alive (though, actually that's not true, but I digress.) Tuesday was another gloomy day and to add to the despondancy, the one artist who I hadn't heard of won the Mercury Prize. Band killed my soul and I started dealing with music withdrawal symptoms (namely going insane.) I made a fairly successful playlist for my radio show and went to bed with hope that Wednesday would prove to be a better day.

Wednesday
It wasn't. I told a class of wannabe elementary school teachers not to treat learning disabled students like idiots and got a $5 Starbucks gift certificate for the effort. I sweated like a crazy person and my nerves stayed with me the rest of the day. I polished off the talking bits of my radio show and realized how very dependant I am on listening to music in between classes. And then the program I use to record my radio show from the internets didn't record the whole thing. Which is fine in a way because I wasn't even sure I wanted to use the show for Westminster (which is the reason I record the show) but now I don't even have the option really. I went to bed tired and hopefully about the next because I had an appointment to socialize.

Thursday
The day didn't start sunny or end sunny. But it was a good nonetheless because I hung out with some friends and had good food (Thai is lovely.) Classes weren't stressful, band set-up wasn't stressful, the brass section sat in the correct seats, and I tried in vain to defend Henry Purcell's one try at opera. I worked my lab hours and then went off to socialize. It was fun, though I now have blisters on the balls of my feet. I totally freaked my roommate out (who's insane by the by), but that was okay. I had had a good day.

Friday
Basking in the glow of the previous day, I didn't really have many expectations for today. I caught a glimpse of my ex during psych and spent the rest of the class trying to act like I hadn't while taking notes on the brain and neurons. And then I found out about the WMWC article and the rest of my day was made. Not much else happened really. The DW club (which is what it will always be) didn't have a meeting meaning I didn't have to see my ex, which in my opinion is always a good thing. I had frozen pizza for dinner and everything is good. Very zen. I also spent way too much time fretting over when my Zune will get to Laredo, I want it back so desperately! But it's not scheduled to arrive until the 15th, which probably means it won't be delivered back to the house until the 20th, maybe the 25th. Still, hope springs eternal that I will have my portable music back by the end of the month. We shall see.

Alright, I'm going to go to bed now. The massive amounts of diet coke I drank tonight coupled with the sugar I have digested is making me jittery and sleepy. I'm going to see an outdoor production of A Midsummer Night's Dream tomorrow and may or may not do quickie reviews of the new Arctic Monkeys and Cribs' albums. I'll just say one is good and one is trying to hard (it's up to you to guess which is which.) Now, I will worry about breakfast for tomorrow and sleep. Until then.

Big Block of Stress

This week has been insane. I've been trying to do things in the in between times that exist in my schedule and the bitch part is that every office on campus closes at 5pm (or 4pm if you're the post office) so I've been trying to get all of this stuff done before 5pm. It's insane and sweaty and I hate feeling like a headless chicken. And then yesterday, to top off this insane week, my Zune fell in the toilet while I was changing for bed. I'm going to be without my Zune until at least late September and possibly until the second week of October. This of course puts a major wrench in my radio show/demos for Westminster because without my Zune I have to rely entirely on the songs that I can burn onto a CD (or two) which is severely limiting because I don't actually own that much new music. I mostly just own old-ish music. I can't use my computer either because I have to use that to record the show in the first place and I don't want to try playing and recording the music at the same time because of feedback from the speakers and the whole thing just imploding. And it's just all so stressful. I hate stress. I also hate being mean to my roommate for no reason. She was pointing out to a friend (who's over in England) that I basically just sit on my bed and nothing else. So tonight I've been harping on that, which I recognize as being emotionally manipulative and that she's absolutely right. I do just sit on my bed and nothing else. But it's not like I'm proud of the fact that I'm a hermit. Sure I act that way, but I know it's strange and outside the social norm to prefer sitting on my bed and watching Kingdom to talking to people and going out and all that. I'm not the going out type. It's aurally overwhelming to do that and life in and of itself is already aurally overwhelming enough that when I don't have to be in classes and the like the last thing I want to do is go out and party or something. And then for some reason I felt compelled to tell Stephanie all about my auditory processing disorder. What was interesting though was how she immediately latched onto the idea that it would be hard to concentrate in class, which can be true if I'm bored/tired. So that's my life at the moment. I am the perennial chicken without a head. Thank God for Stephen Fry or I'd really be losing it.

When I Woke Up Tonight

The other night I put my ticket wall up and I must say I've been to a great many rock shows in my time. Many have been good. Some have been only so-so (I'm looking at you Sonar). But only four have been truly great*. Sadly I don't have a ticket for the first really great concert I went to, but Sophie and I have determined that half of the really great concerts I've been to have been at Merriweather Post Pavilion (which has horrible parking by the way.) The first (and only time) I saw the Killers and Keane was amazing. I stood on the lawn grinning like a complete idiot during the Killers' set and Keane were amazing (though I had no clue who they were, so it was a bit different.) Since I've only been to Merriweather Post Pavilion you can guess what the other brilliant show I've seen is.
I got into Franz Ferdinand in 2005(ish). I was a year behind then and rather unfortunately when I stepped on the completely trashed lawn of the West Stage of this year's Virgin Free Fest I was 5 years behind in gig-going. Up until this past Sunday I had been unable, for one reason or another, to attend a Franz Ferdinand show. Needless to say I was really excited and wasn't exactly sure what to expect.
They were amazing. I smile just thinking about what a great show it was. Sure they didn't say a lot, but even Bob (the bassist) had a certain energy that was just irrepressible. You couldn't help but rock out has hard as is physically possible (or at least I couldn't help doing that.) It was a tight little set that fooled you into thinking it was shorter than it actually was (encore included I would say it was an hour at most.) It's hard to properly describe something that was so...almost spiritual (how overwrought, eh?) Still, it was a brilliant show and the sore neck and throat, the sleep deprivation and insane schedule I put up with in the aftermath was worth it a million times over. After a string of mediocre and lack luster concerts, it was really, really brilliant to see a show so wonderful. As a person I once knew said, if you get the chance, go see Franz Ferdinand.

Set List

1. No You Girls
2. Dark of the Matinee
3. Do You Want To?
4. This Fire
5. Turn It On
6. Tell Her Tonight
7. Take Me Out
8. Ulysses
9. What She Came For
10. Outsiders

Encore

• Michael
• Darts of Pleasure
• Lucid Dreams [a strange combination of the single and album versions of the song and at the end, one by one they left the stage]

*The four best concerts I've been to in chronological order: The Killers (June 8, 2005); 1st Kaiser Chiefs (Jul. 22, 2005); 2nd Swell Season (May 17, 2008); Franz Ferdinand (Aug. 30, 2009)

First Week 2009

Tonight I'm finally going to get to see Fraaaaaanz Ferdinaaaaaaaand. It will be the highlight of what has proven to be a slightly stressful and definitely an exhausting week.
This week has proven why I hate bureaucracy. While the inefficiencies of bureaucracy amuse to a certain extent, it's also terribly exhausting and frustrating when those inefficiencies get in the way of my well thought out plans. This week has also proven why people in positions of power can be absolute fucking idiots. So let's start with Monday.
Monday wasn't actually that stressful save for the fact that I didn't request disability accommodations when I thought I had and therefore did not get to tell my professors about said accommodations at the time I thought I would be. Otherwise Monday was extremely unstressful, especially compared to the rest of my week. My pysch professor is great and I'm really looking forward to that class. Theory is theory and there's not a whole hell of a lot I can do to change the insanity of the 20th century. I also had my first (and it would turn out last) pilates class which was really enjoyable.
Tuesday proved to be slightly more stressful only because I couldn't do band set-up until a half-hour before practice was suppose to start and neither Bartram nor I had any idea how many of each instrument was going to show up. This year we have a plethora of clarinets (a subject I'll address more of in my recap of Thursday) and a scarcity of brass. And one percussionist. Band's going to be very depressing this semester. Music history (which from this point forward will be called "history") on the other hand is going to be great. Prof. Fillerup is as wonderful as I remember her being and I'm really looking forward to this semester. Astronomy...I'll address astronomy when I get to Thursday.
Wednesday was a lot like Monday except I had club carnival. Club carnival consisted of me standing in the sweltering heat shilling the radio station to passing strangers. It wasn't that bad really, until I had re-sign-up for the DW club (which will always be the DW club, I don't care). That was painful only because I had to act like I didn't want punch my ex in the face and break his sonic screwdriver pen. I also had chorus on Wednesday I'm really, really hoping that I won't be section leader again this semester. It's a good group though and I think this will be another excellent semester, though hopefully no fainting.
Oh Thursday. I spent a lot of time explaining my accommodations to various professor, some who got it and some who didn't. I also had Bartram tell me that all of the 3rd clarinets, save myself, suck. Band will continue to be very frustrating and I'm just glad Stephanie agrees with me. I don't think I could room with someone who doesn't think Bartram is a prat, which he is. Now astronomy.
Oh astronomy. I was so excited about astronomy. And when the professor turned out to be a mumbling old man I thought "My love of the stars and planets and having someone else take my notes will get me through this class." But then Prof. Royce gave me back the notebook that I had given him so that he could ask someone in the class to take notes for me and at that point it became painfully clear that not only was he a mumbling old man, he was mumbling, batty old man who didn't understand the idea behind disability accommodations. I was going to have to fight him every single time I wanted one of my accommodations fulfilled. My love of the planets and stars was not going to be enough to get me through this class. So when my mum told me to get the hell out of the class, I did. I'm now taking "Studies in Faith and Literature" wherein I will read my second work by Camus and my first by Dostoevsky (1,045 pages). I'm also going to get to take an extra yoga and kickboxing class, which is nice.
Friday wasn't particularly special. I had to tromp over to Marye house because bureaucracy is stupid and a fellow student in my psych had to have the principle behind assisted note taking explained to her, which has never happened before and I thought Prof. Mailloux handled it wonderfully.
So that's it. Monday the radio station is having an interest meeting at four which should be amusing and I have my first show on Wednesday (9pm to 10pm EST). A set list from tonight's show should be up within the week, but I make no promises. Until next time.

Good Times

Recently I've been a bit blue. I blame this on my on going family issues and having fuck all to do. Well tonight made up for some of the loser-ness that has been my life for awhile. First we had a dorm meeting where I got to take the piss out of my ex's girlfriend* and generally act confused when forced to participate in a "get to know your neighbours" game. Then there was a radio station meeting. There's something about inept administrations and the frustrations they lay upon the rest of us that brings me all kinds of joy. In actuality, it's incredibly idiotic that the school won't let the radio station have a computer, since we live in a closet, but I can't help but smile when I hear about just how stupid the school administration is. Maybe it's because of years of training by my school county (thank FFX!) but I kind of revel in idiocy. Sure it can be pissing, but ultimately I find a perverse kind of humour to the whole thing. So there you have it. Idiocy makes me happy.
Tomorrow classes start. My first class isn't until 1pm, but I've come up with a list of tasks I have to do, most of which I'm not terribly excited about. My first task, outside of showering and eating breakfast, is to see if my accommodations are ready. My second task is to go to pysch services and see if I can schedule some appointments to talk about things with Larissa. There are some obvious reasons why I'm a bit apprehensive about doing these things, but mainly I don't want to do them because I'm lazy and hate doing things for myself. Still, these tasks can't be avoided and hopefully I won't run into anyone who I don't want to run into and still have some time to read Dracula. All I know is that I'm going to be listening to a lot of Kaiser Chiefs in the next few days.
On one last note, I can have rum in my room without Stephanie or I getting in trouble. Of course, no rum for Stephanie.
*In a show of good roommate-ness and general saneness, when I told Stephanie that I think my ex's girlfriend looks like horse she responded "I was thinking the exact same thing!" Turns out the slag is a club with Stephanie and she spent an entire afternoon sitting across from said slag thinking "she looks like a horse." That made my night, along with the station meeting where we found Pabst Blue Ribbon beer cans and an empty box for Pinnacle vodka in the station.

My Radio Show

LJ Writer's Block Question: If you had your own radio or television station, what would it be called and what kind of programming would it play?
This is kind of an easy question to answer since I do in fact have a college radio show (wmwc.umw.edu baby!) But in my perfect world, were the minor restrictions I have placed on me are removed, my radio show would be all British most of the time. Sure every once in a while an American or other non-British artist would pop up, but 99.9% of the time I would play British music from the 1960's onward. Honestly though, it wouldn't be that different from the show I have now except I wouldn't be trying to fit in songs that I don't know that well that were released in the last 6 months into the show. I would also play ABBA without fear of ridicule in this perfect world, but that's something completely different. Anywho, the name of my show is "Nora's [Fill in the Blank] Radio Hour" which harkens back to when I started posting Facebook events for my show and would call it "Nora's Ridiculously Named Radio Hour" or "Nora's Awesome Amazing Radio Hour." At least it has a name now. I didn't when I started.

A Letter to a Friend

Dear Stephanie,
You still like him don't you? I can't exactly judge since I held a torch for an equally nasty guy for 3 years, but you have to admit, you act like you still like him. Despite my own history, I have to admit, I don't get it. After everything he's done to you, the pain he put you through last spring (and all the times before) how you can even stand to be around him, let alone still care for him? He's a rotten bastard, who if he had you back would ultimately just hurt you again. Maybe I'm wrong about him, it's not as if I have the highest opinion of men at the moment. He doesn't seem all bad, but there's just this little hint that he's really not that good either. I know better than to say any of this to you, but I worry a little that you're going to get hurt again and I'd hate to see that happen. You've got a good boyfriend now, so please, use that brain I know you have and don't mess that relationship up for an ass like him (the other not-boyfriend.) I see that he's trying hard to get back into your life but remember what he's done and keep that in mind when you're around him. Just because he's nice now, doesn't mean he'll be nice later on. Do what's in your best interest I guess is what I'm trying to say and let this guy go, it will be for the best I think.
Sincerely,
Nore

Good Lord I Suck At This

:sigh: I could apologize for not updating, but that's just getting redundant isn't it? So yeah, I've been a complete loser updating this summer and for that I am sorry. Between working, yoga, kickboxing, and finding out some pretty revelatory stuff about myself/my dad, updating my blog hasn't been exactly a top priority. I have a bunch of news stories I want to share and stressers to bitch about, so I'll just get straight to those.
News! Oh the world has been semi-kind to me the past couple of weeks. First of all The Mighty Boosh came out on DVD so I have that wonderful goodness to watch whenever I want without the guilt of watching it as a downloaded thing. Also there's been news from the rock world that has amused me much. To start off with on the first night of the Green Day North American tour, Ricky broke a rib. I find this amusing largely because he'd had such a good run of not breaking anything and then bam! Breaks a rib on the first night of a tour I loathe. It's a bit self-centred I admit, but I'm a big believer in instant karma and she owes me some niceness. Also, Preston of "Preston and Chantelle" fame has admit he regrets being a big prat on NMTB. It's nice to know he'd like to go on now that Simon has left and the bitch has divorced him so that it's only pitiful career the new guest host can make fun of. And finally the former drummer for Razorlight, Andy Burrows, is joining We Are Scientists for their third album. While this doesn't replace the irreplaceable Tapper, it does prove at least one thing: Razorlight sucks ass.
So I have no clue when I'm heading back to school. I'm worried about that, facing my ex and not being able to get everything done I need to get done before classes start. It's overwhelming and my head hasn't stopped hurting since Friday. Unfortunately there isn't much I can do about any of the things that are stressing me right now, or I've already done everything I can do to alleviate them to the best of my ability. I hate waiting for things to happen, especially when I know there's nothing I can do to change the course of events. Mind you I can now recognize that this hatred of change and not being in control has to do with my daddy issues (which by the way I won't get into for the sake of everyone's sanity) but it doesn't change how I'm feeling right now. Sadly, this week at the beach probably won't help to alleviate any stress I have at the moment, but oh well. If things go according to plan I'll be out of the house a week from now and back at school stressing about new things. :sigh: C'est la vie.
Edit: I heard from my GM and I'm all set to move in early. As I told my roommate, one less thing to worry about, thank god.