Lucky it's been a fairly manageable couple of days back at school so far. Only a few minor upsets, and that's just the usual stuff. The birthday(15. gosh) was absolutely wonderful of course and I'm happy with all the stuff I got.
Run through time, no?
I got the expected group of CDs, with a couple of them still in the mail, most of them people at V. Hurts(Happiness), KT Tunstall(Tiger Still), Rihanna(Loud), Eminem(Recovery), The Kills(Blood Pressures), Kele(Boxer), Elbow(Build A Rocket Buys! finally!) Courteeners(St. Jude), Primal Scream(Screamadelica), PJ Harvey(Let England Shake), The Script(Science & faith), and the Submarine soundtrack. Seeing as I've been a tad preoccupied with Manchester Orchestra(listen to the new song, Virgin, it's great) and Cage the Elephant and such, I've only listened to Hurts so far...but let me just say, that album is so good. I'd describe it as the 'perfect pop record' if I didn't take to doing that with a different album every fortnight or so. Better Than Love is beyond catchy, it drives me crazy...and the intro song, it's surprisingly dark, for a pop song. Hurts are interesting, because they're both very 80s and very modern pop, it's strange. It's all Pet Shop Boys synth, with Depeche Mode darkness, plus dub step influences, dance influences, and (heterosexual) sex appeal. It's fuuuuun. I thought I'd drive my parents crazy with the record but, luckily, they really like it too. They're definitely a 'love them or hate them' sort of band...as for me, now that I'm more familiar with them, I'm very excited to see them in August. Also, I got piano versions for Sweeney Todd and Star Wars, like I kept going on about. they're both pretty easy but I can only play easy stuff, so it works well. Unfortunately, no No Place Like London(my favorite ST song after Johanna Reprise), but it has all the other popular ones so it's all good. I got an awful lot of DVDs, not exactly sure why! I got Peep Show Series 7 on DVD(love.) and I've consequentially been reminded of how utterly brilliant all of Peep Show is. It's better to watch them on DVD, because the series are so short it almost seems like they don't flow together when you're just watching them as debuts. I really liked the episodes when re-watching them now. The rest of the family seemed to like them, also, so now I can probably get away with watching them every single day until Series 8 in November...which I'm totally excited for. I'm really worried about Dobby moving in with Mark, though, simply because I adore Dobby and I'll be heartbroken when Mark&Dobby inevitably break up in the next series. Also, in series eight, I need to see more of Sophie(as much as I dislike her), and also I'd like a return of either Elana or, better yet, Nancy. Or Zhara! Zhara's character is so brilliant.
Also got Deathly Hallows Part 1 on DVD. Also, a few months ago, I suddenly remembered Doogle and the Blue Cat...which was my favorite movie when I was, um, eight. if you went through your childhood without Doogle and the Blue Cat, you are missing out on so much. Basically, it's a French kids from from the early 1970s which was (as all good kids films are) probably made on hallucinatory drugs. It's great because the English version is dubbed with a completely different storyline to the original French one, goodness knows why. I'd, um, recommend it if you're into trippy kids stuff. Also, I got the much sought-after original theatrical versions of Star Wars IV, V, and VI. Not only does the nerdiness in me revel in that, but laughing at the crappy special affects in itself is a very fun event. I got the Clangers(haha, love) on DVD as a sort of joke, but also a whole array of old Disney movies...I have them on VHS, not DVD, and I no longer have a VHS player, so re-buying them was good.
Weekend was good. Bought magazines on Sunday and working until 12:30 AM on Monday morning for a science project, no big deal there. But the crux of my weekend is, of course, the new episode of my beloved Doctor Who. So, thoughts--1. I want loads of clothes in Tardis Blue. 2. This episode is...so confusing. 3. What was the point of the whole 'Doctor, I'm pregnant' thing? 4. The orphanage scene was AMAZING to the max, but really creepy even by Doctor Who standards. 5. The guy at the orphanage is my new favorite person, I think. 6. Matt Smith with a beard...like, woah. mind blown. 7. I've just realized, now, how brilliant/terrifying the Silence are. 8. the ending was kind of fast and difficult to follow, but good nonetheless. 9. The bit with the girl at the end...takes 'mind blown' to a whole new extreme. Damn you, Moffat, you Doctor Who writing genius! 10. And, most importantly, the kiss! I wasn't expecting it this early to be honest, but I'm just glad the kiss wasn't with Amy(growl.)...and as It's River's last kiss with him, it's also quite sad. Overall, good episode, I really like it...and I totally just love River.
World Civ is a big nightmare. We finished our projects on civilizations on Tuesday. On Tuesday through Thursday, all the groups put up their posters around the room and we were told to take notes on them. However, it wasn't usual 'take notes' type stuff, we were taking notes on six specific questions that were completely irrelevent to the posters. If nothing else, it was slightly frustrating to think that I did that massive timeline for nothing. He gave us like twnrty minutes on each country, though in reality those notes only too about five. And we spent all of yesterrday doing the shitty essay I have to write tonight, and then watched 9/11 videos. Stayed up to 11:30 last night doing a supremely irritating essay, and did decently on the test today. Time to move out of the middle ages, please.
health was watching the embarassing English puberty vid in one day, and then a crappy TV movie about HIV. Ugh. And I have to do a term project for this silly class--I'm choosing Bi-Bolar. On the one hand, yes, bi polar has been done to death but on the other, remarkably, most people seem to know very little about it still. I'm tired of hearing teenagers talk about how they were so happy one day and then so sad the next and how they're 'totally Bi-polar' and such, so I want to shed a little light on how fucking stupid these people are. Also, today we had symbolic unprotected sex, by exchanging index cards. I got symbolic AIDs. Ah, health class.
I finally finshed my picture in art--we're onto some geometric thing that requires creativity, of which I have little. Mostly I do homework and sit through stupid conversations. (Someone at my table asked today 'Can you die from Aspergers?' The amount of time it took for the others to resolve this girl's question was, um, troubling). Doctor Who has been on my mind too much and a fellow Whovian suggested I do a Doctor Who theme for the next project, but I'm not sure I could make it work. Sigh.
Classifacation of animals in science...going thyrough all the domains and kingdoms and classes and I want to cry with how boring they are, also the teacher continues to bring in skins for no reason...last week she brought in a bear skin, and continued to spend a half hour talking about bears. She called finding wild bears 'summer fun'. Time-waster or what? We went out at the beginning of the week to our environmental site. As per usual, we rushed through our tests in fifteen minutes and then the guys in our group started breaking sticks of increasing sizes with their hands and feet and faces. But, at least its got warm as of late o going outside is far less torturous. Present my awful(really, honestly awful) poster yesterday, to much stress. It's a test grade. I have a quiz next week--always a cause for minor mental breakdowns, as any reader of my blog will know--and then I have to do an organism report on some sort of reed. Fun, no?
Lastly, English hasn't benn too great so far this last week and a half. We've started Tale of Two Cities, hoorah! I guess I'm liking the book so far. My reading comprehension isn't very good so sometimes it's a struggle, but overall it seems to be good. (Apart from Lucie. I mean, what the hell, Dickens? Aren't you supposed to be about over-the-top people and good characterization? Explain yourself.). Unfortunately, my uber pretentious literature-snob of a teacher decided to be particularly irritating about 'one of her favorite books'. We've been put into reading groups. I'm with one girl who I'm pretty sure hates me, another quiet girl who also doesn't seem to like me, and two guys with no interest in doing any work whatsoever. Most of the time she just sits us down with this vast packets, all about analyzing the text, even when I'm pretty sure there is very little that needs to be analyzed. Last week that and vocab(not fun, either) was all we did, even on Friday afternoon. Just packets. Just when I thought things in that class could not got any worse, the teacher announced we would do a graded fishbowl activity. Graded. Basically, we have a four-person discussion going on about one question in the packet and you get a point for every time that you contribute something. Probably is, it creates the most vapid discussions imaginable, because people aren't looking to build off what other people have said, all they care about is saying loads and loads of things. That in itself is something I don't like, but grading it? Scandalous! I didn't contribute for all of the first day, but then the second day I was sitting next to this girl who, while being certainly less shy than I am, didn't want to participate either. Moving onto another question, we just decided to go together. And then, turns out we get the most ridiculous, irritating question in the entire packet to answer, one that I remember not 48 hours beforehand, ranting to my mother about due to its stupidity. It's all like "Defarge talks about the troubles with the French government at the time. Can you draw any parallels to today's world?" WELL, DUH. Anyone above the age of seven could answer yes to that, no? But you want me to draw parallels? Oh yay, you've totally just given a bunch of teenagers a chance to talk about shit they no nothing about! Then everyone else is all like "So, there's corruption...and Africa...and Libra, and, like, world hunger..." and all that jazz that these people seem to think is interrelated, even when it's not. And I'm there thinking, well, um, what do I say? Then we're told to discuss "how does this theme transcend place and time?" and I'm thinking...ugh, again? Cause it's universal? Y'know, bad shit that happens? Does this really need an explanation? Then the question ends and we go back to our seats and I've got a 0 for a participation grade.
The teacher pulled me and the other girl aside at the end of the lesson. The other girl was absent the day before so 'she had an excuse' but I did not. She did say she wanted us to contribute because we were 'two of the most articule people in the class'(which is both innacurate and very flattering) but 'it's no good if you can't voice these opinions to others'. So, shit, guys, I've got to start pretending I've got opinions...quite a feat, right? I did actually wanna say something about Miss Pross at one point, but I was too scared to stand up and sit down at the discussion table, so I didn't, and I regret that.
New Antlers album, ahhh, so good. Not Hospice level goodness, though Hospice is my all time favorite album, so beating that would be quite something. But really quite good.
Sorry it's been too long...I feel like I look unenthusiastic and dull here, which is sad because I had so much to say. Sorry. It has beena good week, really, I've liked it! It's just I'm forgetting what happened a week ago and I'm tired to the point of passing out right now.
So, night!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
That "He's Hot When He's Clever" Face
Yesterday was the big day.
Doctor Who Day.
I spent the whole day yesterday thinking about little else. I just counted down the hours, watching the DW marathon on BBC America, checked out Doctor Who posts on tumblr, and tried to color for my art project that's due Tuesday(finishing that is so not gonna happen). I found myself talking to myself and moving around my house frantically and energetically("red pencil, yes, yes, there...yes, good, good color, red") and found I'd almost turned into the Doctor by about seven o'clock. I had friends come around to watch the show. They're not particularly familiar with the show, but I'm determined to turn them into die-hard Whovians.
So, the episode! If I was on Tumblr I'd post that gif meme of David Tennant on Buzzcocks with the words "MOFFAT!" on the bottom. Also I'd describe it as a 'mind-fuck', if I wasn't so resolutely set against using the word mind-fuck. So instead I'm just going to say it was absolutely amazing, incredible, wonderful, brilliant, genius, and so on, so classic Doctor Who. A few thoughts. One, I always loved River! More so than Amy in fact; I have mixed opinions on Amy. River fits pretty well into the typical role of 'fiesty companion' in Doctor Who, which admittedly after Donna and Amy isn't so new after all, but the fact that she's also smart and almost equals the Doctor in many ways I really like. So, River, a new favorite character. I'm very fond of that scene with the Doctor and River. "And River Song, you've got that face on again". "What face?". "That 'he's hot when he's clever' face". "This is my normal face". "Yes, it is". Not only is it accurate and makes me smile, it's a line I never would have imagined coming from doctors one through ten and makes me like Eleven more than I did last series. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty much infatuated with the Doctor in every form and with every writer and actor, but I was never really completely in love with Eleven. I found him so childlike and eccentric that we couldn't really break for Emotional Bits. Perhaps after Nine&Ten, that break was needed. David Tennant kind of changed Doctor Who forever, not only with his acting, but with the whole Ten&Rose romance bit, so maybe it was good that Moffat kinda reeled us back in so it was just pure adventure? I couldn't say. I'm afraid I'm stll hung up on David's departure, sorry. I've got to say I'm warming up to Eleven now. I'm hoping we'll get some Emotional Stuff with River later in the series, and maybe Matt'll add some unexpected layer to his take on the Doctor's character with that. I'm hoping, anyway. I found the episode to be particularly mind-bending, entracing, scary, and energetic, and generally a very good way to begin the series. Got a little distracted from the end of the story, what with having friends round, but I'll be able to catch up on the episode some time soon I suppose. Awesome.
Now, only 151 hours to go until the next episode. It's gonna be one of those weeks that never ends, I think.
April vacation has been expectedly wonderful. So much sleep, reading, late nights, British TV Shows, and new music-finding. What else could I possibly need? It's a shame the weather refuses to warm up until Tuesday(accomponied by rain and thunder) but it could be worse. Last year it was warmer--I was reading stuff from my old blog earlier today, and I was talking about going to the House of the Seven Gables and Mark Twain's house in Connecticut.I suppose I wasn't so sleep-deprived last year, which is why this week was less eventful than that one.
Oh yes, happy Easter, I almost forgot! How could I forget easter? I suppose too much fun stuff has been happening to concentrate on it. I got the usual selection of chocolate, though this year I'm determined to eat it a whole lot slower. I love Easter, though not much goes on, so today was fun.
Wednesday I went downtown with some friends again. Always a fun experience! The usual dancing to folk/blues/jazz in the town's hippie gift store, laughing at money-grabbing Easter gifts in CVS, and talking about the usual(school, religion, people) in Bertuccis. Chocolate cake this time, too. Fun times, of course. There was a brief moment of panic when I had to go to my piano lesson immediately after, and I didn't know where in the town my mom had parked, so I ended up being driven around the town until I found my mom in her car, and she seemed confused. I had to run across the road and go to my lesson.
I have a piano recital in a few weeks and I've yet to force my brain into thinking about seriously preparing for that. I'm doing a version of Rimsky Korsakov's 'Song of India' which is a beautiful piece. I can play it decently well already so I supose it's not too much of a problem, yet.
AND straight after that, still on Wednesday, I went to a James Blunt concert with my mom. This probably gives you the wrong impression of my mother...she actually has a pretty cool music taste, she likes Muse, Gaga, Elvis Costello, Kasabian, bands like that. This concert was her idea, not mine by the way. I'm not entirely sure why she wanted to go. She said she liked his first album but it could just be an Ironic Thing, I don't know. I wanted to go, though, because this was April Vacation and I haven't been to a show since Weezer in December and for me May 10th is too long a time to wait to go to another. I'm spoiled, yeah. We were stuck at the back of the venue, and Christina Perri opened. Turns out this was her first ever show, and she came across as being rather overexcited in a very teenager-ish way. I...wasn't keen on the music. She played a few 'emotional' piano ballads in the same vein as Jar of Hearts, and a couple more up-beat things which were slightly more interesting. Not a whole lot to be said there. James Blunt played a hugely long set--annoying, since I only know about five songs and of those only really wanted to hear one--but I suppose he was...okay. Oh, he's so posh! And he tries not to be! He wanted to be so rock n roll so he started talking about stage diving and asking people to take their clothes off. The music was alright apart from a few cringe-worthy pieces, he did stage dive in the end, he doesn't look like how I expected him to exactly, and he closed with 1973 which is my favorite of his songs. The crowd was an interesting mix, everything from thirteen year olds in Uggs to groups of middle aged women. You've got to love the one guy trying to fist-pump energetically at a James Blunt concert.
So overall, that was a fun night, if completely exchausting. It was at my favorite venue I've ever been to, and it's just really really fun being back there, cause I haven't been there since Halloween(seeing Florence). I'm saying Manchester Orchestra with Cage the Elephant and O'Brother there in a couple weeks, Arctic Monkeys with the Vaccines the weekend after, The Script in early June, and Tim Minchin after that. Oh it's exciting.
Thursday not a lot happened. I went to a music shop to look for sheet music. I'm determined to find sheet music for Star Wars and Sweeney Todd so I can play them on piano. Sweeney Todd is problematic to find. Star Wars less so of course, but my favorite piece Star Wars is Victory Celebration, from the last scene in Return of the Jedi. It's not very popular and it's also less obvious how to arrange it for piano so it's kind of hard to find anywhere. But, I absolutely adore the piece and seeing as I'm awful at arranging pieces from ear, I need the sheet music.
Not a lot happened on Friday, fairly ordinary day. Nice weather, listening to music, at cetera.
School tomorrow, not looking forward(particularly to the irritating morning announcements which read off everyone who has a birthday that day. ho hum). Tomorrow is health(so so), science(test result back, oh dear), world civ(doing the project that my group have finished I think, usually good), and english(a new book, I suspect, probs Tale of Two Cities or Romeo and Juliet). After that it's homeworkhomeworkhomework and presents.
Good thing I've less than two months left to go, now. Summer's coming. I'm still so tired, I need a break.
Gonna go and watch Mr. Nobody online, night.
Doctor Who Day.
I spent the whole day yesterday thinking about little else. I just counted down the hours, watching the DW marathon on BBC America, checked out Doctor Who posts on tumblr, and tried to color for my art project that's due Tuesday(finishing that is so not gonna happen). I found myself talking to myself and moving around my house frantically and energetically("red pencil, yes, yes, there...yes, good, good color, red") and found I'd almost turned into the Doctor by about seven o'clock. I had friends come around to watch the show. They're not particularly familiar with the show, but I'm determined to turn them into die-hard Whovians.
So, the episode! If I was on Tumblr I'd post that gif meme of David Tennant on Buzzcocks with the words "MOFFAT!" on the bottom. Also I'd describe it as a 'mind-fuck', if I wasn't so resolutely set against using the word mind-fuck. So instead I'm just going to say it was absolutely amazing, incredible, wonderful, brilliant, genius, and so on, so classic Doctor Who. A few thoughts. One, I always loved River! More so than Amy in fact; I have mixed opinions on Amy. River fits pretty well into the typical role of 'fiesty companion' in Doctor Who, which admittedly after Donna and Amy isn't so new after all, but the fact that she's also smart and almost equals the Doctor in many ways I really like. So, River, a new favorite character. I'm very fond of that scene with the Doctor and River. "And River Song, you've got that face on again". "What face?". "That 'he's hot when he's clever' face". "This is my normal face". "Yes, it is". Not only is it accurate and makes me smile, it's a line I never would have imagined coming from doctors one through ten and makes me like Eleven more than I did last series. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty much infatuated with the Doctor in every form and with every writer and actor, but I was never really completely in love with Eleven. I found him so childlike and eccentric that we couldn't really break for Emotional Bits. Perhaps after Nine&Ten, that break was needed. David Tennant kind of changed Doctor Who forever, not only with his acting, but with the whole Ten&Rose romance bit, so maybe it was good that Moffat kinda reeled us back in so it was just pure adventure? I couldn't say. I'm afraid I'm stll hung up on David's departure, sorry. I've got to say I'm warming up to Eleven now. I'm hoping we'll get some Emotional Stuff with River later in the series, and maybe Matt'll add some unexpected layer to his take on the Doctor's character with that. I'm hoping, anyway. I found the episode to be particularly mind-bending, entracing, scary, and energetic, and generally a very good way to begin the series. Got a little distracted from the end of the story, what with having friends round, but I'll be able to catch up on the episode some time soon I suppose. Awesome.
Now, only 151 hours to go until the next episode. It's gonna be one of those weeks that never ends, I think.
April vacation has been expectedly wonderful. So much sleep, reading, late nights, British TV Shows, and new music-finding. What else could I possibly need? It's a shame the weather refuses to warm up until Tuesday(accomponied by rain and thunder) but it could be worse. Last year it was warmer--I was reading stuff from my old blog earlier today, and I was talking about going to the House of the Seven Gables and Mark Twain's house in Connecticut.I suppose I wasn't so sleep-deprived last year, which is why this week was less eventful than that one.
Oh yes, happy Easter, I almost forgot! How could I forget easter? I suppose too much fun stuff has been happening to concentrate on it. I got the usual selection of chocolate, though this year I'm determined to eat it a whole lot slower. I love Easter, though not much goes on, so today was fun.
Wednesday I went downtown with some friends again. Always a fun experience! The usual dancing to folk/blues/jazz in the town's hippie gift store, laughing at money-grabbing Easter gifts in CVS, and talking about the usual(school, religion, people) in Bertuccis. Chocolate cake this time, too. Fun times, of course. There was a brief moment of panic when I had to go to my piano lesson immediately after, and I didn't know where in the town my mom had parked, so I ended up being driven around the town until I found my mom in her car, and she seemed confused. I had to run across the road and go to my lesson.
I have a piano recital in a few weeks and I've yet to force my brain into thinking about seriously preparing for that. I'm doing a version of Rimsky Korsakov's 'Song of India' which is a beautiful piece. I can play it decently well already so I supose it's not too much of a problem, yet.
AND straight after that, still on Wednesday, I went to a James Blunt concert with my mom. This probably gives you the wrong impression of my mother...she actually has a pretty cool music taste, she likes Muse, Gaga, Elvis Costello, Kasabian, bands like that. This concert was her idea, not mine by the way. I'm not entirely sure why she wanted to go. She said she liked his first album but it could just be an Ironic Thing, I don't know. I wanted to go, though, because this was April Vacation and I haven't been to a show since Weezer in December and for me May 10th is too long a time to wait to go to another. I'm spoiled, yeah. We were stuck at the back of the venue, and Christina Perri opened. Turns out this was her first ever show, and she came across as being rather overexcited in a very teenager-ish way. I...wasn't keen on the music. She played a few 'emotional' piano ballads in the same vein as Jar of Hearts, and a couple more up-beat things which were slightly more interesting. Not a whole lot to be said there. James Blunt played a hugely long set--annoying, since I only know about five songs and of those only really wanted to hear one--but I suppose he was...okay. Oh, he's so posh! And he tries not to be! He wanted to be so rock n roll so he started talking about stage diving and asking people to take their clothes off. The music was alright apart from a few cringe-worthy pieces, he did stage dive in the end, he doesn't look like how I expected him to exactly, and he closed with 1973 which is my favorite of his songs. The crowd was an interesting mix, everything from thirteen year olds in Uggs to groups of middle aged women. You've got to love the one guy trying to fist-pump energetically at a James Blunt concert.
So overall, that was a fun night, if completely exchausting. It was at my favorite venue I've ever been to, and it's just really really fun being back there, cause I haven't been there since Halloween(seeing Florence). I'm saying Manchester Orchestra with Cage the Elephant and O'Brother there in a couple weeks, Arctic Monkeys with the Vaccines the weekend after, The Script in early June, and Tim Minchin after that. Oh it's exciting.
Thursday not a lot happened. I went to a music shop to look for sheet music. I'm determined to find sheet music for Star Wars and Sweeney Todd so I can play them on piano. Sweeney Todd is problematic to find. Star Wars less so of course, but my favorite piece Star Wars is Victory Celebration, from the last scene in Return of the Jedi. It's not very popular and it's also less obvious how to arrange it for piano so it's kind of hard to find anywhere. But, I absolutely adore the piece and seeing as I'm awful at arranging pieces from ear, I need the sheet music.
Not a lot happened on Friday, fairly ordinary day. Nice weather, listening to music, at cetera.
School tomorrow, not looking forward(particularly to the irritating morning announcements which read off everyone who has a birthday that day. ho hum). Tomorrow is health(so so), science(test result back, oh dear), world civ(doing the project that my group have finished I think, usually good), and english(a new book, I suspect, probs Tale of Two Cities or Romeo and Juliet). After that it's homeworkhomeworkhomework and presents.
Good thing I've less than two months left to go, now. Summer's coming. I'm still so tired, I need a break.
Gonna go and watch Mr. Nobody online, night.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Music Post
The April Vacation story so far: Sunday: read, played Sims(ha.), played piano, went on computer. Tuesday, much the same, went to a random port town with the family. It was pretty and I got an old fashioned ruler. Today, the same again, went to the mall, got a t-shirt, someone thought I worked in Delias and asked if 'I had any bathing suits', caught up on almost a week's worth of reading for my science book report project(I hate to say the book's not much fun. I suppose it has some good points but the writing style is very dry. and focuses on the same areas of science), and organized all my CDs. They're all in their proper cases now! It hasn't been this way for months. I thought I'd lost my Manchester Orchestra CD. Luckily, this was not the case.
I also found my Hot Fuss CD out of its case(shit fuck dammit ugh) but it doesn't seem to be damaged. Hot Fuss was like the 2nd CD I ever bought, so I really don't want to replace it. Hopefully I won't have to.
Also I listened to loads and loads of Elbow today. I almost exclusively listened to Elbow in fact. If I get their debut for my birthday I'll have the full collection! I don't think a lot of people can attest to that...if you were one of those people who listened to The Seldom Seen Kid, loved it, and never further explored Elbow, you're missing out on so much. I was listening to Leaders of the Free World Today, for the most part. I could listen to the title track all day. Oh, and I'm listening obsessively to Lippy Kids and the Birds, too. Everybody knows Elbow are a band for people in their 30s--and judging by the difficult I've had in finding the new record, for people in their 30s who live exclusively in Europe--and since I'm 14 and in love with them, they feel almost like my little secret. Which is kinda silly because they're so popular elsewhere but...I'm the only one round here, in my school anyway, who loves them. They're my thing.
Since I really haven't done anything this week, I figured this is the perfect time to do a music post. In the possibility you have any interest in what I've been listening to at the moment, well, this is your lucky day. Also, I'm a music addict(who isn't?) so this is perfect. and so easy.
Starting with the obvious--
Gorgeous, gorgeous, wonderful, beautiful, through and through. I expect nothing less. It's perhaps my favorite representation of adolescence in music. One that neither goes on about drugs and partying or about rebelling or about feeling empty or 'being young and free'. I suppose in many ways the song is about all of those things...but in a way that's both romanticized and realistic, and the balance is so perfect that it works. It's also told by someone who has long since passed adolescence, which is certainly different. The whole album's about nostalgia, I believe. It's really very interesting because not many people write about that in popular music. Also, Guy Garvey has one of my favorite voices I've heard. I like how it isn't smothered in major label gloss. It's weather worn and sounds human and he doesn't break into falsettos or anything, it's just so blissful and it makes the (already brilliant) words he's speaking sound more true. Love.
The darling of r'n'b/dubstep mashups, at least for this week. His sound is very interesting(even some soul in there, I think) and his voice adds a unique layer. Also there's that...I don't know what to call it, Eastern European sound going on. Yeah, it's good stuff. Buy his album. It's not on US iTunes, ugh.
I...only just bothered listening to Bon Iver. *hangs head in shame*. They always struck me as one of those folk bands I never stop hearing about, which tends to put me off the music. Namely because they have hipster fans aplenty. It's a good thing I did bother to listen, though. This song is brilliant. Brilliant in a very sad way, of course, but brilliant nonetheless. "Come on, skinny love, just last the year". I guess I'm just overly sentimental, but there's something about that.
Another brilliant song. Sleigh Bells are definitely my favorite 'up and coming' band of the last year. This song is so powerful and forceful and well, just firey and energetic and loud. But in the most brilliant way possible. Also, it's interesting how they mixed this sound with super saccharine vocals. They've done this on all their other songs that I've heard and I love it.
'Hell in a hand basket' is the way I first heard this song described. Quite accurate, really. Again, this is in the best possible way. And I don't really like...industrial or whatever this is, but this is just addictive and energetic and great.
This should be bland indie pop but I actually rather like the sound of this. I never expected this out of Metronomy--I don't think anybody did, did they? Such an interesting song...also, I want to play it at the beach or something.
More frenzied, frantic, energetic pop/rock? Yes. By the best of the business--Pulled Apart by Horses. I think I could sing along to these nonsense lyrics all day. And go crazy. Because the song is so fun and weird and reminds me of November.
I'm seeing Manchester Orchestra in a few weeks. I cannot wait. I just remembered, oh yeah, the album this is from is fucking amazing. for a guitar band! And I'm not even so into 'alternative' bands at the moment, so this is quite an achievement.
Cage the Elephant are gonna open for Manchester Orchestra. I don't really know how that happened but it's fine with me. I like CtE less than Manchester Orchestra but Ive been familiarizing myself with their new album int he car. I often forget that this is the same band that came out with Ain't No Rest for the Wicked a couple years back. But in a good way! The album is eclectic. Definitely very wannabe classic rock-ish, but they make it work.
Super catchy riot grrrly pop-rock, anyone? Yes please.
Piano lesson tomorrow, going downtown, and oh yes, my mom is taking me to a James Blunt concert. I don't like James Blunt but I haven't been to a concert since December so I'm actually excited. It's only a shame Christina Perri is opening. I cannot stand Jar of Hearts, I'm afraid.
Night, all.
I also found my Hot Fuss CD out of its case(shit fuck dammit ugh) but it doesn't seem to be damaged. Hot Fuss was like the 2nd CD I ever bought, so I really don't want to replace it. Hopefully I won't have to.
Also I listened to loads and loads of Elbow today. I almost exclusively listened to Elbow in fact. If I get their debut for my birthday I'll have the full collection! I don't think a lot of people can attest to that...if you were one of those people who listened to The Seldom Seen Kid, loved it, and never further explored Elbow, you're missing out on so much. I was listening to Leaders of the Free World Today, for the most part. I could listen to the title track all day. Oh, and I'm listening obsessively to Lippy Kids and the Birds, too. Everybody knows Elbow are a band for people in their 30s--and judging by the difficult I've had in finding the new record, for people in their 30s who live exclusively in Europe--and since I'm 14 and in love with them, they feel almost like my little secret. Which is kinda silly because they're so popular elsewhere but...I'm the only one round here, in my school anyway, who loves them. They're my thing.
Since I really haven't done anything this week, I figured this is the perfect time to do a music post. In the possibility you have any interest in what I've been listening to at the moment, well, this is your lucky day. Also, I'm a music addict(who isn't?) so this is perfect. and so easy.
Starting with the obvious--
Gorgeous, gorgeous, wonderful, beautiful, through and through. I expect nothing less. It's perhaps my favorite representation of adolescence in music. One that neither goes on about drugs and partying or about rebelling or about feeling empty or 'being young and free'. I suppose in many ways the song is about all of those things...but in a way that's both romanticized and realistic, and the balance is so perfect that it works. It's also told by someone who has long since passed adolescence, which is certainly different. The whole album's about nostalgia, I believe. It's really very interesting because not many people write about that in popular music. Also, Guy Garvey has one of my favorite voices I've heard. I like how it isn't smothered in major label gloss. It's weather worn and sounds human and he doesn't break into falsettos or anything, it's just so blissful and it makes the (already brilliant) words he's speaking sound more true. Love.
The darling of r'n'b/dubstep mashups, at least for this week. His sound is very interesting(even some soul in there, I think) and his voice adds a unique layer. Also there's that...I don't know what to call it, Eastern European sound going on. Yeah, it's good stuff. Buy his album. It's not on US iTunes, ugh.
I...only just bothered listening to Bon Iver. *hangs head in shame*. They always struck me as one of those folk bands I never stop hearing about, which tends to put me off the music. Namely because they have hipster fans aplenty. It's a good thing I did bother to listen, though. This song is brilliant. Brilliant in a very sad way, of course, but brilliant nonetheless. "Come on, skinny love, just last the year". I guess I'm just overly sentimental, but there's something about that.
Another brilliant song. Sleigh Bells are definitely my favorite 'up and coming' band of the last year. This song is so powerful and forceful and well, just firey and energetic and loud. But in the most brilliant way possible. Also, it's interesting how they mixed this sound with super saccharine vocals. They've done this on all their other songs that I've heard and I love it.
'Hell in a hand basket' is the way I first heard this song described. Quite accurate, really. Again, this is in the best possible way. And I don't really like...industrial or whatever this is, but this is just addictive and energetic and great.
This should be bland indie pop but I actually rather like the sound of this. I never expected this out of Metronomy--I don't think anybody did, did they? Such an interesting song...also, I want to play it at the beach or something.
More frenzied, frantic, energetic pop/rock? Yes. By the best of the business--Pulled Apart by Horses. I think I could sing along to these nonsense lyrics all day. And go crazy. Because the song is so fun and weird and reminds me of November.
I'm seeing Manchester Orchestra in a few weeks. I cannot wait. I just remembered, oh yeah, the album this is from is fucking amazing. for a guitar band! And I'm not even so into 'alternative' bands at the moment, so this is quite an achievement.
Cage the Elephant are gonna open for Manchester Orchestra. I don't really know how that happened but it's fine with me. I like CtE less than Manchester Orchestra but Ive been familiarizing myself with their new album int he car. I often forget that this is the same band that came out with Ain't No Rest for the Wicked a couple years back. But in a good way! The album is eclectic. Definitely very wannabe classic rock-ish, but they make it work.
Super catchy riot grrrly pop-rock, anyone? Yes please.
Piano lesson tomorrow, going downtown, and oh yes, my mom is taking me to a James Blunt concert. I don't like James Blunt but I haven't been to a concert since December so I'm actually excited. It's only a shame Christina Perri is opening. I cannot stand Jar of Hearts, I'm afraid.
Night, all.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
I'm in Love with Judas.
April Vacation! It has arrived at last. I'm tired beyond belief and all I wanna do is read and listen to music all week. Which is totally gonna happen.
So good thing the week ended with this kind of euphoria. That's not to say the week preceding it was bad of course, but you know how teachers are, just piling on test after test. I associate April very strongly with warm weather, shorts-wearing, and landfill indie and yet this week will be more like sweatshirts, false hopes, and Manchester Orchestra. No matter! April is wonderful of course and I have so much to look forward to this week...DOCTOR WHO(gushgushgush), Easter, my birthday the following Monday, seeing friends, etc. Fun stuff, really.
It just occurred to me this afternoon that I will soon by fifteen years old. It's an age I associate with those YA novels where these girl's lives start to fall apart(drugs, boys, all that jazz). 14 is young and naive and being a freshman and all the books are about your first kisses and 15 you get into crystal meth and give up on empathy. that isn't true of course and I don't even know where I've gotten this idea from apart from Ellen Hopkins novels(guilty please, okay?)but that's what I associate 15 with. I like 14, I wanna stay 14, even though a year won't make much difference. But you know what's just plain scary? Sixteen. Doesn't bare thinking about.
According to the student assistant in my world civ class, this is the time of year where freshmen get excited about the idea of not being freshman for much longer. It's an interesting prospect. My world civ teacher says that Sophomore girls are the loudest creatures on the planet. Our classroom is in a corridor of sophomore lockers(and it's the block where people have lunch at various times) so I can say I've heard enough ear-splitting screams to agree with this. Now that's all I can think about being a sophomore. My introvertedness will stick out like a sore thumb even more than it does now, next year, if things follow that route.
I really shouldn't be basing my thoughts here on stereotypes, as I've just done for two paragraphs. Stereotypes cause problems.
Speaking of world civ, I finished my group project about France on Friday with twenty minutes to spare. Out of the seven groups we're the only ones done, so we get the vacation free of homework. I spent the bulk of the week doing a timeline from 1400 to 1750. As a history nerd, I'm sad to admit I wasn't very interested in the sort of significant facts I was working with. Our textbook briefly mentioned the Skeptics and seeing as that kinda stuff is really appealing to the agnostic-atheist secular humanist(feel free to snigger.) part of me, I would've loved to delve more deeply into that. I didn't really have time, though, and they didn't have many big events so I was forced to stick to talking about Louis XIV and going to war with Spain. The whole thing was quite a hassle--I'm insanely particular in projects about getting straight lines and such, I can't just draw and write and cut ad hoc. After that I helped draw a boat and looked over the maps some girls in my group had drawn. They HAD done theirs ad hoc. In maps for history projects, yes, I expect outlines and borders and continents to be a little...geographically incorrect and a few island to be missing. However on theirs, it seems Britain and Ireland had been wiped off the face of the planet. And sorry to be your typical arrogant Brit, but, um, those were kinda important countries in these times sooo...you sorta shoulda put them on the map. So that was worrisome.
I had an environmental test on Thursday. This is always, always, without fail, a cause for mass chaos, panic, mental breakdowns, the works. They are the single hardest tests I've taken my whole life and I studied for hours and hours and hours. It was about cycles of matter and I could not for the life of me get it into my thick skull. I studied with a friend and stayed after for review and I suppose it helped, to some extent. I'm hoping for low 80s, percent-wise, that would suit me nicely. That was the focus of my week, and then we did our first lab. I was with the usual three narcissists who I can't seem to avoid in this class. One girl declared how she'd copied her hypotheses from someone who'd already done the experiment. When--shock!--they turned out to all be accurate, she announced 'I got them all right! I feel so smart!". Someone said "you got help, though" and she replied "It's right there in the handout, actually! They were kinda obvious"...good lord, some people, eh? On our last day we had a sub, who was Welsh and was wearing an English football shirt and kept talking about Muse and Depeche Mode which was quite brilliant, and I just did optional notes with a couple of people. It ended on a high note.
Art was drawing the entire week. I love coloring, I'm not a good drawer but coloring's fun. I didn't get very far, though, so I have to take it home to finish this week.
Health is the usual. We were talking about sexuality, and was extremely overjoyed to see that, when we were doing 'Continuum questions', every single person 100% agreed with gay marriage. very strongly agreed, actually. I love you, Massachusetts kids, don't forget to be liberal 'n' awesome. We talked a lot about discrimination and the like and I continued to be very happy with the attitudes of the people. Our last lesson was less decent. we were talking about sun protection and skin damage, as it SHOULD be warm around this time of year. We went over the usual stuff and then the teacher brought out this machine that can show you the sun damage on your face. Totally optional, of course. We had the alternative of making bracelets that are color-sensitive to sunlight. I chose to read instead, which seamed reasonable enough, right? The machine made the attitude of the lesson(one we all know well) rather different, in some ways. A few people lined up to see their faces reflected in neon colors. I could hear the teacher talking about how some have a lot of damage and some they don't and she would comment on their skin tone because of this. She pressured me, multiple times, to join in. For one thing, I don't particularly want to see my face in any light, let alone something that shows all the skin damage I've probably collected("It's not that bad, really, Naomi!" say a few girls who actually go to school not looking completely dishevelled. hmm). Two, I'm British, we don't see the sunlight for most of the year, so I'm pale. I felt embarassed with all the tan-ish girls in my class and the teacher's comments about their 'natural protection' and then that compared to my teacher pressuring me and my redheaded friend to join in. She had to balls to succumb to this shit--I did not. I know the teacher wanted me to join in because I will have skin damage. But can't she see that if I'm sitting there paler than everyone else with more sun damage than everyone else, how I'M gonna feel? Doesn't she think for one fucking second about how other people think, or feel? Doesn't she see, AT ALL, that she was putting such an emphasis on darker skin? I hope she knows I went out of that room never feeling worse about the color of my skin. I've never felt so fucking tempted to go tanning in my life than after that lesson, all thanks to her. Stupidity barely covers the teacher's attitude that day. I don't wanna go back there.
It was our last week for our student teacher in English. He continued to hate us, of course, didn't tell us his first name and made us watch more of the movie that I'm failing to pay attention to. It was his birthday at the beginning of the week and he was caught-red handed at some cheap restaurant being such a college kid, by one of his students. Spread like wildfire to all the kids in his classes. "I'm never going back there" he told us later in the week, after we continued not to let it go. I had to do a portfolio assessment which involved staying up till 12:30 on Thursday writing three very shitty papers on subjects I didn't care about, and I had a couple of tests on Things Fal Apart and Oedipus the King. The teacher and his inabilty to control us will be missed, now it's back to grammar notes and vocab sentences with our usual teacher, I would imagine.
The new Gaga song is the best, end of. Also I watched Tarzan(don't laugh) the other day and I think I adored it more than I ever did as a child. Such a beautiful movie. And the music, oh the music! If the Lion King didn't exist I reckon it would have been my favorite Disney movie, song-wise. Phil Collins, please can I borrow your brain for like a day? Please? You're like some sort of musical god, you're just so, so good. The music is absolutely astonishing and I will be watching this several more times this week. I'll be having the Disney obsession I never had when it was socially acceptable.
Today I did nothing. Nothing at all. It was a beautiful, beautiful thing. Now I'm off to sleep and have a good week. Night, all.
So good thing the week ended with this kind of euphoria. That's not to say the week preceding it was bad of course, but you know how teachers are, just piling on test after test. I associate April very strongly with warm weather, shorts-wearing, and landfill indie and yet this week will be more like sweatshirts, false hopes, and Manchester Orchestra. No matter! April is wonderful of course and I have so much to look forward to this week...DOCTOR WHO(gushgushgush), Easter, my birthday the following Monday, seeing friends, etc. Fun stuff, really.
It just occurred to me this afternoon that I will soon by fifteen years old. It's an age I associate with those YA novels where these girl's lives start to fall apart(drugs, boys, all that jazz). 14 is young and naive and being a freshman and all the books are about your first kisses and 15 you get into crystal meth and give up on empathy. that isn't true of course and I don't even know where I've gotten this idea from apart from Ellen Hopkins novels(guilty please, okay?)but that's what I associate 15 with. I like 14, I wanna stay 14, even though a year won't make much difference. But you know what's just plain scary? Sixteen. Doesn't bare thinking about.
According to the student assistant in my world civ class, this is the time of year where freshmen get excited about the idea of not being freshman for much longer. It's an interesting prospect. My world civ teacher says that Sophomore girls are the loudest creatures on the planet. Our classroom is in a corridor of sophomore lockers(and it's the block where people have lunch at various times) so I can say I've heard enough ear-splitting screams to agree with this. Now that's all I can think about being a sophomore. My introvertedness will stick out like a sore thumb even more than it does now, next year, if things follow that route.
I really shouldn't be basing my thoughts here on stereotypes, as I've just done for two paragraphs. Stereotypes cause problems.
Speaking of world civ, I finished my group project about France on Friday with twenty minutes to spare. Out of the seven groups we're the only ones done, so we get the vacation free of homework. I spent the bulk of the week doing a timeline from 1400 to 1750. As a history nerd, I'm sad to admit I wasn't very interested in the sort of significant facts I was working with. Our textbook briefly mentioned the Skeptics and seeing as that kinda stuff is really appealing to the agnostic-atheist secular humanist(feel free to snigger.) part of me, I would've loved to delve more deeply into that. I didn't really have time, though, and they didn't have many big events so I was forced to stick to talking about Louis XIV and going to war with Spain. The whole thing was quite a hassle--I'm insanely particular in projects about getting straight lines and such, I can't just draw and write and cut ad hoc. After that I helped draw a boat and looked over the maps some girls in my group had drawn. They HAD done theirs ad hoc. In maps for history projects, yes, I expect outlines and borders and continents to be a little...geographically incorrect and a few island to be missing. However on theirs, it seems Britain and Ireland had been wiped off the face of the planet. And sorry to be your typical arrogant Brit, but, um, those were kinda important countries in these times sooo...you sorta shoulda put them on the map. So that was worrisome.
I had an environmental test on Thursday. This is always, always, without fail, a cause for mass chaos, panic, mental breakdowns, the works. They are the single hardest tests I've taken my whole life and I studied for hours and hours and hours. It was about cycles of matter and I could not for the life of me get it into my thick skull. I studied with a friend and stayed after for review and I suppose it helped, to some extent. I'm hoping for low 80s, percent-wise, that would suit me nicely. That was the focus of my week, and then we did our first lab. I was with the usual three narcissists who I can't seem to avoid in this class. One girl declared how she'd copied her hypotheses from someone who'd already done the experiment. When--shock!--they turned out to all be accurate, she announced 'I got them all right! I feel so smart!". Someone said "you got help, though" and she replied "It's right there in the handout, actually! They were kinda obvious"...good lord, some people, eh? On our last day we had a sub, who was Welsh and was wearing an English football shirt and kept talking about Muse and Depeche Mode which was quite brilliant, and I just did optional notes with a couple of people. It ended on a high note.
Art was drawing the entire week. I love coloring, I'm not a good drawer but coloring's fun. I didn't get very far, though, so I have to take it home to finish this week.
Health is the usual. We were talking about sexuality, and was extremely overjoyed to see that, when we were doing 'Continuum questions', every single person 100% agreed with gay marriage. very strongly agreed, actually. I love you, Massachusetts kids, don't forget to be liberal 'n' awesome. We talked a lot about discrimination and the like and I continued to be very happy with the attitudes of the people. Our last lesson was less decent. we were talking about sun protection and skin damage, as it SHOULD be warm around this time of year. We went over the usual stuff and then the teacher brought out this machine that can show you the sun damage on your face. Totally optional, of course. We had the alternative of making bracelets that are color-sensitive to sunlight. I chose to read instead, which seamed reasonable enough, right? The machine made the attitude of the lesson(one we all know well) rather different, in some ways. A few people lined up to see their faces reflected in neon colors. I could hear the teacher talking about how some have a lot of damage and some they don't and she would comment on their skin tone because of this. She pressured me, multiple times, to join in. For one thing, I don't particularly want to see my face in any light, let alone something that shows all the skin damage I've probably collected("It's not that bad, really, Naomi!" say a few girls who actually go to school not looking completely dishevelled. hmm). Two, I'm British, we don't see the sunlight for most of the year, so I'm pale. I felt embarassed with all the tan-ish girls in my class and the teacher's comments about their 'natural protection' and then that compared to my teacher pressuring me and my redheaded friend to join in. She had to balls to succumb to this shit--I did not. I know the teacher wanted me to join in because I will have skin damage. But can't she see that if I'm sitting there paler than everyone else with more sun damage than everyone else, how I'M gonna feel? Doesn't she think for one fucking second about how other people think, or feel? Doesn't she see, AT ALL, that she was putting such an emphasis on darker skin? I hope she knows I went out of that room never feeling worse about the color of my skin. I've never felt so fucking tempted to go tanning in my life than after that lesson, all thanks to her. Stupidity barely covers the teacher's attitude that day. I don't wanna go back there.
It was our last week for our student teacher in English. He continued to hate us, of course, didn't tell us his first name and made us watch more of the movie that I'm failing to pay attention to. It was his birthday at the beginning of the week and he was caught-red handed at some cheap restaurant being such a college kid, by one of his students. Spread like wildfire to all the kids in his classes. "I'm never going back there" he told us later in the week, after we continued not to let it go. I had to do a portfolio assessment which involved staying up till 12:30 on Thursday writing three very shitty papers on subjects I didn't care about, and I had a couple of tests on Things Fal Apart and Oedipus the King. The teacher and his inabilty to control us will be missed, now it's back to grammar notes and vocab sentences with our usual teacher, I would imagine.
The new Gaga song is the best, end of. Also I watched Tarzan(don't laugh) the other day and I think I adored it more than I ever did as a child. Such a beautiful movie. And the music, oh the music! If the Lion King didn't exist I reckon it would have been my favorite Disney movie, song-wise. Phil Collins, please can I borrow your brain for like a day? Please? You're like some sort of musical god, you're just so, so good. The music is absolutely astonishing and I will be watching this several more times this week. I'll be having the Disney obsession I never had when it was socially acceptable.
Today I did nothing. Nothing at all. It was a beautiful, beautiful thing. Now I'm off to sleep and have a good week. Night, all.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
you're at the age of not believing and worst of all you doubt yourself
so I am the only person in the world who totally adores Bedknobs and Broomsticks? Yes? I thought that much. Ignoring my synth-rock-trip-hop hipster tendencies, I totally just listened to a Disney compilation CD from start to finish. Remarkable, the ability to know this word for word after not listening to it for some five years or more. my favorite Disney soundtrack was always Brother Bear--then tarzan. Phil Collins you genius you. I wish I was a good musician.
I kinda wanna learn how to play some pieces from soundtracks on piano. Specifically Concerning Hobbits and Victory Celebration from Star Wars. And I wanna learn some Sweeney Todd stuff too. Y'know, Victory Celebration's one of my favorite peices ever, which if nothing else displays my profound ignorance of 'pieces'. The ending scene of Return of the Jedi I find sadder than any other scene in any other movie I've ever seen(strange, seeing as it's, well, a happy scene). LUKE BURNING ANAKIN. I cry at that. I'm bawling for most of Return. the only ever TV show scene I'ce cried at I'm pretty sure is the end of Doctor Who series 2. This speaks for itself, really, doesn't it?
This weekend was the first day it felt like spring. Had to brave the infamous shorts shopping fiasco that rears its ugly head every April. My pasty legs(or rather lack there of, y'know) don't wanna show themselves Monday morning when it's allegedly 'GONNA BE LIKE ABOVE 80'. That part of me does not like spring. The other utterly adores spring. Today, waking up, reading HP, playing badminton with neighbors(so she's like 10. so? I gotta give the 'loss of innocence' angst a break sometimes), went for a walk, et cetera. As far as my weekends go, this goes under the category of 'entertaining and almost productive'. Tomorrow I hope to go downtown and then bury myself under homework and Disney songs.
I have a week till April vacation, which'll be fuuuun. Doctor Who April 23rd, Easter 24th, birthay the 25th. Could that be any more perfect? This year is going by too fast sometimes, it seems. On Monday or Tuesday, I can't remember, V added some more people to the lineup--Chipmunk, the Wanted, Lostprophets, Good Charlotte, Noisettes, Kids in Glass Houses, Dionne Bromfield. Not super excited about any of these but a festival's a festival and a lot of people seem to forget that it's basically a weekend in a field watching live music with your friends, not something for grown adults to lose their heads over on V's FB page. Seems I'll be seeing an emo band this year. Huh. Oh well, I'm up for that if needs be...I actually rather wanna see at least ONE emo band just to...see what it's like. Preferably Good Charlotte but anyone works. Noisettes were fun back in '09 so they'd be good again, and Dionne Bromfield would be fun for a little break, in the little tent I assume.
School runthrough time? Well of course.
Art is still me drawing a prism. I got to coloring by Thursday! That was a good moment. Shame I'm limited to colored pencils. It really hinders what I can do, especially considering all that crazy detailed colored sections the picture has. Mine'll take forever. Luckily I sit at the table with The Art Prodigy who's days behind everyone else, so I won't be entirely alone.
In Health we finished the drug unit. We're onto the sex ed unit. Naturally my details of this are gonna be sparse, though I doubt I'm gonna freak out about this like I did last time the topic came around. (In 7th grade I titled a blog post "I Started Health Today o.O"). Though as far as freask-outs go, things aren't looking terribly reassuring. Our first activity on the matter was in the style of one of those get-to-know-you games teachers like to dish out. Y'know, where you're given a handout with a list of things on like "Has a birthday in April" or "Has travelled to Europe" and you're supposed to go around the room and find someone to sign if they've done the aforementioned thing. This activity is uncomfortable enough without things like "Knows where babies grow" and "is comfortable with their body". Hmmm. It's no fun studying for a male/female anatomy quiz--I had to hide myself in my room, all suspicious like. And we get bonus points for asking dumb questions about sex! Luckily I think she knows I'm gonna be quite silent about the whole matter. Good, good.
Science! Oh science! How I wish I could keep my eyes open to absorb some of your endless information! I got a 98% on a group project and continue to just scrape by passing grades for homework handouts that I don't understand one bit. my science teacher continues to bring in dead animal skins and skulls to pass around the class to an arry of screams and unhappy faces. There's a company that makes fake, plastic animal crap for science teachers. What do you say ayt parties when someone asks for your job when you're the guy who makes that stuff?
In world Civ we've got round to research for our projects about various civiliations/empires/whatnot in the Middle Ages. I was surprised to find out that France wasn't a TERRIBLEY interesting country between the years of 1400 and 1750. It has its fair share of cool stuff, certainly, but most of their events were to do with killing Hugeunots and going to war with Spain which is a little bit...eh. Research hasn't been too much fun. Neither is my group. One of them I sit with at lunch, I rather like actually, I'm with two other girls who seem daunted by the task of drawing a remotely detailed map of Europe, and who like to flirt with random upperclassmen when we're working in the library. I was even a little bit upset with the decent girl, who gave me some completely unworkable dimensions for a timeline. No matter, I will brave it on my own. L'etat, c'est moi.*
In English our student teacher continues to have no control whatsoever over our class. They frequently break into giggles over things and beg and whine to watch some more of The Minority Report--a movie which to be honest is doing nothing for me. I'm pretty sure I failed a test and a quiz because I barely studied, but I got an A on an essay so all is almost well. I was beginning to lose all hope in this guy's teaching abilities until, when some douchebag went on about how a counter(a vocab word) is 'a thing women work behind', he told him he'd take extra points off his quiz if he wrote that as his definition. The douchebag continued 'I thought you'd add points. I thought that'd be bro-ish'. Teacher: 'I'm not a bro'. Student raises an eyebrow. 'Not in that sense' says the teacher. I know the teacher's obligated to do this and I know The Douchebag's whole shtick is basically just getting a rise out of people to avoid writing notes, but...I thought that was cool of the teacher nonetheless.
Music--Metronomy, Biffy clyro, Atari Teenage Riot, jj, James Blake, Those Dancing Days, Eminem, Ellie Goulding, Villagers, Paloma Faith, the aforementioned Disney. I've fallen a bit out of routine with my music these last couple weeks, but I'm trying to catch up again! God music is great. And reading Harry Potter. and being so excited for new Doctor Who episodes you can barely stand it. And browsing obsessively through Comme Des Garcons pictures. And spring. And roaming Tumblr for pictures all afternoon.
Anyway, good night.
*Actually I think that would be a bit insulting to my groups' efforts beyond my own. I'm just the sort of person who thinks throwing quotes from French monarchs makes me sound smart. (it doesn't).
I kinda wanna learn how to play some pieces from soundtracks on piano. Specifically Concerning Hobbits and Victory Celebration from Star Wars. And I wanna learn some Sweeney Todd stuff too. Y'know, Victory Celebration's one of my favorite peices ever, which if nothing else displays my profound ignorance of 'pieces'. The ending scene of Return of the Jedi I find sadder than any other scene in any other movie I've ever seen(strange, seeing as it's, well, a happy scene). LUKE BURNING ANAKIN. I cry at that. I'm bawling for most of Return. the only ever TV show scene I'ce cried at I'm pretty sure is the end of Doctor Who series 2. This speaks for itself, really, doesn't it?
This weekend was the first day it felt like spring. Had to brave the infamous shorts shopping fiasco that rears its ugly head every April. My pasty legs(or rather lack there of, y'know) don't wanna show themselves Monday morning when it's allegedly 'GONNA BE LIKE ABOVE 80'. That part of me does not like spring. The other utterly adores spring. Today, waking up, reading HP, playing badminton with neighbors(so she's like 10. so? I gotta give the 'loss of innocence' angst a break sometimes), went for a walk, et cetera. As far as my weekends go, this goes under the category of 'entertaining and almost productive'. Tomorrow I hope to go downtown and then bury myself under homework and Disney songs.
I have a week till April vacation, which'll be fuuuun. Doctor Who April 23rd, Easter 24th, birthay the 25th. Could that be any more perfect? This year is going by too fast sometimes, it seems. On Monday or Tuesday, I can't remember, V added some more people to the lineup--Chipmunk, the Wanted, Lostprophets, Good Charlotte, Noisettes, Kids in Glass Houses, Dionne Bromfield. Not super excited about any of these but a festival's a festival and a lot of people seem to forget that it's basically a weekend in a field watching live music with your friends, not something for grown adults to lose their heads over on V's FB page. Seems I'll be seeing an emo band this year. Huh. Oh well, I'm up for that if needs be...I actually rather wanna see at least ONE emo band just to...see what it's like. Preferably Good Charlotte but anyone works. Noisettes were fun back in '09 so they'd be good again, and Dionne Bromfield would be fun for a little break, in the little tent I assume.
School runthrough time? Well of course.
Art is still me drawing a prism. I got to coloring by Thursday! That was a good moment. Shame I'm limited to colored pencils. It really hinders what I can do, especially considering all that crazy detailed colored sections the picture has. Mine'll take forever. Luckily I sit at the table with The Art Prodigy who's days behind everyone else, so I won't be entirely alone.
In Health we finished the drug unit. We're onto the sex ed unit. Naturally my details of this are gonna be sparse, though I doubt I'm gonna freak out about this like I did last time the topic came around. (In 7th grade I titled a blog post "I Started Health Today o.O"). Though as far as freask-outs go, things aren't looking terribly reassuring. Our first activity on the matter was in the style of one of those get-to-know-you games teachers like to dish out. Y'know, where you're given a handout with a list of things on like "Has a birthday in April" or "Has travelled to Europe" and you're supposed to go around the room and find someone to sign if they've done the aforementioned thing. This activity is uncomfortable enough without things like "Knows where babies grow" and "is comfortable with their body". Hmmm. It's no fun studying for a male/female anatomy quiz--I had to hide myself in my room, all suspicious like. And we get bonus points for asking dumb questions about sex! Luckily I think she knows I'm gonna be quite silent about the whole matter. Good, good.
Science! Oh science! How I wish I could keep my eyes open to absorb some of your endless information! I got a 98% on a group project and continue to just scrape by passing grades for homework handouts that I don't understand one bit. my science teacher continues to bring in dead animal skins and skulls to pass around the class to an arry of screams and unhappy faces. There's a company that makes fake, plastic animal crap for science teachers. What do you say ayt parties when someone asks for your job when you're the guy who makes that stuff?
In world Civ we've got round to research for our projects about various civiliations/empires/whatnot in the Middle Ages. I was surprised to find out that France wasn't a TERRIBLEY interesting country between the years of 1400 and 1750. It has its fair share of cool stuff, certainly, but most of their events were to do with killing Hugeunots and going to war with Spain which is a little bit...eh. Research hasn't been too much fun. Neither is my group. One of them I sit with at lunch, I rather like actually, I'm with two other girls who seem daunted by the task of drawing a remotely detailed map of Europe, and who like to flirt with random upperclassmen when we're working in the library. I was even a little bit upset with the decent girl, who gave me some completely unworkable dimensions for a timeline. No matter, I will brave it on my own. L'etat, c'est moi.*
In English our student teacher continues to have no control whatsoever over our class. They frequently break into giggles over things and beg and whine to watch some more of The Minority Report--a movie which to be honest is doing nothing for me. I'm pretty sure I failed a test and a quiz because I barely studied, but I got an A on an essay so all is almost well. I was beginning to lose all hope in this guy's teaching abilities until, when some douchebag went on about how a counter(a vocab word) is 'a thing women work behind', he told him he'd take extra points off his quiz if he wrote that as his definition. The douchebag continued 'I thought you'd add points. I thought that'd be bro-ish'. Teacher: 'I'm not a bro'. Student raises an eyebrow. 'Not in that sense' says the teacher. I know the teacher's obligated to do this and I know The Douchebag's whole shtick is basically just getting a rise out of people to avoid writing notes, but...I thought that was cool of the teacher nonetheless.
Music--Metronomy, Biffy clyro, Atari Teenage Riot, jj, James Blake, Those Dancing Days, Eminem, Ellie Goulding, Villagers, Paloma Faith, the aforementioned Disney. I've fallen a bit out of routine with my music these last couple weeks, but I'm trying to catch up again! God music is great. And reading Harry Potter. and being so excited for new Doctor Who episodes you can barely stand it. And browsing obsessively through Comme Des Garcons pictures. And spring. And roaming Tumblr for pictures all afternoon.
Anyway, good night.
*Actually I think that would be a bit insulting to my groups' efforts beyond my own. I'm just the sort of person who thinks throwing quotes from French monarchs makes me sound smart. (it doesn't).
Saturday, April 2, 2011
I am nothing without pretend.
The house is dead silent, which I find disconcerting. my sister spent the night with her friends, and she just got home and now she's gonna be on skype for some hours still. my parents are seeing Gogol Bordello in concert right now. They won't be back for hours. I'm gonna listen to Noah and the Whale and blog.
Fact--I am the least cool person in my family.
It's so sadenning to me, the way I seemingly can only blog on the weekends now...really, it's quite upsetting. Because I love to blog, however banal the things I type tend to be. This year is going by so fast. I can't keep up. Time is slipping away and et cetera and nostalgia and all that. Don't they know these days are golden? Or something? Sigh. Truth is while one part of me is desperate for summer, the other just wants to drag this bleak, cold spring on a little bit further...Do you know how depressing my outlook on life is? Euphoria makes my emotional to the point of sadness. It's odd. I like to feel like I'm a changed person from year to year...It's a constant idea of knowing I'm shallow and misguidaded and unpleasant, but not kmnowing in what way exactly but knowing I will know in the future, and wanting to change who I am, and I hate feeling like I'm the same person I was on September and I hate the idea that I will have very few memories from this year. it's strange. Why can't I live life like a normal person? In the words of Simon Amstell--"and everyone's there, and they're running, and they're getting lost in the moment. And I'm going along with them and thinking 'well, this will make a good memory'".
I'm afraid when I'm let to my own devices and it's dark, I churn out this depressing angsty time-is-inexorably-slipping-away stuff. Maybe that's true for many.
Anyway, to counter this, the usual ramble about life.
This weekend was a productive one for me. Bought new editions of Q and the Word and and the new Cage the Elephant CD. Read Harry Potter, watched Lord of the Rings, avoided homework. Not looking forward to tomorrow--I've a monster of an essay to write, among massive amounts of other homework. And I need to catch up on piano. Groan. I want april vacation now. Two weeks to go. and then freedom and sunshine and listening to the Kooks to my heart's content.
I got a 73 on the science quiz! it a miracle, guys! The average was a 68! yay for scraping just above average! The world is wonderful, but learning about soil and landforms is not. Now we have to learn about water and my science teacher seems to have an endless supply of animals' skins to pass around the class, much to the dislike of many people and to the cry of 'oh god, not another one.' Where is she keeping these things? I have to do a book report. I was in the library late the other day hurridly looking through biology books. Settled on something about mavericks in biology. I don't particularly want to read it. Also we went outside on Thursday and it was surprisingly pleasent outside, though my group, less so. Someone hit a meter stick with all his might against the tree and it broke in two. Told the teacher he stepped on it.
We had a two-hour delay on Friday. Sleep has never been better. It's nice going through a day without the nagging feeling you're gonna pass out at any minute.
Monday and Wednesday in art continued the advanture of 'looking for my passion' in magazines that I don't particularly enjoy reading. I was getting pretty annoyed, as my teacher turned his nose up at every psuedo-artsy photo that caught my attention. I got to drawing a prism by Friday. Yeah, prisms, they're like my favorite thing in the whole entire world, obviously. No disrespect to prisms, mind, they're pretty damn cool, but still. He still doesn't seem impressed. Oh well. I'm not gonna draw a butterfly or a tropic rainforest bird like half the class.
Health, again, was the usual anti-drug runthrough, focus on alcohol this time. We watched a crappy video with English people in it, I was absolutely reeling in my seat. Drugs are bad and blah blah blah blah. Though we did a little game to test our knowledge on Thursday, and the ignorance of some people is unbelievable. these are popular people too! Aren't you supposed to go out on Fridays and get off your heads on illegal substances! It's freaks like me who are supposed to sit at home and watch star wars and think cigarettes are as hardcore as it gets! And yet I'm the one who knows what speedballing is, I know what drug classifacation marijuana is, I know what ecstacy's chemical name is, I know what the hardest form of cocaine is, and yes, I know that Meth is not a form of crack. (seriously to that last one, what the hell?). my god, guys...I know the world isn't ending because of this, but the lack of knowledge here was baffling.
I got a 96% on a world civ project about renaissance people whcih I'm very happy with because it took massive amounts of time to do. This week was basically us going over and over and over about the Crusades to the point where even me, as a history nerd with a focus on religious history, was tempted to fall asleep at times. Then we got assigned projects entitled 'POWER'(capitals needed), where we were divided into small groups and told to research the monarchies of powerful medieval civilizations. I got really lucky. Researcing about France is gonna be a ball! I reckon I got the most interesting one there, but I couldn't say for sure. I got out of Great Britain by the skin of my teeth. My teacher told my I could switch if I wanted to. For one, the freedom he gave me because of my nationality made me feel uncomfortable and alien. And two, I legitimately own half a dozen books on the British monarchy even though from a historical perspective, books simply listing monarchs are pretty dull. The nine-year-old me thought otherwise, it seems. Point being, I really should not be let anywhere near this part of history because I was just get sucked in and end up spending my days memorizing the entire British monarchy and stupid crap like that, and it'd just be bad and a waste of time and I'd get addicted. France sounds fun.
Oh yeah and we're drawing coats of arms, which is a nightmare times ten. I'll be glad to veer away from the European middle ages, actually. my teacher's a fun, decent, open-minded person but I don't like being singled-out when we're talking about the monarchy or government or whatnot. Don't get me wrong, many teachers do this and he's honestly one of the more knowledge on such matters, but it's still a tad frustrating. I know it's unavoidable, yeah. I shouldn't complain, I know.
the student teacher in English is completely inept at keeping the class under control. you know when you're doing grammar and you ask the class for an imperative sentence to use and their response is 'Suck this', that you're doing something wrong. Or when someone throws a calculator across the room. Deadly serious, it's funny but also pathetic. And now we're watching a movie? Wow, critical literary analysis indeed.
DOCTOR WHO. IN THREE WEEKS EXACTLY. OH MY GOD THE WORLD IS WONDERFUL. the new trailer looks wonderful. I'm a huge Whovian, you should know. I actually rather liked last year's series. I did have issues coming to terms with David Tennant being gone but I perservered...and matt smitth turned out to be rather good. as did Karen--I liked Amy. But no one beats Rose. I cannot, cannot get over series two no matter how hard I try. I took my Doctor Who waaaay too seriously in 5th grade. Unlike everyone else, I'm excited for the stuff about River. I never understood everyone's hate towards River...I'd take her over Amy any day, actually. Doctor Who reminds me of spring now, and warmth, and April vacation, and blogging. I loooove Doctor Who and cannot wait for its return.
Gonna go read and watch a movie late at night, hope the snow melts and all. Night.
Fact--I am the least cool person in my family.
It's so sadenning to me, the way I seemingly can only blog on the weekends now...really, it's quite upsetting. Because I love to blog, however banal the things I type tend to be. This year is going by so fast. I can't keep up. Time is slipping away and et cetera and nostalgia and all that. Don't they know these days are golden? Or something? Sigh. Truth is while one part of me is desperate for summer, the other just wants to drag this bleak, cold spring on a little bit further...Do you know how depressing my outlook on life is? Euphoria makes my emotional to the point of sadness. It's odd. I like to feel like I'm a changed person from year to year...It's a constant idea of knowing I'm shallow and misguidaded and unpleasant, but not kmnowing in what way exactly but knowing I will know in the future, and wanting to change who I am, and I hate feeling like I'm the same person I was on September and I hate the idea that I will have very few memories from this year. it's strange. Why can't I live life like a normal person? In the words of Simon Amstell--"and everyone's there, and they're running, and they're getting lost in the moment. And I'm going along with them and thinking 'well, this will make a good memory'".
I'm afraid when I'm let to my own devices and it's dark, I churn out this depressing angsty time-is-inexorably-slipping-away stuff. Maybe that's true for many.
Anyway, to counter this, the usual ramble about life.
This weekend was a productive one for me. Bought new editions of Q and the Word and and the new Cage the Elephant CD. Read Harry Potter, watched Lord of the Rings, avoided homework. Not looking forward to tomorrow--I've a monster of an essay to write, among massive amounts of other homework. And I need to catch up on piano. Groan. I want april vacation now. Two weeks to go. and then freedom and sunshine and listening to the Kooks to my heart's content.
I got a 73 on the science quiz! it a miracle, guys! The average was a 68! yay for scraping just above average! The world is wonderful, but learning about soil and landforms is not. Now we have to learn about water and my science teacher seems to have an endless supply of animals' skins to pass around the class, much to the dislike of many people and to the cry of 'oh god, not another one.' Where is she keeping these things? I have to do a book report. I was in the library late the other day hurridly looking through biology books. Settled on something about mavericks in biology. I don't particularly want to read it. Also we went outside on Thursday and it was surprisingly pleasent outside, though my group, less so. Someone hit a meter stick with all his might against the tree and it broke in two. Told the teacher he stepped on it.
We had a two-hour delay on Friday. Sleep has never been better. It's nice going through a day without the nagging feeling you're gonna pass out at any minute.
Monday and Wednesday in art continued the advanture of 'looking for my passion' in magazines that I don't particularly enjoy reading. I was getting pretty annoyed, as my teacher turned his nose up at every psuedo-artsy photo that caught my attention. I got to drawing a prism by Friday. Yeah, prisms, they're like my favorite thing in the whole entire world, obviously. No disrespect to prisms, mind, they're pretty damn cool, but still. He still doesn't seem impressed. Oh well. I'm not gonna draw a butterfly or a tropic rainforest bird like half the class.
Health, again, was the usual anti-drug runthrough, focus on alcohol this time. We watched a crappy video with English people in it, I was absolutely reeling in my seat. Drugs are bad and blah blah blah blah. Though we did a little game to test our knowledge on Thursday, and the ignorance of some people is unbelievable. these are popular people too! Aren't you supposed to go out on Fridays and get off your heads on illegal substances! It's freaks like me who are supposed to sit at home and watch star wars and think cigarettes are as hardcore as it gets! And yet I'm the one who knows what speedballing is, I know what drug classifacation marijuana is, I know what ecstacy's chemical name is, I know what the hardest form of cocaine is, and yes, I know that Meth is not a form of crack. (seriously to that last one, what the hell?). my god, guys...I know the world isn't ending because of this, but the lack of knowledge here was baffling.
I got a 96% on a world civ project about renaissance people whcih I'm very happy with because it took massive amounts of time to do. This week was basically us going over and over and over about the Crusades to the point where even me, as a history nerd with a focus on religious history, was tempted to fall asleep at times. Then we got assigned projects entitled 'POWER'(capitals needed), where we were divided into small groups and told to research the monarchies of powerful medieval civilizations. I got really lucky. Researcing about France is gonna be a ball! I reckon I got the most interesting one there, but I couldn't say for sure. I got out of Great Britain by the skin of my teeth. My teacher told my I could switch if I wanted to. For one, the freedom he gave me because of my nationality made me feel uncomfortable and alien. And two, I legitimately own half a dozen books on the British monarchy even though from a historical perspective, books simply listing monarchs are pretty dull. The nine-year-old me thought otherwise, it seems. Point being, I really should not be let anywhere near this part of history because I was just get sucked in and end up spending my days memorizing the entire British monarchy and stupid crap like that, and it'd just be bad and a waste of time and I'd get addicted. France sounds fun.
Oh yeah and we're drawing coats of arms, which is a nightmare times ten. I'll be glad to veer away from the European middle ages, actually. my teacher's a fun, decent, open-minded person but I don't like being singled-out when we're talking about the monarchy or government or whatnot. Don't get me wrong, many teachers do this and he's honestly one of the more knowledge on such matters, but it's still a tad frustrating. I know it's unavoidable, yeah. I shouldn't complain, I know.
the student teacher in English is completely inept at keeping the class under control. you know when you're doing grammar and you ask the class for an imperative sentence to use and their response is 'Suck this', that you're doing something wrong. Or when someone throws a calculator across the room. Deadly serious, it's funny but also pathetic. And now we're watching a movie? Wow, critical literary analysis indeed.
DOCTOR WHO. IN THREE WEEKS EXACTLY. OH MY GOD THE WORLD IS WONDERFUL. the new trailer looks wonderful. I'm a huge Whovian, you should know. I actually rather liked last year's series. I did have issues coming to terms with David Tennant being gone but I perservered...and matt smitth turned out to be rather good. as did Karen--I liked Amy. But no one beats Rose. I cannot, cannot get over series two no matter how hard I try. I took my Doctor Who waaaay too seriously in 5th grade. Unlike everyone else, I'm excited for the stuff about River. I never understood everyone's hate towards River...I'd take her over Amy any day, actually. Doctor Who reminds me of spring now, and warmth, and April vacation, and blogging. I loooove Doctor Who and cannot wait for its return.
Gonna go read and watch a movie late at night, hope the snow melts and all. Night.
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