The last week in bullet-points

• I baked lemon cake with icing, and it was quite delicious despite the slimy texture.
• Amanda Palmer’s new album Theatre is Evil was released. I can’t listen to an album the whole way through the first time; I have to familiarise myself with each individual song, so I’ve yet to actually hear the whole thing! Still, my distaste for anything that sounds even slightly 80s-ish meant I was initially skeptical when I first heard snippets on the kickstarter video. I felt like a Bad Fan, but every new song I listen to becomes my favourite. Even Grown Man Cry is like right up there, which on the Kickstarter video had me all, “Da fuq is this”. Am quite pleaaased.
• I discovered that one of my favourite law lecturers also likes Amanda Palmer and follows her on Twitter. It’s so perfect.
• The release of Feeple60 Miyu! To everyone who has ever sold their Delf Miyu with dubious yellowing at a ridiculous price, or tried to sell their Miyu with lots of clothes and junk no one else wants – I don’t need you anymore, Fairyland has my back. Now I get superior posing and all the optional hands I could possibly want. The new body is far from beautiful, but it’ll be wearing clothes so whatevs. ;D Oh Fairyland, I love you so.
• The studio I looked at earlier this year for 2013 pops up on TradeMe for $20 less (HAH). I wants it.
• Joining Lumosity, which my doctor recommended because she’s into neuroplasticity. It has games that are supposed to strengthen your brain in relation to areas like memory and speed. AND WELL. I’ve had my strengths and weaknesses confirmed. Much as I may be super at problem-solving and flexibility, it’s useless teamed with my weak attention span and slow brain. Hurrr!

Okay we are all enlightened now about my happenings yes.

A rambling post about Amanda Palmer, Coke, life and REVENGE

I am about to break three personal blog rules today (try to spot them!):

1. Don’t apologise for, or mention the lack of updates. I detest blogs that start off “I’m sorry I haven’t posted for a while!”. Stop this.
2. Don’t talk about physical insecurities. Though this is a life rule, not a blog rule as such. No one has really noticed your jiggly thighs – it’s okay. Besides, James May has a slightly paunchy belly and it is adorable. Flaws are beautiful.
3. Your blog is not a personal journal. I don’t need another one. Check out that username I actually spent money to get!

And this is not a rule, but I’m doing it anyway: there are going to be lots of them today. Someone asked for a new post, so you really brought this on yourself! This is the REVENGE part. Now for the rest.

I saw Amanda Palmer live.

HIGHLIGHT OF MY ENTIRE LIFE.

First song was Sex Changes, which isn’t even sad, but I was wringing my hands trying not to cry. I DON’T KNOW WHY. And I did cry through the second song, because I remember stealthily trying to wipe my eyes without the guy I’d just met noticing, and thinking, “IT’S JUST… SO HOT IN HERE THAT MY EYES ARE SWEATING…. THAT’S IT.“

Luckily I didn’t spend the next few hours wrestling with myself like that, and was able to join in on the cheering and happiness. That is, until she came out for an encore and played Astronaut, and while other people were singing along to the piano, I was more like “DON’T CRY DON’T CRY DON’T CRY“. I hate those weird hysterical fans, and it turns out I’m one of them! D: I’M STILL COOL OKAY. ALWAYS AND FOREVER.

I’ve stopped drinking Coke.

My dependence on this stuff is embarrassing. Over the summer, I’d occasionally have as many as six cans in a day. I REGRET NOTHING. Then a few weeks ago I saw that a 600mL bottle would lost ~$3. $21 a week? Bah! So I just stopped buying it.

Beautiful things have since happened! I now drink two litres of water a day. My skin looks nicer. My perpetually enormous belly is somewhat flatter. It’s also easier to fall asleep! There are people who do this with no effort, leaving you to lie awake hating their every contented snore. I am now joining those people, and quite smugly, too. I never knew Coke had that effect on me! I AM A SLEEPING GOD.

…Having said that, in the first couple of weeks, falling asleep was so easy that I struggled to stay awake past 5pm, and I’d only be able to groggily sit at my computer refreshing my dashboard on Tumblr. We are past this stage of withdrawal now. Phew.

I do feel like I just lost a crucial part of my identity, but we can just replace this with something else. Like creme eggs.

Life, summarised:

• I love Petronius. We’ve been translating his Satyricon in Latin. In the Renaissance monks would write pervy stories and pretend they were Petronius’s lost stories, so they’d share them around with each other. Indeed! The most recent thing we translated involved few drunks reminiscing about a recently dead guy’s various perversions, and how back in the day he’d even have his way with the dog. Aaaww.
• I like putting basil pesto and tomato relish on bagels.
• I made chocolate chip cookies which tasted like popcorn.. they also didn’t cook properly and were not biscuits, so much as … goop.
• The person in the room above me watches Avatar. I want to send them an anonymous love note and/or be their best friend.
• Personally, all I’ve been watching are episodes of Top Gear and Gossip Girl. James May is so preciously awkward in his first ever episode. And then there’s this quote:
  

  Perhaps this is due to his habit of rambling, of endeavouring earnestly to explain scientific and technological tidbits to you when you didn’t request it of him. Pleasingly, he never seems to mind when it becomes clear to the both of you that you stopped listening several minutes earlier.

  “Oh dear, I’m going on a bit, aren’t I?” he will say several times over the next hour. “Don’t be afraid to stop me if I do so again, will you?”

  Excited babbling about nerdy things I don’t care about is the cutest thing ever. Why aren’t we married??

• I ran into a drunk guy the day after St Patrick’s Day, at midday. OH, DUNEDIN. He came at me with his arms outstretched, and I couldn’t move anywhere short of burying myself into a prickly hedge. He kissed me a couple of times (!?), mumbling into my hair something that sounded like, “awwwwwamdfsml”, and as his sober friend dragged him away he shouted, I LOVE YOU, YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL.
  I wasn’t too worried, really. But now the last person to kiss me was a weird drunken creep, so if anyone wants to change this they would be most welcome.

That is all! Congratulations if you made it this far! ♥

Pining for Amanda Palmer

These are the Top 10 songs on my iTunes (play count in brackets):

1. Astronaut – Amanda Palmer (279)
2. Rising Sun – DBSK (216) « I am the ultimate in cool
3. Runs in the Family – Amanda Palmer (148)
4. Ampersand – Amanda Palmer (147)
5. Leeds United – Amanda Palmer (136)
6. Have To Drive – Amanda Palmer (132)
7. Dear Jenny – Dresden Dolls (130)
8. Lonesome Organist Rapes Page-Turner – Dresden Dolls (123)
9. The Mouse and the Model – Dresden Dolls (119)
10. The Kill – Dresden Dolls (117)

Note that the Dresden Dolls is a two-person band she was in, and look at the list again. …Yeah.

I always thought it was obsessive – not anymore. Today I’ve decided it’s further proof that I need to go to her concert. Via Amanda Palmer’s blog, I noticed that she’s coming to New Zealand again! The same places as last year, but I don’t care how much it’ll cost, or how many lectures I’ll miss – I want to go~

And I’m bitterly sad that I’m not friends with any other fans. Even if I conned anyone into listening to her, it’s unlikely they’d like her as strongly as I do. So I’ll be going by myself. This isn’t a problem, but sharing it with others would make it more fun. The only scary thing is that I can’t go to her concert… and not meet her. She’d probably do signings. She does that. What do you say to your idol?

Reminds me of when I met John Marsden. I remember seeing THE WEIRD EXPRESSION ON HIS FACE at the book I’d brought along for him to sign, “Everything I know about writing”. This is what happened next, plucked from an old journal entry in 2004:

JOHN MARSDEN: *signing book* Do you like writing?
BECKA: Pardon?
JOHN MARSDEN: Do you like writing?
BECKA: I used to. But it kind of fizzled out.
JOHN MARSDEN: Oh. Schools don’t really encourage writing when you’re older, do they?
BECKA: Uh… um. Yeah.

A dirty lie, but I was too nervous to explain. The next day he was on TV complaining about how inarticulate and boring New Zealand teenagers are. Unfair.

Flashback over, I adore and idolise Amanda Palmer like no one else. If I met her, I’d probably be one of those hysterical fans. It’s more than her music – her whole outlook on things, her style, and how she’s so upfront and honest about anything. I love this woman so much I don’t even care that she blogs without capital letters.

Creepy yes, but it just means I really do have to go to this concert. Somehow. ;_;

The soundtrack for 2009

Because you listen to songs during things, events.. and listening to them later only ever reminds you of, “that time when…”

Bank of Boston Beauty Queen (Dresden Dolls)

This song makes me incredibly nostalgic for O-Week. Particularly when we failed to line up early enough for the hypnotist – it’s impossible to get seats for that, man – and instead visited a friend’s flat and had a great Disney music rave.

O…Saya (A.R Rahman)

Hot days, writing the first assignment of the year, and procrastination. It was a disaster, but the memories from it are good. Walking through the botanic gardens, trying a chocolate-covered pretzel, friends buying me pizza… ♥

Mind Forest (Gackt)

This song that vanished off my computer, I’m not sure how. I found it again, and thought something similar to, “HOMGGGG GACKT IS THE BEST EVERRR” (because he is!), and spawned this post.

Rising Sun (DBSK)

This was all I listened to for a while (I am the ultimate in cool). It also had a post dedicated to it and how its PV is so loltastic.

Inconvenient Ideal (Dir en grey)

Sometimes I listen to Dir en grey’s Uroboros album and think, “Don’t worry, everything’ll be okay because you have their latest album~“. So I listened to this album whilst texting someone, getting increasingly hysterical lolz, trying to talk about something that I’d put off for a long time (and no, I couldn’t do it person, bawww). Yeah, I am about as pathetic as they come.

They don’t care about us (Michael Jackson)

So like, Michael Jackson died, you guys. Suddenly everyone was his fan again! This sort of thing makes me cynical, and I swear the same thing happened with Heath Ledger. Only this time, this song was played on the radio. All my pessimism was interrupted with a, “He was pretty good, huh” and I became one of the masses instead. It’s a shame that someone has to die before you look at their work properly to recognise their talent.

The Circle of Life (The Lion King)

Because the music at St Margaret’s ball sucked (hard), a friend and I wanted to request Disney music. Sadly, we figured the DJ would be too much of a douche to follow through with it, however, so we sang it ourselves. Wailed, more like.

She Wolf (Shakira)

This is hard to explain, but I’ve had a webcrush on this girl for a few years and I stalk her for kicks. She’s e-famous, so it’s all g, and not at all creepy… hopefully. This song was briefly all over her Tumblr (username ‘helgaholic’), and I’m not linking to it because any webstats would trace back here and I’m shy. ;D She wrote, “Awooooo~” and it was adorable.

Single Ladies (Beyonce)

Becka visits a karaoke bar, and was surprised to find one in Dunedin, but that’s beside the point! It looked like I was the only one who was able to sing along to it – I really, truly can’t sing! But less than a month later, our hero then went back to karaoke nonetheless. I’m lovin the karaoke, especially the accompanying flailing/dancing~

Dust and Water (Antony & the Johnsons)

One night I tried studying in the common room at St Margaret’s. Contract Law. Halloween. Texting a fellow Law student about who should shoot the other first, when someone came by and gave me a roll of mini Mentos. I think she was giving them to whoever she came across. It was so sweet of her, and I have no idea who she was… and I was so stunned that I forgot to ask what her name was, ahahaha. Oh – and this song was stuck in my head.

…Exams feel like such a long time ago. But still, that’s my year (ish), in song!

The greatest music video. Ever

I like watching JRock music videos for the lulz. Sometimes studying is a waste of time (because hey, I’m gonna fail Law anyway), and I watch Gackt’s music videos. And with shining eyes of love, I watch him struggling to dance.

Ack, no, I’m lying. My determination is such that it is virtually unconquerable (despite my I’M-GOING-TO-FAIL wailing), so Gackt-music-video-watching has only happened twice this year. I’m not as much of a Gackt music video expert as I pretend to be.

Then someone with a fetish for slutty Korean boys (notice that is a qualifying adjective, not one declaring that all Korean boys are slutty, thank you), ordered me to watch DBSK’s Mirotic music video. My life changed forever.

…Because then I clicked on a related video, and saw their Rising Sun music video.

5 reasons why DBSK’s Rising Sun music video = genius

1. Dude in the church has a really nice nose.
Yes, I am that shallow.

2. Good examples of dudes wearing earrings without looking entirely ridiculous
I hope we are all taking notes.

3. Dudes in clubs screaming “NOOOOO” in a dramatic way.

4. The dancing
The first few dancing moves in particular are so fluid and awesome. Up to just after a minute is my favourite part. It’s also occasionally really funny. There’s some head bopping. Does this make them cool? No.. and yet… very much so.
FACT: DBSK music videos make me sad that I can’t dance.

5. SUP IT’S THE BRADY BUNCH.
lolz.

So this music video is the most awesome thing ever, and I laugh every time. Itunes says I’ve listened to it 202 times since I added it three months ago, which proves it must be the best song of all time and I wish DBSK was like this all the time, except it looks like they usually do boring, though sweet, ballads.

(And if it sounds like I’ve turned my back on my darling Gackt, you would be mistaken; I recently heard his unplugged version of Last Song for the first time and swooned several times over. I am also listening to him right now.. ♥ ♥)