Your English is Good

I completely forgot Spring Break. It’s almost April. Like, tomorrow is April. I’m getting kind of annoyed that the Florence and the Machine people haven’t emailed me back about a press pass, and at least Spoon’s people told me to remind them on APRIL 5TH, FOUR DAYS BEFORE THE SHOW. I don’t see why they wait so long. It just makes us more nervous.

Today was a nervous day.

I won’t say why just yet, but let’s just say the nervous ended well.

Right, spring quarter started yesterday. About that…

I LOVE (two of) MY CLASSES! The other one will hopefully be a piece of cake, but so far I know that I’ll definitely need coffee before each Earth History class. It was the only Natural World credit that fit into my schedule without a lab and an extra lab fee. Plus, it’s only a 200-level course, so it won’t be too bad. But my other classes are the ones I’m excited about – Feature Writing with Demaske and Advertising and Consumer Culture with Coon. And it’s nice that they bookend the day. Lots of creative thinking in the morning – but not too early morning – then my boring after-lunch class, then the critical thinking theory class. It’s perfectly set up for my brain. We already talked about our final assignment in my feature writing class yesterday, which sounds quite awesome actually. We have to study a subculture over a long period of time and do an in-depth, 8-10 PAGE ARTICLE about it. That’s a lot of words for feature stories. But I’ve already thought about what subcultures I could do. There’s not a lot of subcultures in Gig Harbor that would make for an interesting story. There are lots of subcultures, but they are boring. In terms of Gig Harbor, I’m pretty sure all I could choose from would be pot smokers, old people, crafty people, snooty people, and high school kids. Wup-de-freakin-do. And the subcultures I’d really like to study would either a.) be in Seattle, so I’d drive way more than I’m willing to, or b.) not let me, because I’m not 21. So I’m considering doing the subculture of straight edge. There would be no danger involved, so that’s good, and it would only be in Tacoma. But I’d have to endure local hardcore music at The Viaduct. Not sure how keen I am on that, but I think it might be an interesting experiment in my will power. And I’m doing it for a grade, so that’s kinda worth it. Once I sift through all the subcultures that I don’t consider myself a part of, I might think of a less excruciating one to do. If you have any ideas, I will accept anything right now.

What else?

Nerdfighters. I had such a boring spring break that over the last 2 weeks I’ve watched approximately 250 Vlogbrothers videos. I started out with random ones from the last two months, but after feeling like a lame Nerdfighter, I started from the beginning. I’m up to November 13 of 2007. If you have absolutely no idea what the hell I’m talking about, I’ll quickly explain. In 2007, John and Hank Green, two nerdy brothers decided to embark on a year-long project where they would post alternating video blogs every weekday for a year, called Brotherhood 2.0. Their viewers are called Nerdfighters. But the Nerdfighters don’t just watch, they participate in Brotherhood 2.0, posting video responses, donating money to the Foundation to Decrease Worldsuck, that Hank and John then discusses with either other and the Nerdfighters on what to do with it. I’ll stop explaining now. Well John is an author of young adult fiction and Hank runs Ecogeek.org and writes nerdy songs about nerdy things. Since I started watching their videos quite religiously, I feel kind of a part of it. These are a couple of my favorite vlogbrothers videos.

And of course there’s Accio Deathly Hallows.

The other day after watching one video where John went through his old notebook, I delved into my old journals and started my own project – to journal more. I think that may have been why I avoided blogging for the last eleven days. But I went into my old journals and did a vlog reading of an entry from when I was 11 years old and in put this fire inside me that I’d journal more. Blogging is one thing, but journaling is just for yourself. Truly for yourself without an audience. Not that I have a significant audience here, but my journal is private. Also the fact that Disney put out their own sucky remake of Harriet the Spy called “Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars.” See, that’s my point. Harriet wrote in a notebook, for no one else but her to see. Blogs aren’t truly private. Sure the names are the same and Harriet wants to be a writer, but it takes out the central conflict devise from the original novel. Harriet’s classmates read her notebook and it ruined her. Temporarily, but Disney has taken it and morphed it into something that is surely not made of awesome. It is made of suck.

Basically, Nickelodeon pwns Disney.

So that made me upset, which partially led to my reinsertion into my journals and the vlog that followed.

I think possibly my favorite part of the early videos of Hank and John is John’s process in writing his third novel, Paper Towns, which I haven’t read yet, but I’m reading his first book now, Looking For Alaska. It’s funny now, as I’m about 35 pages in (I just started reading it this morning after my Editor-in-chief interview), but when I read it I hear it in my head in John’s voice. It’s kind of eerie, but it gives another dimension to the book. I don’t think I’ve ever really heard the voice of an author of a book that I like. Except for J.K. Rowling, but when I read Harry Potter I just hear it in my head with a British accent. And I hear Harry’s voice and Ron’s voice and Hermione’s voice whenever they speak. It’s different. I’ve never heard Megan McCafferty’s voice, and I got almost as invested in the Jessica Darling books as I did with Harry Potter. I think I’ve heard Chip Kidd speak in a video he posted on his website from Comic-con, but this was after I read The Cheese Monkeys and The Learners. I wish John Green were coming to Seattle on his book tour for Will Grayson, Will Grayson, his new book, co-written with David Levithan, who also co-wrote Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist. I’ve been so void of books that I actually read for pleasure these last two years that I kind of forgot what it was like to like books. And I’m glad that I’m reading Alaska now.

Watching these Brotherhood 2.0 videos has made me realize lots of things. I won’t go into detail about all of them, but I’ll just let you – I’m a Nerdfighter.

Oh, my title refers to my favorite Tokyo Police Club song, as well as all this talk of books.

Don’t forget to be awesome,
❤ Abby

I started a Tumblog!

It’s right here. I kind of haven’t really stopped posting there for the last day and a half, cause it’s so much quicker than posting here, but you can include more things than on Twitter. Tumblr’s like a blog mixed with twitter. So I figured I should make myself present in the Tumblr world, cause where do I not exist on the internet? WordPress, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Myspace, Last.fm, Flickr, and now Tumblr. I’ve titled it “This Is A Tangent 2.0,” because I’m not creative. And it will include these posts as well as short lil’ bits of goodness, like videos, pictures, quotes, links, and SONGS. We can upload audio to Tumblr and have them play right there. It’s pretty cool.

This week has started out exponentially better than last week. Well, apart from “Rules Don’t Stop” not being played on Zane Lowe’s show on BBC radio this morning, today’s pretty alright. I didn’t feel like shit waking up, I have the easiest homework this week, and we watched a badass movie in my film class today. Check this sexy mofo –

Seriously, is Johnny Depp never not hot? Okay, Willy Wonka wasn’t sexy, but every other time, he’s so pretty. And Dead Man was by far the craziest movie we’ve watched in my Western class to date. It started out slow, and Crispin Glover was all creepy like he always is, and Johnny Depp saw a whore blowing a guy in an alley in this town called Machine, and he killed a guy, got shot, then an Indian came and rescued him and took him hella West. I mean, as pretty freaking West as you can get – Pacific Ocean West. Iggy Pop and Billy Bob Thornton were some mountain dudes who wanted to kill Johnny Depp, and Alfred Molina was a Christian dude who ran the trading post and all this happened in 90 minutes. You should watch it. Neil Young did the soundtrack, and it’s ace. Like, one of the coolest soundtracks I’ve ever heard.

That’s a nice segue, music!

I’ve been listening to a lot of The Automatic the last day or so, after seeing this project that one of my many internet friends, Polly has done. She gets college credit for this. Seriously. I vote that you go take a look at her pictures, and listen to this band:

What else?

Oh, I bought my Sasquatch ticket. But that’s only to cover my ass in case I happen to not get my press credentials, which then I’ll be sad and cry.

I should move my car, wait, no. Not now. Then I’ll get another ticket. Keep it in the garage, Abby. Don’t move it. I’ll do homework. Right, my feature story final draft is due tomorrow. Way to go me for recycling an old story idea. Half-assing is so much easier that way.

Hopefully tomorrow Zane Lowe will play “Rules Don’t Stop.” I’ve been major jonesing for new WAS lately. And I’m sure that any of my friends who doesn’t listen to WAS are tired of hearing about them. But I DON’T CARE. I love them that much.

Cheers.

❤ Abby

Procrastination

Yeah…I’ve fallen into that habit again. I don’t even know what’s due tomorrow besides what we have to post on the discussion board for Gorbman’s class. That shouldn’t be so bad, as it’s just about the readings we had and Red River. John Wayne wasn’t nearly as charming in this film, I’ll tell ya. What else do I have to do? Damnit. I had to have my annotated bibliography for Beaufort’s class. I should email He Is We if I’m actually going to do a feature on them. And I have to write up my proposal. Crap. But this has been a busy weekend. My IV infusion on friday that took most of the day, then I was all sloshy and tired for the rest of the day. We did get to hear some new WAS from videos from Philly though, which was a nice surprise this weekend. And yesterday we went to a wedding then one of the most amazing shows EVER.

Yes my friends, Phoenix. And this was one of my favorite shots of the night. So glorious. (No more epic, epic is going away.)

But last night was so good in so many ways, that the one bad thing doesn’t even matter. Turns out that the Showbox people like to pack SoDo full to the brim (excuse the cliche)…wait, no…the venue gets so congested it’s like before they built the second Narrows Bridge. There, no cliche. And because of this, it’s the first time I’ve gotten claustrophobic at a show since…well since Franz at Bumbershoot, but at least this time I didn’t get clobbered in the head. Thank goodness I went to the show on an empty stomache, or else I could have possibly vomited…but no matter.

Another of the good ones.

The opening band wasn’t bad, actually Soft Pack was pretty good. I’ll have to get some more of their stuff other than the Spin Magazine’s 2010 sampler. I didn’t get that many great pictures of them, at least of more than the lead guitarist, cause there was this dude standing in front of the me with the most obnoxious hair I’ve ever seen at a show. At least pull it in a ponytail, man. Be considerate. Actually, this girl standing next to me said at one point, “you’re tall, why do you need to stand in the front? You can see from back there,” speaking to no one in particular of course, but I responded with, “tell me about it,” and tried to lift my camera up over his mountainous glob of hair. The other guy standing in front of me was nice enough to lean over when I tried to get a good shot, which was helpful.

However, the hair mountain man did provide me with one of the best moments of the night. Honestly. After I’d politely asked to stand in front of him after Jenna brought me my photo pass, and we were waiting for Phoenix to go on, he shouted – I’m not kidding – “come on, allons-y!”

Seriously. I was so struck by it that I didn’t even think to turn around and give him kudos on his Doctor Who reference. But after I thought about it, I realized…oh, they’d even understand that without the Doctor Who reference, because it’s it French. Har-dee-har. I’m kinda slow that way.

I kinda like the soft focus on this one.

Okay, so the show was amazing, which was fully expected. I’m going to avoid seeing huge buzz bands at SoDo from now on, because I don’t want to be that claustrophobic again. But I can say that I’ve been to both Showboxes now. The parking for SoDo was 1/3 of the price of parking by the Market, but the Market is a far superior venue, easier to get to, and has prettier lighting.

However, THIS WAS THE BEST PART. As soon as the ridiculously long encore, Libby and I went to go find Renee and Jennifer, both of whom were standing right in the front row, not to far from me actually once I pushed my way up. I was so nice to see both of them again, as it almost made me stay and wait to meet the band. I feel like if they hadn’t been there, I would have been too much of a wimp and left. But I didn’t. I wasn’t a wimp. It was quite freezing outside, but I don’t tend to get cold, so I provided Libby’s warmth while we waited for Christian, Branco, Thomas and Deck. And I’ll take a picture of my pass with all their autographs here pretty soon and update this post, as soon as I accomplish some homework today. But here’s one of the shots I took of Renee, Jenn, Libby and Thomas.

We met ALL of them. Well, Jenn and Renee had met them several times before, but I finally did. I finally broke through that wall and don’t have to worry about it anymore. I’m sure it’s going to be much easier now for me.

Christian was so darn sweet. When I held up my pass for him to sign, he pointed to it and was like, “oh, you take photos?”

“Yeah.”

“Are your photos good?”

“I was pretty happy with them.”

Or something like that.

And it was quite funny when we were standing in the freezing cold, everyone but Branco had come outside to meet people. Renee saw Christian upstairs through a window and he glanced outside, she looked up and pointed down, gesturing them to come downstairs. And when he came outside for the second time with his case, he told us, “my brother is coming!” In a French accent.

I feel so accomplished right now.

ADDENDUM: My review’s been posted HERE NOW.

❤ Abby

Apparently my rough drafts are too good

I’d rather not completely change my own principle way of writing, but I might have to in order to get better than a C in my creative nonfiction writing class. I mean seriously, woman…a flipping C? Not to sound too high and mighty, but I don’t get Cs in classes strictly about WRITING. Foolish woman.

But apparently, after a pep talk from Marisa yesterday, Professor likes IMPROVEMENT. Even if I had an amazing rough draft, my second draft has to be even more amazing, and my THIRD draft has to be almost sent from heaven. I DON’T DO THIRD DRAFTS. I write a great draft, and mess with it slightly here and there. So now, against my own conscience, I have to start with a shitty draft and improve immensely from there. Seriously, if some of the papers I read got higher grades than I did because they improved more on crap than I improved on a great paper, I’m gonna smack someone. Honestly, she told me that with MINOR adjustments that this was ready for publication in the school’s lit mag. I would have submitted it if the villain in the story didn’t go to our school.

That might get awkward, even though I doubt she’d ever read Tahoma West anyway.

I’m sorry if I sound arrogant right now, but I’m pissed. Her critique was all, “this is really good, you should submit it after making a couple adjustments,” and then I get my grading sheet back and she said, “met genre requirements, perfect grammar, used craft techniques effectively, but oh, yeah…you got a C.”

WHAT?

This is a seemingly waste of a blog, but it felt like a change up from what I usually write about. Because I’m sure you’re getting tired of my ramblings about…shit I don’t even remember what I’ve been writing about lately. Oh right, Doctor Who, missing my best friend, and music. Duh. Pretty much been what most of my tweets have been about for the last two weeks.

I took Libby’s senior portraits a couple weeks ago, and I never posted any pics, but this was one of my favorites.

I just freaking love her hair in it.

And here’s one from one of Laura’s going away parties.

Miss you already. ❤

OH MY GOD.

NEW WAS.

HOLY BALLSACK.

I wish I could embed this video, but Facebook doesn't want me too, and this guy hasn't uploaded it to Youtube yet.

Here's the link, nonetheless.

And here’s Nobody Move at Johnny Brenda’s in Philly two nights ago. I just wish that Laura could go to the WAS show in Hoboken tomorrow night.

Oh, and here’s a show roundup from What’s the Word, including twitter pics and a link to a review and some better pictures. Philly Show Roundup. Damn Keith is looking good. One more thing to look forward to in May. Holy crap May is going to be the most amazing month EVER.

Hmm, what else?

Hello Thomas Mars. I get to see you again tomorrow.

You I get to see you, Laurent.

And you Deck.

You too, Christian!

And since I won’t be in the pit with time constraints and hopefully no smoke machine, my pics will be amazing. Here’s hoping. And to meet them. That would be fantastic.

And just cause, some David Tennant picspam.




And a bonus of Tennant and Cribbins at the NTAs the other day that Susie posted on the WAS board yesterday. So heartwarming.

Screw my new sign-off, it’s tedious.

❤ Abby

Why Twenty-Ten is going to be better than Two-Thousand-Nine

Not sure why I decided to spell out the years instead of using numerals, but maybe it’s cause I’m a word person. But since it’s the first day of the new year, and new decade, I want to look forward to why this year is going to be way better than last year. I know I did a “most anticipated albums of 2010” post three weeks ago, but this will be much more inclusive, just briefly touching on how amazing music will be this year.

In no particularly order other than when I happen to think of it:

Harry Potter is back.

I can’t find an embed-able trailer, so the video is here.
I know HP6 came out in 2009, but this is the beginning of the end. And not to mention that HP71 comes out AFTER the third Twatlight movie. So Harry, Hermione and Ron get the last word of 2010. Ha. And I’m hoping that the 4th sparkly vampire fanfic isn’t coming out for awhile. It wasn’t on the actors’ contracts, after all. As of right now, it’s not listed under any IMDB profiles. It’s just too bad that it’s inevitable that they’ll get the last word after HP72 comes out. Unless the production companies are douches and decide to postpone the last HP movie if Breaking Dawn does get made within the next year or so.

I’m turning 21.

But I’m probably not inviting Morrissey to my birthday.. Yes, I will finally be able to legally drink. But that’s not the point. I don’t care to drink. If I wanted to, I would have already. But the thing is – I can’t. Well, not really. I can have a little, just to avoid being the outsider, but I have to practice self-control for my own life’s sake. The point is that I can go to places where people drink. I would be stuck at all-ages shows the latter half of this year. No venues can hold me back! I won’t have to take my sister to every show I go to. Hallelujah! And hopefully – HOPEFULLY – I’ll be at Sasquatch during my birthday, cause sunday is the 30th of May. And hopefully 1) I’ll be camping; 2) I’ll have a media pass, so I’ll only be paying for camping; 3) I’ll have people other than just my sister with me; 4) amazing bands will be playing.

So many awesome bands have albums coming out.

(Thanks to Adrian at the WAS board for finding this.)
I only posted one photo, because this is the most important release of the year. And perhaps one of the most important albums of my life. For one thing – from what I’ve heard of it, We Are Scientists’ new album is going to be AMAZING. And for another – I now have access to music like I never have before. And for one last thing – I may finally get to meet them this year.

In fact, that should be its own reason for why 2010 is going to kick ass. I’ll add that in a sec after I’m done talking about the other albums I’m anxiously biting my fingernails waiting for.

Where was I? Oh – Spoon, Vampire Weekend, Motion City, Morning Benders, Interpol, Frightened Rabbit, The Strokes, MGMT, Panda Bear, Arcade Fire, and possibly Sufjan. Jesus Christ.

Cue.

Yeah.

I might meet Keith and Chris

Yes, it’s a might. But even the prospect of meeting these two men make this year so much better than 2009. I’m pretty sure my life would be pretty damn close to complete if I got to see WAS this year in Seattle and meet Chris and Keith. Well, I still have to finish school, find a paying job, get health insurance, my own place, and married. But other than that – I’d be content with my accomplishments.

More good things to come with Popwreckoning

Remember this? ^^^
Well, more of this ^^^ is coming. And quite possibly this ^^^ for more publications. Since I now have a resume, and a growing portfolio, I can get access to more awesome perks for frequent show-goers. More albums equals more reviews equals more readers equals more exposure equals awesome. More shows equals more photos and more networking equals more exposure equals – again – AWESOME. The one thing that I’d sad about this year is that I have no money – so no SXSW. I have access to SXSW, but alas, airfare and hotel fare – how you thwart my happiness, damnit.

I’ll be starting senior year in the fall.

The idea of finishing college scares the hell out of me, but as I get closer, it’s getting more exciting thinking about it. If we can just get this universal healthcare taken of, I’ll be set. I’m getting sick of school. Honestly. It’s been close to 15 years that I’ve been a student. 15 years of school. Holy crap.

This is the first time in a long time I can say I disagree with this statement. But you gotta give it to Carles, he makes a point in this post on Hipster Runoff posted today.So funny. Love you Carles.

Goodnight. Off to view some videos on La Blogotheque’s channel on Youtube. They make beautiful videos.

Have a wonderful Twenty-Ten!

Hope you knew was a blue moon last night. Yeah, pretty crazy, huh?

♫ Yours, Abigail ♫
(new decade, new sign off)

Finally.

Winter break is upon us. Well, actually, I have one final paper due next week, but that’s it. And it’s for ethics, so it won’t be incredibly hard. I’ve had a great last few weeks, hitting up two great shows, making a Super Awesome Decade Game for Ledger, and spontaneously driving to Seattle for a free movie screening and Michael Cera.

It officially feels like December now, ten days after it started.

And the fact that it’s THIS freaking cold:

Seriously, it was in the single digits in Olympia this week. Not quite that cold over here on the Kitsap Peninsula, but Libby did say that when she sprayed Febreze on her steering wheel the other day, it froze to her steering wheel. Don’t ask me why she was spraying Febreze in her car, cause I have no idea, but it’s still funny to think about something freezing that fast.

It’s cold. That’s all I’m trying to say.

So… any plans for New Years this year? I have no idea. Absolutely no clue. I don’t even remember what I was doing last year. Hmm…I think I’ll go check my archives real quick to see. >>>>>>>>>>>>> Well, it looks like I was just at home. Cause I’m pretty sure it was two years ago when I went to Jamie’s house and we lit our crotches on fire. Don’t ask.

But I honestly feel like doing something cool this year. It’s just too bad the two great New Years shows, Minus the Bear and Cake, are both 21+. Balls. I can’t wait for May, for Sasquatch, for 21. God it’s going to rock so hard.

2010 is already looking like a great year. I know I’ve said this before, but it’s true. Like, a gazillion of my favorite bands are coming out with new albums, I’m turning 21, hopefully I’ll get an internship this summer, and there’s a strong chance I might finally meet WAS, if they come to Seattle, that is. Or Portland. Fuck, I’d drive to San Fran if that was the only chance I got at seeing WAS next year.

Oh, that reminds me, I have to finalize my list of the best albums of the decade. I think I already have my best of 2009, but I have to finish writing it up, and I’ve scheduled it to publish at the end of the month. It’s only fair. I mean, a band could come out with the greatest album of the year within the last few weeks. It’s highly unlikely, but hey, it could happen.

My battery is about to die, but it was nice having a tangent post tonight, since I have nothing else to really worry about right now, and I’m tired.

❤ Abby

Testing…testing…

Don’t Stop Believin’ (Glee Cast Version) by abbigshmail

I wanted to test out this Soundcloud thing with a song that Libby hasn’t stopped playing on the piano lately, and I love it. Seriously, Lea Michele (Rachel) is like a young Idina Menzel, and for some reason Cory Monteith (Finn) reminds of a guy I went to high school with. Only the guy I went to high school with wasn’t in Glee, he was in other nerdy clubs.

Anyway. This post wasn’t merely for testing Soundcloud. School just started. Well, school started on thursday for me at least. So far, I’m okay with my classes. One of my professors from last quarter walked into my first class to borrow chairs at the beginning of class on thursday, and it made me sad, because his class was the one class I REALLY wanted to get into. But that’s okay. That’s not the class that I’m weary about.

That’s my literature class. Yes, I’m in another literature class, but hopefully it won’t be as intense as Sharkey’s last quarter. It’s women’s lit, and there are 2 guys in the class. Ha. Ha. Actually, it’s not that funny. I walked into class 2 minutes late the first day, and I had quite a surprise awaiting me once I arrived.

Open door.

Surprise!

Oh shit.

Yeah, I was hoping I’d avoid the situation all throughout these last two years of UWT, but alas, there it is – staring me right in the face the first day of classes junior year. Ugh.

I still need to get my books for that class too. That’s reminds me.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a good quarter. And even more publicity for Popwreckoning.

Oh! I must mention what miraculous things happened this week after the Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head show on monday. And these were quite miraculous, I’ll tell you. So I posted the review on tuesday, right? I tweeted a couple times reminding people to read it, including @NPSH and @ladyhawkeforyou in the tweets to get more people to read it. Well lo and behold, late that night Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head themselves, or whomever updates the Twitter page regularly – I think it’s Luke – read my review.

Yep.

And they tweeted me back. In these exact words. – “@abbigshmail You ruuule! That was a great review of the show. See you again sometime!”

I really do hope I see them again sometime soon. Maybe I can overcome my jitters and interview a band. HOLY SHIT THAT WOULD BE AMAZING. Whoa, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Needless to say, when I saw this I got off my couch, jumped up and down, spun around and squealed frantically. This caused the dog to stare at me like, “what the dickens is wrong with you?” I didn’t care how much of a fool I looked like. It was A-MAZING. I hadn’t imagined THAT to happen, but it did. Yeah, it was pretty sweet.

What else came from my last blog was also quite incredible. On our dashboard on WordPress, it shows where people clicked on links to your blog from. Now, there were two facebook profiles that I didn’t know on my list of “referrers.” I clicked on them, wondering how they might have come upon my blog.

And guess what?

You know Plaid Guy? Well, his name’s David. And it was HIS facebook profile that my blog got pinged from, and the other guy Will who was standing behind us – his facebook was the other one. Weird, innit? I messaged both these guys wondering how to crap they found my blog. David wrote me back, saying he searched for pictures from the show, and my blog was the only thing that came up. I tried it out, Googled “npsh showbox” and narrowed it down to blogs. And “This Is A Tangent” was the first result. Huh.

Not only did someone from the show ping my post, but the TWO DUDES STANDING BEHIND ME – WHOM I REFERRED TO IN THAT EXACT POST. That has got to be the most eerie coincidence I’ve come upon in a long time. And you thought the internet was this vast land of billions of pages. Just goes to show you how music can bring people together. And how the internet can be the vessel.

Well, I think I better get back to my reading for class on tuesday, and listening to more Glee. I swear to god even though Kristin Chenoweth’s character is kind of toxic, she should NEVER leave television. She belongs on my TV at all times. Without Pushing Daisies, Glee fulfills the brightness factor that my TV was lacking for these last 10 months.

❤ Abby

DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake

This has nothing to do with DC comics. Or chocolate milkshakes. Although I did have a glass of chocolate milk this morning.

Nevermind. I just figured that’s one of the songs I’ve been listening to for the last few days that has the most extraneous title. From Art Brut vs. Satan. It’s been that album, Erasure’s Greatest Hits, La Roux, Boy Kill Boy, Editors, and Phoenix – that haven’t left my ears. And of course Muse. You can’t forget Muse. And I have been listening to AFI, mostly just because I reviewed their new album, “Crash Love,” which isn’t that great, BTW. I reviewed it HERE. Hopefully my La Roux review will be up in the next couple of days. Other than music, I’ve just been at school. And you know that school hasn’t started yet, right?

Yeah. The first issue of the Ledger always takes the most willpower to not procrastinate. We had two separate orientations last week, a freshmen lock-in, and lots of layout. And not the mention the fact that there are 6 of us. For most of last week, there were only three of us, as the other three of us were in Europe somewhere. I wish I could go to Europe. Seriously, if I win the lottery, or somehow get a huge amount of money, I’m putting some of it away to keep me out of debt once I’m off my dad’s medical insurance, and taking the rest of it to go to England, Germany, Scotland, and Sweden. And possibly Italy. But I’m pretty sure there’s a higher ratio of people in the four latter nations that speak English rather than in Italy. I like understanding what people are saying, so Italy’s a question mark at this point. But they do have the best food. Hmm…

Anyway!

OH MY GAWD I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT PREMIERE WEEK! Holy balls. Okay – monday: Big Bang Theory was AMAZING. Raj + beard = <3. And Leonard + Penny = <3, even if they had awkward sex. How I Met Your Mother was so much awesome, I don't even want to go into it. I'll just say that it made me really happy that new television is back. Speaking of new television, Accidentally on Purpose was pretty cute, as was Jon Foster. Damn, he's adorable. Hopefully people liked it, because I'd like for it to stick around. I'm sick of Two and a Half Men. We need a new and fresh comedy on monday nights. After the laughter came…well, some more laughter and other stuff with Castle! Uh, I was so excited when it go picked up again, because Nathan Fillion always needs to be on television. He's too good just to be on cancelled SciFi shows and internet sing-along blogs. Um. Nothing good on tuesday. Wednesday was GINORMOUS, with new Criminal Minds (Gubler broke his leg!) and CSI:NY (Danny can't walk!), and Top Chef and America's Next Top Model started a couple weeks ago. But I was happy that Ashley on Top Chef was in the top again. I'd really like to go to her restaurant in Seattle one day, but I've heard that she moved to Brooklyn, which is kind of depressing, but whatever. What else?

OH FUCK. Thursday. Thursday was the day I was so damn anxious for it was kind of ridiculous. New Office, 30 Rock, SNL Weekend Update Thursday, and Grey's Anatomy. Let me tell you, I'm glad I waited to watch the comedy shows after Grey's Anatomy, because I needed something to suppress my tears, because there were a lot. Literally, there was on-and-off tears for the first hour, and at the end of the second hour, more tears came. I, being a Grey's fangirl, reacted differently had I not been so involved in the characters. It didn't make my mom cry. And to be honest, retrospectively, the premiere was not that good. It should have been just an hour. Two hours was too jumbled, and had too many storylines that had nothing to do with George's death. As my mother said, "ER would have never done that!" referring to a couple scenes that were incredibly disrespectful towards George's memory. Sure, George is a fictional character, but it's not that like it's been 2 seasons and he's dead. He's been there since the beginning, and this is season 6! They should have had one other patient storyline and left all the sexytime drama to next week. It wasn't fair, and it didn't seem to honor George at all. I know it was messy departure for TR Knight, but Shonda could have at least done the character justice in his death. The only character that seemed to speak of him not in this distant manner was Owen, who told George's mom how much of a hero he was, and how he was a great doctor. And Callie was the only one who seemed to react completely appropriately. Yes, I know Izzie just died and woke up again, and she's kind of a nutbag right now, but laughing at the funeral? Gain some tact, Shonda. And Bailey was completely void of emotion that you almost forgot it was Bailey. So I guess I was crying for two reasons – 1: George is actually dead now; and 2: He didn't get a proper sendoff, and as a diehard fan, that hurts.

Okay, enough of Grey's talk. You probably don't care.

Now, onto Saturday Night Live. Wow, this is turning into a tv-centric post. Oh well. I'll just mention a few things – Megan Fox was great, "Arkansas: where being pregnant doesn't even stop you from getting pregnant," and this:

HAHAHA. I frickin’ loved it, but who knows what the FCC will do. But what’s weirder is that we’re on the west coast feed. I’d understand if they missed it in the midst of all the friggins and freakins on the east coast feed, but they have three hours to catch that to bleep it out for our timezone. Sounds like someone at NBC will be getting in trouble, not Jenny Slate, who sadly enough, wasn’t all that funny – and this sketch was her DEBUT. Yeah, way to mess it up. Hopefully she won’t get in too much trouble, as I’d like to give her a second chance. But like always, Kristen Wiig was on top of her game, not even missing a beat after the f-bomb. Love her.

Oh, and guess what starts in three months??? SKINS! I saw some new pictures from the series 4 set, and I’m so anxious. Without True Blood, what else will fulfill the naughty factor for my television viewing other than Skins?

Oh Freddie, you’re so sexy.

Guess what my mom did yesterday? I burned a photo disc with all the pictures from last weekend for my uncle who’s leaving today for california. I told my mom to write his name and what’s on it on the CD. I got home from layout last night, and she told me that she wrote on the silver side. It’s a pink disc. She wrote on the wrong side. The side that the laser reads. Wow. I literally almost pissed my pants I laughed so hard. Then I grabbed her hand to slap it because she’s so dumb sometimes. And the dog got up like I was hurting her. She stared me in the face like, “don’t you touch her!” Millie does that if anyone hits any of us. Or if we dance.

Now back to music, because it’s mah laahf (yay Sookie Southern!) I found out YESTERDAY, that Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head, this band:

is gonna be at the Showbox at the Market tonight with Ladyhawke:

Yes, THAT Ladyhawke. And Semi-Precious Weapons, which I haven’t heard much of, but they aren’t bad. I hate Perez Hilton, but he puts together a killer tour. Apparently, NPSH filled in for Ida Maria last week when she had to leave the tour. That’s why I didn’t hear about this until now, and I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanna go. It’s $23 at the door. Hopefully everything goes well and I drive up to Seattle tonight for a dancetastic finale to my summer. How perfect would that be? Go see an awesome show and possibly meet NPSH and Ladyhawke, then start school! And it’s an all-ages show! Which is something the Art Brut show didn’t have, which made me very sad last week. But what DID make me happy was when I mentioned something to Eddie Argos on his twitter page about it, and he tweeted me back! I’m such a fangirl. But I’m okay with that.

I’m just shaking in my boots with excitement!

Now I think I’m done. See, I told you this one would be random. Yay tangents!

Oh, and listen to this badass Neighbours remix of Rome by Phoenix, featuring Devendra Banhart

❤ Abby

Unicorn = Rhinocehorse

I’ve driven so much in the last week, that I’m all Altima’d out. I’ve spent more money on driving and parking in the last week, it was nice to do something that didn’t take any work or money. Well, driving to Lacey took some gas money, but I haven’t seen any of my friends from SMU in way too long, and I wanted to see a nice, small comedy show. Two weeks ago, the Demetri Martin show didn’t go quite as planned, and I’ve driven up to Seattle a lot this week for volunteering.

Not that I haven’t liked volunteering. I have. Everyone’s really cool – Taylor, Corina, Charlie – I was working with them for the most part the last 3 days of volunteering. And it was nice to work with a smaller group of people, which made it much easier to get to know everyone. Fun times. I might try for an internship next year, who knows? Maybe it will work perfectly for the comm. major.

But that’s not why I wrote this blog tonight. I went down to St. Martins tonight to see Christina, Jacki, Aimee, Amanda, Emilee, Tara, and everyone else. I hadn’t been in… way too long. Since December I think, at least since when everyone was there. I missed them all. A lot. I needed some time at SMU, because it’s relaxing, and fun, and stress-free. And it’s nice to know that people remember me and say hi, even though I was there over a year ago. And to be completely honest, even though I love still going back there for visits, it makes me realize how right I was to leave after a year, and makes me appreciate having privacy, and having UWT.

But again, as you can see by the photo I posted on top, and the headline – the reason for this post is mainly Jeff Dye. His gig was why I went down today specifically to hang out. If I get a free comedy show out of it – it’s doubly awesome.

“Hello Catholics!” Silence. “I really thought that there’d be more Catholics. I have 45 minutes of jokes about Catholics. Hmm…”

Let me tell you, none of the comedians who came when I was a freshman had that big of a crowd. Like, they had to bring in more chairs. And that room is tiny. Like Jeff said, it’s the side room of a building in the middle of the woods that you can’t find. Haha. SMU is kind of inconvenient to get to – especially in rush hour. Jeff made a joke about that too – how ridiculously slow the traffic is coming south on I-5 from Tacoma to Lacey. Fort Lewis and McChord AFB traffic is the WORST. I can’t remember exactly what he said, I just remember thinking – TELL ME ABOUT IT!

It was so much fun. Jeff had a mixture of the bits that I remember from LCS – the gym on ecstasy, guess who – and…interesting banter with the large, albeit small, crowd. Four girls sitting in front – who actually were in charge of booking comedians – kept whispering and talking while Jeff was talking, and every time he caught them, he called them out. It was awesome, but from what I remember, they were annoying as hell when I was a freshman. At one point, Jeff said that he hated them, and he wasn’t going to tell anymore jokes because of them. He just stood up on stage for a few minutes, staring them down, making them feel worse about whispering. Then they said, “we’re laughing.”

“That’s not how people laugh!” (and he motioned the whispering hand signal and laughed ridiculously into his hand) “Oh, you’re not laughing, have some of mine! You don’t laugh into other people’s mouths.”

But my favorite bit, at the least the one where I laughed the most was when he was talking about the huge burly guys at the gym and how they make grunting noises when they lift weights.

“So just to mess with them, I grab a five pound hand weight, because that’s what I’m working with, and go like this,” and Jeff lowered the mic and screamed as he mimed lifting weights. Like actually screamed.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, I thought we were all making noises….”

I laughed so hard, I almost peed my pants. I actually almost did several times, especially after this one joke about how Unicorns are actually really scary and badass. “It’s a horse, with a horn coming out of it’s head. It should be called a rhinocehorse!” I really had to pee, and I didn’t want to get up during the show, because then I would have been singled out and had to explain that I needed to go to the bathroom. Nah, I just sat and held it. For a good hour and a half. Oh well.

After the show, Aimee, Emilee, Cece and I all asked if we could have a picture with Jeff, and I haven’t felt that short in a long time. He’s so tall. I was actually kind of nervous to ask, because I guess you could say he’s the most famous person I’ve ever met. Waving to Ryan Stiles at a Mariners game when he walked by us doesn’t really count. But I didn’t act all goofy and be like “I follow you on Twitter!” because THAT wouldn’t seem weird at all. He was really cool, and when I told him that I didn’t go to that school, he said, “well that’s what I call cheating.”

I USED to go to that school. I gave enough of myself to that place in one year that I can come anytime I want and enjoy free entertainment.

Hopefully I’ll get to see Jeff’s stand up again, because it’s the kind of stand up you can’t get embarrassed about laughing at. It’s not dirty humor, or low brow, the kind of humor that everyone can enjoy. Now I just wish I could find Jeff’s comedy CD somewhere. It’s impossible to find.

Jeff Dye – you rock. And you’re not an asshole, the “triplets” did need to shut up.

❤ Abby

Walking around in our summertime clothes

And I kinda wish that I didn’t have to for just a day, because rain would be so refreshing. Particularly to get some of the pollen out of the air and to help the wafting smell of our trash dissipate. Padre forgot to put the trash out last week and it’s been sitting in our garage all week. I know, it’s kinda gross. And to top it all off, our dryer isn’t working, so every bit of furniture in our living room is temporarily being used as a clothesline.

So we have smelly trash and damp clothes filling up the house. Oh, how delectable. Ack.

I didn’t realize how fitting that lyric was for my headline until I just wrote all that. I just used it because it’s a really awesome Animal Collective song with “summer” in the title. Because it’s summer vacation. Boo yeah. I’m just waiting for my Literature grade now. I have my 3.4 in TV studies and a 3.9 in Writing for Mass Media. I would have gotten a 4.0 had I wasted my time doing ridiculous busy work – i.e. going through 3 days worth of the news section in the Trib and highlighting EVERY SINGLE quote and analyzing the balance between women and men sources. I know, lame. But a 3.9 is the best grade I’d gotten so far.

I need to find a job. I really do. Not nearly as much as my graduating friends do, but I do nonetheless.

I don’t have any particularly exciting music news to divulge, so I’ll post some movie posters that I’m EXCITED ABOUT. ONTD posted some this morning, and most of them looked shitty. But I’m peerrrttty syked about these movies.

Um, Tim Burton = AWESOME. ‘Nough said.

I might even read the book again before I watch the movie. Favorite book, hopefully favorite movie.

Anything with Demetri Martin is my kinda entertainment.

This movie looks adorable. Youtube the trailer.

Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, HELLO?

To be honest, I still don’t know why Tim Burton didn’t make this movie, but I’m still excited.

Okay, Bill Nighy, Rhys Darby, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kenneth Branagh, and Nick Frost – all in one movie.

As weird as this movie looks, I think it looks adorable.

And I musn’t forget the guilty pleasure.

I’m not sure if those are in order, but just as well, it’s going to be a good summer of movies, even amongst all the crap.

And do you know how much humanity fails? I decided to search just “movie posters” on Google, and this was the first hit on images.

God, ridiculous Twihard comps make me sad.

Okay, I’ll go now.

❤ Abby