Okay, writing this on the new computer, which I am totally not used to, so forgive me if this seems like it was typed by a two year old.

I finished "Good Omens" the other day and must say, I loved every minute of it. I truly did enjoy it. "Good Omens" was one of those rare books that I wanted to never end while I was reading it, but felt deep satisfaction upon completing it. It was hilarious, had an engaging plot and characters, and was deliciously thought-provoking. Where "Supernatural" mostly just yells APOCALYPSE at you (with some family values stuff thrown in), this book yelled APOCALYPSE and proceeded to inform you as to what that may mean in a wholly interesting manner. As a biology student, I found some (read: all) of "what that may mean" to be fantastic things to talk about.

If you haven't guessed yet, this is a book about the Apocalypse. It follows Crowley, Aziraphale, a Full Chorus of Tibetians, Aliens, Americans, Atlanteans and other rare and strange Creatures of the Last Days, and a whole host of other people as they all careen quickly towards the end of the world. With an accomponying score by Queen. Though it covers 6013 years (give or take), the bulk of it is focussed on the few days leading up to the End Of Days. You meet and love all of those various characters within that stretch and I found myself totally invested in the book within a few pages.

If you don't know Terry Pratchett, he's hilarious and I recommend you read his Discworld books and anything else you can get your hands on. I giggled reading this book. I giggled on the bus, on my couch, even in the middle of class (because I was unwilling to put it down when the other option was a boring lecture). And though Neil Gaiman is a fairly recent discovery of mine, I have started consuming pretty much any piece of writing I can find of his. He is a very powerful writer. And funny as well, actually. Sometimes. When maggots and black buttons aren't overwhelmingly involved.

Anyhoo, I actually have no idea at all how to write a review of something, so I'll leave it off here: READ THIS BOOK. I compel you. Also, I'm going to yadder on in a spoiler-filled fashion for a bit, too, so maybe don't read that if you've not yet read the book.

( Waxing poetic about Good Omens, spoiler edition )

Oops, one more thing: Stephen Fry posted a link to this comment, regarding anti-piracy in Britain. The man referred to gets called a Pirate Finder General, so I thought it was fitting to put it here:

http://whythatsdelightful.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/comment-of-the-year/

Okay, now I'm gone.

Hallowe'en is one of my favourite holidays, it's a total blast.  The one sad thing was that this year it seemed to fall in the middle of midterms, so I didn't hit up much in the way of house parties.  But, I did go to two pretty cool events that are more fun to talk about than parties:

First, we went to a walking production of "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde," which takes place in the local tourist trap castle here (the one that isn't a prison :D).  These guys do a show every year - it was Dorian Gray last year - and they own the style.  The audience was "cast" as servants for Jekyll's house, so we were bossed around by Mrs Pool and another servant who were given bigger roles for this.  They had two different actors to play Hyde (who was actually short!) and Jekyll, using banisters and whatnot to hide the other actor, so it was much more effective than, say, this version:



Though I do like me a musical...

Speaking of!  Last night, we hit up "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."  I've loved this movie for years, but this was my first time going to the actual showing of it (of course I got the giant "V" on my forehead in lipstick :D).  It was so much fun, I couldn't believe what a blast watching a movie could be.  Though, by the time we got up to do the Time Warp, the ground was so covered in water and rice that dancing and the high heels I wore weren't terribly well-paired...  But I did get to throw my piece of toast!  I definitely plan on going to that again sometime and be a bit more prepared with no-neck comments and the like...

Also yesterday, we carved pumpkins, though it was a bit of a challenge to find one or any of those little candies for handing out in the theatre (via throwing them at people!).  Now, though, I'm off to a pumpkin smash.  I could use it, my Elton John/Billy Joel concert has just been postponed.  Le sigh.

Hope you all had a good Hallowe'en!  Any exciting stories?  Any big plans for Guy Fawkes night if you're from across the pond?  Or any of those other holidays...  Anybody do Reformation Day (I think it's called that) in Germany?

Song of the Day:

It's all of Rocky Horror.  If you can't say that movie all but word-for-word, there's a solid chance you haven't seen it enough times :)

It's been pretty close to two months since I started classes (I think) and now it's starting to get pretty busy...  Last week could be summed up by the word "hell" - unless we were speaking German (one of my classes) because then it would mean "bright".  Anyhoo, there were four exams to be written, a research progress report to be presented, and thankfully small written assignment.  This weekend has been spent boozing and relaxing, with the Rebus party we on Friday being a particular bright spot.  Seriously, Rebus parties rule, you dress up like a word puzzle - I was a "beer garden" - and try to guess everyone!  It may have been the margaritas we made that made it so much fun...

But, now, it's back to the grind and thus back to the procrastination.  My evolution class has assigned a paper worth 20% of my grade.  It's due tomorrow and I've gotten as far as titling the thing.  I am SCIENTIST, I haven't been assigned a paper since my mandatory English classes and the wimpy 50 word things I have to churn out in German.  Why on Earth do they want me to write about evo?  And the possible questions run along the lines of "provide evidence for the argument that all life on Earth comes from a common ancestor."  Ugh, so now I have to write a bunch of crap about how little Creationism (or We All Came From A Giant Clamism, etc) are completely devoid of fact and I'm going to get angry at people's ignorance and be up all night...  Okay, I might already be a little cheesed, that's what the research has done to me.

This next bit is about global warming:
( Ranty McRantpants )

Oops, that last stuff got a bit lengthy and grumpy.  I put it under a cut to spare you...  

Also, another article was about net neutrality.  Canada has officially failed at that:
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/10/20/crtc-net-neutrality-ruling.html

Good luck whichever country tackles it next.

Okay, so I'd better sign off here, because I'm coming across pretty bitchy, so I'll post this meme people have been doing lately:

The problem with LJ: we all think we are so close, but really, we know nothing about each other. So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away.

Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

Ask whatever you like, I promise I'm not always a psychotic bitch :D

Song of the Day:

If you don't know the title is "Hail, Hail, Rock and Roll" by Chuck Berry, shame.  Listen to it and a bunch of his other stuff and revel in the roots of rock.
 

Hi all,

So despite the fact that I am a young woman living in a city, I find myself suffering from a weirdly boring night (alright, it's self-imposed, I'm supposed to be working on the one project that I had to do all summer, which I've had all summer to do...).  So, to fill the tedium, I'm going to talk about the concerts I've been to lately, because I realized I haven't talked about any since last summer!  I'll leave out the little local bands, because most of them aren't even really worth the effort of typing something out.  It's more what my friends and I get up to that make those ones fun ;)

So, I'll start with last October:

( The Picture of Dorian Gray )

Holy crow!  Nothing of note until early 2009, must have lost the ticket to something...  Here's a couple of plays, I won't give the month, because they tend to run for a month in each particular place...  Oh, and somewhere in this time, I had to sell my Bob Dylan tickets due to poorness.  Thankfully, I read an article in Rolling Stone about him shortly after and it reminded what an asshole he is and how little I wanted to give him money.
( The Real Thing )

( Bash'd: the Gay Rap Opera )

Next big thing wan't until June, I really must have been broke:

( John Fogerty )

One more, in July:

( Dick Dale )

There's a distinct lack of events here, but that's because most of my money is dedicated to my upcoming Elton John/Billy Joel concert.  I'm wildly stoked for this, even if the tickets were crazy expensive and I have to travel to the States to see it.  So it means I have to limit my concerts for the next while, seeing as I've broken the financial quota with this one...  Oh, and people are here now!  So I'm off, have a good whatever night of the week this is!

Song of the Day:

"Miserlou" - really, just listen to it.  It's based off an old Greek (I think) dance song and turned into surf.  It's a fun listen.

A few days ago, I finished Watchmen.  The first "comic book" I've read since I was a kid (I loved Spidey growing up), I was amazed to discover what the genre has to offer.  This book was simply incredible, I barely put it down the entire time, loved working towards solving what I believed a simple murder mystery, and delving into the minds of a number of fantastic characters (certainly more engaging characters than a number of other books I've enjoyed have included...).  This book has sparked yet another love-affair in me - I've gone out and purchased volume one of The Sandman, when that money should be going towards things like, oh say, textbooks or tuition or rent or food or that new couch we desperately need.  At least there's only two more Harry Potter movies left.  Hopefully.

Last night we watched the Watchmen movie (did you expect me not to?), though it was a hell of a process to get the damn thing.  Not going to lie, I liked it.  It was obvious that the director cared about the source material, even though there were a few things that might have been a teensy weensy bit tampered with throughout...  I want to wax poetic about Watchmen now, so I'll put the rest under a cut, so you either a) don't have to bother with it, or b) don't have to bother with it?  Anyhoo, onwards and upwards:  (Edit: obviously, both of the identically-named cuts lead to the same thing, sorry...):

( Quis custodiet ipsos custodes )( Quis custodiet ipsos custodes )
( More about the movie, I fail at LJ-cuts )

Wow, I've been typing this on and off since yesterday (sorry if it makes no linear sense) and I should really stop now.  If you haven't read Watchmen, I truly recommend it.

Have a Song of the Day:

"Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen.  The movie had a fantastic soundtrack and Cohen is a fantastic songwriter.  The original is the only one I know of that has all of the verses, but he really is a horrible singer, so one of the covers might be more to a lot of people's tastes.

Oh, and check it!  I made tags for the first time ever, assuming they worked even a little.

I recently finished the job from HELL.  (Yes, all caps, this is one of those things that needs it).  I have never worked in a worse position.  Even the job where I was yelled at on my first day by someone I was way more qualified than was better than this.  Every moment was sheer torture and as the people I was contracted to don't know I've quit and I can get sued if I let them know, I still receive messages, questions, and - by this point - complaints from them.  But for all the horror I put up with, I took away a very important lesson for myself: I would rather have student loans until the day I die than put up with bullshit for a fairly menial summer job.  Taking this outlook into looking for a job for the school year, I decided on three places I will try: two that I would like (hopefully) and one that is handy, easy, and I am fully qualified for, should the economy deem to let me work there.

First, an aside:  Stephen Fry rocks my socks, so I follow him on Tweeter, even though I don't have an account...  Anyhoo, he's started posting mini-essays and a recent one was about how much it sucks to be a student these days.  He was really talking about some British exam scores (aired on tv, that would be horrible!), but he also mentioned how, in school, he was told it wasn't recommended they get a summer job, let alone work during the school year!!!  Can you imagine such a peaceful utopia?  I sure as hell can't.  I've been working since I was 14 and still don't have enough to buy those lovely luxories of life.  Like food.  Enough of that, back to the jobs...

First, I applied at the campus bookstore where I go to school.  But, as a sciences student, I don't have a hope of getting the position, because they demand you be able to a certain number of hours available in a row.  So, even though I have fantastic references, lots of experience, and a really good application, the job is going to go to a bumbling humanities student, because they don't have 4 hour lab courses that can only be taken in the middle of the day.  Next, I hit up the comic book shop where I live.  I love geeks and can think of few other places I would rather work.  I think it would be an excellent opportunity for me to learn more about "graphic novels" because I've been reading "Watchmen" and I really hope there's more books like this out there...  Oh, and I know I'm late on the Watchmen bandwagon, but after "Da Vinci Code" and "Twilight," I'm afraid to put my faith in society's ability to read a book.  I handed in my resume, and though the guy behind the counter gave me lots of advice on how to go about getting a position with them (I don't think they get many female applicants), he also hinted that I might not be geeky enough!  I want to be geeky, but it's hard when I don't know where to start.  So, I'm going to trek out tomorrow to their flagship store in the downtown core and hope that I can warm up to the boss.  My final application will be to the big box hardware just down the road from me.  I've worked in at least 4 different hardware stores, so I'd rock the job, but it would be so boring to go back to it...  The one bonus would be that it would be completely stress-free except for complaining customers (luckily, after this summer, I can shoot down complaints with the best of them).  Hopefully, this application will never have to go out.

Sorry to whine at you all...  Thanks for putting up with it.

Any hints on ways I can make myself geekier quickly?  I'm open for most any suggestion...

The song today is going to be this, to get a good geek karma flowing:


PS:  What the heck is that detect location thing?  Do they want me to put my location location?  Because I'm not all that comfortable with that...

I broke yet another toe - apparently there's a big bone in each to break - and as my job is in the field (literally, I walk around fields and marshes all day...), I've been reduced to paperwork at my home for the next weeks.  Of course, being a university student most of the time, I've been procrastinating.  Thus, I've watched the "Torchwood: Children of the Earth" miniseries.  The events of this series have angered a lot of fans of the show and this actually kind of disappoints me.

( Don't not read if you don't want spoilers for Children of the Earth. The following is about one of the couples in the show. )

The song today is "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell, mostly because it's what I used for the title :)

So, I went to Harry Potter last night (pretty sure I'm not alone in that...).  I am the number one hater of the Harry Potter movies and haven't liked a single one - before this one!  So, I figured I'd share my opinion on the film, since I'm sure you really care.  I've put it behind a cut to protect virgin eyes :)

( Why must you torture me by leaving out my favourite line!?!?! )

Damn, that took almost an hour!  My bum is nearly as numb as it was after the movie...  Anyhoo, let me know what you thought of it or why you aren't going to spend that $10 to see it!

Oh!  The song of the day is "Exit Music (for a Film)"  by Radiohead from OK Computer.  Sorry, I didn't put lyrics, but I really couldn't remember any from the song :(

I scooped this from srsly_yes  and it seemed more fun than the paperwork I've gotta do for my job...  Oh, sorry for the title, I couldn't think of any rock songs about books on the top of my head :D

"Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Copy the instructions into your own note and be sure to tag the person who tagged you."



1. A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
2. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
3. Catch 22, Joseph Heller
4. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
5. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
6. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
7. Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
8. Don Quixote, Cervantes
9. The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
10. The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemmingway
11. Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle
12. King Lear, Shakespeare
13. East of Eden, John Steinbeck
14. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson
15. Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky

These are in no particular order, except for the order in which I thought of them...  I'm sure I've missed some of my real favourites, but these books all hold a place in my heart.  Please feel free to do a list of your own, I'd love to see what books everyone likes!

For a song...  I guess "Tales of Brave Ulysses" by Cream is a good one based on a book :)

Hey all,

In the wee hours of this morning (or yesterday morning for most of you...), a new single was delivered to all the good little DJs and DJettes around the country (continent? globe?).  Anyhoo, this single was unmarked except for some sort of implication it was from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

As I headed off to my crappy job this morning, I turned on my favourite radio station, in hopes it would buoy my mood for the day.  Sadly, it was at this point that the DJ excitedly announced this song and how he wanted feedback on it.  As it began playing, a number of things struck me:

1.  The DJ said the song clocked at two minutes and someodd seconds, way too short for a TPatH song.
2.  Most Tom Petty music of recent history has been solo stuff, although the Heartbreakers invariably play on it.
3.  I likely would have heard about this beforehand, because when you're a big-name artist, you announce your album to the world long before it's ready to be out there.
4.  This song was far too electronic for Tom Petty.
5.  And as the song neared it's end, I determined this song sucked quite hard and Tom Petty does not suck (at least in my opinion).

But, mostly, I was reminded of a story I'd heard a long time ago about how one of my favourite bands came to be.  The Guess Who are in the pantheon of Canadian music and actually played quite a role in getting the Canadian music industry off the ground.  Anyhoo, story time:

These guys had picked a bad time to come about: their name sucked (Chad Allan and the Expressions) and they were wellknown to be a Canadian act, which at the time was an awful thing, because a little thing known as the British Invasion was going on; Canadian bands had to resort to names like The Liverpool Set (I shit you not) or adopt British accents to get noticed.  Chad Allan and the Expressions had the talent to get signed, but in the days before the CanCon, they couldn't get any airtime anywhere.  So, some savvy record exec bundled up a bunch of copies of their single, "Shakin' All Over" and shipped it off to the CBC and the like, with nothing but "Guess Who" written across it.  Naturally (I use that sarcastically...), all the stations assumed the song was by the Beatles and it immediately stole the airwaves, actually knocking a real Beatles song off the top of the charts in some places.  Between this stunt and the instigation of CanCon, these guys became wildly successful here and abroad.


So, when everyone else decided that this recently released song had absolutely nothing to do with Tom, the band who actually did this released their name (Novac?  Novacane?) and I lost all respect for them immediately.  Sorry to say it, but to actually name a band you're pretending to be - especially when you sound nothing like said band - rather than letting the DJs draw their own conclusions, and then to use a quite wellknown stunt to get your single out there, is so lacking in creativity that I have absolutely no desire to waste my time listening to more of your feeble attempts at stardom.

I do applaud that they attempted to get themselves out there in an "inventive" way, but it is my hope that Nova(?) die with a wimper rather than a bang.

So, the song of the day is "American Woman", the Guess Who's biggest hit.  I also might suggest "Casa Dega", one of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' b-sides.

Here's a recent version of "American Woman" that rocks my socks: www.youtube.com/watch  (Oh, and Lenny Kravitz plays this song in front of an American flag, which makes my day.  Is he doing it as a joke...?)

Have you ever listened to a song over and over and over and actually caught absolutely nothing of it?

I just came to the realization that I was doing that with a song I have long loved:  "The Man Who Sold The World" by David Bowie (off the album of the same title).

I was introduced to this song by Nirvana, because the train had long since sailed on Bowie's superstardom by the time I was born.  I loved this song.  I thought it was Nirvana's best, maybe faltering only next to my faves of songs that are actually theirs (I think): "Rape" and "In Bloom" (such a bitchy man, that Kurt Cobain).  It was only a few months ago that I discovered my love of this song was rooted deeply in all things Bowie.  Who, I'm not ashamed to admit, I discovered through watching "Labyrinth" as a kid.

Anyhoo, this brings me back to the whole not listening to the song thing.  "TMWSTW" opens with this verse:



I always liked the vaguery of these lyrics.  Is it an old friend?  Lover?  Is it a younger (or older) self?  Another personality of someone who suffers schizophrenia?  Straight up halucination?  Some of these weren't all that difficult for me to eliminate from the list, you can imagine.

I've also been a wildly big fan of a little-known author called Stephen King over the years.  King is a fan of quoting songs, poems, and the like to open sections of his books and in a couple - "Dreamcatcher" for one I can immediately think of - he utilizes a poem that made me think and left the perfect feeling for a horror story.  The poem begins thus:

 

As I was going up the stair
I saw a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away...

It's called "Antigonish" and Wiki credits it to Hughes Mearns.  Does it seem a little familiar?  I'm totally disappointed a never noticed a connection between the song and the poem before (the poem came first), but it still delights me to know that Bowie would have gleaned inspiration from the same areas as King, bringing a number of things I love together :)

The poem is also used in the movie "Velvet Goldmine", which is based in part on David Bowie, though it refers to another character...  But it still means someone was a lot wittier than I was in making the connection...

I've always believed "Antigonish" to refer to oneself, be it a hidden part of yourself or something else, and I like to use that interpretation for "The Man Who Sold The World" now, which I honestly had never bothered thinking too much about before.  Therefore, I think that the man met on the stair in Bowie's song is the part of him he lost when he "sold the world".  I know, epic interpretation, right?  I suck at these, so sue me.  I'm a biologist, I'm not built for thinking like this and I feel pretty good about myself when I can put two and two together for things that have nothing to do with ecosystems and whatnot!


Song of the Day:

The song I suggest today is obviously "The Man Who Sold The World", though I also strongly recommend Bob Dylan's newest.  It's a great listen.

I know I haven't updated in a while - sorry if you care - but I felt the need to make a statement:

I AM NOT AFRAID OF SWINE FLU

Now, were I living in Mexico, I would recognize that there was cause for concern, but that is really one of the only heavily hit places at the moment.  Despite this, the WHO has updated the pandemic level to 5.  What the hell?  A pandemic is a world-wide, bad news disease.  In Canada, the cases have been labeled as "mild" at worst and there have been inconsequentially few deaths outside of Mexico.  Again, Mexico is in a bad place with this disease, but the rest of the world is not.

Despite facts, there is widespread panic.  I can't turn around without being confronted by news casts about Swine Flu, and I got petrified looks in the grocery store earlier because I have a bit of a cough (don't worry, I don't go around coughing on people, I do it into a kleenex or the crook of my elbow - I would have liked to have seen this one 30-something woman's face if I'd coughed on her, though...).  Come off it.  This bullshit is as bad as the worldwide pants-shitting about SARS (which I believed killed less people than the common cold in the end, if I am not mistaken).  Fucking Noel Gallagher of that shit band you've probably heard of is selling Oasis surgical masks, along with all the other designer masks being sold.  So not only is a solid portion of the world's population composed of hypochondriacs, they are also ignorant.  You are aware that as soon as you breath into your mask for a few minutes, it becomes saturated by the vapour  in your breath and acts as a very nice medium for viruses to cross, right?

So, yes, although this may not be the moment for your dream Mexican vacation, there is absolutely no reason to enact other travel restrictions (in fact, the WHO recommend life contiues as normal).  Wash your hands, stop picking your nose, eat some fruit, and go fret about Avian Flu (or a plague of locusts or whatever else makes you lock all your doors and windows while you cook dinner).  At least then I wouldn't have to hear about it.

My song of the day is:

"Down With The Sickness" by Disturbed, also, I think a George A Romero flick would be fitting for the occasion.

So, I signed up for a free 3-day-ish trial of Sirius XM Satellite Radio, just to see why people would want to pay money for radio.  A typically free (presuming something is) service.  Really, I wanted to listen to Bob Dylan's and Lou Reed's radio shows.  Unless anyone knows any other shows I should listen to before the trial runs its course?  They were both last night, so I gave them a listen while I was doing a paper.  Both were intriguining in their own ways, especially since as a 20 year old, I've actually never listened to a true and proper radio show (except my local station airs the Underground Garage, I suppose that counts...).  Anyhoo, here's what I thought of them:

( New York's Theme Time Radio! )

There you go.  I don't know what satellite radio costs every month, but if there are more shows like the above, I almost think it'd be worth it.  It's nice to listen to radio that isn't filled with commercials and payola songs.  It's also nice that these shows didn't suffer CanCon laws, which are good but can be tedious if you favour a station...

Two Songs of the Day:
"A Better Son/Daughter" by Rilo Kiley: this one was on Bob's show, and I thought it was pretty awesome.  There were a lot of blues ones, but this is the song I remembered being on it :)
"Sattelite of Love" by Lou Reed (I pretty sure it's post-Velvet Underground...):  Lou and Hal were awful at giving titles to the songs they played, so I don't have one from the show.  But this Lou Reed song is pretty awesome (it "features" David Bowie, foreshadowing hiphop and the necessity of the celebrity appearance...).  This one is my number one in-the-shower song, because the lyrics are pretty darn easy to remember.

So, I'm taking a class in Rock History at my uni right now.  The class involves a large term project in which we give an oral presentation on a rock era.  My assigned era was Glam (which, to be honest, I didn't know existed before this, despite my undying love of "Ziggy Stardust").  You might know that it was a very short-lived explosion of sexuality of all types that occurred between about 1971-1977ish.  This androgyny-laden time of glitter, platform shoes, and theatricality was spearheaded by the likes of Lou Reed, David Bowie, and Marc Bolan.  One of the things that fascinated me was that, for this very short time between the very straight-despite-all-sexes-looking-identical Sixties and the aggressive homophobia of Punk, was this flash of freedom for gays.  At least within the glam scene, as the outside world still held pretty stringently to their views on the matter.

In researching for this project, I watched a 1998 movie called "Velvet Goldmine" (title is a Bowie song and an obvious play on the Velvet Underground).  The story follows a reporter (Christian Bale) who is assigned to find out what happened to the glam star Brian Slade (get it?  Brian Eno and the band Slade?  The character is also definitely based off of Bowie), played by Jonathan Ryhs Meyers, after the idol fakes his death in glittering glory at a concert.  The reporter goes on the interview the abandoned manager that had discovered Slade, the ex-wife Maggie (the Angie character), and the other glam star, Curt Wild (Ewan MacGregor).  Wild is a hybrid character of Iggy Pop and Lou Reed, and in keeping with the supposed relationship that had occurred between Reed and Bowie, Slade and Wild fall madly in love (kinda).  But Slade has become a superstar through his "Maxwell Demon" character (they don't even disguise the fact that this is "Ziggy Stardust") and abandons Wild to ensure further success.  It's all tragic, with Slade faking his death, and Wild having a breakdown onstage.  The movie features all sorts of references to the time, including a scene in which Maggie finds Slade and Wild naked in bed together (replace the names with Angie Bowie, David Bowie, and Mick Jagger, respectively, and you have what Angie claims is the inspiration for "Angie").  It also features Thom Yorke singing on a few songs :)  Anyhoo, after all that rambling...  I recommend the movie, it glammed wonderfully, was beautifully tragic and I'm a freak who can't stand movies that end happily.

Here's the clip I played during my glam project, it's similar to an interview Bowie gave:




Anyhoo, following all that, I can't understand why society is so slow in accepting homosexuality when it has not only been around as long as heterosexuality, it used to be just as acceptable (think Greek...) for a time, and has had flashes of accpetance since.  I watched the amazing play "BASH'd: A Gay Rap Opera" today (my group in the front row was referred to as "The Lesbians" throughout) and couldn't believe the number of people that have lost their lives to this prejudice.  It's fucking stupid, just grow up people.  Why do you care if your gay neighbours want to get married so they can have a paper copy of their love, too (and adopt a child, and save money on taxes, and any other number of reasons...)?

Sorry, that was way too long and largely incoherent.  So, I leave you with this: watch "Velvet Goldmine", watch "BASH'd", and listen to some glam because it is stupid underrated, much like this VU song, which is the song of the day and the title for this post:

"I'm Waiting For The Man" by Velvet Underground, off of "Velvet Underground and Nico" (I'm pretty sure).  Also, the entirety of "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars".

So, I was forced (not really... though I'm standing by that) to write this list of my favourite albums for Facebook, the true bane of my existence and since I blew such a large chunk of my Saturday At Home on this, I figured I would post it here, as I have to wait for my roomie to arrive home from work before my Saturday night can begin (potentially also at home, we rented "Sid and Nancy", and I am broke from having purchased a tattoo (yay)).

Oh, and if you haven't heard, bryoneybrynn  is giving away some copies of the Wicked Gentleman.  If you haven't heard this yet, head over to her journal and look for the appropriate post!!  (Sorry, I'm balls at linking stuff).

Without further ado,

( My favourite albums! )

Like the list?  Tell me what albums you liked, which ones you thought suck, what other albums you can recommend!

The song of the day today is: "Overture" by The Who, off of "Tommy" :)

PS:  Anybody watch the American remake of "Life On Mars"?  The British version is the best, but most of the epside titles are from old rock songs, just like my rare posts!!!  A lot of them are even Who songs (just like my title of this post, it's the title of the latest ep)!!  *feels justification in naming scheme*

Well, it's procrastination time yet again, though I only have one midterm left before I get a week off for Reading Break :)  Even thinking about makes me smell the campfire already...

Anyhoo, abusing_sarcasm  posted a meme that royally cracked me up, because it was about food!  And I think it's awesome people would post about food (seeing as it's outside of my budget) :D  So, here goes, a thing about food I like:
( Leave the gun. Take the cannoli. )

Have a song!:

"Starman" by David Bowie from "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust"

I want to talk about Boston Legal.  I freakin' love that show.  I'm currently on the second season and am loving every minute of it.  The show is hilariously well-written, the cast is perfect, and they even deign to broach some serious issues every now and then, which I applaud them for because no other show really seems to have the balls (unless you count the Daily Show or the Colbert Report, but they get brushed aside worse than television that's all fiction).  There's even an episode where Denny Crane and Alan Shore (the pair of whom are the main reason I watch BL) go to Canada.  I love my country and I love my province even more!!!  They go to Nimmo Bay, one of the most beautiful spots I can readily think of, then try a case (kinda) in Port McNeill.  Holy moly, a show name-dropped the smallest town in my province :D  But, seriously, the episode is about the wild Pacific Salmon and the sea lice (or cling ons), that are killing our populations.  Uncontrolled fish farms are readily escaping, carrying with them a deadly pest that close captivity has allowed to thrive.  Although this would likely give the Provincial gov't the desire to increase the gross decimation of populations that is the salmon fishery, farm salmon need to be moved onto land, in contained structures that will not allow sea lice to thrive in the ocean community.

The approach of this show to serious subjects (especially items such as the genocide in Darfur) combined with a firey dialouge and essentially human characters, make this show by far my favourite in recent past.  It is one of the only shows I actually find funny (How I Met Your Mother does pretty well, though that's all Neil Patrick Harris and the Canada jokes).   And into the second season, Boston Legal has yet to disappoint, unlike some shows that rhyme with Mouse and focus solely on the chick with a number for a name.  Has Boston Legal won anything yet for the final season?  Because although I love Hugh Laurie and his portrail of House, he can't do too much when the script sucks as bad as it does lately...

Anyhoo, that took up far too much of my time and I've been up for the past 36 hours, so I think I'm beginning to lose coherency.  I would like to recommend the following, though.  It thoroughly engaged my poor, addled brain


Alright, the song is "Rhapsody In Blue" by good ole Gersh-y.  Not exactly the rock songs I've typically suggested, but... meh, I stared at my computer all night writing a paper and I cannot comprehend what I'm doing back on the damn thing (except the word "procrastination" comes to mind).  Give it a listen, it's a fantastic song.

Hey, a bit of procrastination here.  I'm supposed to be working on a project for History of Rock, but...  It's boring, I'm supposed to find an artist I don't know by watching television, but I don't have tv...  Hmm.  So, I saw this and as it reminded me of my plight, I decided to give it a go :D  I learned I watch(ed) more tv than I thought, but whatevs.

I'm shocked that they would have CSI (ick) on this list, but lack in the Boston Legal department, the only show I actually own (because it's so bleeding fantastic)!!

Stolen from everyone...

Empire Magazine has revealed its list of the 50 Greatest TV Shows ever .
1. Bold the shows you watch/used to watch.
2. Italicize the shows you've seen at least one episode of.
3. Underline the shows you own on DVD (at least one season).
4. Post your answers.


50. Quantum Leap
49. Prison Break
48. Veronica Mars
47. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
46. Sex & The City
45. Farscape
44. Cracker
43. Star Trek
42. Only Fools and Horses
41. Band of Brothers
40. Life on Mars
39. Monty Python
38. Curb Your Enthusiasm
37. Star Trek: The Next Generation
36. Father Ted
35. Alias
34. Frasier
33. CSI Las Vegas
32. Babylon 5
31. Deadwood
30. Dexter
29. ER
28. Fawlty Towers
27. Six Feet Under
26. Red Dwarf
25. Futurama
24. Twin Peaks
23. The Office
22. The Shield
21. Angel
20. Blackadder
19. Scrubs
18. Arrested Development
17. South Park
16. Dr Who
15. Heroes
14. Firefly
13.Battlestar Galactica
12. Family Guy
11. Seinfeld
10. Spaced
09. The X-Files
08. The Wire
07. Friends
06. 24
05. Lost
04. The West Wing
03. The Sopranos
02. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
01. The Simpsons

Oh, and have a song of the day!!  The artist I decided on for that stupid project was Jason Mraz and that song that is apparently taking over the radio: 
"I'm Yours".  Hope that video works...  Technology tends to run screaming from me (or is it the other way around?)

I'm back to the grind (actually have been for two weeks now, but...).  I have a very awesome semester - if you exclude one certain course.  I've got History of Rock 'n Roll (it's like history, only awesome!), History of Biology (basically story time with my fave prof), Marine Invertebrates, and Issues in Biomedical Ethics.  (the icky course is organic chem, round 2, but I don't really want to talk about that...).  The ethics course is all that and a bag of potato chips, though.  As a bio major, I deal with facts.  Clear, concise facts.  They don't change a lot, and all I have to do is try to think of ways of filling in the blanks (like the human genome, if I hadn't been beat to that).  But ethics has all the controversy biology doesn't (often) have: right to die, abortions, right to health care, rights of smokers/obese patients.  It's really neat.  The prof is an a-hole, but I really couldn't imagine it being any other way, given the nature of the material.  Ethicists have a creepy omnipotent power to play with people's lives, such as defining what a person is...  I'm almost as excited about this as I am rock history (WE'RE LEARNING ABOUT THE BLUES!!!)  :)

Sadly, this also brings homework, my first project is due on Monday.  Le sigh.  Though, also coming up is my application to study abroad.  That would pretty much kick, though I'm limited as to where to go as I don't really want to learn another language, and I didn't really enjoy the people of France when I went... (but I was tired by that point, so I may have just been projecting any of my grump).

What I really wanted to talk about though, is the new Doctor.  Anyone out there watch Doctor Who?  Come on, you know it rocks.  Being Not British, my first Doctor was David Tennant (though I am caught up on that one season dude before him), so it's weird to know that he's going to be leaving.  They're moving on to #11, some young guy whose name fully escapes me.  I don't know if I like this.  Tennant's Doctor was troubled and, after nearly a millenia of knowing you destroyed your species, who could blame him?  Plus, he had awesome kicks and a cute grin.  The new one is apparently a comedian (?).  Now, I know it's a kid's show, but I really don't think the show should be the funny an actual comedian would supply.  Though, I suppose my love of comedy has been tainted by the "quality" of SNL, maybe the UK is still free of that much toilet humour...

Oh, song of the day!  My fault, here's something I just discovered:

"An Ordinary Girl" by I Am Kloot.  These guys are fantabulous, I got "Gods and Monsters" (which this song is on), a nice way to make up for my lack of concert-going funds :)
 

This post is because aldehyde posted a cute message about the first half of her flist, and the alphabet had me fall in it, and she said I should post more :)  Also, her userpic was awesome.  Sorry that this post is a little whiny...

So, I paid my tuition today.  I also paid my cell phone bill, my Visa bill (with Xmas purchases, ouch), and had to ensure that I still had enough money at the end of it to pay my rent.  Yay.  What fun.  But, I got it done, and I still have (just) enough to go to the "Big City" for New Year's, for which I actually am excited :)  My friend has signed me up for the worst-sounding club in history: Cheers.  Painful, I know, but there is live music, live rock and roll music, so I feel better. 

But this tuition thing has led me to, for the very first time ever, to be slightly jealous of those living in US.  There was an interview with Obama I read in which he promised that anyone who wanted a university education could have it.  Jealousy.  He cited things such as community service that would translate into tuition.  Of course, the Republicans called this slave labour, causing me to break into laughter, which quickly broke down into broken tears (not really).  But this is fantastic!!!  I volunteer all-the-freakin-time!  If that would help me pay my tuition...  I would still volunteer for the sake of the organization, but it would be nice if that time helped towards a med degree so that I can continue volunteering, but with Doctors Without Boarders instead.  Oh, I can dream.

I hope you guys share my excitement about the New Year (and not my money woes), I'm excited to enter 2009 with this :D

Song of the Day:  Is going to have to be "Auld Lang Sine" written by the fantastic Robert "Rabbie" Burns (you know you're an awesome poet when you have a nickname).  Couldn't tell you who put music to it.  Also, there's "New Year's Day" by U2, in case you need a megalomanical rock musician fix.