asimplechord

1. I thought more than once about extending my visit to NYC when I got the NDP notice and then the pre-sale code for the Discos' show at the Bowery, but I seriously cannot spend that time off without consequences - the day and a half I'm taking are being made up by working MLK Jr Day and the thirteen hours I spent in lab on Tuesday. (As an aside, J is going to be in town that weekend too. Cling-time! :D :D :D)

2. New post-doc arrived. SO TIRED OF ANSWERING QUESTIONS. It would be okay if it were just her, but I have literally spent hours the last three days showing other people how to do things. It's not like I have, you know, shit of my own to do.

3. I keep thinking about writing something, anything, but by the time I get home from work, I can't be bothered to think straight.

4. Almost through S2 of The West Wing. It's funny in a sad way how a decade after these episodes aired, NONE of the issues they confront have altered significantly. (And I still love CJ like burning.) [ETA: The more I watch, the less I care for Bartlet. To me he comes off as a predictable, pompous ass who relies on a bottomless well of useless trivia, his own opinion, and the bible more than anything else.]

5. Rise Against's new album comes out the same week as GD's Awesome As Fuck? Good music week. Actually, I think that's the week of SXSW, so it'll be a FABULOUS music week. :D :D :D (Also, did I ever flail here about Another Station; Another Mile? My heart eyes over them, I can't even explain.)

6. I was earwormed today by Wisdom, Justice, and Love. First when Tavis Smiley & Amy Goodman got into it on Democracy Now this morning (and wasn't that a total lovefest?) and then when my iPod kept cycling through A Thousand Suns. [There was a thought somewhere about violent political rhetoric and the long war and the political assassinations of the 60s, but I'm too tired to connect the dots now.]

7. A reminder from J had me all excited: the new Mercy Gunderson novel is out! And Amazon said that my copy had been delivered. But there is no package on my doorstep, in my mailbox, or in my neighbor's house. The USPS is not being particularly helpful at the moment, but I suppose that's because it's after hours. *sigh* I guess I'll keep slogging through Aftermath and Learning To Eat Soup With A Knife in the meantime.

8. Fuck yes! (PLEASE, BILL WHITE, RUN FOR HER SEAT.)

9. 30Jan shows of American Idiot are/will be sold out b/c it's BJA as St. Jimmy and it's most likely Michael Esper's last show, y/n?

10. Fanta orange soda + Dripping Springs vodka = A+ supper choice

It's been a while!

Since I last posted, I:

1. had a why_me_why_not visit

2. induced said visitor to watch Generation Kill

3. saw Cobra Starship and Travie (twice). There were some other bands involved. I actually enjoyed I Fight Dragons for the novelty of using a Nintendo and DDR as instruments. Not so much the random addition of Jay Sean and other individuals to the lineup. You know your attitude is bad when a singer sarcastically thanks the ladies at the barrier who are obviously present to see the next act rather than him.

4. went to Bonnaroo. It was amaaaaaaaazing. We had VIP passes this year, so we didn't have to wait in the 16 mile line (no, really, sixteen miles on I-24 from the east, and another sixteen mile line on the opposite side of the highway, coming from Nashville), and our campsite was RIDICULOUSLY close to the What Stage. In fact, for the headliners' sets, we and others put our camp chairs out in front of the tents and partied instead of going into the paddock with the other 75k attendees. I've seen Kings of Leon before, but they were on FIRE Friday night - I guess it was the equivalent of a hometown show for them. Stevie Wonder and JayZ put on a couple of amazing sets. Weezer, The National, Gaslight Anthem, Regina Spektor, Against Me!, pretty much everyone I saw was awesome. I even saw The Young Veins' set. It was smoother, less disjointed, than the SXSW set I saw, and Ryan was better at being the frontman. There were a LOT of dudebros in the crowd cheering for them, and one yelled a request for Behind The Sea, which Ryan said he would play if only he could remember it, which made me LOL for multiple reasons. JWalk's flipflops returned, as you might imagine, since it was ~100F at Bonnaroo every day; Ryan Ross even broke a sweat. Slightly. After the set, I went over to the beer tent to get a cold one, and on my way back to the Which Stage, I ran into Andy, and talked to him for a bit about the Rooney tour and such. RyRo was there, standing off to the side talking to a fan, and as I was bidding Andy good luck their minder dragged them away for an interview with SPIN. IDK who they know at SPIN, but SPIN is giving them serious face time. Which, you know, good for them, I guess. I wouldn't care about it one way or the other if it didn't seem like Ryan Ross was trying to publicly retcon Panic At The Disco into something that only he and Jon Walker contributed to, artistically. That would be an interesting trick since JWalk joined the band well after the first album was released. And hit platinum, no? You'd think I'd be past being disappointed when he lies in interviews, since he was never my favorite. But apparently I'm still sort of invested in the douches after all.

Anyway. It was wicked hot all four days, and we ended up not staying for Dave Matthews Band (I know, ppl think I'm crazy but I am not a fan) on the last day, but overall I had an awesome time. So did Aaron. And I didn't come home with pneumonia requiring three weeks' sick leave this time, which is a total bonus!

Best sets by bands I hadn't seen before: Lucero, The xx, Blitzen Trapper.

5. spent many hours parked in front of a microscope. Indirect immunofluorescence is one of my least favorite things to do. Mostly because a lot of what I'm looking at seems so subjective. First, count cells with multiple nuclei. Then count how many cells have 1, 2, or >2 centrosomes. Then count how many focal adhesions there are per cell. And, okay, while you're at it, go back and determine cell area for each specific cell you counted FAs, so you can express that as FA per unit area. D:

6. started seriously plotting a Generation Kill/American Idiot crossover. It sort of presumes that Brad doesn't go to the UK after the initial invasion of Iraq - maybe the deal with the RM fell through for some stupid paperwork-related reason? Alternatively, I suppose I could shift Tunny joining the military to 2006, when Brad would be back at Pendleton after his stint in Devon, before 1st Marines shipped back to Iraq. I sort of prefer the idea of having it set in spring of 2004 for historical reasons, though. Suggestions?


I am past all hope of catching up on LJ after being AWOL for so long, so if anyone has a post (fic! pics! life news!) that I should see, link me please! ♥

1. I'm really enjoying Butch Walker's new album. The whole thing entertains me, but I'm particularly infatuated with She Likes Hair Bands. B/c A) yes, and B) I really want to hear that song performed live. Preferably with Brendon Urie singing along. (STFU, you can't tell me the white board in the video wasn't a hint.)

2. ♥ Alkaline Trio's This Addiction. I am afraid their Houston show is on the same night as one of the Sweet Sixteen games we have tickets for. I sincerely hope the Badgers are not playing, b/c I love them, but Alkaline Trio wins, hands down.

3. Sold the Muse tickets. Aaron's going to be out of town, and if he's not here, I'd rather go to SXSW and see The Whigs. ILU, Matthew Bellamy, but you can't compete with an entire city of live music.

4. This needs to be photoshop'd. With this, I think:



Yes? No? I can't be the only person who's thought of this.

5. Happy hour at Mia Bella. Mmm. Wine. Risotto. Good conversation.

6. \o/ Julian Casablancas has some TX dates, including one at Houston's HOB. Tell me more about Last Nite, sir. Please.

Be more ridiculous adorkable, boys, I dare you. (But please use direct address commas while doing so, kthnx?)

( What? It is a perfectly valid life-choice to spend my vacation days following a bunch of pretty boys who sing pretty songs. )

ETA: photo album is here

EXCUSE ME WHILE I FLAIL HARDCORE.

THANK YOU, ZACK HALL/NDP!

So, mostly these are the things I've been thinking about in order not to completely lose my temper today. Which, IDK, maybe it's PMS? I am really cranky over stupid little shit (and some bigger shit).


+ Legs crossed toward each other is ABSOLUTELY an Unequivocal Sex Invite, as has been pointed out by numerous people. This just means I spent half the morning casting Clueless AU in my head and via text.

+ IDEK, Nick Scimeca.

+ Matt Kiser's comparison of New Perspective and Change; I am particularly amused by the "what did these guys keep in the divorce" part for P!ATD: The exclamation point, the arm garters, the band member who can actually sing.

+ J texting me that her Twitter moment of the day was a convo about why Wincest is good but not HPtwincest. Me: LOL, ppl have to draw the line somewhere - it's okay for hot boys who are brothers to kiss as long as they're not twins, apparently? (Y'all can guess my opinion on that one.)

Fic that I want to read, but no one is writing for me:

+ fic wherein the switch between singer and bassist that was made by Tim McIlrath and Pete Wentz is discussed, along with their appreciation for spoken-word additions to songs. Or, you know, entire songs based on spoken-word poetry rather than singing, and the success vs. failure of some such. (compare fan bases, compare political content of their lyrics, compare commercial success and explore their continuing friendship/acquaintance)

+ domestic fic! Spencer buying Brendon's socks and underwear (he likes the bright colors, and wants to expand to patterns)! Brendon sneaking a pair of boy-jeans into Spencer's closet! (they are totally easier to get on and off when they are loose. shut up, he's not the one who has to take his own off)

+ Spencer/Brendon Cyrano fic. Spencer has body issues and is too shy to woo Brendon himself so he helps Ryan do so! Brendon falls in love with the writer of his letters, never realizing that it was Spencer! (OK, maybe I don't really want this fic. Maybe what I want is Ryan being Cyrano. Yes? Yes? MFYes? Except that Spencer can't die like Christian does.)

+ gen fic involving Mikeyway learning Japanese. (mostly b/c I love that his MFW shirt has now been translated)

(Me, demanding? No!)

Cabbabies tomorrow, yes? :D

A Thousand Words
Brendon/Spencer, Shane
adult
1565 words
Fiction. Not meant to imply that these people are doing this. If you are them or know them, please don't read this. Or tell me.
Written originally via text message for shutyourface on her birthday, cleaned up by why_me_why_not for public consumption. Any remaining mistakes should be blamed on me alone.

Brendon's voice is calm, serious, when he says, "We get the memory card. No copies, nothing uploaded on any computer but mine or Spencer's."


Because, as I just told why_me_why_not, everything ends in Brendon/Spencer in my head.

1. Does anyone have some Spitalfields to share, trusty f-list? I'll support them (even though the band is broken up) if I like what I hear, I'm just not willing to shell out without a preview.

2. Ugh, exercise. Last night I went running for the first time since... well, since we went to Bonnaroo, before I was sick. I won't tell you how long it took me to run 5K. It was ugly, though. And now I'm coughing again. >:/

And now it's unpopular fandom opinion time:

3. People are so fucking lazy. I was actually tempted to ask if the original poster didn't have access to Google. I mean, seriously, how hard is it to google "Midtown lyrics", and read the lyrics yourself? Or check bandom_primers (or a variety of other places) for Gabe Saporta? But then I thought maybe I was being too bitchy and mean. But seriously? SRSLY? Google the fucking lyrics if you can't be arsed to actually LISTEN to the albums before you ask stupid questions.

4. Alex Greenwald = not really attractive with long hair

5. Um, button your shirt, Ryan Ross. And comb your hair. Bedhead is not a look you need to wear every day.

6. 17 days 'til Chicago. :)

ETA:

LOL at The Young Veins. And their blatant rip-off of The Who and The Kinks. Oh, boys.

+ It was a shitty day at work. I had to deal with a fuck-up The Idiot left (which further convinced me that he was infuckingcapable of planning experiments logically). And five people (all admin/support staff) got fired. So I'm glad happier stuff happened elsewhere today.

+ New Perspectives. Everybody in bandom's already talked about this, but. Well. Yeah. My first thought was, "Did he really just sing about someone fast-forwarding to go down on him?" and when vic_ramsey texted me more lyrics, I replied: Lolol, Bden wrote an entire song about sex with Spence? only to decide that I'm immature enough to hope that the whole album is less-than-subtle innuendo about sex, come, and facials. Thanks, bb.

+ YES, PLEASE, KIM THAYIL. GIMME THAT SOUNDGARDEN!

+ Gabe's "serious" blog.

+ Ludo. Broken Bride Tour. Houston. 14November.

+ Swim's official video is out. I haven't watched it enough to comment intelligently. I'm still at the Andrew! Dr. J! Bobby! SISKY! flailing phase. And I like the Japanese wave art over the drawing style that continues through the rest of the video.

Jack's Mannequin "Swim"


+ ETA: Ray fucking Toro! (even if I don't know what the hell you're tracking)