asimplechord

:D I've said it before, but it bears repeating: Zack is my favorite Disco (right now).

:D Trying to decide if it's worth the ticket price for STP at The Woodlands, since BRMC are opening for them.

:D I've been going through various clips and pics from Comic Con, and I have to say, this might be my favorite of the Castle session. Nathan Fillion is a ridiculous ham, and I greatly appreciate it. Plus, Jon Huertas. There are other vids of this scene, but I like this one because you can watch Jon's reaction, and the way Seamus Dever and Tamala Jones react to the bit of the Nikki Heat novel they're reading from.

♥ For ppl in the US, happy Independence Day! Go forth, re-read Master Jefferson's opus, and then commemorate!

Me, I started the day watching tennis. ( Last Rafa picture post here for a while, since he's taking time off before the US Open )

♥ In other news... I saw this sentence in a SPN/J2 Big Bang fic.

"I spent a lot of time in terrorist countries."

What exactly does that mean?

The character speaking is an ex-Navy SEAL who had spent time deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, so I understand that the author probably means he's spent time in areas where terrorists/insurgents were operating or taking shelter. But "terrorist countries"? Does that mean "countries where terrorists operate"? Because the way it's phrased makes it sound like "countries that ARE terrorist". Which, unless you're talking about being in a country where terrorism (against other countries) is state-sponsored, sort of bothers me.

And yes, it's dialogue, and people SAY things in ambiguous ways, but. Slightly more precise phrasing would be awesome.

/being a picky bitch



♥ Almost done with S3 of The Wire. Benjamin Bush is really good at leaning or standing in a way that seems menacing. Or lazy. Well done, David Simon, for using that skill. Did he learn that at Marine Corps OCS?

There's so much I enjoy about this series. First, Idris Elba. Stringer Bell might be my favorite villain ever. Drug dealer, economics student, glasses-wearing enforcer of Robert's Rules of Order. McNulty continues to be an asshole, with no apologies. I love the Carcetti storyline, with its not-so-subtle pokes at the Schmoke/O'Malley rivalry. And the fact that whoever is playing Lt Mello is CLEARLY actually from or is a long-time resident of Balmer, given his accent. (I'd guess east side if pressed, but that's just speculation on my part.) OMAR.



♥ M'kay. Gonna go figure out what to throw on the grill this afternoon, since the skies might remain clear long enough to do so. :)

1. Ugh, busy. Other than email chain and popping in to see individual LJ entries, I haven't had much time to spend on the interwebs. Have I missed anything important that y'all haven't sent me in the aforementioned email chains?

2. Dear Playbill, it's awesome that you're interviewing Stark Sands about his role in American Idiot, but it'd be even MORE awesome if you spelled Billie Joe Armstrong's name correctly.

3. ♥ Butch Walker + Shane Valdes. It's a marriage of music/film geeks.

4. Did anyone else watch the premier of Treme the other night? I had some thinky thoughts about it - from the style that David Simon et al. seem to favor to John Goodman's character (and his character's daughter) to the living conditions of the upper middle class white folk to the people of color to the presence of Elvis Costello and the Rebirth Brass Band - but my brain is too tired translate the chicken-scratch notes I took as I watched. (Srsly, Aaron laughed when I got my pen and paper out.)

5. There are some ridiculously attractive men being photographed at Monte Carlo. And those same men are even playing tennis. *crosses fingers for Rafa and HotSauce*

6. Happy birthday to eckerlilas in about 15 minutes. I hope 33 is the best year yet. :)

I was going to post the other night, but I got distracted.

Friday night! Aaron and I went to see Tyrone Wells, and who should be there but shutyourface, who was up front to see Tony Lucca! I didn't even know Tony Lucca was one of the openers until we got there. (Once again, we arrived when the show was supposed to be starting, and the opening act was already near the end of their set. I didn't know them, so it wasn't a big deal, but that does not give me a positive impression of the venue. Two thumbs way down, House of Blues.)

TYRONE WELLS. I don't know what to say other than he's a tall, bald, white dude (named Tyrone) who beatboxes AND yodels in the same set.

Yeah.

Most amusing moment: TW started the intro to Remain, and Aaron asked if he just said the name of the song was Romaine.

Me: Yes, he's going to sing to us about his love for lettuce. He's a big big fan of Caesar salads. :D

For the rest of the weekend I:

- watched most of S2 of The Wire (oh, Ziggy)

- cleaned out my closet & boxed things for Goodwill

- vacuumed and dusted the house (*sigh* Why can't the cats learn to vacuum? Or, you know, NOT SHED.)

- hung out with mercurybard & eckerlilas & her bbs

- did a wee bit of lab work

- watched UC's Conversations With History video of Nate Fick. I need to not have watched it, tbqh. B/c him saying that he believed that US foreign policy was generally a force for good? Uh. Um, okay, if you ignore manifest destiny, and essentially occupying and dethroning a monarch in order to aid US corporations like Dole/United Fruit, etc., among other things, I suppose you could see it that way. I was amused by minutes 21-23, when he discusses methods of dealing with mortality & danger in-theater. Who can he possibly know who uses the "superman" vs. "dead man walking" method, hm? ;)

- tried to read Lone Survivor, which is an autobiographical narrative of the loss of Seal Team Ten in Afghanistan, but I had to put it down. a) The general tenor of the author's descriptions, including calling their mission "God-given" when it was no such thing - it was mandated by the Shrub (about whom the author writes in glowing terms), not any deity - makes my blood pressure sky-rocket. b) It's told in a way that reads like a casual conversation, with a limited vocabulary and scope, and that's pretty disappointing after the last few military-related books I've read.

I also tried to read The White Queen, which is a fictional account of Elizabeth Woodville's life. She seems like she could've been really interesting, right? Wife of Thomas Grey, widowed, then wife of Edward IV, mother of the two murdered princes. But it's told in the first person. Yeah, no. Not working for me.



What else did I have to say?

:(( PStump's showcase looks like it'll be wicked difficult to get into. But. EMPIRES! They have a show that night. (Also, you should go buy BANG if you haven't already.)

Monday... was Monday. I found a water spot on the ceiling in the foyer, which I hope doesn't mean the roof needs to be replaced. But it's nearly 15 years old, so it probably does. There's also a growing mud-puddle in the side yard, right where the main pipe brings water to the house from the street, and I'm afraid *that* means the pipe needs to be excavated and replaced as well. Awesome. Just when we were thinking that our tax-return could be used to replace the living room furniture we've had for a decade, another necessity appears to suck it away.

But today is Tuesday. Tuesday is going to be a better day, right? RIGHT? :D?

I just sat through two hours of meetings. Time to get some lab work done before the next meeting.

<3

1. I am really enjoying The Wire. It's from the same guy who started Homicide: Life On The Streets, and it takes place in Balmer, too. It had me at the first episode, when one of the characters said you couldn't get on US currency unless you were a president.

2. I am typing up my bandomvalentine fic. Bb Discos. Just porn, really. With always-a-girl Spencer and Brendon having sex for the first time. You can imagine how it goes. Having said that, anyone willing to beta it, once it's finished, or should I just send it in gmail to the usual group?

3. My generally negative opinion of the Hallmark-created Valentine's Day crap aside, this amuses me.

4. I really want to see Foxy Shazam's Eric and Ryan Ross on stage together. I just. How did they get paired up on a tour? As arielchan pointed out, it would be even better in front of the huge rabbit that's painted on the wall at the White Rabbit.

5. I'm sorta sad that passes for Under Great White Northern Lights are so fucking expensive, so I'll have to hope that I can get a regular ticket at one of the bigger venues after all the badges and passes have gotten in.

6. We The Kings & Mayday Parade at HOB Monday. fun and Jack's Mannequin in San Antonio on Tuesday. Who's with me? :D

+ I claimed a prompt for bandomvalentine! At first I was thinking that I'd write a ficlet in a 'verse I've already written in, but I sorta want to write something different. We'll see. I'll probably bug some of you via gmail about it.

+ I signed up for bandombigbang again this year. Hopefully this time I'll actually finish the fic, since the people involved cannot disillusion me via Twitter. Plus, already outlined. Hopefully I'll keep motivated to get it all finished this time instead of letting it peter out into 5000 words of unfinished fic + an outline, like last year's.

+ vic_ramsey and wordsalone are responsible for my new fascination: Generation Kill. It is the most sexist, racist, politically incorrect thing I've ever seen, and it hurts to watch the stupidity sometimes, but I can't look away. I've got three episodes left to watch. Then I maybe might look for some fanfic of the Brad/Nate or Brad/Ray (they are so so married) persuasion.

+ Ugh. Do not corner me in my office and bombard me with demands before I even have my coat off on Monday morning. I usually need the first hour of the day on Monday morning to plan the week's experiments, and if you bug me, I'm pretty much guaranteed to be as unhelpful as possible. Wait an hour and you're infinitely more likely to find me amenable to your demands.

+ OMG, I *hurt* from laughing at this: Nissan Pavilion has been renamed Jiffy Lube Live. If there is a god, Gabe Saporta (and other bandom folks) will perform there this year and make ridiculous fandom-related jokes about the venue's name.

:DDDD

New music! Them Crooked Vultures' CD and Believers Never Die were waiting for me when I got home last night. I listened to TCV, then put the BND DVD on and got about half-way through the band commentary before forcing myself off my ass to exercise. My primary response: oh, boys.

The Get Up Kids tonight :D

White Collar. Possibly unpopular opinion: I could make Elizabeth/Peter/Neal an OT3, but otherwise, not so much with the Peter/Neal.

House, MD. Cameron needs to stop being a hypocrite. Um, yeah. That's all I have to say about last night's episode.

( DDDD: )

OK. I am going to go calibrate my pipettemen and measure scratch width in my wounded cells. Hope y'all are having a good day.

+ The exchange servers for users with first names DEW – IRH at work are not working. Eh, okay, I hope there was nothing urgent in my work email that needed tending.

+ Dear vendor: If you cannot be bothered to spell "competitive" correctly on your advert, why should I pay you to tend to expensive equipment?

+ It is lunchtime. I am going to go read sunsetmog's new fic, and the Dean/Castiel that why_me_why_not linked me to this AM. And think about shower-sex. Just because.

+ One more week until the season premiere of Criminal Minds. (Yes, I'm counting down.)



OMG, can we talk about how we're all ♥__♥ right now? Cuddling. In front of cameras. Why is The Pop Show not airing until NEXT WEEK?

+ Because I'm overdosed on Planet Earth, I'm watching Criminal Minds re-runs while the VMAs are on, and when they're over I'll watch the award show. This way I can skip everything but the FBR/dd bands bands I want to see.

+ Rolling Stone and Spin both published photos and reviews of the U2 show at Soldier Field. On one hand I want to cry that I'm missing their Houston date for work, because, srsly: THE EDGE and Adam Clayton.



(If you haven't gone to see It Might Get Loud, what are you waiting for? The Edge plays demos of bits and pieces on cassette tapes that went on to become some of U2's greatest hits. Jimmy Page plays his mandolin AT HEADLEY GRANGE. Jack White... is Jack White.)

But on the other hand, the set list looks pretty heavy on the newer stuff, which is not my favorite U2 material.

+ I should be working on the HS AU. *sigh* OK, I'm going, I'm going.

( SPN spoilers ahoy! )

IN CONCLUSION: I LOVE YOU, ERIC KRIPKE! Forever and ever, amen.