Thursday, December 30, 2010

Year End

Happy Thursday! It's the very last one of 2010, now isn't that special. Of course it is, all Thursdays are special.

Today's was a lazy wintry type Thursday. Sleeping in and mailing stuff and watching anime and playing video games. I'm still so sleeeeeepy.

Christmas was pretty darn awesome. I baked two pumpkin pies and a batch of pumpkin cookies. I'm good on pumpkin goods for about a year or so. And is it just me, or is Thanksgiving food and Christmas food pretty much the same stuff? Although, this time we made this Germany-style vinegar potatoes, which were a lovely way to shake things up. Here's the recipe so I don't forget it.

We opened presents practically all day. We started at nine and took a break for eating when my aunt and uncle arrived. Then we chatted and whatever for a couple hours, and then it was back to the present dregs when they left in the early evening. It was a big-haul Christmas. I went and updated my wishlist after, and now that thing's pretty bare.

My folks got me all this stuff I've wanted for a long while, like Rock Band 3 (and the keytar!) and the full Cowboy Bebop set and Virtuality and The Prisoner miniseries from last year. AND FIREFLY ON BLU-RAY YESSSS. And so many books from everyone! My sister got me this cool Asiany cookbook and a couple other books from the publishing company she works for, and my brother sent along Dragon Age Origins.

My friends all got me cool stuff, too~ Carolyn got me a pillow which is soooo soft like a dream. Dreaming on a dream about a dream. Also a new lock pick set (hidden in a fake credit card lolol) and Sunshine on Blu-Ray. Jacqi got me Keith Richard's Life, which was a lovely surprise. I'm on chapter four. Steven got me a Buffy scriptbook and a slide for my guitar. I tried it a bit, and it has so much folksy bluesy promise. Now if only I knew how to play the guitar.

Thanks, everybody! You're all much too kind.

My sleepy is a hanger-on from Tuesday, when we got up super early and went out to watch some whales. We caught a couple pairs of gray whales migrating down to Baja, some sea lions, and a blue shark. The swells were pretty high on the way out of the harbor, and there were a few drops that reminded me of why I hate planes and roller coasters. But the rest of the day was smooth and perfect, if a little chilly. But I've never been out whale watching, and we ended up going around the back side of Anacapa Island to find the second group, and that's the farthest I've ever been out to sea.

It was crazy on the other side, nothing but ocean from there on out. It's not that I'm agoraphobic, more like a claustrophile, if that's anything. When I look out at the ocean, I expect to see islands, alright? If there was nothing out there, like most other people's coasts, it would freak me out.

So yesterday I did a repeat of last ... Thursday, going straight from work to LAX and back, this time to send my sister away and back up to the great frozen north. We had really nice weather this week, yeah? None of those crazy rains, a lot of sun. Oh but I just checked my phone, and it looks like the new year is starting up with rains again. A green 2011.

So my 2010. I got to know the Beatles. You might remember that Beatlemania was how I spent the full first half of this year. Rolled gently on to Bob Dylan, the master; became aware of the greatness that is the Rolling Stones; discovered Eric Clapton's Layla was a integral piece of my childhood; found out that the things I'd always loved, quietly in the background, had names like "slide guitar" and "bossa nova."

This year I obtained two bass guitars and an acoustic; I dusted off my old harmonicas and finally, after 13 full years, bent my first blues note; I wrote and recorded my first song with my new band, MDMB; we've written several more; I took a guitar class and can play two or three songs.

In addition to songs, I wrote some straight-up poetry after rediscovering T. S. Eliot. I conquered NaNoWriMo for the second time in a row. (During the same time I wrote my first Batman fanfic and outlined a story called The Ashmonger's Daughter.)

My very first phone finally gave up the ghost and I joined the ranks of the future with a new HTC smart phone. The future didn't stop me from enjoying the past, and this year I did acquire two Stones albums, two CSN(Y), a Beach Boys, a Styx, two Dylan compilations, Crossroads the history of Clapton, and I'm sure there's more I forgot in that stack of vinyl.

Carolyn and me beat Borderlands like a hundred times. Rock Band 3 introduced the keytar as a new challenge to master. I explored the western deserts in Red Dead Redemption. I conquered the first Final Fantasy for the PS3 (one of the reasons I wanted the system in the first place). I finally purchased Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories for the PS2 and, 30 hours in, am about to finish that sucker off so I can continue 356/2 Days that I just got for the DS for Christmas. Still waiting for the someday Kingdom Hearts III, which was the other reason.

This year I started wearing jeans and graphic tees. I discovered that the boys' large at Old Navy is my perfect size shirt. I got a pair of corduroys that are now my official Thursday pants.

I survived my first official all-nighter at work. I went to my first concert, Bob Dylan the elderly. I met my first online friend in real life the same day! I baked my first successful pumpkin pie (and the second, third, fourth, fifth......) I sewed my first set of curtains for my room and the kitchen window. I gave Donnie his first dance, which is something I've wanted to do since we met.

The tree trimmers came and ruined all our trees. (but they're starting to grow back!!) Several pieces of cabinetry etc. were dislocated from their historic positions in my house. (But we did get an HD flatscreen). Beth moved away to New York. Summer didn't come until November.

A busy year, indeed. Here, have this stat-filled picture of my top artists and tracks of the last 12 months. No surprises. Well, I'm a little upset that Nilsson is still in the top 15. Bleh. I got over that real fast. A little sneak-peek of some MDMB stuff in the tracks stats. Can't wait til those are really done.

2010, signing off. Here's to 2011.

-Steph

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Merry Krimble

Happy Thursday! Today was rather epic, since I went to work in the morning and then went straight there to LAX...and back. Gotta rent movies, you know!

So that means my sister is home for the holidays, right now she's trying to dig up a fun game from the closet to dissuade us from the puzzle we just started. Because last fall she promised she'd do this puzzle with me at Christmas...last Christmas. I'm just taking her up on it.

Did you hear about our epic rains? It rained for what, five days? My car has smelled like mold since the first signs of mist. :< Mudslides down south. LA got its annual amount of rainfall in one month, that sort of epic. Everything's green now, it looks like Washington.

Yesterday in the library parking lot, I found a quarter right outside the car. And the little library bookstore was open, so I bought a Batman novel for 25 cents. Thanks, the library!

There was something else this week that was particularly blog-worthy, but I don't remember. It rained. Played PokePark with Carolyn.

We watched Salt and Easy A. Salt was strikingly average, and Easy A had some spectacular laughs. The latter was also shot nearby in Ojai, so it was cool to see a lot of familiar places.

Haha, I hear the sounds of Trivial Pursuit coming from downstairs. I think I will return to my puzzle. Have a happy times Christmas and I hope everyone you know is safe and well!

-Steph

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Forever Rain

Happy Thursday! I hope you enjoyed our sunny summer days, because my phone says it's going to be solid rain for the next however many days my phone can see at one time.

Today was my day off, but luckily I got called in to work, lol. But it's cool. Need to start recuperating from this Christmas season. But there's no last-minute shoppings for me! I'm all wrapped and ready to go!

The other day I read Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. Eclipse I don't really remember (sort of like the movie), but I do remember liking it quite a bit. I think what really won me over was Edward backed off a lot and stopped making ludicrous demands every other page.

But Breaking Dawn. What WAS that?? Those are gonna be two really boring movies. And a lot of it was really...off putting, to me. In content and style. The second half struck me as particularly rushed, like not too much thought was put into allll those thousands of words. No one's personality shown out, even people I had previous liked. It seemed too distant. And then it just ended, but by that time I was really like "good riddance."

Oh well, what did I expect?

Let's turn to other media.

This has been, hands down, the song of the week. Watch it. Rolling Stones' You Got the Silver, with Jagger singing. That sliiiiide guitar work....! I could listen to it forever, and practically have.


And as long as we're throwing pictures around...



The one on the left was this evening, the second one was actually last Friday. Them's from my phone! So handy, that.

Catch ya laters!

-Steph

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Jazz Hands!

Happy Thursday! Tonight my dad's Jazz Band class had their semester's end performance. It was cool! Good job, pops.

They played Autumn Leaves, which just made me think of Clapton's version from his newest CD, and how I heard Cream at the record store today, and how much I love British blues rock? I love jazz, too, but I think slide guitar beats out a horn section these days. I've become more Cowboy than Bebop.

Today it was actually warm/hot out. ! It was like spring. Optimistic spring time now??

I wandered downtown to some used book stores and had a nice time in the sunshine. I think the best Thursdays are the ones where I just wander around downtown. Should be a Thursday tradition.

This week I hung out with Carolyn a bit, had some driving and soldering adventures. We drove into Oxnard which was covered in a creepy fog, but in Ventura the fog would descend and clear on alternating blocks. Very strange. I think we also watched Eclipse on that day? It was so bad.

On Sunday, though, I got a new phone! You see, I got my first phone, what, eight years ago? Maybe nine. And I've had the one allllll this time. What a sweetheart, my little blue flip phone. But the flip did it in; the last month or so it's stopped being able to tell when it's open. Sadday, phone!!

So I got a new one. Thanks, mom and dad! I took a huge jump forward in time, from my little Motorola flip phone to a HTC Aria. But I love it. It has the internet and a camera and everything. My old phone couldn't even download ringtones.

It came in really handy the other night when I was sitting there reading the collected works of T.S. Eliot and my computer was spontaneously taken over by mal-ware. So I still had the power to remotely surf and chat whilst my desktop was undergoing scan after scan. (We're all better, now)

So T.S. Eliot! I remember reading The Hollow Men in tandem with The Great Gatsby in whatever grade we read The Great Gatsby, and that poem was the only thing for which I have that book to thank. I finally found the poetry section at the library (it's a shelf to the left of where it looks like it is), and grabbed this book. My memory does not deceive! Insta-fave, T.S. Eliot.

Cool! Have a nice week, keeds.

-Steph

Thursday, December 02, 2010

December

Happy Thursday! Don't you all wish you had a five dollar bag of walnuts from the boys and girls club? You really do, you just don't know it. They're reaaaally good. The walnuts.

Today was a remarkably pleasant day. It's been slightly warmish lately, which is fantastic. It was my day off, and I had planned an epic walking adventure. I didn't end up walking, but that's okay.

I picked up Jacqi from the street, which is something I do. We went to that little Mediterranean/Italian/Argentinian deli and I tried their empanadas, which were alright. But I got to eat all of Jacqi's olives, which are my fave.

We wandered into Fabric Town, which was playing old lady music as usual. I think while I was checking out, an old lady tried to have a conversation with Jacqi. Then we went to the used book store next door and got some yellowed sci-fi paperbacks.

Next stop was Starbucks because it was either that or naptime. Their gingerbread latte is gingery. After that I dragged Jacqi to some thrift stores which is where I'm getting your Christmas presents!!

Fisherman Albert, of all people, was lurking outside of one, but I pretended that I didn't recognize him. But that's okay because I actually didn't, I didn't figure out who it was until much later. But he does exist! Downtown.

Then Jacqi went to work and I went home to wrap Christmas presents. Oh but first I walked to CVS in a lovely sunset for wrapping paper. And the 10 minutes of 30 Rock I saw was funny, and so was The Office (which was also unexpectedly touching). So today was really chill.

So November ended, along with NaNoWriMo. I did finish, although the last week was pretty stressful. I got to the real important stuff just as the deadline was looming and I was still days behind in word count. So I'll admit I did spit out quite a bit of trash just to catch up... so I don't feel bad about including my Batman fic or notes on another story as part of my word count.

Because if the act of writing 50k words in a month is going to cause me to hurt my novel (by not caring about what I write) then to keep forcing that novel idea is defeating the purpose. I'd rather include other, non-story words, because I did write them during the time allotted, you know? And just finish 50k words however I manage to, and save the novel writing for when I can give it the focus it deserves.

I thought that writing a novel last month would take up all my time. And it did, some days, but I also found time to write three songs, a Batman fanfic, a story about princesses, a backstory for the one princess, a new adventure for Pancakes the Unicorn; play video games; bake; have Thanksgiving; and even hang out with my friends once or twice. I also discovered a love of bossa nova, and learned a little four chord tune on the guitar.

So it was a successful month, all round.

Oh and Eclipse comes out on Saturday, so hopefully I'll be able to rent that sucker tomorrow and BASK in its glory. It's gonna be the most hilarious day evar.

Until next time, kiddies~

-Steph

Thursday, November 25, 2010

41,216

Happy Thursday! Or should I say, Thursgivingday? Because yes. Yes it is Thursgivingday.

What a busy Thursday. I worked all evening so Thanksgiving had to happen early and fast. Our turkey was HUGE and I don't know why, there was just the three of us. And yams and green beans and sooo much stuffing and olives and I made mashed potatoes which is super easy. I had a whole turkey leg.

Stupid Face Cat came by and I gave him some turkey skin.

It was a clear clear day and almost warm in the sun. We took a quick walk around the block and in my two shirts and a snow vest I was quite content.

Before that I played some guitar to my dad's piano. We tried O Suzanna, because it has three chords that I know. Will keep working on that.

Then I squeezed in a good thousand words and then it was off to work. Since my all-nighter last week, I've been super behind in NaNo. But, currently, I'm only 451 words behind, so that just means one of these days I need to pop out a full 2k and then I'll be caught up. Which is nothing since I slapped down nearly 3k both yesterday and the day before. None of these thousands of words are any good, but they'll do for now. Only four days and 9 thousand words to go!

Remember last year, when I was lazy writing, I would get up and sew? Aprons, specifically. My diversion this year has definitely been baking. But what Thursgivingday would be complete without pumpkin pie? I made two batches of the little guys, one set for my co-workers. The rest are mine all mine! But no, you can have some.

So then I went to work and watched as people started lining up outside of Toys-R-Us at 5 PM. When I left at 10, their lot was full, spilling over into ours, and we're literally across the street. Hello, Black Friday.

I'm supposed to go shopping with me buds tomorrow, but they're getting started at 4:30 AM so I wonder if I'll ever see them. I still have 2k to write, and work at night, too. So busy busy.

This week I played a touch of Borderlands at Carolyn's, we watched a terrible comic book adaptation, and an ep of old school Batman. So it all worked out.

What else? Oh, baking, of course. I made stroganoff straight out of a foodnetwork video (ie, no recipe) as well as a Cheerwine bundt cake, which is a pound cake flavored and colored with a North Carolinian cherry soda. Thanks to my local Rocket Fizz, the cake was a success. Burned it a bit so it has a crust, but that sugary crunch is delightful. I'll make you one it was crazy easy. I've been eating cake for days.

Oh, the other thing I did of any note was that I drove out to my dad's office. Haha. BECAUSE some kids were shooting a scene for an upcoming webseries out back. The director was a screenwriter's assistant on Heroes, of all things. It was very indie guerrilla filmmaking, less crew than my own student film. But it was cool. When it comes out I'll link it to you and say "I was there! I know them!"

Well I'd better get back to writing. Gotta get a jump start on tomorrow. I don't think this novel will be done this month, either, but at least it's a little closer. A little more real.

-Steph

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Stickers

Happy Thursday! Guess who spent 10 hours out of the last 24 at work! It was epic.

I got back at 6:30 this morning, and I almost wrote this then. But my last guitar class was tonight and I didn't want to disappoint you all and not include one last update on how College Guitar and Thinks She Can Play.

Except I got called back in to work! So guitar class is behind me, and I'll never see Nine-Year-Old again. It's probably for the best. A clean break. He can't try to get me to find him on Facebook.

What else did I do this week. I can't think back past the stickers. (We put stickers on DVDs for 8 hours and then some) I even dreamed of stickering during my vampire-day sleep.

OH.

I've read Twilight and New Moon. Started New Moon some time on Sunday, and finished it in a marathon on Monday from when I woke up to 4 pm. It was a bizarre day which, much like today, started in the afternoon.

Got a little behind in the writings, but I wrote a Batman fic one day to make up for it. Beh, I still have another 1500 to go today. :<

Work, Twilight, writing. Um. That's about it.

-Steph

Thursday, November 11, 2010

NaNo 2010

Happy Thursday! We've got a winter's freeze goin' on, and I do not approve. Here's hoping for a freak double summer!

Today is the 11th, which means it's the 11th day of the National Novel Writing Month, and we should be about a third of a way through our novels. How far am I? Last night I got to... 18,348 words. What's 1/3 of 50,000? 17,000.

Actually, they recommend 1,667 words a day because that's 50k divided by 30 days. So 1,667 at 11 days is 18,337. So I didn't have to do anything today, haha!

Now all I know about NaNo is what I learned from doing it last year, and I find that this year feels so totally different. Last year I didn't know if I could write 50,000 words on one topic, or 15k a day, every day. And according to my progress graph that I saved, I stuck with it for a full week, and then dropped behind for the second, then pulled through and finished a day early.

What had happened was this. In the spring of 2009 I accidentally watched an episode of Smallville which gave me an idea. I thought about this idea and spun it and molded it, and changed my thought processes and eventually it became a few pages about a deathmatch between two people who had once been as close as two people could be.

That summer I filled out that idea and added a whole pack of characters and made it a story in its own right, called Epoch. And when my sister dared me to do NaNo, I thought I might as well try it, or else this full-blown story would never see the light of day. (I'm very lazy)

That first week last November, I spent writing an elaborate flashback, a murder mystery. I had put a lot of thought into the plotting, the order of events, what was important to reveal and when. That's not something I'm very good at. What caught me up was thinking too much. Since it had to happen in a logical, mystery order, I spent a lot of time working out plot holes when I could have been writing.

The next big thing that slowed me down was after I'd finished the mystery flashback. This was uncharted territory, and I didn't know what needed to be said and when. I hadn't spent three months thinking about it. The words just didn't come. I ended up writing a bunch of tangential things just for word count, and speeding through scenes in order to reach an event I did know slightly better. And then that was 50k and I just stopped, practically mid-sentence.

And then I didn't write anything for this for an entire year. I'm not joking, I was all WHAT November's here again? And then I got really antsy "I'd better do it again or this story will never get written AGAIN" "I don't have enough time!" "I don't know if I can do it" "But I don't have anything planned!"

But what I didn't account for was the full year I'd had to marinate these characters and their world and their situation. Day one and the words just poured out, no problem.

My tack this time was this: after thinking about it for a year, I realized that the segment that I'd started after the murder mystery segment was really important. And because I was floundering, I really didn't do it justice last time. So instead of just picking up where I left off, I jumped back in time and started from the first night after the time jump.

And I had no plans, no great schemes, just a general idea sketched out in a page of writing about what the atmosphere was during that time. The purpose of this segment is to hype inter-character tensions and give detail to the world they inhabit, so they just went and did that, I just guided the way. I still am, and I'm learning new stuff all the time.

Doing it this way makes it feel like there's no pressure. I don't have to get it right, just something like it. And if I'm going to finish this, it'll have to be edited anyway, so I don't need to put the perfect words down, either (just 50k of them will do). And after a year of living with these people buzzing in the back of my mind, I realized that I've got to finish it no matter what, NaNo is just an excuse to not put it off.

My other tactic which has really proven effective is taking bites. I mean, 50k already seems like so much, and the day-word-count already does this, chops it up into manageable pieces for the time allotted. What I just started out doing was writing some, getting up and going away for any amount of time, coming back to write some more, going away again. The pattern started being in the morning, some point during the day, and evening or night. So that's only like 500 words per sitting, and that's only like a page. Very very manageable. No pressure, you just have to write one scrawny little page.

So when I stop because I haven't thought about this or what happens next, I wander off and it doesn't even matter if I think about it or not, an answer filters up and when I go back I'm ready to continue on. It's sort of awesome. I just finished a fight scene which ate a lot of words and added some much needed excitement to my angsty angsty emo drama.

And the cool thing about not planning this part? The things that are happening are just slightly off from what I thought had happened. So their effect is not what I expected. In one particular area, it's transformed a weak narrative device into a plot-driven encounter. It's changed the attitude of one character so that what I was going to have her do anyway makes every kind of sense in the world.

I guess what's happening is by loosening the reigns, the narrative is developing more organically. And while I still have an eye on the outcome, the journey we're taking to get there is spontaneous and based more in these characters and their choices. Instead of just what I would like to happen. It's very exciting to be me.

Last year I made up a playlist of songs that I thought evoked qualities of my stories. Quite a bit of Linkin Park: Runaway, Easier to Run, What I've Done, and Leave Out All The Rest fit squarely with Bentley's arc. But my favorites on the list are Savior by Rise Against which is exactly what I'm writing
(That's when she said I don't hate you boy
I just want to save you while there's still something left to save),

and The Adventure by Angels and Airwaves, which is exactly the tone I want.

One of the reasons I think the new Linkin Park album resonated with me was because I was gearing up into the Epoch mindset, and these songs come along and fit right into it. I mean:
"I'm swimming in the smoke / of bridges I have burned
So don't apologize / I'm losing what I don't deserve"

is exactly where Bentley is. And so on. All these songs--the whole thing--is just the sort of dark dark darkest before dawn apocalyptic hopeful epic cinematic...thing that I want Epoch to be. I see the soul of my story within this album.

And then I watch Twilight and New Moon back to back and want to punch myself in the throat for my similarities to Stephenie Meyer. Vampires, a hard-pressed relationship that no one approves of, listening to Linkin Park while writing. Please someone punch me in the throat.

But I assure you, Epoch is not a ridiculous thing about highschoolers and vampires vs. werewolves. It's about highschoolers vs vampires, if your highschool was like Hogwarts and nobody knew about it. And then if you were there to team up with other kids and train to fight demons, but lots of times demons killed your classmates. And then if your one remaining partner SIDED with the vampires and your school was totally destroyed. And then if your partner shows up three years later and is dying from a vampire curse...what do the survivors do with him?

Harry Potter meets Battlestar Galactica, is what I call it. Well I call it Epoch because Bentley here sold his school (for powers that are only gonna put him in the grave); ending one era and beginning another. But it's about second chances, because Huxley here won't let him give up so easily. But what right does she have to try to save the life of a traitor when everyone else wants justice? It's very complicated, and very angsty.

Well I'll gladly chat your ear off about this if you want to know more. But this is how I'm spending my November. How's yours going?

-Steph

Thursday, November 04, 2010

November = summer

Happy Thursday! This has got to be one of the best Thursday's I've come across in a while. Lemme tell you about my journey.

Here is a link to a map of my adventure. I started in the parking structure downtown, dropped off my books at the library, trekked over to Rocket Fizz (IBC Black Cherry and a Look!), and then made the long walk over to where my band hangs out.

Or hung out, because they ripped most of it out? There's a road that dead ends there (you can see it on the map) and at the end of the rocks (which is officially where my band hangs out) there's like this little electrical building? Well. Not today. They ripped out that building and the road and leveled everything in between that and the edge of the surfer's parking lot.

I think they must be putting in a new/better bike path, because years ago, they built a bike path there that goes all along the board walk, and out along the beach to the river where it turns up and goes up the valley into Ojai. But forever ago, the ocean washed out that stretch along the beach, so they'd routed it into the parking lot there until it met up with the river. So now that whole parking lot is gone, as well as the frontage road that ran between it and the back of the fairgrounds.

I took pictures.

So that was a little bit of a shock. Especially since the weather was sooo nice and just like the summer I never had. I was going to hang out there and do some writing, but there was all that chain link and also a biker. So I just took pictures and moved along.

I did end up chilling off the boardwalk for a while. Listening to all the Linkin Park albums on my Zune. I was halfway through Meteora, and if I wanted to get through Minutes to Midnight before I got back to my car, which was loaded with A Thousand Suns, I needed to stretch out my walk a little longer.

So I went down the pier. There I met Fisherman Albert.

"What are you listening to?" he asks.

"Linkin Park," I say, taking off my giant headphones.

"Oh yeah?!" He's shocked, because what adorable 16-year-old girl listens to such a hardcore band like that?

"Yeah," I say.

"Which one?" he asks. He's very friendly.

"Minutes to Midnight," I dutifully reply.

"Oh, you like that song?"

".......yes."

"That's cool. I saw you rocking out to it," he says, clearly having no idea about Linkin Park. He mimes me smashing my headphones to my ear, which I had been doing.

"Oh yeah," I say, "I was listening to the bass part, trying to see if I could learn it."

"I bet you can," he says. He's very confident in me. We have a little conversation about fishing (the tide is out super far, but when it comes back in he'll be rolling in fish), and about Halloween (Transformers and Tinkerbells were all the way out here until like 2 in the morning), and about how nice Ventura is (what he considers Midtown I consider Downtown; what I consider Midtown he considers the East End). When I say my Halloween was quiet, he asks my age. How old do I guess he is? Turns out I'm a month older, and we're both surprised. He also guesses my weight at 90-100 pounds (while commenting that if I wanted to jump off the pier for a swim, he's got a net he could pull me back up in), so he's a charmer.

Tomorrow should be a 7.0, whatever that is, and the water should be about 64 degrees.

I had to re-listen to Minutes to Midnight on my way back down the pier.

The internet said I walked almost 4 miles. It was a great day for strolling and meeting strangers.

And I did do a spot of writing, foooooooooooooor...

NaNoWriMo!

Yep, it's November AGAIN! Crept up on me! Time to write another novel! Or finish the one you started last year and never touched again!

I actually want to tell you all about my process and this year vs. last year, but I just told you all about my epic summer, so maybe it'll wait til next week.

Basically, so far it's gone deceptively smoothly. Maybe I just know how to deal with the pressure this time? Maybe this part of the story is easier to write? Maybe sitting on an idea for a year gave it time to marinate? Maybe I don't care about the quality of writing anymore? I know it's only four days in, but I'm quite optimistic about making this 2 for 2.

Guitar class today was a joke, now that I've had two weeks off to learn by myself. 9-year-old was back, but I basically ignored him. Class was real small, just me and him and Middle Schooler and Overzealous Mom and Blind Girl and Confused Dad and Thinks She Can Play and Youth Group Girl and College Guitar. When he showed us something new, he eventually stopped checking in on me and Niner, because he knew I had it and the kid was a lost cause.

We learned the riff to Pretty Woman and it confused the heck out of EVERYONE but I was all doot doot doot bass line weeee and mostly just wanted to punch Thinks She Can Play in the throat.

Well. Only one more class. I'd say it was worth it, over all, though. I've picked up The Times They Are A-Changin' and it uses almost only chords he taught us. So I have to say the class taught me how to play the guitar. But the rest of it I can do on my own, just by playing, you know?

Over the weekend me and Carolyn saw the Owls of Ga'Hoole or whatever it's called, and Despicable Me, and I don't know I'd recommend them. Owls is super violent and the story is very very very poorly explained; but Owls are freaking adorable and some of that computer graphic work is outstanding. Despicable Me was cute enough, but the jokes were not that funny and just made me angry because the theater we were in was BUSTING UP every thirty seconds. No. Just no. The secondary characters were also rather bland and I have narrative objections to how the third act played out.

But speaking of bad movies, Twilight III is coming to DVD December 4th and I literally cannot wait. We're playing the trailer nonstop at work and I just keep looking over at it and giggling. Oh Edward. Oh KStew.

Okay. Unless something majorly exciting happens this week, look forward to an in-depth look at how I feel about writing a novel for next Thursday. WAY EXCITING YAY.

-Steph

Thursday, October 28, 2010

A Thousand Suns: a review

Happy Thursday. A while back, I was asked if I even bought cds anymore. I thought about it, and my answer was a qualified "yes": I buy novelty cds (Big Band/standards compilations from department stores) and I'd buy "the next Linkin Park cd." The latter being some hypothetical and perpetual occurrence.

I hadn't had the chance to test my assertion until a few days ago, when, armed with a paycheck, I went and put money out on all sorts of things. One of which was a cd. It's probably the first cd I've paid for since Big Band Salute. It was the new Linkin Park cd.

It's been out for over a month, but it came out quietly. The first I even saw of the promise of a new album was from one of those sidebar ads on Facebook, of all places. I new it would be something different, since you have to expect something different ever since Minutes to Midnight, which was released two and a half years ago.

I went into it with an open mind (which it turns out I didn't even need), and I've never been so proud to be a Linkin Park fan. On top of that, I've never spent money so well as on A Thousand Suns.

GUYS I LOVE THIS ALBUM.

Hybrid Theory, their first studio album, was released ten years ago. This is not that album. What they've done in ten years is what the Beatles did in five and what Bob Dylan did in three: simultaneously reinvent the sound of the band and release their highest achievement to date.

It's their Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Highway 61 Revisited, combined.

I don't know if it's my dalliance in the backlog of popular music that has attuned me to appreciate this album, but I think it helped me...helps me recognize effort, recognize...greatness in my time. It's all well and good to look back and see the effect Sgt. Pepper had on the late 60s, to look in awe at how far those lads from Liverpool had come, musically and literally. But to get this Thousand Suns and listen to it for the first time when no one else has listened to it and analyzed it and seen what comes next...this is the band of my generation--of my youth, personally--and to be in the stream of time as it happens, rather than looking back at the big picture....

Listen to this song. I Saw Her Standing There, the first track on the Beatles' first album, recorded in 1963. You like it. Everyone likes it. It's of the time, outside the time, drawing you in with its perfect simplicity. It's everything that made the Beatles the biggest act of their day.

Now listen to this. A Day in the Life, from the 1967 concept album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Do you like this song? It doesn't even matter. Is this song a landmark of musical ingenuity and skill? No two ways about it. Is it a turning point for the band? Of course, there was nothing like this ever before, anywhere. Is it greatness? Undoubtedly. You don't even need time to tell.

Start over.

Listen to this song. Song to Woody, from Bob Dylan's first, self-titled album, released in 1962. One of the very first songs he ever wrote for himself. It's simple, it's folksy; just Dylan, his words, and a guitar: it's everything that made Bob Dylan great.

Now listen to this. Like a Rolling Stone, from the 1965 full electric album Highway 61 Revisited. Is it different? Oh yeah. Did it stop him from being among the greatest songwriters of the 60s and all time? Didn't I just see him perform this in concert a few months ago? And how many times have you heard this song in your life? How many times have you heard "Song to Woody?"

(Further listening on the change of Bob Dylan)

This history lesson is my preemptive strike against the doubters, the people who didn't bother to or regretted spending money on A Thousand Suns.

Listen to this song. In The End, from 2000's Hybrid Theory. Is it good? It's what made Linkin Park great. To this day, if I even see the words "Linkin Park," I get the piano riff instantly stuck in my head. It's of the time, outside the time. It's new (nu-metal, The Man dubs it), it's overflowing with raw teen angst.

Now listen to A Thousand Suns. As great as Hybrid Theory is, the magnitude of difference between it and the new album is the same as the difference between the songs and albums mentioned above.

If Minutes to Midnight was a shock, a shocking change, that's only because it was a stepping stone to what they were really trying to do. The title of the previous album comes from the Doomsday Clock, by which scientists anticipated the proverbial End. It was a politically charged album, raging against the establishment instead of just against post-adolescent injustices.

It was an angry album. They all have been. Angry at ones own frustrations, situations, insecurites, the ones who wronged you, the oppressors, the government. It was very much a "you and I" battle, these first albums. You've hurt me and I'm angry at you.

I feel like in A Thousand Suns, the anger is still there, still focused at The Man from Minutes to Midnight, but that the dynamic has changed. Now it's "you and Them, and I'm angry at Them for you." It's a much more...sympathetic anger? Angry at the war machine on behalf of those it hurts.

Instead of "I tried so hard and got so far / but in the end, it doesn't even matter,"[In The End] it's "You say / you're not gonna fight / 'cause no one will fight for you" [Robot Boy].

From Given Up [Minutes to Midnight]
Wake in a sweat again
Another day's been laid to waste
In my disgrace
Stuck in my head again
Feels like I'll never leave this place
There's no escape


to Iridescent
Do you feel cold and lost in desperation
You build up hope but failure's all you've known
Remember all the sadness and frustration
And let it go
Let it go


And beyond the lyrics, there's the musical experimentation, bold Sgt. Pepper stuff. The first 13 minutes, five tracks, are a solid block of...sonic experience. There's also a whole song--I'll show you:

Jornada Del Muerto
持ち上げて
解き放して


Bold. Bold statements being made here, musically. And the end, there's a whole, like, suite to wrap it up, touching on a bunch of things you've already experienced...it blows my mind. It's narrative, almost, this album. To listen to just one song would be to watch just one scene of a movie. To put it on shuffle would be to watch the episodes out of order.

And there's clips of historic speeches and statements, anti-war the lot of them, set to a beat between "real" songs. The first track has the Sputnik peep offset with this piano beat. The same piano bit comes back in Waiting for the End, and the Sputnik peep comes back in Jornada Del Muerto.

It's a very dark album, gives me the image of post-apocalyptica. Like this comes from a different time, where Midnight's come and gone, it's already too late. Maybe it's just because I was just playing Fallout 3 the other day. Maybe it's the BSG tones I hear in a particular piano riff, or the crazy drum intro to When They Come For Me. Or the opening to Catalyst, which gives me vibes from Akira's wind-swept Neo-Tokyo.

My least favorite track is Wretches and Kings, because it sounds the most like the old stuff. Personally, it serves as a reminder of just how much more I like the new stuff. There's still Mike's vicious rap, there's still Chester's epic screaming, but more than that there are songs where one or both of them sing with the smoothest, most melodic voices of angels you EVER heard. And the harmonies!! There are no words.

Okay, so this turned out not so much a review, but I just needed to express myself on this subject. It's...something more than just "the new Linkin Park cd." It's history in the making.

Forget being bigger than the Beatles. How am I supposed to beat this?

Maybe it's just the right sound at the right time, and I was in the right mood to hear it, but I think it's just perfect. If your opinion differs from mine on this, I don't want to hear it. Because if you don't see what this album is, if you don't think that this is amazing, I will remember you. And perhaps time will fade my grudge, but until then I won't be able to take your musical opinion very seriously.

Maybe you only like traditional Irish lute music, though. Maybe that's your thing. That's okay if you don't like the way this sounds. But if you like good music, regardless of label, you have no excuse.

And if you're looking for the old Linkin Park albums, you know where to find them.

-Steph

Thursday, October 21, 2010

More little pies

Happy Thursday! Super rainy week! Thunder rattlin' windows and lightning everywhere. It's exciting.

This week I did a lot of odd projects. I sorted a big pile of coins (literally a pile) and tucked some away into my coin collecting books. YEAH I COLLECT COINS. Found some pennies in there from 1959 and a bunch from the 60s and I collect everything from the 60s.

Went online and found a recipe for copper cleaner, lol. Powder detergent, vinegar, lemon, flour, salt, water. The vinegar and detergent did the whole science fair volcano explosion, it was epic. And then I scrubbed pennies all afternoon. With a travel toothbrush. Hang out with me, dude, I'm loads of fun.

But now I got $8.50 of pure pennies to take straight to the bank. The $54 of silver I gave to my mom for cash monies. AND I still have another Kleenex box full of change. Yes. Another. I don't know why I chose that method of storage.

The next day I put together a fingerprint dusting kit, which was mostly just smashing up a bunch of mechanical pencil leads. It worked okay, but the dust could have been finer. Or my fingerprints more greasy.

One of those days I made some candles out of other candles?

Yeah that was the day I wandered around downtown and passed the same hippie twice, and it was raining and then it got hot, and then it rained again. And later it hailed? It was a strange day.

One day I baked some apples. I guess that was yesterday. Today I baked some little apple pies. Crans and apples, and walnuts and pecans on top. Probably coulda used less than 400 degrees, they came out kinda dry. They taste good but not amazing. I'll work on it.

Steamed my pumpkins and froze the gloop. Four cups for pies and cookies. But I'll probably go get another or two before the pumpkin season is over, freeze some more for the rest of the holidays. And beyond.

Today at guitar class I practiced and learned the last of his curriculum. 9-Year-Old wasn't there so I had free reign to strum and strum. Today it was just me, Quiet Girl, her sister, Confused Dad, Overzealous Mom, Thinks She Can Play, Chatty Uncle, Youth Group Guy, Blind Girl, College Guitar and Dad. It still took an hour for him to go around and listen to everybody.

Then we learned a new song, which was actually a bass part, so I was all dootdoodoo perfect, I got this. And then I played my bass songs until it was time to go.

Two more classes in the next month, and he's got nothing left to teach me. At this point I'd say I'm conditioned to learn how to play the guitar. From here on, I can basically teach myself, or have Beth show me. But now I have the callouses and the coordination to move around the guitar, and I've seen just what forty minutes of repetition can do, I just gotta keep it up. Cool. I'm comin' for you, Eric Clapton.

Speaking of. The note he bends at 6:26 just makes my heart stop. Augh. Genius.

Other than all that, this week was mostly work and trying to beat Borderlands again. We're so close.

Oh me and Carolyn and Jacqi also hung out at the mall (?!) where I bought this cute AWESOME cat astronaut shirt. A cat face in an astronaut helmet. I love it. I'm wearing it right now. It's brown. It's perfect.

I also have a catfish in my tank that I'm raising for Carolyn. It'll hopefully get up to 6 inches, so it'll be less of a target for her turtles and then can nom on all the stuff on the bottom that no one else nommed. Hooray fish.

Yep that's about it. Imma go play video games. Peace.

-Steph

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Epoch Round Two

Happy Thursday! Weather update real quick. So it was cold and wintry all summer, right? And then September comes along and it's like, heat wave city. Then that ended and I thought it was all over. But October has surprised me, it's been nicer than summer ever was. But it does crazy things, like be in the 70s, then the fog rolls in, then the night is clear, then the next day starts foggy and clear up to like, rain clouds, then the day after that looks like rain clouds and then gets hot and then the fog rolls in.

Last night I saw the fog swirling around the door outside of work, I could see the fog particles. But by my house an hour later it was just regular fog. Today was dark but not cold. I guess I'm just surprised that winter didn't jump right in like I thought it would. It's great.

It is pretty dark pretty early, now, though, so walking to guitar class is in pitch darkness, whereas two weeks ago it was sunset.

When he went around and had us play the chord sequence we'd been practicing, he told me to play it stronger (typical timid me), so I was strumming and strumming for the next hour so my buddy didn't really have the chance to chatter. It's sort of shocking how fast an hour goes by when you're just playing seven chords over and over. Next week we're going to be playing the melody and the chords for Camptown Races, in partners. That's the idea, but I'll be paired with 9-year-old, who spends his time in this class the same way I spent my time in Orchestra, which is to say, it wasn't his idea to be there.

Oh yes, the roster this week. Eleven of us. Me, 9-year-old, Overzealous Mom, Dad, Youth Group Girl, Confused Dad, Middleschooler, College Guitar, Talkative Uncle, Youth Group Guy, and Thinks She Can Play.

But even with this hour and a half of practice every week, I can see some improvement. What I was playing today was G B7 C G A7 D7 G. Last week I was only just playing the one on the list right before this, G C D7 G, G and C being the hardest for me so far. So this time I learned B7 from scratch, and kept at G and C, and I was doing preeeeetty well by the end of the hour. I felt encouraged.

9-year-old asked me if I played any other instruments so I played him a bit of the bass blues line, and he liked that. The funniest movie he's ever seen is Killers, and the first dance is next Thursday from 3:00 to 4:00 (so he'll be making it to class), his favorite color is purple, and he only has like twenty minutes a day to do his homework.

Did I tell you I got some more pumpkins? When was that? Since the first pie, me and my mom went back and got some more pumpkins. One to carve, one to cook, three to serve stew in. My mom told the guy I made the best pie with his pumpkin last time, so he gave us two more to make some more pies and bring him one.

With one little pumpkin, like, 6 inches or so, I got two cups of pumpkin goo. The recipe wants three, but it still turned out okay. I used only one can of evaporated milk and only two eggs. Made enough for one full pie (which is promised to Jacqi) and today I used the rest (less than half) to make 12 mini pies in a muffin tin. Used one batch of the best dough (1 cup flour, 1 stick butter, 4 oz [half a pack] cream cheese). Now I need to make so many more mini pies. They're so cute and so hand-holdable.

This pumpkin pie recipe I'm using, I just googled "homemade pumpkin pie" and clicked the first link, which is how I find anything on the internet. Happens that the recipe is from pickyourown.org, which is also the site I'd been looking at in the summer about pickling. Small world. Use that recipe! The page is a little unwieldy, but once you get the idea you can work on your own. Now that I'm a pumpkin pro, I'm just referring to it for the spice quantities and the baking time/temp. Training wheels.

Next imma bake some apples. The holiday season really brings out the baker in me, shoot.

Oh, so. November is like, any day now. Or two weeks. I'm gearing up for continuing(/finishing?) my novel I started for NaNoWriMo last year. Haven't written A WORD for it since December 1st hahahahaha. But I been thinking and thinking and now that I'm sorta will I/won't I/will I about this year's challenge, I've been solidifying a lot of thoughts into what I hope will be another 50,000 words.

Wish me luck!

And a happy happy Thursday Birthday to Melody, who is SEVEN today! Woooo!

-Steph

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Pumpkin

Happy Thursday! I have a horrible pain right in my back. I'm thinking of not spending too much time on this because of it.

Second guitar class was today. Or. Hour and a half practice time I'm paying for was today. We have a list of chord progressions to learn, and so he went around listening to everyone do the farthest one down the list they could do. I was first or second so he was all "Ok, try the next one."

So I tried the next one for the next hour.

For the last half hour I played the "blues scale" in E.

Then we went home.

And for the full hour and a half, I listened to the life story of my new best friend, 9-Year-Old, who is in fact twelve. Srsly. His whole life. Like. Every part of it.

This week our numbers dwindled. So just me, 9-Year-Old, Quiet Girl, Punk Rock Kid, Blind Girl, Thinks She Can Play, College Guitarist (whom my mom picked out across the dark parking lot just based on my description), New Dad, Dad, Little Mexican Lady, Talky Uncle, and Youth Group Guy. Now that I think of it, New Dad might be Confused Dad, who was sitting behind me last week so I dunno.

Yeah it's thrilling.

So the heat wave ended and then it rained a couple nights, which was pleasant. Seems like it'll be sunny for a while, now, but freezing. Fall flipped a switch.

So the other day I walked to the thrift store and picked up The Essential Bob Dylan 2-disc Special Limited Edition Digitally Remastered Classics on 2 CDs! for $2.25. Continued on to Longs for evaporated milk, a pie crust, and cream cheese. Continued back around to the pumpkin patch and selected a pumpkin for the kill. Then I walked home with all my treasures.

Cooking a pumpkin is rather easy. I chose the steaming method, which was simple. Then it needed to be blended, which was not as simple. Then it went into a pie mix and into some crusts. The store-bought one burn burn burned, which made me sad because I love a pumpkin pie with a graham cracker crust*. The second one was an emergency pie because we had a whole pie's worth of pumpkin filling left over. Luckily I had that cream cheese which is 1/3 of the world's best pastry dough.

The emergency pie is a little spicy (I doubled all the spices), a little fluffy (for denser pie use less evaporated milk and only three eggs), and somewhat lacking in pumpkin flavor (? I totes put that pumpkin in there). But otherwise it is a success.

*The last time I attempted a pumpkin pie was a few years back. I used canned pumpkin and tried to build a graham cracker crust from scratch, and overall it was a disaster. I decided to stick to apple from then on. But this week was a pumpkin week.

It's really hard not to type pumpking.

That's about all I can remember about this week. Other than listening to 99.9 KTYD nonstop. Check it out. It'll change your life.

Honestly. I just went there to gather the link and they're playing the Beatles. And right at midnight there's usually a whole Beatles set, like they can't figure out how best to handle heir sudden lack of a DJ. Now it's playing Queen. Perfect station.

-Steph

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Guitar Class

Happy Thursday! What a lovely summer this week was. Crazy hot! And so full of adventures.

Me and Carolyn and Jacqi went on a bundt cake adventure to Thousand Oaks, where it was as hot as the sun. I loved it.

And on Monday me and Jacqi went to Rocket Fizz and then to where my band hangs out, and then down to the beach where we touched the mighty Pacific and built a great big pile of sand with a five year old.

I don't even remember the last time I've been to the beach. I mean, more than just looked at it.

Aaand then I wrote another song, added a melody and lyrics to a basic guitar pattern I've been playing all summer. Sent it to Beth and she added backup vocals and some sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet slide accents, and DUDE is this not the best song we've ever written.

It's called Cloudburst, right? I mixed some tracks of rain using the tambourine and the fish tank. Very convincing. But today I tried recording the sound of the hose water hitting things as rain, but the microphone was not cooperating so I'll have to try again tomorrow.

But I did work more on the guitar part and the vocal, which is, like, simple but I really have to try hard to sound a little better than mediocre. Takes a lot of concentration. But I can actually play the guitar AND sing it at the same time, which is a step forward. So it wouldn't be impossible to play live.

Also that day I added the idea of a piano part to another new song, Broovin'. Which is a fun, rockish song, probably our third best. Because guys, these new songs are soooo much better than LIGHT IT UP. You have no idea. and you never will

And both me and Beth have been working on our various instruments, from harmonica to slide guitar. I've got some good bluesy sounds going with my harp, and she is wrapping her head around soloing. That's why I have to learn guitar, so that she can play lead and I can play rhythm and it'll all work out.

It's been a very productive week for MDMB.

So guitar class today. Is in a basement of a house up the street. No joke. But the house is a city landmark, and the basement is more of a city event facility that happens to be under this house. I walked there in a beautiful sunset.

There are seventeen people in the class, seven guys and ten girls. The instructor's name I think is Randy, and he does know guitar, but he doesn't expect any of us to (which is an apt assumption. They don't.)

Aside from me, we have:
Confused Dad
Overzealous Mom
Confused Mom
Nine year old Boy
Youth Group Leader Girl
Youth Group Leader Boy
Talkative Uncle
Little Mexican Lady
Dad With Nothing Else Better To Do
Quiet Girl
Blind Girl
College Guitarist
Nine Year Old Electric Guitar Girl
Thinks She Can Play
Confused Middle Schooler
Punk Rock Fifth Grader

A lot of them are so clueless I wonder even why they have guitars. They clearly have never touched them before today. Which is alright, because this class is exactly for them, very very beginner. We learned how to read his little chord notations (the fat string is the sixth string, everybody); Em, A7, A, and E; Camptown Races (of all things) and the E blues scale.

That took an hour and a half.

And while I'm sure most of them were overwhelmed or just keeping up, me and College Guitarist were the ones looking bored the quickest. He's the sort that clearly played in college, but that was 20 years ago. Otherwise, I don't know what he's doing in this beginner's class. I'm not really sure what other people's motivations are, other than the Moms and Dads who just have nothing else better to do, and the kids whose parents want them to be rounded (and the Punk Rock kid who just wants to look like he's playing the guitar).

So it'll be cool. Somebody telling me to practice chord changes. The opportunity to develop calluses.

Guitar Center sent me a coupon for 15% of guitar straps, so I went in today and got a cool Union Jack one. British Invasion represent! But my guitar doesn't fit in the case with the strap on it, so lol. It's better than the Rock Band strap, at any rate.

What fun, music.

-Steph

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Them Trees

Happy Thursday! Will you believe that I actually accidentally just put "Happy Birthday!" Weirddd.

It was my dad's birthday on Monday, though! I made him an ugly cake, lol. A spice cake with walnut-studded cream cheese frosting. It had three and a half layers. Happy birthday, Dad!

Fall is upon us, and by Fall I mean The Summer I Never Had. Earlier in the week it was rainy type fog, and I was looking forward to the rain. Not to be had. Instead, we have summer. But the sun IS farther away, so it's not like a summer heat, just like, a fall heat. The shade is freezing.

I perfected my spiced lemonade, which is the perfect in-between seasons drink, and you should try some.

Falltime made me into a baker, and today I made ricey crispoes, russian teacakes, and toffee. Dude, how easy is toffee. A stick of butter and some brown sugar (how come you taste so good) and boil it. Delicious.

Yesterday I hung out with Carolyn and fished all her little fish out of the kiddie pool they were living in to put back in the brand new pond. It was quite an adventure. Fish wrangling is harder than you might think.

I also, at some point, watched the first six episodes of Cowboy Bebop with my mom. I do so love that show. All that cowboy and also bebop and also space and also western. Welsh Corgis. Perfect.

Been practicing my blues harmonica and writing songs, so that's coming along.

Oh, so. The trees. I heard scuttlings around above my room, which eventually became known to be rats. Because of this, we got our trees trimmed so the rats would not be able to jump onto our roof anymore.

But.

The tree trimmers.

Destroyed my childhood home.

I can't even talk about it.

The tree in the front? Has exactly 33 leaves. Thirty three.

I just want to ctrl-z this away, but alas, I cannot.

I wish I had never reported the rats.

I have such a burning regret about this.

Great! Peace out.

-Steph

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Ladies & Gentlemen

Happy Thursday! I just got back from a Rolling Stones concert courtesy of Fathom Events, that crazy thing you see when you go to the movies advertising live opera and stuff.

Ladies & Gentlemen....The Rolling Stones is a concert film from two shows back in 1972 when they were touring for the new Exile on Main St. album. They've just remastered it and tonight was like a nation-wide (I dunno about anywhere else in the world) cinema re-release. Quite appropriately, the re-master of Exile has also been recently released. So it's a double flashback.

What a show! On the big screen it's something else. But without the screaming and raving fans and being able to see them close up. Wonderful musicians and performers. Great set list. My theater was pretty full, maybe like 130, 150 people, applauding each song.

There were literally less than ten people my age and younger. Everyone else was 30 and older. Mostly 45 and older. Mostly Mick Jagger's age. But still, imagine you're a 20 year old London kid who likes the blues, and fifty years later your little blues band still draws a crowd in a place like tiny Ventura, California.

Beth saw it, too, up in Oregon. She said there were like eight people all told. Haha.

Second best thing to going to a live Stones show, which I still have hope for, yet.

Been practicing my blues harmonica, or cross harp if I want to sound official. I can do it, just not consistently.

You see, diatonic harmonicas, which is what you're looking at most of the time you see a harmonica, are built to play in one major key. Mine, for example, are all in C. But by shaping the air different when you play, you can bend notes down to flatten them and get "blues" notes outside the key you're playing in. So to play cross harp on a C harmonica, you're playing in G.

Now my dad first gave me a harmonica and a little book titled "Country & Blues Harmonica for the Musically Hopeless" for my tenth birthday. I took to it enough that I learned some songs from the back of the book (I can still play you Camptown Races and You Are My Sunshine at the drop of a hat), and I even overcame stage fright to play Amazing Grace at a fifth grade music night. But I was perpetually stumped by this bending business.

So for 13 years I've played Camptown Races and You Are My Sunshine, and generally misplaced all my harmonicas from time to time. Then here comes along Mick Jagger and Brian Jones and their little blues band the Rollin' Stones, and now I desperately need to play the harmonica.

I set the piano to harmonica one day, armed with the info from a dozen youtube videos, and bent my first note. It only took thirteen years to do it. AND I WILL KEEP ON DOING IT AND NO ONE WILL STOP ME LOLOLOLOLOLOL.

Have a harmonica solo!

Or Champagne and Reefer.

Or of course, Brian Jones on harmonica. I realize now that it was this song I heard playing on Mick Jagger's birthday that first sparked the idea that I might get into the Rolling Stones. Thanks, Buddy Holly!

How about some sweet lap steel guitar from Ronnie Wood?

Or Clapton playing bottleneck?

And if you're wondering why I'm suddenly into the blues, remember this lil' show called Cowboy Bebop. I didn't know it at the time, but that slide guitar and cross harp was burrowing into my soul, just waiting for the right time to bloom.

Well, here we go.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

yawn

Happy Thursday! So the weather is back to cloudy foggy wintertime, but our few weeks of summer were good while they lasted. Now it's time for pumpkin flavored things and way too many desserts.

I melted some baking chocolate with a touch of milk, cinnamon, and maple extract and threw in some peanuts to make chocolate covered peanut things. Pretty good. Pretzels will be next.

Over Labor Day weekend we drove up to Monterey Bay for a memorial service. I share a great-grandparent with one of the original founders of Zynga, the company that provides you with all your great FarmVille invitations.

Listened to Bob Dylan's first album all the way up and back, wrote a song. Studied James Taylor's Sweet Baby James. Took some pictures. Developed my thoughts on songwriting and other things.

Today Steven came over and we jammed a bit. I learned a new song. Then we went and got ten tacos and watched How I Met Your Mother. It was a good day.

I'm sooooo sleepy because I left my music on all night so I kept waking up every fifteen minutes to hear some song I really liked. It was tiring.

Me and Carolyn and Steven started watching the Evil Dead series. Lolololololol.

Did I tell you Jacqi's back from Korea? She is. Hanging out with them all tomorrow. It'll be epic.

Now I sleep.

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Eyy Thursday

Happy Thursday! Can you believe it's Thursday again? I can.

This week has seen me near the end of my Jagger biography, watch about 14 dozen youtube videos of the Stones, comment on a customer's awesome Stones shirt, dust off my blues harmonica book, and sign up for guitar lessons. And I wrote some blues lyrics for MDMB.

At the thrift store, the magical one that always has what you're looking for, I discovered treasure. A Beach Boys double LP, a greatest hits, I'm sure, in pristine condition. Not even a scratch, and I mean, have you ever seen a record in a thrift store before? This was like, brand new. For a buck ninety!!! !!!!! That's like 12 dollars in savings, say from what it would be in a dusty old record store. I was thrilled.

Next to it I dug out a handful of singles: Clapton's I Shot the Sheriff, B side Give Me Strength; Joan Jett & the Blackhearts' I Love Rock 'N Roll, B side You Don't Know What You've Got; and Kansas' Carry On Wayward Son, B side Questions of My Childhood. 50 cents apiece.

Whuttafind.

That day was actually all around sweet. I parked downtown and then walked all the way up and back, stopping in at the thrift stores, the druggie music store, up to the library (Gimme Shelter and No Direction Home, Stones and Dylan concert/documentaries, respectively), outside of which a homeless man dug my Starfleet shirt, and then down to Rocket Fizz where I got a cherries 'n mint soda. And it was sunny out and generally lovely.

In the thrift stores I was looking for some more pairs of gray jeans and/or corduroys. Them's my fave now. I've also got my eye out for a corduroy jacket? That or a denim jacket that I can spray paint MDMB on the back. Gotta get my gig outfit together, you know.

Let's see, I'll put it this way. The Beatles made me interested in learning music again (specifically the bass); the Rolling Stones have made me interested in being a rock star. Now I'm not saying I'm going to BE a rock star, but there's a fanning of the flames about this little band of ours, about seriously writing songs and playing songs. I would like to be a good bassist. I would like to be able to play guitar. And blues harmonica. Why can't I? So I will.

Gonna go watch Gimme Shelter. Peace out.

-Steph

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Like a Rolling Stone

Happy Thursday! So far this week has been warm and clear and quiet...lovely spring weather. I didn't sign up for three seasons of winter and one of spring. I'm disappointed in you, Ventura. :<

So last Thursday my dad and I made an epic trek across the northern LA area. We had to stop in ... some little place I don't even remember, and then on to Burbank, for his work. Then we got stuck in horrid traffic on the way to Ontario, where I was to meet an online friend in the real life.

(Sorry we were so late, again!)

Which was cute and awkward and fun. But too quickly we were off again, across the street to the Citizen's Business Bank Arena of Ontario!

It was a sorta small place, no more than twice the size of our Event Center at APU. 1.5x the size, more like. So I saw John Mellancamp (yawn) in the flesh. He kept throwing picks to the crowd, but they never made it. I wasn't too impressed with him.

And I was sooooo sleepy. I'd woken up sleepy, and then the long long car ride, and having to sit through an hour of that racket....by the time Bob came on at like 9:20, I was almost gone. I really don't have too many memories of it, because I was just concentrating on staying awake and focusing on making him out. The air was really dry and I kept having to blink (also from being tired) so it was like I couldn't see anything clearly.

It was really like trying to stay awake in class. Staying awake is the end result, but you don't get anything for your efforts.

Bob was really growly, and his band very loud. His harmonica playing was brief but to the point. He strapped on a guitar for maybe three numbers but otherwise rocked out on the keyboards. He wore a hat and concentrated on the show. I think it wore him out.

There was a guy down in front of us dancing his little Dylan heart out. He was probably high.

There were two songs I know I didn't know, and the rest it took a long time for me to figure out what they were supposed to be. Some of the longer ones (Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again, Tangled Up in Blue, Like a Rolling Stone) were parsed down to a more bite sized length. I really dug the one with the banjo, whatever that was.

So it was pretty exciting, and now I've seen one of my heroes with my very own eyes. This isn't my video, but a lot of that concert is up on Youtube. Here's Like a Rolling Stone, which was one of the last songs, I think.

On the way down, I DJ'd the radio, presetting my dad's stations to all the classic rock/oldies I could find. At least three Rolling Stones songs played. "I think I want to get into the Stones next," I remarked off hand.

I think it was because of the Dancing in the Street video? I was like, who is this Mick Jagger, really? I don't even know how it started.

The main reason last week's concert seems like forever ago (srsly, it was only seven days??) is that since then I've fallen super super hard for the Rolling Stones. I mean like, as instantaneously as for the Beatles. I'm even halfway through my Mick Jagger biography already.

It's not that I love them more than the Beatles--the age old question of who's better is just completely unfair. They're just too different to compare. But I am totally like, where were you all my life?! We've hit it off real well.

Ugh, I cleaned out some drawers today and threw out a lot of stuff, but all the stuff I have yet to organize is sitting on my bed. How will I sleep?!

Going to sign up for a guitar class being taught just up the street. It'll be on Thursdays, how cute is that? I've been strumming my new acoustic quite a bit, but I really have no idea what to do with it. So I'll go get myself taught. It'll help with song writing?

Me and Beth had a productive day recently where we each spontaneously generated a song. MDMB, we're gonna be big. Bigger than the Beatles?

Here's a crazy thought: There were no gummi bears in America until the 80s. Madness.

-Steph

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Cold Irons Bound

Happy Thursday!

Today is just a regular, old Thursday.

Woke up. Got dressed. Looked at the fish. Did laundry. Poked around the internet. Later I'm going out to Ontario to meet an online friend.

And while I'm out there, I might as well stop in and see Bob Dylan.

and John Mellancamp but who's counting

Me and my dad are going to my very first concert ever! The only honest to goodness band I've ever seen live was Something Like Silas/Future of Forestry and that was at camp/a coffee shop my friend was playing at/the courtyard in front of my dorm.

Bob Dylan is like, 69 years old. That's not gonna stop him. I'll see if I can get a picture of him, but our seats are terrible. It's gonna be great.

I was gonna link ya my faves, but they're impossible to find these days. Someone musta made a youtube sweep.

Have this instead!!!!!!!!

DANCING IN THE STREET


I can't stop watching this. It's like...the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

Okay I gotta go get readys to go. I'll see you next week!!

-Steph

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Boring stats post

Happy Thursday! Today I found what most certainly has to be relative of Donnie's. It was like, the same cat. Only cat-shaped. (not whale shaped) It was really bizarre.

So let's talk about how tv controls my musical tastes, or else I'll talk about cat clones all day.

I don't mean TV, but if I keep saying "narrative media" I'm gonna keep sounding arrogant. Narrative visual media. TV, video games. Internet? Narrative internet? Hulu? Whatever. Movies. Anyway, Primary interest: Visual media (tv movies games); secondary interest: Music.

Let's look at my Last.fm stats for my top 15 artists.

1 - The Beatles
2 - Bear McCreary
3 - Linkin Park
4 - Kunihiko Ryo
5 - Tokio HOtel
6 - Nobuo Uematsu
7 - Micheal Giacchino
8 - Queen
9 - The Hoosiers
10 - Panic at the Disco
11 - Shigeru Umebayashi
12 - Risa Ohki
13 - Nobuo Uematsu (added with #6 and he'd actually be #3)
14 - Ikimono Gakari
15 - Billy Idol

Okay, how many of those are composers for TV, movies, and/or video games? 6. (2, 4, 6, 7, 11...12--but she's the recording artist of Uematsu's arrangements)

How many of these did I get into from video games? Beatles and Tokio Hotel from Rock Band. Uematsu did the Final Fantasy scores. Ohki Risa sang some albums of vocalizations of the previous.

From Youtube videos? Hoosiers (Heroes fanvid, so TV caused this, too) and Billy Idol. (White Wedding literal video)

Movies? Queen. (Shaun of the Dead ftw) Shigeru Umebayashi. (House of Flying Daggers) The Beatles - Hard Day's Night really kicked off my Beatlemania. Giacchino - see below v

TV? McCreary - BSG. Giacchino - Alias, Lost, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Speed Racer, Star Trek, Up etc etc.

Anime? Ryo - Juuni Kokuki. Ikimono Gakari did a couple intro songs for Naruto or Bleach and I ended up downloading everything they've ever done.

The only two honest bands in here are Linkin Park and Panic, both of which I leeched off of Carolyn. All said and done, 86% of my most-listened to artists were introduced to me by visual media. And 14% comes from the trusted opinion of the best friend.

How about most-listened-to songs?

1 - Nakushita Kotoba - No Regret Life -- Naruto ending song
2 - We Used to Be Friends - The Dandy Warhols -- Veronica Mars theme song
3 - ALONES - Aqua Timez -- BLEACH opening song
4 - Rolling Star - Yui -- BLEACH opening song
5 - Sen no Yoru wo Koete - Aqua Timez
6 - Ketsui no Asa ni - Aqua Timez
7 - Kanashimi wo Yasashisa ni - little by little -- Naruto opening song
8 - Edge of the Ocean - Ivy -- from Beth
9 - Re:START - Surface -- Yakitate!! Japan ending song
10 - Killer -- The Hoosiers -- the song used in the Heroes fanvid
11 - ALONES (TV size) - Aqua Timez -- I really love this song
12 - Sora wo torimodoshia hi - ShakkaZombie -- I downloaded this because it says it was from Cowboy Bebop. I'm pretty sure it's not, but I still love it
13 - Everything Goes Dark - The Hoosiers
14 - Aru Machi no Gunjou - Asian Kung-Fu Generation -- this band did a bunch of Naruto/Bleach/FMA openings/endings.
15 - Another Night - Heavens -- research into "emo music" impulse download lol

The anime-heavy influence here is that when I got these songs, a few summers ago, I was listening to probably 90% anime songs 10% Linkin Park. Those three Aqua Timez songs are the ONLY Aqua Timez songs I have, and I really like their band, so I over-listened.

These days, especially +Beatles +Beatles affiliates, my listening is much more watered down. Spread out among many many artists and songs. Like, The Beatles are my #1 artist because they've got 250 songs that I've listened to 12 times each. Aqua Timez has four songs I've listened to a total of 334 times. Timez.

The band Cage the Elephant is #9 out of everything I've listened to in the last 3 months just because their song Ain't No Rest for the Wicked was used in Borderlands. I've listened to that 24 times.

So pretty much before the Beatles, I was just listening to anime/video game/movie music. I'm so geekish.

I was playing Red Dead Redemption today, and realized I needed the soundtrack to that sucker, too. Remember, I played you that song? That cowboy song? Yes. Anime/video game/movie/tv music is a good genre of music. It's music that has a story, and more than anything I need a story.

-Steph

ps
I refurbished this boring stats post with a bunch of youtube links! Hooray for visual aids!

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Bounty at the Fair

Happy Thursday! You know how much I love the fair? So much. It's like the AX/Brigadoon in that it's the same year after year and it's like it must always be there, somewhere, waiting. In your heart, perhaps.

I entered 12 things into the fair this year, and placed first with two, second with one. The rest got honorable mention or nothing. :< One got a special award for being such a sad poem. I didn't write it to be sad, but now I know.

My sister is here for a bit, and we went on dollar opening day. But she's sick, so we didn't stay too long. Overpriced slushies and I got a hotdog wrapped in a potato.

I'm writing this on her insanely small laptop, small as in, even I dwarf it. Insanely small, like I said.

A topic I've been wanting to tell you about is how my music/visual media curve works, but I'm so tired it will have to wait another week. It's how most of my musical influences (and also some non-musical) usually--or, generally, come from some sort of exposure to a visual media. Like how I got into the Beatles through Rock Band and A Hard Day's Night, and Queen from Shaun of the Dead.

Non musical include: I drink cocoa with mint from a Star Wars Book (which came from the movies itself), and ...there was something else, I forget now. I first ate curry rice because of an episode of Naruto where it was featured. Etc.

I'm sleepy because last night was inventory, 10 pm to 3. Yay. But hey, no customers, so great.

Been drumming all week on Lego Rock Band. It's such an active activity. AND I did The Final Countdown on Expert bass just earlier today, and it just about killed me. But I saved the aliens who signed Freddie Mercury, so it was epic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt_zum97kjE This is a video I like. 1964 Rolling Stones covering Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away. Also so epic. Also so much more rocky than Buddy's. It makes me smile.

Okay, good night.

-Steph

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Back to Movies

Happy Thursday! Although it was a touch windy, this was a nice and sunny summer-esque day. I even took a walk in the late afternoon and did not need a jacket! What an improvement over this fake summer we've been having.

You know what I love? Peppermint tea. I remembered because I just had some. It is heavenly.

So most of my activities this week stem from seeing Inception over the weekend with Carolyn and Steven. Disclaimer up front: It is good. You should see it.

Did it rock my world? Nah.

I know that I'll sound like a film school snob, but Nolan makes a great film regardless of story. He's a great and he's gonna be a legend, but I reserve my right to respect him but not be entertained by him. I have seen the latest five of his seven (written) films, and I honestly only loved one.

Memento? Circumstances like film school built it up for me. When I saw it, I was expecting...something that it wasn't. I was underwhelmed.

Batman Begins. I love Batman, so there we are. I love Cillian Murphy. I love that a Batman movie was made well, for once. Do I love this movie? I bought it cheap on fullscreen, haven't watched it once.

The Prestige. Rocked my world. Bought the script and had my world rocked again. Not everyone feels this way about this movie.

The Dark Knight. If this movie didn't have Batman in the title, it would have nothing for me. I acknowledge the level of skill and professionalism that went into the production of it; I acknowledge its artistic merit. It's a beautiful film. I didn't care for the movie.

Inception.

Oh, Inception. Your merits are multitude. Your casting impeccable. Your artistry, incomprehensible. Your story? I wish this was a movie that I could just watch and not be bothered to follow along. I wish it was meant to be that way. Unfortunately, after trying to grasp every bit of exposition (so neatly laid out and clearly stated), trying to piece it together for hours afterward, I decided that I just didn't care to solve it.

And not in a "this is too intellectual for me" or "I'm so frustrated, I quit" or "I love it's complexity and I can think about it for days on end" sort of way. I just was not motivated to spend any more time looking for answers that weren't ready to present themselves.

Which isn't to say that there aren't answers. It's a film of questions, certainly; a film that's meant to be unraveled and poked and prodded. Some one out there is having a fine time doing just that. If I cared enough, I would be that person. But, sadly, I was not given enough incentive to really put my heart into the story. The story didn't give me...what I want in a story, I guess.

Did I like it? Yeah. Was it cool? Yeah. How great was that one scene--you know what I'm talking about? That was #$@#%% awesome. It had a target and it firmly struck home......I was just standing a little off to one side is all.

Now let's talk Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I will see the movie again just for him. andthatonesceneyouknowwhatI'mtalkingabout In the meantime, though, I visited my local Blockbuster store and brought home with me (500) Days of Summer, Mysterious Skin, and The Lookout.

There went my Wednesday.

I did not at all expect to like 500 Days. My reason for this being its indie nature and Zooey Deschanel, an actress who turned me off entirely with her performance in Syfy's Tin Man.

Extended Parenthetical:
(I've been known to collect actors. Wednesday spent with Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a prime example of this phenomenon. I watched Tin Man solely because it briefly included Callum Keith Rennie, whom some of you may know as Leoben. I stooped to watching The Butterfly Effect for him. It was slightly after my Rennie collection phase that I saw Memento, and you can imagine my surprise when he showed up there, as well. He was also in Blade Trinity, which was an even nicer surprise.)

I've admired Joseph Gordon-Levitt in passing since I saw Brick. Brick is a film that I have complicated feelings for. Perhaps we'll go into that another time. Anyway, the kid can act, and after Inception I remembered that. After Tin Man, I decided that Zooey Deschanel could not, and my dislike of her trumped my like of him, which lead me to skip 500 Days until now.

I loved it! It was quirky and I laughed so much and she didn't offend me with her performance at all! It was a neat little thing. By far my worst complaint was the narrator, who I thought was sort of weak in a not-strong application of the device. Oh well. It was cute.

Mysterious Skin and Lookout...no, let me rephrase. Gordon-Levitt in Mysterious Skin and Lookout was also fantastic, top-notch. Mysterious Skin is a good film that is dark and harsh; Lookout is an average film that tries to pack a punch and delivers a...something less than a punch. But it serves as a great showcase of Gordon-Levitt's palette of character acting, so that's wonderful.

Tomorrow I watch G.I. Joe 'cause he's billed in it. I know, right! The things I do for actors.

Today I watched A Single Man (downer!) and Shutter Island (more successful mindtrip!)

Other than that, I've had a standing date most nights with Sam to watch Digimon. We both load up the episode, pause at the title, and then we press play and IM about it. What great memories. Off to do that now!

-Steph

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Sewing and Songing

Happy Thursday! It's been a creative week. As well as re-organizing. A re-organizing week? My mom decided to get rid of the thing the tv was on, so, long story short, we have a HD tv over the fireplace now. Blu-Ray-riffic!!

So while Beth was on her whirlwind tour of the West, we finally managed to record a demo of LIGHT IT UP. Have you heard it yet? When I put it up on Facebook, I pimped it up, but here it is again. THIS is a link to our Facebook page where the song is located; THIS is our Facebook band page; THIS is our listing at last.fm, and you can also listen to it there and boost our play count.

For a demo, it's not half-bad, no? And for a first-ever song? Don't even get me started.

We ended up recording in my garage, all legit like. We tried late Thursday night, because Beth had to get to Berkeley on Friday, but we ended up not using anything we did at that time. So most of Friday morning (some of which was taken up by moving furniture) was re-recording, and trying to finally get it right. If we hadn't been rushed (I know, I know, we had a full three days to do it), it would even be better!!

When we do the rest of the songs and re-record them for the album, I promise it'll be perfect.

I posted LIGHT IT UP soon after midnight on July 20, because I wrote it some time after midnight on April 20 (4/20 blaze it lol). So. It took us long enough, right? We'll see how quickly we'll get any more songs finished. And I promise, there are more.

I also promise the next one is more upbeat!

The days for putting stuff in the county fair starts tomorrow, so today I sewed, lol. You can only enter one thing per class, so I had to come up with a bunch of stuff for multiple classes. (Multiple classes = more chances at $$)

I ended up making a felt Cheez-it pillow thing, a purse thing from the pockets of some old cargo pants, a fleece hat in the style of a Moogle, and the promised lime/lemon apron to match the kitchen curtain. It only took me less than seven hours!

Pictures?

I do so love sewing. I'm so used to language-based art that sometimes I'm surprised at what I make without words. Sewing is like a puzzle, that you have to map out and piece together in the right order. But you get to think about color and shape and function. But you also have to be careful about not injuring yourself. There are so many ways to do that, sewing! It's an exciting craft.

I also have already picked a funny looking lemon. This year, I also hope I will be the only entrant to the class. Either way, I feel confident that that $5 is mine.

YESTERDAY I went in and had another (and much more official) eye exam, and walked outta there three hours later with a new pair of glasses as well as some prescription sunglasses. You can see them in the sewing photos! As for the sunglasses, they're a very nice Stu Sutcliffe style Raybans. Because I have some sun damage in my one eye, so now I should wear sunglasses. :<

But other than that, my eyes are great! And the new glasses have a stronger prescription, but I can see and my eyes haven't hurt at all yet (like they used to all the time). And they're cute, no?

Well that was my week. It was great. How was yours?

-Steph

Thursday, July 15, 2010

10 Minutes

Happy Thursday! Okay so we're playing Beatles Rock Band and I only JUST NOW REMEMBERED MY THURSDAY OBLIGATION. So typing is fast and spelling is poor.

This week I sewed. Sewed curtains. So many curtains. At least two curtains. For the kitchen and my room. They are cute. Yes.

I also have three days off and Beth is visiting. Hooray, Beth. We went to Rocket Fizz and to where our band hangs out. And we bought like every record.

I got
Bob Dylan
CSN
ELP
Buddy Holly LIVES.

Beth got
Disraeli Gears
Lou Reed
Tommy - The Who

Come online and play rockband with us. We need a singer and/or another guitarist. It'll be great.

I also watched a bunch of Digimon with Sam, and that was the best ever. TY, the internet.

AND it was Carolyn's birthday a lil bit ago. We did Zombie tag. And then I had zombie apocalypse dreams. ty.

AND ALSO. Beth woke up with a weird finger, and SOMEHOW I had a dream at the same time where I had the same symptoms. Honest.

Helter Skelter.

Peace and love, peace and love.

-Steph

Thursday, July 08, 2010

It was the AX

Happy Thursday! How are you all enjoying your mid-summer fall? We here on the coast sure are. Although I guess everywhere else is burning up. Lucky. I mean, it RAINED here on Tuesday.

So Thursday bright and early we set off to the AX, stopping only to pick up our newcomers. Because we always bring someone who has never gone before. Want to come next year?

Carolyn made six Dai Li outfits. I, of course, was Speed Racer. I think it worked out well to have the group and then the auxiliary member (me) because then I got to take pictures of them so they'd have at least one good one. Because people may be your friends, but that doesn't mean they know how to use your camera.

It's nice being at the LA Convention Center for a number of years in a row now, because everything's familiar. We know where the food is and where the panel rooms are and where the cosplay is at.

OH and can I tell you what being at the AX is like? It's like being on both sides of Brigadoon--it's gone 99% of the year, but when you're there, it feels like the sun went down on one AX and rose on the next. Everything is the same. The people, the events, the people AT the events. It's a wondrous haven for "[]our [kind]," as the hotelman (somewhat) put it. (He said "your group," meaning everyone at the AX. I liked the exclusivity of it.)

The exhibit hall was so packed this year, and there seemed to be so little to buy, that we made it through there end to end twice in as many days. Some years, crawling the whole of the exhibit hall is a con-wide process. It's not my thing, anyway. I happened to buy two pieces of Naruto swag: a sweet mug with the Kyuubi and Naruto's seal on it as well as a Icha Icha Tactics wallet. Steven also procured a lil Sasuke thing, which, after careful application of Japanese, was revealed to be a scented bath toy.

I guess it was a Naruto year. My purchases may have been influenced by the fact that all last week I watched like thirty episodes of the thing, trying to catch up. That's the most anime I watched in the entire year. But it was worth it!!!

Between the shops and the cosplay, it seemed a popular move to stick with what worked. I'd say that 90% of all cosplay was from the big titles, Naruto, Bleach, Final Fantasy, Pokemon. And even within those groups it was mostly the same thing over and over; Akatsuki, Ichigo, Cloud, Organization XIII, misc Pokemon trainers. So a lot of things that were iconic and recognizable, but not altogether varied or unique. These are the people I generally don't take pictures of, because there's so many all over the place. If I do, it's because they were my fave or because their costume is super good. Generally I try to take pictures of things that are amazing (like the Pokemon ANBU) or less common cosplays of things I really like.

Here are my pictures, btw.

There aren't too many stories to tell. We tried to watch Chocolate Underground, but it was moved so we watched ICE instead, and boy was that crazy. Full of eye-licking and birds turning into flowers (watch for it @ 1:28). We left early to go to the "Laser Spectacular" from which we also left early because it was a choreographed glowstick dance. But then we watched Ninja Nonsense, and that was well worth it.

If you skip ahead to 5 minutes on this video, you can see Carolyn and them up at the Avatar panel. They won books!

Geez I just spent half an hour looking at youtube vids to see if we were in any more. Not yet.

So now I'm all amped up on sewing stuff?! I made a fleece hat ('cause those are super popular with this crowd) and today I made these lil charm/coin purses. One step closer to an Etsy shop, I'm tellin ya. What else can I make that's super cute?

Well okay, I'mma watch the new Naruto and then it's sleepstiem.

-Steph

PS
I liked the AX. I forgot how much I loved it until I was there.