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