I've been putting off making this entry, because I don't want to seem all bandwagony and things, but I've just gotta say it, and really, sometimes my lj is the perfect equivalent to shouting things from rooftops.

Fun. is my favorite thing to listen to, and has been for the last few weeks. Their album, Aim and Ignite, hasn't left my cd player since I bought it. I am in love with it. I really have no idea as to how popular they are, I just know that nobody I know in RL has ever heard of them. I think they are kinda Vampire Weekend-type popular, though, pretty mainstream in the indie scene. I don't really care, all I know is that they're fabulous.

All their songs are good, and my favorites are some of the more upbeat tunes like Benson Hedges and Barlights, but the first time I listened to the album all the way through, and I got to The Gambler, I cried.

I am not a simple person. I'm not all that interested in finding "the one" and settling down and all that jazz. Or at least, I don't think I am. But sometimes I see something or hear something that makes me think, shit, maybe I am, because my reaction to it is visceral. The Gambler was like that for me. I wanted... well, everything named in the song.

I guess he wrote this song for his parents, and it's about them. I dunno, I just. The line, "and even though she moved away we always get calls from our daughter, she has eyes just like her father, they are blue when skies are gray" just kinda hits home for me.

Listen to the song.


But, if you want a more accurate example of why fun. are awesome, try listening to Barlights, Benson Hedges or At Least I'm Not As Sad (As I Used To Be).

The general consensus around here is that this was a pretty shitty week... I dunno, guys, I had a decent week. And last night, I bought new clothes! Which I get to wear today. So that seems pretty awesome.

Thank God it's Friday, anyhow. Sleeping is always better than working.

And also: I am disappointed with the lack of people one my fl who say the midnight showing of New Moon. Come on, peeps, review it up, reviewy pants!

Pete and John on Alexa Chung.

The fact that this friendship exists is MY FAVORITE THING EVER. I'd ship it. I would so ship it. John'd be like, I don't do men, and Pete'd be like, oh, honey, GET OVER IT.

In the song Can I Interest You In Hannukah from "A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All", I laugh out loud EVERYTIME Jon and Stephen sing this part:

Jon: We have Latkes.
Stephen: WHAT ARE THEY?
Jon: Potato pancakes. We have dredels!
Stephen: WHAT ARE THEY?
Jon: Wooden tops. We have candles!
Stephen: WHAT ARE THEY?
Jon: THEY ARE CANDLES.

The light is burnt out on The Stairs of Death, and when I get up in the night to pee, I'm gonna fall to my DOOM.

But, I hold. Best. Stairs. Ever.

I didn't do this last year, because if I had, it would have said, "1. to be at home with people I love for Christmas", and let's face it, none of you could have even tried to grant me that. But! This year I'm resurrecting it on my lj, The Christmas Wishlist Meme! Please, please, please fill one out of your own. I love browsing these things for something I might be able to provide for someone.



Step One

- Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

- If you wish for real life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.

- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ so that the holiday joy will spread.

Step Two

- Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:

- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call.

There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

1. Paid lj time or extra userpics! This is the one I like to grant for other people the most, because it's the low-hanging fruit of lj Christmas Wishlists and it makes everyone so happy.

2. 2. Any of the following movies on dvd, burnt, used, new, whatever!: Muppet's Treasure Island, The Black Parade is Dead!, Almost Famous (Extended Edition), Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Six, Big Wold on Campus (the TV show), Pushing Daisies Season 2.

3. A RECORD DEAL.

4. Any sort of fannish buttons, pins, posters or patches. Bandom, SPN, LotR, music/guitar related... anything!

5. Snail mail of any sort whatsoever! Letters, cards, postcards, etc.

6. This "Music Snob" t-shirt, any shirts from TheNamesBrand (I have Panic and the Who already), and any Cobra Starship hoodie. I collect Cobra hoodies, I've got five.

7. A Pick Punch.

8. Any music on vinyl. Old, used, new, whatever.

9. Any sort of mixed cd! I would LOVE to get mixes.

10. FIC. Oh so much fic. My special request this year are Bandom Boys at Hogwarts or anything involving Ed Westwick, but I would love anything anything anything.

My snailmail address is

Virginia Tingley
4808 Route 106
Middleton, NB
Canada
E4K 3H8

Now, go do one for yourself!

ETA: My 2005 Christmas Wish List had "Robert Pattinson" on it. I'm betting he's gonna be too busy now, shucks.

Oh, look at this old comment I made back in 2007:

Well, hmmm. For the past few months/years, I've been seeing Pete Wentz around and going, god, what a douchebag. I really don't want to like him. (Especially since I have extreme dislike for Ashlee Simpson, but that's beside the point, because it has nothing to do with Pete.) But lately, I've been seeing him on interviews and things and finding myself laughing out loud at something he says instead of scowling, or shaking my head and saying 'oh, Pete' even almost affectionately. Especially since with Panic! fandom, its hard to stay away from him, particularly in fic. But I think that really I'm gonna stay away from Fall Out Boy fandom for the time being, because even though I like some of their music, that's just a whole, huge new thing I'd have to try and keep track of. Not to mention that it goes against some principals that I've held for a very long time. Telling my hippie, Country Joe and the Fish-lovin', global warming-stopping friends that I like Panic! at the Disco is proving it be difficult enough. Announcing a new love of Fall Out Boy? I'd probably be disowned. *is ashamed of being ashamed*

Wow, I really did a great job, there. /SARCASM. I sounded like such a douche. And I really like Ashlee now, I don't know what that was about. Fair warning to everyone else; the slope, it's slippery.

A few quick things about tonight's Gossip Girl... ( The Last Days Of Disco Stick )

If you are bored, feel free to do me a favor and go hang out at my myspace: http://www.myspace.com/virginiatingley

It needs more hits. Way, way more hits. Add me as a friend. Listen to some of the tunes. It's the demo stuff, so it's way too produced for my liking, and I've pretty much put Downpour on my I HATE THIS SONG FOREVER songlist, but they still need more hits. My promoter needs to know that people dig me out there. Show your friends! Say, I KNOW HER!

Also, my last.fm page needs people to vote on pictures. I dunno, some of them I HATE, but Mike and Rob said I needed more up there. I HAVE NO PICTURES OF ME THAT LOOK GOOD.

I AM RYAN ROSS. LOOK AT THESE PICTURES OF MY ASS. (Spoiler alert: there aren't any, but like. This is how I feel making this post.)

0- My Christmas tree is up. It's tiny, but it's awesome. I really want to wrap my presents and put them underneath, but it's too early. If I do this now, I'll have nothing left to do closer to Christmas. And Jamie will open them all and peek.

00- Everyone around me has had H1N1, but I have remained immune. WHY OH WHY? No idea, but at least 8 people I've been in constant, close contact with have had it and I'm skipping through unscathed. So far. Let's hope this keeps up.

000- On the bad side of things: I have been measuring the amount of money I have left 'til pay day in Trips to McDonald's. Ew, but at the same time, yummmmmmmm.

0000- I find that I sound like a 20 year old guy when I'm talking. This is mostly because I hang out with my brothers are their friends quite often, and when I do, they talk ridiculously.

Some words from my vocabulary, all picked up from my brothers, that I use quite often:

Dummied: fucked over. Usage: "you dummied me hard!", "don't dummy me!", "you totally just got dummied".

Punched: I want to punch you/her/that in the face. Usage: "She said I was ugly? PUNCHED."

Legend: legendary, but you don't finish the word. Usually said in a high-ish voice, or with awe. Usage: "Did you see that solo Garrett Mason just pulled off? LEGEND", "that was a legend movie we just watched", "these are some legend Christmas decorations".

Jackson/Johnson: you can use this in pretty much any case, but most often to substitute for the word "thing". My brothers use these words constantly, for names, things, anything. Useage #1: "These are some good chicken johnsons" (chicken nuggets), "you are such a fail jackson!". Usage #2: randomly tacked on at the end or in the middle of sentences, "that is a nice Christmas tree johnson!" or "let's go out the fire jackson escape".

Cleaning and decorating today, woot.

Buzz McAllister was on this week's SPN. \m/

I went to see Disney's A Christmas Carol last night (in 3-D, yo!). I'm kinda... really in love with all versions of this story, it's one of my favorites, so I have a bit to say...

( and for Tiny Tim... who did NOT die! )

Blues is a natural fact, is something that a fellow lives. If you don't live it you don't have it. Young people have forgotten to cry the blues. Now they talk and get lawyers and things.

- Big Bill Broonzy

This is a random collection of blues I put together. There are different styles and different eras, but it's all the blues. We've got some of the kings of blues, like B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf, along with some of the funkier cats like Wilson Pickett and Bo Diddley. Since I'm me, I added in two Garrett Mason tunes, which rounds out the mix with some new blues.

I like blues because it's not pretentious. It's simple. It's emotional. Everyone can connect to it. It's highly danceable, and you can feel it in your bones. The blues does not judge you.

Click the picture to download the zip file.





tracklist:
1. John Lee Hooker- Boom Boom Boom
2. Wilson Pickett- Funky Broadway
3. The Allman Brothers- Whipping Post
4. The John Mayer Trio- Everyday I Have the Blues (live)
5. Bonnie Rait- Women Be Wise
6. Garrett Mason- Hey Little Girl
7. Howlin' Wolf- Evil (Is Going On)
8. Bo Diddley- Hey Bo Diddley
9. Eric Clapton- Motherless Child
10. BB King- How Blue Can You Get?
11. Garrett Mason- Diddley Beat (live)

I have heartaches, I have blues. No matter what you got, the blues is there. 'Cause that's all I know - the blues. And I can sing the blues so deep until you can have this room full of money and I can give you the blues.

- John Lee Hooker

On watching the videos of Panic playing in Brazil:

Seeing them playing Camisado without Ryan is making me feel really weird. I dunno why.

This day was something that was not fun. At all. This day can blow me.

Good riddance, November 9th; I am going to bed.

Let me sell you KT Tunstall for a moment, please.

One of my musical OTPs is KT Tunstall and her loop pedal. She uses an Akai E2 Headrush loop pedal, which is a device that many musicians buy in hopes of beefing up their sound, only to be let down immensely. A loop pedal is nothing more than absolutely ordinary in the hands of most people. Used correctly, however, subtly, it absolutely pops. This is the case with KT Tunstall's live performances.

See, the story goes that KT was trudging her way through the music scene for years with recordings and various bands and not getting noticed. And she contacted the television show Later... With Jools Holland and said, basically, yo, if you ever need a performer, give me a call. And then promptly forgot about it. Until one day Nas (ahhaah Nas) canceled on the show at the last minute and the producers had nobody to fill in. They called up our musician pal KT Tunstall and said, this is your 24 hour notice, can you do it? Had she been working with a band, she might have had to say no, but since she had the trusty "wee bastard" (which is what she calls her loop pedal), she was able to say yes. And people were skeptical when she turned up at the studio by herself with a duffel of equipment and a smile. She played her unknown song Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, and this happened:



which launched her career in the UK.

And then Suddenly I See happened. I urge you to look into her music, and go see her live if you get the chance, because she is absolutely wonderful, and people should recognize that she's so much more than just a song in the make-up commercials or on The Devil Wears Prada.

Goals for the Day!:

- deposit paycheck!
- return Halloween costume!
- do not contract H1N1!
- buy Sainthood!

aaaaaaaaaaaand BREAK.

So under appreciated. Tom Hulce, too.

ETA: it's at about 2:48 that you can see Belle of Beauty and the Beast fame. She's apparently wandered away from her poor provincial town.

I am so bored. I'm home with nothing to do for the first time in a week, and America's Next Top Model isn't on 'til 9 and Glee isn't new (DAMN IT), and I just don't know what to do with myself at all.

In other news, Blake Lively is hot.

1. Patrick Stump is really hot, actually. See him? Singing all confidently and stomping and guh.

2. Joss Whedon writes an open letter to the owners on the Terminator franchise. And it's hilarious.

3. Lindsey just informed me that a Texas Mickey is actually called a "Maritime Mickey" and is only sold in the Atlantic Canadian provinces. What the fuck, world? Are the rest of you insane? WHO DOESN'T LOVE BUYING TEXAS MICKEYS? What do you guys buy, like. Quarts? Psssshhh.