MOOP!

So, every year since aught-nine, I pretend to keep track of all the music I listen to, and then at the end of the year, I put together a list of the songs that Mattered. This year is odd, because the list is abnormally short --nine songs, before I go to do the last minute checks.

Actually, this year was really weird for music in general. My consumption has been going down [since college/as Vera ages], but I only put 29 new tracks into iTunes this entire year. I haven't even hit up Bootie in over a year. I've been listening to stuff, sorta, on my commutes and the like, but nothing has been STICKING or grabbing my brain and entrancing my mind or anything like that.

Well, almost nothing. Have a few examples.

The year started off with my exciting love of pop crashing into my weird love of Homestuck. [s] ke$ha: Enter is a mashup of the two. It's very well done and made good bouncy music for me to enjoy the rest of the year. Similarly in mashup joy, I've a random mashup (there are dozens, I'm sure) of Gangam Style and Party Rock that makes for a Grand Dancing Experience.

I am incredibly depressed that this is on here now: The Future's So Bright (I gotta wear shades) by Timbuk 3. I wrote about it in 2011, when I was graduating and everything was amazing and shiny and impressive and new. And gotta say, for the first six months of the year, hell yes this was apt. It's not like I don't like my life, or feel good for the future now, but it's draining being underemployed and (professionally!) unappreciated. Life will get better. It's just not the optimists dream it was from January to June.

I wrote in brief last year about the youtube video of Where the Hell is Matt 2012. Round about April I finally got around to adding the song -Trip the Light to my collection. It's lovely, and lightly sanity-inducing.

At the end of April, I started occasionally participating in Shapenote singing, which is wonderful, because there's no performance to it at all. The only song I knew previously (and still the only song I really know now) is Babylon is Fallen, and so anyone who shapenotes with me will have to put up with me requesting it every single time forever. Ayep.

Over the summer, I went to GENCON which was awesome, and I rode home with my new awesome friend Kate, who provided me a most wonderful dose of feminism! She also hooked me on the song Dutch, by Dessa, which is just beautiful. "Careful kid with that wolf whistle --you never know what you'll attract". For a year where becoming a more powerful kind of femme was a major theme, this was an excellent theme song.

Skid Row (Downtown) from Little Shop of Horrors appears for the second year in a row, as a counter to Future's So Bright. But even with the pain, there are grit teeth and determination and clawing your way out as hard as you can because fuck this. So that's there.

And similarly, there's Die Vampire Die, from Title of Show. Both carry an undercurrent of reaching deep inside yourself and _becoming better_ somehow. I struggle with motivation on my best days, because it is so easy to just...not do anything.

And then...there is Level Up.

Yeah, it's a problem to tell someone "oh just try harder and [be happy / leave your bed / get a job / perform humanity/existence/wonder/joy]". But like I said, I struggle with motivation, I need sometimes to hear it from another source that I need to stop doing whatever faff I'm indulging in and become MORE. Vienna Teng nailed it with her landmark new song this year. 74 plays in four months is not quiet, especially when my mind and self have been so gone for some of them.

This is a song that has no malice in it. All she wants is for you to become better and keep trying. I really like the message and idea of becoming better.

And that was my year. The only other thing that came remotely close to getting me entangled was The Creation of Man, from Scarlet Pimpernel. This is an entire song about how the only reason God created two sexes was so that men could look ~*~FABULOUS!~*~. I want to do a drag king/burlesque scene to it so so bad.

Here's to connecting more with sound in 2014.

~Sor
MOOP!

So, the past two years, I have posted a list of "Top Songs of 20xx". Top is an extremely vague descriptor of course, but it's basically all the things that I couldn't help but listen to on repeat.

This year was the first time I was actually organized enough about the project to keep track of all the songs as they happened, and not have to scramble to remember them later. So, in roughly chronological order (yay!) I give you the Top Songs of 2011.

Mandelbrot Set by Jonathan Coulton, peaking January 11th, but being played a bit before and after then. I don't know why. It's a good song, though.

( And then I inexplicably use ALL THE WORDS, so sanity-cut )

And similar to last year, there were a couple things on YouTube that I listened to/watched way too much as well:

HE'S GOT A POSH NAME AND HE'S ON THE TELEVISION, SO IT COMES AS NO SURPRISE THAT ALL THE DIRTY GIRLS WANT BENEDIC-- okay no don't actually watch this it will earworm forever.

I'm behind on my Weird Al love, but Perform This Way was awesome.

And because "fuck you, Homestuck, that's why." I present [S] Everyone: Have Sweet Rave Party. Okay, and because seriously "Homestuck, that's why", there is also Moves Like Homestuck. They recently played "Moves Like Jagger" at Squares and I couldn't stop grinning like an idiot. It's mostly Tavros, and yes I know exactly how terrible a human being I am for that. Okay, and Eridan. And Terezi. And Nepeta doing Carameldansen. And _dammit, this is just my favourite fanwork, okay?_

HOLY FUCK.

THAT WAS A LOT OF WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

Happy New Years, y'all. And now I am going to go make a playlist and entitle it "Top Songs of 2012" and see if anything interesting comes of it...

~Sor
MOOP!

1: Something I don't think I've ever intentionally mentioned: the filter on livejournal in which I discuss rape is called "TherapyFilter". Or more accurately, "TheRapyFilter". Hence.

2: I don't know exactly where this construct came from, but "I want to put it in my mouth" is totally my current way of saying I really like a thing. This works really well until I accidentally(intentionally) mix it up with "I want to have your babies" and say to Ria "I want to put your babies in my mouth."

Luckily, Ria is the best moirail, and thinks I am only a little entirely weird. It's okay, she keeps threatening to pee on everything I love.

Best Song Lyrics Ever Meme

Hokay, so, leemoyer was posting about some of his favourite song lyrics, and asking people to provide their own. This has inspired me to make a meme out of that thing, using twenty-five of my favourite song lyrics.

Name the song and artist/show these all come from, why don't you! For reference, stuff that's been guessed is bolded

1) Angry men don't write the rules, and guns don't right the wrongs
The Ballad of Booth, Assassins

2) Isn't it enough to know that I ruined an elmo*
Making a gift for youuu!
Muppet Laboratories, Rob Balder
(filk of Skullcrusher Mountain, Jonathan Coulton)

((Yes, you can get points for naming what the song is if it said 'pony' instead of 'elmo'))
((Also, this may be *slightly* biased towards Janny. *grins*))

3) Do you wanna carve
My name into a wall
Right next to yours, inside the shape of a heart?
All of the Above, Big City Rock

4) He said 'hey listen to me', Stay sane inside insanity
Eddie, Rocky Horror Picture Show

5) The opposite of war isn't peace, it's CREATION
La Vie Boheme (reprise), Rent

6) Where sir
And when sir
I couldn't be tense-er
Shy, Once Upon a Mattress

7) I think that this line's mostly filler
Walk Through the Fire, Once More With Feeling

8) Everybody's got the right to some sunshine
Not the sun, but maybe one of it's beams!
Everybody's Got the Right, Assassins

9) Downtown, where the guys are drips
Downtown, where they rip your slips
Downtown, where relationships are no goooo
Skid Row (Downtown), Little Shop of Horrors

10) Oh there's one hundred ways
That we can bruise each other
And tear each other's sweet hearts apart
But let the rhythem of the pain
Beat its desolate refrain
And let the miracle of love keep a shining through your heart.
Miracle of Love, Brad Sachs

11)
I play the cello!
Awesome! What is it?
[Makes cello motions]
A saw!
No dude, it's like a giant violin
Status Quo, High School Musical

12) There is no future
There is no past
Forget regret
Your life is yours to miss
No other road
No other way
No day but today

Thank god this moment's not the last
Finale B, Rent

13) The story never changes,
just the names and faces
Like Tommy and Gina
they're living on a prayer

Did you just say that?
Punk Rock 101, Bowling for Soup

14) Because I can
'cause no one can stop me
'cause it makes up for things I lost
Because I'm addicted to bad ideas
And all the beauty in this world.
Addicted to Bad Ideas, World/Inferno Friendship Society

15) And I don't understand, and she tries to explain
And all her mascara runs down in her pain
The Babysitter's Here, Dar Williams

16) I'll take my chances
I forgot how nice romance is
The Longest Time, Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies (and, you know, others, but this is the version I like best)

17) Wanna wail at the moon like a cat in heat
Out Tonight, Rent

18) Don't tell me truth hurts, little girl
'Cause it hurts like hell
Underground, Labyrinth

19) Don't stress
Relax
Let life roll of your backs
Except for death and paying taxes
Everything in life is only
For now
For Now, Avenue Q

20) Why would we rather put ourselves through hell
Than sleep alone at night?

21) One question haunts and hurts
Too much, too much to mention
Was I really seeking good?
Or just seeking attention...
No Good Deed, Wicked

22) In this beautiful life, there is always some sorrow
And it's a double edged knife, but there's always tomorrow
Ordinary Day, Great Big Sea

23) I need not to need
I've always been the tower
But now I feel like the flower
Trying to bloom in snow
The Tower, Vienna Teng

24) We got a call
To write a song
About the war in the gulf
But we shouldn't hurt anyone's feelings
So we tried
But gave up
'Cause there was no such song
Gulf War Song, Moxy Fruvous

25) Because every new car you buy
It makes the poor baby Jesus cry

~Sor
MOOP!

Original Tags: fishing-for-comments, lyrics, music

Question: Is Gmail not working for anybody else? There are things on there that I wannnnnnnt!!

OtherQuestion Which "somewhere in the near future" potrayel of New York City do you like better, Escape From New York or The Warriors?

Ditzy Moment of the Week: Hokay, so yesterday I had to leave practise early to go and get my braces adjusted for the LAST TIME EVER YAH! Anywho, I slink backstage to go say goodbye to my absolutely fantabulous best friend Veronica. I say "bye", she gives me a look and says "Kat, what happened to your backpack?"

I pause, go "Nothing, why?" and look at the backpack I was wearing. It was pink.

Process...process...process...

"Ok, V? I'm going to go get *MY* backpack, and then I'll leave."

So yeah. Apparently, having a bright frigging orange backpack just isn't distinctive enough. I still don't know which actor almost lost their backpack to my obliviousness.

Advertisement: Guess what musical the Long Reach Drama Department is putting on THIS time!! That's right --we're doing that classic tale of an sweet and innocent Australian gal who turns into a good ol' American slut!!

Yes, we are doing Miss Barry's least favourite musical -- GREASE!!

((Mrs. Blasko's coup is complete. :p))

AT ANY RATE! All hatred of the show itself aside, our cast looks pretty damn good, and our crew is, of course, specTACular. If you like Grease, drama, Long Reach, or me, you should totally come and see it.

Five W's and an H:
Who: Long Reach Drama Department, directed by crazy-lady Mrs. Blasko, AD'd by everyone's favourite Veronica, staring (Amoung others) suddenly-not-so-goofy-and-Gideonlike Billy as Danny Zuko, Graham as the gayest Kenickie ever, Dan (V's little brother) as a totally typecast Eugene, and a sweet little asian girl (Namely, Seoung-Hee) as the blonde, beauty-school dropout, Frenchie.

Plus, a whole heap of really spectacular freshmen in the chorus, most notably Vicki, who is almost as cool as her sister.

What: Grease! An all-American musical, set in the fifties, written in the seventies, and performed in the...ooglies. Whatever the hell this decade is called. It's a *classic!*

Where: Long Reach High School Auditorium. E-mail me (kdsorceress at gmail dot com) for directions if you need them, or just hit up your favourite internet mapping program.

When: April 12, 13, and 14 (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) at 7:30 PM. Doors open at 7ish or so, and while I'd totally be willing to sneak you backstage to hang out with me before that, Blasko'll kirk out and that'll totally suck.

Why: I'll be honest, because our drama department wants the money. Oh! I mean, because then you can support high school theatre, and our lovely, awesome, cast. And it'll be fun. C'mon, it's Grease. It's a fun show. (It's not a good, or moral show, but it's fun.)

PLUS!! It's my senior show. It's the last show I will ever work for here at the Reach (I cannot believe I just said that) and the fact that I have been part of all the shows at the school except the very first one is just cool and means I'm really going to miss this place.

How: You get your butt to Long Reach, then you buy a ticket. We'll let you in, and it'll all be good and stuff.

Tickets cost ten dollars each, for everyone. Personally, I believe this is ludicrus in several different ways, but Blasko is stupidlike that. On the plus side, if you know that you're going to come, you can pre-order tickets and they'll only cost seven dollars each. (Again, e-mail me to ask. E-mail is still kdsorceress at gmail dot com.)

Link: Boomshine is WAY addictive. But it's really quite fun, and very very pretty.

Basically, you're trying to cause long chain reactions of explosions of these surreal multicoloured balls that are bouncing around the screen, all set to lovely music.

For now, that is all. Status is Not Yet Dead.

~Sor
MOOP!

PostScript: Three days, one hour, and 38 minutes. EEEEE!!

Original tags: adwhore, drama, musicals, questions, links, theatre, lrhs, quotes

I have 19 tracks on my first burned CD by several different artists. Very random stuff. Here it is, randomized by my lovely mp3 player.

Your mission? Identify as many tracks from the lyrical snippets I post as you can.

One point for every song you get right, one point for every artist you get right.

Everyone automatically gets one point since one of the tracks is "Crazy White Boy Polka" which is a medly of a bunch of songs by other people. You can still get points by identifying the singer/group who did it.

I'm board, can you tell?

NOTE: In the case of showtunes, identifying the show is good enough.

OTHER NOTE: It's possible that I have an artist with more then one song...[/blatent hint]

( THE LIST )

Good luck, have fun!

~Sorceress/Kat

MOOP!

Original Tags: weird al, memage, music, memage-guessing, cloneconvo