DK

Best TV freakout ever.

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:27:47 GMT

Wow I haven't posted in forever. Maybe I should do that. For now, though, I have to share one of the funniest mental breakdowns ever witnessed on television.

A little setup: In the Bionic Woman episode Deadly Ringer, Jaime is confronted with an old nemesis that has had plastic surgery to look exactly like her (plastic surgery miracle, apparently). She is then mistaken for the other woman and ends up in jail. Since she insists that she is Jaime Sommers, they lock her in a padded mental ward cell. And then this happens:

Yeah. Scary.

Boredom

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:24:18 GMT

Boredom = me spending too much time on who_anon and who_secrets. But I found this picture, which is amazing. I'm referring to the first one on the page, of course. Because it's so, so true.

I did a really OCD thing...

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:56:09 GMT

It's almost the end of June, and music sites all over the internet are crammed with lists of their favorite albums so far this year. It's been a great year for music so far. I've discovered some great new and old bands over the past six months (obsessively, you could say).

So, instead of offering just your normal "Best Music of 2009 So Far" list, I'm going to do something a bit different. I've taken a Last.fm-esque approach and created a playlist with all the albums I have that came out this year. I then tallied the playcounts for all the songs on those albums. In a mathematical twist, I decided that it wasn't fair for albums that had more tracks to win by default, so I've taken a ratio of number of listens / number of songs on the album. Whether or not this has any real mathematical validity, I have no idea. So, in order from the highest ratio down, here are my top 5 favorites so far this year:

1. Metric - Fantasies - 10.4
I'm kind of surprised this one took first, I would have picked The Hazards of Love if I wasn't going "by the numbers." There is no arguing the catchy dancy fun of this album, though.

2. The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love - 7.41
I feel like I have to listen to this album all the way through every time I want to listen to any of it, and I'm attributing that to the fact that it's not number one on my list. A great album, but not nearly as fun and upbeat as Fantasies.

3. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone - 4.5
This is actually what I would have put next on my list, so it's nice to see the numbers support it. I still feel like I haven't given the album enough listens, at least not lately, but there's no arguing against the hotness of Neko Case.

4. Dark Was the Night - 3.61
This is a fun compilation album with lots of big name artists, so although I don't really think of it as getting listened to that often, it makes sense that it's this high up on the list.

5. Passion Pit - Manners - 3.45
I bought this album merely because it was really cheap on Amazon one day, and I've been pleasantly surprised. I'm not sure I understand a word the guy is singing, but these are more songs that are just a lot of fun.

A few others of note (the almost-made-it list):
Silversun Pickups - Swoon - 3.0
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest - 2.75
Fanfarlo - Resevoir - 2.67

My least favorite album so far:

BoA (self-titled American debut) - 0.33
I downloaded this one expecting some fun pop music like her Korean stuff. But I think this, and the new Utada album (which got a 1.2), prove that sometimes the attempt to transition to an American audience doesn't quite work. In both cases I think the artists tried way too hard to fit in with the US top 40 pop scene. I'm wondering if maybe someone that listens to more of that kind of music would find these more enjoyable. I haven't even been able to make it all the way through this album yet.

So my conclusion is that, while my actual listening habits are slightly different than would I would *pick* as my favorites, this method has actually proved to be pretty accurate. There are a ton more albums I'm looking forward to coming up this year, some i haven't gotten around to buying yet and a ton more I probably don't know anything about , so we'll see where things go from here!

Un Lun Dun by China Miéville

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:41:29 GMT

I have quickly become a fan of the strange and fantastic worlds and cities of China Miéville. When I heard about Un Lun Dun, though, I wondered how his liberally-descriptive narrative style would translate to a young adult novel.

The answer, for me at least, is that there should have been no question to begin with. Miéville sticks to a simple style that's quick to read and broken into easily-digestible chunks while maintaining the hallmarks that have made his other novels so popular.

He employs his gift for race and creature creation to its fullest extent in this book—UnLondon is full of people with birdcages for heads, people composed of schools of fish, pet milk cartons and walking umbrellas. The "other London" he creates is a world vividly imagined, with the slightly dark turn he's known for—smog reanimates corpses, giant window spiders trap unsuspecting victims within their panes and war breaks out.

I can't help but find myself comparing this book to Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, as it incorporates many of the same ideas. UnLondon is a city beyond the London we know and yet part of it at the same time. It is a place where the unwanted parts of the city disappear to. This may sound a lot like the London that Richard Mayhew discovers in Neverwhere, but Miéville adds his own unique flair of the weird to this familiar idea.

Thematically, the book takes great care to undermine the "Chosen One" myth prevalent in a lot of stories for younger readers (Harry Potter is the first thing that comes to mind). Deeba, the story's main character, is merely the friend and sidekick of the girl prophesied to become UnLondon's savior. When her friend the "Chosen One" is injured and forgets her experiences in the other London, it's Deeba who first rescues her and the returns to UnLondon to help stop the war that has begun. She then proceeds to ignore the book of prophecies and uses her own intelligence and resourcefulness to save the day.

If you like Harry Potter and other young adult adventure fiction, I'd definitely recommend this book. I also recommend it if you're a fan of China Miéville's adult fiction. And if you're not familiar with him, this is a good example of the sort of wildly imaginative writing he does.

Look! An Update!

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:19:31 GMT

Yay, I'm updating my LJ! I never do memes, but I thought one that alexiscartwheel posted might be interesting.

Comment to this entry and I'll pick three of your fandoms. You must then update your journal and answer the following questions:

01: What got you into this fandom in the first place?
02: Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
03: Favorite episodes/books/movies/etc.?
04: Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
05: Do you think that more people should get into this fandom?

alexiscartwheel picked Babylon 5, Veronica Mars and Slayers for me. So here we go!

Babylon 5

Babylon 5 was always one of those mysterious space operas that I'd sort of heard about but always got a little confused with Star Trek. At some point I decided that I'd heard the name enough times to check out what it was. So, during a long winter in which I really had nothing better to do, I used my Netflix subscription to get B5 discs in, watch them the same night, and send them back out the next day.
I've moved on from this fandom, because sadly the show is so old that there just isn't much out there as far as fics, communities, etc. At least, not ones that are still active.
Hmm so hard to pick a favorite episode! I really like the Season 2 episode Divided Loyalties (and, really, any episode with Ivanova being badass). Never read any books or anything, I'm a little scared by them. Also any moments where John and Delenn are being really cute are among my favorites.
Nope! See #2.
I don't know about the fandom, but more people should definitely watch this show! Despite being 15 years old at this point, it still stands up as one of the all time masterpieces of space opera for a lot of people (and totally kicks Star Trek's ass).

Veronica Mars

I'm actually not really sure how I ever got into Veronica Mars. During the summer that I wish never was (ie, working at Kroger), I had just been seeing a lot of stuff about the show online and decided to check it out. I became immediately obsessed!
I used to compulsively check for and read new fanfic in this fandom, but once the show went off air a couple years ago I lost interest. I've got a few links saved for my favorites, but that's the extent of my participation currently. That and a deep, undying love for Kristen Bell and Jason Dohring.
Hmm, I actually can't really think of a specific favorite episode. I tend to enjoy the big final confrontation stuff the most, so I'd have to say the end of Season 2. Season 1's ending was pretty scary, but the season 2 finale was just chilling. "Not Beaver!!!!"
Nope! Actually, I was in a weekly short fic challenge community for awhile, but yeah, haven't really paid attention to this fandom lately.
Totally! Even though Season 3 was sorta lame and the show is long off-air, there is supposedly a movie coming out sometime! Plus, you just have to see the mastery of the first two seasons.

Slayers

I got into Slayers way back in the days (about 10 years ago... scary!) of Shock Comix at Carriage in Dublin. <3<3 After becoming completely hooked on and renting all the VHS tapes of Fushigi Yuugi they had, I was stuck on where to go next. So I asked the friendly salesperson what she recommended, and that was Slayers. The rest is (creepily obsessive) history!
Eh, I have always lurked in this fandom on and off. The two newest series, Revolution and Evolution-R have gotten me more into it lately. I guess it mostly depends on whether or not there are any more new series coming. I will probably always hit up some of my favorite fanfics and continue the search for new ones every now and then.
Favorite episode for me is of course the end of Next when Lina summons the Lord of Nightmares. Hot!
I really only ever get into discussions in the fandoms I enjoy, I'm too lazy to write anything except tiny snippets of cracky stories. I guess I like to make icons sometimes.
OF COURSE! Slayers is one of the best anime out there, which is saying a lot considering how old it is at this point. Such a perfect blend of wackiness and scary plot stuff, with a fun mythology thrown on top.

Um, wow.

Fri, 22 May 2009 03:45:30 GMT

My messed up extended family has finally made it into the big times. 10TV news in Columbus, Ohio, baby! Seriously, when you hear a news story and are like "WTF why would you do that?" The possibility that my family has been involved in something similar is quite high.

Seriously. My cousin, shot by her crazy son?

Yep, just another one for the Farley family saga.

Spoiler-less Star Trek Squee!

Sat, 09 May 2009 15:15:17 GMT

Star Trek was awesome! I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it was amazing. I do want to know, though, what is J.J. Abrams' obsession with giant, floating, reflective 3-D lettering? Also, I may have become a Kirk/Spock shipper.

Margot!

Wed, 06 May 2009 22:07:02 GMT

What a lovely surprise when I got home to find the Animal! vinyl on my doorstep! I haven't put it on the turntable yet, but the album art is just fantastic.

Also, I listened to This Is the One today, Utada Hikaru's second album here in the U.S. I've got some things to say about that, but I'll save it till later. For now, I'm off to go fall into a blissful Margot-induced coma!

$5 Album downloads <3

Tue, 05 May 2009 23:26:10 GMT

Seriously, amazon is the best place to buy music downloads. They almost always have a lower price than iTunes. Also, if you go here you can get a list of album downloads that are only $5 this month.

I'm a little peeved because I've already bought some of these, like Neko Case and Metric. But hey, what a great opportunity if you haven't got them yet! ::nudge nudge::

Twitter?

Tue, 05 May 2009 01:02:28 GMT

I'm considering using twitter. Thoughts/opinions?

Me? Posting? Perish the thought!

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:09:49 GMT

Yes, I know I already posted today, but this is too awesome not to share.

Shara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond) singing Tainted Love

Just scroll down and you can stream it or download it (because it's awesome!)

I don't know what my obsession with dead presidents is

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:04:47 GMT

And now, for an addition that madmuppet2k reminded me of:

Help!

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:06:09 GMT

I just came to the conclusion that my "To Read" list is so huge at this point that it needs to be an Excel spreadsheet.

Help, I'm out of control!

Gah!

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:00:20 GMT

I think Slayers Evolution-R episode 13 just killed me.

As did the most current Sarah Connor Chronicles episode.

More coherent ramblings later, maybe? I do have to wait in an airport later this week ...

I wish I was at the South by Southwest music festival

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:32:08 GMT

If you're gonna be up late tonight, NPR is streaming some live concerts from the South by Southwest music festival. The Heartless Bastards are on right now, which is a band that I've just recently come to love (thank you Kansas City Public Library for having one of their cds!). At 1 a.m. Eastern time, The Decemberists will be playing their entire new album live. Unfortunately, I will not be staying up that late. But maybe someone else can benefit!

Bad signs

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:46:44 GMT

Every so often my dad will send Matt, Phil and I an e-mail with a pic he's taken with his iPhone of a sign with bad spelling and/or grammar. I just have to share today's because not only is the bad spelling amusing, I find the content quite funny as well.

Also I have to share that my favorite song of the moment is The Rake's Song by The Decemberists. You can get it and some other cool stuff for free off iTunes through NPR, which has a blog covering the South by Southwest music festival. Can't wait till this album comes out!

What song can't you stop listening to lately?

OMG I'm still alive!

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:45:03 GMT

I haven't posted in forever! But I was so inspired by this post I found just a few minutes ago that I have to link to it. I'm not even sure I can properly describe this, but it's two scanned pages from an awful fantasy/romance novel that someone shared because they are hilariously horrible. Also, check the bottom of the post for amazing fanart and even an mp3 of someone dramatically reading this.

OMG.

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:43:47 GMT

Killswitch Engage's Holy Diver video is the funniest thing ever.

[EDIT]: Um, wow, the video I posted was removed a couple hours after I linked to it? Geez. I guess if you're interested you can go here. Apparently it's only licensed for last.fm.

I had almost forgotten how much I love Howard Jones' voice. And really, can you beat heavy metal musicians in medieval garb?

Forget Twilight...

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:04:27 GMT

If you want to see a good adolescent vampire movie, check out Let the Right One In, the Swedish vampire thriller madmuppet2k and I saw last night. This movie is a much darker, deeper look at the idea of "adolescent meets vampire, sees some fucked up stuff, falls in love, etc, etc." It's about 12 year old Oskar, who is picked on at school and doesn't really have any friends. One night mysterious neighbors move in next door and he meets a young child, Eli, who is also 12--more or less. Suddenly a series of brutal murders begin to crop up in the small town, and Oskar is drawn by Eli, who has quickly made friends with him.

Despite the gore, it's also a really cool psychological thriller and drama. Check out your local "artsy" theater and see if they're playing this, it's totally worth going to see!

A Year of Books!

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 01:31:57 GMT

So back last December I decided to keep track of everything I read for the year. While I certainly didn't read as much as alexiscartwheel , I think I did pretty good--just over 50 books (and I managed to kind of have a life at the same time!). I may go back and link to any comments I may have made about these books, or add some new ones, or something, if I have time.

1. Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
2. Child of a Dead God by Barb & J.C. Hendee
3. Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
4. Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov
5. Brightly Burning by Mercedes Lackey
6. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
7. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
8. The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley
9. Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs
10. Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon
11. Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs
12. Marque and Reprisal by Elizabeth Moon
13. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
14. Old Man's War by John Scalzi
15. Engaging the Enemy by Elizabeth Moon
16. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
17. Brasyl by Ian McDonald
18. Command Decision by Elizabeth Moon
19. Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
20. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
21. Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon
22. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
23. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
24. The Last Colony by John Scalzi
25. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
26. Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody
27. Lost Fleet Book 1: Dauntless by Jack Campbell
28. Sword-Born by Jennifer Roberson
29. Doctor Who - Timewyrm: Genesys by John Peel
30. Doctor Who - Timewyrm: Exodus by Terrance Dicks
31. How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove
32. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
33. Fire Logic by Laurie J. Marks (reread)
34. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
35. Earth Logic by Laurie J. Marks (reread)
36. Doctor Who - Timewyrm: Apocalypse by Nigel Robinson
37. Water Logic by Laurie J. Marks
38. The Middleman: The Collected Series Indispensability by Javier Grillo-Marxuach
39. Doctor Who - Timewyrm: Revelation by Paul Cornell
40. Star Wars - Allegiance by Timothy Zahn
41. Star Wars - Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn
42. Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning
43. The Scent of Shadows by Vicki Pettersson
44. Doctor Who - Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible by Marc Platt
45. Touch the Dark by Karen Chance
46. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
47. Taste of Night by Vicki Pettersson
48. The Shack by Wm. Paul Young
49. Touch of Twilight by Vicki Pettersson
50. New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear
51. Doctor Who - Loving the Alien by Mike Tucker & Robert Perry

Christmas...

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 01:33:49 GMT

Christmas = insanity. And to prove it:

Matt: "If I had just taken one more class, I would have gotten a 3.5 and graduated cum laude."
Dad: "And if I had pulled out, you wouldn't be here!"

Matt: "If I had to describe Danielle in one sentence, it would be: 'Danielle wishes she could cast Giga Slave.'"

Really, Matt is so right about that. If I could cast Giga Slave, my life would be so much better.

Last.fm - The Best of 2008

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:58:01 GMT

Last.fm has just released the best albums, new artists, and tracks of 2008 on their site, as determined by the number of plays each got over the course of the year. Can't say I'm too surprised about anything in there, and I'm especially not surprised that the most-listened to new album of the year was Coldplay's Viva La Vida.

This list is especially interesting when viewed after checking out NPR's All Songs Considered poll for best albums of 2008. Something like that tends to become somewhat pretentious (though don't get me wrong I love the critics on NPR and discover a lot of new music through them). Whereas some of the NPR commenters seem to be trying to up each other in throwing out more and more obscure names, the Last.fm list is purely by the numbers, which begs the question: Are the best albums of the year the ones that reached the most number of listeners? Or are there other criteria to take into account? Of course personal taste plays a huge role in this, but there really are a lot of largely successful and talked-about albums out there that make me wonder what else appeals to people.

So what are your favorite artists/albums/songs from 2008? As for a quick list from me, I'd have to throw out some obvious ones:

Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
My Brightest Diamond - A Thousand Shark's Teeth
Computer vs. Banjo - Self-titled
Margot & the Nuclear So and Sos - Not Animal
Utada Hikaru - Heart Station
Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Tilly and the Wall - o
Okkervil River - The Stand Ins (srsly, a million thumbs up for this album and its companion album, The Stage Names)

Since I'm apparently an audio whore, look forward to my rant on the best podcasts of 2008. <3

Doctor Who Unbound: Exile = Crack

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 03:30:53 GMT

I can't decide which Big Finish audio is more on crack--this, or the first Bernice Summerfield audio, Oh No It Isn't. That random comment aside, Exile is total crack. My coworkers may just think I'm insane for all the giggling I was doing while listening to this today. The audio is basically an AU take on the Second Doctor's regeneration into the Third, wherein he escaped from Gallifrey, regenerated, and hid on Earth instead of allowing the Time Lords to exact justice on him. The highlights:

The Doctor regenerates into a woman. For the sake of this story (and pure insanity), this is supposedly because if a Time Lord commits suicide, he or she will switch genders in the next regeneration.
Which leads me to an amazing quote: "Doctor, you have been found guilty in crimes against the Laws of Time and Time Lord decency. You stole a TARDIS and interfered in the affairs of others. But, worst of all, you had a sex-change regeneration."
The Doctor proceeds to get a job at a grocery story and gets drunk every night "because that's what young women do on this planet!" Best disguise ever.
David Tennant is brilliant as one of the clueless Time Lords hunting down the Doctor.
DT saying "shit" is one of the funniest things ever.
The ambiguous ending has a sort of dark humor to it, and the Time Lords point out that if the Doctor hadn't run, he would have only been forced to regenerate and exiled to Earth, where he probably would have been hired by a secret government organization to help save the planet from alien invasion. Instead he/she gets locked in the TARDIS forever. Maybe.

This audio was a bit tough for me to hunt down, but it's totally worth a listen if only to hear David Tennant being hilarious.

Also, as a completely random side note, I was just IMDBing Anna Torv because I was curious about her after tonight's Fringe episode (in which she pronounced a couple things oddly) and discovered that she's Australian. That explains why there's always something a little off about her accent. Now I have a need to hear her speak with an Australian accent... ::runs off to YouTube::

Hottest new OTP?

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:25:11 GMT

Here's a couple little presents for alexiscartwheel . And for whoever else thinks this would be the best Doctor Who/Battlestar Galactica OTP EVAH. <3 <3

That was way too much fun. There may be more where that came from... It's just insanely hard to find good Romana screencaps.

Mwahahahahaha!

<3<3<3

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:14:19 GMT

OBAMA!!!!

That is all.