heroes in a half shell!

roc bank. underwater viewing area.

was so so much better in real life (is pretty awesome in this pic only, photo by divya avec instagram) the leaves and dust and things were swirling about in super slow mo HD way...national geographic meets gus van sant. plus they looked positively glowy and golden...and just before this the croc was facing the opp way...and turned slowly to directly face us with it's teeth bared. and then turned away. and super adventurous turtes decided to walk right by it. like they were on a dare. or dancing.

dream: prancing cera

me and divya were in this awesome shiny white old car...one of those chrome jobs. like so:

it was night and divya was driving down this dark road sort of like last highway but less creepy and with more traffic. think it was meant to be LA. and there's this pedestrian running down the road right in front of our car like it's perfectly normal. and it's michael cera! in a black hoodie/tee and grey/khakhi running shorts. and i roll down the windscreen and say hello. we're stopped in traffic so he reaches through and hugs me and divya and does the whole so nice to meet you thing. but like he's genuinely made new friends. he's a good hugger. we ditch the car and decide to walk to the concert which coincidentally he's also going to. many ppl playing at the pyramid hall. i think we were going for freelance whales but coldplay was also playing...anyhoo he knows his way around and shows us in...but we cant get seats all together and he has to go do famous people stuff. and im sitting by this middle aged indian lady (35?) and her many relatives come by and say hi to me...and im a bit disgruntled because of the change in mood. i look up and altho we're in a medium sized room shaped like this:

the roof is a glass pyramid lit up pretty.

cera's making an announcement of some sort and calls us up on stage...and then somehow the place floods and then it's just the two of us (me and michael) trying to use the wooden stage as a giant raft. bickering like we're on the amazing race :) it's day and there are trees and things..

a very youtube christmas

tv was disappointing! where have all the good christmas movies gone? the classic fare! woe! woe is us! thank santa for youtube!

1. oscar hates christmas #sesamestreet
2. a very zombie holiday #childrenyouregoingtohavetoshootgrandma
3. twelve interesting amendments #melanie griffith #bornyesterday
4. wikileaks christmas song 2o10 #DanAndDan #leakingallthecrackerjokes
5. white christmas #asongfromJedandMoWhedon
6. christmas time #timeforalittlenostalgia #backstreetboys
7. baby it's cold outside #glee #klaine
8. the little drummer boy/peace on earth #bingandbowie
9. mull of kintyre #macca
10. the nanny/mad tv stop motion/alvin and the chipmunks #traditionaltoonage
11. all i want for christmas is you #mariah!
12. grape jelly #thegrandfinale #mixed nuts

smiiiiiles!

tumblr is down. this had to be blogged. #pinkfluffyunicornsdancingonrainbows

strumming

i watch a lot more videos of people playing uke/guitar now that i have a uke. i think the thing i've got to sort out in my own playing is more to do with my brain than my hands. I've got to let one hand do it's own thing while letting the other do another thing. chords vs. strumming. they are kind of independent of each other...to an extent. one goes on. one changes. got to get my left brain sorted out. got to get it to stop thinking so much.

i have way less trouble with picking. which makes sense. have to think about both hands at the same time. synching things up. makes more sense to my brain than the staying out of each other's way sort of thinking.

hee it's like that movie - i think it was called idle hands - with the excellent trailer "the story of a boy ...and his hand" LOL.

you know i wants them shades!

truly lazy saturday. spent most of the day in bed with youtube and a very potter musical (done with act 1). it was loading uber slowly so inbetween that i googled/tumblr'd darren criss (he's dreamy, acts, plays 6 instruments, sings, writes songs and is funny...supermegafoxyawesomehot!). it was one of those get obsessed with something...get to know the cast..find them on twitter and see what else they do on youtube days...and these guys have shit loads of videos up. i probably havent made a dent. so yeah the video i just watched was a documentary style youtube vid about brian rosenthal. now yesterday i didnt know brian rosenthal.. or about his (quirrell's) bromance with voldemort aka. joe walker. or that joey richter was/is his flatmate. more names.

this is brian:

this is so stalkerly. but then i am a stalker by nature. often i wish i could participate in real life stakeouts of random people. like a picnic in a car with binoculars and notemaking! timed intricate notes in a detecting notebook. like veronica mars meets tmz and harriet the spy. id use my dictaphone too..if only the sound of my recorded voice didnt piss me off so much.

annnd now im thinking back to sillier times. good times. they happened and that is awesome. or should i say totally awesome.

also this:

‎"I can't go to Pigfarts, it's on Mars. You need a rocket ship. Do you have a rocket ship Potter? I bet you do. You know not all of us inherited enough money to buy out NASA when our parents died. Look at this! Look at this! Look at rocket ship Potter. Starkid Potter. Moonshoes Potter. Traversing the galaxy for intergalactic travels to Pigfarts!"

a gif.

ok-go gymming

i was at the gym listening to the overthinkingit podcast and thinking on how i should have more friends in the city and then all of a sudden discovered how to make the treadmill fun. the podcast got over and i switched to listening to modest mouse etc. and there was only one lady there and i started doing this half jog-half dance thing. proper workout and awesomely fun! and when she left i cut loose with some ok-go. :D best best idea! the place was super empty today...so there i was with this loovely view of the pool and outside and ...did a little improvised dance all over the room! god how do people walk/run on the treadmill when this is so much better! total high. got that all's right with the world feeling after ..and why georgia came on the radio (best car song ever!) w00t :) i even had myself a little (500) days of summer moment with that hall and oats song... yeah i hope the club doesnt have cctv XD

expectation/reality

yesterday at lunch i had this conversation with a friend where she was all: i started watching the social network but it was really sexist..and i stopped. and i tried to guess which bit she meant but guessed totally wrong. i would never have connected what she said to 'facemash' at all. ok so some dudes rated females against each other...big deal...people do it all the time...in life. so yeah, i was all: ohh that's what you were talking about...you do realise i've mentally rated all the people in this restaurant right?

everyone does it. and the only people who might pretend this isnt true are attractive people. it's easier to see it when you're one of the weird people (these girls on the bus, sitting behind me were having a conversation today about how this girl they know is really nice...but they couldnt think of a boy for her because all the guys they know think she's - weird. im guessing she's not drop dead gorgeous - more like 4 or 5. the girls behind me on the other hand. easily 6s or 7s)

might as well be honest about it. it hurts less that way. i notice the way you look. you notice the way i look. i'm over it. except dude on the train serving soup might've called me: sir. hopefully that was a slip of the tongue... if not, he probably thought these were moobs. o0

also while im on the subject, pinkerton is my favourite weezer album.

some uke love.

reading an article about how to read tabs. im taking it slow so i really get it. anyhoo i also get to learn new (crazy/awesome) words!

mu•so |ˈmyoōzō|

noun ( pl. -sos) Brit., informal

a musician, esp. one overly concerned with technique.

tab•la•ture |ˈtablə ch ər; -ˌ ch oŏr|

noun chiefly historical

a form of musical notation indicating fingering rather than the pitch of notes, written on lines corresponding to, for example, the strings of a lute or the holes on a flute.

vi•hue•la |vēˈ(h)wālə|

noun

a type of early Spanish stringed musical instrument, in particular.

...breakthrough! i think i just got it...tabs are like chord diagrams! with extra info like which strings to play and blah blah. ohhhhh. excellent! i can work with this! (in theory :D)

friend - within inverted commas

went to the gym after ages. au revoir simone is surprisingly good to work out to. and on the way back home the radio produced deeelights :)

"are you telling me that im mature enough to get married but not to party?"

"how old are you?"

"im 28 now. and i drink but i know when to stop because ive got to drive home"

"so you drink and drive!" _chennai live 104.8

"there iis a difference between learn-ED and learn-ING"

"i am having experience in the academic field for all my life of 40 years…i know the psychology very well. and often i am getting guest lecturers to come and lecture for periods of time like 30…40…35 minutes whatever. and they are all very impressed with how my boys are interested in the lecture. but they don't know that there is a rehearsal. i tell my boys: because you love ME..you love the college, for the first 10 minutes of the lecture you listen. and after that what? after that if it is interesting keep on listening. otherwise we all have TVs yes? we watch the serials…so you keep looking at his face and think about yesterday's serial. YES SIR. but then some boys they say sir we don't have TV/radio/books.. and i say boys you are from the villages..there was that pretty neighbor girl? YES SIR. you think about her face…your girlfriend. and then some boys say sir we are not like that. we don't have love affairs. then i say this city madras is full of crowded buses full of people standing-sleeping? YES SIR. just like that you can also sleep…BUT the only thing iis with eyes OPEN. YES SIR. so there are 3 options: think about the serial… the FRIEND - within inverted commas! or sleeping with eyes open." _107.8

best! beeteedoubleyoo: he totally did the "YES SIR"s all by himself XD

he then switched to some convoluted stuff about how in tamil we put thiru/thirumathi in front of a person's name but in sanskrit it's just sri whether the person be male/female. and there was also some stuff about rama and him becoming crown prince…and that being like some dude's father calling him and telling him that he got a really good rank and will appear in the paper tomorrow… :D

some free verse. it's all i seem to be able to write now *shrug*

At a party. They got on. They got on and on and

Yes the conversation was good. One didn't

Feel like one was doing talking too much. The jokes

Fast and loose. Wouldn't have been funny to one

Outside. But they were in the loop. The closed string.

All well. Unified theory of everything. A pause.

She looked around. Everyone was happy. Right.

Good. Sorted. He looked at his drink. He'd barely

Touched it. Didn't need it. That was new. He took

A sip. A deep breath. Felt his age. Young. Maybe he

Should be more cynical. Thought: There's loads of

Innocence right here. Concentrated. In this place.

No one knows what they're doing. Lost in a fug

Of personal space. Shared space. Stumbling over

Introductions. Meeting people one'd rather not

Run into. Unnoticed by the unforgettable. Another

Summer. An endless string of empty days.

enthiran? more like oompa loompa!

chose to scar my brain with horrors yet again. *doh* why? why? i dont know.... it was so bad. so bad. no words. i think iv managed to block out most of it already. theres a whole dusty boxful of crap movies back there. let this be a warning to you! do not watch these: 1. enthiran 2. my blueberry nights 3. sivaji 4. bad boys II 5. bicentennial man...

still sucks. scarred for life.

goodbye betty! *spoiler alert*

o more ugly betty! (technically am not sure that iv watched every single episode) just got done with season 4. anyhoo this is a 5 reasons why i love ugly betty post.

1. their ability to make every new (major) love interest seem absolutely perfect for betty. exhibit a: henry - look they match! exhibit b: gio: freddy is hawt. and funny and all things awesome. exhibit c: matt: so cute. how? how? how? (they're equally adept at turning cute people into psychos *coughmattcough* first the stupid haircut. then just plain stupid.) *spoiler alert* she doesnt end up with any of them... :D

2. ralph macchio. daniel san!

3. *SPOILER ALERT* you have been warned.

(and for those who may feel to stare at - a much bigger version - of this and *sigh*, click here)

4. knowing daniel used to be him:

5. amanda! and marc+justin.

and of course (so obvious that i forgot!) Vanessa Williams!

leeds art gallery thoughts

id written this down on the back of a postcard i picked up in leeds (things to blog about):

•art gallery people

•more than words/nick cave

•well realised feet.

...but that was a couple weeks ago and i dont really remember what it is i wanted to say about art gallery people. i remember dashing in to use the loo... :s but i do remember about more than words! now that is a song that really really needs a nick cave version. something that sounds less soulfully pop (its a bloody depressing song if you think about it) ..and more like red right hand!

..and as i was leaving the gallery, walked passed this statue (bronze?) lifesize, of a couple sitting on a bench side by side. the figures were really abstract and just shapes resembling humans really. but then the feet were all detailed. ankles. toenails. the whole deal. i thought it was beautiful and goes with my theory of people's feet (posture) refecting the way they're feeling.

lian+john

that was quite possibly the best wedding i have ever been to. mostly because they are so good together. also his mum was so happy she cried during her speech and there wasn't "a dry eye in the house". and there were bubbles (to blow) for the kids to play with. and they were pretty in the pictures too. so many little mixed race children everywhere! adorable much! they had their own table and everything...and many cute siblings too. mostly older sisters taking care of mental younger brothers. lovely. ohoh best quote of the day: "sabrina asked me where the bubbles were and i remembered they were in the toilet!" *giggles* :D kids are awesome!

[spoiler alert!] kipper

just watched 2 epis of kipper with kavya. think i was more into it than she was. kipper is my favourite cartoon of all time i think. what other cartoon has a jazz theme song? and all the characters have names except pig who is mysteriously called simply 'pig'. he's awesome. he's got this voice like a permanent blocked nose. he calls his son 'ardold' deja vu...probably have said this before. anyway the two i watched now could not have been more different or more awesome.

1. the robot

a one eyed robot appears out of the blue. kipper takes him home (the robot holds on to kipper's tail and kipper leads the way). and then kipper feeds him a milkshake. and then pig and arnold appear...and it rains pink toy hippos and doughnuts/cookies (couldnt make out exactly what they were). the end. seriously. it rained hippos. from the sky. no explanation. just hippos. how frikkin awesome is that? i need the hope of a rain of hippos and edibles. *sigh*

2. the mystery of the disappearing tape (or some such title)

now this one had more logic to it. but still had its share of madness. for starters it's really non linear for a kids show. it started off being about arnold's birthday. pig, kipper, tiger, jake and arnold are in the park opening presents. because arnold's small sometimes they open his gifts for him. jake knitted him a hat, tiger got him this magnetic rocket thing, kipper - a squeaky toy and pig got him a tape player so they could play musical chairs. but when he opens the deck he finds that the tapes gone missing.

so detective tiger straps on his detecting hat (looks like a fireman's hat) and here commence the flashbacks. kipper and pig try out the tape player but then get distracted by playing combs and paper (like harmonica)...kipper has the tape.

kipper and jake blow balloons and this makes them really giggly and silly. they stick ballons to the wall. make squeaky balloon noises...

then kipper, jake and tiger make party hats. and sing songs. tiger thinks his hat is the coolest.

they still dont figure out who had the tape last. then tiger takes his hat off and out falls the tape. and he's all omg how? what? how did i have it? me! no wai! and they're all yeah it mustve gotten in there somehow... and move on to playing musical chairs.

they've got cushions to sit on. when the music stops: jake and tiger are really polite and offer each other the same cushion. when actually turns there are 5 cushions for all 5 of em. cause they forgot to take one away.

so they take one away.

and keep playing.

the end.

morals:

• people sometimes pick up things - it doesnt make them criminals. it can actually be an accident. • if you dont have a harmonica, a comb and paper are just as good. • it's ok to be silly. • be polite while playing musical chairs.

yookay trip [airport + day 1]

yesterday was a narrowly avoided suckfest. plane was like an hour late leaving from chennai (technical issues and it left late from dubai to get to chennai - daft) and i was all stressed that we'd miss our connecting flight in dubai. but we ran. we go on (dubai to manchester). *phew*

got to preston. crashed.

today - woke at 8. planned to meet charmaine in manchester at 2. pics here.

saw boy who looked like a young (grumpy) ian curtis on the train to manchester. so cool. he was even dressed all in black. black tee. rosary tatt on his right forearm.

saw boy on the train back to preston with shaggy brown hair, ipod glasses and a vote for pedro tee. he got off at bolton. this is like a missed connections thing. except i dont think he saw me. i noticed the tee and figured he'd be good to converse with. how could he not be with that tee eh?

miseducation

listening to lauryn hill again. it's been a whiiile. the last time was way back when i used to listen to compilation albums on casette. and then i saw the name 'lauren hillman' today (probably on twitter)...and just started craving the sound of lauryn hill's voice. if you've watched sister act II you've got it engraved inside your skull forevers. so yeah the miseducation of lauryn hill is beauteous. she's awesome. i cant believe i forgot. and wikipedia says she has 5 chilluns. cool.

anyhoo:

this is lauryn hill.

this is lauren hillman.

sigree dinner

this was going to be a post about how life is a cliche.

was watching 'suburban girl' this daft movie with sarah michelle gellar in. and icky alec baldwin. but anyway. she was blue and there were cds scattered behind her on the floor...setting the blue mood i guess...lots of elliott smith and there she was reading blubber by judy blume. and i've done that. listened to elliott smith on repeat. does everyone?

but now i think it has to be about how awesome my evening was :) dad's friend's son's birthday. didnt realise it was going to be such a big thing. ginormous gaggle of people at this restaurant. anyhoo it was awesome even before we got inside. we were trying to get in the parking...and this car was retardedly going the wrong way on the road...(retarded!!) and suddenly out comes bharath uncle wandering into the road to randomly direct traffic! (asked him about it later...says he does it sometimes. just. directs buses even he said :D)

so yeah we get to the restaurant. say our happy birthdays. and when bharath uncle appears..he's in conversation with dad's friend. and the one who's birthday it was and me were looking on. and bharath uncle turned around and saw me and mid sentence stopped and said 'what a pleasure!' or something to that effect. turned back around and continued with an indecipherable conversation. totally hilarious! ...the evening continued in this manner. uncle was amused with the way i cleared my plate. called it 'professional' :) i am not one of those people who cant take a compliment. i love a good compliment. the odder the better. and one that's truly meant. it gets me. (also i had some 6 gulab jamuns - was that sort of night)

i dig knowing people. i dig knowing the way they are. and anticipating the funny. when someone's prepping to make this dramatic statement. and you know it's coming. that is the best moment.

also also highlight of the evening! bharath uncle and ppl singing happy birthday in sa re ga ma. absolutely classic! how can any present top that? lucky! ..and better yet at the end of the evening. my old piano master commented that uncle went into a minor chord during it :D not done! lolol!

also vasundhara das was at the next table. so pretty! and and more people came up to rishi to ask for pictures and whether he's on fb than even realised she was there i think!

cow in big city

found this yum video yesterday of laura marling and mumford & sons in india. and today's been a bit ridiculously only-in-india like. not so much picturesque as downright mental and hilarious XD

• cow acting mental in the middle of road... attempted humping while crossing :D
• cow carrying leafy branch as face cover in manner of stalker in a cartoon (stalking dog maybe).
• car with a procession of dog stickers on the side. a family of basset hounds.

capitalist cafe

thought: laura marling and siddhartha khosla should work together. that would be fantabulous. imagine the voices. together. mmmmm. *daydreams*

current went. went to shoppers stop. didnt really want to go to a mall. just wanted a nice place to read murakami in (the wind-up bird chronicle). and malls are not nice places. they pretend to be. but in reality have no windows. a building without windows is just crap. hate that feeling of no outside. like there's only the mall. so claustro. drank my coffee facing samsonite bags. :/

no one wants that.

i spy..

my bangalore weekend in people i spied on.

"you want me dont you?" uncle

where: a cafe. uncle was sitting by himself in a corner reading a book with sunglasses on. you just know he carefully considered his attitude/posture/body language to display himself in as a desirable person (initially was attracted to the back of uncle's head... but his face didnt live up to it). he was also discreetly spying on us to pass the time. fair play. he was then temporarily visited by a hot young thing who stayed for a bit and then rode off on her bike. daughter? i think not...

the metrosexual poseurs

where: lunch/poshly restaurant. two fellows who would never fit into divya's chennai hot boy category, REALLY REALLY NO. they are the anti hot boy. firstly theyre probably from bangalore. shorts - good. obama chappals - bad. sunglasses as headband - worse. moisturiser - dubious. eyemakeup? - fuck no! all wrong. plus they made a beeline for the first solitary white boy they could find. ingratiators. it should be a word. also they had pointy gelled hair ><

girl in pink floral dress

where: same. the cutest little girl you ever saw. picturesqueness! short hair, long white dress with little pink flowers and a sash! just wandering about...hopping onto barstools when she felt like it. *sigh* there were loads of cute kids all over that place actually... mostly toddlers and bebes.

the i-spike-my-hair-up-into-a-point posse

where: pub. there were many high school chilluns hanging out at one table. they seemed that young anyway. they seemed normal enough. chilled out. then weird people kept joining the table. hot/bitchy girls. and this lot. identical pointy hair. random bling accessorising their tee ensembles. and they went everywhere together it seemed like.

i think im all that.

where: same. the above gang were later joined by this dude. he is his own category. but there are many like him i am sure. dresses all in black. some sort of beads around the neck for that mystical im a hippie drug lord touch. he think's he knows a guy who knows a guy who'll get you...whatever. he thinks the girls swoon for him. *coughdouchecough* fringe. hair brushed into face. but not in the brit way. thats a more i want it to look like the wind blew it into my eyes look. this is more i have straightened my hair so that my artistic fringe will nicely frame my face. also he'd make a nice austin powers movie extra. but his age probably excuses the vibe...unlike afore mentioned uncle. who has no excuse.

man who stepped out of the beach

where: same. foren man. sitting by self at a side table. with book. and earphones. total paranoia case. caught me trying to sneak a glimpse at the book cover (i always want to know what other people are reading..) and got this look like hidden assassins were after him. other mad beach style tourist types who want him to tell them the location of the beach. or people from the beach who are mad that he told others...

FIN

all we ever have is now

i listen to the flaming lips and think on the state of the universe.. it has been a week of meeting people i havent seen in a while. conclusion: no one changes.
eally. ever. the outside changes: people shrink down/wear clothes you dont expect them to. but in most cases, even that hasnt really changed. everyone looks the same. maybe it's because we're in our twenties..and really teenagers and 20somethings..who can tell the difference? but inside - people dont change. they think and say and do the same things. i find the predictability comforting. im quite opposed to change me.

other observations:

• chiwetel ejiofor is the new tommy lee jones. (hard on the outside but soft on the inside pursuer of fugitives...) #salt
• i still dont know exactly how to pronounce his name.. (imdb says it's: chew-it-tell edge-oh-for)
• amethyst is like alice in wonderland.
• romantic comedies as a genre are dying a slow death, probably because they're called rom-coms *rolls eyes*

my mother should have murdered me/no jury would convict her babe

im not a religious person. but i do believe in magic. magic in the universe. its probably why i dig gaiman and pratchett and murakami... anyhoo weird coincidence thing: when neil gaiman wrote american gods he was listening to 69 love songs. and i was listening to it (obsessively) just before i started on the book :)

reading bel canto by ann patchett now. loving it. its been so long since i discovered a new author that's easy to read and not a slog. bout 20 pages in. it goes swimmingly.

It was. It was a lie... but then it was a dream.

caught a few mins of benjamin button on tv and espionaged julia ormond and grew nostalgic about the movie sabrina. the new one. the good one. and i know why julia ormond is so irresistible..when really no one should be more so than audrey. its because audrey is audrey. but julia is sabrina. its pretty much the difference between the two movies. humphrey bogart is no linus larrabee. also sydney pollack is a genius. *sigh* its one of those ones where i know all the dialogue cause i used to watch it with the pater all the time. every time it was on. i feel deja vu writing this... i has blogged about this before yes?

look!

Linus Larrabee: So, what do they say about me?

Sabrina: Oh, you know...

Linus Larrabee: No.

Sabrina: That you're the world's only living heart donor.

Linus Larrabee: Oh, that.

Sabrina: And how does this one go? He thinks that morals are paintings on walls and scruples are money in Russia.

Linus Larrabee: How droll.

Sabrina: And then there's my favorite...

Linus Larrabee: No, that's ok.

humphrey couldnt do those lines. also the first one had lame dialogue. one good thing about it. audrey singing louis prima's we have no bananas.

that's guild incest!

season 4 of the guild is here! excellent!!

EAT!

watched half of episode 2 series 1 of skins (cassie) before megavideo died on me. realised watching people not eat makes me really hungry. she was demonstrating her anorexia with his food... *shudder* pushing it around and everything.. creepy. i am so hungry right now. cant wait to devour lunch. except drama happening. new cook. painters working outside. there may be paint traces in chicken curry...so not having it. sigh. just when i was thinking no chips in sight. at least i have chicken. well leftovers sound good too :D

just havent found it yet

i am in search of the most customisable new blogger template *grumblegrumblewhydtheychangeitfuckerstryingtobeliketumblr* this will have to do for now.

havent got much to say. modest mouse, joshua james and the cure are working well together. no footie to watch tonight. can sleep comfortably. the fat making mirror in my room has been taken down, leaving me with more wall space. but the wall behind the mirror is pale lavender while the rest of the room is cream+red. it is in dire need of painting. twil happen soonly i guess. cannot wait to put all my new posters and things up. especially the one of the doctor and amy pond.

best things about the doctor who season finale (will try to keep it spoiler free):

• the morocco mole style fez
• amy and amelia!
• ...and the dancing!! ;)

who is emma frost?

my comic book pile gets out of order everytime i show it to people. but i dont mind cause putting it in order is one of the best things ever. and everytime it seems to get more complicated. usually its just by publisher. but then i alphabetised it as well yesterday. and made lists of how many of each i have :D i have a few more marvel than dark horse but thats only because craze for x men began long long ago.. im still kind of confused by the variety of x men titles...and how they still seem to link up nicely... like astonishing x men to uncanny x men and what not.

...got to thinking about how comic book writers are like gods. especially x men writers (joss whedon/mattfraction etc). controlling the lives of scott summers (the movies kind of made me hate him...then i remembered he's cool and its james marsden who i hate) and the like.. and then it's canon forever. i love that word. so appropriate. etymologically.

canon (1)

"church law," O.E., from L.L. canon, in classical L., "measuring line, rule," from Gk. kanon "any straight rod or bar; rule; standard of excellence," perhaps from kanna "reed" (see cane). Taken in ecclesiastical sense for "decree of the Church," and as such passed through L.L. to O.E. General sense of "standard of judging" is from c.1600.

to

off to wiki emma frost.

the science of fandom

finally i have the internet on my laptop again. after some ages. have become gleed beyond belief and am doing simply everything. updated my last fm. emailed a whole bunch of people. switched from firefox to chrome. because chrome is just better. and installed twhirl. mwahahaa im the king (technically queen but it's like 'sir' is just a better word than 'dame' which only makes me think of fat men in drag) of my own little corner of the internet again.

anyhoo this is a post that ive been thinking about for a while now. the difference between fanboys/girls and sports fans! its all a matter of time. a movie/song/comic book/tv show gets made and then watched after. sport is live. a fanboy has no control over whatever... technically a sports fan has no control over anything either. but there's the illusion of control. and therein lies the difference. oh the difference. it came to me when i was obsessing on the snooker... id sometimes squint my eyes on certain shots so that id just miss watching selby/hendry actually make the shot... an oh-if-i-dont-watch-this-all-will-be-well feeling... i made him make that shot because of that. like not watching man u/arsenal matches. iv always felt it's when i watch that united lose. this is what makes us obsessive and insane and paranoid and superstitious and hysterical and all those insanely wonderful things that sports fans are. it's power and the total lack of it.

the king of the crucible is in round 2

there's no denying that zhang has skills (some lovely long shots, but exciting? no). im probably predisposed to be snide about anyone playing hendry. so here's what i think...he's slow. like old person slow. he walks slow. he makes the balls move slow. would i have liked him more if he was playing say doherty? probably.

anyway hendry won it (10-9), to my deep deep satisfaction. i was visualising being devastated. man u losing to arsenal in a penalty shootout level devastation. but stephen made it work...he was just...i actually 'wow'ed at one long red.

today's been a good day for my guys i say :D

button won and selby's through to round 2 beating ken doherty 10-4.

ah selby selby. i caught a couple of frames at the end there...ever the jester (he had a bit of a struggle with sitting on the table for one shot XD and rolled his eyes and everything). and just supremely smooth today. loving the form he's on (in?) ..also black on black with purple waistcoat back - very vampyrchic!

big bloodshot eyes

insomnia. cannot sleep. this happens to me rarely. but when it does. its bad. was lying in bed for the longest time thinking on everything and nothing and finally i has given up and here i am awake and online. thankfully i had a dramatic day which warrants a long and dramatic blog post. it was either this or long and dramatic email to rebecca/pli/lab/dee/divya... this seemed easier :) (mass emails are so impersonal)

today began normally enough. watched the qualifying for the malaysian gp (gist: masses of rain, race should be good! force india in the top 10 wot!!!) and then th mater decided we had to get out of the house...so we departed for malham...sunny day, the drive was excellent. perfect car music: alexi murdoch/coconut records/banhart/dandy warhols. usually im bored by english countryside. too picturesque...not enough drama. but today i was all...omg so bootiful. and admiring the railroad tracks and trains going by...and the telephone poles punctuating the green green grass.

and there were loads of sheeps too! there were posters up at malham saying its lambing time and to take care not to disturb the sheep as they could then abort, keep dogs on lead... i figured as much. there were way too many baaba sheep to be seen on the way there. and little lambs are so cartoon like. it becomes appropriate to use words like 'gambolling' and 'fluff puddles' when talking about them...it was like one of those fabric softener adverts practically...sheeps cuddling with other sheeps...sheeps of all sizes and colours...full white...black with white wool...white wool+black and white mottled body... it was like bambi! minus the killing. and forest fire.

so we get to the place and have lunch and then walk up to the cove. malham cove, which is this limestone cliff like thing. very lotr. shouldve had the book to read there. was sitting under a tree that reminded me of the tree of gondor for a while... so until that point all was well. then we decided to walk up these steps to get to the top of the hill. was much like temple steps in coorg. easy enuf to climb. but which could be really sickening going down. and i knew we could either come back down..or take a flatter circular path back to town. so we get to the top and drama! we have to navigate this hideous (for me) stones/grass combo. which just creeped me out. so getting over them was a major pain. and everything was slippy cause it'd rained in the morning. and everything was starting to seem hellish... even so seemed like better option than the steps downward ...anyhoo after much cursing we got to the flat grass bit and i was praising the blessed grass and all that...we walk and walk and walk and there are no people to be seen and we hope we're going the right way...and then we get to a wall...and wheres the gate to the road? there like a mess of gate looking things which all look impassable. and then i see that the way to get to the road is this wooden stepladder thing over the wall :D (ladders are on my list of fears) and the stones were so bad that i was all... this should be a breeze! and quite happily. climbed up one side. got to the top, chucked backpack over. and climbed down to the road... (this is too much description wot? lol)

anyhoo...then we walked down the road for a while...and checked we were on the right path at this farm/private residences area...and walked thru a picturesque little lane...where there was this one house with 3 cats on the wall...eating out of a bowl...and a black dog... overdose of cute it was!

im planning to be indoors and glued to the tv tom to make up for all the drama :)

1. the race

2. new doctor who!!!

probably going to be split by a long nap in the afternoon to make up for all this not sleeping...

today was good :)

big mistake

animal count for the day:

millions of sheeps, a pair of ducks, a pair of chickens, some ponies, a pair of horses, 4 cats, about 6-10 dogs...

cuter than this! much cuter!

bloggerverbiage

i have this theory that word verification words are actually signs from the universe... or me projecting :D some definitions:

hilingly

the opposite of swimmingly. eg: when you're a contestant on american idol and pick the climb - miley cyrus over millions of other songs.

colugne

when a well laid evil plan goes horribly wrong because you used too much perfume.

Oh child... you always knock me for a loop!

this blog is pretty much the saga of how i go to travelling man and use it as a pick me up. an upper. its scary how much my mood improves when i step into that place. todays overhearings involved communism and how the comic book guy went to starbucks and someone called him a capitalist. and then he was all: imagine a communist coffee shop, it'd be crap. you'd get water and one coffee bean (general laughter) ...and then they moved onto sentence construction and how 'down with capitalism' as opposed to 'im down with capitalism' is a huge change in meaning #profound. too many new comics i wanted this week, got: daytripper #1, uncanny x men #33 (written by matt fraction) and the guild #1. also an issue of fetishman for my cousin.

daytripper is seriously the best comic i have ever read.

followed that up with coffee and 'kick-ass' (the movie) avec le mater. i dug it. she didnt so much. my heart was beating hard for most of the movie. the trailer doesnt do it justice. it makes me start planning this years halloween costume already (yes i know october is far far away) ..so far my options are: hit girl or the other mother.

also i admire the way aaron johnson says the words 'i'm KICK-ass'

also soundtrack - so good. it's like bad reputation was made for this movie.

ps. weird but cool thing. i was watching the scott pilgrim trailer in the morn. and they were youtubing it at travelling man. coincidence!

"It's over/You don't need to tell me"

alex james - then and now, they totally all look like their julian opie selves

watched 'no distance left to run' on iplayer. a blur documentary. it's the realest thing iv watched in a while. its a very pretty documentary that feels like what id remember of my life now...if i had a good memory. theres one clip somewhere in the middle of them backstage after a gig...and its so ...you can see how close they are. its obvious. and then to think that that just went away until this reunion is scary. how that can happen to people. not went away. you still feel the same way about someone. you just dont see them all the time. and thats a lot to miss out on... it was quite a sentimental documentary really. or i just got really sentimental over it :)

this is when this girl said "we're not laughing at you, we're laughing with you"

he's not laughing.

my dad used to talk about how you know some people for a while and some people for another length of time..and thats just how it is with friends (you take it as it is, when you have it), and i always thought it was funny that he was the one saying that - being the person i knew with the most friends..

ps. no distance left to run - the song, has the best video.

the queen's corgis

i seem to be haunting travelling man everytime im in leeds now. love the atmosphere. then jumped over to juice junction and had a hot juice (apple+lime+ginger) most perfect for the weather. started off not too cold. then got rainy. and cold. anyhoo thats where the funniest conversation ever was overheard by me. also sort of philosophical.

irish man: there arent any posh irish people. are there posh english people?

boi behind the counter: yeah...

IM: how do you know? have you seen them? are you posh?

BBTC: working class mate.

IM: everyone's someone's working class. the queen's the only real posh one. (ramble ramble) she's got corgis. (ramble) irish corgis are different...

i lost track..or it dissolved into gibberish. there was something about corgis i didnt quite get.

yesterday

this is the story of saturday. got to leeds, picked up our tickets for 'the history boys' then th'mater went to pick up her phone from carphone warehouse while i went to travelling man in search of the new green hornet written by kevin smith. it stupidly (or very awesomely) has multiple variant covers. while i was deciding which to get... the fire alarm went off :D all the shops on the road have connected alarms or something..so it was a bunch of people outside the shop.. looking horrified at the thought of not being able to go back in... we got back in like 3 mins later and one lady was all-omg that felt like quarter of an hour at least. like the sheer relief at getting back in (into heaven :D) was just kickass. this is the cover i chose. and i also one buffy season 8. totally reading it out of order, which sucks. but the (twilight) reveal was awesome! so glad i didnt get spoilered about it.

ps. comic book man asked if i wanted sleeves for them :) and usually i only get sleeves on the back issues. never thought of asking for sleeves. so i was super over the moon about it. new comics all covered in new plastic sleeves :) shiny.

so yeah the play (hee its weird that im so much more gleed to rem the comic book store fire alarm incident!) ...iv probably seen the movie way too many times. it was a bit of a problem. cant help but compare. but the play was structured quite differently. inner monologues/asides...couple of flash forwards. lockwood doesnt die or become a soldier. the set was cool. the stage spun during classroom scenes :) the desks and things were in this circle and that would spin. the upright piano stayed outside the circle in its corner.. i was really impressed when th'boy playing posner effortlessly jumped onto it and sat on top. upright piano's are tall. high off the ground. i can barely jump onto a kitchen counter. and he wasnt that tall either.

if twas me directing. one complaint: the actors were styled to look exactly like the original cast (except daikin/scripps) ..like irwin had light hair combed the same way and all. i know he has to have glasses for the script "Taking off my glasses is the last thing i do." the same hair? not required. overall it was good tho.

tillermanthink

wow this is pretty much how i imagine gram oO

here i am doing my usual thing, reading overthought articles on overthinkingit while listening to a playlist composed of nick cave, my chemical romance and other miscellany. ok the my chemical romance is not usual. but it matches with what im reading.

now that iv set the scene...

went to the lib yesterday and found the 3 remaining books in the tillerman series (book4-the runner, book6-sons from afar, book7-seventeen against the dealer) that i hadnt read! got super gleed. read 2 yesterday and the final one today. that's 7 books about essentially the same people. separately and together. who each person is and hence how they relate to each other. its about watching and knowing how someones going to react and being the you that you are around them. because thats what family is about. knowing what to say, to who, and how to say it. how to give a gift so they'll accept.

thats what's wrong with chat/phone/skype conversations. you miss all the cues. the expression that tells you that theyre joking or saracastic, or sorry about what they just said and wish they could un-say it, in a bad mood blahblah. i guess skypes not that bad. you still get to hear tones. but not being there in person to deal with the tone is not fun.

not saying i dont like chatting. sometimes its about all i can stand when im feeling antisocial. but without proper smileys and things its easy to misread things. and you could never realise it. just saying.

danny duoshade recommends...

music needs context wot?

here i am listening to my chemical romance. on a gerard way trip.

and knowing it's comic book influenced totally changes the way im listening to it...

so if id listened to iggy pop/the stooges before reading please kill me

..or read young liars before my bowie phase...

it would've been so different..

i wouldnt have got the 'spiders from mars' reference.

would i still have liked any of it? or did the order of things make me love them?

coincidence or magic?

like this but gold and giant

went to 'travelling man' yesterday and 'forbidden planet' today, in my quest to own more 'casanova', 'the umbrella academy' and 'young liars'. anyhoo when i was sitting on the floor poring over the 50p bins... both days, both places... the people who work there were conversing about ordering things online which arrive/dont arrive, or arrive (really) late.. and refunds. just something i noticed, that made me happy :)

the other thing that made me happy today-

was in leeds city art gallery and they've put down a carpet and cushions in the middle of one of the rooms and a couple remarked on it then went and plonked themselves down on it. s'what i love about art galleries (in the uk) you can totally chill and talk/art watch. rem when i sat in the serpentine gallery staring at this giant metal gold (half) balloon which covered an entire wall (protruding out) for ages. it was called 'moon' or something.

*the eternal conflicts of the cosmic warrior

_fabio moon

cuss

this is the story of a day that started off well and then became rather shit. i feel emo and vent-y right now. and then i think it started to feel like me just blabbering on about random stuff. didnt feel like a conversation or like anyone was listening. and then we watched 'up in the air' at the light. and it's a downer. it goes dark places. which usually i like. and then it snowed. and now im super grumpy. the end. i did get myself a new wallet tho. basic. brown. like chocolate. i like. i microwaved some baileys cheesecake which the box says you have to defrost at room temp for 3 hrs. 5 mins on defrost does the trick tho. didnt help. feel like i should be in a dark room with the smiths on. it's early but bed is the place for me i sense. end of whine. thank you.

dream: tiger beats lion

1

brother type rescues 2 females from top floor flat of shady boy. has to climb up the building over complicated roofs and parapets (india, shabby flats..built really close together) and walk on top of compound walls like a tightrope walker. weird that he didnt just climp up the stairs like a normal person. because after he rescued them, they walk down like normal people. but the building is buzzing with the story of his superhero like climb.

2

boy (me) finds old comic book in the library with an old map of the city inside it. pornographic comic book? anyway it has some warped element. and a message to go to this place and show it to them and get it exchanged. the spot is an old hospital, now being used as an examination centre. the person in charge is ranjini miss (ergh why am i still dreaming about her?) and i show her the book and she studies it, then steps behind curtain and gives me a brand new asterix instead (hardbound, asterix and the gauls or something?)

3

somehow the comic quest is linked to finding a tiger... somehow get tiger to trust me in battle against a mangy yak, then take tiger and progress up this building... and the people who already live there are all, who are you? and im being all arrogant and la la la.. and just go prancing to the top floor where theres this old circus lion and its keeper..and they're all laughing, because they think the lion's going to eat me (the tiger is invisible for the moment?) so yeah..the lion lunges at me and i knife it...and then the tiger (a nice well fed tiger, so almost double the size of the lion) takes a big bite into the neck of the lion to immobilise it and then swallows it whole.

and im the king of the building. *shrug*

RIP

Salinger is dead. 91.

...looking at the title of a story from nine stories 'de daumier-smith's blue period' and this is one of those stories i could never remember in connection to its name. but id remember the name on and off... suddenly in the middle of a completely unconnected thought. it'd pop in. de daumier-smith's blue period. id say it over to myself. something in the words made me feel better. i dunno.

i'm sad.

He was the funniest-looking boy, or man--it was hard to tell which he was--she had ever seen. His hair was bed-dishevelled. He had a couple of days' growth of sparse, blond beard. And he looked-well, goofy. "How did you cut it?" she asked.

He was staring down, with his slack mouth ajar, at his injured finger. "What?" he said.

"How did you cut it?"

"Goddam if I know," he said, his inflection implying that the answer to that question was hopelessly obscure. "I was lookin' for something in the goddam wastebasket and it was fulla razor blades."

_JD Salinger (just before the war with the eskimos)

st elmo's fiiiire

Jules: Don't you enjoy anything anymore... like girls?

Kevin: I enjoy being afraid of Russia. It's a harmless fear, but it makes America feel better, Russia gets an inflated sense of national worth from our paranoia. How's that?

my love affair with 80s movies (mostly starring molly ringwald) continues! and in the absence of anyone to talk to, i am live tweeting/blogging my viewing of st elmo's fire. all because i was watching gilmore girls and lorelai mentioned rob lowe fake playing the sax and the good days of andrew mccarthy and i was hooked. and she's right. absolute classic. so far its got -

/SPOILER ALERT/SPOILER ALERT/SPOILER ALERT/

• a glimpse of kevin bacon? or was i imagining things...
• judd nelson and ally sheedy - together. thats pretty much out of a breakfast club fanfic right there (they're even in matching pjs).
• andrew mccarthy singing along to aretha in a fedora (and shades, while playing the bongos!).
• ...and demi moore just told him he's gay and in love with judd nelson LOL
• ooh do i sense an upcoming mccarthy/sheedy hookup?
• 80s movies are so cynical and realistic.. marriages never work. rob lowe has a wife and child and also relationships with girls in bars (also the plain, blonde, old friend girl)...judd wants ally to marry him because he just cheated on her with a sales girl while buying her a kinky nightgown. marriage to make him faithful and all that. andrew is the requisite love-is-a-crock man. but being an 80s movie i sense the ending sees them all set up with happily ever after endings (just the way i like it).
• stir fried vegetables/wok as ashtray
• oooooh TWWWIIIIIST rob lowe (billy)'s wife (the little missus) is a hottie and she's at the bar with another man, while billy plays sax. bar fight!...and now they're making out! (th'married couple)
• judd and ally have a high fidelity moment as they fight over records

i wont spoiler the ending but it ends as it should.

cons: i miss molly ringwald ...and james spader's sneery face.

but you cant have everything :)

masters snooker - predictions!

ok so ronnie beat ebdon, and williams beat murphy :) alls well in the world. todays matches are:

• maguire v day
• selby v allen

...the first match i really dont care. didnt watch either of their matches in the first round and so have no idea what sort of form they're in. so im saying nothing. either.

selby's got to win i think.. because really allen only won cause higgins was off his game. and he knows it too. but selby, now he's a man in the zone. gorjuss long potting. gorjuss everything.

im rooting for a final between williams and selby. which means i think mark's going to beat ronnie. setting up a final where im going to torn between.. the marks! lol just realised they have the same first name! allen's a mark too XD

ps. i dont really know why iv taken ronnie out of the equation. its probably cause him being so down on himself is catching. really he's got every chance of beating williams. i must be realistic about this.

turned out steve davis was right it was rocket vs jester in the final and mark won :) so happy.