Squeeing for Twitter and other Fannish Things
Guys, you're officially allowed to completely disregard any opinions I have on music from now on, because I actually stood in line to see Patrick Stump last night, surrounded by tweens and teens who squeed in unison in response to Twitter posts and things, leaving me scratching my head for a while and feeling incredibly old. The messes look_alive gets me into... And, music wise... it was more enjoyable than I was expecting. It's definitely not anything I would've gone to see on my own, but after the first opener (who wasn't bad, but was kind of boring in a Glee-type-teen-drama-songs-but-without-the-hilarious-ridiculousness-and-social-commentary pop sort of way) things were downright entertaining. It involved an entire crowd of white kids trying to make rappers feel at home! (Other odd note about the crowd: I was one of the tallest people. What?) Actually, Rockie Fresh was the sort of fun I'm allowed not to be ashamed of (in part because it alienated a lot of people in the crowd, being rap/hip-hop and all, and I'm way more at home with musical alienation than I am with screaming and grabby-hands at lead singers). Also, we were in the section of the crowd that actually was on board with him, so people were dancing and everything (well, we were all waving our arms. Also, you can tell I'm totally not cut out for rap/hip-hop shows because I really cannot wave my arm up and down like that for more than a quarter of a song. I guess I need practice). And then there was Patrick himself... And yeah, he was pretty much as entertaining a performer as I was led to believe. All energy and vocal range in an electric blue suit, bowtie, and hair like he'd had an unfortunate run-in with an ungrounded amp backstage. And an interesting sort of... charisma, with some sort of qualifier I can't think of right now, but is related to (but isn't) shy. I dunno. He was definitely most at home behind the drums, though. The drum solo was probably my favorite part of the concert. More people should sing and play drums. All he'd have to do is just move the kit up to the front of the stage. I mean, from what I can tell the guy already plays all the instruments (and actually, if he ever wants to pick up the indie/experimental habit of just playing everything live himself and looping it... I feel like that'd be one of the most entertaining things ever. Though I know some people would have my head for encouraging him to abandon his band.)
And then I stuck my blinking tail light to look_alive and biked six miles home with her on the back of my bike--which doesn't have pegs, or really any passenger capabilities at all--through industrial nowhere and complicated intersections and hipsterville. I tried to pick side streets that wouldn't get us killed but there were dead ends and speed bumps and potholes and taxis and so much glass the pavement sparkled and a soundtrack pumped out of an iPod stuffed into a glove (there were also a couple of attempts at sing-alongs, to varying success and often interrupted by shouts of "Bump!" and then screaming). It was pretty epic, and we're both pretty sore, and though it was a terrible idea it was also somehow a fitting end to the night. I'll be honest, I kept expecting us to die, but we didn't even fall over. Nor did we get pulled over by the police (though we did debate whether what we were doing was illegal. I think we decided we were just endangering ourselves.) Still, it was better than the red line would've been. By which I mean it 1) was an adventure and 2) didn't take any longer and 3) didn't kill us.
Tomorrow I'm going to an info-session for the inner-city teaching corps, so everyone can expect me to be in non-stop existential crisis and permanent introspection mode for the next month or so. Just as a heads-up (honestly, I'm in it right now... I'm just not sure if the increase in my number of posts lately has to do with it getting better or worse).
Also, can anyone explain how fandom on Tumblr works? I feel like I should finally start paying attention to it (mostly because there are things like this going on, which is Homestuck!headcanon for me now, I don't even care. (Warning for earworming and mild spoilers... though really it just doesn't make sense if you're not caught up.)) And all the fanart in the world seems to be there now.
And then I stuck my blinking tail light to look_alive and biked six miles home with her on the back of my bike--which doesn't have pegs, or really any passenger capabilities at all--through industrial nowhere and complicated intersections and hipsterville. I tried to pick side streets that wouldn't get us killed but there were dead ends and speed bumps and potholes and taxis and so much glass the pavement sparkled and a soundtrack pumped out of an iPod stuffed into a glove (there were also a couple of attempts at sing-alongs, to varying success and often interrupted by shouts of "Bump!" and then screaming). It was pretty epic, and we're both pretty sore, and though it was a terrible idea it was also somehow a fitting end to the night. I'll be honest, I kept expecting us to die, but we didn't even fall over. Nor did we get pulled over by the police (though we did debate whether what we were doing was illegal. I think we decided we were just endangering ourselves.) Still, it was better than the red line would've been. By which I mean it 1) was an adventure and 2) didn't take any longer and 3) didn't kill us.
Tomorrow I'm going to an info-session for the inner-city teaching corps, so everyone can expect me to be in non-stop existential crisis and permanent introspection mode for the next month or so. Just as a heads-up (honestly, I'm in it right now... I'm just not sure if the increase in my number of posts lately has to do with it getting better or worse).
Also, can anyone explain how fandom on Tumblr works? I feel like I should finally start paying attention to it (mostly because there are things like this going on, which is Homestuck!headcanon for me now, I don't even care. (Warning for earworming and mild spoilers... though really it just doesn't make sense if you're not caught up.)) And all the fanart in the world seems to be there now.