(no subject)
It's been a while. Here's a recap for everyone keeping score at home:
~Went with Appy (with Erica meeting up separately the next day) to visit Denise and Josh at Penn State. We watched silly movies, went on knitting adventures, and played many musically associated video games, consisting of lots of singing ourselves hoarse, pounding on bongos, and sucking at fake guitar. Appy read and was horrified by Twilight, and I got through 2 books of The Sandman. To and from cartrips had the soundtrack of Appy and I singing along with a mish-mash of Disney music, late '90s boybands, and Everclear. All in all, a good time was had by all, and one of Josh's pet bugs hitchhiked in my luggage home and has since disappeared somewhere in my house...
~Had a random birthday on Sunday, our last morning in PA. It began with delcious buttermilk blueberry pancakes, moved onto 5 and a half hours of (mainly) highway driving, and ended with a storm that dumped about a foot of snow on us. Had a Greek-inspired shepherd's pie and spanikopita for dinner and yellow birthday cake with chocolate icing for dessert. My parents got me a Chelsea FC kit (I'm wearing the shirt right now), money for a haircut and color, and Confessions of a She-Fan: The Course of True Love with the New York Yankees by Jane Heller.
~Borrowed Dee's copy of The Watchmen, and finished it earlier today. The only reason I can glean why this was such an important graphic novel is that it was the first of its kind. I was sorely disappointed and now not too interested in seeing the movie.
~NaNoWriMo in March has begun for the B&N crowd, though I suspect only 4 of the 8 of us are really going to give it a decent go. I'm at 6582 words right now, which is a little bit less than on target for 4 days work. Here's hoping I can actually hash this out and that I actually have enough of a story to fill 50,000 words.
~I need a job so bad I'm going to spazz out soon.
~The new U2 album, No Line on the Horizon. Wow. It's not what I was expecting. Not that I'm really sure I had any idea what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. And it's a GREAT thing. I've only listened through all the way once, and I need some time to really digest it fully, because it took me so by surprise. It's almost like a combination of The Unforgettable Fire and Zooropa or an entire album inspired by all the best non-album U2 tracks like "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me", "The Ground Benath Her Feet", and their cover of "Dancing Barefoot". I guess my best assessment to the sound is a distillation of all of U2's most adventurous music, but with a new maturity and self-assurance. It's still very much a U2 album with echos of everything they've done with Brian Eno, but it sounds so fresh and interesting and new. Some of the songs are odd ("Get on Your Boots" is growing on me, but I'm still not over-the-moon about it) and others are too meandering ("Moment of Surrender" is way too long), but it's such a confident and bold step. U2 seem as if they have forgotten about everyone and everything, even themselves, rediscovering what it means to make rock music unhindered by any preconceptions. And, while it probably won't go down as a touchstone U2 album like The Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby oweing to a lack of stand-out singles, I think it's similarities to The Unforgettable Fire and Zooropa lie in it's cohesion as an album. No Line on the Horizon feels very seemless to me, as if you shouldn't listen to it any other way than as a full record, an oddity at the very least in the Age of iTunes. Also, like the other two, there's a serenely cerebral quality to this album, an aspect of U2's more experiemental work that I think a lot of people overlook. No, this won't be another U2 blockbuster, but it does prove they aren't even close to done making really exciting music. No Line on the Horizon, indeed.
~Yale rejected me. I can't say I'm surprised, as they were always a reach school for me, but it sucks that my first reply back was a rejection.
~9 months later, I got my security deposit back from STNJ. Woot, money!
~We got Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and Phone last week. I now have 3 channels dedicated solely to soccer. I'll pretty much be able to watch every Chelsea match, either in the Premiership or UEFA, for the rest of the season! And Spring Training has started and the World Baseball Classic starts up soon! Yay sports! :D
~Went with Appy (with Erica meeting up separately the next day) to visit Denise and Josh at Penn State. We watched silly movies, went on knitting adventures, and played many musically associated video games, consisting of lots of singing ourselves hoarse, pounding on bongos, and sucking at fake guitar. Appy read and was horrified by Twilight, and I got through 2 books of The Sandman. To and from cartrips had the soundtrack of Appy and I singing along with a mish-mash of Disney music, late '90s boybands, and Everclear. All in all, a good time was had by all, and one of Josh's pet bugs hitchhiked in my luggage home and has since disappeared somewhere in my house...
~Had a random birthday on Sunday, our last morning in PA. It began with delcious buttermilk blueberry pancakes, moved onto 5 and a half hours of (mainly) highway driving, and ended with a storm that dumped about a foot of snow on us. Had a Greek-inspired shepherd's pie and spanikopita for dinner and yellow birthday cake with chocolate icing for dessert. My parents got me a Chelsea FC kit (I'm wearing the shirt right now), money for a haircut and color, and Confessions of a She-Fan: The Course of True Love with the New York Yankees by Jane Heller.
~Borrowed Dee's copy of The Watchmen, and finished it earlier today. The only reason I can glean why this was such an important graphic novel is that it was the first of its kind. I was sorely disappointed and now not too interested in seeing the movie.
~NaNoWriMo in March has begun for the B&N crowd, though I suspect only 4 of the 8 of us are really going to give it a decent go. I'm at 6582 words right now, which is a little bit less than on target for 4 days work. Here's hoping I can actually hash this out and that I actually have enough of a story to fill 50,000 words.
~I need a job so bad I'm going to spazz out soon.
~The new U2 album, No Line on the Horizon. Wow. It's not what I was expecting. Not that I'm really sure I had any idea what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. And it's a GREAT thing. I've only listened through all the way once, and I need some time to really digest it fully, because it took me so by surprise. It's almost like a combination of The Unforgettable Fire and Zooropa or an entire album inspired by all the best non-album U2 tracks like "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me", "The Ground Benath Her Feet", and their cover of "Dancing Barefoot". I guess my best assessment to the sound is a distillation of all of U2's most adventurous music, but with a new maturity and self-assurance. It's still very much a U2 album with echos of everything they've done with Brian Eno, but it sounds so fresh and interesting and new. Some of the songs are odd ("Get on Your Boots" is growing on me, but I'm still not over-the-moon about it) and others are too meandering ("Moment of Surrender" is way too long), but it's such a confident and bold step. U2 seem as if they have forgotten about everyone and everything, even themselves, rediscovering what it means to make rock music unhindered by any preconceptions. And, while it probably won't go down as a touchstone U2 album like The Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby oweing to a lack of stand-out singles, I think it's similarities to The Unforgettable Fire and Zooropa lie in it's cohesion as an album. No Line on the Horizon feels very seemless to me, as if you shouldn't listen to it any other way than as a full record, an oddity at the very least in the Age of iTunes. Also, like the other two, there's a serenely cerebral quality to this album, an aspect of U2's more experiemental work that I think a lot of people overlook. No, this won't be another U2 blockbuster, but it does prove they aren't even close to done making really exciting music. No Line on the Horizon, indeed.
~Yale rejected me. I can't say I'm surprised, as they were always a reach school for me, but it sucks that my first reply back was a rejection.
~9 months later, I got my security deposit back from STNJ. Woot, money!
~We got Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and Phone last week. I now have 3 channels dedicated solely to soccer. I'll pretty much be able to watch every Chelsea match, either in the Premiership or UEFA, for the rest of the season! And Spring Training has started and the World Baseball Classic starts up soon! Yay sports! :D