Ramblings and Musings of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

What are you listening to right now?
Ruslan und Ludmilla Overture.

What song(s) make(s) you sad?
It really depends on my mood. Songs about death can make me sad, but sometimes they just make me somber and contemplative. Hmm.... Oh, Forgiven from the new Battlestar Galactica usually makes me sad or melancholy. It's beautiful, but it makes me think of cemeteries because I was looking at cemetery pictures and writing a deathfic when I first heard it.

What is the most annoying song in the world?
Any Christmas song by Christina Aguilera.

Your all time favorite musicians?
Rockapella will always be very special to me, especially now that I've rediscovered them. And the 4 Seasons and the Monkees. Also, Evanescence (I'm so excited for the new album! I hope it comes out next month like it's supposed to), Within Temptation, and Nightwish. And for instrumental composers, John Williams and Howard Shore. Danny Elfman is pretty good too.

Your newly discovered musician is?
Not really newly-discovered, but thanks to Garowyn, I know enough of Blackmore's Night that I bought a CD of theirs at the Scottish Festival last month. I love it. I was particularly attracted to it because it has the song I Guess It Doesn't Matter Anymore, the title of which I took for my phantom hitchhiker fic.

Best female voice?
My favorite female voice is Sharon den Adel, lead singer of Within Temptation. She is *amazing*. Her range is incredible and her voice is so ethereal. Close runner-ups would be Amy Lee of Evanescence and local artist Allyse Smith-Taylor.

Best male voice?
Oddly enough, this one is harder for me. Most of the bands I listen to have female singers. And I'm not sure which one of the many beautiful Rockapella voices to single out. In the end, though, maybe Scott Leonard. But I always have a certain loyalty to Sean Altman, too. And I love Mike Nesmith's songs so much.

Music type you find yourself listening to most?
Right now, classical, anime music, or rock.

What do you listen to, to hype you up?
Cheery anime songs or energetic classical pieces.

What do you listen to when you want to calm down?
Quieter songs, sometimes religious, sometimes friendship, sometimes instrumental. EDIT: Oddly enough, if I'm in a certain frustrated and angry mood, quiet songs only make me more frustrated. Sometimes I need to listen to something rock in order to calm down enough to listen to quieter songs.

Last gig/concert you went to?
Rockapella, last August. It was awesome. X3

Band you find yourself listening to the most right now?
Really none. Mostly I've been listening to individual artists or classical.

Most hated band?
**shrugs.** I can't really think of a band I detest. I could much easier tell about individual artists. I can't stand the aforementioned Christina Aguilera's singing style at all.

Song that makes you think?
Anything by Within Temptation or Nightwish. Their songs are so deep.

Band that you think the world should love as much as you do?
Within Temptation! But finally they're getting some of the recognition they deserve. At last, it's easy to buy their albums in the States!

Coolest music video?
I really loved the one Within Temptation did for Memories, but watching it recently I felt really sad. It's still an amazing video, though. Actually, I think that even more since it evoked such emotion in me. The one they did for Angels is pretty cool, too, though the wings look fake. LOL. But soft!

EDIT: And as Aubrie pointed out, Michael Jackson's video for Smooth Criminal must be mentioned. I like both versions of it, though the edited one is my favorite overall because the full-length one seemed to have a lot of moments of pointless exclaiming by the audience and whatnot. I was really amused by the little boy in the full version, though. LOL.

Can you play a musical instrument?
I can play piano. I've wanted to play guitar, but it keeps confusing me. Plus, it makes my already-sensitive fingers hurt. XD;

Are you in a band?
No.

Do you wish yourself that you were a musician?
I want to be a singer.

Best chick band you know of?
The Ronettes. Totally random there. But I love when their Christmas songs are played during the holidays. XD;

Last song that you heard on the radio/CD, etc?
What I'm still listening to.

What do you think of Classical music?
It's amazing! I was raised on it, and always loved certain pieces, but it was only through Princess Tutu that I fully embraced my love of the genre.

What do you think of Country music?
I used to listen to it religiously. Those old country songs I heard back in the day still make me extremely nostalgic.

What do you think of metal?
I do not like heavy metal, nor do I understand why a couple of bands I like are classed as metal. Well, it's more understandable with Nightwish, but with Within Temptation I fully believe they never get harder than hard rock.

Last BIG band that you saw live?
If Rockapella is considered big, then them. If not, the oldies bands I saw ten years ago: The Shangri-Las, The Grass Roots, The Association, and of course ... Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. I also saw Micky Dolenz, by himself.

Do you listen to music in foreign languages?
Heck yes. Mostly in Japanese.

Funny concert moment?
Rockapella last year, when I wanted Zombie Jamboree and someone else wanted People Change, and Rockapella didn't want to do People Change:

Scott: Zombie Jamboree isn't depressing at all; it's just about dead people.

LOL.

And then Kevin did the customary halt of singing during the bridge and doubled over. Someone asked what was wrong and he gasped, "I swallowed a bug." LOLOLOL. The bugs were a running joke in that concert.

Best local act you can think of?
Cherie Call.

Do you listen to the radio?
Only during the Christmas season.

Do you watch music TV?
We don't get music channels.

Do you follow the music charts, like the top 40?
Frankly, my dear, I don't give a darn.

Have you met any famous musicians?
Yes, Rockapella. ^^ I wanted to talk to Frankie Valli, but he didn't do a meet and greet.

Are any of your friends/family/etc. musicians?
Some of them dabble in it.

Song that best describes your feelings right now?
Some song about being tired.

Do you know the names of all the band members that you listen to?
Mostly. I don't admittedly know the names of all the people in Within Temptation and Evanescence. The Evanescence people keep changing too, which doesn't help. LOL. I know all the singers in the bands, though. But I keep forgetting Tarja's replacement's name in Nightwish.

Does a musician’s physical attractiveness play a role in the music that you listen to?
Certainly not.

Favorite movie sound track?
The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars movies.

What do your parents listen to?
Religious music and classical. Mom likes oldies, too.

What are you listening to right now?
Still what I was listening to when I started this.

Do you wear band T-shirts?
I've always wanted an Evanescence T-shirt, but I couldn't find them when I looked in Hot Topic. Someday maybe I'll buy on their website. But I hate paying S&H charges!

Do you cook to music?
I sing a lot in the kitchen. And at Christmastime, the radio is usually on.

First three chapters of A Change in My Life, the Second Look fic, are up. X3 I really like how they turned out, especially the meetings, but I still wonder if they need more. XD; Chapter 2 is really short, for one thing. It's driving me nuts. I keep wondering if there's something I can do to lengthen it, or at least Barry's scenes in general. He's really hard for me to write for, but actually, all of them are hard to write for very long in this scenario. They won't remember for ages, but the main action only happens when they meet. The fic is much easier to write when they meet, and I hope it will continue to be. XD; I kind of stalled a bit, wondering what happens until they do remember, but some more ideas came to light.

For one thing, I realized that it's kind of like Princess Tutu, in that the characters are trapped in a "story" and are trying to break free of their assigned "roles." X3 The double is Drosselmeyer, pulling all the strings and delighting in their suffering. Though unlike Drosselmeyer, who just wants to tell a good, tragic story, the double relishes the pain he's causing because of how much he hates Scott. ;___;

There's other characters in the double's "story" too---so far, Double Trouble and Mrs. Pumpkinclanger have appeared. And pretty much everyone is being manipulated. I'm toying with the idea of a scene where Scott meets Louie once they break the double's spell and Louie is bewildered because he thinks he remembers Scott from somewhere. And Scott, knowing the full truth would be too bizarre to relate, tells him, "Well, maybe in another lifetime...."

I had actually also been toying with Louie and Ms. Parker and those other minor OCs not even being real and only being products of the double's mind, but I think I want them to really exist. XD;

I also wonder if I need to change the chapter titles. Originally it was slated for six chapters, enough to have all the lines from A Change in My Life's chorus as titles. But now I wonder if it will be more chapters than that, and if other lines from the song would fit some chapters better than the chorus lines. XD;

I picked up a Sonic shirt at Wal-Mart. X3 I just love it; it's red (one of my best colors) and has Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles in their Sonic Adventure designs. I was at Hot Topic several days later and saw some old-school Sonic shirts, but I like mine much better. **prefers the Sonic Adventure designs.** Beside, Knuckles is only on mine. X3 He's my favorite. (It was Sonic, until Knuckles was introduced. And yeah, aloof, tough, loner = me definitely being interested. I think he was one of the first characters of that type I liked.)

I hate going in Hot Topic because it's so loud, but luckily, it wasn't so bad this time. XD; Especially a good thing because Mom was with me, and I would have been embarrassed to take her in there if heavy metal was blaring out. It was fun looking at the old-school Sonic, Mario, and TMNT stuff, but I didn't locate any of what I was trying to: Disney Afternoon and Carmen shirts, all of which I'd heard they had. Maybe those shirts are just on their website now....

I might actually go back to Hot Topic and buy an old-school Mario shirt sometime. X3 They had a cute one I liked that said Team Luigi. Other than the Mario stuff, I didn't really see anything I'd want. I also prefer the new TMNT over the old, and they only had stuff for the old. XD; They did have some awesome KH shirts, but nothing with Cloud or Seph. ;___;

And Crystal showed me an episode of Shining Time Station. X3 LOL, that show was always awesome. It still is. Schemer = LOL. And I realized how much he reminds me of Sach from the Bowery Boys, but I think that's mostly because of how he looks wearing a baseball cap rather than his actual personality.

The episode was hilarious! It was the one where they're going to stay overnight in the station so Stacy (Stacey? Which way?) can make sure some automatic mail thing works right, and Schemer tries to scare the kids by pretending to be The Man With His Head On Backwards. LOLOLOL. (We never do learn that myth's backstory, but maybe that's a good thing. XD;) He ends up seeing some Jack-O'Lantern decoration on the wall and gets scared himself, after putting his clothes on backwards and trying to walk backwards to look like the guy. **snarks.**

I was surprised not to see Didi (DeeDee?) in the jukebox scene. LOL, when I was little, Grace was the only one I liked. XD; Tito scared me because of his nickel obsession, and the cowboys kind of annoyed me because they seemed kind of ... well, like idiots, LOL. And Didi scared me because I couldn't see her eyes. XD I'm not sure how I'll feel now.

I was really surprised by the train segments. Thomas was so meaaan in both of them. I remembered Thomas could be irresponsible, but I didn't remember he was mean to the other trains. ;___; Gosh, he was made to believe Percy was dead in the first segment and he didn't care at all. He was thinking, "Oh bother, now I'll have to wait for them to clear the line so I can go through." At first I thought Percy was mean to play the trick after Thomas had teased him, but then when I saw Thomas's reaction it was kind of ... Blurgh. The next day he was talking to Toby and said, "I knew you'd be feeling sad about Percy ..." I mean, bleh, he acted so heartless about the whole thing. And he really did believe Percy was dead, so he wasn't being blasé because he knew it was a trick or something.

Afterwards, I watched a little of the Thriller MV (and was amused at how MJ poked fun at the werewolf clichés), but I didn't watch the whole thing because I wasn't sure I wanted to see him turn into a zombie for some of it. XD I'll work up to it, maybe.

So I went and watched Beat It, then went to Weird Al's parody Eat It. Priceless! LOLOLOL. I just love how he had the same locations and choreography and stuff, all while singing about food. "Why are you such a fussy young man? Don't want no Captain Crunch, don't want no Raisin Bran." LOL! And then him waking up at the end of the MV with a stomachache.... **snarks.**

They say deaths come in threes, and that seems to hold true for celebrities, too. So we had Ed McMahon, and then I heard about Michael Jackson a few hours ago and wondered who was #3. I found out now it was Farrah Fawcett.

http://kai03.qwest.com/WindowsLive/Media/News/NewsDetail.aspx?cat=National&id=D99281TO3@news.ap.org&client=gadget&qid=737D1096277D584D67ACE6D9FFFFFFFF This is a nice tribute to the latter two.

Okay, I admit, I was honestly shocked and stunned to hear about Michael Jackson. Not that I'm a really big fan or something, but I mean ... he was Michael Jackson. It just seems incomprehensible to me that he's gone. He was just ... always there. I have TV Guides from 1991 and thereabouts with pictures and articles about him. My youth group once did a music video-type thing to the Jackson 5's song I Want You Back (which I always found extremely catchy and fun). And I admit, I do like song of his songs. (Smooth Criminal, The Man in the Mirror, etc.) As far as the Neverland scandals, you know, I don't know whether there was any truth to them or not. I don't know, and it's not my place to judge. The world will probably never know for certain.

I've been playing the guys' parody of I Want You Back.

My icon is brilliant. It comes from many hours of Aubrie's hard work coloring and shading, and it shows! **pets it.**

Well, I wasn't going to post this picture in my Scrapbook, but Side7 hasn't gotten to upgrade my account again yet, so here:



I got hit by more insomnia yesterday. Ugh. Sometimes it stays for a week. I hope it won't this time....

I watched the music videos for Like a Virgin and Bad to see the kinds of things Weird Al parodied visually, since I already know how he messed with the lyrics. XD The entire Fat music video is a parody of Bad, and it's just so priceless to watch one, then the other! And the lion in Like a Surgeon is there because it's a staple in Like a Virgin. Also, Weird Al imitates some of Madonna's actions and dance moves. LOL. It's definitely something to see. Weird Al is a comedic genius.

I ordered DC movies 5 and 8 from meganimedvd.com and I got the email that they shipped yesterday. ^^ Now it says that Countdown to Heaven is out of stock, so I must have gotten the last copy.

I wrote chapter 3 of Evil Never Dies! I'm so pleased. Now I really know where I'm taking it! I'll start chapter 4 later today. This will probably be the same length as Ghosts, possibly shorter. Probably not longer. And I dunno if I'll be doing flashback scenes in this one. I love how intense it is, especially with the Gin and Vodka angle.

Last year my cosplay aspiration was Alucard (and I never did get to gather things together for that to happen). This year, I've been toying with the idea of being Gin. XD