Don't ever let your mind stop you from having a good time

[essbeejay]

OH, DUDE, LJ, THANK GOD. A BRIEF RESPITE.

This week is an off-week from writing, so all my stresses are based irl! URFGH. In other not-so-relevant news, waiting to hear back on my hotel reservation requests for Comic-Con. Still nothing set in stone, but at least I've got till May to decide if I'm actually going or not.

Some meme answers! (In no particular order.)

Top Five Bands/Musical Artists

(My tastes tend towards "fun" music - stuff that makes me feel happy, makes me want to dance, anything that makes me feel like the artist is genuinely having fun.)

1. The Fratellis - These guys are so much fun to listen to! Tons of energy! I love how like 90% of their music makes you feel like you're running at top speed down the middle of the road - not the exercise, joggy kind of run either; it's the spread-eagled, flailing, wild and crazy kind of run with a couple hundred twirling jumps as you go. I've always got these guys going when I have a long drive ahead of me; their first album save for one song was absolute perfection.
   
   
   
2. Jason Mraz - He is awesome. I love him. I love his style - the rapid-fire delivery of his lyrics, and how he pays so much attention to the sounds of words and how they ring lyrically; it sounds like pretty slam poetry. I love his voice! He has amazing, absolutely amazing range, and an exquisite sense of rhythm, and he's always ON KEY. Not to mention he one of the few musical artists who actually sounds better live. His stage presence is great; he's so playful and his band is really fucking tight, too, I mean, they know their shit. (I like seeing people who've actually studied music go out and make a name for themselves. HEE.) His love songs are super-sweet too.
   
   
   
3. M-Flo - GUYS GUYS I CAN'T GET OVER THESE TWO. I don't even know how to start describing them. It is like, j-hip hop/j-R&B/j-rap all combined into something that sounds like it would be awful except it is the exact opposite of awful. I am very disappointed in myself for using up all my adjectives on Jason Mraz now. M-Flo is so bouncy, so groove-worthy and fun, you can't help but dance to them, GAH. How do I keep going on about their awesomeness?! It defies words. AND THEIR COLLABORATIVE WORKS, OMG. Astromantic is my favorite album of theirs; another one of those albums where EVERY SONG IS GOOD. They work with such a wide range of sounds; in addition to the hip hop/R&B they do some really jazzy stuff! I'm so incoherent, idek. LISTEN TO THEM, JUST LISTEN TO THEM. THEY SOUND LIKE THEY ARE HAVING THE BEST FUCKING TIME. HOW DO YOU KNOW IF THEY ARE? BECAUSE YOU WILL BE HAVING THE BEST FUCKING TIME ALSO.
   
   Watch on YouTube
   
   
4. Frank Sinatra - Is this even up for debate? The man was incredible. He never just "sang a line." He fucked with the rhythm all the time - he was over it, under it, all around and never right on the beat - and he sounded perfect every time. The man knew what he was doing, he had great musicality, and is a joy to listen to; the only way to sing along is if you've listened to a song over and over and know exactly what he'll be doing on every line (and even then, it's easy to forget). He never sang a line twice in exactly the same way.
   
   Watch on YouTube
   
   
5. Frou Frou - I love Imogen Heap, but where I often find myself a bit disappointed with her solo albums, I loved every last bit of Details. She has the wispy, ethereal voice of some otherworldly creature, and every song on Details just sounds like absolute poetry (as a whole I find Frou Frou's music more... "accessible" than Imogen Heap alone, so I guess Sigsworth is a large reason I love them so much). I'd still love to see Immi live; I've heard she's incredible. There's something very emotionally heavy in each song on the album, and while I tend to tire of those moody songs no matter how much I may love them at the outset, Details has never gotten stale for me. I guess it's a good thing they only did one album, else they might not be on this list.
   
   Watch on YouTube

(Honorable mentions go to Queen (FUCK YES), Regina Spektor, Third Eye Blind, and Lady Gaga.)


Top Five Favorite Movies of All Time

1. Ratatouille. Hands down the most satisfying movie experience I've ever had. The first and only time I've ever walked out of a theater in tears not because of the content or message of the film, but because of the sheer awe I was in at how wonderfully realized the characters and story were. Brad Bird is my fucking God. He gets character, I mean really really gets it, even moreso than his colleagues at Pixar, who are all already extremely talented. I will watch anything that man touches.
   
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This one means a lot to me personally. It was a heartbreakingly real falling-in-and-out-of-love story, something that just really resonated deeply with me. I'm not used to seeing love stories that portray a relationship as something that can be really sweet and devastating all at once; I don't think they even make a lot of those, really - it's always either one view or the other. I'm not even going to get into Kaufman's script (which is excellent; Kaufman does really wonderful, heady work) or Gondry's wonderfully creative directing. It's just such an emotionally rich, heart-wrenching love story, and so, so underrated.
   
3. Amélie. Ahh, I love Amélie! This one should otherwise be called "How to Live Your Life (to a Point) and Find Happiness." It's impossible not to love a character so sweet (and pretty!) and so ready to help others, yet so unsure of how to help herself. Not to mention the film gets some major brownie points for style alone. The film is a beauty to watch.
   
4. My Neighbors the Yamadas. Don't get me wrong, Miyazaki is great, but it's a shame he overshadows the lesser-known Ghibli directors (Isao Takahata, of Grave of the Fireflies fame, directed Yamadas). Yamadas is my favorite Studio Ghibli film ever, and one of the few whose English dub is actually outstanding. The family dynamics are great, the characters are hilarious, the light-lined, watercolor style looks beautiful and is the perfect aesthetic for the film, and its representation of something as simple as life at home is really insightful and, at times, touching. (It should please you to know that this film is nothing like Grave of the Fireflies, which is also excellent but should be avoided at all costs if you ever plan on being happy in your life ever again.)
   
5. The Powerpuff Girls Movie. For reasons already stated.

Honorable mentions go to Punch Drunk Love, Sabrina (the original w/Hepburn and Bogart, accept no substitutes), Beauty and the Beast, Jackie Brown, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.


Top Five Guilty Pleasures

1. Foie Gras - Undoubtedly. It's delicious and a part of me was wracked with shame about it until I saw geese actually being force-fed. In all honesty they looked like they were having a really tasty time. Like, if they could choose how they wanted to die, gorging themselves to death was pretty high up on the list. I don't know, I am still filled with guilt because the animals don't know any better; I mean, you put things they want to eat in their mouths or on their plate and they will eat themselves sick (my dog has proven this point many, many times), but at the same time they seem immensely happy about it, but but at the same time how are we supposed to know how they are really feeling? URGH GEEZ YEAH. Guilty pleasure. Because it is so God damn delicious. I'm sorry geese ;_; (I'm big on food.)
   
2. Getting angry about sexism - Mind you, I don't like to get angry in general. I try to be pretty mellow, but there's a lot of shit that really does piss me off, especially when you get into anything remotely political. I generally try to avoid stuff that will make me wish I had head-explody powers. But sometimes I want to wish I had head-explody powers. And when that's the case, spending some time on wtf_sexism satisfies my palate. I don't know why I like to get angry on behalf of women (and men too, though they post significantly less about men on the comm). At the very least I enjoy discussing it with the s.o. (And no, these discussions do not involve screaming at each other.) So maybe it's because it reinforces my happiness that I have a s.o. who I can discuss this with in an educated manner that's not going to make me want to set everything on fire. Yay!
   
3. Slice of life anime - I'm not a big anime watcher anymore, but when I do seek shit out, this is my go-to genre. I know it's all the same shit just re-hashed again (comedy based on the mundanity of real life) and to those outside of the anime-watching community it all looks the same (though they do have a slight point there), but despite all that it's still the one genre I can't seem to get sick of. Eh. Well, this is a nice lead-in to...
   
4. Anime pop songs - I'M SO ASHAMED OF MYSELF. Seriously, I listen to a ridiculous amount of this shit. I listen to more anime music (specifically op and ed songs) than I watch actual anime. I listen to shit that I don't even watch. Often I'll watch a show based solely on liking the op and/or ed songs (this has happened specifically with K-On! (eh), Shakugan no Shana (incredibly fucking boring for an action show; didn't make it past nine eps), and Lucky Star (so-so, even though I fell in fucking love with Kagami :D)). I tend to like a lot of shit that all sounds the same - lots of drum machines, high energy, very produced, and fast-paced, the reason being because of my next guilty pleasure, which is...
   
5. Imagining up scenarios involving the PpG or RrB kicking ass in a musical montage - Yeah, you guys think I'm joking. You fools. I dream up full-fledged action sequences to this shit. Not just to the anime music, even. Sometimes they manifest in fic - NIN's Closer and Florence + the Machine's Kiss with a Fist were the basis for the Greens' fight in TEF ch2, and there's more coming. Oftentimes they won't - I've got a few different action montages swimming in my head for both the Girls (two Lucky Star songs, one Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, plus others) and the Boys (Toradora!, Fall Out Boy's I Don't Care, Britney Spears' Circus (THAT IS RIGHT YOU HEARD ME), plus others). Sometimes both the Girls and Boys show up (both op songs for the first run of Shakugan no Shana). They might even just be character specific (Buttercup's got Johnny Rzeznik's I'm Still Here; Brick's got The Offspring's You're Gonna Go Far, Kid (thank you juxtaposie!)). You know what, they're not even always action sequences. I've got songs that just go with characters in my head (Jason Mraz's Please Don't Tell Her for Boomer, Lenka's The Show for Bubbles, HELL, the entire Regina Spektor song catalogue was made for our girl in blue anyway). I could go on forever about this shit. But hell yeah is it ever a guilty pleasure. UFF.
   
   God damn this was a long entry. More answers coming! Perhaps when I am feeling less long-winded.

Comments

[xjabooo.livejournal.com]

THERE'S A VIDEO FOR CHELSEA DAGGER? I LOVE YOU. SO MUCH.

I MEAN IT.

Speaking of imagining up scenarios involving the PPG or RRB kicking ass in a musical montage - idk about you, but I have a PPG/RRB Playlist (per color) that I still have to complete and re-analyze and ask people to review.

Oh, I'll go blog about that now.

Yay.

[spikerocksmysox.livejournal.com]

Yay The Fratellis and Jason Mraz. I also apparently had Imogen Heap on my i-pod without even realising.

I get the sexism thing as well, in a way, it's sort of bad if you don't get angry about it. These boys at school today kept saying really sexist things and I was about 80% sure they were joking - partly because of the random Irish accent they put on. But still, they shouldn't joke about it. Too bad I'm too much of a wuss to get involved.