Last night’s MCR binge reminded me of how much I love love a) MCR and b) music videos. Let’s watch some together.
The Axis of Awesome The Holy Trinity
“What’s his job?”
This song discusses everything I ever wondered mid-RS lesson and wasn’t brave enough to ask. Kudos for the Converse-tapping.
Mindless Self Indulgence Fuck Machine AMV Cartoon
I was telling a friend about MSI yesterday and rediscovered this. I want to be a cartoon please.
The Axis of Awesome In the Club Tonight
I think we know whose CD I want for Christmas. (Also: Lorde, Lily Allen and Minchin if you’re making a list.)
If I ever have a lot of money to invest and I’ve already bought a house, remind me that I’d love to have a bar where you can dance and hang out and actually hear each other.
Join Tom Daley and Lance Black for a double date in London
I am aware this isn’t a music video, but I stumbled across it on my travels – aka saw it on Instagram – and it’s funny and for a great cause if it’s your gig but more importantly…
Omaze is my new career aspiration, ie if I’m ever a successful writer, I’ll put up a chance to have coffee and have an excuse to get a picture as good as this:
Ian Somerhalder Turns You into a Vampire (legit opportunity) from Omaze.com
There is really nothing to add. Except that I don’t know what show Ian Somerhalder is in. I think Vampire Diaries?
This has fallen apart somewhat. I’m going to do some paperwork now.
This one was tough… A Thousand Splendid Suns, We Need to Talk About Kevin, my John’s Gospel commentary by AM Hunter…
No really, you should compare Hunter to some of the others. Little tip, scholars: when it comes to sentences, less is almost always more. That aside, I think Uncle Rick gets the prize. House of Hades is brilliant and perfect and yes aimed at twelve-year-olds but let’s face it, people, children’s books are usually better than adult ones. Harry Potter, Mog the Forgetful Cat, etc. Oh Uncle Rick, teach me your secrets.
Album of the Year
How I Learned to Stop Giving a Shit and Love Mindless Self Indulgence, by Mindless Self Indulgence. I paid for the album, I listen to the album. It is a piece of genius. That is all.
New Favourite Website of the Year
Hmm. I’ve discovered Vice, a news magazine (although someone online pointed out that its narrative voice is disturbingly similar to that of the Daily Mail, which I must say has put me off a bit), Effing Dykes, a queer blog (and so genuinely not safe for work that I’ve not quite had the courage to devote an entire post to it yet) and Tumblr. Okay so I already knew Tumblr, but I joined because it made it easy to follow nice art. That and a deep desire to infiltrate the world’s bitchiest blogging network from within.
New Favourite Artist of the Year
Viria. Her art is beautiful. Ahhh. Her work is set as my phone and iPad background. The whole Tumblr thing was also induced by Burdge, Andy and Minuiko.
Old Favourite Artist of the Year
Ruby. She made this into an illustrated story for my birthday. The individual pictures are amongst others here (I’m hoarding the finished product but don’t worry we’ve decided if all else fails we’ll write children’s books so you’ll be able to get both our work in one book. Cool, huh?).
Most Family Member-Like Famous Person on Twitter
I actually can’t decide between Uncle Rick the Troll Queen or Uncle Gerard the MCRmy’s Therapist. Genuinely, the jury’s out. Let me know your thoughts (the best Twitter moment was when someone Tweeted Gerard the Russian Mark of Athena cover, on which Percy bears a striking resemblance to G. Aha).
Most Depressing Internet-Based Phenomena
The title’s probably a misnomer because it doesn’t involve idiots talking shit behind the safety of a computer screen (that comes later!). Anyway: those of you into the whole Percy Jackson thing might remember this:
I know, it’s incredibly clever. I do others like it. It was inspired by one of Viria’s pieces – the one set as my phone background; I had the idea going up the stairs which was interesting. I originally put text on her drawing. Quite a while after I published the poster, I posted the bootlegged one on Tumblr:
Drawing by Viria
I wonder which has had the better reception.
Hm.
Indeed.
It’s a good thing I chose an artist I really love or I might have become bitter.
Live Show of the Year
I saw Jesus Christ Superstar, MSI, a ‘revue’ at school in which my friend Sarah was splendid as a 1920s hockey player, my year’s pantomime-which-I-sort-of-helped-write, an actual pantomime, an interview between two of the best children’s authors around today and a poetry reading by the bloke off Homeland and Narcissa Malfoy.. But I think my favourite live band (discounting MCR because it’s MCR) is an ever-changing group of part-time musicians who play in a restaurant I like in Greece. I understand 10% of the lyrics, make eye contact 0.001% of the times I walk past and have been known to sing along to songs that are the Mediterranean’s version of Mindless. But it’s nice, and even if I found a YouTube clip (creepy as I’m there a lot) it wouldn’t quite convey the atmosphere, if you know what I mean.
Insult of the Year
“You’re a doody head.” Enough said.
Happy Moment of the Year
When I remember it’s not June and Donnie’s still here. I like Don and Fred better than I like most things, no offense, and they are my friends. It’s like having human friends but the dynamics are different – humans tend to be more forward about nicking your food. Get a pet, seriously. Unless you are incapable of looking after one due to a) lack of money, space or permission (volunteer somewhere instead), b) lack of time or motivation or c) aversion to pets. You know who you are. Yes, I’m including those of you who get pets because you think it’ll be fun or make you look good. At times, e.g. in a field in December, it will do neither. But then they look up at you, covered in slime, and you think “I love you little dog. Now let’s go home and hope we never have to leave the house again.”
Indifferent Ignorance Commenter of the Year
Jacki, whose wise words you will find if you scroll down a few posts. Getting people to comment on work is like pulling teeth (remind me that I have a piece of work about that to show you), yet is the best way of differentiating readers from spam-bots and ‘glancers’ – people who have a click and a scroll then go somewhere else. But it’s like being the first person to take food from a buffet: no one wants to be that person, though once someone has taken the leap they’re comfortable joining the queue. Weird. Anyway, Jacki comments a lot and for that I am grateful. Please accept this garbled post as a token of my appreciation. Ta.
Indifferent Ignorance Homophobic Dick Award
Maria suggested this category and I love it. Who to choose? Tony Abbot the Australian Prime Minister, who revoked equal marriage rights after people had got married? The guy whose work I heartily abused when Tom Daley came out? The parents of a child I saw a few years ago who had dressed their eight-year-old in a t-shirt with an arrow saying “I think he’s gay!”? People who stopped reading – or stopped their children reading – Heroes of Olympus when they found out about Nico?
His site used to have a thing where sites that had discussed the post were lined underneath and the one I did was there. I guess too many people were discussing the arseholery though because the layout’s changed…
Okay I think that’s everything I said I’d put in. If I’ve forgotten something or someone please let me know.
That’s called asking for a comment, ladies and gents.
I hope 2013 was as happy and safe as everyone wished it to be; if it wasn’t then I wish you happiness and safety for 2014. Even you with the pet you shouldn’t have bought, reading Forney and nodding in agreement.
Maybe not but I’ve been on a lot of cold medicine and perhaps the Christmas spirit of forgiveness is shining through.
WP is being very, very slow uploading my photos and I have to go out (twice in one weekend, I know) so here is what’s worked so far. I will update the slideshow gallery thing when the rest have worked… stay tuned kids, Steve embarrassed me when I met him and only time will tell if that pizza was spiked….
So the tube was okay, and we only got lost once… then a girl dressed as an elf giving out free samples of Costa Coffee’s new white hot chocolate gave us directions.
We also made freinds with some locals.
We were getting bored when some guys went past and said “Would you like some pizza?” We said yes, shared it with some other fans who were queueing and ate it.
… Then got down to the tough business of decorating the box (and by that I mean Hollie let loose.)
When it got dark – actually it never really got light, if you know what I mean – we snuggled up under Hollie’s blanket.
… or danced about to keep warm.
We also decided that it was important to promote Papa Satan’s the pizza company…
“Accepting food from strangers is sometimes a good idea!”
I became The Face of the brand.
In the venue and out of the cold, woo. The Dead Betas had improved on last year.
Then a wierd Australian band called The Red Paintings came on. They get local artists to paint while they play – and they play well. There were elecrical orchestral instruments and a raygun at one point.
After a while MSI happned. Loudly.
With fake phonecalls to the Queen, an explaination of why cutting MSI with other shit is bad…and some slightly inappropriate touching. Mostly on Jimmy’s part.
Here are some pictures that deserve to be seen in full-size from the off:
This is Steve pretending to puke.
The band came out to the floor afterwards and did some signing, and I met Steve after listening him talk to a couple of guys who knew MSI from ages ago. As he was signing my ticket I told him that I made a t-shirt with his name on it for the last show but didn’t wear it because I figured I wouldn’t get to meet him. He looked at me and said “you’re a doody head.” Then he pointed down at me, looked at the other people milling around and said “She’s a doody head.” I laughed awkwardly and shuffled off.
It was like when a teacher laughs at you in class for asking a stupid question.
If you look really, really closely, you can see Lynz.
Hollie’s dog Charlie really liked the merch the next day. (From her Tumblr.)
There was a post-show hangover a bit on the tube home…… for Hollie anyway. Tatch and I were buzzing…Because here’s evidence that I really did embarrass myself in front of Steve!
Anyway enough about the actual show. Today I was telling my friends about meeting Steve and they said I should get “Steve, Righ? Called Mee a Doody Head” on a t-shirt for the next show and I said “I’m wearing that original shirt every show ever”. Then I looked up a jumper I didn’t get to buy at the show and searched “Mindless Self Indulgence merch 2013” and what should come up?
Ah yes, the Internet is shitting on me now too.
The pizza wasn’t spiked by the way – it turns out random strangers being nice can sometimes be… random strangers being nice.
(I might come back and talk music when I’ve glued my ears back on. All I’ve got so far is that your parents will hate them almost as much as your mum loves Fifty Shades.)
It occurred to me that I haven’t been keeping the universe (you lot) updated with regards to my project-shaped goings on, so by way of explanation I’ve created a hypothetical Q&A with myself, answering any wonderings you may have had, while simultaneously boosting my Christmas-needing self-esteem:
How come you can spit out work like Nail Varnish but not tell us news about the MCRmy Census?
I have slow and fast burning projects. Fast burning ones, such as Nail Varnish, happen within a matter of days or weeks – I write, I submit, maybe something comes of it. Post submission, it’s not my job anymore. Slow burning projects take longer – weeks or months. They might naturally require more work to complete, or my life might take precedent partway through (yeah, life. Contrary to popular belief, I do have one). Or both. The Census is huge. If I had known the work needed, I would have definitely postponed it to after my exams, or possibly my school career. That doesn’t mean it’s not still going. I’m currently on phase four, out of a possible ten. Take the stance that a radio silence is better than a big ‘DISCONTINUED’ banner accross the top of The Webways with an explanation citing reasons why I stopped working…
So, what’s going on with #ProjectSnowflake? There’s two of you doing it, so shouldn’t that halve production time?
Hahaha no. Two of us have lives! Mishty and I are still in the process of creating a video (and if you think that’s easy, try making one with someone you’ve never met in person who lives on another continent, in the midst of exams and technical crap-fests).
You’re still blogging regularly on Indifferent Ignorance and The Webways so why can’t you put more time into other projects?
It doesn’t always work like that. I try to split my time three ways: my real actual life with people, pets and occasional sleeping; homework, a proposed twenty hours of independent study per week and building a UCAS form; and projects – blogs, writing, arty things and MCRmy goings-on. If I have a couple of hours to spare I’ll rework the Indifferent Ignorance pages or do Census scheming. If I have twenty minutes, I’ll catch up on correspondence or put together a blog post. I also have to work my physiotherapy into my time: I’ve been dealing with arm trouble for two years and seeing a physiotherapist intermittently for nine months. If I had stopped projects months or years ago I might have gotten better already but as it stands – and taking school into account – I have a long-term problem. So it all depends on the day, really.
Sometimes I’m falling asleep and have a panic as I remember that I haven’t Census-ed in weeks or blogged in days and I beat myself up over it… but at the end of the day, my life comes first. I willingly do all these things and they are all part of my life, but they are just that – one part each. If I didn’t have several things going on at once I’d run out of stuff to talk about and go back to watching EastEnders, but that doesn’t mean I exist purely to create online-happenings.
Finding a balance with all these things isn’t easy, but I am getting things done. Promise! In the mean time, if you have any questions about the Census, The Webways, Indifferent Ignorance or my writing (or anything else that you think I might know the answer to, such as “What’s it like having people rub cake in your wheat and egg intolerant face?”) ask me: Formspring.me/ToBeQuiteFrank. The questions can be anonymous and you don’t need an account to ask.
xoxo ❤ #hashtag etc.
F.
P.S. If you’re waiting around for news, unable to function for the suspense, be productive and listen to G. Way’s new music. Or MSI’s new music. Or get off the Internet and do your homework before Christmas kicks in.
Oh, and it seems lots of people liked my wee forray into the world of publishing. I’d love to be all “watch this space for more work!” but the last five times I’ve tried that in posts, said space has shrunk to a size similar to that of the UK’s dry land. One day, snowflakes, one day…
I read a lot (surprise!) and in the last few weekes I’ve come across a handful of articles that I’ve really wanted to Tweet about. As there is now quite a collection, it’s time for a new type of ‘appreciation blog’, methinks…
‘The I’
Well, it made me laugh…
‘You’
Of course, worried lady, your daughter having a stable relationship with a woman instead of a man means she will miss out on life-long love and children. Of course it’s also a characteristic that can be changed with counselling. Too bad ignorance isn’t.
TheGuardian.co.uk
The rest of the article is here. I’m not sure what the author’s getting at entirely (I think he’s pro-reading and possibly pro-God), but it amused me.
‘Kerrang!’
I would like to let it be known that Taking Hayley were rather a decent band, especially after The Dead Betas, whose music was good but lacked the ability to make the crowd move from its neatly formed rows. I would also like to let it be known that Jimmy is – unfortunately – as funny as he thinks he is, and that Lyn-Z was laughing along, when I could see her at least. I have a drawing of Steve, in those cat ears that’s more telling of how excellent the show was than that article.
‘Kerrang!’
Trust me, the front row was ugly. I was in the second.
