You are a tabloid. I am a broadsheet. Do you get where I'm going with this?

Lily Cole is hot stuff. She's like a crematorium. Wowza.



You would, wouldn't you?

Things which are also hot:

• Electronica, in all its wondrous forms.
  
• Philip Pullman.
• Tomato soup.
• Tequila!
• iPod is fixed.
• Contact lenses.
  

Things which are not:

• I think I'm becoming lysdexic.
• Pokémon.
• Getting chased by fat people.

C'est tout, mes amis!

When I grow up I want to be...

This is an unposted post which I didn't post because I just found it (post).
It's completely irrelevant to my current life.
*coughs*
*worries about Leaving Cert*


"The last time I posted I was sick. And today I've a cough. It's coincidence, I think, since I don't get sick a lot (not as a rule, but just generally).
Fuck you, streptococcus!

I'm in Leaving Cert now, and it's awful. All I can think about when I'm at school is exams. Points, CAO, the rest of my life going down the crapper."

Join in the last hurrah!

Due to an above average body temperature, a throat the texture of sandpaper, and a constant headache, I have nothing more productive to do today than post a blog.
I think this sudden onset of disease might be the "tonsilitis" I had in April. The reason tonsilitis is in quotation marks, is because, the doctor seemed to just be guessing at what actually ailed me. The minute I said "sore glands", he blurted "tonsilitis" out of his pie-hole. I had to insist upon a blood test, being the hypochondriac that I am. So, you can see why I thought it unneccessary to visit my overpaid and unthorough friend again. A nice big codeine or paracetamol pill every couple of hours should see me through. Lovely.

Of course, being sick leaves plenty of time for reading.
I'm bingeing on Stephen King at the moment. Months ago, I got half way through The Stand and left it. It's like a 200lb corpse being dragged to a canal - hard work.
But, I read Misery last week. Annie Wilkes is probably my favourite literary villain ever. *makes hacking motion with axe*
Currently, I'm trundling through Different Seasons, a collection of 4 King novellas: Rita Hayworth & The Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, The Body, and The Breathing Method.
Haha, and I bought It today! Good christ I'm addicted!
I've bought more books in the last week than I have in the last 6 months by my reckoning, thanks to a little gem of a website called The Book Depository. Deez boooks iz cheep!
I bought From Hell by Alan Moore; the graphic novel on which the Johnny Depp film is based.
And also (*drools*) I bought The Dresden Dolls Companion. Hahahahahahahah! It's the vocal and piano sheet music for their first album! Don't expect to see me for a couple of weeks!



Here's a music bulletin.
This band are thee shit. Silversun Pickups they're called. I've been listening to their song, Well Thought Out Twinkles on repeat. They're kinda like early Smashing Pumpkins/shoegazer-type stuff. The guys voice is like some form of sex for the ears. Mmmhmmm.
I can't stop singing that Kate Nash song either...

My neck is stiff.

I'm going to the Rolling Stones on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111lol111

"The Time-Warp is boil-in-the-bag perversion for sexually repressed accountants and first-year drama students!"

I'm finally making some money again.
See, I usually keep two amounts of money. Money at home, money in the bank.
Occasionally, I'll take money from home and put it in the bank.
I only take money from the bank if absolutely necessary. It makes me antsy to use my ATM card. *twitch
So, after copious spending in Dublin, Cork, and Oxegen (see below), I found myself with no money at home.
Agh!
And now I'm working 6 days a week! Hurrah! Cash in hand!
I feel especially poor since James got his new job, and will soon be oozing money from his orifices. *shakes fist

I finished reading A Scanner Darkly, by Phillip K. Dick. I really enjoyed the film version, by Richard Linklater, but was left slightly confused, so I thought that reading the original prose would be more satisfying. Dick is an amazing author. He juxtaposes the quirkiness of the characters with little anecdotes, allusions, and vignettes, giving the whole book a much more "together" feel than the film. It's emotive and powerful, in a way that would really put you off drugs for life. Especially after reading the essayette at the end of the novel, in which Dick dedicates his work to friends he has lost, or who have been severely damaged (including himself), due to drug abuse. Death, psychosis, vascular damage, and brain damage are all mentioned. I'd recommend everyone, especially those interested in drugs, to read the novel, and see the film, because it really makes one think twice.
Linklater is a visionary director aswell. I'm becoming a bit of an aficionado because after a bit of research, I've realised that I've seen a lot of his films.
He did, apart from A Scanner Darkly, Waking Life (which incorporates the same rotoscoping technique seen in A Scanner Darkly), School of Rock and Dazed And Confused.
I want to see Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and subUrbia now. You can read more about him here.
Considering Dick also wrote novels that the Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report, I want to read more of his work. You can read more about him here.
Me, the science-fiction nerd.





In other news, I've been watching the first series of Spaced. I've been a Pegg/Frost/Stevenson fan for a while, so I thought I'd pick this little gem up when I spotted it in Cork.
It's genius.
Absolute genius.
It's impossible to describe how freaking weird and funny it is.
Here's a taster:
Mike, facing an interview for the Territorial Army, repeats the following mantra to himself:
"I'm Andy McNab!
I'm Andy McNab!
I'm Andy McNab!
I'm Andy McNab!
I'm Andy McNab!
I'm Andie McDowell!
SHIT!"

If you didn't wet your pants just there, go eat your own leg, you emotionless tart.

Tally ho!

Apparently it was fashionable in Fall 2005...

I want a blazer.
Plain and simple.
Or is it?
All I can ever find are massive, unfitting things which resemble suit jackets!
I want it 'cos it's both formal, and casual.
And so I won't have to wear my mothers. :(

This'd do:




Huff.

"Dancing like a beautiful dance-whore!"

*disgruntled grunt*
I haven't posted in a while, as I've been busy. Too many events in too short a space of time! I wish the following two concerts hadn't been so close together, but alas! it was not to be.

Firstly, Tuesday 3rd of July.
The Flaming Lips in Cork.
Clare and myself were the only two people from Westport going for some reason...maybe because everyone else had seen them when they played their Vicar Street dates in November. ¬_¬
After 7 hours on a train, we finally made it, tired but excited. Our hostel was practically next door to the train station, which was handy.
Cork's a great city. Friendly, safe (as safe as a city could be, anyway) and clean. Plus, they don't seem to ask for I.D. in Tesco! Huzzah! Or should I say, Huzzar...ahem...
I would recommend being at least tipsy in the queue for a concert, because the time just flies! On getting in, we would have been first in the line, 'cept for our bladders, which are not made of steel! I got a nice t-shirt. Hmmm...
Concert was epic, of course. As one has come to expect of a band as nuts as the Flaming Lips.

I'd recommend seeing this band before you die. Even if you've never heard their music. Even if you hate their music! They WILL put on the best show you will EVER see.
Balloons, lasers, bubbles, confetti, the lot!
So, yeah...fun day...

The rest of that week I spent making preparations for the mudfest that Oxegen would turn out to be.
Surrealism in reality. That's what Oxegen is. You'll see things there that'll make your eyes fill with tears, your skin crawl, and your balls recede into your abdomen (or your ovaries drop, if you are of the female variety).
The first thing that greeted us was rain. And mud. And that's pretty much the forecast for the weekend, chaps! After queuing for an hour, we finally trudged through the soon to be half a foot of mud to somewhere where we could pitch a tent. This said pitching was not a fun task, especially in the rain.
I discovered that if you are drunk in rain and mud, you just don't give two hoots anymore!
So, a bottle of Malibu devoured on the Friday, then.
Woke up Saturday wanting to go home, but quashed that feeling in the expectation of the great music to come.
Plus, I was entertained for most of the day by a drunken Tommy. (*makes sick face).
I saw Tori Amos, Interpol, and Muse that night. Three of my favourite artists. This made up for the rain, the mud, and the icky feeling in my stomach.
Plus, it had been sunnier today.
I'd make a memory list, etc., except there's just too much. All you peasants need to know is that is was "good" - good being the single most undescriptive adjective ever.
On Sunday, I saw CSS, Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes, Rufus Wainwright, and Daft Punk.
I seriously can't fault the musical display that was on at Oxegen, nor the way it conformed to all my tastes!
On Sunday night, I was at a rave. Raving. To dance music. RAVE RAVE RAVE.
Rave-fucking-tastic is what it was. *raves
I tried to stay up all night, put ended up falling asleep at about 6am. We had to get up two hours later to get the bus home, so as you can imagine I felt rightly dead.

So, now I'm only a week behind in posting the antics of my amazing life. *rolls eyes

Tune in next week when we relive my birth, with real video footage!

You want the Garlic Bread! You want it!

Hahahahahahaha.
My dad got a new "cellular telephone" today, and the inevitable just happened. Being over 40, he has trouble with technology. And being, the "hip" over-40 year old he is, he thinks he doesn't have this trouble. He got into the media player on it, and started playing one of the two Tears For Fears songs that came free with the phone (ooh la la!). And then he couldn't switch it off, because if you press cancel it just goes to the menu screen. So, chaos broke out, with my mother banging on the floor upstairs, screaming "Turn It Off!" and "What is that noise?!". She seems to hate cheesy 80s pop music for some reason. Dad endeavours in all attempts to correct his mishap, but fails. The synths and lightly strummed guitars wail into the night, until I take the phone and save the day! Hoorah!
It was bloody hilarious. It felt like I had fallen into an Adrian Mole sequence.

I finally finished the book I've been reading since March. Shocking, isn't it? It's American Gods by Neil Gaiman.I was determined to put the thing to bed. Ronan had lauded it so much, that I thought it was going to be epic. Don't get me wrong, it's quite a good book, with some fantastic ideas, concepts and descriptions, but it's sluggish, confusing and pretentious at the same time. And it just sort of ended...all this build up and then *makes divebomb motion with hand*. It's worth reading though, just for an insight into Gaiman's imagination. He did bring us The Sandman after all.

Hat & Bouncing Day was an outstanding success. Praise is due to Megan and Stef for organising it. Even though it was raining we still had fun. If you can't tell by the day's title, it was a party based around wearing a hat and bouncing...on a bouncy castle... The childish theme of the day really went to my head...all concepts of civilised behaviour went out the window, as Eoin and I tried to start a food fight with Alanah, who had chosen to eat her meal lying on the floor under the kitchen table. And then I slapped a piece of cake into Grace's face. Hahaha!
Deflation has never been so much fun, though the implications of suffocation are less than attractive. This is us, well, most of us:





CONCH! (rofl) That's a PJ, btw!

And this is Alanah recieving her prize for best hat. She made it out of a lamp-shade. The light setting was weird on my camera at the time...






Our Love To Admire out on July 10th! I <3>