Max

Surprise surprise, I went to a Barenaked Ladies concert last night. It happened here in Mississauga at the Living Arts Centre. I didn't mention it before now because I didn't wanna jinx it. I talked a bit about it here on Tumblr last night when I got in, but I'm only just making a real post about the whole thing. Here's how it went down, including pics:

( Read more... )

So, Grinning Streak by Barenaked Ladies is amazing. I love it so much, a lot more than All in Good Time. AiGT was the result of a lot of unpleasantness (Steve's departure, Ed's mom dying, and then him crashing his plane that one time), and I think you can feel that in the album. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but what BNL is so amazing at is making really deep, dark music that doesn't sound deep and dark on the surface. Some of AiGT was really angry. I think it's an album they needed to make. But I'm glad they're past it now.

In Grinning Streak it feels like they're back to their old selves, but not in a stuck-and-stagnant kind of way. It feels like they're progressing while keeping what makes them great. It sounds upbeat on the surface; I can't think of a song that sounds like Ed wants to punch a wall or anything. My faves so far are "Limits", "Off His Head", "Odds Are", "Give it Back to You" and "Did I Say That Out Loud".

"Smile" is a great clap-along. "Crawl" totally reminds me of Don Henley, like, so hard it's not even funny. "Did I Say That Out Loud" has a great "oh-whoa-oh-oh-whoa-oh-oh" part that is wonderfully reminiscent of New Kids on the Block. "Give it Back to You" is the bittersweet ballad. "Keepin' it Real" is as close to angry as the album gets and it's got kind of a stompin' bluesy thing going on. "Gonna Walk" is just clappy feel-goodness. "Boomerang", "Odds Are" and "Best Damn Friend" are just pure BNL. "Off His Head" has a sound I really love that I can't ever really describe properly, idk.

Ed sings lead on all the main tracks except one, "Daydreamin'", which is Kevin's (and it's so Kevin. It has that dreamlike, multi-layered quality that he does so well. It actually kind of reminds me of "Here Come the Geese" from Snacktime, but more electronic-y). There are three bonus tracks (which are not included in the tracks the band so kindly uploaded to Youtube). Ed sings lead on two of them, and Jim takes the other one. While listening to the album, I was wondering where Jim's contribution was. His song on AiGT, "I Saw It", is one of my faves from that album. But then he turned up in a bonus track. I admit, I'm not that crazy about the bonus tracks, so that's a bit disappointing. Actually, no, I do really like "The Fog of Writing", which Ed sings. It feels very much like classic BNL to me. I can almost hear Steve's voice in it.

I threw all the tracks that are on Youtube into a playlist here.

I love this album so much. As much as it still pains me to see the four of them on the cover of the album sans Steve, it's an album that maybe heals the wound a little because they sound like they're in a much better place.

Here's "Limits" which is totally being added to my jogging playlist:


"Odds Are":


"Did I Say That Out Loud":

Here it is, the answer to the question nobody asked: Why hasn't somebody made a fanmix for the Tom Cruise/Simon Pegg pairing? Well, wonder no more!

It is called Hockey Night in Canada and Everything After. Because it is based on the fic series I'm currently writing with the same title. Because Simon and Tom went on a hockey date in Vancouver that one time. And because I stole the last part of the title from a Counting Crows album.

I've included some songs from bands that Simon likes. As for Tom, I included a couple of songs that I feel represent him mainly because of Rock of Ages, not because of his actual musical taste. It's kind of impossible to find info about what music that guy listens to. Google has been completely unhelpful, so I stuck with a couple of 90's power ballads a la RoA to represent Tom. For Simon, we have Death Cab, Elbow, and Lemon Jelly. Everything else is pure me.

I may have gone overboard on posting song lyrics here. Some songs had so many good lyrics that I couldn't choose. Also, I ramble a bit in some spots while explaining song significance. Each song title is linked to an uploaded copy that you can preview and/or download individually, so you can pick and choose which songs you want. The link to the zip file containing all songs, plus cover art, is at the bottom. There's also a link to the folder containing the individual songs and the cover art down there. If anything is linked incorrectly, please let me know!

ALBUM ARTZ:

Front (clickness for bigness)


( Tunes )

Writing: The stranded-on-a-desert-island STXI fic that came out of nowhere has somehow blossomed into a 20k-and-climbing sort of fic. I'm not even sure what the point of it is, really. I suppose it's kinda Lost-ish. No, I'm positive it's kinda Lost-ish, 'cause they're not sure how they got there and they don't know how to get back and now I need an ending and I'm kind of flailing, trying to figure out how to tie everything together in some kinda meaningful way. Yup. Lost-ish.

In other news: Steven Page married his girlfriend. Congrats, Steve! I hope this marriage goes better than the first one did. They do seem well suited, so I'm optimistic.

LJ: Ugh, people are dumb. When I found out what was really going on with LJ's DDoS attacks, I was like "Oh ... oh, shit, well ... huh ..." I felt seriously small, because what's going on is so much bigger than us. But apparently some people still think this is all about "the Russians" trying to take their porn away. Guys, Russia doesn't care about your porn. They got their own problems. This is not about you.

And is anyone else slightly uncomfortable with people saying stuff like "the Russians" this and "the Russians" that? I know that's where everything's happening, but still ... makes me uncomfortable, man. :/

I realize that most places other than LJ are kinda graveyard-y, but they're only like that because people won't use them. Nobody's suggesting leaving LJ altogether (although, who the heck knows what's gonna happen with this latest attack), but mirror comms, crossposting, keeping that stuff up to date even if no one's viewing it, all would've prevented this complete shut down of LJ fandom. You don't keep your important shizz all in one place! The days of LJ being reliable may very well be done and gone. I am not a "hipster" for partially jumping to DW early on. What I am is a paranoid bastard who doesn't trust anything, least of all technology. I didn't call myself MadEye for nothin'. I realize that organizing fandom can be like herding cats, but if it's important to you, back that shizz up, yo. It's not hard. No, I don't know how reliable DW will be in the future. There's no security on the internet, but at least I tried. You still try, man.

Anyhoo, places to find me that aren't LJ:

• • • • •

Although I haven't really started using G+ yet. I'm still not sure I need it. :/

Now then. More bitching. About browsers.

( Nerd World Problems: Firefox & Chrome Edition )

That's all

I know who my team is for the Ship Olympics! :D Teams will be announced on Tuesday, but being a captain from last year, I have access to almost everything the admirals are doing, so I had a peek at the Google Doc with the teams on it. I know exactly who I've got and what the actual team will be. I've started making graphics and things - header, userinfo banner and default icon for my team comm, and team icons - and I have to say I really, really like them. Thank you to the people who actually made the Starfleet/Olympics logo thing and the textures and whatnot, 'cause I was so lost without that stuff. ♥ Now the graphics are peeerrrrrrtyyyy.

I. Am. Excited. X-)

But anyhoo ...

( Fringe 3x15 - Subject 13 (this got really long for some reason) )