I found this video a couple days ago and I’ve been watching it over and over since then. I think everyone should watch it because a) Heather Headley is a badass, b) the character Aida is a badass and these are precisely the facial expressions I imagine for her when I listen to this song, and c) Tim Rice has a knack for writing stirring lyrics for Disney.

btw, I heard rumors of an Aida movie in a couple years. I heard Beyonce Knowles for Aida and Christina Aguelera for Amneris. Um…yeaaah. That’s all I’ll say about that.

dearjackmovie.com

Alanis has joined the cast of “Radio Free Albemuth.”

I started watching Jericho. I’m cooking up a plan on how to secure this residence hall in case of nuclear fallout.

Also, I’m seeing Nickel Creek in the front row tomorrow. Woohoo!

A couple years ago (I think because I did a speech on it and was thus forced to research it) I became really interested in the hate crime laws (or lack thereof) in this country. I received an email from HRC today reminding me that the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (AKA Matthew Shepherd Act) is coming up for vote in the Senate tomorrow.
So here’s the scoop:
Federal hate cime laws are already in place for violent crimes committed on the basis of race, color, national origin, or religion, when engaging in a federally protected activity (ie voting, going to school).
The LLEHCPA would add to the list crimes resulting in bodily injury or death based on actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability.
It authorizes funding to assist local and state law enforcement with the investigation and prosecution of such crimes.
It removes the current prerequisite that victims must be engaging in a federally protected activity.
It gives federal authorities increased flexibility to pursue hate crime investigations local authorities have chosen not to.
It requires that transgender bias be added to the list of hate crimes statistics already being tracked by the FBI.
It contains explicit language indicating that the law is not intended to restrict or infringe upon any freedoms guaranteed by the first amendment.

Someone please tell me why anyone with half a brain would oppose this legislation.

Moving on. Happy birthday to me!
Mom sent me a fabulous gift in the mail- a Sean Watkins cd! I’m so excited!
A) I didn’t know he wrote Let it Fall- I always assumed it was Glen’s song and B)It has Ferdinand the Bull on it, which is the song during which he suddenly became extremely attractive at the show I went to in July.

See what I mean?
I’ve been wanting some new music, too.

I caught the last few minutes of Bionic Woman tonight. I knew Katee Sackhoff would be in it, but I hadn’t intended to really make a point of watching it. However. I turned it on to find her dressed in leather, wearing excessive eyeliner, kicking ass, in the rain, smoking a cigarette. And that happens to be exactly how I like my Katee Sackhoff, so…Wed nights at 9 it is.

Oh my. My my my.
New Cort and Fatboy interview recorded today. She talks about Bionic Woman and has some interesting things to say about Battlestar, including that there’s a good chance season 4 will be split in half with the first 10 episodes airing this January and the final 10 not until January ‘09! Boo!!!! Also a cute thing at the very end with a Buffy mention. They talk about how Faith was such a hot badass and the fans loved her so much that she eventually became a regular ass-kicking Scooby wannabe. And since the response to Katee’s performance has been so great that Sarah Corvis should be to Bionic Woman what Faith was to Buffy. She eventually teams up with the real Bionic Woman and become like the Bionic Punisher. And then Katee goes “Yeah…like she never quite agrees with my ethics, but she likes to have my manpower!”
Cute. Here it is.

PS. I had Leno on in the background, and I see a band playing. I look at the lead singer and think “he looks familiar”, but the sound was all the way down (because I’m listening to my new cd-yay!). So I go over and turn it up…and I hear the unmistakable warble of Conor Oberst. I didn’t even recognize him! Seriously, Connor. Get a haircut, and stop doing drugs. You’re not 19 anymore. (But you’re starting to look like you’re 40.)

See what I mean?

New Alanis song and video, speculated to be on the new album. Premiered last Saturday at the Elevate Film Festival.

I don’t really get the video, but I love the song. Very SCC to me.
The chorus, in the best translation I’ve found, goes:
There is no difference in what we’re doing here
It doesn’t show up as big as it does out there
So why spend all that time on dressing our bandages
When we’re the ultimate key to the cause right here
We’re underneath

Favorite lyric:
Look at us jumping ships in our dialogues

I’m so happy. ::smiles::

I’ve spent the past two weeks as a hermit, reading vampire novels. I finally picked up Twilight, and much to my delight there is a sequal, called New Moon. So I’ve not spoken with anyone, basically, since two weeks ago when I bought Twilight and last night when I finished New Moon. I love when I do that.

What made me mention it here, though, is that I’ve also been listening to a lot of Jack’s Mannequin for the past couple weeks, particularly Bruised. And when all you do is read a book and its sequal and listen to the same song over and over again for two whole weeks you can’t help but connect the two, so I’ve been thinking of Bruised as the sort of theme song for the two main characters in the books. (I do that frequently, actually. I haven’t decided if that’s odd or not.) But it couldn’t fit more perfectly, particularly for book two. *coughs*Chapter 3*coughs*

So on to the interesting part. Well, interesting to me, anyway. Here I am, walking around like a zombie doing nothing but think of Bella and Edward and their Jack’s Mannequin anthem. And I stumbled upon the author’s myspace page tonight, and what’s the song she has on her page? Yes, folks, it’s Bruised, by Jack’s Mannequin.

Love it.

Hours pass and she still counts the minutes that I am not there. I swear I didn’t mean for it to feel like this, like every inch of me is bruised! Bruised!

And every word of every song that ever made me wanna stay is what’s playing through the in-flight radio!

10 days until book 3.

After pretty much nooothing in 2006, save one performance of Wunderkind on Leno, Alanis had been pretty much off the radar until My Humps emerged on Youtube in April. I’m not going to say how happy I am that it looks like she’s starting to reemerge becausethat might jinx it. I am, however, going to say how I’m positively ELATED that she did a show at Hotel Cafe on the 24th of April. Just a small set at the cd release party for The Nightwatchman. She did Sister Blister, a couple other covers, and…brace yourself, folks. A brand spankin’ new song, called “Not as We.” And thanks to some sweet soul who flew in from Costa Rica to see the show, it popped up on Youtube yesterday.

I’m practically floating around the room right now I’m so excited, seriously. It’s a great song. Some of the lyrics I’m still trying to decipher, but the chorus is:

Day one, day one, start over again.
Step one, step one, I’m barely making sense.
For now I’m faking it, till I’m pseudo-making it.
From scratch, begin again.
But this time I as I, and not as we.

She looks radiant and confident and vulnerable and she wavers on a couple notes, which I find raw and endearing considering this is the first time she’s sang the song publicly. And especially considering what we can probably assume is the inspiration for it given the lyrics and the fairly recent tabloids.
She says “Guy [piano player] and I have been sequesterd in London and in LA writing a bevy of songs, and this is our little coming out party. Coming out of what, we don’t know. “
(Please mean coming out with a new album, please mean coming out with a new album.)
I think I just peed a little.

(I just couldn’t narrow it down to ten.)

11. Schoooool’s out for summer!

10. I’m almost positive I earned a 4.0 this semester. Still waiting on one exam grade, but I felt pretty good about it. (ETA: Just heard back on the exam! Got it!)

9. I start at Primrose on Tuesday. I’m co-teaching in the Explorer’s club, which is the school-age kids. It’s just about the easiest and best job in the world. The kids are so sweet, and we go on field trips. Lots of ‘em.

8. I just downloaded the new version of iTunes, and darn if there isn’t a converter on it! That’s what I get for refusing to change all these months.

7. I get to see Wicked this summer! Twice!

6. My meal plan dollars can buy Starbucks merchandise!

5. I get to see my family in a few hours! And my kitty!

4. Battlestar Galactica season 2 is FINALLY being released in one package. T-minus four days.

3. I am LOVING this song right now. Live Glen Phillips cover of Neutral Milk Hotel’s Two Headed Boy Part 2. (Current favorite part: “And in my dreams you’re alive and you’re crying, as your mouth moves in mine, soft and sweet. Rings of flowers around your eyes and I’ll love you for the rest of your life (when you’re ready)”)

2. Nickel Creek’s final tour this summer! I’ll be going to a show in KY…with special guest Glen Phillips. I’ve never seen Nickel Creek live, and I’ve only seen Glen once during the Toad reunion tour in…’03, I think. Suuuuper excited!

1. As of this time next year I will be Studying abroad at Keele University in England! About halfway between Birmingham and Manchester. (Home of Dominic Monaghan, btw. Let the stalking begin.) The entire month of April is spring break, so I’ll be traveling around Europe! Yay for new experiences! Yay for traveling! (And yay for British boys!)

Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever used so many exclamation points in one entry.

I’m sitting at Big Boy, working on this paper for the 12th hour in a row. Minus probably two hours for random breaks, dinner, and time spent driving from Starbucks to here. It’s a really irritating and stupid paper, but that’s a whole post in itself.

There is a group of three boys in their early 20’s that have just been seated in the adjacent booth. I’m typing away, but after the 12th hour my mind is starting to wander and I keep catching bits and pieces of their conversation. They’re talking about their girlfriends, and I will not repeat the horrible things they are saying. And laughing. Just laughing and laughing. My faith in men has been shattered for the evening.

On the plus side, I’ve turned the music in my headphones up as loud as it will possibly go to drown them out, and I’m really digging this Ana Nalick song. There’s an acoustic version of it on YouTube that is fabulous. I love the line “may he turn 21 on the base of fort bliss”, and I love the way she says “but my God, it’s so beautiful when the boy smiles.”

I’ve spent a good portion of the evening methodically searching the internet. I’ve been trying to find two things. I finally was able to watch last week’s episode of Battlestar Galactica. (Which, by the way, had a perfect title: Maelstrom. I’ve borrowed it for the title of this blog because it seems appropriate for this week.) Afer I watched it I became obsessed with figuring out what is written on Kara’s apartment wall, next to the “eye of Jupiter.” Luckily I was able to pause it and get most of it, and after scouring the internet to fill in the gaps, I think this is right.

methodically
smoking my cigarette
with every breath
i breathe out the day
with every delicious
sip
i drink away the night
Stroking my hair to
the beat of his
heart
watching a
boy turn
into a
Man

I think that’s really great. One source made mention that it was actually written by Katee Sackhoff, but I don’t know if there’s any truth to that. I kind of hope there is.
I also think that the scene where she’s painting over this wall with white paint is one of my favorite Battlestar scenes ever.

The second thing I’ve been looking for is really random, even to me. For no particular reason I began thinking about this song that I haven’t heard in years, called Halo, by Michael Knott. And as best I can remember I downloaded this song because of a particular piece of writing. I can’t remember if it was a review, or some sort of short story-esque thing, or what, but it made mention of the song. All I remember about it is that it was written by J. Edward Keyes. And I don’t even have any idea who that is or why his name stuck in my head all these years. I just remember reading it and being so struck by it that I downloaded the song it was talking about. I decided I’d really like to read that particularly piece of writing again, so I’ve been searching all night. So far with no luck. Meh.

The song itself is wonderful too. At least the particular version that I had at one time was just he and the guitar, and the lyrics are…well, I’ll just post them. I like them very much.

she can take me to the place I love
sometimes it’s a hard place to find
even when the heart is hardened
I see something in her eyes
kick and screaming on the outside
something hidden within
I think she knows about it
cause when she holds me close
I hear her soul

hell no
I don’t mind if your halo don’t glow like it used to glow
I don’t care if you change your mind every tempting road

she’s always reaching out for heaven
says it’s a hard place to find
I swear and say its everywhere
freed is the taker’s line
slip into the darkest color
nothing but a stain to show
I think we both know we know about it
cause when she holds me close I hear her soul

hell no
I don’t mind if your halo don’t glow like it used to glow
I don’t care if you change your mind with every tempting road

I’ll be on your side with something here
to let you know
I don’t care if your halo don’t glow