Sorry, for some reason blogger messed up and I have no idea how to remove the text background color completely :(
I was going to make a blog last week, but I just felt horrible about what happened in the Aurora Theater shooting :( I feel horrible for everyone who was effected by that disgusting event that took place and my heart goes out to everyone. I wish I could not make this as generic as it sounds but I am never great at saying how bad I feel for the victims :( RIP, you deserve to be remembered and not the insane homicidal maniac. The victims will live on through their loved ones and will never be forgotten.
Now that I got the sad part of this blog out of the way, let's get into new music I got (it's totally important right? Lol nah, I just make these blogs so others may find new bands to enjoy)! I bought a lot more music than this but I am just going over the highlights (and more "gothy" bands, since I bet more of my readers will be into that kind of music. I doubt many people would be super thrilled that I got Junta from Phish or Riot! by Paramore lol). Oh, before I get started I just want to say all the links in this blog will open up the music in a new tab so don't worry about having to constantly hit the back button.
1). Santa Hates You - Crucifix Powerbomb . This is one of my favorite CD's I own it's like industrial mixed with techno with aggressive singing but not too aggressive (I know that isn't the best description but it's a hard band to describe lol). I love how this band doesn't take itself seriously and is basically Peter Spilles' band that he uses to make "fun" music. that being said, you cannot discount Jinxy because PS is such a huge name, she is also amazing. This is basically accessible dance industrial music made by two people having fun, and you will be hard-pressed to find another band like them. Yeah that sums it up well lol. There is one thing that I hate about this band though, they have never toured in the US. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? They have been around for 5 years (possibly more) and it doesn't seem like they went on many tours so far (I guess it's understandable but still I want to see them live lol).
My Favorite Songs
EVERYTHING (Lol ok, so I have to pick 2 since I don't want to list every single song, so I'm picking the two songs that have music videos out, just to show you how "serious" this band is. If you like them you should definitely check out their music video for "Raise The Devil" it is pretty funny, oh and if you're not in the mood for music then maybe check out their mini FAQ video, it's hilarious).
Rocket Heart
Hexenpolizei
2) Hannah Fury - The Thing That Feels. Hannah Fury is an artist who has both of her full length albums sold out! This kind of sucks because both of the CD's are good. Anyway, The Thing That Feels is Hanna Fury's first full length album and I really enjoy it, all she uses is her piano and her voice. Hannah Fury sings all of these songs in a manner that almost gives you chills! If any of you have heard of Kate Bush, Hannah Fury kind of sounds like her, and she also kind of sounds like Emilie Autumn (with EA's more slow-piano songs). This album is also pretty interesting because almost every song is based on the book Wicked: The Life and Time of the Wicked Witch of the West. I believe this is a sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and it got turned into that play "Wicked". I love listening to her songs because you can tell what characters she is singing about (however I never read Wicked so I don't really know the story). However, even though I do love this CD there is one BIG downfall, almost every song sounds the same! I actually didn't mind that on this album but it does limit the album, especially if you don't like the style of any track since there really isn't much variety in this CD :(
Favorite Songs (because every song sounds so similar I'm only going to be linking one even though I love the entire CD).
The Vampire Waltz
3) Hannah Fury - Through the Gash. Hannah fury keeps her haunting tone, but now she adds some drums, overlapping vocals, and her music seems a little bit more electronic now. This is definitely a step up from The Thing That Feels for two reasons, she does have some variety in this CD, and she seems to be growing as an artist, by now adding more instruments! There are some really interesting songs on this CD like the ironically named "Don't Be Scared" which creeps you out and is very otherworldly at the same time.... actually Hannah Fury is the first artist that comes to my mind when someone says ethereal!
Favorite Songs (The first actually has a music video out, and tell me she doesn't look like Kate Bush lol)
Carnival Justice (The Gloves Are Off) pt 2
Status
4). Ego Likeness - East . This is an AMAZING EP! For those of you who don't know, Ego Likeness has made 4 EP's, each of them based on a direction (South, West, North, East) I believe they have all been limited edition but I do not know how many of each (except for East, only 300 of those). This is what I hate about this CD I wish so many more people could experience how great this EP is (I can't lie though, I do kinda love that this CD is going to be hard to find and I have it lol). However, seeing how Ego Likeness operates they might make a few songs on this CD free to download off of their website (they're awesome like that, makes me want to support them more).
Favorite Tracks
Persona Non Gratis
Tea in Sahara
6). Emilie Autumn - Fight Like A Girl. What can I say except I was kind of let down with this album. I think my biggest disappointment was that none of these songs were adapted from a poem or a play. EA's main CD's (Enchant and Ophiliac) both had amazing song adaptations of old pieces of literature (like Shalott, or my favorite of EA's songs, Juliet) and those were some of my favorite songs on her CD's. Sadly this CD is basically just the musical from her Asylum book (from what I understand). That's not to say there are not any songs I love off of this album but there are just songs on here that I simply can't stand, which is very hard for me to say since I love almost everything Emilie Autumn has put out and there has been so few EA songs I didn't like before this album came out. In all fairness though Emilie Autumn did tell everyone what kind of CD this was going to be. I do think it was a mistake to release the CD and not have a whole extra part of a live show because it really sounds like a soundtrack to something that could be an amazing play.
Oh and I should say that even though I did not get my CD in the mail yet, the Digipak looks amazing! I do love collecting Emilie Autumn's CD's and even though this is my least favorite of hers it does have some good songs and I don't regret buying it. However if you were expecting that "Harder" stuff I believe EA said (I think I saw someone comment about how she said Fight Like A Girl was going to be harder than Ophiliac if I remember correctly, sadly that was only true for a few like maybe 4 or so out of 17! However it is great to see that this CD has quite a few songs on it), you should download the harder songs on itunes (when it's out on there, you could also visit her website and listen to song samples if you want). However, I really really really recommend seeing her live because I feel like this CD was made for her live show instead of a stereo, and since EA always has amazing live shows, I'm thinking this will be her best one(s) yet!
Favorite Songs (I'm adding more because of how hard I came off on this CD lol)
Fight Like A Girl
Time For Tea
Take The Pill
Goodnight, Sweet Ladies
OK that's about it I might end up making another blog about more CD's I picked up and my thoughts on them. Peace <3
Friday, July 27, 2012
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Addendum to previous blog "A Short Rant on Discrimination..."
So I was thinking of adding to my older blog "A Short Rant on Discrimination Plus a Game Plan for Future Blogs", but as you know I'm obviously kind of lazy lol. So, instead I found this really good video that basically just says what I would have said in my blog.
Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAdJUm79xi4
That's about it for this blog, don't worry I'll make a decently long one soon! (and I don't think it'll be another chapter "review" of 50 Shades of Grey, unless anyone wants me to read another chapter *shudders* lol)
Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAdJUm79xi4
That's about it for this blog, don't worry I'll make a decently long one soon! (and I don't think it'll be another chapter "review" of 50 Shades of Grey, unless anyone wants me to read another chapter *shudders* lol)
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Hello Love - A Poorly Written Review of the Poorly Written First Chapter of Fifty Shades of Grey
I glare with terror at the book in the front of me. What the - did I just write an awkward sentence to post in this blog post? OMG am I'm cursed with the curse of bad writing? What kind of horribleness is this?
OK, I'll stop now, but wow this book is badly written. I was amazed when I read the first chapter of this book and almost died of brain damage, I mean I heard that this book had some bad writing, but I didn't think the writing would be as bad as it is. I honestly don't know if I can write a review of the next chapter, it's been such a chore to read this awkwardly written literature... I should say story shouldn't I? Literature makes it seem like it was professionally written.
Background: To start off, Fifty Shades of Grey is a book written by a woman named E. L. James. This book started off as a Twilight fanfiction, that's your hint that the book is not exactly what you might call impressive. However I hear that there are some fan fiction stories that are actually pretty good, so it isn't really all that fair to judge this book just because it started off as a fan fiction novel.
Also, to be fair, I actually did not mind the first Twilight movie (obviously based off the book, and I know it's blasphemy so put some tar on me and throw feathers this way lol), but that movie just didn't have super irritating characters (yet), they were just bland. So I was thinking, hey there might be a chance that I won't dislike this book. Well, sadly, that is not the case. So far the main reason I don't like this book is not because it is horribly written, but because it was a best seller, turning it into a symbol to how low the intellectual level has fallen. People actually think this is good and decently written! I admit, I'm not the best writer either, but I'm pretty sure I'm a better writer than the author of this book! I guess the difference between E.L. James and I is that I'm not narcissistic and I realize that I should not be writing books (or at least if I ever end up write one I would have someone check them for mistakes over and over again). I mean oh my god, this writer sounds like she is 15 years old and is writing her private romantic fantasy novel about that one guy in her class whom she fantasies about being with. There is nothing publish worthy about this, how did it not get rejected? Did this woman even pass English class? I'm sorry if I'm sounding so harsh but it is amazing to read something published with such badly written sentences, I'm still in shock at what I just read. Didn't E.L. James' writing teacher ever tell her to show not tell?
Anyway moving on to the plot of the first chapter. It starts off with Kate (the protagonist's roommate) having the flu so the protagonist (named Ana) has "been volunteered" to do an interview with a "mega-industrialist tycoon". Kate tells Ana that she is once again her lifesaver, and we realize how the author sees this character, the savior of the story (which I believe will come up later when she tries to "save" her future lover from his "awful" bdsm lifestyle. Which, by the way, is not a lifestyle people need saving from if they are in it >:( but I'll get to that if or when I come to it).
Ana goes to the "headquarters of Mr. Grey’s global enterprise" AKA Grey Enterprises Holdings Inc. (Interestingly enough this is the first time Mr. Grey's name is mentioned, we the reader do not know who Mr. Grey is, and all we can assume is that he is who Kate was supposed to interview. But is Mr. Grey the CEO, is he owner of this enterprise and thus not the person Ana is going to interview, or is he both? We do not know because he hasn't really been introduced). Finally she starts interviewing him after meeting two of his blonde receptionists. Finally we get a name, Christian Grey. These two talk and do the interview is done (finally we know that Mr. Grey is both the CEO and the owner of the company, and an interview is "totally" not a lazy way of flushing out the character of Christian). During this interview Christian asks “Are you colleagues on the student paper?” (James, 14), this either makes me think that Christian has a bad time with the English language or that E.L. James or her editor did not look at the story close enough to see a basic mistake. Anyway, back to the story. Christian ends up offering Ana an internship at his company, but she turns him down (at least right now), and she leaves the building and drives home.
Review for this chapter: It was horrible lol, but I do suggest anyone who does not think that a book would be published with such terrible writing go check this out, read a chapter on Amazon. WARNING: You might give yourself a concussion by the time you're done with reading a page of this book, PROCEED WITH CAUTION.
Also, I would like to ask why there are so many references to the color grey, Ana's last name is Steele, the love interest is named Mr. Grey, the building where the interview takes place is made of steel, the outfit the secretary has on is black and white (mixed together = grey), Mr. Grey has grey eyes, etc. This author repeats words so much on some instances while I was reading the story I was like "let me guess, you're going to say that the desk is sandstone again", or "OMG I bet I can't guess what color Mr. Grey is wearing is, and what color his eyes are. They are purple right? Totally won't be grey, nope not at all" (sorry, sarcasm is hard to show on a computer).
Quoting Fifty Shades of Grey "Nothing changes" (James, 8), this is the perfect quote to express the extent of repetition in this story. EVERYTHING IS FREAKIN' GREY!!!!! What is the author's obsession with Grey? Is that her favorite color?
Random Works Cited For Fun (yay)!
James, E. L. Fifty Shades of Grey. Waxahachie, TX: Writer's Coffee Shop, 2011. Print.
OK, I'll stop now, but wow this book is badly written. I was amazed when I read the first chapter of this book and almost died of brain damage, I mean I heard that this book had some bad writing, but I didn't think the writing would be as bad as it is. I honestly don't know if I can write a review of the next chapter, it's been such a chore to read this awkwardly written literature... I should say story shouldn't I? Literature makes it seem like it was professionally written.
Background: To start off, Fifty Shades of Grey is a book written by a woman named E. L. James. This book started off as a Twilight fanfiction, that's your hint that the book is not exactly what you might call impressive. However I hear that there are some fan fiction stories that are actually pretty good, so it isn't really all that fair to judge this book just because it started off as a fan fiction novel.
Also, to be fair, I actually did not mind the first Twilight movie (obviously based off the book, and I know it's blasphemy so put some tar on me and throw feathers this way lol), but that movie just didn't have super irritating characters (yet), they were just bland. So I was thinking, hey there might be a chance that I won't dislike this book. Well, sadly, that is not the case. So far the main reason I don't like this book is not because it is horribly written, but because it was a best seller, turning it into a symbol to how low the intellectual level has fallen. People actually think this is good and decently written! I admit, I'm not the best writer either, but I'm pretty sure I'm a better writer than the author of this book! I guess the difference between E.L. James and I is that I'm not narcissistic and I realize that I should not be writing books (or at least if I ever end up write one I would have someone check them for mistakes over and over again). I mean oh my god, this writer sounds like she is 15 years old and is writing her private romantic fantasy novel about that one guy in her class whom she fantasies about being with. There is nothing publish worthy about this, how did it not get rejected? Did this woman even pass English class? I'm sorry if I'm sounding so harsh but it is amazing to read something published with such badly written sentences, I'm still in shock at what I just read. Didn't E.L. James' writing teacher ever tell her to show not tell?
Anyway moving on to the plot of the first chapter. It starts off with Kate (the protagonist's roommate) having the flu so the protagonist (named Ana) has "been volunteered" to do an interview with a "mega-industrialist tycoon". Kate tells Ana that she is once again her lifesaver, and we realize how the author sees this character, the savior of the story (which I believe will come up later when she tries to "save" her future lover from his "awful" bdsm lifestyle. Which, by the way, is not a lifestyle people need saving from if they are in it >:( but I'll get to that if or when I come to it).
Ana goes to the "headquarters of Mr. Grey’s global enterprise" AKA Grey Enterprises Holdings Inc. (Interestingly enough this is the first time Mr. Grey's name is mentioned, we the reader do not know who Mr. Grey is, and all we can assume is that he is who Kate was supposed to interview. But is Mr. Grey the CEO, is he owner of this enterprise and thus not the person Ana is going to interview, or is he both? We do not know because he hasn't really been introduced). Finally she starts interviewing him after meeting two of his blonde receptionists. Finally we get a name, Christian Grey. These two talk and do the interview is done (finally we know that Mr. Grey is both the CEO and the owner of the company, and an interview is "totally" not a lazy way of flushing out the character of Christian). During this interview Christian asks “Are you colleagues on the student paper?” (James, 14), this either makes me think that Christian has a bad time with the English language or that E.L. James or her editor did not look at the story close enough to see a basic mistake. Anyway, back to the story. Christian ends up offering Ana an internship at his company, but she turns him down (at least right now), and she leaves the building and drives home.
Review for this chapter: It was horrible lol, but I do suggest anyone who does not think that a book would be published with such terrible writing go check this out, read a chapter on Amazon. WARNING: You might give yourself a concussion by the time you're done with reading a page of this book, PROCEED WITH CAUTION.
Also, I would like to ask why there are so many references to the color grey, Ana's last name is Steele, the love interest is named Mr. Grey, the building where the interview takes place is made of steel, the outfit the secretary has on is black and white (mixed together = grey), Mr. Grey has grey eyes, etc. This author repeats words so much on some instances while I was reading the story I was like "let me guess, you're going to say that the desk is sandstone again", or "OMG I bet I can't guess what color Mr. Grey is wearing is, and what color his eyes are. They are purple right? Totally won't be grey, nope not at all" (sorry, sarcasm is hard to show on a computer).
Quoting Fifty Shades of Grey "Nothing changes" (James, 8), this is the perfect quote to express the extent of repetition in this story. EVERYTHING IS FREAKIN' GREY!!!!! What is the author's obsession with Grey? Is that her favorite color?
Random Works Cited For Fun (yay)!
James, E. L. Fifty Shades of Grey. Waxahachie, TX: Writer's Coffee Shop, 2011. Print.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
A Short Rant on Discrimination Plus a Game Plan for Future Blogs
Sorry it took so long for a new post, I'm still taking classes (and sadly I'll be taking them all summer, but at least I'll graduate when I'm done with the summer semester lol).
Anyway I was thinking about doing a blog about this topic a while ago but school kind of got in the way, luckily classes haven't been as hectic so now I can do a blog about discrimination.
Since discrimination is a gigantic issue I'm only going to be covering the Goth discrimination against other Goths since, obviously, this is a Gothic blog lol and I do find it pretty sad that some of this stuff is happening.
So, narrowing this type of discrimination down even more, this is the discrimination that (mostly older) Goths do to either younger Goths, or people that are new to Gothic culture.
I don't understand this, I mean we are already discriminated by society so why do some Goths feel like they should discriminate against newer or younger Goths? You would think that people who know how discrimination feels would be less judgmental of others, but yet there are Goths who make fun of, hate on, pick on younger Goths or people newer to Gothic subculture calling them "posers" and the like, and not paying any attention to them.
I personally say if these people want to be called Goths and look Gothy then they should go for it, I'll support them . I mean everybody has different preferences, some people might love the Gothic look but hate Gothic music, some might love Gothic art, and literature but can't stand the look.
Even though I am extremely supportive for anyone who wants to enter into the Gothic subculture, I will easily hate anyone who comes into this subculture as a way to justify their hatred, anger outbursts, depression, and other things such as a way to get attention. These kinds of people are what makes other people afraid or makes them dislike Gothic culture and helps fuel the prejudiced that they have.
Now that that is done, it's time for a "happier" subject. I've been racking my brain trying to think of something to blog about and I could not think of anything, but luckily one of the people I'm subscribed to on youtube made a video about a bestseller book that sounds horrible, so I thought "hey, why read it over the summer and post blogs about each chapter!" So, on the next blog prepare to see an overview of Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One. I'm sorry if I'll be offending anyone by the review, but it does sound pretty bad, poorly written, and anti-BDSM culture :( So I just couldn't resist lol. How does this tie into Gothic culture? Well it ties in loosely (probably very loosely) to Gothic culture by the BDSM part, but who knows maybe some of the characters are Gothic. Oh, and I guess it originally started off as a Twilight Fanfiction novel, yeah that book hardly has anything to do with the Gothic culture too, but it did unite most Goths who all started saying how horrible the author's depictions of Vampires are. I guess this book is kind of like the same but instead of Vampire lovers uniting against Twilight, it's BDSM lovers and supporters against Shades of Grey... but that's just from watching a long video about the book, maybe I'll change my mind when reading it?
Anyway I was thinking about doing a blog about this topic a while ago but school kind of got in the way, luckily classes haven't been as hectic so now I can do a blog about discrimination.
Since discrimination is a gigantic issue I'm only going to be covering the Goth discrimination against other Goths since, obviously, this is a Gothic blog lol and I do find it pretty sad that some of this stuff is happening.
So, narrowing this type of discrimination down even more, this is the discrimination that (mostly older) Goths do to either younger Goths, or people that are new to Gothic culture.
I don't understand this, I mean we are already discriminated by society so why do some Goths feel like they should discriminate against newer or younger Goths? You would think that people who know how discrimination feels would be less judgmental of others, but yet there are Goths who make fun of, hate on, pick on younger Goths or people newer to Gothic subculture calling them "posers" and the like, and not paying any attention to them.
I personally say if these people want to be called Goths and look Gothy then they should go for it, I'll support them . I mean everybody has different preferences, some people might love the Gothic look but hate Gothic music, some might love Gothic art, and literature but can't stand the look.
Even though I am extremely supportive for anyone who wants to enter into the Gothic subculture, I will easily hate anyone who comes into this subculture as a way to justify their hatred, anger outbursts, depression, and other things such as a way to get attention. These kinds of people are what makes other people afraid or makes them dislike Gothic culture and helps fuel the prejudiced that they have.
Now that that is done, it's time for a "happier" subject. I've been racking my brain trying to think of something to blog about and I could not think of anything, but luckily one of the people I'm subscribed to on youtube made a video about a bestseller book that sounds horrible, so I thought "hey, why read it over the summer and post blogs about each chapter!" So, on the next blog prepare to see an overview of Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One. I'm sorry if I'll be offending anyone by the review, but it does sound pretty bad, poorly written, and anti-BDSM culture :( So I just couldn't resist lol. How does this tie into Gothic culture? Well it ties in loosely (probably very loosely) to Gothic culture by the BDSM part, but who knows maybe some of the characters are Gothic. Oh, and I guess it originally started off as a Twilight Fanfiction novel, yeah that book hardly has anything to do with the Gothic culture too, but it did unite most Goths who all started saying how horrible the author's depictions of Vampires are. I guess this book is kind of like the same but instead of Vampire lovers uniting against Twilight, it's BDSM lovers and supporters against Shades of Grey... but that's just from watching a long video about the book, maybe I'll change my mind when reading it?
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Wait, I'm Alive?
Who knew? Especially since I haven't been on blogger in quite a while lol. I'm sorry to all the blogs I'm following, it's just been a really busy year for me, a pretty interesting one too! Since this is my first blog in a while I might as well just talk about what has happened to me this year, sadly it's not going to have a ton of gothy stuff, but it will have some lol.
1) Possibly the most significant thing that happened to me this year was that I found out that I'm a woman in disguise! Yep, it's kinda like a secret agent thing, but with my body as my disguise, lol jk. But seriously, I am transgender (technically transsexual is the correct term for myself, but I don't like using it because I personally think it's more confusing since it makes it seem more like a sexual orientation thing and being trans doesn't really have anything to do with that except with the labels. Now I get to say that I'm a lesbian or a homoromantic woman instead of a straight man, which actually seems right to me as strange as that sounds). Oh and I actually didn't time this to be a day after the lead singer of Against Me! Came out lol, it's just an awesome coincidence!
I hope this isn't a surprise to anyone, I mean looking back I can totally see myself just being so much more of a girl than a guy, even when I was trying to hide my girlishness lol. It's funny, I think I have to thank either ending up calling myself goth or calling myself asexual to finally be able to call myself trans, even though it still took a month or two on a transgender chatroom (where I met one of my best friends at), as well as a journal, and I ended up taking a class on gender just to make sure (kind of like when I took a philosophy of religion class to make sure I was definitely an atheist). Actually, I wonder what is going to be going through my Psych of Gender teacher's mind when she reads my paper about gender lol. I might talk more about being myself being trans in a future blog but I don't know how many of you would want to read it, I'll probably just put it on my other blog that I'm hopefully going to be updating more frequently.
2) Speaking of other blogs I hardly use this account anymore, it was my backup one for youtube and when I started with school I ended up concentrating on that and forgetting about blogger (the class I really had trouble was 日本語, yep Japanese class. Other than that I got two A's and a B; and I barely got that B since it was a 89%).
Anyway, I lost my main account on youtube because they want me to pay them to give me a new password and log in, which is stupid. I also don't have a credit card so it wouldn't matter even if I wanted to do this. So you would think the smart thing would be to make this account my main one now right? Nope! I made another youtube account, this time for all the trans videos I want to watch and all the ones I want to comment on and stuff, and it kind of turned into my main channel lol. So, if you want a blog that I'm planning on updating more frequently (maybe once a week or once a month), and that won't have Gothic stuff as the main subject (it'll just be about anything i want to talk about, from LGBT issues to gothy stuff, to music, to rants, to whatever). Then you should check out: http://aprilsmoon.blogspot.com/ No posts have been made yet but I'm planning on posting something soon.
3) I ended up watching the first season of "The L Word" online, I think it's pretty good, I wish I lived where the girls did, it seems like a fun place lol. Speaking of this, I ordered the whole series for my birthday (got a few gift cards), and now the tracking number says it was delivered but I never got it. Why is it that the mail man for my neighborhood is the worst one out there? First he delivers tons of mail to the wrong people, and now he says he delivered the series to my house when he didn't. I know because I was here all day! It's possible that this guy delivered the mail to the wrong address but wouldn't he have checked with the person who answered the door to make sure the address was correct before he says "screw it, back to the seller you go"?
4) Well, time to move away from my frustration with the local postal service. This whole trans thing tied into an awesome gothy event! When I finally accepted this and stopped trying to deny myself I got the courage to go see Emilie Autumn live with my dad (he's been in the concert spirit recently). This was possibly the best concert I've seen all year and it was so much fun, Emilie basically made her whole concert into a play and it was so much fun to watch. It was pretty cool, the venue was packed and it seemed like this was where all the goths from my town went, I've never seen so many goths in on place! Sadly, I never really see many goths outside of concerts though.
5) Now that I have probably lost half my readers it's time to move on to my trip to Miami lol. You may think "oh Miami, that's not a very Gothic place," but you would be wrong! It is true that on the outside Miami might look like a nice place with lots of sun and a Goths worst nightmare, but I found a used CD shop that would prove you wrong! This place was mostly awesome, it was kind of dark and it had quite a few great bands like Bauhaus. However it did have outrageous prices which lead me to only buy two CD's: "Mask", and "Burning From The Inside". When I was at the cashier he saw that both of the CD's I was getting were from Bauhaus so he asked me if I knew who Peter Murphy was, of course I said I did, and said that he was the lead singer of Bauhaus and the cashier said that someone had dropped of some stuff that they didn't want and he gave me an autographed Ninth cover, sadly it was just the cover so I still need to get the CD but I was pretty happy about that!
6) The last gothy thing I've done since my last blog was play Lone Survivor. If you like survival horror games you should definitely pick this game up as long as you have a decent computer to run it. This game is like Silent Hill 2 with the music, the monsters, and the setting (mostly in an apartment complex, but you do go outside into a foggy deserted town. This game also messes with your mind if you let it (I think, but only if you take the pills that you find, I never did so I'm not sure lol). It's actually pretty funny, this game is scarier than all of the newer "horror" games being released today.
7) That about wraps it up, I did make a few changes to this site/blog by removing the list of Gothic bands (let's face it, that was a horrible failure on my part lol), and I have to apologize on the blog about Voodoo, I really do enjoy learning about it but I don't know if I'll ever get around to writing a blog about it :( I can say something quick about it though, snakes seem to be gods or god like to people who practice voodoo, which is pretty interesting since in Mythology I learned that snakes are bad in Western mythology but in Eastern mythology they are good.
So there you go, that's about what has happened in the past school year, I'm hoping to make more blogs but I don't know, I'm taking two summer classes this year so I can graduate and be able to move on to the college that I've been wanting to go to (and that has accepted me).
Oh and I've noticed that I've gotten some more followers since I last logged into Blogger, I have to say thanks for following me, I'm sorry you basically got nothing after you started following me but I'm pretty happy you've stayed around <3
1) Possibly the most significant thing that happened to me this year was that I found out that I'm a woman in disguise! Yep, it's kinda like a secret agent thing, but with my body as my disguise, lol jk. But seriously, I am transgender (technically transsexual is the correct term for myself, but I don't like using it because I personally think it's more confusing since it makes it seem more like a sexual orientation thing and being trans doesn't really have anything to do with that except with the labels. Now I get to say that I'm a lesbian or a homoromantic woman instead of a straight man, which actually seems right to me as strange as that sounds). Oh and I actually didn't time this to be a day after the lead singer of Against Me! Came out lol, it's just an awesome coincidence!
I hope this isn't a surprise to anyone, I mean looking back I can totally see myself just being so much more of a girl than a guy, even when I was trying to hide my girlishness lol. It's funny, I think I have to thank either ending up calling myself goth or calling myself asexual to finally be able to call myself trans, even though it still took a month or two on a transgender chatroom (where I met one of my best friends at), as well as a journal, and I ended up taking a class on gender just to make sure (kind of like when I took a philosophy of religion class to make sure I was definitely an atheist). Actually, I wonder what is going to be going through my Psych of Gender teacher's mind when she reads my paper about gender lol. I might talk more about being myself being trans in a future blog but I don't know how many of you would want to read it, I'll probably just put it on my other blog that I'm hopefully going to be updating more frequently.
2) Speaking of other blogs I hardly use this account anymore, it was my backup one for youtube and when I started with school I ended up concentrating on that and forgetting about blogger (the class I really had trouble was 日本語, yep Japanese class. Other than that I got two A's and a B; and I barely got that B since it was a 89%).
Anyway, I lost my main account on youtube because they want me to pay them to give me a new password and log in, which is stupid. I also don't have a credit card so it wouldn't matter even if I wanted to do this. So you would think the smart thing would be to make this account my main one now right? Nope! I made another youtube account, this time for all the trans videos I want to watch and all the ones I want to comment on and stuff, and it kind of turned into my main channel lol. So, if you want a blog that I'm planning on updating more frequently (maybe once a week or once a month), and that won't have Gothic stuff as the main subject (it'll just be about anything i want to talk about, from LGBT issues to gothy stuff, to music, to rants, to whatever). Then you should check out: http://aprilsmoon.blogspot.com/ No posts have been made yet but I'm planning on posting something soon.
3) I ended up watching the first season of "The L Word" online, I think it's pretty good, I wish I lived where the girls did, it seems like a fun place lol. Speaking of this, I ordered the whole series for my birthday (got a few gift cards), and now the tracking number says it was delivered but I never got it. Why is it that the mail man for my neighborhood is the worst one out there? First he delivers tons of mail to the wrong people, and now he says he delivered the series to my house when he didn't. I know because I was here all day! It's possible that this guy delivered the mail to the wrong address but wouldn't he have checked with the person who answered the door to make sure the address was correct before he says "screw it, back to the seller you go"?
4) Well, time to move away from my frustration with the local postal service. This whole trans thing tied into an awesome gothy event! When I finally accepted this and stopped trying to deny myself I got the courage to go see Emilie Autumn live with my dad (he's been in the concert spirit recently). This was possibly the best concert I've seen all year and it was so much fun, Emilie basically made her whole concert into a play and it was so much fun to watch. It was pretty cool, the venue was packed and it seemed like this was where all the goths from my town went, I've never seen so many goths in on place! Sadly, I never really see many goths outside of concerts though.
5) Now that I have probably lost half my readers it's time to move on to my trip to Miami lol. You may think "oh Miami, that's not a very Gothic place," but you would be wrong! It is true that on the outside Miami might look like a nice place with lots of sun and a Goths worst nightmare, but I found a used CD shop that would prove you wrong! This place was mostly awesome, it was kind of dark and it had quite a few great bands like Bauhaus. However it did have outrageous prices which lead me to only buy two CD's: "Mask", and "Burning From The Inside". When I was at the cashier he saw that both of the CD's I was getting were from Bauhaus so he asked me if I knew who Peter Murphy was, of course I said I did, and said that he was the lead singer of Bauhaus and the cashier said that someone had dropped of some stuff that they didn't want and he gave me an autographed Ninth cover, sadly it was just the cover so I still need to get the CD but I was pretty happy about that!
6) The last gothy thing I've done since my last blog was play Lone Survivor. If you like survival horror games you should definitely pick this game up as long as you have a decent computer to run it. This game is like Silent Hill 2 with the music, the monsters, and the setting (mostly in an apartment complex, but you do go outside into a foggy deserted town. This game also messes with your mind if you let it (I think, but only if you take the pills that you find, I never did so I'm not sure lol). It's actually pretty funny, this game is scarier than all of the newer "horror" games being released today.
7) That about wraps it up, I did make a few changes to this site/blog by removing the list of Gothic bands (let's face it, that was a horrible failure on my part lol), and I have to apologize on the blog about Voodoo, I really do enjoy learning about it but I don't know if I'll ever get around to writing a blog about it :( I can say something quick about it though, snakes seem to be gods or god like to people who practice voodoo, which is pretty interesting since in Mythology I learned that snakes are bad in Western mythology but in Eastern mythology they are good.
So there you go, that's about what has happened in the past school year, I'm hoping to make more blogs but I don't know, I'm taking two summer classes this year so I can graduate and be able to move on to the college that I've been wanting to go to (and that has accepted me).
Oh and I've noticed that I've gotten some more followers since I last logged into Blogger, I have to say thanks for following me, I'm sorry you basically got nothing after you started following me but I'm pretty happy you've stayed around <3
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Recent Band Findings of the First Half of 2011 Part 1
Here's just a short blog about some bands that I have found in 2011 that I really enjoy listening to. I got this idea from Tenebris In Lux
So without any more of an introduction here are a few bands that I have found and enjoyed this year. Oh and there won't be anything from previous blogs on here.
1. The Creepshow (A Horror Punk, Psychobilly band that I really recently discovered a few days ago and they are also one of the rare bands that I love almost every song they've made). The song that is being linked is their cover of The Misfit's 'Halloween'.
2. Siouxsie & the Banshees (A punk rock, gothic rock band that I never thought I would like. I listened to one of their songs about a year ago and didn't like it but then ;Kiss Them for Me' came on when I was listening to pandora and I ended up liking this band. Oh and as a sidenote I was listening to their song 'Spellbound' a couple days ago when I was really tired and I ended up tripping out somehow lol). The song I linked is their song 'Arabian Knights'. This is a little off topic but doesn't Siouxsie look beautiful in this video?
3. The March Violets (A Gothic Rock band.. This band formed in the 80's but ended up disbanding in 87. Good news though, they reformed in 2010 with all of the original members, and they're putting out new songs too!) The song that is being linked is their song 'Electric Shades' which I believe is only available on their record of the same title, and that is only on vinyl or cassette.
4. Amanda Palmer (An Alternative Rock, Punk Cabaret band that I found out about when I was looking for bands similar to Emile Autumn). The song that is linked is entitled 'Astronaut'.
5. The Velvet Undeground (A rock group formed back in the 60's. I listened to their song Heroin and couldn't help but be amazed, I think this might be one of the first songs that I think is perfect musically). Yes, the song I linked you to was their song 'Heroin'.
6. Ashbury Heights (A synthpop, electric band that broke up in 2010. I found this band to be really good, first song I heard by them was Spiders which I got introduced to from the blog The Ultimate Goth Guide . I looked on amazon.com and for some reason their "Three Cheers For The Newly Deads" is well over $100!!!! Luckily there is a website that caters to people who love this type of music and sells CD's like this for reasonable prices, stormingthebase.com There's also discogs.com too if you don't mind getting used CD's ). The song I am linking is called 'Christ'.
7. Blitzkid (A Horror Punk band. One of my friends recommended this band to me and I ended up really liking them. They also do a song calls 'As the rope Bridge Sways' that has to be one of the best slow punk songs I have ever heard). The song that is linked is called 'Let's Go to the Cemetery'.
There are many more bands that I could include on this list, however, I do not want to bombard you guys with links so those bands will have to wait for a part 2 or 3.
So without any more of an introduction here are a few bands that I have found and enjoyed this year. Oh and there won't be anything from previous blogs on here.
1. The Creepshow (A Horror Punk, Psychobilly band that I really recently discovered a few days ago and they are also one of the rare bands that I love almost every song they've made). The song that is being linked is their cover of The Misfit's 'Halloween'.
2. Siouxsie & the Banshees (A punk rock, gothic rock band that I never thought I would like. I listened to one of their songs about a year ago and didn't like it but then ;Kiss Them for Me' came on when I was listening to pandora and I ended up liking this band. Oh and as a sidenote I was listening to their song 'Spellbound' a couple days ago when I was really tired and I ended up tripping out somehow lol). The song I linked is their song 'Arabian Knights'. This is a little off topic but doesn't Siouxsie look beautiful in this video?
3. The March Violets (A Gothic Rock band.. This band formed in the 80's but ended up disbanding in 87. Good news though, they reformed in 2010 with all of the original members, and they're putting out new songs too!) The song that is being linked is their song 'Electric Shades' which I believe is only available on their record of the same title, and that is only on vinyl or cassette.
4. Amanda Palmer (An Alternative Rock, Punk Cabaret band that I found out about when I was looking for bands similar to Emile Autumn). The song that is linked is entitled 'Astronaut'.
5. The Velvet Undeground (A rock group formed back in the 60's. I listened to their song Heroin and couldn't help but be amazed, I think this might be one of the first songs that I think is perfect musically). Yes, the song I linked you to was their song 'Heroin'.
6. Ashbury Heights (A synthpop, electric band that broke up in 2010. I found this band to be really good, first song I heard by them was Spiders which I got introduced to from the blog The Ultimate Goth Guide . I looked on amazon.com and for some reason their "Three Cheers For The Newly Deads" is well over $100!!!! Luckily there is a website that caters to people who love this type of music and sells CD's like this for reasonable prices, stormingthebase.com There's also discogs.com too if you don't mind getting used CD's ). The song I am linking is called 'Christ'.
7. Blitzkid (A Horror Punk band. One of my friends recommended this band to me and I ended up really liking them. They also do a song calls 'As the rope Bridge Sways' that has to be one of the best slow punk songs I have ever heard). The song that is linked is called 'Let's Go to the Cemetery'.
There are many more bands that I could include on this list, however, I do not want to bombard you guys with links so those bands will have to wait for a part 2 or 3.
Friday, July 29, 2011
An unprofessional review about the movie Super 8
Sorry I haven't made a blog in a little while, I've been too busy watching TV... OK not really I've just been really lazy and tired the past few days but hopefully that will change sometime soon.
Moving on. This review will be an unprofessional trying to be professional meaning that I will critically look at the film but by no means do I classify myself as a professional movie critic (although some movie critics are
pretty bad). Also, this "review" will have some spoilers in it.
Here's a little background information about Super 8 before I start the "review": Super 8 is about 8 friends who love to make movies, they are trying to make a movie at a train station when the director of their film sees that there is actually a train coming toward them. This is perfect, he thinks and he tells everyone to get ready and that they will film the scene when the train is passing by. Seems innocent enough right? Well for some reason a car gets on the train tracks and crashes head on into the train derailing the train and everything goes to hell. It turns out that there is an alien as cargo and it is let loose because of this crash. The army then comes to the town and looks for the creature. The kids and the main characters dad try to figure out what is going on in their town. Here's the trailer if you want to either know more or want a better explanation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpzUCA5i6zY
I saw the movie Super 8 on the weekend and didn't really think much of it, I mean it was an ok movie but I didn't really see anything great in it (besides the acting). However after I saw it I was bored and check out the reviews and to my surprise it got pretty good reviews from film critics. Now I'm not a film critic but I do have to say that I don't know why the critics gave it such high marks, I mean even Roger Ebert (my least favorite film critic on the planet but someone who people respect for some reason) gave it 3 and a half stars (and yet he only gave kick ass 1...).
Why exactly did this film get such high marks? Well one of the main reasons I believe is the aspect of nostalgia, now I wasn't alive in the 80s (ok fine, technically it's 1979 but close enough) so there was no nostalgic factor for me in the movie which might be why I don't care that much for when the film was set (although I do have to say it is cool how they did that). I did go see this with my parents though, and my mom pointed out that they messed up on some parts, such as saying that the 7 eleven they have there is modern. I'd like to say that this is true but I cannot because I wasn't around in that time and I could not see any old photos of a 7-Eleven unless they're too old.
Another thing could have been the way that the alien was reviled (it was actually pretty cool how the did this. The alien was in many early parts of the movie however the audience never got to see the creature until close to the end of the movie) although I think it might have been better if you never saw the creature or if you only saw parts of it like a leg, foot, hand, and/or arm. Maybe the acting also helped it get high marks? That could be true because the acting was pretty good, however the problem with this is that a movie could have great acting but that doesn't make it a good movie.
However there are quite a few major flaws in the movie. One of them was that the main character (Joe) notices that his dog is gone right away, but for some reason it takes him a day or two to realize that his dad has been kidnapped? How is this even supposed to work, he sees his dad every night so he should know that his dad
And speaking of the dog, the film does not show any dog ever again after the police find out where the dogs are. So did they get the dogs or did they just leave them in the town the dogs were in?
Another part I don't like is close to the end of the film when there's some symbolism, which I think is great, however the way that this symbolism is portrayed was a huge flaw. The part of the film I am talking about is when the necklace that Joe has is getting pulled to help make the aliens space craft and in the end Joe let's go of the necklace. The symbolism here is pretty good, it's showing that Joe is finally letting go of the past, however there is a major flaw here. The space craft has a gigantic magnetic pull, you see it pulling soldiers equipped with guns up from the ground, however Joe doesn't get pulled up, nor does his necklace break in half or go right through his hand due to the magnetism. This part of the movie could have easily been done if the director wasn't super happy about magnifying things.
The town where the movie takes place also gets set on fire (well the grass close to the town does, and that is why they evacuate the town) however the fire seemed to die down when the kids go back to their school to get information about the alien they are up against. I have no idea why the fire died down because I thought the point of the fire was to draw out the alien, not to evacuate the town. Maybe I was just missing something.
Another major major major flaw was that at one point Joe's love interest (Alice) was tied up and hanging from the ceiling. Joe gets her down but her feet are still bound together, not to worry though because there is a random person who doesn't have her feet tied? That just woke up and the camera goes to her, then back on Alice who suddenly does not have her feet tied anymore but Joe didn't cut the weird black cocoon thing that was binding her legs? Maybe the ghost did it! There's also an appearance of the police chief who was seen hanging from the ceiling but is suddenly on the ground without bound feet. Wow this ghost surely works hard! Yeah, this is just a huge flaw of the movie.
There might be some other major flaws I'm missing but I cannot remember any more right now. So besides those there are a few minor flaws (tanks that suddenly shoot rapid fire even though they can only have 1 shell at a time and have to be manually reloaded), a few things don't get explained, a guy magically survives a head on car crash with a train but the train is totaled. Explosives being carried on a train with cargo that seems too valuable to be in a train with explosives, the commanding officer knowing that people saw the accident and seeming like he will do something about looking for them but hardly does anything about it, the alien being too tall to actually be in one of the cargo holds on the train, ect.
In closing this is a decent movie, but if you look though it in the eyes of a movie critic it might not be that great. However, assuming none of you are movie critics or really care about analyzing movies (I think I'm the only one I know who does that, and I only do it sometimes like when critics say a movie is good. That is one of the reasons I like Black Swan so much, but it's not the time to talk about that movie), I think that it's at least worth a watch.
Also as a nice little side note I got a new follower :) Shout out to Incensis. I hope you will enjoy the future blogs.
Reminder for this blog: There's a difference between looking at a movie like a normal person and looking at one like a film critic, you can enjoy a movie a lot but that doesn't mean that the film is good from a critical view.
Moving on. This review will be an unprofessional trying to be professional meaning that I will critically look at the film but by no means do I classify myself as a professional movie critic (although some movie critics are
pretty bad). Also, this "review" will have some spoilers in it.
Here's a little background information about Super 8 before I start the "review": Super 8 is about 8 friends who love to make movies, they are trying to make a movie at a train station when the director of their film sees that there is actually a train coming toward them. This is perfect, he thinks and he tells everyone to get ready and that they will film the scene when the train is passing by. Seems innocent enough right? Well for some reason a car gets on the train tracks and crashes head on into the train derailing the train and everything goes to hell. It turns out that there is an alien as cargo and it is let loose because of this crash. The army then comes to the town and looks for the creature. The kids and the main characters dad try to figure out what is going on in their town. Here's the trailer if you want to either know more or want a better explanation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpzUCA5i6zY
I saw the movie Super 8 on the weekend and didn't really think much of it, I mean it was an ok movie but I didn't really see anything great in it (besides the acting). However after I saw it I was bored and check out the reviews and to my surprise it got pretty good reviews from film critics. Now I'm not a film critic but I do have to say that I don't know why the critics gave it such high marks, I mean even Roger Ebert (my least favorite film critic on the planet but someone who people respect for some reason) gave it 3 and a half stars (and yet he only gave kick ass 1...).
Why exactly did this film get such high marks? Well one of the main reasons I believe is the aspect of nostalgia, now I wasn't alive in the 80s (ok fine, technically it's 1979 but close enough) so there was no nostalgic factor for me in the movie which might be why I don't care that much for when the film was set (although I do have to say it is cool how they did that). I did go see this with my parents though, and my mom pointed out that they messed up on some parts, such as saying that the 7 eleven they have there is modern. I'd like to say that this is true but I cannot because I wasn't around in that time and I could not see any old photos of a 7-Eleven unless they're too old.
Another thing could have been the way that the alien was reviled (it was actually pretty cool how the did this. The alien was in many early parts of the movie however the audience never got to see the creature until close to the end of the movie) although I think it might have been better if you never saw the creature or if you only saw parts of it like a leg, foot, hand, and/or arm. Maybe the acting also helped it get high marks? That could be true because the acting was pretty good, however the problem with this is that a movie could have great acting but that doesn't make it a good movie.
However there are quite a few major flaws in the movie. One of them was that the main character (Joe) notices that his dog is gone right away, but for some reason it takes him a day or two to realize that his dad has been kidnapped? How is this even supposed to work, he sees his dad every night so he should know that his dad
And speaking of the dog, the film does not show any dog ever again after the police find out where the dogs are. So did they get the dogs or did they just leave them in the town the dogs were in?
Another part I don't like is close to the end of the film when there's some symbolism, which I think is great, however the way that this symbolism is portrayed was a huge flaw. The part of the film I am talking about is when the necklace that Joe has is getting pulled to help make the aliens space craft and in the end Joe let's go of the necklace. The symbolism here is pretty good, it's showing that Joe is finally letting go of the past, however there is a major flaw here. The space craft has a gigantic magnetic pull, you see it pulling soldiers equipped with guns up from the ground, however Joe doesn't get pulled up, nor does his necklace break in half or go right through his hand due to the magnetism. This part of the movie could have easily been done if the director wasn't super happy about magnifying things.
The town where the movie takes place also gets set on fire (well the grass close to the town does, and that is why they evacuate the town) however the fire seemed to die down when the kids go back to their school to get information about the alien they are up against. I have no idea why the fire died down because I thought the point of the fire was to draw out the alien, not to evacuate the town. Maybe I was just missing something.
Another major major major flaw was that at one point Joe's love interest (Alice) was tied up and hanging from the ceiling. Joe gets her down but her feet are still bound together, not to worry though because there is a random person who doesn't have her feet tied? That just woke up and the camera goes to her, then back on Alice who suddenly does not have her feet tied anymore but Joe didn't cut the weird black cocoon thing that was binding her legs? Maybe the ghost did it! There's also an appearance of the police chief who was seen hanging from the ceiling but is suddenly on the ground without bound feet. Wow this ghost surely works hard! Yeah, this is just a huge flaw of the movie.
There might be some other major flaws I'm missing but I cannot remember any more right now. So besides those there are a few minor flaws (tanks that suddenly shoot rapid fire even though they can only have 1 shell at a time and have to be manually reloaded), a few things don't get explained, a guy magically survives a head on car crash with a train but the train is totaled. Explosives being carried on a train with cargo that seems too valuable to be in a train with explosives, the commanding officer knowing that people saw the accident and seeming like he will do something about looking for them but hardly does anything about it, the alien being too tall to actually be in one of the cargo holds on the train, ect.
In closing this is a decent movie, but if you look though it in the eyes of a movie critic it might not be that great. However, assuming none of you are movie critics or really care about analyzing movies (I think I'm the only one I know who does that, and I only do it sometimes like when critics say a movie is good. That is one of the reasons I like Black Swan so much, but it's not the time to talk about that movie), I think that it's at least worth a watch.
Also as a nice little side note I got a new follower :) Shout out to Incensis. I hope you will enjoy the future blogs.
Reminder for this blog: There's a difference between looking at a movie like a normal person and looking at one like a film critic, you can enjoy a movie a lot but that doesn't mean that the film is good from a critical view.
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