I'm so bad at singing and playing ukulele at the same time. I can play it so good when I'm not singin, then as soon as I start to sing- spaz hands!
Actually I can play and song some songs pretty good, it's just the ones with syncopated strumming that get me. As soon as I start to concentrate on the strumming, my words trail off and go quiet, I need to re-wire my brain.
I'm so hungry right now but I don't know what to eat.
Anyway, back on topic... I really like our new songs, I've been practising them and they are so cooool! aaah, I'm sounding really fake and positive (like those people who say everything they did 'today' was 'awesome') but I'm just really excited.
Another thought I just had is sometimes I wish I lived in New York. Okay I reaaallly don't like those people that idolise everything that is American just cos it's on TV and it appears to be glamourous... and I probably have a little of that in me but the music scene just seems really great, I love so many bands that live there and when me and Sam went there we went to this great gig in a squat with the bands Ghost Mice and Japanther. In a lot of ways it's very similar to London, I'm just sick of London, sick of all the fucking expensive preppy clothing shops and sick of the tourist shops, sick of the beer company/phone company sponsored/owned gig venues that hike the prices up and make you wait around for hours for the band to start, at which point you're about 5 metres away cos they have barriers and sick of the shit chinese buffets and the adverts for musicals and the free 'news'papers full of right wing propaganda and sick of pretentious cafes and wine bars and middle class families with their middle class little kids and sick of everyone trying to rip you off all the time including Transport for London.
But there are plenty of things that annoy me about New York too.
I think I'll have a sandwich.
Monday, 16 February 2009
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Things that happened yesterday and today
Okay, my normal blogging style is one of openness and honesty. I assure you, reader, this has not changed. A thing you may notice, however, is that in this particular blog, my tone is a lot less... negative? self-critical? World-weary? This is not because I have let the lord Jesus Christ into my heart, oh no, not this time. This is because I have just had a very good 24 hours! Possibly, 24 hours I will remember forever!
Yesterday I went out, to Marylebone campus to a meeting about the third runway, in which I didn't alienate anyone (unlike SOMEONE I know) and had a lot of things to say (you forget how much you know about a topic). And Helen came so that was great!
Then me and Sam went to Brixton to see Bomb the Music Industry! at the Windmill which is a great venue with loads of stickers everywhere and posters, I even put a colour me wednesday sticker up above the bar.
Anyway, during one of the support acts I asked Jeff Rosenstock (of bomb the music industry fame, oh yes) if I could sing 'yesterday's lunch'(a Lemuria song) with him, Sheena's part. And he said yeah and then he went and started his set and the crowd went wild, well it seemed wild cos it's such a tiny venue but it was all positive and lovely.
And then he called me up on stage and everyone started chanting:
'Jennifer! Jennifer! Jennifer! Go Jennifer! GO JENNIFER! WOO JENNIFER! I love your hat.'
(this is sounding like some crazy hallucination where I'm queen of the world brought on by over exposure to dissertation, but no!)
So I got up on stage and sang the song, there weren't any monitors so I couldn't hear myself at all but Sam says I sounded good.
It was so great, when I think of it now it's like some kind of escapist fantasy... like when you've had a really happy dream and you just want to stay asleep. Then when the song was over everyone was like:
'Wooo! WE LOVE YOU JENNIFER! JENNIFER! JENNIFER! WOOO JENNIFER!'
and it was wonderful, I wasn't even nervous really cos everyone was so nice, even the guy that threw up on the stage! :P
anyway, today, I woke up and finished my dissertation WOOO!
And then me and Sam went to Tesco and bought a Gazette because Colour Me Wednesday is in it!! And the article actually isn't that bad, I mean they misquoted us a bit, and got us mixed up but that's inevitable. It's just a nice thing to have, it's kinda surreal and funny! Like it's not us, it's the media version of us... the mediation...
Anyway, it promotes our next gig and doesn't make us look like corporate bastards.
Yesterday I went out, to Marylebone campus to a meeting about the third runway, in which I didn't alienate anyone (unlike SOMEONE I know) and had a lot of things to say (you forget how much you know about a topic). And Helen came so that was great!
Then me and Sam went to Brixton to see Bomb the Music Industry! at the Windmill which is a great venue with loads of stickers everywhere and posters, I even put a colour me wednesday sticker up above the bar.
Anyway, during one of the support acts I asked Jeff Rosenstock (of bomb the music industry fame, oh yes) if I could sing 'yesterday's lunch'(a Lemuria song) with him, Sheena's part. And he said yeah and then he went and started his set and the crowd went wild, well it seemed wild cos it's such a tiny venue but it was all positive and lovely.
And then he called me up on stage and everyone started chanting:
'Jennifer! Jennifer! Jennifer! Go Jennifer! GO JENNIFER! WOO JENNIFER! I love your hat.'
(this is sounding like some crazy hallucination where I'm queen of the world brought on by over exposure to dissertation, but no!)
So I got up on stage and sang the song, there weren't any monitors so I couldn't hear myself at all but Sam says I sounded good.
It was so great, when I think of it now it's like some kind of escapist fantasy... like when you've had a really happy dream and you just want to stay asleep. Then when the song was over everyone was like:
'Wooo! WE LOVE YOU JENNIFER! JENNIFER! JENNIFER! WOOO JENNIFER!'
and it was wonderful, I wasn't even nervous really cos everyone was so nice, even the guy that threw up on the stage! :P
anyway, today, I woke up and finished my dissertation WOOO!
And then me and Sam went to Tesco and bought a Gazette because Colour Me Wednesday is in it!! And the article actually isn't that bad, I mean they misquoted us a bit, and got us mixed up but that's inevitable. It's just a nice thing to have, it's kinda surreal and funny! Like it's not us, it's the media version of us... the mediation...
Anyway, it promotes our next gig and doesn't make us look like corporate bastards.
Sunday, 8 February 2009
HATS HATS HATS
Here is a beautiful hat my nan made me. I said I wanted one with little flaps to keep my ears warm.Sorry, it's sunday, so I havent brushed my hair.
BUTTON BUTTON BUTTON!
At Sophie's request, here are some
pictures of my hairclip-button creations, also some pics of the gig which we went to the day I made them which I think was Helen's b-day or near Helen's B-day, The gig was the Pipettes new lineup free gig at the Fly.
Also some pictures of my nan's curtains taken by Harrietta. Very nice!
Thursday, 22 January 2009
Teenagers wish they were charismatic enough to be this obnoxious!
(I've decided, as I have a quote in this one I'll put it at the top like Harrietta does :) you'll find out who said it later in this post)
Okay. Helen made me actually sit down and watch skins series one over summer because she liked it and I thought it was a cringey piece of poo. After getting into it a bit I realised that it was quite a well written cringey piece of poo, the problem lies in the 'teenage' characters.
The characters are formed around the way the 'actual' teenagers that supposedly 'contributed' to the show see themselves and how the writers see them. This 'ideal' teenager becomes an embarrassing look into the fantasies of many teenagers and people we assume were once teenagers. :P All the main (non-comedy) characters were glaringly middle class which, in series one, had to be offset with comedy posh characters with over-the-top accents which almost almost made the main cast sound like they could actually come from 'Roundview Sixth Form College' rather than from stage school. They all go to parties and go totally wild man... like have really sexy sex and do sexy dances and snogs and there's always music playing so there's never a moment where they have to feel awkward or embarrassed like actual teenagers do. Any characters that do suffer from actual human feelings such as self-doubt or whateverrr are seen as a bit weak or odd. In series one this was treated quite sensitively at times, the only virgin character, Sid, was in many ways the main character and to be sympathised with, but the burden of his virginity keeps him from sharing the glamourous status of the other characters.
Anyway, there's a new series which I just saw the first episode of. The previously acceptableish writing has gone out the window, replaced by fart jokes and overacted caricatures of clueless non-teenagers. The main character, Effy is unburdened by things like... A SOUL and just stares vacantly with her joyless, kohl'd eyes occasionally making pseudo-wise or world-weary comments to prove how stupid everyone else is. All 'normal' the boys have ridiculous surfer-boy hairstyles and not a trace of fucking humility, an 'abnormal' boy called JJ is practically autistic (well on the spectrum!) and lacks the ability to wow girls with his obnoxiousness, instead he is portrayed as sexually repressed (to the point of... trauma?!?) because he won't or can't look at some tacky porn mag. The girls are drawn in similar ways, either sexually experienced and confident or inexperienced and therefore either ditzy or cripplingly shy. The whole show from begining to end made me cringe so much I think my face is stuck in a grimace. It's weak sensationalist writing, especially that over-glamourised sex scene, why didn't they just fucking put a soft focus on, light some candles and play some porn-groove, it was so contrived. Teenagers wish they could have sex like that, and dare I exaggerate a little: because of this show, teenagers who have rubbish awkward normal teenage sex are gonna feel like freaks. Yeah that's right freaks! But they're all gonna pretend to their friends that it was just like on Skins, happy land where the only emotions anyone has are fundamentally narcissistic and any rebellion is completely meaningless and all sex was shot from flattering angles! Let the myths just keep on coming.'"$%$%^.
Anyway, it's just a tv show, but I just wish there was a good tv drama in the uk for young people... it's this or Hollyoaks. I don't think Skins relates to young people, I think it's alienating unless you assimilate it. Either that or just recognise it as a complete fiction... like I do...
Anyway, I'm doing a kind of exploration into showing things that are supposedly to be ignored or embarrassed about, I thought about how my new art video embarrasses me because it contains things that I said just in everyday conversation, it isn't edited or censored by me. This is the antithesis of skins for me, showing just life, it doesn't matter if it's boring either because it's an art video. hahah. When people say they are revealing things about themselves they are only revealing what they want you to know anyway which is often carefully chosen. (lol, I think Sam and Hat will remember this quote from me! talking about someone we know 'oh sure, he'll tell us when he's had sex or taken drugs but why doesn't he tell us about his poos? hmm? hmm?')
The problem with my video is that I knew I was recording myself so it affected what I said. This in a way makes it funnier for me because when I know people are listening to me, stuff I want to say that is maybe intellectual, I really dumb down because I'm so scared of either sounding pretentious or saying something incorrect whilst being pretentious. lol how verrry embarassing, the thing is, if you reveal yourself to people as much as you can, they can only understand you better surely? Isn't that a good thing?
'oh sure, he'll tell us when he's had sex or taken drugs but why doesn't he tell us about his poos? hmm? hmm?'
Okay. Helen made me actually sit down and watch skins series one over summer because she liked it and I thought it was a cringey piece of poo. After getting into it a bit I realised that it was quite a well written cringey piece of poo, the problem lies in the 'teenage' characters.
The characters are formed around the way the 'actual' teenagers that supposedly 'contributed' to the show see themselves and how the writers see them. This 'ideal' teenager becomes an embarrassing look into the fantasies of many teenagers and people we assume were once teenagers. :P All the main (non-comedy) characters were glaringly middle class which, in series one, had to be offset with comedy posh characters with over-the-top accents which almost almost made the main cast sound like they could actually come from 'Roundview Sixth Form College' rather than from stage school. They all go to parties and go totally wild man... like have really sexy sex and do sexy dances and snogs and there's always music playing so there's never a moment where they have to feel awkward or embarrassed like actual teenagers do. Any characters that do suffer from actual human feelings such as self-doubt or whateverrr are seen as a bit weak or odd. In series one this was treated quite sensitively at times, the only virgin character, Sid, was in many ways the main character and to be sympathised with, but the burden of his virginity keeps him from sharing the glamourous status of the other characters.
Anyway, there's a new series which I just saw the first episode of. The previously acceptableish writing has gone out the window, replaced by fart jokes and overacted caricatures of clueless non-teenagers. The main character, Effy is unburdened by things like... A SOUL and just stares vacantly with her joyless, kohl'd eyes occasionally making pseudo-wise or world-weary comments to prove how stupid everyone else is. All 'normal' the boys have ridiculous surfer-boy hairstyles and not a trace of fucking humility, an 'abnormal' boy called JJ is practically autistic (well on the spectrum!) and lacks the ability to wow girls with his obnoxiousness, instead he is portrayed as sexually repressed (to the point of... trauma?!?) because he won't or can't look at some tacky porn mag. The girls are drawn in similar ways, either sexually experienced and confident or inexperienced and therefore either ditzy or cripplingly shy. The whole show from begining to end made me cringe so much I think my face is stuck in a grimace. It's weak sensationalist writing, especially that over-glamourised sex scene, why didn't they just fucking put a soft focus on, light some candles and play some porn-groove, it was so contrived. Teenagers wish they could have sex like that, and dare I exaggerate a little: because of this show, teenagers who have rubbish awkward normal teenage sex are gonna feel like freaks. Yeah that's right freaks! But they're all gonna pretend to their friends that it was just like on Skins, happy land where the only emotions anyone has are fundamentally narcissistic and any rebellion is completely meaningless and all sex was shot from flattering angles! Let the myths just keep on coming.'"$%$%^.
Anyway, it's just a tv show, but I just wish there was a good tv drama in the uk for young people... it's this or Hollyoaks. I don't think Skins relates to young people, I think it's alienating unless you assimilate it. Either that or just recognise it as a complete fiction... like I do...
Anyway, I'm doing a kind of exploration into showing things that are supposedly to be ignored or embarrassed about, I thought about how my new art video embarrasses me because it contains things that I said just in everyday conversation, it isn't edited or censored by me. This is the antithesis of skins for me, showing just life, it doesn't matter if it's boring either because it's an art video. hahah. When people say they are revealing things about themselves they are only revealing what they want you to know anyway which is often carefully chosen. (lol, I think Sam and Hat will remember this quote from me! talking about someone we know 'oh sure, he'll tell us when he's had sex or taken drugs but why doesn't he tell us about his poos? hmm? hmm?')
The problem with my video is that I knew I was recording myself so it affected what I said. This in a way makes it funnier for me because when I know people are listening to me, stuff I want to say that is maybe intellectual, I really dumb down because I'm so scared of either sounding pretentious or saying something incorrect whilst being pretentious. lol how verrry embarassing, the thing is, if you reveal yourself to people as much as you can, they can only understand you better surely? Isn't that a good thing?
Monday, 19 January 2009
Friday, 16 January 2009
I can play I will never love you more by Soko on my ukelele... not that it's particularly hard but still fun!!
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