Tags
Andrew Schwab, Anita Blake, Ashton Nyte, books, brave Saint Saturn, Fashion Bomb, funny, Goth, Harley Poe Joseph Whitef, House, Laurel K Hamilton, Lights of Euphoria, media, music, NCIS, Project 86, Reese Roper, television, vampires, Virgin Black, Voltaire
Here is a super-short long synopsis/analysis of the media I have been immersing myself in lately:
Movies:
No movies lately, really.
Why?:
Because I’m just not obsessed with a certain movie right now, and neither are Stacy or Chris. However, Stacy is trying to figure out how to get a copy of Queen of the Damned because she’s been reading The Vampire Chronicles and likes them…
Television:
House. Been watching a lot of House, and NCIS.
Why?:
I kind of like NCIS better though. I like the characters better, overall, and honestly… watching doctor shows makes me uneasy. I know that real doctors probably (should) behave more professionally than House and his entourage, but still…makes me never want to be admitted as a patient ANYWHERE. And, also…NCIS kind of reminds me of the X-Files, which is the only non-cartoon show that I’ve watched from pilot to the bitter, Smoking-Man-finally-gets-killed end.
Books:
Various school textbooks.
Laurel K. Hamilton’s “Anita Blake: vampire slayer” novels.
Why?:
Looong story—I discovered a band called Virgin Black. The music made me think of vampires (this was before I knew anything about Goth music or…anything about Goths, really, except that they like black). I was brainstorming for a class I took on magazine article writing (I was awful writing articles, btw), and thought of them, and thought of vampires…so I wanted to write an article about vampires. My prof. actually told me I couldn’t because she didn’t want me to get in touch with anyone who considered him or herself a vampire, and to subsequently be abducted and/or murdered.
But…to make it up to me, she gave me a book containing three of the novels because “I might like it.” Was nice of her.
Other Books:
We Caught You Plotting Murder by Andrew Schwab, Modern American Poetry (8th Ed., I think).
Why?:
Well, I’m taking a poetry class, for one. Plus, I read poetry on my radio show. Usually around 15 to the hour. I’ve found some good, Gothicky poems in both books. I like Schwab’s “Thirteen October” a lot, plus some of the poems in the other book… Simic has a lot of good, creepy poems. If you like that kind of thing.
Music:
Ashton Nyte/The Awakening.
Virgin Black.
Assorted tracks from braveSaintSaturn, Fashion Bomb, Harley Poe & Joseph Whiteford, Lights of Euphoria, and Voltaire.
Why?:
Well, Ashton (who is also in The Awakening) just sounds pretty. How could you not like listening to him? (oh, wait—you could be CHRIS! That’s how 😛 ). I recommend The Awakening for people who like a kind of brooding, darker rock music (although not all of it is like that…like “Maree”, “my world”, and their cover of “The Safety Dance”), and I recommend Ashton Nyte’s solo band for people who like something more like “alternative rock”. The first album is probably my favourite, overall. It’s got sparkles and one of the most narcissistic songs I’ve ever heard (“Electric Man”). Makes me laugh.
Virgin Black is a little bit repetitive after a while…but I still like them. They’re very doomy and dark and sort of like a meeting between metal, opera, and classical music. Sombre Romantic is my favourite album, and probably the most aggressive of the four. Requiem—Mezzo Forte is a good one too. Slower. More piano and non-guitar stringed instruments, plus, more female vocals.
braveSaintSaturn: I was sent their 3rd album (Anti-Meridian) by a nice xanganite that I met (thanks again, btw! :D), and so far my favourite track is “Starling”. I’ve always liked Reese Roper’s extremely happy or extremely sad songs (not that I’m manic-depressive as a Roper fan…), and this one fits the latter group pretty well. It’s pretty. It’ll make you tear up. It’ll make you want to be nice and give someone a hug—partly because it’ll make you feel better, too.
Fashion Bomb: I added this (Devils to Some Angels to Others) to WXCU’s “modern rock” category, and I also uploaded it to my iTunes because it sounded promising…and so it has been so far. I’ve only really listened to two tracks all the way through (“Low” and “Mold”), and really…they have a sort of Demon Hunterish sound. I’m a little iffy about the lyrics to some of the tracks (as in, I think there are swears that I personally don’t like in my music, but I can’t quite catch some of the words), but other than that, they have a good sound.
Harley Poe & Joseph Whiteford: In the Dark is funny. Granted, I only have 3 tracks from it, but if those are any indicator, this is a funny, funny project. Basically the songs make fun of B horror movies about vampires, zombies…cannibals. “Transvestites Can Be Cannibals Too” is hilarious (if you’re me, I guess). I laughed, or at least smiled about the first 7 or 8 times I listened to it…but don’t go away thinking I’m a freak! There’s just…this line in the song where Joe says “transvestites can be cannibals too, and I’ll feel better after I eat you, etc”, and the speaker’s conviction in the song is just too hilarious. How could you listen to it and NOT laugh? I recommend it if you want something lighter.
Voltaire: I got two tracks from different albums—Boo Hoo and To the Bottom of the Sea—and they made me smile. If you’d like to hear a good one that makes fun of Goths (which I am okay with since it’s a song by a Goth making fun of other Goths), then you should check out “The Vampire Club”. It made me laugh. “The Beast of Pirate’s Bay” also did…and made me think of that cartoon, Flapjack. Musically…there are some good violin parts. It sounds very piratey and nautical.
Lights of Euphoria: “True Life” is good. It’s like a Goth rave…I just don’t know how else to describe it. You should totally check it out if you like something with a good beat that makes you think of seizure-inducing flashing lights and things that glow in the dark.
And so ends my media assessment.
Reeser
“Everyone, at some point in their lives, wakes up in the middle of the night with the feeling that they are all alone in the world, and that nobody loves them now and that nobody will ever love them, and that they will never have a decent night’s sleep again and will spend their lives wandering blearily around a loveless landscape, hoping desperately that their circumstances will improve, but suspecting, in their heart of hearts, that they will remain unloved forever. The best thing to do in these circumstances is to wake someone else up, so they can feel this way, too.”
Lemony Snickets,