At Immediate [Lengthy] Attention

Here, I am going to get to all those notes I left myself that I intended to write about at more length.
To start off, here's some random info: Much like today, in the Middle Ages, no one really trusted anyone else. As someone approached, to alleviate paranoia, he would hold out his open palm to show that he was not going to whack your head off with a sword. This gesture put everybody at ease, and eventually evolved into the modern custom known as the handshake.

First of all, learn more about NOM. No, it's not nom nom nomming, but the National Organization for Marriage, which is quite frankly anti-equality if I must put it clearly. Here, you can see all the lies and people behind it, as well as signing the petition that states that NOM does not speak for you. In regards to equality and the HRC and what not, October 11th is National Coming Out Day. Things like this serve as a reminder to me that I have not entirely come out to my family. All my friends know [or should know], my mother knows, my dad used to know therefore I'm unsure if that still stands in his mind [I wasn't the one who directly told him]. But anyone else in my extended family with the exception of one cousin and maybe an aunt, does not have a clue.

If you were interested in acquiring the new score for The Social Network, created by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, you can get the MP3 download for an awesome $2.99.

Speaking of tunes, I finally changed just a teeny tiny bit of my playlist at the bottom here. Finally the website has some songs I have been wanting to put on here. Particularly "Herbal Movement" and "Danny the Dog". I have such a major enjoyment and fondness for instrumental and instrumentally awesome music. They make me feel amazing on the inside. A little back story, why not? If I ever hear Massive Attack in other films/shows/settings/etc. when I was younger I don't recall it. But what I do explicitly recall was "Angel" as I heard it on one of my favorite films, Stay. I remember eventually downloading that song and listening to it a lot. I may or may not have made a minor attempt to listen to their other songs. In April of 2006, I went to see Tool for the first time at Coachella in which Massive Attack was the band that played just prior to them on the same stage. I was thrilled they played the one song I knew well.  However, despite the fact I had been up ridiculously early, spent nearly 12 hours in the heat of the Coachella fairgrounds which all caused me not to be feeling my best, I did like the, well, massive sounds they made and the constant switching of singers, collaborators and what not. I remember being quite close to the stage and sitting on the ground to rest and the gigantic speakers not too far from us causing vibrations in parts of my body I have never felt before. My septum ring vibrated in the cartilage of my nose, not visible to the eye but completely felt by me. I remember the vibrations of my trachea that amused me. Massive Attack was awesome and I really wish I knew their music better at that time so I could of really enjoyed it for I don't ever know if I will get the opportunity to see them again. But one day 2 years ago I was in my car at my friend's apartment complex waiting for her to get home. I had the windows down, it was an especially breezy day and all the beautiful trees were swaying, and I had all Massive Attack songs on random...and loud. As soon as "Danny the Dog" starts to play I get this instant feeling that isn't quite easy to explain in words, but I at least felt like it was the perfect movie song. I was immensely immersed in the song and never wanted it to end. That was the day I officially lost myself in Massive Attack and I have not since turned back. Needless to say, "Danny the Dog" is a great memorable song for me. As well as it is in a film, part of the whole Danny the Dog soundtrack [done entirely by Massive Attack] for what film in America is known as Unleashed. I think that is the best environment to listen to the song, when you're lost in your head but yet grounded enough to pay enough attention to the music. May the only distractions be those of nature. Give it a try.

I'm going to create some sort of flow with all these random topics I want to discuss. When I went to L.A./Pasadena/West Hollywood 2 weekends ago, I went there for my boyfriend's brother-in-law's wedding. Which was, in fact, and Indian wedding, and very fun. But the night we arrived, our first stop was Amoeba Records, which is like a Toy"R"Us of media! It was absolutely ridiculous! We spent about 2.5 hours in there and could of actually spent an entire day there if it weren't for the time and the fact that we needed to eat. I refused to let myself buy stuff that I could get cheaper so I bought 3 things that I absolutely needed or wanted to support. Object one, a Black Flag shirt for my brother, which is actually too small so we have to make some adjustments. Object number two is the Blood Into Wine dvd which just came out around that time. And the final object was a super cheap Danny the Dog soundtrackpictures.

 Also while we were in Hollywood we made a visit to Griffith Observatory which was incredible and had an amazing planetarium. I have some pictures but that will be another time and another post. This place appealed to the boyfriend because he is a big Rebel Without A Cause [he includes it in his curriculum], thus it was filmed at the observatory. I have never seen a James Dean film, and feel fine never having to in my life, therefore the observatory was great for me because, well, it's an observatory! To continue our random film related visitations we kind of stumbled across The Dresden where we had some super delicious dinner before hitting the road back home. And if you, like myself, have no idea how this is related to film, it was mentioned several times and was filmed for the movie Swingers. The boyfriend asked our waiter to fill us in on the history of the place which included that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie often eat dinner there on Sundays. Yeah, it was a Sunday. No, they didn't show up. But we did get our pictures taken at the booth where they hung out in Swingers. Random, I know, but that's the lovely boyfriend for you. And not to neglect the wedding, it was great, beautiful, fancy, funny, and lots of dancing...er, and wine. Let's just say I had a great time and yes, I did cry. I drove most of the route between Indio and Phoenix as we headed home while he slept. It brought back very vivid and nearly identical previous experience of when I drove back home from Coachella in 2006 with my cousin sleeping the whole. Except the great thing about this time was that I was not awake for 24 hours and did not fall asleep most of the way while we could of died and I didn't have to arrive home right in the middle of Arizona morning rush hour. Therefore this was a much better driving experience of which I realized I have a fondness for the crappy drive through trucking town of Blythe, California. That is where my cousin and I stayed the night before Coachella. That was my first road trip, hotel, Tool, and concert festival experience on my own. So of course I like Blythe in a very odd way, in addition to Motel 6's [or as I love to ridiculously refer to as Motel 666].
NOTED LATER: As I went back to put pictures into this post, for some reason something finally clicked. I've seen Griffith Observatory before...in Queen of the Damned, a film I've seen more times than I may admit to a widely public audience. However, it was not filmed there specifically, but on a replicated set. Here's a list of films that involve Griffith. And damn! All the things that fascinated me with this place were seen in film and I just didn't catch it!

To continue on with some sort of connection to music, A PERFECT CIRCLE. I really don't know how to express my excitement verbally or even quite physically at this point because I am still processing the awesomeness that this will be. I'm a person who likes to list things, so here is the list of why this shit is awesome:
It's A Perfect Circle!
It's the first tour in 6 years!
I have only seen them once and it was at the crappy Dodge Theater with very lateral seating.
It starts on my birthday!!!
I'm seeing them 3 consecutive nights!
I have never seen a band for consecutive nights, let alone been to concerts for consecutive nights!
They are playing entire albums!
It's in a small venue!
It's Maynard and Billy and whoever else!!!
All of these things are rather simple but are going to paralyze me with absolute excitement once the time nears. I mean, when I sit and think about it, Thursday, November 4th, 2010, my 23rd birthday, I will attend school, leave, get pumped up for the show and first album Mer de Noms, probably get some food with my awesome friend, arrive to venue, get some booze, enjoy my heart out, go home, sleep with a smile. Friday, November 5th, 2010, after sleeping in if the excitement lets me, I will lounge around and be anxious until my friend arrives and we'll repeat everything again but with Thirteenth Step as our soundtrack. Saturday, November 6th, after sleeping in if the excitement would let me, lounge around and be super anxious and whatever else...maybe attempt to celebrate my birthday, hang with the boyfriend until time nears, arrive to venue with boyfriend and sway to eMOTIVe. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I don't think I could ask for a better three days.
And since I couldn't get code, watch them play one of my favorite songs as from their dvd. Man, I'm gonna cry. This along with Tool and NIN are perfect examples of bands that I care so much about and concerts that I put so much of myself into that I feel like I'm going to explode inside. When I saw APC, Maynard was sick and Josh Freese [drummer] was recovering from a broken knee or torn ligament/tendon in is knee area, I don't remember for sure but I think it was the former. I was bummed they didn't play The Noose, but they did play one of my other favorite songs [granted I love them all but there's a handful that particularly invoke immense feelings] 3 Libras of which I cried as they played it. Now that I know I will be able to hear every song, I'm already crying on the inside! Heh, I'm really fucking thrilled and cannot wait for the astonishing experience this will be.

These adorable ladies, Garfunkel and Oates, as exposed to me by one of my great friends sing and film their songs which are related to anything, particularly some things that follow under comedic subjects that maybe everyone doesn't want to discuss. All of which is hilariously awesome. The first video I was shown was their most recent which has the better quality of their previous videos and subtitles, which for me helps a lot. So if you're ready to be exposed to some hilarious lyrics about hand jobs, here it is!


And here, I am going to relieve some of my failblog and failbook favorites to add some color to this post. Sorry if I get carried away, but there are some really good ones down towards the very bottom.

Obviously I can't help myself when it comes to posting these things. Too many good ones to pass up! As for other hilarious readings and visuals, I strongly recommend you check out Hyperbole and a Half. It's great!! And addicting.

Oh sweet anatomy. This artist works on music videos creating [usually creepy] anatomical creatures or manipulations of some sort. I have only watched "Yeasayer : Madder Red - Mute" which features this creature that seems to be a bundle of anatomical parts that is creepy yet oddly adorable. I found out about all this through Street Anatomy, one of my new favorite sites.

Soon I am going to purchase my own budget skull, it serves as a wonderful [and cheapest] way to study from a casted skull, because there is a hell of a lot more to the skull that you would imagine. Today was a quiz in my osteology class in which we have been studying the skull for the past few weeks. The test was in the form of a practical and I'm pretty sure I did great on it. Next week, however, is the full fledged exam. So I'll be studying a lot, to say the least. But regardless, it is a lot of fun and I've been obsessive with the terminology and to the point that I'm dreaming about bones and features of the skull. It all brings me back to a painting I made a couple years ago, which I had intended for it to be labeled in the most simple fashion but of all that I have learned thus far, I could label literally over 200 more aspects/features. I mean that with absolutely no exaggeration...honestly, if anything it's an understatement. It's fucking beautiful!

On top of this bone obsessiveness running in my mind, a similar thing is happening when it comes to artifacts due to my research in my internship. Which is also very awesome. Lately we have been researching all that we can from books and the Internet about individual Latin American folkloric art/tools/gear/etc. that have been donated to the ASU anthropology collections.

I don't know how much I can stress it, but you really gotta see the show Community. I hardly watch television but there are few shows I do enjoy anymore, this is one of them. It makes me sad that I can't make any inside jokes about it because the only other people that I know that watch this are my family. If you need the extra push to watch it, first of all, you can watch the episodes on the link I provided, and second of all the season premiere episode featured Betty White....as the anthropology professor. It was quite funny.

The fall equinox has finally come, by the way. Although temperatures are still rising in Arizona, fall is here!

Easy A, the film, was actually pretty good. It surprised me, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. I particularly loved the realistic portrayals [for the most part]. I loved the relationship she had with her parents. For once this is a film [of the handful] that displays actually cool parents. Parents that aren't waving their fingers at you for everything you do. In actuality, not everyone's parents are like that. Personally, my parents and I had a good trusting relationship in the sense that they believed me and not some other information that may have or could have gotten. I liked that. And the other realistic part I really liked was the skit of her singing the song all weekend, I'm pretty damn sure that every girl [and even guy] has done that, especially when the song goes quiet and she becomes awkward with herself. Just watch it, take a one minnnuttteeeee:

Alright, I'm done for now! And hopefully they're aren't any unbearable grammatical and spelling errors since I'm out of time to edit this. 7:21pm, I'm out!