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quadruplify••• So my thoughts on the election can be summed up in these GIFs:
Let's see, we had Obama re-elected, a large number of women and progressives elected to Congress (including a Buddhist and a Hindu), Tea Partiers and rape apologists and anti-abortion freaks defeated, same-sex marriage passing by popular vote in three states (and marijuana legalized in two more), a hardcore video gamer getting elected to Maine's state senate, and overall at least half of Americans waking up and realizing this country needs to get out of the dark ages? Consider me impressed. :D
I might do a politics-related linkdump at some point, but for now I'm sure this will do. ^_^;
••• As for Hurricane Sandy, we got our TV and Internet back on Friday 11/2; my sister was ecstatic because during that whole week it was like living with a drug addict going through withdrawal. And it didn't help that she was out of school a total of four days, too. :PPP I managed to survive by starting to watch Ao no Exorcist (which I've actually been rather enjoying!), as well as a few movies I'll review later because it's 2:30 AM as I'm writing this and I'm hoping to get some sleep soon. XD
But it's long gone now -- no major damage around here, just a few tree limbs falling on power lines here and there (and Halloween getting cancelled, if that counts). I know the coast got hit really bad, though, as well as everywhere south of New York City; I don't know exactly how bad the damage was, and if we're going to be completely honest I kinda don't want to -- I feel like it'd depress me too much. But yes, we're all perfectly fine around here, as I've mentioned before, so no need to worry about us!
If you do want to read something interesting, though, there's this article about the skeleton that was unearthed when a tree toppled over in New Haven, if you're into that sort of thing. (The link contains pictures of the skeleton [though it's kinda hard to make out], in case you don't want to see it or you find such pictures disrespectful.)
••• I'm about 21,000 words into NaNoWriMo, which I'm really impressed by since I wasn't expecting to get that far by now at all. I've always seen myself as a slow writer; when I was writing papers in school and college, it took all the effort I could muster to stay focused and concentrate on what I needed to get done, which meant writing the damn things felt like pulling teeth. A lot of these hangups I developed about writing as a result have stuck around, which has definitely made it a struggle, so I guess being ahead of schedule is my way of compensating for that. :3 But whatever, even though those 21,000 words are total word vomit (as all first drafts are, I suppose), I'm using the advice of some famous writers to power through it, I'm proud of where I'm at right now, and I'm excited that I might actually make 50,000 before the end of the month, so yay! 8D
(And of course, you can add me over there if you haven't already.)
••• The Twilight Sad concert was Tuesday night, and it was as excellent and mind-blowing as I was hoping it was going to be.
K and I arrived around the listed time, but we found out the bands were running late since they were still soundchecking, so we went over to The Outer Space, the 21+ bar/venue on the other side of the parking lot; we didn't have anything there, but we waited there and talked (mostly about the people at K's workplace and how crazy/messed up/creepy they are -- she has an excellent knack of making those stories entertaining :D) until they were finished, then we went back.
The Space itself is in the middle of an industrial park in Hamden, and it's ridiculously small -- I'm told it only fits 150 people max, plus the ceiling is low and the stage is probably only about a few inches off the ground, so I can't say the acoustics were entirely the best (not that I'm the best person to judge a venue's acoustics to begin with, but anyway). But it was packed with a lot of interesting and eclectic decorations, including an arcade game just outside (here are some pictures to give you an idea), and there's a small deli/cafe-like thing off to one side as well. It was my first time there and I really liked it, particularly because it was small/cozy and laid back, and not boozy like Toad's Place.
The only big problem with the show was that too few people showed up. Including ourselves, I'd say that not even 20 people showed up. Which was kinda depressing, since The Twilight Sad are fairly well-known so you'd think they'd attract a bigger crowd, plus they were very LOUD, which was great but didn't exactly work in such a small space, and there wasn't nearly enough people there to drum up the energy for a show where that sort of loudness would feel appropriate. You could guess the reasons why: the election, Sandy, it was a weeknight, and it wasn't all that well-promoted. Still, it was a nice feeling to have such a big band play for a small, intimate crowd you were a part of.
The first band that night, Landing, got on stage around 8 PM; they had a really awesome shoegaze-y dream pop/space rock sound going on, sort of like what Hammock would sound like if their music was more upbeat and energetic. Next up was Errors, who kinda had the same sound but were more on the dance-y/electronica side of things; their music was pretty interesting as well, and now I have two new bands to check out. ^_^; The main act was the best of the night as I hoped; I think this was the first time where there was so much feedback and reverb that I could call their set "skull-shattering" and not have it be an exaggeration. Which wasn't the most pleasant feeling in the world, I admit, but after a while I got used to it. XD The lead singer also had this Ian Curtis thing going on where he would shout parts of the lyrics to some songs away from the microphone and right into all the noise and feedback, so you couldn't hear him at all. It was a nice touch that proved the band could put on a great show, and boy they certainly did! But because of the turnout they did rush through things a bit, and there was no encore. Here were the songs they played:
--"That Summer, At Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy" -- I'm really happy they opened with this song; this wasn't the first song I heard from them, but it was the one that got me really into them
--"Don't Move" -- I have to admit their latest album, from which this song comes from, isn't my favorite at all. I liked what they were trying to do with it, by incorporating more coldwave/electronic/post-punk sounds and influences in their music, but even as I started warming up to it I still found that all the songs sounded very much the same, and their bleaker-than-usual tone didn't help. Still, a lot of those songs sounded really good live, including this one.
--"Dead City"
--"Alphabet"
--"I Became a Prostitute" -- This one got the most cheers from the audience
--"Reflections of the Television"
--"Kill It in the Morning"
--"Nil"
--"Cold Days From the Birdhouse" -- Their rendition of this song was AMAZING; it felt like a breath of fresh air since the previous couple of songs were really intense
--"And She Would Darken the Memory"
All of these songs can be found on YouTube, in case anyone's curious.
Anyway, after the show (it ended around 11:20) I managed to grab one of their setlists, which I gave to K because she was the one who bought our tickets and it was the least I could do to thank her. We shook hands with the drummer, who was working the merch table, and apologized about the lack of people who showed up; he told us it wasn't a problem, that they were used to it and were happy that so many of us showed up as we did. I bought a poster, and while we were waiting for my dad to pick us up we waited inside the foyer because it was cold out, which meant we had to open the door for band members and staff who needed to get back in because it had already been locked from the outside. (We ended up running into the lead singer for The Twilight Sad that way; we apologized again for the lack of people and thanked him for putting on a great show, and he really appreciated it.)
So anyway, that's what happened in a nutshell. I'd love to go to another show at The Space because I really liked it there, but if/when I do hopefully more people will show up. ._.,
••• I've changed the layout of my LJ blog! --->![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
quadruplify The last one was more of a temporary thing because it was kinda ugly, so I hope y'all like this one more. ^_^;
Anyway, that's about it from me. How's everyone else doing?
Let's see, we had Obama re-elected, a large number of women and progressives elected to Congress (including a Buddhist and a Hindu), Tea Partiers and rape apologists and anti-abortion freaks defeated, same-sex marriage passing by popular vote in three states (and marijuana legalized in two more), a hardcore video gamer getting elected to Maine's state senate, and overall at least half of Americans waking up and realizing this country needs to get out of the dark ages? Consider me impressed. :D
I might do a politics-related linkdump at some point, but for now I'm sure this will do. ^_^;
••• As for Hurricane Sandy, we got our TV and Internet back on Friday 11/2; my sister was ecstatic because during that whole week it was like living with a drug addict going through withdrawal. And it didn't help that she was out of school a total of four days, too. :PPP I managed to survive by starting to watch Ao no Exorcist (which I've actually been rather enjoying!), as well as a few movies I'll review later because it's 2:30 AM as I'm writing this and I'm hoping to get some sleep soon. XD
But it's long gone now -- no major damage around here, just a few tree limbs falling on power lines here and there (and Halloween getting cancelled, if that counts). I know the coast got hit really bad, though, as well as everywhere south of New York City; I don't know exactly how bad the damage was, and if we're going to be completely honest I kinda don't want to -- I feel like it'd depress me too much. But yes, we're all perfectly fine around here, as I've mentioned before, so no need to worry about us!
If you do want to read something interesting, though, there's this article about the skeleton that was unearthed when a tree toppled over in New Haven, if you're into that sort of thing. (The link contains pictures of the skeleton [though it's kinda hard to make out], in case you don't want to see it or you find such pictures disrespectful.)
••• I'm about 21,000 words into NaNoWriMo, which I'm really impressed by since I wasn't expecting to get that far by now at all. I've always seen myself as a slow writer; when I was writing papers in school and college, it took all the effort I could muster to stay focused and concentrate on what I needed to get done, which meant writing the damn things felt like pulling teeth. A lot of these hangups I developed about writing as a result have stuck around, which has definitely made it a struggle, so I guess being ahead of schedule is my way of compensating for that. :3 But whatever, even though those 21,000 words are total word vomit (as all first drafts are, I suppose), I'm using the advice of some famous writers to power through it, I'm proud of where I'm at right now, and I'm excited that I might actually make 50,000 before the end of the month, so yay! 8D
(And of course, you can add me over there if you haven't already.)
••• The Twilight Sad concert was Tuesday night, and it was as excellent and mind-blowing as I was hoping it was going to be.
K and I arrived around the listed time, but we found out the bands were running late since they were still soundchecking, so we went over to The Outer Space, the 21+ bar/venue on the other side of the parking lot; we didn't have anything there, but we waited there and talked (mostly about the people at K's workplace and how crazy/messed up/creepy they are -- she has an excellent knack of making those stories entertaining :D) until they were finished, then we went back.
The Space itself is in the middle of an industrial park in Hamden, and it's ridiculously small -- I'm told it only fits 150 people max, plus the ceiling is low and the stage is probably only about a few inches off the ground, so I can't say the acoustics were entirely the best (not that I'm the best person to judge a venue's acoustics to begin with, but anyway). But it was packed with a lot of interesting and eclectic decorations, including an arcade game just outside (here are some pictures to give you an idea), and there's a small deli/cafe-like thing off to one side as well. It was my first time there and I really liked it, particularly because it was small/cozy and laid back, and not boozy like Toad's Place.
The only big problem with the show was that too few people showed up. Including ourselves, I'd say that not even 20 people showed up. Which was kinda depressing, since The Twilight Sad are fairly well-known so you'd think they'd attract a bigger crowd, plus they were very LOUD, which was great but didn't exactly work in such a small space, and there wasn't nearly enough people there to drum up the energy for a show where that sort of loudness would feel appropriate. You could guess the reasons why: the election, Sandy, it was a weeknight, and it wasn't all that well-promoted. Still, it was a nice feeling to have such a big band play for a small, intimate crowd you were a part of.
The first band that night, Landing, got on stage around 8 PM; they had a really awesome shoegaze-y dream pop/space rock sound going on, sort of like what Hammock would sound like if their music was more upbeat and energetic. Next up was Errors, who kinda had the same sound but were more on the dance-y/electronica side of things; their music was pretty interesting as well, and now I have two new bands to check out. ^_^; The main act was the best of the night as I hoped; I think this was the first time where there was so much feedback and reverb that I could call their set "skull-shattering" and not have it be an exaggeration. Which wasn't the most pleasant feeling in the world, I admit, but after a while I got used to it. XD The lead singer also had this Ian Curtis thing going on where he would shout parts of the lyrics to some songs away from the microphone and right into all the noise and feedback, so you couldn't hear him at all. It was a nice touch that proved the band could put on a great show, and boy they certainly did! But because of the turnout they did rush through things a bit, and there was no encore. Here were the songs they played:
--"That Summer, At Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy" -- I'm really happy they opened with this song; this wasn't the first song I heard from them, but it was the one that got me really into them
--"Don't Move" -- I have to admit their latest album, from which this song comes from, isn't my favorite at all. I liked what they were trying to do with it, by incorporating more coldwave/electronic/post-punk sounds and influences in their music, but even as I started warming up to it I still found that all the songs sounded very much the same, and their bleaker-than-usual tone didn't help. Still, a lot of those songs sounded really good live, including this one.
--"Dead City"
--"Alphabet"
--"I Became a Prostitute" -- This one got the most cheers from the audience
--"Reflections of the Television"
--"Kill It in the Morning"
--"Nil"
--"Cold Days From the Birdhouse" -- Their rendition of this song was AMAZING; it felt like a breath of fresh air since the previous couple of songs were really intense
--"And She Would Darken the Memory"
All of these songs can be found on YouTube, in case anyone's curious.
Anyway, after the show (it ended around 11:20) I managed to grab one of their setlists, which I gave to K because she was the one who bought our tickets and it was the least I could do to thank her. We shook hands with the drummer, who was working the merch table, and apologized about the lack of people who showed up; he told us it wasn't a problem, that they were used to it and were happy that so many of us showed up as we did. I bought a poster, and while we were waiting for my dad to pick us up we waited inside the foyer because it was cold out, which meant we had to open the door for band members and staff who needed to get back in because it had already been locked from the outside. (We ended up running into the lead singer for The Twilight Sad that way; we apologized again for the lack of people and thanked him for putting on a great show, and he really appreciated it.)
So anyway, that's what happened in a nutshell. I'd love to go to another show at The Space because I really liked it there, but if/when I do hopefully more people will show up. ._.,
••• I've changed the layout of my LJ blog! --->
quadruplify The last one was more of a temporary thing because it was kinda ugly, so I hope y'all like this one more. ^_^;Anyway, that's about it from me. How's everyone else doing?
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