This post delayed by several hours because we were watching Rufus-doing-Judy

[petronia]

There's this hilarious bit at the beginning where they film the audience going in, and there's Sir Ian McKellen, Neil Tennant... had someone bombed the venue British homosexuality would've been set back half a century.

silvermuse89, daegaer, I got the cards - yesterday, in fact, as lovely to wake up to as the prospect of a turkey dinner. XD Thanks for the gold stars, and the fic. ♥^__^♥ Actually, for all that I've been doing LJ Christmas card exchanges for a few years, I think this is the first time I've gotten fic in the mail? Apart from the back of a postcard once.

Presents: got an amazing colour-gradient knitted scarf from Erin, and new headphones(!) from parents and sister - well, they were broken out of the box, but they can be exchanged. XD The important part is I will not be reduced to listening out of one ear. Srsly though if anyone has tips as to how to keep the things from breaking after a few months I'd like to hear them - it's always the connector bit that goes, too.

Was complained at this year for not having Christmas music, but truth is I haven't heard anything good/new I liked recently and I'm fairly sick of my Christmas playlist from preceding years. XD So here's, uh, requested stuff from yesterday.

Tsuji Ayano - Neko ni naritai
Tsuji Ayano - Cherry

Tsuji Ayano Spitz covers for usomitai. *g* The first is from a Spitz tribute album, the second is from Tsuji Ayano's own covers album that also includes versions of "Ougon no tsuki" and "Swallowtail Butterfly", among others. (Ukelele folk, for those just joining us in this corner.)

Final Fantasy - Peach, Plum, Pear (live Phoenix 2006): the aforementioned Youtube rip. Actually, what is even better than this one--

Final Fantasy - Fantasy (live): the Mariah Carey hit, bogglingly reconfigured for dude + solo violin + sampler. You can actually hear the audience XDing to this. Novelty factor high enough to warrant office email cc-ing - then again, "Peach, Plum, Pear" and "Fantasy" document the same emotion, only in different terms.

Patrick Wolf - Tristan: for jereeza. The story behind this one is that PWolf was living in a shack in Cornwall - being where the romance of Tristan and Iseult took place - went for a walk along the beach and got caught in a thunderstorm, then dragged himself home and wrote the song in 5min. As T remarked that is pretty much what it sounds like (or alternately, not a little like Depeche Mode).

Wolfman feat. Pete Doherty - Darksome Sea (Rough Version): just the Youtube rip again, talking and all, but not mine (it's an annoying and time-consuming process :P). Those of you out there anthopomorphizing The Birth of Tragedy to the tune of 21st-century emo, it could always be worse: you could've decided in the waning days of 2007 to be a Libertines fan. This is actually all Jonathan Ross's fault, because sororial unit kept watching his show on Youtube and happened on Pete Doherty and liked him. So the moral of the story is, never trust a man who snogged Neil Gaiman in public. I sort of made fun of her a lot, then sat down and pondered the possibility that there was a Real World Out There beyond ILM and LJ fic comms where this was not, in fact, all that embarrassing. Like, in the Real World there are people who make the unironic claim that Pete Doherty is the best English songwriter since Liam Gallagher. Sorry, Oasis fans on flist, but. You know. YOU KNOW.

Given that I didn't particularly enjoy The Libertines' music back in 2004, the fact that I know anything about this band (or Babyshambles, etc.) has to be a form of fandom osmosis, like my knowledge of the plot of Naruto. Was trying to explain the whole insane canonical WNGWJLEO melodrama to Aki last night (sorry Aki - connection died as always =_=), and she was like, SO HOW IS THE FIC THEN, and I was like, UM. ACTUALLY I HAVE NEVER READ THE FIC. Which isn't true, I'm sure I have, I just can't remember anything. In the meantime some of the famous-er songs gradually filtered in, and "For Lovers" ended up on the mythical Nana FST Part II, which I may finish sometime before Chinese Democracy. Once my sister pushed her Babyshambles mp3s on me I realized there were like two dozen more where that came from, so, heck.

Babyshambles - There She Goes (A Little Heartache): like this one, which really doesn't sound like anything I'd've expected. I was reading Scott Pilgrim so it reminds me of Envy Adams, basically. XD;

Babyshambles - Albion: and this, which is ridiculously pretty. (It also starts with thirty seconds of feedback noise, so don't worry about the sound card.) Okay I haven't forgotten that I promised visual reference when I start yammering on about bands, so here's a video of the song.

And a live clip from the Libertines era, because Aki was like, well you can't really share a microphone without being a bit suggestive, and I was like, no, that's... not what I mean. XD;;

Burial - Archangel: been posting about Burial too, so here's the track everyone says is an insta-classic à la "Teardrop". Not so sure myself but it may just be that the rest of the album is like this as well, so it's not a standout in the same way. At any rate I've been listening to it a lot. No visual reference though, since no one knows what the dude looks like. XD;;

If you're on carnet, btw, here's the full text of the interview I quoted. It's worth a read. OMG hauntology, etc. XD (And here's the short story for those as missed it. I wish someone had written something like this for the SSBB horror issue. XDD)

Comments

[one-if-by-land.livejournal.com]

wow, I never realized how ridiculously pretty pete doherty is. I've already remembered him as being borderline unattractive, but I've probably just seen bad icons of him (ahaha). I get what you mean about fandom osmosis; I have a working knowledge of pete/carl dynamics/breakdown, and I don't even listen to the libertines (nor do I have anyone who's into bandslash on my flist, so lolol wonder where I picked it up). suddenly the appeal of bandslash becomes startlingly clear after watching that second vid. *g*

[credoimprobus]

Heh, I was pretty much "okay yeah really nice and all that, but anything beyond that? eh" about Archangel too to begin -- until I heard whoever it was on rinse.fm (prob Plastician or N-Type) open a show/set with it, and suddenly I was all "OMG". It's all about the right context sometimes!

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Ha, I think the vid is from an interlude when dude was off the drugs. :x These things, they make a difference.

I KNOW, IT'S SO WEIRD. Then again I've also picked up tons of incidental data about, like, European football teams, lulz. And my sister keeps sending me videos where they're basically making out. You don't have anyone on your flist into bandslash, though? XD I have tons.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can totally see that. Most of this album could only work as set opener or closer though, you can't really bop to it. ^^;

[credoimprobus]

Not too dancey, is it, no? XD You really don't hear a lot of Burial dropped into sets, either, all the accolades in spite; I guess that'd be the reason.

(In belated addendum: I see you have the same problems with headphone lifespan as I have, haha. I've completely given up on actually putting any real money into headphones by this point. XD;)

[cis.livejournal.com]

the mr james i always wanted to be rewritten for ssbb is the residence at whitminster (http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/jamesX17.htm), which when young instilled in me a great fear of sawflies without my ever learning what they were. somewhere in the middle of it (cripes how many framing devices can one writer use) there's a platonic-ideal unhappy-ending ssbb story, though you'd have to age frank up by a couple of years.

i think of lib/bshambles fic as being one of those things people talk about a lot, and form fandoms around, and never actually write (or if they write it it's so mediocre it might as well not exist) (see previous bletherings about proto-pfslash and how it does not work).

[peripheralsight.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the rip!

[triestine.livejournal.com]

***Thank you!!!*** You're solid gold.

[joliefolie.livejournal.com]

It's not my fault they're basically making out in EVERY video. Look closely. Where's the microphone?
http://pics.livejournal.com/mys1985/pic/0012gy62

[bell]

OOOOOO. ♥ Downloads are a go and thank you. ♥

[cis.livejournal.com]

(nb i have never knowingly read any libs-and-collateral-indie slash, my assumption that it's mediocre is completely unfounded.) (the other thing about the pete-n-carl lovein is that it feels rather too 'top-down' to me: the 'pete and carl are totally in love' line was being pushed by the nme from the very beginning, as far as i can remember, before people ever started fandomming about it (i'm sure of this because i stopped getting the nme before their article that mentioned albion_slash). being pushed by the nme and by the lads themselves - like your idea that kapranos et al have the postmodern skeez to pre-empt fandom out of a chance to do its thing.)

[credoimprobus]

Omfg, can I just thank you for circumspectly linking to that site? Yeah. <3 <3 <3 (I dread the thought of HOW MUCH TIME that place is going to eat up for me, hahahaha. Thank god for the pda, at least!)

[kuroraka.livejournal.com]

More Pete Doherty!♥ Yes, i remember there were lots of rumours surrounding the Doherty/Barât relationship, but i didn't even know there was something like bandslash back then.XD

And i gotta admit that this version of Fantasy is one of the cutest things i've ever heard...

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

W00T, the CD has finally arrived! Am listening now, and being particularly amused by the image, thanks to your note, of Amon and Emishi and whatever girls they could actually gather boogieing (how the heck is that spelled?) around the broken-down pickup truck that is part of Andrea's personal Emishi fanon.

My Amon's taste in music is so nonsequitur I couldn't even begin to explain it, but he was the one who handed me an entire YA novel that spawned from idle thoughts about said musical taste and him as a DJ, and thus far this is right on. Thank you! ^_^

[petronia.livejournal.com]

That's totally how I think of it too! My sister says there is goodfic, but mostly written after 2005, which goes to show... something about the nature of fandoms, I'm not sure what. XD; But Franz etc. appreciate the construct on its own terms, whereas the whole deal with Doherty seems to be this baffling-from-POV-of-sensible-normal decision to live a construct (half nailed up by the NME at that). I guess this falls under that ILM meme of "so the Sex Pistols were basically a boy band".

Occasionally Conor McNicholas turns up as a talking head in YTube vids and I can never catch what he's saying because I'm too preoccupied plumbing for the soul behind those beady eyes like the eternal optimist I am.

That story is so, so creepy. ♥

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Great, you got it! I was beginning to be afraid it had gotten lost in the mail. ^_^;

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Gawd I knoww, comes from carrying the things daily - you'd think they'd figure out a way to make them more sturdy. :/ It was all right when I was using earbuds but now I'm addicted to having the big ones to keep my ears warm in winter. ^^;

[petronia.livejournal.com]

...And I seem to have overwritten the playlist. XD;;; I've recreated, in that I pretty much know what songs went on there, but could you help me sort out the order? orz Just track times would do.

[cis.livejournal.com]

I was having a conversation about ghost stories in someone's lj just last week - some kind of spooky ~*coincidence*~! - so I had the url ready in my history and everything. it's such a great site.

[credoimprobus]

Convenient! And good god, yes, it is. (Also it led me by way of end-of-story-file-started chain of links to a full online copy of William Hope Hodgson's The House on the Borderland, which I've been desperately wanting to read! \o/)

Also? I can totally see what you mean about The Residence at Whitminster, haha. (...Now stop me from actually writing that! Both of the proposed stories, in fact. XD;;)