so, as usual, i lost an embarrassingly substantial part of my night tonight to the internet, mainly youtube. and i want you to experience what i did so i am going to share it with you.
first off, the funniest game show answers. god, americans are dumb. some of my faves in this bunch (and trust me, watch to the end, they are all great) are “name a yellow fruit” “orange” and “name a 3 letter animal” “alligator”. enjoy
next up, if you’ve ever wanted to know if there’s a full proof way of assuring that you win every round of rock, paper, scissors… here’s your answer.
third, ever wonder why some movies succeed when others don’t? well, it’s because they all have that same sellable plot line. everyone wants the sympathetic hero to beat the villainous baddie. here’s the lo-down on what story line many movie writers use to achieve their hollywood success:
and finally, one of all time low’s first music videos for the song “coffee shop sound track”. i love that these guys don’t take themselves seriously and like to let their fans see that. every one of their videos are so funny because they are not afraid to make a fool of themselves. another great on is the video for “i feel like dancin‘” so check that one out too if you get the time.
so, the greatly anticipated (well, mostly by me) new Panic! at the Disco album is out. its called “too weird to live, too rare to die” and lets just say that calling it weird is being easy on it. i was excited, i love these guys. yes, it was devastating when they split up due to musical differences and Ryan and john went their separate ways but “Vices and Virtues” (which was the album brendon and spencer made by themselves as the remains of Panic! at the disco) was great, i even preferred it to their previous album, “pretty. odd.”.
and so, i was hopeful for this upcoming album. no, the singles didn’t get me too excited (although i can say that i prefer “this is gospel” to “miss jackson”) but they’ve never done anything i haven’t liked before. Panic! are known for changing their style because each of their three previous albums have sounded completely different to the one before it. and, even when i haven’t liked the music or the lyrics, brendons voice has always saved it. he just has the most incredible vocal abilities and he can make anything sound beautiful. want an example? check out “Northern Downpour” off their second album. or even their original and best known single, “I write sins not tragedies”.
but, no matter how hard i have tried, or how many relistens, i just cannot get behind these songs. maybe it still needs more time. it shouldn’t but maybe it does. yes, i was prepared for a change, but not this. its just too many elements that i don’t like combined without enough stuff that i do like. of course, this is all just my personal opinion and i know there are fans out there who love it. and because it’s Panic! i will continue to listen and will always love them, but i find myself believing that had i not already been a fan of this band, there is no way i would listen to those singles and it would want to make me check out the album. none of these songs make me want to buy the CD. For me it’s just too much techno/electric/autotuney i don’t even know how to describe it. but it’s not my style. i like rock/punk bands and this is far from that. it’s all synths and computer music. and the most frustrating part… you can’t even hear his voice!!!! its covered up by all the effects put on top. it’s like they auto tuned him, but he has one of the most incredible voices ever!!!! and you just can’t hear it. and some of the lyrics are supremely average, i’ve never been a fan of one line songs or one line choruses, sometimes there ok but most of the time, just no.
the other hard thing for me is that this album was streamed online almost the same day that the also highly anticipated extension of All Time Low’s most recent album, the now aptly named “Don’t Panic! its long now”, was streamed online. so i put them both into a playlist on my iPod to listen to them together. and its just so painful moving from the new All time low songs (which also included four beautiful acoustics of songs off the first part of the album) to the Panic at the disco songs because of the drastic difference in the songs. for a perfect review of All time lows “new” album, check out Bec’s blog where she pretty much sums it all up when she says “they’re yet to release a song i don’t like”. and this new extended release is no different and in my opinion has some of their best songs yet. for a comparison, check out the two songs below.
all in all, i still love Panic! i’ll still wait eagerly for the next release and next change. i’ll still be standing their singing my lungs out when they eventually release an australian tour date. i’ll still buy their album (although this is the first time i’ve ever even thought about not buying it). and i’ll still probably call them my favourite band (although All time low is very very close to taking that title (and may succeed if i can’t find more redeeming factors about this album over the next week)).
song’s i actually do like off the album (and this is like in a very loose sense of the word because if it wasn’t Panic! i don’t think i’d like any of them) are “this is Gospel”, “nicotine” and “collar full”. yes, 3 out of ten. i feel devastated. maybe it just needs time. hopefully i can come back in a few days (ok, maybe weeks) and tell you i’ve had a sudden change of heart and its the best CD ever. but until then, i’ll be listening avidly to “Don’t Panic! it’s longer now” and trying to push this “too weird too live, too rare to die” out of my head.
it feels like i haven’t blogged in a while. do you guys miss me? (do you guys even exist? probably not, haha). i guess we all took a nice break for the week. (just to say, at least our mid semester break was in the middle of our semester!!! deakin’s was in week four and monash’s is like in week 10! whats up with that?) and i haven’t really done or been looking at anything worth blogging about. and “why is that?” i hear you ask? because my new kingdom hearts 2 finally arrived (well, by new i mean i jsut got it, the game come out in like 2004).
now, for anyone wondering, kingdom hearts is by far my favourite game (yes probably even more than pokemon. ok, lets not get too crazy, equal to pokemon. but they’r very different) and i’ve played kingdom hearts 1 more times than i can count. who doesn’t love the magical adventures of sore, donald and goofy and travelling through the incredible worlds of the disney movies? (peter pan is obviously the best world). so, once i got that pesky little comm essay out of the way (which sadly took a lot longer than i had hoped due to some facebook/youtube/all time low obsession interference), it was a nice dive into the world of kingdom hearts 2. and it’s pretty cool. there’s some awesome new features, like double keyblades, and new worlds, like milan and lion king! its just awesome. and i know you think it sounds lame but trust me, the kingdom hearts series is regarded as one of the best games out there so get into it.
now, i’m so hyped up about this because they are finally releasing a kingdom hearts 3!!! but the killer line….. only on the new PS4 or new X-box! 🙁 which i don’t have and am not planning on buying. so depressing. how will i ever know if sora, donald, goofy, riku and kairi and up happy??? but they are also rereleasing the first game in HD with extra goodies and limited edition sketch books so i’m happy about that.
wow. that got off topic, i was not planning on going on for o long about kingdom hearts. well, thats the blog for you, start off in one place and end somewhere completely different. i guess it’ll be good for me to get back into regular blogging this week, maybe with some stuff to do with the actual subject involved. well, last week (or two weeks ago i guess, stupid holiday) it was finally my classes turn to come up with the questions for this week’s unlecture! now, there was some confusion due to the whole naming of the weekly readings in the blog, you know 01 reading for week 02. or the 05 readings for week 06 but we’ll discuss them in week 07. all very confusing. but we came up with some questions anyway. proudly, mine made it in!!! what is? no spoilers!!!! you’ll have to wait and hear it in the unlecture. but let me tell you, it’s a doozy! (ok, not really, i wasn’t even expecting it to be picked! but the others all liked it). but the others were pretty good and also brought up some good class discussions about what can be classified as hypertext or what kinds of hypertexts can be classified as academic or essay. and then we dove into the usual niki work.
but i should stop there. i’m rambling again and this post has covered a few too many things. stay tuned folks, hopefully more to come!
last saturday night i attended one of the best concerts i have ever been to. ever. and if you’ve enver heard all time low (shame on you!!!) a seriously recommend checking them out. (here’s one of my faves of theirs,).
now these guys know how to make a brilliant show. not only does the lead singer, alex gaskarth, have the most incredible live voice i’ve ever heard, but these guys are just funny. like laugh out loud, can’t believe they went there, these guys should have their own show, kind of funny. and it’s for that exact reason that they actually do have their own radio show on idobi radio so check that out if you’re up for a great laugh (and some good songs too).
back to the show. omg, it was just unbelievable. ok, so this won’t be a very articulate post, because i really can’t think of any better way of describing this show other than unbelievable. well, they had a brilliant set list. and anyone familiar with their songs would have been very happy. there was a great mix of both their old and their new stuff but it was also good to see more off their newest album, “don’t panic” (which is my favourite out of theirs).
in addition to the usual on stage banter between alex and jack (again, check out full frontal to hear what i’m talking about) and jack’s lovely collection of bras thrown at them on stage (which, over the course of the show, both alex and jack performed a song with a bra on their head), the boys took full advantage of their only over 18 show in australia (except for the other melbourne show) by initing 6 ridiculously lucky fans up on stage to do shots with them before allowing them to stage dive and crowd surfing during the playing of “Weightless”. you could just feel the envy running through the crowd. but these boys really do know how to put on a brilliant show. and it doesn’t hurt that they are all incredibly good looking too.
what a way to end august. not much else to add except that i really really wish i was going to their second show tonight. hope they come back to Australia soon (yes, i know they’re still here but i’m already ready for them to come back!)
