Music Monday :: my tentative top 10 Eisley songs

I’m pretty sure it’s no secret around these parts that I love Eisley like I love no other band.  They worked their way into my tentative “favorite band” spot shortly after I heard Room Noises and I know it wasn’t just an impulse because that was years ago and it’s still counting.  (Things I love sometimes go through phases, but once I get really and truly attached to something, especially something I classify as my capital-F Favorite, it isn’t like to change easily.  This is why I’ve had the same favorite movie since I was thirteen.)  Anyway, Eisley announced today that their newest album drops at the end of May and I am very excited about it so I thought that it’s time for a retrospective of sorts!

I say tentative top 10 because honestly, there is not a song by these guys that I don’t love with all my heart.  These just tend to be the ones that I flock to the most.  (And it is no coincidence that so many of these are ones I’ve mixed with.)

10. “Just Like We Do“
I always have to include this song because it’s the one that’s responsible for my being interested.  One of my darling friends had it on a mix she gave me, and I’m sure she didn’t expect me to latch on as hard as I did, but soon I was buying the full album and listening to it far too often (or, I mean, if that was possible, which it’s not, so).  Thanks, friend!

9. “Blackened Crown“
Two of the reasons I love Eisley the most is they are often quite whimsical and sometimes surprisingly dark.  This song exemplifies both things.  This is a very simple song most of the time, really, and you can’t even find the EP it’s from on iTunes or anything, but it’s lovely in every way.

8. “The Valley“
Clearly the band likes this track too, since one of their EPs is named for a lyric and their third full-length is named for the song overall.  (I am also including the music video link for this one and not just a link of someone uploading the song with album cover because it is probably my all-time favorite music video of all time.  For reasons that are very obvious.)  I find this song a surprisingly good driving jam; this song is ladylike but with an edge kind of.

7. “Lights Out“
The newest addition to this list, but as the liveblogging of this EP that I did attested to, this song hits so many of my lyrical triggers.  It is also full of harmonies, which are another of the reasons that I love Eisley so much.  I am the biggest sucker for harmonies, especially lady harmonies, that has been.  Or at least that I know of in my life.

6. “Brightly Wound“
This is probably the most straight-up happy of the songs that are on my list.  It’s very cute and much, much happier than a lot of songs that I consider my favorites just overall in the world.  Also, this song mentions fireflies and dragons both, so it’s kind of a given.

5. “Mr. Moon“
(I am not sure why the majority of this video lays the sound over a picture of a little boy in the woods, but hey.)  This song also mentions fireflies, and maybe that’s why it first caught my special attention, but the fact remains that it is a truly beautiful track.

4. “Marvelous Things“
For some reason, my iPod was accidentally on shuffle the first time I played Room Noises the whole way through, so the last track I heard was this one.  And I will not soon forget it, because those last notes being the last thing I heard was stunning and actually sent chills through me.

3. “Invasion“
Well, this song is (still) the ringtone on my cell phone.  Of course it’s this high.  Also I just love that this is a song that exists.  (And I will include the music video for it as well, since it’s so creepy and beautiful.  I don’t watch music videos hardly ever, but I partake of the ones these guys produce gleefully and often.)

2. “Better Love“
This is more of a “rock song” than a lot of theirs are, but it still has their beautiful harmonies and their beautiful somewhat-darkness.  And this is one of my number one jams.  Stop everything (except for driving and such things, those things continue) and just enjoy and quasi-rock out.

1. “I Could Be There For You“
In short, duh.

–your fangirl heroine.

Things in Print Thursday :: 10 books I have read very, very many times indeed

Sort of in order of how many times I’ve read each (though I don’t have exact numbers for any).

10. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
I have several Sedaris books.  I don’t think I’ve ever told you guys the story about the time I met David Sedaris, but that’s why my copy of Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim has a jack o’ lantern drawn in it.  (It was the day before Halloween.)  And I’ve read all of the Sedaris books I have many, many times, but Me Talk Pretty One Day was the first one I bought, so I’ve read it the most times.  Somehow it never gets old, either.  But as this list proves, I am one of those insane people who can read something they like over a thousand thousand times and never get tired of it.

9. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
I’ve got all of the books in the series, but by virtue of this one being both the first book in the series and therefore the one I acquired first, I have read it the most times.  Honestly, I’ve only read the ones about her kids a couple of times, being as I acquired them later in childhood and being as I cared less about her kids than I did about Anne herself.  I didn’t not like them, but I have a soft spot for those childhood adventures­­­­ when Anne and her friends were being fanciful and absurd and theatrical, possibly because when we were young, my friends and I tended toward the fanciful and absurd and theatrical.

8. Strange But True by John Searles
I’m not even sure why exactly I’ve read this book so many times.  I remember reading a chapter of it in – I think it must have been Seventeen, but it might have been YM, it was back in the day – and I thought it was interesting enough, so I found the full book.  And the chapter that the magazine contained, while interesting, was very much not indicative of how dark and weird the book was.  It’s timeline-jumpy, it’s dark as hell, it’s got plenty of characters who are in one way or another emotionally grotesque; as per the timeline-jumpiness, parts of it are written in present tense, and despite the fact that I tend to default to writing fiction that way, I don’t read many novels that are that way, so it sort of blew my mind.  I just remember the first time I read one section, where it was describing Melissa, one of the protagonists, in her living room, and started in with “look on the coffee table,” “look in the fridge,” “be careful not to drop it because you’ll wake her.”  I remember that that part sent chills up my spine.  Also I’ve read it so many times because I notice something different each time.

7. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
I’ve discussed this one before, yes.

6. Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress by Susan Jane Gilman
I mentioned this one too, a really long time ago; how I’ve read it so many times the cover’s fallen off, how it means a lot to me even today (the first time I read it, I was probably about thirteen or fourteen and didn’t yet self-identify as a feminist, but I was on the way, and I’m sure this book helped me get there, whether or not I knew it consciously).  There are parts of the author’s experience that I relate to on a really intense level and parts of it that I am still oblivious to, but I find all of it still quite interesting and refreshing.

5. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
This is one of my blatantly obvious lists in a lot of ways, though considering how much this book means to me, it’s sort of surprising it’s not higher up on this list: this is because though I’ve read it many, many times, I’ve also leant my copy to so many people so many times that it’s rarely in my own possession.  I don’t even know who has it for sure (I think I know, but) and though I want it back someday to look over all my old high school age scribblings in the margins, I might just buy another copy to make sure I have one.  I wouldn’t mind owning two copies.  It’s that kind of book.

4. Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
I’m about due for one of my rereads of this book; I don’t know how many times I’ve read it, but it’s a lot.  And I’m not going to talk much about it right now, because once I’m done with that reread, whenever that may be, I plan on writing a giant post about it.  It really is a lovely book and I love it in a lot of strange, messed up ways that are indicative of my warped sense of humor and also my warped everything else.

3, 2, 1. Little Women, Little Men, and Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott
I’m pretty sure you all could figure this out.  And honestly, if I was putting them individually on this semi-quantitative list, I’d probably put Little Men around the middle and Jo’s Boys toward the end.  This is another one of those chronology-of-acquiring points; this is also because I have reread the original multiple times as an adult, but I haven’t reread the sequels since I was in junior high.  One of the reasons these books top this list is because I have read them all countless times by myself and also read them multiple times with my mother when I was a child.  (If I remember correctly, these and Anne of Green Gables the original were the only ones we read out loud multiple times; we read a lot of books once, but we’d often cycle back to these out of affection.)  And anyway, these will always be some of my favorites.

–your fangirl heroine.

Music Monday :: 2012 in music, part 2 (10 albums of the year)

SO.  Not that I didn’t have three albums in my overall best-of yesterday, not that this doesn’t largely duplicate my Songs of the Year from last week, not that this isn’t just basically me linking to reviews I did earlier, but.  It needs to be done, for continuity’s sake.

10. yellow//gold by The Spring Standards
These guys.  They never fail to make me smile or feel wistful, and possibly do both at the same time.

9. Rhythm and Repose by Glen Hansard
Glen, you lovely human being.  With your sad sweet Irish folk music.  Just be here always.

8. By the Horns by Julia Stone
This album is wonderfully understated, but it quickly found its way into my Mellow Out In The Evening repertoire, which means I play it at least four times a week.

7. Blunderbuss by Jack White
Yes and always.  You can always tell Jack White’s projects; they’re similar, but not the same.  They have that beautiful edge to them.

6. The Ol’ Razzle Dazzle by Missy Higgins
I never reviewed this album because I didn’t realize it had come out until much too late, but augh, I adore it so much.  Missy Higgins is one of my favorites, always, and though this isn’t Driving In My Car music in the “up” way, necessarily, this is definitely Driving In My Car music sometimes.  Or Cleaning My Living Space music sometimes.  Or just Functioning Somehow music sometimes.

5. A Wasteland Companion by M. Ward
M. Ward, you musical genius man.  You wonderful Portland man.  With your beautiful folksy/grungy/alternative/sweet/dark/everything tunes.

4. What We Saw From the Cheap Seats by Regina Spektor
Oh, my darling Regina and your glorious weirdness.

3. A Minor Bird by Sucré
Always and ever, Stacy DuPree King.  Always and ever.

2. Halcyon by Ellie Goulding
Like I’ve said in every other possible way before.

1. Synthetica by Metric
Also like I’ve said in every other possible way before.

–your fangirl heroine.

Film Friday :: 2012 in film (2 opinions, 4 predictable favorites, 4 awesome people)

Opinions
2. I don’t care, I’m going to actively promote evil queen Charlize Theron to everyone.
I mean, I liked Snow White and the Hunstman pretty decently well overall, as you may remember.  It’s that kind of ridiculous dark thing I generally appreciate.  But the more I think about it, the more I go: wow, wow, but evil queen Charlize Theron is actually the best thing ever.  I haven’t seen a lot of Charlize Theron movies, or I’ve only halfway seen them, or I wasn’t really paying attention, but wow, maybe it’s just that I sort of dig on evil queens, but I enjoyed the hell out of this particular performance.

1. There were a lot of movies this year that I objectively recognize were good but just… didn’t really care about overall.
The Dark Knight Rises.  Skyfall.  Looper.  Friends With Kids even.  For different reasons each time, but also largely for one overarching reason: I have such a hard time caring about the movie when I don’t care about the characters and/or don’t necessarily appreciate how they were being used.  It’s not that I didn’t like these movies.  To whatever extent, I did. But I wasn’t thinking about them too much afterward, I wasn’t analyzing everything about them happily, I didn’t feel compelled to jump into discussions about them.  I actually kind of fear being asked to join discussions about The Dark Knight Rises, because there really isn’t anything insightful I can say about it.

Predictable favorites
4. Brave
I just rewatched this movie the other night.  And ugh it makes me so happy.  I don’t really need to repeat myself, but it did so many things right and I adored it for that.

3. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
See but this would also have been a predictable disappointment, because I do not recall the last time I was this nervous about a movie.  The Perks of Being a Wallflower is such a big part of my adolescence that the film had some monumentally-sized shoes to fill in my eyes.  But not only did it fill those shoes, it was actually a really really good movie that did a lot of the things that I thank Brave (and actually the next two movies I’m about to discuss) for.  Yes, Charlie (Logan Lerman) has a crush on Sam (Emma Watson).  But that is not the point of the movie, the point of the movie is friendship.  It’s a love story, but it’s a platonic love story about these young people who care so deeply for each other, and that makes me so absolutely happy.

2. The Avengers
You can see where this is going, no?  I talked about how this movie was almost immediate fulfillment of a wish I expressed: a movie about platonic relationships.  Because aside from Tony (Robert Downey Jr.) and Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow), there is absolutely no romance in this movie.  (I mean, if you’re too desperate for Avengers romance, you can basically look… anywhere on tumblr or the rest of the internet and find every possible permutation of romantic relationships between every character who has ever appeared for half a scene in the MCU.)  This is a movie about a bunch of people, extraordinary people for whatever reason, who by all rights should not get along, but still manage to forge a beautiful team and do some world-saving.  And this is a movie where the good guys never ever go “oh yeah, and here’s our token lady team member,” they just appreciate her skills like they appreciate (or sometimes don’t appreciate) anyone else’s skills and go about their day.  This is a movie where things felt high-risk and where things felt real even if it was about superheroes and space aliens and where characters were interesting to me.  This is a movie where I actually got invested in really just about everyone.

1. The Cabin in the Woods
This is the height of predictable.  This is also not the only list (or sublist I guess) that this movie will be heading up in the near future.  This movie, though.  This movie has romantic relationships and makeouts and whatnot, Curt (Chris Hemsworth) and Jules (Anna Hutchinson), Dana (Kristen Connolly) and Holden (Jesse Williams), and this is largely because it’s integral to the genre critique and the extreme meta factor.  But you know what I love?  I love the handling of the “Marty and I were sweeties in our freshman hall” bit, insofar as it’s refuted with a “we made out once” and not turned into some source of tension (one of the pieces of Cabin meta I’ve found online talks about this; I don’t remember which one, but one of them, all of which are in my Cabin in the Woods tag so go find it if you’re curious I guess) I love that even while Dana and Marty (Fran Kranz) were running around destroying everything, even while they were clinging to each other and being sweet to each other as the world combusted, they didn’t actually have romantic subplottiness.  It’s so easy to pull that “last boy last girl shove ‘em together” stuff, and that has definitely happened in the genre before.  And mind you, I actually do kind of ship Dana and Marty.  But I like that it didn’t have to be made canon.

Awesome people
4. Rooney Mara(The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo)
It almost seems like this movie came out last year, since it was so close to the year’s beginning.  But nope, this was a 2012 movie indeed.  And I just.  I love her.  Between this movie (because while I adore Noomi Rapace’s Lisbeth, I am not in love with her) and the fact that this was the year I finally finished the book trilogy, 2012 was the year I actually fell in love with Lisbeth Salander.  I think she’s great, and I think she’s fascinating.  She’s a badass, she’s a techie savant, she’s unapologetically bisexual, she’s unapologetically everything actually.  She’s just great.

3. Zoe Kazan (Ruby Sparks)
I really loved this movie.  Probably because of all of its meta.  But I love Zoe Kazan because she’s adorable and I found the evolution of Ruby in the story to be pretty interesting, and I love her because this was her movie.  She came up with it, she wrote it, she made happen what she needed to make happen.  And that’s super-super-cool.

2. Fran Kranz (The Cabin in the Woods)
We’re into the predictable again.  As I’m sure I’ve mentioned, I get inordinately proud when watching this movie with other people and they express fondness for him, be it the couple sitting in front of me  the third time I saw it in theaters talking about how he was the most awesome one in the movie or be it my friend proclaiming that not only was he awesome, he was pretty cute.  I am bordering-on-creepy-proud of my Fran and how well people reacted to him in this movie.  I am so happy that he was the star of everyone’s hearts.

1. Scarlett Johansson (The Avengers)
I definitely mentioned before that I’ve actually always kind of had a Scarlett Johansson thing.  This used to be for reasons that I couldn’t quite articulate, because it wasn’t because of a particular movie or because I’d read something cool with her or anything.  It just sort of was.  But after The Avengers (and her growing real-life fantastic reactions to people talking to her about it) I feel completely justified in this for the first time.  Because I’m sorry, Entertainment Weekly, but Loki being the one character from this movie that you pulled out specially to mention in your end-of-the-year whatnot?  Noooope.  I am ambivalent toward Loki, actually; I don’t hate him, but neither do I fall all over him going “aw poor baby.”  However, Black Widow has become at least to some of my friends one of my real life things, like British accents or cupcakes or dragons.  Because Black Widow is fantastic and wonderful, and I and the world needed a character like her in this (and really any) movie so much.  She is my rational, kickass, imperfect, literal-minded, well-developed darling, and I am so glad she exists.

–your fangirl heroine.

Television Tuesday :: 2012 in television characters (4 who I mourned, 3 ladies I started loving and 2 I always love, and 2 romantic relationships that served as bright spots in otherwise dark times)

Last year, I talked more about specific episodes or about moments or things; this year, when trying to decide what would make my end-of-year list, I realized it really had to just be characters.  Seeing as that’s how I process things.  There are fewer shows discussed, because while I watch a lot of things, I guess, fewer of them affect me in this way.  Oh, and I guess this is spoilery?

So.

4 who I mourned
4. Harry “Opie” Winston (Ryan Hurst, Sons of Anarchy)
Opie was a good guy.  Opie was kind of the (yes, violent, yes, criminal) teddy bear type of the Sons, and watching everything fall away from him systematically had always been hard.  His death was a catalyst for the dark-as-hell path that Jax (Charlie Hunnam) tripped down with even greater manic abandon, so while I mourned him as a character and on behalf of Lyla (Winter Ave Zoli) and his poor kids, I also mourned him as a representation of a bit of Jax’s moral code.

3. Lane Pryce (Jared Harris, Mad Men)
Oh, Lane.  The “in terrible debt oh no” plotline for Lane came on rather suddenly, but then, sometimes these things do.  You would have a hard time spending five episodes hinting at someone’s suicide and having it still feel necessarily shocking.  I also recall idly asking last year for there to be more significant deaths on Mad Men, so I somewhat take the blame for this happening.

2. Owen Sleater (Charlie Cox, Boardwalk Empire)
This one was just upsetting.  It had to happen in a way, because heaven forbid anyone on this show maintain a pleasure-bringing romantic relationship and heaven forbid Margaret (Kelly Macdonald) find happiness.  They couldn’t have run off together, because the show wouldn’t need them if they did that and the show needs Margaret.  But offing Owen how they did, so unceremoniously and suddenly, was heartwrenching.

1. Doreah (Roxanne McKee, Game of Thrones)
…what.  You didn’t see this coming?  I’ve talked at length about this whole messy situation before, so I won’t go into too terribly many of the details, but let me just say: I mourned Doreah as a woman, because she seemed to be good until surprise betrayal time.  I mourned Doreah as a representation of an aspect of Dany’s innocence.  I mourned Doreah because hers and Dany’s was, as I have seen said, really the only female friendship on the show.  I mourned Doreah because of lady-tinted glasses and the potentials that I will miss reading into her facial expressions and the glances she sent her khaleesi’s way.  Of all of these deaths, this one stung the hardest and still stings when I think about it, which is ridiculous, but nonetheless true.

3 ladies I started loving
3. Ygritte (Rose Leslie, Game of Thrones)
I always liked Ygritte, but it probably wasn’t until my second go-round with the season that I started really loving her.  This is, I admit, in part because I think her accent is the absolute most wonderful thing in the world to listen to, but it’s also because I really do enjoy the feisty ones sometimes.  I enjoy her suggestive sense of humor and her unapologetic independence, and I enjoy the awkward looks she puts on Jon Snow’s (Kit Harrington) face.

2. Michonne (Danai Gurira, The Walking Dead)
Michonne is someone that this particular television show really needed.  She is still mysterious to us in many ways, but maybe that’s okay.  I think one of my greatest fears would be that she was just a Badass Sword Woman and nothing more, but even being a mystery, you can see so much in her expressions and reactions.  I don’t trust the judgment of many of the characters on this show, but I’m fairly willing to accept that if Michonne thinks someone is bad news, they likely are.

1. Nora Gainesborough (Lucy Griffiths, True Blood)
SURPRISE.  Except for not.  I think the thousands of words I have written about Nora already should prove that I love her too deeply much.  Furthermore, while I love a lot of characters (as above, both Ygritte and Michonne are ones I love), I count Nora among the few that I am (fictionally) in love with.  Her character arc, her various strengths and weaknesses, her PLAY ALL THE SIDES thing, her Britishness, her face, all of it.  /redundant.  (Also, I think I’ll mention here why Salome [Valentina Cervi] is not on the list of the mourned: while I managed to make myself very sad the other day by idly thinking about Nora/Salome while listening to Missy Higgins while halfway asleep and then imagining a scenario in which Nora mourns, I as an audience member knew that Salome did, for plot reasons, need to die.  Though I honestly didn’t think of Salome as the season’s big bad until I read that very thing somewhere, she was and she needed because of it to be killed.  I am sad when I imagine Nora mourning, but despite the fact that I adored Salome, I don’t mourn her necessarily.)

2 I always love
2. Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones)
I’ve also gotten into this before, somewhat here and somewhat on my tumblr.  But I don’t think there’s any secret about how deeply I am attached to Dany, my queen my khaleesi my darling.  I love her, flaws and all.  I really and truly do.

1. Joan Holloway Harris (Christina Hendricks, MadMen)
This season brought some painful moments for my Joanie (I am still processing the incident with the Jaguar man) and maybe that somehow taints her successes.  I don’t really think so, though.  As the series has progressed, we’ve seen Joan take a more and more active role in her own life, and here there was some action in the form of voluntary passivity to achieve means, which was absolutely tragic, because that’s all she’s been taught to do, but at the end of the day, there she is with glasses chains or spray paint, finally official in her just about running that company.  It has not been and will not be a neat and tidy journey, but no journey is.  And she continues to be fascinating and lovely.

2 romantic relationships that served as bright spots in otherwise dark times
2. Pam de Beaufort and Tara Thornton (Kristin Bauer van Straten and Rutina Wesley, True Blood)
True Blood, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned, is one of the few shows that can genuinely surprise me.  Not just in an “I didn’t quite see that coming” sense but in a “wow, I would never in a million years have guessed that anything resembling that would ever happen” sense.  Pam appearing in Sookie’s kitchen and turning a brains-blown-out Tara into a vampire was one of those things, but I’m, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned, gladder than anything that it did happen.  In 5×08, “Somebody That I Used to Know,” Pam gives Tara a woman who’d been at the bar, a former classmate of Tara’s who was offensive and awful to her, to nom on.  This classmate was Tracy (Anastasia Ganias), previously seen in an earlier episode running her clothing shop: Tracy’s Togs.  Now, in the book series one of Tara’s only functions is to own and run a clothing shop, Tara’s Togs; Sookie sometimes visits before she has to go do vampire business.  In a way, by nomming on Tracy, who is somewhat analogous at least in function to book!Tara, show!Tara is allowed to essentially kill her past, to completely negate anything that came before; that’s the gift Pam has given her.  And their attraction is not instant, nor is it the cause of turning, but instead it grows with time, into, yep, the most beautiful phrase in the world: interracial lesbian vampire couple.

1. Glenn Rhee and Maggie Greene (Steven Yeun and Lauren Cohan, The Walking Dead)
I mentioned this after the season 2 finale, I did, but it needs to be resaid.  One of the only things that I was actually tense about during the fall finale was “are Glenn and Maggie going to be okay?”  As individuals, because Glenn is actually my favorite of all of the characters probably and Maggie is definitely a favorite too, and as a pair, because their adorable little interracial apocalypse love is the sweetest thing.  I’m still kind of mad that the Governor (David Morrissey), who in our circles is called either Governor Douchebag or Governor Bill (re: his emotional and sometimes physical similarities to True Blood’s thus-named douchebag), had to threaten to rape Maggie, both because nobody messes with my Maggie and because did we really need that?, but I’m glad that the confession that threat prompted did not turn into a mess of perceived betrayal and badness.  I’m glad that they’re at least somewhat okay for now and could possibly live to be adorable for another day.

–your fangirl heroine.

Music Monday :: 2012 in music, part 1 (10 songs of the year)

I actually had a hard time narrowing this list down.  I’ve reviewed and found quite a lot of beautiful albums this year, and I will be discussing them as a whole next week, but this week I figured I should give some credit to some of my favorite songs.  Some of these were predicted in my initial album liveblogs, some of these came on rather late and for varied reasons.

10. “Talking With the Wolves” by Glen Hansard
I was torn between this one and “You Will Become,” because I really love them about equally, but because of what I read 300 pages of today and therefore what I do associate this song with despite not having used it for anything yet, I decided to go with this one for the list.

9. “Chemical Reaction” by Sucré
I wasn’t sure where to go with this album, either. “When We Were Young” is the big grand sweeping ta-da of the album, and that’s cool; I have soft spots for about half of the songs on deep individual levels.  But my inner nerdlove fanatic insists on this being the choice.

8. “Bombs Away” by This Girl
I listened to… actually most of these songs when I was driving down to Disneyland earlier this year.  But for some reason, driving through various Californian mountains in 2012 is always going to go the best with “we could disappear like smoke or curl up in a ball of flame ’cause the dumbest of us know we are deranged” in my head.  Not exactly chipper, but there you have it.

7. “Me and My Shadow” by M. Ward
I’ve talked about this one so very much already, but it just needs to be listed for continuity’s sake.

6. “Don’t Say a Word” by Ellie Goulding
It’s… maybe weird that this is my favorite track off of Halcyon, which is also one of my two official Driving In My Car albums.  Certainly, the fact that it’s the first track means I hear it a lot, but it’s just dark and epic and I adore it.  I adore it a lot.

5. “Watch the Moon Disappear” by the Spring Standards
I called this one right out of the gate.  Right off the bat.  However you want to say it.  But it’s got a lot of the things I look for in songs and I love it in unexplainable ways.

4. “Oh Marcello” by Regina Spektor
This one, on the other hand, crept up on me.  Does this have to do with the fact that I love how utterly absurd Regina is sometimes?  Largely.  Does this have to do with the fact that this song is dark and I like that?  Largely.  Does this have to do with “my head waiter’s head on your platter, just say the word and Salome can kiss my gutters“?  Maaaybe.

3. “One Last Song” by Eisley
I love this whole EP and were it not for a particular emotional night this summer, I’d probably be choosing a different song.  But I’m the kind of person who sometimes needs to work at getting emotional, and for various real life reasons, I just knew I needed to have a good cry.  So what did I do?  Watch Serenity and then listen to this song repeatedly for near an hour.

2. “Youth Without Youth” by Metric
Yet another tie (with yet another song from my Black Widow fanmix ["Artificial Nocturne"]) but hey.  I actually hear this song on the radio sometimes, and every time I start grinning like an idiot and singing along terribly.  This is my other official Driving In My Car album, and this song is one of my favorites to drive to.

1. “Love Interruption” by Jack White
When I hear this song, I stop everything that I’m doing (unless I’m driving, in which case I keep doing that) and just let it happen.  This song is beautiful and wonderful and dark and delightful.

–your fangirl heroine.

Things in Print Thursday :: 10 social topics I learned about as a child not primarily from life or school but from the Baby-sitters’ Club

And since most of them were over the period of multiple books and I can’t remember specific titles, this is just a list of things without any commentary at all.  But I think it says something interesting about my childhood, and I wonder what books teach kids these lessons nowadays.  Since a lot of them are useful things to know.

10. Dating

9. Staging a full-blown musical

8. Traditions of the other faiths and cultures

7. Living in New York City (or really any large city with a relative measure of savvy involved)

6. Divorce and blended families

5. Learning disorders

4. Vegetarianism

3. Diabetes

2. Autism

1. Enteurpreneurship

–your fangirl heroine.

Television Tuesday :: 10 (sometimes ridiculously) minor television ladies I have (sometimes ridiculously) latched onto

What it says on the box.  I get weirdly attached to really minor characters, sometimes for legitimate reasons and sometimes for reasons that are somewhat silly.  Which you all should know by now.

10. Nora Gainesborough (Lucy Griffiths, True Blood)
I mean, technically she’s main credits but she’s only been present for three episodes so far and honestly I still have not figured out why I am so attached to her already.  I mean, there’s the capable ladyvampire thing, there’s the British thing.  I think that’s part of it?  I still haven’t figured out what her game actually is, because for all we know she could still be lying right now (since she’s all good at that and stuff, which I also enjoy in fiction sometimes I think) and maybe she is and maybe she isn’t and I’m pretty sure that won’t change that I just enjoy her presence and want her around more.  And I do not enjoy that every episode and next week’s preview so far has basically been an “oh god is she meeting the true death not yet nooo” situation.

9. Drusilla (Juliet Landau, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Yes, she was in more overall episodes of Buffy and Angel than, say, Miracle Laurie was in Dollhouse, but I did the percentages.  Miracle Laurie is not on this list for Mellie/Madeline who I love so much because she was in 57.7% of the episodes in the series.  That’s more than half (barely, but still).  So she was supporting cast.  Juliet Landau was in 11.8% of Buffy episodes and 6% of Angel episodes, or 9.4% of episodes in the overall collection of the Buffy/Angelverse.  SO.  And anyway, yes, I love Dru a lot.  I love Dru because I love the crazy ones and I love the ones who are unabashedly evil and I love the British ones, yes, and I just love her.  And one of my favorite discussions to have is the one with someone who has just fallen in love with Dru because I like to remember when I first discovered how awesome she is.

8. Ruby/Little Red Riding Hood (Meghan Ory, Once Upon a Time)
Granted, she has been present in 77% of the first season’s episodes and has been promoted to main cast for season 2 (YES YAY).  But she’s really only had one episode to actually do anything, and a few moments in others, and mostly she’s just sort of there.  Honestly, I loved her from the start; I think it was the red lipstick that did me in.  Aside from her waitress clothes, she sort of dresses/accessorizes like she came from my everfavorite now-defunct rockabilly/quasi-alternative store.  Also, she’s just very genuine and seems like a good person and I am excited and also terrified to get to know her better (terrified because I don’t want anything strange to happen to her character-wise I guess).

7. Trudy Campbell (Alison Brie, Mad Men)
As I mentioned last week, basically.

6. Aylesh Rohan (Emma Kenney, Boardwalk Empire)
Literally she was in one episode.  Literally I have already discussed every reason I loved her, but oh wow, it was pretty much instant affection for that bookish perceptive little girl who should really be more present.

5. Ros (Esmé Bianco, Game of Thrones)
I do not care.  She was not in the books, and serves mostly for people to have sex with while they talk about important plot points.  I have developed a strange affection for her anyway.  This, I will admit, is largely because I discovered that Esmé Bianco is a burlesque performer and pinup model, and also because of my latent tendency to latch onto what is the obviously-not-musical version of the chorus whore, after my days being such.  I look at Ros and go “oh, yep, that’s who I played in Oklahoma! and Once Upon a Mattress, just in Westeros.”

4. Saffron (Christina Hendricks, Firefly)
I first watched Firefly before I started watching Mad Men, though not by much; even still, “because Christina Hendricks” is a valid reason at play here.  I really do love Saffron for other reasons, too.  A lot of them being the aforementioned “I love when fictional women are really good liars and are unabashedly [somewhat] evil” reasons.

3. Trinity Ashby (Zoe Boyle, Sons of Anarchy)
This is actually just a list of fictional women I have mentioned before, basically.   I seriously have no reason why I love Trinny so hard, but I really do adore her, except for that whole “whoops, almost boned my brother” thing which wasn’t her fault, so.  She’s just all Irish and sweet and I want to know more about her, dammit.  She sparks my curiosity.

2. Mag (Felicia Day, Dollhouse)
(You can all see where this is going, can’t you?  Really?)  “Because Felicia Day” is of course a reason; “Joss’s redheaded lesbians” is also a valid reason, though a belated one as per that was not made known till the second of her two episodes.  And wheelchair!Mag at the end of “Epitaph Two” was also important to me at a point in my life, so there’s that.  I dunno.  I like women who are badass not necessarily because they’re kicking ass but because they’re just sticking it out through tough times and doing what they have to and not giving up.

1. Bennett Halverson (Summer Glau, Dollhouse)
WOW SHOCKER I KNOW.  But seriously, I have discussed before how crazy it is that I am so attached to a character with so little screen time; other than the oft-mentioned “dear holy god it is disturbing to me how much I self-identify sometimes” kinds of ridiculous things, there is the fact that for so little screen time, she actually had a pretty reasonable amount of development.  Backstory, check.  There were fuzzy details, sure, but there were fuzzy details about everyone on this show because of its untimely end.  Also, Bennett is another one of those not-exactly-obvious badasses, in my opinion.  No, trying to kill Echo was not a good idea, and no, the Dollhouse in general and working for it was probably not a good idea.  But damn, I love geniuses who are all geniusy; also despite her various deranged vengeance schemes, she is not someone whogave up.  What happened to her changed her, probably not in a great way, but some people would probably use that kind of thing as a reason to just surrender, and there she is intellectually badassing it up anyway.  I mean.  Headcanon, what?  Irrational, what?  Unashamed, yes.

–your fangirl heroine.

Television Tuesday :: 10 currently/recently-airing television women I want to invite to a dinner party or something

…and then probably hug if they were comfortable with it, because I think that for various reasons, they all sort of need hugs.  If they’re willing.  Nobody should have hugs forced on them, but all of these women bring out my urge to hug someone in their ways.

10. Jess Day (Zooey Deschanel, New Girl)
Or in this case I just shamelessly want to befriend her because I think she is adorable and lovely.  Sure, she actually has a decent support system (which is rare on this list).  But I would just want to have a dinner party with her because she’s fun and give her a hug because I bet she gives good hugs.  I just get that good hugger vibe from her.

9. Beth Greene (Emily Kinney, The Walking Dead)
(I figure Maggie [Lauren Cohan] already has Glenn [Steven Yeun] to hug, so.)  I spent a lot of the season feeling sad for Beth, sad because her life is just so sheltered and effed up and a lot of the people she loves have died and she doesn’t know what to do about it.  It wouldn’t be a pity hug, though.  I mean, none of these are, but I would have to make sure with Beth.  It wouldn’t be a pity hug, it wouldn’t even a “hey, things are going to get better, I promise” hug because I couldn’t promise that.  But it would be something she may need.  Comfort in times of zombie apocalypse hug.

8. Margaret Schroeder Thompson (Kelly Macdonald, Boardwalk Empire)
Well, I think she could do with a party where nobody was trying to kill anybody else or dealing with any such underworld tension.  And I just want to tell her that she is pretty neat and underappreciated and good company, probably.  She is a strong lady, and that is awesome, but I just want to let her relax for a bit.

7. Tara Knowles (Maggie Siff, Sons of Anarchy)
This would be the “oh, darling, I know it all seems messed up, and it may well continue to be that, but hold on” hug.  Since poor craycray Tara doesn’t really have someone to talk to, she’s got the club members and Jax (Charlie Hunnam) but I doubt that really helps.  I wouldn’t make her talk it out, because that’s not good, but I want to just let her sit down, not have to deal with her life for a while, talk about things that make her happy, and know that someone is listening.

6. Winona Hawkins (Natalie Zea, Justified)
And speaking of stressful lives.  All of these women have those, it’s a common theme.  I imagine she could probably stand to have someone to hang out with that isn’t her sister, and I imagine she would make good dinner party conversation, interesting but not too morbid but definitely not dull but polite but not too polite.

5. Pam De Beaufort (Kristin Bauer van Straten)
Again, yeah.

4. Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner, Game of Thrones)
I know that a lot of my people IRL are frustrated by Sansa, and I sort of understand why at first.  But then I remember: she is barely even a teenager.  She does not make good decisions at the start (lying about that whole business with Arya [Maisie Williams] and Joffrey [Jack Gleeson], being temporarily all yay Joffrey period) but seriously, she is barely even a teenager.  She does not by any means deserve the disaster that her life has become, and really, I just want to give her a hug and tell her it’s going to get better (it has to, at least a little) and remind her that she is strong and she can do it.  Something like that.

3. Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones)
Actually, I want to give most of the Game of Thrones women a hug for various reasons.  But Dany is another where I just want to let her relax and enjoy the company of people who have no demands of her and who she doesn’t have to posture for.  I think I’ve mentioned my Dany-could-use-more-good-friends-always theory before, and it still stands.

2. Peggy Olsen (Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men)
Sure, she is happy in her relationship right now, and that’s awesome for her, but there are these moments where I just see her seem so sad, because really, these people at work do not understand her.  She isn’t just doing it to kill time before real life and careers happen, she’s doing it because she loves it and it makes her sad that nobody else loves it either.  I want to invite her to a dinner party and then suggest that she spend howeverlong she wants talking about why she loves her job, because I want to listen to that and I think she would benefit from having a recreationally appreciative audience.

1. Joan Holloway Harris (Christina Hendricks, Mad Men)
Surpriiise surprise.  I have always wished that my Joanie had someone, anyone that she could talk to about serious things, that she didn’t feel like she had to get all brush-off-my-problemsy with.  I have been loving the increase in Joan and Peggy friendtimes this season, I really have, but I still worry that Joan is just lonely and won’t articulate it and poor baby let me love you.  Essentially.

Would all of these women be at the same dinner party?  Well, I… don’t know.  That could potentially be disastrous, but could potentially be useful.  Like some weird television women supper club or some other weird cliche like that.  Smaller gatherings might be better (Beth and Sansa perhaps, Margaret and Winona and Joan, etcetera).  But provided they were willing and, you know, real, I would very much want to lend them the listening ear and chance to chill out that they probably need.

–your fangirl heroine.

Sundry Sunday :: 10 of my people-related “things”

I’m not even sure that’s a correct way to phrase this.  I was going to consider calling this list “10 narrative kinks,” but it’s not really that; a lot of my narrative kinks are more character types and less behavior patterns/physical traits, which is what this list is.  Then I though about being sketchy and trying something that phrased around one of my tumblr tags, #why does fetish have to be a creepy word?  But that makes it sketchy.  And I swear it’s not.  A lot of the people who are responsible for these listed items are people that I’m attracted to/fictionally crush on, yes, but it’s not just about that.  It’s just things I… really, really like.  Some for reasons, some not for reasons, some because of fictional reasons, some just because.

10. (generally re: women) a certain particular cute nose.
This is mostly the fault of a bunch of my favorite actresses, and it didn’t even happen consciously; one day, I just realized that a lot of them have similar adorable little bitty snub noses.  I’m pretty sure the nose I’m talking about is the one that Amy of Little Women actually hated about herself, but I think it’s cute.  I mean, any nose can be cute, but… yeah.

Unsurprisingly, Summer Glau demonstrates this, as does the lovely Alison Pill.

9. The blue eyes/brown or red hair combination.
As if my previous endless lists of beautiful blue eyes were not any indication.  Goes for girls and guys both.  A la Deborah Ann Woll, Christina Hendricks, Zooey Deschanel, Sean Maher.  

8. Robot arms.
As previously discussed.  I love robot arms.

7. Vests.
This one can go for both, but usually winds up being men, because men wear more vests.  And it’s completely the fault of two fictional men, predictably my two fictional men, Simon (Sean Maher) and Topher (Fran Kranz).

But because of them, I notice it other places, and go jump-yay-want.

6. Corsetry
Fairly self-explanatory, and not really the fault of any one thing; I think I first started noticing corsets in junior high, thanks to Rocky Horror, but my corset “thing” didn’t really kick off till late high school, maybe even early college.  The first corset I owned was my Repo one, the black one we stitched an ungodly amount of feathers to, and once I actually had one, well.  I understand that corseting back in the day was sometime done unhealthily and represented body-related gǒ se, but if done healthily and properly and for your own enjoyment, I think corseting is kind of fun.  I don’t tightlace.  That’s too intense for me.  But I kind of like the way that corsets feel, and I love how they look, on me and just in general, because that’s really the only person I’m trying to impress.

5. Glasses (particularly when people take them on and off with one hand)
Putting glasses on someone’s face doesn’t make me go OKAY WANT, but if I was going OKAY WANT anyway and then glasses happened because they needed to (IRL or in fiction) I like it.  And the removing thing… well, that’s the fault of two fictional characters, again; this time Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) and Bennett (Summer Glau).

…yeah.

4. Technobabbling of any sort.
Even if I don’t really understand, I enjoy listening to people, real or fictional, go on at great length about technical things that they are passionate about.  Any verbal tl;dr, really.  Kaylee’s engine talk, Giles’ academia talk, Topher’s brain talk.  I just like passionate people being passionate about things.

3. Actually any neuroscience talk.
The minute I see/hear the word “brain” or anything preceded by “neuro-,” my eyes/ears perk up and I’m all at attention.  Knowing a lot about anything is sort of awesome, as above, but considering that I actually recreationally jump all over learning neuroscience stuff myself, I love listening to other people who know about it talk.

2. Cellos.
This has nothing to do with any cellist I have ever listened to or known.  This is just about cellos themselves.  And honestly, I find the sound of cellos to be sexy.  I have no idea why, but I have for quite a long time.

1. Verbal declarations of intent.
This one is largely fictional, yes.  But I really enjoy when fictional characters put on their assertive (not aggressive, there’s a difference) voice and state what they intend to do.

Things like Mal’s (Nathan Fillion) “I aim to misbehave” speech, like every time Dany (Emilia Clarke) gives variations of the “I am Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, and I will take what is mine with fire and blood” speech.  I just get tingles of happiness.

–your fangirl heroine.