bury me in this dress

The Bad Monkey showed me this. Now I’m hooked. It’s “Tales of Taboo (Radio Mix)” by Karen Finley

4AD is going to release a box set of Dead Can Dance’s albums! DCD is essential listening, folks. Lisa Gerrard’s voice is really something else. If you’re not familiar with her, you would have heard her voice in the Gladiator Soundtrack. Remember that? Yes, that was her. Anyway, the box set will contain 9 remastered albums of DCD. I have a few of their albums but I still want this. The box set is quite expensive though. £120.00 in particular.

I was looking for the video of Gothic Archies’ “Smile, No One Cares How You Feel” when I stumbled upon this neat video by the said band. There’s no video for the song I mentioned but ANYTHING by Stephin Merritt (aka God) and his gazillion bands is good. This video is for Lemony Snicket’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events” where Mr. Snicket aka Daniel Handler collaborated with Stephin and his Gothic Archies to produce a series of songs based on the books. There’s this funny video of Snicket and Merritt during a book signing. It made me realize how funny Mr. Snicket really is. He’s bigger than life. I’ve only read up to book 2 and got tired of it. The movie was amazing though. Loved the actors, the costumes, the end and beginning credits, etc. Stephin Merritt is one of my idols so combine this awesome lyricist/musician with an author who wants to make children depressed, hahaha that’s fun times!

At least for a day. I want to watch the concert of My Chemical Romance this January 29 (or is it 25?). I don’t like their music but I find the lead singer hawt.

What can I say? I like guys pasty white guys with eyeliner. He also looks young (!!!) even if he’s just my age. I don’t want to waste my money for the concert though. If I can drag a friend with me, I’ll hang out outside the concert venue and buy from a scalper maybe halfway through the concert so I can get cheap front seats. Or maybe we could bully some high school kids there and steal their tickets. I doubt I could convince any of my friends to go with me though. Pfft.

Speaking of emo, my friend said I am one since I’m depressive and sometimes whiney. I was so offended when he said that but maybe he’s right. Now I find his comment funny. But I still don’t want to be emo. I associate it with angsty teeny bopper sissy mallrats. Then again, I have the maturity of one. Oh no!

Just a bonus. I found this somewhere on the net. David Bowie can kick Gerard Way’s butt anytime

I don’t think Bowie was bad in Labyrinth!!!

I blame my friend Mark for introducing this movement to me. I showed him the video of 2 girls 1 cup which I found hilarious so he showed me this clip on youtube.

Warning: So not suitable for weak stomachs, sissy boys, and the likes

I don’t get freaked out easily but the clip disturbed me. So I did some research about Viennese Actionism and this is what wikipedia says (If you can’t trust Wikipedia, what can you trust?):

The term Viennese Actionism describes a short and violent movement in 20th century art that can be regarded as part of the many independent efforts of the 1960s to develop “action art” (Fluxus, Happening, Performance, Body Art, etc.). Its main participants were Günter Brus, Otto Mühl, Hermann Nitsch and Rudolf Schwarzkogler. As “actionists”, they were active between 1960 and 1971. Most have continued their artistic work independently from the early 1970s onwards.

The work of the Viennese Actionists is probably best remembered for the wilful transgressiveness of its naked bodies, destructiveness and violence. Often, brief jail terms were served by participants for violations of decency laws, and their works were targets of moral outrage. In June 1968 Günter Brus began serving a six-month prison sentence for the crime of “degrading symbols of the state”, and later fled Austria to avoid a second arrest. Otto Mühl served a one month prison term after his participation in a public event, “Art and Revolution” in 1968. After his “Piss Action” before a Munich audience, Mühl became a fugitive from the West German police. Hermann Nitsch served a two week prison term in 1965 after his participation with Rudolph Schwarzkogler in the Festival of Psycho-Physical Naturalism. The “Destruction in Art Symposium”, held in London in 1966, marked the first encounter between members of Fluxus and Actionists. It was a landmark of international recognition for the work of Brus, Mühl and Nitsch.

So punk rock, eh? Basically, it involves a lot of nudity, violence, sex, bodily fluid, and the ability to offend as much as possible. I really shouldn’t be eating while writing this. Anyway, there aren’t much actionism clips on youtube but here’s another one.

If you can still take in some more of this sick shit, I recommend the following sites: The Vienna Actionists and UBUWEB. Damn freaky Viennese!

I’m obsessed with this series right now. So obsessed that it haunts me in my dreams and follows me during waking hours. It’s thrilling and frustrating at the same time and I just want to keep on rereading and rereading Twilight and New Moon (Eclipse was a disappointment for me) until I get sick of them. I haven’t encountered a book this addicting for years and I hardly have the patience to wait for the next book which, unfortunately, will be released late next year. Ugh! I keep on thinking about the characters. Bella. Edward. Edward. Bella. I want to be Bella and have my own Edward. *sigh* I want a vampire lover too! Anyway, I have individual reviews for each book. Just click on the links in this entry but there are spoilers.

I visited FlauntR again and it seems like some of its features failed to load the last time I was there.

Previous Visit

Today’s Visit

Notice the panel on the left on today’s visit. It wasn’t there last time. I think a bug in their system caused this. Or those features were just launched a few hours ago. Anyway, I have to retract some of my words in my previous review of FlauntR. The site has more effects to offer. It has frames, overlays, color effects, distortions etc. Usage is fairly easy but it takes a couple of seconds to load per effect. Manipulation is still limited because adjustments couldn’t be made to the effects. Again, this might change in the future. I’m still wondering why the site wouldn’t load properly on my Firefox though.

FlauntR is another online photo editor. For some reason, the site wouldn’t load properly on my firefox but it does on Safari. I tested some of its basic features and I find that it loads slower than Picnik but it performs just as well.

Interface

Playing with Exposure

I think the main difference between the two web services is that Picnik offers advanced manipulations.

As for special effects, FlauntR offers the following: sepia, grayscale, blur, emboss, solarize and boost. I’m hoping that the site would add some fun effects in the future.

So far, FlautR’s features are limited but that might change soon because the site is still in its alpha stage. As of the moment, it can only directly upload to flickr. Perhaps in the future there would be integration with facebook, zooor, etc.

I find that Picnik is easier to use and has more fun features. The thing is, not all of its services are free. I can still use the premium features as of the moment but the site might ask for payments in the future. For now, I would use Picnik instead of FlautR.

I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last night. The book made me bawl a lot but thinking about it now, something seems to be lacking. Maybe it’s just me but I felt like the ‘big BOOM’ didn’t come. Still, I enjoyed reading it and I will read it again soon because I might have missed something. In fact, I want to read the whole series again because I can’t get over the fact that it’s all over now.

I don’t consider myself to be a big Harry Potter fan even if I bought all the books and watched all the movies. I’m not the type who would like up on the first day of the release or cosplay as a Hogwarts student. Still, the series has been a part of me for years and I’m sad that there wouldn’t be a Harry Potter book in the future. It’s kind of like losing a friend.

I liked this more than Nana 1. At least this time, Mika Nakashima used more expressions oh her face. What I really didn’t like about the film version of Nana is a lot of the side stories were deleted. Like the romance between Shin and Layla, for one. I think that’s an integral part of Nana. Another is the sorta romance between Yasu and Nana. Why didn’t they include that? I’m rooting for the Yasu-Nana romance in the anime and manga so the fact that they didn’t include that pissed me off. Oh well, I’m just a viewer. I know a lot of Nana fans liked the film version. I’m not one of them though.