Gig Wrap Up 2006

I really slacked on attending gigs this year. Although I have reached a lifetime total of 146 legitimate shows (including festivals, but not inclusive of individual festival performances), my attendance in 2006 dipped below the norm. Here is the alphabetical rundown:

Gigs 2006
Band/Opening Act - Venue
Augustana - Metro Club
Bell X1 - ULU
Benicassim Festival
British Sea Power/Bromheads Jacket - Denmark Street
British Sea Power - Moles Club (Bath)
Camden Crawl
Delays/Nightmare of You - Shepherds Bush Empire
Delays - Bar Academy
Editors - Brixton Academy
Haven - Highbury Garage
Lily Allen/New Young Pony Club - London Astoria
Shack/Jim Noir/The Drella's - King's College
Stills - 93 Feet East
Tahiti 80 - Barfly

My festival breakdown went like this:
Camden Crawl
The Young Knives
Maccabees
Guillemots
Morning Runner
Klaxons

Benicassim
Night 1
Babyshambles
Ordinary Boys
Futureheads (just a lil' bit)
Pixies
The Strokes

Night 2
Morrissey
The Kooks
Franz Ferdinand
Morning Runner

Night 3
Editors
Madness
We Are Scientists
Art Brut
The Rakes

Best of them...
#1 - The Strokes @ Benicassim
#2 - Delays @ Shepherds Bush
#3 - Franz @ Benicassim
#4 - Haven @ Highbury Garage
#5 - We Are Scientists @ Benicassim
#6 - Augustana @ Metro
#7 - Tahiti 80 @ Barfly
#8 - Klaxons @ Camden Crawl
#9 - Stills @ 93 Feet East
#10 - Babyshambles @ Benicassim

Current Music: Pete Yorn - For Nancy

One Year of Noise and Confusion

Here is my list of top songs of the past year. Some of you may nitpick and comment with things like "'Chicago' came out in 2005, not 2006!" although I did not know the song in 2005. Others may say things like "Westlife? What the hell happened to you?!/You're taste went downhill!/etc." (ex.: see Gareth's Charlotte Church comment from last year.) Some might think I'm crazy for omitting 'Crazy.' And more importantly, my boyfriend may break up with me after seeing I've put Sandi Thom in at #39, or putting her in at all for that matter . But I don't care because these were my best choons of '06!

65. Christina Aguilera - Ain't No Other Man
64. Keane - Crystal Ball
63. Akon - Locked Up
62. Robbie Williams - Lovelight
61. Girls Aloud - Something Kinda Oooh
60. The Rakes - Work, Work, Work (Pub, Club, Sleep)
59. The Streets -Never Went to Church
58. Shack – Undecided
57. Fergie - London Bridge
56. The Raconteurs - Steady, As She Goes
55. The Strokes - Ize of the World
54. Orson - Bright Idea
53. Lemar - It's Not That Easy
52. Kasabian - Empire
51. Girls Aloud - Wake Me Up
50. Jason Mraz - Wordplay
49. Embrace - Nature's Law
48. Razorlight - Before I Fall To Pieces
47. Pink - U and U're Hand
46. Razorlight - America
45. Dirty Pretty Things - You Fucking Love It
44. Gnarls Barkley - Smiley Faces
43. Belle & Sebastian - Sukie in the Graveyard
42. The Kooks - She Moves in Her Own Way
41. Kanye West - Touch the Sky
40. The Feeling - Fill My Little World
39. Sandi Thom - I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker
38. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dani California
37. The Rakes - 22 Grand Job
36. The Streets - When You Wasn't Famous
35. Pussycat Dolls - Beep
34. Natasha Bedingfield - Unwritten
33. Girls Aloud - Biology
32. Placebo - Meds
31. Belle and Sebastian - For the Price of a Cup of Tea
30. Snow Patrol - Hands Open
29. The Automatic - Recover
28. Orson - No Tomorrow
27. Bell X1 - Rocky Took a Lover
26. The Kooks - Eddie's Gun
25. Lily Allen - LDN
24. Take That – Patience
23. Shakira - Hips Don't Lie
22. Sugababes – Push the Button
21. Klaxons - Gravitys Rainbow
20. Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger
19. Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancin'
18. Babyshambles - Fuck Forever
17. Delays - Hideaway
16. Sufjan Stevens - Chicago
15. Nelly Furtado – Promiscuous
14. Beyonce - Check on It
13. Keane - Is It Any Wonder?
12. Lily Allen - Smile
11. Busta Rhymes - Touch It (Remix)
10. The Killers - When You Were Young
9. Nightmare of You - My Name is Trouble
8. OK Go - Here It Goes Again
7. The Feeling - Sewn
6. Rifles - Peace & Quiet
5. The Pipettes - Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me
4. Westlife - Amazing
3. Muse - Starlight
2. Boy Kill Boy - Suzie
1. The Kooks - Naive

Happy Holidays!

Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas in case I don't blog before then. I think I've e-mailed or IMed almost every person I've ever met today, I'm really tired now!

Crazy Turk(menistani)!

I just read an article on CNN.com about how the president of Turkmenistan passed away and I have clipped some quotes from the article on here. Do you think he was a bit narcissistic or what?

He...

...fostered a personality cult that included making his countrymen call him "Turkmenbashi" -- The Father Of All Turkmen

...created a bizarre personality cult under which he renamed the month of January after himself and April after his mother

...banned lip-synching, car radios and the playing of recorded music at weddings

...once ordered doctors to stop taking the Hippocratic Oath and swear allegiance to him instead

...had statues of himself erected throughout the nation

...is listed as the author of the "Rukhnama" (Book of the Soul) that was required reading in schools, where children pledged allegiance to him every morning

...tapped the country's vast energy wealth for outlandish projects -- a manmade lake in the desert, a cypress forest to change the desert climate, an ice palace outside the capital, a ski resort and a 40-meter (130-foot) pyramid

...appeared in public to formally open an amusement park named after him outside the capital

Weirdo!

Passed Master

Finally, after a year filled with lectures I didn't pay attention to, a seat imprinted with my butt mark in the British Library, and a ton of procrastination, I received my Master of Arts degree in International Relations with merit baby, hoorah!

I went all out photo crazy at the ceremony since my parents weren't here and you know how parents can be about graduation pictures.

The robe was unlike any other robe I've worn to graduation.

First of all, I had to pay £40 just to rent it! The robe was open which was different (good thing) but I couldn't keep the hat OR the tassle, BOO!

It had a hood though, which does look more professional (take note Binghamton University.)

It also had holes in the sleeves for my arms because I was a "Master." Do they do that for Masters in the States?

Christine was back in town for the festivities.David and I had Indian food to celebrate (not sure what possessed me but I was randomly in the mood.) We hopped around by Carnaby Street then popped into The Roxy where we bumped into Zoe, then finally to Zigfrids later on to celebrate and met up with Christos, Christine, Ana, Bryan, and all of the boyfriends and girlfriends.

The next night was Maristela's 30th birthday/graduation party at her house in Greenwich. I thought this was going to be more of a mature, older persons party...that was until people started dancing to 'U Can't Touch This.' I met a couple, the girl Tony, is from Queens and went to Binghamton, and her husband Lon also went to Binghamton and graduated in my year and his sister was in my sorority, SO RANDOM!!!

I didn't think the fake sucking on Maristela's ear photo was going to come out so realistic looking, result!

Yesterday was Rachael's and Alex H.'s birthdays at Dust in Farringdon.

Things I learned last night: Alex has a computer in his car. A COMPUTER!!!

One of my flatmates is cooking a Xmas lunch for the five of us right now. This is the first time I've actually been in a room with all of them, let alone hung out with them. Should be nice?

Ralph is in town for work this week so I should be meeting up with him, but probably not for beer pong as that's virtually non-existent over here.

The end!

Current Music: The Lightning Seeds - Brain Drain

Zootopia

This weekend I went to the London Zoo. To my disappointment, there were no elephants (baby ones are my favorite animals since I went to Thailand,) but otherwise the animals that decided to show their faces/come out of their houses at all were pretty good. And no, the Amazon parrot did not come out.

lihkjkgb

Here are my photos!

kuyukg

This is a collage of everything I saw

Males are the pregnant ones, suckers

Matilda the 1,204,720 year-old tortoise Le petit stingray
Harry Potter-style owl
Meerkats, my favorite animal in this zoo, posing in the red-light district of the den
Below - like the fish that nipped my legs in the Thai waterfalls. Okay, they weren't that big but they were still huge and I've got a scar on my leg from swimming away from them and bashing myself into an algae-covered rock. You get the idea.

Tucan Sam Cute monkey
Llama, photo taken especially for Melanie

Penguins, yeah Phi Sig!(?) Me contracting bird flu
David thinking about eating meat for dinner

Current Music: The Tears - The Asylum

See the Idiot Talk

Last week I trained a security guard at one of the offices on how everything worked so he would know how to cover the place when the receptionist goes to lunch (he arrived at 10:00 am to cover this so-called lunch as well by the way, which is almost as ridiculous as Benjamin Cardozo high school assigning me 3rd period lunch for almost two whole years.) He was a complete idiot and by the end of the week when I spoke to him, if I spoke to him at all, I had no patience for his nonsense annoying babble and I was extremely rude to him (which I did not think was unprofessional being that he was to the 14th degree of irritating.)

Why is it that he then decided to get my phone number from the girl who is there now (AND why did she give it to him without asking me first?) He called me the other night, and continued talking even after I told him I was busy with my boyfriend and not to call again. The sad thing is that I think he really is so stupid that he thought me being a complete bitch to him was actually flirtation. I saw him briefly this morning but didn't look him in the eye because if I had done that, I think he may have taken it as 'a sign.' I seriously hate imbeciles.