more gayness

'octavia's vagina is purer than your mouth'

Ouch, poor guy. Day 2 of intense 'same-sex relations in ancient Rome' research and I'm not sick of this topic yet! Fascination + amusement = endless fun. Apparently back in the good old days, it was more shameful to be a fellator (ahem, give head) than to be a passive homosexual (be a penetrated male. If you still don't understand, come on, I'm not doing any more explaining). So um, how many people in our society do you think would have been shunned back then?

I have to say, reading these scholar's articles on the topic is slowly doing my head in. Only because I can't tell whether they themselves are pro-LGBT rights or con-. But I'm presuming (which I really shouldn't be doing, going on zero concrete evidence and massive stereotyping) that they are con-, because they lived in the old times, and most scholars are conformists. Okay major stereotyping going on here. I mean, some of them say, who are we to judge, how do we know that we're not wrong by repressing homosexuality in our society, and all that. But, although in our society there is a bit of a taboo surrounding LGBT issues, I sense that some people have to repress their anti-LGBT rights views for fear of being..well massacred.

Our world is full of waves of movements such as the LGBT rights campaigns, and the women's rights campaigns that slowly there is this obsession with doing the right, moral thing. And if you go against these ideas, you're immoral, you're a pig, you're anti-liberal. Etcetera, etcetera. How do we know if you actually want the transgender community to be treated well, or if you're just going along with it to maintain an image of your moral compass?

I can't say much, there are a lot of things that I think I believe in, but in situations of crisis, I've had to re-evaluate my views and find that I actually believe in the 'anti-moral' view. For example (and please, Henrietta Barnett and Frances Mary Buss, wherever your spirits may be, rest in peace..i.e. DON'T KILL ME FOR THIS) I am no feminist. I know, being a woman, I should be out there fighting for my own rights. And I do want my own rights, I'm not saying we shouldn't have them. I'm just of the view that women might have to accept that men are, by nature, better at some things than we are. That doesn't stop us from trying, and doesn't mean there won't be some women who are better at men at those things, but in perspective, you have to be realistic. Men and women are different. That's why (heterosexual) relationships can be hard – we just don't get each other, sometimes. Like, leaving the toilet seat up, having an obsession with making the beds, not expressing your deeper emotions, crying your eyes out into his shoulder... All this mumbo-jumbo hurts both our heads.

Now, into the dank cave that is my life.. went shopping yesterday and bought some halloween gear. I bought my first lipstick! (yeah, late, I know) And then last night I smushed it mistake, by putting the lid down when the lipsticky bit was still up.

BarryM, shade 141.

Quote of the day (from yesterday) comes from mine and EC's conversation. She stuck her middle finger up at me, so I shouted 'Don't finger me!'. And then I realised.

Haha.

xxxx

ashton kutcher

Ain't he yummy.

'Just Married' was on Film4 last night, and I, being the mega-procrastinator that I am, used up more of the time I could have been using for work by watching this rom-com. Only for Ashton Kutcher. Only for his hair, his cheekbones, his eyes, his..body.



I'll stop perving.

Anywho, last night I mega-procrastinated some more by checking out all the social internet accounts I own. So far, I count 15. Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, this ting, Last.fm, Purevolume, The Hype Machine, Soundcloud, iLike, YouTube, Photobucket, Flickr, weheartit, Stumbleupon. Yeah I only frequently use about three out of those 15. Go me!

But I tell you this my friend- I am intent on becoming a neek. No, not a nerd-geek, a net geek. I actually used to be a total Myspace kid, using HTML and all that to make my page look all preddy. 24/7. I think that was what got me 13 GCSEs.

Since two years ago though, I've moved onto Facebook, and recently onto Twitter... the lazy sites. Yeah, I said it, THEY'RE LAZY. They do everything for you! Even though you spend your whole life working on.. er, doing... what are you doing? Oh yeah, telling the world that you're having a Starbucks coffee. Woohoo, World, did you hear that? This kid's having a Starbucks coffee! Yeah, just wasted a whole 60 seconds of my life, used up a hundred up of my brain cells, and killed a few more of my eye cells in the process, just reading this bloody status about a life-changing experiences.

Alright, all the statuses this week have been about the new Facebook layout. Everytime a new layout comes out, a gazillion new groups pop up, including at least one (each time) called exactly this: 'I HATE THE NEW FACEBOOK'. Idea: if you spent less time on Facebook, you can make the world a better place. How? Because then maybe Facebook would be less used, and Facebook would feel less need to keep its popularity by making itself prettier, and then you wouldn't get angry because Facebook kept its look the same old look, and then you wouldn't need to make Facebook sicker by creating hate groups. That, or you'd get an actual social life, and then make the real world a better place. Now that's innovative.

Not that I can really talk, I spend my whole life procrastinating. Keeping this blog up, watching music channels, writing these blogs, hitting the books, making that little widget on my blog look that little bit nicer. Isn't my blog lucky.

So yeah, watch this space to keep track of how I'm making progress neek-wise!

xxxx

this is tupac robot club rock.

'This is Tupac robot club rock.'



Great beat, great synthetics (ok that is so the wrong word. what's the word for the electronicy sounds on a song?), great choon. Recommended, as always, by the mighty Zane Lowe, probably about a year or more ago. But, reminded by NME TV, I only downloaded it last night. The dancing in the vid is classic. Observe 2:39. I just can't get enough.
Be sure to check that song out.

Anyway, my main point of today's post is.. nah, read on and find out for yourself.

Most of you readers (if we assume that this blog is actually read by strangers) will not know that I am an IB student. OR maybe you have, if you've inferred it from my past 'FML' posts. So, life isn't all peachy at the moment, what with the simultaneous courseworks being piled on to us. However I have never once regretted my decision to take the IB. I mean, just imagine taking A-Levels. Euch (sorry A-Levellers).

I am actually really enjoying one coursework, and that is my Latin Research Dossier. For it, I am investigating same-sex relations in ancient Rome. Muaha. I was originally doing 'music in ancient Rome'. It was dire. I could find hardly ANY information, music in the ancient world seemed like it would sound absolutely terrible, and the whole idea of Latin coursework at the time was enough to put me to sleep. But since I've started this topic, wahey I actually love doing Latin coursework! Haha you probs all think I'm some sex-obsessed maniac (lol, er, no, I'm not, if you really must know). Don't you find it fascinating to find out about civilisation as it was 2 millenia ago AND what the differences reflect on our own society?

I was doing some reading for it this morning, and one writer (Veyne) rightly pointed out- if homosexuality in ancient Rome was so widespread, does that mean that homosexuality within us is natural, and that perhaps, in our contemporary society, the significance of it is too easily repressed and too hastily dismissed as immoral? No doubt many of you will be reminded by this topic of Nick Griffin's comment that he finds the image of two guys kissing 'creepy'. Alright, I, being pro-LGBT rights, vehemently disagree with him on this point. But can you really say you don't find it creepy? Can you really say that most of our society does not find it creepy? Even I can't really say that.

I have a lot of LGBT friends, and what hit me really hard was, watching a documentary on BBC Two, realising that homosexuality in Britain is grossly misrepresented, especially by the media. If you said the word 'gay' to a number of Britons today, some of the first things they would think of may be two gay men, a 'tranny', but, in general, something to be humoured and not taken seriously. You have to admit, Britons find homosexuality funny, and this is reflected in the fact that it is so often mocked in comedies. What's more, you can see what a society's attitude towards a concept is, just by looking at their language. And how many times have you heard people use the word 'gay' in place of 'stupid'? Hearing one of my guy friends carelessly throw the comment 'you're so gay' around angered me to the edge. CLEAN YOUR LANGUAGE UP, DAMMIT!

So. The point of today's post.
-Zane Lowe is a legend (again with the Radio 1 plugs, haha)

-I love the IB

-I'm a sex-obsessed nymphomaniac
-I am a neek who loves doing Latin coursework

-You are secretly gay. So get real.

And I shall end with this.

You gotta give it to him: he passes well for a pretty fit woman...

xxxx

PS, yes I wrote this at 7 in the morning, the only reason for that being that I got up early to do...wait for it...LATIN COURSEWORK! Love you all.
PPS. If any of you QYN-ers are reading, don't kill me!

rooftops

So, I have found out that five more of my friends read my blog. Huh, who says I'm feeling any pressure?

Anyway I shut my eyes in admiration in this moment (well, in the moment that I was writing this) as I heard 'Rooftops' by Lostprophets being played on Radio 1. That station is good at squeezing my fave songs in between the mainstream pop that Capital churns out with no passion. But they don't play rock music snobbily either, which is what XFM does, endlessly making fun of Capital and turning its nose down at music fans who like any shred of mainstream. That was most definitely what put me off a station which otherwise played great music.

Zane Lowe is by far the most talented and one of the most entertaining DJs on the station, speaking in a very approachable manner, playing records from all the music umbrellas, and generally presenting with creditability and integrity. I LOVE HIM.

sorry, just had to get that in.

Another show I quite like is BBC Switch at 7pm on Sundays, although it is slowly turning into a show for mandemz of ages far behind me. Nick Grimshaw is hilarious, creating great on-air chemistry with Annie Mac (no, I don't think they're going out. Or at least I hope they're not. Annie Mac, I'm watching you) so that the show is very much them, and they are very much the show.

Aww, aren't they dashing.

My whole blog seems to suggest that either I work at Radio 1 or I'm an extreme ass-licker who's trying to plug it. But really, I'm not. I wish I worked there! Yeah, I just think they really believe in music as something to be appreciated in itself, something that seems to be lost nowadays, what with X Factor and the concept that with a good record you can become a superstar overnight.

Going on a slight tangent into the realm of my life now: HALLOWEEN IN THREE DAYS. Oh and, BACK TO SCHOOL IN FIVE DAYS.

wtf.

Argh, anyway, I'm so psyched for dressing up on Hallowe'en. I've got a sickkkkk character this year, just hope I can pull it off! Going shopping for it tomorrow: Camden, Primark, Beyond Retro, Rokit, various fancy dress shops. That should do the trick.

xxxx

major FML

Yep, it's the end of my world. Facebook is majorly effing up for me. The graphics are all messed up. It's no longer Facebook. I can't search or submit any comment. FML.

I'll admit, it's not really the fact that Facebook is effing up that's pissing me off, more the fact that the graphics messing up means my laptop is slowly degrading. Is that true? WHAT DO MESSED-UP GRAPHICS TELL YOU ABOUT YOUR LAPTOP? Eurgh life is so FML atm.

Last night I spent 30 minutes making my party guestlist grammar-friendly. Hell yeah, I’m a procrastinator extraordinaire. And then today I spent 45 making a playlist for the party – in the library. Yep, in the library, where I was meant to be working. And I'm still in the library now. Working. On my blog. Oxford, I present you your model student.

This is all on top of the fact that I have observed: by the end of today, I will have THREE - WHOLE- DAYS left to do all my work. Four pieces of coursework, two university essays, SAT revision, US application filling out, US application essays. Probably some other major ting that I've forgotten just cause our teacher mandemz like making our holidays non-holidayesque.

Oh shit. And all that homework.

Jokes. I love this! Bring on Y13, that bitch.

xxxx

I BOUGHT SOMETHING

[Post from 22/10/09 that I just haven't had the time to put out]

What Paramore fan would resist buying this magazine (well actually I could understand why you wouldn't. Hayley looks a bit up herself and chubbier (!) and the guys are - as always - in the background). But anyway, it's a great article about them. It talks a little bit too much about the fact that they're a non-Christian Christian band, but I can deal with that. And yeah, this was the first time I'd got out and bought something in like a week.

I know this isn't new, but I wanted to rebutt something I heard on BBC Radio1.

Greg James said 'Now, I'm a Killers fan, and this isn't the best cover of the song, but I think it could creep into the top 10. It won't beat Cheryl Cole to number 1, but it'll be up there.' Firstly: how is that not a good cover?! Greg James, can you not feel the artist solidarity in there, can you not feel the sense of getting together to fight for a cause, can you not feel them singing their all into the song?

Secondly, Cheryl Cole = pshhhh. Don't even get me started on her.

Ok, too late, I've started.

I appreciate, she has worked really hard to get to where she is right now. But oh my god I was in Sainsbury's today and saw at least three magazines with her on the front cover. Alright, I'm jealous. But can you honestly tell me she has a good singing voice?

I listened to this song this morning [i.e. the morning of the 22nd] and cried.

As Greg James (again) put it, 'it's beautiful in its own right'. It's chilling. Calming, awe-inspiring, tear-jerking, heart-wrenching.

Ok, that's probably enough emo rant for today.

The only reason I decided to revisit this song is because I saw the following on TV this morning:

Whenever I caught peeks of this video when flicking TV channels, I always thought the guy was Jereminh. And just because of the concept of the Birthday Sex song (I'll rant about this another day), I immediately flicked away. I only just realised today that it's not Jereminh, but Jason Derulo, whose name Nick Grimshaw (on Radio1) slated.

The night I first heard this, i thought WHAT A RIP-OFF of Imogen Heap's 'Hide and Seek'. Then I rushed to my iPod and went on an obsessive repeat play of 'Hide and Seek'. I've kinda laid off this Derulo character since then, but I still think, where would this song be without the enormous sample takenborrowed from IH?

Go watch the real video.
xxxx

various entz tings

I was watching the delightful 'The Captain' by Biffy Clyro on NME TV in its entirety for the first time at lunch. Yes please to this:

Moving on- (I'd read about this on a friend's blog a few days back) Lady Gaga has a new song. But I only heard it yesterday on Radio 1, and the DJ (can't remember who it was, someone replacing Scott Mills?) admitted that it sounded exactly like all her other songs, but that's ok, cause 'that's why we like her - cause she knows what works for her'.

I actually think it's quite different to her other stuff, departing from her tings from 'The Fame', and getting slightly 'bigger'. I mean, just by listening to this song, you can easily visualise her performing this song live at a huge festival.

Next. I listened to John Kennedy on XFM last night, for the first time in at least a year. Wonderful, just wonderful. That guy is a genius (even though he did get a text saying that he (JK) was a really annoying DJ two years ago).

Anyway, he played the most amazing remix - possibly the most chillingly hair-raising yet most breath-taking remix I have ever heard. It's the XX's remix of 'You've Got the Love' (originally by Florence and the Machine). As Kennedy pointed out, they have a tiny Florence sample in there, and the whole remix is a drastic reworking of the original song. Which, I think, is what makes a great remix: when you can depart so far from the original, yet still capture its essence. Thank God Radio 1 was playing Robbie Williams just before this, otherwise I would not have switched to XFM to hear this amazing ting. Welcome back JK.

Enjoy:

xxxx

Keeno for the kisses

Teenage boys these days. I was listening to Radio 1's Greg James, and they were on the phone to a guy who was probably around my age or younger.

He sounded preddy cut up about a girl. I didn't even understand the story. All that really surprised me is how much attention he paid to the bloody number of kisses this girl left at the end of her texts to him (three, i'll have you know). Then he said (so tearfully as well) that he saw three kisses at the end of her texts to her friends as well! I mean that's just blasphemy!

Here's the thing: he said he knew that girls have this 'girl code' about kisses in texts. I actually opened my mouth in horror - even wider than it already was when hearing that he actually paid attention to kisses - upon hearing that he analyses them according to the girl code... This world needs help. Even I don't look at the number of kisses I leave! I mean I always leave the same number, but not because I want it to mean anything! I sincerely hope nobody has analysed my x's, because I always leave 4 x's, which apparently is 'quite strong' (according to this dejected young dude).

So I did some research on the Internet about this. Here you go. I can't believe there are actually three threads relating to this, ON THE FIRST PAGE. Nor can I believe that I actually went on Men's Health to look into this damned issue...

And still I don't have an answer. Darn, I'll never know what it is that girl code obsessives think about my 4 x's.

xxxx (lol)

jlX

I found out today that people actually read this ting... So now I feel pressure to write something good..not that I didnt already feel pressure to write something good in case would read this. Here goes.

I saw this on TV this morning in mid-song:

and recognised the JLS tune (yep that video is by JLX). It actually made me realise that it's not JLS who made Beat Again good. It's just the song that's good. So guys, get over JLS, please?

Did some research about this chick, and it turns out she'd been dumped by Marvin Humes, after six years of being together. She 'practically managed JLS' (says NME) and thought up their band name. Then when they hit fame on X Factor, Marvin dumped her in 'suspicious circumstances' (says NME two) (see, I always knew X Factor was a bad piece of work, making people dump their girlfriends unprovoked!)

Ok, admittedly, she does not have the best voice or the nicest dance moves. But I say the girls out there should start letting their guys know that they can't be played around like that, and this Jaime Jay character does it (fairly) well.

xxxx

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

So yesterday night I saw Heath Ledger's last film, just for the sake of seeing Heath Ledger in his last role. I have to say my opinion of it was marred by the Independent's review of it, which gave it a meagre one star, meaning that I went into that cinema already predisposed to see it as a bad-quality film. People, pre-film review reading: not good.

To my surprise, the film was really enjoyable! Perhaps because of my friend Shannon sitting next to me giggling throughout, but enjoyable all the same. I was really impressed by the way they handled the switches from Ledger to the three other actors. I had expected Ledger --> Replacement Actor one --> replacement actor two --> replacement actor three, but instead they had Ledger, then had him turn into his replacement actors when Ledger's characters enters the imaginarium. Which makes me wonder, did they purposefully film the scenes outside of the imaginarium BEFORE they filmed the ones in there?

I have to say Heath Ledger is not at his best in this role. He still acts well, it's just not a role I will remember him for (that title goes to his rendition of The Joker). Johnny Depp is, as always, endearingly witty in his performance, Jude Law is a bit too wide-eyed and over-exaggerating, and Colin Farrell is just mleh. Lily Cole was..interesting. Her boobs got airbrushed, big time. I won't criticise her because anything I say cannot be taken seriously due to the fact that I am clearly jealous of her (starring with Ledger, a UG at cambridge, a model being some of the obvious reasons).

The plot was.. I want to say 'cute'. It was slightly convoluted, with several script lines and events confusing me. However the message that the imagination and stories are a crucial part of human life and of society is something I really agree with.

The Independent review I read gave it 1 star, essentially because (I quote loosely) Terry Gilliam has a great imagination; it's just a shame that what he imagines is really, really boring. I agree, it was not the tightest plot with a structure that is easily followable. But I imagine that they had to rush the production considerably after the frantic chaos that must have been caused by Ledger's death (RIP), which may go some way to explaining some of the gaps. All in all, a commendable effort from Gilliam, even if an altogether not so successful one.

have you ever

met someone who you see as a friend. speaks to you as a friend. does friendly things.

but then the only thing they make you feel is shit. like you've got loads of character flaws, your ways are wrong, you do bad things, even that you're a bad person. of course they'll say it in a way that'll make you yourself start to believe it. I believe it now.

of course, since meeting them, I have developed so much. it's been hard, but great hard (in the end). I would never choose to not have had them in my life. thank god.

what do you do? they're your friend but theyre your foe. they can have such reactions. they don't make you feel good. if they do, it happens about 5% of the time spent around them. what the fuck.

xxxx

What Is this

Liking girls when you're a girl. Liking boys when you're a boy. It's not homosexuality. It is, but it's not.

"If a girl found another girl attractive, i.e. was attracted to them, it means they're a lesbian."

WRONG.

Or at least, massive, hasty presumption.

The thing is, the kind of people who say 'that girl is so fit' are deemed 'not real lesbians who are just attention-seeking hos'. Because they wouldn't engage in a relationship with girls. Because all they want is the sex.

But um, imagine a guy saying 'that girl is so fit'. Who, in their right mind, would say 'those guys are not real straighties, they're just attention seeking hos'?

So the view on 'fake lesbians' is not valid cause in this case the meaning of sexuality has been forgotten. Lesbians =/= only girls who fall in love with girls.

xxxx