then there are blackbirds

Listening to Paulo Mac again, after about a month's hiatus, two months of almost nonstop listening at zouk parties, and two live concerts during a couple of those parties! His voice is sweeter than it is strong (not so much with the lung power), but man, this guy knows how to write good songs. Musically speaking, that is- I can't speak to his lyrics as they're in Portuguese and Duolingo hasn't gotten me all that far in terms of vocab parsing. Obviously I am most familiar with his zouk music (Vontade de amor is one of my favorite zouk songs!), but he's pretty versatile sound-wise. You can check out his music on his website, which also has a number of free downloads.

And now I should get back to preparing for my friend's wedding weekend! E.g., packing. And checking in for my flight tomorrow. And finishing that goddamn wedding present omfg /o\

What do you guys think of first when you think of "American music"? Artists, genres, top 5 songs; whatever comes into your head.

*(This is only partly morbid curiosity, you understand. The rest of my objective is to gauge how much wtf face I should make. ;P)

eta; also I am spared from making smitten kitchen's salted caramel brownies only because a) I'm scared of making caramel and b) my roommate made a pan of triple-chocolate brownies the other day. >.>

Magnetic North & Taiyo Na, ft. Jin. LOOKIT ALL THE AWESOME PEOPLE PACKED INTO ONE VID!! Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, Far East Movement, Beau Sia, Vienna Teng, Travis Wong, Poreotix, Phil Yu aka the Angry Asian Man, YURI KOCHIYAMA... ♥

( I Got My )

+ ( JJ Lin: No. 89757 )

+ ( Yao Ming portrait, painted with basketball! )

+ The Asian American Basketball Leagues That Helped Create Linsanity

Love meme at littlebutfierce's! Thanks to everyone who commented on my thread. ♥

Also, thanks to yesterday's late-night music video exchangery OF DOOM¹, this song has been semi-appropriately stuck in my head all day:



1. *eyes noldo*

(No, I still haven't watched One Piece, though I confess the limiting factors are basically canon volume and the length of my to-watch list.)

+ Via marina, glass walkway of AMAZEMENT OR TERROR! (Or, you know, amazement and terror, these things do not exist in binary only. :P)

+ Have been rewatching this video over and over again:


LOOK, GQMF POWER WALKS, I NEED THEM IN MY LIFE OKAY.

+ KALEIDOSCOPE! omg omg omg I am SO EXCITED, YOU GUYS, I CANNOT EVEN DEAL. As usual scheduling has run away with me, but I have plenty of writing time today so am not screwed yet! Will have to block out time to see if I can manage any treats, despite it being midterm season forever and ever.

&hearts!!

There is officially Too Much going on and I'm still trying to finish this write-up, so have some links!

+ wistfuljane put together an awesome 2PM primer! :D
+ This year we have REMIX MADNESS, FUCK YES!!!

3w4dw-spam:
+ Link roundup from livrelibre and a disability-themed roundup from rydra_wong.
+ My (Iku/Doujou, insubordination) Toshokan Sensou prompt was filled over at the anime/manga/manhwa/manhua fest! N'awwww. &hearts
+ Speaking of the fest, ephemere coded up the shiny list of prompts and fills, WHICH EVERYBODY SHOULD GO FORTH AND OGLE. *g*
+ inkstone did an awesome FONSFAQ post for my Filipino folk dances prompt! *\o/*
+ troisroyaumes is hosting a FONSFAQ for manhwa!
+ Some foodie posts: were_duck is looking for vegan recipes, and meloukhia has a What's That Recipe? post! NOM.
+ ephemere did a FONSFAQ for her favorite Filipino musicians!
+ vi drew an adorable comic: Two of a Kind. &hearts

And now that I've run out of exclamation points, a poem:

( The Rune of St. Patrick )

Three things that made me happy and one thing that didn't:

+ cherrybina's bb!JGL spam!

+ robanybody's Ain't Gotta Flaunt For Me, awesome awesome Hawaii 5-O fic: Danny/Kono with Kono & Chin's family shenanigans to boot! Also, Kono is the best ever. &hearts If H5O were more the Chin-and-Kono show, I would watch the shit out of it despite my general apathy towards the setup- I am a cop show kind of girl, but not so much this cop show, DDK & Grace Park notwithstanding. Woe!

+ Current can't-stop-listening: La Pastillita- Chino y Nacho... although you may want to keep in mind that I don't know Spanish. >.> (IDK, am I the only one who's never been in the habit of listening to music for the lyrics??)

- This makes my teeth itch, and I can't even bring myself to watch the ad in question.

( incoherent crankypants ramble )

In other news, it's my mom's birthday today, so what with that and my incredibly low-energy state and all the writing I have to get done this weekend despite my words falling out of my head, I will probably be around/interacting even more sporadically than usual. &hearts &hearts!

I tried to separate these out but got overwhelmed by categorization; therefore, another haphazard mess! Trigger warnings apply to some of the following. ( cut for A LOT )

So, such_heights and I were sitting right behind Vienna Teng last night. IT WAS FANTASTIC (even though I had to run for the bus before the encore was over, augh).

Since such_heights has already put up the set list and pictures, I will just share a few quotes of the night;

Introductions:
Vienna: "You may have noticed that one of the people on this stage is neither Vienna Teng nor Alex Wong..."
Alex [stage whisper]: "One of these people is not like the others!"
Vienna: "Why isn't he Asian?"

Sound effects:
Vienna: "The last time I played this song, I felt the urge to hear a room full of house keys."
Alex: "I think this-" *waves arm over head* "is a standard signal for gale-force wind!"
Third guy (whose name I promptly forgot omfg /o\): "How about when I do this, you all let out a blood-curdling scream?"

(The scream actually happened. However, as Vienna- or possibly Alex?- said, it sounded more like a rollercoaster scream. This neatly segued into an anecdote about a friend of theirs who had a theory on girls' orgasm noises, and then I was suddenly too busy cracking up to make further mental notes.)

Alex, talking about Don't Be Afraid: "The first line of this song was actually shouted at me in an argument with Vienna. I was like, hang on a minute-" *scribbles* "Okay!"

Vienna, on singing karaoke in New York: "Jasmine was way, way up there. Kinda like a chipmunk."

Vienna on Grandmother Song: "This song works best if you're all heckling me!"

In conclusion: Vienna Teng, ILU! Also, I may or may not have an equivalent crush on Alex Wong now, eeeeeee. &hearts :>