"Oh Don't Talk Of Love," the shadows purr.

Sigh it's me again. As of my last post, I've watched No Strings Attached and youtubed. Did not read. Did not write. Did not do anything the world deems useful really. That means in the eyes of people I will be perceived as useless. Perceptually useless, conceptually useless, plain useless.

Not an ounce not one grain of regret though. Haha! I'm still stuck on the "YouTube mix for The xx" to be honest. Them, Young Marble Giants, Portishead, even abit of The Cure and Shriekback (Nemesis is terrifically retro eh! That guy looks like he's from the mummy or sth and those masks are just awful/some haha.) Not Aaliyah though, so weird to have her songs on the playlist -.-

Can't decide which of them are most awesome atm, everytime a new song starts I think "This is sheer brilliance" and I'm confounded all over again. Really like the ending of Islands' video and the lamp swinging in VCR and and and and and aiyo!

The xx - You've Got The Love (feat. Florence)

I thought this was just amazing! The stark contrast in The xx's minimalist bleakness and black emo outfit and their facial expressions with Florence's red hair and crazy amazing vocals and vivacity. Speaking of which, here's Roads by Portishead.

Portishead - Roads

Actually (and I'm pretty sure that this is the accurate meaning) I think the song is about that moment in your life when you suddenly realize life isn't peaches and cream like you were told all your life. Usually around 18-22 years old, your quarter-life crisis. You struggle to adapt to the adult world and find yourself and find your way in life, this can include spirituality. Sturggle to be a good person and struggle to cope with the world's woes.......etc. - One of the comments on the song on songmeanings.com.

Which is why it's my go-to website for song lyrics! Always interesting to see some of the brilliant interpretations of songs in the comments. And it's also the source of quite a fair bit of the music I listen to, I just trawl through the top 100 songs and try them out. Haha sounds like such a geeky thing to do (almost as bad as trolling on forums! which i've always wanted to do for kicks actually) duznnit!

But it's where I discovered Dog Days Are Over, Sweet Disposition, We Are The People, Little Lion Man, Home (is wherever I'm with you!) Beirut, Fleet Foxes, Manchester Orchestra, yada yada yada yadadadada. Argh so many bands&songs I doubt I'm gonna sleep tonight!!

Sheesh, I willingly lead myself into all these kinds of stuff all the time. Conceptually useless haha. I should get all upset with myself, I'll probably do it after listening to all of these songs which means never so it's a win-win situation hurrah.

Anyways I wanted, really, to blog about No Strings Attached and Natalie Portman! I didn't plan on watching it cuz I thought it's just one of those regular rom-coms y'know. But now I think maybe I'm abit too hard on chickflicks and romcoms etc, just cuz I'm trying to be 2indie4myowngood. Sigh pretentious prune. (I always disappoint myself slightly when I consider myself honestly. another story altogether.)

Okayokay really now let me get back on track. Super-enjoyable (my second one in consecutive days life is good) and so fun to watch. So many crazy random scenes I had to lol (one of the only times I've ever used this acronym properly) but I certainly didn't lmao (it's still attached, thankyou.) Natalie Portman is damnnnnnnn cute lah! So pretty and sexy and (insert positive adjective here. also, feminine. so no nonsense like idk hunky or sth please.)

Actually the rest of the characters were pretty awesome too, esp Patrice and Wallace! I didn't even mind Ashton Kutcher, although I am jealous of him.

I imdb-ed Natalie Portman and found out she was vegan amongst other super impressive stuff, apparently after reading Jonathan Safran Foer's veggie book (though she was vegetarian before), which I had wanted to buy a while back. I didn't cause I was afraid I'd be too convinced by him (after all he's a genius) and then I considered for a while whether I was the sort of person who could have the conviction to give up sth like meat and sadly I came up short by my own reckoning. So I didn't get the book.

Btw I can't imagine how Jonathan Safran Foer's marriage with Nicole Krauss must be like srsly. I think it must be mindbending and out of this world and imagine the kind of love letters they pen to each other!!

Which reminds me I don't have any of their books, not since I gave away Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. And if there's any book I must possess it's that, so I guess some shopping is in store! Yay sigh.

Anw I've just self-learnt (oh what would we do without you google and by extension wikipedia) the meaning of hyperbole [a rhetorical device (yet another technical term)] and of bathos (the art of sinking in poetry) and I realized how terribly lacking in knowledge and uneducated I am in all these terms and such, the proper name for literary devices etc. I'd take literature in uni if not for the fear I'd be caught up in all these technical jargon and the belief that singapore is not exactly a good place to study lit. Just like the new liberal arts college, I'm not sure we're prepared, or able, to embrace the concept. Sigh such is the sad lack in our education system, which fortunately or unfortunately, works (all too) well.

That was not my point actually. What I wanted to share were these 3 brilliant examples of bathos:

The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

(Jennifer Hart, Arlington)

and

They had but one last remaining night together, so they embraced each other as tightly as that two-flavor entwined string cheese that is orange and yellowish-white, the orange probably being a bland Cheddar and the white . . . Mozzarella, although it could possibly be Provolone or just plain American, as it really doesn't taste distinctly dissimilar from the orange, yet they would have you believe it does by coloring it differently.

(Mariann Simms, Wetumpka, AL)

and

The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978)

Haha brilliant! 2good4words. (I think I'm being really clever here with this 2sth4sth thing. sorry.)

Sigh at times I think I'm always a little too self-conscious, or maybe self-aware? Whatever it is, I don't like it much. I sometimes wish I could be someone other than who I am, but I'm all too aware that that's never gonna happen.

Okay break time here's Arcade Fire with a seriously awesome song.
Arcade Fire - Wake Up

I don't really like the part at the end (~5.36) so I usually click back to (0:00)

Haha sorry poor joke there. But the middle/end part makes me feel like dancing around much like this song here
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros - Janglin

does. Too bad I'm nothing if not terrible at dancing haha! I can rejoice though, and quite well too, so okay these songs make me want to rejoice! Or at least bob my head about for a bit in a poor imitation of dancing, and maybe wave my arms around, hopefully not looking too frantic or sth.

I often stare into the mirror and deep into my eyes (as I am wont to do in the middle of the night) and ask myself quite seriously: Am I human. Or am I dancer? (courtesy The Killers, 2008)

The answer quite sadly quite clearly is no :( I am no dancer. I think my body cannot cope when too many different parts of it are moving (no, flailing) around, supposedly in sync and in tandem (not that that's sth I've noticed when I try to do that) so finally what happens is that I'll beat a retreat and hide in some corner and start sulking instead. I am denser!!

Sigh I was gonna be all introspective and all but I took the scenic route and I have gone so far off-track srsly. Infact so out of the way that I'm gonna hightail it and crash through the metaphorical metal barrier of my metaphorical thought highway and hopefully drop somewhere in the metaphorical sea with a satisfying plop! or gloop! or sth, but that really doesn't matter cause the sound isn't an actual sound it's a metaphorical one so I can make it out to be whatever I want. So there! I are winner.

I'm going on for too long as usual. One last note here, that I found a perfectly posh word (and probably unnecessary too haha) to describe those songs/movies/books/anything really which move you beyond words. It's - wait for it - visceral. Haha I know you probably rolled your eyes or frowned and knit your eyebrows tgt or sth and I can understand that, cause this seems like such needless posteuring right! [That's spelt wrongly but I think it's more apt than posturing, I mean poseurs are (pseudo-ly) cooler than posers aren't they! that's silly actually, how can one group of faux-cool people be cooler than another?! It's all in the brilliant insertion of the 'e' really.]

Oh wells I know.. But I still can't help myself from throwing in posh words from time to time! Maybe I truly am a poseur after all!! My being aware of it elevates me slightly from your regular posers, hence I get the coveted 'e'. Yey. Words like faux. Which is pronounced fəʊ (foh to us normal people) which I totally did not know about. Thank goodness I've never tried to use it and made a booboo out of myself. Which also means that I'll never use the word in an actual conversation cause it sounds terrible doesn't it! "I bought foh-VCDs from that dirty old uncle over there" yuck. Haha sorry terrible example there.

Unless it's faux pas (pronounced fəʊ ˈpɑ or simply foh-pah) but to do that convincingly I think I have to learn french first and be able to assume an air of uppity classiness or sth i.e. "Oh what a fashion faux pas, you turd!! An extremely unfashionable one at that." Okay for some reason the first thing that came to mind was socks with sandals HAHA alamak.

Oh mannn I'm not even simply digressing anymore, I am positively finding new (and metaphorical) roads to go on just so that I can digress further.

Anw yeah visceral. Some stuff seem to connect with us so frighteningly and we intuitively embrace them. That took a long time coming -_- My last note was not, in fact, that.

This was wayyyyyyyyyyyyy longer than I had intended (just like that way right there, I am shocked with how many 'y's there are :O) Blast my dancing fingers and my blasted mind the shadow puppeteer behind everything! This spells less sleep for me so :( is the expression on my face (amongst other things which I shall not reveal but nonetheless, sigh! and triple :(s or :(((( or whatever):

Ohwell. Stone Temple Pilots, Arcade Fire, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes, Manchester Orchestra. I blame them for my sleeplessness. It's not my fault!