Save the Applause, Please.

OMG, the big news.  Haha.  Ahhh, the holidays, a great time to make plans eventuate.  So here's a short story.

So I just finished watching Ginger Snaps with Joanna, because we'd ben wanting to watch it for like, a year since we saw it on Rookiemag. 

Here's a photo I found of it on the internet.

Pretty much, it's about this girl with the red hair who is bitten by a werewolf and then her sister is trying to cure her.  At first, the two sisters are total emos who although they are wearing millions of layers and a big puffy jacket, don't seem to need to wear tights under their flowy skirts.  And they take all these photos of themselves as dead people with pitchforks through their necks or with a picket fence stuck through their middle and they show it to their class as a powerpoint presentation.  All the adults in the story are idiots and there are a lot of drugs.  Once Ginger becomes a werewolf, she kills a few people.  The thing is, after I watched the film, I asked, "what was the point of it?"  It was insane.  It wasn't even that scary because the whole time, you knew who the baddie was and it was just totally ridiculous.

But the two girls were really Indie, which is the reason to watch Ginger Snaps.  They had the type of teenage bedroom Indies like to talk about and the two sisters were as close as shown in the above picture.  And they went through a TRANSFORMATION which was a Rookiemag theme one month.  Although the younger sister appeared to be really immature, she took on the burden of the sister and the fate of the town into her own hands.  Also, there were ATTITUDE SCENES - strutting around, casting glances and using 'fuck' or 'this is so fucked' as an interjection every ten seconds.  One of the other cool things were that the two actresses were actually quite a lot older than the characters but I never would have guessed!  The two characters were totally relatable but in an absurd fictional way!!!!!!

When you think about the film as a whole, it's actually quite funny because it's so crazy, but when you're watching it you are thinking "where are the jokes?"

So what is the point of the story I am telling?  After watching this film, I remembered I was an Indie.  So Joanna and I started a Tumblr site!!!!!  Can't even remember were we got the idea from, but we acted swiftly!  Greatest achievement of the holidays!  We called it, "I Saw You on the Internet".  Here it is:

http://thatishowwelol.tumblr.com/

xo   

Playlists

Why am I typing?  I got up at the crack of dawn to type up an assignment, worked on it during my free period, skipped a class to work on it, and spent all lunch on it as well. Do I want RSI or whatever?

As soon as you hear that someone's made a playlist, you know that guy knows his stuff and is, hence, an Indie.  But what drives the Indie to create a playlist?  The key is in the words "Indie" and "create".  As you surely know, Indies have this innate sense of creativity and this compels them to do creative things, like, all the time.  There's no mundane in the Indie's life - music listening is fancy.

Throughout an Indie's life, they have moods, experiences, awakenings and phases.  How great would it be if your life had a soundtrack.  Frankly, that wouldn't really work out because seeing as there is not a god picking the songs for you, you will be needing hindsight to do this.  This is because the music needs to be reflective of you and your experiences.  Each time you're feeling a certain way, you can scream your heart out to those certain songs that give the message that you need to get through this experience.  Bring them back to their youth or whatever, help you in your time of trial.  Madonna is an artist who really helps people along.  I'm not an expert.

Another reason for creating playlists is to at least get some cudos for coolness when you're felling bitter about your lack of soundtrack to life.

Yet another cause to create them is that once you've put the time and energy into creating a playlist, you've set the mood for your work and so you're able to carry through with one idea for longer.  Otherwise you'd totally not be focused because you'd be being carried off by other creative ideas.

In Stuff White People Like, Christian Lander caps locks the word "warning" and then writes:  "Indie music is perhaps the most dangerous subject you can discuss with white people.  One false move and you will lose their respect and admiration forever."  (What would you say if I told you I listen to the BeeGees nearly everyday?)  To a great extent, you can redeem yourself if one bad song is on a list of great songs.  One song doesn't define your taste.  It's part of a collection of tracks.  And when you're in the mood...

Some people are using 8tracks.  You can make, like a piece of art to go with your playlist.  The thing is that these days, people are making not just playlists to go with their moods but also mood boards etc.  So, like, Indies are being creative all the time.  When you post an 8tracks playlist of your creation, you're bringing it all together.

Good old iTunes.  Take a screenshot of your playlist and Wall post it someone on Facebook.  Aside form the fact that it gets your taste out there, it's a really considerate thing to do for someone because seeing as music is the closest thing to your soul and you are SHARING IT WITH SOMEONE, like, wow, man.  Also, they are LETTING YOU JUDGE THEM and their life experiences based on their tastes.

If you're only going to take one thing away from this blog post, let it be this:  People who upload playlists to Facebook are totally selfless. And you should take advantage of it.  However, you are indebted to the person who shares their soul out to you and who could possibly be CHANGING YOUR LIFE.  Remember this forever.  If you wouldn't plagiarise in your essays, then you shouldn't take on someone else's taste as your own without proper referencing.

Nearly the holidays.......

So guess who posted?  Teenage Construct.  So, even though I'm feeling pretty uncreative, I'm posting.

So I was watching this:

And then her top reminded me of:

And this makes me crack up every time.  

So anyway, what's new?  Well, I think I'm sick of the whole not knowing what I'm gonna be when I grow up.  

So next time someone asks, I'll be telling them I wanna be a comedian.  

And then come across as a really boring person.  Which would be, like, a totally unmainstream way to make a joke.

And that's what I love about Indie stuff.  There's, like, no limits or anything, man.  You know what I mean?

But that was all a joke.  What I really will be is a CELEBRITY.  Like this:

Kabam.  Dude.  I am so making a reference to something from the eighties that made pop culture references.  

And that leads me to mention ROOKIEMAG because that has to do with pop culture references.

So anyway, today, for the first time ever, I talked about Rookiemag and Tavi Gevinson with people at my school.  

So we were like, this is like the Rookiemag Road Trip but not.

Don't you just love Clueless?  Seeing as people are calling me preppy, I reckon I should Cher-up a bit.  Like, start chewing chewing-gum.

OMG.  I'm wearing this Ralph Lauren cable jumper.  And I'm almost pretty sure that this guy from One Direction was wearing a cream/white version in a music video.

You know what?  The other day I saw some youngsters and I had one of those long moments where you have one of those deep "life is changing and I so was like unaware" feelings.  And then you go silent and then you can only say one thing in repetition for the next few minutes.  Because I realised youngsters these days dress hipster.  And just then as I was writing this post I realised that they dress like the celebrities called One Direction.  Dude, this is a change for the better.  Gone are the days of the short shorts, supre singlets and pulled up socks.

xoxo.  Homework time!

Dreamy Magazine Photos

How to Keep it Kool When Your at Skool

So, I've just got to write a blog post.  Close my eyes and let the inner cool kid pour out.  Today I finally finished reading My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk for World Literature.  Argh.  Biggest achievement of my life.  But the celebration was a bit crap...getting confused about relative velocity questions and then doing no other work for the rest of the day...   But anyway, moral of the story, in the fifteen hundreds Islamic world, behind a blind artist meant that you could totally paint exactly what Allah perceives.  Going blind is Allah's reward for your being a good guy.  Oh, I've forgotten what that had to do with what I was saying.

So where have I gotten this new inspiration to write about myself from?  I'm listening to the Bee Gees!  Dude, don't want to sound uncool or anything, but I've been a FAN since before I even knew about iTunes.

So, in the holidays I took Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights to my friend's house to show her and then she just sat there reading it.  It's this great cookbook by Sophie Dahl.  I'd like to say, "that's what I've been eating" but actually I've been eating these sour, hard kiwi fruits that just did not ripen even though they had been sitting in my kitchen for nearly a month.  And Sophie Dahl writes not just about the dishes, but the book is also a memoir of her relationship with food; there are funny stories from her childhood, her teenage-girl era, modelling career, and omg this time when her personal trainer forgot to hang up the phone to her and then he was bitching about her to his mate, and then how food has shaped her as a person, like, self -realisation etc.  It's witty, funny and very clever.  She's a great writer.  And it's not a health trash spiel book.  Joanna and I seriously recommend it.  Also, she wears gumboots and just gives off this total Clarice Bean vibe!

So what have I been seeing around at the "indiest school in town"?  Hahaha, lol, so my friend who doesn't go to my school asked me in awe if it is like a "mini-Melbourne" and I was like, lol, what a nice fantasy, I'm  glad that's not true because otherwise I would totes not fit in due to my dagginess.  So,

1. People saying "LOL", like, to your face.  Anyway, in French class we were going to maybe watch LOL but now we actually aren't, we're watching this movie called Entre les Murs  about this Year 9/10 class in Paris in the 20th.  It's quite interesting.  The challenges depicted present heaps to reflect on about school.  Which is an Indie topic, right?
2. Ripped black stockings.  Dear people who wear these, how the hell do you get into them when they barely exist?
3. Leggings without a long top.  This was not one of "the looks" at my old school.  Here's what I've learned: the philosophy behind this look is that attention will be drawn to how long your legs are and people will gaze and comment about how you have the best legs, how you're so cute, how you're so sexy.  So, pieces that go with leggings are sandals, boots, all black, necklaces with crosses on them, cropped tops, see-through garments, and of course converse.
4. Fountain pens.  That is what the hipster shit is made of - quality shit.  (Yeah, maybe I should stop acting into the keyboard.  Like, I don't even know if hipster say "made of or "made from".)  Anyway, I don't get what people mean when they use "shit" as a noun.  What is the feeling they are trying to convey, what are they trying to say?  Oh, and also when they refer to people as "being a dick"?  Does that mean Tom/Dick/Harry punched you in the face?  Bitched about you?  Said something stuck-up?  Wanna be anymore vague?

So now I PROMISE that at sometime I will photograph these great French Vogues from the 1990s (yes, some are older than I am) that are in my French classroom.  Some advertisements are so rookiemag.  Hahahaha.  Love you long time.

Just Thought I'd Post Something

I'm feeling rather pretentious as a) a blogger, b) a person, and c) as a person who blogs. Because of the photos of myself that now adorn my blog. So, if you were suspecting that the blogger Billie was a girl, you have now been proved correct.

Also, I'm feeling pretty humbled because someone said some nice stuff about my blog.

xoxo

What's Up?

Play 

Pottermore.com. This is where all the cool kids are. The illustrations are beautiful and there is EXCLUSIVE CONTENT. I would say it's pretty much perfect, but I wish to be able change my avatar. You see, I didn't realise there were two pages at the pet store and if I had seen page two, I would have bought a TOAD - because that would have been INDIE. 

I would like to publicly tell the world how lame I am - dude, I had to get a WALKTHROUGH in order to find my shopping list and to cast a spell. But then after I finished the Philosopher's Stone, I went back to the beginning with expert knowledge. 

I would also like to tell y'all about one of those moments Indies find themselves in ALL THE TIME. So I went to my friend's house right and I was excitedly telling her about Pottermore as though she wouldn't be knowing about it. And she was like, Yeah, I've been on for, like, a year (id est) as part of the BETA.

Watch

Sliding Doors, starring Gwyneth Paltrow whom my above friend is not a fan of just because she's not a fan of the movie Emma, just because she is not a fan of Jane Austen. 

So in this movie, the main character is called Helen and she's having a bad day and then she's wanting to catch the underground. And the theme is WHAT IF she had or had not been able to catch it. But the flicking back and forth between the two Helens is not at all confusing because of her HAIRCUT TRANSFORMATION. There's a cheesy hospital scene, but there are some really good QUOTE WORTHY lines and there is a TWIST at the end.

GROW

Usually when I buy plants to cultivate, they end up dying.

READ

The Tao of Physics (An exploration of the parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism) by Fritjof Capra 1975/1983. Seeing as it goes into relativity theory and quantum theory, this book should be quite difficult reading. However, the font in the copy I am reading makes me read faster than I normally do, and I would have to say it's the best font I've ever encountered for a regular sized book. 

(And on an aside, I think that these days books are made too big/ too small. I wish all books were the size of the Penguin Classics with the BLACK background!) 

I haven't yet gotten to the part of the book that talks about the serious parallels, but what I've learned so far is that one of the similarities between the two is that the deepest concepts have to be EXPERIENCED and cannot be expressed through words. 

And in this book there are lots of quotes by Lao Tzu. 

I picked this book off the school library shelf a) in the hope it would make the "penny drop" for physics, and b) because I wanted to be able to judge how hippy my ideas about the way the world works are.

The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami is actually a novel I will study this term for World Literature. It's quite a strange book and it's made up of all these short stories (all by the author) which are snippets into someone's life where a bizarre/unusual occurrence occurs. In this way, the author is QUESTIONING NORMALCY. Yeah. And there was this super short 4-5 page story called 'The Little Green Monster' and I had NIGHTMARES for two night.

But anyway, if you like beer (which you probably do because you're an Indie), you'll like this book.

EAT

I'm in search of the perfect ANZAC biscuit.

Also, congratulations to the Simpson Prize winning students who spoke at the ANZAC Day service at Lone Pine. Phyllida Behm, you are officially an Indie Icon. To use an expression, you rock a certain style.

And that's because I say so.

And from my television at home, the dawn service at ANZAC Cove and the Lone Pine service looked UNREAL.

Get Into

Okay, everyone's sad because Sammy died and now Dance Academy Season Two is over. But SERIOUSLY, GUYS, you've got to get into Young Dracula Season Three. 

The seriously ANGSTY Vladimir Dracula is a little bit older and he's out to save the world. One of the things I love about this show is how the crudeness of the vampire world is meant to be funny but the humour is not crude. Do you get what I mean? No, you don't. Anyway, Vladimir's now got all these cool powers and the moral of the story is that love conquers all. 

Also, while I was watching the first episode, I was eating this really great sandwich which was of fresh sourdough baguette spread with harissa and filled with halloumi and rocket.

Argh! My holidays are over! I go back to school tomorrow. I don't know how I'm going to keep up with Young Dracula. Maybe I'll have to watch it on iview in the library during lunch/in my free periods.

I'll Be There For You!!

Here is a list of some of what has been going around in my mind the past couple of days:

1. Television Shows
2. Alter Egos (haha, I'm thinking about the ones I used to look at on the Daria website!)
3. Whether one can successfully liken TV characters to dishes at Yum Cha.

Of these three, I should like to talk about Number One. And in particular, the degree of catchiness and effectiveness of the theme-song. (Are they even called theme-songs? You know, the song that plays with the title! Title-song?)

Here are some that came to my mind quickly:

1. Postman Pat: 360 degrees for having left such a strong impression. If I were to temporarily lose my memory, it would be one of the first things to come back;
2. Dance Academy: Sadly I can only say 270 degrees. This is because the song fails to capture the historic vibe of Sydney, which one does, in fact, feel when watching the street scenes;
3. Summer in Transylvania: Guys, there isn't a second season. This is a cause for sadness. This show has one of my all-time favourite theme-songs! But should I give it 360 degrees when the title page looks kind of homemade? This show cracks me up - every episode Summer was looking for some romance and a chance to get popular;
4. Dead Gorgeous: This is what I call a good, wholesome television show for big-kids. The theme-song is catchy but, look, take this from a fan, the song is too uncool - it's actually more uncool than the show itself.
5. Daria: I haven't watched this show in years. If I had a recording of Mystik Spiral's song, I'd play it everyday. 360 degrees.
6. Friends: 360 degrees. It's truly got a special place in today's culture. Question - what would happen if one went to a busy public place and blasted out a recording of "I'll Be There For You"?
7. Community: is to be awarded zero degrees/F grade for it's theme-song. Nice attempt at one, either you actually don't have one or it is just so unmemorable that I can't remember it. (I remember the paper-folding, though)

On an aside - Dubstep music. It kind of reflects how modern culture is so influenced by TV shows and video games that they have become inseparable with modern identity. 

And then now something that has come to the population from the media is  being sent back into the media.

Is this ironic?

Another aside - ALERT - the TV show on ABC 3 called The Assistants. It is possibly the most appalling show that channel airs. You know all those things people call inappropriate for children's shows and in very poor taste? The Assistants takes it to the next level and portrays these bad values in a good light. I have only seen one episode and I was shocked. If you are interested in this cause, you should only have to read a synopsis. 

Update - What the Hell is with Me?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON4ECUkK_xI&feature=related

Autumn has come early.  On the colder days, I've been seeing people wearing vinyl trousers to school.  My earliest memory of the look is from 2008, when I saw people wearing these sort of leggings on Portobello Road, where you could buy them at the market.

Laura Brannigan is cool.

I'm now doing double-spacing after full-stops.  I don't know if you noticed.  I can't believe I didn't know this formality until I found it was specified on my guidelines to writing History essays sheet a couple of weeks ago.

Sigh.  I'm almost in a state of shock because the word I didn't know existed which I have been probably trying to explain/use has now been told to me.  Apparently Internet memes are something that's just a, I wouldn't even say  "second", nature to "this generation". Wikipedia is good.  I didn't know that people of "this generation" are meant to be meme conscious and some sort of intellectual when it comes to the "concept" of a meme.  So I've been told I don't get out enough - on the internet.

Yeah.  Well, the thing is, the Internet is vast.  So there's heaps of cultures, like, people who are feminist and Jewish and who love Christmas.  (Yeah, that's rookiemag.)  But it's true I have been Internet inactive.  I haven't been watching the videos on Khan Academy in ages.  I'm confused about subsets and proper subsets of cultures on the Internet.

The World Today and Grundies

The post that has cracked me up the most on The Teenage Construct yet is the most recent on the back-to-school experience. You could call it the story of my life. It's not about school life exclusively, because if being preppy and nothing-less-than-perfect is the essence your "school culture"and "social world" then it also drives your whole life. Considering how many hours of your life are devoted to affairs and thoughts of school...it's a big deal.

The word to sum up the vibe I'm being sent from my new school is quite the opposite - GRUNGE. 

So funny, on the first day of school I overheard THREE separate conversations about how this school  is "supposed to be 'Indie'" and how "apparently Indie people go here". And I swear someone said that they weren't finding it Indie. And these were people who don't fit the Independent Norm. And then they all went on about how Indie is now Mainstream and abusing the concept of "Indie".

Which brings me to this discussion I saw a few weeks ago on the World of Warcraft Forum titled "Hipsters". And there were pages and pages i.e. hundreds and hundreds, of people going on debating like this:

"Is Hipster here to stay, because I just wish hipsters would all die"

"Nah, I reckon there have always been hipsters"

"I can't believe people would label ... (e.g. type of sunglasses, shoes, jeans, books) as hipster"

"I always wore...and now that there are hipsters, I'm classified as one and people hate me for it."

"It sounds like you're a hipster because you're pretending you aren't..."

"Hipster is stupid. It doesn't even make sense."

"Hipsters are so stupid, they don't know....."

"I hope hipster goes away soon. I hate them. I wish they would ***** die"

AND I AM DEVASTATED THAT I CAN'T FIND THE PAGE ANYMORE!!!! Whatever. Fill in the blanks - you know how it goes.

For the past couple of days, I've been walking around and trying not to crack up. In Year Seven, my colour group, whom I spent most classes with, went through a phase of obsession with BONDS grundies. I SWEAR some of us (not me) presented a song to the rest of us for a group task in Music. Today I looked them up on the Internet and they weren't exactly the same sort of daggy underwear everyone told me they were. (These ones I saw had all these in-your-face kind of Australia flag designs...)

Yeah. And now to state the obvious - that I haven't been blogging in AGES. And also, I need to state that by saying this at the end of the post, I was trying to not be an ordinary person who states the obvious at the beginning of the post. If, like, you didn't get it.