It's likeaspark's birthday, so without further ado...

( happy birthday! )

Hello, LJ! I hope that whatever you celebrate this time of year, it's been wonderful and happy and warm! I had a lovely Christmas with my parents and a fun Boxing Day exchanging presents with my friends, as per tradition. I feel very grateful and very blessed to have lots of cool things in my life, including all of you here on the internets who know me, talk to me, hang out with me, laugh with me and read this LJ. Here's to a happy and healthy 2009!

I'm currently cleaning and packing to spend this next week and New Years with likeaspark and her family. I'm excited and I think it should be a lot of fun.

I know I keep saying this, but I really, really, really am going to reply to everyone's comments on my Twilight entry! True story: when I've been cooking or wrapping or just driving down the street, I am mentally composing replies in my head with all the thoughts I have. I think I'll have some time on my trip, yay book discussions!

Happy birthday epiphery. I love you bunches.

Almost two years ago I put together a picspam of my 30 favorite Ryan/Brendon pictures at the time. I occasionally still get comments on the post. I got this one yesterday:

omg u haterz of panic at the disco.pictures dont get the whole story.duh!!if u had video then i might believe u but i think they were just acting and singing.let me just clear one thing patd haterz. brendon urie and ryan ross r NOT gay.get that in ur little haterz brain.ok?and on the picture where u think that its ryan with the make up it could be anyone and on the one that u said that if it was gay prom or gay wedding its neither its like an interview in nyc duh.and the unclear ones its not wat u put on there.and the one that u said that they r holding hands u cant tell who it is on the other side.duh.and dont call it the gayest show on earth cuz its not!!!so shut up!!!u dont know anything about patd.so u better shut the fuck up u little fuckin bitch.maybe ur gay and u want to bring peoplez down with u and i u arent then u better stop talkin shit about patd.thats all i hav 2 say bitches.

... okay, then!

Everyone who replied to my Twilight post, get ready! I am so stoked to reply to comments and talk with you all about Edward Sparkle.

I had a big long post of emo typed up and then I deleted it because I figure, it's the holidays, and I don't want to be that person who whines and complains and vents about stupid things. I love my family, I love my friends, I'm doing well in school, I have a good life. Those are things worth focusing on.

( So instead, let's talk about Twilight! )

ps: I'm really enjoying Folie A Deux, in a different way than I enjoyed Infinity On High, I think.

Me: Make sure you [and C] both get a chance to watch SNL as soon as possible -- according to the east coast, there's a surprise guest of AWESOME who I won't spoil.
miss_saigon: Man, I don't know if anything could top Jordan Knight having his shirt blown open by a wind machine on stage, but we will definitely watch it.

Home from Rock Band Live. UGH SO GOOD. My ears are still ringing and I'm still a little keyed up from the show, so I'm just doing some last minute packing for Vegas in the morning. Ideally I would like to be in bed within the next ten minutes. However, someone posted a three part Ryan/Brendon picspam so... HAH.

( Brendon likes GSF, cover song changes, Cab boys signing appendages, etc. )

Also, an important belated birthday wish! Happy birthday callmedirk! I hope it was awesome, sweetie. IGYB,Y!

There is a lot of talk going on in bandom right now. Here is what I would like to talk about:

( Brendon Urie's semi-bare ass (possibly probably NSFW) )

The month of October may just kill me (in the best possible way, of course).

In terms of concerts, here is my tentative schedule:

Panic in Las Vegas - October 9th
Panic in Salt Lake - October 16th
Justin Timberlake in Las Vegas - October 17th*
Cobra Starship in Salt Lake - October 21st
Cobra Starship in Las Vegas - October 31st

*IF I can get tickets. I imagine that they're going to sell out fairly quickly and all I can do is hope my fingers are faster than someone else's! My friend Brian works for the company that owns Planet Hollywood so he's going to try to hook me up with his discount so that I can stay there since that's where the show is being held. I'm wondering who "and Friends" includes other than, like, Timbaland.

I'm not a member of Northern Downpour (ugh, self!) so I can't do pre-sale tomorrow and I'm feeling pretty zen about that. I'm a little bit slightly wee concerned about not being able to get a good ticket for Vegas, but it's all GA anyway, right? I mean in various weird pool venue GA forms? I want actual seats for Salt Lake so I'm not too fretful about that one. I was planning on heading out to LA the day after the Vegas date to see Panic again there, but I'd really, really, really like to go to the Justin concert so I think I'm going to have to pass on LA. Man, I just need to live in Las Vegas this October!

Also happening probably the first weekend of October (if we can make it work) is a fall/my birthday visit to Philly to see likeaspark. I'll also be seeing her and epiphery and ghettogreta in less than two weeks and I am SO super stoked and excited for that. I've never been to another city as many times as I've been to Philadelphia, but Las Vegas is certainly catching up! Yes, I actually keep track of the number of times I've been to big cities /o\

I am planning to do my part as a fan to vote extensively for Panic in their VMA nomination because I would really, really dislike to see them lose to the Jonas Brothers. I hate the Jonas Brothers. Here are two (somewhat admittedly irrational) reasons why:

1. I work as a Guide for ChaCha* and I get asked on a frequent basis who the Jonas Brothers are dating. I get asked who Selena Gomez is dating so that it will open up a discussion about the Jonas Brothers. I get asked if Miley Cyrus and whichever Jonas are still together or if they ever were together or will they be together in the future? I get asked if I think the Jonas Brothers are cute. I get asked questions like "Will Joe Jonas marry me?" "Is Nick Jonas a virgin?" "Can you give me the phone number of the Jonas Brothers?" I wish someone would ask me, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how ridiculous is it that the Jonas Brothers are on the cover of Rolling Stone?" Answer? 11.

2. The Jonas Brothers bassist's bash-y blog about Panic At The Disco. Don't get me wrong, people are allowed to criticize and dislike the band. That's totally fine. We all have different tastes and opinions and that's cool. It was the way in which he chose to do it, sounding so arrogant and pompous and self-righteous, like he above anyone else knows what amazing music is. Um. YOU'RE A JONAS BROTHER, DUDE. Come give us sparkling pearls of wisdom about originality when you do something outside of the cookie cutter Disney box.

So yeah. I would love nothing more than to see Panic win just because I'm petty like that. :-[

Also, I really like David Archuleta's new song. It's really, really catchy, and just the kind of "poppy" that I enjoy. I drove by Murray High yesterday and they have this huuuuuge banner of him up on the side of the school. If I hadn't been in busy traffic I would have tried to snap a picture of it for all the Archuleta girls I have on my FL.

*For anyone who doesn't know what ChaCha is, it's basically an answer service. You can text any question in the world ever to 242-242 (Cha-Cha) and an actual person on the other end at their computer will look up the answer and send it to you, citing a valid source. It's pretty fun! Guides get paid for every text query they answer and the program is super simple to use. It's also a free service so you can text as many questions as you like to them without getting charged for it.

eta: I would also like to see Panic win because I heart them a lot, but I figured that went without saying!

I just played Dance Dance Revolution for the very first time. I am not very good! During Fall Out Boy's Dance, Dance I was too distracted by the actual music video in the background. It was a lot of me being all "Yay! High school dance shenanigans!" and Trevor yelling at me to move my feet. /o\

It actually kind of reminds me of the time I was the coveted Napkin #29 in my high school production of Beauty And The Beast and I was probably the worst little dancer in the faux dining room. Two left feet, yay! Aww, I miss doing shows. Tell me dance/theater stories!

At The Cab/Hush Sound show with miss_saigon, ficbyzee and elucreh. Great show. We really liked Steel Train. Everyone stayed for the Hush Sound, and there might even be even more people here than for any of the openers, so that makes me happy. Alex Marshall was just sitting five feet away from us. This is, occasionally, a very surreal fandom!

I am so bored tonight. It's one of those nights where everything is dead. The internet is dead, text messaging is dead, I can't for the life of me concentrate enough to read fic or a book (I seriously don't know when I developed such a short attention span) so I've just been sitting here playing Mahjong and contemplating my life. I even called up most of my close-by friends to see if they wanted to grab some food around 9:00 and everyone was either sleeping, working, or not answering their phone. That worked out ok though because my mom and I ended up setting up and playing Wii Fit for the first time which is THE BEST GAME EVER OMG SO FUN AND ALSO EXERCISE! \o/ I am total crap at the ski slalom but I rock at the ski jumping and the rhythm aerobic steps and am ok at hoola hoops and various other balance activities. I did the short run but I think I was too close to the TV because Wii!me (also called a Mii) was just not cooperating. All in all it was a blast and I'm pretty thrilled to have something that actually gets me excited about physical activity. I mean, what? Physical activity is totally awesome! ;-)

My mom and I went to the American Idol concert Monday night. That was the most surreal thing, man. It was craaaazy packed, which we were expecting, given that it's Utah and David Archuleta, but not to the extent it was. Yikes. We couldn't even get a table at any of the venue's nearby restaurants well over an hour before the show was scheduled to start. And there were seriously so many elderly couples there. I'd say about a good half of the crowd was over 50 years old (and little old ladies cooing and perving over David Archuleta? WRONG AT THE AMERICAN IDOL CONCERT). And then the screaming. Oh my GOD, when David Archuleta came out I was pretty sure the universal sound barrier was going to break. I've been to my fair share of concerts and I don't think I've ever heard a crowd be so loud. I am glad that he got a lot of hometown love and support, though -- he cried he was so moved, which was admittedly pretty cute, and he sang his set very well. David Cook was awesome as usual, and so were Brooke and Carly and, to my slight surprise, Chikeze! In retrospect I definitely believe he deserved to be higher than 10 on the show. I absolutely would not kick Kristy Lee Cook out of bed (because, damn) but she sang ( small spoiler ) Ramiele left me totally bored and unimpressed, Jason was good but didn't interact with the audience at ALL, and Syesha is just so desperate for love and approval that I'm just indifferent to her at this point. Michael Johns was good vocally but ( another small spoiler ) and b) he is SO arrogant. I just can't get behind his brand of self-importance. But overall the show was tons of fun and I'm glad I got to go with my mom.

My mom also took today off and we went to lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen, yum. Seriously, they have this banana chocolate cake thing that is SO DELICIOUS OMG. It would be difficult for me to name a better tasting dessert. After lunch we saw Wall-E which was SO SO SO SO SO ADORABLE. Oh my goodness I wanted to go see it again right after it was over. The short film before the movie was also incredibly darling. I'm amazed that after so many movies Disney and Pixar still haven't lost their magic. DISNEY + PIXAR = 4EVA ♥

So likeaspark was here the first week of July and it was really fun to have her out here! She got to meet my mom and my dogs and we did fun things like drive up to Park City and meander Temple Square and go see the U2 light show at the planetarium. We saw three different fireworks shows on the Fourth of July and I took her to lots of yummy Utah food places. She had real fry sauce for the first time and it was an A+ experience! We also watched Stardust which is one of my new favorite movies EVER. I've had the book since Christmas and seeing the movie motivated me to start reading it. So far so good!

I'm done updating but I feel like I should have included some fannish content in here, like maybe talk about how Brendon Urie's ass needs to have some naked sexy fun times with his bandmates or something.

At about 3:30 last night/this morning I heard the most awful yowling sounds from outside my window. It was a cat, I could tell, and I got dressed and went outside to make sure that it was ok. I really thought the poor thing was hurt or dying, like maybe it had been hit by car, or maybe was caught in a fence wire across the street. I got to the end of my sidewalk and saw two cats across the street in the gutter -- one was standing and the other was on the ground curled up in a ball. I thought to myself, oh God, the second cat is dead and the first one is upset and that's what the noises were about. I was hesitant to approach them because it was dark and I was unsure of whether or not they'd be defensive. The street lamp gave me just enough light to see the second cat move, so I knew it was ok. I watched them for few more moments and once it was obvious they were all right, I went back inside and went to bed. This morning I was telling my mom this story, all earnest about how worried I was about the yowling cats in pain, and she starts laughing and says to me, "Honey, they were mating." OH. MY. GOD. I did not know that such a sound could come out of an animal during such an act.

I've been amusing myself this evening by watching Ghostwriter videos on YouTube. Did anyone ever watch Ghostwriter back in the day? I loved that show so much. We had our VCR set to tape it daily while I was at school and my parents were at work. He's a little glowing ball who uses words to help inner-city kids fight crime! What's not to love? And Grandma Jenkins! Come on! True story, I used to pretend Ghostwriter and I were friends, although instead of worrying about purple slime monsters and toxic waste, Ghostwriter and I would solve complex dilemmas such as "boys: cute or cooties?" and "way hard 2nd grade math". Right now, as I type this, I still have a handful of Ghostwriter novels on my bookshelf in my room. There's this one story that takes three books to tell about the Ghostwriter crew up at camp and bad stuff happens, yo! Sabotage! Cut bike breaks! Vandalism! I re-read it last year and still enjoyed it. I am being completely honest. Once upon a time I stumbled upon Hector/Alex slash and realized that it meant I probably had very little lines or morals, much like the time I mentally 'shipped Kirk Cameron's character on Growing Pains with Leonardo DiCaprio. Leo was TROUBLED and Mike Seaver SAVED HIM and then Leo LEFT and Mike was TORN UP, ok? However, I can safely say I never 'shipped Uncle Jesse with anyone other than Becky, but as I understand it, somewhere out in the interwebs Danny Tanner has been slashed and I'm just not sure how I feel about that.

LATE 80's/EARLY 90's TV ♥

Let me flail at you about how awesome you are!

Reply to this post, and I will write one thing I love about you. Maybe more than one. Then (if you want) repost to your own journal and spread the love.

Warped tomorrow with my fantastic Utah girls miss_saigon, ficbyzee, and C. I'm so stoked, even though we are going to melt to death. Guess who else is going to be there? callsigns!!!!! And on top of that, it's a special birthday for Zee so make sure to send her some birthday love <3

eta: p to the s: likeaspark will be here in FOUR DAYS!!!

I have a spare ticket to the Las Vegas HCT show! Is anyone going to be in the area or know someone who might be interested in sitting with me? I have actual seats and I promise not to be creepy or annoying or anything! Since I loathe and despise Ticketmaster service fees, I'd only ask for the face value of the ticket, which is $35, but I'd also be more than willing to work something else out! So if anyone out there in LJ Land is interested, just let me know! :-D Comments are screened for your safety, seat-backs and tray tables in the upright and locked position, etc. etc.

I haven't been on LJ since Friday, so some of this may be old hat, but some (POTENTIALLY SPOILERY! WARNING NOW!) tidbits from the Salt Lake HCT show:

- Spencer said that he's from Denver, Colorado and that Brendon is from Utah. I'm assuming he meant that they were born there since obviously they grew up in Vegas, but if Brendon Urie wants to be a native of the same state as me, I'm not going to complain!

- They ended the show with a rocked out version of that "na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, good-bye" song, and they didn't do that when I saw the show in Philly, so that was fun!

- For those of you who pay attention to the girlfriend/dating side of things, Ryan didn't call Brendon out as being single in the introduction to Lying. Ryan also didn't sing/mouth along to the Keltie related lyrics of Northern Downpour. So whether Brendon's dating someone or the Ryan/Keltie break-up rumors are true and Ryan didn't want to have to single himself out as well or if it means nothing at all, for all the relationship aficionados, there you go!

- Ryan and Jon made the most hilariously awesome and awful segue into the whole "jazz hands" thing right before There's A Good Reason with a bit about the Utah Jazz. Ryan said, "Jazz fans!" and everyone screamed and Jon was like, "Jazz fans?" and Ryan said, "Oh, well I meant Jazz HANDS." And it was so stupidly funny. And then he and Jon shouted in unison, "Jazz hands!" right before the chorus started and the entire floor threw up jazz hands and it was so ridiculous! I was laughing sooooo hard.

- We got Ryan on guitar and back-up vocals during "Do The Panic" and Brendon singing during "Don't Wake Me Up", both also things that didn't happen when I saw the show in Philly, so again, cool. There were lots and lots bubbles, twice! So much fun.

- Zack is amusing. He was sitting side stage the entire show looking seriously bored eating chips and tabasco sauce. Ryan threw his tambourine at Zack and it totally flew over Zack's head and he tried but couldn't catch it. Very funny. And I know talking about Shane makes some people feel uncomfortable, but he was filming between the barrier and the stage by all the security guards and Brendon came up to him and they did this total buddy fist bump finger wiggle thing, and you guys, it was just really cute.

- Randomly, for a while miss_saigon and I were convinced we saw Eliza Cuts in VIP. "Oh my God, it's Emma!"

As always, I had a wonderful time with my Utah girls, and I can't wait for Vegas next week! Paaaaanic.

ETA: Because I got teased at dinner for thinking this was funny, I felt I should include it. Brendon dropped or tipped over his cup of beer with some impressive splash action and the second it hit the ground he LEAPT back, guitar in his arms, like a freaking cat, and immediately looked at Zack, who dutifully came running with towels to clean it up. I think Jon and Ryan were stalling a little bit because Mad As Rabbits was about to start and Zack was furiously wiping away beer from Brendon's rug. Speaking of Mad As Rabbits, I don't think Jon and Brendon switched instruments this time, perhaps because Brendon was attacked by his plastic red cup.

I'm so sorry this is a little late, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE THEIF MENTOR/AWESOME INFLUENCE, ghettogreta! I hope you had such an awesome day. I love you so much and I'm so glad I got to see you this month! I'm really looking forward to seeing you again this summer! I always appreciate how fun and chill and cool you are, and that you so graciously allow me to be your own personal laugh track ;-) I love you! <3

I don't know why, but this made me laugh so hard. I had this long and semi-emo post written up about various long and semi-emo things, but I'd so much rather laugh about cat macros.

I spent the first ten days of May in Philadelphia with likeaspark and we had a lot of fun. I took a lot of pictures and a handful of videos, so once I finish uploading those to photobucket, I'll try and be proactive about posting some. But in an nutshell, things that are cool: Atlantic City, Paramore + Jimmy Eat World, ghettogreta and the Mountain House of Doom (tm), My Chemical Romance, the Mutter Museum, the Franklin Institute, downtown Philadelphia and fountains and old buildings and the LOVE sign, the Betsy Ross House, Elfreth's Alley, the Liberty Bell, the Christ Church burial ground, the Reading Terminal Market (pronounced redding! I don't know either), THE MELTING POT OMG, ghost tours with a cute dorktastic tour guide, my magical $1 poncho, The Hush Sound, the lead singer of Motion City Soundtrack, and Panic At The Disco. Things that are less cool include multitudes of school children in small houses without any air and torrential northern downpours. I continue to be amazed by cities with crazy convenient public transportation set-ups, because Salt Lake City is not one of them.

I picked up my glasses on Tuesday and so far so good. I think I'm still adjusting to them because I can't wear them all day without getting a headache/sore eyes yet, but I do notice that wearing them does help when I'm reading or looking at a screen, so that's good! Also, they are so dorky and I kind of love them.

So the initial tour dates for The Hush Sound + The Cab tour that were posted over at thecab_fbr weren't quite correct and there is actually NOT going to be a Salt Lake City date. Woe! I was so, so stoked and then I was really bummed out to find that the day they were supposedly going to be here they're actually going to be in Colorado Springs! Boo. But as luck would have it, I was planning on heading out to Philly again in mid-August so that likeaspark and I could go up to visit with ghettogreta and epiphery for the weekend for a birthday party, and the Philly tour date of the Dance Across The Country tour is the following Friday! Yay! So I'm just going to stay out there for another ten day excursion.

In the meantime, I have the Honda Civic Tour, the Glow In The Dark Tour, and Warped Tour all with my Utah girls in June, which will be so fantastically awesome. I'll also be heading to Vegas for the second to last HCT show on June 13th. I cannot wait to gamble and hang out with fangirls and also gamble ;-) I'm strictly a slots girl, but maybe one day I'll be gutsy enough to try the tables! Haha. Speaking of concerts, I just bought my mom and I tickets to the American Idol tour in July, mostly so we can fangirl David Cook and scream, "It's all for you, David Archuleta!" It was slightly surreal watching his visit home because it's like, oh, hey, I recognize every single place he's visiting! It was kind of ridiculous how many people were swarming him at the Gateway Mall, clearly we Utahns are crazy! I loved his, "Where do they park?" comment because FOR REAL, DAVID, DOWNTOWN PARKING SUCKS. Also, I'm almost 100% certain that David Archuleta and I have the same laptop purchased from the same Utah-specific chain and that amuses me so much!

So, uh, in conclusion, Bob Bryar?

Panic At The Disco like bracelets. I could watch this all day.



Video courtesy of frogy!

Update from the My Chemical Romance show in Philadelphia: instead of Billy Talent, Taking Back Sunday is currently on stage. One of the guitarists is wearing the Mikey Way t-shirt. They came out wearing masks and people freaked the hell out. Pretty cool.