"Chill out, it's alright, kiss me, it's nice to be alive"

What a glorioius, glorious day.

Sky the colour of a swimming pool, the sun's shining down, the wattle is finally out and is its usual bright yellow, and everything's beautiful. After weeks of cold and rain, this is just what we need down here.

I had a heap of homework, but at 2pm I decided trigonometry could wait. So I put together a playlist, donned my leopard-print sunnies and white lace jacket and took the dog for a walk around the park. Beautiful beautiful weather, makes you believe that everything is right in the world, even if it really isn't.



Photo taken by me a while ago, but it looks the same outside at the moment. Dodgy quality because it was taken on the old camera.

Sunny Days Outdoors playlist (song title first):

1. Jake Ryan - Summer Camp
2. Over the Rainbow - Gin Wigmore
3. Something Easy - Georgia Fair
4. Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear
5. Time to Wander - Gypsy & the Cat
6. It Can Wait - Illy feat. Owl Eyes
7. Control - Jebediah
8. Peter Pan - Jinja Safari
9. You Don't Scare Me - Josh Pyke
10. Fall - Lanu feat. Megan Washington
11. Young Love - Mystery Jets feat. Laura Marling
12. Older Brother - Pepper Rabbit
13. In the Sun - She & Him
14. It's Nice to Be Alive - Ball Park Music (Post title comes from that song's lyrics, more on the band soon)
15. Fall At Your Feet [Crowded House cover] - Boy & Bear
16. Don't You Think It's Time - Bob Evans

Hope you have good weather wherever you are!

Z

Take this pink ribbon off my eyes...

...I'm exposed
And it's no big surprise

Don't you think I know
Exactly where I stand
This world is forcing me
To hold your hand

I can’t actually remember when I knew I was a feminist. I know, I should be able to recall the exact moment when the light bulb went off over my head and I realised it. But I can’t. It was definitely after I started high school, maybe some time in Year 8? I think it just occurred to me one day that this anger I felt whenever someone said anything sexist, this disgust at the treatment of women in society, this want for equality between girls and guys...it had a name. Feminism.

 

Musings on a lazy Saturday

Long weekend, yay! Plus we have next Friday off school because it's report-writing day.
It's a gorgeous Saturday...well, it was morning, but somehow it's slipped away into afternoon. It's been terribly cold this week since it's June, but outside it looks beautiful right now. The sun's shining and the sky is a wonderful clear blue, peeking through the branches of the gumtrees outside my window. (That all sounds so cliched-ly Australian, but it's true. I live near the coast, in a small town. It's not like this everywhere in Aus.)
Not much else to say. My friend's coming over this afternoon, it'll be awesome. And the Doctor Who final's on tonight, can't wait.
I need to get Jebdediah's new album from the library, and buy the new Arctic Monkeys one. J'adore AM <3
And I saw the clip for Boy & Bear's "Feeding Line" on Rage this morning, it's an amazing video clip. It doesn't make much sense, but God, the whole look of it is beautiful. The song's really good too. I was going to link to it, but it's not up on YouTube yet, grr. Look out for it!

That's all!
Enjoy the weekend, long or not :)
Z

"It should take you about 4 seconds to get from here to the door. I'll give you two."

Today, for what seems like the first time in over a month, I have no homework. This is a small miracle when it comes to a predominently VCE course. So I celebrated by:

- Watching the Doctor Who episode that I recorded, since I was at a friend's 16th last night and couldn't watch it all when it aired. He did put it on TV, but we missed most of the plot. So I got to see it this morning. Gangers! Tubs of acid! Jennifer hitting on Rory! (leave Rory alone you fool, he's married to the fabulous Amy Pond!!) Clone Doctor! Cruel cliff-hanger!
- Watching the end of Amelie, which made me feel quite a bit sunshiney and happy, and which I plan to review soon
- Watching some Season 2 Angel (I finally have time to watch it, not being bogged down by assignments and worksheets)
- Eating Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. The only place I've found them is in the David Jones food court, and that's up in Melbourne. They're delicious, but the packet is rapidly emptying thanks to i) my cravings, and ii) my friend Eclair, who grabs some whenever she's over, and also uses them as a wager in any bet.
-  Re-reading Breakfast at Tiffany's. While I love the movie (mostly because I love any Audrey Hepburn film), I also love the book, and it's impossible for me to compare them because they're so different. The quote in the title of this post actually comes from the book, but it's in the movie too.
- Despairing about the fact that we have school tomorrow.

Very non-productive. But isn't that what Sundays are all about?

Clinging to the edges of the weekend,
Z

A Community Service Announcement

My best friend Eclair is not, as her name suggests, sticky and full of chocolate. She is, however, quite a lurvely person, and is capable of making me laugh until I cry, or roll off the couch and onto the floor (this has happened). We can have whole conversations made up of Doctor Who and Confessions of Georgia Nicolson quotes, and accomplish many nerdy, awesome things together. She is as insane as I am, and for that I love her a lot.

And now she has a blog! It's at http://girlwithagalaxy.wordpress.com/ and it's full of brilliant randomness, mostly about Doctor Who and her love for Matt Smith (and his hair. Also his chin. And his bow tie. Basically everything about him. I mean, can you blame her? He's sex on legs.). It's rather legendary, and everyone should go read it.

Just putting it out there.

Love,
Your informant,
Z

It's an Apocalypse, Let's Party!

So, obviously, the world didn't end yesterday.
I wonder if that guy in America feels really stupid now? I would've loved to have seen him standing there, all "wait for it...wait for it...wait....Oh. Darn."
My friend C came over for a sleepover last night, not because of the "apocalypse", but to watch Doctor Who together. At 6 o'clock we sat there with a packet of gummi bears between us, waiting to see if there'd actually be a giant earthquake and apocalypsey demons and all that jazz...but there was nothing. So we did a victory dance at not being dead.

But what if the world was actually going to end? I mean properly, not just based on the word of some religious extremist. What would you do? My answer is, of course, throw a giant party. Go out in style. You could do what you want with no regrets, since the world would be ending. You could watch 2012 or any other sort of apocalyptic-dystopian fiction film. And of course, you'd need a great playlist.

So, here are my musical choices for an end-of-the-world party:

A Note of Nerdy Fangirl-ness

A quick moment of "squee!" to say that Doctor Who series 6 starts tonight in Australia. We've had to wait a week until after England (and America and Canada!) got it, and I've been valiantly avoiding any internet spoilers all week.


(from http://www.hitfix.com/)

So I don't know much about tonight, except that it features 1960s America, River Song, the Doctor in a Stetson and some seriously creepy looking aliens called the Silents (Matt Smith said in DW Magazine that they're scarier than the Weeping Angels, and they scared the hell out of me, so I'm looking forward to it. I love it when DW gets actual, proper scary).

(Aside: Do the Silents look slightly like the Gentlemen from the Buffy episode Hush, or is that just me? It's the whole grey face/suit/creepy/silent thing.)

I can't wait. Me and my friends are sure to discuss it all on MSN straight afterwards. So this is just me, writing to tell you that I am indeed a nerdy Doctor Who fangirl.

*squee*

See you in the time vortex,
Z

(From http://www.sorrowsneptune.wordpress.com/)

The Coat

Isn’t it funny how sometimes you really want something, and suddenly it just appears?

When I was 12, I wanted a pink surfboard. ‘Bright pink, it has to be bright pink!’ I told my dad as we drove to the surf shop. Lo and behold, when we got inside, my gaze fell upon a pink surfboard, exactly the right size and surprisingly inexpensive. Fate? Coincidence? I don’t know. But it happened again last week.

I was in search of a coat. Not just any coat, but a long black leather coat, the kind worn by Spike and Angel on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or other mysterious and badass fictional heroes/villains. In Melbourne the other day, we found ourselves at the giant op-shop, Savers. I dodged around the inner-city hipsters wearing fedoras and Doc Martens, and found it on the rack as if by magic.

(That's what I'm talking about. Pic copyright http://www.bbc.co.uk/)

Floor-length, vintage black leather. In my size, too! Praise upon the fashion gods, I had found my coat of badassery. I tried it on. Thought about it. Ummed and ahhed. A hipster girl in a bowler hat and eyeliner caught my eye and gave me an encouraging nod. That was good enough for me.

Now it’s hanging in my cupboard. It’s the kind of coat you wear for fighting the forces of darkness and solving mysteries. However, there’s a bit of a shortage on evil where I live, so I think I’ll wear it for walking the dog around the park. Only when it gets really cold though.

Or I could wear it to get inspired. It is the kind of coat a writer would wear, though probably while they’re starving in a garret, not typing on a laptop in their bedroom.  (Query: what is a garret? And why do creative types always live in them? And why must you starve in them? Can you not be a writer in a garret who lives on nachos and chai latte?)

So, yeah, just like that, I have my coat. Now I’d really like to find a million dollars.

...

Damn. It was worth a try.

Au revoir,

Z