I've been craving some type of creamystarch with artichoke in, something like hetrez's rissotto but with a higher artichoke ratio, so I puttered around this morning and created this amazing pot of deliciousness that I want to remember how to make. Et voila:

( Israeli Couscous with Artichoke Hearts )

Overall, I rate this as fucking awesome and perfectly suited for my cravings. If one weren't, say, craving artichoke hearts, it'd be best to increase the amount of couscous.

i will admit it, last night's post was written under a bit of chemical influence. and while i would never deny the emotions in the post, ever, were i to create it again i'd probably be a little less . . . something.

i dropped my iphone the other day and now it's developed a quirk - i'll get a text message - will SEE that i've received it, the phone will light up - but the phone won't ding for 2-5 minutes. time delay!

honestly, why is it not sunday yet? i need ridiculousfaced awesomeness yesterday. looks like they're excited, too.

So, it's little known these days except by those who were around at that time (waves at those collected in 2004!), but I was a super involved, super obsessive Franz Ferdinand fan.

I'm having a realization. That fan experience gave me everything I need to be a great fan of - someone who actually appreciates - the current bandom bands. And that is simply because Franz Ferdinand was so amazing, so fabulous, so perfect that it's taking ALL of these other bands as a collective to inspire me the way Franz did - does - all on their own.

I've been very idly working on a post about how Ryan Ross is turning into Alex Kapranos, but it's never rung completely true. I've been making the foot fit the shoe, y'know? There are some aspects of his current stage presence that resemble Alex's but more than that Ryan is everything Alex talked about in his songs - Ryan has turned into the performer that looks into the eyes of the crowd, who is confident and engaged in the process of entertaining even as he's aware of its potential to overwhelm him.

And that's part of why I love Ryan. Franz planted an idea in my head of what a certain type of performer should be (could be), in lyrics and in their performance, and Ryan fits that, all of it. It's one of the reasons I'm so particularly fascinated with him. As much as I am continually interested and awed in the other front people, I keep going back to Ryan and his history and issues and his very public, very obvious change of personality.

Gabe has done this amazing cover of a song and subverted the gender expectations, creating something breathtaking and sexy and a little daring, but mostly unexpected. But the cover that prepped me to appreciate Gabe's is Franz's cover of Gwen Stefani's "What You Waiting For."

I could reach here, make an analogy about something some band has done to find a reason to bring up Franz's cover of LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends," but I'd rather just tell you to go and download that as well, at the above link.

And - jesus christ, as much as I'm interested in the way Pete has been provocative, with word choice and the issues he's willing to deal with or face head on in his songs, with his honesty in the face of a fickle fanbase and a progressively aggressive journalistic industry, but Alex as Franz frontman was playing with queer image (Michael anyone? come on, we still don't know which band member hooked with up with him that night), talking about being a dork who has and had dreams of making it big, having ethnicity issue swept under the table, and a myriad of other things Pete has faced. Sure, Alex is notably urbane and less punk, less midwestern, less American but goddamnit he's fucking amazing.

God, there will never be another band that sweeps me up, that forms me, as much as, in the same way Franz did.

I'm still shaking off a nap where my subconscious gave me Spencer Smith, Nate Novarro and Andrew Mrotek lounging in a room, conversing in a rather existentialist manner about life, touring and drum kits.

That's right, my subconscious generated No Exit With Drummers. I'm not sure I want to shake this off, to be honest.

I'm finding myself noticeably missing the beginnings of autumn on the east coast even as I've reached a new plateau in love for California. I think maybe I just need to live that dichotomy. I'm beginning to get used to that.

The commercials for the new season of Friday Night Lights are amazing.

Look - I care very little for football. After repeated childhood and adolescent lessons on the rules of football, I can confidently say that it's not that I don't understand football, it's that I just don't appreciate it. Also, I really fail to comprehend how a four-fifteen-minute-quarters game can regularly last around four hours. To be quite honest, the only sporting game I can appreciate with regularity is hockey.

That being said, I now want an icon of Ryan Ross with his percussion football. Also, fic where Jon tries to explain the rules to Ryan and/or takes Ryan to a Bears game (substitute your band member of choice here).

I'm apparently on a fairy tale fic motif, if my current wsip are any indication, including the idea I had on Sunday night at the 'I Don't Care' video shoot. The idea doesn't, inherently, have a lot of drama or woobiness. I really hope I carry through and finish it, after my two Ryan/Spencers.

And, yeah, I really should write up everything that happened at the video shoot, except I feel other people have already covered it pretty damn well. I highly recommend the cfobmania blog, where there's also a highly amusing picture from today's AP cover photoshoot. Joe's hair, people, his hair! Remember how I wrote Joe/Ryan? The world needs more of that. ::taps toe::

People, people! In addition to, uh, everything else he's done, Pete spent the summer learning mandolin. I am not sure how to deal with this, tbh. I mean, was Ryan Ross there playing his banjo? Was Brendon there with his accordion? Is there a side polka band in the works? A folk band? Nom.

if frank iero is involved in an epic game of sex chicken (ie, where he keeps doing stuff to try to make us stop finding him sexy and we . . . keep finding him sexy) then pete wentz is involved in an epic game of douche chicken.

yes? yes.

i keep thinking i find him a little too much of a douche and then he does something like this. and i don't STOP finding him a douche but he's ALSO a legitimate, serious and shit-disturbing artist.

in other news, i miss ryan's fits of stage makeup, even if they did signify a rather unhealthy level of emotional dissonance.

ps - ryan ross, i do love you!! please don't let those comments prevent you from further forays into celeblogging.

eta - i feel like it must be "sleepover at pete's" weekend, what with pete creating a twitter and ryan creating a blog. when you can't entertain through crafting, blog.

i need an icon of that picture with pete and spencer at joe's crab shack.

that's what i need, yeah.

now that i've realized this, i think i can make it happen. uh. anyone have a copy of that pic handy?

Must Like Dogs
Pete/Spencer
PG-13. ~1278 words.

( "I think our dogs are trying to tell us something." Pete waggles his eyebrows. "Something about doggie style, if you know what I mean." )

"do you know if any of Stephenson's books have fanfic followings?"

this is just one of the reasons i really love my brother, and my honesty with my brother about my fannish nature.

so, i appeal to the lovelies on my friendslist. i can think of a number of book franchises that have amazing fanfic or fanfic fusion-crossover type things. any recommendations for fic based in or taking elements from the baroque cycle? i have not yet read the books (he's shipping me his paperbacks next week), so haven't thought to look yet.

i'll go search delicious and yuletide as my second stop, i think.

this post is temporarily down due to technical difficulties.
please bear with me.

This is the second of three journal entries I'm planning to post today.

Of the three, this was meant to be a fannish recap. Most of the reason I even wanted to do a fannish recap was because - well, I mean, let's face it, a lot of really insanely awesome fannish stuff has happened this week, so I'd want to do a recap no matter what, but - mllesays posted this really well thought out essay on why the Paul Revere Jumpsuit Apparatus song "Nearly Witches" is probably a "Lost Cabin Recording." And I don't use the word essay lightly here. That puppy has structure and references.

Fragments I've written on my iphone that really wanted to be in this post but just didn't quite turn themselves into anything significant:

*So much AMAZING fannish stuff has come out this week! I'm most definitely behind and look forward to taking a deep breath and catching up on pics and video and concert recaps and whatnot this weekend.

*Have I mentioned my friend Ted how much I love the FOB Mixtape? Shit, son, that thing is worth its weight in GOLD.

The third-of-three post for today will be a comparison between "I Kissed a Girl" and "I Kissed a Boy" and why I find Gabe's version superior, if creepy. However, since Gabe pretty much writes his own subject lines that post won't use a Sports Night quote.

The first part might have wandered off. We'll see.

listen up, please! esp you techie peeps!

belladonnalin is an awesome person who has started a campaign to collect merely a handful (15-16) of mp3 players for the kids at the homeless shelter she's affiliated with.

here, she says it best:

And then it hit me. If I feel like this, imagine how my kids at the homeless shelter feel. A lot of them don't just pass through downtown - they're there all day every day, this shit is their LIVES. They leave, sometimes, to go to school or a friends' house, but these are street kids living in the middle of all of the stuff that I try to screen out. And, for the most part, they have nothing.

All of my kids love music - it's one of our most frequent conversation points since they've found out that my tastes are pretty musically eclectic. A few months ago, Saturday nights were the nights that I would bring in my laptop and grab some donated blank CDs and the kids would burn music off my laptop so that they had new stuff to listen to. But they don't have portable mp3 players and both the boombox and the DVD-player-as-CD-player are sources of CONSTANT arguments because of musical differences.

my retired mp3 player is retired because the hard drive doesn't spin anymore but i'm going to be donating some money, and i'm sad i'm not in a place where i can donate much. she's not looking for new, spiffy, expensive ipods, ok? she's looking for basic devices. i'm sure some of y'all have shuffles or older gen versions of something you could send to her or, barring that, a few bucks to throw in her direction.

music is a powerful, motivating, fulfilling force in my life. the chance to share that is impossible to pass up.

-Omg I cannot wait for Burn After Reading

-Did Scifi purposefully give us the news SGA was canceled the week of such a beautiful, shippy, teamy episode? I doubt it, but it's kinda an extra twist to the knife.

-Concert Season is coming up and I am deliriously excited.

-Hilariously, I'm back in Denver to visit my family the weekend of October 17th, right when Panic is there. It looks like my mom and I'll be going. Seriously, hilarious. She decided she liked them after she saw them on SNL.

-I'm fairly certain I'll be visiting NYC around my birthday.

-I've been in a particularly crafty mood lately but not in a knitting place. It's been interesting. I'll talk about some of it a bit later, after packages have been sent and received.

-How long has the data page been active? I dropped by an hour ago and figured, hey, I haven't heard anyone talk about it yet, so I went ahead and dropped my address in, and only THEN stopped to wonder what they might do with it. Sigh.

-I want to write Pete/Patrick folie à deux themed fic, now. It would be delightful. And fucked up.

-Soooooo my new wallpaper, btw, even if it's not authenticated.

-And, of course today is the day we get Ryan pontificating on why there are rumors about him with Pete, Brendon and Spencer. Poor Jon! Also, Spencer gets himself a jealousy man-hug out of Ryan. And then, later, Ryan says Spencer should rip his shirt off on stage. My otp, let me show you it. I know it's all in jest! But that level of cirularity would make it even more hilarious! And awesome! And, jeez, they're so beautifully casual and comfortable with each other's wryness and wit.

-I started replying to a backlog of comments last night. I don't know how this happened, but I am three months behind on comments. Three months. There's been a lot going on in my life but jeez that's ridiculous. I still have ~130 gmail threads to get through.

-On a similar note - if I haven't replied to you on something you thought was important - and I don't mean only, like, MAJORLY important but also just that maybe you found it odd I didn't reply at the time - please let me know! And/or forgive me! None of it was targeted, I've just had an odd balance of time and emotion and focus lately.

Things that annoy me today:

-this fucking cold I can't shake.
-everything.

Seriously - it's not that I'm stuffed up anymore, it's that I wake up with a dried-out head and have been sneezing every minute today. I've never had bad allergies but this morning is pure, severe allergy type reactions and I cannot focus on ANYTHING. I feel those Shannon Miller commercials are talking to me.

Just to temper this, fannish things I've been thinking about lately:

-Olympics! AU. Mostly Panic. Not that I'm adverse to building other bands in, just . . . Panic is so perfect!

-My Santa Cruz AU. My unexpected trip to Newport Beach on Saturday helped me figure out a few things. Oh, the sand between your toes.

-David Bowie AU. My main contender is Ryan Ross, but this is really mainly me listening to a lot of David Bowie as I've been working, and contemplating the man, the myth, the legend (the music).

-Patrick's synaesthesia.

-Pete, Ashlee and viral marketing. <3

-The Hold Steady. Well, this is more pre-thinking, as in, I've been thinking of downloading their albums. Advice?

I honestly forget if it was an episode of SGA or an excellent fic (though I'm leaning towards excellent fic, as I doubt the show itself would present the issue in a way I'd remember this fondly [sorry, show, ilu for your awesomeness not your in-depth treatment of moral and ethical issues]) but I'm thinking, today, of John Sheppard's stoic and maybe wearied understanding of human nature: rules and laws exist because people do things that shouldn't have been done; once an action has been performed it can't be un-performed, and then we, as a society, a collective, must stop others from repeating that action.

Um, wherever I remember this from also stated it much more elegantly. And John-like, so using maybe 5 words.

But, the summary I'm meditating on today: we are, as a race, reactionary creatures.

Having terrible google-fu. Can anyone link me to scans of the AP article that came out around the same time as Pretty. Odd.? Where the middle of the narration was lunch with Ryan Ross On Antibiotics? Where he talked about his dad?

I don't even need scans, actually, just full text.

If Panic were an ABBA recast, Spencer Smith would be Benny Anderson.



(the one standing)




(the one on the left)

NOW! FINISH THE RECASTING!

I can't shake the huge headache I woke up with. I kind of wish I'd purchased Continuum already since saturn92103's review got me all misty and excited. Instead, I've settled in to catch up with my Tivo.

( The Daedalus Variations blow-by-blow. Neither in depth nor coherent but full of love. )

So, um, yes. I am loving this season.

HER DIRTY LITTLE CHUCKLE.

Here, have some rough thoughts taken from im convos on ( Miley and Pete. )

. . . when I rilly rilly wish I could delicious links to Ryan Ross.



"Reclaimed" throws.

Each sturdy, handmade bedspread is unique. We collect the very best geometric vintage 1960s and 70s scarves for the first side - each scarf is like an abstract painting. This is the mod version of patchwork. The flip side is a sturdy, solid-tonehemp/cotton weave for a totally reversible bedspread. The hemp/ cotton is a subtle, mod tone of palest sage/khaki and works well with both traditional and modernist decor.


He could afford this. And appreciate it. ::shakes fist::

My immediate reaction to del.icio.us's new style update is DO NOT WANT. I hope the revulsion fades.

Ugh. I actively do not want to look at my links right now. This is upsetting.

ETA: ALSO, IT DOES NOT COLLECT LJ LINKS CORRECTLY ANYMORE. SERIOUSLY, DO NOT WANT.

ETA2: Ok, processing past the first wave of whatever - the design is more . . . minimalist and boxy and visually intense, which I'd normally like, but I see less information in more space and that is just . . . not on. It's also processing cutid links and plain lj links as, essentially, the same link - which makes sense, but it's a change and now a whole ton of information is gone.

Essentially, for me, the visual appeal rating has gone up but the usability rating has gone down. I'm sure, with time, my usage will change and my usability rating will go back up, maybe even go higher, but I'm still not happy right now.

Pete, Love, Unity, Ryan
Pete/Ryan, shenanigans.
R. ~1800 words.

i think ryan and i went to a rave the other night by accident. ( pretty strange. )

My grandmother is healing well! She sounds happy and vibrant! Apparently she will soon be running my family in circles with her increased energy. I am so, so pleased!

Also, I processed past my own ::whatever:: yesterday, reached out a bit and talked to some people and just, for my own part, am content.

So! First five pairing or situation requests get at least 1000 words. No holds barred. Go!

Anyone interested in seeing The Comical Tragedy or Tragical Comedy of Mr. Punch with me? There are 4pm showings this Sat and Sun with half priced tickets.

Somehow I acquired a moderate case of food poisoning. This is unrelated to this morning's fruit post, believe it or not.

Ugh. I have my suspicions as to what I ate that is making me ill but I'm kinda ready to be over this. I haven't eaten much either yesterday or today, which is fine, but I'm a little frustrated at how long it took me to realize what was going on.

And, yes, while I did go out this morning, have cleaned and organized a lot through the day*, responded to emails and other digital stuff, I still feel kinda over exhausted for what I've done and, also, stupid for feeling exhausted. Blah.

On the plus side, I am psyched for Shark Week. Oh, Mythbusters. How I love you. How I love, love, love the ads for the upcoming season, the short MB clips in the boom-de-yada Discovery commercials, the clearly HUGE budget for the MB Shark Special. Jamie and Adam really keep outdoing themselves. And Kari is still smokin'.

Seriously, watching Jamie tentatively punch a shark will NEVER GET OLD. He's a big ol' softy! He's afraid of hurting the sharks even though he knows they could quite easily break his arm!

*I bought an antique dresser through Craigslist! It is awesome! I have rearranged the shelving, etc., in my room and hung a mirror, so now nothing is much more than waist height. It feels adult and classy and me in a way I've wanted for a long, long time

Fruit is amazing.

I am having a moment where I am stupidly in love with fruit. All types of fruit. I can't think of a type of fruit I don't like, actually, unlike vegetables where I most certainly can.

Just - fruit! Omg, it's amazing! It grows on trees and bushes! It tastes great!

I have tangerines and yellow mangos from a co-worker's house, nectarines and plums and a grapefruit from the farmer's market, lemons from my front yard and a whole ton of papaya and pineapple leftover from a Sysadmin Appreciation Day Potluck on Friday. It's marvelous! Even the dark spots on the mango are making me happy.

I'm considering making sangria. I only have red wine, all of it quite nice, actually, and I know that it's best to make sangria with good wine, but the wines I have I purchased specifically because I like the taste of them. Will I like the taste after I add agave nectar and brandy and fruit? Most definitely, yeah, but it seems a shame to use a good sipping wine.

My life, so rough.

The best part of getting up early and going to the farmer's market is that I can then get home, clean the kitchen and be on the couch with Mad Men by ten am, feeling like I've accomplished something with my day.

As thassalia and iamsab have both reported, we caught the midnight showing of The X-Files: I Want To Believe on Thursday. The crowd was sufficiently geeky but not overbearing, definitely one of the best midnight showing geek crowds I've been in.

Shockingly enough, there are ( spoilers behind this cut tag. )

Or, as I said to octette, some part of me loved it and that part is in major conflict with the rest of me. The part of me that loved it is probably about 17 years old. And that part of me is very well expressed in Rebecca Traister's Salon article, Scully have I loved.

I want Panic to recreate - or make an updated version of or a remix of or a take on, or whatever! - this video: