SATURDAY.

THAT'S RIGHT. I will write all about it when the day comes!! Provided, of course, that the pit doesn't kill me.

In other news, I am updating my DeviantArt account again, lolwat. Oh, you know, I'm looking at this page right now and realizing that I never posted my art challenge pieces here!!



(original stock image here)



(original stock image here)

finished product:


Val's prompt for challenge #24 was to use a picture of any couple (no Tori photos) and one of two lines from the song Lust: "lust in the marriage bed" or "you know you'll drink her". I chose the latter, and wanted to use a nameless anything couple rather than someones taken from a film/series as suggested. I ended up spending so much time on the drawing part (I actually went over deadline - Val was kind enough to give me an extension) that I didn't get to work much on the actual sig. I'm not fully satisfied with it, but I won, so I guess it's okay. Things never turn out the way that I see them in my head...
Lust is one of my favorite Tori songs, and also one of THE most intense synesthesia triggers. I tried to replicate that as best I could with the colors in this sig, and failed rather miserably by my standards. I did as best I could. To me the song is a very vibrant gold and crystal, a different shade than the background colors I ended up with. As far as the actual drawings go, not much to say really; the song's message is so deeply sewn into me that the blueprint for the sig showed up and I just ran with it.

While I'm talking about visual portrayals of Tori songs:


I got it on Monday! a day early! I love love love it. It's so neat to see how people interpreted these songs. How certain lines inspired the entire framework for a story - "counting my feathers as the bells toll" for Here In My Head, the "vanilla" stanza from Siren...and the artwork is just so beautiful! It's really amazing how varied each artistic style is from story to story. I actually feel kind of inspired to start something new...


Real Life! It still exists. I am doing great. I honestly feel like I'm the happiest I've ever been right now. ♥


Man, I just reread this post and I sound really pretentious. I'm sorry. I have a limited way of phrasing things...
To balance it out, I am having WAY TOO MUCH FUN playing Pokemanz. I am an uber dork. And how!

sigh.

I'm in an odd mood today. One moment I'm feeling great and the next I'm worried out of my mind all over again. It's frustrating. I just have to keep telling myself that everything will be okay - it always is, in the end.

I'm listening to Lycanthropy, and that helps. It always does.

Wolf Song is playing and I'm remembering how magical it was back in October. First song of the show and I'm already in tears. Something about it unlocks something...I don't know. I guess nostalgia is the closest thing I can compare it to. There's something very young about this song and something that hits me on an almost primal level. But it's hugely comforting. It's in there.
...Bloodbeat was brilliant live too. God, I can never get over how perfect this album is, just how much it means to me. Stop hiding! Get right down to it! Hunt it down.
(I guess I'm writing track-by-track now. Okay.)
-To the Lighthouse was my first P-Wolf song. Build your castles, stop collecting stones, and the riverbed shall not be your home. Great great minds against themselves conspire. Cultivating a sense of self, nurturing it...let too much doubt set in and it'll weigh you down. You'll drown. Oh god, the violin at the end kills me.
-Pigeon Song...it always makes me smile to remember that the movie at the cinema in question was Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. Hee. This song really sounds like London somehow. Or what I remember London to be. Moving my way home...
-Don't Say No. I used to say 'just follow your heart', but my heart always led me in circles. I used to say 'just follow your dreams', but my dreams always led me to murder. So now I don't say nothing at all...if you're brave enough you'll give yourself away. That rings particularly true for me.
-Childcatcher hurts so much to listen to. I can't even imagine. The last couple lines of the song - I've got no time for victims... - knowing that it's directed at himself makes it even harder. And I can't listen to this without immediately following it up with Demolition. It just aches. Also, the recorder is so beautiful.
-London really does sound like London. I kind of pair this song and Pigeon Song together in my head. Leaving home to go and find yourself again.
-Paris...god, how much could I say about Paris...but can't say because all I can do is feel. Every word goes straight to my heart. You, my love, you must come to joy, turn your head to the sun. It's all down to YOU. These are the things I tell myself when I'm losing hope. And that's what I love so much about this album - each song inspires me, in its own way and all together as a whole...I can't even describe it. It's pure beauty.
-Peter Pan is just about the cutest thing ever. It sounds almost like a b-side that got tacked onto the album, but it works. Remember, if it weren't for fighting, we'd be fighting forevermore. Da da dum da da da dum!
-Lycanthropy is absolute perfection and ties everything together so beautifully. Let go of all limitations and just be yourself in everything you do. Also, the recorder is just SO beautiful. (I actually think that on some level, one reason I'm so drawn to this album is because of all the recorders. Since I played as a kid, it evokes something in me...) The image I get from this song is a bunch of people singing and dancing around a campfire. Pure joy and freedom.
-A Boy Like Me is the perfect ending track (not counting the epilogue). It's emerging triumphant! I don't give up! I'm never going to give up on my dream.

...you know, I do feel better now.

We're halfway through the year!

And at the moment, this is how I would rank my 2008 albums:

1. Yoav - Charmed & Strange
2. Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
3. Alanis Morissette - Flavors of Entanglement
4. Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
5. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
6. Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV
7. Lykke Li - Youth Novels
8. The Afters - Never Going Back to OK

So basically, I suck for only having 8 halfway through the year. I will fix that soon.

JAPAN.

WAS INCREDIBLE. And I know I haven't updated this blog in far too long, and I apologize.

So anyway, at the moment I'm taking a break from cleaning my room, more specifically my closet, more specifically my makeshift art studio. I went and organized all my stuff and it's looking preeeeetty classy. I mean, as classy as a high schooler's closet art studio can look. This evening I'm going to white out some old canvases.

Currently my list of projects looks like this -
1. FeelTheWord art challenge (I only have a week, AHHHHHHH)
2. Portrait of Chris (on hold for a minute)
3. Mailbox (need to do some sketches)
4. Painting sketches
5. General watercolor practice (I've decided that this is something I need to learn how to do, no matter how frustrating it is. But I need watercolor paper first.)

I also bought a portfolio (none of my pieces with Linda fit in there w/matting...I got it mostly for AP Studio Art next year) and some books from Barnes & Noble last week when Laura was here. This is going to be the summer of artistic productivity!

Oh, also, this is completely off topic, but I just bought a Nintendo DS. I've spent most of the week playing Pokemon Diamond. I haven't played a new Pokemon game since Crystal and I'd forgotten how addictive it is! My current team consists of Empoleon, Luxray, Girafarig, and Sneasel, which is not much. I'm going to breed a new Girafarig and I'm training a new Luxio with Intimidate instead of Rivalry, and I'm going to look for a Tauros when I get a Radar. GOD I feel like a dork!

I've fallen completely and utterly in love with this song:
Lisa Germano - From a Shell