Switching

Hey nonexistant readers,

I'm here with an apology, an excuse, and a make-up present. I'm sorry for not updating much (at all) recently. School has been crazy, and I've also found a replacement for blogger: I have a *tumblr*. Hush hush. Anyway, it's got the same domain as this one: fangirlasylum.tumblr.com, and pretty much the same content matter. I encourage you to check it out. However, if you really, really, really want me to continue with this blog, all it takes is a comment....

Love,
E.J.

Probably One Of The Best Videos I've Seen All Year

There is too much win in this video to be expressed with words that I'm not even going to try.
But hey, who's excited about Fringe S4? I haven't seen it yet, but the preview looked awesome.
Oh, hello to my Russian reader (readers? I don't know)! Is it cold up there? The place where I live is still acting like summer (freakin' mosquitoes EVERYWHERE).

I'm Gonna Go And Fire It Up, Honey, Gonna Turn Back Time

I'm midway through season 2 of Fringe in an attempt to catch up before season 4 airs (I've already seen season 3) and while watching an episode called White Tulips I couldn't help but notice some glaring similarities to the rock opera Broken Bride, by Ludo. In Fringe, the main character is a professor who "rages against the constant C, the speed of light" (-Ludo) in order to save his fiancee from a car crash on an early afternoon in May ("Morning in May" is actually one of the titles of the songs). For a long time he is unsuccessful, always traveling to the wrong point in time (although the main character of Broken Bride travels to the Dinosaur Age and the Zombie Apocalypse instead of a train in Boston- whatever). Finally he manages to "get back to that morning in May." However, he knows he can't save her and, "As (she's) starting the car and (he's) tearing inside, (he) knocks on the window, (she stops) just in time... 'Baby, I thought I'd come along for the ride'" Admittedly, I wasn't crying at the end of White Tulips like I was during Broken Bride, but it's Ludo we're talking about.
I'm not accusing anyone of plagarism, in fact I was kind of excited to notice the similarities. If you're a Fringe fan, I definitely recommend listening to it- the songs are Broken Bride, Save Our City, Tonight's The Night, The Lamb and the Dragon, and Morning in May, and they're all amazing. I don't know if Ludo fans would appreciate the episode as much if they don't follow Fringe regularly (it's got some major plot points that may be confusing) but if anyone else noticed these similarities, do comment (I'm not the first one, either). In theory, I love hearing from you guys, although I don't have much experience in real life (#Guilttrip).
Well, that's all for now. Stay safe, don't do drugs, and enjoy your Septembers!

What's On Your Bookshelf?

One of the first things I do when at a person's house for the first time is to find and examine their bookshelf. If there is just one shelf of books in pristine, fresh-printed books, it's usually a safe bet that this person is either a Kindle or Nook person, or doesn't really read much. However, if the person is more like me, and their immense supply of books is falling off the shelves and onto the desk, dresser and bed, than this person is probably a bibliophile after my own heart.

Even more telling in some cases is the person's library shelf. The books and materials that they don't have the money or desire to buy, but still want to posses for a short time. At the moment, my library shelf contains two seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I told you you I was going to become slightly obsessed), three Series Of Unfortunate Events books (a heavy dose of nostalgia- I'm re-discovering how hilarious and fascinating they are after being in love with them in first and second grade), two Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, a book of Neil Gaiman short stories, several sci-fi novels, three YA romance novels, a knitting book, and a non-fiction book about the periodic table of elements that I'm reading for fun. From this odd mixture one can tell I check out more books than I can read with a high-school student's schedule, and I have no idea what genre of book I prefer (actually, post-apocalypse dystopian or dark fantasy/humor but whatever- I read a ton of different of different books). Alternatively, my friend Meg currently has only one book out from the library- an anthology of four Shakespeare tragedies. Which means she's crazy smart, a nerd, and has a reasonable sense of how much a student can read in her free time.

What's on your library shelf?

Ha Ha Freaking Ha

It is plain to see by the number of pageveiws of the last post that you readers prefer "asylum" to "fangirl". Also, my name is not Eunice Jesophat. The Other One is somewhat insane. Obviously. Anyway, she was right that I've been rather busy with school. I will try to post a more normal (in both content and length) post at a later date.

Introductions, part 2

A total of nineteen posts, including the non-published ones, since March. Well, that's just sad. I disapprove.

There's a maximum of 52 of you out there (highly unlikely) and in case you haven't noticed, this isn't your normal blogger. You can call me The Other One. I'm "E.J."'s annoying multiple personality, and at the moment she's too busy searching for truth and cookies to do a blog post. Which leaves me as the one screaming my thoughts to an unfeeling, ignorant internet.

E.J. and I will be returning to school in four days (five counting today) so who knows when you'll be hearing from either of us again.

E.J. is not her real name either, by the way. It stands for Eunice Jesophat. She probably doesn't want me blahging that for the whole internet to read but none the less it is the truth. Nobody cares about your secret identity, Eunice. I don't think "Eyez" is very high on anybody's hit list.

Since I'm not reviewing anything, or talking about school choirs and how they shouldn't cover Glee covers (Eunice's most-read post, ranking in at a pathetic 11 pageviews) there's a good chance no one will ever read this.

Good grief, Eunice, your self-pitying resignation to anonymity is rubbing off on me. Stop that now.

Goodbye, Italy, America, Canada, Germany, The United Kingdom, Denmark, Estonia and India!

Fear Me, For I Am Eyez: The Searcher of Truth And Cookies

I don't know if I should really be getting such a feeling of validation and general awesomeness simply because I received a nickname from someone who I only know based upon his blog posts and Tweets, and who only knows me based upon a thesis title I wrote in the comments section of one of the aforementioned blog posts.

A bit of background for those lucky few of my readers out there who don't live inside my head (it's crazycakes in here). Dan Bergstein is famous in some circles as the author of the Blogging Twilight and Blogging Harry Potter series. Serieses? Plural series on Sparknotes.com. He is a bit of a folk hero to some of us geeky girls who spend too much time on the internet.

Anyway, in a recent Blogging Harry Potter post, the readers were told that if we came up with a thesis title (not the actual paper, mind you, just the title) we would be rewarded with a nickname. I submitted mine ("The Llamasaur: What It Is, Where It's Been Hiding, And It's Potential Effects On The Theory Of Evolution") and was rewarded with the nickname Eyez: The Searcher of Truth and Cookies.

I can already feel this Eyez personality developing. She's everything I wish I could be in my more insane moments. She probably rides a Llamasaur. The Llamasaur probably has a funny/clever name, like Poncho or Tenniseir. She's self confident and she fights crime, and she's sarcastic and smart and a little insane. And, of course, she spends her days searching for the perfect truth and the perfect cookie.

Then again, I'm totally reading way too much into this. It's just a nickname. But nonetheless, I still feel pretty awesome.

Eyez out!

P.S. I've found out how to insert a link!!! It's not as complicated as I assumed it was. I feel quite proud of myself.

Love Never Dies

Over spring break, my family was on a long "bike" trip, which featured a lot of driving and walking through old cities and not much biking. On one such city-walking excursion, we stopped in a music shop. I was absently browsing the Musicals section when I came upon a dream come true. Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom of the Opera.

A bit of background: I've been a phangirl since the summer I was 10, when two of the older campers at my camp started singing "Phantom of the Opera" in the courtyard at break. Anyway, this was a very exciting find for me. However, much to my dismay I remembered that I had spent all my money on books fairly early into the trip (read: at the first used bookstore we came across). So I put the CD back on the rack and pushed it to the back of my mind. However, in the last week, thanks to the miracle of Youtube, I've listened to the entire play. Several times. Non-stop since Thursday. Anyway.

I must say, I rather like most of it. There are several very excellent songs, my favorites being "Beauty Underneath", "Beneath a Moonless Sky" because I am, at the core, a hopeless romantic and this song reduced me to a quivering pile of shipper, "Devil Take the Hindmost" and the required over-10-minute finale, "Please, Miss Giry, I Want To Go Back" (clocking in at 14 minutes and change.)

Speaking of Miss Giry, in one of the more interesting aspects of this sequel more than half of the returning characters get a total character change. Raoul is a drunken, gambling loser, Meg takes over the Phantom's role as a jealous psychopath, while the Phantom becomes a family man. Being a total Christine/Eric shipper, I don't mind Raoul's transformation, because it justifies my pairing. However, I can see it not making much sense. The new Meg offers more emotional depth compared to her "Phantom" self, who is basically Christine's best friend, with no other major role. The one complaint I have about her character is the song "Bathing Beauty" which is repeated about four times over the course of the musical, and will get stuck in your head and never leave.

All in all, I liked the soundtrack to Love Never Dies (I have yet to see the play). I don't think it will ever match the brilliance of Phantom, but there are several fantastic new songs and characters. Recommended to all my fellow Phangirls and boys.

I Was (well, AM) a Teenage Grammar Nazi

Many teenagers ask themselves "What can I do to alienate my friends, scare off potential friends, and get pushed into the pool by irritated swim team coaches?" The answer is simple: become annoyingly obsessed with correcting other people's grammar.

TRUE FACT: When I was thirteen, I told my swim coach that the word she was looking for was 'acronym', not 'annagram'. Even then, I though this was an error most severe, and was shocked that a grown-up would make such a mistake. She pushed me into the deep end of the pool.

I blame my mother for this severe character flaw. I remember watching Caillou on PBS. Every once in a while (but frequently enough for my mom to notice) the narrator would say "Caillou felt badly." This annoyed my mom to no end. She would come into the room and tell the TV that by saying "Caillou felt badly" they were insinuating that Caillou was, to a certain extent, unable to feel, or that he was just bad at feeling. What they meant to say was that he felt bad. Soon I began to make corrections myself. So began a long and illustrious career of E.J., badge-holding member of the grammar police (really. My friend e-mailed it to me.)

TRUE FACT: Once, I was reading a first draft of a fellow grammar nazi's story. I started to say something about how her verb tenses didn't agree, and when I refused to stand down on the subject (probably not the best idea) she threatened to slap me in the face.

It doesn't even stop at correcting real-life people's grammar. People in movies and on TV have poor grammar too.

TRUE FACT: I have been told by my friends that they would duct-tape my mouth shut if I didn't stop correcting the grammar of a movie character.

This is possibly the reason all my friends are nerds, and that I don't have a boyfriend.

I sense another obsession

I really would not have pinned myself down as a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fangirl. However, I was willing to give it a try, and after glowing recomendations from two of my best friends, I watched the first two episodes last night, and was only somewhat surprised to find that I totally loved it. The dialogue is freakin' hilarious, I really like the characters so far, and OMG WTF IS THAT AGENT BOOTH BEING A CREEPY HOT STALKER? Huzzah!!! Fortunately he is just as awesome being a Creeper Ominous McStalkerish dude as when he's being a hot FBI agent. So, even though the special effects are awful and the slang is pretty dated (hopefully this gets better as the series continues, yes?) I will definitely continue watching. If only for Agent Angel.

Self-Esteem Boost Like Woah!

One of my permanent tags for every post I write is "Nobody reads this blog" which is apparently NOT TRUE!!!! According to my stats, 24 people have viewed this blog, from the USA, the United Kingdom, Italy and Denmark!!! Hello, readers, and thanks for the excuse to use excessive exclamation marks!!!

Also, I've made two more Shipper Collages. The first is Amy Pond/Rory Williams, entitled "You're So Clingy", because I feel this quote best describes their relationship. Rory is sweet and worried, and Amy is funny but dismissive. I'm not a Roramy shipper, because Rory is adorable and wonderful but Amy doesn't know what she's got and continues to flirt with the Doctor. Even after losing him at least three times, she refuses to do anything but take him for granted. If Doctor Who was the kind of show that killed off main characters, Rory would be the first on the Dead list.

The second is of course my OTP, Jack and Renee. I just made it for fun in about ten minutes, and it depicts one of, if not my absolute favorite moment of the whole series. *Puts hands over ears, chanting "the rest of the season did not happen. They lived h/c-ily ever after in California. The rest of the season did not happen"*

Again, thank you, anonymous readers!

Fandoms Collide

Can you say "Squee"?

There is going to be a Sutherland in the Hunger Games movie. No, not Keifer, sadly (who would he play?). But Donald Sutherland (Who looks insanely creepy in this picture) is going to play PRESIDENT SNOW!!!! And from the picture, he looks to be one of the few characters the casting people have gotten exactly right.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/31/the-hunger-games-donald-sutherland_n_869353.html

School Choirs Should Not Cover "Glee" Covers

So recently I went to a performance by my high school's band/chorus. The band was wonderful, and did several jazzy numbers that made one want to cast aside concert etiquette and get up and dance in the stands. So that was fun. However, then the chorus stood up and took the mics. Over the speakers came the familiar strands of Journey's famous "Don't Stop Believing". Wait, scratch that. Glee's famous "Don't Stop Believing" complete with "Dum dum dum dum da-dum dum dum dum"s from everyone except the two soloists. This rendition of the most overdone song of all time by school choirs was followed by "Any Way You Want It" and, wait for it, Halo/Walking on Sunshine mashup. There was also a refreshing break from the Glee covers, a gorgeous rendition of "You Will Know" by Black Men United.

Now, all of the singers were excellent. There was a great blend of different voices, and (unlike Glee) a fairly even distribution of solos. However, I feel that the choir should have selected their own songs. From what I hear, the assignment had been "go home and find an 80s song to sing in choir." I think that the concert would have been much more enjoyable if the choristers had picked their own songs instead of letting Fox pick them. I wasn't alive at the time, but Journey wasn't the only group writing music in the 1980's, right? The Police? The Cure? U2? Picking their own songs would have given the singers the opportunity to showcase their own talents instead of living up to the examples of Lea Michele and Cory Monteith. Also, the sped-up, mashed-up Walking on Halos made of Sunshine got on my nerves when the Glee girls did it. However, they are professional singers and when amateurs covered it, it got worse. Not Willow Smith level of headache-inducing, but, again, it would have been better if they'd picked a better song with which to show off their undeniable talent (And range! Kudos to the sopranos on that last high note!)

Yep. I spent like half an hour on these. Each. Possibly more.

So lately I've discovered the awesomeness of Picnik.com, which I can use to make collages like the following:

In case the non-existent reader doesn't know, the pairing on the left is River Song and the Eleventh Doctor, from Doctor Who. The pairing on the right is Jack Bauer and Renee Walker from 24, my OTP forever and ever. I made the Jack/Renee one a while ago, while I was still getting used to Picnik, and I made the River/Doctor one about fifteen minutes ago.

If I was under the delusion that anyone read this blog, I'd ask for suggestions, because my other favorite pairing is Ghastly Bespoke and Tanith Low and there just aren't that many pictures of them. Sadly.

Nerd Anxiety

So about a month ago, maybe two, I followed a link on my friend's Facebook page to a Vlogbrothers video. For those of you who don't know, Vlogbrothers, a.k.a. Brotherhood 2.0 was a project started by John and Hank Green when they went an entire year (2007) communicating only by video blogs on Youtube. Anyway, their videos are made of awesome, I loved them and immediately became a nerdfighter. Or, not exactly. Here's the "anxiety" part of this post. See, I've worked hard for the last year or so to build up a reputation as a nerd. I read books a lot, I work hard in school, I drop Doctor Who, The Hunger Games and 24 inside jokes like they're going out of style, I have a plan (and a backup plan) for the zombie apocalypse and I can't wait to use them, and I write a lot.

But then I went to the Nerdfighters website and read some of the profiles and posts and the little haters in my head immediately started to tell me that there was no way I was nerdy enough to do this. "You listen to pop music, and other music considered "lame" by the wider community of people with good taste" they shouted. "You're just a little 8th grade wannabe." "You will have no friends!" "They will judge you on your spelling" "You haven't even watched all of any of the shows you claim to be obsessed with! Joan of Arcadia doesn't count" "You watch Glee every week (or whenever it comes out)" finally, with a triumphant shout "Go back to your blog that nobody will ever read and complain about not being a nerd!"

But guess what, little haters? In blogging this out, I'm reminded of something that John Green said in a video once "If you want to be a nerdfighter, you are a nerdfighter." So you know what? I'm going to make a nerdfighters account right now.

DFTBA.

UPDATE: Ha. I did it. Evie24601. Take that, little haters!!! OFF TO DECREASE WORLD SUCK!!!!

Is it just me, or did the Green Hornet movie kind of suck?

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a superhero geek. Dystopian fiction geek, yes. Science Fiction geek, yes. History geek, totally. Superheroes... I just never got into them. So when I went to see the Green Hornet with my friend, my expectations were pretty low.

Obviously, not low enough. Yes, there were funny parts, and I liked how it made fun of superheroes, and there were explosions and ridiculous bad guys, but... eh. It was pretty dumb, predictable, about three hours too long, and the main bad guy had a Russian last name, but no accent. Both his sidekicks had accents. (Aside: I like it when villians have Russian accents, because due to my general love for 24 and my specific love for Renee Walker, this makes it much easier to hate them. This can occasionally cause a problem when I watch something like Star Trek with my Trekker friend, where the guy with the Russian accent is the adorably geeky Chekov ((in the movie at least)) who happens to have the name Pavel, which makes me kind of want to shoot him. Anyway.)

But the blood guy didn't. That was annoying. Also, the main character got on my nerves. Best thing about the movie was totally the ninja sidekick guy. Who has a name. But not a superhero name. His name is *pause for dramatic effect, and so I can go on wikipedia*

Kato! Oh, like in the Hunger Games!

Only not. At all.

Never mind.

Hunger Games Casting

Speaking as a rabid Hunger Games fangirl (though I was quite disappointed by the ending of Mockingjay) I feel like the casting of the movie is incredibly important. One thing I feel strongly about is that there should be a couple big-name actors (not for Kat, Gale or Peeta, but for the smaller roles) to draw in non-fans of the book. If they exist. Previously I'd thought something like Robert Downey Jr. or Johnny Depp as Haymitch, or maybe Kristen Chenoweth as Effie. I'd heard terrifying rumors about Kristin Stewart playing Katniss, which THANK GOD are not true. But recently I'd been stalking the blogs and I came upon a genius idea: Taylor Swift as Glimmer, the district 1 girl tribute. The looks are right, the size of the role is reasonable but not too big- enough to give the singer a start in a movie career (no pun intended), if she wants. Perhaps she's a little old, but if Percy Jackson is any indicator, they don't have a problem casting actors years older than the characters.

My point is, having a couple well-known stars in the movie would draw in audiences, and I've heard enough replays of You Belong With Me and Fearless to be totally okay with a hive of tracker jackers attacking a certain pop singer.

The Gods Of TV Pairings Have a Wacked-Out, Twisted Sense Of Humor

Spoilers for Glee Season 2, Episode 16: Original Song

Aww. That's all I can say. Well, or all I would say if I was the laconic type, which I'm so not. I'm just so, so happy that Kurt and Blaine are officially together. Even though we all saw if coming since Darren Criss came on the show in all his adorable, post-AVPM/S awesomeness. But HUZZAH! anyway. And my fangirl shipper happiness was only increased by their totally adorable cover of Candles (Raise Your Glass was pretty awesome too). I also thought that Loser Like Me was very good, but I did feel like reigonals came up kind of suddenly. It feels like the episodes are somewhat unconnected, and they kept mentioning reigonals and then doing something else for the rest of the episode, like Alcohol Awareness Week or Justin B***er covers.

Oh, and about the whole Gods of TV Pairings and their frustratingly twisted sense of humor, let's just say I have a history of ships not working out.

And that concludes this portion of the broadcast. Tune in next time I feel like blogging to hear me rant about something else.

This is what I do when I'm supposed to be doing something else

Usually, it's something important. Homework. Reading a book. Catching up on Doctor Who. But I'm a teenage girl with too much time on my hands, and like most people in this demographic, I'm loud and opinionated and this is a good opportunity to be loud and opinionated without risking my mouth being duct-taped by people who have heard enough conspiracy theories and 24-related rants. 24 is pretty much my favorite show ever. My sister begs to differ. In fact, she's the author of a pretty hilarious blog, 24criticism.blogspot.com. I highly recommend it, even though she spends most of the time dissing me and the best show in the universe.

Well, that's all for the intro. I can hear my homework calling. It sounds like one of those nannies from Dickensian England, all strict and bossy and demanding.