That Mastin kid...

So I assume you've heard of Reece Mastin, he's that kid who won X Factor Aus or whatever and kinda looks and/or sings like a girl. 

He's basically the Justin Beiber of Australia except I have so much less respect for this kid.  


However, the reason why I'm even writing about him is he "sings" (/howls) a song called "Shut Up an Kiss Me" and I LOVE it while simultaneously hating myself for that fact. This is different to how I hate myself for loving Pitbull, whose songs/general demeanour just make me cringe and feel insulted. 

This is the kinda of hate where I know that as a member of the previously mentioned post-teeny-bopper generation I cannot, in good conscience, like this guy. I can at least justify my love of One Direction by the fact that I want those boys naked, if nothing else. I am not, however, attracted to Reece Mastin in any way shape or form coz he kinda looks like a girl and I'm not into that which leaves me with no justification, however shallow, for liking so I must, alas, hang my head in shame because I am so so so addicted to this song.

I will leave you with the audio and accompanying lyrics in case you can't decipher the "singing" instead of the official video clip to spare you from actually looking at this kid too much.

After watching the video I've come to realise that you do actually see pictures of him and for that I apologise.

Also, upon reading over this post I kind of sort of noticed it came out quite bitchy and demeaning and just generally harsh and I did not mean it in that way. Reece Mastin has been relatively successful in his chosen career and he is young so more power to him.

Ricky Rubio

I’m not entirely sure who will remember my obsession with this guy from circa 4 years ago so I’ll just give you a bit of history:

His name’s Ricky Rubio and he’s a Spanish basketballer. I first discovered/saw him while watching some game or another during the coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He was just 17, and he was a god. He still is a god now, even though he’s out of the Olympics with a knee injury.

I don’t enjoy watching sport in any way shape or form. I don’t watch the footy, I don’t go to the footy, I don’t even watch my own basketball club’s women’s team, (half of whom are my own team mates and friends) unless I’m already there. I used to watch the Dandenong Rangers women when I played there but only because it was free entry and chance to hang out with the girls. My point is: sport – not my thing.

But for Ricky Rubio, I stayed up late, I watched every game I could get my eyes on, I sat on YouTube watching his highlights, I waited 4 years to watch him again only to find he stuffed his knee in March but once he’s back I’m gonna sit down and watch him play in the NBA on ESPN.

It’s not about him being hot (for once) or about how he’s Spanish (cue my xenophilia) it’s about him being good. Not just a good player, but a good person, and most importantly, to me, a good team member.

I had a whole spiel about how awesome Ricky Rubio is but it got long and presumably boring to anyway who isn’t as passionate/in love with him as I am and what it boils down to is he embodies the saying “There’s no I in team”. I hate watching basketball because I hate how selfish players, more often than not of the male variety, can be so I find it refreshing to see a guy whose focus isn’t how many baskets he personally can score but how many the team can score.

I just…he’s amazing.
And, look I'm not gonna lie, sans the beard he's kinda cute too.

Jokes!

So it's always good to have a bit of a laugh....heres some laughable material.... i was going to write about the olympics advertisement crap....but i think its all been said and laughing is better!

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, "What is politics?"

Dad says, "Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I'm the breadwinner of the family, so let's call me capitalism. Your Mom, she's the administrator of the money, so we'll call her the Government. We're here to take care of your needs, so we'll call you the people. The nanny, we'll consider her the Working Class. And your baby brother, we'll call him the Future. Now, think about that and see if that makes sense,"

So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what dad had said. Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper. So the little boy goes to his parents' room and finds his mother sound asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny's room. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed. The next morning, the little boy says to his father, "Dad, I think I Understand the concept of politics now." The father says, "Good son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about." The little boy replies, "Well, while Capitalism is screwing the Working Class, the Government is sound asleep, the People are being ignored and the Future is in deep shit."

There was a blonde and a genius sharing a compartment on a long train journey across the country. To fill in time the genius decided to propose a game. He said that they would take it in turns asking questions to one another. If she was unable to answer his questions correctly she would give him $10 but if he was unable to answer her questions then he would give her $100. The blonde though this was reasonable and told him to ask her a question. 

"How long is the great wall of china?" he asks.

As expected the blonde wasn't able to provide the answer and gives him $10.

The genius pockets the money and confidently asks for a question in return.

"What flies to the moon on tuesdays and returns on thursdays?"

The genius couldn't immediately think of an answer. He tried to find an answer using the internet and after calling his friend at NASA he eventually gave up. By this time the blonde had fallen asleep. He woke her and handed her a $100 note.

"So what flies to the moon on tuesdays and returns thursdays?" he asks eagerly. 

The blonde doesn't say anything but reaches into her purse and hands him a $10 note.

A boy make his girl jealous of other women. A gentleman makes other women jealous of his girl.

Sometimes I just want to slap people hard in the face. The fact that I don't means that I still have some self control, and therefor not completely insane....

Ah, Young Love.

Not young love as in we are young and in love (we are young though) but young as in new, new love. Not that it's love anyway, I mean come on, let's not get ahead of ourselves, please.

All I'm meaning to say is that I'm currently in that blabbing stage of my crush, the stage where all I want to do is talk about the guy I like, about how cute he his and how awesome he is and how he said this and how he did that.

And I just want to look at him! I just want to sit down (or stand in a slightly shadowed corner) and just...look at him. Which is weird coz I've been looking at this guy for years. I KNOW what he looks like. Besides...I'm kind of too afraid to. I don't want anyone to notice, our group couldn't keep a secret if their lives depended on it and the last thing I want is for it to become awkward(er). They'll all find out eventually though, this I know, I hope that maybe he won't get clued in though. However, knowing me I'll give it away, I've been half-seriously hitting on him for months anyway.

I just want to get to know him on that base level that you only share with best friends or boyfriends. I want to be that person that gets the late night phone call because he can't sleep because he's stressing about life.

Yet, alas, alack, I fear 'tis not to be...but what's a girl to do? I'm not one to force things, a strong believer in que sera, sera. If it's meant to be it will, it won't need any urging. It'd sure be nice though, I'd like a 'temporarily' or even a 'forever' if I can swing it.

"A guy and a girl can be just friends, but at one point or another, they will fall for each other...maybe temporarily, maybe at the wrong time, maybe too late, or maybe forever."

Mister Sandman, bring me a dream.

I dreamt about you last night. Even when I was asleep I knew it was a dream though.
Want to know why?
It wasn't some obvious dream thing like you were 50 ft tall or had rabbit ears or anything, you were being nice (and, in your defence, I was also not being a bitch).

We were just hanging out together. There wasn't any tension or awkward silences or snapping nor was there any flirting or thinly veiled references to our long gone relationship, we were just friends hanging out and hiking through my dream landscape over giant versions of the rocks from my fish tank...(that also clued me in to the whole 'dream' thing I'll admit). We just talked, about what I can't remember, but I know it wasn't anything life changing, just normal boring old life stuff. I can't remember the last time we spoke for more than 2 minutes (without a third party present), the last time we had a normal conversation about each other's lives.

Blah blah blah, whatever, I don’t want to care anymore.

I just find it interesting that that's what my subconscious decides to dredge up and create into my nightly entertainment, such that it is memorable enough to stay with me throughout the day not just in those few fleeting seconds after I open my eyes.

Short catch up.

Ok, So i may just correct my Zo here, i didn't grow up on mainstream music, i grew up listening to my parents music....which happened to consist mostly of abba and offspring...so i skipped the spice girls and backstreet boys era (thank god)...so you could say that my mainstream stint was an attempt to rebel against what my parents were feeding me and try to fit in at school....
Anyway so Zo has said she was to lazy to find music herself... so as a challenge i'm going to give her a playlist i made and she can blog about what she thinks of it!
Also on the topic of music, i've recently been watching alex day dissecting lyrics on youtube, check it out. I got onto it because a friend of mine told me to watch "alex day reads twilight." I have never seen the oh so popular twilight being trashed so epically. So alex day; get onto it.
I also saw Ferris Bueller's Day Off for the first time about a week ago. I really liked it. I'm probably the last person i know to have watched it. I am aware i am a novice when it comes to movie knowledge. So i think i see a movie challenge coming up in the future....suggestions anyone? (as though we have many avid readers)

Mainstream Love

Okay I’m gonna ask you guys to cast your minds back a few blogs ago when Han wrote a kind of blog-response to one of my I <3 1D moments. Anyway, given that Hannah is such an avid bouncer-offer, I thought I’d give it a go and, in response to one of Han’s previous posts (titled ‘Mainstream Hate’ btw in case you’re interested), tell you why I DO like mainstream music.

I think part of the reason why I like “mainstream” music is because, in contrast to Hannah who possible (probably) grew up listening to the Fox and other mainstream radio stations, I grew up listening to the great classic hits on Gold 104.3 probably until about the start of high school when listening to the same music as everyone else was a little more important. Not that I think Gold 104.3 is a bad station to listen to, classics are classics for a reason and I actually had a succession of amazing songs coming off that station today but it’s not mainstream music, at leats not in the past 30 years.

I agree that a lot of songs get played ‘till they’re dead kind of thing (one such song at risk of such fate is Ed Sheeran’s Lego House which I love love love but am sure to get sick of) however, given that the only time I listen to the radio is roughly half-hour trips at a time each day so it’s not too bad and if I ever find the radio unbearable I can easily switch to iPod or CD (which I do regularly).

However, I’m also guilty of killing music for myself I’ve had the One Direction album on repeat pretty much since I bought it about two months ago (hah! I knew I’d get the boys in here somewhere!) and I know that unless I chuck on something else soon it’s life will be at an end which will be a horrific event for all of my friends/family I'm sure.

The main reason why I listen to/like mainstream music is I’m too lazy to “discover” new artists on my own, I have a few “unknown” artists here and there scattered through my playlists with tracks I’ve gotten off movies or tv shows or friends but my theory is: there’s got to be a reason why everyone likes it. That’s probably a pretty sheep-like reason but I’m confident enough in myself that I know I don’t like things just because everyone else does and if I don’t like something I won’t like it regardless of who or how many people disagree with me. Take Rhianna for example, I do not like her. I don’t like her as a person, I don’t like her music, I especially don’t like her video clips but she’s all the rage.

Before I go, allow me to spare a moment to squee over Han calling me her “other half” nawwww <3 LOVE YOU BLOG BUDDY!!

Okay, I’m done.

P.S. Backstreet Boys are awesome.

Boyfriends, Quotes and 1D

I know, I know, I know, I should really stop, but the reason for this blog (that probably no one ever reads anyway) is to vent my feelings whatever they may be and at the moment they’re pretty much still OneDirectionOneDirectionOneDirectionOneDirectionOneDirectionOneDirectionOneDirectionOneDirectionOneDirection like 24/7 and, yes, I am obsessed but at least it’s not drugs =) so, hey! Bright side! Besides I’ve been pretty good with one blog post on, one blog post off the topic of One Direction.

Besides, this is only inspired by 1D, it’s not all about them, it’s about something they said.

So, I’ve said I love the boys coz they’re good looking, I’ve said I love the boys ‘cause they can sing, I’ve said I love the boys ‘cause they’re normal, I’ve said I love the boys because they make me laugh. Now I’m saving I love the boys (Niall in particular this time) because of the stuff they say that doesn’t necessarily make me laugh but is amazing in it’s own way. In this particular instance it’s a quote form Niall Horan that reminds of me of something I think we forget today.

With our obsession with looking good and subsequently getting a boyfriend or girlfriend we forget that it’s not all about how we look and sex. Those of us out there that don’t have a significant other in their life can sometimes feel as if there’s something “wrong” with them because they don’t have someone. Niall and I are here to tell you there’s not.

“Being single doesn’t mean that you’re weak. It means that you’re strong enough to wait for what you deserve.”

—	Niall Horan

What he said.

And that is why Niall Horan’s girlfriend will be the luckiest girl in the world, luckier than whoever manages to tame Harry Styles’ man-whoring ways, luckier than whoever marries Liam Payne who will undoubtedly dote on them, luckier than whoever gets Zayn Malik to open up, luckier than whoever gets Louis Tomlinson to calm down and stop being an idiot.

There’s nothing wrong with being single but in a world that seems fascinated with whether or not you “have a boyfriend/girlfriend” (as I have been asked so so so many times) and who then ask “why not?” when you tell them no, it’s nice to hear someone ‘important’ say so.

However, my quasi-rant above is not meaning to say that there’s something wrong with those people who do have that special someone, just that there’s nothing wrong with not having one either.

male groupies

So heres some psychology for you....
So as you may be aware, one of us bloggers plays in a band. An all girl band.
Recently i have come to a conclusion about girl bands and influences it has on an audience. I have come to realise that men, especially young drunk men, find the need to show off when we play out. Girls would sometimes come up and tell us they like what we play and the usual, sure. But men feel the need to show off. They will start by saying how hot the band is, or how cool it is that a girl band can pull out some Jimmy Hendrix. Some will leave it there, but others feel the need to come up and personally tell you that they also play the same instrument as you. When we play at a bar, we are usually given free drinks, but we are relatively sober to some of the drunk idiots who don't even bother to tell you that they think your cool, but proceed to try touch your instruments or get up on stage to show off to their friends. If you have ever been sober when a person tries to be a show off while drunk you will know haw incredibly unfunny it is. During breaks between sets one night we had one guy who kept inviting us to come waterskiing with him down at hazelwood pondage. And you cant escape them, their intoxicated state means that they take much longer than usual to get the hint. The hover around while you try to pack up your gear, and keep offering to help (obviously not realising that you dont want to put expensive equipment into the hands of a drunk stranger) in order to keep talking to you. They are male groupies, and there is nothing attractive about them. Their shirt reveals spillage of beer, and you would swear that they have rocks or something in their shoes because they walk as if they have no centre of gravity and a pole shoved up their asses.

Mainstream Hate

So as my other half was realising about why she loves 1D so much, I figured out what i hate about mainstream music so much. I know most of you out there listen to a lot of mainstream music, (hence mainstream), but i guess i need to get is off my mind.
I used to listen to mainstream music, mum would have the radio on the Fox everyday on the way to and from school. What i remember really hating about that was the rotation of songs and artists. The world seemed to consist of a popular few bands, a handful of solo pop artists and a few other lesser known artists slotted in here and there. If there was a song people liked a lot then the song was played on high rotation to the point where even if you loved the song at first you ended up hating it. And what seemed to happen more often than not was my disliking of that song to begin with... But don't get me wrong, for the majority of my school life i listened to mainstream, had songs i loved, songs i hated from it. I think it all changed when i joined a band.
One of the members introduced me to triple J, and i have to say it took a bit of desensitising. But the more i listened to it, the more bands i found and fell in love with. There were just so many bands out there that I had never heard of, and even though triple J still had a "mainstream" of artists, my world was expanded. I think the main thing i loved was the real music feel. Music wasn't just computerised backing to a solo artist singing about how they love beautiful girls tits, getting down to the club every night and taking drugs and shots etc.
Also, the fact that mainstream radio claims to release everything first. Yes they may be first to release lady gaga and rhianas new hits, but by the time they play an indie-rock song, its not new anymore. For example Brother by Matt Corby...i was at a party a month ago and everyone was singing along with that song, thinking it was new, but it was on the top 100 songs for 2011 on tripleJ. And what got me really annoyed was that i knew that if i had of tried introducing them to that song earlier they would have probably not payed much attention to it, but because it was on fox fm and everyone was listening to it it was suddenly cool.
As a band we have recently put original material on the back-burner and scraped together some covers material, because lets face it, its easier and you get paid more for it.
But part of the whole covers deal is that you need to learn some mainstream music as well. And although we moan and groan about learning them, half the mainstream covers that we learn end up being our favourite songs to play. For example lady gagas lovegame. Why? Because when we do it our way with guitars, keyboards and real drums it is so much more fun. Another recent on was the old eurythmics song sweet dreams...
So i guess what i hate about mainstream is that it's everyone just following a trend. They don't always see music as an individual creative interest. They like it because they are told to like it, because their friends like it, they hate it because everyone else hates it. Their idea of going against the tide is hating music that teens like, hating justin beiber and 1D because they are young and sing about "naive" things like happiness and beauty rather than sluts and drugs. What they like is so much influenced by what everyone else likes, so kudos to Zo for sticking up to her one direction love, and even my BF for still loving the backstreet boys even though i laugh at him for it.

Ive worked out why I like one direction so much:

They're the last time I'm going to be able to "fall in love with" the hot new thing. The next time guys like them (like Justin Beiber, like Zac Efron, like Channing Tatumn) come around, I'll be too old for them :( Alas we have reached the age where we're pretty much stuck with what we've already got. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing (did anyone else almost die because of Ryan Gosling in Crazy, Stupud, Love?)

I know that I will hate myself when my my 1D phase is over but I just gotta get this out.

If you were ever wondering (or not wondering) just WHY I even like One Direction at all, I'm here to tell you.

1) It wouldn't be me without some superficiality. They're 5, young, gorgeous, 4 English and 1 Irish, lads which pretty much makes my xenophilic heart explode. Their accents are like heaven and their bodies are pretty nice too.

2) They can sing, at least I think so. There's a lot of hating out there about how "if they're such good singers how come they had to be put into a group to get through to X-Factor". Uh, I'd say it's because they had a better chance together (less competition for one) than they did alone and because, in all honestly, they were 16, 17 and 18 year old guys, you can't expect miracles from kids (and one technically adult, but I mean, have you seen Louis Tomlinson?)
Every time I hear them sing I change my mind on who's my favourite until I've finally settled on all of them because I think all of them have amazing voices, after all they were all individually good enough to make it through so that's got to count for something.

3) Did I mention the smiling thing? They make me smile, the stuff they say, their videos, the faces they pull, they're funny and they're cute and they just make my life happier for existing.

4) They're normal. I know everyone that's in the spotlight says they're normal but I actually think these boys are.
They cry, im almost positive there's footage of each of them In tears, not to say they're wimps or anything, they're just teenagers with emotions just like anyone else.
They get pimples, Liam can't live without clearisil, photos on their "days off" show acne prone skin, they miss their mothers and their families, they watch movies with their girlfriends, they drink and hang out with their (other) mates.

5) I just watched their documentary and they're so cute they made me cry, more than once. I know, I suck, but they're just this side of inspirational if you ask me.

6) Theres no...favouritism, there's no two of them are closer than any of the others, none of them are left out. At first, I thought Harry and Louis (They even have people "shipping" them: Larry Stylinson) were especially close, stand out from the others but there isn't. They are close, undoubtedly, but so are Liam and Niall, Louis and Zayn, Harry and Niall, Liam and Louis, Niall and Harry, Louis and Zayn, Niall and Zayn, Louis and Niall, basically all of them are so ridiculously close, as expected of course, but I love that. I love that despite their different ages, different upbringings, different interests, they are BEST friends. That is something to find inspiration in. 

7) They love music, they so obviously love it, it's unbelievable. They freaking sit in Harrys step-dad's bungalow or whatever (wtf is a bungalow anyway?), Niall with the guitar and they just sing. I mean, I dunno how much of it is for the camera...but it seems pretty legit to me. 

I remember when I didn't know what they looked like, didnt know who was who, couldn't pick out who was singing, couldnt pick who was who on radio interviews. Those were the days... now Harry's the background on my phone and their album is up there in my most played. But I like them so... 

I should've known studying the Holocaust would be a bad idea.

I should've thought about it more, gone 'Hey Zoe, do you really want to learn about how millions of people died horrible deaths for ridiculous and implausible reasons?"
I probably would've said yes anyway, I don't want to know, but I don't want to not know at the same time. I'm horrified, before I even went to class, two pages into the first week's reading and I was horrified. Someone had to create a word for it, I don't mean holocaust (or not only holocaust), I mean genocide. Someone had to come up with a word that could encompass what it mean to attempt to destroy and each and every person of a particular ethnicity (/nationality/race/religion).

I've just started reading one of the 'recommended' texts Neighbours by Jan T. Gross. It's about a town in Poland where half the population murdered the Jewish half. They killed and tortured the old, the sick, babies, women, men, children, indiscriminately. They killed those who had been their neighbours for years in peace. Ordinary people did this, not Nazis, not the Gestapo, not the SS normal people turned on their neighbours, friends, colleagues for...I don't even know why. No one will ever know why, I dont think even they knew why.

I'm 2 chapters in, I haven't even got to the story part yet, I'm still half way through reading about where the author got his information, who his sources were, how he discovered this forgotten bit of history. I've finished reading it now. I dont know how I got through the whole book, I dont know how I got through the whole course. I know I just needed to distance myself from it, desensitise but I just didn't know how. How was I supposed to just look past the horrific crimes against humanity? Do I even want to? Do I want to be the kind of person who isn't affected by reading about this?

I was affected, it was hard to do but I feel better for studying this unequaled period of history. I feel better for having more knowledge of it even though some of things I learnt are impossible to comprehend.

cards to politics....

I love playing card games, and learning card games and playing them over and over again. I'm not talking about Pokemon or anything. Just a simple deck of cards, 52 in a deck with two jokers chucked in, or skip-bo (i feel sorry for anyone who hasn't ever played that game... I don't like poker games as such either. I love games where you have to think, strategies, count cards. There is one game that i almost always end up playing with my mother and grandmother when she comes around. We call it Up the Creek. Its similar to phase 10, which we used to be obsessed with before we found this game. There something about sitting around the table, three generations of women, laughing and swearing at one another, that seems almost traditional. Its a three player game, and since my brother hates playing cards we can only really ever play when she's around (however sometimes i am able to rope my boyfriend into it). We love learning new games, but somehow we always end up playing that one game. I'm lucky that my boyfriends family like playing card games. When we went to visit his grandparents we spent the whole evening just playing cards and boardgames. I felt like i fitted in because i was able to pick up new rules easily, hold all my cards in one hand and teach them a few games of my own. I met someone that couldn't even remember how to play go fish, and when i tried to teach him he kept forgetting to put down his pairs and ended the game with a fist full of cards still in his hand. I felt sorry for him, and i dont know why. Many people dont like or play card games. they have other interests. I suppose in a way we constantly compare our own lives to other peoples. we consider normal to be what we like, know, do and are taught. It's a reason why we fight argue and hate our government. You cant please the majority without displeaseing the minority, who always seem to have the loudest voices. If the government dont please the minority then they are seen as greedy and selfish, but if they please only the minority.....well you get the picture...
It's such an easy thing to learn, and very sociable cards, ..maybe it can be seen that the government play poker, gambling, throwing chips here and there recklessly or just keeping them all to themselves, only taking sure wins, counting cards.... I don't know why i started writing a blog about card games, .....there seems no point, but i suppose there is a point. I now want to have a card night.