Going on holiday!

Yes, you know what this means! I'm going on HOLIDAY! Yet again! Gosh, two holidays in one summer? I must be mad I say!

Well, I'm going to Mammoth to go camping. Another family we know is coming with us. This is the first time I've gone on vacation with another family and I'm so excited! I'm going to have tons of fun! When I come back, I'll let you all know what happens!

Also, last night, I FINALLY saw the Prince Caspian movie with my aunt and uncle. They're great fans of Narnia, and we weren't disappointed by the film. The first part is fairly true to the book, but everything that happens after Caspian invades the castle (which didn't happen in the book) is basically a mixture of stuff that wasn't in the book with a few things that did happen floating around. (Admittedly it made me want to go back and read that book again.) There wasn't a single scene with Reepicheep that I didn't say, "Aww, he's so cute!" (That's what being a hamster owner does to you.) The part where he loses his tail, I couldn't help but say, "He's a HAMSTER now!" I also liked Trufflehunter, the badger. I do like badgers. Ever notice how, whenever you see a badger, you feel like you want to hug it and kiss it, except it'll tear you to shreds so maybe you shouldn't? Me too. Also, in the movie, I noticed that there's this one guy who looks like John Bonham! No joke! (Seriously - it's the part where Glossell - or maybe Sospespian, I have trouble telling the two apart - tells Miraz that the Narnians killed some of his men. The guy on the far left. Yes, THAT'S him.)

So anywho - I had a great time last night. Let's hope I'll have a great time this time, too!

The Fourth Album Conspiracy?

I'm convinced that bands have some sort of a conspiracy about fourth albums.

Have you ever noticed that, when a band does their fourth album, it's often either very popular, very sucessful, very different, or very good? I first noticed this when I realized that A Night at the Opera is Queen's fourth album. As far as I know, A Night at the Opera is considered Queen's best album. It has their best song on it, anyway!

And then there's Led Zeppelin IV. It's a very famous Led Zeppelin album, and it has the world's number 1 rock song on it: Stairway to Heaven. I think that deserves it some special attention, doesn't it?

There's other albums, too: A Hard Day's Night, Eldorado, Leftoverture, and Fragile. A Hard Day's Night was a soundtrack of sorts to the Beatle's first movie. Leftoverture has Kansas's number one song, Carry On Wayward Son. Fragile was a breakthrough album for Yes (and, by extention, the entire prog genre). Eldorado, well, it's not too notable...but I love it, and remember, this is my blog, and if I like it, it goes on here. Also, if one considers Space Oddity to be David Bowie's first album, then that would make Ziggy Stardust his fourth. And we all know what that was famous for.

Ah! I've almost forgotten! Let me never forget that Tommy was the Who's fourth album. That album was almost revolutionary! (Heck, maybe it was!) It was the first album to be billed as a rock opera upon release! Let's never forget that!

So - is it a conspiracy? I think not. Sure, there's plenty of bands with fourth albums that were particularly good, but not enough to constitute a conspiracy. True, a lot of bands had some pretty good fourth albums, some of which are famous enough to say they're legendary. But there were plenty of bands that didn't fit into this pattern. (People like The Doors, Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones, The Steve Miller Band, and Cream didn't have fourth albums that were that famous. And to diehard fans of these bands: I apologize if you don't agree with these descriptions. I've never even heard those guys' fourth albums! But if I haven't heard of them, they probably aren't too famous.) But then, I think that there might be enough evidence present to say that "fourth time's the charm" as far as music goes.

Van Halen.

Van Halen is a good name for a hamster. You know why? Because hamsters scream. Just like Van Halen.

No one calls me Bonzo.

My mum and I got some bon-bons at the store today, and they made me realise something. I have a slight resentment harbored towards them. You see, my real name is Bonnie (though I insist on having people call me Pippin), and when I was a kid, too many people called me Bon-Bon and other such unpleasant nicknames. In fact, it was only when my favorite teacher called me Bonzai did I ever feel the least bit glad to have this name.

Except then I realised something else. I have yet to figure out why nobody's ever called me Bonzo. I mean, it makes sense...you can get it out of Bonnie. Bonzo, for those who don't know, refers to John Bonham, of Led Zeppelin. Most everybody knows that I like Led Zeppelin. (If you didn't know that by now - why didn't you know that already?) And most people I know know that my real name is Bonnie. I wonder why nobody ever put two and two together...hmm...Okay, from this day on, I demand to be called Bonzo! Everybody must call me Bonzo! That is if you're not busy calling me Pippin! I am Bonzo! Fear me!

A Night at the Cinema

I went to the cinema last night with my Mum, Aunt Dee-Dee and Uncle Gary. We saw the film Get Smart. Now, I always liked watching the show Get Smart, and so I was curious to see how the film went up against the show. The film was rather good, though, given a choice, I'd probably rather have the show in the long run. Though, the film is inappropriate in places (admittedly this was not keeping in spirit of the original show, where one would find none of this). This is why we did not take Becky. That and she was having a sleepover. In the end, I'd recommend the film for anyone who wants to be entertained.

Also - I finally got around to listening to Ziggy Stardust. It's incredible, just like Nikki said it would be! (And now I went to the library and I've got three other albums to listen to now...maybe later today.)

It was over before it started.

Guess what? This stinks...My psychologist informed me of the inconvenient truth. No, it has nothing to do with global warming. She told me that most people don't like my English accent and that the majority of my peers find it annoying. As did she. As a result, I no longer speak Scouse. Doesn't that stink? I'm never going to speak like the Beatles again! That is, until I move to Liverpool in revenge to pick up the accent again and start a prog-glam rock band with my best friend who will be living with me there. Yes, I make weird plans for the future. Usually I do not tell people these things. So there went me Scouse accent.

Non sequiturs and a round of edible lime!

Non sequiturs are fun. They also taste rather good. Why do I say this? I was with two of my friends (Sasha and Kolya), and we were having a lovely time together while making non sequiturs. I have no idea what we said exactly, as nobody was writing it down, but I do recall that there were references to such diverse subjects as Teddy Roosevelt, toothbrushes, the sky turning purple, free festivals, the rainfall in Kenya, and the roof coming off and golden flowers (I think) raining down. Have you ever brushed a hippopotamus *?

Also - we decided to play a round of Exquisite Corpse. It's a surrealist game where you begin to write a sentence on a piece of paper and then you hide part of it by folding the paper. Then the next person has to write a little more, and such goes on...I kept telling them we'd play "Exquisite Corpse", except my English accent kept getting in the way and they thought I said "Exquisite Copse". I had to correct them. Sasha did not much care for this name, hence we changed it to Edible Lime. You see, Exquisite Corpse got its name because "Exquisite corpse" was the first part of the first sentence made with that game. The sentence we made was: "The edible lime will be ukuleles to destroy Frankenstein's stale Twinkies growl and die." Actually, if you think about it, Edible Lime sounds like the name of an alchoholic beverage or something. "Oi! Get us another round o' Edible Lime, willya?" (Or some such nonsense.)

Also - Kolya, who is a great David Bowie fan, gave me a copy of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. (That has to be the longest album title I have ever seen in my life.) I haven't actually gotten around to listening to it, though...I promise I will! Maybe tomorrow!

*This is completely off-topic if you know what I'm talking about.

Be Kind To Your Behind

I just discovered the funniest thing today. My grandma was showing me a little ad in a magazine for Cotonelle toilet paper or something. She thought it was cute that there were tons of puppies on the stairs, but I noticed something hilarious. On the little package of toilet paper in the ad, it had the words "Be Kind to Your Behind" on it. I just thought this was funny. You see, if the joke contains any sort of bathroom humor, I automatically crack up. Perhaps you are one of the more "conservative" members of our population and you fail to see how this is funny. Well, let me tell you something - I bet that, in actuality, you laugh at things like this. Oh, come on. Don't tell me you don't laugh. This sort of thing is absolutely hilarious, I say.

Yay! 4th of July! (and other stuff)

Guess what? Today's the Fourth of July! So happy fourth everybody! Yay! And if you're from England or something - you can vicariously celebrate it with me! Yay!

Anyway...I haven't actually DONE anything for the Fourth yet. We're going to go to my aunt's house for a party. This should be fun. Almost everybody related to us comes to her house (and a couple people who aren't related), and we all swim in her pool and do fun stuff and eat and act like demented monkeys and stuff...yeah...that should be pretty fun. PLus my family and I are going to go see the film Wally. Or is that spelled Wall-E? What a stupidly "creative" spelling...oh well...perhaps the film shall be better than its title.

I've also decided that my fascination with rock and roll is more than, well, just a fascination. It's an addiction. Seriously. I discussed this with Mark, my bass teacher, and we realized I exhibit the symptoms of an addiction. I tried stopping for a day, and I ended up going through withdrawal. Also, I feel an intensive need to get more of it. I used to do one a week. Now I will get lots in one day. Like yesterday. I went and got Fragile (by Yes) at Fry's (Mum told me they sell albums; we went there. It is a glorious haven of beautiful classic rock. Seriously.) And then we went to the library, where I compulsively checked out three more.

And...I was going to say something else...I can't remember it...Oh yeah. Once, I was at church, and there was this kid, and he looked familiar to me. And I couldn't remember why, except then it dawned on me. He looked just like Roger Daltry. From the Who. Yeah...and also I have a friend who looks just like Rick Wakeman from Yes. Yeah...one of these days I'm going to tell him that...maybe...and I like pretending that I look like John Deacon (which is partially not a good thing as I'm a girl)...yeah...weird stuffses...

Classic books + classic rock = classic comedy!

I was looking online for lists of bands that were named after books. (What? I was curious!) I always thought that certain things from Lord of the Rings would make good band names, like, say, Isengard. Come on, who wouldn't be interested in going to see a new concert from ISENGARD?

Anyway - I did find this. I thought, "Yeah, that's real funny. But no song or album puns?" (The only one I could think of, "Horton Hears the Who" was already on there.) So I tried to think of a couple that related to song and album titles as well instead of just bands! Here they are:

The Old Man and the Seven Seas of Rhye
My Fairy King Lear
Tales of Brave Ulysses
Matilda-Mother (this is only funny if you have excessive Pink Floyd knowledge)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Rolling Stones (I think it's funny anyway...)
David Bowie-Copperfield (why is that even funny?)
The Earth, Wind and Fire in the Willows
The Man in the Iron Man Mask (okay, I have officially ceased to be funny...)

Oddly enough, these were already named after classics:
Moby Dick
Piper at the Gates of Dawn