Fall Out Week - Moment #4

i'm so angsty!

F.O.B Week continues here on P&B. This is all a bit different from Gwen Stefani week - I don't really have life changing experiences with this band. There's really only two experiences of note (which are obviously reserved for slots #1 and #2) and besides that, I just really, really love their songs. It's that simple. Touching lyrics and catchy music (and an excellent singing voice) are the way to my heart. (Add skinny jeans and eyeliner and you've found the map to my crotch.)

Most of my favorite F.O.B. songs don't even have videos, so the music vids I choose to highlight this week are more a P.S. than videos I wholeheartedly endorse. I'm including "Saturday"'s video because

a) it's their earliest video (You've come a long way, baby!)

b) they close every concert (i've ever been to, anyway) with this song for some reason

c) Pete Wentz really looks like my ex in this video*


*You'll probably never see a pic of my ex (of whom I'm still friendly with) in this blog being that i have (some) respect for his privacy; if alluded to at all, I'll try to just keep it on my side of things. Sometimes I honestly feel bad for anyone who lets me into their life, nonetheless dates me, because you never know if you'll end up in a blog post or a song. I should just apologize at the beginning of every introduction of anybody I ever come into contact with. (extends hand) Hi, I'm Bex, I am so sorry that in a few weeks when you inevitably become a douchenozzle and I am too emotional about it to deal with it maturely, I'm going to end up writing this. Just thought I'd warn ya! Anyway, so watch the video and know that I got to bone (Ed. note-- is "bone" exlusively a Guy's Only euphimism for "fuck"? Cause that ain't fair) somebody like Pete Wentz for a few months. Hot.



And because everyone's all like "what in the eff are F.O.B. saying???", here are the written out lyrics to one of my favorite songs (without a video, as it was not a single), with possibly the best title of any song ever. Some of the lines in this song are absolutely heartbreaking to me. Oh, Petey, you can come cry on my shoulder. And on my vagina.

"Homesick At Spacecamp"

Landing on a runway in Chicago and I'm grounding all my dreams
of ever really seeing California, because I know what's in between
is something sensual in such non-conventional ways.
Tonight the headphones will deliver you the words that I can't (say).

Tonight the headphones will deliver you the words that I can't say.
(Tonight I'm writing you) a million miles away

Tonight is all about "We miss you" (We miss you) "We miss you" (We miss you)
Tonight is all about "We miss you"
And I can't forget your style or your cynicism,
somehow it was like you were the first to listen to everything we said.
My smile's an open wound without you...and my hands are tied to pages inked to bring you back.

Tonight the headphones will deliver you the words that I can't say.
(Tonight I'm writing you) a million miles away

Tonight is all about "We miss you" (We miss you) "We miss you" (We miss you)
Tonight is all about "We miss you now"

These friends are, new friends are golden [x3]
These friends are, new friends are...

Tonight the headphones will deliver you the words that I can't say.
Tonight the headphones will deliver you the words that I can't say.
Tonight the headphones will deliver you the words that I can't say.
These friends are, new friends are golden

Fall Out Week - Moment #5

Last week was Gwen Stefani week in honor of her concert I went to last Friday in Irvine (more on the amazingness that occurred at said concert later). The very next day I saw my beloved Fall Out Boys at The Forum in LA. As not to steal Gwen Stefani's thunder, I chose to save Fall Out Boy week for this week, since I'm seeing them again anyway next Monday in Anaheim.

My memories of F.O.B. don't go back too far compared to my decade of No Doubt - their music and pop-culture presence has only been in my life for about a year and a half, give or take. But they've quickly spread their seed into my CD collection, my rolodex of memorized song lyrics stored in my brain, and my heart. (Aww.) I'll slowly get into the reasoning for my love of Joe, Andy Patrick and Pete over the next few days, so in the meantime I'll leave you with the video for "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race", which, believe me, is oh-so-fun to scream in a giant stadium with thousands of other people. Even if the first few verses sound ripped from a Backstreet Boys album.

A Gwen Stefani Moment #1

And now, the top Gwen Stefani Related Moment of My Life. This is gonna have to be short because I have to leave to drive lightyears away to Irvine to get to her concert on time.

"Simple Kind of Life" is probably my favorite No Doubt song, my favorite Gwen song, and in my Top 5 favorite, most personally heartwarming/breaking songs of all time. (Also on that list: Grand Theft Autumn by Fall Out Boy (of whom I am seeing tomorrow in concert [but that's another post]), I'll Fly with You by Gigi D'Agostino, The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel and a wild card song).

This is the first song Gwen ever composed completely on her own. It's one of the most honest songs I've ever heard - at points it doesn't even care if it rhymes anymore:

I always thought I'd be a mom
Sometimes I wish for a mistake
The longer that I wait the more selfish that I get
You seem like you'd be a good dad


That entire verse isn't even concerned with being included in a song - it's just honesty that I doubt could ever have been written by a man. It's exclusively the female perspective, and it's not often that you hear that on the radio. (Mad props to Alanis and Tori Amos, while we're at it.)

I fell in love with this song while I was falling in love with one of my high school friends. We were close enough to know one another well and hang out occassionally, but not close enough to hang out that often (he was in college for most of my time spent in high school), and his absence throughout most of my days made me pine for him more, and cherish our coffee dates and movie nights. He inspired my first mature thoughts of adoration and love - the first person I ever thought I could marry, not just go to a dance with. I remember walking throughout Williams-Sonoma with my mom when I was 16, and looking at the couches and silverware and other adult-home necessities that I generally yawned over, but this time, I couldn't wait until I was old enough to have a home and come here to decorate it. With him, more specifically. Children, home, family, the works, and that was nothing something I thought I wanted.

But could I ever really have that? The life I chose for myself when I was sixteen - eventually attending film school, on my way to fame and fortune and Hollywood - didn't seem to encourage families or anything "simple". But if anything, the family part with love and committed relationships (and suburbia and humility and co-dependence) is what's complicated. Those things are anything but simple to get.



Did I mention I love her pink hair? And that I was so inspired by Gwen's dye job that I decided to try it myself?




Okay, so I didn't have the balls (or enough dye) to color my whole head pink. And yeah, Gwen did it first. But dying your hair punk colors is the sincerest form of flattery.


move over, Smurfette

Again.


move over, Gwen

A Gwen Stefani Moment #2

We're coming down to the wire on Gwen Stefani week. Tomorrow's the concert! Squeal!!!

So, My #2 Most Beloved Gwen Stefani-Related Moment are the songs New and Cool, both in regards to my time spent in Australia. More specifically, my time spent in Australia with my ex old boyfriend. (I hate the word "ex". "Ex" implies something along the lines of "well that was a mistake!" when in this case, it was anything but.)

To save the long story for my own personal Dear Diary journal entry (and therapy sessions [and poetry jams]) we met at a nightclub in Australia and it pretty much took off from there. Everything about how I felt that night, and the following months of our courtship, is pretty much summed up by this song (and somewhat the video as well):



"New"

Don't let it go away
This feeling has got to stay
Don't let it go away
This feeling has got to stay
And I can't believe I've had this chance now
Don't let it go away

New, you're so new
You, you're new
And I never had this taste in the past
New, you're so new

My normal hesitation is gone
And I really gravitate to your will
Are you here to fetch me out?
'Cause I've never had this taste in my mouth

Oh you're not old
And you're not familiar
Recently discovered and I'm learning about you

New, you're so new
You, you're new

And you're consuming me violently
And your reverence shamelessly tempting me
Who sent this maniac?
'Cause I never had this taste in the past

Oh you're different, you're different from the former
Like a fresh battery, I'm energized by you

Don't let it go away
This feeling has got to stay
Don't let it go away
This feeling has got to stay
And I can't believe I've had this chance now
Don't let it go away

Why am I so curious?
This territory is dangerous
I'll probably end up at the start
I'll be back in line with my broken heart
New, you're so new
You, you're new
And I never had this taste in the past

Don't let it go away
This feeling has got to stay
Don't let it go away
This feeling has got to stay
And I can't believe I've had this chance now
Don't let it go away

And I can't believe it
Can't believe it
Can't believe it
Can't believe it
Don't let it go away, this feeling has got to stay
Don't let it go away


So, good times. (How can you have anything but good times in a place this effing beautiful?) Unfortunately, good dating times aren't so easy to have when you live the entire length of the Pacific Ocean apart. So "New" has evolved into "Cool":

(Did I mention this is probably the most beautiful video ever shot? I'm not even talking about Gwen [although she looks adorable in brown hair and that retro dress, and the classiest lady I would ever consider sexually reassigning myself for when she's rolling around on that bed]. For reals, though, look at that scenery! Booking a flight to Italy as we speak.)

(Okay, I'm full of lies. Just watch the damn video.)




"Cool"

It's hard to remember how it felt before
Now I found the love of my life...
Passes things get more comfortable
Everything is going right

And after all the obstacles
It's good to see you now with someone else
And it's such a miracle that you and me are still good friends
After all that we've been through
I know we're cool

We used to think it was impossible
Now you call me by my new last name
Memories seem like so long ago
Time always kills the pain

Remember Harbor Boulevard
The dreaming days where the mess was made
Look how all the kids have grown
We have changed but we're still the same
After all that we've been through
I know we're cool

And I'll be happy for you
If you can be happy for me
Circles and triangles, and now we're hangin' out with your new girlfriend
So far from where we've been
I know we're cool


Just look at Gwen's dead-on-accurate facial expressions in this vid! You so know she absolutely hates this and is trying her best to be polite and friendly to her old flame and his new gal. That is exactly what I imagine my own face to look like when I inevitably go through the same thing, whenever in the future that is. It will probably happen when I'm in sweatpants, not wearing makeup, stepping off a plane, jetlagged, and not at my Italian villa when I look absolutely perfect and put together. Anyways, I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be able to be satisfied the rest of my life with just "Cool". (For the past few months it's been more akin to these lyrics. Or, ya know, from time to time, these.)

A Gwen Stefani Moment #3

I have an Alice in Wonderland fetish. Example:


me, halloween 06

Yes, I made my own Cheshire Cat satchel. I also have a hard on for arts and crafts.


better angle, because this is my blog and I can post as many embarassing photos of myself as I see fit

I watched the Disney cartoon growing up... and then I watched it again the first time I was ever totally bonged out my junior year of college. (Comparison: not much had changed; I still didn't understand a damn thing in that movie.) I read the books (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass) by Lewis Carrol, and the made-for-tv movie featuring every celebrity on Earth alive in the 80s was watched on repeat until I was eight twelve today.



So when Gwen's first single off her first solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby had an Alice in Wonderland theme... I was hooked. She knows I exist! She's doing everything according to my tastes! Either that, or Gwen knows that somewhere out there, there is a college student destined to be her BFF 4EVA. And that college student (at the time) was moi.

Anyway, here's a link to the normal, director's cut of the video. Below is a video for the remix of the song, which is mushroom-taking-tastic*.



*Posh&Bex does not endorse the use of taking psychotropic mushrooms. She much prefers these. Or really, these. Especially when she's on this.

A Gwen Stefani Moment #4

You knew it was coming. I love this song so much that it's gotta be on the Top 5 Gwen Moments List. And not even as a guilty pleasure, as displayed by me admitting just how much I love this song in this public forum. ("Public" in this context meaning "I write, you read, and comment if you're feeling especially randy.")

Hollahback Girl, the song that keeps on giving whether you're on a treadmill, at a gay club, in a private karaoke room, or just singing at the top of your lungs in your car:



Mostly, I love this song (besides how catchy the beat is) because it's effing ridiculous. This shit is bananas? And then you SPELL the word "bananas"? That's your chorus? But it works. For me anyway. I know people who imagine hell as this song being played over and over. But, oh no. It's not this song. It's this song.

A Gwen Stefani Moment #5

This week is officially Gwen Stefani week here at Posh&Bex. I'm seeing her Sweet Escape concert on Friday and I shall spend the next five days celebrating that I finally get to see her perform live.

I've seen No Doubt in concert twice before, but this is different. This is MY IDOL on her own tour. I was in Australia during her last tour (damn, Australia, 7,488 miles away from everything!) and I've been bitching the last year about missing it. But finally, on Friday, I'll be heading down to Irvine to see her in concert, by myself. Naturally it's always more fun to go to concerts with somebody (there's a lot of down time in between acts where a whole lot of nothing is goes on) but at the time same time, my affinity for Gwen is best appreciated without the scrutiny of others.

Really? You like her THAT much?

Yes. Yes I do.

I bought Tragic Kingdom like everyone else who was alive in 1995. Along with Jagged Little Pill and Nevermind, everyone owned that album. The songs were fun and catchy, Gwen was attractive, the Tomboy Next Door, and their music videos were light and colorful. What's not to like?

This was during my initial songwriting and poetry writing phase, where I would read the song lyrics in every CD's liner notes and see what my favorite bands/musicians were actually talking about. I realized that songs like "Hey You" and "The Climb" were actually really well-written, with themes and opinions and more than two-syllable words! This was surprising and inspiring to me, since most songs I listened to at the time were less than subtle in their meanings. And I also discovered that Gwen wrote all the lyrics. The girl can write AND sing! I immediately loved her.

(Of course there is also the fact that the boy I was in love with at the time had a huge Gwen Stefani obsession, which effectively bearded his homosexuality I soon discovered at my 15th birthday party when I found him making out with another male invitee. But that's another life-damaging story for another post!)

Gwen, you and your music has been in my life for over a decade. Thank you.

And the countown begins! I'll start at Gwen's own beginnings, No Doubt's Trapped in a Box video.



Look how cute and innocent and unplatinum she is in the video! Not like she's an uncute, corrupt blonde ho-bag now, naturally, but she's so grundgy ska it's adorable. I wish flannel shirts would hurry up and come back into style. They were soft, easy to sinch with a scrunchie, and when worn around your waist, it could mask one's huge ass like an invisible cloak. Flannel was magic.

My [redacted] Romance

The newest video from My Chemical Romance, Teenagers, premieres today on MTV and MTV.com, and I've got a small backstory to go along with this particular video. First off, I had the chance to be an extra in the video (aka, a MySpace bulletin asked all MCR fans in the Los Angeles area to submit headshots and mine was sadly passed over [even though I sent them my best gothy-look while AT the My Chemical Romance concert...douchebag casting director nogoodniks]). Secondly, when I first heard this song, I played it like a bazillion times on my iPod. It's the #1 Most Played Song of all time (well, of all my time). If music could materialize into a useable sex organ I would whore myself out to MCR's music I love it that much. Or I'd convert from Judaism to Emo just to get serious with them. Their music is so good that even if it wanted to switch from "in a relationship" to "it's complicated" on Facebook, but still sleep together occasionally, turning Our Chemical Romance into Our Chemical Fuck Buddies I would have no problem with that, either (although I would cry to Livejournal everyday knowing we were meant to be together and I'm sure MCR would eventually change).

In other words, the band and the song "Teenagers" is awesome - and topical! As the chorus goes, teenagers do scare the living shit out of me! When I was in high school (seven years ago [god help me, life is going at the speed of light]), the most I worried about was making show choir and getting to the last level of Donkey Kong Country. But now it's all school shootings, peer pressure, text messaging rates - no thank you!

So I watch the video (that I am not in [tear drop]), and is it just me, or is there an odd amount of censorship with the lyrics? Sure, the word "shit" is in the chorus, and even though I bet nobody bats an eye anymore at the s-word, I'm used to that kind of censorship. Whatevs. Ruin the chorus, fine, but it's obvious Gerard is scream-singing the word SHIT.

YOU'RE NOT FOOLING ANYONE!

But, more surprisingly, there's more words missing. Phrases, even. Take a look for yourself (or just take note of the bolded words in the lyrics I've tactfully copy and pasted for your convenience):



"Teenagers"

They're gonna clean up your looks
With all the lies in the books
To make a citizen out of you
Because they sleep with a gun
And keep an eye on you, son
So they can watch all the things you do

Because the drugs never work
They're gonna give you a smirk
'Cause they got methods of keeping you clean
They're gonna rip up your heads,
Your aspirations to shreds
Another cog in the murder machine

They said all teenagers scare the living shit out of me
They could care less as long as someone'll bleed
So darken your clothes or strike a violent pose
Maybe they'll leave you alone, but not me

The boys and girls in the clique
The awful names that they stick
You're never gonna fit in much, kid
But if you're troubled and hurt
What you got under your shirt
Will make them pay for the things that they did

I'm sorry, the word "gun" is no longer allowed in a song? Or "murder"? Or the incomplete thoughts "under your shirt" or "pay for the"? The song is pretty much about SCARY TEENAGERS GETTING REVENGE WITH WEAPONS. Timely, no? Accurate, n'est pas? Is this censorship doing anything except creating a hiccup with the flow of the song? Is some more innocent youth saved because they didn't hear the word "gun" or "murder"? Where were these censors when My Humps was being played out of every speaker, radio and orifice? Where are the good taste censors duck taping Joel Madden's mouth shut? But this they have a problem with?

You're okay by me, My Chemical Romance. You can talk dirty to me.

class act all the way

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Actually I've never said it, so I'll say it now for the first time. That Marilyn Manson is one classy guy.



Is this music video not the definition of good taste? I wish I were to have a gentleman caller such as Marilyn Manson come a-knocking on my door.

I'd be one lucky lady.

Covered in blood.

While licking a knife.

Getting off on being choked during sex.

While my recently divorced, drug-addicted boyfriend who is two decades older than me, videotapes.

And turns it into his next music video.

(please note sarcasm, dripping from everywhere like the blood in that horrible, horrible, horrible video.)