NOTE: This post will be continuously updated as I gather more stuff / suitable material occurs to me.  Last updated July 6, 2008, for that Epic Daily Mail Article. 

Right, New Year.  Right.

( Videos for sl0ring people into Libs fandom )
Randomness (post-Libs)
Carl being pornographic, as usual. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sZb9Ukscc0
DPT interviewed by Alex Zane. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AHOH5pQJAg
I like this song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5KpplrAM20
Peter being a pretty popstar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIi9HDLAHsE
There are too many Peter/Shambles/DPT vids to link to, so I shall stop here.</div>

Text interviews and other
The Guardian 2004: Long, sad sigh
NME 2004: The infamous Collector's Issue
The Guardian 2003: Happier times
NME 2002: Peter makes Carl wince, repeatedly
Chapter from Bound Together by Anthony Thornton
Kids in the Riot by Pete Welsh
NME Xmas 2003
The Word 2004: Oh Carl.
Rockfeedback 2002-ish: Carl, sounding quite enamored, tells brilliant anecdotes
Newcomer 2006: The infamous phone call of 2003 as observed by someone who was there.
The Daily Mail 2008: Carl drunk, lovelorn, painfully honest, and dressed in white [Text transcript here]
Last, but not least: Peter Doherty's forum posts 2003-2004
+ A more detailed compilation of Peter's posts 2002-2004 (slightly less Carl-centric), edited by yours truly

Once you're completely obsessed and looking for profound character study, these do the trick:
- Peter (audio interview): go here and click on "Naar Eer En Geweten - Libertines (uncut)" (under Exclusief).
- Carl (video with Anthony): go here and click on "Carl Barât wordt steeds beter in door het leven wankelen" (under Festival Nieuws), or download the interview here.

If you've watched that, and you want some cheering up, go look at these. :)

If you've never walked through a snowstorm while listening to the cadenza from the third movement of Shostakovich's Violin Concerto: I highly recommend it.  Remarkably spiritual experience.

Aaaaaaand we're back to discussing gay rights.

I've fallen across so many WTFs in my unsuspecting travels that I felt a need to compile:

Figure Skating Oddities.

Brian Joubert doing... something.  In his underwear. On French TV.

A Flamenco dancer and Stéphane Lambiel... Why? Why?

Stéphane Lambiel and Jeff Buttle being interviewed on Japanese TV.  Cringeworthy.

Stalking Stéphane: He sings and He dances.  Almost makes you want to go to one of the afterparties.

Johnny Weir prancing about in a yukata.  Actually he seems high in most of this video.

Alexei Yagudin and Johnny Weir in Russia...

Gwendal Peizerat singing on French TV.   So bad.

Stéphane the Cellist (now 14 years old!) won the OSM Standard Life Competition this weekend, so I figured I should do a minimal amount of pitching for his sake. 

Then I discovered that he had a Youtube account which could more or less do it for me: Video 1 Video 2 Video 3 (in trio, worth it more or less just for the cello solo)

Irrelevantly, I have somehow managed to find myself in the position to keep this video alive on Youtube.  For the public good!  NBC would lose in a lawsuit against me.

90% of posts are private, 5% friends-only, 5% public. Ah well. I suck that way.

The first two readings or so are extremely disorienting, but after that the student adapts and picks up on recurring references: "Oh yeah, Lord Blackstone. Intimately acquainted with him. Wait - I'm sorry. I thought you meant the romance novel character..."

Hey, this test guessed that I like Nabokov. :D

( The University Text )

N-Naomi Watts is playing Narcissa Malfoy?  D-Draco is the love child of Jason Isaacs and Naomi Watts?

*

Also, rather self-explanatorily:

Jack Davenport eating cookies.  (Unfortunately, in my opinion, the "plot twist" doesn't really work - the continuity is too good...)

Jack Davenport as an aristocratic hamster.

Jack Davenport ranting about naked women.

ETA: Jack Davenport is a Queen fan and met Freddie Mercury when he was 13!  I think this may explain the "Gay clubs offer better dance music" line.

It's sort of like an emblem for my life philosophy - Why did s/he choose [insert name of Orlando Bloom character or equivalent]?  I simply don't get it.

The screencaps are from here (Ripley only, because the colours are the nicest).

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge.

ETA: Photobucket doesn't allow pictures larger than 1024x768 for free accounts, so at this point the 1280x800 versions are kind of pointless unless you resize them yourself...  Actually it works now, yay. :)

Mr. Ripley, really!  What an absolutely abominable way to treat your British musician boyfriend!!!

I was going to prepare a rant about how Jack Davenport >>>> Orlando Bloom, but then I checked his profile on IMDb and got immensely distracted by the fact that he played "Matt Damon's love interest" (<- IMDb writes, not I) in The Talented Mr. Ripley.  Clearly every tiny leetle interest in my life has been dictated by influences that take root in things watched/read when I was 10 years old.

Because surely I unconsciously prepared a rant about how Jack Davenport >>>> Jude Law when I was 10 years old.

Currently at page 454 of the first volume.

Victor Hugo: "See, I'm just describing this village and plain here because I was passing by on a little field trip. Just to practice my landscape painting skills. Obviously not to prepare the setting for a 68-page-long hour-by-hour recounting of the battle of Waterloo, nuh-uh, no way, not at all, why would you think that, anyway? Clearly I am but a modest writer who must leave the interpretation of such momentous monumental historical events to real historians! Therefore, if the next 68 pages read at all like an hour-by-hour recounting of the battle of Waterloo, spruced up with a covert analysis of the role played by Providence in this unfortunate event, the only possible conclusion that may be drawn is that you, my dear and astute reader, need new reading glasses." *cough*

So I spent the last three days watching the (piano) finals of the 13th International Tchaikovsky Competition, and being reasonably worried that the jury's results will not comply with my results.  Chiefly because I am electing, as a winner, Captain Jack Sparrow.  No one in their right mind would crown Jack Sparrow the winner, after all; he'd take it as an excuse to run away with everyone else's prize money.

(Seriously, though: Amirov had the best sound and phrasing combined.  He was a bit overwhelmed by the orchestra in the Rach 3, and had a gazillion more technical difficulties than in Mr. Laplante's 1978 version, but compared to the other competitors?  He kicked ass - and in total Russian style, which I hope will gain him points with the jury.  Of course, according to the media blurbs provided on the official website, the jury disagrees with me completely with regard to the first four competitors; therefore I have very little hope that Captain Jack will reap his just reward.)

Woke up this morning, read two chapters of The Fountainhead, and then read this:

"I also know there's a lot of people out there that are going to want me to still swim. I really hope that I wanted to swim half as much as other people wanted me to. I also realise that it would be dishonest to myself, dishonest for everyone else, if I was to continue on that basis, because it wouldn't be for me, it would be doing it for someone else. It wouldn't be fulfilling my own dreams, it would be fulfilling the dreams that other people have for me."

"Another wonderful thing has happened. I've been able to take more pride in my accomplishments. At the time I was moving from one to the next, and didn't have a chance to reflect back on them. Now I do, and I am as proud as I've ever been, and I am more proud of all those achievements now that I've stepped away from the sport and not prioritising it."

"I also am very proud of this decision that I've made today. It's a decision that has been difficult. It would have been easier for me to follow the status quo, but I realise that there are things in my life that are more important to me, and I have to pursue them now. I have to pursue those because they are the things that are going to make me a better person, and allow me to continue to contribute to this country and to what I want to do in the future."

From Ian Thorpe's retirement speech.  I hadn't even known that he'd retired.  I empathize completely with his reasons (not quoted above): they're explained in such a clear and no-nonsense way that I am able to recognize them as some of my main reasons for leaving competitive piano.

I have one thing to say about this book:

*HEADDESK*

... That is all.

In honor of petronia's return from Italy... :)

In honor of (studying for) my Canadian history class, here is: The Ode to Newfoundland. Who knew?