I've moved.

Well, not in the literal moved-house sense. No. I've moved over to tumblr. Same random crap, just a hell of a lot more of it. I probably won't be posting on here anymore, but I'm not going to delete this blog. I might wanna look back sometime.

tumblr links ahoy!

My personal account: http://agentorangefaye.tumblr.com/
FYGustavWood account I run: http://fuckyeahgustavwood.tumblr.com/ (let's be honest, looking like that, he needed one)
and because these guys needed one too: http://fuckyeahyashin.tumblr.com/

But yes, ta-ta blogspot! You were good to me!
xxx

Hello fashion, it's been a while

Listening to: The Blackout - Wild Nights And Fist Fights
Reading: The Asylum For Wayward Victorian Girls by Emilie Autumn

It only occurred to me that I haven't done a style orientated update since...well, at least the end of January. So, with that in mind, I thought I'd carry on my style inspiration of last month into this one, February being so short anyway. But before I get to that - in honor of all things fashion I have to say RIP Alexander McQueen. I was so shocked and gutted to hear that he'd passed away last week. He was one of the few designers who I really admired, he was a genius basically.


Everything about this dress is amazing, I mean c'mon it's got antlers! The net over the face reminds me of that red dress Lady Gaga wore to the VMA's last year and a similar outfit with the black net over the face she wore to another event. And the detail in the dress is gorgeous - so much lace and ruffling detail, it screams fantasy woodland - perfect for the season it was from.













Now this dress, just...wow. It's floaty, feminine but still has a bit of an edge with the colours and the slightly untidy hem. It's very Mulan-esque to me (that was on tv the other day!) and simply wonderful.




And who hasn't seen these beautiful things?! Lady Gaga sported some McQueen fashion again in her Bad Romance video and it has to be said, she is amazing for being able to stand let alone walk in these out-there, yet ever-so-amazing pieces of footwear. How I wish I could have a pair just to sit on a shelf as a piece of art. Sigh.


Anyway, I could go on for much longer as I haven't even scratched the surface of the brilliant McQueen, but I'm trying to get my 'thirst' for fashion back. It didn't disappear completely, hell no! I've just been more occupied with other things - Kerrang! Tour and all the other concerts I have lined up, for example - and also college work has been a bit of a pain. Plus, I haven't had a good session on lookbook.nu in a while, though I am following them on tumblr
(me - agentorangefaye.tumblr.com)

So without further ado, my style inspiration continues to be Miss Audrey Kitching.



Seeing as this is from her NYE photos on buzznet, Audrey is clearly in full celebration mode. I'm really enjoying the colour in this one, keeping everything pretty simple with a lace top and lilac shawl I think that is. But what I love most about this one is the hair and make-up more than anything. Usually I prefer Audrey when she has really pink hair - see photos from 07/08 - however, I think this softer pink works really well as her style has progressed to having a more prominent vintage feel.

Aside from that the make-up looks really nice here - then again it always looks fabulous! The black liner teamed with glittery liner is perfect for adding sparkle to any outfit and the cherry red/pink lipstick sets the whole look off wonderfully.

Hopefully I'll remember to do a couple more of these blogs before February flies past and March arrives with promise of many, many amazing bands to see. Lady Gaga in 16 days!! Seriously! It's that far away! I think I might die from excitement. Lets have a list of who I'll be seeing in the next three months shall we?

(March)
Lady Gaga
Emilie Autumn
HIM
Yashin
Young Guns

(April)
Madina Lake
AFI
Jeffree Star - not 100% yet since he's playing with Brokencyde :|

(May)
Kill Hannah & My Passion

Bring. It. ON!

I used to be a werewolf, but I'm alright now

Listening to: She Is Macho - The Blackout,
Put Your Hands Where I Can See Them (album) - Yashin

God, I'm obsessed with TBO so much now. I can't get over how good they were last week - I need to see them again. I even bought the 'Children of the night' bag and a badge set off their webstore on Sunday. It was either that or a tshirt. The bag & badges worked out cheaper with postage than the tshirt cost without. Good deal, I think so. I had a stint on youtube yesterday watching TBO album recording diaries and they still make me laugh so hard. Especially No.3 :') That and I listened to Sean on BBC Switch from Sunday night and oh yes, I lolled. Gotta love him. And in true appreciation of the Welsh wonder, I drew/painted this:


Yeah, not obsessed at all.

In other news, Yashin's album got it's arse here today. Even though I downloaded it over the weekend - "WHY?" I hear you cry! LOVE, that's why - it's fantastic! Seriously couldn't have asked for anything better from them. It even came with a lovely little Yashin/Monster energy promo flyer, which has a nice fold line down Dave's face :') Oh lolz. I really can't wait until March now and hopefully I'll go to see them in Leeds too. Such dedication I have to those boys.

And in KHK related news, I am now Colonel for North East England! Happy times :) Getting tickets for KH this weekend along with those for Yashin & HIM. WIN! I can't wait. This year's going to be so fucking good!

We are the children of the night! We are the children! pt2

Cont.

The Blackout - WOW! I thought they'd be good live, but I didn't think they'd be THAT good! From the second they came on, right until they went off they were full-on, energetic and very for crowd-participation. First song 'Children of The Night', everyone was chanting "We are the children of the night, we are the children." without fail and especially in 'It's High Tide Baby' with the 'Whoa-oh''s. But the highlight had to be the last three songs they played. For 'Top of The World' Katie P from K! magazine came out and sang with them! It was such a good moment - that I got on video ;) Then during 'Save Ourselves' the 'whoa-oh''s made an appearance again and during the breakdown Sean told us all to kneel on the floor. Actual, yes. Kneel. Down. "Or fuck off!" When the one person wouldn't Sean had a screaming hissy-fit at the dude which was hilarious. So, he knelt down and when the song kicked in again everyone jumped up at the same time. Spectacular. And to finish they played 'I'm A Riot? You're A Fucking Riot!' So. Much. Win. Oh yeah, and I got spat on by Sean...


Phew. In between TBO and ATL they played Bad Romance and literally everyone in the venue started singing along. It was amazing & hilarious at the same time :') Then loads of teenies wet themselves when they played Paramore :/ Hmm... moving on.

Finally All Time Low were up! The whole thing was just like a dance party. I managed to video 'Stella' and get a few decent photos, but I'd used up most of the memory space with videos of TBO -I got four, yes FOUR - but even so, they were really good. It was lovely when Alex played 'Remembering Sunday' and they did 'Jasey Rae' (L) Lovelovelove! Although it felt like their set was really short. They played about...eleven songs, but so did TBO - although they might have played one more - and it just felt like ATL weren't really on for that long. Hmm. Because of that I felt like The Blackout should have headlined.


Even so! It was an amazing night. I'm still aching, have crippled feet, sore throat even though I was ill to begin with. I seriously lost my voice after The Blackout. I gave up singing half of ATL's songs apart from chorus' and the last two songs. I sounded like a man when I was talking on the way home :| Oh and I was so amused when I spotted Sean and Snoz from TBO at the side of the stage dancing to ATL playing 'Damned If I Do Ya' :') Good times.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE GOOD NEWS!

Kill Hannah and My Passion on May 5th


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


So overloaded with excitement it's unreal! :D But I haven't been able to sneeze for like an hour, so that's sort of killing my buzz :| Ha. Anyway, I'm off to finish uploading the other three TBO vids to FBook.

We are the children of the night! We are the children! pt1

Listening to: various live/studio videos of The Blackout - 5:19 performance 'Children of The Night', Radio 1's In Session 'Save Ourselves', Live Lounge cover 'Boys and Girls' vs 'Shut Up and Drive'

Well, I predicted it and by god K! tour did NOT disappoint in any way. After spending a good three hours(!) queuing in the freezing cold, enduring half an hour of snow before doors opened, attempting to keep warm with Starbucks hot chocolate and Burger King chips, I can safely say Wednesday night was the most incredible night of my life thus far. I've never been so crushed at a concert and never managed to stay front centre for the full thing! Granted I did get separated from Danii, Coral, Katrina, Gary and Lauren :/ but I had an amazing time anyway.
So, My Passion were the first band of the evening and got everyone moving pretty well, pretty fast. I think we were all still freezing and just wanted to get warm like. And how long have I wanted to see My Passion? A year? Maybe more? Finally got to see Laurence in all his Sweeny Todd hair, muscly armed and legging-ed (srsly) glory! He jumped into the crowd at one point and I kinda arm-raped him. But that's to be expected. Great start to a fantastic night.

Next up - Young Guns! Oh yes, bring it on. Oh and I totally bonded with this guy who came round asking if people wanted to sign up for this Academy competition (forgot exactly what) over YG and Yashin. It went something like this:

(As I was wearing my Yashin hoodie to keep warm)
Dude 1: Oh look, another Yashin hoodie!
Dude 2: You coming to Glamour of The Kill?Me: Hell yes!
Dude 1: (explains competition and stuuuuff)......
Dude 2: So who you all here to see?
Me: Everyone really.
Dude 2: But if you had to choose...
Me: (hahgfgsvfk) The Blackout aaand....Young Guns
Dude 2: YES! *high five*
Me: Got my Young Guns tshirt on and all.
Dude 2: Oh really? Which one?
Me: The Winter Kiss one.
Dude 2: SNAP! Me too! You get the bundle?
Me: Yeah!

Lolz a bit :')

Where was I? Yes! Young Guns! They were actually amazing live, sound, performance - everything. Gus even slipped over at one point, I did a lol inside but it was so adorable. After the song finished he was like "Okay, so let's just pretend you didn't all see me fall over..." Bless him. Then during 'In The Night' (L) Gus jumped into the crowd - got arm-raped by me - kicked me in the face then somehow got stuck in the crowd. He stayed there for most of the last song (Daughter of The Sea) and Simon attempted to drag him out by his ankle but failed and just let the security do all the work. Mint! I'm so glad they got a really good reaction from the crowd, it's really unusual for a support band to get that but y'know they did really well. Can't wait to see them again.

By now I was pretty sweaty and getting even more squashed by teenies blates trying to push through to the front, when they clearly wasn't ANY way through. Urgh. Anyhow, just before The Blackout came on someone sprayed Relentless from somewhere and it almost ruined my YG tshirt. But it smelt of raspberries and I kept getting wiffs of it throught TBO, which was quite tasty ;)


- So I'm splitting this into two parts, cause Blogspot is being gay :| The Blackout and All Time Low photos next.

British band love-in

After buying three, yes three(!), music magazines yesterday - Kerrang!, Rocksound and NME (urgh, only for the G.Way interview) - I realised how fucking good British bands are right now. Thanks especially to RS for featuring so many of said Bri'ish music in the 'Exposure' section, the 2009 Readers Poll and on the free CD. (Oh and they have a lovely article on Emilie Autumn, so extra snaps for them!)


So, lets start with the British bands that I've mentioned before and been into for a while:

• Enter Shikari
• Lostprophets
• Bullet For My Valentine
• Placebo
• Funeral For A Friend
• My Passion
• Yashin
• The Horrors
• The Blackout
• Young Guns
  

True, I haven't been listening to all of them in recent months but some of them (ES, LPS, BFMV, FFAF) have helped me discover other bands and so on. Some of these other bands I've found are:

• Shadows Chasing Ghosts
• Deaf Havana
  
• Don Broco
  
• We Are The Ocean
  
• Kids In Glass Houses
• You Me At Six
• Tiger Please
• Twin Atlantic

Shocking that You Me At Six are up there, I know, since they're already onto their second album. BUT! I did like Save It For The Bedroom when it first came out, everyone else soon caught on, I lost interest blah, blah, blah. Now the couple of songs I have heard off 'Hold Me Down' (The Consequence & Underdog) are pretty damn good! I'm considering going out and buying that album sometime soon, as well as 'The Betrayed' by Lostprophets.

But as is expected, there's one band I really can't get into.


Bring Me The Horizon.


Admittedly, they're a pretty big band now, so good for them. But the music....eh, that's a completely different story altogether. I hated the first album, actual hatred I tell you! And I can only bear to listen to two songs off their second CD (Chelsea Smile and The Sadness Will Never End), but even then I find myself saying "What the fuck am I doing listening to this?" I think it's down to the fact that I can hear words coming from Oli Sykes' mouth in said two songs rather than a bunch of growls and whatever else. There was also a hatred for Oli too, but since that K! interview in October, it's more of an indifference towards him.

Anyway, British bands are all over atm. Look at the Kerrang! tour line-up, (for which my ticket finally came yesterday!)
We have, My Passion, Young Guns and The Blackout all on the same bill! Topped off by US band All Time Low. I think that's amazing, in the past couple of years it's been a 3:1 or 2:2 ratio of US:UK bands, take 2008 for example.

Coheed and Cambria - US
Madina Lake - US
Fightstar - UKCirca Survive - US

2009?
Mindless Self Indulgence - US
Dir En Grey - Japan... class them as non-UK
Bring Me The Horizon - UK
In Case Of Fire - UK
Black Tide - US

So this year it's nice to see the majority of bands playing are British rather than American. And let's see what Sean Smith and Gavin Butler from The Blackout said in the RS interview:

How do you think British alternative music has changed over the last five to ten years?
Sean: I think it's got a lot more commercial and I don't mean that in a bad way - it's a good thing. It's good to have something that can stand up to the rehashed American bullshit. On Warped Tour this year there were a lot of bands that were identical, there are so many that sound exactly the fucking same and I hate that kids love it when there are so many better, more original British bands.

Is British rock about to take over?
Gavin: We have a very strong foothold now, it's exciting to see what's going to happen.
Sean: Listening to the radio at the moment, for every American band played there's an equal or better British act. It's amazing.

And there we have it. Let the British band love-in commence!

Film overload.

Listening to: Young Guns
(my Winter Kiss bundle arrived today! Happy face!)

I'm making up for lost time here. As stated in a previous post, Daybreakers appealed to me and last Friday my brother and I took a much-delayed trip to the cinema. Despite so-so reviews I wasn't put off. The trailer looked good and REAL vampires are an instant win in my opinion. There was plenty of blood, gore and a nice dose of projectile vomit. Hm. (Just watch it and see) The plot was great, a world populated by vampires after some huge outbreak leaving the remaining humans being farmed for their blood, and there was some nice prosthetics in there too. When I say 'nice', I mean disgusting yet oh-so-good, of course. The script seemed a bit dodgy in parts but overall it wasn't too painful. And oh, the ending was a beautiful mass of slow-mo, blood and vampires eating each other. But, perhaps most importantly (at least for me) NOT A SPARKLING VAMPIRE TO BE HAD! Shit, these ones actually BURST INTO FLAMES when the stepped into sunlight, drank human blood, had visible fangs and are so high-tech it's unreal. FUCK ME, THE WORLD MAKES SENSE AGAIN!!



See that SMeyer? That is an example of a vampire. Learn.

Tomorrow I'm going to see Avatar after college. IN 3D! Yeah, yeah, I know I'm a bit slow on this one since it's been running for quite a few weeks now, but I thought 'go now after the majority have already seen it.' That and I was feeling kinda out-of-the-loop when it came up in recent Film Studies classes. Sad face.


Also, I've made a list of films I need to buy for these reasons:

1. simply to update my collection
2. have a wider knowledge of films (Film Studies student, helloooo)
   
3. catch up on some good ones I've missed
4. for my own joy of having a new DVD to watch

Okay, so on my list of ones to look out for and possibly buy this weekend are:

• Dorian Gray*
• The Hangover (hm..)
  
• Requiem For A Dream*
• Heathers
• The Breakfast Club
• Reservoir Dogs
• A Clockwork Orange
  

* = high to definite chance of buying.

It's an ongoing list, which is pretty obvious as there's so many films that I haven't seen, which I really should. Anyway all this talking about films lark is wearing me out. After a 2 1/2 hour Film Studies exam I just wanna sleep. It made my brain hurt.

Some more goals...

Two more things I want to do this year:

• Get an industrial piercing
  

• GO TO DOWNLOAD!

Okay, the industrial I've wanted for about...however long ago it was when I got the top of my ear done anyway. And now I have my own income (hellooo EMA), I can easily pay for it myself. Hmm, must research some places either in Middlesbrough or Newcastle.

NEXT!


Holy Jesus Christ on a bicycle! Download is on my birthday weekend this year! Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I've never been to a festival before, but there clearly is no better choice for that than Download. Fuck you Reading and Leeds! Pile of indie shite. *Ahem* Regardless, Download just seems ten times better than RandL, plus the line up in the past has been quite amazing. Last year we had My Passion, The Blackout, Young Guns, Enter Shikari, You Me At Six and Mofoing MOTLEY CRUE(!!!) just to name a few. Oh, Kill Hannah, Lostprophets and HIM played in 08. In all seriousness, it would be an amazing-mind-blowing present. Please?

MAT’S NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS 2010:

I just had to post this from Mat's Raccoon Society blog. They're too funny to not be shared.

1. Learn how to become a great cat burglar.

2. Learn how to use swords

3. Start digging

4. Give less money to the homeless. They r insane.

5. Say "I was wonderful last night" every day to the guy that sells me my morning coffee-

6. Eat more spanish olives, or tangerines… foods that are round

7. Shirt: Yes, I do know what you are saying

8. Say "Fuck you, world" right before bed every night- just in case u die in your sleep.

9. Scowl at anyone who says, “have a good one.”

10. Take the shells off the peanuts

11. Get to know the REAL Will Smith. Not the one i hate from his countless movies, albums, interviews and appearances.

12. Stop referring to all Puerto Ricans as "ticking time bombs" and stop using the word Jihad in so many jokes

13. Call Elias by his real name, not Chupacabre, Jabberwalkie or The Human Carp

14. Start a deathmetal band called Holy Shit. If that’s taken, try Holy Fucking Shit, and start a rivalry with Holy Shit.

15. Drinking alone is perfectly fine. Doing a beer bong alone is kinda borderline.

16. Avoid Wyoming

17. Die in the Chelsea Hotel.

18. Don’t leave the house unless you really, really have to

19. Don’t use the term “ape shit” so casually.

20. Impersonate a priest... pretend to pray for people, they won’t know the difference… Maybe even get some free shit.

21. Walk with a limp and a cane... whenever anyone asks, “What happened?”, say, "I got gored running with the bulls in Pamplona." When they say, "Really?" , say, "Why the fuck would i make something up like that?"

22. Wear spy camera at all times

23. Don’t judge by Rock Me Amadeus alone; Really dive in to Falco’s entire catalog.

24. Stop eating Twix bars and salsa in my sleep

25. Spread the word that, unless you’re eating a beating frog heart in Singapore, your daily Tweets about your meals are not interesting.

26. Remind myself in the mirror every day, “If a band called Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch can sell 6 million albums, NOTHING is impossible.”

27. Stop dressing like i live in a bog.

28. Start carrying a tape measure around. Have an assistant follow me closely wearing a lab coat, holding a clipboard. Periodically stop and measure random peoples’ shit, (their coffee cup, table leg, sandwich, etc…) As the assistant collects the data, alternate between looking pleased with some measurements and VERY unpleased with others.

29. Start a rock band called Suspicious Package.

30. Start a gay DJ duo called Delicious Package.

31. Make them fight

We want your blood, now.

Listening to: Winter For Lovers - My Passion

Aah My Passion, how I've missed listening to you. This seems like a show ritual, I start listening to the bands I'm going to see about a month in advance. Well...in this case, approximately 25 days in advance. So looking forward to it. And in two weeks time I should have my tickets and the Young Guns "Winter Kiss" bundle. Result! Anyway, I need to get motivated. Seriously. I have work to do, but I need inspiration. Hmm. The snow's doing me no good either. It nearly gave me a hideous case of snow blinded-ness as I was walking home from college this afternoon. I didn't think it was possible, but yknow when you're walking along the road, minding your own business and you suddenly become dizzy from walking along a sheet of never ending white...shit, basically. I seriously hope it fucks off by the time K! Tour gets here, or I am not going to be amused in the slightest.

In other news, I really fancy seeing Daybreakers. It's set in the near future and the human race has been almost wiped out by a disease that turns everyone into a vampire. The blood supply starts to run out, due to the lack of humans obv, and the remaining humans want to start rebuilding the human race. Cue epic battle between humans and vampires? I fucking hope so. I've seen the adverts on tv a few times (took me a while to realise there's a Placebo song playing) and it looks JUST the way a vampire film should. Blood, darkness, fangs, rain, more darkness, fire and probably more blood. None of this Twilight shit. Urgh. It kinda has the same look as Underworld, but regardless of this I wanna see it.

But now, I'll leave you with what is probably one of my favorite photos of Audrey Kitching. Circa 2006. I adore the colour of her hair (ahem), the glitter eye make-up, doubling up of the tiras and the jewelry that looks suspiciously like Tarina Tarantino's. Actually... I'm pretty sure it is.

Hello 2010. This month's inspiration is...

Watching: The Big Bang Theory. Season 3 Episodes 8, 9, 10

Well hello 2010. How are you this fine snowy evening? Me, I'm doing quite well. I'm multi-tasking at the moment, writing this blog while taking part in a much loved KHK chat on msn. I love those guys so much. Anyway, New Year's was quite strange in a way, but still. Andrew and I watched all of Gossip Girl season one, ate pizza, chips and garlic bread, then after it went midnight we had a bit of Lady GaGa rave and made a Chuck Bass "Bass does not approve" mascot on a stick. Don't ask.

So, new year, new 'me'. Apparently. I'm starting this by trying to be a bit more...adventurous with my clothing. That said, each month or so I'm going to choose one person as my style inspiration. This month I've decided to focus on Audrey Kitching.























Admittedly, Audrey's style may be a bit... 'out-there' for some people's tastes, but it takes guts to pull off some of the clothes she wears. She's notorious for her hair bows, and is very DIY with clothes, customizing tshirts and even making her own headbands. I'd describe her style as vintage with a modern 'punk rock' twist. She takes cute dresses and layers them with leggings, heels and tonnes of accessories such as leather fingerless gloves, rings, feathered headbands, belts, huge sunglasses and as many necklaces as she can pile on.
















For this look, I like the way Audrey has kept the top half of her outfit simple, with a white coat and shirt, then combined it with a pair of bold leopard leggings. I love how she's piled on the accessories, yet it doesn't look OTT and the big floppy hat and red lipstick set the look off perfectly.

Throughout the month I'll post some photos of Audrey that I like, be it the hair, clothes, shoes or make-up she's wearing. It might even be that I dig out some older photos, circa 2006 and talk about those, and possibly some looks that I'm not too keen on will make an appearance.

RIP Jimmy Sullivan

This has to be the worst news ever. One of my favorite drummers, Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan passed away yesterday. He was only 28. At first I thought, 'No way, The Rev can't die' but after reading Avenged Sevenfold's blog it hit me. Actually, that's a lie, it hasn't hit me. I'm still in denial about it. I know he's passed away but part of me doesn't want to believe it. Of all the people that have passed away this year, Jimmy's death is the one that's affected me most. That may sound awful and very ignorant of me, but I'm pretty biased on this subject since A7X literally were my summer and autumn of 2007.

From late spring, possibly all the way through until 2008, my life seemed to revolve around this band. (It's so weird for me to think back on this) During the summer, all we would do was get together on a weekend, buy lots of crap food (chocolate, bread sticks, spreadable cheese and grapes) then go to someone's house and watch the 'All Excess' dvd and talk about our love for Jimmy and Brian. Thus, 'Gev Nights' were born. We even wrote fanfics on mibba because we loved them so much (oh how I miss those days...), granted, I never did finish any of mine. Still to this very day. As sad as this sounds, we adapted our favorite members' - Jimmy and Brian - stage names to our own. And I've only just remembered that I was nicknamed The Reverend Tholomew Faye. Oh my...

Back on point, A7X are an extremely important part of my life. I don't listen to them as much as I did back in '07, in all honesty, today's the first time I've listened to them properly in...a year and a half. Wow. This feels so surreal. Back then I suppose I took him for granted, assumed he'd just always be there. Now...I don't even know what to think.
I'm devastated, crushed, on-the-verge-of-tears (not trying to be dramatic), heartbroken...so I can't begin to imagine how his family and the rest of A7X feel...

All my personal feelings/memories aside, Jimmy was an amazingly talented drummer, who was far too young to be taken from the world. A7X won't ever be the same without him. My thoughts are with his family and friends. I hope he finds a Stallion Duck in heaven to chase around and be forever in awe of.

RIP JIMMY <3

Goodnight, Goodbye 2009

Watching: Taken
Listening to: The Fame Monster - Lady GaGa

Here's the obligatory end-of/round-up-of-the-year blog. Even though it's not the end of 09 yet.
Anyway...

Well I'm so releived xmas is over for another year. It was less painful than I expected, but then again I did get my Lady GaGa ticket and a new phone amongst other things, so it wasn't so bad. Now I'm just glad that I can look forward to the new year and all the amazing things that are set to happen. That said, this year has had some low points - quite early on - and the only way to explain how I felt during that time would be: "I'm-so-annoyed-I-want-to-headbutt-a-sword". One thing that I really appreciated was the super-long summer holiday. I finished in June rather than July and didn't start college until September. In those three months I basically went into hibernation, hardly went out, stayed holed-up in my room watching Gossip Girl online for about two weeks straight. Good times. Despite all that, here's a list of things that happened to make 2009 memorable:

Being part of the Divino McMat crew
Seeing ML for the second time,
meeting Harry & Kev from Yashin,
Callum from Flood of Red
and Danny from The Audition.
Having a win of a 16th bday party
Passing my GCSE's
Going to Edinburgh and York
Bumming about all summer watching Gossip Girl
KHK Stickam chats
Madii's innuendo's on Twitter
Papa Schlumpf, Schlumpfine and Schlaubi (L)
Coming in 2nd in KHK Mission #8
Getting commented off Kill Hannah
Alice In Wonderland themed tea party
Seeing Yashin again at the most insane show ever
Meeting Paul (the legend) from Yashin
NOT going to see New Spoon
Founding the Fail Club & Cool Kids Club with Madii
Crowing Paul, the legend, the elite member of the CKC
Paul telling Madii to propose to Lewis

And now that I can look back and say, 'Yeah, 2009 was pretty decent' without any hint of sarcasm, here's a list of things I've got to look forward to in 2010. It's mainly concerts but what the fuck ever, here we go:

Kerrang! Tour - 03/2/10
Yashin Street Team Promo Day
'Put Your Hands Where I Can See Them'
'Screamworks: Love In Theory and Practice'
'The Asylum For Wayward Victorian Girls' book
Lady GaGa 'The Monster Ball' tour 4/3/10
Emilie Autumn 'The Asylum' Tour 7/3/10
H.I.M - 16/3/10
Yashin and Glamour of the Kill - 24/3/10
AFI - 11/4/10
My 17th

As you can see, March is my busiest month thus far. Part of my new year's resolution is to go to as many concerts as I can and...I think I've got a pretty damn good start. The thing is, most (US) bands tour early in the year/in the spring then we don't see them again until autumn/winter. I guess that's just how it works, but the US gets Warped Tour. We should have a UK version. Please.

I've just looked on my Top 25 Most Played list on iTunes and discovered that Angel by Madina Lake is my most played song of 09 with 80 plays. Meh, doesn't sound like too much but w/e. Then (looking at artists) we've got Kill Hannah, Metro Station (HOW?), Yashin and Emilie Autumn. Hmm...stats suck. So here's a list, yes another one, of bands/artists that sum up this year for me:

Kill Hannah
Madina Lake
Yashin
Lady GaGa
AFI
Emilie Autumn
The Blackout
Young Guns
My Passion
Patrick Wolf

Resolutions for the new year? I has none, other than going to concerts and the obvious 'try-to-be-healthier' thing. But one thing I want to keep telling myself is work hard and allow myself to have fun. I feel like I've spent a good portion of this year being too bitter and cynical about everything in light of everything that happened. Though that's a good thing. It's helped me prioritise things a lot more. Anyway, here's some photos that I feel sum up my year perfectly.

Until 2010, chow x

Never too early to plan an outfit or three

I'm sat watching The Royal Variety Performance waiting for Lady GaGa to perform. Since it's pre-recorded, I've seen photos of her sat at a piano 10ft in the air, wearing a mad-fabulous red latex dress, with a huge Elizabethan style collar and red rhinestones around her eyes that makes her look like part of a circus act. Oh how I love. I'll post a photo later.

Speaking of GaGa, I need something to wear next year when I go see her. I found an amazing pair of sequined shorts in New Look last week, so I thought 'Hey, let's see what I can get from these.' And here's what I got:

Outfit #1

• black studded tshirt
• sequin shorts
• buckle and chain biker boots
• stretch gem bracelet

This outfit's quite nice and simple. The shorts are really the statement piece, which is kinda what I was going for, the gem bracelet fits in well with the sequins and the studs on the tshirt and the boots just tie things together nicely. I'd team this with a pair of tights, either simple black tights, possibly with a pair of net tights layered over the top. Or my pair of Amanda Palmer-esque vertical striped tights.

Outfit #2

• 

• light pink top
• sequin shorts
• sleeveless waistcoat
• wide silver waist belt
• metallic and net hair bow
• set of five bangles
  

A splash of colour here, which is different to most things I find myself wearing these days (haha). I'd have the tshirt tucked in the shorts with the wide belt over the top to hide the line between the two pieces, which just makes things look a bit more tidy and well-put together. I was looking for a cropped waistcoat or even better, a bolero jacket. But whatever. The accessories go together well, and just help finish the outfit. For the shoes, I'd probably wear the same boots in the above picture. Oh and a pair of tights. Just a side note on this one, it's inspired by an outfit Audrey Kitching wore earlier this year.



It was just so awkward trying to find a black bolero jacket anywhere online this time of year, since they're not really the kind of thing people are wearing now. And you'd think an elasticated sequin waist belt would be easy enough to find, right? No. Every other colour except pink.



One day I'll do a style blog on Audrey, since I find her style quite fabulous. I wish I could get away with wearing half the stuff she does. And yes, she was my inspiration for dying my hair pink.





Outfit #3

• large Misfits tshirt
• wet look leggings
• leather biker jacket
• heeled lace-up trainer boot
• multi-shimmer sequin hat
• safety pin hoop earings
• MAC glitter in silver
• MAC lipstick in Pink Nouveau

This isn't really an outfit I think I'd wear to a GaGa show, or any other show for that matter - well, maybe the leggings and baggy tshirt combo - but I do love it oh-so-much. I think this outfit would be perfect for going out on a weekend, doing shopping, hanging out with friends or just as an everyday look. I'm kinda in love with glitter as eyeshadow right now. I blame myself for watching clips from Labyrinth on youtube earlier today.

So now I've got some ideas of what I could wear to see GaGa - I mean, it's not like I'd out-do her is it? - and I'm probably going to have a bit of a spend on Saturday. Clothes, eye glitter, hair dye, sequins and a ticket for Kerrang! tour doesn't sound like a bad shopping list to me. Now excuse me, True Blood's starting...