Please, Let Me Explain...!

Ok, so many of you have seen this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJuuqxWwcNE  and it may have raised some questions in your heads. You may be pondering "Why on Earth would Emma subject herself to this level of humiliation?", "If she doesn't like the video, why has she put in on Facebook, YouTube and now her blog?" and some of you may even be thinking "How could she do this to me?"

Allow me to tell you what I was thinking.

The recording, as you can see, is from my twelfth Birthday party in 2007. It was a really fun day and the recording of the song itself is actually, in my obviously unbiased opinion, rather good. The video, however, is super-embarrassing, although it was quite fun to make at the time. The problem with Facebook is that I couldn't uplaod the audio recording without the video because of the formatting and the fact that I don't have/want Soundcloud.

The reason for putting the clip up in the first place should be fairly self-explanatory. Friday (19th July) was my last ever day at school and everyone else in the video is in a similar position; having just finished, or being about to finish, forever. Therefore, considering that the song is "School's Out", it seemed only logical that we should relive this amazing moment.

And anyway, it seems to have gained a highly positive (if sarcastic/ironic) response. Please don't kill me. Sorry again, but it was fun...

Soul Band

My favourite people in the entire world (minus one). Except that several of this year's members (Chris, Harry, Harry, Hugo, Asa, Irene) are missing, so pretend they're there too :)

Another fantastic night last night guys, especially the choreography of the trumpets! I am going to miss you so much next year, but I'm sure you'll be glad to see the back of me (especially Jack, who has to put up with my playing at the closest range!!!)

Christmas Fever

Today, my fellow internet nerds, I have done very little, yet again. This is because it's nearly Christmas and nobody can be bothered to do any work. (It does mean we'll have to work super hard at the beginning of next term, but that's a problem for future people, not us :-) )

Today I have:

• Worn a fabulous hat
• Turned up at 8:25am
• Wound up Ben, George,Tom, Ashley, Seb, Peter, Harry and Chris
• Cheered for Eduin (Captain Vegan)
• Played the bari sax (correctly, unlike some...)
• Got told off by Ben for dancing
• Had a driving lesson with Peter Andre
• Turned up late for Chemistry
• Learnt how not to deal with a chip fire in Chemistry
• Almost got blown up by Mr Archer in Chemistry
• Had a chat to Mr Archer about his Christmas plans in Chemistry
• Sold jewelery in the Lunch Hall with Martha, Maria, Misa, Anies, Emma, Beccy, Hannah and Charlotte
• Leila also turned up
• Danced with Anies, Hannah, Beccy and Leila
• Turned up at the Library
• Been called "Emma From Emmerdale" by Seb and Aidan

So, as you can see, Christmas is making me incredibly productive :)

Soul Band - Rehearsal 2011

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce...

THE DAME ALICE OWEN'S SOUL BAND!!!
(Complete with small Me, small Seb, small Peter and Others...)
This is almost two years ago now, but it's still one of the best things I've ever done (except this year's rehearsal - there were more baked potatoes this year!)

Musical Education - Seriously, you should know this by now

As Jeff Lynne has two new albums coming out later this year, I have been pondering the awesome world of music. And by music I mean proper music, not that rubbish that passes for music nowadays (golly, I sound at least sixty)...

OK, so, a brief lesson on Rock Family Trees:

• So, Jeff Lynne was in a band called "The Idle Race", who were alright.
• Then he got bored of them and moved to a band called "The Move" (so called, because all their members moved about a lot).
• Also in "The Move" at that time were Roy Wood, Bev Bevan and Rick Price (previous members include Ace Kefford, Carl Wayne, Trevor Burton and Richard Tandy).
• Roy Wood had moved to "The Move" from "Mike Sheridan and the Nightriders", where he was constantly fighting for supremacy with (surprise surprise) Mike Sheridan.
• After "The Move" Jeff Lynne, Roy Wood and Bev Bevan rejoined forces with Richard Tandy to form "The Electric Light Orchestra" ("ELO"), who are one of the best bands ever to have existed. "ELO" also included about six or seven other members, most of whom played strings (and Bill Hunt, who played keyboard and french horn).
• The incredibly talented Roy eventually left "ELO" to pursue a more lucrative career where he wasn't fighting for supremacy against other incredibly talented musicians (Lynne). Roy then went on to become the lead singer of "Wizzard", one of the other best bands of all time, along with Charlie Grimma, Nick Pentalow, Mike Burney and Rick Price (from "The Move"), amongst others.
• "ELO", in Roy's absence, picked up several new members, including Kelly Groucutt and Mik Kaminski, and became extremely successful. Eventually, somewhere in the midst of the eighties, Jeff Lynne got bored and left, after writing a song about it (as you do). 
• After this, "ELO" picked up an excellent new singer called Eric Troyer and formed "ELO Part II", "Orkestra" and "The Orchestra" in quick succession (Jeff Lynne had the rights to the "ELO" name).
• Both Kelly Groucutt and Jeff Lynne took up solo careers at various points during the nineties and two thousands. Jeff Lynne also "reformed" the "ELO", still having the name rights, but with girls, and very few of the actual original members. They did a tour called "Zoom" in 2001, but everyone seems to agree that the less said about that, the better.
• Jeff Lynne was also in the supergroup with the best lineup ever (Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, George Harrison and Bob Dylan - I know, right?!?!) - The Traveling Wilburys.
• Roy Wood, in the meantime, has been in several bands since Wizzard; firstly there was "The Wizzo Band", which was weird and experimental, "Roy Wood's Helicopter", "Roy Wood's Army", "The Roy Wood Big Band" and, now, "The Roy Wood Rock and Roll Band". ("Roy Wood's Army" and "The Roy Wood Big Band" were both mostly, if not all, female apart from Roy. This makes them doubly awesome. "The Roy Wood Rock And Roll Band" is not all female, as the majority of the musicians from "The Roy Wood Rock And Roll Band" all went off to have families and babies.)
• Roy was also part of a supergroup called "The Rockers", who were the House Band on the TV show "OTT" (which Roy wrote the theme tune for). This band comprised of Phil Lynot, Chas Hodges and John Coghlan.

OK, that's a family tree which is practically horizontal. But awesome. For more information, check out this video, which is the best thing on the web:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRDqpaDEG3k <-- Watch it, or be forever shunned...

Coping with Stress

Hey sexy beasts (and Stanley). Today, for obvious reasons, My ponderings (ponderances? Ponders? Ponderations?) have been on stress, anger and how people deal with such things. What do people do to "release" themselves? I have some friends who work best under stress and don't like bing too relaxed around exam time. I have another friend who combats stress by doing more work, to prove she can. I have yet other friends who relieve their anguish by baking which is lovely, but means everyone I know will have diabetes and heart disease by the time they're 20, including me, but I was going that way anyway.

 

Other people do other things, such as trolling, dancing, sex, self-harm, knitting and a myriad of other, more socially acceptable things as stress-busting techniques. I, as always, have my own take on this. Personally, I do five things:

 

• Exercise; walk, cycle or cross train all my anger and stress away whilst listening to some arse-kicking power rock.
• Mind puzzles; solitaire, Majong, crosswords (to which I today answered slut and moist in the same puzzle) and www.memrise.com whilst listening to some arse-kicking power rock.
• Kick-arse power rock; sing, play, listen, annoy family with...
• Cry, shout, scream & get massively angry verbally. Usually at myself.
• Sleep. A lot.

 

These are all, I find, incredibly useful. As is eating, but I'm not allowed to do that any more :(
Another thing I do to stop from stressing/exploding is to change the topic of discussion, or what I'm thinking about. If I'm Stressed about exams, I'll think about saxophone music, or normal music, or about how awesome my life will be when all my exams are finished and I can finally do what I want. If I'm stressed about the future, or relationships (hahahahaha) or whatever, then thinking about work and upcoming projects is incredibly useful, or again thinking about music nc playing the saxophone keeps me from melting or something similar. If the stress is caused by an argument, I sleep.

 

Again, eating is also useful, but bad.

 

Comments?

An Apology

I have been asked to point out that Oliver is not the only person to read this, Misa does too....

She sent me this photo: Who is that person? They don't look half bad...

<--- Apart from this one!

Surprisingly, I like some of these. Which, for me, is hilarious... The middle one is just too sexy.

You Tube

Hello again,

Today I have pondered why on Earth do people put videos of themselves doing funny things on You Tube?? I mean, look at these fools for example; they look so stupid...

Why would you do this?

(That's clearly not me shouting "Do it again!" on this one)

It's ridiculous that people would allow themselves to be filmed and have these funny videos put up on the internet for the world to see. I mean, honestly. And clearly I'm not the cameraman and the person who put them up on the internet or anything...

Sorry. This post had nothing to do with anything, but you chose to read it. It's not my fault.