This is true, this is real, this is Straight Edge

All y'all know y'all jealous of my brand-new Poison Ivy Converse sneakers -- it's MY BIRTHDAY.



/flicks hair over shoulder
/struts off

GUY AT BAR LAST NIGHT: Are you into Soundgarden? Chris Cornell?
ME: My ex was obsessed with Chris Cornell.
GUY: Really? Like, sexually? That's weird.
ME: Yeah, but he's bisexual so its not as weird as it might otherwise have been.
GUY: He's a good-looking guy.
ME: That he is.
GUY: You're hotter than Chris Cornell.
ME: Thanks. I don't think I'm hotter than Jared Leto, though.
GUY: Maybe not. But Jared Leto is only like 5'4.
ME: Really? At least I'm better than him at something.

Just got home from the concert in Huntington, NY! Some observations:

1. Opening act was The Pretty Reckless, who were actually okay. The frontwoman is apparently someone famous, but since I haven't watched TV regularly in several years, I got no clue what she's famous for. She was about the size of my pinky finger, and as any of my flisties who've met me in person can attest, I am about as big around as the average American's wrist, so you can imagine how tiny she was.

2. Manson looked fabulous. He was not fat at all, and trust me, I was looking. No, he is not heroin thin AntiChrist Superstar-era Manson, but for a 43-year-old man, I think he's in good shape. He should fire his wardrobe person though, as they dressed him in this kind of frilly jacket thing with about three layers, which makes him look puffier than he is.

3. Manson sounded fabulous. This surprised me, because you can clearly tell how years of singing plus substance abuse have done to his voice on the albums. I was expecting his voice to be shot. While he's not as powerful as he was 20 some odd years ago, he still sang his ASS OFF.

4. Twiggy looked fetching in his dress. I was in the third row, so I was only about 20 feet away from him for most of the show. He was very animated, mouthing along to the lyrics in "Antichrist Superstar" and bouncing around on the stage and doing his "Twiggyisms", which are odd sort of jerky moves that probably look cool in his head, but look adorkable in real life. Fred was on the other side of the stage, so I couldn't see much of him, but I yelled "We love you Twiggy! We love you Fred!" anyway.

5. No Marilyn-on-Twiggy molestation this concert, but they had several cute moments. Marilyn used the micstand to mime a fishing rod and pretended to reel Twiggy in. <3 During "Personal Jesus", when he got to the lyric "Someone to hear your prayers, someone who cares", Marilyn grabbed ahold of Twiggy and gave him this INTENSE LOOK and it was like WHOA.

6. During "Disposable Teens", some girl behind me grabbed me by the skirt and humped me. She then fled the scene before I could defend my honor.

7. Marilyn threw a bunch of water bottles into the crowd. I saw Twiggy throw at least one pick, and after the show Jason threw his drumsticks into the crowd, but alas I caught none of them. :(

8. Someone threw a cup of beer and so my hair smells like beer. I saw several cups flung onstage, but as they were all plastic no one was hurt. Manson, Twiggy, and Fred stayed professional and simply ignored them.

9. Manson seemed completely sober and was chatty, which was nice since I don't like it when a band trudges out, plays a bunch of songs, then shuffles off stage, like Tool did when I saw them back in January.

10. Marilyn blew kisses at us at the end!

I've seen this sort of sentiment in various fannish places, but most recently and most persistently on fandomsecrets, a number of statements that all follow a set pattern:

I know that as a bisexual/POC/disabled/bipolar/whatever person, I should like X, but secretly I don't...

I think most recently I've seen this on FS as "I know that since I'm bipolar, I'm supposed to like Emilie Autumn, but I can't stand her." Now quite apart from whether or not you happen to like EA (I adore her music, and consider myself a fan; that doesn't mean I approve of everything she says or does), I'm completely befuddled by this idea that there's anything that we're supposed to like or appreciate, based on whatever feature or circumstance in our lives, just because SOME people who happen to share that feature or circumstance like that particular thing.

I mean, so far as I'm aware, there's no manual on how to be a 'proper' bisexual, or an exam you must pass on what it takes to be a 'real woman', or anything of that ilk. Where did this concept even come from, of feeling inadequate because you don't like X, Y, or Z? Shouldn't we have the power and the freedom to fucking like something or not? Isn't that part of being a fully realized person, to make your own choices and judge something for yourself? There's still not, to the best of my knowledge, some foaming-at-the-mouth fannish militia composed of crazies going door-to-door beating up people for not liking the 'right' things (honestly, they're all too busy dating Snape on the astral plane). There's no manifesto on how to be a POC/asexual/deaf/etc. in fandom, and it'd be spectacularly presumptuous of someone to write one and think they speak for everyone. I think what makes me saddest in the FS examples is that the secret-makers obviously feel bad enough about it to want to keep their feelings secret, but inadequate enough about it to need to express those feelings, somehow.

It makes me think of something I see everyday, more so now that I've been living in NYC: women who seem hesitant to make a STATEMENT about anything, so that while talking about even the most inane subjects, they must pitch their sentences to make a statement sound like a question. "So I went to the store~? And I bought some milk~? And Tom called me~? And was like shocked~?" It's like they're waiting for the universe to agree with them, to tell them what they're saying is correct, when all they're doing is just making a simple sentence about their day! It's okay to make something into a statement. It's okay to just plain not like Emilie Autumn, if that's your prerogative, and it's okay to be bipolar and not like EA. There's no list of requirements you have to fulfil! Like something or don't like it, or be 'meh' about it, it's fine, but don't let it eat you up!

Awwww~! No, that's not my boyfriend, but this song was made for me.

"Jessica" by Eric-Christian Alexander.

In other news, I bought a copy of Danzig Baldaev's Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia, Vol. I, so if anyone needs information about those tattoos for fannish purposes, lemme know and I'll do my best to look it up for you.

caia_comica and I attended the Archie Meets the Punisher showing of Superheroes Who Are Super last night, which is a live word-for-word performance of comic books. It was amazingly HILARIOUS and AWESOME! I thought Caia and I would hurt ourselves laughing. And and and! After the show, I met the Punisher (Ray Fallon)! And I have a photo to prove it!

ENVY ME, BITCHES.

I had this amazingly detailed dream last night that Hank Pym and his daughter, who for some reason was Laurie from Watchmen, were rescuing survivors from New York City after a zombie apocalypse. There were intense scenes of Laurie fighting her way out of a skyscraper while fending off the undead. I'm not sure what this means for my psyche.