Gemmaxloves' Journals

I Met AJ Buckley

YAY!!!

Awesome weekend, got to meet him, got to interview him, it was just incredible.

Bless his cottons though he wasn't well at all, but he kept going and was just lovely. Definitely definitely possibly my favourite interview so far.

I mean you think oh what will they be like, I mean yeah big star - csi New York and all that, but he was so nice. Loved talking to him.

And can I also add that him and his friend/co-star on Ghostfacers are both insane. They are hilarious, and again both friendly and lovely as were his other 2 co-stars.

Best weekend ever!!!

Basically Friday was the opening ceremony when the 4 actors were like hello *waves*, my mind pretty much was going 'you should be 5 inches tall and in a small glass fronted box', strange. Then was the meet and greet - glass of wine, sitting at a table and the actors coming around to each table one at a time to chat - Dustin, Brittany, Travis and the AJ, very surreal but great fun.

GHOST WALK WOOOOO. And surprise the actors joined us on it, so there was some random chattering to them, again very very nice lovely people.

Saturday was pretty much the group panel followed by my being rushed to the room in the hour break to chat to AJ (I think he's amazing by the way) then it was photos and more talks and then again going back to chat some more, more photos and hellos and randomness then PARTY! I went as the girl from Blair Witch, and AJ, Travis and Dustin came to check out the party (liked it, minor chat/comment) and I dont know where it came from but I walked across the room to go ask AJ something, I don't do that, but he's lovely so it was all good.

Sunday more talks and autodraphs, clsing ceremony and that was that.

We went in a haunted house - the tv show Most Haunted has been there and their psychic got strangled by a ghostie, haha and we went into the house and did the walk around, there was screaming, it was funny.

Oh and yeah our hotel - also probably haunted, nice to know isn't it.

I'm going to wait patiently for next time.

Spookily Correct

Gemma is as bright as a button and as sharp as a blade. If there's ever anything you need to know, Gemma is the person to ask. Chances are she will know the answer already. If not she will go and ask someone else and she will keep asking until she gets an answer. Gemma simply cannot stand the idea of a question that has no answer, so if she cannot get a satisfactory explanation she will invent one.

A good one. She is after all as bright as a button. There are though, some questions in life which are best left unanswered. The rest of us know to leave them alone. Gemma cannot resist the urge to explore them. She is drawn to such questions, like, well, like a button to a button hole! Gemma answers these questions cleverly because, after all as sharp as a blade, but then you know what they say about people who are too sharp...

Gemma can be very cutting sometimes. She doesn't mean to be. She just can't help it. Gemma can't stop herself from daring to say what other people hardly dare to think. This is why Gemma often gets herself into trouble but it is also why Gemma is such an interesting person to know. Life with Gemma is never dull.

There's always an adventure, a challenge or a deal to be done. Gemma loves to do deals. The word 'no' is not in her vocabulary. When she hears it Gemma is immediately tempted to reply "Is that 'no' as in 'maybe', 'no' as in 'I need to be persuaded,' or 'no as in 'not quite yet?' Luckily Gemma gets clean away with this kind of attitude. Gemma, at least when it comes to the unanswerable question, is living proof of the old adage "Who dares...wins".

Usually I'm not too fussed about astrological predictions and whatnot, but knowing me and knowing what people have said about me, I think that this is probably accurate. I think this is the most accurate one for me. It's very strange.

I'm kind of creeped out by it, but it's rather true haha.

Reminiscent

So all the recent goings on have left me rather complacent and rather wishing it was still 2003 (although not really ).

Seriously, I don't even well can't even form a logical expanation in my own head for the way this year has currently turned out.

I mean granted last year was NKOTB (but thats okay we count that as this year - its the year of big things after all)

Okay so I've managed to cross a lot of things off my list of things to do/achieve:

Seeing NKOTB - done

Seeing Enrique Iglesias - done AND 2nd row from the front I thank you

Having a real conversation and mini hang with Mark Read - done (no really you have no idea how overly infatuated with him I was back in the day, heck I went to Norway to see a1 on one of their last shows)

Managed to get myself a contact that could set me up in the future with a face to face along with Carmine Giovinnazo - done; I know shocked me too, but it's there should I have chance to request it, all I would need is a yes from them

Met Bret Hart - done, and it was fun, I went alone, loved it

Read the Twilight series - done 4 books in 4 days I feel proud of me

Whale watching - done, granted we saw no whales but it was good fun

Longleat - done, always fancied it since seeing it on tv (animal park = glorious) got to say pets corner, bit of a let down

Stonehenge - done the henge, that right there is my kind of thing seriously if I ever encounter the time team gang excavating, just try and stop me from offering assistance

Surviving NOFX front and centre - done - I was all alone too, guy behind the guy behind me, nutted the guy behind me who nutted me, it hurt, he said sorry, suffocation in sweaty pits sadly was unavoidable, but everyone was very friendly =]

Take That! -DONE Only took me about 18 years but HUZZAH SEEN EM!!!!

you get my drift

OH and uhm yeah Backstreet Boys - in November 7 rows from the front oh yes

But yeah, my boys are performing in Norge in december and I know I can't go - I'm hoping the celebration comes over here or I'll need words and swift organisation skills to get one set up here I mean don't leave us out, give us something geez!

I knew something was brewing I knew it! And look I was right, and if I'm not mistaken this is going to be the beginning of something, even a one off - we never did it properly so we're doing it now, it was fun we love you all this is goodbye tour - would make my year. Seriously hands down - all four of them back on the stage doing what they do, obviously with me chatting before hand I'm seriously not past begging hahaha.

But looks like mah boys are on their way back - I dug out all the singles, its amazing how quickly the words to the b-sides came flooding back *gleefully claps hands* oh how I miss them so, there's still something brewing with them, I can tell...

And it makes me nervous excited and I like it

MJ - Too Much?

First I want to just say that while I have an opinion, I know other people may disagree, there for I am not going to even consider any kind of argument about this, well because I can't actually be bothered to argue with anyone over this. I understand that some people were big Jackson fans, I understand many were not.

This is merely me having a little rant of an opinion about something that has been going on for too long and one that I have wanted to express for a while, but seeing as how I may come across as an uncaring cold person who just wants to talk crap about MJ (which by the way I'm not, I just disagree with a lot of things and especially this) I waited like a nice person until after the memorial. Okay granted its like a few minutes after but hey at least its after.

We know that Jackson had some amazing songs way back when, with the Jackson 5 and his early solo work, but there was always something that niggled me at the back of my head.

Now for the most part, I am a lot older than many of you who are on this site and who may read this, so I have been privvy to many of his early records before you lot were even born - Thriller was one of my first ever LP's (that would be Long Play, aka Vinyl waaaaaay before cd's, not that I'm condescending anyone, just I know some people might not know what LP's are and saves them asking) Anyway, there were a lot of songs that I like 'Way You Make Me Feel', 'Thriller', 'Billie Jean'. Heck Mookwalker was a grand old cheesefest that I could very much enjoy before I watched Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (because when the Turtles movie came out in Europe it was offensive to say 'Ninja' so we knew it as Hero turtles - tangent but fact).

I suppose it started in the late 80's, something happened and suddenly Michael Jackson became in a strange sense offensive and a little condescending.

Now here's where my mini essay of an explanation comes in. Because it's more of a thrown out opinion it might be at times repetative or sometimes seem like I'm talking rubbish but it's an opinion and one that I know I need to express, regardless of getting sort of yelled at by friend but I'm willing to deal with it.

I can't and don't think I can apologise for my opinion on the whole Michael Jackson memorial service. While I understand that it was done because he had so many fans, and while I only half watched, I do think it was a little bit ostentatious. The speakers who shared their thoughts on him at most points made him seem almost God-like and that for me was very wrong.

I think one of the biggest mistakes they could have had was bringing out the children's choir for the 'Heal The World' tribute. Not because of it being the memorial but because of the connotations and because of what happened not too long ago. It was a bad decision. However, as much as he was idolised and loved by many I feel that the memorial was a step to far. For many it was indeed the passing of a legend but for many they were jumping on the band wagon. While I'm all for and understanding about being sad that someone you admire passing, to use and to go on about his death the way that people have and the way the media has makes it all a joke, I just feel a sense of disappointment at the family for allowing it to go ahead.

Turning a memorial into a concert of sorts, to me is a step too far. While it's fine to celebrate the life of a person, does it really need to turn into something that big? Why couldn't fans celebrate in private? Why put it on a scale so big – heck even raffling the tickets to attend was always going to be a stupid idea. The fact that he has been heralded as a martyr, as someone who in a way commanded the notion of change, is very wrong. He had a sort of Jesus-like complex about him, he institutionalised this better than thou persona, when in reality he wasn't. He was a man who had many issues, a man who -whether you chose to believe it or not spent his life trying to hide who he really was, from denying his obvious surgery to running from the colour of his own skin, he had issues that needed addressing, and while I'm sure that there was at least one member of his family who tried to get him to address these issues, it seemed as though they remained hidden, ignored and unspoken.

His glorification and ideological complex that had him portraying a 'saviour' flicked a switch somewhere for many. That is the one thing that annoyed me about him, the fact that instead of allowing his words to put across his message, he wanted to be the 'saviour' of many. The way he seemed to exploit people and children in his performances at times was something that always made me turn off.

And because of that stirred up emotion in everyone – I defend Jarvis Cocker for his actions during that memorable Brit award performance. And he was also right when he stated on Question Time:

“If there's a tragedy about the whole thing, I would say that's that if he'd have kept making great records - like he did in the mid-'80s - up to now that would have been great. But for some reason, for the last 20 years he didn't do that, and for me that's the tragic part of it," he explained. Cocker shook his bottom as the singer performed Earth Song at the 1996 Brits. He told BBC1's Question Time on Thursday night: "He was pretending to be Jesus. Pretending to have the power of healing is not right. Rock stars have big enough egos."

His words about the music and about his pretence hits the nail on the head. Where as there is no doubt that Jackson will remain a big name within musical history, I think people should remember that the man had many personal issues and made some very questionable and silly choices. And to think that it was okay for him to do some of them, is wrong. He needed help. He needed to address the problems he had, but he didn't. That is what ultimately led to his passing.

I don't believe everything I read, I don't believe anything unless it comes from a reliable source or from a person in question. However having seen many programmes with interviews and even a documentary which followed him around for a while it was evident something wasn't right. It's just sad it had to end the way it did. He used to make great music in the 80's.

Little Bit Excited

I have a whole 2 weeks of random trips planned.

Starting on the 13th yippie!

Crossing a one of the things to do before I die list that I know everyone has. I'm going whale watching. It's going to be so much fun! 5 hours round trip on a boat from Oban - according to the site encounters with Minke whales are highly likely, and other cetaceans; particularly porpoises and also dolphins may be encountered.So various birds, sealife and such. We're hoping we may spot an Orca. How exciting?

I'm optimistic but I know we'll see something.

We're going to Stonehenge as well, because having lived here since I was 7 I've never been there before.

We're going to Longleat Safari park, and a place called Forbidden Corner (so much fun) Jorvick Viking Centre, maybe Gulivers World because you know stomping around like a giant moster is great fun hahaha

Uhm no idea what else is planned but it's going to be great fun, I know it. Hopefully we'll manage to head on out somewhere Mark is playing if he plays a show through the week, go down say hello have a bit of a catch up again because that was fun in Sunderland hehe.

We'll see what else we can do, maybe go to Beamish again because regardless of what's said that is always fun =]

I'm off to plan more huzzah

I Will Say This Only Once...

Because this is the only place I seem to be able to figure how to work the journal section hahaha

Anywho

While it is a sad thing, I feel compelled to say that I am going to be sick of hearing about MJ for the next I dunno billion years perhaps. As it stands I'm fed up already.

Call me cynical/cold hearted whatever I don't care. Something about the guy annoyed the hell out of me.

Has music lost an icon, sure.

Has the world lost one of the best musicians? Debateable. While everything PRE Earth Song/Don't Care About Us was rather great, those two songs and everything that came after was just, in basic terms shit.

Short and not really a sweet thing.

But hey I'm allowed an opinion right?

It's sad, yes a lot of people are going to be very sad, but really its no more sad than any one else.

Lack of sleep and an over done abundance of photos/video links/news and talk about it is making me irritable and I am going to have to deal with the weekend papers at work which are no doubt going to yammer on about it some more. So excuse me for seeming unsympathetic.

Edit:

In addition, what Ikkyg said in her comment - is true MJ is going to overshadow Farrah in the media, and that is irksome - mostly because neither were as great as the other. He is going to be projected to everyone as being more important than everyone else, which is just not the case. I think when one person's death is hailed or given the impression due to media as being more important than others something is wrong in the world.

Especially when you just know this is going to overshadow the IMPORTANT things that are happening in the world like oh I don't know, the political rallying in Tehran and you know not as powerful or as shocking news.

Again call me cynical, but I really do not think that him dying is overly important at all - again yes its sad etc but come on, people die all the time. There are more serious issues to address than devastated music fans who paid a fortune for a ticket that will now be refunded / end mini rant that could really go on for a while if I dont

Ab Fab

So Thursday was Cobra Starship in London, in a kind of 3 days before-ish decision I went along.

I say along, but when I say it I mean I spent 7 hours on a coach - up at 4.30 to get ready and then 7.10am the coach left, thankfully we got into Victoria Station in London about 30 minutes early yippie.

Anyway, I had to get the tube, now the tube does not bother me, except when its the Circle and District line oh lord how I hate that line, and my hate was only redefined when stupid people stood right at the part where you come onto the platform at the bottom of the stairs - hello fools move please - then I find that I'm on the wrong side of the platform so have to battle back through them.

Please note that it was the hottest day ever and I wanted to crawl into a hole and die, I was melting. Anywho got on the right platform in time to get the train (yippie), then got off at Temple and waited for Lizzi & Gemma, didn't take them too long. So we queued for like 10 minutes then went on a walk to find Subway (for food not travel)

First thing when we get onto the main street and walk a little way we see an actor who used to be in Emmerdale (Emmerdale fans it was Dale Meeks who played Simon Meredith) then we're walking and walking go to the cash point, then walk.

Suddenly some random woman grabs Lizzi's shoulder to stop her while she ccommented on her hair - only thing was it wasn't just some random woman oh no, it was only bloomin' well Joanna Lumley (her of Absolutely Fabulous fame and general mega star) - it wasn't til she turned to look at me and Gemma that I realised who it was. So that was interesting.

No finding of the Subway so sarnies from Boots a large Dark Berry Mocha frappuchino for me and the we headed back to queue. We found Buzzby. Buzzby was a fly, although he had a broken wing so technically he was a walk - Buzzby the walk, bless him.

Sat faffing about with pictures and whatnot, general larking and chatting. Eventually we went in.

Now I was not prepared for a walk UP 7 flights of stairs. Yes SEVEN! now when they said 7 I thought they meant one flight then 2nd. But no each flight was 2 flights big so technically it was 14 flights of stairs *dies* the lifts were being used by other people so we were like okay ohkay oh dear *dies* well I was haha.

Ended up 2nd row, twas gloriously hot. Oh my god seriously air conditioning clearly that place has not heard of it. So by the time the first support band had finished I really thought I was going to die.

Mimi Soya = eh they were okay, were kind of like Paramore but from Brighton meh

Cash Cash = Did not impress me much at all. Like at all at all. In fact I think its safe to say I really wasnt enjoying it, they were okay until they did that ridiculous cover of that dance song and I felt like I should have glowsticks laced through my fingers in order to do 'Big Fish Little Fish Cardboard Box' style shape throwing. Also WTF 'There's a party in my bedroom' o_O seriously they said that in order for people to sing along and all I could think was dear god this has been written by a 5 year old right? RIGHT? After a bit of discussion, it was decided that it did not in fact sound like something from the Care Bears.

It in fact sounded like something from Barney & Friends.

I mean really? Really?Sorry but its hard to take someone who dresses like they're in a metal band seriously when they sing songs from Barney and Friends =/

Sing It Loud: Eh, he's right when he said he looked like Taylor Swift from the back, but as for them yeah didn't really get it. AND if I don't want to put my hands in the air I won't thank you very much. The bass player so wants to be Axl Rose shame he hasn't quite made it. Critical much? Yes. But eh.

Cobra Starship = My first time seeing them ever and they were rather good. I rather enjoyed myself, twas a right old knees up xD and funny.

We waited after, saw them got pictures and what not, got annoyed by this silly tarty group of girls who were all being as Lizzi put it stereotypical, who were intent of shoving me out of the way so since they kept draping themselves around Gabe's neck every 0.005 seconds for photos we didn't get to say hi to him and his kind of merry self. People like that (the girls) annoy the hell out of me, its like hello there's 12 people waiting patiently stop draping yourself over them so we can get stuff signed and photos kthnx. Eh, next time I will have no patience and I will have words I will. Not helping the fact that I woke up at 4.30am that morning after about 1 hour sleep in all because I couldnt fall asleep Wednesday night *sigh* awesome.

Then since the tube had closed we had to get the night bus.

First we had to find the right bus - bus drivers in London are useless, we asked they didn't know.

So when one did sort of know, we had to walk from the Strand to Oxford Circus, for those who have not been to London or who have not ever walked that, it's kind of a long way, you're looking at about 25 minutes, depending on how fast you walk. Was a nice night though. Managed to find the bus stop, thought we'd missed one, turns out we were just on time YAY.

Hopped on the bus and waited to get off - the random guy who sat in the seat next to me kept falling asleep and I was all like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoo *nudge move around* don't fall asleep on me weirdo thanks.

So we're not far off our stop, some bloke gets on and starts yammering on to the driver about the other bus detouring cos the road was blocked off blah blah, I'm all yawn typical.

Get to the road find that it is in fact blocked off by police because there is in fact some crazy guy running around with a gun (got to love London) so we detour for 20 minutes, turn the corner and are amused because the gun-weiling lunatic has only gone and started waving it around, just up the road from the Police station - considerate for the police, inconsiderate for us.

So by the time we get to the car and get home its like 4.30am so I've been up for 24hrs straight, get changed lie in bed and am just like I am so not tired anymore. 30 minutes later I must have gone to kip because my alarm went off a few hours later.

Then it was on the train to Peterborough, trying and hoping to not miss my connection - my phone is like 4 minutes ahead of the train stations clocks, so turns out I had almost 5 minutes wait between trains yay. So on connecting train back home, get into Newcastle and are coming through Gateshead and I'm like oh yay I'm home sigh.

So yeah, twas a rather good day =]

Aside from the heat, and those girls and the gun-weilding lunatic making us detour.

*nods*

Good times

Who is going to see Take That?

Gemma is!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh yeah we just got standing tickets. It has only taken me almost 18years and i finally scored a ticket wahooo as you can tell i am greatly pleased. I will be making my tshirt next weekend roll on the 5th =D

I'm Not One To Overly Push On About A Song...

But.

Oh my gosh everyone should go out and buy 'Peace At Last' the new and debut solo single from Mark Read.

Not because I'm telling you to, but because it is an incredibly catchy song, and its rather rather very different from anything that a1 ever did. And the weird thing is, it actually doesn't seem weird at all!

Like a1 were pretty much fun pop songs, and this, well think Take That's latest stuff and you can picture what I'm talking about.

AND the video is going to be great when it finally get released, which should be soon.

AND I expect him to tour again in the run up to the album release, which from what I've heard is going to be incredible, and which I need to ask about, anywho, regardless of if you liked a1 or not, I think if you sort of think that the Take That stuff is okay then you can part with the 79p on iTunes to get this song.

So iTunes -

Search: Mark Read

Song: Peace At Last

Price 79p

Buy it - it will make you bop, and songs that make you bop are rather rather awesome =D

Mark Read - Peace At Last = tune

Its Been A While...

I've been rather interweb-absent for a few weeks, mostly due to my own issues caused by procrastinating over university work which led me to a rather insanely manic week of having to put together not only an 8 minute documentary, but also a radio documentary which, as it was for my dissertation project (which is the massively important final year project of your final year of study) had to be about 30 minutes long and amazingly brilliant.

Sadly it is not amazingly brilliant, although I will admit that the first 30 seconds or so sound AMAZING (if I do say so myself) the rest, eh I did what I could in the oh 2 days that I left myself, which then crumbled to a day because I got distracted by other things, but hey I work better under pressure! Well mostly anyway. So yeah, that has been the univentful weeks of my life these past 2 weeks.

There was some fun, I made it to NOFX, front and centre, well a little to the left of Mike - which when it started I wanted to shoot myself for chosing that place, because I ha the support band singer literally singing in my ear, and I mean literally (thank the lord for inconspicuous ear plugs) but no he wouldn't leave until I looked up and smiled all 'yay thankyou that was fun please leave now' then after they had finished, the insane Scottish guys behind me (I was alone) and the girl I made friends with in the line decided they wanted a group hug. So the singer guy stood on the step thing in front of me and went in for a hug with them, I attempted to move out the way but was foiled and ended up almost suffocating in this singer guys sweaty armpit - DID NOT WANT!!! for what seemed like minutes. But I was also inluded, for some random reason at the start, in the crazy Scottish trio's group hug, which was kind of awkward because I didn't know who they were. Anywho the show went on, I got nutted in the head twice - hard, uhm squished a lot, more than I ever have been, ever and then woke up in the morning and just thought 'oh god I'm properly broken'. It was a good night, a very good night indeed.

Then last weekend, I went and interviewed Danny from the Audition, that was fun, interview is online at vivalascene

Uhm and thats pretty much everything, other than my sudden interest and addiction to the TV show Supernatural which I started watching the latest series, got rather involved to the point where I was talking to the TV and almost yelling I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WTF IS GOING ON! Luckily, my friend has all the seasons so far on DVD so I've been watching them, only to find that I have unknowinly, somehow watched all of season 1 and the half of season 2 that I've finished, which is strange as I have no idea why I've seen them, only thing I can think of is that it's been on the TV while I've been doing something and I've not actually paid attnetion to it that much other than to just turn round and look at the screen every so often. So yeah, yay me.

Also, I'm kind of properly excited, Mark Read (formerly of a1) is releasing his debut solo single on May 11 (yup I just did a plug so snap it up, its awesome) and his album is following soon after and this pleases me so much. It's been too long, and well basically I think he's great, I love him. He's awesome, so nice, down to earth, friendly I can't wait til he re-tours, I'm going. He knows I'm going to go, my mind tells me I'm going to go. It's going to be great when it happens. Also I've realised Yousendit uploads rather slowly - I have to resend him the photies as the link expired and he asked nicely hahaha, I like to think that when the day comes for an a1 reunion to happen that I'm going to get a yes for an interview and stuff, we had fun chatting in Sunderland so I'm hopeful. That would please me and would rule so hard, and make my life. Not as much as talking with Keanu Reeves would but it would be just as incredible. But you know my thoughts on Keanu and also my thoughts on what happened when I met up with Mark that time a month ago - its been too long.

So yeah, I'm ranting and stuff now, so I'm going to stop and do something semi-productive.