(david cook+) new hair! funny people!
written: 5:36 p.m. on Wednesday, Apr. 02, 2008

Totally win right? I think so too! I never noticed that my left/palsied eye still looks abnormal when I smile until I saw the second picture. In fact, I'm attributing the larger left eye to the Bell's Palsy because, no, I wasn't born with weirdly-shaped eyes, and so it has to be the palsy.

Anyway, I like my hair fine as of right now, though I won't be surprised if that changes tomorrow. I was going to get my hair cut at this salon at the Rail Mall since parking there is free, but I met Yuenmei at West Mall for lunch and her interview for her assignment and I was honestly waaay too lazy to travel to another location. So I just walked into Jean Yip hairdressing etc and got my hair cut for $31.

And when I say 'cut', I really mean 'trim'. I don't cut my hair short ever, and when I say 'ever', I mean starting from 2004. I loooove my long hair bwahahaha. As Christian Siriano, undeserving winner of Season 4 of Project Runway, would say, "Faaabulous."

(Christian is one of those annoying gay dudes that you either hate or love. I really couldn't stand him, but his stupid little catchphrases like "fabulous" and "fierce", especially in reference to his stupid hair, have stuck in my head. IT'S DAMN IRRITATING. And you know what? His collection for fashion week was 13 pieces of the same thing. RAMI WAS ROBBED OMG. I loved Rami's collection; it was so cohesive and, yes, cerebral, which was probably why it appealed to me. But it was gorgeous and moving. There were so many pieces in there that I would TOTALLY wear, but Christian's? He's like, obsessed with skinny jeans and tights, and while I'm probably a couple of sizes bigger than the body type he designs for, I still won't wear his stuff even if I can fit into them. And you know what? I suspect I could've fit into them last semester before I stopped swimming and started putting on ten million kilos. I find it HIL-FUCKING-LARIOUS that the dress Kimberley/Kimberly Locke wore on last week's American Idol result show was designed by Christian. First, before I found out Christian designed it, I thought it was utterly hideous. The dress had no boobs and her boobs were pushed up and squeezed so tightly that I thought they were gonna spill over any minute. Second, Christian Siriano designing for Kimberly Locke is per se hilarious, precisely because of Christian's fondness for everything Skinny. And my dear friends, Kimberley Locke is anything but skinny. So - BWAHAHAHAHAHA. I can already see all the bitch faces Christian must have pulled when he was designing the dress.)

Project Runway 4 was quite shit though, definitely the weakest season I've watched (I didn't watch the first season). But then again, I really loved Jeffrey Sebelia in Season 3 and so nothing can compare to the moment when he won. It was so emotional and gratifying, especially when I really really really super FLOVED a lot of his designs. That amazing zipper dress? So unforgettable that I still remember it.

Anyway, I went for International Law and Asia, as always, and I saw this Year 4 dude outside the classroom with whom I've talked to occasionally. He asked me if I was in ILA. I was like, "Yeah. Are you in my class? I've never seen you in class before." He said, "I came for the first class."

One out of 12? Totally winz.

A certain TV personality from Year 4 dude's batch is also apparently in my class! Wow.

I'm going to stop talking about the course just in case I say things that I shouldn't be saying in a public forum.

Since I'm on the subject of ILA, let me just get to that funny incident I wanted to talk about yesterday but didn't because I was too busy obsessing over David. So we're doing presentations of our outline paper (which reminds me - shit, I forgot to submit my outline to him!) and I've been sitting in for the presentations because I have this really bad chronic illness that completely prevents me from skipping class. More about that later if I remember to get back to it.

So this girl presented her paper which is related to China. She started her presentation with a joke about buying Chinese products at a very cheap price and bringing it home just to discover that it doesn't work. At the end of her presentation, when S!mon T. asked for questions and comments, this Chinese exchange student patriotically stood up for her country and clung on to the introductory joke and wouldn't let go. ST had to intervene and set the record straight and explain that the malfunctioning products thing was just a joke.

I originally intended to go into a lot more details but on second thought, that's not very nice. The funny has therefore been eliminated from my description - BOO! It was pretty funny in a very awkward, "oh no she's not doing this please tell me she's not" kind of way. Annnnd I'm going to stop typing before I say anything that's insensitive or insulting, or offensive, whatever.

Still on the topic of ILA: I had a nice ten minutes in class today drooling over this totally cute guy from either the US or Canada (I honestly can't tell the difference between a Canadian accent and an American accent) who did his paper on some ASEAN thingy. And Myanmar Burma, I think. I wasn't really listening but yeah, he was DAMN CUTE OMG. I wanted to text Rui to tell her that there was a super cute guy presenting in my class, but I had a new message from Kenneth which required an instant reply, and I needed to tell someone that there was a totally cute guy in my class, so I told Kenneth instead. His lack of a response kind of shows that he wasn't very impressed. HAHAHAHA.

Totally Cute Guy was kind of under attack by ST and that took up quite a lot of time. Still, I wasn't complaining at all. And I'm sure you know why.

On another note, I wasn't going to say this, but I've decided to fully embrace my fangirliness because the person over whom I'm fangirlying fully deserves it. I wrote a seven-page letter to David. As in Cook, duh. And you know, that's not exactly epic or anything, considering I had to severely reign myself in. After writing the last full stop I went on to add three post-scripts because there were things that I forgot to say. And you know, it's really amazing how I felt like I had so much to tell him. Like, so much. Most of it was about Analog Heart and I honestly didn't feel like I was writing to an American Idol contestant, but a regular singer/musician/whatever.

I can't remember the last time I wrote a fan letter, let alone send it out. I've also had my fair share of freak-outs over past Idol contestants, most notably Blake Lewis, but no one has inspired me to write a freaking fan letter. In fact, that's not confined to just the Idol sphere; no one has inspired me to write a fan letter in a very, very, very long time. I've had a few major celebrity (though I really don't like this word) obsession/devotions/whatever throughout my life:

Backstreet Boys, especially Nick Carter, when I was 11/12;
Silverchair, especially Daniel Johns, when I was 13/14;
Joaquin Phoenix when I was 15/16; and
Jay Chou, around 17/18 and spilled over to 19/20, though more 19 than 20.

And now? David Roland Cook. And by the virtue of him being an Idol contestant, he's the first singer/musician that I've started out liking purely because of his voice. It was because I fell completely head over heels in love with his voice that I was motivated to check out his pre-Idol originals, and it just so happens that I completely love his solo album.

And what is it about Analog Heart that gets to me so much? Quite simply, it's straight-forward alternative rock. No Nickelback-lite a la Daughtry and no crazy experimental rock shit a la The White Stripes, Radiohead nowadays. And the straight-forwardness, even simplicity, of David's songs is just so refreshing. It's definitely not ground-breaking, it's not original, and it's fairly derivative; but it's just so real, so authentic, so unassuming and unpretentious.

And not just that: The incomprehensible amount of effort and love that David put into those songs is palpable in every single song. You just can't help but feel his sincerity and his passion for music when you listen to his songs, and he makes you remember that music doesn't always have to be a money-spinning machine. It doesn't have to be about selling records, about topping the charts, about winning awards; music can quite simply be about music, your love for it, your need for it. The fact that David put out the CD despite not being signed to a record label? Sure, he's not the first person to have done that and won't be the last, but Analog Heart is probably the first independently-produced CD that I've ever listened to. The instruments threaten to drown out his voice on a couple of songs ("The Truth" and especially "Searchlights"), the production isn't perfect, but that's precisely why Analog Heart is so damn precious. It's David's labour of love, it's his hard work, and it's about the music, and nothing but the music.

I had to take a bus to West Mall today 'cause my mom needed the car. It was the first time in damn long that I felt completely relaxed while walking down the slope and to the bus stop, and that was possible because I had David singing to me. I listen to Analog Heart more than I listen to his AI stuff, because I'd rather listen to David Cook than just David Cook's voice.

I honestly don't care what he does on American Idol or even how far he goes, as long as he continues making music that he wants to make after Idol is over. I'm really scared that he's going to put out a Daughtry-like record or suddenly sound like Nickelback and whatever when I've not heard a trace of Nickelback influence in his music. In other words, if he sells out, I will be very disappointed. And I really hope that he's real enough not to do that.

That's why I wrote a 7-page letter to him and seemingly cannot stop talking about him. He's just so refreshing and inspiring, and he's re-ignited my latent love for rock (using the word as a blanket term, of course; it has about ten million genres, 90% of which I don't like). Analog Heart is one of the best things I've listened to in a damn long time. The magic is almost like Jay Chou's first album, except I'd say it's even more magical, simply because it's independently-produced and it's not independently-produced crap.

On a slightly different note, I also realised recently that "Analog Heart" is a damn intriguing phrase. David wrote a very vague entry about it that I think was meant to explain it, but I read it and have no idea what he's talking about. Should be fun to dissect, but oh, talk about taking one's obsession to a whole new level.

Then again, it's not like I haven't already started to analyse his lyrics.

Lastly, OMGGGGG AI IS ON TONIGHT!!!!! Thankfully I've been distracted the whole day so I haven't felt the urge to check for spoilers.

Though - OMG I WONDER HOW HE DID. OMG I CAN'T WAIT TO WATCH HIM. OMG HAVE I MENTIONED I LOVE DAVID COOK.

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010