twentysomething insomniac seeks baseball bat to the head

[raven]

Today, I did not sleep and did not sleep, and saw sunrise from the wrong side, and did not sleep, and woke up with a start at 2.20pm to find someone had stolen my toothpaste.

Now it's 2.20am and I'm writing Nisus/Euryalus and eating cinnamon-flavoured gobstoppers. Here, have my writing-Nisus/Euryalus-at-2.20am-and-eating-gobstoppers playlist.

Ryan Adams - Cracks in a Photograph
ladies in a corner want to borrow my smokes / as if returning them would do any good

I love this. It's slow, it's melancholy - it comes off an album called "The Suicide Handbook", for heaven's sake - and I've been using it as a lullaby lately, over and over until it leads me into sleep. It's basically the musical equivalent of a baseball bat to the head.

Emilie Autumn - Swallow
I will swallow / if it will help my sea level go down

I'm going through a bit of an Emilie Autumn phase, it must be admitted. And this is hypnotic and samey and I have no idea why I've had it stuck on repeat for two days, but I have. It's got a certain something.

Emilie Autumn - Opheliac
studies show intelligent girls are more depressed

I shouldn't like this nearly as much as I should. It's screechy, it's like Jack Off Jill (but better), it's full of woe and angst and shouty shouty pain, and I looooove it.

Train - Drops of Jupiter
can you imagine no first dance freeze-dried romance five-house phone conversation the best soy latte that you ever had and me?

It's cheesy! It's overblown! Everything else they ever did was shite! But it's marvellous regardless, and I just typed that lyric out from memory, woe is me.

Texas - In Demand
wrote my name in silver sands

Sharleen Spiteri and Alan Rickman dancing around a petrol station. Made of love.

Snow Patrol - Hands Open
I want to hear you laugh like you really mean it / collapse into me tired with joy

I've uploaded this about five times before, but I still love it. It's cheery, for a given value of cheery.

Emilie Autumn - Juliet
the consequence is hanging there / the sky will fall but I don't care

I did mention the Emilie Autumn phase. This one is very different from the others, off "Enchant", and I love it but I love it particularly at about 4.47 when for some reason it turns into what sounds like Greensleeves.

Sarah McLachlan - River
but it don't snow here / it stays pretty green

I have a confession: I like music with sleigh bells in all year round. You can all disown me now.

Riiiight. Now I try to go to bed.

Comments

[foulds.livejournal.com]

If it helps, I am also up, and also writing the Aeneid ((Comradeship in the early hours, yay!)) and now listening to to Train :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Which bits are you writing? I cannot get beyond the image in my head of Nisus and Euryalus bickering about who left the gas on...

[foulds.livejournal.com]

Sorry, went to bed just before this arrived; I was playing with Book 5 (Sicily) and doing some general polishing and editing.

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

I'm oddly addicted to Emilie Autumn's "Enchant." And have been for the past couple of years.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

It's beautiful! I love her voice, I love the texture of the instrumentals - it all gels beautifully.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Tell me... does "Drops of Jupiter" make you think about Mulder and Scully, or is it just me? I like it too.

[manynames.livejournal.com]

It makes me think about Rose and Mickey from Doctor Who! I like it a lot as well.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

YES. In fact, it made me think about them the first time around, too!

[absinthe-shadow.livejournal.com]

I was also up at that time! But not on lj. I was watching Are You Being Served?

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

SHAME ON YOU. :) :P

[speccygeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

I think you posted something by Emilie Autumn before, and since then I've found two albums of hers and I adore them. Thank you for turning me on to her! :D

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You're welcome, love. She's wonderful.

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

I felt obscurely proud of myself for being in bed soon after 2am this morning. It's all relative, because it was closer to 6am the night before.

I have put these songs in a folder named 'Iona's insomnia mix', which I think has a nice ring to it. I already have Laced/Unlaced and Opheliac by Emilie Autumn, but they're in that scarily large category of 'music I have but have not listened to'.

The Snow Patrol song reminded me, so here are the links I promised you:

Snow Patrol - a zip of their first 2 albums [Songs for polarbears & When it's all over we still have to clear up]
www.megaupload.com/?d=TUA9H4OQ

Reindeer Section - Y'all get scared now...
www.sendspace.com/file/9w8mro

Reindeer Section - son of evil reindeer
www.sendspace.com/file/d0a90m

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Aha, thank you! I'll download slowly, for the sake of the network, but yaaay, thank you!

"Iona's insmniac mix" has a wonderful ring to it, I quite agree. Not so much as an "Iona is fast asleep, music not to wake her up with" mix would have, but almost.

Opheliac is GREAT. Do listen!

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

Why are we awake? OH GOD, WHY? At least the network is fast at this time of night...but seriously, this is not of the good.

What are you up to? I personally am reading fanfic (a wonderful kid!fic AU which has me alternating between laughing hysterically and getting teary-eyed), converting a huge pile of songs from m4a to mp3 format (for I am not one with iTunes), and listening to the BBC World Service (it is my light in dark places, to misquote Galadriel).

I am also writing long sentences with far too many parentheses, although I hope that I'm now past that stage.

Speaking of parentheses: have you ever heard the Sigur Ros album which is titled ( ) ? It has some beautiful, ethereal tracks sung in a made-up language based on Icelandic.

I just looked at the clock, and my mind automatically converted 4.40am to 5.40pm (i.e. New Zealand time). Do you ever get the feeling that you're living in multiple time zones simultaneously? I always know what time it is in New Zealand, always, and I can picture my parents' daily routine and what time the sun would be setting. Can you tell that my homesickness hasn't really faded after four years?

A girl I was helping at the library tonight immediately picked me as a Kiwi (she'd spent most of her gap year in NZ). It's odd, because of course I can't hear my own accent; I tend to forget that I must sound strange to other people. Most of my friends are also international students, so I'm used to a wide variety of accents.

It's a little unusual for me, hanging out with a) actual British people and b) undergrads! But I like you guys a lot, and I'm happy to have made new friends :)

Wow, I ramble a lot when I'm tired. Must sleep, before I say something really embarrassing. Yes.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I am also reading fanfic. Also kidfic. *embarrassed* The most embarrassing part? It's my own (http://www.sleepingwithghosts.popullus.net/stargatefic/comingintobeing.html) fic. I wrote it four years ago and someone recced it just recently, so I'm re-reading and alternately blushing and chuckling.

You are not one with iTunes? Why ever not? I find myself more and more fond of it with time.

Sigur Ros - I've heard a lot of their songs, but never entire albums. Mostly, I've had "Hoppipolla" on repeat for years. It's one of my favourite songs of all time.

Time zones! I convert in my head to Indian time, sometimes - it's quarter to eleven there - and sometimes to American time. I have great difficulty with time zones at the best of times. (Also: I find it bizarre that in NZ, the day is over. I mean, they already know what happens!) I can always picture sunset, because it sets over the sea. If I do move to the American east coast in the near future, I can imagine it being very peculiar indeed, seeing sun and sea the wrong way round.

It's a little unusual for me, hanging out with a) actual British people and b) undergrads! But I like you guys a lot, and I'm happy to have made new friends :)

I'm glad! We're not all undergrads, but you're right, most of my friends do seem to be. But yes, I am very glad to have met you. I'm an actual British person and an undergrad, but one of those things will shortly cease to be true. Oh, woe.

Okaaay, now I'm going to try and sleep. Try is the operative term.

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

*boggles* OK, so, how is it possible to write that well at age 17? Given that I know nothing of the canon - I've watched 3 eps of SGA, and none of SG-1 - it was still well-written, and funny, and interesting. You really are a gifted writer!

I only started writing less than a year ago, a series that's pretty much pure porn with added kink, and I'm deeply embarrassed by it. I only ever posted the stories under my other username, and most of my friends don't even know that I've written fic!

I am resolutely sticking with Windows Media Player, for the time being anyway. I have a vast number of WMA files, from when I originally ripped my CDs, and I really don't want to have to convert them. Also, my mp3 player is not an iPod, so iTunes has never seemed essential.

I only got into Sigur Ros quite recently, so there's a lot I haven't listened to. Will give Hippopolla a try!

I would love to see the sun set over the sea! Wellington is surrounded by hills, so I'm used to seeing it set against a dark jagged silhouette. I have seen wondrous things while flying, though, like a red-gold moon rising out of the Pacific Ocean and a comet streaking across the sky at sunset.

I'm very glad to have met you as well, but I think I might have mentioned that already :)

[minttown1.livejournal.com]

I downloaded the mp3 songs. Thank you. :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[terminalbeach.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna make a lotta money, and then I'm gonna quit this crazy scene.

I guess you know the Joni Mitchell original from 'Blue'. Such a beautiful album.

Thank you for the music.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. :) I knew it was a cover, but I've never heard the original.

[terminalbeach.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvrA2UL-glk