jedishampoo | Five Things Meme

Meme given to me by

rroselavy!

Association Meme: Comment to this post with "gimme" and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.

rroselavy gave me:

1. XTC
2. Star Wars
3. Saiyuki
4. Sharpeslass
5. Las Vegas

1. XTC: My favoritest musical band, ever. (Wikipedia entry & rabid fansite.) I fell in love with them in the late 80s, though they've been around longer. I'd used to hate their music until I was on a post-friend's-wedding roadtrip and was forced to listen to them the whole way until I knew the album "Skylarking" by heart. Then at our roadtrip destination in North Carolina, I attended a party that featured many illicit substances and the party soundtrack was split between 6 hours of "Bela Lugosi's Dead" and 6 hours of XTC music. Anyway, I searched out all their albums, fell in love with them completely and have joined the ranks of the XTC proselytizers. (I say that many XTC fans are like Firefly fans-- they must spread the love and convert.) Their stuff is Beatles-poppy with great harmony at times, and discordant at others, always with clever lyrics. It's usually "love-it-or-hate-it" stuff. Let me know if you want some because, yeah, I'm like like Gideons and Bibles with their music. Or check YouTube!

2. Star Wars: Baby's first fandom, and one that I never really leave (though I am ashamed to say I haven't seen the "new" Clone Wars yet-- eep). I saw Ep 4 in the theater in 1977, and my dad took us back six more times. I even liked the prequels, and Jar Jar-- YES, I just admitted that. The prequels got me into writing fanfiction-- or, should I say, Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan got me into writing fanfiction-- in 1999. It started out with angsty gen, went into hetsmut and on into slash and back. Through Star Wars and fanclubs and Star Wars books I've met so many fabulous people online and IRL-- hello, f-list! It's truly been the driving fandom of my life. I once heard my generation, which is sort of very-early Gen X but too late for the one before, described as "The Star Wars Generation." Perfect.

3. Saiyuki: My current bestest fandom and OH MAN is it good (Wikipedia entry). Like so many other Asian popular media, it's based off of the ancient Chinese story "Journey to the West." Four guys in a jeep that's really a dragon, traveling west to stop a demon resurrection. And they're reincarnated and they smoke and drink and are all fabulously cool and kick-ass and angsty. There's an anime but the manga is better; they're drawn and written by Minekura Kazuya, who draws the sexiest, most slender bishonen ever-- and great, emotional and action-packed stories, too. YUM. There are amazing writers in this fandom and just amazing people overall.

sharpeslass and I have been lucky enough to meet several of our intelligent, creative and lovely fangirl sisters in real life (

sharpeslass succumbed to the awesomeness of Saiyuki a few months after I did).

A lovely pic that encapsulates a lot (from Salty Dog 5 at

saiyuki_manga:

4. sharpeslass: My dear hetero lifemate! I actually met her through fandom, in a way, when I moved to Las Vegas in 2002. A mutual Star Wars friend introduced me online to a gal she knew through X-Files fandom, the wonderful Sara. A month after I moved here Sara and I went out for my birthday to the late, lamented Quark's, and she brought her coworker

sharpeslass with, and

sharpeslass and I connected instantly over cigarettes and lots and lots of drinks (Sara drove home) and Lord of the Rings and Star Trek and younameit. When

sharpeslass finally kicked her boyfriend out we decided to become roommates so we could drink wine and live in a house and read each others' fanfiction and squee over our various fandoms, some shared, some not. We have the coolest geek pad imaginable.

5. Las Vegas: As mentioned above, I moved here in 2002. I had lived in Indianapolis all my life and needed to escape, somewhere, anywhere. I visited LV in 1999 with my mom and was struck immediately by how NOT "Eastern US" it was. The stark not-green desert and beautiful blue sky called to me; I finished my degree, saved money by working two jobs, and moved. I'd investigated other places in the west, including most of Arizona (Sedona OMG), but decided Las Vegas was most affordable. So I found an apartment, packed up and moved and found a job and here I am, still. There is truly no place on Earth like it-- come on, there's an Eiffel Tower, a giant Pyramid, a mini-New York City and more on the strip; there are slot machines in the grocery stores and billboards for strip clubs living side-by-side with Mormons; and strip-malls galore. It's not perfect-- a lot of people move here and move away just when you get to know them, and a lot of people are somewhat shallow and fake and all about appearances and money and silicone boobs: I was discouraged for a bit by its fakeness because I come from a place that is very not-fake and I'm glad for my midwestern upbringing. But I've always been a very lucky woman and I have found wonderful life-long-worthy friends (snuggles

sharpeslass) and I have a job that isn't too bad where I get to use my Journalism degree. The weather is sunny and dry and hot in the summer and mild in the winter and I adore it. (Snuggles the Las Vegas weather.)

Ooh, here's me and

sharpeslass partying at the Voodoo Lounge at the Rio: