1. I AM GOING TO BE SPAMMY TODAY. Because I feel spammy. Lots of spammy goodness.

2. I'm actually feeling not too bad work-wise - I spent waaaaay too long chatting with *ahem* weazel_luv but still managed to get through the masses of work I had on my plate, and managed to leave early enough to actually do some exercise for once. Which was nice, though now I'm aching all over. Why?

3. Because I went skating, for the first time all year, I think! I'm glad I persevered and skated my usual five laps of the track by the huge drain near my house - it started to drizzle, kind of, halfway through the second lap, and I was all, like, I'm not going to be out here to be roasted by lightning while on skates. But it never amounted to much more than a drizzle, so... it was good. Tiring, but good. Also? Guess who is a loser? I realised after I'd put on my skates and guards and everything and left the house that I had my shorts inside out. SIGH. SO CLEVER. It was night-time though, and I wasn't about to change just because I apparently don't know how to put on clothes even after almost three decades of practice, so. HEY. IT WAS NIGHT-TIME. PEOPLE COULDN'T TELL THAT I AM AN IDIOT.

4. Oh god IDINA MENZEL. *sobs a bit from the awesome* I've been waylaid by other singers since - quite obviously - but Idina was the first and gah has she ever been reminding me recently about how amazing she can be when she trots out that high belt of hers. I'm just a very little bit obsessed with her high notes in I'll Be Seeing You, which she performed for PBS' Memorial Day concert yesterday (go here to watch both songs.) And I keep forgetting how much I ADORE Where Do I Begin. Plus Idina looked gorgeous at the concert - her hair, GAH, so old-school Hollywood!! *flails a bit* Ah Idina. Why must you pwn me so.

5. I HAS NEW MUSIC CRACK FOR EVERYBODY! I promised people some Gavin & Sarah!


6. I need to stop comparing original recordings of Broadway songs to Julia's versions. Spread A Little Sunshine from the Pippin OBC just came on, and it's a fun, trilling version - but it doesn't quite have... erm, Julia's verve? Anyone who's seen her belt the living daylights out of the song and... errrr, sex it up but good should know what I'm talking about!

7. I've started reading again! YES. I love to read. Love it. But work has been so crazy this year that I've only managed to read magazines outside of work all year. FOR SERIOUS. SO STUPID. But really, no books at all, nada, zip, zero. So this weekend, when I couldn't find one of my magazines and finished another one, I started on Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. Yes, a kid's fantasy book, don't judge. It's good so far, though I'm only a fifth of the way through. And of course, being the movie fandork that I am, I had to go hunt down cast info for the upcoming movie. I APPROVE. Helen Mirren as Elinor? That should be awesome. :D I'm less pleased about Brendan Fraser as Mo, though I don't even dislike him - am mostly apathetic towards his career. Shall give him the benefit of the doubt, however. Plus, Andy Serkis as Capricorn? NICE. I haven't even encountered Capricorn in the book yet, and I'm like, dude. Andy Serkis is creepy enough for ANY VILLAIN. ;)

8. iTunes, OMFGWTF? Michael Crawford singing Reflection from Mulan is both a little bit gay and a lot weird.

9. Still hooked on Desperate Housewives. Tornado double-bill ftw!! I shall now log off - before 1.30am, shock horror! - and watch an episode before bed. :)

10. LAST THING. My scroll button on my mouse has stopped working for Firefox. Why the hell! It works for everything else in the computer, as far as I can tell. Just not for Firefox, which is driving me batty when I try to scroll through my flist. Flist: any suggestions on how to debug this!?! Apparently shutting down and restarting Firefox works, who knew. :p

1. I went to bed at 5am on Saturday morning and got up at 3pm. Maybe I'm starting to hit a slightly more normal sleeping pattern... Yeah, right.

2. Had a crack-tastic Julia!flail session with weazel_luv - ah, Google alerts, how I love thee - before heading out for a birthday dinner celebration at my aunt's place. Ate way too much unhealthy food, and clearly STILL didn't sleep enough since I spent some of the party asleep in the armchair in front of the tv. WTF, I SWEAR I'm a narcoleptic of some sort. How else do I explain these random bouts of just falling asleep?!

3. Music meme, tagged by athenaraven - all I listen to these days is Julia Murney, or showtunes, or Julia Murney, and occasionally some (shock!) Julia Murney, so clearly this is going to be a LITTLE bit biased in one direction. I've tried to include some other singers though. Like Skipley - pretty much the only singers who've managed to oust Julia from my CD player in recent weeks - and Jason Danieley, just because I can. :p Songs (all handily uploaded for crack-sharing!) and tags behind the cut (obviously).


4. To wit - does anyone on the flist have Emily Skinner's album? There's no human way it's going to be in the shops here, and I want to hear moooooore. As much as possible, lol.

5. Fandom collision! Julia does a voiceover on Stephen Colbert's Tak Jansen Adventures! RANDOM. I'm terrible at spotting her voice though - I want to say she's Grief Counsellor woman. Yes? No? Murney fans on my flist, please to be confirming if that's her?

6. Edited to add: I uploaded the Enchanted soundtrack for book232. Anyone else who wants it, have at it! :)

I was tagged by lfae! This is SUCH a fab meme and so fun to do - I've tagged people, but ALL of you should give it a go. ;)

Create an image of nine things you currently really like, explain the things, and tag six others so they can share some inspiration and positive vibes too. - ETA: I cheated and made it nine things I REALLY love, not just currently... or I'd have a rather different meme result, like Julia Murney, Idina Menzel, Julia Murney, Wicked, Julia Murney etc...!! ;)

1. HAI, WORK? AS MY ICON SAYS - GTFO. I finally had a great day today. Like, great - and it's been long overdue, obviously, since life most emphatically hasn't been great in the last five years month or so. Of course, it was only great because the actual amount of work I did was negligible - we were all just in such a high, happy, spazzy mood for being done with a big paper and not having anything on our plate that we just were hyper all day and went out for lunch and cut out of work early on time. Especially me and noldoparma - our cracktastic hyperness fuelled only by our passionate love for everything that is Jason Danieley. (<< CLICK. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO. Because he is love.) Oh, and his gorgeous wife Marin Mazzie too, of course. But mostly Danieley.

2. So after hypering our way through not very much work at all, we left on time for a shopping spree at Vivocity, an excellent dinner at Chinese restaurant Bosses, and then we even made our way to the Bellini Room at St James Power Station for a couple of sets. (With my boss in tow, ha - it's ridiculous how fun-loving and young she is when she's, like, fifty next year.) I LOVE the jazz band there, because it's so fabulous to have a full jazz band - minus the double bass - playing right in front of you, trumpet, saxophone, piano, everything. The singers were a bit off today though (one of them was on some kind of lethal cocktail of drugs, I suspect, since he was SO out of character and randomly bouncy). But it was just great to be OUT.

3. And then I get back home to Youtube and have since allowed myself to get incredibly incredibly flaily about Julia Murney - again - as Elphaba in Wicked. Because really really REALLY she acts the socks/pants/whatever off that role. I love Idina, obviously, and always will, but I love Julia at least as much. She's that good. And some really excellent-quality videos have been popping up on Youtube recently that make me love her more: please to be watching her singing, for the last time on Broadway last year, As Long As You're Mine (for Elphaba/Fiyero shippers, Julia and Sebastian Arcelus are SO getting it on onstage - to quote the wonderfully insightful book232!) and No Good Deed (with the full cornfield scene that precedes it, WIN!) Watch it before Youtube takes the videos doooown. And I'm rewatching these because Julia's SO cute in them, and as a result, must pimp them, again - it's Julia chatting about going green for the role as she's getting painted and costumed to go onstage in about half an hour or something. ( one | two )

4. So that this isn't just a post of total fail flail, I have an icon meme, courtesy of book232! Come play with me!


5. Uploaded the Wicked OBC soundtrack for someone, so might as well leave the link up for anyone who didn't download it the last time I flailed about Wicked. You might as well download it and find out what I keep nattering on about, because I suspect I'm never ever EVER gonna stop... ;)

I think pretty much everyone on my flist knows that I am insanely obsessed with all things Wicked, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, Y/Y? Well, I promised book232 and noldoparma much Wicked and Kristin spammage (I'll be REALLY good and hold off on Idina spammage, since she's all over Wicked anyway!), and so here I be.

WORD OF WARNING: clicking on the cut below will bring you to crazy crazy amounts of insane. ;) I'll be recounting the biggest plot points and songs in my little run-down of videos and pics, so bear in mind that there'll be some spoilers for the larger plot of the musical, though not the little twists - if you're going to download the original Broadway cast (OBC) album though (and yes, the download link is in there, somewhere!), I'd imagine you wouldn't mind spoilers though.

Also, for those wondering: I watched Wicked in London in December last year, and Kerry Ellis was a freakin' AMAZING Elphaba. Her voice was just... GAH. I mean, seriously. She hit all of Idina's notes and was a powerhouse live. But I've grown to adore the musical through the OBC, and though I've never actually seen them live (BIG SADFACE HERE), Kristin and Idina are clearly the original and the best G(a)linda and Elphaba.

So:
( Wicked: The (Kinda) True Story of the Wicked Witch of the West )

And I also promised a Kristin spam. MAN. It's a short one, though, because if I don't stop soon I'll never stop and I NEED to be focused at work tomorrow, for real this time...!

( Cheno: the cutest thing that's ever lived, surely )

And I am DONE. CLINICALLY INSANE, AS YOU ALL KNEW, BUT DONE. BEDTIME NOW, FOR SERIOUS.

PLEASE TO BE SPAMMING ME WITH WICKED/IDINA/KRISTIN ADORATION, THANKS.

(P/S I still am stopped up in one ear, wtf. Don't they know I need both ears clear to enjoy teh Cheno's high notes?!)