30STM 10-27 - a freaking novel

WHEW! What a concert. I could easily say: band was great, crowd was dangerous and stupid, CD signing was not worth the wait, Roseland staff was mostly stupid with a few exceptions, and 30 Seconds To Mars are as polite as they could possibly be in the space of ten seconds, but hey, thi sis me. Is anything ever a short story? Some parts of it were exciting and wonderful and fun, some parts were scary, some annoying (one so annoying that I'm still fuming over it,) and some parts were disappointing, but in a way that was inevitable, so there's no reason to be sad over it or anything.

( On the way into the city: No, it's not Rocky Horror. )

( Waiting on line: Stop looking at my money or I'll cut you. )

( Inside the Roseland pre- 30STM: Almost time for me to smack a ho. )

End rant.

So then, after all of that, the tech guys lowered the lighting rigs with the huge (and creepy) 30STM / mass mask-wearing backdrop attached to it, and when they raised it back up, it had four long, red 30 Seconds to Mars banners hanging from it. Just as soon as they started raising that, the entire crowd cheered and I actually got chicken skin over that. Soon after, they dimmed the lights and the drum corps people came on. They were pretty decent, and I'm a fan of percussion. They reminded me vaguely of this band I used to love when I was in Seattle, !TchKung! (Anyone else ever heard of them?) They were pretty good, but they played for a bit too long: everyone was itching for the band to come out. I had heard that this was how they opened the show, with Shannon coming out to drum with them and start the concert, but instead the drum corps left and they started to play O Fortuna. Some of you may remember me saying the last time I saw them that I think that's a cliche way to start the show, and I still think so. But damned if it doesn't still give me the all overs anyway. The only complaint I have is that they played it so low you could hardly hear it over the screaming. I grabbed Meghan by the shoulder and said (in a low voice, and she could still hear me,) "Jo-chan, listen to what's playing!" And she couldn't hear it either. She just knew that people had started to move towards the stage. Meanwhile I was also trying to get my camera focussed at the same time. "It's O Fortuna!" I told her. "This is it!" And although the music was still too low, eventually it clicked that this was the entrance. The human wave started to surge. ( Meghan started to surge with them. )

And then after a few phrases, Jared stopped the show.

( Take one big step back. )

( On with the show: ON HIS FACE IS A MAP OF YOUR MOM! )

( Everyone hates me. It's over. I'm going to kill myself. )

Among the other crazies in the audience was the Bra-wearing Crowdsurfer (you're a class act, lady,) and the Crazy Hopping guy. The Bra-wearing Crowdsurfer was just that: some half naked chick groping her way over the heads of the audience towards zOMGs JARRED! And Crazy Hopping Guy was this older fellow (and by older I don't mean old, just older than me,) who started to go berserk when the band played what I believe was a Jane's Addiction song. I knew that I knew the silly thing and had heard it at least a handful of times before, but I couldn't make out a word of it. For as great as the band themselves sounded, the sound itself was baffled and almost staticky. Anyway, this guy was just bouncing and thrashing in a small mosh pit consisting of just himself, a few feet away from us. He kept turning back to us and saying, "AWESOME! THIS IS AWESOME! BEST SONG! OH MY GOD!" And when the song was over he said, "YES! DUDE! This is why I FRIKKING LOVE THIS BAND!" And then he made his way to the back of the crowd like nothing had happened.

And for all the craziness, there was this one moment when I looked out into the crowd and saw this one girl crowdsurfing--fully clothed, thank you--looking up at the lights playing across the ceiling with such a look of joy on her face that I had to laugh out loud. I don't think she was drunk or stoned or anything like that. Maybe, but that wasn't my impression. She just looked happy. I wish I'd gotten a picture of that.

( And then The Kill almost turned literal. )

They did Attack, and we had a huge amount of fun singing along with that one, too. I remember at one point the entire little section I was standing in started singing the wrong verse so loudly that when Jared started singing the right verse, it almost sounded like a correction. It was pretty funny.

Then they played some other song I didn't recognize, but it sounded really cool and bouncy. Tomo and Jared started bouncing like Tigger, just BOING, BOING, BOING in time with the music. Meghan and I looked at each other, shrugged, and started bouncing, too. I had to stop sooner than I wanted to, because my pants (which were my tight, SKINNY pants a few months ago,) were down around my hips and almost to my crack, for godsakes. (WTH?) While I was yanking them back up, the band left the stage and I didn't even see them go. I looked at my watch. It read 11PM and I said to Meghan, "Oh, they're not done. They've got an encore." And then the houselights came up. My face must have just said, "WT?!"

( How'd that metal barricade to the ass feel? Any good? )

After about twenty minutes of being moved along like cattle, we were at the top of the stairs, and the first person I saw there was Shannon, looking down the long line of people being bullied by the staff. I don't presume to know what he was thinking or feeling, but he sure did look distracted. I saw him sign a few things before we got to their table; he didn't even look up. He was just looking all around and didn't seem entirely pleased. Tomo was next to him, and I didn't see him look up from whatever he was signing.

For that matter, though, no one looked at the guys or spoke to them much as the staff was all with the "MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!" before the guys even finished signing. I put Meghan in front of me and she very shyly put her CD in front of Shannon, who signed it quickly while the staff was still yelling at us to get going. (Allow me my hormonal female moment to say, dude, I know all the talk is always about Jared's pretty blue eyes, but it makes one wonder if those people have ever really looked at Shannon. His eyes are this weird green-gold hazel. Okay, done for now.) I gave Shannon Spencer's CD to sign and when he did, I said, "Thank you, Shannon." Then, he did look up, and he seemed kind of surprised. "Oh, you're welcome," he said with a smile. Tomo did not look up. I'm telling you, the whole thing was so hectic for everyone involved. I made myself be determined not to be intimidated by the yelling security guys. While Meghan was being too shy to murmur "thank you" to Jared, who was last, I handed Spencer's CD to Matt and said, "Hi, Matt!" He looked up, took a long look at my T shirt and then totally made my entire night. "Hi. Oh! Hey! I love your T shirt!" "Finally!" I said. "Thank you!" My T shirt is ( this design: )

And no one outside of my geeky little social circle has ever gotten the joke. I think this may be part of why everyone is just quietly in fannish love with Matt: he takes the time that he doesn't actually have to be sweet to people.

Jared quickly signed the CD for Spencer and I said, "Thank you, Jared," above the constant barking of the security folks. As I was walking away he said, "Hey!" I turned back around and he said, "See you next time, huh?" For one horrible second I toyed with the idea of being my usual smartass self and going, "OMG, how did you know?! ARE YOU STALKING ME?!" Then I decided, thankfully, that no one was in the mood for jokes, especially my special, doofy brand, so I just smiled and nodded. Of note: as I'd heard from a few concert-goers, Jared does look you dead in the eye for what it's worth for all three seconds he's got to say something to you. Of course he does, what has he got to lose? Everyone is always talking about Jared's eyes for a reason: they are intense.

Outside, it was raining like mad. I wondered aloud if Meghan wanted to hang around the tour busses to see if the band would come out for a picture or two, but I pretty much knew that they would not want to hang around in the pouring rain. Neither did Meghan. It was midnight and she was totally wrung out. (She'd gotten up at 6 AM for school that day anyway.) I was disappointed that we would not get our picture, (and I stalled a while, milling around anyway,) but it was clear that she wanted to go home. ( And then my cell phone rang, and my Mom told me that the trains were not running back to Ronkonkoma. )

The ride home was slick and dangerous and we almost hydroplaned into the cement guardrail at one point. My Dad and I talked about the show and other stuff, and Meghan slept the whole way. We got in at 3 AM.

Hold up, I am doing this again on Tuesday? O_o

Okay, you knew this was coming: PICTURES!

( Ghostly Jared in a sea of hands: )

( Ghostly Shannon: )

( Hair flip! )

( Happy, singing Meghan: )

Why, yes, I do see the resemblance. She's much prettier and more symmetrical, though, the lucky.

( Backlit: )

( Tomo mid-bounce behind the amp: )

Boing! Boing! Boing!

( The only pic that came out not blurry: )

( Attempted crowdwalk: )

That's about it. Today we just chatted about the show, played with the dogs in the yard, played Dirge of Cerberus for a few hours etc. Had dinner, then I went to the store to buy some cookie dough which we baked at Mom and Dad's house and then watched Lost Boys.

Good times.

30STM 10-27 - a freaking novel

WHEW! What a concert. I could easily say: band was great, crowd was dangerous and stupid, CD signing was not worth the wait, Roseland staff was mostly stupid with a few exceptions, and 30 Seconds To Mars are as polite as they could possibly be in the space of ten seconds, but hey, thi sis me. Is anything ever a short story? Some parts of it were exciting and wonderful and fun, some parts were scary, some annoying (one so annoying that I'm still fuming over it,) and some parts were disappointing, but in a way that was inevitable, so there's no reason to be sad over it or anything.

( On the way into the city: No, it's not Rocky Horror. )

( Waiting on line: Stop looking at my money or I'll cut you. )

( Inside the Roseland pre- 30STM: Almost time for me to smack a ho. )

End rant.

So then, after all of that, the tech guys lowered the lighting rigs with the huge (and creepy) 30STM / mass mask-wearing backdrop attached to it, and when they raised it back up, it had four long, red 30 Seconds to Mars banners hanging from it. Just as soon as they started raising that, the entire crowd cheered and I actually got chicken skin over that. Soon after, they dimmed the lights and the drum corps people came on. They were pretty decent, and I'm a fan of percussion. They reminded me vaguely of this band I used to love when I was in Seattle, !TchKung! (Anyone else ever heard of them?) They were pretty good, but they played for a bit too long: everyone was itching for the band to come out. I had heard that this was how they opened the show, with Shannon coming out to drum with them and start the concert, but instead the drum corps left and they started to play O Fortuna. Some of you may remember me saying the last time I saw them that I think that's a cliche way to start the show, and I still think so. But damned if it doesn't still give me the all overs anyway. The only complaint I have is that they played it so low you could hardly hear it over the screaming. I grabbed Meghan by the shoulder and said (in a low voice, and she could still hear me,) "Jo-chan, listen to what's playing!" And she couldn't hear it either. She just knew that people had started to move towards the stage. Meanwhile I was also trying to get my camera focussed at the same time. "It's O Fortuna!" I told her. "This is it!" And although the music was still too low, eventually it clicked that this was the entrance. The human wave started to surge. ( Meghan started to surge with them. )

And then after a few phrases, Jared stopped the show.

( Take one big step back. )

( On with the show: ON HIS FACE IS A MAP OF YOUR MOM! )

( Everyone hates me. It's over. I'm going to kill myself. )

Among the other crazies in the audience was the Bra-wearing Crowdsurfer (you're a class act, lady,) and the Crazy Hopping guy. The Bra-wearing Crowdsurfer was just that: some half naked chick groping her way over the heads of the audience towards zOMGs JARRED! And Crazy Hopping Guy was this older fellow (and by older I don't mean old, just older than me,) who started to go berserk when the band played what I believe was a Jane's Addiction song. I knew that I knew the silly thing and had heard it at least a handful of times before, but I couldn't make out a word of it. For as great as the band themselves sounded, the sound itself was baffled and almost staticky. Anyway, this guy was just bouncing and thrashing in a small mosh pit consisting of just himself, a few feet away from us. He kept turning back to us and saying, "AWESOME! THIS IS AWESOME! BEST SONG! OH MY GOD!" And when the song was over he said, "YES! DUDE! This is why I FRIKKING LOVE THIS BAND!" And then he made his way to the back of the crowd like nothing had happened.

And for all the craziness, there was this one moment when I looked out into the crowd and saw this one girl crowdsurfing--fully clothed, thank you--looking up at the lights playing across the ceiling with such a look of joy on her face that I had to laugh out loud. I don't think she was drunk or stoned or anything like that. Maybe, but that wasn't my impression. She just looked happy. I wish I'd gotten a picture of that.

( And then The Kill almost turned literal. )

They did Attack, and we had a huge amount of fun singing along with that one, too. I remember at one point the entire little section I was standing in started singing the wrong verse so loudly that when Jared started singing the right verse, it almost sounded like a correction. It was pretty funny.

Then they played some other song I didn't recognize, but it sounded really cool and bouncy. Tomo and Jared started bouncing like Tigger, just BOING, BOING, BOING in time with the music. Meghan and I looked at each other, shrugged, and started bouncing, too. I had to stop sooner than I wanted to, because my pants (which were my tight, SKINNY pants a few months ago,) were down around my hips and almost to my crack, for godsakes. (WTH?) While I was yanking them back up, the band left the stage and I didn't even see them go. I looked at my watch. It read 11PM and I said to Meghan, "Oh, they're not done. They've got an encore." And then the houselights came up. My face must have just said, "WT?!"

( How'd that metal barricade to the ass feel? Any good? )

After about twenty minutes of being moved along like cattle, we were at the top of the stairs, and the first person I saw there was Shannon, looking down the long line of people being bullied by the staff. I don't presume to know what he was thinking or feeling, but he sure did look distracted. I saw him sign a few things before we got to their table; he didn't even look up. He was just looking all around and didn't seem entirely pleased. Tomo was next to him, and I didn't see him look up from whatever he was signing.

For that matter, though, no one looked at the guys or spoke to them much as the staff was all with the "MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!" before the guys even finished signing. I put Meghan in front of me and she very shyly put her CD in front of Shannon, who signed it quickly while the staff was still yelling at us to get going. (Allow me my hormonal female moment to say, dude, I know all the talk is always about Jared's pretty blue eyes, but it makes one wonder if those people have ever really looked at Shannon. His eyes are this weird green-gold hazel. Okay, done for now.) I gave Shannon Spencer's CD to sign and when he did, I said, "Thank you, Shannon." Then, he did look up, and he seemed kind of surprised. "Oh, you're welcome," he said with a smile. Tomo did not look up. I'm telling you, the whole thing was so hectic for everyone involved. I made myself be determined not to be intimidated by the yelling security guys. While Meghan was being too shy to murmur "thank you" to Jared, who was last, I handed Spencer's CD to Matt and said, "Hi, Matt!" He looked up, took a long look at my T shirt and then totally made my entire night. "Hi. Oh! Hey! I love your T shirt!" "Finally!" I said. "Thank you!" My T shirt is ( this design: )

And no one outside of my geeky little social circle has ever gotten the joke. I think this may be part of why everyone is just quietly in fannish love with Matt: he takes the time that he doesn't actually have to be sweet to people.

Jared quickly signed the CD for Spencer and I said, "Thank you, Jared," above the constant barking of the security folks. As I was walking away he said, "Hey!" I turned back around and he said, "See you next time, huh?" For one horrible second I toyed with the idea of being my usual smartass self and going, "OMG, how did you know?! ARE YOU STALKING ME?!" Then I decided, thankfully, that no one was in the mood for jokes, especially my special, doofy brand, so I just smiled and nodded. Of note: as I'd heard from a few concert-goers, Jared does look you dead in the eye for what it's worth for all three seconds he's got to say something to you. Of course he does, what has he got to lose? Everyone is always talking about Jared's eyes for a reason: they are intense.

Outside, it was raining like mad. I wondered aloud if Meghan wanted to hang around the tour busses to see if the band would come out for a picture or two, but I pretty much knew that they would not want to hang around in the pouring rain. Neither did Meghan. It was midnight and she was totally wrung out. (She'd gotten up at 6 AM for school that day anyway.) I was disappointed that we would not get our picture, (and I stalled a while, milling around anyway,) but it was clear that she wanted to go home. ( And then my cell phone rang, and my Mom told me that the trains were not running back to Ronkonkoma. )

The ride home was slick and dangerous and we almost hydroplaned into the cement guardrail at one point. My Dad and I talked about the show and other stuff, and Meghan slept the whole way. We got in at 3 AM.

Hold up, I am doing this again on Tuesday? O_o

Okay, you knew this was coming: PICTURES!

( Ghostly Jared in a sea of hands: )

( Ghostly Shannon: )

( Hair flip! )

( Happy, singing Meghan: )

Why, yes, I do see the resemblance. She's much prettier and more symmetrical, though, the lucky.

( Backlit: )

( Tomo mid-bounce behind the amp: )

Boing! Boing! Boing!

( The only pic that came out not blurry: )

( Attempted crowdwalk: )

That's about it. Today we just chatted about the show, played with the dogs in the yard, played Dirge of Cerberus for a few hours etc. Had dinner, then I went to the store to buy some cookie dough which we baked at Mom and Dad's house and then watched Lost Boys.

Good times.

Breaking the fangirl code: concert review FAQ

Last night after I wrote up that concert review, I sent out an email to my friends and family with the link, to let them all know at once that we got back okay and give them the option of reading about what the adventure was like if they felt like it. I have a tendency to just think that everyone in the world knows exactly what the hell I'm talking about at all times, but the emails I got today reminded me otherwise. "What's Echelon?" "What does 'All Your Base Are Belong To' those strange glyphics mean?" "What did you mean by 'Jared went all Nazgul on Frodo?'" What's the deal with the intense eyes?" and my favorite, "Who are these guys?"

Well, to answer everyone in one clean shot, here's a FAQ about last night's review. ^_^

The band is ( 30 Seconds to Mars: )

It was started by the Leto brothers, Jared and Shannon, from Louisiana when they were teenagers, I think, and they eventually up and moved to California in hopes of their band (then called something else) becoming hugely famous. Before that could happen, though, younger brother Jared landed the role of Jordan Catalano in the TV show My So Called Life when he was about 24 or something. It was a decent show and girls everywhere thought that Jordan Catalano was the most cutest thing ever and wanted to squeeze him and pet him and name him George. He went on to movies after that, so if you've ever seen movies like Fight Club, Alexander, Panic Room, Requiem For A Dream, Lord of War etc., then you've seen Jared Leto. But meanwhile, he and Shannon were still making music the whole time. These days the band consists of the two Leto brothers (Jared on guitar and vocals and Shannon on drums,) Matt Wachter on bass, and Tomo Milecivic on guitar. Tomo started out as a dedicated fan, and then when their first guitarist quit, Shannon called him in for an audition.

The small cult following they had from the beginning was like their street team, handing out flyers and putting up posters and stickers and stuff like that, and they called them the Echelon. These days everyone calls themselves "Echelon" even if they're just fans who don't actually do any promoting for the band. Which is pretty much everyone anymore, because the band suddenly broke into mainstream last year and now they pretty much have MTV promoting them, although they still do include their fans in their performances and stuff like that, which is pretty nice of them.

Ahhh, All Your Base Are Belong To...

Back in 1989, a video game named "Zero Wing" was released into America. It was translated from Japanese into English, but very, very badly. The opening sequence of the game showed a starship being attacked by a character named Katsu, or in English, CATS. That's the character whose image you see on the T shirt I made. One of the characters aboard the ship tells the captain, "WE GET SIGNAL ... SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB!" The villain CATS comes on and tells the captain of said ship, "HOW ARE YOU GENTLEMEN!!! ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US." The captian asks, "WHAT YOU SAY?" CATS says, "YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO SURVIVE, MAKE YOUR TIME, HAHAHA!" That was in 1989, okay? Fast foward to 2001, when a thread on a forum called TribalWar.com is started, quoting the entire opening scene. Shortly thereafter, people on that forum started to take random images and replace words in them with the phrase "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US." A lot of people did this very cleverly. Next, a band called The Laziest Men On Mars (okay, note from me: Holy Crap, I had no idea up until just now when I looked this up that there was another "Mars band" reference here... And apparently, unless I'm reading this wrong, they also have a member named Jared!) did a song called "Invasion of the Gabber Robots" which used the words from this sequence. "Bad_CRC", the original poster of that thread with all the "ALL YOUR BASE" pictures, made a music video using the Gabber Robots song and all the various cleverly done photomanipulations. Here is the video. And here is the official AYBABTU site. If you do or read nothing else here, do watch that video. It's still one of the cleverest things on the internet. That thread, begun on 12/16/00, now up to page 226,is still around today.

Thereafter, "All Your Base" exploded through the internet and became a "Snowclone", which is a phrase that is so popular that people start replacing key words in it with their own.

And the red sequined glyphics you see on the T Shirt I made are the band's glyphics. It actually means "30 Seconds To Mars." The first glyphic is two intertwined 3's with the 0 in the center. But a few months ago I noticed something extra in that one glyph: If you take it apart, it also spells out "Leto" twice, once right side up and once upside down. See: I wasn't the only one who thought so, and the rumor (and it is just a rumor--no one's ever confirmed this,) is that Jared designed it to signify the brothers' devotion to each other and to their dreams of having a successful band. Here is someone else's view, much better than my own:

Shannon has the entire four glyphics tattooed on his arm, and Jared just as the "30 / Leto" one.

So there you have it, the meaning behind my T shirt and why I was so gleeful when Matt, the bass guitarist, got the reference.

"Jared went all Nazgul on Frodo Baggins?"

Ahh, that. A few nights ago at some MTV awards show, 30STm was presenting (and winning, I guess,) an award. In attendance was Lord Of The Rings star Elijah Wood. Apparently he had always had rude things to say about the band in magazines to begin with. The story I heard was that Frodo would turn and whisper to his date everytime Jared and Shannon walked by. At one point, Jared sat down across from him and whispered something in his ear. I guess for a while he kept whispering something and then sitting back to see if Frodo was going to respond or not. (There's a picture of this whispering going around the internet, too. It looks fairly innocent, but...) A little while later, Jared and Shannon walked past the table again, and Frodo said something to them, although no one's sure what he said. But I guess Jared didn't like it, because he turned around, grabbed Frodo by the neck and said, "That's my effing brother, you a-hole!" Only obviously he didn't censor himself. So when I said that I could understand Jared going Nazgul on Frodo because of the way I felt about that woman who was harassing my cousin, that's what I meant. I don't think violence is any way to solve things, but when someone gets on the case of your family, sometimes things like that just happen.

The other rumor going around--and this one I do believe--is that for as pretty as anyone says Jared's eyes are, they are not so nice-looking when he's choking someone. HAHA! ^_^ ( The eyes that did not launch a film career. )

I say "did not launch a film career" because they really didn't. After that first TV show, Jared could have totally taken the easy way out and made lots of romantic comedies and been a millionaire. But instead, he chose to do things that were difficult and that meant something to him. Seems he went out o fhis way to pick movie roles that downplayed his handsome looks. I respect that.

( And Shannon's weird gold-green eyes: )

Sorry if that sounds fangirlish, but he really is pretty.

I hope that clears it all up. Sorry for talking in fangirl code. ;)

I'm going to see them again on Tuesday, which is Halloween, where we'll all be dressed up. It's part concert, part costume party, or "blood ball" as the band likes to call it, because if you come splattered in fake blood, you could maybe end up on their personal photo site. (Shannon is also a professional photographer.) So, that promises to be fun, huh?


ETA: I just read back a few posts and found I said that I'd had "an effed up dream about Frodo Baggins." For the record, that effed up dream came before I'd heard rumors of any of this Hobbit-choking behavior. O_o

Breaking the fangirl code: concert review FAQ

Last night after I wrote up that concert review, I sent out an email to my friends and family with the link, to let them all know at once that we got back okay and give them the option of reading about what the adventure was like if they felt like it. I have a tendency to just think that everyone in the world knows exactly what the hell I'm talking about at all times, but the emails I got today reminded me otherwise. "What's Echelon?" "What does 'All Your Base Are Belong To' those strange glyphics mean?" "What did you mean by 'Jared went all Nazgul on Frodo?'" What's the deal with the intense eyes?" and my favorite, "Who are these guys?"

Well, to answer everyone in one clean shot, here's a FAQ about last night's review. ^_^

The band is ( 30 Seconds to Mars: )

It was started by the Leto brothers, Jared and Shannon, from Louisiana when they were teenagers, I think, and they eventually up and moved to California in hopes of their band (then called something else) becoming hugely famous. Before that could happen, though, younger brother Jared landed the role of Jordan Catalano in the TV show My So Called Life when he was about 24 or something. It was a decent show and girls everywhere thought that Jordan Catalano was the most cutest thing ever and wanted to squeeze him and pet him and name him George. He went on to movies after that, so if you've ever seen movies like Fight Club, Alexander, Panic Room, Requiem For A Dream, Lord of War etc., then you've seen Jared Leto. But meanwhile, he and Shannon were still making music the whole time. These days the band consists of the two Leto brothers (Jared on guitar and vocals and Shannon on drums,) Matt Wachter on bass, and Tomo Milecivic on guitar. Tomo started out as a dedicated fan, and then when their first guitarist quit, Shannon called him in for an audition.

The small cult following they had from the beginning was like their street team, handing out flyers and putting up posters and stickers and stuff like that, and they called them the Echelon. These days everyone calls themselves "Echelon" even if they're just fans who don't actually do any promoting for the band. Which is pretty much everyone anymore, because the band suddenly broke into mainstream last year and now they pretty much have MTV promoting them, although they still do include their fans in their performances and stuff like that, which is pretty nice of them.

Ahhh, All Your Base Are Belong To...

Back in 1989, a video game named "Zero Wing" was released into America. It was translated from Japanese into English, but very, very badly. The opening sequence of the game showed a starship being attacked by a character named Katsu, or in English, CATS. That's the character whose image you see on the T shirt I made. One of the characters aboard the ship tells the captain, "WE GET SIGNAL ... SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB!" The villain CATS comes on and tells the captain of said ship, "HOW ARE YOU GENTLEMEN!!! ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US." The captian asks, "WHAT YOU SAY?" CATS says, "YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO SURVIVE, MAKE YOUR TIME, HAHAHA!" That was in 1989, okay? Fast foward to 2001, when a thread on a forum called TribalWar.com is started, quoting the entire opening scene. Shortly thereafter, people on that forum started to take random images and replace words in them with the phrase "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US." A lot of people did this very cleverly. Next, a band called The Laziest Men On Mars (okay, note from me: Holy Crap, I had no idea up until just now when I looked this up that there was another "Mars band" reference here... And apparently, unless I'm reading this wrong, they also have a member named Jared!) did a song called "Invasion of the Gabber Robots" which used the words from this sequence. "Bad_CRC", the original poster of that thread with all the "ALL YOUR BASE" pictures, made a music video using the Gabber Robots song and all the various cleverly done photomanipulations. Here is the video. And here is the official AYBABTU site. If you do or read nothing else here, do watch that video. It's still one of the cleverest things on the internet. That thread, begun on 12/16/00, now up to page 226,is still around today.

Thereafter, "All Your Base" exploded through the internet and became a "Snowclone", which is a phrase that is so popular that people start replacing key words in it with their own.

And the red sequined glyphics you see on the T Shirt I made are the band's glyphics. It actually means "30 Seconds To Mars." The first glyphic is two intertwined 3's with the 0 in the center. But a few months ago I noticed something extra in that one glyph: If you take it apart, it also spells out "Leto" twice, once right side up and once upside down. See: I wasn't the only one who thought so, and the rumor (and it is just a rumor--no one's ever confirmed this,) is that Jared designed it to signify the brothers' devotion to each other and to their dreams of having a successful band. Here is someone else's view, much better than my own:

Shannon has the entire four glyphics tattooed on his arm, and Jared just as the "30 / Leto" one.

So there you have it, the meaning behind my T shirt and why I was so gleeful when Matt, the bass guitarist, got the reference.

"Jared went all Nazgul on Frodo Baggins?"

Ahh, that. A few nights ago at some MTV awards show, 30STm was presenting (and winning, I guess,) an award. In attendance was Lord Of The Rings star Elijah Wood. Apparently he had always had rude things to say about the band in magazines to begin with. The story I heard was that Frodo would turn and whisper to his date everytime Jared and Shannon walked by. At one point, Jared sat down across from him and whispered something in his ear. I guess for a while he kept whispering something and then sitting back to see if Frodo was going to respond or not. (There's a picture of this whispering going around the internet, too. It looks fairly innocent, but...) A little while later, Jared and Shannon walked past the table again, and Frodo said something to them, although no one's sure what he said. But I guess Jared didn't like it, because he turned around, grabbed Frodo by the neck and said, "That's my effing brother, you a-hole!" Only obviously he didn't censor himself. So when I said that I could understand Jared going Nazgul on Frodo because of the way I felt about that woman who was harassing my cousin, that's what I meant. I don't think violence is any way to solve things, but when someone gets on the case of your family, sometimes things like that just happen.

The other rumor going around--and this one I do believe--is that for as pretty as anyone says Jared's eyes are, they are not so nice-looking when he's choking someone. HAHA! ^_^ ( The eyes that did not launch a film career. )

I say "did not launch a film career" because they really didn't. After that first TV show, Jared could have totally taken the easy way out and made lots of romantic comedies and been a millionaire. But instead, he chose to do things that were difficult and that meant something to him. Seems he went out o fhis way to pick movie roles that downplayed his handsome looks. I respect that.

( And Shannon's weird gold-green eyes: )

Sorry if that sounds fangirlish, but he really is pretty.

I hope that clears it all up. Sorry for talking in fangirl code. ;)

I'm going to see them again on Tuesday, which is Halloween, where we'll all be dressed up. It's part concert, part costume party, or "blood ball" as the band likes to call it, because if you come splattered in fake blood, you could maybe end up on their personal photo site. (Shannon is also a professional photographer.) So, that promises to be fun, huh?


ETA: I just read back a few posts and found I said that I'd had "an effed up dream about Frodo Baggins." For the record, that effed up dream came before I'd heard rumors of any of this Hobbit-choking behavior. O_o