In parts of the world, it's still my birthday. Happy birthday to me!

I'm 27. I've always looked forward to being 27!

I just figured out that Peter and Naoko have the same anniversary as my parents: April 5th. I realized this when I was going through the pictures I took with them on that very day. The following pictures were all taken in Singapore, despite resemblances to Arab states and/or New York.


Little Arabia!


Sultan Mosque as seen from Arab Street


Here's a closer look at the Sultan Mosque


Peter in a secret garden


Silhouette of Naoko in a Chinese mirror


Pretty incense burner in the Arabic restaurant where we lunched


Parkview Square, straight out of New York in stunning Art Deco style.

I've been elected by Quinn to do this music survey:

01) Total volume of music files on my computer:
About 3.9GB. Contrast to more than 10GB currently living on my iPod.

02) Last album I bought:
Ween's Live in Chicago. It's a DVD/CD set that I bought for Don last month, but I think I'm enjoying it at least as much as he is. TOTALLY recommended, even if you aren't a Ween fan yet. Before that, I bought TMBG's The Spine, which had (um, has) such heavy rotation on my iPod that I've renamed the thing 'spinePod.'

03) The last song I listened to before writing this was:
Some Arabic pop music the taxi driver had on the radio. Last song I heard that I recognized was "No Way in Hell" by Throwing Muses, which sounds like a Jefferson Airplane song.

04) Five songs I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me:
1. "Stay" and "Judas My Heart" - Belly: These are really two halves of one song, I feel, and they're the songs I would like to hear at my own funeral, if I get to choose.
2. "Across the Universe" - Beatles: It reminds me of young love; pure, idealistic, teenage love.
3. "Night & Day" - Cole Porter: The brighter side of obsession.
4. "Am I Awake?" - They Might Be Giants: I listen to this song a lot because I tend to play it on the iPod spinePod when I'm riding the bus to work. Sometimes I have to get up at 3:30 in the morning; other times I have to go to bed at 2:00 in the afternoon so I can start my workday at midnight. So you can see how such a song might fit my mood.
5. "Help I'm a Rock" and "Return of the Son of the Monster Magnet" - Zappa: Also two halves of one song. Rhythm is very important to me, and these songs (which were very influential to me when I was in high school) really taught me the importance of percussional complexity.

(whew, that question was hard... i'm not good at 'favorite song' questions)

05) Five people I'll pass this baton to:
hihi_superflat
etherealmommy
veranationgirl
room1102
joshdavis

(take your time, people!)

Also from slfcllednowhere:

These are 20 of the bands/artists I've seen in concert.

1. Bold the ones you've seen in a reply to this entry
2. Take the ones from my list that you've also seen and post them in your LJ
3. Add more until you get to 20

1. They Might Be Giants
2. Barenaked Ladies
3. Frente
4. Frank Black
5. Half Japanese
6. Ulfuls
7. Cake
8. Dieselhead
9. Roger Waters
10. Phish
11. Lincoln
12. Ultra Fuckers
13. The Reverend Horton Heat
14. Travis Morrison
15. TEEM
16. Love Beach
17. Love or Die
18. Go Kitty
19. Tripod Jimmy
20. Saboten Kyodai

This was hard for me - in fact, the last five I saw at a single event.

Hey etherealmommy Laura, I was going to include your Interesting Questions in this post, but I think I'll save it for a rainy day.

p.s. Happy birthday to contrarydevil and po0rnima on the 15th, and flutterby3 on the 16th. Go sheep! \(^-^)/