When I was a young boy my father took me into the city

I don't know if everyone's seen these before and I'm just slow, but bexone just posted a link to a photo of Gerard by Chris Anthony, so I went poking around his site and he did all the gorgeous photos of The Black Parade! They're absolutely stunning.

( A few of my favorites. )

Go here: Chris-Anthony.net and click on Portfolio I for so many more. And the Gerard photo is under New Work. *sighs happily* So pretty.

In other, NON MCR news (it happens occasionally! shocker!) I am in the good old US of A once more! I had a rather hellish morning yesterday, with the running to catch the bus and then almost being late for check in and then jogging to the gate and not being able to buy Kerrang for bunnymcfoo and then getting maybe 45 minutes of sleep on the 7 hour flight, but! I was met at Newark by my very own ROB! One of my two besties in the whole world, yaye. So we spent the afternoon shopping at Borders (I snagged Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman in hardcover for 6 bucks! As well as a present for my daddy. And then I spent about 10 minutes reading everything about MCR in all the music magazines, because I am obsessed. They are EVERYWHERE, it's kind of insane.) and then we went to see The Golden Compass!

I enjoyed it well enough, especially the last half, although it kind of painfully deviated from my vision of the books many times. Also because it had to be so compressed, it felt a bit like watching The Golden Compass For Dummies, since so many subtleties of the plot had to be awkwardly rammed in all at once. Rob enjoyed it, having never read the books, and I've urged him to GO READ THEM because they're so much better, lol. The little girl that played Lyra was pretty good, and Nicole Kidman was brilliant as Mrs. Coulter. I was also desperately fond of Lee Scoresby, and Eva Green was lovely as Serafina Pekkala. All in all, I couldn't have asked for very much more in the conversion of this book to screen. I hope they do a bit better by the next one though, since it's my favorite of the three. I can't wait to see who they cast as Will!!

Then Rob and I came back to his house and watched some Atlantis (he hasn't seen the fourth season yet!) and just sat and talked and talked and talked. It was great, I've really really missed him. Now I have to leave him again, but I think it was really important that we got this time together. I won't see him again until June! :(

In a couple hours we're gonna leave to go meet my daddy!! I GET TO SEE MY DADDY YAAAAY. *twirls and twirls* SO EXCITED BWEE. Aaaand my baby sister who is NOT so much a baby anymore, she's getting so old and mature! I can't wait to be home, sigh. :D

At the end of the world, or the last thing I see

In one of the magazines I picked up at Borders, Gerard was asked to give five words to describe his bandmates. His answer was: passionate, fun, sweet, nerdy and talented. *sigh of love*

I drove through the birthplace of MCR today - Belleville, NJ. It's so... Jersey, completely typical of working-class Americana. It was a little surreal and a lot cool :)

I'm home! I made dinner with my daddy, and ate said delicious dinner, and am happy. Made the fam listen to MCR's live compilation from LOTMS in the car on the way home, and I think my dad really liked it. \o/

neverneverfic said something about last.fm that made me curious - when she made her account, it retroactively counted everything she'd played in her media player. I guess that's a new feature, because it didn't do that when I made my account. So to test that out, I started a new account and it was like, want us to count your history? And I was like, ooh, yes plz! The result is pretty nifty. On my old account, which has been counting plays since April, the top five looks like this:

MCR: 2,168
Panic!: 1,599
TAI...: 1,196
FOB: 1,086
Tom McRae: 603
TOTAL: 12,243

Now, on my brand new account, which includes all plays since last September, which is when I got this computer, the top five six look like this (including The Used, because I am amused that a band I downloaded two weeks ago is number six on my year+ list):

MCR: 3,243
FOB: 2,299
Panic!: 1,798
TAI...: 1,519
Bush: 874
The Used: 763
TOTAL: 29,092

Crazy! Apparently I listened to MCR a thousand times between December 06 (when I got TBP) and April! And I knew FOB was disastrously underrepresented. Oh, this also takes into account all my iPod plays, which last.fm often fails to scrobble. Last.fm is addictive, you guys. ♥

In other news, have Gee introducing the lead singer of The Bled - Frank takes off the guy's shirt for him, and then the guy hugs Gerard and kisses him on the cheek. !!!! *fans self*

OH HAI Panic! website was just updated!!! 01:01:08!!!!!