laceblade

In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much.

1) The OP for Samurai Champloo. This was the first anime for which I downloaded fansubs, because at college I finally had an internet connection fast enough to do so :*) The OP is stylistically perfect, imo. It perfectly sets the tone for an irreverent show about samurais set to hip-hop music, by the creator of Cowboy Bebop. I still know all the words ;) This show introduced me to MINMI, still one of my favorite artists to listen to. She did the ED, though, not this song!





2) Glee performance of a mashup of Rihanna's Umbrella with Singin' in the Rain, performed on the high school stage full of water. The umbrellas make great props both as canes and for twirling while open, and splashing the water with hands and feet is pretty cool. Everyone looks smart in their suit outfits, it's the end of a guest appearance by Gwyneth Paltrow, where she was pretty great with the kids. It's a great deployment of Matthew Morrison, letting him sing a Broadway tune, and a good use of the kids to keep the beat seamless between the two songs. And any time you get to watch Harry Shum Jr. having the time of his life = good.
I still have a hard time watching a lot of Glee footage that includes Cory Monteith and Mark Salling.





3) The Nibelheim flashback from Final Fantasy VII.

At this point in the game, all you knew about Sephiroth is that he just murdered everyone in the Shinra Building - including President Shinra, previously the biggest villain of the game. You followed a trail of blood throughout the building, having woken in the morning to find your characters' prison cells mysteriously unlocked, and everyone free to go, despite having spent hours breaking into their tough security.

The framing of Cloud's narration - telling the story to the rest of the party members - is the first time this band of randos has been able to talk after a fast-paced introductory section. Seeing Sephiroth's strength during the single battle you enter with him was chilling as a player.

It deepened the story, it introduced Nibelheim and its creepy music, and LATER ON the player's interpretation of reality as based on this flashback gets upended. This is why Tifa has a lot of, "..." going on even though she was present for this event that happened "5" years ago.

The mood, the creepy music, the haunted Shinra building, the human experimentation subplot, all of it was candy. Still my favorite part of the game, I think.

Day 1: In your own space, talk about your Happy Place—the things that give you joy, calms you or keeps you sane

I'm not quite sure I'm fulfilling the prompt correctly, but I am going with digital "spaces," which are either fandom-centric or fandom-adjacent.

The first is Tumblr - my account is ribbonknight, although my understanding is that my content is "dash-locked," meaning you need to be logged into your own account in order to see it. I do this because my current fandom is an RPF one, and we make every effort to keep our weirdo stuff AWAY from the people in question!!
Maybe it's because of the visual nature of the site, but I always find something to make me happy on tumblr. There are fandom-specific people and accounts that I follow, but I also enjoy the serendipitous nature of tumblr, where you get people talking about seasons or just funny comebacks, etc.

Another happy place is the Discord channel associated with my current RPF fandom. There had been a Slack, which then shuttered under semi-lolarious circumstances, and the Slack may or may not have secretly been replaced, idk! The Discord channel is populated by people who'd found each other through Tumblr, and it just facilitates a different way for us to talk to one another.
I'm technically also a member of the "oldschool fandom" one that had been linked around Dreamwidth, but it ultimately had too much activity for me to be able to keep up with it.

Lately, playing Animal Crossing: Wild World on my DS has been a happy place for me. The dreamy low-stakes nature of it reminds me of Glitch. I can also see that in addition to Stardew Valley having lifted a lot of its infrastructure from Harvest Moon games, it clearly took some things from Animal Crossing, too.
I'd played Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp in an app on my phone before coming to WW. I really liked the social nature of Pocket Camp, and being able to see how my friends decorated their spaces, etc. I honestly don't remember why I deleted the app - maybe just got too bored by the daily happenings? I'm not sure.
In WW, there are a few things I do every day - search for the rock that will dispense free coins, buy coffee from the pigeon named Brewster in the basement of the museum, search for fossils, collect and sell fruit, check the recycling bin in City Hall for cool shit, etc. The other townspeople and mail I receive provide some surrealist humor, and it's great all around.
Before starting Wild World, I had been playing Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns on my DS. I liked that game, but it did move SO SLOWLY that I semi-abandoned it in favor of starting a Persona 5 game on my PS4.
Anyway! This game, & this genre, is my go-to "I just got home from work and need to forcibly chill the fuck out after a miserable bus ride" evening activity ;)

I love logging my reading on Goodreads, as well as tracking "books I want to read in the future." I also love looking at other people's updates to see what they're reading. I am ribbonknight over there; my profile is here.

Lately I have been watching Veep, and am in the middle of season 5. Every episode makes me laugh, it pulls me out of every bad mood; I love it so much. ty to brdgt for having suggested it.
Young Pope ended up being too dark for me at the moment. This has happened to me a lot in the past few years with live-action TV.

Physically, my "happy place" is when I go Up North to where my family has a trailer on a lake, or when I go horseback riding on Chief. Fresh air, trees, open sky, a lack of buildings. So nice. If I had my way, I'd live in the middle of nowhere.

I'd added this to my Crunchyroll queue within a few days of the first episode airing. The Anime News Network reviews were good, and enough of my anime friends liked it that it seemed worthwhile.

Was not expecting it to turn into the next thing that fandom, the monolith, latched on to. I'm usually not in the same places as mainstream fandom, I think. Like, I watch the MCU movies/TV shows casually, but I'm not into fic, don't really care much about the characters, etc. It was WEIRD to watch how many non-anime fandom friends got into this show! Weird in a fun way, mostly. I loved reading people's reactions on twitter, the fanart that still comes up on twitter, etc. I'm now following a number of actual ice skaters thanks to guidance from dimensionwitch.
My favorite on this show was Plisetsky, hands-down.

Part of me feels cynical that it's a show focused almost entirely on dudes that swept main fandom, and not something like, Yuri Kuma Arashi. I understand why people like it - I like it, too! - it's just that usually I'm poking around in anime and manga because I can find stories that actually focus on women, so it's disappointing that ~the show that transcended media lines~ was so dude-heavy.

I've added Fujioka's HISTORYMAKER to my iPod, and it's now in my regular rotation. I loved both the OP and ED songs, and sequences, from this show. They were so fun.
The key animation throughout the series, though, was sometimes painful to watch. It'll be interesting to see whether the bluray releases are as big of a step up from what initially aired as Sailor Moon Crystal's were.

Anyway, I am looking forward to season 2 airing, and seeing everyone's reactions along with it.

Zac Bertschy wrote a feature at Anime News Network called, "How to Destroy Your Anime Backlog."

While it focuses on anime, I think it's applicable to fans of any medium.


Related, I'm ribbonknight on My Anime List. Is anyone else on there?

Since last time, I've read a lot. Mostly because it's been at least a month since I last wrote about books.

I still like Dykes to Watch Out For, & would like to read more (I've read 4 volumes). I was pretty excited by the appearance of Thea, a new character who uses crutches or a wheelchair, depending on what kind of day it is for her.
When she gets hired over Mo & another primary character, they gripe about their boss wanting to appear . But the truth is that Thea is simply more qualified.
It's a teaching moment for Mo & others. I hope Thea gets some storylines of her own, beyond just being a teaching moment, but it was still nice regardless.
The characters in this book make me feel lazy by their constant protesting, lol.

I didn't like Rebecca Ore's Gaia's Toys as much as I'd hoped. It's a place where the ideas are better than the writing.
I was more interested in where the characters ended up at the end, I guess, & I would have enjoyed more about that.

I finally read K-ON! College, the last (& final?!) installment of this series. It basically does what it says on the tin. I still prefer the anime to the manga, as the manga has some more pandery poses/etc. I never felt like that watching the show, though.
This series (mainly the anime, which has been extremely popular) is consistently held up as being meant for men, as being exploitative of teenage girls.
I have to say that I try to be perceptive about such things, & I don't see it.
I recently came across this post [will insert list when back at home & can pull it from tumblr ^^;] that cautions Western feminists from imposing their interpretations on media that are culturally Japanese.
It's something I continue to think about a lot.

I've finally dropped the Dengeki Daisy manga, after reading volumes 3 &4. It continues to spend too much time focus on the things that aggravate me, & too little on the few plot points I enjoy (both of which have been covered in previous posts). Maybe I'll return to it if I get bored, but not for a while, at least.

I'm working from a rec-list of someone's fave fantasy novels, & a lot of them are women. I seem to be into fantasy more than SF lately (previously it had usually been the reverse for me!). The most recent entry was Princeless, so that's where I started. I really, really loved this. It opens with a young black princess interrogating her mother about princesses being locked in towers & saved by princes. She thinks it's stupid for fathers to purposely do this to their daughters (to secure marriages even when they can't afford dowries) - how can this happen?!
Turn the page, & Adrienne herself is locked in a tower by her father, in order to lure a prince to marry her.
Adrienne finds a sword under her bed (planted by her brother!), & convinces the dragon who guards her, Sparky, to "fight back against [their] mutual oppressors." THAT IS A LITERAL QUOTE.
She decides it's not enough for her to be free - she wants to help free her older sisters, also locked in towers.
IT'S JUST SO PERFECT. Really looking forward to reading more of this series.

Made it through Dawn of the Arcana #11. This ended up with an inevitable & cool plot development, but overall this series isn't doing much for me. Usually I don't mind panels without text, but in this book it just seems to emphasize that nothing's really happening, and people's feelings don't change over time (after volume 2, at least).

Plowed through The Hemingses of Monticello. I think this book could have benefited from more editing, particularly in the middle, but it was still a great work of non-fiction. Beware of the comments left by white people on Goodreads.

Black Widow & The Marvel Girls - Intended for children, I borrowed this from a member of my comics club. Basically, each chapter is Natasha having a plot with another female Marvel character. I got a much better sense for her from this than I did when I tried reading Winter Soldier about a year or so ago.
I still haven't read anything about Black Widow that makes me stan for her like Captain Marvel or Batwoman, but I'm willing to keep trying.

I read the second Twelve Kingdoms book, Sea of Wind, about Taiki. UGH I LOVED IT SO MUCH, so great, ugh. I <3 these books & can't really be coherent about them.

I read volumes 2-4 of G. Willow Wilson's Air. These felt a little messy to me, like I didn't always know what's going on. Interesting ideas, though?! I'm hoping Wilson's Ms. Marvel is held together a little better. I very much enjoyed the first issue, anyway. Kamala Khan is now tacked up on the wall of my cubicle, ;)

Read X-Men: FF in my continued efforts to read the arc that came before the current arc. Didn't really care for anything that was going on.

Jonathan Hickman's The Nightly News came highly recommended, and I really disliked it. This Goodreads review covers all the reasons why.
AND YET, it didn't stop me from borrowing Hickman's Pax Romana from the same comics club member, as the Vatican starts sending a time traveling army around. Hopeful that it will suck less!

Lastly, I read the first volume of Gail Simone's Red Sonja comic, & enjoyed it more than I expected to. I still don't get the chainmail bikini, but with 0 familiarity of the original series, Simone was able to make the characters & world feel very real. I plan to read more!

j00j is hosting a Comfortfic Recs Party.
Rec your favorite comfort fics, any fandom!

If anyone wants to join in, tomorrow I'm doing a Fannish Get Shit Done session tomorrow starting at 1pm central time, US. A few people are coming to my place, but feel free to join in electronically.

Things that "count" can be pretty much anything, including:

--writing fic
--working on fanart
--leaving comments on other people's fanworks
--creating rec lists
--organizing your fic bookmarks
--organizing a tumblr queue
--creating playlists for writing
--making a fanmix
--updating your fannish organization's website
--doing work for a fannish group of some kind
--updating your roleplay character's threads
--ETC.

littlebutfierce has declared the Muncie Girls' Revolution Summer EP to be the soundtrack to this Fannish Get Shit Done session. You can listen to it here.

---

I'll likely be tweeting updates/encouragement.
Feel free to leave comments here, too.

jobhunters is a new-ish Dreamwidth community. I know it's relevant to a bunch of you, so you should join & comment! There's an open thread every Sunday, which I think could be used to help focus weekly searches/progress, etc.


Over at moogle_university, two DW users are playing through Final Fantasys I-XII, one each in the year of 2013. So, right now obviously, they're on Final Fantasy IV.
For the moment, I am not playing along, but the posts are really fun to read, and I assume will become even moreso as they get up to the Final Fantasys with which I am more familiar!

Screencaps, reflections, caps lock, etc. It's like a community made for me, :)


I keep rereading this post & the comments on it: Thinking About Anger by sparkymonster


littlebutfierce has uploaded some music for me b/c I am the most spoiled friend in the history of the internet. This post has songs about women being in a band,, or as I've titled it in my iTunes, "K-ON! fanmix," :D :D :D
I love-love-love listening to mixes of any length on themes, so I'm delighted by this.
Also this post from a couple weeks ago with 2 songs. "Stone by Stone" is a superior anthem, the lyrics are amazing.
"Rock This" is a fantastic GET UP AND GO!!! song, imo.


I rolled my eyes a lot at the coverage of the demise of J-Manga.com. So I was really grateful for this post by snarp.

* You were asking people to pay real-book-type prices for low-resolution scans of poorly-edited manga.

* Which were not downloadable. Not even with DRM. They could be accessed only from your servers, using your website and or your proprietary apps.

* As such - as any erstwhile user of Yahoo! Music or other such services well knew - we did not buy those low-resolution scans from you. We merely rented them, until came the day upon which you would shrug your shoulders, say "welp, I tried," and shut down your servers.

* You didn't actually try.

* Like, your website and apps were so bad? That I think they were meant as some kind of deliberate "fuck you."

* You didn't even release the mobile apps until last October.

* Wait, did the iPad app ever come out? (Edit: It didn't.)

* It's just kind of hard to believe you were serious about entering this market, is I guess what I'm saying, JManga.

I then got into a Twitter exchange with Deb Aoki (who writes about manga at About.com), basically about how commentators ALWAYS BLAME fans who "pirate everything" or are ungrateful assholes or what-fucking ever.

I was disgusted by Erica Friedman's apparent rage-quit post in her blog, which was inspired by J-Manga closing up shop.
So I was really glad when snarp ALSO commented on that in JManga Stockholm Syndrome.

Ms. Friedman, you are a treasure to that internet demographic preoccupied with swordfighting lesbian schoolgirls (me), but this is bullshit. JManga was deliberately marketing towards people who didn't know enough about the internet to realize that the manga they'd bought was going to disappear on them.

I'm so tired of the way anime/manga industry commentators in the US talk about piracy/etc. whenever a company goes under.
I can't think of any other industry that constantly blames its consumers for its own failures.

I want to link to this post by littlebutfierce, which just identifies precisely the feelings & defensiveness I feel over a lot of the anime series I've been watching lately (K-ON!, Tari Tari, Hanasaku Iroha, just started Natsuiro Kiseki).

I would like to quote it in large & awesome sections:

[T]here's a lot been said about how the audience for these types of shows are often middle-aged salarymen, that these are just bits of fluff to help them relax after a hard day. It's supposed to be soothing, &/or allow them to perv (look at K-On! bootleg merch & you will see a lot of body pillows, IJS).

These kinds of shows -- where adolescent girls are just hanging out being themselves -- are routinely panned on anime blogs, in the round-up posts of each season's new series. They are, say the critics, shit. Because they're boring. Because nothing happens. & again, maybe that's okay if you're a stressed out salaryman, or possibly a 10-year-old girl or something. But the rest of us? Should have more taste than to actually want this stuff. Possibly the plot device of the magic rock gives Natsuiro Kiseki just enough structure to avoid being slammed as "just" slice-of-life, but I suspect a lot of people still won't care.

...

What does it mean, that some of the most high-profile shows about girls' friendships are routinely blown off as being a relaxant for middle-aged men or as being generally dull? What does that say about the value anime viewers place on girls' lives? On girls' everyday concerns & interests? Why aren't they useful or worthy? Why doesn't it matter that people like me & my friends find a lot of comfort/amusement/value in these shows? Does it matter that we're not the intended audience? Does it matter that what we take from these shows may not be what is intended? That, for example, I love that K-On! has no boys in it, even as I recognize that this is probably deliberate so that male viewers have no competition should they insert themselves into the story? Why should we feel bad about liking a show that places the highest value on friendship? Because it's girls' friendship? Because it's not about friendship being tested in a war situation or something epic like that?

I'm just... tired of being told I should feel ashamed for liking these shows -- both by people I would say are garden-variety sexists, but also I think there's sometimes pushback because people see these shows as only fulfilling stereotypes about girls, being retrogressive or whatever. & I'm not saying these series are radical or perfect -- no, they're not at all -- but I'm tired of the assumption that there is nothing valuable I could get out of them, & that if I find value in them, it's because there's something wrong w/my taste or the philosophical stance from which I approach them.

This year I listened to more current music than I have in the past - usually I get obsessed with an old band for a year (Tool, Placebo, My Chemical Romance). I absolutely credit this change to Glee/Glee fandom.

Born to Die - Lana Del Rey : I bought this because everyone at ontd_glee was talking about it. Her performance on SNL wasn't great and I actually didn't really care for Video Games, the first single off this album, but I bought it anyway and I fucking loved it.
The opening drama of the strings on Born to Die pull me in, and this album makes me think of getting myself into my car after surgery and driving myself to work because it hurt too much to stand on/ride the bus. This album is pain and recovery, to me.
My favorite song is National Anthem, although I also really like This is What Makes Us Girls, Off to the Races, Born to Die, Summertime Sadness, and Lolita.
Faith, don't fail me now / Take me to the finish line are the lyrics that made me drag my hopeless/depressed/WILL I EVER GET BETTER JFC ass to work, to the fucking grocery store, etc.
It's hard to put into words how much I love this album. It's one of my all-time favorites, for sure.
After about a month, my boyfriend despaired over its constant presence in my car's CD player.

Mix by littlebutfierce: The list of tracks/thoughts of j. are here! I really liked the PMMP songs and the Delgados. This was my first introduction to Attack All Around and my re-introduction to Stars WHICH WILL BECOME IMPORTANT LATER IN THIS POST.

Attack All Around - megamix compiled by littlebutfierce mix & videos & track list are here.
I LOVE THIS TRACK LIST SO MUCH. The music is incredibly upbeat, and so are the lyrics. This was very much my, "Alright LET'S DO THIS!" album of the year, and I typically listened to it as an entire album rather than individual songs.
If my life were an anime, "Overdrive" would be my OP, tbh.
Overdrive lyrics - this song is so RAWWWW FEEL MY POWER to me.
I <3 Samurai Heart for similar reasons.

Let It Beat lyrics - Don't whine / Bare your fangs!
Are u ready?
I’ve found my glory days
I’ll let this love be my weapon
Let it beat! Let it beat! Let it beat!
I can move on, dreamin'
Are u ready?
Gonna strip away, another day
My regrets until I’m left with zero
Until I get hold of the pieces of tomorrow

Gossamer - Passion Pit - I also started listening to Passion Pit because of Glee fandom, specifically the fic These Strange Steps by thememoriesfire. The fic starts off as Rachel hits rock-bottom in her life and starts a relationship with the stripper, Quinn Fabray. But the entire fic goes on to cover their climb back up from rock bottom, and it's so good. She and Puck are the ones who make the music that is Passion Pit's.
I love the rhythms on here, but the lyrics are also quite devastating imo, which I wouldn't expect from just zoning out and listening to the way they're sung.
I <3 this entire album, and I really like listening to it as an album.
Faves include Take a Walk, Constant Conversations, On My Way, Love Is Greed, and Where We Belong.

All the things you can't control
Should never destroy your love or hopes
I found a place, I found a place,
I found a place where we belong

Vows - Kimbra - I also bought this because people in ontd_glee were talking about it.
I liked the rhythms of "Settle Down" and "Sally I Can See You" and so I bought it. This is definitely an album that's grown on me the more I listen to it.
My two favorite songs from the album are "Sally I Can See You" and "Warrior." Honorable mentions to Come Into My Head, Cameo Lover, and Settle Down.
I feel it growing from whisper, to a shout and a fist in the air is my fave line of "Sally I Can See You," but I really like the entire song, mostly the rhythm (I'm a pretty rhythm-oriented music listener in general. I played piano for a decade but I also did percussion in middle school & high school).
I would quote "Warrior" in its entirety, I love the lyrics and the music. I suppose my favorite bit is:
You're just pushing me down, pushing me down, pushing me down
(They tell you 'trust your head, be like men' but never feel like you're good enough)
You're just crushing me down, crushing me down, crushing me down
(They wanna take our light, make us fight, but never cry for the ones you love)
(I'll be your warrior, warrior)

The North - Stars - This definitely isn't my favorite Stars album, and I think I really need to listen to their songs lots of times before they grow on me. Still, there are a few songs I like quite a bit: Hold On When You Get Love And Let Go When You Give It, The Loose Ends Will Make Knots, and Walls.
"A Song is a Weapon" gets high marks for finally giving the Glee fanfiction I'd been working on for most of the year an actual title. I really like that song especially.

Revolution Summer EP - Muncie Girls: Discovery thanks to littlebutfierce, who blogged about them here. I don't know what I'm gonna do & I'm sick of having to decide could have been my anthem from the first 8 months of 2012, I think.
I'm looking forward to hearing more music from Muncie Girls.

Magic Hour - Scissor Sisters - Started listening to this album because they covered Let's Have a Kiki on Glee. I bought the album off iTunes the same night I listened to it.
In addition to LHaK, I like Baby Come Home, Keep Your Shoes, and Self Control for groovings. So many great rhythms in these songs.
I think Only the Horses and The Secret Life of Letters are my favorite two songs off the album.
I know that Only the Horses is about getting out of the city, but I choose to believe it could be post-apocalyptic, too.

As for The Secret Life of Letters...
What is the full speed of language
When there is nothing to say

and

How many days in a sentence
I feel like passing this phrase
These aren’t my friends
Maybe they’ll be again

Glee Cast - various covers - I'm not going to list out every single song I've bought this year, but I do spend money to buy the ones I like. I think almost the entire fandom is still watching solely for the cast and the music, at this point.
"Scream" is undoubtedly my favorite; it's my all-time favorite Glee performance (even though the context annoys me in terms of Artie's characterization on the show). I wrote an entry about this song/performance here.
The Michael Jackson tribute episode aired after my surgery, I think two days after I left my parents' house/care to spend time in my own apartment on medical leave, solely dependent on my boyfriend to do anything involving bending over, lifting, or getting things on/off the floor.
The music had already been out on First Listen Friday and I'd been listening to the song for days. The performance solidified it for me - Kevin McHale and Harry Shum Jr. totally killed it in remaking the Michael/Janet Jackson video, imo.
In the midst of the worst pain I'd ever felt, and my body making frightening alien-type noises every time I ingested food or water, I listened to this song on repeat.
Everything was way worse than I had imagined it being. This song, on repeat, got me through a lot, especially at work, driving to/from places I didn't want to go, driving to/from work, going to fucking medical appointments, listening to it before/after arguing with medical billing people, etc. etc. etc.
Things got worse than it ever had been in the past, at certain points. Nothing made sense; people wanted to help but there was nothing for anyone to do.

Kicking me down
I got to get up
As jacked as it sounds
The whole system sucks

Kevin's screams in the background, just this entire song was very therapeutic for me. Hands-down my most listened to track of the entire year.

The "Rumour Has It/Someone Like You" mash-up sung by Naya Rivera and Amber Riley was another immediate favorite (this might have technically been released in 2011, I can't remember). This song was something of a feature for Santana after having her sexuality outed to her entire community by Finn, white boy/hero of the show (who was never punished for it, btw). Santana's vulnerability and bitch-slap of Finn cemented her as one of my favorite characters (if not my absolute fave, which I think she is). Amber's and Naya's voices blend so nicely. I like this mash-up much more than the original singles by Adele - when I listen to either one, all I can think is, "There's not enough going on, where's the rest?"

I very much liked Unique's three singles from season 3 - the "Starships" cover had me loving that song before that multi-fandom vid that a lot of my friends liked came out (the vid did really nothing for me, tbh).

I could go on & on about each Glee single I bought and what it meant to me.
I should probably add "We Are Young" to this list, although I think that episode aired in 2011.


A Song is a Weapon Playlist - cultivated by me, located here with links to it on YouTube/Last.fm/Spotify. I've likely listened to every song on this list 100x or more, having become obsessed with each one in turn.
Each song elicits specific feelings from me about the characters/situations/themes of my story, and I'm so glad I made it because it's helped me get "unstuck" multiple times.
In the past few weeks I've taken a bit of a break from writing my fic, but I'd like to get back to it in the near future, and this playlist is going to be the first place I turn.


Honorable mentions also go to Kanye West, Stars (long a favorite of mine, but I really dug them again this year), My Chemical Romance (Danger Days gets a special mention for getting me to/from many a place I didn't want to go in my car)

Special 2012 bonus: PSY performing Gangnam Style with MC Hammer (Hammer comes in around 2:50):

It's probably worth mentioning that I'm on Last.fm as ribbonknight - this scrobbles what I listen to at home, which I'd say is about 1/4 of my listening. 1/4 = in the car, and 1/2 = at work (my iPod doesn't sync with iTunes b/c it has loads more music ^^;).