I've been wishing lately that I had saved my old updates page, just to see what had been going on with me in the past. hehe.. I've been to lazy to actually do it, though. Until now.. I figure it's 2:16 am, I'm awake, I might as well do something *utterly* useless. But anyways.. here you go.  Old things that the odd duck of a llama said:

7/13/01

• ::Looks around brand new bedroom:: Am I allowed to call myself a grown up if I have a Hanson poster hanging on my door? I hope not. But at any rate, this moving out stuff is rather thrilling, if a pain. Updates no doubt will come...hopefully more quickly. I'll actually have space to myself to write while my apartment-mate is off at work :) Oh. And to the person who signed the guestbook about me blathering on about myself here being the same as me blathering on about myself on a livejournal: You're totally right. I complain here and I am self-indulgent and self-absorbed and all sorts of negative phrases beginning with "self." I think Live Journals are freaky for exactly that reason--why waste words on something so out in the ether as that, when you can just do whine all you right there on your very own harddrive?

• This weekend witnessed the minor miracle that was the birth of the second issue of PulpHanson. (Why a miracle, you ask? Because it seems like we spent too much time watching The Naked Chef and oldschool Hanson tapes to actually do anything productive. Go figure.) The HOSTAGE! issue is even weirder than the Girlfriend issue was, if you can imagine a parallel universe where such a feat is possible. ;) 

• So those live journal things that are all the rage? I just don't get them. First of all, I make it a point never to read online journals. As bizarre as it sounds, I find it freakishly strange to think that people are posting diary-esque things for anyone to read. (What makes it bizarre? The fact that when I'm going through a fiction writing spree I don't even bother with a journal--I work out all of my issues through the story without making the "me alone" pitstop that is writing about yourself, even when you do it for someone else.) But to wax even more self-possessed than I normally do, guess who's moving out of her parents' house next week? I'll be moving into a "townhouse" (read: apartment with a 2 square inch yard and a big, big rent bill) with my best friend from high school approximately 2 blocks from the house I grew up in. Isn't that crazy? If y'all didn't know better, wouldn't you just think that I'm the spitting image of a grown up?  So yeah. Scary stuff, that.

6/28/01

• Tis the awards season, it appears! The 2nd Literary Hanfic Award winners have been announced, as have the winners of the Golden Gnomes. Hansonfiction.com hostees came away quite well represented, as did the domain itself. Those awards will go up on the main page tomorrow :)  Lived won best letter/journal story in the former, and was honorable mention in a couple of Hansons-as-supporting character categories. For some reason completely unfathomable to me, I won best short story author in the later. Hehe...I've written like...one vastly inferior short story: There's far, far better quality to be had out there: for an oldie but goodie, check out Jessica Rose's Now Tell Us What You Heard. At any rate, go check out the winning websites. They're a lot of my most-visited bookmarks. :D
         

• Oy? How wonderful was Moulin Rouge? I saw it like last week and I'm still dizzy. Ewan McGregor is so pretty ;)

• So you think you're an "outed" Hanson fan? Top this story: today at work I was paged by the Vice President of Finance, who requested a meeting with me. I was all, "Oh crud. What horrible thing did I do wrong this time?!?" I went down to talk to her and she wandered over to the publisher's mail, flipping through stacks of magazines. I waited patiently for whatever shoe was in the mood for dropping to drop, yet nothing happened. Finally she turns around with...can you guess? The July/August issue of Modern Maturity in her clutches! She even promised to do her best to hook me up with it. Yup indeedy. I am synonymous with Hanson for an absurd number of people =X

• Psychological breakthrough has been attained! I have just triangulated my personality type based on an in-depth scientific profiling system: TV sitcoms. I am: Sex in the City Miranda + Charlotte x Golden Girls Rose. Scary. But true.

• I suppose that the Sunday night Hanson appearance wasn't totally unexpected. The boys were, after all, mentioned on the liner notes of the NKOTB Greatest Hits album...so it's not so surprising that they popped up for a moment in the boyking emeritus's E! True Hollywood Story. It was just a brief mention with some footage taken during the @ MTV taping last year, but in a Hanson drought, every moment counts, eh?  The mention was even vaguely positive. The show had reached the point when Joe and Jordan were mounting solo careers in the late '90s, and they said something about the NKOTB members riding back to fame on the coattails of a new wave of teen pop, founded by Hanson, who "oddly enough, weren't even prefab." (Random observation: it was freaky to see my current obsession on a show charting the rise and fall of one of my most significant past obsessions, but it was *crazy* to see my current obsession being taped 30 feet away from where I was standing on a blustery NYC sidewalk, on a show carting the rise and fall of my one of my most significant past obsessions. Hehe...)

• Right. So I can't decide if it's showing my age or not to think this, but is there anything in the world as wonderful as Taylor Hanson and a baby? It makes me think horrible things, including, but not limited to, "I'll take one of each, please."

• Riverfest looks as though it was wonderful, huh? This observation brings to mind one question: I wonder if it sounded as good? There are a few clips floating around, most notably at the groovilicious Perfection: Taylor Hanson, but none of them seem to be clear enough to actually undertand. In fact, I'm flashing on early 2000 when bootlegs of This Time Around started getting taped at movie theaters. Those were almost as bad... It could be Taylor singing, or it could be a vacuum cleaner on high for all I know. ::sigh:: How come 35,000 people at Riverfest had cameras and *one* had a tape recorder? Not that I'm hostile or anything. Nope nope. To make up for the shortcoming of Hammerstein-esque lovelies from Riverfest, though, Elena from the Back to the Beginning list has posted some *amazing* bootlegged sound clips from a couple of shows on the TTA tour. I'm not sure if she would approve of me giving out the link, but if you get in touch with her or join the club I'm sure she'd be happy to hook you up. My favorite is a clip of This Time Around from the Providence radio station show. It brings back such crazy memories :D It was the unveiling of the new, audience interactive Hanson show and just hearing the file you can feel their energy and optimism. Which, of course, was eventually crushed by the real world, but man was it pretty while it lasted ;)

• Well folks, it seems that we've found a rare, sparkling oasis in the great Hanson drought of 2001.  Their newest print appearance is, dare I say, downright freaky. Sure we've all been complaining that Island/Def Jam are marketing Hanson to the wrong audience but I'm quite frankly not sure that this is what we had in mind. It's a start, though. And not only is the article wonderful, Taylor Hanson proves himself yet again to be both utterly breathtaking and utterly brilliant. There should be a law :b
  
  Also new in the wonderful world of han-doration are some pictures that I believe to be from the ASYM event. Even if I'm wrong they're still worth checking out, though. They've done quite the 180 since their fashion victim days after the Oscars--in fact, I'm like typing blind because my sight has been taken by their glory =X I mean...Hi. It used to be that Zac and Isaac had their charms and Taylor was a beauty queen, but these days they're all so gorgeous I don't know where to look first.  Which I guess could be construed as a bad thing. (Oh, and as usual, all the fabu links and pictures exist thanks to the excessively awesome Hansonhotel and Perfection: Taylor Hanson.

• Yeah. So giddy much? Go check out this RollingStone.com article. It certainly looks as though that songwriter's boot camp was a good thing for Hanson--they've been busy little boys :) I'm kind of hoping that even throughout all of this cowriting they manage to sneak out a few tracks that are undiluted, pure and simple Hanson without 35 "big" names to get them mentioned in Rolling Stone. Having said that, how thrilling to have not one but *two* songs written by Hanson and Carole King to look forward to? Even the titles have "classic" written all over them--"Let You Go" and "One More Time." Wohoo....love songs, you think? :D The most intriguing tidbit the article has to offer, though, is: "'I Almost Care,' a number Taylor describes as possessing, 'a kind of a cynical, almost sick way of looking at things from the guy's perspective.'" A cynical Hanson song? Who ever thought we'd live to see the day? How desperate are you to be let in on the doubtlessly magnificent world that is "the guy's perspective," a la Taylor Hanson? And a present for actually reading these 200 extremely boring words :D (It's tagged to a fault...you'll have to use your imagination about Taylor's facial features. The "I just got my hair done" blond highlights are more readily identifiable, though.)

6/7/01

• Okay, so at the risk of going Hansonhouse on you, I have a very interesting and very unconfirmed rumor to share. My brilliant friend over at Carnival Hanson pointed out a fascinating bunch of coincidences that I thought you might be interested in.
  
  Group A
  1) Hanson are songwriters
  2) Hanson are in France at a Castle
  3) It's the beginning of May
  
  Group B
  1) Printemps de Troubadours is "a combination songwriter lovefest and wine-tasting."
  2) It's held in a castle in the south of France
  3) It's held during the beginning of May every year
  
  Highlights of media coverage:
  
  "Basically a handful of songwriters from around the world gather to collaborate by day and at night partake of grand torchlit wine-glittering dinners. I'm not sure who all is attending but past participants have included Cher and other walking institutions."
  
  http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/10-20-97/austin_music_feature1_side.html
  
  People who have been there in the past:
  Tal Bachman, Olivia Newton John, Carole King, Greg Alexander, DC Talk
  
  Um yeah. Does that have Hanson written all over it or did I blink?

• Sweet God, there's going to be a *Hanson* concert in Tulsa in June. I hate living in Northern New England and not being an heiress to some sort of travel-related fortune :b Those of you who have an opportunity to go to the show really should. (Check out www.hansonhotel.com for details.) It's being sponsored by Clear Channel, the philistines who own some absurd amount of America's radio stations and single-handedly decided that Hanson aren't cool enough to play on the air. If lots of people attend the show and support our boys, maybe Clear Channel will give them another chance when the new album comes out...

• Happy one year anniversary of owning TTA!  And might I point out that I'm completely pathetic enough to be randomly nostalgic at the thought of eagerly ripping into my TTA packaging 365 days ago today--weak with Hanson adoration and giddy at the prospect of a new CD :) The boys have been popping up a bit of late: Be sure to check Hansonhotel's latest news page every day for actual, timely and useful news of the sort you'll never find here.
  
  Llama's unimportant Hanson run-ins: This weekend while in Washington we hit a couple of random music stores, and guess what I found? A promo copy of Middle of Nowhere :) It's got the old, old school orange cover on it, but Taylor's hand is extended and his palm blocks most of the shot. All you can see are his precious little fangs and parts of Ike's and Zac's faces. Wonder why they'd ever change a thing like that? Hehe... And in another random Hanson sighting that you probably don't care about, my outer limits fabulous local radio station mentioned Hanson yesterday. It wasn't in a like "Ohhh! Let's play them!" sort of way, but heck, it was acknowledging their existence. Which is a start. The DJ was talking about how the Ben Harper live CD is called "Live from Mars" and he threw out something about "it must be a pretty popular planet these days...that Hanson band had a live CD with Mars in the title, too." I'm not entirely sure who was more stunned that the DJ was at least aware of Hanson--me or him. (Random fact: you can listen to the radio station online. It's really worth it, if you're ever sick of the top 40 drek most stations play. The Point would be Hanson approved, I bet: they play lots of Jayhawks, Ben Folds, Jonny and Blues Traveler.)

• In a moment of weakness I sent a copy of a book my company published to Taylor, C/O MOE. =X The whole thing is a little less random than it sounds; I thought he might actually be interested because the book plays a big part in Salinger's Franny and Zooey, which he so professes to love. At any rate, I now know that the package arrived at the MOE house, at least. Don't I feel special?

• Ugh. Don't you just hate California for being so far away? I used to have a T-shirt back in the day that summed the whole situation up: It was a star map with one star toward the bottom left marked "you are here" and another star toward the upper right marked "all the good stuff is here."  This random bout of California envy brought to you by: ASYM

• Howdy stranger! It's rather been a while, hasn't it? I have indeed not plunged off the face of the Earth--although I must admit it occasionally feels that I have ;) I've been busy editing Lived for the past few weeks, and this morning I actually wrote a new letter. It's very short and sort of cleans up some of the big ugly messes that the last third of the story developed. I plan on writing several more like it to fit into various spots that need some enrichment, especially as I loose the easy character shorthand that is Hanson. If I do post these new letters, which I probably will, they will still contain Hanson. The new revision of Lived, however, doesn't. because I'm going to send it to publishers and see how hard they laugh at me for thinking it's good enough to be an actual book. Check back later this afternoon for Various Artists updates :)

• Amazing, not to be missed things: half.com (like eBay, only way more trustworthy and less pricey), and Bust (it's super-intelligent, but also super-offensive, so if you're fond of social mores, just stay away). One more incredibly wonderful thing: Lived screenplay by Amy Grace. I gave my permission for her to use Lived's storyline to write a screenplay for one of her classes, and pretty much expected never to hear from her again.  What I found in my e-mail several days ago proved me wrong :) Definitely check out the above link to her re-drawing of Lived. It's really opened my eyes to her take on the story, and I think that Amy Grace has done a fantastic job capturing what I meant to say but wasn't necessarily able to pull off in my way-narrow letter format piece. I actually found the screenplay so interesting that I've started working on my de-hansonification Lived process again and done about five letters since Friday. :D

5/14/01

• So no update to Runaway Run this weekend--I was off having fun in Washington DC with Laura and Jackie. I'll see what I can do for next week, though :)

• The most ridiculously amazing movie that you've never seen: The Red Violin. Bring your inner helpless romantic, your adoration for passionate music, and a bag of popcorn and you'll be in heaven. (Okay. So it isn't really all that well done. As amazon.com points out, it's a wee bit hollow. But baby, the bits that work *work.*)

5/9/01

• Finally the boys put the Hanson hotline to good use! A tidbit of a new music has been available there for the past few days; there are no lyrics but there's all sorts of oddly electric sounding piano action going on. It sounds vaguely Ben Folds-esque, so I'm thinking this might actually be Underneath. (This conclusion is obvious in my seven degrees of separation addled mind: Ben Folds and Matthew Sweet are buddies, therefore any Hanson music that sounds like Ben Folds must be funneled through Matthew Sweet. Right. That doesn't make sense to me either. But it's a theory.) The hotline number, in case you too can remember what Taylor wore on the Leno Christmas appearance in '98 yet are absolutely incapable of remembering anything resembling useful information, is: 1-918-446-3979.

• ::Reels:: GO NOW. Hanson, Sweet Go Underneath.

• Sure, I'm willing to suffer the indignities of buying a cheap teenie rag for your sake! Check out scans ( 1 and 2 )of the Teen Celebrity interview. Be sure to note the pictures...maybe they aren't kidding about Zac with the fertilizer. Look at the kid! ;)

• Oy. I'm having a Hanson fit. I listened to TTA today and re-fell in love with the CD and the boys. Which rather sucks, because I get this whole maternal "life must always be perfect for Hanson, dangit!" attitude going on, and that doesn't do anyone any favors ;)  At any rate, there's new stuff afoot for certain. As every site in the free world has already posted (even hanson.net, chronically behind the times as it is), there's an article on the new album at Katrillion (whatever the heck that is). The only real news is a tentative release date in September--which would be lovely, but figuring Hanson time into the equation, I'll probably have grandchildren by the time the new album hits stores. There's also a new article in Teen Celebrity, which was posted on AFH by Heather. :D  Being the crown princess of random information, I've got still *more* Hanson detritus to bore you with ;) Check out this top ten from Salon.com . The thing that gets me about this bit of wildly-outdated information   is the fact that the list is compiled by Greil Marcus, close buddy of Lester Bangs (my current crush...hehe...a little death never bothered anyone =X), and one of the originators of Rolling Stone. How is it that everyone cool in the world likes Hanson yet they *still* can't sell albums? Does not compute.

• My goodness!! New album news is such a marvelous thing!! It makes me use multiple exclaimation points!! :D Things to be gleaned from this article: 1) Their producer has worked with Trent Reznor. (Good ridance Mr. Lironi. Don't let the door hit you on the way out, buddy.)  2) A number called "Underneath" is in contention for title song status. 3) They came thisclose to writing with Ben Folds. 4) There will be a video of the birth of this album, complete with Matthew Sweet footage. 5) Someday, the "mmmflop" aspect of This Time Around is going to be a Hansony historical footnote. Heck, it already is. 6) Llama is giddy with anticiplation. (also, see Alloy.com for another article that rehashes this same stuff, only without that painful, yet true, last line.)

• Who would ever have thought? Not only did I start a new hanfic, but I also updated it. Section 4 of Runaway Run is available at your leisure. (And I feel I must apologize early for a tiny Bridget Jones resemblance. I just couldn't help it.)

• If you're interested in the topic of fanfic even when it doesn't pertain to Hanson, do I have a link for you! Check out The E-Files from the Washington Post, sent to me by a woman I work with. (Who writes fanfic about Sentinel, even. It's always comforting to know you're not the weirdest person in any given room.) There's no mention of the added twist of including real people in fanfic, but it's a nice article. Especially the ending...maybe Hanson will someday start a TV show and hire all of us hanfic writers to work on it! I'll be expecting this event to occur right after Taylor's moonlit proposal.

• Wow. I know of at least one person who thought this day would never come ::waves hoof::. I've started a new Hanfic. It's silly and goofy and cheesy...a romantic comedy, even. Very different from everything I've done in the past, and very fun to write, too. If you're up for it, check out Runaway Run. (Didn't I tell you it was cheesy? It's got a *Hanson* song for a title, for God's sake!)

• I'm normally not a big fan of webpage awards. They're a cool concept, and it's always cool to check out what people are reading. But I think it's inherently an unfair thing...making a race out of what should be a dance. But at any rate, I had to post this banner, if only because it's the funniest thing I've ever seen. Swear to god. Judging from what I'm hearing about the nominees, there should be some good surfing to be had when they're all posted :)
  

4/29/01

• Humph. After a long, long, long hiatus, I actually did some very basic updates to Everytime Around, the Hanson article archive I put together for some meet-Hanson content forever ago. Needless to say, I totally lost said contest. (In favor of, if I recall correctly, a site that had absolutely no content. Not that I'm bitter on behalf of people who actually put time and effort into their submissions, nope, nope! ::grimace::) At any rate, I want to get going on this site again. It's a cool idea and I definitely have the raw materials to make it work; It's just the devotion I lack.

• Wow. I'm back from Vegas and literally exhausted...I should be in bed. And I will be, right after I share the exciting news: Always from Afar (formerly known as Create Your World, always known as "that weird page run by the girl who allows herself to be called Llama") was picked as site of the month by the fabulous Tay-A-Day/Hanson-A-Day newsletters :D My hearty thanks to its owners, TC and TLS!
  

• The newest domain hosting marvelous Hanson pages? Brightandbeautiful.org  ::hands out cigars to celebrate the momentous birth::

4/9/01

• Hanson are such celebrities these days. They've been famous since 1997, obviously, but there's this funny distinction between what they used to be and what they are. Once upon a time they were these random boys who happened to have a record contract, and now they're Oscar post-party hoping paparazzi magnets. This is not necessarily a bad thing--it's more just a different thing.  Speaking of Oscar party...apparently they sang four songs last night, and two of them were new. ::Swoons:: Here's hoping someone was bootlegging =X All the big sites have that one Taylor-as-an-ice-cream-server picture up, but I'm on The Back to the Beginning List, and the girl who runs it somehow came across two more pictures :D Check them out at Elena's site. Taylor's jacket, quite frankly, makes the outfit. And Isaac's jacket? It makes me sweat =X The only worrisome point is that Zac seems to be wearing *barrettes.* Eek. Maybe it is time for a trim.

• ::swoons:: Taylor Hanson is going to make an outstanding daddy someday. And how about Zac'n'Mack? They're both such darling bruisers :D Check out the recently-updated Hanson at the North Pole for more pictures of such magnitude.

• Gesh, when was the last time we had any actual Hanson news? It feels like about a lifetime ago, but today some goodies were delivered from heaven to tide us over ;) Hansonline and Hanson.net both have new pictures up from in the studio, but as if to provide even more evidence that nothing ever really changes, they're so dark it's virtually impossible to see anything. Except the lava lamp. Exhibit B to prove my above point, I guess.  I find it randomly exciting that Hanson are actual recording stuff, as evidenced by the flying hair and real live instruments that were barely visible through the gloom. ::crosses hooves and prays for Never Let Go to be on the new album:: And how about Taylor's new haircut? Am I alone in thinking he was jealous of Faith Hill's new 'do and decided to take matters into his own hands? (Speaking of pictures, the cheesily named yet fabulously content-filled Perfection: Taylor Hanson is up and running at its new domain)

• So the town where I live (most often known as the middle of nowhere, even by non-Hanson fans), just got a Borders. Which means, as I'm sure many of you know, that all of the independent bookstores are shutting down faster than you can say "Wal-Mart Effect." Which is a tragedy and all, but I can't help but frolic a bit at the fact that the smaller bookstores are all having 40% off sales on their remaining merchandise. And guess what that remaining merchandise included? Hehe...the new unofficial Hanson book. It's nothing amazing, and actually took less time to read than the back of your average cereal box, but still. It's Hanson. ;) Most of the information is nothing new or exciting, but I was impressed by this little tidbit:
  
  "Q: There are so many Hanson kids, have any of them ever been left behind accident? [sic]"
  "Zac: Mackenzie was left behind at a gas station once. We didn't realize it for two hours, but when we got back to the gas station, the pump guy had looked after him really well. Maybe he didn't miss us at all."
  
  Hanson really *aren't* Ned Flanders and family from The Simpsons...leaving Mackie at a gas station has a much more Malcolm in the Middle ring to it. Not to mention a "10-15 years of therapy for Mackie Hanson" ring...

• The intensely random Hanson appearance count (including such notorious events as Melrose Place and that Noah show) has just grown by one: Krap-fm, a Utah Alternative Rock station. The radio station has put up files of the interview, and you can check them out at the above link. ::muses:: Taylor Hanson peeing off buildings. First beef stew, now this? Can you imagine being in that alley? "::holds out hand:: Is it raining? Did anybody else just get wet?" Some advice from llama: if you're sensitive about Hanson fans who do things like sing Hanson songs in public places, don't bother downloading the whole file. Just get the interview. The rest is annoying...the radio station guys being jerks about how Hanson are "teenyboppers" and how they'd never get played on an "alternative station." This was said right before they played Matchbox 20, might I add :b They also talked about Hanson's image problem. Then proved it with teenaged girls in the studio with signs and the aforementioned sing-along. Grr.

• A very cool new development in the Hanson fan community is afoot! Check out The Hanson Tribute Project, and sign up to get your own subscription. It turns out that I will be writing for them after all...and I think the whole project just rocks. Go. :D

• Ah, the new year is here. With it come the first waves of Hanson drought 2000, but also a marvy new innovation in Hanson newsletters: the makers of Tay-a-Day have begun a new club called   Hanson-a-Day. Join them both. Right now. I *promise* you won't regret it.

• After randomly entering into a discussion about Hanson related reading materials, I had an epiphany: I have read, listened to, and done an insane number of things just because they're Hanson related. Oy. Check out my take on some Hansony associated wonders in my salute to a whole new dimension of fanhood: Intellectual Stalking.

• Sign #4,019,991 that Hanson shall never (for good or bad) live down Mmmbop: Sonic.net's article about the essential 25 pop albums is entitled "Mmmpop." Its' forgiveable, of course, because guess who's number 23?

• Wow, Hanson sure like to write on walls, don't they? I guess their parents have no right to complain, though, having fostered this quasi-destructive hobby in the "famous Hanson basement,"--which, might I add, I would be more than willing to sacrifice limbs to see in real life. The event that prompts me to note this? The Save Me video that is now available at the Island Records Hanson site. It's quite sweet really, and miraculously enough, actually works on my computer. I'm not sure what the motivation behind the video was...I can't imagine that they would have put money into recording something for a song and then not bothered to release it to the TRL hungry masses, even if they didn't properly promote it.   I'm kind of hoping that this version of Save Me will be included on the tour video so those of us with dodgy systems won't be forced to watch it like a 1950's B movie from Japan, only without the excitement of the guy dressed up in the Godzilla suit. ("Saaavvvee Meee..." ::lips move, lips move, lips move::)  The close ups are lovely, but I'd be most interested in seeing a better version of the boys being overly melodramatic in the room where Zac has written "Save Me" on the wall. God help us all for being able to recognize his handwriting, but whatever...;)

• Everyone get MOE 10? It's a doozy.  Even though there's very little content--two actual articles, if you count Dr. Food--I personally came away from the magazine feeling well-satisfied: There are scads and scads of great pictures from the tour and what writing is included is sharp and funny. Perhaps it's because I know it's on its last legs, but lately I've been appreciating MOE to no end; It's so nice and glossy and fun to look at. This issue just highlights how much the magazine has evolved so much since it first began. Now they actually use punctuation and layout concepts that don't involve things like white text on white backgrounds!  For those of you who don't get MOE, poor, poor souls that you are, here's one of my favorite new pictures, a little number I like to call Isaac Hanson, Guitar God.

• I'm off to Las Vegas at the crack tomorrow. Which is kind of exciting. Maybe I'll find a nice Elvis impersonator and settle down or something. But anyways, if you don't hear from me for awhile, that's why. (Ohh...and we're going to death valley. Which means that I'll probably be in the same state as Hanson....how thrilling....hehe...)

• Thanks everybody who pitched in to help out with my Hanson Tribute Project article! It's finally all set and mailed in, and if I must say so myself (which I must, apparently...hehe..) it turned out not-to-shabby. But to read it, you've got to subscribe. ;)  (Ohhh...subtle, llama. Subtle.)

3/26/01

• So PulpHanson is totally finished. Well, it would be if the evil gods of photocopiers weren't so against our innaugural edition...we finished up right on schedule and drove to Staples all breathless with anticipation at witnessing the birth of Pulp at the hands of their skilled photocopying technicians, only to discover that the machines were down. :( The first batch will be hitting the mail by Firday, though. I hope you guys like it :D

• Post college graduation, I occasionally find myself seeking a theme. When you're in school they're ready made for you, be they the history of Europe since 1910 or finite math, and it's easy to get used to having something to completely devote your thoughts to. My most recent, though fading, personal literary fad has been fairy tales in the form of Francesca Lia Block and Donna Jo Napoli books, but today I think I can declare a new trend: Groupie lit
  
  Yep, you got it. I just finished reading Bye Bye Baby: My Tragic Love Affair with the Bay City Rollers, and it was fantastic in the most bizarre way: You always think you're first, no matter what. No matter how many grainy black and white newsreels you see of girls swooning for the Beatles, you never really imagine that those teenagers, our mothers, our grandmothers, felt even a shred of what we do.
  
  Thinking of all the deeply absurd things I've done for Hanson--ranging from flying to Tulsa to driving all over the Eastern Seaboard to buying hundreds of dollars worth of CDs emblazoned with the name of a band that has yet to release their fourth studio album--and it just doesn't seem possible that anyone else in the history of the world has done anything even remotely similar. I bet you feel like that too, but what we can learn from those crazy Beatles fans and Caroline Sullivan's crush on the lead Bay City Roller is that these idolizations are by no means ours alone.
  
  In 1975 the author of the aforementioned book did all of the crazy things we do--flying to obscure places, staking out hotels, enduring nasty fan rivalries and developing an attachment to people so dizzyingly distant that they knew they'd never mean anything to them. Random quote from the book: "At some level, we realised that this fatalistic devotion was a one-time-only thing that, once gone, could never be  recreated... At some point in the week, Cathy had said, 'I'll never be this happy again.' Of course, all four of us have been that happy and more.... But I must say, later-day happiness has lacked that chocolate-sauce-and-cherry-on-top that was Roller happiness. For as long as we loved them, real life was a place we only had to visit now and then. Rollerland was our refuge from the adult lives we weren't ready for." So yeah. Fabulous, huh? If Hanson were even fractionally as curious about our inner workings as we are about theirs, I think this book would be the perfect human / teenie-fan translation.
  
  Other books on the groupie lit list? I'm with the Band by Pamela Des Barres (the book that Cameron Crowe made Kate Hudson read before he would let her play Penny Lane. Good luck finding this sucker. Bring a pith helmet and a credit card, because it's so out of print that you'll need them both), the Almost Famous screenplay, and the Duran Duran fan article in Bust: A Giude to the New Girl Order.

• So. Wild guess? Who's the suckiest and least reliable writer working for the Hanson Tribute Project? Bing bing! If you guessed yours truly, you'd be the lucky winner! And what's your spectacular grand prize? A trip to Las Vegas to romp with the Flying Elvi? A new Wiener-mobile? No! Better! A chance to help me with my article =X

I'm working on a fan response section full of answers to the question: What's the one thing about meeting Hanson that you'll never forget? Tell me your response in under 200 words, and I'll do everything in my power to see that you're included in the first issue of the only Hanson fan run magazine.

(And what's my answer? I'm not sure if I'll use it, but the one thing I'll always remember--beyond being enveloped in curiosity about whether it's possible to actually die of suppressed hysteria or not--is the way Taylor's handshake feels soft and strong, suprisingly beyond real, as if it could stop the world in its rotation. How the boys go out of their way to make time for all their fans--even random girls like myself who are too stunned to do anything but gawk.)

So send me what you think, and if you'd like a picture of you with Hanson. And we'll make an article happen and I'll love you forever. :)

3/5/01

• Can I just say that working on PulpHanson is just deliriously exciting? :) Requests for the newsletter are pouring in, and Laura and I are positively giddy. Surveying the amount of material we already have to include, I'm wondering if it might actually be more than four pages, even. (Also, I want you guys to know that it's not going to be some smarmy "look at these pictures of Hanson's girlfriends" kind of thing. We're just writing in good fun about the bizarreness of our fanly point of view of Hanson's love life and such. If you enjoy reading the material on our pages you'll like PulpHanson, but if you come into it looking for some sort of stalking guide, you'll probably be disappointed. We're the two least hooked up Hanson fans in the world...hehe...even if we wanted to dish the dirt we couldn't because we *have* no dirt...) So places Pulp Hanson is already going to: Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Maryland, Texas, Tennessee, and Oklahoma (Hi. We wish we were you). Make us happy. Subscribe ;)

• Dangit. They're giving away copies of Dave Matthew's new CD on my radio station and I've been one caller short of winning *four* times in the past two days. They want number 11, I'm number 10. They want 15? I'm 14. Baaaaah.

• I don't know about the rest of you, but music journalism is something that I've never really paid much mind in the past. It just sort of appeared in the pages of Entertainment Weekly or Spin, fully formed and existing somehow without my conscious knowledge of it as a genre. I randomly picked up Da Capo Best Music Writing, 2000 the other day, though, and my eyes have been opened :) The book is a collection of essays and articles about all different kinds of music, pop, rock, country, blues, jazz (although it seemed alarmingly heavy on the country stuff...::gag::). At any rate, it includes the liner notes to some intensely random CD that Lester Bangs wrote before he died, and I just had to share a quote: "These recordings serve perhaps their most important and heartening message in reminding us yet again that they can invent all the synthesizers, computers, phase shifters, distortion boxes, 980-track boards and what have you they want, but there never has been and never will be any substitute for the pure soul and directness of the human voice, rolling up outta that throat so tremulously glad to be the official megaphone fort hat temple of unending mysteries and delights simply known as you and me." How fantastic and supercharged is that? If you saw Almost Famous anywhere near as many times as I did (and you probably didn't, because if you did it wouldn't have bombed at the box office...) you probably remember Lester Bangs as a chubby, hyper and totally loveable mentor to young Taylor-esque Patrick Fugit. After having read this essay, I'm even more impressed with Cameron Crowe's screenplay--he obviously did a fabulous job capturing a really challenging character. (As if you needed another reason to read this book, there's also a tiny Hanson mention in the very first chapter.)

• The gang and I are still eagerly working on the below projects...Pulp Hanson (a silly, goofy, not-to-be-taken-seriously little rag that I can only hope will be half as fun to read as it has been to put together) should be coming out around March 14th. Go sign up to get more information!

1/26/01

• The below-mentioned amazon.com list is available for viewing, if you're interested. Too bad my procrastination doesn't take more useful forms, eh? If expended half of the effort on my scheme for world domination as I do on my random fixations, I'd be wearing a crown right now and Hanson would be feeding me peeled grapes ;)

• I want a Fairy Godmother. There is a certain segment of the population that I wouldn't want to say that in front of, but because you're here I have a suspicion that you understand the want of such a thing, dear reader ;)  Of late it seems like fairy tales are everywhere--In commercials, on the radio, in movies--and I'm enjoying it very much. Most of all, fairy tales are in books. I just finished reading Zel by Donna Jo Napoli, and while there's no fairy Godmother to be found in it, it's definitely a dreamy fairy tale that I highly recommend. Yes, it's classified as "Young Adult Fiction," but you'll love it, whatever age you are. Another book by this same author, Sirena, reminded me of Hanson in some odd way that I've been meaning to share for awhile: the book is wrapped up in Greek mythology, and the main character is a mermaid. She's got this sort of quasi-relationship with the gods, enough of one anyway to have been exposed to the bad things they were prone to do. She falls in love with a sailor, full of stories of heroes and gods, and all the while she listens to this man and the stories he makes up, the perfect personalities he creates, for the gods that she knows as fallible flesh and blood. She can never figure out why he regards his gods with such wonder when she knows very well that they're only...well...only human. Very interesting. Oh, and another dreamy author you need to go read *right now* is Francesca Lia Block. Ah. What the heck. I feel another amazon.com list coming on =X Check back later for more developments in this arena.

• I can't decide if I should be excited or horrified, so I guess that the middle of the road-numb that seems to be the only emotion presenting itself at the moment is okay. Lived is finished, as a little behind the story essay. Last letter up and posted. To convey the complete shock I'm undergoing at the moment, let me give you this little framing bit of information: I've been working on this story since the Albertane Tour. That's a long, long time. Thank you all for putting up my whining and procrastinating, and I really, really, really hope that you've enjoyed the story. Thinking that people do makes the work seem much more than worthwhile :)

• I should start a whole new section called "Random Horrible Things." I vaguely remember, at some point months ago, getting a threatening e-mail from geocities about the webspace where I used to have Various Artists, back in the pre-Hf.c day. I ignored it, of course, because I haven't used that account for two years. What did my fuzzy little llama brain fail to take into account? The fact that I still used the *address* that went with it. I was thinking the other day "gee...must be getting near time to update the links site." And then I had a moment of terror...."ohmygod. I haven't gotten a single e-mail about that site in like a month. We're so unloved!" Duh. Duh. So to make a long and uninteresting story short (oops, too late), the old e-mail address for that site is no longer working. If you or anyone you know has a hanfic site that's not submitted at Various Artists, let me know at links@hanson.net. And yes. Apparently, months and months after hanson.net opened, no one had taken the email address "links@".   I wonder if someday h.net will want it and offer to buy it off me. And of course I'd only take front row Hanson tickets in trade... ;)

• How mind-numbingly pathetic are the Grammy nominees? (If you want to go check out the nominees yourself and have your own, private set of hysterics rather than read mine, head over to the Grammy's website.) *Britney Spears* for best female pop vocal? Who voted for that and what were they smoking at the time?!? It reminds me of some old adage that I've had stored away in my brain for quite some time with no good outlet to apply it to: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." So this time, it's shame on the Grammy folks. What were they thinking? I won't even touch the fact that Hanson were completely snubbed. I can live with that: tons of amazing albums didn't get the credit they deserve. But what's up with Macy Gray? She was great...but wasn't she nominated in practically the same categories for the same songs last year? It's time for RIIA to figure out that if you pick someone stupid the first time, there are no do-overs :b And Paper Bag best rock vocal? That's a fabulous song by a fabulous artist, but what in the name of all that's holy is it doing in that category?  LOL...and Destiny's Child? The original four bandmembers wrote the song that's nominated, which ups the likelihood of the Grammy Award show of turning into the Source awards by like 200% ;)

1/10/01

• The 2000 Hanfic Award winners have been posted! Lived got best death scene and tied with a story by a good friend of mine, If They Knew, for best Zac story. Which is very, very cool :)

• Another HAC story has been posted! This one is from Manda, a longtime Hansonfiction.com author whose page has just been reborn. Don't miss either The Sound Machine, or her fabulous HAC contribution: Where You Belong.

• Also, a bittersweet new HFC editorial from Shelby, webmaster of Louder than Words, has been posted. 

• To be filed under terrible crimes that I thought I committed today against all that is artistic and pure: downloading Dave Matthews new CD, Everyday, from napster almost in its entirety. Or so I thought, until I listened to "I Did It" and found it sounded suspiciously like..."Santa Fe" from Rent. Grrr.  In an evil minded attempt to tease, someone posted files with the names of all of the announced songs, only they're random junk. If that had been done with the Hanson album and I had downloaded what I thought was a new song to discover it was a show tune...oy. I would have wept. Poor Dave Matthews obsessees.

• Two more HAC stories for your reading pleasure: A Home in My Heart at Make Me Bad The Outside World at RHO. Definitely two of my favorite sites, not surprisingly producing wonderful stories.

• Hot off the presses: Aileen's contribution to the HAC has also been posted. Go read the bittersweet All She Ever Asked For and then check out the rest of her excellent site Cracked Rearview.

• Journey of the Magi, another story intended for the HAC has been posted over at Conformist. I haven't gotten a chance to read this one yet, but judging on the author's past works it's marvelous. Go read :)

• Happy Holidays, everyone! Sadly enough, the Hanson Advent Calendar, that mainstay of a Hansony December, hasn't been posted as of yet. I haven't heard anything from the girl who runs it, so I've posted my contribution as present for anyone who cares to read it :) It's not my best, it's not deep, it's not great, but I think it's sweet and I like it. So without further ado, go read All We Do Is Say Goodbye. I know that some other people are posting their HAC-intended stories too, and if you've got one send me the link and I'll post it here. Southern Amanda's story is up, and it's deeply hilarious. Check it out at Christmas Eve with the Hanson Family.

• Check out the funnest way to break confidentiality laws: The Smoking Gun.  Always fabulously interesting, yet pointless, this week's exposé is on the riders about physical plant requirements that performers demand on tour. My favorite detail? The fact that Christina Aguilera's contract notes that "(0) Zero pounds of dry ice are required." Is it me or is it worrisome that the current state of music leads contracts to assume that dry ice will be required for any stage show? Another fun detail is that Limp Bizcuit, true to their roots, demand a working bathroom in their dressing room. I wonder what kind of treatment they're used to to have to specify this? Can you imagine booking Hanson? Their requirements must be a nightmare, not even in a "we're divas in training" kind of way, but in a "Hi! Meet Mom, Dad, and our three sisters and brother, our friend Ash, his wife, our *other* friend Ash..." kind of way.

• Take a moment to imagine how horrible Gore supporters from Florida who didn't vote feel. And then go vote at the Second Annual Literary Hanson Fiction, because you know you don't want to live with that kind of self hatred, too ;)

• Eeek. New Lived letter posted. One left.
  

12/16/00

• While not being directly Hanson related (although I thought it might turn in that direction when their buddy Steve Greenberg turned up for a quote), this article from yesterday's USA Today is definitely worth your time to take a look at. It's about the demise of singer/songwriters and the calcification of radio station playlists. And random sidenote...is anyone else have premonitions that when Hanson's Island contract is up they're going to go running to their buddy Steve's new label? He sounds like he's really trying to foster the kind of environment they need...someplace where they're allowed to focus on artistry rather than revenues.

• Even though y'all haven't seen any updates here, I've been on a writing spree lately! In the near future expect to see a brief (or as close to such a concept as I'm able to come) essay by yours truly about fanfic posted at the 2nd Annual Literary Hanfic Awards, a new short story I wrote for the Hanson Advent Calendar, and updates to Lived. Last weekend I wrote most of the very last letter...now there's just one more for me to write and the story will (after 2 torturous years, I'm sure we'll all agree) finally be finished! I've also started on a new hanfic story, which I think shall bear the extremely teenie title of "Runaway Run." This one is more of a comedy than what I tend to produce, and whether or not it's any good I couldn't say. But it's sure been fun to work on. ;)

• Um...so shall I take my nomination for Slowest Updater to be a subtle hint? I'm looking forward to reading my competition, but won't hold my breath for new chapters ;)

12/9/00

• I think I've decided on a new hobby: making Amazon.com lists.

• Excellent new CD purchase: David Gray's White Ladder. My favorite song on it is probably "This Year's Love," and I've been listening to it nonstop for about a week now. It's so different from most music; this is not a man who's afraid of empty space...he relishes it. And that makes his music all the more powerful, because what he's saying is intensified by the music, instead of muddled.. (Note to Hanson: think about it, boys. Hehe...)

• Southern Amanda just passed on another article that includes a Hanson mention, Why Rolling Stone's Pop 100 Brings Back that Bogus Feeling this time from the Boston Herald. Before you go off expecting Hansonfan vindication, well, don't. The article basically says that a lot of the more modern songs that made the list don't belong there...including Mmmbop. I actually agree with them in theory. Rolling Stone and MTV weren't exactly forthcoming about their list logic ("let's put whatever we think will sell the most copies of the magazine on the list?" sounds likely), and to me it seems like significance of the song plays a big part.  The songs that belong on the list, methinks, are the ones that are not only just great music, but also definitive of a movement. Because that's what pop culture is, really, a big, entangled ball of influences and causes and goals.  Judging by this, Mmmbop should completely be there. It changed the face of American pop music three years ago, and ushered in a whole new dynamic to top 40 music.

• Go read How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Hanson. This random fun link was posted at the B&B message board and I thought I'd share. It's pretty funny, and sweet. (Although I don't agree about his musical assessment of Hanson...) The best line: "Each time I call for the destruction of the Hanson triumvirate, a happy- go-lucky piece of me shrivels up and dies."

• Isaac Hanson is 20 years old today, and I completely forgot until about two minutes ago. 20 years old? Is it even possible that we've known them so long that I can remember him at 16? The way he was in curly hair denial and how his braces caught the light and how he hardly ever really smiled.  They used to seem so real, so close. Now he's gone and grown up, and grown beautiful.

• Ummm....This is just wrong. Wrong. Wrong.  ::searches under couch cushions::

• While I was in Boston last weekend visiting Southern Amanda we came across the most fascinating thing: a used CD from 1997 that appears to have been some sort of Mercury Records promotional material. It has a bunch of new music from the days immediately before the release of MON. (Remember how Hanson were always compared to Radish? Whatever happened to them? At any rate..they're on the CD. As are a bunch of other things that I've never really heard of.)  At any rate, the Hanson song that is included on the CD is the Dust Brothers mix of Thinking of You--which makes me wonder if perhaps that had been the initial single choice. I'd heard it before so I mostly just got the CD because it was a dollar fifty and had Hanson on it, but I finally listened to this version today. At the end there's this *bizarre* voice over by some guy saying "that was Hanson with Thinking of You" and then a swear =X  My goodness. The CD also has some stuff by the Jerky Boys on it, so I was wondering if it was perhaps them. But then again, it could have been the Dust Brothers. LOL...crazy ;)

• There's a tiny Hanson mention in Entertainment Weekly's review of the new Spice Girls CD (November 10, 2000):
  
  "If  it's any consolation to Hanson, who saw their popularity plummet this year when they returned with more guitars and less hair, at least they're not the Spice Girls. Four years after splashing girl power and flashing flesh all over the charts, the very mention of the onetime Brit sensations elicits either indifference or outright hostility. More so than Hanson, they've become the first victims of the teen boom backlash. (And were the boos that greeted 'Nsync's national athem at World Series Game 3 a hint of their own impending backlash?)"
  
  This is quite the random mention, but interesting. The Hanson parallell isn't developed any more than this in the story, but it seems like the author is assuming that in common knowledge "Hanson" means knocked around and abused, yet still loved.

• So sue me. I went out and got a copy of Tiger Beat for one amazing Hanson picture.

• I always knew Malcolm in the Middle was an awesome show! The latest evidence of this would be in its soundtrack cd: as everyone's been talking about, it's really going to include a Hanson song. Rumor is that it's Smile, one of the songs that was recorded for TTA but didn't make the cut, but I'm not sure if I buy that yet.  Very cool...Malcolm is supposedly going to develop a crush and I bet that's where the song will come in :) In a random note, last season there was a Hanson poster in the room of one of Malcom's friends on the show.

• As I mentioned earlier, here's that clipping from Catholic Parent magazine.   I left in the bit about Eminem's album...I'm not much of a fan, but I have to say I value his ability to freak the heck out of people.

• Spending eight hours a day with unsympathetic souls would be rough.   Not that I know, though. Thank God I work with interesting people. My office mate brought her BMG flier in today (She's modern rock, I'm pop/rock so the offerings and layout are different) and guess what was on page four? It would be more interesting that they're getting coverage in what might not traditionally be a Hanson target audience, if S Club 7 didn't have the truly plum spot of the spread on the lower right hand corner. But I suppose beggars can't be choosers ;)  Also in this vein, there's an artistic dynamo who works in publicity and she always draws fun little pictures in the cards people get for special occasions. Check out what I got for my birthday ;)

• I can't believe I forgot it, but at work today I was paging through Catholic Parent magazine, attempting to find contacts for a book I'm project editor for, and I came across a review of TTA =X  It's positive, but in the worst way. I don't think that the music is mentioned once...the album gets thumbs up simply for what it isn't--offensive--and not for what it is--amazing.  I'll try to get a scan up as soon as I can. :)

• The girlfriend thing, eh? It's like the personal life dam broke and all of a sudden Hanson's love lives (as opposed to lack thereof, novelly enough,) are everywhere.   It's a pity that this has happened, and I think that M2M especially are going to suffer.  Everything about them points to the fact that they're actually nice girls, but an obviously calculated information leak like this is going to stay with them for a long time. They've said again and again that they really adore Hanson, and whether or not any of the suspected parties are actually dating I can't imagine that their relationship will ever be the same again. Imagine if you're Hanson and touring with these girls, probably like them well enough, maybe even think of them in a romantic fashion, and all of a sudden *boom,* M2M's official spokespeople are dishing left and right about hot-and-heavy key exchanges and such.  The level of trust involved in the Hanson/M2M camps right now must be nil, which is really too bad. 
  
  I have to admit that this is a topic I'm definitely begrudgingly curious about: M2M would probably be high on my "ok-for-Hanson-to-crush-on" list (with such good company as Shannon Curfman, Sarah Michelle Geller, and Michelle Tractenberg). But what would it take to date a Hanson? I mean... not even that it's Taylor Hanson sitting across from you at that booth at McDonald's. It's Taylor Hanson, all dewy and beautiful and charismatic. Territory anyone with even the slightest insecurities could never leave sane...

11/12/00

• If you've been here before, or, dare I say, if you're paying attention, you've noticed I'm a huge honking teenie. Which would explain why I found celebmatch.com endlessly entertaining. My most compatible are an odd lot from Shaquille O'Neal to Erik Von Detten and Billy Crawford (I'm vaguely aware that these might be considered some pretty cool matches...hehe...but I really have my heart set on someone I'm only 89% compatible with..Taylor Hanson =X).

• While I have to say that my computer problems have been fun (I mean, there is a certain charm in pressing the power button and being filled with curiosity about what will happen next), it's a relief to see that much appears to have been cured... by installing AOL 6? Apparently the new program crashed every working computer in the world, but miraculously healed mine.  Good deal.

• Well, I've begun posting my Boston/Montreal tour reviews at Haphazard.  I'm not doing the classic write up because we've all seen that before, but I thought I'd outline some particularly wonderful highlights.   Keep in mind this isn't done...I've left you right in the middle of my meeting-hanson story, but I'm way to tired to continue. More to come!

10/25/00

• Well, I don't know about you guys but I've been desperately surfing around for an MP3 of Zac doing I Want You to Want Me (which was a complete highlight of the Philly concert for me. It's great to get to hear Zac sing for a change. In related, but unimportant news I hear he sings lead for all of the choruses of Money now...).   The day is finally here... some kind, generous soul--actually, two have. The highest quality of the two come with "NYC!!!" or something along those lines in their title--has uploaded basically the entire Hammerstein concert from last month to Napster.  So let's all go be naughty and download the songs =X 

• I found something the other day. Something you might want to hear. Like, a lot. God Only Knows.

• ::Cough:: So not that I don't go to Hansonhouse practically every day, but I imagine you all understand what I mean when I say that I can't believe that I'm about to post this tidbit of information that hasn't even made the news there, most likely due to morality issues. =X  So. Never Let Go. Good, sweet God in *heaven,* Never Let Go. Every time I think that there's nothing that Hanson could do to make me dissolve even further with adoration for them, they come up with something. This round it just happened to be Never Let Go, a song so tender and emotional that in comparision it makes Save Me sound like Nsync's noitoriously trashy Digital Getdown ;) Where it came from, no one can say for sure, but there's no doubt in my mind that it's completely Hanson and that it's completely new. The version that's kicking around online is obviously at the demo stage, but it's not from the This Time Around demo that circulated last summer. It's gorgeous, it's dreamy, and it made me love Hanson even more. So check it out at Millenium Hanson, if you think you can take it ;)

• Hanson were number 13 on VH1's 20 to 1 Teen Idols tonight :) Bizarre that there was actually footage of them talking about Mmmbop circa 1997 that I don't think has surfaced before. And Tamra Davis pretty much summed it up when she said "when I saw that middle one, I knew that if I was thirteen I would have just *died*" ;) Another cool thing would have to be that Belinda Carlyle (whose name I obviously don't have a snowball's chance in Tulsa of spelling properly) was saying how Hanson shouldn't even be categorized with the other boy bands. Nice to see the boys getting some love, especially when it's from someone so cool. Also, someone who their music has been compared too, even. Runaway Run's got that GoGo's feel to it :)

• Well, I finally took that "vote at TRL" plea down. Why? If Only was retired. And TRL will no doubt go back to sucking tomorrow =X  I'm hoping the boys get going with their next video and single...it would be a pity to loose whatever momentum TTA has gained through tour/publicity. Their music certainly isn't getting any radio airplay, so without TRL they're going to drop completely off the radar in no time...

• Ohhh...lookie what I found in my newspaper today!

• So am I alone is living in fear of my next phone bill? The envelope is going to weigh like 30 pounds and be full of page after page of 918-446-1729. If this number doesn't mean anything you're probably not in MOE (not like it matters much..none of us will be after three more issues). Basically, it's where you call to attempt to leave a message requesting preferred tickets. Note, mind you, the use of the word "attempt." Tickets up through mid-October are available right now, or they would be if the phonemail box was ever emptied, which it's apparently not. ;) If I hear "sorry, but this voice mail box is full" *one* more time... grrr.... Being somewhere between ridiculously stubborn and obsessive, I've been calling every time I can get near a free phone ever since Monday when the newer shows were first offered. 3 am bathroom trip? Grab the phone on the way. Space between meetings at work? Phone. Going to work out? Better call before I go =X Good luck to all those in search of tickets, and may all of our phone bills be worth it! :)

• I've been in a surfing-the-web kind of mood lately, and I've come across some fun sites to share.  Children of the Mmmbop is full of amazing pre-fame material from pictures and paraphernalia to wavs of early Hanson songs that I hadn't even heard of. Bridges of Stone is another site based around old material that I'm just blown away anyone even has. If you're not into the family site thing, this isn't for you: it's got Mr. and Mrs. Hanson's yearbook pictures from like 7th grade up! Very strange, yet unavoidably interesting. Apparently Mr. Hanson used to wear glasses (Okay. I'm totally going to hell for caring, aren't I?). The page is psycho paparazzi stuff free, so don't be too alarmed.

• I can hardly rhapsodize enough about Hanson's Leno appearance last week :) They were so great... the show was the perfect recovery from what seemed to be their semi-wan spots on Rosie and Letterman right after This Time Around was released.   Their performance of If Only was perhaps not the best (people who were in the studio are saying that there were a lot of problems that actually made them go through the song 4 times before they got a good take) but their interview segment, admittedly short, was great. Taylor was so animated during his retelling of the beef soup episode :) That represents, might I add, the first time in my life I was ever grateful *not* to have been at a Hanson show! In a random footnote, who ever would have thought Ike would meet his rambling match in Keanu Reeves?

• Goodness gracious, do the media adore Hanson? Yes they most assuredly do...at least at the San Francisco Examiner. This is such a goose-bump-I-love-our-boys inducing article :) The one bit of dubious information in it has got to be "they even dress like . . . well, kids (albeit hip ones) from Tulsa - no Prada in sight." This reporter apparently didn't check the credits of the Interview article. There is indeed Prada in sight, and Versace, and DKNY...

• The This Time Around Tour (yes, Hanson's ingenuity is continually stunning, isn't it? hehe...) is in full swing and there's a whole new genre of Hanson webpages developing: Tour pages :) Which is great..it's very cool to read everyone's reviews and see their pictures.  Check out Hanson Tour 2000 over at one of my favorite domains, Riveronline.net, to get the scoop! In this vein, did you hear the one about the girl who threw herself on Taylor Hanson? Hehe..no, really. I think it was in San Francisco, and it's all over the reviews. Apparently during the middle of the concert a mega-teenie (::cough:: Not like there are any of those around here ::cough::) managed to get on stage and pretty much wrapped herself around Taylor, giving him a big old kiss... according to most sources on the cheek, due to his timely head-turning. Now, this is horrible. Dastardly, really; Sexual harrassment is a *horrible* thing. Poor Taylor. So knowing this, why am I finding it so hard to stop laughing? Can you imagine? It's like that TV commercial for cheese set in a deli-type place--the one where you'd hear that wet sliding noise which would turn out to be the sound of random passerbys involuntarily vaulting themselves towards a big display of cheese in the deli window ("thwunk"), then their faces sliding down the glass ("scree"). Behold the power of Hanson. ("thwunk") ("scree").

• Yesterday was the Tulsa concert, and I've been sitting around all evening wondering what's wrong with people in the Southwest--haven't they heard of one hour photo developing?!?! Hehe..after much effort (erm...clicking on hanson.net and entering my password is hard, after all) I finally found some pics. How ridiculously exciting that the tour is finally here! The set list was kind of predictable, from what I hear, with the exception of one huge shocker: they played *Lucy.* I hadn't even expected to hear that back in the MON era, and I was sure it had been a fatality of Zac's voice change. Apparently not... according to good sources the song has become less of a "Zac" thing and more of a "Hanson" one in that they all sing prominently :D At first I found this resurrection rather strange, but the more I think about it, the more I like it. I bet it's got an Allman Brothers' Melissa feel to it.

• Well, I've finally faught my way onto my computer, which is dying in slow stages before my eyes. Every time I sign on my Taylor desktop looks more and more sickly :(  At any rate, I updated Various Artists, so go check out the multitude of fun links :)

• Oh goodness. I've finally managed to whine at my father until he felt sufficiently guilty enough to hook up two of the multiple VCRs in my house so I can copy this Hanson tape I've had on loan from my dear friend Jackie for a literally obscene amount of time. I missed all of the early appearances...just saw Rosie for the first time ever.   They were so goofily cute...oohh..now Regis and Kathie Lee is on. That one I saw. And I remember when the names of Hanson's siblings seemed like dizzyingly private information to know.  ::sigh:: I miss our little boys as...little boys. Oh, and I've begun work on the next Lived letter. So you might see it while you're young ;)

• So I've just seen Almost Famous for the fourth time. Could Patrick Fugit be a little more Taylor, you think? He's got the floppy hair, the big, dreamy eyes, the sly little grin.  The kid was even born in 1983...obviously an insanely good vintage ;)

10/8/00

• This really puts the "random" in "random interesting things," but I was just reading a review of Joan Osborne's new CD at MTV.com.  I really love her music (although I *hated* that One of Us song) and I've been awaiting something new from her for awhile. The first line struck me as interesting: "What do you do when your debut album oversells you to the masses based on a decidedly non-trivial song that everyone thinks is just a novelty number? What do you do when that song – as underrated as it is – barely indicates the depth of the surprisingly fully-formed ideas on said debut album?" Gee. I don't know. Maybe they should ask Hanson? Hanson and Joan, my underappreciated rock gods :)

• The absolutely unthinkable has indeed happened. I actually updated Lived!  Please be aware there's one really nasty word in this new letter, but I felt like it was called for. So it's there. (One of my pet peeves is that type of story where something intensely tragic happens, say aliens land on Earth and kidnap Zac, and the characters are all "aww shucks! That stinks.")

• ::hangs limply:: Words fail me. Really. I'm back from Montreal, having clocked about 1,700 miles of travel in the past week.  So many things have happened, but I'm not sure if I'll be writing a proper review of either of my last two shows. There's definitely much to share, including an actual conversation with Hanson ::insert teenie squeal:: Not that I did much talking myself.. I'm shy enough around new people, but throw in the identity of these new people and I'm pretty much in Hanson-related paralysis.   I'll probably come up with a little write up for tomorrow, but to keep you occupied until then, here's a little something nifty I picked up from the sound guy at the Montreal concert :D
   

• This Time Around Tour travel log: 900 miles down, 300 to go. I'm off to the Boston show tomorrow, which I can only dream will be as amazing as Philly :D Oh! And speaking of Philly, I hope everyone checked out Laura's hysterical review of the road trip and show. Laura, Corinne, Stef and Meghan are just as fun as they sound and we had an amazing time :D

• The First Annual Literary Hanfic Awards winners have been announced!  I'm honored to say that I came away with a few. The one category I'm really wondering about is the best Zac one... I can't decide who I want to win.  The golden age of Zac and some amazing writers have created some *tough* competition. The winners haven't been uploaded yet, but I can quell your curiosity on a few awards :D
     
  
  Also a very ::cough:: close friend of mine is unable to post her award and asked me to do so here... the people who ran the Literary Hanfic Awards obviously worked really hard on making her a gorgeous banner and even though she's not updating her page any more, she really, really appreciates that people voted for her ;)
  
  

• Very cool that several of my stories were nominated at the 2000 Hanfic awards. Thank you guys *so* much for remembering me :)  And might I say, thank you for having such great taste in fanfic? I've been puttering through the other nominees in my spare time lately and I hadn't heard of a good number of them which are totally worth reading. Definitely wander over and do some reading if you have a chance.

9/20/00

• I need a Hanson tour. Like, right now this very second.  I'm so excited to hear all of the TTA songs live, not even to mention the covers and the *new* songs. I'm really, really hoping to hear both Beautiful Eyes and I Want You To Want Me at one of my shows. Speaking of which, after the ticket debacle I'm going to be at three tour stops on the This Time Around tour: Philly, Boston, and Montreal. I've got so-so floor tickets for Philly, not-so-great floor seats for Boston, and H.net preferred tickets for Montreal. The irony of this situation being that the one show that I'm getting Hanson -related seating assistance is one that's general admission. Grrr. And Boston? Humph. No Moe love for me, apparently. I got through to the ticket request hotline three weeks ago and have yet to get a callback. (Like any of you care. But just thought I'd share.) [P.S.--just calculated milage for the big Hanson week. 1080. Dang. I'm certifiable]

8/28/00

• Guess who's 21st birthday was yesterday? The super-cool southern Amanda. Might I say that now would be a great time to go check out her page Hanson Through My Eyes and wish her a happy b-day? :)

• Didya see the new hostee? Morgan's site Make Me Bad has long been home to one several of my favorite hanfics. She's an excellent writer, and 100% worth checking out, for those of you who haven't found her already!

• So I was sitting in the living room this morning, waiting for my car to be returned from an oil change. My mother perpetually has a stack of "women's magazines" of the sort I pride myself on being several decades too young to be interested in hanging around, and I picked one up. Big story on Julia Roberts. Sure. She's pretty cool. But there, in a little box next to a picture of Julia's rather bony back I found: "When Julia achieved her stardom with the hit film Mystic Pizza in 1988, she looked as though she'd had a few too many slices herself." That's just what a nation of weight obsessed women whom average a size 14 need to hear, huh? That at a size 8, Julia should have cut back on food. I'm just *livid* and writing a harshly worded note to Good Housekeeping because of it :b (note: sorry. My book of the week is The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. Which has made me a little more over sensitive than usual, even...hehe...)

8/13/00

• Woah. I just read last week's Entertainment Weekly cover story about Phish. It's very odd to be a Vermonter who doesn't like them... I imagine I have a good deal in common with people from Tulsa who hate Hanson. Phish's music is so insanely pointless... they literally have a song that includes the lyric "we've got a skyscraper in the band." Um yeah. If I can demand more than that from the Backstreet Boys, I can demand more than that from Phish. :b It was cool to read the article, though, because they talked a lot about where I went to college. For example, the cafeteria I ate in practically every day of my Freshman year was on a timeline as the first place Phish ever played: Harris Millis to the uninitiated. Scare-us Kill-us to the people who've actually been forced to eat there ;)

8/6/00

• Watching Say What Kareoke on Friday made me feel almost as cheap and tawdry as I felt when I watched Melrose Place for Hanson in '98. What will I watch for those boys? Well, for one thing, I will sit  through the most inane, annoying, horrifically inexcusable show ever conceived. Really. Nsync being Nsync annoys me enough. Other people being Nsync? Just let me tell you there were visions of make-shift nooses dancing in my head ;) I was kind of glad the Nsync-hater won, not even because I'm not a big fan of that band. It's pretty trashy to dis someone on TV like that, and pretty inappropriate too, but he did a seriously good job of rapping over Bye Bye Bye so I'm willing to excuse the low class action and wardrobe choices on his part.  The only bright spots of the show were Hanson, surprise surprise, dancing and being their jovially goofy shelves. Not to mention Taylor being the politician "everyone was so good! You guys are all great!" What a little ego booster that boy is!  And Zac?!? I thought he was oddly horrified by that contestant who was continuously macking on him. Most 14 year old boys would probably have been drooling over the water on the chest thing, but he was just looking shyly away. Very, very cute. And then he went ahead and killed the girl's chances to win by giving her the gong when she passed over him to hit on Teck during her final performance. Maybe he wanted to make sure she had no opportunity to see the MTV music awards other than that one extra ticket would probably have arranged to offer her ;)

• So Hanson on the list. The opening few moments was a milestone for me: the first time I've ever heard the word "Hanson" said on TV not immediately followed by desperate, high pitched wails ;)  It was amazing to get a chance to see them behaving like normal human beings, perhaps more so than we've ever had the opportunity to before. They were definitely always aware of being "Hanson" (egad...like Ashton or that girl, both of whom were otherwise quite cool, would ever let them forget it.), but they were quite calm and rational about everything. Maybe that's what happens when they aren't bombarded with stupid questions about hair care products or girlfriends and actually get a chance to talk about their passion: music.
  
  The whole appearance was darn near perfect. Hanson were witty and charming, yet mold breaking. Who ever thought that we'd get to hear Isaac say "pissed off" or accuse someone of behaving like Sharon Stone?!? LOL..our little Hansons don't do such things!  And newsflash: Zac is the hottest thing in the history of the world. Seriously. Taylor's beautiful (to a point where I wonder if he was exposed to nuclear waste or something as a child, thereby killing off any negative genes he may have inherited and making his eyes *glow*) and Ike's sweet, but Zac? ::thud::
  
  Also, I found it interesting that Taylor picked The Eagles Greatest Hits as one of his top choices. Not that I thin it doesn't belong there, but I remember way back in the day someone in the Hanson camp (Steve Greenberg maybe? In that first Spin article?) was quoted as saying that he was excited to first find Hanson because it was like they skipped a generation in their musical knowledge: they were all about the really old rock and roll but "had never heard of the Eagles." And now look at them. Sounding a little like the band and picking them on the List!
  
  I laughed through basically the entire show and really appreciated Zac and Ashton's "goofy teenaged boy mutual appreciation society" thing. I'm pretty sure that the Zac/attacking/crutches thing was just a joke, to quelch a fun rumor ;)  The one moment that got me most had to be when Taylor's shady "I'm a poser and really listen to Yanni in my spare time" side came out as he forgot the title of that album...the one whose title I've forgotten at the moment ;) "I drew a blank." What a fantastic geek!

• New completely random Hanson sighting! I am reading A &R, this "vaguely fictionalized" (according to Entertainment Weekly) book by the Vice President of VH1. It's all about the upper echelons of the music industry, and sort of gives a backstage perspective of recording contracts and such. Definitely an interesting book, especially for Hanson fans who are curious about what makes the whole industry machine tick. Our boys appear in a line of dialog at about page 50. The main characters of the book have just basically had the crap beaten out of them by a bunch of South American Natives during a quasi-riot: "'Haven't seen a mob like that since Hanson played the Jingle Ball,' Booth snorted." I found that randomly funny =X

• Don't forget! Hanson are on TRL tomorrow.

• Well, Hanson are in Entertainment Weekly. Not in the "This Time Around rebounds to take Billboard's number one spot!" kind of way we've all been hoping for, but it's at least pseudo-positive. There's a small article about them in the Here and Now section, with quotes from Island/Def Jam and one of the Dust Brothers. The whole thing reeks of a vaguely defeatist attitude on the part of EW and a Chicago area radio programming director (yeah, they think they're so clever using "mmmflop" as a caption. Too bad Billboard beat you to it by like two months ::grrr::), but both I/DJ and the Dust Brother seem pretty positive, saying that MMMbop was once in a lifetime and that Hanson would never give up because they're talented and love music. There's also mention of the devoted following. (Which would be us...wohoo!) and talk of recent TRL success a few pages later on the album charts. And people tell you that voting at TRL doesn't mean anything...what it's done is give the "tragedy" of This Time Around a silver lining. Well, you don't want to hear me talking about it... check out the link above. I've got a scanner...may as well use it!

• Random Ramblings about the fate of TTA:
  
  At first the charts seemed like such a tragedy. It made me sad to think that Hanson maybe aren't as respected as they once were (which is a scary thing to say, considering how little respect they got even in '97), and it almost made it impossible to enjoy the CD. I just thought too much about what was going on with the charts to listen to the music. But now after the feathers have indeed flown and expectations have sunk a bit, I can really listen to the album for the first time. It's kind of refreshing, to know that "failure" isn't the end of the world, and that Hanson shall hopefully march ever onward ;)
  
  You don't have to sell a million albums to be a success. A band doesn't have to be on Entertainment Tonight every day and on the cover of every magazine to be a success. All they have to do is make a CD you love. Which is what Hanson have done for a lot of us...4 times, even.
  
  It's time to forget the expectations, what we had hoped for TTA, and enjoy it for what it is: not a manufactured-to-please everyone boyband CD, but a work of art.

7/28/00

• Thanks to everyone who's been signing the new guestbook! The new one is much more fun than the old version, what with the questions and all. If you've got a question you'd like to see asked of all the signees, drop me a line and I'll see what I can do. It might be almost fun to try and have it more of a survey than a guestbook :)

• I added a new guestbook because, well, because the old tripod one I got in like 1997 never worked, and I long ago forgot my password so have been unable to read private messages. If you'd like to sign the new one, here's a link View/ Sign the *new* Guestbook. I'll leave the old one up for awhile, just in case anyone actually cares ;)

• Well, last week I went on what has basically become my yearly pilgrimage to see Dave Matthew play live :) Southern Amanda and I ended up with the worst 7th row tickets in the history of the world, though.  It was kind of funny...we showed up at Foxboro's ticket office on the day of the show and when it opened early and we got the tickets we freaked out, only to realize when the show started that "7th row" in a stadium situation is not all it's cracked up to be--we could barely see anyone on stage because we were way, way at the end of the row by the bleachers :b But, this is Dave Matthews. You don't need to see to appreciate his glory... they sounded amazing. The coolest part, of course, were the new songs they played. I'm incredibly looking forward to hearing the new album, and I bet everyone will love it. There's this one song especially that sticks out called "True Reflections." It's sung by Boyd and is just one of those "dude, you just summed up my entire existence in one song" moments. :)

7/14/00

Holy Crisis, batman! Today was just insane. And I feel the need to share my odyssey, so here goes: 

I was working on my company's webpage today and my boss wasn't around so I just *happened* to end up at aol.com, and that "check your internet mail" link was just too much to resist. So I did, only to discover an email about Hanson.net's only just-posted reserved ticket application information. I was all "Yeah baby," and tried to get into Hanson.net (in order to ask for the tickets you had to do it from your H.net email account, as I'm sure you've probably heard already). Not a problem. Or so I thought. I tried to sign on. "Username not recognized." Tried again. "Username not recognized." After many, many more attempts than I should have been wasting work time on ::looks around guiltily::

I finally gave in and called customer service. My motto of the moment being, of course, "ain't nothing standing between me and the tickets I signed up for this ISP to get." I talked to someone there who very nicely told me that my credit card hadn't been accepted when they tried  to bill me *this morning.* I had noticed that I hadn't been charged for my membership fees yet, but hadn't thought about it. The Bowie.net/Hanson.net folk, who had no idea that the reserved tickets thing was happening at all, had waited until *today* to bill me for three months. At first I thought that I had hit my credit card's limit, but I knew that I always pay off my whole balance every month (life lesson: credit cards are evil and bad and will get you in trouble. If you don't have the money to buy it... don't buy it.) So I called my credit card company and they said I was no where near my limit.

Call back Hanson.net. Was put on hold for *20* minutes, long distance, on company phone lines. Ouch =X  By now I had traversed beyond flipping out and had just entered the territory of  "oh my gosh. I'm so screwed it's not even worth caring," so I finally ended up telling Hanson.net's rather nice employee that I would go home and get another credit card to pay with. Come 5:01 I was out of the office, driving home to beg my parents about borrowing one of their copious credit cards. After getting permission (just like Hanson tells us to...hehe..) I called Hanson.net only to be told that after about 4 hours of worrying and a half hour on the phone, my card had miraculously worked. So I was back into Hanson.net (username llamaesque, of course). *But* by the time I finally got into the reserved ticket thing it was no longer an email address... it was a form that only listed the already-confirmed shows. Which are like 5 dates. None of which are on the East Coast. Therefore, while I was fighting with Hanson.net workers (who sound cute, might I add), everyone else was already applying for their tickets for every rumored city, via email. I was envisioning long lists forming, entitled "Boston ticket requests" and "Montreal ticket requests," none of which my name would be on :(

My parents, egging me on like you wouldn't believe, demanded that I call the Hanson.net people and let them know what their little credit card mess-up might have done to my tour plans. Hehe.. so I did. And I ranted and raved, the sympathetic Hanson.net tech support guy lending a much needed calming influence. He must have worked at a crisis hotline before this job ;) They took my name and stuff, saying they'd get back to me as soon as they heard anything about the tickets. They recommended that I just do the form but not select a city, asking for 4 tickets, so I went ahead and did it. Hehe.. I *told* you it was an odyssey. Like you cared. But I feel better now ;)

7/10/00

• Posted at Hanson.net tonight (confirmed by a post on AFH from Ash):
  

HANSON - 09:41pm Jun 25, 2000 PST

July 27 Tulsa, July 30 Seattle, August 1 Vancouver, August 3 Portland, August 4 San Francisco, August 8 Los Angeles, August 10 Las Vegas, August 12 Dallas, August 15 Houston, August 17 New Orleans, August 19 Birmingham, August 22 Atlanta, August 24 Tampa Bay, August 27 Miami, August 29 Orlando, August 31 Columbia, SC, September 2 Charlotte, September 7 Richmond, VA, September 9 Norfolk, September 14 Washington DC, September 16 Philadelphia, September 18 New York City, September 21 Boston, September 23 Montreal, September 26 Pittsburgh, September 28 Detroit, September 30 Toronto, October 3 Chicago, October 5 Cleveland, October 7 Columbus, OH, October 10 Cincinnati, October 12 Indianapolis, October 14 Louisville, October 17 Memphis, October 18 Nashville, October 21 St. Louis, October 24 Kansas City, October 26 Oklahoma City!!!

Things to say? *No* love for the East coast, where Hanson are most popular. New York/Boston/Montreal are going to be *crazy*.

• Color me stunned, but I actually got MOE on Wednesday. I really think that they alternate mailing them out... like which ever batch of them is mailed out first one time is left for last the next. MOE 7 took an absolute lifetime to show up at my house, but almost immediately after people started getting MOE 8 mine showed up. I'm not a winner. ::Sigh:: In fact, my MOE number is in the 30,000 range, and only one chosen MOE number wasn't in the 60,000s. The magazine itself is looking amazing, especially if you consider how they started off. You could barely even read MOE 1, and now what started out as a dodgy little fan mag has turned into a work of art. Go Ike ;)

• "If Only" was number one on TRL 4 out of 5 days this week, if I recall correctly. I literally thought that we would never see Hanson that high on any chart ever again... for a long time it seemed like they were becoming what a lot of us have always thought they were, deep down inside: a strong little indie band with good music and crazily entertaing personalities. Perhaps things will turn around, though, if radio stations start paying attention to what we want to hear instead of what they want to play. In this arena, I called 95 Triple X, the Vermont radio station listed in the MOE 8 and Hansonline pleas for assistence. I talked to some rather nice DJ, who said he didn't think they were going play "If Only" on their station because they aren't big enough. Of course, my immediate response was "if you never play them, how are they supposed to get big?" The DJ actually remained calm and just talked to me about it, which was kind of cool. Apparently Triple X (being the biggest radio station in Vermont, but probably the size of your average NYC college station) doesn't pick up new music unless it's already in heavy rotation on *real* stations. Which is annoying as all get out, because if I'm to follow Hanson's advice only to contact stations in my area (which Triple X isn't, really, but I used to listen to it at school) there is absolutely nothing I can do to help If Only get airplay :( Guess it's back to voting at TRL.

• I completely bought the July issue of Tiger Beat the other day. The depths of my obsession never cease to amaze even me ;) It was completely worth it, though. Tons of Hanson, including an incredibly cute 4 page poster and a really nice article, which I actually took it upon myself to scan. Page one and Page 2. Also in the print media arena, make sure you check out Hanson Hotel to see information about Hanson's appearence in July's Interview Magazine. The pictures are great... and hysterical in the case of Taylor's deep knee bend/grand plie.  I'm beginning to worry about Rolling Stone, though. I think they may have scraped their Hanson article due to poor sales :(

• So those Hansons are just so inspirational. Check out what I deem to be the essential pics of the TTA new wave.

• Sign number 3,000 that I need to get out more: I am absolutely giddy after having watched TRL today. They were hinting about a new number one and I kept trying not to get my hopes up. "It's not Hanson. Don't even get all excited. I bet they've gotten the smackdown to close call again." But *NO*! "If Only" was completely number one. I'm having these flash backs from the days of "Weird" being perpetually at the top of the TRL heap. The exact moment I knew for sure it was #1 was, in fact, when Carson said "things are going to get a little weird" right before video #3.  It's funny, because everyone at MTV totally knew. Carson was like a six year old with a secret for the entire show, and when John Norris came out? Oh my gush. It's crazy. That man has totally spent a lot of late nights up voting for "If Only." He was practically *shaking* when he did his whole "Carson, you've already given me good news if who I think is number one is number one. I whole heartedly endorse their album..." I'm really hoping that this causes the radio stations to listen up and play some new Hanson, which will thereby raise the sales of TTA, and thereby prove that even though we're just fans, we've done our parts to help Hanson :)  And speaking of that part? Vote early. Vote often. TRL   (Dude. Look how serious I am? I gave you *two* links)

• Did I mention that you need to go vote for "If Only" on TRL *right now*? I've been just deleriously excited to see it at number 3 for the past few days, and would probably literally *die* of happiness were it to rise to number 1. So if you're sick of me and would like to see the internet rid of my annoying rambles, get voting. ;)

• I assume that everyone has heard that Hanson will be at this year's Song Writer's Hall of Fame induction dinner, doing a Beach Boys Medely in honor of Brian Wilson. How crazy is that? This is one place where Nsync will never be able to follow, that's for sure ;) In fact, having heard "Digital Getdown," I feel it's a relatively safe bet that Nsync would be shot on sight at such an event.  But enough about that ;) So Hanson. The Beach Boys. The connections are many... both groups first came to nationwide attention while young, they're both family opperations, both they're both insanely talented, they both changed the face of music as we know it.  (Cocky much? It's true, though. Without Hanson, today's music scene would be totally different).   I've heard that "God Only Knows" is one of the songs they'll be singing, and of course this prompts speculation. It would be a crime against humanity if they didn't do "When I Grow Up." That song specifically is so Hansony that I can barely stand it. "The Warmth of the Sun" would be another great Hanson platform, as would "Wouldn't it Be Nice." Not that I'm a fan of the slow songs or anything. News flash: as I was just searching around for lyrics to that song I discovered that apparently the Beach Boys have some sort of unreleased lost album... called "Smile." It's freaky, these parallels!

• I'm just quote happy today, and fell in love at first site with this unposited bit of goofyness from the Teen chat with the boys talking about wicket: " It was nice because it was pretty small, but isn't my ideal dog. I'd prefer something larger like a lab or a great dane. I love weiner dogs.. they're hilarious. They're very spunky."

7/7/00

• Being an eternal optimist, my favorite new book is without a doubt the niftily-entertaining The Worst Case Scenario Handbook. Somehow, though, I'm a little worried that there is a segment of the population wandering around feeling capable of performing an impromptu tracheotomy. Eek.

• Well hey, I solved the mystery. The next time I feel like no one bothers to read this page all I need to do to reassure myself is 1) say something stupid (because, as we all know, this is so unusual ::snicker), 2) Beg desperately for help with what is apparently to everyone but me an easy html related problem. Got tons of email on both ;) Thanks to everyone who wrote to let me know the real story behind the Fillmore's low attendance: it was being taped for a television show to air later this summer and therefore many people had to be turned away at the doors to allow room for the camera equipment. I knew the taping bit, but heard about several people who got in at the last moment. Upon further reflection I've realized that the admitted late-comers were *boys*, which probably played a not-insignificant role in their admittance. So Hanson at Fillmore was a well attended event ;) On top of this information, a bunch of people emailed help with the dropdown menu disasters. I swear, I've been working on figuring these things out for like a year. It was great to have some hand holding to help me through. Thanks :)

• Just got back from my town's fourth of July fireworks. They were set to the always-rousing soundtrack of "Celebrate" by Kool and the Gang. It was like an Nsync show, only with less pyrotechnics.  Speaking of my area, Vermont has suddenly become a Holywood-esque hotbed. Okay. So I exaggerate, but in the past two years two movies have been filmed here. First of which was Me, Myself & Irene, filmed in Burlington, which a few people I know from college actually got to be extras in. The new Harrison Ford movie (What Lies Beneath, methinks) was also so locally filmed that Ford's character is apparently a professor at my college. Very exciting ;)

• Well, I finally posted the beginning of the edited Lived.  This editing is, of course, my way of actually feeling quasi-productive without doing any challenging work. The Lived work was especially needed though... you know it's bad when I go through and *I* can't even figure out what the heck I was trying to say. I'm far too in love with the words to try and figure out if they make sense, most of the time. I've also been feeling rather inspired of late, and hope to have a genuine update within the next week or so. And the reason why I didn't post all of the new incarnation of Lived? Because I suspect that I might need to make some changes to a few of the last letters before I can add the new material on. So at any rate, I hope you guys like.

6/22/00

• So I've spent several hours this weekend going through Lived. I've spiffed it up a bit and made some small changes, including completely deleting the character of Charlie. He was pointless, I've decided ;) Look for the complete edited Lived(probably on a par with the re-edited bits of Glint I posted... there are changes but other than the Charlie thing it's not *that* different) to be posted in the next few days, and hopefully a new letter soon.

• Wow. Did you guys see that article on Prince William in USA Today on Friday? That boy is positively Hanson-y in his wonder!

• Woah. Realistic? Hehe.. out of all the words in all the world, that is probably the last I'd ever use to describe my hanfic. But hey, I won't argue ;) Thanks to everyone who voted in the MoffHan awards :)

• Confession: I'm reading the trashiest book--ever. Really. It puts my obsession with Judith McNaught's "Perfect" to shame... and it freaked my co-workers out no little bit. But anyone who names their autobiography "Sex and Shopping" is obviously a woman to contend with, and therefore more than worthy of my time ;) Check out this oh-so-brilliant quote from a woman who spends a lot of time proclaiming how empty-headed she is: "Whatever I've learned, I believe that no one ever fully grows up inside. You can mellow, yes, but total maturity doesn't exist. The great secret is that no adults have ever stroke this planet, and neither Eleanor Roosevelt nor Georgia O'Keeffe ever woke up one morning and thought, 'Today, right now, this very minute, I'm a one-hundred-percent grown-up.'"

6/13/00

• Good grief. Really. That's all I have to say about the two Hanson appearances I was lucky enough to witness yesterday. Good grief. That random TTA review was right... during their break from the public eye the guys didn't buy matching white jumpers or wind machines. Nope, they sure didn't. They were too busy growing up (and up and up and up some more) and learning how to *rock out* in a live setting. In the City was every bit as glorious as I thought it would be, but the added plus of Taylor and Isaac ricocheting around the stage and bouncing was just too much :)  If those boys don't launch a full scale tour, it will be a tragedy.  Watch back tomorrow, when I'm not nauseous with fatigue, for more rambling about the concerts and some scanned pics.

• Hanson are mentioned a couple of times in the 10th anniversary edition of Entertainment Weekly, the most noticeably as being authors of the second greatest single of the 90s :) I can't remember what was first, but it was great to see them on the list. ::sigh:: In less than great news, Hanson have fallen out of the top 50 on the sales charts. I can't even believe this is happening. If radio stations would just get over their teen-bubblegum-pop spineless phase, TTA would