Last week, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus held their 10th anniversary gig starting the tour off in the Philippines and I was able to come. It was great and nostalgic. Unfortunately, I had to leave the venue early (just a few minutes after the gig) and did not wait for my Meet & Greet opportunity but I didn't feel like missing a lot. I came for the music and hearing the full album that's been a major part of my teenage years being played/performed in the flesh is more than enough. (Also, I have met Randy Winter a few years back in one of their gigs in Manila)

I did a little something for our friends here at Manila Concert Junkies and for further feels-inducing read, you make check the full story/feature/review of sorts at their site.

Can you believe that The Black Parade (My Chemical Romance), Boys Like Girls (self-titled album) and Louder Now (Taking Back Sunday) are also turning 10 years old since their release this year? How fast did the time go.

AP has made a list and you could check them all out HERE. Whew. Proper nostalgic, innit?

April x

Gutted by the news of Alan Rickman's passing. He is certainly one of my favourites and like Rupert Grint, I will always hear his voice. He has captured the hearts of every demography from his bad ass Die Hard character Hans, to the lovely Colonel Brandon (Sense and Sensibility), Harry (Love Actually), the singing Judge Turpin (Sweeney Todd) and the iconic Severus Snape (Harry Potter films) to name a few. Despite fame he's lived a low-key life and I did not even know he's got the big  C (and knowing how I like keeping tracks of the HP actors' other stuff so...there's that) of which has caused this demise. Such fine man. Every person whom he has worked with has nothing but praises for him and I feel like I have lost a mentor and a father I never have, basically because Harry Potter's been on a great part of my life as a reader and a fangirl as well. 

Rest in peace, Sir Alan Rickman. You will be in our hearts. Always.

Adele's latest record, 25 is such a jam. Totally. It may have taken her quite some time to come up with another banger but it is definitely worth the wait and 25 turned out to be nothing short of awesome, bagging sales, smashing world records here and there.  Not that I ever doubted her songwriting skills, of course. I have always admired not only her songs but her whole personality especially the fact that she could be her bad ass self on interviews and of how she has handled fame  and kept private things private (especially her personal life and family). Mainly, I loved how she has focused on making quality music, disregarding personal brands but focused on being the whole package and showing her real self despite all the pressures in the music industry. 

The lyrics:

This part of the 30-Day Book Challenge is originally entitled "A Book You Hated" but I refuse to hate a book knowing that despite the disappointment in the outcome of the story, I am pretty sure the author has gone thru hell and back and that he/she has put his/her best effort in writing so there's that. It is not easy to come up with a fictional idea that could actually work and I can only imagine the hardships of an author in the process of getting the book published by a decent publication and the likes.

It's hard to pinpoint a book that I may not have liked or maybe there are just too many of them that I cannot actually choose one? But for the sake of this challenge (that I have been on for quite sometime in the blog), I have to say that my least liked book or series (in recent memory, that is) is K.A. Tucker's Ten Tiny Breaths series.

The first book of the series is actually tolerable (one enjoys fluff to a certain extent, you see) until it came to a point where the story went mad with plotholes and twists that has made me cringe and go like "What the actual heck am I reading?" and just continued for the sake of reading / finishing it so I can cross it off my Goodreads currently-reading shelf. Not being too critical but you know how YA (young-adult genre) books tend to be predictable especially when you have been reading a lot of its kind in a while making it somehow boring ("It's all the same!" vibe) at some point, hence, the problem. Also, the cultural differences and preferences, as subjective as that may be. It is better to not go into details and here's the part where I will tell you to check it out for you to find out. Maybe you will get to appreciate it or even like it, who knows. There are some highlights, to be fair, that I actually liked but it is just not my cup of tea, so sorry for that.

And if you are to judge the book by a quotation / line, here are some:

“Do you think it matters if they're tiny or deep? he asked. Well, if they're not tiny breaths and they're not deep breaths, then they're just ... breaths. Then you're just breathing for the sake of ... breathing... Seize them. Feel them. Love them ...” 

“Life has a funny way of creating it's own tests. It throws curve balls that make you do and think and feel things that are in direct conflict with what you had planned and don't allow you to operate in terms of black and white.”

“I believe some people are inherently evil.

I believe guilt is a powerful motivator.

I believe redemption is something you can strive for but never fully achieve.

I believe second chances exist only in dreams, never in reality.

I believe you don't have years, or months, or weeks to impact a person's life.

You have seconds.

Seconds to win them over...and seconds to lose them.”

However, consider yourself warned (of love cliches, sex and all).

***

For Day 12 (up next) it will be A Book You Love and Hate at the Same Time. Pretty interesting, eh? I hope I'd get to update sooner! (and blog more often. Happy 2016!)

April x