first things first, my boyfriend joe has the most hilarious taste in music ever. mostly, he listens to hardcore and metal. one might think this would be a problem since i don’t like to listen to either of those musics, but it isn’t because a) i think it’s kind of sexy that he does, and b) he has this freaky, inexplicable passion for bad 80s soft rock. seriously. i find this SO adorable, but so so so strange! it’s not like joe’s some kind of poseur (at least i assume not, i don’t really know anything about metal and hardcore, but he seems pretty fucking serious about it), it’s just that he really enjoys such classics as “i can’t go for that” by hall and oates. oops, i forgot to ask his permission to write about this (he is a “permission” nazi. wtf how annoying. i warned him of the privacy dangers of hooking up with a blogger the first night he boned me on kp’s balcony. duh.) still, i think it will be okay because he seems almost PROUD of this sick little fetish. upon the second time on our roadtrip “i keep forgetting (every time you’re near)” by michael mcdonald came on his ipod, i shot him a smile and he said “what? it’s a good song.” with utter confidence. hot.
i’m writing this blog because i feel like everyone has probably been thinking “i wonder what amanda-faye has been listening to lately, music-wise. i’m really just so curious…” WELL, here goes:
britney
okay, duh, no one these days can even legally have a blog without discussing her, but i am here to talk about the MUSIC. britney, britney, why? you have gone about this “crazy album” thing all wrong! the “crazy” album is supposed to be an album of rebellion and freedom, of you saying FUCK YOU to the industry and all 
of it’s constraints, thereby selling very few records, but earning the respect of one of the subcultures and/or australia (i love you, australia!). blackout could have really been your underdog hipster breakout album had you handled this correctly. let me just say, i tend to run with a pretty hip crowd (hahahaha) and i have not been to one single party or club in the last several months that has not played “gimme more,” often multiple times! and since “piece of me” came out the story is similar, yet no one is really saying much about it. i think this is because brit has not attempted to milk this aspect. by god britney, this was your chance to build your non-mainstream gay fanbase and you FAILED! seriously, i have listened to all of the blackout clips and the album as a whole is AWFUL, but i would probably dance to any of the songs if they came on in a club. i can see why/how they could have become huge underground club hits. as for her actions, the hip gays don’t really give a shit about her kids or her using drugs, and shaving her head = awesome. she should have just rolled with it. the key to semi-longevity and semi-fan loyalty in this scene would be britney making any kind of effort to back the album, even in a rebellious and hilarious way. for example, instead of having her body photoshopped to be thinner in the “piece of me” video, she should have had something funny photoshopped onto her body… like, a dinosaur body, or maybe have her body be slowly and gorily falling apart a la that weird robbie williams music video that was banned by mtv in the u.s. but huge in europe. she could have become “indie” britney, just like kylie minogue crossed over to “indie” kylie with her album “impossible princess” which bombed in the uk, but was a huge success in her native australia, where the single “did it again” was even played on rock radio as well as to her typical top 40 audience.
omg, could i BE any gayer.
anyways, speaking of kylie, her new album is out in the uk, but it doesn’t come out here until next month! i have only heard two of the songs, but i love them both! “2 hearts” and “wow” are both so fucking catchy and the “2 hearts” video is FIERCE! i can’t decide if i should buy the album on import or wait and see if the us version has additional tracks.
for my next item: alicia keys’ “no one”
okay, this song was good at first, but now i am starting to hate it. it takes a lot for me to get sick of a song, but the mainstream radio is apparently doing everything it takes to best my tolerance. i propose that they 
simply make an entire station that only plays that song and nothing else, that way whenever i get a hankering for it i can just tune in, leaving me at peace with chris brown’s “kiss kiss” on rotation six-times-an-hour on all the other stations. oh, chris, why is our love so forbidden???
paramore
don’t even get me started on their music, the name of this band fills me with uncontrollable rage! i have accepted long ago that while i am super-down with pure pop and hip-pop, i am way too old for pop rock. i grew up on the likes of paula abdul and bel biv devoe, but when i came into my own, the rock i listened to was bikini kill, bratmobile, and (early) sleater-kinney, bands that actually rocked something, women who talked about things other than their boyfriends. okay, MAYBE i’m to old for that stuff too, but i just don’t understand the shit they play on “alternative” radio these days… there was a time when you tuned in to KROQ (local l.a. rock station) to get away from the bs on top 40 stations, and now they play the exact same rock bands, except i can’t hear chris brown’s “kiss kiss” on KROQ (*blows a kiss to chris* so young… so forbidden… so not gay enough for me.) the thing about paramore that disappoints me is that i actually probably would give it a secret guilty-pleasure listen because i am a sucker for female-fronted bands, and their song “misery business” is catchy as hell, damnit, but they had to go and spell their name that way! it’s PARAMOUR you bastards! yes, i have researched it, yes, i know they spelled it that way in the beginning because it was an (ex) bandmember’s last name before they realized the meaning of the homophone “paramour” (illicit lover), but still, i feel that since they were still a new band they should have felt bound by COMMON DECENCY to spell the word “paramour.” by god, what are we teaching our children? this irresponsible spelling of band names combined with text slang and internet speak… the world is coming to an end. fo shiz.
kate bush
i have been listening to a lot of kate bush’s album “the hounds of love.” that’s all i have to say about that, really. she’s a nut, but i’m into it. before i ever heard her i would get really defensive when people accused tori amos of stealing her steez (and i’m pretty sure around that time i also referred to tori amos as “the goddess tori.” what? don’t pretend you were never sixteen!), but now i realize that early tori seems to have been heavily kate-influenced, which is not a bad thing. they both rule.
joe and i have decided i need to buy a tori amos t-shirt on ebay and wear the shit out of it all over town. 
how funny/cool would that be? so funny/cool. haha. i’m in the process of finding the perfect one, though, i have specific ideas. i really want one with the pic on the right. vintage 90s tori. so hot. it has inspired me to start growing out my hair and wear it huge and frizzy… well, actually the weather in portland inspired that, but it is what it is.
oh, by the way, i also listen to a lot of “really cool” indie music and bands you probs never heard of. i swear!
what? i swear!
one final note, i am desperate to have a teacup pomeranian because my friends niki and vera in pdx have a black one named carlos and he is FIERCE. in my endeavors to find one on the internets, even though i can’t afford, i came across a bunch of pomeranian rescue sites and realized that i could never really have a dog because a) they are living creatures and i am a fucking mess, and b) there are just TOO many needy dogs that need to be adopted and i really want a purebred puppy but that would make me feel heinously guilty. in my search, i came across the cutest dog ever named harriet 
(this is her on the left, OMG) who is super old and blind, but lovable and sweet and needs a home. could she BE any cuter? i swear, i would adopt her right this second, except she is probably going to die before i do and i am too emotionally weak to deal with grief. it’s true. PLEASE SOMEONE ADOPT HER! click the link, PLEASE. damn my weak spirit and lack of maternal instinct, damn damn!