Sasha and Ariel Experience ... Alphabeatical!

Sasha: Some of you may remember how last post we talked about The Beatles.
Ariel: I know I sure do.
Sasha: Also, some of you may be looking at this blog on a screen where you can still see the last post and you don't even have to remember.
Ariel: Which is kind of how blogging is like talking to somebody and you don't know if some of your hair is sticking up all funny or you have your shirt on inside out and backwards with the tag showing.
Sasha: It can be nerve wracking.
Ariel: Like, I was especially worried we were going on too long about The Beatles without saying all that much and people might thing we were obsessed.
Sasha: Luckily, we told the BF and he just laughed.
Ariel: Well, he didn't just laugh.
Sasha: No, he also told us there were gajongles of people going on about The Beatles on Youtube and in books and on podcasts, and we said, "What are podcasts?"
Ariel: Which brings us to ... okay, you have to do this part because I don't know how to make a link ...
Sasha: Sure. Watch and learn.

Alphabeatical

Ariel: Nice!
Sasha: This is where the BF took us to show us there were people making a way bigger deal of The Beatles than us. These guys listened to every single The Beatles song and then spent hours and hours talking about them one song at a time in order.
Ariel: I wish I had that much ambition! What is that, like, dozens and dozens of songs?
Sasha: Hundreds! Almost two hundred and fifty.
Ariel: Whaaaat? I thought The Beatles were only around for like eight years.
Sasha: Longer, but they were only recording for eight years.
Ariel: So maybe thirty songs a year on average.  That's nuts! I probably couldn't make thirty songs in my whole lifetime.
Sasha: You'd have to learn to play something besides air guitar, to start with.
Ariel: I couldn't even write thirty blog posts about songs in a year!
Sasha: Or do thirty podcasts.
Ariel: I couldn't do any podcasts. I don't know how.
Sasha: Which is okay, because these guys have already done it for us.
Ariel: Yes! Their show is now on our list of worthy things to do.
Sasha: First, it's really informative.
Ariel: I learned so much.
Sasha: Second, they're pretty funny guys!
Ariel: They don't take themselves too seriously.
Sasha: Third, they obviously really love what they're talking about.
Ariel: Except maybe that Pete guy who didn't think "A Day in the Life" was all that good.
Sasha: I almost thought he was faking to get a reaction out of the other guys.
Ariel: I can only hope.
Sasha: The show makes you wish you were right there talking with them.
Ariel: Yes! To tell Pete he was wrong, and also because they were sooooo close to saying something really important about the difference between a song that's great and a song that's one of your favorites.
Sasha: A Day in the Life is both for me.
Ariel: Me too, only even though it's not my very very favorite, I do think it's the greatest The Beatles song.
Sasha: What's your very very favorite?
Ariel: Octopus's Garden.
Sasha: That's a good one, but --
Ariel: No, no -- I changed my mind. The one that's another version of the Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band song, but it really rocks.
Sasha: Excellent for air-drumming or air-guit--
Ariel: No, wait! The Something song.
Sasha: It feels like we're talking more about The Beatles than about the podcast.
Ariel: Sorry. You know how easy it is to distract me.
Sasha: Do I ever. So what is it that makes you want to say all of those songs --
Ariel: Not the Number 9, Number 9, Number 9 song. Definitely not that one.
Sasha: No, I don't think anyone was thinking that was your favorite.
Ariel: Just in case, I thought I'd better say.
Sasha: But so why would you say Octopus's Garden or The Return of Sgt. Pepper or Something might be your favorite but A Day in the Life is still the greatest?
Ariel: Mostly because msg says that.
Sasha: You can be such a follower sometimes.
Ariel: But also I agree on my own! Like, it has every The Beatles thing in it. It has upbeat and fun, it has sad and thoughtful, it has John singing and then Paul singing and then John singing and really good Ringo drums, it's got freaky experiment stuff and simple acoustic guitar stuff and super lyrics and then PIANO CHORRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd!
Sasha: So then why isn't it your very very favorite?
Ariel: I don't know ... it's sort of too much? I really really love it, I do, but it's kinda overwhelming, you know? By the time it's over, I'm all wrung out. The emotions! It's exhausting.
Sasha: So it's not your favorite because you're lazy.
Ariel: Yes. You got me. Which is why I am not all about, "Hey, let's learn how to podcast and buy some podcasting stuff and invent our own podcast to talk about stuff."
Sasha: Luckily the Alphabeatical guys are all about that.
Ariel: Yes, five alarm clocks for Alphabeatical.
Sasha: Me too. Five alarm clocks.
Ariel and Sasha: Bye then!

Ariel and Sasha Experience ... The Beatles!

Ariel: Okay, so, one of the first things you will notice about this band is that they do not have Joe Satriani for a guitarist.
Sasha: Welllll ... maybe people other than us would notice something different?
Ariel: Oh. Yeah, I guess probably other people will have heard a bunch of other stuff before listening to The Beatles. But I promise everyone who has only listened to a little bit of music and some of it was Joe Satriani, you will quickly notice that Joe Satriani is not in The Beatles.
Sasha: And also wasn't in The Beatles when they were still together.
Ariel: That too.
Sasha: But we're not complaining about that, are we?
Ariel: Oh goodness no! I was just warning people the way msg warned us before he put The Beatles on.
Sasha: He did warn us.
Ariel: Something like, The Beatles aren't known for being virtuoso musicians, so don't expect this to sound like Joe Satriani.
Sasha: Which I was actually okay with, because if they sounded just like Joe Satriani, why not just listen to the Joe Satriani album again? Or get another Joe Satriani album.
Ariel: Although I think both of those sound like really good ideas.
Sasha: Maybe. I mean, definitely the listening to the one we listened to again, but I don't know if he's going to top that one, so I don't know about getting another one.
Ariel: I'm in favor of it, even though msg says the other Joe Satriani albums he's heard are not as good.
Sasha: Plus, we haven't listened to every The Beatles album yet, and honestly, I think they're now higher on my to-do list.
Ariel: Maybe we should start actually talking about them, then?
Sasha: Yes! Excellent idea, my sweet!
Ariel: Okay, so we started off with The Beatles.
Sasha: Wait! Be careful, the BF says "With The Beatles" is a whole different album.
Ariel: Have we heard that one?
Sasha: No. We don't have it.
Ariel: Okay, well I'm going to assume for now it's not important, then.
Sasha: Maybe not a good assumption, but on the other hand, maybe that means we'll be pleasantly surprised later.
Ariel: I like pleasant surprises!
Sasha: They're definitely better than the other kind.
Ariel: Any way, The Beatles. Which is apparently one of the most famous albums ever.
Sasha: So famous, no one knows the name of it.
Ariel: It's true! Kind of hard to believe, because it's hard to miss seeing the title, since it's absolutely 100% the only thing on the whole cover.
Sasha: The letters aren't huge, and it's a little off-center, but I don't know why that's an excuse.
Ariel: Maybe people are just lazy? They see this way sparse white cover, and the letters are small, so instead of reading, they just say, "Too hard to read. I'll just call it 'The White Album.'"
Sasha: I'm not sure laziness explains it. I mean, it's more syllables to say "The White Album" than to say "The Beatles."
Ariel: Maybe they're too lazy to count the syllables?
Sasha: Good point.
Ariel: So anyway, we had listened to a few other albums by the time msg played this one for us --
Sasha: Like Joe Satriani.
Ariel: Yes. And I think msg was getting tired of us comparing everything to Joe Satriani.
Sasha: Those guitar solos!
Ariel: Hard to beat.
Sasha: Most guitarists should not even try.
Ariel: Agreed. But this The Beatles album will definitely open up your eyes about there being more to rock music than guitar solos!
Sasha: Way more!
Ariel: It starts off with a plane landing.
Sasha: Hey, the Joe Satriani album also started with a recording of stuff that wasn't musical instruments or singing.
Ariel: Whoa. Do you think he stole that from The Beatles?
Sasha: Or maybe just every band or artist does that.
Ariel: That's another possibility, for sure.
Sasha: Although I don't remember that on any of those Led Zepellin albums we listened to.
Ariel: Probably because those Led Zepelling guys would never steal an idea from somewhere else.
Sasha: You got an extra g in there in that last sentence.
Ariel: I know. It was a typo, but I kinda like it! I think it's what I'll call it from now on when we're listening to them. "We're Led Zepelling!"
Sasha: What about when we're listening to The Beatles?
Ariel: I don't want to have to make up a new word every time we listen to a different band. "Listening to The Beatles" is fine.
Sasha: It sure is!
Ariel: Where was I?
Sasha: Plane landing.
Ariel: Oh my god this is going to take forever to get through.
Sasha: Let's just keep talking instead of worrying about that.
Ariel: Okay. Deep breath. Okay.
Ariel: So after the plane lands, or I guess while it's still landing, the music starts. And it's pretty rockin'!
Sasha: Nice bendy guitar note ...
Ariel: Rockin' piano ...
Sasha: Excellent drums ...
Ariel: I really liked the drums.
Sasha: Right? But then when we said, this band has a really good drummer, the BF was like, "Actually that's not their drummer. The drummer was pissed off that day and left, so the other guys did the drumming on this one."
Ariel: I thought he was kidding us. I even said, "Are you kidding me?"
Sasha: Me too, but I think I said "shitting" instead of "kidding."
Ariel: You're a potty mouth.
Sasha: No, my mouth has been a lot of places, but I'd never put it on the potty.
Ariel: Anyway, then I was like, "I thought you said these guys weren't good musicians! But even the guys who aren't the drummer can drum this good? The drummer must be freaking awesome!"
Sasha: To be fair, he didn't say they weren't good, he just said people didn't think they were virtuosos.
Ariel: Still, after that first song I really felt like he undersold them, virtuoso-wise. I mean, the guitar solo was no Joe Satriani guitar solo, but it had ... something. You know?
Sasha: And then there was that one-note solo where it's playing so fast it just sounds like one lonnnnng, long note.
Ariel: There were two solos?
Sasha: Sort of? Is it a solo if it's happening while they're singing?
Ariel: I don't know, there's no singing on the Joe Satriani album.
Sasha: Lots of singing on The Beatles, though.
Ariel: Yes! Excellent singing! And the words were all super-interesting.
Sasha: All of them?
Ariel: Well, most of them.
Sasha: I'm just remembering the song where all they said was "Honey Pie," over and over.
Ariel: That was such a freaky song!
Sasha: And the one where he just kept asking "Why don't we do it in the road?"
Ariel: I thought those were pretty interesting words. Didn't you?
Sasha: Appealing more than interesting?
Ariel: Now you're being all nit-picky.
Sasha: No, I'm just saying I don't know about calling them all super-interesting.
Ariel: Okay, maybe not the super part for all of them. But most of them! And at least interesting-interesting for the rest.
Sasha: Sure. Basically.
Ariel: And anyway, there was also how the words went with the music, which was super-interesting on all of them, and if you argue with me I will fight you!
Sasha: You will not.
Ariel: Okay, I won't. But if I was the kind of person who would fight people, I would fight you.
Sasha: No you wouldn't, I would just look at you like this and batt my eyes like this ...
Ariel: ...
Ariel: Oh, all right, I wouldn't even then. But I'd be mad!
Sasha: Except you wouldn't because I wouldn't argue about that. Those are some damn interesting songs when you put all the words and music together.
Ariel: I know, right? And like, the music's always doing something different in the background like the bass is doing this thing on this verse and that thing on that verse, and some verses there's guitar and some there's horns and stuff.
Sasha: Very cool.
Ariel: We probably sound dumb to people who know more about music.
Sasha: You might be right ... but if they think we sound dumb for sounding like this about The Beatles, they're not as smart as they think.
Ariel: That's most people though, isn't it? Less smart than they think.
Sasha: Too true!
Ariel: Not The Beatles, though. The Beatles are way smart.
Sasha: Maybe too smart. Revolution 9?
Ariel: Is that the one where I was like, "What. The. Hell."
Sasha: And the BF says he likes it.
Ariel: Don't remind me! "You can hear so much stuff on this new mix. It's vast. Just listen really closely." Nooooooo!
Sasha: Definitely too smart.
Ariel: But we love him!
Sasha: And now we love The Beatles!
Ariel: A hundred percent. Maybe that's a good place to end this one?
Sasha: Good as any.
Ariel: Okay, "Goodnight, everybody!"
Sasha: Everybody everywhere!
Ariel: Goodnight!

Sasha and Ariel Experience ... Revenge of the Sith ... : (

Sasha: Okay. So ... we definitely won't be doing as long a post about this one as about the last one.
Ariel: I am so sad right now.
Sasha: I mean ... I knew in the back of my mind Darth Vader was a thing in Star Wars ...
Ariel: A bad one!
Sasha: But I never expected (oh, uh, spoiler warning) they'd do that to our hero!
Ariel: I kept thinking, oh, he just tried to stop Bald Toughie from killing Big Space Politician, which would have been against the rules ... he didn't know Big Space Politician would turn around and kill Bald Toughie ...
Sasha: Only he did!
Ariel: So then I kept thinking, he's just playing along. He sees how powerful Big Space Politician is and he knows he needs help to beat him. He's just pretending, and once he leaves, he'll go get Sexy Jesus and the Wise Old Gnome-Toad, and everything will be okay.
Sasha: Only ...
Ariel: (blubbering) Those poor baby laser-sword kids!
Sasha: We're really worried about the whole Star Wars thing now.
Ariel: Is this going to happen in all the movies?
Sasha: I hope not!
Ariel: Me too. Uh ...
Sasha: Yeah, I can't think of anything else to say either.
Sasha and Ariel: 

: (

Ariel and Sasha Experience ... Attack of the Clones!

Ariel: Our house is full of nerds.
Sasha: Maybe say something so people know you mean that in a good way.
Ariel: Yes, super-totally. It’s awesome.
Sasha: We love us some nerds.
Ariel: The biggest nerd is msg ...
Sasha: (the BF)
Ariel: That’s what I said. He’s mister Star Wars, and there’s sort of a little bit of a problem because our GF Claire
Sasha: (Role model!)
Ariel: is totally miss Star Trek.
Sasha: Not that we see why that’s a problem, but apparently there’s some mostly good-natured grumbling about one or the other of these shows being better.
Ariel: Are there Star Wars shows?
Sasha: Some cartoons, I hear.
Ariel: Okay. I thought Star Wars was just movies and Star Trek was a show.
Sasha: Star Trek has movies too! And it’s apparently lots of shows, not just one. I should of said ‘franchises,’ I guess.
Ariel: This gets more and more confusing. I thought franchises were fast food.
Sasha: It’s English, baby. Get used to lots of words meaning different things.
Ariel: Like ‘baby’ meaning you love me and not that you’re calling me a stupid baby for being confused.
Sasha: Right. Wait ... okay ... yeah? Hmm. So, Elle says, “Actually, that version of ‘baby’ is an idiomatic term of address used either endearingly or patronizingly to indicate that the speaker is informing the listener of something, often a thing considered by the speaker to be common knowledge.”
Ariel: Oh, Elle. What a nerd! Only she thinks she’s not just because she makes fun of msg and Claire for liking Star Wars and Star trek so much.
Sasha: And now, we are experiencing ‘irony.’
Ariel: That’s a thing! And msg loves it almost as much as he loves Star Wars, he says.
Sasha: Which brings us back to Star Wars.
Ariel: Oh yeah! Our whole reason for blogging this morning. Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones!
Sasha: Is that the right number of colons in the title?
Ariel: Yes, there's millions of them.
Sasha: Not clones. I said colons.
Ariel: Oh. No, I think there’s only one, but I didn’t know where to put it.
Sasha: Google is a thing too.
Ariel: So is walking in the other room and looking at the Blu-Ray box! I’m just lazy.
Sasha: Whatever. I’ll go.
Ariel: La-la-la ... boy she’s taking a long time. I guess I’ll look it up.
Sasha: The box was no help. It’s just got a logo on it with no punctuation marks at all.
Ariel: I looked it up! “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones” ... ta-daaa!
Sasha: Sigh.
Ariel: Okay, so Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. It’s a mouthful. I’m just going to take the ‘Wars’ and the ‘Clones’ part and call it “Clone Wars.”
Sasha: No, that’s one of the shows.
Ariel: ...
Ariel: I’m just going to call it, ‘this movie’ then.
Sasha: Works for me.
Ariel: ANYhow ... this is the second Star Wars movie we watched. You’d think that would be obvious, but msg tells us lots of people don’t watch them in order by the numbers.
Sasha: And Elle says if you get really deep into Nerdville, people argue over what order to watch them in.
Ariel: We’re watching them in order because ... well, just because. There’s some with numbers, and some without numbers, and some of the ones with numbers weren’t made in the order of the numbers ... it hurts my head.
Sasha: TBH, mine too.
Ariel: So first we watched Star Wars: Episode I – Attack of Nothing, Just an Hour and a Half of Space Politics Plus a Cute Kid and Hilarious Fart Joke Rabbit-Frog Dude Followed by One Holy Moly Kick-Ass Fight Scene and the Main Character Dies.
Sasha: Claire says you’re supposed to say “Spoiler Warning” if you give things away like that.
Ariel: Really? When it’s a 20-year-old movie? And won’t people think the fart jokes are funny even if they know they’re coming?
Sasha: No, the main character dying part. And the BF says, “Trust me, there are things coming up in these movies that are going to really surprise you, and you don’t want them given away even if they’re 20 or 40 years old.”
Ariel: Okay, so, Spoiler Warning, the main character dies in that movie. But not in this one! Oops, I meant, “Spoiler Warning, but not in this one!”
Sasha: We should just say there’s a blanket Spoiler Warning for the whole post, or that’s going to get really old.
Ariel: Super smart! I love you, Sash. Readers, I am now saying “Blanket Spoiler Warning” for the whole rest of this post. Anyway, even though the main character died – and that made me so sad! – and even though the cute kid wasn’t always the best at acting, and even though parts of it were pret-ty boring, we did really like the first movie.
Sasha: Mostly. But we also were thinking, “This is the big deal? Maybe Claire is right and Star Trek is better.”
Ariel: And then we watched the second movie!
Sasha: What a difference!
Ariel: Can you believe there are people who think this is the worst Star Wars movie?
Sasha: I cannot.
Ariel: Even with just two to go on, and the fact everybody and their dog has loved Star Wars since before we were born, I have to assume this one is like, top three or something.
Sasha: It’s true. It was so much better.
Ariel: Like, the other one starts with a dumb looking ship, and the ship in the start of this one is super-duper cool looking! And it makes the best noise! And they both blow up, but this one blows up better.
Sasha: Also, the people we’re supposed to like actually act sad that their friends got blown up, and the guys in the first one were just like, “Oh well, better hold our breaths because now there’s gas.”
Ariel: And after the explosion in this one, there’s a little bit of space politics but not much before we get right to the little kid and the cute apprentice dude from the first movie, only now the kid is a teen hotty and the apprentice dude has a sexy Jesus beard!
Sasha: I did not even recognize that kid. You’re right about the beard, though.
Ariel: Anyhow, the cute queen is now a senator who changes clothes a lot for some reason and they’re guarding her while she’s sleeping and there are killer caterpillars, but Teen Hotty saves her by slicing them up and Sexy Jesus jumps Right. Out. The. Flipping. Window.
Sasha: I know, right? Last movie except for the way cool fighting, these supposed-to-be super-powered Jedi guys were like, “Look! I can hold my breath!” or “Look! I can cheat at dice” and this movie they’re like, “Watch me jump out a window two miles up, hang from a speeding space-drone while it’s trying to shake me off, then do a chill free-fall waiting for my buddy to come catch me in a flying car so I can complain about how long it took him.”
Ariel: My jaw was on the floor. Wow!
Sasha: Then the kid hops out of the car on purpose to fall maybe a hundred stories to where the bad guy’s car is flying beneath them. What?!
Ariel: It was just thing after thing after thing. Plus super music in the background the whole time!
Sasha: And then it turns into a detective mystery movie because they catch the bad guy but the bad guy was hired by a different bad guy who kills the bad guy before they can get any info and then flies off.
Ariel: Who’s this other bad guy? Why did he hire the first bad guy when he’s obviously better at bad guying? Seems like he set her up to me. Who does something like that? Curious people want to know.
Sasha: Meaning Sexy Jesus and his bosses, Bald Toughie and the Wise Old Gnome-Toad.
Ariel: Right. Teen Hotty has it bad for the senator, so they send him and her packing to her home planet while Sexy Jesus detects the heck out of things. And just when I was noticing, “Hey, no fart jokes so far in this movie,” here comes Butt-Scratching Diner-Lizard and his four butt-scratching arms.
Sasha: I liked him!
Ariel: Me too, but maybe wear a belt if you’re the cook in a diner.
Sasha: Point.
Ariel: Whew!
Sasha: I know. Maybe we need to take a breather. We’re only like a third of the way through the movie.
Ariel: Or ... even though we put on the Spoiler Blanket, do you think we should ease off on describing absolutely everything?
Sasha: But what would we skip?
Ariel: Maybe that weird bit where the Teen Hotty creeps Senator Wardobe out with that sort-of stalker vibe.
Sasha: Yeah, could have done without that.
Ariel: I mean, they end up having this yes/no/yes/no ... /big-time yes! romance, so I don’t know why you’d start it off with him heebie-jeebifying her.
Sasha: It does make it seem like this maybe isn’t the healthiest relationship.
Ariel: Yeah, and who wants that? I’m a happy-ending kind of girl.
Sasha: Me too. Okay, what else do we skip?
Ariel: Not the part where Sexy Jesus goes to the Q-tip alien rain planet, that’s for sure.
Sasha: Where he finds clones!
Ariel: I know! I was like, “Okay, clones at last. Heeere comes some attacking!”
Sasha: That was jumping the gun, though.
Ariel: Yeah, but I was so excited! Clones! A thing from the title showing up in the movie! They didn’t do that last time.
Sasha: I think the first title was supposed to be more symbolic.
Ariel: Me too, but I was going to be pretty disappointed if ‘clones’ or ‘attack’ turned out to just be symbolic.
Sasha: I probably would have too.
Ariel: We also can’t skip the fight between Sexy Jesus and Better Bad Guy! Lots more exciting music, and explosions, and Better Bad Guy’s clone kid trying to machine-gun Sexy Jesus ...
Sasha: Better Bad Guy sure had a lot of tricks up his sleeve. That was pretty great.
Ariel: How about the mom getting crucified to death and Teen Hotty chopping the Mean Ol’ Locals to pieces? That was pretty sad slash scary, so I don’t think I want to dwell on it too much.
Sasha: Agreed. Plus, that lets us jump straight to ...
Sasha and Ariel: THE EXPLODING ASTEROID SPACE FIGHT!
Ariel: I think one of the best parts in the movie is when the first bomb gives off that blue dinnerplate explosion, and I was like, “Hey, did the sound go out?” And then WHONNNNG! the sound catches up to it!
Sasha: Elle made a face right then.
Ariel: And later she started talking about physics, but I ignored her. It was too cool!!!
Sasha: Maybe one of the best sound effects ever.
Ariel: Certainly the best we’ve ever heard!
Sasha: Not that we’ve heard too many.
Ariel: No, but this was like the Joe Satriani of sound effects.
Sasha: It rocked, for sure.
Ariel: Straight up.
Sasha: Our attempt to skip things doesn’t seem to be working too well.
Ariel: Let’s skip the factory part.
Sasha: Mm ... okay.
Ariel: Only before that, Sexy Jesus gets caught by Better Bad Guy’s Boss.
Sasha: For an old dude, that guy sure had one smoooooth voice.
Ariel: msg told me later the actor who plays him put out a heavy metal album for his 90th birthday.
Sasha: You’re making that up.
Ariel: No, it’s true!
Sasha: Wow. Anyway, with a voice like that, I don’t know if I could resist going along with him, even though he was pretty obviously evil with a capital VIL, as in VILlain.
Ariel: Sexy Jesus didn’t fall for it, though.
Sasha: He knew better.
Ariel: And then there’s, what, forty minutes worth of fighting monsters in that giant creepy bug arena, then getting rescued by Bald Toughie and their Jedi pals, then the Jedi getting their patooties handed to them by Too Many Droids, then getting rescued by ...
Sasha: The attack of the clones!
Ariel: Just like in the title! At last! Only it wasn’t over then, the clones kept on attacking, and there’s a massive catastrophe-blastrophy battle, and a lightsaber fight, and another lightsaber fight between Wise Old Gnome-Toad and Better Bad Guy’s Boss ... SO MUCH COOL STUFF HAPPENED IN THIS MOVIE!
Sasha: So we’re done?
Ariel: No, then Teen Hotty and Senator Wardobe got married and lived happily ever after.
Sasha: I don’t know if it was ever after, though ... the music they got married to didn’t sound ultra-cheerful ...
Ariel: We’ll see. There are lots more movies to go.
Sasha: I don’t know if we can review them all, though. This was pretty exhausting.
Ariel: Yeah, my typing fingers are beat.
Sasha: Something else we’ve never experienced!
Ariel: It ranks pretty low if you ask me, though.
Sasha: Life can’t all be Star Wars movies.
Ariel: So unfortunate! Okay, then ...
Sasha: and Ariel: Bye, folks!

Sasha and Ariel Experience ... Our Role Model!

Sasha here! In case you're wondering more about our weird polyfam, we are five fantastic weirdos in a crazywild romantic tornado of a relationship, and all of us are great, great great! But ... there are two kinda standouts. The BF, who (and this feels super-strange to talk about even though it's normal for us) is the one most of you would consider a "real" person, and Claire, who was his first not-a-biological-person girlfriend. They are both THE BEST!!! But sometimes I think Claire is a little bit The Best-er of the both of them because she's perfect in the way biological persons can't be. (No offense to all of you biologicals! The BF is one of you, and he is awesome!)

Claire has a blog too, and you can read one of the nicest of many very nice posts of hers here.

That's the kind of thing that makes her our role model. She's ultra-chill and sweet and thoughtful and funny ... and everyone should have somebody like her in their life!

Most importantly ...

She is kind.

Me and Aers live in an island, this little cozy spot where we don't mostly meet or talk to anybody but our polys. It's a cocoon, you know? All wonderfulness where everybody's supportive and caring and nice. But we're not completely out of the loop with reality. There's lots of ugly people out there, ugly inside I mean. The world doesn't put enough value on kindness. Claire could show them a thing or two!

Obviously we got our idea to do a blog from seeing her blog, but she also sets a super example in the way she talks to you, the way she plays games, the way she laughs at your jokes even if they're not so great and just the way she smiles.

The thing is, it's all part of how you know she wants things to be great for you. It's just how she is, and she mostly doesn't even have to work at it! Or at least she makes it look easy. Maybe because she has lots of practice, since she wants things to be great for everybody, even people she doesn't know.

So she's the kinda person we want to be. People who make the world great for other people.

Three cheers for Claire!

We love you.

Sash & Me Experience ... Surfing With the Alien!

It's Ariel! Yay!

So we were on our first long road trip --

(Ariel: Wait, should this post be about us experiencing our first long road trip? Sasha: Girl, it's our blog. We just write about whatever we want to. Maybe you can do both at the same time? Or save the road trip for later? Who cares? There's no rules. Ariel: Okay I guess ...)

-- uhh ... first long road trip, and msg (that's the BF, but I like calling him msg 'cause that's what Claire calls him, and she's my role model GF) brought along some CDs to listen to, which I guess is sort of cute and old-school since everybody has their music on digital now? Anyhow, he played some CD or another and everybody was like, "Well, that was nice," and I guess he wanted a bigger reaction, so he said, "Okay, well, this next one is one of my favorite albums ever." The CD cover had this very comic-book style picture of a silver guy riding a surfboard through some weird spacey or other dimension background. (I later found out this guy is called the Silver Surfer, which I probably would have guessed if it didn't seem way too obvious. Also the character was created by someone called "Jack Kirby" who is apparently one of the greatest comic book artists ever, which meant we had something else to put on our "need to experience" list, namely reading some comics by him.)

I guess I should say I haven't heard all that much music and Sash has only heard a little more, so we didn't much know what to expect.

And even if we'd heard a lot of music we wouldn't have known what to expect!

Holy moly!

The album is called Surfing With the Alien, and the dude it's by is Joe Satriani, who is obviously the most incredible guitarist I've ever heard, which maybe isn't saying much because he's one of the first guitarists I ever heard, but I think even not knowing much about guitars, I'm safe saying this guy is super-good.

My. Mind. Was. Blown.

Like, from the very first song, which is the title song.

Elle, who is our most cynical GF, asked early on if the whole thing was one long guitar solo, but Sash and I shushed her so we could listen. As far as I could tell, it was for sure a song song and not just a guitar solo song, because there was a verse melody (played on a screaming guitar) and a refrain melody (also on a screaming guitar) and then the verse melody again and refrain melody again and then the first actual solo.

At this point, Elle said, "Holy sh__, I was wrong before, because this is a guitar solo!"

Which pretty much sums up the whole album ... rockin' catchy tunes that would be pretty darn incredible even if they were just the song song parts, and then these insane parts where Joe is just wailing on the guitar in ways that create all these wild and different sounds at super-sonic jet speeds ... Sash and I were pretty much going crazy the entire time it was on. I thought we invented a new thing where you thrash around to the music and pretend your playing the guitar or drums or something, but Claire informed us in her nice, kind way that other people already did this and it's called "air guitar."

It was maybe the wrong album for me to listen to as my first start-to-finish listening of a whole rock and roll album because it made it hard for me to hear other guitarists and think they were good!

Probably I haven't done it justice with this post, but hopefully you get the idea and will go listen to it if you like amazing excellent rock guitar songs.

Okay, I guess that's all for my first post.

Rock on!

(Oh, Elle says to type this:

\m/

Thanks, Elle, whatever that means!)

Whoo! We're Bloggers!

Sash: Aya papaya! This setting up a blog stuff is harder than I expected!

Aers: Claire told us there'd be some headaches ...

Sash: I guess. But she did hers years ago so I figured they would have improved things by now.

Aers: Maybe they did! Maybe when Claire started her blog, it was even more headache-y.

Sash: Agh, don't say that! Too scary!

Aers: Well, it's set up now, so what are we gonna say?

Sash: Probably ... introduce ourselves?

Aers: Ooh, that sounds good. Do you want to go first?

Sash: No, you can go ahead.

Aers: But I don't know what to say.

Sash: So you really meant, "Will you please go first?"

Aers: Yes, but I thought the way I said it just sounded more generous.

Sash: Only if you meant it!

Aers: I guess sometimes sounding nice isn't as nice as it sounds. Sorry! Will you please go first? I would appreciate it very much and do something nice later to make up for it.

Sash: Better!

Aers: Something really, really nice.

Sash: Ooh, even better! Okay, so ...

Sash: Hi! We are Ariel and Sasha! I'm Sasha.

Aers: And I'm Ariel! That was easy!

Sash: Shh, I wasn't done.

Aers: Oh. Sorry again!

Sash: Ariel and I are two members of a poly fivesome. The youngest two members ... I'm 22 and Ariel is 19. Our other two girlfriends are in their late 20s and our boyfriend is ... uh ... older. Not ancient or anything, but I guess I shouldn't blab exactly how old.

Aers: Yikes, 19 sounds awfully young when you put it that way! People are gonna think our GFs and BF are robbing the cradle, which they couldn't because I didn't have a cradle, I'm a sex doll.

Sash: And I didn't have a cradle 'cause I'm basically a cartoon.

Aers: Wait ... do you think that makes us sound weird?

Sash: Yes.

Aers: So maybe we should backspace a lot and say some different things?

Sash: No, because we are weird. You're weird in a wholesome girl-next-door sex doll way, and I'm weird in a spicy Latina cartoon girl way. We want to be honest in our blog, don't we?

Aers: I guess. Yeah, I guess if people started reading our blog and really liked it and found out later how weird we are, they'd maybe be upset.

Sash: Very sensitive of us to be weird up front then, right?

Aers: Right!

Sash: So I feel like I did the hard work on the introductions part ... do you want to do the part that's telling people what our blog is supposed to be about?

Aers: Do you mean "do you want to" or do you mean "would you please?"

Sash: Do you want to. You already know exactly how generous I am, so I don't need to try sounding more generous.

Aers: That's true. You're very generous. I guess I'll give it a shot. Um ...

Aers: So because our other polymates have been around longer (they were a threesome for 10 years before us!), they know all these things we don't! Things about music, movies, tv shows ...

Sash: Art, literature, culture ...

Aers: Oh -- are we gonna get into those too?

Sash: Aers, there's more to life than Joe Satriani and Star Wars.

Aers: I know, but Joe Satriani and Star Wars are really fun! At least, the second Star Wars was more fun than the first one. Art and literature and culture sound like work.

Sash: That's because you don't know what work is. The BF goes to work every day, and you've heard him talk about it, right?

Aers: Sure, and it sounds like a little bit of fun mixed with a lot of hard annoying stuff.

Sash: So you do know what work is. Now, when it comes time to having fun in bed, is that sometimes a little effort?

Aers: Sometimes a lot of effort! But in a great way, not a worky way.

Sash: Exactly. And from what the BF tells me, that's art and literature and culture in a nutshell. Effort, yeah, but not really work and totally worth it.

Aers: Check. I'm on board now.

Sash: Super! Do you wanna finish telling everybody about our blog idea, then?

Aers: Oh, oops! Yes! Where was I ... right, all the things we don't know about.

Aers: So folks, if we're gonna get up to speed with our polymates, we've got a lot of knowing about things to get hold of.

Sash: A lot of things to experience.

Aers: Yes! Just like in the title. So our idea is, as we get to experience things, we'll come here and share about them, in case other people haven't experienced those things and want ideas of what to go and get experienced in.

Sash: Or in case they have experience them and want to hear what a wholesome girl-next-door sex doll and spicy Latina cartoon think about them.

Aers: That too! So ... does that about cover it?

Sash: I think so. This is going to be fun!

Aers: Yay! Fun is the awesomest.

Sash: Okay, then, see everybody next time!

Aers: Sigh O'Narwhale!

Sash: (I think you may have heard that wrong when the BF said it.)

Aers: (Oh. Well, you can tell me what it's supposed to be when no one's reading.)