The Farro Brothers Leave Paramore

 (Note: This is taken straight from my Tumblr)

 For those who have yet to hear the news, Zac and Josh Farro have officially left Paramore. Yesterday, the remaining three band members posted a blog on their official website about the brothers’ departure from the band, which you can read here.

I’ve been a massive fan of Paramore for quite a few years now and I’ve supported them for such a long time that it only seems natural for me to be affected by this news.

However, I wish people would stop acting like it’s the end of the world. Yes, it’s really sad for us Paramore fans — I nearly cried in front of my best friend and her brother when I found out — but it’s not like Paramore are breaking up.

Paramore is a band, and people seem to forget that. Most people think it’s all about Hayley, while a lot of rabid fangirls have eyes only for Josh. Paramore isn’t just about one or two people — they are a group, a band; they create music together. Paramore are not ending. Hayley, Jeremy, and Taylor are still going strong. They will probably recruit a new member or two as well.

Jeremy Davis left the band once. All We Know was written about him leaving and he was replaced by John Hembree. After five months, Jeremy returned, taking back his place in the band.

Jason Bynum was originally on rhythm guitar, though he was replaced by Hunter Lamb.

Hunter Lamb left in 2007 to get married, and the band went on as a quartet  — Hayley, Josh, Zac, and Jeremy — and recorded their second album, Riot!

Taylor York replaced Hunter after the recording of Riot! and the band became what we are so familiar with today. The five of them, four boys and a girl, just like it was at the start.

Now, the Farro brothers left, and honestly, I’m not letting myself get worked up about it. Yes, it’s sad for the band, but Zac and Josh weren’t happy in Paramore anymore and they needed to break away.

They can, and most likely will, be replaced in the near future. And maybe, after some time, they may come back — just like Jeremy did. We can’t be sure, and we can’t get our hopes up, but you never know.

In the words of Hayley, Jeremy, and Taylor: “We want Josh and Zac to do something that makes them happy and if that isn’t here with us, then we support them finding happiness elsewhere.” I would rather the brothers leave and be happy than be a part of something they no longer want to participate in.

We shouldn’t be angry at them, we should be supporting them on finding happiness elsewhere. We should support Hayley, Jeremy and Taylor, too, as they come to adapt as a trio.

We should be cherishing the time we did get with the brothers, from Paramore’s beginning to the present. We should feel lucky that we had the chance to see them in Paramore at all, and thankful for everything they gave us.
Losing members is always tough for any band to deal with, on both an emotional and professional level, and we should be standing by them every step of the way.

Paramore is a band, and even with the Farro brothers gone, they still are.

Abandonment

Hiiiii. Yeah. This is awkward. It's like seeing an old friend after a really long time without contact, and you have no idea what to say because you've both changed so much and you know instantly that the friendship you used to have is, like, extinct. But anyway, on a happier note, I'M BACK.

It's been exactly a month since I last blogged, which is a really weird coincidence. I signed in, originally, to update my (neglected) Book Count blog. I have to add three books to it. Then I realised it had been so long since I last updated and decided it was time I came back.

I still haven't edited the footage from the Paramore concert, or uploaded the photos anywhere (except Tumblr). I think I may just create another blog post altogether some time soon, consisting of photographs from the concert. There aren't a lot because I was mostly recording, but whatever. There are some.

I saw Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 on the nineteenth, and I am dying to see it again. It was absolutely fantastic. The actors really upped their game for this movie -- there's such raw emotion and they put so much effort into making this their most inspiring, powerful performance yet. I really do love this one. It's so unbelievably amazing. And the comic relief is spread out so perfectly, and comes at times right when you need to lighten up a bit. Excellence. Part One of Deathly Hallows is pure excellence.

I completely failed NaNoWriMo, only just getting past 10k when my goal was 25k. November kind of threw a lot of crap on my shoulders all at once, so writing kind of flew down my list of priorities and out the window. I tried my best, I suppose, considering the pressure I was under.

Currently, I'm ill with tonsillitis, in my last week of school before the winter break, and studying for a Biology exam coming up in January. It's the official, actual, proper Biology GCSE, so I really cannot screw this up.

I, surprisingly, am kind of looking forward to Christmas. Christmas is one of those holidays that doesn't faze me much. It's just a day where I spend half of it enjoying myself, and the other just wanting to go to sleep or escape from the family. Because I'm socially awkward, I find it hard being forced to stay in the living room the entire day and talk with fifty bajillion people. I'm a really fussy eater, so I don't enjoy Christmas dinners because I only ever pick at the food on my plate. So I'm not really one for Christmas but I'm looking forward to it this year. That's probably because (a)my cousin is visiting*, (b)I'm getting Disney DVDs, (c)Doctor Who special!

So. That's what's going on in my life. Thrilling, I know. I'll try to update sooner next time.

*He's twenty, lives two hours south, I haven't seen him in over a year, and he likes anime/manga and Starkid!

Post-Concert Depression

NOTE: My brain is completely muddled and still blown-away and I'm writing as I think, so this isn't at all in chronological order.

The concert last night was amazing. That's genuinely the only word I can think of, because I'm still completely speechless. But amazing doesn't even start to cover it. I got a load of footage which, after doing my homework, I'm going to start editing together. I'll upload it to YouTube and post it here whenever I finish it. Throughout most of it, you can hear me screaming and singing along. And it's kind of blurry because I had to zoom in. Even though I could see them pretty clearly on the stage, they look like specs through the camera. It was weird.

Fun and B.o.B were the support acts, and while Fun was pretty good, B.o.B was absolutely awful. But whatever. Hayley came on to sing Airplanes, dressed in a thick winter coat. I love her pink hair, and it looks even more amazing in person than it does in photographs.

When Paramore officially started, there was a curtain in front of the stage, and you could only see the silhouettes, but when it was time for Hayley to start singing, the curtain dropped. It was really effective.

She loved how we all screamed after pretty much every sentence when she was talking, and said it was one of the biggest concerts they'd ever held. She also loved how co-operative we were when she asked us to do stuff (stand up and dance, sway, get our phones out, etc.), and the last time anything as big as this happened was in December '09 in the same place (London 02 Arena).

She made us all stand up and dance for crushcrushcrush and spent about five minutes making sure the majority of people were standing up. Apparently, it usually takes a good fifteen minutes or so. And then we all got our phones out and waved them in the air to The Only Exception and I got a lot of footage of the crowd swaying their phones because it was really amazing (it's slightly jolty, though, because I kept switching the phone and the camera between hands).

When she introduced the band members, Jeremy and Josh easily got the loudest cheers (until Josh introduced Hayley), and I managed to record her saying "WE. ARE. PAAARAAAMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOREEE!" which I'm really proud of. She says it at every concert, and I knew that more than anything, I wanted to record her saying that. AND I DID.

The last song they sang was Misery Business, and she led into it like this: "Before tonight ends, we have some business to take care of. And there is only one kind of business at a Paramore concert." And then the music started. It was so amazing. Josh from You Me At Six came on stage and started singing, too, and while I'm not a fan (I haven't really paid them much attention, to be honest) of You Me At Six, I can't deny that he has an amazing voice.

Jess and I both got Paramore hoodies with "Paramore" written in small, red letters on the front and "PARAMORE" written across the entire back. There's a fountain pen/injection needle between the PARA and MORE, and under neath it says "We wrote our names in blood." (a line from Ignorance) which I think is really creative and I love it to pieces.

When they started playing Decode, nearly everyone started cheering loudly ... and I just sunk into my seat and silently watched them perform. It's not a terrible song, I suppose, but (a) it's overplayed, (b) it's Twilight, (c) the cheers proved to me just how many Paramore fans like Twilight, and (d) I'm really not-at-all keen on it. It's the only Paramore song I don't like.

I really wish they had played Decoy and Swim in Silence (two demo songs), along with For a Pessimist I'm Pretty Optimistic and Careful. But I know they have to limit themselves, and the songs they did choose to play were wonderful, too.

Now, I could go on and on about that marvelous concert, but I have homework to get on with and things to catch up on online. So, suffering from Post-Concert Depression, I bid you farewell.

In brief, other news:

• I have tickets booked to see Deathly Hallows on the 19th at 5PM.
• Darren Criss was absolutely amazing in Glee (This deserves it's own blog post ... I'll write one up after I watch next week's episode).
• I'm doing terribly with NaNoWriMo. I'm a fair few thousand words behind.

Such Little Time

I am fully aware that I haven't blogged in an entire month, but I'm not going to apologise for it, because it genuinely isn't my fault. For the past three and a half weeks (since Friday 9th), I've been stuck in my bedroom with the lights off and (new, black, thick) curtains drawn, unable to do anything but watch movies and sleep. I only left my room to get more water, eat, and go to the loo.

Because I've had the worst migraine ever.

I was up crying with my mum one night during the first week, and a little while later, I actually went into A+E. That's how bad it was. The slightest noise or sliver of light made my hands instinctively fly up to cover my eyes and let out a whimper of pain. It was awful. Eventually, I started spending a few minutes on the computer, but I couldn't read more than a couple of sentences at a time, and I had to set it aside every ten minutes. Therefore, I wasn't up for being on the interwebs, let alone writing a blog.

It's been gradually easing, and it's nearly completely gone now, but having been sheltered from noise/light for so long, I'm still rather sensitive towards it. I've missed two weeks of school, and this week is half-term, but I'll be going to back on Monday.

But that's not the only thing I'm doing on Monday. Throughout November, I'll be participating in NaNoWriMo. For those of you who don't know, that stands for National Novel Writing Month. As it sounds, you have to write a novel in one month. Specifically, a novel with at least 50,000 words in it. Now, I'm not actually doing that ... I'm doing the NaNoWriMo Young Writers' Project, which is for people up to the age of seventeen who don't feel capable of doing the entire 50k. Unlike the original site, you can set your own goal -- I'm going for 25,000 words. So you probably won't be hearing much from me throughout November, either. AND in December, I'm going to be editing, studying, AND reading my friends' novels.

But I'll try to blog as much as I can.

I'm really worried about my Book Count. I know it's just a fun challenge that I've been partaking in all year, but I still have to read eight books before 31st December, at 11:59pm. I can almost hear you now: "What are you on about? You still have two months!" But with November pretty much cramped, and December I'm pretty busy, I don't know how many books I'll manage to read. (I will, however, be counting my friends' novels towards it). But even more importantly than my Book Count, is my English teacher's. He wants everyone in our class to read ten books before the end of term. That means that the few days before the New Year (which is when I generally get a lot of reading done) won't count towards his ... manga doesn't count in his mind, and 10 poems can equal "one book" in our book logs -- but I still don't know how I'm going to manage.

I'm thinking that maybe I'll let him know about NaNoWriMo, and see if he'll let me read a lower book count/let my friends' novels count towards it.

Anyway, I have to go and eat dinner now. I have another blog in the works that I started while I was ill (wrote about three paragraphs before it got too much), and I'll probably finish that while procrastinating next month. Heh.

Asthma Attack

This is copied straight from my dA journal, because I can't be bothered to write it out again. Note that "today" actually means Thursday, because that's when it happened ...

I had an asthma attack in PE today. It was so freaking scary O_O

We were doing cross-country relay, and I had to throw the baton to the next person in my group 'cos I was too weak to go any further. I collapsed on the floor, my breathing worse than a seventy-year-old smoker's, in so much pain (in my lungs) that I started crying (I don't cry. Today was the first time that my best friend of two years saw me cry). My friend, who was in a different group, got to the same station as me a few seconds after I collapsed, and sat with me and cuddled me and tried to calm me down, while panicking herself ("Deep breaths, Steph. Ohmygod, ohmygod. Come on, it's alright. Deeeeeep breaths. Ohmygod." Because she's a sweetheart.

Someone got the teacher, who literally sprinted across the field (She was near the changing rooms, and I was at the opposite end of the field ... it's a BIG field) to me. I tried to get my inhalor out of my pocket, but I was shaking so badly that my hand kept falling away from the zip.

Eventually, I took my inhalor, and I sat there for a good five minutes, on the soaking wet grass, shaking, crying, gasping for breath. And then, after I started recovering, the teacher made me walk across the field. I nearly fell over at least five times, because I felt really unstable, and she ended up supporting me half the way. And then I sat (again, on the soaking wet ground) and stared at the grass until the end of the lesson.

I've been in a zombie-like state all day. PE was first period, and the rest of the day, I just walked around blankly, almost completley unresponsive. It felt like someone was stabbing my lungs every time I breathed, and when I spoke, it was like they were twisting the knife. I nearly started crying again a couple of times, but I managed to fight back the tears. It was awful.

I got a lot of hugs and arm rubs, too ... I don't like attention, but it was interesting to see who cared and who didn't. Jess was clearly the one who cared the most.

It's still painful when I breathe, but it's not as bad. More of a pin-prick. Compared to the pain I felt all day, this is nothing.

But I'm still shaken. This was my first proper asthma attack. Asthma has given all kinds of pains in PE, the most popular being what I describe as "someone sticking a knife down my throat and twisting it." ... basically, when the cold air gets down my throat, my asthma kicks in, and causes agony. But that is NOTHING now, after today. I've had small asthma attacks before, but this one hit me so strongly and so suddenly, it was so much worse.

Worst. Experience. Ever.