Day Eleven

He'd have my vote.

Never Get Far by synecdochic

Joey throws an arm around Chris's shoulders to keep him from bouncing into one of the other people in the crowd and slides in under him, harmony that's second-nature by now, "Played it 'til my fingers bled, it was the summer of sixty-nine," and then they're all making up voice parts as they go along, and Justin forgets the words halfway through and drops down to percussion, laughing through the whole thing, and it's not like they're performing at all, just five guys on a boardwalk enjoying the night. It was a good idea to come out here instead of going to turn up a club for the night. They're getting the looks again, but the people are smiling, like it's the most normal thing in the world.

Languid and carefree like the beach where it takes place, this story had me utterly entranced from the first paragraphs. Beautiful and well-paced, and I swear the DDR mention did not influence my decision to rec it, even if the image of Justin and JC going at it and not entirely succeeding is way beyond adorable.

And then there was snark. They make it so very easy.

Wherein Susie posted a link, I clicked, and what followed ended up being close to three comments in length.

( I deem that, from here on in, all of *NSYNC's interviews be done by the Canadian press! )

Dude, for sheer amusement and relevance factor, this is possibly the best interview I've ever read. Thank you so much for the link, Susie.

*skips off, sure to be grinning madly for the rest of the day*

[Ed. Note: Interview gacked from here.]

Casual Monday at the Merovingian's

Neil and Adrian Rayment
London premiere of 2 Fast 2 Furious
06/09/2003
photo courtesy of Ashley Knotek

Why yes, Adrian's shirt does appear to say Wild Twins. Feel free to interpret the design as you will.

My little brother took The Walk today.

Second most important after the one down the aisle. This is the one across the stage.

Tonight, my brother became a high school graduate. *beams with pride* Characteristically, he forgot his medallion, but his teachers know him well by now, too, and that had been taken care of, so after singing along to Time of Your Life, I spent the ceremony telling stories with his girlfriend and making each other cry. He was so handsome! The red/white/black colors looked very distinguished. His handsome little face with the unruly tassel that kept swinging into his eyes! The black sneakers only he could get away with wearing when the dress code specifically banned them! His grinning, confident walk across the Sunrise Musical Theater stage, waving to both us and my parents in the balcony! *beams some more*

Getting there wasn't as easy, nor as certain for him as it'd been for me. Years of frustration over his reading level, composition skills, tutors and programs and yeah, he may well have charmed himself into a few of those barely passing grades, but he did it. He's always excelled in mathematics and has an incredible future ahead of him as an automotive technician/engineer, as he's demonstrated by spending his Senior year winning competitions all over the state of Florida. I bet few of us walked away with anything remotely as useful on our high school resumes.

I don't think I've ever seen him as happy as tonight. And while most of us take a high school diploma for granted, he worked hard and deserves all the recognition and praise due at such an occasion.