I am Fangirl. Hear me purr.

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SM reader Kiran wrote:

I went to the show last night. Amazing!
But our camera crapped out. Did anyone get any good shots? I would love to see them..

Kiran, my dear…the Mutiny is ALWAYS in the front row, dead center baby, especially at the 9:30 club. Last night, I took 333 pictures of Miss Arulpragasam– that’s M.I.A. if you’re nasty– they are unedited and up on flickr, right this second. Check the slideshow of her show here.

If I weren’t so busy working for the (wo)Man, I’d cull the current set of 283 further, caption some of them and then write a post which told you an enchanting story called, “The Concert that was Worth Respraining my Ankle for”. What a show.

50 thoughts on “I am Fangirl. Hear me purr.”

  4. Anna, that’s mental. Did you watch the whole show through your viewfinder? 333! That’s a Graham Gooch of a performance. You’re not going to start stalking her are you?

  6. Hmm, nice, if obsessive, work ANNA!

    *Oddly enough I just got asked to go see MIA tommorrow nite here in Boston, totally out of the blue, and I actually said yes ’cause of all your hype, er, encouragement 🙂 Unfortunately, just informed that the show is sold out so I guess I’ll just have to remain a MIA virgin.

  7. bongsie,

    i didn’t watch it through my viewfinder, no. 🙂 but as the phenomenal opening act spank rock said, “stop acting like a bitch and put your hands up!”

    so, my hands were up. it’s just that my right hand was holding a camera while up. i paid almost no attention to it, honestly. (except half-way through, when i was smugly changing my battery while the girl next to me wailed, “Fuuuuuck! My camera’s dead! Nooooo!”)

    HA. amateurs. 😉

    basic photography. you take 100 shots to get ONE perfect picture. and that’s what i got. two pictures of her i love, and about four coveted pictures of the people around me, after they rushed the stage, since their cameras were dead by that point. they all got my email address b/c last night, i was everyone’s photog, not just yours. 🙂

  9. it may be too late to ask that question 😉

    you lot are an ungrateful group of wretches. my index finger is exhausted today, for what? for WHAT i ask? 😉

  10. Well, I get to see her next week, so it’s not a complete waste; but I don’t think I’ll be taking camera…I don’t want to look like a stalker 😛

  11. Anyone see the Honda commercial using Galang?

    well, i mentioned it in my pre-concert MIA post:

    Anyone catch the advertisement for the newest Civic Si? Sick animation, executed flawlessly to the unmistakable thrum of “Galang”. You love it. And even if you hate it? IÂ’m not trying to hear that, see. 😉

    and last night, brimful saw it, too.

  12. You’re right Anna. I’m a gig veteran now (after having been a complete novice just a few years ago) and most shots you take are awful. Red-eyed blurry whitewashed and meaningless.

    Honda Ads have a tradition of being cool. I don’t know if you get the same ones as us, but there have been loads that I’ve loved like the one featuring Vivid by Thievery Corporation (a bhangra track) and of course one of the greatest ads OF ALL TIME, the Cog. That was British-made so perhaps you didn’t see it. I’ll try to find it online – it’s amazing.

    But I don’t want to take the subject off MIA…I’m worried Anna will hurt me. Or throw her used battery at me at the very least!

  13. Well, I get to see her next week, so it’s not a complete waste; but I don’t think I’ll be taking camera…I don’t want to look like a stalker 😛

    for fuck’s sake, am i the ONLY one who has a camera that can take successive pictures quickly? yes, yes, i’m STALKING her. lame. 😛

    this is what i get for giving in to my innocent exuberance and posting an entire batch of shit to flickr, unedited. i could’ve waited ’til tomorrow, or the weekend and put up the best 20 pictures and there would’ve been none of this hateration about “stalking”.

    but nooooo. i HAD to be quick about it. the life of a blogger is shit, i tell you. abhi, i’m ready to join your monastic order. 😉

  14. Ok, when did the word ‘sick’ become slang? Did it start in the UK? Cause I’ve heard Bobby and Nihal use it for awhile, but it’s getting annoying seeing so many other people using it..

  16. Hey Anna, we’re just pulling your leg. Honestly you’re enthusiasm is cool – I like MIA more solely cos of you (and maybe Cica too). Don’t take it seriously! Your little sepia montage is very cool, it gives those that couldn’t be there a little taste of the atmosphere. Ignore us haters!

  17. Bollocks. I said you’re for your. That’s my all time pet hate.

    Now here is the Honda Ad I mentioned. It’s AMAZING. No camera tricks were used. It took something like 660 takes.

    Sick brer – classic London slang.

  18. for fuck’s sake, am i the ONLY one who has a camera that can take successive pictures quickly? yes, yes, i’m STALKING her. lame. 😛

    Holy Cow, Batman! Sounds like someone needs Calgon to take them away.

  19. Holy Cow, Batman! Sounds like someone needs Calgon to take them away.

    you have no idea. i’m flu-ish to begin with, so i was already a mess, but today, i’m still bleary-eyed from the smoke-drenched venue, i’ve lost my voice and i’m sore all over from the excessive amount of shoving that comes with being in the very front at a hot concert. MIA let forty people rush the stage, guess who they climbed over to do it? 😉

    ah, i wish she’d play dc on a friday or a saturday for ONCE. alas, this city ain’t THAT special. anyway, i’d love some calgon. very thoughtful of you. 🙂

  20. Now here is the Honda Ad I mentioned. It’s AMAZING. No camera tricks were used. It took something like 660 takes

    I have seen a shorter version of this Ad before. I don’t know about the NO camera tricks deal though – the part where the tires roll up the ramp/slide is suspect? Its takes a lot of energy for a single tire to roll up – and yet when the second last tire hits the last one, it (the second last) does not roll back off the ramp.

  22. OYBBB (what does your name mean?), I actually met one of the chaps involved at a motor show. There were weights inside the tyres – positioned so that when nudged they rolled up the slope.

  23. OYBBB (what does your name mean?)

    It means The Great One, in a language I invented.

    Ok, I see how that works. Pretty cool stuff.

  25. you lot are an ungrateful group of wretches. my index finger is exhausted today, for what? for WHAT i ask? 😉

    i’m grateful, i just like to jock you along the way =)

    after all, plentyful pictures of MIA wearing short shorts… what’s to complain about?

  26. ANNA,

    Well Suitable girl, there is a suitable boy waiting for you. Would you be interested in him

    Suitable boy says,

    I could be your Sharukh Khan, will you be my meety queen, ….Say ha..ha I could be your Salman khan, will you be my Katty queen, ….Say ha..ha I could be your Amir Khan, will you be my Naughty queen, ….Say ha..ha I could be your Saif Ali Khan, will you be my beauty queen. ….Say ha…ha

    If you say no to me, I could still be your Devdas… …..Say Ha…Ha

    This song is dedicated to our Wonderful Girl the one only A N N A

  30. BB – do you have a link to the bhangra ad? The one you posted was awesome.

    Anna ~ great job .. your obsession makes me proud =)

  32. I just watched the photostream for awhile (about half? maybe?), and my main surprise is how diverse the audience seems to be.

    Also, they seem very, very hip.

    Looks like a fun concert!

  33. Sonia, no sorry I don’t think that ad was as popular. It was just a cute little animation a few years back, but the first thing me and the girlfriend noticed was a bhangra beat in the background. They use a lot of animation. That was CGI. The Jazz campaign used cartoony cars, the new diesel used more CGI and a bonkers whistling tune.

    Honda is so cool. And they make some awesome cars. The CTR is a beautiful little machine.

  34. annnnnnd…we’re down to 183 pictures. 😉

    i deleted during “the apprentice”. 😀 speaking of, um, where was toral? maybe she’ll be an omarosa now that the REAL omarosa-esque candidate got kicked to the fake cab at the curb.

  36. No no, I’m a fan of all Japanese cars. In fact you could so far as to say my fandom of Japanese autos is only an Anna-MIA level. As soon as I saw Peugeot in your link I knew which one you meant, of course an all-time classic. But car ads have often been top banana. The recent Citroen C5 ad with the dancing Transformer-esque car (feat. Jacques Your Body by Les Rhythmes Digitales) was cool. But I think even the Honda ad was usurped by THIS.

    Featuring three different dancers, Crumbs, Jay Walker and the insane David Elsewhere. Music is by Mint Royale. Brilliant, brilliant advert!

  37. ANNA-MIA level 🙂 cute Personnaly, I think ANNA’s a lot hotter and can take on MIA any day, and it won’t be long b4 the latter will be blogging of the former.

    That was another cool AD. Ya know, we in the US have the suckiest car commercials (thx to the big 3). They monopolize commercial time so much with their boring crappy ads that sometimes I feel like paying them just so they stop playing em.

  40. the things that made me happy seeing the pictures

    DIVERSITY

    DIVERSITY

    DIVERSITY

    i’ve kept wanting to know that MIA’s crowds were populated with immigrant and colored kids and yeah! now I can love MIA

  41. BTW you closed comments on the other post you had about MIA; I wanted to tell you what was up;

    i dislike objectification and the grossness of fetishizes. i was convinced MIA was all that and more. but not anymore

    people make mistakes and thats what a message board is about, opinions and mistakes

    it had nothing to do with being more hip.

    Micheal Franti deserves to be known because he’s a very progressive lyricist trying to do really good work

  42. I should have thought about people who are not good in Hindi, sorry about that. Anyway the explanation is here

    Meety –> Sweety

    Katty –> Bitter

  43. Meety –> Sweety

    Katty –> Bitter

    That should be Meethi for sweet and Khatti for sour, not bitter…

  44. Hey ANNA! I met you at the show wed. night, great site!

    All i have to say is the show was AMAZING, best experience of my life, yea im obsessed too. We got to meet her before the show and i love her even more now! She is extremely humble, sweet and SHORT! I have a couple shots of her chillin with us outside 930, tagging the wall in the alley and signing autographs for us. I will post em as soon as I get to it.

    It was nice meeting you!

    i bongo w/my lingo

    a

  45. MIA in a honda commercial ? Holy sell out. What happened to the whole artists dont push products. MIA –> officially relagated to music is secretly listen to but cannot publicly endorse. sad. Its arright i knew the whole garage/grime/electro jump off was dead when my mom knew who she was.

  46. Hi Anna. Thank you so much for sharing your photos. I wish I could mark the whole set as a favorite in Flickr.

    I almost got to see MIA and Diplo in Seattle, Vancouver, and Toronto during my road trip last Spring… but I kept missing them by a day or so. Grrr!

  47. Saw her at 9:30 & went buck f***in nuts spillin Newcastle all over the place. I wanted to get closer to the stage (but not too far from the bar) but couldn’t do it w/o seeming like too much of a drunken nut.

    Raju–I too am glad to see the whole damn world out there. I’m going to speak in euphemisms so please excuse me…..

    As for the fetish thing, I know what you mean. We all want to have “one of our own” to gravitate to. We also see that person & his/her music in a much different way from the “rest”. Lord knows I remember the days when NO ONE liked hip hop & thought it was noise. Now look at the world. There are some genuine lovers of the music who try to get the “culture” as well. But to some (most) people we will always be an urban mandingo sideshow. That said, don’t worry about everyone else’s perception of M.I.A. Just make sure you don’t let a good thing go b/c of someone else’s lack of understanding. When you let “yours” go then someone else will define the movement. Case in point, rock & roll. Think of how folks listen to someone like Bob Marley, do you REALLY think they give 2 f—s about post-colonial Jamaica, liberation & Pan-Africanism. Naw, they just wanna kick back & puff. But others will never stop me from lovin’ what I love.

  49. Recently the news about MIA has reached “The HELL”. Our own SM’ers in hell Veerappan and Phoolan Devi are really impressed with MIA after reading the articles on her. After shaking a lot of guns, now they are planning to shake thier own legs along with MIA. They have done all the paperwork for the Visa requirements to reach the earth. Once they are here, all hell breaks loose. They have already started checking the next MIA concert schedule…… I am glad MIA has finally got some real fans…..who could do anything for her…..if it includes shaking their legs with her…..